174 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



increased facilities for it How I Now, when 

 corner'in money u made, it la locked up for 

 the time being; no interest is drawn upon it 

 at all ; bat under this bill they may put their 

 money in five per cent bonds, and get a good 

 living interest upon it, and produce the con- 

 traction that is desired. 



"Mr. President, we have bad unparalleled 

 prosperity in this country for the last four or 

 rive years. There has been less speculation in 

 the hut four years. I undertake to say, thaa in 

 any period in the history of this country since 



- 



Mr. Sherman : " Far more." 



Mr. Morton : " Because business has vastly 

 extended, and it is ten times what it was 

 twenty-five years ago ; but I speak of specula- 

 tion in products. I say there has been less of 

 it, and there has been more stability in the 

 prices of the breadstuff's of this country, of the 

 necessaries of life, in the last five years, than 

 there has been in any preceding five years iu 

 our history. I have no hesitancy in saying 

 that Of course there are fluctuations; but 

 they are created by demand and supply. A 

 short crop may produce them ; an increased 

 foreign demand may produce them ; but there 

 has been less of fluctuation resulting from spec- 

 ulation, I undertake to say, in this country dur- 

 ing the last four years, than in any five years 

 since 1887. 



Why is it that there has been such stabil-. 

 ity t Why is it that there has been such pros- 

 peril y I And why is it that there is so much 

 confidence now in the finances of the country ? 

 There is more confidence now than there ever 

 has been before. Why? One great leading 

 cause is that the whole country knows how 

 much currency there is abroad, and that that 

 currency cannot be increased except by an act 

 of Congress, which must advertise the whole 

 country in regard to it Now, if that currency 

 may be contracted by allowing a man to fund 

 greenbacks in fire per cent bonds, how shall 

 the business men of the country know any 

 tiling about itf The mischief is done before 

 know it The first news they get of it in 

 in the contraction of the currency. If ten mill- 

 ions are funded this week, how will the coun- 

 try know it? They will be first advised of it 



.-:!'..! upon business; but, if it is done 



- an act of t'onirresn, everybody knows of 

 It weeks and month* before it takes place. 



" I do not know that I shall make objec- 

 tion to free banking when specie payments are 

 absolutely and certainly restored beyond all 

 porad venture; but it never ought to bo ven- 

 tured upon before that time, and I am not sure 

 that it should tli. n. Why? Because, when 

 banking ls free and ercrybody can bank that 

 desire* to do so, the currency mny be inflated 

 core* of million* before the country knows 

 scarcely any thing about it Now, bank* are 

 formed here and there ; they throw ont their 

 currency ; tin- volume of it is increased ; the 

 country is not advised of it; and the first intel- 



ligence they get is from its influence on busi- 

 ness. That is one of the very evils I am argu- 

 ing against. 



w, I desire to call the attention of the 

 Senate to the amendment tillered to this bill 

 by the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Thnnnan). 

 lie proposes to strike out ' five per cent.' 

 insert 'two percent.,' so that the Secretary 

 of the Treasury shall have the option of re- 

 deeming the greenbacks in coin or in two per 

 omls as he pleases. Does the Senator 

 from Ohio think that would bring about Hperie 

 payments? Does he believe that two per 

 cent bonds will be at par in this country? 

 They will he when the rate of interest is no 

 greater than that, and money is only worth 

 two per cent. ; hut that is not the case now. 

 The issuing of two per cent, bonds, or author- 

 izing the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem 

 greenbacks in two per cent, bonds, is making 

 no provision whatever for a return to specie 

 payments. If the issue of bonds in the re- 

 demption of greenbacks is to be a means of 

 resuming specie payments, that bond must be 

 put at such a rate of interest as will make it 

 equal to par value in gold, so that when the 

 Secretary offers to the holder of the green- 

 backs a bond, that bond is equal in value to 

 the pold for which it is offered as a substitute. 



"Let me say one thing further, Mr. President. 

 If this proposed resumption of specie payments 

 is not to depend entirely, or almost entirely, 



>ii the issue of five per cent, bonds, there 



should be some provision for getting gold into 

 the Treasury in sufficient quantities to redeem 

 these notes. This bill makes no provision for 

 that. It does not provide for reserving the 

 gold in the Treasury until the time comes 

 when redemption shall begin." 



The Presiding Officer (Mr. Nye in the 

 chair): "The question is on the amendment 

 offered by the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Thnr- 

 man) to strike out the word ' five ' and insert 

 the word 'two.'" 



Mr. Merrill, of Vermont, said: "Obviously 

 the proposition of the Senator from Ohio is 

 intended to defeat the whole bill, and there- 

 tore those who shall vote for it will vote for 

 it with a view of killing the bill. The chief 

 point in the bill is to have something that 

 will be better than the present legal tender, 

 and a two per cent, bond or a two per cent. 

 certificate would hardly be better than the 

 present greenbacks. The amendment would 

 destroy the symmetry of the bill so far as 

 the five per cent, bonds are concerned which 

 it is proposed to issue in order to have a uni- 

 formity of bonds that may be issued in the 

 new series. I tru>t. then-fore, that the amend- 

 ment will not prevail. I ask for the yeas and 

 nay* upon it" 



The yeas and nays were ordered ; and being 

 taken, resulted yeas 11, nays 81. 



So the amendment to the amendment was 

 rejected. 



Mr. Buckingham : " I now move to amend 



