Full text of The Money Question of the 53rd Congress : Silver is the Friend of Poverty and the Handmaid of Charity : Speech of Hon. William B. Bate of Tennessee, Debate in the Senate, v.1, A-H

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SILVER

IS T H E

THE

FRIEND

HANDMAID

OF
OF

POVERTY

AND

CHARITY.

SPEECH
OP

HON. WILLIAM B. BATE,
O F

T E N N E S S E E ,

IN THE

S E N A T E OF T H E UNITED




STATES,

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1893.

WASHINGTON.
1893.




SPEECH
OF

HON. W I L L I A M

B. B A T E .

The Senate having under consideration the hill (H. E. 1) to repeal a part of
an act, approved July 14,1890, entitled "An act directing the purchase of silver bullion and the Issue of Treasury notes thereon, and for other purposes'

Mr. BATE said: v
Mr. PRESIDENT: The Congress and the country were a few
years ago aroused to the pressing necessity of a great reform by
that thrilling and sententious phrase that it was a "condition
not a,theory which confronts us."N To-day we have both condition and theory barring the way to another great-and pressing
reform. A congested condition of trade and business demands
immediate relief—business confidence prays for restoration; the
one precious metal left to our currency by unwise legislation
comes and goes like the ebb and flow of the tide. ^ Theories of
every kind, monometallic and bimetallic, are as thick as leaves
in Vallombrosa. Amid this confusion it is difficult to pick one's
way however careful he may be.
The Constitution commands Congress " to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coins, and fix the standard
of weights and measures." The metals to be coined are plainly
indicated by the language of the Constitution; gold and silver
coins and nothing else can be made by the States a tender in
payment of debts.
Those two metals, not one or the other, but both gold and silver are to be coined. There is no discrimination in the Constitution between the metals, which authorizes Congress to hold
one to be precious and to make the other mere tokens.—no discretion to coin gold into ^eagles and half eagles and quarter
eagles—and silver denied to the dollars, but confined to the subsidiary coins.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress was authorized to "regulate the alloy and value of coin struck by its own
authority, or by that of the respective States." (Article IX.)
ThuS the sovereign power to coin those metals into money resided
in the independent States, and was by those States transferred
by specific grant to their agent, the Congress. The Constitution
did not create in that agent the right to coin money; that sovereign right existed in the States, but by the Constitution was
transferred to the Congress in equal fullness as to both metals.
The power was not to coin money from either gold or silver, but
from gold ai\d silver.
If the power to demonetize one of these metals exists in Congress, it equally exists to deprive the other of its monetary
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3




character; and the power to demonetize both metals necessarily
follows from the power which can destroy the money character
of either metal. In that connection, Mr. Blaine forcibly expressed the denial of this power in Congress:
No powerSaid h e was conferred on Congress to declare either metal should not be money.
Congress has, therefore, in my judgment,,no power to demonetize either
any more than to demonetize both.

A further reason why the power to demonetize either metal
does not exist in Congress mav be found in the provisions of the
Constitution forbidding the States from making anything but
gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts. The restriction which forbids 4 ' anything " else, necessarily carries the duty
of making gold and silver coins the legal tender of the States.
If Congress may demonetize the coins of either metal, it may
equally deprive the coins of both of all money value, and thus
take from the States the power to execute a constitutional obligation. There is no specific power granted to Congress in regard to le^al tender. The Constitution recognizes the control
of legal tender as reserved to the States, within the restriction
that nothing but gold and Bilver coin shall be made a legal ten^Congress may by law recognize the coins of both metals as legal tender, because the States are required to make such coins
legal tender; but its' power to deny to me metal a legal-tender
qualitv, while the States are by the Constitution required to recognize the coins of both, is problematical if not unwarranted.
The fathers who framed the Constitution,when they came to enact laws to carry into effect its provisions, did not presume to
deny to one of these metals its legitimate and constitutional and
customary place among the metals of currency.
The act of April 2,1792, was the first attempt of Congress-to
carrv into effect that provision of the Constitution which authorized'Congress to 44 coin money." The ninth section of that act
provided for the coins which were to form American currency.
T h e y w e r e eagles, each to be of the value of $10; half eagles,
each to be of the value of $5; q u a r t e r eagles, each to be of the
value of $2.50. Then followed the silver coins—dollars, half
dollars, quarter dollars, dimes, and then the copper coins. Manifestly until the word "dollar" was defined by law, the value of
the coins could not be ascertained. Hence the act defined me
dollar—not the gold dollar, nor the silver dollar, but the « dollar
or the unit of value." It was " t o be of the value of a Spanish
milled dollar as the same is now-(1792) current, and to contain
37i_jL trains of pure silver." That was the dollar of account, the
unit of value,which the gold and silver coigs were to represent.
I have seen it stated, but where I can not now recall, that
Messrs. Bowditch and Rittenhouse,at the request of Hamilton
and Jefferson, were present when the assayer melted one thousand carefully cleaned Spanish milled dollars of different dates,
and carefully taking out all the alloy, weighed the pure silver,
and dividing the weights of the residuum by 1,000, ascertained
that 371i grains of pure silver were in each Spanish milled dollar Upon that report the act of April 2, 1792, fixed the value
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of the dollar, or the unit of value, at that of a Spanish milled dollar then current, and its weight at 371i grains of pure silver.
Having thus defined the dollar of account and fixed its weight,
the value of the dollar of money, which, whether of gold or silver, was to be its representative, was easily ascertained. That
initial point in our currency having been fixed beyond doubt,
the sixtesnth section of the act attached the legal-tender quality
to the gold and silver coins—equally for all indebtedness. _
The distinction between the dollar of account and dollar of
money is clearly drawn by Mr. Justice Strong in the legal-tender
case in 1871 (12 Wall., 553):
The coinage acts fix its unit as a dollar, hut the gold or silver thing we call
a dollar is in no sense a standard of a dollar. It is a representative of it.
There might never have heen coined a piece of money of the denomination
of a dollar^ and yet the dollar of account was necessary.

And the learned justice's illustration of the unooined dollar was
the fact that though the pound sterling had been the unit of
British currency for many generations, there had never been a
pound sterling coined until 1815; thus the act of 1792 defined the
dollar and then created the metallic representative, and the dollar thus defined was made the standard of value, with the same
certainty as that of the law which fixed a;standard of weights
and measures.
THE STANDARDS.

The framers of that law—Hamilton and Jefferson, Bowditch
and Rittenhouse—fixed, that is, made stable and permanent, the
standards for value for weights and for measures. The dollar
was to measure value, the pound was to measure weight, and the
yard was to measure length. As the yard would be 36 inches;
no matter of what wood the stick was made, and the pound,
whether of iron, lead, or feathers, the same—so it was intended
that dollars should always be 371i grains of pure silver, whether
represented by a gold or a silver coin or a paper certificate or
a greenback or a national-bank note or an individual's check.
When England fixed the length of the yard, it was to be, as
defined, "the straight line of distance between the centers of
the transverse lines in the two gold plugs in the bronze bar deposited in the office of the exchequer shall be the genuine yard
at 6CP Fahr.;" and when Hamilton and Jefferson defined the dollar the definition was not less exact and positive—it is to be 37H
grains of pure silver. In both examples it was something fixed
to which one could tie. The variableness of value and the fluctuation of prica were eliminated—the 371i grains of pure silver, no matter what the price, with no regard to ratio, were to
be the measure of the dollar. '
That dollar thus fixed by Hamilton and Jefferson remained
unaltered until the unhallowed hands of the revisers of the statutes emasculated it on June 22, 1874. While the dollar of account—the unit of value—was thus fixed by law, the dollar of
coin, whether gold of silver, was often affected by the condition
of the market; the rates between gold and silver established by
the act of April 2,1792, at 15 to 1—that is, 15 grains of silver was
equal in value to 1 errain of gold. The ratio between the metals,
always subject to the influence of the law of supply and demand,
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varied and changed, and at the year 1S34 it was found that gold
was worth more than 15 to 1.
Prance had in 1803 established her ratio at 151 to 1, which had
the effect of drawing American gold to France, because 1 ounce
of gold could be bought in this country for 15 ounces of silver
and sold in France for 151 ounces. To check that result the law
of June 28, 1834, established our ratio at 16 to 1. But while the
coin dollar varied with rates, the dollar of account remained fixed
and permanent. It was, so to speak, always a yardstick to which
the courts could bring all contracts for measure.
Mr. President, it was an evil day for this country when the
definition of the dollar was repealed by the Revised Statutes and
the "gold dollar piece" of the act of February 12. 1873, was
made the unit of value (25.8 gram). The legislation which
repealed the careful and wise work of Hamilton and Jefferson,
Bowditch and Rittenhouse, was of a dark and devious character,
and by circuitous and suspicious proceedings. Three revisers
had in 1866 been appointed " to bring together all statutes which
from similarity of subject ought to be brought together, omitting redundant or obsolete enactments, and making such alterations as may be necessary to reconcile the contradictions, supply
the omissions, and amend the imperfections of the original text."
Manifestly new legislation which altered the coinage, reversed
the polity of eighty years of success!ul operation, was not included within that commission. Yet all the law relating to the
mint and coinage act of 1792 was condensed into section 3536,
that "the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dimes or cents,"etc. The definition
of the dollar, so carefully studied by Hamilton and Jefferson, so
diligently sought for by Bowditch andRittenhouse, was omitted
from the Revised Statutes, and there is not anywhere in Federal legislation any legal definition of the unit of the, money of
account, which will tell what is its weight or its value. The dollar of account, the 371£ grains of pure silver, was exchanged for
a " unit of value " of 25.8 grams of gold.
The measure of value once fixed and invariable is gone, and
in its place we have the "gold dollar piece" of 25.8 grams,
changeable and variable as the metal of which it is coined. That
result so disastrous to the country, that prolific parent of woes
which are ever returning as the standard of values shortens by
one influence or lengthens by another, was preceded by four
years of warfare on silver, which, if not part of the conspiracy
that culminated in the Revised Statutes of 1874, has left behind
it a train of circumstances which the people believed to have
been the work of a conspiracy to make gold the single standard,
and therebv increase the burden of debt, public and private.
SXLVEE DEMONETIZED B T REVISED STATUTES.

It is necessary to my purpose only to call attention to the results of the efforts of legislation from 1868 to 1873, which eventuated in the demonetization of silver, in order that the* Revised
Statutes might complete the conspiracy in a manner not likely
to attract attention and be arrested by Congress; for if attention has been called to the fact that silver was thereby demonetized, the dollar definition abandoned, the Revised Statutes
would not have been enacted in so lido. The aot of February 14,
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1873. did not directly and specifically demonetize the silver dollar, but only provided against its continued coinage. That was
done by the provision—

Deeding $5 in any one payment.

And then it was provided—
rm,a+
Hither of sold. silver, or minor coinage, shall hereafter he 13
s u * d f r o m t ^ t a t t t ^ those of the denominations, standards, andweights herein set forth.

Bv the act of 1873 the silver dollar dropped out of the coins of
the United States. But the act, in none of its provisions, deprived existing silver dollars of their legal-tender quality. Silver coins to be struck, after the passage of the act of 1873, were,
restricted to a legal tender of only $5, but all silver do ars existing previous to F e b r u a r y 12,1873, retained their full legal^ T h T M f a n d complete demonetization of silver was accomplished bv the Kevissd Statutes enacted June 22,1874, and few
if any members of either House of Congress were aware that,
concealed within its voluminous provisions, was the section which
provided that—
The gold coins of the United States shall he a legal tender in allpayments
at their nominal value, hut the silver coins shall he a legal tender at their
nominal value for any amount not exceeding 85 in any one payment. (Revised Statutes, sections 3585 and 3586.)

Hamilton's and Jefferson's definition of the dollar was not included in the Revised Statutes. The true yard measure, so to
soeak, had been removed from the office of our exchequer and
a variable, changeable standard, subject to all the fluctuations
of supply and demand, was substituted, and every contract, public and private, all property of every description deprived of a
fixed and stable standard of measurement. No greater crime,
if it was designed, and no greater error, if it was from ignorance, was ever committed in legislation. Congress,infull confidence of the good faith of the revisers, enacted m 1874 tne r e vised Statutes, without intending and without knowing that a
change so radical in our c u r r e n c y polity and in our legal-ten^Inth!flight^of1that^raSnglndignation of the people which followed the discovery of t h e c h a n g e i n our currency, effected witnout the knowledge of the people, and without the attention of
Congress being directed to it, I hazard nothing m averring that
the Revised Statutes would not have been e n a c t e d i f i t had been
known that the foUy of the revisers had been substituted in om
coinage for the wisdom of Hamilton and Jefferson. .The act o
January 4. 1875, which provided for the resumption of specie
payment on January 1,1879, first called public attentiontotho
change effected in our currency polity by the Revised Statutes,
as well as by the four years' legislation about the mint, fromlSbS
to 1873.
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INDIGNATION AGAINST DEMONETIZATION.

Immediately the popular outcry against the demonetization
of silver voiced the public indignation of what was believed to
have been a despicable trick of creditors against debtors. The
indignation which that discovery aroused, found expression in
the passage by the House of Representatives on December 13,
1876, less than two years after the Revised Statutes had been
enacted, of what is known as the Bland silver bill, the direct object of which was to remonetize the silver dollar, restore it to
those functions which Hamilton and Jefferson had so wisely
given it, and to make that silver dollar a legal tender to any
amount for all debts, public and private.
That bill having been lost in the Senate, the popular House
again, November 5,1877, voiced the demand of the people by
passing a bill remonetizing the silver dollar of 412i grains of
standard silver, and to b3 a full legal tender for all debts, public
and private. That bill, failing in the Senate, the people still refused to accept the result—and agitation, that peaceful but effective method of revolution, continued growing in force and
demand until the Congress was fairly driven to enact the law of
February, 1878, known as the Bland-Allison act. which provided
for a limited coinage of the old silver dollar of 371£ grains of pure
silver with the legal-tender quality of 1792 fully restored.
Unfortunately, the Bland-Allison act did not reenact the definition of the dollar, did not restore the unchangeable measure
of value, but adopted a silver dollar of the proper weight, but
being of silver was liable to contract and expand with the rise
or fall of silver bullion on the market. The dollar of account,
like the yard, indifferent to the material out of which it is made,
should have been again restored to our standards of measurement.
These efforts of the House of Representatives repreated on
every return from the people—that of 1876, followed by that of
1877, and that followed and partially successful in 1S78—attest
the interest and witness the purpose of the people to return by
prompt and thorough legislation to the initial established in
1792, with its wisdom consecrated by the practical experience
of Hamilton and Jefferson.
The demand for the rehabilitation of silver with its constitutional and customary right to be a part of the coinage, and clothed
with the legal-tender quality, was not only voiced as soon as the
discovery was made, but it was persisted in with a constancy not
often seen in popular demands. It is not less in 1893 than it was
twenty years ago.
The reasons for that persistent and continued demand are
founded in thle long period of monetary use which silver has occupied in the history of all nations, as well as the unhappy and
mischievous results that followed its demonetization. That use
has been so widespread and beneficent, so ancient and universal,
that all the schemes and conspiracies of all the stock exchanges
and boards of trade of the world have not shaken the people in
their confidence in the white metal, nor silenced the demand for
its rehabilitation with the legal-tender quality and its continuance as a metal of currency. And even at the present day, and
after India has been similarly juggled out of the silver coinage
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of her rupees, nearly three-fourths of the nations of the earth,
and more than three-fourths of the population—India, Prance,
Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Austria, Russia, China, and
both Americas—except Brazil and Argentine Republic, have silver money in actual circulation as a full legal tender for all debts.
W H Y THE PEOPLE DEMAND SILVER.

With the people, that vastly larger portion of our population
whose trade transactions though small in each are enormous in
value and volume when taken in the aggregate, silver has incontestable advantages over gold as a circulating medium for payments, being intrinsically a harder metal and standing the abrasion
and consequent loss far better than the yellow metal. With the
people the gold dollar when it was coined was extremely inconvenient and liable to loss and speedy wear-away, as well as difficult to count and to handle; while the silver dollar lasted for
more than half a century without appreciable evidence of wear
and tear.
i
Neither does the great bulk and weight of silver m large transactions deter the people from its use, because all modern exchanges of large sums are made, not by the transfer of either
metal, but by credits in the familiar form of checks and bills of
exchange. Hence the argument of inconvenience applies with
no greater force to the white than the yellow metal.
But we are told that the depreciation of silver has rendered it
unfit for use in currency. How much of that depreciation was
caused by crooked legislation prompted by the creditor against
the debtor, and how much was caused by natural agencies, is a
problem which has not yet been satisfactorily solved. There
are factors in that problem which involve the moral and legal
right of government to confiscate property, by imposing the
heavier burden of gold where the lighter burden of silver had
existed for centuries before, and to add to the burden of debt by
degrading a metal which government had stamped and coined
as money of full value.
When Congress, by law, makes gold the single standard, which
will be practically done by the unconditional repeal of the Sherman act, it restricts silver to. a debased token, which pays the
wages of labor in a depreciated currency while the profits of
^capital are reaped in gold. This is but one example which marks
^the measure of wrong done to the people in depriving them of
one of the precious metals.
Gold is subject, like every other article of commerce, to the
fluctuations of supply and demand, and can be as readily cornered " as wheat or cotton. Like other articles of commerce,
gold can be made artificially scarce, and when a people are dependent upon a single standard of value, and that is " cornered"
by the manipulation of the market, the facilities and profits of
speculation know no limits, and the suffering and losses of the
people no measure. But when trade and commerce have two
metals of standard value, there is one to fall back upon, and the
liability of the "corner" is diminished by more than one-half.
England, tne land of the single gold standard, has been as
liable to and has suffered as much from great commercial and
monetary panics as France, where the two metals have been for
centuries standards of value without rivalry and without the de505




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preciation of either. The history of panics and depressions of
trade and business, when truthfully told, will show that countries with the monometallic standard are as often visited by those
strange and unaccountable aberrations of trade as where bimetallism is the measure of values.
It stands to reason that when either metal is available as a
substitute for the other the local fluctuations of supply and demand for either inevitably bring out the other to restore equilibrium. If this be true, the bimetallic system will secure more
stable value to money and all dependent thereon than is attainable under the single standard, and thus would adjust harmoniously the prices of all commodities. Violent and sudden contractions of the circulating medium have in all times and under
all circumstances entailed great stringency in trade and inconvenience and loss to the community.
AN UNWISE EXPERIMENT.

Mr. President, this country is now passing through the crucial test of a contracted currency, produced, as it is said, by a
widespread "hoarding" of currency. Would it be a wise and
efficient remedy for that contraction for Congress, by demonetizing silver, to force out of circulation that large volume of silver which is now part of our currency, as well as all that which
the mines of our country produce? An example of that kind of
financiering may be drawn from Germany's demonetization of
silver in 1873, which was immediately followed by the severest
panic that country ever experienced, and that, too, after she
had realized the $1,000,000,030 in gold of which she plundered
France; while just across the Rhine, France, weakened and depleted by her enormous sacrifices of treasure and territory, was
sustained and protected from panic and depression by her double
standard of value.
The enactment of the Bingle gold standard by all nations would
reduplicate the evils of contraction, and involve all countries in
the very throes and spasmsof panic and depression that exist at
present in this country.
Such an enormous shrinkage in the volume of each nation's
currency would produce a fearful depression in the prices of all
cohimodities and securities, in enormous losses of property, in
universal and commercial financial embarrassment, and widespread bankruptcy and ruin. Such a violent monetary contraction,-while it would carry down the price of discredited silver to
the great loss of all nations holding that form of currency, would
raise in an equal ratio the value of gold, which would become so
scarce and dear as to be at times unattainable.
That thi^ would be the resulting consequence from increased
monometalism is proven by the best statistics. These show the
amount of the world's silver coinage to be nearly, if not quite,
equal to that of gold coinage in circulation. Hence, to demonetize or virtually to abolish silver as a legal tender would have
the effect of a contraction of almost. 50 per cent in the world's
circulating medium. Such world-wide contraction of the currency would prove a fearful creator of panics and monetary crises.
The debtor portion of our people is by no means small, neither
are their rights insignificant. Their obligations were contracted under the double standard of gold and silver. Any




II

change in that standard, such as the removal of silver from its
former high place as a received money measure and standard of
value, would be a great and ruinous wrong to all persons owing
debts at the time the change was made. Such a contraction of
the currency would require all debts, which before it, were payable in either gold or silver, to be paid in gold alone, which, enhancing in value, would become dearer and dearer as the demonetization extended, and would practicallv bankrupt that large
portion of our people who are in debt, and at the same time unduly enrich the fortunate possessors of ready money. *
It must be apparent from these considerations that the attempt to create the single gold standard is an effort and movement in the interest of the few as against the many, and that a
just regard for vested rights, for the vast interests engaged in
commerce and industries, for the convenience of the people, and
even for national solvency, requires the maintenance of both
gold and silver as money of payment.
Mr. President, from the origin of the Government until 1874,
the silver dollar worked side by side with gold as a full-valued
currency and legal tender to any amount. For eighty years the
silver dollar of 371£ grains of pure silver (412* grains of standard
silver) was the companion in trade of the Mexican dollar of equal
value and weight as the real monetary unit; and while it is a
fact that this silver dollar was never coined to any great extent—
only about $8,000,000 being struck—it was none the less the
standard measure; while half dollars of equal proportioned value
were coined to the amount of $109,000,000, and were everywhere
in circulation. That condition of our currencv, existing without
complaint from any source, was ruthlessly destroyed by the act
of 1873, and all silver demonetized by a concealed section in the
Revised Statutes of 1874; under the guise of amending the Mint
laws, the coinage of the silver dollar was prohibited, and the
legal-tender quality of all silver currency limited to $5.
Of all the nations in the world the United States is the most
interested in maintaining the value of silver as monev. We
are the largest producer of this metal, and upon the market for
this metal depends a very large share of our national prosperity.
To discredit and banish silver from use as legal-tender money
would be the entire destruction of the market for silver, and if
brought about by the action of Congress would be unparalleled
in the history of destructive legislation. What duty, what necessity calls upon this country to join hands and efforts with
other countries in destroying an American product, in enhancing
all our public and private obligations, and throwing away one
of the most efficient sources of national wealth?
^ I believe that it was because Congress is bound by considerations of public equity, as well as by those of national interest, to
restore the money measure to what it was before the legislation
of 1873 and 1874, that the platform of the political parties declared emphatically for the free coinage of silver and the maintenance of the parity between gold and silver.
The Democratic party in Tennessee have, time and time again,
in county and State conventions, recommended the free coinage
of silver, and I feel that in lending my voice and vote to aid in
bringing about that result, I am reflecting their will*
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. ^•lyawst in my opinion, which demonetize silver coins or which
forbid their coinage as fully or freely as those of gold violate the
spirit of the Constitution. In that spirit of free coinage our first
mint was organized in 1792, and the same spirit of free coinage pervaded our monetary policy down to the year 1873. And as soon
as the conspiracy," 4 'the scheme," as Mr. Carlisle designated
the legislation of 1873, was discovered, every man who was engaged in that legislation "began with one accord to make excuses,'; to deny all knowledge of the effect and to swear the blame
and crime rested not upon him. The people with a unanimityunparalleled in our history demanded a return to the metals of
our Constitution, to the policy of our country, and to the example of the fathers.
DEMONETIZATION REFUSED BY BOTH PARTIES.

And now after twenty years of discussion and effort to get
back to the bed rock of free coinage, both political parties in
their platforms of principles—those public pledges to the people—
aeclare for what?; The Republican party "demands the use Of
both gol<Tand silver as standard money." The Democratic
party, We hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the country," and going farther than the Republicans, the Democratic party won power in the last election by
its public pledge for " the coinage of both gold and silver without discrimination against either metal." Thus, as our monetary system began its existence with free coinage, so in the
present year—one hundred years after—the whole people of all
parties stand pledged to return to free coinage.
It was that * cowardly makeshift" of 1890 in the totality of its
mischief-making that all Democrats voted against, and of which
the platform of our party demands " its speedy repeal." It was
not any particular clause or section of the "makeshift" which
the last election condemned, but the whole law, from title to approval, was unqualifiedly ratified by the popular and electoral
election to be a44 cowardly makeshift," fraught with possibilities
of danger in the future which should " make all its supporters
as well as its author, anxious for its speedy repeal "—repeal, not
modification or amendment, but repeal, absolute and total. '
The only clauseinthe "makeshift" which commended it to the
people of the State wHch I in part have the honor to represent
is the very clause, and the only clause, proposed to be repealed!
And after that repeal the emasculated "makeshift" is to be left
to ell its "possibilities of danger in the future," and the people
deprived of all coinage of silver—reduced to the single frold
standard of value—and all their transactions, all their debts and
all their property measured and valued by the dearer and harder
standard. After such a repeal will not the people say—
And be these juggling fiends no more believed
That palter with us in a double sense,
That keep the word of promise to the ear
And break it to the hope.

I cannotdiscoverinthe Chicago platform any warrant to compromise this question, which shall not secure to the people the
power of free coinage. The only qualification in the platform of
either party which^makes compromise possible with party honor,
as I view it, is that which addresses itself to the parity of values
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between the two metals. How can there be a parity of values
unless there is more than one metal—parity in itself implies more
than one. But we are now confined to the repeal of the purchasing clause, and are not, so far as the proposed repeal goes,
considering the parity question. When we repeal the purchasing clause, what have the Republican members done to redeem
their pledge "to maintain the equality in the purchasing and
debt-paying jpower of the dollar, whether of silver, gold, or
paper?"
•
What will the Democratic party have done to make " the dollar unit of coinage of both metals " to be "of equal intrinsic and
exchangeable value," and to make ^ every dollar " equal " at all
times in the markets and in payment of debt," when they repeal
only the purchasing clause? Parity carries with it the implication that there shall be two metals, gold and silver. There can
be no parity if but one.
It has not been shown in either House by what trick of financial
legerdemain an alleged so-called "dishonest" dollar of 85 cents
will instantly become an honest dollar of 100 cents by repealing
the purchasing clause. Nor can any man explain why a ratio
of 2Q to 1 will, by the repeal sought, instantly rise to 16 to 1, when
the Government ceases to be a purchaser of silver and yet forbids
the people from coining their purchases. If the bullion value
and the coinage value have separated, from commercial and
mercantile causes, and the former has fallen, I fail to understand
how removing the largest and most constant buyer from the
market and depriving all other buyers of the chief use of the
bullion will contribute to raise the bullion value until it reaches
the coinage value and reestablishes the legal ratio of 16 to 1.
But I believe I can see how Congress may improve the market
by opening it to all buyers, and by offering free coinage to all purchasers reestablish silver on an approximating ratio to gold,
which in a short time would reach the legal ratio of 16 to 1.
If natural causes exist which have depreciated silver, it will be
wise policy on our part, as well as a constitutional duty, to do
all in our power to counteract the effect of those natural causes,
and by opening the widest market and restoring free coinage
lift it back again into that position from which the legislation
of 1873 removed the white metal.
If the present depreciation is the culmination of a widespread
conspiracy to bring about the establishment of the gold standard
in every country, our policy and our duty combine to make this
Congress and this country the declared enemy to all such villainy.
Neither can I discover as yet any warrant *to compromise this
matter of free coinage in the conditions of the country, of which
the President says:
Our unfortunate financial plight Is not the result of untoward events'
nor of conditions related to our national resources, nor is it traceable to any
of the afflictions which frequently check natural growth and prosperity.
With plenteous crops, with abundant promise of remunerative production
and manufacture, with unusual Invitation to safe investment, and with satisfactory assurance to business enterprise, suddenly financial distrust and
fear have sprung up on every side.

In the midst of such embarrassment of riches, "distrust and
fear" are not, in mys judgment reasons why this Congress
605




14
should take a doubtful departure in a policy so important as the
adoption of the single gold standard. I am strengthened in
this conviction by the reasoning of leading Democrats, who in
1878 bent every energy of reason and argument to reestablish
free coinage as the true remedy for " distrust and fear."
FREE SILVER TEACHERS.

The consummation of such a scheme—

As the demonetization of silver, Mr. Carlisle said—

would ultimately entail more misery upon the human race than all the wars,
pestilence, and famine that ever occurred in the history of the world. The
absolute and instantaneous destruction of half the entire movable property
of the world, Including, houses, ships, railroads, and all other appliances for
carrying on commerce, while it would be felt more sensibly at the same
moment, would not produce anything like the prolonged distress and disorganization of society that must inevitably result from the permanent
annihilation of one-half the metallic money of the world.

The distinguished Representative, Senator, and Secretary,
whose language I have quoted, has never been given to rhetorical exaggeration, and I must accept his languageastheunqualified expression of his honest convictions. "What greater calamity
can imagination picture than his language portrays? I can not
vote even in a partial way for so direful a remedy for "distrust
and fear."
The distinguished Senator from Texas [Mr. MILLS], honored
hy his party, to lead in the great tariff reform, and whose name
is indelibly fixed to one of the greatest fiscal reforms ever attempted in this country, has uttered no uncertain words against
the demonetization of silve*. On February 7, 1879 (page 1109
volume 8, part 2, CONGRESSIONAL RECORD), he concluded a
short but very able speech on the "eighty-five cent" dollar with
the following emphatic declarations:
\
I am not alarmed about the country being flooded with silver money I
have heard that cry for two or three years past, and I have felt no alarm in
regard to it. I wish that the thirty-five minions of trade dollars which have
been issued were in the country to-day, and were a legal tender in payment
of public and private debts. I wish that all Mexican .dollars that are now
in circulation in some portions of the United States were also legal tender
for the payment of public and private debts.,
"What would be the effect of it? It would add to the volume of our circulation, and just in proportion as you add to the quantity of money in circulation yon decrease its value, in obedience to the common and well-established law of our political economy, and you add to the value of all pronertv
and all the labor in the country Justin the same proportion that vou take
J
it away from the money.
It is in the interest of the people, and It is for them we should legislate
and not be continually throwing advantages around the bondholders and
favored classes of legislation. We should legislate in the interest of the
laboring, toiling people of the United States and make as much of this
standard silver of one function as it is possible for us to make.

And again, on February 3,1886 (volume 17, part 2, page 1113).
the Senator from Texas proposed an amendment to a revenue
bill, " that all taxes imposed by this act shall be paid in standard
silver coin;" thus, Mr. President, almost demonetizing gold and
greenbacks by denying to them the power to discharge the tax
on whisky. His speech on that occasion was the deliberate
and careful expression of much study and great research It
fills eleven columns of the RECORD, and leaves no feature of the
discussion unexamined. It demonstrates to the Senator's satisfaction the alleged speedy flight of gold from this country
because of the free coinage of silver, to be a myth—a spook in503




?

15

voked by "associations of national bankers, cotton exchanges,
and boards of trade in their efforts to create a public sentiment
that would compel Congress to retrace its steps " in the legislation of 1878. He examined with careful research the whole subject of ratios and left no country unvisited to ascertain its experience—and his investigation came to. the conclusion that-^
to^^ffi^X^^

Sllver

»ullion

f r o m

<—r.

»

^ He repudiated the idea that the silver dollar had depreciated
m its purchasing power. He denied that the silver dollar was—
i V s a c l i PP ed dollar. I heard it called on this floor
of ^
Question, hy all these bad names,
S ^ Z f i ^ L 1 ? ^ ^ ^ ? 7 ^ ^ 1 1 6 l a w s ° * t l i e United States it is invested with
a monetary function Just the same as the gold dollar—

and he added that any man who acted upon such an assumption
would demonstrate the truth of the old aphorism—
The fool and his money soon part company.

The speech, which was an able and valuable contribution to
the discussion, closed with the positive and unqualified declaration that—
th<? m o n e tary value of gold and silver together is to re-»
themSts^fthfwSrld
' G i v e s l l v e r f r e e coinage. Throw open to it all

' The distinguished chairman of the Committee on Finance, the
Senator from Indiana [Mr. VOORHEES], was not less pronounced
in his support of the free and unlimited coinage of silver. In an
able speech delivered in this Chamber on January 15, 1878 (volume i, part 1, page 333), he advised the people that—
fininpial
Panics that have assailed this country no
S S S S S S S P P i * enough to rafee his hand to strike it (silver) down; no
man has dared to whisper of a contemplated assault upon it.
'

He designated it as the people's "favorite coin." and characterized "the deep damnation of its taking off"-in 1873 as the
greatest financial revolution of modern times," and in forcible
and beautiful language emphasized the twinship of gold and silver, and traced their inseparable connection through the march
of civilization down to their entrance into "American money,"
when it became the money of the Constitution of the United
States.
Mr. President, it was the eloquent Democratic advocacy of the
free coinage of silver that impressed the people, not only with
their right to free coinage, but taught them to believe that it
was necessary to that " general welfare " for which the Constitution itself was ordained and established.
It was the convincing logic and splendid advocacy of such
Democrats as I have quoted that created the wholesome sentiment in this country in favor of the free coinage of silver, and
against any legislation that will destroy or even delay free coinage of silver by repeal bills or any other legislation. Such
teaching, such instruction can not be unlearned in an hour or
forgotten even in a commercial panic.
Mr. President, at the time when these great speeches in favor
tf/J®0 coinage were delivered I wasoneof the people, unclothed
with official robes and in the private walks of life read and was
impressed by these views which emanated from such Democrats
who then, as now, held seats of honor as the people's champions
505




16
in this great temple of American politics and policies. In common with the people I learned the lesson of finance which was
taught by these Democratic leaders. I recognized in their teachings the spirit of Andrew Jackson in his warfare against banks,
corporations, trusts, and other oppressors of the people. I
thought I could trace between the lines some recognition of those
Mint-drops of Old Bullion Benton, another great apostle for the
people.
Mr. President, these extracts from the speeches of distinguished Democrats show that the campaigns of education which,
since 1878, have been instructing the people, can not now be unlearned, and all that distinguished Democratic leaders have
taught forgotten in a single extra session of Congress. The
people have been taught, I may say indoctrinated, in the belief
that free coinage of both gold and silver was not only a constitutional right, but an indispensable condition to the currency of
the country.
The people have further learned that free coinage was lost to
the country by what has been designated as
THE MOST DISREPUTABLE CHAPTER XN" THE LEGISLATION OP CONGRESS.

They have read statements and speeches in the CONGRESwhich asserted that the silver dollar had been
surreptitiously dropped from the coinage. I am aware that the
Senator from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN] denounces such statements
as false. -There can, however, be no doubt that the statements
were believed by those who made them.
There can be no denial that the Speaker of that House through
which it passed, Mr. Blaine, has stated that he was ignorant
that the bill wiped out the silver dollar; that the President, Gen.
Grant, who approved the bill, was ignorantfor eight years afterswards that his signature was to the death warrant of the constitutional silver dollar.
Mr. President, the people of a portion of Tennessee honored
with an election to the House of Representatives (Forty-fifth
Congress) my neighbor and friend who still lives, blessed With a
green old age, the Hon. John M. Bright, a man of ability, character, and reputation, from whom they have learned something
of the nature of this legislation of 1873 while he was a member
of that body. He said, speaking of this, demonetizing act of 1873:
SIONAL RECORD,

It passed by fraud in the House, never having been printed in edvance.
being a substitute for the printed bill; never having been read at the Clerk's
desk, the reading having been dispensed with by an impression that the bill
made no material alteration in the coinage laws; it was passed without discussion, debate being cut off by operation of the previous question. It was
passed, to my certain information, under such circumstances that the fraud
escaped the attention of some of the most watchful as well as the ablest
statesmen in Congress at the time. * * * Aye, sir, it was a fraud that
smells to Heaven. It was a fraud that will stink in the nose of posterity
and for which some persons must give account in the day of retribution —
Mr. Bright of Tennessee, in CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, volume 7, part 1 second session Forty-fifth Congress, page 584.

That assertion is sustained by the following extract from the
Congressional Globe, part 5, page 3883:
Mr. HOLMAN. I suppose it is intended to have the bill read before it is put
on its passage.
The SPEAKER. The substitute will be read.
Mr. HOOPER of Massachusetts. I hope not. It is a long bill, and those who
are interested in it are perfectly familiar with its provisions.
605




17
re" r inf E o?th6 T bm rUle3 C B n n o t
The Speaker, They can be.
t i i o u ^ t M s WU w i t h o u t ™

be

rt

upended so as to dispense with the

°irdemaaa

that

"

18

attempted to put

t j g l W ^ m & ^ S & h ^ ^
that the rules shall be suspended as to the passage oi the W l T 1

readfngTand "(^o-thirds not^o^^ta
0 1 1 8 111 i a y o r

suspended.

I ask that the substitute be read r 6 l a t i o n
The Clerk began to read the substitute.
Mr. BROOKS. IS that the original bill*

Sf

am

i1)111 w l t l l o u t

thereof; the rules were not

to mints and

156 suspended
coinage passed; and

totuspemi t S u l L ^ d p ^ t h e M t u ^ l v . T
stltui^mle^s w e ^ ^ r

being

the^i^h°readf t W e e l 1 0 1 6 o r l g l n a l

whethe™Ws s&sU^t^shall™e passed^0'8 " a y < S "
taow wbaUs'goLs^n 6 ' 7

0 r

when I do not

leading changes made by thisbillS

t o ^ & W ^ ^
110, noes 13.

6

"

p

83

b111'u

and the sub-

" n o " on this question

ti6'llabit of

mUCh

WUUnS

will explain the

Massachusetts
was agreed to; there being-ayes

• 4 ? M M o ? ^ S ? r a o ? t h \ n t a ^ a , U b S t l ^ t o P a s s e a without its
(See speech of Senator l£ere fnr?1 ^t w « = ? y ™ n o - w ! u s , tJ1S contents of it.
Kecord, Decem^r 14, i c t page
Virginia in CoNGiiEssroXAi,

GKESSIONAL HECOBD^knniry 11,1W8?

'°l

KentucI;y.

258, Co.v-

h a ? e e x P,? s e d this fraud need not
be"enlharffe°dUd T h ^ t ^ r
Da enlarged. l h e names I have given, living and dead bolnmr

to ourcountry's history, counterparts of the truest and best




18
Of that legislation I have no personal knowledge, but there
can be no denial of the fact that the dropping of the silver dollar from the coinage, whether done openly and fairly as the
Senator from Ohio contends, or surreptitiously and fraudulently
as has been asserted by others, the fact remains that the people
disapproved the legislation, and because of that disappproval
and of the consequences which have followed that legislation,
this Congress is now in extra session, seeking to undo the evil
consequences which followed it.
THE EVIL EFFECTS OF THE DEMONETIZATION' OF SILVER

waB foretold in 1868, by M. Wolowski, who said:

The suppression of silver would bring on a veritable revolution. Gold
would augment in value with a rapid and constant progress which would
break the faith of contracts and aggravate the situation of all debtors, including the nation.

And in the opinion of many of our ablest lawyers the demonetization of silver has "impaired the obligation of contracts,"
in this, that it has augmented the debt by augmenting the value
of the money in which it must be paid, and by diminishing the
value of the products from which the money to pay must be
raised. No greater evil could prevail than this. It reduces the
country to two classes, an-aristocracy based on money, and a dependent peasantry. It tends to make' princes of one class and
slaves of the other. It smothers out all enterprise and individual aspiration.
Mr. President, the key to the strong box of the commercial
world has swung from the girdle of England for centuries, and
has given entrance to it with the same ease that the "open
sesame " unlocked the door to the forty thieves. That key in
1816 she made of gold, and threw away forever her silver one.
She has used that golden key so often to the discomfiture of other
nations and in subservience to her own interests, that now her
imperious shylocks do not brook with grace any interference
with their assumed prerogative of dictating gold as the sole
standard to all the world. As financial autocrats they dictate
ttnd it is done. With them interest and policy are synonyms.
Since England est iblished the gold standard in 1816, her persistant effort has been to degrade silver to a purely commercial value
and destroy its money quality everywhere. Beginning at home,
she demonetized silver and set up the solitary gold image for
her worshipers.
England made no pretense of respect or regard for the intere s t or welfare of any other people. Her law of 1816 plainly and
unequivocally stated that she consulted only her own interest.
It recites:
XT. And whereas at various times heretofore the coins of this realm of
gold and silver have been equally a legal tender for payments to any
amount, and great inconvenience has arisen from both tiioae precious metals
being concurrently the standard measure of value and equivalent for property; and it is expe lient that the gold coin made to the indentures of the
mint should henceforth be the sole standard measure of value and legal
tender for payment, without any limitation of amount, and that the silver
coin Should be a legal tender to a limited amount only, for the facilities for
change and commerce-

It was enacted that "after the passage of that act gold coins
should be in unlimited tender and silver coins limited to 40
shillings'* in any single payment.
505




19

Vlat law her creditors grew richer and her
™ J" t h i s ^ n A stood almost alone ZZg the
to her s K n T ^ 1 1 X / T 3 i g a i n e d Germany over
6 SWayT0f

mmmm
R e a l i z i n g t h e fact t h a t this c o u n t r y is the strouirhold of 8 i i
w o i r l n S r e T i ^ ^ t h e
^ a m o r fo?°!s r e o o l a ^ e

SSpSSESSShfesg

J K S S a & 3 S S B iffyMffflKST'*
003




The rider of the wind,
The stirrer of the storm—
xhe hurricane it left behind
Is yet with lightning warm.

20

The plot thickened until the storm-center, of thisfinancialcyclone was developed by England stopping the coining of silver
in India, with its undoubted retroaction upon this country: and
this culmination of thp crisis brought us here in extra session
under auspices most unfavorable to silver.
T H E PRESENT CRISIS

is partly real and widespread and partly artificial and limited.
The general fall in prices of all productions, the closing of manufactories and want of employment, is widespread, and has a general cause both in Europe and America.
The general cause of depression and the widespread stagnation in business among the commercial nations of Europe is the
appreciation of gold consequent upon its inadequacy and character to do the business of such vast payments and exchanges of
commodities. This has smothered enterprise and activity;
closed entirely or put on diminished production many great establishments; turned out of labor millions of men and spread
distress through all the European nations as well as the United
States.
The run made on the banks that has caused so many of these
institutions to succumb has been in a great measure an artificial movement on the part of the creditor class; the controlling
banks and many leading metropolitan newspapers were brought
into requisition by them for the purpose of securing the entire
overthrow of silver as a currency and establishing gold as the
only standard.
The assertion that it is the effect of the Sherman law that has
produced a dread on the part of depositors andholders of American securities in foreign countries, that the country is going to
adopt the silver standard and a depreciated money, is the shallow device of those who seek the overthrow of silver by securing
the repeal of the Sherman law unconditionally, and hence the
entire annihilation of silver money.
It is true that those who urge this course of action profess to be
bimetallists and that they are acting in this way to coerce the
monometallists in other countries to return to their bimetallic
standard. This, I fear, is a mere device to silence opposition for
the present, and when the act is consummated there will be the
end of any return of silver. It is the descent to Avernus, those
lonely regions which once made there is no return.
Mr. President, there are two leading questions in this movement.
First. Has gold appreciated or has silver depreciated in its
purchasing power?
Second. Is there enough gold fn the world to answer the demands of the internal and external commerce of the great commercial nations?
It is a generally admitted fact that gold has appreciated, and
it is denied that silver has depreciated^ and for this reason the
creditor class advocate the gold standard'alone.
Mr. Gladstone in his recent speech put forth the appreciation
of gold as the reason England should favor the gold standard in
605




21

other countries. England is the great creditor nation of the
world; She has invested, it is said, ovei; ten billions of money
in other nations. The adoption of the gold standard there has
augmented her interests and dividends to the amount that gold
has appreciated over silver. The purchasing power of silver
here remains unchanged except as to gold. The silver coin will
purchase as much wheat and cotton, land and houses, horses and
cattle as it ever did. If it has declined in value so have also all
these commodities. Tlie date of the decline is from the year
1873, when silver was demonetized.
Let us take the tables. I shall insert in my remarks the index
numbers of Mr. Lauerbeck's table for forty-five principal commodities from 1874 to 1892: •
Index
numbers.

Years.

102
96
95
94
87
83
88

1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880....

Years.

Index
numbers.

1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887

85
84
82
76
72
69
68

Index
numbers.

Years.
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892

70
72
72
72
68

The period begins with 102 and for eighteen years descends
regularly to 68. The fall in silver compared with gold is nearly
the same per cent, indeed they run down at the same rate.
Thefiguresobtained by means of Lauderbsck's index numbers
show the decline of silver compared with gold.
Years.

1854
1855
1859
1866
1872
1873

Silver.

-

101.1.
100.7
102.0
100.5
99.2
97.4

Index
numbers
for
silver.

Years.
1874..
1875
1876
1877...
1888
1892

.

95.8
93.3
86/7
90.2
86.4
65.4

The range of silver from 1854 to 1873 is between 101.1* and
99.2; in the subsequent period from 97.4 in 1873 to 65.4 in 1892.
Compare the results. The forty-five articles from 1874 to 1892
range regularly from 102 to 68, and the price of silver during the
same period is from 95.8 to 65.4, showing that the same cause,the gradual appreciation of gold, produced the decline in both.
Let us now test the movement of silver, cotton, and wheat(
the three greatest commercial products of our country. By a
careful examination of the prices of silver, wheat, and cotton, it
will be found that as the price of silver compared with gold has
declined so have the prices of all farm products.
I submit a table showing the export price of wheat, cotton, and
505




22
silver, from 1872 to 1893, taken from the Statistical Abstract of
the United States:
Year.

1872
1873
1874
1875
1876.
1877.
1878.
1879.

Wheat. Cotton. Silver.

1.47
1.31
1.43
1. 12
1.24
1.17
1.34
1.07
1.25

1880.
1881,
1882.

1.11

1.19

Cents.
19.3
18.8
15.4
15.0
12.9
11.8

11.1
9.9
11.5
11.4
11.4

1.32
1.29
1.27
1.24
1.15
1.20

1.15
1.12

1.14
1.13
1.13

Year.

1883
1834
1885
186*5
1887

1888

1889
1890
18M

1892

Wheat. Cotton. Silver.

1.13
1.07
.86
.87
.89
.85
.90
.83
.85
.80
.72

Cents.
10.8

10.5
10.6

9.9
9.5
9.8
9.9

10.1

10.0
8. V
7.3

1.11
1.01
1.06

.99
.97
.93
.93
1.04
.90
.86
.78

From that table it will be apparent that as silver declined in
price as compared with gold, so did wheat and cotton. When
silver was $1.32 per ounce, wheat was $1.47 per bushel, and cotton
19.3 cents per pound. But when, in 1893, silver had fallen to 78
cents per ounce, the farmer got only 72 cents for a bushel of
wheat, and the planter only 7.3 cents per pound for cotton.
T H E CONSEQUENCES I N T H E RISE OF GOLD A R E !

First. The weight of all permanent burdens is increased.
Second. Debtors pay more and creditors receive more than
they otherwise would.
The sad and oppressive consequences of this appreciation of
gold can be readily understood by all thinking persons, and it
will be felt by all that eat their bread " in the sweat of their
faces." It is not enough that privation, want, and destitution
shall spring from this return to the past. Liberty, the crowning glory of all human efforts, will be circumscribed unless the
millions who labor and produce shall arise in their might and
say to the power of money, " Thus far shalt thou go and no farther."
With the increase of burdens that must press so heavily upon
the producers by the single gold standard, untold evils must result to society, to all the commercial nations, to civilization, to
commerce and enterprise.
In the late conference at Brussels (1892), Alfred de Rothschild
said:
Gentlemen, I need hardly remind yon that the stock of silver in the world
is estimated at some thousands of millions, and if this conference were to
break up without arriving at any definite result there would be a depreciation in the value of that commodity which it would be frightful to contemplate and out of which a monetary panic would ensue, the far-spreading
effects of which it would be impossible to foretell.

Here is the opinion of one of the most decided and influential
of the monometallists in Europe and the representative of the
entire class. The opinion deserves consideration from the wellknown ability and experience of the author. M. Rothschild
understands well the value of the base on which repose all commercial transactions, all industrial and business interests, and
the danger of disturbing the base on which repose all human activity, all artificial productions.
M. Victor Bonnet, the great Frenchfinancier,in an able arti605




23

cle published in the R6vue des Deux Mondes, October number,
1868, said:
Metallic money is the tase ™ whlch repoSe a n

—

"

f

t

damage, to all society.

It is the operation of this principle that led ^ ' ^ " " V e t
the Brussels conference, to make the declaration he did. Yet
ehxetlnr|^
our statesmen expect by'a Congressional
one-half the metallic base. They have .no fears of the. result.
Yet this great Englishfinanciertrembles over the convulsion
^Ts S ^ o T d enou-h in the world to do the business required
of money® g Statements have been published by the Treasury
DeSirtmentexhibiting the world's production of gold and si ver,
from which it will appear that in the csntury from 1792 to 1892,
inclusive the two me tils have kept remarkably toge her in their
output, gold being $5,633,908,000;
•MM.M.OTO,
leading silver in one hundred years only $528,947,000, or an average of only $5,289,470 per year.
,.„tw
It is further shown by the same authority thatThe total gold of the world in coin and bullion used as money
^ t o S v e i ^ t h S l d in coin and bullion used as money
amTZnfotal$gol5d8and

siTverof the world in coin and bullion used

&8l7Z

U T Z m V ^ i T A M s i s
per capUa mil
he our money of redemption instead of $5.09 under a bimetallic sysThere is aboutequalquantitiesof g o l d a n d silver, $4,000,000,000
of each?and this has to be supplemented by as much paper based
on the coin. The paper of all kinds reposes on the metals. It
is worthless if it does not. It is manifest that goldalonewouW
be inadequate to sustain the great paper circulation that must

<e

^ i S a c t a l s o , thatgold is not increasing in its P f ^ c t i o n l n
the United States, beginning with the aiscoveryofgold in Cahfornia in 1848, the product was forty mil ions; 18o0 it Jra fifty
millions - the highest. Prom this point it has gradually fallen
t0From

Ap?U m l t o July, 1834, in the United States the prod u S of silver is said bythe Director of the Mint to have been
"insignificant" against $14,000,000 gold.; and from July, 18.34, to.
December, 1844, the production of silver was only $2o0.000
a g S t I i , m , m of gold, and from this on to 808 the annual
Production of silver did not rise above $o0,000 until in 18o8 it
w^Q^n (M0 whilst sold was $50,000,000. In 1861 the producX o s X V w ^ $2,000 000; that of gold $43,000,000. It was not
SSSl187»'SaULLw stood S40.800.00j, and gold $38,900 000
From this period to 1891, more si verhas been produ^d in the

605




24
and of silver $1,800,700,000. (These amounts will he found on
page 53 of the Report of the Director of the Mint for 1892.) This
statement shows no tendency on the part of silver to outrun the
go d. Only during two years Q879-»80) did silver surpass the
gold. From 1873 to 1890, every year the gold has largely surB J
passed the silver. ,
The decline in the gold price of silver has either alarmed the
moneyed class, or they have conspired to put down silver in
order to elevate the price of gold. The decline of the price of
C0™P*re.d
S
gold is the result of the appreciation
of gold, and this is the result of the destruction of the demand
for silver. England is the first, conspirator in this, and the
United States,the- second. England demonetized silver in 1816,
m F e b r u a r ^> 1 8 7 3 '
1873
Germany followed, July 9,
All the commercial nations followed, one after another, either
to adopt the single gold standard, or to cease the coinage of silver as a legal currency. Thus the demand for three-fourths of
the silver was destroyed by legislative enactment. Had the
same been done to the gold, it would have fallen to" the same extent in the markets of the world.
. It is singular that the Unitad States,
T H E LARGEST SILVER-PRODUCING COUNTRY IN T H E WORLD

should have been the first to start this stampede against silver
It is still more wonderful that in a country of so much personal
freedom^that a law should have pissed through Congress against
the will of the people, which impaired seriously a great industry and entailed one of the most effective and lonff-continued
economical disasters that has ever befallen the country. It besran
m 1874, and continued for some years to crush all the great interests of the Republic. Nor has it ceased as the war upon silver has set m for its destruction. The cry of the moneyed classes
J
is delenda est carthayo."
The great increase of silver has in no respect tended to a silver
standard. We are not a day nearer a silver standard than we
Wer1

agi°i So„ fa , r f r o m a B i l y e r standard, we have
reached that of gold, and ail things now, including silver are
reduced to-the gold standard. I refer to the commercial value
Silver subsidiary coins circulate as readily as though thev had
the quality of legal tender for an indefinite amount. The silver
dollar passes equally well. It pays as much debt, buys as much
utility, costs as much labor as the gold dollar. I have never seen
any man refuse it. And there is not, and has not been for a century, a manufacturer nor a farmer but would gladly receive tha
silver dollar with *rhich to pay for labor at its full face value and
there is not a wage-earner in factory or field who would'not
u uul>
gladly receive it.
But it is affirmed that law has stamped it with a false value
All money depends on law. It has no value without law and M
money it has no intrinsic value. The moment you elve i t a
value it becomes a commodity. Money is a check, on all persons
in the country from which it issues, for the amount of Articles
expressed on its face. It is the evidence of a debt The no*,
sessor has furnished some one with his commodities and receives money, the evidence of his debt, a universal check on the
dealers of the country m which he resides. It can only safely




25

be made by the Government, as its payment should always be
certain, prompt, and without the expense and delay of a legal
process.
There is no money in the country that passes more readily than
the silver dollar. No one distrusts it. Why destroy so useful
an agent? Why afflict all the interests of the country with such
a paralysis? Whilst an increase of the base of precious metals
stimulates all industries and promotes the general happiness of
the people, the contraction of this element depresses all enterprise and closes all business, spreads poverty and crime and
misery on all sides.'
Sir Archibald Alison says of the Australian gold discovery:
Prices rose rabidly, and rose steadily; wages advanced in a similar proportion ; exports and imports enormously increased, while crime and misery as rapidly diminished; emigration itself, which had reached in 1852 368,000 persons a year, sank to a little more than half that amount. Wheat rose
from 40s. to 50*. and 60*., hut the wages of labor advanced in nearly as great
a proportion.
In Ireland the change was stijl greater, and probably unequaled in so
short a time in the annals of history. Wages of country labor rose from id.
a day to 1$.
or 2a. Convicted crime sunk nearly a half, and the increased
growth of cereal crops under the genial influences of these advanced prices
was for some years as rapid as its previous decline since 1845 had been.

Mr. President, the present "currency famine" evinces the
fact that we can absorb the output of our own mines in the legitimate channels of trade, and much more than they afford, if allowed to be coined, This country with its teeming and increasing population, its vast territory, extending from ocean to ocean,
from lake to gulf, with varied and incalculable resources, including more mines of the precious metals than any other country—
one-third of the whole amount of silver in all nations—should
have afinancialpolicy of its own and not be the catspaw of the
gold-trust jugglers of London. It is openly asserted and believed by many of our best and most intelligent men that these
financial necromancers of Lombard street in unholy combination
with Wall street speculators, by a joint and strained effort to
establish gold as the only legal-money standard, have brought
this country the brink offinancialruin.
With monometallism once permanently established here, the
same combination could and would, when it suited the interest
of their financial greed, produce like'condition with half the
ease with which they have, with two metals to deal with, recently
put upon us thefinancialnightmare that now paralyzes 65,000,000
of people.
When we see this, why bow our necks for the British financial
yoke, why kiss the kingly rod that smites us, though it be a
golden rod? America is not an Ireland, to be run over by English domination—nor is it India, to truculently succumb to the
mandates of English authority or suppliently yield to her imperious domination.
.Let us profit by the examples which history gives of the evil
working of monometallism wherever it has been enforced. Is it
not an undeniable fact that tjie legal recognition of gold as the
single money standard in England and elsewhere in Europe,
along with the denial of silver to the masses as a money standard,
has been the efficient means of concentrating wealth and power
in the hands of the few, and pauperizing and enslaving the many,
605




26
and while it respectively enriched and pauperized, it widened
the chasm between the classes?
Does not history teach us that the single money metal policy
lessens the amount of circulation and makes that which does circulate the more valuable—hence more difficult to be obtained by
the toiling millions? And is not the necessary result of this to
maximize power and minimize the capacity for its resistance?
Is not this policy of monometallism, this factor of wealth and
power, this destroyer of the wealth-producer and wage-earner,
this Juggernaut under whose car the debtor is crushed, while
in its charred and blackened track are found the relics of departed prosperity? Is it not this that builds up classes and destroys the masses? Is it not also an active factor in undermining individual liberty and that equality of rights among citizens
guaranteed in our republican form of government? Believing
that this repeal bill is a step in that direction and, if passed, will
give a backset to silver as money and make gold our only standard, I can not vote for it unconditionally.
T H E W H O L E P O L I C Y O F OUR

COUNTRY,

both fiscal and financial, since 1861, has contributed to bring
about a condition of currency, as well as our business relations
with Europe, which made possible the consummation of a conspiracy to fasten the single gold standard upon our people. The
tariff for protection built up classes in wealth and power and
pulled down the mass3S into poverty and want; mi lions greater
in number and more powe rful in the aggregate of their accumulated wealth than are to be found in any other country were the
outgrowth of that financial policy which pampered the few on
the hard earnings of the many.
The most positive antl potential factor in the real causes which
have brought about the present panic has been the mischievous
legislation of the- past quarter of a century in regard to high
protective exactions made upon the productive resources of the
people to maintain an unhealthy and vicious system of domestic
manufactures. The persistent policy of taxing the productive
consumers—the farmers and planters, the wa^e-earners and the
great mass of the people—solely to protect and foster and pamper
with unequal -wealth a few proprietors of factories, has come
home with all its direful effects upoathe whole population of tne
country.
•
The reform of that system of fiscal legislation, the reduction
of the burdens of unhealthy taxation, the repeal of all war taxation and that which in time of psace has been inspired by the
spirit of the late war, was £he real issue in the last Presidential
election. Whatever urgent necessity required the assembling
of Congress in extra session, I feel it to have been a dis appointment to the people that the great reform in the burden oi taxation—th e main issue in our late popular triumph—was not taken
up in the House of Representatives and pushed with equal vigor
as has been the measure now under discussion.
The people, by which word I mean the great mass of those who
labor, whether in field or mines, on the ships of commerce or
toiling amid the whirl of machinery, whose labor is depleted by
unequal and exorbitant taxation, have felt a deep disaprointment at seeing the tariff, which was denounced in the platform,
upon the hustings, and in the newspapers of our party as the chief
505




27

cause of all serious burdens, relegated to the rear and told, as
Felix said to Paul, "Go thy way, at a more convenient season I
will hear thee." It has been a serious disappointment to the
people to learn that those of the Democratic party whom they
honored with their votes regard any measure more important
than the taxes and those burdens which weigh upon labor and
the people; that gold is to be preferred to the tariff, and that the
wealth of the rich is of paramount importance to the poverty of
the poor.
' We are urged with zeal to "vote first" for that which, in my
judgment, will lead to a single gold standard, and talk about
the tariff afterwards; to adjust the standard of value to the demands of creditors in the shortest possible time, and then to
make haste very slowly, I fear, in relieving the burdens of taxation on debtors, for fear we may again disturb the profits of
manufacturers. Never was legislation for the classes and against
the masses more distinctly and defiantly emphasized than by
the clamor for the early adoption, at ,the extra session, of that
which will be equivalent to the gold standard—and by the widespread hints that tariff legislation had better wait until late in
tne regular session.
The men who manufactured the present panic to frighten
Congress to adopt the gold standard are prep aring to fan another
panic intoflameagainst any " cut in the tariff." If we are to
place all values upon the gold standard, the least we can do for
the people is to lessen the burdens of taxation by removing some
of the profits of manufacturers, which the gold standard will
most certainly make up in another way.
Mr. President, the national bank act, claimed as a necessary
war measure, consolidated the whole money of the people under
the positive and direct control and management of a mere handful of men as compared with the millions whose financial prosperity was rendered dependent upon their favors.
Thirty years of legislation directed against the best interests
of the people, with but a short respite, have made this country
a nation of classes and masses—where unexampled wealth has
fallen to the happy lot of the former, while a barely possible existence marks with hardships the struggle of the latter. Thus
the.ground was prepared, obstacles cleared aw&y, and full and
free scope given to the final consummation of the conspiracy
which was to commit this country, with all its wealth and wonder ul energy and resources, to a final dispensation, where gold
should measure all prop arty, increase the burden of all debts,
and bind America to the triumphal car of Great Britain.
Who can believe it was a mere accident, a causeless coincidence, that the first assault upon silver in this country was contemporaneous with its demonetization in Germany? Both occurred in 1873. It may not be possible to trace the negotiations
of great capitalists, led by astute and heartlessfinanciers,in their
secret and concealed conspiracy to put both America and Germany under the gold standard, but all the signs and indications
unerringly point to a subtle influence which operates on both
sides of the Atlantic.
Germany followed America with a tariff for protection, and
America kept step to the music of Germany's demonetization of
silver. Nor was England a laggard in the race. At an oppor505




28
tune moment she aided the conspiracy by ordering the stoppage
of coinage of silver in India—another coincidence evidencing the
conspiracy. France practically abandoned the Latin league and
discontinued, in a qualified form, silver coinage. All these multiplying influences were directed against the value of a great
American product. It is not possible to believe that all these
influences come to bear upon the silver question without the directing hand of some power whose interests would be promoted
by their concentration against the continued coinage of silver. *
We are now called upon to complete and perfect the conspiracy by repealing unconditionally the purchasing clauses of the
Sherman act and closing our mints to silver, abandon bimetallism, and bring this country to a single gold standard.
GOLD A N D SILVER.

Gold, Mr. President, is a. hard, narrow, cruel currency. It is
cowardly, andfleesfrom danger and generous duty. It does not
like silver and paper standard, defy the invading enemy, but
seeks a concealment and the protection of the miser's coffers'. It
responds not to the demands of; charity and kindly offices of
friendship. It seems to realize its value and its beauty. It
knows when they are in danger and scents it from afar and runs
at once to cover. It gravitates at once to the hands of the narrow, severe, uncreative, and soulless. From it in no age has
flowed generosity, self-denial, or heroism.
>
There is in gold a fascination for all the most vicious passions
that generate secret and malignant crimes. It seeks a power
and place from which it can oppress and grind the toiling millions. It is the inspiratibn of the pride and glory of wealth and
power. It is the ornament of monarchs and servant of their ambitions and intrigues. It is theflamethat tempers the assassin's
steel, the light that directs the ship of the corsair, the fountain
from whichflowsthe daring and courage of the pitiless Dirate.
The demands of friendship and patriotism it neither hears nor
heeds. When rugged war raises its baleful banner and the invading foe menaces the safety and repose of the country, it seeks
the strong-box of the miser or the coffers of the timid and prudent. In peaceat decks the gaudy trappings of princes and potentates^ that roll in splendor along the public highways. It
glitters in dazzling radiance from the gay women ;that glide in
grace amid the camps and courts of kings and emperors, indifferent as to whether it gilds the person of a Mary or a Borgia
The cottage of the humble it disdainfully shuns and responds not
to the cry of inmates for bread, though the creature of their toil
and skill.
Gold is the weapon that conquers where the bayonet and the
sword, though inspired by the stoutest hearts and wielded by
the strongest arms, can not go. It invades the heart and steals
thefidelityand vigilance of the guards; against its fascinating
encroachments the strongest mail and the most solid fortified
tions can not prevail. Its gleaming luster pierces the granite
wall and unbars thefirmestgates. It is as hear tless as the poison
of the deadliest drug. Neither innocence, youth, age, nor sex is
any protection against its stealthy attack. Before its secret and
insinuating power how often all that is loved, all that is sacred,
all honor, all pity, Virtue, love, and duty go down.
505




29

Gold is in striking contrast with silver with which it slept so long
in warm embrace in their mountain bed and walked on different
though parallel lines, through all the various phases that humanity has shown in its march from barbarism to civilization,
from simplest barter to the highest form of commercial exchange. Silver has been the companion of man in all his aspirations, from his humble cottage making his way to new and more
inviting homes in search of a greater ^ood and larger liberty.
It has never deserted him or shunned him in his long, toilsome
struggle for life amid dangers and trials.
In the cabin on the far-off frontiers of settlementin the busy
city, on the*fertile plains and snow-covered mountains it has been
his never-failing helpmate. No privations deterred it, no enemies drove it from his presence. Silver is the friend of poverty
and the handmaid of charity. It has equal beauty with its more
pretentious yellow rival; its whiteness suggests the purity and
sanctity of the faithful. It is the light crystallized in the earth,
evoked by the tireless energy and intelligence of the miner, that
wonder of labor and fortitude. It thus became in time the garnered labor of workers who saved a morsel £rom each day's fruit,
which was the promise of hope for his household and to himself the the guaranty of a solace for relentless old age. It insures him a title to his humble home purchased from his labor
thus treasured.
It was in this form, the promise of a family, the nursery, the
virtue, defense, and glory of the State. Thus, also, has" been
evoked a new life-upon land and ocean, the exchange of productions of nation with nation, of clime with clime, and with this
movement boundless discoveries in nature and inventions in
the useful and fine arts. From the first motion forward, labor
and silver have worked in harmony through all the various
stages of progress; from the rudest beginnings to the sublime
results that have crowned humanity and proved it divine,
Mr. President, why bring this country to a gold standard?
Did not silver and gold work in perfect harmony and by their
joint instrumentality build up this country, placing it in the front
rank with the great powers of the earth? Are not both alike
found in our borders sleeping side by side in the same rocky
beds? Why should we divorce where nature has bound together? Should we not rather keep together with ligaments of
law, and relight the hymeneal torch that was rudely extinguished in 1873 and let them live in their natural matrimonial
bonds as they flow through the great arteries of commerce and
the lesser ones of everyday trade.
If gold, the yellow metal, is the sunlight, is not silver, the
white metal, the moonlight, each moving in its own orbit, but
in the same general circle, mutually dependent, giving aid to
each other and bestowing blessings alike on all? Why make
king of one and serf of the other? If gold is king, silver is queen;
then let the king and queen of the precious metals reign together
wit&equal rights and equal powers in the realms of finance and
trade. Indeed, Mr. President, silver has benefited mankind far
more than gold. Gold is used by the few and the rich; silver by
the many and the poor.
The joint work of gold and silver is further seen in the facts
that the largest stocks of silver and gold are found together in
505




30

the markets of civilized nations; that the stock of gold increased
in the United States from the date when the Treasury began
purchising silver; and to-day there is more gold and silver in
this country than ever before; that silver and gold maintained
practical parity from the beginning of their use as money down
to 1873, notwithstanding many changes in the supplies of either
metal; that the double standard worked harmoniously in every
country until the creditor class saw its profit in separating these
twins, and after destroying, by the demonetization of silver, the
most vigorous and lusty one of the twins, they devote the rich
patrimony of this country to the other one.
As to the direct matter before the Senate, the convictions of
the people touching silver have been guided by the light of
T H A T L A M P OF EXPERIENCE

which the great Virginia apostle of liberty took as his guide in
the days of our Revolution. That silver lamp was lit at the
altar of our Constitution by the high priests of both the great
parties to our politics. Jefferson and Hamilton concurred in
bimetallism, and it was about the only subject of our policy in
which those great leaders did agree.
Every great leader of political parties in our country for the
first hundred years trimmed that silver lamp with sedulous care
and its light was never permitted to grow dim or become extinguished, but burned even as the lamp of the vestal virgins, until
these later days when the selfish interest of that class of men
whom our Savior whipped from the precincts of the Temple obtained a predominant influence in national legislation. If in the
matter of bimetallic currency the people are in error, they are
willing to stand the effects of that error until their experience
shall make that error plain and patent. We prefer to £1 suffer
the ills we have than to fly to those we know not of," bringing
with them the death knell of silver.
A ,single gold standard may be right and proper for nations
whose armies muster by the millions and whose iron navies cover
eyerysea and absorb the sustenance of all peoples.* It may measure correctly the cost of imperialism in government; of aristocracy in legislation; of capitalists and corporations and moneyed
interests in finance. It may regulate with increasing burdens
the wealth of that creditor nation to whom the whole world is
debtor, but fortunately for this country those elements of European civilization do not exist with us. We are a people of
energy and enterprise, turning our capital over and over again
in the course of a single year, growing our wealth from tilling
our land and working our shops: feeding and clothing with our
grain and cotton the nations o~f the earth; large enough in area
and sufficiently populous in citizens to have afinancialsystem
and currency policy of our own. We have abundant gold and
silver, the product of our own mines, for the balances of trade
when needed.
We have witnessed for years the ebb and flow of gold to and
from this country without alarm, but recently it became the interest of the advocates of the single gold standard to make it appear that the shipment of gold in 1893 was the beginning of that
deluge of silver which was to cover this land as the waters cover
the sea. We have experienced many panics and periods of com505




31

mercial depression in this century, hut this is the first whose
cause and consequence has been even sought to be laid upon
silver. We are now witnessing the falsity of all those prognostications as business settles back to its normal condition before
Congress has been driven by the cry that all is lost into a policy
which may impoverish the many in the interest of the few.
But, Mr. President, the country is already
WEATHERING T H E STORM

raised by false representation that the Sherman act had produced thefinancialcrisis. Country banks, forced by the policy
of metropolitan banks to succumb temporarily to the scarcity
of currency artificially produced at great money centers, are
resuming business all over the country with the coming and
going of each day. The heretofore unheard-of premium on currency has ceased. In fact, thefirstparalyzing shock has passed.
The false pre tense that the Sherman act had caused the panic has
been seen through, and the plot, however well laid, the scheme,
however well devised, has failed, and business is reviving.
The vast resources of our country reassure our people and confidence is returning, and all the agencies of business-and trade
are resuming $heir normal functions. The people see gold that
was shipoed abroad, in the progress of the plot and not in the
course of legitimate trade, returning through proper channels
and seeking again the Federal Treasury—thus gradually restoring confidence and relieving the embarrassments of business.
All this h'ls furnished the thoughtful and conservative people
of this country with more than one object lesson. They now see
the danger of the money power, as never seen and felt before,
whether in England or America, or in both combined, working
through machinery organized under and sanctioned by national
law. They see how easily this money power can be brought in
sympathetic touch, and how quickly responsive it is for political
purposes. This is exciting grave apprehension in the thinking,
patriotic minds of the land. Amid these stirring scenes, this
struggle between the money power and the people, brings before
us as an admonition, Andrew Jackson, as he stood in that majestic form which marked him when he vetoed the old United States
Bank, and throttled the money powers as they sought to encroach,
upon the rights of the people.
Mr. President, notwithstanding the importance which properly attaches to the proposition to repeal the purchasing clause
of the Sherman act, there are other matters of legislation no
less vitallv important to the people of Tennessee and the other
Southern States—matters which threaten society in those States
in its permanency and which still cloud the future with the
threat of Federal interference for party purposes with elections
in the States. When the force bill was lately threatening to
dissolve Southern society and the forces of sectional passion and
prejudice were seeking to upheave our civilization and place all
political power under the control of the lowest strata of society
in the Southern States, Senators from those States can not forget that Senators from the silver States ross superior to the organization of their own party and stood manfully firm, an impregnable defense to Southern civilization and Southern society.
505




32
t o ^ r i 1 6 ^ 6 p ? a t v " a ] interests of the States whose Senators then protected and defended the South are threatened
^
? ? n d destruction, I know that the grateful and
generous people I represent in part in this ChamberTexnect that
reciprocation of favor and defense, when it can be r iht™Uy and
consistently done, which we received from the silver State
Senators. For one, I acknowledge the obligation?
are f ^ hi
temTember
? n d being convinced they
are in the right, I am ready to reciprocate by standing with
them against this second raid on a gre\t s2ction of our country
In the revolution of party politics, which has been in p r o - S
for several years, the great West and South have been drawSS
nearer together. Interests and sympathy conspire tolmitethos!
sections as natural allies and to cause forgetfulness o the nartv
passions which in the past have divided their strength a n k l e t
their respective interests of planting and farming?their welfare
and progress, a pray to the selfish schemes of others
u n i t e d ^ V S T t Z . d r a w i n ? together the sections which, if
t h e Power political which rules this country,
united in purpose as they are in interest, the West and
the South could be masters of the situation, and byballot-streVith
largely control the policies of the country, "rhey would no
doubt, unitedly exert and use that power for the conIar™t5nn
of the general welfare of all the people, aswell as fofth P
ervation of all great interests alongtL
coast andP t h^
boarfT of society on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlaitte\eaboard. Too magnificent in material resources and too great fn
political power-so inflict any injury on any part of thfs otUt
country, those sections of our Union, while^a?nteiningthe^ame
• > a n d indivisible,;'would also see that the selfish policy of no
f ™ ^ - H011 s h o u l d in |ict in ury any whare in our brrnd Union
f ^ ° l t h l r t y y e a r s t . he S o u t h l a y Prone and prostrate, with none
to do her reverence in the Congress. Impoverished in' resources
0 f P° 1 U i c a l
a prey toscallawags and c a S
baggers, she, with an eye ever on the motto, resurgam, plodded
her weary way to her present magnificent material and political resurrection. The conditions have changed. She is W a
veritable part, and no inconsiderable part, of the power of this
Union, and we trust she is nowsafe in the'securityof h e r prooer
civilization, thanks to a great extent to the Senators from Fhe
e
silver States and to Northern Democrats.
°
a ? d too generous to causelessly abandon
vJE^,e ? 0 U t h - i s
^ h e ' P , e r s in the hour of their trial and threatened S u *
tion The shadow of the force bill still lingers around the Fed
d
eral laws which remain on the statute boots
The open declarations in this Capitol, and legislation alreadv
e
t
e
d
S ?
A
warning to the South that all dfnglr h L not de^
parted. Political policy, party tactics, and common discretion
advise and warn the South not to exhibit in<r i h ,„i„ 7
who in the last Congress, regard!^ o f t S i e t o h T r
1
relief when most she needed help.
"er