islation of 1873,
in respect to the coinage of silver, I am of the opinion that it
was fortunate that the United States then dropped the coinage of
the old silver dollar. No one then contemplated the enormous yield
of silver from the mines, and the resulting fall in the market
value of silver, but, acting upon the experience of the past, that
a parity between silver and gold could not be maintained at any
fixed value, Congress adopted gold as the standard of value, and
coined silver as a subsidiary coin, to be received and maintained
at a parity with gold, but only a legal tender for small sums.
This was the principle adopted in the act of 1853, when silver was
more valuable than gold at the legal ratio. Silver was not then
coined into dollars, because it was then worth more as bullion than
as coin. It was needed for change, and, under the law of 1853, it
was furnished in abundance. Similar laws are now in force in all
countries where gold is the sole standard. Under these laws, a
larger amount of silver is employed as subsidiary coins than when
the coinage of silver was free.

The same condition of coinage now exists in the United States.
While silver is reduced in market value nearly one-half, silver
coins are maintained at par with gold at the old ratio, by fiat of
the government. It is true that the purchase of silver, under
recent laws, involved a heavy loss to the government, but the free
coinage of silver, under the ratio of sixteen to one, would exclude
gold from our currency, detach the United States from the monetary
standard of all the chief commercial nations of the world, and
change all existing contracts between individuals and with the
government. In view of these results, certain to come from the
free coinage of silver, I am convinced that until some international
arrangement can be made, the present system of coinage should
continue in force. This has now became a political, or, rather a
monetary question, to be decided sooner or later, by popular opinion,
at the polls. This subject will be further discussed at a later
period, when efforts were made to adopt the free coinage of silver
at the old ratio.

Prior to the meeting of Congress in December, 1870, a controversy
had arisen between Senator Sumner and Secretary Fish, which created
serious embarrassment, and I think had a very injurious influence
during that and succeeding sessions of Congress. Mr. Sumner had
long been chairman of the c