Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-04-21
The Now Coinage nil.

.OuT TeaueTS hTC aware tnaI inc OIL
which was reported by Mr., Hunter, chair
man of the Committee on Finance, 'redu-
cling the amount of bullion in the silver
coins less than one dollar has passed the
Senate, The expectation of silver, and
the consequent scarcity of the smaller
coins. called for some effort to remedy a
great Inconvenience in every day transac-
tons and the Senate has adopted that of
reducing their actual value below their
nominal value, SO that they shall consLi-
tute a legal tender for larger amount
than they represent as articles of export
or as a medium for foreign payments.
When the public attention was first
called to the fact that silver was being ex-
ported in considerable quantities, the
wing presses charged that it was owing
entirely to the operations of the taritfof' 46,
although they were unable to show by
their protective theory why gold was not
rs eagerly sought after for foreign remit.
Eanccs. We exposed at the time the
groundlcSsness Of the complaints against
the revenue laws, and explained the cause
Of the phenomena they were said to have
produced. Congress had fixed the rela-
tive value Of the two metals, The law
said that one ounce of gold should be
worth thirteen ounces of silver, and in
that proportion each should be legal
tender. That proportion was in accord
aud with the relative value OF the two
metals when the law was passed, and of
course there was no induccment to export
the one rather than the other. This state
of things continued until the discovery Of
gold in California, and the vast addition
from that quarter to the amount of gold
bullion, The relation between the supply
OF and demand for gold which formerly
existed WAS destroyed by the greatly in
creased supply, and. as II natural conso-
qucnce, the value Of silver, as compared
with gold, became greater. One ounce
of gold was worth thirteen ounces of sill
yer, because it had become more plenti-
full. But the statute remained unaltered,
and came in conflict with the laws which
regulated commerce, which made silver
more valuable than the act of Congress
allowed it to be, The consequence was,
chat rs soon as a specie export was made
necessary by importations from California,
merchants found it to be to their interest
to purchase silver with gold, and send it
to those countries in which it would be
received at its full value By this process
the supply of silver coins became so lin
tied that gold dollars bore "a premium at
the same time that silver did---a result
which was aided by the circumstance that
the mint furnished an inadequate supply
of those pieces compared with the supply
ol the larger coins
Had the California placcrs furnished
gold and silver in the same proportion,
then there would have been no greater
inducemeut to export the one than the
other, and our smaller coins would not
have been driven from circulation. But,
even in that event, there would have been
large specie export. The United States
isnow the great specie producing country,
rs It's the grcatcotton- producing country;
and there is the same reason for export
ing the one that there is for exporting the
other, But it was not our purpose to OK
plain the causes Of the expectation of Spe-
Gle from the United States it was to set
forth the reasons for that scarcity of silver
coin which has produced such inconveni-
cncc as to call for the action Of Congress
The bill which passed the Senate reduces
the bullion only in coins less than dollar
and it will have an effect, as to those coins,
similar to that which an equivalent change
in the relative value of gold and silver
would produce, and will prevent their ex-
portotion while the amount of depreciation
equals the rise in the value of silver as
compared with gold VASE. Union,
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