Lot 324
1878. Rutherford B. Hayes On The Coinage Of The Silver Dollar-His State-of-the-Union Message and His Veto of the Bland-Allison Act
Presentation copy, first edition booklet "Annual Message of the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress at the Commencement of the Third Session of the Forty-Fifth Congress," signed on the front wrapper, "With Compliments of R.B. Hayes," with "Message of the President of the United States returning to the House of Representatives With His Veto, The Bill Entitled 'An Act to Authorize the Coinage of the Standard Silver Dollar and to Restore Its Legal-Tender Character," Washington: Government Printing Office,1878, 21 pages and 5 pages. The first front and second back covers are present but separated with some edge chips; the inside pages are lightly toned but fine.
In 1873, Congress outlawed silver as legal tender, influenced by conservative industrial and banking proponents of the gold standard. The depression in the following years brought cries for the restoration of the silver dollar, particularly from Southern and Western mining interests and debtors. The Bland-Allison Act required the U.S. Treasury to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month at market prices; the silver was to be coined into silver dollars at a ratio of 16:1 to gold; i.e., 16 ounces of silver would be equivalent to one ounce of gold. The silver dollars thus made would be legal tender for all debts.
Hayes vetoed the bill, stating, "It is my firm conviction that if the country is to be benefited by a silver coinage, it can de done only by the issue of silver dollars of full value, which will defraud no man…." Although Congress overrode Hayes' veto and the bill passed, the Hayes administration circumvented the bill by having the Treasury Department never buy more than the $2 million minimum amount of silver bullion and never circulating the silver dollars. The Bland-Allison Act was replaced in 1890 by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
Estimated Value $400 - 600.
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