Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-12-20
The Coinage Act Of 1873.



Pcage says s1t is constantly asserted
here in the West that the Act of Con-
gressi dropping the silver dollar from
/ the coinage was passed in a surrepti-
tioas Manner lie requests us TO in
form. the readers Ut the Nation wheth-
err the facts warrant such an inference.
The question has been so frequently
answered that it would be unneces.
sary TO return 10 IL weresit not brazen-
llyirepeated by the Cincinnati Com
merciai, the Chicago Tribstne, and
other journals which know better,
THAT the Actin question: was a trick.
Ia cheating device and an intentional
fraud, andithaf il was passed sarrep.
| titiously. Recently some particulars
of the fraud have been giveaa-per.
haps not in the two Journals we have
mentioned, but in others and inApublic
debate in Congress. 1t has been
widely asserted aud believed that Mr..
Ernest Seyd--or ernest Lloyd as
several newspapers have printed the
name--a designing bnllionist or secret
agent of foreign bondholders came to
this country. from London i'm 1878,
and by corrupt bargains with the
leading members of Congress and of.
ticers of the Government brought
about the demonetization of silver.
figures have been given showing the
amount of "British gold" brought
over by Mr.. Seyd to. bride the small
number of Congressman who bad like
himself the foreknowledge that silver,
which had been for half a century
worth more than three per cent more
than gold by our standard, would
soon be worth less than gold. The
truth of the matter is that Mr.. Ernest
Seyd is an nntiring and voiuminous
advocate of a return to the double
standard in England, in this country,
and in all countries. He has been
writing and publishing works on the
silver side of the question more than
ten years, making little or no impress
sion at home, and creating the impress
sion in this country, as it now appears
that he is an advocate of the single
gold standard-which can hardly, be
fattering to his vanity as a pubiioist
Mr.. Seyd is an expert as to technical
questions relating to coinage and the
precious metals. His work entitled
Bullion and the Foreign Exchange
is standard authority upon such
matters and was probably referred 20
in the protracted discussion of the
Coinage Bill of l973--th discussion
which the Cincinnati Commercial in-
sinuates never took place at all. In
the circumstance that N !. Seyd's book
has often been quoted by Senators
and Representatives in debate this
senseless story undoubtedly had itsIor-
igin, and the aviditv with which it
has been siezed upon and spread
abroad shows both the ignorance of
the great majority of the silver adyo
Gates, and their desperate need of
some accusation against the integrity
Accounts from Washington repre-
sent that this utterly wicked and false
charge had very great influence in
procuring the passage of the Bland
Bill in the House. Not that members
of Congress are generally ignorant OF
the fact that the Act OF 1878 was
passed without the slightest extrane-
GUS influence or sinister motive, be-
cause their constituents have been I'LL
ed with suspicion by other sinister
transactions--by Credit Mobiller, Pa
cifc Mail, Custom-house Moiety, Dis
trict Ring, and other similar jobs
and so crammed with deception con
corning the "dollar of the fathers"
that they are reader to believe bad
things than good things of any Con-
gress, ad especially of any Congress
which legislates on Money matters.
This morbid state of public opinion,
which is perhaps not wholly without
its uses, renders it all the more neces-
sary to keep the truth respecting the
Coinage Act of 1873 and the mode
and manner of its passage, before the
people. 1t is not easy as general thing
to prove negative but in this case
it is possible to do so. The evidence
in disproof of the infamous charges
brought against the Congress which
dropped the silver dollar from the
list of American coins, consists OF pub.
lie documents and the debates in the
Congressional globe, accessible to all
readers and editors; and the reason
for passing at that time any bill 10 re-
lation to the coinage is furnished IN
DR.. Linderman's recent work entitled
Money and Legal Tender in the
United States From the latter it
NAV be learned that the original pur-
pose of the bill was to bring the Mint
and the Treasury Department into
proper relations to each other. The
Director of the Mint was at one time
independent of the Secretary OF the.
Treasury and made all his reports to
the President. The law had been
changed subsequently,, so as to make
the Mint a branch of the Treasury,
but the various acts relating to the
subject so homogeneous and in some
respects conflicting. 1t was deemed
advisable by the Director and Secre-
tary (Mr. Boutwell, to frame new
act TO eliminate these incoaGruities,
and 1t was both snatnral and states.
manlike to attempt at the same time
to consolidate all the laws regulating
the coinage, emitting what had be.
come obsolete. and reducing the whole
to an ineligible, harmonious system.
The preparation OF the bill was en-
trusted to Mr.. John Jay Knox, the
present Comptroller Of the currency
and two assistants, aud he drew up
the bill and the elaborate report ac-
companying it for the Secretary OF
the Treasury, who transmitted them
in due time to the Senate where they
were introduced, referred to the FL
nance Committee, and ordered to be
| printed April %, 1870, nearly three
years before the final passage OF the
i.act The bill consisted of q sections
All changes of former laws embodied
| in it were pointed out in the -eports
and the reasons given for them. Par
ticular attention was called to the fact
that the silver dollar of 4l24 grains
an obsolete coin worth three OF four
cents more than the gold ,dollai, had
4 z -.