IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
May 29, 1872.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
December 16, 1872.
Reported by Mr. Sherman with amendments, viz.: Strike out the
parts in [brackets] and insert the parts printed in italics.
January 7, 1873.
Mr. Sherman, from the Committee on Finance, reported additional
amendments, which were ordered to be printed with the bill.
AN ACT Revising and amending the laws relative to the mints, assay-offices, and coinage of the United States. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 2 United States of America in Congress assembled, 1 Sec. [16] 15. [That the silver coins of the United States shall be 2 a dollar, a half-dollar or fifty-cent piece, a quarter-dollar or twenty- 3 five-cent piece, and a dime or ten-cent piece; and the weight of the 4 dollar shall be three hundred and eighty-four grains; the half- dol 5 lar, quarter-dollar, and the dime shall be, respectively, one- half, 6 one-quarter, and one-tenth the weight of said dollar; which coins 7 shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for any amount not 8 exceeding five dollars in any one payment.] That the silver coins 9 of the United States shall be a trade-dollar, a half-dollar or fifty- AGREED A DIME OR TEN-CENT PIECE 10 cent piece, a quarter-dollar or twenty-five-cent piece ^; and the 11 weight of the trade-dollar shall be four hundred and twenty grains 12 troy; the weight of the half-dollar shall be twelve grams and one- 13 half of a gram; the quarter-dollar and the dime shall be, respec- 14 tively, one-half and one-fifth of the weight of said half-dollar; 15 and said coins shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for 16 any amount not exceeding five dollars in any one payment. AGREED
On the 5th of June I made a speech covering not only the pending bill, and the cognate questions involved, but all the irrelative topics introduced by other Senators. I said:
"I approach the discussion of this bill, and the kindred bills and amendments pending in the two Houses, with unaffected diffidence. No problem is submitted to us of equal importance and difficulty. Our action will affect the value of all property of the people of the United States, and the wages of labor of every kind, and our trade and commerce with all the world. In the consideration of such a question we should not be controlled by previous opinions or bound by local interests, but, with the lights of experience and full knowledge of all the complicated facts involved, we should give to the subject the best judgment which imperfect human nature allows. With the wide diversity of opinion that prevails, each of us must make concessions in order to secure such a measure as will accomplish the objects sought for without impairing the public credit or the general interests of our people. This is no time for visionary theories of political economy. We must deal with facts as we find them and not as we wish them. We must aim at results based upon practical experience, for what has been probably will be. The best prophet of the future is the past.
"To know what measures ought to be adopted we should have a clear conception of what we wish to accomplish. I believe a majority of the Senate desire, first, to provide an increase of money to meet the increasing wants of our rapidly growing country and population, and to supply the reduction in our circulation caused by the retiring of national bank notes; second, to increase the market value of silver, not only in the United States, but in the world, in the belief that this is essential to the success of any measure proposed, and in the hope that our efforts will advance silver to its legal ratio with gold, and induce the great commercial nations to join with us in maintaining the legal parity of the two metals, or in agreeing with us in a new ratio of their relative value; and, third, to secure a genuine bimetallic standard, one that will not demonetize gold or cause it to be hoarded or exported, but that will establish both gold and silver as standards of value, not only in the United States, but among all the civilized nations of the world.
"Believing that these are the chief objects aimed at by us all, and that we differ only as to the best means to obtain them, I will discuss the pending propositions to test how far they tend, in my opinion, to promote or defeat these objects."
Those of us who were in favor of good money, whether of gold or silver, or whether issued by the government in the form of notes or currency by the national banks, all to be maintained at par with each other and of equal purchasing power, were constantly charged with reducing the volume of money. I showed that since the resumption of specie payments, January 1, 1879, there had been a constant annual increase in the total circulating medium of the country. I furnished a table showing the steady increase of circulation during the period named, which I here insert:
THE AMOUNT AND KINDS OF MONEY IN ACTUAL CIRCULATION ON CERTAIN DATES FROM 1878 TO 1889.
Year. Date. Total circula- Gold coin. Standard sil- Subsidiary tion. ver dollars. silver. 1878. March 1. $805,793,807 $82,530,163 ……….. $53,573,833 1879. October 1. 862,579,754 123,698,157 $11,074,230 54,088,747 1880. October 1. 1,022,033,685 261,320,920 22,914,075 48,368,543 1881. October 1. 1,147,892,435 328,118,146 32,230,038 47,859,327 1882. October 1. 1,188,752,363 358,351,956 33,801,231 47,153,750 1883. October 1. 1,236,650,032 346,077,784 39,783,527 48,170,263 1884. October 1. 1,261,569,924 341,485,840 40,322,042 45,344,717 1885. October 1. 1,286,630,871 348,268,740 45,275,710 51,328,206 1886. October 1. 1,264,889,561 364,894,599 60,170,793 48,176,838 1887. October 1. 1,353,485,690 391,090,890 60,614,524 50,414,706 1887. October 1. 1,384,340,280 377,329,865 57,959,356 52,020,975 1888. October 1. 1,405,018,000 375,947,715 57,554,100 52,931,352
Year. Date. Gold certifi- Silver cer- United States National cates. tificates. Notes.* bank notes. 1878. March 1. $44,364,100 ……….. $311,436,971 $313,888,740 1879. October 1. 14,843,200 $ 1,176,720 327,747,762 362,950,938 1880. October 1. 7,480,100 12,203,191 329,417,403 340,329,453 1881. October 1. 5,239,320 52,590,180 327,655,884 354,199,540 1882. October 1. 4,907,440 63,204,780 325,272,858 356,060,348 1883. October 1. 55,014,940 78,921,961 321,356,596 347,324,961 1884. October 1. 87,389,660 96,491,251 325,786,143 324,750,271 1885. October 1. 118,137,790 93,656,716 318,736,684 311,227,025 1886. October 1. 84,691,807 95,387,112 310,161,935 301,406,477 1887. October 1. 97,984,683 154,354,826 329,070,804 269,955,257 1887. October 1. 134,838,190 218,561,601 306,052,053 237,578,240 1888. October 1. 116,675,349 276,619,715 325,510,758 199,779,011