when in 1890 in nearly every State of this Union the Democratic party in its platforms demanded free and unlimited coinage of silver, when you embodied it in your great Chicago national platform, when the Democratic party has for years stood before the House and the country as the bulwark in defense of the white metal, in the face of all these things are you now to desert the cause and surrender the fight? Can you afford to do it? Will you go to your people and tell them that you are not able to carry out the pledges of your platform, the promises upon which you were sent here, or any part of it, except that which resulted in the total demonetization of silver and the sacrifice of their interests?

What does free coinage of silver mean? It means that the holders of silver bullion, at some ratio to be fixed in the bill, may go to the mints of the Government and have it struck into the legal-tender money of the country and deposit the dollars so coined, if the holder so desires, and have a certificate issued to him in place of it. What is the effect of unlimited coinage of silver in this country, and I invite your attention to this particularly, because it is a question of vital importance? It means that the silver coins of the United States at whatever ratio is fixed, and I want the present ratio that we have now, sixteen to one, maintained precisely as it is, it means that the silver of the world can come here in exchange for what we have to sell.

Yes, it means that the silver of the whole world can come here. But they say that we will be flooded with the world's silver, that it will be dumped down upon us. Now, let us see about that for a moment. It means that anyone with sixteen ounces of silver can come here from any part of the world, or with one ounce of gold, and he can buy your grain, he can buy your house and lot, he can buy your manufactured product, and buy the property and commodities of all sorts that you have to sell with either the one or the other; that is to say, he can buy just as much with his sixteen ounces of silver as with his one ounce of gold.

With the billions upon billions of property existing in this country to-day, and being produced in this country every year, we simply offer to exchange that which we have in abundance on a basis of one pound of gold as the equivalent of sixteen pounds of silver. We invite, then, the world to come with its silver and make the exchange. No nation now, it is true, offers in exchange for silver the gold at any fixed ratio; consequently all the silver that is coined is used in the countries where it is coined. And why? Because no great power offers to exchange commodities for one metal or the other at any fixed ratio. That is the only trouble with silver to-day.

Now, it must be remembered that France gave an example to the world

in this regard, having kept its silver on a parity with gold for a period of seventy years on a ratio of fifteen and one-half to one. It said to the nations of the world," Come with your gold and your silver, fifteen and one-half ounces of silver or one of gold, and you can buy all of our salable property in France and you can pay us in silver or in gold; just as you choose, on that basis." And according to the report of the British Royal Commission of 1888 on that subject, France was enabled to maintain the parity of the two metals at that ratio, for the reason that she had property enough to effect exchanges on that basis. We are in the same condition.

What is it, then, that you are asked to do? It is that we, the Government of the United States, we as a people say to all the world, especially the silver-using people, all of the Asiatic nations and the Great Indies, come here with your white metal if you choose to come, and trade with us on the basis of sixteen to one and buy your commodities from us at that ratio. When you do that, will not the silver-using people of the world come to our shores to make their purchases rather than go to the European powers, where they demand a ratio of from twenty-two to twenty-five There can be no doubt of the answer to that question.

(From a speech delivered in the House of Representatives, August 11, 1893.)

The Contested Election Case of Patterson vs. Carmack.

By JOHN M. ALLEN, of Mississippi.

(Born 1847.)

HE gentleman from Pennsylvania told us in opening his speech with what unbiased minds the majority of the committee approached the consideration of this case; how destitute of prejudice or partisan feeling they were when they began; how they just started out to find the right between these two Democrats. Surely, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman did protest too much. (Laughter.) The longer I live the more I am impressed with the necessity for watching the man that doth protest too much, especially when he protests his non-partisanship.

The protestations of the gentleman from Pennsylvania are but another lesson to me to "look out for snakes" when I run up against such an absolutely pure and honest non-partisan. (Laughter and applause.) If he started out as a non-partisan, as he says he did, he became a partisan and got entangled in his arrangements" further, quicker, and harder than any man I ever knew. (Laughter.) I am too honest to make any such claim for myself. (Laughter.) I confess I started into the case with some partisan feeling.

Mr. Speaker, the contestant, in his speech to-day, devoted much of his time to the statement of his position on the financial question, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kirkpatrick) told us about the contestant's long and consistent position on this question. The gentleman does not seem to be any more familiar with "Uncle Josiah's " record on the financial question than he is with the real facts in this case.

Colonel Patterson has given expression in his life to some very sound and patriotic sentiments on the silver question. It has only been a few years ago since he canvassed the State of Tennessee and advocated the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and when he wished to stir up the indignation of the people against the Republican party, he would take a silver dollar and, holding it this way

not having the dollar, I must use a penny - he would say: "My fellow