Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-11-14
The Silver Dollar.

on par with a gold dollar. 1t is pretty gen
orally known aud has been very generally
felt that the road by which the country has
prepared itself for specie resumption in
1870 has been a particularly thorny one.
Every industry has suffered most severely,
and the depreciation of values has been on
a scale simply unprecedented. At this time,
then, when the country has suffered so
greatly, aud the margin between gold dol
lar and a greenback dollar has been reduced
to less than three per cent, any legislation
which affects the well-defned policy of the
government to pay honest money toward its
indebtedness will be carefully scrutinzed
and watched with the utmost iealously
Let us see then what the effect of this
measure would be should ii pass the Senate
aud be opposed by the President. 1t au-
thorizes the coinage in unlimited amount oil
the silver dollar of four hundred and twelve
and half grains, making it legal tender
for all debts, public aud private, except
those for which payment in some other form
lar is now worth about ninety-three cents !;
that is to say, it would be worth so much if
there were any silver dollars, as there are
not. The greenback dollar is worth between
ninety-seven and ninety-eight cents in gold
Congress proposes to put silver, gold and
greenbacks ON the same level-in other words,
To say that ninety-three is the exact equiva-
lent of one hundred. The laws of mathe
mates are stubborn things, however, and
when they come into collision with an act of
Congress it is the latter that must give way.
So when Congress undertakes to make four
hundred and twelve and half grains of
silver equal in value to gold dollar, Con
gress attempts the impossible and prepares
certain defeat for itself II is easy enough,
of course, to equalize the value of green
backs and silver, for the former have no
value of their own, but depend altogether
upon the value of the currency in which
they are to paid So long as the belief is
maintained that they will be ultimately paid
in gold their current value will fuctuate more
or less as the prospect of their payment
seems near or remote. But il they are to
be paid in silver they will be worth no more
than silver, nor indeed so much, because a
greenback dollar is not actual silver, but
only more or less trustworthy promise of
silver. The greenback dollar, therefore, in
stead of being worth ninety.seven cents and
a half, as it has been lately, will, if this bill
should become a law, be worth less than
ninety-three cents, and how much less no
body can tell.
Then, too, it will be remembered that
when silver was delnonetized, about five
years ago the silver dollar was worth more
than the gold dollar, and had therefore dis
appeared from circulation, as the more valu-
able money always does. Then there was
no objection to withdrawing the coin, but
when silver had declined in price the temp
tation to catch voters with the bait of
"cheap money" became irresistible to the
delnagogues, and so well did they play their
game that they have actually persuaded a
great many honest aud fairly intelligent
men that the country has been delrauded by
taking away from it the dollar Of the
fathers" The silver dollar, of course, if We
were reduced TO choice hetwren it and
paper, is preferable to the latter because it
has a real value OF its own, though it is less
stable than gold The objections to it as a
legal tender are two; one, general and appli.
cable everywhere aud always that its value
huctuates with changes in the market, with
the varying supply of this metal aud the de
mand for it, so that Judged by the standard
in use in the rest of the civilized world, tn,
silver dollar may vary in value, aud has, in
tact, varied within few months more THAI
ten per cent. If the metal maintained a
fixed relation to gold, it might except fol
its greater cumbrousness, answer the pur
pose well enough. The other objection tc
1t is special and applicable to this country
md the present time. All public or private
obligations are now payable either in lega
tender notes or in gold. To make them pay
able in silver is to reduce their amount from
,'e ~ seven Pc, ue"''' anu Is 'ePuu'"''oi u
'n"' extent II ''e weight u '"e proposed
''i'e, oo"''i oe '"''''''eo 80 a. 10 MAKE j
7qu"i III value 70 '"e so'u 'i'i''r '''e ia''e'
'oJe'''oi "o"'' D' 'e'''''eu' "u' ''ie 'or'ne'
would remain. Such change would tak'
the u'shones'y OUT OIL Ii'e measure put leave
the financial Inconvenience.
a =. l. a.
ne opponents Oh llls REGISTRATION aHect u