that pledge and the performance of that duty. There must be
something very peculiar in the condition of our country that will
justify a longer delay; a longer procrastination in the performance
of this solemn pledge, this public policy--our own political
obligation.

"Mr. president, this section is the result of the patient consideration
of the committee on finance as to how this result is to be brought
about; and upon this very section there is most likely to be a
contrariety and difference of opinion among Senators, because the
mode and manner of redemption is the thing which has excited the
public mind and upon which men all over the country differ. I
wish, therefore, to deal with this question. We have got to pay
these notes in coin. The time when is not defined by the law.
Are we prepared now to fix a day when we will pay these notes in
coin? If the condition of our country was such as to justify it,
I would greatly prefer fixing the time when these notes should be
paid in coin; but I am disposed to agree with what has been stated
by the Senator from Indiana, and by other Senators, that in the
present condition of our coinage, the present condition of our
foreign trade, we are not prepared to fix a definite day when we
will pay in coin. Why? I find, by reference to official documents,
that we now have in gold and silver coin in this country about
$140,000,000. This statement of Dr. Linderman does not include
the bullion on hand. How much that is I am not prepared to state.
The whole amount of gold and silver coin in the country, however,
is about $140,000,000. Some of that is in circulation in the
Pacific states, but the bulk of it is in the treasury of the United
States, the property of individuals and the property of the United
States. The total annual production of gold and silver in this
country cannot be estimated at over $70,000,000; and heretofore,
at least $50,000,000 of this has been exported over and above the
amount that has been imported. The balance of trade has been
against us; and although I do not regard that as entering much into
the calculation, yet it is a fact that until recently, perhaps,
the balance of trade has been against us. The annual coinage of
the United States for the last year or two has been largely
increasing, and last year the coinage of the United States was
$38,689,183, besides stamping into fine bars, which operate as a
kind of coinage, of $27,517,000. So that th