The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-11-15
THE SILVER DOLLAR.


The vote in the House Of Represents.
tives on the question of resurrccting the
silver .v,lar shows that the members Of
the lower House of Congress, who come
directly I'om the people Of the various
States, kr'w the sentiment Of their con
stituents, and, without regard to party,
are willing to shape the fnarcial policy of
The nation according to the justice of the
case and the necessities of the times.
The bill known as Bland's Silver Bill
was, under suspension Of the rules,
passed and sent to the Senate by vote
of one hundred and sxty-tlrce yeas to
only thirty-four nays. Its provisions are
as follows:
That there shall be coined ut the sew
crai mints OF the United States silver
dollars OF the weight of 4l2l grains Troy,
of standard silver. MS provided in the act
OF January Is, 1887, on which there
shall be the devices and superscriplions
provided by said act, which coins, to-
gether with all silver dollars heretofore
coined by the United States of like
weight and fincncss, shall be legal ten
der at their nominal value for all debts
and dues, public and private, except
where otherwise provided by contract,
aud any owner Of silver bullion may de.
post the same ut any United States coin
egc mint or ASSAY oiice t.; be coii..d into
| such dollars for his benefit upon the
same terms and conditions AS gold bull
lion is deposited for coinage under ex-
isting law.
SECTION 2. All acts and pnrt- Of acts
Inconsistent with the provisions OF this
act are hereby repealed.
If the Senate should concur in this bill
and the President approve it, which is
likely, a great stride towards national
prosperity will be taken. The failure to
coin nilvcr dollars has already greatly
oppressed the people Of our nation by
imposing much heavier tax upon the
| industries Of the nation than is necessary
to faithfully carry out tie contracts of
the government and discharge its just
debts. The present bonded debt Of our
country was contracted ut time when
silver and gold dollars were both in cir
culntion, and by the terms of the contract,
under which the bonds representing such
debt were issued, il was to be paid in
specie, or in gold or silver Since the
war the supply of silver has become
abundant, and the bondlloldcrs, together
with the leading capitalists Of the coun-
try, have speculatcd Off of the people by
inducing the passage of IN act causing
the cs'ation of coming silver dollars,
whereby all specie debts were practically
made payable in gold alone. The differ
encc in the relative value of II gold and n
silver dollar has thus been changed from
par to Il premium. on an average, of
about nine cents in fiiyo- of gold and
thus these bohdholders in receiving their
interest o. principal obtain nine per
::"! more than their contract legitimate
ly calls for, and the people have to make
up this sum or gratuity, which Republi-
can legislation has given them, by al in
crease in taxation. Such policy has
neither justice nor expcdicncy to sane
tion it. Gold and silver dollars were Of
equal value before the legislative dis
elimination against silver was pcrpctra-
ted. They will again be equal in value
if this discrimination is removed. Hun
drcds and thousands Of dollars will be
saved to the people of the nation, and nm
abundant supply of specie as n medium
of exchange can be obtained We hope
the time has at last arrived when there
will be little legislation in favor of the
whole people, and not exclusively Of tho
bondholder or moneycd corporation It
is about time for this government to re-
sume paying its debts according to con-
tract, and cease policy which pays n
certain class of its creditors an equiva-
lent of one dollar and nine cents for
what it only promised to pay one dollar.
The passage of the above bill will secure
this result.