aught to believe that great good can come to
our country by an unlimited expansion of paper credit, with money
more abundant than it is now, also believe in the free coinage of
silver.

"I, representing a state nearly central in population, have tested
the sense of the people of Ohio, and they, I believe, are by a
great majority, not only of the party to which I belong but of the
Democratic party, opposed to the free coinage of silver. They
believe that that will degrade the money of our country, reduce
its purchasing power fully one-third, destroy the bi-metallic system
which we have maintained for a long period of time, and reduce us
to a single monometallic standard of silver measured by the value
of 3711/4 grains of pure silver to the dollar."

I will not attempt to give an epitome of this speech. It covered
seventeen pages of the "Record," and dealt with every phase of the
question of silver coinage, and, incidentally, of our currency.
No part of it was written except the tables and extracts quoted.
Its delivery occupied parts of two days, May 31 and June 1. After
a careful reading I do not see what I could add to the argument,
but I might have condensed it. The question involved is still
before the people of the United States, and will again be referred
to by me. I closed with the following paragraph:

"But, sir, closing as I began, let me express my earnest belief
that this attempt to bring this great and powerful nation of ours
to the standard of silver coin alone is a bad project, wrong in
principle, wrong in detail, injurious to our credit, a threat to
our financial integrity, a robbery of the men whose wages will be
diminished by its operation, a gross wrong to the pensioner who
depends upon the bounty of his government, a measure that can do
no good, and, in every aspect which it appears to me, a frightful
demon to be resisted and opposed."

The debate continued with increasing interest until the 1st of July,
when the bill passed the Senate by the vote of yeas 29, nays 25.
It was sent to the House of Representatives for concurrence, but
a resolution providing for its consideration was there debated,
and rejected by a vote of yeas 136, nays 154.

During this session of Congress the policy of restricting Chinese
immigration was strongly pressed by the Senators and Representatives
from California and Oregon. They were not content with an extension
of the restrictions imposed by the act of 1882, whi