Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1895-05-22
A Personal Explanation.

MONDAY nlgnt, ne HlAue d PeiSon@i eAP
ton. As his speech delivered in the 10th
Congress has been here and throughout the
State "garbled and twisted and perverted"
we take great pleasure in reproducing what
he now says in reference thereto
"You have been detained too long already,
but in view of the determination exhibited
in some quarters to c%riticise my personal
record upon this question rather than an
swer my arguments, | think my old friends
here at my W home have a right to expect
at least a brief reference to that subject. 1t
is proper, in the first place, to say that my
opposition to free coinage is not dictated by
any prejudice against the use OF silver as
the standard of value merely because 1t is
silver, nor by any preference for the use OF
gold as the standard merely because 1t Is
gold, for if the conditions now existing were
reversed, if silver was our standard of value
and gold was deprecated in value as silver
now is, l would be as much opposed to a
change from silver to gold as l am now TO a
change from gold to silver. The preserya-
ton of the existing monetary unit and meas
ure of value upon which the contracts of the
people have been made and the wages OF
labor have been adjusted is the vital thing
involved in this controversy, for if the stand
ard is preserved everybody is willing to use
and will use every available form of curren-
cy that can be kept equal to il in value. As
long as there appeared to be reasonable
ground for the hope that silver could be
raised to a parity of value with gold at the
ratio of 16 to l by the separate action of the
United States, | was willing to make the ex-
pertinent, but l was never willing to make
it by legislation providing for the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at that or any
other ratio. The only speech | ever made
in Congress on this subject was delivered in
the House of Representatives more than sew
enteen years ago, at q time when the value
of the bullion contained in q silver dollar
was only about seven cents less than the
value of the bullion contained in a gold dol
lar, and I, together with many other oppo-
nents of free coinage, believing that a restO-
ration of silver to our minis would bring it
to a parity with gold, supported a measure
providing for the limited coinage of silver
dollars on government account, not on ac-
counto If private individuals and corporations
as is now proposed. Fifteen years expert
%rience, however, demonstrated that those of
us who believed in 1878 that a larger use of
silver by the United States would enhance
its price or value were mistaken. Instead
of increasing the price of silver it continued
to fall with greater rapidity than before,
Notwithstanding all the efforts made by our
government to uphold ii, until now the bull
lion contained in a silver dollar is worth
only about half as much as the bullion con-
tanned in q gold dollar. The conditions
have entirely changed since 1878, and | do
not understand hat even our free.coinage
friends in Kentucky or elsewhere now con-
tend hat any legislation by this country
alone could place silver on q parity with
gold at the ratio of 16 to l. On the contrary,
they insist that the free and unlimited coin
age of silver at that ratio would give the
people cheap money, and l agree with them
that it would have that effect, but it would
not be cheap money, if it were equal in value
TO gold. The speech made by me on the oc-
casion referred to has been garbled and
twisted and perverted in and out Of Congress
during the part two years with a malicious
ingenuity which has scarcely ever been
equaled in the discussion Of a public ques-
ton, and yet no one has ever ventured to
make the direct assertion that it contained
a single word in favor of the free coinage of
silver. 1t was, in fact, made in opposition
to free coinage and in support of the Senate
substituted for a free-coinage bill, as can be
seen by any one who will take the trouble to
read it. Certain sentences, in which | de-
nounced in strong language the attempt to
destroy" silver as a money metal, haye
been separated from their context and quo
ted again and again in Congress, on the
stump and in newspapers by men who never
read the speech aud who appear wholly in
capable of understanding the difference be-
tween the total disuse of that metal as mon
ey and free and unlimited coinage at the
public expense for the benefit of private in
dividuals and corporations. l have a copy of
the speech here, but will not detain you by
reading extracts from it to show what my
position was, because any gentleman who
desires to do so can find it in full in the ap-
pendix to the Congressional Record for the
second session of the Forty-fifth Congress.
Some of the opinions then expressed have
been modified aud some Of them have been
changed altogether by subsequent events
and by 3 more thorough investigation of the
subjects to which they related, but on the
question Of free coinage my convictions have
never been shaken for a moment"
-
The Indian bureau is informed that Capt.
W. L. Powell, Indian agent at Neabbey,
Wash, died Wednesday at the agency. Mr..
Powell was born in Loudoun county, Va,
being a son of the late Col. Humphrey b.
Powell. His mother died a few weeks ago
at Lexington, Va, at al advanced age