Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1896-09-25
"Thc Crime offS73"

- - = ~ rNhaRh VI JLtr
city who was so5retary of the Sen
ate in the now famous year of the
decentralization Of silver of silver,
thinks he has exposed the leading
criminal in the 1879"
Col. German hassbeen Republi
can all his life, but this does not pre-
vent him from exposing what he be
lieves to have been the greatest
crime OF modern financial legislation.
A few days ago he wrote letter to
ex Gov. Charles p. Johnson, who
read it in political speech at ST.
Louis last Saturday night. The let
ter is said to have created great
sensation. The letter openly charg
es Senator Sherman with having de
liberately deceived his fellow Ssna.
tors in order to have the bill passed.
The letter reads as follows:
From the record, which / have
faithfully reproduced, it is impossi.
bic to reach any other conclusion
than that the confidence of the
Hoose was abused by Mr.. Hooper,
that the confidence of the Senate
was abused by Mr.. Sherman, and
that by their Joint efforts the most
Important piece of Legislation of the
century was carried through Con-
gress by stealth, and the double
STANDARD, which had existed by the
people for more than eighty years.
was taken away from them without
the consent or knowledge, in the in.
terost OF aliens. by the manfpuhtions
described. The men who did this
work did 1t furtively aud fraudently,
because they knew that if submitted
either to the people or to Congress,
its over whelniing defeat would
have been insured"
Col. Gorham's letter is an exhaus-
live one, but it is filled with some
startling facts taken from the records
of the Senate and house. He points
out that SenatorSherman made three
attacks upon the double standard be
fore Inc accomplished his foul pur.
pose by stealth. OF this Col Cor
ham has this to say:
"The national debt, at the close of
the Civil War, was about twenty, five
hundred millions, the principal being
payable in any legal tender money
and the interest in coin. Certain
great banking houses of Europe, fol.
lowing the example set by their pre-
decessors in England, and setting an
example which was followed by their
c!nss in Germany after the Franco
Prussian war, inaugurated scheme
to greatly enhance the value of this
vast obligation by making it paya.
lie i'll gold and thus increasing the
value of gold.
This involved two Legislative
measures:
Il. Such changes in the laws of
the United States as would provide
Tor any portion of it, prior to the re.
sumption of specie payment. in legal
tender. Treasury rotes ia which it
was expressly made payable by the
law authorizing the issue of bonds,
and in exchange for which, when
greatly deprecated, they haG all
been issued.
". The decentralization Of silver
IN the United States, 50 that coin
would mean gold only, and the value
of that metal at the same time be
greatly enhanced"
After describing the first attempt
to accomplish the decentralization of
the white metal, Col. Gorham SAYS
that second unsuccessful attempt
to accomplish the demonstration ell
white metal, Col Gorham SAYS that
a second unsuccessful attempt at the
decentralization of silver was inaugu
rated on the 25 of April, 1870, by
the introduction in the Senate by
Senator Sherman of "a bill No. 5S9)
revising the laws relating to the
mint, assay offissre and coinage of
the United States"
According to this statement the
bill was ''framed in the Treasury
Department by distinguished body
of experts" 1t contained II sections
the fifteenth of which gave q list of
all silver coins to be thereafter is.
sued, and the eighteenth of which
tho iscnonoa of 49,.