The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1896-06-19
Washington Letter.
III our Regular Correspondent.


WASHINGTON, June 15.-Speaker Reed would
not remain in Washington TO get the returns
from'the st. LOUIS Convention. He has started
for home, but will probably make several
stops on the way. 1t is no eXaggcratiOn to say
that II more thoroughly disguised man than
he is has never declined TO be interviewed. He
wasn't half Us much surprised at the treachery
of Joe Manley at St. Louis as he was at the
earlier trcachery of Senator Proctor ut the
Vermont State Convention. He has never had
any confidence i'll Maney, aud once said he
would not trust him with the coppers on Il
dead mans eyes" and only two or three weeks
ago, having received hint that Manley was
dickering with Hanna, he is said to have spoken
his mind so freely that Manlcy strnlghtway lett
Washington and did not return. He went from
Maine direct to st. Louis. 1t isn't only from
New England that Mr.. Reed has been betrayed,
but he feels the effect from that section more
because he felt that he had Il right to expect
that local pride, il nothing else, would Keep
the New Englander's true TO him.
Among the other useless things winch Con
grcsS did at the session just closed, was to give
the Dawes Indian commission, which has been
such conspicuous failure, new lease OF lie,
by authorizing il to resume negotiations with
the five civilized tribes OF Indians, Tor re-
organization of their government. Inc meu-
bers of the commission had conference win
Secretary Hokc Smith, and Will leave IN lew
day Tor Indian Territory, to remain there all
summer. 1t is predicted that they will accom-
plish just what they did i'll their previous nego-
tiations, nothing.
Secretary Olney gave hearing to DR.. Delgado
and his father, naturalized American citizens,
stroyed on their Cuban plantation, and for
personal mistrcatmcnt Of themselves by
Spanish soldiers, and promised to do what he
could for them.
Vice-president Stevenson has this season
broken the record in the making of addresses
at college commandments, and he Is still at IT,
He left Washington yesterday for Tuscaloosa,
Ala, where he will tomorrow address the STU
dents of the University of Alabama. Repre-
sentative Bankhead went with him.
EX-CougreSSman Bynum, OF Indiana, VINO
has been actively aiding the administration III
fighting the silver sentiment i'll that State ana
elsewhere, threw up the sponge, as far us In
diana is concerned, on his last visit to Washing
ton, several days ago. lie said that the silver
sentiment in the State had reached the proDor-
ton of Il tidal wave, and that Indiana would
certainly be carried by the Democrats if the
Chicago Convention adopted a silver plutfor
Secretary Carlisle was the first witness in the
bond investigation which was today begun by
n sub- committee of the Senate Committee on
Finance. 1t is uncertain at this this time how
long it will take to complete the investigation.
Senator Harris presides over the committee
meetings, which are public.
1t would seem in view of the extent of the
silver discussion that about everybody would
know exactly the status of silver money under
our present laws, but i'll II discussion by Il
group of public men, it was quickly shown
that Il majority OF them didn't know. ma
iority of the group commended that silver was
not legal tender in sums exceeding SO, and
it required the production of a copy of the re-
yised statutes of the United States to convince
them to the contrary. The act OF 1873, gener-
ally spoken of as the decentralization of silver.
dropped the silver dollar entirely from our
coins and provided that 1.-THE silver coins of the
United States shall be legal tender ut their
nominal value for any amount not exceeding
So in any one payment but this Iart of the
act was superseded five years later, February
%. 1873, by the Bland act, which provided for
the coinage of our present silver dollar, and
provided further that they, together with all
silver dollars heretofore coined by the United
States of like weight and fineness, shall be n
legal tender at their nominal value for all debts
and dues, public and private, except where
otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract
This is the law. Silver dollars are today legal
tender in any amount for any Indebtedness,
not stipulated to be paid in some other particu-
lar kind Of money, and If this fact were I'M
known to four gentlemen in public life it is not
unreasonable to suppose that it is unknown TO
thousands of private citizens. The act of 1890,
which provides that silver coins OF less than 81
shall be IL legal tender in all sums not exceed
ing 80, is probably responsible for the pre-
valence of the idea that the silver dollars arc
only legal tender To that amount. Asa matter
of fact the silver coins of less than one dallar
are full legal tender in amounts up to ten dol
lars, no matter what sort of contract may
| have been made as to payment in other money