EMERY
Imperialism in America.
=1
E
713
E53
1892
437507
(my series.
June, H392., Monthly $2.00 per year. Entered
at the $\ O. at Lansing as second class mail matter.
MPERIALISM
in America;
ITS RISE AND PROGRESS.
Mrs. Sarah E. V. Emery,
LANSING, MICH.
D. A. Reynolds & Co., Publishers.
1892.
POST PAID:—Single copy, 10c.; 2 copies, 15c.;. 15 copies $1.00; 100. copies $6.00,
Special wholesale rates. Address, Wesley Eme^y, Lansing', Mich.
imperialism
Jn Hmedca;
ITS RISE AND PROGRESS.
BY
MRS. SARAH E. V. EMERY.
u Without bloodshed, and rivers of it, there will be no political
change of administration.”—Senator Sharon.
LANSING, MICH.
1892.
ILyn^i-
DeMcateb
TO THE
“ GREAT COMMON PEOPLE ” '
/
OF AMERICA,
I V MEMORY OF OUR REVOLUTIONARY FATHERS,
WHOSE UNAPPRECIATIVE CHILDREN
HAVE FORGOTTEN THE PRICE OF THEIR
LIBERTIES
J.37507
PREFACE.
Never in the history of the world have the means for
imparting information been conducted on such an extensive
and magnificent scale as at the present time; yet never have
the masses been more ignorant of their real condition, or
more mystified as to the real cause of their afflictions. Dis¬
tracted by misfortune, blinded by prejudice, disheartened and
bewildered, they are an easy prey to the demagogue whose
profession it is to mislead and entrap them in political snares.
To awaken the people and to direct them in their search for
the real source of evils that have overtaken them is the aim
and object of this little book. The people may always be
trusted when left to act from their own intelligent convictions,
for the interests of the masses are identical; “an injury to one
is an injury to all.” But blinded by party prejudice, or un¬
acquainted with the methods of political tricksters, they are
easily deceived and led to act or vote in direct opposition to
their own interests and judgment. The intelligence of the
people is the only safeguard of liberty, and if through these
pages one ray of light or hope shall be given to the distressed
millions of my country, this labor of love will not be vain.
S. E. Y. E.
Chap, i—The Situation.
Chap. 2 —Changed Conditions.
Chap. 3—Money Volume.
Chap. 4—Retrospection and Prophecy.
Chap. 5—Effects of Contraction.
Chap. 6—The Bond System.
Chap. 7—Land Monopoly.
Chap. 8—Threats of the Money Power.
Chap. 9—The Coming Struggle.
Chap. 10—Conclusion.
CHAPTER I.
The Situation.
THERE is no feature of history more sad, no
phase of human nature more dismal, than that
innate desire in man’s heart to rule over his fellow
men. This ambition has been the curse of the
world. Its slain are legions. But the battle field is
not its only place of carnage. Its holocaust of death
has entered every avenue of man’s hope and aspira¬
tion. It has blighted youth in its morning, smitten
manhood in its prime and cursed the hoary head of
age. It has driven light from the home, love from
the heart, and truth from its citadel. It has touched
the lips of innocence and its withering breath has
turned to ashes the fruits of joy and peace.
To escape this blighting scourge man has fled to
the uttermost parts of the earth. But this demon
incarnate has. pursued and wrenched from his grasp
the half-fledged boon of liberty. To escape this
indomitable devil of oppression, our fathers braved
the dangers of a trackless main, and the hardships
of a new and untried world. But the pursuer
followed in their wake, and ere the strains of
6
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
liberty’s song had ceased, the clanking of new
chains was wafted to these shores. Years of hard¬
ship, toil and suffering followed. Then liberty
reared aloft her standard, proclaiming that America
was free.
But alas, the hosts of oppression were not
destroyed, the}7 were beaten back, but not dismayed,
for their purpose was firm. It was their inheritance
from the ages. They retired from the conflict but
only to gather new strength, and as the torch of
liberty seemed about to illumine the world, another
onslaught is made upon the forces of freedom.
America is the battle ground and our liberties the
long sought prize.
For nearly a century this Republic was a standing
menace to monarchy, and the crowned heads of the
old world trembled as they saw the growth of
liberty’s tree. For they knew the nations of the
world would eat of its fruits, and that freedom in
America meant freedom in the old world. To-day
they know that Republicanism or Monarchy must
go down. These conditions cannot remain co¬
existent when brought in daily contact with each
other. The governments of the world must assume
one form or the other, and to overthrow Republican¬
ism in America is to give a new lease of life to the
despotisms of the old world. The spirit of impe-i
rialism that has arisen in America has not sprungjf
THE SITUATION.
7
spontaneous from our soil, but has been nursed and
fostered through the strategic ministrations of
despotic Europe, and to-day the cohorts of tyranny
are watching with satisfaction the wonderful develop¬
ment of their foreign progeny.
It is under these conditions, with Europe’s jealous
eye upon us and a growing spirit of imperialism
rife in this country, that we are confronted by the
issues of to-day. The struggle before us is no
common one; it is not nation against nation, nor
section against section, but it is a struggle between
the liberty-loving patriots of America on one hand
and the combined money power of the world on the
other.
Reader, we have reached a critical period in our
nation’s history and the direful prophecies made
against us by the friends as well as the enemies of
freedom seem about to be fulfilled. When the
morning of the twentieth century dawns upon this
country, it will either look upon a nation of slaves
or a nation of freemen. The transition through
which civilization is now passing threatens the life
of the grandest Republic the world has ever known.
The minions of darkness are arrayed against it.
On the one hand is the money power enthroned in
Wall street, on the other is struggling- humanity
enshrined at the hearthstone of the common people!
Which will you serve? 'â– 
8
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER II.
Changed Conditions.
S a nation we commenced under circumstances
rv of the most auspicious character and gave
promise of a government under which mankind
should be exalted to the full measure of earthly
blessedness. But alas, we have scarcely reached a
century’s growth and we find ourselves subjected to
the domination of a heartless money power which
has overwhelmed the country with industrial and
financial ruin. With our unbounded resources of
wealth and productive energy, aided by mechani¬
cal invention the wealth of the country has reached
fabulous accumulations, at the same time the
masses were never in such a condition of despon¬
dency and destitution. Paupers, tramps and anar¬
chists, the legitimate offspring of concentrated
wealth, have filled the country with almshouses
penitentiaries and prisons, while a few millionaires
revel in Croecian luxury.
All over the country conservative, impartial men
are asking, is not our experiment of self-govern¬
ment a failure? And their anxiety is not’without
CHANGED CONDITIONS.
9
cause, for never in the history of the world has any
nation undergone such appalling changes as has
ours within the past quarter of a century. From a
peaceful, virtuous, patriotic people, we suddenly find
ourselves tottering beneath the weight of internal
dissension and reeking with the most loathsome
vices. Corruption in high and low places has
eaten to the very vitals of our Republic and to-day
the life of this Nation is suspended by a brittle thread
which may at any moment be snapped asunder, and
we be plunged into a chasm of anarchy more san¬
guinary perhaps than any that has ever blackened
the pages of history. Is there no means by which
such a calamity may be averted? Must we be
wrecked on the same shoals or stranded on the
same oblivious shores where lie Egypt, Babylon and
Assyria? Have we studied the history of Greece
in vain, or profited nothing by the rise and fall of
Rome? But we are told that history repeats itself,
that such is the course of national life. Ah, history
repeats itself because of unjust systems of govern¬
ment, because of “man’s inhumanity to man.”
To-day it is the duty of the American peo¬
ple to study the history of other nations, inves¬
tigate the causes of their failure, and see that
similar errors be eliminated from our statute books.
From time immemorial governments have been
instituted, nations have risen, flourished, and then
IO IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
ignominiously passed away, and in every case we
find the oppression of the masses has been the
signal of dissolution. Republics die because the
people become indifferent to the boon of liberty, and
their children, unmindful of the fact that “eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty,” let go their hold
upon the principles which underlie self-government,
and ere they are aware the boon of freedom is lost
to them forever.
From the very inception of our government we
find most remarkable evidence of divine favor and
recognition. Emerson says “America is another
name for opportunity. Our whole history appears
like one last effort of divine providence in behalf of
the human race.” It almost seems as if Omnipotent
energy had concentrated its forces in the American
Republic. The vast extent of our territory, its
diversified resources, and climate adapted to every
condition of the human race, appear to me a most
remarkable evidence of divine favor and recogni¬
tion. Add to this the wonderful character of the
founders of our republic, men born for the emer¬
gency and the rapid growth of inventive genius
which has developed a new era in civilization, and
what more is necessary to convince the most unthink¬
ing mind that we are a peculiar people, chosen
to carry out the purposes of the great All Father.
Old institutions were futile, the governments of the
CHANGED CONDITIONS.
11
old world had failed in their attempts to harmonize
their laws with those of Deity. To re-construct just
laws from their corrupt systems seemed an under¬
taking that staggered even the Almighty, and in his
perplexity he opened up a new world, and breathed
into man an inventive genius which enabled him to
chain the elements and bring them into his service,
thus giving him leisure for such intellectual and
moral development as would liken him more nearly
to the Creator, and make him in word and deed a
co-worker with Christ.
It is unnecessary to recount the advantages that
have accrued to the American people through the
inventions of labor-saving machinery, and the fact
that America stands first in inventive genius is, I
believe, due to that generous form of government
which for four-score years enabled her people to
enjoy a degree of peace and prosperit}' unparalleled
in history. Such long continued prosperity of the
middle classes afforded them leisure for thought
and investigation and as a result of such harmonious
conditions free from the harrowing fear of want,
the American intellect developed with surprising
rapidity. As proof that American ingenuity
surpassed all others, we need only to refer to
statistics which show that more than one-half the
inventions of the nineteenth century emanated from
the American brain. E. J. Donold sa}^s “Our
12
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
inventions in agricultural implements and other
labor-saving machinery came before Europe like
a divine revelation. The first great industiral
exhibition held in London in 1851 was a proud day
for Americans when the yacht America was added
to the McCormack reaper and other labor-saving
inventions. The Thunderer, The London Times,
in one of its supreme moments, confessed that
cAmerica had carried off all the laurels for utilita¬
rian inventions, that is for inventions really useful
to the whole world. The multitude were wonder-
full}1' impressed, they seemed to think that nothing
was impossible for Americans.’ No language can
express the thrill of joy and hope that vibrated
through the hearts of the liberty-loving, down¬
trodden masses of Europe when they beheld these
laurels wreathed about the brow of Liberty and
Equality.”
Such was the estimation in which America was
held by Great Britain and the world in 1851. But
suddenly these prosperous conditions were checked;
and these inventions which should have added to
the ease and comfort of the masses were seized
upon by a few piratical leaders, who subserved them
to their use in the accumulation of wealth, and in
the oppression of the industrial masses.
The founding of our government, contempora¬
neous with and followed by such wonderful advance-
CHANGED CONDITIONS.
r3
ments in the mechanic arts betokened a new and
beneficent era in civilization, an era of intellectual
and moral growth. With the introduction of such
extensive labor-saving machinery it was but rational
to prophesy a bright future for the great army of
wealth producers. Had the philanthropist of the
18th century foreseen the inventive triumphs of our
day he would have hailed it as the millennium dawn,
for he would have prophesied the most exalted
intellectual and moral conditions resulting from such
beneficent inventions. But contrary to all rational
expectations, labor has not been benefited by these
wonderful advancements in the mechanic arts. On
the contrary have they not rather proved detri¬
mental to the laboring classes, for not only have
they placed labor at a discount, but by increasing
the power of monopoly, have increased its power to
oppress and degrade labor. These inventions have
added nothing to the scanty stores of the laboring
classes, nor have they lightened by one hour the
burden of its toil.
In contemplating these paradoxical conditions we
are confronted by the inquiry, “How has such a
power for good been perverted from its original
channel? By what means have a few score men been
enabled thus effectually to subsidize machinery, con¬
trol labor, and to enslave millions of free-born Amer¬
ican citizens?” From a careful study of economic
14 IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
principles we find that in order to control the labor
of a people it is only necessary to control the sources
from which they derive their subsistence. The pri¬
mary source of all wealth and subsistence is the land.
The mediums of exchange, money and transporta¬
tion, are secondary considerations as regards mere
physical existence, but in the promotion of civiliza¬
tion they are really as essential as the land itself. We
find, then, that by controlling money, land, machin¬
ery and transportation it is an easy matter to control
the labor of a people, and we find by taking advan¬
tage of these conditions a very few men are prac¬
tically controlling this country with its 63,000,000
population. The heritage of freedom bequeathed
by our fathers has been bartered away, and the
expression “American freedom” is empty and mean¬
ingless. For, boast of our freedom as we may, the
government that permits corporate monopolies to
absorb the products of labor, leaving but a bare
subsistence to the toiling millions, is already stamped
with the insignia of royalty. Wealth is power,
centralized wealth in any other country than ours
is recognized despotism. Mere personal liberty
avails nothing so long as legal and political equality
are denied, so long as starvation stares men in the
face, and the gallows yawn when they protest
against such conditions. Slavery reduces labor to
a mere subsistence, it matters not whether carried
MONEY VOLUME.
x5
on under the form of wage or chattel slavery. The
man who toils from year to year for the bare neces¬
saries of life is a slave, whether it be on the cotton
plantation of Mississippi or in the cotton factory of
Massachusetts, whether he be a black man or a
white man, whether he be called a bondman or a
freedman. The lash of a southern master could not
have goaded more effectually in 1852 than does
threatening starvation in 1892.
Poverty was not considered a curse so long as
honest labor would lift men out of it, and labor,
notwithstanding the curse pronounced upon it, was
regarded as a blessing so long as the laborer
received a just proportion of the fruits of his toil.
But when there is no escape from poverty, and labor
yields a bare subsistence or perhaps is denied even
the privilege of toil, then revolt arises, and God and
nature declare in favor of a revolution.
CHAPTER III.
Money Volume.
AS before stated, by controlling money, land and
transportation it is an easy matter to control
the labor of a people. The first step is to gain
control of the money: with power to inflate or con¬
tract it at pleasure. With this power all other
sources of wealth are at the command of the money
16 IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
monger, who by producing a scarcity of his commod
ity is enabled to seize upon them at such prices
as he may dictate.
In order to show the effects which a scarcity of
money has on the condition of the people permit me to
call your attention to the diminution in our volume of
money and the relation which it bears to the increasing
poverty and crime of the country. To illustrate we
will compare the condition of the people in the year
1866, when we had the largest per capita circula¬
tion—with their present condition, the per capita
circulation being reduced according to Senator
Plumb to less than one-fifth that of 1866; we will
also note a few of the laws that have been enacted
during these years and the relation which .they bear
to the increasing poverty and crime of the country.
Before entering upon this comparison I wish to
state a premise which I believe can be substan¬
tiated, and which I ask you to keep steadily in
view. It is this—scarcity of money causes prices
to fall, low prices produce poverty and poverty
means misery, ignorance, degradation and crime.
Now I do not ask you to accept these premises upon
my authority, but I call as a witness John A.
Logan, who in a speech made in 1874 in speaking
of the depressed condition of the county and the
increase of poverty and crime said “This trouble is
a money famine and nothing more.”
MONEY VOLUME. 17
Again W. H. Crawford, secretary U. S Treasury
in 1820, said “All intelligent writers on currency
agree that when it is decreasing in amount povert}^
and misery must prevail.”
The United States Monetary Commission, cre¬
ated under the joint resolution of August 15, 1876,
consisting of three senators, three members of the
House of Representatives, and three financial
experts, in their voluminous report make many
startling statements similar to the following which
may be found on page 50, volume 1.
“The Dark Ages were caused by decreasing
money and falling prices; without money civiliza¬
tion could not have had a beginning, and with a
diminishing supply it must languish and unless
relieved finally perish.” Again, page 59 same vol¬
ume, “If all the debts in this country had been
doubled by an act of legislation, it would have been
a far less calamity to the debtor and to the country
than the increase in their real burden already
caused by a contraction in the volume of money.”
Allison says “The fall of the Roman Empire, so
long ascribed in ignorance to slavery, heathenism,
and moral corruption, was in reality brought about
by a decline in the gold and silver mines of Spain
and Greece.” Gold and silver being the principal
material used for money by these nations, it fol¬
lowed that when the mines were exhausted their
18 IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
money volume declined, and with this decline in
their money volume came the decline of civilization.
The Dark Ages ensued, and it was not until the
discovery of America and the opening up of her
vast mines of gold and silver that the light of
civilization again dawned upon the world.
Hume says “Falling prices and misery and
destruction are inseparable companions. The dis¬
asters of the Dark Ages were caused by decreasing
money and falling prices.”
James A. Garfield said “Whoever controls the
volume of the currency is absolute master of the
commerce and industries of the country.”
Pliny said “Vast estates ruined Rome.” But
vast estates are most easily acquired by producing
such financial conditions as will enable a few men to
control the volume of money. For by controlling
the volume of money, with power to inflate or
contract it at pleasure, all other sources of wealth
are at the command of those upon whom this favor
is conferred.
Vast estates ruined Rome, and what is said of
Rome may with equal truth be said of every nation,
of antiquity. Go visit the graveyard of nations and
the inscription on every tomb-stone will bear testi¬
mony to this sad truth.
Through all history we find that whenever the
money of a country has been reduced in volume
MONEY VOLUME.
*9
that nation has retrograded and its people have
been reduced to a condition of abject poverty. As
an illustration we find that at the beginning of the
Christian era the money of the Roman Empire
amounted to eighteen hundred million dollars,
($1,800,000,000) but she determined to shrink her
volume of money and make the lesser volume
of a finer material, or in the language of to-day she
determined to demonetize silver, and adopt a single
gold standard. It required a long time to do this
but the road was passed over and the long sought
object attained; by the end of the fifth century
she had shrunk her volume of money from $1,800,-
000,000 to less than $200,000,000 and the words of
Secretary Foster, “We are on a gold basis and
there is no occasion for alarm as to the ability of
the government maintaining this condition” were as
applicable to Rome near the close of the fifth cen¬
tury as they were to our own country on the mem¬
orable day in which they were uttered, August 15,
1891, and the results of the contraction of our
money volume are precisely the same as those
which followed the contraction policy of ancient
Rome. Under this policy, the wealth of our coun¬
try is being rapidly concentrated in a few hands
while the masses are becoming hopeless, homeless
and penniless.
When Rome stood mistress of the world eighty-
20
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
five per cent of her people held title in land, fifteen
per cent only were tenants. Then were the foun¬
dations of Rome firm as the everlasting hills, her
legions were invincible, justice ruled, mercy reigned,
home and its sacred relations were exalted, but she
made the mistake of the ages, reduced her money
volume, and as a result the lands passed out from
the hands of the* people into the hands of a few
millionaires, and when the dirge of civilization went
up from Rome two thousand people owned all her
land. The historian says “Population dwindled,
commerce, art and science disappeared, the assassin’s
knife, the incendiary’s torch made night and day
alike hideous, lewdness filled the air, marriage was
a nullity, the innocence of childhood was marked
with illegitimacy, and to add to the appalling pic¬
ture drunkenness in high and low places excelled in
enormity and bestiality anything that had ever gone
before.” When Rome fell the temple of liberty
was shattered, intellectual and moral darkness
came down upon the world and the night of a
thousand years rested upon human souls.
Just the conditions that are seen in this sad pic¬
ture', are again realized, and just such legislation as
brought these conditions upon the nations of antiq¬
uity has been re-enacted in our congressional halls.
The result—fortunes up to millions in the hands of
the few, the masses degraded, hopeless, starving.
MONEY VOLUME.
21
Proceeding with our comparison we find, accord¬
ing to the lowest official report, that our money
volume at the close of the war was $1,803,702,726
though some reports place the amount much higher,
and even Secretary McCullough in his report for
December 1865 says: “We have now about two
billion dollars, nearly all in circulation among the
people.” There was no gold and silver in circula¬
tion at this time, and aside from a few millions of
state bank and national bank notes, this vast sum
consisted of government money, bearing various
names, as treasury notes, compound interest legal
tenders, treasury five per cent legal tenders, three-
year treasury notes, fractional currency and various
other kinds and names, but all passing under the
general name of greenbacks.
Our population at that time was nearly 35,000,000,
consequently at this low estimate we had over
$50 to each man, woman and child in the countr}7.
Money was plentiful. What was the result? How
did this abundance of money affect the social and
industrial conditions of the people ? Now I do not
ask you to accept my unvarnished, unsubstantiated
statement that the country was in a highly prosper¬
ous condition, but I will present to you the testimony
of Secretary McCullough, who, after stating that
we had about two billions of money in circulation,
adds: “Business is nearly all done on a cash basis,
22
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
the people are generally out of debt, those who want
work can get it at good wages, all branches of busi¬
ness are flourishing, and the people are prosperous
and happy.” Thousands of people are living to-day
who can bear testimony to the truth of this state¬
ment. The people were generally out of debt, bus¬
iness was largely done on a cash basis, labor was
employed at good wages, thousands of people were
getting homes, churches were filled to overflowing,
schools were flourishing, children of farmers and
mechanics were being educated in the arts and
sciences, the tramp was an unknown factor in society
and there was less crime in proportion to population
than at any previous time in our Nation’s history;
the soldier had returned from the army; and the
charge so frequently made that “the increase of
crime in our country is due to the vice and immor¬
ality disseminated by the soldier returning from the
army,” is as false as it is infamous; and the man or
set of men who charge our social demoralization
upon the soldier should be branded as traitors to their
country and vile slanderers of their fellow men. The
men who faced death on a hundred battle-fields are
not the men* to swell the tide of crime. But it is the
• men who defrauded the soldier by paying for his ser¬
vices in depreciated money, the men who rob the
widows and orphans of these soldiers, who have de¬
moralized the country and pauperized the people.-
MONEY VOLUME.
23
Now bear in mind that this government mon'ey,
though reported by treasury officers as “govern¬
ment debt,” circulated among the people as money,
and would have performed all the functions of
money as actually as gold and silver, had it not
been for the clause instituted by the gold gamblers
which excepted it from the payment of import
duties and interest on the public debt. That it was
this exception clause which depreciated this gov¬
ernment money is proven by the fact that the first
two issues amounting to $60,000,000 did not con¬
tain the exception clause, consequently they have
alway s been at par with gold. Bear in mind also that
a large part of this government money was not an
interest-bearing obligation; its only expense to the
people was that of printing, which was about one per
cent. Besides, it was safe and reliable, being backed
by the government, and here is where this govern¬
ment money differs from the old continental money
to which the enemies of the greenback so frequently
compare it. The continental money had no gov¬
ernment back of it, the people were struggling to-
establish a government, whereas this government
money of the sixties had behind it an established
government of eighty years’ standing, based upon
three million square miles of land, with its untold
millions of both developed and undeveloped wealth,
and fortified by the patriotism of hundreds of thou-
24
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
sands of the most loyal soldiers the world had ever
known. Most loyal because their homes were
behind them. They were not hired Hessians, but
the sons of revolutionary patriots. Besides, when
these notes became worn and dilapidated they were
returned to the treasury and bright, new, crisp dol¬
lars issued in their place. The people were satisfied
with this money and when a farmer received one
bearing the denomination of ten dollars for ten
pounds of wool, or a one hundred dollar note for a
load of wheat, he felt amply repaid for his labor; he
had no occasion to put the revolver to his brain,
suicide seldom occurred, crime of every description
was rare. The people were building churches and
school-houses instead of prisons and lunatic asylums.
As Secretary McCullough said, all branches of busi¬
ness were flourishing and the people were prosperous
and happy. Why? Because money was plentiful
and they knew that money would pay their debts
and taxes, would buy their food and clothing,
would educate their children, would pay their
traveling expenses. With it they could purchase
land, stocks, and even government bonds at the
face value of this money; and when it had so depre¬
ciated, or rather ,when gold had so appreciated that
it required one dollar in this money to buy forty
cents in gold it would still buy government bonds
at face value; that is $1,000 in greenbacks, worth
MONEY VOLUME,
25
only $400 in gold, would buy a $1,000 government
bond. Then four years after the close of the war
Congress passed the credit strengthening act, mak¬
ing this bond, which was worth only $400 in gold
at the time of its purchase, worth $1,000 in gold, a
gain of sixty cents on every dollar for the man who
had invested in bonds, while the property of the
man who had invested in real estate was depre¬
ciated in a similar ratio.
Besides this government money there was also out¬
standing more than one billion dollars in government
bonds. These really constituted the only obligations
of the government. The greenbacks ought never to
have been considered any part of the national debt.
They had been used to pay the soldier for his ser¬
vice in the army, he had redeemed that money by
his sweat, his blood and even his life. Is not
human life sufficient redemption for that which
man has created? Then why should this money
have been destroyed and interest-bearing bonds
issued in its place—bonds the interest upon which,
.like a canker, is forever gnawing at the vitals of
honest industry.
26
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER IV.
Retrospection and Prophecy.
WE have now glanced at the situation of the
country in 1866, noted its prosperity and the
general progress and contentment of the people.
Why should these conditions have been disturbed ?
Just hearken a moment, my friends, while I breathe
to you an open secret recorded in the annals of
American history. From the foundation of our
government there was a determination on the part
of some of its founders to establish an Aristocracy
instead of a Republican form of government. Alex¬
ander Hamilton led this aristocratic faction, while
Thomas Jefferson represented Democracy, pure and
simple. For a time in our early history the scales
seemed evenly balanced, and the proud bird of
freedom drooped its wings in despondency. But the
untimely, though perhaps not unpropitious, death of
Hamilton threw the balance on the side of human
rights, and a free independent Republic was estab¬
lished
But mark you, the idea of an imperial form of
government was never for one moment abandoned
and the followers of Hamilton submitted to the
inevitable Republic because there was no alterna-
RETROSPECTION AND PROPHECY. 27
tive. Their leader was dead and for a time their
hope seemed buried, but it was buried only to await
the resurrection of a more auspicious day: And as
the country developed in wealth and material
resources this slumbering spirit of imperialism gath¬
ered strength and determination to seize upon the
government at the earliest opportunity. But how
could this purpose be most effectually accomplished
was a question, that for four-score years baffled the
skill of the wily aristocrat. At last, however, the
opportune moment arrived, for the machinery of
civil war speedily developed opportunities which
enabled Congress to adopt a system of class legisla¬
tion, the results of which have already placed insur¬
mountable barriers between labor and monopolistic
capital, and have built up social castes which can
only thrive on monarchial soil.
Whatever may have been the object of our civil
war is not necessary for us at this time to question,
but its results are evident, for the most casual ob¬
server cannot fail to see that the democratic simplic¬
ity of our fathers has given way to an aristocracy of
wealth on one hand and a most abject and degrad¬
ing poverty on the other. The middle classes are
rapidly losing foothold, the line of demarkation
between aristocracy and serfdom is becoming more
fixed, and a system of land tenantry has sprung up
which bids fair to outrival that of the old world.
28
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
That such results would follow the corrupt system
of financial legislation adopted early in the war was
readily foreseen by the prophetic eye of Abraham
Lincoln, and his memorable words to his friend, the
Hon. J. R. Ellis, will go down in history as a won¬
derful revelation from Jehovah in these later days:
“ As a result of the war corporations have been
enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money power of the country7
will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon
the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggre¬
gated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed.”
That President Lincoln was correct in his convic¬
tions is too obvious for contradiction. His appre¬
hension that the money power which had been
created by corrupt class legislation would destroy
the republic was evidently founded on the fact that
Congress had adopted the same financial policy which
had enslaved European labor and established its
aristocracies of wealth.
“As a result of the war corporations have been
enthroned.” No person conversant with the princi¬
ples of political economy will for one moment ques¬
tion the fact that the gigantic corporations which
are crushing out the life of industry in this country
are the direct and legitimate result of that class
legislation which sprang into existence while our
country was in the throes of civil war.
RETROSPECTION AND PROPHECY.
29
“And an era of corruption in high places will fol
low.” Never was the spirit of prophecy more ter¬
ribly fulfilled. The era of corruption through which
we are now passing is paralleled only by that politi¬
cal corruption which preceded the overthrow of
every ancient power.
“ And the money power of the country will en¬
deavor to prolong its reign.” How? ‘‘By working
upon the prejudices of the people.” Comment upon
this point is unnecessary. No one will dispute that
the most unscrupulous means are being used to
deceive and mislead the people. Prejudice, ignor¬
ance and appeal to patriotic sentiment are perhaps
the most effective agencies employed in the accom¬
plishment of this purpose. There is no lever more
powerful than prejudice, and nothing that fires the
blood like the word patriotism. To the average
man disloyalty to country embodies the entire cate¬
gory of crime, and to act in accordance with its best
interests is in his estimation a virtue that atones for
manifold sins. It is this patriotic pride that nerves
the arm of the soldier, that strengthens him in his
farewells, and hastens him at the bugle’s call. It is
this pride, this innate love of country and of justice
to which intriguing politicians have applied the lever
of prejudice, resting it upon the immovable fulcrum
of ignorance; through these powerful agencies the
will of the people has been overthrown and “the
3°
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
money power has prolonged its reign until the wealth
of the country is aggregated in a few hands, and the
republic seems about to be destroyed.” But the
masses are unconscious of the situation and it is no
less pitiable than startling to witness the compla¬
cency with which they slumber at the mouth of this
smouldering volcano.
To the average American there is nothing more
obnoxious or absurd than an intimation that our
liberties are being wrested from us, and our demo¬
cratic institutions are about to be overthrown. We
have so long been accustomed to boast of the supe¬
riority of our national advantages and institutions,
that to cast a reflection upon them is to invite deri¬
sion, and probably be awarded the opprobrious title
of crank. A celebrated writer says “ Political opti¬
mism is one of the vices of the American people.
There is a popular faith that God takes care of chil¬
dren, fools and the United States. We deem our¬
selves a chosen people, and incline to the belief that
the Almighty stands pledged to our prosperity,” and
so the people repose in confidence, forgetting that
“ eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
History teaches us that liberty is never so endan¬
gered as when the people sink into a condition of
apathy, and fortify themselves in the assurance of
national security.
Never was Rome more confident of her duration
RETROSPECTION AND PROPHECY. 31
than when Augustus was beautifying the “Eternal
City,” and her attainments in wealth, commerce,
culture and power gave her the supremacy of the
world. It was at this time that the Pilgrims gave
utterance to the prophetic saying: “While stands
the Coliseum Rome shall stand; when falls the
Coliseum Rome shall fall, and when Rome falls,
with it shall fall the world.” Yet to day the trav¬
eller gazes in awe upon the ruins of the Coliseum;
the grandeur and greatness of Rome have departed,
but the world still moves and humanity still strug¬
gles toward the divine image.
It was not until the handwriting on the wall had
been interpreted that Belshazzar and his hosts ques
tioned the permanency of Assyria’s power.
In the over-heated excitement of the dance paren¬
tal caution seems folly to the young girl, even
though she may have felt the twinge of disease, but
intoxicated with the giddy pleasure of the hour she
whirls through the mazy dance, regardless of the
parental admonition and defiant of disease and its
consequences. But disease lays its wasting hand
upon her and, despite the oft-repeated declaration
that she is not sick, death comes and she fills an
untimely grave.
So too it is with nations; the people repose in con¬
fidence, while their rulers becoming intoxicated with
wealth and power forget their obligations to the
32
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
people, forget that they are entrusted with the
sacred responsibility of government, and plunging
headlong into the whirlpool of dissipation seek only
the gratification of their own selfish and sensual
desires. Surrounded by plenty they are deaf to the
cry of penury and woe, nor do they heed the warn¬
ing death-note as it mingles in their bacchanalian
revels. Had France listened to the pleadings of her
people the disastrous revolution of 1789 might have
been averted, but she heeded not the cry of destitu¬
tion until despair and frenzy seized the people and
they determined to overthrow the government.
Then the king and nobles listened and would gladly
have acceded to their demands, but the cry for bread
had been disregarded, and when at last the infuriated
people demanded blood it was too late, bread would
not satisfy; the spark had been kindled to a sweeping
flame that could only be extinguished by the blood
of royalty.
Such has been the experience of other nations.
Will we profit by their example? Or will we too
close our eyes to the light of experience, our ears to
the voice of reason, and rush on, madly, blindly to
national ruin and death?
It is needless to ignore the fact that we are rapidly
drifting towards the whirlpool of national destruc¬
tion. A few men who have succeeded in accumu¬
lating vast wealth out of the wrecked fortunes of
RETROSPECTION AND PROPHECY.
33
their fellow men may cry prosperity, prosperity.
But is it prosperity when the country grows rich
and the people grow poor? Is it prosperity that
builds palatial mansions while the homes of thou¬
sands are being sold under the hammer and their
inmates turned destitute upon the world ? Is it pros¬
perity that fills granaries and storehouses to over¬
flowing while men, women and children freeze and
starve? Is it prosperity that builds magnificent
churches with the saloon and brothel festering be¬
neath their very shadow? With Carlyle I would
ask prosperity in what, and progress whither?
More than two thousand years ago Aristotle said
“Democracies have almost an irresistible tendency to
Plutocracies, and that the existence of opulent fam¬
ilies in republics leads naturally in a few years to a
craving for ennobling titles and aristocratic distinc¬
tions.” Now is it not a fact that the accumulations
of large fortunes in our country have begotten aris¬
tocratic notions and the aping of foreign customs
has become a notable and disgusting feature in fash¬
ionable circles? What results may we expect from
these conditions? Are we ripe for an Aristocracy
in this country? Wealth, influence and power say
yes, but the great common people say no, and so we
find ourselves on the verge of a conflict between the
people on one hand, and wealth and power on the
other. To-day, this government of the people, for
34 IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA. .
the people and by the people is on trial for its life.
More than fifty years ago Carlyle wrote “The
Republic west of us will have its trial period, its
darkest of all hours. It is traveling the high road to
that direful day.# And this scourge will not come
amid famine’s horrid stride, nor will it come by ordi¬
nary punitive judgments. It will come as a hiatus in
statecraft, a murder bungle in policy. It will be
when health is intact, crops abundant, and the munifi¬
cent hand open. Then so-called statesmen will cry
over-production, the people will go to the ballot box
amid hunger and destitution (but surrounded by the
glitter of self-rule), and ratify (by their ballots) the
monstrous falsehood (over-production) uttered by
mis-statesmen and vindicated by the same ballot the
infamous lie (over-production) thrown upon the
breeze by a servile editor through a corrupt press.
And this brings ruin upon his country, serfdom upon
himself and oppression upon his children.”
To-day this prophecy of Carlyle is being fulfilled—
“health is intact, crops abundant, and the muni¬
ficent hand open,” and yet ruin is upon the country,
serfdom upon the masses, and oppression is being
portioned out to our children. The hiatus in state¬
craft has done its deadly work. Now while we do
not believe it possible to overthrow civilization,
history teaches us that civilization may be retarded
in its progress, and from the lessons of the Dark
EFFECTS OF CONTRACTION.
35
Ages we learn that it may actually retrograde.
Reader, is it not apparent to you, especially to
you of mature years, that we have reached a critical
period in our Nation’s history ? To me this is a
most momentous question, for if I read history
aright, the industrial condition of the American
people to-day is portentous of a most sanguinary
revolution,—a revolution that must altogether over¬
throw our Republican institutions, or plant them
forever upon the eternal rock of justice and equality
to every human being.
CHAPTER V.
Effects of Contraction.
WE have already shown that at the close of the
war we were weighed down with an enor¬
mous public debt, one part of which consisted of
interest-bearing bonds; the other part (which never
ought to have been regarded as a debt) consisted of
government money. There was no gold or silver
in circulation, and aside from this government
money there was no other except a few millions
in State and National bank notes.
Now so long as this government money was in
circulation money was plentiful and the people pros-
36 IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
perous and happy, but under these conditions, with
a free, prosperous and independent people, it was
impossible to build up an aristocratic form of gov¬
ernment. Some measure must be adopted which
would reduce the people to a state of dependence.
What should it be? The history of nations prove
that the most effectual means of reducing a people
to a condition of dependence is by reducing their
volume of money, because a scarcity of mone}* causes
prices to fall, and low prices produce poverty. John
Stuart Mill says, “ If the whole volume of money
were doubled, prices would double,” and vice versa,
if the volume of money were reduced by half, prices
would be correspondingly reduced; hence to reduce
the volume of money was to reduce the price of
labor and its products, and to reduce the price of
labor and its products must necessarily reduce labor
to a condition of dependence and servitude.
So long as money was plentiful the people could
not be reduced to these conditions, for when money
was plentiful prices were high, and when prices
were high labor and its products were in good
demand. The man with a comfortable home and
means of subsistence, out of debt and money at com¬
mand could not be cowed down and made a miser¬
able, dependent hireling. Consequently, in order to
break down this manly, independent American spirit
and subdue the masses, it was necessary to take
EFFECTS OF CONTRACTION.
37
from them the resources out of which their independ¬
ence grew. To reduce the price of wheat from
$3.00 per bushel to $1.00, was to reduce the inde¬
pendence of the farmer in precisely the same ratio.
His land would not yield any more on account of
the reduced prices, consequently he must curtail his
expenses. Instead of sending his children to school,
the boys must stay at home and take the place of
the farm hand, and the farm hand must be turned
out to tramp for work. The girls must stay at
home and assist the mother in the household voca¬
tions, and the “hired girl”—God have mercy and
mitigate the woes that have befallen them.
To be sure, if the farmer chanced to be out of debt
he could still retain a considerable degree of inde¬
pendence; but woe to him who in the day of con¬
traction is caught with a mortgage over his head,
or is in any other way entangled in this unholy finan¬
cial snare. But even out of debt, he must still deny
himself and family many of the advantages and
comforts which they had enjoyed while receiving
more liberal prices for his products. He fully real¬
ized there was a change in his condition, but he did
not understand the cause of the change, and owing
to the fact that in curtailing expenses his own cares
and responsibilities had been greatly increased he
had but little leisure to investigate the cause; besides,
his reading had been mostly from the agricultural
3§
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
and religious press, those papers which James Buell,
Secretary of the National Bankers’ Association,
advised the bankers to sustain; especially, he says,
“such of them as will oppose the government issue
of money.” Now why did this Secretary of the
National Bankers’ Association wish to have these
particular papers sustained? Why is he so specially
solicitous of the welfare of those agricultural and
religious newspapers which opposed this greenback
money? What interest had he in those particular
papers that he should request the bankers to sustain
them; and what reason had he to suppose that the
banks would comply with his request. Let us for
a moment consider the situation and analyze the
motive that prompted this unwonted solicitude in
behalf of certain agricultural and religious news¬
papers. First, Mr. Buell knew these papers were
read by a large and respectable class of commu¬
nity. Second, he wished to do away with this gov¬
ernment money—the greenback—in order that the
banks might issue the entire volume of paper money;
and finally to accomplish this purpose he must
poison the minds of the people, must prejudice them
against this money issued by the government and
bearing the discordant appellation of greenback.
He knew too, that the press was a most powerful
agency for molding public opinion, and through this
agency he determined to prejudice the people in
EFFECTS OF CONTRACTION.
39
order that the money power might carry out its
design against them, or to use his own language,
u To restore to circulation the government issue of
money would be to provide the people with money,
and would seriously affect our individual interests
as banker and lender.” An abundance of money
would seriously affect the interests of the national
banker, therefore it was to his advantage to advo¬
cate measures which would produce a scarcity of
money. By destroying the government money it
would reduce the volume and give the banks control
of the paper money of the country. Here you see
the real animus of the mone}^ power, which was to
produce a scarcity of money in order that they
might control its volume, for by controlling the vol¬
ume of money it is an easy matter to control the
other sources of material wealth, land and transpor¬
tation; and by controlling money, land and trans¬
portation, the labor of the people may be easily con¬
trolled, and to control the labor of a people is to
control their liberties.
Now in order to produce a scarcity of money, it
was necessary to contract its volume. Accordingly
in 1866, right in the midst of the prosperity reported
by Secretary McCullough, Congress passed the con¬
traction act, by which the secretary of the treasury
was authorized to call in this government money,
destroy it, and in its place issue interest-bearing
4o
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
bonds. Great furnaces were erected for the purpose
of destruction, and about $1,400,000,000 of this gov¬
ernment money reduced to ashes. Again in 1873,
•—seven years later—Congress passed another act
demonetizing silver, that is, destroyed the money
quality of silver, and thus produced a further con¬
traction of the currency.
Then came the “money famine,” which John A.
Logan declared to be the cause of the panic of 1873
which swept over the country like a consuming pes¬
tilence. I believe the statement can be substantiated
that our civil war was not so disastrous to the morals
and industries of the country as was this panic which
blighted the country for the next five years, until
1878, when, through the persistent appeals of the
Greenback party, led by Peter Cooper and James B.
Weaver, Congress was compelled to remonetize
silver and stop the destruction of the greenbacks.
We are frequently asked: What did the Green¬
back party ever do for the country? and the asser¬
tion is not unfrequently made, that the party is dead.
Here let me say that if the party is dead, its works
and its spirit still live. A brief record of its works
may be summed up as follows: It saved to the
people $346,000,000 of greenbacks; it prevented the
refunding of a large part of the national debt; it
secured the partial remonetization of silver; and
twice achieved in the United States Supreme Court
EFFECTS OF CONTRACTION. 41
the grandest victory in the financial history of the
world. These are a few of its works that live, and
must continue to live or this Nation must cease to
exist as a republic. The decision of the supreme
court in favor of the greenback, stamped it with an
immortal existence, with a vital principle that will
only die when liberty dies; and this fact is appreci¬
ated by every reform organization of this country,
and emphasized in their demand for the abolition of
national banks and that the government shall issue
the money of the country.
That the money power was successful in its scheme
to contract the money volume is proven by the fol¬
lowing table, compiled from official sources in 1878,
and also published by the Chicago Inter-Ocean, a
leading Republican newspaper of Illinois.
YEAR.
CURRENCY.
POP.
PER CAP.
1865....
$1,651,282,373
1,803,702,726
34,819,531
$47.42
1866
35>537>H8
36,269,5c)2
5076
1867
I>33°)414^77
36 68
186S _
8l7)!99'773
37,016.949
22.08
1869
750,025,939
37,779,800
i9.85
1870
740,039, ^9
38<558)37i
19.19
1871
734,244,774
39t75°>°73
18.47
1872
736,349,912
40,978,607
1:7.97
i873 -
738>29i>749
779i°3i>589
42,245,11°
17.48
i874 -—
43’55o.756
17>84
1875
77s>176>25°
44,896,705
17-33
1876
735>358>832
46>z84>344
j5-89
1877..:
69<M43>394
47,714,829
14.60
42
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
From the foregoing we find that in eleven years
the money volume had decreased from $1,803,000-
000, to less than $700,000,000, and the per capita
circulation from $50 to $14 although the business
and population of the country had greatly increased
during that time. What was the result? Were
the people prosperous and happ}' as Secretary
McCullough had reported them in 1866; were they
out of debt; were they doing business on a cash
basis; was labor employed at good wages; were all
branches of business flourishing and the people pros¬
perous and happy? No, the condition of the peo¬
ple was exactly the reverse, and these conditions
have continued until to-day national bankruptcy and
ruin stare us in the face.
Contraction commenced in 1866, the crash came
in 1873, and all the language of man cannot
describe the agonies suffered by the American peo¬
ple for the next five years. “Thousands and tens of
thousands of people who supposed they had enough
of this world’s goods for their declining years,
enough for wife and children, suddenly found them¬
selves paupers and vagrants. Business stood still,
men stopped digging ore, they stopped felling for¬
ests, the fire died out of the furnace; men who had
stood in the glare of the forge suddenly found them¬
selves in the glare of despondency. There was no
employment for them. The employer could not sell
EFFECTS OF CONTRACTION.
43
his products. The great factories were closed, the
working men demoralized and the roads of the
United States were filled with tramps.” That we
may more fully comprehend the change that took
place in the condition of the people with the con¬
traction of the money volume, we will present their
condition in 1866 as described by an eminent writer:
“The productive power of the North was strained
to its utmost, every wheel was in motion, there was
employment for every kind, and description of labor.
For every mechanic there was a constantly rising
market; everybody worked for everybody; every¬
body wanted to employ somebody else; on every
hand fortunes were being made. A wave of wealth
swept over the United States. Huts became houses,
houses became palaces, tatters became garments,
garments became robes. Walls were covered with
pictures, floors with carpets, and for the first time
in the history of the world the poor tasted the lux¬
uries of wealth.”
Why might not these conditions have continued,
and the poor not only tasted but feasted on the lux¬
ury of wealth? Because under such conditions it
would have been impossible to establish an aristoc¬
racy of wealth.
44
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA,
CHAPTER VI.
The Bond System.
THE history of republics prove that any legislation
which tends to root out social democracy will
sooner or later destroy political democracy. Gov¬
ernments must necessarily correspond with the
social conditions of the people who are governed,
and any legislation that tends to build up castes in
society will inevitably result in monarchial systems.
Daniel Webster said “No matter what your form
of government, if the wealth of the country be con¬
centrated in a few hands you have an aristocracy,
not a republic.’’
The most successful method of building up social
castes is by compelling a large part of the people to
pay tribute to a few. Should this be attempted by
a direct tax upon the people the injustice would at
once be perceived and an insurrection ensue. To
prevent such catastrophies, designing men instituted
the scheme of bonding. Please note that the terms
bonded and bondage are from the same derivative;
consequently when the people are under a bonded
debt they are in financial bondage or slavery.
THE BOND SYSTEM.
45
There is no slavery so insidious as that of financial
slavery, none which reduces the people to such
depths of degradation and none to which they submit
with such complacency; for their chains under the
guise of freedom are unseen, and their clanking is
drowned amid the boastful din of “our 'liberties.”
We talk much of “our liberties” and flatter ourselves
that we are free because perchance we hold title
deeds to a bit of land and call ourselves our own
masters. But let us look at the facts in the case.
To illustrate: Mr. J*ones holds the title deed to his
farm; it is mortgaged for one half its value at the
time of purchase, and through the contraction of
the. currency it has depreciated the other half. The
government by law has robbed him of one-half, the
mortgagee owns the other half and Mr. Smith owns
a bit of paper, the title to his misfortune. Through
the contraction of the currency money has been
made so scarce that he is compelled to pay eight
per cent interest on the mortgage, and the money
loaner is the only one who gets any benefit from
that extortionate rate of interest.
Again the government has placed a tariff or tax
upon nearly every article of food and clothing which
he uses. More than forty per cent of all the money
he pays his grocer and dry-goods merchant is a tax,
a large part of which goes directly into the pocket
of the manufacturer, the government receiving no
46
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
benefit whatever from it, and Mr. Jones and his
entire family are obliged to toil early and late to
pay the exorbitant rate of interest on his mortgage
and the enormous tax upon their food and clothing.
On account of contraction of the currency his farm
products have been reduced to a price that barely
pays the expense of production. He cannot afford
to hire help to do his work and he and his family
toil like slaves. His children are denied the privi¬
leges of school and grow up in ignorance and dis¬
content. They feel that their father is dealing
unjustly by them; the father in turn charges his
children with ingratitude and while nagging them
to desperation and crime continues to vote for the
men who have brought these deplorable conditions
upon them.
Freedom is the owning of one’s own labor. We
may hold title deeds to millions of acres, but he
who owns our labor owns us, and the system of gov¬
ernment that taxes the labor of its people to build
up industries that enrich a few is a robber system,
and the men who enact laws permitting such rob¬
bery are unworthy the honor conferred upon them,
and should be relegated to oblivion—or to the gal¬
lows—and men and women with souls should go
into the sanctuary of our government, there to enact
laws by which the entire human family might be
lifted God ward.
THE BOND SYSTEM.
47
The first requisite of a bond is a debt, and a debt
implies interest or tribute to be paid by one party
to another. In case of individual debt there is dan¬
ger that the debtor may fail and the creditor suffer
inconvenience, anxiety and perhaps total loss. But
if a communit}' or nation becomes responsible for
the debt, then the entire wealth of the country is
involved and the whole people are compelled to pay
tribute or taxes levied for the purpose of paying
interest upon the bonds held by a favored few.
These bonds are generally exempt from taxation,
the holders of them are often foreigners. In that
case when the burden of debt becomes so heavy it
can no longer be met, the country itself is confis¬
cated, and in case of resistance a war ensues. If the
burden' of debt has been long and oppressive the
people will be found enervated and impoverished;
the spirit of liberty will be crushed and they and
their country become an easy prey to the avarice
of men whom the)? once termed their benefactors,
because they so graciously loaned money to their
government.
It was through such a policy that Great Britain
obtained possession of Egypt and it is the policy she
has adopted to gain possession of this country which
she has twice failed to subjugate through open war¬
fare.
In proof of this assertion permit me to cite an
48 IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
*
incident which occurred a few years since in Iowa.
During an exciting campaign, I believe of 1884,
that staunch old veteran, Uncle Dan Campbell,
spoke at Marshalltown. The next morning he was
accosted b}’ a gentleman as follows: “Mr. Camp¬
bell I was out to hear your speech last evening.
You told more truth than I ever before heard in a
political speech, but,” he added, “Ihad no%idea that
the people were so well posted as to the real situa¬
tion.” He then informed him that he was Dr.
Claflin, brother of Victoria Woodhull and Tennie
B. Claflin—ladies who speculated heavily in Wall
Street several years ago, afterward went to Eng¬
land and there married British noblemen. He
informed Mr. Campbell that he was in Iowa at that
time placing loans for his English brothers-in-law.
Said he had placed for them $1,000,000 in Kansas,
$500,000 in Nebraska and about the same amount
in Iowa. Mr. Campbell asked him, “When do you
expect these mortgages to be paid?” “Never” was
the prompt reply, “ the people over there don’t
want them paid and even if they did it would be
impossible for your people to pay them.” Said he,
“The average rate of interest in this country is ten
per cent, the average increase of property is three
per cent; will you tell me,” he significantly added,
“how long it will take a three per cent investment
to catch a ten per cent mortgage?” Said Mr.
THE BOND SYSTEM.
49
Campbell, “What do you think of a government
that compels its people to go to foreign countries to
borrow money with which to carry on their busi¬
ness?” The doctor replied “It is infamous and a
republic can not long remain a republic that adopts
such a policy.”
It is by means of this bond and mortgage system
that social castes have been built up in this country,
the bond-holding class and the interest-paying class,
the creditor class and the debtor class, the aristo¬
crat and the slave, while the great independent
middle classes have been driven to the wall. The
poet has well said
“III fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay;
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,
A breath can make them as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied.”
Instead of destroying the government money and
issuing interest-bearing bonds in its place, Congress
should have continued to increase the volume in the
same ratio as the business and population of the
country increased.
The greenbacks issued by the government were
used to pay the soldier and other debts of the gov¬
ernment except interest to the pet bond-holder and
So
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
import duties. The people had earned that money.
It was legitimate money, and when Congress, at
the instigation of bankers, burned $1,400,000-
000 of it, and in its place issued bonds upon
which to establish national banks, bonds upon which
the people are taxed to pay interest, it committed a
wrong against the people, a wrong which can never
be righted until the government pays the bonds in
the same kind of money7 with which they^ were pur¬
chased, and relieves the people from this unholy’
interest which, like a canker, is gnawing at the
vitals of honest industry7.
The inquiry7 is often made “Did not Congress
exceed the bounds of its authority in establishing
this bond system?” In the letter we answer no,
but in the spirit and intent of the constitution we
emphatically answer yes. Article 1, Section VIII
of that instrument reads,
“Congress shall have power to borrow moneys on
the credit of the United States.”
This certainly’ intended to confer the power on
Congress to make a bonded debt, provided a neces¬
sity ever arose demanding its exercise. We will
investigate the case and see if our present bonded
debt came because of a necessity.
The preamble to the constitution, setting forth
the objects for which it was made, says:
“We, the* people of the United States, in order to
THE BOND SYSTEM. ' 51
form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,
do ordain and establish this constitution for the
United States of America.”
This preamble sets forth clearly and fully the
objects to be attained by legislation under, and in
conformity to, the constitution.
Now, it would seem a self-evident proposition
that if some one or all of these objects were not
secured by a bonded debt, then Congress tran¬
scended the object or authorit}r conferred by the
constitution.
The extent of authority conferred on Congress so
far as making a bonded debt is: “They shall have
power to borrow money on the credit of the United
States.” There is no authority for making a
bonded debt in any other way.
But our bonded debt was not made by borrow¬
ing monev.
Thus the present bonded debt is unconstitutional.
The very fact of authority in Congress to enact
any legislation carries with it a pre-supposed neces¬
sity, otherwise Congress would be a source of dan¬
ger to the people.
It is claimed by many that our bonded debt was
made to carry on the war and put down the rebel-
52
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
lion and many honest people believe this, but it is
not true. The bonded debt was made by convert¬
ing the treasury issues of various kinds—the money
of the people—into bonds. This money had been
the great instrument, or the successful instrument,
in carrying the war to a successful termination.
After this had been done—the great work of saving
the Union—then, in obedience to Shylock’s wishes
this money was condemned and burned, like mil¬
lions of other martyrs, at the stake.
But the bond advocate says, “Did not the gov¬
ernment agree to redeem the greenbacks?” Cer¬
tainly, but turning them into bonds did not redeem
them. If the government or Congress found it nec¬
essary to redeem them, if there was too much money
in circulation, instead of making a bonded debt to
load the country down with interest, C ongress
should have called in the money and destroyed it.
But there never was too much money in circula¬
tion. The great cry of inflation was a ruse to rec¬
oncile the people to the destruction of their money.
How easy it would have been for Congress to call
in the money and reduce the volume if there had
really been too much.
But the fact is the bonded debt was not made
because of necessity; it was done in order to plant
a great debt for Shylock to erect a system [of
national banks upon.
THE BOND SYSTEM. 53
Mr. Hazzard says: “Capitalists will see to it
that a great debt is made out of this war.”
The object in making a bonded debt was to
establish a system of money, banker’s monej', to be
the circulating medium, every dollar of which would
draw interest. Thus the people would be com¬
pelled to pay interest. They were to have no
money unless they did pay interest on it.
They made the bonded debt. They established
their national banks. They destroyed two-thirds of
the people’s money. Every greenback would have
been destroyed, but the people became alarmed and
Congress called a halt.
It is now thirty years since the government com¬
menced selling bonds for the ostensible purpose of
“preserving the Union.” Let us take a look at the
situation. Before me is a statement recently made
from figures furnished by Senator Beck and proven
by government records. As they are of interest to
every American citizen we present them entire,
asking for them your impartial consideration.
Senator Beck, in a speech delivered in the United
States Senate, January 12, 1874, stated that the
bond-holders had made out of the people, since the
first bonds were issued in 1862, up to 1869, at
which time the bonds were made payable in coin,
over $1,000,000,000 profit!
The Senator furnished the figures for his state-
54
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
ment and proved them by the government records.
Let us see how it was done.
1862—During this year the government sold
bonds valued at $60,982,450, for which it received,
however, only $44,030,640 in gold. That is, the
5.20 bonds were exchangeable for greenbacks, and
the greenbacks we received were only worth that
much in gold to the government. On this transac¬
tion the speculators made a profit of $16,951,801.
Besides this, the bond-holder had also received in
interest, from 1862 to 1874, when the Senator gave
his figures, $11,187,188, making a clear profit of
$28,139,989 the first year—a clear steal, for which
they did not give one cent, not even taxes, in return.
When you remember that you have had, and have
yet to pay these bonds in coin, the full amount of
the sixty millions, you will realize the full enormity
of the steal.
1863—In this year the Government sold bonds to
the amount of $160,987,550. The greenbacks we
received for them cost the speculators $101,890,854,
for gold was worth then $1.58, which gave them a
net profit of $59,096,696. Add to this the interest
we paid them for eleven years, which was $35,468-
017, and they stole from us that year $94,555,713,
all of which came out of the pockets of the farmers,
miners and producers, for they alone create all wealth
and must eventually pay all debts and expenses.
THE BOND SYSTEM.
55
1864—This year the government sold bonds
valued at $381,292,250, for which it received only—
as gold was worth $2.01—$139,697,636, or less
than one-half of their face value. The money spec¬
ulators made a profit of $191,594,613. Add to this
interest for ten years, $114,956,768, and they took
from us that year $306,551,382.
1865—During that year the Government sold
bonds to the value of $279,746,150, for which it
received, however, only $208,213,090. The rob¬
bers retained for themselves $71,532,060. Adding
the interest for nine years, $38,627,307, and they
stole in 1865 $110,159,367. While some of you
were offering your life’s blood for your country,
these cormorants were robbing you and your defense¬
less wife and children at home.
1866—This year we sold bonds to „ the value of
$124,914,400, for which we received only $88,591,-
773, giving the money sharks a net profit of $36,-
332,627. Add to this the interest for eight years,
$17,434,556, and they made out of us a total of
$53,757,183. While you are studying these figures,
dear reader, please continue to remember that all
this time, as fast as the government received these
greenbacks, it destroyed them, thus contracting our
mone}' circulation, taking the life blood out of the
nation, and loading it down with an interest-bearing
debt.
56
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
1867—This year we sold bonds valued at $421,-
469,550, for which the purchasers paid the govern¬
ment only $303,805,503, giving them a profit of
$118,254,047. Add to this interest paid them for
seven years, $48,671,494, and that year they stole
a grand total of $167,915,741.
1868—This year the government sold bonds
valued at $425,443,800, for which it received, how¬
ever, only $312,626,326, leaving a profit to the
speculators of $112,617,497. Add the interest for six
years, $40,542,288, and we gave away $ 153,159,765.
Besides the five per cent bonds, the government
sold also during this time six per cent bonds amount¬
ing to $195,139,550, for which it received, however,
only $123,957,410, giving away $72,182,140. Add
to this the interest paid them, $26,115,724, and
they made out of the six per cents $98,298,864.
The following recapitulation of profits will show
at a glance the transaction:
Net Profit.
1862 $28,138,989
*863 - — 94.555-713
1864 306,551,582
1865 - - — - 110,159367
‘866 - - 53./57.183
1867..-.. _ - 167,915,741
1S68 153,169,765
On 6 per cent bonds 98,298,864
Total steal
$1,012,537,204
THE BOND SYSTEM.
57
In this connection permit me to show you from
the United States Treasurer’s report of 1892 what
we have paid in interest on bonds since 1862, up
to and including 1891, a total of $2,481,454,408.
This is interest on your money which was destroyed,
In addition to this interest you have paid the bond¬
holders a clear profit of $678,561,382, or a total of
profits and interest of $3,160,015,890!
Let us now examine another showing made by
the government’s own books.
In 1865, when the war was over and when our
national debt was or should have been the highest,
it was $2,680,647,869.
In 1866, however, it had increased to $2,773,236-
173, and it did not come down below the figures of
1865 until 1870, when it was, five years after the
war, $2,480,672,427. And in 1891 we still owed
$I)5S2)14°;2°4-73-
In 1865 it would have required the labor of 1,300,-
000,000 men one day to pay off the entire debt.
To-day it would require, to pay what we owe, the
labor of 1,552,000,000 men, or the debt is to-day
greater than it ever was so far as our means of pay¬
ing it are concerned—greater than it was at the
close of the war.
But there is yet to mention the greatest swindle.
In the treasurer’s report'of 1891, page 3, I find
how much the government has expended since 1865
5§
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
for pensions, army and navy, Indians, miscellaneous,
and how much we paid each year on our public
debt. From this report we learn that we have paid
on the public debt since 1865 $9,696,000,000.
In addition to this we have also paid $84,000,000
in premiums. Or we have paid a total of
Public debt r. $9,696,000,000
Premiums 84,000,000
Interest 2,481,454,408
Net profits 678,561,482
TotaL $ 12,940,015,890
Think of it! $12,940,015,890 on an original debt
of $2,680,000,000! And you are to day in debt
worse than ever.—Hu%o Preyer.
And yet this mighty incubus which for a quar¬
ter of a century has hung like a dread pall over
the country is held up before the people as a “sacred
contract” too holy to bear the light of investigation.
Such sanctit}7 is equalled only by the godliness of
those religious bigots who struck down Dr. Cronin,
stripped his lifeless body and then crammed it into
a sewer, but the crucifix about his neck remained
untouched, ii was sacred! Religious and political
bigotry go hand in hand. The worshipper of the
cross and “contract” do homage to the letter but
crucify the spirit of our blessed Lord and Master.
Woe unto you hypocrites.
THE BOND SYSTEM.
59
Now, to prove beyond peradventure the uncon
stitutionality of the bonded debt, we throw the
argument into the form of syllogisms.
1. The constitution only authorized Congress to
create a bonded debt by borroTving money—no
other way. Our national bonded debt was not
made by borrowing.
2. The constitution limited the legislative power
of. Congress to such legislation as tended to “form
a more perfect Union,” or “establish justice,” or
insure domestic tranquillit}7,” or “provide for the
common defense,” or “general welfare,” or “secure
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos¬
terity.” But the bonded debt antagonized each
and all of these. It did not tend to “form a more
perfect Union.” Instead of “establishing justice,”
it is itself a stupendous fraud. Instead of “insuring*
domestic tranquilit}',” it has introduced chaos—
debts, litigations, tramps, failures, strikes, lockouts,
and a reign of crime, misery and wretchedness has
followed in its track. It added nothing to the “com¬
mon defense,” and instead of securing the “general
welfare” it has been a general curse. Instead of
securing the “blessings of liberty to us and our
posterity,” it has already enslaved the toilers, and
will, unless suppressed, enslave posterity.
Therefore the national bonded debt is unconstitu¬
tional—a stupendous fraud.
6o
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA
CHAPTER .VII.
Land Monopoly.
THAT this infernal scheme of bonding the Ameri¬
can people was instituted and precipitated upon
them by a few designing men does not admit the
shadow of a doubt. And it has given them abso¬
lute control of the finances of the country, and fur¬
nished the foundation for the English system of
funding and national banking which is disastrous to
the liberties of any people.
With the money of the country under their con¬
trol it was an easy matter for them to seize upon
the other sources of our material wealth, land and
transportation, and the inroads made upon our pub¬
lic domain by these modern banditti confirm the
assertion that they lost no time in making the most
of their opportunities. For no sooner had these
desperadoes obtained control of the finances of the
country than they pressed forward in their scheme
to rob the people of their lands.
As introductory to this scheme, and as if to pre¬
pare the minds of the people to receive it with com¬
placency, the New York Times of August 12th,
1877, in referring to the hard lot of the farmer, said:
“There seems to be but one remed}\ ... It
LAND MONOPOLY.
61
is a change of ownership of the soil, and the creation
of a class of land-owners on one side, and of tenant
farmers on the other, something similar in both
cases to what has long existed, and now exists, in
the older countries of Europe. Those farmers who
are land poor must sell and become tenants in place
of owners of the soil. The hoarded idle capital must
be invested in those lands. . . . The farmer
will then be relieved of the burden of a bad invest¬
ment on which he now makes no interest, and his
money will be placed where it will do the most good.
He (the tenant farmer) will at once be lifted from
poverty to financial ease. . . . Everything
seems ripe for the change. Half the farms in the
country are ready to be sold, . . . and hun¬
dreds can now be bought for less than their value
twenty or thirty years ago. . . . Few farmers
can hope to provide their sons with farms of their
own. . . . But to stock a rented farm is not so
difficult a matter for a father intent on starting his
son in life.” He further sa3rs: “When farm lands
are so held . . . then will begin a new era in
American agriculture, and one that seems to be
very desirable.”
A change of ownership of the soil! Do you
hear that, young’man? You who have just come
in possession of[]a grand old farm, one upon which
your father, youngrand-father and your great grand-
6z
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
father lived and loved and toiled, every inch of
which is hallowed by sacred memories that stir the
soul and inspire you to a life worthy the nobility of
your sturdy ancestry.
‘ ‘A change of o a nership of the soil.” “Those farm¬
ers must sell and become tenants in place of own¬
ers of the soil.” Do you hear that, you men of mid¬
dle life? who a score of years ago took the advice
of honest old Horace, bade farewell to the scenes of
your boyhood and with her who loved you more
than father, mother and childhood home, cast your
lot in the wilds of the great West, where through sun¬
shine and storm you have labored to build up a
home for the little family that should come to you,
and where you had hoped the sunset of old age
might find you calmly reposing.
“A change of ownership of the soil.” “The
hoarded idle capital of the country must be invested
in these lands.” Do you hear that, old man? Will
not your venerable head and tottering steps spare you
the pangs of that remorseless change? and must
the last feeble remnant of your life be embittered by
this clutching hand of greed? It was you who
felled the forest. It was }mu who built the cottage,
digged the well and hung the oaken bucket, it was
your hand that planted the orchard; the hand of
your wife now cold beneath the sod that placed the
rosebush by the door, and it is your babe that
LAND MONOPOLY.
63
sleeps beneath the white slab under the pine tree.
For three-score years you have come and gone
out of these doors; every plat of grass, every tree,
every shrub, the walks, the fences, the gates, the
garden, all, all have been baptized and rebaptized
by your industry and devotion. Here your chil¬
dren first saw the light; here they learned to lisp the
holy name of father, mother; here they grew to a
noble man and womanhood. Here you welcomed
the brides of your sons. Here the marriage feast
was spread and you listened to the vow that gave a
new name and a new life to the daughters who had
brought so much sunshine to your home. Here too
you wept over the cold clay of your first born, and
it was here that a well spring of faith burst forth in
your soul, a faith that has illumined your earthly
path and filled with radiance the home beyond.
The spot is hallowed and the ties that bind you to it
are linked to the innermost recesses of your soul.
But alas, the relentless mortgage has fastened its
grip upon this sacred spot. It knows no hallowed
ties, no sacred memories. It heeds not the plead¬
ings of poverty, nor the trembling voice of age.
a The hoarded idle capital must be invested in these
lands” and all tender ties, fond hopes and sacred
memories must be laid upon its altar of greed.
“He (the tenant farmer) will be lifted from
poverty to financial ease.” . . . “Then will
64 IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
begin a new era in American agriculture and one
that seems very desirable.” Do you see the plot—
to make this scheme appear so attractive that one
almost sighs to be relieved of his earthly possessions
that he may enter into the* felicitous joy's of tenant
farming. Insult added to injury. It is said that the
James brothers could commit a robbery or perform
a murder with such elegance and dispatches that
they thought it exceedingly complimentary to the
person upon whom they performed these cere¬
monies. The New York Times too seems to think
the man highly favored who is robbed of his land
and can then have the privilege of working it on
shares. By such process “he will be lifted to
financial ease.” So says the New York Times, the
mouth-piece of the money power.
But how well the money power has succeeded in
its scheme, is best attested by the fact that we
already have a million and a half of tenant farmers
and every day adds to their wretched numbers. It
is startling to contemplate the rapidity with which
the lands of this country are passing into the hands
of a very small per centage of the people. Already
vast tracts of our tillable land have been seized upon
and grants covering an area of country larger than
nine states like Ohio have been issued to land syn¬
dicates and railroad corporations. Here are some
startling figures:
LAND MONOPOLY.
65
ACHES.
Total area of land in the United States, in¬
cluding Alaska 2,292,086,547
Surveyed—* 976,626,672
Not surveyed 838,877,475
Land not available:
Alaska 369,529,600
Military and Indian reservations 157,000,000
Mountains, lakes, rivers, &c 476,467,577
Total unavailable.. 1,002,997,177
Available remaining 1,289,089,370
In farms 687,906,375
Owned by railroads - 172,816,000
Owned by aliens 61,900,000
Owned by speculators 20,500,000
953iI22>375
Land remaining 335,966,995
“In this is included the area of all the cities and
villages, which would materially lessen the amount.
It is safe to conclude that there is less than three
acres per capita of population remaining in the public
lands.’’
Here, my friends, we see repeated the same old
story of land monopoly which for centuries has been .
66
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
practiced upon the people and which has been the
great destroyer of nations.
Thirty years ago we sung:
“Come from every nation, don’t be alarmed.
Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm.”
But alas, while we were singing the arch enemy
of freedom—our ancient foe—was spreading the
snare into which prosperous Uncle Sam was led by
a few of his ambitious children.
Land being the basic principle of all wealth it
follows that whenever the land of a country has
passed into the hands of a few of its people the
death knell of that nation’s liberty is sounded, for
the few who control the land control the labor of
the many whose subsistence is derived therefrom,
and he who controls the labor of a people controls
their liberties. The strongest tie of human nature,
that which brings a man closest to God, is his love
for family and home, but when the sanctity of that
home is violated by the importunities of an impe¬
rious landlord, and a man finds himself and all he
holds dear at the mercy of a frowning master, liable
in any moment of misfortune to be thrust out upon
a cold, unfriendly world—then it is that the well-
springs of reverence for an omnipotent Father cease
to flow, the ties of affection for his family grow
weak, before that all absorbing calamity of starva¬
tion and degradation.
LAND MONOPOLY.
67
A few years ago the Chicago Tribune said: “As
soon as socialists get homes of their own, and
acquire property they become conservative and
drop out of socialism. It (socialism) can make no
impression on Americans or Americanized working
men who have homes of their own.”
Aye, there’s the secret. Homes for the homeless!
As truly as there is a God in heaven there is no
attribute of the soul more steadfast than the love of
home. It is a man’s fortress, his strong tower; no
matter how roughly the tempests of life may buffet
him, he remains steadfast so long as his eye is fixed
on that blessed haven, home. And there is nothing
that so degrades a man in his own estimation, so
warps and dwarfs and cripples his manhood as the
feeling that on all God’s foot-stool there is not one
spot that he may call his home.
Herbert Spencer being once asked “What feature
of the American people impressed him most forci¬
bly,” replied “Their indifference to their liberty.” It
is a peculiarity and a serious defect of human nature
that we do not appreciate the blessings we possess;
especially is this true of that which comes to us with¬
out effort on our part. We accept as a matter of
fact the inheritance of our fathers, we do not con¬
sider the conditions to which we would be reduced
without them, and if to retain them requires exer¬
tion on our part, we are apt to permit their decline
68
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
and finally lose them altogether. Such has been
the history of republics. The liberties achieved
by one generation have been held in sacred trust
by the next, but each succeeding generation has
become less appreciative of the boon and finally
permitted the fires of liberty to die upon their very
altars.
It would seem that the experience of other nations
might be accepted by the law-makers of to-day, and
that our grand civilization might enter the twentieth
century in the full splendor of its rising glory. But
as we contemplate the conditions of the civilized
nations of the world and especially the political situ¬
ation of our own country, we may well tremble for
our civilization and contemplate with horror the fate
that threatens our Republic.
CHAPTER VIII.
Designs of the Money Power.
THERE is no more mistaken idea among men than
that the overthrow of nations is brought about
through special dispensation. We have been edu¬
cated into a belief that the calamities which befall
us in this life are visitations of Divine providence,
that they are the will of God and that meek sub¬
mission on our part is evidence of high Christian
character. Not only does this view savor strongly
DESIGNS OF THE MONEY POWER. 69
of blasphemy against the eternal principle of good,
but it betrays a disposition to shirk responsibility,
and by taking advantage of this credulity, crafty,
designing men have been enabled to hold entire
nations in the most servile subjection. Josephus
says of Moses: “Now when once he had brought
them (the people) to submit in religion, he easily
persuaded them to submit in all other things. ”
Human nature has not changed materially since the
days of Moses. .
There is and always has been a class of men who
seem to think the Almighty excepted them from
the curse pronounced upon the human race, and
that it is their special perogative to eat their bread
by the sweat of somebody else’s brow. Accord¬
ingly their chief study is to devise means by which
they may obtain possession of what others have
earned. Brave men accomplish this by means of
physical prowess and valor, but cowards conceal
themselves behind a barricade of law. The former
are called savages, but the latter from their spoils
often contribute liberally to the support of churches
and are styled Christians; by so doing they virtually
shut the mouth of the preacher against their iniq¬
uities, and he unwittingly—not intentionally, but
unconsciously— aids and abets them by preach¬
ing about the “Divine right of kings,” and by
teaching the people ‘ ‘to be submissive to the powers
7°
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
that be.” The injunction of Paul for “servants to
obey their masters” and of our Savior to “render
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” was sound
practical advice to a people who had no redress
through the ballot and no means for carrying on
successful warfare. But were Christ with us to¬
day doubtless his injunction would be “vote as you
pray” and pray that this iniquitous legislation be
wiped out root and branch.
There is nothing m,ore futile, base or blasphemous
than the habit of charging our misfortunes upon
God. It is folly to argue that the depressed indus¬
trial conditions of to-day are dispensations of Provi¬
dence. Reader, the disasters that have overtaken
us in this close of the nineteenth century are the
direct dispensation of a heartless money power.
You may argue that this money power is an instru¬
ment in the hands of God, but would it not be more
appropriate to argue that it is an agent in the hands
of Satanic majesty? And is it not your duty as a
Christian to put forth every energy to aid in the
overthrow of his kingdom? Neither are the con¬
ditions of to-day accidental. They are the cool
deliberate plottings of the money power of the world
against our free institutions. In proof of our posi¬
tion we will present the testimony of some of their
most notable witnesses. But we first call your
attention to the declaration of Sir John Lubbock,
DESIGNS OF THE MONEY POWER. 71
viz., that the money power of the world was mak¬
ing an effort by means of reduced wages to fasten a
rule upon the masses and place them upon a footing
more degrading and dependent than have ever been
known in history.
A few years later the prophetic eye of Abraham
Lincoln saw the approaching danger and gave
expression to it in his message to Congress in 1861.
These memorable words may be found in Barrett’s
Life of Lincoln, pages 309 and 310, and as the friends
of reform are frequently charged with mutilating
them in such a manner as to distort their meaning,
also because it is so difficult to find the work in
question in any of our public libraries, I will here
present verbatim that part of the message which
must have been designed to put the people on guard
of their threatened liberties:
Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge
from the power of the people.
In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I
to omit raising a warning voice against this approach of
returning despotism.
It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument
should be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is
one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most
others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to
place capital on an equal footing with, if not above labor, in
the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is
available only in connection with capital—that nobody labors
I2
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use
of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next con¬
sidered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and
thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them,
and drive them to it without their consent. Having pro¬
ceeded so far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are
either hired laborers, or what we call slaves. And further,
it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in
that condition for life.
Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor as
assumed; nor is there any such thing as a free, man being
fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these
assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are
groundless.
Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is
only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor
had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and
deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its
rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights.
Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a
relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits.
The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community
exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that
few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or
buv another few to labor for them. A large majority belong
to neither class—neither work for others nor have others
working for them. In most of the Southern States a major¬
ity of the whole people, of all colors, are neither slaves nor
masters, while in the Northern a large majority are neither
hirers nor hired. Men, with their families—wives, sons, and
daughters—work for themselves, on their farms, in their
houes, and in their shops, taking the whole product to them¬
selves, and asking no favors of capital, on the one hand, nor
DESIGNS OF THE MONEY POWER.
73
of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten
that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor
with capital—that is, they labor with their own hands, and
also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a
mixed, and not a distinct class. No principle stated is dis¬
turbed by the existence of this mixed class.
Again, as has already been said, there is not, of necessity,
any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that
condition for life. Many independent men everywhere in
these States, a few years back in their lives, were hired
laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the world,
labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy
tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account
another while, and at length hires another new beginner to
help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous
system, which opens the way to all—gives hope to all, and
consequent energy, and progress, and improvement of con¬
dition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted
t han those who toil up from poverty; none less inclined to
take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned.
Let them beware of surrendering a political power which
they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely
be used to close the door of advancement against such as
they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till
all of liberty shall be lost.—Joseph H. Barrett’s Life of Lin¬
coln, published by Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, New York
and Cincinnati, 1865.
I believe no reform paper, or any other paper,
could make better use of its columns than by pub¬
lishing the above entire.
Abraham Lincoln was the friend of the people.
Had he occupied the presidential chair another term
74
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
it is more than probable the designs of the money
power would have been thwarted. They under¬
stood it, he could not be made a tool to carry out
their hellish purposes; to accomplish their designs it
was necessary to remove the obstacle that stood a
frowning giant in their path.
Reader, there is more unwritten than written his¬
tory, but some day the light of eternity will illum¬
ine the mysterious pages.
In farther proof of our position, also to show the
determination of the mone}^ power and the neces¬
sity of removing any opposing element, permit me
to call your attention to a remarkable periodical
which made its appearance in this country soon after
the close of our civil war. The bond system was
not yet perfected, and there was danger that the
people might awaken to their condition and repudi¬
ate the debt, or at least demand the payment of the
bonds in the same kind of money (greenbacks) with
which they had been purchased. Besides it was
desirable to further the interests of the bond holding
class by enhancing the value of their bonds, and still
more by perpetuating them. Fearing and dreading
the power of an enraged people when once con¬
vinced of the atrocities that had been perpetrated
against them, nothing was left undone to prevent
such an uprising and secure such legislation as
would firmly establish their claim against the gov-
DESIGNS OF THE MONEY POWER.
75
ernment. Having failed to secure the passage of
the credit-strengthening act, in their desperation
they commenced the publication of a weekly news¬
paper, openly advocating an imperial form of gov¬
ernment. The publication of this paper was com¬
menced early in 1868, prior to the election of
General Grant, and discontinued soon after his
inauguration. Obviously th^re was no farther need
of such a paper, as President Grant had pledged
himself to carry out their long sought scheme, and
fourteen days after his inauguration he approved the
credit-strengthening act, which added millions to
the bond interest. This paper advocating an impe¬
rial government was published at No. 37 Mercer
street, New York. It was called The Imperialist.
Its figure-head was an imperial crown, its motto,
“The empire is peace, let us have peace.’1 It was
published by the Imperial Publishing Co., but was
an anonymous sheet, no name of editor, proprietor
or correspondent appearing on its pages. Among
its advertisements was one of the banking firm of
Morton, Bliss & Co. If rumor makes no mistake
Levi P. Morton was the senior member of the
firm that gave its patronage to this traitorous sheet.
Doubtless some of my older readers will remem¬
ber The Imperialist. It is as vivid in my mind as
the story of the crucifixion. It came to my father’s
house for nearly three months, and was discussed
76
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
in his family with the most lively and apprehensive
interest. After about three months he ordered it
discontinued; he would not countenance such a
traitorous sheet, or permit his house to be desecrated
by its presence. The prospectus says:
“Though unannounced, this journal is not unexpected.”
“The platform of The Imperialist is revolutionary; its object
is to prepare the American people for a revolution that is
as desirable as it is inevitable.”
Here is its creed, as stated by itself in every num¬
ber:
“We believe Democracy to be a failure.”
“We believe, in short, that Democracy means lawlessness,
corruption, insecurity to person and property, robbery of the
public creditors, and civil war; that the empire means law,
order, security, public faith and peace.”
“We believe the national faith, if left in the keeping of
the populace, will be sullied by the sure repudiation of the
national debt, and that an imperial government can alone
secure and protect the rights of national creditors.”
“We believe that an imperial government, in its paternal
relation to the people, will care equally for all citizens, and,
while guaranteeing security to the rights of capital, will
jealously protect the interests of the industrial classes.”
“We believe that but a small percentage of the American
people can be considered fit, by character or education, for
the unrestricted exercise of self-government.”
This organ in its issue of May 22, 1869, of the
movement which it represented, said:
“A majority of its earnest sympathizers and zealous sup-
DESIGNS OF THE MONEY POWER. 77
porters at the North cast their ballots with the republican
party.”
Again speaking of the “Grand Army of the
Republic, ” it says:
“The public has no true idea of the immense power which
this organization could wield should its services be called for.
This silent, unnoticed army, 400,000 strong, garrisons the
entire North. It can take the field at an hour’s notice, and
what possible force could be raised to resist it should the
“long roll” once be beaten from Maine to Minnesota?”
Now who were these Imperialists claiming the
Republican party and the Grand Army of the Repub¬
lic as allies and co-workers in the scheme to over¬
throw this government unless they could obtain such
financial legislation as they desired? Were they
myths or men ?
After an existence of less than one year the pub¬
lication of the Imperialist was discontinued—for the
reason, the closing editorial said, that owing to the
prejudice of the people and their love for their false
idol—the constitution—the Imperial party could
accomplish its objects better through the organiza¬
tions of the Republican party and the Grand Army
of the Republic.
Has not the financial legislation of Congress dur¬
ing these past twenty years been exactly in accord
with the demands of the imperialists. What mat¬
ter that the ballot has not been “wrested” from the
78
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
hands of the working classes so long as they vote to
tax themselves without limit for the sole benefit of
those who fix their wages and compel them to pay
taxes.
The above statements may be confirmed by call¬
ing upon Col. Jesse Harper of Danville, Ill., who is
in possession of several copies of The Imperialist.
No sooner had the money power established the
bond system and intrenched its agents in official
positions, than it assumes a defiant attitude and
boldly announces its designs upon the people. The
following from the pen of Senator Sharon, published
in his own organ, the Nevada Chronicle, is conclu¬
sive evidence of the determination of the money
power to rob and enslave the toiling masses. Listen,
oh my countr}’men, to your impending doom:
“We need a stronger Government. The wealth of the
country demands it. Without capital and the capitalists our
Government would not be worth a fig. The capital of the
country demands protection; its rights are as sacred as the
rights of the paupers, who are continually prating about the
encroachment of capital and against centralization. We
have tried Grant and we know him to be the man for the
place above all others. He has nerve. As President he
would be commander-in-chief of the army and nav), and
when the communistic tramps of the country raised mobs to
tear up railroad tracks and to sack cities on the sham cry of
‘bread or blood,’ he would not hesitate to turn loose upon
them canister and grape. The wealth of the country has to
bear the burdens of the Government, and it shall control it.
437507
DESIGNS OF THE MONEY POWER. 79
Tne people are becoming educated up to this theory rapidly,
and tne sooner this theory is recognized in the constitution
and laws the better it will be for the people.
u Without bloodshed, and rivers of it, there will be no
political change of administration. The moneyed interests
of the country for self-preservation must sustain the Repub¬
lican party. The railroads, the banks, the manufacturers,
the heavy importers, and all classes of business in which
millions are invested, will maintain the supremacy of the
Republican party. Democratic success would be bankruptcy
to them. To avert fearful bloodshed a strong central Gov¬
ernment should be established as soon as possPleP
In further proof of the desperate designs of the
money power, I would cite you to the dynamite plot
in Kansas, the object of which was to make it
appear that the office of the Non-Conformist was
headquarters for anarchy in that State and that the
Vincent Brothers were leaders in a movement to
wreck the government. Through diabolic schemes
which had been concocted the purpose was to arouse
public indignation against these young men, and
raise a mob which in the midst of the excitement
should rush to their homes, drag them out and hang
them. But, through some unseen agency the dyna¬
mite exploded while yet in the hands of the murder¬
ous conspirators.*
We would also refer you to the burning of Kir-
win, Kansas, to the foul murder of Col. Sam. Wood,
* For farther particulars in regard to this plot apply to H. and L. Vin¬
cent, Indianapolis, Ind., care of Non-Conformist.
IJMVERSITY OF WAS2JKGT0.V
8o
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
and still later to the malicious arrest of Dr. H. F.
Barnes of Tiffin, Ohio.
But all these atrocities are strictly in accordance
with the desperate teachings of Senator Ingalls who
in speaking of political tactics said: “It is lawful to
deceive the adversary, to hire Hessians, to purchase
mercenaries, to mutilate, to kill and to destroy.”
These are also in accord with the sentiment expressed
by Wm. H. Seward while Secretary of State, who,
boasting of his powers to an English lord, assured
him that he could strike a bell on his right hand and
order the arrest of a citizen of New York, could
strike another bell and order the arrest of a citizen
of Ohio, and no power on earth, except the presi¬
dent of the United States, could stop him; and he
boastfully adds, “ can the queen of England da
more?” These are the conditions for which the
money power has long been striving. The goal has
been reached, but with it comes the penalty as
evinced by the reply of. a noted millionaire who,
when asked why he did not build a palatial man¬
sion, replied “I don’t want a house that will be so
easily found when the hungry fellows break loose.”
Is not this a fearful sentence for a man to pronounce
upon himself.
Is it not a virtual acknowledgment that the peo¬
ple are ensnared, and does it not express the expec¬
tation that when at last finding themselves hedged
DESIGNS OF THE MONEY POWER. 81
in on every side, goaded to desperation they will
“break loose” and in their mad fury repeat the
horrors of the French Revolution.
In further confirmation of our position the Chi¬
cago Daily Press recently published a dispatch
from Wall Street dated March 21, 1892, in which
the capitalists after setting forth the conditions of
the country instruct their henchmen in the course
to be pursued in the following language:
“We must proceed with caution and guard well every
move made, for the lower orders of the people are already
showing signs of restless commotion. Prudence will there¬
fore dictate a policy of apparent yielding to the popular will
—until all of our plans are so far consummated that we can
declare our designs without fear of any organized resistance.
The Farmers’ Alliance and Knights of Labor organizations
in the United States should be carefully watched by our
trusted men, and we must take immediate steps to either con¬
trol these organizations in our interests, or to disrupt them.
At the coming Omaha convention, to be held July 4, our
men must attend and direct its movements, else there will be
set on foot such antagonism to our designs as may require
force to overcome. This, at the present time, would be pre¬
mature; we are not yet ready for such a crisis. Capital must
protect itself in every possible manner, through combination
and legislation. The courts must be called to our aid, debts
must be collected, bonds and mortgages foreclosed as rapidly
as possible. When, through process of law, the common
people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and
easily governed—through the influence of the strong arm of
government—applied by a central power of imperial wealth
82 IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
under the control of leading financiers. A people without
homes will not quarrel with their rulers. History repeats
itself in regular circles; this truth is well known among our
principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of
capital to govern the world. While they are doing this, the
people must be kept in a condition of political antagonism.
The question of tariff reform must be urged through the
organization known as the Democratic party. And the ques¬
tion of protection, with reciprocity, must be forced to public
view through the Republican party. By thus dividing the
voters we can get tht m to expend their energies in fighting
each other over questions of no importance to us, except as
tethers to lead the common herd.
“Thus, by discreet action, we can secure all that has been so
generously planned, and thus far successfully accomplished.”
CHAPTER IX.
The Coming Struggle.
IT is useless to deny the fact that capital purposely
enslaved labor and it is no less obvious that there
is a settled determination to enforce and continue
this condition of wage slavery. It is in the interest
of capital to disguise its hostile position towards
labor, for so long as the warfare can be carried on
through political parties it is less dangerous to capi¬
tal, and the desired results are peaceably obtained.
The end sought is to secure the election of men
who will not antagonize the scheme by which capi*'
tal plunders the people. The capitalist draws no'
THE COMING STRUGGLE. 83
party lines, with him it is simply the election of the
man who will not oppose his measures.
Such being the case capital will continue to con¬
trol legislation until labor learns to boycott both the
old parties. The money power is composed of the
leaders of both of these parties, and however much
they may feign to differ politically, their moneyed
interests are identical. The real struggle is not
between the political parties but between capital
and labor, and in order to antagonize the forces of
labor, it is enlisted in the ranks of the old parties
which are constantly held in the attitude of combat¬
ants.
Seeing the conditions to which the masses are
being reduced through this subtle policy, the liberty-
loving people of the country, inspired by the spirit
of •‘our revolutionary fathers, are attempting to
thwart the purposes of the money power and rescue
the liberties of the people from their grasp. To
accomplish this they have peacefully organized,
hoping to avert the evils through an intelligent bal¬
lot. But the money power is determined in its pur¬
pose, and is jealously guarding every avenue of
escape. To postpone the judgments that must fol¬
low their corrupt policy they attempt to palliate the
people and persuade organized labor to “keep' but
of politics.” Thus far labor has largely acceded to
their persuasions, Wh^t are the results ? Is it labor
84 IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
or is it corporate monopoly that is making such
enormous strides over this country? What are the
conditions to-day? We find labor not only reduced
to a miserable pittance, but actually begging for
the privilege to toil. On the other hand capital is
consolidating. “It has already seized the reins of
state and national legislation. It purchases legisla¬
tors as a meat corner purchases cattle. It con¬
trols elections by buying votes in market as openly
as a shop-keeper buys an article of trade. It dic¬
tates the price we shall pay for the bread we eat,
the clothes we wear, the price we shall receive for
our produce, and the wages we receive for our
work.” In truth we can do nothing, wear nothing,'
get nothing, go nowhere, without touching the hat
and bending the knee to this imperious master—
capital. Rich men invest in offices as they d» in
horses and yachts, and men are elected to the sen¬
ate and appointed to the cabinet simply because they
are millionaires, and in many cases they are entirely
destitute of honesty, ability or morality.
These conditions cannot long continue. The peo¬
ple are growing restive under their rapidly increas¬
ing burdens, while the money power grows des¬
perate at their threatening attitude. The war of
the rebellion wiped out the chattel slavery, but out
of its ashes has sprung a more gigantic system of
wage slavery, founded on a system of monopolies and
CONCLUSION.
85
trusts—a mammon god,—whose purpose it is to con¬
solidate the corporations, seize the powers of gov¬
ernment and declare an empire.
CHAPTER X.
Conclusion.
READER, we are on the eve of a deadly conflict.
A conflict between the centralized wealth of the
world on one hand and the toiling masses on the
other. To us—the enfranchised and once free people
of America,—the down-trodden masses of the world
are looking for their emancipation, shall we disap¬
point them?
There are but two methods of deciding this
momentous question.
Peaceful^ by the ballot, or through the terrible
instrumentalities of war. It is for the voting mil¬
lions of the country to decide which method shall
prevail. To settle this question by intelligent bal¬
lot is to settle it in favor of “ the great common
people,” but in the alternative of war, wealth and
power hold the vantage' ground. It is a struggle
for the supremacy of wealth and on one hand, and
the liberties of the people on the other. The con¬
flict is at hand, there is no alternative-—the crisis
must be met. With whom do you cast your lot?
86
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
OUR PLATFORM.
ist.—Political Economy teaches us that money is the life
blood of the nation, and that to control and regulate its vol¬
ume is one of the most sacred prerogatives of government.
To give this right to private corporations is to place the
welfare of the people in the hands of selfish, irresponsible
men who seek only their own personal interest and aggrand¬
izement.
Therefore, we favor the abolition of national banks, and
that the government issue money and loan it direct to the
people at a rate of interest not exceeding two per cent per
annum, on non-perishable farm products; also upon real
estate under proper restrictions.
2d.—We favor the free and unlimited coinage of both gold
and silver.
3d.—We favor government ownership of all railroad,
express, telegraph and telephone lines.
4th.—We are opposed to alien ownership of land under
any and all conditions, and favor an immediate act of Con¬
gress which shall confiscate all lands held by aliens at the
expiration of five years.
5th.—We believe that any system of government which
taxes the labor of its people to build up industries that enrich
a few is a robber system.
Therefore, we oppose a protective tariff which protects
and enriches the manufacturer at the expense of the consumer,
and throws the burden of government upon those least able to
bear it. We favor a graduated income tax, and since land—the
primary source of all wealth—is being rapidly absorbed by
aliens and the wealthy classes of this country we recommend
the single land tax to the favorable consideration of the people.
6th.—Science teaches us that alcohol destroys the moral
nature, stupefies the intellect, and overthrows the will power,
OUR PLATFORM.
87
It shows that the habitual drinker, though not a con¬
firmed drunkard is constantly under an alcoholic influence
that fosters his baser passions at the expense of his better
nature. We believe that while under the influence of alco¬
hol, legislators—led on by scheming, unprincipled men—
have enacted laws which in their sober moments they
would not approve. The tendency of these laws has been to
enrich the few and impoverish the many. Under their
blighting effects men have been driven to desperation and
women to crime; our land has been covered with mortgages,
the country filled with almshouses, penitentiaries and lunatic
asylums, our highways with tramps and our cities with
criminals. We believe our country can never be restored
to its former greatness, nor the heritage of liberty secured
to our children so long as men under the influence of intoxi¬
cants occupy the high places of our government.
Therefore, we‘favor the suppression of the liquor traffic
for beverage purposes.
7th.—We believe that taxation without representation is
tyranny. We believe the ballot is a means of self‘protection
due to everyone; and that governments are just, only as
they derive their power from the consent of the governed.
Men and women are alike governed by the laws of a
country and we believe that they should have an equal voice
in the enactment of those laws. It is said that woman is
queen of the home and that is her realm. But under the laws
which men have enacted, our homes are being swept away
from us. What are the prospects for the American home to¬
day? We find it tottering beneath the mortgage blight,
unprotected against the saloon, the brothel or the gambling
hell; starvation staring at the debt-cursed door-way and des¬
titution holding high carnival at the hearth-stone. These
are the homes that man’s legislation has provided. This is
88
IMPERIALISM IN AMERICA.
“women’s sphere” and here she remains with her helpless
babes until driven from this last refuge and wrecked upon
the shoals of want and vice. Men of America, how long
will you subject your wives and mothers to these indignities?
Will you not learn lessons of wisdom from the past? From
the history of the dead nations of the world we learn that no
woman’s voice ever mingled in their legisl itive councils, nor
can the trace of a woman’s hand be found in their moulder¬
ing archives. Whenever you find a dead nation, a decayed
government, be assured that man alone fashioned her laws
and executed her judgments.
The elements of strength and durability have never yet
been incorporated in human law. What is this vital princi¬
ple—this God power that is wanting in human govern¬
ment? My countrymen, it is the mother quality of the soul.
We bow in reverence to the strength and nobility of man¬
hood, at the same time we recognize that he is not possessed
of the tenderness and compassion of the mother heart. It
was this in the Christ nature that brought him so close to
God. It is this that strengthens, beautifies and perpetuates
divine law, and it is this that must be incorporated in human
laws if we would make them fixed and abiding. We know
the fate of other nations that have ignored the councils of
their women and we see the same fate approaching us. But
it is said “ history repeats itself and such is the destiny of
nations.” Ah! history repeats itself because man alone un¬
aided by the finer intellect and more tender heart of woman
has utterly failed to establish an equitable system of govern¬
ment, and history will continue to repeat itself until woman,
that last, infinitely precious work of the Creator’s hand, shall
go up with man into the sanctuary of the law-giver and
there mold a system of government fashioned after the pat¬
tern of those eternal laws whose foundations are established
in truth and justice.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON LIBRARIES
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