CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. - GovInfo

580 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JANUARY 26,

ers of Oshtemo, Saint Joseph, Kalamazoo, Bmncb, Van Buren, and Clinton Counties, Michigan, for the retention of the present duty on wool-to the Committee of Wa:vs and Means.

By Mr. LEONARD: The petition of Jnlius Quentin, first lieutenant Uuited States Army, for relief-to the Committee on Military Affairs.

By .Mr. MORGAN: The petition of Robert Downing and others, of Phelps,·l\lissouri, for the passage of a pension lu.w that will do justice to disauled soldiers-to tho Committee on Invalid Pensions.

By .Mr. PATTERSON, of New York: Remonstrance of the Seneca Nation of Indians against the pa-ssage of t.bo bill making them Uuitell Stat.es citizens-to the Committee on Iudiau Affairs.

By .Mt·. PEDDill: The petition of citizens of New Jersey, against tbe rednct.iou of the tariff on refined brimstone and against the reimposition of the tax on tea Mld coffee-to the Committee of Ways and MeanP.

By Mr. PHILLIPS : The petition of the Kansas Horticultural Society, relating to forest-culture-to the Committee on Public Ln.:hds.

By Mr. PUGH: The petitions of workingmen engaged. in tho manufact.ure of crockery and pottery-ware, at Trenton, New Jersey, against the reduction of duties which protect ln.bor ami against the reimposition of the tax upon tea and. coffee-to the Committee of \Vays nud Means. · Also, the petition of R. Millington & Sons, m:mufactnrers of pott.ery, nt Trenton, New Jersey, that tariff dnties remu.in unchanged unt.il t!wrou~bly examined-to the Committee of Wu.ys and Means.

By Mr. QUlNN: The petition of brewers :tn<l malsters of Albany, New York, relating to the duties on mu.lted grain-to the same committee.

By Mr. RANDOLPH: 'l'he petition of Reuben Blevins, for u. pension-to the Committee on Invalid. Pensions.

By Mr. REA: Papers relating to the claim of Fred. Weddle-to the Committee on Indian Afi'airs.

By Mr. REED: 'l'ho petition of E. B. \Vinchester and others, for relief from license tax on ma-sters, pilots, aud others-to the Committee on Commerce.

By Mr. RO~IERO: The petition of citizens of New Mexico, for payment of Ind.iau vouchers-to tho Committee on Appropriations.

By Mr. SCALES: 'l'he petition of Ron. Lewis Haynes, of North Carolina, in behalf of himself and. others, for salaries due them as members of the Thirty-ninth Congress-to the Committee on the Judiciar.v.

Also, tho petition of W. M:. & C. Watkins, D. M. Heine, '1'. E. Cobb & Co., aud other manufacturers and citizens of Nor:th Carolina:, for a reduction of tho tax: on manufactured tobacco- to tho Comnnttee .of Ways an<l Mea us. ·

Also, a paper relu.ting to the establishment of a post-route between Wentworth, Stoneville, u.n<l Penn's Store, Nort.h Carolina-to the Committee on the Post-Office and Po-t-Roads.

By Mr. SMITH, of Pennsylvaniu.: Remonstrance of 79 workmen emplo~·ed at tho Susquehanna Rolling Mills, Columbia, Pennsylvania, ao·ainst a red.uction of tlle tariff and against tllo imposition of a duty gn to.• and co.ITee-to the Committee of Ways and. Means.

By Mr. STEWART: The 11etitions of citizeus of Minnesota, for appropriations for a harbor of refnge at Grand. Marais, for llarbor improvements at tlle port of DuLuth, and for the constrnctiou of a road from DuLuth to Pigeon River-to the Committee on Commerce.

Also, the petition of citizens of Minnesota, for an appropria.tion for the erecl,ion of a custom-bouse and otllcr Government offices at the port of Du LutlJ-to the Committee on Public Buil<liug-s aud Grounds.

By Mr. STONE, of Michigan: The petition of tlle directors of the Michigan and Ohio Railroad Compu.ny, that certain lauds, granted. to the State of Michignn iu trust, bo couferrell upon sai<l railroad company-to the Committee on Public Lansis.

Also, the petitions of Galen Eastmu.n and. 38 others, of II. D. Weatherman and 50 others, and of J Ulllles E. Albeo and. 20 others, all citizens of Michigan, of Himilar import-to the sa.mo committee.

Also, the petition of the board. of supervi!'\ors of Ottu.wa. County, Michigan, that certain lands ~muted to the Stu.to of Miulligan in trust be declared forfeited. to the United Stn.tes antl restored to sale or gru.nted to some rail1·oad company that will build. a 1·oad.-to the same committee.

By Mr. SWAl~: The petition of John P. Pleasants & Son, J. M. Holmes & Son, u.nd 29 other dealers in tobacco iu Baltimore, Maryland, that the tax on leaf-tobacco remain unchu.nged-to the Committee of Ways and Means.

By Mr. WALSH: Papers relating t6 the claim of John J. Tboma-s.to the Commit.tee of Claims.

By Mr. WHITE: 'l'be petition of Major A. Gaddes, of Ind.iallil, for relief-to the Committee on Military Atl'airs.

lly Mr. WHITTHORNE: The petition of John D. Tolley and others, sour-mash d.istillers, of Tennessee, for u. reduction of the tax ou whisky-to the Committee of ·ways a.ml Meaus. ·

By Mr. WILLIAMS, of Michigan: The petition of J. J. Bagley & Co. nod Nevin & J\.lills, of Detroit, .Michiga.n, against any change of the tax on tobacco-to the same committee.

By Mr. WILLIS, of Kentucky: The petition of flistillers and wholesale littnor dealers of Louisville, Kentucky, for a reduction of the tax: on whisky u.ntl for other relief-to the same committee.

By Mr. WILLITS: The petition of S. V. Wu.tkins and. G7 citizens

of Allen, Michigan, u.nd vicinity, for the protection of wool-growersto the same committee.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. SATURDAY, January 26, 1878.

The Holl8e met at twelve o'clock m. Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. W. P. HARRISON.

ORDER OF BUSINESS. The SPEAKER. By order of the House the session of to-day is for

debate only in the Hou.,e as iu Committee of the Whole, no business whatever to be transacted. The gentleman from New York, Mr. MAYHAM, will occupy the chair for the day a-s Speaker pro tmnpore.

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. A message from the Sellilte, by Mr. SYMPSO~, one of its clerks, in

formed. the House thu.t tue Senate had passetlu.nd requested the concurrence.of the House in a resolution relative to the payment of certain bontls of the United Stu.tes.

OUR COUNTRY-ITS PERILS AND THEIR REMEDY.

M URHAM. Mr. Speaker, I ask the indulgence of the House wb say a few things as to the condition of the country; the perils which surround us; what have been the principal cu.uses of the stagnation in business ; and. suggest some remedies for the same.

'l'his has been pra-eminently a period of rapid. progress. Wond.erful discoveries in science and useful inventions are of daily occurrence, and numerous improvements in the lauor-sa.ving machines and iu the methods of production nre ever and. auon enlarging the ability to supply and increasing the variety of the articles of ~onsumption aud swelling the general current of trade. There is no conntJ.·y on earth susceptible of so high u. stage of improvement, productions, and wealth, as ours. Extending from ocean tooceu.u, stretching its magnificent zone through more than twenty degrees of latitude, u.nd over twenty-five hundred miles in length, thero is an almost immeasurable extent of coast of ocean, la.ke, and gulf, and our inland commerce, of lake, sound., and river cannot be excelled.. Look at the great Missis ippi I Rising in the center of a vast continent, it winds its way like a mighty serpent around. the obstacles which lio iu its path, and bears upon its bosom the priceless commerce of its great valley to every part of the world.

We ha\'e here every va1·iety of soil and climate with millions of teeming acres under cultivation, with boundless weh-timberetlforest, and. new, virgin, uncultivn.ted soil enough to support fifty-fohl of our present population.

T!Jere aro inexhaustible mines of copper, lead, u.nd zinc, as well as of golu and silver, those two greu.t artiules so essential to our wealth u.nd by which all other values are regulated. Coal aud iron, those articles so useful and. essential in peace anfl war, in manufactnriug, and in the cultivation of the soil, and by which the wonderful commerce on land and. sea is carried on, lie in inexhaustible qun.utities all over our land.

We have left all other nations far behind. in the construction of railroads. Scu.ling and overcoming the highest mountain ranges they carry our internal commerce to every section of our country, and, with the network of telegraph lines, carrying messages of business, so thu.t we are quickly brought side by side in business transactions, and with the use of our ln.bor-saving maehines and. the proper culture of our rich soils we can feed tho starving millions of the world.

Our manufacturers have increased. in nUlllber a.nd improved in skill to such an extent that they cu.u compete with those of any nu.tiou in the world.

Tho result of all these thin as is to be seen in their splendid acllievements; for it is nowestimu.ted that the value of our annual productd of the field and farm, the mines and. manufactories, aml of the ot.her prod.uctions of our people, ammmt to over $6,000,000,000. No nu.tion on the earth can compare or compete with ns. And yet we are susceptible of a still higher improvement in all the sou1·ces of wealth atul hu.ppiness and of a largely increased. production. Tllese bles&iugs wonld bavo flowed to us in a much larger dl:}gree if prndont and wise counsels bad prevailed within tlle last few years and if federallegislation bad not checked our progress.

'l'he picture I have drawn is true as to our material resources u.nd the existence of the basis of nntold wealth, happiness, and. prosperity. With this country and. these resources autl with proper legislation all would llu.-.,·e been prosperity aucl happiness. But what is the renl condition of our country to-day t },ailures and rniu e.xi~t everywhere, banks, railroads, merchants, &c., by thousaurls going into bankruptcy. During last yeu.r there were eighty-eight hnndred and seveuty-two failures in the United States, with tbe liabilities amounting to $1UO,t>G9,93G. This shouJd cu.use ull to pauRe u.nd. reflect as to whu.t has brought it about. And yet, as· appalling as this appears, it does not exhibit half the effect that I believe our un wil!!e financial legislation bas had. upon tile business interests of tuo conntry. Look u.t the depreciation o.f the l"cal estate of the country which hM been going on for some time, and whicll is conceded to ue at least 25 ver cent., and on the basis of the value of property iu 18i0 is $2,500,000,000.

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1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 581 The loss by the cessation of many of the industries of the country,

the depreciation of the value of stocks and bonds of the railroa.ds and the corporations cannot be estimated, but these, with the diminution in value of personal property, are estimated at $5,000,000,000. Most of the insurance companies, savings and other banks which were created when the country was in a prosperous condition, and which stood high in public favor, by reason of tlle shrinkage in tho value of their secu":ities and the disasters which have overtaken and overwhelmed many of their customers have been compelled to suspend or go into bankruptcy. Over two hundred railroad companies have failed to pay the interest on their bonds, which amount to nearly $800,000,000. Many of these have gone into the hands of receivers. Rents have fallen off in the cities from 30 to 40 per cent., and in the country nearly aa much. At least one-half of the rolling-mills, foundaries, and furnaces are idle and those which are in operation are nearly all losing money.

Our commerce at home and abroad has been so paralyzeu that it has almost ceased to exist. Thousands of people are now leaving this country yearly to seek employment abroad, while heretofore tens of thousands came here annually and found ample employment. American artisans Me fleeing to other countries in quest of work. Sober, industrious, and competent mechanics are taking ship 'vith their wives and families and leaving behind them friends, home, country, and that stauy flag they love so well, and for which many of them risked life and limb upon the battle-field, and setting their faces toward the wide stormy ocean to seek not a fortune but a bare living which has been denied them here in the home of their adoption. Towns and cities and even States have been unable to pay the interest on theirindebtedness, because the people were unable to pay their taxes. Many of the best business men have been going on in their business at a loss, hoping for a change for the better.

These misfortunes and failures have fallen upon not only the reckless, eA.-travagant speculator, but the prudent and wise have been overtaken by this national calamity. The daily laborer, the man of toil, the prudent man, who by long weary days, months, and years of im1ustry, who supposed he had at least a competency, now finds himself utterly ruined. His business is at a. stand-still, and should his property be sold it would not bring half its value. Go with me to some of our great cities and I will show you thousands of idle men seeking employment but cannot get it. 1l~any are in rags and poverty. Go into the great m~ning districts. 1\Ien are out of employment and ~tUe, women are suffering, children are crying for bread, t-ramps fill the land, :md the universal cry of hard times is heard. Destruction and waste are on every side, business stagnant, and energy and enterprise have ceased to actuate our people. Nothing like it bas scarcely" ever been seen on this continent before.

Now, what has caused this change f Why bas the business of this great country been checked f Why has labor ceased to earn and receive its just reward f Why is it that capital reigns supreme and is fast crushing out the best energies of our people when it should foster and protect them f

I will give briefly some of the causes which have produced this result, so far as national legislation may have done so. Prominent among these was the a-ct

DEMONETIZING SILVER.

It is a matter of very little importance as to how silver w~s demonetized in 1873, whether falsely and clandestinely or not. A very large majority of the American people now condemn the act. It was.eventually passed in the interest of the bondholder and the money power and has operated disastrously to the general interest of the people.

Ever since the first coinage act of our Government silver has been a legal tender until the act of 1873. It mattered not whether the debt was due to individuals or the Government, the same could be paid in this coin. Our country had grown and prospered under this system, but when those who had secured large amounts of tl,e bonded securities of the Government desired to further enhance their valne they then struck out the legal-tender qualities of silver, which increu.sed the value of gold. The fathers of the Republic very wisely made gold and silver legal tenders, one to be a check upon the other. This, too seemed to be in harmony and accord with tbe most enlightened nations of the world. Such had been the long acquiescence in this dual currency and such their beneficial effects upon the general prosperity of the United States that but few desired a change. I venture the assertion that the clause of the coinage act of 1!:573 demonetizing silver was not understood or the same would not have passed either House of Congress. When the same waa made known the whole country was astonished and amazed.

During the last Congress I advocated the same bill which has already passed this Honse remonetizing silver, aud should it become a law its beneficial effects will soon be felt by t.ho great rua-ss of our people and will to some extent revive the languishing industries of the COUJJtry. .

I do not subscribe to the idea advanced by the Secret~ry of the Treasury that the l1onds of tho country issued by it sinco tho flomonetization of silver must Le paid in gold, but on the contrary it will be right to remonetize silver and then pay these bonds in ei tber gold or silver at the option of the debtor. It would neither be repudiation nor any violation of good mo~als so to do. I shall support ~ud vote for the preamble and resolut10n of Senator MA'ITHEWS, whiCh paased the Senate ye~>terday. The principle contained therein will

be sustained by the people at large, and is but an act of justice to the oppressed tax-payers of the country. The resolutions are as follows:

Whereas by the act entitled "An act to strengthen the public credit," approved March 18, 1869, it was· proYided and declaretl that the faith of the United States waa thereby solemnly pledgetl to tbo payment in coin or its coulvalent of all the interest-bearin~ obligatioUB of the Unito<l States, excopt in ci·es wherothe law authorizing tho issuo of such obli~ations had expressly pronded that the same mi_:::ht bo p:ti.<l in lawful money or other currency than gohl. anll sil .;er; iuHl

Whereas all the bonds of the Unite(l States authorized to bo issuctl by the act entitled" An act to a.utbori.zo the refunding of the national debt," approved July L-t, 1870, by the terms of said act wcro dccliu·e<l to be redeemable in coin of the ~~l present standard va.lne, bearing interest payable semi-annually in such coin;

Whereas all bonds of the United States authorized to be issued undor the act entitled " An act to provide for the resumption of specie payments," a-pproved Jan· nary 14, 18'i5, aro required to be of the description of bonds of the United States described in the s:1id act of Congress approved July 14, 1870, entitled" An act to authorize the refunding of tho national debt; " and

Whereas at the date of the passage of saitl act of Congress last aforesaid, to wit, tho 14th day of July 1870, the coin of the United States of staud>ml value oE that date included silver il.ollars of the weight of 4L2i grains each, declared by tho act a.ppro\-ed Janua,ry 18, 18J7, entitled "...i.n act supplementary to tho act entitled '.An a.ct establishing a mint aml regulating the coins of tho United States,'" to boa legal tender of payment, accordirig to their nominal value, for any sums whatover: Therefore,

Be it resolved by the Senate, (the Ho-use of Representatives concurring therein,) That all tho bonds of the United States issued or authorized to bo issued under tho said actR of Con;rress hereinbefore recited are payable, principal aml interest, at the option of the Government of the Unit~d States, in silver dollars, of the coina_ge of the United States, containing 412~ grains each of standard silver; and that to rei! tore to its coinn.~e such silver coins as a legal tender in payment of said bonds, prinCJpal and interest, is not in violation of the public faith nor in derogation of the rigllts of the public creditor.

It will be seen that there are three periods referred to in the above. The first is the act of March 18, 1869, "to strengthen ~he credit of tho Government," which is as follows:

That in order to remove a.ny doubt as to the purpose of the ~vernment to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors and to settle conflicting questioUB anu interpretations of tl1e laws by Tirtuo of which such obligations have been con· tracted, it Is hereby provided an1t dccla.retl that tho faith of the United St.ates is solemnly pled~ed t{) the pa..yment in coin or its equivalent of all the oNigations of the Umted Stat-es not bearing interest, known as Uuitell States notes, and of all the interest-bearing obligations of the United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the iAAue of any such obligation has expressly provided that the same may bo paid in lawful money or other currency than go)d and sil.;er. But nono of s:ti.d inwrcst-beaiing obligations not already duo shall bo rooeemed or :paid before maturity unless ut such time United States notes shall be convertiblemto coin at the option of the holder, or unles!l at tmch timo bonds of the United States bearing a lower rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemC<l can be sold at par in coin. And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make provision at the earliest pra{ltioable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin.

This a-ct wa-s intended to define what was meant by the public faith as to the obligations of the Government then eristiug. The word " coin" is used. It. does not say gold, but coin, meaning both gold and silver. It will be remembered that t.here was a difference of opinion, in and out of Congress, as to whet.hf'lr or not tho principal as well as the interest of all the bonds issued up to that time should be paid in coin or lawful money, as expressed upon tho faco of the bonds. Hence the bondholders bad the act of 1869 passed.

The second period is July 14, 1870, at the time the refunding act was passed. This act authorized the issuing of 4 per cent., 41 percent., and 5 per cent. bonds in lieu of the 6 per cent. bonds then outstanding. This act declared that these 5, 4t, ancl 4 per cent. bonds were redeemn ble at the pleaaure of the United States after ten years from the date of their issue in coin of the present standard valno, and bearin$ interest, payable semi-annually, in such coin. What coin T The com then authorized by law, to wit: gold at .its proper standard value and silver of the standard value of 412t grains to the dollar.

Now let us come down to the third period, to wit, the time of tbe resumption act, which was passed in January 1875. The third section of that act is as follows:

And to enable the Secretary of the Trea.stiPy to prepare and provide for the redemption in this act authorized or required, he is .anthotizcd to use any surplus revenues, from timo to 1ime, in the Treasury not otherwise approptiated, a.nd to issue, sell, and dispose of, at not less than par, in coin, either of the description of bonds of tho United States described in the act of Uongress approved J nly 14, 1870, entitled "An act to authorize the refunding of tho national debt," with like quali· ties, prh·ilcges, anrl exemptions, to the extent necessary to carry this act into full effect, and to use the proceeds thereof for the purposes aforesaid.

This refers to the refunding act of 1870, and tlle bonds to be issued and sold under this resumption act were to be the same as any ()f tboso issued under tho act of 1870. They were to be of the sam~ tenor and efiect and redeemable as said bonds, to wit, in the coin of the standard value in 1870. The conclusion is inevitable that, taking a.ll these acts together, every bond which can be issued under the act of July 14, 1870, or the resumption act of 1875, both of which contain the words "in coin of the [then] present st.a.mlard value," is to be redeemed in the coin of the United States of the standard value of July, 1870, and not the value of coin when th~y may he issued.

As before said, 412t grains was the value of the sih·er clolla.r then. The whole tenor of these acts was to make plain and · explicit the character of these bonds and how they were to be paid. It was done to explain the full extent of the obligations of the Government and to secure the creditor in all of his rights. Hence we should not hesitate to restore the law aa it stood in 1873 and make t.lle silver doTiar of 412! grains & legal tender, as it then was, in payment of the principal and interest of a.ll the outstanding bonds.

Silver has always and in nearly all countries been one of the


favorite coins and in more general nse than gold. The table below, I both gold and silver aa their standard of value and w~ch ones use which I obtained from Dr. Linderman, shows what countries use gold and silver separately. The table to which I refer is as follows:

Distribution of gold, silver, and double currency tkrouglwut the world.

Nations under gold alone. Population. Nations under silver alone. Population. Nations under gold and silver. Population.

Great Britain ••••••••••••••••••. .•••. .•. Canada ...•.••••.••••••••••••••••••••••. .

3~. 000,000 Russia .•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.... 4, 000,000 Anatria. .••••.• .. .•••••••••.••••• ..•..••

87,000,000 36,000,000 2, 900,000 1, 300,000

425 000 000

~{Fv~_:::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::: 5,100, 000 1, eoo. ooo

36,1r o, ooo 1, 500,000

26,800,000 16,500,000 2, 700,000

Australia .............................. . 2, 000,000 Central America ..•••.•••.••••..•..••••. France ...... ..................... .... . Portugal .....•..••••••••.••..••..••.••. . Turkey in Europe and Asia .•••••.••.....

4, 250,000 Ecuador ••••.••••••••••••••••••..••.•••• 29,500,000 China .•.•••.•••••.••••..••..••...••.•...

Greece . .•••••••••••••••.•••••• ........

300: ooo: 000 it~~;~~::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Persia .................................. . 5, 000,000 India .................................. . Brazil ................................... . 10,000,000 Mo::s:ico ............................... . 9, 000,000

4,500, 000 2, 700,000 1, 200,000 2, 000,000 3, 700,000 1, 400,000

Argentine Republic ................... .. 1, 800,000 Peru .....•...•••.........•.••••..•••••• .

~~~ -:E~i>i;~:::::::: :::::::::::::::: .. 8,000,000 United States of Colombia .•••••.•••••..

Sweden .•••••••••••.••••.•••••••.•••..•.. Denmark •••••••••••.•••••.••••.•.••..•• .

~~ill.~:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

41,000,000 Tripoli .•..•.•••.••• - •.•.•••••••.. -- .• --. 4, 2JO, 000 Tunis ..••••••••••••••••••••..••..••.•••. 1, 800,000 Holland ..••••.• ...••.••••••.•••..••.... 1, 750,000 Venezuela ••••••••••••••••••••••.••••••

Japan ..•••••••••••••••••••••.•••.•••.... 2,100, 000

33,000,000

Total ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• . 180,450,000 •••••• ···--- •••••••••••.••••••••••• - •••••. 876,700, 000 90,500,000

I have placed Egypt and Japan among the countries using gold; some of the statements place them among those using silver. It will be noticed that the UnitM. States is omitted from the table. She is now considering the question. Let us suppose she takes her old position among the nations under gold and silver. The table would be:

Population under gold, 180,450,000; population under silver, 876,700,000 j population under gold and silver, 132,500,000.

The bondholder cannot complain if he should be paid in silver, although it may have somewhat depreciated in value. They, by class and improper legislation, have made the immense sum of over 700,000,000 over and above what was legitimately due them. The

total amount of bonds issned and outstanding on the 30th of June, 1869, was $2,656,603,955. Of this sum only three issues were payable in coin, to wit: There were .of gold certificates of the act of March 3,

1863 .• - - - - -- - - - . -- . - - - - - . - - - - • - ••• - --- - • - • - - - -•• - • - 30' 4 89' 640 Loan of same date, 6 per cent ........•• - ••...• - _ •• __ •• 75, 000, 000 Ten-forties of March, 1864, 5 per cent. ___ ••..•••••.•••• 194, 567, 300

Total in coin .•• -- •. --- ••.••• _ •....• _ .... _ •••.• _. _. 300, 056, 940 Deduct this from the whole amount above, leaves $2,356,547,015.

This sum was payable in current money. Gold in March, 1869, at the <late of the act to strengthen the credit

of the Government, ranged from 31! to 32t per cont. premium; say, make it 30 per cent. on the above. Thirty per cent. ou the above snm makes $706,964,104 as the increased value of the Government obligations by the act of 1869. This was really an act for the be'nefit of the bondholders and a great crime against the rights of the people.

Now, let us pass to another cause of this terrible dit!aster in the

This is not all. This contraction mnst go on more rapidly during the present year unless that act should be repealed. It seems to me that the financial policy of those who have been in power since 1861 has been to oppress the laboring claas and to make stronger the money power. I have never been able to see why the Government should have issued so many bonds. The legal-tender notes would pay any debt to individuals and the Government, except customs dues and the interest on the bonds. They were all the time regarded as good, and the faith of the Government was as much pledged for their payment as it was for tl!.e payment of the bonds. Much more of tbis currency might have been kept in cii:culation, thns cutting off the coin interest we are now paying. Suppose, instead of organizing the national banks, the $4.00,000,000 of bonds they are based npon had never been issued, but that legal-tender notes bad been issued for that amount, then we would have saved annually $24,000,-000 of coin interest, or $20,000,000, if they were 5-per-cent. bonds. Who will say that these legal-tenders, or greenbacks, would not have answered all the purposes of the bank-notes f ·

And why could not banking have been carried on with these as well aa it is now with bank paper f and yet no more paper money would have been in circulation than under the present system. There were outstanding January 1, 1878, of bank-notes, $327,240,:~. This is based on bonds amounting to $.'352,564,423, upon which we are paying annually an interest of about 21,000,000. We had in circulation at the same date $349,943,776 in greenbacks, upon which we are paying no interest. The one is as good as the other. Tho people are satisfied with the legal-tenders, although they are not good enough for the bondholder. And every greenback that is retired under this resumption act is supplemented by some kind of a bonn, upon which we have to pay interest in coin.

THE RESUMPTION ACT. It must be borne in mind that the transactions of this country I believe this act has done more to destroy confidence among the have increased in a wonderful degree within the decade from 1RG5 to

land-

1875, and more money is required than in former years. Although business men (}f the country and to bring about a general stagnation just emerging from a devaatating war unbounded prosperity seemed of tr.ade than anything which baa occurred in late years. t d h 1 · 11 f b h 1 1 If

I have not been materially disappointed in its results, for I said in to a ten t e peop 0 m a parts 0 t 0 country w ere oca se -gov-the Committee ·on Bll.nking and Currency when that bill was before ernment prevailed, and there were very few failures then.

Our annual produclis are now about $8,000,000,000, which require it., that whileresumptj(}n was desirable at some future day and while annually at least $60,000,000,000 of exchanges in checks, drafts, &c., it w.as desirable to m.aJre the purchasing power of the paper money in aduition to the money in circulation, to answer the demands of of the conntl'y as great·as coin, yet we could not force that result by trade and traffic, and we should be careful not to throw obstacles in a. m~re legislative ~nactment wit.hout great shrinkage of values and the pathway of onr national progress. much distress to the peop1e. l thought then it meant contraction, It has been a serions question with men who should know whether thus making the purchasing power of gold greater and greater, a:p.d the banks of the eastern cities can furnish money enough to remove the final result wou.lcl~e to gi've over the laboring class, bound hand and the last crop from the West without drawing upon their reserves. foot, to those who were fortnna'te enough to have accumulated wealth. U~til the last two years the balance of trade has been against us; How stands the matter-,ltidertbeoperationof the act of 1874, author- that, with the interest we owed abroad upon our national debt, izing the banks to r~tirt' thcir 'Circnlation, and the resumption act of amounting to nearly 100,000,000 a year, has caused a constant drain January, 1!:<75! The circulation of the country has gradually de- upon the coin product of this country, so that it is utterly impossible creased. I liave a ~tatement '(}f the Comptroller of the Currency to a-ccumulate coin sufficient with which to resume in 1879, unless we showing that tliere has boon retired within that time up to Janua.ry increase the bonded indebtedness of the country by purcha-sing coin 1, ll:il8: in the market. To-day we have not over $140,000,000 in the Treasury O.f bank-notes .••••• ·---·· •••. -········----··-----···· $31,621,065 of the United States, and besides the export of coin is continually Of legal-tenders ... -- ....... -•..... - •..• -- .......•. -.. 32, 056, 224 going on. Greenbacks in Treasury on deposit .••. -----· •.. ------· 11,780,370 In 1875 the difference in the exports and imports of coin was over Making in all.--- .. -•••. -.- •. ·----- - ·.---- • --- -.-. --- • 75, 457,651 $71,000,000, in 1876 over $40,000,000, in 1877 over $15,000,000. But if

Thus Yerifying what I then believed would 'be one of the results we would repeal this resumption act, restore confidence among tbe of the resumption act, a contraction of tho currency. people, then the legitimate business of the country would revive and

I am not what is called an inflationist, but tliere ·ahould be in cir- honest labor receive its jnst reward. cnlation at all times enou~h money to carry on the 'transactions be- It will not do to flatter ourselves that the hard titnes are nearly tween man and man and tne legitimate operatioriS of general trade ended, that we have nearly gone through the crucible necessary to and commerce. I did not think at the time the resumption act was reach resumption.' I fear we are bnt commencing to pass through passed we had too much money, bnt rather too little. A.t that time this terrible ordeal, and if come it must, I pray the country may surwe bad about $21 per head for each man, woman, n.nd ehild, while vivo its awful shock. now we ba.ve only about $18.25. From the best estimate I can Rather In this connection I desire to say I have thought and reflected they have in Great Britain $28 per head, in Germany $23, in ] ranee much as to the propriety of paying a part or even the whole of ensabout $43. 1 toms dues in legal-tenders,. and I am satisfied the same should be done,

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 583 The whole object of resumption should be to have all the moneys

in circulat.ion of equal purchasing power, the greenback, gold, and silver. Nothing would bring about this result so fully as to receive these notes in payment of all dues to the Government. These notes are now a legal tender for all transactions as between man and mao, and between the citizen and the Government, except the interest on the public debt and customs dues. Why not go a step further and say the Government shall take her own money in payment of any debt due and payable to her by the citizen. The distiller, the rectifier, the manufacturer of t.obacco, and all others paying revenue to the Government under the internal-revenue laws, pay the same in legal-tenders or in bank-notes, and there can be no good reason why the wholesale merchant shall not pay his customs in greenbacks also. We will have but little trouble to coin gold and silver enough to pay the interest on our public debt, the balance of trade being now in our favor. Repeal the resumption act, receive le~al-tenders in payment of customs does, and resumption naturally follows without thereat shrinkage of values and general destruction of the industries o the country.

Another great cause of the depression in the industries of our country is

OUR PRESENT TARIFF.

Whatever may have been the views of our earlier iltatesmen as to a protective tariff or tariffs incidentally affording protection, because of the infancy of our manufacturing institutions, I can not now see that this neeessity exists.

As I have said, by the improved ma~hinery in use and the superior skilled labor now employed in our manufactories they can compete with those of any other country. In all the various exhibitions at home and abroad where the products of our manufactories have come in competition with those of the world we have borne off our due share of prizes, and those articles in the main can be produced ns cheaply here as anywhere in the world, yet we are paying au immense tribute to those manufacturers by reason of the very high tariff we have been paying for the last few years.

By reason of this unwise policy there is bot little demand abroad for a large amount of the useful articles that we can supply cheaper than other countries. We have by these restrictive laws said to the producer and artisan of other countries, " we do not desire you to sell your productions h~re." By this means we say we do not dosire to sell our productions abroad. At any rate, this is the effect of the policy. One of the most instructive illustrations of the evil effect of legislative restrictions on trade and commerce is to be found in the commercial relations of the United States with British North Amer· ica. In 18f!2 the estimated exchanges between the two countries was about $20,500,000. Doring the year 1854 there was a reciprociLy treaty formed between the two countries with very slight import duties. The year after this treaty went into effect the exchanges were about $:33,250,000, and they continued to increase until in 1865 tlley amounted to about $84,000,000. We then repealed this favorable treaty and from that time to 1875 the exchanges only averaged about $58,000,000 a year, while both countries were increasing rapidly in population and wealth.

The manufacturing industries of this country are now in a languishing condition, and have been for three or four years, ancl it is mainly on account of this restrictive policy of protection when they do not need it.

Permit me to mention a fe\V articles that are protected, and see how it bas operated. ·

Woolen goods are protected from 75 to 140 per cent. ; common blankets pay 125 per cent.; flannel, pilot, and beaver cloths nearly 100 per cent. Our importation in these things have fallen off to a wonderful extent, being only about $25,000,000 in 1877. And yet our manufacturers of these goods are in an emba.rrns eu condition.

Under a revenue tariff the woolen products of the country had increased with wonderful rapidity. In 1850 the value produced here was about $43,000,000; in 1870 about $155,000,000, being over 300 per cent. This increas~ in twenty years is without a parallel, except in the production of iron; bot in 1877, under a protective system, these productions have fallen off to about 130,000,000. The business of these manufacturers is growing worse and worse every year, and the importation of these articles is less each year, showing that they have less each year with which to contend.

There was imported of these goods in 1876 to the amount of about $47,500,000, while in 1877 there was only about ~,500,000.

There iil no country so rich in iron-ore as ours, none in which iron can be so cheaply manufacturerl. Under a proper system of duties this great industry increased with unparalleled rn.pidity. In 1Cl50 the value of the production of iron in all of its forms in thf'l United. States was about $53.000,000 and in 1870 it had increased to the value of about 305,193,347, while nuder the protective principle it has fallen off to about $240,000,000, in 1877. Bar-iron is protected more than 50 per cent., and because the manufacturers are shut in lly this protective policy they sell none abroad and their founderies and rolling-mills are closing up daily.

In 1870 we produced in forO"etl and rolled iron about $128,000,000 in value; in 1877 only about l98,000,000. Of this we only exportet."t about $6:30,000, and nearly all of that went to Canada, while Great Britain, with her free trade, exports to foreign countries t>ometime!i n.s much as $8,000,000 per month. I will illustrate further the effect of

the present tariff on other industries. If you will bear in minJ, my argument is, if we restrict the trade in the productions of other countries we will be restricted in our own trade with them.

The clothing business ha~ almost rea-ched perfection in this country. In this business in 1870 there was made in the United States about forty-eight million dollars' worth of clothing. .And yet, with a large increaae of population, in 1877 it only amounted to $85,000,000, and out of this sum we only exported about $585,000. In 1860 the value of the wearin~-apparel manufactured was about

i>S,OOO,OOO, a.nd we exported al.lout $525,000. The production was about half as much as in 1870, but the exports were nearly as much in 1860 as in 1877. The former was under the revenue tariff; the latter, uns:ler a protective tariff.

I will illustrate further. We imported in 1870, 8,220,545 dozens of spools of thread valued at about $1,12'2,447, and the duty collected thereon was about $891,396. There was very little thread manufactured in the United States at that time, but the manufacture of these articles began, and although they have been protected about 75 per cent. they are in a very crippled condition at this time. While we imported 725,346 dozen spools, in 1877, valued at 104,803, the duty thereon was only 79,144, a falling off of $012,252. Thus the Treasury has been robbed of this sum while the manufacturers seem not to have made anything thereby.

Why multiply exam pies when the history of the country has shown as a general thing under the revenue tariff we have almost always prospered, while under the protective tariff the people and the country have suffered. It has been estimated by competent judaes that the home industries of this country supply the people annually with manufactured goods to the value of 3~00,000,000. Now, this for the last thirteen years has amounted to 39,000,000,000. During that time we have paid an average tariff of more than40 per cent. on the dutiable articles.

Now, if the tariff of 1857 had been in operation when the a.vemge tariff was very much less, our people could have purchased them for $2,400,000 or 20 per oent. less than they now can be purchased.

If these :figures be true, wo have paid annuaJly to protect these home industries $600,000,000 over and above the tariff which went into the Treasury, thus making in the thirteen years $7,000,800,000. This is a grievous burden to the people, and they demand a reduction of the present high ta.riff.

These are not all the bad effects of this tariff. Our revenues are falling off year by year and getting very low. I give a few years below.

There were collected of duties in the following years the following amounts: In 1872 .•••••.••••.••••••.••••••••••••••..••••••••••• $212,030, 7Zl In 1873 ............. ·----· ··-- -- ·--·-··----- ------ ···- 184,556,045 In 187 4. _ ••••• _ .......•••••••••••.•••••.• _ ••.• _.. . • • • 160, 185, 38"2 In 1R75 .••••..•• :. •••••• ·······--··· .•••••.••••. ··-·-· 154,271,805 In 1876 .••••...• _ •..••••...••••. _ ••••..••.••• _ •• _. • • • 144, 982, 44 7 In 1877 . - - - -•. - - • - •. - • - ••. - - • -•.• - - ••.• - - •.. - - - - .• - - . 128, 427' 24:1

This tariff has also a.Imost destroyed our commerce. Under the commerce of 1857, until the war began, we were carrying about 66 per cent. of the commerce to and from the United States, w bile the other nations were carrying 34 per cent. of the same; but in 1H77 our ships carried about 2ti per cent. and the foreign ships carlTied 74 per cent. England under her free trade far outstrips ns now in carrying this commerce, and her exports of manufactures are many times greater than ours. I give only one article for one year, which may be regarded as nearly an average one. In 1875 Great Britain exported cotton goods to the value of $.158,858,565, while the Unitef\ States exported only to the value of $4,990,695. ,

In view of all these facts I will cheerfully support any bill proposing a reduction of the tariff, because the same will lighten the burdens of the people, produce more revenue, send abroad more of our products, and revive the commerce of the country.

There is one other law upon the statute-books which produces disasters to the business interests of the country. I mean the

BANKRUPT LAW,

I do not believe there ever existed a time when one should have been passed, a.nd if, aa some supposed, after the war and after such a. great panic or craah as there was in 1873, many honest, enterprising men availed themselves of its provisions and by that means were enabled to start in honorable business again, yet while this may be the case it opens a wide door to fraud, corruption, and perjury. It is but too often the case that men enter into large transactions and speculations, intending to fail. They proceed for awhile with a fair show of success. They have laid aside or given over to wife or child, or some other person for them, a large portion of other men's money. They then fad, go into voluntary bankruptcy, or are forced into the same. They profess to surrender all of their effects, ay, they swear falsely to secure a discharge from their d-ebts, and wheu the discharge comes they ru:ssist in bankrupting others while they have by fraud and perjury laid aside a competency for themselves, and they are IJy law placed in a position to deceive and swindle others again. It frequently occurs that good, honest men are refused credit because the dishonest resort to this law for protection. Once an estate gets into bankruptcy the bigger portion of it is eaten up in fees and costs, and the creditors get but little. I believe thiH law begets a lack of


confidence, thereby obstructing legitima,te trade. It leads to corrupt practices, causes perjUI'y in many cases, and is altogether immoral in its tendencies, and should be repealed.

Now, Mr. Speaker, having given my views on the principal causes of the general stagnation of business, the great disasters and suffering among the people, I will give my ideas of some of the remedies to be applieu.

First .. Silver should be remonetized and the standard fixed at 412t {,rrains to tho dollar. The mines of our western Territories are rich and inexhaustible, inviting thousands of unemployed laborers to bring silver into coin, thus giving a new impetus to trade and commerce and adding to the wealth of the country, for every bar of this precious metal mined 3.nd every dollar coineu assist in regulating the proper values of the country and add to the geuera.l wenJth rmd prosperity of the country.

Second. The resumption act shonld be repealeu. By so doing, confidence, which is so essential to a healthy state of business and wbich is now almost extinct in business circles, would be revived and the money which is now lying idle in the coffers of the bank or with individuals will fiml its way into circulation, thus reviving all industries and trades in all sections of the couutl-y. 'When men are satisfied they will not have to pay their debts in gold and requireu at ruinous sacrifices to raise the same, they will be inspired with new zeal to enter into the great business concerns of life, and a.lthough the Government must provide gold to pay the interest upon her bonds, individua.ls will know they can pay their debt.s as between man and man in tho currency of the country. This repeal would infuse new life and energy in all kinds of business.

Third. A portion or all of the customs dues should be paid in legal-tenders. Gold is now the standard of va.lue. Tbe object of resumption is to bring gold and the paper money of the country upon par, making the purchasing power of one as great as the other. Nothing will so completely accompUsh this result as to receive legal-tender notes in payment of customs. They are now a legal-tender for all debts between man and man and between the citizen and the Government, except interest on the bonds, :md it should he for debts due by individuals for customs dues. The revenue unes of the distiller, rectifier, and tobacco-manufacturer are paid in currency; the customs dnes paid by wholesale merchanls should be paid iu green b::wks.

Fourth. The present tariff should be so reduced and modified as to make the same for revenuo purposes only, and not for protection. By this reduction and modification our ports would be measurably thrown open to the products of other countries, enabling the laboring classes to purchase many of tbe necessaries of life, and :t mnch larger number of them than under tl10 present system, thus lifting from them a heavy burden, while it would also increase largely the exports of the immense surplus of products of this country, thus rcvi ving the general business ::tnd commerce of each and every p:trt of the United State~

Fifth. The bankrupt law should be repealed, because tbe same begets distrnst in business circles, thereby retardmg the general business of tho conn try, because the same is immoral in its tendency, leading to perjury and corruption.

Sixth. A rigid economy should be enforceu in the conduct of each and every department of the Government, thereby greatly reuncing the enormous amount heretofore required to carry on ita operations and thus Jessenincr tho taxes which now oppress the people. Honesty, capacity, and fidelity should be t.he requisites for official position. \Ve should reject all useless and extravagant appropriations, and see that no more cmploy~s are upon the pay-rolls than are actually necessary to conduct t.he business of tbe Government. We shoti:ld reorgan'izo tho Army and dispense wit.h the large number of officers and rf'dnco the Army to fifteen thousand men, which is now ample in time of profound peace.

:Mr. Speaker, two of these remedies this House has aheady passed; the residue I shall earnestly labor to securo during this session of Con!!ress, and should we succeed in securing all of them I feel that th~ ;hole countrv and all its inuustries will be revived and start ont afresh upon the high road to wealth and prosperity.

REl\IONETIZATION Alii> FREE COI~AGE OF SILVER.

Mr. BRIGHT. Mr. Speaker, I propose to offer some remarks npon t.he subject of the remonetization and free coinage of the silver doJJar and the legal tender thereof. I do not propose to indulge in the platitudes and the clap-trap of financial theorists, because the question 'is too intensely practical to justify any one in attempting to allay ·or misleau the minds of the country with such philosophical disquisitions.

The question is so vitally practical that it pushes its fibers into every man's pocket and sends its roots into all the channels of industr'y.

I feel ··<t~eply interested in this measure. I believe I can say without vaulty that I was the first person to call the attention of this body anu of the country, in January, 1875, to the remonetization of the silver·dollar. I followed it up in the Forty-fourth Congress and pr~ssed it with zeal upon the attention of the democratic party n.nd

·.of'this House. I am here to-day to follow it up with equal zeal, and t9 press it still further upon the consideration of this body and of tho country.

Mr. Speaker, it is very proper to know what is the gist of t.ho question before the country. The question is not whether we shaH have a bimetallic currency; tha.t question has been settled by the Constitution of onr country. It is no longer an open question, being imbedded in the Constitution, the organic law of tho country. Why, sir, it is idle for us to consume tho time of this body and that of tho country in such a discussion. Beyond question the right was reserved to the States to make gold and sil'l:er a legal tender. In consideration of that reserved power to the States, t-he power was conferred by the States on the General Government to coin money and to regulate tho value of foreign coins, clearly showing tlmt the General Government had assurn~d the obligation of domestic coinage, and also guaranteed the inflow of foreign coins. By these provisions the people supposed thn.t they would bo secure in all their money facilities.

In audition to that, lli. Speaker, the important question arises out of these constitutional p1·ovisions, that the people as well a8 the States should ha\e the power to make goltl or silve1' a legal tender in the solution of the debts of the States and in solutjon of the debts of private individuals. What was to be the extent df this tender T It was to be commensurate with the wants either of the States or of the individuals; anu if such right existed I should like to know why it is th::tt the question is agitated now and t.he right arrogated under the Constitution of the United States to demonetize silver at the expense of the Constitution and the rif?hts of the people Y

Sir, it is not an open question; it IS a question settle(l; a.nd whenever the Congress of the United States attempts to disturb that wellsettled principle it overleaps tho barriers of the Constitution and runs riot over tho rights of the people and the States. I am supported in this. Here is the argument of Mr. Thomas H. Denton, who was considered the father of the bard-money doctrine and called '' Old Bullion." If gentlemen are interested enough in the question hero is his argument., and I shall only read a paragraph from it. I read from volume 1, page 444 of his Thirty Years' View:

Mr. Benton believed that it was the intention and declared meaning of the Con· stitution tha.t forei~ coins should pass currently as money, and at their full n~lue, within tho United States; that it was the rluty of Congress to promote the circulation of these coins by g:i•ingthem their full value; that this was tho design of the States n conferring upon <..:onares.<~ the exclusive power of re21Jlatingtbe Yalue of these coins; that a.ll the laws of Congress for preventing the circula.t.ion of foreign coins, and underrating their \alue, were so many breaches of the Constitution, and so many mischiefs inflicted upon the States; anrl tllat it was tllo bounden duty of Conp;ress to repeal all such laws, and to restore .foreign coins to tbe same free and favored circubtion which they possessed when the Federal Constitution was adopted.

If the fact he so, Mr. Speaker, I come to the important question and announce that t.he demonetization of the silver u.ollar was a breach of the Constitution, that it was destructive of the rights of the Stales~ that it was an invasion of the rights of the people, that it wns striking down ono of the elements of legal tender for the solution of contracts in the United States. I, sir, stand here and propose to meet the question prccise)y as it is . . I say, sir, that tho demonetization of the silver dollar was a fraud upon the people of the United States by depriving them of one of their constitutional coins; that it was n. fraud on the Generul and State Governments by lopping off one of their financial arms; that it was a frand on the legislation of the country by an undue au vantage in cutting off legislative cousi!leration; that it was a fraud on the President of the United States, from whom tho fraud was concealed by the artful phraseology of the law, as shown by his Cowdry letter; that it was a fraud on the mining resources of the country by depreciating tho value of our vast silver minos; that it was a fraud on posterity by an attempt to double the value of the public debt which ~oes to them by inheritance.

I happened to be a member of Congress at the time of the passage of that bill. Its passage is not susceptible of vindication, notwithstanding the puerile apologies in its behalf. It was passed by fraud in the House, never havingbeenprintedinadvance, beini asubstitutefor the printed hill; never having been read at the Clerks desk, the reading having been dll!pem:ed with by an impression that the bill made no material alteration in the coinage laws; it was pa-ssed wit.hout discussion, debate being cut off by operation of the previous question. It was passed to my certain information under such circumstances that the fraud escaped the attention of some of the most watchful as well as the ablest statesmen in Congress at the time. It was passed near the closing days of the session, when in the bustle and precipitate rush of business it was most favorable for the concealment of fraud. It was passed without previous discussion or agitation before t.he people and without having been voted 11pon by the people. Ay, sir, it was a. fraud that ''smells to heaven." It was a frauu that will stink in the nose of posterity and for which some pet~ons must !,rive account in the day of retribution, and God grant" that no guilty man may escape!"

I state furthermore, Mr. Speaker, that the attempt to hold tho fraudulent advantage which has been secured by that legislation is indefensible, in my opinion, upon any principle of either law or mora1ity.

But, sir, we will notice now an apology or two for the passage of this act. We are told, sir, that under the law of 1834 ~old was overvalued and forced silver out of the country. Then, st.r, if gold bad been overvalued it ought to have been reduced in value by appropriate legislation which would brin~ it to the equation of silver so that both metals should harmonize as a currency in the country without resorting to the nnphilosophic, unconstitutional mode of banish-

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 585 ing tlto unoffending metal from the country. The error of ~he former le•rislatiou ought to have been corrected. To show the evtls of that le~islation I call the attention of the Honse to an extract from Mr. s.fyd's valnable work on Metallic Currency in America:

'l'he American silver coinage was always liable to expO'T'tation, for the simple reason that IT CONTAINED AN UJifDUE PHOPORTION OF SILVER. In all COUntries where the uouble valuation prevails. the relative proportion of value between gold and sil· ver stands at 1 to 15t, and the market value of silver in co~ntries where i t is not a s tandaru give on the avora<Ye the same result. In the Umted States alone the mto taken was 1 part of gol;i to 16 of silver, (15 98::!.37,) the proportion resulting from the Eagle at 258 and the silver dollar at 412i\ grains. The dollar, therefore, contained 3! (3.29) per cent. more silver than it ougnt to have co?tained according to its nominal value. No wonder, then, that the dollar wa,~ rap1dly exported ::tn!I tlmt no one found inducement to brin$ silver to the mints for coinage. And let It ue understood that the supply of gola had little or notlring t{) uo with this. Long before the discO'I·ery of gold in Califoma, ever since 1837, has the effect of this premittm on the United States silver ~ollar made itself manif?s.t .. In exchange for it tho foreigner need not have supplied gold; other commo(lities served the purpose of realizing elsewhere the la.r(Ye profit which the United St!ites gave to t~o exporter of her silver coin. Much that has been doubtful, pecuhar, and uns~ttlS· factory in the history of the United States currency between Ul37 and ~850 owes its orirrin to this astounding mistake on the part of the Government, which must, a.s e>e;y one can see, ha\e given rise to general disorganiza~ion of t~e currency and to dii;appointment in the capacity of the country t~ retain metallic currency. I "O farther autl say that it w~ tho cause why America was obliged to mako so tat"",...e a uso of pa-per money, with all its evils of unequali inU>rests, extravagant habits and expenditure.-Seyd on MetaUic Currency, pages 52, 53.

In addition to that, Mr. Spen,ker, they tell us that the old dollar ·wus dead. Dead! Why, Mr. Speaker, if llead it needed no enactment. But if it was not for the time needed, the dormant right to it remained in t.he Constitution, a~ many dormant powers remain there to be called up and e.xerciseu as occa8ioll may demand; therefore the ar•rument is w~thout reason, and I shall proceed tu notice anoth~r. If H .:as dead then I suppose they enact.ed that it should be buried: and the funeral ceremonies were performed here under the act of 1873, which was the winding-sheet of the old silver dollar-the olll dollar of the fathers, with all its historic memories. Sir, they bore it away as in the case of a burial of old under circumstances which ·are familiar to every one :

Not a drUDI was he.W, not a funeral note, .A.s his corse to the rampart we hurded.

* * * * * We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone But left him alone with his glory.

But, Mr. Speaker, it ought to have been sufficient for those who were apoloO'izing for the demonetization of the old silver dollar to havo told the tr~th about the old veteran that had stood and battled with all t.he finu.ncial storms of the Government from 1792 down to u;n. Investigation shows it was not dead, but t.hat it wa~ alive. From the report of the Director of the !~-lint in 187o, pages 33 and 34, it appears-an~ I have the table here-that for the last two years before its demonetization there was more of the old silver dollar coined at the American Mint than in any five years before that time. Here is the evidence:

The following statement shows the silver dollars coined in the United States from 17!!2 till1873; and that in 1872 and 1873 more sil\·er dollars were coined at tho United States Mint than in any five years from the commencement of the Q-ovemment. It will be seen, then, tbat these reasons assigned for the demonetization of the silver dollar are pure fablications.

Year.

·UiH .............................. . 1796 . ................................ . 1797 ........................................... . 17!J8 ...................................... . 1799 .................................. .. 1800 ......................................... . 1801 ........................ : .... .. 1802 ....................................... . 1803 ............................ . ........ .. 1804 ..................................... . 1805 .................................... . 1806 to 1835 .......................... . 1836 ...................................... .

!~~} ............................ .. 1839 ............................... . 1840 ........................................ . 1841 .......................................... . 1842 ................................. . 184:1 ......... ·•·••• ........................ . 1844 ..................................... . 1845 .............................. .. 184ti ........................................ .

"1847 ...... : ...................... .

Number.

204,791

72,920 7, 796

327, 5~6 432, 515 220, 920 54,454 41,650 66,004 19,570

321 None. 1, 000

None. 300

61,005 173,000 184, 61tl 18."i, 100

20, 000 24, 500

169,600 140,750

Year. Number.

1848 .. .. • • .. • • • • • .. •.• • • .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 45, 000 1849 .. • • • .. .. • • .. • • • • .. .. • .. .. .. .. .. .. . 62, 600 1850 . • • • .. • . • • • .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . 47, 500 1851............................. . 1,300 1852 .......... ...... ................. . 1,100 1853 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. • .. .. • • .. • .. .. .. .. • • • .. .. . 46, 110 18.'14 ............. .......... ...... .... 33, 140 1855 .. • • • .. • • .. .. .. .. .. .. • • .. . .. .. . .. .. 26, 000 1856 .. • .. • .. .. • • • .. .. .. .. • • • .. .. • • • .. .. .. 63, 500

!~ ::::::::::::::::::::::::: 94,000 1859 ........... ............. ... ..... . . 288,500 1tl60 • • • • • . • • • • • • • .. • .. .. .. .. .. .. • .. . . 600, 530 1861 • • • • • • • • • • .. • .. .. • • .. . • .. • • . . 599, 500 1862... ........... .......... .......... .... . 1, 750 1863 . • • • • • . • • • • • . • .. • .. • .. • .. .. .. .. . 31, 400 1864 • • .. .. .. .. .. • • • • .. • .. .. .. • .. .. • .. .. .. . 23, 170 18ti5 .. • .. .. .. • .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. • .. .. • .. • . 32, 900 1866 . • . • • • .. .. .. • .. • .. • • • .. .. • • • • .. . . 58, 500 1867 ..... •• .......... ......... •••••. 57,000 1868 . • .. . . .. .. . .. .. • . .. • .. . .. • • • • • .. . . 54, 800 1869 .. .. .. • .. .. .. .. . .. • .. • .. .. • .. .. .. .. .. . . 2Jl, 350 1870 .......... ........ ... ........ •••• .... . 588, 308 1871 . .. .. . .. • • • .. • .. • .. .. • • .. .. • .. • . . 659, 929 1872 ..... • • .. .. ... • .. .. .. .. .. • .. .. .. .. • • . . 1, 112, 961 1873, three months................ . . 977, 150

The true reason, Mr. Speaker, was to be found in another fact. Germany was aUempting the demonetization of her silver. She thought she was becoming affiuent in gold .by reason of the Franco· German indemnity and commenced the project; and it was supposed th:tt the apprehended engorgement of America with silver might re· snit in the depreciation of the American bonds. Hence we find the movement commences abroad and reaches to this country, and we .have the foreign bondholder uniting with the American bondholder a.uu beseeching the Congress of the United States in a clandestine manner; and the project for the solution of the d~cnlty was in the

demonetization of the silver dollar, because the bonds wero pnyablo in that coin. That would make gold higher and would make silver cheaper; it would make our bonds, if they succeeded in the demonetization of the silver dollar, 1.20 to 1 of the face value of the bond. The American statesman sees the bondholder sitting'' like a pale Mammon" amid his uo.xes of gold and bonds; he listens to his siren song of national honor and his heart melt-s and the boon is granted, and the old silver dollar is buried out of sight for the time, and tho people, the hard-handed people, upon whose broad backs ali the industries of this country rest for their prosperity, get only the copper and the nickel and the subsidiary silver coins 7 per cent. light! Unparalleled American smartness I

Now, Mr. Speaker, I propose to offer some reasons why t.he silver dollar should be recoined. In the first place, the obligations of the Constitution require that it should be remonetized.

Second. It is needed for general circulation to pay the debts, the taxes, and the judgments which may be rendered against private individuals. California, we are told, can consume and utilize $100,000,000 herself.

Third. It is needed by the States for revenues to pay their bonds ancl other debts. 'l'he General Government has taxed State banks out of existence, expelled foreign coins, and deprived the States of facilities which they had from the foundation of the Government in the discharge of their obligations. Hence it is right that we see that this currency is restored to them.

}'ourth. It is needed by the banks for reserves, for deposits, and for a ballast against inflation, and for specie resumption if they ever reach tllat point.

Fifth. It is needed for foreign trade with Mexico, South America; Canada, Chinn, and all the other specie-using nations of the globe, forming two-thirds of the population of the globe.

Si..xth. It is needeu to utilize our vast silver mines, to employ onr mipir..,s labor, and to tnrn tho silver streams into the channels of trade. It is needed for the encouragement of our languishing industries and the employment of onr starving laborers.

Seventh. It is needed for national revenues, and to pay tho national debt according to contract .

The act of 1869 provides "for the payment in coin or its equivalent" of the notes,'' ancl of all tho interest-bearing obligations of the United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the issuo of any such obligations bits expressly provided that the same may be paid in la.wful money or other currency than gold and silver."

Here tllf) In.w defines that the word "coin" as usod means "gold and Bilvcr."

The act of 1870 provides that the bonds issued under it shall be payable in coin, at its(then) standard value. Both gold and silver hacl their legal standard value at the timo, a'nd the coin mentioneu could havo referred only to the legal standard coins of the United Sta,tes, gol(l and sil1:er. .

Then if it be lawful to pay in silver, there is no reason why .it shonld not be done, though it were as plenty "as the stones in the street." Aua it woulfl be unjust to a distressed people to throw awa.y the poor advantage of paying t.ho pnblic debt in Bilver as wen as gold. 1\Ir. Soyd, in his excellent treatise on Metallic Currency in the United States, pago 55, says:

I am com·ince<l that if America again introduced the free coinage of silver sbe would bo enabled to ret.ain many milliona per annum, would be ablo to resume specie payments, and pay off her national debt much sooner.

It is needed, in the eighth place, for the resumption of specie payments, as General Grant said, to aid in paving the way to it, and he was right for once. He was in favor of hoarding three or four hundred millions of dollars by the people, and the people must always have coin to sustain the solid specie payments of the country as I will demonstrate in another connection.

Ninth. I propoRe to show t.hat resumption, in its proper senso, is impossible in gold in the United States.

¥r. Speaker, what are the requisit.es of specie resumption for a. nation' I apprehenu there is much disa!,.rreemont upou this point; I apprehend that there is much misunderstanding upon this subject. Now, sir, what is the rule¥ but before I enter upon the rule, I will make a statement with reference to the amount of outstanding currency and obligations that have to be met in order to put the country on what might be called a solid specie basis.

The attention of the House is respectfullyinvited to a few figures: National-bank notes in circulation November 1, 18777

as per report Comptroller Currency .............. . United States notes, same date ........................ . Deposits in national banks, same date .•. _ ..... _ ... .. Deposits in State and saving-banks ..... ··-··· .••.•

$315,881,990 354, 490, b'9~ ()91,900,000

1,377,520,000

Total .••• _ ...................... ···-·· .......... 2, 719,792,882

These large figures confront us in our road to resumption. Now, Mr. Speaker, the point to which I wish to cal1 the attention

of this body particularly is this, that the rule of resumption, as has been supposed by many and as has been adopted by the United States, should be considered as3 to 1; but, according to Amasa Walker, the rule in fact has been a~ average of about 4 to 1 and even greater in the United States. But this rule of 3 t.o 1 has been supposed only to apply to the circulation of the banks of the United States. It is

586 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. J .ANUARY 26,

borrowed or pretended to be borrowed from the English rule upon the subject. I propose to call the attention of tbe Honse to the English rule so that America as she has been indulging her imitative faculty will be disposed to give due consideration to the English rulo which has been made imperative by statute as to specie payments. I call the attention of the House to the work of Mr. Benton, volume 2, pages 128, 129, who explains and quotes the English rule.

Here is the rule : [From Benton's Thirty Years' View, volume 2, pages 128 and 129.j

This is a point of great moment-one on which the public mind hns not been sullicit>ntly awakened in this country, though well understood and duly valued in England. The charters of banks in the United States are usually drawn on this principle, that a certain prov.ortion of the capital, and sometimes the whole of if., ~hall be p.'\id up in gold or Silver before t.he chart-er shall take effect. This is the usual provision, without any obligation on the bank to retain any part of this specie after it gets into operation ; and this provision llits too often proved to be illusory and deceptive. In many cases the bunks have borrowed the reqni· site amount for a day and then returned it; in many other cases the propoTtion of specie, though pai.·d up in good faith, is inlmelliately lent out or parted with. The rtlsnlt to the J,>Ublic is about the same in both caaes; the bank haslittleor no speeie a.nd its place 1s supplied by t.be notes of other banks. The great vice of the bankin~ system of tbe United States is in banking upon paper, upon the paper of each otner, and treatin~ this paper as cash. This may be safe among the banks themselves: it may enaole them to settle with one another and to liquidate reciprocal balances; but to the public it is nothing. ln tho event of a run upon a bank or a. genera.! run upon all banks it is specie and not paper that is wanted. lt is specie ancl not paper which the public want and must have.

* * * .. • The true proportion is one-third, and this to apply to all the eirculation and de

posits, except those which are special. This proportion has been fixed for a hun· dred years at tbe Bank of England; and just so often as that bank has fallen be· low this proportion, misohir.f bas occurred. This is the sworn opinion of the present go>ernor of the Bank of England and of the directors of that institution. Before Lord Althorye's committee in 18.12, Mr. Horsley Palmer, the governor of the bank, testified m these words:

"The average p1·oportion, as already observed, of coin n.n£1 bullion, which the bank thinks it prudent to keep on hand, is at the rate of a third of the totru amount of all her Habihties, including deposits as well as issues."

Mr. George Ward Norman, a director of the bank, states the same thing in a difterent form of words. He sa.ys:

"For a full state of the circulation and the deposits, say twenty-one millions of notes and six millions of deposits, making in tho whole twenty-seven millions of liabilities, the proper sum in coin and bullion for the bank to retain is nine millions. Thus, the average propo1'tion of one-third between the specie on ha..ud and the circulation aml deposits must be considered as an established principle at tllat bank, which is quite the l:lrgest and aruong the oldest-probably the very oldest bank of circulation in the world."

Tho Bank of England is not merely rt>qnired to keep on hand. in bullion, the one-tllird of its inlmediate liabilitie.s; it is bound nlso tb let the country soe that it h:~l'l or has not that proportion on hand. By an a-ct of the third year of William IV, it is required to make quarterly publications ' of the average of the weekly liabilities of the bank, that the public may see whenever it descends below the point of safety. Here is the last of these publications, which is a full exemplification of the rule and the policy which now govern that bank: " Quarterly average of the weekly lia11ilitie.s and a&sets of the Bank of England from

the 12th December, 1837, to the 6th of March, 1838, both inclwrive, puUislled pursuant to the act 3 William IV, cap. 98. ''

Liabilities: Circulation .................. ----·--····- .............. -•••••••••••••• £18, 600,000 Deposits ...................... ··--········........................... 11, 5.15,t.OO

30,135,000 Assets:

Securities.... ........................................ . ••• •• .••••••. •• 22, 792,900 Bullion...................... .. • • . • • • • • .. • • • • • • . • • .. • • • .. • . . • • • • • • • • .. 10, 015, 000

'' LONDON, March 12." 3.2, 807,900

The proportion in England is one-third. The bank relies upon ita debts and other resources for the other two-t.hirds in the event of a run upon if..

So you find, Mr. Speaker, that the role adopted by the Bank of England, or rather under the act of Parliament, was that one-third of the liability in coin and bullion should always be in the bank, and that when a run was made on the bank by the time it had exhausted that one-third it could, from its loans, collect the two-thii·ds remainder in coin from the country, so that it might be prepared to pay off all its liabilities to every individual who had a claim against the bank. That is the rule, and I propose now to apply that rule to the currency of the United States and the currency and deposits of the banks, to see whether we can compass the much-coveted object of specie resumption, ~ts it is called.

Now, sir, what are the facts as to th,e amount necessary to start the resumption machinery! Let ns see. Here are the outstanding United States Treasury notes in full, amounting to 354,490,892; onethird of the circulation of the national banks, $101,960,663; onethird of the deposits of the national banks, $230,633,000 ; one-third of the State and savings-banks deposits, $455,560,666; to pay the annual interest and sinking fund, $130,000,000; making $1,272,645,554, that is, to pay the outstanding Treasury notes of the United States in full and to pay one-third of the liabilities of banks, national and State. But it {loes not stop there, :Mr. Speaker; but suppose by the En~lish rule tba,t the people hold two-thirds of the bank circulation and deposits in gold which may be collected from loans while paying out one-third while a run is made on these institutions. Then the people in the United States, to support the Government and banks, ought to have in circulation two-thirds of the bank circulation, deposits, and annual interest on the bonds and sinking fund in gold, which would make in t.he hands of the people $1,656,t!77,9g;.J. Add to that $1,272,-645,554, which is supposed to be held by the banks, and yon have the grand total of $2,g;2U,523,546 required to put the United States upon the specie basis of the English government.

France has $1,200,000,000 of metal in her banks and in the country, and $520,000,000 of currency besides her deposits. Yet she cannot venture to become specie-paying without detriment to herself. Instead of resumption on the 1st of Jannary,1878,as contemplated, she has instead recently issued $50,000,000 more paper currency. Germany has $300,000,000 of gold, and she is making an effort to get to a gold specie basis. But the coveted goal is far before her.

Let us apply the facts and see how far the United States is from this specie resnmpt ion, as it is called. According to the report of the Director of the Mint, we have in coin and bullion in this country $185,000,000 of gold. Understand that the proposition is to resume. Of this amount of gold the Government holds $32,595,000 and the banks· hold $5,000,000; so that the Government and the banks are far behind.

Now let ns take this $185,000,000 and subtract it from $2,9-29,000,-000, and we still have $2,744,000,000 to be provided in gold to enable ns to reach the English specie basis. 'Whence is this to come f The Director of the Mint, in his report for 1874, page 20, uses the followin~ language. Will gentlemen now give me their attention f I am usmg the argument and testimony of an adversary. Let ns see what he says upon the subject of gold supply in the world and in the United States. Here is his language:

[From Report of the Director of the Mint, June 30, 1874, page 20.] The opinion has oft-en been advanced that the large amou.nt of gold yielded by

the mines of the United States and Australia has produced an engorgement in the markets of the world. That such was the eftect during the first five years after these mines were opened and during which tinle the maximUDI production was reached. and that a general advance in prices followed. maybe safely admitted; but the undeniable fact that leading countries, like the United. States, Russia, Austria, France and Italy, are compelled to use inconvertible paper-money, not from choice, bnt because they have not sufficient coin for a specie basis, would appear to show concltlsively that there is not too much gold, and especio.Uy aa no one country appears to possess a redundancy. This fact, and particularly when it is considered that the annual production of gold is grad·ually decreasing, should dispt'l any fears which may be entertained of its future decline in value relatively to land, labor, and commodities.

That is the testimony of a witness who is a gold bullionist, a man who is in favor of the demonetization of the silver dollar. We find, therefore, that there is no engorgement of gold, no 1·edundancy of gold in Europe or America, and gold is on the doorease. The United States, Russia. Austria, France, and Italy are compelled to use inconvertible mouey for the want of gold.

Tl~en, what is the conclusion of the argument f Where will you go in quest of your gold f Will yon go to Europe T

The countries there are in a scramble for it; it is not there. Will yon go to your own mines T From them the flow of gold, like the fabled stream of Pactolus, flows only to bear the golden treasure to other shores, leaving but a little sediment in your own country as it flows through.

AD effort was made to introduce the gold standard into India; but Mr. Ba,gehot, an English writer and a gold bullionist, argued that it was impolitic and impossible.

Our Government bas found it impossible to introduce foreign gold into onr country through the powerful medium of our national bonds with their large rate of interest. If anything can attract the gold from Europe it is the American bond. It is not to be introduced through the skill and manaaement of the syndicate. But what is this syndicate f It is part English and part American-might be styled a compound of the British lion and the American eagle. Its prototype was a fabulous monster of the ancient Greeks, called a griffin, which had the head a.nd wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, and was supposed to'' watch over mines of gold." Its image wassometimesstamped on ancient coins. At present it is not active, but it is watching the issue of t.be silver bill. In plain English it is an association formed for the purpose of practicing a feat in financial hocus-pocus, by which they extract coin-interest-bearing bonds of the United States, under the acts of 1870 and 1~5, in exchange for non-interest-bearing Treasury notes, without increasing the gold coin of the country a single dollar. But how can that be done! The Secretary of the Treasury gives notice that on. a certain day be will sell five millions of bonds for gold for the purpose of redeeming legal-tender notes under the act of 1875.

We will say that there are fifty banks and gold brokers, English and American, that have five millions of gold on deposit in the vaults of the banks. They have also hoarded five millions of Treasury notes. On the day appointed they appear before the Secretary of the Treasury and they propose to buy five millions of bonds if he will take checks for that amount of gold on de{M)sit in the vaults of the banks. The Secretary accepts the proposition, k-nowing thn.t the gold is ne\7 er mo'\"ed in large transactions. The bonds are exchn.nged for. the gold checks; but just here the syndicate presents $5,000,000 of legal-tenders for redemption, and the Secretary exchanges the gold checks for the legal tenders. The result of the transaction is the syndicate has the interest-bearing bonds and the gold unmoved in the vaults of the banks; the Secretary bas the legal-tenders, which are carried to the destruction account and burned np; the people have lost their money from circulation and have gained a new burden in the interest on the bonds.

The syndicate only repeats the process at :w many calls a.s the Secretary may choose to make. The gold remains in the banks, the syndicate holds the interest-bearing bonds, and the leo-al-tenders are absorbed, and so t~e process is continued untp. the whoYe legal-tenders

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 587 of the United States are "wiped out," and $5,000,000 have done the whole work.

Well, Mr. Speaker, will the House permit me to tell a little anecdote in illustration of this matter, which is said to have occurred to a western forester, a man of celebrity in his day, the well-known Colonel Davy Crockett. Silence gives consent, and I will tell it. He went on one occasion, with a number of his jolly friends, to a grocery. He had a single coon-skin, which was currency in that day, with wllich he wished to buy a quart of whisky. He laid his coon-skin on the counter and got his whisky. He asked what he should do with it, and was told to throw it into the loft, which he did. After they drank their whisky, the colonel we-nt around and twisted the coonskin out of the loft with his ramrod, and, bringing it back to the counte , bought another quart of whisky. The coon-skin was again thrown into the loft and again the colonel twisted it out and again he brought it back and bought another quart of whisky. So herepeated the process and they drank whisky the whole day upon a single coon-skin, just as the syndicate are consuming the legal-tenders of the United States with the sum &f $5,000,000 of gold which remains in the vaults of the banks. [Laughter.] But, Mr. Speaker, I have not time to dwell longer on that 15nbject to-day.

Again, the gold cannot be introduced through our commerce. There is a reported gold balance against us of $15,000,000, and to this should be added thtl carrying tmde of the United States, which paid to foreign vessels, according to Mr. Grosvenor, $60,000,000, and, a-ccording to tho same authority, for smuggling, $50,000,000, making the true bahtnce of currency against the United States $125,000,000.

Now, Mr. Speaker, while all Europe is in a scramble for gold, I inquire, whence is it to come, to put this country upon a specie basis t All the orifi~;es are open for outflow from the United States, throu~h interest upon our bonds held abroad, through interest upon State bonds, and through the private indebtedness of onr people.

A.v, sir, Mr. McCulloch, in 1tl66, thought be could reach it in 1869. He pursued the golden phantom. So with Mr. Richardson, so with 1\ir. Boutwell, and so with Mr. Bristow. All pursued the ·phantom, and failed in the effort.

Now, to change the figure, the present Secretary of the Treasury takes it up, and is going to force the camel through the eye of the needle, though be may crush every bone in the body-politic.

No, Mr. Speaker, we will need all our mountains, both of gold and silver, to pay t.he interest upon onr bonded debt, to pay the debt itself, and to furnish a coiTeucy for the people.

Therefore resumption is impossible in gold. It will take ages to recover us from the Serbonian bog into which we have marched and to reach the solid-road through a specie basis for our country. The li ttle we collect of gold as it percolates from our foreign commerce, the little sediment left from the outflow of our mines, will never furnish us with that metal while the continent stands unless there is some other resource.

Mr. Speaker, our country is in distress and staggering under the burden of its public debt. If we look for relief by payment in gold the debt will cling to us like the curse to the wandering Jew. While Germany and the Scandinavian states are demonctizin~ silver anu our silver mines are unmeasured in their resoorceR, now IS our opportunity. Now is the time to take the tide at the flood which "leads on to fortune." If the occ~ion is lost, I here leave it on record for the eye of posterity that Oltr public debt 'l.tJill not be paid in gold in the 11ext half centu1·y.

Wo are told, Mr. Speaker, that we ought not to remonetize the silver dollar, because it is too fluctuating in value. That argument bas often been made before; bot is it truthful f I maintain that it is not, and I am supported in my judgment by the facts of hi8tory. I have an extract from Mr. Benton's speech, who gave the history of currency in 1837 when it was nuder discussion. They arra.yed all the facts from the time of the Roman emperors down to the present time, and it resolved itself into the pra~ical question, as be states in the extract-which I will not rea.d but will furnish-that the silver dollar maintained its relation to gold for over three hundred years in silver countries, in Mexico, Spain, and South America.

[From Benton's Thirty Years' View, First volume, pages 469 and 470.]

REVIVAL OF THE GOLD CURltE...'\CY.

A measure of relief was now at band before which the machinery of distress was to balk and cease its long ancl crnol labors ; it was the pa.ssa~e of the bill for ~:~~~t!1:. value of gold and silver and legalizing the tender of foreign coins

* • * • * * * The difficulty of adjustin_g this value so that neither metal should expel the other

had been the stumbling· blOck for a great many years; and now this difficulty seemed to be aq formidable as ever. Refined calculations were gone into, scientific light was sonJ!ht, history ·was ruruma.~oted back to the times of the l?oman empire, and th~re seemed to be no way of gettfug to a concord of opinion either from the lights of science, the voice of history, or the result of calculations. The author of this View had (in his speeches on the subject) taken up the question in a practical point of new, re~ardless of history, and calculations, and the opinions of bank officers, and, looking to the actual and equal circulation of the two metals in differ· ent countries, he saw that this equality and actuality of circulation had existeu for alJove three hundred years in the Spanish dominions ·of Mexico and South America, where the proportion was 16 to 1. Taking his stand upon this single fact as tho practical test which solv·od the question, all the real friends of the gold currency soon ra.lliec..l to it.

The good effects of the bill were immediately seen. Gold began to flow into the country through all tho channels of commerce; old chests gave up their hoards; the mint was busy, anti in a. few months, and as if by magic, a currency banisheu

from the country for thirty years overspread. the land and gave joy and confidence to all the pursuits of industry.

But I do not stop there, Mr. Speaker. We have the testimony furnished by the Director of the Mint from his own ta!Jles and in a statement here compiled in decades, showing that the general average for the one hundred and fourteen years from 1760 to 1t!73 is 15.18; being 15 and nearly one-fifth instead of the present standard which we have adopted, the ratio of 1 to 16. During the above period the ratio of the highest monthly average in the United States was 1 to 15, in July, 1859, at which rate a silver dollar of 412t grains was worth 1.05-i in

goi;l~ing this period there were bot three years in which the ratio fell below 1 to 16; in 1809, when it was 16.25; in· 1810, 16.15 and in 1815, at the close of the British war, when it was 16.30. The ratio for the lowest monthly average in July, 1876,afterit w~s demonetized, was 1 to 19.19, at which rate the dolla.r was worth 83t cents. Table showing comparative value of gold with· silver by decades from 1760 to and in

clusive of Ute year 187~, being one hundred and fourteen years, being condensed from tables found in the report of the Directo-r of the Mint for 1876, pages 46-41.

1760 to 1769 (both inclusive) gold compared to sih-er averaged as ...... 1 to 14.506 1770 to 1779 (both inclusive) gold compared to silver averaged as . .••.. 1 t{) 14.491 1780 t<l 1789 (both inclusive) gold compared to silver averaged as ...... 1 to 14.451 1790 to 1799 (both inclusive) gold compared to silver averaged as ...... 1 to 14.945 1800 to 1809 (bot.h inclusive) gold compared to silver averaged as ...... 1 to 14.854 1810 to 1819 (both inclusive) J!:Old compared to silver averaged aa.; .... 1 to 1!1. 405 1820 to 1829 (both inclnsive) gold compared w silver averaged as . ••••. 1 to 15. 8()-J 1830 to 1839 (both inclusive) gold compared to silver averaged as ..••.. 1 to 15. 764 l c40 to 1t149 (both inclnsive) gold compared to silver averaged as ...... 1 to 15. 877 1850 to 1859 (both inclusive) gold cowprued to silver averaged as·-···· 1 to 15.400 1860 to 1869 (both inclusive) gold compared to silver averaged as ..••.. 1 to 15. 446 1870 to 187~ (both inclusive) gold compared to silver averaged a..•L ••••• 1 to 15. 672

The general average for the above one hundred and fourteeiJ years is 15.1885.

Thus, Mr. Speaker, you find from Mr. Benton and the teetimony of the Director of the Mint that we have shown by unquestioned authority that silver ha.s maintained its uniform relation to gold for four hundred years; and having maintained this relation, the charge is untrue that it is too variable in it.s value. Then, sir, if that argume~·t be answered, why tho main argument is taken away from them. Besides all tha.t, Mr. Speaker, it.s value did not faJl until it was oemonetized. It did not cease to bo coin until it was demonetized and until the prohibition was made by the Government itself. It was a direct assassination by na.tional legislation, instigated by the conspiracy of European bondholders. So, then, this was only an apparent depreciation of it, superinduced by the means I have indicated.

Another objection is that if remonetized it should be made of equal value to gold. Why, Mr. Speaker, I answer that the parties who aided in the demonetization are estopped from int-erposing an argument of t.hat description. They will not be permitted to take advantage of their own wrong. Hut the true answer is: Whenever it is remonetized, when the work which they undid is restored, it will be restored to the equation with golcl itself. A.y, sir, the value was fixed in 1792 at 371-! grains of fine silver, and it was runde only at gra.ins light in the alloy in 18a7. It has not only held its own, but was worth 5 per cent. in 1860. Even t.he t per cent. of fine silver that was added to it in 1792 withstood all the financial vicissitudes and storms down to 1873.

It was too fine to stay in the country. Onr average was about 16 to 1. In other countries the average wa.s 15t to 1, ours being 3-! per cent. more according to Mr. Seyd, to whose statement

1of this point I

call the attention of the House as giving the true reason.why American silver in part bad left the country.

[Here the hammer fell.] The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman's hour bas expired. Mr. EWING. I ask unanimous consent that the time of the gen-

tleman be extt"nded. Mr. DEERING. For how long f Mr. BRIGHT. I would mther not be limited, because I would

thereby be forced out of the channel in which I am following out my line of thought.

Mr. DEERING. I object. Mr. EWING. I ask unanimous consent that the time of the gen

tleman from Tennessee be extended for half an hour. There was no objection. Mr. BRIGHT. I will not trouble the Honse with reading the opin

ion of Mr. Seyd in relation to the high value of silver and the occasion for its leaving the country in part, but will embody it in my remarks:

The plea that no silver bullion was brought to the United States, and that an actual stoppage in the coining of silver dollars took place, advancecl as a reason to prove the indisposition of the Americans to use silver money, is quite false, for who mdeed, I repeat, would brin~ot silver to the United States mints when he could obtain 3-i per cent. more for it elsewhere!

I maintain that these incongruities in the American silver currency bave done mnch harm to the country. Besides the silver produced. in the States, or which came from abroad and could not maintain itself, tbo vast treasures of Me:rico have passed by instead of flowing in part into the United Rtates for the development of her interior commerce, and for the formation of a solid basi>~ to her international trade. .And now the United States are in this remarkable position, that tho richest silver deposits are opened in their own territories, producin~ va~;t sums of solid precious metal, which instead of serving herself as money all J!O abroad to swell the currencies of other nations, while the great Republic herself labors painfully unller the weight of a depreciated paper currency.-Seyct on MetaUic Ourrency, pagta 54, 55.

But, Mr. Speaker, our contract was for standard value of 1870. Hence we were not bonnd to keep it at an equation with gold so thai we kept it within the limits of the contract.

588 CONGRESSIONA.L RECORD-HOUSEo JANUARY 26,

"But," it will be said, " it does not matter much, for if we send away all this silver we get something else in return for it, either gold or gootls; we pay with it, and it thus tums the exchange in our fa.vor." I deny the truth of the mathematical meaning of this saying. Supposing the silver w.as not produced, woul:.l not the Unit-eel States import less, or rather be compelled to import less luxuries f And so if by the operation of the present laws silver were not driven away from the country but were to some extent permitted or encouraged to remain in it, this result would follow: the benefit of its present production would take two directions; one porHon of it would go abroad, another portion would remain in the country for the encoumgement and development of the home industry. The direct unfavorable law of tenders, amounting practically to a forbidding of the proper use of silver, creates an inequality whose influence is irre- . sistibly strong, destructive of neutrality, and therefore most injurious.

The third objection is, we ought not to fix a value to operate twenty years hence. Why, Mr. Speaker, our obligation runs with the contract. As we maintain, these bonds were payable in silver and some of them were running forty years hence, and the holders have a right to claim the standard value under the act of 1870. And they may run for centuries yet to come. Hence to restore the silver dolla.r is only providing one of the means for the deferred payment of t.he bonds.

The fourth objection is, that we ought not to add to our depreciated currency. This was depreciated by law. It was not the depreciation of commercial considerations alone. We propose to appreciate it by Jaw and restore it to its original position. By making it a full legal tender it will spring at once to a par with gold.

The fifth objection is, t.hat England, Germany, and tho Scandinavian states have adopted gold as a sole legal tender, and we ought to follow their example. I answer they have no rignt to impose an obligation upon us to change our Constitution or to change our contracts, for we change our contracts when we contract our currency and destroy our silver. And whenever we adopt the example which bas been inaugurated we cripple all our industries that they may reap the profit. I suppose they will want us to have a king next, in imit-ation of their example.

Tbe legal-tender coins of the United States are fixed by the Constitution. In Europe they are fixed by statutory law or the will of the sovereign.

It is impossible, sir, to abolish silver. Three-fourths of the nations of the earth use it-two-thirds of the population of the Rlobe. If it could be done it would increase the value of gold more than twofold and the taxes and debts in proportion; and after it had done its perfect work of contraction, desolation, and destruction of industries, and inaugurated an unparalleled reign of poverty and distress, it would be succeeded by a deluge of paper currency throughout the world to supply the deficiency occasioned by the destruction of ~ne of the great coins of the earth. ~o says 1Ylr. Bagebot, the English writer on the subject, and who shows conclusively that there is not gold enough in the world for a currency.

Again, we need the money at home. We do not need money to circulate in foreign countries. We deal in exchange with foreign countries. On.r coins when they go abroad go to the mints of the European nations. When we re~ulate the operations of our mint, let it be done to the advantage and mterest of our own people. It is not only wise but profitable to take care of ourselves. Every nation ought to have and maintain a home currency with its stability secured by constitutional law.

The sixth objection is that it should be only made a partial legal tender limited in the collection of debts. I answer this would demonetize it in part, would make it a subject of speculation, and would cripple the United States an<l the State governments and the people in the collection of taxE:s and in the payment of debts and in all the commercial uses of money.

Mr. Speaker, I will now call the attention of th House to another matter of grave consideration-the subject of the free coinage of the silver dollar. Tb,e operations of the Mint at present are with oppressive discriminationtJ against the people. I maintain, first,, that there ought to be free coinage of the silver dollar, because such was the policy of the Government from 1792 to 1853, a period of about sixty years. From 1853 to 1873 there was a charge of t per cent ; from 1873 to 1875 the charge for gold was t per cent. The act of 1875 made the coinage of gold free of charge. In the second place I maintain, not only the policy of the Government, that it shonld be free, but because the expense ought to be borne by the country and not by the depositor. The Director of the Mint, in his report for 1873, gives the reasons why gold should l>e coined free, and his argument is equally applicable to the free coinage of silver.

[From report of the Director of the Mint, June 30, 1873, pages 13 and 14.] E.AID.'lNGB ~"'D EXPE~-niTURES.

* * * With respect to the expenses of the mints, it should be stated that it never was intended that they should be self-sustaining, and that prior to 1853 no charge for the coinage of either ~old or silver was imposed ; the evident intention of tlie framers of the original nnnt law having been to invito foreign bullion and coin to the mint for coinage. In the year above stat-et"l a law waa enacted authorizin~ and reqnirina- a coinage char_ge of one· half per cent_ to be imposetl, which continued in force do~ to the 1st of April, 1873, when the new comage act took effect~ reducing the charge to one·fifth of 1 per cent.

* * •

The reasons for a free coinage of gold are simple and direct, and are briefly stated as follows :

First. By throwing tho cost of coinage on the depositor the cost of production is coJTesponJingly increased.

Second. The coinin .~ va1ue of gold is lowered, which tends to repel it from the mint ami encournge its export. For the same reason it repels foreign s.rold.

Third. It is unjust to the depositor, n.s be pays the entire expense of coinage, in which the whole puulio are as much interested as himself. Coinago of tho standard metal is indispensable to the public, and tho expense shouJU. a~cordingly be contributed by all.

It should also be stated that, un<ler tho coinage ,act, tho melting of the bullion to brint.r it to a condition for determining by essay the proportion of gold and silver contained, or the "fineness," as it is termed in mint language, is made a sub.iect of charge to the depositor, and will bring to the Treasury a sum ai?prox:imating somewhat to that accruing from the coinage char~;e. The imposition of this new char~-te !:'hould be considered an additional arj.tUIDent for abolishing the coinage charge. It is not subject to the same objection for the reason that a charge for melting is made in London.

Again, the coinage of silver ought to be free because the coinage of gold is free and silver is the most used by the people. The discrimination is unjust and llppressive upon the people. It is a tax to pay the expenses of the coinage On golU, as Mr. Sherman calls it ''the money of the rich," and is throwing a burden on the people. I say it is unjust, and to show the prostitution of the miut in this particular, first, we purcha ed under the act of 1875 silver bulllion with which to coin fractional silver to supersede the fractional paper currency. We purchased it with gold-interest-bearing bonds. The people of the United States are paying now about 2,000,000 annually interest on these bonds for a subsidiary coinage.

No only so, but according to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury the seigniorage which was collected for the coinage of silver for the last year, and covered into the Treasury, was 3,273,239, aa also appears from the report of the Director of t,be Mint, making $5,273,239, which was thrown as a buruen and tax upon the people to pay for the expense of coining "the money of tlle rich," as stated by the Secretary of the Treasury. Sil:, it is a burning shame upon the legislation of the count.ry[! Why will yon do itf England does it! What does Mr. Seyd say on the subjectf I will call attention to a few paragraphs:

The expenditure of the Mint falls on the taxation; the expense for coining gold is consequently borne by all cla.sses, althongh gold is used :p,rincipally by the smaller number, the wealthier portions of the community. The mere 'assertion that the coining of gold is intended for the benefit of all classes does not, in faeo of the patent fact that the poor uso it but rarely, meet the justice of the ca.~o. In llngland tho extreme injmtice of this matter becomes all the more glaring when it is borne in mind that the British silver coinage, that upon which more than threequarters of the nation are dependent for tlieir intercourse with each other, is chars.retl with a heavy seiptiorage of from 8 to 10 per cent., a profit which serves the mint as a set oil' a,.arnst the free coina~e of gold. Gold, it may be said, is coined in l!."nglann gratuitously for the higfier classes at the cost of the lower classes, which deal in silver. Moreo\er, wlille the coina~e of gold is thus of fnll value, open and freo to all, and the supply unrestricted w1thin the natural boundaries of commercf', the sil•er coinagt:J 1s debased; the mint refuses to coin it for the public· ; it has unt a striuUy limite<llegal-tender value, and the amount h1 circulation thus becomes restricted within narrow and 11Illl3.tural boundaries-&yd on .MetaUic Ourre-nC!J, page 18-

Let any member who votes to tax the coinage of the silver go and ten his constituents that he did it to pay the expenses of coining gold, ''the money of the rich;" let him tell them that be did it to raise revenues from the people by the clandestine means of a mint tax on their money ; let him go and tell them, by way of apology, that England does it and thus grinds the faces of tho poor for the benefit of the rich. That is the reason you have the silver taxed on your mints for the advantage of the rich. of the country, while $5,000,000 are ground out of the poor and labormg men of the country per annum to favor the golc1-mongerl:3 who get tbeir coinage free of expense. Sir, tha.t measure bad a double object. It was not only to favor the gold, but it was t(\drive silver out of tbe country, and a tax upon it always bas this tendency. But what should be the policy of onr country f Why, sir, instead of driving it out of the country our policy ought to be that which waa intended by the fathers of the country, to throw onr ports open rut wide as the gates of heaven and admit it from the four quarters of the globe, and give our own people the advantage of coinage and placing our currency upon the terra jit"TTta of a specie basis. Sir, the Constitution of ou.r country has been violated by the policy that baa been forced on and is mining this country.

Oh, but they tell us there is to be an Atlantic :flood of silver in con equence of its demonetization in Germany. Sir: in the language of a distinguished orator of the Revolution, "Let it come. I repeat it, Let it come," and we will roll back the silver billows upon them in payment of our national debt.

Why, sir, we have a debt redeemable now of $660,000,000, and bv the 1st day of January, 11:381, we shall have a debt of $1,452,000,000, according to tho report of the Secretary of the Treasury. Antl if we adopt proper measures 'in this era, they will galvanize our trade, our industries will spring from the du~t, and again the march of prosperity will begin. Sir, France is not so delicate as the United States. When her obligations in part were payable in silver to Germany she did not scruple upon the point of honor when she fell short to go into Germany and purchase $'20,000,000 of silver there and take it to her own mints for coinage to pay her own obligation with. France did not scruple to do that. It is time we were getting down from onr stilts and showing some dint of pity for the llond-riddeu, bank-ridden, monopoly-ridden, mortgage-ridden, tax-ridden, and poverty-ridden people.

1878. CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-HOUSEo 589 And yet, sir, still we aro told about bad faith. When they talk

about bad faith we hurl the slander back into the teeth of the slanderers. We propose to pay according to contract. The bondholder shall have his pound of flesh, but we do not intend that his victim shall be bled to death in addition to that pound which the law gives him.

Why, sir, the bondholders have no right to complain. ~n t~e fir~t place, we funded their debt and gave a double value to tt; m th1s way we gave a double rate of interest upon it and pa,id tho interest in gold, makinO' it now equal to 15 per cent. of the original value of the iimds. In ~dition to that, under the act of 1~39, at a time when the five-twenties and other bonds were payabb in legal-tenders, they prevailed upon Congress to bullionize the debt and thuR we gave them $500,000,000 more in valne. They prevailed upon us to pass the act of 1870 to secure coin at its then standard value and prevent its n.lloy or depreciation by the act of the Government. And by an amendment in 1871 they required the quarterly payment of the interest, making at this time a difference in their favor of $5,000,000 per annum, the difference between the semi-annual and quarterly interest. In addition to that we passed the act of 1873 for their accommodation, demonetizing silver and giving a contraction to the currency and an addition to the purchasing power of their capital which is now distressing the country.

Congress passed the resumption act of 1875 to contract the currency and at the same time to avoid a stipula'1,ion in the act of 1869, which provided for the payment of the bonds in "coin or its equivalent." That term" cquimlent" meant that whenever the legal-tender notes should be equal with coin, gold or silver, then the 5.20 bonds should be payable in such notes. And these bonds are now payable in legaltender note , because they are now ''eqitivalent" to silver coin-even admitting, for the sake of the argument only, that they were not originally payable in legal-tenders. This explains the reason of the merciless war which is waged against the legal-tender notes. With a heart as bard as the adamant of the desert, the foreign bondholder would rather see every inuustry of our country strangled in the tightening folds of contraction and the whole land blasted with mildew than have his bonds paid in legal-tender notes. The bondholders are moving heaven and earth to get to gold resumption. Conscious of their power they have become insolent, intolerant, and abusive. They denouQce all as financial dunderheads who dare to thwart their policy and defend the people ag::t.inst their boundless rapacity.

Mr. Speaker, there is no enlightened financier that will contenrl that a forced resumption of specie paymonts can be of a.ny practical advantage to the country. It will bring desolation and ruin in its wake. It will bring every industry of this country to its crutches. It is already making our great commercial cities financial graveyards. It is emptying our shops and mills and blast.ing our tields. Millions of laborers are this day rolling in shoals from one side of the country to the other, praying for wages and for bread. And after vainly trying every avenue of escape from misery and wretchedness, they wail out their despair in the language of Milton's fallen angel:

Which way I :fly is hell! Resumption, so called, is tearing the very heart of this nation t.o

pieces and throwing it to the vultures. When the bondholders are made to tremble on their throne of gold and bonds by the earthquake of popular discontent, they have no language of relief except ''Give them the bayonet!" They would re-enact the appalling tragedy of English resumption from 1819 to 182.'3, when one hundred and tsixty thousand landholders were reduced to thirty thousand, the description of whose horrors baffied the eloquence of the British Parliament and defied the graphic pen of England's most eloquent historians.

But there is another startling fact which lies in the path of resumption. When we reach resumption we will reach another conclusion: the national debt will never be 11aid; not because it will be repudiated, but because the nation cannot pay it. It will be an inheritable buruen, nuder whj_ch posterity will gro3.n and swelter for ages. Such is tho fate of England.

A recent able English financial writer uses the following language: To us (sa.vs the author of The Bank Charter Act and tbe Rate of Iurercst, Lon·

don: Simpkin, Marshall & Co, 1873) it is indeed a melancholy refl.ection and mw withal woTthy of grave pondering, that when the United States shal! return again to a convertible currency the liquidation of this national debt must cea.se. Our own sinl.:ing fund, devised for a Stmilar object, 1oe bww ceased to 1·eceive any important paynuml.s after theab1·ogation of the bank-restriction act. No currency, doubtless, but O'l'te- that1oas able to SUSTAL'l a great war need be expected to LIQUIDATE ITS COST.

Then, sir, when we reach resumption this country must pass under the yoke anu bo perpetually enslaved to the money oligarchy. }'or them our commerce will climb the liquid mountains of every sea to gather gold from every coast, to bring it back and empty it into the lap of tile bondholder. Then will our Government reach for the ":Midas fingers" o.f taxation to rob the nests of the people's earnings to fill the coffers of the bondholder; then, sir, will the shops and mills ply the spindle and the loom for the benefit of the bondholder; t.hen will the farmer, converted into the vassal tenant, pursue his rugged toil and the fieMs yield their golden harvests for the benefit of the bondboluer; then will the miners delve like slaves to tear the golden bowels from the earth to enrich the nation's lords; then will our Mint, prostituted fr(lm the common good, coin gold, free of charge, "the money of the rich;" and la~tly, for them our armies will move to overawe and quell the outbreaks of plundered and starving labor.

Let the nation's creditors beware and moderate their extortions. They have already beard one roar of maddened labor sound like a trumpet-blast of prophecy. Endurance bas its extremity. Let them remember that the snowtlake is the nucleus aroun<l. which congeals the avalanche of the Alps, which a sunbeam may loosen and send it plunging like mad thunder on the plains. Let them remember that their accumulating wrongs may rise mountain-high and stand out like Ebal, the .Jewish mount of cnrsing, on which some aYenging prophet may stand and loosen the nation's curses on the authors of the people's wrongs.

But let us hope in the triumph of equity and justice. Let us inaugurate an era of relief and reform by remonetizing the old ,silver dollar of our fathers; repeal the resumption act and loosen up the coagu-lated currency in the money centers, and send it like vital bloo.!). into I all the arteries and veins of commerce. Then will the land again smile J with contentment and plenty, and the oceans blossom with our sails.

REMONETIZATION OF THE SILVER DOLLAR, ETC. Mr. DEERING. },{r. Speaker, I am not unmindful of my own lack

of experience as a member of this body, and it was not without the greates.t hesitation and d.istru~t that I. d~cided to particip.ate in this discussiOn. The great diversity of opmwn, however, whiCh I h:wo beard expressed by the oldest and the ablest members bas reassured me to some extent and has removed all doubts of the propriety of entertaining and expressing independent views.

The science of money, sir, is one of transcendent importance, and is at this time engrossing tho attention not only of our own people bnt of nearly aU the civilized nations on earth. At no period in the history of this country has the public mind been more profoundly agitated over this question than at present.

This extraordinary interest proceeds from the almost universal derangement and stagnation in business, from the fln.ctuations in the reln.tive values of legal-tender notes as compared With gold, the demonetization of silver in 1873 and ld74, and the generally unsettled condition of onr financial affairs.

Mr. Speaker, it is uudenin.ble that we are living at a period of very general prostrn.tiou and depression in all our industrial and commercial interests, and a time of discontent ::md actual suffering among the laboring classes. The ingenuity of our wisest and most e-xperienced statesmen has been invoked and exhausted in earnest efforts to discover the canse and to provide a remedy for this widesprea<l. distress and dissatisfaction. Among statesmen as well as amouo- the people there is wide divergence of opinion both as to the cause "'and cure of existing evils, but all, I believe, are united in ascribing to the great rebellion, and to those by whom it was organized, the chief blame and responsibility for our troubles. Out of this ~rimary disturbing cause, by which the channels of business and of finance were all changed aml turned to new courses and method.R, have grown a multitude of minor evils which now n.ffiict and oppress both business and society.

The cheapness and abundance of money after tho return of peace bad a tendency to originate a mania for embarking in visiouary schemes and enterprises for building and manufacturing in excess of the demand, and on otller people'~ money, and espochtlly was thi8 true of railroad ventures. It stimulated a desire to launch out into wild speculations, to build antllive extravagantly, and generally on money not their own-money that was to be called in at an early day. Enormous public and private debts were contracted, and when pay-day came bankruptcy and ruin came also. These difficulties wore 1 . greatly aggravated and increased by tile demonetization of silver in 1873 and 1l:f74. Under the coina.ge act of 187:3 the old silver dollar was dropperl from the Jist of coins, and in 1874 a ch'\use w&.s inserted in the revision of the United States statutes by which the legal-tender quality of those remaining in use was taken away. This movement was a surprise to the couutry. It came noiselessly, at a period of great depression, and our people were some time in recovering from their amazement and in fully realizing its consequences. From the earliest history of human civilization down to our own time sil-ver in some form had been almost universally recognized us the standard or measure of values throng bout the world ; not always in tho form of coin, but among the less civilized nations it was in pins, n.nu blocks, and disks, of their own peculiar device, and used as a mea us of estimating values.

In our own country the silver unit is older than the Constitution. It was adopted as tho money of account in 1786, and the silver dollar was made to contain 375.64 grains of fine silver. When it went into operation in 1789, the Constitution recognized silver and gold as the lawful money of the country and conferred on Congress the power "to coin money and regulate the value thereof." In 1792 the number of grains in the silver dollar wa.s changed to 371! of pure silver or 412t standard, and has so continued until 1873. This old dollar came down to this generation as a legacy from the founders of the Government-the "dollar of the fathers" by which the possessions of eve1·y man were measured in value. This. money had the confidence of the people, and the action by which it was dishonored and expelled ~om circubtion was, as I believe, as unfortunate as it was mysterious and unexpected. To all thm~e who had debts to pay, to all branches of trade and industry, to the hopes of the laboring classes,. tho effect could not be otherwise than disastrous, and intelligent busmess men very soon regarded the matter in this light.

'l'he fact was self-evident and the conclusion irresistible, that when

590 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. J ANU.ARY 26,

one-half the coin money in use was discredited and driven out of circulation the remaining half must be in ~reatly increased demand and proportionately dear; that the pressure of nearly all debts must be immeasurably increased, and that the creditor class would gq,in in equal ratio; that money would appreciate, and all other property, land~, their -products, ~d all other ~ommoditie~ '!ould decline. Such lB the votce of expenence and of h1story, and 1t IS the voice of reason as well that the spirit of enterprise will st3lld still whenever it becomes evident that any money that men might feel disposed to put into permanent improvements would soon be worth much more if kept in gold, while the improvements would be constantly declining in value m;td consequently worth le~, as :would be the case if the single metallic standard should be persisted m.

Now, Mr. Speaker, let us briefly consider the nature and origin of this innovation of the policy and usage of the Government, and by what motives those who originated and engiLeered the scheme were governed. I maintain that the movement was in the interest of that class of capitalists whose opera.tions and investments are in the stocks and securities of the world. In support of this view, I ask your attention to the report of the silver commission. This report says: "The policy of a general demonetization of one of the metals was :first broached about twenty years ago; about ten years later a formidable propaganda was organiz~d ~o fa~ ten that policy_ upon _the commercial world." The :first ag1tat10n, srr, was when this credttor class took alarm at the new discoveries and enormous productions of gold in California and Australia and claimed that this metal would soon become so abundant as to nearly lose its value as money; that their money and securities would go down, while other classes of property would go up.

The capitalists of Germany were first and most seriously alarmed, and in 1857 gold was actually demonetized by that government. In ltl65, says the report, "this was changed into a movement, for the demonetization of silver," and the commission go on to say that ''the objects aimed at by both [movements] was through a disuse of one of the money metals to protect the creditor classes and those having fixed incomes against a fall in ~he value of money and a. rise in general prices;" and further, that "t.he American movements to the same end, which seem to have been better understood in Europe than in this country, were commenced as early as 1868, and manifestly the real reason for tho demonetization of silver [in Germany and the United States] was the apprehension of the creditor classes tbat the combined production of t.he two metals would raise prices and cheapen money unless one of them was shorn of the money function. In Europe this reason was distinctly avowed."

Here, then, is the stimulating motive laid bare, and by an able board whose investigations have been thorough and impartial. Tbe creditor classes in Europe and our own large cities have been for years co-operating in the effort to demonetize one or the other of the two coins to establish the monometallic standard, and to reduce the money volu~e of the world one-half. That the immediate managers of the coinage act of 1tf13, in and out of Congress, were actuated by pure motives and patriotic considerations is not for a moment doubted. That wide-spread disaster in financial affairs and increased burdens upon the masses must, as a natural sequence, succeed a movement looking to the general demonetization of either gold or silver, could not, however, long remain in doubt. These results soon became alarmingly apparent in the shrinkage of values of :.til commodities aurl the ultimate bankruptcy of many dealers and enterprises where operations we1e based in part or whole on credit. Referring to the generally deranged condit.ion of business in this and other countries, the report of the commission says :

This distress dates with the law of the United · States of February 12, 1R73, and the law of ~rmany of July, 1873, giving practical effect to a previous decree of that Empire of December 4, 1tl71, for thtl eMtablishmcnt of a single gold standard.

In attempting to justify the action of 1873 and 1874, by which silver wa-s deprived of its money functions, speakers :.tnd writers urged the oxcessi ve productions of the metal; the great falling off in exports to India and China ; the ~robal>le accumulation of coin, and the danger of its becoming so abundant as to lose its value and usefulness as money. It was not against silver that objection was directed, for silver was at that time worth more than gold, but the object wa-s to reduce the quantity of coin money by discarding one or the other of the two coins. As I have said, gold was demonetized by the same interest in Germany in 1857. We now hear the same arguments raised in opposition to the restoration of silver to its 1·ightful position. In answer to these objections I wish ·to read from Mr. Groesbeck, whose statements will l>e regarded as good authority on questions of finance. He says :

I have now noticed the three leading objections to silver. 1. Excessive production. There is no excessive production. Tho production of ~old throughout the world is grtlater than that of silver; so, also, is its production m the United. States. And tho stock of gpld in Europe and the West is more than twice as lar~e as their stock of silver. 2. Recent demonetization of silver in Europe. This IS confined to Germany and the Scandinavian nations, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Tho last three are unimportant. All of them are not equal in commercial importance to the State of New York. Remonetization by the United States will neutralize the effect.s of demonetization by Germany. 3. A decreased demand for it in Asia. The demand is fully restored, and may be reliod upon to continue for at least a century.

The facts are that, instead of decreasing, the demand in China and India for tho four years ending with 1875 exceeded that of the previous four years by $307350 000 the amount for the four years end-

ing with 1875 being $111,550,000 and for the previous four years $81,200,000. I append an authentic table:

Shipments of silver to India and China.

Years.

1868 • -----.--- -·-. -- -·- ------ ·-- ••• -----. 1869 ·----- ········-----------·-·--· •••••. 1@70 ...... -···-· ------ ···--· ·---·- ••••••• 1871----··-·------·-·--------------·----· 1872.---.---- ·-·--·- -·· -----·-.---. ····--1873 ·-----·--·--·-·--·--- ·--·--·----·-·-· 1874- -·- ---· ·- •••• ·-·- ••• ·--- -·-.-.- ·-.-. 1875 -····· --· ··-. ·····- .••••• ---·-· -----·

From Eng- :From Medi-lan<L terranea.n.

£1,650,000 2, 340,000 1, 920,000 3, 650,000 6, 280,000 3, 360,000 6, 8~0. ()()() 4, 000,000

£1,910,000 4, 220,000

300,000 250,000 250,000 110,000 930,000 540,000

Total.

£3,560,000 6, 560,1-00 2, 220,0110 3, 900,000 6, 530,000 3, 470,000 7, 770,000 4,540, 000

This table was furnished to the English commission by Sir Hector Hay.

In his report of November, 1877, the Director of the Mint speaks of the recent demand aa unprecedented, aud says: .

Within the last twenty-two months the export of silver to eastern nations from L1:>11don and San Francisco has amounted to about $14J,500,000.

The population and the commerce of the world are increasing, and at the same time demands for the precious metals, for ornamental and other kindred purposes, are continually multiplying, and the statistics show that even now the increa e of metal in the world is not equal in ratio with the increase of population and of commerce and traffic. Does not this clamor concerning cheap money seem absurd in presence of these facts ' The apprehensions of the same classes were not less disturbed twenty years ago in regard to gold, and are not in any sense realized. The danger of an oversupply o£ coin money is certainly very remot~, and llas no existence except in men's imaginations, As beru·ing on this point, I quote from the London Economist~ as follows :

Probably if there was ~old enough for all tlle world, it would be best tbere should be only a single standard of value throughout the world, and that one gold. Bnt this is impo~siblo. Some have doubted whether tbero is J;rol!l enough for tho nations which now intend to use it; there certainly is not enough for all the world.

M. Rouland, gover~or of the Bank of France, said: The two t-ogether are necessary, by their quantity, to meet the needs of cb·cu

lation. This necessity of the two metals, has it ceased to exist 7 Is it esiablished ~!tu~e0~~'il~~~ ;i~:~~~a1:~rtspootive gold is such that we can now renounce

Baron Rothschild said : The suppression of silver would amount to a veritable destruction of values

without any compensation. This is the logic of observation and experience. If, then, the one

metal would provide l>ut an inadequate supply, is it not clear and undeniable that the struggle among nations for its possession and control would always be sharp and continuous, and would force that single-standard coin np to ruinous rates as compared with all other kinds of property 'l History teaches that the strife for possession of coin has not unfrequently played a leading and important part in European warfare, and that this part of the st1·uggle was the first to attract attention to approachmg hostilities. Wtth these facts in mind it seems to me unwise and absurd in a nation like ours, where new enterprises are multiplying and expanding, to turn our backs on the $.'3,000,000,000 in silver coin, or one-half of all the world's actual money that is now in use, and this, too, when it is indispensable as a means of maintaining stability in money and in prices of property, as a shield to the debtor cla-sses and a. protection to the vast industries of our country, against contraction and the ruinous premiums which the sin~le-standard coin would command in times of war or other unusual excitement.

In 1816 the silver coin was discarded by Great Britain as a lawful measure of values, and the precedent weighs heavily against the single-metal policy, for it is well known to those who have consulted the history of those events that this action was succeeded by disastrous panics, constant financial derangement for years, and by great disturbance and irregularity in banking and business interests. This was, I thlnk, the first instance of demonetization. Silver was at that time the money of all tho civilized nations on earth: and was in such favor and demand aa to make it far more difficult to maintain the silver than the gold standard. England made gold the only lawful coin because it was cheaper in relative value, l>nt gentlemen here would persist in continuing gold as our single standard because it is dear, or, as they allege, because silver is comparatively clleap. She was disturbed because silver was constantly :flowing out of the country, but our advocates of the single standard are disturbed by the apprehension that silver may tlow into ours. France eagerly absorbs the silver that Germany and the United States make cheap and drive out by demonetization, and all her interests thrive, while in our country and Germany all interests and industries languish and property declines in value.

The opponents of remonetization insist that it would flood the conntry with cheap money, because of the generous productions of o_nr mines; but., sir, I have already shown that men wero needlessly distressed by the same misO'j,~ings as to gold from 1850 to 1860. When

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 591 silver shn,ll be again restored to its normal condition it will not be cheap. We deny that it is cheap now, except as ~hese laws have degraded i~ in importance as money. It is susceptible of proof tha.tthe purchasing power of silver is nearly or quite equal to what it was in 1870. On this point a distinguished speaker said recently:

It can be demonstrated by an impregnable anay of facts that silver can to-day buy more of every other known product of human labor than it could in July, 1870, ~old alone excepted: lands, houses, stocks of merchandise, machinery, labor, everything but gold; here, elsewhere. In Asia, in Europe, throughout this whole con· ~ent, llOwhere, measured by the average price of the general commodities of the world, has sil>er depreciated tho breadth of a hair. On the contrnry_ it has maintained its position. It can buy to-day more land, more houses, more machinery, more calico, more cotton, more everything than it could in 1870, the same number of grains of the same standard and fineness.

But, sir, I would not make the silver dollar cheap; I would make a dollar that in relative value when recognized and honored by the Government would be worth a dollar. To this end the number of grains of pure silver and the limitations as to coinage should be very carefulJy considered, and also the certainty of immediate appreciation after remonetization. I would not make its intrinsic V3,lue so great as to drive it from the country or into the melting-pot, nor would I make it so low comparatively as to expel the gold. Any doubt of our ability to regulate this question will be dispelled when it is remembered that others, in this and other countries, have beon able forafrresto control thisproblemof relativevaloes. Foronei can say that am expecting at no distant day to see the gold and silver, and the greenback dollars each and all worth a dollar, all interchan~able and all equally desirable. And accompanying this healthy condition of money, I expect to witness returning life, activity, and prevailing prosperity throughout the country, in all our varied enterprises and industries; expect to see the laborer again employed, aml at good wages. ·we will still have onr debased subsidiary half dollar and other inferior coins, and I trust we will have these in greatly increased amount. In this respect we are far behind EnglandJ Germany, and France. England has $93,000,000 while our coinage act limits us to $50,000,000, or a little more than one-half. It is my own opinion that of the inferior coins $100,000,000 could and would be maintained at par in this ~ountry, and that we should after restoring the silver dollar and making it a lawful ten,der, if our mints have that capacity, coin at least four millions of these per month until the amount shall rea.ch $100,000,000 or more. I would also adopt the views of the Director of the Mint, and wo"Uld give to the Government the profits to be gained from coining. He says "the silver dollar should be coined and issued exclnsi vely on Government account, for the reason that the Government as representing the people, and not individuals, should realize the gain which would arise from its coinage."

And, sir, I would also adopt the wise suggestions of the Secretary of the Treasury and of the Comptroller of the Currency with reference to issuing bonds of the United States in small denominations, and allowing these to be held by the national banks as a portion of their lawful reserve. On this point the Comptroller in his last report says: If authority were given to the national banks to hold, in 4 per cent. bonds of a.

denomination less tlian f5<), such portion of their reserve on deposit with their agents as they mi~ht think proper, it would result in a. 4Rge inn'struent by them in these securities; and the savings-bank depositor, if he should so desire, would then find no difficulty in dispo~ing of these small bonds among the twentyone hundred national banks, one, at lea~t, of which is located in almost every village in the country. This policy would a.lso ha.\"e the efiect of strengthening the available resources of the ba11 ks and of retaining in their hands a considerable portion of those idle funds which are n~tw sent to their COITes~ondents in the cen· tral cities, and are loaned by the latter, upon call, to dealers ID speculative seen-~~ .

This suggestion, if adopted, would provide a means by which a large amount of our national indebtedness would be scattered in small sums among our own people; would furnish opportunities for those who deposit in savings-banks to escape the risk of failures, which so often occur of late, and would liberate 1. large amount of money for circulation among the people, which the national banks now keep on deposit in large cities fol' reasons named by the Comptroller.

Bot, sir, opposition is made to the dual standard on the ground that it would work an injustice to those who hold Government securities; that it would be an act of bad faith and would injure our national credit. To my mind this objection seems far-fetcherl and utterly groundless. The day of ruatnrity of most of these bonds is very remote. They are made payable in the far future, and it will be time to jump the stile when we get to it. A dozen important changes in thesela.ws maybe sooner made. One Congress may undo what another has done. The interest as it falls due should be paid in coin, at its value at the time when the bonds were issued, accoriling to contract.

Bot, Mr. Speaker, we arenot,astheywould infer, by any meam;indiffereot to theiruportancean<l the duty-of standing by our national honor. We do not concede to our opponents any higher appreciation of the sacredness of these obligations than we claim for ourselves. But we do differ as to the facts. Those obligations were issued in pursuance of law. All laws bearing on the question are and have boon Rt:.>.ted and discussed over and over. Under the act of February 25, 1862, the 5.20 bonds were issued, and the interest was made payable in coin. Otlter acts were passed in 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865, authorizing and providing for the various issues, and all these expressly stipulated

that these obligations should be paid ''in coin." On the 18th of March, 1869, another act was passed "to strengthen the public cre<lit" and "to remove any doubt as to the purpose of the Government to dischar~e all just obligations to the public creditol'l:!," and iu this renewal of its faith and reiteration of its pledges the Government again expressly provided for the payment of its obligations "in coin or its equivalent," not in gold.

The act of July 14, 1870, "to authorize the funding of the public debt," makes the bonds into which the national debt is now being funded payable" in coin of the standard value of the United States on said July 14, 1870." Now, sir, here is the Jaw and here the con-tract, plain, explicit, unmistakable. If they failed to read it or if they pot upon it an erroneous construction it is not our fault but theirs. If they expect us to refrain from consistent and wholesome legislation for the relief of our suffering indu~:~tries through fear that it will not increase their profits, then we have only to say that the business men and the tax-payers at home are also to be consulted. We will do precisely what we promised to do. We will pay just what and all that we ever obligated ourselves to pay. To do less would be a base violation by the Government of faith and honor; to do more would be an equally base betrayal of the interests of our own people.

Sir, we must keep sacredly in view both parties to this contract. On the one side are those who hold and on the other side those who pay these obligations. On one side are the owners of Government bonds and on the other are the tax-payers of the country-the farmers, mechanics, merchants, and all classes who actually produce by faithful industry what the world consumes. But, sir, the advocates of remonetization do not, as some allege, propose to give to the country cheap money. We propose to coin a silver dollar that will, when honored by the Government and made legal tender, be worth a dollar, and by this means to ~teet the people against the injustice and avarice of those who would make the gold coin worth more than a dollar-worth a premium: as it has been since 1873. Is not this right f Is it not just t If it be, then is the national credit in a bad way if it will not take care of itself.

Prior to and at the time.of demonetization 412! grains of standard silver held the full value of the gold dollar, and I am of the opinion that this dollar would again advance to this value if folly houorud and protected by the Government. If not, the deficiency should be supplied.

At this point I desire briefly to notice another complaint of the antisilver men. They accuse the West of a purpose to defraud their creditors in the Eastern States and stigmatize the~ as repudiators. The ea.stern press has villified and derided the \Vest. Their pulpits have been conscripted into similar service, while capitalists have threatened to change the usual course of business and to bring our noses at once to tho gold grindstone.

The gentleman from New Hampshire [Mr. BLAIR] engaged in a tirade that seemed to me as unbecoming a.s it was unfair and unjust. He not only called the silver advocates hard names, but almost went into a paroxysm of despair over imaginary losses his people were to suffer through our perfidy, and used this language:

Millions of the hard-earned savings of the laborers of New Hampshire are loaned at rates of interest sanctioned by loCal laws all thron~th the great valley garden of the West·, and now they threaten us that they will repudiate the whole unless W6 will discount 8 per cent. of the priucipal.

Now, sir, this is in substance the charge that is also made by the eastern press. It is a charge that is damaging to our integrity and honor, bot fortunately it is heard and read with suspicion, as it only requires a moment's reflection to satisfy those who are acquainted with the long loan system th'lt repudiation in such cases would be utterly impossible.

Sir, he has told this House and the country of the millions they have loaned in the West, and would perhaps have yon believe it waB sent there as an act of philanthropy or benevolence. He did not inform the House that the motive was purely selfish, cold, and calculating; that they sent out their inoney because they could get their 10 per cent. from the West and only 6 per cent. in the East. Every intelligent person understands that this money was invest.ed wit.h deli berate method and care, and with a purpose to exact not onl "the pound of flesh" but in too many instances the warm blood f our struggling farmers with it. He knows that they demanded certificates and affidavits as t-o the value and title of property, and also at least three dollars in the way of mortgage security for every dollar loaned. And now, sir, I ask gentlemen to imagine if they can by what possible device or legerdemain process those farmers, thus fi.mlly held in the merciless grip of th~ lender could, if they would, "repudiate the whole debt" and escape f The .whole story is unreasonable. It is as absurd a.s most of their charges and taunts are unfounded. These outrages of which they complain have an existence only in their excited and unsound imaginations.

Most of this money went West when the greenback circulation was worth much less than now, but we do not complain. We will pay them fully and•in good dollars.

S1r, I deprecate the disposition manifested in the East to indulge in sectional jeers and threats and to arouse sectional antagonisms. At the same time I warn gentlemen here and those at home who make savage assaults and threats, against these attempts to menace und overawe the advocates of the double standard. All such efforts will

592 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JANUAUY 26,

be worse than wasted. H will be well for them to remember that the productions of the West are likely to be as essential to the interests of the East as their gold is to the \Vest. They should remember that we may be able to live quite as long and as well without their gold as they can without our flour and pork and beef. We think they will be as much benefited as we by the practice of reciprocity and good feeling.

Mr. Speaker, it is not my purpose to antagonize capital or to encourage any spirit of hostility. Capital and the industries of the country are co-operative and the two interests are inseparable. But I divide the owners of capital into two classes: those who gamble in stocks and speculate on the fluctuations in money and securities and, secondly, those whose money circulates among the people and who seek investments in such active enter·prises and improvements as will provide employment for labor and enlarge the bounds of industry. All legislation that tends to stimulate and encourage the operations of this class of capitalists is in the interest of labor and is more productive of good results to the working classes than direct legislation. For labor to m:l.ke war on this kind of capital is to turn ag:1>inst a benefactor.

Mr. Speaker, I have mentioned that the great rebellion was the original source of all our troubles. It concentrated the wealth of our country in the hands of a few, and it plunged not only the nation, but individuals, into this unparalleled era of debt. The four noted wars in this country and Europe since 1861 increased the indebtedness in tho two countries nearly $9,000,000,000. The destruction and wastage of property amounted to many billions more. The increase of individual and corporate indebtedness was enormous. Thousands of miles of railroads were built, and chiefly on credit, until the funded indebtedness of railroads in the United States exceeds 2,300,000,000. Cities went on madly in expenditures until the large cities of the country are owing upwards of $1,000,000,000; States, $400,000,000; natioual debt, two billions; on farms and warehouses the mortgages to insurance companies and savings-banks aggregate nearly a billion; debts of mining companies and corporations, not named, are immense.

These debts, sir, are sapping the vitality of the Repul>lio. Interest on debts is exhausting the profits of trade and the products of our farms. The funded indebtedness of the world now held in Europe and this country amounts to about $27,000,000,000, or nine-tenths of the estimated value of the entire property, real and personal, in. the United States. Those who combine to produce fluctuations and who speculate on changes in values of these obligations are the parties who clamor against the restoration of silver as a lawful tender. Money is not only the measure of the valnes of commodities, but also of debt and of labor, and I claim, sir, that if we would relieve the distress in the country, if we would make the payment of debts possible, and romove the hinderances to general prosperity and good feeling, we should make haste to remonetize silver, and to commence t.he coinage at the earliest moment practicable. I believo it would restore confidence among all classes and would tend directly and powerfully toward a general revival of business throngl10nt the Union; that it would quicken the sales of property and woulu encourage the investment of money in actual improvf'mcnts and permanent pursuits ; that, gold having been forced up to an unnatural value l>y the act dishonoring silver, the reinstatement of this coin would bring silver and gold together without injustice to any class, and would release the debtor and business man from oppression by giving them a choice between the two coins.

I believe it· would greatly facilitate the movement toward resumption by providing the means with which to pay our legal-tender notes. 1 do not propose here to cliscuss the resumption quest.ion, and still that is so nearly inseparable from this measure as to justify a wonl on the subject. In 1875 the continued derangement in business and the wild fluctuations in values of property, and of our greenback circulation, seemed to require of the Government an early return to its former practice of taking in its notes when presented and giving coin in their place. '.J.his, it was thought, would restore equality and steadiness in prices of ~1 kinds of lawful money, and would give stability to values of property. Actuateu by these views both parties in Congress united in passing the bill known as the resumption act, by which a day was fixed for redeeming the Government notes with coin. Even tho most sanguine did not appear to anticipate reaching the desired haven of prosperity at a single bound.

To climb up out of the chaos and confusion into which the war period had plunged the country must be a work of time1 and hence a day in the futuro was fixed in order to give opportumty for adjustment anu preparation. While I have 1·egarded tho principles embodied in the act as being in hm;mony with sound financial views, I have always lookeu upon tho law in its present form as faulty and in some respe()ts impracticable. Of tho ability of the Secretary of the Treasury to commence and maintain resumption at the time fixed and on the single-standard coin, I have entertained very grave doubts, and hence the clause in the amendment introduced L>y me at the late called session, modifying the act and providing for a conditional extension of time. Fnrtbermoro, I am unalterably op~sed to any contraction or reduction of the present volume of money, and consequently my amendment proposed to make the reissue of legal-tender notes after redemption compulsory on the Secretary of the Treasmy.

I am awaro of the fact that the present- Secretary believes that such is already the spirit of the law of 1875; but, inasmuch as adver ·e

opinions were advanced during the discussion and in view of tho fact that the law is not entirely clear on this important point, a successor might rule differently, and therefore the purpose to reissue should be taken fr·om the domain of doubt and uiscussion by this explanatory or constructive clause. The greenbacks were adopted as one of the wise expedients for prosecuting a gigantic war. They proved a valuable auxiliary, but through causes that I nee<lnot here enumerate these Government notes became unsettled aml U.eprcciated in value. At times they have fluctuated violently, and it is of the highest importance that they be brought up to and maintained at an equal and interchangeable level with coin through the process of remonetization of silver.· I believe with an eminent gentleman who said recently that" resumption must wait upon remonetization." Silver is to be a most important factor in getting back to specie payments, to steady values, and to the em of good feeling, healthy condition, and universal prosperity in all portions of our country. Let us lose no time in so modifying the resumption act as to make its provisions entirely practicable and its execution feasible, wit.hout imposing additional hardships on the country or contracting the present volume of money.

Let us return to the time-honored dual standaru,from which we so rashly and so unwisely departed in 1873 and 1874. And then, after first making tho silver dollar a full legal tender, let us commence and continuo the coinage of this safe and popular money. Anu through this agency we ma,v safely hope to establish stability in monetary affairs, to restore the confidence that bas been so long and so seriously impaired and unsettled, to call idle capital from its concealment, and to set iu motion the unemployed machiuery and labor of the country. In fact we ma.y hope to rescue a suffering people from the gloom and the perils of threatened bankruptcy and ruin.

But, if we fail in these efforts to undo a great wrong and to provide relief, then let those who speak for gold and who encourage the encroachments and avarice of the money power answer to the country for the injustice done and results that will follow. To forotell these consequences does not seem to me at all difficult. Bot I will not now venture further in my auguries of evil than to say that our industrial and commercial pursuits alld enterprises must, in that event, continue a.s they long have been, rocking on the wave of doubt anu uncertainty for an inue:finite period.

REPEAL OF THE RESUl\IPTIO.N ACT.

Mr. JOYCE. Mr. Speaker, when the bill for the repeal of the resumption act was before us for discussion, I intended to adclress the Hoose in opposition to its passage, but was prevented from doing so at that time by indisposition, and I avail myself of this my first opportunity since that time to carry out that purpose.

I seml to the Clerk7s desk and ask to have read the bill as it passed this House.

The Clerk read as follows: An act to repeal all thn.t part of the act a.pprovocl January 14, 1875, known as the

resumption a~t, which authorized the Secretary of the TreMury to dispose of United States bonds aml redeem and cancel the greenback currency. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of tile Uniled States oj

.America in Congress assembled, That all that po1·tiou of the act approved January 14,1875, entitled ''An act to provide for the resumption of specie payments," whtch reads as follows, to wit: ".And. when~ver, and so often as circulating-notes shall be issued to any such banking associat.ion so increasina its capital or circulating notes, or so new iy organized as a.foresaid, it shall !Je tho duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem tho legal-tentlerUnitedSratcsnotesin excess only of 30o;ooo,ooo, to the amount of aoperceut.of the sumo£ national-bank notes so issued to any such banking association as aforesaid, aud to continuo such redemption as such circulating notes aro issued until there shall bo outstanding tho sum of $300,000 000 of such lcgal-tenuer Unit.eu States notes, and. no ruoro. And on and atter the 1st da.y of Januarv, A. D.187!J, the Secretary of tho Treasury shall redeem, in coin, the United States legaJ..temler notes then outstanding, on their presentation for redemption at tho otlice of the nssistaut treasurer of the United States in the city of New York, in sums of not less than 50. And to enable the Secretary of tho 'Trcasm y to prepare and provide for the redemption in this act authorized or required, he is authorized to use any surplus revenues, from timo to time, in the Tre.'\Sury. not otherwise appropriated, and. to issue, sell, and dispose of, at not less than par in coin, either of the descriptions of bonds of the United States descril>ed. in the act of Congress approved July 14, 1870, entitled 'An act to authorize the refunding of tho national liebt.' with like qualitie~ privileges, and exemptions, to the extent ntleeS· sary to cauy this act into full enect, and to use tho proceeds thereof for the pur· poses aforosaid," bo, and. the same is hereby, repealed.

Mr. JOYCE. The act of January 14,1875, known as the resumption act, proviues, among other things, for retiring our greenback currency, by the issuing of national-l.Jank notes, in the proportion of $80 of greenl.Jacks to $100 of bank-notes, until there shall be outstanding the sum of $300,000,000 of such lega.l-te11der United States notes and no more; and also provides that on and after January 1, 1879, the Secretary of the Treasury shall 1·edeem, in coin, the United States legal-tender notes, then outstanding, on their presentation for redemption at the office of the assistant treasurer of the United States in the city of New York in suaiji of not less than $50.

The hill just read at the Clerk's desk r·epeals the provisions of the act of 1875, to which I have referred, and if it becomes a law will leave the legal-tender debt of tho country at its present amount and wipe out all provisions for its r·edemption at any time either near or remote.

Mr. Speaker, believing that any question touching the national currency is at all times one of the most important that can possibly come before the people or be submitted to the consideration of Congress, and more especially so now when all business is unsettled and sluggish, wllon the material iudu tries of the country are suffering

,

i

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 593 from the effects of a vast inflation of the circulating medium an<l all the evils which follow in its train. and when the people everywliero are. looking to us for relief, I have 'attentively. and patiently lis~encd to all the debates in this House npon tho subJect, carefully w~1gbed and considt>red all the argumen~ presented, eage;Iy and a~x10usly read everything I could find which bas been wntten by wise men upon all sides and in favor of all theories, and from the whole mass have endeavored to extract the essence of truth and to come to a cor· rect and bonet:~t conclusion. ·

I des.!re to discuss this subject in a manner which .s~all be en.tirely unpartisan and outside and. above all party ?r political considerations consequently I shall pick no quarrel w1th any man '!ho may be so' unfortunate as to differ with me and shall burl no epithets at those who, after equally laborious study and deliberation, have erroneously arrived at a different result.

After the months and years which have been spent in the discussion pf this great question by the ablest men and brightest intt':llect.s

· in this and the Old World and the volumes that have been written by sages and wise men from the days of Ricardo and Stewart down to tho time of the gentlemen from Ohio and Kansaa, [Mr. EwL.~G and Mr. PmLLIPs,] I am not vain and foolish enough to suppose or hope that I shall be able, after all this wealth .o~ lear?ing and fl_ood of light, to present any new arguments or <?ngmal _Ideas to enlighten

· the House or instruct the country; but m the discharge of a duty which I owe to myself, my country, and the intelligent and patriotic people who send me here, I claim the privilege and the !igbt to state the results of my investigation and the reasons which mfluence and compel me to oppose the ~emonetization. of silver and a~so to vote against the repeal of, or mterference ~1th, th~ resomptiOJ?- act of January 14, 1875, unless it be to add to 1~ force and power m order to render it still more effective and efficaciOus.

Yet sir when I find, as I do iu this case, that a large and respectable portion of the American people do not agree with me upon these subjects, bot bold and advocate doctrines dire~tl_y 3tdverse. to what I believe to be ri,.ht a decent respect for the opmwns and JUdgments of those men n:tul-ally leads a modest and unbiased man ~o not only patiently listen to what they ~ave to say, but to r~·examme andreconsider the grounds upon wh1~h be .h~~ planted himself, and not to set himself up on a pedestal of mfallibility for th_e purpose of resisting and wardin"' off all arguments and reasons which may be brought to bear against his chosen position.

I deem it exceedingly fortunate that these great .moral a~d econo~ic.'l.l questions have forced themselves upon public attentwn at th1s

- time for consideration and adjustment. It seems to me that the present is a most proper and appropriate time to discuss, decide1 and dispose of them. The public mind and pulse aTe now comparatively calm and composed. We are now.measur~ bly free from :tngry and exCiting topics and can go to work hke sensiiJle men and, If not already done matur~ and establish a financial policy and monetary system for this ~ountrv which shall materially aid in restoring prosperity to the people and· maintain the credit, the honor, and the integrity of the Government.

The issues are now distinctly and· squarely before us, whether we shaH redeem our solemn promises, pay our honest debts, and have a gold standard and safe, honest money, or whether wo ~hall exile gold, repudiate our obligations, rob labor of ono-teuth of Its honest dues, refuse to pay our debts, and have .inilation with an unlimited issuo of depreciated currency. . . .

These are the important question~, 1m properly a;nd :UDWISely, as I believe, forced upon us, that the Amencau Congre~s IS now called upo? to settle, and their gravity deman?s tha~ we sholil<l appro~ch them !n a spirit of candor and fairness, with a smcere determmatwn to adJust them honestly and correctly, because, unless they are settle(] in truth and justice our labors will be in vain, and they will speedily return to us, with divers other spirits more troubleaome than themselves, and our last state will be immeasurably worse than the first.

In the study and investigation of this subject of finance and in an examination of its history, we are struck with the remarkable fact that, in every country where it bas been the subject of thought and discussion and on every occasion when it has occupie~ the attt;ntion or received the consideration of statesmen and legislators, 1t bas always been decided and settled in favor of the gold standard or a

· medium of exchange convertible into gol~. . . . To this role there is, I believe, not a smgle exception m the his

. t-ory of any civilized nation on the face of the globe. While it is true that nations have in times of dire necessity and

extremest need resorted to the issue of paper promises, invested them with the sovereign power of legal tender, and compelled the people to receive them in place of money, as this Government was compelled to do in 186'2, yet the redemption of these promises and the reston~tion of the specie standard have never been lost sight of or aba~dt>~~d~ but as soon as the necessity which compelled the inflatiou ~a~ ~ss~q away these pledges or forced loans have been redeemed1 ~~q th~ Q;o.~ .. erument has restored its circulating medium to it~ \10~ co.wlitlt¥1 of soundness, and given back to the peoplet ll\ t~e \JQ.O\\ Q{ ll®eat money, a new pledge of national integrity tJ:lll\~~~·

This proposition was well snstain~d b3 '~~ ' t\ng~tshed gent~~, man from Massachuse~ts [Mr. Lo~:w~) .i~ ljlis ~ le jlle~c.\\ 1\~I\ th~a subject. In commentmg upo~ ~~IS. J?9fh~ he ~l<l~ It is a historical fact that, w~ attlY nation baa \al.l~l.\ ~rtve~ by~ dew~a of

civil or foreign wars or by any I!J'C~t commercial crisis to resort to an influt.cd an~l i:-redeemable currency, its first busmess on ~he ret~rn of p(:aco and pro~rwr1ty has been to t·estoro its currency to a sound ·SPE?Cie basiS ~s rnpull>• as posst11l!l, as ~ho only way to arrh·e at permanent commerCial prospenty. It 1s war and ulilntlon on tho one hand and peace and a sound cuiTency on the other.

If further proof of this fact is required we h_ave only to r?fer to the history of our own country at the close of the revolot}onary war when the whole power of the Government, under the gm<lau<'e of Washington and Hamilton ~nd Ma<lison, was ~nvoked and exercised to redeem and pay the natwnal debt, appreCiate the cunency, and establish a sound and stable standard of values. And the same policy, so wisely and justly inaugurated and pursued ~y the statesmen and patriot.a of thit:J oonutry, waa a-dopted autl earned out by both En(J'land and France at the close of the terrible wars which desolated and burdened those countries with debt from l793 down to 1815.

Now sir if we would prosper and thrive we must study not only our ov/n b~t the history ot other nations, and follow the beaten path marked out by the wisdom and experience of those who have gone before us.

As a nation we cannot afford to become commercially isolated from .the :r:est of the word, and if we woold share in the benefits of international trade and have a standing among the powers of the earth we must have the standard of values which has been fixed and established and is now used by the commercial-nations of th~ world.

'J'he great point with this, as with all governments, IS to have a sound, stable currency which shall be good the world over, not snb- · ject to change or fluctuation by any act o~ Co_ngress, and free :tt. all times from the whims and vagaries of legislatiOn and the capncwnB changes of political parties. .

The question as to what this currency shall be composed of IS settled by the experience and convenience of mankind beyond all don bt or controversy. The verdict of the civiJ!zed world is that the co.mmercial wants of the people demand com and paper currency, with the paper always convertible in~o coin a~ the p~easure ~f the holder. This furnishes the people a umversal ci!Culatmg medmm of e9-ual value the world over, always at par wi.th gold an.d as free f!om change and tluctoat?on as the everl:astin~ hilJs from which the precious ore is taken. All wu;emen and emmenttinanCiers of the Old as well as of the New World, in every age aud country, have been ea.rnes~ sopporters and advocates of this doctrine; and the commerCial h1storr of this country as far as it has been written, shows that every President of the United States, every Secretary of the 'freas~, :tnd every distinguished statesman of both parties, from the orgamzatwn of the Government down to 1875 have all held tbat .tbe only true standard of values is gold or a paper curren9y convertible into gold at the pleasure of the bolder.

There is another reaaon, sir, why onr peopl_e c_ann~t affor~ to bea~ the burdens of an inflated currency and a deprecmtmg Circulating medmm . . The foreign trade of this country, imports and exports, arnouuts to the enormous sum of $1,500,000,000 a~nually, every a.rtic_le of which is measured by tho gold standard, and m every fluctuatiOn m the value of our currency to which the price of all these articles are .reduced, the loss falls upon us and not on the nations with whom wo deal. And one of the worst features of this destructive policy is that the loss, in tho case I have mentioned, falls .at last with th!" most crushing weight upon the farmer and labo~mg-man. The Importer, ~be jobber, the merchant, and the retail dealer can ea~h ad<l somethi~g to the cost price of the goods to protect them agamst loss by fluctuations in the currency, but the farmer cannot add a pem~y .to tho price of his crops and the laboring-man cannot charge a shillmg extra for his labor, because these prices are fixed a~d regu'ated by the nations which live by the gold standard and deal m honest money.

These facts thus brie-fly alluded to, Mr. Speaker, demonstrate beyond questio~ that the policy I now contend for has been the settled rule and guide of all the civilized nations of the Old World whose trade and commerce have been worthy of the name and a_lso of_ our own country down to 1862, w)len unfortunately, by the unpe!lous necessities of war, we were compelled to cut loose from our moormgs, and dt>part from the sound doctrine and set-tled faith of the fathel'S,

The greenback currency was adopted arid issued as a war measow and a forced loan upon the people, and nobody then claimed or iuti .. mated that there was any other warrant for it in the Constitution, or that it could be issued iu time of peace, It w~ resorted to t~os t.Qe only means by which the natiouJs Lfe cool~ be :preserved. ::{twas used in place of money to pw;c~aae supphes ~nd PaY the me~ to put down the :rebelHon ~n<.\ ~~-ve tl;le republic from destructiOn.. Men ditfe:red {\8 t<\ tl;l~ :lJeCe~?~ity of i~ui.n15. lt, but all ~-gr~d as. to the lH~tw'e O.f th~ bills, ~nd 'Y"hat f?~OQld tinally be done with tliein.. Eve:cy mall v~o ~oted, for them (;lid so with rel~~tance, a:ud ~ecretly plooge~ ~is ~onor that as soo~ as. ~he. uecessity ce~ed the paper ~Q{\Uld be redeeme(\ and the co.untcy bro-qgb,t b3tQk to. sound ?Doney, The same f!IOl~mi\ pl~dge was ~ta.rn~ed, l;lOt ouly upon the _b11ls but \l.P~.ll e~~cy l~w ~utl,wr~~ing tl\e\r 1ssn~ and the means provided and mant\et speci(\c{\llly pomted out by whtch they were to be redeemed.

Tt\ei6 promises were ia~med by the Gove.rnment. and the people g~ve t~efr fa~ value in labor or property w1th a fatr understandmg tlu~t t~ey were to be redeemed at t~e earliest practioable.moment aft~r tbe close of the war. They wel'e m fact so many prom1ssory notes m which tlle Government promiaed to J.,>aY the holder t_he ~ace value of ~ach note iu mQDey on demand, which by overy pnnCiple of honor a:uc:l fa.\r dealtng we are bo:u:n<l tQ do. · , -


The enormous productions of our country the past year deprive us of every excuse, and a refusal to redeem them or to make them equal in value to gold is nothing less than a willful repudiation of our most sacred and solemn obligations.

ThesenoteR, whichhavealwaysbeen afilicted with a two-fold value, one a paying and the other a purchasing value, were, as I have said, iss ned as money to aid u i in putting down a needless and wicked rebellion, and the nature and extent of our responsibility in regard to them has been acknowledged and demonstrated from year to year since the war, not only by the declarations of Congress, but by the avowed purpose and determination of both political parties, proclaimed in both State and national conventions, to devise some mode by which they could be redeemed or made equal in their purchasable value to gold.

When the war ended we found ourselves groaning under the burden of an enormous public debt, bearing a high rate of interest, which self-preservation and self-interest required should as soon as possible be refunded at a lower rate. Foreign capitalists, on whom we depended to take a large portion of our bonds bearing a low rate of interest, began to grow timid from the fact that indiscreet and factious men bad proclaimed tha.t our bonds ought to be paid in currency instead of gold.

'fo obviate this difficulty, to save money to the people, and to restore confidence in our securities in the markets of the world, as well as to carry out and fulfill what all honest men understood and knew to be a solemn obligation, Congress in 1869, declared-

That the faith of the United States is aolemnlypledJWl to tho payment in coin, or its equivalent, of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest, known as United States notes, and of all the interest-bearing obligations of the United States.

And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make provision, at the earliest pr&ctical periDd, for the redemption of the United States notes in coin.

The passage of this act had the desired effect; our bonds and notes at once rose rapidly in value and, within one year, the bonds rose to par in gold making it practicable to commence the refunding of the 6 per cent. bonds with 5's, and under the stimulus of this new promise of redemption the legal-tender note rose from seventy-six to eighty-nine cents.

And. sir, the same reasons which existed then in favor of the passage of that a-ct are potent and convincing now against any act by Congress to depreciate our bonds, postpone redemption, check the work of refunding, or shake the confidence then so wisely and justly established.

There is to-day a balance of seven hundred and twenty-nine millions of the public debt bearin~ interest at the rate of 6 per cent., and seven hundred and eight nullions at 5 per cent.

Under the stimulus of the acts of 1!:!69 and 1875 the Secretary of the Treasury has been able to refund the debt down to that sum at 5, 4, and 4t per cent., and, sir, whenever these wild schemes of inflation and repudiation are abandoned and given up, and it is known and believed amon~ the nations of the earth that we have ceased all legislative "tinkermg" with the currency, and that we mean to re- · deem all our promises and pay our honest debts in honest money, he will find no difficulty in refunding the balance at the same or a still lower rate of intere..~t, thus saving millions of dollars which we are now compelled to pay to the holders of our bonds, and many of them fereigners, in gold.

The greenback note bears upon its face the promise of the Government to pay a sum of money to the holder, but no time is named when the payment is to be made. This important omission, together with the fact that these notes have always been depreciated, has kept our currency in a state of constant vacillation and greatly aided in creating uncertainty and depression in the business of the country.

The act of January 14, 1875, w~ich provides that "on and after January 1, 1879, the Secretary of the Treasury shall redeem in coin the legal-tender notes then outstanding," was intended to remedy thiS defect in the contract, to appreciate these notes, and put in the form of legif!lative enactment, not a new contract, but what everybody had always conceded and knew to be the true meaning and interpretation of the original obligation.

All honest men will be glad tQ admit that the Government is just as much bound to pay its debts and redeem its solemn obligations as an individual, and the act of lt:l75 was nothing more than a declaration by the Government of its purpose and intention to do it, and fixing the time when the money was to be paid.

At the time of the passage of that act, while men differed as to the time which should be fixed for the fulfillment of the contract and the payment of the debt, no one questioned the duty of the Government to fix some time and to pay it at the earliest practicable moment. And the time of redemption was finally put off to January, 1879, because of the difference of opinion upon that point, to give time to arrange all the relations of debtor and creditor with reference to it and to enable Congress, in the mean time, to pass any additional act in aid of resumption, if found to be necessary.

Since January 14, 1875, every man who has taken one of these greenback notes has received wit.h it, as a part of the contract, the promise of the Government that it would be redeemed in coin at the time .stated in that act. The course of trade also bas been directed a.nd contracts have been made with reference to it, while vast inter-8Sts }lave b~en acquired, exchanged, and released in view of the solemn pledge contained in it.

The object of t~e act was to appreciate the greenback and make it better and worth more, and such has been its effect. It l1as been constantly appreciating and growing better every day, until now it is within less than 2 per cent. of gold.

No reasonable man could ask or expect a more literal fulfillment of the prophecy of the advocates of that measure or more hopeful and cheering results; and yet, when we have almost reached the goal of our hopes and are about to grasp the wreath of victory, we are asked to repeal it, to repudiate our promise, to throw wide open the floodgates of inflation, and leave the people without any assurance that the Government will ever redeem.

The time has come when the vast business interests of this country require and demand at the bands of the Government the restoration of a permanent monetary system and a uniform standard of valul's. The people want this question placed beyond all doubt; they desire a respite from legislation ; they beg of Congress to let the currency alone. The business men long for rest from this agitation, so that faith and commercial confidence may have time to return. They believe that we have already passed the crisis of depression, that we have touched bottom, that a brighter day is beginning to dawn, that business is reviving all over the country, and that it would be suicidal and fatal to a.ll their interests if we should, by repealing the act of 1875, revoke all we have done and go back to the very system and policy we have been laboring so long to escape from. They believe that the repeal of the resumption act would be a long step backwards, that it would tend to impair and destroy rather than to restore and build up, and that it would be construed as an act of bad faith on the part of the Government and would most injuriously affect the public credit among the nat.ions of the world.

The President tells us, in his annual message, that the refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest, as now going on, with the aid. of the resumption law, will save to the people 20,000,000 annually, and more than three hundred millions before the bonds could all be fully paid if permitted to remain as they now are.

Repeal that act and the refunding will immediat.ely stop ; the attempt to do it even has already had a very marked effect upon it, and we shall be plunged into the vortex of uncertainty, virtual repudiation, aud dishonor.

But it is said by those who favor the repeal of the resumption law that we shall not have the gold to redeem on the 1st of January, 18i9, and that therefore we ought to repeal the act which fixes that date.

Now, sir, with bank-notes and greenbacks almost at par; with seventy millions of gold already in the Treasury, and five millions being added every month; with thirty-five millions of surplus revenue annually to swell our reserve; with one hundred millions as the yearly prodnction of our mines; with the balance of trade to the amount of two hundred millions in our favor, drawing foreign gold to our shores and checking the exportation of our own; with our customs revenue sufficient to pay the intereat on the public debt; with a wealth and abundance of crops far surpassing those of any other year since the foundation of the Government; with the business int.erests of the country rapidly adjusting themselves to this new order of things, and'' a prudent economy prevailing in the public service and among all our people," it seems to me that the conditions are favorable, the signs propitious, and the prospects of victory reasonably certain.

Why, sir, let the people once understand that their paper is at par, that they can have gold for their bills, and nobody would want it, nobody would have it.

With the confidence inspired by this knowledge, together with the fact of the greater convenience of paper, every man who uses his money in his business and keeps it in trade would not present it for redemption, wh.ile those who would demand gold for the purpose ()f hoarding would be few in number and the gold demanded comparatively small in amount.

Under the old State bank system, where the bill-holders had little or no security, it required only from 15 to 20 per cent. in gold to keep their bills afloat and hold them at par, and in this case, with our great increase of banking facilities, and when every bill is amply secured by United States bonds, it would certainly seem that it could not require any more.

Among all the able speakers upon this bill to which we have listened no friend of the measure, from the honorable gentleman from Ohio [Mr. EWING] down to his most humble disciple upon this floor, has even attempted to inform the Honse and the country what good results are to :flow from the repeal of the" time clause" in the reoumption law.

They claim, to be sure, that under the provisions of that act the volume of the currency is being contra-cted, aud that our present distresses grow out of the fact that we have a short supply of circulating medium, and yet they do not claim, or pretend even, that the repeal of that clause will increase the legal-tenders, the nationalbank notes, or the fractional currency.

If any beneficial results were likely to flow from the passage of this bill, these learned gentlemen would be able to point them out, and their neglect or inability to do so is conclusive evidence to my mind that none are expected or possible.

It is not, sir, a bill for the relief of the people and the settlement of this vexed and troublesome question of the currency, as claimed by its supporters, but on the contrary it is a measure designed to tloat the democratic party illto power, and is "fraught with the

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 595 greatest evil alike to the credit and honor of our Government, at home and abroad, and to the labor, capital, trade, and commerce of the country."

Lack of currency, sir, is not the causa of business depression and bard times; we have an abundance of money", and the rates of interest never so low as at present. What is now needed and required is a sound and stable currency-which, if this and the silver scheme are defeated, we shall soon have-which shall be equal to gold in its purchasable value, and then C8tpitalists will have confidence and let it out; now they hold it tight for fear of the success of these schemes and consequent :fluctuation and loss. But pass this bill and yon destroy the confidence already acquired and leave us with three hundred and fifty-four millions of legal-tender notes, with no provision for their redemption or for making them convertible into coin at any time either near or remote.

While I am upon this point of a lack of currency, I would be glad if some of these gent.lemen who advocate that doctrine with so much zeal wonld tell me what changes have occurred in our modes of doing business in this country during the last few years which has rendered necessary any great addition to the amount of our currency.

In 1860 we had only about four hundred millions of paper and coin both in circulation, and yet nobody complained of a deficiency. Now we have at the lowest estimate over seven hundred and thirty millions in actual circulation in the banks and among the people for business and trade; and this currency, composed of legal-tenders, bank-notes, and coin, is as convenient and safe as any th~tt can be found in the wide world. In fact it only lacks one feature or element to make it perfect, and that it will have in a few months if Congress will let it alone, and that ia equality with and exchangea-bility into gold. .

Any man knows who has given the least attention or study to this subject that the amount of circulat.ing medium required in any country cannot be measured by the number of people, the extent of territory, or even the amount of trade and business which is carried on, "bnt by the nature, extent, and diversity of the industries of the country and the amount of capital actually required for their development." No power on earth can determine this question. The legislature, as has so often been said, may fix and establish its quality, but the laws of trade can alone determine the amount.

It is also claimed by the inflationists that the panic of 1873, followed by the depression of business and the crippled condition of our industries, is chargeable to the resumption aet of 1875.

In the first place, Mr. Speaker, that act was not passed until two years after the panic occurred, and besides it is an undeniable fact that when the panic struck D!J we had more paper money in circulation than had ever been :floated before by any country in the world. Neither the resumption act nor the contraction of the currency can be held responsible for the panic or the distresses which followed it. The primary cause was the dire necessities of tlfe war, which compelled the Government to inflate the currency; which engendered specu1ation, ext-ravagance, and dishonesty; changed a million men from producers to consumers; led to the contraction of enormous debts, national, State, municipal,corporate,and individual; and finally culminated in a financial crash, which was as natural as it was appalling. . The gentlemen who are pushing this measure often refer to the financial history of England and France to prove that with the amount of gold which we shall probably have in the Treasury on the 1st of January, 1879, it will be impossible for the Government to resume specie payments at that time. ·

Now, air, if we carefully examine the history of those countries and compare their modes of trade and doing business with our own, we shall find that they are so totally dissimilar that no argument can be drawn from that source against the position I have taken or in favor of the theories set up by the friends of this bill.

In the first place there are no bank-notes in circulation in England below $25 and in France none below $20, all the circulating medium below these sums being in coin, while in this country we have in circulation two hundred and twenty-five millions in bank-notes below 20, which will enable us to resume the payment of specie with less

coin than could either England or France, because these small notes are all used by the people in their daily business in lieu of coin and would therefore never be presented for redemption.

Again, sir, in ~'ranee they have really but one bank; consequently there are no deposits, drafts, checks, or bank-accounts; but the business is all done and the balances in trade all paid by the actual delivery of cash from hand to hand; while in this country we have a ba:nk in almost every village and business center, through which probably90 per cent. of all our business is transacted without a single dollar in money pa-ssing between the parties, the balances being s.ll paid and accounts settled by drafts, checks, and bank-credits.

And I am informed, sir, by gentlemen who are qualified to judge, that in the transactions at the New York clearing-house, which average a great many millions annually, only about 4 percent. is done bv tile actual delivery of money, the balance being all conducted and carried on through the banks.

These facts sufficiently deruonstrate the proposition that England and France, and especially the latter, must of necessity require and use more currency in proportion to the amount of business they do than we do in thilil country. ·

But, sir, there is another thing which we learn from the study of the financial history of those two countries which is particularly pertinent to the issue before us, and to which I invoke the attentioP of the House, and that is the fact that-

No nation has ever resumed epecie payments after a forced suspension, except by force of a law fixing the precise da.y when resumption should take place.

After a period of wild inflation and suspension, followed by consequent prostration and dist.ress, England, in July, 1819, passed an act. fixing the 1st day of May, 1823, as the period for final and ultimate redemption, with a provllio that, if in the discretion of the governor and directors of the Bank of England an earlier day was thought expedient, then resumption might take place on the 1st day of May, 1822.

It seems that there were, at that time, a class of men in England not unlike the men in this country who are to-day clamoring for the repeal of the act of 1875. They were inflationists, disturbers of the financial peace of the country, who were willing to build theh· own politi~al exaltation upon the poverty of the people and the·ruin of their country; accordingly we find them, in April, 1821, bringing into Parliament a bill to repeal the resumptio!l act; but there were sane men enough there, as I trust there are here, to save the couutry, and the House of Commons condemned it by a vote of 141 to 27.

But those destrnctionists were persistent, as these men are here, and again in June, 182'2, a second bill for the same purpose was brought in; but by this time the people began to see the beneficial effects of the law, as we do here to-day of our resumption law, and the House gave it an emphatic repulse in a. vote of 1g.4 to 30.

These bills were both discussed by the ablest men in Parliament, and the record informs us that the same reasons and arguments were urged in favor of the repeal of the English act of 1819 that we hear • to-day in favor of the repeal of our act of 1875.

Now, sir, if gentlemen are so enamored of English history and experience upon this subject ami are so desirous of following the example of English statesmen, let them desist from their wild and fatal schemM of inflation and repudiation and join hands with the friends of honel'lt money in defeating this meatmre and putting the currency and credit and honor of this country beyond the reach of repudiators and demagogues.

France has been still more fortunate ; she seems to be comparatively free from in:fl.1.tionists; all her public men are blessed with a good degree of common sense, and when in 1874she passed an act to resume specie payments on the 1st of January, 187~, which, by contracting her paper circulation and pushing out her coin, practically took place as early as January, 1876, it was permitted to stand upon t.he statute-book and work out its legitimate result-s, while the people went to work with the astmrance that no wild schemes of inflation or greenback heresy would be allowed to interfere with trade or postpone the day of redemption.

It has been Eaid 1hat the distress in England from 1821 to 1826 was the effect of the resumption act, but history denies the assertion and emphatically charges it to the short-sighted policy embodied in the corn laws. An ill-advised and impolitic act had been p48Bed by Parliament prohibiting the importat.ion of wheat whenever the price fell below eighty shillings per quarter.

'l'he result was, as might have been foreseen, to raise the price of wheat and cause every acre of land in England, which could possibly be spared, to be sown with wheat, which in a. short time :flooded the market, ruined the farmers, produced a stagnation in all branches of business, and threw thousands of laboring-men out of employment.

No fair-minded man can ever object or take exceptions in the discussion of a subject to any fair and legitimate argument, however powerful and conclusive, which may be brought to bear against his own cherished opinions aml theories. And in this discu&~iou I acknowledge that rule and cheerfully accord to every other man all that I claim in this respect for myself.

But when I hear men who ought to be, and I believe arc, conversant with the facts, talking seriously about" bloated bondholders," "cheap money," "the poor man's money," and "one money for the bondholders and another for the people," I can hardly force myself to the conclusion that they are talking as they believe, bnt am almost compelled to regard it either as the voice of ignorance or of the demagogue. ·

Is it possible that men should be so deceived as to be given over to believe a lief Is it not plain to every man that the Government does not manufactnre money and give it away f That no man can obtain it unless he gives an equivalent in some form for it; "either the labor of his hands, the product of his brains, or the fruit of his industry;" that no matter how much money there is in the country, no man cau honestly obtain it unless be is possessed of securities or can give value for it f And if these. things are at hand, one man caa obtain it as handily anrl cheaply as another, because capital is no respecter of persons. Why, then, talk about cheap money unless it be for the purpose of deceiving and misleading the unwary and the ignorant!

If these gentlemen, who I sometimes fear are actually insane upon this subject, whose insanity unfortunately now threatens the peace and prosperity of this country, and who are continually haunted by "shylocks" and "bloated bondholders," really desire to know who some of these monsters are, let them go to the forty-four hundred and aeventy-five savings-banks and private banks of deposit in


this country, with their two and one-half millions of depositors and their thirteen hundred and seventy millions of deposits. And when they have done that let them search out the seven hundred thousand men whose lives are insured for $350,000,000 in all the life insnrance companies in this country.

They will find that these deposits and premiums are mainly made and owned by w.idows and orphans and poor laboring people who thus save from their hard earnings a few dollars annually to bridge over a doll season or to guard against want in case of disaster or sickness.

This money thus deposited is invested by the managers of these institutions either in Government securities or loaned out on security to industrious and enterprising business men who have not sufficient capital of their own to carry on their business.

These, sir, are some of the" bloated bondholders" of this country, while still others may be found among our small farmers, scattered throughout the country, many of whom have by industry and frugality laid aside a few dollars in Government bonds for a rainy day or for support when they shall become too old to labor.

Under this hue and cry of "cheap money" and'' Wall-street domination," it is propo~d to repeal the act of 1875, to indefinitely postpone redemption, inflate and depreciate the cutTency,rob these poor people of their hard earnings, and leave them to be devoured by speculators and gamblers; and for what f Merely for the benefit and aggrandizement of a few men and the temporary triumph of a polit-ical party. _

That .the democrat.ic party should ad vocate such a measure, threatening such results, creates no surprise or a.stonishment in my mind; but that republicans, who stand pledged in a thousand ways to fulfill the sacred obligations of the Government and to protect and main-

• tain the honor and integrity of the Republic should so soon forget · the awful lessons of the war and join in this fatal crusade of repu

diation and dishonor, is most passing strange and unnatural. It can scarcely be wondered at that some of tho men whose treason

to the Government made necessary the contraction of tho enormous debt which now weighs so heavily upon us should be willing to avoid the borden and escape its payment; but where can those whose loyalty never wavered and who bore the banner of the Republic against rebellion until it was furled in victory .find justification or excuse tor aiding and assisting in this unholy work f

I have thus, Mr. Speaker, in plain and simple language, given some few of the reasons which have and will influence and control my action upon this bill. I believe that a depreciated and fluctuating currency is one of the greatest curses that can affiict a people and that no nation can prosper which does not adopt gold as the only measure of values. We have, for the past seventeen years, been passing through this furnace of affliction, but are now, thank God, almost deliv-ered; and if we are wise we shall in the last hours of this terrible battle stand firm, resist temptation, and under the banner of I'esumption, which we raised on the 14th of January, 1875, redeem the solemn pledges of the Gov6rnment, maintain the honor and interrrity of the Republic, and bring prosperity and joy to all our people.

Mr. Speaker, if time permitted I should be glad to speak at some length upon the question of the remonetization of silver, but in the few moments &llotted me I can only glance at it in the briefest manner. I will first call attention to the provisions of the act, which passed this House some time ago under the gag of the previous question, which cut off all debate, known as the ~:Bland silver bill." That act provides that there shall be coined, at the several mints of the United States, silver dollars of the weight of 4121- grains troy of standard silver, as provided in the act of January 18, 1jj37, on which shall be the devices and superscriptions provided by said act; which coins, together with all silver dollars heretofore coined by the United St.ates, of like weight and fineness, shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for all debts and dues, public and private, except where otherwise provided by contract; and any owner of silver bullion may deposit the same at any United States coinage mint or assay office, to be coined into such dollars, for his benefit, upon the same terms and co~ditions as gold bullion is deposited for coinage under existing laws. ·

As a fit companion a.nd counterpart to the proposition to ropeal the resumption act is this bill for the remonetization and unlimited coinage and legal tender of silver which I have just read.

The former follows stealthily a covert and indirect road to repudiation, the latter marches with a bold and brazen front in the public thoroughfare directly to its consummation; one is a nauseous dose of national dishonor, relieved by a deceptive coating, the other is the poisonous drug, unmixed and unrelieved of its ·sickening odor and taste; one is a cowardly way of robbing the laboring poor of this country by lying in ambush for them, the other is the bold and reckless manner of the highwayman, who meets his victim upon the road ancl demands his money or· his life.

You may call this policy by soft names; you may speak of it gently ont of respect to the men who created and advocate it, bot after all it is downright, bold, dishonest repudiation of a portion of the public debt of this country and the willful and malicious robbery of the industrious, hard-working people, whose patriotism and labor wake it possible for us to exist as a nation. It is a deep-laid scheme and deliberate plan to cheat the widows, the orphans, and the laboring poor, who toil for their daily bread, who have placed their small surplus earnings in savings-b~uks and life-insurance companies, out

of tbe.(lifference between your depreciated silver and paper and honest money.

By the kindness of Luther Daniels, esq., treasurer of the Rutland (Vermont) Savings-Bank, I have received not only the last annual report of Hon. W. H. Du Bois, savings-bank examiner for the ~tate of Vermont, but also a report of the hank of which Mr. Daniels is the manager. By the report of Mr. Du Bois it appears that there are now in the State twenty-five savings-banks or institutions of that. character, with 31,528 depositors and resources amounting t.o over $91000,000. If the silver bill should become a law aud the ail ver dollar be worth only ninety cents, the loss to all those depositors would amount to $900,000, or $28.50 t.o ea{)h depositor, on an average.

In the savings-bank in my own town the deposits amount to $650,000, owned and deposited by three thousand persons. In case of the success of this silver legislation the loss to all these deposito1·s would be $65,000, and to each d_epositor, on au average, 21.60. In the case of the Rutland Savings-Bank the amounts deposited by two thousand of the depositors do not exceed 250 each, most of them being considerably below that sum ; and .Mr. Daniels informs me that these depositors consist mainly of laborers, servant girls, widows, orphans, and children.

Such, .Mr. Speaker, would be the practical result of this silver bill, should it become a Jaw, upon the savings of these poor labori!lg people, not only as respects the depositors I have named, but also those of all the savings-banks in the country.

And, sir, if this great wrong shonld be consummated, in view of what bas already taken place iu this House, what assurance have the public creditors of this country and those who bolc.l our bonds and securities abroad that those who thus deliberately repudiate 10 per cent. of the public debt will not, when they shall deem it expedient, turn their backs upon the whole. ·

It has been saic.l during this debat-e that there are two classes of persons who are specially anxious that the silver bill should become a law: the miners, who desire t-o dispose of their silver for a good ronnel price, and the men who are in debt, who want the currency inflated because that would raise the price of land and all commodities and give them an opportunity to dispose of their property and pay off their debts in depreciated money.

This may be true, sir, in respect to some sections of the country, but, in the State I have the honor in part to represent, we do not enjoy the luxury of silver mines, and, while many of our people are in debt, yet, thank God, they are honest and I am sure they would scorn repudiation, whether by public act of the National Legislature or by the inflation and depreciation of the currency.

It has been often said by gentlemen who oppos~ the silver bill, aml has been nowhere denied by its friends, that the first injurious efiect of the remonetization and unlimited coinage and legal tender of that metal would be to draw to our mints the silver of Germany anc.l all other countries which have demonetized it, an<l the more they sent us the less it would be worth.

It is a law regulating the circulation of currency that good money can never be kept afloat alongside of poor, because the poor will always drive the good out and assume supremacy. Consequently, if silver dollars ar& coined at 412! grains, they will at once drive all the gold coin out of the country, because 412-f grains of silver are not worth as much in the markets of the wol'ld as a gold dollar.

England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland have practically adopted the single gold standard; now, if we remonetize silver and make it a legal tender for all sums and purposes, all our gold will inevitablyflow to those countries and their silver wiJl come here, and we shall then have, in fact, a single standard; bat it will be a depreciated silver one. ·

Such a silver dollar, like our greenbacks, wonld, as we have often been told, have two distinct functions in our currency aml trade, one a paying power and the other a purchasing power; it would pay a deht of one hundred cents, bot it would only purchase ninety cents' wort.h of bread or meat or clothes. And no law of Congress or executive proclamation could change this relation, because 412-f grains of silver would be worth only ninety cent.a, more or less, in gold in the market-s of the world.

As in the case of depreciated paper, so in this, the great weight of the bUl'den would eventually fall upon the laboring-man. The fluctuations in this depreciated currency would raise the price of every article he was compelled to buy, while his labor would be the last article in the market to rise, as it al waye is, He could, to be sure, pay his debts in cheap money, but his loss in what he would have to pay extra for the necessaries of life would be four times what he gained.

We bear much said about the wicked and corrupt <lemonetization of silver in 1873, but the record shows that, practically, silver dollars have not been in circulation since 1837 and since 11;53 fractional silver coins have be~n . in circulation and a legal tender only for a limited snm. Since 1792 we have only coined al>oot eight millions of silver dollars in all, and every one knows, as a matter of written and traditional history, that during the whole peliod of our existence as a nation we have not had silver, of all kinds, enough in circulation to affect in any appreciable degree, one way or the other, the volume of our national currency, and aside from its convenience as small change, and in some cases as a reserve, its absence at any time would scarcely have been felt or noticed in our trade and commerce.

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 597 The law of 1873, then, which has lately created such a storm in

some quarters of the country, was merely the declaration by Congress of a financial fact which had practically existed for forty years.

I know it is claimed that the remonetization of silver, as well as the repeal of the resumption act of 1875, is in the interest of the la.borino- poor against the capitalist and the bondholder.

In answer to this we sa.y that it is neither good policy nor honest to legislate against or in the interest of any particular class of perE~ous, which fact alone would destroy the influence of such an argument and lead us to distrust the motive which prompted it. Again, we shall find on the slightest examination that the effect of such Ie~islaiion would be exactly the reverse.

If we should remonetize silver there is no doubt that a. silver dollar would pay a. debt of any kind of one hundred cents, but it would only purchase, as silver stands now, about ninety cents' worth of any commodity. The mechanic and laboring-man in the shop, the mill, and the quarry would work all day for a. dollar, and 412! grains of silver would pay him for his day's labor; but when he should go to the store and grocery to make his purchases of bread and meat and clothes and fuel for his family he would find to his sorrow that it had a purchasing power of only ninety cents and that he had lost ten cents on his day's work.

So it is in aU the relations of labor and trade and commerce; while in some aspects it appears at first sight to favor labor, yet in the end the burden and loss come upon the poor man and labor goes to the wall.

Again, as I have before said, the widows and orphans and laboring poor have in the banks and saving-institutions of this country $1,370,000,000, made up of their surplus earnings, which they, in their prudence and economy, have saved. Pass the silver bill to-day and their deposits could be paid to them in silver dollars, worth ninety cents apiece, and you have robbed them of $137,000,000.

This hue and cry so lately raised in favor of the remonetization of silver is not a movement in favor of honest money and the rights of the laboring poor, but it is one raised originally by men who are to be pecuniarily benefited by it, and has lately been picked up by others who hope in this way to array labor a~ainst capital and, under cover of the storm they have raised, to ride rnto power. No sensible man can for a moment believe that the remonetization of silver would revive business or put an extra penny into the pocket of any laboring-man; and bad it not been for the present distressed condition of the people, due entirely to the war and its consequences, we never should have heard one word against the act of 1873, and the silver bill woulu never have been dreamed of.

It is true that Congress has several times attempted to regulate the proper relations between gold and silver so as to ·maintain both as a concurrent currency, but it bas always proved a failure; the laws which govern and regulate their circulation are higher and broader than national legislation; they have never circulated together upon an equality, in any age or country and they never can, because the necessary proportion cannot be kept up and the cheaper always drives the other out of circulation.

These, sir, are in brief some of the objections to this double-standard theory, and, sir, iu the apt language of another let me ask, "what will the remonetization of silver do for this country f Will it set the wheels of industry in motion f Will it relieve the distress of the country f Will it give employment to the thousands of idle men f" Or will it only fill the coffers of a few bankers and lucky men who own silver mines, and prove an additional curse to the poor.

An~). sir, more than this, such legislation as is proposed in the silver bill and the bill to repeal the resumption act, would be an open and high-handed "violation of the plighted faith of the nation toward its creditors; it would change the force and effect of private contracts; it would unsettle values; it would work disastrous results to trade and commerce, and be destructive of national prosperity, national faith, national credit, and national honor."

However much we may differ, :M:r. Speaker, as to the methods t-o be pursued in treating this subject, we are bound to believe that it is the desire and purpose of every member of this House to labor for the restoration of the credit of the Government and the establishment of a sound monetary system for our people.

A somewhat careful study and examination of this subject and of the situation of the country have satisfied me that the legislation embodied in the two bills to which I have referred will not only fail to bring us the relief promised, but will be fatal to the very object we have been so long seeking to accomplish. Instead of legislation respecting the currency, I believe the industrial interests of the country now need to be guarded against it. . • The present condition of the business of this country is the inevitable and legitimate result of the war and its consequences, and legislation, while it may mitigate it, can no more cure it than it can st-op the whirtwind or suppress the volcano. The resumption law, in connection with the noble efforts of our people, is slowly but surely doing its work, and if we bravely wait a few months longer we shall certainly reap a harvest, the se~dof which was sown in 1869 and 1875 by the republican party, with hope and confidence.

The distinguished gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GARFIELD] never uttered truer words than he did when he said that the storm-center of this qu~stion is here in these halls, and that if we can get l!ast this

session of Congress without committing ourselves to the heresy of infln.tion the country will be safA.

The truth is, the business men of this country stand in fear of the National Legislature; and, instead of the meeting of Congress giving joy and exerting a healthful influence upon trade and commerce, t.he effect is the reverse, because everybody expects 1hat a new onslaught will be made upon the currency or the tariff, and they only breathe free and go on with their business when they know we have adjourned.

It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that the present is an exceedingly grand opportunity to change this feeling and convince the people that we are honestly seeking their good. This I believe we can most effectually accomplish by frowning down repudiation and dishonesty in every form, pledging ourselves that we will not utter another word upon the subject of the currency upon this floor during the remainder of this Congress, driving every measure now befor6 Congress relating to the subject out of the Capitol and keeping it out, and allowing the Secretary of the Treasury, aided by the laws now upon the statute-books and the people of this eonntry, to go forward and complete the great work of specie resumption.

The gentleman from New York [Mr. HEWITT] in his truly able speech upon this subject a few weeks ago said that three things are required in order that a nation may be prosperous and grow in wealth: natural resources, labor, and capital; and he declared, what we all so gratefully and proudly acknowledge, that in our case there is no deficiency in any of these great elements of prosperity, and yet that there is one thing lacking, and that is the motive power that sets all industry at work, all the machinery of production in motion; it is confidence.

This, sir, and not the repeal of the resumption aQt nor the remon~ • etization of silver, is in my opinion the panacea for all our commercial and business woes; all that is now required to establish the credit of the Government, revive business, breathe a spirit of Ufe and activity into trade and commerce, and start our country upon a

·career of prosperity and grandeur as yet unknown in the history of · mankind.

FINANCE.

Mr. BLAm. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the following letter from Governor Straw, of New Hampshire, written in reply to inquiries addressed to him by me as to the effect of the remonetization of silver upon the interests of laborers, and designed to have been incorporated in my speech of January 17, but which was not received in season for that purpose, may be printed in the RECORD.

There was no objection. The letter is as follows:

MANCIIESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, JanttaT'IJ 21, 1878. MY DEAR Sm: I returned from a. business trip to Boston last night and found

yours of the 15th instant awaiting me. I had intended to have answered earlier the letter yon left at my office on your last visit, but a constant preas of bnsinell3 must be my excuse.

I shall try and make this letter as brief as possible, using only such details aa will IJlll,ke the statements clear to yon.

Manchester, in 1875, according to our local census, generally conceded to be correct, contained a population of thirty thousand people, who de~nd very largely, if not entirel.v, for their livelihood and prosperity, upon the avails of their labor and for articles sold to individuals and corporations ownin~ tho factories and shops that use the water-power of the river improved and used at this point. Tho cnstom is nniversal here to make these payments, due for labor and supplies, at the close of every month.

These monthly payments are for labor to operatives and employ6s in and about the mills an<lshops, $300,000; for SIJlll,ller supplies requit-ed for use in manufacturing, $200,000; making a t<>tal of monthly payments of $500,000, or a total yearly payment of fullv $6,000,000.

These monthly payments for wages and supplies will average to the operatives about $30 to each person, and for supplies consumed from $20 to ~0 to each person who is paid. Tho operatives regularly employed in and about the mills and shops will number 10,000 individuals, aml those person.'! who furnish supplies will number 5,000 individuals, making 15,000 persons who are tho recipients of these. monthly pa.vments, and great pains are taken to place the amount paid as near to the halids of the person whose labor is utilized as is !>racticable.

The raw material consumed by our manufacturers of textile fabrics here amounts annually, of cotton, to 56,000,000 ponnds; of wool, to 2,000,000 pounds. This raw material is purchased and furnished to t.he fact{Jries by the seve.ral treasurers of the corporations, who are generally resident in Boston, and it is bought and paid for by them near where it is grown or where the producer finds its general market.

At the present· time the monthly payments made by the Amoskearr Manufacturing Company.,. the largest corporation located here, are a littJe above $:WO,OOO. They are maoe to 5,000 different persons and paid from my office or in the various rooms about the manufactories where the employ&! are at their work. These payments are made in small envelopes, containmg the exa{)t sum of money due the recipient, any fractional part of il being in silver. In making one monthly pay. ment we reqUire the use of nearly e2,500 for makin<r this change for fractional parts of the dollar. This habit of using silver for c&ange has prevailed here for months since we have been able to obtain it from the Itlint, and now our traders are constantly wiahin~ to dispose of it for paper currency, that being the more available for makinl! tueir _payments. · • .

In fact., silver, 110 far as tts use as cuiTency 1s concerned m this nei.~hborhood, has already become a drug, and if its nse for making payments contmues or in~ creases, it will very shortly be disposed of at a discount in exchange for good paper money withont regard to Us legal value as silver coinage. Our manufacturel'8 as a whoie must be considered as governed by the ordinary motives that govern humanity the worl<l over; their prosperity and perhaps eX18tence, depends upon the profits that will a.ccrne to them from their business, and should silver money become a. legal tender and be put into circulation in sufficient quantities to be secured at a. discount in the market, it will be always fonnd and used by those who have a large number of small debts to pay often and a.t regular interrals. lierein consists the dan~r to the laboring class in the passage of the proposed "silver bill;" the money which they are to receive is to be paid often and in comparatively small sums. Silver, from the nature of the coinage, is a convenient and


ready money in which to make the payments due to them, while to u~e it for the lar/!er pa.rments required in the general business of the country it is an inconvenient and cumbersome coina~c, so that almost of necessity in that part of our country where labor is lar~ely employed and paid, and where the silver coinarre is most likely to be used, there is nothing that can maiatain the silver coins"' at a hi~rher value, when wanted in large sums, than that of an equal weight of silver bullion in the market. The proposed coinage of the "dollar of our fathers" would give us coins worth about 10 per cent. less than our present legal-tender notes, and I see no other result likely to occur from the passa1re of tlie "silver bill" than that the working population must expect to be paid in that coinage and thereby suffer a loss of about lOfer cent. of their regular earninrrs. A. poor prospect, certainlv, for the citizens o New Hampshire and most of t~e other States of tho Union, where they desire their population to be regularly employed.

Yours, very truly, E. A. STRAW.

P. S.-1 had written thus when I received yours of the 18th instant. I hope this letter will answer your purpose and aid yon in opening the eyes of those of our p· ople that seem to have been closed by placing the silver dollar over them, a.s used to be the custom in the olden time over the eyes of the dead.

E. A. S. Hon, H. W. BLA.m.

FL.~ANCE AND CURRENCY.

Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. Speaker, the present condition of the conntry, w hicb leads men to follow the two Houses of Congress in all their debates, in aU their movements, shows to us there has not been a time in the his~ory of t~is country when every man-and I may say every woman-Is so anx10usly lookin5 to Congress for relief. Already we have before us a class of people aaldng for the reduction of the tax upon tobacco. Already we have before us another large class asking that spirits shall be put in bond, that payment may be deferred. Already we have before us a proposition looking to tho general revision of the tariff in some of its most important points, and with this and the great national question before us, namely, finance, we are to-day involved with more important questions thau have agitated this country for the last decade.

What, I ask, is the relief that is proposed! Speeches have been made here in one sense· tending to array one section of the country against another. Remarks have been made whwh cause friction in all the various departments of our governmental system and among all the business interests of the country. These are entirely unnecessary in heated times like these, when men are troubled, when men who have great interests at stake are trying to find a solution for the ills with which their interests are afflicted. It is not to be expected that excit-ement will not to some extent prevail, and men will say things they may afterward regret. In this country I hope we shall never be obliged to come to accept the full effect of the axiom of Lord Eldon, iil which be stated concerning political freedom, that to be durable the system of its administration must be such that it may occasionally be parted with in order that it may be enjoyed forever. But it would seem at a time like this, when all the interests which cluster aroUlld this great nation are being gathered np to be adjusted at once, so far as they relate to taxation and to the finance, that we should be led by that clemency in spirit, by that meditative part of our nature, to reflect that what we do should be done calmly and what we do should be done as quickly as possible.

Three months have already passed, and yet nothing, comparatively, has beeii (lone to allay this feeling. The people of the great West feel as to the resumption question that all there is in it is, that on the 1st day of January, 1879, if resumption then takes place, three hundred or more millions of greenbacks must be redeemed, and they ask if they are to be redeemed, what istotaketheirplace! It is true that they are to be retired on the basis of the act of 1875. One hundred dollars in national currency will be issued for every $80 of greenbacks retired. But under that act, before it shall have been consummated by retiring the greenbacks entirely, the time fixed in the act whicli provides for resumption will have arrived and then greenbacks must be retired-that is, what there are of them-for then they will be redeemable in gold. .

And stopping right here for a moment, they say this: If we are to have nothing t.o take its place, we know as a matter of fact that gold will not circulate as a medium throughout the country as greenbacks have done. We know that when those greenbacks are retired to that amount there will be nothing to take their place, unless under the silver bill we shall commence its coinage again. Therefore they say, ".Although we are not soft-money men, altho~gh we are not absolute-money men, yet if the country can keep $300,000,000 or $350,000,000 of greenbacks in circulation in this country, and thereby avoid the necessity of buying gold at. 3, 4, or 5 per cent. premium with which to redeem them as we need them, why not keep them in circulation and save interest on that amount!" They would be willing to l!mit them to $300,000,000 of greenbacks. They would be willing to resume on the 1st of Jnne next, if it were possible. We are resumptionists. We deny any charge that may be made against theW est that there is one particle of the spirit of repudiation resting in tbe breast of a single individual in that section of our national Union.

I could prove this if time would permit. When the great war burst on the country when the great State of which I am a native bad only an indebtedness of $50,000, it incurred an indebtedness of $2,000,000 to raise its troops, to clothe them, to provide them, and to put them in the front. These bonds were put on the market and t.heir sa.le prevented in Wall street on the ground that Wisconsin could not issue bonds for war purposes. Her own citizens therefore teok care of those bonds by our bankers nobly stepping forward and

taking part and the rest being invested in the school fond by the State, and used to pay $5 a month to the wife of every soldier who enlisted, snch investment being perfectly safe, the State being the trustee for the fnnd; and at the close of the war Wisconsin stood a tax of $600,000 in one year, the year of 1865, when a tax of 10 per cent. was by Congress pnt on all State currency, driving every State bank out of existence and brin$ing us to a condition of almost tl.bsolute poverty, with wheat at oruy sixty cents a bushel on the 1st day of March of that year.

We say the past has shown there is no snch spirit in the West, no such spirit in the South. We are willing to be bonnd by the contract. We are willing to live np to the contract, to its stri t letter, and we would go further if it were necessary to preserve our credit unimpaired. We would let onr debts and the interest npon them be paid in gold, for we are willing to take the silver and use it for our own proper uses for circulation. There is such a thing as thrift growing out of this principle. When a farmer can get $1.50 a bushel for his wheat and he is in debt he will sell his wheat and use rve for bread. He will be willing to use rye and barley instead of \vheat until his debts are paid and employ the most valuable product he has to pay his debts. If necessary to save hercreclit let the Government follow this example. As the gold received for duties on imports is by law set aaide to pay the interest on the public debt let it be so used and let us have silver for actual circulation. Assuredly we have come npon strange times when silver is denounced as dishonest money, the same silver dollar that only back in 1873 wa~ 3 per cent. above gold.

There is another point I wish to advert to here. We are told that under the act of 1870, which provided for issuing the 5, 4t, and 4 per cent. bonds, many of the bonds that have since l>een sold are in such a position that onder the act of 1873 demonetizing the iil ver it would be wrong and unjust to compel those who had purchased those bonus to take silver in payment because the difference would be from 6 to 8 per cent. Let us look at this a moment. The West incurred her great debt during the war and took greenbacks for it. And if there is to be any distinction drawn in this matter it should be remembered that the East sent her greenbacks to us and we took them and paid 10 per cent. interest; and to-day they are to get them back in gold and we took them when they were worth fifty cents on the dollar compared with gold. We are willing to pay them back with silver and gold, however hard it may be. \Ve wish to stand by the maxim of oue of the kings of England, and such also was the maxim of a king of Spain, that when money became depreciated and the debt came to be paid ten years afterward it should be paid in money of the standard and fineness in existence at the date of the making of the contract. The contract under which these bonds are sold is the law of 1870. The substance of that law is that they shall be paid iu coin of the standard and fineness. in existence under the lawe at the date of that act. On the back of every one of those bonds is that provision.

Now, what is the law of the case f Every ma.n who buys a bond or a public security of any kind is bound to know there is a law in existence which authorizes the isMning of that bond. He is bound as a matter of law to know that the bond itself is good and valid, and not void. He is bound to know so much, but be is not boun<l to know that, in the preparing of that bond and in t.be various provisions by which the law provides for potting it before the public, every act done is in exact accordance with the law; were irregularities which may be committed he is not bound to know, and they }"ill not affect the validity of the bondl· consequently if be buys a bond the notice to him is that it is payah e in coin of the standard and fine-ness fixed by law when the act of l870cameinto existence. .

But, say some, the acts which provide payment in coin mean gold and nothing else but gold. Let us see. The faith of this Government was pledged to pay its great debt in coin. Let us see whether it means gold or not. I read now from the act approved March Hi, 1869:

That ln order to remo"\"e any doubt a.s to the purpose of the Government to discharge all just obligations to the pnhlic creditors, and to settlu cenflicting qu,estions and interpretations of the laws by nrtue of whick such obligations have been contracted, it is hereby provitletl and declared that the faith of the United States is soleiQ.nly pledged to the payment in coin, or its equivalent\ of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest, known as United States notes, and of all the interest-bearing ol>lieations of the United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the issue of any such olJligation has expressly provided that the same may be paid in lawful money or other currency than ~old and sih·er. But none of said interest-bearing obligations not already due shall be redt:emell or paid before maturity unless at such time United ~tates notes shall be convertible mto coin at th!} option of the holder, or unless at such time bondR of the United States bearing a lower rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemed can be solcl at J.>ar in coin. And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make pl'O· "\"is10n at the earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United State• notes in coin.

Now, let us take the act of 1869. The words gold and silver are used a~ synonymous with coin throughout the whole aot. Read the act carefully, and can you say that the words gold and silver do not folly answer the word coin used before them, and where the word coin is used after the words gold and silver that it does not answer to the words gold and silver used before it f If you undertake to say that gold was meant by the act of 1869, let me remind you t.hat at that period silver was of the value of 3 per cent. above gol<l, and if silver were so to-day, then the argument would be reversed and they would tell us that coin meant silver. The fact is, Mr. Speaker,

l

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1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 599 that the act means to use the word coin in the same sense it is used in the Constitution, and which under the Constitution is the authorized currency of the conhtry, namely, gold and silver;" for no one will contend that under the Constitution silver is not equally a legal tender with gold.

Mr. Speaker, there are a few propositions that to the whole country seem simple, and one of these few propositions is this: The people find that of the $316,000,000 of the national currency represented by bonds the six New England States have 112,000.000; I forget how uiuch the Middle States have; but the Western States have about $70,000,000. They find that these six New England States have in currency $56 per capita; the Middle States $17 per capita; the West $7 Jler capita, and the South only about $4. This, it seems to me, would at once show why a difference of opinion exists to-day between the East and the West. Another thin(J': In many instances we forget that there are great interests beside!!! those of the bondholders. The argument has been made time and time again that the present bondholder is to be paid in silver after its remonetization and thus lose from 6 to 8 per cent. As to those who purchased 5.20 bonds worth $110 at $125 in gold, I will say that they purchasetl them with greeubacks at the time when gold and the product they sold, so far as the manufacturer was concerned, brought enormous prices. In the town where I resided on October 1, 186:-J, wheat was worth sixty cents a bushel and cotton goods were worth seventy cents a yard; Merrimac prints were fifty cents a yard and Sprague p~ints ~orty-seven cents per yard. The West at that time had these high pnces to pay; even coffee was as high as sixty cents a pound. I know of a case in which a farmer said 1te came into town and paid a bushel of wheat in exchange for coffee, and put the coffee in his vest pocket and went home. The West had severe trials, but stood up to them with a bravery unprecedented. The greenbacks were then issued, and they were necessary to the very exi~:~tence of the Government. The West then accepted the situation. They took them and purchased from the East what the East had t.o furnish them. Wheat that cost probably, including transportation, not less than $1.25 per bushel could not buy two yards of cotton cloth at that time; in fact, but one yard in the fall of 1863. To-day we can buy ten yards of cotton cloth, ay twelve yards and in some cases fifteen yards for a bushel of wheat.

Now, '1 have no doubt that the same state of things existed in the Southwestern States. I have no doubt in all these exigencies that everywhere throughout the country there was no endeavor to repudiate one cent of our public debt. In calling attention to these facts, I desire to remind these parties who tell us that the West is the "brawling communist of the prairie" that we are willing to pay the bond and the exact amount of the boncl; but let them recollect that if they require the exact rendering of the bond we will cheerfully comply. We will give them the pound of flesh, but in tl:Je cutting it they must not spBl one single drop of blood. I might go further and say, if you are not satisfied with the law and appeal to our equity we will give you all any man can ask, for we propose to be honest and equitable in this matter and pay the debt not only as we agreed to pay it, but we propose to be morally honest in thls matter and p~ all that may be required to leave the public faith unimpairet.l. It is true that we obtained a good deal of our money from the East z it is true that to-day there are eastern mortgages on our farms m the West; but it is also true that the debts were incurred during the war, when we took greenbacks from you and paid you 10 per cent., and now we are to pay you interest in silver or in gold.

These are the facts of the case, and when you talk about losing 6 per cent., as the gentleman from New Hampshire [Mr. BLAIR] stated the other day, that we may save $40,000,000 by reducing the whole volume of greenbacks iu silver instead of gold, practica1ly speaking there can be no such loss: for the gentleman admits that these transactions so long as the interest at least is paid will be extended for a series of years, that all the Eaat requires is the interest, and when the principal is paid silver may be worth more than gold, or at least be its equivalent in value. We have in the history of England an instance th~tt occurred at the close of the seventeenth century. John Brietow placed before Parliament his method by which he provided for the appraisement of every acre of real estate in the realm, and on that appniisment currency was to be issued on the full value of the appraisal, his institution to be called tlie national land bank, which was to be one of the financial institutions of England. He was inquired as to how, when a bill was presented at the counter for r~demption, it was to be redeemed. "Why," said he, ''the brokers in Lombard street have not guineas ready to pay with." The reply was the Lombard currency waa redeemable in gold, and if the bill went to protest the reputation ·of the Lombard bank was ruined.

And the only reply that he had to make then was that he would make these bills interconvertible. That is the very scheme that the absolute-money IQan and the greenbacker are to-day advancing for the purpose of inflating this country and bringing prices up to where they were in 1863, and making dried apples worth twenty-five cents a pound, coffee, fifty or sixty cents, and cotton cloth in proportion.

'fhe next scheme brought forward was the celebrated scheme of Mr. Chamberlain. His !Scheme was to estimate for one hundred years the yearly value of the real estate of Great Britain, and upon that estimated value issue money .and bank currency; if the yearly value of the estate was 1,000, to issue currency to that amount. He was

told that the fee-simple Qf the real estates in England was only worth t.wenty years: purchase. While he admitted that that was the case, yet he undertook to show that he could make it the full value of one hundred year.s' purchase ; or, in other words, that twenty was five times infinity.

And then, when King William of England waa engaged in a war with Louis XIVf he asked Parliament to pass that bill because he was promised £100,000 in thirty days to carry on that war. Yet, in the next ninety days only £2,000 was subscribed1 and the scheme fell through. That was the en<l of all the greenback-currency heresy that has iufected England from that day to this. On the contrary, Parliament stepped forward and tacked on to the money bill that famous tonn:}.ge bill, which was in fact the corporate act of the Bank of England, and in ninety days £800,000 were subscribed, 'Villiam was enabled to obtain means to carry on the war with Louis XIV, and from that day to this England has moved forward on the highway of prosperity.

Now what the West wants is this: they desire to pay their debts. and pay them honestly, but if we are to resume they desire to know what is to take the place of the greenback for general circulation.

We believe that by January 1, 1879, the national-bank currency will not be more than $340,000,000; and that amount is not sufficient to supply the wants of the country. Therefore it is that we want that silver shall step in and furnish the needed supply.

Silver is one of the great products of this country. If America were like Germany and had no silver, then .America might stand in the position of Germany. If America was in the position of those nations which have no great amount of these precious metals, then it might be the policy of America to take but one of these products and cast aside the other as worthless for money. But to-day we have silver mines that yield 36 per cent. of gold. We have mines of gold and silver unprecedented in the history of the world. It seems to me that to demonetize silver, when we have it as a product so great in quantity, would be just the same as if Congress should provide that we should not use for food or for purposes of manufacture a bushel of any grain but wheat.

If Congress should enact that nothing but wheat should enter into the consumption of this country, and thereby should demonetize barley and rye and corn, then I ask if wheat would not at once appreciate and barley and rye and corn depreciate, because there would be no market for them f

We have those two great products of silver and gold ; why not utilize them f Why not take silver and bring it into the position whero it ought to stand, where it bas always stood foremost as the coinage of every nation f In the early days, when the ignorant fishermen stood upon the shore of the sea of Gali1ee, and they had not one penny with which to pay the tax, an<l all that Cresar demanded was the amount of tho tax, the Saviour of men stepped forward and bade one of them cast his net into the sea. He did so, aml brought forth a fish from which be took the coin to pay the tax. What was it f It was silver, not gold. [Laughter.]

Ministers of to-day tell ns in their sermons that there are apples of gold in pictures of silver. Now I may like their theology, but 1 must say I do not like their financial principles. If they will keep in their place I will keep in mine. They are a very good thing in their place; I like them; I do not see how we can get along without them. But we must have money even before we can have ministers. [Laughter.] These apples of gold in pictures of silver are all a fine thing as given to us in the Inspired Word. But the same word also tells us in auother place that if we will keep our integrity then as a nation w& will ride upon the high places of the earth and our "defense shall be the munitions of rocks."

We cannot act contrary to our conviction of what is right and wrong. We cannot be tempted aside for one moment for the reason that we came from those hills and vales of the East about which the gentleman from ~ew Hampshire [Mr. BLAIR] told us the ot.ber day. We now tell him that if the West has become dishonest then we were dishonest when we left the East. We went from Maine and New Hampshire and other eastern states and the rock-bound shores of New England. We were schooled in their schools; we obtained· our teachings from their teachers; we derived outt principles of r-ight and wrong from them. If we are wrong to-day then we were· wrong when we left the hills and vales of our native States.

But there is a glad era dawning ou the country. Massachusetts and Maine are getting nearer together. [Laughter.J They have ~ave already closed np the bloody chasm, and to-day, Mr. Speaker, m the language of Milton-

The midnight moon serenely smiles o'er nature's soft repose; No lowering clouds distil the i!kies or ruflling tempest blows.

We ask Maine and Massa-chusetts to shake hands, so that with the next-returning dawn of our natal day we may be able as usual to commence our orations at the battle of Bunker Hill; otherwise we· may have to begin at the lawns of Princeton.

Mr. Speaker, It is well to be reminded of the fact that the bondholder is not the only man in this world, not the only one upon this continent to be provided for, but that the great business interests of the country are to be adjusted in a fair and honorable way. We point to the fact, sir, of the shrinkage of values in the West. In the last three years. in Chicago the shrinkage of values has been 100 p~r


cent., and we are told now that Boston owns Chicago. If so, we call upon Boston to protect Chicago, and not let her be confiscated entirely. She is a noble city and has majestically arisen from her ashes. She has the honesty and the plnck; give her the opportunity to obtain a strength that is equal to her beauty. But it is inevitable, Mr. Speaker, unless you provide something in the next year, in the West and in the South t.here will be a shrinkage of values such as you have not before witnessed, taking into account tbat of the last three years. All we ask at your hands in this case, while we are willing to abide by the letter of the contract and willing even to go further, is that you shall make it your business to see to it that we have a currency, and that in sufficient abundance to supply the wants of the coutry; because you know, in moving our wheat from the great grain-producing portions of the West, where money has to be distributed to every little town and village along the whole line, it has to be sent by express, and in that respect business is not done as it is in New England and the great eastern cities, by exCbange, where not a single dollar is moved from the vaults of the banks, where not a penny of currency is paid, but where exchange takes its place. In the West business necessarily is transacted in a different way, and the money, as I have already stated, has to be distribut-ed from point to point.

I n~member reading an allegory some time·ago which has so much significance that I will venture to repeat it. A thousand-dollar bill lay upon the counter of a bank in a western city and a dollar bill lay beside it. The thousand-dollar bill sa~d to the dollar bill, "Do not approach me. My master takes good care of me. I am looked after with such extreme caution and such ceaseless vigilance that I am not allowed to be subjected to any influence of outside weath'3r or temperature. I have been kept so closely that I have never been allowed to venture out and therefore never have caught a cold. What care I about you, you small, iusi~nificant piece of humanity f" Said the dollar bill to the thousand-dollar bill, " I may be able to do some good w bile I am in existence." At that time there stepped in a blind man asking for alms and the b:mker handed out the dollar bill. It was about fifteen months after this when one day the dollar bill was again laid by the side of the thousand-dollar bill on the banker's counter. Said the thousand-dollar bill, "So you have returned." "Yes," said the dollar bill, "I have returned. I have been from Maine to California and paid debt after deb.t until in the aggregate I have paid debts to the amount of $1,000,000, while yon have lain in the vaults of tbe bank and upon this counter, and valuable a.~ you are yet yon have not been worth one penny to the body politic."

It is in this sense, when the people have even silver to circulate amon"' them there can be no good ground of objection. Even the subsid'iary silver circulating to-day cannot go abroad because of the demonetization inflicted by being only 384 grains, and why should we not have our silver-dollar circulation and have enough of it for our people to use to do their marketing, to pay the wages of the laborer upon Saturday night, and to let our people have it in their pockets, for the poor ma.n does not feel poor under such circumstances f When you have the thousand and hundred dollar bills laid away in your bank vaults, when you have your gold certificates laid away in the same place, when the great mass of the people have nothing but poverty staring them in the face, in view of all the debts they have to pay, why should they be refused the remonetization of silver in order that they may have currency in which to carry on their transactions f Why should they be refused the silver currency when silver itself stood at 3 per cent. above par when, in 1873, it was demonetized f

There are other topics I would like to give a few moments' attention to; but I do not know how much time I have consumed. However, I desire to say that while the great mass of the people West are in favor of resumption, while they are in favor of resumption, yet, when I was called on to vote, when the bill was up repealing the act fixing the date for resumption, I voted for it.

I voted for it because I believe my constituents, ninety out of every hundred of the resumptionists in my district, believed it was unwise to fix any date for it. They believed that, under the act I have just read, the provisions of the legal-tender act itself are sufficient; that each legal-tender on its face states it is payable in money; that money is not promises; that the Government can pay those promises in money the moment it obtains the money to pay them with. I therefore made that sacrifice. I cannot say 1 regret it. I am a new member, and I supposed a man when he came here should reflect the views of those he represents, especia.lly when he knows what their views are on a certain subject. They are resnmptionists, I repeat it, and they stand by the act of March, 1!::!69, and never will be moved from performing it to the strict letter-never, never.

Now, a word in regard to this absolute money business. We are told by those who favor the issue of absolute money that they do not desire any promises to pay. What they desire is that this· Government shall issue money; shall issue a bill and say, this is $1, and shall there stop, and never make any provision for the payment of that dollar except that it is the dollar of the Government. It is the dol- · lar of the Government; therefore they think that it should be good enough for us to use. They say to us, if you please, make the greenback convertible; issue 3.65 bonds for the purpose of making them convertible.

One point here. One notable fact which we forget is that national-bank currency

possesses nearly a full legal-tender quality. It is a legal tender in payment by the Governm~nt, except the interest on the public debt and the debt itself. It is a legal tender in payment to the Government in all ca-ses except for customs. It is a legal tender as between the banks themselves. It is a legal tender in payment- by the banks to their depositors. The only instances in which it is not a legal tender is as between the bank and a bill-holder, and as between individuals; it is, therefore, so far a legal tender of reality that practically it is gladly taken by every one.

Why, Mr. Speaker, what a scheme that would. be. To issue this absolute money and when a man had $10,000 of th1s money and could not use it to advantage that be should be allowed to put it into the Treasury of the United States and receive for it $10,000 of 3.6.S bonds on which he would receive interest; and then when at the end, say, of six months he found he could make better use of his money that he should be allowed to withdraw the currency and replace back the bonds! I would be in favor of that if you would let every manufacturer and every farmer in the country when he cannot get such a price for hls products a.s he desires cover into the Treasury all of his wheat and other products and let them there draw interest until such time as he got such a price for them as suited him ; for a man who has money in the market is in that respect in the same position as the farmer who has wheat which he wishes to sell. Such a system would be the most disastrous that could ever be adopted in any country. The Lord deliver us from the time when absolute money becomes ruler of this country!

It is said governments do not continue to exist-that thoy are not immortal. 'fhat is the fact ; but I think the adoption of such a measure as this would cover them with an ignominy which might make them immortal in the annals of history. Consequently, let it never be said, especially of the American Government, that they issue absolute money, sayin~ this is one dollar, and without any promise to redeem or to pay 1t. It would be as fatal to tbe pest interests of this country as any foreign war that could ever happen to her, because there would be one advantage in the war at least that it would give an impetus tQ all manufactures and commerce, and that while the blood of the nation was flowing, at least those who survived would have plenty of money. This would be the picture that would be placed before us iu such a ca.se.

I have not had time for reflection on this subject and I have to ask the indulgence of the Honse while I place before it in a somewhat incoherent form what I desire to say on this question. In the present conjuncture of affairs in this country the question I think is easy of solution by two or three simple propositions. One of them is this: If we desire to afford temporary relief while this silver bill is pending, let US pass a law making the \Olume of greenbacks, whether $3UO,OOO,OOO or $350,000,000, interchangable with gold, and then let us retire them at leisure, when we find it is for t.he interest of the Government to do so, until the silver bill is perfected; until there C{l:n be brought about that unanimity on the part of both Houses of Congress to agree upon something that shall be permanent; that shall be of lasting benefit to the people of this country; and that shall give an earnest of speedy restoration of confidence, for to-day through this broad -eountry there is nothing but darkness. There is not even a streak of light to show the people of the country what the Congress of the United States proposes to do.

Pending that, all the great interests of the country are, as it were, at a standstill. Firms are goincr down; banks are tottering; everything is in a state of unrest; the business interests of the country are suffering to an unprecedented extent ; and yet amid all these damages that are resulting to tho people we have not in these three long months that we have been bore provitled the first particle of relief-anything to give even tempomry relief until permanent relief cau be given of such a nature that it will be not only for the present generation but for generations to come.

Now all we ask is to let us have this silver dollar. Let us have it at 412! grains, because if we fix it at 420 or 430 grains how soon will the time be when the Latin union, whose standard is 400 grains, would take ours and recoin it at a small expense, say one-half pcrcent.,and ohr silver would all leave the country f Within two years, perhaps, a large portion of it would be gone, because the Latin union would find onr silver to be much more valuable than theirs.

We know as a matter of fact that to-day the dollar of 420 grains is exported to Japan, and to-day it is made a . valuable business to transport our trade-dollars to Japan where they are recoined, and we know that all the Asiatic nations use silver.

We know that the exchange on Lombard street is in trouble today, and that Wall street, following in its wake, is also in trouble. To control and fix the rate of exchange between London and eastern nations with whom they trad~ free to-day in consequence of tbe exportation of the trade-do] lar London is obliged to send her exchange to San Francisco and from there send her silver in exchange for oriental products. As I have saitl, I will not take up more time, but I wish to make one more remark, and it is this: Sir, when gentlemen say that the West seeks to deprive the East of their 6 or 8 per cent. and that the West is in this senso dishonest, we desire to remind them that there is nothing in our minds which woul{l lead us to take one single farthing from the East.

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-·HOUSE. 601 ThE-se forebodings of the future if silver is remonetized that gold

will leave them, that no more their doctrine will drop like the rain and distillli ke the dew; that ''hope for a season has bid the world farewell," re~d us of the wailings of the Widow Bedot :

0, for a sight of Shadrach's faee, To shine amid t.he gloom,

A.nd mitigate this lonesome place And shed a sweet perfume.

But we say to those who have these forebodings, if they will come over and help us,

The liquid drops of tears that you have shed Shall come again, transform'd to Orient peari; .Advantaging their loan. with interest Of ten times double gain of happiness.

Let them be calm and quiet and stand by the West, and the West will stand by the East as it has done for the last twenty years, and then we shall all be right; and then the nation will stand upon a :firm basis and move on as God intended it to move, to a higher destiny than that of any other nation, and say as of old, "Let the North give not up, and the Sooth give not back." Among the nations of the earth America shall arise as the brightest jewel in earth's coronet.

REMONETIZATION OF SILVER. ~ Mr. TIPTON. Mr. Speaker, since the vote of the Senate on ye -

day on the resolutions of Senator MA'ITHEWS, it occurs to ·me be American people are well satisfied that silver will be remonetizetl by this Con~ress and will become again, not only one of the coins of the connt.ry, but shall also be a legal tender for all debt8, both public and private. That is my judgment, and I believe it to be the jndgment of the American people, and the sooner the law is passed by this Congress and approved by the Executive the better it will be for the countrv. Property all over the conntry is depreciating in value day by day, year by year; property which three years ago was ample security is but scant security now for the loans then made. The people demand the enactment of a law restoring silver to the coinage, and they demand that that law shall be enacted immediately. The people understand this grea,t question as well as we do, and the sooner the Congress of the United States understands this matter the bett.er. I believe it to be for the interest of this country that this law be \lassed, and passed at once. It is the agitation of this question that 18 to-day depreciating the securities of the East, and the sooner the men of capital and the country understand this

·question the better it will be for them. I believe it to be in the interest of capital that the representatives

of capital on this floor should understand that every daythis question is agitated their securities are depreciating. Enact this law and confidence will be restored in the public mind. The values of property in this country depend to a certain extent upon confidence. But, say these gentlemen, the remonetization of silver will give the people no relief. The people of this country-, and especially the people of the West, have an abiding confidence that the ena-ctment of a law of this kind will give them not only immediate but permanent relief. They believe that since the country prospered from the adoption of the Constitution down to 1873 it will again prosper if such legislation is had in this capital as will restore silver to the coinage and make it a legal tender. Then t.he abiding faith in the ability of the country to pay will be restored. The constitutionality of the demonetization of silver is not now a question. The time has gone by when it was proper to discuss the question as to whether that act was iu violation of the Constitution or not. The time has gone by to <liscuss the question whether or not tha,t act was enacted through any misunderstanding of Congress or not. Sufficient for this Hontie and the people to .know that silver is demonetized, and sufficient for them to know that it should be restored. Every mao in the country understands this question, and in my judgment ei~ht out of ten favor the double rather than the single standard of gola. The demonetiz· ation of silver took from the people an ability to pay; they demand that they shall be restored to that ability.

And then they demand in addition tha.t all the machinery of the Government, every mint, every power known to the law shall be utilized for the purpose of furnishing to the people this money as rapitlly as possible. In other words, the people demand the unlimited coinase of silver. The people do not understand that the silver coin of thts country is aa irredeemable currency. But they understand that every dollar of silver that is coined in this land adds one dolla,r to the material wealth of the people.

Our Western States and Territories can furnish us the bullion. Let the law be so amended and enacted that the bullion can be coined into money. Let the Government issue its certificates for the bullion J•ayable in coin, and then there will be no troullle in the minds of the people either of the East or of the West.

There seems to be some misunderstanding between the people of the East and of the West. There is no necessity for that. The Western people are honest, and so regard the people of the East. There is no necessity in this country for a war between capital and labor; for a war between the debtor and the creditor classes. The American people are honest. The people of the West and the people of the South mean to pay evt'ry dollar they owe.

They are not willing, however, to listen to the argument which holds that by the coinage of the ail ver dollar of 4h!t grains there

will be a repudiation to the extent of eight cents on the dollar ; they are not willing to listen to such an argument as that. They have on abiding faith that if the silver dollar of 412t grains is restored to the currency of tho conn try then silver and gold dollars will in a very short time be of substantially an equal value.

The people of the West are not only in favor of a gold and silver standard, but they are also in favor of keeping in circulation the $350,000,000 of United States Treasury notes now in circulation. These notes are a legal tender, and I for one never will vote for any law that withdraws from circulation the $3.50,000,000 of Treasury notes now in circulation until the interests of the people demand that this circulation should be retired.

I belive these notes can be kept in circulation and made equivalent to coin. Whether they are toLe day by day convertible into coin is a question tha,t I will not now stop to discuss, but sufficient for me to know tha,t the $350,000,000 of United States not-es can be kept in circulation and be equivalent to coin. That will give os the gold and silver producing power of the country, and in addition the $350,000,000 of Treasury notes.

The country is now paying no interest on the $350,000,000, and I can see no practical sense, unless the people demand it, in taking up the $350,000,000 of Treasury notes and making it an interest-bearing debt, while it is now a portion of the non-interest-bearing debt of the nation, and when the people are willing and desirous that these notes should be continued in circulation.

I have listened to the argument8 on both sides of this question, and I have yet been unable to hear an argument in favor of the single standard alone that will staud the test of experieoee of the people of this country for the last four years.

The debts of this country, public and private, amount to substantially $8,000,000,000. How is it to be paid f In coin or its eqni valent. The people of the West are not asking that they should be allowed to pay their debts at any rate less than the face value of the bdebtedness. Neither are they asking that they should be allowed to pay their dobts in a money that is not of par value. Bnt what they ol>ject to is this: when they become indebted, when this great indebtedness tha,t is now hanging over the country was created, gold and silver were equally legal tender. They cannot understand, nor will the people of the East ever get them to understand, the justice of demonetizing silver and taking the silver coin of the country from the debt-paying power of the people.

I am convinced that if the question of demonetizing silver had been submitted to the people and had been discussed and understood by them then as it is now no respectable number of men could have been brought together in support of that measure. In other words, it is my ,judgment that it was not only wrong but bad legislation. It bas tended to depreciate the value of the very securities in which these men who are represented upon this floor favoring t.he single standard have invested their money.

I believe that legislation which destroys and depreciate8 the value of property in any portion of this country is improper. I think that no law should be enacted by the law-makin~· power of this Government that tends to depreciate your property or mine; that tends to depreciate pl"'perty in any portion of this country. Wha,tever legislation is had should not only be for the benefit of the people as to their persons and personal rights, but it should be for the protection of the property which they have accumulated.

It is a sad fact that the market valne of property has depreciated all over the country; that bonds antl mortgages have a,ppreciated, but all other property has depreciated. Land is worth in f~t just as much to-day in the State which I have the honor in part to wpreseot on this floor as it ever was. It is in a higher state of cultivation today than it has ever before attained. We can raise more corn per acre to-day upon the lands of Illinois than ever was raised before. There is an intrinsic value in the lands in every section of the country that is as 7-reat as it ever attained before, even during the high prices of 1865- 66.

The valno of city property in the State of illinois is as great to'day as it over has been. But there is absolutely no market for city property in the State of Illinois, either in the city of Chica,go, the ci'ty of Bloomington, the city of P~oria, the city of Springfield, or in a,ny other city in the State. Why is this f I maintain it is because the demonetization of silver depreciated the market price of property day by day a.nd because the people lost confidence in their ability to pay. A man who wants to buy a piece of property watches the opportunity for some man who is compelled to sell, and it is only in such an instance you can Loy property to-day for less value than in 1865 or 1866. The people of the West have faith in the value of their property.

What the people of the West, and especially of the State of Illinois, demand is the remonetization of silver. I have an abiding faith that the remonetization of silver will work out the great problem of resumption, a,nd when that question is settled confidence will be restored, the price of property will again be equalized, and former pricesreadily realized. Men who desire will :find a market for their land, and men who desire will find a ma.rket for their city property and be enabled to pay their debt.s, with the last cent due for interest.

Mr. Speaker, this is a question of importance to my people. It is of importance to the entire people of t4e West, and they demand immediate action upon it. It is this delay that itJ brea,king up men day

602 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 28,

by day. They have been holding on to their rroperty year by year in the hope they would be able to hold on unti times would improve and they be relieved from their embarrassment. But times are not going to improve in the West or confidence be . restored until silver is remonetized.

I believe it to be in the interest of capital, I believe it to be iu the interest of the owners of property of my State, that this law should be passed at once. It is immediate action that the people demand. The people understand the question. Why, then, this delay T Why thus continue this question T Why thus continue this agitation day by day when men day by day are going into bankruptcy for the very reason we are delaying its settlement here in the halls of legislation f

Let us enact this law ; let us restore the silver dollar of the fathers ; Jet us say to the people that 412! grains of standard silver shall be a legal t-ender for one dollar in the payment of debts both public and private in this country. I say the enactment of this law will restore confidence. It will add a value, a salable and marketable value, to the property of the people of this country. It will build up the mined fortunes of men who have been able thus long to hold on to their property and pay the coupons as they become doe.

If for expressing these sentiments I am to be called "a bawling communist from the prairies,'' so be it. It is not proper that I should say in reply that these coupon-clippers and dove-traders of the East are undertaking to break down and crush the people of the West.

I wish to cliscuss thls question, Mr. Speaker, in the direct interest of the people. The people have some rights and they are entitled to consideration by the Representa.ti >es of this Hoose. The right of the people is to have the dollar of the fathers restored to its original status in the law of the land. In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, we have a right to have this question of resumption in some way settled, and although the settlement and proper adjustment of these two questions will satisfy the people of the West, yet., if this question is to be continued, I say to those men who are representing oastern districts they will tind in the }'orty-sixthCongress a different class of men to deal with. If these qnestions .are not settled, and settled at once, or before this present Congress adjourns, I say to those gentlemen that from the districts of the West and Sont.h will come a class of men who will demand, not only-that silver shall be remonetized and that the resumption act shall be repealed, but that the nationalbanking law shall be repealer! and the Government of the United States shall issue all the money to be in circulation in this country.

It seems to me it is but a fair compromise they should yield to the demand of the western Representatives that tte silver dollar should be restored and this question of resumption settled. I will not say particularly how this question of resumption is to be settled, bot what I demand for the people I represent is that the question shall be sett.led. As I have said, I will never cast my vote to have the $350,000,000 of Treasury notes taken up as bng as the interest-bearing debt of the nation is as large as it is and the people are demanding that Treasury notes should be left in their hands for circn1ation. The demand of my people and of the people of theW est is that the Treasury notes now in circulation shall remain, and they object to the I'eduction of that amount one dollar.

We demand simply that the amount of Treasury notes that are now in circn1ation should remain in circulation. We demand such legislation as will leave them in circulation. If the silver dollar is restored I believe they can be made day by day convertible into coin or be equivalent to coin. We are not here to demand, or, at least, Mr. Speaker, I am not demanding any debased currency. I want such a currency that when a man has worked and performed a day's labor, for which he bas received the agreed price of one dollar he shall know that he has a dollar at night.

It is the settlement of these questions that the people are now demanding. The people understand their ri~hts. They understand their want-s. Now what they want is an adJustment of these questions in accordance wit.h just principles and they will be content. They are not asking for any violent legislation: They are simply. a-sking that these questions shall be a,(ijusted and settled so that men will be willing to invest their capital in trade t·ather than in bonds and coupons. Labor is absolutely without ability to procure any remuneration whatever. Men are standing idle because they are unable to find employment. Why is it f Is it because of this unsettled state of the finances f What I demand is that these questions of finance shall be settled and withdrawn from the halls of legislation. Let it be settled in such a manner that capitalists and business men will understand just what to do. With this unsettled state of finance men in my State are unwilling to invest their money even in cattle for any considerable length of time. Why f It is because the question of finance is so unsettled that they are unable to determine just what to do. It is so in all the avenues of busineSs. Men are afraid to invest their money in any kind or cbaracterof enterprise. Why is itt It is because of the want of confidence. I do not know, Mr. Speaker, whether it is a want of confidence in the integrity of Congress or a want of confidence in their ability to properly adjust qoest.ions that are to be determined. But they do understand that these questions of finance are being agitated here, and they understand that these questions are being agitated from day to day, and they further nnderstanu that this Congress has the · power and ability to enact this law whenever it so determines.

Now what my people demand and what I believe the people of the .entire country demand of every friend of these reformatory measures in the Congress of the United States is that we shall act and act at once. ·

Mr. Speaker, this delay from day to day and from month to month is working a hardship upon the people until they are losing confidence in their ability to pay. I say immediate action now will save not only thousands of business men but enable farmers to save their ~arms and enable the eastern capitalists, who have money investeu rn the West, at the proper time to get not only their principal but their interest. I hope, Mr. Speaker, that no delay will be had either on the part of this Honse or on the part of the other braneh of Congress upon this question, but that such acts shall be passed, anu passed at once, as will settle these financial questions and restore confidence in the public mind.

Mr. CABELL. If no other gentleman desires to speak I moyethat the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to. And accordingly (at four o'clock and fifteen minutes p. m.) the

House adjourned.

PETITIONS, ETC

The following petitions, &c., were presented at the Clerk's desk, under the rn1e, an<l referred as stated:

By Mr. ~HALMERS: ¥emorial of the Legi_slature of Mississippi, for the rehef of persons m that State whose timber has been seized by United States officials-to the Committee on Public Lands.

By Mr. <J_QNGE~:. The petition~ of J. 0. Goran and 68 others, and of John Nicol, Wtlliam Boost, Ehza Wortze, and others, engaged in wool-growing and manufacturing, against the revocation of the duty on imported wool and woolen fabrics and against the reimposition of the tariff on tea and sugar-to the Committee of Ways and Means.

By Mr. CUTLER: Remonstrance of John Ryle and 160 others, engaged in the manufacture of silk at Paterson, New Jersey, against a reduction of tariff duties and against the reimposition of the tax on tea and coffee--to the same committee.

By Mr. HANNA: The petition of citizens of Indianapolis, for a change in the tariff duties on sugar-to the same committee.

Al~:~o, the petition of workingmen of Indianapolis, against the reimposition pf the war tax on tea and coffee and for the proper protection of the int.erests of labor-to the same committee.

Also, forty-two petitions from citizens of Goodland, Attica, Saint Paul, Gosport, Spencer, Goshen, Bristol, Lexino-ton, Sullivan, Carthage, Vincennes, Williamsport, Ligonier, Rockport, Salem, West Lebanon, Newport, Union City, Shelbyville, Fowler, Richmond, New Harmony, Knightstown, Petersbnrgh, Winchester, Lebanon, Plymouth, La Porte, Marion, Indianapolis, Kendallville, Vevay, Tell City, Rushville, Edinburgh, Bloomington, Greens burgh, Fort Wayne, Planefield, Brownsburgh, Greenfield, Alexandria, and Evansville, State of Indiana, for the repeal of the bankrupt law-to the Committee on the Judiciary.

By Mr. HENKLE: The petition of Ann Maria Biscoe, for a pension-to the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions.

By Mr. RIDDLE: A paper relating to the establishment of a postroute between Cookeville and Celina, by way of Hilham, Tennesseeto the Committee on the Post-Office ann P~t-Roads.

By Mr. WARNER: The petition of John Tweedy, postmaster at Danbury, Connecticut, for relief-to the Committ.ee of Claims.

By Mr. WILLIS, of Kentncky: The petition of B. C. Levi and other citizens of Louisville, Kentucky, for the immediate construction of the Texas Pacific Railroad-to the Committee on the Pacific Railroad.

By Mr. WILLITS: The petitions of H. M. Cowen and 66 ·others; of G. Carleton and 63 others, citizens of Hillsdale i and of G. A. Peters and 19 others, citizens ef Washtenaw County, MIChigan.} for the protection oi wool-growers-to the Committee of Ways ana. Meall8.

IN SENATE. MONDAY, January 28, 1878.

Prayer by Rev. JAMES D. BuTLER, LL.D., of Madison, WiscoDBin. The Jonrnal of the proceedings of Friday last was read and ap

proved. PE'l'ITIONIS AND MEMO.RIA.LS.

The VICE-PRESIDENT present-ed a letter from the governor of California, traDBmitting a memorial of the senate of the State of California upon the subject of the policy and means of excluding Chinese from the United States; which was refert'ed to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

He also presented the petition of Joseph Griffith, William Murray, and others, citizens of Remsen, New York, praying Congress to provide by appropriate legislation for the appointment of a commi~ion of inquiry concerning the alcoholic liquor traffic; which was referred to the Committee ou Finance.

Mr. KERNAN presented the memorial of GeorgeS. W. Arthur and others, wo_rkingmen of Brooklyn, New Yo1·k, engaged in the manu-

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