The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-08-15

shoe the 0ioostef OF farm 0eStruet1O0
shrssssus the industrial inssrssts Of the
land. Thers 10 no confidsncs thst in re-
sealing the shssman law or any part II
il better financial act will be substituted.
-
1aB RxrxA SESSION or 1897.
The last extra session caused BY imam
:iai disturbance vas in September. 1881.
shen congress assembled at the call Of
Precedent Van Buren, because Of the finan-
s,ssl disturbance Consequent upon N
~normous speculation y Western iands.
associated with enormous issues Of paper
faoney by state bankA The business
srssh Of 1887 was only the collapse Of .
hinge bubble Of indatioa and speculation.
Ths firss prick 70 this bubble was given
uhsa on July IL. 1885. President Jackson.
Van Burens predecessor. issued his fam
ous specie circular, which forbade the ~
ssIpt Of anything but gold or silver In pay
rnsnt for public lands. Congress passed
FiIl 70 repeal this order. but Jackson put
il In his pocket, and whom Van Buren, was
made president Daniel Webster in pub
tic speech March Is, 1887. demanded that
tss recall this specie circular. but Van Bu-
zen not only refused. but ordered that all
treasury dues must b paid in gold aud
silver.
Van Buren,. TO his eternal honor. stood
zap without wavering for hard money and
q national treasury entirely independent
ii speculative banks. Van Buren, in his
message to the Twsnty-dfth congress
said: 1T il our duty to provide al the
remedies against . deprecated currency
shich the constitution enables M to
Afford" He defined its course in connsc-
stoa With the specie orders - designed TO
preserve the public faith" II was left
sos coagrsas TO snact laws which would
give ian e6sctuai remedy to the citizen"
against the evils OF depreciatsd currency.
which would DO ''at once equal In oil parts
u the Union and fully authorized BY the
constitution"
II 10 not TOO much TO say that Van Bu-
rsn's determined advocacy Of sound money
in 1887. and is reiteration by President
Buchanan In the financial crisis Of 1857,
rnsds the Democratic party an honest
money party for = generation. Their re-
turn since the war to the fallAcies, stu
ptditiss and xnaveries Of deprecated
currency can only b explained BY the
fact that since the Republican party had
generally been for sound, honest money,
the Democratic party in their desire 70
get into power cultivated every current
popular financial delusion in order to
make votes.
Van Buren, Was most vigorously de-
nounced for favorins honest money. The
Wings talked very much then ~ Brother
Bland does today on the debate over the
repeal Of the Sherman silver purchase act,
for they accused the government of be-
traying a. II the money of the people was
not good enough for it. or. ~ one Wing
orator put il:
Its aristocratic fingers should touch
worth more than goid) even il In conse-
oucnce the money Of the people should be-
come worthless scraps Of paper"
Daniel Webster and Henry Clay both
behaved badly in this crisis. Webster. in
his speech & December, 1885 had laughed
at the idea of there being an imitation; he
sneered at ''over-trading, over-buying,
over-seliing. over-specuIation and over
production as terms that he could not I'm
dcrstand." Nothing in Webster's whole
career was more discreditable than his at.
teinp,s to saddle upon the government the
sole responsibility for the consequences of
over.speculation and enormous paper
money expansion.
Clay stopped even lower than Webster
in his bitter partisanship, for he said:
"A government. an official corps-the
servants Of tho peopie-glitsering IN gold,
and the people themselves, their masters,
buried in ruin and surrounded with rags. I"
This sounds like q Porulist speech.
Naylor, of Pennsylvanis, wrote the fol-
lowing copy Tor Gov Waite, of Colorado
MY heart shoulders. my blood curdies
a. their recommendations. In every
country under heaven where such sys-
TEN prevails. the people are trampied on
and plundesed OF their rights: ground
down To the very dust by the awful des-
potism Of their rulers. bought and sold
like cattle. Where am II Il II
possible taat here. in this mighty CAPITAL
OF the only free republic on earth, with
the deeds, etc, is IL POSSIBLE
that We can turn back and affeeiionstely
cmerace-hug TO our bozoms. as jewels
above all priee--thc barbareus institutions
81 the dark and beaighted despoiisms OF
the Old worsdg'
In srits Of these insane howlings Van
kuren's legislative proposals for financial
reform became Law. and are his enduring
historical title to sound statesman.hip.
History repeats itself: hus i, Is matter
tor 'sgres tia, she repeats herself of,sner
In her temsgog.es and acughtcy declaim.
ess than she does 10 her wise men. There
Is no close analogy between the condition,
which forced the extra session of 1887 and
that of lSa We are no; suffering from,
insaston OF values nor from unusual or
extrssns eyersr<culation. Between iSs;
and 1871 there VAS an enormous increase
in bank loans and circulation. bar. on thu
ecatsasy. values s,sa us have been shrink
ing. and hanks have reduced their circala.
ton. Or financial disturbance Is an ar:,.
nelaliy produced crisia
The great majority Of our bu,ines.
houses, manufacturing concerns and finsn-
eiai institutions hare yithstood strain
TIA; il would have been impossible for
them to have endured II they had not been
very ssrcre.
In 1857 the financial disturbance was
not artificial: that Ia. produced by leeisia.
ton: the Cause OF the txoahle was obvious
IL wss over-spccalasion and imitation and
The undue enl arEemsn. % banking capital.