Appendix. 115 Concurrent Resolution Passed by Senate and House of Representatives in 1878. Resolved, That all the bonds of the United States issued under the acts of Congress of July 14, 1870, and January 14, 1875, are payable, principal and interest, at the option of the government of the United States, in silver dollars of the coinage of the United States containing 4121⁄2 grains each of standard silver, and that to restore to its coinage such silver coins as a legal tender in payment of said bonds, principal and interest, is not in violation of the public faith nor in derogation of the rights of the public creditor." From Treasury Department Circular July 1, 1896, Gold coins and standard silver dollars being standard coins of the United States are not "redeemable." Valuation of Foreign Coins (Act of Oct. 1, 1890). The value of foreign coins as expressed in the money of account of the United States shall be that of the pure metal of such coin of standard value; and the values of the standard coins in circulation of the various nations of the world shall be estimated quarterly by the Director of the Mint and be proclaimed by the Secretary of the Treasury immediately after the passage of this act and thereafter quarterly on the 1st day of January, April, July, and October in each year. money. From the Republican National Platform of 1896. The Republican party is unreservedly for sound It caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption of specie payments in 1879, and since then every dollar has been as good as gold. We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are, therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be preserved. All our silver and paper money must be maintained at a parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably the obligations of the United States, and all our money, whether coin or paper, at the present standard, the standard of the most enlightened nations of the earth. From the Platform of the Gold Democrats of 1896. The experience of mankind has shown that, by reason of their natural qualities, gold is the necessary money of the large affairs of commerce and business, while silver is conveniently adapted to minor transactions, and the most beneficial use of both together can be ensured only by the adoption of the former as a standard of monetary measure and the maintenance of silver at a parity with gold by its limited coinage under suitable safeguards of law. From the Democratic National Platform of 1896. Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the Constitution names silver and gold together as the money metals of the United. States, and that the first coinage law passed by Congress under the constitution made the silver dollar the money unit of value and admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silverdollar unit. We declare that the act of 1873, demonetizing silver without the knowledge or approval of the American people, has resulted in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of commodities produced by the people; a heavy increase in the burden of taxation and of all debts, public and private; the enrichment of the moneylending class at home and abroad, prostration of industry, and impoverishment of the people. We are unalterably opposed to monometallism, which has locked fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the paralysis of hard times. Gold monometallism is a British policy, and its adoption has brought other nations into financial servitude to London. It is not only un-American, but antiAmerican, and it can be fastened on the United States only by the stifling of that indomitable spirit and love of liberty which proclaimed our political independence in 1776, and won it in the war of the Revolution. We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand that the standard silver dollar shall be a full legal tender, equally with gold, for all debts, public and private, and we favor such legislation as will prevent for the future the demonetization of any kind of legal-tender money by private contract. We are opposed to the policy and practice of surrendering to the holders of the obligations of the United States the option reserved by law to the government of redeeming such obligations in either silver coin or gold coin. We are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing bonds of the United States in time of peace, and condemn the trafficking with banking syndicates which, in exchange for bonds and at an enormous profit to themselves, supply the federal Treasury with gold to maintain the policy of gold monometallism. Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and President Jackson declared that this power should not be delegated to corporations or individuals. We therefore denounce the issuance of notes intended to circulate as money by national banks, as in derogation of the constitution, and we demand that all paper which is made a legal tender for public and private debts, or which is receivable for duties to the United States, shall be issued by the government of the United States and shall be redeemable in coin. |