You know I have been as much in favor of the silver dollar as anyone, but if it is to be used to raise these difficult questions with public creditors, it will be an unmixed evil.
John Sherman
The Public Record
John Sherman was an American politician from Ohio who served in federal office throughout the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. A member of the Republican Party, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He also served as Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State. Sherman sought the Republican presidential nomination three times, coming closest in 1888, but was never chosen by the party. Between 1861 and 1897, John Sherman served in the U.S. Senate for nearly 32 years and holds the record for longest serving senator from the state of Ohio.
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I know that upon you must mainly rest the responsibility of this measure, and I believe that you would not do anything that you did not think would advance the public service, whatever pressure might be brought to bear upon you.
Issued upon the conditions stated, I was of opinion that the silver dollar would be a great public advantage, but that if issued without limit, upon the demand of the owners of silver bullion, it would be a great public injury.
Even such a convention, while it might check the fall of silver, could not prevent the operation of that higher law which places the market value of silver above human control.
To still further secure a fixed relative value of silver and gold, the United States might invite an international convention of commercial nations.
The policy adhered to of collecting these duties in gold coin, had been the chief cause of upholding and advancing the public credit, and making it possible to lessen the burden of interest by the process of refunding.
The free coinage of silver would also impair the pledge made of the customs duties, by the act of February, 1862, for payment of the interest of the public debt.
Either expedient would do greater harm to the public at large than any possible benefit to debtors.
As the enormous and continuous demand for silver in Asia had not prevented the fall of silver, it was not likely that the limited demand for silver coin in this country, where paper money then was, and would be, the chief medium of…
Market value was fixed by the world, and not by the United States alone, and was affected by the whole mass of silver in the world.
If used in paying the interest on the public debt, the grave questions then presented would arise with public creditors, seriously affecting the public credit.
Had not the coinage act of 1873 passed, the United States would have been compelled to suspend the free coinage of silver dollars, as the Latin nations were, or to accept silver as the sole coin standard of value.
Was it worth while to travel again the round of errors, when experience had demonstrated that both metals could only be maintained in circulation together by adhering to the policy of 1853?
Though the silver in this coin was then worth in the market 3.13 cents on the dollar less than gold coin, yet its convenience for use in change, its issue by the government only in exchange for, and its practical convertibility into, gold…
By that act a new, and it was believed a permanent, policy was adopted to secure the simultaneous circulation of both silver and gold coins in the United States.
To correct this, in 1837, the ratio was fixed at sixteen to one, but sixteen ounces of silver were worth, in the market, more than one ounce of gold, so that silver was demonetized.
By this ratio gold was under-valued, as one ounce of gold was worth more in the markets of the world than fifteen ounces of silver, and gold, therefore, was exported.
The 2nd Congress undertook to establish the ratio of fifteen of silver to one of gold, with free coinage of both metals.
If the market value of the silver in it was less than that of gold coin of the same denomination, and it was issued in unlimited qualities, and made a legal tender for all debts, it would demonetize gold and depreciate our paper money.
By limiting tokens, silver, and paper money, to the amount needed for business, and promptly receiving or redeeming all that might at any time be in excess, all these forms of money could be kept in circulation, in large amounts, at par…
It had been the careful study of statesmen for many years to secure a bimetallic currency not subject to the changes of market value, and so adjusted that both kinds could be kept in circulation together, not alternating with each other.
With such legislative provisions as would maintain its current value at par with gold, its issue was recommended by me.
In other times the general confidence in these notes would maintain them at par in coin, and justify their use as reserves of banks and for the redemption of bank notes.
In our free government the power to make this declaration would not be willingly intrusted to individuals, but should be determined by events and conditions known to all.
Laws might forbid or ignore such a contingency, but it would come; and when it came it could not be resisted, but had to be acknowledged and declared, to prevent unnecessary sacrifice and ruin.
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