146 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



in the shape of greenbacks and these bonds 

 (which, as I said before, would be sought for 

 with avidity, because they bear an interest 

 easy of computation) would be limited only 

 by the amount of Government bonds which 

 . we could call in under this process. 



"For this reason it seems to me there is 

 illimitable inflation in this bill, which I de- 

 plore and against which I must protest. But, 

 in the endeavor to relieve one objection to the 

 bill, I move that it be amended in the first sec- 

 tion by inserting the words ' one thousand ' in 

 lieu of the word ' fifty,' in order that the bonds 

 shall be required to be of the denomination of 

 not less than one thousand dollars." 



The bill was further considered and amend- 

 ed, but no final action was taken upon it in 

 the House. 



In the Senate, on December 21st, Mr. Sher- 

 man, of Ohio, from the Committee on Finance 

 reported the bill to provide for the resump- 

 tion of specie payments, which was read and 

 passed to the second reading. On the 22d, 

 the bill was considered in the Senate. The 

 bill was read at length, as follows: 



Beit enacted, etc., That the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury is hereby authorized and required, as rapidly as 

 practicable, to cause to be coined at the mints of the 

 United States silver coins of the denominations of 

 ten, twenty-five, and fifty cents, of standard value, 

 and to issue them in redemption of an equal number 

 and amount of fractional currency of similar denomi- 

 nations, or, at his discretion, he may issue such silver 

 coins through the mints, the sub-treasuries, public 

 depositaries, and post-offices of the United States ; 

 and, upon such issue, he is hereby authorized and 

 required to redeem an equal amount of such frac- 

 tional currency, until the whole amount of such 

 fractional currency outstanding shall be redeemed. 



SECTION 2. That so much of section 3524 of the 

 Revised Statutes of the United States as provides 

 for a charge of 1-5 of 1 per cent, for converting stand- 

 ard gold bullion into coin is hereby repealed, and 

 hereafter no charge shall be made for that service. 



SEC. 3. That section 5177 of the Revised Statutes 

 of the United States, limiting the aggregate amount 

 of circulating notes of national banking associations, 

 be, and is hereby, repealed ; and each existing bank- 

 ing association may; increase its circulating notes in 

 accordance with existing law without respect to said 

 aggregate limit ; and new banking associations may 

 he organized in accordance with existing law with- 

 out respect to said aggregate limit ; and the pro- 

 visions of law for the withdrawal and redistribution 

 of national-bank currency among the several States 

 and Territories are hereby repealed. And whenever 

 and so often as circulating notes shall be issued to 

 any such banking association, so increasing its cap- 

 ital or circulating notes, or so newly organized as 

 aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the 

 Treasury to redeem the legal-tender United States 

 notes in excess only of $300,000,000 to the amount 

 of 80 per cent, of the sum of national-bank notes so 

 issued to any such banking association as aforesaid, 

 and to continue such redemption as such circulating 

 notes are issued until there shall be outstanding the 

 sum of $300.000,000 of such legal-tender United 

 States notes, and no more. And on and after the 1st 

 day of January, A. D. 1879, the Secretary of the 

 Treasury shall redeem in coin th-e United States 

 .legal-tender notes then outstanding on their presen- 

 tation for redemption at the office of the assistant 

 treasurer of the United States in the city of New 



York, in sums of not less than fifty dollars. And to 

 enable the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and 

 provide for the redemptions in this act authorized 

 or required, he is authorized to use any surplus reve- 

 nues, from time to time, in the Treasury not other- 

 wise appropriated, and to issue, sell, and dispose of, 

 at not less than par, in coin, either of the descrip- 

 tions of bonds of the United States described in the 

 act of Congress approved July 14, 1870, entitled 

 " An act to authorize the refunding of the national 

 debt," with like qualities, privileges, and exemp- 

 tions, to the extent necessary to carry this act into 

 full effect, and to use the proceeds thereof for the 

 purposes aforesaid. And all provisions of law in- 

 consistent with the provisions of this act are hereby 

 repealed. 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said : ." The bill is in- 

 tended to provide for the resumption of specie 

 payments. The first section of the bill provides 

 for the resumption of specie payments on the 

 fractional currency. It is confined to that 

 subject alone. It so happens that at this par- 

 ticular period of time the state of the money 

 market, the state of the demand for silver 

 bullion, and more especially the recent action 

 of the German Empire, which has demonetized 

 silver and thus cheapened that product, enables 

 us now, without any loss of revenue, without 

 any sacrifice, to enter the market for the pur- 

 chase of bullion and resume specie payments 

 on our fractional currency. The market price 

 of bullion to-day will justify the Government 

 of the United States, without any sacrifice, at 

 a price about equivalent to or perhaps a trifle 

 above our fractional currency scarcely a 

 shadow above our fractional currency to pur- 

 chase silver bullion in the money markets of 

 the world, mostly of our own production, 

 perhaps entirely of our own production. This 

 bill simply directs that the Secretary of the 

 Treasury shall purchase this bullion and shall 

 coin silver coin and substitute that in the place 

 of fractional currency. To that extent it is a 

 resumption of specie payments upon the sil- 

 ver standard for the fractional currency. This 

 section is recommended not only by the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury and the President of 

 the United States, but I believe will meet 

 the general concurrence of every member of 

 the Senate, and we fortunately are enabled to 

 embrace the present time to commence this 

 operation without any loss to the Government, 

 except perhaps the cost of the coinage of this 

 silver may have to be paid out of the Treasury 

 of the United States. That coinage may be 

 done in the ordinary course of business with- 

 out any increase of expenditures. The mints 

 of the United States are now prepared, imme- 

 diately upon the passage of this bill, to resume 

 the coinage of silver coins of all the legal de- 

 nominations. Therefore the committee have 

 provided that the Secretary of the Treasury 

 shall proceed to coin the silver coins and in 

 one of several ways to issue them in the place 

 of fractional currency. 



" The second section of this bill simply re- 

 moves an inducement that now exists to ex- 

 port our gold bullion from the United States 



