We defy them!
We say in our platform that we believe that the right to coin and issue
money is a function of government. We believe it. We believe that it is
a part of sovereignty, and can no more with safety be delegated to
private individuals than we could afford to delegate to private
individuals the power to make penal statutes or levy taxes. Mr.
Jefferson seems to have differed in opinion from the gentleman who has
addressed us on the part of the minority. Those who are opposed to this
proposition tell us that the issue of paper money is a function of the
bank, and that the government ought to go out of the banking business. I
stand with Jefferson rather than with them, and tell them, as he did,
that the issue of money is a function of government, and that the banks
ought to go out of the governing business.
And now, my friends, let me come to the paramount issue. If they ask us
why it is that we say more on the money question than we say upon the
tariff question, I reply that, if protection has slain its thousands,
the gold standard has slain its tens of thousands.
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