 Throughout his political career , Garfield favored the gold standard and decried attempts to increase the money supply through the issuance of paper money not backed by gold , and later , through the free and unlimited coinage of silver . In 1865 , Garfield was placed on the House Ways and Means Committee , a long @-@ awaited opportunity to focus on financial and economic issues . He reprised his opposition to the greenback , saying , " any party which commits itself to paper money will go down amid the general disaster , covered with the curses of a ruined people . " In 1868 Garfield gave a two @-@ hour speech on currency in the House , which was widely applauded as his best oratory to that point ; in it he advocated a gradual resumption of specie payments , that is , the government paying out silver and gold , rather than paper money that could not be redeemed . 
