The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1895-05-23

dition to the actual receipts of the
government, which were very large,
Congress passed a law, by which more
Than $54 100000 was raised, and this
fund helped to swell the Harrison
balance. The Republicans h d full
control of the government. Their
Congress is distinguished for tn ee
things: FIRST, the enactment of the
law for the purchase Of 100000
ounces of silver bullion each month
and the issue of legal tender treasury
notes to pay for it,; secondly, the
Mckinley Act; thirdly, the Inaugural
ton of the most wasteful and ex.rava-
giant expenditures of public money
that ever existed in this country, the
evil effects of which wilt be felt for
many years to come. The present ad-
ministration when it went into power
found the finances of the government
in a very unsatisfac ory condition.
The revenues had ben greatly di-
minisLed and the expenditures enor-
mously increased by the passage of
laws requiring appropriations to be
paid; the purchase of silver and the
issue of legal tender notes had to con-
continue, and silver was being piled
up in the treasury at the rate Of more
than 154 tons per month. Distrust in
the ability of the government to main
tain the parity between the two metals
and to pay its obligations prevailed
and this distrust was increasing iu all
of the great financial centres of the
world. In consequence Of this $685.
5O0,O00 in gold was Withdrawn from
the treasury, AMI shipped to other
countries just three months preceding
the Inauguration of the Cleveland ad-
ministration. This places the RESPONSE
bility for the withdrawal of gold
where it properly belongs-on the
Harrison administra ion. This, how
ever, belongs to the past, and Mr..
Carlisle thinks it more profitable to
deal with the present and provide for
the future.
"Whether we shall continue 10 pre-
serve our existing monetary system,
under which all the dollars in use,
whether they be gold, silver, or paper,
possess equal purchasing power in the
markets, or provide by law for the
free unlimited coinage of silver
dollars, containing 4125 grains of
standard silver, and make them the
unit of value in the exchange Of CON-
modi;ies and in the payment of debts,
is the question that now confronts."
It would not be all ordinary expert
ment which could be tried today and
abandoned tomorrey. Those who ad-
vocate it, therefore, must show
that such a change of the unit of
value will not only work no injury,
but will be positively beneficial. This
cannot be done by appeals to passion
and prejudice, but it must be done b.
appeals to common sense and reason.
The allegation, even if it were true,
that great crime was surreptitious!y
committed in 1878, or at any other
time, does not prove OF even con-
duce to prove that the free coinage of
silver at the rats of 16 to l would be
beneficial to the country under existing
conditions. This act of 1873, which
made the gold dollar the unit of value
and dropped the standard silver dollar
from thd coinage, was not passed by
stealth, or was it intended to deprive
the people of the use Of any coin then
in use or then in existence. 1t was
pending nearly three years; under
consideration during five sessions of
Congress; distinctly recommended in
two reports of the Secretary of the
Treasury and director of the mint;
printed and laid on the desks of
members of Congress thirteen times;
read in both bodies of Congress; re-
ported from committees seven times;
and thirty-six columns of ths Con-
qrsssionaZ Globe are filled with the dis
cussion on the subject.
A? first passed by the Senate in
January, 1871, the bill di net ctprovide
for the coinage Of any silver dollar
whatever, but limited the coinage of
that metal to subsidiary piec IS. Upon
tn, call of the ayes aud nays, amorg
those voting in the affirmative were
Senators Davis and McCrcery, Of Ken
tuckv, Senator Alien G. Thurman, Of
Ohio, the present Senate: from Nevada,
William NJ. Stewart, togeti:er with al
the Senators from The P.iciti; slope.
CIT may be mentioned that Wi'i;aH Vi.
Stewart is new one Of the lradlag
advocates for unI.nite free coinage Of
silver.) Senator Sherman voted in
the negative, AMI gave as his reason
that the Senate had. in obe:'ience to
the demands Of the Senators from the
Pacific slop', so amen;led the Dill a. to
abolish the charge OF one-f'th Of one
per cent for cuining gsid, Illus IN king
the coinage If that metal entirely free.
The bill was not disposed Of f''at se--