The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1876-07-27

paths Of prosperity to resumption in,
stead bf being dragged throu shel
~. IN. gcs tlgd 4Sitbl 5fiaB l9tsnces Slilct
the warhaSe bought nearly the whole
press of both parties to crush out.this
popular currency reform, attacking
it with an occasional largument drawn
from the report of the British Bullion
Committee and.an incessant rolley
of Misrepresentation, caricatures
and epithets, just as the Chinese at
tackled the British in the opium wat
with u few ancient cannon and Il le-
giou of hidcous banners, masks gongs
and stink cans. But in spite Of all
the clamor and abuse with which
they have been assailed, these Cur
rency Reformers still live. Their
faith has grown and spread by intel
ligent discussion, and they mean to
maintain their ground against all
opposition, come from what quarter
it may.
How can they best maintain it?
Clearly by combining to give u vic
tory to whichever of the two great
parties is most likely to effect all or
part of the reforms they seek, A
third party would be but a disturb
ing element in the canvass, and its
formation could not be justified un-
less both of the great parties were
equally committed to the recent laws
for the spoliation of the, people, the
repeal of which is the first step to-
ward just settlement of the money
question. As a sincere friend of such
currency reform, 1 declare my con-
viction that it can be best promoted
in the approaching Presidential elec-
ton by the triumph of the Democrat
ic party, which is substantially COM
mitted against these pcrnicious laws,
and forthe overthrow Of the Repub-
lican party which enacted and al
most unanimously sustains them,
What are these laws? Passing by, as
a wrong accomplished and irreparra-
ble, the lDMof. 1869, which. Mr., Sher-
man so Justly characterized before he
prepared and passed it as an act of
''repudiation and cxtortion," they
are, first, the act of March u, 1878,
and subsequent provisions smugglcd
into the Revised Statutes, by which
all debts over five dollars, payable in
gold or silver, were made payable on
ly in gold.
This act, like that of 1869, and like
the Resumption law, was passed by
stealth. The people had no notice
of it. There wasno discussion in the
press, on the stump, or in the halls
Of Congress, though it added hundreds
of millions to the debt and put hun,
dreds of millions into the pockets of
the bondholders without equivalent,
1t was slipped through Congress by
its ingenious manipulators without
attracting the slightest public attcn-
ton. From the Administration of
Washington till the passage of that
law the American silver dollar had
been n legal tender for all amounts
and debts, public and private, United
States bonds included. But the bond.
holders and their attorneys in Con-
gress saw that for twenty years past
the worlds product of gold had been
gradually diminishing and its pro
duct of silver rapidly increasing, and
that the United States, which prior
to the war had produced no silver, or
next to none, produced in 1871, 1872
and 1878, more than all the rest Of
the world combined. They knew
that this enormous increase of silver,
the limit of which in the next few
years no man could conjecture, added
to the contemplated demonotization
of the silver by Germany, would
greatly cheaper that metal as com
pared with gold; hence the legisla.
tive swindlo by which the people
were deprived of the right to pay
their public and private debts in
the cheaper and cheapening met.
al. How much did that add to the
burden of those debts? The old stand
ard silver-dollar, in which they are
payable, is already worth twenty pei
cent. less than the standard gold-dol'
lar. This depreciation of silver is
an advantage which the people have
a right to enjoy, and of which it was
mere rascality to deprive them. Con
sidorcd with reference to public debts
alone, this legislation was n gift tC
the bondholders and n theft from the
people of from four to five hundred
millions of dollars, without even a
prctcxt Of justice or policy to cloak
the villiany. The bullionists talk
of the grccnback as dishonoret
promise, 1t was payable in the
standard silver dollar, and is now
worth ten per cent. more than that
dollar, This law, which prevented
the redemption of the groonback in
"a A l. 1. ......a.t. 4