The herald., 1896-05-12
CARLISLE'S CONSISTENCY

would exact OF the iatter country.
CARLIsLE'S CONSISTENCY
The devotees of the idea that fifty
cents worth of silver is as good as 100
cents worth of gold, II not little bet
ter, seem to find wondrous solace in the
recent attack made by that prince Of
dema gogues, on John G. Carlisle. The
burden Of the Illinois executives clamor
is that the secretary of the treasury is
inconsistent, that the views entertained
by him now are widely different from
those expressed by him a few years
since. Ex-Congressman Bryan of Ne
braska, a gentleman who like the Pop
ulist senator, Allen from the same
state, Is possessed of a capacity for
speaking and writing that is out of all
proportion to his ability to think OF
something worthy his liberal expendi-
ture Of tongue and pen labor, has Joined
in the Altgeldian wall about Secretary
Carlisle's alleged Inconsistency and has
invited the latter to answer his own In
stead Of other peoples speeches.
Mr.. Carlisle has very sensibly refused
to enter into controversy with either of
the worthless noted. He realizes the fact
that BY so doing he would afford them
excuse for affiicting additional speeches
and epistles, of their peculiar kind. on
the defenseless public, and thus acquire
more Of the notoriety for which they
hunger.
Even If It were true that Mr. Carlisle's
present utterances regarding silver
coinage are at variance with those of the
past, 1t would not necessarily be to his
discredit. The conclusions Of men are
drawn with the light they have. No
honest man can covenant to never
change his mind. The views of men are
liable to alter with enlarged opportun-
ity for observation and study. The
world would make very little progress
in any line of human endeavor If peo-
pie were to adhere to error and deny
the truth when it is presented to them
for fear of being inconsistent" 1t is
the duty Of people to be consistent In
what they deem the right and not in
what they have found to be the wrong.
It is the business of the Altgelds and the
Bryans to prove that Mr.. Carlisle is
wrong now. If they can, and they are
wasting their time and labor in trying
to show that the Carlisle of today dis
agrees with the Carlisle of nearly
twenty years ago.
But the charge that the opinions of
the secretary have changed regarding
the free coinage of silver is entirely
false, and If Messrs. Altgeld and Bryan
are as we'll informed as men who pose
as teachers of the common people should
be, they must know Of it's falsity. John
G. Carlisle has never spoken nor voted
for the Free unlimited coinage of silver,
but on the contrary has consistently op-
posed legislation looking to that end.
When interrogated regarding the ut
terances Of Governor Altgeld, Mr.. Car
Isle said. "All such attacks as those
of Governor Altgeld were answered fully
in my speech at Covington, KY, year
ago." The portion of the Covington
speech referred to-and 1t should be cut
out and pasted in the hat of every sill
yerite for ready reference-is as follows:
LAS long as there appeared to be rea-
sonable ground for the hope that silver
could be raised to a parity of value with
gold at a ratio of 16 to1 by the separate
action of the United States.I was willing
to make the experiment, but was never
willing to make it by legislation provid-
ing for the free and unlimited coinage
of silver at that or any other ratio. The
only speech l ever made in congress on
this subject was delivered in the house
of representatives more than seventeen
years ago, at time when the value of
the bullion contained in a silver dollar
was only cents less than the value Of
the bullion contained in the gold dollar,
and together with many other oppo-
nents of free coinage, believing that a
restoration to our mints would bring it
to parity with gold. supported meas
ure providing for the limited coinage of
silver dollars on government account,
not on account of private individuals
and corporations as is now proposed
Fifteen years experience, however
demonstrated that those of us who be-
lieved in 1878 that larger use OF
silver by the United States would en-
hance its price or value were mistaken
The speech made by me on the occasion
referred to has been garbled and twisted
and perverted in and out of congress
with malicious ingenuity which has
scarcely ever been equaled in the dis
cussion of public question, and yet no
one has ever ventured to make the di-
rect assertion that it contained single
word in favor of the free coinage of sill
Yer. 1t was, i'll fact made in opposition
to free coinage and in support of the SEN
ate substitute for a free coinage bill
as can be seen by anyone who will take
the trouble to read it. Certain SEN
tences, in which I denounced in strong
language the attempt to destroy silver
as a money metal, have been separated
from their context and quoted again
and again in congress, on the stump
and in newspapers by men who never
read the speech, and who appear wholly
incapable of understanding the differ
ence between the total disuse of that
metal as money and it's free and unlim-
tied coinage at the public expense for
the benefit of private individuals and