196 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



of the Senate, until the end of the next session 

 of the Senate, and requires him within thirty 

 days after the meeting of the Senate to make 

 nominations in place of all suspended officers ; 

 and now there is added to that a provision that, 

 if such a nomination is not approved, he shall, 

 as soon as practicable, make another nomina- 

 tion, and, as a matter of course, if none of the 

 nominations are approved, his authority to 

 suspend under the law expires with the session, 

 and the old officer takes possession of the office. 

 The only change made is this: as the bill 

 passed the Senate it required a positive affirm- 

 ative vote on the part of the Senate disagree- 

 ing to the suspension before the old officer 

 could go back. As the committee of confer- 

 ence report it, the officer would go back at the 

 end of the session unless somebody else was 

 confirmed in his place. The authority of the 

 President to suspend extends to the end of the 

 session, and no further, and, of course, the old 

 officer then takes possession of the office." 



The report was concurred in by the Senate, 

 yeas 42, nays 8 ; by the House, yeas 108, nays 67. 



In the Senate, on March llth, the Senate 

 bill to strengthen the public credit was taken 

 up. This was the bill passed at the previous 

 session, and which had not been signed by 

 President Johnson. 



Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, moved to 

 strike out the second section. He said: "Since 

 the action of the Senate at the last session 

 I have had occasion to consider the operation 

 of this section in the light of the recent decision 

 of the Supreme Court of the United States, and 

 I have been led to doubt seriously its practical 

 value. As I understand the recent decision of 

 the Supreme Court, contracts in gold are legal, 

 and you have the authority of the highest judi- 

 cial tribunal of the land to that effect. What 

 more, then, do you require? Another deci- 

 sion? No. An act of Congress? Why? 

 For myself, sir, I can see no reason why Con- 

 gress should now intervene in order to give 

 any additional sanction to contracts in gold. 

 On the contrary, I see difficulties. For in- 

 stance, this section which undertakes to legal- 

 ize these contracts is an essentially different 

 proposition from that which has the sanction 

 of the Supreme Court. How will you recon- 

 cile the two ? Do you not, if you pass this sec- 

 tion, create a new brood of lawsuits which 

 must ultimately come before the Supreme Court 

 for adjudication ? It seems to me that you do." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, replied : " The reason 

 now given for this motion, by the Senator from 

 Massachusetts, is, that the Supreme Court have, 

 by a decision, rendered unnecessary the second 

 section. I have examined that decision. The 

 point ^decided was simply that a contract pay- 

 able in coin, made before the passage of the 

 Legal-tender Act, could be enforced. It is true 

 the Supreme Court state that two kinds of cur- 

 rency are legalized by Congress, one a currency 

 called lawful money, and the other a currency 



called coin, and that contracts made in both, 

 or either, are valid. But the real point decided 

 in that case was only that a contract made 

 payable in coin before the passage of the Legal- 

 tender Act, was valid. The reasoning of the 

 decision extends to all contracts made either in 

 coin or in currency. The actual case only 

 raised the first question. The general principle 

 decided seemed to settle the other question; 

 but we know, and the Senator from Massachu- 

 setts knows, that a decision made on a question 

 not necessarily involved in the case has not 

 the same weight of authority that a decision 

 of the identical point raised, and necessarily 

 to be decided, has. He has complained very 

 often of the attempt of the Supreme Court to 

 extend the latitude of its decision, in the Dred 

 Scott case, to questions not necessarily involved 

 in that case ; and yet now he gives an effect to 

 the decision of the Supreme Court, which I 

 think ought not fairly to be given to any deci- 

 sion of any court. They decided the case be- 

 fore them, and the principle of that decision 

 undoubtedly would make legal and valid all 

 contracts in coin. I think, therefore, it is im- 

 portant, in order to legalize gold contracts and 

 remove all doubts about it, to pass this sec- 

 tion." 



Mr. Howard, of Michigan, moved to insert 

 the word "written" before the word "con- 

 tract," which was agreed to. Mr. Pratt, of 

 Indiana, offered the following amendment, 

 which was rejected: 



And provided further, That such contracts shall 

 not be valid until the Government shall redeem its 

 United States notes in coin. 



The motion of Mr. Sumner, to strike out the 

 second section, was agreed to by the following 

 vote: 



YEAS Messrs. Bayard, Boreman, Carpenter, Cas- 

 serly, Conkling, Corbett, Cragin, Ferry, Fessenden, 

 Gilbert, Harris, Kellogg, McDonald, Norton, Nye, 

 Pratt, Robertson, Sawyer, Schurz, Scott, Sprague, 

 Stewart, Stockton, Sumner, Thurman, Trumbull, 

 Vickers, and Wilson 28. 



NATS Messrs. Abbott, Anthony, Brownlow, 

 Drake, Grimes, Hamlin, Morrill, Morton, Osborne, 

 Patterson, Eamsey, Boss, Sherman, Warner, and 

 Williams 15. 



ABSENT Messrs. Buckingham, Cameron, Cattell, 

 Chandler, Cole, Davis, Edmunds, Fenton, Fowler, 

 Harlan, Howard, Howe, Mc,Creeiy, Pomeroy, Pool, 

 Rice, Saulsbury, Spencer, Thayer, Tipton, Willey, 

 and Yates 22. 



Mr. Thurman, of Ohio, offered the following 

 amendment: 



Provided, That nothing herein contained shall ap- 

 ply to the obligations commonly called five-twenty 

 bonds. 



It was rejected by the following vo'fe: 

 YEAS Messrs. Bayard, Boreman, Casserly, Mor- 

 ton, Norton, Osborn, Pratt, Boss, Sprague, Stockton, 

 Thurman, and Vickers 12. 



NATS Messrs. Abbott, Anthony, Brownlow, Car- 

 penter, Conkling, Corbett, Cragin, Drake, Fenton, 

 Ferry, Gilbert, Grimes, Hamlin, Harris, Kellogg, 

 McDonald, Moncill, Nye, Patterson, Ramsey, Sawyer, 

 Schurz, Scott, Sherman. Stewart, Sumner, Tipton, 

 Trumbull, Warner, Williams, and Wilson 31. 



