Germany and by some other countries. The financial condition of the United States has prevented the use of silver as currency for more than ten years, and I am of opinion that upon grounds of public policy no attempt should be made to introduce it, but that the coinage should be limited to commercial purposes, and designed exclusively for commercial uses with other nations. "The intrinsic value of a metallic currency should correspond to its commercial value, or metal should be used for the coinage of tokens redeemable by the government at their nominal value. As the depreciation of silver is likely to continue, it is impossible to issue coin redeemable in gold without ultimate loss to the government; for when the difference becomes considerable the holders will present the silver for redemption and leave it in the hands of the government, to be disposed of subsequently at a loss. "Therefore, in renewing the recommendations heretofore made for the passage of the Mint Bill, I suggest such alterations as will prohibit the coinage of silver for circulation in this country, but that authority be given for the coinage of a silver dollar that shall be as valuable as the Mexican dollar, and to be furnished at its actual cost." The act of February 12th, 1873, did not directly demonetize the silver dollar; it simply prohibited its further coinage by the following provision: "That no coins, either of gold, silver, or minor coinage, shall hereafter be issued from the mint other than those of the denominations, standards, and weights herein set forth." A previous section had fixed the silver coins, thereafter to be issued, as follows: "That the silver coins of the United States shall be a trade-dollar, a half-dollar or fifty-cent piece; and the weight of the trade-dollar shall be four hundred and twenty grains troy; the weight of the half-dollar shall be twelve grammes and one half of a gramme; the quarter-dollar and the dime shall be, respectively, one half and one fifth the weight of said half-dollar; and said coins shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for any amount not 'exceeding five dollars in any one pay ment. It is carefully to be noted, that neither in these sections nor in any other part of the act of 1873 is the quality of legal tender taken away from the silver dollars already coined. Their demonetization was accomplished by the Revised Statutes enacted by Congress June 22d, 1874, in which all the then existing body of laws of the United States were codified and reduced into one volume. In this revision, after repeating the above provision as to what should constitute the silver coins of the United States (Revised Statutes, Section 3513), the prohibition of issuing other coins already cited followed (Section 3516), and the demonetizing of silver was perfected by the sections regarding legal tender, which are as follows: "The gold coins of the United States shall be a legal tender in all payments at their nominal value. The silver coins of the United States shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for any amount not exceeding five dollars in any one payment." (Revised Statutes of the U. S., Sections 3585, 3586.) General public attention was not drawn to the radical change effected in the laws regulating the silver coinage of the United States until after the passage by Congress of the act to provide for the resumption of specie payments in 1879, which became a law January 14th, 1875. Within one year from the passage of this act, financial questions became great and leading issues, and in Ohio and other States the policy and expediency of returning to specie payments, of withdrawing the current greenback paper money, of perpetuating the bank-note system, or substituting for it United States legal-tender notes, became topics of universal discussion. Congress was agitated by a multitude of influences, and at the very next session following the passage of the resumption act there came a great flood of bills proposing new financial legislation. At this session of Congress an enlarged coinage of subsidiary silver money was authorized, consisting of half-dollars, quarters, twenty-cent and ten-cent coins. The act of April 17th, 1876, provided for this issue of minor silver coin in redemption of an equal amount of paper fractional currency; while another act, approved July 22d, 1876, authorized the issue of silver coin to the amount of ten million dollars in exchange for an equal amount of legal-tender notes (not fractional), and increased the coinage of subsidiary silver authorized to be issued in redemption of fractional currency to the aggregate of $50,000,000. The passage of these acts was due in part to the increasing scarcity and unsatisfactory character of the fractional paper currency. This subsidiary legal tender, the first issues of which were authorized during the war, by act of July 17th, 1862, proved to be so quickly worn out and defaced in use as to entail considerable loss upon the people. This fact, with the increasing scarcity of change, from its rapid deterioration, and the strong agitation in favor of a better coinage which set in upon the further discovery that silver had been demonetized, led to the passage through Congress by large majorities of these acts authorizing the coinage of fifty millions of small silver. The House of Representatives passed, December 13th, 1876, what was known as the Bland Silver Bill, the direct object of which was to remonetize the silver dollar, and to make it a legal tender to any amount, for all debts, public and private. This measure, however, failed to pass the Senate. A bill for the repeal of the resumption act, long pending in the House in the summer of 1876, also failed to pass. But on the 15th of August, 1876, a joint resolution became a law creating a Monetary Commission, to consist of three Senators, three Representatives, and experts not exceeding three in number to be selected by them, whose duty it should be to inquire "First. Into the change which has taken place in the relative value of gold and silver; the causes thereof, whether permanent or otherwise; the effects thereof upon trade, commerce, finance, and the productive interests of the country, and upon the standard (of) value in this and foreign countries; Second. Into the policy of the restoration of the double standard in this country; and, if restored, what the legal relation between the two coins, silver and gold, should be; "Third. Into the policy of continuing legal-tender notes concurrently with the metallic standards, and the effects thereof upon the labor, industries, and wealth of the country; and "Fourth. Into the best means for providing for facilitating the resumption of specie payments." The commission as organized consisted of Senators John P. Jones, Louis V. Bogy, and George S. Boutwell; Messrs. Randall L. Gibson, Richard P. Bland, and George Willard, of the House of Representatives; William S. Groesbeck, of Ohio; and Francis Bowen, of Massachusetts. This commission held many meetings in New York City and in Washington, and instituted correspondence with bankers, publicists, and commercial men in the United States, as well as with eminent financial authorities in Europe. The report of this commission, although agreed to as early as March, 1877, did not appear in print until about the first of November. The majority of the commission, consisting of Messrs. Jones, Bogy, Willard, Bland, and Groesbeck, concurred in the following general conclusions : "The true and only cause of the stagnation in industry and commerce now everywhere felt is the fact everywhere existing of falling prices, caused by a shrinkage in the volume of money. This is in part the misfortune of mankind, as the mines have failed for several years, under energetic working, to yield the precious metals in quantity sufficient to keep pace with the increasing needs of the world for money. But it is in part due to the folly of mankind in throwing away a benefaction of nature by discarding one of the precious metals. Existing evils date with that folly, which precipitated and now enormously aggravates them." The commission recommended, by a majority of five to three, the remonetizing of silver in the United States. Three of the majority of the committee, Messrs. Jones, Bogy, and Willard, further recommended the adoption of the ratio between silver and gold of 15 to 1, instead of remonetizing the old silver dollar, which would give a relation between the metals of 15.98 to 1. Messrs. Groesbeck and Bland of the majority non-concurred in this recommendation of 151 as the standard, but urged the recoinage of the old silver dollar, so as simply to undo the recent legislation for demonetizing silver, and restore the dollar to its exact former position as legal-tender currency. The minority of the committee, Senator Boutwell, Professor Francis Bowen, and Hon. R. L. Gibson, made dissenting reports. Mr. Boutwell, while deeming it desirable to secure the use of the two metals by concurrent action of commercial nations, was of the opinion that the United States should adhere to existing legislation; that the public creditor was entitled to receive gold coin in payment of the interest and principal of the public debt; that the recoinage of silver dollars would lead to a flow to the United States of the demonetized and discredited silver of every other country, largely depreciating its value; and that the adoption of silver as the standard would be followed by a loss in the depreciation of the public credit far greater than any gain to the government by the payment of the interest and principal of the public debt in a coin less valuable than gold. Mr. Bowen, in his report, concurred in by Mr. Gibson, held that every attempt to establish the so-called double standard has been a failure; that though the law may declare either of the two commodities legal tender, only one of them, and that the cheaper one, is actually adopted as the medium of payment; that while France had silver for her only standard from 1803 to the gold discoveries about 1850, gold had been actually made the only standard ever since; that in the United States, Congress had several times been under the necessity of tinkering the so-called double standard of currency through the fluctuations in price; that the best thing for the United States to do would be to take a further step toward assimilating our metallic currency to that of England, and the commercial world generally; that this should be done by diminishing the quantity of gold in the dollar three fifths of one grain, so that the half-eagle, or $5 piece, would become almost the equivalent of the pound sterling, and would differ only by a fraction from the gold twenty-five-franc piece of France, and the twenty gold marks of Germany. Congress adjourned August 15th, 1876, in the midst of the agitation and preparation attendant upon a coming Presidential election, leaving financial questions substantially in statu quo, with the exception of the authorized coinage of fifty millions in subsidiary silver. Its next session, December, 1876, to March, 1877, was almost wholly absorbed in the settlement of a disputed Presidential election, and bills for the repeal of the resumption act, for the remonetizing of silver, for the substitution of greenbacks for the National-bank circulation, and many other financial measures, failed to become laws. At the extraordinary session convened October 15th, 1877, to provide for the support of the army, the financial issues before the country came up again with renewed force. Out of a multitude of bills proposed for the amendment or repeal of the existing monetary legislation, the bill for remonetizing the silver dollar of 4121⁄2 grains of standard silver, and making it a legal tender for all debts, public and private, passed the House on the 5th day of November, 1877, by a vote of 164 ayes to 34 noes. The bill to repeal the resumption act, or so much thereof as provided for the redemption in coin of the United States legal-tender notes on the 1st of January, 1879, passed the House on the 23d day of November, 1877, by the close vote of 133 yeas to 120 nays. Neither of these bills, however, was acted upon in the Senate prior to the holiday recess of Congress, terminating with the 10th of January, 1878. DIPLOMATIC SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. From the Register of the Department of State, December, 1877. Argentine Rep.. Thomas O. Osborn, Min. Res. Buenos A. III.... Feb. 10, 74 $7,500 Aust'ia-H'ngary John A. Kasson, E.E. & M.P. Vienna... Iowa. June 11, 77 12,000 John F. Delaplaine, Sec. Leg. Vienna... N. Y. June 1, '69 1,800 Belgium.. Brazil.. Central Ameri- Nicaragua Salvador. Chili China Germany.. Brussels.. W. Hayden Edwards, Sec.Leg. Rio de J.. D. C.. 7,500 12,000 1,800 George Williamson, Min. Res. Guatemal. La.... May 17, 73 10,000 77 10,000 76 12,000 Aug. 15, 76 5,000 Ky... Aug. 15, 76 5,000 Ohio.. July 1, 77 17,500 Ill.... Dec. 15, 74 2,625 La. ...Dec. 14, 75 2,000 Thos. A. Osborn, E. E. & M.P. Santiago.. Kans. May 31, Mass. Aug. 1, 17.500 77 2,625 H. Sidney Everett, Sec. of Leg. Berlin... and Chargé d'Af.ad interim. Chapman Coleman, 2d S. Leg. Berlin.... Md.. May 8, 74 2,000 Great Britain... John Welsh, E. E. & M. P.... London.. Pa.... Oct. 9, 77 17,500 Wm. J. Hoppin, Sec. of Leg.. London N. Y. June 22, 76 2,625 E. S. Nadal, 2d Sec. of Leg... London... N. J. June 8, 77 John Meredith Read, Ch.d'Af. Athens. Greece. 2,000 Hawalian Isl'ds. James M. Comly, Min. Res.. Honolulu. Ohio. July 1, 77 Japan... Liberia Netherlands Peru.. Portugal. Russia.. John C. Caldwell, Ch. d'Aff.. Montevid. Me... Aug. 15, 76 5,000 Richard Gibbs, E. E. & M. P. Lima..... N. Y. April 9, 75 10,000 Benj. Moran, Chargé d'Aff... Lisbon... Aug. 16, 76 5,000 E. W. Stoughton, E E. & M.P. St. Peters. N. Y. Oct. 30, 77 17,500 Wickham Hoffman, Sec. Leg. St. Peters. N. Y. May 31, 77 2,625 James R. Lowell, E.E. & M. P. Madrid.. Mass. June 11, 77 12,000 Dwight T. Reed, Sec. of Leg.. Madrid. N. Y. July 9, 77 1,800 Sweden, Norway John L. Stevens, Min. Res... Stockhol. Me... Aug. 28, 77 7,500 Switzerland.. Spain... Turkey.. Nicholas Fish, Chargé d'Aff.. Berne.. N. Y. June 20, 77 5,000 A. A. Gargiulo, Interpreter... Constanti. July 1, 73 3,000 Venezuela......Thomas Russell, Min. Res.... Caracas... Mass. April 20, '74 7,500 * Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. |