The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-08
JEFFERSON FOR SILVER, HAMIL-
TON FOR GOLD.

Reviewing Judge Powers speech as
permanent chairman of the Ogden con-
vention, the Tribune says:
Hamilton was the gentleman who
made the silver dollar the unit Of value,
and though Jefferson approved of that,
/ it was all Hamilton's conception, and
all the details were worked out by
Hamilton"
That is not altogether correct. In
1886 Congress established the money
unit at 1884 troy grains Of pure silver.
Hamilton's report ION the Establish
ment of a Mint" was communicated to
the House of Representatives January
%, 1871 In that report he elaborated
his plan for system of coins. very
much as we have them now. That
plan can be found on page 274, vol. 8,
Of his works, Lodges edition.
Jefferson's "Plan for establishing
uniformity in the coinage. weights and
measures of the United States" was
communicated to Congress July 4, 1890
In that he says:
"Let it be declared. therefore, that
the money unit, or dollar of the United
States, shall contain S71.262 American
grains of pure silver. "-Jefferson's
Works. vol. Z, p. 4S7.
The act of Congress of April
2, 1892, establishing mint made
the dollars or units" each to
be of the value of Spanish
milled dollar the same as was then
current, and to contain three hundred
and seventy-one grains and four-siN-
teenth parts of a grain of pure, or four
hundred and sixteen grains of standard
silver
These facts we think are sufficient
to answer the Tribune's assertion that
Judge Powers remarks about the prin-
cipIes of Jefferson are pure GALL
But there is another matter in this
connection. and we believe it was this
that Judge Powers had in mind, and
that is that Alexander Hamilton, the
father OF the protectionist system in
America, the man who believed in
strong government in which 1.-THE rich
and the well born" should rule, was
gold standard man, while Thomas JEFF
ferson. the author of the Declaration
of independence, a man of the people
and the champion of their rights, was
a man who favored the silver stand
ard. Let each speak for himself. In
the report on Coinage and Mint
from which we have already quoted,
Hamilton says:
Contrary to the ideas which have
heretofore prevailed, in the suggestions
concerning a coinage for the United
States. though not without much hest
tation, arising from Difference for
those ideas, the Secretary is, upon the
whole, strongly inclined to the opinion,
that a preference ought to be given to
neither Of the metals, for the money
INIT. Perhaps. if either were to be pre-
ferred, it ought to be gold rather than
silver.
esThe reasons are these" Hamilton's
Works, Vol. 8, p. 2A, ct seq.
Then follow a lot of reasons why it
should DE so, good, up-to-date gold-bug
arguments. Here are a few:
cold may. perhaps, in certain
senses, be said to have greater sta
bility than silver; as, being Of superior
value. less liberties have been taken
with it, in the regulations Of different
countries
Gas long as gold, either from its in
trinsic superiority as a metal, from
its greater rarity, or from the preju-
dices of mankind, retains so consider
able a pre-eminence in value over sill
yer, as it has hitherto had, a natural
of this seems to be that
its condition will be more stationary.
The revolutions. therefore, which may
take place in the comparative value of
gold and silver will be changes in the
state of the latter, rather than in that
of the former"
Hamilton sent his report to Jefferson
and when the latter returned it he said
he concurred with Hamilton in think
ing that the unit must stand on both
metals" but further down in his letter
he said:
should it be thought, however, that
Congress may reduce the value of the
dollar. I should be for adopting for
our unit, instead of the dollar, either
one ounce of pure silver, or one ounce
of standard silver, so as to keep the
unit of money a part of the system of
measures. weights and coins" Jeffer-
sons Works. Vol. 5, p. 800.
Judge Powers speech may have been
pure gall to the Tribune, but this
will be wormwood to it,