Sir, the very man, of all others, who has the deepest interest in a sound currency, and who suffers most by mischievous legislation in money matters, is the man who earns his daily bread by his daily toil.  A depreciated currency, sudden changes of prices, paper money, falling between morning and noon, and falling still lower between noon and night,—­these things constitute the very harvest-time of speculators, and of the whole race of those who are at once idle and crafty; and of that other race, too, the Catilines of all times, marked, so as to be known for ever by one stroke of the historian’s pen, those greedy of other men’s property and prodigal of their own.  Capitalists, too, may outlive such times.  They may either prey on the earnings of labor, by their cent. per cent., or they may hoard.  But the laboring man, what can he hoard?  Preying on nobody, he becomes the prey of all.  His property is in his hands.  His reliance, his fund, his productive freehold, his all, is his labor.  Whether he work on his own small capital, or another’s, his living is still earned by his industry; and when the money of the country becomes depreciated and debased, whether it be adulterated coin or paper without credit, that industry is robbed of its reward.  He then labors for a country whose laws cheat him out of his bread.  I would say to every owner of every quarter-section of land in the West, I would say to every man in the East who follows his own plough, and to every mechanic, artisan, and laborer in every city in the country,—­I would say to every man, everywhere, who wishes by honest means to gain an honest living, “Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Whoever attempts, under whatever popular cry, to shake the stability of the public currency, bring on distress in money matters, and drive the country into the use of paper money, stabs your interest and your happiness to the heart.”

The herd of hungry wolves who live on other men’s earnings will rejoice in such a state of things.  A system which absorbs into their pockets the fruits of other men’s industry is the very system for them.  A government that produces or countenances uncertainty, fluctuations, violent risings and fallings in prices, and, finally, paper money, is a government exactly after their own heart.  Hence these men are always for change.  They will never let well enough alone.  A condition of public affairs in which property is safe, industry certain of its reward, and every man secure in his own hard-earned gains, is no paradise for them.  Give them just the reverse of this state of things; bring on change, and change after change; let it not be known to-day what will be the value of property to-morrow; let no man be able to say whether the money in his pockets at night will be money or worthless rags in the morning; and depress labor till double work shall earn but half a living,—­give them this state of things, and you give them the consummation of their earthly bliss.