Department to maintain a gold reserve of $100,000,000 against the
$346,681,000 outstanding greenbacks, though no law requires that such
a reserve should be maintained further than that the Act of March 18,
1869, pledges the faith of the United States that its outstanding notes
should be redeemed in coin.

The repeal of the silver purchase clause of the Sherman Act was
accomplished in a special session of Congress, November 1, 1893. Since
this repeal, the silver policy of the Government has been as it
was before the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which involves a complete
suspension of silver coinage. The Acts of 1878 and of 1890 were
compromise measures, agreed to by the opponents of silver coinage in
order to prevent the passage of a bill providing for full unlimited
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. Speaking in his
_Recollections_ of the situation in 1890, Senator Sherman says: "The
situation at that time was critical. A large majority of the Senate
favored free silver, and it was feared that the small majority against
it in the other House might yield and agree to it. The silence of the
President on the matter gave rise to an apprehension that if a free
coinage bill should pass both Houses he would not feel at liberty to
veto it. Some action had to be taken to prevent a return to free silver
coinage, and the measure evolved was the best obtainable. I voted for
it, but the day it became a law I was ready to repeal it, if repeal
could be had without substituting in its place absolute free coinage."

Since 1893 the contention has been carried on by the silver men in a
public agitation in favor of free silver coinage, without compromise or
international agreement, and this year (1896), by our form of political
referendum, the question has been referred to the people for decision.