Birmingham state herald., 1895-10-27
STEWART ON HERBERT.
An Open Letter to Hon. Hillary A. Herbert, Secretary of the Navy, Washington,
 from Senator Stewart.

SIT. 1OuF IGdl iA-~hS much distressed about your change or attitude on the silver question since you came under the influence Of MT. CleVe- land and his Wall street friends. They hoped that faithful service in your office as secretary of the navy and cooperation with the administration in promoting the cause of gold monopoly would De all that would De required or you. They were disappointed, however, when they found that you were compelled to stui- tity yourself by public attempt to Yln- dicate the cause of gold monopoly and ex- plaln away your former record h faVor of the money of the constitution. You say:
 Men always wish to be right, and not claiming to be infallibie, they change their opinions whenever they see cause. This is what they expect and demand that their public servants shall do. For myself have exercised that right
 Your constituents admit your right to change your views when you are con Vinced that you are wrong, but they are paned by the coincidence of your change of views with your change of elreum- stances. Without charging you, MT. Carlisle, Hose Smith or any other demo- crat who has abandoned blmetalllsm ana become the advocate of the English gold standard and the commercial supremacy of Great Britain over the United States with being influenced by office or any other improper consideration, the fact that you followed Mr. Cleveland against the traditions and platforms of your par ty cannot be denied. There have been few if any, changes of democrats from binetallists to gold monometallsts, eX- cept in the pursuit or acquisition Of ofilce or some other ble consideration. Changes under such circumstances nave been so frequent as to raise palh1ul suspicion with regard to all who apah- doned the cause of the people and joined gold monopoly and at the same time ac- ouired fat offices for themselves or their friends But apart from your motives you say:
 q am a bimetallist because believe in all the gold and silver we can clfeuiate a par with each other"
 Your reason for being blmetalilsl IS the same that is given by John sherman and all his followers, including MT. Cleye- land Bimetallism consists in the com age of gold and silver of exact equaIty' and also includes the right Of the deptof 10 nay in either metal at his option. Bl- mefallism which provides for keeping the two metals at parity by the redemp- tion of silver in gold is gold monometal- lism. It makes no use Of silver as u money metal. Silver in that case IS nsed as credit money, precisely as paper which Is redeemable in gold. our loose talk about the non-use of silver coin pre- vious to the demonetization of silver in 1873 shows great want of information or great lack of sincerity on your part It is true that only about S,0OO,00O Of the silver dollars were coined previous to Februa- rv. 1873. but 2000 900 of the 80000 900 were coined in lS71-72, and at the time silver was stricken down we were coinlng at the hints at the rate of over 2,0O0,00O year.
 The entire coinage of silver from the es- tablishment of the mint in 1792 until 1875 amounted to only about $153. 000, 900. But this was a small fraction of the silver used in the country. Foreign silver coins and especially the Spanish milled dollar, were in circulation in the colonies and had been from the earliest settle ment All foreign coins were made full legal tender until 1857, and foreign silver constituted the great body of the silver money of the United States. The country never realized the extent of the foreign silver coin until the act taking away the legal tender character of that coin was passed in February, 1S57 lm- mediately following the passage of that act the banks failed throughout the coun- try for want of coin redemption. Never in the history of the country was there such wholesale slaughter of business as was caused by the act of 1857. which de- Stroyed the legal tender character Of for eign silver coin.
 Of course, you are ignorant of these matters or you would have mentioned them in your discourse. regret very much that your understanding is so weak that you cannot comprehend the possibility of an independent financial policy for the United States Every in dependent nation from the earliest pc riod of history has had an independent financial policy, and the United States has such policy by the constitution and by the practice of the government pre- vious to the demonstration of silver. Great Britain established an independ- ent financial policy by the act of 1876, de- monetizing silver, and still retains that policy. She has enforced upon the United States and made the United States dependent upon the policy of Great Britain. You even deny that the laws of 1894 and 1887 were, in the true sense, bimetallic, but contend that Jack sons law was practically gold monome- tallic. Jackson's statutes of 1884 and 1897 provided that any owner of gold or silver might take. it to the mint and have it coined for his benefit at the ratio between the two metals of 16 to l. This is all the people now ask. It will not do for you to claim to be a Jacksonian binetallist. You are a John Sherman bimetallst be- cause you are opposed to the unlimited coinage of silver. Jackson was not, but Sherman is. Do not try to deceive the people of Alabama and pretend that you are following Jefferson and Jackson when you and MT. Cleveland follow and obey MT Sherman, who has been longer in the service of the English gold syn dicate than either of you. You say:
 ''So thoroughly was it understood that we were on gold alone that when. during the war, the United States government wanted to get specie to maintain its cred it, 1t enacted that customs duties should be paid not in gold or silver but in gold alone"
 In this, MT. Secretary, you are abso- lutely mistaken. The statute provided that the greenbacks should be received for all debts and dues of the government except customs dues and interest on bonds, which should be paid in coin. (See statute of February, 1S62).
 You say that within the last seventeen years we have added to our silver coin age $549, 100000 In this you are also mis- taken. According to the construction of MT. Cleveland, which, of course, you in dorse, there has not been added one dol lar to the basis of our circulation by the coinage of silver because Mir. Cleveland and all his predecessors since 1873 have refused to use silver as money. Your panic of 1893. I say your adyiSedly.