The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-01-28

taOllSQ tQe commercial Vdlue VI s!ifei.
The exodus of gold, however, would not
be likely to appear with much force until
its shipment became frequent or until it
commanded a premium, but the large
return of American securities from
abroad affecting foreign exchange ad-
versely, or any great commercial disaster,
from which the world was never exempt,
might suddenly produce this exodus OF
gold"
Senator Morrill, denied that there had
been any failure on the part of the treas
ury officials to comply with the laws
regarding the application of money
received from customs dues. "By the
report of the United States treasurer"
Senator Morrill, continued, "it appears
that there is somewhere in the treasury
65,E35,OOO of standard silver dollars
which we are struggling to find how and
where to safely store until by some mi-
racle they can find more favor in the
wicked world. The percentage of these
dollars in actual circulation outside OF
the treasury, it also appears, has been
constantly growing less since 1851, being
then 30, then 20 per cent, and now only
Is. We have coined over 2l5,OOO,0
silver dollars, and have only been able
at any time, through much cost and trib'
ulation, to get not quite fifty million into
spasmodic circulation. People do not
like to be compelled by law to carry it.
We do not receive it here ours elves with
any praisewortiy cordiality. Our condi-
ton is somewhat like that of one of our
distinguished humorists, who in our late
war would not enlist himself, but was
very willing that one of his wife's rela-
tions should enlist. 1t is often smartly
claimeJ," he said, "that ninety million
dollars of the 165,0OO,0OO of standard
silver dollars now in the treasury was
represented in the issue of silver certif.
Gates, meaning to convey the inference
that those certificates would ultimately
be paid with silver. But this would not
be done as long as silver holders had the
option of rendering them at the custom
house as an equivalent for gold. The
secretary of the treasury" continued
Senator Morrill,, "has already found it
necessary to resort to unusual resources
to avoid the shock to all business interests
of the sudden drop from using both gold
and silver hitherto ever maintained by
our country to single silver standard.
Whenever the Government from indlspo'
sition shall fail to maintain the silver
dollar on par with gold, all of the
silver certificates as we'll as all other
paper currency, together with the silver
dollar itself. will fall 10 the exact com
mercial value of the bullion contained
in the standard silver dollar. All OF
our legal tender must then stand on that
basis. There is no financial or legislative
witchcraft that offers any other fate:
The Democratic treasury officials are held
to be more honest than their predecessors,
and it is not for me to claim that they
arc, but all have been at work from early
morn until evening twilight in pushing
silver at every crossroads of the country,
although esteemed in some quarters as
nothing less than traitors because they
have not had greater success as accredi,
ted missionaries in persuading mankind
that the silver dollar was worthy of more
obedient faith and greater alteration
among the unconverted. A Senator is
30 much of deyotee of the silver dollar,
intrinsically worth less than eighty cents,
that he proposed at once to commence
the payment of the public debt with that
coin and no other, although later he
seemed to have consented to mixture.
OF course, he expects to carry the En-
pire State in 1888 on his platform. Not
himself eligible as candidate for the
Presidency, the distinguished Senator
waves his banner reckless Of the clouds
without any silver lining which there
betokeu the fate of any Democratic son
of New York VINO may seek to conquer
under that sign. Of course, the inevita.
BILE result Of using silver in the payment
of the public debt would be to Danish
gold, or two.thiids of all our present
metallic circulation, and leave US with
nothing but silver coinage. Our five or
six hundred millions of gold would soon
command premium, increasing day by
day. Go where it might it would have
more appreciation and its departure could
not fail to produce serious monetary
crisis aud a contraction, which Congress
would be promptly asked to cure y an
indefinite issue of new edition of lega!
tender greenbacks, or by a revival OF
wildcat banks to supply the place of the
departed gold. This or anything, the
Supreme Court has already announced,
Congress may do at its pleasure. Such q
step once taken, however, the expert.
ence of the world shows cannot be easily
retraced."
Senator Morrill, characterized the old
time Democratic party as the party OF
infexible hostility to paper money and
devotion to gold, and asked why the
financial principles of Jefferson and
Jackson were now denounced. 1t could
not be, he said, that there was anywhere
any reluctance to paying the wages of
laborers or the pensions of Union soldiers
| in q dollar worth one hundred cents.
Senator Morrill, denied that France offer
ed an example for us in regard to silver
circulation. Banks were few there, he
said, and people kept more of there
money in the house. Banks were numer.
Gus here and people used them. He also
denied that the suspension of our coinage
would depreciate silver or increase the
value of gold. 1t had been demonstrated
that the whole service of the Govern
ment for seven years had failed to in-
crease the value of silver. 1t was more
worthless to day than it was then. When
the United States in 1863, he said, was
trying to obtain loan of one billion
dollars, the subscribers to the loan had
been informed that "while the bonds are
twenty year bonds, they may be redeem.
ed in gold at any time after five years. +"
All the departments of the Government
80 understood the contract. The letter
of the law unquestionably made United
States bonds payable in either gold or
silver coin, but this was done when no
silver dollar was in circulation, when it
was worth more also than the gold dollar,
and when the policy of the Government
had been for a generation to coin little
more ofsilver than what was required for
ordinary use as change. For many years
we had paid both the interest and the
principal of these bonds in gold, and this
infexible rule had given pledge of
public faith that they would forever con
tinue to be so paid until their final ex-
tinguishment. 1t was this trusting faith
of our own people which enabled the
Government to refund its bonds at the
low rate of per cent. interest, aud these
are the bonds which the Senator from
Kentucky so sternly advised that the
secretary of the treasury should have