Gold standard

The articles details problems with currency and asks President Roosevelt to settle outstanding issues related to moving to the gold standard.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-14

Mrs. G. T. Carley invites Theodore Roosevelt to head the Conservers League. She discusses gold-backed currency and why she believes it is problematic. She likens features of the American west coast to body parts. She also laments the loss of her husband and implores Roosevelt to direct her on how best to serve her country.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-20

John Byrne congratulates President Roosevelt on the recent election results. Byrne is sure that Roosevelt will be one of the greatest presidents ever. He writes about the major issues the president must address.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-15

Representative Hill responds to President Roosevelt’s questions on laws governing currency. Hill is very concerned about fiat money. Hill is a proponent of a bill, presently in committee, that will move the United States back to the gold standard.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-14

Senator Knox’s views on Alton B. Parker and the Democratic Party platform are discussed and generally praised. Knox’s point that Parker’s advocacy of the gold standard is actually a testament to a Republican achievement and is an affront to many Democrats who support William Jennings Bryan is particularly commended.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-15

This advertisement for a subscription package for both the New York World and the Citizen announces the impartiality of the World in covering the upcoming elections.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-27

John Byrne congratulates President Roosevelt on the recent election results. Byrne is sure that Roosevelt will be one of the greatest presidents ever. He writes about the major issues the president must address. Roosevelt’s notes are at the top of page one.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-15

Secretary of the Treasury Shaw discusses historical events in finance and banking in relation to Republican and Democratic policies. He notes that support for the single gold standard has increased within the Republican party. Shaw frames this discussion by asking what conclusions an “intelligent stranger of a philosophical turn of mind” would come to after observing “self-governed and self-governing people.” He argues that “the consensus of mature judgment of the Republican party is usually right, and that the consensus of mature judgment of the Democratic party is usually wrong.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-23

Nelson W.Aldrich and John D. Rockefeller appear as dark-skinned men wearing skirts labeled “Gold Dust.” Aldrich stands on top of a replica of a building labeled “Stock Exchange” and holds up a replica of the U.S. Capitol building. Rockefeller stands on the ground next to him, holding up an oil can labeled “Standard Oil” and a wallet stuffed with money. Uncle Sam stands to the left, in the foreground, stroking his beard, with a concerned look on his face. Caption: (You might as well, Uncle. They’ll do it, anyway.)

comments and context

Comments and Context

The seemingly curious depiction of Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and Standard Oil’s John D. Rockefeller as little native boys is explained by the background of the cartoon. This was a parody of the popular, now obscure, brand of cleansing powder, Gold Dust Cleanser. Cartoonist J. S. Pughe clearly thought that calling the Senator and the tycoon “twins” was dispositive — and the implication presented by the word “gold.” The composition of the drawing is taken straight from a Gold Dust magazine advertisement drawn by E. W. Kemble, an occasional Puck cartoonist.

William Jennings Bryan offers a large knife labeled “16 to 1” to a laborer who is daydreaming about “Contentment.” The laborer sits next to a large bucket, labeled “1900,” of golden eggs labeled “Savings, Good wages, Steady work, No shut downs, Prosperity, [and] Good hours.” Bryan wants the laborer to use the knife to kill the goose, in the left foreground, labeled “Gold Standard” that lays the golden eggs.

comments and context

Comments and Context

“16 to 1” refers to the intentionally inflationary currency plan that would require the federal government to include silver as a medium of exchange and fix its rate at one-sixteenth of gold’s value. Especially after the discovery of major silver lodes in the West, this plan would make currency more elastic, and theoretically make economic life easier for farmers. This was one reason that both parties targeted the minds and votes of farmers in this era. The United States instead de-coupled silver, and went on the gold standard until the New Deal.

William Jennings Bryan uses the hot air from his “Speeches” to inflate a large balloon labeled “Imperialism,” of President William McKinley dressed as the “Emperor of USA,” holding a scepter in one hand and a sword in the other. On the ground nearby is a burst balloon labeled “Goldbugism.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

“Goldbugism” refers to the main thrust of William Jennings Bryan’s 1896 campaign, linking the Republicans to the gold standard and predatory monopolies. Bryan lost heavily in the Electoral College that year, and cartoonist Keppler predicted that the imperialism issue would have the same fate in the 1900 elections. It did.

A tattered old man labeled “Silver Republicans” runs into the open arms of Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna, “Chairman of Rep. Natl. Com.” Behind Hanna is a building flying the banner of “McKinley & Sound Money” and with a cow labeled “Prosperity” looking out an open window.

comments and context

Comments and Context

A fact largely forgotten by history is that on the great issues of the end of the 19th century in American politics, the two major parties were not clearly divided. Before President Cleveland’s decisive Annual Message on the tariff in 1887 (still the lone State of the Union message devoted to one subject), there were protectionists and free-traders in each party. Until the radical platform of William Jennings Bryan and the McKinley prosperity, there were a sizable number of “Silver Republicans” who resisted the gold standard of East Coast and Wall Street Republicans. The 1878 Bland-Allison Act was a bipartisan, bi-metallic measure vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes, but overridden by Congress.  McKinley himself flirted with silver coinage around 1890, and Ohio Senator John Sherman’s name was on a Silver Purchase Act, which Cleveland believed precipitated the Depression of the 1890s. By 1900, the silver-coinage issue was dead, both for apostate Republicans as this cartoon illustrates, and for the country as a whole.

Illustration showing two gladiators, one labeled “Gold Standard” and the other labeled “Silver Standard,” in a coliseum, the “Gold Standard” gladiator stands victorious over the “Silver Standard” gladiator, his sword, labeled “16 to 1” lies broken at his side.

comments and context

Comments and Context

“Survival of the fittest” is a term coined by Herbert Spencer in 1864 as his summary of Darwinian theory applied to his own economic ideas. It thereafter was adopted by Darwin himself. Since the Panic of 1873, the United States government, operating on a bimetallic basis — gold and silver convertible to specie and coin on fixed values — had a relatively unstable economy. Economic growth was influenced by an inelastic currency as well as the results of gold rushes and silver mining. The Populist revolt, 1892-1896, exacerbated by a severe depression, led to William Jennings Bryan to advocate for inflation and a value-ratio of 16 to 1, silver ounces to gold ounces. Such near-anarchy in the economy ended in 1900 with the passage of the Gold Standard Law, forever taking the United States from any reliance on silver, hence the broken “16-to-1” sword in the cartoon. In 1933 the country likewise abandoned the Gold Standard.

President Roosevelt writes to Joseph Gurney Cannon, Chairman of the Notification Committee, to formally accept his nomination as the Republican presidential candidate and to approve the platform adopted by the Republican National Convention. In the letter, Roosevelt provides a comprehensive defense of his foreign and domestic policies and outlines what he believes are the major differences between the Republican and Democratic parties in the upcoming election. Roosevelt discusses, among other topics, his position on international relations, antitrust legislation, tariffs, the gold standard, pensions for Civil War veterans, the military, civil service, commerce, agriculture, taxation, and self-government in the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-12

President Roosevelt points out a difference in the way Alton B. Parker discusses the gold standard in the media.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-12

President Roosevelt agrees with Seth Low’s view on the situation in New York. Roosevelt thinks it is curious that the “gold Democratic papers” in Chicago and Massachusetts are of a different opinion about Alton B. Parker’s actions than those in New York, which are “fairly hysterical” and ignore the Democratic Party’s attitude on the matter. Roosevelt is glad Low wrote to Elihu Root but doubts it will have any effect (probably in convincing Root to run for governor of New York).

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-14

President Roosevelt advises cooperation between Republicans and Sound Money Democrats in order to ensure “success at the polls” in Kentucky.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-10-31

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt writes to Secretary of the Interior Bliss to praise Congressman Johnson from North Dakota for his good work in the state. Roosevelt is specifically proud of the work Johnson did to establish the gold standard in North Dakota. On behalf of Johnson, Roosevelt asks Bliss to consider Herber L. Edwards for the position of Assistant Indian Commissionership. Roosevelt believes Edwards is knowledgeable and commends the work he is doing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1897-05-29

President McKinley writes to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for President and accepts the platform. He discusses his desire to uphold the gold standard and refutes the opinions of those who support the silver standard. He also comments on international affairs, including the territorial government in Alaska and Hawaii, war loans from the Spanish American War, neutrality policies in the Boer War, law and order in Cuba, and holdings in Puerto Rico and the Philippines. He also comments on domestic issues including civil service reform, the volume of United States currency, and domestic shipping. Finally, McKinley comments on insurrection and peace treaties in the Philippines, asserting his desire for peace and that no person be “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1900-09-10

In his speech on banking and currency, Andrew Carnegie compares the government bond-backed American banking system to the gold-backed European and Canadian systems and advocates for a switch from bonds to gold in American banks. Bonds are not a stable backing for currency and war could cause values to fluctuate. Carnegie is in favor of slowly, gradually, and cautiously switching to the gold standard.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-14