¹ For several examples of this thesis see Josephson, Matthew, The Politicos, 1865–1896 (New York, 1938), pp. 194–195Google Scholar; Hacker, Louis M., The Triumph of American Capitalism (New York, 1947), pp. 385–387Google Scholar; and Studenski, Paul and Krooss, Herman E., Financial History of the United States (New York, 1952), pp. 161–162Google Scholar. For instances in two influential American history textbooks see Charles, A. and Beard, Mary R., The Rise of American Civilization (Revised Edition; New York, 1944), vol. II, pp. 105–106Google Scholar; and Morison, Samuel Eliot and Commager, Henry Steele, The Growth of the American Republic (Fourth Edition; New York, 1950), vol. II, pp. 6–7Google Scholar. The quoted phrases are from Beard and Beard, American Civilization, vol. II, p. 331.

² This “reserve” represented $44 million of legal tenders “retired” by Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch in 1866–1868 under the terms of the Loan Act or Contraction Act of 1866. For details see Studenski and Krooss, Financial History of the U.S., pp. 171–172. A description of business pressures and the Administration's response following the Panic may be found in the New York daily press and the Commercial and Financial Chronicle for the period September 21 through October 10, 1873.

³ Richardson, James D., ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (New York, 1897), vol. IX, p. 4198Google Scholar.

⁴ See the New York Daily Tribune, the New York World and the New York Evening Post for December 3 and 4, 1873.

⁵ Business groups continued to demand inflation legislation through the long Congressional session. For several examples of inflationist petitions from businessmen see the Congressional Record, 43d Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 2182, 2348–2349, 2539.

⁶ The total inflation possible under the measure was about $64 million, but many observers were convinced that even this amount was an overestimate. This view was held by Secretary Richardson, for example. For Richardson's opinion see the manuscript diary of Hamilton Fish, entry for April 15, 1874, Hamilton Fish MSS., Library of Congress.

⁷ The most complete published account of the pressures placed on the President during this period can be found in Nevins, Allan, Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration (Revised Edition; New York, 1957), vol. II, pp. 712–713Google Scholar. A fuller account will be found in my typescript doctoral dissertation, “Men, Money and Politics: The Specie Resumption Issue, 1865–1879” (Columbia University, 1958), pp. 168–174Google Scholar.

⁸ Nevins, Hamilton Fish, pp. 712–713; and Hesseltine, William B., Ulysses S. Grant, Politician (New York, 1957), p. 335Google Scholar.

⁹ See Estes Howe to David A. Wells, Cambridge, Mass., April 29, 1874, David A. Wells MSS., Library of Congress; Nation, April 30, 1874, p. 278; and the New York Times, April 23, 1874.

¹⁰ New York World, April 23, 1874.

¹¹ Ibid., April 27, 1874.

¹² Ibid., April 25, 1874.

¹³ Ibid., April 27, 1874.

¹⁴ Ibid.; and April 24, 1874. Sumner, it will be recalled, had been deprived of the Chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for defying Grant and thereby reduced to virtual political impotence.

¹⁵ Ibid., April 29, 1874.

¹⁶ The defeat of the attempt to override in the Senate was final; no effort was made to repass the bill in the House. See the Congressional Record, 43d Cong., 1st Sess., p. 3436; and the New York World, April 29, 1874.

¹⁷ Grant recommended repeal of the Legal Tender Act, refunding of the outstanding greenbacks into a 4½% bond, the immediate withdrawal of all small denomination legal tenders and payment of all contracts entered into after July 1, 1875, in coin only. See New York World, June 3, 1874; and Banker's Magazine, vol. XXIX (July, 1874), pp. 65–66Google Scholar. The circumstances surrounding the issuance of the Jones memorandum are described in the diary of Hamilton Fish, entries for June 1 and 3, 1874, Fish MSS.

¹⁸ New York World, June 6, 1874.

¹⁹ Fish diary, entry for June 7, 1874.

²⁰ New York World, June 15, 1874.

²¹ In addition to legalizing Secretary Richardson's “reserve” reissue, the bill relieved the banks of the necessity of retaining reserves against note issue, thereby releasing $44 million of reserve greenbacks for circulation. For the full text of the Act see Dunbar, Charles F., Laws of the United States Relating to Currency, Finance, and Banking from 1789 to 1896 (Boston, 1897), pp. 210–214Google Scholar. A discussion of the inflationary effects of the bill will be found in Patterson, Robert T., Federal Debt Management Policies, 1865–1879 (Durham, N.C., 1954), pp. 156–157Google Scholar.

²² For example, see Commercial and Financial Chronicle, vol. XVIII (June 27, 1874), p. 70Google Scholar.

²³ Foulke, William Dudley, The Life of Oliver P. Morton (Indianapolis, 1899), vol. II, pp. 345–347Google Scholar.

²⁴ For the Democratic state platforms see the American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1874, pp. 414–415, 667–668.

²⁵ Chicago Daily Tribune, Aug. 8, 1874.

²⁶ Ibid., Aug. 27, 1874.

²⁷ Nation, June 25, 1874, p. 404.

²⁸ Cleveland Leader, June 27, 1874.

²⁹ Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson, A History of the United States Since the Civil War (New York, 1922), vol. III, pp. 138–141Google Scholar; and Rhodes, James Ford, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the Final Restoration of Home Rule at the South in 1877 (New York, 1906), vol. VII, pp. 68–69Google Scholar.

³⁰ Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec. 14, 1874; New York World, Dec. 7, 1874.

³¹ Richardson, , Compilation of the Presidents, vol. X, pp. 4239–4241Google Scholar; and United States Treasury, Annual Report of the Secretary … on the State of the Finances for the Year 1874, pp. xiv–xvi. These recommendations, it should be noted, closely resembled those of the Jones memorandum. See note 17.

³² Congressional Record, 43d Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 20–22. Hereafter all references to the Record will be to this Congress and session unless otherwise indicated.

³³ Manuscript diary of James A. Garfield, entry for Dec. 8, 1874, Garfield MSS., Library of Congress. For details of the Butler speech see the Congressional Record, pp. 22–24.

³⁴ Ibid., pp. 24–26; New York World, Dec. 9, 1874.

³⁵ Garfield diary, entry for Dec. 9, 1874.

³⁶ New York World, Dec. 10, 1874.

³⁷ Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec. 13, 1874.

³⁸ New York World, Dec. 11, 1874.

³⁹ Ibid., Dec. 15, 1874.

⁴⁰ The other members were: William Allison of Iowa, George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Timothy O. Howe of Wisconsin and Aaron Sargent of California. See Sherman, John, Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet (Chicago, 1895), vol. I, p. 509Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Sherman's responsibility for these proposals, generally accepted by historians, has been disputed by Professor Don Carlos Barrett, who suggests George F. Edmunds as their author. See Barrett, , The Greenbacks and Resumption of Specie Payments, 1862–1879 (Cambridge, Mass., 1931), pp. 182–184CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The opinion of the day, however, generally ascribed the scheme to the Ohio Senator, a claim Sherman never denied although at times it was in his interest to do so, and I am inclined to accept the views of contemporaries.

⁴² For the most complete description of the difficulties produced by the bank note limitation see Anderson, George L., “The National Banking System: A Sectional Institution” (Unpublished doctoral dissertation; University of Illinois, 1933)Google Scholar, passim, but especially pp. 131 et seq. It is important to distinguish between “free banking” as the term was used in the post-Civil War era and the free banking of the 1830's and 1840's. The term properly belongs to the Jacksonian period, when, for the first time, in such states as New York and Michigan, general incorporation laws for state banks were adopted. In reality the National Banking Act of 1863 established virtual free banking for the nation, although, as a result of its note issue limitation, it effectively restricted the development of the national banking system in the West and South once the note issue allotment had been taken up.

⁴³ These bonds, originally authorized by the Refunding Act of 1870, paid 5%, 4½, and 4% interest, and had been intended for the purpose of retiring the wartime “5–20's” which 6%.

⁴⁴ For details see Sherman, , Recollections, vol. I, pp. 510–511Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ The measure of the first session proposed resumption for January 1, 1876, and authorized a redistribution of national bank note issue from the East to the South and West rather than the inflationist free banking.

⁴⁶ See the Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec. 25, 1874.

⁴⁷ This point of view may be found in Wells, David A., The Cremation Theory of Specie Resumption (New York, 1875)Google Scholar; and Sumner, William Graham, American Finance (Cambridge, Mass., 1874)Google Scholar. The view that contraction must precede resumption had also been held by Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch in the period 1865–1868.

⁴⁸ It was pointed out, for example, that the bonds available for resumption purposes under the 1870 measure were too unattractive for ready sale to investors. See the New York World, Dec. 24, 1874.

⁴⁹ See again the author's “Men, Money and Politics,” pp. 80 et seq.

⁵⁰ Sherman, Recollections, vol. I, p. 511; Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec. 20, 1874.

⁵¹ Congressional Record, pp. 205–206.

⁵² Ibid., pp. 196, 205–206.

⁵³ Ibid., pp. 198, 202–203.

⁵⁴ Sherman, , Recollections, vol. I, p. 510Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ Congressional Record, p. 196.

⁵⁶ Ibid., pp. 186, 198.

⁵⁷ Ibid., p. 186.

⁵⁸ Ibid.

⁵⁹ Ibid., p. 208.

⁶⁰ Bayard to Manton Marble, Washington, December [?], 1874, Marble MSS., Library of Congress.

⁶¹ Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec. 24, 1874.

⁶² Ibid., Jan. 4, 1875.

⁶³ Hoar to John Murray Forbes, Washington, D.C., Jan. 8, 1875, quoted in Storey, Moorfield and Emerson, Edward D., Ebenezer Rockhood Hoar, A Memoir (Boston, 1911), p. 237Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Samuel Bowles to Henry L. Dawes, Jan. 6, 1875, quoted in Merriam, George S., The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles (New York, 1885), vol. II, p. 344Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ Jonathan M. Hildeburn to Samuel J. Randall, West Chester, Pennsylvania, Dec. 29, Randall MSS., University of Pennsylvania Library.

⁶⁶ For the key role of western Republicans in the Reconstruction currency controversy see “Men, Money and Politics,” passim.

⁶⁷ Garfield diary, entry for Dec. 23, 1874.

⁶⁸ Independent, Dec. 13, 1874, p. 13.

⁶⁹ Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 24, 1874.

⁷⁰ Chicago Daily Tribune, Jan. 4, 1875.

⁷¹ Ibid., Jan. 8, 1875; Congressional Record, p. 319.

⁷² “Men, Money and Politics,” chap. V.

⁷³ Banker's Magazine, vol. XXIX (Jan., 1875), pp. 492–493Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ Financier, vol. VII (Jan. 16, 1875), pp. 36–37Google Scholar; Banker's Magazine, vol. XXIX (Feb., 1875), pp. 65–70Google Scholar; Commercial and Financial Chronicle, vol. XX (Jan. 16, 1875), pp. 49–50Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ Banker's Magazine, vol. XXIX (March, 1875), pp. 710–711Google Scholar; Sherman, , Recollections, vol. I, pp. 519–520Google Scholar; Commercial and Financial Chronicle, vol. XX (Feb. 20, 1875), pp. 172–173Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ Williams was quoted by John G. Drew in a letter to Samuel J. Randall. See Drew to Randall, Elizabeth, New Jersey, Dec. 31, 1874, Randall MSS.

⁷⁷ Industrial Bulletin, vol. V (Jan., 1875), p. 1Google Scholar.

⁷⁸ Financier, vol. VIII (Nov. 27, 1875), pp. 358–359Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ Marble to Thomas Bayard, Dec. 27, 1874, quoted in Tansill, Charles C., The Congressional Career of Thomas Francis Bayard, 1868–1885 (Washington, 1946), p. 96Google Scholar, n. 118.

⁸⁰ New York World, Dec. 23, 1874.

⁸¹ Nation, Dec. 31, 1874, p. 427.

⁸² Atkinson to James G. Blaine, Boston, Dec. 29, 1874, Atkinson Letter Books, Atkinson MSS., Massachusetts Historical Society.

⁸³ For example, see the following: Iron Age, vol. XV (Jan. 21, 1875), p. 14Google Scholar; New York Herald, Dec. 24, 1874; Amasa Walker to Manton Marble, North Brookfield, Mass., Dec. 25, 1874, Marble MSS. The London Times of Dec. 26, 1874, called the bill, which had just passed the Senate, a measure “to provoke the laughter of all mockers,” while the Washington reporter of the Independent bluntly referred to it as a partisan political measure condemned by “every bank president and practical financier.” See the Times clipping in the letter of J. H. Wilson to Benjamin Bristow, London, Dec. 24, 1874, Bristow MSS., Library of Congress; and Independent, Dec. 31, 1874, p. 3.

⁸⁴ This description of the Republican measure was voiced by Democratic Congressman Samuel S. Cox of New York during a financial debate in the following Congress. Congressional Record, 44th Cong., 1st Sess. (Aug. 5, 1876), p. 5219.

⁸⁵ New York Times, Dec. 21, 1874.

⁸⁶ Chicago Inter-Ocean, Dec. 24, 1874. At the time this editorial was written the bill had as yet passed only the upper house, hence the reference to “the gentlemen comprising the Senate.”