Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1893 — SPEECH OF HON. D. W. VOORHEES. [ARTICLE]

SPEECH OF HON. D. W. VOORHEES.

[Concluded.] I said I wanted something better when we repeal the Sherman act. lam giving you someth, ng better. The worst that can be is the Sherman act. The best that can be is to carry out what we declare we intend to do. Liet us see how it reads. The Senator from Colorado honored me by reading some of my utte ances awhile ago. Lc t me read some here: [jAr.d it is hereqy declaied to be the polioy of the United states to continue the use of both gold and silver.as standard money—j . L UnAn honest pledge. Does somebody dare to say that will mean nothing after the Congress of the United States has uttered it as its official position ?- and to coin both gold and silver into money of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value, suoh equality to be secured thro’ international agreement, or by suoh safeo guards of legislation as will insure the maintenance of the parity in value of the coins of the two metals, and the equal power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the payment of delts. — And tis hereby further declared that the efforts of the Government should be steaaily directed to t e estaDlishment of suoh a safe system of • imetalium as will mai - t«in at all times thu equal power of every dollar coined or issued by the United States, in the markets and in the payment of debts.

Mr. Morgan. If it would not interrupt the Senator from Indiana too much to ask him a question in regard to the part of the bill u eis reading, I should like to know what the reason was for changing the language of the bill as it came to us from the other House containing a pledge of the faith ai d credit of the United States Government in favor of the remonetization of silver? Mr. Voorhees. 1 have the floor and if the Senator from Alabama wants to make an impu atiO > that we struck out that cla 80 ii bad faith, he can mal e it in his >wi. time. Mr.' Morgan. Mr. President— Mr. Voorhees I decAne to j i«ld to the Senator from Alabama. 1 will be glad if he will just wait. Mr. Morgan. Will the Senater hear my question? Mr. Voorhees. 1 decline to yield to the Senator from Alabama. Mr. Morgan. You will have an opportunity to hear me. Mr- Voorhees. You will Have plent of opportunities; there is no doubt about that. The Vice-President. The Senator from Indiana has the floor and declines to be interrupted. Mr. Voorhees. The Senator Alabama will have an opportunity I.eVeafter t criticise the Committee on Finance.

Mr. Morgan. 1 was asking a questio ' for information. Mr. Voorhees. Mr. President Mr. Moigan. The S nator refuree to hear tbequestion ard turns loose upon me as if I were casting an imputation upon him. Mr. Voorhees. We had suffix cient reasons for wlint we did. 1 propose briefly and tersely, not to speak at length this morning, to discuss al ew poin's made necessary : n mv min iby the Senator from Colorado. But for him 1 would not be on the floor. 1 say that we have offer d something better, w e have offered the high pledge of the Government for the continued use and the conti"t, ued coinage of the two metals. It is well krown, the Senator from Colorado is not in doubt about my position, that when the pending measure is out of the way, when the Sherman law no longer disgraces the statute books of the nation, I am ready to act promptly anu with all the energy and force that I can bring to bear to carry out the pledge which the bill contains.

Now, Mr. President, a word or two more. In connection with what took place here in February last, j what 1 said the 1 have said since, and I reintroduce it because it j sounds well to my own ears: Yon might as well authorize a circulat- ( ing medium based upon tobacco by the hogshead, or cotton by the bale as upon 1 silver in its bullion shape. It must be coined into mone , and such is the position of the Democratic party as declared in national convention. I own no silver mines; I am interested in none; the people I represent h ve no j int' rest in silver bullion; thiy are interested sfmply in the • r< at dollar with which their t athers bough' the country in which they live; cultivated it, and made it pros--1 p r and bloom as it is blooming to-dav. 1 further said in that connection: « * * » « * * 1 There are two cl s«es of financiers in thi° country on the subject of the metals. The one is wedded en irelv to gold; the other i« prsotically solid for silve . Sir, I am wed ed to both metals, and I intend fair play for both. It a gentleman’s word is not to i e taken on this flooY let us stop

controversy. lam for gold and silver money upon terms of equality before the law, because 1 cm ceive that to be for the best interests ~f the busine s people of the United States. Sir, 1 knew 1 was to be arraigned when this controversy began* I have studiously ..voided putting any acrimony in this debate, nor shall 1 depart from that line hereafter; but 1 wish to say a word or two more about my position on this subject. The; senator from Colorado arraigned me, not|m?rely to day but at other times, not quite directly, but by high and amazed periods of inquiry or suggestion or inuendo, as having been false to the cause oi silver moue;. let us see, between hit. and m?, who has been the best friend of silver money. Sir, in 1890, Ivoed in this body for the free coinage of silver money. The senator himself voted tor this miserable “makeshift,” “the Sherman act,” which has crushed silver money into the dirt. He thought it was a bonanza He thought it guaranteed the sale of all that the bowels of the earth contained out in his part of the country. 1 knew it would destroy silver money, :ii.d said so at the time. Let us see, as if we w >re before his own people, who is the enemy of silver. 1 would gladly meet mm there. The Sherman act has come as a blight; it has been destruction to silver money; it has curstd the country; it has demonetized silver momy nearly onehalf; it has taken away the money value from silver. Sir, when ihat measure was brought forward here as s substitute for the free and honest coinage of silver, I said on the Btb of July, 1890. speaking of the Sherman fill then pending in the Senate as reported from a com mittee of conference of the two Hoc ses:

What is the spectacle presented here in this body? lam amazed. I will not u* e offensive langua >e, but I am amazed at the hardihood of Senators who stand up in this body to take back all we said, and all we did, and nil we voted for within the last three or four weeks. Seventeen majority of the Senate of the United States is treated as ohaff. One-fifth of this body was embodied in a majority on this subject. Seventeen majoritv for the free ooinage of silver, and the representatives of this body on the conferen e committee have tieated that expression as idle, and it is to go for naught. Then I foretold die future better than men usually do. JJpeaking further on that occasion, I said: Mr. Presidert, I will not say this bill is a oheat, I will not say it is a fraud, because of the presence*l am in, but under its| align influences I will say that silver, instead of reviving ns a ourrency, instead of being more potent as as a factor for the people’s prosperitv.will wither, shrink back, and take its place as a miserable commodity instead of being clothed with the dignity of money. That is what I said then ;and you, sir. voted for a measure that made silver money shrink back demonetized it almost one-half. I foretold that it would sohapp?n. I stood then for the honest coinage of silver money upon terms making it the equil of gold. I stand there now. Of the senators from the silver states L have always spoken kindly, for so I feel. 1 think 1 will not be criticised for any hostility toward them when my remarks are remembered in opening this debate; but I say to them they ought to be more forbearing at this time. They theme selves made he law which rui led their mines, their r eople out of employment. Your votes mad,the law that did it; the record shows it; and but <or your votes it would not have been made Had those senate) s stood where I stood, and denounced the legislation which made silver shr vel into a marketable commodity like tobacco, colon, corn, or pig iron, the scenes throagh which we have passed would never have taken place. And yet l am to be arraigned! Sir, 1 am willing to go before Ihe people of Cobrado or any one of the silver states an i meet the question in joint discussion with silver state senators, and

prove to their own voting popular tion that they themse ves are the worst enemies silver has had; that, so fir as 1 am concerned, 1 have been an infinitely better friend of silver money than they have beon; and that Pis theirown course, their own work, which has destroyed, bbghted, withered silver into its present deplo>able co’.di ion. 1 stood by silver money in 1890,! as 1 have alwavs, and voted against j the Sherman net 1 then went] home, if l may be pardoned such an allus’ou, to the great people who have honored me so long with a seat here. My successor was to be eh e.ted b the legislature then immediately to b* chosen. After voting in Jaly 1 vent to my borne (find canvassed the great state of Indiana from the Illinois Jo ths Ohio line, from the Jakes on the north to the Ohio iveron thepordh j and in every speech, a candidate myself for the place 1 now fill, 1 , dor ouDced the legislation knowr *as the "nerman act. 1 denounced

it in the spirit and in the language 1 had used here on this floor in opposing it. 1 said then to the people of Indiana what would hapen; that it was a bill passed inen rmty to silver and of Republican origin, an origin hostile, as 1 said —meaning no discourtesy, to anybody on tlteotlie ’sideof the Chamber —hostile to silver as one of the money metals of the fathers. [JJir, what was the result? The senator from Colorado presumes to tell me, and to appeal to me, to be true to my people. JJir, with the words of that canvass ringing in their ears, spoken from evry stump in the state, such a majority was piven me for re-election as no man, Whig, Republican, Democrat, or candidate of any other party, ever received in the great state of Indiana—a majoritvnl mostdoubie even what I haa ever rereived before, a majority of 690 n jo ; nt ballot in her legiriatu e.

1 am willing, sir, to go back to the embrace of that people. |1 hear no protest there; no reproaches;no angrv arraignment, or accusations of b-trayal or bad faith. They know perfectly well that 1 am acting in Harmony with my entirfe position on this subject. 1 opposed the {Sherman act, and said wHat would happen. JVfy opposition has been proved correct, and it has also been proved the friends of the JJherman act destroyed silver an 4 reduced it to its present low and fallen estate. Yet the senator from Colorado assumes now again that he must have his way entirely. He had His wav three years ago, and curses came with his methods. 1 propose now to have thfe right way, if 1 can execute the will of the American people and the will 6f the American senate, by a large majority. The senators from the silver states, 1 say, with all due kindness to them, ought to trust those men now on this question whose judgment has proven true in the past and whose fidelity nobody has the right to impugn. Sir, the senator from Colorado saw fit to arraign the President of the United “tates. The President of the United States needs less defense than any public m»n in the world. He needs none. H% has had the mightiest bulwarks of detens* built up around him at the ballot box. The public confidence in him to-day is supreme. The senator, however criticises his letter to the gov rnor of Georgia. I stand by the terms of that letter. He says this act now on the statute books can not be built upon or patched with any profit. The right way, senators, is to clear the deck, have a free field of action. You Say you are afraid of the President The President of the United JJJtates will execute the will of the American people when it is ascertained. The President of the United Jtates does not deal m double words. I trust him on his letter of acceptance and his letter to Governor Northern and on all his public acts, and the American people trust him. I repeat, Mr. President, the senator from Colorado knows that without the resolution wbichlHe has offered here, the subject of silver willbe taken up, not by its enemies this time, tuch as passed the “herraen act, but by frmncls, a majority of whom aie on the Finance Committee, and it will be dealt with be - comingly, fairlv and honestly. Mr, i’fller itid Mr. McPherson addressed the Chair. Tb. Vice-President. The Chair recognizes the senator from Colorado as having first addressed th j Chair Mr. Morgan. Will the senator from Colorado yield to me for a very few moments? Mr. Teller. I yield to the senator from Alabama. Mr. Morgan The question 1 was about to state to the seuat r from Indiana w. en he was ou his feet contained no impeachment or imputation ng. inEt him or th. Committee on Finance or anybody else.

Mr. Morgan. Here is the pledge in the bill as it came from the other House - And the faith and credit of the United States are hereby pledged to maintain tbe parity of the standard gold and silver coins of the United Stateß at the present legal ratio, or such other ratio, a$ maybe established by law. That is the pledge made tu the bill as it passed the House The j senate committee abandoned that ■ and rubsututed in place of it the following: ; ™And it is Hereby declared to t>3 the policy of the United Steles to coutiue tbe use of both ■ old and silver as s'andard j aoney, and to coin both gold and silver into money of equal intrinsic and ex changeable valne. such equality 'o be secured through international agreement, or by such safeguards of legislation as will insure the maintenance of the parity fn value of the coin o of the two nn-tals, and the jequal power of every dollar »t j all times in the markets and in tbe payment of debts. Now, Mr. President, what 1 wanN ed to inquire about, and get inI formation upoti from the chairman

of the Committee ou Finance,Mas why the j ledge rs ‘he faith and "redit of the United JJJtates, which I have just read, was abandoned by the Senate oommitt e and a declaration of poky was substituted in the plaoe of it That is all. That was the whole drift and of my question. It was a legitimate question. There was nothing in it to exoite irritation or anger or anticipated iinput > - tion upon any member of that committee; I did not mean it, and I do not now so mean it; but I intend to give the Senator from Indiana an opportunity of explaining that olear backdown frun tho lan guage of the bill os it passed the House before he gets my vote upon this question.