The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—PoliticalIngersoll, Robert Green
History
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Political
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
And yet this statesman calls this silver the money of our fathers. Well,
let us see. Our fathers did some good things. In 1792 they made gold and
silver the standards, and at a ratio of 15 to 1. But where you have two
metals and endeavor to make a double standard it is very hard to keep
them even. They vary, and, as old Dogberry says, "An two men ride of a
horse, one must ride behind." They made the ratio 15 to 1, and who did
it? Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson, the greatest
man, with one exception, that ever sat in the presidential chair. With
one exception. [A voice: "Who was that?"] Abraham Lincoln. Alexander
Hamilton, with more executive ability than any other man that ever
stood under the flag. And how did they fix the ratio? They found the
commercial value in the market; that is how they did it. And they went
on and issued American dollars 15 to 1; and in 1806, when Jefferson was
President, the coinage was stopped. Why? There was too much silver in
the dollars, and people instead of passing them around put them aside
and sold them to the silversmiths.
Then in 1834 the ratios changed; not quite sixteen to one. That was
based again on the commercial value, and instead of sixteen to one they
went into the thousands in decimals. It was not quite sixteen to one.
They wanted to fix it absolutely on the commercial value. Then a few
more dollars were coined; and our fathers coined of these sacred dollars
up to 1873, eight millions, and seven millions had been melted.
In 1853 the gold standard was in fact adopted, and, as I have told you,
from 1792 to 1873 only eight millions of silver had been coined.
What have the "enemies of silver" done since that time? Under the act
of 1878 we have coined over four hundred and thirty millions of these
blessed dollars. We bought four million ounces of silver in the open
market every month, and in spite of the vast purchases silver continued
to go down. We are coining about two millions a month now, and silver is
still going down. Even the expectation of the election of Bryan cannot
add the tenth of one per cent, to the value of silver bullion. It is
going down day by day.
But what I want to say to-night is, if you want silver money, measure it
by the gold standard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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