Perhaps there is no idea stronger in the minds of the American people than a feeling of hostility against a monopoly--a privilege that one man or set of men can enjoy which is denied to another man or set of men.
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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Its purpose is declared upon the title of the bill, 'An act to provide for the resumption of specie payments.' Every word, every line, and every provision, of this bill is in harmony with that title.
This appeared to be the rock upon which the party in power was to split.
We delayed this process so long that the popular mind rested content with depreciated money, but the panic of 1873, and the feverish speculation which preceded it, convinced the great body of our business men that there was no remedy for…
During the war vast expenditures compelled us to use paper money; the return of peace and the excess of revenue over expenditures should have been promptly followed by coin payments or notes payable in coin.
While our paper money was depreciated the gold and silver bullion from our mines went abroad and was converted into foreign coin, while a large portion and perhaps a majority of our people demanded more paper money, which declined in value…
Instead of inflation, of large issues of paper money by the United States and the national banks, there grew up a conviction that the better policy was to limit and reduce the volume of such money to an amount that could be maintained at…
The evil effects of the stringency in monetary affairs, the want of confidence, the reduction of the national revenue, the decline of domestic productions, all these contributed to impress Congress with the imperative necessity of…
The Senator from Indiana calls it a 'half-way measure.' It is a half-way measure in the right direction, and indeed it is practical specie payment.
When we cannot pay the coin, we are honorably and sacredly bound to pay in a bond of the United States, which in ordinary times would approximate to par in gold.
If, therefore, we are to take any step toward specie payments, why not give to the holder of United States notes who demands it, a bond of the United States bearing a reasonable rate of interest in exchange for his notes?
There is a moral obligation which rests upon the United States every day of the year to every holder of these notes, because, although the United States has not said when it will redeem these notes in coin, yet it is bound to do what it…
The United States cannot plead inability to pay interest on its notes if it will not or cannot pay the principal.
There is the moral obligation, on the part of the United States, which has issued its notes payable in coin, but for reasons of public policy does not pay in coin, to give to its creditors its notes bearing interest in place of coin.
The safety of the public creditors consists in having a specific fund for the payment of their interest; the principal will take care of itself; and that fund has always been maintained in the darkest hours of the war.
That pledge we cannot now violate; and I never have yet been able to bring my mind to the consideration of any proposition whatever which would ever shock or excite the fear of the public creditors in that respect.
I therefore say that the time has arrived this moment when the United States ought to do something to advance its notes to the specie standard.
When we have before us a long journey that will take months to pass, perhaps years, shall we delay starting on that journey because we cannot reach the end of it in a year or two?
Because we cannot accomplish all that we have agreed to do in a given time, does that relieve us from the necessity of progressing in that direction?
Are we prepared now to fix a day when we will pay these notes in coin?
There must be something very peculiar in the condition of our country that will justify a longer delay; a longer procrastination in the performance of this solemn pledge, this public policy--our own political obligation.
The United States ought to do something toward the fulfillment of that pledge and the performance of that duty.
I say that now, nine years after the close of our Civil War, twelve years after these notes have been authorized and issued, five years after the dominant party has declared its purpose to pay them at the earliest day practicable, there…
No man could survive politically in this country who would declare that it was his purpose never to pay these notes in coin.
The notes were issued with the understanding that they should be paid in coin.
Politicians like John Sherman
