Year: 1876

: AS ASsos


all private deb's OF the country, had been
contracted when the standard dollar was
a legal tender. The bondholder should
be held pto his contract, and should be
paid in the commodity which he had
agreed to accept, bnt it was said that sill
yer had deprecated. If. however, gold
should depreclate through discovery OF
some great bonanza, what would
the gentleman from Ohio Paynel
do? Would he, in the inter.
est of the bondholder, say that
gold had deprecated and was
q dishonest money, and that, therefore,
the bondholder should not be compelled
to take their pay in gold, but should be
paid in diamonds, or some other more
valuable commodity.


Mr.. Bright opposed the adoption OF
the report, and argued that gold and sill.
yer were the lawful money of the United
States, and that, therefore, the demoniza-
ton of silver was unconstitutional.


Mr.. Cox, chairman of the Committee
on Banking and Currency, argued in
favor of the adoption of the report. He
suggested that the bill introduced by Mr..
Wells, of Missouri, to allow the owners Of
silver bullion to deposit it in the mint
and receive subsidiary silver coin IN pay.
ment, was better bill than any OF those
passed by the House, but that the bill
was not before the House. The confer
ence report was not amendable. If 1t
was adopted the issue of sill
YER coin would be facilitated, and
if it was not adopted, there was
no hope of relief this session. He might
agree with the gentleman from Indiana
GLsndersl that even government bonds
should be paid in silver as we'll as in
gold; but he would not stop to argue
that, or other pertinent questions. The
real question was, whether this report,
which would furnish silver currency to
the people, should be adopted, or wheth-
er the people should be deprived of that
relief


Mr.. Kassan said those who sustained
the report demanded that the wages OF
labor should not be paid in depreciable
money. No man dealt honestly with the
laborer of the country who did not pro-
pose to pay HIM for his labor in good
money on that platform. He had stood
for years against all clamors of imitation,
and all attempts To reduce the money OF
the United States to the value of that OF
San Domingo, where 1t takes market
basketiul 10 buy a dozen of eggs for
breakfast. A vote for this bill was not a
vote TO demonetize silver, but to remon-
etize and to satisfy the demands of the
community for silver change.


Mr.. Garfield said the House had been
brought face to face with what seemed,
on one hand, public honor, and on the
other the deepest public disgrace, by
alternative propositions presented to the
House. He argued that since 1884 there
had been but one standard of money in
this country, the silver dollar, although 1t
had been lawfully embodied in the metals
of gold and silver. Congress had
sought, however, to make the
dollar in both equivalent, keeping
the amount of metal in one so adjusted
to the amount of metafin the other, that
dollar in gold should be equivalent to
dollar in silver. Every hour, he con.
tinued, that we have had double stand
ard il has been double only on the ground
of equivalency, and when, by shifting
the value of two metals in relation TO
each other, they have changed, Congress
has come in and equalized them, either
by increasing the amount of metal IN
one or by decreasing it in the other,
1t has so happened that by fluctuations
foreseen in 1873, silver has so deprecated
| in value that if il were now, rs thank
God it is not, one, our legal form OF pay
ment in all amounts TO the creditors ol
the government, the men to whom we
are paying money every day all around
us, can be swindled TO the extent oi
twenty.one cents on the dollar when
paving them in silver, rather than IN
gold. or TO the extent Of ten
cents on the dollar when pay
Ing them in silver, rather than
in paper. We are solemniy bound by
the act of 1869 to pay our bonds in coin
or its equivalent. Do you say that you
can pay them IN deprecated silver, and
still keep the law of equivalency, which
was the spirit of the law of 1862 You
violate the law when you violate the very
essential word OF Its equivslency. Inc
whole meaning Of this Is that there is IN
the human mind sort Of longing to get
a chance TO cheat somebody. A grea'
preacher once said that there are
lust two things which human nature
wants, the tendency and opportunity tc
wrong, and it has has happened IN the
fluctuations of these metals, that there II
a grand opportunity now 10 jump upon
base metals and save, by swIndling, one
fifth of the entire amount which every
public and private debtor owes to his
creditors. have never, since have been
in public life, seen any proposition which
had iu it SO many OF the essential
elements of rascaliry and absolute swind.
ling. l do not say that that Is its pur-
nose. but It's effect. You may recoliect
The old shock of 1887 and later the shock
of 1857, and again in 1873
nut them all together and the
financial crisis and utter break
down of this country in all OF them
combined would be light, compared with
the shock which this proposition would
bring on the country. 1t has been al
ways true that where there were two
legal standards of money, the weaker
and less valuable will drye out the more
valuable. Put this law TO operation a
suggested. and every particle Of gold
coin will leave the country just
as iast as it can be transportel
abrosd. DO that and q revolution II
financial and monetary affairs, utterly
unparalleled IN the history OF the ns
tion, will follow.


The conference report was adopted
Yeas, l29; nays, IS.


Mr.. Sparks, from the conference com con,
mit.ee on the Indian appropriation bil!
reported that the committee had been
unable 70 agree.


Messrs. Sparks, Hurlbut and RAndal
were resppointed Senate conferees.


Mr.. Wait. f.om the select committee =


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