"1. What reason, if any, there is for refusing to pass a bill authorizing the receipt of legal tenders for customs dues.
"2. Why the trade dollar should not be converted into a standard dollar.
"3. What has been the cost of converting the interest-bearing debt, as it stood July 14, 1870, to what it is now, including double interest, commissions, traveling expenses of agents, etc., and the use of public money by banks, and the value of its use, so as to determine whether the system should be continued or changed.
"4. The effect of the abolition of the legal tender quality of greenbacks upon the paper currency.
"5. The necessity for a sinking fund and how it is managed.
"6. Whether silver coin received in payment of customs duties has been paid out for interest on the public debt; and if not, why not."
Senator Allison desired to know if this interview was to be stenographically reported, and the committee decided that it should be.
My answers to these questions and the colloquy with the committee in respect to details cover fifty-four printed pages, and give by far the most comprehensive statement of treasury operations during the two or three years before that meeting, and suggestions for future legislation, that has been written or published. The length of the interview prevents its introduction in full, but a statement of some portions of it may be interesting. In answer to the first question I said:
"The act of February 25, 1862 (section 3694, R. S.), provides that all the duties on imported goods shall be paid in coin; and the coin so paid shall be set apart as a special fund to be applied to two purposes, one of which is the payment in coin of interest on the bonds of the United States, and the balance to the sinking fund.
"This is an obligation of the government that its coin revenue should be applied to the payment of interest on the public debt. So long as legal tender notes are maintained at par and parties are willing to receive them in payment of coin interest, there is no objection to receiving legal tender notes for customs dues.