Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1878 — THE FINANCIAL ISSUE. [ARTICLE]

THE FINANCIAL ISSUE.

Senator Cockrell on the Remonetization of I **"’cjo*3* 1 fl Secretary Stairs. Senator Sternal.

Honesty East and West—The Frightful Befits of Contraction. Silver Kemonetlzatioa—Remarks of Sena- ♦«» - [From the Senate Proceedings ] I Mr. Cockrell was in favor of the Matthews resolution. He argued that silver was still a legal tender of the United States. The customs regulations of 1874 provided that silver dollars, though no longer coined or issued, were receivable for duties and imports in unlimited sums, and subsidiary silver coin was receivable to the extent of $5. Mr. Conant, late Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, in a letter directed in 1875 to the Surveyor of Customs at St. Louis, stated that silver dollars were receivable for duties on imports to an unimited extent. Thus the Government officials proclaimed the silver dollar as a legal tender. He argued that the bondholder knew that the dollar named in his bond meant the silver coin of 412 X grains, or the gold coin of 25 8-10 grains. Silver dollars had been practically as much in circulation as money since 1861 as gold. Neither metal had been actually used and circulated as money in the business of the country since that time. Mr. Cockrell then quoted extensively from statistics, showing the coinage of gold and silver, and called particular attention to the following figures: The coinage of the silver dollar in 1868 was $54,800; in 1869, $231,350; in 1870, $588,308; in 1871, $657,929; in 1872, $1,112,296, and in 1873, up to the time silver was demonetized, the coinage amounted to $977,155. Had coinage been continued that year it would have amounted to $1,571,102. These facts were not mere assertions. They showed a rapid and wonderful increase in silver coinage. The gold coinage in 1868 was $10,550; in 1869, $5,295; in 1870, $93,300; in 1871, $3,940; in 1872, $1,080; in 1873, $252,000; in 1874, $323,920, and in 1875 it fell to the enormous sum of S2O.

Mr. Bayard inquired if the Senator in preparing his table had not counted each piece of silver coined as a dollar. Did not the tables show that the value of gold coined was five times as much as that of silver? Mr. Cockrell replied that his tables were correct. He knew that assertions had been published in newspapers and made in speeches, and went forth as facts, though they were not true. The Government officials had falsified facts. He then argued that all subsidiary silver coined prior to the act of April 1, 1853, was full legal tender for all debts, public and private. Prior to that date the half dollar, quarter dollars. 10 and 5-cent pieces were proportionately of the same value as the silver dollar of 412)i grains. All subsidiary coin issued prior to the act of April 1, 1853, was to-day vested with unlimited legal-tender power, and the Government must receive such coin in payment of all customs dues. Mr. Bayard said the Senator would recollect that in 1853, when six and seven-tenths grains were taken out of every half dollar, it was because they could not be kept in the country. They were swept out of this country, where they were undervalued, and went to other countries, where they were properly valued. Mr. Cockrell said that in the Western country there were many silver halves and quarters coined prior to 1853 still in use. Many of them had been locked up for years, and were brought out since the close of the war. He argued that the bondholder had no right to question the power of Congress in regard to coining money and regulating its value. They had no right to complain, because, no matter what happened, they would still be paid in coin of the standard of value of July 14, 1870. He then referred to the assurances of Government officers that bonds would be paid in gold, and argued that these officials had no right to modify the plain words of the law. They could not change the terms of the coniract. Officers of Government were administrators of law, and not law-makers, and no one knew this better than the present Secretary of the Treasury. He then quoted from the recent report that an officer was urgently recommending Congress io give sanction to his assurance that the bonds would be paid in gold. The Secretary had dared to give unauthorized assurances to bondholders, but he had not dared to issue a single bond contrary to law To claim now that the United States must pay its bonds in gold on account of the assurance of the Secretary of the Treasury, was scarcely less than a erime. The cry of “repudiation,” “violating national honor,” “impugning the faith of the Government,” and so on, had Deen heard far and wide from the Eastern press and from bondholders, their allies and friends. Western men in favor of the remonetization of silver had been stigmatized as lunatics. He (Cockrell) was as firmly devoted to the maintenance of the national hopor as any of these Pharisees, and he hurled back, with scorn and contempt, their imputations. He stood upon the floor of this Senate as one of the Senators of the great State of Missouri, and demanded for the people the enforcement of a contract He boldly asserted that to pay the bonds in gold and silver, or in silver alone, was in perfect compliance with the plain words of the law, and wiui all the recognized principles of honesty and national honor. He charged these crimes of repudiation upon those who upheld the bondholders. The people whom he represented, with the bayonets of truth in their hands, would drive them into a decent observance of the plain terms of the law. The bondholders, by their false cries, were attempting to foster their high crimes and misdemeanors upon those who desired to comply in good faith with the letter and spirit of the law. The tax-payers of the country had their rights, one of which was to pay the bonds silver, and they would never surrender that right. The people could not and would not pay gold alone. He heartily approved the resolution of the Senator from Ohio, and it was the imperative duty of Congress to-day not only to pass this resolution, but also to re-? store free coinage of the silver dollar by passing the Silver bill.