o be a dollar made of metal worth now fifty-three and
five-eighths pence per ounce, or ten cents less in value than a
gold dollar, and on January 23d, awkwardly enough, worth eight and
three-fourths cents less than a dollar in greenbacks, gold being only
If per cent. premium, but, nevertheless, to be a legal tender for all
debts, public and private, except where otherwise provided by contract.
The words seem to be aptly chosen to override and annul whatever now
may be otherwise provided by law. Beyond this, as the bill came from the
House, the holders of silver bullion--not the Government or the whole
people--were to have all the profits of coinage and the Government all
of the expense. This, but for the amendment proposed by the Committee on
Finance, would have furnished the power to the enterprising operators in
silver, either at home or abroad, to inflate the currency without limit;
and, even as amended, inflation will be secured to the full extent
of all the silver which may be issued, for there is no provision for
redeeming or retiring a single dollar of paper currency. Labor is
threatened with a continuation of the unequal struggle against a
depreciated and fluctuating standard of money.

The bill, if it becomes a law, must at the very threshold arrest the
resumption of specie payments, for, were the holders of United States
notes suddenly willing to exchange them for much less than their present
value, payment even in silver is to be postponed indefinitely. For years
United States notes have been slowly climbing upward, but now they are
to have a sudden plunge downward, and in every incompleted
contract, great and small, the robbery of Peter to pay Paul is to be
fore-ordained. The whole measure looks to me like a fearful assault upon
the public credit. The losses it will inflict upon the holders of paper
money and many others will be large, and if the bill, without further
radical amendments, obtains the approval of the Senate, it will give
the death-blow to the cardinal policy of the country, which now seeks
a large reduction of the rate of interest upon our national debt.
Even that portion now held abroad will come back in a stampede to be
exchanged for gold at any sacrifice. The ultimate result would be,
when the supply for customs shall have been coined and the first
effervescence has passed away, the emission of silver far below the
standard of gold; and when the people become tired of it, disgusted or
ruine