Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 24 January 1878 — Page 1

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5, J-jOellvered in the Senate of the IHj?'* United States.

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A a E it II I View* on the Silver Question.

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And in Relation to Legal Tender Greenbacks. -st

I From (lie Congressional Recor.\ Mr. Voorhees. Mr. President, on

iv be I ha he on or to introduce in this body the following reso ,, Jlotion: so ha it is of he pottance that the financial credit of the ^country be maintained, and, in ordei to l-i' T' do

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thi government itself, in all its departments, should in good faith keep jr) Jit* contracts and obligations entered C«Trk 7-jWith its own citizens. t\\ And in pursuance of a nouce then ^|?'ven

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^discussing the subject to which it reMates. §4" The agitation of the question of ^finance has continued wiihcut moment's .^intermission from the commencement of vf^our pre.-ent system until this hour. Nor If

it likely to* ceave for many years to •*s-come. In fact it will never cease until 4|cthe people are satisfied that our vast debt fljlis in progress of extinctipn upon priaci#5ples of junice to tax-paying labor, or un"til, on the other hand, they are subjugated into silent submission and the government itself becornes.changCd in spirit and form into a munied aristocracy. It may be that this latter alternative is to overtake us. There are dark antPplentiful omens in otr re cent history in dicating such a conclusion, and there is a numerous and powerful class indour midst who believe, as Alex andA Hamilton declared that the Brit— ish government, on this as well a* on other points, is the best ever devised bv the Utisdom of man. Tr.ose entertaining this opinion have thus far triumphed in the financial legislation of the United

StateR and the tune has now arrived when their victories must be reversed soon this government will ceuse to be republican and the people no longer be 'free.

The policy of this victorious interest in this country, as in all others, has been vigilant for opportunities of greed and *, gam, and aggressive in appropriating ttiem to its own advanfage. In its tenacious pursuit of this policy it has during ,, the la9t sixteen years pressed its cruel a..d unjust demands upon the Americ in people in a variety tfahapes. Just now it assumes a manner swollen with arrogance, haughty, defiant, and filled with insolence toward all opponents. Those who are ranged on the side of grasping wealth affect a high disdain 'as those who choose to rcmember that labor has rights

Which this government is called upon to protect. There seems to be an immense •neer on the face of ordid, inactive capi'ital, as if its pretentions were beyond the criticise of ordinary mortals. Its advocates outside of congress do not condescend, as a general thing to argument all. Denunciation is now their principal weapon. There is no epithet how--ever base, no insinuation howevor infamous that is not of daily use against all who dare to differ in opinion with them.

A curious spectacle is presented on this subject by a large portion of the eastern press, here and thete aided "v "iy a newspaper in the west. Their columns reek'from day to day with clamorous abuee of all who venture to believe as I do that, to a great extent, our whole financial system is an organized crime i*7

Against the laboring, tax paying men and "women of the United States. h^se who think as I do that a great work of financial reform is demanded in order to secure the people from slavery in fact, it not in name, are denounced in the same spirit, and in the exact language with

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every criminal abuse in government, throughout all history1, has sought to paralyze the work of reformation and beat back the tide of human progress. Wherever in tne annals of the human race unholy avarice has built its strongholds, and privileged classes have entrenched themselves wherever superstition has held the luwan mind in bondage for the benefit of spiritual tyrants wherever man in any way has had unlawful mastery over his "fellow man and gathered in what belonged to another there the sam» try which we now hear ..has always been raised against any intrusion or disturbance of established and venerable iniquity. Nor does the parallel 6top here. The great plea of the present houf for the continuation of wrong and injustice is that good faith requires it. Those who, finding a raonstrous evil imbedded in the laws ol their country, wish to eradicate it by a peaceful legislation are at once and with the'utmost fury assaulted as violators of the public faith, enemies of the national honor, and worse it possible than common ft. swindlers. It matters not how deep and burning the outrage may be or how -v fraudulently it may have crept into our statutes, good faith, in the estimatiou of those who profit by the outrage, requires it to remain there forever, though it should aid day by day the ghastly work

Of ruin that now pervades the land. When the peasantry ot France, in 17S9, "worn out with the extortions of five centuries, arose against king, priests, and tiobles, they were told that they were breaking the faith of the nation which had been pledged a thousand times

for their silent submission to any wrong, for person or-properly, however horrihle or indescribable. Wnenever the starving people of Ireland, in the dreary centuries of the past, have grown uneasy in their bondage ani struggle against their fetters, they have been fiercely reminded that the good faith of England is solemnly pledged to maintain existing laws and perpetual abuses.

Sir, this pit a, so loud now in our ears, has been invoked in behalf of every wickedness that ever cursed the world. The usurper invokes it to protect the th one he has stolen, as soon as he is seated. The tyrant invokes it to shelter hi9 prerogative, and his nobility in turn invoke it in order to live in ease' and splendor off the labor of others. It is my purpose on this occasion however, to show what the obligations of good faith require of us on the great question of our finances, and to arraign those who have sys ematically broken it whenever their inteiest prompted them to do so. It is my purpote also to show that while it is of the highest' importance to main tain our financial credit, it can only be done by the government keeping all its contracts and obligations with is own citizens. This issue has been presented of late in a manner so persistent and offensive, especially to western men and western interests, that it shall now be met, as far as mv iyamble capacity enables me to meet it,.^

Sir, I appeal to the history of our financial legislation. I challenge its solemn records of judgment against the actual repudiators of national faith and honor. Its pages contain the facts, the immutable facts, from which the future historian will judge this question. Let us candidly review them. The act of Februaiy 25.1S62, is the beginning of our bonded debt. The precious metals jvere found to be untqual to the emergency of war. Specie payments were abandoned an soon as the hour of trial came, and gold and silver cowered in the rear, whjle the legal tender dollar went to the front with the flag and s?aid there I was among tho«e who doubted our right to issue it, but experience has shown it the best money, all things considered, that ever circulated on American soil. By this act of February, 1862, and by similar legislation at subsequent periods, every bond issued 0y the government which did not on its face stipulate for payment in cjin was made payable by the express words of law in legal tender notes. It was plainly written in the statute that these notes, now known as greenbacks, ''shall be receivable in payment of all taxes, internal duties, excise, debts, and dethands of every kind due to the United States, except r'uties on imports and of all claims and demands against the United States of every kind whatever, except for interest upon bonds and notes, which shall be paid in coin and shall also be lawful money and a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United State*, except duties on imports and interest as aforesaid."

This simple, explicit, and at the same time comprehensive enactment guaranteed to the American people the right to pay three-fourths of their national debt in national currency. It was the law of the contract when all the 5,20 bonds, amounting to over fifteen hundred millions, were .purchased from the government by the bondholdirs, and paid for in this currency at par, when it wa.* quoted at from 40 to

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per cent, below pur in

coin. Every one understood the law to be as I have stated at the time of its passage. In fact the great struggle then was whether even the interest on the bonds I have mentioned should be paid in coin. The act of February 25, 1862, first passed the house4 without any provision at all for the coin payment of intercut That feature of the law wat attached here in the senate as an amendment, and when the act, thus amended, was re .urned to the house a violent conflict at once arose. An examination of the Congressional Globe for the second session of the thirty-seventh congress, at pages 821 and 900, will show that both Mr. Spaulding, of New York, and Mr. Steven of Pennsylvania, the ieading members of the committee of ways and means, and one its chairman, united in denouncing the senate amendment in the bitterest and sevarest terms. They contended in stern and determined language that even the payment of interest in coin was an odious and unjust discrimination in favor of the bondholder and agaiost the soldier, the sailor, and the citizen, who were compelled to receive the iegal tc-nder currency, grjally depreciated by this very discrmination.

No one by a single word in that entire debate made the slightest pretense or intimation that the principale of the bonds was ba^hble in coin. During the full term of seven eventful years that followed there is not a platform of either politicial party in any state in the Union which makes such an assertion No claim for such a construction of the taw in behalf of the bondholder ever fell from the lips of a leading member of the party in power during the same length of time in either branch of congiess, or anywhere else, as far as tne public is advised. On the contrary 1 miany states, and notably in Ohio, the home of the president and his secretary 6f tbe treasury, the dominant party in its state convention in 186S expressed its deliberate 'xonvic tion that according to the l*ws under which the 5.20 bonds were issued said bonds should be paid in the currency of the country which may be legal tenders when .the government shall be prepared to redeem such bonds." On thi» doctrine the present chief magistrate and his secretary took their stand only nine years ago and told the people that the doctrine "vas true. Not only so, but Secretary Sherman, who now in his recent report,warns us against repudiation, then gave in a letter dated March ao, 1868, and widely published nis idea of what constituted a repudiator.. Speaking on this subject he says: -"United States Senate Chamber,)

1

Washington, March 20, 1868

"DEAR SIR:I

was glad to receive vour

letter. My personal interests are tbe same as yours, but, like you, I do not intend to be influenced by them. My construction of the law is the result of careful examination, and I feel quite sure an impartial court would confirm it if the case should be tried before a court I

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Again he says: "It gives. a construction believe in and is contradictcd by congress

VOL9.-m7L TERRE HAUTE, IND:..—THURSDAY, JANUARY 24,1878. Whole N*. 99.

send you views, as fully stated in a speecn. Your idea that we propose to reoudiate or violate a promise when we offer to redeem the "principal" in legal tenders is erroneous. I think the bondholder violates his promise when he refuses to take the same kind of money he paid for the bonds. If the case is to be tested by the law I am right, if it is to be tested by Jay Cooke's advertisements, I am wrong. I hate sepudiation or anything like it, but we ought not to be

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from what is rignt far fear of undeserved epithets. If under the law as it stands the holders of five-twenties can only be paid in gold, the bondholder can demand only the kind of money he paid, then he is a a repudiator and extortioner to demand money more valuable than he gave. "Truly yours, 1

"JOHN SHCRUAK."

When it is remembered that the bondholder never paid a dollar in coin for a bond of any description, but purchased them all with government currency, which the government itse|i had depreciated by refusing to take Its for custom due9 and interest, the full meaning of this It tter becomes very plain and very forcible. It is not the offspring of impulse or inexperience. Its author was then chairman of the finance committee of this body, and hi wrote, as he says, after "careful examination." By the light which he hete throws upon the subject we may see the exact beginning of repudiation and behold the furtive and ravenous movements of the actual repudiate as they hurry up and down the precincts of legislation during the latt nine years ot our history. By its light too we behold the present secretary of the treasury, judged by h«s own words, as the chief ot rppudiatdrs, foremost among the violators of contracts, and a leader among those who have in no instance kept the good faith of the government with its own peopled moment after they found that bad fsith would bring them richer gainf. Inles» than ten months after this letter was writtei. and after the enunciation of the Ohio platform, Hon. John Sherman, then a senator, advocated and procured the passage of the act of March, 1869, for tne pavment of all the bonds in coin which he had declared payable in currency, thereby establishing an open repudiation of a solemn and binding contract and fastening an ex tortioi) of not less than $500,000,000 on the staggering industries of the country as the apeculative profits of the operation. In the whole financial history of the civilized wprld no parallel can bi found to this audacions deed of broken faith, drlibei ate treachery to the psople, and national dishonesty. It stands out by itself, towering high above all common frauds and dwarfing them in comparison with its own vast proportions. It will bear the names of thojo who enacted it to distant generation* amidst the groans, the curses, and the lamentations of those who toil on the land and on the sea and more deeply engraven than any other name will be forever found that of the secretary of the treasury as the author of what he himself said constituted tlie twofold crime of repudiation snd rttorticn. Do I state the case too strongly? Does any senator think that I' am hot justified in the language I use or in the conclusion I btate? If so, I pray him to recall the utterances of my lamented and diitinguished predecessor in this body. When this monstrous act of repudiation was on its passage here in March, 1869, Senator Morton pointed out in the plainest and most explicit manner tour distinct acts of congress ider which the people had acquired a Tested right to pay the 5-20 bonds in legal tender notes, and which were to be broken and set aside by the measure then under discussion. Amonjr other things he said: "And now I propound the question. It is either intended by this bill to ike anew contract or it is not. If ic i-. intended to make anew contract I protest against it. We should do toul ii justice to the go/ernment aud the peopli jt' the United States after we have sold iee bonds on an average for not more than sixty cents on the dollar now to make a new contract for ,the benefit of the holders."

to those laws that I do not thit I hive snovii at least four act* ot

And again Senator Morton exclaimed, with that power of statement which always so greatly characterized him. "Sir, it is understood. I believe, that the passage of this kind of a bill would have the effect in Europe, where our financial questions are not well understood, to increase the demand, and that will enable the great operators to sell the bonds they have on haqd at a profit. It is in the nature of a broker's operation It is a bull movement intended to put up the price of bonds for the interest of parties dealing in them This great interest is thundering at the doors of congress, and has for many months, and by every means attempting to drive us into legi-i-lation for the purpose of making money for the great operators. That is what meane and nothing else."

These are words of intense and overwhelming forcc. Where in the whole range of debate can be found a more revolting picture of bid faith inspired by base cupidity than is here portrayed by the greatest party leader perhaps ever known in the American congress? He has passed awav, his voice is silent, and he rests afttr his life's fitful fever, but this accusation hurled against criminal wrong doing survives, and will continue to survive as long as it remains to be de* termined who have repudiated the sacred obligations and the plighted faith of the American republic. In far distant times generations now unborn- while" examining the sources ot the burdens that have decended to them will read the charge made in this presence by the late senator from Indiana, that a combination of stock jobbers, as destitute of conscience as pirates, and inspired alone by greed for money, successfully thundered- at these doors and finally drove this government into the most stupendous act of bad faith and legalized robbery ever practiced upon any people since the dawn of history. Five hundred millions made by the great operators and five hundred millions kst

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te tbe plowman and the mechanic, who have it ail to pay 1 And yet the authors, the instigators, the abettors of thi# crimj, and the partic ipators ia its proceeds, fill the air with railing on the subject of repudiation, and point their fingers, stained with plunder at honest' men, as repudiators, because they believe that a contract for the benefit of the people should be held as sacred as one for the benefit of the bondholder. Sir, .forbearance on this point has ceased to be a virtue. Those who have at all times labored to keep the faith of the government with its citizens, and its creditors alike, cannot submit any longer to insult added to jnjary, to wholesale caflimny added to n^jonal plunder. In some countries the habtt prevails of building a cairn, a pile of stones, to mark the spot where some trag event has happened. So let American tax payers, whenever the act of March, 1869, is cited, each cast a stone upon it, to mark thf place in American history where repudiation began, and where the rights of the people,were meicilessly and treacherously slaughtered.

The ne*t step in the systematic violation of its obligations to its own citizens by the Amei ican government was taken iii the enactment ot the law of July 14, 1870, known as the act for retunding the national debt. The motive which prompted this legislation has never vet been fully expoted. It has always been held up in the injiocent guise of an attempt to reduce the rate of interest. 4t was in fact however, the offspring of an apprehension remaining in certain mind-t ev*n after the act of March, 1869, that the work of repudiating the contract for the payment of the 5 20 bonds might not be quite complete and final. These bonds were outstanding, and although the law of their payment had just been repealed, yet their holders feared that the people might sooner or later in turn repeal the faithless act of March, ^869, and declare again for the payment ot these original bonds according to the original contract.

Therefore this act of July 14, 1870, called the refunding act, was brought in as supplemental to that of March, 1869, and in aid Qf its false assertion that our whole bonded debt wns payable in coin. By a sort of moral forgery on the American people the refunding act provide* for the issue Of new bonds to the amount of $ 1,500,00#,000, with an agreement for coin payment written on (heir face and then furl her provides that these new coin bonds shall be substituted for the original 5-20 bonds, one in exchange for the other, dollar for doilar. Avarice in tne ordinary affairs of lite has often tempted the holder of a deed, a will, a bond or other obligation l'or money or property to obtain a false construction if possible, or even to change the terms of the instrument in order to enhance its value. Here both these objects have been obtained by the money power first a false construction of the contract, and next a direct change of its most vital terms. It true that a reduction of the rate of interest on the new coin bonds is provided for in the act of July 14, 1870 two hundred of then bonds to bea- 5 per cetmTtnree fiuidr«d irtiUions ti bear 4£ percent., and a thousand millions to' bear 4 per cent. This reduction in the rate of interest has, at first, the appearance of a concession to .the people, but a moment's calculation will show the amourt thus saved utterly trifling in comparison with ihe enormous loss they suffer by the whole transaction. Nor is it to be supposed that the holders of the 3-20 6 per cent, bonds would surrender the.n voluntarily in exchange for bonds of a les* rate of interest unless they knew they were getting bonds of higher value and were to reap substantial advantages by the operation To draw a different conclusion would be to reverse the well ascertained laws of human nature. The archives of history may be ransacked in vain to find a single instance where a moneyed investment relinquished witrout compulsion a superior for an inferior security. Such a thing was never known and never will be.

When, however, this elaborate scheme for. the destruction of the rights of the people in regard to the payment of the 5-20 bonds was supposed to be finished when the gateways of justice, of law and of public morality had all been Closed and double barred and bolted against tbe tax-pavers by the repudiating act# of March, 1869, and of July, 1870. did the practice of bad faith on the part of the government toward its own citizens stop even then? A finality appeared to have been attained. Proclamation was made in every quarter that a permanent settlement had been reached of the manner in which every dollar of our national debt should be paid. We were constantly reminded that from that day forward no law abiding, honorable citizen would ever again seek to reopen or agitate the question. The bondholders were for the time being content, but they not remain so a moment longer than anew opportunity presented itself for another encroachment upon the heavily taxed industries of the country. By both the laws of March, 1869, and July, 1870. framed in their interest and under their dictation, it is so plainly written that the bonds then outstanding and afterward to be issued were payable in coin—not in gold alone, nor silver alone, but -in coin —that it is impossible to construct an argument against the proposition.

Indeed, it is almost equally difficult to make an argument in its favor, for a truth that is self-evident does not admit the ordinary methods of reason in its support. In the fist section of the act of July 14, 1870 the bonds therein authorized are made "redeemable in coin of the present standard value." What is there here for construction? What word here'taken from the law can the keenest casuist construe into even a doubtful meaning? We all know what the term coin means in connection with the use of the precious metals in the trade and commerce of the world. Even, however, if we did not, and we desired to seek a still plainer and more explicit guarantee we have only to turn to the act of March 1 g^9- It declare! its object in the follewing language: "That in order to remove any doubt as to the-purpose of the government to discharge all its obligations to the public creditors and to settle the conflicting questions and interpretations of the laws, by virtue of which such

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been contracted, it is hereby provided and declared that the faith of the United States is solemly pledged to the payment in coin or its equivalent, of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest, kno vn as United States notes,, aud Qf all the interest bearing obligation* of the United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the issue ot anv such obligation has expressly provided that the same be paid in lawfully money or other cdtrency than gold and silver

False and perfiduous as thit law isknown to be, vet it has at least one merit. It is absolutely clear and unambigipous. If human language can be made to convey an unequivocal meaning, then this law pledged the faith of the government to the people, and to the world, for the payment of the national debt in "gold and silver." It is a rule of court, however, in finding the true meaning of a law under consideration, to resort, if necessary, to the opinions of those by whom it was enacted. If we do so in the present instance we are amply re warded by rich discoveries. William Pitt Fessenden, then a senator from Maine,«nd who also served as secretary of the treasury, used on this floor the following language: "Sir, I meant what I said, and the congress of the United States meant what it said, that it would pay so many dollars. What was a dollar A dollar was defined by statute It was gold or silver coin."

Senator Morton, when pleading here for the payment of the bonds according to the original contract,made the following statement "When you return to specie payments you have nothing to pay any of your bonds with but gotd or its equivalent, and therefore the exception here in favor of bonds payable expressly in currency is utterly worthless, because we shall have nothing then but gold and silver with which to pay these bonds."

But the evidence on this point would not be complete if I did not cail Senator Sherman, now secretary of the treasury, to refute not only all the present enemies of silver as coin of legal tender, but especially to refute and*confound, as usual, his own subsequent views. In his re* cen leportonthe state of the finances, now on our tables, he says: "If the market value of the silver in the new coin is less than the gold dollar, a forced payment in the new coin is a repudiation of apart of this debt

Now it is repudiation to pay the national debt in anything but gold. What was his position when the act of March, 1869, was here on its passage? At that time he exclaimed: "What is the first section of this bill? It is simply a solemn pledge of the United States that all the obligations of the United States, notes, and bonds, shall be paid in gold and silver coin, except only those where the law expressly provide's that they shall be paid in lawful money.

And again, in speaking of the resumption of specie payments he says: The honor of the country, the good faith of the nation, the interests of the laborer, the rich and poor, all classes de* mand that we shoi^d resUra* specie payments as early as possible, and place all the obligations of the people cf the United States upan the solid basis of gold and silver coin."

Sir, this theme becomes humiliating to every honest American mind. It fills with shame every honest, patriotic heart. The naked fact confronts us at every step that no pledge, however hieh, solemn or binding in law and morals, has been strong enough to compel the authors of our financial legislation to obey it. Nosense of national honor or good faith has restrained for a single moment the unbridle4 avarice ot idle, interest-bearing capital whenever it has been tempted, like some hungry, marauding animal, to break over the barriers erected between it and new fields of spoilage that lie beyond. The silver dollar came to us with tne birth of our government It was devised as a unit or value by Thomas Jefferson, and adopted by congress in the days of Washington, Hamilton and Morris. It stood as honored as gold through every storm that beat upon this government. It is associated with all our development, our strength, our growth and our glory. With it as currency, more than any other, the picket lines of civilization have pushed westward. The pioneer in the shadow of the great forests or on the wide prairies toiled to lay it by, one by one, until the coveted sum of one hundred lay before him. Then tightening the girths of his saddle, he rode with speetf to the distant luni office, where the government took his one hundred silver dollars for eighty actes of land which henceforward became that most blessed spot on earth—a home a home where trees were planted, where children Were born and grew to be men and women, and then went forth into the great world, still to the west, there to live over in privation the live? of the father and mother left behind.

The silver dollar is peculiarly the laboring man's dollar, as far as be may desire specie. When specie payments were authorized before the war it was the favorite currency with the people, and it will be so again whenever a general circulation of coin is obtained, if that shall ever happen. Throughout all the financial panics that have ever assailed this country no man has been bold enough to raise his hand to strike it down no man has ever dared to whisper of a contemplated assault upon it and when the hour ofits danger and destruction drew nigh, when the 12th day of February, 1873, approached, the day of doom to the American dollar, the dollar of our fathers, how silent was the work of the en^my! Not a sound, not a word, no i.ote of warning to the American people that their favorite coin was about to be destroyed as money that the greatest financial revolution of modern times was in contemplation and about to be accomplished against their highest and deare-t rights!/ The taxpayers of the United States were no more noticed or consulted on this momentous measure than the slaves on a southern plantation when their master made up.his mind to increase their task or to change them from acorn to a cotton field. Never since the foundation of this government has a jaw of such vital

ance at all crawled into our statute books so furtively and so noiselessly as this. Its enactment there was as completely unknown to the people, and indeed to fourfifths of congress itself, as the presence of a burglar in the hocse at midnight is to its sleeping inmates. This was rendered possible partly because clandestine move' ment was so utterly unexpected, and partly from the nature of the bill i» which it occuned. The silver dollar of American history was demonetised' in aiv act entftSed "An act revising and amending the laws relatives to the mints,, assay offices and coinage of the United States." The avoweu and ostensible purpose of this act is set fourth by Dr.Linderman,.thr director of the mintP in his recent work on money and legal tender. After citing very fully the legislation of this country on the subjects of mints and' coinage,.he says: "There were, however, provisions of law, conflicting in their character, as to the relative powers and duties of the secretary of the treasury and the director of the mint. To remedy this and to consolidate coinage enactments were the chief objects of the act aoproved February 12, 1877, revising ancf amending the laws relative to the mints, assay offices, and coinage of'the United States."

This-act embraces sixty-seven sections, and fills twelve closely printed pages of the seventeenth volume of the United States Statutes at Large. From this vpl~ umiuous and prolix measure, proclaiming, as it did) other and totally different objects to accomplish, it was only necessary to6ilently omit the fbw words that for nearly a hundred' years had floated the old familiar doilar as a full* legal tender down-the stream'of time. Tnis was done in the fifteenth section which I quote in full in order that they may see for themselve exactly how this great wrong was effected.. It reads as follows* "That the silver coins' of the United States shall be a trade dollar,-a half dollar or fifty cent piece, a dime or ttn cent piece and the weight of the trade dollar shall be 420 grains troy the weight of the half dollar shall be twelve grams (grammes) and and one-half of- a«gram (gramme:) the quarter dollar ana the dime shall be respectively one-half and one fifth of the weight of said half dollar and said coins shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for any- amount not exceeding five dollars in any one pay-mt-nt."

Thus it will be seen that tadeclaring what the silver coin of the United1States should be, the dollar, so long imbedded in our history, was dropped literally thrown away as useless and another coin, styled a trade dollar, of no service to the people as a legal tender was inserted in its place or, as the dinector of the mint expresses it— "Under the provisions of this act the coinage and issue was discontinued of the silver dollar of 412)6 grains, the three cent silver piece, the five cent silyer piece, and the two cent bronze piece."

And by the subsequent act of congress, July 32.1876, the legal tender qpalttjr of the trade dollar tor even the small amount of five dollars was repeated,and now it it not a legal tender for anything, or ant amount. —5

Bui sir, having pointed out tbe false pretenses under cover of which the American silver dollar was eliminated from our money system, it yet remains to inquire into the real reasons for such' an act. In the first place, had sitter failed in its functions as a specie basis any more than gold? Had it bten found any less capable than its twin metal in upholding a paper currency on which the commerce and business df'the world has been transacted since the beginning of cwilization? These two metals of gold and.silver have come down to us together, from the days ot Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Tney were in great abundance and in high favor when Israel built her temple and adorned the city of Jerusalem.. They crept along the shores and.islands of theMediterranean, hand in hand, as arbitrary factors in human affairs. They spread over Europe, as inseparab'e allies, during the dark and barbarous ages that intervened between the downfall of Rome and the discovery of the art of printing, the revival of learning, in the fifteenth century. The cupidity cf. man has delved into the earth, toiled across the stormy seas, broken solemn treaties,, sworn false oaths, murdered" his fellowman, and bartered awhy his soul alike for them both. The Spaniard *nd the Portugese swept whole races in the Weet Indies. Mexico, CentraK and Soutla America, first into slavery atd then out of existence, in their accursed greed and* thirst for gold and silver. Throughout al& our colonial history these mews linked together in an embrace that Mb convulsion could tear asunder. And when our government emerged, wslitf

and

blood stained, from the revolution, our fathers found them both standing tor gether on bur threshold as a mighty tradition of all the past.. They were adopted together as our measure of values because other nations Nad done the satnei They entered their career as American money together, equal in dignity before the iaw. By the constitution of the United States thty were introduced into each new incoming state of our expanding Union on terns of absolute equality. We find by article 1, section 10, of tlutt instrument that:-— "No state shall coin money emit bills of credit make anything tat gold and silver coin a tender in paysaent of debts."

From that day to this I challenge every page of American history to show a single instance in which the, silver dollar has not been as brave, as firm and as reliable as the gold dollar. I challenge the sad records of every financial alarm, panic or crash that ever befell us. to show where for a single day or hour silver Was not as intrepid and fearless ia the money market as gold.

From 1792 to 1873, from the coinage of die American silver dollar to the day of its insidious destruction, 8i years, gold and silver never fluctuated in their relation to each other but a fraction over 3 per cent, and during most of that time silver money ranked higher than gold money, and did so the day it was destroyed.

It

ic time that both these metals, so

precidua in tbe traditions of mankind, broke down at once when this government was called on to fight for its Hfiy "fUonsiaaea ea roariVl**Ke.|

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