of Massachusetts, on the 1st of May, 1876.
The object of this resolution was to expedite the issue of minor
coin and the retirement of fractional currency. It was referred
to the committee on finance, reported favorably and passed with
amendments June 21. The House disagreed to the amendments of the
Senate, and a committee of conference was appointed composed of
John Sherman, George S. Boutwell, and Louis V. Bogy, managers on
the part of the Senate, and H. B. Payne, and Samuel J. Randall,
managers on the part of the House. The report of the conferees
was agreed to, and the bill having passed both Houses it was approved
by the President on the 22nd of July. It provided:

"That the Secretary of the Treasury, under such limits and regulations
as will best secure a just and fair distribution of the same through
the country, may issue the silver coin at any time in the treasury
to an amount not exceeding ten million dollars, in exchange for an
equal amount of legal tender notes; and the notes so received in
exchange shall be kept as a special fund, separate and apart from
all other money in the treasury, and be reissued only upon the
retirement and destruction of a like sum of fractional currency
received at the treasury in payment of dues to the United States;
and said fractional currency, when so substituted, shall be destroyed
and held as part of the sinking fund, as provided in the act approved
April seventeen, eighteen hundred and seventy-six."

It also provided: "That the trade dollar shall not hereafter be
a legal tender, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized
to limit, from time to time, the coinage thereof to such an amount
as he may deem sufficient to meet the export demand for the same."

It also provided that the amount of subsidiary silver coin authorized
should not exceed $50,000,000. The silver bullion was to be
purchased from time to time at market price by the Secretary of
the Treasury from any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated,
and any gain or seigniorage arising from the coinage was to be paid
into the treasury.

These provisions in respect to subsidiary coin were in a large
measure executed prior to the 4th of March, 1877, and tended, in
my opinion, to facilitate the progress of the resumption of specie
payments on the 1st of January, 1879. The debate on these measures
occupied a large portion of the time of both Houses of Congress,
and presented in every possib