The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-08-05
ooUNTERFE1T MONEY.


The country is flooded with it, to the no
small Inconvenience and yerygreat i'll temper
of the mass of the people who trade but little,
and are therefore the more liable to imposition
from its circulation.
The country people have long been accus-
toned to feel secure in giving circulation to
anything coming directly from our DankS' ana
indeed, have hitherto been furnished, IN this
vicinity with a safe and satisfactory sappiy-ol
paper money. i.an.. ggnIfpErf3
The Ranks are now sending into the coun-
trv a nondescript, heterogeneous mass of rags,
FIR which. somebody, somewhere, no doubt IS
.snonsibIe; but having such a variety of faces
so many styles Of engraving many quail
tiles and shapes of foundation, and bearing
the promise topay Of SC many and SO distant
corporations, that the mind becomes bewilder-
ed in the sight and contemplation of them
And all this, because, as we are told, the gov
eminent taxes the circulation of the Banks so
that the issue of their own bills is no advan-
tage to them. 100,
The consequence is that, no one, save some
of the Cashiers, and it maj, be, few fortunate
individuals, is an infallible judge Of the genu-
ineness of'money, and eounterfeiters lave taxi
en- advantage of this jargon of names and VIC
nsttes to intermingIe SO much Of their ill-be-
gotten trash as to entirely confuse our curren-
cy. We should be profoundly thankful if some
wholesome conhagration would demolish en-
cry source of rag money except our national
currency. We have battled through the tfrac-
tonal scrip 1.-The postage stamp"-the mo
change and all other trying times, because we
thought by patient submission and the use of
inconvenient substitutes for money, we might
assist ourdear old Uncle Sam through his diff
fculties, and for long time we have waited
for the removal of the present crying evil, by
the substitution of the entire system of Ma
tional Banks, throughout the country, and the
reduction of the ''Wild Cat system. But for
bearance has ceased to be virtue and the
evil is constantly increasing. ,sssfaa ssaeA
noticed in small package. of money just
come from one of our banks, which passed
through my hands to-day, bills of different der
nominations on twenty-one different banks
HUH 0GASC1 uuCF W 1AelOta W cAAAhNn53 oOAAAO Va
which, though | presume they are genuine,
bear not half so much resemblance to New
England money generally, as some of the coun-
terfeits which are in circulation. Into almost
every package, one or more Of the counte-feits
crawls its dirty way, and hays its contributions
Jon the people for the support of crime
Although it is my. private opinion that our
moneyed institutions are under obligations to
furnish us with better circulation, or none
until the government Banks can do so, vet
as we have no claim upon them if they do not,
we must take thematser into our own hands
as did the people of the West-by refusing to
take for any consideration anything but green
backs. aNka z gaJaueaW asa SO
was spending few weeks in the Mississ-
ippi Valley at the time of the population by
the people of their "Wild Cat" money It
was remarkable how very soon the whole sys-
TEN was overthrow, and not one bill seensa
tara firm stand was taken, and that money
every way as desirable as our circulation to-
day in the country had fallen under the law Of
| lbIic mistrust. under the national currency
system, every man becomes his own detector
from familiarity with the appearance Of the
bills. There can be no doubt that every man
who handles any considerable amount of Gov
eminent money, will very soon be able to dis
tinguish counterfeits, if any there are, and the
advantage Of this can scarcely be overesfimat-
ed in facilitating trade and inspiring conf
dence. i s,..s.,.
BE Will not the business men in the country
think of this thing, and by personal action
and combination set the ball in motion, and it
would not be a very great motion required to
roll this "trade restriction" into the dust
a...ss.,.eSx ee.,fssNuves TRADE. 4