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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



sentiment of honor of the people of this coun- 

 try. It may be deemed a mere abstraction ; 

 'but those who so consider it have read the his- 

 tory of the human race to very little purpose. 

 Give me but the sentiment of honorable obliga- 

 tion in the hearts of a people, and I will ask 

 no better or other security for the payment of 

 all their just debts in full. It will be found in- 

 deed ' the cheap defense of nations. ' 



" Now, sir, this bill proposes to coin pieces of 

 silver of a standard nine tenths fine, weighing 

 41 2 grains, and to call them dollars and units 

 of value in the American currency, and make 

 them unlimited legal tender for all debts. This 

 is called in debate a restoration of the silver dol- 

 lar, 'the dollar of our fathers'; and yet it 

 seems to me that the consequences of such an 

 act can scarcely be comprehended, or it would 

 not be so unhesitatingly urged. Can we be un- 

 mindful of the combined action of the leading 

 nations of the world since the United States 

 ceased to use gold and silver as a double stand- 

 ard for their money ? The same writer I have 

 cited makes this very sensible remark, that 

 * so long as the United States remain on the 

 paper basis, they cannot themselves judge of 

 the practical effects of these resolves for the 

 future.' 



" I believe there is good sense in that. If our 

 people had continued upon the metallic basis, 

 no such law as this could have been suggested. 

 It is because it is presented theoretically to our 

 people, who are still on a paper basis and not 

 in a condition to appreciate it, that this cry 

 which we hear all over the country, and which 

 has been so echoed upon the floor of both Houses 

 of Congress, is heard at all. Controlled by a 

 policy which has been gradually but steadily 

 adopted, the gold valuation was begun by Eng- 

 land very nearly a hundred years ago. In 1784 

 the English government limited payments in 

 silver to 25 ; in 1816 they reduced that to 2 

 or 40 shillings ; and other nations have fol- 

 lowed in their track, the last accession by form- 

 al proclamation being the consolidated Empire 

 of Germany. Chili had long since adopted the 

 sole valuation of gold ; the vast colonial gov- 

 ernments of Australia also. Holland has al- 

 ready stopped her silver coinage, and is prepar- 

 ing for a gold valuation. France is preparing 

 for the same thing, and has stopped her coinage 

 of silver absolutely, and by a unanimous vote 

 of her Assembly, within the last month. 



"Belgium and Switzerland have given no 

 uncertain note of preparation in this case. 

 Already Russia and Italy and Austria, who are 

 under paper systems still, recognize the neces- 

 sity of this preparation, so that the duties up- 

 on imports in Russia are now made payable in 

 gold, and the interest upon her foreign debt is 

 payable in gold; and that is the case with 

 Austria. The result of this combined demon- 

 etization, and preparation for continuing the 

 demonetization, of silver has created a great 

 fund of silver coin and bullion, which may be 

 swollen, according to the testimony of this 



earnest bimetallist and advocate of silver, to 

 the enormous amount of two hundred million 

 pounds sterling, or a thousand million American 

 dollars, which will await a favorable market, 

 and this bill proposes it shall be the United 

 States. 



" Mr. President, the act of February 12, 1873, 

 has been denounced, altogether unjustifiably, 

 as the cause of the decline in the price of silver. 

 Bishop Latimer in one of his sermons told of 

 an old man who alleged Tenterden steeple was 

 the cause of Goodwin sands, because before 

 the steeple was erected the sands were not 

 known. Just as reasonable is the post propter 

 hoc argument, that because in 1873 the Govern- 

 ment of the United States simply recognized 

 as a fact that we never actually were under a 

 double metallic standard of values in the United 

 States, therefore you are to say that that law 

 passed in 1873 was the cause of the remarkable 

 fall in the price of silver which we have since 

 witnessed. This law of 1873, under which the 

 gold unft of value was adopted, was enacted 

 only after a careful preliminary examination 

 of the proposition, as unusual as it was com- 

 mendable. 



" Why, Mr. President, I hold in my hand a 

 letter from the Secretary of the Treasury to the 

 Speaker of the House of Representatives, pre- 

 sented on the 29th of June, 1870, and referred 

 to the Committee on Coinage, "Weights, and 

 Measures, and ordered to be printed, which 

 discloses this fact, that the recommendation 

 for the discontinuance of the coinage of the 

 silver dollar, and the adoption of gold as the 

 sole standard of valuation, was submitted to 

 the most intelligent and competent persons to 

 speak with authority on the subject ; and here 

 are their views on the various pages of this 

 document, which was placed in the hands of 

 every member of both Houses of Congress, 

 which was distributed as a public document, 

 was thus announced in advance, that opinions 

 were taken upon the subject, that it was con- 

 sidered, and after that (as was shown by the 

 Senator from Vermont the other day) the bill 

 proposing this change was eleven times printed 

 by the Congressional Printer and passed upon 

 by committees of both Houses of Congress 

 from 1870 to 1873, when it became the law. 



"The laws of coinage of the United States 

 from 1792 to 1873 will disclose the fact that 

 while there was nominally a double standard, 

 in reality it never was maintained and practi- 

 cally did not exist. Perhaps at the risk of 

 tedium I had better recite shortly the history 

 of the United States coinage. It is not long. 

 There have been but six acts of Congress which 

 touch the subject since the foundation of the 

 Government. In 1792 was our first act ; and 

 416 grains of silver, at a standard of fourteen 

 hundred and eighty-five parts of pure silver 

 and one hundred and seventy-nine parts of 

 alloy, to be of the value of a Spanish milled 

 dollar, as the same was then current, be- 

 came the unit of value in the United States, 



