1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 429

By Mr. SOUTHARD: The petition of L. B. Harris, for the repeal infringement of patents, and "for the use of such patented articles; of section 2291 Revised Statutes relati>e to homesteads-to the Com- which was referred to the Committee on Patents. mittee on the Judiciary. . Mr. SAUNDERS presented the petition of Sila-s Garber, governo.r By Mr. SPRINGER: The petition of S. Wells Williams, late secre­ of Nebraska, and others, citizens of that State, praying for an appro­ tary of the legation to China, for the repayment of salary to his sub­ priation by Congress for the improvement of the navigation of the stitute-to the Committee on Expenditures in t he State Department. Missouri River at and H.ear Omaha, Nebraska, and Council Bluffs, By Mr. WALSH: The petition of Dr. W. W. Lockett and 55 other Iowa; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce. citizens, of Fr~derick County, Maryland, for the past?age of a. bill Mr. CAMERO:N, of Wisconsin, presented the memorial of the Legis. granting arrears of pension-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. lature of Wisconsin, in favor of an appropriation by Congress to aid Also, papers relating to the claims of Ezra Burtner and of Charles in the completion of the St.nrgeon Bay and Lake Michigan ship-canal H. Wiltberger for property taken by the United States Army-to and harbor, and to ext-end the time for the completion thereof; which the Committee on War Claims. was referred to the Committee on Commerce. Also, the petition of Hamilton Downs, of Watl hin~on County, Mr. HAMLIN presented the memorial of Charles R. Loring and Maryland, for compensation for whisky and brandy taken and used others, workingmen employed in the Brunswick mill, Brunswick, by the United States Army-to the same committee. Maine, and the memorial of George Y. Pratt and others, working­ By Mr. WHITTHORNE : Papers relating to the claims of Dr. W. men employed in the Windham mill, at Windham, Maine, engaged in J. Anderson, of Manry County, Tennessee; ot' J. H. Sims, of J. B. the manufacture of wood-pulp, remonstrating against any reduction Stacy, and of E. M. Shadden, for compensation for property taken of the duties which protect their labor, and also remonstrating and used by the United States Army-to the same committee. against the reimposit.ion of the war tax upon tea and coffee; which Also, papers relating to the claims of John P. Williams and S.C. were referred to the Committee on Finance. Moffett-to the Committee of Claims. . Mr. WALLACE presented the petition of L. Mahaffey and others, By Mr. WILLIAMS, of Delaware: Remonstrance of 72 working­ citizens of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, praying for the repeal men of Wilmington, Delaware, against a reduction of duty on mer­ of the resumption act and for the remonetization of silver; which chant bar-iron-to the Committee of Ways and Means. was referred to the Committee on Finance. By Mr. WILLIAMS, of New York: Remonstrance of E. Kingsland, He also presented the memorial of the Union League of Philadel­ J. R. Romeyn and others, at Keesville, New York, manufacturers.of phia, remonstrating against the remonetization of silver; which was horse-shoe nails,1 against any change in the tariff-to the same com- referred to t.he Committee on Finance. mittee. . He also presented the memorial of C. Poindexter and others, citi­ By Mr. WILSON: A paperrelating to the establishment of a post­ zens of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, engaged in the manufacture of route from Wirt Court House to Sandyville, by way of Reedy Ripple, iron, and the memorial of William Newell and others, citizens of Right Fork Reedy, Cairns' Mills, Turkey Ford and Falls, West Vir­ Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, remonstrating against a reduction of the ginia,-.to the Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads. tariff on iron; which were referred to t.be Committee on Finance. By Mr. YOUNG: Papers relating to the claim of Jesse J. Busby-to Mr. KERNAN presented the memorial of B. T. Babbitt and others, the Committee on War Claims. citizens of New York and Pennsylva,nia, and the meworial of Thorn­ ton & Chester and others, citizens of Buffalo, New York, remonstrat­ ing against a further extension of the Horsford patent for an ac:d substi~ute for cream of tartar for culinary purposes; which were referred to the Committee on Patents. He also presented the petition of Henry S. V a.n de Carr and Elsie IN SENATE. M. Reynolds, administrator and administl.'atrix of the estate of Rens­ selaer Reynolds, decea-sed, praying for the passage of a. law authoriz­ MONDAY, January ~1, ~878. • ing the extension of a patent for the improvement of brakeg for power Prn.yer by the Chaplain, Rev. BYRON SUNDERLAND, D. D. looms; which was referred to the Committee on Patents. The Journal of the proceedings of Friday last was read and ap­ He also presented the petition of George F. Peck and others, inter­ proved. ested in life-insurance policies issued by the National Capital Life EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS. Insurance Company of Washington, District of Columbia, praying that its charter may be repealed and the assets applied to the pay­ The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a letter of the Sec­ ment of its debts; which was referred to the Committee on the Did- retary of War, recommending an examination of a .compilation of trict of Columbia. · the records of the late•wa.r on the Federal and confederate sides, .Mr. CONKLING. I present a large number of ;petitions signed by with a view to the publication of the same; which was read. ·citizens of the county of Ulster, the county of Livingston, the county The VICE-PRESIDENT. This communication will beprinted,and of Genessee. the county of Orange, the city and county of New York, referred to the Committee on Printing. the county of Essex, the county of Steuben, the county of Albany, Mr. ANTHONY. I think that it should go ·to the Committee on and the county of Westchester, in the State of New York, praying Military Affairs. Congress to remonetize silver and to repeal the so-called resumption The VICE-PRESIDENT. It raises purely a question of the pro­ act. These petitioners are very numerous. As far as I know them priety of printing this work. The Chair thinks the proper reference and judge from reading the petitions and the letters accompanying is to the Committee on Printing. them, they are largely laboring-men. With them are men engaged Mr. ANTHONY. Very well. in enterprise and employing others. The bill having been reported. The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a communication I ask that these petitions lie upon the table. · from the Sacretary of War, tmnsmitting, in compliance with a resG­ The VICE-PRESIDENT. The petitions will lie upon -;;he table. lution of the Senate of the lOth instant, a copy of a report from Mr. CONKLING .:_Jresemed ·a memorial of workingmen of Troy, Major Suter, Corps of Engineers, upon the suxvey of the Missouri New York, protestmg against the reduction of the turitf on goods River a.t Omaha; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce, of fQreign manufacture; which was referred to the Collllll1ttee on and ordered to be printed. Finance. PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS. l\Ir. CONKLING. I present a similar petition from workingmen residing at West Eaton, in the State of New York, engaged in the Mr. McCREERY presented • the petition of Lena. Bensinger, of manufacture of woolen cassimeres. I move its reference to the Com­ Louisville, Kentucky, widow ancl executrix of the late Nathan Ben­ mittee on Finance. singer, praying that she may be reimbursed a certain amount of The motion was agreed to. money paid the United States by her late husband as bondsman for Mr. CONKLING. I present a like petition, signed by a large num­ her son-in-law, who had failed to comply with the internal-revenue ber of workingmen residing in difterent counties in the State of laws; which was referred to the Committee on Claims. New York. I move that this J?etition be referred to the Committee He also presented the petition of J. C. Rudd, of Owens borough, Ken­ onFinance. · tucky, praying compemm.tion for the use by the United States as a The motion was agreed to. pot>t-offi~.:e of a building in that city owned by him from the year Mr. CONKLING. I present also a. memorial signed by manufact­ 1862 to 1875; which was referred to the Committee on Post-Offices urers of flour, residents of the county of Erie, and another by resi­ aucl Post-Roads. dents of the county of Albany, remonstrating against the extension Mr. HOAR presented the memorial of John Joyce and 61 others, of a patent for the use of certain acids in raising flour and bread. workingmen of Lowell; and the memorial of A.J. Nich6lls and 504 I move their reference to the Committee on Patents. others, workingmen and workingwomen of Foxborough, Massachu­ The motion was agreed to. • setts, ~mployed in the manufacture of straw goods, remonstrating Mr. CONKLING. I present a further memorial signed by resi­ against a reimpositi

430 CONGRESSIONAL. RECORD-SENATE. J .ANU.A.RY 21,

proper court for consideration of all unpaid losses arising out of introduce a bill (S. No. 566) in relu.tion to the Venezuelan mixed the depredations of confederate cruisers, so that the same may be commission; which was read twice by ita title, and referred to the adjudicated in accordance with equity and with the terms of the Committee on Foreign Relations. award. I move the reference of these resolutions to the Committee He also asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to intro­ on t.he Judiciary. duce a bill (S. No. 567) for the relief of William Carrothers; which The motion was agreed to. was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Mili­ Mr. BECK presented the petition of J. W. Kennedy and others, tary Affairs. citizens of Nicholas County, Kentucky, praying for a reduction of He also asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to intro­ the tax on tobacco to twelve cents a pound; which was referred to duce a bill (S. No. 568) for the relief of Captain James A. Bates; the Committee on Finance. which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on l'tlr. WADLEIGH presented the petitibn of Joseph Stone and others, Military Affairs. citizens of New Hampshire, engaged in the manuf:1cture of cotton He also asked, ~nd by unanimous consent obtained, leave to intro­ and woolen goods, praying for the maintenance of the resumption duce a bill (S. No. 569) for the relief of the sureties of E. K. Winship, :wt and of gold as the only legal tender; which was referred to the formerly acting a.ssistu.ut paymaster United States Navy; which was Committee on Finance. read twice by its title. He also presented the petition of M. Parker and otlters, citizens ,of !-lr. EATON. I move, as there is a legal question involved, that New 'Hampshire, praying for the maintenance of the resumption act this bill be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. and of gold as the only leg:il tender; which was referred to the Com­ The motion was agreed to. _ mittee on Finance. Mr. WADLEIGH asked, and byunanimons consent obtained, leave BILLS INTRODUCED. to introduce a. bill (S. No. 570) to enable Moses Marshall to have a hearing before the Commi~ioner of Patents; which was read twice Mr. PLUMB asked, :~,nd by unanimous consent obtained, leave to by its title, anc;l referred to the Committee on Patents. introduce a bill (S. No. 554) to provide for the improvement of the He also asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave io intro­ Osage River, in Missouri and Kansas; which was read twice by its duce a bill (S. No. 571) to enable Albert Fuller to have a hearing title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. before the Commissioner of Patents; which was read twice by its He also asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to intro­ title, and referred to the Committee on Patents. duce a bill (S. No. 5:>5) establishing certain post-roads in the State of l'tlr. MATTHEWS (by request) asked, and by unanimous consent Kansas; which waa read twice by its title, and referred to the Com­ obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 572) to incorporate the mittee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. Rand Gas-Light Company of the District of Columbia; which WllS He also asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leu.ve to i!ltro­ read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on the District duce a bill (S. No. 556) for the relief of Joseph C. Irwin :tnd William of Columbia. Phillips; which was read twice by its title, and, together with the PAPERS WITHDRAWN AND REFERRED. papers on the files relating to this case, referred to the Committee on On motion of Mr. CONKLING, it was Claims. Ordered, That the papers of Sarah Dove be taken from tho files :md referred to 1\Ir. DAWES asked, u.nd by unanimous consent obtu.ined, leave to the Committee on Claims. introduce a bill (S. No. 557) directing the Secretary of the Treasury On motion of Mr. McDONALD, it was to purchase certain property of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Ordereii, That the papers in the matter of the claim of the heirs of George Mc­ Company, for the use of the United States, and for other purposes; Dougall, deceased, be taken from the files and referred to the Committee on Claims. which wa read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. On motion of Mr. MERRIMON, it was Mr. CHAFFEE asked, and by unu.nimons consent obtained, leave Ordered, That the papers of A. M. Powell, of North Carolina, be taken from the · files and referred to the Committee on Claims. to introduce a bill (S. No. 558) declaratory of t.he meaning u.nd in­ Ordered, That the papers of H. H. Helper, of North Carolina., be taken from the tendment of tile fifteenth section o~ the act entitled "An act to amend files and referred to the Committee on .Military Affairs. 'An act to aid in the construction of a ru.ilroad u.nd telegru.ph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific· Ocean, and to secure to the Govern­ On motion of Mr. DAVIS, of Illinois, it was • ment the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes,' Ordered, That Kiler K . .Tones have leave to withdraw his petition :md papers approved July 1, 1862," approved July 2, 1854; and also to amend the from the files of the Senate. act of' Congress approved June 20, 1874, entitl~d ".An act making On motion of Mr. PADDOCK, it was additions to the fifteenth section of the act approved July 2, 1864, Ordered, That the}lapers in the case of .r. W. Pe2J.111an be taken from the files entitled 'An act to amend u.n u.ct entitled "An act to aid in the con-. and returned to him. struction of u. milroad and telegrn.ph line from the Missouri River to AMENDMENTS TO BILLS. the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the·use of the Mr. PADDOCK and Mr. SAUNDERS submitted amendments in­ same for postal, military, and other purposes," approved July 1, 1862,'" tended to be proposed by them respectively to the bill (H. R. No. 2479) and for other purposes; which was read· twice by its title, and re­ for the removal of obstructions from the Mississippi, Missouri, Arkan­ ferred to the Committee on the Judiciary. saa, and Red Rivers, and for tho preservation of the public property; Mr. McCREERY asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leu.ve which were referred to the Committee on Commerce, and ordered to to introduce a bill (S. No. 559) for the relief 9f James C. Rudd.; whlch be printed. was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committoo on Post­ Mr. MITCHELL submitted an amendment in~ended to be proposed Offices and Post-Roads. by him to the bill making appropriations for sundry civil expenses Mr. CONKLING asked, and by unru:ii.mous consent obtamed, leave of the Government for the year endinO' June 30, 1879, and for other to introduce a bill (S. No. 560) for the relief of William A. Hammond, purposes; which was referred to the Committee on Appropriations. late Surgeon-Generu.l of the Army; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. THE SINKING FUND. He also a~ked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to intro­ lli. BECK. I offer the following resolution: duce a bill (S. No. 561) granting increas~d pension to Williu.m H. Whereas it is of the highest importance in the present depressed condition of Sims; which was read twice by its title,u.nd, with the accompanying the industries of the people that taxation should be reduced to the lowest point papers, referred to the Committee on .Pensions. consistent with a faithful discharge of the obligations of 1;he Government and an economical administration of its affairs ; and Mr. JONES, of Flor~da, asked1 and by una~ous co~e.nt obtain~d, Whereas the Secretary of the Treasury in his estimates of the sums to be pro· leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 562) for the relief of Willu.. m Marvm; uded by the present Congress includes $37,196,045.04 to be applied during the next which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on fiscal year in the purchase of Umted States bonds under the provisions of the acts Private Land Claims. of February ~5, 1e62, and .July 14, 1870, providing a sinking fund for the extinction of the national debt; and Mr. EUSTIS a~ked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to Whereas the last Secretary of the Troosnrv, in his annual report to the Forty­ introduce a bill (S. No. 563) to authorize the establishment of mail­ fourth (;ongress in December, 1876, showed that up to July 1, 1!:!76, the literal steallli!hip service between the United States and the Empire of compliance with !lJe provisions of said laws from the time ~ey w~tint~? effect Brazil; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Com­ required the application of $43.1,848,215.37to the purposes proVIded form sa1dacts, and that $658,99::l,226.14 had been so applied, being an excess of $225,144,010.77 over mittee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. the amount required by the law to be so applied up to that date; and Mr. McDONALD asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave Whereas the present Secretary of the Treasury, in his report to this Congress in to introdnce a bill (S. No. 5l>4) to establish a mint for the coinage of December last, after repeating the statements of his predecessor upon that subject gold and silver u.t Indianapolis, in the State of Indiana, and appro­ says: "On the same basis the amount of the sinking fund would have reached 475 3113 8e8.18 on the ht of .July, J87i, on which date the reduction of the debt, .. priating certain Government grounds and buildings to the use _of the incl~fug accrued interest less cash in the Trca.-;ury sin co its hlgh~t point in 1H65, same, as alse money for the purchase of the necessary machinery; amounted to 696,27:-J,:i4tl.l7, or $220,Y54,459.:-J9 in excess of the amount reqmred by which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on law to be provided· for that fund:" Therefore, . . . . B o it resolved by the &>nate, (the Home of Representatives concurnng,) That 1t lB Pnl>lic Buildings and Grounds. ' unnecessary and inexpedient either to maintam or impose taxes at this time for the Mr. CAMERON, of Pennsylvania, (by request,) asked, and by {lnan­ PurJ?OSe of providing for the $,j7,1Y6,045.04 asked for by the Secretary of the Treas­ imous consent obtained, leave to mtroduced a bill (S. No. 565) au­ ury m his estimates for the purp01se of providing further for the sinking fund, and thorizing the coinage of the standard silver dollar and providing that the Secr~ta y of the Treasury is hereby dii acted not to JlOrchase any bonds that gold and silver jointly, and not otherwise, shall be a full legal for the reduction of the principal of the national debt till the further order of eon· gress · and that the comruittees o£ Con~ess having charge of the subject beJ. and tender; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the qom­ they are hereby, instructed not to provtde for the payment during the next nscal mittee on Finance. year of any part of said sum in the adj llStment of the taxation required for the Mr. EATON asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to maintenance and support of the Government. • 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. '431

The VICE-PRESIDENT. Does the Senator from Kentucky desire second, that the act which in form was sufficient to validate it was present aotion upon the resolution f an act performed through the Secretary of War. Those who challenge Mr. BECK. Of course it will lie over under the rule for one day. this proceeding say, " Undoubtedly the Supreme Court has decided The VICE-PRESIDENT. The resolution will lie over under the several times, as long ago as in General Jackson's time, when Mr. rule. . Calhoun signed an order 'John C. Calhoun,' without even his official Mr. MORRILL. I ask the Senator from Kentucky to allow the designation appended to it, that the Secretary of War is the hand and resolutwn to be referred to the Committee on Finance. mouth-piece ofthePresident; but that is in instances wberetheact, Mr. BECK. Lprefer not at present. I should like it to be discussed the func~ion, was executive, where it was not judicial." They say also somewhat in the Senate and have it printed first. that acting under the Constitution and the statutes of the United The VICE-PRESIDENT. The Chair will direct the printing of States, when tho President does anything in the nature of pardons the resolution. or reprieves (because a part of this act was to remit a portion of the BENJAl\IL."'i P. RUNKLE. sentence) be acts judicially, and that action must come from his Mr. BURNSIDE. I offer the following resolution: own consciousness, from his own personal exertion of judgment and If Resolved, That the Committee on the Jndicmry be, and are hereby, directed to of will. that question appear on the papers in this case full and distinct the Senator from Rhode Island might obtain an answer to it examine the laws relating to the final reviews of courts-martial1 and report to the Senate upon what official rested the duty to review the proceedings in the case }>y the resolution he offers; but under that resolution he would not of Colonel Runkle, United States Army. obtain such an answer for a reason which remains to be stated. Mr. President, I offer this resolution in view of the ptmnission which It is alleged that a-s matter of fact the act of the Secretary of War I sh<~>ll -ask this morning to take up my motion to reconsider the vote was, legally speaking, in the presence of the President and by his by which the resolution was passed referring this case to the Com­ imm!ldiate cognizance and direction. The Sen a tor from Rhode Island mittee on the Judiciary, with a view of moving the reference of that will see, if that be true, that it changes the question. The law did resolution to the Committee on Military Affairs. I aak for the pres­ once declare that a Senator might exercise what was called the ent consideration of this resolution . franking privilege. If the Senator from Rhode Island, acting under . The VICE-PRESIDENT. Is there objection to the consideration that law at a particular time is disabled and says to his secretary of this resolutton at thiR time Y sitting in his presence," write my name," that probably would be Mr. BURNSIDE. I will state- good. ·It would be good upon a check; it would be good upon a note; MI. CONKLING. I do not like to interpose an objection to any­ it would be good upon any instrument except a specialty requiring thing that the Senator from Rhode Island wishes; but I desire to a seal. So the Senator wiJl see the question arises whether if the have an understanding at least, before we consider the resolution, or President says to the Secretary of War" approve that sentence; do before I waive the opportunity to have it lie over a day, as to the it in my presence," that is or is not the act of the President. If such effect of it. · There i~ now a resolution which the Senate has adopted be the fact, to determine it the committee must have power to call instructing the Committee on the Judiciary to do this very thing, witnesses, to send for the proof which establishes that missing link; and I think perhaps giYing that instruction in language quite as nn­ and therefore the resolution which the Senate adopted and which the mistakable as this. That resolution having passed, the Senator from Senator bas moved to reconsider gives all that faculty to the com­ Rhode Island ~ntered a motion to reconsider, and calling it up on an tnittee, whereas the resolution which be ·offers now, simply propound­ occasion when two Senators bad gone away relying somewhat upon ing in the abstract a question of law and then asking bow it applies my represe"Qta.tion that it would not come up, he was kind enough to this case, would refer to the committee a f~agment of the matter, not to press its consideration on that day, but to allow it to li~ over and the answer might be exactly opposite to the one which in the for another day. If this resolution is adopted it does (at least I sup­ presence of the facts and of all the elements of the case, the com­ pose it does, although I may not get the full force of it) wnat the mittee would return. 0 1 her resolution has already done. Therefore, if the Senator from So, then, Mr. President, I suggest to the Senator from Rhode Island Rhoue Island wishes this investigation to take place by the Judi­ that, the chairman of the Mmtary Committee whose presence he has ciary Committee if he would withdraw his motion to reconsider and referred to being, as I nilderstand him, rather desirous than otherwise allow tht) original resolution to go to the Judiciary CommitteQ, they that the Judiciary Committee of the Senate shall examine this q ues­ wo uJU make this very inve igation ; and in view of the Senator's tion, and other members of the M~litary Committee having no ob~c­ motion to reconsider, I do not, as one member of the Judiciary Com­ tion to it, he bad better withdraw his motion to reconsider and ..,et mittee, altogether get the purpose which this resolution is intended the Commit bee on the Judiciary investigate this case. I am told-and to express. a-s I hope I shall not vex the ear of the Sen~te on this subject again Mr. BURNSIDE. I made the motion to reconsider the Runkle I will venture to add it-that a large number of cases like this are in resolution the other day because I thought the main points of that such condition that they are sure to arouse and demand action if the resolution should have been referred to the Military Committee, and proceeding taken in the Runkle case shall stand. They are cases I made the motion as a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, which were treated in this way; and the amount and the question the chairman of that committee being ab:.,;ent. From conversation involved become very large. Now the inquiry is whether the Presi­ with one or two members of the Judiciary Committee I find that they dent of the United States, under the Constitution more than under think that there is possibly a law point involved in the matter which the statutes, under the power to grant reprieves and pardons, did a could be better considered by the Judiciary Committee than by the competent act as to a portion of these cases, and whether under the Military Committee. That I am quite willing to grant, and this duty to approve the findings of a court-martial he did another con­ morning, in thinking over the matter as I sat here at my desk, I, stitutional and legal act in approving a-s he did the record oj. the court. without consultation, which I probably ought to have had, drew That is a question of law, no matter whether one of the parties was or this resolution, my object being to ask the Judiciary Committee to is in the Army or not. It is a question which addresses itself to my decide upon the point upon which it was better qualified to decide honorable friend from Illinois [Mr. DAVIS] and which makes him a than the Military Committee. I coupled the resolution with a state­ proper person to aDBwer it, because he hafi devoted a large part of his ment that I would ask for .the consiQ.eration of the motion which I life .to cultivating and in~:;ttucting himself in the business of solving have already made to recon.sider the original resolution so as to allow such censtitntional and statu tory questions. If it were a, matter con­ it to go to the Military Coq1mittee for a consideration of the points cerning tho maintenance or the management of an army, the honorable which belong to that committee. I do not a-sk for the work. I take Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. BURNSIDE] and the chairman of the this course out of deference to the Committee on Military Affair& and Military Committee [Mr. SPENCER] would have vastly the a-dvantage its members, and from a desire to have the question properly referred. of the honorable Senator from illinois; but inasmuch as it is a pure This resolution is made to reach no further than jnst what its face question of law, and largely of constitutional law, I cannot under­ indicates .. , stand what sort of inquiry can appropriately be addressed by the Sen­ Mr. CO~KLING. Although this debate is a little out of order I ate to tho Committee on the Judiciary unless this is markedly one. hope the Senate will indulge me a moment. Now that the Senator Mr. President, I have observed some indications of feeling on this from Rhode Island has made more distinct his purpose, I think if he subject; perhaps not in the Senate but elsewhere. Not feeling called will give me his attention for a moment I can show him that he will upon exactly to disavow any interest in this subject myself, it may not accomplish his object in this way. be proper for me to state that I have no knowledge of the person The ques\Jions involved in the Runkle ca-se, I can state now more who in this particular instance is involved. I do not know him at positively than I was able to state when I introduced the original all; I never happened to hear of him until his name was mentioned resolution, are substantially questions of law, and they have no more in this regard. lt would be difficult, therefore, for me to have feeling to do wilh the Military Comm1ttee or the function of that committee about this in any personal sense. The question is whether a rule than ani other question of law one of the parties to which is or has · should be suddenly adoptecl now by a Department which I am in­ been an bfficer in the Army. The question at which his resolution, structed will overthrow a. great list of adjudications and reinstate, as I see by his explanation, is specially aimed, cannot under that res­ not now and for the future, but reinstate as of past dates a large olution be considered by the Judiciary Committee, and if the Sena­ number of men upon the rolls of the Army giving them a claim for tor from Rhode Island will attend to my suggestion I feel quite con- pay cluring all the time which has elapsed since they and everybody fident he will a~ee with me. · else had supposed that they had ceased to be members of t-he Army. .A court-martial having rendered findings, a certain proceeding I do not know the age of this gentleman. I have heard it stated took place called an approval. I forbear to express any opinion at and the statement giv.on to me acconling to the calculatiop.s made of this moment whether it was valid or otherwise. It is alleged that it the values of annuities upon the doctrine of chances in ~ife, a very was invalid for two reasoDB: First, that the personal act of the Pres­ large sum o.f money for the future depemlg in this case and in every ident was not sufficient in law to validate this judgment record; and, other case relatively, swelling up to a very lar~e amount to b& 432 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE, JANUARY 21,

claimed by we know nQt whom and we know not when; and that Island so long-to charge upon Major Runkle tha.~ he }lad diverted amount of money and the rights of the Government and of these men money, if I understood the Senator's statements-no such thing; but all restin(J' upon certain pure questions of law which will be sharply ~>n the contrary to ascertain the legality of the payment,, whatever / defined w\en the facts of the case are brought before the tribunal­ 1t was. · · a. question which came recently in very similar form, almost on all­ Mr. BURNSIDE. This question, divested of all that I intended to fours, before the Court of Claims, which court rendered a judgment, embrace in my resolution of this morning, or, in other words, the concurred in by all the judges I understand, which judgment is in original resolution of the Senator from New York with tho portion opposition to the theory on which the findings of the court-ma,rtial of the question embraced in my resolution taken out, ought, in my in this instance and the approval of the President and Secretary of opinion, to have been referred t.o the Military Committee without a War years ago have been overthrown and this officer ha-s been put division. All questions before this body relating to the pay due to in statu quo, reinstated as to the time when he ceased to be an officer offi~ers of the Army, or to improper payments to officerM, or to the in the Army. clarms of. officocs for pay due them, should be referred to the Military But, Mr. President, I have said enough about this matter, and I Committee, and have been ever since I have been a member of it. think I have sufficiently discharged any duty which rested upon me. Now, Mr. President, money was paid to some· one for Colonel I think the Senator from Rhode Island on reflection will find that Runkle, and it has either been paid to the proper agep.t or not ll.lld unless he wants to carry the whole question to the Committee on was a proper payment or an improper one; and this resolution author­ Military Affairs, the effectual way is to withdraw his motion to re­ izes a committee to inquire into all these questions. I am tryi.Qg to consider and let the whole case go in proper form to the Committee have them examined by the Military Committee, which is skilled in on the Judiciary. . the investigation of such matters, and am also trying to have referred Mr. BURNSIDE. Mr. President, I cert:.tinly desire to have this to the Military Committee a resolution which properly belongs to it. resolution put in a form that will bring the law question before the Major Runkle's friends themselves have asked me to allow this case Judiciary Committee; and I will be glad to add to this resolution to remain with the Judiciary Committee, and I am inclined to allow it that the committee shall also report as towhether the case of Colonel to remain there. I will, Mr. President, withdraw _my motion to recon­ Runkle was originally reviewed by proper authority. sider, and give notice that atJL future day I will introduce a resolu- I have the advantage of the honorable Senator from New York in tion which will reach the point that I desire to rea-ch. · this one particular, even if this question should go before the Military The VICE-PRESIDENT. The motion to reconsider will be con­ Committee, and I donotwantittogothere. Theadvantagetowhich sidered as withdrawn. I refer is that in this case I have formed no opinion and I have ex­ Mr. SPENCER. I am very glad the Senator from Rhode Island pressed none to the Senate. I do not desire the legal part of this has withdrawn his motion to reconsider, and I hope the case will now resolution to be referred to the Military Committee, and I am willing go to the Judiciary Committee. It is simply a questi(Jn of pure law. to say again that I want it so amended as to lay that part of the ques­ There is no doubt about the facts of the case. Major Runkle was tion before the Judiciary Committee. ! _have no prejudices in the dismissed the service several years ago; and la-st summer he was re­ matter, and no interest in it on the face of this earth save the desire instated, and the only question to be investigated is whether .Major to see justice done to a gallant soldier who was badly maimed and Runkle's reinstatement was legal and valid, whether they had a came near losing his life in the cause of his country. right to reinstate him. It is a question for the Judiciary Committee I shall not enter into any discussion with the Senator from New to determine, I think, and not the Military Committee. I hope the York on legal topics on this floor. He has, I believe, expressed his Judiciary Committee will have this case of Major Runkle and that it honest conviction as to the legal aspect of the case, aud I shall weigh will not be divided between two committees. I see no necessity for it and give it the value I think it is worth; but I do say that a. large that. . portion of his resolution refers to the military character of this man. Mr. BURNSIDE. Lest I may be understood as agreeing with the How the money was paid, and to whom paid, are questions in which he Senator from Alabama that this is the only point in question, I will was particularly concerned. His reputation as an officer was concerned, say that I disagree with him. It is not the point in question, and I and if he in any way applied a single penny which he received as will try to reach it in a more direct way. back pay in corrupt payments, then he as au officer is guilty of an Mr.• CONKLING. The motion to reconsider is withdrawn f offense, and that offense should be taken cognizance of by the Mili­ Mr. BURNSIDE. I withdrew the m tion to reconMider. taly Committee under the resolution. Mr. ANTHONY. If the motion to reconsider is withdrawn, I would Mr. CONKLING. I do not understand the Senator from Rhode suggest to the chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs that the Island. I do not know to what he refers. case of Draper should go to the Committee on the Judiciary also Mr. BURNSIDE. Is it in order for me, Mr. President, to call for and I would ask his consent to move that the Committee on Navai the reading of the original resolution T It i&. not under consideration; Affairs be discharged from the further consideration of it and that it but if it can be done, I ask to have it read. be referred to the Judiciary Committee. Mr. CONKLING. I think the Senator is laboring under a misap­ Mr. SARGENT. I certainly assent to that most cheerfully. I think prehen!'iOn about that. I know of no snch thing. it should go to the Judiciary Committee, and I expressed that opinion Mr. BURNSIDE. If the original resolution be read, I will explain. originally. The VICE-PRESIDENT. The Secretary will report the origjnaJ . The VICE-PRESIDENT. If there be no objection, that order will 1·esolution. be entered. It is entered. · The Chief Clerk read the following resolution heretofore submitted Mr. ED~IUNDS. I think that reference was made on the particu­ by Mr. CONKLING: lar urgency of the Senator from Ohio, [.Mr. THURMAN.) I do not see Resolved That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to inquire and re­ him at this moment, and I suggest whether that ought to be done port whether any, and, if so, what action has re.:ently been taken by any Depart­ until he comes in. ment or officer of the Government designed to reinstate or restore Benjamm P. Runkle to the Army of the United States, and whether such action was warranted Mr. SARGENT. I do not know that he takes any interest in it. by law; also whether any payment, and, if so, what/aym.ent or payments of pub­ Mr. EDMUNDS. I do not know that he does, but I happen to lic moneys have been made to or on account of sai Runkle, by whom made or remember that it was on his argument apparently that it was ~Sent to authorized, and by whom received, from what fund made, and whether such p_ay­ the Naval Committee, and I think the 1potion might lie over as a ment was legal; and whether the Uniteu States is indebted or liable to said Runkle for pay or compensation aa an Army officer ; and also whether since an order of matter of eourtesy to him. . dismissal in 187~ (if such an order was made) said Runkle has been an Army officer, The VICE-PRESIDENT. The order will be suspended. or baa bad a valid and legal claim fo ... pay or compensation as such. Said commit- Mr. BURNSIDE. Can I be indulged, Mr. President, in one remarkf tee shall ba.ve power to send for persons an,d papers. . I do not know that I made it when I was up before. I will .agree Mr. CONKLING. If the Senator from Rhode Island will pa,rdon not to detain the Senate over one minute. I withdrew this resolu­ me one moment now, I think the matter in that resolution which tion not because I did not think it appertained to the Mi\i_tary Com­ arrested his attention, if I understand the point, is this : the inquiry mittee, but by the special request of some of the friends of l\iajor by whom money was paid or authorized, and to whom paid, and Runkle, who have been urging me for two or three days to with­ from what fund. The Senate will remember that there ha-s been a draw it. good deal of legislation and discussion touching the use of unex­ The VICE-PRESIDENT. Did the Chair understand the Senator pended balances in the Treasury and touching requisitions upon cer­ from Rhode Island to withdraw the motion to reconsider the original tain funds when in truth the requisition should have been, if at all, resolution t upon some other fund. This is a topic which, if it stood alone, would Mr. BURNSIDE. Yes, and the other resolution I introduced this belong perhaps to the Committee on Finance,_and not at all, I submit, morning, and I do it at 1Jle specia,J request of the friends of Colonel to the Committee on Military Affairs. · Runkle, not because I think the resolution ought not to go to the The intention of the resolution-and as I hear it now I think that Military Committee. intention is clearly expressed-is to direct the committee to ascertain what fund, if any, according to law was liable or subjected to this REMOVAL OF THE N.AV.AL OBSERVATORY. payment and which of the auditing officers of the· Government Mr. SARGENT. Before the unfinished business is taken up, I wish authorized that fund to be resorted to. to give notice that I shall ask during some portion of the morning Mr. SARGENT. That is a. question for the Committee on Appro- hour as soon as I can obtain the floor that the bill (S. No. 493) to priations. · · provide for the removal of the Naval Observatory, ;reported f1'0m the .Mr. CONKLING. And the Senator from California savs, and I Committee on Naval Affairs, be acted on. This bill makes an appro­ think very rightly, that that question might b'e referred, il it stood priation and is a bill of some consequence. There is in conn.ection alone, to the Committee on Appropriations ; but certainly it was not with it a printed report. I should like to have Senators look·nt the intended-and I beg pardon for interrupting the Senator from Rhode report and the bill. I design to call it up some time this week. 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 433

REPAIR OF STREETS AND AVENUES. the medium of all payments with the people of the United States. Tho VICE-PRESIDENT laid before tho Senate a communication If the States have no power to coin money and must make gold and from the commissioners of the District of Columbia, transmitting, in silver a tender in payment of debts, the United States is under the answer to a resolution of th.e Senate of the 14th ultimo, relative to hi~hest obligation to give the people an opportunity of procnringthe the repair and improvement of streets, &c., the report of the engi­ com. This was the condition upon which the States gave up the neer of the District in relation thereto; which was referred to the coining power. 'l'ho idea was that the Government would com the Committee on the :Qistrict of Columbia, and ordered to be printed. two precious metals for the people, and the States agreed to make nothing but this money a legal tender in the payment of debts. That SERVICES FOR VICTOR EMMANUEL. is the compact of the Constitution. This view is sustained by a uniform The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate the following: construction of the organic law both by Congress and the courts ever The Italian Minister has the honor to mform the honorable President of the since the Government went into operation down to 1873. ~ongress United States Senate that a. commemorative service for llis MaJe2ty the late Kinfl made gold and silver a legal tender in the payment of all debts, and this was the law when both the acts referred to were passed. ~~~~!~· J~fo~~ ~~~~~u;~e~h~ht~ts~~'A~~Y~~c:.da~e;~e;~~ ~sro~~ :;r\he honorable members of the United States Senate who would honor the ceremony .Congress was confined, as we have shown, by the Constitution to by their presence. taxation to raise money to pay debts, and gold and silver were a l:'egal MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE. tender in the payment of all taxes, and are yet. And before I get A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. GEORGE M through with this debate I will show that the only fund that was ADAMs, its Clerk, announced that the House had passed a bill (H. ever pledged to the bondholders for the payment of tae principal R. No. 2057) to amend the charter of the Mutual Fire Insurance Com­ and interest of their debt was pledged in gold and silver coin, and pany of the District of Columbia; in which it requested the cqncur­ the law pledging it is yet unrepealed. Now, could the Government rence of the Senate. have meant to pay gold exclusively when it was compelled to take The message also announced that the House had passed with silver for taxes and had no other means of getting money"' amendments the bill (S. No. 412) to punish embezzlement in the Dis­ Congress has just the same right to-day under the Oonstitution trict of Columbia, and to protect the records of said Districtrd to legislate upon the subject of money and to set up a double stand­ for other purposes; in which . amendment it requested the con ur­ ard as it had in 1792, 1837, and 1873; and when a sovereign power rence of the Senate. like this is clear and undoubted~ the consequences of its exercise can never be regarded in order to uetermine its legality. I understalld PAYMENT OF GOVERNMENT BONDS. that the adversaries of silver remonetization go so far as to deny the The VICE-PRESIDENT. The morning hour has expired. There ri~ht of Congress to recoin the silver dollar and make it a legal-tender comes over as unfinished business of the session of Friday last the w1thout a breach of the public faith. For what has the faith of the resolution submitted by the Senator from Ohio, [Mr. MATTHEWS,] nation been pledged whichcanmaketherecoinageof silveraswindle upon which the Senator from Florida [Mr. JoNEs] is entitled to the or a crime 7 The very most that the enemies of silver contend for is floor. that, by virtue of the acts of March 18, 1869, and July 14, 1870, the Mr. JONES, of Florida. Mr. President, since this debate has com­ Government pledged the public faith to pay the outs1an ding fineness, and relative value of row money on the credit of the United States; the power to regulate the coins of the United States or it means nothing. To suppose that commerce ; to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign any number of citizens, by loaning money to the Government and coin. exacting a contract for its repayment, can oblige Congress to give up We have also the power to declare war and to raise and support the exereise of one of its sovereign powers is neither creditable nor armies. The power to borrow money on the credit of the United· reasonable. I admit that the right to borrow implies the right to States has no more connection with the power to coin money and contract, and the right to contract carries with it the authority to regulate its value than it bas with the power to declare war, regu­ bind the sovereign to the fulfillment of any contract not in violation late commerce, or any other delegated power in the Constitution. of the Constitution. We are not informed how or from whom Congress may borrow. In the course of the argument I am about to make, I shall en­ Thi:l is left to the discretion of the Government. Certainly it is not deavor to show that the silver dollar referred to in the resolutions be­ confined, as we know, to loans 1rom its own citizens. The United fore the Senate is not only included in the two acts of 1869 anti~. 1870 States may go into the money markets of Europe and borrow money, providing for the payment of the publie debt in coin, but tba1i Congress which it bas done very frequently. ' What would be thought of a had no power to exclude it. And this will come in very properly contract made by the officers of the Government with th~ bullion upon a construction of these statutes, because I say that everybody princes of Europe, which stipulated that in consideration of the acting under the Constitution, especially Congress, is presumed to favorable terms accorded to the United States Congress wonld abdi­ observe the organic law, and I insist that it was not within the power cate its powers over the coinage so as to throw the whole of our of Congress to exclude the silver dollar in providing for the payment precious metals into the mints of England, France and Germany Y of the public debt. • Suppose it was written on the face of the bond, fifty times ove1·, that Much of the confusion and controversy which has arisen has been this provision of the contract should be religiously kept : is there a caused by confining the argument to the simple question of con­ citizen of the country, much less a lawyer, who would say that such struction; that is, whether the word "coin" in the acts referred to an obligation could bind for a moment the people of the United means gold and silver or gold only. It seems to have been assumed States 7 Every outstanding bond and note issued by this Govern­ all along by Senators on both sides of the question that the Consti­ ment is a debt for which tne people of this country are liable and tution was out of the debate altogether, and the only inquiry was, which must be paid at some future day. The credit of the Govern­ what did Congress mean by the words used in the statutes 7 ment, the faith of the nation, if you please, are pledged to liquidate I shall first try to ascertain, with a view of arriving at the meaning this grea.t burden. No legislative sponging will rid the people of this of Congress, what power that body has under the Constitution to heavy debt. bind the people of the United States to the payment of debts exclu­ But if the necessities of the people and the country require the sively in gold coin ; and if I shall be able to show that there is no recoinage of silver and the restoration of the legal-tender qualities authority whatever for making contracts payable only in gold it can­ of that metal to facilitate payments between the citizens of the not be claimed that the word ''coin" in the statutes referred to United States, then it will be impossible not to include Government means dollars of the latter metal exclusively. obligations. The Government is the agent of the people, and it has The Constitution gives Congress power to borrow money on the no means of getting money except by taxation. It exercises a great credit of the United States, and also to levy taxes to pay the debts of trust power. It is not like an individual who has a vast field of re­ the United States. sources to fall" ba~k upon that no government or public trustee ever Congress has also the exclusiv~ power to coin money and I pre­ can have. Taxation is an annual sum paid by the people from their sume that the money it is authorized to borrow is the same that it is incomes to secure protection to life and property. Wharover money authorized to coin. is expended by the State must be expended under an implied obliga­ Tht're can be no legal-tender coin except gold and silver. Hence tion that the income and property of the people shall supply it. If these two metals must be the measure of all income .and profits and the Government were to disregard this principle in its contracts, and VII-28 434 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 21,

stipulate to pay its creditors anything which it would be impossible One of the chief arguments in this debate against silver is that it did for the ordinary incomes of the peopfe to furnish, such obligations not exist in any considerable quantity when our great loans were woulcl violate the fundamental conditions of our social and political made, and, as I have stated, from 1776 until we had a mint we used structnre, and would be void without regard to written constitutions. the silver coin of the world; we contracted our loans abroad in that In levying taxes upon tho people yon are bound by the highest con­ money, and it is a historical trnth that when our paper circulat10n siilerations of duty and statesmanship to have regard not only to the bad exploded and the people of this young country were on the eve amounts of property and capital to be assessed, but to the kind of of starvation the payment of the French army in silver dollars gave . money which is in circulation among the people, and which repre­ them temporary relief. · sents their income and profits. If silver coin is a circulating medinm. Dearing in mind what I have said in regard to the coinage of the and a Jegu.l tender in the States, (which it may be made by State Constitution and the recognition that these two metals have received legislation,) how could you in reason or justice demand that this from it, I will touch for a moment upon the general nature of taxa­ money be disregarded in the collection of Federal taxes! And if you tion, which is a great governmental power as we know. a.re hound, and I think you are, tl) rer.eive from the people their con­ .Adam Smith tells us that the revenue of individuals arises from tributions for the support of the Government in the same kind o.f three sources, rent, profit, an~ wages, and that every tax must money that tho laws compel them to take for their labor, capital, finally he paid from one or other of these three different sorts of and property, is it not plam that this is the only fund which in rea­ revenue. It is only through this taxing power that this Government son or law the creditors of the Government can demand from it 7 can get money to pay its debts, for the Constitution says it may col­ Those who suppose that Congress may prescri.1Je for the peoplo a lect taxes to pay the debts and provide for the general welfare. In coinage of silver and make it a legal tender for private debts, and expounding the doubtful word "coin" as used in the acts of 1869-'70, therefore receivable for all incomes and assume liabilit ies which is it not reasonable to conclude that it was intended, not as my require for payment. another description of money exclusively, have friend ' from New York who sits nearest to me [Mr. KERNAN] and a confused idea of the powers of the Government. Hence I stated in others have said, to mean money only that was coined in large quan­ the outset of my argument that the question at issue really was tities, but the kind of coin which the people had received for rent, whether we hatl a right to exercise the power of coinage conferred profit, and wages, and in which they had paid their taxes ever since by the Constitution or not. If, as I contend, we have the power and they withdrew their exuberant bosoms from Great Britain. As tax­ the present state of the nation demands its exercise for the general ation is the basis of all public contracts for money, what can bemore good, we should put back t.he silv~r dollar where it was in 1873. just or reasonable than to say that a wise parental government which After that is done this money will become tho money of the Consti­ sprang from the lo~s of the people did not intend to make their tution and people, and being the measure of all incomes and prop­ burdens doubly heavy by putting it beyond their power to use the octy you will have to receive it for taxes, and what you receive for money of wages and income for the purpose of discharging thedebts taxes you can alone pay out to discharge your obligations, upon the of the State. Let it ever be borne in mind that the Government has principle that taxatwn is the only means given to discharge public no way of getting money except by taxation, and when you decide debts. that the debts of the United States are payable exclusively in gold The word money is used very often in the Constitution, and that you in effect tell the most meritorious, the most numerous, and the · is the first 11.w to be con idered. Congress may borrow money ; it poorel:!t portion of the people that the price of their sweat and labor, may coin money. No State shall coin money or make anything but of their tears and blood in every walk and state of life, from that of gold and silver coin a legal tender in the payment of d~bt. It can­ the soldier who bares his bosom to the shafts of the savage enemy to not mall:e gold n.nd silveri it cannot make bullion a legal tender, but the pallid and half-fed laborer who staggers over his incessant toil, the States can make" god and silver coin" a legal tender for every is not good enough or sound enough to measure those obligations private obligation outstanding among and between the people of the which were created by this Government to advance and promote the States of his Union; and although the necessity of its exercise has public welfare. We are pointed to the example of Germany and never arisen because Congress by positive legislation itself has exer­ admonished by the hesitation of France in respect to this money cised that power, tho day may come when the States will be called upon question. to exercise this admitted power given to them by the Constitution. And bas it come to this, that the policies of continental Europe Putting aside all questions in regard to the power of the General are to control the AmericanRepublicY We hear of Latin unions and Government to authorize the issue of paper as a circulating medium, royal commissions formed to regulate the money of the people. I I contend that tho money meant by the Constitution is coined money. have heard of similar alliances in other dayff to parcel out states, I also affirm that this means gold and silver coins, as plainly as if trample down public liberty, and uphold the divinity of kings. The the names of the two metals were stated. royal emissaries who met at Paris in 1867 advised the demonetiza­ The organic law then says that Congress shall have power to coin tion of silver and their recommendation was strongly supported by gold and silver money, and no State shall make anything but coin another royal commission packed in Great Britain in the following of these metals a legal tender in the payment of debts. ()bief-Jus­ year to give weight and emphasis to the new scheme. But the tice Marshall in one of his great judgments said that the limita­ strangest thing of all is to find a distinguished American Senator fol­ tions upon a power marked its extent, for why limit that.which does lowing the example· of these European reformers so closely that not exist Y There aro- other provisions in the Constitution which if we did not know him to be a stanch republican we might suspect throw light on this subject. No State shall pass any ex post facto him of aspiring to wear a crown. In January, 1868, just in the rear law or law impairin~ the obligations of contracts. In the great case of this royal march toward a ~old standard, came Senator Sherman of Hepburn vs. Gn.awold, 8 Wallar.e, Chief-Justice Chase, speak­ with Senate bill No. 217, provtding for the destruction of our silver ing far the court, said that th(f inhibition upon the States against coiu. I am not critic or philosopher enough to be able to tell whether laws impairing the obligations of contracts applied to the United this move of his is to be asMigned to coincidence or imitation. Some­ States, although that Government was not particularly named. The body has said that we are all imitators, and that the Darwinian prohibition which prevents anything but gold and silver coin from theory was strongly corroborated in that .Passion of our race which being made a legal tender upon the same reasoning ought to have the monkey bas so often fatally followed m using the edge-tools of the same effect, because they are found siG.e by side in the Constitution, his master. This policy of demonetization began with kings and the one clause declaring that the States ~:~hall make nothing but gold emperors and ended with republicans. Oh, that we had had a J ef­ and silver coin a legal tender for the payment of debts and the other ferson or a J acksou to sound the note of alarm to the people t With that no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of con­ what impressive language might they not have addressed themselves tracts. And yet the Supreme Court in the case I have alluded to, to the lawgivers of the nation in behalf of themoney of the people. and which in my judgment is law yet, decided that no act of Con­ They could have told them that the conditions of European and gress could be passed impairing the obligation of contracts. Why American society were not the same; that the law of the single stand­ does not the same reaaoning apply to the coinage Y If the States ard was as ill-suited to the wants and genius of our veople as the law cannot make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in the pay­ of primogeniture, and as the one was intended to facilitate the mo:.. ment of debts, where does Congress get authority to do it Y These nopoly of the soil which God designed as the common heritage of words show that tho two metals were in the minds of the framers of man, so the other was a refined expedient of titled economists to en­ the Constitution, and that they were intended to constitute our coin .hance the power of accumulated wealth, which is the corner-stone of currency. All the enga,gements of the United States before tho Con­ every aristocratic society; that equalization in the bounties and stitution was adopted were payable in Spanish dollars; and as I am blessings of life is alike the object and security of republics; and passing rapidly I will note an argument that has been verymnch re­ that the most successful efforts ever made to enslave the human race lied upon in the discussion of this resolution in regard to the number were those which darkened the mind through the pressure of want of coined silver dollars that were in existence at the time these laws and the degradation of labor. The elevation of the workin~ masses were passed. It ou~ht to be remembered that from 1776 to 1794 there in this great country stands out in bold relief to the state of tne labor­ waa no mint in thlB country, and that the people used the silver ers in every country in Europe. And this is the secret of your great money of the world as they did any commodity of general use, to power. Whenever the time comes, which I hope never to see, when liquidate their obligations. that portion of your people who in obedience to the laws of God and These dollars were received and paid by the Government, and the society are doomed . to honest labor feel themselves estranged from moneys of account of th~ several States were expressed in the same your Government, ;you will have lost the vital spark, the ennobling coin. If any argument could be drawn from the quantity of gold in and cohesive prinNple which illumined and consolidated the tem:J?le circulation at that time it might be claimed that silver alone was in· of your liberty. We need not be told that human laws have no m­ tended to be the medium of all payments, as it was the money of the fl.uence upon the social and material interests of man, for all history Government and the people, although we had not coined a dollar. proves the contrary. I see in the present distress and suffering of 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 435 the country the germs of future dangers to your Constitution, and I It is therefore by an increase of the real wealth of the country that speak as becomes an honest and sincere friend of the Republic. I we can hope to regain that state of prosperity which all wish to at­ would scorn to appeal to the prejudices of any class. I would not tain. That the issuing of paper promises in any form cannot add disturb by the slightest touch the settled order of property or labor, the value of a pepper-corn to the real wealth of the nation is a prop­ but I would, by at lea-st an effort to redress, relieve the complaints if osition I affirm to be beyond dispute. It is to the labor and product­ I could not relieve the destitution of the peopl6. Let capitali·emem­ ive energies of the people and not to speculators in fictitious values ber that in all conflicts with opposing interests it holds the advan­ that we must look to for relief from our present distress aud burdens. tage without the aid of legislation; that small can be its loss from It is byreviving your commerce and manufactures and giving new the regular and orderly operations of the laws demanded by society, life to your industries of every kind that prosperity can be restored. but that once it loses the security of peace and order :md finds itself Disguise it as you may, there are two classes now appealing to Con­ in antagonism to those whose labor ahu property alone make it valua­ gress for legislation favorable to their interests: the one is com­ ble it will be a barren and profitless power in the hamls that command posed of merchant-s without ledgers, manufacturers without custom­ it. ers, ship-owners without freights, and laborers without bread; the I believe I speak the sentiment of the whole country when I say other is composed of those far-seeing and sagacious :individuals who, that repudiation in every form is revolting to the people. It cannot, disdaining the vulgar competition of ordinary business life, have • however, be forgotten that the immense amount of Government obli­ preferretl the excitement and uncertainty of the stock-board to the gations outstanding at the close of the war, and which represented dullness antl drudgery of productive industry. They are sensit.ive in nothing but waste and destruction, made it necessary for a time to t.he highest degree to the national honor. They represent large fort­ abandon that system of finance which existed previous to this great unes accumulated by judicious speculation. They have no reason to civil struggle. This was not a matter of choice but of necessity. complain of the ingratitude of republics. The history of our financial The war left upon us a debt of $2,500,000,000. legislation shows that they have no ground of complaint against the On the 31st of October, 1865, we had compound-interest Government. The act of 1869 enacted that the 5.20 bonds were pay­ notes to tho amount of ...... $173,012,141 able in coin, and were it not that I have a few ideas of my own on Seven-thirty Treasury notes .. ______...... ____ . 830, 000, 000 this subject I would not recur to it, inasmuch as it ha-s been amply Certificates of indebtedness ...... _. __ ..... _. 55, 905, 000 discussed. Five per cent. Treasury notes ...... 32, 500, 000 It is well known that these securities went beggingfor greenbacks United States notes ... _...... _...... 428, 160, 569 when the latter were worth but sixty cents in silver dollars of 412~ Small currency ...... _...... 26,057,469 grains. The $500,000,000 of 5.20 bonds authorized by the act of Feb­ ruary, 1862, could not be sold for more than a year afterward. After In addition to this we bad $250,000,000 of national-bank notes and the passage of the nine-hundred-million loan bill in the spring of State-bank notes. This enormous volume of paper currency, as every 1863, and when the currency was further inflated, the 5.20 bonds one knows, inflated every kind of property and stimulated all the were disposed of for depreciated paper. industries of the country to the greatest activity. The South, just We know that the law under which those bonds were issued ex­ opened up to the world, after a most desolating civil war, presented pressly provided that the green back currency should be a legal tend­ a fine field for the employment of part of the redundant paper cir­ er for all debts, public and private, except import dues and interest culation. All values had been utterly dest-royed there. TwelYe on the public debt. It was held by the highest court in the land millions of people were left for a time without any circulating me­ that these notes were a legal tender for all private obligations con­ dium, and large amounts of greenback currency were sent there for tractel.l before 1862, even though they grew out of transactions in gold investment, which for a few years put a new face upon the country or silver. and filled many a·despondent heart with new hopes of prosperity How a different construction could be given to the same language and life. · when applied to those public debts contracted in currency after the No sooner had the war ended than the cry went forth for a return passage of the law is beyond comprehension. It has been stated by to specie payments. .Mr. McCulloch recommended this policy to Con­ bicrh authority that this change in the contract in favor of the bond­ gress, and it was decirled upon almost unanimously. Had it been hoiders and against the tax-payers cost the people fi\~e hundred mill­ carried out with wisdom we might have avoided the catastrophe of ions more than they were in law or equity bound to pay. It was a. ltl73; but, after having contracted the currency to $3;)6,000,000 and well-understood truth, both here and in Europe, that the legal-tender pulled down all values, the process of contraction was stopped and acts were n. fundamental departure from our old financial system. speculation went on until it was arrested by the great panic. 8ince The celebrated Mr. Huskisson, who threw more light on questions of that memorable event this country, teeming with great natural re­ this kind than any man of modern days, has well defined the char­ sources and the most enterprising people in the world, has been in a acter of paper issues; and I will say here, speaking on this subject, state of paralysis. that I would have voted against this la.w had I been a member of Millions of laboring men and women are out of employment and ConO'ress at that time; but I am called upon now, in my character the cries of destitution that come from all parts of the country are ap­ as a ~egislator, to oea1 with existing facts, and not with ruere theo­ palling. Despite all we hear of the improvement of business the con­ ries. Mr. Huskisson said: dition of the working masses all over the Union is getting worse and Of paper currency there are two sorts; tho one resting upon confidence, the worse every day. Neither private nor public charity suffices to mitigate other upon authority. Paper resting upon confidence is w.llat I have described aa the sufferings of the poor, and for the first time in our history we see circulating credit, and COllilists in enga_gements for the payment on demand of any specific sums of money; which en,!~agements form a general trust in the issues of wandering pauperism sufficiently large to euuanger public order such paper as they are enabled to substitute for money in the transactions of the and the security of property and life. In all this dtstress and suffer­ community. Paper resting upori authority in common language is called paper ing we see no evidence of any derangement of the Jaws of nature or money, and conrusts in engagements issued under the sanction and by the imme­ the displeasure of Divine Providence. On tho contrary our harvests diate intervention of the public power of the State. have been good; the sun has shone forth upon the earth a;s in days Here we have a clear uefinition of the greenback dollar, which is of prosperity and plenty and the rains and uews of heaven have paper money, being a~ngagement issued under the sanction of the fallen with regularity to nourish our soil and invigorate our produc­ State. In DecemiJer, 18tH, gold and silver took their flight. The tions. Whatever is the cause of our distress it must be sought for in Government had borrowed 100,000,000 in gold from the banks and our ~nancial system. issuel.l $300,000,000 Treasury notes-some payable on demand, others It 1s the work of man and not the result of natural causes. There in three years with interest. These notes were purely circulating is a profound conviction in the public mind that the cause of all our credits. But it was thought that neither credit nor loans would be troubles lies in our financial system. In this view I fully concur. sufficient to supply the demands of the Government and paper money The vast accumulations and increase of Government and other stocks­ was determined upon. The wisdom of the plan adopted belongs to the legitimate results of war-have facilitated if they have not created the historian and not the legislator, who is confronted with evils de­ a state of things highly unfavorable to a healthy and sound currency, manding redress. There were but two ways open to the Government which is as essential to the prosperity of the people as pure blood is to obtain means to carry on the war: by borrowing specie and heavy to the natural body. We have a very large class of people in this taxes or issuing papor money. The latter course was resolved npon. country whose principal wealth consists of unproductive capital. The legal-tender notes were expected to take the place of the coin When I say unproductive I mean that it is not employed in furnishing and bank circulation, which they did. All contracts and prices soon wages to labor, bread to the hungry, or even taxes to the ·states. The conformed to the new standard, and Congress and the people expected holders of this capital are content with a low rate of interest, which that they would continue to discharge a.ll obligations, both public is derived from taxes and imposts 1evied by the Government. They anl.l private, with the exceptions stated in the law of their creation, are numerous and influential enough to form a distinct order in the until withdrawn from circulation. The provision of the law guar­ State. Their investments are of such a character that they feel a anteeing the payment of the interest in coin affords the very strongest deeper interest in. the affairs of Government, especially in legislation presumption that the principal of the 5.20 bonds was not payable in upon financial matters, than any other creditor class. The immense the same kind of money. bonded debt of the United States, so often spoken of as a pyramid of It is well known that this provision met with the stron aest oppo­ wealth, in reality, as we know, only represents ·the waste and de­ sition from tlie ablest friends of the new scheme in the Ilonse. It struction of war, which the future labor and productive power of the was not in the bill when it went to the Senate but was put in as an people must repair. . Mr. Spaulding has well said that "every dollar amendment by the latter body. When the bill was before the Sen­ expended took out of existence a dollar of value for which the Gov­ ate it was distinctJy admitted by the chairman of the Finance Com­ ernment gave its promise to · pay." Every dollar of property thus mittee, Mr. Fessenden, that unless the amendment proposed, ~uaran­ destroyed led us further and further away from the specie standard, teeing the payment of the interest in coin, was adopted, all mterest and has to be produced again by labor before the value is restored. on bonds and notes wonld be payable in lawful money. lt..-_ 436 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 21,

If it was necessary to change the language of the law as it came silver. How can you expect the latter metal to maintain its former from the House so as to secure the payment of interest in coin, why relation to geld after it has been decreed by this and other nations was it not necessary to change it also so as to make the principal t.hat it should no longer be used for the purposes for which God and payable in the same kind of money f But, you may ask, wherefore nature intended it. Take your staple commodities, and what gives do I recur to the law as it was originally when the whole·matter has them valueY been set at rest by the declaratory act of 1809 ? Is it not the unrestricted us(\ of them for the purpose for which This act is directly referred to by the resolution of the Senator they are best atiaptedf We export and consume large quantities of ft·om Ohio, and its just and equitable interpretation is a leading cotton. Suppose the United States and Great Britain Ahould forbid question in this debate. It is contended that the rights of the pub­ the manufacture of this commodity with the view of encouraging lic creditors became fixed and settled by this law. In some respect~; the production of wool. Who could say after the passage of such a it is the most remarkable piece of legislation ever enacted. It is law that cotton had fallen in value because the supply was greater styled a law to strengthen public credit. It ought to have been than before f But I do not mean to overlook or avoid the most plaus­ called an act to increase the burdens of the people of the United ible of the arguments which have been directed against the resolu .. States and to change the value of the public debt. And what, sir, tions of the Senator from Ohio. That argument has come from men was the occasion of the law 'i The great war debt of the country whom the people of Ame1·ica venerate and honor and whose opinions wa-'1 contract-ed; the books all posted, the amount ascertained. The at all times and on all subjects are entitled to the greatest respect, ordinary revenues were sufficient for all the expenses of the 'Treas­ and while compelled by a sense of duty to differ from them and all ury. There was no need for any more bonds or notes except to re­ other good democrats who concur with them upon the question now duce the high rate of interest then being paid by the Government. before the Senate I do so with no overweening confidence in the The public credit required no strengthening, for the period of uncer­ clearness of my own judgment, but with a conviction of its correct­ tainty had passed. All that good faith demanded was that the ness in this case that has been only shaken by the knowledge that engagem ~ nts of the Government should be met according to the it is different from theirs. The Senators to whose arguments ·I allude letter and spirit of the law. But this declaratory act goes on tore­ stated in very terse language that it would be impossible to restore cite that doubts and uncertainty prevailed as to the meaning of the the old silver dollar to our coinage and make it a legal tender for legal-tender law. Of course there were doubts and uncertainties the payment of all debts without violating the honor of the nation about a matter which involved $500,000,000, or more. This was which was pledged to tke public creditor. essentially a judicial question. The rights of the people and the This, after all, is the turning point or the vital issue of the de­ rights of the bondholders were involved in it. It was not a ques­ bate. The friends of the resolution think that no such consequence tion of public faith or honor for no one doubted the intention can follow its adoption as that stated by those Senators. The of the Government to fulfill its engagements, whatever they were. question is not whether the bondholders will continue to receive The point in doubt was the meaning of the statute, and when Con­ after the recoina~e of the silver dollar the same money value that gress resolved that doubt in favor of the bondholders and against they would receive and have been receiving for many years, but the people by giving a legislative construction to a law that ha-d whether or not according to the tE:'rms of the contract and the law been on the statute-book for seven years, it departed from the well­ the people of the United States have the option to select one of two defined limits of legislative power: "To declare what the law is or kinds of metallic money as a legal tender for the payment of their has been is a judicial power; to declare what it shall be is a legisla­ debts f When the public faith of a nation is spoken of in connection tive power." There had been, it ie true, many deviations from this with its engagement.s nothing more is meant than that the Govern­ principle in England, but the omnipotence of parliament and the ment and people will fulfill to the letter their contracts. It being a. usurpations of the crown justified them. Magna Charta was a de­ recognized principle of public law that no nation can be brought into clarat.ory act, but it assert-ed the rights of the people and put down any court or before any judge to havethe force and effect of its obli­ the tyranny of the prince. It was the first great step toward popular gations determined, as is done in controversies between individuals, freedom. The petition of right in the time of Charles I and the Bill every person who makes a contract with a government does so with of Rights in the reign of William and Mary, were both in t,he interest full knowledge that the right to determine all questions of doubt in and for the benefit of the people. So was Mr. l!'ox's libel bill, which regard to the meaning and effect of the obligation belongs to the established the ancient right of juries against the judicial despotism sovereign authority whi'ch made it. This must be so from the neces- of the greatest of modern judges. All these are happy instances of sity of the case. • the triumph of the people over their oppressors. But our declaratory When the creditors of the United States made contracts with the act of 1869 binds the people of the United States to the payment of Gover.nment they agreed to be bound by its decisions upon all ques­ the whole .public debt in coin, and we are gravely told that this tions of doubt arising out of the obligations the same as if an ex­ statute is to be so construed that every dollar of our bonds and notes press stipulation to that effect had been written on the face of the is to be discharged in gold. At the time this act was passed the sil­ bond. And it is strange that any onQ should doubt this right after ver dollar of 412! grains was th6l unit of value. This was the stand­ the power has been exercised as it wa.s in 1869, when by a declara­ ard to which :til things, even gold it-self, were made to conform from tory statute it was decided that the whole debt of the United States 1792 until 1873. The eagle, don ble eagle, and other gold coins repre­ was payable in coin. Now, if Congress had a right in 1869 to give a sented in value the number of silver units stamp-ed upon them. When­ legislative construction to a law seven years in existence, in order to ever you had a note or a bond calling for $100, or $5,000, you had an settle a doubt as to the meaning of certain words which it contained, obligation which called for one hundred or five thousand sovereign who will presume to question the authority of the same body to-day, units existing under the laws of the United States at that time, and by resolution or otherwise, to declare its opinion as to the meaning every dollar of indebtedness that was created while the silver dollar of certain other doubtful words in another statute passed at a later was the unit of value represents to-day the silver units that are day f It is too late now' for the creditors of the Government to ques­ called dollars and that are so stamped upon their face. Eagles, for tion our jurisdiction in this case after it has been once invoked in instance, were declared to be of the valne of ten dollars or units, and their favor and a judgment obtained which made them all happy. to contain 270 grains of standard gold. • I do not like declaratory statutes; but, when I find that they have The act of 1849 providing for the coinage of double eagles and one­ been passed in the interest and for the protection of the bondholders dollar gold-pieces recognized the silver unit as the measure of value, I see no reason why they may not be enacted in the interest and for for it distinctly stated that these new coins should lle of the value the protection of the people. of twenty units and one unit respectively. The name of the latter The question of jurisdiction being settled, as I think it mast be, iu was a dollar, but it was not the dollar of the Constitution or of the favor of the right of Congress to pass this resolution, it follows that,. act establishing our standard. You had no standard dollar but the whatever its judgment may be, it cannot furnish the slightest ground silver one until 1873, when it was destroyed and its quality as money for impeaching the honor or faith ef the nation. Any other view of taken· from it. Under these laws it mattered not what the market this subject would lea-d to the discreditable conclusion that our power value of the bullion was, the authority of the State had fixed the to act at all is not an independent power, but one which depends coin value of 412! grains of standard silver as one dollar and made upon the volition of the Government's creditors, and the exercise of it exchangeable for 25.8 grains of standard gold. That silver and which can never be justifiable except when it leads to a judgment in. gold have each two distinct values must be admitted. I am not in their favor and against the country and the people. The question of the habit of having any mottoes put upon. my speeches, but I can jurisdiction being out of the way, let us for a moment consider some quote one here which I wish to use in that way, because it embodies of the points relating to the merits of the case. It is contended that the grandest truth involved in this debate. We are told here that the relation proposed to be established between gold and silver by these metals have no value but commercial value. That is a propo­ the recoinacre of the silver dollar will lead to injustice in view of the­ sition which I deny, and I wish to draw attention to the writings of present ma~ket value of the two metals; (I want to be distinct on one of the wisest men who ever wrote on this subject. The cele­ that subject:) that, according to the .commercial prices of gold and brated Montesquieu tells us: silver bullion, the true relation is in the proportion of 17! to 1, while Silver, as a metal, has value like all other merchandises, and an additional value as that proposed by the resolution is 16 to 1. • it is capable ct becoming the sign of other merchandises. If it were no more than Mr. President, no question that is likely to arise here can be more a mere merchandise, it would lose much of its value. foreign to my taste or habits of thought than this, and nothing could We are now realizing that great truth. If it were nothing but have induced me to say as much as I have upon it but a desir~:~ not to. merchandise it would lose much of its value. This we see illustrated seem indifferent upon a subject which i~:~ thought to concern in a vital at the present time. Mercantile value d~pends upon supply and de­ way the interests of starving laboring-men. But, sir, when I find the, mand. Complaint is made that the remonetization of silver accord­ ablest advocates and defenders of the demonetization law of lt!73 urg­ ing to the old standard will work injustice because of the change ing such objections to the resolutions now before the Senate I am pro­ which has taken place in tlie relative commercial value of gold and foundly impressed with thQ weakness of their cause however able ma;y; ,,

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 437 be their advocacy. It is proposed to establish the same standard for gold to silver in the countries of the double standard is 1 to 15!. and if we should the silver dollar which existed in 1870 when the refunding act was adopt the proportion of 1 to 16 the coining rate or value of silver in the United States would be 3.~ per cent. le s than in other countries of the double standard. passed. That act, as we know, made all the bonds issued under it pay­ Therefore, whenever the commercial relation should be restored so that it would able in coin of the then standard value. This was I think the first be as I to 15!, the silver coins of the United States would be expol'ted and, we time in our history that such a provision was put in such a law. In would have a repetition of the difficulties which followed the coinage legislation of looking over some of the loan bills which were passed in the darkest. 1834. It is evident that" if either of these proportions is to ba adopted that of 1 to 15! is decidedly preferable tG that of 1 to 1ti. days of our history I find nothing said in regard to the kind of money in which the creditors of the Government should be paid. It That is Dr. Linderman. He is speaking in 1876, when according to seems never to have been disputed that the Government had the the market quotations of silver and gold in London the proportion :right to pay its debts in gold or silver coin of the standard value at was as 1 to 17. Still he tells us, if you want a. dollar that will the time the obligation was due. There never was any promise, stay with you, do not pay any reO'ard to the market price of the either express or implied, given to the public that the standard of metal, but have regard to the double-standard value at the mints of the coin would not be changed or that the relation between gold and those countries which still continue to employ this metal as a coin. silver should remain the same. The reason he gave for this recommendation was that if we under­ This is clearly shown by the law of 1834, which reduced the weight valued our silver in the coin below the standard of European mints it of our gold coins 6 per cent. and nobody heard of any complaint would not stay with us, but in obedience to a well-known law appli­ from creditors because they were compelled to accept a dollar of this cable to the precious metals would go to those countries where it was reduced weight in payment of a debt which was based upon a dif­ better appreciated and valued. This illustrates the fallacy of those ferent standard. 'It is the conviction of some very intelligent men arguments which we have heard in regard to the paramount duty of that the value of gold as compared with silver is abnormal. Would Congress to fix the value of silver coins at the present commercial it be wise, then, to adopt the present depressed value of silver, caused price of bullion. If it is necessary to the welfare of the people to as it has been by demonetization, as a basis for the relation of the provide for th·em a. silver coinage, and in order to keep it in circula­ two metals in a coined state Y I know that it has always been desir­ t.ion a given number of grains of silver can only be put in the dol­ able with governments to keep the mint prices of the precious metals lar, upon what principle of reason, justice, or law can the public as near as possible to their market prices. But at times this. has been creditors deny to the Government the right to exercise this sovereign very difficult to do. When the metal is worth more in the market power. But it may be said that the Government has the right to coin than at the mint it will be melted down and disappear from the coin­ any kind of dollars it pleases, but it cannot tender to its creditors age. Before a change in the market price of one of the metals should silver coins whose weight and fineness place them below the value of produce a change in the mint price it ought to b~ ascertained what gold in the market. If this be so then it is plain to demonstration the real cause of the change has been in order to determine whether that Congress has no power to provide silver currency for the people it is temporary or permanent. You organized a commission to ascer­ at all. Assuming it to be true, that in order to maintain the public tain among other things the cause of the decline in the price of silver. faith we are not at liberty to authorize the coinage of legal-tender You have their report before you. To my mind its reasons and argu­ silver dollars, except such as contain such a quantity of pare silver ments are unanswerable. From that report I see no reason for chang­ as would make the mint price of that metal the same as the market ing the value of the silver dollar from what it was in 1873. Suppose price, or in other words in accordance with the ratio of 17! to 1, you should recognize the pr~ent depressed value of silver as perma­ then I say the power to coin money and regulate its va,lne is an empty nent, and coin a 4 new silver dollar in conformity with the market name, without body or substance. value of the two metals-17! to 1. How long would that value con­ If the power to regulate the value of our coins means no more than tinue after you restored silver te your coinage Y If the market price the duty of stamping the existing market prices of the two metals of the latter metal should advance to what it was in 1873, as some upon them, without regard to the mint prices of other countries, it believe it would, the new dollar of increased weight and diminished would be impossible for us to regulate the value of our coins so as to value, which the country demanded to stimulate production and pay secure to the people the advantages of a metallic circulation. When­ labor, would fly from your coinage to the melting-pot, and leave the ever the mint price of silver in other countries is higher than the whole field of circulation to be supplied by gold and paper again. market price, instead of conforming our standard to the former we In determining- the relation which our gold and silver coins should WGerman Empire. If this result be admitted as country. This is a subject with which no individual or combination probable the proposition for basing a double standard in this country on the pro· of individuals have anything to do. And whenever you consent to portion of 1 to 16 must be regarded as unsound and impracticable. Tho ratio of exercise this high power in subordination to the interests and wishes 438 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 21, of anybody except the people of the United States, you will abdicate single standard could not take away from the people the right secured the high trust which has been placed in your hands to promote the to them to pay their debts either in gold or silver. The position now happiness and prosperity of the country. taken is that the act of 1870, which is not repealable, (because it is a I have now concluded what Ihavetosaytouchingthe ri~hts of tho contract,) has been to some extent repealed, and the act of 1873, which public creditors to control the coinage power of Con;p-ess rn order to it is clearly within our power to alter, is irrepealable. A contract secure in payment of t heir debts dollars of a specified weight and can only be changed by the consent of both the parties to it, and quality. I wish now to say a few words in regard to the charges inasmuch as it was thought wise to stipulate in the law of 1870 the that have been brought against silver because of its alleged varying precise number of grains of gold or silver which should discharge quality. One of the causes assigned for banishing this coin from our all obligations created under its authority, that ptovision of the act system was that it varied so much in value that it could not be relied must remain intact until it is abrogated by all the parties to the upon. The only reason I have ever heard for the act of 1873 was contract. that silver was not stable, not uniform enough in value to remain a A great deal has been said about the varying value of silver from legal-tender coin. Now I make the assertion that from the time of the time it was adopted by our laws a-s the unit of our money system the first coinage act in 1792 down to 18i3 there has been no legislar to the period of its banishment in 1873. Is it nqt remarkable that this tion respecting the coinage which shows that there was any varia­ discovery was never made or, if made, was never acted v.pon by our tion whatever in our silver coin, and that every cha.nge which took statesmen until the above year f I am aware that I run great risk in place between these two periods was based upon the variations of making this statement of placing myself in a position of antagonism gold coin, and if any coin ought to have been abolished because it to a large number of professional financiers and writers who have was unstable and liable to change in value i t should have been the flooded the country with pamphlets that make one's head dizzy to other coin. contemplate them. Before the adoption of the Constitution the States The act of July 14, 1870, is unlike any loan bill ever before pa&sed had power to coin money. It was thought wise to take it froill them by Congress. It specifies that the bonds issued under it shall not and vest it exclusively in the Government of the Union. This was only be paid in coin, but in coin of a certain weight and fineness, the done in very plain language : standard existing at the time of the passage of the above act. The The Congress shall have power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and declaratory act of 1869 declares that all the interest and non-interest­ of foreign coin. bearing debts of the United States, including legal-tender notes, are payable in coin. No one will say that the whole debt of the United Power was also given to provide for tho punishment of counter­ States under these laws is not on the same footing. Whatever is held eiting the securities and current coin of the United States. to be the meaning of the word ''coin" in the act of 1869 must also The first coinage was under the act of April 2, 1792. That act es­ be the meaning of the same word in the act of 1870. In 1868 the tablished the silver dollar as the unit of value which was equal to the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the greenback dol­ Spanish milled dollar so long in use among the people of America. lar is an engagement to pay a coined dollar. And the court went on The conservative hand of Mr. Jefferson is seen in this coin; for and defined what a coined dollar meant under the laws of the United while others contemplated a more complicated coinage system ho States, which is a certain quantity in weight and fineness of either favored the simple one which was adopted. It was decided that the gold or silver, authenticated as such by the stamp of the Govern­ coinage of the United States should consist of gold and silver, with ment. (Bankvs. Supervisors, 7 Wallace, 30.) the preference in favor of silver as the unit of value. The relation I refer to this decision not for the purpose that it was referred to between the value of the two metals was fixed at'\he ratio of 15 to 1. the other day, but to show that this legislation violated every rwe One ounce of gold should be the equivalent of 15 ounces of silver, applicable to the case when it declared, as some say it did, that this and 'L'ioo versa. The weight of the dollar or unit was 371 1\ grains of debt is payable exclusively in gold, and when the highest court in the pure silver, and with the alloy to weigh 416 grains of standard land had interpreted the law it went beyond Hs power because the metal. The standard for silver under the thirteenth section of the decision of 1868 was standing in its face at the time that the law of act of 1792 was 1,485 parts" fine" to 179 parts alloy, eagles to be of 1869 and the funding bill of 1870 were passed. But that is not the the value of $10, and to contain 247t grains of pure gold and to weigh only decision. The court before that held, in a case where a judg­ 270 grains of standard coin. The standard for gold fixed lJy tho act ment had been rendered exclusively for gold for duties and it was wa.s 11 parts fine to 1 of alloy. No inconvenience was felt by the afterward modified so a.s to read gold and silver, that that wa.s country from this act until about 1823. In that year attentiou was proper, and that a. judgment against a citizen for duties on imports called to the existence of a marked chauge in the relatve value of under the laws of tho United States was payable in gold and silver. gold and silver. Causes that have never been satisfactorily explainecl Here, then, are two adjudi~ations; the one holding that the paper appreciated the value of gold, f>O that the true rela,tion hetweeu the dollars of the United States were payable in gold and silver, and two metals was in the ratio of 16 to 1. that construction of the law stood in the fa-ce of Congress when It has been said that gold was undervalued from the beginning of the declaratory act was passed which it is now insisted means gold the Government. I deny that. I aay that when those two coins alone. were put into existence in 179'2 the relation of 15 to 1 was the true But it may be said that while the notes of the Government are relation, but with advancing time the gold changed in value while payable in gold and silver the bonds of the Government are pay­ the silver retained its own. Golcl appreciated in value between 1792 able in gold alone. I say that we have the authority of the highest and 1834, and in 1834, as is well known, Mr. Benton reduced it 6. judicial tribunal in the United States that tbe money of the people, per cent. or more in value in order to equalize it with the silver coin. the greenback money, is redeemable in either gold or silver. Here There was no recognized change in silver between these years, out it was a judicial co~truction of the contract existing between the was admitted on all hands that gold had appreciated and it was holders of greenbacks and the Government by the highest court in recognized by our. laws and they put it down a little over 6 per cent. the land before the eyes of Congress when the act of 1869 was passed. to b1·ingit on an equality with silver. If silver had changed in vah1e Is there a lawyer in the United States who will say that any rule of then the argument now made ought to have prevailed and the Gov­ construction will.warrant the conclusion deduced by some from the act ernment ought to have put into it a few additional grains. of 1869, that it means gold,a.ndnot gold or silver, by the word "coin," It has been said that the gold coins went directly from the mint to in the fa-ce of the judgment of the Supreme Court, which defined a the ship, and were exported and sold at a profit. Congress, as is well coined dollar to be a quantity of either gold or silverY Mark you, the known, in 1~4 felt compelled to readjust the relative values of gold word" coin" is in the statute and they passed upon that. If the obligar and silver. This was eft'ected by an act in that year which has often tions of the Government to the people who hold its paper dollars can been refenecl to. That act reducetl the weight of the gold eagle from be discharged honestly and honorably by the payment of silver dol­ 247~grainsofpuregold,as fixed ·oy the law of 1792, to23:.tgrains of pure lars who will pretend that the bonds of the United States cannot be gold, a reduction of 6 per cent. The silver dollar was not t{)nched, and paid iu the same description of money As the Supreme Court has this is very strong evidence that in the.judgment of the statesmen of held that all our legal-tender notes are payable either in gold or sil­ that time it was the.gold that had varied in valuo and not silver. If ver it fo1lows that our national-ba.nk issues may be redeemed in like silver had depreciated, why then the remedy now suggested by somo manner, so that the whole paper currency of tho United States, now ought to havn lJeeu ndop ' } and additional grains of metal put into outstanding, represents silver and gold dollars and may be paid in the silver dolJar. The next change was by the act of 1 37. This act either. If the millions of bonds now held by the United States to changed the standard of both coins from what it was nuder the law secure the outstanding issues of the banks are payable in one kind of 1792. We have stated that under the latter act the standa.rd.for of coin and the bank-notes in another, where will be found the Eldon silver was 1,485 parts fine to 179 parts alloy, and for gold 11 parts or Kent to adjust the jarring equities which such an inharmonious fine to 1 of alJoy. The law of 1837 established the stanuarcl for both system must create Y . gold and sih'er coins at 9 to 1, nino parts of pure meta.l to one of alloy. There cannot be the least doubt that the words "coin of the By this act the weight of the silver dollar was reduced from 416 gmins, standard value of the United Stat-es" in 1870 mean gold or silver under the law of 1792, to 412t grains, wncre it stood when ucmonc~ money, as then authorized by law. Indeed, this is not seriously tized. doubted by anybody; but it is claimed that the a-ct of 1873, estab­ It has been stated in this debate, upon tho authority of Dr. Linder­ lishing the single gold sta.ndard, has in some mysterious way put it man, with whom I would not presume to iliscuss a qu~stion of this beyond the power of Congress to restore to our coinage the silver kind, that tho act of 1834, to which I have referred, and the act of dollar of former years. Those creditors whose rights are fixed by the 1853, to which I have not referTeu, but which I shall notice before I act of 1870 cannot look beyond that law for the measure of what is sit down, wero steps to~artl the establishment of a single standard, dae them by the Government. That act was never repealed or modi­ and were so intended. This inference from the two acts of Congress fied by that of 1873, and the effort made by Congress to establish a mentioned is, in my jurlgment, wholly unwarranted by anything con-

•, 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 439

tained in them or in the discussions which took place when they were where the maxims of feudal tyranny had imbedded themselves in under consideration. every system. If the full weight of the silver dollar was reduced fro~ 416 to 41~ Something original, something new at least in appearance, was grains by the a{}t; of 1837 the fineness of the metal was mcreased m necessary to attract and interest a people who had drunk to the very the same proportion, and the coin contained after the change nine­ dregs the bitter cnp of revolution. Everything that had the mark tenths of 412! grains, which is 37lro grains of pure silver, t'he pre­ or badge of royalty was offensive. Look to your Constitution and cise quantity in the dollar of 1792. see verified in every line the trnth.Pf what I say. No title of nobility And so it was with the gold coins under the same law. The eagle shall be granted by any authorilJ, State or Federal. No present6 continued to contain 232 ~rains of pure. gold. This ~t ~essened the can be receive!! by your officers from any king or prince without weight and bulk of the silver dollar w1thout affectmg m the least your permission. No religious text for office; no establishment of its intrinsic value. .And next comes the act of 1853, which has been religion by the state. And when the first Congress came to prescribe harped upon all over tho country as an act which debased our silver a devioe for your coins, the proposition to stamp the President's head coinage, with the view of marking its inferior value as· compared upon them after the fashion of imperial Europe was indignantly with gold. !'ejected. Some remnants of the old system we were compelled to It is well known that the gold discoveries in California, in 1848, cre­ retain, but they were the best parts of it. In thelongstrngglewhich ated a. sensation which was felt throughout the Union. The de\el­ was carried on in England in behalf of the people and aga inst their opment of the riches of that State, as every one knows, had the oppressors a few concessions wert> obtained from the favored few effect of disturbing the relations of gold and silver as fixed by the by the suffering mans. You see them in the habeaa CO'J1J1 P~ act in the act of 1834. The former metal, true to its varying character, now time of Charles II, in avast number of laws enacted l 1y Parliament depreciated in value and silver became the more valuable coin. after the expulsion of James II, and notably in the !all of rights In the year of 1853 this evil was severely felt, and nearly all the which proclaimed to the world that the crown of }.;., gland was no small change had disappeared from circulation. Congress was aJ?­ longer to be considered a gewgaw upon the head of an alisolute des­ pealed to again to take some steps to secure to the people a metalhc pot as in the times of the Tudors and Stuarts, but a conspicuous and subsidiary coinage, for the country was flooded with shinplasters of glittering recognition of the right of the people i,o resist and over­ every description, which took the place of our silver change, nearly throw oppression and establish upon ita ruins a government of their all of which was melted down or exported in consequence of its own selection. undervaluation as compared with gold. .The act of 1853 was the Sir, the unit of our coinage, the silver dollar, is coeval with Amer­ result of this state of things, and the subsidiary silver coinage was ican liberty. It is spoken of in the Constitution, and was in the depreciated some 6 per cent. below the value of the silver dollar; minds of its framers, and in their pockets, too, long before the first that is, two half dollars or four quarters were made unequal to a coinage law was enacted. In the ti.rst clause of section 9, article 1, silver dollar, and their legal-tender quality limited to $5. But who of tho Constitution, we find a provision empowering Congress to will say this act was intended as a blow against silver, when it is levy a tax or duty not exceeding 10 on certain persons therein well known that i1 was passed in order to retain or, rather, to bring designated. In the seventh amendment to the Constitution the right back that metal to the people f of trial by jury in suits at common law when the value in con­ The depreciation in the value of gold which followed the California troversy exceeds $20 is guarded. The jurisdiction of all your courts, discoveries wa-s urged upon Congress as a reason for another change under the judiciary act of 1789, was made to depend upon the value in the relative value of the two metals. But it was wisely said that of the matter in controversy, and that had to be measured by a the divergence was only temporary, and that before the value was s.pecified number of dollars. What kind of dollars do you suppose changed again the Government ought to be sure that the depreciation the framers of the Coru;titution and of the judiciary act meant when was permanent. they used the language I have quoted T They certainly did not mean ThiR advice was followed, and what at first had the appearance of gold or copper dollars, for none such were known to the world. They an evil which would disarrange our whole monetary system turned could not have intended paper dollars for there were none in exist­ out to be a great blessing and added beyond calculation to the com­ ence. It is plain that they had in mind the only coin to which the fort and happiness of our race. I regret to say that the same wisdom name of dollar could be applied, the well known and highly valued was not displayed in 1873, when Congress for the last time laid its silver dollar. heavy hand upon the coinage. Surely the difference in the value of The act of 1792left no doubt upon this point, for in providing for go:hl and silver was not as great then as it was in 1853 and 11::549. the ooinage of the American dollar it prescribed that it should be of The silver dollar, it is said, was worth 3 per cent. more than the gold the value of the Spanish milled dollar, as the same was then current. dollar in ltl73, and the difficulty of maintaining the equilibrium be­ The right of option which the resolution affirms as belonging to the tween the two coins induced Congress to give effect in practical leg­ Government cannot be construed to mean that all the obligations islation to the long-cherished idea of Alexander Hamilton respecting named iu it shall be actually paid in sUver. The only effect of this a single standard. Sir, I have great respect for the memory, ability, is to deny the liability of the Government to pay ita debts exclusively and statesmanship of Alexander Hamilton, but nothing that he ever in gold. wrote on the subject of money was more wise, philosophic, or endur­ This option never was disputed until now. The Governmental­ ing than his reasons for preferring a double to a single standard for ways had it, and always ought to have it. The existence of a right our coinage. In his celebra.ted report to Qongress in 1791, touching and the policy or wisdom of its exercise are two different things. the establishment of a. mint, he said: The pictures we have had drawn of wagons loaded with silver going But, upon the whole, it seems to be most advisable, as has been observed, not to to and coming from banks are prepostm·ona. Objections based upon atta~h the unit ex:olnsively to either of the metals; because this cannot be done the hitherto limited coinage of silver are equally unreasonable. It effectually1 without destroyinp; the office and character of one of them as money, is not proposed to give the United States any new or extraordinary and reduomg it to the situation of a mere merchandise; which, accordingly, at different times, has been proposed from different and very res~cta.ble quarters; power. Those who shall be charged with the business of paying the but which would probably be a ~· eater evil than occasional vauations in the unit public creditors will enjoy the same discretion that like officers have from the fluctuations in tiie relative value of the metals, especially if care be taken enjoyed in the past. From the foundation of the Government up to to regulate the proportion between them with an eye to their average commer­ the time of tho passage of the act of 1873, all debtors, public and pri­ cial vaJne. To annul the use of either of the metals as money is to abridge the quantity of vate, rich and poor, had the right to pay t.heir debta either in gold or circulating medium, and is liable to all the objections which arise from a compar­ silver coin. No inconvenience ever resulted from this right. Up ison of the benefits of a full with the evils of a scanty circulation.-Report on to 1834 gold in our coin was worth more- than silver at the then Finances, volum.e 1, page l.JS. ratio. A reduction of 6 per cent in the value of the former wa.s There is nothing in this citation from which we can infer that he necessary to equalize them. But before this change no one ever preferred a single to a tlouble standard. But even if the authority of heard of the Government putting wagon-loads of silver upon ita his great name could l>e invoked in support of the act of 1873, it is creditors. The banks did not do it., individuals did not. There is a enough for me to know that it trampled under foot the teachings natural law which has ever governed the use and circulation of the and wisdom of Jefferson. Sir, the coinage laws as they stood at the precious metals. It is folly to talk of departing from it now. 'l'here time of the great innovations alluded .tp embodied all that the sage seemed to be a necessity at the outset of social organization for two of Monticello had recommended on the subject. (See Jefferson's metals, one more valuable in proportion to its weight uud size than Works, volume 1, page 162.) When he first conceived the grand the other. Silver and gold never have performecl antlueverwill per­ thought of a new and distinct government for America he was pro­ form the same functions as money. Look to the experiment of the foundly impressed with the conviction that no system could lle last­ gold dollar. .An unusual yield of that metal brought it into exist­ ing or beneficial to this new people unless the outlines of the struc­ ence; but it was utterly unfit for practical purposes. ture wero different in all respects from the rotten and oppressive There is a large channel which silver coins alone can fill. It is em­ institutions of Europe. It was easy to map out the plan of a republic phatically the money of tho people. What amount of it ca.n be with a foundation like that of Venice or Holland, w~ere human lib­ absorbed in the trade or business of the country for which it is best erty was nothing but an empty name. It was easy to take up the adapted no one can tell w.ith precision. The advantages of a metallic examples of the petty republican commonwealths of antiquity, where over every other currency is its self-adjusting quality. I know that license was substituted for law and force and rapacity were the only some apprehend that a re coina~e of silver will drive away gold. Alas, controlling principles, and apply them here. But Jefferson knew that sensitive metal long ago took its flight. Its shining face is never that to build permanently, the foundations of this great popular seen unless it iM brought forth by a premium at the broker's board. Government had to be laid in the affections of the people, and this The greatest danger which our institutions havo ever encountered could not be done with the cast-away materials of the Old World, has been in the forced departure of onr Government from those pJac- 440 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 21, tlces and methods peculiar to a state of peace. The genius of repub­ taken from the act of 1862, provides that "the coin paid for duties lics is not suited to the shocks of war. Over sixteen years ago the on imported goods shall be set apart as a special fund" for the pay­ tocsin of civil strife was sounded and the Constitution put to the test ment of interest on our bonds and notes and the purchase or payment of battle. But it was not alone from armed force that danger was to of 1 per cent. per annum of our whole debt, to be set apart as a sink­ be apprehended. The effect of long-continued employment of the law inystems; toms dues were specially pledged as a fund to pa.y the coin interest where capital and labor occupy different relations from what they :of our debt, and it is from that source that gold has been obtained for do in any quarter of the globe, and where you cannot hope to accom­ ,_the purp~se. Here, then, was notice to the whole world of the most plish anything unless you have the suppert of the great body of the ··public character that that revenue fund which the bond creditor~:> people. Sir, we arc told by a great historian that the Roman empire bad p·articularly in view, and which they succeeded in getting a came to an end by, I will not say the policy, but the necessity of mortgage on, was, by the positive provision of existing''law, payable contraction. They relied exclDBively upon the precioDB metals. The in gold and silver coin. Section 3694, Revi~ed Statutes, which is mines of Spain and Greece were exhausted, and the circulation,

, 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 441

which in the time of Augustus amounted to near two thousand mill­ looking I do not see him here. I do not know that he will have any ions, in the time of Justinian was reduced to $400,000,000. different suggestion to make, but I think the Senator from Ohio may The description which Alison has given of the effects of a dimin­ prefer to let the matter lie for a short time until the Senator from ' ished tirculation in the last days of the great empire is the most in­ Maine comes in. .structive passage in history. The fortunes which were possessed by Mr. THURMAN. Certainly I will. tl,.e capitaHsts of Rome and Constantinople exceeded t hose of modern Subsequently Mr. THURMAN submitted the following resolution; t1mes. Sit ting in their superb palaces, surround~f the conquering chief Alaric in the bed of a river in Calabria. The always been held that at two o'clock on the third Monday of each slaves who dug his grave were put to death and buried with him and month, the District of Columbia Committee are entitled to the floor his treasure to prevent the discovery of the sacred deposit; and in to the interruption of any other business. If there be no objection that watery tomu were laid away forever the great agents which put the order requested by the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. DUNNELL] .an end to the glory and grandeur of Rome, barbarism and gold. will be made. Mr. President, I have spoken on this question as I have felt. There was no objection. Somebody said Milton has taught us a great political truth in lan­ guage as instructive as his sublime verse. It is not to be expected, BRIG OLIVE FRANCES. said he, that no grievances shall ever arise in the common wealth, for Mr. HALE introduced a bill (H. R. No. 2517) for the relief of own­ let no man in this world believe that, when complaints are freely ers of the brig Olive Frances; which was read a first and second heard, promptly considered and redressed, then are the utmost bounds time, referred to the Committee of Claims, and ordered to be printed. of civil liberty obtained that wise men seek for. Suffer the com­ SCHOONER DOY PEDRO. plaints of a suffering people to be freely beard. You have the power Mr. HALE also introduced a bill (H. R. No. 2518) granting juris­ to have them speedily reformed. Their case to-day may be yours diction to the Court of Claims in the case of the schooner Don Pedro; to-morrow. Combat error with argument, falsehood with truth, for which was read a first and second time, referred to the Committee on who knows not, says the same great writer, truth is great, next to the Judiciary, and ord1ued to be printed. the Almightyt I have advocated the adoption o.r this resolution be­ -cause I think it is wi!Se. I have no feeling upon the subject beyond MRS. JULIA H. TOTI'EY. that which belongs to great questions of state, and for those who dif­ Mr. POWERS introduced a bill (H. R. No. 2519) for the relief of fer with me I entertain the greatest respect. Mrs. Julia H. Totten, widow of James Totten, late lieutenant-colonel I thank the Senate for its attention. and assistant inspector-general, United States Army; which was read Mr. COCKRELL proceeded toaddress the Senate. Having spoken a first and second time, referred to the Committee on Invalid Pen­ ·for some time he yielded to sions, and ordered to be printed. Mr. EDMUNDS. With the consent of my friend from Missouri, I GEORGE ANDREWS . .move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of executive busi­ Mr. POWERS also introduced a bill (H. R. No. 2520) granting a ness. pension to George Andrews, private Sixth Marine Battery ; which The motion was agreed to. was read a first and second time, referred to the Committee on Inva­ [Mr. CocKRELL concluded his remarks on 23d January. They are lid Pensions, and ordered to be printed. published in the proceedings of that day.] OLIVER MOSES. SERVICES FOR VICTOR EMMA.NUEL. Mr. FRYE introduced a bill (H. R. No. 2521) for the relief of Oliver 1\Ir. THURMAN. 1\Ir. President, I ask that the doors be not closed Moses, of Bath, Maine, owner of ship James A. Wright; which was for a moment, until I can offer a resolution to which I am sure there read a first and second time, referred to the Committee of Claims, and will be no objection. The Chair a short time ago laid before the ordered to be printed. "Senate a communication from tho Italian minister, informing the REGISTRA.TION OF LABELS. Senate that commemorative services for His Majesty the late King of Mr. BLAIR introduced a bill (H. R. No. 2522) to amend section 3 Italy will take place to-morrow morning at Saint Aloysius church of chapter 301 of the Revised Statutes, approved June 18, 1874,relat­ .and that seats will be reserved for those members of the Senate who ing to the registration of labels in the Patent Office; which was read may attend. I move that, in order to enable such Senators as desire a first and second time, referred to the Committee on Patents, and to attend the services, when the Senate adjourns to-day it adjourn to ordered to be printed. meet at one o'clock to-morrow. SAMUEL F. VITTUM. Several SENATORS. Say two o'clock. Mr. JONES, of New Hampsbhe, introduced a bill (H. R. No. 2523) Mr. CONKLING. I beg to make a suggestion to the Senator from for the relief of Samuel F. Vittum, late corporal in Company K, {)hio. The Senator from Maine, chairman of the Committee on For­ Fourteenth negiment, New Hampshire Infantry Volunteers; which -eign Relations, has been giving some attention to that matter during was read a first and second time, referred to the Committee on Invalid the day. It seems that an invitation was sent yesterday to each mem­ Pensions, and ordered to be printed. ber of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and of the House as I understand. The chairman of the committee, as I have TRADE-MARKS. ..already said, has been conferring with members on the subject, and Mr. BRIGGS introduced a bill (H. R. No. 2524) te amend section