4. (1875) All greenbacks were to become redeemable in specie on January 1, 1879.

5.  To get specie, bonds might be issued.

%515.  Bland Silver Bill; Silver remonetized.%—­Against the continuance of this policy the majority of the House stood pledged.  Before the session closed, therefore, two bills passed the House.  One repealed so much of the act of 1875 as provided for the retirement of greenbacks and the issue of bonds.  The second was brought in by Mr. Bland of Missouri, and is still known by his name.  It provided

1.  That the silver dollar should again be coined, and at the ratio of 16 to 1; that is, that the same number of dollars should be made out of sixteen pounds of silver as out of one pound of gold.

2.  That silver should be a legal tender, at face value, for all debts, public and private.

3.  That all silver bullion brought to the mints should be coined into dollars without cost to the bringer.  This was “free coinage of silver.”

The House passed the bill, but the Senate rejected the “free coinage” provision and substituted the “Allison” amendment.  Under this, the Secretary of the Treasury was to buy not less than $2,000,000, nor more than $4,000,000, worth of silver bullion each month, and coin it into dollars.

The House accepted the Senate amendment, and when Hayes vetoed the bill Congress passed it over his veto and the “Bland-Allison Bill” became a law in 1878.

%516.  Silver Certificates.%—­Now this return to the coinage of the silver dollar was open to the objection that large sums in silver would be troublesome because of the weight.  It was therefore provided that the coins might be deposited in the Treasury, and paper “silver certificates” issued against them.

A few months later, January 1, 1879, the government returned to specie payment, and ever since has redeemed greenbacks in gold, on demand.

%517.  Foreign Relations; the French in Mexico.%—­The statement was made that with the exception of Russia the great powers of Europe sympathized with the South during the Civil War.  Two of them, France and Great Britain, were openly hostile.  The French Emperor allowed Confederate agents to contract for the construction of war vessels in French ports,[1] and sent an army into Mexico to overturn that republic and establish an empire.  Mexico owed the subjects of Great Britain, France, and Spain large sums of money, and as she would not pay, these three powers in 1861 sent a combined army to hold her seaports till the debts were paid.  But it soon became clear that Napoleon had designs against the republic, whereupon Great Britain and Spain withdrew.  Napoleon, however, seeing that the United States was unable to interfere because of the Civil War, went on alone, destroyed the Mexican republic and made Maximilian (a brother of the Emperor of Austria) Emperor of Mexico.  This was in open defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, and though the United States protested, Napoleon paid no attention till 1865.  Then, the Civil War having ended, and Sheridan with 50,000 veteran troops having been sent to the Rio Grande, the French soldiers were withdrawn (1867), and the Mexican republican party captured Maximilian, shot him, and reestablished the republic.