The Meeker herald., 1898-02-05

I as 4 most deplorable financial transac.
tion-and include in my review all
| the dark days of the war-and that
took place In 1894, when, in the dire
and bitter distress of this government,
a syndicate of bondholders and owners
of money united and came to this gov
ernment in its hour of need and said:
Your bonds are selling at 115, and We
will give you 1O415 for them, and, I'M
pressed as the President of the United
States was with what he believed to
be the serious condition Of the country,
he sold this organization. which includ-
ed almost every leading financial instf-
tuition, 500 100000 worth Of bonds at
1O41aa, and within ten days they jumped
up again to 117-$9, 500. 600 taken from
the pockets of the people Of the United
States.
"And, Mr.. President, it III becomes
men who defend that transaction to
charge us with attempting to impair
the honor and good faith of the Unite
States.
"The people OF the West may be In
trusted with the national honor. We
have never betrayed it. We have never
taken the governments money in the
hour of need. We never yet have voted,
and we never will vote. to impair Its
credit or pay its debts in any but the
best money. Whatever may have been
the purposes for the introduction OF the
| resolution to-day, it has become timely
because of the attempt Of the secre-
tary Of the treasury to commit this
government finally to the gold stand
ard. 1t should be passed without
change and without amendment, for
provided 1t fails there would be encour-
agement to every man who is a gold
monometallist to say. and to say with
force, that the Congress of the United
States refused to declare that the bonds
were payable in lawful money, in coin
of the standard of July. 1870. There
fore, you have enacted that these bonds
are payable in gold. and in any at
tempt that might be made, as believe
an attempt will be honestly and sue
cessfully made to bring about an inter
national bimetallic agreement, we
would be met by the statement OF these
gold monometallists that Congress hay-
Ing indirectly declared our bonds to be
payable in gold, we cannot in honor
and In good faith enact any laws
which shall recognize silver at open
mints or seek to change the single gold
standard
Il sympathizc with the appeals which
call upon us to stand by the national
honor. Those appeals are best an
swered by vote of that body that we
Will stand by the phraseology Of the
bond Itself. We have an option. We
do not propose to yield 1t or enforce 1t
to the impairment of our national hon.
or, and we will never consent that by
any change In the dotting of an II or
the crossing Of It the phraseology
fhnf Nu-nv eIu<,l
reasserted by Congress in 1875, after
the mints were closed, and reasserted
by the Matthews resolution of twenty
years ago, the rights we then reserved
shall be given away and another obsta-
Gle interposed to the attainment of in
ternatiOnal bimetallism, an attainment
within our reach II we will Loyalty seek
it."
In the course of the discussion Mr..
Stewart SAID, referring to the speech
Of President Mckinley in New York
last night, that he regretted to see that
the President had not studied this
question more deeply and that he was
utterly misguided. He quoted the fol-
lowing sentence from the Presidents
speech: Nothing should ever tempt us
nothing ever will tempt us-to scale
down the sacred debt of the nation
through legal technicality. Whatever
may be the language of the contract,
the United States will discharge all Of
its obligations in the currency recog-
nized as the best throughout the civil
lied world at the time of payment"
Mr.. Stewart thought this was a re-
markable statement, which meant SIM
ply that nothing but gold was good
enough for the bondholder. Mr.. Nc
Kinley said Mr.. Stewart, refers to the
option of the government to pay its
obligation in either gold or silver as a
mere technicality and he did this, too,
in the face of his own vote in favor of
the resolution we are considering. Now
the President calls this option of the
government-worth thousands of mill.
ions-a mere technicality.
What language for President to
user exclaimed Mr.. Stewart. I'VE can
not use this money in the treasury un-
less 1t is recognized by other nations
of the world as the best money. The
despots and gold syndicates of Europe
are to name the kind Of money regard
less of what the law of the United
States may be-"