tender; and any of said notes
hereafter reissued shall bear this inscription."

This resolution, while pending in the committee, was debated at
some length, and reported back adversely on the 15th of January,
1880, by Mr. Allison, from a majority of the committee. Mr. Bayard
presented the views of the minority in favor of the resolution.
It was subsequently discussed at considerable length by Mr. Coke,
of Texas, and Mr. Bayard, on opposite sides. No definite action
was taken and the matter rested, and I do not recall that it was
ever again brought before the Senate. I felt satisfied with the
majority report, as I doubted the expediency or power of Congress
to deny to these notes any of the qualities conferred upon them by
the law authorizing their issue, as was the legal tender clause.
The beneficial result of resumption was appreciated by both parties
and there was no disposition of Congress to pass any legislation
on the subject. The speech of Mr. Bayard, made on the 27th of
January, 1880, was a careful and able review of the whole subject
of legal tender, but it was evident that neither House of Congress
agreed with him in opinion.

A bill in regard to refunding the debt maturing after the 1st of
March, 1881, was introduced in Congress on the 27th of December,
1879, by Fernando Wood, chairman of the committee of ways and means
of the House. It provided for a change of existing laws so as to
limit the rate of interest upon the bonds to be issued in such
refunding to not to exceed three and a half per cent. per annum.
This bill, if it had been passed, would have prohibited the sale
of all bonds for resumption, as well as for refunding, at a greater
rate of interest than three and a half per cent. I opposed this
proposition, as it would impair the power of maintaining resumption
in case such bonds could not be sold at par, and the existing law
did not prevent the secretary from selling those already authorized
at a premium. No action was taken upon the bill by that Congress,
and Mr. Windom, my successor, found no difficulty in refunding
these bonds on more favorable terms without any change of existing
law.

On the 30th of January, 1880, I appeared before the finance committee
of the Senate in response to their invitation. The committee was
composed of Senators Bayard (chairman), Kernan, Wallace, Beck,
Morrill, Allison and Ferry, all of whom were present. Mr. Bayard
stated that a number of propositions, up