Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That there shall be coined at the several mints of the United States, silver dollars of the weight of 412½ grains troy of standard silver, as provided in the act of January 18, 1837, on which shall be the devices and superscriptions provided by said act;  which coins, together with all silver dollars heretofore coined by the United States of like weight and fineness, and shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for all debts and dues, public and private, except where otherwise provided by contract;  and any owner of silver bullion may deposit the same at any United States coinage mint or assay office, to be coined into such dollars, for his benefit, upon the same terms and conditions as gold bullion is deposited for coinage under existing laws.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That there shall be coined, at the several mints of the United States, silver dollars of the weight of four hundred and twelve and a half (412½) grains Troy of standard silver, as provided in the act of January eighteenth, eighteen hundred thirty-seven, on which shall be the devices and superscriptions provided by said act;  which coins together with all silver dollars heretofore coined by the United States, of like weight and fineness, shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for all debts and dues public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.  And the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to purchase, from time to time, silver bullion, at the market price thereof, not less than two million dollars worth per month, nor more than four million dollars worth per month, and cause the same to be coined monthly, as fast as so purchased, into such dollars;  and a sum sufficient to carry out the foregoing provision of this act is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.  And any gain or seigniorage arising from this coinage shall be accounted for and paid into the Treasury, as provided under existing laws relative to the subsidiary coinage:  Provided, That the amount of money at any one time invested in such silver bullion, exclusive of such resulting coin, shall not exceed five million dollars:  And provided further, That nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the payment in silver of certificates of deposit issued under the provisions of section two hundred and fifty-four of the Revised Statutes.

Sec. 2.  That immediately after the passage of this act, the President shall invite the governments of the countries composing the Latin Union, so-called, and of such other European nations as he may deem advisable, to join the United States in a conference to adopt a common ratio between gold and silver, for the purpose of establishing, internationally, the use of bi-metallic money, and securing fixity of relative value between those metals;  such conference to be held at such place, in Europe or in the United States, at such time within six months, as may be mutually agreed upon by the executives of the governments joining in the same, whenever the governments so invited, or any three of them, shall have signified their willingness to unite in the same.

The President shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint three commissioners, who shall attend such conference on behalf of the United States, and shall report the doings thereof to the President, who shall transmit the same to Congress.

Said commissioners shall each receive the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars and their reasonable expenses, to be approved by the Secretary of State;  and the amount necessary to pay such compensation and expenses is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Sec. 3.  That any holder of the coin authorized by this act may deposit the same with the Treasurer or any assistant treasurer of the United States, in sums not less than ten dollars, and receive therefor certificates of not less than ten dollars each, corresponding with the denominations of the United States notes. The coin deposited for or representing the certificates shall be retained in the Treasury for the payment of the same on demand. Said certificates shall be receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and, when so received, may be reissued.

Sec. 4.  All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

Samuel J. Randall
Speaker of the House of Representatives.

W.A. Wheeler
Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate

The President of the United States having returned to the House of Representatives, in which it originated the bill, entitled "An act to authorize the coinage of the standard silver dollar, and to restore its legal-tender character," with his objections thereto;  the House of Representatives proceeded in pursuance of the Constitution to reconsider the same;  and

Resolved, That the said bill pass, two thirds of the House of Representatives agreeing to pass the same.

The Senate having proceeded, in pursuance of the Constitution, to reconsider the bill entitled "An act to authorize the coinage of the standard silver dollar, and to restore its legal-tender character," returned to the House of Representatives by the President of the United States, with his objections, and sent by the House of Representatives to the Senate with the message of the President returning the bill;

Resolved, That the bill do pass, two-thirds of the Senate agreeing to pass the same.

The Veto a Blunder --- Its Defeat a Triumph.

Mr. Crittenden. [Thomas Theodore Crittenden (1832-1909), Missouri, D; studied law, admitted to the bar]  Mr. Speaker, the President has performed what he deemed to be his constitutional duty in vetoing the silver bill.  Considering the demands of the people of the country, considering the large majorities with which the bill passed the Senate and House of Representatives, his act was certainly an indication of much resolution if not of little judgment.  Hero worship does not exist in this country, in this Congress.  With unparalleled and unprecedented swiftness the veto was swept before the popular current and the bill removing the disabilities of silver to a certain extent has become the law by two-thirds majorities in each House, notwithstanding the action of the President.

"In the whole history of our Government there was never before a veto of any bill ---says the New York Herald--- by any President which was overruled with such swift promptitude or overruled by majorities in both Houses so superfluously large."

"It is the first time, so far as we can now recollect ---says the New York Tribune--- in the whole history of the country that a veto message by the President of the United States has not only been absolutely impotent, but has actually increased the strength of the measure it forbade.  For the first time the United States has a President who is thus shown to be powerless, not only with his own party, which he has displeased, but with the opposite party, whose good-will he has not been able to obtain."

One hundred and ninety-six votes against 73 in the House and 46 against 19 in the Senate have declared that silver shall be one of the coins of this country, and that no past fraudulent legislation, that no presidential power, that no moneyed power here or elsewhere shall stand between the people and their demands.  Justice travels with a slow pace, but sooner or later reaches its goal, and when it does strike, it is with an iron hand.

The veto is a strange compound of ignorance, prejudice, and obstinacy, and I shall attempt to show it.  The President says:

The bill provides for the coinage of silver dollars of the weight of 412.5 grains each, of standard silver, to be a legal tender at their nominal value for all debts and dues, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.  It is well known that the market value of that number of grains of standard silver during the past year has been from ninety to ninety-two cents as compared with the standard gold dollar.  Thus the silver dollar authorized by this bill is worth 8 to 10 per cent. less than it purports to be worth, and is made a legal tender for debts contracted when the law did not recognize such coins as lawful money.

Why is it that "the market value of that number of grains [412½] of standard silver during the past year has been from ninety to ninety-two cents as compared with the standard gold dollar ?"  It was because the silver dollar was dropped from the coinage act of 1873 and the dastardly effort made in 1874 to destroy the legal-tender qualities of that dollar in the codification and revision of the coinage act.  Human experience teaches that silver has at all times been as relatively valuable as gold, and often far more so, when it has stood equal under the law.  The republican party, in 1873, was in control of this Government, from President down, and by its machinations the silver dollar was overthrown and lost part of its value, because of such legislation, and now the President says it is less valuable than gold, and he must forbid its coinage.  Such a position is an insult to the intelligence of the age.

If that silver dollar could speak, I imagine it would say to the President and his adviser, John Sherman, "I stood by the Government in the dark days of the rebellion, ever ready to perform my part, side by side with greenbacks, when gold had shrunken from sight and was measuring the success of its enemies, and was in fact more against than in its behalf, and now you have disinherited and declared me an alien unworthy of your confidence, and not equal in value to the gold dollar which you have never shorn of its power.  You had as well say to your crippled soldier that he is not a man, that he is not a good citizen because a leg or an arm has been lost on some battle-field.  Restore if possible that leg or that arm and he is as perfect in manhood as ever;  restore by legislation those qualities of mine destroyed by legislation and I shall be the equal of gold in our land and the unit of value to all classes but the enemies of republican government.  Do not cripple and embarrass me and then mock at my incapacities."

This the President is doing, backed by his long line of gold-speculators and eager money-changers.

The history of gold and silver for hundreds of years past shows that they have not varied in relative value more than from 15 to 1 to 16 to 1.  Silver continued to be at a premium of from 2 to 5 per cent. over gold from 1853 until it was dropped from coinage in 1873, at which time the 412.5 dollar was worth 103 in gold.  But when the Government ceased to coin it, and the gold ring robbed it of its legal-tender quality ---its paying power--- in 1874 it declined in relative value with gold, but has not declined in relative value compared with anything else, the value of gold being greatly enhanced by being made the exclusive legal-tender coin.

Now, to restore the 412.5 dollar would be to re-establish the ratio of 16 to 1.  If, during the last twenty years before silver was demonetized, the 412.5 dollar was worth so much more than gold at the above ratio that it would not circulate, what would become of a heavier dollar ?  The real danger is that when remonetized, the 412½ dollar will prove to be too valuable to circulate with gold, and that we will be compelled to change the legal ratio of the two coins again.

France has the double standard and has adopted the mean ratio ---that is 15.5 to 1.  She had, on the 15th of July, 1877, about $1,600,000,000 in gold and silver coins.  Of this 823,930,000 francs was silver, of which 773,130,000 were five-franc pieces, which are unlimited legal tenders, 50,800,000 francs was subsidiary coin, and we find this silver coin circulating side by side with her gold coins at the above ratio.

Again, our subsidiary coins contain only 385 grains of standard silver per dollar, being 27.5 grains less than the dollar of 412½ grains and of the same standard, and, demonetized as it is, it is now worth ninety-six and one-half cents per dollar in gold.  There can be no question but that the dollar of 412.5 grains, with its unlimited paying power restored with free coinage, will be as valuable as the gold dollar will then be, for gold will fall when the silver dollar is remonetized.

Again the President says in justification of his position against the people:

1,143,493,400 dollars of the bonded debt, now outstanding, was issued prior to February, 1873, when the silver dollar was unknown in circulation in this country, and was only a convenient form of silver bullion for exportation;  $583,440,350 of the bonded debt has been issued since February, 1873, when gold alone was the coin for which the bonds were sold, and gold alone was the coin in which both parties to the contract understood that the bonds would be paid.  These bonds entered into the markets of the world.  They were paid for in gold when silver had greatly depreciated, and when no one would have bought them if it had been understood that they would be paid in silver.

In view of these facts it will justly be regarded as a grave breach of the public faith to undertake to pay these bonds, principal or interest, in silver coin worth in the market less than the coin received for them.  It is said that the silver dollar made a legal tender by this bill will under "its operations be equivalent in value to the gold dollar.  Many supporters of the bill believe this, and would not justify an attempt to pay debts, either public or private, in coin of inferior value to the money of the world.

How sweetly the President's words accord with the following extract from the New York Times:

The silver bill has passed.  A blow is struck at the nation's credit.  Its plighted faith with the bondholder is broken.

What is the answer to this piece of special pleading in favor of the gold-owners and bondholders ?  It is a wicked perversion of the law to say that "Gold alone was the coin in which both parties to the contract understood that the bonds would be paid."  I now call your attention to the law under which the new bonds were issued, referred to by the President, and then I present in exact words a copy of the bonds, so all may see who is wrong ---who is right:

That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to issue, in a sum or sums not exceeding in the aggregate $200,000,000, coupon or registered bonds of the United States, in such form as he may prescribe and of denominations of 50 or some multiple of that sum, redeemable in coin of the present standard value, at the pleasure of tho United States, after ten years from the date of their issue, and bearing interest, payable semi-annually in such coin, at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum;  also a sum or sums not exceeding in the aggregate $300,000,000 of like bonds, the same in all respects, but payable, at the pleasure of the United States, after fifteen years from the date of their issue, and bearing interest at the rate of 4½ per cent. per annum;  also a sum or sums not exceeding in the aggregate $1,000,000,000 of like bonds, the same in all respects, but payable, at the pleasure of the United States, after thirty years from the date of their issue, and bearing interest at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum;  all of which said several classes of bonds and the interest thereon shall be exempt from the payment of all taxes or duties of the United States, as well as from taxation in any form by under State, municipal, or local authority;  and the said bonds shall have set forth and expressed upon their face the above-specified conditions, and shall, with their coupons, be made payable at the Treasury of the United States.  But nothing in this act, or in any other law now in force, shall be construed to authorize any increase whatever of the bonded debt of the United States.

Sec. 2.  And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to sell and dispose of any of the bonds issued under this act, at not less than their par value for coin, and to apply the proceeds thereof to the redemption of any of the bonds of the United States outstanding, and known as 5/20 bonds, at their par value or he may exchange the same for such 5/20 bonds, par for par;  but the bonds hereby authorized shall be used for no other purpose whatsoever;  and a sum not exceeding one-half of 1 per cent. of the bonds herein authorized is hereby appropriated to pay the expense of preparing, issuing, advertising, and disposing of the same.

This law was enacted July 14, 1870, subsequent to the act of March 18, 1869, called the strengthening act or a law of interpretation of the bonds issued prior to 1869, and both acts, that of 1869 and that of 1870, recognized and declared in the clearest terms that the silver dollar was the money or one of the coins in which the bonds were payable, principal and interest.  In line 4 of said act of 1870, the bonds were made payable "in coin of the present standard value."  What was that coin ?  Gold and silver.  Silver was not disturbed as a coin until 1873, three years after the passage of the act declaring how the bonds were made payable.  In the act of 1870, after declaring how and for what the bonds shall issue is found those words:  "And the said bonds shall have set forth and expressed in their face the above specified conditions."  What specified conditions ?  Those found in the law itself ?  The bond reads as follows:

1877.       Four per cent. consols of the United States.         1907.
Principal and interest payable in coin.
(50)
At the Treasury of the United States.
The United States of America are indebted to the bearer in the sum of Fifty Dollars.

This bond is issued in accordance with the provisions of an act of Congress entitled An act to authorize the refunding of the national debt, approved July 14, 1870, as amended by an act approved January 20, 1871, and is redeemable at the pleasure of the United States, after the 1st day of July, 1907, in coin of the standard value of the United States on said July 14, 1870, with interest in such coin from the day of the date hereof at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum, payable quarterly on the 1st day of October, January, April, and July in each year.  The principal and interest are exempt from the payment of all taxes or duties of the United States, as well as from taxation in any form by or under State, municipal, or local authority.

Washington, July 1, 1877.

S.J. Millard,
Register of the Treasury.

Every solitary bond alluded to by the President was issued under the refunding act of 1870, and was and is in the precise words of the above bond, excepting the difference in the number, date, and amount of the bonds.  The entire national debt is payable in the specific words of the law authorizing the issue of the bonds and in the specific contract printed in the bonds themselves in the dollar which this act of 1878 reinstates and which the Sherman gang have expelled from our midst with the most utter disregard of the pre-existing debts and contracts.  The national debt was made by law payable specifically in a named number of grains of silver and gold.  Not in the number of grains of one of them, but optionally of either gold or silver as the debtor might elect.  Why did not Sherman and his stopping the coinage of these grains of silver in 1873 and demonetizing them in 1874, exempt from the operation of these infamous measures the pre-existing national debt of $2,000,000,000 ?  Would they have done so if they could have done it ?  No, sir;

The law of 1870 had fixed the terms and conditions of the payment of the bonds, and it was not, it is not, in the power of the conspirators to thwart its plain, simple words.  It is absolute foolishness and an absolute defiance of the law for the President to say, by implication if not in direct words, that the $583,440,350 of the funded debt issued since 1873 was payable in gold because both parties to the contract so understood.  It is strange that a President should put in solemn form such an idea.  It would be unbecoming in a hired attorney without name, fame, honor, or practice.  Laws, not understandings outside of the law, govern and control "both parties to the contract" in all such transactions as this, under which the bonds were issued, sold, and delivered.  If the President himself should even direct the sale of one bond under this funding act in any manner contrary to the law, under any understanding with the purchaser not in conformity to the law, even if beneficial to the Government, he would at once be impeachable for high crimes and misdemeanors.  The highest faith, the highest obligation any official, President or constable, owes to anything, to anybody, is to the law, and he who forsakes that abandons the path of duty and forfeits the confidence of the citizen.

The President having shown such an unusual interest in the welfare of the bondholders, and so little appreciation of the tax-payers, let me show what these gentlemen paid for the bonds when originally purchased, and a moment's calculation will show how much interest, in gold, these suffering gentlemen have semi-annually drawn.

The table gives the various issues of bonds, the amount of each issue, the price paid in gold, and the profits to the bondholders:

Six hundred and seventy-eight millions of dollars of clean, clear cash in a transaction that involved but $2,059,975,700.  Why, these figures are absolutely frightful, and these figures are not all.  The bonds thus discounted were sold as greenback bonds ---that is to say, were sold with the fixed belief that they were to be paid, principal and interest, in greenbacks.  The slush men and the scoundrels got possession of Congress.  First a bill was passed changing the terms of the contract so as to make the bonds payable in coin.  Then by an assassin's plan silver was demonetized, and, before the country knew or the people knew, the oligarchy had triumphed and the laws demanded that all the bonds should be paid solely in gold.

No wonder there was a revolt, if revolt is all or will be all.  Macaulay tells how, when Warren Hastings was being tried, and the sums were specified which had passed through his hands and had not been accounted for, the trapped and crippled giant rose in his place and essayed a defense.  "When I remember," he said in substance, "of how I was tempted, and how there were always before me piled up gold, boxes of rupees and strings of diamonds, and when I recall only the few paltry thousands I took, by God, Mr. Speaker, I am astonished now at my own moderation."

Senator Beck, of Kentucky, makes an exhibit of even a larger gain than is done in the above article.  Either is bad enough, ruinous enough, and should receive the condemnation of the American people without regard to party.  In those days we never heard from a President or the bondholders the alarm of "repudiation," "broken faith," "sacred obligations;"  they were then too busy robbing the people, "in clover too deep and rich;"  then they thanked God that they were not "as other men;" we also do.

Senator Beck, of Kentucky, in the Senate of the United States, has drawn for the American people a most frightful picture of the course of special legislation that has taken from the people, as I have before stated, the people's money, and has converted the same into a national debt.  The following startling amounts have been wrung from the toiling masses of the American people, leaving the debt in the main as large as ever.  The Senator [quoting Voorhees] says:

the bondholders had, up to 1869, received over $100,000,000 of profit before they even got the principal of their bonds made payable in gold.  It can be shown by the Treasurer's reports from year to year, giving the amount of bonds sold each year and the premium on gold from 1862 to 1869, that the purchase of the bonds with paper at its face value and the purchase of the paper at the discounts gave a profit to the bondholders as follows:

An account of the bondholders' clear profits arising from no investments at all, may therefore be stated in the following tabular form:

1862 ........................... $28,138,989
1863 .............................. 94,555,713
1864 ............................ 306,551,582
1865 ............................ 110,159,367
1866 .............................. 53,757,183
1867 ............................ 167,915,741
1868 ............................ 153,159,765
On account of 5 percent. bonds ............................................... 98,297,864
Total .............................. 1,012,536,004

This most remarkable statement was, as Senator Beck declared, "carefully and truthfully prepared."  The proof is in the official records.  "It will satisfy the country," said the Senator, "and ought to satisfy the bondholders and their advocates that they ought not to insult a suffering people whose hard earnings have gone to enrich them, by any complaint of want of good faith to them in the effort we are making to save the country from bankruptcy.

No people on the face of this earth with such immense productive capacities have been treated by their rulers and legislative bodies as have been the people of this country.  The bonds of this country were originally paid in greenbacks;  then by republican legislation, in 1869, they were made payable in coin;  then again by republican legislation they were made payable in gold;  and now, because the people are demanding that some of the steps of past legislation be retraced, and the bonds be made payable in coin according to their face, according to the express contract the President with an easy inclination toward the bondholders, says, "I veto the bill."  Why, listen:

I cannot approve a bill which in my judgment authorizes the violation of sacred obligations.  The obligation of the public faith transcends all questions of profit or public advantage.  Its unquestionable maintenance is the dictate, as well of the highest expediency as of the most necessary duty, and should ever be carefully guarded by the Executive, by Congress, and by the people.

What sacred obligations" ?!  The bonds of the Government ?  How are these sacred obligations violated ?  Is paying them according to the contract a violation of the sacred obligations ?  To violate an obligation is to repudiate it without regard to the consequences.  In the use of such language the President has charged repudiation on the people, a bold act under any circumstances, but still bolder when unsupported by the facts, by the truth.  Is it repudiation to maintain the coin of the Constitution ?  Is it repudiation to pay the bonus in the same coin demanded on their face ?  Is it repudiation to adhere to the contract in word, act, and deed, without limitation, without qualification ?  Holy Writ says, "The letter killeth, but the spirit maketh alive."  The people observe the obligations, both in letter and spirit, and yet the President says to them, You are repudiationists;  and these bondholders, now thronging the White House as welcome guests, are the patriots, the true observers of the law of the "sacred obligations."

In the language of Hon. John Hanna, of Indiana, a true, able, bold, and upright man, I say "it is no time to longer trifle with the sovereign will of a people who will sweep from place and power any faithless servant who attempts to deceive and betray.  They demand equal and exact justice;  and accursed be he who attempts to readjust the scales as a means of robbery !"

Although the bill does not meet with my entire approbation, yet it is a step in the right direction.  Another step will soon be taken in the interest of the people.  Many great wrongs are yet to be righted, many great evils are yet left to be cured.

The fulcrum has found a resting place.  Catharine of Russia had a hand carved on one of the gates of her great northern capital, with the forefinger pointing toward Constantinople, the open way to the seas and India, for that rugged power whose ambition is empire;  and to-day, after many long years of waiting, the Russians are about to enter that city as rulers and victors.  So let the people from Maine to California keep an open finger ever pointed toward the monstrous oppressions yet in full force, drawing the very life-blood from every enterprise, and they will go down in ruins.  National banks, resumption, tariff laws, chartered monopolies, yet stand "clothed in purple and fine linen," oppressing forty-five millions of people with a heavy heel, standing Colossus-like across this whole continent, contesting even the supremacy of power with the people themselves;  and they must fall, else freedom will be known only in history to us.  So let us, as the Representatives of the people, proclaim here in our places that those great evils shall be destroyed and the people yet shall live.  Let us strike in all earnestness with ungloved hands.

In the language of Hon. Jerry Black, "The waters of truth will rise gradually and slowly, but surely;  and then look out for the overflowing scourge.  The refuge of lies shall be swept away and the hiding-place of falsehood shall be uncovered."  This mighty and puissant nation will yet raise herself up like a strong man after sleep and shake her invincible locks in a fashion you little think of now.  Wait!  Retribution will come in due time.  Justice travels with a leaden heel, but strikes with an iron hand.  It is now striking with an iron hand those who have plundered the people so long, and will strike down a President or "any other man" who stands in the way of its march.  It is not blind to such errors as the President's veto, and it is not blind to the demands of a distressed people.  I hope such "strikes" will pervade this whole country.

Patience and energy should be the watchwords of the people in this contest for life and liberty.  A great empress once had as her national motto, "We sit beside the sea and await the tide."  We should do the same.  The tide is slowly coming in, and when it does, let us seize it "at the flood," and it will bear our people on to glory and prosperity.  Long years have they been torn by the storms of passion and plunder for gain and sunshine to others, and years yet will elapse before "the good time" will come, so earnestly sought, so long prayed for, but come it will, come it must, in a country like ours.  "Über dem Sturme ist Ruhe."  After the tempest is sunshine.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to purchase, from time to time, silver bullion to the aggregate amount of four million five hundred thousand ounces, or so much thereof as may be offered in each month, at the market price thereof, not exceeding one dollar for three hundred and seventy-one and twenty-five hundredths [371¼] grains of pure silver, and to issue in payment for such purchases of silver bullion Treasury notes of the United States to be prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury, in such form and of such denominations, not less than one dollar nor more than one thousand dollars, as he may prescribe, and a sum sufficient to carry into effect the provisions of this act is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Sec. 2.  That the Treasury notes issued in accordance with the provisions of this act shall be redeemable on demand, in coin, at the Treasury of the United States or at the office of any assistant treasurer of the United States, and when so redeemed may be reissued;  but no greater or less amount of such notes shall be outstanding at any time than the cost of the silver bullion and the standard silver dollars coined therefrom, then held in the Treasury purchased by such notes;  and such Treasury notes shall be a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract, and shall be receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and when so received may be reissued;  and such notes, when held by any national banking association, may be counted as a part of its lawful reserve. That upon demand of the holder of any of the Treasury notes herein provided for the Secretary of the Treasury shall, under such regulations as he may prescribe, redeem such notes in gold or silver coin, at his discretion, it being the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio, or such ratio as may be provided by law.

Sec. 3.  That the Secretary of the Treasury shall each month coin two million ounces of the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this act into standard silver dollars until the first day of July eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and after that time he shall coin of the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this act as much as may be necessary to provide for the redemption of the Treasury notes herein provided for, and any gain or seigniorage arising from such coinage shall be accounted for and paid into the Treasury.

Sec. 4.  That the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this act shall be subject to the requirements of existing law and the regulations of the mint service governing the methods of determining the amount of pure silver contained, and the amount of charges or deductions, if any, to be made.

Sec. 5.  That so much of the act of February twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, entitled "An act to authorize the coinage of the standard silver dollar and to restore its legal-tender character," as requires the monthly purchase and coinage of the same into silver dollars of not less than two million dollars, nor more than four million dollars' worth of silver bullion, is hereby repealed.

Sec. 6.  That upon the passage of this act the balances standing with the Treasurer of the United States to the respective credits of national banks for deposits made to redeem the circulating notes of such banks, and all deposits thereafter received for like purpose, shall be covered into the Treasury as a miscellaneous receipt, and the Treasury of the United States shall redeem from the general cash in the Treasury the circulating notes of said banks which may come into his possession subject to redemption;  and upon the certificate of the Comptroller of the Currency that such notes have been received by him and that they have been destroyed and that no new notes will be issued in their place, reimbursement of their amount shall be made to the Treasurer, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, from an appropriation hereby created, to be known as "National bank notes: Redemption account," but the provisions of this act shall not apply to the deposits received under section three of the act of June twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, requiring every National bank to keep in lawful money with the Treasurer of the United States a sum equal to five per centum of its circulation, to be held and used for the redemption of its circulating notes;  and the balance remaining of the deposits so covered shall, at the close of each month, be reported on the monthly public debt statement as debt of the United States bearing no interest.

Sec. 7.  That this act shall take effect thirty days from and after its passage.