ue_ of a dollar! The dollar was first, last,
and all the time, defined to be a coin composed of 371 1/4 grains of
pure _silver_. This is the very alphabet of the matter. I have myself
set forth these facts so many times that I am ashamed to repeat them;
for it implies that there are still people in the United States so
lacking in intelligence and information as to require the reiteration of
the bottom facts and principles in our American coinage system.

Twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold never did compose a dollar
in the United States until after the year 1873. Why, therefore, should
Mr. Lepper say, "Let us assume that 25.8 grains of gold have been taken
to be one dollar"? Then he goes on to say, "Let us assume that it is
desired to supplement it [that is the gold dollar] with silver." Why
should he speak of supplementing the use of gold with silver, any more
than supplementing the use of silver with gold? There is not as good
reason for the proposition to supplement gold with silver as there is to
supplement silver with gold. Herein lies the trouble with those
gentlemen who are trying to fix up a plan by which not to do it. They
begin with a series of false hypotheses. They work along from these
false assumptions until they reach some monstrous conclusion, and then
show how sound the conclusion is because it is logical!

Genuine bimetallists do no such thing. They claim the coinage of gold
and silver on terms of absolute equality. They do not propose to measure
the silver by the gold, or the gold by the silver. They propose to have
two standard units, and to use the one unit or the other unit at the
option of the debtor. They do not propose that the creditor shall decide
in which of these money metals a debt shall be paid or a contract made
valid--simply for the reason that the two units co-exist, and every
contract and engagement made among men is made in the face of this fact,
and with the full knowledge of it, and with the understanding of what it
implies. That understanding is that at the date of settlement, the
debtor, and _not_ the creditor, shall decide in which of the two
standard metal-moneys he shall discharge his obligation. The option is
his--exclusively _his_. The transaction is honorable, right, and just.
Whoever challenges it is an abettor of the scheme for robbing the debtor
by compelling him to transact his business, and in particular to pay his
debts, according to a standard unit differing f