Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-01-22

as a part of our financial system. ] am not
prophet nor the son of a prophet, but say
to those who are now arraying themselves
against the deliberately expressed Judgment
of the American people, judgment that
they know has beed declared and recorded
1 say to the members of this body, say, so
far as 1 may do so with propriety, to the
members of the coordinate branch of Con-
gress and I say, IL without appropriately 1
NAV do so, to the Executive of the Nation,
that there will come a time when the
people will be trifed with no longer on this
subject Once, twice, thrice, by Executive
intervention, Democratic and Republican,
by parliamentary proceedings that l need
not characterize, by various methods of leg
islatlve jugglery, the deliberate purpose of
the American people, irrespective OF party,
has been thwarted, it has been defied, it has
been contumaciously trodden under foot;
and repeat to those who have been the in-
struments and the implements, no matter
what the impulse or the motive or the inten-
ton may have been, at some time the people
will elect House of Representatives, they
will elect a Senate of the United States, they
will elect a President of the United States
who will carry out their pledges and execute
the popular will.
THE SEAT OF POWER.
Mr.. President by the readjustment of the
political forces of the Nation under the
eleventh census the seat of political power
has at last been transferred from the cir
conference of this country to its center. 1t
has been transferred from the seaboard to
that great intramontane region between the
Alleghenies and the Sierras, extending from
the British possessions to the Gulf of Mexico
"a region whose growth is one of the won
ders and marvels of modern civilization. 1t
seems as If the column of migration had
paused in its westward march to bud upon
those tranquil plains, and in those fertile
Col ~ niy shnut6
be the wonder and admiration of
the world; rich in every element
of present prosperity, but richer in
every prophecy of future greatness and re-
nown. When went West, Mr.. President, as
q CARPET -bagger, in 1858, St. Louis was an out
post of civilization; Jefferson City was the
farthest point reached by a railroad; and in
all that great wilderness, extending from the
sparse settlement along the Missouri TO the
SUBMITS of the Sierra Nevada and from the
Yellowstone to the canyons OF the Rio
Grande, vast solitude from which l have
myself since that time voted to admit seven
States into the American Union, neither
harvest nor husbandry, neither habitation
nor home, save the hut of the hunter and
the wigwam of the savage
Mr.. President, we have now within these
limits, extending southwark from the Brit
ish possessions and embracing the States Of
the Mississippi Valley, the Cuff and the
Southeastern Atlantic, vast productive
region the granary of the world, majority
of the members Of this body, of the House OF
Representatives and of the Electoral Col
legc. We talk with admiration of Egypt
For thirty centuries its ruins, its cities, its
arts, its religions, have been the marvel of
mankind. The pyramids have survived the
memory of their builders and the sphinx
still questions with solemn gaze the vague
mystery OF the desert. The great heroic OF
Egyptian civilization, with its wealth and
nNunr fha frfNn Of RI Re
faiths and philosophers, was reared from
the labors of few million slaves under the
last of despots upon narrow margin $50
miles long and ten miles wide, comprising In
all, with the Delta of the Nile, no more
than 10000 square miles of fertile land.
Who can foretell the future of that region TO
which have adverted, with its 10000 miles OF
navigable water courses S, with its hundreds
of thousands of square miles of soil, excell-
ing in fecundity all that of the Nile, when the
labor of centuries, of freemen under tho i'm
pulse of our Institutions shall have brought
forth its perfect results?
DESIRE OF THE WEST.
Mr.. President, it is to that region, with that
population and with such future, that the
political power of this country has at last
been transferred, and they are now unani-
mously demanding the free coinage of sill
yer. 1t is for that reason that i shall cordial
IL support the amendment proposed by the
Senator from Nevada In doing so l not
only follow the dictates of my own judg
ment, but l carry out the wishes of the great
majority of my constituents, irrespective OF
party or political afiliation. have been for
the free coinage of silver from the outset, and
am free to say that after having observed
the operations of the act Of 1878, am moro
than ever convinced Of the wisdom Of that
legislation and of the futility of the accusa-
tions by which It was assailed. The people
of the country that l represent have lost
their reverence for gold They have no
longer any superstition about coin Not
withstanding all the declarations OF the
monometallists, Notwithstanding all the as
saults that have been made by those who
are in favor of still further increasing the
value OF the standard by which their posses
sions are measured, they know that money
| Is neither wealth nor capital, nor value, and
| that It is merely the creation of the law by
which all these are estimated and measured.
We speak, sir about the volume of money
and about its relation to the wealth and cap
Itai or the country.
Let me ask you, sir for a moment, what
would occur If the circulating medium were
| to be destroyed. Suppose that the gold and
silver were to be withdrawn suddenly from
circulation and melted up into bars and in
gots and buried in the earth from which they
were taken. Suppose that all the paper
money-silver certificates, gold certificates
National bank notes, Treasury notes-were
stacked IN one mass at the enu OF the IreaS-
ury building and the torch applied to them
| and they were to be destroyed by fire and
their ashes spread, like the ashes of Wyck-
| life, upon the Potomac, to be spread abroad.
/ wide as Its waters be. What would be the
effect? Would not this country be worth ex-
| actly as much as it Is to-day? Would there
not be just as many acres OF land, just as
many farms, as many days of labor, as much
merchandise and as much property, i'm
proved and unimproved, as there is to-day9
| The result would be that commerce would
| languish the sails of the ships would be
furled IN the harbors. The great trains
would cease to run to and fro on their er.
rands, trade would be reduced to barter, and
the people, finding their energies languish-
| ing, civilization itself would drop and We
should be reduced to the condition OF
nomadiac wanderers upon the primeval
/ plains.
Suppose, on the other hand. that, instead
\ Of being destroyed, all the money In this
country were to be put In the possession OF
/ a single man-gold ond paper and silver
/ and he were TO be moored In mid-Atlantio
| upon a raft with his great hoard, or be sta.
/ toned in the middle of the Sahara desert
without food to nourish or shelter to cover,
| or the means Of transportation to get avayg
Who would be the richest man. the possessor
/ Of that gigantic treasure, OF the humblest
settler rpou the plains Of the West with