The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-04-30
MR.. HENDERSON AGAIN.


made by Hon. John S. Henderson,
at Salisbury, in 1892. To-day we
give an extract from speech
delivered by Mr.. Henderson in the
Fifty Fourth Congress. 1t will
be found on page SIS, and is headed
Decentralization of Silver" 1t has an
interest as giving a clear recital OF
what Mr.. Henderson called the
knayish conspiracy of 1873" and the
fact that Mr.. Henderson has Topped
will not detract from the facts Of his
tory as he then stated them. 1t is well
TO give these facts afresh anyway,
since some Democrats have recently,
since joining the Republican party
club of finance, declared that Thurman
and Kelly and Bland and others didn't
tell the truth about a,s5he lSnavish con-
spiracy." In 1890, ON the foor of the
House, Mr.. Henderson said:
''The founders OF the government
made the silver dollar the standard
coin of the United States; and gold
coins. though recognized as the equal
of silver at 49, of the latter to OF the
former. still stood second in rank. In
1884 the relative proportions OF the
two metals in the coins was changed
to is of silver to / Of gold, and in Feb
ruaIy, 1873, silver. according to this
standard, was worth cents IN the
dollar more than gold.
1t was on this ground, that the
standard silver dollar was worth more
than the gold dollar, that Senator
John Sherman. in the Senate, and
Samuel Hooper, Of Massachusetts, in
the House of Representative SNUG
oled through Congress BILL which
provided that only gold coins of yari-
Gus sizes should be coined and circu-
lated as money. But this was done by
indirection. Af,er providing for the
coinage fgold dollars, two and 4 halls,
fives, tens and twenties, and declaring
them to be a legal tender, provision
was made for what is called sub
sidiary silver coin. having less than
the standard weight Of the precious
metal and to be & legal tender only TO.
the extent of s. in any one coin.
'.Then follows a clause which de
clares that no other coins shall be
made; and the effect Of this act was
to stop the coinage of silver dollars
and to reduce silver to the rank Of
But the act said nothing about the
old silver dollars which were then in
the hands of the people; and they re-
manned good money until another
fraud was perpetrafed by the revisers
of the Statutes, which was done in
concert no doubt the next year. The
guilt of Sherman and Hooper consisted
in stopping the coinage of the silver
dollar sneadngly, without the knowl
edge of the Congress which passed the
measure. This was demonstrated
a few years later, when
the discovery was made
that The silver dollar was no longer to
be coined or treated as money There
was a general confession made to rnis
effect in both Houses in 1878. Such
men as Blaine, Thurman, Voorhees,,
Stewart Of Nevada, Kelly of Pensyl
uania, and others confessed that in
voting for the bill they had not re-
mote idea that they were demonetiz-
ing silver. The act merely purported
to be an act for regulating the minis.
And so the clause was snuggIed
into the revised statutes in violation
of the act which authorized the re-
yisal. The section is numbered 1856.
1t is surprising that the forgeTs had
not the audaeity to refer it to the act
of February 18th, 1873, but they
seemed to shrink from that responsible
iby, and have left it without a refer
ence, which always accompanies a re-
vised clause. Tit was q forgery as pal
paIble as would be the insertion Of
words in will after the deeease of the
testator; for the. act authorizing the
revision provided that only the acts
on the stBttIte books which had MT
been repealed or become obsolete,
should find a.place i'm the revisal.
Section $3.50 is. as follows:
1.-THE silver coin of the United States
shall be legaa tender at their nomi-
nal value for any amount not exceed
ing S. in any one payment" ,r1 ]
The book containing this fraudH-
lent entry contains 1903 pages, and Of
course no single Congressman read it
before voting to accept it as an honest
revisal.
In 1879 silver was partially restored
TO it's place as national coin. Prior
taz1s73 any one having silver or gold
bullion could go to the mint and have
it coined i'm any amount. But the act
of 1878, while restoring the legal ten
der character of silver, restricted the
coinage. The law as it now stands
provides for and authorizes, as of old,
an unlimited coinage of gold, at the
pleasure of holders of gold bullion;
but only limited amount of silver can
be coined The maximum allowed is
$4,000, 900 per month, but the mini
mum of $2,000,000 has never been ex-
ceeded The silver is to be purchased
by the government.
The effect of this discrimination
against silver is to keep down it's value
and keep up that of gold. The cry OF
the demonetizers is now no longer
that silver is too dear, but that it IS
too cheap. But the people know that
a silver dollar will buy ass much as
gold dollar. AND THEY DEMAND
THE FREE COINAGE OF BOTH
METALS.
But the pending act viii entirely