The Springfield herald., 1898-02-04

up again to 1873, 100000 taken from
the pockets of the'people of the United
States.
"And, Mr.. President, 1t i'll becomes
men who defend that transaction to
charge us with attempting to impair
the honor and good faith of the United
States.
1.-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, 1t 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 it fails there would be encour
agement to every man who is a gold
monometnllist 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 m inter-
national bimetallic agreement, we
would be met by the statement of these
gold monometallists that Congress hav-
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 Mt open
mints or seek to change the single gold
standard.
81 sympathize 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 it or enforce it
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 n t. the phraseology
that went upon the bonds in 1870, was
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 Mt the time of payment"
Mr.. Stewart thought this was a re-
markable statement. which meant SIM
ply that nothing hut gold was good
enough fGr the bOndholder. Mr.. Nc
kinley SD Mr.. Stewart refers to the
option of the government to pay its
obligation in either gold or silver as
mere technicnlity 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-wortl thousands of mill
ions-a mere technicality
what language for President to
use" exclaimed Mr.. Stewart. I'VE can
not use this money in the treasury I'M
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-"