Show TIlE MONETARY UNIT Commenting on the declarations of silver men that silver was the monetary mone-tary unit in our government for nearly one hundred years an exchange ex-change by way of dispute cites the opinions of Jefferson and Hamilton on bimetallism to this effect Thomas Jefferson thought that the unit should stand upon both metals Alexander iHamj ton wrote him But upon the whole it seems most advisable not to attach the unit exclusively to either metal because this cannot be done effectually without destroying the character and office of one of them as money and reducing it to the situation of mere merchandise S To annul the use of either of the metals is to abridge the quantity of thecirculating medium and is liable to all the objections which arise from a comparison of the benefits of a full with the evils of a scanty circulation circula-tion Jefferson in reply to Hamilton wrote I concur with you in thinking that the unit must stand upon both metals I That is ail right and so is the statement state-ment that this is the true doctrine of bimetallism and the declaration of the Democratic party when it declared de-clared itself to be in favor of the use pf both gold and silver as the standard stand-ard money of the country was nothing noth-ing more than stating and repeating the doctrine enunciated from the earliest history of our government But all that is no contradiction of the fact ithat the silver dollar was as stated the monetary unit of the IJnited States for nearly a hundred years for it was so constituted by statute stat-ute Both gold and silver were freely coined and were equally themoney of the United States but silver was by aw the unit of values and remained so until gold was declared < to be the omit by the act of 1873 The law Is one thing the financial views of Jefferson Jef-ferson and Hamilton are another yet both are all right |