COIN REDEMPTION FUND

Speech of Hon. Josiah Patterson, of Tennessee, in the House of Representatives, Friday, February 7, 1896Mr. Chairman-it is unfortunate for the country that a purely scientific prob lem directly affecting the public welfare should have become involved in partisan politics. It is unfortunate for any servant of the people in these halls to be made to feel that his political fortunes depended on his action when called upon to decide for his country an issue of such moment. we are all men, and I shall not pause to speculate how far our judgments may be obscured or our actions deter mined by considerations personal to ourselves. I will say, however, it is our duty to deal frankly with the country and with one another, and as best we can, and as patriotically as we can, to discuss this great problem in the light of reason and common sense.The issue, Mr. Chairman, is not whether we shall elect to adopt a bimetallic standard of gold and silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. If that was the question it would carry in this House by a practically unanimous vote. It is not a question of choice. It is not a question of desire. It is one of power.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.