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Show HOUSE Swoon reported the bill relutive to the Paris exposition. It accepts the invitation from Frunco to take part in the exposition, and appropriates $50,000. Referred. Committees were then oalled for reports of a private nature. Waddell reported a bill directing the aeoretary of the treasury to pay in full to mail contractor in southern states tbe amounts due under their respective contracts for 1859, 1860 and 1861, out of the appropriation of $375,000 made by congreaa on Mroh 3d, 1877. Referred. j Milla offered a resolution directing the military committee to inquire j into the Btrongth oi the cavalry and j infantry regiments of the army, ho, many regiments are employed upon i the Texas frontier, the character of, the troops employed there, the military mili-tary management of the frontier and what additional force is-neceaaary to proteot the people of Texas from Mexican raiders. Banning offered a substitute for the resolution directing the military committee com-mittee to inquire into the strength of the army on the firat of June, the first of September and tbe firet of November, Novem-ber, 1877, and into the expediency of reduoing and consolidating tbe army, and giving the committee power to send for persona and papers. Tbe epeaker ruled out tbe substitute and Mills' resolution was adopted. Singleton reported the deficiency bill which he will call up to-morrow. The bill appropriates the following items: For the payment of judgments of the court of claims, $7,825; library of congress, $22,800; treasury department, depart-ment, various items, $125,000; post-office post-office department, salaries, $681,681, other items, $12,500; executive office, contingencies, $3,109; house of repre-i aentativea, various itema, $11,365; supreme court, printing, $15,000; expenses ex-penses of the payment of bounty money, S10.000. Total appropriated, $1,560,623. The post office item is a reappropriation. The consideration of the bill rebit ing to resumption being resumed, the house was addressed by Hart, who opposed its paisage. Garfield said that thia was a well-discussed well-discussed topic I ts features were old. He appealed to the general judgment of mankind on the question ques-tion of currency. In 1860 there was general prosperity, and then it was the best settled of all questions that the only safe and trustworthy standard stand-ard of value was coin of ascertained weight and fineness, or a paper currency cur-rency convertible into coin at the holder's will. That waa then, and had been for a long time, tbe unanimous unani-mous opinion of the American people. peo-ple. Here and there there had been dreamers, who looked upon paper money aa the fetich ol their idolatry; but the dreamora were theu so few in number that they made no repply on the current of public thought and formed no part of public opinion. That opinion. waa then the aggregate result ot the opinions opin-ions of tbe I ore moat Americans who ever thought and wrote on that subject. sub-ject. No man had ever sat in the presidential chair and left on record any work on tbe subject which spoke of safety in finance, except in coin, or paper convertible into com. No man ever eat in the ohair of the secretary of the treasury, and spoken all on the subjects, who had not left on record an opinion equally Btrong, from Hamilton down to the father of his distinguished colleague (Ewing) and down to tbe present day. It Beemed to him that the general judgment of all who deserved to be called tbe lead-, era of American thought ought to be considered worth something in an American house oT representatives on tbe discussion of a great topic liics this. Whai had happened to pro duce the change from the general level of public opinion in 1861? Every man knew the history of the war. The overmastering necessities of tbat war had led tbe men of 1361 to depart from tbe doctrine of their lathers, but they had not departed from it as a matter of sentiment, but as a matter of overwhelming necessity. neces-sity. All who voted for tbe green back law in the house and senate had done so under protest and witb tbe declaration that at tbe earliest possible moment the country should be brought back to the old, safe, es i tablished doctrine of the fathers. Like the companions of Ulysses, tbey had lsihed themselves to the mast of public credit when they embarked on the stormy and hazardous sea of paper money, bo that tbey might not be beguiled by the syren songs which might be Bung to tbem when they were on the wild waves. But times were changed; new men were on deck. Only twelve yeara bad paaaed since the house, with only eix dissenting dissent-ing votes, resolved to stand again by the old ways to bring the country to sound money, and now what wue found? Groups of school men and doctrinaires, the latter unknown twelve years ago, were found in favor of what tbey called "absolute money," declaring tbat a piece of paper stamped "one dollar" was a dollar, that gold and silver were a part of the barbarism of the past, which ought for ever to be abandoned; that resumption re-sumption should never take place, and that tbe eras of prosperity were paper eras. Coming back to tbe prosperous pros-perous era of I860, be asserted that although banting was free there was but $207,000,000 of paper money in circulation, nnd about $200,000,000 in coin. How much waa in circulation to-day? Seven hundred and twenty-seven millions in greenback fractional currency and fractional silver and about nine millions mil-lions oi copper; in all, $736,000,000, exclusive of the gold circulating on the Pacific coast. Ho put it to tbe judgment of tbe bou3e, whether, it in I860, under free banking, with no restrictions, $407, 000,000 was the limit of the possible currency in circulation, cir-culation, almost twice that amount was needed, and hardly enough, in 1377. He put himself in the same category in which the gentleman fiom Penniylvania (Kelly) bad placpd the late secretary of the treasury, Hugh McCullocb. He (Kelly) had ruad, yesterday, three times from nn article written by that gentlem: m, aud had declared that the statement made iu tbuse lines stiowi d either unexampled un-exampled ignorance or unexampled meudaiity. What w.iu that statement? state-ment? It was that every real financial finan-cial crisis in this country bad been preceded by an enormous eulargo-meut eulargo-meut of tbe paper circulation. He (Garfield) affirmed ibui it wai true, and be challenged any una to prove to thecontrary. It bad been assumed that specie payments would injure tho debtor class and would therefore help the rich. He denied that propo eitfon in tolo. He affirmed that the vast majority of tho creditors of the country were poor men, aud tbat the vost majority of the debtor bolonged to the rich classes. Iu tbe first place tbe poor man hadto borrow money, and in the second place it waa the laboring man who placed his surplus money in tbe savings banks, and it was tbe rich who borrowed from the savings banks. Thus did tbe poor lend to tbe rich. In the name of the laboring man, therefore, he denounced the attempt to repeal the resumption law. If it wore repealed the country would be plunged into the necessity of sailing tho same tempestuous ocean with an uncertain result. If it were repealed and no substitute made for it, the day would not be far distant when congress con-gress would lookback from the depths and horrors of the evila which would surround the country for the second time and would earnestly regret the day when tho resumption act was repealed. He did not undervalue greenbacks, but when Kelly talked about greenbacks putting down the rebelliun, if he (Garfield) had been on the other side of the house he would have Baid "Oh, no, judge; we had a more liberal supply of that kind of money than you had. It waa a better money than yours, on your own principle, lor it waB to be redeemed re-deemed in Bix years after the independence inde-pendence of the confederate Btatea, and yet it did not put you down." ( Laughter. ) The struggle now pending pend-ing in the house was, on the one hand, to make the greenback better, and on tbe other to make it worse. Iu the name of every man who wanted hia own when he earned it, he demanded that oongress should not make the earned wages of the poor man to shrivel and Bhrfnk jaway, but the greenback should be i made better until tbe plow holders' j money should be aB good aa the bond-bold bond-bold en' money. This was an era of 1 pacification of the states, and the i citizens were equal before the law, so that the motto of tbe country might be "equal staler, equal men and equal dollars," and a complete pacification would be achieved. The element were all now favorable to resumption. Tbe report of the secretary of the treasury, yesterday, showed that he had sixty eix millions of coin unpledged un-pledged for any other purposes waiting as a reserve for the day of resumption. To that be waa adding Btock at the rate of five millions a month. The balance of trade wai in favor of this country to the extent of nearly $200,-000,000 $200,-000,000 a year. Exchange was flowing flow-ing this way. The harvests had been bounteous. The nat:on was awakening awaken-ing to new enterprises. Business waa everywhere reviving. There waa no danger, except from tbe congreaa of ; toe United HtateB. There was tbe storm centre, there the point of peril, j II that point would be passed and the act now threatened avoided, the country coun-try would bo safe and resumption completed. Two years ago, his col- i league (Ewing) had predicted that the silver currency then proposed to be UBued would be immediately absorbed and withdrawn Irom circulation. So ! hia colleague thought now that the gold coin would be absorbed and withdrawn from circulation. ing e:c pi aired that when he made thnt statement the country was not aware of the rascally act demonetizing silver, and silver was then at a high premium over the greenback. Garfield suggested that the trouble about the explanation was that silver coin was of 12 per cent, less value than old silver, ao that there never was the slightest danger of its being bought up for silver. Tbe gentleman (Erving) thought there was some danger about gold, but if an eastern farmer removing to the west sold bis farm for $10,000, he was likely to loud himself with forty pounds weight of gold or 640 pounds weight of silver. He would rather take his pay in ten $1,000 bills and carry it wtst in that convenient form. In conclusiou, he said: "The moment your greeu-i greeu-i back is equal to gold, it is better than gold, for it is more convenient, and as long as the people desire it to be in circulation ao long it will be, until the business of tbe country demands its removal. If any of the amendments propoee to make the resumption aot more Bafe, more certain, more caretul of tbe interests of the country, I shall cheerfully join m voting for it, but anything that takes back a promise, anything that gives up what we have gained, anything that seta us afloat again on the wild waves from which we hav nearly escaped, I will oppose, if it should coat me all the political future tbat can be offered to any American." Ameri-can." (General applause on the republican re-publican side of the house.) Buckner advocated the passage ef the bill for the repeal of the resumption resump-tion act, and said that whatever others might do, or whatever might be action of other departments of the government, the duty of the bouse, as the immediate representatives ot the people, waa plain. No one should be deluded into the support ot any of the amend menta offered. ' They should be all voted down. Tbat would insure the p usage of the bill. If tbe present policy wore persisted in, tho whole social fabric- of the country would be stricken to the foundation. The speaker stated that the operation opera-tion of the resolution adopted on the subject was tbat at tbe clese of tbe debate the previous queation would be considered as seconded; that then, if the house refused to order the main question, it would throw tbe bill back and strip it of all past agreements. The whole matter, however, waa in tbe control ol the boue. The house then look a recess till 7r30 in the evening, tbe session to be exclusively for debate on the bill. At the evening session speeches were mde by Keefer, Dunnel, Samp, son and Loring agaiast the repeal ol tbe resumption act. AJj'urned. |