ollar as the unit of
value, had not affected the judgment nor disturbed the sensibilities of
the advocates of silver.

I dismiss this branch of the subject with the observation that the act
of 1873 placed the United States in a commanding position in regard to
the use of silver. If that metal had continued to maintain its
supremacy upon the ratio then established between gold and silver coin,
there could have arisen no demand for the coinage of silver. If, on
the other hand, silver should depreciate, the government might, at
its pleasure, use, or it might decline to use, that metal as coin.

I now pass to a part of the history of the controversy not heretofore
considered in public discussions, from which it will appear that the
trusted representatives of the silver interest put aside the most
inviting opportunity, if not the only opportunity, for the adoption of
the bimetallic system by the commercial nations of the world.

The act of 1873 prepared the way for the use of silver by the
commercial nations of the world, upon an agreed ratio with gold, if
indeed, the possibility of such an arrangement ever existed. We were
upon a gold basis; the balance of trade, by groups of years, was in our
favor; we had a gold revenue from customs of about $200,000,000, and
the excess of Treasury receipts over expenditures was nearly
$100,000,000 a year.

If we had chosen to accumulate gold and postpone payments upon the
Public Debt, we could have brought the nations of the earth to our feet.

It was under circumstances thus favorable for negotiations for the use
of silver that the Silver Commission of 1876 was constituted, and
authorized, among other things, to inquire "into the policy of the
restoration of the double standard in this country, and if restored,
what the legal relation between the two coins of silver and gold,
should be."

This authority opened a way for the introduction of a policy on the
part of the United States looking to an arrangement for the use of
silver by the states of Europe, and on that authority the commission
dealt with the project of an international bimetallic system.

The commission consisted of eight persons. Senator Jones was the
chairman, and Mr. Bland, of Missouri, was an influential member. It
was my fortune to be of the commission and it was my fortune also to
be alone in opinion upon the main questions that were treated in the
reports.

The majority of the commission consisted of Me