Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-03-14
CONGRESSIONAL.
.ss senate is Addressed By Beck and
sherm an Sn the Question ef
Silver Coinage
,r,for the Erection OF Public Build.
ing at Fort worth Reported
TO the House.
FAftteth OonRresH.
THE SENATE.

Nd nm the resolution offered by him
the 18th of December, for the appoint
lent of special committee to examine
,,IIv into the present condition OF ciVi
W. vice in all branches of government,
Sn,ch. after debate, was adopted.
Tine Senate proceeded to consideration
Mr. r .ck's Dill to provide for the re-
Ig,.amant of Uaited States legal tender
"a national bank notes of small denom-
'sH'tion and the issue of coin certificates
- lieu of gold certificates, and Mr.. Beck
Creased the Senate In advocacy OF II.
me hill, he said, had been referred to the
Inca committee and had been last
Tnssd4y It ported back By pare major
49, ne referred to what he said in MS
~! .g9osch ON the pension bills as to Nj. Sher-
nr.n,s responsible = for the silver demon
r4'r,tiou measure. In support Ct his
.,,,ement that the measure had been car
led through Congress secre,l] he quoted
t.on the speech made in the
H,use BY Kelly OF Pennsyl-
T,nis. chairman, who had
cb,rpe Of the pill to the effect that the
hi was passed without any sllusion in
5s6ste to the question Of abandonment
NJ the standard silver dollar law, and
Kelly did not know anything Of it for
aighieen months afterWerd. He also
Noted from q recent speech by SeDstor
Stewart. who WAS in the Senate in 1873,
and who, although his state was deeply
interested 10 the. question, knew Of
nothing in the bill Cemonehzlng silver
He also quoted from speech Of Ser
.tor Allison in which he declared
inst the bill Of 1873 was "doctored;"
from spes CHI OF Senator Howe OF Wis
consin, in which he spoke of 1t as an act
nj guilt, "cOmpired with which the rob-
6ery of zoe, 600 600 vas venial;" from a
sneech Of Senator Iugalls in VI, when he
spoke Of it Is "tne elimination Ut q
scheme long entertained by the holders
OF the public debt. devised by them for
the purpose Of sppreciatlng the
vsIue of their investment, regardless
Of the ruin and desolation which It
would bring on the productive class OF
the nation;" from speech Of Senator
Coke in which he said that "no greater
outrage (thau The demonstration act) had
ever been perpetr1ted under the form Of
law" and from speeches OF other Sen
ators. he wanted to show to the Senator
from Oalo tShermsI) that what he Beck
mad said on the subject WAS mild COM
sbout Il. II there was any
faith In human testimony then
neither the Senate, the Congress, nor the
people knew that silver coin was being
struck down when the act OF S73 was
passed. BE also quoted from the House
proceedings on tAe occasion Of the pass
age Of that bill. He claimed tost the
House never knew what was IN the bill;
that It was reDorted by Mr. Hooker IS g
substitute for all former bills on
the f5uhiect; that il was said . By
Mr. Hooker that it had nothing
10 do with coinage. He denounced
as untrue the pretense that silver was
demonetiz ID because it was more yalu-
sble than gold, but declared 1t was be-
csuse capitalists and bondholders saw
that gold WAS becoming more and more
valuable very cay. He also charged
mthe frsudn was consummated through
revision Of the statutes. The act Of 1873
had not destroyed the legal tender
principle of silver coin then
in existence, but the revised statutes
(which professed not t. alter the law in
8 single syllabl, came afterwards and de.
clRred- that silver coin should be legal
tender for not N re than So. Was that,
he asked, an ACCIDENT Il W0s true that
whoever did IL committed pslpable fraud
upon the Couniry. There WAS not man
in either House who would dare to say
that he knew that the revised statutes
took SWAY the legsl tender quality
Of the silver dollar. Even the
Senator from Ohio would not admit
that he knew that the thing was done.
After that was done the next thing deter
mined upon was TO strike down the green
back (in the resumption act, to destroy
It Altugsther, and TO leave the national
bank omnipOtent over the land. And all
this time he Senator from Ohio bad been
chairman Of the Senate committee on
finance. In conclusion, Mr.. B. OK said ne
would csll up his bill for &C ion ct an
early day when he would see whether the
Senate agreed with him Ia thinking
his bill step Ia the right direction. He
was not sure that silver should not be
coined up TO the maximum Of Iimig instead
Of the minimpm.
Mr. Sherman said that as Il matter of
course ne would not undertake ID reply
to the arguments of the Senator from
Kentucky on the silver question, but he
would reply briefly to one or two matters
of e personal character which the Senator
from Kentucky felt JUSTIFIED in
Juggling into the controversy. That Sen
stor hSd never found him (Shermap)
lodging responsibility or eVsdiug an
issue. The Senators answer to-day what
he (Shermsn( had said when he last
spoke on the subject was lame and impo-
tent to the last degree. How had he
answered itl BY eoirg to the record and
seeiDgWhetherth the demonetlz Xtion law was
put through in secret way. Not at sll,
but by quoting speeches made on The
stump or in the S.nate and grossly
misapplying them. he (Sher-
mani was now able from
original Senate records to show that the
bill in question had been openly dis
cussed, fully considered, submitted TO
public opinion in every form, inside OF
Congress and outside. 1t was not bill
Of his devisiDg. He had never seen it
until It was sent to him as chairman OF
the finance committee by the Secretary OF
the Treasury. It did not become law for
three years afterwards, and in the mean
time 1t had been printed thirteen times,
and had been debated over again and
again. AS TO the Senator's talk about
resumption, who did not feel, he asked,
that the CREST work Of courage (dot only
Of Congress, but Ct The departments and
of the people, was one Of the proudest
triumphs of Inc nstioEP As to the silver
onaat,np ba vVRs not oDDose ed to silverAIIe