The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1896-09-23
Secretary CarlisIe's Open
Letter to an Inquirer.
Remarkable rgum o n t s
Based on Supposition.
Gold Is Now Circulating, the Couu-
try Contented and the Re-
serve Secure.

Gold Is Now Circulating, the Couu-
try Contented and the Re-
serve Secure.
WASHINGTON. Sept Is Secretary
Carlisle, from his summer retreat in
Bar Harbor, Me-. has addressed to
one of his Kentucky correspondents
the following letter. which is this
day made public:
Mr.. James P Helm. Louisville, KY
My Dear Sir: Your letter asking
how the silver dollars which contain
a quantity of bullion commercially
worth only about SO cents each, are
maintained at parity with gold,
Notwithstanding the fact that the
government does not directly re-
deem them. or the certificates issued
upon them, in gold, is received, and,
as great many inquiries upon the
same subject are addressed to me
daily from different parts of the coun-
try which it is impracticabIe to
answer in detail, | will take advan-
tage of your favor to answer them all
at once All the standard silver
dollars issued from the mints since
the passage of the act of 1878, now
amounting to more than $433,000,-
900, have been coined on public ac-
count from bullion purchased by the
government, and are legal tender in
payment of all debts, public and pri-
vate, without regard to the amount,
except when otherwise expressly
stipulated in the contract between
the parties. They belong to the
government when coined. and they
are paid out by the government at a
parity with gold for property and
services of ali kinds, and received
from the people at parity with gold
in the payment Of all public dues
and demands. The government has
made no discrimination whatever be.
tween the coin of the two metals,
gold having been paid on it's coin
obligations when gold was demand
ed. and silver having been paid when
silver was demanded
Under this policy, the coinage has
been so limited by law and the policy
of the treasury department tina: the
amount coined has not become so
great as to drive the more valuable
coin (gold) out of use and thus de-
stroy the basis Of OUR monetary sys-
tenn and so long as the two metals
are of equal commercial value at the
ratio established by law, this limita-
ton upon the coinage is, in my opin.
ion, absolutely essential to the main
tenance of their parity in efecting
exchanges. 1t constitutes the prin-
cipal safeguard for the protection Of
our currency against the deprecia-
ton which the experience of all
countries has shown would otherwise
result from the attempt to use two
legal tender coins Of the same de-
nomination. but of unequal value. If
the limitation were removed conf.
dence in the ability of the govern
ment to preserve equality in the ex-
changeable value of the coins would
be destroyed and the parity would
be lost long before the amount of sill
yer coinage had become really ex-
cessi7e. With free and unlimited
coinage of silver on account Of pri-
vate individuals and corporations the
government would be under no moral
obligation to maintain the parity,
and, moreover, it would be unable to
do so, because the volume of over
valued silver forced into the circula-
ton by legal tender provision
would soon expel gold from the coun-
try or put such premium upon it
that it would be impossible to procure
and hold in the treasury sufficient
amount to provide for the redemption
of silver on presentation.
In order to maintain the party un-
der such conditions the government
was compelled from the baginning to
exchange gold for silver dollars. and
their paper representatives whenever
demanded, just as it now exchanges
gold for its own notes when demand.
ed and as the coinage of silver dol
lars would be unlimited and therefore
constantly increasing, the point
would soon be reached where it
would be impossible to continue the
process of redemption.
The implied obligation of the gov
ernment to preserve the value Of the
money which it coins from It's own