_Be it enacted, &c._, That so much of the Banking Act
as limits the issue of bills to $300,000,000 is hereby
repealed, and existing banks may be enlarged and new banks
may be organized at the discretion of the Secretary of the
Treasury; but no more bills than are now authorized by the
Banking Act shall hereafter be issued, unless the Secretary
of the Treasury, at the time of their issue, can and does
cancel and destroy a like amount of legal-tenders; and the
increase of bank-bills hereby authorized shall not exceed
$50,000,000 a year, which amount shall be so distributed by
the Secretary of the Treasury as to equalize, as near as
possible, the banking interest of the different States.
MR. SUMNER. Now, Mr. President, I wish at this moment merely to
indicate the reasons in favor of that proposition.
1. It will create a demand for national bonds, and to this extent
fortify the national credit.
2. It will tend to satisfy those parts of the country, especially at
the South and West, where currency and banks are wanting, and thus
arrest a difficult question.
3. It will not expand or contract the currency; so that the opposite
parties on these questions may support it.
4. Under it the banks will gradually strengthen themselves and prepare
to resume specie payments.
5. It will give the South and West the opportunity to organize banks,
and will interest those parts of the country to this extent in the
national securities and the national banking system, by which both will
be strengthened.
6. It will within a reasonable time relieve the country of the whole
greenback system, and thus dispose of an important question.