The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-24
KEPLl lU NIX. BRYAN
SENATOR SHERMAN REFUTES ONE
OF THE POPOCRAT'S ASSERTIONS.
He Shows ConcIusively that the
"Crime of '73" Was Not Surrepti-
tiousIy Enacted, as Stated.
TOUR OF SOLDIER ORATORS
SICKLES, SIGEL, HOWARD, ALGER
AND TANNER In WISCONSIN.
Speech by Senator Villas at One of the
Meetings-Sherman to Chicago
Commercial Mckinley Club.
TOUR OF SOLDIER ORATORS

CINCINNATI, Sept. pa local paper
publishes a signed article from Senator
sherman, dated at Mansfield, in which he
replies to Mr.. Bryan and others who refer
to 1.-The crime of 73.'' Senator Sherman
says that many pages of the Congressional
Record show indisputabIe proofs that the
clause in the act of 1873, stopping the coin
age of the silver dollar, was not surrepti-
tiously and clandestinely passed through
Congress. The Senator reviews the historv
of that legislation, showing that there was
an unusually long agitation not only in
both branches of Congress, but also in the
committee of both houses and also in the
Treasury Department before the bill was
prepared. The Senator says:
Il have never been able to see what mo-
tive could have existed for secrecy in this
matter. On April 20, 1870 when the bill was
sent to the committee on finance by the
Secretary of the Treasury the silver dollar
was worth $1.0312 in the markets of the
world. Germany had not yet sold her sill
Yer, or adopted the gold standard. There
was no indication whatever of the fall of
the silver and no one could foresee that it
No one asked to have the dollar coined,
and no one was opposed to its discontinue
ance.
The Senator refers to the frequent mes
sages between the Treasury Department
and the committee and the unusually large
HuAipeE Ol copies OF the reports on the Dill
and the bill itself that were ordered printed
for distribution. 1.-The BILL, he says, "was
studied by many men outside of Congress
during the three years or more of it's con-
sideration and many of these financiers
were given hearings on this bill before the
committee. The Secretary of the Treasury,
in his annual reports of 1870, 1871 and 1872,
called the especial attention of Congress to
this bill. In his report of 1872 the Secretary
or the Treasury said: i suggest such al
teratlon as will prohibit the coinage of the
silver dollar for circulation in this coun-
Try, dwelling upon his reasons therefor at
length: This bill came to Congress April
70. 1870, and became law Feb. r. 1873
nearly three years after its introduction
and during which time it was constantly
before the public
The Senator concludes his article thus
There was not only nothing secret or
surreptt1ouS in the passage of the act of
1853, but every step accompanying its origin,
ceived as much publicity as could be given
to a bill. But the silver dollar was out of
circulation long before the law of 1873 was
enacted. 1t was a thing of the past lost
to sight, conceived by Hamilton in 1892
suspended by Jefferson in 1906, practically
demonetfzed by Benton and the men of 1884
under Andrew jackson; ignored by two
the expectation of silver bullion and called
back to the mind of the present generation
only because silver has fallen in price and
Is deemed more valuable as coin than as
bullion. Never was a more unjust or un-
warrantable charge made than that the act
with the object of concealing any part of
it from the public"