The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-08-01
Demonetizing Silver.

SA------
DemOnetizing Silver.
The demand in certain quarters for
the demonetizng of silver is based upon
the assumption that the increased pro-
duction of silver has unsettled it's rela-
tive value to gold. which is assumed as
the standard OF value.
We would respectfully ask, how and
when was gold made the standard OF
value in this country? 1t is not made so
by the Constitution. 1t was not made
SO by our original legislation. On the
contrary silver was originally made the
unit OF value, and gold was but an aux
iliary thereto. Even the value of gold
itself was determined from the unit OF
silver in 17S5, end again in 1892. 1t is
true that in 1874 silver was, by act of
Congress, excluded from the privileges
of legal tender, except in small
from the consideration of the overgrown
abundance Of silver and it's consequent
depreciation of value below gold? By
no means: for at the time that act was
passed silver coin was marketable at 8
per cent. above gold.
1t is also true that in 1858 the fraction
al silver coinage of hali-dollars, &C.,
were debaseu below the standard OF
purity fixed for silver coinage as a
legal tender, and these debased coins
were not declared to be legal tenders.
But this was not done by reason of any
redundancy in the volume of silver. 1t
reason, because we had too little of sill
yer. When our silver coinage was kept
up to its standard purity as fixed by the
unit of value, it found its way rapidly
out OF the country to meet the demands
OF trade with Asia, India and China,
where the circulating medium was sill
yer only. To prevent its deportation
was the purpose of thus debasing it's
purity, thereby rendering it unmarked
able in those silver absorbing countries.
1t is manifest from these facts that the
act of 1873 demonetizing silver, and the
act of 1858 debasing its standard purity,
in the silver supply of the country. No
act of Congress has ever declared any
thing but gold and silver to be legal
tender until the act of February 25, 1862,
made the greenback currency of the
United States such with certain excep-
tions as to customs. This act, passed
under the exigencies of war, did not
demonetize either silver or gold. 1t
simply added the Governments promises
to pay coin at some future time to the
category of legal tenders; and these
promises were to pay in ''dollars."
What is meant by a "dollarY 1t is a
word of legal meaning. 1t is not an arbi-
trary term, merely colloquial phrase,
whose signifcation is capable of various
constructions or equivocal meanings.
The Supreme Court of the United States
has determined lIs meaning in the law,
so late as February 1869, saying: "The
coined dollar is piece of gold or silver
of a certain degree Of purity and weight.
The note dollar is a promise to pay
coined dollar"
When, on Mr.. Je1ferson's suggestion,
this country adopted the silver "dolIar"
as our currency unit, it already had it's
fixed meaning in the currency of the
world. 1t was the Spanish dollar then
in circulation as common coin, known
tothe people as of given weight and
tineness, and had been so known and |
called from the time OF the Spanish con-
quest of Mexico. 1t became the silver |
dollar of the United States by the act of |
1902, and was ordered to be minted IN |
the same proportions of alloy and of the |
same weight as the original Spanish
nifled dollar, viz: 37lL grains pure, or
al21z grains standard. To this dollar
The common standard Of the world had
the value of gold by the gen
sral ratio of 1515 to one. The legal rela-
lion between silver ana gold has never
been changed in this country but once,
N 1884, and then not by any change in
he silver dollar, but by decrease of the
he weight of the gold dollar, silver be-
ng thus recognized as the unit OF
Talue.
Inpoint of fact, the gold dollar has
never been, in this country, the exclu-
sive measure OF value, And yet we find
that an act of Congress, passed alto
yether without debate and almost unob-
served by the people, assumes to wipe
,ut this standard, this unit of value, the
,iIyer dollar, which had occupied this
,laee in the Government ever since the
government began, and to thrust it
Iside. as no longer a legal tender in the