Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-04

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Cain when he was bsnished from the
presence of God. In this same law is the
following provision in regard to gold:
Section 1856. The gold coins of the
United States shall be a legal tender in all
payments at their nominal value. when
not below the standard weight and limit
of tolerance provided by law for the sin
gle piece, and, when reduced in weight
below such standard and tolerance shall
be legal tender at valuation in proper
ton to their actual weight"
A gold dollar, under this law, Is a legal
tender for so cents If it has lost half Its
weight by abrasion, and a day laborer
can be compelled to take it for his wages
at 80 cents.
In the face of these provisions of law
intended to degrade the money that the
poor are compelled by their necessities to
use, the dapper democrats who strut
around, draped in the livery of the gold
lords, boast of their independence, NOR
ais and their honesty in financial affairs
and decry honest men as demagogues
who point out the fact that this law was
intended to degrade the toilers of the
earth and to enrich and make more pow
erful their masters
Without equal legal tender laws, apply
ing alike to the standard money of the
people of any country, the money of that
country will convert all the industrial,
producing classes into the servants of
those who hold the wealth.
No law was ever yet enacted that fs
more vital to the personal liberty of the
individual man than the law of compul-
sorry legal tender Without it no debt
could be collected by law and no creditor
can be compelled to accept money from
his debtor and discharge him from the
debt.
Financial anarchy would reign supreme
and debts would be paid in blood in the
absence of legal tender laws. The cruelty
of the usurer and the shylock would be
sustained by force and the debtors es-
cape from his condition would mean his
escape from his country
The legal tender laws are the only
measure of duty that can be imposed
upon the people by the government in
their relations as purchaser and seller
and debtor and condition. They prescribe
the money of redemption for all debts,
damages AND obligations and regulate the
money value of all coins and of all forms
of circulation, whether paper or metal.
Such laws cannot be abolished by
agreement between debtor and creditor, so
as to bind a court to enforce the agree
ment when contrary to law, any more
than a man can sell himself into slavery
and compel a court to execute the con-
tract.
Legal tender laws are the only means
by which any government can regulate
and fix the relative value of different
kinds of money in circulation among its
people.
1t is only this power that can pro-
nounce the legal parity between gold and
silver, or any other kinds of money, about
which we hear so much.
When the outlaws of the act of 1873 de-
stroyed the parity OF the legal tender
power between gold and silver they
struck silver to death as money metal.
The new trade dollar, would not circu-
late among the people as dollar, because
its legal tender power was limited to the
sum of SIS, notwithstanding the fact that
it contained 120 grains of silver and the
minis were required to coin silver bull
lion into trade dollars free of charge for
the benefit of the deposition
Only $35 $780, 446 trade dollars were
coined during the fourteen years of the
existence of that part of the act of 1873,
although our mines yielded more than
that amount each year of that period.
This lesson, surely, is enough to satisfy
any one that the intrinsic value of the
bullion in a dollar, that Is full legal ten
der, has nothing to do with its parity with
a gold dollar that is also full legal ten
der.
1t is the parity of legal tender that reg
ulates and preserves the parity of value.
and nothing else can do this.
When the act of 1878 abolished the full
legal tender standard silver dollar the
scepter of gold was invested with greater
power for evil over the people whose la
bors alone create wealth than any mon
arch ever possessed. 1t restored the pow
ers of feudallsm in the hands of capital
lists, instead of the great owners of landed
estates and made the bonds of the great
nations the power, with the aid of taxa
ton, and the banking houses the royal
palaces where edicts Of surfdom, tenancy
at WILL and degradation, should be de-
creed by these vice-regal plunderers
against our people.
There is not a home in all this land
duo lie fttA traf
which the tyranny of this law does not
find its victims.
Having shown the motive of those who
destroyed the legal tender standard sill
yer dollar in 1873 and the purpose of pre-
venting the payment of our vast war debt
and to make it a perpetual incumbranee
on the people, yielding interest and
heavy premium in gold, and having
shown how the banks have taken up
arms against the people and are trying to
force new issues of United States bonds,
and how they have succeeded and are
likely yet to go, I have, in this array of
facts and unavoidable deductions only
touched the fringe Of the cloud of dark
ness and distress that has come over our
people,
Every interest of every human being In
the United States has been deeply affect
ed by that act of 1873. Those who deal in
money and credit, as brokers and bank
ers, have gathered from 1t harvest of
enormous profit from those who borrow
money and credit and from all the pro-
ducing classes.
The gold in the world, though 1t has
been boarded in safe repositories under
lock and key, has more than doubled its
purchasing power in these twenty-three
years, while all The products of labor and
all wages have shrunk In like proportions
and are still declining in value. This no.
body disputes, and it is unnecessary to
dwell on the sad and still darkening pic
ture Our prosperity is in eclipse, as when
the shadow of the cold moon, drawing
slowly on, shuts out the light and heat OF
the sun.
Mckinley says let the darkness prevail
and the distress continue until Great
Britain consents that the sun shall shine
again. Palmer says we have just reached
that period of darkness that is most safe
and convenient for those whose deeds are
evil, and we and the president are willing
to let 1t stand. Let the people be-Van-
derbilted!
Palmer's confession of sins against all
parties and against gold and silver man
and boy, during long life, are like those
of the old lady who. confssing her sins to
the priest, said she was fit for nothing
but the kingdom of heaven, and hardly