Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-01-02
SPEECH

D.. PROFhlElOhS. /
SPEECH
Of Hon. w. q. Allison, Of Iowa
i In the Senate Of the Unltet
States, Dec. -, 1877. U
The Senate having under consider
alton the resolution spbmitted by Mr.
| Matthews on the 9Th inst, relative t
the payment Of the bonds in silver
Mr.. Allison said: ;rs sl.ii
Mr.. PRESIDENT, I did not Intend
to offer any remarks on this resolu
ton of the Senator from Ohio wher
THE debate began, and shall only oc
cupy brief time now to correct whaI
I conceine to be SOME erroneous i'm
pressfons as to the effect Of the remon'
etization, Of silver. Iregret exceed.
lingly that the Senator from Ohio llai
seen proper to antagonize his res0lu.
ton to what conceive 10 be the main
question before the Senate, namely
what shall be done. with silver
whether or not silver shall again take
i its place as { part of the money Of the
United States, because, unless that
shall take place by authority Of law,
1.-THE bonds Of the United States must
BY force of existing statutes bs paid
in gold coin. 49, &. T s.a1 &
iregret that we have not discussed
the main question first, for auottet
lreason, because all the argument thue
far against the proposition ofthe Seh-
Eator from Ohio il based on the ldes
THAT ii ID the intention Of this Senats
fsnd fhs people ot this cauntry NY
fpfxce as money 8 coin which will be
intrinsically less in value than the
gold coin that we now have in circu-
lation. believe If we had first dis
cussed the question of the remoneti-
cation of silver and the method OF
that reconciliation we should have
saved ourselves much of the discus
sion with reference to the relative
values between gold and silver at this
moment. The argument of the SEN
ator from Delaware, Mr.. Bayard |,
to-day, was based wholly upon the
idea that, IL we recoined silver with
4121s grains Of standard silver as the
dollar, that coin, when in circulation,
will not be cquol in value to the gold
dollar now in circulation. Thus the
Senator from Delaware Mr.. Bayard
in his exhaustive treatment of this
subject, assumes that the effect of leg
islation yet to take place will be that
a silver dollar, as measure OF value
and instrument of exchange, will not
be equal to gold dollar.
It seems to me that If the silver dol
lar Of 4l2k grain shall be equal, in
this country, to the gold dollar of
25.S grains, either from the fact that
we limit the coinage of silver or from
the fact that we limit the legal tender
quality of silver, or from any other
fact, then the argument of the Sena-
tor from Delaware as to the effect on
the public credit will fail. And in
order to make his argument stronger,
he asked the question whether or not
there was any place in the world
now where 4l2h grains of standard
silver were equal to 25.8 grains Of
standard gold. | can point him to
place where q less number of grains
of silver, namely, 400 grains of stand
ard silver, are equivalent to 25.8
grains of standard gold. atplace is
the Bank Of France, which, it is said,
holds in its vaults to-day more than
$500, 100000 of gold and little less
than 5000, 100000 of silver. You take
q note of the Bank of France to that
bank, and you receive for it, as you
desire, either gold or silver, or both,
with a relative value of ;l5Ra Of the
one to ! of the other, whereas the
standard that we propose is stand
ard equal to l6 tol. So you may go
to Germany, to-day, and you will
find if you take two-thaler piece to
the German government that they
will give you in gold its equivalent
at the rate of 151a to /, So there is
something more in this question than
the mere question of the commercial
value of gold as compared with sill
yer in the markets of the world,
which means simply the bullion price
Of silver in the London market.
Now, Mr.. President, it seems to me
there has been great confusion with
reference to this matter Of our coin
age. admit it is delicate and diff
ficult question and should only be
changed or touched after full debate
and upon the strongest considerations
of public necessity. For myself l
would not, by any act Of this Con-
gress, SO regulate the value of money
as that in this country dollar in sill
yer would be less than a dollar in
gold as an instrument of exchange or
measure of value. If ! under
stood the Senator from Della
ware correctly, he is in favor of the
reconciliation ofsilver in some form.
He surely is not in favor of such re-
monctization as will compel the peo-
pie of this country to take a debased
dollar in silver; he, ] am sure, will
be in favor of such demonstration as
will place these two metals in this
country practically at par with each
other upon some relative basis, and
which will insure the circulation of
both and make them interchangea BILE
so far as legislation can effect this OBJ
ject.
Now, with reference to the question
of the obligation Of the Government
to pay the present indebtedness either
in gold or silver, think that de-
pends not so much upon what may be
the currency to-day, as what will be
money of the country when these OBJ
legations are payable. But in the
meantime we are compelled to pay
semi-annually the interest upon these
obligations, and the money in which
this interest is paid should be the
money contemplated by the contract
under which the bonds were issued.
If we look back to the history of
the coinage of this country, we shall
| find that the silver dollar was in ex-
istence when the Constitution was
framed. 1t was at that time the unit
Of money and the sole measure of
value. By the law of 1856, 1854
grains of fine silver constituted the
dollar and the money unit of the
United States. That was prior to the
adoption of the Constitution. Eagles
and half eagles were authorized by
the same act to be coined. After the
adoption Of the Constitution in 1892
the Congress Of the United States
changed this coinage, but il did not
change the unit of value or the mon
ey of account; and l assert without
fear of successful contradiction, that
up to 1879, so far as the law was con-
cerned, the silver dollar of 37l14
grains of pure silver was the unit OF
value in this country and the legal
money Of account, and it was only
changed by the law of the 18th OF
February, 1873, when the gold dollar
of 25.S grains was made the unit OF
value and the money of account and
the further coinage of the old silver
dollar was prohibited.
Therefore every bond issued prior
to that time was issued upon the basis
of the money unit of the silver dollar,
While nominally we had, it is true, q
double standard-that is, gold and
silver were both legal tender-yet
| thn al uor dnl1ar thnt vnA.au ~