The record-union., 1895-05-17

son of their legal tender faculty and moi
of their metallic value. This is a funda-
| mental proposition in Coins Financial
| School," Hence, when confronted by
the fact that upwards of 20O different sill
yer coins circulated in this country prior
to 1860, he must needs tell lie to account
for something which really knocks the
bottom out of his whole system.
s'Coin" quotes the law, which he says
! sustains his statement, thus:
And be 1t further enacted, that from
and after The passage of this Act the fol-
| lowing foreign silver coins shall pass cur
rent as money within the United States.
and be receivable by tale for the payment
| of all debts and demands at the rates fol-
| lowing. that is to say: the Spanish pillar
| dollars and the dollars of Mexico, Peru
and Bolivia, etc."
! The Act referred to is that of March 5,
lS43. The lie here consists in the insig
nificant ''etc.," which is intended to in
clude all other foreign silver coins circu-
lating in the United States prior to 1860.
In order to show the falsity of this we
quote the remainder Of the section Of this
law, which is left to the readers imagi-
naLlon in the innocent "etc.":
"Of not less than S97-I, 900 in fineness
and 4l5 grains in weight, at 100 cents
each, and the tive-franc pieces of France
of not less than 900-1, 900 in fneness and
3S4 grains in weight. at SO cents each."
By putting these two pieces together
the reader will see that the only foreign
silver coins made legal tender by this Act
were the dollars of Spain. Mexico, Peru
and Bolivia, and the hve-franc pieces mot
the smaller coins) of France. Yet the
writer says that ''iL" (meaning the foreign
silver circulating here at that time), "had
all been made legal tender in the United
States by Act OF Congress-"
The truth is that Congress made only
two foreign silver coins legal tender-the
dollar of spain and the franc piece OF
France. The Spanish dollars which
found their way hither being mostly
coined in the Spanish American minis, it
became necessary, when these colonies
achieved their independence, to include
their names in the list in order to avoid
| am mbigulty. So it came about that the
dollars OF Mexico, Central America. Chile
Peru and Bolivia were added to our legal
tender list at different times. The rea-
son why the dollars OF Spain and the
tive-franc pieces of France were made
legal tender was that they were here and
Ill general use before the Constitution
was adopted, the former having been the
money of the colonies and the latter hav-
ing been introduced in large quantities
by the French armies during the revolu-
tionary war. The French coins of that
peTlOu were Call6u crOWnS.
1t should be noticed that the Spanish
and Spanish American coins smaller than
one dollar were never made legal tender
i'll this country. People whose memory
goes back Of 1850 will recall the fact that
the bulk OF the Spanish and Mexican
coins circulating here were the halves,
quarters and eighths, the latter being
known IN different parts of the country
as the York shilling, the nine pence, the
11v-r IA l. Il Il.
there were English shillings, German
thalers in large quantity and variety.
besides rIx dollars. specie dollars, Dam
ish and Dutch coins. Even the rupees OF
India were quoted on the coin chart man
uals pu ublshed in New York at that time
1t should be mentioned also that new
Spanish dollars, fresh from the mint,
circulated at 10l cents each, and are SO
quoted on coin-chart manuals of that
period. In other words, they passed for
one cent more than their legal tender
value. Why was this? Because their
bullion value was more than dollar.
But the coins of France and Spain did
not circulate here more readily than those
of Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium
and Denmark, which were not legal ten
der.
The point is that this writer, pretend
ing 10 give people facts which few persons
are familiar with, says that the precious
metals circulate not by reason Of their
value as bullion, but because of their
legal-tender quality, and when asked
how it happened that q great variety of
foreign coins circulated here before 1850
at their bullion value, he says that they
were all legal tender, and to support this
proposition he misquotes law OF Con-
gress. In order to give due solemnity to
this and other talsehoods with which the
book abounds, he prints next after his
title-page this text of Scripture:
II thank thee, O Lord of heaven and
earth, because Thou hast hid these things
from the wise and prudent and has re-
vealed them them unto babes" Mat
thew, chapter XII, verse %.
years could have concocted forgery of
this reconoite and misleading character.
MORE OF THE SAME KIND.
Directly after the pretended quotation
from the law making all foreign sill
yer coins legal tender. on p. 10, "Coin'
speaks of a scarcity OF silver. "On ac-
count of the scarcity Of Bilver," he says,
"both Jefferson aud Jackson recon-
mended that dimes, quarters and halves
would serve the people better than dol
lars, until more silver could be obtained
This was the reason why only about
eight million of the one hundred and five
lars"
This is pure fiction. Neither Jefferson
nor jackson ever made any such recon-
mendation. Nor was there anv scarcity
OF silver" at that time. The reason WHY
silver dollars were not coined by our
mint between 1905 and 1886 has already
been stated.
Next alter this false statement about
Jefferson and Jackson come the follow
ing:
During this struggle to get more sill
ver," continued "Coin," France made q
bid for it by establishing ration Of 15I
to /, and as our ratio WAS l6 to /, this
made silver in France worth 81 035 when
exchanged for gold, and as gold would
answer the same purpose as silver for
money, it was found that our silver was
leaving u.s."
The French ratio of 154 to l was estab-
lished i'll 1775, aud was merely re-enacted
in 1893. Our ratio of 10 to was established
in 1872. and that of 16 to in 1884. So
France ''made bid" for our silver seven
years before we had any ratio or any
coinage at all, and forty mine years before
we had the ratio that "COin" says enabled
her TO get it away from us. Of course,
she did this in the spirit of prophecy, or
with the eye of faith. For this reason.
says Coin, " sit was found that our sill
yer was leaving u.s." The debates in our
Congress on the Act of 1884 furnish bet
ter reason. Our fathers wanted to get rid
of their heavy and bulky silver money
and to bring gold in its place, and they
purpOsely adopted. a ratio which would
have that effect.
THE WORDEN REWARD