182 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



stead of that contained in the President's mes- 

 sage." 



Mr. Cattell: "The object of this resolution 

 was simply to express the disapprobation of 

 the Senate in regard to that portion of the 

 President's message which I read and com- 

 mented upon; and in doing so I added to that 

 general form of expression of opinion an ex- 

 pression which has been passed upon by a 

 body higher than the Senate, or the Congress, 

 or the Executive passed upon by the people 

 of the United States ; and I am somewhat sur- 

 prised to find that so good a Democrat as my 

 friend from Indiana is disposed now, after that 

 high court has passed upon this question, to 

 propose to incorporate upon this resolution a 

 portion of the platform which has been con- 

 demned by the people. 



Mr. Hendricks: "Did the people decide, in 

 voting upon this resolution, in favor of paying 

 the debt in gold or in the lawful money of the 

 United States?" 



Mr. Cattell: "I think they decided that the 

 resolution of the Chicago platform was very 

 much preferable to that issued in New York. 

 I think that was the great decision made on 

 that occasion." 



Mr. Edmunds: "Mr. President, I wish to 

 ask my friend from Indiana, if I can have his 

 attention, the same question that he asked the 

 Senator from New Jersey: what he under- 

 stands the people to have decided on that sub- 

 ject in the last campaign? " 



Mr. Hendricks: "If I were to answer the 

 Senator just as I believe, I would say that I 

 think the people really decided nothing upon 

 it. I understand that in the region of the 

 country in which he lives it was claimed that 

 the resolution meant that the spirit of the con- 

 tract was that the payment should be made in 

 gold, and I presume the people of Vermont 

 decided thus, while I know that in the region 

 of the country in which I live the advocates 

 of the Chicago platform claimed that it meant 

 a payment in lawful money, in very many in- 

 stances, so that very many persons in our sec- 

 tion of the country voted for the candidates 

 standing on the Chicago platform, assuming 

 that that meant that the debt might be paid in 

 lawful money, that that was the spirit of the 

 contract as well as the letter ; so I cannot say 

 what was decided." 



Mr. Willey, of West Virginia, said: "Mr. 

 President, it strikes me that the whole merit 

 of this question depends upon the speedy and 

 prompt action of the Senate. I doubt whether 

 by referring it to a committee the object can 

 be accomplished ; and I question the propriety 

 of bringing up a discussion upon the financial 

 policy of the Government on an abstract reso- 

 lution of this character. The President's mes- 

 sage has gone out to the country. It has its 

 influence, and is at present having its influence 

 at home and abroad on the credit of the coun- 

 try and on the national honor. If we desire 

 to counteract that, we ought to do it by some 



expression of the Senate immediately had. I 

 suggest, therefore, to the honorable Senator 

 from New Jersey whether the resolution could 

 not be so modified as simply to present to the 

 Senate the question as to its opinion upon 

 what the President has proposed himself, that, 

 and no more ; not a resolution in a form that 

 will involve whether we are to pay our debt 

 in gold or in the legal currency, or what the 

 policy of the Government on our financial 

 matters heretofore has been, but simply an 

 expression on the part of the Senate condemn- 

 ing so much of the President's message as re- 

 lates to the repudiation of our public debt, 

 which is a matter entirely different from the 

 manner in which we should pay it. I will 

 offer this as a substitute for the resolution of 

 the Senator from New Jersey, and ask action 

 on it now." 



The Chief Clerk read as follows : 

 Resolved, That the Senate, properly cherislimg and 

 upholding the good faith and honor of the nation, do 

 hereby utterly disapprove of and condemn the senti- 

 ments and proposition contained in so much of the 

 late annual message of the President of the United 

 States as reads as follows : " It may be assumed that 

 the holders of our securities have alreadv received 

 upon their bonds a larger amount than their original 

 investments, measured by a gold standard. TJpon 

 this statement of facts it would seem but just and 

 equitable that the six per cent, interest now paid by 

 the Government should be applied to the reduction 

 of the principal in semi-annual instalments, which 

 in sixteen years and eight months would liqui- 

 date the entire national debt. Six percent, in gold 

 would at present rates be equal to nine per cent, 

 in currency ; and equivalent to the payment of the 

 debt one and a half time in a fraction less than 

 seventeen years. This, in connection with all the 

 other advantages derived from their investment, 

 would afford to the public creditors a fair and lib- 

 eral compensation for the use of their capital, and 

 with this they should "be satisfied. The lessons of 

 the past admonish the lender that it is not well to 

 be over-anxious in exacting from the borrower rigid 

 compliance with the letter of the bond." 



Mr. Warner, of Alabama : " I have a resolu- 

 tion to offer to go to the committee with the 

 other resolutions, and I ask that it be read 

 now for information." 



The Chief Clerk read as follows : 



Resolved by ike Senate of the United States. That we 

 regard as dishonest the proposition of the President 

 contained in his message, to appropriate the interest 

 of the public debt to the payment of the principal. 



Mr. Saulsbury, of Maryland, said : " Mr. 

 President, I shall vote for none of these prop- 

 ositions in their present shape, and I doubt 

 whether I shall vote for them in any shape in 

 which they may be presented. If the Presi- 

 dent's message, however, means that which 

 gentlemen seem to conceive it means, repudia- 

 tion in any form, I condemn the proposition as 

 strongly as anybody. I shall not attempt to 

 give any explanation as to the meaning of the 

 President of the United States in his message. 

 That he meant repudiation of the public in- 

 debtedness, that he meant to advocate bad 

 faith toward the public creditors or toward 

 any other class of men, I do not for a moment 



