152 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



to the gold in the gold dollar by act of Con- 

 gress. I think the best evidence we have to 

 guide us proves that the silver dollar author- 

 ized by this bill will be at least from 3 to 6 per 

 cent, in value below the gold dollar, and there- 

 fore we will practically demonetize gold. We 

 will not have as our currency gold and silver 

 coin ; we will have silver only. Our standard 

 or measure of values will not be gold and sil- 

 ver, but silver alone. 



"Assuming as I do that the depreciation of 

 silver bullion below gold will remain at least 

 from 3 to 6 or 8 per cent, after we have re- 

 monetized silver by the passage of this act, 

 and that the depreciated silver dollar will ex- 

 clude gold from circulation, then the legal- 

 tender Treasury notes will occupy the same 

 relation to the silver dollar which they now 

 occupy to gold coin. The silver dollars will 

 be the coin with which the Treasury notes are 

 to be redeemed whenever they are redeemed, 

 and the Treasury notes will therefore be de- 

 preciated in value below the silver dollar, in- 

 stead of being, as they are now, nearly at par 

 with gold coin. We will then have a currency 

 consisting of silver dollars depreciated in value 

 below gold coin and legal tender Treasury 

 notes, or greenbacks as they are called, of less 

 value than silver dollars. Should Congress re- 

 peal the resumption act and fix no time when 

 the Treasury notes are to be redeemed or con- 

 vertible into the silver coin, they would at once 

 fall considerably below the silver dollar, and 

 as they are by law a legal tender for all debts 

 except where the debts are expressly made 

 payable in coin, and except for duties on im- 

 ports, the Treasury notes would become prac- 

 tically the legal-tender currency or money of 

 the country, and the silver dollar would be 

 excluded from general circulation. The silver 

 dollar worth only ninety or ninety -five cents 

 in gold will be driven from circulation by the 

 inconvertible legal-tender Treasury notes as 

 quickly and certainly as was the gold coin 

 when that was the coin with which the Treas- 

 ury notes were promised to be redeemed. 

 Thus we will have, if this bill becomes a law, 

 as our only coin and measure of values, a de- 

 preciated and fluctuating silver coin consisting 

 of dollars of 412^- grains. And should the 

 resumption act be repealed, we will have as 

 our currency the legal-tender notes inconvert- 

 ible into any coin at the will of the holder 

 and depreciated below and fluctuating more 

 than the silver dollar. In my judgment such 

 a currency and measure of values would be 

 seriously detrimental to the business and pros- 

 perity of the country. 



"Pardon me if I make one other sugges- 

 tion, and I make it with entire respect for 

 those who differ from me as to this measure. 

 Have you no fears that there is something be- 

 yond this measure against which the people 

 of this country should be guarded? When 

 silver and gold were nearly equivalent in value 

 and there was not this difficulty of the differ- 



ence in the price of gold and silver which we 

 now meet, there were a large number of citi- 

 zens, many of them of intelligence and ability, 

 who were then zealous and I doubt not honest 

 advocates of an irredeemable paper currency, 

 a currency which was not based upon or to be 

 convertible into either gold or silver coin. 



" I observe that now, when silver is depre- 

 ciated below gold, is not worth as much as the 

 greenback in gold, the most of these advocates 

 of a paper currency are urgent and active 

 advocates of the Bland bill, and I fear if the 

 measure is adopted it will practically restore 

 in the country an irredeemable paper currency. 

 Repeal the resumption law, make this silver 

 dollar an unlimited legal tender at a depreci- 

 ated value, which will expel gold, and silver 

 will become what gold is now, not practically 

 in circulation as coin, but a commodity, and 

 we will have an irredeemable and inconverti- 

 ble paper currency. 1 ask Senators whether 

 we should not legislate cautiously, so as to feel 

 step by step our way in reference to the coin- 

 age of silver dollars as an unlimited legal ten- 

 der, and avoid all danger of getting back to an 

 entirely irredeemable paper currency. I hope 

 I am in error, but I have sometimes been dis- 

 turbed lest this should be the result of the 

 legislation which during this session is pressed 

 upon Congress. 



"Thoroughly convinced that the currency 

 of our country should be coin at par with the 

 coin of the commercial world and paper con- 

 vertible into that coin at the will of the holder, 

 I am opposed to any measures which endanger 

 our accomplishing that purpose within a rea- 

 sonable time." 



Mr. Christiancy, of Michigan, said: "Never 

 in the history of this country was there so 

 much, nor even one half so much, currency 

 lying idle in the banks, and in the hands of 

 bankers and capitalists, anxiously, clamorously 

 seeking and panting to be used and put in cir- 

 culation, as during these same hard times ; and 

 never was the demand for its use in circulation 

 comparatively so small. The fact that it was 

 not used and did not enter into the circulation, 

 was not because the bankers and other holders 

 did not wish to have it used and circulated, for 

 their interest clearly lay in its use and circula- 

 tion ; but because business men, for entirely 

 other causes, did not wish to and would not 

 take and use it. The rates of interest fell ; the 

 terms upon which bankers ought to get the 

 currency out were as easy as ever before when 

 the solvency of the borrowers was clear or the 

 securities good. But here lay the real and im- 

 mediate obstacle. A state of things had been 

 produced, and was then and is still to some 

 extent existing, which made business men, men 

 of enterprise, timid and cautious ; unwilling, 

 owing to the uncertainties of the situation 

 the dread of the effect of various wild schemes 

 of financial legislation to embark in any great 

 enterprises, or even to continue those they al- 

 ready had in hand, and which they were com- 



