The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-05-09

Portland, Maine.
To the Rev. Edward Y Hincks:
SIR: In the Portland Advertiser oil
April l2appears fastday sermon by you
entitled, 1.-THE Need of a Civil Service Re-
| form shown by the Passage of the Silver
Bill"
One of the most strenuous rules of faith
and practice in the Congregational church
es is that well-known direction, "1f thy
brother shall trespass against thee, go
and tell him his fault between thee and
him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou
hast gained thy brother" AS member
in good and regular standing of one Con-
gregational Church, while you are the
brilliant leader of another, as a native
and citizen of the State which is the affec
tionate, if sometimes stern, mother of
your own State, l feel personal respon-
sibility for your good behavior; and l
therefore propose, in accordance with i'm
memorial Congregational usage, to tell
you your fault between you and me alone,
in love and the spirit of Tneekness.
The text of your sermon is, "Shall
count them pure, with the wicked balan-
ces, and the bag of deceitful weights ?'-
This, however, is not really your text; it
is but catchword. The actual text
whose spirit breathes through your ser
mon is: Il thank thee that l am not as
other men are, extortioners, un ust, adul-
terers, or even as this publican in Con
gress."
In speaking of the late discussion Of
great National financial measure, of the
passage of the Silver Bill, you rule out
the possibility of all honest difference of
opinion, and assuming more than Papal
infallibility, you pronounce all those
Congressman who are not on your side of
the question, thieves and robbers. Not
content with this simple assertion, and
disdaining SO profane q process as the
production of evidence, you administer
to yourself the usual benefit of clergy,
claim to be the mouthpiece of Heaven,
and announce that the Creator Of the
Universe is on your side against BIZ
metallic standard. These are your words:
THE men whom we have elected to make
our laws have committed in our name a
deed which is a stain upon our National
honor, and an offer ce against a righteous
God. Speaking as our representatives
they have said that we prefer to pay our
debts in scant measure, in order that
we may defraud our creditors of part Of
what we owe.
You make these statements without
the shadow of an attempt to prove them
With one breath of your reverend lips
you relegate thousands of your fellow
citizens to the criminal classes, and pro
duce not a .jot or little Of evidence. You
give no sign of having so much as looked
into the question yourself Your are po-
litically but an echo OF echoes, yet you
rise up in your priestly office and deal
out condemnation upon your lay breth
rem with lavish and lordly hand.
NO EVIDENCE.
The only thing which even hovers on
the borderland of evidence for your wan
ton extravaganza Of assertion is in the
side remark: "The Nation had so often
declared its purpose of paying its debts,
anything more tangible in your "loose
expectoration of Speech must perforce
avail myself of this, and bid you name to
| that wider congregation whom you ad-
dress through the newspaper the law or
statute or bond or other instrument
which was ever uttered by the Nation,
promising "to pay gold dollar for gold
dollar p Your assertion is explicit un-
modified. No man, least of all minister
of the Gospel, could be excused for max
ing such a statement without knowing
whereof he affirmed But this is what
you have done. You had only to turn to
the statutes of the United States and you
would have found that never did Con
gress utter one word about paying "a
gold dollar for gold dollar" Never can
you find in law or compact. expressed or
implied, that this Government agreed to
pay gold alone. In every statute Con
gress agreed to pay coin and where it
specified further, it specified gold or sill
yer" In every case where you find gold,
you will find the words cor silver" imme
diately added If you had been willing
to relinquish the doctrine of plenary in
spiration when applying yourself to poll
tics, and had done so secular thing as
to look into the history of our bonds you
would have found that, prior to July a.
1870, all bonds Of the United States sim
ply agreed to pay SO many dollars"
without specifying the kind Of dollars,
and hence the mischievous Greenback
movement to pay the bonds in paper
The interest was provided for in COIN y
but the principal simply in dollars By
the act of July II, 1870, to provide Tor
the refunding of the United States debt
at lower rates OF interest, it was specially
enacted that the bonds were payable "in
the standard coin OF that date Under
that act nearly twelve hundred millions
of the bonded debt have been refunded
and the Greenback movement that had
menaced our public credit was destroyed
That the silver dollar was at hat date
one of the STANDARD coins Of he Unit q
States-full legal tender-I presume il 4
YOU will not venture to deny. Even f
ter the assumed drnunrtjz atom al eiirrl
/ in 1873 the bonds of the United Sta.
all contained the same specifce provjs
> ion. Only last Summer $500 United