Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-02-28
W. R. MEAD, EDITOR.
Official Paper of County.
Lincoln and Bimetalllsm.

Lincoln and Rimetalllsm.
The Lincoln day celebrations
throughout the country were mainly
under the auspices of republican
clubs, and at the feasts many of the
orators Landed ''sound money" by
which they meant the gold standard.
Yet nothing could be more inappro
pirate than to praise this kind OF
money on an occasion devoted to ex-
tolation of the simple, sturdy virtues
and exalted patriotism of Abraham
Lincoln, a man who was thoroughly
American in every impulse and fiber,
and O bimetalist to the core. 1t is
not matter of conjecture or mere
report that he was firmly attached.
as were all the great statesmen of the
republic before the nation fell under
the domination of Wall street, to the
use OF both gold and silver as primary
money, but a matter of record. His
last public utterance was on the 4th
day of April, 1865, ten days before his
assassination, and it was addressed to
Schuyler Colfax, then the speaker OF
the house. Mr.. Colfax was starting
on a tour Of the far west, and Presi-
dent Lincoln said to him:
ssMr. Colfax, / want you to take a
message from me to the miners whom
you visit. have very large ideas of
the mineral wealth of our nation. l
believe it is practically inexhaustitle.
1t abounds all over the western coun-
try, from the Rocky mountains to the
Pacific, and its development has
scarcely commenced. During the war
when we were adding q couple Of
million dollars every day to our ma
tional debt, l did not care about en-
couraging the increase in the volume
OF our precious metals. We had the
country to save first. Bat now that
the rebellion is overthrow, and we
know pretty nearly the amount of
our national debt the more gold and
silver we mine, we make the payment
of that debt SO much the easier. Now.
lam going to encourage that in every
possible way. We shall have hun
dreds of thousands of disbanded sol
diers, and many have feared that
their return home in such great num-
bers might paralyze industry by fur.
nishing suddenly q greater supply of
labor than there will be demand for.
am going to try to attract them to
the hidden wealth of our mountain
ranges, where there is room enough
for all. immigration, which even the
war has not stopped, will land upon
our shores hundreds of thousands
more from overcrowded Eorope. !
intend to point them to the gold and
silver that wait for them in the west.
Tell the miners for me, that I shall
promote their interests to the best of
my ability, because their prosperity
Is the prosperity of the nation; and
we shall prove, in q few years, that
we are indeed the treasury of the
world"
In 1865 the national debt was il
round numbers $s,7OO,OOO,0O0, and
President Lincoln proposed to en-
courage the mining OF gold and silver
to make the payment of it $50 much
the EASIER Can it be reasonably as.
sumed that, had he been spared, he
would subsequently have sanctioned
the policy of making the payment O
the debt harder by approving the de
monetization of silver? The assump
ton would asperse his sense and con-
sistency and insult his memory. Anc
considering that Lincoln desired g
largely increased production and free
and unrestricted coinage of gold AND
silver to make payment easier when
the national debt was less than three
billions, and the whole Indebtedness
of the country, national, state, mu
nicipal, corporate and private, die
not exceed six billions, can it be ra
tionally affirmed that he would now
keep the minis closed to silver when
the total debt of the government and
people, as estimated by statisticians,
is at least $27, 900, 600, 900? His remarks
to Mr.. Colfax answer the question.
He would not. If Lincoln were alive
today he would be on the free coin.
age side, with the Tellers and Joneses
and Duboises and Stewards, and
against the Clevelands Shermans,
Pierpont Morgans, Ickleheimers and
Rothschilds.