The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-09-30
In the Senate.

In the Senate today, Mr.. Cameron, Rep,
of Pennsylvania, presented petition
signed by wharton Barker of .Philadel-
phia, and many business firms of that
city asking the Senators to legislate SO
as to preserve the protective character of
thestariff and the integrity of silver as a
money metal; and he asked that 1T be
read and printed in the Record.
Objection was made to that request and
then it was ordered that the petition be
printed as a document.
The repeal bill was then taken up and
Mr.. Harris, Dem, of Tennessee, addressed
the Senate, contending that the Sherman
act had nothing to do with business
troubles. The repeal of that act, he said,
meant that there should be no more
legal tender silver dollars. and that here
after silver shall be used only as fraction
al currency. 1t meant the practical de-
monetization of silver, monometallism
and gold standard.
Mr.. Morgan addressed the Senate in op-
position to the silver repeal bill. He
thought that the great error which had
crept into American legislation had re-
suited from the fact that Congress had
cut loose from the foundations on which
the government was based in relation to
the Important question of money. For
instance, said he, we are told, and we
are told even by the President of the
United States that the function of Con-
gress for the regulation of money can
not be properly exercised, and ought not
to be exercised in these chambers except
in concert with some foreign powers. II
that proposition is true then we might
lust as we'll declare that we are not a
government and that we have not power,
under the constitution, of taking care of
the important and serious interests of the
people. We might just as well declare
that we have never accomplished our
independence of Great Britain.
A long colloquy ensued as to binding
forces of treaties and as to whether the
constitutional power of Congress over the
money of the country could be turned
over to an international conference, Mr..
Morgan arguing the opposite of that
proposition. He said the whole idea of an
International monetary conference was a
"mere tub to the whale" Mr.. Morgan
complained of the pressure sought to
be exercised upon the Senate by the
metropolitan press. He stigmatized it
as "a licentfous and hireling press,
scarcely able to string together enough
viperous epithets to signify their. con-
tempt of Senators" Its penny-a-liners,
he added contemporary, who would be
glad to get crust and dry herring, spew
out of their mouths ISLANDERS and decla-
NATIONS pa1I IOr Dy buo l1Ilo. ne fSuoti
that the American citizen had under he
constitution the right to have his gold
and silver coined at the mints OF the
United States into money.
After talking for an hour or two
longer, Mr.. Morgan suddenly broke out
with this passionate declaration: "No
man in office, however high, no monop-
olist invested with powers however su-
preme and extensive, no man whatever
his power may be, can either exonerate
me from the discharge of my duty to
grant to the people all their constitution
al rights, nor any man crowd me into
silence when I choose to speak. This is
an arena in which have the honor to be
one of the ambassadors of a sovereign
state, whose suffrages shall not be taken
from her without her consent, and where
| have the right of full and free speech,
and although it may make the ears OF
charlatans sore to listen to me, although
my words may burn them like cinders,
vet my duty, here, in the presence of
God, and in this august presence. my
duty to the state whose ambassador
am. whose credentials ! hold, is to stand
here and defend the constitutional rights
of nv constituents, as long as, in my
Judgment, defense is appropriate, re-
0uisite and necessary. Nobody need be
astonished at the sluggishness of the
Senate or of any part of it, nor suppose
that because he may think he ought to