debts and demands, at the rate of 100 cents for every 27 grs. of their actual weight, those of France and Spain at the rate of 100 cents for every 27 2⁄5 grains.
For a period the system established in 1792 went on, although the ratio established was prejudicial to gold. But, twenty years after, the natural result arrived in America, as in England, and the circulation of gold was completely extinguished in the States by the unseen withdrawal of the metal.
In obedience to a resolution of the Senate of 3rd March 1817, John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, produced a report on weights and measures, in Page 254 which he impugned the correctness of the data on which Hamilton had based his reckoning in 1791.
Two years later, 26th January 1819, a committee of the House reported an ill-considered scheme, recommending a change in the ratio in favour of gold, and the imposition of a heavy seigniorage on silver. On the 1st of March following, the House of Representatives directed the secretary to report such measures as might be expedient to procure and retain a sufficient quantity of gold and silver coin in the United States.
In this report, in referring to one feature in the previous crisis, namely, the necessity in 1814 for the suspension of specie payments, Secretary Crawford stated that, from the commencement of the war until that event of 1814, a large amount of specie was taken out of the United States by the sale of English Government bills, at a discount frequently of 15 to 20 per cent.