The daily gazette., 1878-02-09
From the Congressional Record of yester-
Coinage of Silver Dollars
speech of Hon. Allen q. Thur
man. of Ohio. I'm the Senate
of the United States, We'd
nesduy. Feb. 9Th. IS1S.

The Senate having under consideration
the bill X. H.. No. i093) to authorize the
free coinage of the standard silver dollar
Mr.. Thurman said
Mr. President: l shall employ no rhe-
toric to-day. | shall appeal TO no passion,
to no prejudice. i shall attack no man
or class of men. j shall aasail no ones
motives, nor waste the time of the Sen tie
In vndicating my own. shall endeavor
10 speak practically upon practical sub
Iject aud answer, as best can, the prom
inent objections that have been made TO
this bill and state some OF the reasons
why give 1t my support. ] shall speak
plainly. shall be as plain, and fear rs
dull, as pike-statf; for l have no ambi-
ton TO make what Is called great speech.
/ want 10 get down to the business as
poets of this bill, to consider 1t fairly and
Justly, and TO consider the objections to
1t in the same spirit and when l shall
have stated the convictions at which /
have arrived, after long and think care
full study, my task will be completed.
And promise the Senate that will not
weary Its patience, for shall speak
briefly.
Mr. President, silver and gold have
been the metallic money of the world for
thousands of years. They are also the
money of our Constitution. They were
the metallic money of the colonies and
afterward of the United States from the
Declaration of Independence until silver
was demonetized, by mistake and with
out the knowledge Of the people or Con-
gress, by the enactment of the Revised
Statutes i'm 1874. Both metals are suited
to perform the function of money, and
silver does perform that function among
n large majority of the human race. Sill
yer is especially suited for small transac-
tions, and may, therefore, be properly
called the money Of the people in humble
circumstances.
1t follows from these premises that the
burden of proof rests ON those who insist
that silver should be demonetized. l
therefore proceed to consider the promi-
nent points that have been made by the
demonetizers and TO answer them az well
a. am able to do:
/. In the first place, 1t is said that to
rehabilitate the dollar of 412i grains
would defraud the public creditor. But.
Mr.. President, this cannot be true, for
the contract is to pay In either gold or
silver of the standard value of the United
States on July IA, 1870; when the silver
dollar of 4l2l grains was full legal tender,
with the right of unlimited coinage, and
ii Is simply impossible that a party per-
forming his contract, (entered into by
both parties to IL with full knowledge of
its terms and effect) can thereby be
guilty of fraud or dishonor. In the sec
ond place, / reply that both Houses of
Congress have, by overwhelming ma
jorities, decided that no snch fraud
would be perpetrated by paying the pub
lie creditors in silver dollars of 4l2t
grains, and therefore feel authorized 10
assume that for all the purposes of this
debate that question has been definitely
settled. In the third place, If remonetiz;;
ing silver will bring it to a par with gold
the public creditor cannot lose. Whether
IL will have that effect l will consider
further along.
ii. II Is said that TO coin the silver
dollar of 4l2l grains and dmake it full legal
tender would defraud individual creditors
who have loaned money or sold property
TO other indi viduals since silver.was de-
monetized: that is. since june %,
1874.
/. Mr.. President, this is great mis-
take. Every creditor of the foregoing
description il compellable by law to re-
ceive greenbaeks in payment unless his
contract expressly provides for payment
in metallic money, and these exceptional
cases are not affected by the bill under
consideration. Now, no one, / think,
doubts that ii the coinage of the dollar of
412a grains be restored and 1T be made
full legal tender, its valve will be at least
tQusii 10 Lndb Vi tuc SfcchudSh. iichCc
no possible injury to the individual credi-
tor such as that above supposed can oc-
cur. He is compellable now to receive
payment in greenbacks, and he cannot
lose by receiving payment in silver dol
lars equal in value to greenbacks.
9. II, rs has been asserted, the average
duration of individual debts in the Uni
ted States is about two years-I think it
is less-then 10 Is easy to see that the pas
Snf - . 1a IA nt nj NJ d.
cradle number of creditors, If indeed 1t
should injure any for it h certain tnat
in the next two years not over fifty mil
lions of silver dollars could be coined and
nearly every such dollar would be absorb
ed by the payment of customs duties and
would be used for nothing else.
III. 1t is argued that If this bill pass
silver will be less valuable currency than
gold and will expel gold from the coun-
try in accordance with what is call
ed Greshams law, namely, that the less
valuable currency drives out the more
valuable. And hence several amend
ments have been offered to increase the
number of grains in the silver dollar so as
to make 1t an equivalent, as it is said, OF
the gold dollar.
the assumption that the silver dollar of
412A grains, If made full legal tender, will
be Of less value than the gold dollar.
But is this assumption true? The rela-
tive value of silver and gold, If the silver
dollar of 412i grains be coined and the
gold dollar remain at 25.8 grains, will be
1888 parts of standard silver for part of
standard gold. But i'll France and the
other states of the Latin union the rela-
tive value is Is! of silver to of gold. So
that as compared with those states we
undervalue silver; and yet 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 Germany
together, though England has long since
demonetized silver except as subsidiary
coin, and Germany has decreed its de-
monetization, 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 a stock of
silver coins that we cannot for years ac-
quire that is, it will take years for us to
acquire an amount equal to theirs, and if
they can now maintain a par between sill
yer and gold at the rotio of 15i to 1,why
cannot we maintain such par at the ra-
ito of 1898 to /? Nothing is more GER
tain than that. the depreciation in the
market value of silver bullion Is the re-