Judge — August 8, 1885 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE JUDGE. on “ JUDCES=— 4 E_CHARGE TO THE GYANDTURY Ladies anit Gentlemen of the Grand Jury of Public Opinion : ter of the first. importance for you is the tampering of the Clearing House of New York banks with the cur- rency of the government, and in connection with, the effect of the conduct of the | urtment on the national credit. ‘There is the more need for your action on account of the offer of the banks of New York to “lend” the government gold, pro- fessedly at the desire of the Secretary of the ‘Treasury. You will find by comparing the Treasury | statements that there was, July 30, in the vaults of the government twelve mil- | Po! lions more gold than there was in January last. Hence, you will conclude that there | is no such loss of gold balance as the banks | and the Secretary claim, and no necessity for the one’s lending or the other's borrowing | gol: Be you will decide what position your jury | ought to take regarding this false pretence | in the face of ‘I'reasury reports. You will | further have before you evidence of deception in the part of the bankers, and of bad faith to his trust on the part of the Secretary, in the reasons alleged for this strange ‘ loan,” | You will have in evidence the circular of the banks, saying + ‘The resources of the government have become immaturally absorbed by the purchase of silver bullion converted into coin dollars of inferior value | to such an extent as to constrain the officers of the treasury to force them upon an unwilling people in coins, or their Js of trade by mercial equivalents in the clearing houses [banks) of the country To temporarily shall cony offered treasury st this danger until Congress the law, the banks have of gold in the pur jury will not fail to notice that the jects here avowed by the banks are: 1. ‘To prevent silver dollargbeing paid out by the Treasury. : | 2. To prevent the use of silver or silver | certificates over their counters. | 3. To influence the action of Congress | upon silver coinage. will not fail to inquire how the banks propose to thus aid the Secretary to Boy- | cott silver dollars, and you will be surprised to read in their own circular that they pro- pose to take from the Treasury as much as twenty million dollars in small coin in ex- change for their gold. You will learn that this subsidiary coin, (halves, quarters, dimes and half-dimes) is intrinsically worth Jess | than the silver dollar, of which they profess | to have such fear, Your jury will have further evidence be- ob | decide if this is not a great sche |B fore you in support of the conclusion that the | dangers or any such lie at the bottom of this reason why the banks undertake to “force upon an unwilling people” these millions of small coin, while refusing the more valu- able dollar, is that the small coin are not legal tender, and the dollars are. You will erceive, then, that the proposition is to ury out of reach the silver which depositors and debtors can compel the banks to take and to flood the country with silver that the banks are at liberty at all times to throw out, and the government is under no obliga- tion to redeem, Thus the people might be deprived of legal to use the other silver, and become depend- ent on gold for coin payments. As the banks control the gold, it is for your jury to eto effect a corner in gold and bring about another k Friday. uch a design would explain: (1), The falsely alleged scarcity of gold; (2), the inability of the government to pay out silver dollars; (3), the anxiety of the banks to help the Secretary keep silver dollars away from their vaults ; (4), the inconsistent offer to flood the country with debased silver tokens ; (5), the avowed object of compel- ling Congress to kill the silver dollar. Your jury will find by the statutes that the Secretary of the Treasury bas no power in law to borrow this gold, nor has he the legal power to stop paying out silver dollars or to withdraw them from circulation. You should consider the question of remedies for these glaring trespasses of law and public icy. Whether there is a conspiracy on the part ender dollars and unable | of the banks forming the New York Clear- | ing House, drive out silver and operate an- other gold corner ? Whether one of their objects is to treason- ably intimidate the legislative branch of the government? Whether if either or both these unlawful | should demand of Congress the taking away of the charters of the banks that have so au- daciously undertaken to usurp government powers in finance ; or, whether criminal pro- ceedings against the members of the New York Clearing House will lie. As to Secretary Manning— Whether your jury will indict him (1) for conspiracy with bankers to defeat the opera- tions of the Bland Silver Bill ; (2), for vio- lating the laws and constitution of the United States in declaring silver not_ money and withholding it from the people. Lastly, you should consider, if the Secretary dare #0 ko far as to borrow gold on the credit of the government without authority of law, whether he should be impeached for the high act of usurpation. You will also consider carefully the gen- eral effect on public confidence and de- presed trade of this combined attack on the credit of the government, couched in the false assumption that the Treasury is so alarmingly short of gold that the phalan- thropic banks must step in and exchange good gold for * fiddler’s money.” It will be for your Grand Jury of the Public to make | solemn and searching inquest as to the de- | sign and probably eflects of this whole finan- cial coup in sucha delicate situation as the country now is in, Metaphy ical. i} strange action, your Jury of Public Opinion | | | | Professor—‘‘ So it is impos: of a man getting out of space, is it?” Student—**Yes, sir; because when we have gone as far as we can go we find we can go farther.” Prof.—‘‘ Exactly, and the same is true as regards time. Now, when you get out of time, then what?” Student—** Throw up the sponge, sir.” Ule to conceive Waiter A WHOLESALE ORDER. scont—" What reduction do you make for an order of ten plates of ice-cream?” “Why, Boss, you have only one ludy with you.” Escont—“ Yes, but she is a ten plate capacity lady.” comicbooks.com