The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-10
THE SALT LAKE HERALDs TUESDAY,, SEPTEMBER 10 1885,

City. In 1856, the year in which Con-
gress established the monetary unit,
Hamilton was elected TO the legisla-
ture of his own state. Washington
was inaugurated as President in April,
1888. In the September following, he
called Hamilton to the head of the
newly-organized treasury department.
So the money unit was aGopred three
years before Hamilton became Secre-
tary of the Treasury; his report on
Coinage and Mint was sent to
Congress January %, 1871, while JEFF
ferson's plan for establishing uni
formity in the coinage, weights and
measures of the United States" and
which contained this sentence, LET it
be declared, therefore, that the money
unit, or dollar, of the United States
shall contain 371.262 American grains
of pure silver" was communicated to
Congress July 4, 1890, six months be-
fore Hamiltons report was submitted
And the Tribune docs not see the
discrepancy" between it's statement
and the facts in the case.
That Hamilton worked out the de-
tails OF our monetary system substan-
TALLY as they are today we admit, and
said the same Sunday. And he did it
because. as Secretary of the Treasury,
it was his particular duty to do it, it
being the very function of his office,
while Jefferson was Secretary of State,
and it did not belong to the functions
of his office to work out detailed
monetary system.
We said that Hamilton favored gold
while Jefferson favored silver. Said
Hamilton: Perhaps. if either were to
he preferred it ought to be gold
rather than silver" and supported this
view with these arguments:
Sold may. perhaps, in certain
senses, he said to have greater stabil-
lty than silver; as, being of superior
value, less liberties have been taken
with 1T in the regulations of different
countries.
''As long as gold, either from its in
trinsic superiority as a metal from
it's greater rarity, on from the preiu-
dices of mankind retains so consider
able a pre-eminence in value over silver,
as 1t has hitherto had, natural con-
sequence of this seems to be that it's
condlt1on 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
1t was Jefferson who said:
"Shoufd it be thought, however. that
Congress may reduce the value of the
dollar, I should he 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"
The Tribune closes it's article in an
swer to our editorial with this very
beautiful sentence:
Though Hamilton was the foremost
soldier, lawyer, statesman editor and
orator of his day, perhaps the chiefest
glory that attaches to him is that he,
as a ffnancier, out of nothing created
the financial system which brought
immediate harmony and prosperity to
the country, and which has been suf-
ffcient for all the countrys wants up
to date"
All very fine, no doubt, but what has
it to do with the fact that Hamilton
favored gold as a money unit while
Jefferson favored silver for the money
Uuit2