188 



"I think that this is a great improvement. 

 The United States postpones payment of this 

 debt until we can pay it at par in coin, either 

 by the sale of bonds or by the resumption of 

 specie payments, and we also announce to the 

 country that we will take steps, as early as 

 practicable, to specie payment of the notes. 



" I will state, in regard to the third amend- 

 ment, that I did not agree to the conclusion in 

 regard to it. The third amendment of the 

 Senate was made on motion of the honorable 

 Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen), 

 to strike out the last clause of the second sec- 

 tion. That clause allowed, by implication at 

 least, the consideration of a negotiable note to 

 be inquired into between others than the ori- 

 ginal parties. In order to avoid that construc- 

 tion, the Senate struck out that last clause, 

 leaving the question of inquiring into the con- 

 sideration to depend upon the general and 

 local law in each State. That is the way it 

 ought to be ; but the House conferees were not 

 willing to agree to this report unless this pro- 

 vision was retained. I myself was not dis- 

 posed to yield that, but a majority of the Sen- 

 ate conferees thought it was better to yield in 

 order to secure the passage of the bill. The 

 words which are retained and which the Sen- 

 ate struck out are these : 



And, on the trial of a suit brought for the enforce- 

 ment of any such contract, proof of the real consid- 

 eration may "be given. 



" That would seem to imply that this proof 

 could be given in a suit brought by a bonajide 

 holder on a note where there was usury be- 

 tween the original parties ; but, as this clause 

 does not state the effect of the evidence on the 

 real consideration, we thought it better, or at 

 least a majority of the conferees, against my 

 opinion, thought it best, to leave that clause 

 in, rather than endanger the passage of the 

 bill." 



Mr. Sprague, of Rhode Island, said : " Mr. 

 President, I desire in one word, in behalf of 

 tne industries, so far as I know them, of this 

 country, to enter my solemn protest against 

 the passage of this act, a measure calculated, 

 in my judgment, more to repudiate the national 

 debt than any measure that has yet been en- 

 acted, and as certain to result in that direction 

 if the people are true to themselves. It seems, 

 sir, that the industries of this country, crushed 

 to the very earth in the past three years, are 

 not crushed sufficiently, but they must have 

 this staggering, this most outrageous blow 

 dealt upon them. If there is any measure cal- 

 culated to prostrate whatever there is in the 

 present profitable occupation of this country, 

 this is it. I affirm to this Senate and to this 

 country, and I shall be borne out in it, that 

 there is no industry, commencing three years 

 ago, that is at all in a profitable condition ex- 

 cept that which is receiving to-day the pap 

 of Government appropriations. Why tamper 

 with this most sacred and most delicate instru- 

 ment ? Sir, I have not words to express the 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



feeling of outrage that is in me at this constant 

 manipulation of the finances, first of the Gov- 

 ernment and then of the people, for what pur- 

 pose? You have contracted your currency 

 nearly four hundred million dollars in three 

 years for the purpose of enhancing its value. 

 What has been the result of it? Have you en- 

 hanced the value of the nation's credit ? Not 

 one cent. You have prostrated every interest 

 and every industry in consequence of that most 

 suicidal and most damnable policy. I protest, 

 therefore, in the name of the industries of this 

 country and in their behalf, representing them 

 as I do, and as I know they at present exist, 

 against the additional load that will be put on 

 them by this most unholy and most inconsid- 

 erate legislation." 



Mr. Hendricks : "Mr. President, I do not in- 

 tend again to discuss this question, but to ask 

 of the Senate whether this body is now pre- 

 pared to change the contract between the Gov- 

 ernment and its creditors, as is proposed by 

 this report ? In my judgment the measure has 

 not been improved by the action of the com- 

 mittee of conference. By this proposition we 

 now undertake to waive permanently the right 

 to redeem the five-twenty bonds during the 

 period of twenty years allowed by the original 

 law to the discretion of the Government, and 

 to provide that the Government shall not re- 

 deem at all unless Treasury notes are equal 

 with gold in value. 



" This, sir, is now the distinct proposition ; 

 and, as far as we can, in the absence of a new 

 consideration, we undertake to bind the Gov- 

 ernment to a material modification of the con- 

 tract, to the benefit of the creditor and to the 

 prejudice of the people. After the contract 

 has been made by the law and by the language 

 of the bonds, and before the maturity of the 

 bonds, why shall we undertake to change the 

 nature and extent of that contract ? Why not 

 leave it as it stood at the time the Govern- 

 ment made the contract? There were some 

 merits in the funding bill urged by the Senator 

 from Ohio last year and urged by the Commit- 

 tee on Finance in its elaborate report of De- 

 cember, 1867. There was some compensation 

 in that measure. In that bill it was proposed 

 as a compensation to the tax-payers that there 

 should be a reduction of the interest, that the 

 six per cent, bonds should fall to four and four 

 and a half per cent., making a large saving 

 annually to the people in interest and a very 

 great relief to the burdened interests of the 

 country; but, as I thought, not sufficient to 

 Justify then a change of the contract. 



"But now/ Mr. President,- abandoning the 

 idea of compensation, it is proposed, without 

 consideration, as far as we now can do it, to 

 change the contract and to make obligations 

 which may be redeemed within a specified 

 period, in the legal-tender notes of the Govern- 

 ment, gold obligations. Where is the return ? 

 The present proposed policy is in strange con- 

 trast with the policy that was adopted at tho 



