The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-09-16

has always hitherto stood for and main
tanned. / can only have time tonight
to speak of two or three of these amsz.
ing propositions.
must leave aside the unfortunate
events of legislation that, in spite of
abundant harvest and in the presence
OF an industrious and frugal people,
have SO greatly diminished the business
aud prosperity of all industrial and
! Other pursuits in our country, and have
| produced continual deficit in the treas.
uly.
This leads us to inquiries First, What
is the nature Of coined money? and Sec
ond, How has the ratio of 16 to | come
to be established? Here is an Ameri-
can gold eagle of ten dollars, and here
is all American silver dollar, and here
is Mexican silver dollar, and here is
an American silver dollar punched, and
here is an American gold dollar
punched. You will see, as doubtless
you all know already, that the different
coins contain no promise or obligation;
they are simply things, and all the gov
eminent has done about them has been
to say that the gold eagle contains so
much pure gold and the dollar so much
pure silver, and that they shall be le-
gal tender in the payment of debts,
which merely means that when one
man has promised another to pay him
80 many dollars, both parties under
stand precisely what the creditor is en-
titled TO, and what the debtor is re-
CURED TO do in the discharge of his obi.
CATION.
The so called paper money of our
government-as of all others-is, as
you know, merely a promise to pay
dollars, and it subsists and passes cur
rent in the transactions of men solely
according to the credit the government
possesses, precisely as the notes of a
bank or private individual pass in
community according to the faith peo-
pie have in the capacity of the bank or
private person to pay what ii or he has
promised. The paper has no intrinsic
value, while the coin, as l have said,
has an intrinsic value as a thing that
the government undertakes no duty in
respect to it. This, then, is the nature
of money.
When our independence had been
achieved and the states of the Union,
as we'll as the United States, found
themselves deeply in debt, and when
the paper money of congress and of the
states of the Union was tremendously
deprecated, the founders of the consti-
tution-J efferson, Washington, Ham
ilton, Madison and other worthless whose
wisdom and patriotism we all still re-
vere-found it necessary to establish a
stable monetary system which should
be based upon silver and gold. Silver
and gold were adopted because they
were the money of the world, and be-
cause it was known that money, differ
ing from all other things, knows no
barriers or limitations of countries or
political divisions. Custom houses do
not stay its movements and even hos
tilities and wars have no effect upon
its universal value.
After discussing fiat money in France
and speaking of the stand Jefferson
took on the money question, Mr.. Ed
munds further said:
Let us now see what was the expert
ence of our fathers with the double
standard so carefully and exactly es-
tablished. From 1892 to 1906 the coin
age of silver and gold went on at the
established ratio. In that year Thomas
Jefferson was president of the United
States and James Madison was secre-
tary of state. There had been coined
gold eagles, gold half-eagles, and gold
quarter-eagles; silver dollars, half dol
f lars, quarter dollars, etc. The total
amount of silver dollars coined down to
that time was about $S,000000. 1t was
found in that short length of time that
the relative intrinsic value of the two
metals had changed, and that fifteen
pounds of silver were worth COM
mercially more than one pound of gold,
and that consequently the coined dol
lars did not remain in circulation, but
were purchased for the purpose of ex-
port. President Jefferson accordingly,
on the first of May, 1906, directed the
) stoppage of the coinage of the silver
dollar by an order, signed by James
Madison, and directed to Robert Pat
terson, a Pennsylvania, then director
of the mint.
No more silver dollars were coined
until 1887, when a new act of congress
was passed reducing the silver in the
coin from 416 grains to 412t During
this period of more than thirty years
the original silver dollar had entirely
disappeared from circulation, and the
J country lived and prospered under q
single gold standard adopted by Thomas
, Jefferson himself under the authority
of the law; and for the simple reason
that, owing to the difference in the rela.
tive quantity OF the production and
therefore the relative value of silver
and gold, double standard could not
be kept up at the established ratio.
The act of congress of 1887 under
took to restore the equality of the rela-
, tive commercial value of the two coins,
and, for the time being, it did restore it
by the change / have mentioned in the
weight of the silver in dollar, making
the value of the gold and silver the
same. But, meantime, the commercial
/ value Of the gold in our gold coins bad
risen above the face value of the coins,
and consequently the gold coins began
to be exported; and, to meet this differ