148 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



" This bill also provides ample means to pre- 

 pare for and to maintain resumption. I may 

 say the whole credit and money of the United 

 States is placed by this bill under the direction 

 of the proper executive officers, not only to 

 prepare for but to maintain resumption, and no 

 man can doubt that, if this bill stands the law 

 of the land from this time until the first day of 

 January, 1879, specie payments will be re- 

 sumed, and that our United States notes will 

 be converted at the will of the holder into gold 

 and silver coin. 



" Mr. President, these are all the provisions 

 contained in this bill. They are simple and 

 easily understood, and every Senator can pass 

 his judgment upon them readily. 



" Now I desire to approach a class of ques- 

 tions that are not embraced in this bill. Many 

 such, and I could name fifty, are not included 

 in this bill ; and I may say this : that if there 

 should be a successful effort by the Senate of 

 the United States to ingraft any of this multi- 

 tude of doubtful or contested questions upon 

 the face of this bill it would inevitably tend to 

 its defeat. I am free to say that if I were 

 called upon to frame a bill to accomplish the 

 purpose declared in the title of this bill, I 

 would have provided some means of gradual 

 redemption between this and the time fixed 

 for final specie payments. All of these means 

 are open to objection. There have been three 

 different plans proposed to prepare for specie 

 payments, and only three. They are all grouped 

 in three classes. One is what is called the 

 contraction plan. The simplest and most direct 

 way to specie payments is undoubtedly the 

 gradual withdrawal of United States notes or 

 the contraction of the currency. Now, we 

 know very well the feeling with which that 

 idea is regarded not only in this Senate, but 

 all through the country. It is believed to op- 

 erate as a disturbing element in all the business 

 relations of life ; to add to the burden of the 

 debtor by making scarce thnt article in which 

 he is bound to pay his debts; and there has 

 been an honest, sincere opposition to this the- 

 ory of contraction. Therefore, although it may 

 be the simplest and the best way to reach spe- 

 cie payments, it is entirely omitted from this 

 bill. The second plan, that I have favored my- 

 self often, and would favor now if I had my 

 own way and had no opinion to consult but my 

 own, is the plan of converting United States 

 notes into a bond that would gradually appre- 

 ciate our notes to par in gold. That has al- 

 ways been a favorite idea of mine. There is 

 nothing of that kind in this bill except those 

 provisions which authorize the Secretary of 

 the Treasury to issue bonds to retire the green- 

 backs as bank-notes are issued ; and it also au- 

 thorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to issue 

 bonds to provide for and to maintain resump- 

 tion. I therefore have been compelled to sur- 

 render my ideas on this bill in order to accom- 

 plish a good object without using means that 

 have been held objectionable by many Senators. 



" The third plan of resumption has been fa- 

 vored very extensively in this country, which-is 

 the plan of a graduated scale for resumption 

 in coin or bullion; what I call the English 

 plan. That is, that we provide now for the 

 redemption, at a fixed rate or scale of rates, of 

 so much gold for a specific sum of United 

 States notes. At present rates we would give 

 about $90 of gold for $100 of greenbacks, and 

 then provide for a graduated scale by which 

 we would approach specie payments constant- 

 ly, and reach it at a fixed day. This may be 

 called a gradual redemption. This, also, is 

 objectionable to many persons, from the idea 

 that it compels us to enter the money markets 

 of the world to discount our own paper. It is 

 an ideal objection, but a very strong objection ; 

 an objection that has force with a great many 

 people. We have undertaken to redeem these 

 notes in coin, and it is at least a question of 

 doubtful ethics whether we ought to enter into 

 the markets of the world and buy our own 

 notes at a discount. Although that plan has 

 been adopted in England and successfully car- 

 ried into execution, yet there is a strong objec- 

 tion to it in this country, and therefore that 

 mode is abandoned. Either of these plans I 

 could readily support ; but they have met and 

 will meet with such opposition that we cannot 

 hope to carry them or ingraft them in this bill 

 without defeating it. We have then fallen 

 back on these gradual steps: first, to retire 

 the fractional currency ; second, to reduce 

 United States notes as bank-notes are in- 

 creased ; and then to rest our plan of redemp- 

 tion upon the declaration made on the faith of 

 the United States, that at the time fixed by the 

 bill we will resume the payment of the United 

 States notes in coin at par. That is the whole 

 of this bill. 



"Not only are all these plans of gradual re- 

 demption omitted from the bill, but there are 

 also many troublesome questions omitted from 

 the bill. If we undertake to define precisely 

 what shall be done four years hence on the re- 

 sumption of specie payments, to say whether 

 the legal-tender act shall then be repealed, or 

 whether it shall be repealed before or not, we 

 enter upon a very difficult field, and will un- 

 doubtedly divide the Senate and divide the 

 country. Is it not better to postpone, until the 

 time comes to meet them, these questions which 

 must then arise, father than to engage in an 

 attempt to settle them now, four years in ad- 

 vance ? " 



Mr. Schurz, of Missouri, said: "I meant to 

 ask whether whenever any greenbacks were 

 retired by the Secretary of the Treasury, or as 

 the bill styles it are redeemed in consideration 

 of so many thousands of dollars of bank-notes 

 having been issued, the greenbacks so retired 

 shall be canceled and destroyed, never to be re- 

 issued again. The Senator will' remember very 

 well that we had a protracted struggle about a 

 similar question once, and that the framing of 

 a law gave rise to much controversy on that 



