The Kansas herald of freedom., 1859-11-12
Gambling and Speculation.

paper money, was the exceeding gullibili-
ty of the people. No scheme seemed |
too vast to stagger their credulity.- The
most impracticable plans were received as
perfectly easy of accomplishment, and
the most stupendous projects were entered
upon with undoubted confidence, as .if1
they were ''trifes light as air." The
thought never seemed to obtrude into the
minds of any one, that there was a stop
ping place where all this motion must
cease-that the machine, urged to too
gr-t velocity. woy. aeiall to pieces.
No one seems to anticipate in those
halcyou days of artificial prosperity,
caused by the banks making money plen-
ty, that there must come a time when
this towering fabric, reared by speculation
and kite-fying, having grown too large
for its foundation, would topple-down on
the hands of its protectors, and bury them
beneath its ruins. Every one seemed to
act, while under this hallucination, as if
there was not the slightest fear that the
explosion would take place while they
were in the least danger of being injured
by it. Every one stretched out his hand
to clutch his share of the gamblers spoils,
without the remotest idea, it would seem,
that like fairy wealth, it might turn to
worthless trash in his grasp. 't'l.-r-5
Stimulated into feverish activity by an
undue expansion of paper promises, a
general infatuation seized upon the whole
community within the last two or three
years, and each one grew wilder and more
extravagant in his lunacy, from listening
to the rawlings of madness of those around
him. The speculator seemed to have
come into possession of the Midas gift.
Their touch turned everything into money
-or what is usually called so. All were
getting rich, like the boys who swapped
jackets. One boughtthe refusal of farm
Ito convert into city, and paid for the
refusal far more than the farm itself was
iutrinsically worth. This he sold to an
other for large advance, before the time
of payment arrived. This individual
sells to another, the third to fourth, and
in this way it passed through, perhaps, a
dozen hands or more, before even the
first instalment of the original price was
paid. Each successive purchaser fancied
himself growing enormously rich, and the
one into whose hands the magnificent
project fell the last, fancied himself that
he was the richest Of all. Payday came
at last, and to the dreaming speculator it
came when he was altogether unprepared
for it, and he awoke to the hard reality
that his visions of wealth were as baseiess
] as the rainbow colors in soap-bubble.- -
No one who is gifted with reason and in
telligence will deny that the feverish thirst
for sudden wealth which then plunged
such multitudes into quagmire of embar-
rassment and distress, was caused by the
enormous increase of paper money cir
culation, vast as it was sudden and un-
wise. Prudent people must have foreseen
that whenever that enormous circulation
should meet with check which should
turn It back upon its source, the banks
that it would arrest it with such vio.
lence that it would prove fatal to multi
tides, and give fearful Shock to all.--
This was not only foreseen, but it was
foretold. Appeals were made, but they
fell on the ears of the deaf. Warning,
advice, remonstrance, were uttered in
vain. All signs of coming crash were
unheeded. The gathering clouds occa-
stoned no uneasinesa, and produced nc
watChfulness. The crisis. came at length,
as every intelligent person knew it would
and the unprepared were overwhelmed
with ruin. It, is very doubtful whether
even this terrible lesson will produce any
lasting and favorable results, or guard us
against the nischievous cause of all thi:
wide spread misery. Even now, when
the skies seem brishtening, the cause
which has produced these heart breaking
ills is almost forgotten; and those who
have suffered the most keeniy are begin,
ming to talk again about the blessings o.
banks and the great convenience of paper
money. fsr 1sa, -..i sa.
, Paper money banking in this country
is the insane root that takes the reasot
and judgment prisoner; and they can only
be restored to their primitive freedom BY
Just such terrible revulsions as those
through which we have passed. Ever
, these fail of restoring all to their righ
minds. They still hug their bitterest fot
to their bosoms, even while it stings then
to death. People can only be fully re-
stored to sanity by Withholding from then
such treacherous stimulus, such dan
| gerous and deadly poison. 1t creates al
) unnatural appetite, which grows by wha
: it feeds on. 1t is like the stimulus o
strong drink; the demand increases tn
more it is indulged, until aduafortis i
: required to give it the requisite pungeuc.
/. and even aqugJties has been known 4
i be indispensable. So it is with the banl
r mania. The demand for money increase
with each succeeding day; every ney
/, loan of bank debts but gives rise to ne'
7 projects of speculation, new schemes @
D gambling, each wilder and more chimer
: ical than the last.
a The moral effect of this all-pervadin
i spirit of speculation is frightful to con
: template. Its direct, immediate an
g manifest tendency is to blunt mems mora
D perceptions, and to accustom them by de
! grees to practice arts and devices in trafi
: which an honest, unsophisticated min
= would shrink from with horror, as fraud
! of the most f1agitious character. 1t ere
: ates a distaste, if not a disgust, for th
e ordinary pursuits Of industry; it disir
clines the mind from gradual accumuls
y tion in some regular and legitimate woes
a ton, and kindles an intense desire to be
# come suddenly rich, no matter BY VIII
e means. To this untamable spirit Of gan
IS ing, created by. bank facilities, we ma
y trace directly the greater part Of the pre-
: digious frauds, forgeries, and enbezzle
q ments which have within few years 6
startled the public mind. Startled? N
The phrase is wrong. The public wei
o not startled. They heard the appslliu
e instances of turpitude related with tt
Q most stoical indifference; or If any e,
}. clamations were uttered they partoo
rather of a tone Of commiseration f
the unblushing criminals, than thatof il
b dignation, horror, and deteststion at sue
e1 stupendous villainies. Woe to this Ian
If the people are not wise in time. Tn