Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1895 — IT WAS NOT A TRICK. [ARTICLE]

IT WAS NOT A TRICK.

Among the many unfair statements made by the advocates of the unrestricted free coinage of silver is the claim that the silver dollar was surreptiously dropped from our coinage under the law of 1873. Even the Chicago Inter Ocean has gone so far as to say that it was done by a trick and that the bill went through congress without being understood. Coin peats this fallacy in the following langu ige: It (silver) was demonetized secretely, and since then a powerful money trust has used de--ception and misrepresentations that have led tens of thousands of honest minds astray. But probably the most disgraceful of these tactics is the statement attributed to Geneial Grant, that if he had known of this provision in the bill he would never have signed it. This statement •was never charged to Grant while he lived, but it is so easy to put language into the mouth of a man after he is dead that the extremists have little fear of contradiction. In the fall of 1893, when the repeal of the Sherman law was under discussion in the senate, Mr. Stewart of Nevada, the leader of the free silver advocates, made this charge of trickery and it was then most completely upset by Senator Sherman himself, who put Mr. Stewar, in the biggest hole he ever di opped into when he quoted from the congressional record of twenty years before, using Senator Stewart’s own language in debate. Senator Stewart not only voted rar this bill but he spoke in itsravor, and he spoke on this particular point, namely, the dropping of the standard silver dollar from the coinage of our mints and the establishment of the single gold standard. Senator Sherman showed clearly in his speech, which occupied several newspaper columns, that the dropping of the-silver dollar from our coinage was understood by every man who cared to know it. — The New York Tribune has now gone further and made a thorough investigation of all the records at Washington showing conclusively that this was one of the most thoroughly discussed and thoroughly digested pieces of legislation ever passed through congress. This law originated in 1870. The bill was drafted by a number of experts who were consult sd in varous parts of the Union. Among them were Mr. Grant’s secretary of the treasury, Mr. Boutwell, Mr. John J. Knox, Mr. Grant’s deputy comptroller of currency, Dr. Linderman, President Grant’s director of the mint, and Mr. Parsons, superintendent of the mint in Philadelphia. After a correspondence with a large number of experts upon mints and coinage, the bill was framed and with the correspondence was submitted to congress with an elaborate report from the comptroller of the currency on its provisions. The bill with the report of the comptroller was sent to the chairman of the finance committee of the senate with a letter from Mr. Boutwell, secretary of the treasury, dated April 25,1870. On Apr. 28, 1870, the bill was introduced by Senator Sherman, who submitted the letter of the secretary of the treasury and the report of Mr. Knox and the cprrespondenc of the experts and moved also the printing of 500 extra copies of the report and correspondence. (See Congressional Globe, April 28,1870 page 3051) The bill then dropped the silver dollar from the coins of the United States and made the gold dollar the unit of value in this country. In the re-

port which accompanied the bill are these words: The sliver dollar, half dime and three cenf piece are dispensed with by this amendment, Gold becomes the standard money, of which the gold dollar is the unit. Silver Is subsidiary, embracing coins from the dime to the half doliar. ■ . - , 1 - This is the language of Mr. Patterson, and is included in the report of Mr. Knox. Comptroller Knox in his own words further says: “The coinage of the silver dollar piece, the history of which is here given, is dicontinued in the proposed bill.” Mr. Knox showed that the value of thesilver dollar was at that time a fraction over a dollar find three cents, and that as a result France and other nations whose ratio between gold and silver was less than ours, were buying up our silver dollars and recoining them, and jewelers and manufacturers were melting them instead of buying bullion. The bill came to vote in the senate on the tenth of January, 1871. Thirty-six senators voted in its favor and fourteen voted against it The senators from, the Pacific slope, including Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, voted for the bill and Senator Sherman was one of the fourteen who voted against it; and yet Mr. Sherman is charged with being the chief conspirator in this crime. Mr. Sherman, in his speech of October 30, 1893, tells us that he so voted not because the bill dropped the coinage of the standard silver dollar but because it compelled the mints to coin gold free of charge and that at that time he was opposed to such a condition. . , _ - ■ The bill was sent from the senate to the house and on January 13, 1871, on motion of William D. Kelley, the senate bill was ordered printed in the house. On Feb. was chairman of the house committee on coinage, reported the bill back with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. But the substitute did not affect the provisions of the bill which dropped the standard silver dollar from our coinage or establishing the single gold standard. The Forty-First congress died on the third of March, 1871, a few days after this substitute was reported. On March 8, 1871, at the extra session of the Forty-Second congress, Mr. Kelley again introduced the bill and it was again ordered to be printed and referred to the committee on coinage when appointed. On January 9,1872, the bill was reported back to the house by Mr. Kelley, with the recommendation that it pass. The bill was read and discussed at length by Messrs. Kelley, Potter, Garfield, Manyard, Dawes, Holman and others, Mr. Kelley, .in his opening speech, said that the bill had “received as careful attentionas the committee was ever known to bestow upon any measure. We proceeded with great care to go over the bill, not only by sections but line by line and word by word” Speaking of the consideration it had received at the hands of the whole house, Mr. Kelley said:

“The attention of each member was brought to it at the earliest day of the each member procured a copy of the bill and there lias been a thorough examination of the bill again.’’ This was the language of Mr. Kelley at the time, in trying to impress upon the house that the bill had received careful consideration, and that the house was prepared to vote on the measure (see Congressional Globe, Vol. 100, page 322). But the next day, January 10, after further discussion, |the bill was again recommitted and was reported back again on Febuary 9, and after further discussion was again printed and recommitted. On April 9, 1872, the bill again came up in the house for consideration. Mr. Hooper, of the coinage committee, made a carefully prepared speech which occupied ten columns of the Congressional Globe. And Mr. Stoughton, of the same committee, made an exhaustive speech in which he used this language: "This bill provides for the making of changes In the legal tender coin of the country and substituting as legal tender, coin ofDnly one metal Instead as heretofore of two. I think, mvseif, this would be a wise provision, and that legal tender coins, except subsidiary coin, should be of gold alone.” The provision referred to by Mr. Stoughton was embraced in section 16, which re-enacted the provisions of existing laws, defining silver coins and their weights respectively, except in relation to the standard silver dollar, which had been dropped and a.trade dol-’ lar was now substituted for the convenience of our trade with Mexico and China. Mr. Kelley in his speech said: “Experience has shown that you must have one standard coin which shall be a legal tender for all others, and then you may prombte your domestic convenience by having a subsidiary coinage of silver, which shall circulate In all parts of your country as a legal tender for limited value, and be redeemable at its face value by your government,” The bill passed by the house was identical with the bill prepar-

ed by Mr.' Knox except that the Knox bill made silver a legal tender for all sums less than one dollar, while the bill of Mr. Kelley made silver coin legal tender for five dollars in any one payment -- • At the next session of congress on December 16, 1872. Mr. Sherman brought up in the senate the bill which had come back from the house and a third long debate ensued, after which the bill was again ordered to be reprinted in full with amendments. On Jan. 7, 1873, the bill was again reported with amendments "uncT again printed. It passed the senate January 17, 1873, after a discussion which filled nineteen columns of the Congressional Globe. Mr. Sherman called attention to the fact that the bill provided for the coinage of a silver trade dollar to accommodate the people of California and others engaged in trading with China. The fact that the bill did provide for a trade dollar and that subject was fully discussed, necessarily, of itself called attention to the other fact that the bill discontinued the standard silver dollar.

As the bill finally passed both houses it included a provision for the trade dollar of 420 grains intead of 412|, and it was made a legal tender to the amount of $5. In the six years that followed there were 31,699,460 of these trade dollars coined, about four times as many silver dollars as had been coined in the eighty years preceding. They remained a legal tender until July 22, 1876, when the value of the silver in the old standard dollar had dropped to eighty-nine cents and even the trade dollar was below par, when congress saw fit to further amend The bill had now been before congress almost three years. The bill was printed separately eleven times and in two reports which were sent broadcast over the country, and have been in every important public library in America for more than twenty years. The bill was read in full in the senate on several occasions and the records show that it was read in full in the house. It was considered at length by the finance committee of the senate and by the coinage committee of the house during five different sessions and the debates on the bill in the senate alone occupied sixty-six columns of the Congressional Globe. In every stage of it, it provides that the coinage of the standard dollar of 412 1-2 grains should be dropped.

In every stage it repealed the old unit of value and constituted the gold dollar the only unit of measure in this country. That point has been repeatedly pointed out and special attention called to it, and yet no one in congress had proposed to change that feature of the bill by an amendment, although some members had questioned the wisdom of this provision. General Grant was then president and this was one of the pet measures of his secretary of the treasury. And there is no more reason to suppose that the president was ignorant of the provisions of the bill than there is to suppose that Cleveland did not know of the repeal of —the Sherman law or of the passage of the Wilson bill, as this was specially and repeatedly reccommended in the official reports from the treasury department.

Whitewash lime, always on hand at Meyer’s “Old Reliable” drugstore, Also whitewash and paint brushes. See those Portiers at C. A. Leckliders at the Emporium. From $2.50 up. Now is the time to buy spring jackets at one half price at Ellis & Murray’s. When needing any insurance upon either Town or Fann property call upon Wils Porter. He is agent for this county for the old and always reliable Continental Insurance Company, for all kinds of town and farm property, buildings, tools,live stock,grain, hay etc. Insures against damage by fire, lightnings tornadoes, wind storms, <fcc. Give him a call. 3tp. A lady at Tooleys, La., was very sick with bilious colic when M. C. Tisler, a prominent merchant of the town gave her a bottle of Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy. He says she was well in forty minutes after taking the first dose. For sale by KB. Meyers, Druggist. For whooping cough Chamberlain’s cough Remedy is excellent. By using it freely the disease is deprived of all dangerous consequences. There is no danger in giving the remedy to babies, as it contains nothing injurious. 25 and 50 cent bottles for sale by F. B. Meyers, Druggist