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SEC. 6. That the amount of United States notes outstanding, and to be used as a part of the circulating-medium, shall not exceed the sum of three hundred and eighty-two million dollars, which said sum shall appear in each monthly statement of the public debt, and no part thereof shall be held or used as a reserve.

SEC. 7. That so much of the act entitled "An act to provide for the redemption of the three per centum temporary loan certificates, and for an increase of national bank notes" as provides that no circulation shall be withdrawn under the provisions of section six of said act, until after the fifty-four millions granted in section one of said act shall have been taken up, is hereby repealed; and it shall be the duty of the Comptroller of the Currency, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, to proceed forthwith, and he is hereby authorized and required, from time to time, as applications shall be duly made therefor, and until the full amount of fifty-five million dollars shall be withdrawn, to make requisitions upon each of the national banks described in said section, and in the manner therein provided, organized in States having an excess of circulation, to withdraw and return so much of their circulation as by said act may be apportioned to be withdrawn from them, or, in lieu thereof, to deposit in the Treasury of the United States lawful money sufficient to redeem such circulation, and upon the return of the circulation required, or the deposit of lawful money, as herein provided, a proportionate amount of the bonds held to secure the circulation of such association as shall make such return or deposit shall be surrendered to it.

SEC. 8. That upon the failure of the national banks upon which requisition for circulation shall be made, or of any of them, to return the amount required, or to deposit in the Treasury lawful money to redeem the circulation required, within thirty days, the Comptroller of the Currency shall at once sell, as provided in section forty-nine of the national-currency act approved June third, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, bonds held to secure the redemption of the circulation of the association or associations which shall so fail, to an amount sufficient to redeem the circu

lation required of such association or associations, and with the proceeds, which shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States, so much of the circulation of such association or associations shall be redeemed as will equal the amount required and not returned and if there be any excess of proceeds over the amount required for such redemption, it shall be returned to the association or associations whose bonds shall have been sold. And it shall be the duty of the Treasurer, assistant treasurers, designated depositaries, and national bank depositaries of the United States, who shall be kept informed by the Comptroller of the Currency of such associations as shall fail to return circulation as required, to assort and return to the Treasury for redemption the notes of such associations as shall come into their hands until the amount required shall be redeemed, and in like manner to assort and return to the Treasury, for redemption, the notes of such national banks as have failed, or gone into voluntary liquidation for the purpose of winding up their affairs, and of such as shall hereafter so fail or go into liquidation.

SEC. 9. That from and after the passage of this act it shall be lawful for the Comptroller of the Currency, and he is hereby required, to issue circulating-notes without delay, as applications therefor are made, not to exceed the sum of fifty-five million dollars, to associations organized, or to be organized, in those States and Territories having less than their proportion of circulation, under an apportionment made on the basis of population and of wealth, as shown by the returns of the census of eighteen hundred and seventy; and every association hereafter organized shall be subject to, and be governed by, the rules, restrictions, and limitations, and possess the rights, privileges, and franchises, now or hereafter to be prescribed by law as to national banking associations, with the same power to amend, alter, and repeal provided by "the national bank act:' Provided, That the whole amount of circulation withdrawn and redeemed from banks transacting business shall not exceed fifty-five million dollars, and that such circulation shall be withdrawn and redeemed as it shall be necessary to supply the circulation previously issued to the banks in

those States having less than their apportionment: And provided further, That not more than thirty million dollars shall be withdrawn and redeemed as herein contemplated during the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-five. APPROVED, June 20, 1874.

No. 98.

Resumption of Specie Payments

January 14, 1875

ONE result of the financial crisis which began in September, 1873, was the introduction, in the next session of Congress, of an extraordinary number of bills relating to banks and the currency. A bill providing for the redemption and reissue of United States notes, with gradual payment of the notes in coin or bonds after January 1, 1876, was reported in the Senate by Sherman, March 23, 1874, and passed that body April 6 and the House April 14, but was vetoed by President Grant. A bill to provide for the resumption of specie payments, prepared in the first instance by a committee of the Republican members of Congress, and submitted by them to the Senate Committee on Finance, was reported by Sherman December 21, and passed the Senate the next day by a vote of 32 to 14. The bill was taken up in the House January 7, 1875, and passed the same day, the vote being 136 to 98, 54 not voting. President Grant communicated his approval in a special message to the Senate, in which further legislation to make the law effective was suggested.

References. — Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XVIII, 296. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 43d Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Record. On resumption see Sherman, Recollections, I, chaps. 24-26; II, chaps. 30 and 36; annual reports of the Secretary of the Treasury (Sherman) for 1877-1879; Dewey, Financial History, chap. 15; House Misc. Doc. 48, 45th Cong., 2d Sess.

An act to provide for the resumption of specie payments. Be it enacted That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and required, as rapidly as practicable, to cause to be coined at the mints of the United States, silver coins of the denominations of ten, twenty-five, and fifty cents, of standard value, and to issue them in redemption of an equal number

and amount of fractional currency of similar denominations, or, at his discretion, he may issue such silver coins through the mints, the subtreasuries, public depositaries, and post-offices of the United States; and, upon such issue, he is hereby authorized and required to redeem an equal amount of such fractional currency, until the whole amount of such fractional currency outstanding shall be redeemed.

SEC. 2. That so much of section three thousand five hundred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes of the United States as provides for a charge of one-fifth of one per centum for converting standard gold bullion into coin is hereby repealed, and hereafter no charge shall be made for that service.

SEC. 3. That section five thousand one hundred and seventyseven of the Revised Statutes of the United States, limiting the aggregate amount of circulating-notes of national banking-associations, be, and is hereby, repealed; and each existing bankingassociation may increase its circulating-notes in accordance with existing law without respect to said aggregate limit; and new banking-associations may be organized in accordance with existing law without respect to said aggregate limit; and the provisions of law for the withdrawal and redistribution of nationalbank currency among the several States and Territories are hereby repealed. And whenever, and so often, as circulatingnotes shall be issued to any such banking-association, so increasing its capital or circulating-notes, or so newly organized as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem the legal-tender United States notes in excess only of three hundred million of dollars, to the amount of eighty per centum of the sum of national-bank notes so issued to any such banking-association as aforesaid, and to continue such redemption as such circulating-notes are issued until there shall be outstanding the sum of three hundred million dollars of such legal-tender United States notes, and no more. And on and after the first day of January, anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventynine, the Secretary of the Treasury shall redeem, in coin, the United States legal-tender notes then outstanding on their presen

tation for redemption, at the office of the assistant treasurer of the United States in the city of New York,1 in sums of not less than fifty dollars. And to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and provide for the redemption in this act authorized or required, he is authorized to use any surplus revenues, from time to time, in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to issue, sell, and dispose of, at not less than par, in coin, either of the descriptions of bonds of the United States described in the act of Congress approved July fourteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy, entitled, "An act to authorize the refunding of the national debt," with like qualities, privileges, and exemptions, to the extent necessary to carry this act into full effect, and to use the proceeds thereof for the purposes aforesaid. And all provisions of law inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

APPROVED, January 14, 1875.

No. 99.

Civil Rights Act

March 1, 1875

AN amendment offered by Sumner to the amnesty act of May 22, 1872 [No. 94], forbidding discrimination against negroes in certain public places and elsewhere, was lost by a vote of 29 to 30. A bill of similar purport was called up in the Senate December 11, 1872, and passed over. Another bill passed the Senate April 30, 1873, but failed in the House. A third bill was introduced in the House, December 18, by Butler of Massachusetts, from the Committee on the Judiciary, and January 7, 1874, was recommitted. A fourth civil rights bill passed the Senate May 22, but was not acted on by the House. A substitute for Butler's bill was reported December 16, and February 4, 1875, passed the House with amendments, the vote being 162 to 100, 27 not voting. The bill was reported in the Senate on the 15th without amendment, and passed the same day by a vote of 38 to 26.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S Statutes at Large, XVIII, 335-337. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 43d Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Record. See also Pierce, Sumner, IV, chaps. 57 and 59.

1 An act of March 3, 1887, chap. 378, added San Francisco.

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