St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-30
TALKS OF ASSASSINATION
OF Silver When the White
Metal Was Demonetizsd
in 1873.
HAS NO FEAR OF HARMONY
In the Democratic Party
When the Question Comes
to Issue.

with the Sentinel Washington cor
respondent, made the following state
| ments of his views in regard to the
free coinage of silver: 81 do not re-
greet the agitation of the silver ques-
ton. Sooner or later it had to be
definitely settled. Whether the labor
producing people of this country can
be bullied out of one-half of their
debt-paying money, or that they will
stand up like free men and protect
and defend the money named and
provided lin tine constitution-gold
and silver, or both-not one of the
precious metals alone, but both, and
on terms and conditions as to coin
age and use of absolute equality.
That is the question Immediately be-
fore us, and no better time than now
will ever be found for it's settlement.
The tariff will not return to plague
us again for years to come. 1t has
been so wisely and equitably ad-
Justed that no attempt at any gem
erai revision is now in contempla-
ton in any quarter. There is no
longer any issue in regard to federal
election laws and the threat of the
payonet at the ballot box. No great
national question is at this time in
the way of a full, free, fair discus
cusslon of money, currency, precious
metals, ratios, standards of values
units of account and payment. and
the bearings all these have on the
general welfare of the great body
OF the American people.
THE SILVER QUESTION
Is palmer to view and less obscured
by the craft of its enemies than at
any time since the assassination of
silver money took place in 1873. There
are no legislative switches now in ex-
lstence to lead the people away from
the main track. No coWardly make
snlIts or 1nSincere shamS can any
longer darken discussion or betray
honest counsels. The Sherman act,
which was conceived in rancorous
hostility to silver and brought forth
into law by an Ubiquitous BETRAYAL
OF silver's free coinage, has been bur
led IN an unhonored grave, over which
no lament will ever be heard 1 have
never been willing to admit that our
system of currency should be dictated
by England and other foreign coun-
tries, and l repel that idea now. The
REAL AND VITAL ISSUE
now presented to the American people
is the proposed elimination of silver
from our currency, it's total overthrow
and destruction as money metal and
the use of gold alone. This is what
is now meant by the movement
against the free coinage of silver,
whatever disclaimers may be made to
the contrary. This movement means
the destruction of one-half of the
debt-paying money Of the United
States of the world. If it should
be successful it will double the bur-
dens of every debtor and multiply the
gains and income of every creditor
| wherever the sun shines
1.-THE debts of the American people
at this time, both public and private,
are appalling in amount. They have
been contracted on a bimetallic basis,
and it is now proposed to make them
payable on the basis of gold alone.
The two metals also constitute the
specie basis for such paper currency as
may be put in circulation. If silver
money is destroyed paper circulation
must be contracted in that proportion.
Every form and kind of money must
become that much scarcer and harder
to get in exchange for labor and the
products of labor Such a policy is to
NV mind SinrlU hOrribIo boua mt n
particle of doubt as to the result of the
contest now going on. The enemies of
silver will be driven to the wall. Sill
yer money will not only survive, but
it will be fully restored to its old place
as leading and controlling factor in
the development and the progress of
the country.
Nor have any fear for the future
STRENGTH AND HARMONY
of the Democratic party. Some men
may discard it's principles and abandon
it's organization, but others will take
their places. l have been in favor of
the free coinage of silver at the rate
fixed by Jefferson all my life, and
whatever others may do, l shall here
after neither abandon my principles
nor my party. I am not unmindful of
the vague cry now raised about sound
money, honest money and it causes
me to glance back over the career of
silver in American history. 1 discover
that Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton,
Madison, John Marshall and Monroe
Endorsed silver money as sound and
honest, and that the same views were
entertained throughout the most i'm
portant epochs of our country's trials,
growth and glory by Jackson, Clay
and Webster Calhoun, Silas Wright,
Marcy, Horatio Seymour Benton,
Chase, Douglas, Hendricks, Morton
and Abraham Lincoln.
1.-The truth is that danger from the
coinage and use of silver as money in
this country never occurred to sane
mind until greed, avarice, unholy spec
ulation, reared it's serpent head and
aimed a vicious, deadly blow at the
honored dollar of the fathers, in 1873.
Since that time we have had nothing
but financial Vexation, distrust, bust
ness depression and ruinous panics. The
five years which Immediately followed
the decentralization of silver in 1873 were
freighted with more calamity and suf-
fering on the part of laboring and pro-
ducing people than was ever before
known in this continent in it's life
time. A wave of confiscation swept
over the country, ann1hilating values,
depriving labor as its reward, de-
stroying all market prices for property,
except such as were bid at sheriff's
e.,.ss ss,s " ,..1 sasos.s ts,s,tI