160 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



An act to authorize the coinage of the standard sil- 

 ver dollar and to restore its legal-tender character. 



Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, said : "I pro- 

 pose, Mr. Speaker, with the leave of the 

 House, to give the reason why I think it is not 

 well to concur in die Senate amendments, 

 cannot discuss the bill in five minutes, but I 

 can say to the House in that time that it is not 

 according to its dignity, not according to the 

 proprieties of legislation, not according to the 

 conduct in which an American Congress should 

 carry on its business, to pass a measure of this 

 importance without a single word of discus- 

 sion; and I myself would endorse a veto of 

 the President of the United States if he should 

 send it back here and say, ' This House origi- 

 nated it ; they have not given me one word to 

 direct my judgment or inform my conscience.' 

 I think that we should do what we do like 

 men, and not grab at what may be given to us 

 at the other end of the Capitol as though we 

 of the House r which originates revenue meas- 

 ures and controls the appropriations of the 

 country, are to take what they send us as 

 though it were a good gift of God, without a 

 question. 



"I desire to have this measure discussed, 

 and the trouble with the friends of the bill 

 for we are here in a two-thirds majority 

 seems to be we shall lose it if we discuss it. 

 Are they so afraid? Furthermore, it is said 

 we are to take this or nothing. Why, we have 

 this bill always in our power. We can amend 

 it as much as we please ; send it over to the 

 other end of the Capitol, where our friends 

 are in a two-thirds majority. If our friends 

 think at anytime the bill is in danger we can 

 recede from our opposition to those amend- 

 ments and then take this bill at all times. But 

 under the circumstances, I pray, gentlemen, we 

 shall not show such fear of this great measure 

 that we are not willing to declare our senti- 

 ments to the country and give the reasons for 

 the faith that is in us. For one, I shall ask the 

 House, whether this bill passes in this way or 

 another, at some time to give me an oppor- 

 tunity to explain to my constituents, who are 

 not clamoring for this bill by any manner of 

 means to explain to my constituents why I 

 vote for the bill. At the present I think it is 

 a wrong done to every gentleman situated as I 

 am, or otherwise, if he has not had that privi- 

 lege and never has had, and, if the President 

 signs the bill, never can have it." 



Mr. Bland, of Missouri, said : " Mr. Speaker, 

 in the Forty-fourth Congress I had the honor 

 as chairman of the Committee on Mines and 

 Mining, to introduce a bill similar to this one. 

 That bill passed this House and went to the 

 Senate ; but the Senate did not even give it a 

 passing notice. At this session this bill was 

 introduced and passed under a suspension of 

 the rules some three months ago and went to 

 the Senate, and they have been debating it 

 there ever since and send it back in this 

 amended and mutilated form. It is now a 



question at this late day of the session whether 

 we are to take this bill or whether a determi- 

 nation to disagree with the Senate shall defeat 

 the legislation upon this subject. 



" I do not like this bill. It is not what the 

 country expects. But I am in favor of taking 

 this now as making one step in the right di- 

 rection. But I give notice here and now that 

 this war shall never cease so long as I have a 

 voice in this Congress, until the rights of the 

 people are fully restored, and the silver dollar 

 shall take its place alongside the gold dollar. 

 Meanw r hile, let us take what we have, and 

 supplement it immediately on appropriation 

 bills ; and if we cannot do that, I am in favor 

 of issuing paper money enough to stuff down 

 the bondholders until they are sick. 



"I say I protest against this bill while I vote 

 for it under that protest. I want, in this 

 House, to give notice and the understanding to 

 go forth that this is no compromise and no 

 settlement. It is not what the country expects 

 or desires ; but we vote for it now to secure 

 what we can at this time, intending to continue 

 the necessary legislation hereafter. If we 

 amend it now and send it back to the Senate, 

 and they discuss it three or four months longer, 

 as they might do, they defeat that legislation. 

 It is true policy to take this. It restores the 

 silver dollar, makes it a legal tender, and com- 

 pels the coining of $2,000,000 a month, up to 

 the capacity of the Mint. I say, pass the bill 

 and let us then get up a free-coinage bill and 

 pass that also." 



Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, said: "Mr. Speaker, 

 nine tenths of the people of the United States 

 demand the unlimited coinage of the old silver 

 dollar with which to pay their debts and con- 

 duct their business. They demand, in short, 

 the status quo of silver as a money metal from 

 the foundation of the Republic down to the 

 furtive and rascally acts of demonetization in 

 1873-'74. They are entitled to have that de- 

 mand heeded by their representatives. This 

 House should at least make a determined effort 

 to secure it. But if, in a faint, half-hearted 

 way, we accept without a struggle a delusive 

 compromise without even asking a committee 

 of conference we will wrong ourselves and 

 the people. By standing firmly for the whole 

 right we will get it now, I think; and if we 

 fail, a tempest of popular indignation, which 

 no officer of the Government can withstand, 

 will right the wrong, and right it thoroughly. 



"Mr. Speaker, see how the. Bland bill has 

 been perverted by the Senate amendments from 

 its original beneficent purpose and effect. Our 

 bill declared unlimited coinage of silver. In 

 Professor Linderman's testimony before the 

 Coinage Committee, he says that with our 

 mints open we would get fifteen millions a 

 year from Mexico and three millions from 

 South America. This,, added to our own pro- 

 duct, would enable us to coin silver dollars at 

 the rate of about sixty millions a year. This 

 would call for a reopening of the New Orleans 



