The daily gazette., 1878-02-04

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GAZETTE must be prepaid, as they will
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THE SILVER DOLLAR OF 384 GRAINS
EQUAL TO GOLD OF 25.8 GRAINs-This
silver dollar is the two half dollars as
coined since 1887. Up to 1873 they passed,
,ojten passed at all, equal wih gold, and were
taken on deposit and paid out by the
banks. This being the case it was the
habit of those who had silver coined to
chose half dollars rather than whole dol
lar pieces which contained 4l24 grains.
a silversmith would go to bank with
80 note and get S5 in dollar pieces rather
than melt the two half dollars, because in
the So he would gain nearly. enough to
make seven silver spoons as large as the
six spoons he would make out of the ten
half dollars. 1t seems folly to require
so equal an adjustment between silver
and gold coin, when we were SO careless
about the equality of the silver coins
What we say is true, We have
seen the coin bought ami melted and
beaten into spoons. The silver half dol
lars We're taken in exchange for gold dol
lars until silver was demonetized. After
that even the silver dollar of 4l2l grains
would not be taken for gold because il
was not recognized as money 1t was
worth little more than 4 cents more
than two half dollars. And vet the
agents of the bondholders in Congress
want the silver dollar made heavier. If
it is made heavier, as Senator Christiancy
proposes, these agents of the foreign
bond holders will vote to remonetize it.
But the people will have to buy with
their labor just that much more metal to
pay the interest and principal of the
bonds.
In this way we can arrive at just what
John Sherman and those who helped
him to demonetize silver would add to
the taxation of the people thereby.
The dollar which passed on an equality
with gold before the war was the two
half dollars of 1872 grains, two of them
weighing 3S4 grains, Ia grains less than
the dollar of 4l2l grains.
When the bonds were made payable in
coin, the weight af the silver coin was
adroitly put in the bin at 412! grains
This il would seem to be enough of gain
by the transaction. And 412s grains was
pnt III the bond on purpose to escape the
dollar of 34S grains. The dollars of 4121
grains were the "dollars of the daddies >"
and Mr.. Bayard says in his speech there
were none in 1873 and had been none for a
long time-they had dropped out of cir
culation That being the case the half
dollars-the dollar of 3S4 grains-was the
actual dollar that it was contemplated
the bonds would be paid in at the time
they were issued in 1928, if they were
not paid as they then stipulated in green
backs, In fact greenbacks and silver half
dollars "were the currency of the coun-
Try and those were the words used in
the promise in the bonds. 1t was there
fore giving the bondholders Just II more
grains Of silver in each dollar, when their
agents at Washington-the members who
engineered the bill throughput it in the
bill that the silver dollar should be one
of 4l2. grains. This ought to have salts.
ned reasonable men. But il only served
to increase the greed Seeing how easily
the people were cheated into paying in
coin instead of paper and in silver coin
OF greater value than the currency of the
country, tley concluded to venture
another step, and accordingly Mr.. Sher.
Q1n1artnnlr fha inI 20 I,a, ,,1I Al,
bonds paid in gold. He therefore pro.
cured the sureptitious passage of a bill
which demonetized silver. This scanda
lous fraud, which should be pun
ished with the same punishment that /.
1neted out to the counterfeiter, was no
known to many of the leading men O
Congress for more than year after i
had been committed. Even the Presi
dent was ignorant of it for many month.
and Mr.. Garfield, a Republican leader il
the House, did not know it when year af
terward he was stumping it in the West
as he then stated in speech.
Now, then, if silver is remonetized an,
coined at the mint on the same terms tha
it was in 1861, as the Bland bill proposes
and on the same terms with gold, just a
it is now, and made legal tender, W.
viii bet big apple that it will not be 81.
months before it will be on par witt
gold, and i'll less than year the dollar o
oni grains will pass current for gold Jus
a9 it did before the war.
In fact if the Bland bill does not pass
the friends of silver currency should q,
for the dollar of 384 grains, and the pay
ment Of the debt, principal and interest
in this, and for making the greenbacks re
deemable in silver coin