Senator John Percival Jones of Nevada . The silver question first emerged as a national issue and debate with Jones ’ s first speech on the issue in April 1876 .
Congressman Richard Bland of Missouri , who wrote the Bland bill , which eventually became the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 .
Senator William Allison of Iowa , who removed the free silver provision and added the silver certificate clause to the Bland bill . That resulted in the Bland-Allison Act .
The senator called for restoration of bimetallism and that the $ 5 legal tender be abolished for all silver coins , making them unlimited legal tender . On the Senate floor , Jones regularly promoted a permanent bimetallic standard and the immediate reinstatement of the 412.5 grain silver dollar — the “ dollar of the daddies .” He became the most influential congressional supporter of the double standard . During the two years between his opening speech on the subject and passage of the Bland- Allison Act , Jones served as chairman of the congressional monetary commission that was appointed in August 1876 to discuss the silver question .
Pro and Con on the Silver Question
The potential return of bimetallism was attractive to businessmen who were against further contraction of the money supply while the Long Depression lasted . There were many pro-resumptionist , hard money newspapers that felt the end of legal tender silver coins after 1873 had been a major reason for the drawn-out business slump .
Most of New York ’ s national bankers were dead set against the double standard . Before the election of 1876 , the New York and San Francisco Chambers of Commerce , the Boston Board of Trade and the executive committee of the National Board of Trade had all petitioned Congress “ against making silver coin an unlimited legal tender .”
Western merchants supported the Free Silver movement , seeing restoration of the double standard as a productive way of expanding the circulating stock of hard money . The Cincinnati and St . Paul-Minneapolis Chambers of Commerce petitioned Congress for remonetization of silver , and a majority of midwestern business associations were favorable towards silver during the controversy . In 1877 , James A . Garfield ’ s opposition to bimetallism cost him “ almost unanimous ” support of Ohio ’ s business community in his bid for the Senate .
During 1876 , there were mixed responses to the silver question among financial experts , manufacturers and others . A passionate war of words over silver policy began among economic publicists , liberal Republicans , genteel reformers and other elements of the intelligentsia . Newspaper response to the bimetallism crusade did not divide along sectional lines . For example , there were hard money bimetallists who saw remonetization as a method of sparking economic recovery .
Businessmen and business publications disagreed on the question of remonetizing silver , and the academic reform community and the nation ’ s hard money newspapers were also without consensus on the controversy . Newspaper editors , bankers , economists and businessmen from around the nation advocated for the “ dollar of the daddies ” several months before southern and western agrarians
discovered the silver issue . It took until mid-1877 for a mass movement that supported remonetization to spread , cutting across party and class distinctions .
Within the Free Silver movement were those who desired inflation . They felt that free silver would increase the money supply and inflation , which would mean prices would rise on goods , more money would be available for credit and debtors would be able to pay off their debts more inexpensively .
Passage of Bland-Allison ( 1878 )
The Bland silver bill , named after Representative Richard P . Bland of Missouri , which passed the House in November of 1877 , had the intention of re-establishing the bimetallic double standard . This bill included the unlimited coinage of silver via the “ free silver ” provision . However , the amendments proposed by Senator William B . Allison of Iowa in the Senate Finance Committee were adopted , removing the “ free silver ” coinage provision .
Replacing it was a requirement that compelled the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase , at the current market price , a minimum of $ 2 million and a maximum of $ 4 million worth of silver bullion each month . That bullion was to be struck , as fast as possible , into silver dollars . The Bland-Allison Act became law on February 28 , 1878 , after a congressional override of President Rutherford B . Hayes ’ veto the
40 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Fall 2024 | www . MoAF . org