The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1875-08-12

SENATOR SHERMAN ON THE GREAT ISSUE OF
THE DAY.
What is sound cuarency-paper naoaey-a0hy
1t should be equdlto gold.
On Saturday, at the same place where Gov
ernor Hayes delivered the speech which has
already been quoted in part in the VIRGINIAN,
Senator John Sherman also spoke, and we give
below a part of his remarks. The greater
part of his speech concerned the currency
question, and the Senator gave his hearers an
admirable lesson OIL the merits of a sound cur
rency and the loss inflicted by irredeemabe
rag money. He said:
What is a sound currency? The first and
principal question is, Shall this currency be
made equal in purchasing power to gold and
silver? Upon this question there ought to De
no difference OF opinion among Intelligent mel
BY common consent, in all ages OF the world,
in all civliZen and semi-cIvillzed nations, both
| Christian ana Pagan, gold and silver are re-
garded as the test standards Of value. They
are not only easily made into current coin, but
they are, in any form and wherever found, of
| intrinsic value, easily divided, indestructible
and easily transported. Different nations have
| tried many eXpedients to substitute somethiil e
else as a standard of value, but experience has
| Even now in the United States, where we
have legal tender paper currency, its depre-
| citation is daily measured by the standard OF
| gold. All our business with foreign countries
and most of the large transactions in CONNER
ciai cities are based on gold values. And now,
| in spite of our law, the market value OF all
your productions-your wheat, your iron, your
laber-is measured by gold. We deceive our
selves, as the lsraeltes did of old, by making
gods and wo4shiping them. We make our pa
per money a legal tender, a standard OF value.
We think we see gold bobbing up and down
for the play of the bulls and bears Of New
York, but it is our paper money-the public
credit-that is bobbing up and down. Four
hundred years ago men saw as we now see the
sun rising in the east passing over the firma-
ment and setting i'll the west. 1t appeared
that the sun was a mere tender to the eartll-a
satellite TO render its daily offices for our use.
Gallileo and others proved that all this was
deception, that the earth moved around on
its axis once day, and as one Of the smallest
OF the planets, OH lis orbit once a year, and
that the sun was the centre of III SYSTEM and
itself was but Of illnlmerable stars. Though
this was demonstrated, and we all now admit
it, yet we still say the sun rises and the sun
sets, just as the brokers say gold has risen,
gold has fallen; and yet, felow-citizens, if we
are not blinded by ignorance and carelessness
we know that gold has not risen any more than
the sun has risen. Gold cannot go down any
more than the sun goes down. 1t is the pub
lie credit, the promise of the United States to
pay a dollar i'll coin, that rises and falls. Paper
money is worth nothing but what it promises
to pay in gold, and then its value is in precise
proportion to the expectation that it will be
paid in gold according to promise. The COM
mercial world measures our currency by It's eS-
innate Of guess as to when we will redeem 1T;
but they speculate upon our willingness TO do
it, and measure in this way the depreciation
of our note just as they measure the value OF
an Erie Railway bond or any other security
Convince the commercial world that you will
redeem this currency i'll gold when presented,
and it becomes par in gold. 1t will then buy
as much food and clothing as the best gold
coin issued from the mint. When we can re-