Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-21
Of the Coinage Cloud Turned Out
ward by Its Colorado Champion.
TELLER TALKS FOR HIS STATE.
In the Course of Els Remarks He De-
nounces the Force Bill.
4 DULL DAYS DEBATE In THE HOUSE

1894. and that there was, therefore, no press
ure for immediate action on the ques
tion. He would, however, call it up at tn
convenience OF Senators who desired to speal
upon the subject
Thereupon the silver resolution offeret
by Mr.. Morgan was taken up, and Mr.. Telle
proceeded to address the Senate upon it
Mr. Teller said:
We are told now that a question which
affected the welfare and prosperity o
the whole country was not of SO much i'm
portance and consideration as was the ques-
tion of having a certain man of one political
party or the other elected as Chief Executive
for the next four years. That influence had
been felt in the Senate, and it had been teli
in other places The revolt against the Re
publican party in 1880 was not against tariff
legislation. but against currency legislation.
The great metropolitan journals or the Re-
publican party had made the assertion that
the President would veto free silver bill,
the principal claim for the denomination OF
the present incumbent. They had repre-
seuted that the President stood like wall
against the wishes of the House and Senate
on the silver question: and that while the
people might get wild. and while the Senate,
supposed to be the most conservative body
in the world might lose its Judgment, the
President, with greater patriotism, with
greater intelligence, with greater devotion to
the interests of the country, stood as the
safeguard for Wall street and its money
bags.
Executive Influence Much to Blame.
No man could deny that Executive intiu-
ence has been during the last year the
potent influence which governed Repub-
lican Representatives III the House. He had
been for Is years q humiliated observer of
the power of Federal patronage. The silver
bill lacked a majority in the House to-day
because the Democratic party was afraid
that if the Democrats in the House should
nut themselves squarely on the question of
Iree coinage the State of New York would
cast its votes for the Republican party. He
the banks of New York City had organized
themselves for the purpose of defeating
silver legislation. He ventured to say that
their was not a national bank in the United
States that had not been appeared to by that
organization to contribute funds and lnf1u-
ence to the defeat of silver legislation.
Coming down to the political aspect of
the question, Mr. Teller asked:
What is to be the relation of the Republic
an party to the question OF currency Us ap-
piled to silver? A Republican adminisG1a-
tion had been elected on a platform that had
been carefully and deliberately prepared,
and that declared that the Republican party
was in favor OF the use of both gold and
silver as money, and condemned the policy
of the Democratic administration in its
an Senators from the. West had been SO
confiding as actually to believe that the
platform adopted in Chicago meant what it
said. They had thought it meant that the
Republican party was in favor of silver as
money. Would any sane man say to him
that silver could be used as money in the
broad sense OF the term If the mints were
not opened to it as they were opened to gold?
They had thought the Republican party
actually condemned the course of the late
Democratic administration in its efforts to
repeal the Bland act.
Mighty Brittle Party Promises.
Colorado had stood third in the list of Re-
publican States for the present Executive.
On every stump and in every camp in that
State it had been proclaimed that the Re-
publican party was the party of silver. The
Democratic party, in Difference to its candi-
date and to his known hostility to silver,
had not dared to speak upon the subject.
The only utterance they could learn OF was
when a distinguished member of the Com
mittee on Resolutions in the Democratic
Convention was asked by member from
Colorado as TO what was the plan about sill
yer: and his reply was G silver" They
had believed they had at least reached the
point where the Republican party was in
favor OF financial relief TO the people by the
of the great output of silver on
equal terms with gold. But when they
came here in December last they were met
with proposition for the purchase of silver
Statestry the conduit through which silver
could pass into India; and that was all there
was OF it. They had been told by the friends
of the administration everywhere that if
they did not accept that they would get
We preferred to have nothing. We made
the fight for free coinage here, in tins body,
and we won. We lost it in the other body;
l never have doubted. nor do be-
lieve that anyone else has doubted, that
there was clear majority in that House in
favor of free coinage, and that it was only
restrained from expressing its wish by un-
due and improper Executive interference.
We made fight for the best thing we could
get. We got but little of what we wanted;
and yet we got something; that is better
than nothing. And we got that because the
Executive knew, and because the oppo-
nents of free coinage in this chamber knew,
that if we did not get that we should pre-
which he would be compelled either to sign
or to veto
Bitter Denunciation of the Force Bill.
That brings me to another question. My
attention has been called recently to some
public utterances in reference to which /
desire to make q statement. There came
from the House of Representatives OF the
last Congress bill which has been COM
monty dubbed the force bill. 1t was an
election law. l was a member of the major
ity of the committee to which it was re-
ferred. Without my vote that bill could not
have got to the Senate. consented that it
might be reported, but / reserved to myself
TO propose any modification of it-declaring
that as it then stood, it would not receive
my vote. Nearly two years have since
elapsed. / have read that bill with care
and attention more than twenty times. 1
have read it in the light of calm considera-
ton. And / repeat now that if it were pre-
sented to me now, with the alternative of
Darty support or party dismissal, should |
not vote for the bill.
A more infamous bill, in my jugment
never passed the threshold of the doors of
the Senate. Avowedlyfn the interest of good
government, it was instigated, in my judg
ment, by men whose interest it was to pre-
vent free expression of the Will of the
voters at the polls. 1 have no time now to
laboring under disability of voice which
prevented me speaking. But want to say
here now that my attitude on that bill
had no relation, no connection, directly, re-
motely or otherwise with the question of
silver.
Utter Denial of a Contract.
There is not a member who stood with me
on the silver question who will not bear me
out when 1 say that the statement that we
with Senators on the other side
OF the chamber for their support to the free
coinage bill, on the ground that we would
vote against the force bill, is absolutely un-
true and without the slightest foundation.
If that story had not been repeated ad
wOulQ not aQO WDaI now 3OQ- l.
only repeat what the late distinguished Sen
ator from Kansas (Mr. PlumO) did say in
this Senate, that the opponents OF silver in
this chamber entered into negotiations
(some of them, at least,) with Senators on
the other side of the chamber, and proposed
to them that, il they would sidetrack free
coinage the others would sidetrack the
election bill. The late lamented Senator
IRON Kansas made that statement.
Mr.. Teller asserted that If there was an
attempt ma de at the Minneapolis conven-
tion to place the Republican party in an
tagonism to silver the four silver-producing
States would not hereafter be able to act in
with the Eastern Republicans,
in the Senate or any other body. He was,
he said, in favor or an international con-
ference, but he would never have one until
an Executive was elected who really