Excerpt from Duncombe's Free Banking: An Essay on Banking, Currency, Finance, Exchanges, and Political Economy

Hon. Sir: -

I see by the newspapers, that there is a proposition before Congress for an United States Bank, and believing that it is not only the privilege, but the duty of every American citizen, frankly to communicate to the government whatever may appear to him to be important, and having spent much time and attention for several years past upon the subject of Banks, Currency and Exchanges, I take the liberty of forwarding to you briefly my views upon the subject.

The plan I propose is an United States Bank of Issue, with a centralized government, and local Banks of Discount, with divided and independent administrations. This would render currency as republican as the other elementary principles of the government, separate it from politics, from credit, and from the influence of private interest, and make bank notes always perfectly interchangeable for gold and silver, equally current throughout the Union, and as easily to be obtained as any other commodities.

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