CONGRESS. (SILVER PURCHASE.) 



"This announcement of the state of the vote 

 l>y the ('resident of tin- Senate is, by law, a suf- 

 ficient declaration that Orover Cleveland, of the 

 Stale- of New York, is elected ('resident of the 

 I'nited States, and that Adlai K. Stevenson, of 

 the State of Illinois, is elected V ice- President of 

 the I'nited States, each for the term beginning 

 .March 4, 1893, and will be entered, togH her \s it h 

 a list of the votes, on the Journals of the Senate 

 and House of Representatives." 



Silver Purchase. Pursuant to notice, Mr. 

 Catchings, of Mississippi, called up, Feb. 9, 1893, 

 in the House of Representatives, the following 

 resolution from the Committee on Rules: 



Rttolvtd, That immediately upon the adoption of 

 this resolution the House proceed to consider II. R. 

 10148, u A bill to increase the circulation of national 

 banks, and for other purposes," and if such bill shall 

 uot be disposed of on said day then the consideration 

 thereof shall be continued during the next legislative 

 day. 



The purpose of this resolution was to bring to 

 an immediate decision the fate of this measure, 

 which involved a change of policy in regard to 

 silver. 



Mr. Bacon, of New York, said in support of 

 the resolution : 



" The House is well informed of the nature of 

 this bill as it has come from the Committee- on 

 Banking and Currency. The importance of the 

 questions which it involves and the serious situa- 

 tion of the country it is intended to relieve are 

 also well known to the members of the House, 

 and will not be a subject by me of extended re- 

 marks at this time. Suffice it to say that the 

 intent of this bill, the purpose for which it has 

 been brought into this House by the committee, 

 is that, either by its provisions as they came 

 from the committee or by such amendment of 

 them as the House may make, a condition of 

 things which all people agree in deploring may 

 be ended. 



" The main purpose of the bill ; the main 

 purpose for pressing its consideration ; the main 

 purpose for demanding a vote upon it, is that 

 the purchase of silver bullion and the storing 

 of it in the vaults of the Treasury as a com- 

 modity and in metallic form and without coin- 

 age shall stop. 



" Now, Mr. Speaker, the rule as it has been 

 reported by the committee is in the form which 

 the Committee on Rules has invariably used in 

 this Congress for the purpose of bringing before 

 the House important questions; and that form 

 of rule has invariably been found ineffectual to 

 enable this House to vote upon such measures 

 and to determine such questions in the face of a 

 decided and determined opposition, even from a 

 small minority. 



"The lessons which we ought to learn from 

 what has occurred during this session of the 

 House upon the bankruptcy bill and upon other 

 measures which have received from the Commit- 

 tee on Rules the right of way for consideration 

 here, are not to be overlooked. There remains 

 no phase of this silver question which needs dis- 

 cussion in this House. There is no view of the 

 subject which has not been exploited. There is 

 no addition which needs to be made to the argu- 

 ments on either side of the questions involved 

 at this time, save only a fair and candid state- 



ment of the condition of the Treasury as the 

 result of the policy which we have been pur- 

 suing. Consideration and argument, therefore, 

 upon this bill at this time will serve no useful 

 purpose unless this House shall come to a vote. 



"If gentlemen in this House, the majority of 

 them, are fixed and settled in their opinions 

 that some other measure than the bill report cd 

 by the Committee on Banking and Currency 

 ought to take the place of the existing law on 

 the statute book and this vexed question be set- 

 tled so far as this House is concerned, the op- 

 portunity is given to them by amendment to 

 this bill. But when that right is exhausted, 

 when this bill and its amendments are ready to 

 be voted upon, this House ought to vote upon 

 them ; members ought to discharge their re- 

 sponsibility to this House and to their country 

 by standing in their places here and recording 

 their votes upon this proposition. And no mat- 

 ter what may be done elsewhere, no matter what 

 duty others may shirk, let us perform our duty, 

 and it will put the responsibility then upon 

 others who shirk it. We shall not have failed 

 in the performance of our duties." 



Mr. Bland, of Missouri, said in opposition to 

 the resolution : 



" Mr. Speaker, it will be a curious thing for 

 the country and the members of this House to 

 observe the vote upon this clolure resolution, to 

 ascertain how many men upon this side of the 

 House who last summer, when the free-coinage 

 bill was up for consideration in the interest of 

 the people, planted themselves upon the high 

 horse of Democratic principle, declaring they 

 would not vote for cloture. It will be interest- 

 ing, I say, to ascertain how many of those gentle- 

 men are going to come down from their high 

 horse to-day and vote cloture, in the interest of 

 Wall Street, to demonetize silver. 



" We will watch the roll to see how a gentle- 

 man can in one instance raise himself above the 

 people in professed democracy and vote in favor 

 of Wall Street, and yet forsake his avowed princi- 

 ples when it comes to a bill of this character. 

 What is this till, Mr. Speaker t The gentleman 

 talks about coining silver. Why does he not 

 report a bill to coin all the silver purchased, in- 

 stead of a bill to stop the purchases . and the 

 coinage both ? 



" A bill, sir, professing to carry out the Demo- 

 cratic platform a platform which demanded 

 the repeal of the 'Sherman law,' a misnomer, for 

 Sherman never liked the bill himself, and is now 

 trying to have it repealed, which is one good 

 reason why this side of the House especially 

 ought to stand by it and sustain it. That part 

 of it which may be in the interest of stock-gam- 

 bling and bond-bulling in Wall Street must 

 come here with a clvttirc rule. 



" But what becomes of the rest of it f The 

 free-coinage proposition in that platform is ut- 

 terly ignored : the people's voice is not heard in 

 the introduction of that bill. The measure is a 

 monstrosity, yielding to the national banks fur- 

 ther privileges, increasing their circulation in 

 the interest of the bondholders, to defeat the 

 monetization of silver in behalf of the gold 

 gamblers and speculators. 



"It is hardly susceptible of amendment. Mr. 

 Speaker. We will meet them on that proposi- 



