Year: 1878

rage upon popular liberty; that it restricted the people in the use of their natural money and that they have a right to demand, and should demand, that the status % quo, which existed previovs to it's passage, should be fully and completely restored2 -- ..e .,.f.

 EVILS OF SILVER STANDARD.

 Having shown the necessary tendency in all commercial countries to the use, with the in- crease of their commerce and wealth, of gold ln the place of silver as money, and having given brief sketch of the change from silver to gold as it took place both in this and other leading nations, the memorialists proceed to show the inconvenience and loss thatVwill in- evitably result from a reversal of the action and preeedents of the past in restoring silver, either at it's present or any value as the stan dard of values, and as legaltender for unlim- tied amounts They say: 'G of i1si 3ss No fact is more universally recognized than that, of the two currencies of equal legal com potency, the less valuable necessarily drives the more valuable out of circulation. The pas sage O. the pending bill, consequently, must banish gold from the country, and leave us but one standard and not one only greatly depreci- ated but exceptional For whatever people our exports of silver may be intended, they must, as at the present time, first pass on their way through London, the commercial centre and clearing house of the world. The standard of England is now practically the standard of the world. All our exports of silver, conse quenfly, must then be sent to that country as merchandise and so far as debts are concern ed, be monetized in it before they can be used. It would be precisely as if we had had no oth- CT mode of paying our foreign balances but by shipments of merchandise to be converted into money at the place where our payments were to be made. For such purposes, silver would not necessarily have any preference over pork or four It would constantly tluctuate, like these articles, so that an American merchant engaged in foreign trade could never tell how he stood or the amount of means necessary for the payment of his debts. The very fact that these were to be paid at certain day, and that large amount of silver, the money of his own country but of no other with which he was dealing, was to be thrown upon foreign market, would exert,a powerful influence in aggravating the fluctuations in price to which it was ordinarily subject There might be no demand for silver at the time and place ofpay- ment, or those desirous of purchasing might combine to prevent competition.

 If, on the other hand, the debts of the mer- chant were to be paid in gold, the creditor would be compelled to accept specific sum. If our own currency were of gold, then the specific thing that would pay the debt could be forwarded, and the creditor woukl be oblig- ed to accept it at it's nominal value, no matter how great the plethora of money might be, and however much he might prefer to leave the debts unpaid for the sake of the accruing in- terest To adopt, therefore, money excep- tional both as to kind, and the manner in which it's competency is estimated, is to throw away the very agency chiefly instrumental in build ing up commerce and wealth, and civiliza- tion so full of the comforts amenities, chari- ties, and virtues of life. So far as our foreign commerce is concerned; it is not of the least consequence whether our money be coined at it's bullion value, or at only one-half of such value. It will in all foreign markets, circu- late only at it's value-that is, not at it's legal tender value, but at it's purchasing power. It will circulate at home only at it's value, except in the payment of such debts as may happen to be outstanding at the time. If silver dol lar be coined at 10 per cent. less than it's actu- al value, it will be received in the purchase of other articles only at such discount If the length of yardstick should be reduced one third, the material measured by it, though called yard would have it's value reduced one-third. Money is not scale of valuation, mode of computation, retained by one of the parties to a sale, but one of the things exchang- ed All this is SO palpable that were it only proposed to coin silver at it's actual value, the

 

 of all the heat and feeling which now surround it and would be discussed on all sides as delib- erately and temperately as if it were ques- tion in mathematics or chemistry.

 The proposed bill therefore, by making a standard of value for ourselves differing from that of other nations. will have the effect to throw us out of relations with all. Our whole commerce with them will then be in the form of barter, with all the isolation which this i'm plies. We shall at once take a subordinate po- sition in reference to all, and this, too, at the very moment when our own, among other na- tions, is laboring so consistently and earnestly to unite all in closer bonds by asystem of coin age and standard common to all.

 A silver standard will be as mischievous in the domestic as in the foreign commerce of the country. Its value will be determined not by the use to which it is put at home, but by the price of silver bullion as merchandise in London, the great market of silver for the world. The daily fluctuations there will be the daily fluctuations here. The result will be that no one could be certain that the value of the standard would be the same in any two transactions. Every one, consequently, would always endeavor to protect himself by de- manding an exorbitant price for what he had to sell, in order to meet the fluctuations in the value of the money he was to receive. It is

 

 all the operations of society are speedily re- duced to the hazards ofspeculation orof games of chance.

 ANSWERING SILVER ARGUMENTS.

 The grounds urged in favor of the proposed silver measure are next referred to-that prior to February 12, 1873, silver dollars were, equally with gold, legal-tender; that those ow- ing debts contracted previous to that period have right to pay them in the same number of grains or ounces of silver in which debts could then have been paid, and that the Gov ernment should now remonetize this metal for this purpose. It may be answered, says the memorial, that though nominally legal-tender, no provision was made by the Government by which it could be used as such. The total coinage of silver dollars, which of silver were alone legal-tender after 1853, amounted to but $8, 045, 838, while their value was so far above the gold standard that they never existed as money. Their high value sent them at once to the melting-pot. Practically and most for tunately, the nation never has had but one metal for it's standard. There was consequent ly no more necessity for interpretation for the purpose of reconciling the value of silver and gold as money than there was in England after the act of 1916. Where two metals are equal ly used as legal-tender, the greatest care is al- ways taken to maintain one standard. Moth ing can be more abhorrent to the interest and ideas of society than widely differing stand ards, whether of value, extension or quantity. If gold and silver had been equally used as standards in this country, and 1t equal value, Government would have interposed in 1861, when the value of silver was two per cent. be- low what it was in 1859; also in 1S73,. when it's rate was 1.79 per cent. below that of 1872 ,; and again in 1874, when it's value was 1. .6Obe- low that of 1878. Otherwise the greatest con- fusian and embarrassment wouldh have been the result, and silver would have become the sole metal used, gold being driven out of the coun- try. Had both been legal tender every change in value would have been immediately. correct ed in the coinage. The attempt would have been made to reconcile thelr value for the Uni ted States, precisely as it is now proposed, by convention, to reconcile their value for the whole world. In such case the fall, no mat ter how great for series of years, could not, to any considerable extent, have inured to the benefit of any one class. In other words, the pretext now put forth could never have had an existence. All would have been obliged to pay their debts very nearly at the consideration re- Whv choI,Id they mt noU he SO maid ?