Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. VIII.: James A. Garfield | Page 6

now differ in our judgment concerning the
controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children
will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They
will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union was
preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were made
equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we can not
prevent, the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make a
truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable verdict?
Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material
well-being unite us and offer ample employment of our best powers.
Let all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead issues,

move forward and in their strength of liberty and the restored Union
win the grander victories of peace.
The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel in our history.
Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done all.
The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie
payments, so successfully attained by the Administration of my
predecessors, have enabled our people to secure the blessings which the
seasons brought.
By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it has been found
that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for a monetary
system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in the
relative value of the two metals, but I confidently believe that
arrangements can be made between the leading commercial nations
which will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should
provide that the compulsory coinage of silver now required by law may
not disturb our monetary system by driving either metal out of
circulation. If possible, such an adjustment should be made that the
purchasing power of every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its
debt-paying power in all the markets of the world.
The chief duty of the National Government in connection with the
currency of the country is to coin money and declare its value. Grave
doubts have been entertained whether Congress is authorized by the
Constitution to make any form of paper money legal tender. The
present issue of United States notes has been sustained by the
necessities of war; but such paper should depend for its value and
currency upon its convenience in use and its prompt redemption in coin
at the will of the holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. These
notes are not money, but promises to pay money. If the holders demand
it, the promise should be kept.
The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should be
accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national-bank
notes, and thus disturbing the business of the country.
I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on financial questions
during a long service in Congress, and to say that time and experience
have strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on these
subjects.
The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment which it may

be possible for my Administration to prevent.
The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the
Government than they have yet received. The farms of the United
States afford homes and employment for more than one-half our people,
and furnish much the largest part of all our exports. As the Government
lights our coasts for the protection of mariners and the benefit of
commerce, so it should give to the tillers of the soil the best lights of
practical science and experience.
Our manufactures are rapidly making us industrially independent, and
are opening to capital and labor new and profitable fields of
employment. Their steady and healthy growth should still be matured.
Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the continued
improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways and by the
increase of our tonnage on the ocean.
The development of the world's commerce has led to an urgent demand
for shortening the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by constructing
ship canals or railways across the isthmus which unites the continents.
Various plans to this end have been suggested and will need
consideration, but none of them has been sufficiently matured to
warrant the United States in extending pecuniary aid. The subject,
however, is one which will immediately engage the attention of the
Government with a view to a thorough protection to American interests.
We will urge no narrow policy nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges
in any commercial route; but, in the language of my predecessor, I
believe it to be the right "and duty of the United States to assert and
maintain such supervision and authority over any interoceanic canal
across the isthmus that connects North and South America as will
protect our