Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-10-06

first. That is what fear. There
fore I think the Democratic party /.
| right in insisting that this fixed day
for resumption-January /, 1879
should be stricken out of the law
that it should be repealed, and that
you should not be compelled, al
though the difference between the
| greenback and gold now is only 81,
you should not be compelled to pay
for every 500 you owe $103g. Now.
my friends, these are the main
causes, in my judgment, of pretty
much all the depression in business.
There is one other cause that will
have that effect to which / have not
referred. / must say word about
that, and then l will dismiss you
from further attendance. You have
heard that silver money was demon
etized. That must have sounded
pretty strange to you, especially to
some of you old men who can not
recollect SO long back that ''the dol
/ lar of the fathers" as General Ward
christened it, was not the chief legal
tender of the United States, and
considered good enough for any
! Government, down until the year
of grace 1878; and yet that silver
dollar has been demOnetized the
old silver dollar and the subsidiary
coins-the half dollars, quarters,
dimes and half-dimes-are, as we
know, only a legal tender for five
dollars, aud such has been the case
for long time, because two one
half dollars are not equal to dollar.
They were made lighter to keep
them from being exported, so that
for many years, perhaps since 1851,
they have not been a legal tender
for more than five dollars, yet the
silver dollar was always legal ten
der up to the time of the passage of
the Revised Statutes, for any amount
whatever. And it was under this
law making gold and silver equally
a legal tender that our debts were
contracted, public and private. But
when nobody suspected it, except
those who were in the secret, this
silver dollar of our fathers was de
mOnetiZed. Let me tell you
HOW THAT WAS DONE.
First, / want to correct an error
which Judge West, candidate for
Governor, fell into in his Bellefon-
taine speech. He said every Demo
crat in the Senate voted for the de-
mOnetization of silver. He never
was more mistaken in his life. Not
one single Democrat voted for it,
that | know of. IdOn't know what
would have been done if they had
known what was in the bill, but GER
tainly not one of them ever did.
There is an error about this de-
monetizatiOn of silver. Many sup
pose it was den1onetized by what is
called the Coinage Act, which passed
Congress and received the approval
of the President April II, 1873. They
suppose that that is the thing which
demOnetiZed the silver dollar; but
it is mistake. The fifteenth sec
ton of that act which is referred to
is in these words "That the silver
coins of the United States shall be a
trade dollar, a half-dollar or fifty
cent piece a quarter-dOllar, or
tWenty-flVe-cent piece, and a dime,
or ten-cent piece; and the weight of
the trade dollar shall be 420 grains
troy; the weight of the half-dollar,
twelve grammes and a half gramme,
and a quarter-dOllar and a dime
shall be respectively One-half and
One-fifth the weight Of the half-dOl-
lar and said coin"
Now mark it, that is, the trade
dollar, these half-dOllars, and quar-
ters, and ten-cent pieces, "and said
coins, shall be a legal tender at their
nominal value for any amount not
exceeding five dollars in any one
payment.
Does that touch the dollar of our
fathers? Not bit of it. That is
what that Act says, and the only
dollar mentioned in it is the trade
dollar, and
WHAT Is THE TRADE DOLLAR?
The trade dollar was coined for
the purpose Of trading with Japan
and China, and contains cOnsidera-
bly, more than the dollar Of the
fathers. The dollar of the fathers
contained 4124 grains and the trade
dollar 420 grains standard silver.
The trade dollar was not originally
made a legal tender at all, because
it was not intended to circulate in
this country. This Act made it a
legal tender, but did not demOnetize
the dollar of the fathers.
THE DOLLAR OF THE FATHERS
was still legal tender. Ifyou had
had plenty of them you could have
made a payment however large.
Upon that act no ayes and noes
were called in the Senate; nobody
dreamed of any demOnetiZation Of
silver in it so far as / know. No
body thought of it, but it passed |
without call for the yeas and nays,
and with little discussion.
Now, when did the silver dollar
come to be demonetized? 1t was
demonetized by the passage of what
are called the Revised Statutes of
the United States. The Revised
Statutes of the United States were a
compilation of statutes made by
Commissioners appointed under an
act of Congress to gather together
the statutes of the United States
which were scattered through some
eighty or ninety volumes into one
volume, that is, such provisions as
were of a general and permanent
nature.
They did so, and made a great big
book, containing more words, / be-
lieve, than the Bible. Now, mark
it, that Commission was not author
lied to alter a single law in its mean
ing. They might improve phrase
OIOgy, and where there were two or
three laws on the same subject iden-
teal in meaning, they might drop
those last passed, because the first
had already provided for the case.
The title to these Revised Statutes
is "Revised Statutes of the United
States, passed at the First Session of
the FOrty-Third Congress, 1874,
embracing the Statutes of the United
States of a general and permanent
nature, in force on the 1St day Of De
GENDER, 1878, as revised and consOli-
dated by Commission appointed un-
der act of Congress-"
This act, called the "Revised Stat
utes," was passed in June, 1874, and
approved by the President on the
22d of that month. 1t was passed
through the Senate without being
read, because it was supposed to
make no change whatever in the
law-it was merely read by its title.
Section 1886 of the Revised Stat