PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 109 



Remarks of Mr. H. N. Burchard. 



Mr. Burchard, in the course of his remarks, first defended the 

 action of the government in re-establishing the coinage of the 

 standard silver dollar of 4121 grains; and, secondly, discussed 

 bi-metalism, in respect to the relation between the production of 

 the precious metals, and their relative use as money by the prin- 

 cipal nations of the world. 



He stated that the coinage of the standard silver dollar was no 

 violation of the letter or spirit of the refunding law of 1870, under 

 which bonds to the amount of $1,492,264,850 have been issued. 

 That act made all the bonds issued under its authority " payable 

 in coin of the present (1870) standard value." The coin of that 

 standard was a silver dollar unit of value, of 371^ grains of pure 

 silver as well as gold coins of 23/o1t g»'ains of pure gold to the 

 dollar. It is a well-settled principle of law and equity, that all 

 persons contracting with government or municipal authorities are 

 bound by the terms under which the contract is made, and their 

 rights are controlled by its provisions. The purchasers of all 

 the refunding bonds issued under the act of 1870 obtained obli- 

 gations payable at the option of the United States, at their matu- 

 rity, in silver or gold dollars. The Secretary of the Treasury, in 

 a letter to Hon. Hugh McCulloch, under date of March 20, 1878, 

 says : " I doubt if the right of the government to pay the bonds 

 issued under the Refunding Act in the coin in legal existence at 

 the date of the act can be questioned or defeated," and that " the 

 law fixes the terms of the bonds, and not the department or its 



°Even if at the time of the sale of the bonds silver dollars were 

 not coined, it did not debar the United States from thereafter 

 coining silver dollars, and with them paying the bonds under the 

 -contract ; and if for reasons of public policy it was deemed desir- 

 able to restore the so-called double standard, and coin the silver 

 dollars, no legal, equitable, or moral reason, Mr. Burchard in- 

 sisted, could be advanced for excepting these bonds from pay- 

 ment pursuant to the terms of the contract. Such had been the 

 deliberate judgment of Congress, which, early in 1878, by a vote 

 of 42 to 20 in the Senate, and 189 to 79 in the House, passed 

 Senator Matthew's resolution, affirming the legality and honesty 

 of the coinage and use of the silver dollar in the payment of these 

 Joonds. This action was followed by the passage of the act for 



