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open court that he has never, directly or indirectly, counselled, advised, or voluntarily aided any such combination or conspiracy. . .

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No. 173. Act removing Political Disabili

ties

May 22. 1872

MAY 13, 1872, the House having before it a number of bills for the removal of the political disabilities of the persons named therein, the rules were suspended, and a general bill for the removal of disabilities imposed by the fourteenth amendment was introduced by Butler of Massachusetts, from the Committee on the Judiciary, and passed. The Senate passed the bill on the 21st by a vote of 38 to 2. The debate was without special interest. The disabilities not provided for by this act were removed by an act of June 6, 1898. REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XVII., 142. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 42d Cong., 1st Sess., and the Cong. Record.

An Act to remove political Disabilities imposed by the fourteenth Article of the Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.

Be it enacted..., (two-thirds of each house concurring therein), That all political disabilities imposed by the third section of the fourteenth article of amendments of the Constitution of the United States are hereby removed from all persons whomsoever, except Senators and Representatives of the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh Congresses, officers in the judicial, military, and naval service of the United States, heads of departments, and foreign ministers of the United States.

No. 174. Coinage Act

February 12, 1873

THE need of a revision of the laws relating to the mints, assay offices, and coinage was suggested as early as 1866, and April 25, 1870, a report on the subject, prepared by John Jay Knox, comptroller of the currency, was submitted to Congress, together with the draft of a bill. A bill in accordance with this report was reported in the Senate December 19, 1870, by Sherman, and passed that body January 10, 1871. A substitute reported in the House February 25 was recommitted. A second bill to the same effect was introduced in the House March 3, by William D. Kelley of Pennsylvania, and referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. The bill was not reported until January 9, 1872, and the next day was recommitted. A bill with similar title was reported February 9 by Hooper of Massachusetts, and also recommitted. The latter bill was taken up April 9, and May 27 a substitute offered by Hooper was passed under suspension of the rules. The Senate referred the bill to the Committee on Finance, and the session closed without further action. December 16 the bill was reported in the Senate, further amendments being reported January 7, 1873. The bill was taken up on the 17th, and passed with amendments the same day. The final form of the bill was the work of a conference committee. The omission of the standard silver dollar of 412 grains from the list of coins led later to the charge that the act aimed to demonetize silver, and caused the advocates of silver to refer to the act as the "crime of 1873." Only those sections of the act giving the list of coins are inserted here.

REFERENCES. - Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XVII., 424-436, passim. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 41st Cong., 3d Sess., and 42d Cong., and the Cong. Record; see also the Record, 53d Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 1219-1224. Knox's report is Senate Misc. Doc. 132, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.; the correspondence connected with it is in House Exec. Doc. 307.

An Act revising and amending the Laws relative to the Mints, Assay-offices, and Coinage of the United States.

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SEC. 14. That the gold coins of the United States shall be a one-dollar piece, which, at the standard weight of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains, shall be the unit of value; a quarter-eagle, or two-and-a-half dollar piece; a three-dollar piece; a half-eagle, or five-dollar piece; an eagle, or ten-dollar piece; and a double eagle, or twenty dollar piece. . . ; which coins shall be a legal tender in all payments at their nominal value when not below the standard weight and limit of tolerance provided in this act for the

single piece, and, when reduced in weight, below said standard and tolerance, shall be a legal tender at valuation in proportion to their actual weight. . . .

SEC. 17. That the silver coins of the United States shall be a trade-dollar, a half-dollar, or fifty-cent piece, a quarter-dollar, or twenty-five-cent piece, a dime, or ten-cent piece; . . . and said coins shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for any amount not exceeding five dollars in any one payment.

SEC. 16. That the minor coins of the United States shall be a five-cent piece, a three-cent piece, and a one-cent piece. ; which coins shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for any amount not exceeding twenty-five cents in any one payment. SEC. 17. That no coins, either of gold, silver, or minor coinage, shall hereafter be issued from the mint other than those of the denominations, standards, and weights herein set forth.

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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; House Misc. Doc. 48, 45th Cong., 2d Sess.

An act to provide for the resumption of specie payments.

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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.

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SEC. 2. That so much of section [3524] 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

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[5177] . of the Revised Statutes of the United States, limiting the aggregate amount of circulatingnotes of national banking-associations, be, and is hereby, repealed; and each existing banking-association may increase its circulatingnotes 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 national-bank currency among the several States and Territories are hereby repealed. And whenever, and so often, as circulating-notes 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.

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and after... [January 1, 1879] . the Secretary of the Treasury shall redeem, in coin, the United States legal-tender notes then outstanding on their presentation 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 . . . [Funding Act of July 14, 1870]..., 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. . .

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No. 176. Second Civil Rights Act

March 1, 1875

AN amendment offered by Sumner to the amnesty act of May 22, 1872 [No. 173], 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.

An act to protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights.

Whereas, it is essential to just government we recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal and

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

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