Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-03-17

When the news came that the test
vote on consideration of the Bland sill
yer bill had been taken, EVERY EVENING
said editorially.
"Are there not some Democrats of
commanding integrity and influence
who can come to the salvation of their
party and, what is of even more press
ing and vital Importance, the salvation
OF the great cause of the whole people
tariff reform and honest money-in this
their hour of imminent peril?"
Foremost among statesmen TO whose
counsel the American people have been
indebted and who have earned the right
TO speak and to be heard at such time
is our honored townsman, ex Secretary
Bayard. His long and consistent public
record on sound money and honest
finance; his experience as former chair
man of the committee on finance in the
United States Senate; his determined
and uncompromising stand for honest
money when greenback initiation threat.
ened the stability of our currency-they
are known to all.
For these obvious reasons THE
GAZETTE sought Mr.. Bayard and
pressed him to speak freely to the public
through its columns ON the dangers now
1nenacing the country through the
medium of free and unlimited coinage
OF silver In the course OF the interview,
Mr.. Bayard said:
THE DUTY OF THE CITIZEN.
''In proportion to the gravity of
public questions, plain and candid utter
ance becomes the duty of an American
citizen.
~ have watched with increasing ap-
prehension the legislation of Congress
In relation to the coinage or silver and
from the very first have deplored and
opposed the false position assumed by
the government, in 1873, for the first
time in its history, of entering the mar
ket as purchaser of silver bullion and
forcing its coinage as money and as an
unlimited legal tender at nominal value
beyond its intrinsic and real market
value
"Until February, 1878, the sole func-
ton and duty of the government was
that coniided by the Constitution--of
coining-that is, of stamping and certi-
flying the true and precise weight and
tineness of the various pieces of metal
issued from its minis for circulation as
money. OF course l do not include the
fractional token coinage for the con.
venience and minor transactions of the
people, which is not legal tender except
in very limited sums. But earnestly
opposed at every stage those laws by
which the government became more and
more extensively a purchaser and pro-
prietor of silver bullion and of its legal
tender coins, composed of silver, and my
sense OF the danger arising from the en-
trance upon such false premises of duty
has rapidly increased under the pro-
gressive legislation of Congress in the
direction Of forcing silver in, and gold
out of circulation, in the vain and
illusory effort to establish fixed ratio
and create Il parity Of value and eX-
changeability between the two metals,
in which the United States stood solitary
and alone in the fiscal and commercial
world. As a result the nominal ratio at
which silver coinage is progressing is l6
TO 1-while in fact the actual ratio of
market value is 90 to 1.
History will not permit it to be for
gotten, although some men may wish to
forget. that these measures were all
placed upon the statute book under the
counsel and advice of the Republican
party; land while us a Democrat may and
do derive some satisfaction from the fact
that the responsibility for such grave
errors and consequent injury to the
country cannot be laid at the door Of
that party, and on the contrary have
been strongly disapproved by the only
Democratic administration of the past
thirty years, yet, in. the progress of
vents | find even that negative
satisfaction rapidly giving way to
feeling Of little less than consterna-
ton when | perceive in the pre-
sent Congress and elsewhere such ndi-
cations of disposition on the part of
Democrats protesting to represent their
constituents to accept, expand, intensity
and continue these terrible mistakes of
their party opponents; and this, too,
Just at the moment when the public
mind seems to have been slowly awak-
ened to the exposed and admitted dan
gers of such course of action. cannot
sufficiently express my amazement and
sorrow to see men of the Democratic
party now Fastening to adopt these
DANGEROUS PALACES
and clothing their honored party with
such cast-otf, diseased and fatal gar
ments and to impede its march to power
and usefulness by such balls and chains
Il don't pretend to read between the
lines of the late votes and action in the
House of Representatives-if it means
shrewd and cunning finesse, the strategy
of concealed motive, can only say
IT is PLAYING WITH FIRE,
and is treating question of the gravest
public import in an unworthy manner;
but, if the votes mean what they say on
their printed face, then, say, the hour
has struck for the Democratic masses to
arouse themselves and examine their
individual consciences and sense of duty
to the country, and to realize that satWs
p0pui suprema est ier is the rallying
cry of true Democracy everywhere
and not of Democrats alone but of all
other patriots to whom parties are but
means to an end, and that end the safety
and welfare of the country. Full well
am assured that the true Democracy
will never permit their party organiza-
ton to be SO misled as to become an
fundamentally of injury and wrong to
the country.
"Where does any man find warrant
In the
LONG AND HONORABLE RECORD
of the Democratic party, or any of its
accepted and authorized opponents, for