Gold and Silver Mines.

Mr. Bland [Richard Parks Bland (1835-1899) Lebanon, Missouri, D.; studied law, admitted to the bar].  I report from the Committee on Mines and Mining the bill (H.R. No. 3635) to utilize the product of gold and silver mines, and for other purposes, with amendments.

The Clerk read the bill, as follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That coin-notes of the denomination of $50, and multiples thereto up to $10,000, may, in the mode hereinafter provided, be paid by the several mints and assay offices at San Francisco, Carson City, Philadelphia, and New York, for the net value of gold and silver bullion deposited thereat;  and of the bullion thus received not less than 75 per cent. in coin or fine bars shall at all times be kept on hand for redemption of the coin-notes, gold for gold, and silver for silver.  The gold deposited shall be computed at its coining value, and silver at the rate of 412.8 grains standard silver to the dollar, less the lawful mint charges, and such charge for transportation from the several assay offices to the mints for coinage, and from the latter to the assistant treasuries respectively at which the coin-notes shall be payable.

Sec. 2.  That for bullion deposited at the mints of San Francisco and Carson the coin-notes issued shall be redeemable on demand at the assistant treasury at San Francisco;  and for bullion deposited at the Philadelphia Mint and assay office at New York the notes shall be redeemed at the assistant treasury at New York.

Sec. 3.  That the Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time cause coin and fine mint-bars (stamped) to be transferred from the mint to the assistant treasuries at San Francisco and New York in such amounts as may be necessary for the redemption of the coin-notes.

Sec. 4.  That the coin-notes issued under the provisions of this act shall be receivable without limit for all dues to the United States;  and the coin mentioned in this act shall be a legal tender for all debts of the United States, public and private, not specified to be paid in gold coin.

Sec. 5.  That the gold-coin notes issued under this act shall be redeemed on presentation in gold coin or fine bars, and silver in silver dollars or fine bars.

Sec. 6.  That the coin notes authorized by this act shall be issued shall be prepared under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, and shall be transferred to the mints and assay offices named in this act as a part of the bullion fund, and from which fund deposits shall be paid for in coin or coin notes at the option of the depositor.

Sec. 7.  That the fine gold and silver bars by this act authorized to be issued shall bear the mint stamp of fineness, weight, and value, and the value of the gold bars shall be computed according to their coining rate and the silver bars at their coining value in dollars.

Sec. 8.  That the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe the necessary regulations for carrying into effect the provisions of this act.

The amendments were read, as follows:

At the end of line 17, section 1, add the following:

And there shall be coined at the mints of the United States the silver dollar hereinbefore mentioned.

In line 4, section 4, strike out the words "of the United States."

Mr. Randall.  I would like to have the fourth section of that bill read again.

The Clerk again read the fourth section, as proposed to be amended.

Mr. Bland.  This is a bill which was referred to the Committee on Mines and Mining.

Mr. Blackburn.  I must insist on the regular order.

Mr. Bland.  I desire to say that to-morrow morning after the reading of the Journal I shall call for the regular order, so that the morning hour shall commence, and I shall press this bill to its passage.

Product of Gold and Silver Mines.

The Speaker pro tempore.  The regular order being demanded, the morning hour begins at twelve o'clock and twenty-five minutes p.m., and the regular order of business is the call of committees for reports.  The call rests with the Committee on Mines and Mining and the pending question is upon the bill (H.R. No. 3635) to utilize the product of gold and silver mines, and for other purposes, reported from the committee with amendments.

Gold and Silver Coin.

Mr. Bland.  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the bill (H.R. No. 3635) to utilize the product of gold and silver mines, and for other purposes, with the amendments thereto reported from the Committee on Mines and Mining.  A great many members have not a copy of that bill and cannot get it.

There was no objection.

The bill, with the proposed amendments, is as follows:

A bill (H.R. No. 3635) to utilize the product of gold and silver mines, and for other purposes.
(Part inserted in italics, part stricken out in brackets.)

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That coin-notes of the denomination of $50, and multiples thereof up to $10,000, may, in the mode hereinafter provided, be paid by the several mints and assay offices at San Francisco Carson City, Philadelphia, and New York, for the net value of gold and silver bullion deposited thereat;  and of the bullion thus received not less than 75 per cent. in coin or fine bars shall at all times be kept on hand for redemption of the coin-notes, gold for gold, and silver for silver.  The gold deposited shall be computed at its coining value, and silver at the rate of 412.8 grains standard silver to the dollar, less the lawful mint charges, and such charge for transportation from the several assay offices to the mints for coinage, and from the latter to the assistant treasuries respectively at which the coin-notes shall be payable;  and there shall be coined at the mints of the United States the silver dollar hereinbefore mentioned.

Sec. 2.  That for bullion deposited at the mints of San Francisco and Carson, the coin-notes issued shall be redeemable on demand at the assistant treasury at San Francisco;  and for bullion deposited at the Philadelphia mint and assay office at New York, the notes shall be redeemed at the assistant treasury at New York.

Sec. 3.  That the Secretary of the Treasury shall, from time to time, cause coin and fine mint-bars (stamped) to be transferred from the mint to the assistant treasuries at San Francisco and New York in such amounts as may be necessary for the redemption of the coin-notes.

Sec. 4.  That the coin-notes issued under the provisions of this act shall be receivable without limit for all dues to the United States;  and the coin mentioned in this act shall be a legal tender for all debts, [of the United States,] public and private, not specified to be paid in gold coin.

Sec. 5.  That the gold-coin notes issued under this act shall be redeemed, on presentation, in gold coin or fine bars, and silver in silver dollars or fine bars.

Sec. 6.  That the coin-notes authorized by this act to be issued shall bo prepared under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, and shall be transferred to the mints and assay offices named in this act as a part of the bullion fund, and from which fund deposits shall be paid for in coin or coin-notes at the option of the depositor.

Sec. 7.  That the fine gold and silver bars by this act authorized to be issued shall bear the mint stamp of fineness, weight, and value, and the value of the gold bars shall be computed according to their coining rate, and the silver bars at their coining value in dollars.

Sec. 8.  That the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe the necessary regulations for carrying into effect the provisions of this act.

Mr. Holman.  I desire to have printed an amendment which I propose to offer to the bill.

Mr. Kasson [John Adam Kasson (1822-1910), Iowa, R.; studied law, admitted to the bar].  Let the amendment be read.

The Clerk read tho proposed amendment, as follows:

That so much of the act entitled "An act to provide for the resumption of specie payments," approved January 14, 1875, as authorizes or requires the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem in coin on and after the 1st day of January, 1879, the United States notes then outstanding, and to issue and sell United States bonds for that purpose, is hereby repealed.

Mr. Kasson.  I must object to the printing of that;  it has already been printed very often.

Mr. Holman.  It will go into the Record, having been read.

Mr. Kasson.  I have no objection to its being printed in the Record.

Mr. Eden [John Rice Eden (1826-1909) Illinois, R.; studied law, admitted to the bar], by unanimous consent, obtained leave to have printed in the Record remarks on the bill (H.R. No. 3635) to utilize the product of gold and silver mines, and for other purposes.

Mr. Bland.  I ask that to-night be set apart for debate only on the bill (H.R. No. 3635) to utilize the product of gold and silver mines, and for other purposes, no other business to be transacted.  A great many members desire to speak upon that bill, and may have no other opportunity.

Mr. Kasson.  What bill is it that the gentleman wishes to have a night session on ?

Mr. Bland.  It is the bill which you killed yesterday morning.

The Speaker pro tempore.  The proposition of the gentleman from Missouri is that there shall be a session this evening for debate only, no business whatever to be transacted, on the bill to utilize the product of gold and silver mines.

Mr. Kasson.  I object.

Mr. Bland.  I hope my bullionist friend will not object, but will let this debate go on.  Does he object because he cannot stand debate on it ?

Mr. Townsend, of New York.  I wish to ask unanimous consent to introduce a pension bill for reference merely.

Coinage of Gold and Silver.

The Speaker pro tempore.  The regular order being called for, the morning hour begins at twenty-three minutes after twelve o'clock.  The pending business in the morning hour is the consideration of a bill reported from the Committee on Mines and Mining, being the bill (H.R. No. 3635) to utilize the product of gold and silver mines, and for other purposes.  The gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Bland] is entitled to the floor.

Mr. Bland.  As this is a question of very great importance to the people of this country, and as the friends of the bill desire debate upon it, I ask consent of the House that the debate continue to-day until four o'clock, the time already assigned for other business, and that to-morrow morning immediately after the reading of the Journal I shall have the right to demand the previous question.

Mr. Kasson.  I wish to ask the gentleman from Missouri whether he intends to allow debate on this bill and an opportunity for amendment ?

Mr. Bland.  I have not said anything about amendments, simply debate.

Mr. Kasson.  How much time does the gentleman propose to allow for debate ?

Mr. Bland.  Until four o'clock this evening.

Mr. Kasson.  But I understand this bill to be in the morning hour.

The Speaker pro tempore.  The Chair will state the proposition of the gentleman from Missouri.  It is that by unanimous consent the order be made that the debate on this bill shall continue to-day until four o'clock, the time set apart for the announcement of the death of the Representative from Kentucky, Mr. Parsons.

Mr. Kasson.  I must object to the bill going out of the morning hour.  Other business should have its chance outside the morning hour.

Mr. Bland.  I wish it understood that the friends of this bill have no objection to debate;  they desire to offer every fair opportunity for it;  but the opponents of the bill filibustered the first morning hour, and now---

Mr. Kasson.  That is not quite correct.  The point of order was an honest one and honestly urged.

Mr. Holman.  It was to gain time.

Mr. Bland.  Mr. Speaker, I do not propose to discuss this question, but to ask the Clerk to read certain sections of the Revised Statutes in reference to it showing by what means the silver in this country has been demonetized, and showing that by the act of 1869 it was recognized as coin in full effect with all men for all debts, public as well as private.  I now ask the Clerk to read from page 700 of the Revised Statutes, section 3511.

The Clerk read as follows:

Sec. 3511.  The gold coins of the United States shall be a one-dollar piece, which, at the standard weight of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains, shall be the unit of value;  a quarter-eagle or two-and-a-half-dollar piece;  a three-dollar piece;  a half-eagle, or five-dollar piece;  an eagle, or ten-dollar piece;  and a double-eagle, or twenty-dollar piece.  And the standard weight of the gold dollar shall be twenty-five and eight-tenths grains;  of the quarter-eagle, or two-and-a-half-dollar piece, sixty-four and a half grains; of the three-dollar piece, seventy-seven and four-tenths grains;  of the half-eagle or five-dollar piece, one hundred and twenty-nine grains;  of the eagle, or ten-dollar piece, two hundred and fifty-eight grains;  of the double-eagle, or twenty-dollar piece, five hundred and sixteen grains.

Mr. Bland.  I now ask the Clerk to read from page 712 of the Revised Statutes, section 3586.

The Clerk read as follows:

Sec. 3586.  The silver coins of the United States shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for any amount not exceeding $5 in any one payment.

Mr. Bland.  That will do.  I call the attention of the House to these sections of the Revised Statutes for the purpose of showing that by section 3511 the gold dollar was made the unit of value and by section 3586 the silver coins of the United States are made a legal tender at their nominal value for any amount not exceeding $5, thus showing the demonetization of silver by the act of February 12, 1873.

I now desire the Clerk to read on page 735 of the Revised Statutes sections 3693 and 3694.

The Clerk read as follows:

Sec. 3693.  The faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to the payment in coin or its equivalent of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest, known as United States notes, and of all the interest-bearing obligations of the United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the issue of any such obligation has expressly provided that the same may be paid in lawful money or other currency than gold and silver.  But none of the interest-bearing obligations not already due shall be redeemed or paid before maturity, unless at such time United States notes are convertible into coin at the option of the holder, or unless at such time bonds of the United States bearing a lower rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemed can be sold at par in coin.  The faith of the United States is also solemnly pledged to make provisions at the earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin.

Sec. 3694.  The coin paid for duties on imported goods shall be set apart as a spacial fund, and shall be applied as follows:

First.  To the payment in coin of the interest on the bonds and notes of the United States.

Second.  To the purchase or payment of 1 per cent. of the entire debt of the United States, to be made within each fiscal year, which is to be set apart as a sinking fund, and the interest of which shall in like manner be applied to the purchase or payment of the public debt, as the Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time direct.

Third.  The residue to be paid into the Treasury.

Mr. Bland.  That is the act of the 18th of March, 1869.  By that act silver was specially recognized as coin competent to be applied to the payment of the public debt, and the statute provides a fund out of moneys received from duties on imports and mentions the word "coin" without regard to whether it is silver or gold coin, but simply the word "coin," showing under that act silver at that time being a coin of full legal-tender was receivable by law for duties on imports, and is by law a legal tender for all public debts.  But, Mr. Speaker, I do not desire further to discuss this question, knowing that every effort will be made to defeat its consideration in the morning hour, and I therefore now demand the previous question.

Gold and silver coinage

Mr. Randall.  I call for the regular order.

The Speaker pro tempore.  The regular order being called for, the morning hour begins at half past twelve o'clock.  The pending business in the morning hour is the consideration of a bill reported from the Committee on Mines and Mining, being the bill (H.R. No. 3635) to utilize the product of gold and silver mines, and for other purposes, on which the previous question has been demanded by the gentleman from Missouri, [Mr. Bland.]

Mr. Kasson.  Will the gentleman from Missouri allow me to make a proposition, accompanied with a statement of the reasons for it, not exceeding five minutes.  I will make it as brief as I can ?

Mr. Bland.  If the gentleman wants to make a proposition I will hear it;  but I object to debate.

Mr. Kasson.  I desire simply to state my reasons for making the proposition;  if I cannot do that I must decline to submit the proposition.

Mr. Banks.  I hope the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Kasson] will let us know what the proposition is;  then we can tell whether we will hear his reasons or not.

Mr. Kasson.  I desire at least three minutes to state my reasons.

Mr. Bland.  Very well;  and I yield to the gentleman three minutes.

Mr. Kasson.  Mr. Speaker, the practical difficulty with those members of this House who oppose this hill is the want of sufficient information to enable them to vote upon the numerous propositions embodied in the bill.  They have desired such opportunity for examination as has been given by other parliamentary bodies of other countries that have examined such questions, namely, inquiries by a commission, with careful examination and a written report.  The present proposition is not merely to signify the right of payment of the public debt in silver nor for the reminting of the silver dollar.  These are at this time comparatively minor questions in view of the number of silver dollars to be coined, but the propositions of this bill affect the wages of labor throughout the country;  they affect the payment of all debts made since 1873;  they affect---

Mr. Bland.  The gentleman is making an argument against the bill.

Mr. Kasson.  This will, of course, not come out of my three minutes !

The Speaker pro tempore.  The gentleman from Iowa is entitled to the floor for three minutes, and will proceed.

Mr. Kasson.  These propositions affect the payment of over 1,000,000,000 of the savings of labor deposited in savings and other banks, for the measure apparently authorizes banks and bankers to pay such indebtedness in money depreciated by 10 per cent. below the paper deposited and 20 per cent. below gold.  They affect all contracts touching the commerce of this country;  they affect the payment of the farmers of the West for their surplus products sent to Europe;  they reach every interest, every liability, every enterprise in the United States, and may precipitate a crisis in the money market by its effects upon the public credit.

Now, under these circumstances, those who are opposed to acting on this bill now, reserving their opinions as to the coinage and remonetization of the silver dollar, demand a commission of inquiry upon this subject;  and the Committee on Banking and Currency has under consideration such a measure, which I suppose they will report to-morrow morning.  For this reason we desire delay.  Now my proposition is that in view of this one of two courses should be taken by the gentleman having charge of the bill:  either to allow debate to run on to-day, no vote to be taken, and the bill resuming its place in the morning hour to-morrow;  or to allow debate to go on, no vote to be taken, and the bill to stand over till the next session, in order to afford opportunity for the making of these very important inquiries, a day certain being fixed for the consideration of the subject next session.

The adoption of one of these two propositions the gentlemen opposed to this bill deem of vast importance to enable us to act properly and safely upon a question of this magnitude, affecting all the business interests of the country.  I hope I have made these objections understood, though I should have been glad to give more specifically and at large the reasons arising upon the bill itself.

Mr. Bland. Mr. Speaker, I think this House will bear me out in the statement that I have not interposed any objection to debate on this bill; that I have not sought to clog legislation on this bill or any other. Only yesterday I offered that the bill should be debated till four o'clock; but that was objected to by the opponents of the bill.

The bill that demonetized silver in this country and perpetrated an injustice and fraud upon the people was passed through this House without even being read, in spite of the call of the honorable gentleman at present serving as Speaker of the House [Mr. Kerr] for the reading of that bill. It was passed surreptitiously and without discussion, and was one of the grossest measures of injustice ever inflicted upon any people. Now, this bill simply aims to restore the currency of this country which existed at that time; yet we hear objections on this floor, sometimes in the form of demands for debate, sometimes in the form of opposition to debate.

Now, sir, I am willing to accept the proposition of the gentlemen from Iowa, that this bill shall be debated all day and that it shall take its place in the morning hour to-morrow, provided gentlemen opposing the bill will not filibuster away that morning hour to prevent the ordering of the previous question. If the gentleman will assure the House that in the morning hour to-morrow he and those who are acting with him will allow a vote upon the previous question and let the House determine without filibustering motions whether it is in favor of this bill or not, I agree to the proposition. All that I desire is an honest discussion and honest action; not obstruction to legislation on the one hand nor on the other forcing it through the House without proper consideration.

Remonetization of Silver.

Mr. Wilson, of West Virginia.  Mr. Chairman, I do not propose to discuss the two irritating questions that have occupied so much of the time of this House for the last two days.  There are other questions of greater magnitude that we should look to and pass upon in the few remaining days of this session.

It is a bootless question at this time as to what the Judiciary Committee has done or may do with Mr. Blaine.  The judgment of this House in his case has been suspended until next session, and I do not now propose to waste time with a consideration of it.  And it is also now a bootless question as to the terms and conditions upon which the war was ended or as to how the people of the South suffered upon the close of that war.  I sympathized with them as deeply and feel for them as keenly and deplored as much as any gentleman on this floor the harsh manner in which they were persecuted by the Administration and the party in power.  But all that is of the past, and I think it most wise to let those irritating questions pass into history and no longer seek to inflame the passions of the people and to array one section against another.  Let us hear no more of war or rumors of war;  let us turn our attention and direct our steps to the paths of peace.  We all accept the situation, and it is our duty as patriots to utilize that situation for the benefit of the people, the whole people, in all parts of the country.

In the few remarks I shall make I propose to discuss another and different question, one that absorbs as much of the public attention, if not more;  than any other question with which this Congress has had to deal:  it is the remonetization of silver.

As the bill offered by the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Bland] presents that question more fairly than any one now pending before the House, I will ask the Clerk to report the title of the bill and also its fourth section.

The Clerk read as follows:

A bill (H.R. No. 3635) to utilize the product of gold and silver mines, and for other purposes.

Sec. 4.  That the coin-notes issued under the provisions of this act shall be receivable without limit for all dues to the Unite States;  and the coin mentioned in this act shall be a legal tender for all debts of the United States, public and private, not specified to be paid in gold coin.

Mr. Wilson, of West Virginia.  In addition to this bill I wish to say that upon the first opportunity I have I will offer the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Committee on Banking and Currency be, and they are hereby, directed to report a bill to this House providing for the coinage of silver coin of the United States as it existed prior to the 12th day of February, 1873, the same to be a legal tender for all debts as it was under the laws existing prior to that date.

If this Congress shall persistently and improperly refuse to repeal the specie-resumption clause of the act of 1875 there will remain a renewed necessity to return to a double metallic standard, a necessity such as the present generation never knew and, I may add, no past generation ever experienced.  This necessity is keenly seen and felt and feared by the people.  The fact is apparent that the great body of the people demand its repeal;  their future prosperity demands and depends upon it.  We have recently witnessed the sessions of two national conventions, one at Cincinnati and the other at Saint Louis.  At Cincinnati the delegates did not meet the question fairly and deal with it frankly.  Notwithstanding a large preponderance of the republican members on this floor and in the Senate and the candidates of that party are in favor of enforcing that act, and thus driving the debtor class to the wall, their delegates at Cincinnati did not dare to insert a plank in their platform opposing its repeal, while at Saint Louis, one of the largest conventions that ever assembled on this continent, composed of delegates from all sections of the country and fresh from the people, representing their views, its repeal was demanded in unequivocal terms.  It remains to be seen whether democratic Representatives in Congress will repudiate the instructions from the people as expressed through their delegates in that convention.  If that act is not to be repealed there will continue to remain, I repeat it, a necessity such as the Anglo-Saxon race never witnessed before for a return to a double metallic standard.

The debt of the United States is about $2,100,000,000, and it was stated by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Garfield] a few days ago that private citizens of the United States owe probably $2,500,000,000 more.  Now, sir, take it that the figures I have just quoted are substantially correct and contemplate for one moment the situation.  It will be seen that the relation of debtor and creditor in the United States involves about $5,000,000,000.  With that vast debt hanging over the heads of the American people, a mortgage on their property and involving the honor of the country, it is gravely proposed to resume specie payment on the 1st day of January, 1879, and that all this vast debt from and after that date shall be paid in coin;  not in the coin that the fathers and founders of the Republic made legal tender, but in gold coin alone.

Why, sir, do gentlemen remember that if this resumption act goes into operation the $369,000,000 in legal-tender currency is to be paid off with gold raised by the sale of interest-bearing Government bonds, which will increase the Government interest by various estimates from twenty to thirty-five millions of dollars annually !  The annual interest now amounts to nearly $100,000,000, and where is it and this additional amount to come from ?  Gentlemen say it can be easily paid in gold, but do they forget that the annual interest of this Government upon bonds now outstanding and bonds to be issued to pay off the three hundred and sixty-nine millions of legal-tenders will amount to more money than the whole world's annual production of gold ?  Yet such is the fact.  Upon this subject I quote from the speech of Hon. John P. Jones, delivered in the United States Senate April 24, 1876:

I allude to the interest on the public debt, which debt is very largely held abroad.  This interest now amounts to nearly $100,000,000 per annum.  By selling bonds to the extent of $350,000,000, say, at 10 per cent. — for it is perhaps hopeless to expect to do it at a lesser sacrifice — you will add $35,000,000 a year to your gold interest debt, and those $35,000,000 to the portion held abroad.  Where are these $35,000,000 to come from ?  Where are the whole $135,000,000 to come from ?  Your annual interest charge will alone amount to more than the whole world’s product of gold.

Is it not insane to talk or even think of paying the vast indebtedness of this country, public and private, in gold or upon a currency floated upon a gold basis ?  It is simply a physical and financial impossibility.  If that is the fixed purpose of this national Legislature, the destruction of the hundreds of thousands of the debtor class will be complete.  The circumlocution of resorting to specie resumption might as well be avoided, for the result could be more directly but not more effectively reached by a simple statute transferring the lands and tenements, goods and chattels, of the debtor class to the bondholder, the broker, the banker, and the money-changer.  I repeat, that if you would stay the band of financial destruction and avert the cries of sorrow and woe that would otherwise fall upon our ears, you must remonetize silver and postpone the day of resumption.

Resumption may be possible and within the grasp of the people;  it may be accomplished without detriment to any class;  but this will require time and rigid economy, that economy which has been inaugurated in this House at this session, and which will save $40,000,000 annually to the people.  Resumption must come, when it does come, through prosperity and not through contraction, distress, and adversity.  Our bonds were bought, or a large portion of them were bought, at forty cents on the dollar in gold, and since then they have been legislated up to par and even beyond par.  The interest is paid in coin and the bond is exempt from taxation.  Therefore the bondholder is in a condition to resume, but the mass of the people are not.

Remonetize silver, infuse confidence among the people, and in a few years the financial affairs of the country will be in a healthy condition.  We may thus be able to tide over the threatened trouble.  But why not remonetize silver ?  I have heard with pain and regret from two members of this Congress, one from Pennsylvania [Mr. Townsend] and the other from Ohio, [Mr. Garfield,] that they oppose the remonetization of silver for the reason, among others, that the great supply of American mines has tended to reduce its market value.  Why, sir, the British dominions are the largest gold-producing sections of the world, and hence the Englishman, true to his interest, true to his government, and ever ready to add to its strength and material wealth and to add to the purchasing power of gold, has demonetized silver and reduced its market value;  but why an American should join in the crusade against America's production, his own country's coin, I cannot understand.  It is a high constitutional duty that this Congress owes to the country to provide for the coinage of silver as of its former purity and to make it a legal tender for all debts, public and private.  This will go far to enhance its purchasing power both in Europe and America.  European capitalists hold large amounts of our bonds, and will be induced by their interest to give silver its proper place and standard in value in the coinage of the world.

It is safe to assume that our fathers, the framers of the Constitution of the United States, were as patriotic and as far-seeing as we are.  By the eighth section of the first article of that Constitution they conferred upon Congress the power "to coin money and to regulate the value thereof;"  and by the tenth section of the same article they conferred upon the States respectively the power to make gold and silver a legal tender for the payment of all debts.  Under this power so conferred upon Congress gold and silver were made and continued legal tender for three-quarters of a century, during which time with silver as a legal tender our area was more than doubled;  our increase in population and wealth and progress in the arts and sciences stand unrivaled in the history of the world.  If Congress shall deny to the people the relief to which under the Constitution they are clearly entitled, and shape legislation for the benefit of the favored and wealthy few, it will devolve upon the States, each speaking and acting for itself, to resort to the power quoted above and declare gold and silver a legal tender for contracts between man and man and for all dues to the State.

But it is to be hoped that this Congress will not adjourn without providing by appropriate legislation for the issue of silver coin and to restore it and gold to their former relative values, whatever the present value of either may be.  Give it the weight and fineness to make it equal to gold and it will soon return to the old standard.

The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Garfield] flippantly flaunts the question in the face of this House and demands to know whether, since the passage of the act of 1869 to strengthen the public credit, any man dare say we can pay the public debt in silver ?  I dare to say we can, and I further dare to say, and feel it my duty to say, that the act of 1869 was a flagrant outrage and wrong, that its practical effect was to swindle, and it did swindle, the people of this Government out of millions of money, and elevate the basis of the payment of the bonds referred to, to a much higher and more costly standard than was contemplated upon the passage of the act authorizing their issue.  Why, sir, it is known that the very language of the law authorizing the issue of some of those bonds only required the interest to be paid in coin;  that the principal was payable in currency.  Need I remind the gentleman that the great commoner of Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens, here on the floor of this House, as its leader and in its presence, so declared ?  That opinion was then held and has since been promulgated by a prominent gentleman of the same State who lends dignity to this presence by occupying a seat on this floor as the oldest member of this House, a gentleman whose influence, learning, and experience, republican though he is, has been upon this currency and silver question steadily, so far as I have observed, in the interest of the people as against ring capitalists.  I need not remind the House that I refer to Judge Kelley.  His teachings upon this money question at least are sound and worthy of emulation.  Upon the feasibility and practicability of specie payment I beg to quote from a letter of Hon. H.C. Carey to Hon. Moses W. Field, dated August 18, 1875:

Forty years since the use of gold as money was almost as rare with us as it now is among the Esquimaux.  Contracts abounded here and elsewhere providing for the payment of interest and ultimately of principal in silver dollars of certain weight and fineness;  but it may be doubted if ever a single one could have been found providing for such payment in the more costly metal.

Just then, however, the gold mines of the South were becoming so productive as not only to have caused large expenditure for southern mints, but also to have produced a determination on the part of southern men to force their product into that home circulation which, until then, had been held exclusively by the Mexican silver.  To that end, while professing an utter abhorrence of governmental interference in any matter of trade, they, by law, raised the price of gold to 16 for 1 of silver, and so intent were they on the accomplishment of their object that I myself heard an eminent Senator, of the South Carolina delegation, assert that should it prove to be required they would proceed still further, giving to the gold a legal-tender value as high as 17 to 1.

Of all American writers whose attention was then given to monetary questions, there was, as I think, none whose opinions in relation thereto were held in more respect than were those of my friend Mr. Condy Raguet, from whose work, published in 1839, I take the following passage:

"Prior to the passage of the gold bill above referred to, the metallic currency of the United States had been virtually, as above stated, a currency of silver since the establishment of the government, gold very rarely appearing, whilst that of Great Britain was of gold.  The consequence was, that the currency of each was independent of the other, and the contraction or expansion of each did not necessarily act upon the other.  The contraction in England, which preceded the resumption of specie payments, in 1821, after a long suspension of twenty-four years, produced no convulsion on this side of the Atlantic;  nor did our contraction, distressing and durable as it was, after the removal of the public deposites from the Bank of the United States, on the 1st of October, 1833, which brought down the prices of stocks from 20 to 50 per cent., and led to the importation of 3,793,293 dollars in silver from England alone, during the year ending on 30th September, 1834, produce any convulsion whatever in that country.

"Such would have continued to be the case, had the mint regulations remained without alteration;  but no sooner was gold, by a change in its relative value to silver, rendered the most profitable of the two metals to import, than we found the currency of England disturbed to a degree that rendered necessary an immediate reduction of her paper issues, although the amount of gold drawn from her between the passage of the law in June, 1834, and the 30th of September, of the same year, was but 1,922,960 dollars.  To the importations of gold in the years 1835 and 1836, instead of silver, may be ascribed that further contraction of the British currency, which led to the crisis of the latter year, that was so fatal to American credits and American cotton, by which millions of dollars were lost to the country.

"Now as like causes will produce like effects, it behooves us to examine well into this matter, and if we find that we have committed an error, it is our duty to retrace our steps.  Thus far very little progress has been made towards introducing gold into actual circulation, notwithstanding that a large amount has been imported, still a long perseverance in the law will give us a gold currency, but it will be most dearly purchased.  It will so closely ally our fortunes with those of Great Brittan, that no convulsion can take place in the currency of that country, that will not act directly and powerfully upon ours;  whilst on the other hand, none can take place on our side, that will not act directly upon hers, and in so doing, break down the prices of cotton and tobacco, and other American products in the markets of Europe to the great injury of our planting interest."

The extreme importance of the view here presented, to wit, the necessity for avoiding "entangling alliances" in reference to a matter so important as the monetary machinery of exchange, was made clearly obvious when in 1866, like a clap of thunder in the clearest sky, the great crisis of that year, greater than any by which it had been preceded, brought ruin to hundreds of what had been considered the strongest British houses, and made demand on all the world for aid if the Bank of England itself are to be enabled to avoid suspension.  The crash was terrific, yet it never affected our domestic operations for even a single hour.  Our monetary independence had been established.  Our machinery of exchange being a non-exportable one, we had no use for gold, and if it were needed abroad we could say, "why, let it go !"  Accordingly, no less than $30,000,000 were at once dispatched; the bank was saved, and injury was thus avoided to an extent that would scarcely be exaggerated were it counted by hundreds of millions of pounds;  and thus did Britain benefit by the fact that the currencies of the two countries were different.

Had we been using: gold, where should we then have found ourselves ?  In the midst of a greater crisis than the country had ever known.  Every golden dollar would have been withdrawn.  Banks, after running their customers, would themselves have been driven to suspension.  Mills and mines would have ceased to work, and the power to pay for foreign merchandise would have disappeared, to the great loss of Britain, whose market in this country, owing to depression at home, became so greatly enlarged as to aid materially in the work of recuperation.

To the two countries thousands of millions of dollars were saved by the simple fact that our currency was of a character not liable to be affected by the financial movements of a neighbor nation that seeks to control the universal monetary movement, and yet is more than any other liable to convulsions by means of which disturbance is produced throughout the world at large.

The more perfect the independence of individuals, the greater is their power to aid each other in case of sudden or unforeseen trouble.  So precisely is it with nations;  and yet, every step that has been, or now is, urged upon us, has tended, and is now tending to make us more and more dependent on foreign money markets;  liable at any moment to disturbances like to those by which the year 1866 stands so much distinguished.

I also commend to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Garfield] an extract from a speech made in this House March 16, 1876, by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Kelley:]

Mr. Kelley.  It always received the money which it made the people receive.  It receives its own paper for taxes, for government dues, and thus for the time being it demonetizes gold.  It was our dishonoring of our own paper that called the "gold-room" of New York into existence, that brought thither the vampires of the world to fasten and fatten upon the industries of the country.  It was the dishonesty of the American Congress and Government in repudiating the money it created and forced the people to receive that has cost us the countless millions made and lost in the "gold-room" of New York and through its influence.

I have said, and here repeat, that if this Congress does not afford the relief which the people of the country are clamoring for, distress, deep and heart-rending distress, must follow.  The productions of the farmer, manufacturer, and laborer are dropping down to ruinously low figures.  One instance, sir, from my own State:  live stock is being sold in the eastern markets to-day for less money than was paid for it last fall;  the farmer loses the grain that it consumed, loses the interest upon the money, which, by the way, is generally borrowed capital, and also loses his own time and the use of his farm, and while thousands of idle men are begging for work at fifty cents per day he cannot afford to give them employment.  Everything but money is upon the decline;  and yet gentlemen are urging a speedy resumption of specie payment.

I have heard a good deal said upon this floor about the injustice of forcing the creditor to accept depreciated silver in payment of debts;  but there is another view of this question.  The existing debts of the country were contracted upon a greenback basis and should be paid in greenbacks, or in silver, if the debtor prefers it.  A speedy return to a gold basis will largely increase those debts and compel the debtor to pay more than he contracted to pay.  That is to say, his indebtedness will be increased just in proportion to the premium of gold over greenbacks.  If the debt is $1,000 and payable in greenbacks, $1,000 will pay it;  but if specie resumption is forced upon the country and gold shall bear a premium of 12 per cent., it will require $1,120 in greenbacks to discharge the obligation.  As there is not gold enough in the country to meet the wants of exchange the debtor must pay in its equivalent.

Now, it is said that silver is only worth seventy-nine cents on the dollar, say, for illustration, eighty cents on the dollar in gold.  If the debtor had nothing other than silver with which to pay he would be required to advance $1,200 of that metal to pay his debt, which a few months before might have been discharged with $1,000 in greenbacks.  And this is the just and humane legislation that gentlemen demand in this House.

History is repeating itself.  We have only to look to England as far back as 1819, when Peel's currency bill "for the restoration of cash payments" was enacted, "beginning with an issue of gold at £4 1s. the ounce in 1820, and ending with the standard unit price of £3 17s. 10½d."  It also, among other things, provided for a gradual return to cash payments.  This bill passed with a unanimity rarely ever witnessed in legislation, and seemed to quiet the fears of nearly all classes.  There were a few experienced financiers, however, who foresaw that it could not meet the necessities of the hour;  and it did not.  Mr. Cobbett was among this number.  He had the boldness to say that "Before this bill can be carried out a million of persons at least must die of hunger."  As to how far the predictions of Mr. Cobbett were verified let the historian speak.

Distress is the real parent of crime.  Keep a people at ease, and their moral teachers must be at fault indeed if the mass is not well-conducted and honest.  Plunge them into misery and desperation, and vice and criminality shall begin to stalk through the land.  We have already seen that from the increasing pressure of the debt and taxes, and from the ease with which it was effected, the time of uttering forged bank-notes had grown until the juries got sick of blood;  and executions as a spectacle even ceased to interest the strangely constituted minds that find a pleasure in such exhibitions.  Well might this be when we learn the appalling fact that in the single year of 1820 one hundred and fifty persons were tried at the Old Bailey alone for uttering false notes;  and that of these, forty-six suffered death, being at the rate nearly of a victim per week through the twelve months.  This, however, was only a part of the mischief of the time.

They made political libels felonies, punishable by transportation;  and lastly, they surrounded the press with so many difficulties, publishers of newspapers being compelled to give security beforehand, to answer for any libel which possibly might be inserted therein, and to deposit at the stamp-office a copy of every paper they published, that unless backed by one of the great political parties that ruled the state, to conduct a political journal became a matter of deadly peril;  and freedom of writing was at an end.  Every man who really opposed in writing the existing system of tyranny and deception was sure of pecuniary ruin and the loss of liberty -- perhaps of life.  The few honest and intelligent public writers at that time existing were exiled or silenced;  and, upon the whole, the most dismal and dark year of English history was perhaps that of 1819.  That famous bill, however, which we have just seen the Houses of Parliament passed so unanimously, soon made amends for all.  Some of "the six acts" were temporary, and expired.  The laws concerning the press, however, remain to this hour;  but the changes produced by the workings of the bill of Peel have enabled the people partly to overgrow them, and their sting is all but gone.

Such were the fruits of the revulsion of the paper money, as far as respect for the maxims of constitutional law was concerned;  but it produced more novelties than these.  Amid the doubts, fears, and general want of confidence caused by appalling ruin which flowed from the sudden drawing in of the paper, and by the bloody outrages and bitter persecutions which again flowed from the effects of that ruin, It was felt necessary to attempt to draw, if possible, the ties that bound the middling classes of the nation to the funding and paper system still closer, and to add, if such a thing could be accomplished, to the strength and number of these ties.  Close observers, and those especially behind the scenes of this strange drama, saw that the fabric was now beginning to show signs of dissolution.  The people, amazed that a state of peace, instead of its usual blessings, had brought a palpable increase of difficulty and suffering, showed a marked and alarming impatience under their manifold burdens.  In proportion as the discontent was strong, had the government of a sudden become weak.  That strength which is derived from the power of lavishing immense sums of money was gone forever.  The eight hundred millions of debts were borrowed and extended.  No increase could he made here;  and those who carried on the government were henceforward bound by the bill of Peel repay the interest of that debt in convertible money of the value of £3 17s. 10½d. to the ounce of gold, and to raise all their taxes in money of the same value, which was (had they known it) a virtual bar to any future increase in the proportionate issues of paper, however desirable the ease obtainable from such issues might be. ---Doubleday's Financial History of England, pages 250-253.

Mr. Chairman, I will, even at the expense of being regarded tedious, make one other quotation from the same author:

The distress, ruin, and bankruptcy which now took place were universal, affecting both the great interests of land and trade;  but among the landlords, whose estates were burdened by mortgages, jointures, settlements, legacies, &c., the effects were most marked and out of the ordinary course.  In hundreds of cases, from the tremendous reduction in the price of land which now took place, the estates barely sold for as much as would pay off the mortgages, and hence the owners were stripped of all and made beggars. (Ibid., page 271.)

I will not recount the scenes of blood and suffering and death that followed and flowed from this blunder of the English Parliament, but content myself with warning the American Congress against a similar mistake.  The people of this country are in no frame of mind to be driven to the wall and beggared.  They will not go into involuntary bankruptcy nor have their property improperly wrung from them to pay in coin Government bonds that should and would without question have been paid in greenbacks except for the fraudulently procured acts of Congress to strengthen the public credit.  As to how those bonds should be paid I will take a future opportunity to discuss.

We are told there is a plethora of money in the great monetary centers of New York, Philadelphia, and other cities of this Union.  And yet we see it stated that during the first week in June of this year over one thousand properties were knocked down under the hammer at forced sale in Philadelphia.  Upon this subject I commend to the House the following article, taken from the Wilmington Herald of June 21:

O the Times !  The Times !

The first Monday of each and every month is the time fixed by act of Assembly to sell real estate by the sheriff of Philadelphia.  The first Monday of this month was the bluest day that city ever saw.  Over one thousand properties were sold by the sheriff, and in almost every instance the property was bought in by the mortgagee or judgment-creditor.  The rich are enriching themselves by obtaining for a debt, representing say 40 per cent. of the value of a piece of real estate, a property worth more than twice the amount of the debt.  This is harrowing.  Think of the sheriff's hammer falling successively for eight hours, and each stroke the type of ruined hopes, the sad ending of a struggle to have a shelter for the declining days of one's life.  Is it not enough to make strong men shudder ?  "Next sale," said the sheriff, "will be still larger."  "Next sale will be upon the 3d of July.  How many groans of sorrow will be mixed with the popular gratulations of the centennial eve.

The most alarming statement in this connection is the fact that in almost every instance the property was bought in by the mortgagee or judgment-creditor.  What good then, I ask, results to the people from this plethora of money if property goes for a song and the owner and his little ones are turned out houseless and homeless ?

But, again, I see by the papers yesterday morning that in the great monetary center of the country, the city of New York, one thousand unemployed workmen held a meeting and called at the office of the mayor of that city, peaceably demanding work that they might have bread.  When such scenes as these are enacted in the very heart of the two largest and wealthiest cities in the country, where the money of they country is locked up and her bonds held by hundreds of millions, do gentlemen yet insist upon inviting us to the resumption feast on the 1st day of January, 1879 ?  I commend to this House the following brief newspaper extract:

The Pittsburgh Post (democratic) says:  "Bread or blood.  This is an ugly cry to be heard in the land, and shows that we are terribly misgoverned."

I will not longer trespass upon the time of this House.  We are about entering upon an eventful chapter in the history of this country.  The times demand just and humane legislation -- that all classes in all sections and of all colors shall be protected.  Do this, and this centennial year will be a year of jubilee.

[At the conclusion of his speech Mr. Wilson, of West Virginia, yielded the remainder of his hour to Mr. Harrison.]