Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-03-22
Gold and Silver.

To the EdNOr or me DtsDIG
As the question iS still before the people
and to be considered as one of party policy
10y some, please permit the tOllowingrefer-
ence to original principles
A distinguished gentleman, Hon. Abram
S. Hewitt of New York, in On argument
made before the Committee on Coinage,
Weights, and Measures of the House Of
Representatives and lately published,
said:
The greatest evil which can befall ana
ton is a change in the standard of values,
Plaques. pestilence, and famine are, after
all. but local and temporary calamitles;
floods. earthquakes and cyclones are limit
cd in their disastrous results, but change
in the standard of value affects all exist
ing contracts-reaches every family in the
land, and converts legitimate trade into
speculation and gambling
He could not more forclbly perhaps de-
pict the results which have followed the
change in the standard of value made IN
1873.
The results following that change, inju-
rious as they were and are, were tempered
bv the restoration of the silver dollar IN
1875 to legal tender function, though by
the limitation of the coinage of silver III
the act of 1873 the gold standard has been
continued and ono royal money metal
made merchandise.
The change in the standard made by
Great Britain In 1916, however, was not
thus tempered, and 1t is recorded as among
the calamitous results which followed that
arbitrary act that the number OF land
holders in the united kingdom were re-
duced from 100000 TO $4,000.
Mr. Hewitt in the same paper, however,
makes this statement:
by law the standard Of value in tho
United States is a dollar containing 25.S
e Il hv1A | a.
money, including legal-tender notes, ma
jonathan notes, silver dollars, and silver
certificates. are maintained at par with the
cold dollar only because in some form or
other thew are redeemed by the United
States Government in gold dollars OF the
above standard" That IS grave error
and no doubt honestly believed by many,
but 1t is an error as to law and fact never
theless.
The original statute which made the dol
lar our unit Of value SIMPLY continued
what ureexisted among the people OF the
States.
Ii did not change one grain the Spanish
milled dollar, then everywhere current, IN
endowing with our national insignia the
new coinage. The value Of the dollar was
ascertained to be by collecting and assay
ing n number of those dollars IN current
use TO be SIX grains Of fine silver. Ibe
rights OF debtors and creditors were held
inviolate by the fathers Of the republic,
and the obligation of contracts were IN no
wise impaired.
That dollar of SIX grains Of fine silver
was and is the unit Of our monetary sys-
tenn by law. u..
Gold coins were authorized by that act,
but not q gold dollar.
The eagle. half and quarter eagles were
coined at O ratio of 1 to Is Of silver and
given full monetary power, but the unit OF
account and of payment was the dollar
For generations before the Revolutionary
war 1t existed.
at the rates fixed by Congress constitute
the legal standard of value in this country,
and neither Congress nor any state mas au-
thority to establish any other standard or
TO displace this"
Now, then, to grant that the Congress OF
1873 possessed the right to strike out SILVER
and decrease the sole gold standard Is TO
concede that O future Congress may
change the standard by demonetizing
cold. No such right can be conceded TOT
moment. IL violates all the equities be-
tween men. -,
The act of 1873 is utterly indefensible.
and will doubtless be so construed In the
case now pending before the Supreme
Court of the United States, 1t IS not
alone as a matter of policy and OF national
interest that the reopening of our mlnts TO
silver is demanded,
IL is a matter Of right-a constitutional
right-that we ask it.
no party can afford to longer contend
against this right. y. w. fokIkk'