Editing Thomas F. Bayard (section)

=== Gold standard ===
[[File:1856-S double eagle obverse.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Bayard was a strong supporter of gold-backed currency]]

In 1873, Congress had passed a [[Coinage Act of 1873|Coinage Act]] that regulated which coins were legal tender. The list of legal coins duplicated that of the previous coinage act, leaving off only the silver dollar and three smaller coins.{{sfn|Friedman 1990|pp=1163–1165}} The rationale in the Treasury report accompanying the draft bill was that to mint a gold dollar and a silver dollar with different intrinsic values was problematic; as the silver dollar did not circulate and the gold did, it made sense to drop the unused coin.{{sfn|Friedman 1990|pp=1163–1165}} The bill passed easily, with Bayard's support, but quickly thereafter became unpopular.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=205}} Opponents of the bill would later call this omission the "Crime of '73," and would mean it literally, circulating tales of bribery of Congressmen by foreign agents.{{sfn|Friedman 1990|pp=1165–1167}}

Over the next few years, pressure to reintroduce silver coinage grew, and cut across party lines.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=205}} In 1877, Republican Senator [[Stanley Matthews (judge)|Stanley Matthews]] of Ohio introduced a resolution to pay the national debt in silver instead of gold.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|pp=207–208}} Bayard joined several Republicans in speaking and voting against the measure, calling it "folly," but it passed the Senate 42 to 20.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=209}} Meanwhile, Democrat [[Richard P. Bland]] of Missouri furthered the silver cause from the House, proposing a [[free silver]] bill that would require the United States to buy as much silver as miners could sell the government and strike it into coins, a system that would increase the money supply and aid debtors.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|pp=206–207}}

In short, silver miners would sell the government metal worth fifty to seventy cents, and receive back a silver dollar. [[William B. Allison]], a pro-silver Republican from Iowa, offered an amendment in the Senate requiring the purchase of two to four million dollars per month of silver, but not allowing private deposit of silver at the mints.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|pp=206–207}} Thus, the [[seignorage]], or difference between the face value of the coin and the worth of the metal contained within it accrued to the government's credit, not private citizens. Bayard saw the whole effort as the path to inflation and economic ruin.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=210}} Again, he spoke against the bill, but like the Matthews resolution, the [[Bland–Allison Act]] passed both houses of Congress in 1878. President Hayes shared Bayard's fear of inflation, and vetoed the bill, but Congress mustered the two-thirds vote necessary to overturn the veto, and it became law.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=210}}