Full text of The Money Question of the 51st Congress : Silver Bullion Certificates : Speech of Hon. F. M. Cockrell of Missouri, Debate in the Senate

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SILVER BULLION CERTIFICATES.

SPEECH
OF

HON. F. M. COCKRELL,
O F M ISSO U R I,

IN THE

SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,




Monday, June g, 1890.

.

W ASHINGTON.

1890




S P E E C H
OF

HON.

F.

M.

COCKRELL.

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, having under consideration the
bill (S. 2330) authorizing the issue of Treasury notes on deposits of silver bull­
ion—

Mr. COCKRELL said:
Mr. P b e s id e n t : Senate bill No. 2350 entitled “ A bill authorizing
the issue of Treasury notes on deposit of silver bullion,” directs the
Secretary of the Treasury to purchase from time to time silver bull­
ion to the amount of $4,500,000 worth in each month, at the market
price, not exceeding $1 for 371J grains of pure silver, and to pur­
chase such gold bullion as may be offered at a price not exceeding
$1 for 23.22 grains of pure gold, and to issue in payment Treasury
notes in such form and or sucu denominations not less than $1 nor
more than $1,000 as he may prescribe, and makes these Treasury notes
redeemable on demand in lawful money of the United States and re­
ceivable for customs, taxes, and ail public dues, and when redeemed to
be canceled, and when so received to be reissued, and when held by
any national-banking association to be counted as a part of its lawful
reserve.
It further requires the Secretary to com such portion of the gold or
silver bullion so purchased as may be necessary for the redemption of
the Treasury notes so issued, and repeals so much of the act of February
28, 1878, as requires the monthly purchase and coinage of not less than
$2,000,000 or more than $4,000,000 worth of silver bullion.
If enacted into law, the further coinage of silver bullion into stand­
ard dollars of 412J grains, nine parts fine, will rest wholly in the mere
discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, and he can so coin it or
not, at his pleasure.
It proposes no change of existing laws touching gold, except only
the purchase of gold bullion with Treasury notes; and the holder of
any gold bullion can now deposit the same and receive therefor gold
certificates equally as valuable as the Treasury notes.
Under the law of February 28, 1878, the Secretary of the Treasury
must purchase not less than $2,000,000 worth of silver bullion monthly
and coin it into standard dollars, and can, if he will, in his discre­
tion, purchase not more than $4,000,000 worth monthly and coin it
into such dollars, and can issue silver certificates for such dollars.
Under the proposed measure the Secretary must purchase $4,500,000
worth of silver bullion and pay therefor in Treasury notes, but he is
not required to coin any of such bullion into silver dollars. Where,
then, is any benefit in this proposal over the existing law? The most




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that can be claimed is that this bill, if a law, would compel the Secre­
tary to purchase with Treasury notes §500,000 worth of silver bullion
more than he now has the legal right to purchase monthly, and to in­
crease the currency to that extent.
By our present laws gold bullion has free coinage and can be ex­
changed at our mints grain for grain for gold coin, or can be deposited
and gold certificates obtained therefor; and gold bullion is therefore
practically equal to gold coin and equivalent to gold money.
Under the pending bill silver bullion is still to be treated as a mere
commodity, to be purchased in the market, just as any other metal can
be purchased, and will be given none of the equivalents of money or
currency. Why continue this legal discrimination and relentless war­
fare against silver?
It has not always been thus. By the common law of England,
transplanted in this country by our ancestors, gold and silver were
money and a lawful tender for the payment of debts down to the
adoption of our written Constitution.
By u An act for encouraging of coinage,” passed in 1666, England
established free and gratuitous coinage of silver and gold at the ratio
of 15 to 1, and both metals were placed upon an equal footing, and in
1717 the ratio was changed to 15.2 to 1, and so remained up to 1816.
By “ ^n act to prohibit the importation of light silver coin of this
realm from foreign countries into Great Britain or Ireland, and restrain
the tender thereof beyond a certain sum,” passed on January 13,1774,
silver coin was limited as a legal tender to £25 and under, and above
that sum was a legal tender only according to value by weight, and so
continued up to June 22, 1816.
We will now briefly examine our own legislation touching gold and
silver.
The Continental Congress on April 9, 1776, resolved—
That a committee of seven be appointed to examine and ascertain the value
of the several pieces of gold and silver coins current in these colonies, and the
proportions they ought to bear to Spanish milled dollars.

This committee on May 22,1776, brought in their report, which was
read and ordered to lie on the table, and on July 24, 1776, Congress
resolved—
That the report of the committee on gold and silver coins be recommitted.

On September 2, 1776—
The committee to whom was recommitted the report for ascertaining the
value of the several species of gold and silver coins current in these States, and
the proportion they and each of them ought to bear to Spanish milled dollars,
brought in their report; which was read, and ordered to lie on the table.

In this report the committee recommended—
That the several gold and silver coins passing in said colonies shall be reeeived into the public Treasury of the Continent and paid out in exchange for
bills emitted by authority of Congress, when the same shall become due, at the
rate set down in the following table.

And then gave the rates for silver and gold.
The then existing coinage of both metals was generally of light
weight, and it is not possible to say with absolute accuracy what was
the relative ratio thus established, but the ratio indicated was about 1
to 15.2.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the ratification of which was
completed by the delegates for the State of Maryland March 1,1781—
The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclu­
sive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coins struck by their

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authority or by that of the respective States, fixing the standard of weights and
measures throughout the United States.

On January 7,1782, the Congress resolved—
That it be an instruction to the Superintendent of Finance to prepare and re­
port to Congress a table of rates at which the different species of foreign coins
most likely to circulate within the United States shall be received at the Treas­
ury thereof.

On December 12, 1782, Robert Morris, the Superintendent of Fi­
nance, submitted his report, recommending that certain foreign coins
named be valued at the sums therein named, estimated according to
weight and fineness as bullion, the relative ratio being 1 to 14.56.
On May 13,1785, the Grand Committee of Congress on the Monetary
Unit submitted their report and recommended the establishment of the
ratio of 1 to 15, with alloy of one-twelfth part, and said:
The quantity of pure silver being fixed that is to be the unit or dollar, and
the relation between silver and gold being fixed, all the other weights must fol­
low.

On July 6, 1 7 8 5 Congress took into consideration the report of the Grand Committee * * *
on the subject of the money unit, and, on the question that the mone/unit of
the United States of America be $1, the yeas and nays being required by Mr.
Howell, and every member answering “ ay,” it was resolved that the money
unit of the United States of America be $1.

On August 8, 1786, the Congress—
On a report of the Board of Treasury resolved that the standard of the United
States of America for gold and silver shall be 11 parts fine and 1 part alloy; that
the money unit of the United States being, by the resolve of Congress of the
6th of July, 1785, a dollar,shall contain of fine silver 375.64 grains; that the
money of account to correspond with the divisions of the coins, agreeably with
the above resolve, proceed in a decimal ratio;

And ordered—
That the Board ofTreasury reporta draught of an ordinance for the establish­
ment of a mint.

On October 16,1786, the Congress passed an ordinance entitled “ An
ordinance for the establishment of the Mint of the United States of
America and for regulating the value and alloy of coin,” and therein
provided for the coinage of gold, silver, and copper money, and pre­
scribed the'weight, fineness, and relative value. The mii*t contem­
plated in this ordinance was never erected. The mint charge proposed
was about 2 per cent, upon both gold and silver, and made the ratio
of bullion at the mint as 1 to 15.22, a little below the ratio in coin.
Passing from the confederation the Constitution of the United States
declares that—
The Congress shall have power * * * to coin money, regulate the value
thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; * *
* to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current
coin of the United States.

And further,
No State shall * * * coin money * * * or make anything but gold and
silver coin a tender in payment of debts.

Congress therefore has the exclusive power to coin money and to de­
clare what coin shall pass current as money and to regulate and fix the
value of such coin and of foreign coin as money, as legal tender for the
payment of all debts, public and private, and no State can coin any
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money or make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment
of debts. There is no restriction upon the power of Congress to coin
money and regulate its value, either as to the metal to be coined into
money or the weight or quantity of the metal, the value of which when
coined Congress can regulate and fix.
Congress, by “ An act establishing a mint and regulating the coins
of the United States,” approved April 2, 1792, exercised its constitu­
tional power by establishing a mint and authorizing the coinage of gold,
silver, and copper coins, and placed gold and silver upon a perfect
equality, and gave to each free coinage and to the coins of each full
legal tender in all payments, the gold coins to be eagles, half-eagles,
and quarter-eagles of the declared value of,ten, five, and two and onehalf dollars, respectively, 11 parte pure gold to 1 of alloy, and the
.silver coin to be dollars or units, half-dollars, quarter-dollars, dimes,
and half-dimes, and made them all a full legal tender in payment of
any and all sums.
The weight of the gold in one dollar if coined would have been 27
grains standard and 24.75 pure, and the weight of the silver in the dollar
or unit was 416 grains standard and 371} grains pure, and the value
of this silver dollar was to be that of the Spanish milled dollar as then
current. This law further declared—
That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars
or units, dimes, or tenths, * * * and tliat all accounts of the public officers
and all proceedings in the Congress of the United States shall be kept in due
conformity with this regulation—

And—
that the proportional value of gold and silver in all coins which shall by law b«
current as money within the United States shall be as 15 to 1.

This, our first monetary law, continued in force until June 28,
1834.
Congress, by “ An act concerning the gold coins of the United States,
and for other purposes,” approved June 28, 1834, and to take effect
July 31, 1834, reduced the standard weight and fineness of the gold
coins from 27 grains standard and 24.75 pure in the dollar to 25.8
standard and 23.2 grains pure to the dollar, being a reduction of the
standard gold of 1.2 grains and of the pure gold 1.55 grains to the dol­
lar, and declared the new gold coins a full legal tender in all payments,
and made all gold coins previously minted receivable in all payments
at the rate of 94.8 cents per pennyweight.
Congress, by “ An act to establish a mint and regulate the coins of
the United States,” approved January 18, 1837, fixed the standard for
both gold and silver coin of the United States at nine parts pure to one
of alloy, and the weight of the silver dollar at 412J grains, and qf the
half-dollars, quarter-dollars, dimes, and half-dimes correspondingly, and
made them all legal tenders for all sums whatever. Thus the alloy was
reduced, while the pure silver of 371]- grains was retained in the stand­
ard silver dollar.
The standard weight of the gold coins was not changed, but the fine­
ness was fractionally advanced, so that a gold dollar if coined would
have contained 23.22 grains pure gold instead of 23.20, and these re­
ductions by the laws of 1834 and 1837 of the weight and fineness of the
gold coins changed the relative valuation or ratio of gold and silver
in coinage from 1 to 15 to 1 to 15.938, and increased the coining rate or
legal-tender value of gold in this country 6.589 percent., and both gold
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find silver bullion and coin were continued upon a perfect equality at
-the prescribed ratio.
Congress, by “ An act to authorize the coinage of gold dollars and
double-eagles, ’ 1approved March 3,1849, authorized the coinage o f 6‘ gold
dollars, each to be of the value of $1, or unit ” and “ double-eagles,
each to be of the value of $20, or units, ” with full legal tender and free
coinage.
Congress, by *‘An act amendatory of existing laws relative to the halfdollar, quarter-dollar, dime, and half-dime,” approved February 21,
1853, reduced the standard weight of the half-dollar from 206J grains
to 192 grains, a reduction of 14j grains, and the quarter-dollar, dime,
?and half-dime correspondingly, to take effect from June 1, 1853, and
made them legal tender for all sums not exceeding $5, and they could
only be coined upon Government account from silver purchased in the
market.
This law continued the free coinage with unlimited legal tender of
gold and silver bullion into gold coins and the standard silver dollar,
and imposed a mint charge upon the depositor, whether the metal was
coined or cast into ingots or bars, of one-half of 1 per cent. This
law also authorized t^e coinage of the three-dollar gold piece, with frill
legal tender, and by the act of March 3, 1853, this law was made to
take effect from April 1, 1853, and the charge for casting gold or sil­
ver into bars or ingots was reduced to tlfe actual cost thereof.
By the law of March 3,1853, the Secretary of the Treasury was au­
thorized to establish in New York City an assay office for assaying and
casting gold and silver bullion and foreign coin into bars, ingots, or
disks, and the assistant treasurer at New York was made the treasurer
of such assay office, and was authorized, upon the deposit of gold or
silver bullion or foreign coin and the ascertainment of its net value,
to—
issue his certificate of the net value thereof, payable in coins of the same metal
as that deposited, * ** * which certificates shall be receivable at anytime
within sixty days from the date thereof in payment of all debts due to the
United States at the port of New York, for the full sum therein certified—

And the same charge was made as at the mint. This is the origin of
our gold and silver certificates.
Congress by “ An act to provide ways and means for the support of
the Government,” approved March 3, 1863, authorized the Secretary
of the Treasury to issue certificates for gold coin or bullion deposited
in sums of not less than $20, such certificates to be receivable in pay­
ment of interest on the public debt and duties on imports.
Congress by “ An act revising and amending the laws relative to the
mint, assay office, and coinage of the United States,” approved Febru­
ary 12, 1873, and known as the coinage act of that year, established a
single gold standard and declared the gold dollar piece, of the standard
weight of 25.8 grains, the unit of value, and omitted from the law the
coinage of the silver dollar of 412J grains, but continued the coinage
of the half-dollar, quarter-dollar, and dime, increasing the weight of
the half-dollar nine-tenths of a grain, or to 192.9, and the quarter-dol­
lar and dime correspondingly, and limited their legal tender to any
amount not exceeding $5 in one payment, the silver bullion to be pur­
chased for such coinage and coined on Government account, and also
authorized the coinage of the trade-dollar of 420 grains standard silver,
to be a legal tender for $5, which legal tender was repealed by the law
o f July 22, 1876.
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It also authorized the deposit of gold bullion to be formed into coins
or bars, imposing a mint charge for coining gold bullion o f one-fifth of
1 per cent., and authorized silver bullion to be formed into trade-dollars or bars subject to a mint charge equal to the actual cost.
By the resumption act of January 14,1875, the mint charge for coin­
ing gold bullion was removed and the coinage made free again.
Congress, by “ An act to authorize the coinage of the standard silver
dollar and to restore its legal-tender character,” passed by Congress
in February, 1878, and vetoed by President Hayes, and passed by Con­
gress over his veto, and which became a law February 28, 1878, re­
quired the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase from time to time sil­
ver bullion at the market price, not less than $2,000,000 worth per
month nor more than $4,000,000 worth per month, and to cause the same
to be coined monthly as fast as so purchased into standard silver dol­
lars of 412} grains of standard silver, and made all such coins equal
with all silver coins of like weight and fineness previously coined, and
legal tender for all debts, public and private, except where otherwise
expressly stipulated in the contract.
This law further authorized any holder of such coins to deposit the
same in sums of not less than $10 and to receive certificates therefor,.
the coin to be held for their redemption, and the certificates to be re­
ceivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and when so received
to be reissued; and gave the Government the benefit of the seigniorage
arising from the purchase of the silver bullion and its coinage.
This is the existing law, proposed to be repealed by the pending bill.
By the law of August 4, 1886, the Secretary of the Treasury was re­
quired to issue silver certificates in denominations of one, two, and five
dollars upon deposit of standard silver dollars, or in lieu of silver cer­
tificates of larger denominations, to be receivable, redeemable, and
payable as provided in the law of February 28, 1878.
I have thus minutely traced the history of our legislation touching
gold and silver, that we may see it in all its relations and bearings.
Is there any valid reason now justifying us as a nation to continue
the existing discrimination by our laws in favor of the free and unlim­
ited coinage of gold bullion and the issue of gold certificates for gold
bullion, and against the free and unlimited coinage of silver bullion
into the standard dollars of 412} grains and the issue of silver certifi­
cates for silver bullion ?
No more important question has ever been presented to Congress.
Our action will affect not only our own people directly, but indirectly
the people of all nations for the present and for ages to come. With­
out political or partisan prejudice, without selfish interests, we should
calmly and dispassionately discuss it and decide according to the weight
of reasons, of facts, figures, and legitimate conclusions drawn from the
history of the past.
Would the free and unlimited coinage of silver bullion into fall legaltender standard silver dollars and the issue o f silver certificates for sil­
ver bullion be in derogation of any obligation of our nation to creditors ?
On May 1, 1890, our interest-bearing bonded debt, in addition to the
$64,623,512 of bonds issued to the Pacific railroads, which are payable
in any kind of legal-tender dollars, amounted to $719,072,300, con­
sisting of $112,521,250 of the funded loan of 1891, redeemable Septem­
ber 1,1891, bearing 4} per cent, interest, and o f $606,551,050 of the
funded loan o f1907, redeemable July 1, 1907, bearing 4 per cent., in­
terest, both issued tinder the refunding law of July 14, 1870.
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This law authorized the issue of these bonds “ redeemable in coin of
the present standard value” and required that “ the said bonds shall
have set forth and expressed on their face the above specified condi­
tions.” Each of the bonds so issued and now outstanding has these
words set forth in its body: 4‘ Redeemable * * * in coin of the stand­
ard value of the United States on said July 14, 1870, with interest in
such coin.”
Beyond a reasonable doubt, the coin of the standard value of the
United States on said July 14, 1870, consisted of gold coins of 25.8
grains to the dollar, and of silver coins of 412J grains to the dollar,
each equally having free coinage and full legal tender in all payments.
Congress has the sole power to coin money and regulate the value of
the coin, the quantity and weight of the gold and silver composing
such coin, and their legal tender. Knowing this and fearing its exer­
cise, the bondholders had inserted into the law of July 14,1870. and
in the face of the said bonds, the provisions quoted, so that notwith­
standing any changes Congress might make in the standard value of coin
thereafter to be minted, the dollars named in said bonds could only be
paid in gold coin of 25.8 grains, nine parts fine, to the dollar, and silver
coin of 412J grains, nine parts fine, to the dollar.
On January 25,1878, the Senate passed a resolution, which was agreed
to and passed by the House of Representatives on January 28, declar­
ing “ that the said bonds now outstanding are payable, principal and
interest, at the option of the Government of the United States, in silver
dollars of the coinage of the United States, containing 412£ grains each
of standard silver, and that to restore to its coinage such coins as legal
tender in payment of said bonds is not in violation of public faith nor
in derogation of the rights of the public creditor.”
Every dollar of the interest-bearing bonded debt of the United States
can to-day be paid just as honestly, legally, and equitably in the stand­
ard silver dollar of our present coinage as in the gold dollar. The op­
tion of paying the bonds in gold or silver dollars rests with the Govern­
ment, and it is dishonest in the bondholder to refuse the silver dollar
specifically named in his bond in payment thereof. Notwithstanding
the plain letter o f the law and the words on the face of the bonds and
the express declaration of Congress, the bondholders have demanded
gold dollars alone, and the Secretaries of the Treasury, subservient to
their interests, have paid the gold and refused to pay the silver dollars,
thus unjustly discriminating against the silver dollar and depreciating
its standard value and favorable consideration by the people of our own
and of foreign countries, branding it as unworthy and unfit to rank
equally with gold.
By the laws of our nation the. standard silver dollar is the equal in
all respects of the gold dollar, and should be so treated and paid out to
bondholders and othlers, without discrimination, by the Secretaries of
the Treasury; and, if they will discriminate against and depreciate the
standard silver dollar, then we should by law take from them any discreti6n and compel them to pay it out indiscriminately with gold.
The opponents o f free coinage of silver equally with gold proclaim
in season and out of season that from 1792 to 1873 we had free coinage
of silver dollars, and yet only coined in that whole period $8,045,838
silver dollars, and this charge has been repeated and circulated all over
the world, and is on the lips of every gold monometallist in Europe,
and has been hurled in the teeth of our delegates in the international
monetary conferences,
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Now, let us have the light of facts and figures and law upon this
question, and see what was actually done from 1792 to the coinage act
ot February 12, 1873.
From 1792 to 1853, inclusive, we coined in our mints $75,961,554.90
of standard silver half-dollars, quarter-dollars, dimes, and half-dimes,
consisting of 132,498,306 half-dollar pieces, 15,996,162 quarter-dollar
pieces, 38,900,625 dimes, and 36,465,978 half-dimes, and aggregating
223,861,071 separate pieces, and being about,nine separate pieces to each
man, woman, and child of our population; and all these coins were,by
law, a full legal tender in payment of all sums whatever equally with
the standard silver dollar and gold coins.
Under the laws existing up to 1857 there was no necessity, no use,
no reason for the coinage of such dollars. By the common law, the
resolves of the Continental Congress and of the Congress of the Con­
federation already quoted, gold and silver coins were current and legal
tenders at about the ratio of 1 to 15, and no United States coins were
minted prior to 1792. Among the first laws passed, by Congress under
the Constitution was that of July 31, 1789, to regulate the collection
of duties, which prescribed the rates at which foreign coins and cur­
rency should be estimated as money, and made them receivable for all
duties and debts at such rates, and from that date almost continuously
up to February 21, 1857, foreign coins of gold and silver, and particu­
larly the Spanish milled dollar and the Mexican dollar, were made cur­
rent and receivable for all public dues and a legal tender for all de­
mands at the rates declared in such laws, the Spanish milled dollar and
the Mexican dollar being estimated at 100 cents, or $1.
These foreign-coined silver dollars answered every purpose o f our
own silver dollars, and consequently very few silver dollars were coined
prior to 1857. During the war, beginning in 1861 and up to 1879, our
money was a paper currency. In 1868 the silver bullion in the standard
dollar was worth 2.57 cents more than the gold dollar, and we coined
54,800 silver dollars. In 1869 the silver dollar was worth 2.47 cents
more than the gold dollar, and we coined 231,350 silver dollars. In
1870 the silver dollar was worth 2.67 cents more than the gold dollar,
and we coined 588,308 silver dollars. In 1871 the silver dollar was
worth 2.57 cents more than the gold dollar, and we coined 657,929 sil­
ver dollars.
In 1872 the silver dollar was worth 2.25 cents more than the gold
dollar, and yet we coined 1,112,961 silver dollars, being the largest
number of silver dollars ever coined in any year since the establish­
ment of the mint. In the year 1873, up to the passage of the coinage
act of February 12, stopping the further coinage of the standard silver
dollar, that dollar was worth forty-six-one-hundredths of one cent more
than the gold dollar, and we coined in the one month and twelve days
of that year 977,150 silver dollars.
During these five years one month and twelve days from 1868 to
February 12, 1873, we coined 3,622,498 standard silver dollars, being
45 per cent, of our total coinage of such dollars up to said last date.
These figures show conclusively the increasing coinage of the stand­
ard dollar up to the day its coinage was stopped bylaw, beginning soon
after the close of the war and after the law prohibiting the further cur­
rency and legal tender of foreign silver coins in this country.
Again, the gold monometallists and the opponents of free and unlim­
ited coinage of the silver dollar proclaim to the world that since the
28th of February, 1878, to May 1, 1890, we have coined 363,626,266
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standard silver dollars, and our people will not use them as a circulat­
ing .medium, and they are stored away in our Government vaults until
we have no room for more, and are threatened with a deluge of silver
dollars, a depreciated and discarded money, and dire consequences have
been predicted from year to year by our gold sages and prophets un­
less we stop their further coinage. It is true we have coined the num­
ber of dollars named, but all the other charges and predictions are
false and without any foundation in truth, as the facts and figures will
prove.
I present a table compiled by the Director of the Mint showing the
number of standard silver dollars coined and then the number in out­
standing certificates circulating and used as money, and then the num­
ber of such dollars actually circulating as coin money, and the amount
or balance of the total coinage of silver dollars remaining in the Treas­
ury:
Coinage, outstanding certificates, amount in circulation, and balance in Treas­
ury of standard silver dollars from January 1, 1879, to May 1, 1890.
Date.
January 1,1879...
January 1,1880...
January 1,1881...
January 1,1882...
January 1,1883...
January 1,1884...
January 1,1885...
January 1,1886...
January 1,1887...
January 1,1888...
January 1,1889...
January 1,1890...
May 1,1890........
Ma y 26,1890.

Coinage.
$22, 495,550
50, 055,650
77, 453,005
105, 380,980
132, 955,080
161, 425,119
189, 561,994
218, 259,761
249, 623,647
283, 140,357
315, 186,190
349, 802,001
424,266

Outstanding Incircula- Balance in
certificates.
tion.
Treasury.
$413,360
3,824,252
36,127,711
62,315,320
68,443,660
96,717, <721
114,865,911
93,179,465
117,246,670
176,855,423
246,219,999
282,949,073
292,923,348

$5,790,721
16,887,586
29,262,487
35,793,043
38,938,238
41,975,734
43,059,129
52,541,571
61,117,409
64,222,818
60,779,321
61,266,501
56,994,977

$16,291,469
29,343,812
12,062,807
7,274,617
25,573,182
22,731,664
31,636,954
72,538,725
71,259,568
42,062.116
8,186,870
5,586,427
13,505,941

E. O. LEECH, Director of the Mint.

This table shows that on May 1,1890, of our total coinage, 292,923,348 silver dollars were represented by silver certificates circulating and
used as money, and 56,994,977 were circulating and used as coin money,
and that only a balance of $13,505,941 was in the Treasury, constitut­
ing a part of the very large surplus held in the Treasury. These silver
certificates are in denominations of one dollar, two dollars, five dollars,
and ten dollars, largely, and are in daily use as money, are preferred
to coin just as gold certificates are preferred to gold coin, and are upon
a perfect par and equality with gold certificates and gold coin.
Not only are our silver certificates upon a perfect par and equality
with gold certificates, but they have been actually preferred to the gold
coin itself. By an official report of the Secretary of the Treasury dated
January 24, 1884, it is shown that during the calendar years 1880,1881,
1882, and 1883 $78,754,000 in gold coin were deposited in the Treas­
ury and subtreasuries in exchange for silver certificates; and this
statement does not include the amounts of gold coin deposited in New
York in exchange for silver certificates prior to July 22, 1882, of which
no account has been kept. Not only so, but silver certificates, standard
dollars, and minor silver coins have been preferred to national-bank
coo




12
notes, United States notes, gold certificates, and gold coin, as shown
by this table from Treasury Department, which I will now read:
Statement showing the amount of nationdl-barik notes, United States notest
gold certificates, and gold coin received at Treasury offices for silver cer­
tificates, standard dollars, and fractional silver coin for the fiscal years
1887, 1888, and 1889.
Fiscal
Fiscal
Fiscal
year end­ year end­ yearend­
ing June ing June ing June
30,1888.
30,1889.
30,1887.

Description.

National-bank notes received for—
Silver certificates.......................... $338,109
Standard dollars..... ..................... 2,095,633
480,618
Fractional silver coin..*...............

Total.

$178,694
2,084,020
533,382

$23,850
1,638,626
671,227

$540,653
5,818,279
1,685,227

Total...... ......... ........................... 2,914,360 i 2,796,096

2,333,703

8,044,159

United States notes received for—
Silver certificates...................... .
Standard dollars.......................
Fractional silver coin............ .

1,657,952
321,575
5,387,648 1 5,220,708
1,229,593 , 1,404,583

Total............................................ 8,275,193 1 6,946,866
Gold certificates received for—
Silver certificates.......................... 4,600,570
Standard dollars........................... 3,095,190
430,150
Fractional silver coin..................
Total................. .......................... 8,125,910
Gte>ld coin received for—
Silver certificates.........................
Standard dollars..........................
Fractional silver coin.................

352,090 2,331,617
4,822,831 15,431,187
1,534,564 4,168,740
6,709,485

21,931,544

1,223,420
3,188,760
660,110

619,590
3,519,851
886,994

6,443,580
9,803,801
1,977,254

5,072,290

5,026,435 18,224,635

7,500
966,765
52,955

19,145
2,039,365
48,170

15,000
780,172
136,323

41,645
3,786,302
237,448

Total................ ........................... 1,027,220

2,106,680

931,495

4,065,395

U n it e d St a t e s T

r e asu r er ’s

O f f ic e ,

Division of Accounts, May 20, 1890.

And not ,only have we this very large circulation as money of silver
certificates and of standard silver dollars, but we had on May 1,1890,
outstanding and in actual circulation, 153,804,039 in subsidiary silver
coins, composed of half-dollars, quarter-dollars, and dimes, limited in
legal-tender power to $5 and containing 26.7 grains less of standard
silver to the dollar than the silver dollar.
On May 1,1890, we had in the Treasury §320,878,411.61 in gold
coin and bullion, of which $134,642,839 were represented by outstand­
ing certificates, leaving a net balance of gold in the Treasury of $186,235,572.60. During all the time since the restoration of the coinage
of the standard silver dollar to limited coinage with full legal tender
the Treasury Department has constantly discriminated in favor of
gold and against the silver dollar, refusing to pay the silver dollar in
discharge of our boiids or of the interest thereon, and, to the extent
of the ability of our Treasury Department to depreciate the silver dol­
lar in the estimation of our own people and of the whole world, it has
been depreciated,
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13
The people of other nations of the world should know the truth and
the fact that our people prefer a sound, redeemable legal-tender paper
circulation, based upon the untarnished honor and unquestionable sol­
vency of our Government, as the legal-tender United States notes or
greenbacks are, and upon coin held in the Treasury for their redemp­
tion, as the gold and silver certificates are, to the coins themselves, and
when they have the coins will deposit them in the Treasury and take
for them the paper certificates and circulate and use them as money.
By the resumption act of January 14, 1875, the Secretary of the
Treasury was required to redeem and cancel the legal-tender United
States notes in excess of $300,000,000 until they were reduced to that
sum.
Congress, by the act of May 31,1878, prohibited the further retire­
ment of such noted, and required them when redeemed or received into
the Treasury to be reissued and paid out and kept in circulation, and
ever since that date we have had $346,681,016 of such notes in exist­
ence, used and circulating as money, with frill legal tender in pay­
ment; and not a dollar of them will be or should be canceled until
every dollar of our bonded interest-bearing obligations has been paid,
and not even then unless we shall have gold and silver certificates and
coin in such abundance as may be required by the people in business
transactions to meet all their wants as money.
The future currency of this great country should be, and I hope will
be, the legal-tepder United States or Treasury notes, coin certificates
based upon deports of coin or bullion of gold and silver, held in the
Treasury for their redemption, and of actual coin.
Such a currency is demanded by our people and is necessary for their
use as money.
Again, we are told by the gold monometallists and opponents of sil­
ver that, notwithstanding we have coined 363,626,266 standard silver
dollars since the limited restoration o f their coinage, yet the value ot
the silver metal or bullion in the markets of the world has constantly
depreciated from 89. cents in 1878 to 72 cents now tor the 412£ grains
standard silver in the dollar, and that silver is no longer fit to be given
free and unlimited coinage with legal tender, but must be made a mere
subsidiary or minor coin, minted only by the Government on its own
account, limited in le|al tender to small sums for the great masses of
the people, and to be redeemable in gold or paper currency.
Value is a relative term, and not an unchanging quantity or weight,
as a bushel or pound, nor an unvarying measure, as a foot or a yard.
The relative value between the metals gold and silver in the markets
of the world has fluctuated and changed, measured one by the other.
This is indisputable, but it does not determine whether gold has rela­
tively increased in value or purchasing power or silver fallen in value
or purchasing power. It is just as truthful and correct to assert in
such cases of fluctuation that gold *has risen in value as to say that silver has fallen in value.
To determine truthfully and correctly whether the change or fluct­
uation in their relative values or purchasing power has arisen from an
increase in the value o f gold or a fall in the value of silver, they must
each be compared in value with the other, and also with the value of
the great staple products of the world used and consumed by mankind
generally, and whose weights and measures are certain, fixed, and
unchanging, as the pound, bushel, and yard,
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14
Without going into a detailed statement of the prices of the greatest
and most important staple products of the world, and esnecially of our
own country, such as wheat, corn, cotton, meat products, wool, and
most manufactured products, as well as lands used for agricultural
purposes, it is sufficient to state the facts shown by the most reliable
data, collected by the friends of a single gold standard and by the op­
ponents as well as by the friends of the free coinage of silver and of
the double standard. These facts so collated show conclusively that
there has been a very marked fall in the prices of such products from
1870 and 1880 to the present day.
The authorities, while agreeing to the marked fall of prices during
these periods, do not agree upon the causes which have produced such
fall. Some attribute the fall to one cause and some to another, and
still others to other causes. Whatever the cause or causes may have
been, an actual fall in price has taken place, with very serious losses
to the great masses of our people.
To ascertain the general level of prices of the leading products of
the world, taking one hundred different principal articles of production
as a basis, at given periods, we quote from Dr. A. Soetbeer as follows:
Taking the whole one hundred articles together, we find that the general level
of prices was higher in 1886 than in 1847-1850 by 4.96 per cent. The case is very
different if we compare the average prices of 1880 with those of the period of
1871-1875. This becomes plain if we compare the prices of different groups in
1871-1875 and in 1886. Taking one h undred as the prices in 1871-1875, we find that
a fall in prices had taken place, as follows:
Per cent.
Group
I. Agricultural products........................................................................ 31
Group II. Animal products.................................................................................. 23
Group III. Southern products............................................................................... 7
Group IV. Tropical products.................................................................................12
Group V. Minerals and metals........................................................................... 40
Group VI. Textile material.................................................................................. 24
Group VII. Miscellaneous....................................................................................... 32
For all the one hundred articles the comparative prices show a fall in 1886
compared to 1871-1875 of 22 per cent.

This shows conclusively the fall in prices of commodities.
These tacts to which I have ^ferred show conclusively that.prices of
commodities, the great staple products, have fallen when measured by
or compared with the purchasing power of the metal gold in all coun­
tries using the gold standard, but have not fallen when measured by
or compared with the purchasing power of the metal silver in any
country using the silver standard to any considerable extent, and
even to the extent of the amount of such fall the purchasing power of
silver has not fallen.
They further show that even in the gold-standard countries in which
silver coins are used and are by law an unlimited, or even a limited,
legal tender, as in the United States, England, Germany, France, and
other countries, the prices of commodities have fallen to the same ex­
tent when measured by such silver coins as when measured by gold
or gold coins; and the purchasing power of such unlimited or limited
legal-tender silver coins has not fallen, and such silver coins will pay
for the staple products equally with gold and maintain the same rela­
tive purchasing power with gold, dollar for dollar, while the prices of
commodities have fallen, whether measured by gold or such silver coins.
Therefore, the fall in prices can not be attributed to any deprecia­
tion or fall in the purchasing power of silver coins in any country hav­
ing such coins with legal-tender power or to any depreciation or fall in
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15
the purchasing power of the metal silver in any country having the
single silver standard.
I admit that the same quantity of the metal gold, endowed as it is by
law with free coinage and consequently with the same functions and
power possessed by gold coin as money, wiU now purchase in the markets
of Europe and America a greater quantity, relatively, of the metal sil­
ver, limited in coinage or deprived of free coinage, than in 1873, and that
there has been a change or divergence in their ratio of value. It is
exceedingly important, therefore, that we should ascertain what acts,
if any, have caused this divergence in ratio, and the supposed facts
which caused such action to be taken.
First, then, what has been and is now the relative value or ratio of
these two metals?
According to the tables published in the report of the Director of our
Mint, showing the ratio a£ silver to gold each year siqce 1687, we find
the ratio in 1687 was 14.94 silver to 1 of gold, or 14.94 to 1; and in 1871
was 15.57 to 1, and that the two greatest divergencies from this ratio
were in 1760, when the ratio was 14.14 to 1, and in 1813, when the ratio
was 16.25 to 1; but in the next year, 1814, it was 15.04 to 1.
The average ratios during these one hundred and eighty-five years
was about 15.5 to 1, showing a remakable steadiness in the relative
values. The ratio in 1872 was 15.63 to 1; in 1873,* 15.92 to 1; in 1874,
1647 to 1; in 1875, 16.59 to 1; in 1876, 17.88 to 1, and in 1888, 21.99
to 1, and in 1889, 22.10 to 1.
These ratios are taken from 1687 to 1832 from tables by Dr. Soetbeer
from quotations of such prices at Hamburg; and from 1833 to 1878
from Pixley & Abell’s tables of quotations in the London market; and
since 1878 from the daily telegrams from London to our Mint Bureau.
London for many years has been the great market for the world in
fixing the price of silver as a metal by the gold standard.
It can not be truthfully asserted that the unequal relative produc­
tion of these two precious metals throughout the world has caused the
divergence or change in the ratios. The combined stock of these metals
existing in the world is so great compared with their annual produc­
tion that the excessive production of the one over the other has but a
slight effect in their ratios of value. Even the unprecedented pro­
duction of gold in California and Australia caused but slight change
in their ratio.
,
I lay down these two propositions:
First. That the fluctuation or change in the relative value or ratio
of gold to silver from 1872 to this date has not been caused by any ex­
cessive production of silver over gold throughout the world.
Second. That the change in the ratio of gold to silver has been caused
by the exaggerated statements of the probable production of gold and
silver, and particularly of silver, in the United States, made and pub­
lished broadcast throughout Europe by officials and representatives of
our Government, and also by the representations and efforts of our
Government officials and representatives and other gold monometal­
lists, made to secure the adoption of the single gold standard here, re­
sulting in the passage of the coinage act of 1873, and finally by the dis­
criminating: legislation and action of European Governments against
silver and in favor of gold, caused by such exaggerated statements so
made and published, and by our proposed and finally accomplished es­
tablishment of the single gold standard in 1873.
Now, in proof of my first proposition I have prepared a statement from
the tables Of Dr. A. Soetbeer, a gold monometallist, showing the percoc




16
centage of the production of gold and silver throughout the world, as
follows:
Of the total production of gold and silver throughout the world, estimated for
periods of ten and five years, the average percentage of the value of gold to sil­
ver was as follows:
1801-1810....................................................................................23.7 gold to 76.3 silver.
1811-1820....................................................................................24.7 gold to 75.3 silver.
1821-1830....................................................................................32.7 gold to 67.3 silver.
1831-1840....................................................................................34.9 gold to 65.1 silver.
1841-1850................................................................ ...................52.7 gold to 47.3 silver.
1851-1855....................................................................................77.6 gold to 22.4 silver.
1856-1860............................................t...................................... 77.4 gold to 22.6 silver.
1861-1865 ...................................................................................72.1 gold to 27.9 silver.
1866-1870....................................................................................69.4 gold to 30.6 silver.
1871-1875....................................................................................58.5 gold to 41.5 silver.
1876-1880....................................................................................55.7 gold to 44.3 silver.
1881-1885....................................................................................49.3 gold to 50.7 silver.
Thus while the average percentage of the value of gold to silver produced in
the world for the ten years 1801-1810 was 23.7 of gold to 76.3 of silver and for the
ten years 1861-1870 was 70.75 of gold to 29.25 of silver, the average ratio of gold
to silver during the ten years 1801-1810 was 15.60 to 1, and during the ten years
1861-1870 was 15.47 to 1, showing a very small change or variation in ratio or value,
and that in fSavor of silver.

Now, comparing the five-year periods, 187118 75 and 1881-1885,
we see that while the average percentage of the value of gold to silver
produced in the world was, for the former period, 58. 5 of gold to 41.5
of silver and, for the latter period, 49.3 of gold to 50.7 of silver, yet the
average ratio of gold to silver for the former period was 15.95 to 1, or
a little less than the ratio now fixed by law for gold coins and the stan­
dard silver dollar; and for the latter period was 18.59 to 1, quite a
wide change and greater than the change in the relative production.
These figures show conclusively the correctness of my first proposition.
I will now give the proofs to establish my second proposition.
Preliminary to this, let us ascertain the exact conditions of the coin­
age systems of the principal nations of the world in 1860. Great Brit­
ain, Portugal, and Turkey were the only three European nations hav­
ing a single gold standard. Great Britain had maintained the double
standard at the ratio of 15.2 to 1 from 1717 to 1797, when specie pay­
ments were suspended and continued up to 1821, and on June 22,1816,
during this specie suspension, adopted the single gold standard, which
was the first discrimination by law of any important commercial nation
against silver, and in her markets the price f6r silver, a mere commod­
ity, has ever since been regulated by the value of her single-standard
legal-tender gold coins.
The cause prompting England in establishing her single gold stand­
ard is manifest. Specie payments were suspended, and she had a great
mass of worn, clipped, and mutilated coin, current and legal tender,
and yet varying greatly in metal value and weight, and was looking
forward to the early resumption of specie payments, and was a great
creditor nation, having vast commercial transactions with the civilized
countries, and was practically the money center of the world, with the
nations paying tribute to her and interest in money bn loans, and de­
sired to unify her coinage in the interest of her creditor-ruling classes
and increase the purchasing power of the dollar, its value, and hence
adopted the single gold standard, and yet retained a subsidiary silver
coinage with legal tender for 40 shillings for the transaction of the vast
amount of business among her masses, and established the grand cen­
tral market in London for the sale and disposition of the entire silver
products of the world, as a mere metal or commodity, to be there meas­
ured by her own gold legal-tender coins.
x
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17
In 1860 all Asia used silver as the standard money. Austria-Hun­
gary, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, and Eussia
had thesingle silver standard. France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy
had the double standard with free coinage and full legal tender at the
ratio of 15.5 to 1. Germany had the single silver standard at the ratio
of 15.5 to 1, adopted on January 24, 1857.
Such was the condition of coinage in 1860. On November 22, 1862,
the Commissioner of the General Land Office of the United States,
Hon. J. M. Edmunds, in his annual report to the Secretary of the In­
terior, described—
The great auriferous region of the United States * * * embracing: portions
of Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, all of New Mexico, with Arizona, Utah, Ne­
vada, California, Oregon, and Washington Territory, and other jnountain
ranges.

And then said:
These mountains are literally stocked with minerals, gold and silver being
interspeised in profusion over this immense surface and daily brought to light
by new discoveries. The precious metals are found embedded in mountains of
quartz, rich washings marking the pathway of rivers and floods. Besides their
wealth in gold, no part of the world is so rich in silver mines as Nevada and
New Mexico, and yet these m&y be estimated as only in proportion to the gold
fields, which are in process of development with amazing results.
The recent discoveries in the Colorado or southern portion of California, and
in the regions stretching thence away up to and north of the Salmon Kiver in
Washington Territory, are every day stimulating the mining enterprise of our
people. Prior to the gold discoveries in 1848, at Sutter’s race, in California, the
gold product of the world was only an average of eighteen millions. In 1853
the yield of California was seventy millions, about four times the aggregate
gold product of the world prior to 1848, and that sum may be set down as the
present average from that State alone. If we compare the known gold fields
elsewhere in our domain with the yield of California, we would have, if an
equal ratio-of labor was applied, an annual value of between three ana four
hundred millions. That an adequate amount of labor to this end will be at
hand when peace returns is not to be doubted.

He then suggests that—
An immense revenue may be readily obtained by subjecting the public mines
there to lease under quarterly payments, or quarterly tax, as seigniorage upon
the actual product.

And then states the amount of the public debt, and that—
A tax of some 8 per cent, on the whole yield of the mines
pay off the interest.

* * • would

And then says:
The yield of the precious metals alone of this region will not fall below $103,000,000 the present year, and it will augment with the increase of population for
centuries to come. The value of these mines isabsolutely incalculable. * * *
Within ten years the annual product of these mines will reach $200,000,000 in
the precious metals alone.

He asserts that while his estimate may be somewhat extravagant he
believes “ experience will demonstrate that the estimate is too low.”
The Secretary of the Interior, Hon. Caleb B. Smith, in transmitting
this report to the President, quoted from it and said:
The present annual production in California is estimated to average $70,000,000, and the commissioner after extensive inquiry from all available sources
estimates the production of gold the present year at $100,000,000.

And then said:
If an amount of labor relatively equal to that expended in California had
been applied to the gold fields already known to exist outside of that State,
it is believed that the production of this year, including that of California, would
have exceeded $400,000,000.

But how did these exaggerations become known and have any effect
in Europe? I will show. In September 1863, at Berlin, an inter­
national statistical congress was convened for the express purpose of
considering the question of weights, measures, and coins, and was comcoc---- 2




18
posed of delegates from Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great
Britain) Holland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and many other nationalities and prov­
inces, and our Government was there represented by Hon. Samuel B.
Ruggles, duly appointed and accredited by the President of the United
States.
On September 11, 1863, Mr. Ruggles, as our representative, pre­
sented to that congress a written statement in which he quoted from
the official report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office of
December 29, 1862, the parts which I have just read, and then added:
From the documents and other evidences now before the international sta­
tistical Congress it must be apparent that the auriferous regions of the United
States aretdestined sooner or later to add materially to the supply of precious
metals, and thereby to aftect the currency of the world, especially if taken in
connection with t\ie capacity of the auriferous regions of Russia. Australia, and
British America, and the possibility of increased activity in the mines of Mexico.

He then suggested the appointment of a commission—
To collect such facts as may be gathered from authentic sources in respect to
the probable future production of gold and silver, and to present them for con­
sideration to the international statistical congress at the next or some future
session.

It is easy to imagine with what alarm, apprehension, and consterna­
tion these glowing descriptions, exaggerated statements, of the rapidly
approaching avalanche of gold and silver must have been received, con­
sidered, and digested by these assembled doctrinaires from the nations
of the earth in their efforts to solve the question and to determine
and agree upon the weight and standard for the coinage of such masses
of the precious metals.
The Secretary of the Treasury, in the finance report of December 4,
1862, in speaking of the metalliferous regions of the United States,
said:
This product of gold and silver during the current year will not, probably,
fall very much, if at all, short of $100,000,000, and it must long continue gradu­
ally yet rapidly to increase. If this product be subjected to a reasonable seign­
iorage as suggested by some, or if, as suggested by others, the mineral lands be
subdivided and sold in convenient parcels with proper reservations in favor of
the miners now in occupation of particular localities, a very considerable rev­
enue may doubtless be obtained from these regions without hardship to the
actual settlers or occupiers.

And the Director of the Mint, in his report of October 27, 1862, to
the Secretary of the Treasury, described in glowing colors the gold and
silver yield of our country, and said:
Adding together all these sources of supply of both gold and silver, we may
safely estimate an annual yield in these times of $175,000,000, or seven times
the amount produced annually for some years prior to the year 1815.

The Director of the Mint, in his report of November 23,1864, quotes
from the Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office ot
1862, and then goes on to describe the probable yield of the precious
metals in this country, and says:
I anticipate a production of gold and silver for the year 1866 of $200,000,000.

He also estimated the yield of 1865 at $120,000,000, and then said:
In submitting the above estimates of the annual production of gold and silver
I concur with the Commissioner of the General Land Office, who computed the
yield of the precious metals in 1862 at $100,000,000, although I am not unaware
that the computation of the San Francisco press greatly reduces the aggregate.

The Director of the Mint, in his report of September 29,1865, said:
The reports from the gold and silver mining portions of the United States are
of the most encouraging character. The developments of the past year prove
the supply of these minerals to be inexhaustible. * * * It is not e*sy to ob­
tain any other reliable statistics than those officially appended to the report of
the Director of the Mint, but these do not assume to give the amount of the
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19
entire production of the precious metals. The shipments to other countries
must be large.
For example, we are vaguely assured that the silver mines of Nevada average
a shipment of 1 ton daily, which would equal $12,000,000 annually. * * * We
have had frequent opportunities for conversation with persons who travel or
reside in the various mining regions of the United States and of contiguous
provinces, and it is interesting to hear their accounts of the vast development
of wealth and prospects of profitable industry. We also have an interesting
statement, and one particularly so at this juncture of our national affairs, from
a proprietor in the gold region of North Carolina, that “ the system of paid labor
is likely to show its just and natural effects in the increased return of gold.”

In order to ascertain with accuracy our productions of gold and sil­
ver, Congress, in the sundry civil appropriation law of July 28, 1866,
appropriated $10,000 to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to collect
reliable statistical information concerning the gold and silver mines of
the Western States and Territories. Mr. J. Ross Browne was appointed
the special commissioner for the collection of the mining statistics, and
on November 24, 1866, submitted his preliminary report, accompanied
by many statistical and special reports, and said:
Assuming the estimate of the product of bullion as above given to be approxi­
mately correct, it will be seen that the States and Territories on the Pacific
Slope produce annually upwards of $100,000,000 of the precious metals, a quan­
tity more than four times as great as the total product of the world less than
thirty years ago. The improved processes for the extraction of these metals
from their ores made within the past two years and the constantly increasing
area over which gold and silver mines are being developed furnish strong guar­
anties that there will be no abatement of the product for years to come. * * *
The approximate estimate already given of the gold and silver product of the
Western States and Territories for 1866 shows a total of $106,000,000, or nearly
double the combined bullion of the Government and all the banks of the
country.

Much consideration is given to the celebrated Comstock Lode, and
Mr. Brown quotes from a report made by Baron Richtofen in 1866 on
the Comstock Lode, its character, and the probable mode of its con­
tinuance and depth, in which he said:
In winding up these considerations we come to the positive conclusion that
the amount of nearly $50,000,000 which have been extracted from the Comstock
Lode is but a small proportion of the silver awaiting future extract, on in the
virgin portions of the vein from the lowest level explored down to indefinite
depth; but that, from analogy with othef' argentiferous veins as well as from
facts observed on the Comstock Lode, the diffusion of silver through extensive
deposits of middle and low-grade ores is far more probable than its accumula­
tion in bodies of rich ore.

On March 5, 1868, Mr. Brown submitted a full and final report under
said appropriation, in which he said:
No uneasiness need be felt as to a decrease in the source of supply. After
many years of travel through the mining regions I feel justified in asserting
that our minerajl resources are practically without limit. Explorations made
by competent parties during the past year in many parts of the mineral region
hitherto unknown demonstrate that the area of mineral deposit is much larger
than was ever before supposed.

And then, referring to the probable production in Mexico, said:
The production should rise to $50,000,000 or $100,000,000 a year, and those com­
panies which could get possession of the best mines should make princely fort­
unes for all their shareholders.

And then, speaking of the yield throughout the world, said:
A great increase in the production of gold and silver is probable. In Cali­
fornia, Australia, and Siberia gold-mining is now conducted under many dis­
advantages.

And in speaking of the results of the mining, discussed how individ­
uals are enriched by mining and how nations are enriched by mining
and how the precious metals fall in value, saying:
A third effect of the production of the precious metals in large quantities is
that the prices of other articles generally are affected. We want gold and silver

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20
for coin and for use in the arts, and the smaller the supply relative to the de­
mand, the higher the value.

And then says:
But whatever may be the relative position of the two metals, it is certain that
the time is not far distant when the price of the two as compared with other
products of human labor must fall. They are now increasing far more rapidly
than is the demand for them, and at the present rate of increase they would
soon have to begin to fall perceptibly. But the production will become much
greater than it is. The vast improvements that nave been made both in gold
and silver mining in the last twenty years are applied to only a few mines,
and the reward for those who introduce them into other parts of the world is
so large and so certain that the introduction can not be delayed to any remote
period. If all the argentiferous lodes of Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia known to
be rich were worked with the machinery used at Washoe their yield would
really flood the world. * * * The inevitable fall in the value of precious
metals will be of benefit to mankind generally. It will reduce the wealth of
the rich and the debts of nations. Those national debts now existing will be
reduced 20 or 30 per cent., the interest as well as the principal.

All these statements have been published abroad throughout Europe
and are as familiar to the citizens and financiers there as here.
Now, as touching the representations and efforts to establish a single
gold standard in this country, the Director of the Mint in his report
of October 10, 1861, said:
The gold dollar of the United States, conforming in standard value and deci­
mal character to all the gold and silver coinage of the country except the silver
dollar, has been properly selected and should be retained for the standard of
value for all coins used or employed in commercial or governmental transac­
tions with other nations.
The silver dollar of the United States, differing as it does in commercial or
decimal value from the other silver coins in our country, can not, without dis­
turbing our decimal system and producing confusion in the relative value of our
gold and silver coinage, be used as a standard. * * * As the dollar, which
Is the unit of our money, is represented in gold coin, it would seem desirable
not to have any other dollar in any other metal; but, if this is inadmissible and
the silver dollar should be retained, then it should be reduced to eight-tenths
of an ounce to be in true relation to our other silver coins. * * * The reason
for its retention having ceased, either we should cease to coin the silver dollar
or it should be made to conform in weight and value to our lesser silver coins.

The Secretary of the Treasury, in his finance report for 1862, says:
In his last report, the Secretary took occasion to invite the attention of Con­
gress to the importance of uniform weights, measures, and coins, and the worth
of the decimal system in the commerce of the world. He now ventures to sug­
gest that the present demonetization of gold may well be availed of for the pur­
pose of taking one considerable step towards these great ends. If the half
eagle of the Union be made of equal weight and fineness of the gold sovereign
of Great Britain, no sensible injury could possibly arise from the change; while,
on the resumption of specie payments, its great advantages would be felt in the
equalization of exchange and the convenience of commerce. This act of the
United State, moreover, might be followed by the adoption by Great Britain of
the Federal decimal divisions of the coin, and thus a most important advance
might be secured towards an international coinage, with valuer decimally ex­
pressed.

The Director of the Mint, in his report of October 21,1863, says:
Permit me again to refer to the anomalous character of the silver dollar of the
United States and to the remark on this subject in my report for the fiscal year
ending June 80, 1861. The dollar is our unit of value, but the value of the gold
and silver dollars under existing laws is not the same, and therefore we have
no certain or determined standard of value. Gold, being more fixed and certain
in its valuation, is not only better than silver as a standard of value in our
monetary system, but better expresses the equivalent value of foreign coin in
our currency, and therefore the gold dollar should be by law adopted as the
the unit of value of our money.

The Director of the Mint, in his report of October 3, 1864, says:
Permit me again to refer to the anomalous character of the silver dollar of the
United States and to the observations on this subject in former reports. The
whole dollar should be made in weight and value the exact multiple of our
fractional silver currency, and the gold dollar should be by law declared to be
the unit of the value of our, money,
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21
The Director of the Mint, in his report of October 25,1867, speaking
of international coinage, says:
The first claim that meets us is the fact that in some commercial countries
gold is the principal medium of trade, in others, silver. To maintain these at
a steady relation may be given up as an impossibility. We must, therefore, cal­
culate or assume that as the world grows richer one nation after another will
fall into the wake of those which have taken the lead in adopting gold as the
standard, using silver only for subsidiary purposes. * * * Nearly five years
ago (December 31,1862) a letter on this subject was addressed to the Treasury
Department from the Mint, in which the precise ground was taken which has
lately been agreed upon by the Paris conference. * * * If the proposed in­
ternational coinage of gold should become a law of the United States the re­
duced weight would call for a recoinage; and this would be a proper moment
to introduce an improvement which the progress of counterfeiting loudly calls
for.

In connection with these exaggerations let ns also trace their effect.
On the 23d day of December, 1865, France, Belgium, Italy, and Switz­
erland united in the monetary treaty “ to regulate the weight, title, form,
and circulation of their gold and silver coins,” whereby they agreed to
coin of gold only the pieces of 100, 50, 20, 10, and 5 francs in weight,
standard, tolerance, and diameter, and o f silver only the five-franc pieces
ot standard weightand fineness, with unlimited coinageand legal tender
for such coins; and further agreed to coin in amounts as therein pre­
scribed for each State silver coins of 2 and 1 franc, 50 and 20 centimes,
of reduced fineness and limited in legal tender to 50 francs; and that
any nation could join the convention by adopting its monetary system
in regard to gold and silver coins, and that the convention should re­
main in force till January 1, 1880.
In this convention, known generally as the Latin Union, Belgium,
Italy, and Switzerland strongly favored a single gold standard, with
subsidiary silver coins under 5 francs.
What induced this convention and the formation of the Latin Union?
The minister of finance in his report in 1866 to the Emperor o f France,
concerning a bill relating to this monetary treaty, says:
For ages the yield of silver has been greater in value than that of gold. * * *
Since 1846 the proportion between the values of the quantities of the two
metals annually extracted from the mines has been reversed. * * * These
great quantities of gold, coming for the most part from California and Australia,
have thus rendered this metal far more abundant in the issues of coin in all the
countries which admitted it, either as principal money, as, for example, Eng­
land, Portugal, Brazil, the city of Bremen, or as money concurrently with sil­
ver, as did France and Italy. The abundance of gold has even caused the intro­
duction of this metal into the monetary system of countries which lately rejected
it, as, for example, Switzerland, Belgium, and English India.

And states that the silver five-franc pieces were either exported or
melted down and replaced by gold, the cheaper metal, and the object was
to reduce the fineness of the silver coins and retain them in circulation.
Here we see a scare, a dread, and an excited apprehension of an ava­
lanche of gold to the banishment of silver.
The States of the Church on June 18, 1866, and Greece and Roumania in April, 1867, joined this Latin Union.
In March, 1865, the Government of France called the attention of
our Government to the project of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867,
and our Government agreed to participate, and appointed Hon. N. M.
Beckwith commissioner-general for the United States, who, on July
17, 1866, transmitted to Secretary of State Seward document No. 216,
containing the project of a law submitted to the Corps Legislatif for a
coinage as proposed by the Latin Union, and giving reasons in favor of
that monetary treaty, and detailing the proceedings, wherein it was
stated that “ the opinion in regard to a single standard is still divided,
both in the financial and scientific world.”
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22
A number of sensible men believed “ that while Australian and Cali*
fornian gold inundates European markets the double standard is use­
ful in making the value of silver sustain the value of gold.” This is
additional conclusive proof of the scare and apprehension of a continued
deluge of gold.
On October 9, 1865, Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles was designated by Sec­
retary Seward to take charge of that branch of the representation at the
exposition of 1867 relating to uniform system of weights, measures,
and coins. On May*27, 1867, Berthemy in behalf of France advised
Secretary Seward of a proposition to hold an international monetary
conference in Paris on June 17,1867, and Mr. Seward on May 29,1867,
authorized Mr. Ruggles, then in Paris as a scientific commissioner of
the United States to the exposition and who was familiar with the
views of our Government, to represent it in that conference.
On May 30, 1867, Mr. Ruggles, as a member of the preliminary in­
ternational committee, advised Mr. Seward of an interview with the
French Emperor, in which he referred to the letter of May 18,1867, of
Senator S h e r m a n , expressing the opinion that—
The gold dollar of the United States ought to be, and readily might be, reduced
by Congress in weight and value to correspond with the gold five-franc piece
of France.

And that, at a meeting of the subcommission that day, he had sub­
mitted a proposition that—
The commission recommend that a proposition shall be submitted to the re­
spective Governments of France and the United States of America that the Gov­
ernment of France shall issue, in addition to its present coinage, a gold piece of
25 francs, and that the Government of the United States, in its future issues, shall
reduce the weight of the gold dollar to the value of 5 francs, and shall bring its
other gold coinage to the same standard.

On July 18, 1867, Mr. Ruggles reports to Mr. Seward that he pre­
sented to the international committee Senator S h e r m a n ’ s letter, which
was received with lively interest and ordered printed in French and
English.
On June 17, 1867, the delegates from nineteen nations assembled in
the International Monetary Conference, and the international commit­
tee of the Paris Exposition submitted to this conference a report, pro­
posing—
The adoption of an identical unity in the issue of their gold coins by the dif­
ferent governments at the standard of nine-tenths fine, each government to
have among its gold coins at least one piece of the same value as a piece in use
among other interested governments, the series of gold coins used in France as
a basis of the uniformity desired, and the 5-franc gold piece as the most suitable
as a basis, the coins struck by each nation to be full legal tender and the sys­
tem of a double standard to be abolished.

This International Monetary Conference continued in session to July
6, 1867, when it adjourned. During its discussions, Mr. Ruggles, as
the representative of our Government, denied that the double standard
practically existed in this country, and said:
The original act of Congress, which was passed at a time when we were less
enlightened than to-day, either by study or experience, sought to establish a
double standard by giving to gold coin and silver coin equal legal currency
in payments, whatever might be the amount of the debt.

And that we have sufficiently learned—
That the system of a double standard is not only a fallacy, but an impos­
sibility, in assuming a fixed relation between the values of two different prod­
ucts, gold and silver. The value of each of these depends upon the quan­
tity produced, and this quantity is beyond the power of legislation. A diminu­
tion of value is and ever will be the inevitable result of the increase of supply,

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23
In a written argument presented on June 28, 1867, he discussed the
probable yield of gold and silver in the United States, and said:
Its annual product, now nearly $100,000,000, may eventually reach three hun­
dred or four hundred millions. The money of the world must be unified now
or never. * * * It is moreover to be considered that the United States and
Great Britain may continue ip add for many successive periods of fifteen years,
the gold to be produced in America and Australia, which will probably fall
little short for each period of $655,352,323 for the United States and $455,235,695
for Great Britain, the amounts respectively coined during the fifteen years just
elapsed. We will not dwell upon what can not be forgotten, the possibility of
a still more enormous product that would result from the more extensive de­
velopments and discoveries in the vast auriferous interior of the United States,
a field as yet only partially explored.
Without going too *ar in measuring the gigantic monetary future in reserve
for the world, we will simply say that the work of unification can not begin too
soon.

During the discussions he said that—
Two milliards ($200,0(>0,000) in gold had been thrown into the money market
since the discovery of the mines of Australia and California, and that it was cer­
tainly possible that the coinage of gold in the United States in the next filteen
years may reach five milliards of francs ($1,000,000,000). In view of such a future
the American Government would prefer to reduce its monetary unit at once.

No wonder, Mr. President, that this international monetary con­
ference recommended the establishment of the single standard of gold,
with silver as a subsidiary minor coin, when they were enlightened by
such exaggerations as I have just read, coming from officials of our own
Government professing to be statisticians and to know the facts they
presented!
This international monetary convention unanimously decided against
the adoption of the single silver standard, and in favor of the single
gold standard exclusively, The Netherlands alone dissenting on the gold
standard, and unanimously affirmed that it was “ more easy to realize
monetary unification by mutual co-ordination of existing systems, tak­
ing into account the scientific advantages of certain types and of the
numbers of the populations which have already adopted them.”
Senator S h e r m a n , in his letter May 18,1867, to Mr. Ruggles, said:
We now produce the larger part of the gold and silver of the world, and can
not limit our coinage except by the wants of our people and the demands of
commerce.

On January 6,1868, Senator S h e r m a n introduced S. 217, in relation
to gold and silver coinage. Referred to Finance Committee.
On June 9, 1868, Senator Sherman, from that committee, reported
the bill back to the Senate with amendments, accompanied by a written
report, S. Report 117.
The bill, as proposed to be amended, “ with a view to promote a
uniform currency among the nations, ’ ’ made the half-eagle or $5
gold coin weigh 124/^ grains instead of 129 grains, to be equivalent
to 25 francs, and all t>ther gold coins to correspond, to be full legal
tenders, and reduced the silver half-dollar from 192T9^ grains to 179
grains, and the quarter-dollar and dime correspondingly, with legal
tender not over $10, and discontinued the coinage of the standard silver
dollar.
In his report on this bill Senator S h e r m a n gave the reasons for the
changes proposed and refers to the proposition submitted by Mr. Rug­
gles at the Berlin International Statistical Congress of 1863, the report
of Secretary Chase of 1862, and the Paris International Monetary Con­
ference of 1867, and stated:
The United States is the great gold-producing country of the world, now pro­
ducing more than all other nations combined, and with a capacity for future
production almost without limit. (See reports of Mr. Ruggles and J. Rosa
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24
Browne.) Gold with us is like cotton, a raw product. Its production here af­
fects and regulates its value throughout the world.
The United States is a new nation, and therefore a debtor nation. By plac­
ing ourselves in harmony with the money units of creditor nations we promote
the easy borrowing of money and payment of debts without the loss of recoinage or exchange, always paid by the debtor.

He then indorsed the recommendations of the Paris International
Monetary Conference «?f 1867, and said:
The single standard of gold is an American idea, yielded reluctantly by France
and other countries where silver is the chief standard of value.
All the provisions of the plan proposed are in harmony with the American
system of coinage. They are either already adopted or may be without incon­
venience.
France, whose standard is adopted, makes a new coin similar to our half-eagle.
She yields to our demand for the sole standard of gold.

Here we have conclusive proof of the indorsement of the highly ex­
aggerated statements of the productions of the precious metals in our
own country made broadcast in Europe by Mr. Buggies in 1863 and
1867, and our other officials from 1862 to 1868, and the world is
told that we demanded the single gold standard, and to secure it were
ready and willing to debase and reduce the value of our gold dollar
3J cents. Why ? For the honorable, noble, and unselfish reason that
our country was the great gold-producing country, and would deluge
the world with sold, and, being a creditor nation, could pay our debts
more easily in such debased, reduced coinage (!)
Now the time is changed, and these same gentlemen proclaim to the
world that we are the great silver-producing country, ready to flood
the world with silver, and those of us who favor the maintenance ot
the old standard silver dollar on a par and equality with gold are de­
nounced as dishonest, imbecile, selfish, and even disloyal.
Strangest of all, however, we no longer hear Senator S h e r m a n and
his coadjutors boldly proposing to debase and reduce the value of our
gold coinage, as they did only so recently.
Continuing the proofs to sustain our second proposition, we find that
the Fourth ComAiercial Convention was held at Berlin, in October,
1868, wherein one hundred and nineteen German cities were represented,
and declared in favor of the single standard of gold, in pursuance of the
principles recommended by'the International Monetary Conference of
Paris in its report of July 6, 1867.
On April 25, 1870, the Secretary of the Treasury transmitted to Sena­
tor S h e r m a n , chairman of Finance Committee, the draught of “ a bill
revising the laws relative to the Mint, assay offices, and coinage of the
United States,” with a lengthy report of John Jay Knox, Deputy.Comp­
troller of the Currency, explaining the bill and the reasons for it, pub­
lished in Senate Miscellaneous Document No. 132, Forty-first Congress,
second session.
In this report, with draught of a coinage law, Mr. Knox says:
SILV ER D O LLAR— ITS DISCONTINUANCE AS A STANDARD.

The coinage of the silver dollar piece * * * is discontinued in the proposed
bill. It is by law the dollar unit, and assuming the value of gold to be fifteen
and one-half times that of silver, beinor about the mean ratio for the past six
years, is worth in gold a premium of about 3 per cent, (its value being $1.0312),
and intrinsically more than 7 per cent, premium in our other silver coins, its
value thus being $1.0742. The present laws consequently authorise both a golddollar unit and a silver-dollar unit, differing from each other in intrinsic value.
The present gold dollar is made the dollar unit in the proposed bill, and the silvei;-dollar piece is discontinued.

On June 25, 1870, in response to a House resolution of June 4, the
Secretary of the Treasury transmitted to the Speaker a report of Mr.
Knox, giving copies of a voluminous correspondence between the Decoc




25
partment and officers of the different mints, assay offices, and other per*
sons, touching the bill and report submitted April 25, 1870. In this
correspondence some favored and others opposed the proposed discon­
tinuance of the silver dollar.
The Government of Sweden and Norway instituted a commission
known as the Swedish Commission on Coinage, and in July, 1870, our
minister there submitted to this commission copies of a letter from
our Secretary of State, of June 13, 1870, “ on th6 subject of promot­
ing a common unit and standard of international coinage.”
This commission in 1870 submitted their report containing about 300
pages, and in it discussed, with great particularity as to dates, names,
etc., every step then taken in regard to a universal coinage, referring
to the statements and reports of Mr. Ruggles, Senator S h e r m a n ’ s
letter to Ruggles, his report and bill in 1868, quoting trom them and
sundry other bills presented in Congress, etc., and the proposal of our
Government, and rejected it.
The commission recommended a new coinage system, making gold
the only standard of valuation and silver for small money three-fourths
silver and one-fourth alloy.
Continuing my proofsin chronological order, the new German Empire
on December 4, 1871, flushed with her victories over France, and her
French indemnity of $1,000,000,000, and the consolidation and unifi­
cation of all her separate states and kingdoms into one, which states
had previously issued various coins, assumed the right of coinage in its
own name and ordained a coinage of gold coins at, the ratio of 15} to 1
of a new uijit called “ mark,” and required a new coinage of all gold
coins in circulation, and prohibited any further coinage of large silver
coins until the decree of a law for their withdrawal, and thus estab­
lished the single gold standard practically.
On December 18,1872, Denmark and Sweden and Norway concluded
a coinage treaty in pursuance of the recommendations of the Swedish
commission on coinage, and by laws passed in pursuance thereof aban­
doned the single silver standard and adopted the single gold standard
with unlimited coinage on paying a charge of one-fourth per cent, and
made silver a subsidiary coin, to be coined only on Government account
at the ratio of 14.88 to 1, with legal tender limited not to exceed 20
crowns, or about $5.26. The efforts of Senator Sherma n and Mr. Rug­
gles and their coadjutors, so long persisted in, secured the coinage act of
February 12, 1873, establishing the single gold standard and the gold
dollar as the unit of value, and discontinuing the coinage of the stand­
ard silver dollar.
Strange to say, however, they wholly abandoned their long cherished
and advocated policy of debasing and reducing the value of the gold
dollar 3.} cents, preferring to strike down the silver dollar as money
and confine full legal-tender coins to gold alone, thereby largely in­
creasing its value and purchasing power.
I venture to intimate, mildly and kindly, that the great masses of
our people have never appreciated this success in the interest of the
creditor classes.
Quickly following this coinage law came the law of the German Em­
pire of July 9, 1873, fully completing her imperial gold standard, with
the mark as its unit, limiting the amount of the imperial silver, nickel,
and copper coins to 10 marks per capita, and requiring the withdrawal
o f all qther silver coins, according to directions to be given, the silver
coins to be a tender for 20 marks, and as the new silver coins were is­
sued the old silver coins to be withdrawn, the old silver 1 and 2 thaler
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26
pieces of German coinage to remain a legal tender until withdrawn,
which has not yet .been authorized.
These acts of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Germany, and: the
United States were followed by the adoption, on January 30,1874, by
the nations of the Latin Union, of a supplementary treaty, withdraw­
ing from individuals the free coinage of silver 5 francs and limiting
the amount of such pieces to be coined by each state during 1874 to a
fixed sum.
Another convention was held in 1875, and the limited coinage of
silver was continued, and in 1876 the total amount to be coined fey all
the states was reduced to 120,000,000 francs, and that amount was
not coined, as Switzerland did not coin any in 1875 and 1876, and on
August 6,1876, France closed her mint to silver. The Netherlands,
by her laws of June 6, 1875, and May 10, 1876, abandoned her single
silver standard adopted by law of November 26,1847, and adopted the
single gold/standard with unlimited coinage, subject to a iftint charge,
and discontinued the coinage of large silver pieces, and limited silver
coins to 25 cents or less to be coined on government account.
In 1877 the Latin Union suspended entirely the coinage of 5-franc
silver pieces for that year, except 10,000,000 francs for Italy, and by
treaty of November 5,1878, agreed that the ‘ ‘ coinage of silver 5-franc
pieces is provisionally suspended. It may be resumed when a unani­
mous agreement to that effect shall be established between all the con­
tracting states.” to hold until January 1,1886, and by a supplementary
treaty of December 12,1885, the Union was continued till January,
1891, with the restrictions upon silver coinage continued.
In 1876 Russia, whose legal standard had been the silver ruble, sus­
pended the coinage of silver for the account of private persons except in
the case of the ruble destined for the China trade.
These* data show cause and effect, the exaggerated statements and
our own efforts to honor and magnify gold and debase and degrade sil­
ver, and the resulting discriminating legislation and actions against sil­
ver. Congress by joint resolution of August 15,1876, created our mone­
tary commission, and they submitted their report through Senator
J ones to the Senate on March 2, 1879.
Among the witnesses whose testimony was taken and reported was
Hon. Edward Atkinson, who testified in regard to the yield of silver,
and said:
I should question the evidence as to the total production of silver, partly on
the ground of what I saw in the centennial exhibition from Mexico.

And in reply to the quest on as to what he had seen, said:
A very curious mass of silver, thick in the center and thin at the edge, as if it
had been cast in an earthen pan. It was afterward explained to me how it was
obtained: that there were cliffs containing veins of metal, against which piles
of combustible materials were placed and set on fire, and the production was
collected in what might be called an earthen pan, and this was alleged to be
a rough production by this process. ,1 at once inferred in relation to silver pro­
duction that statistics might be fallacious.

Mr. President, I have thus traced, in as consecutive chronological
order as possible the facts and figures in regard to the fabulous, myth­
ical exaggerations of the probable production of gold and silver in the
United States, in such amounts as to literally flood, deluge the world
and seriously impair the currency value of these metals, especially of
gold; and in regard to the representations and efforts of Senator S h e r ­
m a n , Ruggles, and other officials and representatives of our Govern­
ment, made to secure the single gold standard in this country, and
their bold proposal to the nations of the world to debase and reduce
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27
our gold dollar 3} cents in value because of the excessive production of
gold and its depreciation; and then in regard to the actions and legis­
lation of European governments changing their coinage and their dis­
crimination in favor of gold and against silver, in order that we might
correctly see the producing causes and the resulting effects.
Beyond question in my mind, the statements and actions of the rep­
resentatives of our country, which I have shown, caused, forced the dis­
criminating legislation of European nations in favor of gold and against
silver, and all combined have caused the change in the ratio of gold to
silver.
The actions and legislation which I have stated, abandoning the sin­
gle silver standard and adopting the single gold standard, and aban­
doning the double standard by adopting the single gold standard, and
by stopping the coinage of full legal-tender silver and continuing the
unlimited coinage of gold with full tender, have necessarily and un­
avoidably caused an enhanced demand for gold and thrown upon the
markets of the world an enhanced supply of silver, and very largely,
decreased the demand for silver, and have broken the connecting link
forged and maintained by law for so many years previously at a fixed
ratio with very slight changes, and have stricken down silver as a
money metal of the world and debased it from money to a mere com­
modity, a mere metal, like nickel and copper, in the markets, and con­
sequently, when measured by the full legal-tender gold metal, silver has
fallen in value.
In further support of my propositions I will quote from the final
report of the royal commission of Great Britain—appointed in 1886
to inquire into the recent changes in the relative values of the precious
metals—made in 1888. This commission examined fully into all the
facts, and in their unanimous report say:
/
1S9. Looking: then to the vast changes which occurred prior to 1873 in the rel­
ative production of the two metals without any corresponding disturbance in
their market value, it appears to us difficult to resist the conclusion that some
influence was then at work tending to steady the price of silver and to keep
the ratio which it bore to gold approximately stable.
190. There is another fact to which we have already drawn attention, point­
ing decidedly in the same direction. Prior to 1873 the fluctuations in the price
of silver were gradual in their character and ranged within narrow limits.
192. * * * Now undoubtedly the date which torms the dividing line between
an epoch of approximate affinity in the relative value of gold and silver and one
of marked instability is the year when the bimetallic system which had pre­
viously been in force in the Latin Union ceased to be in full operation ; and we
are irresistibly led to the conclusion that the operation of that system, estab­
lished as it was in countries the population and commerce of which were con­
siderable, exerted a material influence upon the relative value of the two met­
als. So long as that system was in force, wre think that, notwithstanding the
changes in the production and use of the precious metals, it kept the market
price of silver approximately steady at the ratio fixed by law between them,
namely 15i to 1.
198. To sum up our conclusions on this part of the case,.we are of opinion
that the true explanation of the phenomena which we are directed to investi­
gate is to be found in a combination of causes, and can not be attributed to
any one cause alone. The action of the Latin Union in 1873 broke the link be­
tween silver and gold, which had kept the price of the former, as measured by
the latter, constant at about the legal ratio; and when this link was broken the
silver market was open to the influence of all the factors which go to affect the
price of a commodity. These factors happen since 1873 to have operated in the
direction of a fall in the gold price of that metal, and the frequent fluctuations
in its value are accounted for by the fact that the market has become fully sen­
sitive to the other influences, to which we have called attention above.

I submit that both my propositions are fully sustained and conclu­
sively established. Now let us trace the steps taken to repair the
wrongs done.
Just as soon as the legislation to which I have referred had been secoc




28
cured and gold enthroned as the only money metal and.silver degraded,
debased, and disnonored as a money metal and made a mere commodity,
these same distinguished gentlemen and their gold-standard friends,
who had made the world believe that it was about to be deluged with
gold, and silver could not be maintained at a par with gold, suddenly
about-face and raise the hue and cry that it is not gold, but silver, which
is about to deluge the world, and that in the United States and Mexico
we have mountains of silver cliffs so rich in silver that it is only neces­
sary to pile combustible materials against the cliffs and set fire to them
and the white metal runs down in copious streams, forming in masses
thick in the middle and thin at the edges.
Our first step, resisted to the bitter end and vetoed by the President,
was the passage of the law of February 28, 1878, over the veto, restor­
ing the limited coinage and full legal tender of the standard silver dol­
lar. Under section 2 of that law, in pursuance of invitations of our
Government to the Governments of Europe, an international monetary
conference was held at Paris in August, 1878, in which we were rep­
resented by Messrs. Fenton, Groesbeck, and Walker, with Horton as
secretary.
In the proceedings Mr. Groesbeck referred to the error, prejudice,
and misapprehension in regard to the production of silver in the United
States and the exhaustion of the Bonanza mines of Nevada, and at­
tempted to correct the impression that the United States had taken
the initiative in the conference because they were a silver-producing
country, and referred to the coinage law of 1873—
which did not very accurately carry out its purpose. Silver was made to
disappear through inadvertence rather than intentionally by an omission to say
anything: about it.

To which Mr. Feer-Herzog replied—
that long before the law of 1873 silver had disappeared from circulation in the
United States;

And said:
During the long period of time, * * * from 1792to 1873, there had only been
coined about eight millions of silver dollars, while in the three or four months
that had succeeded the passage of the Bland bill an equal amount of these dol­
lars had been coined.

He then laid before the conference documents relating to the prelimi­
nary preparation of that law of 1873, published by our Government.
The document he presented was Senate Miscellaneous Document, No.
132, Forty-first Congress, first session, containing the “ Report of John
Jay Knox in relation to a revision of the laws pertaining to the Mint and
coinage of the United States,” dated April 25,1870, and quoted there­
from.
Whatever may be said about the information possessed by members
of the Senate and House in regard to the coinage law of 1873, dropping
the coinage of the silver dollar and establishing the gold standard, it
is manifest that the gold monometallists of Europe knew the prelimi­
nary steps taken for its passage and its purpose and effect.
Our commissioners, in their report to the President, said:
The United States appeared at the conference at a disadvantage by reason of
the belief, quite commonly entertained in Europe, that the action of Congress
had been mainly determined by the consideration that the United States are
largely producers of silver. This opinion exhibited not a little-vitality, and
your commissioners found it necessary to combat it. Our delegates submitted
certain propositions to which the European delegates replied that they recog­
nize:
I. That it is necessary to maintain in the world the monetary functions of
silver as well as those of gold, but that the selection for use of one or the other
of the two metals or of both simultaneously should be governed by the special
position of each state or group of states,
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t




29
II. Thai the question of the restriction of the coinage of silver should equally
be left to the discretion of each state or group of states, accoiding to the par­
ticular circumstances in which they find themselves placed, and the more so,
in that the disturbance produced during the recent years in the silver market
has variously affected the monetary situation of the several countries.
III. That the differences of opinion which have appeared and the fact that
even some of the States which have the double standard find it impossible to
enter into a mutual engagement with regard to the free coinage of silver ex­
clude the discussion of the adoption of a common ratio between the two metals.

This showed some progress and a very different conclusion by that
conference from the single gold standard conclusion of the conference
of 1867 in Paris, in which the exaggerations of Mr. Kuggles as to our
gold production seemed to have been received as statistical facts of his
own country’s production.
Another International Monetary Conference was held in Paris in
1881 on the invitations extended to European governments by France
and the United States, in which we were represented by Senator Ev a r t s ,
ex-Senators Thurman and Howe, and S. Dana Holton. The questions
presented were ably discussed, but no final action was had, and the
conference adjourned to Wednesday, April 12, 1882, with the expecta­
tion of holding another conference, and on March 31, 1882, the Gov­
ernments of France and the United States sent an identical note to the
various powers deferring the convocation of the conierence, and no sub­
sequent conference was held.
Ever since the passage of the law of 1878 the gold monometallists
have been persistent in denouncing the silver dollar and in their at­
tempts to bring it into discredit and dishonor, while some of the friends
of a double standard have advocated the repeal of that law and the
stopping of any further coinage under it, with the expressed hope of
influencing the Eluropean nations to agree upon a standard ratio lor
the free coinage of both metals.
In 1887, President Cleveland designated Hon. Edward Atkinson,
the same gentleman from whose testimony in 1876 I have quoted, to
visit the financial centers of Europe in order to ascertain the feasibility
of establishing, by international arrangement, a fixity of ratio between
the two precious metals in free coinage of both.
Mr. Atkinson made the visit and submitted the results in a report
to the President October 1, 1887, from which I read:
I have reason to believe that my efforts in this direction may have partly re­
moved the dread of a prospective “ avalanche of silver,” as it is sometimes
called, from the Continent of North America especially from the United States;
and that this fear, which has been perhaps the most potent cause of the unwill­
ingness even to consider the question of bimetallism, may be wholly removed
by the further investigation as to the relative production of silver and gold which
may ensue. Another dread may also have been removed, namely, that of a
sudden change of policy in the United States leading to the, cessation of silver
coinage and also to the possible attempt to dispose of a considerable part of the
present stock of silver coin. * * *
On the other hand, I found, as I have before stated, among the advocates of
“ monometallism ” a continued and somewhat indefinite dread of an “ avalanche
of silver” from the North American Continent, with little if any regard to c stof
production and at any price which might be obtained. I had once been my­
self subject to a similar misapprehension of the probable supply of silver, but
had long since laid aside this impression and I was not prepared to find it ex­
isting here in such full force. * * *
The reason is this: The general conviction among the financial men in Eu­
rope is that the United States Government is loaded with an excessive quantity
of silver dollars which it can not get into circulation. * * * It is believed
thatthe financial officers of the United States are convinced that the product of
silver is excessive and that the ratio of silver to gold, i. e. , its price as bullion is
liable to fall even lower than it is now; therefore any initiative by the United
States hk looked upon asan attempt to relieve itself of an unprofitable stock and
to provide a market for the future product of silver.

This is a graphic, painful, and yet, doubtless, truthful statement of
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30
the views and opinions generally prevalent in Europe in regard to the
motives and purposes of our Government. Their origin is easily traced,
and Mr. Atkinson is in part responsible for their existence. All these
distorted views and opinions are only the distinct echoes of the gold
monometallists in this country, and of those bimetallists who have been
advocating the stoppage of the further coinage of the silver dollar. In
the present discussion we hear the same things proclaimed on this floor,
and will in due time hear their echo in Europe.
The financiers, statisticians, and business men of Europe have read
and believed all the exaggerations, to use a very mild term, in regard
to the certain deluge of the world with the precious metals, and the
statements made in our efforts to establish the single gold standard and
the resulting action and legislation of our own and their own Govern­
ments, discriminating in favor of gold and against silver, and then as
soon as gold had been enthroned as the only money, the changed hue
and cry raised by the gold monometallists in this country as to the
excessive production of silver, and then the bitter denunciations poured
out against every effort made in this country to restore silver as a
money metal and the unfounded statements as to the production of
silver and the refusal of our own people to use the silver dollars as
money, and have very naturally come to entertain the views, opinions,
and feelings so forcibly stated by Mr. A t k in s o n .
It is therefore useless to make any further efforts for any international
agreement to restore silver as a money metal to its old equality, and
par with gold. What, then, shall we do, can we do? We can and
ought to do right; correct the false, unfounded statements spread
throughout the world by our own officials and representatives touching
the production of the precious metals, and especially of silver, in our
own country, and restore the silver dollar to unlimited coinage and
full legal tender and place it as a money metal upon a perfect equality
with gold.
Then, conscious of the justice, the correctness, the unselfishness, and
the honesty of our motives and actions, we can patiently await the en­
lightened judgment of the nations of the world for our vindication.
Mr. President, to show beyond cavil the falsity of the statements of
the Commissioner of the General Land Office and Secretary of the In­
terior in 1862, and of Mr. Ruggles in Berlin in 1863, and the subse­
quent reiteration of these statements up to 1873, I will read from the
tables of our Director of the Mint in his report for 1889, giving the full
product of gold and silver in the United States from 1792 to 1889. The
product of gold and silver, estimated at coining value, from all mines in
the United States was for the years named as follows:
Year.
1862.
1863.
1864.
1865.
1866.
1867.
1868.
1869.
1870.
1871.
1872.
1873.
COO




Gold.

Silver.

$39,200,000
40.000.000
46.100.000
53.225.000
53.500.000
51.725.000
48.000.000
49.500.000
50.000.000
43.500.000
36.000.000
36.000.000

$4,500,000
8,500,000

Total.

$43,700,000
48.500.000
57.100.000
11.250.000 64.475.000
10.000.0G0 63.500.000
18.500.000 65.225.000
12 000.000 60,000,000
12 000,000 61.500.000
16,000,000 66 000,000
23,000,00J 66.500.000
28.750.000 64.750.000
35.750.000 71.750.000

11, 000,000

.,

,

31
Since 1873, up to and including 1889, the lowest product of gold was
$30,000,000, in 1883, and the highest was $51,200,000, in 1878, and
was $32,800,000 in 1889.
Since 1873 up to 1889, inclusive, the lowest product of silver was
$31,700,000, in 1875, and the highest was $64,646,000, in 1889; and
the lowest total product of both gold and silver was $65,100,000, in
1875, and the highest was $97,446,000, in 1889, and the next highest
was $96,400,000, in 1878. The highest product of gold in any one year
in the United States was $65,000,000, in 1853. And yet our officials
have scared all Europe with their exaggerated statements that we would
flood, literally deluge the world with three hundred or four hundred
millions of the precious metals annually, and, since the adoption of
the gold standard in 1873, with silver melted from our mountains and
cliffs flashing in the sunlight with silver.
From 1873 to this date tihe world, men, women, and children, have
been hunting, digging, and diving on land and in seas for gold and sil­
ver, and yet all combined the product of gold throughout the world
has ranged from $96,200,000 in 1873 to $118,832,000 in 1889, which
was the largest yield, and of silver has ranged from $81,800,000 in 1873
to $162,915,000 in 1889, estimated at its coinage value. The product
of both metals in the whole world has been less than our representa­
tives assured all Europe would be the product of our single country.
There is no danger, no possibility, that our own country or the world
will ever be deluged with gold and silver, or either of them. The
world never has been so deluged in the past and never will be, and never
has had and never will have gold and silver combined, much less either
oneof them,in sufficient quantities,estimated at any reasonable standard
of value as money, to meet all the demands of the people of the world
for money and a medium of exchange with which to measure the in­
calculable values of all other products of earth.
No, Mr. President, there is no such danger, no such possibility,
because the creation and distribution of these two precious metals have
not been by finite hands or finite wisdom.
The Creator of the universe and of all things therein, an all-wise God,
has created and distributed these metals in such places and in such
quantities that the wisdom, the skill, the labor, and the energies of
all the people of the world combined can not extract them or either of
them from the earth in unlimited quantities or beyond the wants and
‘ necessities of mankind.
We are warned by our gold monometallists that we as a nation can
not and must not venture to restore the silver dollar to a parity and
equality with gold as coin and money, and must wait for an inter­
national agreement with some leading nations upon a fixity of ratio be
tween the two metals, with free coinage of both. We have tried to
secure such an agreement and have failed because of the exaggerated
statements and representations you have made to the world, which now
render it impossible to secure such an agreement.
You solemnly warn us if we take such action alone the other nations
will flood us with their discarded silver and drive away all our gold
and force us to the single sil ver standard.
I must be pardoned lor distrusting your prophecies. I heard your
warnings and prophecies upon this floor in 1878 and have been hearing
and reading them ever since, and not one of them has been fulfilled.
Let us test your prophecy by the facts and figures.
Mexico, Central America, and South America can not so flood us, for
Mexico, the Central American States, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador,
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32
Pern, and Venezuela have the single silver standard and no silver to
spare; and the Argentine Republic and Chili have the double standard
and no silver to spare; and the Republic of Brazil has the single gold
standard and no silver to spare.
This threatened deluge ot silver can not come from Africa or Asia,
from China or India. The silver standard exists there and there is no
silver to spare.
Whence then the threatened deluge? If at all it must come from
Europe.
I now present a statement by the Director of the Mint, showing the
stock of silver in the principal countries of the world and the ratio of
same to gold, the full legal tender, the limited legal tender, the total
of both, and their respective ratios to gold.
Statement showing the stock of silver in the principal countries of the world
and the ratio of same to gold.

Countries.

Ratio of
Stock of
Stock of
stock full legallimited-ten­ Total
full legaltender
of silver
tender silver der silver
silver to
coin.
coin.
coin.
gold.

United States....... $363,626,266
United Kingdom..
France ................. 650.000.000
Germany.............. 102.000.000
48.400.000
Belgium................
25.800.000
Italy......................
Switzerland ........
11.400.000
1,800,000
Greece...................
Spain.....................
90,000,000
Portugal................
Austria-Hungary..
90,000,000
61,800,000
Netherlands.........
Norway............ "j
Sweden ............ >
Denmark...........J
22,000,000
Russia...................
Turkey.................
Australia..............
E gypt...................
50.000.000
Mexico.................
Central American
500,000
States..................
25.000.000
South America....
50.000.000
Japan.......‘.............
India..................... 900.000.000
China.................... 700.000.000
The Straits........... 10J,000,000
Canada................

$74,762,358

1,200,000

800,000

Cuba, Hayti, etc....

Totals.......... 3,293,526,266

100,000,000

50.000.000
113,000,000
6,600,000
34,200,000
3.600.000

2.200.000
10.000.000
35.000.000
3,200,000

Ratio of
limitedtender
silver to
gold.

$438,388,624 1 to 15.98 1 to 14.95
100 000,000
1 to 14.23
700,000,000 1 to 15.5 1 to 14.33
215.000.000 1 to 15.5 1 to 13.957
55.000.000 1 to 15.5 1 to 14.33
60; 000,000 1 to 15.5 1 to 14.38
15.000.000 1 to 15.5 1 to 14.38
4.000.000 1 to 15.5 1 to 14.38
125.000.000 1 to 15.5 1 to 14.38
10.000.000
1 to 14.08
90.000.000 1 to 15.3
65.000.000 1 to 15.5 1 to 15.00

,

10,000,000

10.000.000

1 to 14.88

38.000.000
45.000.000
7,000,000
15.000.000

60,000,000 1 to 15.5
45.000.000
7.000.000
15.000.000
50.000.000 1 to 16.5

1 to 15.00
1 to 15.1
1 to 14.28
1 to 14.8

500,000
25.000.000
50.000.000
900.000.000
700.000.000
5,000,000

,

I to 15.5
1 to 15.5
1 to 16.18
1 to 15.00

100 000,000

5.000.000

Hayti.
2.000.000 1 to 15.5

1 to 14.95

553,362,358 3,846,888,624

The coinage of silver dollars since 1878 and ©f subsidiary silver to May 1,
1890, is stated in first line.
E. O. LEECH, Director.

The Director of the Mint informs me in his letter that the estimates
for India, China, and The Straits are at best only guesses.
This table is most interesting and instructive. In the first place, it
shows the present use of silver as a lull legal tender in all the principal
commercial nations except in Great Britain or thd United Kingdom at
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the relative ratio of 15.5 to 1, a higher valuation of silver than in our
country* and that only in Mexico and J&pan is the valuation of silver
lower than in our country, and that in all these countries, where full
legal tender is given to silver coins, they are in all respects the equal
and on perfect parity with gold coins as money, and if such silver
coins are sent to this country to flood our mints and. withdraw our
gold it will be at a very serious loss to such nations.
In the second place, it shows in actual circulation and use as money
a large amount of subsidiary silver coins much below the average
standard fineness of the full legal-tender silver coins in such countries,
and even in our own country, with full legal tender in limited sums or to
a limited amount, and yet, to the amount of their limited legal tender,
on an equality and parity with full legal-tender gold and silver coins.
In the United Kingdom—Great Britain—which has had the single
gold standard since 1816 and in whose market the silver bullion of
the world is measured in value as a mere commodity by her legaltender gold coins, there are $100,000,000 of subsidiary silver coins in
actual circulation and use as money on an equality with gold coins at
the ratio of 14.28 to 1 in all transactions under 40 shillings, the amount
for which they are a legal tender. And to-day such limited tender
coins will pay for silver bullion in the market in any quantity under
40 shillings in value equally with gold coin.
Germany has $113,000,000 in limited legal-tender silver coins, at the
ratio of 13.957 to 1 in actual circulation as money on a perfect equal­
ity with gold coins to the amount of 20 marks, the limit of legal tender.
None of these nations having such limited legal-tender silver coins
in use as money can flood our mints with such silver coins without sus­
taining a still more serious loss than in parting with their full legaltender silver coins.
In the third place, it shows that Mexico and Japan, each with $50,000,000 full legal-tender silver coins at the ratio, respectively, of 16.5
and 16.18, are the only nations whose silver coins are of less relative
value than our standard silver dollar.
I submit that neither of these countries has been, or now is, in such
financial condition as to justify the shipment of their silver coins to
our mints, for the very small margin of profit in the difference of their
relative values would be more than consumed in the costs of such
transaction. It does seem to me that this table shows conclusively
that the prophecies and warnings of a probable deluge of our mints
with the silver from other nations are without any reasonable founda­
tion in fact to sustain them, and are, like all similar predictions here­
tofore made, proved false.
In the fourth place, this table shows the value and power given to
the metal silver by laws authorizing its coinage, either free or limited,
as money with full or limited legal tender in payment.
It is or maybe replied to this that the laws sustain the money value
of silver metal only when its coinage or amount is limited and its legal
tender is restrained to such coinage, and to small sums in payments.
The Sufficient answer is that for ages past the laws giving free coin­
age and unlimited legal tender to both gold and silver, placing them
on a perfect equality, maintained a stable fixity in their legal ratios of
about 15J to 1 with very slight fluctuations. And similar laws now
will insure like results.
I frankly admit that laws giving free coinage with full legal tender
to any metals which can be produced in unlimited quantities, such as
iron, copper, lead, zinc, and tin, at a comparatively insignificant cost,
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34
with the money value given them, can not maintain the value or pur­
chasing power of such coined metals as money in exchange for the
other products of the world. Their value or purchasing power would
rapidly depreciate, while the value of all other products would appre­
ciate. The records of the world show that neither gold nor silver can
be produced in unlimited quantities or in greater quantities than will
supply the wants of the world lor their use as money and a medium
for measuring the value of, and in exchange for, the other products of
man and for industrial uses, and that Infinite Wisdom has so created
and distributed these two precious metals, and each of them, through­
out the earth in such localities and in such quantities that their ex­
traction or production in unlimited quantities is impossible, never has
occurred, and never will.
In support of this statement we appeal to all historical records of
the past. At given times and in given localities the one or the other
or both of these metals may have been produced in greater quantities
than needed for the time being and at such localities for-monetary
uses, but the excess quickly flowed into other places where no produc­
tion existed and the demand for them was unsupplied.
The wants of man are not supplied fully from the products of any
one locality or even one country, but call for and demand for their sup­
ply and gratification products from other localities and countries.
It is pertinent to this prophecy that if we restore silver to free coin­
age our mints will be flooded, our gold withdrawn, and we will be
driven to the single silver standard, to inquire now into the uses or the
consumption of the two metals, and especially of silver, throughout the
world.
There are three principal kinds of consumption of gold and silver in
civilized countries. The first is their coinage use as money; the second
is their consumption or use in the arts and for various purposes in in­
dustries, in manufactures, and for ornamentation, all of which are in­
cluded under the general term of industrial use; and the third is their
net export to regions outside of what we call the civilized countries,
and by which we mean principally India and China or Asia and Africa.
There is another method of consumption known as hoarding or a
latent reserve, and sometimes and in some countries a very large amount
of these metals are so hoarded up by individuals $nd families.
I will not now discuss the consumption in coinage, but will consider
the amounts consumed in industrial use and the net exports to India
and China. The figures I give are taken from the table prepared by
Dr. Soetbeer, a gold monometallist, and probably as accurate a statisti­
cian as any we can consult. He states that the probable consumption
of the precious metals in the arts in civilized countries on the average
of recent years has been a net consumption annually of 90,000 kilo­
grams of gold, amounting, by estimating the gold kilogram at $664.60,
to $59,814,900, and a net consumption ot 515,000 kilograms of silver,
estimating the kilogram of silver at $41.56. amounting to $21,403,400,
making a total consumption for industrial use of $81,218,300 of gold
and silver.
The Director of our Mint, in his report on the production of the
precious metals in the United States for the calendar year 1889, esti­
mates the consumption for industrial use of gold within the limits of
the United States at $13,623,935, and of silver $8,569,318, estimated at
coining value, making a consumption of both gold and silver of $22,193,253, and for the calendar year 1888 estimated such consumption
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35
of gold at $13,324,025 and of silver at $7,908,143, making a total of
$21,232,174.
These tables are certainly very strongly corroborative of the correct­
ness of the tables given by Dr. Soetbeer for such consumption lor in­
dustrial use throughout the whole world.
Now, let us consider the net exports of gold and silver to India and
China. Dr. Soetbeer, who gives a table of the net imports of gold and
silver into British India, containing, by the census of 1881, a popula­
tion of 253,982,595, not including Ceylon and. the Straits Settlements,
for the fifty years from 1836 to 1885, says:
The export of gold on the average of the fifty years from 1836 to 1885 was
not quite 7 per cent, of the import of gold during the same time. That is, there
were only 91,900,000 rupees exported, against 1,370,800,000 rupees imported. So
far as silver is concerned the re-export is more important. In the last fifty
years 553,700,000 rupees were exported, as against 3,191,800,000 rupees imported;
but this re-evport of a considerable portion of the imported silver takes place in
the main to other countries of Eastern Asia, and very little of it finds its way
back into international trade. * * * Of the import of gold a very small part
has been coined into domestic gold coin. The total coinage of the fifty years
since 1835 amounts to no more than 2,352,399 rupees; the rest of the gold, about
1,276,000,000 rupees, has been used for ornamentation or been hoarded in the
form of British or Australian sovereigns by the richer natives or Indian princes.
The gold that once has flowed to India is lost, almost without exception, to
trade. * * * Of the silver imported to India, the great mass has been coined
into rupees. A considerable part of this is still in circulation in the Government
treasuries or in the banks. The rest has been converted either directly or by
smelting down rupees into articles of ornament.

As the totals show, the net import of silver into British India for the
period from 1836 to 1885 has reached the enormous sum of 2,638,100,000 rupees, and estimating, according to the Director of the Mint,
the rupee in silver at 44.4 cents, amounting to 1,171,316,400 silver
dollars of*our coinage.
From these tables I make an estimate of the net imports into British
India, after deducting exports for five years, from 1880 to 1885, which
shows a net import of 304,036,000 silver rupees, amounting to $134,991,984 of our coinage, and a net import of 235,645,000 rupees of gold,
amounting to $104,626,380.
These figures show an annual average net import of silver into Brit­
ish India during each of the five years Irom 1880 to 1885 of $26,998,396, and of gold $20,925,276.
Dr. Soetbeer also shows that the re-export of silver from India is
mainly to Mauritius, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, and the Persian
Gulf, and never returns into international trade, so that practically all
the imports of silver into British India disappear never to return into
international commerce.
Now, in regard to the flow of precious metals into China, Dr. Soet­
beer says:
In former years, when theexport of opium from India to China had not reached
so great an extent, silver was exported to China in large quantities and there
went into circulation or was hoarded. * * * A large part of the coin brought
into China is re-exported into India in exchange for opium, cotton, etc. The
rest remaii s in circulation or is hoarded within the country.

He then gives a table of exports and imports of precious metals into
China, and says:
Converting the Sycee silver and the Mexican dollars into kilograms fine, we
get for the five years 1881-1885 the average import of silver into China 868,800
kilograms, and export of silver from China, 706,200 kilograms, or an annual ex­
cess of imports of 162,600 kilograms—

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36
Amounting, estimating the silver kilogram at $41.56, to $6,757,656.
In conclusion, he says:
If we now reckon the total amount of the precious metals which has flown
from civilized countries in the five years 1881-1885 to Asia and Africa, we may
conclude that it has amounted annually to more than 30,000 kilograms gold and
1,500,000 kilograms silver—

Amounting in our coinage to $19,938,000 of gold and $62,340,000 of
silver.
It is not a violent assumption to say that this average will he con­
tinued indefinitely, for the table of imports and exports of precious
metals for the last fifty years, from 1836 to 1885, shows that for most
of these years the net imports of silver were greater than lor the five
years named.
We will not attempt to give any figures in regard to the disappear­
ance of the precious metals from commercial transactions by hoarding.
The actual annual loss sustained each year from the abrasion of the
coins of these two metals in use and circulation is no inconsiderable
sum, and it is believed that to-day nearly one-half of the sovereigns
and half-sovereigns in the United Kingdom, exclusive of what is in the
Bank of England, is under the standard weight. Dr. Soetbeer thinks
that the annual loss by abrasion on all the gold in civilized countries
is not more than 700 to 800 kilograms of gold, or about $531,680, and
the loss on the silver coins is probably not as high as 50,000 kilograms
annually, or $2,078,000.
Dr. Soetbeer, in treating of “ the total monetary supply of the pre­
cious metals in the different civilized countries, ” says:
Our estimate of the presumable existing quantity is 13,212,000,000 marks of
gold and 7,843,000,000 marks of silver (nominal value).

This estimate was for the close of 1885, and reduced to our coinage
amounts to $3,180,632,000 gold and $1,866,634,000 silver.
Basing conclusions upon the records of the past, we may safely say
that the consumption of silver, the demand for it, will not only con­
tinue in the future to be as large as the records show it has been in the
past, but will actually increase more largely in proportion to its pro­
duction by reason of the greater increase of populations and of the other
products of the world and of the decrease in the production of gold
throughout the world, while the demand lor gold is constantly increas­
ing.
Mr. President, there is a demand to-day existing throughout the
world for both silver and gold, which is far beyond the possibilities of
their production to supply for many years to come, and to which I
have neither heard nor read any reference. No one can reasonably
doubt that the nations—the Governments of the, various nations of the
world—desire and will secure as soon as they can a sound currency
as money, either in gold or silver or both, or in a paper circulation based
upon or equivalent to either or both of such metals as money.
Then how much paper currency is in circulation in the different,
countries of the world?
I present a letter from the Comptroller of the Currency in response
to my inquiry, giving an estimate of the amounts, which I now read:
O f f ic e

of

T r e asu r y D epartm en t,
Com ptroller of th e C urrency,

Washington, D. C., Jxvne 6,1890.
D e a r S i r : In reply to your telegram of this date I have the honor to state
that the following is an estimate of the paper money in circulation in the dif­
ferent countries of the world:

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United States................... $938,728,000
190.000.000
United Kingdom............
France............................... 594.000.000
275.000.000
Germany...........................
75.000.000
Belgium...........................
Italy.................................. 260.000.000
25.000.000
Switzerland......................
2,000,000
Turkey.............................
25.000.000
Australia..........................
10.000.000
Mexico...............................
Central American States..
2,000,000
Argentine Republic.......
150.000.000
Rest of South America ... 175.000.000
Very respectfully,

Greece...............................
Spain..................................
Portugal...........................
Austria-Hungary............
Netherlands.....................
Scandinavian U nion.......
Russia...............................
Japan................................
India..................................
Canada.............................
Cuba and H ayti..............

$18,000,000
145,000,000
7,000,000
330,000,000
80,000,000
40,000,000
475,000,000
125,000,000
60,000,000
50,000,000
50,000,000

Total........................ 4,201,728,000

E. S. LACEY, Comptroller.
Hon. F. M. C o c k r e l l ,
United States Senate, City.
P. S.—I am indebted to the Director of the Mint, who has taken much pains
to ascertain the amounts of coin and paper in circulation in foreign countries
for his forthcoming report, which is not yet in print, for the figures given above.

Here we have an aggregate paper currency, used as money in the
countries named, amounting to the enormous sum of $4,201,728,000.
Now, deduct from this aggregate all the paper currency used as
money in all the countries wherein specie redemption of such currency
is maintained, and we have, at the very lowest reasonable estimate,
$1,500,000,000 of paper currency used as money without any basis*
upon or equivalency in coined money of gold and silver, or either ot
them.
It these nations, having such irredeemable paper currency, resume
specie payments, they must have gold and silver, or one or the other,
and their demands for the same must continue until supplied.
In view of all these data I must conclude that the prophecies of a
deluge of silver into our mints upon the adoption of the free coinage of
the silver dollar are like the exaggerated statements, spread broad­
cast over Europe by our officials, of our gold and silver production
flooding Europe at the rate of three hundred or four hundred millions
of dollars annually.
1 admit that, for a time, we may have a rapid influx of silver and
may lose some of our goid, and may have for the time an excess ot
silver coins, which will be a legal constitutional money, a full tender
in payment of debts in this country and in exchange for our other prod­
ucts, and to all intents be as good as gold. Even should our gold coins
rise to a premium over our silver coins, the effect will be to check the
export of gold.
On May 1, 1890, our national-bank notes amounted to $189,442,472.
Our national bonds, upon the basis of which these notes are issued, will
soon be paid and canceled and these notes retired from our circulation.
With what kind of money shall we supply this large reduction or con­
traction of our currency ?
Shall it be with full legal-tender coins and coin certificates or with
legal-tender United States notes or Treasury notes?
We must supply the arteries of trade and commerce with some cur­
rency equal in amount to the retired bank-notes. Our mints have long
been open to the free coinage of gold, with gold bullion equal to coin,
and have failed to supply the necessary increase of gold.
We must th&n use silver or some paper currency to meet this want.
Silver is indispensable as money to us and also to the world.
TJie records show that every nation is to-day using silver as money
in some form, giving it by law free coinage, limited or no coinage, with
full or limited legal tender,
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Silver when coined by law has not t>\en deprived of its function as
money any where, bufc has been robbed of its equality with gold before
the laws, has been deprived of free coinage, or limited in the amount
and in its legal tender; and when not coined has been declared to be a
mere commodity, like iron and copper. No nation, however, has vent­
ured to make its silver coins of any reasonable standard of fineness
and of full weight redeemable in gold, as the paper currency has been
made.
An infinitely wise and merciful God has given to gold and silver
peculiar qualities, fitting them for use as money, not possessed by any
of the metals, like iron, copper, zinc, etc., which can be produced in
unlimited quantities, and has endowed man with an instinct of their
preciousness and fitness for measuring the values of other products.
In all ages, among all nations, they have been regarded as “ precious
metals ’ 1and used for exchanges or monetary purposes. By far the
greatest demand which has existed in the world for ages has been for
their use as money in its several functions, and their most important
use as money has been to serve as a standard measure of values with
free coinage or a small seigniorage.
I have not been able to trace the origin of laws giving them legal
tender in payment of debts or liabilities, but such laws have been in
operation for ages past. Free coinage or coinage at a small cost and
legal tender in payments, with exchangeability one for the other at
some established ratio of weights and fineness, became as it were an
inherent part and parcel of each metal and very largely increased the
demand for each and also their uses, and made them, in the estimation
and transactions of the world, money in its fullest meaning, and in­
vested each of them with inherent functions and qualities not belong­
ing to any other metals or commodities.
Being endowed with these functions and qualities, not belonging to
articles of commerce, they ceased to be mere commodities, and became
sensitively subject to every influence and operation of political regula­
tions and legal enactments of any one or more nations, which might
increase or diminish the demand and the uses for the one or the other,
and thus change their relative values.
Yet Senator S h e r m a n said in his report of 1868: u Gold with us is
like cotton—a raw product ” —and the doctrinaires proclaim that gold
and silver are mere commodities like iron, copper, wheat, cotton, and
farm products; and belong to and are subject to the regulations of
commerce, and not of legislation or laws which can only operate as a
certificate of their weight and fineness. They tell us that the great,
imperious, irrevocable law of supply and demand alone regulates the
values of gold and silver, regardless of the operations of laws.
Such statements have been so long proclaimed as truths, incontro­
vertible facts, by our doctrinaires and economic writers that the great
agricultural masses of our country are concluding that, if true and
gold and silver are only commodities, only articles of merchandise,
subject alone to the regulations of commerce and the law of supply and
demand, then they have the legal right to have their staple products,
their commodities, placed by law upon an equal footing with the socalled commodities, gold and silver, or gold, or gold metal. They say
if gold is a raw product like cotton, then by law place the raw prod­
uct cotton upon an equal footing with the raw product gold, and give
the farmers an equal chance before the law with the miner.
Hence we have as the legitimate fruit of these false teachings the bill
now pending before the committee of this Senate for the establishment
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39
of the so-called warehouse system for staple farm products in numerous
localities throughout our country, to be determined by production,
wherein the farmers can deposit their raw products, like cotton, etc., and
receive Government certificates or Treasury notes—not lor the 1All mar­
ket value of their products, as the existing law gives to the depositor
of the raw product gold and as the pending bill now under considera­
tion proposes to give to the depositors of the raw product silver, but
only for 70 per cent, of the market value as determined by commerce.
Mr. President, gold is no longer a raw product, a mere commodity,
nor is silver. They can not be, and never have been, produced in un­
limited quantities, as iron, copper, cotton, wheat, and like commodi­
ties have been and can now be produced. With a limited production
of gold and silver, laws giving them each like coinage and legal tender
can and will control and regulate their ratios of value and prevent any
permanent material fluctuation. Suppose the discriminations made by
laws and monetary treaties in our own and Europeans nations, to which
I have referred, had been in favor of silver and against gold, and gold
had been made a mere commodity, what would be the market value ot
25.8 grains, 9 parts fine, of gold metal when measured by our standard
silver dollar ? I do not doubt that their relative values would be to-day
reversed, and the silver in our dollar would be increased in value as
much as the gold of the gold dollar has been and is to-day.
Suppose all the nations of the world had in 1873 demonetized both
gold and silver, prohibited their coinage and their legal tender in any
payments, and deprived them of all the functions and qualities of
money, and adopted some other metal as money, with free coinage and
full tender of money. What would be their relative value to-day com­
pared with or measured by the other products of the world ?
Can any one doubt that such action would have relegated them to
the list of mere articles of merchandise, only valuable on account of
their superior qualities as metals, for ornament, and for industrial uses,
and would have reduced their market value, when measured by the
money metal having free coinage and unlimited legal tender in all
payments, and by other metals and products, from 25 to 50 per cent, be­
low what it is now.
Discriminating legislation and action have caused the divergence now
existing in their relative values.
I am opposed to all such discriminating legislation and action,
whether for gold or silver or against either.
By our laws and executive action let us place them upon a perfect
equality as coin and bullion, and in addition we ought also to increase
the standard weight of our half and quarter dollars and dimes to cor­
respond with the dollar, and make all lull legal tenders for all sums,
and not have two kinds of money of the same metal, one the dollar
for the rich, upper-teto classes, and the other, half and quarter dollars
and dimes, for the great masses in their millions and billions of transac­
tions under $5 in amount.
In season and out of season those who favor the unlimited coinage
of silver are taunted with trying to flood the country with a depre­
ciated 72-cent dollar, and even that noble, grand national sentiment
inscribed upon our silver dollars of the standard weight and fineness
prescribed by our national laws, “ In God we trust,” is sneered at and
derided as meaning “ In God we trust ” for the other 28 cents to make
it a dollar.
The dollar is our unit of value and money of account, and now by
law is represented by and attached to any coin, gold or silver, or any
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40
paper issue, a legal tender for that unit, and all liabilities, contracts,
and obligations are made payable in and can be discharged by the pay­
ment of such units of value, dollars and cents, which are a legal tender
by law, whether they be gold, silver, or paper, Unless it is expressly
stipulated therein that such units of value—dollars—shall be paid in
coins of a specified weight and fineness in such dollars, as in the case
of our iunded national bonds of 1891 and 1907.
They charge the friends of silver with nearly all the crimes of dis­
honesty, and say we want cheap money—a debased dollar.
Mr. President, I shall not indulge in charges or recriminations and
shall not impugn the motives of those who differ from me.
The great State I have the honor in part to represent in this Cham­
ber has no gold or silver mines, no stock of silver bullion on hand to
be increased in value and can derive no benefit, no gain by any legis­
lation of Congress which will not be equally shared by other States.
Nor have I directly or indirectly a cent’s interest in any mine of gold
or silver or a cent’s worth of silver bullion on hand. Nor do I favor
the unlimited coinage of silver dollars with full legal tender because
the United States are the great producers of silver and want a market
created by law for this product. I would favor the unlimited coinage
of silver dollars with full legal tender if not a dollar of silver was pro­
duced in the United States; and I am not asking for the unlimited
coinage of that metal simply because it is an American product.
I find upon our statutes laws discriminating in favor of gold coins
and bullion and against silver dollars, limiting the amount of their
coinage and depriving the silver metal of the functions and qualities
of money, and debasing it to the condition of a raw product, a com­
modity.
I find in the laws of Germany and other nations and in the treaties
of the Latin Union similar discriminations.
I believe I have satisfactorily shown by the facts and records that I
have stated and quoted that our own officials and representatives and
our own discriminating legislation have caused all the discriminations
now existing in Europe, in the nations which previously had the sin­
gle standard of silver or the double standard of gold and silver, and
that these discriminating laws of our own and European countries and
the fear, the apprehension, of an avalanche of silver from our mines
into Europe have caused the depreciation, the change in the relative
value of silver to gold, and have practically relegated silver to the posi­
tion of a mere commodity, and have made, for the present at least,
any international agreement with such nations upon a fixity of ratio
between gold and silver in free coinage of both an impossibility.
I believe it is now our duty, regardless of the possible actions of other
nations, to retrace our steps, correct the false impressions and appre­
hensions of European nations caused by our own unfounded representa­
tions and by our laws restore silver to a perfecteqiuality with gold,
both as coin and bullion,
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