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S IL V E R

C O I N A G E IN 1890.

REMARKS
OF

M r . MORRILL,
OF VERM ONT,

IN THE

SENATE OP THE UNITED STATES,

M onday, Ju n e

2, 1890,

THE SENATE HAYING UNDER CONSIDERATION THE BILL
(S. 2350) AUTHORIZING THE ISSUE OP TREASURY
NOTES ON DEPOSITS OF SILVER BULLION.




WASHINGTON.
1890.




SPEECH
OF

MR.

MORRILL.

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, having under consideration the
bill (S. 2850) authorizing the issue of Treasury notes on deposits of silver bullion—
Mr. MORRILL said:
Mr. P r esid e n t : My only excuse for trespassing upon the time of
the Senate to-day is that I shall be compelled to be absent for the re­
mainder of the week. It had not been my purpose to subject myself
to the labor of making any speech at all on the silver question, but
the opening speeches appeared to me to contain so much inflation o f
history that it might be well if they should be punctured by somebody,
and I hope it may be the duty of some and the pleasure of others to
undertake the task. I shall attempt only a very humble part of such
work, and hope, in the presentation of my views on the subject, not
to fatigue the Senate for much, if any, over an hour, in which it is not
my intention to traduce any party, and certainly I shall not traduce
the history of the Republican party for the last thirty years.
My friend, the senior Senator from Nevada, was authorized by the
Committee on Finance to report the measure now before the Senate,
but, in his learned and highly finished speech of two days, he did not
find time to offer a single word in explanation of fche measure reported
or to suggest any argument in its behalf. Expecting to be persuaded
by the eloquence of the Senator to support the measure of the commit­
tee, although I had preferred some of the provisions of the bill sub­
mitted, at the request of the Committee on Finance, by the Secretary
of the Treasury, I hardly need to say that I was disappointed, and I
am now left to grope my way without his assistance a s I best can.
I think he almost persuaded me to support what is now called the
Jones bill, though he said not a word about it in his speech, as I really
like his orphan better than any of the progeny of which he seemed
ready to become the god-father. The distinguished Senator appeared
to me to cat loose from terra jirma and to soar into the thin air of fiat




4
money, where the legal-tender stamp of the Government upon the slender
paper protoplasm is claimed to create the most stable value of standard
money.
The Senator from Nevada is a genius; he is magnetic, and we all
like him—like even his fables, wherein when he chooses he can rival
even La Fontaine; but his wealth of statistics—and he said no gath­
erer of statistics ever knew what to do with them—his exuberance of
statistics concerning the marvelous growth and prosperity of our coun­
try, brought into contact with those he presented in support of his
threnody of lamentation about the doleful /condition of the debtor
classes appeared to me to swear at and to slash each other.
Taking into consideration the general sentiment in favor of more
silver, as entertained by Senators representing our youngest sister States,
to whom I confess that I am most reluctant to refuse anything asked
for, I had fully determined to favor doubling the amount of the pur­
chase of silver bullion on the part of the Government, and in fact to
do almost anything that would not absolutely and forever abandon the
bimetallic standard of money which has prevailed for the most part of
the time ever since the foundation of the Republic; certainly the use
of gold has never been abandoned.
Not without some doubt of the final result—and no thoughtful man
would venture too confident predictions as to the result where we are
openly antagonizing the fixed policy of the chief part of the commer­
cial world—I had concluded to vote for the substitute reported by the
Senator from the Committee on Finance.
I find, however, from the lofty attitude of the debate on the part of
the supporters of silver, that more extreme measures are to be presented.
The new silver gospel is not satisfied with the ordinance of sprinkling,
and nothing less than immersion all over in silver will save us from
perdition. With this, I suppose, we are to be financially saved by
faith and without works.
The Jones substitute, so called, provided, first, for the purchase of
four and one-half million dollars’ worth of silver per month; second,
the issue of Treasury notes in payment of such purchases, which should
be redeemable in lawful money, and when redeemed to be canceled;
and such notes were also to be receivable for customs, taxes, and public
dues, and when so received were to be reissued, and when held by any
national-banking association they were to be counted as part of their
lawful reserve; third, authority was also given to coin such portion o f




5
the bullion purchased as might be necessary to provide for the re­
demption of the Treasury notes, and the seigniorage was to be accounted
for and paid into the Treasury; fourth, the act of 1878, requiring the
purchase and coinage of not less than two millon nor more than four
million dollars’ worth of silver per month, was to be repealed; fifth,
the amendment agreed to by the Committee on Finance provided for
using at once about $60,000,000of legal-tender notes deposited in and now
held by the Treasury Department for the redemption of national-bank
notes of banks whose charters had been surrendered or where their
affairs were being wound up.
A heroic measure of this extraordinary scope, in the way of making
a sure market for silver and of vastly increasing the amount of cur­
rency in circulation that would be redeemed in nothing worth less than
legal-tender silver dollars, it would seem ought to have found prompt
acceptance even by the most advanced silver advocates. But, judg­
ing by the tenor of the speeches already made here, the demands will
be for much more. They want ounces of fine silver instead of dollars’
worth, and more of them; and they want all the silver coined at the
expense of the Government. They also want the Treasury notes or
certificates to be made a legal tender for all debts, public and private.
Still more is wanted: The usual reserve deemed necessary for cariying on the disbursements of the Treasury Department they want to be
paid out, so as to leave only $10,000,000 at any time in the Treasury,
though the monthly and quarterly payments often amount to from
twenty-five to forty million dollars.
More yet: They want the one hundred millions of gold now held for
the redemption of legal-tender notes reduced to fifty millions. Finally,
rather than anything else, free coinage of all American silver as well
as whatever may be brought here from Mexico or any other country is
demanded. The cost of coining silver, about 2 per cent., on the annual
fifty-five to seventy millions is to be borne by the Government, and the
depositors of silver bullion are to receive all the difference of value be­
tween the bullion and the standard dollar. This is the feast to which
we are invited by the distinguished Senators from Colorado and Ne­
vada.
The wage-earners of the United States are to be counted by millions,
and if the amount of their daily wages be estimated at barely a dollar
or a dollar and a half per diem, it would be sure in the aggregate to
show them to be the most numerous creditor class of the country, and




6
possibly the largest in amount. It is this class which it is now pro­
posed shall be paid off in a cheaper or in a depreciated standard of
money, that would compel them to pay higher prices for everything
they have to buy. The necromancy of the performance could not even
be concealed from our colored brother who works in the cotton fields
of the South.
Could there be anything more likely, in all parts of our country at
an early day, to provoke strikes for higher wages ? Little or no reduc­
tion of wages has anywhere occurred, while there are many instances
of recent increase, and the fcours of labor also, in many places, have
been shortened.
I suppose there are always idlers and ne’er-do-wells in the world,
but that there are now more men than usual out of employment who
are eager to work is a statement without the slightest foundation.
The distinguished Senator from Colorado [Mr. T e l l e r ] said:
I desire for myself to disclaim any anxiety for any special interest in advancingthe price of American silver, save and except that it is an American product.

As “ American products,’ ’ would he have equal anxiety to advance
the price o f iron, wool, and copper, by demanding, as he does in the
case of silver, that the Government shall purchase and hold forever the
whole annual product? “ It is demanded91for silver, the Senator says,
“ in the interests of humanity, civilization, and of the whole human
race.”
Whether the people and the miners and the owners of smelting
works in Colorado would be wholly in accord with so much disinter­
ested philanthropy may be doubtful. The financial interest of a State
which, it is claimed, produces one-sixth part of the annual product of
silver of the whole world is worth looking after, and I do not blame
the Senator for his show of zeal in the service of his State. I f he could
only demand such legislation as would make it safe for a great country
to adopt, I should be with him heart and hand. Colorado in 1888 pro­
duced 14,695,313 ounces of fine silver, and. according to the statement
of the Director of the Mint, 510 grains of pure silver were then purchas­
able at the average price of a United States dollar containing only
371i grains of fine silver.
This amount of 510 grains of fine silver, therefore, was purchasable
at the price of 72 cents; but, with free coinage, Colorado would have
derived an advance upon all her millions of silver of not less than from
38 to 40 per cent., and the Government would have lost its seigniorage




7
in 1888 on the limited coinage ol silver dollars then amounting to $9,370,002. With free coinage this source of revenue would be wholly
abandoned, and even if the United States were to purchase and hoard
everlastingly all of the American product of silver, its value would be
most likely to rise, to which I should have no objection, and the Gov­
ernment would lose much if not all of its profits of seigniorage. I only
object when the silver barons profit by the losses of everybody else.
When Frederick the Great was once about to seize and annex an ad­
joining province, he directed his minister to prepare a proper procla­
mation setting forth his purpose. Whereupon the minister began one
by saying “ In the name of God ” ----- “ Stop, stop! ” said Frederick,
“ and strike out all about God, and say, Frederick wants another prov­
ince.”
I think the miners of Colorado will also say “ Strike out all about
God and say we want 30 or 40 per cent, more profit.”
It is manifest that the producers of gold must be equally interested
in a divergence between the gold and silver standards of coin. When
gold shall be driven out of circulation, of course gold bullion will bear
a premium as well as gold coin.
There is occasional talk about the retention and maintenance of gold
as well as of silver in circulation as money, but whenever any propo­
sition is presented to give any possible assurance of such retention, as
by the redemption of silver notes with silver bullion at its market
value, or by any limitation of the units of value to be put in circulation
by the purchase of a less maxi mum amount of silver bullion, or by the
sale of United States bonds, as was done in the case of our present legaltender notes, it is pronounced by the leaders of what is called the
“ silver reform ” as vicious and wholly inadmissible. They hate gold
apparently because the world holds gold to be quite as much a precious
metal as silver. It is in the way of silver, and silver would tolerate
no brother near its throne.
The Senator from Nevada tells us that the best place for our gold is
where we sell our products in foreign countries. He would like to
have it go. There is no disguise on his part about it. We are offered a
dose of silver to “ kill or cure.” Some of us on this side of the Chamber
felt able to jump a five-rail fence, but it is understood that the Demo­
cratic acrobats oh the other side of the Chamber, after some training,
offer to go one better and will jump at six rails even if it breaks their
necks. There may be some astute politics in the matter. Gentlemen




8
on the other side of the Chamber are not looking upon the increase of
appropriations for pensions with much composure, nor with any delight
npon a protective tariff, perhaps with no historical respect for the bonded
debt ot the United States, and they will therefore be the more easily
reconciled to a depreciated standard of silver monometallism. At any
rate according to their present calculation it will be quite good enough
for such Republican purposes, as well as good enough to pay the wages
of colored laborers.
It has been suggested that creditors are a “ privileged class,” and I
suppose that those who have money to lend are and always were so;
but I deny that such men belong to the class of men possessed of large
fortunes. The latter class invest in real or personal property, or have
it fully employed in trade, or in large industrial enterprises, giving
employment to laboring men and women, and never are in the habit
or business of loaning money. A large body of the creditor class are
those who have laboriously saved a few hundred dollars and deposited
it in savings-banks, from which they derive a small and safe semi-an­
nual dividend. These depositors are largely young men and women
striving to gather a little capital to start with in the battle of life.
As a class the money-lenders of fifty years ago, seeking the highest
rates of interest, are entirely obsolete in the East, and nearly so in the
West. These savings-banks have made some loans in the West, hav­
ing been importuned to do so by Western agents, and have done so on
lower terms than were current where made. The loans which have
been made there were generally as much for the advantage of the bor­
rower as for the lender. I may add that I have not a particle of faith
in the enormous and preposterous estimates made of the indebtedness
of any considerable portion of the American people. Whenever the
truth shall be ascertained it will be found that at no time in our history
has the indebtedness of the people of the United States been less per
capita than in 189.0. Business has been rather depressed in our own
country, as well as throughout the world, since 1883, and men do not
run in debt in times of depression, but are wildly tempted to do it in
the time of money inflation, such as our enthusiastic silver friends are
now directly aiming at.
It has been claimed that we need more money per capita for circula­
tion than any other country because of the larger proportion of our
people engaged in active business; but this is a grave mistake. Our
national banks, savings-banks, and many other banks established in




9
almost every considerable town in every part of the country enable nearly
all business men and firms to use their own checks instead of money of
any description. I f one party wishes to make a payment to another
party it is made by a check on a bank, and the party receiving the
check deposits it to his credit in some bank, where it is counted as
equal in all respects to a deposit of gold and silver or any lawful
money. Fully 95 per cent, of all business transactions are here ad­
justed in this way, and it enormously reduces the amount of circulat­
ing money actually handled or required.
There is no other country where these facilities can be used to any­
thing like the same extent. They are very limited in Germany and
England, and in France there are only a few places outside of Paris
which enjoy such facilities at all. The French people were long in the
habit of holding and hoarding all the money they received, whether of
gold or silver. They had few places of deposit, no general use of per­
sonal checks on banks, and did not invest in securities until a very re­
cent date. They at length had to pay the German indemnity of eleven
hundred million dollars, and they have also lost largely by invest­
ments in the De Lesseps Panama Canal, so that the per capita amount
of money claimed to be now in circulation in France, being only an es­
timate of an unknown quantity by an unknown authority, is most
likely very unreliable and much overrated. Certainly, however, they
would seem to require much more than we do with our habitual use of
bank checks for more than nine-tenths of our daily business transac­
tions.
Even if it is not yet wholly out of fashion in France to hoard money
in idleqess instead of making it earn something by investment, it does
not follow that Americans should make extraordinary haste to copy
a French fashion possibly already growing obsolete.
The French people are not only industrious, but very economical, and
they are prosperous. They have recently been increasing their stock
of gold, but they have done it by restricting any increase of the coinage
o f silver. The silver of each state of the Latin Union by treaty is al­
lowed to circulate in all of the states, but it must be periodically re­
deemed by the state where coined. If silver in France is of equal
value there with gold, why does France vigorously demand the redemp­
tion of any overflow of the 5-franc coins from Italy or from Belgium ?
France prudently limits herself by treaty as well as her neighbors.
But the policy of any limitation of silver coinage in Colorado and




10
Nevada would appear in the present debate to be regarded as a crime
against humanity, against civilization; and the unlimited coinage of
silver is the universal solvent, the great and only remedy suggested to
lift the whole .commercial world, and especially the United States, out
of the present dark age of inhumanity and barbarism. The only coun­
tries on the globe which have yet reached the loftiest heights of civili­
zation by the free coinage of silver appear to be Mexico, Japan, and
India. Consequently these are the only countries in comparison with
which the United States may now be supposed to greatly suffer.
It is not that wage-earners are idle so much as that capital in vast
amounts is dormant and unemployed, and that the interest to be ob­
tained thereon has probably never been lower than for the past year,
as at the Clearing-House in Boston it was (when noticed by me last)
barely 2J to 3 per cent. The individual deposits in all of our national
banks, September 12, 1873 were $622,685,563, but on September 30,
1889, they were $1,475,467,560; and this prodigious increase was largely
in the country banks, where such deposits had risen at the same dates
from $283,107,798 to the sum of $783,839,749, showing conclusively
that there is no general lack of money for any legitimate use, And
yet silver enthusiasts, to inspire confidence, assure us that if the G ov
erament will only fabricate cheaper money by the hundred millions,
money will be in demand, everybody will then want it, and that it
will command higher rates of interest. The policy is recommended,
if by nothing else, by poetry-----Drink deep or taste not the silver spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.

In an aged bosom confidence is said to be a plant of slow growth,
and I must confess I am apprehensive that the silver measures now
proposed, and perhaps imminent, instead of electrifying the business
of the country, may suddenly bring about heart-failure or a general
lack of confidence.
There has been a great deal said about the flagrant wrong of dimin­
ishing the amount of money in circulation. Of course there is a vari­
ance in the amount of money held by banks and bankers, as well as in
the hands of the people, in different seasons of the year. More or less
is required for moving staple crops at certain periods, and the pay­
ments from the United States Treasury are sometimes greatly in excess
of what they may be at some other time. But the amount of all kinds
of our circulating medium for many years has not been diminished.




11
.The loss by the retirement of national-bank notes has been much more
than made good by the issue ol silver certificates.
The fact, as disclosed by the tabulated statement in the last annual
report of the Secretary o f the Treasury, of the great increase of the
amount of coin and paper currency in circulation since the act of 1873
has not been referred to by any one of the silver-tongued orators, but
instead the evils of contraction of the money in circulation have been
pprtrayed in the blackest colors in spite of facts showing a large expan­
sion. I think the public will be rather astonished to learn from the
authentic statement of the Secretary, which I will have appended to
my remarks, that not only has there been no contraction of the cur­
rency, but it has been actually doubled in amount from June 30,1873,
to June 30, 1889; the total money, exclusive of gold and silver and
legal-tender certificates at the period latest named being $1,666,095,420, while in 1873 it was only $831,316,387. Our population has not
doubled, but the money in circulation has more than doubled. With
such a stubborn fact as this waiting to be summoned to the front, what
becomes of the vitriolic rhetoric poured forth upon those who are
charged with all the calamities of the most atrocious and wicked contrac­
tion ? The charge is as baseless as the stuff of which dreams are made.
I do not wish it to be inferred that I am opposed to a liberal, even a
very large, increase of the money to be put into circulation, but I want
it maintained on the standard of good and honest money, and that the
wage-eamers of our country shall not be cheated by finding out when
they are paid that their wages have been cut down 20 or 30 per cent,
by receiving money of 20 or 30 per cent, less purchasing value, and
that our farmers shall not be deceived by a delusion and a snare, or
by something called money, nominally gauging higher prices, but
which fails to give the slightest increase to the exchangeable value of
their products.
1 do not wish to have the United States divorced from the commercial
world. I have hoped that we might soon have the primacy in the ex­
changes of the world. With our larger product of both gold and silver
it would be easy by wise and prudent measures to utilize a prodigious
amount of silver and yet maintain the bimetallic standard. That is
not the policy of those who have led off in this debate, but the trans­
parent design is, and qnly very thinly attempted to be concealed, to go
by a single bound to a silver standard. Of course they are not so wit­
less as to suppose by our action here alone that the value of the billions




12
of silver in the whole world could be increased to the par Of gold. A
silver trust on the part of the Government While controlling the whole
American product would cause some rise in the value of silver, and
England and Germany would like to have us do it. Like the monkey,
they prefer to use the cat’s paw to pull chestnuts out of the fire.
But the task of raising the price of the whole world’s product is too
great, and we should find ourselves in the condition of the Virginian,
who, after being told by his lawyer that he had no legal remedy for
his case, and then, when asked if he could not lick his antagonist,
answered: “ I think I could, but it would strain me.” The whole
task of raising the price of silver against the world would strain us.
It has been claimed that the Republican national platform of 1888
specially pledged the party to the extreme silver measures advocated
by the Senators from Colorado and Nevada. On the contrary, that
pledge was in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, and
made in terms as follows:
[Republican National Platform, 1888.]
The Republican party is in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money
and condemns the policy of the Democratic Administration in the efforts to de­
monetize silver.

Clearly this is quite as strongly in favor of gold as of silver, and the
effort made by the Senators from Nevada and Colorado is indirectly to
demonetize gold. They admit that the unit of value depends upon the
limitation of amount. They propose unlimited coinage of silver, and
leave gold, without any backing, to take its chances with the cheaper
silver metal, which must sooner or later, as the merest tyro in political
economy knows, infallibly banish gold from use as money, and leave
it as a commodity to be sold at home or abroad.
From 1866 to 1876 we sold five hundred millions of gold, at a profit
of over $100,000,000. This does not look much like hostility to silver
engendered by the act of 1873.
Our stock of silver coin November 1,1889, as stated by the Director
of the Mint, was $420,266,782, while the stock of gold coin was $619,640,459, or about $2JO, 000,000 more of gold than of silver. It would
not seem, therefore, a propitious time to commence the warfare of de­
monetization against gold. I f suddenly inaugurated it might cause the
sudden withdrawal of even a larger amount of gold than that of our
stock of silver. This could not occur without a stringency in the money
market, which would produce a panic, and that should be avoided.
If we are to have a single money standard, I believe the silver stand­




13
ard far less desirable than the gold standard. It is cumbrous, far more
fluctuating in value, changing our tariff from week to week, and more
easily debased or counterfeited. Our present stock of gold is also the
largest* I would, however, retain both, and with the expectation that
with a very liberal increase of silver and with considerate management
upon the part of the Treasury Department the parity in value could
be preserved, and while silver was advancing a good deal gold might
be somewhat receding in value.
Some response should be made to what has been rather recklessly ut­
tered here wholly at variance with the facts, as I conceive, about the lack
of fulfillment of predictions made in 1878, that silver, being the cheaper
money, would drive out gold from circulation and from the country.
But, so far as I know, these predictions were always hung and depend­
ent upon the contingency of adverse exchanges, requiring the payment
of large balances due abroad. Fortunately the exchanges have been in
our favor. The prediction, however, can not fail to be verified when­
ever the contingency mentioned shall arise. So long as our exports
largely exceed imports there is no danger of adverse exchanges, but when
this condition of trade and commerce happens to be reversed g&tlemen
need not flatter themselves that no difference will appear in the market
value between gold and silver coins, and when it does appear gold will
be hoarded or sold only at a premium. It will no longer be money,
but will be sold as a commodity.
Of course we can export large sums of gold without a flurry or ripple
in the market, as we did fifty-nine millions in 1888, so long as we hold
a large stock of it or when exchanges are largely in our favor, and es­
pecially so long as British investments appear to be annually made in
the United States by the hundred millions. Exports and imports fluct­
uate and ebb and flow like the tides of the ocean, and they are not
sure to continue in our favor forever. The sincerity of those who now
make brave predictions that the legal-tender stamp of the Government,
whether upon silver or paper, is omnipotent need not be denied, though
they ought to know that the day of miracles is past; but should they
carry all their extreme measures through Congress they can not shirk
their responsibility, either for their predictions or for the results.
When the act of 1873, called the act demonetizing silver, was passed
the fact w^s that at that time silver was worth in the markets of the
world a trifle over 3 per cent, more than gold, and pretty much all of
the silver and gold we had was being exported. Even the minor coins




14
had been superseded by paper. The proposition had been sent to Con­
gress by the Secretary of the Treasury in 1870, with the bill drawn and
elaborately reported by the Comptroller of the Currency. It was no
stranger to either House for years. As we had once reduced our gold
coins to keep them on a parity with silver, some men began to believe
that the stability of money, after all, would have to rest on a single
standard. Governor Boutwell, Mr. Bowen, and Hon. R. L. G ib s o n ,
of the Monetary Commission, submitted in 1877 very able minority
reports in favor of a gold standard.
I do not believe that at that time anybody had the remotest idea that
there would be such an increase of the production of silver as would
ever make it the cheapest standard; and I repel any such intimation
as a slander upon the living, and upon many eminent American states­
men, alas, no longer living. Gold was then the lowest standard, and
hence the proposed legislation provoked no opposition. It was seen
that if the status of the precious metals remained as it then was the
United States, as well as other debtors, could make their payments in
gold at perhaps 3 per cent, less than in silver. The immense increase
of gold had lowered its value, but it was still an honest standard among
all of the largest commercial nations.
As to any practical effect of the act of 1873 for any time prior to oar
resumption of specie payments in 1879, as it appears to me, it was a
dead letter. Nobody would use silver so long as it was dearer than
gold, nor so long as greenbacks were cheaper than either gold or silver;
and the sulphurous denunciation of the act of 1873, as an act demone­
tizing silver, perpetrated by robbers and the creditor classes, is an after­
thought and merely theatrical thunder. It is more just to Congress to
remember the historical facts surrounding this subject. I had no promi­
nent part in the measure, and feel, nevertheless, that the obloquy often
attempted to be thrown upon the Congress of 1873 is done by those
who are unmindful of the main facts involved in the subject.
The demonetization of silver by Germany, and the sudden suspen­
sion of the coinage of silver by all the Latin nations, is one great cause
of its diminishing value. It can not be charged to the United States,
for we have coined since 1878 up to the 1st of May, 1890, the large
sum of $363,626,266 in silver dollars, and in minor coins and trade
dollars over $11,000,000 more. We have built vault after vault to store
it. We have tried our best to put it into circulation, offering to carry
it free and at a heavy expense to any place that would take it, and as




15
a result there were in actual circulation September, 1889, $57,374,100,
or $4,617,348 less than there was three years before. Our people do
not like to carry silver, and rather have silver certificates or paper
money, even without the legal-tender function.
The act o f Congress of June 28,1834, was an act which indirectly
but practically demonetized silver, or which reduced the weight of the
gold eagle from 270 grains to 258 grains o f gold and also reduced its
fineness from 916f to about 900. This was a reduction in value of only
about 6 per cent., but while, as Mercutio would say, “ not so deep as
a well, nor so wide as a church door,” it was enough, and it banished
the circulation of all silver except the foreign and minor coins, and our
half-dollars were steadily exported. Even these were limited as to
legal tender and reduced in weight by the act of 1853, in order to re­
tain some part of them for home use. Both o f these acts were passed
under Democratic Administrations, that of 1834 under that of Gen­
eral Jackson, with the potent leadership of Mr. Benton, of Missouri*
commonly then called “ Old Bullion.”
The act of 1873 left out of our coinage the silver dollar of which in
many years none had been coined, and only an inconsiderable number
in our whole history; and if they had been coined they would have
been immediately exported; but the act of 1834 practically placed the
country on the gold standard, because it was of the lowest valne, as
free coinage of silver would now leave us on the silver standard, and
for precisely the same reason. But the demonetization of silver any­
where has not been the sole cause, nor even the principal cause of its
depreciation in value.
In 1861 the product of silver of the whole world had been for some
years about $40,000,000 in value. The Comstock lode soon after vastly
increased this amount, and the discovery of other silver mines in Colo­
rado, Montana, and other places, vastly augmented the amount, so that
the product of the world in 1888 was nearly quadrupled, or amounted
to $155,000,000 at coinage rates of value. Of this the United States
produced over one-third, or 45,780,000 ounces of fine silver of the coin­
age value of $59,198,000. The mines in Australia are growing more
prosperous, and are expected to produce this year over 50 per cent,
more than last year; in Mexico an increase is predicted, and, if the
value of silver is here increased, no doubt there will be a large increase
in the United States.
The phenomenal increase in the supply of silver determines its fall




16
in value just the same as it does with any other product, as with cop­
per or any other metal; and the fact that it is one of the precious metals
does not alter the case only so far as it is wisely and practically used
as such. I f there is an excess of it used as money, the value of the
standard sinks together with the value of bullion as a commodity.
Legislation against the depreciation of silver from its former value,
which arises from placing nearly four times the ancient and usual
amount on the market, is as bootless as the bull o f the Pope against
the comet. You may call 72 cents worth of silver a dollar; as you may
call a calf’s tail a leg, as the boy told his father, but it will not make it so.
The United States Government has not in any instance ever changed
the standard of money to the disadvantage of the debtor class. The
changes have always been in the other direction, as the statutes abun­
dantly show. To charge otherwise is a baseless and reckless calumny,
by whomsover made.
But if we now plunge into this vast experiment axle deep, as some
of our excellent friends propose, and then get mired, or find that it is
destructive to the general welfare or disastrous to the largest interests of
our people, there is no safe avenue left open to a retreat. Once on a
silver basis all contracts would be made on that basis.
No retreat or change could be made without augmenting the obliga­
tions of the debtor class. No party that ever existed could afford to
do that. The bold experiment of free coinage of silver without let or
hinderance, if once started, must go on forever or until the silver mines
of the world are exhausted, or until ne,w rivers of Pactolian gold shall
have been found in such abundance as to make gold a cheaper and
lower standard of money than silver. However deep down the step •
now may be, the next step must be to a lower deep.
It has been already proposed that any Treasury notes or silver cer­
tificates which may be issued by the Government, even though redeem­
able in coin, shall also be made a legal tender. When paper was first
made a legal tender, Secretary Chase said it was an absolute necessity
to carrying on the war against the rebellion. After the war was over
Chief-Justice Chase said, that it was not such a necessity; and, like
Brutus, sacrificed his own child because it threatened danger Jo the Re­
public and declared the legal-tender act to be unconstitutional. Even
Charles Sumner, who voted for the original act as the extreme medi­
cine of the Constitution, declared that it must not become its daily food.
Jacob Collamer and William Pitt Fessenden, then an eminent member




17
of the Senate, did not vote for it. But now in time of peace and of pre­
eminent prosperity, as every orator will announce on the next Fourth of
July, with no financial plague spot visible, but a large surplus of money
in the Treasury, we are threatened with the extreme medicine of the
Constitution as our daily food.
I shall not even attempt, at any length, to argue this great and vital
question. But even a layman must read the Constitution for himself,
as he does the Bible, guided by his conscience as well as by his oath,
to learn the whole truth; and the truth, as interpreted by our fathers,
to me still seems worthy of our love and devotion.
The Constitution declares that Congress shall have power 1‘ to coin
money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coins.” It would
be a monstrous perversion of the English language to claim that these
words include anything but metallic money. There is also this other
provision, that Congress shall have power “ to borrow money on the
credit of the United States.”
To claim that in this grant of power there lay concealed for seventyodd years the power not only to borrow money, but even to fabricate
paper money and to declare it a legal tender on contracts past, present,
and future, is equally, in my judgment, a monstrous perversion of plain
English. If anything was needed to demonstrate this conclusion it is
only necessary to refer to the fact that in the original draught of the Con­
stitution the clause about borrowing money read as follows: “ To bor­
row money and emit bills on the credit of the United States,” and that
the words “ and emit bills ” were unanimously stricken out by the*
convention with the concurrence of every State. The power was not
granted, but was expressly withheld, and therefore can not be law­
fully exercised.
The papers of The Federalist furnish no hint that the power to coin
money was a power to fabricate anything else than metallic money.
No statesman, jurist, or executive officer prior to the late war ever ad­
vanced the theory that the Government of the United States was au­
thorized to make anything but coin a legal tender.
The Constitution declares that “ no State shall coin money; emit
bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in pay­
ment of debts.”
This prohibition upon States is fully recognized and obeyed, and it
can not be supposed that the framers of the Constitution intended to
M O RR ILL-------2




18
prohibit the States from making “ anything but gold and silver coin a
tender in payment of debt” for the purpose of permitting the United
States to leap into the business of making anything it might choose a
legal tender, no matter what might be its intrinsic value; but the advo­
cates of legal tender to-day hold otherwise and it seems to me to place
their country in the position which may be illustrated by an incident
told me by one of my neighbors. He said he had a little dog that
when the cat was about to lick food from any porringer of the kitchen
would make the fur fly from poor pussy and then immediately invite
himself to the same repast. To the States paper legal tender was the
forbidden fruit, and it can not be that our fathers intended to have the
United States use it as their daily food.
I will only add an extract from one of the speeches of Daniel Web­
ster, and if there is any higher authority on constitutional questions
I do not think the American people have yet recognized the fact:
Most unquestionably there is no legal tender, and there can be no legal ten­
der in this country, under the authority of this Government or any other, but
gold and silver, either the coinage of our own mints or foreign coins at rates
regulated by Congress. This is a constitutional principle, perfectly plain and of
the highest importance.
The States are expressly prohibited from making anything but gold and
silver a legal tender in payment of debts, and although no such express prohi­
bition is applied to Congress, yet, as Congress has no power granted to it in this
respect but to coin money and to regulate the value of foreign coins, it clearly
has no power to substitute paper or anything else for coin as a tender in pay­
ment of debts and in discharge of contracts. Congress has exercised this power
fully in both its branches; it has coined money, and still coins it; it has regu­
lated the value of foreign coins, and still regulates their value.
The legal tender, therefore, the constitutional standard of value is estab­
lished and can not be overthrown. To overthrow it would shake the whole
system.

The new silver school of statesmen have no regard for statesmen who
have been the glory of their country for the past century, and they are
not content with paper redeemable in coin, but would make it a legaltender; not content with the purchase of the entire product of Ameri­
can silver, but it must all be coined whether necessary or not; and re­
ject with scorn any conditions that would preserve equality in the con­
tinuous use and circulation of both gold and silver or that would not
at once give the supremacy to silver alone. In empty talk, but not in
any legislative enactment, they will concede that gold and silver are
twin metals and that we can no more dispense with one of them than
with the other, and yet they are prodigal of rancorous sneers and de­
nunciations about gold, and would “ raise Cain” to slay his golden
twin brother and drive him out of the country.




19
Free coinage and a seventy-five-cent silver dollar may be a nice thing
for railroad corporations which have many millions of outstanding
bonds, as these would be scaled as remorselessly as any other contracts.
But there are no trades or industries, large or small, that will not,
as it appears to me, be touched disastrously by the bold experiments
now proposed with silver and paper legal tender. The vehemence
with which they are urged does not satisfy me of their safety or ex­
pediency, and I can not persuade myself that they would promote the
enduring prosperity and happiness of the largest number of the Ameri­
can people, nor am I quite ready, as mach as I personally respect and
admire the great ability of the Senators who are pushing these new and
untried theories upon us, to accept them in defiance of all the teach­
ings of Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Marshall, Story, Benton, and
Daniel Webster. It will be a sad day for our country when our high­
est authorities on constitutional questions are no longer heeded or rev­
erenced.
A P P E N D IX

Amount of gold and silver coin and bullion; gold, silver, and currency certificates;
United States notes, and national and State bank-notes in the United States, and
distribution thereof at the dose of thefiscal years 1873 and 1889.
[From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury.]

June 30—
1873.

1889.

Gold:
In Treasury, including bullion.....................
In national banks..........................................
In other banks and in individual hands....

$72,281,687.86
3,370,378.40
59,347,933.74

$303,581,937.00
82,651,610.00
293,829,958.00

Total.............................................................

135,000,000.00

680,063,505.00

-Gold certificates:
In Treasury...................................................
In national banks..........................................
In other banks and in individual hands....

$5,208,680.00
22.139.090.00
12.112.230.00

$36,918,323.00
69.517.790.00
47.612.439.00

Total............................................................

39,460,000.00

154,048,552.00

Silver certificates:
In Treasury....................................................
In national banks.........................................
In other banks and in individual hands....

5,474,181.00
12,452,057.00
244,703,508.00

Total..................................... ......................

262,629,746.00

Silver dollars:
In Treasury, including silver bullion.........
In national banks..........................................
In other banks and in individual hands-...

1,149,305.00

289,489,794.00
6,786,730.00
47,670,569.00

Total...... ................................................... .

al, 149,305.00

343,947,093.00




20
Amount of gold and silver coin and bvttion, etc.—Continued.
June 30—
1873.

1889.

Subsidiary silver:

905,344.88
2,440,618,32
1,654,036.80
.... hands
In other banks and in individual

25.124.672.00
4,495,681.00
46.981.483.00

5,000,000.00

76,601,836.00

1,399,184.00
79,967.50
142.105.00
479.400.00
44,799,365.44

201.170.00
56.442.00
62.955.00
185.750.00
6,916,690.47

8,304,586.00
26,955,726.00
312,006,749.00

4,158,330.00
27,715,587.00
179,505,046.00

347,267,061.00

211,378,963.00

In other banks and in individual hands....

39,050,855.00
106.381.491.00
210.567.654.00

47.196.825.00
97.456.832.00
202,027,359.00

Total..............................................................

356,000,000.00

346,681,016.00

Legal-tender certificates:
In banks............ ,1..........................................
In Treasury........ .............................................

31,515,000.00
215,000.00

16,955,000.00
240,000.00

Compound-interest notes....................................
National-bank notes:
In Treasury.....................................................
In national banks .........................................
In other banks and in individual hands....

Legal-tender notes:
In Treasury............................ ......... ...............

Total............................................. ................

31,730,000.00

17,195,000.00

Total bullion and metallic and paper money ..
Total money exclusive of gold and silver and
legal-tender certificates....................................

902.506.387.94

2.099.968.718.47

831.316.387.94

1.666.095.420.47

a Bullion in the mints and New York assay office.
N ote 1.—The aggregate circulation should be reduced by the total amount of
gold, silver, and legal-tender certificates to obtain the net circulation, as the
funds which these certificates represent are also included in the aggregate.
N o t e 2.—The stock of gold and silver coin and bullion at the close of the fiscal
years 1873 and 1889 was the amount estimated by the Director of the Mint.
N ote 3.—The State-bank circulation includes only the notes of State banks
converted into national banks. The amount of the outstanding notes of non­
converted State banks is estimated at $148,434.




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