National Republican., 1888-03-15

weight of the dollar shan he 3sl grains; the
haltdollar, quarter dollar and the dime shalt
he, respectively, one.hnif, onnquarter, AMI
ont.tcnth OF the weight OF said dollar; which
coins shall be legal tender. at their demo nj.
national value. for any amount no. exceeding
81 In ary one payment.
And then Senator Sherman continues:
That is substantially MS it stood at the be-
GiurrGof this controversy, aud yet the sena-
tor says it was secretly, surrcp!itiously III
seftCd.
The Senate. OH the other hand, in Difference
to the demands made from the Pacific coast,
where the great BODY OF the silver bullion was
produced, offered, instead ofthat, this prbpp-
sition tand 1t is now the law, to strike out
what have read and insert:
That the silver coins of the United States
thall be n trade dollar half dollar or HIty-
cent piece, quarter dollar or twenty-five cent
piece, a dime or tencent piece; and the weight
Of the trade dollar shall BE- 40 grains troy, the
weight of the half dollar shall be l2lS gram
the quarter dollar and the dime shall be, re.
SpcCiivCly, one.halt and Ouc.fiith of the weight
OF said hnlf dollar; and said coins shall be
lcpal tender, at their nominal value, for any
amount not exceeding IS In any ono payment.
The following section was contained In all
the different bills aud the coinage ac. az 1873:
SrC is. lind be II .hlFhCr enacted That no
- "
shtll hereafter be issued from the mint other
than those Of the denominations, standards,
aud weights herein set forth.
II will be seen by the extract from the re.
port of Comptroller Knox, given above, that
he silver dollar was iutrinsicaliy worth
more than the gold dollar. On this subject
Senator Sherman says:
We did not see into the future, aad II Is not
eiycn to man to sec into the fuiure. We did
10, know that while we were acting here upon
the official statement that a silver dollar was
wOith over 3 per cent. more tina gold dollar,
by changes of production and other causes tha'
POSITION would be reversed. If any man had
then said to me that within twenty years, yea,
within fifteen years Rfter that time the silver
dollar wonld only be worth ~ cents on the dol.
lar, would have thought him crazy. Allthare
is about II is that we did not fore sec III, great
change In the value of silver bullion.
But when auy one in the light of these facts
will say of the members OF that Senaieor the
members of that House, that they sought to do
anything ty indirection or by secrecy, he does
Injustice to himself; he eau not do injustice to
me, because the records are there, and the
senator has seen them.
On one question In regard to the colnag
act the senator sets himself completely
right, that is, the charge that he favored
the single gold standard. On this, he siys,
in reply to Senator Beck:
He brings a collateral witness to prove tina.
after all was a secret conspirator because at
5ne time or another | proposed TO make gold
the single standard. There again he misrepre-
sens my position. did not make or oppose
to make IL the single standard ! proposed to
make gold an international coin, and to so
change the coinage aud the gold coins of all
the peoples of the world that one would b >
easily converted into the other.
And he establishes this proposition by an
appeal to the record, ana he shows that
silver was practically demonetized by Dem
ocrats. He says;
Does the senator from Kentucky know that
Tom Benton and the men of 1884 and 1857 who
net this difficulty in the first place demonn-
tzed silver, ana from tint time to this we
have been practically upon the unit OF gold
coin? Although nominally in law the silver
dollar stood as the unit Of value, yet, in fact
ard in practice, gold was the only standard of
value. But the silver was coined freely into
what are called minor coins-50 cents aud
90 Cen,s-and there was per cent. lsss silver
ported. The whole object OF this demonetiza.
ton of silver was to preveat the silver dollar
from being exported, as it always was ex-
ported, because 1t was worth more In the
mints ef Europe than In our own.
We shall quote no further from Senator
ShermaH's speech relative to his record on
the silver question. What we have given
establishes beyond controversy the false
hood Of the charge made against him Of
secretly engineering the characterization OF
silver, ard proves that he was the friend
OF that metal in the controversy then
going on.
But there is another subject treated OF
In this great speech, to which we propose
to turn, and that is ie refundinS oLthe
debt OF the United States. In Jatswer to
Senator Beck Senator ShermaiI said,
Now, what else is there that care to answer
in the speech of the seg6tor from KentUcky?
He said we insisted uy1n paying our bonds in
coir. So we did, 9lfd thank God we did. II
we had not paid our bonds in coin durug the
war, or promised to pay them in cJia, what
Would nave become of Our credit Even as II
Was, With the interest fairly secured by reyen-
time in the marke;s of the world at about 80
cents on the dollar. suppose we had not sup
ported our credit and maintained the standard
that we had Proclaimed that we would not
only pay the pri 'cipal but the interest In gold!
In the diTest times Of the war va bou yht c)in
and psid untold premiums almOs: to get IL
in order TO pay the public creditor. BIT that
was to sustain the public credit aud maintain
the public faith,
The senator said some harsh words he will
find them when he looks over his remarks, IL
he does so-about the men of business during
the war; that they were grabhers, seeking
something more than they deserved. Ny
cOuntrymen, IL required patriotism, heroism,
courage, and hope to take the bonds OF the
United states during that fearful war. All of
you know how severely at times we were
pressed and how dangerously our credit wa
affected, and yet without that strong anchor of
cola interest our bonds would nave disappeared
Ike the confederate bonds into thin air, dis
honored and unsurg,
But, sir, th0pkG to the courage OF the people
of the United States, hey stood by thlt policy,
and by that means we are able now to legs-
late for restored and advanced country of
untarDished credit and to borrow money at n
less rate than any country In the world.
Let us go u little further 10 illustrate the
wisdom OF the financial policy Of the Senate.
SenGtozs may now bo forgetful of one fact
which will state, not ioi the purpose Of criti.
cising any one-perhaps 1t may be new to the
senator from kentucky, and yet he was here
at the time 1t was done. When 1t became
necessary to refund the public debt, after the
irst hyetwentics had matuied, everybody
demanded relundlng act TO lessen the bur
den OF cur debt. Itwas very d.Aicult thing
10 DO. The seultc Of the United States, after
more care ana d2!ibctati0n than, so far as |
know, it has ever bestowed on any bill, finally
reported bin % fund the public debt 10 aid
IN the resumption Of specie payments, and to
advance the pubic credit
on tho 20 day OF February 1870, I was di'
'cetCd by the committee oI ilnance to report