excluding one which merely
appropriates a sum sufficient to carry the act into effect. The first
section provides for the immediate coinage of the silver bullion in the
Treasury which represents the so-called gain or seigniorage, or which
would arise from the coinage of all the bullion on hand, which gain or
seigniorage this section declares to be $55,156,681. It directs that the
money so coined or the certificates issued thereon shall be used in the
payment of public expenditures, and provides that if the needs of the
Treasury demand it the Secretary of the Treasury may, in his discretion,
issue silver certificates in excess of such coinage, not exceeding the
amount of seigniorage in said section authorized to be coined.

The second section directs that as soon as possible after the coinage of
this seigniorage the remainder of the bullion held by the Government
shall be coined into legal-tender standard silver dollars, and that they
shall be held in the Treasury for the redemption of the Treasury notes
issued in the purchase of said bullion. It provides that as fast as the
bullion shall be coined for the redemption of said notes they shall not
be reissued, but shall be canceled and destroyed in amounts equal to the
coin held at any time in the Treasury derived from the coinage provided
for, and that silver certificates shall be issued on such coin in the
manner now provided by law. It is, however, especially declared in said
section that the act shall not be construed to change existing laws
relating to the legal-tender character or mode of redemption of the
Treasury notes issued for the purchase of the silver bullion to be
coined.

The entire bill is most unfortunately constructed. Nearly every sentence
presents uncertainty and invites controversy as to its meaning and
intent. The first section is especially faulty in this respect, and it
is extremely doubtful whether its language will permit the consummation
of its supposed purposes. I am led to believe that the promoters of the
bill intended in this section to provide for the coinage of the bullion
constituting the gain or seigniorage, as it is called, into standard
silver dollars, and yet there is positively nothing in the section to
prevent its coinage into any description of silver coins now authorized
under any existing law.

I suppose this section was also intended, in case the needs of the
Treasury called for money faster than the seigniorage bullion could