Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-07-23
THE CRIME OF '73."
IT EXISTS ONLY IN THE MINDS
OF SILVER MEN.
Congressman McC1eary Exposes the
Absurd Fabricatio1s About the Act
of 1S73-Bill Was Discussed for
Three Years.
Here Are the Facts,

Here Are the Facts.
For the benefit of the thousands of
Intelligent people who honestly believe
that crime was committed surrepti--
tiously against silver in 1873, Congress
| man j. T. McCleary of Minnesota de-
voted considerable time, in his great
| speech OF Feb. y, to presentation of
the important facts connected with
the passage Of the coinage act of 1878.
The facts stand out SO clearly and. tell
such a straightforward story that it.
would seem impossible that any fair.
mindedmanshould,a after reading them,
continue to believe that there was any
conspiracy" by anybody that caused.
the passage Of this act We can give
| but few of the more salient points
from Mr.. McCleary's speech on this
| subject:
The original bill was prepared. in the
| Treasury Department in the winter of
1S69'70, by John Jay Knox, then dep
uty comptroller of the currency, under
| the direction. of George S. Boutwell,,
then Secretary of the Treasury. The
| laws relating, to the mint had not been
| revised for more than generation,
and much confusion existed. This bill
was largely a codifeation of existing
law, with such improvements as expert
ence suggested.
The first draft Of the bill was submit
ted to- leading experts OH coinage and
currency in this country, and to- some
in Europe In this way the views of
| more than thirty men were obtained
| Their answers We're transmitted to the
House in June, 1870, as :; supplement
tary report on the bill. The consensus
Of opinion of these experts, and of those
who discussed the bill in Congress, was
that it was simply to recognize legally
what had practically existed, since the
act of 1853 had, made gold the single
standard of value and made silver sub
sidiary and legal tender only for sums
not exceeding IS.
The bill as introduced distinctly dis
continued the silver dollar One of the
| eight headings to. the divisions in the
reports accompanying the bill was as
follows: to- DISCONTINUANCE OF
| SILVER DOLLAR" This was printed
| in capitals. The discontinuance Of the
! silver dollar was specifically referred:
to i'm four places in this report.
Contrary to the suggestions and
statements of many leading free silver
| ties, the old standard dollar of 412A
| grains was never in the coinage bill
| passed in 1873, and therefore it could
not, as they allege, have been omitted
surreptitiously. In May, 1872, silver
dollar containing 3S4 grains was intro
duced into the bill. Like the silver half
dollars, it did not have free coinage"
or full tender. This was the dollar
which was afterward dropped out of
| the bill and in place Of which the trade
| dollar of APO grains, with unlimited
coinage, but limited tender, was substi
tuted.
From the contemporary records it is
clear that the bill was before Congress
! for about three years; that it was print
| ed eleven times separately and twice in
reports of the Comptroller of the Cur
rency; that it was considered at length
n
ate and by the Coinage Committee of
the House during five different ses-
sions; that it was carefully debated in
both houses, the debates in the Senate
occupying sixty-six columns and those
in the House occupying seyenty-eight
columns of the Congressional Globe,
and it finally passed substantially as it
| i~i, ,o11 Ivy int,
ture of the bill was thoroughly explain
ed in the original report accompanying
the bill, and repeatedly afterward in
the debates on the bill itself
There doubtless were persons in both
houses who did not pay attention to
either the report or tie discussions, for
at that time such subjects were re-
garded as of interest only to experts,
but it certainly cannot be truthfully
said that they did not have full oppor-
tunity to know all about it.
SO far as concerns the coinage of
gold and silver, there were just two
important provisions in the act Of 1873
namely, the unlimited coinage Of gold
and the limited coinage of silver. Both
4 OF THESE DrOV1SlOuS nave euuuIcu duu
will endure because, as have shown
already, this is the only way in which
| we can have the use of both metals as
money at the same time. And though
some very excellent gentlemen in Con-
i gress in 1878, when the wave of free
| silver threa tened to overwhlm every
one opposed to it, may have said some
/ foolish things about the act of 1878, it
| is a significant fact that not single
/ Republican Of those quoted as saying
these things, unless he lives in a silver
producing State, has 1er voted to re-
peal the essential provisions Of the act
| of 1873 above cited. Except as to the
trade dollar (Which was inserted as a
special concession to the silver pro-
| ducers) the act Of 1878, based upon
/ the experience Of centuries, framed by
/ men pre-eminent for ability and integ-
| rity. discussed in all its phases during
the three years when it was before
Congress, will be recorded in history as