The earliest use of the phrase "Crime of 1873" in congressional debate was by Colorado Senator Henry M. Teller, who on July 10, 1890, stated, "the fight for free coinage silver is on, and it will stay on, too, till the will of the people shall be heard in the enactment of a law that shall put silver back where it belongs and where it would have been but for the blunder or the crime of 1873". The act had long been referred to as a "crime" without the exact phrase being used; in one 1889 speech, Nevada Senator William M. Stewart called it a "crime" seven times. He had voted for it in 1873.