Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-16

we naQ reserved the right OF redeemlng
portion of this debt within five years and a
portion of it within ten years, so that the
debt was, in the main, then redeemable at
our pleasure. 1t was not possible to pay it
in coin and it was not honorable to pay it in
greenbacks, especially as that could only
have been done by issuing new greenbacks far
beyond the volume existing during the war,
and which would at once depreciate in value
and destroy the public credit and dishonor
the country. We, therefore, authorized
the exchange, par for par, bonds bearing 4,
AZ and per cent interest for. the bonds
bearing a higher rate of interest The only
contest in Congress upon the subject was
whether the new bonds should run g. 10 and
Is years, or 10, 10 and so years. l adyo-
Gated the shorter period, but the House of
Representatives, believing that the new
bonds would not sell at par unless run
ming for longer period, insisted that the
4 per cent bonds should run for 80 years.
Greenbackers, like Mrs. Emery, who now
complain that the bonds run so long and
cannot be paid until due, are the same peo-
pie who insisted upon making the bonds
run 80 years. 1t required some ten years to
complete these refunding operations-ot
which the larger part was accomplished
when was Secretary of the Treasury-and
they resulted in a saving of one-third of the
interest on the debt. So far from it being
in the interest of the bondholders. it was to
their detriment and only in the interest Of
the people of the United States.
THE SILVER ISSUE.
The next conspiracy complained of is
the alleged decentralization of silver. By
the act revising the coinage of 1873, the sill
yer dollar, which had been suspended by
Jefferson in 1906 and practically demone-
tized in 1885 and suspended by minor coins
in 1853, and which was issued only in later
years as convenient form in which to ex-
port silver and the whole amount of which
from the beginning of the Government to
the passage of the act referred to was only
$4,000, 900, this silver dollar was, upon the
petition of the legislature of California and
upon the motion of her Senators and by the
unanimous vote of both houses of Congress,
without objection from any one, dropped
from our coinage and in its place was substi
tuted the trade dollar containing a few
more grains of silver. A few years after
ward, silver having fallen rapidly in market
prices, Congress restored the coinage of the
silver dollar limiting the amount to not ex-
ceeding 81, 900, 900 nor less than 81, 900, 900
month, and under this law in a period of II
years we issued over 400, 1000, 900 silver dol
lars, so times the amount that had been
coined prior to 1873.
And now under the existing law we are
purchasing $4,000, 600 ounces of silver
year; so that what she calls the demonetl-
zation of silver has resulted in its use in
our country to an extent more than tifty-fold
greater than before its decentralization. In
spite of all, and growing out of the in
creased supply of silver and the cheapening
processes of its production, it is going down
in the market and is only maintained at par
with gold by the fiat of the different govern
ments coming it. Now.the deluded people
belonging to the class of Mrs. Emery are
seeking to cheaper the purchasing power
of the dollar in the hands of the farmer and
laborer by the free coinage of silver and the
demonetization of gold. Silver and gold
should be used and maintained as current
money, but only on par with each other,
and this can only be done by treating the
cheaper metal as subsidiary and coming it
only as,demanded for the use of the people.
A PRIDE AND BOAST.
The seventh financial conspiracy is the
pride and boast of the Government of the
United States, the restoration of our notes
long after the war was over to the standard
of coin; in other words the resumption of
specie payments. This measure, which met
the violent opposition of such wild theorists
as Mrs Emery, has demonstrated its success
in the judgment of ali intelligent people,
not only in the United States, but in all the
of the world. There is no stand
ard for paper money, except coin. The
United States postponed too long the resto-
ration of its notes to coin standards. Since
it had the courage to do this under the re-
act, on the 1st dav of January,
1879, We have had in the United States a
standard of gold with coins of silver,
nickel and copper maintained at
that standard by the fat of the
government, and paper money in various
forms, as United States notes, national
bank notes, gold certificates, silver certif- |
Gates and treasury notes all at par with |
gold. To call this a conspiracy" or an
Infamous plot is a misnomen of terms |
which will not deceive any intelligent man,
but it is rather the glory and pride of the |
people of the United States that it not only |
has been able in the past 80 years to put |
down great rebellion and to abolish slav- |
cry, but to advance the credit of the United |
States to the highest rank among nations, |
to largely increase the currency of the coun- |
try, to add enormously to any productive |
interests and to develop our resources of |
the mine, the field and the workshop to |
a degree unexampled in the history |
of nations Intelligent people who reason |
and observe will not be deceived or misled /
BY the wild tanaticism and the gloomy |
of Mrs Emery. Temporary con- |
1itions growing out of the failure of any |
portion of our crops will not discourage |
them; the e1aggerations of the morbid |
fancy will not mislead them. A candid ex- |
animation of the great financial measures of |
the last 80 years will lead the people to |
place what Mrs. Emery calls ''the seven |
financial conspiracies" as the seven great, |
wise and statesmanlike steps which have |
led the people of the United States through |
periIs and dangers rarely encountered BY |
any nation, from feeble confederacy with |
|, 600, 900 slaves and discordant theories of |
power, to a great, free re. |
public made stronger by the dangers it has |
passed, model and guide for the nations of |
he world.
As for Mrs. Emery's criticisms upon me |
1 do not even deem them worthy |
of answer. She repeats the old story that |
was interested in the First National Bank |
IF New York and gave it the free use of |
-he peoples money, a plain lie, contra
1icted and disproved over and over again. |
never had the. slightest interest in the |
bank, direct or indirect, and, as the public |
records will show, gave it no favors but
treated it like all other repositories of pub
ic money and held it to the most rigid ac-
nor have lin any case derived |
he slightest pecuniary benefit from any
measure either pending in or before Con-
yress since 1 havs been in public life Very
ruly yours, JOHN SHERMAN.
HER WIDOWHOOD ENDED.