Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-10-10
History and Status of our Silver Dol
lar.

AT the present time when there is
SO much discussion in regard to me-
tallic currency and so much has been
said and written in regard to
silver coinage, the following in
reference to the origin of our silver
will be of interest to every one in
terested in the currency question, al
though it comes from a political
paper.
"There was, of course, a time when
we, as people, had no money of our
own. We passed through a long war
with England (the RevOlution) and
paper money (the ContinentaD was
worthless. 1t was necessary that we
should have a medium of exchange,
owing to the fact that we had a con-
siderable trade with the West India
Islands, we had already in circulation
a great many Spanish dollars. When
the question was mooted as to what
should be the means of standard of
our money, Mr.. Jefferson, who was
then in Paris, wrote advising that, as
we had so much Spanish silver in cir
culation, the Spanish 'milled' dollar
should be adopted.
"Mr. Jefferson's advice was adopt
ed. The Spanish dollar, which con-
tanned 371f grains of silver, with 442
grains of alloy was established by
law as the unit of measure-the
standard of our money. A mint was
established. Officers of the Govern
ment went into market and bought
copper; and so much copper as 971t
grains of silver, rome Spanish milled
dollar, would buy, was divided into
one hundred parts and each part was
stamped 'one cent One hundred of
these cents was legal dollar. Dol
lars were made of the same weight
and fineness as the Spanish dollar.
Gold was purchased; and so much
gold as could be bought with ten sill
yer dollars was coined into a ten dol
lar piece. Other gold and silver coins
were made, but all measured by the
standard, 37lt grains of silver to the
dollar, or its equivalent in the metal
used.
In a few years, owing to the APP
probation in copper, it was found the
cents were too large, and an order
was issued to the mint tomake small.
er cents. That was done in order tC
keep them to their relative value tC
the standard silver dollar. About
this time gold appreciated in value
and an order was issued to the mint
to make the gold pieces smaller
which was accordingly done. The
continued appreciation Of gold in
duced a second change of the gold
coinage, but the fiuctuatiOn of thai
metal in the market soon made it APP
parent that the last cut had not better
have been made. Before very long
gold had deprecated to such an ex
tent that tensilver dollars were worth
considerably more than ten-dollal
gold piece.
"Right here the government made
the first great mistake in our finances
To remedy the evil the gold piece
should have been re-cOined and mad,
larger. But the Government eXer
cised false economy by simply or
dering the mint to stop making silve
dollars. The law, however, was no
changed, and the value of both tn,
gold and silver dollar remained a
371I grains of silver. The civil wa
then came; immense wealth was &C
} cumulated in the North; great deb
was made; enterprising men borrow
ed money in Europe to build rail
roads; states, countries and cities raj
wildly into debt; Germany demone
tized silver; the mines Of California
and Australia fell off in their yield
and gold appreciated rapidly. TIL
, New York bankers and other CAPT
talists lobbied Congress to pass stat
: ute demonetizing silver. Their de
) sign was to demand the destruction
Of the silver standard when they wer
, stOpped bV a Democratic Congress,