Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-10-16
REPUTATION AND OlsHONOR.
a Part of One of Henry Ward Beecher's
Best Sermons.

lteSt sermons.
During the fiat money and unlimited
paper currency excitement Of 1877 Mr..
Beccher delivered a famous sermon on
Thanksgiving Of that year on the perils
Of the day. In it he used this language:
Whenever in any nation there is
such an attempt to tamper with stand
ards that the moral sense Of man is be-
wildered and liberty is given to unprin-
cipled men at large to cheat, to be IN
faithful to obligations, to refuse the
payment Of honest debts-whcneyer that
takes place, it is all the worse if done
with the permission Of the law l hate
the devil riding on a law worse than l
do the devil riding without law under
him. Whoever hampers with established
standards hampers with the very marrow
and vitality of public faith. *+* The
danger into which we are running is
hidden under the mystery Of finance and
the currency. All money is but a repre-
sentative Of property. As now, by facil-
ity of intercourse, all the world is one
open market, the need Of one and the
same standard Of money, uniform, uni
versal and unalterable, becomes imperi-
Gus.
"Gold is the worlds standard Gold
is the universal measure Of value. Other
kinds of money there are-silver, cop
per, paper-but they all must conform
to gold and be measured by it and be
interchangeable with it, in fixed and
definite proportions Gold is king in
commerce. All other money must rep
resent gold. No vote of legislature can
change the nature Of commerce, the ma
ture Of property, the nature of its repre-
sentative i'll money OF the relative supe-
riority or inferiority Of different cur
rencies. Gold came to its supremacy as
a representative Of property by the long
established consent of mankind Con-
gress cannot change it for the world,
nor even for this nation, except upon
past transactions. 1t may give impu-
nifty to men to cheat confding creditors,
but it cannot rule the value Of currency
in all future transactions.
"The crime Of paying debt in cur
rency inferior in value to that in which
it was contracted, base at all times and
anywhere, has deeper guilt and a
baser infamy in our case. When in our
mortal struggle capitalists were solicited
to lend their money to US on the faith Of
the nation, we were too glad, most
grateful, for their aid Then they were
not grasping and swollen usurers. Oh,
mol They were benefactors. We rejoiced
in their bounty and gave thanks for
their confding faith in our national
honesty. Now, our dangers past, we re-
vile them, finding no epithets too vio-
lent, and strive to pay them, not gold
for the gold they lent our misery, but in
a dishonest measure Of an inferior
metal.
"In the court Of the commercial
worlds conscience we shall be convict
ed of endeavoring to cheat the men who
came TO our rescue in the dark day.
This congress would not have existed
nor any government Of the United
States but for the strength given to our
armies by foreign capitalists, and now
to return their aid by a base treachery
is to deserve an infamy as deep as the
lowest depths of hell. But woe TO those
men, bull headed, without eyes, who are
to undermine the integrity |
and simplicity of the nation. "