The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-28
BRYAN AND BEECHER.
What the Great Preacher Really
Said About silver.

In his speech in Brooklyn Wednesday
night Mr.. Bryan is reported to have said:
Il glad to be permitted to present
the cause to the people of Brooklyn. /
only wish that that distinguished divine
whose name has added even to the fame
of your great city Henry Ward Beecher.
were with us to-day. that he might again
champion the cause of the people in their
great fight. Any man would whose sym
pathies were on the side of humanity, my
friends.
Answering this, Mr.. ]. R. Howard sends
to the New York Tribune a portion of an
address delivered by Mr. Beecher in
Plymouth Church Thanksgiving day Nov.
%. 1871 at the time when ii proposed
to pay the United States bonds in silver
The discourse was on Past Perils, and
the Perils of To-day 1t may be found in
the collection of his Patriotic Addresses,
and the portion apt for this day is given
below:
Whenever, in any nation, there is such
an attempt to tamDer with standards that
the moral sense of men is bewildered. and
liberty is given to unprincipled men at
large to cheat. to be unfaithful to obliga-
tions TO refuse the payment of honest
debts-wherever that takes place it is all
the worse if done with the permission of
law, | hate the devil riding on law
worse than I do the devil riding without
Il law under him. Whoever hampers with
established standards campers with the
What would become of this land if all
standards were tempered with? What if
that Il foot should consist of only ten
inches, and next year, the power being
taken out of their hands by the other par
ty. it should be ordained that it should
measure fourteen inches. and so every
three five years the standard should be
changed on which immense and innumera-
BILE contracts We're based, it being neces-
sary for such contracts to follow the alter
alton. sometimes damaging and sometimes
aiding men, under the shield of party and
of law, to commit fraud as if it were an
equity? What if the pound weight should
be tempered with, and it should be or
dained now that a pound is ten ounces,
now that it is twelve and now that it. is
fifteen? What if the quart and pint
should be tempered with. and made to
differ tomorrow from what they are to-
day? What if the yard measure should be
tempered with? What if all the standards
on which business is conducted should be
subject to fluctuations and caprice, that
and so that ethical questions, with all their
casuistry, should swarm as mosquitoes in
summer about a swamp. or insects in a
country tavern? What chance would there
be for honesty, for integrity or for solid
prosperity?
THE danger into which we are running
is hidden under the mystery of finance and
the currency All money is but a repre-
senfatye OF property pc W AS now; by facility
market, the need of one and the same
standard of money, uniform, universal and
the world standard. Gold is the universal
measure of value. Other kinds of money
there are-sNer, copper, paper--but they
must conform to gold and be measured by
it, and be interchangeable with it, in fixed
and definite proportions. Gold is king in
commerce. All other money must repre-
sent gold No vote of Legislature can
change the nature of commerce. the ma
ture of property, the nature of its repre-
sentative in money, the relative superb
GRITTY inferiority of different currencies.
Gold to it's supremacy a repre-
sentative of property by the long-estab-
lished consent of mankind.
mo act of Congress can ever make one
pound equal to two pounds. No act of
Congress can make a thing inferior
equal to a superior. Silver coin must be
made oroDortionate to the value of gold,
as determined in the open markets of the
world, All paper currency. must be con-
vertible into gold. Any other course is to
teach men to cheat by law; it is to teach
honest to cheat without knowing that
they cheat; it is to teach fraud by legiSla-
ton; it is a high crime and misdemeanor;
and if men in Congress do not know it.
what are they there tor? When the blind
are leading the blind. and they all fall into
the ditch together, it will not help them
to find that the ditch is silver lined.