Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1896-10-16


supersededu d bimetalic basis in the United
States
Up to this time only s0l5.S8S silver dol
lars had been coined and Upton says none
had been coined for circulation since 1903
but by the act of 78 the coinage of the sill
yer dollar wns not only discontinued but
through a clerical biunder it was not even
mentioned in Che coins of the United
States and an silver coins, no exception
being made of the dollar, were made legal
tender only to the amount of five dollars.
Says Mr.. Upton in his Money and Poll
tics" In this way the silver dollar which
Hamilton recommended; jefferson forbid
Benton made Improbable; was disoon-
tinued with approval and subsequently de
monitized through a clerical error
The same law of 78 which discontinued
the standard silver dollar, authorized the
trade dollar containing 3s4 grs, pure silver.
This dollar was not intended for circula-
tion in this country but was coined for use
in the trade with China and other Asiatic
countries but as might have been expected
they soon found their way into circulation
here and to prevent this an act was passed
in f6 depriving them Of any legal tender
| quality but this did not as was hoped. i'm
pair their circulation as they were worth
more than the standard silver dollars
Subsequently, I think in 1850 they were
called in and are now seldom seen outside
of the collectors cabinet
In the next bill, the act of Is, we meet
for the first time with the name of Mr..
Bland of Mo, man whose name has ever
since been associated with the cause of
free silver The bill as originally intro
duced provided for the coinage OF silver
dollars weighing 4l2.5 grs and gave bull
ion owners the right TO take their bullion
to the mint in unlimited quantity and get
it coined. This was stricken out in the
Senate and a substitute inserted empower
ing the treasurer of the United States to
buy with money not otherwise appropria-
ted, silver bullion at the market ratio to
the amount Of not less than two nor more
than four million dollars Of silver a month
to be coined as purchased and the profits
to 60 to the treasury of the United States
This bill was vetoed by president Hayes
but was passed over his veto. Under it
the Secretary of the treasury has discre-
tionary powers as to the amount to be
purchased between the two and four mil
/ lion and the minimum amount was bought
as rule and it never reached the maxi
mum.
This brings us down to very modern his
tory, to the sherman act of 1890 that com
promise from the affect q which the coun-
try has not yet recovered. This act au-
thorized the Secretary of the treasury to
! buy not more than four and a half million
ounces of silver bullion month but com
pelling him to accept all offered up to that
amount at the market price provided that
price did not exceed 81 . grs. of silver to
the dollar.
The effect Of this law is almost too well
known to need description. At first the
price Of silver rose until our silver dollar
previously worth only "A became worth 81
cents this did not last long however and it
soon fell back to y cents and ere the act
was repealed to about 81 cents still the
United States kept on buying until we
purchased under the sherman act lGS.674,-
| 6S2 ounces of silver bullion OF nearly the
entire product Of this country, and this
was represented by 3156.931 .9O2 in silver
certificates which the United States has
been and is endovoring to float on a parity
with gold together with the S421 776. .4OS
coined under the act of rs, while in the
mean time the price Of silver has fallen
from S1.2O to 60 an ounce Still we kept
on buying it until now it is estimated that
the bullion value of the silver we hold is
worth at least $50 million less than we
paid for it.
At length the cash came and in August
SO President Cleveland called an extraordi-
nary session of Congress to repeal the
Sherman act. The repeal bill soon passed
the house and then followed that igno-
minous session of the Senate when those
halls which have resounded with the ele-
quence of Clay, Calhoun and Webster and
listened to the wise counsels of Benton and
Blaine were reduced to the battle ground
of parties and faction amere athletic field
for the display Of physical endurance not
of mental vigor. At length public opinion
forced even that body to awake to a sense
Of its duty and in November 1898 "the
Sherman act" was repealed. Since that
time we have been spared from coinage
legislation.
Now however the silver Question has as
sumed gigantic proportions and has been
adopted as the bone of contention by the
two great political parties, one Of which
has flung aside former principles to adopt
free and unlimited coinage of silver at a
ratio Of sixteen TO one. A platform which
if carried out would result in the greatest
protection this country has ever known
for commerce with the leading countries
Of Europe would almost if not entirely
cease.
What the result of the coming election
win be cannot be fortold, but have too
much faith in the ultimate good sense Of
the American people to believe that they
viii deliberately march to the poles and
vote for a systom violating all financial
and economic principles and which has
been repeatedly tried in this country and
met with repeated disaster
We have now traced the history of the
silver dollar and the laws affecting its
coinage from April End 1872 to October 8rd
1895 during which time we have seen both
gold and silver pass out Of circulation. each
in its turn, and in the latter case the coun-
try was reduced to such straits for small
coin that paper notes were issued to the
value Of ten cents, and from the monetary
history of the past I am lead to draw the
somewhat surprising conclusion, that free
silver in che United States alone involves
the lifting up By this country of the entire
oil o