280 Gold, Silver and the Coinage of the Silver Dollar. 



supposed, for shipment to China. But, about 1876 or '77, the appre- 

 ciating value of the greenback note, as the period for resumption ap- 

 proached, was found to give the silver miners a little better price for 

 their silver in exchanging the Trade dollar for them at par, than they 

 could get in the London market. Consequently, as specie resumption 

 arrived, the country was found to be flooded with the Trade dollar. 

 The special China dollar had either never gone there, or had evidently 

 returned. 



The Secretary of the Treasury, as he was authorized by law* to do, 

 finding this illegitimate and fraudulent use being made of the Trade 

 dollar, restricted and later ordered the discontinuance of its coinage, t 



Finding the outlet for silver closed to them except through the Lon- 

 don market, which was showing constantly receding figures for it, 

 owing to the pressure of the mass of German silver]: offering and 

 known to be coming, there was a sudden awakening to the enormity 

 of the demonetization of the standard silver dollar — the "Dollar of 

 the Fathers " ! 



All remember the pious horror with which the advocates of silver 

 waked up to the fact that the coinage of the dollar had been legally 

 discontinued! — how freely and persistent ly the charge of surreptitious 

 and fraudulent passage of the act was made! Yet, so far is it from 

 the truth that any facts exist to justify this eharge — the facts all prove 

 the contrary. Seldom in the history of our country has an act of Con- 

 gress been adopted with so much deliberation, and evident aim to give 

 full scope to every objection which might be brought against the 



The bill was drawn in 1869, by Mr. Knox, then deputy comptroller 

 of the currency. It was sent with a report accompanying it, stating 

 and explaining its provisions, and especially calling attention to the 

 fact that it proposed the discontinuance of the dollar coin, to the 

 officers of the Treasury and each of the mints, and also to a large num- 

 ber of gentlemen whose studies and occupations were supposed to ren- 

 der them peculiarly fitted to advise upon such subjects, asking their 

 criticisms. Some thirty replies were received. 



The reports of the Secretary of the Treasury for 1870, 1871 and 



* By Act of 22d of July, 1876, S 2. 

 + Laughlin, p. 209. 



t It seems foolish and weak to claim that the fact of the United States having 

 cW 1 rh.. ....ina-r.- ..f rl, t - silver dollar should have exerted any influence what.-v.-r 



of the government, if it could a'.l have been gathered in one mass, would amount 

 to hardly an appreciable fraction of the world's stock. 



