The daily gazette., 1878-01-12
The Silver Question.

Resunption ofthe Debate in the Senate
on Mr.. Matthescs' ,Siiver Resoiution-
Speech Of Mr.. Beck, of kentucky.
yAp1sl WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 1873
The Senate to-day resumed considera-
tion of Mr.. Matthews resolution declar-
Ing the right of the Cover pment to pay
the interest and princip al Of Its bonds in
silver, and was addressed by Mr.. Beck,
OF Kentucky. He said. as he understood
the resolution and preamble, is meant
the government had the right to pay its
bonds In silver, and the facts set forth in
the preamble being true, 1t was the duty
OF the Senate TO pass some bill restoring
the silver dollar of 4123 grains to the
position IL occupied prior 10 the act of
1873 demonetizing 1t. He did not favor
the Bland Silver bill as 1t came from the
House of Representatives. He reviewed
at some length the financial legislation
of Congress. and said he believed the
&C striking the silver dollar from the
coinage Of the country and declaring it
should no: be legal tender were vicious
and unconstitutional. The effect of these
acts was TO take away from the people of
tkis country one-half of the means they
had to pay the debts with. He argued
that silver was the com Of the country
before the constitution itself was adopt
ed. '-' ''- '''''''-'
He then replied to the argument here
tofore made by those opposed to the re-
monetization of silver to the effect that
silver never had been the currency OF the
country, and said, up to to 1S49, until
the discovery Of gold in California, silver
was the coin ofthe country: There never
was gold dollar. coined before lS49.-
All the statements that silver was not
a coin ofthe country were delusive. The
United Srates carried on a war with lrreat
Britain with silver as money. They car
ried on a war with Mexico with it as
money. They acquired great portions
Of territory while silver was our standard
of value, and 1t was not until we got into
the last great war that silver was repudi-
ated. ..t ....
He then referred to the Legal Tender
act of February 10, 1862, and said 1t was
unconstltutional. The able argument
of Hon. Jacob Collamer, of Vermont.
against the constitutionality of that bill
had never been answered. Although
that act was unconstitutional he (Mr.
would use the paper currency Of the
government and thus make 1t valuable
by increasing its uses. He had seen aa
administration inangurated by commis-
sion which was infinitely worse than the
Legal Tender act, but he did not mean
| to refuse TO obey the law of that admins
tration because it was thus inaugurated.
de believed in maintaining the national
1 ID A..
faith of the country as he would look to
his own honor, but at the same time the
people should not be deprived of their
legal and constitutional rights. He ar
gued.. that IL was expressly stipulated
upon the face of the bonds that they
! should be paid In coin Of the standard of
value of July IL, 1870, and at that time
both gold and silver was the coin of the
country.
OUR RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND.
He then refererred to the acLlon of
England in demonetizing silver, and said
that country had been held up as our
great exemplar, but she was our antago-
mist in all matters of commerce. The
United States must look to the trade of
other countries and not that of England.
This country must seek the trade Of those
countries using silver for money and not
deprive itself of the right Of using its
own product for money because England
had demonetized silver. The demoneti-
zation of silver in this country had
brought upon US all the miseries we are
now laboripg under. England by her
great trade was bringing all the world In
| debt to her; but the United States was
getting In debt to all the world. This
country now paid 800, 600, 900 annually
to foreign nations TO do its carrying trade,
aud this must be remedied. He argued
that the bondholders had no right to
complain. They bad always received
large profits upon their Investments.
l1.91l DR. LINDERMAN's REPORT. et
He then criticised the recent publica-
tion of DIR. Linderman, Superintendent
Of the Mint, upon the finances, and said
as long as the head of the Mint was hos
tile to silver we could never have any
fair silver coinage. The book was un-
worthy of reliance, although many of, his
facts and tables were entitled to conside-
ration. Remonetfze silver and he had no
sort of doubt that in a few years gold
and silver would come together, occupy
ing the same positions they had prior to
the act of 1878. England would not be
able to drive other nations of the world
away from the use of silver. s. II 80 III
In conclusion he spoke in favor of
reducing taxation, and said Congress
should use every instrumentality it hon.
estly and legally could to add to the
currency of the country and enable the
people to pay their debts.