The subject was first introduced by Mr.Alley of Massachusetts.

On the 18th of December (1865) he offered a resolution concurring in the views of the Secretary of the Treasury, in relation to the necessity for a contraction of the currency, with a view to as early a resumption of specie payment as the business interests of the country would permit.
Under a suspension of the rules, without debate, 144 voted for the resolution, 6 against it, and 32 were not recorded.

Two months later, on the 21st of February, 1866, Mr.Morrill, from the Committee on Ways and Means, reported a bill which, as he explained, would expand the authority provided by the Act of March 3, 1865, for funding interest-bearing obligations, so as to include non-interest-bearing obligations.

The measure authorized the Secretary to exchange the bonds prescribed by the Act for notes or certificates, and power was given to negotiate them and make them payable either in the United States or elsewhere, but if beyond the sea at not over five per cent interest.
-- Mr.Thaddeus Stevens declared that the bill put over _sixteen hundred millions_ of Government paper under the absolute and uncontrolled discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury.

"This is a tremendous bill," said he.