The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-08-01
The "crinne of 1879"

l. D.. has an exhaustive article on the
ssCrime of '73." The reverend editor In
summing up, says
"According to the statement of Judge
Kelly. who was chairman of the commit
tee on coinage, given above, the silver bill,
when it left the hands of the committee
on coinage. did not demonetize the silver
dollar. On the contrary, it made provision
for its continued coinage. After the bill
was passed it was discovered that the pro-
vision for the silver dollar was omitted
had been surreptitiously obliterated from
the document Here we have the crime
of 10. Who did this nefarious work !?
By whose request or suggestion was 1t that
this doctored substitute for the original
printed bill was not read in the House =?
Who shut off debate by demand for the
previous question?
.sTo bring crime home to its perpe-
traitors, the first question asked Is, Who
benefited by it? The foreign and Wall
street bondholders made millions by 1t.
This fact in itself is not enough to convict,
but it affords clue. With this clue in
hand. we introduce Mr.. Ernest Seyd into
the conspiracy. A writer, quoted by
Samuel Leavitt in his book, Our Money
Wars, says:
3. The English capitalists raised $500, :
900 and sent one Ernest Seyd to America
to have silver demonetized. He came.
In the bill was skillfully inserted clause
demonetizing silver. Before the bill
passed member of the committee which
had the bill in charge stated that Ernest
Seyd, of London, distinguished writer
and bullionist, who is now here. has given
great attention to the subject of mint coin
age. After having examined the first
draft of this bill he has made various SEN
sible suggestions, which the committee
adopted and embodied in the bill
Congressional Record, April 8, 1872. }
,'As Ernest Seyd is an interesting and
important character in this conspiracy, we
will follow him to London and see what he
has 10 say about his missionary work in
America
'sIn 1892 Frederick A. Luckenbach, a
former member of the New York Stock
Exchange, made an affidavit in which the
following statements occur:
sin 1865 | visited London, England,
for the purpose of placing there Pennsyl-
vania oil properties in which | was inter
ested. l took with me letters of introduce
ton to many gentlemen in London, among
them one to Mr. Ernest Seyd, from Robert
NJ. Faust, ex-treasurer of Philadel phia.
l became well acquainted with Mr.. Seyd
and with his brother, Richard Seyd, who,
| understand, is yet living. | visited
London thereafter every year. and with
each visit renewed my acquaintance with
Mr. Seyd. In February, 1874, while on
one of these visits, and while his guest at
dinner, l, among other things, alluded to
rumors ahoat of Parliamentary corruption,
and expressed establishment that such cor
ruption should exist. In reply to this he
told me he could relate facts about the
corruption of the American Congress that
would place it far ahead of the English
Parliament in that line After dinner he
invited me into another room, where he
resumed the conversation about Legislative
corruption. He said IF you will pledge
me your honor as a gentleman not to
divulge what 1 am about to tell you while
I live, will convince you that what | said
about the corruption of the American Con-
gress is true. | gave him my promise,
and he then continued 4 went to
America in 1878, authorized to secure,
if could, the passage of bill demonetiz-
ing silver 1t was to the interest of those
whom | representative governors of the
Bank of England-to have it done.
took with me $500, 900, with instructions
if that was not sufficient to accomplish the
object, to draw for another $500, 900, oil
as much more as was necessary. l saw
the committees of the House and Senate,
and paid the money, and stayed in Amer
lea until | knew the measure was safe.
Your people will not now comprehend the
far-reaching extent of that measure, but
they will in after yeaIs. Whatever you
may think of corruption in the English
Parliament, assure you'll would not have
dared to make such an attempt here as
did in your country. :
Such is Ernest Seyd's confession; such
the history of the ''Crime of 1873" such
the way in which the standard dollar was
dropped from its coinage.
Strange and incredible as it may seem,
the platform of the St. Louis convention
maintains as a party principle that the law
thus passed by the intrigue of English
capitalists must not be abolished without
the consent of those same conspirators
against the welfare of the American peo-
pie Our national honor, we are told re-
quires that we must continue indefinitely
to suffer the evil results of that criminal
conspiracy. Every effort to free ourselves
from the Ubiquitous burden is called repu-
diation. In view of these things. it is not
difficult to understand the intense earnest
ness and enthusiasm of the common people
at the Chicago convention, and the brusque
manner in which they treated the profess
sional politicians, the political hacks, the
plant tools of the organized and conspiring
wealth that caused the evils of which the
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