Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-01-30
BREAKFAST TABLE LETTER T(
THE PRESIDENT.

the requirements of the people, 1t
has been coined into money. For
fifty years its weight has been uni
form, without regard to the fiuctua-
tions Of the market price of silver
bullion. Its intrinsic value and legal
tender quality combined give it a
purchasing power within the con-
fines of the republic equal to any
other kind of money. Its represen-
tative, the silver certificate, has
been exchanged at par with bank
ers for gold to the extent of seventy
five millions of dollars. A standing
offer for silver dollars payable in
gold at a half per cent. discount is
made, and they cannot be obtained
at that price. Among the people
the possession of it supplies every
want that money can buy. Its
volume, in every denomination, does
not equal five dollars per capita
By constitutional enactments the
American people have coined alike
into money gold and silver, making
them alike legal tender. The mo-
ment that either coin is carried to
foreign countries it is placed into
the scales and treated as commodi-
ty. This course will continue until
a congress of commercial nations
shall establish plan of international
coinage which shall be approved by
their respective governments.
Mr.. Webster, in his great argu-
ment in the Senate in regard to
money, said that the power to reg
ulate commerce between the states
carried with it, necessarily and
directly, the essential element of
commerce-the currency, the money,
which constituted the life and soul
of commerce. Paper money in this
age was an essential element in all
trade between the states; it was
connected with all commercial trans
actions, and it belonged to the gen.
eral government, and not to the
state government, to provide for or
regulate the currency between the
states. A paper medium, equiva-
lent to coin, and of equal credit in
all parts of the country, was an i'm
portant instrument of exchange
Currency and exchange were united,
and if the government would do its
duty on the great subject of the cur.
rency, the mercantile and indus
trious classes would feel the benefit
through all the operations of ex.
change"
All the service that Mr.. Webster
asked for money ia now performed
in every state and territory by the
"slippery silver dollar" or its repre-
sentative, the silver certificate, as
well as by any other form of nation
al money.
Mr.. President, the American peO-
pie, by the operation of law, have
yoked the two metals, gold and sill
yer, together under the authority of
the national government, as stated
by Webster, to perform the service
OF money, and designated their
equivalents, without STIMULATING any
change to be made in the quantity
of metal used OH account of the fluc-
tuations in the price of the bullion.
If English sentiment and govern
ment refuse to join in an interna.
tional congress, why should not the
American people have the indepen-
dence to maintain their own finan.
cial sentiments For. after all, it is
but a sentiment, which makes Gus
tom, and customs make laws. Be
cause England is the creditors ma
ton, and the national banks of this
country are the creditors of the peo-
Pile, it gives them no right to de-
mand an increase of the amount of
metal to make dollar to pay a dol
lar of Indebtedness.
Mr.. President: Do you suppose
there is an American farmer, while
blowing his field with yoke Of
oxen, fool enough to unyoke his
white OK and let the yellow OK per-
form the service because the white
one is the heaviest! Perhaps when
the worlds dollar is made 1t will be
composed of both the money metals /;
then it will be impossible to unyoke
the team.
What is best for the country is to
keep its money and export its pro-
dnctions. Jackson and Benton
Thought so, and used alloy in the
making of money, to prevent its ex-
portasion. After all. why discuss
this question. Gov. Boutwell,. ex-