(42) A GREAT DAY FOR THE BLUE GRASS DON QUIXOTE. No man can foretell with certainty all the consequences that would follow a sudden change in our standard of value from gold to depreciated silver, but in my opinion they would be most disastrous to the material interests of our people. Of course, the obligation of all contracts existing at the time the change is made would be seriously impaired; credit, which constitutes the very foundation of all industrial and commercial activity and prosperity, would be destroyed for a long time at least; our domestic trade would be paralyzed until values could be readjusted so as to conform to the altered monetary system; the funds of widows and orphans and others in the hands of guardians, executors and other fiduciaries would be at once diminished about one-half, and the estates of the intended beneficiaries would be divided about equally between them and their trustees. -Hon. John G. Carlisle. We owe more to credit and to commercial confidence than any nation which ever existed; and ten times more than any other nation except England. Credit and confidence have been the life of our system, and powerfully productive causes of all our prosperity.-Daniel Webster. Looking abroad over the world I do not find a single country where Christianity and civilization are progressing, where the arts and the sciences are in the ascendant, where trade and commerce are growing, where schools and colleges flourish, where men and women are comparatively happy, where government is stable, and the laboring man earns a good wage for a day's work, that is not on the gold standard. On the other hand, I do not find a country where civilization and Christianity are retrograding, where the arts and sciences are backward, where schools and colleges are decaying, where revolutions are perennial, where men and women have no cause to be happy, and the laboring man is paid a miserable wage for a day's work, which is not on the silver basis. I do not say that all the highly enlightened, Christianized and prosperous nations are such because they have the gold standard, but I do say that all such nations have adopted it, demonstrating that gold is the standard of civilization and Christianity, of commerce and of labor. It is true that all progressive governments have adopted the gold standard, and that the unprogressive countries retain the silver standard. As Mexico adheres to implements of industry which the farmers of the United States discarded fifty years ago, so does it adhere to a standard of value which this country, guided by Andrew Jackson, discarded in 1834.-Hon. Josiah Patterson. I. Samuel XXII, 2. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him. The United States under a gold standard-since 1873-has maintained a greater circulation per capita than it ever did before. There has been five times more silver coined under the gold standard, from 1873 till now, 22 years, than there was under free coinage from 1792 to 1873, 81 years. Every nation that has adopted the gold standard, except one or two who are on depreciated paper basis, has increased its circulation. No nation of first-class civilization has the silver standard. -Judge Rufus Lardy at Llsboro, Texas. FIRE AND NAIL TEST.-Drive a nail through the center of a silver dollar and it is Drive a nail through a gold dollar and it is still only worth a little over fifty cents. Tried by fire, the gold dollar, when melted, is worth 100 cents. worth 100 cents. -Hon. Josiah Patterson. Tried by fire, the silver dollar, when melted, is worth about fifty-five cents. |