Then will follow the advantage of this positive policy. The national credit will be beyond question. Nobody will doubt it. The public faith will be vindicated. The time will have come, which is the condition-precedent named by the Secretary of the Treasury, when “the want of faith in the Government” will be removed, and the door will be open to cheap loans. This will be of course: it cannot be otherwise, if we only do our duty. Our fives, being limited in amount, after being taken at par in preference to coin, will advance in value, so that the investment will become popular. People will desire more, but there will be no more; so that, without difficulty or delay, we may hope to refund five hundred millions of our subsequent sixes, or so much as may be desirable, at four and a half per cent. in Fifteen-Fifties, if not at four per cent. in Twenty-Sixties. In this operation the _initial point_ is the national credit. With this starting-point all is easy. Our fives will at once ascend above par, while a market is opened for four and a half or four per cents. The stigma of Repudiation, whether breathed in doubt or hurled in taunt, will be silenced. There are other fields of glory than in war, and such a triumph will be among the most important in the annals of finance. But to this end there must be no hesitation. The offer must be plain,--“Bonds or coin,”--giving the world assurance of our determination. The answer will be as prompt as the offer,--“Bonds, and not coin.” * * * * * In the process of Financial Reconstruction we cannot forget the National Banks, which have already done so much. The uniform currency which they supply throughout the country commends them to our care. Accustomed to the facilities this currency supplies, it is difficult to understand how business was conducted under the old system, when every bank had its separate currency, taking its color, like the chameleon, from what was about it, so that there were as many currencies, with as many colors, as there were banks. Two things must be done for the national banks: first, the bonds deposited by them with the Government must be reduced in interest; and, secondly, the system must be extended, so as to supply much-needed facilities, especially at the West and South.