DATE: December 27, 1837

TOWN: Washington, D.C.

SOURCE: National Intelligencer

When the bill concerning the Mint was taken up in Committee of the Whole, in the House of Representatives, on Thursday last, speedy action upon it was pressed by the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, (Mr. CAMBRELENG,) on the ground that it was necessary, if practicable, that the bill should pass before the 1st day of January, on account of the convenience of any new Mint arrangement beginning on that day. The bill being read through, it was found to consist of a considerable number of sections, embracing all the details necessary to the organization of the whole system of the Mint and Coinage. Whereupon, a desultory debate took place, not necessary to be reported at length, of which the principal points are embraced in the following brief sketch:

Mr. ADAMS, referring to the intimation of Mr. CAMBRELENG that it was necessary to pass this bill before the 1st of January, said, that if the bill had proposed to repeal all the laws of the United States, and it had been required that such a bill should be passed within a week's time, he could not have been more surprised that he was at hearing this bill read, in connection with the precipitate proceeding proposed in regard to it. The subject of the bill was, he said, entirely too important to be disposed of in this summary mode. It was a bill to repeal all laws concerning the coinage of the money of the United States, and establish a system different from that which now exists; which might be all right, but which it was necessary should be closely examined before it was acted upon. In reply to a remark of Mr. CAMBRELENG, that the bill was merely a compilation of existing laws and regulations in regard to the Mint, Mr. ADAMS said that the very first thing that struck his ear on hearing the bill read was a provision that hereafter the weight of the silver dollar should be 412 1-2 grains. Now, by the existing law, the established weight of that coin was 416 grains. Here, then, was a debasement of the coin; and debasement of the coin had always been regarded as one of the greatest, most important, (and often most immoral) acts a Government can perform. What was all this for? He wished to know. It might be a very proper operation, but, if it was, it was not in this hasty and inconsiderate manner that it ought to be effected. As to the gold coins, he could not from recollection say whether the weight proposed was the same as the present legal rate: but, as to the copper coin, the standard of which was the existing law as fixed at 208 grains, this bill proposed to reduce it to 140 grains! Such reduction of the actual value of the coin would be not only injurious to the mass of poor people who chiefly use the coin, but was in every other way objectionable. It would subject the people who use this coin to all the disadvantage with which Ireland was menaced by Woods copper coin; and if gentlemen desired particular information on that subject, he advised them to read the Draper's Letters, and apply them to this case. For this part (Mr. A. said) he did not remember of any thing equal to this sweeping measure, unless it was the scheme of Charles XII of Sweden, who made copper coins of less than the specific weight of our cent, and then issued them to his army as of the value of a dollar. Debase your coin! (said he:) you have no right to do it. To do so is to rob those who are in possession of it. If, in consequence of the change of the alloy, the dollar would (as was alleged) remain of the same value as now, why make the change in the weight at all? One of the advantages of the present dollar is, that it is of the weight and value of the Spanish milled dollar, and therefore affords a facility to all who deal in dollars by weight. Now, the dollar is not only a part of the currency, but it is also an article of merchandise, and, as long as our dollar is of the same weight and value of the Spanish dollar, the value and weight of the bag of American dollars and of the bag of Spanish dollars being known all over the world to be the same, they pass at the same value all over the world by weight; and to change the weight would therefore affect seriously the commerce of the country. By these and similar arguments Mr. A. endeavored to satisfy the Committee of the Whole of the impropriety of precipitancy in a matter of so much delicacy and consequence as the subject of this bill.

In the course of these remarks of Mr. ADAMS, occasion was taken by Mr. CAMBRELENG to express his surprise that time should now be required by the gentleman from Massachusetts to examine this subject, inasmuch as this bill was substantially the same as one reported as long ago as at the last session of Congress, though not then acted upon. The bill did not (he said) propose to change the value of the silver coin by a single sous. Mr. C also made some further explanations, concluding by saying that if Mr. A would allow the bill to go through the committee today, he would himself then move its postponement to Tuesday next, allowing time to gentlemen in the interval to inform themselves of all the details of the bill.

Mr. ADAMS, however, said he, for one, could not consent to move a step further in this bill which he had not before seen or heard read, without first having time to read and examine it. He moved, therefore, that the committee now rise.

Mr. JARVIS took occasion to state that, having carefully examined the subject, he could satisfy gentlemen that in the proposed composition of the dollar the amount of pure silver was the same as in the present dollar, and that the proposed value of the gold coin was the same as now.

The committee divided on the motion to rise and the votes being equal, (65 to 65,) the questions was determined in the negative by the casting vote of the chairman, (Mr. MUHLENBERG.)

Mr. INGERSOLL, (of Penn.) who appeared to be perfectly familiar with the details as well as the principles of the bill, (having been one of the committee who reported it,) expressing his regret that the gentleman from Massachusetts had not had time to examine the bill, answered the objections which had been made to it, and explained its various provisions. With regard to the copper coinage, he said, the reduction proposed was only from 168 grains, the present weight of the cent, to 140, an immaterial alternation, scarcely at all proportioned to the going price of copper, which occasioned the reduction. The gentleman, however, when he spoke of the weight of 208 grains, was right as to the original weight of the cent; but, as it had, since first established, been reduced in weight from 208 grains to 168 grains it was now proposed to reduce it from 168 grains to 140, to keep pace with the price of copper. This reduction, Mr. I. said, was not much, unless cents were made a legal tender, which it had always been his intention to oppose. As, by the Constitution of the United States, the States cannot make anything but gold and silver a legal tender, he thought it better that the Government of the United States should not do, in this respect, what the States are forbidden to do. With regard to the dollar, no reduction in value was proposed the size of the dollar was now complained of. The slight change proposed in its composition by this bill would render the bulk and weight somewhat less, whilst the quantity of silver remained the same. As to the gold coin, no change was proposed. As to the general character and tendency of the bill, Mr. I. also made some remarks. The Mint, he said, had remained under the same regulations, with little variation, from the year 1791 to this time. The length of time which had intervened rendered a revision of the system necessary. The great object of the present bill was to produce a complete organization, a system of arrangement, a plan of business, which should be perfect, so as to enable all who have business with the Mint to have a distinct and clear understanding of what is to be done on the part of the Public, and of the individuals themselves who are employed by the Public to superintend and conduct its operations. This would not have been so necessary, as a system has in fact grown up from usage, but from the establishment of branches in connection with the progress of gold-mining in our own country, & c. Mr. I. expatiated at large, and much more particularly than we have stated, on the advantages and benefits which would be secured or promoted by various provisions of the bill.

On motion of Mr. INGERSOLL, the bill was then amended by striking out so much as makes cents and parts of cents a legal tender.

Mr. ADAMS then moved to strike out the whole of the section which goes to fix the weight of the cent and parts of a cent, so as to leave the copper coin where it is. In reply to the suggestion of Mr. INGERSOLL, that the reduction of the weight of the cent from 168 grains to 140 was a small affair, Mr. A. remarked that that gentleman would not probably consider it a very small affair if, on a larger scale, a debtor owing him 168 dollars, or hundreds of dollars, were to offer to pay him with 140. The effect of such a reductions of the value of the coin would be to drive it from circulation into the hands of speculators, whilst the Mint might not in many years be able to supply its place with a sufficient number of cents of the new coinage. As to the argument in favor of a new coinage, founded on the increasing price of copper, Mr. A. said he did not know what the price of it now was, but it was low enough to allow of cents being made of the same weight as at present and still leave a profit to the Government. All profit thus made was a tax upon the People; and reducing the weight would, in the case of the copper coin, be only taking so much more from the People. Reduction of the weight of coin, he also argued, facilitates the obliteration and wearing down of it, and was therefore inexpedient.

Mr. McKIM gave the committee some information in relation to the price of copper, which he said had risen, within six or eight months, as much as 25 per cent.--from 17 cents to 21 or 22 cents per pound--so that, to prevent cents from being melted up, the weight of them ought to be reduced. As much copper was received from the mines as ever, but the increase consumption of the article had advanced the price.

Mr. INGERSOLL suggested that striking out the section would (as all former laws were repealed) leave the country without copper coin, which, he presumed, was not the intention of the gentleman who moved to strike it out. If the object was to leave the copper coin unchanged, it would be readily attained by striking out 140 in the present bill, and inserting 168 grains as the weight for the cent, & c.

Mr. HARPER (of Pa.) said that, at the weight of 168 grains, a pound of copper would yield within a fraction of 47 cents; and that was a sufficient gain, even at the present price of copper, as stated by the gentleman from Maryland. Mr. H. therefore moved to strike out 140 and insert 168 grains as the weight of the cent.

Mr. McKIM said that it was of raw copper he spoke, when he stated the current price at 21 or 22 cents. The price of manufactured copper was 31 or 32 cents. Something like 10 per cent, was lost in the refining of it.

Mr. GILLETT, (of New York) after suggesting that the People, and not the Government, would be gainers by a reduction of the weight of the value would certainly be increased by the reduction, is in their hands, said that this was a subject to which he had given much attention, having examined and compared the laws, & c. From the statute-book it was impossible , he said, for any man to understand that the cent is to consist of 168 grains of copper. He had himself, like the gentleman from Massachusetts, supposed that the legal weight of the cent was 208 grains; for so says the statute. But he understood that in some law, which he had not met with in the course of his examination, the Executive was authorized to fix the weight of the copper coin by proclamation, and that it had been so fixed at 168 grains. But the statute-book does not show it, and he had not been able to find the proclamation. It was, therefore, a matter of high necessity to pass a law which should embrace all existing provisions respecting the weight and value of coins, & c.

The committee then divided on Mr. HARPER'S motion; and it was discovered that there was not a quorum present. So the committee rose, and the House then adjourned.