( ONGRESS. :Tnr, BILL AUTHORIZING ISSUE OF 



197 



offered, the addition to section 1 of the bill the fol- 

 lowing prnvixi : 



r,-i>ri,/,</. however, That this section shall apply 

 to the coinage of the silver mined in the United 

 States of America only." 



Senator Nelson, of Minnesota, and Senator Ba- 

 con, of Georgia, addressed the Senate on the sub- 

 ject Jan. 27, the following day Senator Clark, of 

 Wyoming, and Senator (miy. of Delaware, and 

 Jan. 29. Senator Tillman. of South Carolina. Sen- 

 ator Call, of Florida, spoke Jan. 29 and 30, followed 

 by Senator Mitchell, of Oregon, Senator Perkins. 

 <>t' California, Senator Stewart, of Nevada, and 

 others. The debate was resumed Jan. 31, when 

 Senator Vilas, of Wisconsin, addressed the Senate, 

 lie said in part : 



This bond bill as it came from the House was a 

 mere sham. It merits to be consigned to the heca- 

 tombs of folly's progeny, where the financial deeds 

 of Congress for many years seem to belong. It is 

 with no lamentation" for the destruction of the pri- 

 mal stem that I turn to the graft which the Finance 

 Committee has sprouted on it. It was a bad stock, 

 though it has been budded with a worse scion. The 

 best hope is that both will shrivel and die in the air 

 of the Senate. 



Mr. President, there are three classes of people 

 who urge this legislation, and it serves to develop 

 its undemocratic nature to consider them by way 

 of introduction to argument. 



" Those of the first class are at least under no sort 

 of hallucination or delusion in respect to their pur- 

 pose. They desire by this means to raise the price 

 of silver in the market, either because they are pro- 

 ducing it or might profitably work their lean or re- 

 fractory ore if the price were higher, or because 

 they are so connected in trade or community with 

 the mine owners they think their pecuniary inter- 

 ests will thus be subserved. Comparatively few in 

 number, yet this class is wonderfully potential. 

 With them the silver agitation had its inception 

 and has found its incessantly driving impulse. For 

 them this is a measure of so-called protection, like 

 a high tariff on home manufactures. Of course, ar- 

 gument avails nothing with them, no more than 

 with the money-gathering favorites of the tariff, or 

 with the daughters of the horse-leech. Their only 

 cry is more, more. 



The second class might deserve sympathy, if they 

 did not shock it. They are those who, owing heavy 

 debts, wish to secure their discharge by one half 

 the amount of them : or by whatever less the silver 

 dollar may be worth than the dollar they owe. 

 The number of these is vastly less than the number 

 of debtors. It might be thought there could be few 

 such, and doubtless few there are who plainly avow 

 it. The avowal is. however, not infrequently made, 

 sometimes accompanied with sophistries of argu- 

 ment in attempted self-exculpation. I have heard 

 persons privately maintain it, with brutal frank- 

 ness; rarely in public. 



"For. Mr. President, let it be recorded to the 

 good name of our country, it is not from either of 

 these that this demand for free coinage derh 

 dangerous and menacing strength. Its power 

 comes from the remaining class the many of 

 whom some are profoundly convinced, and some 

 have persuaded themselves into real belief, of the 

 excellence of "bimetallism " for mankind ; that the 

 only road to it lies through free coinage, and that 

 its ultimate benefits will compensate the misery 

 and injustice through which it must be attained ; 

 or, perhaps, in some instances, that the injuries to 

 immediately ensue will not prove so serious as they 

 are represented. Enrolled among these are found 

 characters of the highest grade, who command ad- 

 miration and esteem, advocates of splendid powers 



to charm an audience and win favor. They are 

 here, as we all know; and that they are constitute! 

 with the people of this country the principal .-lav 

 of this menacing agitation. 'There's the rcspi-ct 

 that makes calamity of so long life.' It i.- breaii.-e 

 of them and their advocacy that the duty ari- 

 enter upon the patient and thorough discussion, 

 with the hope that in the end error shall give way 

 to sound understanding. 



" Let me now recall somewhat from the turmoil 

 of twenty years, which all must recognize. 



" Until about the time of the civil war there had 

 never been any production of silver in the United 

 States worth mentioning for quantity nor any mines 

 of silver developed. Discoveries just made led, 

 however, to some development during the sixties. 

 but not to such extent as to affect the market. Sil- 

 ver, indeed, even after the act of 1873, was worth 

 more than the $1.29 per ounce which makes the 

 silver dollar equal in value to the gold. But in 

 18.73, for purely public reasons, as seem to me 

 proved by the evidence beyond all doubt, that law 

 was enacted to revise our statutes relating to the 

 mints and coinage by which the silver dollar was 

 dropped from the system because its coinage and 

 use had long been practically abandoned. 



" There was at the time no body of silver produ- 

 cers such as has since arisen ; there was no silver 

 interest which was conscious of any peril in that 

 law. No one seems to have foreseen the future fall 

 of silver in the market, or then to have dreamed 

 that the act of 1873 could have effect upon it. 

 Afterward, some years afterward, it became the 

 policy of the silver agitation to arraign that law as 

 the origin of the fall in price, and now to denounce 

 the ' crime of 1873 ' is as essential to the silver 

 faith as a hell to Calvinism. 



" For, sir, the contest for silver was not set on 

 foot until after increase of its production had be- 

 come vast in this country and its price had neces- 

 sarily begun to fall. Then it was, and not before, 

 that the act of 1873 came to be so upbraided. I 

 will not delay to inquire whether that act had any 

 influence, or whether increasing production and 

 the world's action outside of us were more effective 

 of the decline, for it is now immaterial. But it has 

 been proved to reasonable satisfaction that there 

 was nothing unusual in its promotion or passage, 

 that its entirely public purposes were abundantly 

 declared in public debates and in public reports 

 while it was under consideration by Congress for 

 nearly three full years before adoption, and no fact 

 or circumstance justifies the imputation of stealth 

 or fraud in the manner of its enactment, or of 

 wrong, in deed or purpose, to any one who recom- 

 mended or voted for it. The imaginary charge, 

 also, that sought to link with its enactment the de- 

 ceased bimetallist, Mr. Seyd. as a secret agent of a 

 foreign conspiracy, was so utterly exploded in the 

 debate of 1893 as to render that figment of disor- 

 dered suspicion henceforth ridiculous. Whatever 

 the effect of it, the act of 1873 can no more be de- 

 nominated 'crime' than the act of 1837 or any 

 other piece of legislation. It was not until 1876. 

 when the silver product of the United States had 

 arisen to $38,000.000 during the year, and silver 

 stood at nearly 18 to 1 of gold in commercial rating, 

 that public interest came to be manifested in Con- 

 gress in behalf of silver. 



"Then it was. sir, although the silver dollar of the 

 United States had never been a thing of common 

 use or necessity, although in all the preceding years 

 of our nation's experience, with the privilege of free 

 coinage proffered to all. but 8.000.000 silver dollars 

 had been made, and these chiefly exported or melted 

 in the arts, then, when the mine owners of this 

 country discovered the lessening price of silver 



