Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-09-17
JOHN CLARK RiDPATH.
Our Great Historian Gives Out Hts Plat
form as a Candidate For Congress-


Our Great Historian Gives Out Hts Plat
forsn as a Candidate For Congress.
We want our currency system put
back precisely where it was under the
statute and constitution for the first 81
years Of our existence as a nation. Our
statutory bimetallic system of currency
was taken from US in 1878 by process
which l do not care to characterize in
fitting terms. Now we propose to have
it back again The restoration of our
silver money to the place it held before
is the peoples cause, and the people In
this contest are going to triumph. They
are going to triumph in the open light
of day under the clear gleam of light
and truth.
The silver dollar was from of old the
unit of money and account in the Unit
ed States. That dollar to this hour has
never been altered by the fraction of a
grain in the quantity of pure metal COM
posing it. Every other coin, whether OF
gold or silver, has been altered time and
again, but the silver unit never. The
silver dollar was the dollar of the law
and the contract. It is to this day the
dollar of the law and the contract. To
the silver unit all the rest, both gold
and silver, have been conformed from
our first statute of 1792 to that i'll starred
date when the conspiracy against our
old constitutional order first declared
itself The gold eagle of the original
statute and of all subsequent statutes
was not made to be ten dollars, but to
be of the value of ten dollars. The half
eagle was not made to be five dollars,
but to be of the value of five dollars.
The quarter eagle was OF the value
of two and a half dollars, and the
double eagle was of the value Of
twenty dollars Even the gold dollar
of 1649, marvellous to relate, was not
a dollar, but was made to be Of the
value of dollar The subsidiary coins
were all fractions Of the dollar, and
the dollar was OF silver only. Not a
single dictionary or encyclopedia in
the English language before the year
1878 ever defined "dollar" in any terms
other than of silver. In that year the
administrators of the estate Of Noah
Webster, deceased cut the plates OF our
standard lexicon and inserted new
definition that had become necessary in
order to throw q penumbra of rationale
ty around the International gold con-
spiracy.
The way to Obviate the further disas-
trous effects of this international gold
conspiracy is to stop it. We want the
system of bimetallism restored in this
country Bimetallism means the option
of the debtor to pay in either Of two
statutory coins, according to his own
convenience and according to the con-
tract. This option freely granted, the
commercial parity of the two money
metals will be speedily reached, nor can
such parity ever be seriously disturbed
again as long as the unimpeded option
of the debtor to pay in one metal or the
other shall be conceded by law and the
terms of the contract The present com.
mercial disparity Of the two metals has
been produced by the pernicious legisla.
tion which began 90 years ago, and
which has not yet satisfied itself witt
| the monstrous results that have famed
| therefrom.
What do we propose to accomplish by
free coinage? We propose odo just thi'
thing-viz, to break the corner on gol(
and reduce the iexaggerated purchasing
power of that metal to its normal stand
| ard. Be assured there will be NO furthe,
talk of a 80 cent dollar when the com
mercial parity Of the two money metal
shall be reached. Every we'll informed
person must know that the present dis
parity of the two uncoined metals is bu
the index of the extent to which golt
has been bulled in the markets of tn
world. 1t is not an index Of the exten
to which raw silver has declined in it
purchasing power in the markets Of tn
world, for raw silver has not decline
in its purchasing power as compare
with the average of other commoditie
in any civilized market place of tn
whole globe. No man shall say the cor
trary and speak the truth. This grea
question is hot upon us It can be keI
back no longer. It is d tremendou
economic question. that ought to be dt
cided in the court Of right, reason and {
fact My Judgment is that the America
, people, iii spite Of all opposition. are g
, ing to reclaim the right Of transactin