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paid in coin; and henceforth there could be no question that the nation was pledged to coin payments. Paper-money men denounced the act and its authors savagely; some declared that, if carried out, it would cost the country a thousand million dollars; it was said to be a gigantic swindle; but, as it gave a new point of departure for financial operations, as well as legislation, men came to acquiesce in it as a thing accomplished; and, in the subsequent financial storms that swept the country, thousands of men, who had been in doubt whether the original acts authorizing the bonds and greenbacks required coin redemption, anchored securely to the great statute "to Strengthen the Public Credit." Mr. Garfield supported the bill in these remarks, made upon the motion to adopt a report of the conference committee to which it had been referred.

R. SPEAKER, -I favor the first section of this bill because it declares plainly what the law is. I affirm again, what I have often declared in this hall, that the law does now require the payment of these bonds in gold. I hope I may without impropriety refer to the fact that during the last session I proved from the record in this House, and in the presence of the author of the law by which these bonds were authorized, that five distinct times in his speech, which immediately preceded the passage of the law, he declared the fivetwenty bonds were payable, principal and interest, in gold; and that every member who spoke on the subject took the same ground. That law was passed with that declaration uncontradicted, and it went into effect stamped with that declaration by both houses of Congress. That speech, made on the eve of the Presidential campaign, was widely circulated throughout the country as a campaign document, and those who held the contrary were repeatedly challenged to refute its statements. I affirm that its correctness was not successfully denied. Not only Congress so understands and declares, but every Secretary of the Treasury from that day to this has declared that these bonds are payable in gold. The authorized agents of the government sold them, and the people bought them, with this understanding.

The government thus bound itself by every obligation of honor and good faith; and it was not until one year after the passage of the law that any man in Congress raised even a 1 Mr. Stevens of Pennsylvania.

doubt on the subject. The doubts since raised were raised mainly for electioneering purposes, and the question was referred to the people for arbitrament at the late Presidential election. After the fullest debate ever had on any great question of national politics in a contest in which the two parties. squarely and fairly joined issue on this very point, it was solemnly decided by the great majority which elected General Grant that repudiators should be repudiated, and that the faith of the nation should be preserved inviolate. We are therefore bound by the pledged faith of the nation, by the spirit and meaning of the law, and finally by the voice of the people themselves, to resolve all doubts, and settle the credit of the United States by this explicit declaration of the national will. The action of the House on this bill has already been hailed throughout the world as the dawn of better days for the finances of the nation, and every market has shown a wonderful improvement of our credit. We could this day refund our debt on terms more advantageous to the government by $120,000,000 than we could have done the day before the passage of this bill by the House. Make it a law, and a still greater improvement will result.

I can in no way better indicate my views of the propriety of passing the second section of this bill, than by reminding the House that I introduced this proposition in a separate bill on the 10th of February, 1868, and its passage has been more generally demanded by the people and press of the country than any other financial measure before Congress. The principle involved in this section is simply this: to make it possible for gold to come into this country and to remain here. Gold and silver are lawful money of the United States; and yet the opponents of this section would have us make it unlawful for a citizen to enforce contracts made hereafter, which shall call for the payment of gold. The very statement of this doctrine ought to be its sufficient refutation. But the minds of gentlemen are vexed with the fear that this section will be an engine of oppression in the hands of creditors. If any new safeguards can be devised that are not already in this section, I know not what they are. Whenever this law is carried out in its letter and spirit, no injustice can possibly result. The whole power of the law is in the hands of the creditor, and he alone is supposed to be in danger of suffering wrong.

In the moment that remains to me, I can do no more than to indicate the grounds on which the justice of this measure rests. It is a great and important step toward specie payments, because it removes the unwise and oppressive decree which almost expatriates American gold and silver. It will not only allow our own coin to stay at home, but it will permit foreign coin to flow hither from Europe. More than $70,000,000 of our gold is going abroad every year in excess of what comes to us, and at the same time in eight kingdoms of Europe there is nearly $500,000,000 of idle gold ready to be invested at less than three per cent interest. In the Bank of England and the Bank of France there has been for more than a year an average of more than $300,000,000 of bullion, and most of that time the bank rate of interest has been less than two per cent. Who can doubt that much of this gold will find its way here, if it can be invested without committing the fortunes of its owners to the uncertain chances of inconvertible paper money?

But the passage of this bill will enable citizens to transact their business on a fixed and certain basis. It will give stability and confidence to trade, and pave the way for specie payments. The Supreme Court has in fact decided that this is now the law; but let us put it on the statute-book as a notice to the people, and to prevent unnecessary litigation.

THE NINTH CENSUS.

REMARKS MADE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

APRIL 6, 1869.

THE first six censuses of the United States were taken under special laws, enacted on the eve of each recurring decennial enumeration. May 23, 1850, the President approved "An Act providing for the taking of the Seventh and subsequent Censuses of the United States, and to fix the Number of the Members of the House of Representatives, and provide for their future Apportionment among the several States." Under this law the censuses of 1850 and 1860 were taken. Mr. Garfield's study of statistics led him to the investigation of the census and of censuses, which revealed to him the many and great defects of the law of 1850. So, January 20, 1869, he offered in the House of Representatives this resolution: "Resolved, That a select committee of seven be appointed to inquire and report to the House what legislation is necessary to provide for taking the Ninth Census, as provided by the Constitution; and that said committee have leave to report at any time, by bill or otherwise." The resolution was adopted, and Mr. Garfield was made chairman of the special committee. The subject was not reached that session, and the committee ceased to exist with the House that created it. At the first session of the Forty-first Congress a special committee of nine was created upon the same subject. Political and personal reasons led the Speaker to place Mr. Garfield second upon this committee, but with the understanding that he would be the real chairman. March 24, 1869, he reported a bill for taking the ninth and subsequent censuses, which the House first amended, and then passed. In the Senate no action was had. As Mr. Garfield passed over part of the ground much more thoroughly in his speech of December 16, 1869, some of his remarks upon this bill are here omitted.

MR.

R. SPEAKER,-I am quite sure that I cannot overrate the importance of any bill which this House may pass, to provide for taking the next census, nor can I hope, in the

thirty minutes granted me, to discuss it worthily. I can do no more than indicate some of the leading points connected with the work, and touch upon the principles on which it rests. But for the pressure of business which now crowds the closing days of the session, I should insist on a full discussion of the whole subject, but I yield to necessity, and ask the House not to judge the measure by my support of it.

It is a noteworthy fact, that the Constitution of the United States is the only one among modern constitutions that provides for the taking of a census of the population at regular intervals. Other nations have established methods of taking statistical account of their people, but in ours alone, I believe, is a census made the very basis of the government itself. The fact is also significant as indicating the tendency of modern civilization to find the basis and source of power in the people, rather than in dynasties or in any special theories of government. It is a declaration that the population of the country are the great source of wealth, as well as of power. Our wealth is found not so much in the veins of rich minerals that fill the earth as in the purple veins of our free citizens. Placing this high value on human nature, our fathers wisely required that once in ten years we should make out anew the muster-roll, and ascertain the condition and strength of the great army of civilization which then started on its grand march across the centuries.

This age is pre-eminently distinguished by the fact that it recognizes more fully than any other the reign of law; that not physical nature alone, but man and great communities of men, are modified and controlled by laws which are as old as creation. It is a part of that great reform which Bacon. applied to science, and which modern nations are applying to politics. Before Bacon's time, if a man desired to write about the solar system, he sat down in his closet and evolved from his own mind his theory of the universe; he framed a plan of nature, and then tried to bend the facts to suit his theory: but the new system of philosophy changed all this. It taught the man of science that he must become like a little child, sit at the feet of Nature and learn of her; and that only by a patient and humble study of facts and phenomena could he discover the laws by which the universe is governed. In such studies man must be a discoverer, not an inventor. By slow degrees have

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