Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-07-25
POLLARD'S

coinage OF gold and silver. From 1884
to January I, 1862, when specie pay
ment was suspended during the Civil
War, we coined 2,77s,O45 silver dollars
and 1876, 655 dollars in small silver
coin; $50, 1852, $50 in small silver was
coined prior to 1858, and SAT, 414, 07O in
subsidiary silver under the act of that
year.
As the silver dollars and the small
silver coined prior to 1853 were prac-
tically forced out OF circulation, the
result was that when the war came on
We had, substantially, no silver in cir
culation, except the SIT ,414, O7O of
small change coined under the act of
1858. With gold it was altogether
different. From the time the act of
1884 was passed it began TO flow, in in
creasing volumes, into the mints of
the United States. From 1884 to 1862,
a period OF 28 years, we coined and
put into circulation tho enormous sum
of s497 ,223, $50 in gold.
\ i AT CONGRESS.
How long will it take u free silver
friends to understand that ne who
would inject ) per cent of cheap
money into the circulation of the
country and at the same time strike
down so per cent Of credit between
man and mar is a very mailman, pos
ing under the guise Of q statesman?
What i~nconceivable folly it was for
Congress to hold the country up and
intlict it with free silver speeches,
procrastination doubt and uncertainty
at a time of such distress. Manufac-
tories closed, 2,000,O GOO of laboring
men eating at souphouses, trade sus-
pended, farm products declining in
! price, and everywhere in & country
blessed with bountifu! crops, were the
people da1ed by a panic which swept
lover the country like a simeon.
Everywhere bank stocks and the
stocks OF all incorporated companies
fell in the market, and all kinds of
securities collapsed in value, and yet
grave statesman at Washington dis
cussed the free coinage of silver at a
ratio of 1G to /, and told the people all
the trouble was brought about by n
conspiracy on the part OF a portion of
their fellow-citizens, whose fortunes
were being wrecked by the disaster.
In the meantime the gold reserve
was drawn out of the Treasury and
the danger of a precipitation to a sill
yer basis was impending. The Secre-
tary of the Treasury advertised and
sold $50, 000, 900 of bonds. The holders
of the greenbacks drew the gold from
the Treasury to purchase them, and
no relief followed. Another sale of
$50, 000, 900 was made, with a like re-
suit. There vas yet no dawn to the
night through which the country was
passing.
Then it was that the greatest bank
ers of the world were called into con-
sultation, and the proposition was
made to sell them bonds on such con
ditions as would not only bring gold
TO the Treasury, but keep it there.
Such was the want of confidence in
the credit OF this grea= Government
that these bankers mace a difference
in the bids on 382, 00O, 900 of 30-year 3
per cent bonds payable in gold, and
s62, 000, 900 of 3o-year i per cent bonds
payable in coin Of &c., 500, 600. The
Secretary had no authority under the
law to sell a 3 per cent or a gold bond.
The facts were laid before Congress,
and our free silver friends voted the
SIC, 500 GOO into the gutter, and then
abused the President and Secretary
because the bankers made q profit on
the purchase of the 4 per cen coin
bonds growing out of renewed conf
dence which the transaction gave the
world in the public credit. These
bankers were required to enter into
an obligation in writing to keep the
exchanges down for 4 period of six
months below the point at which gold