Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1896-08-13
"Crin1e of 1873"

"Crime of 1873"
WINCHESTER, Ky, Aug. ID, 1896.
ID. S. Eslill, Dear Sir:-Will you
please answer through the columns
of The OUTLOOK the following ques-
tiOns:-
/. What was the "crime of 1873"
that we read of so much, and, in
fact, hear so much abOut2
,. Is silver a legal tender for all
debts, and TO what extent?
3. Mr.. Carlisle states in one of
his letters that "Under our existing
system all silver dollars are coined
on account of the Government and
are issued by the Government in
payment of its expenditures and
other obligations" Does he mean
that Government can pay its debts
with silver? S. NJ. PARCEL.
For several years previous to the
enactment Of the law which is
falsely denominated the "crime of
1873" the u. S. law provided for
the unlimited coinage of gold lin
double-eagles, eagles, half, and
quarter-eagles, worth $50, $40, S.
and $3.50 respectively, } and silver
dollars at the ratio of l part by
weight of-gotd- to 10 parts of sill
yer, these to be legal tender. by
this, 25.S grains of standard gold
and 412.5 grains of standard silver
constituted each a dollar. Any
body could take either gold or sill
yer in unlimited quantity and have
il coined,-gold into the coins men
toned, and silver into dollar pieces
Bat during the era referred to tho
deprecated paper currency was all
the money in general circulation
and the peoples finances were based
upon this deprecated paper cur
rency. At that time a silver dol
lar, if there had been any, would
have been worth few cents more
than a gold dollar, because in the
worlds markets, at the l6 to ratio
silver metal was at premium in
gold metal.
Then the Treasury officers had
in view a preparation for the re-
sumption of specie payments. To
further that end a bill was intro.
duced in Congress in 1870. That
bill was debated and amended, and
finally passed in 1873. Its impor.
tant features were that it dropped
the standard 1928 grain silver
dollar from the list of coins and
established by law the gold stand.
ard of money, for the reasons that
it was impossible to keep the gold
and the silver standard in use al
the same time, and that the gold
standard was the favorite of the
other great commercial nations OF
the world. Between the introduc.
ton and the enactment of the bill
it was printed thirteen times by
the Treasury department and by
Congress, and the proceedings and
debates on it occupy IA columns
of the Congressional Globe, the
official publication of the proceed
ings of Congress, issued daily
Every feature of the bill was dis
cussed in the regular order of bus
mess in Congress, and the drop
ping of the silver dollar from the
coinage, and the establishment OF
the gold standard, were specially
adyerted to. There was no secret
work about it, as the official rec
ords fully show. There was moth
ing criminal about it then, nor were
its effects criminal. 1t did not
strike down half the money of the
United States, because silver was
not then in use as money, and,
moreover, there were but few sill
yer dollars in existence, and but a
small quantity of silver small
change.
Replying to your second ques-
ton, silver dollars are legal tender
for all debts to any amount except
when something else is specially
contracted to be paid. Silver half
dollars and other small silver coins
are legal tender for not exceed
ing SIS.
Question 3.-Mr. Carlisle means,
we believe, that the Government has
the authority to pay its debts with
silver, but in order to carry out the
parity provision of the law allows
its creditors the choice of the sort
of money they will receive in dis
charge of the Governments obliga-
ton To them.