the members of the commission, proposed in the House of Representatives the re-establishment of the double standard, at the old ratio of 1:15.988, with free coinage of silver.
The question of resumption was pressing near. On the 1st January 1879 the States were to return Page 262 to cash payments. On what basis should that return be effected? Should the Act of 1873 be maintained, or should a return be made to the bimetallic system which had prevailed before then? The Government was of the former opinion; the majority of Congress of the latter.
The silver party, finding the measure could not be carried over the veto of the president, agreed to a compromise, under which the free coinage clause was dropped, and it was as a compromise that the Bland Act so-called, the "Act to authorise the coinage of the standard silver dollar, and to restore its legal tender character," passed on the 28th February 1878.
To the favourers of a gold system it was conceded that in the maintenance of the previous legal ratio of 15.988, the silver dollar should be reserved for Treasury reckonings, and a maximum minting limit of 4 million dollars monthly should be fixed. The bimetallists gained the fixing of a minimum limit of 2 million dollars monthly of silver coinage, and the clause enjoining the President of the United States to take steps for the meeting of an international conference.
This scheme became law immediately, and on the 1st January 1879 the United States resumed specie payment. As far as the actual circulation of the country is concerned