New-York tribune., 1877-07-21
THE SILVER QUESTION.


WEIGHT OF THE FIRST SILVER DOLLAR-THE GOLD
DOLLAR rHE ACTUAL MONEY UNIT FOR FORTY
YEARs-slLVER INEVITABLY THE MONEY STAND
ARD IF THE OLD SILVER DOLLAR Is MADE A
LEGAL TENDER.
IrRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF TIE rRlBUNrl
WASHINGTON. July 1850 much has been said and
written. within the last year two in praise of the
"Dollar of our Fathers" and many complaints have
been made because Congress- in revising the Mint and
Coinage laws in 1873, omitted to provide for its
further issue, that many sensible people, who
never owned silver dollar in their lives have been
led to suppose that some grievous wrong has been
done to them and TO the Government by the change,
and that a new standard for the measure of values
in this country has actually been established Added
to this sense of injury and injustice, there has also
been nursed into life strange and previously I'M
known reverence for this particular silver dollar of
412lo grains-a coin which never held an important
place IN the currency of this country. has been
unknown in our domestic or foreign exchanges for
forty years. and Of which only about 5000, 900 were
ever struck during the whole of the eighty that
it was nominally legal-tender.
In order to discuss this Silver Question fairly and
inteligently it is very desrable-l might almost say
absolutely necessary-that at the outset shall get
rid of all preIudces the subject, and especially OF
those that have their origin in vague assertions i'm
perfect knowledge and attractive popular phrases,
but which are not based upon solid facts and argu-
ments fairly and honestly drawn from them. The
prejudice in favor of the Dollar of our Fathers Is,
believe Of this character, and in this letter hope
to show why il ought to have no weight, when we
come to consider the question whether the legIsla-
ton Of 1873 shall be repealed Ornot
The first dollar known to the laws of the United
States was not, many supposed that described IN
the Act of April 2, 1892 containing 81 Il grains OF
pure silver Almost six years before that time the
Congress Of the Confederation had established as
the unit of account " a silver dollar containing
1864 grains of pure silver. This was intended
TO be equivalent to the only dollar" then
known in British finance, and which held
its place as the dollar of account Ill Eng
land and her dependencies until December 30,
1873. Distinctly defined by proclamation OF
Queen Anne in 17O4. in which the Spanish and
Mexican "pieces of eight" or dollars, then current
in Great Britain, were declared 10 be worth Odd.
each it remained unchanged for 100 years. This,
then was the real Dollar of our Fathers" 1t was
represented 10y "a coin known to commerce the word
over and which was at that time, and for years
afterwards not only the principal metallic currency
IN this iuntry but also i'll several of the most i'm
portant countries of Europe. If, now when IN com
mon with other great commercial nations. we nave
adopted the single gold standard we find it wise or
desirable to ferace steps and to remonetlze sill
YER is there a single argument that can be adduced
in favor of The dollar of 1898 that may not be used
sih even greater force for the older dollar of 1TSGf
The former never gained place III the currency
of this country: the latter was already established
in 1856 not only here but in Europe and it played
most important part in the currency of the world
for nearly $50 years
WHY THE WEIGHT WAS CHANGED.
But Alexander Hamilton did not advise, nor the
Third Congress vote change Of the standard dollar
without what seemed to them good reasons The
former in his report h3 establishment of Mint,
divided the subject of coinage into five questions,
the first of which was: "Wnat ought to be the
nature Of the money mint of the United States =
and IN the first sentence of Che discussion which
followed he said a prerequisite to determining
with propriety what ought to be the money mint ot
the United States endeavor to form accurate
an idea as the nature of the will admit of what
il actually IS" Now if a single Act of Congress was
all that was necessary to establish a money
mint as some people nowadays seem to
think Mr. Hamilton might have been spared
the long and difficult investigation which
he undertook in order To arrive at correct answer
10 his first question. He knew well enough that
the Congress of the Confederation had made dollar
of 375.Gl grains of pure silver. the money unit But
he found as a result of his inquiry and experiments,
that the real money unit and the legal money unit
were not the same. a recurrence, therefore," to
use his own language to the ancient dollar, would
be- in the greatest number Of cases. innovation IN
fact and III all, innovation in respect to OPINION
His conclusion, therefore, that the actual DOL
lar in common circulation has evidently much bet
ter clam 10 be regarded the actual money unit"
Three hundred and seventy-one and One-fourth
grains of pure silver was, therefore, selected the
LEGAL money unit of the United states because it
was in 1898, the actual money unit. Is a silver
dollar Of that description the actual money unit
now? Was 1t the actual money unit before the pas
sage OF the Act Of 1873 or at any time within the
last forty vearsf No merchant, from 1884 10 S73,
ever kept his accounts in silver dollars, reckOned
a discount Of two per cent on gold eagles which he
received or paid ont. And yet during all those
wears the Law said that the silver dollar should be
the unit of money, while every schoolboy knew that
the gold dollar. worth two per cent less. was the
actual unit until lega-tender notes were issued, and
that It never ceased to he in all coin transactions.
The conclusions 10 which these facts point cannot
be avoided. The very arguments advanced by MIR.
Hamilton in favor of making the dollar of 3714
grains Of pure silver the money unit in his day may
now be enlisted in behalf of the gold dollar and the
very reason which he assigned in 1871 for not di-
recting the coinage of the dollar of 17sG-that it
would be an innovation in fact us really valid to-
day against any attempt to change the monetary
unit from gold back to silver. Those who advo-
cate so-callcd double-standard will probably deny
that they desire 10 make tine old silver dollar the
sole money unit of the United States and assert
that they intend TO have gold aud silver both
standards But this is impossible especially if it is
the Dollar of our Fathers that Is to be re-mone-
tied That dollar is worth today about ninety -One