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being hereby supplemented and amended so as to further provide as follows: "That whenever, in any county or parish, in any congressional district, there shall be ten citizens thereof of good standing who, prior to any registration of voters for an election for representative in Congress, or prior to any election at which a representative in Congress is to be voted for, shall make known, in writing, to the judge of the circuit court of the United States for the district wherein such county or parish is situate, their desire to have said registration or election both guarded and scrutinized, it shall be the duty of the said judge of the circuit court, within not less than ten days prior to said registration or election, as the case may be, to open the said court at the most convenient point in said district; and the said court, when so opened by said judge, shall proceed to appoint and commission, from day to day, and from time to time, and under the hand of the said judge, and under the seal of said court, for such election district or voting precinct in said congressional district, as shall, in the manner herein prescribed, have been applied for, and to revoke, change, or renew said appointment from time to time, two citizens, residents of said election district or voting precinct in said county or parish, who shall be of different political parties, and able to read and write the English language, and who shall be known and designated as supervisors of election; and the said court, when opened by the said judge as required herein, shall, therefrom and thereafter and up to and including the day following the day of the election, be always open for the transaction of business under this act; and the powers and jurisdiction hereby granted and conferred shall be exercised, as well in vacation as in term time; and a judge, sitting at chambers, shall have the same powers and jurisdiction, including the power of keeping order and of punishing any contempt of his authority, as when sitting in the court: Provided, That no compensation shall be allowed to the supervisors herein authorized to be appointed, except those appointed in cities or towns of twenty thousand or more inhabitants. And no person shall be appointed under this act as supervisor of election who is not at the time of his appointment a qualified voter of the county,

parish, election district, or voting precinct for which he is appointed. And no person shall be appointed deputy-marshal under the act of which this is amendatory, who is not a qualified voter at the time of his appointment, in the county, parish, district, or precinct in which his duties are to be performed. And section thirteen of the act of which this is an amendment shall be construed to authorize and require the circuit courts of the United States in said section mentioned to name and appoint, as soon as may be after the passage of this act, the commissioners provided for in said section, in all cases in which such appointments have not already been made in conformity therewith. And the third section of the act to which this is an amendment shall be taken and construed to authorize each of the judges of the circuit courts of the United States to designate one or more of the judges of the district courts within his circuit to discharge the duties arising under this act or the act to which this is an amendment. And the words' any person' in section four of the act of May thirtyfirst, eighteen hundred and seventy, shall be held to include any officer or other person having powers or duties of an official character under this act or the act to which this is an amendment: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be so construed as to authorize the appointment of any marshals or deputy-marshals in addition to those heretofore authorized by law: And provided further, That the supervisors herein provided for shall have no power or authority to make arrests or to perform other duties than to be in the immediate presence of the officers holding the election, and to witness all their proceedings, including the counting of the votes and the making of a return thereof. And so much of said sum herein appropriated as may be necessary for said supplemental and amendatory provisions is hereby appropriated from and after the passage of this act."

No. 96. Coinage Act

February 12, 1873

THE need of a revision of the laws relating to the mints, assay offices, and coinage was suggested as early as 1866, and April 25, 1870, a report on the subject, prepared by John Jay Knox, comptroller of the currency, was submitted to Congress, together with the draft of a bill. A bill in accordance with this report was reported in the Senate, December 19, 1870, by Sherman, and passed that body January 10, 1871. A substitute reported in the House February 25 was recommitted. A second bill to the same effect was introduced in the House, March 3, by William D. Kelley of Pennsylvania, and referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. The bill was not reported until January 9, 1872, and the next day was recommitted. A bill with similar title was reported, February 9, by Hooper of Massachusetts, and also recommitted. The latter bill was taken up April 9, and May 27 a substitute offered by Hooper was passed under suspension of the rules. The Senate referred the bill to the Committee on Finance, and the session closed without further action. December 16 the bill was reported in the Senate, further amendments being reported January 7, 1873. The bill was taken up on the 17th, and passed with amendments the same day. The final form of the bill was the work of a conference committee. The omission of the standard silver dollar of 412 grains from the list of coins led later to the charge that the act aimed to demonetize silver, and caused the advocates of silver to refer to the act as the "crime of 1873." Only those sections of the act giving the list of coins are inserted here.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XVII, 424-436, passim. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 41st Cong., 3d Sess., and 42d Cong., and the Cong. Record; see also the Record, 53d Cong., Ist Sess., pp. 1219-1224. Knox's report is Senate Misc. Doc. 132, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.; the correspondence connected with it is in House Exec. Doc. 307. On the act see Dewey, Financial History, 403–405, and references there given; Sherman, Recollections, II, 1063-1065; White, Money and Banking, 213–223. An Act revising and amending the Laws relative to the Mints, Assay-offices, and Coinage of the United States.

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SEC. 14. That the gold coins of the United States shall be a one-dollar piece, which, at the standard weight of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains, shall be the unit of value ; a quarter-eagle, or two-and-a-half dollar piece; a three-dollar piece; a half-eagle,

or five-dollar piece; an eagle, or ten-dollar piece; and a double eagle, or twenty-dollar piece. And the standard weight of the gold dollar shall be twenty-five and eight-tenths grains; of the quarter-eagle, or two-and-a-half dollar piece, sixty-four and a half grains; of the three-dollar piece, seventy-seven and four-tenths grains; of the half-eagle, or five-dollar piece, one hundred and twenty-nine grains; of the eagle, or ten-dollar piece, two hundred and fifty-eight grains; of the double-eagle, or twenty-dollar piece, five hundred and sixteen grains; which coins shall be a legal tender in all payments at their nominal value when not below the standard weight and limit of tolerance provided in this act for the single piece, and, when reduced in weight, below said standard and tolerance, shall be a legal tender at valuation in proportion to their actual weight; and any gold coin of the United States, if reduced in weight by natural abrasion not more than one-half of one per centum below the standard weight prescribed by law, after a circulation of twenty years, as shown by its date of coinage, and at a ratable proportion for any period less than twenty years, shall be received at their nominal value by the United States treasury and its offices, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe for the protection of the government against fraudulent abrasion or other practices; and any gold coins in the treasury of the United States reduced in weight below this limit of abrasion shall be recoined.

SEC. 15. That the silver coins of the United States shall be a trade-dollar, a half-dollar, or fifty-cent piece, a quarter-dollar, or twenty-five-cent piece, a dime, or ten-cent piece; and the weight of the trade-dollar shall be four hundred and twenty grains troy ; the weight of the half-dollar shall be twelve grams (grammes) and one-half of a gram, (gramme;) the quarter-dollar and the dime shall be respectively, one-half and one-fifth of the weight of said half-dollar; and said coins shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for any amount not exceeding five dollars in any one payment.

SEC. 16. That the minor coins of the United States shall be a five-cent piece, a three-cent piece, and a one-cent piece, and the alloy for the five and three cent pieces shall be of copper and

nickel, to be composed of three-fourths copper and one-fourth nickel, and the alloy of the one-cent piece shall be ninety-five per centum of copper and five per centum of tin and zinc, in such proportions as shall be determined by the director of the mint. The weight of the piece of five cents shall be seventy-seven and sixteen-hundredths grains, troy; of the three-cent piece, thirty grains; and of the one-cent piece, forty-eight grains; which coins shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for any amount not exceeding twenty-five cents in any one payment.

SEC. 17. That no coins, either of gold, silver, or minor coinage, shall hereafter be issued from the mint other than those of the denominations, standards, and weights herein set forth.

No. 97. Act regarding United States Notes and National Bank Currency

June 20, 1874

A BILL "to amend the several acts providing a national currency and to establish free banking" was reported in the House, January 29, 1874, by Maynard of Tennessee, from the Committee on Banking and Currency, as a substitute for various bills previously referred to the committee. April 10 a substitute amendment was agreed to by a vote of 149 to 95, 46 not voting, and the next day the amended bill passed the House, the final vote being 129 to 116, 45 not voting. A substitute was reported in the Senate May 6, and was agreed to with various amendments on the 14th, the vote on the passage of the bill being 25 to 19. The House, by a vote of 70 to 164, disagreed to the Senate amendments. June 13 the report of a conference committee proposing the House substitute was agreed to by the Senate by a vote of 32 to 23, but rejected by the House by a vote of 108 to 146, 35 not voting. A second report was accepted June 20, in the House by a vote of 221 to 40, 28 not voting, in the Senate by a vote of 43 to 19.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XVIII, 123–125. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 43d Cong., 1st Sess., and the Cong. Record. An abstract of the original House bill is in the Record for January 29; the text of the Senate substitute, ibid., May 6. For Sherman's opinion of the act see his Recollections, I, 508.

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