CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Ill 



tnrn to a currency which is based upon coin, 

 there can be no permanency in values ; there 

 must be fluctuations ; there must be expansions 

 and depressions in the money market. But 

 the question is, Will the measure proposed ef- 

 fect the object contemplated? I have some 

 misgivings upon that point. What is the pro- 

 vision ? The provision is to retire the green- 

 backs, or the legal-tender notes, by the pay- 

 ment of coin when the Treasury is in receipt 

 of coin sufficient for that purpose, and, when 

 not in sufficient receipt of coin to do that, to 

 substitute the bonds of the Government bear- 

 ing five per cent, interest. 



" Now, let us look and see whether there is 

 any probability that sufficient coin will be sub- 

 stituted in place of the greenbacks to render 

 the currency of the country much better than 

 it is at present. There is, I believe, about $350,- 

 000,000 of greenbacks now in circulation. 

 Within twelve months, under the operations 

 of this bill, those greenbacks will be presented 

 to the Treasury for redemption. Will the 

 Secretary of ,the Treasury have a sufficient 

 amount of gold on hand to redeem any large 

 proportion of that amount? I apprehend at 

 farthest that he could not appropriate exceed- 

 ing $50,000,000 toward the redemption of the 

 $350,000,000 of greenbacks, and as a conse- 

 quence there must be about $300,000,000 of 

 bonds issued as a substitute for the greenbacks 

 which are canceled or redeemed. There will 

 then be $50,000,000 that will be in gold that 

 will be furnished in lieu of the $350,000,000 

 of greenbacks which are taken up. The bonds 

 which are issued as a substitute for them will 

 not become a part of the circulating medium. 

 They will be held as investments ; and thus 

 the circulation of the country will be curtailed 

 by the amount of bonds which are issued in 

 lieu of the gold. 



That must be the effect if the operation 

 stops there. If there is no reissue of these 

 greenbacks, the consequence must be to cur- 

 tail the circulating medium to the amount that 

 bonds are issued in their place. That must be 

 one of the effects of this bill, I say, if it stops 

 there ; but there is a provision in the bill for 

 a reissue of these greenbacks. I am aware of 

 that. What is to be the effect of that? Sup- 

 pose you issue those greenbacks ; will they form, 

 after they are issued, a part of the circulating 

 medium ? I think not. Though they may be 

 issued a dozen times by the Secretary, they 

 will not become a part of the circulating me- 

 dium of the country, but will be bought up 

 for the purpose of being carried to the Treas- 

 ury with a view of demanding new bonds ; and 

 this operation will be repeated time and again. 

 The notes will be returned to the Treasury and 

 the gold demanded for them, or if not gold 

 then bonds must again bo reissued, and thus 

 this process must necessarily go on until there 

 is an accumulation of the public debt of the 

 country. 



" Now, I think a better measure for the relief 



VOL. XIII. 12 A 



of the people, and which will at the same time 

 protect the Government against an increase of 

 indebtedness, could have been devised; and, 

 though it may subject me to the criticism of 

 being a novice in financial affairs, I shall ven- 

 ture to say that if the Finance Committee had 

 brought in a bill providing for the retirement 

 of a certain amount annually of the national 

 banking currency, leaving the greenback cur- 

 rency to stand as at present to retire annually 

 a certain amount of the national banking cur- 

 rency by replacing it with gold, and thus mix- 

 ing up gold with the national banking cur- 

 rency it would have had certainly the effect 

 of relieving the Government from any increase 

 of indebtedness, and it would have had another 

 effect : it would have, with proper provisions, 

 curtailed the obligation of the Government to 

 the national banks. For instance, if they had 

 called in one-eighth or one-tenth from each 

 bank annually of its circulation of the notes 

 which have been furnished to them by the 

 Government, giving them gold at their relative 

 values, and crediting the Government by that 

 amount upon the bonds which she holds, you 

 would have reduced the amount of interest 

 paid to the national banks, and you would have 

 prevented any possibility of an increase of the 

 indebtedness of the country. That would vir- 

 tually, as I think, furnish all the circulation 

 which we at present have, while it would cur- 

 tail the obligation of the Government to pay 

 interest to the national banks in proportion to 

 the amounts of their circulation which she had 

 redeemed." 



Mr. Thurman : " Believing that this bill can- 

 not pass, and that it cannot be perfected in 

 open Senate so that it ought to pass, and that 

 any further discussion of it will only be a loss 

 of time, for the purpose of testing the sense 

 of the Senate I move that the bill lie on the 

 table, and I ask for the yeas and nays on that 

 motion." 



The Presiding Officer: "The Senator from 

 Ohio moves that the bill lie on the table." 



The yeas and nays were ordered ; and being 

 taken, resulted as follows : 



YEAS Messrs. Alcorn, Blair, Cole, Davis, Ed- 

 munds, Fcnton, Gilbert, Goldthwaite, Hamilton of 

 Texas, Harlan, Hill, Hitchcock, Johnston, Kelly, 

 Maehen, Morton, Norwood, Pool, Ramsey, Ransom, 

 Rice, Robertson. Schurz, Sprasrue, Stevenson, Thur- 

 man, Tipton, West, and Windom 29. 



NAYS Messrs. Ames, Bayard, Boreman, Bucking- 

 ham, Casserly, Chandler, Clayton, Cooper, Corbett, 

 Cragin, Ferry of Connecticut, Ferry of Michigan. 

 Flanagan, Hamilton of Maryland, Hamlin, Morrill of 

 Maine, Morrill of Vermont, Nye, Patterson, Pratt, 

 Saulsbury, Scott, Sherman, Stewart, Tickers, Wil- 

 son; and Wright 27. 



ABSENT Messrs. Anthony, Brownlow, Caldwell, 

 Cameron, Carpenter, Conkling, Frelinghuysen, 

 Howe, Lewis, Logan, Osborn, Pomeroy, Sawyer, 

 Spencer, Stockton, Sumner, and Trumbull 17. 



So the motion was agreed to, and the bill 

 was ordered to lie on the table. 



In the House, on December 16th, Mr. Cox, 



