and
we acted wisely. When the question is hereafter determined by
Congress, the controversy will be whether the notes _when reissued_
shall have the _legal tender_ quality, or be simple treasury notes
receivable for public dues.

"Last session the public press scolded at our long and fruitless
debate on finances, and I agreed with the press. This session the
same Senators, enlightened by the long debate and heeding the call
of the press, gave to the subject the most careful and deliberate
consideration, and agreed upon this bill without much debate, and
yet the press is not happy. The act does not go as far as I wished,
but everything in it is right in itself, and is in the right
direction. Its chief merit is that it establishes a public policy
which no political party or faction will be strong enough to
overthrow, and which if it had not been adopted now, the Democratic
party in the next Congress would have defeated. The pretense that
the Democratic party, as represented in the next House, would have
favored any bill for specie payments is utterly false. Therefore
the measure grants to the Secretary of the Treasury powers enough
to execute it, but if we can secure the aid of a Democratic House
we can make it certain and effective.

"Very truly yours,
"John Sherman.
"Editor of 'Financier.'"

In the Ohio canvass of 1875 the resumption act became the chief
subject of controversy. R. B. Hayes, after having previously served
for four years as governor of the state, was against nominated for
that office. William Allen, then governor, was renominated upon
the Democratic ticket, in opposition to the resumption act and in
favor of fiat money, upon which issue the election mainly turned.

The eighth resolution of the Democratic platform was as follows;

"That the contraction of the currency heretofore made by the
Republican party, and the further contraction proposed by it, with
a view to the forced resumption of specie payment, have already
brought disaster to the business of the country, and threaten it
with general bankruptcy and ruin. We demand that this policy be
abandoned, and that the volume of currency be made and kept equal
to the wants of trade, leaving the restoration of legal tenders to
par with gold, to be brought about by promoting the industries of
the people and not by destroying them."

The Republican convention in their second resolution declared:

"That a policy of finance be steadily