The daily gazette., 1878-01-14
The Silver Question.

luC OllYcI QuCStlUlls
SENATOR BECK DEMoLIsHEs DIR.
". b ,LINDERMEN's BOOK.
tsTHE DOLLAR OF THE DADDIEs."l
Bxtr acts from Senator Beck's Speech on
the 10th.
i nave references here to eight or
ten different places where on questio n
by Mr.. Maynard, ,otT Tennessee, questions
by myself, questions by other gentle-
men, they all agreed, and in the Sem
ate the same debate was had, all
agreeing here, as in the House, that
90 change in any way, 10 rs to alter
the sense Of existing Law, was TO be
made In the Revised Statutee;yet what
do we findf At page 712 of the Re-
yised Statues 10 the distinct provision
demonetizing all the silver coins Of
United States and saying they shall
not be received for any sum except $5
in value. We had not In one of the
laws previous to that time demonetiz-
ed the old standard silver dollar.
Every outstanding dollar of that day
was . legal tender for all debts, public
and private, for all amounts; and when
the Revised Statutes said that all
silver coins of the United States should
be degraded so as to be legal tender
only for $5 they changed the law Of
the land In violation of all the
pledges of the men in both Houses
who had the management of them, and
reduced the standard dollar of 4121
grains to subsidiary coin that could
not be rendered to anybodyfor over
IS, when prior to the revision,
even after the law Of February 10,
1873, every outstanding silver dollar
was legal tender for all debts,public
and private, by States, people, corpo-
rations, Government, everybody. l
said that even II should again vote
to repeal that law tomorrow, law
that was put upon the Revised Stat
utes In direct violation OF
the pledges of all the men
who were managing them, whether 1t
got there by accident or design, l
would correct; would set aside the
fraud, il it is fraud, and correct the
mistake, II It was mistake. would
moi allow the revision which profess
ed not to change ANYTHING to destroy
all the then existing silver coin OF the
country. How much there was do
not know, but know that even be-
fore 1854, when the silver half dollar
and quarter were reduced in value and
Limited in legal tender quality, we
had over $lO0, 100000 of full legal
tender silver coin, and I know that
the Government of the United States
has no way OF destroying that money
or taking II out of the Treasury ex-
cept by appropriations made by Con-
gress, and nothing of that sort had
been done. How much had been
melted at the mints on private ac-
count, do not know, but know
that this act demonetized whatever
there was of it, and there was large
amount, because this book of Dr.
Linderman shows that the very year
before it was demonetized, to wit, in
1872, We had coined 81, 112,961 of one>
dollar pieces OF the value Of 4l21
grains. or 3714 grains of pure silver,
and in the fraction ofithe year 1873,
prior to the decentralization, we mad
coined $977,1 ,150, making very nearly
1.-TWO million of silver one-dollar pieces
that had been coined from 1872 up to
the decentralization in February, 1878.
1t was In my opinion because II was
known that silver was flowing In
to this country from Nevada just as
, Mr.. Casserly had said in the debate, II
was because 1t was known that Ger
many was demonetizing 10 and that sll
verwas going TO be cheap and we were
going to be able to pay our obliga-
tions in coin that would cost us less
and was more easily attainable than
gold, which was held In the hands of a
few men and was increasing in value
and more difficult to procure il the
holders of gold, our creditors and their
allies, could only get clear OF the sil>
yer dollar; it was because of that and
to effect that object that the law of
1873 was passed, and passed in the
way 1t was, and 1t was to pI omote the
same object,that silver was demone-
ltized by Revised Statutes. set s
Il Dr. Linderman has furnished us
book, and have said that as long as
he is at the head of the Mint we shall
never have any fair silver coinage. l
, cannot dismiss him, this Senate can>
not, but we can pass stringent laws
and compel him TO obey them. In his
book he contradic,s himself and
shows his hostility to the silver
coinage in the most unmistakable
form. He says, at page A:
The silver dollar had already become
obsolete In fact; the law of 1913 merely
lconformed to that fact. ~
And yet in the previous year, 1872, and
in the year 1873, we had coined more
than double as many silver dollars AZ we
had coined in any one year during the
whole existence of the Government. l
do not knew anything about the puslica
ton of this book. 1t was laid on my desk
and 1 suppose on the desk OF every mem.
ber. AIN Ef 0E
But 1 read on:
This important feature of the coinage act
of 1873 had been agreed upon by Congress
before 1t became apparent that serious
decline In the value of silver was likely to
take place, In consequence OF the change
from the silver to the gold standard by the