Year: 1878

IA, 1870


WHAT ARE THE GROUNDS


On what ground, then, do you charg'
| upon scores of your fellow citizens, every
| one Of them picked men, nearly every
| one of them with as sterling and stainless
| a reputation for honesty as yourself; up
| on what ground do you attempt to faster
| upon them charges of dishonor and dis
| grace2 Upon what ground do you lay
the wicked balances and the deceitfu


weights of the prophet at their door2 I:
it that the silver dollar weighs only 412!


grains? Is anybody deceived or attempt


ed to be deceived by it? Is it not openly


and publicly proclaimed that the silver


dollar shall weigh just 4123 grains Was


not that its exact legal weight when the


bonds were issued? Bring forward any


agreement of the United States; bring


forward from the stores of your inspira


ton "Thus saith the Lord" that the


silver dollar of the Nation shall weigh


more than 4l22 grains l am not now


lar nor of the wisdom of its weight, but


simply of its morality. You, Reverend


sir, affirm that it is stain upon the Ma


tional honor, and the men who legalized


it are upon level with bank robbefs.-


Did you reflect that more than two thirds


of both branches of Congress voted for


the Silver Bill? Is it too much to ask oil
the selfrespect which should mark you
as an American citizen, of the charity


which should adorn you as a Christian


minister, presumption, at least, In fa-
vor of the honesty of motive and uprig It,
ness of intention of these, your country
men, who were called upon to deal with
a great National and international ques-
ton? Yet you, SO ignorant that you do
not know the primal and essential facts
of the silver question, SO uncultured that
you do not know that such knowledge is
imperative or that such facts exist, you,
utterly without authority and without
responsibility, rise in your pulpit and
lend all the sanctity of your holy office
to the declaration that forty and more
Senators and 200 Representatives from
all parts of the Nation. after prolonged
and patient and persistent discussion.
acting in the gaze of the whole world,
full fronting the record of history face to
face with the immediate disaster of fail
ure, wilfully stained the honor of their
plunged the Nation into fraud


Reverend sir, not a man in Congress,
saint or sinner, would dare to trihe with





you so glibly promulgate from the pulpit,
that "the Nation had so often declared
its purpose of paying it's debt, gold dollar
for gold dollar" and if in some Temporal
ry mental alteration he should so dare,
not least or fewest of the arguments
wherewith he would be instantly slaught-
cred would be drawn from the recorded
of that departed Maine Sena-
tor on whose grave you stand only to
stab the living with ill-concealed weap-
ons but to whom you cannot refer in
terms too high to be repeated and en-
larged by those who knew William Pitt
Fessenden when living and who honor
him when dead


THE NATION FAITH NOT VIOLATED


l count it no shame to your calling or
to mine that we are ignorant of the prn-
ciples and the history of finance. But I
count it the very crime of shame for you
or me to stand up clad and crowned with
ignorance, and cry aloud that we are the
people, and wisdom and honor shall die
with US. | frankly admit that l count
back only the months since knew as
little of all this as you. Even now my
ignorance is only less dense than yours
With my inherited instincts and my con-
AOlly Oi lnG SOlo Siu0 vi Su0
question, have followed its discussion
with sympathy rather than with intell-
yence. But | have a supreme interest in
Jhe honor of my country, and 1 have
learned enough to know that the good
faith of the Nation has not been violated.
Nor yet apparently has it been discredit-
I'd. All the recent disastrous effects"
which you assert, but which you forget
10 designate, are yet in the future. The
one test of our National credit at home
md abroad is-not "the wild rant of
lemagogues" which you find only in the
merican Congress, but which fourishes
more abundantly in the Pulpit and the
Press of the United States and England
is the value of our bonds. They have
steadily risen both in London and New
ork since the passage of the Silver Bill
More than this, the silver dollar itself
las so steadily and rapidly approximated
o gold, that if you should turn your bag
,f deceitful weights upside down, the
1undred silver dollars that would tumble
'ut of it would be worth as l write, only
welve and a half cents less than a humid
ed gold dollars or to bring it more
clearly to the clerical comprehension, one
gold dollar is to day worth but an eighth
part of a copper cent more than one sill
yer dollar.


Having thus strictly ignored or sternly
nisstate all the facts touching the sill
7er question, you advance by short and
Easy stages to its philosophy. Because
Congress does not agree with you, you
pronounce it unworthy. Because Con
yress, so far from containing enough vir-
.ue and craftsmanship to withstand the
popular mania, did not even contain
enough to give it vigorous opposition.
X we have felt justified in regarding
his as a Legislature which by no means
airly represents the United States -
That is, because Congress, elected by
5he people, does not antagonist the peo-
ole, therefore it does not represent the
people. Having settled this to your sat
sfaction by process which must have
come from inspiration, since it is not de-
1ucible from reason, you next address
yourself to the task of discovering why
Congress is so unworthy. Task it might
be to others, but not to you. I'VE need
spend little time in the search, you cry,
as you nimbly cut around the corner and
announce that Congressional office bro
kerry" is the reason why. In your swash
of loose statements on this subject, it is
difficult to find any with root enough to
be eradicated. When you say "the mem
bers OF the dominant party In Congress,
as rule, have claimed federal patronage
in order that they might use that power
for personal ends you simply speak like
the theologian who has so long dealt in
statements incapable of proof or disproof,
because beyond the realm of knowledge
that he has lost all sense of the differ
ence between knowledge and speculation
When you say, Ito suppose that Congress
men lay claim to the Government offices
from a lofty desire Tor the countrys good,
would show simplicity little less re-
markabie than that which should be dis
played by one who should think that
bank robbers commit their depredations