If this is done, it will be to secure a cheaper dollar of less purchasing power, with the view to enable debtors to pay debts, contracted on the basis of gold coin, with silver coins, worth, with free coinage, less than one-half of gold…
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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It has always been within the power of Congress to correct this error, if error was made; but Congress has refused over and over again to do it.
In every stage of the bill, and every print, the dollar of 412½ grains was prohibited, and the single gold standard recognized, proclaimed, and understood.
Everybody knows what a dollar in gold is worth.
I want the standard gold, and no paper money not redeemable in gold; no paper money the value of which is not ascertained; no paper money that will organize a gold board to speculate in it.
The public records are conclusive against this pretense.
The silver dollar of 412½ grains, by reason of its bullion and intrinsic value being greater than its nominal value, long since ceased to be a coin of circulation, and is melted by manufacturers of silverware.
I did not do it because of that, but I did it because gold was then only coined for the benefit of private depositors; we were not using gold except for limited purposes.
But the silver dollar at that time was worth more than the gold dollar.
The authority given in the bill as it finally passed for coining the so-called trade dollar, met all the demands of the silver producing states.
If, however, such a coin is authorized, it should be issued only as a commercial dollar, not as a standard unit of account, and of the exact value of the Mexican dollar, which is the favorite for circulation in China and Japan and other…
The present laws consequently authorize both a gold dollar unit and a silver dollar unit, differing from each other in intrinsic value.
To adopt gold alone would diminish the specie currency more than one-half; and the reduction the other way, should silver be taken as the only standard, would be large enough to prove highly disastrous to the human race.
The mischief would be great indeed if all the world were to adopt but one of the precious metals as the standard of value.
It was not the intention of the framers of this law to demonetize silver, because they were openly avowed bimetallists, but it limited coinage to silver bought by the government at market price.
Under these conditions it became necessary to approach the specie standard of value without a contraction of the currency.
Still, with all their defects the United States notes were the favorite money of the people, and any attempt to contract their volume was met by a strong popular opposition.
They were much better and in higher favor with the people than the state bank notes which they replaced and which were not only depreciated like United States notes but had been often proven worthless in the hands of innocent holders.
They were a legal tender in payment for all debts, public and private, except for duties on imported goods and interest on the public debt.
This could be accomplished by reducing the amount of these notes outstanding, and, thus, by their scarcity, add to their value.
There was nothing to anchor it to the earth except the collection of duties in coin and the payment of the interest on our bonds in coin.
We wished to rest our paper fabric on a coin basis, and to keep constantly in view ultimate specie payments.
We provided for gold interest and gold revenue, to avoid the extreme inflations of an irredeemable currency.
We recognized the existence of a great pressing necessity that would tend to depreciate the public credit; and we took care, therefore, not to make these loans for a long period, so as to bind the future to the payment of the rates which…
Extraordinary power was conferred upon the Secretary of the Treasury to borrow money in almost any form, at home or abroad, practically without limitation as to amount, or with limits repeatedly enlarged.
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