Nine bills were offered in the same Congress, to repeal the tax on the circulation of State banks. One of these bills was offered by Representative Tipton, of Illinois; all the rest by senators and representatives from the Southern State-. Mr. John Jay Knox, comptroller of the currency, says1 he made careful inquiry at the time, and satisfied himself that this was the favorite project of those members who desired to abolish the national banking system. "There were not six members," he says, "from the Eastern and Middle States, who were in favor of the issue of the greenback as the only paper currency of the country; and in the Southern States, so for as I could learn, there was not one member in favor of such substitution."

This latter suggestion came from the West. Mr. Townsliend. of Illinois, offered a resolution instructing the committee on banking and currency to inquire into the expediency of withdrawing the national bank circulation, "and winding up the national banks," and providing the country with " greenbacks or other currency of similar character." Mr. Cobb, of Indiana, offered a bill for the withdrawal of the national bank currency, and the issue of $500,000,000 of legal tender treasury notes. Mr. Hunter, of the same State, proposed to reissue all the greenbacks redeemed under the resumption act and pay them out on the public debt. Mr. Hartzell, of Illinois, offered a bill, " to substitute greenbacks for the issues of the national banking associations," and his colleague, Mr. Fort, proposed a measure to accomplish the same result gradually. Mr. Riddle, of Tennessee, wanted to forbid the organization of new national banks and to prohibit the rechar-ter of those then in operation. Mr. Buck-ner, of Missouri, offered a bill to retire the national bank-notes; which was perfected, reported from the committee on banking and currency, and made a special order for April 23, 1878, but was not then reached for action. In May, 1878, an act was passed forbidding any further retirement of United States notes, and instructing the secretary of the treasury to reissue them when redeemed, or received into the treasury from any source whatever, and keep them in circulation. By the third section of the resumption act the limit to the volume of bank-notes had been removed, but United States notes were to be retired to the amount of 80 per cent. of the new currency issued to the banks, and under the operation of that provision the amount of treasury notes had been reduced from $382,000,000 to $346,681,016, at which figure they remain.

1 In his speech at Saratoga, August 7. 1879. Proceedings of the American Bankers' Association, 1879, p. 35.

The bill forbidding any further reduction of the amount of United States notes was offered in the House by Mr. Fort, of Illinois, and passed under a suspension of the rules, without debate, 177 to 35. In the Senate Mr. Cockrell, of Missouri, proposed to take up the measure at once, without allowing it to go to the committee on finance; but objection was made, and the bill finally followed the usual course. Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, and one or two other senators, called attention to the fact that proposition to reissue notes which had been redeemed was evidently a proposition to issue legal tender paper in time of peace, and reminded the Senate that no such power had been claimed by Congress before, and that no such power had been conceded by the Supreme Court, even in the decision by a bare majority affirming the validity of the legal tender act of 1862. Neverthe-less the Senate passed the bill, 41 to 18. In 1862 everybody expected that the legal tender currency would be retired as soon as the war was over. In 1878, thirteen years after the close of the war, $346,000,000 of that currency was still outstanding, and two-thirds of the Senate and five-sixths of the House agreed that its volume should not be diminished.

It is only necessary to add that in February, 1879, two months after the resumption of specie payments, Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, from the committee on banking and currency, reported a bill to the House of Representatives, forbidding the sale of bonds for the purpose of maintaining specie payments, and directing the secretary of the treasury to reissue the United States notes not only to the amount but in the denominations received into the treasury. On motion of Mr. Garfield the bill was laid on the table, 141 to 110. "The experience we are having in this House from day to day," said Mr. Garfield, "makes me fear there will never be any permanent safety to business so long as there is a greenback in circulation."1