People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1896 — It Was Astonishing Information. [ARTICLE]

It Was Astonishing Information.

When Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson devised- the system of American coinage, they adopted the metallic plan for the express and direct purpose of securing to the American people, as a protection against all fluctuations in the relative value of gold and silver, the option to pay debts in coin of either metal. We continued the system in this country until 1876; the people were astounded with the information that in 1873-4 we had abolished the coinage of the silver dollar, and declared it no longer a legal tender. —Chicago Tribune, January 25, 1878.