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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



the national-bank notes, as the national-bank 

 notes were redeemable in them, there were al- 

 ways means in the country to redeem them 

 without the banks going into liquidation. The 

 moment it became apparent that they would 

 have to redeem their notes in gold, that instant 

 the soundest of the banks began to relinquish 

 their circulation. That circulation reached its 

 lowest point July 1, 1877, when it was $315,- 

 370,000. Since that time, while there has been 

 some bank-note circulation relinquished, there 

 has also been an increase. There has been a 

 demand to move the immense produce of the 

 country, which prompted bankers to increase 

 their circulation, even with a possibility of 

 bankruptcy amid the confusion of this forced 

 resumption. With the possibility that they 

 must redeem in gold staring them in the face, 

 the demand for currency was so great that even 

 the national banks have increased their circula- 

 tion nearly one million and a half in the last 

 few weeks. Therefore, with all the drawbacks 

 on the national-bank-note circulation, it has 

 increased to $316,775,000 up to date, being now 

 $35,086,339 below its volume on January 14, 

 1875, as stated. 



"Now, it has been said on this floor that 

 this is a revolutionary measure. We have 

 been told to let it alone; that to change it 

 would be a breach of faith ; that it would be 

 repudiation ; that we have now been brought 

 near resumption, which would be postponed 

 by the passage of this bill. Let me tell you, 

 sir, that the only thing which has carried this 

 country to its present financial position is its 

 exports. You will find in a table submitted by 

 the Secretary of the Treasury that our imports 

 for the year ending September 30, 1876, were 

 $435,427,270, while our exports were $619,173,- 

 350. The next column shows our exports had 

 increased for the year ending September, 1877, 

 and that our exports for this year were $667,- 

 000,000 ; imports, $468,131,778. We have ex- 

 ported more in this year, ending September 

 30th, than during the preceding year. We have 

 advanced in our export trade this year, ending 

 September 30, 1877, by $50,000,000: and, sir, 

 every member on this floor knows that the 

 immense crops of this season, much superior 

 to the last, now moving, had only begun to be 

 moved September 30th last, and that many of 

 the articles command 50, 60, and 70 per cent, 

 more than last year, owing to the European war. 

 It is this, and not the resumption act, that has 

 given to this country a balance of trade which 

 it never before had in its history. And that is 

 the secret : that the gold sent to this country 

 to meet those obligations has reduced the value 

 of gold in our market. We have been able to 

 pay our debts and are fast paying them. We 

 have shown our resources and our recuperative 

 powers. Coin is worth less here, and our cred- 

 it is worth more in the markets of the world, 

 [t was not the third section of this resumption 

 clause, now proposed to be repealed, which 

 brought gold down to within 2 per cent, of 



greenbacks, but, as I have already stated, the 

 gold sent to this country in payment of our im- 

 mense exports, the balance of trade in our favor. 



" I do not hesitate to say no legislation of this 

 kind can ever bring the country to resumption 

 unless it has the necessary resources. Our 

 prosperity comes from industry, production, 

 thrift. The gentleman from Ohio, when he 

 was in the United States Senate and was intro- 

 ducing the resumption bill, said there was 

 power in the third section of the bill to execute 

 its purposes, and intimated that if we could not 

 do it any other way that we could sell bonds 

 of the United States payable in coin ; that 4| 

 and 5 per cents could be put in the market in 

 order to buy gold to keep up this artificial re- 

 sumption. I say, sir, that such a thing was 

 never seriously contemplated by many mem- 

 bers, and should never have been contemplated 

 by any. There is no member of this House 

 at least I hope there is not one who would 

 consent for one moment, if he could, to main- 

 tain artificial resumption by a sale of our coin- 

 bearing bonds. Why should we further burden 

 our people by an additional debt which neither 

 the letter nor the spirit of our contract calls for ? 

 That the Secretary of the Treasury should 

 have the power to sell coin-indebtedness of the 

 United States to buy gold to keep our paper at 

 par is a monstrous fallacy. I say we shall have 

 resumption when the country is prosperous 

 enough to carry us to resumption. 1 say to the 

 gentleman from New York, as I say to this 

 House, that no legislation can bring us there 

 unless the legitimate business of the country 

 will justify it. I do not believe one single gen- 

 tleman who argues on the other side would 

 agree that the resumption act, by any virtue 

 and power in it, would carry us there if we did 

 not have the means legitimately to resume and 

 legitimately to maintain resumption. I do not 

 believe an intelligent man in this House, who 

 has given the subject attention, believes that 

 legislation can give a nation solvency if it is 

 bankrupt, or give a bankrupt nation solvency. 

 I believe the most serious objection entertained 

 against the repeal of the resumption act was a 

 sentimental one, founded on supposed moral 

 effect ; that it might be construed to mean that 

 we would not resume if we could, which is ab- 

 surd. As I have stated, there has been a re- 

 duction of currency, equal to one sixth of its 

 entire volume. What has been the result ? It 

 has increased the power of money and the value 

 of money. Look at real estate ; it has fallen 

 50 per cent. Is money now invested in build- 

 ing railroads as before ? It can not be done un- 

 der such stringency of the money market. 



" The first thing that you touch when you 

 contract the currency is investments in real es- 

 tate and investments in improvements. When 

 you touch improvements you touch the work- 

 ing men who make improvements. When you 

 arrest the progress of improvements, you turn 

 millions of laborers idle. And that, sir, has 

 been the legitimate and the inevitable result 



