“Does this convention propose to decide in an hour or a day, a new question of legal tender when it is known that the original proposition has been under consideration ever since the organization of this government, and finally passed only as a means of salvation in the midst of a great war? Does this convention in a moment propose to consider and decide a new question of legal tender, when it is known that the original question was before the Supreme Court of the United States for consideration for weeks and months? The Supreme Court of the United States, presumed to be composed of the greatest men in this country and of the greatest jurists of these times, have twice reversed their own judgment on this subject. First, they decided that the legal-tender act was unconstitutional; secondly, they decided that the constitutionality of the legal-tender notes was based upon the war powers of Congress; and their third decision--to the surprise of the country--was that Congress has power to issue legal-tender circulating notes to an unlimited extent in time of peace as well as in time of war. “The legal-tender note which we have is a promise to pay. It is a promise to pay one hundred cents in gold, and every man in and out of Congress knows that it is a promise to pay one hundred cents in gold, and also that we have held almost from the date of the issue of the legal-tender note to the present time $100,000,000 of gold in the Treasury with which to pay or redeem these notes. This $100,000,000 of gold was first set aside for that purpose by a Republican Administration, but subsequently by a Democratic Administration, so that both of the great parties of the country are thoroughly committed to it. First, a Republican Administration has set aside this $100,000,000 in the Treasury sacred for the purpose of redeeming every dollar of legal-tender paper money which may be presented for payment. Secondly, the Secretary of the Treasury, Daniel Manning, and Conrad N. Jordan, the Treasurer of the United States, devised a new system of debt statement. The Treasury statement prepared by John Sherman was not satisfactory to the Democratic Administration of President Cleveland. For that reason his Secretary of the Treasury and his Treasurer of the United States devised a new statement, and took this $100,000,000 out of the general fund in which it was placed by their predecessors, thus proclaiming to all the world that it was not to be even thought of as available for general expenditures thereafter, but was to be left there as a sacred fund in gold to be paid to every man in this country upon the presentation of these legal-tender notes.