Mr. Lepper says further: "Let us assume that 25.8 grains hitherto have been taken to be one dollar." But it is not true that 25.8 grains of gold have hitherto in our American system been taken to be one dollar. It is true that, according to our fundamental statute, and to all subsequent statutes down to the year 1873, 25.8 grains of gold were taken to be of _the value_ of a dollar; but they were not a dollar. Our gold eagles were of _the value_ of ten dollars; our half eagles were of _the value_ of five dollars; our double eagles were of _the value_ of twenty dollars; our quarter eagles were of _the value_ of two and one-half dollars; our one-dollar gold piece, of 1849, was _not_ one dollar, but was of _the value_ of a dollar! The dollar was first, last, and all the time, defined to be a coin composed of 371 1/4 grains of pure _silver_. This is the very alphabet of the matter. I have myself set forth these facts so many times that I am ashamed to repeat them; for it implies that there are still people in the United States so lacking in intelligence and information as to require the reiteration of the bottom facts and principles in our American coinage system. Twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold never did compose a dollar in the United States until after the year 1873. Why, therefore, should Mr. Lepper say, "Let us assume that 25.8 grains of gold have been taken to be one dollar"? Then he goes on to say, "Let us assume that it is desired to supplement it [that is the gold dollar] with silver." Why should he speak of supplementing the use of gold with silver, any more than supplementing the use of silver with gold? There is not as good reason for the proposition to supplement gold with silver as there is to supplement silver with gold. Herein lies the trouble with those gentlemen who are trying to fix up a plan by which not to do it. They begin with a series of false hypotheses. They work along from these false assumptions until they reach some monstrous conclusion, and then show how sound the conclusion is because it is logical!