The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-07-06
The Public CredIe.
Chicago Tribune.

The only rational objection
which is urged against the re-
monetization of the silver dollar
is that it will be a breach of faith
to our national creditors, who, it
is claimed, have q moral right to
be paid in gold. Among those
who oppose the reconciliation
OF silver on this ground is the
New York Tribune, which paper,
however has the candor to admit:
fIt is true, as our Washington
dispatches state, that the register
ed and coupon per cent. bonds
are payable, according to the laws
authorizing their issue and accord
ing to the language printed upen
the face of the bonds in United
States coins as established in the
laws existing in 1870. At the
time the laws provided for the
coinage of silver dollar, and in
strict construction of law the
bonds are payable IN silver dollars
if the United States should deter
mine to resume the coinage Of
dollars not inferior in weight and
fineness to those then authorized"
That is 8 complete answer to
the whole objection. The con-
tract was to pay the bonds in the
coin of the United States, silver
and gold, a legal tender, and of
the weight and fineness as estab-
lished by law, in force in July,
1870. That contract is written
on the face of the bond. 1t is
not a mere technicality. There
was at that time pending a propo-
sition for an International stand
ard of coin, by which the Ameri-
can eagle, and the silver dollar,
and the British sovereign, and the
silver shilling, and the French,
German. Austrian, and all coin
age of all other countries, should
have equivalent values according
to their denominations. Thus
the halfeagle and British sovereign
and the 25-franc French piece
should be of the same weight and
fineness, and the 5 frac silver and
the American dollar and the silver
coinage of smaller denominations
should have equivalent weights
and be of the same fineness. It
was in view of the tendency of
a proposition of this kind, which,
if adopted, would have necessiat-
ed reduction in the weight of
the American eagle and the Amer
lean silver dollar, that this stspu-
latiOn was put in of 1870. The
contract was, that if the United
States should alter it's coinage,
the bond was nevertheless to be
paid in the 'dollar of the fathers -
of which, on the 14th of July,
1870, the American silver dollar
was by law the standard
It is true that in the meantime
silver has declined in value. Be-
fore 1874 the dollar silver wasworth
lob cents in gold. To remone-
tize silver in this country will have
the effect of giving an increased
value to the metal, and long be-
fore the date for resuming specie
payments the silver dollar will
probably be at par in gold. For
hundreds of years it has maintain
ed an almost uniform relation o.
value with gold; the disturbance
in the values of the two metals
has been repeatedly in favor OF
the silver. The disturbance, how
ever, has never been more than
temporary, and in this case it will
be no moro. The oversensitive
gentry who object to restoring
silver coinage plead that, silver
having fallen, it would be dishon-
est to make it a legal tender, even
if payment in silver be the con-
tract. Suppose the dcmonetizing
act Of 1873 had never been pass
ed, then the silver dollar would
not only be a legal tender at this
time for all purpose, but its coin
age would be free and unlimited,
despite the decline in value of the
metal. Would it be dishonest to
pay debts with silver dollars under
such circumstances?