The herald., 1896-10-14

4ooSs IL as oil act tudt RAC0SC0 tlC
government to pay in coin" or its
equivalent all obligations. notes and
bonds except those where the law au-
thorizing the issue stipulated that pay
ment might be made in lawful money"
which simply meant legal tender notes.
Coin" was a silver dollar and a gold
dollar of the same weight and finenes
as fixed in 1887 and as still lawfully ex-
ist. The act under General Grant was
by congress and president strictly Re
publican. 1t grew out of what was
called the greenback agitation. The
rapid withdrawal of government
notes both by the surplus revenue and
the issue of bonds had caused a wide
spread distress which eliminated in the
general liquidations of 1873. The act of
March 49, 1869 was a definite and delib-
crate declaration of the government's s
obligations and of how they would be
paid. No one thought of giving up the
government option. No one thought
that the government was under obli-
cation to select the dearer metal, which
at that time was silver. No one thought
that the uniform and unchanged pol
icy of the republic to do business on the
cheaper of the two metals whenever the
legal and commercial ratios varied,
would be changed. That this notice that
the letter Of the contract calling for
coin was understood by every one to
comprise both our precious metals is
fully demonstrated by the contempo-
raneous special gold contracts of Cal
ifornia.
a a a fr{n kfnv, - \
during and after the war by the absolute
and continued refusal of the Pacific
coast to accept either the legal tenders
of the government or the coin option Of
the federal laws. Every contract on the
Pacific coast was and still is printed as
payable in GOLD coin. Everybody knew
and knows now that the word coin in the
government notes and bonds meant
what coin was defined to be in the fed
eral statutes. Consequently. when Cali
fornia refused to act with the govern
ment in Its money laws. it said, and had
to say not coin but GOLD COIN. The
claim that silver has been legally deni6n-
etized is, in reality. an exaggeration. 1t is
in fact demonetized. 1t is demonetized be-
cause President Harrison and his sec
y L II,
discriminate aginst the silver dollar. It
remains demonetized because Cleveland
and Carlisle have done what Harrison
and Foster did. What the law really is
today was shown when the Wall street
men tried their hand on Daniel Manning.
The endless chain of today by which our
financiers are increasing their wealth
by increasing the measure Of value by
which debts must be paid, came at that
time to very prompt end These finan-
cial patriots kept drawing out gold so
as to discredit and discriminate against
silver in the line of their policy in
Europe until Daniel Manning became
aware of what they were doing. This
brave man promptly notified the f1nan-
cial patriots that a continuance of their
policy would cause him as secretary of
the treasury to avail the people of their
option to pay in either silver or gold,
and that he would pay exclusively in
silver. The patriot financiers dropped
their game like a hot potato. Had we
Daniel Manning in the judgment seat
today we would have just as little non
sense now as we had then. The Ameri-
cap people have contracted to pay their
debts in coin. That coin is and was at
the time defined in the public law Not
a grain has been taken from or added to
the gold or silver dollar. The creditor
took the governments option with due
notice, notice frequently repeated and
never repealed. The creditor lent the
government nearly all the debt now due
on the greenback basis. The people got
on an average about fifty cents worth
of products as measured in silver at the
time the debt was made. No one COM
plains of paying a dollar in silver for
what was in reality only fifty cents
worth of silver. The only bonds not pri-
marily contracted on the greenback
basis are the recent ones to support the
gold reserve. Congress has resisted
every endeavor to modify the contract
of United States coin" as the measure of
payment. Congress has refused to make
a gold contract.
The fact that this election is in doubt
on a question so plain and in which the
rights and obligations of the people are
so clearly sought to be greatly increased
by law shows the power of a press in the
control of aggregated wealth, and of the
power of capital in the public business
when used by few for personal profit.
There is no more reason for paying the
government dues and obligations ex-
clusively in gold today than there was
to pay exclusively in gold from the FORM
alton of the republic to 1884 when it was
as now the high priced dollar. There is
no more reason to pay only in gold today
than there was TO pay only in silver
when that was the dearest standard of
value from 1884 to 1873. Ickelheimer &
Hiedelbach started this revolutionary
idea that the option lay with them as to
the coin standard for paying the public
debt, not with the American people
These financial patriots took a million in
greenbacks to the treasury and de-
manded gold coin. Finding a complacent
coward in charge of the peoples inter-
ests it was determined that Ickelheimer
ruled the American people instead of the
American people ruling Ickelheimer
and he got his gold. What the Democrats
say is that the government should be
conducted according to law and right
and for the benefit of the whole people.
They decline to recognize Ickelheimer,
or any other Wall street man, as the
American dictator in money.
MILD INTIMIDATION