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CHAPTER VIII.

FREE COINAGE.

HE advocates of free coinage should consider what constitutes money. I quote for their benefit the following from Blackstone:

"Money is the medium of commerce, it is the king's prerogative, as the arbiter of domestic commerce, to give it authority, or make it current. Money is a universal medium, or common standard, by comparison with which the value of all merchandise may be ascertained; or, it is a sign which represents the respective values of all commodities. Metals are well calculated for this sign, because they are durable and are capable of many subdivisions; and a precious metal is still better calculated for this purpose because it is the most portable. A metal is also the most proper for a common measure because it can easily be reduced to the same standard in all nations; and every particular nation fixes on it its own impression, that the weight and standard, wherein consists the intrinsic value, may both be known by inspection only.

"As the quantity of precious metals increases, that is, the more of them there is extracted from the mine, this universal medium or common sign will sink in value and grow less precious. Above a thousand millions of bullion are calculated to have been imported into Europe from America within less than three centuries" (this was when Blackstone wrote) (Blackstone's Commentaries were published in 1769, consequently the value of silver has greatly depreciated since he wrote), "and the quantity is daily increasing. The consequence is, that more money must be given now for the same commodity than was given a hundred years ago. And if any accident were to diminish the quantity of gold and silver, their value would proportionably rise. A horse that was formerly worth ten pounds is now, perhaps, worth twenty; and by any failure of current specie, the price may be reduced to what it was; yet is the horse, in reality, neither dearer nor cheaper at one time than another; for, if the metal which constitutes the coin was formerly twice as scarce as at present, the commodity was then as dear at half the price as now it is at the whole.

"The coining of money is in all states the act of the sovereign power, for the reason just mentioned, that its value may be known on inspection. And with respect to coinage in general, there are three things to be considered therein the materials, the impression and the denomination.

"With regard to the materials, Sir Edward Coke lays it down that the money of England must either be of gold or silver; and none other was ever issued by the royal authority till 1672, when copper farthings and half-pence were coined by King Charles the Second, and ordered, by proclamation, to be current in all payments under the value of sixpence, and not otherwise. But this copper coin is not upon the same footing with the other in many respects, particularly with regard to the offense of counterfeiting it. And as to the silver coin, it is enacted by Statute 14, Geo. III., Chap. 42, that no tender of payment in silver money, exceeding twenty-five pounds at one time, shall be a sufficient tender in law for more than its value by weight, at the rate of 5s. 2d. an ounce.

"As to the impression, the stamping thereof is the unquestionable prerogative of the crown; for though divers bishops and monasteries had formerly the privilege of coining money; yet, as Sir Matthew Hale observes, this was usually done by special grant from the king, or by prescription which supposes one;

and therefore was derived from, and not in derogation of, the royal prerogative. Besides that, they had only the profit of the coinage, and not the power of instituting either the impression or denomination; but had usually the stamp sent them from the exchequer.

"The denomination, or value for which the coin is to pass current, is likewise in the breast of the king; and if any unusual pieces are coined, that value must be ascertained by proclamation. In order to fix the value, the weight and the fineness of the metal are to be taken into consideration together. When a given weight of gold or silver is of a given fineness, it is then of the true standard, and called Easterling or sterling metal.

"The king may also, by his proclamation, legitimate foreign coin, and make it current here, declaring at what value it shall be taken in payments. But this, I apprehend, ought to be by comparison with the standard of our own coin; otherwise the consent of parliament will be necessary. There is at present no such legitimate money; Portugal coin being only current by private consent, so that anyone who pleases may refuse to take it in payment. The king may also at any time decry, or cry down, any coin of the kingdom, and make it no longer current." (Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. 1, pp. 276-7-8.)

The foregoing shows clearly that gold and silver coins pass for their commercial values at the money centres of the world.

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There are divers opinions on the free coinage of silver. Some public speakers and writers seem to think that it is the "government stamp" that gives value to the gold and silver coins of the United States and creates money." I refer such people to the act of congress, April 1, 1792, which provides that every fifteen pounds weight of pure silver shall be of equal value in all payments with one pound weight of pure gold, and so on, in proportion as to any greater or less quantity of the respective metals. This is the proportion of fifteen to one. The government of the United States in 1792, just one hundred years ago, treated gold and silver in accordance with their market value, the same as other merchandise.

The act of 1837 provides the amount of alloy for gold and silver coins. The aforesaid act of 1792 provides that the silver dollar contain 416 grains of standard silver, or 371 grains of pure silver. That the eagle ($10) contain 270 grains of standard gold. The act of 1837 provides that the silver dollar shall be of the value of 412 grains of silver, and the gold eagle shall contain 258 grains of gold. This shows a fluctuation in the values of gold and silver as metals in the market of the world. The United States cannot legislate for the commercial world.

The act of 1799 provides that all foreign coins shall be estimated at the following rates: Each pound sterling of Great Britain, at $1.44; each livre of France, 184 cents; each florin or guilder of the Netherlands, 40 cents; each banco of Hamburg, 333 cents; each rix dollar of Denmark, 100 cents. The acts of congress of 1801, 1806, 1823, 1834, 1846 and 1857 estimate the value of foreign coins. The act of 1834 made the proportion between gold and silver nearly as one to sixteen. That is, one ounce of gold had the commercial value of sixteen ounces of silver in the market of the commercial world. Thus the United States has treated foreign coins as so much bullion, according to their commercial value. Great Britain sets a commercial value on the coins of the United States and other countries. In Great Britain the present value of the United States dollar is four shillings twopence, British. The gold and silver coins of the United States, as well as the coins of other countries, are weighed the same as other metals. They are counted in local transactions only and in small sums for local payments; but in the payment of large sums, at home and in the money centres of the world, they are weighed as bullion and pass for their commercial value, the same as wheat and pork. All the value that coins have over the same weight of silver bullion is the stamp of the government designating the amount, quantity and quality of the metal and its legal tender in the payment of debts in the United States only.

The proportional output of silver is now, as compared with gold, greater than it was in 1873, when silver lost its legal tender quality in the payment of debts, by the act repealing the free coinage act of congress. The present commercial value of silver bullion, April, 1892, in the New York market is sixtynine and one-half cents of gold for the weight in bullion of the present silver dollar of the United States. The present silver dollar contains 371 grains of pure silver.

With improved machinery in the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, the proportion between silver and gold will still be greater. Soon the proportion between gold and silver will be as one to thirty. Chemistry and electricity have cheapened the production of silver. Ores which were rejected twenty years ago as "too refractory" for any use are now made valuable by the diamond drill, improved smelters, crushers, concentrators, great pumps, hoisting machinery and dynamite. Under this improved process the old Spanish silver mines in Mexico, Central and South America, which were abandoned, will be worked with profit. So long as the proportion between gold and silver fluctuates the question must rest on commercial value and not on the government's stamp. The United States cannot legislate for the commercial world. If the proportional value between gold and silver would not fluctuate there would be no trouble about "free coinage."

In 1890 the mines of the United States produced $32,845,000 worth of gold. There were used during that year, for purposes other than money, $18,105,901 worth of gold, which left $14,730,099 to be added to the amount used for money.

In 1890 the silver mines of the United States produced $57,225,000 worth of silver; of that amount $9,231,178 was used in the arts, leaving $47,993,822, which was used for coining purposes during the year. The rest of the world also produced large quantities of gold and silver-a very much larger amount than is used in the arts. The amount of these metals has increased faster than the population. The proportion of gold used in the arts is greater than that of silver, consequently gold will each year become scarcer for money.

The paper "money," such as greenbacks, gold and silver certificates and bank notes, are mere promises to pay in gold and silver. The government of the United States has outstanding $346,000,000 in greenbacks. The government keeps always in the treasury $100,000,000 in gold with which to redeem the greenbacks. Instead of putting the gold and silver in circulation the government for years has been issuing gold and silver certificates. By this process there are to-day over $600,000,000 of these certificates in circulation. The gold and silver deposited to redeem these certificates held by the government belong to the people who hold these certificates. A little reflection will convince any intelligent person that all of the "paper money" in circulation in the United States, including United States bonds and bank notes, is based upon gold and silver, in which it must be redeemed.

If the government from any cause should fail to redeem its obligations, the United States bonds, greenbacks and bank notes would be as worthless as the bonds and greenbacks of the Southern Confederacy. How strange it is that so many intelligent persons who remember the fate of the paper money of the Southern Confederacy should still have such fallacious notions that the government can make "fiat money" equal to gold and silver. Stranger still, that they should forget the old paper money of the state banks; that they cannot see that we have now the best paper money that we ever had. The greenbacks, bank notes, gold and silver certificates are on a par with gold and silver coins. Is there an intelligent person who does not know that the government of the United States cannot compel foreign nations to take our money for more than its value.

The following is the Latin Union of Europe on coinage of silver:

"The Latin Union is the agreement between France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Servia and Roumania to regulate the amount of silver to be

coined each year and to keep an international coin in circulation. This coin was the franc, which, under different names, was current everywhere in the Union. The agreement was begun in 1865, extended in 1880 and in 1885. It expired in 1890, but the states are still obeying it, and will do so until they choose to break it, which any state may do on six months' notice. They stopped coining silver in 1874, and have not taken it up again to any extent." The International American Conference, in session at Washington from Oct. 2, 1889, to April 19, 1890, at which all of the independent nations of North, Central and South America and the Republic of Hayti were represented. At this conference it was proposed to adopt a silver dollar which would be current in the nations represented. Unfortunately, in consequence of the agitation on the free coinage of silver in the United States, the plan fell through.

President Harrison has been endeavoring to get an international congress to meet in Washington to regulate the coinage of silver. This is a very wise plan to settle the coinage of silver as a legal tender, its amount and quality in the commercial nations of the world.

CHAPTER IX.

PENSIONS, BOUNTIES AND LAND WARRANTS.

HOSE who are opposed to the giving of pensions to the Union volunteers,

who argue that pensions, bounties and land warrants are a "public charity,' should know and remember that the officers, soldiers and sailors, their widows and minor children, of the War of the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War and several Indian wars, received land warrants, bounties and pensions. Some of the original thirteen states granted to the officers of the Revolutionary War bounty land warrants.

The legislature of North Carolina granted to Major General Green, in 1782, 25,000 acres of land for his services in the Revolutionary War. The public records show that General Grant got a land warrant for services in the Mexican War; General Sherman got two land warrants for services in the Florida and Mexican wars; President Lincoln got a land warrant for services in the Black Hawk War; General Scott got a land warrant, while commander-in-chief of the American army, for services in the War of 1812; Jefferson Davis, while secretary of war under President Pierce, got a land warrant for services in the Mexican War; Franklin Pierce, while president of the United States, got a land warrant for services in the Mexican War; John A. Logan got a land warrant for services in the Mexican War. Do the opponents of pensions to the Union "volunteers" consider them the recipients of "public charity?"

The act of Congress, March 3, 1855, provides that each of the surviving officers, non-commissioned officers, privates, whether of regulars, volunteers, rangers or militia, who were regularly mustered into the service of the United States, and every officer, commissioned or non-commissioned seaman, ordinary seamen, flotilla man, marine, clerk and landsman in the navy, in any of the wars in which this country has been engaged since 1790, and each of the survivors of the militia or volunteers or state troops of any state or territory, called into the military service and regularly mustered therein, shall be entitled to a land warrant. This act extends to wagon masters and teamsters. It embraces officers, soldiers and marines of the army and navy, during the Revolutionary War, their widows and minor children. The land warrants to be issued for fourteen days' service.

Will the opponents of pensions say that the officers, soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War were the recipients of "public charity?" The act of Congress of 1885, which was signed by President Cleveland, granting pensions to the soldiers and sailors of the Mexican War, authorizes the secretary of the interior to place on the pension roll the names of surviving officers and enlisted men, including marines, and volunteers of the military and naval service of the United States, who being duly enlisted, actually served fourteen days in the army and navy of the United States.

Thus discriminating in favor of the Mexican soldiers as against the Union soldiers, as the Union soldiers have to furnish more evidence to prove a claim than is ordinarily required to prove a civil action in the state and federal courts, causing years of delay. Will the opponents of pensions to the Union soldiers dare say that the Union soldiers and sailors have not equal rights to pensions, bounties and land warrants as the soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War? Will they say that the soldiers of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War were the recipients of "public charity?"

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