his party will go wrong, and therefore leave it before it acts, or should he try to hold his party to the right course? If a question of supreme importance arises which threatens to divide the party, have not the majority a right to retain the party name and organization? And how can the majority be determined unless all members of the party have a right to take part in the decision? In some of the Western States the goldbugs have insisted that silver Democrats should pledge themselves to support the nominee before taking part in the selection of delegates. If a pledge is to be required, it should be required of those who select delegates as well as of those who act as delegates; but what organization has a right to require such a pledge?

A county organization might require a pledge of those who are going to vote upon a county ticket, and a State organization might require a pledge of those who are going to vote upon a State ticket, but only a national organization can require a pledge of those who are going to vote upon national candidates and national questions. It would be manifestly unfair for Democrats of Missouri to be required to give a pledge to support the nominee of a national convention unless the same pledge is required of the Democrats of Massachusetts. Why should the Democrats of the West and South agree to support the nominee of a national convention unless the Democrats of the northeastern States enter into the same agreement. Has any Eastern State pledged its Democrats to vote for a free silver candidate if nominated? Of course not; and yet if election returns are worth anything, they prove that Eastern Democrats are more apt to bolt than the Democrats of the South. The Eastern papers announce with great emphasis that a free silver Democrat cannot carry an Eastern State. Is that not a declaration that Eastern Democrats, after taking part in the selection of a candidate, will vote against him if they do not like him? The Democratic party has selected its candidate from New York for twenty years for the purpose of securing the electoral vote of New York, and yet some Western Democrats insist that the Democrats of the West and South are in duty bound to support the nominee, regardless of his position on the money question, even though the nominee may, if elected, destroy the value of their products, mortgage their homes to foreign capitalists and lower the standard of civilization.

The World-Herald repudiates such a doctrine and demands the same liberty, the same independence, the same political rights, for the Democrats of the South and West that our Eastern brethren have at all times enjoyed. Will the

enforce against its own readers a doctrine which it has no power to enforce against the goldbug Democrats of the East? Or will it recognize the right of all Democrats to a voice in the deliberations of the party, with the reserved right to abandon the party whenever the party abandons the cause of the people?

CHAPTER IV.

S

SEIGNIORAGE, CURRENCY AND GOLD BONDS

OME weeks elapsed after the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman Act before there was any further discussion of financial legislation, but in February the seigniorage bill was brought before the House and passed. I voted for the measure and made a speech in support of it.

Notwithstanding the seigniorage bill had a considerable majority in both Houses, and a still larger majority among the Democratic Representatives in the House and Senate, the President vetoed the measure and thus thwarted the first effort put forth to relieve the people from the financial conditions which, already bad, were aggravated by the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman law. Quite a number of the public men who supported unconditional repeal were anxious to secure the passage of the seigniorage bill in order to put themselves in better position before their constituents.

The last session of the Fifty-third Congress witnessed a renewal of the discussion of monetary topics. President Cleveland presented to Congress a plan for reforming the currency and Mr. Springer of Illinois, chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency, introduced the Administration measure. This bill had for its object the withdrawal of a portion of the greenbacks and Treasury notes and the extension of the national bank system. I opposed it in a speech of considerable length.

The bill failed of passage and the President then recommended the retirement of the greenbacks and Treasury notes with an issue of gold bonds. Mr. Springer prepared and brought forward a measure carrying out the recommendation. Mr. Reed, on the part of the Republicans, proposed a substitute which authorized the issue of low rate bonds. payable in coin. I offered the following amendment to Mr. Reed's substitute:

Provided, That nothing herein shall be construed as surrendering the right of the Government of the United States to pay all coin bonds outstanding in gold or silver coin at the option of the Government, as declared by the following joint resolution, adopted in 1878 by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, to wit:

"That all the bonds of the United States issued or authorized to be issued under the said act of Congress hereinbefore recited are payable, principal and interest, at the option of the Government of the United States, in silver dollars of the coinage of the United States, containing 4121⁄2 grains each of standard silver; and that to restore to its coinage such silver coins as a legal tender in payment of said bonds, principal and interest, is not in violation of the public faith nor in derogation of the rights of the public creditor."

My amendment was voted down without discussion, then Mr. Reed's substitute was rejected and Mr. Springer's bill defeated. Immediately after the defeat of the gold bond proposition the President entered into the Rothschild-Morgan contract and notified Congress in a special message that he had made the contract and at the same time called attention to the fact that he had reserved the right to substitute gold bonds at a lower rate of interest, and asked authority for the issue of such bonds. The Ways and Means Committee reported a bill granting to the President the authority for which he asked. To me fell the honor of preparing a minority report against this bill. Hon. Justin R. Whiting joined in the report; the other members of the minority explaining their positions upon the floor in the course of the debate. I give below the minority report and also a copy of the contract which gave rise to the discussion:

The Minority Report.

Owing to the limited time allowed for preparing a report (it being necessary to file the report within a few hours after the bill was agreed upon) the undersigned dissenting members of the committee are precluded from presenting their views with that elaboration which the importance of the subject would otherwise justify; but they beg to state briefly the most important reason which leads them to disapprove of the measure recommended by the majority of the committee.

First. The issue of bonds of any kind is only needed to replenish the gold reserve; and the gold reserve only needs replenishing because the Secretary of the Treasury redeems United States notes and Treasury notes in the kind of coins selected by the note holder. The note holder has no legal right to choose the coin in which the obligation shall be redeemed, but has been permitted to exercise that right by a policy inaugurated by the Treasury Department at or soon after the date of the resumption of specie payment. The opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Carlisle, recently given, is clear upon this point. On the 21st of January, 1895, a statement was made before the House Committee on Appropriations by Secretary Carlisle, in a printed report of which will be found the following question and answer:

"Mr. Sibley. I would like to ask you (perhaps not entirely connected with the matter under discussion) what objection there could be to having the option of redeeming either in silver or gold lie with the Treasury instead of the note holder?