Ignorance of the true nature and function of money has been a most fruitful source of error in the monetary legislation of this nation and when once they are clearly understood and fully comprehended by our legislators, the chief obstacle in the way of its rightful institution will be removed. Its value and usefulness depends upon its legal power to represent measure and exchange and to accumulate value by interest. It has no material value only an immaterial or legal value. The first series of Treasury notes issued are printed on no better paper and have no greater security than the common legal tender but they have the same legal powers as money that is given to gold and have been at par with gold ever since they were made receivable for duties on imports and declared a legal tender in the payment of all debts public and private. Money when rightly instituted is a public lien just as a mortgage is a lien on the property named in it.
Money is a better lien than the mortgage.
The owner of the mortgage can only foreclose it on the property specified in it, while the holder of the money can foreclose on any for sale in the nation. The sovereign power to make money and regulate its value is by the Constitution of the United States expressly granted to Congress and positively prohibited to the states. No Despotism, Monarchy, or Aristocracy can be maintained while this power is retained by the people, nor can a democracy be maintained where this power is not exercised by the people. Our financiers and political economists commit a grave error when they look to the Monarchies and Aristocracies of Europe for precedent to guide them in the institution of money they lose sight of the important fact that these Governments are founded on the theory of sovereignty in the monarch or in a few nobles, while ours is founded on the principle of absolute inherent sovereignty in the people. If Congress cannot institute money so that it shall be under and subject to the direct control of the sovereign people, who produce the values it is designed to represent measure and exchange and distribute products to producers equitably according to the labor or service performed in their production then must democracy prove a failure and Universal Suffrage a sham.