“Time alone relieves a debtor nation, so long as its population increases faster thatn unpaid interest accumulates on its debt.”
Message to Congress, December 1, 1862
“I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I believe it is practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were adding a couple of millions of dollars every day to our national debt, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of our precious metals, we had the country to save first. But now that the rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine, we make the payment of that debt so much the easier. Now, I am going to encourage that in every possible way.”
Told to Speaker Colfax; Washington D.C., April 14, 1865
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