Sections two and three of the bill were added by the Senate. The bill, as amended, was sent to the House of Representatives, and the Senate amendments were agreed to. The bill as amended was as follows;
"AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE COINAGE OF THE STANDARD SILVER DOLLAR, AND TO RESTORE ITS LEGAL TENDER CHARACTER.
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be coined, at the several mints of the United States, silver dollars of the weight of four hundred and twelve and a half grains troy of standard silver, as provided in the act of January eighteenth, eighteen hundred thirty-seven, on which shall be the devices and superscriptions provided by said act; which coins, together with all silver dollars heretofore coined by the United States, of like weight and fineness, shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for all debts and dues, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. And the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to purchase, from time to time, silver bullion, at the market price thereof, not less than two million dollars worth per month, nor more than four million dollars worth per month, and cause the same to be coined monthly, as fast as so purchased, into such dollars; and a sum sufficient to carry out the foregoing provision of this act is hereby appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. And any gain or seigniorage arising from this coinage shall be accounted for and paid into the treasury, as provided under existing laws relative to the subsidiary coinage: Provided, That the amount of money at any one time invested in such silver bullion, exclusive of such resulting coin, shall not exceed five million dollars: And provided further, That nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the payment in silver of certificates of deposit issued under the provisions of section two hundred and fifty-four of the Revised Statutes.
"Sec. 2. That immediately after the passage of this act, the President shall invite the governments of the countries composing the Latin union, so-called, and of such other European nations as he may deem advisable, to join the United States in a conference to adopt a common ratio between gold and silver, for the purpose of establishing, internationally, the use of bimetallic money, and securing fixity of relative value between those metals; such conference to be held at such place, in Europe or in the United States, at such time within six months, as may be mutually agreed upon by the executives of the governments joining in the same, whenever the governments so invited, or any three of them, shall have signified their willingness to unite in the same.
"The President shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint three commissioners, who shall attend such conference on behalf of the United States, and shall report the doings thereof to the President, who shall transmit the same to Congress.
"Said commissioners shall each receive the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars and their reasonable expenses, to be approved by the Secretary of State; and the amount necessary to pay such compensation and expenses is hereby appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.
"Sec. 3. That any holder of the coin authorized by this act may deposit the same with the treasurer or any assistant treasurer of the United States in sums not less than ten dollars, and receive therefor certificates of not less than ten dollars each, corresponding with the denominations of the United States notes. The coin deposited for or representing the certificates shall be retained in the treasury for the payment of same upon demand. Said certificates shall be receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and, when so received, may be reissued.
"Sec. 4. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed."
It was sent to the President, and was disapproved by him. His veto message was read in the House on the 28th of February, and upon the question whether the bill should pass, the objections of the President notwithstanding, it was adopted by a vote of yeas 196, nays 73. It passed the Senate on the same day, by a vote of yeas 46, nays 19, and thus became a law.
I did not agree with the President in his veto of the bill, for the radical changes made in its terms in the Senate had greatly changed its effect and tenor. The provisions authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase not less than $2,000,000 worth of silver bullion per month, at market price, and to coin it into dollars, placed the silver dollars upon the same basis as the subsidiary coins, except that the dollar contained a greater number of grains of silver than a dollar of subsidiary coins, and was a legal tender for all debts without limit as to amount. The provision that the gain or seigniorage arising from the coinage should be accounted for and paid into the treasury, as under the existing laws relative to subsidiary coinage, seemed to remove all serious objections to the measure. In view of the strong public sentiment in favor of the free coinage of the silver dollar, I thought it better to make no objections to the passage of the bill, but I did not care to antagonize the wishes of the President. He honestly believed that it would greatly disturb the public credit to make a legal tender for all amounts, of a dollar, the bullion of which was not of equal commercial value to the gold dollar.