Litchfield enquirer., 1878-03-07
Gbe Gittbhel0 Gnquirfr,
 LITcHEEELn, CONN.
Thursday, March 7, 1878.
Mr. Hayes and the Silver Bill.

The veto of President Hayes had no effect on the fate of the Silver bill. It was know n in advance that the executive would sanction nothing of the kind and whatever concessions the friends of the measure were obliged to make in order to secure two-thirds vote in Senate, were arranged beforehand in commit tee. That these concessions were considerable the changes made in the bill between House and Senate sufficiently testify. Bad as we deem the measure in the form in which it makes it's final passage, 1t IS dangerous as a threat rather than as an actual blow at the public credit. The free coin- age clause is stricken out and there is no inn mediate danger, from the amount of silver cur rency proposed, of such an imitation as would prove at once disastrous to the reviving con- fdence between business and capital.
 That the bill is no worse that it did not pass the Senate in the extremely objectionable shape in which it left the House, we owe to the well understood views of the President in regard to any measure of that description. We think, therefore that his earnestness in support of sound currency has been by no means fruitless. It had broken half the force of the onslaught of Messrs. Ewing, Butler, & O., long before the Silver Bill reached him.
 Itiswith very little patience, therefore, that we read the hypocritical lamentations of the par tisan press over the slight respect paid the ex- ecutive in the formal treatment of his veto, by Congress. Their abandonment of the grosser features of their scheme in advance was a greater compliment to MT. Hayes honesty and steadfastness, and had vastly greater signih- canoe than any amount of decorous formality in the mere mode of everything his veto could have done Grants veto of the imitation scheme of his day was almost as great sur prise to its enemies as to it's friends. There has never been any such doubt of the action of President Hayes.
 More crocodile tears glisten in the eye ot the partisan editor as he laments the practi- cal abdication by President Hayes of the lead ership of the party which elected him. Any other President, says he, would have so man. aged matters as to have carried at least the bulk of his party with himin opposition to the silver bill This is simply untrue. Nothing will ever make an imitation Republican over into sound currency man, short Of clear indication that the majority of the people or his own state favor sound currency. Gen. Grant accomplished no such miracle by his opposition to imitation. Does anyone imagine that Samuel J. Tilden, had he been installed president, could have carried majority of the Democrats now in Congress against the Silver bill?
 Nevertheless it is certainly true that most of the Republicans now in Congress especially those of the Senate, hate Mr. Hayes his cab iuet and his methods of administration. That hatred finds expression in every possible form of disrespect; and every sensible man in the country, not misled by partisan prejudice, knows from what motive this hatred arises. It is simply because Republican Congressmen can no longer control the patronage ot then respective states and districts In other words Mir. Hayes has tried to keep the promises the Republican party made to the people Of the United States Tn the Cincinnati platform, and the promises be made in his letter Of accep- tance, and that is the reason that the president of the United States is treat ed with such indignity by it's politi clans assembled at Washington. Some time, this matter will come before the peo ple for decision, and then we think that the honesty and patriotism of Mr. Hayes will be found to outweigh the selfishness and partisan ship of the Conklings and Blaines and But lers, whose words weigh more to-day than they ever will again.
 The veto messageis an extremely able doc ument and presents ope point with force that we have not seen equalled elsewhere Since the characterization ofsilv CT in 1873, gov ernment bonds have been s"ued to the amount of nearly six hundred millions, stipula.ine that they are to be paid, principal and interest in coin. The only United States coin then il existence was gold, and now the country pro poses payment of those obligations in silve dollars worth eight or ten cents less than gold This is dishonesty, pure and simple, and VI are indebted to Mr. Hayes for showing us the swindle in its exact proportions.