The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-03-24
SATURDAY. MARCH %, 1900.
THOMAS II, BENTON,

1t was we'll merited tribute to a very
eminent statesman that Secretary Gage
paid to Thomas IT.. Benton when he deco
rated the new two per cent. government
bonds with his portrait We have ever
Thought that sca.lt Justice has been done
by the country to Benton. If we judge
by the result OF his work, Benton was the
greatest man Of his period, not even ex-
cepting Andrew Jackson himself. The
great fight against the bank of the United
States was much more Benton's fight
than Jackson's. 1t was all done in Jack
sons name. 1t is true. but Benton was
the power behind the SCIENCES. that fur
1liSlled the energy, TIE brains and the
argument for breaking the bank down.
and it was great and glorious fight. The
bank had become colossal power that
intrigued and meddled with the politics
Of the country in every quarter. No
Congressman was elected who did not
owe his election to the bank, unless he
had been able to defeat the bank and
secure his election in spite of it. 1t was
fast corrupting and degrading The politics
come a giant monopoly dominating the
government itself, but when the Demo-
cratic, army, led by Bcnton and Jackson,
succeeded in depriving it of its charter
in 1857, the banks OF the States sprung
up all over the country and from then
until the war this country f1ourished as
no country ever did. In the new and
growing West there were wildcat and
boom banks. 1t is true. and there was
great confusion and disorder in its cur
rcncy, but these boom banks made the
great West all the same. In the old set
tied and conservative Atlantic States
They furnished the people an abundance
of the very best currency that any peo-
pie ever had. The condition of the PEG
pie in these States now, when cont-asted
with their condition between 1910 and 1860,
IS ndable indeed.
Many people have Benton's great work.
Thirty years In, the United States Sem
,ute." UPON their booh-shelves, hut very
Few now read it, and yet no man will
ever get from any other work such a
comprehensive and philosophical state
1nen& of the history of our country from
1870 to 1850. as is TO be found in that
book. 1t is an inexhausuble mine of
political economy and of constitutional
law. II is as delightful reading as any
novel. and is upon the whole, in our opil
ion, the most valuable and the most inn
portant piece of political history in ex-
istcnce. We know OF but one work that
we think comparable 10 it In interest,
and that is Bishop Burnett,s history of
Ibis own times.
1t is not generally known, but ii is a
1act all the same. that Thomas II. Benton
placed this country upon the gold stand
ard, and by doing 1t, he did it the s1eat-
est service that any man has ever rem
dcred it. He pressed through Congress
the law for recoining the metals by
wiafca, he made the gold dollar less val
liable intrinsically than silver dollar.
and the result was that all the silver
dollars left the country and our cur
rency became gold and paper and re-
manned so until the foolish agitation of
t01e last dozen years Every good citizen
should say. God bless Thomas n. Benton
for this inesti,nablc boom conferred anon
his country. and it is With peculiar sat
dsfactton that we see his rugged features
appearing upon the new bonds.
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