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Constitution of the United States, Article 1.

Section VIII. Paragraph 1.—“ The Congress shall have power . . . Paragraph 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures."

Section x. Paragraph 1.-" No State shall... make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts."

The above shows the "historic and just position" of silver as a money metal under our Constitution. See page 24.

Appendix.

81

Democratic Platform.

"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 silver without discriminating against either metal, or charge for mintage, but the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value, or be adjusted through international agreement, or by such safeguards of legislation as shall insure the maintenance of the parity of the two metals, and the equal power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the payment of debts; and we demand that all paper currency shall be kept at par with and redeemable in such coin."--Democratic National Convention held in Chicago, 21st June, 1892.

66

Republican Platform.

The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bimetallism, and the Republican party demands the use of both gold and silver as standard money, with such restrictions and under such provisions, to be determined by legislation, as will secure the maintenance of the parity of values of the two metals, so that the purchasing and debt-paying power of the dollar, whether of silver, gold, or paper, shall be at all times equal."-Republican National Convention, June 7, 1892.

"Every dollar put into the hands of the people should be of the same intrinsic value or purchasing power. With this condition absolutely guaranteed, both gold and silver can be utilized upon equal terms in the adjustment of our currency.' -Hon. GROVER CLEVELAND's letter, September 26, 1892, accepting the Democratic nomination.

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"The Republican party is friendly to a restitution of silver to a place of honor

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among the money metals of the world. (Applause.) Some of my friends in the West thought I was uttering new doctrines when I declared that I believed the free use of silver upon an international agreement that would assure its continued equality with gold, would do more than anything that I know of, save the establishment of the protection principle, to bring again prosperity into our commerce. (Applause.) The trouble upon this ques

tion has been that some of our Western friends would not receive any man as the friend of silver who believed that we could not coin it freely and maintain its parity with gold without coming into an arrangement with the other great commercial nations of the world.

They should have been more liberal. I believe to-day that we can see in England, the nation that has stood most strongly against the larger use of silver, and in Germany, a nation that has followed England, the clear indications of the growth of a sentiment for an international agreement upon this question.

It is increasing in power; and I believe, if rightly and wisely encouraged and directed from America, it will finally bring other nations, by the compulsion of their own necessities, into accord with us upon this subject." (Applause.)—ExPresident HARRISON-Speech at Indianapolis, April 25, 1894.

"The established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio or such ratio as may be provided by law."-Act of Congress, November 1, 1893.

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'Whether it [money] be gold or silver or both, or paper based upon the coins of the two metals, the people have a right to demand that it shall be in fact what it purports to be—a just and true measure of value, or the representative of a just and true measure of value.”—Hon. JOHN G. CARLISLE, Secretary of the Treasury. -Speech at Chamber of Commerce Banquet, November 21, 1893.

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