The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-10-22

neecher on ..eeenl,asa 9.
,r,rnr,, tre Boston Joagssal.l

Beeches on s,eeenbAcaxs.
From the Boston JoasssaI
srhs Raw. Henry Ward Beecher opened
an. cnmrse az lectures and ensertas nnfsnts
- s,s Nnrth. Ayea,ae Congrcga Oral church,
sssr,hril iSs.s iast evening. His sunless was
&C nm Reicr, or the Common Eeopse... ana
..ha ,,,,rynse was to show the changes which
. sha p senera, spread Of intelligence has
: a so,,sht II, human thought and in the reta.
zsions OF men toward one another and to.
ward governments. Speaking OF the pops
MAR aelusions which arc now engrossing
fhe public mind. he said that there was
none which would fade away sooner than
that which tie green back represents. Con-
tinuing on the same subject ae said
The idea that government can create
money by siIapiy stamping paper or ieash crs
ia theory which may live for a DAY OF tWo
or a season, but II there ever was was an gtnInss
that would cure. itself, that VIII. am nov
afraid OF its ultimate results. KNOW taat
the people say boldly that it is the Govern i
ment chat determines the currency. Wnat
is the curre,sey. II Is The means by when
"a man can exchange one thing lot anotnet; !;
4. cannot cut of the corner Of my barn and
buy Mound OF snuff. cannot carry
around anything so. bulky as an OK. j have
got to have something by which can ex-
change one kind OF property for another;
What should you seiect9 You don't Ree u
TO select anything at adj; you might as wen
talk about selecting The kind OF atmosphere
i'm which we shall ike. There IS one tnins
about which the nations agree, and l aonSt
know that they ever agreed on anytnins
else. There is one thing upon which they
are singularly united. upon which they
stand together, and have stood together fof
i've thousand years, and. that is that eoid
and silver shall be the medium by when
property shall be represented ana e&-
changed. 1t Is not = question which mas
been determined by Governments nS as-
All the Governments on earth might pass
an eaict that gold shall not represent pro
nerty and it Will not make The least differ
ence; or that paper shall, and it would not
make the least difference. 1t is oneof those
things which have been determined by the
successive experiences Of nations. For
more than five thousand years we have the
actual record OF the proportional value pc
tween gold and silver, varying a little WIN
time, but still about the same. Down
through thousands OF years gold aud silver
have been the same. Gold is goid every
where. Five dollars OF gold is the same
everywhere, and the man who mas Gota IN
his hand can go anywhere and exchange IL
for property.
Paper is nothing but representative OF
gold, used for the sake of convenience, as
property is too bulky for exchange. But
naper is nothing but a representative OF gold
and silver, and it is Just as good as they are
when it can command them; and it is, good
for nothing when it cannot Cornelius
Vanderbilt weat down to the bank one day
with piece OF paper in his fingers, and he
didn't seem to make much OF 1t. But IL
was check for So, 600, 000-the largest tnae
had ever been passed there. Ii he had tried
to pay the same amount in gold he Wouid
have found it n pretty hard Job to carry it.
Gold weighs a tonand hall to 81 100000, so
that he would have had to carry nearly i've
tons. When commerce is comparatively small
gold and silver can be transportedfrom place
10 place. and are convenient; bat when COM
merce extends it cannot be used conVenleht-
~. Suppose man iR New York wants TO
pay half gaillion dollars 10 man In New
Orleans. don't Wantto be suspicious, but
think there are at least ten men between
New York and New Orleans who would
steal 1t il they got the.chance. Silver weighs
thirteen tons do S1,000,eO0. They can be
easily handled ia small transactions. but IN
large oneszwe htsHe paper as a commercial
contrivance. But your paper is COED Tor
what you exchange it for. II you can en-
change it for 4 house OF farm it is good
for that. If it can4set be exchanged for pro-
perry. or for gold or for silver, what
Is it good forP All gold and silver rep
resent property, all paper represents
gold or silver, and it ought to rep
resent them definitely Ii you print five
dollar bill you must be definite about what
it represents--wheat, or cloth, or gold. But
IL it is merely five dollars. and you offer it
to a man and be says he 8iIl not nag gold or
silver for il. or you offer it to the Govern.
ment and it says it will not pay gold or sill
yer for il, then its face-vaine goes down.
1Yhy cannot the Government make paper
money? Because it can do with areality
what it cannot do with sham. Govern
lnent only regulates existing values, and in
the case Of paper it is proposed not to regu-
late value but to give it value. There is
no government on Gods earth that can give
value to paper. They can say that paper
shall be equivalent to gold and redeemed in
it, but no government on earth can sag that
zero means something.