It is said that the silver dollar made a legal tender by this bill will under its operation be equivalent in value to the gold dollar.  Many supporters of the bill believe this, and would not justify an attempt to pay debts, either public or private, in coin of inferior value to the money of the world.  The capital defect of the bill is that it contains no provision protecting from its operation preexisting debts in case the coinage which it creates shall continue to be of less value than that which was the sole legal tender when they were contracted.  If it is now proposed, for the purpose of taking advantage of the depreciation of silver in the payment of debts, to coin and make a legal tender a silver dollar of less commercial value than any dollar, whether of gold or paper, which is now lawful money in this country, such measure, it will hardly be questioned, will, in the judgment of mankind, be an act of bad faith.  As to all debts heretofore contracted, the silver dollar should be made a legal tender only at its market value.  The standard of value should not be changed without the consent of both parties to the contract.  National promises should be kept with unflinching fidelity.  There is no power to compel a nation to pay its just debts.  Its credit depends on its honor.  The nation owes what it has led or allowed its creditors to expect.  I can not approve a bill which in my judgment authorizes the violation of sacred obligations.  The obligation of the public faith transcends all questions of profit or public advantage.  Its unquestionable maintenance is the dictate as well of the highest expediency as of the most necessary duty, and should ever be carefully guarded by the Executive, by Congress, and by the people.

It is my firm conviction that if the country is to be benefited by a silver coinage it can be done only by the issue of silver dollars of full value, which will defraud no man.  A currency worth less than it purports to be worth will in the end defraud not only creditors, but all who are engaged in legitimate business, and none more surely than those who are dependent on their daily labor for their daily bread.

R.B.  HAYES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 6, 1878.

To the House of Representatives:

I return herewith House bill No. 3072, entitled “An act to authorize a special term of the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of Mississippi to be held at Scranton, in Jackson County,” with the following objections to its becoming a law: 

The act provides that a special term of the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of Mississippi shall be held at Scranton, in Jackson County, Miss., to begin on the second Monday in March, 1878, and directs the clerk of said court to “cause notice of said special term of said court to be published in a newspaper in Jackson, Miss., and also in a newspaper in Scranton, at least ten days before the beginning thereof.”