The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-19
GOLD DEBATE IN SENATE
SENATOR GRAY MADE 4 SPEECH
 DEFENDING TR E PRESIDENT.


 man Agreed That All Bonds Payable in
 Coin Must be Paid in Coin of the Highest
 Value and That the President Had Noth-
 ing to do With the Country's Finances.
 Washington, Feb. 1S.-A concurrent resolution heretofore offered by MT. Stewart, pop, of Nevada, declaring that there is no authority of law to pay gold coin in preference to silver coin for any purpose whatever was laid before the senate and MT. Stewart spoke of 1t. He said that the clause in the late bond contract that the syn dicate would "protect" the United States was humiliating. The United States had put herself in the position of having to pay a vast bonus to buy peace, to get through till next October. The "gold pool" had got the govern ment by the throat.
 Mir. Gray, dem, of Delaware, ad- dressed the senate in defense of the president and the secretary of the treasury from the "wanton attack" made upon them last Saturday, be- cause they had negotiated a purchase of gold through the issue of United States bonds The president, MT Gray said, had had devolved upon him by an expression of the legislative will, more than once repeated, the duty of maintaining the parity between gold and silver.
 That duty was instant and constant. It could not be avoided or evaded with out a dereliction on the part of the president which would have subjected him to the criticism and animadversion, if not something worse, of the con- gress and of the people. The only way for the president to be ready at all times to maintain Gin the treasury the absolute eXchangeability of silver for gold and to see to it that no de- mand should be made for either metal, which was not instantly responded to by the fiscal agent of the government, was to do as he had done-issue bonds to buy gold,
 Having appealed to congress and having laid before congress the situa- tion with fullness of detail and an almost pathetic earnestness such as he (Mr. Gray) had never seen in an execu- tive communication the president was left alone to struggle with the situa- tion and with the environments in which he found himself.
 MT. Gray denied that the bond con- tract implied a premium on gold
 MT. Wolcott, rep, of Colorado, called MT. Gray's attention to the admission of Secretary Carlisle that $1O5, GOO, 900 of the gold that had been obtained had gone to pay current expenses
 MT. Hill, dem, of New York, denied 1 Al. used.
 MT. Gray spoke of the daily with drawals of gold from the treasury and asked whether, the president should have allowed the country to lapse into a silver basis with all the attendant sufferings which would be consequent upon such change or should he have exerted the power which the law gave him to maintain the. policy which the 1 law enjoined.
 Tn a colloquy with MT. Gray MT. Stew l art maintained that the government | should pay its obligations in the most l advantageous way.
 MT. Hoar, rep, of Massachusetts-If, | as the senator from Delaware says, the | faith of the government is pledged to | pay all coin bonds in the best coin does he think 1t decent to put into a con- tract this: 'I will pay you so much if I | keep my faith, and so much more if I | break it?"
 MT. Gray--It is as decent as was the attack made upon the president. I do | not think the attack upon the credit of | the United States came from the presi- dent. It came from those senators who are proclaiming to the world that there is difference.
 Mr. Hoar-The point is: Whether, in the senator's judgment, it is a proper thing for representative of the United States to say in a contract q will pay you so much money if I keep my faith, and so much more if break it?"
 MT Gray-The senator has very adroit way of putting questions and an adroit way of answering them The was recognizing the situation. He did not create it. think the sena- tor from Massac achusetts agrees with me that the proper interpretation of these coin bonds Is that in the option of the holder they shall be paid in one coin or the other. We have thrown the pres ident on his own resources and left him to fight the battle for the credit and honor of his country. And the people cannot forget that the president fought l that battle alone and that congress de- serted him in his hour of trial There was some applause as MT. Gray his seat. MT. Sherman rep, of Ohio, made a strong argument to prove that all bonds payable in coin must be paid in the coin of the highest value. No secretary of .he treasury would dare. in the face of 4 public opinion, to undertake to pay ponds for which the government had equired gold coin-in anything less val table than that coin The right of the y and the equity of the bond | holders to demand the same kind of g money as that which they paid was as lear and plain as the light of day. As Q finding fault with the president for U his late contract, MT. Sherman said t hat the president had nothing whatever W o do with the finances of the govern e nent. That subject had not been en- S rusted to his keeping but to that of a he secretary of the treasury. The pres dent has no more right in the matter J