Mr. Banker: Mr. White has this to say also about the silver dollar: "The silver dollar is a larger kind of subsidiary coin, and should be treated by the Government exactly as the smaller ones are treated. The Government has received the value of a gold dollar for every silver one emitted, and is therefore bound in equity to redeem the dollars as it redeems the halves, quarters and dimes.... There are additional reasons, however, for direct redemption of the silver dollar. One is that such coins are unlimited legal tender between individuals. Another is that there is a certain amount of public apprehension and lack of confidence touching any coin which passes for more than its metallic value."
"McLeod says that in 1691 in a posthumous work Sir William Petty pointed out that one metal only should be adopted as the standard unit, and other metals should be issued as subsidiary to the standard unit. The same doctrine was advocated with great force and at great length by Locke in 1693, and also by Harris in the middle of the last century, and was finally embodied in the great masterpiece of the subject 'Lord Liverpool's Coins of the Realm,' published in 1805."
Now, gentlemen, it must be apparent to everyone that a silver dollar is only another form of a debt of Uncle Sam over there, and that unless he continues to stand ready to exchange gold dollars for silver dollars, and so keep the silver dollars in circulation at 100 cents, they would circulate at their metal or bullion value, or at about 47 cents.
Mr. Farmer, do you think that stamping One Dollar upon that silver coin, added one-hundredth part of a cent to it, or affected its value in the slightest degree? Are you not convinced that it is not money at all, but a mere debt of Uncle Sam and that it is a mere demand for One Dollar in gold, and nothing more?
Mr. Farmer: I am bound to admit that you have surprised me, indeed paralyzed me, for I thought the Silver Dollar was money, but it is certainly exactly the same sort of thing that the Greenback and the National Bank Note is, and if they are not money, neither is the Silver Dollar money.
Mr. Merchant: I am sure we all agree on that point now, but what about this silver certificate? Do you pretend, Mr. Banker, that all our Silver Certificates are not money either?
Mr. Banker: That is just what I assert, but I claim still more than that with regard to the Silver Certificate; for, if you will read it, you will find that it is only a warehouse receipt for silver dollars, which have been deposited in the United States Treasury; and therefore is not a promise to pay anything, but simply to deliver so many silver dollars, which, as I have just demonstrated, must be redeemed in gold to keep them going for 100 cents on the dollar.
Mr. Lawyer: I am going to ask one question in this connection, and that is this. The United States Notes are a legal tender for everything except to pay taxes on goods coming into the country and interest on the debt and silver dollars are a legal tender, unless the contract is made payable in something else. Does not the fact that the United States Note and the Silver Dollar are legal tender, make them money?
Mr. Laboringman: What's legal tender?