CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



167 



doubt as this. In legislating upon a subject 

 so sensitive as this, why should it be left to a 

 doubt if a single amendment, a few words in- 

 corporated in it, or if the English language can 

 make it plain, certain, and unequivocal ? 



" Sir, the committee, in order to remove all 

 doubt, agreed to an amendment offered by the 

 gentleman from Ohio [Mr. McKinley], provid- 

 ing that nothing in this act shall be construed 

 to affect these sections to which I called the 

 attention of the House. 



" But, Mr. Speaker, that very amendment is 

 probably open to the point of order, if any 

 gentleman here should make it ; and under a 

 former ruling of the Speaker it is very likely 

 that it might be ruled out. What will be the 

 effect ? The friends of the bill reject Mr. Con- 

 ger's amendment, also reject or have ruled out 

 of order the amendment of the gentleman from 

 Ohio [Mr. McKinley]. 



" What meaning will you convey to the 

 country? What will be the signification of 

 your action? Do you not give notice, practi- 

 cally, to the banks that they can not liquidate 

 without redeeming their bonds held by the 

 Treasury in their own circulation? By reject- 

 ing the McKinley amendment do you not send 

 out word to the country that it is the purpose 

 in framing this bill to prevent the banks from 

 liquidating under the existing provisions of 

 law ? that such at any rate is your construc- 

 tion? Sir, I hope this House will do nothing 

 of the kind, but will so amend the law that no 

 man can fail to comprehend readily and under- 

 stand clearly its provisions." 



Mr. Price, of Missouri : " The gentleman 

 from Kentucky [Mr. Carlisle], who has the 

 principal charge of this bill, alleges and has en- 

 deavored to make gentlemen upon this side of 

 the House believe, possibly has made gentlemen 

 on that side of the House believe, that you do 

 not intend to repeal the sections referred to by 

 my friend the gentleman from Maine [Mr. Frye], 

 when the last section of his bill provides in 

 terms, not by implication, not by inference, but 

 in terms, that this bill shall be called so-and- 

 so, and that it shall repeal all acts and parts of 

 acts in conflict with this act. And this act 

 provides that you can not get the bonds out of 

 the Treasury of the United States belonging to 

 a bank that has deposited them there for cir- 

 culation or for security of deposits made with 

 them by the Government unless you deposit 

 your own paper there for them. The section 

 I refer to provides that lawful money may be 

 deposited and these bonds taken up; while 

 this bill says that they must return their own 

 notes ; and it would be base flattery not to 

 call a man very foolish that is as mild as I 

 can put it who does not know there never 

 was a bank of issue established in this world 

 that ever got in all of its own notes. And, 

 consequently, if they can not get in their own 

 notes, and if they can not get their bonds out 

 any other way than by depositing their notes, 

 they never can get their bonds. In other 



words, by this fifth section you say they shall 

 do a certain thing that is morally impossible 

 for them to do. And then you say if they 

 don't do it you will put them into the hands 

 of a receiver under section 5234 of the Revised 

 Statutes ; and there is no getting away from 

 that section. 



" But the great bugbear about this thing is 

 the cry as to the national banks. They are 

 the troublesome element in this matter. There 

 are gentlemen upon this floor, of intelligence, 

 of integrity, of standing, not only here but at 

 home, who rush to the front with as much 

 velocity and ferocity whenever you name 

 ' national banks ' as the wildest bull that ever 

 came from the mountains of Andalusia would 

 rush upon a red flag. 



"Ob, it is astonishing. What have the nation- 

 al banks done ? They furnished a market for 

 your bonds, and they did it at the solicitation 

 of the Government, instead of your having to 

 send your bonds to Europe, where you would 

 have to send money to pay the coupons for 

 interest accruing on them ; and they did it for 

 the purpose of aiding the Government to float 

 its debt. But that is all forgotten, and the 

 hue and cry was raised from one end of the 

 country to the other that it would not do to 

 put power in the hands of a few men." 



Mr. Carlisle, of Kentucky : " Mr. Speaker : 

 The fifth section of this bill has been so much 

 misconstrued or so much misrepresented in 

 various parts of the country, that I consider it 

 my duty, notwithstanding the lateness of the 

 hour, to say something in explanation of its 

 provisions. It is not my purpose to enter 

 upon an argument in support of the section 

 except so far as the argument may be neces- 

 sary to explain the principles upon which it 

 was framed, and to state fully its purpose and 

 effect. It contains four separate and distinct 

 provisions, all relating, however, to the same 

 general subject, and all calculated, in my opin- 

 ion, to aid materially in the successful inaugu- 

 ration and maintenance of the financial policy 

 advocated by those of us who believe that the 

 outstanding 5 and 6 per cent bonds of the 

 United States should be funded at the mini- 

 mum rate of interest paid by other first-class 

 nations, and that the national banks should 

 be required to assist in accomplishing this re- 

 sult. In the first place, it provides, as amend- 

 ed in the Senate, that from and after the 1st 

 day of July next the 3 per cent bonds author- 

 ized by the bill, and no others, shall be re- 

 ceivable as security for the circulating notes 

 of the national banks, and as security for the 

 safe-keeping and prompt payment of the pub- 

 lic money deposited with such banks. 



" This is certainly a very plain and simple pro- 

 vision, and it seems to me that it requires much 

 more ingenuity to pervert its true meaning 

 than it does to ascertain it; and yet for a 

 while a persistent attempt was made to con- 

 vince the public that if this provision should 

 be adopted all national banks having 4 and 4J 



