Distrust of Government and Politics in American Monetary Affairs Has Been Deep and Widespread for Many Years and for Very Good Reasons

This distrust of government and politics in American monetary affairs has been deep and widespread for many years, and for very good reasons. Our record in this field has been bad, as have been the records of many other countries, notably those in Latin America and the Near East. Witness the blundering way in which our Congress handled American bimetallism from 1791 to the Civil War, Jackson's war with the Second United States Bank, and our subsequent sad experiences with the bank notes of the wildcat banks. Witness our 17 years' experience with inconvertible greenbacks from 1862 to 1879, our unfortunate silver legislation of 1878 and 1890, and the absurd and highly expensive silver policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administrations.

--Edwin Walter Kemmerer, Gold and the Gold Standard: The Story of Gold Money, Past, Present and Future (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1944), 181.