Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-09-08
carneId on SILVER.
aR JL,sr Warren Letter 10 Cincinnati
Commercial.

In the morning preceding the Convention
| 7 called on Gen. Garfield at the residence
Of Mr.. Harmon Austin, where he isa guest
There was a continuous stream Of eOmers
and poers-representatives of the press,
anxious to get a peep at the anticipated
| speech Of the afternoon, which, however,
was not vet prepared, and 50 theshort band
reporters were brought into requisition; old
comrades in arms Of the General, once
{" boys in blue, fighting for the Govern
ment, now grizzled men fighting the nat-
tie Of life; portly and substantial citizens
who had themselves served IN some Puphc
capseftv as judges. Legislators and local
og;.ors and honest yeOmen by the score,
who own the land they till, and wear no
,,sn.s eollar-eaeh had word of eongratu-
| lation ON the result, and after brief call
retired.
1t was. on the whole, a pleasant scene,
and the while brought into play General
Garfeld's versatility in conversation and
acquaintance with men. l think he must
be personally known to a great majority of
his constituents. In the interval of coming
and going of visitors, he asked some of
them:
What do you folks think about
TIE SILVER QUESTION?
&" They don't seem to think much about
it, was the answer. g 1t don't seem to con-
cern them much"
Turning to the Commercial representa-
tive. General Garfield said:
Il have been more surprised at the
course of the Commercial in regard to our
fight on this question than anything else.
"Why so, General?"
Because the logic of the Commercials
position on the currency question should
have led it to sustain US in Congress who
were battling against the infatiOnists on
the silver question
"Infationists! presume the CONNER
cial did not regard the exchange Of sil-
yer dollars for greenback notes imitation.
sJust there is where the the Commercial
seemed to to me to entirely misapprehend
the question as it stood before Congress.
Now the fact was, neither Sherman or l
ever opposed the proposition to issue the.
silver dollar and exchange it to whoever
was willing to givea dollar greenbaek for it
and retire the greenbacks. None of the
bills We were fighting meant that. What
they all meant-what Kelley and Landers
and all of them wanted-was to pour into
the circulation an indefinite amount Of
silver and circulate it alongside the $780,
900, 600 greenbacks without retiring a dol
lar Of greenbaeks. That scheme we oP-
posed"
The Commercial took issue with Gen
era, Garfield because he thanked God that
the silver dollar was abolished.
..Then the Commercial got an incorrect
report of what did say. The Associated
Press report as first sent out was wrong. l
said in somewhat hasty form of expression,
that when silver was auetuating through
range of 80 per cent. or more in price that
it was matter of thankfulness that wehad
not that feature Gdded to our disordered
currency"
81 think the Commercials position is
that the legislation should be restored to a
condition where the people who want the
silver dollar can have it."
81 think, considering the vast interest
involved, the extraordinary fuctuation of
the silver market, and the demand for pru-
dent legislation, we did the best thing that
was possible to do under the circumstances,
VIZ: appoint commission to investigate
the subject and report at the adjourned ses-
sion"
"That would have been more satisfacto-
ry if you had first restored the coinage of
the dollar for popular use to take up like
amount of greenbacks to a limited extent,
say one hundred millions"
"A sufficient answer to that is, that even
if we had authorized it, the execution of
the order was a-mechanical impossibility..
Congress had already provided for issuing
fifty millions Of subsidiary coin, and all
the capacity Of the mints will be required |
for the next year, two years, perhaps to
coin that amount"
The general added that a great misap- |
p1ehension was shown in the discussion of |
the silver dollar law in 1878, as to the man
ner of that repeal-that far from being fur
tive or sly or by indirection, or without |
Congress understanding what it was doing, |
it was the result of recommendations made |
as early as 1869 by the Director of Mint and |
endorsed by other high authorities on the
currency question, and was only accom-
plished after discussions of the subject in
both Houses, and upon investigation by
several committees, and when for twenty
years the dollar coinage had ceased because
If the difference in value between gold and
ilver. Here he raised the question with
us auditors whether any of them had in
oct ever seen a silver dollar of American
oinage int circulation. One OF two gen.
lemen thought possibly they had some
There sometime seen the article, but no one
oemed quite certain of this, and the gener-
! impression OF those present was that in
ew, If any, instances had they seen an
American dollar.
"The fact was" says General Garfield,
that the dollar coin was too heavy for use
ordinary business transactions, and the
hole coinage by the Government from 1872
own to date was only IS, 500, ,QO0."
1 ,
Discoveries at POmpeII.
A correspondent Of the London Times,
-riting from Rome on tba 9th ;ns+ cove.