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resumption act $346,681,016. The cash in the Treasury was of course lessened in the amount of this redemption, and the loss was made up by the surplus revenues, which would otherwise have been applicable to the redemption of some other kind of indebtedness.

Toward the redemption of the notes in coin on the 1st of January, 1879, as further provided in the resumption act, no steps were taken before the administration of President Hayes, commencing March 4, 1877. On April 6, 1877, Secretary Sherman addressed a letter to a prominent banking firm, in which he announced his purpose to sell bonds to secure coin with which to meet the redemptions required, provided the surplus revenues proved insufficient to enable him to redeem the notes as required by law. He also announced that whenever the sales of 4 per cent. bonds (funded loan of 1891) then being made for refunding purposes reached two hundred millions, he proposed to withdraw from the market the remaining one hundred millions authorized to be issued for refunding purposes, and to issue thereafter only four per cents (funded loan of 1907). Before the 1st of July ensuing the limit of two hundred millions was reached, and of the amount sold fifteen millions were applied to resumption purposes. On the 9th of June a contract was made by the Secretary for the sale of said 4 per cent. bonds, under which also twenty-five millions were reserved for resumption purposes.

This amount of forty millions was received in gold coin before October, 1877. In that month Congress convened in special session. Among its first measures was the introduction on one day of thirteen bills for the repeal of the resumption act. One of these bills passed the House on the 23d of the following month. This extraordinary change of sentiment had been brought about by various causes. The depression in business, which had existed since 1873, was attributed by many to the effects of the resumption act. A continually increasing value of the dollar in use rendered it more difficult for debtors to meet their obligations, and the passage of this bill in the House reflected with considerable truthfulness the feeling throughout the country. The bill was amended by the Senate, but in its amended form failed to receive the concurrence of the House. In this session was also agitated the policy of restoring to the currency of the country the old silver dollar of 4124 grains, the coinage of which was discontinued under the coinage act of 1873. The price of silver had so depreciated that, as compared with gold, a dollar of this kind was worth only about 85 cents; and if authority had been given for its unlimited coinage upon the deposit of bullion at the mints by private parties, as in the case of gold, the parties depositing it would, for a while at least, have profited to the extent of about 15 per cent. in the transaction. To prevent this advantage accruing to the holders

of silver bullion, and at the same time to restore the old silver dollar to its place in the currency of the country, Congress passed an act, which was approved February 28, 1878, directing the dollar to be coined at the rate of not less than two million dollars nor more than four million dollars per month, the bullion for such coinage to be purchased by the Treasury at current market rates, and the profit arising in the coinage to be retained by the Government. The act further provided that any holder of this coin might deposit it with the Treasurer in sums of not less than ten dollars, and receive therefor certificates corresponding to the denominations of United States notes, the coin representing such certificates to be retained in the Treasury for their payment on demand, and the certificates to be received for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and when so received to be reissued.

During the winter of 1877-78 no further action was taken by the executive officers of the Government concerning resumption. On April 1, 1878, in an interview with the House Committee on Banking and Currency, Secretary Sherman announced his purpose to increase the coin reserve by the sale of bonds to the amount of fifty millions. With this additional amount the total coin reserve in the Treasury applicable to resumption would be about forty per centum of the amount of legal-tender notes outstanding; and with this reserve the Secretary thought it would be practicable and prudent to commence the redemption of the notes on the appointed day as required by law. Four days later negotiations were begun in New York between the Treasury Department and the banks for the sale of 44 per cent. bonds (funded loan of 1891) for this purpose; and after a little delay a sale was effected to the amount of $50,000,000 at a premium of 1} per cent. The ability of the contracting parties to place the coin in the Treasury as proposed could not be doubted, and from that date there was but little fear of the success of resumption. Further efforts to repeal the law were abandoned, and the business of the country began to adjust itself to the basis of the approaching resumption of specie payments. The payments for the fifty millions of bonds were promptly met, and in addition thereto the Treasury reserved of the proceeds of sales of 4 per cent. bonds (funded loan of 1907), then being made, an additional amount of $5,500,000 in gold coin necessary for the extraordinary payment of that amount on account of the socalled "Halifax award."

In addition to providing the necessary coin reserve, every step was taken by the Treasury which the law would permit to maintain the reserve intact. On the 1st of January, 1879, about twenty-five millions of interest on the public debt, payable in coin, was to fall due; and, as the law required the redemptionreserve fund to be kept in New York, Secretary Sherman determined that the payment

of coin on account of interest should thereafter be made only in that city, but gave permission to other Sub-Treasury officers to pay interest to all persons who might be willing to accept legal-tender notes. Arrangements were also made with the several assay offices by which gold could be purchased for legal tender notes, whereby the Treasury was replenished to that extent for the probable coin payments in redemption of notes. Steps were also taken by which the Government, to a certain extent and for certain purposes, became a member of the Clearing-House Association of New York. Under this arrangement, in consideration of the Government's receiving and collecting its checks through the Clearing House, that body agreed to receive all balances due it upon such checks at the counter of the Sub-Treasury in that city, and to accept legaltender notes in payment of Government checks and drafts of all descriptions. As all interestchecks as well as checks issued in payment of called bonds were by law payable in coin, this agreement on the part of the Clearing-House, through which institution nearly all of the checks passed, relieved the Treasury almost entirely from the necessity of making actual coin payments after resumption took place. This necessity being removed, there was no longer any reason for requiring duties on imports to be paid in coin as provided by law; and the Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report of December 2, 1878, announced to Congress his purpose to receive notes in payment of such duties. Congress adjourned for the holidays without expressing any opinion as to the legality or advisability of the action proposed, whereupon instructions were given to the Government officers to receive such notes in payment of duties, the notes to be redeemed in coin at New York on Government account whenever it became necessary. Instructions were also given to the Treasurer and other officers of the Department to close up in their accounts all distinctions between coin and currency, and after January 1, 1879, to recognize, in the accounts as well as in the money, that the Government had resumed specie payments, and that the several kinds of money in circulation were of equal value.

The preparations were so complete that on January 1, 1879, the date when resumption took effect, the Treasurer held of gold coin and bullion $135,382,639.42; of standard silver dollars coined under the act of February 28, 1878, $16,704,829; and of fractional silver coin, including silver bullion, $15,471,265.27. The amount of coin held by the Treasury as available for resumption purposes on that day, after deducting all matured coin liabilities, was about $135,000,000, or about 40 per cent. of the amount of notes to be redeemed. The thoroughness of preparation for resumption had quieted all apprehensions as to the success of the policy, and on the first day of resump

tion only straggling demands for coin were made, the amount aggregating less than the amount of notes preferred by the holders of coin obligations. And during the entire year there were redeemed of the legal-tender notes only the amount of $11,456,536; while for the same period there were paid out of such notes on account of coin obligations more than $250,000,000. There were also received of such notes in payment of customs-dues in the year ending December 31, 1879, $109,467,456.

Thus, after much labor and sacrifice, the country was lifted out of the financial bog of depreciated paper currency, and with the resumption thus happily secured came a revival of business, an extraordinary demand for labor of all kinds, and a confirmation of that confidence which was so necessary for all business enterprises, and which had grown step by step with every movement made toward a specie basis.

The following table shows the market price, in coin, of $100 of the legal-tender notes of the United States for January and July of each year from 1862 to 1879 inclusive — mean of highest and lowest in each month specified:

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During the year 1879 coin flowed into the Treasury, while but little demand was made for its payment therefrom; so little, indeed, that the Treasury became drained of its notes, and in December it was obliged to require its creditors to receive in part payment of their dues 20 per cent. in coin-one half in gold coin, the other half in the new silver dollars.

Though resumption has been thus far firmly maintained, and there appears to be ample power, as far as human foresight can divine, to continue its maintenance, yet the question of continuing these notes in circulation, especially with their present legal-tender quality, is likely to be a vexed one in future politics.

A case involving the constitutionality of the legal-tender clause, as relating to contracts made prior to its adoption, was decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, December term, 1869, Chief Justice Chase presiding. The question presented for determination was whether the payee or assignee of a note made before the 25th of February, 1862, the date of the approval of the legal-tender act, should be obliged by law to accept in payment United States notes equal in nominal amount to the sum due according to its terms, when tendered by the maker or other party bound to pay it. The Court held that the defendant in error was

not bound to receive from the plaintiffs such currency tendered to him in payment of their note made before the passage of the act mentioned. When this decision was made, the Court consisted of eight Judges, there being one vacancy caused by the death of Associate Justice Wayne. The five concurring in the decision were Chief Justice Chase and Associate Justices Nelson, Clifford, Field, and Grier. Of these, the first three were understood to hold the legal-tender clause to be unconstitutional for all purposes, and the latter two unconstitutional as to prior contracts only. Mr. Justice Miller dissented, and Justices Swayne and Davis concurred in his opinion. This decision was subsequently reversed, as below stated.

In the Supreme Court of the United States, December term, 1870, several cases came up similar in character, the controlling questions of which were: 1. Are the acts of Congress, known as the legal tender acts, constitutional when applied to contracts made before their passage? 2. Are they valid as applicable to debts contracted since their enactment? The cases were considered by a full bench, and by a vote of five to four the Court held such acts of Congress constitutional as applied to contracts made either before or after the passage of the acts; thus overruling the previous decision in the matter. The opinion was rendered by Mr. Justice Strong, and concurred in by Justices Bradley, Miller, Davis, and Swayne. Chief Justice Chase delivered a dissenting opinion, as did also Justices Nelson, Clifford, and Field.

In this matter Secretary Sherman, in his annual report for 1879, submitted to Congress the following:

The Secretary is, therefore, of opinion that the provisions of existing law are ample to enable the Department to maintain resumption even upon the present volume of the United States notes. In view, however, of the large inflow of gold into the country and the high price of public securities, it would seem to be a favorable time to invest a portion of the sinking fund in United States notes, to be retired and canceled, and in this way gradually to reduce the maximum of such notes to the sum of $300,000,000, the amount fixed by the resumption act.

The Secretary respectfully calls the attention of Congress to the question whether United States notes ought still to be a legal tender in the payment of debts. [The reader is referred to page 367 of this volume for

the remainder of the Secretary's remarks on the legal

tender of the notes.-ED.]

J. K. UPTON,

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. RHODE ISLAND. The Legislature met at the usual time for the January session. Ar act defining the liability of towns and cities for property destroyed in times of riot was passed in the Senate, January 29th, providing that the owners of such property should be indemnified to the amount of three fourths of its value, and fixing six persons as the minimum number to constitute a mob. An act to rectify the boundary of the two Congressional districts of the State placed the whole of Providence in VOL. XIX.-49 A

the first district and the whole of Pawtucket in the second. By an act passed March 19th a bailor is enabled to release himself from his bond by producing his principal in court during the pendency of the action. A compulsory education bill was brought forward, and elicited considerable debate. It provided that every child between seven and fifteen years of age who should absent himself from school three times within three consecutive months without the consent of his parent, guardian, or teacher should be treated as an habitual truant, and every child who should not attend school for at least three months out of the twelve should be adjudged an absentee, the penalty in either case to be a fine of not more than ten dollars or detention in a reformatory institute of from six months to ten years; and that truant officers should be appointed in every town to enforce the law. A bill was passed prohibiting trap-fishing for two days in each week, between the 1st of May and the 1st of August. The three bills upon which most of the work and time of the January session were expended-a bill for the regulation of savingsbanks, one reducing the State tax, and the compulsory education bill-all failed to pass. The General Assembly adjourned on the 11th of April.

The May session of the General Assembly began on the 26th and ended on the 30th of May. The savings-bank bill, postponed from the January session, was passed on the last day. It provides that the Supreme Court, upon application by petition in equity, may order the trustees of an institution under injunction, and unable to pay its depositors in full, to divide their assets into two classes, one class to be denominated the quick assets, and the other the reserved assets; that the Court may permit the institution to go on in business with the quick assets, and may order the deficiencies in the reserved assets to be apportioned among the depositors; that depositors shall give ninety days' notice of an intention to withdraw their funds; and that receivers shall receive not to exceed $2,500 per annum for services in winding up a savings-bank, and not more than $5,000 in all. The fees for jurors were raised from fifty cents to two dollars per diem by an guardians or executors to whom letters have Another act allows act passed May 30th. been granted by a court of probate to manage the estate of a ward or testator during the pendency of an appeal from the decree of the Probate Court to the Supreme Court.

The Prohibitory State Convention met at Providence February 25th. The existing State officers were renominated. The following resolutions were adopted by the Convention:

Resolved, That while we do not ignore other questions of principle and policy that pertain to the interests of the State of Rhode Island, we hereby express our firm belief that the questions of temperance, license, and the prohibition of the liquor-traffic outweigh them all in importance; and we reiterate our unalterable opposition to making that traffic respect

able by legally licensing it, and again proclaim our entire confidence in the principle of the prohibition of the liquor-traffic by authority of law, as the best means of ridding our State of crime, pauperism, and an excessive taxation, and of promoting the virtue, prosperity, and happiness of all our citizens.

Resolved, That a prohibitory law, as well as every other criminal law, needs an efficient police force for its execution, and we therefore demand, in connection with the enactment of a law prohibiting the liquor traffic, an efficient force for its enforcement.

Whereas, The prohibition of the traffic in alcoholic liquors in the State of Maine, also in other parts of our land, and in other countries of the world, has proved a success; therefore,

Resolved, That it is the duty of all the members of our close temperance organizations, and of our open societies, to rally around the standard of prohibition, and unite their efforts and action to prohibit the traffic in ardent spirits.

Resolved, That this great success is a source of congratulation among ourselves, and of thanksgiving to Almighty God.

The Democratic State Convention was held in the State House in Providence, March 18th. The Hon. A. B. Lewis was elected Chairman. The following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That the Democratic party of the State of Rhode Island, in convention assembled, hails with joy the return of national legislation to the control of the Democratic party-the party which in the past has earned the well-merited reputation of being the party of the Constitution as bequeathed to us by the founders of the republic, and the party of the people; and that we deeply regret that the people of the United States are deprived, through the most unblushing fraud, bribery, and perjury that has ever disgraced the annals of our history, of having in charge of the executive branch of the country Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, who were on the 4th day of November, A. D. 1876, elected by an overwhelming majority to the offices of President and Vice-President of the United States; and further do we deplore that all of the persons who have been proved to have ticipated in this great wrong have been rewarded by being appointed to offices of great trust and honor at home or to represent the country in important positions abroad.

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Resolved, That the Democratic party of this State, in regard to the internal affairs of the State, pledges itself and its members to a reform in the existing system of taxation in the State, and assures the citizens of the State that its influence will be exerted to establish such laws as will equally distribute the burdens of the State among all of its citizens, and to abolish all forms of double taxation; to such changes in the laws regulating institutions for savings as will restore them to the position of being institutions for the benefit of the laboring classes, from which they have in a large measure been diverted; and to so govern them as to restore such confidence in them as will again make them the favorite institutions of the frugal, in which they can be assured that their small savings will be faithfully, judiciously, and honestly administered and protected; to a change in the laws in regard to the registration of voters, so that all the citizens of this State may have a fair and equal opportunity to qualify themselves to vote at all elections, and for the enact ment of a law which will not have the effect, as the present, of disqualifying nearly one half of the voters of this State who are not possessed of real estate; to a most thorough retrenchment in all expenditures by the State and towns, in order that the present burden in the form of taxation may be relieved from our now heavily laden industries; to the enactment of a law disqualifying any person from holding any office to which he may be elected by fraud, bribery, or intimidation, to which he may be a party; to such amendments of the Constitution of the State as will insure to

all citizens of this State the right of suffrage without discrimination on account of race, nativity, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude-and particularly to have such change made in behalf of those who fought in the Union army in the late civil war, so that it may some day be said that our State has recognized their services in as generous a manner as the General Government has condoned the offenses of those who bore arms against the Government by rewarding them with the right to participate in the government of the country which they helped to save.

The nominations were as follows: For Governor, Thomas W. Segar; for Lieutenant-Governor, Dr. J. M. Bailey; for Secretary of State, David S. Baker, Jr.; for Attorney-General, Charles H. Page; for General Treasurer, Patrick Farrell.

The Republican State Convention for the nomination of State officers was held in Providence, March 19th. The existing officers were renominated unanimously by acclamation. No resolutions were adopted.

The State election took place on the first day of April. The Republican ticket, supported also by the Prohibitive party, was carried by a majority of 3,826 for the Governor and 4,225 for the Lieutenant-Governor, electing the same officers who had held the offices the previous year: Charles C. Van Zandt, Governor; Albert C. Howard, Lieutenant-Governor; Joshua M. Addeman, Secretary of State; Willard Sayles, Attorney-General; and Samuel Clark, General Treasurer. There was a Greenback ticket also in the field, for which only a trifling vote was polled. The nominee for Governor was Samuel Hill; for LieutenantGovernor, David A McKay. The total vote falling off was 1,736 votes in the Republican was 15,610, or 4,099 less than in 1878. The party, 2,124 Democratic, and 834 Greenback votes.

In the Senate the election gave the Republicans 29 and the Democrats 8 members. The Republican Representatives elected numbered 54, the Democratic 18.

The Senatorial Committee of Congress empowered to investigate alleged violations of sections 1,754 and 1,755 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, regarding the preference to be given to discharged soldiers and sailors in appointments to offices in the United States civil service, met at Newport on August 15th. It was the standing Committee of the Senate on Civil Service and Retrenchment, and was composed of Senator M. C. Butler, chairman, and Senators Rollins of New Hampshire, Whyte of Maryland, and Beck of Kentucky. The committee was instructed to investigate this matter upon the occasion of a petition being presented to the Senate, signed by three hundred former soldiers and sailors, praying Congress to require the execution of the stat utes above mentioned in the assignment of offices in the Providence Custom-House. This

petition was accompanied by a memorial of Dr. J. B. Greene of Providence, alleging that several honorably discharged soldiers and sailors had recently been dismissed from that

Custom-House, and their places filled by civilians. The memorial and petition were presented to the Senate by Senator McDonald of Indiana on the 27th of May, and were the subject of a long and animated debate. Among the removals complained of were the displacement of General Shaw, the Collector, who was succeeded by Cyrus Harris, a relative of Senator Anthony, and the dismissal or enforced resignation of Majors Joyce and Bucklin, Mr. Frankland, and Captain Greene, a brother of the memorialist, who was replaced by Major Pomroy, a soldier who was wounded during the war of secession. On the strength of a couple of the new appointments the memorial stated that the dismissed soldiers had been succeeded mainly by relatives of the senior Senator for the State, Mr. Anthony. The committee listened to testimony from Dr. Greene, Major Pomroy, Major Joyce, and others. It had been alleged also that appointments were bestowed in the Custoin-House and in the Post-Office as a reward for political services, and that Federal officers used their influence to affect the vote in the State elections, in violation of the rules for civil-service reform. The committee continued its sessions several days, taking down an extensive amount of evidence relating to the removals and appointments in the CustomHouse, and also in the Providence Post-Office. At the time when Senator McDonald presented Dr. Greene's memorial and the petition which it accompanied of the Rev. Augustus Woodbury and others, discharged soldiers and sailors, an investigation into the nature and effect of the property qualification for suffrage required by the Constitution of the State of Rhode Island was also demanded by the Senator. By these laws the franchise is withheld from foreign-born citizens of the United States who are not the possessors of a freehold of the minimum value of $134, or who do not pay a rental of the amount of $7 or over per annum, as well as from native American citizens who do not possess one of these qualifications and who do not pay a tax of at least $1 a year. It was held that if the property qualification was not a violation of the fourteenth amendment of the United States Constitution, it would be necessary to reduce the representation of the State in the Lower House of Congress from two members to one, since the maximum vote polled in the State had not exceeded 24,000, and the total number of the voting population could not be much more. It was estimated that 10,000 or more citizens of foreign birth were excluded from the franchise by the above restrictions. This committee had also to inquire into the alleged employment of money in Rhode Island elections, and intimidation or undue influence exercised by managers of manufactories over their employees to control their votes.

These latter subjects were referred by the Senate to the select committee to inquire into alleged frauds in the late elections, of which Senator Wallace was chairman. At the same

time that the Butler Committee met in Newport the Wallace Committee held its sessions in the United States Court - House in Providence. From the testimony taken regarding the effects of the property qualification established by the Constitution of 1842, it appeared that several citizens of respectability were debarred from voting on account of being of foreign origin and possessing no real estate. The Hon. Thomas Davis, who had been a member of Congress, was disfranchised through losing his property by business reverses. A citizen, Colonel James Moran, who as an officer in the army had received and forwarded the ballots of the soldiers during the war, was excluded from voting by his foreign birth, while a negro whom he had brought with him was allowed as a native to vote. Several citizens whose property had been expropriated for public improvements were disfranchised during the two or three years which elapsed before the city paid the appraisal to them. It was stated that the failure of the amendment to remove the disqualification in 1871, when only 3,236 votes were cast for it and 6,960 against it, was due partly to an agitation against the Roman Catholics, who were supposed at the time to be striving to secure public moneys to support their schools. The amendment submitted to the people in 1876 to allow soldiers and sailors to vote was stated to have been overshadowed by the issue of the national election. The sentiment of the native population voting with the Republican party and of a part of the native Democrats, as elicited in the evidence, was strongly in favor of retaining the property qualifications; several naturalized voters also expressed the same views.

The receipts of the Treasury during the year ending December 31, 1879, were $970,072, and the disbursements $703,211; the balance in the Treasury amounted to $164,635; the sum of $102,225 was owing to the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company. The bonded debt of the State amounted to $2,534,500, or, with the deduction of the available sinking fund, to $1,832,462. The total amount of the sinking fund was $733,764, which was invested principally in securities of the city of Providence and of the United States Government.

The number of children in the State between five and fifteen years of age was 49,562. The number of children reported as attending the public schools was 32,793; as attending Catholic schools, 4,374; as attending private schools, 1,782; as not attending any school, 10,549. There were 41,810 pupils enrolled in the dayschools, and 30,001 attended school, the average attendance being 26,939. There were 819 schools altogether. The average school-year lasted nine months and two days. There were 888 teachers regularly employed, the male teachers drawing $98,619 in salaries, and the female teachers $309,780. In the evening schools, with an average duration of fourteen weeks, 2,677 pupils attended, the average at

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