The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-29

LibSls on the Dead.
From the n. 7. Tribune

ICSDGCLy u61 DuDuSuCu u R0mputCb duNO-
eating the 3.05 scheme of dssigDdts. We
mention the fact with sincere regret, which
Is the greater since our discovery that Mr..
Cooper has been made tool TO circulate a
wauton libel on the memories of Webster
and Calhoun. About midway in his LET
ter on the Currency" Mr.. Cooper observes
that to make gold "the standard of all
values and the legalized measure of all
trade and exchange in this country, would
'be in direct opposition to the opinion
"of many Of the wisest statesmen that our
country has produced" In support Of
this extraordinary statement, Mr.. Cooper
quotes what purports to be the opinions OF
Webster and Calhoun. These pretended
opinions. which the estimable philanthropy
ist must have copied without verifcation
from some Inhationist pamphlet, are the
basest literary forgeries we remember to
have met with.
The pretended quotation from Webster
reads as follows in Mr.. Cooper's pamphlet.
Among the objects sought to be secured by the
constitution were commerce, credit and mutual
confidence In matters OF properly; and these re;
quired, among other things. Uniform standard Of
values or medium OF payment One OF the first
powers given to congress- therefore, is that Of coin
one Of the fret restraints imposed on the states 10
the total prohibition to coin money.
These two provisions are industriously followed
and completed, by denying TO the state all powers
OF emitting bills OF credit or making anything but
gold or silver tender in payment Of debts. The
whole control therefore, over the standard OF value
and medium OF payments Is vested In the general
government. And again, coIlating the grant to
gress and the prohibition on the states just read
Ing Of the provision Is this: Congress shall have
the power to coin money, regulate the value there
of and Of foreign coin, emit bills OF tredit make
anything besides gold and silver coin legal tender
In payment Of debts"
The speech in which something superb
ciallv resembling the above may be found is
in Vol. vi, of Webster's works, and is an
argument in the case Of Ogden and Saun-
ders before the supreme court of the'U nj
ted States, January term, 1927. The pas
sage in quotation marks, with which the
extract ends, has its meaning reversed by
emitting after the words regulate the val
ne thereof and of foreign coin" the clause,
mo state shall coin money" Thus, Web
ster is made 10 assert the right of The gen
eral government to emit bills of credit and
make anything whatever legal tender in
payment of debtSl-a doctrine which on
every occasion he uniformly repudiated.
In this same argument and in the very
paragraph preceding that from which the
framework of this audacious forgery is
taken, may be found the following passage
of weighty application to the present politi-
cal and financial situation of our affairs:
Commerce, credit and confidence were
'the principal things which did not exist
under the old Confederation, and which
lit was main object Of the present Con-
"stitution to create and establish. A VI.
''ciOus system of legislation, q system of pa
per money and tender Ldt0S, had com.
'pletely paralyzed industry, Threatened tC
"beggar every man Of property, and ulti
''mately to ruin the country. The relation
between debtor and creditor, always deli
cate and dangerous whenever it divides
society and draws out the respective par
ties into different ranks and classes, wa'
in such condition in the years 1887
HISS, and 1889, as to threaten the oyer
throw of all government; and revolu
''tion was menaced, much more critica
land alarming than that through which
the country had recently passed" If tn
measures urged by Messrs. ii. G. Carey
Henry Carey Baird. Kelley, Pendleton
Allen, Sam, Cary, and the platform of tn
Ohio Democracy are to prevail, the word
we have quoted will hereafter be referee
to as prophetic. The following sentenc
from his reply to Calhoun, March %
1888, will be sufficient to show tina
Webster was inAexibly opposed I
quack money of all kinds
Il abhor all irredeemable paper; all ole
fashioned paper money: all deceptiy
PROMISES everything. indeed, in tn
shape of paper issued for circulation
whether by government or Individual
which cannot be turned into gold and 81
''ver at the will of the holder"
If Webster's memory is libeled by Il
unknown artist to whom Mr.. Cooper HI
given his confidence, Calhoun's is not le
so. South Cardinals famous statesman
reported as saying in "a:speech" in Il
Senate:
1t appears TO me, after bestowing the best rehe
tion can give the subject, that convertible ?
per-that Is, no paper whose credit rests d
promise to pay-is suitable for currency. 1t
the form Of credit proper in private transactions
tween man and man, but not for a standard OF VI
ne, to perform exchanges generally, which cons
tutes the appropriate function Of money cure
cy. No one can doubt but that the governme
credit Is better than that of any bank--more stat
and more safe; Bank paper is cheap to those W
On the other haad, the credit OF the governmel
while it would greatly facilitate Its financial opel
tions, would cost nothing, or next to nothing, be
ing to the cost Of production which would give
cry branch of our industries, agriculture, CONNER
and manufactures, as farms its circulation mig
extend, great advantages. both at home and abroa
and now undertake TO affirm, and without I
least fear that can be answered, that paper
ceiye II for all Its dues w0ildt to the extent 1t cor
circulate, form perfect paper circulation, viii
could be as uniform in value as the metals the
selves; and shall be able to prove that it is wit
in the constitution and powers OF congress to u
snch pader In the management of it's finances
cording to the most rigid rule Of constituting t
constitution.
The first sentence of the above, of viii
the whole is printed in the pamphlet wit
out asterisks or other sign of hiatus,
from speech made on Sept. 19. 1887.
the same speech, two pages furth
on, we find the second sentenc
The third sentence is taken fro
an entirely different speech, delivered o.
3, 1887. Further on in this speech we fiji
the first part of the fourth sentence. doy
to the semicolon. The honest man, Il
compiler, then skips 62 pages of a close
printed volume, and alights in the midi
Of a sentence toward the end of Calhoun
reply to Webster, delived March %, lS3
judiciously emitting, however, after d
words receive it for all its dues" Il
somewhat essential qualification, 'leavi,
ats creditors TO take 10 or gold or silUer,
their option" aud after the words "perfe
paper circulation" the further qualificati
which could not be abused by the Cover
ment." The compiler then skps a f
sentences, and with another fragme
brings his marvellous extract" to clos
Whatever may be thought of Mr. Z;
hours currency scheme, which was imu
dlatey denounced by Webster as ''me
paper money-nothing but bills Of CT
dit land on another occasion az ''old &C
tinental money, it should be remembers