Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1896-07-18
SENATOR DANIEL
ION SILVER
Timely Views Of the Virginia
Statesman ON the Currency
issue.
John W. Daniel in the New York Journal.

United States, composed of 81
grains of pure silver. From that day
TO this. for a period of POI years, the
silver dollar has been the same in the
quantity OF its pure metal, and it is
the very ideal OF honest, hard, sound
and stable money.
Silver and gold are unlike all other
metals and all other values. The
Germans call them 1.-THE noble metals. F"
the English THE royal metals" They
have been yoked together as money
from the dawn of civilization. They
were money and legal tender under the
common law. and Coke tells us in his
institutes that mo subject can be en-.
forced to take in buying or selling or
other payment any money made, but
only lawful metal-that is. of silver
or gold. The money Of England is
the treasure of England, and nothing
is said to be treasure trove but gold
and silver"
They were the money of the colon
les before we became nation. The
constitution had them in view when
it said: ''rhe Congress shall have
power TO coin money, regulate the val
ne thereof. and of foreign coins" and
mo State shall make anything but
gold and silver coin tender in pay
ment OF debts"
Alexander Hamilton, in advocating
the mint act of 1892, assigned two
reasons for not attaching the unit of
money exclusively 10 one metal, the
first being that 10 do SO would destroy
the office and character of one OF them
as money and reduce il to the situa-
ton OF mere merchandise, and the
second, that ito annul the use OF either
OF the metals as money is to abridge
the quantity of the circulating medium,
and is liable to all the objections which
arise from comparison OF the bene-
fits OF full with the evils OF a scanty
circulation"
Daniel Webster defended the dou
BILE standard, and said The legal
tender. the constitutional standard of
value, is established and cannot be
overthrow. am certainly of opin-
ion that gold and silver, at rates fixed
by Congress, constitute the legal stand.
ard OF value in this country, aud that
neither Congress nor any state has
authority to establish any standard, or
to displace this"
We have seen the work of Hamil-
ton undone and the opinion OF Web
ster oyerruled. We have seen silver
bullion reduced to "a mere merchan-
disc" and the "royal metal" dethroned
We are now suffering from the evils
of scanty. in sad comparison to the
benefits of full circulation, and | am
for returning to the solid and safe ba-
sis of the free coinage Of both metals
which Congress unrighteously, and,
Webster thinks, unconstitutionally,
repealed in 1873.
Unless we have the free coinage of
silver, we will inevitably have fur
Their contraction of the currency, vast
increase Of the public debt, an increase
OF taxation by the Federal Govern
ment and by many OF the states and
their municipal divisions, accompanied
with the future decline in the value OF
land, Of agricultural mining aud man
utaotured produce, and a long de-
preston Of business, with an increase
of commercial failures and a decrease
of wages.
We have nine varieties of Federal
currency besides our minor coins for
small change. Three of them are me-
tallic and six of them are paper.
Our whole stock of metallic money
on May Of this year was sl,095,-
sos, 800, aud OF paper sl,l3l, 1853, COG.
Striking features of the detailed
Treasury statement are; % that we
have more paper than metallic money,
and that it will take more than all our
metal money, in the Treasury and in
circulation, to redeem the paper ; (2)
that our gold is but little more than
fourth of all our circulation; (3) that
We have in circulation nearly twice as
much paper as specie, and CD that
more of our circulation is silver, or
based on silver, than OF gold.
The gold certificates, S43,Sl7 1859,
are redeemable in gold only the sill
yer certificates, S350.4l2,5 04, are re-
deemable in silver only; the currency
certificates. s33. $4,000, in green
backs only; the Sherman notes, $685.
067, $50, are redeemable in silver or
gold, at the discretion of the Secretary
Of the Treasury the greenbacks,
S346,6Sl ,016, are redeemable in IDOL
lars" which include gold dollars or
silver dollars, as the Supreme Court
has held, and the national bank notes
are redeemable I'm lawful money, !"
which means gold. silver or paper
money. Shall this mass of paper be
paid in gold, or according to the CON
tract? In any dealing with it con-
tend that two considerations must be
respected:
First, the credit Of the government.
Second The common welfare of the
people.
To sustain the credit of the govern.
ment We must, therefore, pay the gold
certificates in gold, as matter Of
course, and as none dispute, but the
greenbacks, the silver certificates, the
Sherman notes and the currency GER
tificates amount to 1868, 457, 5000.
Two methods Of dealing with them
are proposed
The one is 10 pay them according to
their tenor. in silver in the case Of
silver certificates, in currency in the
case of currency certificates, and in
gold or silver, at our plearure, in the
case OF the Sherman notes and the
greenbacks.
The other is to redeem them Mt the
pleasure Of the holder in gold.
This latter plan is the one adopted
by President Cleveland and the gold
bug Republicans II we pursue it we
must issue gold bonds aud purchase
1868, 457 900 of gold minus what is