Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-09-19
money function of being legal tender in
the payment of debts.

the payment of debts.
"Mr. Casserly again pressed him as fo
lows: 'We can not have an internation
coinage on the basis of our silver unlei
our silver coin Is to be of the standard
all the nations with which we expect t
have relations. Now l ask the senate
whether this bill provides for silve
coinage of that character
"To this Mr.. Sherman replied: sThi
bill proposes silver coinage exactly tn
same as the French, and what are calle
the associated nations of Europe, VIII
have adopted an international standar
of silver coinage; that is, the dollar pro
vided for by this bill is the precise equ
valent OF the 5-franc piece. 1t contain
the same number of grains of silver, an
we have adopted the international gran
instead of the grain for the standard O
our silver COINAGE
"Could any assurance be stronger tina
this that the bill did not demonetize sil
yer, limit the legal tender quality of tn
silver dollar, or interfere in any way wit
its money function? 1t was to be inter
national money and was to float all owe
the world Unfortunately, no senate
seems to have looked at the bill to se
whether Mr.. Sherman told the truth. Hi
explanation seemed to render it unneces
sary.
"Mr. Sherman further stated that tn
bill also provided for the trade dollar o
42O grains. This was not substitute TO
the other. He positively stated that the,
were both in the bill. We have JUS
shown that he assured the senate that th
new bill provided for dollar of pre-
cisely the weight of the French 5.fran,
piece. He then added:
"The "trade dollar" had been adopted
mainly for the benefit of the people O
California and others engaged in trad,
with China. That is the only coin meas
ured by the grain instead of the gram
The intrinsic value of each is to bt
stamped upon the ooin.'
Returning, after this, to the sub iect ot
the 3S4'grain dollar, he stated that tht
change in the weight from 412b grains
had been recommended by the chamber
of commerce of New York, and adopted
by certain learned societies. This change
was the adoption of the ratio of 151@ to
l. He said it was to make our silver
coinage in exact form and dimensions
and shape and stamp with the coinage OF
the associated nations of Europe who
have adopted international silver coin.
age.' Did this leave any room to doubt that
Mr.. Sherman, above all others, was up.
holding the standard silver dollar, and
making it an international coin which
would float everywhere, as it could not do
If the legal tender functions were taken
away from it. In the face of such declar-
ations is it at all strange that senators
did not scrutinlze the bill or have any
ground for suspicion that it was to work
mighty revolution in our monetary sys.
tenn? That no suspicion was being en-
tertained at the time that silver was be-
ing demonetlzed by the bill is evident
from the declarations subseq uently made
in the senate in 1873. On February Is of
that year Senator Thurman said:
Passed Bill Under Misapprehension.
II can not say what took place in the
house, but know that when the bill was
pending in the senate we thought it was
simply bill to reform the mint, regulate
coinage and fix up one thing and another,
and there was not single man in the
senate, think, unless member of the
from which the bill came, who
had the slightest idea that it was even a
squint toward demonstration
ION the same day Senator Allison said:
But when the secret history of this bill
comes to be told it will disclose the fact
that the house of representatives intended
10 coin both gold and silver, and intend
I'd to place both metals upon the French
relation instead of our own, which was
the true scientific position of this sub ject
n 1872
"On the 10th of January, 1878, Senator
Beck said: 1T (the bill demonetizing
'ilver) never was understood by either
house of congress. say that with full
of the facts. No newspaper
reporter, and they are the most vigilant
men ever saw in obtaining information,
discovered that it had been done.'
In "McPherson's Handbook of Poll
ics," for 1874 (page 134,) appears let
er from President Grant to Mr.. Cowdery,
lated eight months after the passage of
he demonstration act, in which he dis
'ussed silver as still being standard of
'alue, clearly proving that he was un.
ware that he bad approved a bill in |
which silver had been demonetized. This
etter has been in print on the authority |
# Mr.. Mcpherson for twenty-five years,
nd it is rather late to call 1t in uestion,
s has been attempted this year for the
irst time.
From the record, which I have faith.
ully reproduced, it is simpossible to reach
ny other conclusion than that the con-
dence of the house was abused by Mr..
Hooper; that the confidence of the
enate was abused by Mr.. Sherman,
nd that by their joint efforts
he most important piece of legislation
f the century was carried through con-
.ress by stealth, and the double standard
'hich had existed by the will of the peo-
lie for more than eighty years, was taken
way from them without their consent or
in the interest of aliens, by
he manipulations herein described. The
nen who did this work, did it furtively
nd fraudulently, because they knew that
submitted either to the people or to
ongress, its overwhelming defeat would
ave been insured.
The story is long one, but have not
ound myself able to confine it within
ny crime of 1873 and of those who COM
,itted it, I have done exact Justice, for
ave measured their conduct by the mer-
iless test of their cwn public record,
nd have pointed to the page whore ii can
q found. I am, very truly yours,
GEORGE O. GoRHAM.
Washington, D. o., Sept. s, 1896.
A Worlds Record Broken.