be taken toward specie payments. Then there
was the amendment offered by the gentleman who now occupies the
chair [Mr. Ferry, of Michigan], that there ought to be an increase
of the currency without reference to any plan of redemption. Third,
there was the proposition made by the Senator from Delaware [Mr.
Bayard], that measures should be taken at once looking to the
resumption of specie payments.

"These propositions were discussed, and the committee were enlightened
by that discussion; at least they obtained the opinions of Members
of the Senate. Subsequently, in the course of our investigation,
a question about the $25,000,000 section (section 6 of the act of
July 12, 1870) came up, and the committee deemed it right, by a
unanimous vote, to ascertain the sense of the Senate as to whether
they wished this section carried into execution. As it stood upon
the statute book it was a law without force. It was a law so
expressed that the comptroller said he could not execute it.
Therefore the committee reported a bill which would have provided
the necessary details to carry into execution that section of the
existing law. But in the present temper of the public mind, in
the Senate and in the country, that bill was discussed, and has
been discussed day after day, without approaching the question at
all. During all this time the committee have been pursuing their
inquiries, and finally they have reported the bill which is now
before us.

"The measure that is reported is not a satisfactory one to any of
us in all its details. Probably it is not such as the mind of any
single Member of the Senate would propose. It is in the nature of
a compromise bill, and therefore, while it has the strength of a
compromise bill, it has also the weakness of a compromise bill.
There are ideas in it which, while meeting the views of a majority,
taken separately will be opposed by others. I am quite sure I say
nothing new to the Senate when I say it does not in all respects
meet my own views. But there is a necessity for us to yield some
of our opinions. We cannot reconcile or pass any measure that will
be satisfactory to the country unless we do so. Any positive
victory by either extreme of this controversy will be an absolute
injury to the business of the country. Therefore, any measure that
is adopted ought to be so moderate, pursuing such a middle course,
such a middle ground, that it will give satisfaction to the country.
I