The herald., 1896-09-27
!: THE REVOLUTIONARY ACT OF IS75 f;
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BY II. D. BARROWS

AS that great COnStltutlOIdl law eA-
FOUNDER, Daniel Webster, proclaimed,
more than half century ago, Gold and
silver, at rates fixed by congress, con-
stitute the legal standard of value in
this country, and neither congress nor
any state has any authority to establish
any other standard or to displace this. y
Consequently the attempt made in 1871
70, and partially successful, to change
the basis on which all the money con-
tracts of all the people of this country
rested was clearly unconstitutional and
revolutionary. The act of congress of
1873 was an attempt made, without con-
stitutional authority, and should be so
held by the United States supreme court.
to change our standard from gold and
silver, on which 1t had rested for near
ly century, to the single gold standard.
1t was, in fact, an act passed by congress
in excess of it's constitutional powers,
having for it's object the displacement
of our lawful standard and the estab-
lishment of another and different STAN
dard, which, If the greatest constitu-
tional lawyer this country has produced
is right, it had no authority to do.
1t is very grave matter for the leSiS-
lative body of any great nation to change
or attempt to change long established
standard, on which all the countless
myriads of contracts for the delivery OF
money by the government and people of
that nation rest.
If the act, of doubtful constitutional
ity, of 1878 had not been passed, then TIE
burden of our vast national debt and or
the still vaster aggregate of our other
public, as we'll as private, debts would
have bee~ very different from what II
ha haan nd
of our farmers and manufacturers and,
indeed, all cur property. except sold,
would not have been halved in real or
nominal value, II It had not been for the
attempted bedevirnent of our money
standard twenty-three years ago.
Even though other rations had gone
over to the gold standard. and gold had
risen, the United States, like the repub-
lie of Mexico, had it's remedy In it's then
existing monetary laws. Mexico, a
double standard country avaiied it.
self of that remedy; we did not She
higher, with the result respectively,
that the monetary standard of Mexico
has not gone up, and, as consequence,
property has not gone down; in other
words, to use the very expressive phrase
of Mr.. Bryan, 1.-The parity between mon
ey and property has been preserved in
that country, to the very great and last
ing material benefit of the Mexican peo-
pie; whereas in this country we have,
foolishly and contrary to one of the most
fundamental canons of scientific bimet-
allism, permitted our standard to follow
the dearer specie, thereby bulling the
price of that specie against ourselves,
till the bullion value of our gold dollar
is nearly twice that of our standard sill
yer dollar, as it has also nearly twice
the purchasing power that it had prior
to 1873, whilst silver has substantially
against gold, which 1t had then; and
during all these dreary years the dead
ening effect of continuously falling
prices, almost unknown in silver coun-
tries, has chilled enterprise and spread
distress throughout the length and
breadth of this and other gold standard
countries, thus destroying that stable
parity between money and property
so absolutely essential to the material
well-being of any country in any age.
The movement of the self-styled en-
lightened nations of the world toward
| the gold standard within the last quar-
ter of q century has SO enormously in
creased the demand for the commodity,
gold, that one gold dollar is now worth
nearly two silver dollars, with the al
most certain prospect that If Russia.
with her 100,000,000 people, and Japan.
with her 4000O,0O0, and India, with her
| 2S0, 0000 900, and other smaller countries
go over to the gold standard, the gold
dollar will be equal in value to three sill
yer dollars, and all property will have
| fallen to one-third it's former value, and
| all debts will be three times as hard to
| pay as they We're before the disastrous
| disruption of that stable and wholesome
| parity between money and property"
| which had existed for centuries prior to
1873.
/ Experienced financiers in Europe, who
understood thoroughly the natural laws
| governing the value of commodities in
general, and of the precious metals in
| particular, but which our legislators of
| that period evidently understood but
| partially, If at all, were amazed at our
attempts to demonetiZe or outlaw one of
| the constitutional money metals in
which our national debt. then colossal,
| and all our debts were lawfully payable,
the certain effect Of which would be, as
they clearly foresaw, to vastly enhance
| the onerousness of our heavy burden.
| AS illustrating this point, the follow
Ing incident Is given, as related by Gen.
! A. j. Warner, eX-member of congress
from Ohio, to the writer, when he was
here last year: When Gen. Warner was
in England in 1874, the year after the pas
sage of the decentralization act, he met
| member of parliament, who, in con-
versation, expressed surprise that the
American people, with a big national
debt, should have demonetized silver at
that particular time. To this Gen. War
ner replied that his friend must be mis-
taken. But the latter insisted that he
| was not, and Warner, on investigation
found that he was not, although this
was the first intimation that he, Warner
received that silver had been demone.
tized in the United States. Therefore
I conclude that the act of 1873 was moi
only revolutionary, as changing land.
marks, but that it was wholly uncalle6
for and unbusinesslike act of excessive
foolishness.