CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



in redemption of the greenbacks shall bear 

 interest only at the rate of two per cent." 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said : " Mr. Pres- 

 ident, the discussion of this hill yesterday 

 disclosed a vast amount of difference in opin- 

 ion, not simply upon the professed objects of 

 the hill and upon the policy which this bill is 

 intended to affirm, hut upon the meaning of 

 the provisions of the bill itself. I have re- 

 garded it from the first as a step, but not a 

 long or a decisive step such as I would wish 

 to see taken, toward the resumption of specie 

 payments. 



" In the consideration of our national 

 finances the chief and ruling object in view 

 should be a resumption of specie payments, 

 not so much as affecting the convenience of 

 the moneyed classes of the country as affect- 

 ing the morals of the entire country. A re- 

 turn to specie payments should be held a re- 

 turn to honesty in individual dealings; and 

 the sooner an honest currency, a currency of 

 intrinsic value, is restored to the people of 

 this country the better, because until that is 

 done we cannot hope for a discontinuance of 

 all those practices of bad faith and illegiti- 

 mate speculation which are the natural result 

 and outgrowth of paper money. 



"I say, therefore, that a return to honest 

 money is a crying demand of the present 

 hour. A departure from the currency of hon- 

 est money, from money of value, was a car- 

 dinal error, a vast blunder, in my opinion, 

 originally. Not only was it without warrant, 

 as I believe, in the Constitution of the United 

 States, but, even had this not been so, then it 

 was a terrible mistake in government, and I 

 believe will be so recognized and admitted 

 when the events of the last twelve years come 

 to be considered calmly and by the light of 

 experience. It was a repeated blunder. We 

 had the sad experience of our own colonial 

 Revolution. We had the shame, the sorrow, 

 and the suffering, that flowed from the adop- 

 tion then of inconvertible paper issues. The 

 same history was written all over the terrific 

 struggle in France in 1793. It has been re- 

 peated with like results in the affairs of the 

 late Southern Confederacy. Its evils were 

 felt and are now made manifest by the devel- 

 opments of to-day, in the present tone of what 

 may bo termed the pecuniary morals of the 

 people sad developments made at the pres- 

 ent day and hour which no man can fail to 

 recognize as the legitimate results of the 

 adoption of an inconvertible paper currency 

 founded solely upon credit, without a particle 

 of intrinsic value, and which therefore became 

 the mere foot-ball of speculators at the cost 

 of the producer and laborer each speculator 

 cultivating, as Mr. Webster well said, his field 

 by the sweat of the poor man's brow. Not 

 only so, but I believe that the people of this 

 country to-day groan under a debt $1,000,- 

 000,000 greater than they would have had if 

 this mistake in finance had not been followed 



and the nation embarked upon a system of in- 

 convertible paper issues depending solely 

 upon credit, and therefore necessarily affected 

 by every breath of suspicion and of fluctua- 

 tions in success or failure. 



" But, Mr. President, is this a practical 

 measure, a really decisive step toward the re- 

 sumption of specie payments ? I am disposed 

 to think it has that tendency, but I do not 

 think such are to be its certain results. There 

 are many things in the present bill which 

 caused me surprise when I came to examine 

 it. It will be observed that there is no limita- 

 tion whatever in the bill upon the increase of 

 the public debt, and at the same time there is 

 no limitation upon the issues which are 

 authorized by the second section of the act. 



" Then it provides that the bonds shall be 

 exempt from local or Federal taxation. Now, 

 I ask would not the public funded debt be in- 

 definitely increased under the provisions of 

 this bill, which allows bonds without limit to 

 he issued in exchange for United States notes, 

 which notes are again issued by the Govern- 

 ment for its current expenses, which pass into 

 the Treasury to-day in exchange for a bond, 

 the next day are issued for some public ex- 

 pense, and the day following are presented for 

 a new bond at the Treasury, and so on, ad in- 

 finitum f You see the result upon the basis 

 of your $328,000,000 of United States notes, 

 coming in to-day for bonds, paid out to-mor- 

 row for expenses, brought back the third day 

 for a new bond. Where is the limitation upon 

 the amonnt of your funded debt? And yet 

 this bill is open to that objection. I shall pro- 

 pose an amendment at the proper time, to 

 come in as an additional section, which will 

 prevent, or will be intended to prevent, any 

 increase in the public debt, funded or not 

 funded." 



Mr. Sherman: "If the Senator will allow 

 me, I will ask him whether, assuming as a fact 

 that the current receipts of the Government 

 are equal to the current expenditures, it is 

 possible that under this bill the public debt 

 can be increased ? " 



Mr. Bayard: "Certainly, it seems to me 

 very palpable, because of this ebb and flow. 

 The flow of money into the Treasury, which is 

 instantly exchangeable for a bond, will place 

 yie notes in the Treasury, and when the ex- 

 penses of the Government do not call for their 

 use there will be a simultaneous use of the 

 money for redeeming a bond. One bond puts 

 the notes into the Treasury to pay expenses, 

 and when they are paid out they are instantly 

 presented again for another bond, and all this 

 system of the circular motion of this money 

 will be constantly increasing ; there will be an 

 issue of bonds as fast as the notes are pre- 

 sented for them, and yet there will remain in 

 the public Treasury money sufficient for the 

 expenses of the Government. Such I think 

 is to be the actual result. 



" I have my doubts as to the practical work- 



