that pays where it goes and a paper dollar which only promises to
pay. It will prepare the way for full resumption in gold. To the
extent proposed by the committee, and to be used as a purely
voluntary approach to a full specie standard, it is open to no
objection or criticism, and should be assented to by gentlemen who
have differed with each other on the present resumption law or on
the merits and dangers of contraction and expansion."

The vital difference between the free coinage of silver, and the
limited coinage of that metal on government account, is that with
free coinage the standard of value would be the cheaper money.
With silver at its present price in the market the dollar would be
worth but a little over fifty cents. The coinage being free to
the holders of silver bullion no other coins would be made except
the cheaper coins of least purchasing power. On the other hand,
the coinage of silver on government account enables us to maintain
the silver coins at par with gold, without respect to the market
value of the silver bullion. Any nominal profit from this coinage
inures to the benefit of the whole people of the United States and
not merely to the producers of silver bullion. This distinction
has always appeared to me so marked and clear, and the argument so
strong in favor of limiting the coinage of silver to the amount
demanded as a convenience of the people for the smaller transactions
of life, that I cannot sympathize with a policy that aims merely
to secure the cheapest money for the discharge of obligations
contracted upon more valuable money.

Among the measures that became a law at this session was a concurrent
resolution, introduced by me in the Senate on the 5th of July,
1876, to provide for the completion of the Washington monument.

On the morning of the 4th of July, 1876, the 100th anniversary of
American independence, I was making some preparation for the
celebration of that day in the vicinity of Washington. Animated
by the patriotic feeling inspired by the day, and sitting in view
of the unfinished monument of George Washington, I felt that the
time had come when this monument should no longer continue a standing
reproach to a patriotic people. Shortly after the death of
Washington, a resolution providing for the erection of a monument
to his memory, was agreed to by both Houses of Congress. Subsequently,
on January 1, 1801, a bill was passed by the House of Representatives
ap