ill.

Now, sir, I am willing to do all I can with safety even to taking great
risks to increase the value of silver to gold at the old ratio, and
to supply paper substitutes for both for circulation, but there is
one immutable, unchangeable, ever-existing condition, that the paper
substitute must always have the same purchasing power as gold and
silver coin, maintained at their legal ratio with each other. I feel a
conviction, as strong as the human mind can have, that the free coinage
of silver now by the United States will be a grave mistake and a
misfortune to all classes and conditions of our fellow-citizens. I
also have a hope and belief, but far from a certainty, that the measure
proposed for the purchase of silver bullion to a limited amount, and the
issue of Treasury notes for it, will bring silver and gold to the old
ratio, and will lead to an agreement with other commercial nations to
maintain the free coinage of both metals.

And now, sir, I want to state in conclusion, without any purpose to
bind myself to detail, that I will vote for any measure that will, in
my judgment, secure a genuine bimetallic standard--one that will
not demonetize gold or cause it to be hoarded or exported, but will
establish both silver and gold as common standards and maintain them at
a fixed ratio, not only in the United States but among all the nations
of the world. The principles adopted by the Acts of 1853 and 1875 have
been sustained by experience and should be adhered to. In pursuance of
them I would receive into the Treasury of the United States all the
gold and silver produced in our country at their market value, not at
a speculative or forced value, but at their value in the markets of the
world. And for the convenience of our people I would represent them by
Treasury notes to an amount not exceeding their cost. I would confer
upon these notes all the use, qualities, and attributes that we can
confer within our constitutional power, and support and maintain them
as money by coining the silver and gold as needed upon the present legal
ratios, and by a pledge of all the revenues of the Government and all
the wealth and credit of the United States.

And I would proclaim to all our readiness, by international negotiations
or treaties, to bring about an agreement among nations for common units
of value and of weights and measures for all the productions of the
world.

This hope of philosophers and statesmen is now nearer r