low prices following the panic of
1873 added weight to the arguments of those who favored an increase in
the quantity of currency in circulation and who saw in the free and
unlimited coinage of silver one means of accomplishing this end. So
powerful was the demand, especially from the West, that in 1878 the
Bland-Allison Act, passed over the veto of President Hayes, provided for
the restoration of the silver dollar to the list of coins, with full
legal tender quality, and required the Treasury to purchase in the open
market from two to four million dollars' worth of bullion each month.
This compromise, however, was unsatisfactory to those who desired the
free coinage of silver, and it failed to please the champions of the
single standard.

For ten years the question of a choice between a single standard or
bimetallism, between free coinage or limited coinage of silver, was
one of the principal economic problems of the world. International
conferences, destined to have no positive results, met in 1878 and again
in 1881; in the United States Congress read reports and debated measures
on coinage in the intervals between tariff debates. Political parties
were split on sectional lines: Western Republicans and Democrats alike
were largely in favor of free silver, but their Eastern associates as
generally took the other side. Party platforms in the different
States diverged widely on this issue; and monetary planks in national
platforms, if included at all, were so framed as to commit the party
to neither side. Both parties, however, could safely pronounce for
bimetallism under international agreement, since there was little real
prospect of procuring such an agreement. The minor parties as a rule
frankly advocated free silver.

In 1890, the subject of silver coinage assumed new importance. The
silverites in Congress were reenforced by representatives from new
States in the far West, the admission of which had not been unconnected
with political exigencies on the part of the Republican party. The
advocates of the change were not strong enough to force through a
free-silver bill, but they were able by skillful logrolling to bring
about the passage of the Silver Purchase Act. This measure, frequently
called the Sherman Law,* directed the Secretary of the Treasury to
purchase, with legal tender Treasury notes issued for the purpose,
4,500,000 ounces of pure silver each month at the market price. As the
metal was worth at that