ADI 
 
 l nr 
 
 
PAYMENT OF GOVERNMENT BONDS. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HON. L. Q. C. LAMAR, 
 
 OF MISSISSIPPI, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 JANUARY 24, 1878. 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 1 87 8 . 
 
SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. L. Q. 0. LAMAR. 
 
 Tlie Senate having natter consideration the resolution of Mr. Matthews, relative 
 to the payment of bonds of the United States in silver— 
 
 Mr. LAMAR said : 
 
 Mr. President: The resolution of the Senator from Ohio, omitting 
 its preamble, reads thus: 
 
 That all the bonds of the United States issued or authorized to be issued under 
 tbe said acts of Congress hereinbefore recited are payable, principal and interest, 
 at the option of the Government of the United States, in silver dollars, of the coin¬ 
 age of tiie United States, containing 412J grains each of standard silver; and that 
 to restore to its coinage such silver coins as a legal tender in payment of said bonds, 
 principal and interest, is not in violation of tiie public faith iior in derogation of 
 the rights of the public creditor. 
 
 To this resolution various amendments have been offered, among 
 others one submitted by the Senator from Vermont, [Mr. Edmunds,] 
 which reads in the following language: 
 
 That all the bonds of the United States issued, or authorized to be issued, under 
 the said acts of Congress hereinbefore recited are payable, principal and interest, 
 in gold coin or its equivalent and that any other payment without the consent of 
 the creditor would bo in violation of the public faith, and in derogation of his 
 rights. 
 
 I shall vote, Mr. President, against both of these resolutions, be¬ 
 cause I believe that the issue thus made up and joined does not set 
 forth fairly and fully the true issue involved in the great change 
 which is proposed to he wrought in the monetary system of this coun¬ 
 try by certain measures now awaiting tiie action of this body. This 
 1 think is manifest from the remarks with which the Senator from 
 Ohio [Mr. Matthews] opened his argument in advocacy of his reso¬ 
 lution. lie stated very distinctly that he would not consider tiie 
 question as to what the interests of this Government and of the 
 country required in connection with the exercise of the rights there¬ 
 in asserted. With equal emphasis he waived off the question as to 
 what a sound policy would dictate with reference to the legislation 
 contemplated by his resolution. Refusing to consider either the ques¬ 
 tion of policy or expediency he confined himself to the sole issue of 
 the right, the legal and moral right, of the Government to so frame 
 its legislation as to pay its public creditors in silver coin containing 
 412+ grains in the dollar. 
 
 Now, sir, the very fact that these important and grave consider¬ 
 ations are not deemed pertinent to the discussion of the resolution 
 is, of itself, in my opinion, a sufficient and conclusive objection to its 
 adoption. Suppose, when the measures which are lying behind 
 this resolution come up for discussion, the fact should be developed 
 that the law which is necessary to be enacted before this asserted 
 right can he exercised and put iu force would he prejudicial to the 
 interests of this Government. Supposetluit we should become satisfied 
 
i 
 
 that such a measure conflicts with the well established principle of 
 sound national finance; that it not only runs counter to the lasting 
 prosperity of the country, but may inflict an incurable blow upon the 
 public credit. What then would be the result of the adoption of 
 such a resolution ? Not merely the bare assertion of an abstract 
 right, I respectfully submit; something more than that; a solemn 
 declaration to the 'world which, lying upon our records, would be 
 pregnant with embarrassment and injurious misconstructions along 
 the whole track of our future financial interests. 
 
 I think a reference made by the Senator from Ohio to a point in 
 our financial history very strikingly illustrates the force of this 
 objection. He stated that the legislation of 1809 was made necessary 
 by the doubts, the apprehension, and the mistrust which arose from 
 a prevailing opinion expressed by statesmen and jurists that the 
 principal of our public debt at that time was payable in our legal- 
 tender paper money, the greenback currency of the country. To set¬ 
 tle the question and to remove this distrust, to quiet these apprehen¬ 
 sions, to clear away the obstruction to the funding of our bonds at a 
 lower rate of interest, and to bind the Government by a solemn act 
 of Congress that these bonds with all its other debts should be paid 
 in coin, the act of 1869 was enacted. It was, as its style declares, 
 “An act to strengthen the public credit;” the public credit which 
 was shaken by the construction to which the Senator referred. 
 
 Sir, in my opinion, the argument in favor of the right of the Gov¬ 
 ernment to pay the principal of those bonds in greenback currency 
 at that time was just as strong, and if possible stronger, than that 
 now made in favor of the right of the Government to pay its present 
 debt in silver coin containing 412£ grains in the dollar. 
 
 By the law of the land this greenback was then, as it is now, “ law¬ 
 ful "money ” and “ a legal tender in payment of all claims and de¬ 
 mands against the United States, except for interest upon the public 
 debt and duties on imports.” These provisions of the law were 
 indorsed upon the note itself. The commercial world, the business 
 public, had notice of the law under which the bonds were issued, and 
 the business world negotiated and accepted these bonds, advancing 
 for them this very currency, and in some instances at a prodigious 
 discount. As a lawyer, I concur in the opinion that at that time 
 these bonds were payable in greenbacks according to the literal con¬ 
 struction of the contract as it was originally executed. It would not 
 have been a matter of any importance, it would not have been a sub¬ 
 ject either of interest or inquiry-whether they were payable in green¬ 
 backs or coin, had the Government performed its promise of redeem¬ 
 ing its greenback currency; for in that case the two would have been 
 convertible. The holder of our national securities would have felt 
 no more interest in the question as to whether they would be paid in 
 gold or silver than the holder of an English security is now inter¬ 
 ested in the question of the payment of an English bond in the notes 
 of the Bank of England or in gold. 
 
 But, inasmuch as the greenback was not redeemed and was there¬ 
 fore depreciated in value by reason of the Government’s own act or 
 rather its default, the question arose whether it could afford to stand 
 upon the letter of its contract. The very agitation of the question 
 caused alarm among the public creditors, and,in the face of the peril 
 to which it subjected the credit and finances of the Government, the 
 legislators of that day felt themselves bound to do what they deemed 
 was equitable as well as politic, which was to pledge the Government 
 to pay its debts, not in its own unredeemed and depreciated notes, 
 but in coin. 
 
I am not now discussing the ulterior purposes which in this debate 
 are charged to have been the real motive of this legislation. I am 
 considering it in the light of the reasons which are relied on as its 
 justification, i. e., that it was demanded by good faith and financial 
 necessity. Now, sir, had some Senator, pending that discussion, like 
 my friend from Ohio, enamored of the juridical aspect of the ques¬ 
 tion alone, introduced a resolution with a preamble reciting the laws 
 under which the public debt was created, and concluding with the 
 declaration that the principal of “all the bonds, issued by the United 
 States under the said acts of Congress, is payable, at the option of 
 the Government, in the legal-tender notes of the United States, 
 and that such payment is not in violation of the public faith nor in 
 derogation of the rights of the public creditors,” and had the two 
 Houses, after a declaration by the mover that he wished the legal 
 right asserted, irrespective of what the interests of the people or the 
 suggestions of financial wisdom might require, adopted such a resolu¬ 
 tion, Avhat, sir, would have been the effect of suoli action upon the 
 attempt to fund the public debt at a lower rate of interest ? Its 
 effect then would have been precisely what, the effect of this resolu¬ 
 tion will be if it is adopted; not merely unfavorable, but, I fear, sir, 
 disastrous. 
 
 The resolution of the Senator from Vermont [Mr. Edmiwds] in 
 my opinion is amenable to the same objection. I do not believe it 
 wise or politic or statesmanlike for the two Houses of Congress, in 
 advance of any legislation, in advance of any settled policy, to pro¬ 
 claim to the world their position upon a naked legal point, isolated 
 from all the other important aspects of this sweeping and radical 
 revolution in our monetary system, involving as it does an utter over¬ 
 turn of all existing financial conditions. Howeverit may do in logic, 
 it will not do in practical legislation to lay down and commit your¬ 
 self to any premise until the other terms of the proposition are well 
 defined and established. 
 
 There is another objection. In all these resolutions offered as 
 amendments and substitutes there is, under the circumstances of their 
 presentation, an implied committal against the policy of the remone* 
 tization of silver. Such a committal, even by iinplicatiou, is in my 
 opinion at this time extremely inopportune and ill-advised. I believe 
 that there is a method of remonetizing silver, indeed there is more than 
 one method, so as to place that metal upon a solid and lasting foun¬ 
 dation as a part of the currency of this country. I believe that it 
 can be incorporated into the national currency so as to conduce 
 to the prosperity of the country, satisfy the popular demand, and that 
 too without any shock to the great interests involved, and even with 
 strengthening effect to the publifc credit. 
 
 By concert of action with all those nations who are favorable to 
 the remonetization of silver I believe that a legal ratio between these 
 two metals can he fixed so as to make what is called the double or 
 the alternate standard feasi ble, at least sufficiently so to advance all the 
 practical purposes of commerce and trade and business. It must be a 
 fair and an honest ratio, one in which the legal relation between these 
 metals corresponds to their actual relation, and there must be co-opera¬ 
 tion in order to insure this result, for I think I shall be able to demon¬ 
 strate that we can make buta slight impression in that direction stand¬ 
 ing solitary and alone. 
 
 Several Senators on this floor in advocating this measure have 
 urged it in this which I consider its most important aspect; and as 
 the Senator from Tennessee [Mr. Bailey] has set it forth with ad¬ 
 mirable clearness, force, and brevity, much more so than I can state 
 
6 
 
 it in my own language, I ask the Senate to indulge me while I read 
 this view thus presented. He said: 
 
 It seems to me. however, tliar these gentlemen overlook the fact that the object 
 in remonetizing the silver dollar is not atone to furnish money for the payment of 
 the public debt. 
 
 Then what * 
 
 The main purpose— 
 
 Says the Senator from Tennessee— 
 is to arrest the movements inaugurated in Europe and blindly followed in this 
 country to destroy a great part of the wealth of mankind; it is to restore the 
 silver dollar to the service of the world. 
 
 An admirable object, and one which furnishes the strongest argu¬ 
 ment in favor of a movement looking to silver remonetization. 
 
 He says again: 
 
 Mr. President, I believe that the Congress of the United States by prompt and 
 decided action can arrest the movements looking to tho demonetization of silver, 
 and thereby prevent the consummation of what I can but regard as a crime against 
 humanity, the destruction of one-half the money that belongs to mankind. 
 
 Sir, we can arrest this movement. Our influence among the nations is commen¬ 
 surate with our great population, our vast commerce, and advanced civilization. 
 That influence thrown now into the scale will arrest the attention of the world; it 
 will check the movement of Germany already brought to a halt; it will sustain 
 the States of the Latin union in their struggle, so long maintained without support. 
 Our action will compel all people to reconsider this question, and count the cost of 
 such gigantic destructions of wealth and the means of creating wealth. 
 
 Now, sir, I for one am not an advocate of monometalisra either of 
 gold or silver; and while I am in favor of going as far as sound 
 policy and principle will permit toward the establishment of a dual 
 system with a fairness of relation between these metals in the circu¬ 
 lation of this country, I do not believe that the bill which was re¬ 
 ported from the House and that which is reported as a substitute by 
 your committee will accomplish that object. I believe the result of 
 that bill will be not bimetalism in America or in Europe. Its pecu¬ 
 liar and all-overshadowing feature is that one metal and one metal 
 alone shall be the exclusive ruling element of American currency, 
 and that metal shall be silver. And I say, with all respect to my 
 friend from Tennessee, that if the financiers of Germany and England 
 had combined together to devise a scheme which should drive the 
 silver as money from the markets of Europe forever and establish 
 silver monometalisra in this country, they could not have invented 
 one more efficient than that which has been reported by the commit¬ 
 tee, unless it is the one for which it is a substitute. 
 
 I am aware of the boldness of this assertion and I beg Senators to 
 believe that with my experience hero I should not venture upon it 
 without ample authority to fortify the assertion. Nor do I intend to 
 invoke to my aid any opponent of the restoration of silver to the 
 currency of the nations or to the currency of this nation. I shall 
 call no bondholder upon the stand. I shall cite no witnesses except 
 those who have made themselves distinguished in their effort to re¬ 
 store silver to the circulation of the world. 
 
 Now, sir, the first that I shall ask attention to is a gentleman who 
 has made himself conspicuous among a group of authors, all of whom 
 are distinguished for their efforts in struggling not only against the 
 demonetization of silver in Europe, but for its remonetization there 
 and its remonetization here. I allude to Mr. Cernuschi, a writer of 
 great power and brilliancy as well as a most acute thinker, who has 
 lor many years consecrated his great abilities to the cause of bi¬ 
 metalism both in Europe and in America. I have in my hand a work 
 of his entitled Nomisma,or Legal Tender, containing, besides, bis testi- 
 
inony before the United States monetary commission. The author is 
 an ardent advocate of the restoration of unlimited legal tender of 
 silver in this country and of its free coinage. No one can read his 
 writings without feeling his own mind strengthened and enriched by 
 the contact. And in order that Senators may understand fully that 
 no advocate of silver remonetization is any more advanced in his po¬ 
 sition or demands for silver than he I will first read what he has to 
 say on this subject: 
 
 For the United States to resume specie payments it is necessary for them to 
 rehabilitate silver; give the silver dollar the same value as the gold dollar, then 
 accept silver at the custom-houses, aud be able to pay their Europeau bondholders 
 in silver dollars. 
 
 So earnest is this gentleman in his advocacy of this movement 
 that when he heard of the appointment of the United States mone¬ 
 tary commission, instead of corresponding with that body, be crossed 
 the" Atlantic in order to give his evidence in person. I call attention 
 to what ho says upon the subject referred to by the Senator from 
 Tennossee. Mr. Boutwell asked him this question: 
 
 If silver and gold should he used throughout the United States, the Latin union, 
 Holland, and India, upon the same basis of relative values, what would be the 
 effect ? 
 
 Here is bis answer, and I Toad this part simply to show that this 
 gentleman is an unqualified enthusiastic (even to an extreme) advo¬ 
 cate of the theory of the double standard. And I wish to say here 
 that, in my opinion, many of the economic principles which Cer- 
 imschi, and Ernest Seyd, and Hay, and other European wu-iters on 
 this subject Lave laid down in advocacy of the restoration of silver 
 to its former place as money have not been snccessfully controverted, 
 and in my judgment cannot be. Here is bis proposition ; 
 
 I maintain that the effect would he to constitute a strong mass of money 
 composed of gold and silver, but without possibility of variation in value of tbo 
 one against the other. 
 
 He develops this theory at some length, with which I will not de¬ 
 tain the Senate. But now for the next question: 
 
 What, in your opinion, would he the effect of an agreement to use both metals 
 in the United States, in Europe, and in India ? 
 
 Answer. The effect would be that every variation, every perturbation in the rela¬ 
 tive value of gold aud silver would he forever impossible. Thequantity produced of 
 the ono or the other of the metals has nothing to do with the relative value of the 
 two metals. The only cause which produces variation in the relative value of 
 gold and silver is that which is shown in die laws of the different countries. 
 
 He exaggerates the influence of laws upon the value of money, and 
 this I think the weak point in his theory. I read this simply to show 
 the extent to which he goes in his advocacy of the restoration of sil¬ 
 ver to the currency of all the nations, the United States as well as 
 Europe. I ask especial attention to the next question aud his answer: 
 
 Mr. Bogy. Supposing that in this country wo restore our relation at 16 to 1, while 
 in Franco and Europe generally it would remain at 15$ to I. what would bo the 
 effect upon this country, and what would be the effect upon Europe. 
 
 I ask attention to the answer: 
 
 If you coin at the ratio of 16, France cannot coin at the ratio of 15$. * * * 
 
 T hen, if you coin at 16, you remain alone; audit were better to maintain the green¬ 
 backs than to coin silver, if this metal is not also coined in Europe. 
 
 I would put this Government abreast of the Latin union at this 
 very moment. If Senators do not wish to wait for co-operation, why 
 go further than France ? There is no doubt about the fact that, 
 knowing that she cannot maintain her position as a bimetallic na¬ 
 tion, France has stopped the coinage of silver altogether within her 
 limits. 
 
8 
 
 Again: 
 
 Onestion. Suppose that France keeps her mints shut, as they a re now and remains 
 as she is while the United States adopts the bimetallic system, with the relation 
 the same as that which the Latin union lias now establishod-Germany is pro¬ 
 hibited from sending her silver to France, and the t nitcd States boldly adopts the 
 relation of 15* to l—I ask what harm could come to the United States in such a 
 condition of things ? 
 
 Mr. Cernnschi answers: 
 
 This silver which would come from Germany here should have the effect of 
 driving out all the gold. 
 
 Again: 
 
 Question. In the presence of the great demand caused by the wants of this 
 country for the purposes of resumption, how loug do you suppose would silver 
 remain at a discount as compared with gold ? 
 
 Here is the pregnant answer to that, anti it is noteworthy not only 
 on the ground of authority but on account of the intrinsic force of 
 the suggestion: 
 
 The silver can remain at a discount forever. But this is not the worst; the 
 worst is that no fixitv would ever he possible between the value of gold and the 
 value of silver. If you are bimetallic when Europe is gold monometallic, you are 
 bimetallic only by name ; verilv, you would bea silver monometallic country, such 
 as India, and the monetary position of the United States against Europe would be 
 exactly the same as is the present position of India against England, a position 
 which’engenders heavy losses to both countries. 
 
 I have read this, Mr. President, not only as authority I say, but to 
 give to the public the reasons stated with a force far beyond the hap¬ 
 piest efforts of iny humble powers which control my vote on this im¬ 
 portant question/ But, sir, I could cite other authority in Europe and 
 England and in this country. I call attention now to the views of an 
 author in this country with whom I am not personally acquainted, but 
 whose book is full of rich and curious and rare information, and the 
 argument is well made. It is the first elaborate work I think in this 
 country in favor of using the remonetization of silver as the means 
 of specie resumption, and it was written before this bill came before 
 Congress. These are the works and teachings of thoughtful men 
 npon the subject before it was flung into the arena of political strife, 
 before passion began to rage around this question and parties began 
 to shape themselves in reference to it. I am now about to read from 
 the work of Mr. S. Dana Horton, in which the author advocates, just 
 as Ernest Seyd and Cernuschi and Wolowski and Smith, all bimetal¬ 
 lists, have done, the remonetization of silver by free coinage, unlim¬ 
 ited legal tender, and the paymentof yourpnblic debtiu silver. But 
 thequestion of judiciously timing your measure is the most important 
 question involved in this controversy; and what does he say upon 
 that ? 
 
 Under these circumstances, what course is left open to the United States? 
 
 It must be recognized that the movement toward demonetization of silver in 
 Europe has in no proper sense spent its force. Motives, powerful to move nations 
 as well as individuals, are still active in promoting it. 
 
 It was urged in France, before the Franco-German war, that in demonetizing 
 silver, France would be enabled to soil its silver to Germany ; and after the war, 
 the similar expectation was held as to the sale of German silver to France. 
 
 The pride of leading personages in Europe is enlisted not merely in the main¬ 
 tenance, but also in the further extension of the gold standard, and it is from the 
 demand for silver for the United States that the relief is expected which may 
 facilitate the spread of their great error. It is "on the cards/’and is an event 
 upon which leading men in Europe calculate, that the United States may be 
 tru8te<l to fail to comprehend its true interest, and hence to deal crudely— 
 Excuse me, Senators, it is not my language— 
 to deal crudely with this momentous subject, in 
 its $1:10.000,000 of gold to the stock of Europe and 
 mand for existing stock and annual product of golc 
 
 a word, that it may contribute 
 withdraw the weight of its de- 
 
 
9 
 
 It is obvious that for tlio United States alone to attempt to establish the bime¬ 
 tallic standard would result in failure to secure aught but the one depreciated 
 metal. 
 
 I am aware, Mr. President, that I am reading more than is usual in 
 arguments of this sort, but really this is a question in which the 
 views of those who have given the subject calm and scientific inves¬ 
 tigation are entitled to more than ordinary weight. 
 
 After this book was published, a second edition was issued and 
 what is known as the Bland hill was passed in the House, 1 think, 
 after the first but before the second edition was published. I read 
 from the appendix to the second edition. 
 
 The causes of the stoppage of silver coinage are not, in any proper sense, tem¬ 
 porary. So long as the policy of demonetization prevails in a country which has 
 silver to sell, other countries must abstain from maintaining free coinage of silver 
 as legal tender, or consent to part with their gold in return for the silver thrown 
 upon the market by their neighbor State. 
 
 But if a sufficient number of nations coin silver at one fixed equation with gold, 
 silver would remain an international money, the par would be secured m perma¬ 
 nence, and there would he no danger of the latter event above suggested. This 
 was abundantly illustrated in the case of Holland, whose demonetization of a 
 circulating metal (gold) in 1849 was made possible by the working of the bimetallic 
 system in France and other countries. 
 
 All is different to-day. The northern countries of Europe are demonetizing 
 silver; the product is increasing, anil no great combination of nations exists to 
 neutralize so violent a disturbance of the equilibrium of the metals. 
 
 Hence it is plain that the action of the Latin union in refusing to coin legal 
 tender silver is, in the present phase of the question, final. It is an adjournment 
 sine die. There can be no further action until the final situation is changed. 
 
 It is sufficiently obvious that the leaders of the Latin union are cognizant of 
 these facts, and they are men who art! not likely to stultify themselves. The Lat in 
 union cannot coin the silver franc if we coin the silver dollar at 1 to 16. She 
 cannot become at once the sole receptacle of all the silver demonetized in Germany. 
 
 The hill— 
 
 Speaking of the bill in the other House— 
 is really an attack upon the bimetallic system, the restoration of which is needed 
 for the future prosperity of the world,and if itbecomes law it willprove anobstruc- 
 tion to the prosperity of the United States. 
 
 I have adduced all this to show that iu the opinion of the ablest 
 and most distinguished advocates of silver remonetization the effect 
 of such legislation as is here proposed will consolidate the currency 
 of all Europe on a gold basis and remand America to “the Asiatic 
 role,” and that of those poorer countries of Europe that are con¬ 
 demned by their very necessities to receive the rejected coin of the 
 great commercial nations. I do not say this in any spirit of host ility 
 to the restoration of silver; hut the fact is true that that metal occu¬ 
 pies a subordinate position in the currency of the ruling nations of 
 the European continent. It is demonetized practically among two 
 hundred and fifty millions of the population of the globe; that is, it 
 is entirely demonetized as a legal teuder iu England and Germany and 
 its coinage has been arrested in the Latin union, and it is demone¬ 
 tized in tne United States. Silver cannot go into France to be coined, 
 and the five-franc piece, which is the only silver coin that is a full 
 tender there, is getting scarce. 
 
 Now, Mr. President, the fact of demonetization is a fact irrespective 
 of onr own wishes on the question, and the consequences of that fact 
 are just the same whether demonetization was a grand, gigantic error 
 of these enlightened nations or whether it was due to some inherent 
 deficiency in the metal itself as a medium of modem exchange. We 
 must legislate with reference to what exists, to things as they are, and 
 not as to what we would like them to be. It has been said that the 
 
10 
 
 causes which led to the demonetization of silver in Germany and its 
 subordination in other European nations had no reference to its rela¬ 
 tive fitness for exchange as compared with gold. It has been alleged 
 that its demonetization in Germany was due to political reasons exclu¬ 
 sively, the policy of the Empire to unify and centralize its circulation 
 and get rid of the diverse and somewhat discordant currencies of the 
 German principalities. That is a good reason as far as it goes, but 
 it was as easy for Germany to unify its currency upon a silver basis 
 as upon a gold basis, and it does not explain why that government 
 selected a metal which it had not and rejected a metal which it had 
 as the material of its new monetary system. There must have been 
 some other reason. It has been said in this debate that this demone¬ 
 tization was the policy of despotic governments whose policy was 
 different from that of a free republic, and that their adoption or 
 rejection of a system should r.ot influence our decision on such a 
 question. Sir, the nations in which these changes have taken place 
 are those whose institutions are freer than the governments which 
 have adhered to silver money. Their governments are responsible 
 to public opinion, and the administration of their affairs is directed 
 by an enlightened sense of the interests of their own people. 
 
 Another fact. How came France to stop the coinage of silver and 
 to that extent demonetize that metal f France was not an empire 
 when she did that nor was she under the same necessity which is 
 alleged of Germany. The furnace of war which fused the German 
 confederation into one,empire simply melted off the imperialism of 
 France and brought out her republicanism pure and unalloyed ; and 
 it was as a republic, under tbe leadership of Gambetta, Thiers, and 
 others, that she flung back into the lap of Germany the demonetized 
 silver which that power soughttoforce upon her, and thus perfonneda 
 financial maneuver which gave her a greater financial victory over her 
 haughty rival than that rival had won over her in the ruder game of 
 war. It was not following her example, but it was simply thwarting 
 the financial finesse of Germany with a measure of a like character. 
 
 Mr. Presideut, this bill deals with two of the most delicate and 
 sensitive parts of the apparatus of civil society—the currency of the 
 country and the all-pervading relation of debtor and creditor. A 
 great statesman has said that tliere was nothing in the arrangements 
 of human society and government more sensitive, nothing that ought 
 to be touched so cautiously,nothing that rash experiments would injure 
 mo: e. seriously. It proposes that the old silver dollar shall be coined 
 a* legal tender and made equal with the gold dollar. Now I would 
 ask Senators if the silver coin is not largely overvalued and gold un¬ 
 dervalued by this proposed legislation f Will any one deny that tbe 
 effect of this measure will bo to drive whatever of gold circulation 
 we now have out of the country? Such is the invariable effect of 
 this legislation. When you make a certain weight of one metal the 
 lawful equivalent of a defined weight of another metal as money, 
 the overvalued metal is the cheaper one and drives the other out. 
 You cannot open a work on political economy in which this change¬ 
 less law is uot stated. The coinage history of every country bristles 
 with illustrations of it. Nearly every Senator who has spoken in 
 favor of this resolution and the bill behind it lias affirmed the exist¬ 
 ence and force of this principle in order to account for the limited 
 amount of silver coined in this country at certain periods. They all 
 attribute it to the overvaluing of gold and the undervaluing of silver, 
 each affirming the cause to bo that the cheaper money will always 
 drive out the dearer. 
 
 The effect of the bill now proposed, if it becomes a law, will expel 
 
11 
 
 the gold from the country to the extent that silver is used. The 
 question then arises, should the legislation of this country be so 
 framed as to establish one metal as the basis of currency and that 
 metal to be silver ? Is it a wise policy to legislate gold practically 
 out of existence as money in the United States ? Why should we 
 substitute a silver currency for a gold one ? What conceivable benefit 
 will silver confer which gold will not confer in a much greater de¬ 
 gree ? In what one single attribute of money is silver so superior to 
 gold as that our laws should expel the latter and innke the former 
 the controlling element of American cnrrenoyf Take any of the 
 functions of money, whether it be as a medium of valuation or as a 
 means of purchase, or as a means of payment, or as a transporter of 
 values, or a preserver of values, and in what one element is not gold 
 the superior of silver? Both have their peculiar functions. Gold is 
 the great commercial machine which swings the products of a coun¬ 
 try in or.e bulk from continent to continent, while silver sends these 
 products, not in bulk hut in littles, through the numerous and laby- 
 rintliian mazes of domestic exchange. We hear it said that the moun¬ 
 tains of Nevada are producing this abundant material of money, and 
 that we should have it coined into dollars for the people’s use. 
 
 But, sir, our gold mines are still more productive of a far more 
 valuable material for money. Then, sir, I ask again, what possible 
 reason can there be for this legislation, which in effect demonetizes 
 the more precious product of our American mineq. and tho more 
 abundant ? Why should we avail ourselves of only one of these 
 sources of money w r ealth to the exclusion of the other, especially 
 when the latter furnishes an international money that puts our coun¬ 
 try en rapport with the whole commercial world, and the formor is a 
 commercial and financial insulator. 
 
 Sir, I am well aware that such is not the design of this bill, and 
 that its advocates (those of them who admit that such will be its 
 effect) regard that result neither with complacence nor indifference. 
 Their view, so far as I can gather it, is, that expulsion of gold will he 
 an evil, but an evil incident to the accomplishment of a much greater 
 benefit. Judging by the arguments in favor of this bill, it seems to 
 be pressed as a measure which looks not so much to the principles 
 of a permanent financial policy for the securing of the future inter¬ 
 ests and the lasting prosperity of tho nation as to the immediate 
 relief of the present dist ress of our people, which is very great and 
 deserving all of the sympathy which has beeii so eloquently expressed 
 in this debate. 
 
 I fully concede that there is at the bottom of this consideration 
 a strong principle of justice and humanity, and of wisdom also if 
 the purpose could be accomplished. The skillful physician when he 
 finds his patient writhing under insupportable agony at once ad¬ 
 ministers laudanum or some other anodyne, although he may know 
 that it will not cure the disease or restore vigor to the constitution. 
 Now there is no doubt about the suffering condition of the people of 
 the United States. It needs present and immediate relief. The dis¬ 
 tress spreads over the entire country, extending to every class of our 
 population, merchants, farmers, manufacturers, men of business, and 
 laborers. It is a mistake to suppose that those who live on the income 
 of fixed investments or borrowed capital have escaped. The shrink¬ 
 age in the value of one single class of bonds is stated at the sum of 
 $2,000,000,000. I am prepared to vote for any measure that will give 
 relief to all these suffering interests, and I will not hesitate to do so 
 from the consideration that it will enable debtors over this country 
 to pay their debts at ninety cents on the dollar. The public man 
 or statesman who will introduce a measure that will enable the peo- 
 
12 
 
 pie of this country— the indebted classes— to lift tlieir debts by the 
 payment of ninety cents or eighty-five cents on the dollar will be a 
 benefactor to his generation ; and the creditor class will be as much 
 the recipient of the benefaction as any other, for what could be the 
 loss of ten cents upon the dollar to the creditor class of this country 
 compared to the sacrifice and the insolvency and the beggary and the 
 poverty and the fraud and the ruin and the desolation which are now 
 threatening them But, sir, how will the remonetization of silver 
 give this relief? We are told that it will bring from our mines in 
 Nevada and the demonetized silver of Germany the needed supply for 
 the wants of our people. It is expected to produce activity iu the 
 business and industry of the country, employment for laborers, higher 
 prices for products, and help to the indebted classes in their struggle 
 to escape the burdens which are crushing them into poverty. Mr. 
 President, this is indeed an alluring prospect, and when presented to 
 a people enduring the pri vation of poverty and the torture of threatened 
 insolvency, it is but natural that they should look upon a measure 
 promising relief with all the eagerness of hope; it is but natural 
 that they should listen with impatience and irritation to the stern 
 truth which negatives these sanguine hopes and the probabilities, 
 founded on past experience, that such measures promising a whole¬ 
 sale relief to the ills of a people will produce not the effect expected, 
 but the very reverse. . 
 
 And when the delusion vanishes and the stern reality reappears, 
 how cruel the disapointment, how much keener the suffering. 
 
 Sir, it does seem to me so clear that the relief which is promised for 
 this measure is delusive that 1 would be criminal if 1 did not speak 
 my honest convictions. 
 
 It is said that all this prostration of business and industry, this 
 destruction of prosperity, is due to the scarcity of money growing 
 out of the policy of contraction; that remonetization will supply the 
 deficiency and restore prosperity. 
 
 Let it be conceded for argument sake (and I concede it only for 
 argument sake) that the scarcity of money is the cause of all the 
 financial distress the people of the United States are now suffering. 
 Before any one is authorized to promise or anticipate that the re¬ 
 monetization of silver will increase the volume of the currency, and 
 thus relieve the people from the evils of scarcity of money, ho should 
 show that it is the absence of silver at this time from the channels of 
 circulation, as the effect of demonetization, which causes this scarcity. 
 If it can be shown that, but for the absence of silver from our circula¬ 
 tion, money would have been abundant instead of scarce, a very 
 rational foundation is laid for the hope that remonetization will 
 bring ns the promised relief. Unfortunately facts show the reverse 
 to be true. 
 
 The advocates of this measure have, in order to show what an 
 insufficient supply of money exists in the United States, cited the 
 fact of the great disparity between this and other countries in respect 
 of the proportion of money to population, Englaud having, as it is 
 stated, (not with entire accuracy, but let that pass,) from §27 to $30 
 per capita; France, $44 per capita; Germany, $24 per capita; while 
 the United States has something under $20 per capita. Now, sir, 
 it is a remarkable circumstance that the very nations which are 
 cited as having a more plentiful volume of money are the very 
 nations which have demonetized silver. It is true, sir, that these 
 three nations, two of which have demonetized silver and the third 
 stopped the coinage of it, have in proportion to population a larger 
 volume of money than we have. But that fact proves, if it proves 
 anything, that demonetization of silver does not cause a scarcity of 
 
13 
 
 money. It shows that the absence of silver and scarcity of money 
 are not necessarily coexistent phenomena. 
 
 But there are other facts in this connection which still more posi¬ 
 tively negative the presumption that remonetization on the plan now 
 proposed will augment our quantity of money. We have had given to 
 ns by a Senator a table of nations in which silver is the sole legal 
 tender, and of those in which gold is the sole currency, and of those in 
 which both gold and silver are legal tender. 
 
 In the list of those having silver money alone, Austria comes first. 
 There silver and paper are legal tender. Surely, if unlimited legal 
 tender of silver is all that is wanted to insure abundance of money, 
 then Austria ought to have that abundance. But in point of fact 
 how does Austria stand in the proportion of population to money? 
 Below England, below Germany, below the United States. Why is 
 this? Austria is a silver nation. I do not mean that it has got 
 silver mines, but it has silver coinage and unlimited legal tender of 
 silver, and the mines of Nevada and the thalers of Germany could 
 flow there, if something else did not prevent their going ; and yet, 
 with silver coinage and an unlimited legal tender of silver, Austria 
 has only $15 to the head, or, as some authorities put it, $17. It seems 
 to me that if silver coinage and silver legal tender are only necessary 
 to have an overflow of silver into a country, Austria would be that 
 country, and her poet might exclaim: 
 
 If there is wealth to he found in the world, 
 
 A heart that loves silver might look for it hero. 
 
 For she has got the very law you propose, and yet the silver does 
 not flow there. And Russia, that great colossal despotism, which is 
 extending its conquests almost into the heart of Europe, and 
 threatens to be to some extent its arbiter—Russia is also a silver 
 country. Her metallic currency, according to the most trustworthy 
 authorities that I have been able to consult, is, like that of Austria, 
 exclusively silver and some baser metals, and yet in that country of 
 silver coinage and legal-tender the proportion of money to popula¬ 
 tion is only $12 per capita. It is apparent from these facts that while 
 there may be an abundance of money -where silver money is abol¬ 
 ished, so there may be likewise a great scarcity of it where silver is 
 recognized and nsed as the exclusive metallic basis of circulation. 
 
 Now, sir, I wish to be understood as not citing these facts to show 
 that silver either in its presence or in its absence is the cause of 
 scarcity or abundance of money. I mean only to show that scarcity 
 of money and the presence of silver as a legal tender with free coin¬ 
 age are not necessarilycoincident facts and they do not sustain to each 
 other the relation of cause and effect. The fact is, the proof shows, 
 as far as I have been able to consult the authorities—and I have 
 looked over a large number of them—it neither increases nor de¬ 
 creases the amount of currency in a country. The fact seems to be 
 that the cheapness of silver (caused by demonetization and the dis¬ 
 covery of new mines and other causes which I cannot now go into) 
 lias only served, in those countries open to its unobstructed inflow, 
 to displace gold. There seems to be just so much of a capacity for 
 metallic currency in those nations, and the flowing in of silver sim¬ 
 ply causes an outflow of gold without any rise in the volume. 
 
 It is something like what is seen in my State, where a crevasse break¬ 
 ing through the banks pours its water into a bay or a harbor of the 
 Gulf. It does not deepen the bay. Ships of no heavier draught than 
 before can bring in their freight on account of it; it simply dilutes 
 and displaces the strong salt quality of the water and destroys the 
 oysters and other fish of which there was a plentiful abundance be¬ 
 fore the influx of fresh water. 
 
14 
 
 There is another fact worthy of attention in this connection. Be¬ 
 fore 1873 we had silver coin and legal tender unlimited, and yet the 
 greatest contraction of our currency was between 1866 and 1869. Sil¬ 
 ver was demonetized in 1873. In that year our circulation was in 
 round numbers §738,000,000. In 1874 the circulation rose to §779,- 
 000,000; and this was after the demonetization of silver. I state this 
 fact to show that neither the remonetization nor the demonetization 
 of silver has any very great effect upon the volume of currency in this 
 or any other country in the present monetary condition of the world. 
 It may be asked what, then, is the thing which makes the United 
 States have less money in proportion to population than the countries 
 heretofore named, if it be not the exclusion of silver. Sir, it is the 
 result of many causes. I have time to refer to but one, which of itself 
 as long as it exists will go far to keep the money of this country in¬ 
 ferior in character and less in amount proportionally to population 
 than that of any prosperous country on earth. 
 
 Sir, it is true that the money of this country is less in proportion 
 to population than it is in England, Franco, or Germany. But if we 
 analyze the elements of which those currencies are respectively com¬ 
 posed, it will be found that our inequality is owing to the greater 
 quantity of coin in those countries. In other words, while they have 
 a larger volume of currency, we have a much larger volume of paper 
 circulation than they have. In this one fact ot a large volume of 
 inconvertible and therefore depreciated paper currency we have a 
 cause which puts a limit to any augmentation of money that will be 
 commensurate with either the growth of our population or the in¬ 
 creasing demands of business. 
 
 When the currency of a country consists of a depreciated legal- 
 tender paper money it puts a stop to the inflow of any coin from 
 abroad as completely as if there were a prohibitory tariff, and thus 
 it renders impossible any increase by the laws of trade. It drives to 
 foreign lands the stable' and solid currency of the precious metals, 
 and degrades what is. retained into a commodity by driving it from 
 the channels of currency and putting it into the bands of brokers. 
 The law of an inconvertible paper currency issued by Government 
 is, “ Be it enacted, there shall be so much and no moreand no 
 matter what the demand of trade shall be, no matter wliat commerce 
 shall require or how your population shall increase, you cannot add a 
 dollar to that currency through the ordinary offices of trade, for the 
 precious metals are excluded by it. Not fifty cents can be added uuless 
 a statute is enacted on the subject; ‘‘Be it enacted, so much more 
 shall be issued.’’ There is no. escape from the bankruptcy of a people 
 who are writhing under the curse of an inconvertible currency. It 
 is an embargo upon the importation of the precious metals as money, 
 (of gold and silver alike.) It deprives the nation in which it exists 
 of just those agencies which increase and decrease the currency of 
 other countries according to the increasing or diminishing needs of 
 business. You have confirmation of this in all those states in wbiclx 
 an inconvertible currency exists, Italy and Russia and Spain; all 
 have but little of coin compared to their paper circulation. 
 
 But it is said that this measure is needed not so much to swell the 
 amount of money now in circulation as to arrest the fearful process 
 of contraction, to which the enforcement of resumption is subjecting 
 the people. 
 
 Mr. President, if it is so absolutely necessary to relieve onr people 
 of the pressure of contraction would it not be best to pursue the shortest 
 way to that end by stopping the process of resumption, rather than to 
 resort, to a measure whose effects cannot be known until after the 
 experiment is made ? 
 
15 
 
 Sir, the resumption act was not made a law by my voteor with my 
 consent. In common with many others I foresaw the difficulties 
 which have arisen in its enforcement. The objections of John C. 
 Calhoun to the*coercion of specie payments by Government made a 
 most profound impression upon my mind long ago. But the relation of 
 the Government to the subject was just the reverse of what it is now, 
 and the condition of things when he spoke was different from what it 
 is now. It is not true, by the way, that the great South Carolinian 
 everfavored an inconvertible currency. At that time the Government 
 was itself out of debt and it was the creditor of the indebted classes, 
 it could afford to be generous in its policy. It is now the debtor, and 
 perhaps may be considered as confronted by different obligations. Sir, 
 the romonetization of silver will not relax or arrest the contraction 
 growing out of resumption. In my opinion its effect just at this time 
 may be the most disastrous of contraction instead of expansion. 
 
 The policy of resumption lias been entered upon. To go back "will 
 simply involve us in more evils than those which it has brought upon 
 us. From various circumstances many things point to a speedy re¬ 
 sumption of specie payments, whether anybody wants it or not. Gold 
 was quoted a short time since as low down as 102. Everything points 
 to a speedy equality between the values of gold and greenbacks. If 
 nothing in our legislation prevents it, I think that equality will come 
 very soon. It is manifest now that when gold and greenbacks are 
 at par gold will cease to be a commodity and pass into the circula¬ 
 tion. All motive to hoard it or to make brokerage upon it or to 
 speculate in it as a commodity w'ill be taken away. If this he the 
 case it will at once increase the volume of available currency by the 
 whole amount of gold in the country, and I think that is put at. 
 $130,000,000 by some of the estimates. Some say 81^0,000,000 and 
 some $200,000,000. In spite of everything that is being done to pre¬ 
 vent specie payments from being resumed the natural condition and 
 effect of our business relations are bringing the two together. When 
 the greenback and the gold dollar are equal it does not necessarily 
 follow that we resume specie payments or that we can maintain 
 resumption. But that circumstance will immediately unlock the 
 door of the stock of gold in this country and put it in circulation ; it 
 will make it part of the currency of the country. Suppose that just 
 when we are so near the unlocking of the door which has kept gold 
 out of the currency of the country for so long, and just when wo are iu 
 sight of it we by the passage of a silver bill lock it up again. We have 
 not any silver currency in this country except subsidiary coin ; alto¬ 
 gether I believe it is less than $40,000,000. It will take many years 
 for the Government to coin a silver currency and put it in circulation. 
 The manufacture of silver coin, I see it stated, is a slow process, tho 
 handling of silver is a slow process, and the immediate effect would bo 
 to drive out this volume of gold already here and pnt in place of it 
 the smaller volume of silver that would be available in a short, time. 
 This would be a contraction of the'currency sharper and more disas¬ 
 trous than anything that can be anticipated from the present condi¬ 
 tion of affairs. 
 
 But it is said the remonetization of silver at the ratio fixed by this 
 bill of lfi to 1 will give iuerease of compensation to the laboring 
 classes through the higher prices which it will produce aud to the 
 indebted chisses increased means of discharging their debts. 
 
 First, let us sec what the effect will be upon laborers, even con¬ 
 ceding that it will produce high prices. The two things which are 
 least affected by a change in prices are labor and real estate. Every¬ 
 thing else rises or falls, as the case may be, before they do. What, 
 then, is the situation of the laborer, who has been earning a dollar a 
 
16 
 
 dav, after the price of everything has risen ten cents on the dollar, 
 or which is the same thing after the dollar has been depreciated ten 
 cents ? The price of his labor is the same. He receives the same 
 amount of pay which he received before—that is, a ddllara day—but 
 he receives it in a dollar cheaper by ten cents while he has to pay 
 for everything he purchases a higher price, and therefore the value of 
 the money which he receives for labor is less and brings him fewer 
 comforts than it did before. 
 
 Look at the price of labor in any of the tables that have been pub¬ 
 lished and you will find it as firmly fixed as any law that the prices 
 of labor and of real estate go up more slowly than anything else. 
 Therefore, any change which brings higher prices to a country ami 
 unnaturally raises the prices as certainly brings oppression and dis¬ 
 tress upon the laborer for the time being. But more especially will 
 this policy fail to benefit the farmers of the South and West. They 
 have nothing to pay their debts with except the money which they 
 make over and above their current expenses. They must first pay 
 tike current expenses of the year and then apply their surplus to the 
 debts which are now pressing upon them. 
 
 The Senator from Ohio, in reply to a question from the Senator 
 from Connecticut [Mr. Eaton] as to the price in gold in the mar¬ 
 kets abroad, said “what have we to do with abroad?” Sir, we of 
 the South have everything to do with abroad. The great production 
 of the South has its price fixed at Liverpool in a gold market, and 
 that dominates the price of the same product with the manufact¬ 
 urers of the North. Then with the proceeds of the sale thus made 
 at the price fixed at Liverpool they are compelled to pay their ex¬ 
 penses, the necessaries and comforts of life, at the high prices ruled 
 by a depreciated currency. There is no people on earth who can 
 stand such a process long. Senators have dilated upon the evils of 
 a contracting currency. They are very great under somo circum¬ 
 stances but they are not comparable to those of a people who, having 
 to sell what they produce in a market of low prices, are doomed by 
 the laws of their country to buy all they consume in a market of 
 high prices. There are exceptions to the rule in reference to contrac¬ 
 tion. There was a greater contraction of the currency, far greater, 
 between 1866 and 1870, than since 1873, and yet that has been counted 
 a period of great prosperity. The pecuniary distress which we have 
 here is not confined to the United States; it extended to Europe, and 
 was just as great. But there was one great difference. The period 
 of contraction here was a period of unexampled expansion of cur¬ 
 rency there. So the rule does uot seem to be an invariable one, that 
 expansion of currency brings prosperity or that contraction brings 
 financial adversity. But it is a law to which there is no exception, 
 that a people will sooner or later come to hopeless insolvency who, 
 soiling the product of their annual toil in a market of low prices, 
 are compelled to buy for themselves their food and clothing and 
 shelter in a market of high prices. Nothing can be more destruct¬ 
 ive ; not even the ravages of armies, “ or the outpouring of Hoods, 
 or the withholding from the parched and thirsty earth the refreshing 
 rainsof heaven.” 
 
 Mr. President, we have two great American products in this coun¬ 
 try. One is the cotton product. That product commands gold every¬ 
 where on the globe with the single exception of the spot where it is 
 produced. Not a human being handles this product of Southern agri¬ 
 culture, the product of American soil and American labor, uot one 
 man touches it beyond the confines of America who cannot command 
 gold for it at its own price ; but the producer of it, he who digs and 
 delves and plows the earth does not obtain what the product of his 
 
17 
 
 labor will command over all the world besides. There is another prod¬ 
 uct here in the gold mines of this country, produced in American 
 soil, by American labor. The gold mines 'in the United States are 
 more productive than any in the world. Indeed they produce more 
 than half of the annual product of the world. They produce more 
 gold than do our silver mines, and yet the product of gold and the 
 product of,cotton cannot come together npon this continent. 
 
 By some malign influence gold, the product of American soil, the 
 product of American labor, and cotton, the product of American soil 
 and the product of American labor, are kept apart, divorced, and the 
 very moment they leave the country, the very moment they depart 
 from your shores, they leap together as by a natural affinity, and live 
 in indissoluble wedlock in every other clime on earth. What is the 
 cause of this! There is but one cause, and that is, you have here a cur¬ 
 rency which will not allow the farmer, with his potatoes, or his wheat, 
 or his cotton, or any other product, to get gold money with that prod¬ 
 uct. You have a currency which drives gold from your shores, leaving 
 you an inconvertible currency, a depreciated currency, a currency 
 which forces the cotton-grower of the South and the wheat-grower 
 of the West to take for these articles the prices lixed by a gold stand¬ 
 ard abroad, and to make their purchases here at the higher prices 
 which a depreciated currency never fails to create. 
 
 Mr. President, I have said nothing about the effect of this measure 
 in relation to the debtor classes of this country, except simply to 
 demonstrate in my opinion that it will not give them the relief that 
 is anticipated. I believe it will crush the indebted classes down fur¬ 
 ther than before. Nor have I discussed the question whether the 
 Government has a legal right to pay its bonds in silver dollars con¬ 
 taining 412£ grains to the dollar. There is so much of magic be¬ 
 witchment in the dialectics of construction, whether of contracts 
 and bonds or of laws, that we are apt to overlook practical results. 
 I am willing, for the sake of the argument, to put myself along with 
 those who maintain the right of the Government, upon the strict 
 letter of the contract, to thus discharge its obligations. There is no 
 doubt that up to 1870 all that this Government had bound itself to 
 do was to pay a bond of $1,000 in $1,000 of gold or one thousand sil¬ 
 ver dollars of the then standard value, and that standing upon that 
 contract the Government could pay its bonds in that way; but in 
 1873 the Government prohibited the coinage of silver dollars and by 
 legislation withdrew the legal-tender quality from silver. Has not 
 that something to do with this question f Senators have contended 
 that the value of silver has depreciated by demonetization. If this 
 Government by its own act has lowered the value of silver, can it 
 now equitably claim to pay its obligations in a metal which itself 
 has demonetized and depreciated in the markets of the whole world ? 
 Is it not estopped by its own act from insisting upon its right to pay 
 in this coin thus depreciated and demonetized, not by events beyond 
 the control and agency of the Government, but by the Government 
 itself. 
 
 I shall not go into the agencies which produced that legislation. I 
 have nothing to say of the powerful arraignment made by the Sen¬ 
 ator from Indiana, [Mr. Vookheks.] I do not run across that argu¬ 
 ment of his, masterly, refulgent, and sharp as it was: but, whatever 
 may have been the error, whatever may have been the wrong of the 
 party which fastened that legislation upon the country, it is an act 
 of the Government, and it imposes an obligation as solemn as national 
 honor can impose. Silver was demonetized by the sovereignty of 
 the Government of the United States, and according to your own 
 argument its depreciation this day is owing to that canse, and no 
 other. 
 
 2 LA 
 
18 
 
 Now, sir, conceding that the strict letter of the contract with the 
 public creditors allows the payment of all its bonds, even those issued 
 since ld?3, (for which gold in full was received,) in a coin depreciated 
 by its own acts of demonetization, does it follow that such a construc¬ 
 tion is the proper and rightful one as to the true spirit and intent ? 
 Such a construction comes under the condemnation of the old legal 
 maxim, Qui heret in litcra herd in corlice: sticking like a worm in the 
 bark and gnawing away that which protects the life of the fair and 
 stately tree of national credit. 
 
 Senators speak of restoring the silver dollar to its legal statu quo 
 before the demonetization by remonetizing it. Sir, does not the obli¬ 
 gation go further ? If we are determined to restore the legal relation 
 of silver to gold as it was before demonetization, ought we not to 
 restore its adual relation also; to put it where it was in point of 
 fact as well as of law ? 
 
 The argument of the Senator from Missouri is ingenious. But the 
 special pleading which he gives is supposed to be conducted as in a 
 suit between two individuals before & court of law. This I respectfully 
 submit is a fallacy. National credit is quite a different thing from 
 individual credit. An individual is subject to the processes of law. 
 He can be compelled to comply by the judgment of court. Mortgages 
 can be foreclosed upon his estate and execution will bind his goods 
 and chattels. Not so with the nation. No lien can bind its prop¬ 
 erty ; execution cannot issue against it. 
 
 The security of any investment in its obligations rests not in legal 
 enforcement. Then whero is the security? It is in nothing but a 
 sentiment: good faith, national honor. What a frail tenure in one 
 sense, and yet how strong in another. Let universal confidence be 
 felt in that honor, and the credit of the nation rests upon a rock, and 
 an earthquake cannot shake it; but let one breath of suspicion touch 
 it and it crumbles into irretrievable ruin. 
 
 Cicero, speaking of public faith, said: 
 
 The state to its citizens speaks through its own statutes, decrees, and edicts; 
 but in treaties it speaks the language of universal justico and right as ordained by 
 the immortal gods. 
 
 Sir, England has a greater debt than ours. The interest she has to 
 pay is only 3 per cent. What is the cause of this low rate ? Nothing, 
 sir, but the sentiment everywhere prevailing of confidence in the 
 sensitive regard which that nation lias for its public credit. 
 
 In a few years our bonds will fall due. We cannot expect to pay 
 theih. We shall have to borrow' the entire amount again in the mar¬ 
 kets of the world. At what interest depends upon our credit. The 
 rate of interest is always measured by the comparative safety or risk 
 of the investment. The risk is always covered by a high interest as 
 a certain compensation against ultimate probable loss. 
 
 Now, sir, the question in reference to the debt of this Government 
 is not How shall it be paid ? but How shall it be carried ? Shall it be 
 carried with a heavy burden of high interest or a light burden of 
 low interest ? This alone, it seems to me, ought to settle the question 
 of the policy of paying the bonds in a depreciated coin. It has been 
 shown that we could have saved, but for the agitation of this question, 
 §20,000,000 a year by funding in 4 per cent, bonds, which has been 
 stopped simply by the pendency of this bill. I call attention for a . 
 moment to the reply of the Senator from Tennessee [Mr. Bailey] 
 to the calculation of a gentleman who was before the Committee on 
 Finance, showing this fact: 
 
 It is urged with much force, however, that the restoration of the silver dollar 
 and making it legal-tender money for the payment of debts, public and private, 
 will prevent the funding of the public debt at a lower rate of interest, and tables 
 have been prepared showing the sums the Government will save by anabapdon- 
 ment of silver. I have one of these tables now before me, prepared by Mr. Ellis, a 
 
19 
 
 banker in the city of New York, and, as the newspapers sav, read before a commit¬ 
 tee of the House of Representatives. I will read it: 
 
 I have made a table showing the amount to be gained, provided the Government 
 can continue its funding operations as at present, on the supposition that if the sil¬ 
 ver 1>ill ispassed and the pniicipal and. interest of the bonds are made payable iu 
 silver, its funding operations will cease. I will now read you the figures : 
 
 Amount of G per cent, bonds outstanding. $729, 000,000 
 
 Annual interest on same .. $43_ 740 OOO 
 
 Amount of 5 per cent, bonds outstanding. 703,000,000 
 
 Annual interest 011 same.. 35 400,000 
 
 Total. 79,140,000 
 
 If these bonds were funded at 4 per cent, the annual interest would be. 57,480,000 
 
 Annual saving. 21,600,000 
 
 If the 4 per cent, bonds shall be paid at their maturity, say thirty 
 years, the total savings would be, not compouudiug interest!.”. 649,800,000 
 
 If the bonds should not be funded, and principal and interest should 
 be paid in silver, and the relative value of gold and silver should 
 continue as at present, say a difference of 8 per cent., the saving to 
 the Government on the interest payments would be about. 196,000,000 
 
 And 011 tbo principal would be about. 115,00o| 000 
 
 Total, not compounding interest. 311, 000,000 
 
 Now, upon the assumption that we can fund our debt in 4 per cent, bonds, (and I 
 do not doubt that we will,) and upon the further assumption that the effect of the 
 legislation contemplated by these resolutions will prevent this funding, the state¬ 
 ment makes out a strong case. The sum lost the Government is very largo and 
 exceeds 815,000,000 a year. Hut will the fulfillment of our obligation destroy our 
 credit? It may be injuriously affected for a time, not because of the fulfillment of 
 the obligations of the contract in their essence, and spirit, but because of the dis¬ 
 appointment of ureasonablo expectations. But when time shall have cooled the 
 passions excited by these disappointments and the deliberate judgment of mankind 
 shall be pronounced, tho sentence will bo reversed, and our credit will be strength¬ 
 ened by the firmness with which wo have resisted these appeals. 
 
 There is some force in this suggestion, but it is not satisfactory. It 
 may be that our credit will recover from the blow which would he 
 given to it should our vindication be complete. But, sir, a character 
 unassailed is immeasurably more precious to a nation than a character 
 vindicated. 
 
 , This is a most favorable opportunity for funding onr national debt 
 at a low rate of interest which may not come again. The conjuncture 
 of events which has caused so much capital to be locked up, makes 
 it seek safe investments at interest so low as to be very slightly re¬ 
 munerative. This may not last a long time. It must soon look 
 for other investments. With anything like an improvement in busi¬ 
 ness, investments will offer which will he more remunerative and tho 
 opportunity which the present financial condition of the world and 
 the disturbed political condition of other nations now afford may 
 pass from us never to return. 
 
 I distinctly state here that I believe that the purpose of all is to 
 uphold the national credit. I am only stating what the dear-bought 
 experience of nations has shown, that when the legislation of a nation 
 is injurious to the interests of those who, trusting its honor, have in¬ 
 vested loans of money to it, borrowed especially in its strngglo for 
 national preservation, their complaints and assaults, however unjust, 
 will injure its credit, and the injury is always irreparable. I have 
 had an illustration of this in the last few days. 
 
 A Senator, in a not unkind spirit, referred to the State of Missis¬ 
 sippi as having repudiated her debt. Mr. President, I have no hope 
 of ever removing that impression from the mind of the business public 
 no matter bow strongly I may reiterate the oft repeated explanation. 
 
 It has passed, it seems, beyond the power of correction. At the 
 6ame time I must be permitted to repel that statement. The trans¬ 
 action which has attached to Mississippi the odium of repudiation is 
 
One in which that State disclaimed no debt which she had either in 
 law or fact contracted. Nor did her people receive one dollar from 
 it. I have not the time to go into this matter now,even if it were 
 pertinent to this discussion. I will merely make one statement. By 
 the constitution of Mississippi at that time no Legislature could 
 pledge her credit to anybody or in behalf of anybody, individual or 
 corporate, except by the law of two successive Legislatures and by a 
 vote in the iuterim of the people upon the act thus pledging its 
 credit. What I mean is, that it required that any statute which 
 loaned the credit of the State should first have to pass one Legisla¬ 
 ture, then be submitted to the people, and, after certain formalities 
 complied with, passed by a second Legislature. Sir, that act which 
 has attached to Mississippi so long the odium of repudiation never 
 did pass two successive Legislatures; it was never submitted to the 
 people of Mississippi. It was passed by oue Legislature, executed in 
 hot haste, and the proceeds of it were put in a private institution, 
 and never a dollar did the treasury or the people of that State re¬ 
 ceive of the money thus raised in violation of her fundamental laws. 
 The business public, the commercial world, had notice of this funda¬ 
 mental law of the State of Mississippi, and with that notice was 
 superadded the proclamation of her executive forbidding any nego¬ 
 tiation in these bonds thus unconstitutionally issued and illegally 
 executed. 
 
 Mr. RANDOLPH. If I do not interrupt the Senator, I think the 
 Senator from Mississippi and myself are not in exact agreement as to 
 what I intended to say yesterday. He speaks now of the Union Bank 
 bonds. I was speaking of the Planters’ Bank bonds. I do not care 
 to interrupt the Senator, and will only say that the Planters’ Bank 
 bonds were guaranteed by the constitution of the State of Mississippi 
 passed in 1832; that from 1832 to 1852 the interest was paid upon those 
 bonds, and that after that by the action of the people, which I regret 
 as much as he, the interest ceased to be paid. I said that was prac¬ 
 tically repudiation. 
 
 Mr. LAMAR. Mr. President, the charge of repudiation made 
 against Mississippi, and which has caused her to be held up to public 
 reprehension, was not based upon her action with reference to the 
 Planters’ Bank bonds, but wholly upon the transactions connected 
 with the Union Bank bonds. The affair of the Planters’ Bank bonds 
 which came afterward involves a different line of considerations from 
 which the Senator must excuso me now, as I wish to give this sub¬ 
 ject only a passing notico. 
 
 Something was said in this discussion with reference to the bene¬ 
 fits which are to result to the producing classes by this measure, and 
 also as to the motives which prompt the opposition to it. It has 
 been said that there are two classes in this country, one the producing 
 class engaged in the active business of life, the laboring class; the 
 other the capitalists of the country, those who derive their income 
 from fixed estates, rents, interest upon bonds and stocks; and that upon 
 this question a conflict between these two classes has arisen. Now, sir, 
 so far as I have studied this subject I have seen nothing to justify such 
 a classification. No man has greater respect and sympathy for the 
 working classes than I. Sir, before the man who stands with bronzed 
 brow and hardened hand and bent frame from his struggles with the 
 earth for the subsistence of himself and his family I stand in modest 
 deference and respect. I know something of that class at home. I 
 have felt the heart-warm grasp of their hands and owe to their sup¬ 
 port all that I am. There is another class of workers, however, to 
 whom I am under a greater obligation than I am even to those who 
 have worked the earth and the material agencies of nature. They 
 are those men who work with the brain, who in sileuce and in their 
 
21 
 
 •closets develop the great laws which rule society, who trace the 
 phenomena of human government to their original principles and 
 discover the laws which control governments and societies. They 
 are men of genius, men from whose brains flow the great thoughts of 
 which constitutions and laws and institutions are the mere external 
 embodiment. It is to them that I am indebted for the views which 
 control me in this vote, the men who are the true kings of earth, and 
 who are really the authors of the considerations which have moved 
 the enlightened governments of Europe in the management of their 
 finances. 
 
 As to the other class, called the bondholders, I know nothing per¬ 
 sonally. Throughout the entire range of my acquaintance there are 
 but three persons I know who are the owners of United States bonds. 
 Will the Senate bear with me while I state who they are ? One is a 
 distinguished lawyer, one of the most upright men I ever knew, 
 one whose rectitude in all the relations of life, bo they to God 
 or man, seems to be unexceptionable, a model to all who know him 
 of intellect, integrity, and honor. He has never handled a dollar 
 that he did not earn by the toil of hand and brain, or that lie did not 
 collect and pay over to his client. After making provision for his 
 family and benefactions to the poor and distressed which were gen¬ 
 erous and munificent, he found himself at the end of each year with 
 a small surplus of means. Being no speculator, never having in his 
 life, I suppose, bought or sold for profit, and there being no property 
 in Mississippi in which a man could at that time invest with security, 
 for, alas! in my State property was poorer than labor and a more 
 grievous burden than poverty—having no other means of investment , 
 at hand, ho simjdy bought United States bonds as a deposit of his 
 funds. Another was an old farmer who, by long years of industry 
 and frugality and virtue, amassed sufficient'fortuue to purchase him 
 a plantation in his declining years. The fortunes of war swept 
 away everything from him except his real estate, which in 1865, be¬ 
 fore the desolating furies of reconstruction came down there and de¬ 
 voured everything, he sold, and bought just enough of bonds to bring 
 him an income of $1,200 a year. Upon that income the old man with 
 his aged wife lives in a small cottage, educating their boys in our col¬ 
 lege near my little town. There is still another, a widow woman 
 with three children. Her husband was a merchant. His affairs be¬ 
 ing wound up just before his death and his small estate converted 
 into money, and there being no other investment, Government bonds 
 were bought and with the income of those bonds they find shelter 
 and raiment and food and education for the three little girls. 
 
 Sir, these are the only bloated bondholders that I know of in all 
 this world. It is true that they get a very small income. By the 
 way, let me say that there is not an investment in this country less 
 remunerative than the bonds of this Government. There is scarcely 
 an avocation that does not pay a larger percentage than United States 
 bonds, when you consider the premium.upon them and the small rate 
 of interest that they bring. The men who make their fortunes by 
 large and extortionate jobs are not the men who invest in these secu¬ 
 rities, it seems to me, although I confess I know' but little about it. 
 
 It is true, as I was going to say, that the persons to whom I have 
 just referred do draw semi-annually their small income in gold ; but, 
 inasmuch as we are told that greenbacks are the best currency we 
 ever had, surely those w r ho think so ought not to complain if they 
 are paid in one that is not so good; but if they insist upon the in¬ 
 justice of the discrimination of paying the bondholder in gold and 
 the laborer, and soldiers, and sailors, in greenbacks, I trust they will 
 cease to find fault with those of us who wish to pay the soldier, (lie 
 sailor, and the laborer in the same coin that is paid to the bondholder. 
 
I repeat, I do not believe that the classification is a correct one. I 
 (lo not believe that any such distinction exists in this country as that 
 which places all the capitalists on one side and all the producing 
 classes on the other. It is impossible that it should be so in a coun¬ 
 try of institutions like ours. Sir, property is too shifting, fortunes 
 are too mutable here to organize society upon any such basis. Men 
 who are laborers in a few years by industry and energy become cap¬ 
 italists, while those who were capitalists become in the mutations of 
 fortune and the laws of trade among the class of laborers. There is 
 not a citizen of this great Republic who can ever vote against the 
 laboring classes of this country without striking a cruel blow at the 
 interests of some of his own descendants, who are destined in the 
 course of human events to swell the ranks of the laborers of this 
 country; nor, on the other hand, can any man cast a vote against 
 the capital class of this country that will not throw obstructions in 
 the way of his own posterity. 
 
 I cannot forget one thing, that we of the South at least owe much 
 of the success of the opposition which has been made to the repressive 
 policy of this Government to the conservative influence which capi¬ 
 tal has exerted in the poiltics of this country. But for that, I do not 
 know that Mississippi, and Alabama, and Arkansas, and Florida would 
 not this day be under the iron rule of the force bills which were de¬ 
 feated but a few years ago. Much has been said about the city of 
 New York. New York City has been most generally democratic, and 
 she has often stood by the South when popular majorities elsewhere 
 were hostile. 
 
 Sir, I again insist that it cannot be maintained that any such dis¬ 
 tinction exists between the two classes in this country or that it ever 
 did exist. Sir, where have the commercial class and the planting 
 class of the South been in every struggle in which the interests of 
 labor were concerned? In the revolutionary war to what class did 
 John Hancock, of Massachusetts, and Charles Carroll, of Maryland, 
 and George Washington, of Virginia, belong ? What did they say 
 in the Declaration of Independence? 
 
 We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. 
 Did they risk fortune or life grudgingly becanse the success of their 
 cause was to raise the great body of their laboring fellow-country¬ 
 men to a freer and broader and higher life ? Who in 1812 defied the 
 power of England in all her might, to protect the humblest citizen 
 who by his labor contributed to our wealth and to our glory ? Sir, 
 where will you find the champions of free trade, the opponents of 
 extravagant taxation, the steady opponents of moneyed monopolies 
 and the speculations of those who are not capitalists, but who by 
 congressional plunder seek to make themselves capitalists? Who but 
 the democratic representatives of every class in this country—the 
 farmers bf the West, the merchants of the North, and the planters 
 of the South ? 
 
 Why, sir, were not the planters of the South at the time they were 
 denounced as bloated slaveholders, as an effete aristocracy, always 
 considered as the sure allies of the democracy of the North ? They 
 stood always by the laboring classes of the North, and with Jefferson 
 and Madison and Jackson and Polk as Presidents always kept the power 
 of capital from interlacing itself with the powers of government; 
 and whatever else may be laid to their charge they maintained their 
 fidelity to the interests of the laboring classes of the North down to 
 the very time of the extinction of their influence in this Government. 
 I say tliis because I speak of what I have witnessed. I was here 
 amid the closing scenes of that influence. One of them I can never 
 forget. I remember hearing on this floor the then distinguished Sen- 
 
ator from New York, (Mr. Seward,) who has even become more con¬ 
 spicuous in the more eventful times which have come since, declare 
 that tho power had departed from the South; that the scepter was 
 now taken from her hand, and that henceforth the great North, 
 stronger in population and in the roll of sovereign States, would grasp 
 the power of government and become responsible for its administra¬ 
 tion. I am aware that I listened to him with impatience and perhaps 
 with prejudice. For it seemed to me that he spoke in a spirit of ex¬ 
 ultation that scarcely realized the magnitude of the task about to 
 devolve upon him and his associates. It struck me that he spoke in 
 a spirit far removed from that sadness and solemnity which I think 
 always weighs upon the mind and the heart of the truly great man 
 in the presence of a grave crisis of national life. 
 
 I remember the answer that was made to him by a South Carolina 
 Senator, Governor Hammond, who sat near where my friend from 
 Indiana [Mr. Vooriikes] now sits. He was surrounded by a circle of 
 southern statesmen whom no future generation will see surpassed in 
 ability or purity, be the glory of our growth, as I trust it will be, 
 unrivaled in the history of nations. There was James M. Mason, the 
 square and massive simplicity of whose character and purity stands 
 monumental in our annals. There was his accomplished colleague, 
 Robert M. T. Hunter, whose clear and broad statesmanship found 
 fitting expression in a scholarly eloquence that drew friends and 
 opponents into the same circle of admiring affection. There was 
 Slidell, with his shrewal and practical wisdom, and, near him, J. P. 
 Benjamin, whose astuteness and skill and eloquence and learning 
 have since rebuilt his fame and his fortune in that Olympic field of 
 mental conflict, the great courts of Westminster. There was Robert 
 Toombs, who never spoke without striking at the heartof big thoughts 
 and kindling the ideas of all who listened to him. There was Clement 
 C. Clay, the cultured student whose heart was the sanctuary of lofty 
 feeling and stern principle. There was Albert G. Brown, from my own 
 State, who never had an aspiration not in sympathy with the wants 
 and feelings of his own people, who yet was never overawed by their 
 prejudices or swerved from his convictions by their passions. There 
 was another—Jefferson Davis—Mr.President, shall I not be permitted 
 to mention his name in this free American Senate which has been so 
 free to discuss and coudemn what it has adjudged to be his errors— 
 one who has been the vicarious sufferer for his people, the solitude of 
 whose punishment should lift him above the gibe and the jeer of 
 popular passion—but whose words will stand forever upon the record 
 of history; not in defiance, not in triumph, but as the sad and grand 
 memoranda of the earnest spirit, the lofty motives of the mighty 
 struggle, which, however mistaken in its ends and disastrous in its 
 results, was inaugurated by those who believed it to be in the interest 
 of representative liberty and constitutional government. 
 
 Among these, and surrounded by others like them, the Senator from 
 South Carolina, with that noble presenco which lives in the memory 
 of all who ever saw him, addressed to his Northern associates on this 
 floor the words which I have never seen iu print from that day to 
 this, but which lean never forgot; and which, if the Senate will 
 permit me, I will here repeat: 
 
 Sir, what the Senator says is true. The power has passed from our hands into 
 yours; but do not forget.it cannot be forgotten, it is written upon the brighest. 
 page of history, that we tho slave-holders of the South took our country in her in¬ 
 fancy, and after ruling her for sixty out of seventy years of her existence, we re¬ 
 turn her to you without a spot upon her honor, matchless in her spleudor. incal¬ 
 culable in her power, the pride and admiration of tho world. Time will show 
 what yon will do with her, but no time can dim our glory or diminish your te- 
 sponslbility. 
 
 Sir, it is not for mo to say wliat lias been done witli it. The ar- 
 
24 
 
 raigument of the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Vooriieks] is still be¬ 
 fore the country. There is testimony, however, by a witness who 
 may be regarded as more impartial—a judge sterner than he ; I will 
 read what he says: 
 
 My own public life lias been a very brief anil insignificant one, extending little 
 beyond the duration of a single term of senatorial office; but in that brief period 
 I have seen five judges of a high court of the United States driven from oflice by 
 threats of impeachment for corruption or maladministration. I have heard the 
 tannt, from friendliest lips, that when the United States presented herself in the 
 east to take part with the civilized world in generous competition in the arts of 
 life, the only product of her institutions in which she surpassed all others beyond 
 question was her corruption. I have seen in the State in the Union foremost in 
 power and wealth four judges of her courts impeached for corruption and the 
 political administration of her chief city become a disgrace and a by-word through - 
 out the world. I have seen the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs iu 
 the House, now a distinguished member of this court, riso in his place and demand 
 the expulsion of four of his associates for making sale of their official privilege of 
 selecting the youths to be educated at our great military school. When tho great¬ 
 est railroad of the world, binding togther tho continent and uniting the two great 
 seas which wash our shores, was finished, I have seen our national triumph and 
 exaltation turned to bitterness and shame by the unanimous reports of threo com¬ 
 mittees of Congress—two of the House and one here—that every step of that mighty 
 enterprise had been taken iu fraud. I have heard in highest places the shameless 
 doctrine avowed by men grown old in public oflice that the true way by which 
 power should be gained in the Republic is to bribe the people with tho offices 
 created for their service, and tho true end for which it should be used when gained 
 is the promotion of selfish ambition and the gratification of personal revenge. I 
 have heard that suspicion haunts the footseps of the trusted companions of the 
 President. 
 
 These things have passed into history. The Hallam or the Tacitus of the Sis- 
 mundi or the Macaulay who writes the annals of our time will record them with 
 his inexorable pen. And now, when a high Cabinet officer, the constitutional ad¬ 
 viser of the Executive, flees from offico before charges of corruption, shall the his¬ 
 torian add that tho Senate treated the demand of the people for its judgment of 
 condemnation as a farco and laid down its high functions before the sophistries 
 and jeers of the criminal lawyer ? Shall he speculate about the pretty political 
 calculations as,to the effect on one party or tho other which induced his judges to 
 connive at the escape of tho great public criminal 1 Or, on the other hand, shall 
 he close the chapter by narrating how these things were detected, reformed, and 
 punished by constitutional processes which the wisdom of our fathers devised for 
 us, and tho virtue and purity of the people found their vindication in the justice 
 of the Senate 1 
 
 Mr. President, we, the successors of these men, are here to-day. By 
 a policy which is a noteworthy fact in the nineteenth century, we 
 have come to mingle with the Representatives from the States of this 
 Union in a common council for the good of this country. We come 
 no longer as representatives of the capital interests of the South. We 
 come not as the mere allies of the laboring-men of the North any 
 longer, but as laborers ourselves, every one of us and every one of our 
 constituents taught the stern lesson of necessity of earning our bread in 
 the sweat of our face. But, sir, we come with our convictions unchanged 
 as to the necessity of the laboring classes of this country being pro¬ 
 tected in all their rights and in all their interests, for when that class 
 sinks the entire fabric of our society must sink and crumble; but 
 we come believing that they are honest, that they are patient, that 
 they are self-reliant and true to their obligations, and that what it 
 is their duty to do they will feel it is to their interest to do. We have 
 differed among ourselves upon this great question; but of one thing 
 the world may be assured, that no southern Senator representing 
 southern people will give a vote upon either side of it which is not 
 designed on the one hand to protect the laboring classes of this coun¬ 
 try alike with its capital or on the other that will not preserve un¬ 
 tarnished the sacred honor of America. 
 
 c