le aspect all the financial questions
involved in coinage, resumption and refunding. Anyone desiring a
full knowledge of the view then taken of the act revising the laws
in respect to coins and coinage, approved February 12, 1873, will
find in the debate a full history of that act, given at a time when
it was fresh in the memory of the great body of Senators and
Members.

I supported the coinage of the old silver dollar in a speech in
the Senate made on the 8th of June, 1876, two years before the
appearance of the "Bland bill," or the "Allison bill." Silver
bullion was then declining in market value. The resumption act
provided for the gradual replacement of fractional currency by
silver coins of the character and form provided for by the coinage
act of 1853. When that act passed the old silver dollar was not
coined or in circulation. It was more valuable in the market than
a dollar in gold, and, if coined, would have been exported as
bullion. In the revision of the coinage laws of 1873, it was
dropped from the list of coins, and its further coinage was prohibited
by a clause providing that no coins should be made at the mint
except those provided for in that act. The history of this act
and the reasons for prohibiting the coinage of the old dollar have
been fully stated in a previous chapter of this work. In place of
the old dollar the trade dollar, containing 420 grains of silver,
was provided for. This trade dollar, coined for, and at the expense
of, the owner of the bullion deposited at the mint, was, in the
revision of the laws of the United States, unintentionally made a
legal tender for five dollars, the same as the minor coins issued
by the mint on government account. As silver declined in value,
the trade dollar became less valuable than a dollar in gold, and
the owners of bullion deposited it in the mint, and received in
exchange trade dollars costing less than a dollar in gold, but,
being a legal tender for five dollars, it could be forced upon the
people of California, then upon the gold standard, at a profit to
the owner of the bullion. Mr. Sargent, a Senator from California,
early in the session introduced a bill enlarging the limit of legal
tender of minor coins, and repealing the legal tender quality of
the trade dollar. This bill was referred to the committee on
finance, and was reported with an amendment to strike out all after
the enacting clause, and insert:

"That section 3586 of the