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Extract
AMENDMENT OF THE KOLES.
Mr. MILLS.. I submit a resolution proposing to amend the rules, which I ask be read and referred to the Committee on Rules.
The resolution was read and referred to the Committee on Rules, and ordered to be printed, as follows:
Resolved, That Rule XXII be so amended as to read as follows:
"RULE XXII
"PRECEDENCE OF MOTIONS.
"When a question is ponding no motion shall be received bus-
To adjour "To adjourn to a certain day, or that when the Senate adjärn, it shall be to a day certaíu,
To take a recoas,
To proceed to the consideration of executive business,
To lay on the table,
For the previous question,
To postrione indefinitely,
"To postpons to a day certain,
To commit,
"To amend:
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"which several motions shall have precedence as they stand arranged: and the motions relating to adjournment, Lo take a rocess, to proceed to the con- sideration of executive business, to lay on the table, and for the previous question shall be decided without debate. And when suy proposition shall have been considered by the Senate for ten days, and a motion for the pre- vious question shall be made, it shall not be in grder for the President to entertain any other motion, except one motion to adjourn, until the subject matter upon which the provious question is moved shall be finally disposed of by the Senate."
CONSIDERATION OF THE REVENUE+BILL.
Treasury. It has been claimed by European countries that the vast mass of bullion in the Treasury of the United States might at any time be dumped by this country upon Europe, and there- fore that it stood as a bar and an obstacle to the shaping of the silver question upon some renewed basis looking to international bimetallism,
The seigniorage bill proposed further to provide for this coun- try some $55,000,000 or more of adequate good, lawful money, which a great many people of the country thought would be better to meet the gap caused by the impending deficit thau that money should be borrowed by the people of the United States and interest paid upon it.
Although, however, the measure was unimportant, yet ita veto left a deep lapress upon the country, and has shown in a clear light the position of the different sections of the country respect- ing our financial policy. Last summer in this Chamber and in another, members rose in their places and declared their undying faith in the friendship of the President of the United States for silver.
We were told by Senators upon this floor, including members of the Finance Committee, that as soon as the infamous Sher- man not should be brushed aside, the first moment would be utilized in reintroducing a bill for the free and unlimited coin. age of silver, for which the President of the United States would undoubtedly stand as sponsor. That position has been some- what cleared. If any one thing has been made by this veto clear to the minds of the people of the United States, it is that
Mr. ALLEN. I submit a resolution for which I ask present its Chief Executive is the consistent and implacable and eager consideration.
The resolution was read, as follows:
Resolved, That on Monday, June 4, 1884, at 2 o'clock p, m., general debate on the hill (H. R. 4861) to reduce taxation, to provide revenue for the Govern ment, and for other purposes. shall cease and the Sonate shall begin the con sideration of said bill and the amendments thereto under the five-minare rule, and that on Thursday, the 7th day of June, 1894, at 2 o'clock p. m., the final vote shall be taken by the Senate on said bill.
The VICE-PRESIDENT. Is there objection to the present consideration of the resolution?
Mr. SHERMAN. I object.
enemy of silver. He has been consistent throughout, and he has had the courage of the convictions of the national banks and the trust companies of the United States, to all of which the name of silver is a stench and an offense.
The VICE-PRESIDENT. There is objection. The resolu- Northeast the unanimous feeling is that the President of the
tion will go over under the rule.
HOUSE BILLS REFERRED.
The bill (H. R. 5293) concerning leases in the Vellowstone Na- tional Park was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Territories.
The bill (H. ft. 5806) to authorize the city of Hastings, Minn., to construct and maintain a wagon bridge over the Mississippi River was read twice by its title, and referred to the Commit
tee on Commerce.
The joint resolution (H. Res. 150) providing for partial pay- ments for work, etc., for vessels pusfructed under the direction of the Secretganda owns read twice by its title, aad referred to the Committee on Commerce.
COINAGE OF STANDARD MEXICAN DOLLARS. The VICE-PRESIDENT. The Chair laye before the Senate the resolution of the Senator from Colorado (Mr. WOLCOTT), coming over from a previous day.
The Secretary read the resolution submitted by Mr. WoL COTT on the 2d Instant, as follows:
Resolved, That the President of the United States with a view to encour- ago and extend our commercial relations with China and other Asiatic countries, be requested to enter into negotiations with the Republic of Mex- ico, looking to the coinage by the United States, at its mints, of standard Mexican dollars, under some proper agreement with the said Republic of Mexico as to seigniorage, method and amount of said coluage; and that he be further requested to report the result of his negotiations to the Senate. Mr. WOLCOTT, Mr. President, when this resolution first I was came up for hearing it was unavoidably crowded over, necessarily detained from the Senate on Friday last when the resolution came up again in due course, and the remarks made by my colleague [Mr. TELLER] and others leave but little to say upon this question. There are, however, afew suggestions which I desire to make.
The resolution does not in the slightest degres touch or affect the general question of bimetallism. It is simply a suggestion to a friendly sister republic that our idle miats in the West might be utilized upon fair terms for the coinage of the only dollars which have secured the confidence of the Orient as the medium of commercial exchange, to the advantage and profit of the three different nations concerned. If the soigniorage bill had become a law this resolution could not have been introduced, because our idle minte would have been busy. The veto of the seigniorage bill leaves us free to act.
While the seiguiorage bill was utterly unimportant the les- sons of its voto are many. It was unimportant because the only end it could hope to accomplish in the interest of bimetallism was the coinage lato dollars of the idle bullion now lying in the
The veto has further shown us that the silver sentiment of the country is local and not political. In the New England States and in the Northeast both parties hayo vied with each other in adulation and praise of the President's nation, while in the rest of the country the veto hus been viewed with sorrow and with indignation. In the New England States and in the United States is infinitely better than his party. So universal is this the prevailing sentiment that the Democracy of that see- tion apparently intend to indorse the openly expressed contempt of the President of the United States for the Democratie parly at large by voting overwhelmingly in favor of the Republican tloket; while in the West and South, irrespective of party, there is a prevailing and a unanimous sentiment that the President of the United States has betrayed not only the platform of his party but the interests of his people, and that he has treated the just claims of those great States of the Union, which are de- voted to mining and to agriculture, which are borrowers and not lenders, with scorn and with derision.
The veto has further taught us that during the incumbency of the present Executive there is no hope whatever for the cause of bimetallism. And the self-respect of those of us who beliere that the day of prosperity will never come to this country again until silver is rehabilitated and restored to its place as a money metal should require of us that we advocate and vote for no makeshift and no temporary expedient. If the lesson is to be learned it may as well be learned during the present Adminis- iration as at ady other time; and we owe it to our own dignity, and the respect due tho cause, that we oppose upon this floor overy measure which does not follow upon the lines of the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 15 or 16 to 1.
I speak especially for those of us who believe that the United States alone oan undertake and maintain the double standard. There have lately arisen in the Eastern States a number of bi metallic leagues and societies, which in their way are doing an infinite amount of good. They are educating the people to be- lieve that the welfare and the prosperity of the world must hereafter rest upon the use of silver as well as gold. They are of no immediate benefit to us who believe that the United States alone could maintain the double standard, and in a way they are an enemy within our gates. But the lessons they are im- parting, the bellefs that they are inculcating that prosperity will never return until silver is restored as a standard of value is doing an infinite amount of good throughout this country; and for one, I am ready to say to them that during the present unfortunate Administration we do not propose to advocate or vote for any half-hearted measure which does not reach the principle of bimetallism, and which does not look to the reea- tablishment and the reinstatement of silver as a standard of valne equally with its sister metal.
Whatever may happen, Mr. President, we want no further dallying with so-called seigniorage bills. We have been lately told through the public press that in another Chamber a meas ure has been introduced which shall reconcile all parties, which