Often blamed by those who deemed the act a crime was British financial writer Ernest Seyd, who had given advice as to the text of the bill, as attested by Congressman Hooper on the House floor in 1872. Seyd, according to this theory, was the agent of a group of British holders of American bonds, who had sent Seyd to America with £100,000 (then about $550,000) to bribe congressmen into demonetizing silver. Kelley denied this had taken place, but the story stuck, and became a common belief in the silver movement. In 1890, Seyd's corrupt involvement was asserted on the floor of the House of Representatives by Arkansas's Thomas C. McRae. Seyd was in fact an ardent bimetallist who strongly objected to the American demonetization of silver. He had submitted, at Hooper's request, an analysis of the bill in the course of which he advocated retaining the silver dollar as a legal tender.