CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



151 



There was free coinage for both metals. Both 

 were full legal tender for their declared value 

 when of full weight, and when of less, in pro- 

 portion. The same act authorized the gold 

 eagle as a unit, of 270 grains standard gold, 

 and the alloy of gold was fixed at eleven parts 

 fine and one of alloy. Part of that alloy was 

 provided to be of silver. 



"From 1792 to 1834 there was no alteration 

 whatever in the standard or in the ratio of val- 

 ues between these two coins, and I wish now to 

 call the attention of the Senate to some remark- 

 able features to be found in the record of the 

 Mint from the beginning of the Government 

 until the 30th of June, 1877. I refer to the 

 tables at page 28 of the report of the Director 

 of the Mint for the present year, and it will be 

 found that from 1792 until 1805 there were 

 coined of silver dollars less than one million 

 and a half; from 1805 to 1835 there was not 

 coined one. Not a single dollar of the unit 

 and standard of value was coined from 1804 

 until 1835. The history of that may perhaps 

 be curious, but it does not disturb the force of 

 the fact which I have stated and the inferences 

 which are irresistible, the fact being that the 

 silver unit did not practically exist under the 

 coinage of the United States ; that there were 

 but fifteen hundred thousand dollars prior to 

 1804, and that not one was added to the coin- 

 age from that time until 1835, and then one 

 thousand were coined in 1836, none coined in 

 1837 or 1838. In 1839 three hundred dollars 

 were coind." 



Mr. Withers, of Virginia, said : " Will it in- 

 terrupt the Senator too much to call his atten- 

 tion to the fact that, although no dollars were 

 coined, very many millions were coined in 

 parts of dollars, halves and quarters, of the 

 same standard value precisely?" 



Mr. Bayard: "That is certainly a fact, and 

 the several amounts will be found in the tables 

 referred to ; but I am only speaking of this 

 coin of 416 grains, the silver dollar, which has 

 been so clamored for. " 



Mr. Kernan, of New York, said : " Mr. Pres- 

 ident, we do not need this silver dollar to re- 

 vive business. We do not require it as a 

 remedy for the distress existing among the 

 honest intelligent business men, laborers, and 

 mechanics of the country. What we need, in 

 my judgment, is a restoration of confidence, a 

 restoration of a sound currency, and an honest 

 measure of values. Then the business of the 

 country will revive and be carried on free from 

 such disasters as occurred in 1873, and from 

 the consequences of which the country is still 

 suffering such disasters as every people have 

 endured who have had for any considerable 

 length of time a depreciated and fluctuating 

 currency. 



"Sir, I am opposed to this bill because it 

 will not give the country a stable currency 

 and standard value at par with that of the 

 commercial world, and will tend to continue 

 the evil we have been and are suffering from. 



If we can have a currency consisting of silver 

 and gold coin of equal or substantially equal 

 intrinsic value, so they will circulate together, 

 I am in favor of it, and will gladly favor such 

 legislation as will attain this result. I am 

 willing to unite in any legislation which shall 

 utilize silver as a coin as much as can be done 

 without putting the country on a depreciated 

 currency as compared with gold, the standard 

 of the commercial world. But the bill now- 

 before the Senate does not even propose to 

 give us a gold and a silver dollar of equal in- 

 trinsic value. 



" The silver dollar proposed by this bill 

 would not be of equal value with the gold dol- 

 lar. It would be worth from 6 to 10 per cent. 

 less than the gold dollar, as the price of silver 

 has been for a considerable period. 



" This bill does not proceed upon the basis 

 that we are to make a silver dollar equivalent 

 in value to the gold dollar, according to the rel- 

 ative values of these metals in the markets of 

 the world at this time, or as they have been 

 since leading commercial nations of Europe 

 have entirely or partially demonetized silver. 



"If we coin these dollars to-day of 412 

 grains of standard silver, we are coining a 

 dollar depreciated from 6 to 10 per cent., ac- 

 cording to the fluctuations of the price of silver 

 below the gold coin. So long as this silver 

 dollar is depreciated 6, 8, or 10 per cent., 

 or even 3 per cent., below the gold coin, it 

 will drive the latter from circulation and out 

 of the country. 



"I admit that if the remonetizing of sil- 

 ver in this country would bring this silver dol- 

 lar to par with our gold coin, then the two 

 would circulate together ; but I cannot believe 

 that this will be the result. So long as the 

 silver dollar is intrinsically cheaper by 2 or 

 3 per cent, than the gold coin, the cheaper 

 coin will remain here and the gold will be 

 exported. Everybody will pay debts and do 

 business with the cheaper legal-tender coin. 

 The intrinsically cheaper silver dollar, being full 

 legal-tender money, will exclude the gold as 

 certainly as the legal-tender Treasury notes 

 exclude both gold and silver from circula- 

 tion. This always has been and always will 

 be the practical result. The Senator from Wis- 

 consin ( Mr. Howe ) stated yesterday, as I un- 

 derstood him, that silver would not ostracize 

 gold. He is entirely mistaken if he believes 

 that the silver dollar proposed by this bill and 

 the gold coin will at the present price of silver 

 circulate together. The cheaper silver coin 

 will certainly take the place of and exclude 

 the gold. 



" Therefore I insist that the practical effect 

 of this bill will be to demonetize gold in this 

 country as effectually as we could do it by act 

 of Congress, unless silver bullion shall rise in 

 price in the market so that the silver contained 

 in the dollar shall be equivalent in value to the 

 gold contained in the gold dollar. We cannot 

 make 412 grains of silver equivalent in value 



