This new element creates a demand for a large amount of currency. We have also to consider that such has been the increase of the products of the mines of the world since 1860, that we can never expect a return to the old prices, and therefore it will require more of the circulating medium to transact business. The advance in prices in England, and upon the Continent of Europe, since 1860, is from fifteen to twenty-five per cent on all kinds of merchandise, while the advance in the price of land is considerable; indicating that the advance in this country, of which complaint is made, is due in part to a financial change which affects the entire commercial world.

REMARKS MADE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
MARCH 19, 1866.

MR.

R. SPEAKER,-Nobody can be more reluctant than I am to oppose a measure of a committee of the House, or resist the policy of any department of the government; but I am inclined to maintain the position that under no circumstance ought this House to confide to any agent of the government authority to diminish the non-interest-bearing legaltender notes. I am altogether opposed to endowing an agent to do that which we think ought not to be done. If this House will look at the condition of the country with regard to its finances, it seems to me it can reach but one conclusion; and that is, that the bill submitted by my colleague

[Mr. Hooper] is one which ought to receive the support of this House and of the country. And I have an observation to make to the gentlemen on this side of the House. After having passed

through four years of the greatest peril, both in a military and financial point of view, I submit that now is not the time to accept gifts from the Greeks, and that it is now a matter of honor, as well as of right, that those who sit on this side of the House, and represent a majority of the loyal people of this country, should define and limit the financial policy of the administration. We have $450,000,000 of non-bearing-interest currency. We have $260,000,000 of national-bank currency, which may reach the maximum of $300,000,000, making $750,000,000 in all. We have, in addition to that, $180,000,000 of legal-tender notes, bearing interest, which, added to the currency, amount to something more than $900,000,000. Under this condition of things, gold is to-day quoted at 128g. Last Friday it was 130g. It was proposed on this side of the House, by those who object to the measure of the Committee of Ways and Means, that the currency of the country shall be reduced between now and the first day of December next, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, one hundred and eighty million dollars, or about twenty per cent of the existing currency of the country; and if, as gentlemen contend (a proposition which I do not admit), the price of gold follows the volume of the currency of the country, then gold should stand, with that reduction, at 105, when Congress re-assembles in December next. That, sir, is as much as the busi

ness of the country can bear; but if, in addition to that, a further reduction is made of one hundred million dollars, as is proposed, three-quarters of the manufactories of the central and northern portions. of the country will be suspended.

Sir, it is not a question whether the laborers shall be able to earn a dollar and a half or a dollar a day, but it is a question of work and subsistence for eight thousand of my constituents residing in one of the cities of Massachusetts; therefore I should be false to my trust, if I hesitated to say that a limit should be fixed beyond which the Secretary of the Treasury shall not go in this condition of public affairs. We offer to fix it at $450,000,000 nonbearing-interest legal tenders, $300,000,000 nationalbank currency; and, if that reduction be made, specie will approximate to par with paper next December, upon the theory to which I have before referred. The authority to reduce the currency without limit is a vast authority to confide to any man. It gives the Secretary the power to make every man in the country between the Rio Grande and the St. John's, weep or laugh any day at pleasure. I, for one, can consent to no such proposition; and yet I feel bound to say that there is no man whose general financial policy I would more heartily support than that of the Secretary of the Treasury; and I should look upon it as a calamity, if his place should be occupied by any other man whom it is my fortune to know. But, notwithstanding this feeling, and although we are all aware that the power is not to be exercised, yet, by confiding it to him, we give the people reason

to apprehend, that, at some time, the power may be exercised by him, or by his successor, whoever he may be; and that apprehension will be a constant weight upon the business interests of the country. I appeal to the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means to allow this bill to be recommitted to his committee without instructions, and take their judgment after this debate. If he will agree to allow the motion to recommit to be made, I think I may say that we will not object to the reconsideration; but, if the committee insist that there shall be no recommitment of the bill, then there is no course for us but to vote against the motion to reconsider the action of Friday last.

456

THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR EQUALIZING REPRESENTATION.

SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
MAY 9, 1866.

THE House having under consideration the joint resolution (H. R. No. 127) proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, reported from the joint Committee on Reconstruction,

Mr. BOUTWELL said:

Mr. SPEAKER,—The gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Eldridge] has made some remarks in derogation of the Committee on Reconstruction. I do not purpose to reply at length to those remarks. He has said that the action of the committee is a failure. We knew very well from the beginning, that, as far as he and his friends were concerned, the labors of the committee would be a failure. puts one question, however, in behalf, I suppose, of himself and his Democratic friends, which I feel bound to answer. He says, "The committee have not told us when our troubles "-meaning, I suppose, the troubles of himself and his Democratic friends "will cease."

He

Mr. ELDRIDGE.Oh, no! the gentleman certainly misunderstood me. I meant the troubles which the Republicans themselves were making.