In 1861 our country was engaged in civil war, and the greenbacks were
issued as money, and were at once looked upon as a cheaper money than
either gold or silver and immediately drove both gold and silver out
of circulation and kept them out of circulation for seventeen years, or
until we resumed specie payment in 1879. The history of these seventeen
years is another instance where the cheaper money was victorious and
drove out of circulation the higher priced money. Mr. Harvey no less
than four times in his recent speech in this city gave the following
definition of bimetallism: "Bimetallism is the right to use either of
the two metals for money." This condensed answer bears about the same
relation to the correct definition of bimetallism as the Boy Orator
of the Platte compares with those intellectual giants whom he seeks
to imitate, but without success, the immortal Washington and Lincoln.
(Applause). Bimetallism as is understood in the discussion of our
financial question, is the use of both gold and silver as money;
both legal tender money, and the legal ratio between the two metals
determined from the commercial ratio. Throughout Mr. Harvey's published
works and lectures we find him affirming the false principle that money
is a creature of law, and that by operation of law the commercial ratio
between gold and silver can be made to conform with the legal ratio of
16 to 1. Let us follow the author of "Coin's Financial School" for a few
moments, and see where this false principle will carry us.
TO-DAY THE COMMERCIAL RATIO BETWEEN SILVER AND GOLD IS ABOUT 32 TO 1.
MR. HARVEY CLAIMS THAT IF HIS THEORIES ARE SPREAD UPON OUR STATUTE BOOKS
THAT IN A VERY SHORT TIME THE COMMERCIAL RATIO WILL BE 16 TO 1. IF MR.
HARVEY POSSESSES THE SUPERHUMAN POWER OF REDUCING THE VALUE OF GOLD
ONE-HALF, OR DOUBLING THE PRICE OF SILVER, WHICHEVER YOU WILL, AND BRING
THEM TO A COMMERCIAL PARITY AT 16 TO 1, THEN INDEED WOULD HE BE FALSE TO
THE CITIZENS OF THIS REPUBLIC IF HE DID NOT ADD A LITTLE MORE POWER
TO HIS "KEELEY-MOTOR" THEORY, (APPLAUSE) AND MAKE THE COMMERCIAL RATIO
BETWEEN GOLD AND SILVER 15 TO 1, THE SAME AS IT WAS IN 1792, OR BETTER
STILL, IF IT IS A BLESSING TO HUMANITY TO LOWER THE RATIO BETWEEN GOLD
AND SILVER, THEN APPLY A LITTLE MORE OF THIS OCCULT POWER AND MAKE THE
RATIO 13 TO 1, THE SAME AS IT WAS IN 1620, WHEN OUR ANCESTORS CAME OVER
IN THE MAYFLOWER; OR APPLY THE SAME FORCE WITH RENEWED ENERGY AND BRING
THE RATIO DOWN TO 10 TO 1, THE SAME AS IT WAS IN 1492. INDEED, IF THIS
PRINCIPLE IS A BOON TO HUMANITY, AND HIS THEORIES ARE NOT FALSE, WHY NOT
PUSH THE WORK ALONG AND MAKE THE RATIO BETWEEN GOLD AND SILVER 1 TO 1?
(APPLAUSE.)
My fellow citizens, in following my friend Harvey, you are led into a
labyrinth abounding with impossibilities and as impracticable as the
theory of perpetual motion. When the earth is proven to be flat instead
of a globe, when water runs up-hill, when the law of gravitation ceases
to be operative, when the tail wags the dog and not the dog the tail,
then, and not till then, may we seriously consider these perpetual
motion, "Keeley Motor" theories of Mr. Harvey and other double standard
advocates. (Great Applause). If we were unable to keep both metals
circulating side by side when there was a slight discrepancy of only two
or three cents in their intrinsic value, does any intelligent or sane
man believe for a moment whether he is a student of Coin's Financial
School or not, that if we throw open our mints to the free and unlimited
coinage of 52-cent dollars, that they would not at once drive out
of circulation the $630,000000 of gold, now constituting more than
one-third of our circulating medium? If gold, so important a factor in
our medium of exchange both at home and abroad, should retire before
silver--the cheaper money (and the light of experience surely proves
that it would) can any one doubt that we would at once go on to a silver
basis? Can any one doubt that the $625,300,000 of silver now used as
money in this country would not instantly be cut in two so far as its
purchasing power is concerned--that is, shrink from 100 cents, its face
or nominal value, to 52 cents, its bullion value? In the light of past
experience it would surely be a sad commentary on our intelligence as
an enlightened nation, if we had learned nothing in 100 years. If the
illustrious Hamilton and Jefferson were alive, they would, by pursuing
the same policy which actuated them in determining the money of the
constitution, fix the ratio to-day at about 32 to 1, simply because the
relative or market value of the two metals has varied to that extent.