Omaha daily bee., 1896-10-18

LINCOLN DIANE, GARFIELD, BRYAN
The republican silver apostates who
are rowing about the country under pay
OF the Silver trust never tire Of desccrat-
ing the memory of Abraham Lincoln by
parading him as the prototype Of VIII
liam Jennings Bryan. They constantly
and persistcntly pretend TO cite Lin
coin. Blaine and Garfield as endorsers
Of the dishonest scheme to scale public
and private debt by the free coinage of
the worlds silver at n ratio only one
half its commercial value. In every In
stance these maligncrs of the dead quote
garblcd extracts and forged statements
TO sustain their baseless assertions.
While we cannot hope to silence these
constituencies liars we deem 1t our duty
to expose their duplclty and rascality.
The only tangible thing that in any
way connects Abraham Lincoln with the
silver question, which was not even
thought of in his day, is the verbal
message said to have been given by the
martyred president to Schuyler ColfaX
when he was about to start across the
continent in 1860 Lincoln is quoted as
saying In substances "Take this mes
sage to the people OF the mining states
OF the west. ] hope to see the mining
country west of the Missouri developed
so that their mineral wealth shall help
us to pay off the national debt What
is there in this message that in the
remotest degree iustifies the assumption
that Lincoln would be in favor of the
partial reputation of the public debt
through the coinage of deprecated silver
dollars?
Blainc's position on the silver issue
was clearly defined during the debate
over the Bland-Allison act. In that
speech Mr.. Blaine said: "To remonetize
silver now as though the essential con
ditions had not changed is willfully
and blindly to deceive ourselves" Again,
"Our line of policy in a joint movement
with other nations to remOnetiZe Is
simple and direct. The difficult problem
is what we shall do when we aim to
re-establiSh silver without the co-opera-
tion of European powers and really as
an advance movement to coerce those
powers into the same policy" Still
further "UnlcSs we expect the invari-
able experience of other nations to be
in some mysterious way suspended for
our peculiar benefit we inevitably lose
our gold coin. 1t will flow out from us
with the certainty and with the force of
the tides" More important still, "If
were to venture on dictum on the
silver question | should declare that
until Europe remoneti2es silver we can
not afford to coin n dollar as low as
I12h grains" This, it must be remem-
bered, was at time when the silvap
in the dollar was worth 93 cents in
stead OF 80 cents.
General Garfield's views on the free
coinage question were positive and un-
equivoCal. In speech delivered in the
house of representatives March 81. 1876.
Garfield said: sour public faith is the
symbol of our honor and the pledge of
our future safety. BY every considera-
ton of national honor. of public Justice
and of sound policy let us stand fast
in the resolution to restore our cur
rency to the standard of gold" In his
speech delivered July %, 1876, General
Garfield discussing the proposed pay
ment of the national debt i'm silver coin.
said: 'If you insist on paying in silver.
then insist that your silver dollar must
be equivalent to your gold dollar.
1t has happened in the fluctua-
tions of the money metals that there
is now n notable opportunity to cheat
several millions of men by adopting the
baser metal rs the standard of payment
and thus accomplish swindle on so
grand a scale as to make the achieve
ment illuStriouS. Since | have
been in public life have never known
any proposition that contained so many
of the essential elements of vast
rascality."
The speeches of Blaine and Garfield
on the silver question are accessible to
everybody. Yet the self-styled silver re-
publicans keep right on assuring the
people that they represent the repub-
licanism of Lincoln, Garfield and Blaine.