The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-01-21
Silver Coinage III the Senate.

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Beck's silver resolution, and addressed
the Senate on it. It would be unwise, he
said, and unjust to the people to suspend
the coinage of silver at present. So far
as the bondholders were concerned, the
medium in which they were to be paid
had not been left in doubt, but had been
nominated in the bond. They were to be
paid in lawful money of the United
States. At the time of the contract
greenbacks were lawful money of the
Uuited States and almost the only cur.
rency. The bondholders, however, many
of whom had paid in silver only forty or
fifty cents on the dollar for their bonds,
soon went Systematically to work to
increase the value of their demands
against the Government. They used the
columns of influential newspapers and
the brains of influential men, and secured
the passage of the Act of 1861, changing
the contract and making bonds payable
in coin, without giving for that change
any new consideration. "Coin" meant
gold or silver, but not yet satisfied they
soon haG the pleasure of seeing the Re-.
funding Act of 1870 passed, which pre-
scribed that the new bonds should be
paid in coin of the then standard value,
the sane standard as that Of to day. 1t
would be naturally supposed, Senator
Brown continued, that this system of
changing the contract from time to time,
making it each time more valuable to the
creditor, had been carried far enough and
that the people would not be asked to do
more than to pay in gold or silver coin All
original greenback debt worth 40 cents on
the dollar. But not content even then
the next step was to demonetize silver, for
if silver could be permanently demone
tized there would be effected reduction
of the quantity of coin with which under
the contract debts were to be paid, and
the value of gold coin, the only coin left,
would be greatly increased. After the
demonelizing Act had been passed,
however, the people felt that they had
been wrouged, and sent representatives
to Congress to repeal it and to provide for
reasonable amount of annual silver
coinage. Since that time the creditor
class had failed 10 influence Congress, but
had beer fortunate enough to continue to
receive payments in gold alone. Those
men had been receiving gold alone, while
all other creditors of the United States
had to take silver or greenbacks. The
result was that bonds had steadily ad.
vanced until they were now worth l2O to
124, but !he cry still was that bondhold.
ers should be dealt literally with, and
that taxes must be increased in order to
pay them better currency than other peo.
pie, so as to "keep up the credit of the
United States" When 3per cent. bond
was at par ho did not care to tax people
to put credit any higher. The officers of
the treasury, be said, should treat all
public creditors alike. If they paid
bondholders in gold alone they should
pay the laborers in gold.
AS to the accumulation of silver dollars
in the treasury, Senator Brown insisted
that it was the duty of the secretary of
the treasury to pay them out to public
creditors whenever anything was due,
and if that did not dispose of them he
should call in enough bonds, on which
the people are paying interest, to absorb
the silver dollar and so stop the Interest
payments. If public creditors were paid
thirty or forty millions of silver, their
endeavor would be to keep up the value
of silver. If paid in gold alone, their
endesvors would be to dcpreciate the
value of silver 10 make it represent less
property. Ii it were said that it was not
honest to pay them in silver on the
ground that silver dollar was not an
honest dollar, Senator Brown would reply
that it was always honest to pay debt in
the very currency which the creditor by
his contract had agreed to take. The
creditors had secured several successive
changes in the contract, and the contract
as it now stood, was that the bondholders
should be paid in gold dollars, or silver
dollars, atthe convenience of the treasury
Although they had thus agreed to take
payment in either gold or silver, they
were being paid in gold alone, while
everybody else was paid in silver. This
was neither fair dealing nor common
honesty. Ever since the passage of the
Act of 1878, remonetizing silver and di-
recting the coinage of two million dollars
q month, bondholders and bankers had
been threatening all our gold would be
exported if we did not stop coming silver.
1t was now eight years since the passage
of that Act, and still, according to the
report of the secretary of the treasury,
ne had twice as much gold coin as silver
coin in the country. Almost every year
we had imported more gold than we had
exported. France and Germany hal
three times as much legal tender in sill
yer coin rs we had, yet our country was
several times larger than those countries
combined, while our population was
more energetic and enterprising than that
of any other country in the world. We
had within the past FIVE or six years
exported $500, 900, 1000 worth Of merchan-
disc more than we had imported. Those
figures represented the sum of money
which foreign nations had paid us over
and above the exchange of commodities.
Inasmuch as gold was the medium of
settlement between Europe and America,
we would receive gold for our European
balances. AS to our commerce with
China in tea, and with Brazil and Cuba
in Coffee and sugar, the balance Of trade
was against us, but those were silver
countries and would take our silver in
settlement.
Senator Brown advocated the issuance
of silver certificates to represent silver in
the treasury. Every surplus gold and
silver dollar not part OF the necessary
treasury reserve should be put into circu.
lation by gold or silver certificates. In
stead of having too much silver coin,
business would be much improved il we
had more of it in circulation in the form
of paper certificates TO meet the demands
of our immense and growing business.
We could safely carry s.iGp, 600 more
silver and then 20 would have less legal
tender silver coin shan France and Ger
many together and only q little more
than France alone.
"If national hanks attempt to practi-
cally tlsmnnclize silver" said Senator
Brown in conclusion. "and if the officers
who now represent the people in the
different departments of the Government
will not take the matter in hand, then the
people at their recurring elections should
take it in hand and fill all the depart
ments of the Gov rnmcnt with mcu who