Mr. WENTWORTH. I am not the man to attack another behind his back; and if the Comptroller of the Currenc had not attacked Secretary McCulloch while t clatter was where he ought to be, at his desk, I would not have said what I have said, although the Comptroller did come to the same conclusion as the NewYork gamblers. I was recommending, when interrupted, an appropriation to furnish the room of the Comptroller with the History of the F rench Assig nats, and also of John Laws “ South Sea Bubble.” It might be well, also, to add a history of the paper money system of the late southern conie eracy, where the SecyTreasury cured ali financial diseases with the hair of the same dog and advised all his patients to “keep taking.” Resumption by expansion is the old story of the frog who was to get out of the well by jumping up 2 feet every day and falling back 3 every night. The question is asked if it is sound policy to take up legal tenders that bear no interest, and replace them with bonds bearing interest; to which I answer romptly, no, if you can keep ymzil [ExidtiiifirpltrT mm is not the real question. It is only asked in order to throw dust in the eyes of the people. It is a Wall street argument, and the people should so regard it. The real question before the country is this; shall our Government, now that the war is over, continue to pay the pensioners of the Revolution, of the war of1812, of the war of the rebellion, all its employees and all its creditors in depreciated paper, when by borrowing a little money at 6 or cent. it can bring its paperto ar? Who in the government service anyw ere from highest to low est, has not an aphcation before us for increase of pny? and when you look at such petitions you find they are all based upon causes origi nating in the depreciation of Government paper, and that the object of their petition can be fully attained by its appreciation. Suppose A to be a very wealthy man in his locality, and to have avery largenumber of employees. It is all right for him to give them as many of his demand notes without interest as they please to take. At length he has driven out all other kinds of currency; and his employees, having use for currency abroad, find they cannot use, his notes at par. They tell him he has got too; many out, more than the demands of the locality require. They ask him to contract his" issues so as to keep his notes at par all the time. Now, is this man to inquire whether it is policy for him to be honest? Or isit not his duty to go and borrow money upon interest sufficient to make his papergood wherever it has found its way? I Originally I would have favored Governments putting out all the non-paing interest notes that it could keep at par; Ibut am not A affairs, nor is the present SecyTreasury, nor is anyone else except the rebels who got up the war, and that class of northern financiers who were trying to embarrass their country all through its existence. Had we known at its outbreak of its extent and expense we might have had a system of finance more uniform. As it is we have all sorts of systems; and there is no member of this House who can carry them all in his head and the SecyTreasury is like the superin tendent of a long line of railroad. He cannot change his connections at anyone point without 1st studying to avoid collisions at all the others. He has specie for imports and paperfor excises. Some interest and some principal is ayable in specie, and some in aper. Some bonds are registered and some have coupons. Some are due at once and some at different times for 40 years. Some. bear no interest and some bear all rates, simple and compound, up to 7 and 3 10ths, and this interest is payable in nearly all the months of the year. The same necessity that drove the General Government to borrow money also drove the States, counties, cities, and towns to the same thing and the Secretary has to compete with them all in addition to his other embarrassments. But his greatest trouble arises from our anomalous system of banking, which originated in our unavoidable difficulties, and for which no one is to blame except as above. Our banks can neither suspend nor resume. They are prohibited by law from suspending, and yet t cy are virtually in suspense; and you cannot make them resume while legal tenders are less than par. It is too late to change this system now, nor would it be fair to blame anyone for it. We must take it exactly as We find it. It would be ditheult to bring about a resumption of specie payments without the cooperation of the banks, and that cooperation cannot be secured without giving power to the SecyTreasury to take up such an amount of le tenders as will leave the balance at par. I0not expect this can be done all at once, nor even in a year; but I do believe that we can approximate resumption by such sure de grees that an afflicted people can feel certain that the days of the India rubber yardstick are numbered. I am one of these who believe it policy for Government to withdraw legal tenders to such an amount as to make the banks ay par money when they have legal tenders. but make not the issue upon this policy, except upon the understanding that honesty is the best policy. I ask if it is honest in the Government to pay its creditors in depreciated paperwhen it can get money at 6%.? and there cannot be any war between sound Government banks and the SecyTreasur, because they hold his legal tenders for the reemption of their notes; and when he brings his legal tenders up to par, their notes are consequently at par. So I look upon it that all national banks that are solvent and wish to con.tinne so are the natural allies of the SecyTreasury. One of the oldest and wcalthiest bankers in the U.S. thus writes me: " Pay no attention to outside pressure, so for as the national banks are concerned. We have paid for no pamphlets, no money articles in newspapers, and no obhy. it is the speculators the shoddics, the lame ducks, that are belaboring Congress. The national banks will beready for specie payments pay soon as the SecyTreasury is. Give him a 30011. stronxzbill and have no fears. He cannot afford to quarrelwithsolventbnnks, northeywith him. There isno way to separate their lctitimate interests." The principal argument against the pending propostion is the old one the dernier ressort of speculators nailed to the wall, namely, ruin. “It will ruin the country, ” is the climax of their arguments. O Ruin! where are the charms that brokers have seen in thy face? O Ruin! where have you been since General Jackson died. I was accustomed to hear a great deal of you from 1832 to 1840. O Ruin! where were you when gold fell from 287? Why do you come to haunt us just at this time? cannot you stay away until we get gold dowrito 125, for the sakeof more even change? Ihe responsible for the condition of our financial h! upon labor and capital for irredeemable paper will then be very convenient to reckon. t will be exactly 25%. Before members of Congress pay much attention to this stale cryofruin, let them read the debates of Congress all through the memorable contest between the people, headed by General Jack son. on one side, and the irresponsible bankers, headed by Nicholas Biddle, on the other. By the way, I could, if I had the time, convict some of these ruin manufacturers, whose pam phlets have been placed upon our desks of plagiarism. Neither their language nor ideas are new upon the subject of ruin. They are rather antiquarian. Mr. Biddle was not only a very able man himself, but he had in his aid some of the ablest lawyers and ablest writers in the country, (and some of them appear to be writing now; ) and their gigantic efforts to alarm by prophesying ruin had so little etTect upon the masses of the people then that even the old women have no fears from it now. I feel very confident that if the oldest of the widows of our revolutionary soldiers should get her next payment in par money, she would not be at all frightened even if she should read all these circulars and pamphlets upon ruin that have been sent to us, or if she siliould hear all the evil predictions of that immense lobby that so thronged this Hall for several days that my colleague [Mr. Ross] had to make repeated calls upon the Speaker to enforce the rules which cast them out of this temple of liberty as our Saviour cast their fathers out of His temple. there has been one class of men here lob ibying against specie payments that surprised me very much. I allude to theimporters. As. they aid for their goods in foreign exchange and or their duties in gold and silver, I supposed they would rejoice in having the paperof their Government brought to par. But they knovfithat irredeemable paperbegets extravaganice, and that men who become suddenly rich by speculating upon other peoples necessities at once outgrow the plainness of American manufactures. The suddenly rich, especially if they are illiterate, are the best patrons of in: orters. such persons rejoice Indiamonds an places, can drink no liquors without a cer tificate of their importation, and always travel in their best clothes, fresh from aforeign market. These importers think thata bloated currency bloats the fashions. They know that the golden ea leof this Republic is at war with monarchical iamonds. lhe importers are very few in numbers, and as a class are very rich, and Government expends millions annu ally for their protection on the seas. Where ever their commerce floats there go our ships of war for their defense, yet repeatedly have we seen these millionaires about this Hall lobbying for the debasement of our currency and the privilege of paing the guardians of their property over the angers of the ocean in money under par. It would offend these gentlemen much to be compared to ordinary stock gamblers, yet in their present vocation I do not see how they are to claim exemption from the old rule, that a man is known by the company he kee s. There is one class of men opposin this bill with whose misfortunes I have muc sympathy. I allude to those who bou htlarge stoc s at speculative prices. But I ear that their condition is so hel less that I cannot aid them in any other way than by supportin the bill of the Gentfrom RhdIslan. I allude to the bankrupt bill. It is, however, too expensive as it now is. A bankrupt law should bein every sense the cormanslaw. It should be for the man who as lost his all by sickness, by fire, by indorsement, or any unavoidable calamity, as well as for the speculatorwho has saved assets enough to pay enormous expenses. The advantages of such a law should come to the poor without price. The vilest criminal always has gratuitous counsel assigned him when he is destitute of means, and why hold honest destitution at the mercy of its creditors because it has nothing for the fees of judges, clerks, and attorneys? he old law was wiped frong the statute books in indignation on account of its expenses. Men have been specu lating in everyt iing. They have undertaken to form such combinations as would control all markets. They have been especially cruel in their attempts to monopolize all the necessa ries of life. They bong that high prices. They bought when gold was at nearl 300, and they hoped that such a calamity would befall our soldiers in the field as would inflict a still renter one upon their families at home by forcin prices still further beyond their reach. God less our soldiers for crushing the traitors at the South and for bringing Government credit so near to par in spite of northern speculators, who were fattening upon their countrys calam ities! Let those soldiers now see to it that when they get their pensions they get par money. A man learns much from little children, who at play throw their balls in the air and cry: “ What goesup must comedown Upon your head or on the ground." Gold has gone up, and with it the prices of all the necessaries of life. It has now fallen over 3 quarters of the distance it has got to fall. Every one knew it would fall from some point; and when it commenced falling it was the duty of people to get their heads out of the way so far as they could. If a person has been rendered bankrupt by the fall so far, there is nothing that Congress can do for him except to pass a bankru t law. He must wipe out and begin anew. I a person has not been injured by the fall to this ate, (find very few have) he need have no fears. et him only be prudent and he will reach bottom in perfect safety. The SecyTreasury has proven himself a cautious man. He would; not be precipitate if he could, and he could not, if he would. It is because I have this confi, dence in him that I favor this bill. For the same reason that Congress gave full powers to GenlGrant when e went out to raise our flag in the rebel States, I am for giving Secretary McCulloch full powers when he goes out lto raise our credit. was not in favor of GenlGrants conducting his war upon peace principles, nor am I in avor of the Secretarys doing the same thing. The ipeople are in favor of the earliest restoration of their standard of values, and how not to do this, while pretending to be for it, is not the question with me. If it were, I would vote for strikin the legal tender clause out of this bill; and would expatiate upon the folly of payiii interest upon money in order to redeem our epreciated paper. But “ hdw to do it” is my question; and as there is no other plan before Congress for doing it, and as the present SecyTreasury has my imp icit confidence should be false to my own convictions of right ifI did not strengthen his hands in every possible way.