This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 Excerpt: …met in Congress the following session, they had been taught by those defeats the necessity of having a policy, and so they decided upon this bill as the policy of the Republican Party; and Mr. Sherman, in the speech to which I refer, stated to the people of Ohio that that bill made a fixed policy, and that there was no step backward. My opinion is, that from that bill there will be ‘ a step backward.’ It is rather extraordinary that a leading member of a great political party should say to the people that a bill has been passed to establish a party policy; and yet the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the United States Senate says to the people of the country, ‘The Republican Party needed a policy, and therefore we passed the finance bill of January, 1875.’ Now, what is that bill? The first section of the bill directs the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem the fractional currency of the country and supply its place with silver coin. The ‘last section of the bill directs that he shall redeem on the first day of January, 1879, all the outstanding legaltender notes with gold. Now, the fractional currency last month, according to the report of the Treasury Department, was about $41,000,000, and the legal tenders amounted to $373,000,000. So this resumption law of last winter requires that with coin the currency of the country shall be taken up and redeemed to a sum amounting to more than $400,000,000. The question recurs to each one of you, How is the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem the currency of the country with coin? There is no gold in the Treasury for that purpose; there is no silver in the Treasury for the purpose of redeeming the fractional currency. That very question presented itself to Congress as it presents itself to your minds tonight; and…
