180 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



ing for an increase of currency of $100,000,000 (in- 

 cluding the $44,000,000 reserve), by making the 

 whole currency of Government issue and lawful 

 money by the issue of currency bonds bearing 3.65 

 per cent, interest. 



Mr. Pratt, of Indiana, said : " Mr. President, 

 I wish to submit some remarks upon the reso- 

 lution reported by the chairman of the com- 

 mittee. Before doing so I will ask that the 

 views of the minority be read by the clerk." 



The Presiding Officer : " The Clerk will re- 

 port the views of the minority." 



The Chief Clerk: "The resolution reported 

 as the views of the minority, by Mr. Bayard, 

 is as follows : " 



Whereas a just regard for the interests of every 

 class of the community demands that the national 

 basis of finance shall consist of a uniform standard 

 and intrinsic value : therefore 



Resolved, That the Committee on Finance be, and 

 they are hereby, instructed to report to the Senate 

 measures which will secure at the earliest practicable 

 day a return to specie payments. 



Mr. Pratt : " Mr. President, there is just 

 this difference between the resolution sub- 

 mitted by the chairman of the Committee on 

 Finance and that submitted by the Senator 

 from Delaware, on the part of the minority 

 of that committee : The one declares it -the 

 duty of Congress during its present session 

 to adopt definite measures for the redemp- 

 tion of the United States notes in coin, but also 

 declares it to be its duty to furnish a currency 

 of uniform value, always redeemable in coin or 

 its equivalent, and so adjusted as to meet the 

 changing wants of commerce and trade ; while 

 the other instructs the committee to report to 

 the Senate measures which will secure at the 

 earliest practicable day a return to specie pay- 

 ments. 



"The one contemplates legislation in respect 

 to the currency, while the other looks solely to 

 measures for the redemption of the existing 

 currency in coin r and that too at the earliest 

 practicable period. 



" To be sure, these resolutions are not legisla- 

 tion. They do not bind Congress to do any thing 

 upon the subject-matter, nor do they undertake 

 to define when the earliest practicable day for 

 the resumption of specie payments shall be. 



"It is now nearly five years since Congress 

 made a memorable pledge to the same effect. 

 I read from the act of March 18, 1869 : 



And the United States also pledges its faith to 

 make provision at the earliest practicable period for 

 the redemption of the United States notes in coin. 



" "What could sound fairer to the ear ? What 

 could be more explicit ? What could the United 

 States pledge, possessing higher guarantee to 

 the holder of its notes, than its faith ? Well, 

 that ' earliest practicable period ' when this 

 redemption should take place has not come 

 yet; and yet, as'everybody is aware, the inter- 

 vening years have been marked by a higher 

 degree of prosperity than this nation has ever 

 known. Never, during all our national life, 

 has there been such diversified industrial activ- 



ity; never for the same period of time have 

 the products of labor been so large, or our com- 

 merce, foreign And domestic, so great; never 

 was labor better paid. In fine, in agriculture, 

 mining, and manufactures especially, in com- 

 merce at home and abroad, in the increased 

 acreage of the land cultivated, in the founding 

 of new communities, in the extension of rail- 

 ways and the development of our great natu- 

 ral resources, the nation never exhibited great- 

 er signs of prosperity. During all this time we 

 proudly pointed to our paper currency as the 

 best the country had ever possessed. We 

 boasted of its uniformity in value in all parts 

 of the United States, of the excellence of its en- 

 graving, rendering counterfeits the next thing 

 to impossible, and, above all, our pride was 

 that it rested upon the wealth and credit of 

 the country for ultimate redemption. We read 

 upon the face of every greenback the promise 

 of the United States to pay the bearer so much 

 money, and upon the face of every bank-note 

 the promise of the bank to pay in money or 

 greenbacks on presentation. So that, while the 

 bank-note might be redeemed in a United States 

 note or greenback, we knew that the green- 

 back could be redeemed in nothing but coin. 

 It was not a promise as in the case of a national- 

 bank note to redeem in another promise, but 

 to pay the bearer so many dollars. And that 

 was interpreted, and rightly too, to mean metal- 

 lic dollars gold or silver the money of the 

 Constitution, the recognized standard of value 

 of the world. 



" Indorsing this view, came first the declara- 

 tion by Congress in March, 1869, in the act to 

 strengthen the public credit, and then the de- 

 cision of the Supreme Court. There is nobody, 

 I take it, that denies at this day this interpre- 

 tation of the nation's obligation written upon 

 the face of every greenback. The promise is 

 to pay the bearer .so many dollars, either at 

 Washington or at the office of the assistant 

 treasurer in New York. That means that they 

 shall be paid on the demand of the holder. 

 They are not post-notes, but demand-notes, 

 due whenever presented at the place where 

 payable for payment. If they were the notes 

 of an individual or a bank, no one would doubt 

 the nature of the obligation nor the effect of 

 a refusal to pay. -The notes would go to pro- 

 test, the individual into bankruptcy, and the 

 bank into the hands of a receiver. 



" While this is the strict legal view of the obli- 

 gation of the greenback, I know it is urged that 

 greenbacks were issued at a time of great na- 

 tional necessity because there was very little 

 specie in the country at the time, inadequate 

 entirely to the wants of Government, and not 

 available on account of the suspension of the 

 banks, and because there was an absolute ne- 

 cessity for a larger volume of currency which 

 possessed the functions of money. The Gov- 

 ernment, at that time in close grapple with the 

 rebellion, needed money to carry on the war. 

 The soldiers and sailors must be paid ; they 



