The herald., 1898-02-06
FOR SILVER
Review of Turpie's Great
Speech
ON THE TELLER RESOLUTION
RINGING ARRANGEMENT OF THE
GOLD MONOPOLY
ON THE TELLER RESOLUTION
The Indiana Senator's Close Reasoning
and Fervid Eloquence for the
Cause of Silver

Correspondence to The Herald.) The
liveliest debate of this session in the
senate has just closed
1t was upon the Teller resolution,
which provides that United States bonds
may be paid in standard silver dollars.
This is the same in effect as the Stanley
Mathews resolution which passed twen-
ty years ago, authorizing bonds to be
paid In coin. The Teller resolution was
brought up to show the continued faith
of the government in this policy On it
the silver men forced the fighting. On
a motion to bring up the resolution, they
won by vote of Al to %. They passed
the resolution by a vote of AZ to 80.
One of the strongest, clearest- -cut
speeches made in favor of the resolution
was by Senator David Turpie of Indi-
ana. Senator Turpie is perhaps the
finest master of English in congress. His
words are as clear and concise and dis
tinct as if they were chiseled out of
marble. His position as an ancient ad-
vocate of silver is the more remarkable
because of his former training and as
sociations. AS one of the leading lawyers
VI lbI lldHN years, all his
afliliation was with men and institutions
that naturally belonged to the gold
standard side Of the financial question.
He made a national reputation in the
famous bond case of Indiana. He ad-
vocated the validity of the Indiana
bonds and won the case when the strong
est kind of effort was made to have them
repudlated. This noted issue of bonds
was for the state railroad and was held
in England and the United States After
that Mr.. Turpie was noted as a corpor-
alton lawyer. He was largely employed
by banks and railroads. He was for
many years counsel for the bank of
William II. English, candidate for vice
president on the Hancock ticket. He
was elected to the senate February 2,
1857, over Gen. Benjamin Harrison, the
late president of the United States.
CLOSE REASONING
give extracts from Senator Turpie's
speech on the Teller resolution, which
provides: THAT all the bonds of the
United States are payable, principal and
interest, at the option of the government,
in silver dollars of the coinage of the
United States and that to restore such
SiA'Si Soibc seto q iNoehi ttiiicl III pay
mens of said bonds, principal and inter-
est, is not in violation of the public faith
nor in derogation of the rights Of the
public creditor"
He said: "It would certainly be an act
of injustice to tax the people for the
purpose of paying the national funded
debt in gold. None of our taxes is pay
able in gold. Neither the internal nor
external revenue is levied or collectible
in, gold. The only method by which we
could procure gold to pay the bonded
debt would be by the sale of other bonds
for that purpose. Thus we should make
an endless chain, worse than the one
we have, an endless chain of bonds and
bondage, entailing upon ourselves and
our posterity perpetuity of debt and
servitude.
AFTER the passage and approval of the
act of 1873, the whole amount of the
funded national debt became payable in
gold coin alone, because under the Joint
operations of the acts of 1869 and 1873
the former providing for payment in
coin the latter prohibiting the minting
of any but one kind of coin gold-the
many millions of bonds then outstanding
were not payable except in gold.
This transmutation of paper bonds
into gold exceeded anything in the his
tory of the Rosicrucians of the middle
ages; it outstripped all the glowing ro-
nance in the search for the philoso-
piers stone both in it's celerlty and eff
feet. The transmutation was made in
the incredibly short time of four years.
1t required little time and small move
ment. In one time in two motions the
gold appeared alone, the silver van
ished, and the debt so remained a gold
debt for five years afterward.
DANGER AHEAD
After telling how public sentiment was
shocked at this sudden change in the
financial policy and explaining how vital
is the question of the character of money
in which bonds should be paid, the SEN
ator continued: "If we were to permit
change in the contract so as to make
the bonds payable in gold a. syndicate
would take their $500, 900, 900 in gold and
quit. If we maintain the bimetallic
standard and enforce it by opening the
mint to the free coinage of silver, a syn
dicate of debt would instantly become
Jealous and ardent friends of the stand
ard silver dollar. They would not allow
the loss Of one-half of their large in
vesthent of these bonds by any discount
OF the silver coin in which they are made
payable. They would insist that the
money in which their debts are payable
should be deemed as sound, honest. SOL
vent coin worth it's face value. Every
fund holder Of the world would join them
In this demand"
INCONSISTENCY EypocD1
After showing that the bondholders
had made every possible effort to have
the bonds which they purchased made
payable in gold and, failing in this mr.
pose, had paid a premium in gold for
these bonds, which were to be redeemed
by the government thirty years after
Ward at its option in either gold or sill
ver, the senator argued that these bond
purchasers believed, and backed their
belief with their money, that the stand :
ard silver dollar is now a lawful sound
coin worth it's face value, and that thirtv
years from now 1t will be of the same
va1ue-an equivalent for the gold thai
they gave for the bonds. He showed
that they. talk in one way and act in
another-that they have taken pains to
publish in every form of mendacity that
the standard silver dollar is worth only
haltdts ceKalue, andyet they have in
DSstsd n millions Of bonds which the