The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1892-05-07
Constitutional Money.

OOA0 AOAVA&04 0&VA0ys
An Ohio publication-the Cleye;
land News and Herald- bin an arti.
Gle on the subsistence Of the "silver
craze" says the Oregon democrats
Favored honest money, the gold
and silver Of the constitution, Just
what the republican party has al.
ways given them, and what the
democrats voted against" tits pos.
sible and we do not know but prob
able, that the Ohio editor knows no
better than that, for q great many
eastern people are unquestionably
pitiably ignorant of money matters.
But we really think the editor oil
the News and Herald knows more
about the constitution of his coun-
try than appears in the article from
which we have quoted. We think
he knows that neither gold nor sill
yer is exclusively the money of the
constitution; and that the supreme
court has decided that paper is as
much a money of the constitution
as either gold or silver. If he does
not know these facts he should set
about learning them, in order that
he may edit q paper a little more
creditably to himself; and if he does
know them he should stop lying
and give his readers the soundest
information he can. No good cause
was ever injured by telling the truth
and disseminating knowledge con-
corning it. It is only when man
is conducting or defending some
rascality that he finds subterfuge,
deceit and lying necessary to the
accomplishment Of his purpose.
The law and not the constitution
made 9Th grains of silver and 25.8
grains of gold a dollar. This law
is founded more in custom than in
constitutional authority, as the con-
stitution nowhere makes gold, or
gold and silver, money metals in
this country; neither does it say
directly nor by implication that the
government will employ either or
both as money, nor what quantity
of either shall constitute a dollar.
What it does say, and what the
editor of the News and Herald, were
he an intelligent man would know
it says, is: "That Congress shall
have power to coin money, regulate
the value thereof, and of foreign
coins"
mo state" it continues, "shall
coin money, emit bills of credit, or
make anything but gold and silver
coin tender in payment of debts,
or pass any law impairing the va
lidity of contracts and that is all
the constitution says about money
except that Congress shall have
power to borrow money on the
credit of the United States"
Constituting this constitution ac-
cording to the light possessed by
the men who framed it and of an
custom of the CONNER
cial world, gold and silver were
Jointly recognized as money in this
country and continued to be SO
recognized up to 1873, when the
republican party, led by John Sher-
man, and influenced by foreign |
bankers and usurers, demonetized |
The latter metal, in open and fla
grant violation of positive inhi-
oition of the constitution forbidding
he passage of any law impairing
he validity of a contract. Chang
ng the terms of a contract to the
letriment of either of the parties to
t is impairing its validity, because
It gives to one of the contracting
parties an advantage he did not
originally possess, at the same time
the other with a duty or
an obligation not voluntarily in
cured. in his compact. This the
characterization of silver did by
a completed contract which
he contracting parties had agreed
should be payable in coin, meaning
gold and silver coin, equally, pay
lble in gold coin only, by which
act the debtor class were mulct to
he amount of fully IS per cent
more than the terms of their agree
nent called for. This effect was
produced by the curtailment of the
'olume Of our money of circulation,
which it was designed to, and did,
accomplish. This attached fcti-
ious value to gold, which advances
8 the demands for money in
rease, and a gold dollar is at this
ime, compared to the value of
'ther commodities, worth 81 SO,
nd this value, owing to our adop.
ion of a single or gold standard, is
augmenting.
Any other party having been in
'ower might have done what the
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