“One of the perils of the present financial situation is the disposition shown to reopen the greenback question. It took fifteen years to fight the great battle. Secretary McCulloch attempted to take snap judgment against legal-tender notes, paying them off at a rapid rate. Illinois, through one of its Congressmen, E. C. Ingersoll, stepped in the very first day Congress convened after that payingoff process had begun with a resolution which stopped it. Then began the intriguing of the Eastern bankers to destroy the greenbacks, and when the last decisive conflict occurred Illinois was again in the leadership, G. L. Fort being the especial champion of the greenback cause as against both the contractionists and the expansionists. There was a great victory. For half a generation the anti-greenbackers have been quiescent. They have come to the front again with this session of Congress. The knock-out received in caucus Monday ought to satisfy them that the greenback is here to stay. There never could be a better money. It is good for its face the world over. In that uttermost end of the earth, China or Japan, the United States legal-tender note is good for its face value, and, whatever changes are made, that part of our currency should remain intact. Should the current of Congressional events occasion a show of hands in the Republican party on this question, no doubt an overwhelming majority would say, as did the Democratic caucus, let the greenbacks alone.” An extraordinary scene in the House between Representatives Hepburn and Hendrix so fairly illustrates the muddled stupidity and impudence of the gold-bugs that it deserves notice here as a sign of the situation. Mr. Hepburn described Mr. Hendrix as a self-heralded national banker, who came here with oracular utterances to tell the House what to do. Mr. Hepburn said his self-laudation was impaired by the recollection of his speech sixteen months ago, when the same conditions existed. Mr. Hendrix then found the panacea for all financial ills in the repeal of the Sherman silver law. Before describing this discussion, attention should be called to the fact that the panic of 1893 was immediately brought on by the bankers because Secretary Carlisle undertook to perform about the only good deed he has ventured upon as Secretary, _i. e._, to pay the Sherman treasury notes according to the letter of the act of July 14, 1890, in silver, _just as France would have done_. Now mark how Hendrix “opened his mouth and put his foot in it,” and how, finally, Hepburn tripped him.