New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-07
THE SILVLR QUESTION AGAIN.
LETTER FROM TnURLow WEED.

n
To The EditOr Of The Tribune
SIR: ask leave t. submit to the readers Of THE
TRIBUNE a brief reply to your severe denunciatlon
Of silver this mornings paper. If the Secretary
of the Treasury would obey a law of Congress,
the sub Treasury vaults would soon be relieved
from an increasing and OnerOus amount of legal
tender silver dollars. In the prosecution OF
a war for the profession of the Government of the
Union. nearly two thousand millions were
borrowed The foreign creditor sold his gold for
greenbacks at premium ranging from 80 to 100
per cent and then exchanged his greenbacks for SIX
per cent Government bonds at par.
Those bonds, principal and interest. were
pavable in coin" When our bonds COM
manded a premium varying from II TO
20 per cent, silver coin stealthlly demone-
tized-so steathily, that not leading journal was
aware that the country had been deprived of one
half of it's legal-tender money and even now.
though I have repeatedly asked by whom and for
what purpose that most important sentence was
Struggled INTO bill whose title did Nc. zeal the
secret no information has been elected ] ASSUME
therefore, that It was done was admitted III Ger
many. TO increase the purchasing power of gold.'
II was conspiracy of capital against labor origin
atlng in Europe and responded TO in America.
Some facts connected with this modern crusade
against silver cannot often be reiterated Silver
had been money current Win the MtI-
chants" from the time that began
to buy and sell until the shylocks Of
the present generation demanded their pound
OF flesh" Abraham paid for a family burying-
place in shekes Of silver. In the seven years Of
famine Jacob sent his TO the land Of Pharaoh
for corn and put silver in their sacks with which
the staff of life was 10 be purchased On their re-
turn Benjamin received 800 pieces of silver from
his brother Joseph. Judas Iscariot, who is pre-
sumed to have been a good Judge of money. sold
our Saviour for thirty pieces OF silver. Even now
silver is money current with the merchants III
half Of the geographical and numerical world. Eng
land while repudiating silver at home recognizes II
in India and here, the enemies Of silver stultiiy
themselves by cOnsentng to accept II as legal
tender for small sums. While railing at the silver
dollar no lisp is heard against the millions of sub
sidlary silver in circulation. Indeed the
silver half-dOllar, quarter-dollar and dime
are business and financial necessity.
These coins circulate everywhere al par,
and. though inirlGsIcally valuable, the silver
dollar is arbitrarily quoted Il per cent DehOw par
Inc absGTdity of this pre- tence Is shown by the
fact that no silver dollars either bought or sold
II per cent below par and by the other fact that
hundreds of thousands Of silver dollars are IN clrcu-
latiOn at par. The shOpkeeper. grocer butcher,
baker. farmer. mechanic and aborer are constantly
receiving and paying in their daily transactlOns
silver dollars at par. The Government, however,
instead of paying it's debts in com according to
law allows silver dollars to remain IN ITS wants
The bankers and banks also repudlate them. Ia et-
feet therefore in dis egard OF the Constitution and
in vlO alton of law nave gold for the rich and
silver for the Door In the words of one OF General
Jacksons etc messages. the warfare against silver
makes the rich TIch, and the poor poorer"
Ne,o- York July 6. 1852. 7. w.