Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-02-11

lation Is not tW0-tntrds as large as ours
and far less enterprising her foreign |
commerce Is much smaller than ours;
gold can be transported from the Bank
of France In Paris to the Bank of Eng
land In London In few hours; they |
are not so far apart as New York and
Washington. Why Is IL not done?
Why il she not brought 10 the so-called
degraded silver standard. Five more /
wears Of coinage of silver at the present |
rate will not bring ours up to hers eth
er In volume or proportion to gold. Sim |
ply because her officials and her pub |
lie creditors sustain her silver and do |
not repudiate it nor seek to degrade 1t, |
as ours have done for years past and still |
continue to do in violation of the plain |
est provisions of Law.
AS have stated in the preamble to
my resolution, our customs dues are
made payable in coin, and section 1894
Revised States provide that
The coin paid for duties on imported
goods shall be set apart as a special
fund, and shall be applied as follows:
First, to the payment In coin OF the in
terest on bonds and notes of the United
States; second, to the purchase or pay
ment Of per cent. of the entire debt OF
the United States, to be made within
each fiscal year, which is to be set
apart as a sinking fund, &C.;
third, the residue to be paid~ into the
Treasury.
No Secretary of the Treasury can
mistake his duty under that law;
no public creditor can complain when
the interest on his bond Is paid In the
coin which is set apart as q special
fund. first for the payment of the inter-
eat due him. Yet millions, hundreds
of millions, have been paid for duties
on imported goods since 1873 in silver
coin and silver certificates, which Is on
| ly a convenient form Of handling silver,
as the coin they represent Is ours when
the certificats are paid to us; yet not
one dollar, so far as am advised. has
ever heen paid in silver as interest on
the public debt or in the purchase OF
single bond for the sinking fund Though
it has been recognized as coin which
constituted the special fund created by
law by its acceptancein payment OF du-
ties on imported goods. The pubic
creditors have unjustly demanded gold
for the interest on their bonds without
any semblance of right, and every Sec
retary of the Treasury has disregarded
the law and acceded to their demands.
! Our officials have thus aided and abet-
| ted organization of the most powerful
body of capitalists in the United States
against silver coinage; men who con-
troll the currency of the country and
hold the obligations Of all its business
concerns; men who can initiate or con-
tract the circulating medium upon
which all our commercial transactions
depend; men that hold $737, ZAP, $50 of
bonds of the United States maturing in
1907, on which they now demand a
premium Of 54 per cent, and seek by
striking down silver still further to in
crease their premiums.
They hold also $3.50, 100000 of our
bonds payable in 1892, which they seek
to enhance the value OF even be-
yond the 12 per cent. premium they
now command. These men control
boards of trade, chambers of commerce
and the best talent of the press; they
can crush all who are in debt If they
dare to dissent from or object to the de-
mands they make; the reports of their
conventions and speeches are laid be-
| fore us with parade and semblance
of authority equal to the report of the
Secretary Of the Treasury or the mes
sage of the President.
shall not be surprised if they DOM
mate this Congress, but it will be after
have entered my protest against it and
have given to the country my reasons
for so protesting.
If the managers of the finances of
France had treated her silver coinage as
our officials have ours she would have
been Frustrated, financially, at the feet
of England and Germany long ago.
Why have the holders of the dishon-
ored trade-dollar been importuning Con-
gress for years to give them in exchange
| for it a standard dollar containing 412k
grains, while it contains 42O? Simply
because one is legal-tender and will
pay the debts of its owner, and the 9TH
er will rot. Yet tested by the bullion
value the trade-dollar ia worth the most.
When our Treasury officials yielded to
the clamor of the bondholders and viO-
lated the law by admitting their right
! to refuse silver received at the CUSTOM
house i'm payment of the interest or
principal of their bonds, they degraded
our standard silver dollar by depriving
it of its most important function as a
legal-tender; and now, having captured
the executive branch of the Govern
ment. the bondh0lders and their attor-
news are besieging Congress to enforce
| their demand for gold alone in the set
tlement of their claims, all law, justice
and equity to the contrary, notwith-
standing, by striking down the silver
| of tho Standard value of July, 1870