But I thought we ought also to declare our willingness,
if the great commercial nations of the earth would agree,
to establish a bimetallic system on a ratio to be agreed upon.
Some of the enemies of the Republican Party, who could not
adopt the Democratic plan for the free coinage of silver,
without contradicting all their utterances in the past, denounced
this proposal as a subterfuge, a straddle, an attempt to deceive
the people and get votes by pledges not meant to be carried
out.
I believed then, and I believe now, that we were right in
demanding that the Republican Party should go into the campaign
with the declaration I have stated.
It is true that you cannot give value to any commodity by
law. It is as idle to attempt to make an ounce of silver
worth as much as an ounce of gold by legislation, as it is to
try to make one pound weigh two pounds, or one yard measure
two yards. You cannot increase the price of a hat, or a coat,
or a farm, by act of Congress. The value of every article,
whether gold or silver, whether used as money or as merchandise,
must depend upon the inexorable law of demand and supply.
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