Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-08-21
TIE HISTORY CT THE SILVER DOLLAR.

A reader of the RECORD UNION having
requested some information regarding the
issue of the silver dollar, 1t has occurred
to us that sketch of the whole SILVER
question might prove interesting and per-
haps instructive, since men not seldom
lose sight of once familiar facts and
considerations, and since the history OF the
silver dollar is eminently calculated to free
the public mind from current fallacies IN
regard to the meaning and tendency of the
coinage of silver now proceeding. To begin
at the beginning, we find Mr.. Hamilton,
in 1871, reporting in favor of the establish
ment of mint, to Z" correct the immense
disorder which already reigns in the
currency. At that time the circulating
medium was composed of coins OF all ma
lions, those of Spain and her colonies pre-
dominating. A large proportion OF this
heterogeneous currency was nearly worn
out, and was consequently over-valued. 1t
was necessary to establish currency sys-
tenn, and in the first place to decide winch
metal should furnish the standard. Ham,
ilton. with characteristic sagacity, chose
gold, and in his report gave substantial
reasons, now too familiar to justify clta-
tion. for his choice. He further adopted
the ratio of ! to 10, the gold dollar to con-
tain 24.75 grains, and the silver dollar
81. % grains of pure metal. This attempt
to fix the relative value of the two coins
proved a mistake, the fact being that gold
had been undervalued. Being intrinsically
worth more than its face value,
therefore. it was exported as bullion.
and vanished as soon as it left the
mint, throwing the country upon
silver standard. Many attempts
were made to remedy this condition of
things, the object being to retain gold IN
the country by equalizing its value with
silver. No practical result followed, how
ever, until 1884, when the ratio was
changed to l to l6. As this was the Act
which really demonetized silver, or rather
which drove it out of circulation altogether,
| it is of special interest, though the silver
money lunatics have never appeared to
understand the facts in the case. The
Act of 1884 was a mistake in the opposite
direction from Hamilton's, before referred
to. He had undervalued gold, and SO
driven it out of the country. Congress IN
1884 undervalued silver, and it vanished In
its turn. In 1852 Tom Corwin called the
attention of Congress to the results OF the
last-named law, proposing to remedy the
evil by reducing the weight of the silver
dollar from 4l2i to SS4 grains Mr..
Corwin, however, was fully alive to the
necessity of restricting the legal.tender
scope of such deprecated coin, and OBJ
served, eff this plan is adopted by Con-
"gress, it of course will involve the
necessity of making silver coin legal
tender only for debts of small amounts,
"not, say, exceeding ten dollars. which is
"about the same limit which has been
established in England" Follow ng
this recommendation Congress, in 1858,
reduced the weight of the silver coinage,
but limited the reduction to the coins of
smaller denomination than one dollar, not
touching that coin because the price OF
silver was fluctuating SO rapidly at the
time that it was deemed best to postpone
action upon it until the effects of the recent
discoveries of gold in Australia and Cali
fernia had been ascertained. As the silver
dollar of 4l2l grains was in 1853 at a
premium of APO per cent, it will be- seen
that the practical effect OF the Act of that
year was to put the country on gold
basis, the silver dollar playing no more
part in the currency than if it had been re-
duced to a subsidiary coin. This in fact
was the intention of the Act, and its advo-
Gates so stated on the floor OF Congress,
Durham of Indiana saying, Gentlemen
talk about double standard of gold and
"silver as thing that exists, and that We
proposed to change. We have had but
ga single standard for the last three or
81 four years. That has been, and now is,
gold We propose to let it remain so,
"and to adapt silver to it, to regulate it by
it." So in 1858 silver was to all intents
and purposes demonetized, and this fact
must be borne in mind carefully as we pro-
coed.