152 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



all these bonds, both principal and interest, 

 payable in gold, what is the essence of this 

 contract? This Government agreed to pay 

 the interest in coin, and by the act of 1869, 

 modifying the law of 1862, the principal was 

 also made payable in coin. When they were 

 first issued I believed, and believe now, that 

 the intention was to pay the interest in coin, 

 but the principal in legal tenders ; but the act 

 of 1869 changed that, and made the interest 

 and principal payable in coin. So be it. The 

 contract is that we shall pay this character of 

 debt, both interest and principal, in coin. 



" Now, Mr. President, I leave it to the in- 

 telligence of the Senate and the country, if we 

 continue, as we shall be sure to continue, to 

 pay our bonds as they fall due in coin, and if 

 we continue, as we are certain to continue, to 

 pay the interest every six months also in coin, 

 will the credit of the nation be at all affected 

 whether we raise this money by one means or 

 another ? " 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said: u Mr. Presi- 

 dent, if I believed that the measure now before 

 the Senate was a bill to restore specie pay- 

 ments in this country, I would be inclined to 

 vote for the measure of the honorable Senator 

 from Ohio on my right (Mr. Thurman). I have 

 myself upon former occasions offered amend- 

 ments, and voted for those offered by other 

 members of the body, favoring a partial pay- 

 ment of duties upon imports in the paper-money 

 of the United States. I believe the Govern- 

 ment discredited its own Treasury-notes by 

 refusing to receive them originally for the pay- 

 ment of debts due the Government while it 

 insisted that other debts equally honest should 

 be made payable in them. It was a mistake, 

 it was a financial blunder, and one of the many 

 which the history of the last twelve years re- 

 cords against the party in power. But, sir, 

 believing that this is a bill rather adverse than 

 favorable to a resumption of specie payments, 

 that it is a bill tending to prevent a return to 

 specie payments, that it contains many of the 

 most objectionable features which have embar- 

 rassed our finances in the last eight years, and 

 which it seems to me is intended to reproduce 

 those same results, therefore I shall hesitate to 

 vote even for the amendment of my friend from 

 Ohio, much less for the amendment as amended 

 by the Senator from Missouri. 



" I do not desire to banish from this country 

 the last trace of gold payments to the Treasury. 

 It is plain that if we are to resume specie pay- 

 ment there must be a fund of gold accumulated 

 wherewith to resume, and this is nothing but 

 a measure to abolish the only nucleus left by 

 law for such accumulation, and make a return 

 to specie payments an impossibility while such 

 a policy controls the Government. I hope this 

 amendment offered by the Senator from Mis- 

 souri will not be adopted, nor even that offered 

 by my friend from Ohio, because I believe it 

 should properly be appended to a bill honestly 

 intended to resume specie payments ; and, as I 



cannot consider the measure before us to be in 

 that direction, I am not disposed to vote for 

 any measure that tends to banish our last source 

 of gold income from the country. 



" Sooner or later, a sound public sentiment, 

 born perhaps of the sufferings of the people, 

 will demand that an honest measure of value 

 shall be restored to the dealings of our citizens. 

 That must come sooner or later, and I shall 

 never be satisfied with the legislation of the 

 country until it has produced that effect. Any 

 measure tending to it shall find my vote re- 

 corded in its favor, and any measure hostile to 

 it will find in me an opponent. 



"Now, I will ask the honorable Senator 

 from Ohio who has charge of this bill whether 

 he objects, on line 15 of section 3, after the 

 word * redeem,' to inserting the words * and 

 destroy,' so that it will read : " 



It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the 

 Treasury to redeem and destroy the legal-tender 

 United States notes in excess only of $300,000,000, 

 to the amount of eighty per cent, of the sum of na- 

 tional-bank notes so issued to any such banking as- 

 sociation as aforesaid. 



Mr. Sherman: "I would ask my honorable 

 friend a question in response; and that is, 

 whether the words he proposes to add will 

 change the meaning of the bill ? " 



Mr. Bayard : " Certainly they would, sir, in 

 my opinion ; and if they do not change it, why 

 should the Senator object to the insertion of 

 the words ? " 



Mr. Sherman : u I will answer the Senator 

 now frankly, having asked him the question, 

 that I do not propose to give my construction 

 or opinion as a lawyer upon the question as to 

 what is the meaning of the word ' redeemed,' 

 as to whether it precludes or authorizes the 

 reissue of notes, because I say that the ques- 

 tion cannot arise under either of these sections 

 until three or four years hence. The Senator 

 will see that this process of reduction must go 

 on until the whole amount of the fraction- 

 al currency outstanding shall be redeemed. 

 Whether it may then be reissued, I say frankly 

 again to the Senator that we do not undertake 

 to decide except so far as it is fixed by existing 

 law. I, therefore, cannot vote for the Sena- 

 tor's proposition, simply because I propose to 

 leave that an open question to be decided in 

 the future according to law." 



The Vice-President : " The question is on 

 the amendment of the Senator from Missouri 

 .(Mr. Bogy) to the amendment of the Senator 

 from Ohio (Mr. Thurman)." 



The amendment to the amendment was re- 

 jected. 



The Vice-President : " The question recurs 

 on the amendment of the Senator from Ohio 

 (Mr. Thurman)." 



The question being taken by yeas and nays, 

 resulted yeas 16, nays 33, as follows: 



YEAS Messrs. Bayard, Bogy, Cooper, Davis, Den- 

 nis, Goldthwaite, Hager, Hamilton of Maryland, 

 Johnston, McCreery, Merrimon, Norwood, Kansom, 

 Saulsbury, Stevenson, and Thurman 16. 



