likewise spoke against what would become the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Although he opposed the amendment, Randall did favor the idea behind part of it: section 4, which guarantees that Congress may not repudiate the federal debt, nor may it assume debts of the Confederacy, nor debt that the individual Confederate states incurred during the rebellion. Many Republicans claimed that if the Democrats were to regain power, they would do exactly that, repudiating federal debt and assuming that of the rebels. Despite disagreement on other facets of Reconstruction, Randall stood firmly with the Republicans (and most Northern Democrats) on the debt. As impeachment proceedings began against President Johnson, Randall became one of his leading defenders in the House. Once the House determined to impeach Johnson, Randall worked to direct the investigation to the Judiciary Committee, rather than a special committee convened for the purpose, which he believed would be stacked with pro-impeachment members. His efforts were unsuccessful, as were his speeches in favor of the president: Johnson was impeached by a vote of 128 to 47. Johnson was not convicted after his Senate trial, and Randall remained on good terms with him after the president left office. Financial legislation With Grant, a Republican, elected president in 1868, and the 41st Congress as Republican-dominated as its immediate predecessors, Randall faced several more years in the minority. He served on the Banking and Currency Committee and began to focus on financial matters, resuming his long-standing policy against the power of banks. This placed Randall in the growing fight over the nature of the nation's currency—those who favored the gold-backed currency were called "hard money" supporters, while the policy of encouraging inflation through coining silver or issuing dollars backed by government bonds ("greenbacks") was known as "soft money". Although he believed in a gold-backed dollar, Randall was friendly to greenbacks; in general, he favored allowing the amount of currency to remain constant, while replacing bank-issued dollar bills with greenbacks. He also believed the federal government should sell its bonds directly to the public, rather than selling them only to large banks, which then re-sold them at a profit. He was unsuccessful in convincing the Republican majority to adopt any of these measures. Randall worked with Republicans to shift the source of federal funds from taxes to tariffs. He believed the taxation of alcohol spread the burdens of taxation unfairly, especially as concerned