and add
greatly to its circulation. As prices are now based on United
States notes at par with gold, no disturbance of values would result
from the change.

"It appears, from the recent conference at Paris, invited by us,
that other nations will not join with us in fixing an international
ratio, and that each county must adapt its laws to its own policy.
The tendency of late among commercial nations is to the adoption
of a single standard of gold and the issue of silver for fractional
coin. We may, by ignoring this tendency, give temporarily increased
value to the stores of silver held in Germany and France, until
our market absorbs them, but, by adopting a silver standard as
nearly equal to gold as practicable, we make a market for our large
production of silver, and furnish a full, honest dollar that will
be hoarded, transported, or circulated, without disparagement or
reproach.

"It is respectfully submitted that the United States, already so
largely interested in trade with all parts of the world, and
becoming, by its population, wealth, commerce, and productions, a
leading member of the family of nations, should not adopt a standard
of less intrinsic value than other commercial nations. Alike
interested in silver and gold, as the great producing country of
both, it should coin them at such a ratio and on such conditions
as will secure the largest use and circulation of both metals
without displacing either. Gold must necessarily be the standard
of value in great transactions, from its greater relative value,
but it is not capable of the division required for small transactions;
while silver is indispensable for a multitude of daily wants, and
is too bulky for use in the larger transactions of business, and
the cost of its transportation for long distances would greatly
increase the present rates of exchange. It would, therefore, seem
to be the best policy for the present to limit the aggregate issue
of our silver dollars, based on the ratio of sixteen to one, to
such sums as can clearly be maintained at par with gold, until the
price of silver in the market shall assume a definite ratio to
gold, when that ratio should be adopted, and our coins made to
conform to it; and the secretary respectfully recommends that he
be authorized to discontinue the coinage of the silver dollar when
the amount outstanding shall exceed fifty million dollars.

"The secretary deems it proper to state that in the meantime, in