162 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



coin, shall not exceed $5,000,000 : And provided fur- 

 ther, That nothing in this act shall be construed to 

 authorize the payment in silver of certificates of de- 

 posit issued under the provisions of section 254 of 

 the Revised Statutes. 



The question was taken, as follows : 

 YEAS Messrs. Aiken, Aldrich, Bacon, Bagley, 

 John II. Baker, William H. Baker, Ballou, Banning, 

 Bayne, Beebe, Benedict, Bicknell, Bisbee, Blair, 

 Bland, Boyd, Brentano, Brewer, Briggs, Browne, 

 Buckner, Bundy, Burchard, Burdick, Cabell, Cain, 

 Calkins, Camp, Campbell, Candler, Caswell, Claflin, 

 Alvah A. Clark, Clark of Missouri, Rush Clark, 

 Clymer, Cole, Collins, Conger, Cook, Covert, Jacob 

 D. Cox, Crapo, Cravens, Cummings, Cutler, Dan- 

 ford, Davidson, Horace Davis, Joseph J. Davis, 

 Deering, Denison, Dibrell, Dickey, Douglas, Dun- 

 nell, Dvvight, Eames, Eden, 'Eickhoff, Ellsworth, 

 Errett, I. Newton Evans, James L. Evans, Field, 

 Finley, Forney, Fort, Foster, Freeman, Frye, Fuller, 

 Garfield, Garth, Gibson, Glover, Goode, Hale, Hanna, 

 Hardenbergh, Harmer, Benjamin W. Harris, Hart, 

 Hartridge, Haskell, Hatcher, Hayes, Hazelton, Hen- 

 dee, Henderson, Henry, Abram S. Hewitt, Hiscock, 

 Hubbell, Hunter, Hunton, Humphrey, Hungerford, 

 Ittner, James, Frank Jones, James T. Jones, John 

 S. Jones, Jorgensen, Joyce, Keifer, Kelley, Kenna, 

 Ketcharn, Killinger, Knapp, Landers, Lapham, La- 

 throp, Leonard, Ligon, Lindsey, Loringj Mackey, 

 Marsh, Martin, McCook, McGowan, McKmley, Mc- 

 Mahon, Metcalfe, Mitchell, Money, Monroe, Morri- 

 son, Neal, Norcross, Oliver, O'Neill, Overton, Page, 

 G. W. Patterson, Peddie, Phillips, Phelps, Pollard, 

 Potter, Pound, Powers, Price, Pugh, Quinn, Eainey, 

 Randolph, Reed, Reilly, W. W. Rice, Roberts, George 

 D. Robinson, Milton S. Robinson, Ross, Ryan, Samp- 

 son, Sapp, Sayler, Schleicher, Sexton, Shallenberger, 

 Singleton, Sinnickson, Smalls, Southard, Starin, 

 Stenger, Stephens, Stewart, John W. Stone, Joseph 

 C. Stone, Strait, Thompson, Thornburgh, Amos 

 Townsend, M. I. Townsend, R. W. Townshend, 

 Tucker, Turney, Van Vorhes-Waddell, Wait, Walk- 

 er, Walsh, Ward, Warner, Watson, Welch, Harry 

 White, Michael D. White, A. S. Williams, Andrew 

 Williams, C. G. Williams, James Williams, Jere. N. 

 Williams, Richard Williams, Willits, Wilson, Wren, 

 Wright, Yeates 203. 



NAYS Messrs. Acklen, Atkins, Bell, Blackburn, 

 Bliss, Blount, Boone, Bouck, Bragg, Bright, Brog- 

 den, Butler, John W. Caldwell, Cannon, Carlisle, 

 Chalmers, Chittenden, Clarke of Kentucky, Cobb, 



Harrison, Hartzell, Henkle, G. W. Hewitt, Herbert, 

 Hooker, House, Kimmel, Knott, Luttrell, Lynde, 

 Manning, McKenzie, Mills, Morgan, Morse/Mul-. 

 drow, Muller, T. M. Patterson, Pridemore, Rea, 

 Reagan, Riddle, Robbins, Robertson, Scales,' Shel- 

 ley, Slemons, Sparks, Springer, Steele, Throckmor- 

 ton, Turner, Vance, Veeder, Whitthorne, Wigginton, 

 Albert S. Willis, Wood 72. 



NOT VOTING Messrs. Banks, Bridges, W. P. 

 Caldwell, Durham, Felton, Gardner, Keightley, 

 Lockwood, Maish, Mayham, Americus V. Rice, A. 

 Herr Smith, William E.' Smith, Swann, Tipton, Ben- 

 jamin A. Willis, Young 17. 



So the amendment was agreed to. 



The next amendment was to insert as a new 

 section the invitation to European govern- 

 ments; which was concurred in yeas 196, 

 nays 71. The other amendments of the Senate 

 were then concurred in. 



In the Senate, on February 28th, the Presi- 

 dent pro tempore presented the hill for the 



coinage of silver dollars, with the objections 

 of the President as follows : 



To the House of Representatives : 



After a very careful consideration of the House 

 bill No. 1093, entitled u An act to authorize the coin- 

 age of the standard silver dollar and to restore its 

 legaUtender character," I feel compelled to return it 

 to the House of Representatives, in which it origi- 

 nated, with my objections to its passage. 



Holding the opinion, which I expressed in my 

 annual message, that "neither the interests of the 

 Government nor of the people of the United States 

 would be promoted by disparaging silver as one of 

 the two precious metals which furnish the coinage 

 of the world, and that legislation which looks to 

 maintaining the volume of intrinsic money to as full 

 a measure of both rnetals as their relative commer- 

 cial values will permit would be neither unjust nor 

 inexpedient," it has been my earnest desire to con- 

 cur with Congress in the adoption of such measures 

 to increase the silver coinage of the country as would 

 not impair the obligation of contracts, either public 

 or private, nor injuriously affect the public credit. 

 It is only upon the conviction that this bill does not 

 meet these essential requirements that I feel it my 

 duty to withhold from it my approval. 



My present official duty as to this bill permits only 

 an attention to the specific objections to its passage 

 which seem to me so important as to justify me in 

 asking from the wisdom and duty of Congress that 

 further consideration of the bill for which the Con- 

 stitution has, in such cases, provided. 



The bill provides for the coinage of silver dollars 

 of the weight of 412i grains each, of standard silver, 

 to be a legal tender at their nominal value for all 

 debts and dues, public and private, except where 

 otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. It 

 Ls well known that the market value of that number 

 of grains of standard silver during the past year has 

 been from ninety to ninety-two cents as compared 

 with the standard gold dollar. Thus the silver 

 dollar, authorized by this bill, is worth 8 to 10 per 

 cent, less than it purports to be worth, and is made 

 a legal tender for debts contracted when the law did 

 not recognize such coins as lawful money. 



The right to pay duties in silver or in certificates 

 for silver deposits will, when they are issued in suf- 

 ficient amount to circulate, put an end to the receipt 

 of revenue in gold, and thus compel the payment of 

 silver for both the principal and interest of the pub- 

 lic debt. $1,143,493,400 of the bonded debt, now 

 outstanding, was issued prior to February, 1873, 

 when the silver dollar was unknown in circulation 

 in this country, and was only a convenient form of 

 silver bullion for exportation ; $583,440,350 of the 

 funded debt has been issued since February, 1873, 

 when gold alone was the coin for which the bonds 

 were sold, and gold alone was the coin in which 

 both parties to the contract understood that the 

 bonds would be paid. These bonds entered into 

 the markets of the world. They were paid for in 

 gold when silver had greatly depreciated, and when 

 no one would have bought them if it had been un- 

 derstood that they would be paid in silver. The 

 sum of $225,000,000 of these bonds has been sold 

 during rny administration for gold coin, and the 

 United States received the benefit of these sales by 

 a reduction of the rate of interest to four per cent. 

 During the progress of these sales a doubt was sug- 

 gested as to the coin in which payment of these 

 bonds would be made. The public announcement 

 was thereupon authorized that it was " not to be 

 anticipated that any future legislation of Congress 

 or any action of any department of the Government 

 would sanction or tolerate the redemption of the 

 principal of these bonds, or the payment of the in- 

 terest thereon, in coin of less value than the coin 

 authorized by law at the time of the issue of the 



