Regarding gold as merchandise, we see how clearly in certain places and under certain circumstances it escapes from the scientific laws applicable especially to coinage.

The Government, therefore, as representative of the community, after refining and weighing gold, puts upon it a stamp which guaranties its weight and fineness.

But in our country, and now especially in California and on the Pacific coast, gold has become a principal article of production and exportation, like wheat or cotton.

Call it protection, if you will; but I beg to submit that an interest so important, so peculiar, and so delicate, deserves this protection.

A courtier said to Philip the Second of Spain, “Your golden ducats carry your name and your features over all the countries of Europe, exciting envy and dread.” The time for envy and dread has passed; but our eagles are not idle.

There is their inscription, E pluribus unum, an unquestionable stamp of nationality and value, which they carry wherever they go.

Therefore, Sir, while admitting, that, for the sake of the coin, there should be the highest accuracy possible in the operations of the mint, I cannot hesitate to insist, that, regarding gold as merchandise, the mint must be established in…

I do not think there would be any hesitation in this conclusion, if the whole subject of coinage had not been shrouded with a certain mystery, almost like the “black art.” This appears constantly.

Like other incidents of sovereignty, coinage is reserved rightfully to the Government, and on this account is little appreciated in its true character.

People sometimes err in not seeing that the delicate laws applicable to this subject must not be strained to interfere with the proper regulation of the value of gold when it has become a principal article of commerce.

A mint, in plain terms, is nothing but a foundry provided with good locks and keys.

The science of metallurgy is still in progress of development, and it cannot be doubted that the coming generation will witness improvements as important as any during our day.

He naturally seeks to amplify his jurisdiction, and to keep the tide of gold secure so that it shall not ebb from his marble building.

Perhaps I do not use too strong language, if I say that he is under inducements to play the pedant for his own mint, and to quote it against every other mint.

Its passage, more than any other single decision that could be taken by Congress in the way of needed reforms, would tend to correct abuses which threaten our whole political system with wreck and ruin.

This bill, if passed, would do away with what has become one of the most serious vices in our political life, the ‘Spoils system,’ as it has been appropriately called.

But, besides this, it is manifestly impossible to carry on the immense business of the Government without extraordinary and ruinous loss and waste, under the old system of turning out the occupants of civil offices every four years.

If this bill is passed, the era of inefficiency and favoritism, hitherto prevailing, will be at an end.

Sumner’s bill will cure the evils of which every sensible man now complains, and avert the terrible dangers which menace us.

We have been compelled during this session to hear various defences of Slavery, sometimes in its most offensive forms.

And now, to-day, the exclusion of colored persons from the electoral franchise, simply on account of color, is openly vindicated, and the Senator from West Virginia, newly introduced into this Chamber from a State born of Freedom, rises…

President, I cannot pass that assertion without giving it an unequivocal, categorical denial.

I said to the Senator, what perhaps he did not hear before, that, when he has liberated by the sweat of his brow as many slaves as I have, he can get up and make such a remark in regard to me.

I said, Sir, that the Senator vindicated Slavery in one of its meanest products.

The Senator has spoken, I do not know how long by the clock, to vindicate an odious prejudice bequeathed by Slavery, having its origin in Slavery, and in nothing else.