1st day of November last the bullion value of the silver dollar was 72
cents.

The evil anticipations which have accompanied the coinage and use of the
silver dollar have not been realized. As a coin it has not had general
use, and the public Treasury has been compelled to store it. But this
is manifestly owing to the fact that its paper representative is more
convenient. The general acceptance and the use of the silver certificate
show that silver has not been otherwise discredited. Some favorable
conditions have contributed to maintain this practical equality in their
commercial use between the gold and silver dollars; but some of these
are trade conditions that statutory enactments do not control and of the
continuance of which we can not be certain.

I think it is clear that if we should make the coinage of silver at the
present ratio free we must expect that the difference in the bullion
values of the gold and silver dollars will be taken account of in
commercial transactions; and I fear the same result would follow any
considerable increase of the present rate of coinage. Such a result
would be discreditable to our financial management and disastrous to all
business interests. We should not tread the dangerous edge of such a
peril. And, indeed, nothing more harmful could happen to the silver
interests. Any safe legislation upon this subject must secure the
equality of the two coins in their commercial uses.

I have always been an advocate of the use of silver in our currency.
We are large producers of that metal, and should not discredit it. To
the plan which will be presented by the Secretary of the Treasury for
the issuance of notes or certificates upon the deposit of silver bullion
at its market value I have been able to give only a hasty examination,