John Sherman

In the meantime let the United States stand upon its strength and credit, maintaining its money, different kinds of money, at a parity with each other.

If the fight must be for the possession of gold, we will use our cotton and our corn, our wheat and other productions, against all the productions of mankind.

I would give them power to protect the credit of the government against all enemies at home and abroad.

I heartily and truly believe that the best thing we can now do is to suspend for time, at least, the purchase of silver bullion.

Are we bound to build up the interest of one section or one community at the expense of another or of the whole country?

The question is what ought to be done for the people of the United States in their length and breadth.

I say that instead of desiring to strike down silver we will likely build it up; and any measure that could be adopted for an international ratio that will not demonetize gold will meet my approbation and favor.

There could be no desire on the part of any portion of the people of the United States to strike down silver.

The production of silver is a great interest, and the people of Ohio are as deeply interested in the success of that interest as the people of Colorado.

In the discharge of this duty I will sweep away all party bias, all pride of opinion, all personal interest, and even the good will of my constituents, if it were necessary; but, fortunately, I believe their opinions concur with my own.

Now, as representatives of the people, we are called here in Congress to furnish such measures of relief as the law can afford.

It is the movement of fear, the belief that their money will be needed, and that they may not be able to get it when they want it.

This stringency extends to all trades and businesses; it affects even your public revenues, all forms of public and private securities, and, more than all, its stops the pay of a vast army of laboring men, of skilled mechanics, and…

Banks conducted fairly are drained of their deposits and are compelled not only to refuse all loans, but to collect their bills receivable.

Industries, great and small, all suspended by the owners, not because they cannot sell their products, but because they cannot get the money to pay for raw material and the wages of their employees.

Our country is under the pressure of a currency famine.

The problem we have to solve is how to secure to our people the largest use of both gold and silver without demonetizing either.

If Senators want cheap money and to advance prices, free coinage is the way to do it; but do not call it bimetallism.

Its chief attraction is that it enables a debtor to pay his debt contracted upon the existing standard with money of less value.

It means a nominal advance in the prices of the produce of the farmer, but a decrease in the purchasing power of his money.

It means a bounty to all banks, savings institutions, trust companies that are in debt more than their credits.

It means a repudiation of a portion of all debts, public and private.

It means a reduction in the wages of labor; not in the number of dollars, but in the quantity of bread, meat, clothes, comforts he can purchase with his daily wage.

No man will carry to the mint one ounce of gold to be coined into dollars when he can carry sixteen ounces of silver, worth but little more in the market than half an ounce of gold, and get the same number of dollars.

The free coinage of silver and gold at any ratio you may fix means the use of the cheaper metal only.