poverty or religious opinions. The effort of the people of Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana to return to a limited suffrage was not the only one of its kind made by the American people toward the close of the century. The motive at the South was ostensibly to keep the control of public affairs in the hands of the intelligent whites. The motive in Colorado, 1876; Texas, 1879; Rhode Island, 1888, and Utah, 1896, was to exclude from the polls all . persons who were not taxpayers, when the issue was an increase of the public debt. In Rhode Island and Texas, the limitation applied to municipal elections, but Utah carried the limitation much further and gave the right to vote only to taxpayers, when an increase of indebtedness or the creation of a debt was the issue. A more detailed comparison of the constitutions and laws of the states made after 1860 with those made before would show that the later instruments are more liberal and humane in character. CHAPTER XXXVI INDUSTRIAL AND TERRITORIAL EXPANSION 1876-1900 At Philadelphia, on the 10th of May, 1876, the people of the United States celebrated the one hundredth year of their independence by opening an industrial exhibition, at which various interests of the nations of the earth were represented. It was an international festival of the best type. America entered upon her second century united and strengthened. The exhibition displayed the resources of our country, North, South, East, and West. President Hayes withdrew the national troops from Louisiana and South Carolina, and appointed as his Postmaster-General an ex-Confederate officer. These things emphasized the fact that the national government wished to treat all sections of the Union alike and as its integral parts. The withdrawal of the troops from South Carolina and Louisiana meant the President recognized the Democratic governor and legislature in each state as the lawful ones instead of the Republican claimants. The various party platforms in 1876 show that there was much diversity of opinion in the country regarding the currency. The laws in force in 1878 made all bonds, both principal and interest, and all treasury notes after January 1, 1879, payable "in coin," and by coin many claimed gold only was meant. In February, 1873, an act was passed stopping the further coinage of silver dollars. Those already in circulation, and the minor silver coins, were declared not to be legal tender. Though used in ordinary business transactions, they would not be accepted in payment of custom duties, nor as interest on the public debt, nor in payment of the debt itself. In technical language, silver was "demonetized" in 1873. It was no longer a legal tender. The House in 1877 was Democratic and most of its members had promised their constituents to vote for the "remonetization" of silver. In February, 1878, the Senate (Republican) and the House (Democratic) compromised their differences and passed, over the President's veto, the Bland Silver Bill, named after R. P. Bland, a Democrat from Missouri. The Bland bill originally proposed to coin silver dollars again, in the ratio of 16 to 1—that is, one pound of gold to rate as sixteen pounds of silver; to make these dollars legal tender at their face value for every kind of debt, and to coin them for nothing-that is, just as gold bullion was coined, free of charge. Any one might bring silver to the mint and receive its bullion value in silver dollars. To this last proposition the Senate objected, as it would be the "free coinage of silver." Senator W. B. Allison, of Iowa, proposed, as a substitute, that there should be a limited free coinage of silver; the Secretary of the Treasury should be required to purchase each month not less than two million dollars, nor more than four million dollars' worth of silver bullion and coin it into dollars. These "Bland" dollars, as they were popularly called, weighed 4121⁄2 grains. In 1878, the bullion in one of them was worth 92 cents in gold, in open market. The people now had "hard money" again, but they found it inconvenient, and most of them preferred paper money. Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to deposit the silver dollars in the vaults of the government and issue in place of them silver certificates in equal amount. The time was now approaching when the specie resumption act of 1875 was to take effect. In December, 1878, treasury notes and gold were quoted alike. But many said that the government would not be able to resume specie payments because it could not obtain sufficient gold. On the 1st of January, 1879, the treasury account stood: Legal tender notes outstanding, to be redeemed.... $346.681,016 70,000,000 Held by national banks.. 70,000,000 In circulation among the people. 206,681,016 Amount of gold subject to the order of the secretary of the treasury.. 135,000,000 Or about 40 per cent, of the amount to be redeemed. |