Year: 1877

SILVER com III tNiSttnCe WIN WIiOh Y" pay ""J
part of the debt, must be considered with
reference rather to the equity and morality
than to the legality of the transaction. Inc
bonds now issued arc authorized either Dy the
Funding act of 1870 or the amendment OF
that act in 1871, or by the Resumption act OF
1875. which empowered the Government to
issue bonds of the forms described In the
Funding act of 1870. A tie act OF 1870
provided for bonds payable in the CONS OF the
United States then authorized 10y law, the same
provision legally extends to the new ponos
since issued


But the Government like any individual,
can legally do IA great many things which
would be very dishOnorabie. The question OF
chief Importance with honest men Is not what
the Government can do with technical excuse
III the letter of the law. but what it can do
with honor and equity. AT the time the bonds
were authorized, and for many years preceding,
no silver dollars of the United States standard
coinage had circulated in this country. 1t was
not expected by any one that such dollars
would circulate; the law authorizing coinage
of such dollars had fallen into dsuse because
it had long been Improbable to coin them
Just as the dollars themselves had become dis
used because it was unproiitable to keep ana
use them. Hence it was both natural ana
proper for any creditor, who knew that the
United States had promised to pay in coin, but
that it practically had no silver coin, to con-
struo the pledge as a promise to pay III gold
And the question now to lie considered Is
whether the United States can afford to DIS
appoint the reasonable and proper expectation
of its creditors.


It is held, we are aware. that the renewed
employment of silver in coinage and public
payments would give increased value to that
metal. Nor is this supp0sition violently un-
reasonable. The depreciation of silver mas
been largely due, it is admitted by all, 10 ltS
disuse as currency by Germany, ana In part,
through limitation of coinage, by countries ot
the Latin Union, and it is not easy to show
that an increased use of silver, to the extent
necessary to supply the needs of this country,
might not cause it to advance again IN pur-
chasing power. But this it must be carefully
noted is not certainty. IL is an expectations
held by many intelligent men, rejected by
others equally intelligent, and not by any means
a worthy or honorable basis for the transactions
of scrupulous nation. 1t will not do for Ills
TO propose to pay in a currency which may



I've. and which very many intelligent persons
believe will be, largely deprecated. Especially
in the foreign countries where our bonds are
chiefly held, the opinion prevails that silver is
not likely TO be speedily restored to par in
gold at the ratio of United States coinage
I'm those countries and with the very people
who have sustained the public credit OF the
United States in times past, and must be relied


Il. G.,t,,, t~lllI N ~
impression is that silver is deprecated anu
huctuating currency, and payment i'll such cur
rency by the United States, upon debts under
stood to be payable in gold, would probably be
regarded with great disfavOr as an act OF dis
honor.


Until it is absolutely certain that payment
in silver will involve no loss and no wrong to
public creditors, who have purchased obliga-
tions believing them to be payable in gold, we
maintain that the United States cannot afford
to tarnish its honor and stab IFS credit by pro-
posing such payment. We cannot afford to
stand upon the letter of the bond. Legal tech
nicalities will not save Our credit from destruo-
ton if we do thing deemed dshonorablo by
our creditors. The time may come, perhaps
before the payment of bonds becomes neces-
sarv. when silver will be restored to Its former
purchasing power, either because OF changes III
other countries or because Of increased demand
in the United States for local use. If that
time should come, nobody would want to pay
bonds in silver. because it would cost at least
as much as to pay in gold, and nobody would
object to payment in silver. But 80 long as
silver is deprecated, and is believed by our
chief creditors to be likoiy to remain depreci-
atcd for years, any proposal to pay United
States bonds in that coin, however defensible
i'll law would be a shock to the public credit
and stain upon the public honor.