out this effort to reinstate silver when it stood almost at a parity in the markets at the old ratio with gold, the constant decline of the price of the white metal would have been charged to the omission of the dollar from the coinage orders-and all financial troubles charged to the decline, and all the misfortunes of the people traced to the same source and the result would have been the overwhelming election of a free silver President and Congress, and we would have been Mexicanized as to money.

If McKinley did make the mistake in his friendliness to silver of overvaluing it, he repeated an error of Alexander Hamilton, who fixed the original ratio in our coinage at 15 to 1. We have heard of the crime of the century in the demonetization of silver. Well, the man who first committed it was Thomas Jefferson, and here is the record:

"DEPARTMENT OF STATE, May 6, 1806. "To ROBERT PATTERSON, Esq., Director of the Mint. "Sir: In consequence of a representation from the Director of the Bank of the United States that considerable purchases have been made of dollars coined at the mint for the purpose of exporting them, and as it is probable that further purchases and exportations will be made, the President directs that the silver coined at the mint shall be of small denominations, so that the value of the largest pieces shall not exceed half a dollar. I am, etc.,

'JAMES MADISON."

This was issued by President Jefferson. The coinage of dollars was stopped on this order for thirty years. Many writers do not seem to have noticed this, to give it full weight and consideration. Silver was exported because it was the best money.

There was great difficulty also in keeping our gold coin in use, and Thomas H. Benton said on the floor of the Senate in 1834:

"The valuation put upon gold has rendered the mint of the United States, so far as the gold coinage is concerned, a most ridiculous and absurd institution. It has coined, and that at a large expense to the United States, 2,262,177 pieces of gold, worth $11,852,890, and where are the pieces now? Not one of them to be seen! All sold and exported! And so regular is the operation that the Director of the Mint, in his latest report to Congress, says that the new-coined gold frequently remains in the mint uncalled for, though ready for delivery, until the day arrives for a packet to sail for Europe. He calculates that two millions of native gold will be coined annually hereafter, the whole of which, without a reform of the gold standard, will be conducted, like exiles, from the national mint to the seashore and transported to foreign regions."

This was followed by the law that reduced the quantity of gold 1 grains to the dollar.. It will be observed that we had about as much trouble with gold as with silver coin.

CHAPTER X.

THE MONEY STANDARD QUESTIONS.

How the Money Standard Questions have been settled in and by the Republican party -Silver legislation in brief-How the country was saved from the silver standard-John Sherman and William McKinley have marched together-The Hon. Charles Emory Smith's exposition of this question-The unexampled supply of gold is solving the money questions for the people and abolishing this issue.

TH

HE money questions have been settled by the Republican party, and the standard of sound money is like the flag of the country, established, and the credit of the nation fixed. There was no compromise in the peace of Appomattox and there has been none in the resumption of specie payments which marked the restoration of the public solvency. Republican policy has provided a national currency of paper, silver, and gold, equal in volume to the wants of the people, and all good as gold. There was a powerful movement at the close of the war to enlarge the greenback issues and extend the limit of paper of that character to cover all the bonded obligations of the government, but the greenback was made as good as gold, and then the

stress of the passionate green paper illusion passed

away.

The silver question took form when the country, under strong and wise guidance, approached resumption. It was then ascertained that we had participated so far in an international plan to employ the money of resumption and secure the advantage of uniformity in coin to facilitate the intercourse of nations, as to omit from the mint regulations the coinage of the silver dollar-our only white metal coin of full legal tender value-and there was a formidable tendency to retain the standing of silver in the mints without limitation. Silver had been "coin," in the meaning of the laws and contracts, through the war, and when the bonds were issued-especially when specie payments had been suspended-and there was an impressive propriety that "gold and silver" should be "coin," when we resumed coin payments, the same as when they were suspended. There was but little variation then between the mint and market value of the two precious metals at their old familiar ratio of 15 to 1 in Europe and 16 to 1 in the United States, and the matter did not seem to be momentous. The fall of silver had set in, caused by the sale of silver in Germany, to establish the gold standard, and the enormous silver production in Nevada. The general judgment—at least of those who had not been profound students or business experts in money-was that if we replaced silver at the mints the value of the metal in the

markets would advance to our ratio. This view of the case was at first taken by Major McKinley, but he supported the Allison amendment of the Bland bill, which was not to have "free" coinage of silver dollars, but forced-commanded-coinage, not less than two or more than four millions per month. Unquestionably this movement, originating with Mr. Allison in the Senate and supported by Mr. McKinley in the House, saved the country from the free coinage of silver, and, therefore, the silver standard! John Sherman was Secretary of the Treasury, and coined the minimum sum-two millions a month. He advised against the veto of the measure by President Hayes, suggesting that he should allow the bill to become a law without his approval, as he had conscientious scruples against attaching his signature. The bill was passed over the President's veto, and the continued fall of silver-while we coined over four hundred millions of white dollars-was an object lesson most convincing that the United States could not alone restore silver as a standard money of the world.

We reached the point that it was necessary to stop the free coinage of silver or accept the silver standard, and we stopped, pledging ourselves to maintain the parity of the two money metals, and there we are now, and, like France, the great bimetallic country, we uphold silver as a money metal by the limitation of the coinage and the direct application of the public credit.