CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



183 



manufactures imported, exceeding in vnluo 



00. 

 "I ip i.o n moment ago of tlio amount of 



raw C(.tti)t) rNjiortctl, while tho entire manu- 

 factures of <-i.ttnii i-xporK-il l,y us wcrv 

 than $8,000,000 in value. Let us now ntM'm 

 turn to tho tables, to ascertain the amount of 

 cotton manufactures imported into the country 

 during tho lust fiscal year: 



The amount of the bleached and unbleached 



$3,865,568 



of printed, pointed, or colored. f>. 



01 linMiTv. Mints, and drawers C, ir.i.iiiil 



:>imc, drillings, etc 636,893 



Of other manufactures of cotlou 20,321,009 



Total $35,201,817 



"AVe imported 



Of earthen, etonc, and china ware $6,015,906 



Of fancy goods 4,801,199 



Of hootenold and personal effects and wear- 



loff-apparel 16,848,421 



Our Importation of human hair and its man- 

 ufactures \v!i.t 032,026 



Our iuiportutlon of jewelry exceeded 1,000,000 



" Looking at this list, who shall say that wo 

 have not been the most improvident and ex- 

 travagant people under the sun, trampling 

 under foot all wise economic laws? This 

 country ought, upon its thousand hills and 

 boundless prairies, to raise sheep enough to 

 clothe our bodies, and we should have skill 

 and enterprise enough to manufacture the wool 

 into its various forms of usefulness. Yet I have 

 enumerated manufactures of wool imported 

 into this country in a single year amounting 

 in value to upward of fifty million dollars. 



" The exhibit I give of tho imports of iron 

 and steel manufacture is more startling still, 

 amounting to nearly sixty million dollars, while 

 our imports of the manufactures of cotton, as 

 I have shown, is upward of thirty -five millions, 

 ent our raw cotton to England, France, 

 and Germany, and here it comes back to us, 

 after traversing the ocean twice, with foreign 

 labor and skill added, to the extent of many 

 millions. 



".Sir, no country on earth is blessed with 

 richer deposits of iron-ore than ours; none 

 can bo more accessible by water and railroad 

 routes ; and yet, here I present you with tho 

 manufactures from that ore imported within a 

 single year from foreign countries, mounting 

 up to nearly sixty million dollars. "What a 

 blind ignoring is this of our natural mineral 

 resources, and our labor and skill ! 



"But what I want in this connection to call 

 the attention of the Senate to is the extrava- 

 gant importation of mere luxuries, which min- 

 ister only to pride and extravagance, such as 

 jewelry, fancy goods, gloves, musical instru- 

 ments, carpets, shawls, precious stones, dress- 

 goods, cosmetics and perfumery, and many 

 other articles I will not pause to enumerate, 

 amounting in the aggregate to many millions. 

 I have not enumerated the silk goods and laces, 

 ami foreign liquors, of which wo import so 

 largely. 



" While this extravagance of importation 



continues, of things which, an I have said, we 

 do not need and wore better off witlu, 

 which wo could as well produce at home, giv- 

 ing variety to our industry and profitable em- 

 ployment to our own mechanics and manufact- 

 urers, I see no prospect of a speedy return to 

 specie payments. 



" It is a very evident proposition to me, Mr. 

 President, that if we export all the specie ex- 

 tracted from our own mines or brought into 

 the country, in paying the excess of imports 

 over exports year by year, we are in no con- 

 dition to maintain specie payments, although 

 by a spasmodic effort wo might, by borrowing 

 coin, redeem our legal-tender notes once. 



" What, then, is the actual condition of our 

 circulating medium, having the properties of 

 money, and which this resolution commits Con- 

 gress to provide for redeeming? 



" The recent report of the Treasurer of the 

 United States shows that on the 30th of June 

 last the outstanding amount of the national 

 currency was as follows: 



Le<*al-tendcr notee istmed $896,000.000 00 



Deducting amount on baud 6.883,771 00 



Left In circulation 849,607,229 00 



The fractional currency outstanding was. 44,799,865 44 

 Deduct amount on hand 6,709,847 71 



Which left in circulation $38,069.517 7S 



"The sum total of legal-tender notes and 

 fractional currency in circulation on that dav 

 was x:!87,696,746.73. 



" But this expresses only a part of our cur- 

 rency. 



"On November 1, 1873, there were 1,980 

 national banks in existence, having an author- 

 ized circulation of $354,000,000, and an actual 

 circulation of $348,360,149; the sum of $5,- 

 649,051 being still due to banks organized or 

 in process of organization. 



" The paper currency of all kinds in circula- 

 tion, it will thus be seen, is $736,056,895; 

 greater by two-thirds than the entire paper 

 circulation of the United Kingdom of Great 

 Britain and Ireland in August last. To this 

 should be added whatever sum has been drawn 

 from the forty-four million greenback reserve, 

 so called. The actual paper circulation at this 

 time, including the bank reserves, is not prob- 

 ably far from $750,000,000; making nearly 

 $19 per capita to our population, estirna; 

 forty millions. 



""By the census of 1870 the entire wealth 

 of the country was estimated at about thirty 

 thousand million dollars, so that the currency 

 of the country as compared with its wealth is 

 not fur from four per c.-nt. 



" Now, it is important to understand what 

 relation the present volume of our currency 

 bears to that furnished by the banks of the 

 several States before the war. That circula- 

 tion in the year 1860 amounted to $207,102,000. 

 So that it will bo seen that tho national bank 

 notes and the legal-tender notes now consti- 

 tutiix' our circulation amount to more than 



