The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-02-20
8 p L Z @ III
y Il Il Il u LII
HON. A. G. THURMAN,
OF OHIO,
In the Senate of the United
States,
Wednesday. Feb. @, 1878.
OF OHIO,
Wednesday. Feb. 9, 1878.

lis legal tender character, Mr.. Thurman said:
MIR. PREsIDENT-I shall employ no rhetoric
to-day: L shall appeal to no passion; 10 no
prejudice. / shall attack no men or class OF
men, / shall aSsaiI no ones motives, nor
waste the time of the senate in Vindlcating
my own. / shall endeavor TO speak practi-
cal V upon prac zeal subject and answer, as
best can, the prominent objections that have
been made to mis- bill and state some of the
reasons why give it my support i shall
speak plainly. i shall be a. plain, and fear
as dull, as pike staff: for have no ambition
to make what il called great speech. want
10 get down 10 the business aspects OF this bill,
TO consider it faitly and justly, and to consider
when shall have stated the convictions at
which have arrived, after long and think
careful study, my task will be completed. And
i 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 consti-
tuition. They Were the etalli- money of the
colonies and terward OF the United State =
from the declaration of Independence until
silver was demOnetizzd. by mistake and with
out the knowledge of the people or congress,
by the enactment of the revised statutes IN
1874. Both IN tails are sui ed to perform the
function of money, and silver does perform
that function among large majority OF the
human race. Silver is especially suited for
small transactions, and may therefore be prop
erly called the money of the people in humble
circumstances.
1t foil WIS from these premises that the bur-
den of proof rests on those who insist that sill
Yer should be demone lied therefore proceed
to consider The pT eminent iutS that have
been made by the demOnetiZers and to answer
them as well as / am able to do.
1 In the first place il is said that to rehabil-
1tate the dollar o 4l2% grains would defraud
the public creditor. But Mr.. President, this
can not be true, for the contract is to pay in
either ghld or silver of the standard value ofthe
United states on July Ia, 1870: when the silver
dollar of 4l22 grains was full legal tender, with
the right of unlimited coinage, and IL is simply
impossible that II party performing his con-
tract, tenteTed into by both parties TO 10 with
full knowledge # its terms and effect can
thereby be guilty of fraud or dishonor. In the
second place, reply that both houses of con-
gress We, by overwhelm ng majOrities de-
cided that m. such fraud would be perpetrated
by paying the publ C creditors in silver dollars
OF 4l2% gra ms. and therefore feel authorized
TO assume that for ali the purposes of this de-
bate that question has been definitely settled.
In the third p ace il rem netizing SILVER viii
bring il 10 par with gold the public creditor
can not lose. Whether IL will have that effect
will consider further along.
II It is saiG that to coin the stlv dollar of
4l2H grains and MAKE 1t full legal tender would
defraud individual creditors who have loaned
money or sold property TO other individuals
June p, 1874
l. Mr.. President, this is great mistake.
Every creditor OF the foregoing description is
cOmpellable by law TO receive green backs in
payment unless his contract expressly pro
vides for payment in metallic money, and
these exceptional cases are not affected by the
bill under consideration. Now, no one, L
think, doubts that ii the coinage of the dollar
a 4l21s grains be restored and It be made full
legal tender, Is 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 compelable now to receive
payment IN gTeenOacsS, AMI he can not lose
by receiving PAYNE { in silver dollars equal
2. II, as h 5 bee asserted, the average dura
\ ton of individual debts in the United States
is about two years. think it j. less-then IL is
easy to see that the passage of this bill can not
1njure any considerable nImber of creditors,
il, indeed; IL should injure any, for 1t is Ger
tain that in the next Two years not over nifty
millions OF silver dol airs could be coined, and
nearly every ~uch dollar would be absorbed
by the payment OF customs duties and would
III. 1t is argued mat if this bill pass silver
will be Q less valuable currency than gold and
viii eXpel gold from the country, in accord
aDce with what is called GreShams law,
namely, that the less valuable currency drives
opt the more valuable. And hence several
amendments have been offered 70 increase the
number OF grains in the silver dollar as to
make 1t an equivalent, as II is SAID, of the gold
dollar.
/. Phis objection to the bill rests upon TN e
assumption that the silver dol ar of 4l2H
grains, l. made full legal tender, will Dc of less
value than the gold dollar.
But is this assumption true? The relative
value OF silver and soid, II The silver dollar of
4l2I grains ne coined and the gold dollar re-
main at 25.S grains will be l5.9S parts of stand
ard silver for part OF standard go But in
France and the other states of the Latin Union
the relative value is l513 OF silver To l of gold.
50 that as com pared with those states we un-
dervalue silver; and vet the silver five frame
piece Is equal in va ne TO the gold five-franc
piece, ana there is more gold in France than
IN England aud Germany together, though
England has long since deinOnetlzed silver ex-
cept as subsidiary coin, and Germany has
decreed its CemOnetizatiOn. though she has
not fully executed her decree.
L know that 1T is said that the reason why
silver coins anu gold coins are at parin France
and the other states OF the latin Union is be-
cause they have ceased 10 coin silver. But
thty have stock Of silver coins that we can
not fO- years acqui e.: that Is it will take years
Tor us 70 acquire an amount equal to theirs,
and II they can now maintain a par between
silver and gold, at the ratio OF l5A to |, why
can not we maintain such par at the ratio of
15-9o To 4? Nothing is more certain than that
the depreciation a the market value of silver
bullion IS the result of the decentralization of
sllverby 0e many aud the United States and
The efforts being made to demonetize IL in the
Latin Union states
Remonetize IL in the United States ard il
seems TO me that the D obabie effect will be to
Out stop TO Its decentralization elsewhere,
tsem A il does not bring about the readODtiou
of the oimetallc standard in those countries
! thft have adopted, i'm prOvidently as think
the single gold standard 1t is not correct
reasoning to treat silver simply n market
able commodity, simply as bullion Such
reasoning loses sight of the value that results
from the junction of money and the full legal
tender quality. II 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 per
cent. of par with gold, why should not silver
money, which has intrinsic value and which
circulates over the gre tier part of the globe if
endowed with the fun legal tender faculty,
the metals at 1898 tO l, white most other ma
lions using both give b1t l51z for l.?
One reason why greenbscks have been and
are deprecated X the fact that they have NOT
been receivable in payment OF customs du'ies
or OF interest on the public debt. But make
the silver dollar Of 4l2 grains full legal tender
yand it viii be receivable for both these pur-
poses, and it must closely approximate, III IT
does not reach, a rar with gold. believe that
1t will rea that par.
But suppose il does not, and suppose Gresh-
ans Ia y TO have its effect, to what extent
WOULD gold be expelled from the country Thy
silver? Manifestfy only so far as silver sup
planted it, Three hundred millions in gold
could not be driven out by issue of fifty
millions OF sflver-tbe utmost effect could
only be TO expel hfty millions OF gold whose
, place would be taE en- bv slver-and the vol
ume of metallic money would rem In the
| same. But would the fifty mil ions of gold be
4 expelled? Not unless three hundred millions