580 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JANUARY 26, ers of Oshtemo, Saint Joseph, Kalamazoo, Bmncb, Van Buren, and of Allen, Michigan, u.nd vicinity, for the protection of wool-growers­ Clinton Counties, Michigan, for the retention of the present duty on to the same committee. wool-to the Committee of Wa:vs and Means. By Mr. LEONARD: The petition of Jnlius Quentin, first lieuten­ ant Uuited States Army, for relief-to the Committee on Military Affairs. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. By .Mr. MORGAN: The petition of Robert Downing and others, of Phelps,·l\lissouri, for the passage of a pension lu.w that will do justice SATURDAY, January 26, 1878. to disauled soldiers-to tho Committee on Invalid Pensions. The Holl8e met at twelve o'clock m. Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. By .Mr. PATTERSON, of New York: Remonstrance of the Seneca W. P. HARRISON. Nation of Indians against the pa-ssage of t.bo bill making them ORDER OF BUSINESS. Uuitell Stat.es citizens-to the Committee on Iudiau Affairs. The SPEAKER. By order of the House the session of to-day is for By .Mt·. PEDDill: The petition of citizens of New Jersey, against debate only in the Hou.,e as iu Committee of the Whole, no business tbe rednct.iou of the tariff on refined brimstone and against the reim­ whatever to be transacted. The gentleman from New York, Mr. position of the tax on tea Mld coffee-to the Committee of Ways and MAYHAM, will occupy the chair for the day a-s Speaker pro tmnpore. MeanP. By Mr. PHILLIPS : The petition of the Kansas Horticultural So­ MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. ciety, relating to forest-culture-to the Committee on Public Ln.:hds. A message from the Sellilte, by Mr. SYMPSO~, one of its clerks, in­ By Mr. PUGH: The petitions of workingmen engaged. in tho man­ formed. the House thu.t tue Senate had passetlu.nd requested the con­ ufact.ure of crockery and pottery-ware, at Trenton, New Jersey, currence.of the House in a resolution relative to the payment of cer­ against the reduction of duties which protect ln.bor ami against the tain bontls of the United Stu.tes. reimposition of the tax upon tea and. coffee-to the Committee of OUR COUNTRY-ITS PERILS AND THEIR REMEDY. \Vays nud Means. · Also, the petition of R. Millington & Sons, m:mufactnrers of pot­ M URHAM. Mr. Speaker, I ask the indulgence of the House t.ery, nt Trenton, New Jersey, that tariff dnties remu.in unchanged wb say a few things as to the condition of the country; the perils unt.il t!wrou~bly examined-to the Committee of Wu.ys and Means. which surround us; what have been the principal cu.uses of the stag­ By Mr. QUlNN: The petition of brewers :tncopper, lead, u.nd zinc, as well as Committee on the Post-Office and Po-t-Roads. of golu and silver, those two greu.t artiules so essential to our wealth By Mr. SMITH, of Pennsylvaniu.: Remonstrance of 79 workmen u.nd by which all other values are regulated. Coal aud iron, those emplo~·ed at tho Susquehanna Rolling Mills, Columbia, Pennsylva­ articles so useful and. essential in peace anfl war, in manufactnriug, nia, ao·ainst a red.uction of tlle tariff and against tllo imposition of a and in the cultivation of the soil, and by which the wonderful com­ duty gn to.• and co.ITee-to the Committee of Ways and. Means. merce on land and. sea is carried on, lie in inexhaustible qun.utities By Mr. STEWART: The 11etitions of citizeus of Minnesota, for all over our land. appropriations for a harbor of refnge at Grand. Marais, for llarbor We have left all other nations far behind. in the construction of improvements at tlle port of DuLuth, and for the constrnctiou of a railroads. Scu.ling and overcoming the highest mountain ranges they road from DuLuth to Pigeon River-to the Committee on Commerce. carry our internal commerce to every section of our country, and, Also, the petition of citizens of Minnesota, for an appropria.tion for with the network of telegraph lines, carrying messages of business, the erecl,ion of a custom-bouse and otllcr Government offices at the so thu.t we are quickly brought side by side in business transactions, port of Du LutlJ-to the Committee on Public BuilUnited States, with tbe liabilities whisky-to the Committee of ·ways a.ml Meaus. · amounting to $1UO,t>G9,93G. This shouJd cu.use ull to pauRe u.nd. re­ By Mr. WILLIAMS, of Michigan: The petition of J. J. Bagley & flect as to whu.t has brought it about. And yet, as· appalling as this Co. nod Nevin & J\.lills, of Detroit, .Michiga.n, against any change of appears, it does not exhibit half the effect that I believe our un wil!!e the tax on tobacco-to the same committee. financial legislation bas had. upon tile business interests of tuo conn­ By Mr. WILLIS, of Kentucky: The petition of flistillers and whole­ try. Look u.t the depreciation o.f the l"cal estate of the country sale littnor dealers of Louisville, Kentucky, for a reduction of the which hM been going on for some time, and whicll is conceded to ue tax: on whisky u.ntl for other relief-to the same committee. at least 25 ver cent., and on the basis of the value of property iu By Mr. WILLITS: The petition of S. V. Wu.tkins and. G7 citizens 18i0 is $2,500,000,000. -

1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 581

The loss by the cessation of many of the industries of the country, be sustained by the people at large, and is but an act of justice to the the depreciation of the value of stocks and bonds of the railroa.ds oppressed tax-payers of the country. The resolutions are as follows: and the corporations cannot be estimated, but these, with the dimi­ Whereas by the act entitled "An act to strengthen the public credit," approved nution in value of personal property, are estimated at $5,000,000,000. March 18, 1869, it was· proYided and declaretl that the faith of the United States Most of the insurance companies, savings and other banks which waa thereby solemnly pledgetl to tbo payment in coin or its coulvalent of all the were created when the country was in a prosperous condition, and interest-bearin~ obligatioUB of the Unitoml value oE that date included silver il.ollars of the weight of 4L2i grains each, declared by tho act has almost ceased to exist. Thousands of people are now leaving a.ppro\-ed Janua,ry 18, 18J7, entitled "...i.n act supplementary to tho act entitled '.An this country yearly to seek employment abroad, while heretofore tens a.ct establishing a mint aml regulating the coins of tho United States,'" to boa legal of thousands came here annually and found ample employment. tender of payment, accordirig to their nominal value, for any sums whatover: American artisans Me fleeing to other countries in quest of work. Therefore, Be it resolved by the Senate, (the Ho-use of Representatives concurring therein,) That Sober, industrious, and competent mechanics are taking ship 'vith all tho bonds of the United States issued or authorized to bo issued under tho said their wives and families and leaving behind them friends, home, actR of Con;rress hereinbefore recited are payable, principal aml interest, at the country, and that stauy flag they love so well, and for which many option of the Government of the Unit~d States, in silver dollars, of the coina_ge of of them risked life and limb upon the battle-field, and setting their the United States, containing 412~ grains each of standard silver; and that to rei! tore to its coinn.~e such silver coins as a legal tender in payment of said bonds, prinCJpal faces toward the wide stormy ocean to seek not a fortune but a bare and interest, is not in violation of the public faith nor in derogation of the rigllts living which has been denied them here in the home of their adop­ of the public creditor. tion. Towns and cities and even States have been unable to pay the interest on theirindebtedness, because the people were unable to pay It will be seen that there are three periods referred to in the above. their taxes. Many of the best business men have been going on in The first is the act of March 18, 1869, "to strengthen ~he credit of their business at a loss, hoping for a change for the better. tho Government," which is as follows: These misfortunes and failures have fallen upon not only the reck­ That in order to remove a.ny doubt as to the purpose of the ~vernment to dis­ charge all just obligations to the public creditors and to settle conflicting questioUB less, eA.-travagant speculator, but the prudent and wise have been anu interpretations of tl1e laws by Tirtuo of which such obligations have been con· overtaken by this national calamity. The daily laborer, the man of tracted, it Is hereby provided an1t dccla.retl that tho faith of the United St.ates is toil, the prudent man, who by long weary days, months, and years solemnly pled~ed t{) the pa..yment in coin or its equivalent of all the oNigations of of im1ustry, who supposed he had at least a competency, now finds the Umted Stat-es not bearing interest, known as Uuitell States notes, and of all the interest-bearing obligations of the United States, except in cases where the himself utterly ruined. His business is at a. stand-still, and should his law authorizing the iAAue of any such obligation has expressly provided that the property be sold it would not bring half its value. Go with me to some same may bo paid in lawful money or other currency than go)d and sil.;er. But of our great cities and I will show you thousands of idle men seeking nono of s:ti.d inwrcst-beaiing obligations not already duo shall bo rooeemed or :paid employment but cannot get it. 1l~any are in rags and poverty. Go before maturity unless ut such time United States notes shall be convertiblemto coin at the option of the holder, or unles!l at tmch timo bonds of the United States into the great m~ning districts. 1\Ien are out of employment and ~tUe, bearing a lower rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemCgold, but coin, meaning both great country been checked f Why has labor ceased to earn and re­ gold and silver. It will be remembered that t.here was a difference ceive its just reward f Why is it that capital reigns supreme and is of opinion, in and out of Congress, as to whet.hf'lr or not tho principal fast crushing out the best energies of our people when it should foster as well as the interest of all the bonds issued up to that time should and protect them f be paid in coin or lawful money, as expressed upon tho faco of the I will give briefly some of the causes which have produced this bonds. Hence the bondholders bad the act of 1869 passed. result, so far as national legislation may have done so. Prominent The second period is July 14, 1870, at the time the refunding act among these was the a-ct was passed. This act authorized the issuing of 4 per cent., 41 percent., DEMONETIZING SILVER. and 5 per cent. bonds in lieu of the 6 per cent. bonds then outstand­ It is a matter of very little importance as to how silver w~s demone­ ing. This act declared that these 5, 4t, ancl 4 per cent. bonds were tized in 1873, whether falsely and clandestinely or not. A very large redeemn ble at the pleaaure of the United States after ten years from majority of the American people now condemn the act. It was.event­ the date of their issue in coin of the present standard valno, and bear­ ually passed in the interest of the bondholder and the money power in$ interest, payable semi-annually, in such coin. What coin T The and has operated disastrously to the general interest of the people. com then authorized by law, to wit: gold at .its proper standard Ever since the first coinage act of our Government silver has been value and silver of the standard value of 412t grains to the dollar. a legal tender until the act of 1873. It mattered not whether the Now let us come down to the third period, to wit, the time of tbe debt was due to individuals or the Government, the same could be resumption act, which was passed in January 1875. The third sec­ paid in this coin. Our country had grown and prospered under this tion of that act is as follows: system, but when those who had secured large amounts of tl,e bonded And to enable the Secretary of the Trea.stiPy to prepare and provide for the re­ securities of the Government desired to further enhance their valne demption in this act authorized or required, he is .anthotizcd to use any surplus revenues, from timo to 1ime, in the Treasury not otherwise approptiated, a.nd to they then struck out the legal-tender qualities of silver, which in­ issue, sell, and dispose of, at not less than par, in coin, either of the description of creu.sed the value of gold. The fathers of the Republic very wisely bonds of tho United States described in the act of Uongress approved J nly 14, 1870, made gold and silver legal tenders, one to be a check upon the other. entitled "An act to authorize the refunding of tho national debt," with like quali· This, too seemed to be in harmony and accord with tbe most en­ ties, prh·ilcges, anrl exemptions, to the extent necessary to carry this act into full lightened nations of the world. Such had been the long acquiescence effect, and to use the proceeds thereof for the purposes aforesaid. in this dual currency and such their beneficial effects upon the gen­ This refers to the refunding act of 1870, and tlle bonds to be issued eral prosperity of the United States that but few desired a change. and sold under this resumption act were to be the same as any ()f I venture the assertion that the clause of the coinage act of 1!:573 tboso issued under tho act of 1870. They were to be of the sam~ demonetizing silver was not understood or the same would not have tenor and efiect and redeemable as said bonds, to wit, in the coin of passed either House of Congress. When the same waa made known the standard value in 1870. The conclusion is inevitable that, taking the whole country was astonished and amazed. a.ll these acts together, every bond which can be issued under the act During the last Congress I advocated the same bill which has of July 14, 1870, or the resumption act of 1875, both of which contain already passed this Honse remonetizing silver, aud should it become the words "in coin of the [then] present st.a.mlard value," is to be a law its beneficial effects will soon be felt by t.ho great rua-ss of our redeemed in the coin of the United States of the standard value of people and will to some extent revive the languishing industries of July, 1870, and not the value of coin when th~y may he issued. the COUJJtry. . As before said, 412t grains was the value of the sih·er clolla.r then. I do not subscribe to the idea advanced by the Secret~ry of the The whole tenor of these acts was to make plain and· explicit the Treasury that the l1onds of tho country issued by it sinco tho flo­ character of these bonds and how they were to be paid. It was monetization of silver must Le paid in gold, but on the contrary it done to explain the full extent of the obligations of the Govern­ will be right to remonetize silver and then pay these bonds in ei tber ment and to secure the creditor in all of his rights. Hence we gold or silver at the option of the debtor. It would neither be repudia­ should not hesitate to restore the law aa it stood in 1873 and make tion nor any violation of good mo~als so to do. I shall support ~ud t.lle silver doTiar of 412! grains & legal tender, as it then was, in pay­ vote for the preamble and resolut10n of Senator MA'ITHEWS, whiCh ment of the principal and interest of a.ll the outstanding bonds. paased the Senate ye~>terday. The principle contained therein will Silver has always and in nearly all countries been one of the 582 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JANUARY 26, favorite coins and in more general nse than gold. The table below, Iboth gold and silver aa their standard of value and w~ch ones use which I obtained from Dr. Linderman, shows what countries use gold and silver separately. The table to which I refer is as follows: Distribution of gold, silver, and double currency tkrouglwut the world.

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

Great Britain ••••••••••••••••••..•••..•. 3~. 000,000 Russia .•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.... 87,000,000 5,100, 000 Canada ...•.••••.••••••••••••••••••••••. . 4, 000,000 Anatria. .••••.•...•••••••••.•••••..•..•• 36,000,000 ~{Fv~_:::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::: 1, eoo. ooo Australia ...... 2, 000,000 Central America ..•••.•••.••••..•..••••. 2, 900,000 France ...... 36,1r o, ooo Portugal .....•..••••••••.••..••..••.••.. 4, 250,000 Ecuador ••••.••••••••••••••••••..••.•••• 1, 300,000 Greece . .•••••••••••••••.•••••• ...... 1, 500,000 Turkey in Europe and Asia.•••••.••..... 29,500,000 China .•.•••.•••••.••••..••..••...••.•... 425 000 000 26,800,000 Persia ...... 5, 000,000 India ...... 300: ooo: 000 16,500,000 Brazil ...... 10,000,000 Mo::s:ico ...... 9, 000,000 it~~;~~::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 2, 700,000 Argentine Republic ...... 1, 800,000 Peru .....•...•••...... •.••••..••••••. 4,500, 000 8,000,000 United States of Colombia .•••••.•••••.. 2, 700,000 ~~~ -:E~i>i;~:::::::: :::::::::::::::: .. 41,000,000 Tripoli .•..•.•••.••• - •.•.•••••••.. --.• --. 1, 200,000 Sweden .•••••••••••.••••.•••••••.•••..•.. 4, 2JO, 000 Tunis ..••••••••••••••••••••..••..••.•••. 2, 000,000 Denmark •••••••••••.•••••.••••.•.••..••. 1, 800,000 Holland ..••••.•...••.••••••.•••..••.... 3, 700,000 1, 750,000 Venezuela ••••••••••••••••••••••.•••••• 1, 400,000 ~~ill.~::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 2,100, 000 Japan..•••••••••••••••••••••.•••.•••.... 33,000,000

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

I have placed Egypt and Japan among the countries using gold; This is not all. This contraction mnst go on more rapidly during some of the statements place them among those using silver. It will the present year unless that act should be repealed. It seems to me be noticed that the UnitM. States is omitted from the table. She is that the financial policy of those who have been in power since 1861 now considering the question. Let us suppose she takes her old posi­ has been to oppress the laboring claas and to make stronger the tion among the nations under gold and silver. The table would be: money power. I have never been able to see why the Government Population under gold, 180,450,000; population under silver, should have issued so many bonds. The legal-tender notes would 876,700,000 j population under gold and silver, 132,500,000. pay any debt to individuals and the Government, except customs The bondholder cannot complain if he should be paid in silver, dues and the interest on the bonds. They were all the time regarded although it may have somewhat depreciated in value. They, by as good, and the faith of the Government was as much pledged for class and improper legislation, have made the immense sum of over their payment as it was for tl!.e payment of the bonds. Much more 700,000,000 over and above what was legitimately due them. The of tbis currency might have been kept in cii:culation, thns cutting total amount of bonds issned and outstanding on the 30th of June, off the coin interest we are now paying. Suppose, instead of organ­ 1869, was $2,656,603,955. Of this sum only three issues were payable izing the national banks, the $4.00,000,000 of bonds they are based in coin, to wit: npon had never been issued, but that legal-tender notes bad been There were .of gold certificates of the act of March 3, issued for that amount, then we would have saved annually $24,000,- 1863 .• ------. -- . - -- -- . ----• -••• ---- - • - • - - --•• -• - 30' 489' 640 000 of coin interest, or $20,000,000, if they were 5-per-cent. bonds. Loan of same date, 6 per cent ...... •• - ••...• - _•• __ •• 75, 000, 000 Who will say that these legal-tenders, or greenbacks, would not have Ten-forties of March, 1864, 5 per cent. ___ ••..•••••.•••• 194, 567, 300 answered all the purposes of the bank-notes f · And why could not banking have been carried on with these as Total in coin .•• --•. ---••.••• _•....• _.... _•••.• _. _. 300, 056, 940 well aa it is now with bank paper f and yet no more paper money would have been in circulation than under the present system. Deduct this from the whole amount above, leaves $2,356,547,015. There were outstanding January 1, 1878, of bank-notes, $327,240,:~. This sum was payable in current money. This is based on bonds amounting to $.'352,564,423, upon which we Gold in March, 1869, at the

The whole object of resumption should be to have all the moneys the present tariff on other industries. If you will bear in minJ, in circulat.ion of equal purchasing power, the greenback, gold, and my argument is, if we restrict the trade in the productions of other silver. Nothing would bring about this result so fully as to receive countries we will be restricted in our own trade with them. these notes in payment of all dues to the Government. These notes The clothing business ha~ almost rea-ched perfection in this are now a legal tender for all transactions as between man and mao, country. In this business in 1870 there was made in the United and between the citizen and the Government, except the interest on States about forty-eight million dollars' worth of clothing. .And yet, the public debt and customs dues. Why not go a step further and with a large increaae of population, in 1877 it only amounted to say the Government shall take her own money in payment of any $85,000,000, and out of this sum we only exported about $585,000. In debt due and payable to her by the citizen. The distiller, the recti­ 1860 the value of the wearin~-apparel manufactured was about fier, the manufacturer of t.obacco, and all others paying revenue to i>S,OOO,OOO, a.nd we exported al.lout $525,000. The production was the Government under the internal-revenue laws, pay the same in about half as much as in 1870, but the exports were nearly as much legal-tenders or in bank-notes, and there can be no good reason why in 1860 as in 1877. The former was under the revenue tariff; the the wholesale merchant shall not pay his customs in greenbacks also. latter, uns:ler a protective tariff. We will have but little trouble to coin gold and silver enough to pay I will illustrate further. We imported in 1870, 8,220,545 dozens of the interest on our public debt, the balance of trade being now in our spools of thread valued at about $1,12'2,447, and the duty collected favor. Repeal the resumption act, receive le~al-tenders in payment thereon was about $891,396. There was very little thread manufact­ of customs does, and resumption naturally follows without thereat ured in the United States at that time, but the manufacture of these shrinkage of values and general destruction of the industries o the articles began, and although they have been protected about 75 per country. cent. they are in a very crippled condition at this time. While Another great cause of the depression in the industries of our we imported 725,346 dozen spools, in 1877, valued at 104,803, the country is duty thereon was only 79,144, a falling off of $012,252. Thus the OUR PRESENT TARIFF. Treasury has been robbed of this sum while the manufacturers seem Whatever may have been the views of our earlier iltatesmen as to not to have made anything thereby. a protective tariff or tariffs incidentally affording protection, because Why multiply exam pies when the history of the country has shown of the infancy of our manufacturing institutions, I can not now see as a general thing under the revenue tariff we have almost always that this neeessity exists. prospered, while under the protective tariff the people and the coun­ As I have said, by the improved ma~hinery in use and the superior try have suffered. It has been estimated by competent judaes that skilled labor now employed in our manufactories they can compete the home industries of this country supply the people annually with with those of any other country. In all the various exhibitions at manufactured goods to the value of 3~00,000,000. Now, this for the home and abroad where the products of our manufactories have last thirteen years has amounted to 39,000,000,000. During that come in competition with those of the world we have borne off our time we have paid an average tariff of more than40 per cent. on the due share of prizes, and those articles in the main can be produced ns dutiable articles. cheaply here as anywhere in the world, yet we are paying au im­ Now, if the tariff of 1857 had been in operation when the a.vemge mense tribute to those manufacturers by reason of the very high tar­ tariff was very much less, our people could have purchased them for iff we have been paying for the last few years. $2,400,000 or 20 per oent. less than they now can be purchased. By reason of this unwise policy there is bot little demand abroad If these :figures be true, wo have paid annuaJly to protect these for a large amount of the useful articles that we can supply cheaper home industries $600,000,000 over and above the tariff which went into than other countries. We have by these restrictive laws said to the the Treasury, thus making in the thirteen years $7,000,800,000. This producer and artisan of other countries, " we do not desire you to is a grievous burden to the people, and they demand a reduction of sell your productions h~re." By this means we say we do not dosire the present high ta.riff. to sell our productions abroad. At any rate, this is the effect of the These are not all the bad effects of this tariff. Our revenues are policy. One of the most instructive illustrations of the evil effect of falling off year by year and getting very low. I give a few years legislative restrictions on trade and commerce is to be found in the below. commercial relations of the United States with British North Amer· There were collected of duties in the following years the following ica. In 18f!2 the estimated exchanges between the two countries was amounts: about $20,500,000. Doring the year 1854 there was a reciprociLy In 1872 .•••••.••••.••••••.••••••••••••••..••••••••••• $212,030, 7Zl treaty formed between the two countries with very slight import In 1873 ...... ·----· ··-- -- ·--·-··------···- 184,556,045 duties. The year after this treaty went into effect the exchanges In 187 4. _••••• _...... •••••••••••.•••••.• _••.• _.. . • • • 160, 185, 38"2 were about $:33,250,000, and they continued to increase until in 1865 In 1R75 .••••..•• :. •••••• ·······--··· .•••••.••••. ··-·-· 154,271,805 tlley amounted to about $84,000,000. We then repealed this favora­ In 1876 .••••...• _•..••••...••••. _••••..••.••• _•• _. • • • 144, 982, 44 7 ble treaty and from that time to 1875 the exchanges only averaged In 1877 . - - - -•. - - • -•. -• - ••. -- • -•.• -- ••.• - -•.. - - - -.• --. 128, 427' 24:1 about $58,000,000 a year, while both countries were increasing rap­ idly in population and wealth. This tariff has also a.Imost destroyed our commerce. Under the The manufacturing industries of this country are now in a languish­ commerce of 1857, until the war began, we were carrying about 66 ing condition, and have been for three or four years, ancl it is mainly per cent. of the commerce to and from the United States, w bile the on account of this restrictive policy of protection when they do not other nations were carrying 34 per cent. of the same; but in 1H77 need it. our ships carried about 2ti per cent. and the foreign ships carlTied Permit me to mention a fe\V articles that are protected, and see how 74 per cent. England under her free trade far outstrips ns now in it bas operated. · carrying this commerce, and her exports of manufactures are many Woolen goods are protected from 75 to 140 per cent. ; common times greater than ours. I give only one article for one year, which blankets pay 125 per cent.; flannel, pilot, and beaver cloths nearly may be regarded as nearly an average one. In 1875 Great Britain 100 per cent. Our importation in these things have fallen off to a exported cotton goods to the value of $.158,858,565, while the Unitef\ wonderful extent, being only about $25,000,000 in 1877. And yet our States exported only to the value of $4,990,695. , manufacturers of these goods are in an emba.rrns eu condition. In view of all these facts I will cheerfully support any bill pro­ Under a revenue tariff the woolen products of the country had in­ posing a reduction of the tariff, because the same will lighten the creased with wonderful rapidity. In 1850 the value produced here burdens of the people, produce more revenue, send abroad more of was about $43,000,000; in 1870 about $155,000,000, being over 300 per our products, and revive the commerce of the country. cent. This increas~ in twenty years is without a parallel, except in the There is one other law upon the statute-books which produces dis­ production of iron; bot in 1877, under a protective system, these pro­ asters to the business interests of the country. I mean the ductions have fallen off to about 130,000,000. The business of these BANKRUPT LAW, manufacturers is growing worse and worse every year, and the im­ I do not believe there ever existed a time when one should have portation of these articles is less each year, showing that they have been passed, a.nd if, aa some supposed, after the war and after such a. less each year with which to contend. great panic or craah as there was in 1873, many honest, enterprising There was imported of these goods in 1876 to the amount of about men availed themselves of its provisions and by that means were en­ $47,500,000, while in 1877 there was only about ~,500,000. abled to start in honorable business again, yet while this may be the There iil no country so rich in iron-ore as ours, none in which case it opens a wide door to fraud, corruption, and perjury. It is but iron can be so cheaply manufacturerl. Under a proper system of too often the case that men enter into large transactions and specu­ duties this great industry increased with unparalleled rn.pidity. In lations, intending to fail. They proceed for awhile with a fair show 1Cl50 the value of the production of iron in all of its forms in thf'l of success. They have laid aside or given over to wife or child, or United. States was about $53.000,000 and in 1870 it had increased to some other person for them, a large portion of other men's money. the value of about 305,193,347, while nuder the protective principle They then fad, go into voluntary bankruptcy, or are forced into the it has fallen off to about $240,000,000, in 1877. Bar-iron is protected same. They profess to surrender all of their effects, ay, they swear more than 50 per cent., and because the manufacturers are shut in falsely to secure a discharge from their d-ebts, and wheu the discharge lly this protective policy they sell none abroad and their founderies comes they ru:ssist in bankrupting others while they have by fraud and rolling-mills are closing up daily. and perjury laid aside a competency for themselves, and they are IJy In 1870 we produced in forO"etl and rolled iron about $128,000,000 law placed in a position to deceive and swindle others again. It fre­ in value; in 1877 only about l98,000,000. Of this we only exportet."t quently occurs that good, honest men are refused credit because about $6:30,000, and nearly all of that went to Canada, while Great the dishonest resort to this law for protection. Once an estate gets Britain, with her free trade, exports to foreign countries t>ometime!i n.s into bankruptcy the bigger portion of it is eaten up in fees and costs, much as $8,000,000 per month. I will illustrate further the effect of and the creditors get but little. I believe thiH law begets a lack of 584 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JANUARY 26, confidence, thereby obstructing legitima,te trade. It leads to corrupt Mr. Speaker, it is very proper to know what is the gist of t.ho ques­ practices, causes perjUI'y in many cases, and is altogether immoral in tion before the country. The question is not whether we shaH have its tendencies, and should be repealed. a bimetallic currency; tha.t question has been settled by the Consti­ Now, Mr. Speaker, having given my views on the principal causes tution of onr country. It is no longer an open question, being im­ of the general stagnation of business, the great disasters and suffer­ bedded in the Constitution, the organic law of tho country. Why, ing among the people, I will give my ideas of some of the remedies sir, it is idle for us to consume tho time of this body and that of tho to be applieu. country in such a discussion. Beyond question the right was reserved First.. Silver should be remonetized and the standard fixed at 412t to the States to make gold and sil'l:er a legal tender. In consideration {,rrains to tho dollar. The mines of our western Territories are rich of that reserved power to the States, t-he power was conferred by the and inexhaustible, inviting thousands of unemployed laborers to bring States on the General Government to coin money and to regulate tho silver into coin, thus giving a new impetus to trade and commerce value of foreign coins, clearly showing tlmt the General Government and adding to the wealth of the country, for every bar of this pre­ had assurn~d the obligation of domestic coinage, and also guaranteed cious metal mined 3.nd every dollar coineu assist in regulating the the inflow of foreign coins. By these provisions the people supposed proper values of the country and add to the geuera.l wenJth rmd thn.t they would bo secure in all their money facilities. prosperity of the country. In audition to that, lli. Speaker, the important question arises out Second. The resumption act shonld be repealeu. By so doing, con­ of these constitutional p1·ovisions, that the people as well a8 the fidence, which is so essential to a healthy state of business and wbich is States should ha\e the power to make goltl or silve1' a legal tender in now almost extinct in business circles, would be revived and the money the solution of the debts of the States and in solutjon of the debts of which is now lying idle in the coffers of the bank or with individu­ private individuals. What was to be the extent df this tender T It als will fiml its way into circulation, thus reviving all industries and was to be commensurate with the wants either of the States or of the trades in all sections of the couutl-y. 'When men are satisfied they individuals; anu if such right existed I should like to know why it will not have to pay their debts in gold and requireu at ruinous sac­ is th::tt the question is agitated now and t.he right arrogated under rifices to raise the same, they will be inspired with new zeal to enter the Constitution of the United States to demonetize silver at the ex­ into the great business concerns of life, and a.lthough the Government pense of the Constitution and the rif?hts of the people Y must provide gold to pay the interest upon her bonds, individua.ls Sir, it is not an open question; it IS a question settle(l; a.nd when­ will know they can pay their debt.s as between man and man in tho ever the Congress of the United States attempts to disturb that well­ currency of the country. This repeal would infuse new life and settled principle it overleaps tho barriers of the Constitution and energy in all kinds of business. runs riot over tho rights of the people and the States. I am sup­ Third. A portion or all of the customs dues should be paid in ported in this. Here is the argument of Mr. Thomas H. Denton, legal-tenders. Gold is now the standard of va.lue. Tbe object of who was considered the father of the bard-money doctrine and called resumption is to bring gold and the paper money of the country '' Old Bullion." If gentlemen are interested enough in the question upon par, making the purchasing power of one as great as the hero is his argument., and I shall only read a paragraph from it. I other. Nothing will so completely accompUsh this result as to re­ read from volume 1, page 444 of his Thirty Years' View: ceive legal-tender notes in payment of customs. They are now a Mr. Benton believed that it was the intention and declared meaning of the Con· legal-tender for all debts between man and man and between the stitution tha.t forei~ coins should pass currently as money, and at their full citizen and the Government, except interest on the bonds, :md it n~lue, within tho United States; that it was the rluty of Congress to promote the circulation of these coins by g:i•ingthem their full value; that this was tho design should he for debts due by individuals for customs dues. The reve­ of the States n conferring upon <..:onares.<~ the exclusive power of re21Jlatingtbe nue unes of the distiller, rectifier, and tobacco-manufacturer are paid Yalue of these coins; that a.ll the laws of Congress for preventing the circula.t.ion in currency; the customs dnes paid by wholesale merchanls should of foreign coins, and underrating their \alue, were so many breaches of the Con­ stitution, and so many mischiefs inflicted upon the States; anrl tllat it was tllo be paid iu green b::wks. bounden duty of Conp;ress to repeal all such laws, and to restore .foreign coins to Fourth. The present tariff should be so reduced and modified as to tbe same free and favored circubtion which they possessed when the Federal make the same for revenuo purposes only, and not for protection. Constitution was adopted. By this reduction and modification our ports would be measurably If the fact he so, Mr. Speaker, I come to the important question thrown open to the products of other countries, enabling the labor­ and announce that t.he demonetization of the silver u.ollar was a ing classes to purchase many of tbe necessaries of life, and :t mnch breach of the Constitution, that it was destructive of the rights of the larger number of them than under tl10 present system, thus lifting Stales~ that it was an invasion of the rights of the people, that it wns from them a heavy burden, while it would also increase largely the striking down ono of the elements of legal tender for the solution of exports of the immense surplus of products of this country, thus contracts in the United States. I, sir, stand here and propose to rcvi ving the general business ::tnd commerce of each and every p:trt meet the question prccise)y as it is .. I say, sir, that tho demonetiza­ of the United State~ tion of the silver dollar was a fraud upon the people of the United Fifth. The bankrupt law should be repealed, because tbe same States by depriving them of one of their constitutional coins; that it begets distrnst in business circles, thereby retardmg the general was n. fraud on the Generul and State Governments by lopping off one business of tho conn try, because the same is immoral in its tendency, of their financial arms; that it was a frand on the legislation of the leading to perjury and corruption. country by an undue au vantage in cutting off legislative cousi!lera­ Sixth. A rigid economy should be enforceu in the conduct of each tion; that it was a fraud on the President of the United States, from and every department of the Government, thereby greatly reuncing whom tho fraud was concealed by the artful phraseology of the law, the enormous amount heretofore required to carry on ita operations as shown by his Cowdry letter; that it was a fraud on the mining and thus Jessenincr tho taxes which now oppress the people. Hon­ resources of the country by depreciating tho value of our vast silver esty, capacity, and fidelity should be t.he requisites for official posi­ minos; that it was a fraud on posterity by an attempt to double the tion. \Ve should reject all useless and extravagant appropriations, value of the public debt which ~oes to them by inheritance. and see that no more cmploy~s are upon the pay-rolls than are act­ I happened to be a member of Congress at the time of the passage ually necessary to conduct t.he business of tbe Government. We of that bill. Its passage is not susceptible of vindication, notwith­ shoti:ld reorgan'izo tho Army and dispense wit.h the large number of standing the puerile apologies in its behalf. It was passed by fraud in officers and rf'dnco the Army to fifteen thousand men, which is now the House, never havingbeenprintedinadvance, beini asubstitutefor ample in time of profound peace. the printed hill; never having been read at the Clerks desk, the read­ :Mr. Speaker, two of these remedies this House has aheady passed; ing having been dll!pem:ed with by an impression that the bill made the residue I shall earnestly labor to securo during this session of no material alteration in the coinage laws; it was pa-ssed wit.hout Con!!ress, and should we succeed in securing all of them I feel that discussion, debate being cut off by operation of the previous question. th~ ;hole countrv and all its inuustries will be revived and start ont It was passed to my certain information under such circumstances afresh upon the high road to wealth and prosperity. that the fraud escaped the attention of some of the most watchful as well as the ablest statesmen in Congress at the time. It was REl\IONETIZATION Alii> FREE COI~AGE OF SILVER. passed near the closing days of the session, when in the bustle and Mr. BRIGHT. Mr. Speaker, I propose to offer some remarks npon precipitate rush of business it was most favorable for the conceal­ t.he subject of the remonetization and free coinage of the silver doJJar ment of fraud. It was passed without previous discussion or agita­ and the legal tender thereof. I do not propose to indulge in the plati­ tion before t.he people and without having been voted 11pon by the peo­ tudes and the clap-trap of financial theorists, because the question ple. Ay, sir, it was a. fraud that ''smells to heaven." It was a frauu 'is too intensely practical to justify any one in attempting to allay that will stink in the nose of posterity and for which some pet~ons ·or misleau the minds of the country with such philosophical disqui­ must !,rive account in the day of retribution, and God grant" that no sitions. guilty man may escape!" The question is so vitally practical that it pushes its fibers into I state furthermore, Mr. Speaker, that the attempt to hold tho every man's pocket and sends its roots into all the channels of in­ fraudulent advantage which has been secured by that legislation is dustr'y. indefensible, in my opinion, upon any principle of either law or I feel ··e;y one can see, ha\e given rise to general disorganiza~ion of t~e currency Third. It is needed by the States for revenues to pay their bonds and to dii;appointment in the capacity of the country t~ retain metallic currency. ancl other debts. 'l'he General Government has taxed State banks I "O farther autl say that it w~ tho cause why America was obliged to mako so tat"",...e a uso of pa-per money, with all its evils of unequali inU>rests, extravagant out of existence, expelled foreign coins, and deprived the States of habits and expenditure.-Seyd on MetaUic Currency, pages 52, 53. facilities which they had from the foundation of the Government in In addition to that, Mr. Spen,ker, they tell us that the old dollar the discharge of their obligations. Hence it is right that we see that ·wus dead. Dead! Why, Mr. Speaker, if llead it needed no enact­ this currency is restored to them. ment. But if it was not for the time needed, the dormant right to }'ourth. It is needed by the banks for reserves, for deposits, and it remained in t.he Constitution, a~ many dormant powers remain there for a ballast against inflation, and for specie resumption if they ever to be called up and e.xerciseu as occa8ioll may demand; therefore reach tllat point. the ar•rument is w~thout reason, and I shall proceed tu notice anoth~r. Fifth. It is needed for foreign trade with Mexico, South America; If H .:as dead then I suppose they enact.ed that it should be buried: Canada, Chinn, and all the other specie-using nations of the globe, and the funeral ceremonies were performed here under the act of forming two-thirds of the population of the globe. 1873, which was the winding-sheet of the old silver dollar-the olll Si..xth. It is needeu to utilize our vast silver mines, to employ onr dollar of the fathers, with all its historic memories. Sir, they bore mipir..,s labor, and to tnrn tho silver streams into the channels of it away as in the case of a burial of old under circumstances which trade. It is needed for the encouragement of our languishing indus­ ·are familiar to every one : tries and the employment of onr starving laborers. Not a drUDI was he.W, not a funeral note, Seventh. It is needed for national revenues, and to pay tho national .A.s his corse to the rampart we hurded. debt according to contract. * * * * * The act of 1869 provides "for the payment in coin or its equiva­ We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone lent" of the notes,'' ancl of all tho interest-bearing obligations of the But left him alone with his glory. United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the issuo of But, Mr. Speaker, it ought to have been sufficient for those who were any such obligations bits expressly provided that the same may be paid apoloO'izing for the demonetization of the old silver dollar to havo told in la.wful money or other currency than gold and silver." the tr~th about the old veteran that had stood and battled with all Here tllf) In.w defines that the word "coin" as usod means "gold t.he finu.ncial storms of the Government from 1792 down to u;n. and Bil vcr." Investigation shows it was not dead, but t.hat it wa~ alive. From The act of 1870 provides that the bonds issued under it shall be the report of the Director of the !~-lint in 187o, pages 33 and 34, it ap­ payable in coin, at its(then) standard value. Both gold and silver hacl pears-an~ I have the table here-that for the last two years before their legal standard value at the timo, a'nd the coin mentioneu could its demonetization there was more of the old silver dollar coined at havo referred only to the legal standard coins of the United Sta,tes, the American Mint than in any five years before that time. Here is gol(l and sil1:er. . the evidence: Then if it be lawful to pay in silver, there is no reason why .it shonld The following statement shows the silver dollars coined in the United States not be done, though it were as plenty "as the stones in the street." from 17!!2 till1873; and that in 1872 and 1873 more sil\·er dollars were coined at tho United States Mint than in any five years from the commencement of the Q-ovem­ Aua it woulfl be unjust to a distressed people to throw awa.y the poor ment. It will be seen, then, tbat these reasons assigned for the demonetization of advantage of paying t.ho pnblic debt in Bilver as wen as gold. 1\Ir. the silver dollar are pure fablications. Soyd, in his excellent treatise on Metallic Currency in the United States, pago 55, says: Year. Number. Year. Number. I am com·incently awakened in this country, though well understood and duly valued in $185,000,000 of gold. Understand that the proposition is to resume. England. The charters of banks in the United States are usually drawn on this principle, that a certain prov.ortion of the capital, and sometimes the whole of if., Of this amount of gold the Government holds $32,595,000 and the ~hall be p.'\id up in gold or Silver before t.he chart-er shall take effect. This is the banks· hold $5,000,000; so that the Government and the banks are far usual provision, without any obligation on the bank to retain any part of this behind. specie after it gets into operation ; and this provision llits too often proved to Now let ns take this $185,000,000 and subtract it from $2,9-29,000,- be illusory and deceptive. In many cases the bunks have borrowed the reqni· site amount for a day and then returned it; in many other cases the propoTtion of 000, and we still have $2,744,000,000 to be provided in gold to enable specie, though pai.·d up in good faith, is inlmelliately lent out or parted with. The ns to reach the English specie basis. 'Whence is this to come f The rtlsnlt to the J,>Ublic is about the same in both caaes; the bank haslittleor no speeie Director of the Mint, in his report for 1874, page 20, uses the fol­ a.nd its place 1s supplied by t.be notes of other banks. The great vice of the bank­ lowin~ language. Will gentlemen now give me their attention f I in~ system of tbe United States is in banking upon paper, upon the paper of each am usmg the argument and testimony of an adversary. Let ns see otner, and treatin~ this paper as cash. This may be safe among the banks them­ selves: it may enaole them to settle with one another and to liquidate reciprocal what he says upon the subject of gold supply in the world and in the balances; but to the public it is nothing. ln tho event of a run upon a bank or a. United States. Here is his language: genera.! run upon all banks it is specie and not paper that is wanted. lt is specie ancl not paper which the public want and must have. [From Report of the Director of the Mint, June 30, 1874, page 20.] * * * .. • The opinion has oft-en been advanced that the large amou.nt of gold yielded by The true proportion is one-third, and this to apply to all the eirculation and de­ the mines of the United States and Australia has produced an engorgement in the posits, except those which are special. This proportion has been fixed for a hun· markets of the world. That such was the eftect during the first five years after dred years at tbe Bank of England; and just so often as that bank has fallen be· these mines were opened and during which tinle the maximUDI production was low this proportion, misohir.f bas occurred. This is the sworn opinion of the pres­ reached. and that a general advance in prices followed. may- be safely admitted; ent go>ernor of the Bank of England and of the directors of that institution. but the undeniable fact that leading countries, like the United. States, Russia, Aus­ Before Lord Althorye's committee in 18.12, Mr. Horsley Palmer, the governor of tria, France and Italy, are compelled to use inconvertible paper-money, not from the bank, testified m these words: choice, bnt because they have not sufficient coin for a specie basis, would appear "The average p1·oportion, as already observed, of coin n.n£1 bullion, which the to show concltlsively that there is not too much gold, and especio.Uy aa no one country bank thinks it prudent to keep on hand, is at the rate of a third of the totru amount appears to possess a redundancy. This fact, and particularly when it is considered of all her Habihties, including deposits as well as issues." that the annual production of gold is grad·ually decreasing, should dispt'l any fears Mr. George Ward Norman, a director of the bank, states the same thing in a which may be entertained of its future decline in value relatively to land, labor, difterent form of words. He sa.ys: and commodities. "For a full state of the circulation and the deposits, say twenty-one millions of notes and six millions of deposits, making in tho whole twenty-seven millions of That is the testimony of a witness who is a gold bullionist, a man liabilities, the proper sum in coin and bullion for the bank to retain is nine millions. who is in favor of the demonetization of the silver dollar. We find, Thus, the average propo1'tion of one-third between the specie on ha..ud and the cir­ therefore, that there is no engorgement of gold, no 1·edundancy of gold culation aml deposits must be considered as an established principle at tllat bank, which is quite the l:lrgest and aruong the oldest-probably the very oldest bank of in Europe or America, and gold is on the doorease. The United States, circulation in the world." Russia. Austria, France, and Italy are compelled to use inconvertible Tho Bank of England is not merely rt>qnired to keep on hand. in bullion, the mouey for the want of gold. one-tllird of its inlmediate liabilitie.s; it is bound nlso tb let the country soe that it Tl~en, what is the conclusion of the argument f h:~l'l or has not that proportion on hand. By an a-ct of the third year of William IV, it is required to make quarterly publications' of the average of the weekly Where will you go in quest of your gold f Will yon go to Europe T liabilities of the bank, that the public may see whenever it descends below the The countries there are in a scramble for it; it is not there. Will point of safety. Here is the last of these publications, which is a full exemplifi­ yon go to your own mines T From them the flow of gold, like the cation of the rule and the policy which now govern that bank: fabled stream of Pactolus, flows only to bear the golden treasure to " Quarterly average of the weekly lia11ilitie.s and a&sets of the Bank of England from other shores, leaving but a little sediment in your own country as it the 12th December, 1837, to the 6th of March, 1838, both inclwrive, puUislled pursuant to the act 3 William IV, cap. 98. '' flows through. AD effort was made to introduce the gold standard into India; but Liabilities: Mr. Ba,gehot, an English writer and a gold bullionist, argued that it Circulation ...... ----·--····- ...... - •••••••••••••• £18, 600,000 Deposits ...... ··--········...... 11, 5.15,t.OO was impolitic and impossible. Our Government bas found it impossible to introduce foreign gold 30,135,000 into onr country through the powerful medium of our national bonds Assets: with their large rate of interest. If anything can attract the gold Securities...... ••• •• .••••••. •• 22, 792,900 from Europe it is the American bond. It is not to be introduced Bullion...... • • . • • • • • .. • • • • • • . • • .. • • • .. • . . • • • • • • • • .. 10, 015, 000 through the skill and manaaement of the syndicate. But what is this 3.2, 807,900 syndicate f It is part English and part American-might be styled a '' LONDON, March 12." compound of the British lion and the American eagle. Its prototype The proportion in England is one-third. The bank relies upon ita debts and was a fabulous monster of the ancient Greeks, called a griffin, which other resources for the other two-t.hirds in the event of a run upon if.. had the head a.nd wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, and was sup­ So you find, Mr. Speaker, that the role adopted by the Bank of posed to'' watch over mines of gold." Its image wassometimesstamped England, or rather under the act of Parliament, was that one-third of on ancient coins. At present it is not active, but it is watching the the liability in coin and bullion should always be in the bank, and issue of t.be silver bill. In plain English it is an association formed that when a run was made on the bank by the time it had exhausted for the purpose of practicing a feat in financial hocus-pocus, by which that one-third it could, from its loans, collect the two-thii·ds re­ they extract coin-interest-bearing bonds of the United States, under mainder in coin from the country, so that it might be prepared to pay the acts of 1870 and 1~5, in exchange for non-interest-bearing Treas­ off all its liabilities to every individual who had a claim against the ury notes, without increasing the gold coin of the country a single bank. That is the rule, and I propose now to apply that rule to the dollar. But how can that be done! The Secretary of the Treasury currency of the United States and the currency and deposits of the gives notice that on. a certain day be will sell five millions of bonds banks, to see whether we can compass the much-coveted object of for gold for the purpose of redeeming legal-tender notes under the specie resumption, ~ts it is called. act of 1875. Now, sir, what are the facts as to th,e amount necessary to start We will say that there are fifty banks and gold brokers, English the resumption machinery! Let ns see. Here are the outstanding and American, that have five millions of gold on deposit in the vaults United States Treasury notes in full, amounting to 354,490,892; one­ of the banks. They have also hoarded five millions of Treasury notes. third of the circulation of the national banks, $101,960,663; one­ On the day appointed they appear before the Secretary of the Treas­ third of the deposits of the national banks, $230,633,000 ; one-third of ury and they propose to buy five millions of bonds if he will take the State and savings-banks deposits, $455,560,666; to pay the annual checks for that amount of gold on de{M)sit in the vaults of the banks. interest and sinking fund, $130,000,000; making $1,272,645,554, that The Secretary accepts the proposition, k-nowing thn.t the gold is ne\7 er is, to pay the outstanding Treasury notes of the United States in full mo'\"ed in large transactions. The bonds are exchn.nged for. the gold and to pay one-third of the liabilities of banks, national and State. checks; but just here the syndicate presents $5,000,000 of legal-tend­ But it {loes not stop there, :Mr. Speaker; but suppose by the En~lish ers for redemption, and the Secretary exchanges the gold checks for rule tba,t the people hold two-thirds of the bank circulation and de­ the legal tenders. The result of the transaction is the syndicate has posits in gold which may be collected from loans while paying out the interest-bearing bonds and the gold unmoved in the vaults of the one-third while a run is made on these institutions. Then the people banks; the Secretary bas the legal-tenders, which are carried to the in the United States, to support the Government and banks, ought to destruction account and burned np; the people have lost their money have in circulation two-thirds of the bank circulation, deposits, and from circulation and have gained a new burden in the interest on annual interest on the bonds and sinking fund in gold, which would the bonds. make in t.he hands of the people $1,656,t!77,9g;.J. Add to that $1,272,- The syndicate only repeats the process at :w many calls a.s the Sec­ 645,554, which is supposed to be held by the banks, and yon have the retary may choose to make. The gold remains in the banks, the syn­ grand total of $2,g;2U,523,546 required to put the United States upon dicate holds the interest-bearing bonds, and the leo-al-tenders are the specie basis of the English government. absorbed, and so t~e process is continued untp. the whoYe legal-tenders 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 587 of the United States are "wiped out," and $5,000,000 have done the from the country for thirty years overspread. the land and gave joy and confidence whole work. to all the pursuits of industry. Well, Mr. Speaker, will the House permit me to tell a little anec­ But I do not stop there, Mr. Speaker. We have the testimony fur­ dote in illustration of this matter, which is said to have occurred to nished by the Director of the Mint from his own ta!Jles and in a state­ a western forester, a man of celebrity in his day, the well-known ment here compiled in decades, showing that the general average for Colonel Davy Crockett. Silence gives consent, and I will tell it. He the one hundred and fourteen years from 1760 to 1t!73 is 15.18; being went on one occasion, with a number of his jolly friends, to a grocery. 15 and nearly one-fifth instead of the present standard which we have He had a single coon-skin, which was currency in that day, with adopted, the ratio of 1 to 16. During the above period the ratio of wllich he wished to buy a quart of whisky. He laid his coon-skin on the highest monthly average in the United States was 1 to 15, in July, the counter and got his whisky. He asked what he should do with 1859, at which rate a silver dollar of 412t grains was worth 1.05-i in it, and was told to throw it into the loft, which he did. After they drank their whisky, the colonel we-nt around and twisted the coon­ goi;l~ing this period there were bot three years in which the ratio skin out of the loft with his ramrod, and, bringing it back to the fell below 1 to 16; in 1809, when it was 16.25; in· 1810, 16.15 and in counte , bought another quart of whisky. The coon-skin was again 1815, at the close of the British war, when it was 16.30. The ratio thrown into the loft and again the colonel twisted it out and again for the lowest monthly average in July, 1876,afterit w~s demonetized, he brought it back and bought another quart of whisky. So here­ was 1 to 19.19, at which rate the dolla.r was worth 83t cents. peated the process and they drank whisky the whole day upon a Table showing comparative value of gold with· silver by decades from 1760 to and in­ single coon-skin, just as the syndicate are consuming the legal-tenders clusive of Ute year 187~, being one hundred and fourteen years, being condensed from of the United States with the sum &f $5,000,000 of gold which re­ tables found in the report of the Directo-r of the Mint for 1876, pages 46-41. mains in the vaults of the banks. [Laughter.] But, Mr. Speaker, 1760 to 1769 (both inclusive) gold compared to sih-er averaged as ...... 1 to 14.506 1770 to 1779 (both inclusive) gold compared to silver averaged as ..••.. 1 t{) 14.491 I have not time to dwell longer on that 15nbject to-day. 1780 t~ to her international officers, and, looking to the actual and equal circulation of the two metals in differ· trade. .And now the United States are in this remarkable position, that tho richest ent countries, he saw that this equality and actuality of circulation had existeu for silver deposits are opened in their own territories, producin~ va~;t sums of solid alJove three hundred years in the Spanish dominions ·of Mexico and South America, precious metal, which instead of serving herself as money all J!O abroad to swell where the proportion was 16 to 1. Taking his stand upon this single fact as tho the currencies of other nations, while the great Republic herself labors painfully practical test which solv·od the question, all the real friends of the gold currency unller the weight of a depreciated paper currency.-Seyct on MetaUic Ourrency, soon ra.lliec..l to it. pagta 54, 55. The good effects of the bill were immediately seen. Gold began to flow into the But, Mr. Speaker, our contract was for standard value of 1870. country through all tho channels of commerce; old chests gave up their hoards; Hence we were not bonnd to keep it at an equation with gold so thai the mint was busy, anti in a. few months, and as if by magic, a currency banisheu we kept it within the limits of the contract. 588 CONGRESSIONA.L RECORD-HOUSEo JANUARY 26,

"But," it will be said, " it does not matter much, for if we send The reasons for a free coinage of gold are simple and direct, and are briefly away all this silver we get something else in return for it, either gold stated as follows : First. By throwing tho cost of coinage on the depositor the cost of production is or gootls; we pay with it, and it thus tums the exchange in our coJTesponJingly increased. fa.vor." I deny the truth of the mathematical meaning of this say­ Second. The coinin .~ va1ue of gold is lowered, which tends to repel it from the ing. Supposing the silver w.as not produced, woul:.l not the Unit-eel mint ami encournge its export. For the same reason it repels foreign s.rold. States import less, or rather be compelled to import less luxuries f Third. It is unjust to the depositor, n.s be pays the entire expense of coinage, in which the whole puulio are as much interested as himself. Coinago of tho stand­ And so if by the operation of the present laws silver were not driven ard metal is indispensable to the public, and tho expense shouJU. a~cordingly be away from the country but were to some extent permitted or encour­ contributed by all. aged to remain in it, this result would follow: the benefit of its It should also be stated that, unseigniorage which was collected for the coinage of silver a full legal tender it will spring at once to a par with gold. for the last year, and covered into the Treasury, was 3,273,239, aa The fifth objection is, t.hat England, Germany, and tho Scandina­ also appears from the report of the Director of t,be Mint, making vian states have adopted gold as a sole legal tender, and we ought $5,273,239, which was thrown as a buruen and tax upon the people to to follow their example. I answer they have no rignt to impose an pay for the expense of coining "the money of tlle rich," as stated by obligation upon us to change our Constitution or to change our con­ the Secretary of the Treasury. Sil:, it is a burning shame upon the tracts, for we change our contracts when we contract our currency legislation of the count.ry[! Why will yon do itf England does it! and destroy our silver. And whenever we adopt the example which What does Mr. Seyd say on the subjectf I will call attention to a bas been inaugurated we cripple all our industries that they may few paragraphs: reap the profit. I suppose they will want us to have a king next, in The expenditure of the Mint falls on the taxation; the expense for coining gold imit-ation of their example. is consequently borne by all cla.sses, althongh gold is used :p,rincipally by the Tbe legal-tender coins of the United States are fixed by the Con­ smaller number, the wealthier portions of the community. The mere 'assertion that the coining of gold is intended for the benefit of all classes does not, in faeo stitution. In Europe they are fixed by statutory law or the will of of the patent fact that the poor uso it but rarely, meet the justice of the ca.~o. In the sovereign. llngland tho extreme injmtice of this matter becomes all the more glaring when it It is impossible, sir, to abolish silver. Three-fourths of the nations is borne in mind that the British silver coinage, that upon which more than three­ of the earth use it-two-thirds of the population of the Rlobe. If it quarters of the nation are dependent for tlieir intercourse with each other, is chars.retl with a heavy seiptiorage of from 8 to 10 per cent., a profit which serves could be done it would increase the value of gold more than twofold the mint as a set oil' a,.arnst the free coina~e of gold. Gold, it may be said, is and the taxes and debts in proportion; and after it had done its per­ coined in l!."nglann gratuitously for the higfier classes at the cost of the lower fect work of contraction, desolation, and destruction of industries, classes, which deal in silver. Moreo\er, wlille the coina~e of gold is thus of fnll and inaugurated an unparalleled reign of poverty and distress, it value, open and freo to all, and the supply unrestricted w1thin the natural bound­ aries of commercf', the sil•er coinagt:J 1s debased; the mint refuses to coin it for would be succeeded by a deluge of paper currency throughout the the public·; it has unt a striuUy limitee coined free, and his argu­ according to tho report of the Secretary of the Treasury. Antl if ment is equally applicable to the free coinage of silver. we adopt proper measures 'in this era, they will galvanize our trade, [From report of the Director of the Mint, June 30, 1873, pages 13 and 14.] our industries will spring from the du~t, and again the march of prosperity will begin. Sir, France is not so delicate as the United E.AID.'lNGB ~"'D EXPE~-niTURES. States. When her obligations in part were payable in silver to Ger­ * * * With respect to the expenses of the mints, it should be stated that it never many she did not scruple upon the point of honor when she fell short was intended that they should be self-sustaining, and that prior to 1853 no charge for the coinage of either ~old or silver was imposed ; the evident intention of tlie to go into Germany and purchase $'20,000,000 of silver there and take framers of the original nnnt law having been to invito foreign bullion and coin to it to her own mints for coinage to pay her own obligation with. the mint for coinage. In the year above stat-et"l a law waa enacted authorizin~ and France did not scruple to do that. It is time we were getting down reqnirina- a coinage char_ge of one· half per cent_ to be imposetl, which continued in from onr stilts and showing some dint of pity for the llond-riddeu, force do~ to the 1st of April, 1873, when the new comage act took effect~ reduc­ ing the charge to one·fifth of 1 per cent. bank-ridden, monopoly-ridden, mortgage-ridden, tax-ridden, and pov­ * * • erty-ridden people. 1878. CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-HOUSEo 589

And yet, sir, still we aro told about bad faith. When they talk Let the nation's creditors beware and moderate their extortions. about bad faith we hurl the slander back into the teeth of the slan­ They have already beard one roar of maddened labor sound like a derers. We propose to pay according to contract. The bondholder trumpet-blast of prophecy. Endurance bas its extremity. Let them shall have his pound of flesh, but we do not intend that his victim remember that the snowtlake is the nucleus aroun

one-half the coin money in use was discredited and driven out of ing with 1875 being $111,550,000 and for the previous four years circulation the remaining half must be in ~reatly increased demand $81,200,000. I append an authentic table: and proportionately dear; that the pressure of nearly all debts must be immeasurably increased, and that the creditor class would gq,in in equal ratio; that money would appreciate, and all other Shipments of silver to India and China. property, land~, their -products, ~d all other ~ommoditie~ '!ould Years. decline. Such lB the votce of expenence and of h1story, and 1t IS the From Eng- :From Medi- voice of reason as well that the spirit of enterprise will st3lld still lan11don and San Francisco has amounted to about $14J,500,000. commercial world." The :first ag1tat10n, srr, was when this credttor class took alarm at the new discoveries and enormous productions The population and the commerce of the world are increasing, and of gold in California and Australia and claimed that this metal at the same time demands for the precious metals, for ornamental would soon become so abundant as to nearly lose its value as money; and other kindred purposes, are continually multiplying, and the that their money and securities would go down, while other classes statistics show that even now the increa e of metal in the world is of property would go up. not equal in ratio with the increase of population and of commerce The capitalists of Germany were first and most seriously alarmed, and traffic. Does not this clamor concerning cheap money seem ab­ and in 1857 gold was actually demonetized by that government. In surd in presence of these facts ' The apprehensions of the same ltl65, says the report, "this was changed into a movement, for the classes were not less disturbed twenty years ago in regard to gold, demonetization of silver," and the commission go on to say that ''the and are not in any sense realized. The danger of an oversupply o£ objects aimed at by both [movements] was through a disuse of one coin money is certainly very remot~, and llas no existence except in of the money metals to protect the creditor classes and those having men's imaginations, As beru·ing on this point, I quote from the Lon­ fixed incomes against a fall in ~he value of money and a. rise in gen­ don Economist~ as follows : eral prices;" and further, that "t.he American movements to the Probably if there was ~old enough for all tlle world, it would be best tbere same end, which seem to have been better understood in Europe than should be only a single standard of value throughout the world, and that one gold. Bnt this is impo~siblo. Some have doubted whether tbero is J;rol!l enough for tho in this country, were commenced as early as 1868, and manifestly the nations which now intend to use it; there certainly is not enough for all the real reason for tho demonetization of silver [in Germany and the world. United States] was the apprehension of the creditor classes tbat the M. Rouland, gover~or of the Bank of France, said: combined production of t.he two metals would raise prices and cheapen The two t-ogether are necessary, by their quantity, to meet the needs of cb·cu­ money unless one of them was shorn of the money function. In lation. This necessity of the two metals, has it ceased to exist 7 Is it esiablished Europe this reason was distinctly avowed." gold is such that we can now renounce Here, then, is the stimulating motive laid bare, and by an able board ~!tu~e0~~'il~~~;i~:~~~a1:~rtspootive whose investigations have been thorough and impartial. Tbe cred­ Baron Rothschild said : itor classes in Europe and our own large cities have been for years The suppression of silver would amount to a veritable destruction of values co-operating in the effort to demonetize one or the other of the two without any compensation. coins to establish the monometallic standard, and to reduce the money This is the logic of observation and experience. If, then, the one volu~e of the world one-half. That the immediate managers of the metal would provide l>ut an inadequate supply, is it not clear and coinage act of 1tf13, in and out of Congress, were actuated by pure undeniable that the struggle among nations for its possession and motives and patriotic considerations is not for a moment doubted. control would always be sharp and continuous, and would force that That wide-spread disaster in financial affairs and increased burdens single-standard coin np to ruinous rates as compared with all other upon the masses must, as a natural sequence, succeed a movement kinds of property 'l History teaches that the strife for possession of looking to the general demonetization of either gold or silver, could coin has not unfrequently played a leading and important part in not, however, long remain in doubt. These results soon became European warfare, and that this part of the st1·uggle was the first to alarmingly apparent in the shrinkage of values of :.til commodities attract attention to approachmg hostilities. Wtth these facts in aurl the ultimate bankruptcy of many dealers and enterprises where mind it seems to me unwise and absurd in a nation like ours, where operations we1e based in part or whole on credit. Referring to the new enterprises are multiplying and expanding, to turn our backs on generally deranged condit.ion of business in this and other countries, the $.'3,000,000,000 in silver coin, or one-half of all the world's actual the report of the commission says : money that is now in use, and this, too, when it is indispensable as a This distress dates with the law of the United· States of February 12, 1R73, and means of maintaining stability in money and in prices of property, the law of ~rmany of July, 1873, giving practical effect to a previous decree of as a shield to the debtor cla-sses and a. protection to the vast indus­ that Empire of December 4, 1tl71, for thtl eMtablishmcnt of a single gold standard. tries of our country, against contraction and the ruinous premiums In attempting to justify the action of 1873 and 1874, by which sil­ which the sin~le-standard coin would command in times of war or ver wa-s deprived of its money functions, speakers :.tnd writers urged other unusual excitement. the oxcessi ve productions of the metal; the great falling off in exports In 1816 the silver coin was discarded by Great Britain as a lawful to India and China ; the ~robal>le accumulation of coin, and the dan­ measure of values, and the precedent weighs heavily against the sin­ ger of its becoming so abundant as to lose its value and usefulness gle-metal policy, for it is well known to those who have consulted the as money. It was not against silver that objection was directed, for history of those events that this action was succeeded by disastrous silver was at that time worth more than gold, but the object wa-s to panics, constant financial derangement for years, and by great dis­ reduce the quantity of coin money by discarding one or the other of turbance and irregularity in banking and business interests. This the two coins. As I have said, gold was demonetized by the same was, I thlnk, the first instance of demonetization. Silver was at that interest in Germany in 1857. We now hear the same arguments time the money of all tho civilized nations on earth: and was in such raised in opposition to the restoration of silver to its 1·ightful posi­ favor and demand aa to make it far more difficult to maintain the tion. In answer to these objections I wish·to read from Mr. Groes­ silver than the gold standard. England made gold the only lawful beck, whose statements will l>e regarded as good authority on ques­ coin because it was cheaper in relative value, l>nt gentlemen here tions of finance. He says : would persist in continuing gold as our single standard because it is I have now noticed the three leading objections to silver. 1. Excessive produc­ dear, or, as they allege, because silver is comparatively clleap. She tion. There is no excessive production. Tho production of ~old throughout the was disturbed because silver was constantly :flowing out of the coun­ world is grtlater than that of silver; so, also, is its production m the United. States. And tho stock of gpld in Europe and the West is more than twice as lar~e as their try, but our advocates of the single standard are disturbed by the stock of silver. 2. Recent demonetization of silver in Europe. This IS confined apprehension that silver may tlow into ours. France eagerly absorbs to Germany and the Scandinavian nations, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Tho the silver that Germany and the United States make cheap and drive last three are unimportant. All of them are not equal in commercial importance to the State of New York. Remonetization by the United States will neutralize out by demonetization, and all her interests thrive, while in our coun­ the effect.s of demonetization by Germany. 3. A decreased demand for it in Asia. try and Germany all interests and industries languish and property The demand is fully restored, and may be reliod upon to continue for at least a declines in value. century. The opponents of remonetization insist that it would flood the conn­ The facts are that, instead of decreasing, the demand in China and try with cheap money, because of the generous productions of o_nr India for tho four years ending with 1875 exceeded that of the pre­ mines; but., sir, I have already shown that men wero needlessly dis­ vious four years by $30 7350 000 the amount for the four years end- tressed by the same misO'j,~ings as to gold from 1850 to 1860. When 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 591 silver shn,ll be again restored to its normal condition it will not be that these obligations should be paid ''in coin." On the 18th of cheap. We deny that it is cheap now, except as ~hese laws have de­ March, 1869, another act was passed "to strengthen the public graded i~ in importance as money. It is susceptible of proof tha.tthe creer depreciated tho breadth of a hair. On the contrnry_ it has main­ funded payable" in coin of the standard value of the United States tained its position. It can buy to-day more land, more houses, more machinery, on said July 14, 1870." Now, sir, here is the Jaw and here the con-­ more calico, more cotton, more everything than it could in 1870, the same number tract, plain, explicit, unmistakable. If they failed to read it or if of grains of the same standard and fineness. they pot upon it an erroneous construction it is not our fault but But, sir, I would not make the silver dollar cheap; I would make theirs. If they expect us to refrain from consistent and wholesome a dollar that in relative value when recognized and honored by the legislation for the relief of our suffering indu~:~tries through fear that Government would be worth a dollar. To this end the number of it will not increase their profits, then we have only to say that the grains of pure silver and the limitations as to coinage should be very business men and the tax-payers at home are also to be consulted. carefulJy considered, and also the certainty of immediate apprecia­ We will do precisely what we promised to do. We will pay just tion after remonetization. I would not make its intrinsic V3,lue so what and all that we ever obligated ourselves to pay. To do less great as to drive it from the country or into the melting-pot, nor would be a base violation by the Government of faith and honor; would I make it so low comparatively as to expel the gold. Any to do more would be an equally base betrayal of the interests of doubt of our ability to regulate this question will be dispelled when our own people. it is remembered that others, in this and other countries, have beon Sir, we must keep sacredly in view both parties to this contract. able forafrresto control thisproblemof relativevaloes. Foronei can On the one side are those who hold and on the other side those who say that am expecting at no distant day to see the gold and silver, pay these obligations. On one side are the owners of Govern­ and the greenback dollars each and all worth a dollar, all inter­ ment bonds and on the other are the tax-payers of the country-the chan~able and all equally desirable. And accompanying this healthy farmers, mechanics, merchants, and all classes who actually produce condition of money, I expect to witness returning life, activity, and by faithful industry what the world consumes. But, sir, the advo­ prevailing prosperity throughout the country, in all our varied enter­ cates of remonetization do not, as some allege, propose to give to the prises and industries; expect to see the laborer again employed, aml country cheap money. We propose to coin a silver dollar that will, at good wages. ·we will still have onr debased subsidiary half dollar when honored by the Government and made legal tender, be worth and other inferior coins, and I trust we will have these in greatly a dollar, and by this means to ~teet the people against the injustice increased amount. In this respect we are far behind EnglandJ Ger­ and avarice of those who would make the gold coin worth more than many, and France. England has $93,000,000 while our coinage act a dollar-worth a premium: as it has been since 1873. Is not this limits us to $50,000,000, or a little more than one-half. It is my own right f Is it not just t If it be, then is the national credit in a bad opinion that of the inferior coins $100,000,000 could and would be way if it will not take care of itself. maintained at par in this ~ountry, and that we should after restor­ Prior to and at the time.of demonetization 412! grains of standard ing the silver dollar and making it a lawful ten,der, if our mints silver held the full value of the gold dollar, and I am of the opinion have that capacity, coin at least four millions of these per month that this dollar would again advance to this value if folly houorud until the amount shall rea.ch $100,000,000 or more. I would also and protected by the Government. If not, the deficiency should be adopt the views of the Director of the Mint, and wo"Uld give to the supplied. Government the profits to be gained from coining. He says "the At this point I desire briefly to notice another complaint of the anti­ silver dollar should be coined and issued exclnsi vely on Government silver men. They accuse the West of a purpose to defraud their account, for the reason that the Government as representing the creditors in the Eastern States and stigmatize the~ as repudiators. people, and not individuals, should realize the gain which would The ea.stern press has villified and derided the \Vest. Their pulpits arise from its coinage." have been conscripted into similar service, while capitalists have And, sir, I would also adopt the wise suggestions of the Secretary threatened to change the usual course of business and to bring our of the Treasury and of the Comptroller of the Currency with refer­ noses at once to tho gold grindstone. ence to issuing bonds of the United States in small denominations, The gentleman from New Hampshire [Mr. BLAIR] engaged in a and allowing these to be held by the national banks as a portion of tirade that seemed to me as unbecoming a.s it was unfair and unjust. their lawful reserve. On this point the Comptroller in his last re­ He not only called the silver advocates hard names, but almost went port says: into a paroxysm of despair over imaginary losses his people were to suffer through our perfidy, and used this language: If authority were given to the national banks to hold, in 4 per cent. bonds of a. denomination less tlian f5<), such portion of their reserve on deposit with their Millions of the hard-earned savings of the laborers of New Hampshire are loaned agents as they mi~ht think proper, it would result in a. 4Rge inn'struent by at rates of interest sanctioned by loCal laws all thron~th the great valley garden of them in these securities; and the savings-bank depositor, if he should so desire, the West·, and now they threaten us that they will repudiate the whole unless W6 would then find no difficulty in dispo~ing of these small bonds among the twenty­ will discount 8 per cent. of the priucipal. one hundred national banks, one, at lea~t, of which is located in almost every vil­ lage in the country. This policy would a.lso ha.\"e the efiect of strengthening the Now, sir, this is in substance the charge that is also made by the available resources of the ba11 ks and of retaining in their hands a considerable eastern press. It is a charge that is damaging to our integrity and portion of those idle funds which are n~tw sent to their COITes~ondents in the cen· honor, bot fortunately it is heard and read with suspicion, as it only tral cities, and are loaned by the latter, upon call, to dealers ID speculative seen- requires a moment's reflection to satisfy those who are acquainted ~~ . with the long loan system th'lt repudiation in such cases would be This suggestion, if adopted, would provide a means by which a utterly impossible. large amount of our national indebtedness would be scattered in Sir, he has told this House and the country of the millions they small sums among our own people; would furnish opportunities for have loaned in the West, and would perhaps have yon believe it waB those who deposit in savings-banks to escape the risk of failures, sent there as an act of philanthropy or benevolence. He did not in­ which so often occur of late, and would liberate 1. large amount of form the House that the motive was purely selfish, cold, and calcu­ money for circulation among the people, which the national banks lating; that they sent out their inoney because they could get their now keep on deposit in large cities fol' reasons named by the Comp­ 10 per cent. from the West and only 6 per cent. in the East. Every troller. intelligent person understands that this money was invest.ed wit.h Bot, sir, opposition is made to the dual standard on the ground deli berate method and care, and with a purpose to exact not onl "the that it would work an injustice to those who hold Government securi­ pound of flesh" but in too many instances the warm blood f our ties; that it would be an act of bad faith and would injure our national struggling farmers with it. He knows that they demanded certifi­ credit. To my mind this objection seems far-fetcherl and utterly cates and affidavits as t-o the value and title of property, and also at groundless. The day of ruatnrity of most of these bonds is very re­ least three dollars in the way of mortgage security for every dollar mote. They are made payable in the far future, and it will be time loaned. And now, sir, I ask gentlemen to imagine if they can by what to jump the stile when we get to it. A dozen important changes in possible device or legerdemain process those farmers, thus fi.mlly held thesela.ws maybe sooner made. One Congress may undo what anoth­ in the merciless grip of th~ lender could, if they would, "repudiate er has done. The interest as it falls due should be paid in coin, at its the whole debt" and escape f The .whole story is unreasonable. It value at the time when the bonds were issued, accoriling to contract. is as absurd a.s most of their charges and taunts are unfounded. These Bot, Mr. Speaker, we arenot,astheywould infer, by any meam;indif­ outrages of which they complain have an existence only in their ex­ fereot to theiruportancean.ted and S1r, I deprecate the disposition manifested in the East to indulge discussed over and over. Under the act of February 25, 1862, the in sectional jeers and threats and to arouse sectional antagonisms. 5.20 bonds were issued, and the interest was made payable in coin. At the same time I warn gentlemen here and those at home who make Otlter acts were passed in 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865, authorizing and savage assaults and threats, against these attempts to menace und providing for the various issues, and all these expressly stipulated overawe the advocates of the double standard. All such efforts will i

592 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JANUAUY 26,

be worse than wasted. H will be well for them to remember that opinions were advanced during the discussion and in view of tho the productions of the West are likely to be as essential to the inter­ fact that the law is not entirely clear on this important point, a suc­ ests of the East as their gold is to the \Vest. They should remember cessor might rule differently, and therefore the purpose to reissue that we may be able to live quite as long and as well without their should be taken fr·om the domain of doubt and uiscussion by this gold as they can without our flour and pork and beef. We think explanatory or constructive clause. The greenbacks were adopted they will be as much benefited as we by the practice of reciprocity as one of the wise expedients for prosecuting a gigantic war. They and good feeling. proved a valuable auxiliary, but through causes that I neeinst a benefactor. present volume of money. Mr. Speaker, I have mentioned that the great rebellion was the Let us return to the time-honored dual standaru,from which we so original source of all our troubles. It concentrated the wealth of our rashly and so unwisely departed in 1873 and 1874. And then, after country in the hands of a few, and it plunged not only the nation, first making tho silver dollar a full legal tender, let us commence and but individuals, into this unparalleled era of debt. The four noted continuo the coinage of this safe and popular money. Anu through wars in this country and Europe since 1861 increased the indebtedness this agency we ma,v safely hope to establish stability in monetary in tho two countries nearly $9,000,000,000. The destruction and wast­ affairs, to restore the confidence that bas been so long and so se­ age of property amounted to many billions more. The increase of riously impaired and unsettled, to call idle capital from its conceal­ individual and corporate indebtedness was enormous. Thousands of ment, and to set iu motion the unemployed machiuery and labor of the miles of railroads were built, and chiefly on credit, until the funded country. In fact we ma.y hope to rescue a suffering people from the indebtedness of railroads in the United States exceeds 2,300,000,000. gloom and the perils of threatened bankruptcy and ruin. Cities went on madly in expenditures until the large cities of the But, if we fail in these efforts to undo a great wrong and to pro­ country are owing upwards of $1,000,000,000; States, $400,000,000; vide relief, then let those who speak for gold and who encourage natioual debt, two billions; on farms and warehouses the mortgages the encroachments and avarice of the money power answer to the to insurance companies and savings-banks aggregate nearly a billion; country for the injustice done and results that will follow. To foro­ debts of mining companies and corporations, not named, are immense. tell these consequences does not seem to me at all difficult. Bot I These debts, sir, are sapping the vitality of the Repul>lio. Interest will not now venture further in my auguries of evil than to say that on debts is exhausting the profits of trade and the products of our our industrial and commercial pursuits alld enterprises must, in that farms. The funded indebtedness of the world now held in Europe event, continue a.s they long have been, rocking on the wave of doubt and this country amounts to about $27,000,000,000, or nine-tenths anu uncertainty for an inue:finite period. of the estimated value of the entire property, real and personal, REPEAL OF THE RESUl\IPTIO.N ACT. in. the United States. Those who combine to produce fluctua­ tions and who speculate on changes in values of these obligations Mr. JOYCE. Mr. Speaker, when the bill for the repeal of the re­ are the parties who clamor against the restoration of silver as a law­ sumption act was before us for discussion, I intended to adclress the ful tender. Money is not only the measure of the valnes of commo­ Hoose in opposition to its passage, but was prevented from doing so dities, but also of debt and of labor, and I claim, sir, that if we would at that time by indisposition, and I avail myself of this my first op­ portunity since that time to carry out that purpose. relieve the distress in the country, if we would make the payment of 7 debts possible, and romove the hinderances to general prosperity and I seml to the Clerk s desk and ask to have read the bill as it passed good feeling, we should make haste to remonetize silver, and to com­ this House. mence t.he coinage at the earliest moment practicable. I believo it The Clerk read as follows: would restore confidence among all classes and would tend directly An act to repeal all thn.t part of the act a.pprovocl January 14, 1875, known as the resumption a~t, which authorized the Secretary of the TreMury to dispose of and powerfully toward a general revival of business throngl10nt United States bonds aml redeem and cancel the greenback currency. the Union; that it would quicken the sales of property and woulu Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of tile Uniled States oj encourage the investment of money in actual improvf'mcnts and per­ .America in Congress assembled, That all that po1·tiou of the act approved January manent pursuits ; that, gold having been forced up to an unnatural 14,1875, entitled ''An act to provide for the resumption of specie payments," whtch value l>y the act dishonoring silver, the reinstatement of this coin reads as follows, to wit: ".And. when~ver, and so often as circulating-notes shall be issued to any such banking associat.ion so increasina its capital or circulating would bring silver and gold together without injustice to any class, notes, or so new iy organized as a.foresaid, it shall !Je tho duty of the Secretary of the and would release the debtor and business man from oppression by Treasury to redeem tho legal-tentlerUnitedSratcsnotesin excess only of 30o;ooo,ooo, giving them a choice between the two coins. to the amount of aoperceut.of the sumo£ national-bank notes so issued to any such banking association as aforesaid, aud to continuo such redemption as such circulat­ I believe it· would greatly facilitate the movement toward resump­ ing notes aro issued until there shall bo outstanding tho sum of $300,000 000 of such tion by providing the means with which to pay our legal-tender lcgal-tenuer Unit.eu States notes, and. no ruoro. And on and atter the 1st da.y of notes. 1 do not propose here to cliscuss the resumption quest.ion, and Januarv, A. D.187!J, the Secretary of tho Treasury shall redeem, in coin, the United still that is so nearly inseparable from this measure as to justify a States legaJ..temler notes then outstanding, on their presentation for redemption at tho otlice of the nssistaut treasurer of the United States in the city of New wonl on the subject. In 1875 the continued derangement in busi­ York, in sums of not less than 50. And to enable the Secretary of tho 'Trcasm y ness and the wild fluctuations in values of property, and of our to prepare and provide for the redemption in this act authorized or required, he is greenback circulation, seemed to require of the Government an early authorized to use any surplus revenues, from timo to time, in the Tre.'\Sury. not oth­ return to its former practice of taking in its notes when presented erwise appropriated, and. to issue, sell, and dispose of, at not less than par in coin, either of the descriptions of bonds of the United States descril>ed. in the act of Con­ and giving coin in their place. '.J.his, it was thought, would restore gress approved July 14, 1870, entitled 'An act to authorize the refunding of tho equality and steadiness in prices of ~1 kinds of lawful money, and national liebt.' with like qualitie~ privileges, and exemptions, to the extent ntleeS· would give stability to values of property. Actuateu by these views sary to cauy this act into full enect, and to use tho proceeds thereof for the pur· both parties in Congress united in passing the bill known as the re­ poses aforosaid," bo, and. the same is hereby, repealed. sumption act, by which a day was fixed for redeeming the Govern­ Mr. JOYCE. The act of January 14,1875, known as the resumption ment notes with coin. Even tho most sanguine did not appear to act, proviues, among other things, for retiring our greenback cur­ anticipate reaching the desired haven of prosperity at a single bound. rency, by the issuing of national-l.Jank notes, in the proportion of $80 To climb up out of the chaos and confusion into which the war period of greenl.Jacks to $100 of bank-notes, until there shall be outstanding had plunged the country must be a work of time1 and hence a day the sum of $300,000,000 of such lega.l-te11der United States notes and in the futuro was fixed in order to give opportumty for adjustment no more; and also provides that on and after January 1, 1879, the anu preparation. While I have 1·egarded tho principles embodied in Secretary of the Treasury shall 1·edeem, in coin, the United States the act as being in hm;mony with sound financial views, I have legal-tender notes, then outstanding, on their presentation for redemp­ always lookeu upon tho law in its present form as faulty and in some tion at the office of the assistant treasurer of the United States in the respe()ts impracticable. Of tho ability of the Secretary of the Treas­ city of New York in suaiji of not less than $50. ury to commence and maintain resumption at the time fixed and on The hill just read at the Clerk's desk r·epeals the provisions of the the single-standard coin, I have entertained very grave doubts, and act of 1875, to which I have referred, and if it becomes a law will hence the clause in the amendment introduced L>y me at the late leave the legal-tender debt of tho country at its present amount and called session, modifying the act and providing for a conditional ex­ wipe out all provisions for its r·edemption at any time either near or tension of time. Fnrtbermoro, I am unalterably op~sed to any con­ remote. traction or reduction of the present volume of money, and conse­ Mr. Speaker, believing that any question touching the national quently my amendment proposed to make the reissue of legal-tender currency is at all times one of the most important that can possibly notes after redemption compulsory on the Secretary of the Treasmy. come before the people or be submitted to the consideration of Con­ I am awaro of the fact that the present- Secretary believes that gress, and more especially so now when all business is unsettled and such is already the spirit of the law of 1875; but, inasmuch as adver ·e sluggish, wllon the material iudu tries of the country are suffering , 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 593

from the effects of a vast inflation of the circulating medium an• as posst11l!l, as ~ho are. looking to us for relief, I have 'attentively. and patiently lis~encd only way to arrh·e at permanent commerCial prospenty. It 1s war and ulilntlon to all the debates in this House npon tho subJect, carefully w~1gbed on tho one hand and peace and a sound cuiTency on the other. and considt>red all the argumen~ presented, eage;Iy and a~x10usly If further proof of this fact is required we h_ave only to r?fer to read everything I could find which bas been wntten by wise men the history of our own country at the close of the revolot}onary upon all sides and in favor of all theories, and from the whole mass war when the whole power of the Government, under the gmWashington and Hamilton ~nd Mapart from the sound doctrine and set-tled faith of the fathel'S, that, in every country where it bas been the subject of thought and The greenback currency was adopted arid issued as a war measow discussion and on every occasion when it has occupie~ the attt;ntion and a forced loan upon the people, and nobody then claimed or iuti.. or received the consideration of statesmen and legislators, 1t bas mated that there was any other warrant for it in the Constitution, always been decided and settled in favor of the gold standard or a or that it could be issued iu time of peace, It w~ resorted to t~os t.Qe · medium of exchange convertible into gol~. . . . only means by which the natiouJs Lfe cool~ be :preserved. ::{twas I To this role there is, believe, not a smgle exception m the his­ used in place of money to pw;c~aae supphes ~nd PaY the me~ to . t-ory of any civilized nation on the face of the globe. put down the :rebelHon ~n<.\ ~~-ve tl;le republic from destructiOn.. While it is true that nations have in times of dire necessity and Men ditfe:red {\8 t<\ tl;l~ :lJeCe~?~ity of i~ui.n15. lt, but all ~-gr~d as. to extremest need resorted to the issue of paper promises, invested them the lH~tw'e O.f th~ bills, ~nd 'Y"hat f?~OQld tinally be done with tliein.. with the sovereign power of legal tender, and compelled the people Eve:cy mall v~o ~oted, for them (;lid so with rel~~tance, a:ud ~ecretly to receive them in place of money, as this Government was compelled plooge~ ~is ~onor that as soo~ as. ~he. uecessity ce~ed the paper to do in 186'2, yet the redemption of these promises and the reston~­ ~Q{\Uld be redeeme(\ and the co.untcy bro-qgb,t b3tQk to. sound ?Doney, tion of the specie standard have never been lost sight of or aba~dt>~~d~ The same f!IOl~mi\ pl~dge was ~ta.rn~ed, l;lOt ouly upon the _b11ls but but as soon as the necessity which compelled the inflatiou ~a~ ~ss~q \l.P~.ll e~~cy l~w ~utl,wr~~ing tl\e\r 1ssn~ and the means provided and away these pledges or forced loans have been redeemed1 ~~q th~ Q;o.~ .. mant\et speci(\c{\llly pomted out by whtch they were to be redeemed. erument has restored its circulating medium to it~ \10~ co.wlitlt¥1 Tt\ei6 promises were ia~med by the Gove.rnment. and the people of soundness, and given back to the peoplet ll\ t~e \JQ.O\\ Q{ ll®eat g~ve t~efr fa~ value in labor or property w1th a fatr understandmg money, a new pledge of national integrity tJ:lll\~~~· tlu~t t~ey were to be redeemed at t~e earliest practioable.moment aft~r This proposition was well snstain~d b3 '~~ ' t\ng~tshed gent~~, tbe close of the war. They wel'e m fact so many prom1ssory notes m man from Massachuse~ts [Mr. Lo~:w~) .i~ ljlis ~ le jlle~c.\\ 1\~I\ th~a which tlle Government promiaed to J.,>aY the holder t_he ~ace value of subject. In commentmg upo~ ~~IS. J?9fh~ he ~l

The enormous productions of our country the past year deprive us The object of t~e act was to appreciate the greenback and make of every excuse, and a refusal to redeem them or to make them equal it better and worth more, and such has been its effect. It l1as been in value to gold is nothing less than a willful repudiation of our most constantly appreciating and growing better every day, until now it sacred and solemn obligations. is within less than 2 per cent. of gold. ThesenoteR, whichhavealwaysbeen afilicted with a two-fold value, No reasonable man could ask or expect a more literal fulfillment of one a paying and the other a purchasing value, were, as I have said, the prophecy of the advocates of that measure or more hopeful and iss ned as money to aid u i in putting down a needless and wicked cheering results; and yet, when we have almost reached the goal of rebellion, and the nature and extent of our responsibility in regard our hopes and are about to grasp the wreath of victory, we are asked to them has been acknowledged and demonstrated from year to year to repeal it, to repudiate our promise, to throw wide open the flood­ since the war, not only by the declarations of Congress, but by the gates of inflation, and leave the people without any assurance that avowed purpose and determination of both political parties, pro­ the Government will ever redeem. claimed in both State and national conventions, to devise some mode The time has come when the vast business interests of this country by which they could be redeemed or made equal in their purchasable require and demand at the bands of the Government the restoration value to gold. of a permanent monetary system and a uniform standard of valul's. When the war ended we found ourselves groaning under the bur­ The people want this question placed beyond all doubt; they desire den of an enormous public debt, bearing a high rate of interest, which a respite from legislation ; they beg of Congress to let the cur­ self-preservation and self-interest required should as soon as possi­ rency alone. The business men long for rest from this agitation, ble be refunded at a lower rate. Foreign capitalists, on whom we so that faith and commercial confidence may have time to return. depended to take a large portion of our bonds bearing a low rate of They believe that we have already passed the crisis of depression, interest, began to grow timid from the fact that indiscreet and fac­ that we have touched bottom, that a brighter day is beginning to tious men bad proclaimed tha.t our bonds ought to be paid in cur­ dawn, that business is reviving all over the country, and that it rency instead of gold. would be suicidal and fatal to a.ll their interests if we should, by re­ 'fo obviate this difficulty, to save money to the people, and to re­ pealing the act of 1875, revoke all we have done and go back to the store confidence in our securities in the markets of the world, as well very system and policy we have been laboring so long to escape from. as to carry out and fulfill what all honest men understood and knew They believe that the repeal of the resumption act would be a long to be a solemn obligation, Congress in 1869, declared- step backwards, that it would tend to impair and destroy rather than That the faith of the United States is aolemnlypledJWl to tho payment in coin, to restore and build up, and that it would be construed as an act of or its equivalent, of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest, bad faith on the part of the Government and would most injuriously known as United States notes, and of all the interest-bearing obligations of the United States. affect the public credit among the nat.ions of the world. And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make provision, at the The President tells us, in his annual message, that the refunding earliest pr&ctical periDd, for the redemption of the United States notes in coin. of the national debt at a lower rate of interest, as now going on, The passage of this act had the desired effect; our bonds and notes with the aid. of the resumption law, will save to the people 20,000,000 at once rose rapidly in value and, within one year, the bonds rose to annually, and more than three hundred millions before the bonds par in gold making it practicable to commence the refunding of the could all be fully paid if permitted to remain as they now are. 6 per cent. bonds with 5's, and under the stimulus of this new prom­ Repeal that act and the refunding will immediat.ely stop ; the at­ ise of redemption the legal-tender note rose from seventy-six to tempt to do it even has already had a very marked effect upon it, and eighty-nine cents. we shall be plunged into the vortex of uncertainty, virtual repudia­ And. sir, the same reasons which existed then in favor of the pas­ tion, aud dishonor. sage of that a-ct are potent and convincing now against any act by But it is said by those who favor the repeal of the resumption law Congress to depreciate our bonds, postpone redemption, check the that we shall not have the gold to redeem on the 1st of January, 18i9, work of refunding, or shake the confidence then so wisely and justly and that therefore we ought to repeal the act which fixes that date. established. Now, sir, with bank-notes and greenbacks almost at par; with sev­ There is to-day a balance of seven hundred and twenty-nine mill­ enty millions of gold already in the Treasury, and five millions being ions of the public debt bearin~ interest at the rate of 6 per cent., added every month; with thirty-five millions of surplus revenue an­ and seven hundred and eight nullions at 5 per cent. nually to swell our reserve; with one hundred millions as the yearly Under the stimulus of the acts of 1!:!69 and 1875 the Secretary of prodnction of our mines; with the balance of trade to the amount of the Treasury has been able to refund the debt down to that sum at two hundred millions in our favor, drawing foreign gold to our shores 5, 4, and 4t per cent., and, sir, whenever these wild schemes of infla­ and checking the exportation of our own; with our customs revenue tion and repudiation are abandoned and given up, and it is known sufficient to pay the intereat on the public debt; with a wealth and and believed amon~ the nations of the earth that we have ceased all abundance of crops far surpassing those of any other year since the legislative "tinkermg" with the currency, and that we mean to re- · foundation of the Government; with the business int.erests of the deem all our promises and pay our honest debts in honest money, he country rapidly adjusting themselves to this new order of things, will find no difficulty in refunding the balance at the same or a still and'' a prudent economy prevailing in the public service and among lower rate of intere..~t, thus saving millions of dollars which we are all our people," it seems to me that the conditions are favorable, the now compelled to pay to the holders of our bonds, and many of them signs propitious, and the prospects of victory reasonably certain. fereigners, in gold. Why, sir, let the people once understand that their paper is at par, The greenback note bears upon its face the promise of the Govern­ that they can have gold for their bills, and nobody would want it, ment to pay a sum of money to the holder, but no time is named nobody would have it. when the payment is to be made. This important omission, together With the confidence inspired by this knowledge, together with with the fact that these notes have always been depreciated, has kept the fact of the greater convenience of paper, every man who uses his our currency in a state of constant vacillation and greatly aided in money in his business and keeps it in trade would not present it for creating uncertainty and depression in the business of the country. redemption, wh.ile those who would demand gold for the purpose ()f The act of January 14, 1875, w~ich provides that "on and after hoarding would be few in number and the gold demanded compara­ January 1, 1879, the Secretary of the Treasury shall redeem in coin tively small in amount. the legal-tender notes then outstanding," was intended to remedy Under the old State bank system, where the bill-holders had little thiS defect in the contract, to appreciate these notes, and put in the or no security, it required only from 15 to 20 per cent. in gold to keep form of legif!lative enactment, not a new contract, but what every­ their bills afloat and hold them at par, and in this case, with our body had always conceded and knew to be the true meaning and in­ great increase of banking facilities, and when every bill is amply terpretation of the original obligation. secured by United States bonds, it would certainly seem that it could All honest men will be glad tQ admit that the Government is just not require any more. as much bound to pay its debts and redeem its solemn obligations as Among all the able speakers upon this bill to which we have lis­ an individual, and the act of lt:l75 was nothing more than a declara­ tened no friend of the measure, from the honorable gentleman from tion by the Government of its purpose and intention to do it, and Ohio [Mr. EWING] down to his most humble disciple upon this floor, fixing the time when the money was to be paid. has even attempted to inform the Honse and the country what good At the time of the passage of that act, while men differed as to results are to :flow from the repeal of the" time clause" in the reoump­ the time which should be fixed for the fulfillment of the contract tion law. and the payment of the debt, no one questioned the duty of the They claim, to be sure, that under the provisions of that act the Government to fix some time and to pay it at the earliest practicable volume of the currency is being contra-cted, aud that our present moment. And the time of redemption was finally put off to Janu­ distresses grow out of the fact that we have a short supply of circu­ ary, 1879, because of the difference of opinion upon that point, to lating medium, and yet they do not claim, or pretend even, that the give time to arrange all the relations of debtor and creditor with repeal of that clause will increase the legal-tenders, the national­ reference to it and to enable Congress, in the mean time, to pass any bank notes, or the fractional currency. additional act in aid of resumption, if found to be necessary. If any beneficial results were likely to flow from the passage of Since January 14, 1875, every man who has taken one of these this bill, these learned gentlemen would be able to point them out, greenback notes has received wit.h it, as a part of the contract, the and their neglect or inability to do so is conclusive evidence to my promise of the Government that it would be redeemed in coin at the mind that none are expected or possible. time .stated in that act. The course of trade also bas been directed It is not, sir, a bill for the relief of the people and the settlement a.nd contracts have been made with reference to it, while vast inter- of this vexed and troublesome question of the currency, as claimed 8Sts }lave b~en acquired, exchanged, and released in view of the by its supporters, but on the contrary it is a measure designed to solemn pledge contained in it. tloat the democratic party illto power, and is "fraught with the 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 595 greatest evil alike to the credit and honor of our Government, at But, sir, there is another thing which we learn from the study of home and abroad, and to the labor, capital, trade, and commerce of the financial history of those two countries which is particularly the country." pertinent to the issue before us, and to which I invoke the attentioP Lack of currency, sir, is not the causa of business depression and of the House, and that is the fact that- bard times; we have an abundance of money", and the rates of inter­ No nation has ever resumed epecie payments after a forced suspension, except est never so low as at present. What is now needed and required is by force of a law fixing the precise da.y when resumption should take place. a sound and stable currency-which, if this and the silver scheme are After a period of wild inflation and suspension, followed by conse­ defeated, we shall soon have-which shall be equal to gold in its pur­ quent prostration and dist.ress, England, in July, 1819, passed an act. chasable value, and then C8tpitalists will have confidence and let it fixing the 1st day of May, 1823, as the period for final and ultimate out; now they hold it tight for fear of the success of these schemes redemption, with a provllio that, if in the discretion of the governor and consequent :fluctuation and loss. But pass this bill and yon de­ and directors of the Bank of England an earlier day was thought stroy the confidence already acquired and leave us with three hun­ expedient, then resumption might take place on the 1st day of May, dred and fifty-four millions of legal-tender notes, with no provision 1822. for their redemption or for making them convertible into coin at It seems that there were, at that time, a class of men in England any time either near or remote. not unlike the men in this country who are to-day clamoring for the While I am upon this point of a lack of currency, I would be glad repeal of the act of 1875. They were inflationists, disturbers of the if some of these gent.lemen who advocate that doctrine with so much financial peace of the country, who were willing to build theh· own zeal wonld tell me what changes have occurred in our modes of do­ politi~al exaltation upon the poverty of the people and the·ruin of ing business in this country during the last few years which has their country; accordingly we find them, in April, 1821, bringing rendered necessary any great addition to the amount of our currency. into Parliament a bill to repeal the resumptio!l act; but there were In 1860 we had only about four hundred millions of paper and coin sane men enough there, as I trust there are here, to save the couutry, both in circulation, and yet nobody complained of a deficiency. Now and the House of Commons condemned it by a vote of 141 to 27. we have at the lowest estimate over seven hundred and thirty mill­ But those destrnctionists were persistent, as these men are here, ions in actual circulation in the banks and among the people for and again in June, 182'2, a second bill for the same purpose was business and trade; and this currency, composed of legal-tenders, brought in; but by this time the people began to see the beneficial bank-notes, and coin, is as convenient and safe as any th~tt can be effects of the law, as we do here to-day of our resumption law, and found in the wide world. In fact it only lacks one feature or ele­ the House gave it an emphatic repulse in a. vote of 1g.4 to 30. ment to make it perfect, and that it will have in a few months if These bills were both discussed by the ablest men in Parliament, Congress will let it alone, and that ia equality with and exchangea- and the record informs us that the same reasons and arguments were bility into gold. . urged in favor of the repeal of the English act of 1819 that we hear • Any man knows who has given the least attention or study to this to-day in favor of the repeal of our act of 1875. subject that the amount of circulat.ing medium required in any country Now, sir, if gentlemen are so enamored of English history and ex­ cannot be measured by the number of people, the extent of terri­ perience upon this subject ami are so desirous of following the tory, or even the amount of trade and business which is carried on, example of English statesmen, let them desist from their wild and "bnt by the nature, extent, and diversity of the industries of the fatal schemM of inflation and repudiation and join hands with the country and the amount of capital actually required for their develop­ friends of honel'lt money in defeating this meatmre and putting the ment." No power on earth can determine this question. The legis­ currency and credit and honor of this country beyond the reach of lature, as has so often been said, may fix and establish its quality, repudiators and demagogues. but the laws of trade can alone determine the amount. France has been still more fortunate ; she seems to be compara­ It is also claimed by the inflationists that the panic of 1873, fol­ tively free from in:fl.1.tionists; all her public men are blessed with a lowed by the depression of business and the crippled condition of good degree of common sense, and when in 1874she passed an act to our industries, is chargeable to the resumption aet of 1875. resume specie payments on the 1st of January, 187~, which, by con­ In the first place, Mr. Speaker, that act was not passed until two tracting her paper circulation and pushing out her coin, practically years after the panic occurred, and besides it is an undeniable fact took place as early as January, 1876, it was permitted to stand upon that when the panic struck D!J we had more paper money in circula­ t.he statute-book and work out its legitimate result-s, while the people tion than had ever been :floated before by any country in the world. went to work with the astmrance that no wild schemes of inflation Neither the resumption act nor the contraction of the currency can or greenback heresy would be allowed to interfere with trade or be held responsible for the panic or the distresses which followed it. postpone the day of redemption. The primary cause was the dire necessities of tlfe war, which com­ It has been Eaid 1hat the distress in England from 1821 to 1826 was pelled the Government to inflate the currency; which engendered the effect of the resumption act, but history denies the assertion and specu1ation, ext-ravagance, and dishonesty; changed a million men emphatically charges it to the short-sighted policy embodied in the from producers to consumers; led to the contraction of enormous corn laws. An ill-advised and impolitic act had been p48Bed by Par­ debts, national, State, municipal,corporate,and individual; and finally liament prohibiting the importat.ion of wheat whenever the price culminated in a financial crash, which was as natural as it was ap­ fell below eighty shillings per quarter. palling. 'l'he result was, as might have been foreseen, to raise the price of . The gentlemen who are pushing this measure often refer to the wheat and cause every acre of land in England, which could possibly financial history of England and France to prove that with the be spared, to be sown with wheat, which in a. short time :flooded the amount of gold which we shall probably have in the Treasury on the market, ruined the farmers, produced a stagnation in all branches of 1st of January, 1879, it will be impossible for the Government to business, and threw thousands of laboring-men out of employment. resume specie payments at that time. · No fair-minded man can ever object or take exceptions in the dis­ Now, air, if we carefully examine the history of those countries cussion of a subject to any fair and legitimate argument, however and compare their modes of trade and doing business with our own, powerful and conclusive, which may be brought to bear against his we shall find that they are so totally dissimilar that no argument can own cherished opinions aml theories. And in this discu&~iou I ac­ be drawn from that source against the position I have taken or in knowledge that rule and cheerfully accord to every other man all favor of the theories set up by the friends of this bill. that I claim in this respect for myself. In the first place there are no bank-notes in circulation in England But when I hear men who ought to be, and I believe arc, convers­ below $25 and in France none below $20, all the circulating medium ant with the facts, talking seriously about" bloated bondholders," below these sums being in coin, while in this country we have in cir­ "cheap money," "the poor man's money," and "one money for the culation two hundred and twenty-five millions in bank-notes below bondholders and another for the people," I can hardly force myself 20, which will enable us to resume the payment of specie with less to the conclusion that they are talking as they believe, bnt am coin than could either England or France, because these small notes almost compelled to regard it either as the voice of ignorance or of are all used by the people in their daily business in lieu of coin and the demagogue. · would therefore never be presented for redemption. Is it possible that men should be so deceived as to be given over to Again, sir, in ~'ranee they have really but one bank; consequently believe a lief Is it not plain to every man that the Government there are no deposits, drafts, checks, or bank-accounts; but the busi­ does not manufactnre money and give it away f That no man can ness is all done and the balances in trade all paid by the actual de­ obtain it unless he gives an equivalent in some form for it; "either livery of cash from hand to hand; while in this country we have a the labor of his hands, the product of his brains, or the fruit of his ba:nk in almost every village and business center, through which industry;" that no matter how much money there is in the country, probably90 per cent. of all our business is transacted without a single no man cau honestly obtain it unless be is possessed of securities or dollar in money pa-ssing between the parties, the balances being s.ll can give value for it f And if these. things are at hand, one man caa paid and accounts settled by drafts, checks, and bank-credits. obtain it as handily anrl cheaply as another, because capital is no And I am informed, sir, by gentlemen who are qualified to judge, respecter of persons. Why, then, talk about cheap money unless it that in the transactions at the New York clearing-house, which aver­ be for the purpose of deceiving and misleading the unwary and the age a great many millions annually, only about 4 percent. is done bv ignorant! tile actual delivery of money, the balance being all conducted and If these gentlemen, who I sometimes fear are actually insane upon carried on through the banks. this subject, whose insanity unfortunately now threatens the peace These facts sufficiently deruonstrate the proposition that England and prosperity of this country, and who are continually haunted by and France, and especially the latter, must of necessity require and "shylocks" and "bloated bondholders," really desire to know who use more currency in proportion to the amount of business they do some of these monsters are, let them go to the forty-four hundred than we do in thilil country. · and aeventy-five savings-banks and private banks of deposit in 596 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JANUARY 26,

this country, with their two and one-half millions of depositors of tbe.(lifference between your depreciated silver and paper and hon­ and their thirteen hundred and seventy millions of deposits. And est money. when they have done that let them search out the seven hundred By the kindness of Luther Daniels, esq., treasurer of the Rutland thousand men whose lives are insured for $350,000,000 in all the life (Vermont) Savings-Bank, I have received not only the last annual insnrance companies in this country. report of Hon. W. H. Du Bois, savings-bank examiner for the ~tate They will find that these deposits and premiums are mainly made of Vermont, but also a report of the hank of which Mr. Daniels is and owned by w.idows and orphans and poor laboring people who the manager. By the report of Mr. Du Bois it appears that there are thus save from their hard earnings a few dollars annually to bridge over now in the State twenty-five savings-banks or institutions of that. a doll season or to guard against want in case of disaster or sickness. character, with 31,528 depositors and resources amounting t.o over This money thus deposited is invested by the managers of these $91000,000. If the silver bill should become a law aud the ail ver institutions either in Government securities or loaned out on security dollar be worth only ninety cents, the loss to all those depositors to industrious and enterprising business men who have not sufficient would amount to $900,000, or $28.50 t.o ea{)h depositor, on an average. capital of their own to carry on their business. In the savings-bank in my own town the deposits amount to These, sir, are some of the" bloated bondholders" of this country, $650,000, owned and deposited by three thousand persons. In case while still others may be found among our small farmers, scattered of the success of this silver legislation the loss to all these deposito1·s throughout the country, many of whom have by industry and fru­ would be $65,000, and to each d_epositor, on au average, 21.60. In gality laid aside a few dollars in Government bonds for a rainy day the case of the Rutland Savings-Bank the amounts deposited by two or for support when they shall become too old to labor. thousand of the depositors do not exceed 250 each, most of them Under this hue and cry of "cheap money" and'' Wall-street dom­ being considerably below that sum ; and .Mr. Daniels informs me ination," it is propo~d to repeal the act of 1875, to indefinitely post­ that these depositors consist mainly of laborers, servant girls, widows, pone redemption, inflate and depreciate the cutTency,rob these poor orphans, and children. people of their hard earnings, and leave them to be devoured by Such, .Mr. Speaker, would be the practical result of this silver bill, speculators and gamblers; and for what f Merely for the benefit and should it become a Jaw, upon the savings of these poor labori!lg peo­ aggrandizement of a few men and the temporary triumph of a polit- ple, not only as respects the depositors I have named, but also those ical party. _ of all the savings-banks in the country. That .the democrat.ic party should ad vocate such a measure, threat­ And, sir, if this great wrong shonld be consummated, in view of ening such results, creates no surprise or a.stonishment in my mind; what bas already taken place iu this House, what assurance have the but that republicans, who stand pledged in a thousand ways to fulfill public creditors of this country and those who bolc.l our bonds and the sacred obligations of the Government and to protect and main- securities abroad that those who thus deliberately repudiate 10 per • tain the honor and integrity of the Republic should so soon forget cent. of the public debt will not, when they shall deem it expedient, · the awful lessons of the war and join in this fatal crusade of repu­ turn their backs upon the whole. · diation and dishonor, is most passing strange and unnatural. It has been saic.l during this debat-e that there are two classes of It can scarcely be wondered at that some of tho men whose treason persons who are specially anxious that the silver bill should become to the Government made necessary the contraction of tho enormous a law: the miners, who desire t-o dispose of their silver for a good debt which now weighs so heavily upon us should be willing to avoid ronnel price, and the men who are in debt, who want the currency the borden and escape its payment; but where can those whose loy­ inflated because that would raise the price of land and all commodi­ alty never wavered and who bore the banner of the Republic against ties and give them an opportunity to dispose of their property and rebellion until it was furled in victory .find justification or excuse pay off their debts in depreciated money. tor aiding and assisting in this unholy work f This may be true, sir, in respect to some sections of the country, I have thus, Mr. Speaker, in plain and simple language, given some but, in the State I have the honor in part to represent, we do not en­ few of the reasons which have and will influence and control my ac­ joy the luxury of silver mines, and, while many of our people are in tion upon this bill. I believe that a depreciated and fluctuating cur­ debt, yet, thank God, they are honest and I am sure they would scorn rency is one of the greatest curses that can affiict a people and that repudiation, whether by public act of the National Legislature or by no nation can prosper which does not adopt gold as the only measure the inflation and depreciation of the currency. of values. We have, for the past seventeen years, been passing It has been often said by gentlemen who oppos~ the silver bill, aml through this furnace of affliction, but are now, thank God, almost has been nowhere denied by its friends, that the first injurious efiect deliv-ered; and if we are wise we shall in the last hours of this ter­ of the remonetization and unlimited coinage and legal tender of that rible battle stand firm, resist temptation, and under the banner of metal would be to draw to our mints the silver of Germany anc.l all I'esumption, which we raised on the 14th of January, 1875, redeem other countries which have demonetized it, anoot eight millions of it is downright, bold, dishonest repudiation of a portion of the pub­ silver dollars in all, and every one knows, as a matter of written and lic debt of this country and the willful and malicious robbery of traditional history, that during the whole peliod of our existence as the industrious, hard-working people, whose patriotism and labor a nation we have not had silver, of all kinds, enough in circulation wake it possible for us to exist as a nation. It is a deep-laid scheme to affect in any appreciable degree, one way or the other, the volume and deliberate plan to cheat the widows, the orphans, and the labor­ of our national currency, and aside from its convenience as small ing poor, who toil for their daily bread, who have placed their small change, and in some cases as a reserve, its absence at any time would surplus earnings in savings-b~uks and life-insurance companies, out scarcely have been felt or noticed in our trade and commerce. 1878. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 597

The law of 1873, then, which has lately created such a storm in session of Congress without committing ourselves to the heresy of some quarters of the country, was merely the declaration by Congress infln.tion the country will be safA. of a financial fact which had practically existed for forty years. The truth is, the business men of this country stand in fear of the I know it is claimed that the remonetization of silver, as well as National Legislature; and, instead of the meeting of Congress giving the repeal of the resumption act of 1875, is in the interest of the la.bor­ joy and exerting a healthful influence upon trade and commerce, t.he ino- poor against the capitalist and the bondholder. effect is the reverse, because everybody expects 1hat a new onslaught In answer to this we sa.y that it is neither good policy nor honest will be made upon the currency or the tariff, and they only breathe to legislate against or in the interest of any particular class of per­ free and go on with their business when they know we have adjourned. E~ous, which fact alone would destroy the influence of such an argu­ It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that the present is an exceedingly ment and lead us to distrust the motive which prompted it. Again, grand opportunity to change this feeling and convince the people we shall find on the slightest examination that the effect of such that we are honestly seeking their good. This I believe we can Ie~islaiion would be exactly the reverse. most effectually accomplish by frowning down repudiation and dis­ If we should remonetize silver there is no doubt that a. silver dol­ honesty in every form, pledging ourselves that we will not utter lar would pay a. debt of any kind of one hundred cents, but it would another word upon the subject of the currency upon this floor during only purchase, as silver stands now, about ninety cents' worth of any the remainder of this Congress, driving every measure now befor6 commodity. The mechanic and laboring-man in the shop, the mill, Congress relating to the subject out of the Capitol and keeping it and the quarry would work all day for a. dollar, and 412! grains of out, and allowing the Secretary of the Treasury, aided by the laws silver would pay him for his day's labor; but when he should go now upon the statute-books and the people of this eonntry, to go to the store and grocery to make his purchases of bread and meat forward and complete the great work of specie resumption. and clothes and fuel for his family he would find to his sorrow that The gentleman from New York [Mr. HEWITT] in his truly able it had a purchasing power of only ninety cents and that he had lost speech upon this subject a few weeks ago said that three things are ten cents on his day's work. required in order that a nation may be prosperous and grow in So it is in aU the relations of labor and trade and commerce; wealth: natural resources, labor, and capital; and he declared, what while in some aspects it appears at first sight to favor labor, yet in we all so gratefully and proudly acknowledge, that in our case there the end the burden and loss come upon the poor man and labor goes is no deficiency in any of these great elements of prosperity, and yet to the wall. that there is one thing lacking, and that is the motive power that Again, as I have before said, the widows and orphans and labor­ sets all industry at work, all the machinery of production in motion; ing poor have in the banks and saving-institutions of this country it is confidence. $1,370,000,000, made up of their surplus earnings, which they, in their This, sir, and not the repeal of the resumption aQt nor the remon~ • prudence and economy, have saved. Pass the silver bill to-day and etization of silver, is in my opinion the panacea for all our commer­ their deposits could be paid to them in silver dollars, worth ninety cial and business woes; all that is now required to establish the cents apiece, and you have robbed them of $137,000,000. credit of the Government, revive business, breathe a spirit of Ufe This hue and cry so lately raised in favor of the remonetization of and activity into trade and commerce, and start our country upon a silver is not a movement in favor of honest money and the rights of ·career of prosperity and grandeur as yet unknown in the history of· the laboring poor, but it is one raised originally by men who are to mankind. be pecuniarily benefited by it, and has lately been picked up by FINANCE. others who hope in this way to array labor a~ainst capital and, under cover of the storm they have raised, to ride rnto power. No sensible Mr. BLAm. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the fol­ man can for a moment believe that the remonetization of silver lowing letter from Governor Straw, of New Hampshire, written in would revive business or put an extra penny into the pocket of any reply to inquiries addressed to him by me as to the effect of the re­ laboring-man; and bad it not been for the present distressed condi­ monetization of silver upon the interests of laborers, and designed tion of the people, due entirely to the war and its consequences, we to have been incorporated in my speech of January 17, but which never should have heard one word against the act of 1873, and the was not received in season for that purpose, may be printed in the silver bill woulu never have been dreamed of. RECORD. It is true that Congress has several times attempted to regulate the There was no objection. proper relations between gold and silver so as to ·maintain both as a The letter is as follows: concurrent currency, but it bas always proved a failure; the laws MANCIIESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, JanttaT'IJ 21, 1878. which govern and regulate their circulation are higher and broader MY DEAR Sm: I returned from a. business trip to Boston last night and found yours of the 15th instant awaiting me. I had intended to have answered earlier than national legislation; they have never circulated together upon the letter yon left at my office on your last visit, but a constant preas of bnsinell3 an equality, in any age or country and they never can, because the must be my excuse. necessary proportion cannot be kept up and the cheaper always I shall try and make this letter as brief as possible, using only such details aa drives the other out of circulation. will IJlll,ke the statements clear to yon. Manchester, in 1875, according to our local census, generally conceded to be cor­ These, sir, are in brief some of the objections to this double-stand­ rect, contained a population of thirty thousand people, who de~nd very largely, ard theory, and, sir, iu the apt language of another let me ask, "what if not entirel.v, for their livelihood and prosperity, upon the avails of their labor will the remonetization of silver do for this country f Will it set and for articles sold to individuals and corporations ownin~ tho factories and the wheels of industry in motion f Will it relieve the distress of the shops that use the water-power of the river improved and used at this point. Tho cnstom is nniversal here to make these payments, due for labor and supplies, at country f Will it give employment to the thousands of idle men f" the close of every month. Or will it only fill the coffers of a few bankers and lucky men who These monthly payments are for labor to operatives and employ6s in and about own silver mines, and prove an additional curse to the poor. the mills antal of monthly payments of $500,000, or a total yearly An~). sir, more than this, such legislation as is proposed in the sil­ payment of fullv $6,000,000. ver bill and the bill to repeal the resumption act, would be an open These monthly payments for wages and supplies will average to the operatives and high-handed "violation of the plighted faith of the nation to­ about $30 to each person, and for supplies consumed from $20 to ~0 to each person ward its creditors; it would change the force and effect of private who is paid. Tho operatives regularly employed in and about the mills and shops will number 10,000 individuals, aml those person.'! who furnish supplies will num­ contracts; it would unsettle values; it would work disastrous re­ ber 5,000 individuals, making 15,000 persons who are tho recipients of these. sults to trade and commerce, and be destructive of national pros­ monthly pa.vments, and great pains are taken to place the amount paid as near to perity, national faith, national credit, and national honor." the halids of the person whose labor is utilized as is !>racticable. However much we may differ, :M:r. Speaker, as to the methods t-o The raw material consumed by our manufacturers of textile fabrics here amounts annually, of cotton, to 56,000,000 ponnds; of wool, to 2,000,000 pounds. This raw be pursued in treating this subject, we are bound to believe that it material is purchased and furnished to t.he fact{Jries by the seve.ral treasurers of is the desire and purpose of every member of this House to labor for the corporations, who are generally resident in Boston, and it is bought and paid the restoration of the credit of the Government and the establish­ for by them near where it is grown or where the producer finds its general market. ment of a sound monetary system for our people. At the present· time the monthly payments made by the Amoskearr Manufactur­ ing Company.,. the largest corporation located here, are a littJe above $:WO,OOO. A somewhat careful study and examination of this subject and of They are maoe to 5,000 different persons and paid from my office or in the various the situation of the country have satisfied me that the legislation rooms about the manufactories where the employ&! are at their work. These pay­ embodied in the two bills to which I have referred will not only fail to ments are made in small envelopes, containmg the exa{)t sum of money due the bring us the relief promised, but will be fatal to the very object we recipient, any fractional part of il being in silver. In making one monthly pay. ment we reqUire the use of nearly e2,500 for makin

598 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JANUARY 26, ready money in which to make the payments due to them, while to u~e it for the taking part and the rest being invested in the school fond by the lar/!er pa.rments required in the general business of the country it is an incon­ State, and used to pay $5 a month to the wife of every soldier who venient and cumbersome coina~c, so that almost of necessity in that part of our country where labor is lar~ely employed and paid, and where the silver coinarre is enlisted, snch investment being perfectly safe, the State being the most likely to be used, there is nothing that can maiatain the silver coins"'at a trustee for the fnnd; and at the close of the war Wisconsin stood a hi~rher value, when wanted in large sums, than that of an equal weight of silver tax of $600,000 in one year, the year of 1865, when a tax of 10 per bullion in the market. The proposed coinage of the "dollar of our fathers" would give us coins worth about 10 per cent. less than our present legal-tender cent. was by Congress pnt on all State currency, driving every State notes, and I see no other result likely to occur from the passa1re of tlie "silver bank out of existence and brin$ing us to a condition of almost tl.bso­ bill" than that the working population must expect to be paid in that coinage and lute poverty, with wheat at oruy sixty cents a bushel on the 1st day thereby suffer a loss of about lOfer cent. of their regular earninrrs. A. poor pros­ of March of that year. pect, certainlv, for the citizens o New Hampshire and most of t~e other States of tho Union, where they desire their population to be regularly employed. We say the past has shown there is no snch spirit in the West, no Yours, very truly, such spirit in the South. We are willing to be bonnd by the con­ E. A. STRAW. tract. We are willing to live np to the contract, to its stri t letter, P. S.-1 had written thus when I received yours of the 18th instant. I hope and we would go further if it were necessary to preserve our credit this letter will answer your purpose and aid yon in opening the eyes of those of unimpaired. We would let onr debts and the interest npon them be our p· ople that seem to have been closed by placing the silver dollar over them, a.s use used to be the custom in the olden time over the eyes of the dead. paid in gold, for we are willing to take the silver and it for our E. A. S. own proper uses for circulation. There is such a thing as thrift Hon, H. W. BLA.m. growing out of this principle. When a farmer can get $1.50 a bushel FL.~ANCE AND CURRENCY. for his wheat and he is in debt he will sell his wheat and use rve for Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. Speaker, the present condition of the conn­ bread. He will be willing to use rye and barley instead of \vheat try, w hicb leads men to follow the two Houses of Congress in all their until his debts are paid and employ the most valuable product he debates, in aU their movements, shows to us there has not been a time has to pay his debts. If necessary to save hercreclit let the Govern­ in the his~ory of t~is country when every man-and I may say every ment follow this example. As the gold received for duties on im­ woman-Is so anx10usly lookin5 to Congress for relief. Already we ports is by law set aaide to pay the interest on the public debt let it have before us a class of people aaldng for the reduction of the tax be so used and let us have silver for actual circulation. Assuredly upon tobacco. Already we have before us another large class asking we have come npon strange times when silver is denounced as dis­ that spirits shall be put in bond, that payment may be deferred. honest money, the same silver dollar that only back in 1873 wa~ 3 per Already we have before us a proposition looking to tho general cent. above gold. revision of the tariff in some of its most important points, and with There is another point I wish to advert to here. We are told that this and the great national question before us, namely, finance, we under the act of 1870, which provided for issuing the 5, 4t, and 4 per are to-day involved with more important questions thau have agi­ cent. bonds, many of the bonds that have since l>een sold are in such tated this country for the last decade. a position that onder the act of 1873 demonetizing the iil ver it would What, I ask, is the relief that is proposed! Speeches have been be wrong and unjust to compel those who had purchased those bonus made here in one sense· tending to array one section of the country to take silver in payment because the difference would be from 6 to against another. Remarks have been made whwh cause friction in 8 per cent. Let us look at this a moment. The West incurred her all the various departments of our governmental system and among great debt during the war and took greenbacks for it. And if there all the business interests of the country. These are entirely unneces­ is to be any distinction drawn in this matter it should be remembered sary in heated times like these, when men are troubled, when men that the East sent her greenbacks to us and we took them and paid who have great interests at stake are trying to find a solution for the 10 per cent. interest; and to-day they are to get them back in gold ills with which their interests are afflicted. It is not to be expected and we took them when they were worth fifty cents on the dollar that excit-ement will not to some extent prevail, and men will say compared with gold. We are willing to pay them back with silver things they may afterward regret. In this country I hope we shall and gold, however hard it may be. \Ve wish to stand by the maxim never be obliged to come to accept the full effect of the axiom of of oue of the kings of England, and such also was the maxim of a Lord Eldon, iil which be stated concerning political freedom, that to king of Spain, that when money became depreciated and the debt be durable the system of its administration must be such that it may came to be paid ten years afterward it should be paid in money of occasionally be parted with in order that it may be enjoyed forever. the standard and fineness in existence at the date of the making of But it would seem at a time like this, when all the interests which the contract. The contract under which these bonds are sold is the cluster aroUlld this great nation are being gathered np to be adjusted law of 1870. The substance of that law is that they shall be paid iu at once, so far as they relate to taxation and to the finance, that we coin of the standard and fineness. in existence under the lawe at the should be led by that clemency in spirit, by that meditative part of date of that act. On the back of every one of those bonds is that our nature, to reflect that what we do should be done calmly and provision. what we do should be done as quickly as possible. Now, what is the law of the case f Every ma.n who buys a bond Three months have already passed, and yet nothing, compara­ or a public security of any kind is bound to know there is a law in tively, has beeii (lone to allay this feeling. The people of the great existence which authorizes the isMning of that bond. He is bound as West feel as to the resumption question that all there is in it is, that a matter of law to know that the bond itself is good and valid, and on the 1st day of January, 1879, if resumption then takes place, not void. He is bound to know so much, but be is not bounlieations of the United States, except in cases where or $350,000,000 of greenbacks in circulation in this country, and the law authorizing the issue of any such olJligation has expressly provided that thereby avoid the necessity of buying gold at. 3, 4, or 5 per cent. pre­ the same may be paid in lawful money or other currency than ~old and sih·er. mium with which to redeem them as we need them, why not keep But none of said interest-bearing obligations not already due shall be redt:emell or them in circulation and save interest on that amount!" They paid before maturity unless at such time United ~tates notes shall be convertible mto coin at th!} option of the holder, or unless at such time bondR of the United would be willing to l!mit them to $300,000,000 of greenbacks. They States bearing a lower rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemed can be solcl would be willing to resume on the 1st of Jnne next, if it were possi­ at J.>ar in coin. And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make pl'O· ble. We are resumptionists. We deny any charge that may be made "\"is10n at the earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United State• against theWest that there is one particle of the spirit of repudiation notes in coin. resting in tbe breast of a single individual in that section of our Now, let us take the act of 1869. The words gold and silver are national Union. used a~ synonymous with coin throughout the whole aot. Read the I could prove this if time would permit. When the great war act carefully, and can you say that the words gold and silver do not burst on the country when the great State of which I am a native folly answer the word coin used before them, and where the word bad only an indebtedness of $50,000, it incurred an indebtedness of coin is used after the words gold and silver that it does not answer $2,000,000 to raise its troops, to clothe them, to provide them, and to to the words gold and silver used before it f If you undertake to put them in the front. These bonds were put on the market and say that gold was meant by the act of 1869, let me remind you t.hat t.heir sa.le prevented in Wall street on the ground that Wisconsin at that period silver was of the value of 3 per cent. above gol

that the act means to use the word coin in the same sense it is used told that the fee-simple Qf the real estates in England was only in the Constitution, and which under the Constitution is the author­ worth t.wenty years: purchase. While he admitted that that was the ized currency of the conhtry, namely, gold and silver;" for no one case, yet he undertook to show that he could make it the full value will contend that under the Constitution silver is not equally a legal of one hundred year.s' purchase ; or, in other words, that twenty was tender with gold. five times infinity. Mr. Speaker, there are a few propositions that to the whole coun­ And then, when King William of England waa engaged in a war try seem simple, and one of these few propositions is this: The peo­ with Louis XIVf he asked Parliament to pass that bill because he ple find that of the $316,000,000 of the national currency represented was promised £100,000 in thirty days to carry on that war. Yet, in by bonds the six New England States have 112,000.000; I forget how the next ninety days only £2,000 was subscribed1 and the scheme uiuch the Middle States have; but the Western States have about fell through. That was the en

ThE-se forebodings of the future if silver is remonetized that gold will be a repudiation to the extent of eight cents on the dollar ; they will leave them, that no more their doctrine will drop like the rain are not willing to listen to such an argument as that. They have on and distillli ke the dew; that ''hope for a season has bid the world abiding faith that if the silver dollar of 412t grains is restored to farewell," re~d us of the wailings of the Widow Bedot : the currency of tho conn try then silver and gold dollars will in a very 0, for a sight of Shadrach's faee, short time be of substantially an equal value. To shine amid t.he gloom, The people of the West are not only in favor of a gold and silver A.nd mitigate this lonesome place standard, but they are also in favor of keeping in circulation the And shed a sweet perfume. $350,000,000 of United States Treasury notes now in circulation. These But we say to those who have these forebodings, if they will come notes are a legal tender, and I for one never will vote for any law over and help us, that withdraws from circulation the $3.50,000,000 of Treasury notes The liquid drops of tears that you have shed now in circulation until the interests of the people demand that this Shall come again, transform'd to Orient peari; circulation should be retired. .Advantaging their loan. with interest I belive these notes can be kept in circulation and made equivalent Of ten times double gain of happiness. to coin. Whether they are toLe day by day convertible into coin is Let them be calm and quiet and stand by the West, and the West a question tha,t I will not now stop to discuss, but sufficient for me will stand by the East as it has done for the last twenty years, and to know tha,t the $350,000,000 of United States not-es can be kept in then we shall all be right; and then the nation will stand upon a :firm circulation and be equivalent to coin. That will give os the gold basis and move on as God intended it to move, to a higher destiny and silver producing power of the country, and in addition the than that of any other nation, and say as of old, "Let the North $350,000,000 of Treasury notes. give not up, and the Sooth give not back." Among the nations of The country is now paying no interest on the $350,000,000, and I the earth America shall arise as the brightest jewel in earth's coronet. can see no practical sense, unless the people demand it, in taking up the $350,000,000 of Treasury notes and making it an interest-bearing REMONETIZATION OF SILVER. ~ debt, while it is now a portion of the non-interest-bearing debt of the Mr. TIPTON. Mr. Speaker, since the vote of the Senate on ye - nation, and when the people are willing and desirous that these day on the resolutions of Senator MA'ITHEWS, it occurs to·me be notes should be continued in circulation. American people are well satisfied that silver will be remonetizetl by I have listened to the argument8 on both sides of this question, and this Con~ress and will become again, not only one of the coins of I have yet been unable to hear an argument in favor of the single the connt.ry, but shall also be a legal tender for all debt8, both public standard alone that will staud the test of experieoee of the people of and private. That is my judgment, and I believe it to be the jndg­ this country for the last four years. ment of the American people, and the sooner the law is passed by The debts of this country, public and private, amount to substan­ this Congress and approved by the Executive the better it will be tially $8,000,000,000. How is it to be paid f In coin or its eqni valent. for the countrv. Property all over the conntry is depreciating in The people of the West are not asking that they should be allowed value day by day, year by year; property which three years ago was to pay their debts at any rate less than the face value of the bdebt­ ample security is but scant security now for the loans then made. edness. Neither are they asking that they should be allowed to pay The people demand the enactment of a law restoring silver to the their dobts in a money that is not of par value. Bnt what they ol>­ coinage, and they demand that that law shall be enacted imme­ ject to is this: when they become indebted, when this great indebt­ diately. The people understand this grea,t question as well as we edness tha,t is now hanging over the country was created, gold and do, and the sooner the Congress of the United States understands this silver were equally legal tender. They cannot understand, nor will matter the bett.er. I believe it to be for the interest of this country the people of the East ever get them to understand, the justice of that this law be \lassed, and passed at once. It is the agitation of demonetizing silver and taking the silver coin of the country from this question that 18 to-day depreciating the securities of the East, the debt-paying power of the people. and the sooner the men of capital and the country understand this I am convinced that if the question of demonetizing silver had been ·question the better it will be for them. submitted to the people and had been discussed and understood by I believe it to be in the interest of capital that the representatives them then as it is now no respectable number of men could have of capital on this floor should understand that every daythis question been brought together in support of that measure. In other words, is agitated their securities are depreciating. Enact this law and it is my ,judgment that it was not only wrong but bad legislation. It confidence will be restored in the public mind. The values of prop­ bas tended to depreciate the value of the very securities in which erty in this country depend to a certain extent upon confidence. these men who are represented upon this floor favoring t.he single But, say these gentlemen, the remonetization of silver will give the standard have invested their money. people no relief. The people of this country-, and especially the peo­ I believe that legislation which destroys and depreciate8 the value ple of the West, have an abiding confidence that the ena-ctment of a of property in any portion of this country is improper. I think that law of this kind will give them not only immediate but permanent no law should be enacted by the law-makin~ · power of this Govern­ relief. They believe that since the country prospered from the adop­ ment that tends to depreciate your property or mine; that tends to tion of the Constitution down to 1873 it will again prosper if such depreciate pl"'perty in any portion of this country. Wha,tever legis­ legislation is had in this capital as will restore silver to the coinage lation is had should not only be for the benefit of the people as to and make it a legal tender. Then t.he abiding faith in the ability of their persons and personal rights, but it should be for the protection the country to pay will be restored. The constitutionality of the of the property which they have accumulated. demonetization of silver is not now a question. The time has gone It is a sad fact that the market valne of property has depreciated by when it was proper to discuss the question as to whether that act all over the country; that bonds antl mortgages have a,ppreciated, but was iu violation of the Constitution or not. The time has gone by to all other property has depreciated. Land is worth in f~t just as es of this Hoose. The right of the by United States officials-to the Committee on Public Lands. people is to have the dollar of the fathers restored to its original By Mr.