The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-04-11
LINCOLN AND SILVER REPUBLI-
CANC

| CAN0.
The San Francisco Call, speaking of
| the action OF Senator Dubois and other
silver republicans in joining the dem
ocrattc party, takes occasion to mis-
represent the position of Abraham Lin
coin on the silver question. 1t says:
THE messages and writings of Mr..
Lincoln prove him to have been the
predecessor of Mr.. Cleveland in declar-
ing the principles of sound money,
which Mr.. Cleveland made the pole
star Of his administration. Both Lin
coin and Cleveland stood exactly in
line with Jefferson and Jackson on the
issue Of sound money"
1t also denies the right of the silver
republican to claim any kinship with
Lincoln or his principles. 1t is not
strange that the gold standard papers
attempt to distort history, for they are
compelled to dc SO in order to find any
support for their financial theories.
Jefferson believed that the money
unit should rest on the two metals,
gold and silver; while Mr. Cleveland
believes that the money unit should
rest on one metal, gold Jackson af-
fixed his signature to the bill which
provided for the free and unlimited
coinage of gold and silver at the legal
ratio of sixteen to one, without wait
ing for the aid or consent of any
other nation, and in changing the ra-
ITO from fifteen to one, to sixteen to
one he reduced the size OF the gold
dollar. Mr.. Cleveland is the leader of
those democrats who are opposed to
the coinage of silver into legal tender
money at any ratio OF under any cir
cumstances.
Raymond's life of Lincoln, published
soon after the death of President Lin
coin and before the republican party
began to crusade against silver, repro
duces message which Lincoln sent
to the miners of the west. The fol-
lowing is.an extract from it:
Mr. Colfax: l want you to take a
message from me to the miners whom
you visit. l have very large ideas
of the mineral wealth of our nation.
believe it practically iuexhaustible. 1t
abounds all over the western country,
from the Rocky mountains to the Pa
cific( and its development has scarcely
commenced. During the war, when
we were, adding couple of millions
of dollars a day to our national debt,
did not care about encouraging the
increase in the volume Of our precious
metals. We had the country to save
first. But now that the rebellion is
overthrown, and we know pretty near
ly the amount of our national debt,
the more gold and silver we mine, we
make the payment OF that debt so
much the easicr.''
1t will be seen from the above that
Mr. Lincoln held to the cumulative
theory of money-a theory denied by
the republicans in the campaign of '96.
1t will also be seen that he was will
ing to make the payment of the ma
tional debt easier by increasing the
amount Of money: while Mr.. Cleveland
tried to make the debt harder to pay
by decreasing the volume of money.
On the subject CT paper money also
the silver republicans are in line with
the early statesmen and opposed to the
latter day policies of Mr.. Cleveland
and the republican leaders. Jefferson
was opposed to banks Of issue, state
or national; Jackson made the greater
part Of his reputation by his fight
against the recharter OF the national
bank; and Lincoln signed the bill
which provided for the greenback.
Jefferson considered the issue of paper
money function of government and
insisted that the banks should go out
the business of governing. Mr.. Cleve-
land considers the issue of paper mon
ey function of banks and believes
that the government should go out Of
the business of banking.
Lincoln assisted in establishing the
national bank in order to furnish a
market for government bonds during
the war; now the republicans are re-
firing the reenbacks in order to give
the banks chance to issue more pa
per money.
Senator Teller, Senator Dubois, ex-
Senator Towne and the other silver
republicans are adhering to doctrine
which in former times was republican
as we'll as democratic. The republican
leaders and gold democrats are the
revolutionists.