I do not think it wise to confer on the Secretary of the Treasury the power to meet the indebtedness not accruing for a year, or two, or three years.
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.
gutenberg.org
There ought to be a limit, and no man ought to have the power at pleasure to enlarge or contract that limit. . . .
The amount of the currency ought to be fixed by law, whether much or little.
I ask you, sir, how any prudent or judicious man can now engage in any important business, in which he is compelled to go into debt, with this large power hanging over him.
It ought to be regulated by law, and the law ought to be so fixed and so defined that every business man may transact his business with full knowledge of the amount of the currency, with all its limits and qualifications.
What is the object of accumulating these vast balances in the treasury?
This power I do not think ought to be given to him.
It seems to me that the whole object of the passage of this bill is to place it within the power of the Secretary of the Treasury to contract the currency of the country, and thus, as I think, to produce an unnecessary strain upon the…
It is true we may repeal this law next year, but we know very well that when these large powers are granted they are very seldom recalled; they are made the precedents of further grants of powers and are very rarely recalled.
No debt is maturing that is likely to give the government any trouble; and yet we are now about to confer upon the Secretary of the Treasury, powers that we cannot, in the nature of things, recall.
I have carefully considered this question, and I do not think there is now any immediate necessity for granting these powers.
The question then naturally occurs, why grant them?
There is, therefore, no immediate necessity for these vast powers.
It seems to me that in the present condition of our finances there is no necessity for conferring these large powers on the Secretary of the Treasury.
The power conferred on the Secretary of the Treasury is absolute.
He may undertake, under the provisions of this bill, to fund the whole debt of the United States.
If Senators will read this bill they will find that it confers on the Secretary of the Treasury greater powers than have ever been conferred, since the foundation of this government, upon any Secretary of the Treasury.
I could not impress my colleagues of the committee with the grave importance of the measure, and its wide-reaching influence upon our currency, debt and credit.
When this bill came before the committee on finance, I found myself alone in opposition to it.
The rising credit and financial strength of the United States would, it was believed, bring them to par without injustice to the debtor, but the rapid withdrawal of the notes would add to the burden of debts and cripple all forms of…
After the war was over, the general desire of all was to advance these notes nearer to par with coin, but not to withdraw them.
The Supreme Court decided that Congress had full power to make these notes a legal tender.
This effort to contract the currency was firmly resisted by several Senators, myself among them.
It would no doubt have brought us abruptly to the specie standard and made us dependent for circulating notes upon the issues of national banks.
It enabled the Secretary of the Treasury to retire at a rapid rate United States notes and to largely increase the bonded indebtedness of the United States.
Politicians like John Sherman
