The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-01-19
SILVER CONVENTION.

In spite OF the very DTlci anu HiuiVu holCc
civen the silver convention at Springfield on
Tuesday was quite largely attended. The con
yention organized by the appointment ofJudge
c. B. Lawrence president, Gov. Bross, John
Hisc, Archer Jacobs, Selby and others vice
presidents thanked by half dozen of sccrc.
taries.
A committee Of 10 on resolutions was ap-
pointed, headed by w. C. Goudy, who after
the convention had taken recess from II to .
O'clock, reported series OF ringing resolves,
which were unanimously adopted. They de
clare that since 1892 the silver dollar Of 81 L
grains of pure silver had been the only none
tary unit of the L. s. until its surreptitious de.
monctization in 1873 that from the earliest
period Of mans history gold and silver have
concur ntly constituted the money Of the
worl6 nat the business and credits of the
whole country have been adjusted to this
douhl standard; that therefore the surrcpti-
tious dcmonetzatlon of silver in 1873 was an
outrage without justification that should be at
once rcctified; that "its obvious purpose was
to increase the value of the government bonds
and corrcspondingly increase the public bur,
den by securing the payment Of those bonds
in gold, when, by their terms, plainly express
cd on their face they are rcdccmable in silver
coin as well as gold" that I'VE view with dis,
appointment and alarm the position taken by
the president in his message on this question"
That the holders Of government bonds not
only have no right, legal or equitable, to de.
mand payment otherwise than according to
their express terms but the government can
not with due regard to the rights of the peo.
pie, waive its option to pay in silver or gold
and restrict itself to payment in gold only and
that when the attempt TO do this is made by
legislating out of existence the whole silver
coinage Of the country rs legal tender, and at
the same time deprcciating the value of one of
its most important products in the markets of
the world the consequence Of this nefarious
scheme are so iar.reachlng and disastrous that
it calls for unmeasured denunciation
That the proposal to pay the bondholders eX-
clusivcy in gold, which their bonds do not
call for, and at the same time to demonetize
silver so far as to make it legal tender to
some small amount for all other kinds of in.
debtedness would be partial class legislation
Of the very worst character. We emphatically
reject all such compromises. The money that
Is good enough for the people is good enough
for the bondholders We demand that the sill
yer dollar be returned TO its legal-tender quail.
ity in payment of all debts both public and
private, and we will be satisfied with nothing
less than this, and we pledge ourselves to vote
for no man for congress who is not fully com.
mitted in favor Of this measure.
That we will resist the contamination of this
wrong by all honorable means within our pow
or. We call upon both houses of congress to
insist upon the rapeal of the demonetizing act
and the restoration Of the silver dollar to its
rightful place in our currency; and if the pres
ident shall by the use of his negative succeed
IN defeating the bill, then we call on congress
to append similar repeating clause to the
general appropriation bill and stand by it to
the last with full confidence that the people
will assuredly stand by them.
That we view with intense Indignation the
efforts now being made by the money power
Of New York and other cities Of the east to en-.
force public opinion in the west and south up
on the question OF silver RECOMMENDATION, and
that speaking in behalf of the state of Illinois
we say most emphatically that the honest CON
victions of the people of this section of the
union will never be surrendered at the dcta
ton of greedy capitalists and bondholdcrs be
the consequences what they may.
The convention was very ably addressed by
r. X. Turner, John Forsythe Judge Cloudy,
Maj. McNulty, Col, Herbs, JIG. Robinson,
Col. Harlow, Judge Lawrence and others
Just before the adjournment cordial greeting
was received from the State Grange
in session at Peoria, to which suitable an
swcr was returned.