The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-02-03
More About Enp Bflk u Repeal f1fD
Silver Coinage Law.

itating the discussion into which our
able contemporary, the Greenville
Times, has entered with so much warmth.
In the panorama of stirring events
claiming present attention-the anti
silver movement, the electoral count,
the Congressional Appointment, the
improvement Of the Mississippi river
and its tributaries, the Funding bill,
the Federal election laws under
which Democratic voters are har-
raised and prosecuted, and in State pol
itics, the schemes to disintegrate and
defeat the Democratic party, the legis-
lative Apportionment, immigration and
Educational questions-the remote
question of the Senatorial election in
troduced by our friend Of the Times,
was entirely shut out from our minds
eve and we have no idea whatever of
discussing it now. But we shall not
desist from entering our protest against
repeating the silver coinage law. If we
understand the Democratic sentiment,
it is to stand immovably by it, and upon
the Cincinnati platform, which declares
for "Honest money consisting of gold
land silver and of paper convertible
/ ''into coin"
In answer TO the main point of the
Times article, showing its sympathy
with the movement to repeal the law
~9Lia5 e. H. Informed OF any real
"tangible benefit derived by any por-
''tion Of the people from it, except the
''siIver producers" we will reply to
the Times that it was silver coinage
which made the resumption of specie
payments possible. Were the brokers
and fundmongers at liberty to demand
gold and gold only for their greenbacks,
the fabric of resumption would burst
! like a bubble Silver stands guard at
the door of the Treasury and prevents
speculation in gold, and the consequent
depreciation Of greenbacks. 1t makes
I the government financially strong. 1t
has already added 1852, 900, 900 to the
money Of the country. Destroy it, and
you contract the currency to that extent,
bring back low prices and hard times.
/ The government has immense bonded
Indebtedness to pay, upwards Of -, OO0,-
600 900, and it has a right to pay it in
gold or in silver of 412! grains to the
dollar, at its option. To take from the
people this right and force them to pay
exclusively in gold, the value of which
would be enhanced by reducing the
currency, would be astupendous wrong.
The silver dollar of the present coinage
of 4121 grains is made part of the
contract between the people and the
bondholders-the debtor and the credi-
1or--and you cannot strike down one
without violating the other. Our friend
of the Times asks for Conformation" and
we Will furnish it in the shape of the
following resolutions which passed the
United States Senate, January 2Sth,
1873, by a vote of 43 to %. They
were supported by nearly all the Dem
ocratic Senators and a portion of the
Republicans and what is more, they
were introduced by Hon. Stanley Mat
thews who has recently been appointed
United States Supreme Court Judge by
President Hayes:
"WHEREAs, BY the act entitled 'An act
to improve the public credit, and approved
la1 1v,1 ID
clared that the faith of the United States
was thereby solemnly pledged to pay in coin
or its equivalent all interest bearing obliga-
! tions of the United States, except in cases
where the law authorizing the issue of such
obligations had expressly provided that the
same might be paid in lawful money, or
other currency than gold and silver and
| "WHEREAs, All bonds of the United
States authorized to be issued by the act
entitled 'An act to authorize the refunding
! of the national debt approved July II,
1870, by the terms of said act were declared
to be redeemable in coin of the then present
standard value, bearing interest payable
semi-annually in such coin; and
! "WHEREAs, All bonds of the United
/ States authorized to be issued under the
act entitled An act to provide for resump-
/ ton of specie payments, approved January
| Ii, 1875 are required to be descriptive of
the bonds of the United States described in
said act Of Congress, approved July II, 1870,
entitled AN act to authorize the retunding
of the national debt; and
'WHEREAs, At the date of the passage
Of said act of Congress last aforesaid, to-wit,
the 18th day of July, 1870, the coin of the
+ United States of the standard value of that
debt included the silver dollar of the weight
of 4l23 grains each, as declared by an act
approved July IS, 1887, entitled An act
supplementary to an act entitled can act
/ establishing a mint and regulating coins of
the United States" to be legal tender of
payment, according to their nominal value,
| for any sums whatever; therefore be it
| "Res0lued, by the Senate, (the House of
/ Representatives concurring therein,) that
all bonds of the United States issued or
| authorized to be issued under said acts of
Congress hereinbefOre recited, are payable,
principal and interest," at the option of the
government of the Uniled States, in silver
dollars of the coinage of the United States,
containing 4i2I grains each of standard
silver, and that 10 restore to its coinage
such silver coins as legal tender In payment
of said bonds, principal and interest, is not
in violation of public faith nor in deroga-
ton of the rights of the public creditor"
These resolutions assert propositions
which cannot be denied and no suffi-
eient reasoH has ever been given why
our government should recede from
them.
The Vicksburg Herald suspects that
we oppose the Grant sineeure because
the intended beneficiary ''is not Dem
ocrat." As Democrat and advocate of the |
equal rights of our Southern people, are
synonymous terms, just as Grant and a
vindictive, sectional, partizan President |
mean one and the same thing, there
would be something tempting in the idea
suggested by the Herald. But We base
our opposition on the higher ground of
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