redemption of the greenbacks, and sell no more gold until the 1st of January, 1875, on that day we would have $200,000,000 of coin in the Treasury for the redemption of the greenbacks. I am not particular as to date. I merely suggest the 1st of January, 1875. But I would accept an earlier date than that if it were deemed more advisable, but certainly I would not extend it more than six months thereafter.... It is no part of the business of this government to issue an irredeemable currency. We cannot afford to place ourselves beside the worn-out governments of Europe--we cannot afford to place ourselves on a par with Hayti and Mexico. We are too rich a people to do it; and it is a disgrace to us as a nation that we have allowed it to continue one single hour beyond the hour when it was in our power to remedy the wrong. The proposition to increase our paper currency is a step in the wrong direction, and I, for one, am utterly opposed to taking even one step in the wrong direction when I know what the right direction is. As part of the same general discussion, Mr. Chandler made a carefully prepared financial speech in the Senate on Feb. 18, 1874, in which he first graphically sketched the history of "wild-cat banking" in Michigan, and then said: After the failure of these banks the cry was still, "More money; and we must have more money; the country is suffering for more money." The cry was responded to, and more money was furnished. The Treasury of the State of Michigan, already owing $5,000,000, undertook to furnish more money, and the State issued treasury notes _ad libitum_, and the "more money" men got more money until the value of the state treasury notes, which have been paid to the last dollar at par, ran down to thirty-seventy cents on the dollar; and almost every city in the State, including the city of Detroit, responded to the cry of "more money," and issued shin-plasters; and individuals, realizing that "more money" was needed, issued shin-plasters. So the State of Michigan was flooded with more money. Well, sir, you can see at a glance that the State of Michigan needed more money. We had as a people been speculating almost to a man. It was not confined to the merchant, the banker, the man of wealth; but the mechanic, the farmer, the laborer, every man who could buy a piece of property of any sort, kind, or description, bought it, ran in debt, laid out a town, sold the lots, gave a mortgage, and then wanted "more money" to pay that mortgage.