The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1878-12-05
Senator Ingalls, Great Effort in The
Senate in Behalf of the Money
of the People.
A Piea for The West and South
Against the Greedy BondhoId-
ere Of the East.
Gold, the Coward and Bully, Timid,
Weak and Fleeing at the
approach of Danger.
Silver, the Poor Mans Friend, the
Supp porter Of the Government in
Time Of Need = Coinage OF
the Silver Dollar.
delivered February ID, 1851

the Silver Dollar.
delivered February 10, 1851
The VICE-PRESIDENT. If there be
no further morning business, the Senate,
"a in Committee OF the Whole re-
sumes The consideration of the unfinished
business, being the bill Oh. Z. No. 1888 to
authorize the free coinage of the standard
silver dollar, and TO restore Its legal
tender character, on which the Senator
from Iowa, Mr. Allison is entitled to the
floor.
| Mr.. ALLISON. | understand that the
| morning business has been completed.
| Therefore call for the regular order. |
Weld TO the Senator from Kansas Mr..
ingalls, who desires TO submit some re-
marks.
Mr.. INGALLS, said, Mr.. President, the
financial system Of this country has hither-
to suffered much more from its doctors than
| from its diseases. II has had drugs in
stead Of nutriment 1t has had constant
change, when it needed stability and re-
pose Since the assembling of Congress
in October, We have been burdened with
pamphlets, addresses, essays, memorials,
letters, protests, and petitions, urging speci-
fic legislative action as a cure for the de-
plorable ills with which the country Is al
fiicted. Men who have distinguished them
selves BY conspicuous incap icity to manage
their own affairs with prudence and success
have not hesitated to assume that they are
qualified to control the concerns OF every
body else. We have been offered panaceas
against panics, and patent empirical pro-
cesses by which universal prosperity is to
be restored to the people. Some prescribe
gold, some silver, and others paper, as q
currency. Some want bullion and Others
want coin. Some want dollar that will
not 20 abroad, and others a dollar that will
not stay at home. Some want to limit the
amount that shall be Issued. Opinions as to
the weight Of the silver unit vary from 400
TO 45i grains. One eminent Senator pro-
poses to establish sliding scale OF valua-
ton to be determined monthly by the Sec
rotary Of the Treasury, so that If coin is too
heavy at any time the debtor can put it in
a lathe and turn of the superfiuous grains,
and if it is too light he can keep it until
the price goes up again. The Senator
from Maine inveighs against the invidious
and unpatriotic discrimination of issuing q
more valuable dollar to pay the barbarous
laborers of China and India than that
which is employed for the wages of the in
| tellisent American voters who make Presi-
dents, while no one knows better than he
that the workingmen of those countries do
not earn on an average sixty cents a week,
and thst'the trade dollars are coined not to
paw for labor but tc enable merchants and
| capitalists TO effect their exchanges.
i do not propose to add to this confusion.
l have no prescription to offer. Upon a
subject that has engaged the attention Of
mankind for thousands Of years and Is still
| open to debate, | may well distrust the
soundness Of my conclusions, and hesitate
to submit them Tor consideration but so
much has been said in this debate with
which | agree, so much has been said from
which | wholly dissent, and 40 much has
been left unssid which believe to be true,
| that | shall venture to detain the Senate by
| a few observations in explanation of my
vote.
Were the proposition to discontinue the
coinage of the silver dollar and deprive it
of its legal tender power submitted now for
| the first time TO the people Of the United
States, it would be rejected overwhelmingly
in every State in the Union. l doubt if a
single county even could be found, outside of
few in the northern Atlantic States, where
such proposition would receive a MAORI
ty of the votes of either political party.
Even in the Senate, where conservatism Is
the law Of action, twenty two States favor
the restoration of silver. Eight are oppos-
ed and eight are equally divided. of the
latter, if we can Judge BY their Representa-
tives in the lower House, and the tone of
the press, We must include Georgia and
Mississippi, and South Carolina in favor of
the pending bill. / understand that the ju-
nior Senator from Mississippi comedies that
his State is against him, and i believe
Georgia has formally protested against the
position taken by her Senator who spoke on
Friday Of last week. Estimating their pop
ulations by the average ratio OF increase
since 1870, we have twenty five States, with
nearly thirty four million people in favor
of the restoration of silver; eight States,
with nearly nine millions, against it; five
States, with a population of about three
millions, divided upon the proposition.
l see no proof of the assertion that the
characterization Of silver in 1873 was ac-
complished BY corrupt and fraudulent |
means. The act was improvidently passed. |
The attention Of the people was not called
to the subject. TWAS not discussed nor un-
derstood. Though it was done at a time |
when the public mind was intensely inter-
ested upon financial subjects, and methods /
of relief were assiduously sought, the de-
monetization Of silver was meyer suggested |
by any one as likely to ameliorate the pecu-
mary distress of the nation. But there is
strong evidence that the destruction of the /
legal tender power of silver was the culmi-
nation Of scheme long entertained BY the
holders Of the public debt of this country,
devised by them for the purpose of appre-
ciating the value Of their investments, re-
gardleee of the ruin and Oscillation which it
would bring upon the laboring and produc-
tive classes Of the nation.
In report made to the Senate June 9,
1865, to accompany bill in relation to
the coinage Of gold and silver Mr.. Sher-
man, now Secretary of the Treasury,
said:
The single standard Of gold is an American
idea. yielded reluctantly by France and 9TH
ard Of value.
No statement emanating from authority
80 respectable could we'll be more devoid Of
truth. The original American idea was a
single standard Of silver. Gold was an in
nov alton, and in my Judgment q grave
mistake The assertion of Senator Sher-
man that the single gold standard was an
= American idea" is 30 singularly incorrect
that il seems almost like q premediated
to the fatal error Of 1873.
No doubt there must be money unit
which should have q standard value regu-
lated BY law. This unit should be estab-
lished in the precious metal which is least
subject to Huctuation, which il most abund-
ant, and has the widest uses. That metal is
silver. IL We are to have . monometallic
standard, / believe silver to be immeasur-
ably preferable to gold. 1t is less subject
to fluctuation its production is more stea-
iy; its cost more uniform.
No enduring fabric of national prosperi-
ty can be builded on gold. Gold is the
money Of monarchs kings coyet it the ex-
changes of nations are effected BY it. Its
is TO accumulate in vast masses in
The commercial centres, and to move from
kingdom to kingdom in such volumes as to
nnsettle values and disturb the finances of &,
The world. 1t is the instrument of gam /.
blers and speculators, and the idol of the
niser and the thief Being the object of /.
70 much adoration it becomes naughty and |
,ensitive, and shrinks at the approach of /,
LANCER, and whenever it is most needed it
always disappears. At the slightest alarm I
I begins to look for q refuge. 1t flies from I
he nation at war TO the nation At peace. | I
War makes it a fugitive. No people in . I
.reat emergency ever fourd faithful ally I
a gold Ii is the most cowardly and {
reacherous Of all metals 1t makes no c
reaty that il does not break. 1t HIS no friend |