Complex sentence: The 1878 Bland-Allison Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required the government to buy large quantities of silver and strike it into coin; they had been passed as compromises between free silver and the gold standard.
Split into simpler sentences: The 1878 Bland-Allison Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required the government to buy large quantities of silver and strike it into coin. They had been passed as compromises between free silver and the gold standard.