CONGRESS. (SPECIAL SESSION THE SHERMAN ACT.) 



Thf Republican party is in favor of the use of both 

 gold and silver as money, and condemns tin- polic\ ut' 

 the Democratic Administration in its cH'orts to <U- 



molicti/c silver. 



"The same party in 1892 adopted a platform 

 containing the following language : 



The American people from tradition ami interest 

 favor bimetallism, and tlic Republican party dcinaiuls 

 tlic use of both C"''' and silver as standard money, 

 such restrictions to be determined by contemplation 

 of values of the two metals, so that the purchasing and 

 debt-puyinir power of the dollar, whether of silver, 

 gold, or (taper, shall be equal at all times. 



The interests of the producers of the country, its 

 farmers and its workingmen, demand that every dol- 

 lar, paper or gold, issued by the Government shall be 

 as good as any other. We commend the wise and pa- 

 triotic steps already taken by our Government to se- 

 cure an international parity of value between gold and 

 silver tor use as money throughout the world. 



" Are the Republican members of this House 

 ready to abandon the system which the Ameri- 

 can people favor ' from tradition and interest ' ! 

 Having won a presidential election upon a plat- 

 form which condemned 'the policy of the Demo- 

 cratic Administration in its efforts to demonetize 

 silver,' are they ready to join in that demoneti- 

 zation! Having advocated the Sherman law be- 

 cause it gave an increased use of silver, are they 

 ready to repeal it and make no provisions for 

 silver at all ! Are they willing to go before the 

 country confessing that they secured the present 

 law by sharp practice, and only adopted it as an 

 ingenious device for preventing free coinage, to 

 be repealed as soon as the hour of danger was 

 passed ? 



" The Democratic platform of 1880 contained 

 these words : 



Honest monev, consisting of gold and silver, and 

 paper convertible into coin on demand. 



" It would seem that at that time silver was hon- 

 est money, although the bullion value was con- 

 siderably below the coinage value. 



" In 1884 the Democratic platform contained 

 this plank : 



We believe in honest money, the gold and silver 

 coinage of the Constitution, and a circulating medium 

 convertible into such money without loss. 



" It would seem that at that time silver was con- 

 sidered honest money. 



" In 1888 the Democratic party did not express 

 itself on the money question except by saying : 



It renewed the pledge of its fidelity to Democratic 

 faith, and reaffirms the platform adopted by its rep- 

 resentatives in the convention of 1884. 



"Since the platform of 1884 commended silver 

 as an honest money, we must assume that the re- 

 affirming of that platform declared anew that 

 silver was honest money as late as 1888, although 

 at that time its bullion value had fallen still 

 more. 



" The last utterance of a Democratic national 

 convention upon this subject is contained in the 

 platform adopted at Chicago in 1892. It is as 

 follows : 



We denounce the Republican legislation known as 

 the Sherman act of 1890 as a cowardly makeshift, 

 fraught with possibilities of danger in the future, 

 which should make all of its supporters, as well as its 

 author, anxious for its speedy repeal. We hold to the 

 use of both gold and silver as the standard money of 



the country, and to the coinage of both gold and sil- 

 ver without discrimination u^airist either metal or 

 charge for mintage, but the dollar unit of coinage of 

 both metals must be of equal intrinsic and exchange- 

 able value or be adjusted through international agree- 

 ment, or by such safeguards of legislation an shall in- 

 sure the maintenance of the parity of the two metals, 

 and the equal powerof every dollar at ull times in the 

 markets and in the payment of debts; and we demand 

 that ull paper currency shall be kept at par with and 

 redeemable in such coin. We insist ujxm this policy 

 a.- especially necessary for the protection of the farm- 

 ers and laboring classes, the lirst and most defense- 

 less victims of unstable money and a fluctuating cur- 

 rency. 



"Thus it will be seen that gold and silver have 

 been indissolubly linked together in our plat- 

 forms. Never in the history of the party has it 

 taken a position in favor of a gold standard. On 

 every vote taken in the House and Senate a ma- 

 jority of the party have been recorded not only 

 in favor of bimetallism, but for the free and un- 

 limited coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of 

 16 to 1. 



" The last platform pledges us to the use of 

 both metals as standard money and to the free 

 coinage of both metals at a fixed ratio. Does 

 any one believe that Mr. Cleveland could have 

 been elected President upon a platform declaring 

 in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Sher- 

 man law f Can we go back to our people and 

 tell them that, after denouncing for twenty years 

 the crime of 1873, we have at last accepted it as 

 a blessing ! Shall bimetallism receive its death- 

 blow in the House of its friends, and in the very 

 hall where innumerable vows have been regis- 

 tered in its defense! What faith can be placed 

 in platforms if their pledges can be violated with 

 impunity f Is it right to rise above the power 

 which created us ! Is it patriotic to refuse that 

 legislation in favor of gold and silver which a 

 majority of the people nave always demanded t 

 Is it necessary to betray all parties in order to 

 treat this subject in a ' non-partisan ' way 1 " 



Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio, though ready to sup- 

 port the measure, laid most of the business de- 

 pression to the probability of changes in the tariff 

 under the pledges made in the Democratic plat- 

 form. He said : 



" One by one the furnaces went out, one by one 

 the mines closed up. one after another the fac- 

 tories shortened their time. Why did they do 

 that f Was it a mere senseless stampede f Was 

 it a Wall-Street panic! Was it an unintelligent 

 curtailment of tne business of the country ! I 

 say not. Where is there an intelligent man to- 

 day, if he were a manufacturer, with this threat 

 of the presence of the Democratic party in pow- 

 er, the menace of its presence, the threat of its 

 mere existence under that platform, and confid- 

 ing, as human nature does, in the belief that a 

 great political party will do what it says it will 

 do a violent presumption, I will admi't. in the 

 present instance what one of you at the head 

 of an industrial institution would carry on your 

 business ! 



" Let. me ask you now to put this question to 

 your constituents : What one of you at the head 

 of an institution that manufactured something, 

 anything, any one of the great institutions of the 

 country employing laboring men, would make 

 anything if you did not have a contract for its 



