m. His veto
message was read in the House on the 28th of February, and upon
the question whether the bill should pass, the objections of the
President notwithstanding, it was adopted by a vote of yeas 196,
nays 73. It passed the Senate on the same day, by a vote of yeas
46, nays 19, and thus became a law.

I did not agree with the President in his veto of the bill, for
the radical changes made in its terms in the Senate had greatly
changed its effect and tenor. The provisions authorizing the
Secretary of the Treasury to purchase not less than $2,000,000
worth of silver bullion per month, at market price, and to coin it
into dollars, placed the silver dollars upon the same basis as the
subsidiary coins, except that the dollar contained a greater number
of grains of silver than a dollar of subsidiary coins, and was a
legal tender for all debts without limit as to amount. The provision
that the gain or seigniorage arising from the coinage should be
accounted for and paid into the treasury, as under the existing
laws relative to subsidiary coinage, seemed to remove all serious
objections to the measure. In view of the strong public sentiment
in favor of the free coinage of the silver dollar, I thought it
better to make no objections to the passage of the bill, but I did
not care to antagonize the wishes of the President. He honestly
believed that it would greatly disturb the public credit to make
a legal tender for all amounts, of a dollar, the bullion of which
was not of equal commercial value to the gold dollar.

The provision made directing the President to invite the governments
of the countries composing the Latin Union, and of such other
European countries as he deemed advisable, to unite with the United
States in adopting a common ratio between gold and silver, has been
made the basis of several conferences which have ended without any
practical result, and the question of a single or double standard
still stands open as the great disturbing question of public policy,
affecting alike all commercial countries.

While this measure was pending in the Senate, a casual letter
written by me ten years previously was frequently quoted, as evidence
that I was then in favor of paying the bonds of the United States
with United States notes, at that date at a large discount in coin.
The letter is as follows:

"United States Senate Chamber,}
"Washington, March 20, 1868. }
"Dear Sir:--I was pleased to receive you