Birmingham state herald., 1896-10-29

Fellow Citizens. Believing as l did in
 1860, as all now admit, that the perpetua-
 tion of the union was the paramount is-
 sue, upon which the greatness of this
 country depended, compared to which the
 questions of tariff, currency and slavery
 were utterly insignificant, I took my
 stand for the union. This naturally led
 me into the republican party, and wheth-
 CT the fact is generally known or not, I
 made the first move, so far a s know, for
 republicanism in Alabama, and organized
 the first political body of men in Alabama
 known as republicans. Though sometimes
 differing with my party in important
 matters, one of which was the disfran-
 chisement of persons who had partici- pated in the late war, l acted with that party and voted for every one of it's nomi- nees down to the defeat of President Har- rison, hoping and believing that the re- publican party would repair the great in- jury inflicted upon the productive and la bor interests of the country, caused by the demonstration of silver, including the wage earner. I openly advocated the joint resolution offered in the senate of the United States by Senator Matthews of Ohio, demanding the remonetization of silver, the Bland-Allison bill and the Sherman law. Under these two laws the country partially recovered from the de- pTeSSlOu CduSeQ Dy lue act OI lofo, uG- monetizing silver. And the country con- tinued to prosper until 1892, when, &C., cording to President Harrison's declara- tion it reached it's highest degree of pros perity This great prosperity was inter- rupted by the money shavers and syndi- cates, saying that the great volume of silver purchased by the government and coined had destroyed confidence and was ruining the business interests of the country. Congress was called In extra session and the Sherman law was repeal ed, gold went up and up, and the con- traction of money took the place of the promised business prosperity, and the worst sort of a panic followed, the con- | sequence of which has been the destruc- | tion in value of at least one-half of the | real and personal property of the coun- | try, including the value of labor now em- | ployed, to say nothing about the tens of | thousands of wage earners who can find | nothing to do.
 The people generally knew nothing of the characterization of silver for long time, and were much surprised to learn | that such was the case, for no body of people had ever petitioned congress for | its demonstration. No political party had | ever asked for any such thing or passed | any resolution favoring such measure anywhere in the broad land that I ever | heard of; so I think that the charge that | the measure was passed by deception and l fraud, without the knowledge of the peo- | pie and against their will, is not without foundation. By this act of 1873 silver then in existence was made legal ten | der for $5 only, making gold the sole re- | dempton money for all sums greater than $5. It was some time, I don't know just how long, before this condi- 1 tion became generally known, but when | it became known agitation began, and agitation will continue until the free and | unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to IS l provided for by law, and thereby re- | stored to it's former legal tender quality l on equal terms with gold. In my opin' l ion, we can never have a reliable, safe l and sound currency without 1t.
 This is the great issue now pending | before the American people and has been l more or less agitating this country since | the demonetization of silver in 1873, and l was debated in the United States senate l by James G. Blaine and other distin- l guished senators-republicans and dem- l ocrats-favoring the Matthews resolu- l ton, and it passed the senate by a ma- l jority of forty and the house of represen- | tatives by a large majority. This resolu- 1 ton had been opposed by committees oi bankers and money shavers and bond l holders, who urged against its passage | that it would be better to increase the l purchasing power of gold. The issue had l thus been made up and decided against | them by the passage of the joint resolu- l tioh by each house of congress. In 1S7S | l the same opposition, and it was then pre- | dicted as the result of that act that gold | would be driven out of the country and | business stagnation and panics would fol | low, when in fact after its passage the in. | Aux of gold increased.
 l When about fifty millions of silver had l been coined under the Bland-Allison law | President Hayes and Senator Sherman his then secretary of the treasury, recon. | mended to congress the repeal of tht Bland-Allison law, because, as they said
 that amount of silver could not be kep1 on a parity with gold. But congress re
 fused to repeal the law. In 1890 Sena. ! tor Sherman seemed to have changed hi
 mind, for he then introduced the famou.
 Sherman bill, providing for the coinag, | of $4, ,500, 900 per month, which passed botl
 houses of congress and became the law
 of the land, which, he said, was a com
 promise. suppose a compromise to pre-
 vent the passage of the free coinag'
 measure. In 1892 the republican partI
 declared in favor of both gold and silve
 as primary money, which meant each wa
 as good as the other. The democrats ! party declared for the same thing in sub l stance, and the contest that year wa
 fought out on the tariff question, and re
 suited in the election of MT. Cleveland ! over President Harrison. Up to this tim
 no national political party had ever de | ciared for the single gold standard.