PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



91 



insult to charge any congressman with believing that the use of 

 any particular dollar by our great-grandfathers was a reason for 

 retaining it if the intervening period had brought into use a 

 better and more convenient substitute. We might as well use 

 the same argument for re-arming our troops with blunderbusses 

 and revert to travelling by stage coaches. The dollar of our 

 fathers was -a very protean thing, and by far the commonest form 

 it took was that of paper, the filthiest form of filthy lucre. The 

 value which they themselves put upon it is best Illustrated by 

 recalling the names they gave it, "wild cat," "red dog," "coon 

 box" money. Among the many forms of fossil dollars that of 

 183T was selected. 



Another argument which was used was that the public debt of 

 the United States consisted of bonds, which were sold for paper 

 money at a time when coin was at a very high premium, and that 

 if they were repaid even in depreciated silver, the bondholders 

 would receive far more than the first purchasers paid for them ; 

 whereas strict equity would have been moi'e than satisfied if they 

 were paid in paper. It was admitted, however, that the Act of 

 March 18th, 1869, declaring that the faith of the United States 

 was solemnly pledged to their payment in coin, settled the matter 

 so far as paper was concerned. This resolution was asserted to 

 have been unwise and unjust, and framed in the interest of bond- 

 holders at the expense of poorer tax-payers ; but it must be rec- 

 ognized as valid. But it was still left optional with the Govern- 

 ment to pay its bonds in silver, because the silver dollar was a 

 lawful coin of unlimited legal tender when that resolution was 

 passed, and the Government would be unjust to itself and to its 

 tax-payers if it did not take advantage of the option. 



This argument does not fully and fairly state the premises, and 

 is very wide of the mark in its conclusion. Whatever option 

 may have remained in 18G9 was swept away by the coinage act 

 of 18T8 leaving gold as the only lawful medium of payment. 

 That option was abandoned because gold was, and for thirty 

 years had been, the cheaper metal, and the only metal used for 

 unlimited coin payments. It was abandoned because it appeared 

 to be valueless. Nobody objected. The bondholders were satis- 

 fied because they regarded their bonds payable in gold, and ex- 

 pected nothing better or worse. The Government, which owed 

 the payments, could not help being satisfied, because it had always 

 expected to pay them in gold, and silver was the dearer metal. 

 Soon after came the fall of silver. It was sudden, unexpected, 

 and unprecedented in amount. In 1877 the cry was raised that 

 the act of 1873 had taken from the people the advantage of this 

 depreciation for scaling down their public debt, and a bill was 

 introduced for the coinage of silver dollars of 412^ grains, with 

 unlimited legal tender, and containing instructions to the Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury to pay them out in discharging the coin 

 obligations of the government. It was at once protested that 



