“... You could sit there with the stains on your shoes
Of the fresh earth from your own baby’s grave
And talk about your everyday concerns.
You had stood the spade up against the wall
Outside there in the entry, for I saw it.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
I cannot assent to a measure which stains our credit. We must keep that untainted. We are a debtor nation. Low rates of interest on the vast indebtedness we must carry for many years, is the important end to be kept in view. Expediency and justice both demand honest coinage.
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)