Full text of The Money Question of the 51st Congress : Paper-money Bill Demonetizing Silver : Speech of Hon. John W. Daniel of Virginia, Debate in the Senate

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FIFTY-FIE8T CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION.
United States, through its official representatives, have urged upon the
people were correct, this bill would be more objectionable to the Secre­
tary of the Treasury and to the gold men in that respect than any bill
which has ever been presented, because it is measurably and partially
SPEECH
a bill simply for the purchase and hoarding away of silver bullion.
OP
It has been argued in Congress through successive years and in every
that could attract the ear, that the Treasury of the United States
H O N . J O H N W. D A N I E L , phrase
should not be burdened as a storage place of useless silver bullion or
OF V I R G I N I A ,
money; and now, in order, as we may well presume, to place Congress
in affiliation with the executive powers that be, it is proposed to buy
I n t h e S e n a t e o f t h e U n it e d S t a t e s ,
and to hoard bullion without permitting its use to a degree as money
Wednesday, Jvly 9, 1890.
in any form.
Why do I say this, Mr. President? It is because of the provision in
The Senate having: under consideration the conference report on the bill (H.
R. 5381) directing the purchase of silver bullion and the issue of Treasury notes the second section of this bill. After providing that Treasury notes
thereon, and for other purposes—
shall be issned to pay for the bullion that is purchased, instead of pro­
viding that that bullion so purchased sha1! be turned into money or
Mr. DANIEL said:
Mr. P resid e N'T: I shall endeavor to look at this compromise meas­ shall be emitted by the paper legal-tender representative, it says:
ure jnst as it is, without attempting to exaggerate the interpretation
But no greater or less amount of such notes shall be outstanding at any time
ot it or to regard it in anything but the light of a common-sense inter­ than the cost of the silver bullion and the standard silver dollars coined there­
from
then held in the Treasury purchased by.such notes.
pretation.
I do not concur to the full extent with some of the criticisms which
So that While in the first section of the bill he who reads it would
have been pronounced npon its language. When this bill says—
be led to presume that by this immense purchase of silver our volume
The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to purchase from time to of currency would be correspondingly enlarged, we find in the second
time silver bullion to the aggregate amount of 4,500,000 ounces, or so much section that it is immediately restrained and that it is to be measured,
thereof as may be offered, in each month, at the market price thereof, not ex­
not by the amount of the bullion but by the commodity price of silver.
ceeding 81 for 371.25 grains of pure silver—
In consenting to this provision, as I humbly conceive, those who be­
I take that only to signify what it strikes the mind at first blush to lieve that silver ought to be coined and used as money upon a parity
signify, that the Secretary of the Treasury is to buy that much silver with gold have conceded too much and have to an extent given away
if that silver is offered upon the market at the market price. It does the force and strength of the position which they have heretofore as­
not say that it shall be offered to the Secretary of the Treasury. It sumed and which has already won the judgment of the country.
means, as I understand it and as the plain significance of the words
Mr. President, it is to be observed, and it can hardly be denied by
would seem to me to import, that he is to buy upon the market at the any one, that in all the forums of free debate in this country where
market offering, and as the Senator from Ohio [Mr. S h e r m a n ] is in his miml is licensed to combat with mind, and argument to oppose argu­
seat I beg leave to inquire of him if that is not the intent and purpose ment with unrestrained intercourse, silver money has won this battle.
of this bill.
Never before in the history of this country, did silver occupy so high
Mr. SHERMAN. I stated yesterday in my statement as to the con­ a vantage ground in public opinion as that which it holds here and
ference report that that was my view of it, that the Secretary of the now; and if it be shorn of its fair proportions, if the logic which has
Treasury was bound to buy 4,500,000 ounces, whatever may be his won to the silver standard the judgment of the men of intellect and
opinion, and he is bound to pay the market price of silver each month, the men of patriotism in this land be followed, there is no more doubt
and that his failure to do so would not only be a breach of public duty that this Congress would not adjourn without leaving a free-coinage bill
but would be an impeachable offense.
upon the statute-books than there is that the hand would continue to
Mr. DANIEL. That, then, is the plain English of this provision. turn npon the clock, and that one day should bring forth another.
While the language is a little different from what has been used in There is no better indication or demonstration of the truth of my as­
other bills, it is not different in its significance. There might be the sertion than the enunciation of the Republican party at Chicago in
criticism that it is capable of being perverted and tortured, as it has 1888 when it nominated Benjamin Harrison as President of the United
been by some newspaper reports, into a different significance, but I do States.
not think that a sound lawyer or any one who will study and weigh
We all know, and it is a matter of public history and of universal
the language that is here employed would fairly or justly construe understanding that the Republican party has reluctantly come into ac­
these -words as meaning any other or different thing than that.
quiescence with silver money. It has come to the silver standard like
While, therefore, I would say that it might have been better that this the “ whining school-boy with his shining morning face unwillingly to
bill should have followed the language contained in others without any school.” Bnt East and West, and, North and South assembled in
addition thereto, I do not think that this language should be sufficient Chicago, and there are no bodies of more astuteness than the great
to lead os in our judgment to vote against the measure were it other­ political conventions which nominate our Presidents. They are not
wise responsive to the demand* oftim eoantryand tp the exigemrife of Within the
™hinh +hny
the times.
occupy wtae»>£hey become Senators and Representatives in Congress.
I go further and say in speaking about this bill that I am ready to They bavea freer range for the expression of opinion, and when this
concede to those who advocate its provisions that it would be much great body of representative Republicans assembled at Chicago two
better that this bill should pass than that Congress should fail in legis­ years ago, they declared to this nation, and they invited support for
lating upon this subject.
their candidate by criticism upon the propositions which have been
The one great point which can be truly urged in advocacy of this embodied ill this bill, and by saying that they were in favor of the use
bill—we shall gain nothing in looking at it otherwise than as it is—is of both silver and gold, not as currency, not as a circulating medium,
that this bill will greatly increase the volume of currency of the people not as a subsidiary coinage, not as an adjunct to the Treasury, bnt
of the United States. It is true that it does not so greatly increase “ a s moment. ”
that volnme of currency as one might at first conceive. When the
Twice theDemocraticSecretary of the Treasury had recommended some
Secretary of the Treasury is directed to purchase 4,500*000 ounces of such provision as this. The Republican party in mass convention
silver per month, and when the argument is made that that much assembled criticised him for doing it and denounced him; and “ silver
more will be turned into money, it is not entirely correct, for this bill as money ” was the shibboleth which it inscribed upon its banner,
does not require the 4,500,000 ounces of silver either to be coined into and that sUbboleth won the victory.
money or to swell the volnme of our currency by a corresponding
Mr* President, furthermore I can not concur in all the criticisms
volnme of paper money.
which have been made here npon the language which has been put in
In other words, a portion of this large volume of silver which is thus the body of this bill. The principle enunciated in that language I
directed to be purchased is simply bought and hoarded in the Treasury concur witfc. In the second section it is provided:
and does not reappear from the Treasury either in the form of silver
Thai apcmrfemand of tite holder of any of the Treasury notes herein provided
dollars or in the form of legal-tender paper representatives. And if for, the fleeratwy of the Treasury dwlL under such regulations as he may pre­
the arguments which the gold-standard men and the Treasury of the scribe, redofjHtefc notes in gold or silver coin, at his discretion, it being the

The Paper-Money Bill Demonetizing: Silver.




2

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.

established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity
with each other upon the present legal ratio, or such ratio as may be provided
by law.

I would much dislike, Mr. President, to see any advocate of the
double standard or any one who seeks now to make silver equal before
the law in all respects with gold oppose the principle which is enun­
ciated there. The great object, as I understand, and so understanding it,
I have followed it, ol those who seek to reverse the policy which has been
practiced about silver is that the two precious metals shall everywhere
maintain their parity with each other, and that those usages of the
Treasury Department, those acts of legislation, those practices in the
banking world which have tended to separate the two metals should
be reversed and that they should be recognized and used with impar­
tial hand as the legal equals in the making of money.
But, Mr. President, the historical recital in that insertion in this
bill I object to. The silver men havesonght that itshould become the
established policy of the United States to maintain the tw* metals on
a parity with each other. What I object to about the language is that
it is a misrecital of past history, for that policy is not yet established;
and second, it is a contradiction of the terms of the bill.
When did it become the established policy of the United States to
maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present
legal ratio, or such ratio as may be provided by law ? It was not the
established policy of the United States in 1867, when distinguished
gentlemen were advocating the single gold standard. It was not the
established policy of the United States in 1873, when silver was abso­
lutely dismissed from circalation. It was not the established policy
in 1878, when even the partial restoration of silver was denounced by
the same gentlemen who, on both sides of this Bouse, both: Democrats
and Republicans, reiterated their prophesies that anything ^? the ben­
efit of silver was going to injure the country.
It is not the established policy now, and this bill will not establish
it; and that is the reason why I can not vote for i t If it Vere the es­
tablished policy of the United States to maintain the two Ineta^ at a
parity, that policy would find its expression in acts tending to build
up that portion of silver which had departed in valne fromk&UL But
the policy practiced by the United States Government during thelast
fifteen or twenty years in everything that has beendone hi its Execu­
tive has been to make the gapwfder between the two metals. it was
not the established policy of this Government in 1884»-’8S$ when Mr.
Cleveland undertook to extinguish the Democratic sentiment of the
House of Representatives. It was not the established policy when that
House failed to vote for the free coinage of silver, and it is not the es­
tablished policy now amongst those who yet hold tbedomi&antband,
although they have not the corresponding forces of popular sentiment
at their back to sanction it, if silver would deploy its fbreee and main­
tain its front position with a firm and equal and unconcedfng hand.
Mr. President, it is a delicate thing in one department of this Gov­
ernment to refer to those who have the responsibility of administering
another. I share with those who have so much respect fbr the office
of the President of the United States and for its occupant that I am
loath to make any criticism upon that departmentof our Government,
but I do not transcend the limits of parliamentary oouttesy or the
comity which should exist between all departments of frur Govern­
ment, to whatever political organization he may belong; When I ad­
vert to the fact that the shadow of the White House hasftllen across
the Congress Hall and that the executive extinguisher is at work, just
as it has been for the last fifteen or twenty years, to put o*t theflame
of silver money as fast as it bums up, fed irom the very hearts o f the
people by all that they can give to maintain and make ifcfiame.
Mr. President* we have been told over and over again in recent years
that the executive department of the Government was impeding acts?
of legislation and, that the reto had appeared too often ink>urlegisla­
tive history. Ithavcome tothi* now that th# very shad#w of a veto

caa revenge a triumphant majority,

est parliamentary body, as I conceive, in. the world—tb££ this great
body of free debate should surrender at the very vague intimation
brought by the birds of the air that a veto is peodbie* Sir, I would
not c^sjure my associates in this body to snystepwhichj would not
myself talcs if I were in the- situation which they occupy, ner can l
with justice to pelitical history very bitterly reproach tfexa i f they
recede too quickly before the apprehension of executive Interference.
My observation of public men and o f public affitfjrs in the last few
years, while not as extensive as that of other gentlemen w&oare here,
has induced me to feel and knowwhat is the great peweraMadinfluence
of the executive administration o f our Government. Mfea who have
personal independence of character* men who have strength o f intel­
lectual conviction, men who stand up before the pabHeaad advocate
their views careless of their political fortunes if they may only subserve the principles which they seek to establish, when they become
allied in political organizations and under the infitiemwwhich are
broughtabout the greatCapitoland under the petsuasfee^oieeof oom*
radeship and under the apprehension of pechaps
pelitioal
vantage ground of their chief m executive office thevbevrand bend
and surrenderand the peoples cause iabrokendowa> hrr ^teir canceeskms. Wehaveseea itin the’Demoeratie party, forintfreltorgamza-




tion and political movements parties do not greatly differ with each
other.
It is in the doctrines and principles which parties stand for that con­
stitute their great difference. Their practices are likely sooner or later
much to resemble each other. And if I ask the silver men here, with­
out regard to whether they be Democrats or Republicans, to stand to
their guns, I only ask them to do what I have myself done under the
same circumstances, and what the silver men have got to resolve to do
if they ever carry their standard to complete victoiy. I am willing to
die with them in the last ditch if we have got to bedriven into it. But
I do not want to die, on a triumphant march, of executive sunstroke.
Let us die, if need be, when our time comes, but do not let us run out
and meet our time half way and invito it to come.
This silver question is a great deal bigger than the President of the
United States, whether his name be Benjamin Harrison or Grover Cleve­
land, and it is never going to be won as it ought to be by the triumph­
ant and complete vindication of those policies which the silver men
stand for until the Senate of the United States is as great as the ques­
tion. The question is greater than the Senate and greater than the
President, and unless the Senate and the House of Representatives are
smaller than either they will never give up the vantage ground that
has been gained, but will reply to those who oppose that policy, which
is the best for this whole nation, like a gallant officer, who, when chal­
lenged to surrender, answered, ‘ 1Come and take me. ’ 9
Mr. president, the language which is used in the discussion of this
question is language which has the flavor of the Treasury Department
in it. There is a great deal of difference in the way that a case is
stated. I have heard good lawyers, criticising the members of their
profession, say that they regarded as in the foremost ranks the men
who could make the clearest and best statement of the case. A good
case clearly stated is more than half won. The gentlemen who want
to see the single gold standard in this country generally know how to
state their case. I bow in admiration to them, although I must say
that they do not always state it in strict conformity to tbe facts.
I hear, for instance, the Senator from New Jersey say, and T hear
gentlemen upon the other side say now and then that we most preserve
the gold standard. Well, that sounds very well, for we do not want
to see the two metals parted; but we are not now upon any gold
standard. I utterly c&ny and dispute the premises that the United
States is to-day a gold-standard nation, and if the Senator from New
Jersey can show me or if any gentleman can point me to a fact that
makes this a gold-standard nation, that does not belong to the realm of
that discretion which sometimes in the Secretaiy of the Treasury over­
rides and disappoints the law, he would ba giving me information of
which I am at present devoid.
Why will you speak of preserving a standard that does not exist ? I
know that I may be told that in 1873 when silver was demonetized, it
was declared in a statute that the gold dollar should be the unit of
value, and at that time we did move toward a single gold standard, but
that legislation has been reversed. In 1878 when you remonetized
silver you renewed the double standard, and whether the old lines
graven upon the statute-book at a time, when yon were coming to a
single gold standard, remain there or not, you have practically and le­
gally under your Constitution and laws abandoned the gold standard.
The Senator from New Jersey this morning asked a good many
questions, and answered a good many, but he did not anywhere tell
us where in the laws ot this nation he derived the opinion that we are
now upon any gold standard*
Mr. President,.these words “ standards’ 7and “ units of value ” are
sometimes u*ed without the mind going with them into any precise
meaning. What do you mean by a unit or standard of value? You
mean the medium of payment. There is not an appropriation bill
that has passed this body this year that does not recognize the fact
that gold is not our standard of valne. The appropriations to your
Tigftra ftnd harbors, the appropriations to yonr armies and naviea* the
appropriations to your pensioners, and for your own salaries which
you put into vour pockcts, remind yon every time you receive them
that this is not a gold-standard country.
The standard ot valuation is that money in which credits may be
discharged; your legal-tender money is your standard of value. The
whole volume of your currency, not the paper that is in a greenback,
not the silver that is in a silver dollar, not the gold that is in a gold
dollar, but your whole volume of currency is your standard ofrvalua­
tion of your whole property and your whole obligation. Tbe mass is
a homogeneous mass o f motley, the property is a homogeneous mass
o f property, the obligationsof the country are a homogeneous mass of
debt, but yonr standard of valuation is yonr whole volume of currency
and" its units aie ideal tbi&gr for the purpose of subdivision, called
dollars; jour greenback dollar or your silver dollar and your gold dol­
lar are ia their combined valne separated by units of dollars and not
by units of paper or metal of either of your standards of value. It is
what you can pay tbe debt in that measures the value of the credit.
I ohjectrto this bill because it has a tendency—not the effect, hut a
tendency—not to preserve a gold standard of value, hut to create one.
It places vast power in the hands of those who, being astute in the
use of words, use them according to the Talleyrand idea of concealing

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.
thought. Your silver here is purchased at commodity value, and your
silver bullion by this act is never given a money value—that is, the
value which attaches to metal which can become money.
When the Senator from New Jersey was speaking he said that the
history of the world disclosed the fact and proved it. He announced
it in quite an ex mtlmtra fashion as if he was disposing of' history by
the declaration that the history of the world disclosed the fact that the
cheap money always drives out the dearer. Mr. President, not only
does history fail to disclose any such fact, but the Senator from New
Jersey has illustrated in hi3 assumption the truth of the maxim of the
French philosopher who tells us that we seldom notice what occurs
under our own eyes daiiy; we see the mountains in the distance and
we stand upon the shore and look upon the playing of the waves, of
history, and then we announce very dogmatically and conclusively and
exactly what those distant things are; but we seldom notice what oc­
curs under our own eyes and ears.
If the Senator who made that declaration would only observe his
own daily transactions he would see his history refuted. You have
$346,000,000 of the cheapest money in this world in circulation in
the United States, the greenbacks. They cost nothing but printer’s
ink and paper. Have they driven away your gold ? Have they driven
away your silver? Have they not now power to get hold of 4,500,000
ounces of silver per month and pull it to us?
Furthermore, there is an illustration under the Senator’s eyes that
occurred in this House a year or two ago, when, as if to refute the doc­
trines and declarations of those who were speaking, the dearer money
came crawling up to the Hails of Congress in forma pauperihat in
hand, upon its knee* craving and begging that 420 grains of silver—
the dearer money—came and gathered around the lobby and begged
and besought to be admitted to be redeemed in cheap silver of 412.}
grains legal tender.
Mr. McPHERSON. If the Senator will allow me----Mr. DANIEL. Certainly.
Mr. McPHERSON. Prior to the passage of the resumption act
what was then the market value, so to speak* of the so-called green­
back ? It will be remembered that prior to the passage of the resump­
tion act the greenbacks, or the national currency, were selling payable
in gold something like, I think at one timer about 260 per cent. dis~
count. After the passage of the resumption act, when the green­
backs were ma le payable in gold after a certain date, the greenbacks
appreciated up to par with gold. As they are madfe redeemable in
gold, and all that have been offered have been redeemed, the Senator
can hardly say that the simple fact of making them redeemable and
payable in gold had no effect as to their value.
Mr. DANIEL. I have not made any declaration of that sort. I
have not alluded to that question. I have merely stated that the Sen­
ator has got history wrong and that the cheaper money does not al­
ways drive out the dearer.
Mr. McPHERSON. The Senator cited as an illustration the greenback*. I should like to ask the Senator now to put the question in a
different form, Where were the gold and silver of which the Senator
speaks before the passage of the resumption act ? Was any of it found
in the country ?
Mr. DANIEL. I will tell the Senator what was the matter with
the greenbacks. 1 da not like to allude to the war or anything of that
sort, having been a Confederate soldier, but the uncertainty of the is­
sue had a good deal to do with weakening their value, for how the war
was going to turn out people; did mvtknow.
Mr. McPH E KSON. The war haddosed, if the Senator will permit
me, in 1865. There was not a singleConfederate soldier, mounted or
on foot, within the whole confines of the Confederacy from 1865 to
1873 or 1874; and the greenbacks then, as the Senator knows, were
very mnch depreciated in value. When you undertook to purchase
property with them you found the property was very much increased
in vnlue. Hut the verv inom«*r»t
fiovornment proposed a mode-iiau
whi/h it agreed to redeem those greenbacks in gold, in coin, that very
moment they appreciated. Therefor%the Senator can hardly say that
this cheap money of which he has spoken to-day, the greenbacks, alter
they were made payableingpid, wereany longer cheap money. li the
Senator or myself had a quantity of greenbacks we could take them to
the Treasury to-day and demand gotafartbeiu* I presume gold would
bepaid to us. Therefore the greenbacksare as good as gold, and they
can not be said to be depreciated.
Mr. DANIEL. Now I will with pleasure endeavor to answer the
Senator’s question. Does he mean to say that the greenbacks are re­
deemable in gold or in coin ? I ask him that question.
Mr. McPHERSON. In the first place I will answer the Senator’s
question and I will answer it very frankly.
Mr. DANIEL. I do not care to have another argument now. I
want to know if the Senator means to say that greenbacks are redeem­
able in coin ?
Mr. McPHERSON. It has been the practice of the Government.
Mr. DANIEL. I know what has been the practice.
Mr. McPHERSON. As the Senator knows, it has been the practice
to redeem them in gold; and it is the pxacticeof the Government now




3

to maintain silver on a standing as good as gold. Therefore it is that
silver has been maintained to-day.
Mr. DANIEL. I want to answer the Senator seriatim. In the first
place, he lias repeated here upon the floor the very legislative practice
which I consider as pernicious to truth as some of the practices ot the
Treasury. He has stated that the greenbacks are redeemable in gold.
It is a happy faculty of the monometallists and gold men of this coun­
try to state things, as I said before, to suit themselves.
Mr. McPHERSON. The Senator will permit me----Mr. DANIEL. Not just now.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. P a d d o c k in the chair). Does
the Senator from Virginia yield?
Mr. DANIEL. I will directly. I do not mean any discourtesy.
The gr^nbacks are payable in silver, and why do you not say they
are payable in silver, and that is what has made them valuable? It
is because it suits the lingo and the style of monometallists to put gold
everywhere foremost; and you are in your very practice of stating the
case making one of those discriminations of which the silver men com­
plain. TJie Senator discloses where this whole trouble comes in. It
is the effort to divide this country into two classes and to legislate for
class benefit and not for popular benefit. “ It is the practice to pay
the creditor in gold. ’ ’ You are much mistaken, sir. It is not the prac­
tice of this Government to pay its creditors in gold. It is only the
practice of this country to pay one class of its preferred creditors in
gold—me> who have no more right to gold than any other class; and
it is the studied effort of this bill to so rank and range the classes and
to so rank and range your silver and gold money as to force what is
gold into the pockets of gold men and to let other than bondholders get
the*scraps from the table. That is the argument.
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. President----The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Virginia yield
to the Senator from Ohio?
Mr. SHERMAN. If the Senator will allow me a moment, I did not
intend to disturb him, but when he says that one class of debt is pay­
able in gold I will have state to him that no portion of the public debt
except probably the infinitesimal fraction of 2 per cent, is payable in
gold. No discrimination is made in the payment between gold and
silver or other forms of money. The bonded debt and the interest on
the bonded debt is paid almost exclusively in checks or drafts, and
those are paid almost exclusively in some form of paper money, United
States notes, silver certificates, and all other forms of paper money.
Therefore the common observation that has been made here within
a day or two that the Government pays gold on certain contracts and
not on othersls an error, because of all the payments made by the Gov­
ernment of the United States 98 per cent is indrafts and in currency.
So of the customs dues that are now paid. The Senator has sent to
him every month, I. suppose, a statement showing that of all those
customs dues that are paid, less than 2 per cent, are paid in either gold
or silver. Silver is used as well as gold, but they are usually paid in
ordinary currency, current money, such as yon and I and all of us take
in payment of our salaries. Gold and silver are not discriminated
against therefore by the Government of the United States. They are
regarded as the precise equivalent to each other, and their substitutes
are used for the payment of almost all transactions of the Government
with the people oif'the United States.
Mr. DA&IItX. Mr. President, it is a little curious that our friend,
the Senator from New Jersey, should say that it was the practice of
the Government to pay the creditors in gold and that the Senator from
Ohio should say that it was not. If I mistake not—I have not the
document before me now, but I think the Secretary of the Treasury
points, outin h& last report the practice of the Government to pay the
creditors it gold, and apprehends as one of the results of too great coin­
age of silVer that he wonld not be able to do it
Mr. McRHERSON. If the Senator will yield to me a moment, I do
not think there Is very much difference between the statement made
by tiie Senate? from Ohio ftfifl'TIIfc' off# that"-1 have tried to make.
Mr. DANIEL; I have the floor, it you please.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia declines
to yield.
___
Mr. McPHEBSON. I ask the Senator to yield.
The PHJ5SID1NG OFFICER. The Chair understands the Senator
from Virgixx£fc to decline to yield.
Mr. DANIEL. I will take pleasure in yielding as soon as I get
through a paragraph* I should like to answer one idea after another,
and then £wiU cheerfully yield to the Senator from New Jersey.
Not onl£does the Secretary of the Treasury advert to this fact in
his last report but I think it has been adverted to in nearly every re­
port of the Seeretary of the Treasury, the importance of providing
gold to pay the creditor with, the bond creditor, and that the great
apprehension of gold leaving the country was that there would not be
any gold b^re to pay him.
Mr. SHERMAN. I shall be glad to show the Senator----TheFRfirtlDING OFFICER Does the Senator from Virginia yield.
Mr. DAfflEL. Of course.
Mr.SHERMAN. I have sent fora statement, I think the last one,
made only a few days ago, showing the exact modes of payment of all

4

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.

the customs duties, and the other statements I can furnish with a little
more time.
Mr. DANIEL. I doubt not that a warrant or check, or something
of that sort, always intervenes, but the gold is always saved atid hoarded
up for the bond creditor, and he is not required to accept it payment
a silver dollar or a greenback or anything else but gold. Thp frequent
statement of the Secretary of the Treasury has been entirely ip conso­
nance with what the Senator from New Jersey said this morning, that
they always wish to have the gold there so the creditor should have
the option of taking any sort of money he wanted.
Mr. SHERMAN. That is true, Mr. President, if the Senator will
allow me. I think that the United States has always practiced upon
that idea, and every bank that is properly conducted practices upon
the same idea, that the person who presents a check if he *ants gold
is allowed to take it. Very few take it. But what I wish show by
the statement I will try to furnish (I think I have one in
committee-room) is that in fact in the payment of all these drafts and war­
rants upon the Treasury not more than from 2 to 3 per cent* is paid in
either silver or gold, about one-fourth less in silver than gold; but
nearly all of them are paid in paper money, United States nates, silver
certificates, and every form of paper money.
Mr. TELLER. Mr. President----Mr. DANIEL. Just there, if I may finish this idea in o*e minute,
I will show exactly where the present bill so manipulates ^the silver
and its representative as to relegate silver into retirement iq the shape
of bullion, and so to provide that it would be almost impossible to pay
the creditor in anything but gold.
Mr. SHERMAN. Now----Mr. DANIEL. One moment, if yon please.
Mr. SHERMAN. If the Senator will allow me a moment, I will
give him the etatement to which I referred, the official statement, made
by the United States Treasury Department, which I now h&fe. I find
in 1890 the percentage was 1 per cent, in gold coin, a fractional per
cent in silver coin, 94 per cent, in gold certificates, 2.7 p^r cent, in
silver certificates and 2,7 per cent, in United States notes.
Mr. TELLER. Are those the import duties?
Mr. SHERMAN. This is a statement showing the monthly receipts
from customs in New York, and you find it given there month by
month. Sometimes the paper currency payments amount to 17 per
cent.; but this extends during a period of two or three years. The
Senator will see it the same way. There is a very small fraction of
gold and silver paid, but it is paid in gold certificates and silver certifi­
cates and United States notes.
Mr. DANIEL. That is a statement of receipts from customs and not
of payments to creditors.
Mr. SHERMAN. I can not give the prepared statements I could
furnish the other statements, but this I happened to remember I had
on hand. Those are the payments of customs which in fonner times
were paid exclusively in gold.
Mr. DANIEL. Ninety-four per cent, are paid in gold certificates, I
understood the Senator to say.
Mr. SHERMAN. I think so, in one month. You will see the state­
ments are made from month to month.
Mr. DANIEL. While this statement does not exactly corroborate
the Senator’s statement as to payments to creditors, being astatement
of the receipt of customs, it yet, as far as it goes, substantially cor­
roborates my own statement, for 94 per cent, in gold is pretty near all
gold.
Mr. SHERMAN. They use gold certificates, as a matte* of course.
Mr. DAN IEL. When the Senator speaks of using paper hi is merely,
it seems to me, evading rather than stating the true issue, Jor it is the
paper that represents gold. Ninety-fonr per cent, of gold {certificates
are paid. Of course, whether you pay a man in gold or silver or what
not yon pay him in the form of a check or use some sort of taper as the
executive agent of imvment, hirfr th*

nf

other side of the paper, and here 94 per cent, of it, if I understand the
Senator from Ohio, is gold.
Mr. SHERMAN. Certainly, because the gold is not used at all.
They use the silver certificate, and any form of paper moaey Is now
used as legal tender for the payment of all debts, public aid private.
The Government of the United States, in the payment of Jtotife, and
in paying its interest, or in the receipt of its customs, receives and pays
out all forms of paper money, and there is not more than &om 1 to 2
per cent, of coin used in the great transactions of the United States.
I have sent for another statement which will give the Senator the
amount which is used by the national banks..
Mr. DANIEL. However these statements may be differentiated in
their details, I state the broad fact, which I am sure the Senator from
Ohio and none other can contradict, that the declared policy o f this
Government through all of its representatives, from the tfoe when be
had the honor to be Secretary of the Treasury to the preadbt day, was
that we were in some way bound to pay these bond creditors in gold
and to provide the gold and not silver to do it The Senftor will re­
member that when the debate took place in thia body year* ago upon
the resolution of his colleague from Ohio, Mr. Matthews, that the
bonds were payable in coin, that although it paased f t M y it was




resisted to the uttermost upon the ground that the bonds were pay­
able in gold. We all know, as a matter of general public history and
universal knowledge, that the whole financial system of this country
has been twisted, and shaped, and tortured, and so made as to always
bring the gold dollar to pay the bondholder unless he preferred some­
thing else.
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. President----The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Virginia yield
to the Senator from Ohio ?
Mr. DANIEL. Let me go on.
Mr. SHERMAN. I have now the other statement before me to
which I referred, if the Senator will allow me.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia declines
to yield.
Mr. DANIEL. I verify now the statement which I made from rec­
ollection a few moments ago, by reading from the last report of the
Secretaiy of the Treasury:
Oar bank currency ia baaed upon United States bonds, the principal and in­
terest of which are payable in gold. Our gold certificates are expressly made
redeemable in gold coin.

Mr. President, I set the Secretary of the Treasury and the Senator
from Ohio to settle their difficulties between them.
Mr. SHERMAN. Now I think I can settle it in about a minute. I
will Say, to correct the statement made awhile ago by the Senator from
Virginia, if he will show me that in any act of mine when Secretary
of the Treasury I ever made a discrimination between gold and silver
and paper money, I shall be very much obliged to him. But he can
not do it. I never did. On the other hand, I have a statement be­
fore me “ showing the total amount of the classified receipts and dis­
bursements on account of the transfers, revenues, redemptions,and ex­
changes by Treasury offices, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886.”
This is the annual report of the Treasurer of the United States for
that year, and it shows the amount of receipts of national-bank notes
to have been $37,000,000—1 will only give round numbers—United
States notes, $366,000,000; gold coin, $84,000,000; gold certificates,
$158,000,000; silver certificates, $110,000,000; standard silver dollars,
$82,000,000; fractional silver and mixed, $22,000,000; total receipts,
$898,000,000.
The disbursements were as follows: National-bank notes, $71,000,000; United States notes, $372,000,000; gold coin, $78,000,000; gold
certificates, $118,000,000; silver certificates, $121,000,000; standard sil­
ver dollars, $54,000,000; fractional silver and mixed, $25,000,000; to­
tal, $S42,000,000. Either of these kinds of money or any of them was
received and paid out without discrimination, mainly at the conven­
ience of the person who deposited the money or received the money,
the Bilver certificates being several times the amount of the whole gold
and silver paid out. So the Senator is mistaken.
When the Secretary of the Treasury speaks about the bonds being
payable in gold it means that anybody might ask for gold and receive
gold; but in actual fact and practice it is shown by these tabular state­
ments, and all of them are furnished, and by the common knowledge
and practice of every one who deals with the Government of the United
States, that the great transactions of the Government are in paper
money, and that no discrimination whatever is made in the receipts or
disbursements of its money. If the Senator has a draft upon the
Treasurer here he will usually take it in paper money, or it will be
paid to him in either form of money he desires.
Mr. DANIEL. Now, will the Senator permit me a moment?
Mr. President, I know the Treasury language generally runs along
the line of what the Senator says in a speech which he has just inter­
polated into mine, but I tested that very thing afew years ago. I was
told that there was gold in the Treasury for everybody who wanted it,
ahd so I requested the Sergeant-at-Arms to please bring me my pay in
gold__ I irnftw i fcjgnq hftlri there for th^ bondholders and that so small
a person as a legislative representative a peofrle was not oae of Tboee
creditors for whom was provided any special entertainment So I said
to the Sergeant-at-Arms, “ I want my pay in gold.” He came back
and said that there was not any there for that purpose; that greenbacks
were legal tender, which I received thankfully.
Mr. SHERMAN. I suppose the Senator applied to the proper place?
Mr. DANIEL. I only wish to show the fallacy ot the statement
which the Senator from Ohio is now reiterating, and which has been
reiterated year after year, as I conceive, in opposition to the actual state
of facts.
Mr. SHERMAN. Let me ask the Senator if this demand was made
of the Secretary of the Senate ?
Mr. DANIEL. I requested the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of
Representatives to pay me in gold, and he said it was not there.
Mr. SHERM AN. I presume that the Treasurer of the United States
did not suppose there was either a Member or Senator who wanted gold,
for he would just as lief send the gold to the Sergeant-at-Arms of the
House as any other kind of money. He probahly did not conceive that
anybody there was eager for gold, and therefore did not prepare geld
for that particular place.
Mr. DANIEL* I haveno doubt he was very much surprised at any­

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
body bnt a bondholder being so impndent as to ask for gold. I have
no donbt he would be surprised at it.
Mr. ALLISON. May I interrupt the Senator?
Mr. DANIEL. I did not want the gold and was very glad to get
the greenbacks; bnt it shows that yon can not always have the option
of getting what you want unless the burden is put upon you of going
to hunt for it, while it is always provided for the other class of credi­
tors. That is the difference,
Mr. ALLISON. Mr. President----The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Virginia yield
to the Senator from Iowa ?
Mr. DANIEL. Yes, sir.
Mr. ALLISON. I had occasion not long since to inquire of the Secre­
tary of the Senate what portion of the compensation to Senators and
officers of the Senate was paid in gold or silver and what portion in paper
money, and I was informed by him that since 1883, with an occasional
exception when a Senator desired a small amount of gold for a particu­
lar purpose, no Senator had ever requested payment in anything else
than paper. Then I supplemented it with the question which seems
now uppermost in the mind of the Senator, whether there was any
occasion, when gold was required, for a refusal, and he answered me,
“ No.”
Now, I want to say one word to the Senator os my belief. I believe
that no public creditor has ever applied to the Treasury of the United
States demanding gold but what he has received it, no matter what
the nature of the obligation of the Government may have been in that
respect, whether for compensation or whether for any d$bt that the
Government was owing to a private citizen or to a creditor.
Mr. SPOONER. The Senator does not mean that there was never a
time. He does not mean during the war.
Mr. SHERMAN. Since 1879.
Mr. ALLISON. I do not mean, of course, during the war. We all
recollect the situation then. I mean practically since the resumption
of specie payments in 1879.
If the Senator from Virginia will just allow me one moment more,
all our paper money, as I understand, and all the obligations of the
Government are redeemed practically in paper money or coin that is
equivalent to gold. In other words, everything we have to-day in the
shape of paper money is equivalent to gold in every part of the United
States, as I understand it; and if any Senator knows that that is not so,
I should be glad to be informed where it is that that difference exists.
Mr. DANIEL. Mr. President, I return to the statement of the Sec­
retary of the Treasury. The distinguished Senators who have just
suggested that there is no discrimination between silver and gold ought
to join me in paying especial attention to this peculiar misstatement
of the Secretary of the Treasury if they are correct:
Our bank currency is based upon United States bonds, the principal and in­
terest of which are payable in gold.

That is the enunciation fresh from the other end of the avenue. The
Senator from Iowa denies it.
Mr. ALLISON. Oh, no. On the contrary, I say that not only that
but every other obligation is practically paid in gold.
Mr. DANIEL. Oh, practically.’ 9
Mr. ALLISON. On demand.
Mr. DANIEL. “ Practically? ”
Mr. ALLISON. Yes; practically.
Mr. DANIEL. Practically; and practically payable in silver also.
Then why does not he say silver, and why does he always say gold.
It is a part of the lingo of the monometallists. t£Practically ” yon
are going to your equations. Why does the Secretary of the Treasury
use a plain English term to state a fact in Buch a way that an honest,
truthful man would conceive a different thing from the actuality in
existence ? Why does he advertise to the civilized world that pur bonds
are payable, principal and interest, “ in goM,” wfteiftfcos* who are his
champions here say they are practically payable in silver ? And how
is it that this language which indoctrinates even so intelligent a gen*
tleman as the Senator from New Jersey with the idea that this is a gold
standard nation, and publishes to the whole world a different phase
from the truth, shall go uncriticised and unchallenged by those who
differ with him?
There is a great deal of difference, as I remarked awhile ago, in the
way you state a thing. Those who are subtle and astute to deceive
can so posture the truth as to make a false impression. Here is the
chief financial officer of this nation publishing to Europe, publishing
to creditors all over the world, that the principal and interest of our ob­
ligations are payable in gold, specifically and solely, without qualifi­
cation, and without the modification and explanation which the Sen­
ator gives when probed for his own interpretation ? What sort of way
is that to manage the finances of a great nation for the purpose of de­
ceiving the people ? I will not say for the purpose, but with the effect
to deceive the people, and to deceive all who deal with ns, and then to
base a claim upon our own self-deception, to go out and say that we
told them so, and we allowed oar agents to tell them so, and now good
faith requires that we should do i t
JKow, Hr. President, to come down to the question in this act, the




5

Senator from Ohio challenges any one to show where he ever discrim­
inated between gold and silver and greenbacks.
Mr. SHERMAN. Since January 1, 1879, as a matter of course.
Mr. DANIEL. Since January 1, 1879. Well, I thought the Sena­
tor would put a statute of limitations on his declaration.
Mr. SHERMAN. I obeyed the law always; but after that time the
law made no discrimination, and therefore I had no right to make any
discrimination.
Mr. DANIEL. Did the Senator from Ohio ever state before the
Coinage Committee of the House of Representatives that he would never
pay out silver unless he could do it at its gold value ?
Mr. SHERMAN. ' I do not think I ever did. I do not think I ever
did pay out silver except at its gold value.
Mr. DANIEL. Did not the Senator state that he never would pay
it out except at its gold value?
Mr. SHERMAN. I can not recall what I said. I generally answer
for what I did; but I do not know what I said at all times. I may
have said to the committee of the House that I would not like to do
it, or perhaps that I would not do it if I could help it; but I never
paid out silver of any kind except as the equivalent of gold, and I trust
the law will never compel me to do so.
Mr. DANIEL. In other words, the Senator from Ohio challenges any
one to show where he ever discriminated between the two metals. He
now modifies it by a statute of limitations which brings us down to
1879. With my limited information as to the finances of the country
I did not suppose that there had been a day between 1879 and 1890
when the Senator from Ohio had not discriminated against silver in
favor of gold.
Mr. SHERMAN. I never did at any time since 1879.
Mr. DANIEL. I think his record is completely unbroken from that
time to this, and if I lacked that evidence of my assertion which all
the financial libraries of this country would furnish until cumulative
evidence was piled mountain high, I would want no better evidence
than this bill which has just come from his hands, in which he dis­
criminates between silver and gold in a most marked and decisive
manner.
Why, Mr. President, these Halls are yet ringing with the tones of
the voice of the Senator from Ohio when a week or two ago he discrim­
inated between silver and gold in doing his utmost to prevent the free
coinage of silver on a parity with the coinage of gold; and when the
Senate with 17 majority treated theifi both alike, declaring that both
should be the unit of value and both freely coined, silver fared well
until it ffiU-ia with the Senator from Ohio again upon its pathway, and
here Is the result.
I say, Mr. President, and the Senator from Ohio can not say to the
contrary, that from the very first line in yonr statutes which refers to
silver and gold to the latest, the Senator from Ohio has discriminated
against silver and for gold. I will ask him this question. Will you
vote to declare that the unit of value shall be both silver and gold,
the dollar ?
Mr. SHERMAN. Whenever the market value of silver is equal to
the market value of geld, then they are equal with each other. As to
this pretense about saying silver is discriminated against, why does the
Senator discriminate against silver by demanding 16 ounces of silver
for 1 ounce of gold ?
Mr. D ANIEL. That is not a discrimination. That is its fixed status
from our anterior coinage.
Mr. SHERMAN. But suppose its market value should fall above or
below ? Now, what I have always sought to maintain is that the pur­
chasing power of both silver and gold should be always the same. I
can see very well how the law can provide in view of the market value
being up and down within a certain scale, yet I think the silver dollar
ought always to be maintained and held and used and paid out and re­
ceived as the equivalent of gold coin. If the Senator, notwithstand­
ing the
w
h$ w-efTtiqTientty makes, will Jtist
point out where I have discriminated against the law in respect to sil­
ver and gold, I should be very glad to hear him, but I think he will
find it impossible to do so. As a matter of course, before resumption
we discriminated against both silyer and gold or in favor of both sil­
ver and goW.
Mr. DANIEL. Mr. President, the Senator can always make a good
speech, and he never makes a better one than when he is asked a ques­
tion and takes some collateral subject as hi* text for answer. There
is one maxim of the law which the Senator has well illustrated, *‘ Great
is the mystery of judicial interpretation.’ ’ He has never discriminated
against silver, he says, under the law; but then the Senator has always
sat with those who could interpret the law, and it has generally been
interpreted and carried out in such a way as to result in a discrimina­
tion and depreciation of silver.
Now. upon the broad fact that he has not discriminated against sil­
ver is that statute which says that the gold dollar shall be the unit of
value, and is ft discrimination against sliver. In this very bill, which
does not allow msingle silver dollar to be coined after a year hence,
there is * discrimination against silver. In hoarding silver in the
Treasury and not allowing it to circulate either as money or by ita
paper representative, there is another discrimination against silver.

6

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.

While tho Senator nays that ho wants to make the silver metal the
equal in value of the gold metal, a doctrine which is entirely righteous
and correct, due* not the Senator know that you can not make two
things the equal in value unless you impart to those things the same
legal attributes, rights, ami privileges?
it you hold a quantity of gold in the right hand you can go to the
Treasury and you can turn it into gold dollars, no matter what the
Secretary wants to do. You may hold any amount of silver in }'our
lel't hand and there is no mau in this country who can get a single dol­
lar of that dollar’s worth of it coined into a silver dollar. Is it not a
discrimination against the oue metal to say, “ Gold, go freely and ti rn
yourself iuto a dollar,” aud against the other when there is no particle
of silver in the United States to-day or anywhere that has aself*a<sertivo right to turn itself into a dollar? While it may do to say that you
do not discriminate, how is it possible that the wit or imagination of
man cuu conceive of a greater discrimination?
I shall have to ask the Senator *rom Ohio what he means by discrim­
ination. 1 do not know. He has gone off into the region of Treasury
interpretation, flow the Treasury Department of this country will
interpret, anything is beyond the conception oi any one who either writes
or construes the laws which are laid down before it as its guide. What
does the Senator trom Ohio think of a Secretary of the Treasury who
adveitises to the world that our bonds, principal and interest, are pay­
able in gold? Where does tho Secretary of the Treasury get that idea
from ? What right has he as a representative of the American people
to state that as a fact ? Does the Senator from Ohio indorse that state­
ment?
Mr. SHKRMAX. I say the bonds are payable in gold orsilver, and
the silver dollar is just as good as gold, and the Senator is talking about
equivalents.
Mr. DANIEL. As the foreman of the jury speaks now so say we all;
but that is an absolute contradiction of what the Secretary of the Treas­
ury bus said. 1 am glad to hear the honorable Senator from Ohio say
tiiat.
Mr. SHERMAN. I do not think the Senator is exactly just to a
gentleman who is not present, that is, the Secretary of the Treasury.
Tho remark that our bonds are payable in gold is true. It is equally
true to say that the bonds are payable in silver. Either silver dollars
or gold dollars can be presented in payment of bonds. So literally it
is true either way. Probably if the Secretary had known that his lan­
guage was going to be commented upon by a very narrow construction,
he would have said “ silver or gold,” because in fact both gold and
silver are used exactly nt a parity with each other in all the transactions
of the Government of the United States. There is no cose that I can
conceive of now under the laws of the United States* except as to gold
certificates, where the silver dollar can not be paid just as well as the
gold dollar; and because the Secretary did not put in both gold and
silver in that statement, I do not think is a very grave crime, and I
think the Senator is magnifying a very small matter.
Mr. DA XI EL. Mr. President, if that was the only matter, it might
be by itself not a great crime, I confess, not a very great one, if it had
been done casually; but that offense against the American people has
teen committed by successive Secretaries of the Treasury, and as the
Senator well knows it has crcated a false public impression. The Sen­
ator says it is true that the bonds are payable in gold, and it is also
true that they are payable in silver. The truth is that they are pay­
able in coin, and so declared; but when the Secretary of the Treasury
uses that language here he does not mean that they are payable in
either gold or silver.
tie is arguing this question for the purpose of showing what is our
standard of value, what is our obligation to provide gold to meet the
bonds. He goes on to say, quoting from the statute, that “ the gold
coins of the United States shall be a one-dollar piece, which at the
3,+audard weight of 25.8 grains shall be the unit of value. ” He is using
tizts iangmqce-m-tittkB
tJUu purpoao of dprfijffag p y y n *
ment that we are bound to pay gold to our bondholders.
Mr. President, X shall not go further in answering the questions
which have been suggested, but confining myself to the text of this
bill I proceed to point out now what I conceive to be an objectionable
feature.
The 4,500,000 ounces of silver which are to be purchased per month
are to be stored away in the Treasury of the United States. Treasury
notes of the United States are to be issued in payment for them; “ and
such Treasury notes shall be a legal tender in payment of all debts,
public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the
contract.”
Now, in respect to tho bonded debt of the United States, it is not
“ otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract,” and by the conces­
sion made here to day by the Senator from Ohio, which I was glad to
hear, these bonds are not only payable in gold, as stated by the Secre­
tary of the Treasury, but are payable also in silver equally. It is so
provided in this bill that neither the 4,500,000 ounces of silver which
you putin the Treasury nor that portion of these ounces which are per­
mitted to become money—that not one single dollar can be manufact­
ured out of that enormous bulk of bullion which is to consume the
American product can be so handled under the mechanism of this bill



as to be tendered in payment of a public obligation of the United
States.
In other words, there is a capacity in this bill of producing $(i9,6fi0,000
of silver per year. Onr Americau product of silver is something over
$50,000,000; but though under this bill you can take and store in tho
Treasury nearly seventy millions of silver, and not only absorb your
own product but take up the surplus existing product or a portion or
the product of other nations, yet out of sill that enormous bulk of sil­
ver bullion which is to be bought up and put into tho Treasury of the
United States not so much as one dollar thereof can ever be tendered
to a public creditor of the United States in payment of the debt we owe
him. Such an enormous discrimination against silver as that has never
before existed in our legislation, except when it was completely demon­
etized, and was almost inconceivable to the wit of men until this bill
emanated from the deft hands which prepared it.
Now, sir, I make that assertion in regard to this bill, that not one
single dollar of the seventy millions of silver that may be carried to
the Treasury under it per year in all these successive years through
which that silver stream can flow there—that not one single dollar can
ever be taken out of the Treasury under this law to discharge a dol­
lars worth of the public obligations of the United States. Why do I
say this ? Because the bonds of the United States are payable in coin,
and if this enormous bulk of silver which is to be introduced iuto our
financial system could become coined, then high and low, rich and
poor, wage-earner and bondholder, soldier and civilian, would all stand
upon the same plane as to silver, and would receive a silver dollar as
he would receive a gold dollar in discharge of his debt.
But it- is also to be remembered that we have declared these bonds
of ours to be payable in coin; it has ceased to be regarded as in good
faith on the part of this nation to tender a greenback or a Treasury
note in payment of them. So when the greenback or Treasury note
is emitted, and your silver is buried in the vaults of the Treasury, you
have by that statute which declares that your bonds shall be payable
in coin, and by this statute which declares that not a dollar of your
silver product shall be coined, so parted the great bondholding, wealthpossessing people of this country from silver that you imprison the
one where it can never escape into the light of a bondholding day, and
elevate the other upon a plane ofgold where it looks down derisively
and turns up its nose at the poor incarcerated silver.
Here, then, w-hile you are making a market for your silver to a cer­
tain degree and at a belittled price by giving authority to purchase
4,500,000 ounces a month, you are still depreciating the value of that
silver bullion, yon are still denying to it the royal right to become
money, yon are still treating it as a commodity in every way, shape,
and form, both in its own material metallic substance, and also in the
amount of paper which you permit to represent it.
If finance were the mere matter of a day I would give my adhesion
to this bill. It is better, in my judgment, that this bill should become
a law, than that no bill should become a law, and will be better for two,
three, or four years to come in this respect, that it will increase the
volumeof your circulating medium and will to that degree, fora while,
relieve to a certain extent the people of the country and do that much
good. But this bill is a mere makeshift, it is a mere expedient for
the nonce. It is a lawyer’s plea put in to get the continuance of n
case, and when the witnesses are ready and the jury are about to give
a verdict against his client, it is fancied that if you make this experi­
ment with silver and put it there as bullion, and then put out some
paper money, yon will throw a sop to Cerberus; that you will quiet to
some degree the anxieties and respond to the demands of the people for
more money. Bnt, Mr. President, there is a day of judgment not far
off that will sit upon this bill.
On the one hand it will soon be contended that this had been a mighty
effort to restore silver and that it had failed; that paper money was

being emitted instead of hard money, and the first administration that

wdlfl gist tlW puwei ui du it Wualii
wflik mild (iiiantriict thnf rurrency and draw in the greenbacks, copying the unhappy experience
which this nation went through just after our civil war.
Mr. President, I would invoke on behalf of those true friends of sil­
ver coinage who believe in the doctrines which they have preac hed
here, a firm and a steady hand. If they can conceive that the President
would veto this bill, I would give that President the opportunity to
do it. We do not know that he would or that he would not. We do
not know, indeed, but that he may veto this bill. It is not our busi­
ness to attend to his business. Let him do as he sees fit, according to
the manner in which he may read his duty. But if the friends of free
coinage here should abandon the field now to accept the substitute,
then they are victors who give away more of their spoils thau any vic­
tors who ever won a field of military or civic strife.
A large majority, as I believe, of the people of this country are be­
hind their backs. You hear it from the wheat and corn fields of the
West in tones that can not be mistaken. You hear it from the new
Territories of the Union where enterprise and energy are busy develop­
ing new farms and new mines and building up new cities. You hear
it in the cotton and tobacco fields ot the new South, and you see that
even in the commercial centers of this country there are accessions day

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.

7

by day and week by week to those who advocate the doctrine of free as I read them in the record, are such as to warrant me in saying
that a prophet is seldom without honor save in his own country. I
silver money.
Many of the most eminent men of this country who live in the great can not venture to say anything about what will happen in 1892. I
commercial centers, aud amongst them the distinguished Edwards can not tell here what will happen in a week [laughter], and sometimes
Pierrepoint, oi New York, who wasonce the minister of our country to the we are very much disappointed in what happens in a night. A prophet
court of tit. James, the quiet thinkers who are not immediately engaged can only shoot at very short range in political affairs. But one thing I
in shaving paper aud buying bonds, all over this country are swelling think I may venture to say; it is a mere belief, scarcely a prophecy;
and recruiting the silver ranks every day. The distinguished Senator and that is, that in 1892 somebody will have to talk silver remarkably
from New York [Mr. E v a i i t s ] , if he represented any other State in well or he will not be elected. What he may do afterwards no prophet
this Union but New York, would have wound up the great silver speech can ventum to say.
Observance of political platforms is not a virtue which has been re­
which he made upon this floor by a peroration befitting its body in favor
of tree silver. Well did he say upon one occasion, and the figure of markable in any of our public servants in recent times, and the polit­
rhetoric was worthy of the lact, that the commerce and credit of the ical platform has come to be almost a useless piece of political iurniworld was a great globe, and that gold and silver metals were the Atlas ture. The people a little later, I think, will look more at the man
and his reeord than at his declarations. When the honorable Senator
which had to bear that burden >
All of his speeches and essays and doctrines have been in favor of from Ohio [Mr. S h e r m a n ] can announce as his platform that he
silver. Almost he has been persuaded to give his voice and vote in never has discriminated against silver, and can now appear in the front
favor of tree silver. And with the voice of the people of this country ranks of the so-called silver men, there are obvious divergencies be­
at the back of the silver men North, South, East, and West, we stand tween the common acceptation of history and records and platforms
up in this Congress noting every year of our experience such great ac­ which areas irreconcilable as the terms of this bill with its professions.
I am reminded in looking at this bill of what Macaulay remarked on
cessions to our ranks that he must read the future with short-sighted
eyes who can not see that victory is in the air and soon will be regis­ one occasion about compromises. He observed that compromises are
tered if those who carry its banners cling to them firmly at the pitch very illogical and seldom satisfactory, and as an illustration he observed'
that if two gentlemen of good character were to get into a dispute, and
of the game.
Who would have thought ten or twelve or fifteen years ago that one were to insist that two and two made lour, and the other that two
the Senate of the United States by seventeen majority could declare and two made six, and were to submit the question to the arbitrament
for free silver ? It has been done, and it is the greatest intellectual of mutual friends, the inevitable verdict rendered by the arbitrators
triumph of a theory of finance which in my judgment has ever would be about this: That having considered all the peculiar circum­
been witnessed in the world’s history. Why, sir, but a few years ago stances in this case, and while there was much in favor of the propo­
when silver was introduced upon this floor it was scorned and derided. sition of the one gentleman that two and two made four, arid they
The man who dared to advocate the free silver dollar was called a could well understand how the other had derived a conviction that
lunatic. But now from all parts of this country so has that question two and two made six, yet under the peculiar circumstances of the case
been developed in argument and by experience, and so has it entered they reached the conclusion that two and two made five. [Laughter. ]
Arbitrators always divide and in all arbitraments in which men wfco
into the minds of men, that seventeen majority in this body has reg­
think in opposite directions are trying to get upon the same platform
istered its decree in Javor of it.
I am told that it is not decorous to speak of what is going on in the an inevitable result is a heterogenous and unsatisfactory product.
other side ol the Capitol. I will therefore give my remarks upon that When the Senator from Ohio, a believer in the single gold standard, a
subject no personality or location, but simply refer in general terms to fighter against silver for a quarter of a century, a prophet who declared
the lact that the breeze is blowing silverward wherever you come in that $50,000,000 of silver would deluge and ruin the country, and the
contact in this country with the people or their Representatives.
honorable Senator from Nevada, who believes that the very atmosphere
Sooner or later Congress and the Executive have got to come in of the world would be improved by a little silver ingredient in it—
collision on this subject. Either in the next Presidential campaign when these two gentlemen pool their issues and the Senate is given the
somebody has got to be elected President of the United States who will composite results; you will fiud that in every section of the bill two and
stand up boldly and fearlessly for the money of the people and will not two nwAflrflv& [Laughter.]
conceive that the sun rises and sets within the purlieus of banking
The theory upon which our worthy silver friends have acted is that
houses in great cities; or sooner or later Congress and the Executive in o.rder to restore silver to its parity with gold you have to give it the
have got to come in collision on this subject. If this collision has same functions and attributes which you attach to gold. I have read
got to come, why not let it come now?
their speeches, and I have got so indoctrinated with their philosophy
There is no man who loves peace of all kinds more than I love it. I that I can no longer recognize it in this legislative expression, and I
bate quarreling and I hate fighting; but if I have got to fight and must can not educate it out of me upon such short notice.
quarrel, here and now is the place where I always like to have it out.
Now, gentlemen, if you will stand up to this fight you can win it,
If a Democratic President was in the White House and was against and if you run away~ from it you will lose it A man is always go­
silver, I should like to have the opportunity, as far as lies within ing to stand up to the thing that he loves most. Whenever there be
my humble resources, to teach him a little true Democracy.
two men in the field and one is to be taken and the other left, you will
I am tired, heartily tired, ofseeing the peopieof this countiy thwartedalways stand by the one you love most and let the other one that you
at every turn they take for greater freedom in the management of their do not like most be left. If you believe in the free coiuage of silver
finances. We have not bad a representative man of the full free thought as you have induced the people of this country to believe—and I am
of the American people in the White House for lo, these many years; one of your humble disciples—if it has all the good in it that you have
and as long as parties are so shaped and opinions are so warped by old said it hadj if the degradation of it has the evil in it which you have
issues and old quarrels that the mind of this country can not have fair said it bad) If you love that principle of finance more than you do a
plky, we are not going to have any. You put a gold man on a silver little shorty evanescent political adjustment of difficulties which in their
platform and he will welcome the committee and will say that he in­ nature aie irreconcilable, yon will stand by free silver and let the
dorses it every line and stands on every plank; but if he i» elected President *f the United States take care of himself.
President then comes in the interpretation. [Laughter] Good Lord,
Mr. President, I am so devoted to the Democratic party that it seems
deliver us from the interpreters and the interpretation 1 *'Silverm
money ” was the Republican platform; silver asa prison commodity is me part ooihpany with It, It has passed from iny mind to my heart,
the practice.
into the region of affection, because it was my friend and my people’s
Mr. MITCHELL. While the Senator is on the subject of interpre­ friend when friends were lew and much wanted! But as muchas I
tation, let me ask why did the Democratic party put nothing in their love that party, as deeply as I am attached to it by the traditions of
platform respecting silver? [Xaughter.]
its bistoiy and ray own, t had almost rather see a Republican Presi­
Mr. DANIEL. The Democratic party at the last convention was in dent of this country with a financial system which would come to the
tfca same hole that the Senator from Oregon is now. [Laughter. ] I relief of our whole people, than to see a Democratic President treading
would have expected his sympathy. He has only emphasized his own out andcrnshing down as our Presidents have done those great aspi­
unhappy condition* He has his whole body in the hole, and if I had rations of tfae American heart which have asked for a freer atmosphere
been in his place I would not have poked my head out to point people and for fhHer play to their energies and their hopes and their enter­
to my unfortnnate condition. [Laughter.]
prises and their ambition.
So far as silver was co ncerned we had the elephant when the Dem­
I believe that the two old parties are enough for this country, for
ocratic convention met at Chicago, and so far as silver is concerned yon, when you come to build up new political organizations you are pntgentlemen, have the elephant now. The elephant trod on silver in tingoutnpcm an unknown sea. But it would be better to have a new
1888, and he is treading on it now.
political party in this country than to have both of these old ones
Mr. ALDRICH. Do yon mean President Cleveland?
perpetually cringing—I perhaps ought not to use a term that might
Mr. DANIEL. Yes, sir; of course I mean President Cleveland. seem oflbnifcre, for offense I do not intend—hat the two old political
[Laughter.] But there was just a little more independence amongst parties per|^tDally bowin^ and giving up their opinions and the opin­
the Democrats than I see now----ions of 3ie neopie whom they represent to those who* for the nonoe, are
Mr. ALDRICH. How will it he in 1692?
in the Presidential chair.
Mr. DANIEL. Mr. President, the prophecies upon gold and silver,
Sir, there is a danger to republican institutions of this country lurk­




CONGRESSIONAL KECOKD.

8

ing in the too great deference of Congress to Executive thought and
action. While this Republic is scarce yet a hundred years old, there
is no one who has studied the course of public opinion and has wit­
nessed how it is perpetually foiled and set aside by the mechanism of
legislation and Executive administration, who has not been convinced
that in this country it is more difficult for public opinion to find its
expression in legislative action than in almost any of the enlightened
civilizations of the world.
In France with her Corps Legislatif, in England with her Parliament,
when the great body of those people have solemnly and deliberately
made up their minds upon any public question there is nd cabinet,
there is no crowned head or chief executive, there is no premier, there
is no power, that can possibly resist that enlightened public judgment.
But if you have a coterie of sharp, astute men in this country who are
attached to either one of the political organizations, and wko possess
elements, in a degree, of popularity and power, and if perchance the
idea gets imbedded in their brain that they are wiser than their'day
and generation, and that it is their duty to indoctrinate the organizations which have made them their heads and spokesmen with differ­
ent views and different notions from those which have welled up trom
the great depths of the popular heart, such is the mechanism of our
Government, and so does its balances of power play against that vol­
ume of public sentiment that it is almost next to an impossibility to
get the will of the people registered upon the statute-books and carried
into a law.
Four or five years ago, when the President-elect of the United States,
Mr. Cleveland, sent to Congress his message about silver, which had
been preceded by his letter urging cessation from its coinage, if this
had been in reality, as it is in theory, a representative government, his
Cabinet would have resigned in a little while after his administration
came in. That great Democratic voice which was ready to burst forth
in its legitimate expression would have recorded itself then as it is try­
ing to record itself now, in favor of a freer and more liberal treatment
of our silver money.
Mr. President, if you wish political badinage, if you propose to treat
this subject as we might do upon the stump when you attack one
speaker by showing that he is bad and you think you cover the whole
case when you show he is worse, we might have “ tit for tat” between
our political opponents and ourselves, and at the end of the battle both of
us would be worsted. But if there is to be a concession here, a reason­
able concession ought always to be to a certain degree in order, but it
ought not to be until you have exhausted your iorces and until you
have thrown the responsibilty exactly where it belongs. Refuse this
conference report, ask for a new conference, get this bill passed if you
can, and send it to the President; if he vetoes it try to pass it over his
veto. Why should you hesitate to give him an opportunity to veto it ?
If I were President of the United States I should like to have the
opportunity to veto a bill which I thought was wrong and injurious to
the people. The popular mind attaches great dignity to the office of
President If this bill ought to be vetoed aud he should veto it, he
would be in a commanding position before the American people. He
would say, ‘ ‘ I was urged to do this thing; I thought it was wrong, and
I vetoed it.7’ You are not putting him into any bad position by giv­
ing him an opportunity to express his view and his conviction upon this
subject. You would be putting him in the position which a wise and
a brave man would crave the possession of.
If he has the courage to veto it, he would rejoice in the opportunity
to exhibit that courage. If he has the wisdom to say that you are
wrong and that the gold monopolists are right, he ought to rejoice in
the opportunity of pointing out the errors of your ways aid turning
you into the right path. Therefore you can have no j ust, sensible, stable
political motive for trying to adjust this issue between irreconcilable
doctrines. Sooner or later it has got to be fought out. The people are
not going to be content with a makeshift, an expedient, ft postpones
***

n a w t, afew in w a

w rh fn t. * a n tin f n n p l i f n n f t i a w n t

Free coinage, if it is destroyed to-day, will come in to-morrow. You
have gained nothing in putting this question off from one Congress to
another. Four years ago it was almost ripe for action. It was post­
poned. It came up the next year, and then again and again and again,
and now it is here, and it is on the very edge of victory if the leaders in
the battle will stand up to those who have followed them. I do not
feel, neither shall I speak towards any of them with any sense of bit­
ter reproach. I appreciate their difficulties, and I think £ understand
their feelings. It is natural to them, it is proper that they should de­
sire to compromise, if compromise will effect the resale That is al­
ways the disposition of a just man. But it does seem to me that
they have given away too much in this compromise, and they have re­
ceived too little. There can be but little inflation of our currency,
even if this bill be carried out with eood will and with a disposition to
advance it to all intents and purposes.
If yon will read the last report of the Secretary of the Treasury you
will see the statement of the retirement of the national-bank notes.
In this very year, 1889, with all your coinage of silver, counting the
twelve months back there has been, if I may rely upon
reports
that X see in the newspapers, a net contraction of the caneiwy of the




itm

people of the United States. However that particular fact may be, in
the last six years there has been an actual average contraction of your
national-bank currency of $30,000,000 per annum or $2,500,000 per
month. You have inflated your currency scarce ly a dollar with all
the silver that you are coining under the Bland act. A silver dollar has
merely taken the place of another or paper dollar which was going out
of circulation just as it came in.
If you were to give the most liberal scope and play to this measure
with its continuous and perhaps increasing retirement of your nationalbank circulation, it is almost doubtlul whether you will have any in­
crease of your circulating medium, and certainly you will have but a
very moderate increase when you contrast the demands of this great
and growing and prosperous country with the financial resources which
they rely upon.
Now, Mr. President, in conclusion, if I had the honor to occupy a
position amongst the true friends of free silver that could give to my
voice or advice any force or weight, I would say to them this: I do not
seek extreme measures or factious opposition to any of the powers of
our Government; but we represent here a great idea of the American
people which has shown its dignity, its force, by an almost unexampled
majority in this great body.
There is not a thing disrespectful to our colleagues in the other House
of Congress; there is nothing inconsiderate to our colleagues here in
saying to them in respectful terms: “ We can not consent to this com­
promise; we will ask another conference, we will ask yon to recon­
sider this upon the lines which we have presented in the Senate bill;
we will do our duty to the uttermost to advocate and to enforce the
idea which we believe to be best and most judicious for this nation;
we will let responsibity go to whomsoever may assume to take it, and
if we be beaten after we have fought our battle game to the finish, then,
and only then, will it be for us to consider the policy next to be pur­
sued.” *
For two or three years, for a little while, this will in some degree
please the people by the declaration that they have more money and
by actually giving it to them, but silver is not going to rise to par un­
der this bill. New difficulties are going to beset and thicken upon our
pathway. In the mean time it will be contended, jost as we see the
gold men undertaking to contend here now, in the face of law, in the
face of precedent, in the face of the plain truth, that we have adopted
the single standard.
The Secretary of the Treasury, instead of correcting his ill-conceived
and misused language, will go along and declare again that our bonds
are payable in gold. The world will be deceived by our action. The
mystery of interpretation will evolve out of the smoke and cloud of
this statute ideas not contained in it. The New York papers and the
financiers of the world will so iterate and reiterate their views of it; it
will be twisted and tortured and turned in this direction and that; and
meantime Bilver will be degraded as a mere commodity to be ware­
housed, not a dollar of it being coined, not one dollar of it more being
sent out in its paper representative according to its dollar capacity.
Have our friends upon the other side, who stand here for the silver
dollar, thought about that ? Do they know the doctrine they are com­
mitting their votes to when they say, “ We support this measure?”
Not only are they submitting to the degradation of silver in its own
proper substantial metal form, but they are submitting to its degrada­
tion in the documentary evidence which shall go forth to the world to
represent it.
You do not permit that silver to be coined into as many dollars as
it would make at the fixed ratio of 15.98 to 1, but the paper dollar
which you sent forth as a silver representative is represented by only
so many silver dollars in bullion as was the cost of that bullion. What
this oracular language means in this bill when it refers to a ratio of
silver I do not know, but there is a beckoning hand for an interpreter
in this danse of this new measure.
It being ike establishes policy 61 tins TTntied'EHalcwtv
tfcatwo
on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio, or such ratio as may
be provided by law.

In other words, there is an established policy with reference to some
unknown and unstated ratio. It is very difficult to establish a policy
with reference to an unknown quantity. A straight line is said to be
the shortest way between two points, but you can not locate the line
until you first locate the points. How can you establish a policy about
a ratio which is unexpressed and which, so far as this committee is con­
cerned, is inexpressible? That ratio, which may be provided by law,
it may be, is a larger ratio of silver in the silver dollar; and if we are
to divine the thoughts of men from the mechanical structure of the
statute which has come forth from their minds it would seem to be
indicated by the strnctnre of this statute, not that its projectors had
their faces turned to the French ratio, but rather that they had their
faces turned to some ratio that would put more silver, and not less, in
the dollar.
Why ? Because the paper representative of your silverbullion does
not go forth into the world to represent as many dollarsas that bullion
could be manfactored into, andas jou are boarding up in your Treaa*

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.
ury a bulk of ballion in ounces not to be imparted dollarhood in paper
or coin, the circumstantial evidence, if you were to look only to the
body of the act, would lead to the deduction that you were keeping
that in order to put more silver into your dollar at such a time as it
might please you to coin those dollars.
Therefore this bill, with all the speculations and conjectures and di­
verse interpretations which are already pat upon it (and many more
may be evolved out of it), is not the solution of a question which ought
to find its solution at this session of Congress; and while I am reluct­
ant to vote against any measure which puts more money in circula­
tion, and while, ii I had fought this battle to its last expression, I am
candid enough to say and to admit that I should rather have this bill,
with all its objectionable features, than none, I can not bring my mind
to assent to so awkward and incongruous a resolvent of a proposition
which should be scientifically and justly treated instead of jumbled
up with inconsistent provisions.
Mr. CAMERON. May I ask the Senator if be has finished?
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from Virginia yield
to the Senator from Pennsylvania?
DA------ 2




9

Mr. DANIEL. I will let the Senator know. I have not quite fin­
ished.
Mr. CAMERON. I did not know whether the Senator had finished
or not If he has, I should like to have the vote taken on this ques­
tion now.
Mr. DANIEL. I am sorry I can not accommodate the Senator. I
am nearly thiough, though. I shall be through in a moment. I might
have answered the Senator that I had finished, but I was not quite
through.
Mr. CAMERON. I thought the Senator had finished.
Mr. DANIEL. I had about finished, but I am not quite through.
I shall be through in a moment.
Concluding my observations, while I dislike to vote against any bill
which would produce more money even for the time, I shall feel obliged
to vote against this one, unless those gentlemen who have been the
advocates of free silver will first carry their logic to its ultimate conelusion and pursue it to the last ditch. When we get there, I shall be
glad to do whatever may seem to be best under the circumstances; but
we are not there yet, unless by their action.

O