The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-02-21
Speech of Senator Thurman.

Senator Thurman said some things which
1t is fashionable to mystify so plainly in his
little speech the other day that we can do no
better than reproduce the following here:
Mr.. President, silver and gold have been
the metallic money OF the world for thou
sands OF years. They are also the money
of our Constitution. They We're the metal
lie money of the colonies and afterward of
the United States from the Declaration of
independence until silver was demonetized,
by mistake and without the knowledge of
the people or Congress, by the enactment
of the Revised Statutes in 1874. Both met
ais arc suited to perform the function of
money, and silver does perform that func-
ton among large majority Of the human
race. Silver is especially suited for small
transactions. and may, therefore. be prop
erly called the money OF people in humble
circumstances.
1t follows from these premises that the
burden OF proof rests on those who insist
that silver should be demonetized. | there
fore proceed to consider the prominent
points that have been made by the demonc-
Tiers, and to answer them as we'll as am
able to do;
|. ln the first place it is said that to re-
habiiitate the dollar OF 4l2l grains would
defraud the public creditor. But, Mr..
President, this cannot be true, for the con-
| tract is to pay in either gold or silver of the
standard value OF the United States on July
| II, 1870; when the silver dollar of 4l25
grains was full legal tender. with the right
of unlimited coinage, and it is simply i'm
| possible that party performing his contract,
entered into by both parties to it with full
knowledge Of its terms and effect, can
| thereby he guilty of fraud or dishonor. In
| tho njaon I hot hot
of Congress have, by overwhelming MAORI
ties, decided that no such fraud would be
| perpetrated by paying the public creditors
| in silver dollars of 4l2a grains, and I there
| fore feel authorized to assume that for all
the purposes OF this debate that question
has been definitely settled. In the third
place, if ,remonetiziEg silver will bring it to
a par with gold the public creditor cannot
lose. Whether it will have that effect will
consider further along.
III. 1t is said that to coin the silver dollar
of 4l24 grains and make it full legal tender
would dcfraud individual creditors who
have loaned money or sold property to 9TH
er individuals since silver was demonetizcd
that is. since June %, 1874.
l. Mr.. President, this is great mistake.
Every creditor of the foregoing description
is compelIable By law to receive green
backs in payment unless his contract ex-
pressly provides for payment in metallic
money, and these exceptional cases are not
effected by the bill under consideration
Now, no one, think doubts if the coinage
of the dollar of 4l2a grains be restored and
it be made full legal tender, its value will
be at least equal to that of the greenback.
Hence no possible injury to the individual
creditor such as that above supposed can
occur. He Is compellable now to receive
payment in greenbacks, and he cannot lose
by receiving payment in silver dollars equal
in value to greenbacks.
2, If, as. has been ASSET ted, the average
duration OF individual debts in the United
States is about two years. think it is less
| then it is easy to see that the passage of this
bill cannot injure any considerable number
OF creditors, if indeed it should injure any
for it is certain that in Che next two years
not over fifty millions of silver dollars could |
be coined, and nearly every such dollar
would be absorbed by the payment of Gus
toms duties and would be used for nothing
else.
HI. 1t is argued that if this bill pass
silver will be a less valuable currency than |
gold and will eXpel gold from the country, |
in accordance with what is called Gresham's |
law, namely, that the less valuable curren. |
cy drives out the more valuable. And hence |
several amendments have been offered to
increase the number of grains in the silver
dollar so as to make it an equivalent as it |
is said of the gold dollar.
L. This objection to the bill rests upon !
the assumption that the silver dollar of 4l24 !
grains. if made full legal tender, will be Of |
less value than the gold dollar.
But is this assumption true? The relative |
value OF silver and gold, If the silver dollar |
OF 4l21 grains be coined and the gold dollar
remain at 25.S grains, will be-I5.98 parts of |
standard silver for l part of standard gold.
But in France and the other States of the !
Latin Union the relative value is 151 of sill |
yer to of gold. So that, ass compared to
those States, we undervalu silver and vet |
the silver five franc piece is equal in value to
the gold five-franc piece, and there is more
gold in France than in England and Ger
many together. though England has long
since demonetiZed silver, except as a SUBJ
sdlary coin. and Germany has dccreed its |
decentralization, though she has not fully
executed her decree.
L know that it is said that the reason why
silver coins and gold coins are at par in
France and the other States of the Latin
Union is because they have ceased to coin
silver. But they have stock Of silver coins
that we cannot for years acquire that is,
it will take years for us to acquire an amount
equal to theirs, and if they can now main
tain par between silver and gold at the
ratio OF l32 to l, why cannot we maintain
such par at the ratio of 1898 to l? Moth
ing IS more certain than that tile deprecia-
ton in the market value of silver bullion is
the result of the demonstration of silver
by Germany and the United States, and the
efforts being made to demonetiZe it in the
Latin Union States.
Remonetize it in the United States, and
it seems to NE that the probable effect will
he n eff to re al |
where, even if it does net bring about the
re adoption of the bimetalic standard in
those countries that have adopted, impro-
vidently as think, the single gold stand
ard. 1t is not correct reasoning to treat
silver simply as a marketable commodity,
simply as bullion. Such reasoning loses
sight OF the value that results from the
function OF money and the full legal-tender
quality. If the greenback, which has no
intrinsic value, no circulation outside of the
United States, and is but limited legal
tender even here, is yet within less than 2
per cent, of par with gold, why should not
silver money, which has int! insic value, and
which circulates over the greater part of the
globe, if endowed with the full legal-tender
faculty, rise to a par with gold, especially
if we rate the metals at 1898 to L, while
most other nations using both give but l5A
for I?
One reason why greenbacks have been
and are deprecated is the fact that they have
not been receivable in payment of custom
duties or OF interest on the public debt.
But make the silver dollar of 412g grains
full legal tender and it will be receivable for
both these purposes, and it must closely
if it does not reach, par
with gold. believe that it will reach that
par.
THE PRESIDENT AND THE SENATE.-The
Washington correspondent of the Baltimore
Sun, of the sth, has the following,
Tho ProsiInpt &c not rroponil -, b;e