People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1894-02-16

we exhibit in asking the question |
even who did the great wrong against |
the toiling millions Of our peo-
pie?
"How will congress answer these peo-
pie except to say that the'silver dollar
weighing 4l2]l grains was an honest
dollar until the 18th of February,
1873, when we destroyed the money in
your vest pockets and left vast debt
hanging over you, since when our
bonds have been sold from hand
to hand in the markets among stock
gamblers. They knew that we had
stricken down your rights and trusted
to our honor that your rights should
be restored. 1t would be dishonest in
us to restore your money to its value
and vitality. 1t is bullion nowhere
pig metal-and is no longer money"
Congressional Record Dec. l2, 1877,
page IA.
The most truth to the square inch,
however, was told by Senator Beck OF
Kentucky, who said:
know that the bondholders and mon.
opolists Of this country are seeking to
destroy all the industries of this PEG.
pie, in their greed to enhance the
value Of their gold. l know that the
act Of 1873 did more than all else to
accomplish that result, and the de.
monetization act OF the revised stat.
utes was an illegal and uncoustitu.
tional consummstion of the fraud.
want to restore that money to where
it was before, and thus aid in prevent
ing the consummation of their designs.
Page 25c, Congressional Record, Jan.
II, 1878.
But the most elaborate, the most
artistic and highly entertaining de.
nunciation of an act similar to one
which he subsequently engineered
through the senate himself, was thai
of Mr.. Voorhees-Slippery Dan, the
tall Walkamore of the Sawbash. JUS
listen to his jingle:
The silver dollar is peculiarly tht
laboringman's dollar, as far as be MAY
desire specie. Through
out all the financial panics that hav,
assailed this country, no man has beef
bold enough 10 raise his hand to strik
it down; no man has ever dared y
whisper of contemplated assault
upon it, and when the 18th day Of Feb
ruary, 1873, approached, the day O
, doom to the American dollar, tn
, dollar OF our fathers, how silent wa
the work of the enemy! Not SOUND
, not word; no note of warning to tn
, American people that their favorit
e coin was about to be destroyed q
q money; that the greatest financii
revolution of modern times was
q contemplation and about to be accom-
s plished against their highest an
dearest rights The taxpayers of tn
United States we're 70 more notife
e or consulted on this momentous mea
e ure than the slaves on a souther
I, plantation before the war. when the
a master made up his mind to increas
r their task or to change them from
{ corn to cotton field. Never since Ii
foundation Of the government has
{ law of such vital and tremendous in
? port, or, indeed, Of any i'm portance ;
n all, crawled into our statute books {
J, furtively and noiselessly as this. L
a enactment there was as completed
/ unknown to the people, and, indee'
t to four-6fths Of congress itself. as Il
:. presence OF burglar in a house
r midnight to its sleeping inmates TIL
was rendered possible partly becaui
the clandestine movement was so u
d terly unexpected and partly from Il
: nature of the bill in which it occurre
!. The silver dollar OF American histol
was demonetized in an act emit
tied San act revising and amendir
the laws relative 10 the mints, ASS
= Offices and coinage Of the Unit,
States Congressional Record, ia
is, 1878, page 332.
70 In arother speech, perpetrated
v the United States senate as late
c Feb. u, 1893, and which can be -four
D. in full in vol. 1870, page 1874, of t
y Congressional Record, he said:
ID 81 should vote to-day for the col
O. age Of all the American product
u silver. / would vote as Thomas Jeffs
SON advised for the free coinage
C. silver the same as gold
&c would have voted the other day
u take up what is known as the She
ID man act and for its repeal, but
c the fact that its passage would a
u solutyly demonet.ze silver al
IL leave it supported by n
one word of leglslat on.
thought the measure audacious-
&c thought it an outrage to ask men Ii
u myself and Others to absolutely swe
from under the silver currency eve
ie vestige Of law. That is not what
. meant ct Chicago: that is not wh