Price 35 Cents;
" There are thousands hacking around in the branches of evil to one
who Is striking at the root."—HENRY D. THOREAU.
PLANS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR ITS ISSUE AND DISTRIBUTION
BY
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Author of the Pennsylvania Monetary System. Father of the present Postal System.
The first to search the skies for Flectrical Power. The first to invent an Klectro-Magnetic Fngine.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Author of the Declaration of Independence. Third President of the United States.
The greatest Conqueror of hands in the World, and that by Peaceful means.
ANDREW JACKSON
Who restored the government to the people and drove the rascals out of tne United States Treasury.
Seventh President of the United States.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Chief in the greatest war history records, who restored the Union and Emancipated the Slave,
Sixteenth President of the United States. Martyred for our National Institutions.
AND OTHER EMINENT MEN,
BY
GEORGE O. HACKSTAFF.
Published by THE CALDWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY
123 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO.
Money Reform Library Series. Issued Quarterly. Vol. i. No. i, Oct. 1895
Price, One Dollar Per Year
Entered at the Post Office as second-class mail matter.
Very Important
The author ot THE NATION'S MONEY believes that
he has demonstrated, to a d(3gree that ought to satisfy
any fair mind, that the National Constitution's financial
division is drawn up so as to leave the United States
Monetary System at the mercy of designing and schem¬
ing men and combinations of men, and that we should
bring this condition to tne attention of the people, and
get their minds centered upon it at the earliest moment
possible.
With this in view, the author invites correspondence
for the purpose of shaping up a general policy of laying
before the people the proposed amendments to the Na¬
tional Constitution, and concentrating the people's action
upon them.
It is hoped that every man who reads this book will
consider himself a committee of one to take up the work
and push it. Any advice or instruction the author may
be able to give will be gladly given, in championing these
principles.
GEORGE C. HACKSTAFF,
Chicago, 111.
176 Harrison Street.
THE NATION'S MONEY
Usual Discounts to Dealers or Agents.
CALDWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY
176 Hanison Street, CHICAGO, ILL.
THE
Nation's Money
• ••• iJ A 9
GEORGE C. HACKSTAFF.
published by
CALDWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY,
123 Dearborn Street, Chicago.
Anftug
3 ^3.
H-1 S. d ^
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
TO THOSE MEN
WHO DESIRE TO PERPETUATE A
DEMOCRATIC-REPRESENTATIVE
CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
BY ITS
AUTHOE.
CopyrlgMed by George C. Hackstaff wltb Librarian of Congress,
WasbingtoD, D. C., 1895.
Financial Emphatics.
"Without it (money) everything else is as nothing.'^-
Thomas H. Benton,
^W^ithont money we cannot conceive of commerce.-'—
Daniel Webster.
^^oney is created by law."—Aristotle.
"A reduction of circulation must tend to lower prices."
—Lord Overstones.
"For the value of money, in general is the quantity of
all money in the world, * m to all the trade."—
John Locke,
3
^IHA^CÎAL lîMPHATICS.
"The deinarrrj foc money is regulated entirely by its
value, and its value by its quantity."—David Kieardo.
"In this sense, to say that the quantity of money regu¬
lates prices is only the same thing as to say of any article
that is bought or sold, that its quantity is a material
factor in determining its value."—Kobert Griffen.
"Our whole monetary system is the result of make-shift
legislation and unscientific compromises. It is time reform
began."—Lyman Oage.
"It is dangerous for our Government to be in partner¬
ship with our citizens or foreigners."—Thomas H. Benton.
"Conservatism is an excellent principle when it serves
as a bulwark against the commission of abuses, but it is
a most baleful principle when it is exerted against the cor¬
rection of errors."—Daniel G. Elliott.
4
Financial Theses.
I.—That the people carry the monetary principle to and
»
deposit it with their sovereign Government, in order to
give it practical and uniform effect.
IL—It is the duty of the Government to furnish to the
people of which it is the representative, a properly
printed, issued and equitably distributed medium of ex¬
change, based upon natural financial laws.
III.—That a medium of exchange must be limited in
amount.
IV.—It must be of a material which is capable of hold¬
ing and preserving the stamp of representation of the
sovereign power, and it must be convenient to transport,
and to pass from hand to hand, and capable of withstand¬
ing the wear of usage, and hard to counterfeit.
V.—^It must be issued in denominations suitable to aid
and facilitate business transactions.
VI.—The total amount to be issued must be governedii
by the amount of population.
VII.—It should be equitably distributed, that no in¬
justice be done to any individual
5
Relevant Quotations
"The money power will work on the prejudices of the
people until all wealth is aggregated and the Republic
destroyed. " Abraham Lincoln.
"The nation should begin to speak the truth to itself, to
have done with shams, and to deal with realities-"
Senator Howe.
"Talk about the tyrannies and despotism of the old world!
They , are hardly to be compared with the tremendous power
of the Secretary of the Treasury, who holds between his
thumb and finger the business interest of the whole country.
The power of making money scarce or plenty. It is not
possible to administer such a trust wisely. No man ever
rived who could administer it honestly. "
New York Tribune.
"The enormous power claimed and exercised by the
Treasury Department was not and should not be given to
any officiai. The pretensions to such power is monstrous."
Banker's Magazine.
"Mr. Carlisle's statement to the New York Bankers makes
it clear, while Mr. Cleveland works in Congress, the
Bankers will be expected to work, not in New York only,
but throughout the country, doing their utmost to pinch
business everywhere, in expectation of causing a money
crisis." New York Sun.
Introductory
Tt ÎS the desire of the writer in issuing this work to call
the people's attention to principles that are being over¬
looked in diagnosing the national disease that now pre¬
vails, and which are:
First. A people do endow their chief Government
with the faculty of functionizing a material, or several
materials as a medium of exchange.
Second. The chief Government always accepts this
principle as one of its duties..
Third. That this functionized medium of exchange is
positively necessary in order to properly distribute the
products of the people among themselves. Its absence
will soon work their destruction. What the blood is to the
human body, the medium of exchange is to the social body.
Fourth. There is no well-defined system, or limitations
in our National Constitution to govern the issue and dis¬
tribution of this medium of exchange, or to protect it from
the schemes of designing men. What distribution
now takes place is governed by favoritism, and a certain
class and a certain section gets all its benefits at the ex¬
pense of all other classes and sections of the country.
The national officials can favor who they please with these
benefits, as the Constitution now does not prohibit such
acts.
The lack of these safeguards in the Constitution was
not an oversight in the men who constructed it. But on
the contrary, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison,
who were the chief leaders in the Convention of 1787,
9
INTRODUCTORY.
determined to liave these principles inserted into the
Constitution, with all the safeguards possible, but were
defeated in a long combat for it by the resignation of the
New York delegation, consisting of Hamilton, Lansing
and Yates, and their threats that they would break up the
Union if the matter was persevered in. They claimed their
State would not adopt a Constitution with such principles
in it, and if it did not, it would divide the Union, the New
England States could not form a Government with the
Southern States, without the intervening State of New
York, and that they held the key to the siuation.
This condition prevailed for nearly six weeks, when
Franklin and Madison surrendered, and a compromise
was made in which the monetary language now in the
Constitution was agreed to be inserted, and that Hamil¬
ton was to be the first Secretary of the Treasury.
These proceedings almost broke Franklin's heart, for he
knew what this meant, for he was the ablest financial
student the world had then produced. He had lived fifty
years under a financial system, proposed by himself, and
adopted by the people of Pennsylvania, which had brought
wonderful prosperity and wealth to that ostracised people,
so much so that they were the marvel of the world, and
the British Parliament had become afraid that they would
wrest from the British the control of the seas. Franklin
wanted to bring these principles into the national life,
and when he was defeated by a wicked and designing
man, it seemed more than he could bear. But in the
closing hours of the Convention, he asked that the bless¬
ing of Divine Providence should fall upon this country,
and hoped that the American people would rise to the
emergencies that would come to them, and safely weather
all storms.
That they have weathered storms is true, and still have
a greater storm to weather, is also true.
LO
ilN i ltUJJ U U lA-^JTw. X ,
For the purpose of bringing as much light on to the
financial question as possible, the writer has brought in
the writings and opinions, in a condensed form, of Frank¬
lin, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and other eminent men,
so that the reader can have as much intelligence and
testimony as the limited space will allow.
This people are in great financial distress, and it is the
duty of every citizen to study this question, and bring to
bear his honest good sense in helping to bring about a
solution. Every man has a voice, and that voice should
be for the right and for justice.
J1
Defining Monetary Words.
Our money language is still in a crude state. The
words to express the names of different thoughts or com¬
bined principles are not yet coined, and if these writings
shall be meritorious enough to be preserved for the read¬
ing of some future student, it is easy to anticipate that
smile that will play around his countenance at these
homely attempts to explain natural financial laws in the
present language.
The writer defines money to mean the mental operation
more particularly—but in addition, it is used, as the word
"electricity" is used, and that is, to cover both electrical
and magnetical operations—so the word money is used
to cover monetary principles, and the operation of the
mind, and sometimes the medium of exchange—while by
medium of exchange is meant what is known as cash or
currency, not coarsely as bankers use these words, but as
they should be used. We have things circulating only by
comity, which are not properly mediums of exchange, and
yet they move products. To define medium of exchange
strictly, it is that that is always a medium of exchange,
with no exception clauses, but a full legal tender for in¬
debtedness for all governments and all corporations and
individuals of this sovereign Government, and including
itself.
To illustrate what is meant by mental money opera¬
tions we will take an apple as the subject:
Here is an apple on the table ; it is a tangible, percepti¬
ble and palpable substance, Tvhile in the mind is another
apple, which is not the apple on the table mirrored, it is
an ideal, incorporeal, immaterial action of the mind, and
it has mental life.
The action of the mind is almost constant in rationing
or valuing such things as are used by the human family,
and the writer believes this comes under the head of
money, while dollars and cents, which are material, comes
under the head of medium of exchange.
12
The Nation's Money
Contents.
Page.
FINANCIAL EMPHATICS 3
FINANCIAL THESES 5
INTRODUCTORY 9
DEFINING MONETARY WORDS 12
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (PLAN) 15
THOMAS POWNAL ON FRANKLIN'S PLAN 37
DAVID HUME ON FRANKLIN'S PLAN 38
EDMUND BURKE ON FRANKLIN'S PLAN 41
PETER COOPER ON FRANKLIN'S PLAN 42
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S PLAN 43
ANDREW JACKSON'S PROPOSITIONS 53
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S PROPOSITIONS 57
ARCHIBALD ALLISON ON MONEY 62
NATURAL MONETARY LAWS 63
AMENDMENTS TO THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION 71
ARGUMENTS FOR THE AMENDMENTS 79
MONETARY BLESSINGS 85
AREA OF STATES COMPARED 87
ENGRAVING AND PRINTING FACTORY 88
MIXED CURRENCIES 89
THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF THE GOVERNMENT IN ISSU¬
ING OF CURRENCY 91
THE POWER OP THE NATIONAL TREASURY 95
BUSINESS THERMOMETER 98
FUNCTIONS 100
CONGRESS AND EXECUTIVE 102
A SAMPLE LAW 108
INFLATION 109
CONTENTS.
Page.
CONTRACTION 110
GREENBACKS NEVER WERE DEPRECIATED 112
PANICS—HOW MADE 116
THE NEW YORK COMBINE'S POWER 126
PROPERTY AND PRODUCTS BEING DESTROYED 130
IDLENESS' COST 134
UNCLE SAM'S PARTNERS' PROPOSITION 135
IT IN A NUTSHELL 139
CREDIT—ITS LAWS 140
PRICES—THEIR LAWS 141
BANK MONEY ISSUES 143
PROSPERITY—METAL MONEY 144
IF ONLY A GOLD CURRENCY 145
GOLD—EXPLANATORY 147
FINANCIAL MISCELLANY 148
JOHN LOCKE SAID 155
BULLION FALLACIES... 156
INTRINSIC VALUE FALLACIES 158
FLOOD OP FOREIGN MONEY FALLLACY 159
FOREIGN INVESTORS' FALLACY 160
SILVER MINE OWNER FALLACY 162
ELASTIC AND REDEMPTION FALLACIES 163
GOVERNMENT DESTRUCTION FALLACY 165
FREE COINAGE 166
TO FRIENDS OF FREE COINAGE 169
TO THE BANKER 170
TO THE FARMER 176
TO THE ARTISAN 184
IGNORANCE—SUPERSTITION 185
SOME QUESTIONS 186
WAGONS AS AN ILLUSTRATION 187
MORE QUESTIONS 188
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND ART 189
CITIZENSHIP 190
Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia about the
time the people were commencing to feel the want and
penury caused by the want of a proper medium of ex¬
change, and the subject affected his mind very much, and
it is easy to suppose that it was not long before he was
searching all literature that it was possible for him to
come in contact with, that in any way threw light on the
subject. Luckily for him the decade of 1680 had been
prolific in this literature, especially in England and the
Netherlands, which had resulted in driving James 11.
from the English throne, and establishing Mary and
William of Orange upon it, and also chartering that hor¬
rible tyrant, the Bank of England. All this literature
was fresh in Franklin's mind, and it early evolved the idea
that despotism always gets control of the issue of the
medium of exchange in order to more securely hold the
people in bondage, and this thought aroused him to his
grand and active life to liberate Americans from European
despotisms, and he began traveling over the country
urging the people to unite against Britain, while Wash¬
ington was still a baby, and Jefferson was not yet born.
Within the limbec of his mind coarse European finan¬
cial ideas became refined, and came forth purified, prac¬
tical propositions. What Columbus was to the idea of
the rotundity of the earth, Franklin was to the principle
of distributing of the products by the intervention of a
medium of exchange, which had its own laws. Franklin
did not understand all these laws but he understood
enough to propose a system derived from what he did
know, that was accepted by the State of Pennsylvania,
15
16
PHE NATION'S MONEY.
and which worked with marvelous good effects for fifty
years; so much so, that it has been the theme pf scholars
and statesmen for a hundred and fifty years. Franklin
believed in monetary principles as the ancients believed
in regard to the earth, that it must rest on something,
that there must be a basis. It had not yet dawned on his
mind that money was a creation of the Creator, solely and
separately from any other factor, that it stood out alone,
as the earth stands out in the heavens controlled only
by the laws of attraction and gravitation. His great mind
had not as yet conceived that its material part bore no
relation to its functional, further than as a mere vehicle,
or that metal or labor could not increase its functional
force or powers. That the natural monetary laws are as
powerful in their sphere as the laws of attraction or gravi¬
tation are in their spheres. A people evolve a monetary
system, as the growth of a planet evolves gravitation or
attraction systems, and the monetary system will be weak
or strong as the people are weak or strong intellectually.
But Franklin's monetary proposition will be the marvel
of thinking men, when the times, the conditions and es¬
pecially his age is considered. He was not acquainted,
as his successors were, with the ways of designing men,
and when Hamilton's stroke came in the Constitutional
Convention of 1787 he was little prepared to meet it—the
old oak bent to the storm. He had no conception that men
would combine to seize and control the treasury of a na¬
tion, not understanding the quantitative principles of
money, he did not know how they could make it remunera¬
tive to themselves, that we so thoroughly understand now.
Jefferson had more light on this branch of the subject,
and succeeded in holding the combine down during his
two administrations, but made no headway in destroying
the monster. He begged the people to issue to themselves
their medium of exchange, but never laid before them a
THE NATION'S MONEY
17
proposition but that was only temporary in its effects, and
would require constant renewing, which made it the open
prey of the combine, and, therefore, impossible to per-
petuate. While Jackson's monetary ideas were crude, he
knew a great wrong had been perpetrated in chartering
the national bank and allowing it to issue the medium of
exchange, and in calling the people's attention to this, he
brought out the true doctrine that should prevail, and
that is, that in divesting the banks of control of the issue
and distribution of the medium of exchange, it should not
be invested in the Executive, and Jackson should have
added, nor in Congress. If a Constitution is necessary at
all, and that it is no intelligent person doubts, it is neces¬
sary to protect our medium of exchange from the thou¬
sands of designs of corrupt officials and corrupt men.
•
From the firing of the first guns of this new nation
until this hour, there has been an irrepressible conflict
between the people on the one hand and the Wall street
schemers on the other to control the medium of exchange
of this people. And the people have got to conquer or be
conquered, and to be conquered is to be destroyed.
But here is Franklin's essay and it is entitled—
THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF A PAPER CUR¬
RENCY.
There is a certain proportionate quantity of money
requisite to carry on the trade of country freely and cor¬
rectly; more than which would be of no advantage in
trade, and less, if much less, exceedingly detrimental to it.
This leads us to the following general considerations:
First. A great want of money of any trading country
occasions interest to be at a very high rate. And here it
may be observed that it is impossible by any laws to re-
n
THE NATION'S MONEY.
strain men from giving and receiving exorbitant interest
where money is suitably scarce; for he that wants money
will find out ways to give 10 per cent when he cannot have
it for less, although the law forbids to take more than 6
per cent. Now, the interest of money being high is preju¬
dicial to a country several ways. It makes land bear a
low price, because few men will lay out their money in
land when they can make a much greater profit by lending
it out upon interest. And much less will men be inclined
to venture their money at sea when they can, without risk
or hazard, have a great and certain profit by keeping it at
home ; thus trade is discouraged. And, if in two neighbor¬
ing countries the traders of one, by reason of a greater
plenty of money can borrow it to trade with at a lower
rate than the traders of the other, they will infallibly have
the advantage and get the greatest part of that trade into
their own hands; for he that trades with money he hath
borrowed at 8 or 10 per cent cannot hold market with him
that borrows his money at 6 or 4.
On the contrary, a plentful currency will occasion in¬
terest to be low and this will be an inducement to many
to lay out their money in lands rather than put it out to
use, by which means lands will begin to rise in value, and
bear a better price, and at the same time it will tend to
enliven trade exceedingly because people will find more
profit in employing their money that way than in. usury,
and many that understand business very well, but have
not a stock sufficient of their own will be encouraged to
borrow money to trade with when they can have it at a
moderate interest.
Secondly. Want of money in a country reduces the
price of that part of its produce which is used in trade;
because, trade being discouraged by it as above, there is
a much less demand for that produce. And this is an¬
other reason why land in such a case will be low, especially
THE NATION'S MONEY,
13
where the staple commodity of the country is the imme¬
diate produce of the land; because, that produce being
low, fewer people find an advantage in husbandry or the
improvement of land. On the contrary, a plentiful cur¬
rency will occasion the trading produce to bear a good
price; because, trade being encouraged and advanced by
it, there will be a much greater demand for that produce,
which will be a great encouragement of husbandry and
tillage, and consequently make land more valuable, for
that many people would apply themselves to husbandry
who probably might otherwise have sought some more
profitable employment.
As we have already experienced how much the increase
of our currency by what paper money has been made has
encouraged our trade, particularly to instance only in one
article, ship-building, it may not be amiss to observe under
this head what a great advantage it must be to us as a
trading country, that has workmen and all the materials
proper for that business within itself, to have ship-build¬
ing as much as possible advanced; for every ship that is
built here for the English merchants, gains the province
her clear value in gold and silver, which must otherwise
have been sent home for returns in her stead; and like-
çvise every ship built in and belonging to the province not
mly saves the province her first cost, but all the freight,
vages, and provisions, she ever makes or requires as long
IS she lasts, provided care is taken to make this her pay-
lort, and that she always takes provisions with her for the
vhole voyage, which may easily be done. And how con-
fiderable an article this is yearly in our favor every one
he least acquainted with mercantile affairs must needs
le sensible; for, if we could not build ourselves, we must
fither purchase so many vessels as we want from other
îountries or else hire them to carry our produce to mar¬
ket, which would be more expensive than purchasing, and
20
THE NATION'S MONEY.
on many other accounts exceedingly to our loss. Now, as
trade in general will decline where there is not a sufficient
currency, so ship-building must certainly in consequence
decline where trade is declining.
Thirdly. Want of money in a country discourages
laboring and handcraftmen (who are the chief strength
and support of a people) from coming to settle in it and in¬
duces many that were settled to leave the country and
seek entertainment, and employment in other places
where they can be better paid. For what can be more dis¬
heartening to an industrious laboring man than this, that
after he hath earned Ms bread with the sweat of his brow,
he must spend as much time and have near as much
fatigue in getting it as he had to earn it! And nothing
makes more bad paymasters than a general scarcity of
money. And here again is a third reason for lands bear¬
ing a low price in such a country, because land always
increases in value in proportion with the increase of
people settling on it there being so many more buyers,
and its value will infallibly be diminished if the number
of its inhabitants diminish. On the contrary, a plentiful
currency will encourage great numbers of laboring and
handicraftmen to come and settle in the country, by the
same reason that a want of it will discourage and drive
them out. Now, the more inhabitants the greater demand
for land (as is said above), upon which it must necessarily
rise in value and bear a better price. The same may be
said of the value of house-rent, which will be advanced
for the same reasons, and by the increase of trade and
riches people will be enabled to pay greater rents. Now,
the value of house-rent rising and interest becoming low,
many that in a scarcity of money practiced usury, will
probably be more inclined to building, which will likewise
sensibly enliven business in any place, it being an ad¬
vantage not only to brickmakers, bricklayers, masons,
THE NATION'S MONEY.
21
carpenters, joiners, glaziers, and several other trades im¬
mediately employed by bnilding, but likewise to farmers,
brewers, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, shopkeepers, and, in
short, to every one that they lay their money out with.
(Here follows colony interests only.)
Thus we have seen some of the many heavy disadvan¬
tages a country (especially such a country as ours) must
labor under when it has not a sufficient stock of running
cash to manage its trade currently. And we have likewise
seen some of the advantages which accrue from having
money sufficient or a plentiful currency.
The foregoing paragraphs being well considered, we
shall naturally be led to draw the following conclusions
with regard to what persons will probably be for or
against emitting a large additional sum of paper bills in
this province:
First. Since men will always be powerfully influenced
in their opinions and actions by what appears to be their
particular interest, therefore all those who, wanting
courage to venture in trade, now practice lending money
on security exorbitant interest, which in a scarcity of
money will be done, notwithstanding the law—I say all
such will probably be against a large addition to our
present stock of paper money, because a plentiful cur¬
rency will lower interest and make it common to lend on
less securitv.
Second. All those who are possessors of large sums
of money, and are disposed to purchase land, which is
attended with a great and sure advantage in a growing
country as this is—I say the interest of all such men ^vill
incline them to oppose a large addition to our money;
because their wealth is now continually increasing by the
large interest they receive, which will enable them (if
they can keep land from rising) to purchase more some time
hence than they can at present; and in the meantime, all
22 THE NATION'S MONET.
1
trade being discouraged, not only those who borrow of
them but the common people in general will be impover¬
ished and, consequently, obliged to sell more land for less
money than they will do at present. And yet, after such
men are possessed of as much land as they can purchase,
it will then be their interest to have money made plenti¬
ful, because that will immediately make land rise in value
in their hands. Now, it ought not to be wondered at if
people, from a knowledge of a man's interest, do some¬
times make a true guess at his designs; for interest, they
say, will not lie.
Third. Lawyers and others concerned in court busi¬
ness will probably many of them be against plentiful cur¬
rency; because people in that case will have less occasion
to run in debt, and consequently less occasion to go to
law and sue one another for their debts. Though I know
some, even among these gentleman, that regard the pub¬
lic good before their own apparent private interests.
Fourth. All those who are in any Yvaj dependents on
such persons as are above mentioned, whether holding
offices as tenants, or as debtors, must at least appear to
be against a large addition, because if they do not they
must sensibly feel the present interest hurt. And besides
these there are doubtless many well-meaning gentlemen
and others who, without immediate private interest of
their own in view, are against making such an addition
through an opinion they may have of the honesty and
sound judgment of some of their friends who oppose it
(perhaps for the one aforesaid), without having given it
any thorough consideration themselves. And thus it is
no wonder if there is a powerful party on that side.
On the other hand, those who are lovers of trade, and
dellg:ht to see manufacturers encouraged, will be for hav¬
ing a large addition to our currency. For they very well
know that people will have little heart to advance money
THE NATION'S MONEY.
23
in trade wlien what they can i^et is scarce sufficient to
ty
purchase necessaries and supply their families with pro¬
visions. Much less will they lay it out in advancing new
manufactures; nor is it possible new manufactures should
turn to any accont where there is not money to pay the
workmen, who are discouraged by being paid in goods,
because it is a great disadvantage to them.
Again : those who are truly for the proprietor's interest
(and having no separate views of their own that are pre¬
dominant) will be heartly for a large addition; because,
as I have shown above, plenty of money will, for several
reasons, make land rise in value exceedingly. And I ap¬
peal to those immediately concerned for the proprietor
in the sale of his lands, whether land has not risen very
much since the first emission of what paper currency we
now have, and even by its means. Now, we all know the
proprietary has great quantities to sell.
And since a plentiful currency will be so great a cause
of advancing this province in trade and riches, and in¬
creasing the number of its people, which, though it will
not sensibly lessen the inhabitants of Great Britain, will
t/ /
occasion a much greater vent and demand for their com¬
modities here, and allowing that the crown is the more
powerful for its subjects increasing in wealth and num¬
ber, I can not think in the interest of England to oppose
us in making as great a sum of paper money here as we,
who are the best judges of our own necessities, find con¬
venient. And if I were not sensible that the gentlemen of
trade in England, to whom we have already parted with
our silver and gold, are misinformed of our circumstances,
and therefore endeavor to have our currency stinted to
what it now is, I should think the government at home
had some reasons for discouraging and impoverishing this
province which we are not acquainted with.
It remains now that we inquire whether a large ad-
24
THE NA^TION'S MONEY.
dition to our paper currency will not make it sink in value
very mncli. And here it will be requisite that we first
form just notions of the nature and value of money in
general.
As Providence has so ordered it that not only different
countries, but even different parts of the same country
have their peculiarly most suitable productions, and like¬
wise that different men have geniuses adapted to a variety
of different arts and manufacturers, therefore commerce,
or the exchange of one commodity of manufacture for an¬
other, is highly convenient and beneficial to mankind. As
for instance, A may be skillful in the art of making cloth
and B understands the raising of corn. A wants corn and
B cloth; upon which they make an exchange with each
other for as much as each has occasion for, to the mutual
advantage and satisfaction of both.
But as it would be very tedious if there were no other
way of general dealing but by an immediate exchange
of commodities, because a man that had corn to dispose
of and wanted cloth for it, might, perhaps, in his search
for a chapman to deal with, meet with twenty people that
had cloth to dispose of but wanted no corn, and with
twenty others who wanted his corn but had no cloth to
suit him with, to remedy such inconveniences and facili¬
tate exchange men have invented money, properly called
a medium of exchange, because through or by its means
labor is exchange for labor or one commodity for another.
And whatever particular thing men have agreed to make
this medium of, whether gold, silver, copper, or tobacco,
it is to those who possess it (if they want anything) that,
very thing which they want, because it will immediately
procure it for them. It is cloth to him that wants cloth
and corn to those that want corn, and so of all other
necessaries it is whatsoever it will procure. Thus he who
has corn to dispose of and wanted to purchase cloth with
THE NATION'S MONEY.
25
it miglit sell his corn for its value in the general medium
to one who wanted corn but had no cloth, and with this
medium he might purchase cloth of him that wanted no
corn, but perhaps some other thing, as iron, it may be,
which this medium will immediately procure, and so he
may be said to have exchanged his cloth for iron, and thus
the general change is soon performed to the satisfaction
of all parties with abundance of facility.
For many ages those parts of the world which are en¬
gaged in commerce have fixed upon gold and silver as the
chief and most proper material for this medium, they
being in themselves valuable metals for their fineness,
beauty, and scarcity. By these, particularly by silver, it
has been usual to value all things else. But as silver itself
is of no certain permanent value, being worth more or
less according to its scarcity or plenty, therefore it seems
requisite to fix upon something else more proper to be
made a measure of values, and this I take to be labor.
By labor may the value of silver be measured as well
as other things. As suppose one man employed to raise
corn, while another is digging and refining silver; at the
year's end or at any other period of time the complete
produce of corn and that of silver are the natural price of
each other, and if one be twenty bushels and the other
twenty ounces, then an ounce of that silver is worth the
labor of raising a bushel of that corn. Now, if by the dis¬
covery of some nearer, more easy, or plentful mines, a
man may get forty ounces of silver as easily as formerly he
did tw^enty, and the same labor is still required to raise
twenty bushels of corn, than two ounces of silver will be
worth no more than the same labor of raising one bushel
of corn, and that bushel of corn will be as cheap at two
ounces as it was before at once, cateris paribus.
Thus the riches of the country are to be valued by the
quantity of labor its inhabitants are able to purchase.
26
THE NATION'S MONEY
and not by the quantity of silver and gold they possess,
which will purchase more or less labor, and, therefore, is
more or less valuable, as is said before, according to its
scarcity or plenty. As those metals have grown much
more plentiful in Europe since the discovery of America,
so they have sunk in value exceedingly; for to instance,
in England, formerly one penny of silver was worth a
day's labor, because not less than sixpence will purchase
the labor of a man for a day in any part of that kingdom,
which is wholly to be attributed to the much greater
plenty of money now in England than formerly. And yet,
perhaps, England is in effect no richer now than at that
time, because as much labor might be purchased or work
got done for almost any kind for £100 then as will now
require or is now worth £600. . . .
As those who take bills out of the banks in Europe put
in money for security, so here and in some of the neighbor¬
ing provinces we engage our land. Which of these
methods will most effectually secure the bills from actual¬
ly sinking in value comes next to be considered.
Trade in general being nothing else but the exchange
of labor for labor, the value of all things is, as I have said
before, most justly measured by labor. Now, suppose I
put my money into a bank and take out a bill for the value,
if this bill at the time of my receiving it would purchase
me the labor of one hundred men for twenty days, but
some time after will only purchase the labor of the same
number of men for fifteen days, it is plain the bill has
sunk in value one-fourth part. Now silver and gold being
of no permanent value, and as this bill is founded on
money, and therefore to be esteemed as such, it may be
that the occasion of this fall is in the increasing plenty of
gold and silver, by which money is one-fourth less valu¬
able than before, and therefore one-fourth more is given
of it for the same quantity of labor, and if land is not
THE NATION'S MONEY.
27
become more vahiable by some proportionate decrease of
the people, one-fourth part more of money is given for the
same quantity of land, whereby it appears that it would
have been more profitable to me to have laid that money
out in land which I put into the bank than to place it there
and take a bill for it. And it is certain that the value of
money has been continually sinking in England for several
ages past, because it has been continually increasing in
quantity. But if bills could be taken out of a bank in
Europe on a land security, it is probable the value of such
bills would be more certain and steady, because the num¬
ber of inhabitants continues to be near the same in those
countries from age to age.
For as bills issued upon money security are money, so
bills issued upon land are in effect coined land-
Therefore, (to apply the above to our own circum¬
stances) if land in this province was falling or any way
likely to fall, it would behoove the legislature most care¬
fully to contrive how to prevent the bills issued upon land
from falling with it. But as our people increase exceed¬
ingly, and will be further increased, as I have before shown,
by the help of a large addition to our currency, and as
land is continually rising, so in case no bills are emitted
but what are upon land security, the money acts in every
part punctually enforced and executed, the payments of
principal and interest being duly and strictly required,
and the principal bona fide sunk according to law, it is
absolutely impossible such bills should ever sink below
their first value of below the value of the land on which
they are founded. In short, there is so little danger of
their sinking that they would certainly rise as the land
rises if they were not emitted in a proper manner for pre¬
venting it. That is, by providing in the act that payment
may be made either in those bills or in any other bills
made current by any act of the legislature of this province.
28
THE NATION'S MONEY.
and that the interest as it is received may be again
emitted in discharge of public debts whereby circulating,
it returns again into the hands of the borrowers, and be¬
comes part of their future payments, and thus, as is likely,
there will not be any difficulty for want of bills to pay the
office; they are hereby kept from rising above their first
value. For else, supposing there should be emitted upon
mortgaged land its full present value in bills, as in the
banks in Europe, the full value of the money deposited
given out in bills, and supposing the office would take noth¬
ing but the same sum in those bills in discharge of the
land, as in the banks aforesaid, the same sum in their
bills must be brought in in order to receive out the money;
in such case the bills would most surely rise in value as
the land rises, as certainly as the bank bills founded on
money fall if that money was falling. Thus, if I were to
mortgage to a loan officer or bank a parcel of land now
valued at £100 in silver, and receive for it in the like sum
in bills, to be paid in again at the expiration of a certain
term of years, before which my land, rising in value, be¬
comes worth £150 in silver, it is plain that if I have not
these bills in possession, and the office will take nothing
but these bills, or else what it is now become worth in
silver, in discharge of my land—I say it appears plain that
those bills will now be worth £150 in silver to the pos¬
sessor, and if I can purchase them for less, in order to
redeem my land, I shall be so much the gainer.
I need not say anything to convince the judicious that
our bills have not yet sunk, though there has been some
differences between them and silver, because it is evident
that that difference occasioned by the scarcity of the lat¬
ter, which is now become a merchandise, rising and fall¬
ing like other commodities as there is a greater or less
demand for it, or as it is more or less plenty.
Yet, further, in order to make a true estimate of the
THE NATION'S MONEY.
2D
value of money we must distinguish between money as it
is bullion, which is merchandise, and as by being coined
it is made currency. For its value as a merchandise and
its value as a currency are two distinct things, and each
may possibly rise and fall in some degree independent of
the other. Thus, if the quantity of bullion increases in a
country, it will proportionately decrease in value; but if
at the same time the current coin should decrease (sup¬
posing payments may be made in bullion), what coin there
is will rise in value as a currency; that is, people will give
more labor in manufactures for a certain sum of money.
In the same manner must we consider a paper currency
founded on land, as it is land and as it is currency.
Money as a bullion or as land is valuable by so much
labor as it costs to procure that bullion or land.
Money as a currency has an additional value by so much
time and labor as it saves in the exchange of commodities.
If as a currency it saves one-fourth part of the time and
labor of a country, it has on that account one-fourth added
Í o its original value.
When there is no money in a country all commerce
must be by exchange. Now, if it takes one-fourth part
of the time and labor of a country to exchange, or get
their commodities exchanged, then, in computing their
value, that labor of exchanging must be added to the labor
of manufacturing those commodities. But if that time
or labor is saved by introducing money sufficient then the
additional value on account of the labor of exchanging
may be abated and things sold for only the value of the
labor in making them, because the people may now in
the same time make one-fourth more in quantity of manu¬
factures than they could before.
From these considerations it may be gathered that in
all the degrees between having no money in a country
and money sufficient for the trade it will rise and fall in
so
ME NATION'S MONEY.
value as a currency in proportion to the decrease or in¬
crease of its quantity. And if there may be at some time
more than enough, the overplus will have no effect toward
making the currency as a currency, of less value than
when there was but enough, because such overplus will
not be used in trade, but be some other way disposed of.
If we inquire how much percent interest ought to be
required upon the loan of these bills, we must consider
what is the natural standard of usury. And this happens
to be, where the security is undoubted, at least the rent
of so much land as the money lent will buy. For it cannot
be expected that any man will lend his money for less than
it would fetch him in as rent if he laid it out in land,
which is the most secure property in the world. But if
the security is casual, then a kind of insurance must be
interwoven with the simple natural interest which may
advance the usury very conscionably to any height below
the principal itself.
Now, among us, if the value of land is twenty years'
purchase, 5 per cent is the just rate of interest for money
lent on undoubted security. Yet, if money grows scarce
in a country, it becomes more difficult for the people to
make punctual payments of what they borrow, money
being hard to be raised; likewise, trade being discour¬
aged and business impeded for want of currency, abund¬
ance of people must be in declining circumstances, and
by these means security is more precarious than where
money is plenty. On such accounts it is no wonder if the
people ask a greater interest for their money than the
natural interest, and what is above is to be looked upon
as a kind of premium for the insurance of those uncertain¬
ties as they are greater or less. Thus we always see that
where money is scarce interest is high, and low where it
is plenty. Now, it is certainly the advantage of a country
to make interest as low as possible, as I have already
THE NATION'S MONEY.
31
sliown, and tliis can be done in no other way than by
nialving money plentiful. And since in emitting paper
money among us the office has the best of security, the
titles to the lands being all skillfully and strictly examined
and ascertained, and as it is only permitting the people
by law to coin their own land, which costs the Govern¬
ment nothing, the interest being more than enough to pay
the charges of the printing, officers' fees, etc., I can not see
any good reason why 4 per cent to the loan office should
Qot be thought fully sufficient. As a-low interest may
incline more to take money out, it will become more plenti¬
ful in trade, and this may bring down the common usury
in which security is more dubious to the pitch it is de¬
termined at by law.
If it should be objected that emitting it at so low an
interest and on such easy terms will occasion more to
le taken out than the trade of the country really requires,
t may be answered that it has already been shown, there
mn never be so much of it emitted as to make it fall below
lie land it is founded on, because no man in his senses
vill mortgage his estate for what is of no more value to
lim than that he has mortgaged, especially if the posses-
fion of what he receives is more precarious than of what
le mortgages, as that of paper money is when com-
)ared to land. And if it should ever become so plenty
)y indiscreet persons continuing to take out a large over-
)lus above what is necessary in trade, so as to make peo-
)le imagine it would become by that means of less value
han their mortgaged lands, they would immediately, of
;ourse, begin to pay it in again to the office to redeem
heir land, and continue to do so till there was no more
I
eft in trade than was absolutely necessary. And thus
he proportion would find itself (though they were a mil-
ion too much in the office to be let out), without giving
mv one the trouble of calculation.
32
THE NATION'S MONEY.
It may perhaps be objected to what I have written con¬
cerning the advantages of a large addition to our cur¬
rency that if the people of this province increase and hus¬
bandry is more followed we shall overstock the markets
with our produce of flour, etc. To this it may be answered
that we can never have too man}^ people (nor too much
money). For when one branch of trade or business is
overstocked with hands there are the more to spare to be
employed in another. So if raising wheat proves dull
more may (if there is money to support and carry on new
manufactures) proceed to the raising and manufacturing
of hemp, silk, iron, and many other things the country is
very capable of, for which we only want people to work
and money to pay them with.
Upon the whole, it may be observed that it is the highest
interest of a trading country in general to make money
plentiful, and that it can be a disadvantage to none that
have honest designs. It cannot hurt even the usurers,
though it should sink what they receive as interest, be¬
cause they will be proportionately more secure in what
they lend, or they will have an opportunity of employing
their money to greater advantage to themselves as well
as to the country. Neither can it hurt those merchants
who have great sums outstanding in debts in the country,
and seem on that account to have the most plausible rea¬
son to fear it, to-wit: because a large addition being made
to our currency will increase the demand of exporting
produce, and by that means raise the price of it, so that
they will not be able to purchase so much bread or flour for
flOO when they shall receive it after such an addition as
they now can and may if there is no addition. I say it
cannot hurt even such, because they will get in their debts
just in exact proportion so much easier and sooner as the
money becomes plentier; and, therefore, considering the
interest and trouble saved, they will not be losers, because
THE NATION'S MONEY.
S3
it only sinks in value as a currency proportionately as it
becomes more plenty. It cannot hurt the interest of
Grreat Britain, as has been shown, and it will greatly ad¬
vance the interest of the proprietor. It will be an ad¬
vantage to every industrious tradesman, etc., because his
business will be carried on more freely and trade be uni¬
versally enlivened by it. And as more business in all
manufactures will be done by so much as the labor and
time spent in exchange is saved, the country in general
will grow so much the richer.
It is nothing to the purpose to object the wretched falls
of the bills in New England and South Carolina, unless it
might be made evident that their currency was emitted
with the same prudence and on such good security as
ours is, and it certainly was not.
As this essay is wrote and published in haste, and the
subject in itself intricate, I hope I shall be censured with
candor if, for want of time carefully to revise what I have
written, in some places I should appear to have expressed
myself too obscurely and in others am liable to objections I
did not foresee. I sincerely desire to be acquainted with
the truth, and on that account shall think myself obliged
to any one who will take the pains to show me or the
public where I am mistaken in my conclusions. And as
we all know there are among us several gentlemen of
acute parts and profound learning who are very much
against any addition to our money, it were to be wished
that they would favor the country with their sentiments
on this head in print, which, supported with truth and
good reasoning, may probably be very convincing.
. And this is to be desired the rather because many peo¬
ple, knowing the abilities of those gentlemen to manage
a good cause, are apt to construe their silence in this as
an argument of a bad one. Had anything of that kind
ever yet appeared perhaps I should not have given the
34
THE NATION'S MONBl.
public this trouble. But as those ingenious gentlemen
have not yet (and I doubt never will) tliiiik it worth their
concern to enlighten the minds of their erring country¬
men in this particular, I think it would be highly com¬
mendable in every one of us more fully to bend our minds
to the study of what is the true interest of Pennsylvania,
whereby we may be enabled not only to reason pertinently
with one another, but, if occasion requires, to transmit
home such clear representations as must inevitably con¬
vince our superiors of the reasonableness and integrity of
our designs.
DR. FRANKLIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
on the introduction of his system in Pennsylvania:
About this time (1723) there was a cry among the people
for more paper money, only £15,000 being extant in the
province and that soon to be sunk. The wealthy inhab¬
itants opposed any addition, being against all paper cur¬
rency.
I was on the side of an addition, being persuaded that
the first small sum, struck in 1722 had done much good
by increasing the trade, employment and number of in¬
habitants in the province, since I now saw all the old
houses inhabited and many new ones building, whereas
I remembered well when I first walked about the streets
of Philadelphia (eating my roll), I saw many of the houses
in Walnut street, between Second and Front streets, with
bills on their doors, "to let," and many likewise in Chest¬
nut street and other streets which made me think the in¬
habitants of the city were one after another deserting it.
Our debates possessed me so fully of the subject that I
wrote and printed an anonymous pamphlet on it, entitled,
"The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency." (Quoted
above.)
THE NATION'S MONEY.
It was well received by the common peojile in general,
but the rich men disliked it, for it increased and strength¬
ened the clamor for more money, and they, happening to
have no writers among them that were able to answer it,
the opposition slackened, and the point was carried by a
majority in the House. . . . The utility of this cur¬
rency became by time and experience so evident that the
principles upon which it was founded were never after¬
ward much disputed, so that it grew soon to £55,000, and
in 1739 to £80,000, trade, building and inhabitants all the
while increasing, though I now think there are limits be¬
yond which the quantity may be hurtful. (This was |200
per capita.)
FRANKLIN TO PARLIAMENT.
If carrying out all the gold and -silver ruins the coun¬
try, every colony was ruined before it made paper money.
But far from being ruined by it, the colonies that have
made use of paper money have been and are all in a thriv-"
ing condition.
• ••••••••
Pennsylvania, before it made any paper money, was
totally stripped of its gold and silver, though they had
from time to time, like the neighboring colonies, agreed
to take gold and silver coins at higher nominal values,
in hopes of drawing money into and retaining it for the
The writer has walked up and down these same streets
that Franklin walked up and down one hundred and seventy
years ago, and finds that the same cause is having the same
effect. Stores and houses are to let on every hand. The mer¬
chants and manufacturers of Philadelphia are calling meetings
to inquire into the cause of the city's decaying business, but the
meetings are seized by the combine, and the citizens are not
allowed to discuss the real cause, the want of a proper monetary
system.
36
THE NATION'S MONEY.
internal nses of tlie proYÍnce; . . . but this practice
of increasing the denomination was found not to answer
the end.
• •#••••#•
The difficulties for want of cash were accordingly very
great, the chief part of trade being carried on by the ex¬
tremely inconyenient method of barter; when, in 1723,
paper money was first made there, which gave new life
to business, promoted greatly the settlement of new lands
(by lending small sums to beginners on easy interest, to be
paid in installments), whereby the province has so greatly
increased in inhabitants that the export from hence
thither is now more than tenfold what it then was, and by
their trade with foreign colonies they have been able to
obtain great quantities of gold and silver to remit hither
in return for the manufactures of this country.
In summing up the case. Dr. Franklin says:
On the whole, no method has hitherto been formed to
establish a medium of trade, in lieu of money (coin), equal
in all its advantages to bills of credit, founded on suffi¬
cient taxes for discharging it, or on land security of double
the value for repaying it at the end of the term, and in
the meantime made a general legal tender. The ex¬
perience of now nearly half a century in the middle colo¬
nies has convinced them of it, among themselves, by the
increase of their settlements, numbers, general buildings,
improvements, agriculture, shipping, and commerce, and
the same experience has satisfied the British merchants
who trade thither that it has been greatly useful to them,
and not in a single instance prejudicial.
Thomas Pownal.
Thomas Pownal, Colonial Goyernor of Massachusetts,
said:
I will recommend to the consideration of those who
take a lead in business, a measure devised and admin¬
istered by an American Assembly, and I will venture to
say that there never was a wiser or better measure, never
one better calculated to serve the uses of an increasing
country, and there never was a measure more steadily pur¬
sued or more faithfully executed for forty years together
than the loan office in Pennsylvania, formed and admin¬
istered by the assembly of that province.
• ••••••••
In a country under such circumstances money lent upon
interest to settlers creates money. Paper money thus
lent upon interest will create gold and silver principal,
while the interest becomes a revenue that pays the charge
of the Government. This currency is the true Pactolean
stream which converts all into gold that is washed by it.
It is on this principle that wisdom and virtue of the
assembly of Pennsylvania established, under the sanction
of Government, an office for the remission of paper money
by loan.
37
David Hume.
David Hume, England^s great historian, explains the
cause of the wonderful prosperity of the colonies before
the war, as follows:
In our colony of Pennsylvania, the land itself, which
is the chief commodity, is coined and passed into circu¬
lation. A planter, immediately he purchased any land,
can go to a public office and receive notes to the amount
of half the value of his land, which notes he employs in
payments, and they circulate through the colony by con¬
vention.
To prevent the public from being overwhelmed by this
representative money there are two means employed:
First, the notes issued to any one planter must not ex¬
ceed a certain sum, whatever may be the value of the land.
Secondly, every planter is obliged to pay back into the
public office every year one-tenth of his notes.
The whole is of course annihilated in ten years, after
which it is again allowed him to take out new notes to
half the value of the land. This was the monetary system
under which the American colonists prospered to such an
extent that Edmund Burke said of them: ^^Nothing in
the history of the world is like their progress." It was a
wise and beneficent system, and its effects were most con¬
ducive to the happiness of the people. Take the case of a
family, industrious and enterprising, driven by persecu¬
tion or misfortune to seek a refuge in the wilds of the new
world. With their scanty means they purchase a tract
of land. Many years of hard labor, privation and anxiety
would have been necessary to bring that family into a
state of decent competency had they been required to pur-
38
THE NATION'S MONEY.
39
chase gold and silver by labor and by the product of labor
before they could effect other improvements on their
property. But half the value of the land was advanced
to the real head of the familv in notes, which circulated
f /
as money. With these notes he could purchase seeds and
necessary implements of husbandry and cattle; and thus,
where without these notes one acre could not be cleared,
cultivated and stocked in a year, ten would, by the as¬
sistance of the paper money advanced, be reclaimed from
the forest and rendered productive. Thus hope entered
the dwelling of the poor emigrant.
Ten years found him with the whole of his debt to the
Government discharged, the proprietor of a happy home.
And the kind hand of a paternal Government was
stretched out still, to advance to him again one-half the
increased value of his land, and thus enabled him to clear
more of the forest, and to settle his children in new homes.
Such was the system by which a people called by the
British "a set of miserable outcasts," were converted in
a short space of time, into happy, contented, and pros¬
perous colonists.
A prosperous people are generally well satisfied with
the form of Government under which they live. When in
1776 Benjamin Franklin was examined before a committee
of the whole House of Commons, he was asked, "What
was the temper of America to Great Britain before 1773?"
He answered: "The best in the world." They submitted
willingly to the Government of the crown, and all their
courts paid obedience to acts of Parliament. Numerous
as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost
you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons or armies to keep
them in subjection. They were governed by this country
at the expense only of a little pen, ink and paper. They
were led by a thread. They had not only regard but
affection for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs, its
40
THE NATION'S MONEY.
manners and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly
increased its commerce. Natives of Britain were always
treated with particular regard ; and to be an old England
man was of itself a character of some respect and gave
a kind of rank among us.
The British Government took away from America its
representative money, commanded that no more paper
bills of credit should be issued, that they should cease
to be a legal tender, and collected the tax in silver. This
was in 1773. Now mark the consequences. This con¬
traction of the circulating medium paralyzed all the in¬
dustrial energies of the people. Ruin seized upon these
once flourishing colonies; the most severe distress was
brought home to every interest and every family; dis¬
content was urged on to desperation, till at last "human
nature arose and asserted its right." In 1775 the Ameri¬
can Congress first met in Philadelphia; in 1776 America
became an independent State.
Edmund Burke.
Sir Edmund Burke, one of the ablest, bravest and best
friends of the American Colonies in the British Parlia¬
ment, discussing American finances and taxation, April
14, 1774, said :
Nothing in the history of mankind is like their prog¬
ress. For my part I never cast my eye on their commerce
and their cultivated and commodious life but they seem to
me rather as nation's grown to perfection through a long
series of fortunate events, and a train of successful indus¬
try accumulating wealth in many centuries, than the col¬
onies of yesterday—than a set of miserable ^^outcasts" a
few years ago, not so much sent as thrown on the bleak
and barren shore of a desolate wilderness, 3,000 miles
from all civilized intercourse.
il
Peter Cooper.
Peter Cooper, one of the most intelligent and success¬
ful business men America ever produced, discussed the
colonial money as follows :
"These colonial notes, being adopted by all the colonies,
led to an unexpected degree of prosperity, so great that
when Franklin was brought before the Parliament of
Great Britain and questioned as to the cause of the won¬
derful prosperity growing up in the colonies he stated
that the cause was the convenience they found in exchang¬
ing their various forms of labor one with another by the
paper money which had been adopted: That this paper
money was not only used in the payment of taxes, but in
addition it had been declared legal tender.
It rose 2 and 3 per cent above the par of gold and silver,
as everybody preferred its use. One of its advantages
was its security against theft, as it could be easily carried
and hidden, on account of its having no bulk, as all kinds
of specie must necessarily have. After Franklin ex¬
plained this to the British Government as the real cause of
prosperity they immediately passed laws forbidding the
payment of taxes in that money. This produced such
great inconvenience and misery to the people that it
«
was the principal cause of the Revolution.
A far greater reason for the general uprising than was
the tea and stamp act was the taking away of the paper
money."
4Z
Thomas Jefferson.
The following proposition for a medium of exchange
'or this country was made by Thomas Jefferson, ex-Presi-
lent of the United States and author of the Declaration of
[ndependence. The whole tone of his writings is in accord
svith these sentiments, which is to have the National
Grovernment do what it was designed it should do, viz.:
furnish the people with a proper medium of exchange,
[t is considerably condensed, but the reader will see by it
where Mr. Jefferson stood on this principle. It is as
follows:
If the Secretary of the Treasury had last year issued
Treasury notes not bearing interest, as Mr. Calhoun pro¬
posed, would not the interest of 6 or 7 per cent on about
five millions have been saved? Would not this have built
a university? Is not a Treasury note without interest
better for a currency than if it bore interest? Do not men
get rid of that wUich does not bear interest in payment of
duties, of postage, and for land, whilst that which bears
high interest is locked up?
I would lay before you the outlines of a simple, feasible
plan :
1. To avoid a superfiuity or deficiency of currency.
2. To do away existing evils from exchange or dis¬
counts on bank notes.
3. To prevent embarrassments and losses to the nation
on any future war.
4. To destroy, in a great degree, the capricious curtail-
This was written in 1816.
43
44
THE NATION'S MONEY.
ment of banks and the usury now so severely felt by those
who have even the best pledges to give.
5. To counteract the political influence and dangerous
power of banks.
6. To give an annual profit to a vast amount, and con¬
tinually increasing with augmenting population, for the
Congress to expend on roads, canals, bridges, schools, etc.
7. And lastly, to cement the Union.
Will not this national currency ansv/er for all pay¬
ments of customs duties, postage and land, and be pre¬
ferred to specie, being more transferable and more port¬
able?
It will be asked whether the banks will not object to
this national currency. I answer that they honestly can
not, and that they really dare not; but I am convinced
thev would cheerfullv avail themselves of it, as the
^ ft/ /
Government does them a kindness and facilitates the ob¬
ject of their institution. It says to them : ^'The justice of
your reasoning is admitted that the absence of specie
occasions a physical impossibility to produce it instanter,
and that all attempts to retain it by coercion are futile;
therefore, this substitute is created, and if you have good
income-yielding securities, which every solid bank should
or can possess, you can obtain the national currency, which
will be received back, and your stakes returned; but if,
after this, you will neither pay fairly in specie or national
currency, you must be declared bankrupts."
That the Government had last year an intention to es¬
tablish a 111 iform national currency is evident from that
clause in the charter of the United States Bank, wherein
it is expressly stipulated that their notes shall be receiv¬
able in all payments to Governments until the Govern¬
ment shall otherwise provide. Why, also, is a committee
now appointed to consider a uniform national currency if
THE NATION'S MONEY.
45
Congress did not contemplate some permanent circulating
medium—that great desideratum?
This board which I propose will not have any political
power, as it can not refuse good stakes, and will not have
the right to curtail or call in. It will not have the trouble
to meet every week to examine into men's circumstances
and to discount notes and to answer checks, etc.
It can not call in its notes, for it does not fallaciouslv
make a currencv the basis of a currencv. Those who are
t/ c
the advocates for this currency basis, or financial paradox,
must explain what I should laugh at as a metaphorical
absurdity, if the productive classes of the community were
not too often ruined by it. To me it appears a will-o'-the-
wisp polar star and on the faithless phantom flies, to lead
us to our doom.
Adam Smith has sagaciouslv observed that "the substi-
o •/
tution of paper currency in the room of gold and silver
money, replaces a very expensive instrument of commerce
with one much less costly. Circulation comes to be
carried on by a new wheel, costs less to erect and main¬
tain than the old one. By paper gold and silver can be
spared, and can be sent abroad to exchange for foreign
goods, and it becomes a new fund to increase the capital of
the countrv."
t/
Lord Sinclair, in his third volume, page 284, says: "The
adAmntages of paper circulation are hardly to be esti¬
mated. In every country where commerce flourishes it
is necessary to haA^e a considerable quantity of some com¬
mon medium of traffic. If paper does not exist, gold and
silver must be made use of. If the paper circulation of
Great Britain is equal to £30,000,000, had it not existed we
must haA^e exported goods to that amount to haA^e brought
in specie; and consequently we must have been thirty
millions poorer than we are at present. It is true we
should have had the gold and silver, but even that would
46
THE NATION'S MONEY.
have been perpetually diminished by use; and thirty
millions of paper, without au}^ possible loss by wearing or
otherwise, and with great convenience as to transporta¬
tion, etc., answers exactly the same commercial uses and
saves the annual interest that would have been lost,
which, at 5 per cent, amounts to one million and a half
sterling.
I will not enter into details respecting a particular
colored paper for the national currency, nor recommend
mixed metal coins, from a dollar downward, etc., for small
change. I indulge the hope, also, that some banker will
reply to my questions, and enable me to supply what may
be deficient, and illustrate what may be obscure. I re¬
quest, however, to be excused contrasting the proposed
national currency plan with the x>resent United States
bank plan.
My seventh position, that a national currency will
cement the Union, is, I trust, so self-evident that I need
not expatiate upon it.
It is imagined by some that the State banks will be ad¬
verse to a national currency, but I am convinced they will
be pleased with it, as they are not blind to their own inter¬
est. They must have specie or United States bank notes
to meet their own notes. Now, if they could obtain a
national currency they would be much relieved from ap¬
prehensions about the mammoth bank, for if it run upon
them they could pay in national currency, and the mam¬
moth bank would be less inclined to press them when they
would receive the national substitutes for specie thus
judiciously and equitably created by the Government to
prevent hostilities and embarrassments from rivalship.
Wishing to avail myself of the opinion of others, I have
consulted persons well informed on the financial subjects,
and they corroborated my sentiments that a national cur¬
rency would be a conciliator. I had not prior to this taken
THE NATION'S MONEY.
47
into consideration the interest of minor banks, but am now
satisfied that they must be benefited by haying an inde¬
pendent reservoir to supply their wants when specie dim¬
inishes, and the mammoth bank is necessitated to replen¬
ish the vacuum in its own vaults by drains from other
banks. Is it not evident that the banks would aid in¬
dividuals with more confidence and be less compelled to
curtail discounts if thev could at any time obtain a
1/ t/
national currencj^? This is experienced in the Patriotic
Bank, which only promises to pay in Grovernment stocks,
as the directors have only to part with some of their stock
(of which they have a supply over and above their capital),
should they be run upon, and thus a stoppage, to the great
injury of the bank itself, of its note holders, and of all
buyers and sellers, cannot occur unless the bank man¬
agers are guillty of overtrading, etc.
The deposits of a bank are its great sources of profit, and
these are most considerable when there is a sufficiency of
the circulating medium. Many private bankers in Eu¬
rope make their fortunes merely by deposits, without
issuing notes. Small unchartered banks in our large
towns and cities, with economical establishments, would
be very useful, and in my opinion prohibitions are impol¬
itic as they are unconstitutional. The great sina qua non
to prevent the evils of sudden curtailments by the evan¬
escence of specie is a national currency which can not
dimiidsh when an increase is required and thereby compel
the banks to curtail and aggravate evils from scarcity,
by which tbe banks reduce their profits and experience
serious losses by ruining their customers. The community
and banks have one common interest, and both must re¬
joice at the creation of a national currency to avert the
baneful political influence of a mammoth bank.
I have made the subjoined rough estimate of capitals in
the United States (which augment so rapidly that any
48
THE NATION'S MONEY.
small exaggeration even is of little consequence) that you
may consider how much the value of your properties de¬
pends upon the quantity of currency, and how trifling the
amount of the circulating medium is, when compared with
the amount of property of which it promotes the inter¬
change.
As health depends upon the blood in the human frame,
so does the prosperity of a country depend upon the cur¬
rency. Violent fluctuations in the quantity of either are
equally prejudicial.
The universally admitted axiom, that an article is cheap
or dear, according to the quantity for sale, and the number
of purchasers ought to be constantly remembered by
financiers. Every day we witness its truth at home and
abroad, in important consequences, which give serious ad¬
monitions.
Thus, when a nation has only a specie currency, prop¬
erty falls when the precious metals diminish, by exporta¬
tion or concealment, and the fall is proved by Lord Lauder¬
dale, and other writers on political economy, to be always
much greater than in proportion to the deficiency of an
article below its usual supply. Such being the invariable
operation of an immutable law beyond the control of man,
think how every property holder must suffer when specie
diminishes (which erroneous legislators mistakenly term
the basis of national currency, although daily changing in
quantity, and anything but a basis), for banks always cur¬
tail their paper as the precious metals diminish, and thus
double the scarcity; nay, when a little of the specie they
hold goes out, they often call in three times the amount in
bank notes. It would occupy too much of your atten¬
tion were I to introduce instances of ruin to thousands
by bank curtailments, and of losses and dangers to the
nation from the same measure. You have only to take a
retrospect of the last war to shudder at dangers escaped,
THE NATION'S MONEY.
49
and to be anxious for a permanent system to prevent
their recurrence.
I have promised to submit to you a simple remedy
against fluctuation of currency, and it shall be the subject
of a subsequent letter.
Thus it is ascertained that about one-fourth of the bank
capital of all the United States had only |7,430,359 bills in
circulation; this would, on an average, make less than
thirty millions for all. If all the banks had given in their
accounts, the Philadelphia statement would correspond
nearly with the whole, because Philadelphia, being a large
commercial town, can keep more notes in circulation than
countrv banks. This would make the amount in circu-
lation less than fortv millions. The Bank of Columbia
emitted more notes than others to aid Government, which
are rapidly returning for treasury notes and stock.
Estimate of the capitals of the people of the United States.
Slaves, 1,500,000, valued at |250 each .$ 375,000,000
Houses for 7,500,000 whites, at five to â
house, and each house averaged at |1,000. 1,500,000,000
Furniture for 1,500,000 houses at |200 150,000,000
Lots of houses in cities and 100 acres of
ground to each landholder, at |10 per acre. 1,500,000,000
Horses, cattle, and sheep 100,000,000
Implements of husbandry, carriages, wagons,
carts, etc 50,000,000
Mills, distilleries, warehouses, wharves,
brewhouses, barns, shops, goods of iron,
salt, leather, flax, wool, etc 500,000,000
Flour, barley, rice, oats, potatoes, fruit,
corn, cotton, hay, etc., for 9,000,000 per¬
sons for one years' consumption, at 20
cents per diem each, including food for
. horses, etc 657,000,000
Four hundred millions of acres belonging to
the public, at |2 300,000,000
$5,132,000,000
50
THE NATION'S MONEY.
In the above estimate I have not inserted bank, road,
and canal stocks or mines, or produce for exportation.
Suppose that my estimate be a little exaggerated, and
that the bank notes exceed forty millions, both of which
I can not admit, yet even then how trifling is the amount
of the currency of a nation to its whole capital, although
the former claims attention principally because of its
daily use and its numerous effects, from superfluity or
scarcity, whilst the latter is rarely adverted to.
I often hear an extraordinary argument used, that the
Government ought not to bring forward a plain beneflcial
system for a national currency, because the people are
ignorant and prejudiced. This doctrine, if carried to its
full length, would suppress all improvement; nay, might
make us go retrograde and study to darken by promoting
error, rather than to enlighten by exhibiting truths.
Oh, beware, my fellow-citizens, of stockjobbers or bank¬
ing associations, who have an interest as distinct from
that of the community as that of drones from that of bees.
Oh, beware, ye legislators, how you create a moneyd ar¬
istocracy, as dangerous to government as Pretorian bands
in Kome, or Janissaries in Turkey. Let me repeat that I
behold this country as the asylum of the aiflicted, the
sanctuary of the oppressed, on which the eyes of philan¬
thropists are everywhere fixed with affection and anxiety.
Moral feelings, common interests, and general principles,
unite us as a band of brothers. Whatever appertains to the
general welfare should emanate from the General Gov¬
ernment. This is the spirit of our Constitution—this is
the central axis upon which the Union must revolve, and
any important deviation must make all return to chaos.
If I am assailed for this interference I shall reply. Homo
sum et nihil humani a me alienum puto.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
51
JEFFEKSON ON THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY 0¥
BANK ISSUES.
Have not banks the power of raising the value of prop¬
erty by an increased issue of paper, and can they not also
lower it by diminishing the quantity of paper? Can they
not suddenly reject a merchant's or a manufacturer's note,
and drive him into the squeezing grasp of the usurer?
What is the plea for fluctuations but the reduced quantity
of specie possessed by banks?
In cities and in the country have we not all witnessed
sacrifices of property and the ruin of thousands by bank
curtailments? Can banks prevent unfavorable seasons?
Can banks regulate the balance of trade? Can they sup¬
press insurrections and avert war? Do they not commence
with a deception when they promise to pay in specie?
Does not their profit depend upon the substitution of notes
for dollars? Can they benefit if they keep much specie
to fulfill theÂr engagements? Have you not seen your
armies on the point of mutinying for want of pay? Have
you taken a retrospect of difficulties which paralyized the
efforts of Goveimment, and of dangers wffiich appalled the
souls of patriots? Must not these scenes occur again
when specie shall vanish? Do 3^ou not mistake effect for
cause; and, because specie appears in prosperous times,
imagine therefore that specie creates prosperity? Can the
United States bank pay in specie when insurrections or
wars may occur in the course of events? Could the Bank
of England avoid the suspension of specie payments? Is
not the present period of tranquility best adapted to es¬
tablish some permanent system? Have we not many facts
to instruct us, and ought we not to provide against a recur¬
rence of past embarrassments?
By the Constitution of the United States it is declared
in the eighth section that Congress shall have the power
52
THE NATION'S MONEY.
to coin money, and regulate the value thereof; and in
the tenth section it is ordered, "that no State shall coin
money, emit bills of credit, or make anything but gold and
silver coin a tender of payment in debts." Is it not herein
evident that in Congress alone is vested the power of mak¬
ing a national currency? Let me ask whether the State
governments by establishing State banks and by charter¬
ing other banks in which they hold shares, and to which
they appoint directors, do not virtually violate the Con¬
stitution? Is it not an acknowledged axiom in law, qui
f acit alios facit per se ; in other words, he who authorizes
another to act, commits himself what is done. If, there¬
fore, the State governments are prohibited to emit paper
themselves, neither can they legally empower others to
do so.
Andrew Jackson.
In his message of December, 1829, President Andrew
Jackson said:
submit to the wisdom of the Congress, whether a
national (medium of exchange) one founded upon the
credit of the Government and its revenues, might not be
devised, which would avoid all constitutional difficulties,
and at the same time secure all the advantages to the
Government and the country that were expected to result
from the present bank."
A few 3^ears after he had the following suggestion in
his message, which coupled with the preceding paragraph,*
shows the grand old warrior was on the right trail that
would lead to a perfect monetary system, it only lacked
the working out of the few necessary details, and it would
have stood out in bold relief. Here is one danger that
must be guarded against especially:—
"In ridding the country of an irresponsible power which
has attempted to control the Government, care must be
taken not to unite the same power with the executive
branch. To give a President control over the currency,
and the power over individuals now possessed by the
bank of the United States, even with the material differ¬
ence that he is responsible to the people, would be ob¬
jectionable and as dangerous as to leave it as it is. Neither
the one nor the other is necessary, and therefore ought not
"to be resorted to."
General Jackson felt that the benefit arising from en¬
dowing paper with monetary principles should belong
solely to the people, that they should receive the fruits or
53
54
THE NATION'S MONEY.
rewards of such endowment, and that it should not be
given away to corporations to enrich themselves by it—•
it was solely and wholly the property of the people. This
position aroused all the enmity of the corporations, for
they did not propose to allow this man to deprive them of
their control of the issue of the medium of exchange, and
the complete ownership of the United States treasury,
and their general partnership business with the United
States. They knew they had a large majority in Congress
in their favor, and they thought it would be an easy job
to bring the old gentleman right down on his knees. It
was not long before they declared open war on him, and
said they would go to the people, on the ground of asking
for a new charter. Their confidence in their power was
very great, for they controlled the revenues of the United
States, they received all the monies and held and used
them, and paid them out on orders from national officials,
when it was convenient for them to do so; this made
congressmen and all other officials debtors to them in
a manner, and this condition was all over the country.
They controlled all sub-banks and thereby controlled all
debtors to those banks. They controlled perfectly the
machinery of the two parties. They controlled the leaders
of both parties and had them in perfect subjugation.
There was nothing, of course, they could fear. They could
perpetuate themselves from their present entrenched
position, in their chartered benefits forever, and there
was no one strong enough to say they could not—at least,
they thought so. With an arrogance born of this confi¬
dence, they incited Jackson to combat, and the brave old
gentleman accepted their challenge. The corporation
controlled the press and most of the speakers, and all the
pamphleteers—Daniel Webster was kept busy writing
pamphlets and making speeches for them. All Jackson
possessed was the prestige of his office, as the President,
THE NATION'S MONEY,
55
and a principle that was right. Senator Benton soon
joined him and commenced to pour hot shot into their
Senate position. Soon seventeen other Senators joined
Benton, and they forced the corporation Senators to a
defensive position. In the meantime the minority, or the
people's guard made itself felt, and they forced the cor¬
poration representatives to a defensive position in the
lower House. Nor was Jackson idle, he was firing his
anathemas at them with a force and telling effect that was
working wonders. The people commenced to arouse from
their lethargy that the corporation had put them in by
refusing them the use, for a long time, of their own news¬
papers or periodicals, they forced the friends of the cor¬
poration to the defensive; the attack had now become a
national question ; the people commenced to feel they had
been duped and robbed, and their indignation was becom¬
ing fast to a fever heat. The corporation could make no
progress. Jackson had aroused the people to a degree
they had never dreamed possible. The effect was to destroy
the corporation, and when an examination of its work¬
ings were shown, it was seen that its officials were vile
and common robbers, who had been endowed with a power
that almost wrecked the Union; for among many things
they had instigated was the secession movement in South
Carolina; they had threatened the political existence of
Alabama, etc., etc., and the closing scene of their personal
career was, they were indicted and sent to prison.
"After the extensive embarrassment and distress recently
produced by the Bank of the United States from which the country
is now recovering, aggravated as they were by pretensions to
power which defied the public authority, and which, if acquiesced
in* by the people, would have changed the whole character of
our government, every candid and intelligent individual must
admit that, for the attainment of the great advantages of a
sound currency we must look to a course of legislation radically
different from that which created such an institution."—Andrew
Jackson.
56
THE NATION'S MONEY.
General Jackson suggests tlie founding of a national
monetary system which will secure all of the advantages
to the people, which has been reaped heretofore by cor¬
porations, and also suggests, that too much power must
not be trusted to the executive, as it might become dan¬
gerous. That it has become dangerous is true, and our
safety lies in strong Constitutional beariers; that will save
us and nothing else will.
"After it has attempted to defeat the clearly expressed
will of the people, by turning against them the immense power
intrusted to its hands, and by involving a country otherwise
peaceful, flourishing and happy, in dissension, embarrassment
and distress, would make the nation itself a party to the degrada¬
tion so sedulously prepared for its public agents, and do much
to destroy the confidence of mankind in popular governments,
and to bring into contempt their authority and efficiency. Events
have satisfied my mind, and I think the minds of the American
people, that the mischiefs and dangers which flow from a national
bank far overbalance its advantages."—Andrew Jackson.
The law creating the national Treasury was made in 1792,
and it was nearly fifty years before the combines would allow
it to handle any of its own money. And it handles very little
of its own money to-day. The old trick to get the government
to issue bonds was to hold these moneys back and tell the govern¬
ment there was nothing to pay bills with, and it must borrow to
meet the pressing creditors, and the best way to borrow was to
issue bonds. Of course the officials were in with the scheme and
they soon had the issue of bonds out. The new scheme is to make
a panic, destroy business, and that lowers the government's in¬
come, then issue bonds to meet the deficiency, giving as a reason,
that the gold reserve has been depleted and it must be restored.
"Emperor Nicholas" was the title given to Biddle, presi¬
dent of the United States Bank, his power and tyranny being
so great, made so by his controlling the volume of the currency.
Among many of his tricks, one was to loan currency at Shylock
rates to the southerner, taking cotton as collateral. The south¬
erner, of course, failed to pay, for Biddle had fixed things to
work that way; then he would take the cotton and send it to
his son in Liverpool, who was there to sell such things, as was
seized upon by this scoundrel.
"All property is at their mercy. The price of real estate,
of every growing crop, of every staple article in the market, is
at their command."—Thomas H. Benton.
Abraham Lincoln.
The following letter of grand Abraham Lincoln to
Colonel Dick Taylor of Chicago, Illinois, will give a very
good insight into the condition of the treasury of the
country in 1862, when there was extraordinary needs for
a medium of exchange. It was written inviting Mr. Tay¬
lor to aid in solving the Nation's difficulties. Colonel
Taylor accepted the invitation, and proposed the issue of
legal tenders, which was accepted by Lincoln, and proposed
to Congress by him, which in turn aroused the animosi¬
ties of the New York financial conspirators, and they
gathered their lobby together to defeat the measure. This
they could not wholly do, as the life of the Nation de¬
pended upon something being done of this nature quickly,
but they mangled it badly; they had inserted into it an
exception clause that it should not be received for cus¬
toms; and also that it should be in the language of a
note, a promise to pay; this was to fasten it in the shape
of a debt upon the people, rather than as a medium of
exchange, in order to allow these conspirators to continue
to control the issue of the currency instead of the Govern¬
ment issuing it in the interest of the people. It was into
this corrupt and defiled congregation that Lincoln had to
carry his proposed measure, and was it any wonder that it
came out badly mutilated, but as bad as it was it had
wonderful virtues, so much so that Lincoln said of it: "It
gave the people of this Republic the greatest blessing they
eter had—their own paper to pay their own debts."
This is the letter:
My Dear Colonel Dick : I have long determined to make
public the origin of the greenback, and tell the world that
57
58
THE NATION'S MONEY.
it is of Dick Taylor's creation. Yon have always beex^
friendly to me, and when troublous times fell on us and
my shoulders, though broad and willing, were weali, and
myself surrounded by such circumstances and such peo¬
ple that I know not whom to trust, then said I in my ex¬
tremity I will send for Colonel Taylor; he will know what
to do. I think it was in January, 1862, on or about the
16th, that I did so. You came, and I said to you:
^What can we do?"
Said you: "Why, issue treasury notes bearing no inter¬
est, printed on the best banking paper. Issue enough to
pay off the army expenses and declare it legal tender."
Chase thought it a hazardous thing, but we finally ac¬
complished it and gave to the people of this Kepublic the
greatest blessing they ever had—their own paper to pay
their own debts.
It is due to you, the father of the present greenback,
that the people should know it, and I take great pleasure
in making it known. How many times have I laughed at
you telling me plainly that I was too lazy to be anything
but a lawyer. Yours, truly. A, LINCOLN.
Mark this—the greatest blessing they ever had, is the
*
key to where Abraham Lincoln stood, and he protected
In a letter to a friend Mr. Lincoln said: *'Yes, we may
all congratulate ourselves that the cruel war is nearing a close.
It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. The best blood
of the flower of American youth has been freely offered upon
our country's altar that the nation might live. It has, indeed,
been a trying hour for the republic, but I see in the near future
a crisis arriving that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble
for the safety of my country. As a result of the war corpora¬
tions have enthroned, an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor
to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the
people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the
republic destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the
safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.
God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
THE NATION'S MONEY.
59
tMs issue against the constant onslaughts of these New
York conspirators, which was never ceasing. In effect
they were bad as an army in the rear of the Northern
army, and the Government had to be guarded from their
strokes as carefully as from the strokes of the Confederate
armies. They were working such havoc during the last
year of the administration of Lincoln that it was distract¬
ing him greatly, so much so that while walking on the
southern portico of the White House, he was heard to ex¬
claim: "I can not fight two wars at once." His over¬
wrought system was commencing to give way under the
awful strain. Menaced in front and menaced in the rear,
at last, Lincoln yielded to one enemy in order to save the
country from the other. Hadn't Franklin yielded before
to save the Union in the Constitutional Convention of 1787
knowing he was doing a great wrong to mankind, trust¬
ing that time would correct it. So Lincoln had to yield,
and he appointed Hugh McCulloch, a partner of Jay
Cooke, joint owners of a London banking house. Secretary
of the American Treasury, and then commenced the work¬
ings of a crime, the effect of which is felt still in every home
in this land. Had Lincoln lived and settled the war ques¬
tions then he would have made short work of the New
York financial conspirators—and God only knows what
terrible sufferings would have been averted from this
people.
Mr. F. B. Carpenter overheard Mr. Lincoln and Gover¬
nor Curtin in a conversation, in which Mr. Curtin said to
Mr. Lincoln:
see by the quotations that Chase's movement has al¬
ready knocked gold down several per cent."
Carpenter said Lincoln knotted his face in the intensity
of his feeling and said :
"Curtin, what do you think of those fellows in Wall
street who are gambling in gold at such a time as this?"
60
THE NATION'S MONEY.
^^They are a set of sharks," returned Mr. Curtin.
"For my part," continued the President, bringing his
clinched hand down upon the table, "I wish every one of
them had his devilish head shot off.' '
It is the firm belief of the writer that had he lived he
would have made it very uncomfortable for these men.
His loss was a terrible blow. We never have had an ex¬
ecutive since with enough patriotism to disperse these
conspirators.
In 1861 Secretary Chase used the following language in his
report which Abraham Lincoln adopted, as expressing his own
views:
''The whole of this circulation (bank circulation) constitutes
a loan without interest from the people to the banks, costing
them nothing except the expense of issuing and redemption and
the interest on the specie kept on hand for the latter purpose,
and it deserves consideration whether sound policy does not
require that the advantages of this loan be transferred, in part
at least, from the banks, representing only the interest of the
stockholders, to the government, representing the aggregate in¬
terests of the whole people.
"It has been well questioned by the most eminent statesmen
whether a currency of bank notes, issued by local institutions
under state laws, is not, in fact, prohibited by the national Con¬
stitution. Such emissions certainly fall within the spirit, if not
within the letter, of the Constitution prohibition of the emission
of bills of credit by the states, and of the making by them of
anything except gold and silver coin a legal tender in payment
of debts. * * * It is usually furnished in greatest proportions
by institutions of least actual capital. Circulation, commonly, is
in the inverse ratio of solvency. Well-founded institutions of
large and solid capital have in general comparatively little circu¬
lation, while weak corporations almost invariably seek to sus¬
tain themselves by obtaining from the people the largest possible
credit in this form. Under this system, or rather lack of system,
great fluctuations and heavy losses in discounts and exchanges
are inevitable, and not infrequently, through failures of the is¬
suing institutions, considerable portions of the circulation become
suddenly worthless in the hands of the people. The recent ex¬
perience of several states in the valley of the Mississippi painfully
illustrates the justice of these observations, and enforces by th/î
most cogent practical arguments the duty of protecting commerce
and industry against the recurrence of such disorders." This is
strong enough to convince anybody that Mr. Lincoln was for
the government to furnish the people with a proper medium of
exchange.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
61
In the law of 1792, opening up a mint, Congress used the
words "dollars or units," the meaning of which the combine has
constantly tried to confuse in the minds of the people. Dollar or
unit was meant to have the same meaning in its sphere, as yard
is meant to have in lineal measurement. In yards you can mul¬
tiply it as many times as you please, or you can subdivide it as
much as you please. So with the dollar, you can multiply it
to represent any amount you desire, or by dividing it get any
fractional amount you may want. The combine has tried to hook
dollar and value together constantly which have no relation
whatever. Supposing Jones has a house he values at $2,000, while
Smith values it at only $1,000; it is evident they have got to
change their minds greatly before they can do business, but
changing their minds does not change the dollar or the house.
This is the process of valuing or rationing an operation of the
mind. The section is as follows:
Sec. 20. And be it further enacted. That the money of account
of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units,
dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and mills or thousandths,
a disme being the tenth part of a dollar, a mill the thousand
part of a dollar, and that all accounts in the public offices and all
proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and
had in conformity to this regulation.
The Colonial Congress functionized the "promise to pay"
of the Bank of North America of Philadelphia, in 1781, by mak¬
ing them legal tenders for the term of ten years. Congress
functionized the the Hamilton schemer's bank debts in 1891,
to run twenty years. After which the state banks loomed up, but
in 1816 Congress functionized the debts of the United States
Bank of Philadelphia, Biddle's rotten concern, which died igno-
miniously in 1840 from the effects of the blows that the sturdy
old Jackson gave it. Then state banks had a breathing spell
again, but were knocked out again by the greenback issues, and
the National banks, which were born in 1862. The National banks
are now dying rapidly because there is no profit in putting
up one kind of a dollar to issue another kind upon. The proposi¬
tions to take their place is the Baltimore plan, the Carlisle bill,
or the Cleveland bond issues, which are explained elsewhere.
None of these propositions have any gold basis clauses in them.
"The first money issued by authority of the Constitution
was paper money. This was in 1791. The mint was established
in 1792. The first money coined by the mint was pure copper,
in 1793. It consisted of cents and half-cents, each cent containing
260 grains of copper and was made full legal tender. The second
money coined was silver, in 1794. The third money coined was
gold, which consisted of gold, silver and copper. This was in
1795."—Judge Warwick Martin.
Archibald Allison.
The Historian on Domestic Currency.
^^To put this domestic currency on a proper footing, it
is indispensible that it should be issued by the Govern¬
ment, and Government only, and on the national security,
and that every banker who chooses to deal in notes should
not be permitted to usurp the king's prerogative and issue
the curent coin of the realm. There is very great danger,
under such a system, of a currency getting into circula¬
tion which is at once redundant in point of amount and
unsafe in point of security. The currency should be all
issued by Government, and Government only, and the
Nation responsible for its value as it is for the Simper cent^.
Nothing would be easier than to establish such a cur-
' rency and confine it within the requisite limits.
It belongs to practical men to devise the details of such'
a system; but if honestly set about by men of capacity,
nothing would be more easy of accomplishment. And it
may safely be affirmed, that if the requisite change is not
made, the nation will continue to be visited every four or
five years by periods of calamity which will destroy all
the fruits of former prosperity, like the unfortunate cul¬
prits who, under the former inhuman sj^stem of military
law, when sentenced to one thousand or fifteen hundred
lashes, were brought out at successive times to receive
their punishment by installments as soon as their wounds
had been healed in the hospital.'^
62
Natural Monetary
Laws.
The science of money is an exact science. It can be
demonstrated as completely as the laws that govern
mathematics. Whatever a people endow with monetary
principles, for the purpose of acting as a medium to ex¬
change their products, takes upon itself principles, which
are found to be unchangable and immutable. Nor are
they deep, dark or mysterious, but on the contrary, they
are simple, plain and easily understood. These laws ex¬
isted before society existed, for without them society could
not have existed, as it is the cementing principle which
organizes and hold large numbers in one common interest ;1
and it is from this principle that a medium of exchange
is evolved, which in the over three thousand years of
recorded history of the peoples of the earth, they have
endowed as that medium every well-known metal, num¬
erous classes of shells, all kinds of ivories, plants and vege¬
tables ; but the one thing most universally used and which
is still the most favored is paper.
As our Government derives its power from the consent
of the governed, so the Government derives its power to
issue a medium of exchange from the people who have
endowed it Avith that power, and the people have derived
their power from the laws of the Creator.
What have we learned that are attributes of this mone¬
tary principle? We have learned:
lAll men are striving to gather in the medium of exchange for
it is the representative of all things.
63
64
THE NATION'S MONEY.
1. That the people carry the monetary principle to and
deposit it with their sovereign Government, in order to
give it practical and uniform effect.
a. If the smaller or sub-governments of a people should
issue this medium of exchange, people wmuld be afraid to
take it for their goods, as there would be no stability or
uniformity in it, it might be unduly expanded one month
and as badly contracted in the next month, and all would
be wholly at sea in regulating the price of commodities.
b. The word sovereign is used in the sense of chief, as
all people have numerous governments, but there is al¬
ways the head or chief, or sovereign government, and the
act of issuing the medium of exchange is an act of sover¬
eignity.
c. The medium of exchange issued by a sovereign or
proper power is a functional principle,! and its force lies
wholly in the stamp which is the representative of the
sovereignity of the people. The principle is aptly illus¬
trated in the postage stamps. A postage stamp is en¬
dowed with functional duties—wherever seen by a postal
official it is a notice to him to pass the letter or package
along on its way to the place to which it is addressed.
When the postage stamps are purchased it is not for the
paper that the.y are printed upon, for that has no worth,
but for the function they perform.
d. A man works a week for a twenty dollar bill, or two
gold eagles, not for the paper that is in the bill, or the
gold that is in the eagles, but for the function that they
are endowed with, an ideal thing which will help him to
pay such debts as he is encumbered with, for they are
endowed with that functional qualification.
lA postal card is functionized cardboard. All understand what
it will do. Dropping an unfunctionized piece of cardboard into a
letter-box would result only in its being thrown out.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
65
Internal revenue stamps are wholly functionary, as is
also all papers issued for the use of Custom House officials.
It can be illustrated that the dollar is ideal or functional
factor when it is shown that the same piece of paper or
metal can be used, after erasing, for a larger or lesser
denomination, and it Avill be for whatever denomination
it is stated upon it, so the paper or metal is only a vehicle
to hold together this representation of sovereignity.
Hence it is the functional qualities we are after and not
the material qualities. No one but a jeweler or a metal
dealer wants the metal that composes the metal moneys,
and that is not one man in ten thousand.
IL It is the duty of the Government to furnish to the
people of which it is the representative, a properly
printed, issued and equitably distributed medium of ex¬
change, based upon natural financial laws.
a. Every Government agrees to accept this function-
ized power of issuing and distributing of paper and
metal, medium of exchange, and they always enforce the
laws prohibiting individuals or sub-governments from
issuing it.
b. But the experience with most governments is that
after getting complete control of this power, they turn it
over to some favorite to manipulate for his personal in¬
terest, while the general interest is not cared for. This is
not in accordance with justice or the duty of a govern¬
ment.
III. That a medium of exchange must be limited in
amount.
a. The amount outstanding governs prices of labor
and products.
b. Society divides up its medium of exchange for its
66
THE NATION'S MONEY.
wants and it takes into consideration the total amount
of the medium of exchange it possesses, just as an indi-
yidiial divides and sub divides his income to supply his
wants. Therefore, if the total amount of money is cur¬
tailed the amount is curtailed that represents each sub¬
division, and, therefore, a contraction of the medium of ex¬
change contracts or lowers prices, and increasing the
amount raises prices, and in order to keep prices stable and
stop fluctuations, the amount of medium of exchange must
be limited to a given amount. To control the amount of
issues and distributions of the medium of exchange
through this branch of the Government has always been
the great desire and aim of large corporations or com¬
binations of men, for their knowledge of when it is going
to be contracted or expanded is a source of great wealth.
Through contraction they force property holders to default
in the payment of their mortgages or interests on mort¬
gages, and by forcing a sale they buy the property in at
one-half its value, or allow the owners to go on, but on a
basis which pays the conspirators considerable proflt, and
places a heavier burden upon the owner, and makes it al¬
most impossible for him to succeed in clearing his prop¬
erty from debt. By the conspiracy of 1893 most of the
railroad owners were deprived of their property, and de¬
stroyed as such, and the mortgagees, if they saved their
mortgage it was only by cutting it down, or compromising
in some manner. Nearly all were wrecked in this mal¬
strom, and it swept over this country into every city and
hamlet, wrecking every kind and form of business, and
destroying property valued at billions. What was this
power? It was the effect of contracting the volume of
the medium of exchange. Business must and will con¬
form to the amount outstanding of the medium of ex¬
change, and it will rise and sink, as that is increased or
decreased. These men understand that flnancial law
THE NATION'S MONEY,
67
perfectly, and get very rich by working in harmony
with it.
The effect of contraction of the medium of exchange
can be illustrated in this way: Supposing a man whose
business is to raise potatoes, for which he received one
dollar per bushel, and he raised fifty thousand bushels
and sells them for fifty thousand dollars, with this money
he makes the first payment on a business block in a city,
for which he agrees to pay one hundred thousand dol¬
lars, that is, he pays one-half the purchase price and owes
the other half, for which he gives a note due in one year,
calculating to sell his next years' crop of fifty thousand
bushels of potatoes for fifty thousand dollars and pay the
indebtedness. But these parties who work a contraction
of the medium of exchange commence their operation, and
by making the medium of exchange scarce, force the price
of potatoes down to fifty cents. The potato raiser only
realizes twenty-five thousand dollars for his fifty thou¬
sand bushels of potatoes, just one-half of the amount he
expected to realize with which he is to meet his note of
fifty thousand dollars. By this operation the contraction-
ists have made it almost impossible for this man to save
even the pri^vious money he has invested in this property
and he loses the property altogether.
ly. It must be a material which is capable of holding
and preserving the stamp or representation of the sover¬
eign power, and it must be convenient to transport, and to
pass Jrom hand to hand, and capable of withstanding the
wear of usage, and hard to counterfeit.
The material that the medium of exchange is made of
has no effect upon it legal or the natural law governing
»
the principle. When a debt is paid in a legal tender
medium of exchange, no matter whether paper, silver
68
THE NATION'S MONEY.
or gold, the debt cannot be sued for and collected again.
Judge Tiffany in bis Treatise on Government and Con¬
stitutional Law, says: "There is no such thing, legally,
as gold and silver money and paper money. Money, as
the measure of price or value, is the sovereign authority
impressed upon and attached to that which is capable of
taking it and retaining the impress of that authority."
In natural financial law no effect is caused by using
different monetary materials, prices rise and fall as the
total number of dollars is increased or decreased, and
one material can be decreased and another increased, and
so long as the total amount is unchanged prices will not
change. It is the quantity of dollars in the market that
governs prices; supposing the market supply of goods be
normal, the material that the medium of exchange is made
of has no effect whatever. Like other things it is its
quantity that determines what it is to be valued at.
Books are filled arousing the fear from infiation of it,
but not a page is printed warning the reader of the
calamity caused by a contraction of it. Of course it should
not be inflated nor contracted, both are calamities. Prod¬
ucts are bought with the medium of exchange, and the
medium of exchange is bought with produe^ts, and the
quantity of each article in the market effects the price.
If there is plenty of medium of exchange and small
quantity of products , the price of products will be high ; if
the medium of exchange is scarce and the product plenti¬
ful the price of products will be low.
V. It must be issued in denominations suitable to aid
and facilitate business transactions.
a. As small business transactions outnumber greatly
the large ones, so the small bills should outnumber the
large ones, in the same proportion.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
69
VI. The total amount to be issued must be governed
by the amount of population.
a. A population of one hundred millions must have
more mediums of exchange than one of one million. They
produce more and consume more, and therefore the ex¬
change of the medium is more.
b. In getting at this principle the general idea held is
correct, of basing the issue on the individual or unit of
society, or what they call per capita, and multiplying by
the number of the whole population. This is equitable
and just and every individual is a unit or factor in the
monetary system as he is a factor in the producing and
consuming system.
c. ' This basis of issue will adjust itself harmoniously
to the products. Supposing the products of our people
to be in value |16,000,000,000 annually, and the population
70,000,000, it would give, at $50 per capita, an issue of
$3,500,000,000. It will be seen that the annual product
exceeds the amount of issue nearly five times and in order
to meet that amount the issue has got to change hands,
every dollar of it, nearly five times. In addition to this
principle, the ownership of the products changes hands
three times in its course of distribution, which means
three sales and three purchases, the debits and credits.
The three sales aggregate three times the total value of
the products, $16,000,000,000, which is $18,000,000,000,
and the three purchases aggregate the same, which is a
total of $96,000,000,000; add to this the value of prod¬
ucts, $16,000,000,000, and you have a total of $112,000,000,-
000 as the total amount of business done by this people,
' which requires 50 per cent of cash and 50 per cent of credit
to do the work.
The proposed issue of $3,500,000,000 of medium or ex¬
change would be inadequate to meet this colossal amount,
70
THE NATION'S MONEY.
if another principle did not come to its aid, which is the
principle of credit, or deferred payments or settlements,
which is the giving of promises to pay in the shape of
notes, orders on banks or checks, drafts and acceptances,
and other kinds and orders of papers, which by agree¬
ments and concerted action are offset one against the
other, leaving only that part of which there is nothing to
offset, to be paid in cash, relieving the pressure and de¬
mand for cash nearly 50 per cent. That would leave
$28,000,000,000 to be met in current funds annually in the
business transactions of the country, with an issue of
$3,500,000,000 to meet it. From this it will be seen that
every dollar of the issue has got to be turned over, or
changed hands, nearly nine times, and that a smaller
issue could not possibly do the work.
Currency is a tool, the tool of commerce, and the de¬
mands upon it is tremendous.
VIL It should be equitably distributed that no in¬
justice be done to any individual.
a. All are owners of the proceeds of this God-given
principle, and when the division takes place the rights of
all must be respected.
b. Injustice to one will work injustice to all. Where
injustice prevails there is decay.
Amendments
to the National
Constitution.
AMENDMENT SIXTEEN.
Section 1. The Secretary of the Treasury shall print
and issue to the State governments, respectively, the fol¬
lowing-named bills and amounts, and class, respectively,
to each one hundred thousand inhabitants of each State,
and the same ratio for fractional number of inhabitants
thereof, the sum aggregating |5,000,000 for each one hun¬
dred thousand inhabitants, which is |50 per caiúta:
1,000,000 |1 legal-tender bills.
500,000 |2 legal-tender bills.
200,000 $3 legal-tender bills.
100,000 |5 legal-tender bills.
50,000 fio legal-tender bills.
4,000 |25 legal-tender bills.
4,000 |50 legal-tender bills.
2,000 |i00 legal-tender bills.
1,000 |200 legal-tender bills.
400 |500 legal-tender bills.
500 |1,000 legal-tender bills.
Section 2. Each denomination of said bills shall have
an appropriate and distinct design, containing the amount
of the bill in large figures, and, also, the amount must be
John C. Calhoun said: "Without a Constitution—some¬
thing to counteract the strong tendency of government to disorder
and abuse, and to give stability to political institutions, there
can be but little progress or permanent improvement."
71
72
THE NATION'S MONEY.
in words in several places upon its face and back. Upon
both its face and back it must have these words: "This
is one dollar (or whatever amount it may be) and is a legal-
tender for all debts, public or private; and shall be receiv¬
able for taxes, duties on imports and internal revenue
taxes and all forms of indebtedness to the National Gov-
ment; and the National Government shall pay all its
creditors and general expenses in this form of currency;
and no enactment by any legislative body, or judicial de¬
cision, or contracts of whatever kind shall have the effect
of taking from this bill its full legal-tender power and
force.'' And it shall be printed and executed in the highest
state of such art at the time of its ïssue.
Section 3. This money must be delivered to the State
authorities free of cost, and no interest shall be charged
for its use by the general Government; and the State,
county and city governments are prohibited from loaning
it out in excess of a combined interest charge in amount
of over 3 per cent per annum to the individual borrow¬
ing it, and the State seal shall be printed along with the
endorsement of two State officials on the back of each
bill, after having been delivered to the State officials.
Section 4. The Executive and National Secretary of
the Treasury, with the addition of one senator and two
members of the House of Representatives, shall be a com¬
mittee to see that each State shall choose five commission-
"The country must have small currency, as it is impossible
to transact the daily business of the people without it."—John G.
Carlisle.
"The fact is that the aggregate sum of money in the United
States is not sulRcient. * * * insufficiency of our aggre¬
gate of money appears glaringly to the unprejudiced. When
crops move from the producer he wants actual money. Checks,
drafts and like credit substitutes for money do not content him.
* * * If there were a larger aggregate of money in the United
States it could circulate over our vast territory without occa¬
sioning alarm."—Wm. P. St. John, president Mercantile National
Bank, New York City,
THE NATION'S MONEY,
73
ers, wlio shall give a bond or bonds for the secure handling
of the money received, and the bond or bonds shall be
approved by the Governor: and when the bond or bonds
are approved the Secretary of the Treasury shall issue said
money and deliver it to the keeping of the said State com¬
missioners.
Section 5. The State shall prohibit the county and city
governments from loaning this money to its inhabitants
on landed security of less than of undoubted value of
two thousand dollars for every one thousand dollars
loaned; and no one person shall borrow more than two
thousand dollars nor less than two hundred dollars. Cor¬
porations shall not be allowed to borrow this money or any
individual be allowed to give his name in the stead of a
corporation.
Section 6. All transactions under the printing, issu¬
ing, receiving, distributing and loaning of this money
shall be under oath, and any conviction of perjury or
wrong-doing shall be punished the same as if convicted of
felony.
Section 7. The time for which this money is loaned is
sixteen years, but one-fourth of the total amount loaned
shall be paid every four years, when interest shall cease
on that amollit paid. Interest shall be collected annually
after earning it. No fees or commissions shall be charged
to one soliciting or procuring a loan. All lands and im¬
provements forfeited for non-payment of principal or in¬
terest shall go into the public domain.
Section 8. The National Secretary of the Treasury
"If there were a larger aggregate of money in the United
States it could circulate over our vast territory without occasioning
alarm. If I knew that the world believed that Louisville is abso¬
lutely prosperous, I V70uld like to lend much of my money in Louis¬
ville. I did not mean to reflect on Louisville. But there is no
general prosperity in the United States to-day."—^Wm. P. St. John,
President N. Y. Mercantile Bank.
74
THE NATION'S MONEY.
shall issue new bills in lieu of tliose mutilated, worn oí
otherwise unfit for circulation, which shall be exact dupli¬
cates of those mutilated, and thev are to receive the State's
seal and the State's official's endorsement before entering
into the circulation.
Section 9. The officials of the National, State, county
and city governments are prohibited from contracting or
expanding the printed circulating medium above or below
the sum of fifty dollars for each and every individual in
this country. When loans are paid and canceled, a new
loan shall be made with such money, if any one has re¬
quested a loan, with proper security.
Section 10. All moneys other than metal outstanding
at the time of the adoption of these amendments shall be
called into the National Treasury and destroyed.
Section 11. The Secretary of the Treasury shall print
5,000,000 50-cent bills and 5,000,000 25-cent bills, to be
issued to the postmasters, and sold on application.
Section 12. The Secretary of the Treasury shall append
to his annual report a statement in which he shall give
the amount of money issued to that date, to what State,
and the amounts of each State, their denominations, and
the denominations and amounts of all mutilated bills re¬
turned for reissue; and shall append to this report the
report of all controllers of mints of the amount of money
they have coined for the year and the denominations of
the coins.
Section 13. These moneys are not liable for any
debts of any government Ifirough which they may be is¬
sued or passing through, but shall be liable for debts when
in the possession of the person borrowing, and solely for
that person's debts and none other.
Section 14. The proper national officials shall issue of
the four lowest denominations, one per cent of the total
amount of the medium of exchange issued and distributed
THE NATION'S MONEY.
75
to the several State commissioners, and distrihute it pro
rata to the several State commissioners, to be by them
loaned to their respective citizens, as previous loans have
been made, for the purpose of taking the place of those
bills destroyed or lost, and this shall be done once every
eight years. The State officials are to place the State seal
upon these bills and endorse them as hereinbefore pro¬
vided.
Section 15. No State, county, city or town, or officials
thereof, nor individual or individuals, or corporation or
combination of individuals, or church or other associa¬
tions, or societies of any kind, shall print or have printed,
shall coin or have coined, or shall issue or have issued,
anything that is made in imitation of the national moneys,
or that is to take their place as the circulating medium,
on penalty of being punished as counterfeiters.
Section 16. Any person convicted of counterfeiting
the national money shall be imprisoned not less than ten
years. Any person convicted of passing, uttering, or at¬
tempting to pass or utter any counterfeit national money,
shall be imprisoned for not less than five years.
AMENDMENT SEVENTEEN.
Section 1. No public money shall be deposited in any
private or incorporated banking institution, or in any in¬
stitution of whatsoever kind other than the National
Treasury or sub-treasuries.
AMENDMENT EIGHTEEN.
Section 1. All gold and silver, in any amounts whatso¬
ever, tendered at the various mints, shall be coined into
the denominations established by law free of charge to the
owners thereof, and when coined shall be delivered to the
owners, and shall be a legal-tender, the same as described
7G
THE NATION'S MONEY
in amendment sixteen, section two hereinbefore, and for
all the purposes therein described.
Section 2. The National Secretary of the Treasury,
sub-treasurers or any of the national officials shall be pro¬
hibited from buying gold or silver, or receiving gold or
silver for deposit, and issuing any receipts or form of sub¬
stitute money for it.
Section 3. Congress shall have power to change the
number of grains in the gold and silver dollar.
Section 4. Congress and the Executive shall establish
mints in or near the great mining lands. There shall be
not less than twelve mints in the United States for the
purpose solely of coining money, and all gold and silver
brought to these mints shall be coined and returned to the
owner or owners thereof, and all assay offices shall be
closed, and refining bullion for other than coinage pur¬
poses shall be prohibited.
Section 5. The officials of each mint shall coin bronze
one cent pieces and nickel five cent pieces of weight and
standard required by the law at the adoption of these
amendments, which shall be a full legal-tender for all debts
and payments up to and including five dollars. Said
officials shall keep a supply ready for any purchaser's de¬
mand, or order, which shall be sold at par.
AMENDMENT NINETEEN.
Section 1. The National Treasury shall be divided into
two separate departments, viz. : one department to receive
all revenues due the Government and disburse the same,
and one department to issue and distribute money to the
States and renew mutilated bills, each department to be
wholly separate from the other, with the exception that
the National Secretary of the Treasury shall be the chief
officer of each department.
THE NATION^S MONEY,
77
[AMENDMENT TWENTY.
Section 1. Congress and all officials of the Government
are prohibited from issuing or selling any bonds or stocks,
or any j)romises to pay, without first calling an election,
the call stating the purpose for which the bonds are to be
issued. The election to take place four months after the
issuing of the call, when the vote of the people shall decide
whether they shall be issued or not, and if issued the de¬
nominations shall be ten dollars, twenty-five dollars, fifty
dollars and one hundred dollars, one-fourth of the issue
for each denomination named.
The call shall be posted in a public place in every post-
office in the United States for the full term of four months.
78
THE NATION'S MONEY.
"In all inventions there are some denomination taken for
a unit. In angles it is the degree; in geography it is the mile;
in plans it is the foot or yard; in money it is the pound, livre,
florin (or dollar)."—Sir James Stewart. ^
Unit is any standard quantity by the repetition and sub¬
division of which any other quantity of the same kind is measured,
as 1 foot, 1 yard, 1 mile, 1 peck, 1 ounce, 1 pound, 1 hour, 1 cent,
1 dollar.
-The word "standard" means in money matters the same
as "composition" means. It is the standard or the rule that is to
govern the mint in making metal dollars. The rule or standard
is there shall be so much gold, so much silver and so much cop¬
per in a gold dollar, and when it is coined it is by that standard
or rule. The standard or rule of silver dollars is so much silver
and so much copper shall compose the silver dollar. In other
words it is the precise weight and fineness fixed for a metal
dollar.
This is the mode of distribution of cents: Law of March
3, 1795, Sec. 9. That it shall be the duty of the Treasurer of the
United States, from time to time, as often as he shall receive
copper cents and half cents from the treasurer of the mint, to
send them to the bank or branch banks of the United States, in
each of the states where such banks is established, and where
there is no bank established, then to the collector of the principal
town in such state (in the proportion of the number of inhabitants
of each state) to be by such bank or collector, paid out to the
citizens of the state for cash, in sums of not less than ten dollars
value; that the same be done at the risk and expense of the
United States, under such regulations as shall be prescribed by the
department of the Treasury."
^In 1734 the Massachusetts General Assembly made bullets
a legal tender by the following enactment: "It is likewise or¬
dered that musket bullets of a full bore shall pass currently
for a farthing apiece. Provided that no man be compelled to take
"above Xlld at a tyme in them."
^Dollars and cents are the units by which accounts are
kept, made so by law, instead of the English pound, French franc
or German mark.
"That the passageway to a new era is blocked by a de¬
fect in our civilization will readily be recognized. * ♦ •
Money is a thing everyone must have."—^William H. Harvey.
"The prosperity of any nation is in exact proportion to the
quantity which it spends in obtaining and employing the means
of life, not merely wisely producing, but wisely distributing and
consuming, as consumption is the end and aim of produce. There
is no wealth without life."—John Ruskin.
Arguments
for the
Amendments.
AMENDMENT SIXTEEN.
Section 1. The very great necessity of a medium
of exchange being granted, the next thing that follows is
to give the principle practical effect, and in order to do
that we must enter into practical details. First, the paper
must be printed in the highest state of the art to secure iö
from counterfeiting. Second, it must be issued to the State
governments or commissioners in order to get the State
zeal and endorsement upon it, and because of the ease and
security with which the State can loan it out, as it now
loans out all money derived from the sale of school lands,
which is the basis of their excellent school systems, while
the work would be too cumbersome for the larger govern¬
ment and larger territory. Third, the basis of issue should
be based upon population; the larger population needing
more medium of exchange than the lesser population.
Fourth, The denominations that are most used in busi¬
ness should have the most numbers printed and issued.
It is suggested that the number of each denomination
in Section 1 will be found about correct. The proposition
All there is in the Constitution at present pertaining to^ the
medium of exchange are these few lines: The Government can
'*coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin.
No state shall coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything but
gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts."
79
80
THE NATION'S MONEY.
of a tliree-dollar bill is quite an innovation, but tbe writer
has given the matter considerable thought, and believes
it is necessary to save the constant and never-ceasing
trouble of getting jiroper change for something that costs
over two dollars, when a five-dollar bill is the only next
denomination. The Government stamps a three-dollar
gold coin.
DENOMINATIONS OF BILLS IN 1883.
Denomina¬
Nat. Bank Bills,
Legal Tenders.
tions.
1883.
1883.
Ones
573,768
30,211,497
2
353,232
27,156,964
5
91,523,205
72,994,415
10
118,317,310
70,958,096
20
83,084,160
59,298,309
50
23,265,300
23,012,845
100
32,559,700
33,431,890
500
898,000
14,997,500
1,000
185,000
15,244,500
5,000
255,000
10,000
120,000
350,779,436
345,681,016
"There is, and has been for a long time past, a small-cur¬
rency famine in this country. It is felt everywhere, though less
acutely, perhaps, in New York, because it is the great banking
center, and money accommodations of all kinds are more easy to
obtain here than at any other point. Nevertheless, there is gen¬
eral complaint even in this city and its neighborhood that there
is not enough small money to make change with.
"The Recorder has time and. again called the attention of the
treasury authorities to this popular demand for fractional cur¬
rency. It is notorious that the banks are continually called upon
for small change in larger quantities than they are able to sup¬
ply. In the business heart of the city, where the banks are near
at hand, the strain, however, is not so badly felt. But directly
a man finds himself three miles out from the city hall, in either
direction, he might almost as well have Mark Twain's fabled
bank note for one million pounds in his pocket as have one for ten
or five dollars there, for practical purchasing purposes, etc., etc."
•—New York Recorder.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
81
The Government has stopped printing one and two-
dollar National bank bills, making the denominations
larger and harder to get.
Section 2. A government has no moral right to send
out a medium of exchange that is not a full legal-tender,
nor refuse to honor it by receiving it in all its differ¬
ent revenues and taxes that it levies—if it does less than
this it is giving some citizens unjust and unreasonable
advantage over others, and even and exact justice does not
prevail. Hence the duty of a government to be impartial.
Section 3. The idea of delivering it to State authorities
is for two reasons, especially: First, to get the endorse¬
ment of the State Government upon it, making the people
of that State, as a State, responsible for it; and, Second,
that the distribution will be made much easier, and the
burden taken off the National Government.
Section 4, This section is merely to throw some ad¬
ditional safeguards around the issue and distribution of
the medium of exchange that it seems to demand.
Section 5. This section is for the same purpose as the
previous section, with the addition of stating how the
borrower can get his loan.
Section 6. Makes any wrong doing while printing,
issuing or distributing this medium of exchange punish¬
able as felony is punishable.
Section 7. Gives the borrower low rate of interest and
the advantage of four years before he has one-fourth of his
loan to pay back, which is not ojipressive in the least, but
very advantageous to him.
■ ''What wö need is a settled, scientific system, under which
every circulating dollar shall be just as desirable as every other,
and which shall be free from all threats of disturbance for pollt.ical
purposes. In brief, we have need to take our finance out of
politics."—New York World.
By changing the quantityof money you change the purchas¬
ing power of each dollar.
82
THE NATION'S MONEY.
Section 8. We will have to guard agains't mutilated
currency, and this section is for that purpose.
Section 9. Is to guard against expansions or contrac¬
tions of the currency in any manner, for there the danger
lies. Officials are warned not to interfere with it on
heavy penalties.
Section 10. The miserable lot of currency we have out
now should be called in and destroyed, as it is a menace to
business, and was issued for the purpose of a designing
combine and not for the interest of the people—hence the
quicker it is placed on the shelf the sooner it will cease to
rob.
Section 11. The publishers of newspapers, periodicals
and magazines and literary works feel the need of a small
paper currency in the country for enclosures in letters, etc.
Section 12. Is not much more than the Secretary of
Treasury is required to do now. In fact this monetary
system would relieve him of an awful burden he now
carries.
Section 13. This is only to protect it until it gets in the
hands of the borrower.
Section 14. There is a loss that must be taken care of
and that is the loss by fire, and general losses of all kinds,
and the writer holds that it is about one percent of total
issue every eight years. Science may change this in time.
"Money is needed to relieve a present pinch, which may
become more serious if not relieved. It is needed in order that
cotton may not lie profitless in the gin-houses and grain rot in the
fields for lack of means to get these products to market."—New
York World.
"If you neither wish to rob or be robbed keep out of Wall
Street."—New York World.
These "robbers" are the same men who dictate to our National
law-making power when gold or silver shall be locked up or let
loose; when the bullions shall be monetized or demonetized;
when a new form of currency shall be issued and a previous issue
discontinued. These are the men that are playing havoc with
business. Reader, don't you think we are sadly in need of a con¬
stitutional amendment that will stop all that kind of business?
THE NATION'S MONEY.
83
'AMEISiDMENT SE VENTEE]^.
This is to stop ttie present system of loaning out
National moneys for bankers and others to speculate on.
AMENDMENT EIGHTEEN.
This is free coinage of gold and silver without any con¬
trol or interference by Government officials, which has
proved so dangerous the last few years.
AMENDMENT NINETEEN.
This is to separate the Treasury into two departments
where it is now in one. Any one giving the matter some
thought will see it is proper that it should be separated
so that the governmental revenues shall not in any way
get mixed with departments controlling the issuing and
distributing of the medium of exchange. The condition
of the Treasury is simply chaotic now.
AMENDMENT TWENTY.
Municipal, County and State Governments are now pro¬
hibited from issuing bonds or going in debt wdthout fi^st
appealing to their citizens for endorsement of such an
action. There is some slight qualifications to this in some
governments. That this is necessary in the National
Government the late experience demonstrates too well.
The lack of it has cost 162 millions of dollars within the
last two years, and will probably cost 500 millions of dol¬
lars in all, as that is the amount the combine is determined
to issue.
"We will not buy those bonds because we think the issue
is illegal."—W. P. St. John, president New York Metropolitan
Bank. Quoted from memory.
84
THE NATION'S MONEY.
By the adoption of these amendments it destroys thon-
sands of wicked laws that now fret, injure and rob the peo¬
ple. Their adoption makes it impossible to have panics,
and makes it impossible for one section of our country
to enslave or dominate any other section. It is only pos¬
sible to have financial freedom by amending the National
Constitution so as to harness those colossal natural finan¬
cial powers, and control them in the interest of all the peo¬
ple, rather than in the interest of a few of the people.
There is no other proposition to control this financial
poAver that is tenable; any other proposition is based on
a temporary or shifting condition, which requires the
whole work to be gone over time after time, and is offering
a premium or bonus to the "conspirators," as Carlisle calls
them, "traitorous class" Avas what Jefferson called them,
to keep themselves in readiness to reap the reward of the
neglect of the people to guard those principles they should
guard, and guard so carefully and guard so strictly.
"How foolish to deposit national funds in banks."—Thomas
H. Benton.
^Alex. Del Mar, in his science of money says: "The silk
threaded, distinctive-fiber paper, the water marks, the printing
in colors, the highly artistic vignettes, the geometrical lathe
work, the numbers, signatures, and other mechanical safeguards
of the modern paper note, render it far more difficult to imitate
than coin."
Monetary Blessings.
Eeader. turn your mind upon your own condition and
think what you could do for yourself if you only had money
to do it with, then multiply it by all the people and you
would be still far short of having any conception of what
a blessing a scientific monetary system would give.
"A wave of wealth swept over the United States; huts be¬
came houses, tatters became garments, and rags became robes;
walls were covered with pictures, floors with carpets, and for the
first time in the history of the world the poor tasted all the luxuries
of wealth. We began to wonder how our fathers endured life."
—R. J. Ingersoll on the national prosperity from 1863 to 1873.
"The people have and do realize that their most prosperous
times were when currency was most plentiful."—John A. Logan.
"Money, the great instrumentality which delivers men from
savagery, admits of their aggregation in communities, renders pos¬
sible a division of labor suited to the aptitudes of each and the
needs of all, develops skill of hand and brain, feeds the hungry,
clothes the naked, shelters the homeless, educates the ignorant,
uplifts the humble, refines the gross and gives heart and hope and
happiness to all who are weary and heavy-laden.—John P. Jones.
"We find that in every kingdom into which money begins
to flow in greater abundance than formerly, everything takes on a
new face; labor and industry give new life; the merchant more
enterprising, the manufacturer more diligent and skilful, and
even the farmer follows his, plow with greater alacrity and atten¬
tion. It is the oil which renders the motion of the wheels more
smooth and easy."—David Hume.
85
Wealth of the People and
Governments.
The wealth of this people is set down at about |70,000,-
000,000.
The property of this nation is not inventoried, but it can
be estimated at $10,000,000,000.
The property of the States can be estimated at $5,000,-
000,000.
The increased wealth by having a proper medium of
exchange, and putting the 4,000,000 idle producers at
work would bring the total wealth up to $100,000,000,000.
To issue $50 for each person would make the total issue
$3,500,000,000, or per cent of the total wealth of the
country. To bring it down to smaller figures, for every
one hundred thousand dollars of property the Govern¬
ment would issue as a medium of exchange three thou¬
sand five hundred dollars.
The issue to be loaned out on double real estate secur¬
ity and thereby becomes a non-interest bearing first mort¬
gage on real estate valued at seven billions of dollars.
In addition to the foregoing the annual products would
come up to twenty-five billions of dollars, which excess
over the present amount would be over double the amount
of the whole issue of the medium of exchange, which it
would create because of its facilitating business.
Every dollar that is in circulation represents to the pro¬
ducer and stands for his products, and is worth the same to him as
his products would have been worth if he had not exchanged
them for the medium' of exchange, and he will not part with it for
less worth than he would have parted with his products.
86
Area of States Compared.
Five of the Largest and Five of the Smallest.
Square Miles.
Texas 265,000
California 156,000
Montana 146,080
New Mexico. 122,580
Arizona 113,020
Square Miles.
Rhode Island 1,250
Delaware 2,050
Connecticut 4,845
New Jersey 7,815
Massachusetts 8,315
Is any man so foolish as to believe that these five small
1/
States are going to dominate these five large States in the
financial or any other policy very much longer? This is
what Jefferson refers to in his plan. Injustice will work
ruin to all—and break up our grand Union of States.
tf
Engraving and Printing
Factory.
Keader you ought to know that this people own a build¬
ing, filled with proper machinery, and work fifteen hun¬
dred men and women in it, mostly printing the medium of
exchange, and they printed last year 55,000,000 sheets of
this kind of printing alone. And yet there are people who
say the Government cannot print this order of money, and
some of them are our chief officials. The total amount
they printed of this class last year was in dollars |777,-
865,400. (See report of Secretary of Treasury, page 727.)
This printing has been going on since the formation of
the Government. Can you find on the statute books any
law compelling this money to be divided with the people?
If not, why not? The people own the building and the
machinery, and pay for the paper used, and pay the ar¬
tisans, why shouldn't they have the proceeds? Can any
one tell?
"This bureau is now substantially executing all the en¬
graved work used by the government; it furnishes the stamps
(internal revenue, customs, and postage) through the use of which
the revenues of the government are in turn produced, and fur¬
nishes all PAPER MONEY, bonds, and other securities issued
by'the government; its rolls contain over 1,400 employes, who are
charged with handling these enormous values, reaching up to
hundreds of millions of dollars. The direction and perfection
of a system that will faithfully and satisfactorily execute such
work without loss to the government is a great responsibility,
and I fully appreciate the magnitude of your confidence."—Claude
M. Johnson« Chief of the Bureau.
S8
Mixed Currencies.
The Government bj its laws makes the following
monies:
Greenbacks,
Treasury Notes,
National Bank bills,
Coin Certificates,
Currency Certificates,
Silver Certificates,
Gold Certificates,
Old Demand Notes,
Bonds,
Coupons of Bonds,
Gold,
Silver,
for the medium of exchange of this country. Now isn't
that a hodge-podge? When you think that the volume of
the medium ou standing governs prices, who can tell what
is outstanding? A merchant thinks money is plenty, for
they have just increased it, and he feels its beneficial
effect, and he marks his goods up, in a short while he
finds they do not sell, and knowing he has got to get these
goods into the medium of exchange in a short while or he
will be ruined, he marks them down to cost to raise the
cash, and injures the whole market. Can business be done
honestly and properly in such a financial atmosphere?
Any one can see it is ruinous. Professor Francis A.
Walker said of it: "It will raise prices when expanding,
and depress prices and cause bankruptcies when con¬
tracting."
The laws creating most of these different issues were
written in Wall street, and passed by different Con¬
gresses in the interest of the financial games these Wall
street men play. These different papers were issued for
89
9Ó
THE NATION'S MONEY.
the purpose generally of destroying some property or
paper-property in the hands of the people. Under these
conditions no business man can tell where he stands. No
farmer knows when he is planting whether he will sell
to a shrunken or expanded market when he is ready to
place his products.
Reader, can't you see and understand that all these
issues were for the purpose of playing havoc with the
property of our merchants and farmers and manufactur¬
ers? Just look around von and see if it has not succeeded.
«y
Won't you aid in putting a stop to all this and place in
our National Constitution, out of the reach of Congress
and the Executive, the laws that shall govern a proper
monetary system? If you do not care for yourself, do you
not care for your children enough to throw your energy
into such a movement?
Secretary Carlisle states positively that the gold in circn •
lation is $600,000,000, when he knows that part of that amount
is locked up in the Treasury. Such statements are the wildest
of speculation anyway, something that should never enter a set of
books of account. He could as easily state the amount held in
solution by the Atlantic ocean. It would be as near the truth.
Everyone knows the amount in circulation is very small, so
limited is it that a few corporations gather the most of it and
lock it up. He treats silver and silver certificates in the same
manner, counting that out in circulation that is locked up in
the Treasury vaults. His statement of the outstanding green¬
backs is not truthful, as anybody can readily see, he does not give
any credit for lost or spoiled bills, although they have been out
since 1861, about 34 years. He makes the total in circulation
about $23 per capita, which is a little over one-half of the per
capita cifculation of France. The writer, taking into considera¬
tion the Treasury notes, silver certificates, national bank notes,
and gold certificates printed, and those that are locked up in the
Treasury, Sub-Treasuries and as reserve funds for banks, makes
the per capita amount outstanding nearly, or about, $5, There is
no gold or silver in circulation comparatively.
It is impossible for an Eads, or any great financial captain,
to live in the present financial atmosphere, for the reason that
great enterprises dare not be undertaken with the medium of ex¬
change in such a heterogenous mess. It would simply be financial
suicide.
The Present System of the Government
in Issuing of Currency.
UNITED STATES NOTES are issued under the act of Con¬
gress, February 25, 1895, and subsequent act authorizing an issue
of $450,000,000. The total issue and outstanding (greenbacks) since
June 30, 1880, have remained stationery at $346,681,016.
The laws authorize re-issue of these notes in the same de¬
nominations and amounts corresponding with the redemption of
the same at the Treasury.
The re-issues are made to supply the demand for new notes
in exchange for worn-out and mutiliated ones, or to meet the
obligations of the government, consequently the volume of notes
in circulation is not affected by the re-issues.
TREASURY NOTES of 1890 are issued in payment of purchases
of silver bullion, under what is known as the "Sherman act,'*
January 14, 1890. Notes "issued in accordance with the provisions
of this act" are "redeemable on demand in coin, and when so
redeemed may be re-issued, but no greater or less amount of such
notes shall be outstanding at one time than the cost of the silver
bullion and the standard silver dollars coined therefrom then
held in the Treasury purchased by such notes.
SILVER CERTIFICATES, act February 28, 1878, "Authorized
the issue of certificates in exchange for coin authorized by this act,
said coin to be deposited by the holder with the Treasurer or
Assistant Treasurer of ■'he United States, and be retained in the
Treasury for the payment of the certificates on presentation, and be
subject to re-issue when so received." The limit to the issue is at
all times governed by the supply of silver on hand in the Treasury
vaults.
GOLD CERTIFICATES of the denominations $5,000 and $10,000,
and payable to order, and from $20 to $10,000, payable to bearer,
are issued under act, July 12, 1882, and the law provides that
the Secretary of the Treasury shall suspend the issue of certifi¬
cates whenever the amount of gold coin and gold bullion in the
Treasury reserved for the redemption of United States notes falls
below one hundred million dollars. Those made payable to order
when redeemed are placed on file as vouchers, while those
payable to bearer after redemption are cancelled and destroyed.
CURRENCY CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT, act June 8, 1872.
This act authorizes the deposit of United States notes without in¬
terest by banking associations in sums of not less than $10,000,
91
92
THE NATION'S MONEY.
and the issne of certificates therefor in denominations of not
less than $5,000 (this was issued to contract local circulation),
which certificates shall be payable on demand in United States
notes at the place where the deposits were made. 'Tt provides
that the notes so deposited in the Treasury shall not be counted
as a part of the legal reserve, but that the certifi¬
cates issued therefor may be held and counted by the
national banks as part of their legal reserve, and may also
be accepted in settlement of clearing house balances at the place
where the deposits therefore were made, and that the United
States notes for which such certificates were issued, or other United
States notes of like amount shall be held as special deposits in
the Treasury, and used only for the redemption of such certifi¬
cates." These certificates are issued to the banks only and in
large denominations of $5,000 and $10,000.
All paper for currency is sent to the Treasury building, well
boxed, from which it is issued to the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing, where it goes through the press several times for the
back and front and for different colors. The size of the paper
prints four bills at once. After their completion in that depart¬
ment they are taken to the basement of the Treasury, where there
are eight cylinder presses, that print the red seal upon them,
and where the guide announces to the visitor that "they have
now become money," by this process.
The currency proper, in general circulation, more especially
the smaller denominations, by constant handling becomes worn,
mutiliated and unfit for further use, and when presented at banks
and the various sub-treasuries are retained with all other notes
giving evidence of waste and wear, and at stated times are
transmitted to the treasury department for redemption, new notes
being issued therefor. There being no time fixed by law for the
redemption of these securities, there are still outstanding of the
earlier issues a large sum in aggregate, a certain percentage of
which will never be presented for redemption, having been worn
out or destroyed.
To account for and in explanation of the comparatively new
notes received in seemingly bona fide redemption and destroyed,
it must be known that the notes in large numbers and amounts
are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and de¬
livered to the office of the Treasurer, where the seal is affixed.
In the process of perfecting the notes, they are injured in some
slight degree and not issued, but having been entered in the
cash account, are treated as an issue and redemption and so
destroyed.
Another reason for the redemption of new and perfect notes
is found in the fact that the notes are issued to banks and
have, by the special permission of the Treasurer of the United
States, been immediately returned for exchange for larger or
smaller denominations.
The authority to destroy United States notes, gold and silver^
certificates, etc., is derived from the act of March 17, 1862.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
93
The regulations governing their destruction require that they
shall be first counted and assorted by denominations in the office
of the Treasurer, and placed in packages of either fifty or one
hundred notes each, the date of the counting, the amount con¬
tained in the package, the number of the case showing from whom
received, and the name of the counter are noted on the straps
around the packages. The notes are cancelled and cut in two
lengthwise, and placed into bundles of four thousand half notes
each. The upper halves of the notes thus prepared and cut in two,
are delivered by the Treasurer to the Register of the Treasury,
and the corresponding lower halves to the office of the Secretary.
The upper halves received in the Register's office are recounted
and examined, and all errors found daily reported to the Treao-
urer. The same system of recount is observed in regard to the
lower halves in the office of the Secretary, and when an agree¬
ment is reached by an adjustment of all errors in the office qf
the Treasurer, the notes are again cancelled and destroyed by
being placed in a macerator of the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing, in which, by the action of steam, alkalies and knives,
they are reduced to a pulp. After the destruction is completed, a
certificate setting forth the fact is made by an official committee
representing the offices of the Secretary, Register and Treasurer,
and one member especially appointed by the Secretary to repre¬
sent the people, a copy of which is furnished to the Secretary,
the Register and the Treasurer whereupon the government redeems
the loss cccasioned, and reimburses the latter officer by re-issues
of the amounts of the currency and securities so destroyed.
A macerator is a large boiler, about 9 feet in diameter, by 4
fieet in height, in which are revolving knives, which, when in
operation, hot lime water is poured into it and the contents is
ieduced to a pulp.
NATIONAL BANK NOTES.—On July 1, 1893, there were 3,857
rational banks in operation, whose circulation of notes is con
trolled by and under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury.
This adds largely to the volume of currency under guarantee of
payment by the government. These notes are issued in blank by
the Comptroller of the Currency, and the signatures are affixed
by the proper officers of the respective banks.
The redemptions are under the supervision of the Treasurer,
the notes being received in a branch of his office known as tho
National Bank. Note Redemption Agency.
The notos are counted and assorted, and those unfit for further
use are sent to the Comptroller of the Currency, to be replaced
by a new issue.
Idle destruction of notes of national banks is made in the sub-
basement of the Treasury building, and is witnessed from a rep¬
resentative from the offices of the Secretary, Treasurer, Comp¬
troller of the Currency and National Bank Note Redemption
Agency.
94
THE NATION'S MONEY.
DENOMINATIONS OP DIFFERENT ISSUES.
United States notes (greenbacks): $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100,
$500, $1,000. Very few $ls and $2s now printed of this issue.
National Bank Currency, of 1875: $5, $10, $20, $50, $500, $1,000.
Treasury notes, series of 1891, to buy silver bullion: $1, $2, $5,
$20. $50, $100, $500, $1,000.
Silver certificates, series of 1891: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100,
$500, $1,000.
Gold Certificates: $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000.
Currency Certificates, series of 1875: $5,000 and $10,000.
United States registered bonds: $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000,
$10,000, $20,000, $50,000.
LAWS THAT MAKE COINED GOLD AND SILVER MONEY.
Law passed, June 28, 1834, as follows:
> Chapter XCV. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep¬
resentatives of the United States of America, in Congress as¬
sembled, That the GOLD COIh^S of the United States shall con¬
tain the folrowing quantities of metal, that is to say: Each eagle
shall contain two hundred and thirty-two grains of pure gold,
and two hundred and fifty-eight grains of standard gold; each
half eagle one hundred and sixteen grains of pure gold, and one
hundred and twenty-nine grains of standard gold; each quarter
eagle shall contain fifty-eight grains of pure gold, and sixty-four
and a half grains of standard gold; every such eagle shall be of
the value of ten dollars and every such half eagle shall be of
the value of five dollars; and every such quarter eagle shall be
of the value of two dollars and fifty cents; and the said gold
coins shall be receivable in all payments, when of full weight,
according to their respective values; and when of less than lull
weight, at less values, proportioned to their respective actual
weights.
From the law passed January 18, 1837:
Sec. 9. And be it further enacted. That of the SILVER COINS,
the dollar shall be of the weight of four hundred and twelve and
one-half grains; the half dollar of the weight of two hundred
and six and one-fourth grains; the quarter dollar of the weight
of one hundred and three and one-eighth grains; the dime, or
tenth part of a dollar, of the weight of forty-one and a quarter
grains; and the half dime, or twentieth part of a dollar, or the
weight of twenty grains, and five-eighths of a grain. And that
dollars, half dollars, and quarter dollars, dimes, and half dimes
shall be legal tenders of payments, according to their nominal
value for any sums whatever.
Sec. 8. And be it further enacted. That the standard for
both gold and silver coins of the United States shall hereafter
be such, that of one thousand part by weight, nine hundred shall
be of pure metal, and one hundred of alloy; and the alloy of the
silver coins shall be of copper; and the alloy of the gold coins
shall be of copper and silver, provided that the silver do not ex¬
ceed one-half of the whole alloy.
The Power of the National
Treasury.
The National Treasury can be compared to a colossal
electrical dynamo. Like the dynamo it draws in those
not understood occult powers and distributes them proper¬
ly or improperly in every direction for practical use. As
the writer has shown in another part of this book the
people have delegated the National Treasury with its
medium of exchange principle and prohibited all others
from using it, hence it is concentrated wholly and solely
in this institution. But owing to the lax way in which
the monetary clauses of the National Constitution were
written it has left the door wide open to the operations of
designing and corrupt men to come in and control its
operations to the detriment of some and for the benefit of
others.
The New York Tribune, April 7, 1873, treats of this
matter in the following paragraphs very ably:
"The world's history furnishes no parallel for the abso¬
lute power of one man and the abject humiliation of the
whole people, as exhibited to-day in this country. One
man sitting in Washington is endowed with larger
powers than was ever any other in any country since the
world began. He holds the key of the industrial, com¬
mercial, agricultural, mechanical, banking—in short, all
the interests of the country that liaAm any relations with
money or currency. On his breath hangs, with greater or
less degree, the welfare and prosperity of forty millions of
95
96
THE NATION'S MONEY,
people. The power of making money scarce or plenty;
to expand or contract the currency of the country. * * ♦
It is not in the possibilities of human wisdom to administer
such a trust Avisely. No man ever lived who could admin¬
ister it honestly. There is not virtue enough in human
nature to withstand all the enumerable subtleties of temp¬
tation that must assail the holder of such enormous power.
* * * Talk about the tyrannies and despotisms of the
Old World, of the suppression of free thought and free
speech, of the absolute control exercised by despots over
persons and liberties of their subjects. They are hardly
to be compared to the tremendous power of the Finance
Minister who holds between his thumb and finger the
business interests of the whole continent."
MOEE TESTIMONY.
The Bankers' Magazine discusses the same subject as
follows:
"The enormous power claimed and exercised by the
Treasury Department was not and should not be given to
any ofiicial, either explicitly or by implication. No man
has ever been intrusted with such absolute control OA^er the
fortunes and happiness of his fellow-citizens in this coun¬
try, and none ever ought to be. The pretensions to such a
power is monstrous."
The writer can hardly make the subject any stronger
than the Tribune or Bankers' Magazine have made it in
the foregoing. It shows wlioei^er controls the Treasury
are absolute masters of our people and their property.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
97
Shall that danger continue to threaten us? 'Are we
children to leave this great power unharnessed? Isn't
it the part of intelligent creatures to so place it in our
organic or constitutional law that it cannot be used only
for well-defined and explicit acts and none others? Think
of this, reader. This power will be under complete con¬
trol by adopting the amendments to the National Consti¬
tution which are proposed in this book.
Under the caption of "Panics and How They Are Made,"
the writer shows that Secretary Carlisle took this power
to New York and turned it over to the use of about twelve
men and what they did with it.
^Nathaniel P. Banks said: "When I stand in the United
States Treasury I stand on English soil." Meaning that the policy
that controlled our National Treasury was made in and brought
over from London.
"Hugh McCulloch hamstrung the whole nation. I affirm
that his management of the finances, while it enriched him, and
made him a great London hanker, has cost the American people
more than the war did."—William D. Kelley.
The Treasury department should be brought back into the
bounds where it naturally belongs. It slops all over the other
departments, rendering them insignificant and curtailing their
ability and usefulness,
The treasury keepd a lot of small bills to send out, and also
a lot of large bills to send out to pull in the small bills. By
this operation they destroy business and give the cormorants a
chance to raid the people.
Congress and the Executive are corrupt, and will be until
financial safeguards are thrown around them, so it will be im¬
possible to gain a hold on the Treasury by corrupting them.
^All the currency laws passed by the National Government
have got a clause in them increasing the power of the Secretary
of the Treasury, until his power is becoming tremendous. It is
increasing each year.
^Without the establishment of a monetary system all busi¬
ness is in a chaotic state. No man who purchases goods can know
what he will sell them for. No farmer can tell when he plants
what) he will sell the crop for when it is ready fop market.
Business Thermometer.
NEW YORK CLEARING HOUSE.
The metropolis clearing-house reports are the best indi¬
cations of the condition of business, as they follow the ex¬
pansion or contractions of business that is caused by the
expansion or contraction of the medium of exchange, by
expanding or contracting checks and bank papers.
The most properous year the clearing-house reports is
the year 1864, when it was |24,000,000,000, and we had 24,-
000,000 people, the South not to be considered that year.
The amount is just |1,000,000,000 of clearances to one
million of population, which in a normal condition is a
low clearance pro rata. With this key the reader can go
over the table with a view to trace the effects of panics—•
which is merely the contraction of the medium of ex¬
change and the contraction of credits conjointly, which
destroys business and the clearances report it. Look at
the terrible destruction of business in 1857, which is
recorded in 1858 and the years following. Look what a
terrible fall after 1873 panic, and, again, after 1884, and
look what a terrible fall in business in 1894—^it is forcing
70,000,000 of people down to a business basis that 24,000,-
000 were doing thirty years ago, who did not have one-
tenth of the machinery facilities that the present popu¬
lation have to aid them.
Doesn't this table tell a wonderful story? Read it, and
re-read it, here it is:
Supposing ten men stand in a row and we have numbered
them No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and so on up to No. 10, and that
No. 1 owes No. 2 $1, No. 2 owes No. 3 $1, No. 3 owes No. 4 $1, and
so to the end. By passing the one dollar along the line from No.
1 to No. 10, the one dollar has paid ten dollar's worth of in¬
debtedness.
Clearing houses are instituted to save passing the one dollar
to every person in the line. No. 1 simply pays No. 10, and all
the rest receipt their claims, by accepting promises to pay, checks,
which, when they are cancelled by the clearing house, ends
the transaction.
Total cash used in paying clearances in 45 years, $47,567,-
079,234.
98
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
THE NATION'S MONEY.
Clearings.
$5,750,455,937
5,362,912,098
6.906,213,328
8,333,226,718
4,756,664,386
6,448,005,956
7,231,143,057
5,915,742,758
6,871,443,591
14,867,597,849
24,097,196,656
26,032,384,342
28,717,146,914
28,675,159,472
28,484,288,637
37,407,028,987
27,804,539,406
, 29,300,986,682
33,844,369,568
35,461,052,826
22,855,927,636
25,061,237,902
21,597,274,247
23,289,243,701
22,508,438,442
25,178,770,691
... 37,182,128,621
48,565,818,212
46,552,846,161
40,293,165,258
34,092,037,338
25,250,791,440
33,374,682,216
34,872,848,786
30,863,686,609
34,796,465,529
37,660,686,572
34,053,698,770
36,279,905,236
34,421,380,870
24,230,145,368
90
Population.
31,445,000
24,000,000
38,558,000
50,155,000
62,622,000
70,000,000
$1,045,248,738,822
Functions.
This word means the performance of a duty, executing
an office or calling. It can be applied to a man, to a paper,
or to a metal.
The functions of the President of the United States is to
perform the duties or the functions of the Executive from
12 o'clock M. the fourth day of March, for four years, ending
at 12 o'clock M. on the same day of the month. An hour,
or even a minute, after that hour he can no longer perform
the functions of the office, for the people have endowed an¬
other man with the functions of the office, unless he is his
own successor.
Men are functionized constantly to perform certain acts,
which, when they are consummated, the functions ceases.
So paper is functionized to perform a certain duty. The
judge ianctionizes a ¡nece of paper, and it becomes a writ
of arrest. A government functionizes a piece of paper
and it becomes the medium of exchange, it functionizes
another piece of paper and it becomes a bond which
pledges the people to pay the face of its indebtedness, it
fupctionizes another piece of paper and it becomes an in¬
ternal revenue stamp, while another piece of paper will
have the functions that a postage stamp performs.
The Government functionizes metal for a great number
of things, but as medium of exchange it is the most im¬
portant. There is no comparison between the worth of
the metal and the worth of the function. If the metal is
100
THE NATION'S MONEY,
101
worth a dollar in the functionized piece, and it performs
fifty dollars worth of business in a day, its functional worth
is far in excess of its metal worth.
If postage stamps, instead of being almost worthless
paper, were made of metal, the functional worth as a post¬
age stamp would be far in excess in worth of the metal.
This powe r of functionizing men, paper and metals
should be understood by the people, and it would be well
to take up the larger dictionaries upon its meaning.
Congress passes ai law making metal money, then passes a
law making paper money, then passes a law that the paper
money can be exchanged for metal money, then passes a law to
lock up the metal money so it will be easier to get hold of by
those who want to exchange paper money for it, contracting the
currency that much. Honest Congress!
The writer would rather own the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing, endowed with the right to functionize paper for
currency, than to own all the mines in the United States. By
contraction and lowering of prices he could soon own all the
mines in the country.
Reader, you wouldn't want to buy cloth till you had fixed
the yard-stick. So you Avouldn't want to pay your taxes or go
into any enterprise till the dollar is fixed, and it is fixed by the
Quantity of them issued.
In 1773 Britain passed a law to force this country to pay all
taxes in silver. See caption David Hume. In 1873, one hundred
years after, she makes this country pass a law destroying her
silver. Both acts were done to destroy our commerce.
If you should move a people to some far island to people
it, they would functionize something for money inside of thirty
days. The Pigi Islanders functionized whale's teeth.
Gold did not appreciate during the war. The law-makers
said "you cannot get your imported goods out of bond unless
you present gold or old demand notes for them," and as these
were scarce they rose to a premium as importation increased.
The premium was paid for this function. If the law-makers had
said "we will receive any currency or bank checks" as they do
now, who would have paid anything for gold—it wasn't the gold
they wanted, it was the function to get their own goods out of
"hock."
Congress and Executive.
In constitutional governments there are questions
which must from their very nature and condition go back
to the people to be adjudicated and adjusted. Whenever
it is well demonstrated that the clauses in the Constitu¬
tion are a bar and hindrance to the welfare of the people,
or that by time they have become obsolete, as the clause
prohibiting the imporation of slaves for instance, then it
is time to adjust the Constitution to the new condition of
things. The Constitution is sadly in need of financial re¬
pair. There are only two clauses on the subject in it, and
these clauses are so worded that their meaning can be
construed to fit anj^ kind of a financial scheme that may
be proposed. The absence of a financial compas allows
Congress and the Executive to steer the financial vessel
wherever financial pirates may dictate it shall be steered,
and this lax Constitution breeds these pirates, and in¬
vites the cormorants of the earth to come here to batten
on this people.
The Executive has generally shaped the financial policy
of the country, dominating Congress with the whip of
appointing power, but sometimes Congress has led, but
whichever one leads, the power behind the throne is al-
wavs Wall street and its interests.
It is impossible for Congress or the Executive to remedy
the condition of the people; it is beyond the power that
they can concentrate; it requires the action of the people
themselves.
There is an expenditure of nearly five hundred millions
annually by Congress, over a million dollars for each in¬
dividual member, which in itself is enough for them to do,
102
THE NATION'S MONEY.
103
besides they have the care of seeing that the national
revenues are collected, so it can easily be understood that
each condition an organic or Constitutional question
will have little or no hearing, and any opinions expressed
will be governed by political, personal or financial interest,
and the general welfare of the whole people will be the
The Executive works and sleeps not over four hundred feet
from where eight cylinder presses are printing the red seals
on the medium of exchange, and they run eight hours every work¬
ing day doing this work—yet no Executive will tell you anything
about this.
The President of the United States always uses new money.
He never gets any old notes, except in change when making pur¬
chases. His salary is paid him in instalments of $4,166.66 each on
the last day of every month, and the Treasurer always makes it a
point to send him notes of the latest issue.—Chicago Record.
"The manner in which these loans were made to members of
Congress was told to me by one of these members who had gone
through this process of bank accommodation, and who, voting
against the bank, after getting the loan, felt himself free from
shame in telling what he had done. He needed $4,000 and could
not get it at home. He went to Philadelphia, to the bank, inquired
for Mr. Biddle, was shown into an ante-room, supplied with news¬
papers and periodicals, and asked to sit and amuse himself, the
president being engaged for the moment. Presently a side-door
opened. He was ushered into the presence, graciously received,
stated his business, was smilingly answered that he could have It
and more if he wished, that he could leave his note with the ex¬
change committee and check at once for the proceeds, and if incon¬
venient to give an indorser before he went home, he could do it
afterwards, and whoever he said was good would be accepted.
And in telling me this, the member said he could read bribery in
his eyes."—Thomas H. Benton.
In 1831 the United States Bank loaned Congressmen $322,-
000. In 1832 $470,000.—Franklin Pierce.
Mr. Clay said, "The loans were made to members opposed to the
bank."
Mr. Buchanan smiled and said, "No doubt of that."
Others said, "Did they remain opposed."—Thomas H. Benton.
The Senators vote always stood 18 for the people and 28 for
the combine. But Jackson and Benton whipped them out. When
Webster saw they were totally whipped, he arose and said,
"Let us call it an obsolete idea." An idea which he worked twenty
years to perpetuate, for which they paid him an immense amount
of money.
104
THE NATION'S MONEY.
last thing to be recognized. Under these conditions design¬
ing men meet no obstructions but are welcomed. The
politician is ever looking forward to the hour that the
people wdll take up another favorite in his stead, and if
he can ijerpetuate his personal welfare by falling into the
arms of this class of men, who promise him position and
wealth if he will continue the financial policy his prede¬
cessors were carrying out, and not interfere with their
designs or operations, which he gladly accepts, for it al¬
most always insures his personal financial safety for the
future. He reads the Constitution and finds nothing in
it interfering with such a policy, and he reasons this is a
government of the people, by the people, for the people, and
"At the end of 1874 certain sagacious minds became aware
of the concerted action to procure the entire demonetization of
silver, and sounded the alarm that so great a revolution as the
entire suppression of the monetary functions of one-half of the
world ought to awaken."—Chambers Encylopedia
The United States Senator is paid for his services by a
draft on the Sub-Treasury in New York City, where the money is
held, or loaned to banks, instead of being in Washington, in the
Treasury of the country, where it properly belongs. The Senator
knows this, and knows it to be a great wrong, but never men¬
tions it.
Congress will not allow a circus to stay in Washington more
than two days, because they argue that it will draw out so much
money of sm.all denominations, yet they passed a law making cur¬
rency certificates for the purpose of drawing out the ones, twos and
five dollar bills out of any community in large quantities when any
banker desires to make a local congestion or panic. The banker
gathers in all the small bills (that destroys all the business they
would do), and sends them to the National Treasury, and they are
locked up, and a $5,000 or $10,000 currency certificate issued to him
for them. The effect of this is to destroy business, force men to
default in payment of mortgages and to bring on a financial storm
in which their friends get the wreckage. This is one of thousands
of financial laws Congress has passed.
"Until the gentlemen at Washington can be coaxed or
driven into doing something which shall give the business com¬
munity a definite knowledge of what the volume of currency is to
be no revival need be expected. Men will not buy or sell cloth un¬
til the length of the yardstick is fixed."—New York Tribune.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
105
if the people did not want it as it Is ilie/ wo aid change
the Constitution, and he becomes the warm supporter of
these designing men, and finds himself, when che people
have repudiated him, appointed to some fat judgship or
office for the balance of his life. No relief can come from
Congress. The people must lay down the law to Congress
through the Constitution.
Nothing aids the reader to get a better view of Congress be¬
hind the curtains, and the Executive, for that matter, than a his¬
tory of the 1873 mint law. It was written by a corrupt and wicked
Englishman, passed by bribed Congressmen, and signed by a stupid
Executive, who says he was deceived when he signed it. The idea
of a President being deceived when he signs a bill! He has access
to all previous bills, and hadn't he intelligence enough to compare
them word for word and note any additions or changes of any
nature? Undoubtedly, he had—but he signed it because his Wall
Street masters ordered him to do so, and he did not know what the
bill contained, for he afterwards wrote a letter in which he says
silver ought to come to the mints now in greater quantity, although
he had signed a bill closing the mints to silver.
As to Congress here is what Gen. Garfield said of it in relation
to this bill:
'T never read the bill. I took it upon faith. It was put
through, as dozens of bills are, on the faith of the report of the
Chairman of the Committee."
Reader, really, do you want your monetary system to rest upon
such a condition of affairs? But hear what Judge Kelley says:
'T do not think there were three members in the House who
knew what the bill contained." Is it any wonder that financial
pirates have such easy sailing? But read this:
Mr. Voorhees—'T want to ask my friend from Maine (James G.
Blaine) did you know, as Speaker of the Pleuse, that the silver
dollar was demonetized in the bill to which he alludes?"
Mr. Blaine—'T did not know anything that was in the bill at
all. As I said before, little was known or cared on the subject.
[Laughter.] I should like to exchange questions with the Senator.
Did he know?"
Mr. Voorhees—"I frankly say I did not."
Mr. Holman says: "No man can read the record without being
convinced that the measure and the method of its passage through
the House was a colossal swindle."
Mr. Bright of Tennessee said: "It passed by fraud in the House."
Senator Allison said: "When the secret history of this bill of
1873 comes to be told it will disclose the fact that the bill was
doctored."
Mr. Bland said it was passed without Congress knowing its
contents.
iTtô
THE NATION'S MONEY.
The i3Íií€umsíances that now govern the selection, the
tíótítmation and the election of the President is very cor¬
rupting. The combine go to an ambitious but weak man,
and offer to put him forward as the party candidate, fur¬
nish any necessary funds, and furnish all the literature if
he will consent to their controlling the policy of the treas¬
ury, and appoint any officials that they may desire to ap¬
point, and in fact, he is to be under their immediate dicta¬
tion and control, and if he consents, all of their news¬
papers or organs, are commanded to sound the praises of
Now, what was it that so benumbed the intelligence of our Con¬
gressmen and the Executive that they would let this bill pass
through as though everything was greased for the occasion, then
turn and scold themselves for passing it, but do not repeal it. The
reason can be found in Mr. Frederick A. Luckenbach's sworn state¬
ment, which the following is an extract from:
"Mr. Ernest Seyd said: *T went to America in the winter of
1872-73, authorized to secure, if I could, the passage of a bill de¬
monetizing silver. It was to the interest of those I represented—
the governors of the Bank of England—to have it done. I took
with me £100,000 sterling, with instructions if that was not suffi¬
cient to accomplish the object to draw for another £100,000, or as
much more as was necessary. I saw the committee of the House
and Senate and paid the money and stayed in America until I
knew the measure was safe."
The reason the thing run so smooth through Congress was that
there was something in the committee room to grease its way.
Reader, isn't this humiliating, and aren't you ready to stop this
kind of work by taking it out of the power of Congress and the
Executive to play havoc with the people's business?
This Ernest Seyd, that the Bank of England sent over here,
formerly lived in this country a number of years, but returned to
England, where he took up the study of ñnance, and became what
we call in this country a "greenbacker," and he lectured throughout
Britain and in some portions of this country on "Currency Laws
and Pauperism," which demonstrated that the excessive poverty
and idleness in England was due to the restricted supply of the
medium of exchange, suitable to their wants as means of inter¬
course between themselves. Of course, the Bank of England could
not have such arguments going too far, and it wasn't long before
Mr. Ernest Seyd had a bank of his own and believed in gold and
silver basis, but the Bank of England was not satisfied yet. It
wanted Seyd to believe and work for their gold basis, and leave the
silver basis off; to aid him to see better they put a million dollars
in his hands to come to America and no questions would be asked.
Reader, is your mind very dull?
THE NATION'S MONEY.
107
this indiyidual. No matter how weak a man he was before,
he now becomes an ideal champion for the weak against
the strong, and the writers try to ontdo one another in
this fulsomeness. With few exceptions this has been re¬
peated every four years of onr national existence, all be¬
cause we have left one vital matter unprotected in our
Constitution. W^e are like a foolish farmer w}>o grows a
splendid crop of corn, but who has not, or will not close
up the gap of several panels in his fence, and the cows
going along the road take advantage of his negligence and
go in and eat and trample down his corn and he seeing
them drives them out but does not put up the fence, and
of course, the cows come back. Then he drives them out
again. So we scold and drive the cows out of onr treas¬
ury, but they come back, and it is repeated over and over.
What is it we must do? Why, put a fence around onr
National Treasury in the shape of a Constitutional law,
that when the New York cows come along they will find
it too strong to push over, and too high to get over. Then
that kind of work will not have to be done any more.
Then we can elect a pure-minded man as our chief execu¬
tive, for there will be nothing gained by corrupting him,
as he only has political offices to give, and there is not
much in them to induce corruption.
Henry Clay said in the United States Senate, when Tyler
vetoed the Bank bill, "If we had known he would have vetoed
that, bill, he should not have even been named in the convention
for the office." Clay had not counted on Harrison dying, who
had been "seen," but they had failed to fix Tyler, and got them¬
selves into a great deal of trouble by their oversight.
The bonds issued by the present administration were issued
to pay the deficiency in the cost of running the government,
government extravagance having exceeded the government's in¬
come. The reason given for the issue was, to increase the gold
reserve, in order that the people would not understand the true
condition. The officials paid out gold for government exnenses
and then bought it in again with the bonds.
A Sample Law.
it enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury is
hereby authorized to receive United States notes [green¬
backs] on deposit, without interest, from national bank¬
ing associations, in sums of not less than ten thousand
dollars, and issue certificates therefor in such form as the
Secretar}^ may prescribe, in denominations of not less than
five thousand dollars; wdiich certificate shall be payable
on demand in United States notes at the place where the
deposits were made.
Section 3. That nothing contained in this act shall be
construed to authorize any expansion or contraction of
the currencv and the United States notes for which such
certificates are issued, or other United States notes of like
amount shall be held as special deposits in the Treas¬
ury, and used only for the redemption of such certificates.''
—Approved June 8, 1872.
Steal, robbery and crime sticks out of those two para¬
graphs in a way that is monstrous. How? Why this way—
When you desitroy or lock up a dollar you destroy the busi¬
ness it would have done. These currency certificates were
issued to gather up the one and two dollar bills in a com-
i
munity in ten thousand dollar lots, which has the effect of
destroying all the little business transactions that would
have been done if they had not been locked up. People
whose business require small bills are cut off from their
resource, and are therefore forced to fail. This is what
the law is enacted for, to force settlements and destroy
business, and the Shylocks fatten upon this condition.
Reader, don't you think we need some strong rules in
our National Constitution to govern Congress and the Ex¬
ecutive?
108
Inflation.
This is one of the strongest arguments that those who
desire to perfect a monetary system have to meet from
their opponents, not that it is so, but it has seemed so, for
a lack of true understanding of what has taken place and
what is taking place.
Let us see who are the inflationists.
Our proposition consists of issuing |50 per capita for
70,000,000 of people, which will have an issue oustanding
of 13,500,000,000. That is the total amount of all forms of
medium of exchange outstanding, except the coined bul¬
lion, if our ijopulation remains as it is, increasing if it in¬
creases, and decreasing if it decreases.
What have been the issues of those controlling the issues
heretofore? Would you believe it possible that on the
books of the treasury it is recorded that they have issued
$12,000,000,000 of paper, (see Bayley's Report, tenth cen¬
sus), the most of which was issued before we had a popu¬
lation of 24,000,000, or almost one-third of our present
population; in addition to this there has been issued
by clearing-houses, banks, corporations, firms and indi¬
viduals, also by sub-governments, paper to the full amount
of $8,000,000,000, which is not recorded in the national
treasury books, which makes a total of $20,000,000,000
issued since this Government was started.
Who are the inflationists now?
It stands in our favor as 3 1-2 is to 20.
We would never have exceeded $3,500,000,000. They
have exceeded that amount by $16,500,000,000.
109
Contraction.
Money is a tool. A tool of business. Without this tool
you cannot do business.
By lessening the number of dollars you lessen the
amount of business that can be done. By increasing the
number of dollars you increase the amount of business
that can be done.
If you have ten shovels working, digging a ditch, and
you take away five shovels, the length dug each day is
lessened by half, and it takes thirty days work to do what
could have been done in fifteen days if the number of
shovels had not been lessened.
If the same proportion of dollars is decreased it will
take double the time to do the amount of business that it
would have done with the original amount of money.
And there is a general shrivelling and drying up of all
commerce in this operation of contraction.
"The contraction of the currency by 5 per cent of the
volume means the depreciation of the property of the country
$3,000,000,000. Debts not only have increased, but the means to
pay them have diminished."—Senator Plumb, also banker.
"Secretary Windom gave all the help he could when he
caused $62,000,000 to be added to the circulation in one month.
* * * Productive industry and legitimate trade of all kinds have
been stimulated to a degree never before known."—New York
Tribune.
Even this baneful way of giving money to the banks was a
help to the people.
"The burning of money took place only while the cur¬
rency was being contracted, from 1866 to 1879. Between those
dates more than one billion of money, of different kinds, was
burned, and interest-bearing bonds issued in place of it."—Willey.
After the war was over there should have been a correspond¬
ing expansion to meet the wants of the ten million southern
people, instead the officials commenced to burn the money in
use by the northern people.
no
THE NATION'S MONEY.
Ill
"It is not possible to take this voyage" (meaning the contraction
of the currency) "without the sorest distress. To attempt this
task by a surprise upon our people, by arresting them in the
midst of their lawful business, and applying a new standard of
value to their property, without any reduction of their debts,
or giving them an opportunity to compound it with their creditors,
or to distribute the losses, would be an act of folly withoht an
example in evil, in modern times."—John Sherman.
If the 16th president had received the same salary in money
that the 24th president receives, to change it into wheat it would
have taken 20,000 bushels of wheat to pay the 16th president an¬
nually, while it takes 110,000 bushels of wheat to pay the 24th
president annually.
^In 1888-9 there was a postage stamp famine in St. Louis.
For some reason the Government had not supplied that office
with the proper quantity of stamps. It was very annoying and
injurious; the officials would let customers have a few for the
most important letters, but the other mail matter could not go
till stamps came from Washington, and if the Government had
given the shylocksi a little show they would have run the price of
stamps up very high. So products cannot be moved till the
officials at Washington have first furnished the stamps, the
medium of exchange, and when they do, then the products v/ill
move easily and rapidly.
"Prices have been subjected to that remorseless compres¬
sion which results from a steady contraction of the circulation. No
man has bought who did not know he would sell to a shrunken
market. No man has planted who did not know that the
standard which measures the cost of his seed and his labor would
by no means be accepted to measure the value of his crop."—
Senator Howe.
The monetary commissioners and monetary scholars say
our "hard times" is due solely to contraction. They do not state
who causes contraction. Either they do not know or they do not
want it understood. Contraction is the effect of other causes.
Until we base our monetary system on scientific and constitu¬
tional grounds, we shall have trouble enough. "With money you
can get men, and with men you can get money," is a saying
thousands of years old, and the only way to keep these men out
of the National Treasury is as the writer proposes—in his amend¬
ments. These clauses were left out of the Constitution to let
these men into the national Treasury.
m To printers—Contraction is playing havoc with you. The
Government printing office works about 2,500 printers, and there is
125,000 applicants for these positions. Each position has fifty
applicants trying to get it. Haven't you been gulled long enough?
Greenbacks Never Were
Depreciated.
"We had to depreciate the greenback in order to sell our
bonds.''—John Sherman's speech in Congress.
What a financial sermon can be preached from this text!
It would fill thousands of pages, and this writer has got to
boil down what he can sav on it to a small space, as his
space is so limited.
Sherman's knowledge of finance as derived from the
above statement is akin to the boys in the college where
Cuvier, the naturalist, was a teacher, in France. He asked
the boys in the class to classify and describe a lobster,
and write their conclusions on the black board, and in
order to give them a little time for uninterrupted thought
he passed out of the room. In a short while he returned,
and the boys had written on the board their conclusions, as
follows :
"Lobster—it is a fish ; when it moves it moves backward ;
and its color is red.' '
The actuaries of the National Treasury have been at work
25 years trying to get up a tabulated statement showing that
the greenback did depreciate and how they depreciated, and their
relation to gold. One theory that they stated, which is the true
one from their view, that is that a gold dollar was one hundred
cents, and a greenback was shown to go down from this point,
therefore, as they differed $183, the greenback, according to this
theory, was worth $1.83 less than nothing. They had to abandon
that theory, for soldiers had worked for $13 in greenbacks, and
they could not have worked for nothing. The market quotations
were nearly correct when it said "gold is worth one dollar and
eighty-three cents premium." They meant to say the functionized
metal or paper that would take goods out of the custom house
was worth the premium stated, because of its scarcity. Anyon^
inventing a plausable explanation or a tabulated form of how this
depreciation took place can have a large fortune. The combine
will pay it.
112
THE NATION'S MONEY.
113
Excellent, my boys,^^ says Cuvier; "with three excep¬
tions. First, it is not a fish; second, when it moves it
doesn't move backward, and third, it's color is not red."
First. "We had to depreciate the greenback." What
rot! When and where was the greenback ever depre¬
ciated? What lower price could you ask men to work for
than thirteen dollars a month, that was the price paid
soldiers, and there was a good many of them. You
couldn't get men any cheaper than that under any finan¬
cial proposition. Wheat, hay and cotton were very high
because the raisers of these products were fighting one
another in the field, which made the supply short, while
on the contrary, the demand for them was increased
tremendously for the use of the army. Potatoes and mos 8
other products were as cheap as at the present time. Such
increased prices in products as occurred was caused by
an increased demand and a limited supply. The green¬
back was just as good then for purchasing purposes as it
is to-day—and what is there in this country that is on
sale that the owner is not anxious to trade for a green¬
back, and the same condition prevailed than, as prevails
now with this regard. The writer could give prices on
thousands of the most used articles to demonstrate that
'T much prefer the credit of the United States, based as it
is upon all the productions and property of the United States,
to the issues of any corporation, however well guaranteed and
managed. * * * The only objection to the issue of this paper
money (the greenback) is that too many may be issued. ^ *
If, in our revolutionary war, the amount of this revolutionary
script, and in the French revolution the amount of the assignats
had been confined to a small sum, in proportion to the wealth
of the country—if, for instance, it had been limited to one-tenth
of the annual production of the country—there would have been
no danger."—John Sherman in 1862.
"The legal tender note bill (greenback) is a great measure
of equality. It proposes a currency for the people which is based
upon the great faith of the people and all their taxable property."—
Mr. Spaulding.
114
THE NATION'S MONEY.
this medium of exchange held prices normal. "Why, the
soldier getting only thirteen dollars a month, had to buy
on the same level of general prices, or his family would
have starved. A child ought to understand that. Sher¬
man knew he was not telling the truth, but he was aiding
his New York combine, that had virtue enough for his
mind.
"In order to sell our bonds.'^
This is another whopper.
The bonds were never sold.
The bonds were made a legal-tender and paid to the
soldier direct in the field for his services as a soldier.
The bond game commenced, after the war was over,
which was to freeze them out of the hands of our soldiers,
and into the hands of brokers and money changers, and
the operation made the latter very rich and the soldier
very poor. This was done by contracting the medium of
exchange and making the soldier go down in his stocking-
leg and put up his bond, which in most cases he never
saw again.
Our government opened up an ofiice in London to sell
bonds, but Oreat Britain ordered it closed, and would not
allow us to offer our bonds for sale in that country. After
—Wm. P. St. John, of Mercantile Bank, New York city, says
"the greenback is the finest form of medium of exchange possible,
but is dangerous because its issue cannot be controlled."
The greenback is a very poor money, but is a splendid money,
in comparison to the mixed issues sent out along with it (See
Mixed Currencies). It has exception clauses, which deprives it of
full money qualities, besides being issued in the form of a note
or promise to pay, something that is impossible. You cannot
pay money for money, you can exchange money. To redeem it is to
destroy it. To destroy it is to strike at production, unless it has been
covered by another issue. Such changes should not take place
as they shock and injure all trade and commerce. Pew men
have any conception of . what a good and grand thing a properly
issued and distributed medium of exchange is.
Hugh McCulloch's report: "The people were all out of
debt."
THE NATION'S MONEY.
115
the war was over the old legal-tender bonds were ex¬
changed for long-time new bonds.
When a man talks about the depreciation of greenbacks
or the Government selling of bonds during the war you
may set him down as not knowing what he is talking
about.
Before we close this chapter wholly, wouldn't it be well
to ask Mr. Sherman if law could depreciate greenbacks,
couldn't law appreciate them—and where is his old gold
brick game? Isn't gold the sole regulator of prices? My,
but don't they get themselves in awful holes?
"When I was Secretary of the Treasury, the question arose,
how should the soldiers in the field and the sailors in the ships
be fed? I found that the banks of the country had suspended
specie payment. What was I to do? The banks wanted rae to
borrow their credit, or pay interest on their credit. They did not
pay gold, or propose to pay any themselves, but wanted me
to buy their notes. I said: No, gentlemen; I will take the credit
of the people, and cut it up into little bits of paper."—Salmon P.
Chase, ex-Secretary of the National Treasury.
In April, 1878, the Chicago Inter-Ocean was asked the follow¬
ing question:
"How much did Congress borrow—that is, gold and silver—to
carry on the war from 1861 to 1865, and from v/hom did we get
the first loans, both in the United States and out of it?"
The Inter-Ocean gave the following answer: "None. The re¬
ceipts from the customs were sufficient."
- You see, therefore, that as the law stands now, any bank—•
or anybody else for that matter—wanting lawful money in ex¬
change for national bank notes may present the national bank
notes at a sub-treasury of the United States and get LAWPULi
MONEY (greenbacks) for them."—John G. Carlisle.
Mr. Sperry—"Is there a discrimination made at present by
the banks in favor of greenbacks?"
Secretary Carlisle—"As a general rule the banks keep con¬
siderable amounts of them in their vaults. I think if you go
into any bank you will find the silver certificates all on the top
in the piles of money that they are using daily, and that the
other notes (legal, tenders) are at the bottom."—Testimony before
Banking Committee.
Panics—How Made.
"I am astonished at nothing in our business life so much as
the absence of an earnest, determined endeavor on the part of our
men of brains to find the cause of these chronic crisis and hard
times, and then set upon the track of some remedy therefor."—Rev.
Heber Newton.
Ex-President Garfield said "whoever controls the volume
of the currency are absolute masters of all business."
He did not say "whoever controls the gold," or "whoever
controls the silver," or "whoever controls the paper," or
"whoever controls the material used for the sovereign
stamp of money," is absolute master, but whoever con¬
trolled the volume or the quantity of the medium of ex¬
change is the absolute master, and, therefore, whoever con¬
trols the men who control the United States Treasury
are absolute masters of all commerce and business,
and can call on or make a panic whenever they think
it is to their interest to do so, at least it is so now,
for there is no constitutional safeguards thrown around
our National Treasury that limits the power of the master
of that branch of the Government. Using the language
of the New York Tribune, under another caption, the
writer shows what an awful power resides in this ofíiciaí's
They prefer to have the volume of currency limited so that
combinations can be entered into and the money cornered.—John
A. Logan.
"Ordinary tyranny, oppression, excessive taxation, bear
lightly on the happiness of the masses of the community, compared
with fraudulent currencies."—Daniel Webster.
"It is a mixed currency, it will raise prices when expanding,
and depress prices and cause bankruptcy when contracting. Suffo¬
cation, strangulation, are words hardly too strong to express the
agony ofl the industrial body when embraced in the fatal coils of a
contracting money supply."—Francis A. Walker.
116
THE NATION'S MONEY.
117
hands, and that there is nothing to prohibit him from
taking this power to New York, or even to Europe, as -Mr.
Foster did, and turning it over to a lot of designing men,
to work out any of their purposes they may desire. This
has been done repeatedly, and will be done again and
again, and until the people draw the reins down in the
JOHN G. CARLISLE'S RECORD.
Hon. W. M. Smith, Maysfield, Ky.—Dear Sir: * * When
the original House bill was under consideration in the Senate, I
voted to amend it so as to provide for the free and unlimited coin¬
age of the sil -^r dollar, and that amendment was adopted. The
house, however, refused to agree to this amendment, and then a
conference committee was appointed, which struck out free coinage
entirely, and this is the bill I voted against. I send you by mail all
three of the bills. Yours truly, JOHN G. CARLISLE.
While member of the House of Representatives, ne spoke as
follows, in 1878: 'T know that the world's stock of precious metals
is none too- large, and I see no reason to apprehend that it will ever
become so. Mankind will be fortunate, indeed, if the annual pro¬
duction of gold and silver coin shall keep pace with the annual
increase of population, commerce, and industry. According to mj'
view of the subject, the conspiracy which seems to have been
formed here and in Europe, to destroy by legislation and otherwise
from three-sevenths to one-half of the metallic money of the world,
is the most gigantic crime of this or any other age. The consumma¬
tion of such a scheme would ultimately entail more misery upon the
human race than all the wars, pestilence, and famine that ever
occurred in the history of the world. The absolute and instantane¬
ous destruction of half the entire movable property of the world,
including horses, ships, railroads, and all other appliances for
cai-rying on commerce, while it would be felt more sensibly at the
moment, would not produce anything like the prolonged distress
and disorganization of society that must inevitably result from the
permanent annihilation of one-half the material money of the
world."
This is the treacherous man that turns right around and helps
the "conspirators" do the very act that will bring ruin and suffer¬
ing to millions of people.
This is not the first treachery of Carlisle to the people.
While Speaker of the House, he disregarded all promises and past
precedences, and put a man whose mental calibre is below medi¬
ocrity, and whose name is Perry Belmont, as chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, instead of Mr. S. S. Cox, to whom
it had been promised by Carlisle. Wall street influence is potent
with him.
118
THE NATION'S MONEY,
shape of constitutional law, which shall forever put an
end to it. As long as men are avaricious, and the Consti¬
tution does not stop them, so long will they continue to
play their wicked game—and the game is to make the
Henry Clews, the Wall street broker, said in his Bankers'
Circular: "The Sherman silver itw, as a matter of fact, has done
excellent service, without which an immense number of banking
institutions in this country, railroads companies, as well as mer¬
chants, would have long before this have come to grief, causing
general financial and wide-spread disaster. In other words, the
credit is due to the Sherman silver law for not cnly carrying this
country through, but of really carrying England, France, and
Austria at the same time; for, through the new money created by
the sanction of the 1890 silver law, it has made it possible for this
country to sustain itself, and at the same time to send the gold to
foreign countries and carry them through also. The credit, there¬
fore, is due to the Sherman silver law for having carried the world
through great financial vicissitudes during the period dated from
the Baring failure up to date."
The reason the New York "conspirators" were so anxious to
get the Sherman silver law repealed was that it forced the Secre¬
tary of the Treasury to print $4,000,000 worth of treasury notes
each month, and buy up that much silver. The purchasees were
made mostly in New York, and the effect of this amount of money
thrown on the market each month made it so much harder to make
the panic. So they had the Executive and Secretary of the Treas¬
ury put the screws on Congress to do away with the law, which
was done; then it was made easy sailing for them to work their
panic scheme.
The administration welcomed the condition that would
follow from the New York combination. The effect would be to
stagnate business all over the country. That would lower the Gov¬
ernment revenues to a point where a bond issue could be made,
and the profits in such transactions are immense.
The gold of what they claim as a "gold reserve" was paid out
for Government expenses. Then the officials seem to take a chill,
because it had gone, and had bonds printed, to buy back the gold.
Isn't it about time to lock this barn door, before too many horses
are stolen?
"When the syndicate saw its opportunity to 'corner' and
'squeeze' the Government, it had to reckon with many outside in-
fiuences. * * The whole amount is a gift of the administration
to the syndicate and its allied bankers, and the money comes out of
the people's hard earnings. There never was any necessity for
it"—^New York World.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
119
medium of exchange scarce or plenty, as they may desire—
for the quantity of the medium of exchange controls prices
and regulates the amount of business that can be done,
and making the medium of exchange scarce, lowers
prices and destroys millions of business transactions, as
purchases that would have been made are not made, as
sales that would have been made are not made, and con¬
traction and congestion go hand in hand. The financial
laws are understood by these designing men, and they
bring them to bear to work out their policies—and their
policy is to get as much of other people's property for
nothing as Ihey possibly can. And it is for this reason
that they control the press of the country, whom they
have enslaved, so that the people shall not know the trick
of how they are disiiossessed of their property, or how the
To show how the panic affected the income of the Govern¬
ment (and that was one of its purposes, to force a bond issue), the
Treasury Report to the Senate, page 333, says: "The average
monthly receipts (up to July, 1893) were $31,479,721.97, and if the
same conditions (so they changed the conditions!?) had continued
through the present fiscal year, a deficiency would have been
averted entirely." The above is the language of John G. Carlisle,
who had created a "condition" by going to George G. Williams'
house, April 27, and there conspiring with those men to bring
about this very condition. Should such vile characters be allowed
such power?
^A number of the American managers were talking the other
day at the Savoy Hotel (London) about their experiences in their
line of business during the recent hard times, and the fact came out
that Francis Wilson is said to have managed his business with
remarkable foresight, on account, it is claimed, of advice given
to him by his friend. President Cleveland. The President, it ap¬
pears, seemed to be convinced that there would be a terrible
depression in business for a year or two, and advised Wilson to
cut down his expenses as much as possible, and to avoid any
ordinary investments. Wilson, it is added, followed the advice, and
the result is that he says he was not affected by the hard times
proportionately as were other theatrical managers.—Cincinnati
Enquirer.
As Mr. Cleveland made the hard times, ho knew they were com¬
ing. He had promised his friends to give the South and West an
"object lesson," and he has.
120
THE NATION'S MONEY.
combine works. They make the press howl for "honest
money/' when these men would not have an honest money
for anything in the world. If the monetary system was
honest thev could not work their trick to save their souls,
«/ 7
and does anybody believe they would give up their trick if
they could help themselves; most assuredly not. Their
"honest money" is a money that is very true to them¬
selves and false to the people—that can be worked, con¬
tracted and expanded—that is what they call honest—
that is what they want—a monetary system that is dis¬
honest to the people.
By the foregoing it is completely understood that the
material that the medium of exchange is stamped upon
has no bearing whatever in governing business, it is the
quantity that governs, and the material may be what it
will, the material has no control of the function. The
writer would like to have the reader thoroughly master
this idea before he reads further under this caption. If
you do not understand this, go to those captions that will
make this clear to your mind, for the writer is going to
take you into a meeting where a panic is made, and let
"The Government can break this currency corner by using
any of the moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated."—
New York Sun.
"A law of Congress, enacted in 1869, was intended to pre¬
vent any bank from withholding or sequestering from use either
bank notes or greenbacks. It forbade any bank to loan money on
bank notes or greenbacks, or to receive them as a pledge. It pro¬
vided for the punishment, criminally, of any bank officer who
should agree To withhold the same from use.' Yet, have not certain
bank officers during the past week withheld greenbacks from use,
by putting them into the Treasury under the pretense of reducing
the circulation of the banks? Can not the banks repeat, next May
or July, the operation of the last week of February?"—New York
World.
Congress has ordered printed a class of money to do just what
they say in another law shall not be done. It is called Treasury
certificates, in only two denominations, $5,000 and $10,000 bills,
and can only be taken out on deposit of small bills^ for the purposq
of congesting business,
THE NATION'S MONEY,
121
you see just what transpired, and how it transpired, who
were there, and what Treasury officials were there, why
they Were there, and you must read between the lines,
as well as the lines themselves, and if you once have the
key it will all be very plain to you. These Government
officials are there to pledge the aid and support of the
Government to these men who are about, to use Secretarv
/ c
Carlisle's words, to bring something more terrible and
something that would entail more misery upon the human
race than war, pestilence and famine possibly could. But
Carlisle had said this before he went to that meeting.
No man, can imagine, all the languages of the world cannot
express, what the people of the United States suffered from 1873
to 1879. Men who considered themselves millionaires found they
were beggars; men living in palaces, supposing they had enough
to give sunshine to the winter of their old age, supposing they had
enough to have all they loved in affluence and comfort, suddenly
found that they were mendicants, with bonds, stocks, mortgages,
all turned to ashes in their hands. The chimneys grew cold, the
dres in the furnaces went out, the poor families were turned adrift,
and the highways of the United States were crowded with tramps.
—Robert G. Ingersoll.
This is what a New York combine can do for a people, when
they have control of the National Treasury.
During the draft riots in New York City, President Lincoln
sent Gen. Benjamin F. Butler to New York to quell them. Gen.
Butler knew there must be somebody instigating this enmity to the
Union, and he was not long in coming to a conclusion. He sent for
August BelmonL the Rothschilds' New York agent, asking him to
call at army headquarters. Mr. Belmont paid no attention to the
request. Gen. Butler issued orders to bring him, dead or alive.
It wasn't long before Mr. Belmont was anxious to see Gen. Butler,
The General told Mr. Belmont that that riot must stop at once, or
he would hold him resporsible. It stopped as quick as Belmont
could promulgate his order.
Were the writer President of the United States, he would invite
George S. Coe, George G. Williams, Henry W. Cannon, and twelve
other New York gentlemen to call on him at the White House, and
if they did not come he would send for them, and he would tell
them to stop conspiring in New York, and stop sending a lobby to
Congress to interfere with proper legislation—and the writer be¬
lieves that by the time he was through talking with them they
would be as fully impressed as Mr. Belmont was with Gen. Bui-
ler'ß tall^.
122
THE NATION'S MONEY.
His moral barriers had been broken down since he had
said this, and he had become prepared for any service his
masters might require of him. He was there to do his duty
to them, and get his orders.
In order that the writer shall not be unfair in his report
of the meeting he copies the report from the New York
Sun of April 28,1893, which is as follows:
^'Secretary Carlisle met this evening a number of bank¬
ers at the residence of George L. Williams, President of
the Chemical lîank. The following gentlemen were there
to greet the Secretary: Mr. Jordan, Mr. Canda, President
Perkins of the Importers and Traders, President Sherman
of the Bank of Commerce, President Cannon of the Chase,
President Ives of the Western, President Tappan of the
Gallatin, President Coe of the American Exchange, and
President Wood of the Hanover.
The conference lasted somewhat over an hour. There
was the utmost good feeling displayed, and the Secretary
said he was there to make a frank and open statement of
what he believed to be the financial policy of the
Government.
In the first place, the Secretary said that an issue of
bonds just at this time might be an effective remedy, but
that it would bo only temporary, and that it would be
followed by disturbances in the money market, and in the
end would detard the determination of the Administration
to repeal the Sherman Silver Law. The Secretary posi¬
tively thought there would be no bond issue except as a
last resort.
As Carlisle outlined the policy of the Government it was
shown that nothing would be done that would in any way
retard or check the determination of Cleveland's Admin¬
istration concerning the repeal of the Sherman Law. The
Secretary went over the currency laws of the country amj
THE NATION'S MONEY,
123
said they were in bad shape and needed revision. He
said the revision should start with the Sherman Law.
There is a determination also to show the miners of silver
the evils of the Sherman Law on their fortunes. President
Cleveland's advisors have told him that the only way to
induce the Western and Southwestern Congressmen and
Senators to consent to a repeal of the Sherman Law is to
demonstrate to their constituents that they are losing
every day this law remains in effect.
This work in this direction has been started by a num¬
ber of the bankers in the solid communities of the East.
They are daily refusing credits to the South, Southwest
and West, fearing the elfects of the Sherman law (!) The
Chicago banks, it was said, are carrying out the same line
of policy.
Secretary Carlisle in his talk with the bankers made his
stand verv clear. It is to be heroic treatment all the way
t,»' *»
through of the Sherman Law, and possibly by the next ses¬
sion of Congress the silver mine-owners and adherents of
silver ( !) in the Senate and House will be ready to consent
to a repeal of the law.
The bank presidents, replying to Secretary Carlisle, cor¬
dially informed him that they would be ready at all times
to co-operate with him. Everybody shook hands, and there
was harmony all round.
From the New York Sun, April 29,1803 : "The conference
yesterday between Secretary Carlisle and a number of the
bankers of this city was of great value in that it resulted
in a definite understanding of the financial policy of the
Administration, as indicated in this column last Tuesday.
That policy is to interpose no obstacle to the natural opera¬
tions and logical results of the Sherman Law. In a word,
the Administration proposes to allow the people to reap
the rewards of their OAvn folly.
124
THE NATION'S MONEY.
The statement of Mr. Carlisle to the New York bankers
makes it clear, that, while Mr. Cleveland works in Con¬
gress, the bankers will be expected to work, not in New
York, only, but thronghont the country, doing their utmost
to PINCH BUSINESS EVERYWHERE in expectation of
CAUSING A MONEY CRISIS that will affect Congress
powerfully from every quarter. There is an explicitness
in these declarations and a boldness in making them that
would be astounding were not the country too familiar
with Mr. Cleveland and his methods to be astonished at
anything from him."
This is the first steps in a panic, that is to secure the
Government's help, that secured, the next step is to
terrorize those bankers that have not come into the
arrangement, and that process is explained by Mr. Mathew
Hale Smith of New York as follows:
'Twenty ox thirty men conspire to make money scarce.
A party borrows of a bank |50,000 on one or ten days.
Interest is paid and a certified check taken. The money
remains in the bank—^it is effectually locked up, the bank
cannot loan it, for the certified check may be presented any
minute. This check is taken to another bank and |50,000
borrowed on that. No money is removed, but a certified
check taken and placed in another bank with like result.
So the party moves from bank to bank, till he has locked
up a million with his fifty thousand."
Then they go to the savings banks and terrorize them
into giving up all their money by threatening them with
4estructiou if they refuse. They always have to yield,
THE NATION'S MONEY.
125
And it is also the custom now to force tliem to give up all
United States bonds they may have, and take any other
class of bonds for them, as United States bonds are used as
money constantly. The savings bank management is com¬
pletely cowed.
Their next step is to start out into the country, gathering
up the papers of banks and taking them to the bank and
demanding the cash, and if the bank cannot pay, they put
it into the hands of a receiver and thereby close it up.
By this operation they paralyze business, and the conjes-
tion soon sweeps over the whole country, doing more dam¬
age than war, pestilence and famine.
Now, you know How Panics Are Made, and you help to
make them if you do not help to stop them I
The New York Combines's
Power.
"They have broken more hearts than would pave Broad¬
way from Central Park to the Battery."—Gen. Thos.
Ewing.
"It is not wise for them to show what a despotic and
ruinous power they are capable of exerting on the business
of the country. The fact that they can suddenly do so
much mischief tends to convince the country they are
dangerous, and if they undertake to frustrate the deliber¬
ate will of Congress, they may share the fate of the
"monster" which fell under the sturdy blows of Gen.
Jackson."—New York Herald.
The country during the last week has learned that a
little clique of bank officers in New York can, in forty-
Suicide was openly promulgated in New York City in 1893,
for the people to get away from their misery.
This combine has a publishing association located at 52
William street, New York City, that will furnish stereotype plates
of whole pages to country editors, free of any charge, except ex-
pressage. They will also take and print one side of any paper, and
send it to the country publisher, free of any charge, except express-
age, in order to disseminate their financial views among the people.
If there was not great profits in their doctrines they could not do
that.
>
The New York combine terrorizes the members of the New
York Stock and Produce Exchange. They can force a member to
vote just as they dictate. A man who refuses to do as theye instruct
him is ostracised" and his business ruined. They would not allow a
member to use the Exchange for a year because of his insisting
that a bank that had his deposit should pay his check in cash.
The combine threatens to discipline the Western banks if they
continue to ask for $1 and $2 bills, which were asked for to supply
the wants of the people.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
127
eight hours run up the rate of interest to 1 per cent a day."
—New York World.
^^Fifty men in these United States have it in their powec
by reason of the wealth which they control, to come to¬
gether within twenty-four hours and arrive at an under¬
standing by which every wheel of trade and commerce may
be stopped from revolving, every avenue of trade blocked,
and every electric key struck dumb. Those fifty men can
paralyze the whole country, for they can control the circu¬
lation of the currency and create panic whenever they
will."—Chauncey Depew.
"There is no such thing in America as an independent
press, unless it is out in the country towns. You are all
slaves. You know it and I know it. There is not one of
BARONDNESS AND THE GARMENT MAKERS.
"My children," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "I
must go away from you ; I must leave you."
They looked at him for a moment and then raised their hands
as men do in prayer. "Stay with us!" they cried. He shook his
head sadly. Then in this little room in the heart of the east side
of this great modern city of New York there occurred a strange and
wonderful thing. These men seemed beside themselves
Moved by a common, impulse, they circled about him, crying to
him not to desert them. They clung to his arms and he shook his
head. They fell on their knees before him. Onei man grasped the
young leader's foot in his hand. He kissed the heavy sho^.
"We are your children!" he cried. "If you leave us we shall
diei!"
Then they broke into loud lamentations. Many fell upon the
floor and kissed the feet of Joseph Barondess. They placed his
foot upon their necks, they kissed his coat. And all the while
their wails arose in the hall.
"If you leave us we shall starve. You saved us once and you can
save us now. Will-you go and leave us to die in the streets?" And
amid it all was the strange, barbaric monotones of these people,
a cry so weird, so eerie that it seemed to come from another world.
Old men plucked their beards and rocked thir bodies to and fro,
now and then bursting into louder cries.—New York World.
American Architect and Landscape, 35, expert, artistic, cul¬
tured, traveled, agreeable, Impoverished, starving, offers talented
services for mere pittance, to lady or gentleman contemplating
building or improvements. Address ORIGINAL PLANS, Herald
Up-town Office.—^N. Y. Herald.
128
THE NATION'S MONEY.
jou who dares express an honest opinion. If you express
it you know beforehand that it would never appear in
print. I am paid |150 for keeping honest opinions out of
the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid
similar salaries for doing similar things. If I should allow
honest opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper,
like Othello, before twenty-four hours my occupation would
be gone. The man who would be so foolish as to write
honest opinions would be out on the streets hunting for
another job. The business of the New York journalist is
to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to villify,
to fawn at the feet of mammon and to sell his country and
his race for his daily bread, or for what is about the same
thing, his salary. You know this and I know it; and what
foolery to be toasting an independent press.' We are the
New York, July 22, 1893.—"I am a young man, 27 years old, 5
feet 9 inches in height, weigh 138 pounds, am sound in every re¬
spect, and am for sale to the person who will agree to pay a rea¬
sonable sum of money to my mother, whom I have tried to support,
hut have failed. The person purchasing me must agree to pay her a
certain sum of money each week as long as she lives, in return
for what the purchaser can do with my body and soul as he or she
may choose. I do this only to save a poor, lame woman, 65 years
old, who has proved my friend when all else have deserted me, and
has shared my poverty without grumbling, when she deserved bet¬
ter things. I have tried every honest means known to find employ¬
ment, and now I make this last effort to do some good, so that I
may) at least have some excuse for existing. I will make a willing
and devoted slave, and do not care what becomes of me so long as
my mother is provided for."—N. Y. World.
"How can I help taking an interest when men come to me and
say: 'My child is as pale as the wall. Wy wife weeps because she
cannot nurse the little baby; her breasts give no milk, because she
has not enough to eat.'
"The sweat-shops of New York have squeezed out of the work¬
ers enough sweat and blood to choke the sewers of New York."—
Meyer Schoenfield, in the New York World.
"Let us imagine the spectacle of this army of haggard, half-
starved men, women and children—the army of the overpowered—
uniformed in rags and tatters in midwinter, divided into one hun¬
dred battalions of one thousand each, with sable colors and mufiled
drums, with eyes made dull by hopelessness or baleful by despair,
marching with mournful tread.—B. 0. Flower.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
129
tools and the vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We
are jumping-jacks. They pull the string and we dance.
Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, are all
the property of other men. We are intellectual prosti¬
tutes."—Whitelaw Reid.
The Press is ordered to say "good times are coming,"
and they have to say so. Their subjects are furnished
them, and they dare not refuse to print them. The press
would be as thankful as anybody to be emancipated from
those who tyrannize over them.
"There is gathered around the capital of this nation a
gang of miserable stock jobbers, with no more conscience
than pirates, inspired solely by a greed for gain, and they
thundered successfully at these doors until they drove this
Government into the most preposterous acts of bad faith
and legalized robbery that ever oppressed a free nation
since the dawn of history."—Senator O. P. Morton.
I have melancholy forebodings that we are about to con¬
summate a cunningly-devised scheme, which will carry
great injury and great loss to all classes of people, except
one. —Thaddens Stevens in Congress.
It invited from all the money centers of the world their
most voracious vampires to come here and fatten upon the
life-blood of the American people.—Judge Kelley.
The financial combine can act together at a single
day's notice, and with such power, that no act of Congress
can overcome or resist their decision.—N. Y. Tribune.
The combine controls the telegraph, the news agencies
and the railroads, and with this power they make the two
thousand dailies submit to their domination, and aid them
in carrying out their schemes. With these combined
powers they control Congress and the Executive.
The writer could fill a volume with this testimony, but
the reader understands well enough with what has been
given him.
Property and Products
Bein¿ Destroyed.
This nation once had the largest maritime navy in
the world, but now it ranhs with some of the poorest coun¬
tries on the globe. The Secretary of the Treasury in 1888
said: "It will be seen that our foreign commerce, carried
in vessels of the United States, measured by its value, has
steadily declined from 75 per cent in 1856 to less than 14
per cent in 1887. Even of this small percentage less than
one-half was carried in steam vessels bearing our flag.''
By the foregoing it will be seen it has gone down from 75
per cent to about 7 per cent. It could not fall much lower
and do anything at all. The financial combine attacked
our navy and you see the result.
They have now attacked our railroad system and have
^Sir Richard N. Fowler, Lord Mayor of London, in 1885 said:
"If we can keep the United States on a gold basis (he means
the medium of exchange contracted to a small amount) thirty
years longer we will absolutely ruin the v/heat and cotton industry
of that country."—London Times.
The total net private indebtedness of the American people
equaled, in 1880, but $6,750,000,000. Last September it amounted
to $19,700,000,000. An increase of $13,000,000,000 in the short period
of twelve years.—Frederick C. Waite.
"The people are all out of debt."—Secretary of the Treasury,
Hugh McCulloch, in 1865 Report.
Ten millions of people came back into the Union with no
money, nor Congress made no money arrangements to help them,
and the Government commenced to destroy the legal tenders,
which are debt-payers, and the people commenced to get into
debt, and debt has increased every hour since, till it is mountains
high now, and will increase until the medium of exchange com¬
mences to increase to meet iL
130
THE NATION'S MONEY.
131
it in tlie course of being wrecked. The major part of them
are in foreclosure proceedings in conrt, and their owners
are being destroyed as owmers, and the mortgage holder
is being cut out of his holdings by reorganizing commit¬
tees. In the meantime the roadbed of the railroad is being
destroyed by rains, frosts, snow, ice and water, and the
ties are rotting and wearing out, and the T-rails are draw¬
ing their spikes, and bending, splitting, expanding and
curving; the houses are going to rot, and the cars and
locomotives are not being renewed, for the reason that the
reorganizing committee is what the men on 'change call
'stripping' the road, which is taking all the road's income
money and using it in their manipulations, and the road,
nor its owners do not get one cent of it. How long before
railroads will follow our shipping?
The wheat property is being destroyed as wheat prop¬
erty. The total products of 1890 is not in excess of 1880,
although the population increased greatly, and the amount
of acreage is decreasing, and the food supply of our people
is diminishing.
The cotton raisers have been asked to diminish their
crop. Think what this means. The cotton raiser works
years to clear land to get it in condition to grow a money
crop, and then is asked pot to plant it, as there is no money
to pay for it, at the same time this combine demonetizes
silver, that would be gladly accepted for it. The combine
is fast driving the southern planter to the level of the
Egyptian farmer whom the British Cabinet orders whipped
if he does not yield enough taxes.
William D. Kelley, addressing the people of Penn¬
sylvania, said: "You have seen a strong man, full of life,
rise in the morning as a lion shakes the dew from his mane,
and go forward to the battle of life, full of vigor, full of
hope, full of energy, full of enterprise. * * *
accident happens; an artery is cut. The blood does not
132
THE NATION^S MONEY.
ooze, but flows from him. The surgeon comes just in time
to save his life. He staunches the wounu and binds it up.
But the man is another being. He lies there pallid and
shrunken. His sturdy limbs will not bear his wasted body.
His muscles are flaccid, and his fingers have lost their
skill. His energy is gone, and he dreams not of enterprise.
"This is our condition to-day as a people. In 1865 and
1866 every man in America who had the skill and the will
to labor could earn wages to support his family and lay
something by. All industries were quick and active. Pro¬
duction ran on. The American people waked up each new
morning to feel there were great duties before them. There
were mines to be opend, forges and furnaces to be erected.
* * * New houses were built. * * * Our wealth
grew as it, or that of any other people, had never grown.
"We were moving onward, when one, Hugh McCulloch,
tapped a great artery, and let nearly all the blood flow
from the body politic. Diseased, paralyzed, shrinking
from day to day, what American has the energy to engagd
in developing a new mine? * * * Your laborers—
moody, sullen, in want—are begging the poor privilege
of earning a day's food by an honest day's labor. Their
homes are being stripped of everything they cherish. Go
through the suburbs of your city; halt before the houses
where of a Sunday afternoon you would, a few years ago,
have found the family gathered about the melodeon or the
cheap piano, singing the praises of Him who had given
them their lines in these pleasant places. Ah! the house
is silent now; the father is out of employment, the sons
are in idleness, the daughters have no work; the melodeon
or piano is gone. Aye, worse than that, the most cherished
mementoes, though of little value measured in dollars
and cents—the cheap jewelry—the trinket that the young
lover toiled in over-hours that he might buy and see it
grace the person of his sweetheart—^the amulet he hung
THE NATION'S MONEY.
133
upon the neck of his bride—the silver cup that marked the
birth or christening of their first-born—cherished bj all—■
but they have gone to the pawnbroker or jeweler to bring
them food? Courage gone, hope gone, despair crushing
him to the earth, and destroying all the pride that made
the American mechanic the boast and honor of his coun¬
try, how many a man to-day, longing for honest work but
powerless to obtain it, creeps and crawls from town to
town, foot-sore, ragged, dusty, to beg from strangers rather
than from those who know him and will remember it—
to be denounced as a ^tramp,' and commended to the cus¬
tody of the police!"
Yet, this very man voted to bring about this condition.
There is no need to send new men to Congress, unless
you make a financial compas to guide them. They will
be bought up as sure as the sun rises in the morning—and
your property will be swept out of your hands as usual.
Do not "die as the fool dieth."
——"The total number of railway employes on June 30, 1894,
was 779,608, a decrease, as compared with the number on June 30,
1893, of 93,994, or 10.76 per cent. This is a smaller number of
employed than in any year since 1890. This decrease is, of course,
due to the heavy falling off in traffic and the endeavor of the
railways to economize."—Interstate Commerce Commission Re¬
port, June 30, 1894.
The Scientific American is begging somebody to invent a
machine to burn the 25,000,000 gallons of molasses stored in Louis¬
iana that cannot be sold as the price will not "transport it. This
is the average New York intelligence. When stupidity and cor¬
ruption are wedded, it is an awful combination. But to go back
to the molasses, if it was all boiled down into molasses candy,
it might give the children a couple of sticks all around, which
might last them two hours.
Idlenesses Cost.
In the 20,000,000 workers in this country 4,000,000 are
idle, which, averaging their products as worth |3 per day,
makes a daily loss of $12,000,000, and a yearly loss of $3,-
600,000,000 to this country alone. No argument could be
stronger than this for a rightful medium of exchange in
the workings of which all could find employment.
Why should anybody that wants work be idle in this
country?
Especially where there is so much to do?
And where there are so many that are overworked?
134
Uncle Sam's Partners'
Propositions.
These partners of Uncle Sam are very prolific in their
assertions that the medium of exchange cannot be made
by law, and they are very loud in proclaiming it also. But
they are careful to keep a lobby around the capitol con¬
stantly, and Senator Sherman can always be seen in his
seat, or near it, in the Senate, watching that Congress does
not do something which they say it cannot do. Isn't it
singular?
If Congress cannot pass a medium of exchange law, why
do they go to Congress to get Congress to endow them, by
passing a law, so they may issue it, or rather, get the
Government to print it, and turn it over to them in their
name. Would they dare to issue the paper if Congress
did not pass a law allowing them to issue it? And if Con¬
gress can pass a law allowing them to issue it, cannot it
pass a law allowing the Government to issue it for itself?
Is there any question about this? Isn't law the basis of
•
"I don't approve of any of Mr. Carlisle's bill for many
reasons. The first is that I don't think any hank ought to he
allowed to issue paper money. Why should a hank he allowed to
put forth their hills, payable as money, any more than any other
corporation or capitalist? In my opinion, it is giving undue ad¬
vantage to the hanks. Nothing ought to he allowed to pass as
money without the broad seal of the Government. It is a function
that belongs exclusively to the Government, and ought not to he
delegated to any other source. They have all the machinery for
' protecting the people against counterfeiting; besides, are equipped
with sub-treasuries and strong boxes, thief-proof, which afford
absolute security. To adopt Mr. Carlisle's theory of Banking would
be a step backward, and I would regard it as one of the greatest
calamities that could befall this country/'---Eufus J. î^ackland#
President St. Louis Boatman's Bank.
m
136
THE NATION'S MONEY.
these issues? No one can deny it. Then why do they so
constantly assert that the Gk)vernnient cannot issue the
medium of exchange by law, when they go up to Congress
and get that law enacted for their own benefit. Is it not
to deceive to further their own ends? There is no denying
it. They are pulling every rope possible now for Congress
to pass the law endowing them with this principle. They
have committed all sorts of crimes to force it on the people,
and they would have succeeded if they had been united.
They have three distinct plans, and the different wings
quarreled considerable. Secretary Carlisle represents the
New York combine straight, but has lost some of its power
in this case and they could not carry their measure
through, although Carlisle took it to Congress, but its
enemies among the bankers, combined with the enemies
of the principle, struck it a fatal blow in the House.
This is the essence of the Carlisle bill and its exact
language :
"Permit national banks to issue notes to an amount not
exceeding 75 per cent of the paid-up and unimpaired capi¬
tal, but require each bank before receiving notes to deposit
a guarantee fund, consisting of United States legal tender
notes, including Treasury notes of 1890, to the amount of
30 per cent. Upon the circulating notes outstanding, to be
a
maintained at all times and whenever a bank retires its
"The Chemical Bank issues no circulation, and we do not
intend to. * * When paper money is issued by banks which
have large capital and large means behind it, and responsible
men who have character and capital and reputation, they would
keep things straight. [How do we know they would?—Ed.] * *
But thousands of institutions would spring up with a view of get¬
ting a little extra circulation, and there would be losses under it,
just as certain as the sun rises. * * The first thing, before you
get a bank at all, is that you have got to get the capital stock
subscribed; and nine out of ten of such banks would whip the
devil around the stump in getting the capital stock subscribed and
deposited, ^ Banks cannot do business on cats and dogs."««^
ßeorge 0. Williams, president New Tork Ckemical Bank,
THE NATION'S MONEY.
137
circulation, in whole or in part, its guarantee funds to be
returned to it in proportion to the amount of notes
retired."
The bankers from all parts of the country sent in their
protest to this outrageous proposition, and it was de¬
feated. It seems singular that any man with ordinary in¬
telligence should have made so vile a proposition to Con¬
gress. Steal, steal, steal, was written in every line of it.
Under it a man could go and capitalize and bond a rock
pile, put the bonds in the safe, as capital of the bank, get
CARLISLE DEFINES THE DIFFERENCE.
"The Baltimore plan proposes to authorize the banks to
issue circulation up to 50 per cent, of their capital stock, without
any actual deposit whatever in the Treasury, but with the pro¬
vision that each bank shall be subject to a certain rate of taxation
until a fund has been raised equal to 5 per cent, of the total
outstanding circulation of all the National banks. This fund to be
a common fund, and is to be used for the purpose of redeeming
the notes of failed National banks. In case the fund shall be in¬
sufficient at any time'yto redeem the notes of failed National banks
(that is, shall be reduced to below 5 per cent, of the total out¬
standing circulation), then the Government of the United States
is, out of its own funds, to redeem the notes and look to the assets
of the failed bank for reimbursement.
"The plan which I have proposed requires, in the first place,
the deposit of a sum equal to 30 per cent, of the amount of
circulating notes applied for the bank, this money to be held
all the time, and to constitute a separate fund belonging to the
bank which makes the deposit. In addition to that, there is to be
a safety fund raised by taxation on/all the banks, in the same way
as is proposed in the Baltimore plan, out of which the notes of
failed banks shall be redeemed; and if that fund shall prove insuf¬
ficient (or if it be reduced below 5 per cent of the total amount
of National bank circulation), and if the immediate available
assets of the failed bank are not sufficient to redeem its notes, the
Treasury Department is to assess all the other National banks
pro rata, according to the amount of their circulation, to reim¬
burse this fund. The banks that pay this assessment are to have
a first lien on all the assets of the failed National bank, and the
Government is not to be in any way responsible."—John G. Car¬
lisle, before Committee on Banking and Currency, page 15.
Reader, isn't it startling, such propositions to gamble with the
medium of exchange, something your property and your very
Uves aye based upon?
138
THE NATION'S MONEY.
30 per cent of the desired issue of legal tenders and de¬
posit them with the Government, and take out 75 per cent
of the rock-pile securities, 70 per cent of which would have
no security whatever. The old gold basis^ game was men¬
tioned in it by sa^dng any bank that wanted to have a gold
basis (?) could?
Wasn't that a contemptible proposition to make to the
American people when the people were asking for a proper
medium of exchange?
The President wanted Congress, if they would not pass
the Carlisle law, to issue five hundred million bonds, and
let the bankers have them and put them up with National
Treasury as collateral for paper issues, and have the
Government endow the paper with currency func¬
tions. He did not succeed in getting this proposition
accepted, but he took it upon himself to issue one hundred
and sixty million dollars of bonds, without warrant of law,
for the purpose, and which put the people in debt over
two hundred millions.
The third proposition originated in the Bankers' Con¬
vention held at Baltimore, and differed very little from the
Carlisle program, with the exception the banks were to
issue 50 per cent instead of 75 per cent of their paid-up
capital and in a few other details, but the honest bankers
of the country rallied against this measure also and would
not haA^e it, it opened the door wide for fraud and theft,
and they did not propose to be caught with a lot of this
issue in their vaults.
These are the propositions that are laid before the peo¬
ple for their adoption in order that the people may have a
medium of exchange. Isn't it time that the Constitution
was changed so such scoundrels could not gamble with
these principles and force the people to compromise
Qv go witbout a medium of exchange Î
It In a Nutshell.
"Unless there is a sufficient profit in circulation banks
will not take out circulation. There is no sentiment in the
thing at all. It is simply a matter of business, and bank¬
ing people, like eyerybody else in business, are in it because
of the profit there is, and if there is no profit in circulation
under the present system, or very little, they will not con¬
tinue in the note-issuing business."—James H. Eckelí^
Comptroller of the Currency.
This is the true statement of the condition. Reader,
think of this. Here is a great governmental power, dele¬
gated by the peoj^le to their sovereign government, the offi¬
cials of the Gfovernment take it and turn it over to a lot
of corporations to gamble with. If they succeed with their
plans you can get some currency into circulation; if not,
no currency is issued. If you do not understand the pro¬
position well in currency, substitute postage stamps for it.
Let a lot of men have control of issuing postage stamps.
If it is profitable you can get stamps; if not profitable, your
correspondence must suffer. Isn't that a high idea of
governmental duty of this official?
ISf
Credit—Its Law.
Credit lays on its base—Cash; as Cash appears or dis¬
appears so does Credit.
Perhaps a simila of a rock 12x12x12 feet^ representing
cash, and representing credit as sand heaped up over it
and brought to an apex, and containing the same amount
of cubic feet, would not be far wrong as to the principles
involved. If you disturb the rock you disturb the sand.
You can disturb the sand without disturbing the rock;
therefore, if the cash is contracted the credit is destroyed,
in its proportion.
Credit can only be enlarged to the working capacity of
the medium of exchange. Men can only get credit on their
power to control cash—if that is lessened the credit is
lessened to that extent. In a panic, where cash is made
scarce artificially, the clearing-house immediately notes
the destruction of credit, by recording the lessened num¬
ber of credit transactions; and by turning to the article
♦on clearing-house in this book, the student of the subject
can mark the ebb and fiow of credit, as the National
Treasury expanded or comtracted the medium of exchange.
The law^ of credit, as the writer would state it, is that
the total amount of credit is ecpial to, no more, no less,
than the total amount that is reached by the medium of
exchange, in its working capacity. Supposing the total
amount of work done by a normal medium of exchange
is 128,000,000,000 in this country annually, then the total
credits will aggregate the same amount.
Credit can not be expanded without- e2:panding the
modiim of o;xobange or cash.
Prices—Their Laws.
' It is urged, that, if the Governiment issues a proper
amount of medium of exchange it will raise prices so that
the man with a small income will not be benefitted but will
4
be injured by the general raise of prices, w^hile his income
will not raise in proportion, or enough to give him any
advantages to urge the issue of such a medium ot exchange.
This imaginary condition has been made great use of by
the opponents of a prox)er national issue; in fact, the Ex-
ecutive is parading this statement in all of his letters, and
it is taken up and sent broadcast by those hired to do that
work.
Now, it is not true, and the Executive, above all others,
ought not to stoop to such a j^lane of argument
First, Under a proj^er monetary system it is conceded by
all that wages will be higher.
o
The Executive argues by increasing the circulating
medium you increase cost, and hence the i)oor man's money
will buv no more than before he had the reáse.
t.
Second, The Executive does not understand, or seems
not to understand, that the prices of goods have no relation
to their cost whatever; therefore, when this is known, it
takes all the ground out from under his xiositions in regard
to the purchases of the man with small income.
As an illustration, take the one the New York Times used
against the McKinley bill on cotton. The ijrice of cotton
being 5 cents per pound, the cost of weaving it being 2^
cents, and when the poor man purchases it it cost him 35
cents per pound. Now, the grower of cotton can have his
price doubled, the weaver can have his price doubled, and
the poor mm Qm buy 33 per cent cheaper than be is
142
THE NATION'S MONEY.
buying to-day. So it is easy to be seen that he can have
a large raise of wages and still buy in a lower market.
It can be demonstrated in wool^ in wheat, and in fact
in all the staples, and in literature the increased demand
would lower the price wonderful, as it would also in travel.
Increased medium of exchange, increased facilities, and
increased competition will lower prices, but it will not
lower wages for there being an active demand for ability
and the services of individuals, they will be able to dictate
the price for which they will give their services, hence
their salary, instead of losing purchasing power will, with
a slight increase, have double their present purchasing
power.
Prices now are In a chaotic condition for the want of a
proper monetary system. Carpets now sell for $20 per yard that
would be sold at a profit at $1.50. Meats sell at 16c to 35c per pound
that could be sold for 10c and 12c per pound. The writer could
make a long list of these things. A proper monetary system and
competition would bring prices to their normal condition.
Here's an object lesson. The New York Observer puts In
a line under its heading, as follows: "Terms, in advance, $3.00;
after three months, $3.50; after six months, $4.00.
Bank Money Issues.
There has been an irrepressible conflict up to the present
time between the leaders of the bankers and the people's
champions to control the issue of the medium of exchange.
No one better knows than the banker that his issues are
unconstitutional ; the Goyernment should not indorse his
"promises to pay"—that is to say, his debts—as a people's
medium of exchange, and the different Congresses that
have done this work have always been careful not to make
it a legal tender, for the question then would have been
tested whether Congress could endow a State's creature
with monetary functions, and they would have been de¬
clared illegal and the banks stopped from issuing them.
The Constitution is explicit with this regard—it strictly
prohibits the State from issuing "letters of credit," the old
name for a medium of exchange, then how can a creature
that the State charters into life do what the State
cannot do?
"It may be doubted whether any system of convertible paper
currency can be devised, consistent with profits to the issuers,
which is nob exposed in extreme cases to the danger of suspension;
and when this danger is apprehended, all attempts fail to estimate
the injury which the country suffers."—Sir John Lubbok.
Thos. Benton on the United States Bank.—"Great is the
fear and terror now inspired by this bank. Silent are millions
of tongues under its terrors, which are impatient for the downfall
of the monument of despostism, that they may break forth into joy
and thanksgiving."
"Congress fiddles with bank notes while the burning issue
is our primary money."—^Wm. P. St. John, President Mercantile
National Bank.
^Wei had to divorce the Government from religious societies,
BO we must divorce it from banking societies.
143
Prosperity—Metal Money
Benjamin Franklin said: carrying out all gold and
silver ruins the country, every colony was ruined. But far
from being ruined by it, they have been and are all in a
thriving condition." They prospered beyond comparison,
so much so that Franklin thought they ought to wear the
old coat longer, and was afraid they would get extrava¬
gant. They were well fed, well clothed, and w^ell housed,
and all were prosperous and happy. (See articles under
caption of Franklin.)
The two armies must have destroyed and consumed
nearly twenty billions of property in the 3Tars of 1860-05,
yet in the two decades from 1860 to 1880, twenty years,
property increased from sixteen billions of dollars to forty-
three billions of dollars. Now add the twentv billions de-
t/
stroyed by war, add the say five billions destroyed by panic
of 1873, and the growth would have been sixty-five bil¬
lions; wealth doubled four times in twenty years, during
which time we had no metal money. Gold and silver are
not detrimental to prosperity, but they are not nt^cessarj
to have prosperity.
144
If Only a Gold Currency.
Suppose we had only a gold currency—and no other—
Would prices change?
Certainly.
Why?
Because the amount or quantity, or volume of the cur¬
rency—no matter whether it is gold or any other material
used for the currency stamp, joined with the demand and
the supply of the products to be purchased, governs the
price that will be paid .
Then gold does not govern prices?
It does not.
If the quantity of coined gold changed, prices would
change. It is the quantity of the function and not the
metal that controls prices.
Does silver govern prices?
As silver it has no effect on prices.
When it is coined and increases the number of dollars
it increases prices, but the bare silver has no effect on
prices.
If the United States Government stamps something a
dollar, no matter what the material it uses, it is a dollar—
and the people would accept it for their products, up to
an issue of |200 for each individual—the amount that was
issued by Pennsylvania at the suggestion of Franklin.
"Suppose for argument's sake that the joint production
of gold and silver, which is now about forty millions annually,
were to become four hundred millions, we would find a rapid
rise in money prices; in other words, a diminution in the real
value or purchasing power of money."—Banker's Magazine.
145
146
THE NATION'S MONEY.
What is the amount of silver for each individual in this
country?
About six dollars.
Then it is $194 short of the total per capita issue in
Pennsylvania, which proved so successful?
Certainly.
Then they were a little dafCed in their fifty-cent dollar
business.
Their gold and silver talk is all rot. They do not care
for gold or silver, they desire only to control the United
States Treasury.
If the quantity of money is plenty and the supply of the
product normal, the price will be high. If the quantity of
money is scarce and the supply of the product normal the
price will be low.
Of course the quantity of the article in its relation to
the demand for it, effects the price to a more or less degree,
but not enough to effect or overcome the law of the quan¬
tity of the medium of exchange power over prices.
Then a man who talks about a fifty-cent dollar is not
just exactly constructed right mentally?
Not exactly. He might just as well talk of a round,
square hole, etc.
Gold—Explanatory.
There are several different kinds of gold—five or six
kinds—the National Government will only coin a gold of
a certain quality and fineness.
Gold is not so useful as copper for metal uses, nor has
gold the virtues that copper possesses. Copper is worth
one penny an ounce, gold is worth |20.76 an ounce. Now it
is the lawJhat gives to gold this larger x^rice. Take away
the law and gold will rank along with copper in price.
Anybody can see there is no such worth in gold other than
for monetary purposes, strike down your monetary market
for it and it will rank with copper.
''The price of gold is regulated just as the price of any
other article of merchandise—by the supply and demand."—John
A. Logan.
"The gold coin itself will not circulate to any considerable
extent, because it is cumbersome to handle and the banks would
not keep it in their vaults at their own risk."—John G. Carlisle.
The bonds issued by the present Executive were issued to
cover the deficiency of revenues to pay the expenses of running
the Government. The extravagance of the officials had exceeded
the revenues. The reason given for the issues to keep up the
gold reserve was falacious, and it was given out so that the people
would not understand the true condition. The officials would pay
expenses in gold and then buy the gold back with bonds, was
the process.
147
Financial Miscellany.
The Government can issue three and a half billions of dol¬
lars of money, which will start the wheels of industry going. Let
it stay in circulation twelve months, and it will produce ten bil¬
lions of dollars worth of products, and the government then can
call in the money issue and destroy it, and the clear gain by the
operation to the people will be seven and a half billions of dollars,
hence it is impossible to have a loss occur by a proper monetary
issue.
Our currency should cost us nothing except the printing
and minting, and distribution of it. The American miners would
be glad to have free coinage.
The National Government have made currencies by law,
then they have repealed the law, then they have put a penalty on
any one using the repealed currency.
^Governments cannot regulate the value of money—they can
only fix the denominations—whose values are adjusted by com¬
promises between buyers and sellers.
^'Tt is the highest interest of a trading country in general
to make money plentiful."—Benjamin Franklin.
*'The community and banks have one common interest,
and both must rejoice at the creation of a national currency to
avert the baneful political influence of a mammoth bank."—Thos.
Jefferson.
-"To give a President control over the currency would be
as dangerous as to leave it where it is" (in the bank).—Andrew
Jackson.
He knew that Presidents cannot be trusted with that power.
"Those who are the advocates for this currency (specie)
basis, or financial paradox, must explain what I should laugh at,
as a metaphorical absurdity, if the productive classes were not
too often ruined by it."—Thomas Jefferson.
"I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my
country than ever before, even in the midst of war."—Abraham
Lincoln.
That wasi to say that the New York combine was more power¬
ful than the Southern Confederacy, for the destruction of the
Union.
Mr. St. John, President of the New York Mercantile Bank,
when asked by the Congressional Banking Committe of 1894,
why New York banks would not loan to Louisville merchants at
high rates of interest, rather than not loan at all, or loan at very
low rates of interest, his reply, in substance, was: "Louisville has
no money to meet these loans, should we require it, so we loan at
home to turn it intO' cash as it is required."
148
THE NATION'S MONEY.
149
"Men get into debt, which, being practical slavery, be¬
numbs the faculties and depresses aspirations. With regular
and uninterrupted occupation for all, there would be fewer dis¬
ordered minds and fewer men falling into evil ways—fewer
lunatic asylums and fewer jails."—John P. Jones.
The acculturating ability of our people is very great, but
under a scientific money system it would become marvelous.
It seems the Creator designed it that we should lead the peoples
of the earth in culture.
Benjamin Franklin tried hard to introduce the measures
the writer proposes into the Constitution, but was defeated. We
have got to get them into it or we will all be pauperized—and
when they get the people so poor they cannot object, then they
will put a king on the throne of the United States and destroy
the Constitution. Then they will whip our farmers to make them
yield more taxes, as the English are now whipping the Egyptian
farmer.
"General comfort is the only security for general morality.
Take away that comfort—steep a people in pauperism and diffi¬
culty—and from that hour in exact ratio of the destitution, will
offenses against property and general morality spring and flourish,
despite the jailer and the clergyman."—Doubleday's History.
"It is astonishing, yea, startling, the extent to which the
faith prevails in money circles in New York that w© ought to have
a monarchy."—New York Tribune.
Levi P. Morton, the ex-vice-president, was the largest owner
in the Imperialist, a paper started to put a emperor on the
throne of the United States. Isn't it time to stop electing traitors
to our principal offices.
The Englishman, Ernst Seyd, was working on the law that
closed our mints in 1871. His letter of February, 1872,. discloses
this. In 1873 he came over with plenty of funds to bribe
our Congressmen to adopt his plan, which they did. Judge
Kelly said he saw the law in Seyd's own handwriting when it
was before the Congressional Committee.
The contraction policy of Hugh McCulloch, in 1865, was
instigated by Englishmen. The law of 1873 destroying the silver
dollar and closing our mints to silver, was written by Ernst Seyd,
an Englishman. Horace White, of New York, wrote the Carlisle
bill.
Harrison sent Foster to London for financial orders. One
order he received was to bring the gold from San Francisco
sub-treasury so that they could get at it easier. Harrison did it.
The opposite of penury and want is avarice. Men are
avaricious because they fear penury and v/ant. This fear makes
them grab for everything, irrespective of rights and moral prin¬
ciples. They get more than they can use, hence we see these
horrible extremes. If there was a good open market for ability
and industry as there should be, this diseased condition would
cease to exist.
150
THE NATION'S MONEY.
Neither the manufacturer, merchant or hanker dare com¬
plain of the financial condition. If they were that bold they
would be destroyed financially by the combine's agents.
A farmer works hard for twelve months to produce a crop,
but does not spend two hours thinking about the currency he
is to exchange his crop for. The currency is more important to
him than his crop.
John Sherman worked hard to pass the greenback law in
1862. In less than twelve months after he was "seen" and the
combine hoodooed him, and he has been hoodooed ever since,
and always ready for any scheme they had on hand.
While the boy and girl wears worn and ragged clothes, the
loom rots at its wharf.
How can a man go into court to protect his property with¬
out money?
There are many large papers that would tell the people
the financial truth if they only dared. It would be financial
suicide for them to do it now.
"As wax is not a seal without a stamp, so metal is not
money without an impression, and money is iinmed from mon-
endo, informing, because by its impression it informs us whose
money it is."—Elizabethian Court Decision.
The metals of our metal currency are silvf^r, gold, copper,
tin, zinc and nickel.
If the currency issue was in such amount?, that the com¬
bine could not control it, there would be no panics or "hard
times." In order for them to get in their work the amount
must be curtailed radically.
^What the papers say in the interest of the people is said
at the paper's peril.
It is with horror a man finds himself sinking financially.
especially so when he considers he is growing more rapidly older.
Reader, what would you think of a man who would ask
for a gold or silver baggage check for his trucik? or something
of equal value of the trunk and its contents to perform the func¬
tion of a baggage check? Yet that is no more queer than the
metal money idea.
The writer has spent four years in Wall street.
What makes wrong so powerful is that men will lie and
dissemble in order to get and keep a job to earn their living.
These men who are howling so against silver now were
howling just as hard for it during the war. What they want is
to give the people trouble.
The Pennsylvania money brought wonderful prosperity to
its people, with no reactionary or panic effects.
There is nothing you can name that is in your ideal Para¬
dise that is not in, on or around, this great globe that we inherit.
THE NATION'S MONEY.
151
• Postmaster-General Wilson, after telling the people for
a good many years that the tariff was the only cause of hard
limes, turns right around and says it was not the tariff, but the
financial laws that was the trouble. He says: "If there is any¬
thing for which I am entitled to the thanks of the public, it is
not for the tariff bill, but for having led the fight which carried
the bill for the repeal of the Sherman law through the House of
Representatives."
^Neither Congress nor the executive have any financial
compas to steer the ship of state by. They run it by a lot of
helter-skelter calculations that are as wild as they are wicked.
No man can be a minister of Christ and follow the leader¬
ship of the combine.
The combine are highwaymen on the road of life, that
makes the producer hold up his hands, while they take his goods.
Congress can order the mint to coin gold or silver in coins,
but unless they functionize the coins by a bill or clause, stating
that they shall be full legal tenders, they are not money.
^When a people lose their financial freedom, it will not be
long before they lose their political freedom. Mr. Cleveland has
commanded the national officials that they must not discuss
the silver question—in other words they must not question their
masters, the combine.
The writer challenged Henry George to a debate on "Finan¬
cial vs. Tax Reform," which one of the two is paramount in
importance, and offered him ten dollars an hour for four hours'
debate. He refused and the price was increased largely, but he
would not accent. He is now the pet of the cor bine and they
put his pictures in all their public places, for aiding to muddle
the people on the financial question. He is very dishonest.
The real reason they took up the block and put down
the asphalt pavement in New street, between the two stock ex¬
changes, in New York city, was the grass was getting so high.
The writer has seen it six inches in heighth. The stock brokers
haven't made a dollar in five years.
There are people who are so stupid that they say law
does not make money or currency, notwithstanding they could
see the law in the statute books if they would only look. But,
reader, don't you believe them, and undertake to make even a
penny, for if you do so, you will be pretty apt to get this, which
you will find in the statutes:
"Sec. 5462. Every person not lawfully authorized, who makes.
Issues, or passes, or causes to be made, issued or passed, any
coin, card, token or device in metal or its compounds, which
may be intended to be used as money for any one-cent, two-cent,
three-cent, or five-cent piece, now or hereafter authorized by
law, or for coins of equal value, shall be punished by a fine of not
more than one thousand dollars and by imprisonment not more
than five years."
1C2
THE NATION'S MONEY.
■ Is there a man so stupid that can think Congress is honest
when he knows it issues ten different kinds of functionized cur¬
rencies, for the purpose of manipulating one against the other, and
in this grinding of the upper and nether stone the producer is
ground to pieces.
Bankers are all strong greenbackers. They always pay out
all other forms of currencies first, and keep the greenbacks, for
It is perfect money as between corporations, or corporations and
individuals or as between individuals. Its exception clauses is in
dealing with the government, which impairs its usefulness.
—The trick that Congress and the Executive played on the
people by demonetizing silver and closing the mints, consisted of
just leaving out of the monetary law the two words ''standard
dollar." Just omitting those two words in a law has caused this
great commotion all over the country. It shows what "law" will
do, and what the absence of it will do also.
When the Geneva award for the Alabama depredation
had been made and the United States had $15,000,000 to its credit
in the vaults of the Bank of England, Mr. Boutwell, then secretary
of the Treasury, wanted to bring the gold over to this country,
but according to his own statement the Bank of England notified
him "that if any attempts were made to bring that gold over
bodily in specie, the whole power and influence of 1-3 bank of
England would be arrayed against the proceedings."
When money was supposed to be "congested" in New
York, and Mr. George S. Coe was giving out such statements to
the press, the writer called on him, having letters of introduction,
and offered him $12,000 for a loan of $100,000 for six months.
After his declining the loan, the writer increased premium and in¬
terest to $18,000 for six months usage. Collateral t^as ample. Mr.
Coe stated in refusing: "We have not the money, in fact, we can¬
not get enough for our customers." The writer then called on
the late John J. Knox, president of the Bank of Republic, and
Mr. Edwards, president State'Bank of New York, with the same
results.
Every currency law and bond law, with one or two ex¬
ceptions, keep the currency and bonds in large denominations,
to rule out the handling of them by men of moderate means.
This is a part of a section of a law passed Aug. 5, 1861,
that speaks for itself: "An act to allow the Secretary of the
Treasury to deposit any moneys obtained on any of the loans
now authorized by law, to the credit of the Treasurer of the
United States, in such solvent specie (!) paying banks as he
may select." The combine can give millions of dollars for cor¬
ruption to get their man into the Treasury, for they make
the Treasury pay it in the end,
Are you willing to continue the financial conditions that
allows certain men to make these great seismitic storms?
There is nothing that dulls the mind, and finally gives it
the brain paresis, as does money trouble.
THE NATION'S MONEY,
153
Man*s desires always outstrip his capacity to produce.
Congress has deprived most of the mints of the power to
coin money by making them assay offices, the use of.which is
only for the purpose of refining metal, and not for coining it.
"What an absurd idea it is that we cannot tell a w^eek
in advance what shall be the volume of money in our own country«"
—John P. Jones.
The profits tO' the men who were inside the ring that issued
and controlled the last national bonds were large enough to build
and equip a railroad eight hundred miles long.
There is no difference in the money policies of our enemy,
the London Times, and our President, Grever Cleveland.
John Sherman introduced a bill in Congress in 1868 to
destroy our dollar, and adopt the French five-franc.
The New York papers were giving all kinds of pictures of
Abraham Lincoln, during the war, representing him as a baboon,
monkey, etc., instigated by the combine.
The writer heard Judge Harlan of the Supreme Court
refuse to answer the question "whether the national Govern¬
ment could functionize a shingle with monetary principles" or
not. The fear of the New York combine was before him, and so
their pov/er reaches and ramifies into every niche and corner.
In 1893-4 every afternoon about 5 o'clock "the great un¬
employed" would gather in the outskirts of City Hall Park, New
York city, to wait for a chance to rush and get a seat at 6:30 p. m.,
when they were allowed to take them, and all night long they
would sit there, with rain and snow and wind beating upon them,
a pitiful sight.
The annual domestic products of the country are valued
at $16,000,000,000. The total imports into this country are about
$800,000,000, which are about balanced by our exports. The dif¬
ference between exports and imports is seldom in excess of
$100,000,000, yet there are men who will say $100,000,000 is more
importance in currency matters than the $16,000,000,000.
Judge Kelley pleads ignorance as to the stupid vote for
resumption in Congress, December 18, 1865. He said in his
speech on "Financial Mismanagement," February 14, 1879: "I
regret to say that my vote on that resolution was, with the over¬
whelming majority, in its favor there having been but six
members of the House who appear to have forseen the terrible
results such a measure must produce, and voted against it.
On my return home my venerable friends, Henry C. Carey
and the late Stephen Colwell, honored me with protracted inter¬
views, during which they approved the judgment of the business
men who had censured my vote, and so instructed me in the
laws of trade and finance as to enable me to act with an en¬
lightened judgment on such financial questions as might thereafter
come before Congress."
If he had enlightment he never brought it out.
154
THE NATION'S MONEY
^Farmers, read what David Hume said money will do for the
farmer. It is under the heading David Hume.
Bankers, read what Jefferson said about the mammoth
bank's oppression of small banks. Under the new proposed sys¬
tems four or five banks control all the balance. You will find" it
under heading Thomas Jefferson.
Roscoe Conklin, in 1876, asked:—'Ts it true that there is no
American dollar?"—Is it possible Roscoe Conklin couldn't read?
The Congressional Record, Fifty-third Congress, pages 6695
to 6707, contains a great many make-shift currencies, mostly local,
to help out while the Government was allowing the New York
conspirators to play their game of "freeze-out."
The government used to coin a large copper cent to get
the "intrinsic value" into it, as they call it. Now they coin the
little copper cent, which runs above 100 to the pound, and the
pound is worth about 14 cents. The total coinage of cents since
the formation of the government is reported to be 1,103,450,540.
The New York World was discussing the scarcity of small
hills, blaming the policy of the government for it.
The Boston Herald says: "The World is mistaken on this
point. The government has nothing to do with the with¬
drawal of small bills of national banks. It is tme
law that has brought down the national bank notes of small
denominations—ones and twos—almost to the vanishing point."--
(Reader, would you believe such ignorance could exist in a print¬
ing ofiice?)
The World answers: "In this country the law or law¬
making power is the government. It is perfectly proper to say that
the withdrawal of the small bank bills was ordered by the govern
ment." For the purpose, the World could have added, of destroy¬
ing small business transactions.
"It is quite apparent that the solution of the problem may
be found in the unpatriotic and criminal efforts of speculators,
and probably of secret enemies, to raise the price of coin, rega.rd-
less of the injury inflicted upon the country."—^William P. Fes-
senden, ex-secretary of the National Treasury.
Supposing a dollar does fifteen dollars' worth of business
a day, would you consider its material value of any importance
whatever? But, on the contrary, you would rate its functional
value very high.
Gold is not money in China, because the Chinese laws do
not make it money there. It is only money where law makes it
money.
^National bonds are only an interest-bearing national sub¬
stitute for money. They are not a mortgage, they are only a
promise to pay, and if the government does not want to, it cannot
he made to pay them; they are constantly used in cities as
money.
Coupons of bonds constantly float around as money, before they
get back to the National Treasury for cancellation.
John Locke Said.
John Locke, the author of the "Human Understanding,"
wrote the following extract, and it will be found among
his essays. It demonstrated, though written over two
hundred years ago, that he understood the tricks that are
played upon the people by financial manipulators, and also
how necessary it is for these manipulators to keep secret
their doings and try to raise questions to get the public
mind to accept, which is foreign to the truth. The most
potent one is this gold superstition, that is, that gold has
got something to do with prices, and they have rang that
constantly in the public ear until there are people who
really believe it, and of course they have a large following
who do not believe it, but continue to talk it. This is mar¬
velous treatment of the subject, when it is considered the
time and the circumstance. It was written forty-five years
before Franklin wrote his wonderful essay, printed in this
book. Bead it carefullv. It is as follows :
c/
"The business of money and coinage is by some men, and
amongst them some very ingenious persons, thought
a great mystery, and A^ery hard to understand. Not that
truly in itself it is so, but because interested people that
treat of it wrap up the secret they take advantage of in a
mystical, obscure and unintelligible way of talking, which
men from a preconceived opinion of the difficulty of the
subject, taking for sense, in a manner not easy to be
penetrated but by men of art, let pass for current without
examination. Whereas, would they look into these dis¬
courses, inquire what meaning their words have, they
would find for the most part, either their positions to be
false, their deductions to be wrong, or (which often hap¬
pens) their words to have no distinct meaning at all.
Where none of these be, there their plain, true, honest
sense would prove very easy and intelligible if expressed
and in ordinary and direct language."
155
Bullion Fallacies.
It has been dinned into the ears of mankind so persis»
tently and so long that it has gotten to be thoroughly be¬
lieved by a large class of people, and by a class of people
that pass for extra intelligent too, that gold and silver
has some mysterious or hoodoo principle over a paper
medium of exchange. Long essays have been written on
gold basis or gold standard, or silver basis or silver stand¬
ard, and what a terrible time there would be if something
happened to the gold we possess, or the silver we possess.
The demnation bow-wows would catch us right off, and
nothing would save us. And there are men actually puz¬
zling their heads over this superstition at the present
time and trying to avert the horrible evil that is coiining
like a Nemesis over us, in their imagination.
There is no such thing as a gold basis.
There is no such thing as a gold standard.
There is no such thing as a silver basis.
There is no such thing as a silver standard.
The medium of exchange is wholly a functional prin¬
ciple, and no man can place an ideal thing upon a material
substance. They can no more be hitched together than
the mountains and the winds. One is incorporeal, the
other is corporeal. One is material and matter, the other
is not matter nor material.
The basis and standard language was used for decep¬
tion. When asked to explain it, its champion would say
"I had sold enough 4 per cents to give me suiRcient gold
reserves, and on the 1st of January, 1879, the government v^as
ready to give coin for all legal tender notes. To our surprise
no one seemed to want it. One well-known financier of New
York has said only a few months before that he would give
$50,000 to be at the head of the line on the day of resumption.
He could have gotten his place for nothing. It was late in the day
only, that a few stragglers came in and asked for coin, and at
the end of the first day of resumption the government really
had more coin than it had in the morning."—John Sherman.
Thus ended the great fiasco—but, they had gotten the interest-
bearing paper out, and the debt of the people increased that
much.
156
THE NATION'S MONEY,
15?
we must deposit some bullion in a vault, then issue paper
promises that whoever gets one of the papers could get
some bullion by presenting it. Sometimes they could but
more times thev could not. But the writer does not in-
tend to take that end of the fallacy in this place; he only
wants to show that when gold or silver is endowed with
monetary principles it is no more powerful or no less than
when paper is endowed Avith this princip-^. You can do
no more with your gold than the Avriter can do with his
paper, Avhen they are both functionized as medium of ex¬
change. They are simply a medium of exchange, all three
of them no more, no less. Placing one behind the other
does not increase the power of either one in the least.
The paper dollar is just as much a full and complete dol¬
lar, without bullion or coin deposited in a vault, as it it
with it. There is no relation between the bullion and the
functionized paper. Functionized paper or functionized
bullion is always in great demand, because it is the repre¬
sentation of everything, and will exchange for everything,
while the demands for bullion is very limited.
Again, would you have more or less than the title to
your farm, supposing the deed was on parchment, paper,
gold, silver or copper. You would have the title to the
farm, .no more, no less, and the material the deed was
written on would not add one acre, or increase the price of
the farm in the market. So a functionized paper or bullion
is the deed of so much of the ivorld's goods, and all are
strmng to get possession of it, in order to get the world's
goods.
George S. Coe, of New York city, who has been one of the
leaders of the Combine, said he would give $50,000 to be the first
in the line, when the government commenced to exchange gold
for paper, meaning the demand would be so great for the gold.
Ex-President Hayes stated the facts when he said that instead of
demanding gold, the people bought their gold and asked for
paper in its stead. Forty million dollars more gold was de¬
posited than was drawn out. This is about as near as their
financial statements ever come to the truth. The idea of de¬
positing one hundred million in coin and proposing to pay eight
hundred millions of paper in it, is asking the people to swallow
a good deal. Offer a personal proposition like it to your banker,
that is, you will put up collateral of one hundred for an eight
hundred dollar loan.
Intrinsic Value Fallacies.
INTRINSIC means within; inside; inherent; internal.
VALUE means to rate; to appraise; to estimate—all
attributes of the mind.
These two words are joined together constantly, and are
used in the supposed strong arguments of the men who
are trying to control the issue of the medium of exchange.
By a little thought it will be seen they are perfectly mean¬
ingless when joined together. Value is a word that stands
for mental action in comparing or rationing prices or vir¬
tues, and when given to a metal it has no application.
Metal may have virtue, or several virtues, but it cannot
possess value—^value resides solely in the mind. So to
speak of intrinsic value is to speak of something that does
not exist.
Read what Locke says on this kind of argument.
ISS
Flood of Foreign Money
Fallacy.
The writer has shown in another place that the price
of goods have no relation to their productive cost. That the
price of goods is governed by the volume of currency, and
the law of supply and demand. These two principles ad¬
just prices, and no attention is given to what the products
cost.
With this principle in your mind, remember that no one,
foreigner as well as ourselves, parts with his money unless
he gets what he thinks is a proper return for it in products
of some kind.
With these principles well bedded in the mind, the
writer will answer the statement so often made that if we<
coin silver freely it will come to us from all parts of the
earth, and we should have more than we want.
The silver could not come unless it was sent, and if it
was sent, it would be sent for a purpose. Now, monetized
silver is the representative of work done, and the owners
would want something equally as good in return, and they
would want our products of course for it. Now, that
wouldn't bring us much silver it is easily to be seen, for the
reason, as soon as a people began to purchase largely of
foreigners, their home industries would suffer, and their
manufacturers in the line of their purchases would lower
prices of such goods below the foreign price, and the pur¬
chasers would be turned back home to do his purchasing,
and the flow of silver or money out of a country would be
stopped. And that would all occur before much, if any
money, had left their shore.
The real facts are: it never could occur, for business
men in every country are ever alert to supply any demands
that may arise in their country, and the time will never
come when a people's purchases of foreigners will exceed
much their sales to foreigners.
The Chinese authorities are here trying to buy silver to pay
Japan $150,000,000, and can find only 600,000 ounces the New York
Sun says. 159
Foreí¿n Investor's Fallacy.
The foreign inyestor argument is heard on the stump
and the newspapers urge it constantly as a reason why
we should not have a well-founded and stable currency.
Nothing could be more weak as an argument, even when
urged as in the interest of the foreigner. If the foreigner
invests in this country he invests to get a profit out of his
investments, and he would willingly and gladly take our
legal tenders as dividend payments, for he knows he can
change them by paying not over twenty-five cents for a
hundred dollars to any exchange broker on Broadway,
New York, or the Strand in London, even if he didn't want
to buy any of our products to take home with him. He can
also buy anything he wants that is for sale in London,
Paris, Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Eome, or any other
city in Europe, with our legal-tenders, for it is being done
every day in the year—and there isn't a European banker
that is not delighted to sell exchange for the United States
legal tenders, and the man who thinks he has got to have
coin to buy in Europe or pay a debt in Europe is very mis¬
taken.
Now, what is the truth about this foreign investor. He
doesn't get any dividends. He is cheated and mulcted to
a degree that is horrible, for instance: A railroad project
is held up to him as a bait, he is asked to buy some of the
bonds, and a block of stock is to be thrown in as a bonus.
The promoter says to him : "Just look at this offer we are
making you. This road runs through Paradise, with a
large passenger traffic, and it will be the only through
freight line around the earth, monopolizing all through
freights, besides having an immense local traffic, and as
an investment there is nothing to compare to it, and we
are going to take you right in on the ground floor. We will
make you this proposition, of course, this will be the only
one like it, and you are going to get it. It is this : You put
in five thousand dollars and we will give you ten thousand
dollars of our first mortgage bonds, and—and—we will,
seeing it is you—give you |20,000 par value of our pre-
160
THE NATION'S MONEY.
161
ferred stock. Now here is a fortune for you—thirty thou¬
sand dollars, the bonds are straight six per cents, interest
payable semi-annually, and the stock, why, that ought to
pay 25 per cent. Just look at it! You ought to have an
income out of this investment of over five thousand dollars
a year, inside of twenty-four months. Of course, the for¬
eigner bites, and he never sees hide or hair of his money
again.
Now, reader, do you believe these foreigners would not
be glad to take our legal-tenders, both for principal and
interest, or that there is any question in their minds at all
about our medium of exchange? They would gladly take
anything we would tender them that was reasonable.
Isn't it plain to your mind that these promoters are gulling
and robbing the foreigners as well as gulling and robbing
our own people.
The foreigners invests in our railroads, and when he
comes to demand that the promises made to him must be
made good, the fellows inside of the ring put the property
into the hands of a receiver, then get a reorganizing com¬
mittee appointed, which tells the investors if they want
to come into the new deal they shall have the first chanco
to buy the bonds and stocks. Just think of it! they are
given a chance to buy their owns bonds and stocks over
again. Protect the foreigner, indeed. The man who will
go into Wall street and buy any paper is mentally not
right.
Yet we are told from high authority we must protect
our foreign investors. A man who makes such a state¬
ment is either a fool or a knave. New York bond and
stock brokers are selling bonds and stocks every day that
they ought to be sent to prison for life, for having them iiii
their possessions, and the national oificials know this to
be true. Why, if these ofiicials are so earnest in protecting
foreign investors do they not close up these "green-goods
shops Reader, can't you see they are not interested in
the foreigner, they are simply gulling you, the reason you
ought to know by this time.
When Piske and Gould got control of the management of
the Brie Railroad, and the English were buying up the stock
to drive them out, Fiske said the "English will have a nica
time buying stock as fast as we eau print it."
Silver Mine Owner Fallacy.
The journals and speakers are belaboring the silyer
mine owners because they say the silver mine owners
are instigating the free silver coinage movement in the
country for their own selfish ends and not for the public
good.
This class of writers and speakers will perhaps be very
much surprised to learn that the silver mine owners are
not in favor of free coinage, but are heartily against it.*
With few exceptions the mines of any importance are
owned by foreigners, and the metal is taken out by them
and shipped to Europe, where they have private arrange¬
ments to coin it. There is hardly a bank in England that
does not own mines in America, and they own lots of holes
that promise to be mines. The Barings have had a watch¬
man at a shaft sunk about two hundred feet, forty miles
back of Baker City, Oregon, at a little town called Cracker,
w^aiting for the mineral development of that country for
several years. The Britisher is delighted to see the Amer¬
ican injuring his commercial standing in the world, and
the demonetizing of silver is very much enjoyed by the
silver mine owners.
*Not knowing this Mr. Harvey, author of ''Coin," went to
their representatives in Denver, Col., and asked to borrow
the money to get out his book, offering proper collateral. They
promptly declined his offer. Why, he seems not to understand.
They are taking our silver away from us and coining it con¬
stantly, and pretending they are not.
"The new British silver dollar coined for the use of mer¬
chants and bankers in Hong Kong and the Straits Settlement
weighs 416 grains 900 fine."—New York World, June 25, 1895.
"Great Britain has long been coining these (silver) dollars,
placing the Japanese "chop," or characters representing the silver
coin on one side of the piece, and the Britishi stamp on the other."
—Congressman Doolittle.
This counterfeiting another nations money is one of the vilest
tricks one nation can do to another. When will America teach
the Pirate England that lesson she wants so bad ?
The American is not as bright as the Japanese, who will not
allow any foreigner to own or mine their mines.
162
Elastic and Redemption
Fallacies.
No one can show their ignorance of monetary principles
more than by asserting the currency should be elastic.
If there is anything in the world that should be stable,
firm and unchangeable, it is the currency. To keep the
amount of it constantly changing is to play hayoc with
prices, and with business—for it is the quantity of it that
governs prices—and it is not desirable to keep prices
jumping up and down, and business in a chaotic state by
changing the amount of circulation. All credits are based
upon the circulating medium and if a contraction of a
few millions of cash takes place, it makes many millions
of contraction of credits and of business in general. So it
is seen that stability of a currency is absolutely necessary.
THE REDEMPTION FALLACY.
The writers and speakers on this subject are constantly
hurling this expression to their readers or hearers, with no
more thought given to its meaning, or its effect, thaji a
child could give.
There never comes a time when a nation can with
honesty and propriety redeem its currency and call it in
and destroy it—unless the people have ceased to eat, wear
clothes, and live in houses, so long as they have not ar¬
rived at that stage, but continue to eat, to wear clothes,
and live in houses, they will require a medium of exchange
to change their products, one with another, and a govern¬
ment that interferes with this process of exchanging by
163
164
THE NATION'S MONEY.
bringing in one class of its stamps to afterwards send
out another class of its stamps, is impaired, and its people
must meet and repair it.
^When you kill a sow you kill all the pigs she will produce.
When you destroy a dollar you destroy all the business the dollar
would have done.
Redemption means to destroy the money.
The writer presented $50 in greenbacks to the teller of the
United States Treasury for redemption in gold. He refused to give
gold for it, saying the New York sub-treasury would probably
give gold for the money.
Another time, the writer, presented $100 gold certificate for
gold. The teller hesitated for a little while, but finally gave the
gold for it. The writer evidently was not in the ring.
"All paper currencies have been, and ever will be, irre¬
deemable. It is a pleasant fiction to call them redeemable; it is
an agreeable fancy to think them so. I would not expose that
fiction, only that the great emergency which is upon us seems
to render it more than usually proper that the nation should
begin to speak the truth to itself, to have done with shams, and
to deal with realities."—Senator Howe.
Government Destruction
Fallacy.
It is often stated it is all right for the Government to
issue a proper medium of exchange, but supposing the
Government is destroyed, what a terrible loss this would
make?
This is an argument of men who do not think clearly or
deeph^—it is oiily skimming the subject.
Granting the government could be destroyed, and there
would be a loss of all money, the money loss would be the
most insignificant of all losses. Take yourself, reader, to
illustrate the point under discussion, how would your per¬
sonal losses compare, which would be the greater, the
amount of medium of exchange in your pocket or all your
other possessions? Do you not see your money loss would
be insignificant. Your loss on a pro rata basis would be
fifty dollars, but your other losses would be a great maii}^
times that amount. When a government is destroyed all
business is destroyed, all titles to property is destroyed,
and commerce becomes chaotic, the strong dominate the
weak, there is no court for the weaker to appeal to, no
justice, no equity, might makes right, and chaos prevails.
In such a condition how insignificant is the little money
loss individually in comparison to the great losses of every
other kind.
But such conditions do not and will not prevail. First—
People who destroy or change the form of their govern¬
ment do not destroy the medium of exchange issued by
the previous government, the governing powers are only
too glad to have it out and circulating freely, and the new
adopted government immediately adopts the former gov¬
ernment's medium of exchange, to quiet the people and
have them return to their vocations. This should be a per¬
fect and satisfactory answer to such a fear.
Second—The present Government rests on the hearts
of this people, and is as firm as the mountains. What
wrongs the people endure, caused by their weakness, they
will endure until they correct them.
165
Free Coinage.
Under tlie monetary regime existing in the Eastern
hemisphere, silver and gold are the predominating metals
that are endowed with monetary function, and while
comparatively a very little of it is used as a medium of
exchange in our business transactions in this country, yet
there is a demand for it even here for that purpose, and a
very wise one too, and any tendency to destroy its use¬
fulness in that capacity should be met with a strong re¬
buff. Or au}^ tendency to bring it under the control of
national officials, other than to merely put the national
stamp upon it, to lock it up, or to divert it from its purpose,
should be watched with a jealous eye, and the stamp of
condemnation put upon such acts.
We cannot afford, as a people, to give to the world our
money metal products below their coinage value, as they
have cost us, as a people, that amount, if not more, and
the only way to do that is to hold their value up by opening
the mints to free coinage, and the price of it will not go
below its coinage price. No man will sell his metal for less
than he can get it coined for. Above all things, with the
exception of issuing a medium of exchange we should
guard our mines and their products from ffnancial and
political and foreign schemers, so their benefits shall not
be diverted or stopped from flowing over the land, carry¬
ing blessings wherever they go.
When the Spanish mines no longer yielded the money
metals, and all intellectual intercourse commenced to die
down for the want of a medium of exchange, and all busi¬
ness commenced to shrivel ; religion, science and art com¬
menced going into the general eclipse, and men lived like
beasts, struggling merely for an existence. And this was
the condition of things when Columbus commenced his
eighteen long years of tramping over Portugal, Spain and
France, to arouse the people from their lethergetic sleep
and preach a new doctrine, and that was that the earth
was round and not flat as the schools were teaching, and
166
THE NATION'S MONEY.
167
that Solomon's mines lay to the west of Portugal, and by
sailing west he could come to them, and then he could
restore Europe to its pristine glory and lift the great
blanket of night that was oppressing it. Years, and years,
and years did he urge and pray the people to help him
demonstrate this truth. At last he had given up all hope
and was on his way to England when he fell in with a
noble Abbe, who consented to help him work out his
plans. All know what transpired with him afterwards.
His followers found mines a thousand times greater than
Solomon's ^lines, the silver mines of Balboa, and Colum¬
bus kept his promise to Europe. The silver Üowed back in
great quantities. Where intelligence was seemingly dead
it aroused itself. Morality commenced to shake up re¬
ligion and it commenced to move. Soon Martin Luther
and John Calvin began to thunder. The Bible was un¬
chained. Morning was coming over the earth. Science,
too, was commencing to arouse itself. It soon recognized
that the earth is round, the geocentric theory could not be
possible; and it brought out the heliocentric theory,
and the theory of one universe. Art doned its florid colors,
and men commenced to move out of caverns. Soon the
Elizabethian period came on with its marvel, Shakespeare,
one of the greatest masters of the passions, emotions and
subleties of the human mind. Had Columbus but been tho
precursor of Shakespeare he would have done enough.
Literature commenced to flourish. Printing, the art pre¬
servative of all arts, commenced to take great strides for¬
ward—new political ideas were born ; men commenced to
conceive their rights and dare to maintain them, and they
soon demanded that the shackles be torn from their
brother who was being sold with the soil, and a new era
was born and silver had given it birth.
The intelligence that still prevails in Europe, Asia and
Africa, under their despotic forms of governments, make it
impossible for them to rise to the intellectual standard
that prevails in America. It is impossible for them to
conceive mcftiey or the medium of exchange in any form
but a metalic, or what our ignorant or wicked money
schemers call a metal basis. They have still got to be
robbed for years to come before they can understand the
168
THE NATION'S MONEY.
difference between a function, an immaterial thing, and
the metal or paper that carries the stamp of the function.
They cannot understand a cheaper thing could be used
just as well if not better as a medium of exchange, to their
barbaric mind the virtue of the money quality lies in the
metal and not in the people and government that issues
it, and we have got tO' deal with them as we find them, and
it is better that we, as a people, should have all the finan¬
cial benefits arising from owning the mines and producing
the metal that there is in it, without injuring them. It is
our duty to get the profits rather than let the London
bullion dealers put it into their pockets.
We should not allow a foreigner, or any corporation
having foreign subscribers to it, to own an American mine. It
should be the property solely of those owing allegiance to this
country, and its products should be coined in this country.
New York state offers as a premium to anyone finding
silver in her borders to give him the right to enter upon the
land and become possessed of it, and the owner cannot stop the
finder. It is in the statutory laws of that state. i
Sir Archibald Allison in his history of Europe portrays in
eloquent words the effects of an increasing and decreasing volume
of money upon the progress of society. He says:
"The two greatest events that have occurred in the history
of mankind have been brought directly about by a contraction and
on the other hand an expansion of the circulating medium of so¬
ciety. The fall of the Roman Empire, so long ascribed in ignor¬
ance, to slavery, egotism and moral corruption, was in reality
brought about by a decline in the silver and gold mines of Spain
and Greece. And, as if Providence had intended to reveal in the
clearest manner the influence of this mighty agent on human
affairs, the resurrection of mankind from the ruin which these
causes had produced was owing to a directly opposite set of
agencies being put in operation. Columbus led the way in the
career of renovation; when he spread his sails across the Atlantic,
he bore mankind and its fortunes in his bark.
"The annual supply of the precious metals for the use of the
globe was tripled; before a century had expired the prices of every
species of produce were quadrupled. The weight of debt and
taxes Insensibly wore off under the infiuence of its prodigious
increase.
"In the renovation of the industry the relations of society
were changed, the weight of feudalism cast off, the rights of man
established. Among the many concurring causes which con¬
spired to bring about this mighty consummation, the most im¬
portant, though hitherto the least observed, was the discovery of
Mexico and Peru."
To Friends of Free
Coinaáe.
Do not be deceived into the belief that your interest
will be all protected by the granting of free coinage of
either or both metals, for it will not So long as you leave
the control of issuing the paper medium of exchange,
which does nine-tenths of the business done, to a lot of
financial pirates, you and your business are at their mercy.
You had free coinage for years, yet you were swearing at
Wall street all the while, for Wall street was dominating
you and free coinage was powerless to avert the calamities
they have brought upon you. You know this to be true.
There is a principle deeper than free coinage, and you
must understand it. It is that power that people have
within themselves, and they place it in their sovereign
Government, for the purpose of functionizing materials,
either metals or paper, with monetary principles. They
make the medium of exchange and it can make or unmake
you financially. Whoever controls the government that
prints it is the absolute master of all commerce and of
that people. They can make good times or they can make
bad times. They can make panics or they can make busi¬
ness boom. Are you prepared to surrender this power to
any set of individuals? They took away the free coinage
of silver from you, and supposing they give it back to you,
is there any reason why they canT take it away from you
again, and play with you backward and forward as suits
their inclinations? They are your masters; you are their
creatures.
Is there a man, an American, that is willing to leave our
monetary affairs in such a loose condition? We must de¬
mand that the only controlling power of our monetary
system shall be the Constitution of the United States.
169
To the Banker.
To no one is it more important that there should pre¬
vail a scientific monetary system, and that the medium of
exchange should cease to be a hodge-podge of Congres¬
sional enactments, which keeps all business in a flurry and
uncertainty, bringing on seismic troubles, that tear all
things, and rend all institutions, and threaten the very ex¬
istence of society, and it is due to yourselves to aid in
getting these amendments inserted into the Constitution,
and thereby destroy this constant bone of contention, the
greatest of all corruption breeders, and which keeps alive
the parasites that constantly menace your existence. In
the panic of 1893 they destroyed nearly two hundred banks
in comparatively a very few days. Is it to your interest
"What the debtor cannot pay the creditor must.
There are only 7,000,000 people that deposit in banks in this
country with 70,000,000 of population. Only one in ten have use for
banks.
The Comptroller of the Currency has a hundred forms of
blanks to force bankers to give their secrets, that are tyrannous,
oppressivle and impudent. They should all be repealed.
"There are very few banks which might not have been de¬
stroyed by an exertion of the power of the bank."—Nicholas Bid-
die, President United States Bank; testimony before Investigating
Congressional Committee.
"I believe, Mr. Chairman, from my observation of what has
taken place in the meetings of the various National bank associ¬
ations, that there is a general opinion in the country now that the
provision of the National banking law v/hich requires the deposit
of United States bonds to secure circulation is practically a fail¬
ure. In other words, the banks are required to put on deposit a
good deal more than they get out, and for that reason there is
no sufíicient inducement to increase the circulation."—John G.
Carlisle.
Here is the lauded and vaunted National bank issues admitted
to be a failure. If the bankers would only use a little intelligence
they would see that these issues have been a curse to them, in a
number of ways, making them traitors to their country, and tools
of New York conspirators.
170
THE NATION'S MONEY,
171
that such a condition shall continue to exist? Are you in
favor of these congestions of business? Are you in favor
that this power shall lay exposed for designing men to
manipulate? In another part of the book the writer shows
you how these banking parasites work, and they have com¬
plete reports of every bank's condition, secured for them
by the power of a national official. In this report each
bank is minutely classified, so it is known how much cash
it controls, or could control, if cash demands are made
upon it, for such paper as it endorses, and how long it
would weather a panic condition. Now, is it well that
such things exist? You know they do exist, and that they
menace you, and menace your depositors, and menace the
community of which you are the business center. If it is
for your personal interest that such things shall exist,
how will it be for your children, when you pass off the
stage?
One hundred years ago there were but three banks in
this country, now there are eight thousand three hun¬
dred. Of this 8,300 banks, 3,700 are what is called na¬
tional banks, or banks who hold a partnership with the
^Why should the property of a depositor In a bank become
the prey of the victims of the bank issues? There is no justice
in such a condition. Nor should a bank be allowed, to issñe
currency to menace its depositors with additional dangers, which
are sure to come from that cause.
The highest mark of clearances, of the New York Clearing
House, is one billion dollars for each one million of inhabitants.
It ought to be more and never less. It is now one-third of that
amount.
"The Boston Suffolk Bank originally conceived that a
profit could be made by persuading country banks to deposit money
with it for redeeming their notes at par in Boston. As the country
banks did not, see any profit to themselves in such an arrangement
they refused. Then the Suffolk began to send their notes home for
redemption (a specie of blackmail). It secured the co-operation
of five other Boston banks. The six banks, headed by the Suffolk,
soon began to make it hot for their country cousins by incessant
calls for specie. The latter made a great outcry, but the run con¬
tinued remorselessly until they began to come in and make the
deposits required for a redemption fund."—Horace White.
Some of the New York banks dominate country banks the
same way to-day, making the country banks put up the capital
they do business on.
172
THE NATION'S MONEY.
Goyernment in tlie issue of the medium of exchange. Fifty
per cent of these 3,700 banks h aye found it was not to
their interest to help the Goyernment issue the currency
and haye so notified the Goyernment. That leayes less
than 2,000 banks who still continue this baneful practice,
and these 2,000 banks are dominated by fifteen men in
New York city. Now, should these 2,000 dominate the
8,000, eyen if the 2,000 banks controlled the policy? Is
that fair? Is it just? Should these 2,000 banks continue
to stand between the 6,000 banks and a proper monetary
system?
By referring to the clearing-house reports of the years
1893-91 it will be seen that the 8,000 banks lost ten billions
of dollars in one twelye months. The profits on that
amount of banking business alone would haye been greater
in one year for the banks than all they could possibly make
in ten years by issuing the medium of exchange. So eyery
year the banker holds on to the issue of the medium of
exchange he looses more than he makes, from two to ten
times the amount, besides interfering in the business in¬
terests of the people, their deyelopment, their education,
and their progress, and he aids in bringing distress and
misery to them, by distributing poyerty.
It is impossible for the banker to issue enough money to
supply the seyenty millions of people, as this is solely a
goyernmental function. His own dealings coyer only eight
millions of people, and his capital is not much in excess
of six hundred millions, and the proposition now before the
people is only to issue 75 per cent of that amount, which
neyer could moye the sixteen billions of annual products,
or even one-third of that amount. Such an issue would
limit our business to yery small proportions comparatiyely.
Money is a tool which limits and controls the amount of
business. No more dirt can be dug than there are shoyels
to dig it with. So the banker limits or curtails the num¬
ber of depositors, and the amount they would deposit, by
trying to do something it is impossible for him to do, that
is, putting upon his guild a goyernmental function, which
has proyed and is proying so disastrous to him. While
he has the profits of the issuing of the medium of exchange
he destroys his profits which would result from a proper
business condition, which would arise from a scientific
THE NATION'S MONEY.
173
regulated medium of exchange, which can be demonstrated
by looking at the tabulated reports of the clearing-houses
and comparing the years when money was contracted with
those of years when it was expanded, and it will be seen
how banking business contracted with a contracted money
market and expanded with an expanding money market.
The writer is confident that it is not the desire of the
average banker to do this, for he is too intelligent. He
know^s his children must sooner or later enter into the
conditions that he constructs, and they wdll be driv^en
down by that want that should not exist, until this blessed
life becomes a burden and a curse.
The writer has not the room to prolong this argument,
and, if the banker will kindly take up the data given, and
work it out to a conclusion, he will find his policy hereto¬
fore very wTong and very injurious to him as a business
man, besides working such awTul w^reckage to his chil¬
dren when they are forced into the business world.
Another important thing the banks should insist upon
is the closing of the sub-treasury in New York city, and
also the closing of the New York mint, called the assay
office. That the Philadelphia mint absorb the New York
mint, and the National Treasury at Washington become
the real treasury of the nation, instead of the sub-treasury
The mortality of banks is almost as had as the member¬
ship of the New York Exchange. The average exchange member
lasts just eleven days.
"The government itself ceases to be independent, it ceases
to he safe when the national currency is at the will of a com¬
pany. The government can undertake no great enterprise, neither
war nor peace, without the consent or co-operation of that com¬
pany; it cannot count its revenues six months ahead without re¬
ferring to the action of that company—its friendship or its enmity,
its concurrence of its opposition—to see how far that company
will permit money to be scarce or plentiful; how far it will let
the money system go on regularly or throw it into disorder; how
far it will suit the interest or policy of that company to create a
tempest or suffer a calm in the money ocean.
"The people are not safe when such a company has such a
power. The temptation is too great, the opportunity too easy, to
put up and put down prices to make and break fortunes; ten bring
the whole community on its knees to the Neptunes who preside
over the flux and reflux of paper,—Thomas H. Benton.
174
THE NATION^S MONEY.
in New York city. If the sub-treasury, which is the real
National Treasury should close, all the banks centering
around it would have no further occupation, their busi¬
ness would be gone. They could not then loan out Uncle
Sam's money, they would have to loan out their own money,
just the same as you do or go out of business. Do you
think, Mr. Banker, that they should have the Grovernment
helping them and not helping you? It isn't fair, is it?
Now, Mr. Banker, about the "cash" as you call it, in your
terms. You cannot get it into existence, only by law, and
national law at that, no matter what the material is,
whether metal or paper, you know that well. It is law
that tells what shall be the medium of exchange, and it is
law that tells who shall issue it, and there is no getting
around it, it is going to be issued by law.
Shall that law be based upon just and equitable prin¬
ciples? or shall these unjust and irresponsible acts of Con¬
gress continue to fret and annoy the banks and the peo¬
ple, and menace all business?
Go down deep into the subject and you will see your
private interest in the long run is on the side of right and
justice.
You know if 3^our clientage is poor and poverty-stricken
you must be of the same condition. The better and farther
you advance your clientage the better it will be for you. If
you keep the boy that plows the ground miserably fed and
miserably clothed for the want of a proper medium of ex-
The banks have all their silver bullion coined free, as the
assay office is coining silver for them now, while no one, outside
the ring can get their silver coined.
The finest tobacco grown in the world was grown in the
Ozark Mountains of Missouri and it had become quite an in¬
dustry. But owing to the contracting money supply the St. Louis
tobacco merchants were able to control prices, and they put
them down so low that the farmers stopped growing tobacco.
The merchants had not taken this condition into contemplation,
but when they realized what they had done, they sent out speakers
over the territory offering to furnish seed if the farmers would
only grow it again. But the farmers refused to take it up after
their former experience. The tobacconist had killed that goose
that was laying him his golden egg. They were as wise as the
old darkey who said "He wished everybody was dead, then he
would go to Boston and keep store."
THE NATION'S MONEY.
175
change, he can never be a depositor with yon, nor can he
borrow of you, he counts in that manner no better than a
Hottentot, yet he is a good producer, but some one else
is selling his crops, he doesn't receive the proceeds, hence
his awful poverty. This is not to your interest and you
owe it to your kind to stop it as soon as it can possibly bo
done.
rhe New York clearing-house has used in forty years
$47,000,000,000 of cash. They could not have handled
this collosal sum in metal currencies, it would have been
almost impossible, while paper was a thousand times bet¬
ter for them, as they all have experienced.
Mr. Banker come out and aid in the work of giving this
country a proper medium of exchange. If the proposition
the writer is urging does not suit, come forward with one
which shall be based upon equal and exact justice to all
and special privileges to none, and the writer will urge it
with all the energy he is capable of bringing to the work.
To the Farmer.
Farmer: just a few words with you. If you are a wheat
grower just ask yourself how long will it take to pauperize
yourself, if you sell your wheat at 50 cents a bushel, that
costs you 75 cents to grow it. You can last only the length
of your resources, and when they are exhausted then you
must become a tramp. Is it not good business sense to
say that a merchant who buys goods at 100 cents and sells
at 75 cents on the dollar will soon be ruined financially?
If the cotton grower sells his cotton at 5 cents and it
costs him 7 cents to raise it, it is easy, when you know
his circumstances, to figure out how long it will be before
he is pauperized.
If a stock grower raises a lot of stock and sells it 25 per
cent less than cost, how long is he going to last financially?
You can figure it out.
Did you know, farmer, that God has given you three
hundred square feet of brain in your head, to use and not
let yourself and your family be gulled and robbed of those
things that you raise. He has, and you most certainly have
been asleep mentally, or you would not have done as you
have been doing. CanY you rouse yourself now, and see the
foolish way you have been doing? Paying no attention
whatever to the country's medium of exchange. You work
a whole year on your crop to produce it, but you wmn't work
an hour on what you are to exchange the year's work
for? Just rouse up that three hundred feet of brain and
make it work a little, and give your hands a rest, and the
writer's word for it, a still, solemn disgust will come over
you, and you will say with Hamlet, "What a peasant slave
and fool am L'' And x)erhaps you will want to kick some-
176
THE NATION'S MONEY,
IT'
thing, then you will say, "Why didn't I send and get s
primer on finance and learn my financial letters, perhaps 1
would have learned to read the whole thing in a short
while?" Any way, you would soon have learned that you
were the plaything of a lot of fellows near Wall street.
New York City. Then you might have asked yourself,
"How in the old Nick do these fellows play this game,
that's what I want to know?" Let us imagine a farmer
wLose mind is just commencing to work on this sub¬
ject, he will say something like this: "I won't go
doAvn in the field and work to-day. I'll find this thing
out or burst a trace. I believe I will put the saddle
on the mare and go over and see Jones. No, I
won't. I'll stay right here. I want to think. I want
to think hard. I don't want anybody to interrupt me. I
will go down by the big oak in the patch of wood, no one
will come there. I feel so queer in my mind, it must be
akin to the feeling the mind has when it is born into
Christianity. Why have I struggled so year after year, and
where are the proceeds gone? Who has really reaped the
reward of mv efforts? I know I have not, and those dear to
€/ /
me have not? Now that is the question, and that is the
question that has got to be solved to satisfy my mind. Who
has got my products, and how did they get them? How
did they get them? That's the trick I want to solve. Now.
let's see, how will I get at it—that's a sticker—but I won't
give it up. How will this line do? Here I am on my farm.
I raise enough to feed my family a dozen times over, and
we sell nearly enough eggs and butter to clothe us, but at
the end of the vear I am not a bit better off than I was the
«/
year before. Well, what of that? I knew that years ago.
what's that got to do with it. Well, I don't know—but,
why in the world shouldn't I be better off, after I have
toiled a whole year, and raised my crops? I asked a poll
ticianmnce why I was not better off at the end of the crop
178
THE NATION'S MONEY.
year, and he said something about the tariff being the
cause, and I rememberer, I thought, tariff, tariff, why that
is only taxes levied on some of the foreign goods coming
into this country to support the National Government;
that can't ruin my farming, my business, this way, and all
other farmers—why the farmers would stop that mode
of collecting the revenues by the National Government
as they would stop a pest, and levy a direct tax on all,
and they could make it mighty high too, for we would
pay anything that was reasonable without a grumble to
sui)port our Government. Why, it seems to me our Con¬
gressmen have some sense, and they would work in
Congress to destroy such an engine of business destruc¬
tion v/ere it true. Why, Mr. Cleveland said six years ago
it was the tariff, and now he has changed his mind, and he
says it is the want of honest money that makes these hardi
times. It isn't the tariff, that is certain. By George, I am
getting it boiled down, ain't L I am getting on famously.
It isn't the tariff, that is certain—^but, hold—why did they
say it was the tariff when it wasn't the tariff, that's sin¬
gular. I never thought of that before. Isn't there a negro
in that fence. Why in the world should they lay it on to
the tariff when it wasn't the tariff? Confound it, that
thing grits me. Did they have a motive? What was the
motive? What was the motive that made the politician
say it was the tariff when it was not the tariff? It couldn't
be possible that this politician was mistaken, for I have
heard it from a good many politicians, and I know now
that some of them know better—but they all talked it.
Now wdiy did all these politicians talk it? There was a
design in that, some kind of a motive. What was the de¬
sign? What was the motive? Who was it that instigated
this stump talk, and what was they to gain. A little light
commences to dawn in my heretofore darkened mind. I
see, they talked tariff, and I lost my crop. How is that?
THE NATION'S MONEY,
179
I am getting onto it rapidly now. They say farmers liaven^t
got any brains. If they put it that farmers don't use their
brains I believe I would agree with them, at least here is
one farmer who has been lulled to sleep mentally too long.
How many years of toil have I had, and what have I got to
show for it? Oh! what a question this is to put to your¬
self. This angers me some, but I must not let that control
me. Because I was a fool yesterday I need not be a fool
to-day. Let's see, what I want to do is to find out who
does the designing, it is no longer a mystery what they
do the designing for, it is to get possession of our crops
for the least possible money. Now, who is it that does this,
and how do they do it? Now, that is good! I am getting
there famously. The next time those politicians come
around in this section I'll paralyze them. I will make
them show their colors. If they are going to help rob us I
just want to know it. I believe I will get on my mare and/
go right round after them and tell the people how they
are helping the fellows that rob us. If I could only make
them understand. But hold up, do I know? Could I ex¬
plain it how it is done, I don't believe I could. What was
it I saw in the papers I was reading this morning? Hello!
I didn't take it out of my pocket, here it is. This paper
says that President Gar-field said: Whoever controls the
volume of currency is absolute masters of all industry and
commerce." When I was a boy and went to school the
schoolmaster used to take a few sentences out of a para¬
graph and let them stand alone, and ask us to add to theiix
or change them about, or define their relationship. There
are two in this quotation I am going to take out and
analyze them. What does this ^absolute masters' mean?
Where are these ^absolute masters?' Who are these ^ab¬
solute masters?' Then there is the other, ^volume of cur¬
rency.' The ex-President says who controls this volume of
currency is absolute masters. Now why don't the poli-
180
THE NATION'S MONEY.
ticians explain that to us? Hello! I am getting an idea,
my old head isn't dead yet. Here it is. Isn't that the de¬
sign? Isn't that the motive? They talk tariff so we won't
get on to their game, we won't know what they are doing.
Their design is to control the volume of currency, and they
don't want us to know it, so they talk tariff. By George,
that is it. Oh! I am going to get there. I am not going to
do any more work but just feed and water my stock till
this thing is settled. In the name of all that is good, what
good is it. I toil, sweat and grunt and others reap the re¬
wards that should come to me. Wouldn't I be a fool to
do it longer under such conditions? I will not rest till I
change the conditions, and if I do not get them changed
in my time, maybe they will be changed so my sweet little
children's lives shall not be wrecked as mine has been.
Does the politician tell us these things? does he warn
us of our dangers? He never tells us there are absolute
masters of us, and they control us by controlling the vol¬
ume of currency. Think of an American having an abso¬
lute master—a master to whom he must yield obedience
and give the greater part of his crops to—^then, to think
once, not to be told about it by men who claim to be your
friend. Say, this makes me mad. But, here, I said I
wouldn't get mad to-day; but it does seem as though I
can't keep all the indignation down, it will come up.
"But I must go on. Where are the ^masters?' Any¬
body knows that, they are in Wall street. New York city.
How in the world do these fiends work? Now comes the
rub. What do they do and how do they do it? How am I
going to get at that? I've got it now. Y^olume of cur¬
rency' is the key. What is the ^volume of currency?' Why
it is the amount of currency, of money, our medium of ex¬
change, that our Government issues to the people, so they
will not be forced to barter their products one with an¬
other. The farmer can exchange his products for money
THE NATION'S MONEY.
181
and then exchange his money to supply any of his wants.
Hello! Another idea comes to me. What did that politi¬
cian mean when he was talking about tariff, he suddenly
switched off and commenced to talk about ^honest money.'
There must be different kinds of money or he would not
have said that. What in the world did he mean? That is
a sticker! ^Honest money!' There should not be any other
kind than honest money. That man wasn't honest or he
wouldn't have talked tariff, as he did, but would have told
us of these ^masters.' There must be a trick in his ^honesi
money.' He said, I remember now, he wanted it converti¬
ble into gold, ^just as good as gold,' he said, that was the
honest part of it, that would make it honest if it were
convertible into gold. ^There must be a gold basis,' he
said, for all issues of paper money. I think T smell a mice.'
Now, I know how that game is worked. Why, that is an
old game. They played that when I was a boy. My father
took me along with him to our county seat when I was a
youngster. It seems a bank failed there and father had
some of their gold-basis gold-convertible note issues on
hand, and he thought .he would go over and get gold for
them. He didn't get any gold. It seems the bank promised
to pay gold but had made no arrangement to keep their
promise. It had a little gold, but of course that was di¬
vided with the fellows that knew what was going on,
father didn't know what was going on—so he got left.
That trick cost father one year's crop and about three
year's of worry and anxiety. I don't believe that is real
^honest money.' I don't believe anybody believes a gold
basis money is honest money. I believe there is more in this
than that stealing, also. What did General Garfield mean
when he used the expression ^volume of currency?' He
didn't mean a gold basis—that is impossible—for it is im¬
possible to put a gold dollar away in a vault to represent
the paper dollar that is in circulation. We could not do
182
THE NATION'S MONEY.
that even if we had every other people's gold. And of
course it would not do to practice the old trick played on
father, of putting five or ten dollars in a vault and issuing
a hundred dollars in paper on it. Such paper is put out
to rob always. But I don't strike what he means by ^vol¬
ume of currency.' That is something I must understand.
Now, let me see, currency mean cash, money, medium of
exchange. I understand that. Now for volume—that
means dimensions—it means the total amount of money.
There are people who control the total amount of money
that shall be issued, and as it is issued by the Govern¬
ment at Washington, they tell the Government what it
can issue and what it cannot issue. Can that be possible?
They would be absolute masters, indeed, if they could do
that. Supposing they do control the ^volume of currency,'
how does the volume of currency control the farmer. I
believe I can see that easily enough. Supposing I wanted
to explain it, how could I explain it so everybody could un¬
derstand it? Supposing money was potatoes and a per¬
son was buying wheat with potatoes, and the normal mar¬
ket price of wheat per bushel was two bushels of potatoes,
that is the way they would rank one with the other. But
supposing now several men would gather up all the pota¬
toes they could, and put one-half of the total amount of
them in existence in a storehouse, and would not let them
come out, such wheat growers now as have mortgages on
their farms and have got to get potatoes to pay them
off, have got to sell one bushel of wheat for one bushel of
potatoes ; in other words, they are denied one-half of their
resources to pay their debts, they should have had two
bushels of potatoes to pay with when they only have one—•
this causes them to default in payment of the mortgage,
just what the manipulators desired, and the farmer is
forced to lose his property. By understanding the word
money for potatoes it will work as well. Now I under-
THE NATION'S MONEY,
183
stand how volume controls prices, so, whoever controls the
Volume of currency' is the ^absolute master of industry
and commerce,' that is as plain as can be.
"Supposing potatoes to be the medium of exchange, it
is the quantity of potatoes that governs the amount or
prices that will be given for all other commodities. If
to-day there are plenty of potatoes the seller of other com¬
modities will get more potatoes than if to-morrow a lot of
conspirators have hid away a lot of potatoes, leaving less
potatoes to divide among the people for their products.
That thoroughly demonstrates that quantity governs
prices. Oh! I am going to get on to those fellows tricks
just as sure as can be, and if I can do it, others can, and
once tell the people and Wall street's occupation will be
gone. If our currency consists of paper, silver or gold, or
all combined, the material used has no effect on prices.
It is the total numbers of dollars oustanding, irrespective
of kind of material that the dollar is stamped upon, that
governs prices. In other words, prices follow the amount
of dollars in circulation, if these ^masters' desire to lower
prices they lock up a lot of dollars, if they want to raise
prices they let out a lot of dollars, it making no differ¬
ence whether the dollars locked up or let out are gold,
silver or paper dollars. Therefore, there is no such thing
as gold affecting prices, or silver affecting prices, or gold
basis, or silver basis; prices are governed by the total
quantity of medium of exchange outstanding. Men who
talk about there being gold basis or silver basis are talk¬
ing like the politician on the stump, for a design, and that
design is to rob. I believe I have got it fixed in my head
now how the game is played. I see how us farmers are
robbed, and we have got to stop it, and I am going to work!
with a vim to do it. I am going over to see Jones this very
afternoon and get him started."
To the Artisan.
No one is more interested in haying a proper and uni¬
form medium of exchange than you are. To let this princi¬
ple go uncovered is to invite your own destruction. By
the present operation your wages are good one day and low
the next, while the third day you may be "laid off." You
cannot calculate ahead safely. If you propose to buy a
piece of property, to be paid for out of your earnings, you
are taking a risk of losing all of the earnings you invest in
it, for by this mixed currency system you do not know
but in a short while the currency in your section of the
country may all be drawn into the treasury and de¬
stroyed, leaving your people with a money famine on hand.
Congress and the Executive juggles with it all the time,
instigated by Wall street money gamblers. Are jou will¬
ing that such a condition shall continue? If you are not
you must exert yourself to destroy that condition. If you
have no better proposition than the one proposed by the
writer, won't you help to adopt his proposition. It is short,
simple and practical. It does away with thousands of
currency law^s that now encumber the National and State
statutory books, which make our monetary world a verit¬
able pandemonium.
Bead carefully what Benjamin Franklin says.
"What can be more disheartening to an industrious man
than this, that after he hath earned his bread with the sweat of
his brow, he must spend as much time and have near as much
fatigue in getting it as he had to earn it! And nothing makes
more bad paymasters than a general scarcity of money."—Benja¬
min Franklin.
—The people of this country owe a great deal to the ability
and energy of the Carpenters of Philadelphia, for their great work
in forming the Colonial Union.
184
Ignorance—Superstition.
The papers, pulpits, colleges and schools are teaching a
false ñnance, some through ignorance, others for the pur¬
pose of aiding and abetting those who find a profit in the
condition that a want of proper knowledge brings into
existence.
This same class once taught that the world was fiat, and
opposed the man who taught it was round with all their
strength. They did not or could not conceive the practical
benefits that would and did arise by its being round—•
and that it was discovered to be round was due to the
great energy and ability of a very poor man.
"The effort to establish a money slavery must ultimately
fail, but not until the peopje are tired of being bondsmen to a
moneyed oligarchy."—Cincinnati Enquirer,
Emancipation is coming rapidly.
185
Some Ouestions.
It takes more money to supply 10,000 men than it does
1,000 men.
That's plain, isn't it?
It takes more money to supply seventy million of peo¬
ple than three millions.
Isn't that plain enough?
The next thing:
Who makes money?
The National Government.
If you do it they will have the whole army and navy
after you before morning.
Now, if the Government is going to do it, it ought to do it
right.
Isn't that true?
It shouldn't be a hap-hazard makeshift.
Should it?
It should be systematized, shouldn't it?
For you know we might just possibly get somebody in
the offices that wasn't just as honest as they might be!
Now, don't you think we had better set down some very
plain and simple rules in the Constitution to guide these
fellows. If they are honest it won't hurt them—^if they are
dishonest it will curtail their power?
y The writer believes you agree with him.
1861
Wa¿ons as an Illustration.
Keader, suppose jou have a thousand wagon-loads of
X>otatoes in your field, which is to be taken to the store¬
house, and you have ten wagons to do the work with.
Under such a condition, each wagon would make one hun¬
dred trips. If you lessen the number of wagons you in¬
crease the number of trips of the retained wagons, or if
you increase the number of wagons you decrease the num¬
ber of trips.
Another principle is also involved in the transaction,
and that is time. By lessening the wagons you invite the
destruction of your unhoused crop. That part that re¬
mains out exposed is always in danger.
The dollar is a wagon to carry crops from the producer
to the consumer and when you have more loads than the
dollar can carry the crop must rot. That is all a dollar is
for, that is all it is good for, and its work is worth a thou¬
sand times more than the material it is composed of.
Keader, you must see this point.
1S7
More Questions.
Eeader, you know it is impossible to get along without
a medium of exchange. You cannot dispute that propo¬
sition.
You know the National Government is going to issue it.
Now, the real questions are:
Who is going to own it when it is issued?
The People?
Or the
Combine?
Are we going to have it controlled by a proper system?
Or, are we going to have no system, and let individuals
play all kinds of schemes on it?
Which are you for?
m
Religion, Science and Art.
Under a congested monetary condition religion dies.
The church that was to be built is not built. The donations
that were promised out of the surfjlus of the year do not
come, as there was no surplus; and those engaged in the
good work loose heart and lag.
It takes money to adopt new scientific devices, and
while money is scarce all this work lags. Science has al¬
ready prepared a new electrical railroad system that will
relegate the present devices to the junk-shop, but we must
continue to go the old way till we can get money to go the
new.
Art is paralyzed, and the artist is suffering. His produc¬
tion finds no one to take it off his hands—and our homes
are losing those things that would adorn them most.
"There was something more than ordinarily pathetic in the
suicide of Henry Alexander, the young artist, at the Hotel Orient,
because he was a painter of ability, a man of many estimable
qualities, and he was undoubtedly driven to his death by poverty.
He was last seen wandering around with a picture under his arm
that he was vainly trying to sell."—^New York World.
^Mrs. Parrin Stevens pictures sold in New York city for $800
which must have cost $25,000.
The religious colleges are having so few "calls" for
preachers, they do not know what to do with their graduates.
189
Citizenship.
Reader, yon are a citizen of the grandest Government
on the face of the earth, made so by sacrifices that have
been awful, by those generations that have preceded yours.
Your mind might have been cabined, cribbed, confined
in ignorance and your feet heavily ladened with w^ooden
shoes, and your bodies sold with the soil. Sacrifices of our
ancestors have changed all this. But you must not forget
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," and if you are
lax and self-confident, and cease to be on the alert, you
certainly will be enchained and your liberty will be lost.
Now you are asked to come forward and exert yourself
in the cause of those who are soon to follow you, in order
that humanity shall not go to a lower plane. Is this voice
strong enough to bring you into action? Does it go deep
enough into your soul to find a responsive cord, so that
you do not "stand all the day idle" while so much is to be
done? Gird on your armor and go forth to battle. Justice
calls you, you must obey.
190
«THE MONEY POWER WILL WORK ON THE
PREJUDICES OF THE PEOPLE UNTIL ALL
WEALTH IS AGGREGATED AND THE REPUBLIC
DESTROYED."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
«TALK ABOUT THE TYRANNIES AND DESPOT¬
ISM OF THE OLD WORLD! THEY ARE HARDLY
TO BE COMPARED WITH THE TREMENDOUS
POWER OP THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY,
WHO HOLDS BETWEEN HIS THUMB AND FINGER
THE BUSINESS INTEREST OF THE WHOLE COUN¬
TRY. THE POWER OF MAKING MONEY SCARCE
OR PLENTY. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO ADMINIS¬
TER SUCH A TRUST WISELY. NO MAN EVER
LIVED WHO COULD ADMINISTER IT HONESTLY."
NEW YORK TRIBUNE.
«THE ENORMOUS POWER CLAIMED AND EXER¬
CISED BY THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT WAS
NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN TO ANY OFFI¬
CIAL. THE PRETENSIONS TO SUCH POWER IS
MONSTROUS."
BANKER'S MAGAZINE.
115—B
"ME. CAELISLE'S STATEMENT TO THE NEW
YORK BANKERS MAKES IT CLEAR, WHILE MR.
CLEVELAND WORKS IN CONGRESS, THE BANK¬
ERS WILL BE EXPECTED TO WORK, NOT IN NEW
YORK ONLY, BUT THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY,
DOING THEIR UTMOST TO PINCH BUSINESS EV¬
ERYWHERE, IN EXPECTATION OP CAUSING A
MONEY CRISIS."
NEW YORK SUN.
115—C
«WOULD YOU LOOK INTO THESE MONEY DIS¬
COURSES, INQUIRE WHAT MEANINO THEIR
WORDS HAVE, YOU WOULD FIND THEIR POSI¬
TIONS TO BE FALSE, OR THEIR DEDUCTIONS TO
BE WRONG, OR THEIR WORDS TO HAVE NO MEAN¬
ING AT ALL."
JOHN LOCKE.
"THE NATION SHOULD BEGIN TO SPEAK THE
TRUTH TO ITSELF, TO HAVE DONE WITH SHAMS,
AND TO DEAL WITH REALITIES."
SENATOR HOWE.
A VALUABLE CAMPAIGNER.
By Hon. E. A. Haggen, of Wellington, New Zealand.
Wellington, New Zealand, Feb. i, 1896.
Hon. George C. Hackstafe.
Dear Sir:—\ have to thank you for your favor. 1 received your
book ("The Nation's Money") with thanks and must congratulate
you on the excellency of the publication. It is a most vahiable
campaigner^ and you will have seen from my articles that I have
made free use of it.
My paper, the People, which I have started in our Metropolitan
city, mainly with a view of educating people on money principles, is
going well, and the circulation is steadily going up. I send you a
copy regularly.
The bankers are howling about it and two of the leading bank¬
ing authorities have sent to me for interviews. I find they are
easily cornered. As soon as I can manage it I propose to address
meetings in various parts of the Colony on the subject, and so spare
no effort to rouse public interest in it. The trouble is that in an age
of pressure and hard work very few have had time to think about it,
and many shrewd men simply stare open-mouthed when a few facts
are narrated to them.
I showed your book to two or three of our legislators who are
interested in the money problem and they are univ^ersally pleased
with it. I shall keep you posted on the progress of the cause in
this country. Thanking you, I am sincerely yours,
E. A. Haggen.
THE NATION'S MONEY ENDORSED.
By Hon. J. Louis Ulrich, of Washington, D. C.
Government Printing Office,
Washington, D. C., Feb. 26, 1896.
Hon. George C. Hackstafe, Chicago, 111.
Dear Sir:—Have just finished reading your book, which I have
studied with great interest. Have myself studied the financial ques¬
tion for the past three years, and of all the books I have read, I
found none that contained a proposition or a defined plan to remedy
oiir present financial ills.
The only remedy that some suggest is Free Coinage of Silver.
Yotir book throws an altogether different light on all matters per¬
taining to money, and the duty of the government, authorizing its
issue.
Your proposition of amending the Constitution is a grand plan
and everybody in the country ought to read it.
You ought to offer yourself as the Presidential candidate on the
lines laid down in your book ; and if you do, I shall feel in duty
bound to aid in your election. Very respectfully,
J. Fouis Ulrich.
Do you want to know
How Hard Times are Made?
How Panics are Made?
How Wall Street Works ?
How to Stop Wall St. Games ?
THEN READ
The Nation's Money,
By Qeorge C. Hackstaff.
196 PAGE BOOK FOR 25 CENTS.
AGENTS WANTED EVERYWHERE.
THOUSANDS ARE BEING SOLD.
EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW
THIS MONEY TRICK.
Caldwell Publishing Company,
123 Dearborn Street,
Chicago, 111,
332.423
H
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