The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-02-24
The silver Question-The GreenvfTle
Times---The MississippI Leginla-

Times---The Mississippi Legisla-
ture.
i The temperate and well considered
article OF our able contemporary, the
Greenville Times, in reply TO THE
CLARION is published on our first page.
We are glad to be corrected in the in.
/ ference we drew from the Times first
article that it intended to express SYM
pathy with the movement to repeal the
silver coinage law. We now understand
/ the Times to be uncommitted on that
question and unprepared TO say what
ought to be done with it. We trust our
friend will excuse us for reminding him
that the powerful bOndholding classes
are at work for the repeal of the law
authorizing the coinage of silver-that
the movement has for its object the
aggrandizement of capital at the ex-
pense of the producing classes, in vio-
lation of the Constitution-and that he
can scarcely refrain from taking sides
in the struggle. Secretary Sherman who
draws his inspiration from the bond
holders has been transferred from the
Cabinet to the Senate. The demonti-
zation of silver is his darling scheme :;
and his operations against silver will be
continued on a field where he can
plot and work more efectually
Assuming that silver is a nuisance,
unfit for the Golfers and the dainty
palms of the Rothschilds, the Wander
bits and their class, he will continue
his effort to destroy it as part of the
money of the country and will be
backed by powerful influences, while
the opposers of the scheme viii have
to rely upon the votes of the plain
people out of whose labor the means
which supply the government are
wrung.
The repeal of the silver law means
single standard of gold. 1t means con-
traction of the circulating medium and
an increase in the value of money and
in the amount the debtor would have to
pay. Destroy it, and you double the
public debt and double the burdens of
the people. This is the meaning of the
movement we denounced, and for which
we were taken to task by the Times
1t affirms that we were not justified in
saying that the introducer of the repeal
/, I'll
him, had "defed public sentiment"
Surely we we're warranted in the decla-
ration. See the vote by which the
coinage bill passed the two houses of
Congress. 1t became law by more
than the requisite two-thirds majority
over the veto of the President. Wit
ness the unanimous endorsement of
silver coinage by the National Demo
cratic Convention. Even the Republi- |
can leaders, though they are the gold
aristocracy, did not have the boldness
to assail this money of the Constitution
in their platform. They quailed and
cowed before "Public sentiment" and
did not unmask their conspiracy against
the silver law.
Nothing was farther from our thought
than to introduce the subject of the
which passed the Mississippi
Legislature instructing her Senators
and requesting her Representatives to
vote for the silver coinage bill +; but we
must respectfully dissent from the cen
sure which the Times casts upon that
body We differ from its opinion that
The Legislature exceeded public senti-
nent." We do not believe that there
5 one in a hundred of the people of
who are opposed to the
tilver law nor one in Il thousand no, {
Tor one in ten thousand. Nor did the {
seek to raise an issue with :
senator Lamar (whOse name by the way
5 needles4ly brought into the discussion t
" our friend of the Times). On the {
ontrary, the Times must be aware that S
When the silver resolutions were intro ]
Iuced in the Legislature, its members t
lad every reason to believe from the
,revious course of the Senator that
e concurred in the policy of remonetiz- t
ng the silver dollar of 4121 grains. {