Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-08-01
The Crime of 1878.

| In the last issue OF the New YorR
Freeman's Journal, a weekly Cath
Ollie publication, the editor, Rev. L.
| A Lambert, L. L. D., has an exhaus.
tive article on the "Crime of '73.'
The reverend editor in summing up
says:
According to the statement OF
Judge Kelly, who was chairman Of
the committee on coinage, giveI
above, the silver bill, when it left the
hands of the committee on coinage
did not demonetize the silver dollar
On the contrary, it made provision
for it's continued coinage. After the
bill was passed it was discovered thai
the provision for the silver dollar was
omitted-had been surreptitiously
obliterated from the document. Here
we have the crime of '73. Who did
this nefarious work? By whose re
quest or suggestion was it that this
doctored substitute for the original
printed bill was not read in the
House? Who shut off debate by q de
mand for the previous question?
ITO bring crime home TO its per.
petrators. the first question asked is,
Who benefited by it? The foreign and
Wall street bondholders made millions
by it. This fact in itself is not enough
to convict, but it affords q clue. With
this clue in hand, we introduce Mr.
Ernest Seyd into the conspiracy. A
writer, quoted by Samuel Leavitt i'll
his book. Our Money Wars, says:
1.-THE English capitalists raised
100000 and sent one Ernest Seyd to
America to have silver demonetized.
He came. In the bill was skillfully
inserted a clause demonetizing silver.
Before the bill passed a member OF
the committee which had the bill in
charge stated that Ernest Seyd. OF
London, distinguished writer and
bullionist, who is now here, has given
great attention to the subject of mint
coinage. After having examined the
first draft of this bill he has made
various sensible suggestions, which
the committee adopted and embodied
in the bill. Congressional Record,
April 8, 1872
LAS Ernest Seyd is an interesting
and important character in this con
siracy, we will follow him to London
and see what he has to say about his
missionary work in America.
sin 1892 Frederick A. Luckenback,
a former member of the New York
Stock Exchange, made an affidavit
in which the following statements
occur:
in 1865 l visited London, England,
for the purpose of placing there
Pennsylvania oil properties in which
I was interested | took with me
letters of introduction to many
gentlemen in London, among them
one to Mr.. Ernest Seyd, from Robert
NJ. Faust, eX-treasurer of Philadel-
phia. became we'll acquainted with
Mr.. Seyd and with his brother
Richard Seyd, who, l understand, is
vet living. | visited London there
after every year, and with each visit
renewed my acquaintance with Mr.
Seyd. In February, 1874, while or
one of these visits, and, while his
guest at dinner, |, among other
things, alluded to rumors afloat Of
Parliamentary corruption, and ex'
pressed astonishment that such cor
ruption should exist. In reply tc
this he told me he could relate facts
about the corruption of the American
Congress that would place it fal
ahead Of the English Parliament in
that line. After dinner he invited
me into another room, where he re
sumed the conversation about legis
lative corruption He said {: If you
will pledge me your honor as a gentle
man not to divulge what am about
to tell you while | live, will con
vince YOU that what I said about the
corruption of the American Congress
is true gave him my promise, and
he then continued went tc
America in 1923, authorized tc
secure, If l could, the passage of q
bill demonetizing silver. 1t was tC
the interest of those whom l repre-
sented-the governors of the Bank
of England-to have it done. | took
with me 100000, with instructions il
that was not sufficient to accomplish
the object, to draw for another $500,
900, or as much more as was neces
sary. l saw the committees of the
House and Senate, and paid the
money, and stayed in America unit
I knew the measure was safe. Youl
people will not now comprehend the
far.reaching extent of that measure
but they will in after years. What.
ever you may think of corruption in
the English Parliament, l assure you
i would not have dared to make such
an attempt here as I did in your
country"
Such is Ernest Seyd's confession
such the history of the Crime Of
1873" such the way in which the
standard dollar was dropped from
our coinage.
Strange and incredible as it may
seem, the platform of the st. Louis
convention maintains as party prin'
ciple that the law thus passed by the
intrigue of English capitalists must
not be abolished without the consent
of those same conspirators against
the welfare of the American people
Our national honor, we are told, re-
uuires that we must continue lndefl-
nltely to suffer the evil results of that
criminal conspiracy. Every effort to
free ourselves from the ubiquitous
burden is called reputation. In view
of these things, it is not difficult to
understand the intense earnestness
and enthusiasm of the common PEG
pie at the Chicago convention, and
the brusoue manner in which they
treated the professional politicians,
the political hacks, the plant tools
of the organized and conspiring
wealth that caused the evils of which
the laboring people are the victims.