The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-09-20

I field.
+ The treasury notes of the United States
are held to be legal tender before suit
upon all money contracts, except per-
haps those payable in kind. and under
/ repeated decisions of the same authority
/ legislation may wholly control the rem
edy after suit, and direct how the judg-
ment and execution shall be Satisned.
| If government recognizes and compels
/ the payment of debt, it has the co-ordi-
nate duty of determining how 1t shall
be liquidated. The sovereign is not a
! party to the contract; it is a supreme
! arbiter between and above the parties
! thereto, and whatever may have been
/ the contract, judgment and execution
/ being wholly remedial may be satisfied
In such manner as the supreme NUM-
! cipal authority may direct.
Congress may coin money, may make
| and utter notes representative of it, may
| make OF any or all of these a legal ten
| der, is the sole judge and has been OF
/ the necessity of such action, and this
| legal tender is defined to be 1.-The kind OF
! coin, money, or circulating medium which
the law compels the creditor to take in
payment of his debt when rendered in
| the amount due"
Ought TO he a Full Tender.
1t is within the province of congress
to enact that all recoveries in the courts
sounding in dollars of whatever species
shall be payable and may be satisfied in
any lawful money of the United States;
and certainly all money made by the
government ought to be full tender
Such an enactment would do more to
drive from our marts the single stand
! ard Of gold, to preserve the parity be-
/ tween silver and gold, TO make the value
of all our moneys interchangeable and
I stable, to prevent what are called corn
4 In ha
| thereof, to maintain confidence and
| Danish distrust than any other And
| the competency of such legislation is
| founded not only upon what has been
| enacted, but upon what has been de-
cided in relation thereto.
As has been already said our feet,
| In the beginning were placed In a large
room. We have lived far below the
| line of monetary freedom established
| in our fundamental ordinances.
| There was one grand deliberative body
in our history which the syndicate Of
gold never entered. 1t was the conven-
ton which framed the constitution Of
1 the United States. Gold, that coward in
war, that braggart in peace, that lag
| gard at all times, found no special
! favor in that great council. Gold, even
| in their day the giant creditor of the
| financial world, did not dictate their en-
| actments.
The debtor did not dictate these
| Justice prescribed these craven lines,
that the money Of this country should
be made by and for the people.
The trainers of the constitution gave
| TO cOngreSS-the representatives of the
| people-the right to coin money, to
regulate the value thereof, to issue and
| utter notes, to make the same a. legal
/ tender for the payment, without eX-
ception, of all Indebtedness The power
/ is tull, plenary, unconditional. l know
| OF no right more unquestionable, more
absolute. 1t is as complete as that of
freedom of conscience and worship.
The insdious statutory provisions,
| stolen marches upon the people, creep
ing, crawling far below the letter and
| the spirit of the organic law, such as the
| degradation of subsidiary silver the
dishOnor of the dollar in silver, the deal
ing with silver. the most ancient money
metal OF the world, as a mere chattel-
/ these things can not dominate our first
! great charter OF monetary freedom.
This plenary authority TO create
| money so granted has been confirmed
| by the deliberate judgment OF the high
est tribunal known to our law. The
| supreme court of the United States IS
| so 10 speak, the standing committee of
the convention of 17S7-One which the
| constitutional convention itself ap-
| pointed to interpret it's work, empow-
cred to sit after its own adjournment,
during the recess, a recess lasting from
has a name and place among nations,
as long as liberty has home and habi-
tation in our midst.
Must Act i'm Good Faith.
Many illusions have been made to the
declaration of principles adopted by the
last national democratic convention at
| Chicago. One Of the chief clauses of
that declaration demands the repeal Of
the Sherman act. Such was our pledge
made and given-the pledge must not be
| broken. Another of these clauses in that
declaration laid down the doctrine that
the parity of the two metals, silver and
gold, as money should be maintained
that there should be no discrimination
against either. Such was the promise
| the promise must be kept.
The title Of the act we are now consid-
| ering is An act to repeal part Of an act
of July H. 1880, directing the purchase Of
silver bullion"
The title Of the act of 1890 is IAN act
directing the purchase Of silver bullion"
| Now 1T is very clear that the very title
| Of the Sherman act establishes disparity
| between the two metals-and that upon
its face IL makes a discrimination against
| silver. Repeal removes that disparage-
ment.
Let me call the attention Of senator's
to the very expressive language Of our
old coinage laws:
Act Of 1S72-it shall be lawful for
any person TO bring to the mint gold and
| silver bullion and the bullion so
brought shall be there coined-and that
free of expense to the person by whom
the same shall have been brought"
| And again:
1.-The bullion which shall be brought as
aforesaid to the mint to be coined, shall
be coined I'm the order in which
the said bullion shall have been brought
and delivered
Heavy penalties are denounced for the
violation Of this order, for any prefer
ence otherwise. 1t is later on provided
that copper shall be purchased as alloy
for both silver and gold COMMAND still
later that more copper shall be pur-
chased for the coinage of cents and half
cents; and yet later II Is directed that
nickel shall be purchased for the mint
ing Of the minor coins
1t will be seen from these enactments
that only base metal is purchased
neither of the two precious metals was
to be purchased for coinage under any
OF these enactments. Under the opera
ton of the acts Of 1873 and 1890 provid-
ing for it's purchase, silver, for the first
time, was degraded to the level of the
/ alloy metals. Under the law today gold
is brought to the mint, silver is bought
for II.
Destroys the Parity of the Two Metals
The act of purchase is itself a dis
elimination against silver. which we de-
clared should not be made; 1t is a dis
elimination acrid. sharp and trenchant.
The ever-replrrinf. nest NJ ntYrohaea &c