232 



CONGRESS. (THE FEDERAL ELECTION BILL.) 



not bring us any nearer to the solution of the 

 mischief that was wrought on all the methods 

 and the gradual approaches by which this great 

 consummation can be reached. Impatience is 

 no teacher. Experience is the only teacher by 

 which we should be guided. And now, without 

 disturbance of either foreign exchanges or domes- 

 tic derangement, we, under the wise result that we 

 reached six months ago, are asked to take this 

 action merely from impatience, because the cure 

 could only be in some degree as long as the evil 

 had progressed. 



"Mr. President, as I insisted then, so I must 

 insist now, the great enemy of the effort for the 

 parity of the metals in the affairs of the world 

 is this rash patronage of the silver mines that 

 makes a prominent and easy but an obvious sug- 

 gestion of activity in that direction. I know, 

 and I appreciate the fact, that those who favor 

 the two metals as I do are not governed by a de- 

 sire to patronize the mines; but, nevertheless, 

 those who avow both an interest, as we all feel, 

 in the patronage of the products of the mines as 

 of the fields in our country, with a concurrent in- 

 terest and duty on their part to restore an equali- 

 ty between the metals in the world at large, 

 should not suffer their counsels and their hopes 

 and their plans to be so biased and overclouded 

 by the lesser interests that they will not take 

 counsel from the larger sphere of the experience 

 of the nation, which is the only one that we can 

 learn a lesson from. 



" Mr. President, it is enough for me to say that 

 for my guidance the intent or casual influences 

 in this or that derangement of the affairs in our 

 great cities or in our European relations are no 

 counsel for us at all. Just as long as Congress 

 sits, just so long in this country if Congress does 

 not become wise enough to turn its face against 

 them, there will be efforts to make this Govern- 

 ment a bank, not only of issue and deposit, but 

 of discount, and I know no more paltry legisla- 

 tion than that by which the two Houses of Con- 

 gress are to be appealed to at every juncture of 

 our affairs, however local, however temporary, or 

 however serious, that we are to be resolved into 

 a board of bank directors or the managers of 

 a clearing house. No, just as soon as Congress 

 adjourned with the two metals on the basis in 

 which we placed them six months ago and with 

 such liberalization as is proposed in the enlarge- 

 ment of the paper issues of the country either by 

 banks or in the Treasury or in the tender notes, 

 the country will go on and on. 



" What have we seen that has already come to 

 our advantage in regard to the value of silver! 

 It has risen as it now stands to 105, something 

 over 80 cents in the dollar, when we started from 

 it at something like 70 cents, and if there was a 

 miscalculation, or if the combinations of specula- 

 tors suddenly forced up the price, and the coun- 

 try or the people were disappointed at the sud- 

 denness of relief being followed by a recoil, that 

 does not teach us to abandon the wisdom by 

 which we are to move step by step, maintaining 

 our own control of the situation and not plunge 

 by an irrevocable step in a disaster from which 

 we can not retreat. 



" No, Mr. President, this is our position now, 

 as it was six months ago, and we are waiting and 

 must expect to wait a slow procession toward 



the goal at which we aim, and that is a restora- 

 tion of*the parity of silver and gold in the money 

 of the world." 



The measure was variously amended in the 

 Senate, and, finally, on Jan. 14, 1891, the follow- 

 ing substitute was adopted and passed : 



S. 4675. A bill to provide against the contraction 

 of the currency, and for other purposes : 



That from and after the date of the passage of this 

 act the unit of value in the United States shall be the 

 dollar, and the same may be coined of 41 2i grains of 

 standard silver, or of 25'8 grains of standard gold, and 

 the said coin shall be a legal tender for all debts, 

 public and private. That hereafter any owner of sil- 

 ver or gold Dullion may deposit the same at any mint 

 of the United States, to be formed into standard dol- 

 lars or bars for his benefit and without charge ; but it 

 shall be lawful to refuse any deposit of less value 

 than $100 or any bullion so base as to be unsuitable 

 for the operations of the mint. 



SEC. 2. That the provision of section 3 of " An Act 

 to authorize the coinage of the standard silver dollar 

 and to restore its legal-tender character," which be- 

 came a law Feb. 28 ; 1878, is hereby made applicable 

 to the coinage in this act provided for. 



SEO. 3. That the certificates provided for in the sec- 

 ond section of this act shall be of denominations of 

 not less than one or more than one hundred dollars, 

 and such certificate shall be redeemable in coin of 

 standard value. A sufficient sum to carry out the 

 provisions of this act is hereby appropriated out of 

 any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropri- 

 ated. So much of the act of July 14, 1890, entitled 

 " An Act directing the purchase of silver bullion and 

 the issue of Treasury notes thereon, and for other 

 purposes," as requires the purchase of 4,500,000_ ounces 

 of silver bullion per month, be, and the same is here- 

 by, repealed. 



SEC. 4. That the certificates provided for in this act 

 and all silver and gold certificates already issued 

 shall be receivable for all taxes and dues to the 

 United States of every description, and shall be a 

 legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and 

 private. 



SEC. 5. The owners of bullion deposited for coinage 

 shall have the option to receive com or its equivalent 

 in the certificates provided for in this act and such 

 bullion shall be subsequently coined. 



The vote on the passage of the bill was as fol- 

 lows: 



YEAS Allen, Barbour, Bate, Berrv, Blackburn, But- 

 ler, Cameron, Cockrell, Coke, Daniel, Eustis, Faulkner, 

 Gibson, Gorman, Hampton, Ingalls, Jones of Arkan- 

 sas, Jones -of Nevada, Kenna, McConnell, Mandei-son, 

 Mitchell, Morgan, Paddock, Pasco, Power, Pugh, Eea- 

 gan, Sanders, Shoup, Stanford, Stewart, Teller^Turpie, 

 Vance, Vest, Voorhees, Walthall, Wolcott 39. 



NATS Aldrich, Allison, Carey, Casey, Cullom, Da- 

 vis, Dixon, Dolph, Edmunds, Evarts, Frye, Hale, 

 Hawley, Higgins, Hiscock, Hoar, McMillan, Platt, 

 Quay, Sawyer, Sherman, Spooner, Stockbridge, War- 

 ren, Washbum, Wilson of Iowa, Wilson of Maryland 

 27. 



ABSENT Blair : Blodgett, Brown, Call, Carlisle, 

 Chandler, Colquitt, Dawes, Farwell, George, Gray, 

 Harris, Hearst, McPherson, Moody, Morrill, Payne, 

 Pettigrew, Pierce, Plumb, Eansom, Squire 22. 



The title of the measure was changed to read : 

 " A bill to provide a unit of value, and for the 

 coinage of gold and silver and other purposes." 

 In the House the Committee on Coinage, Weights 

 and Measures reported adversely to the bill, and 

 it fell by the way. 



The Federal Election Bill. No measure 

 considered by this Congress, except the tariff 

 bill, was so voluminous, aroused so much par- 

 tisan feeling, or was so fully debated as that " to 



