The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1867-04-30
THE coUNTERFEIrINa BUsINRss

THE CoUNTERFEITINa BUSINESS.
Some of the most astounding Developments
! are being made at the present time in relation TO
the counterfeiting of bills and money in New York
and Ohio, from which it would seem that in some
sections of the country it is becoming a regular
branch OF business, as eagerly pursued and within
certain limits, almost as openly as any other
branch ofspeculation in the North, or as the
foreign slave trade in the South or in Cuba
Books are published giving full descriptions Of
cheap methods of fimitating the precious metals.
All the tricks of ofcounterfeters for sweating boring
splitting and filing coin are here detailed with
great exactness, and on payment of-fve dollars
any has been admitted into one Of their circles.
In some sections quite large bodies Of men have
gone into this business as the easiest and most
literal way of making money. Only the other
day Cleveland paper tells us that in that city
Methodist minister of hig gh standing was preach
ing funeral sermon TO a crowded congregasion,
when the officers of justice arrived and at he
close of the service arrested him as counterfeiter
All the impliments for carrying on very extern
sive business Of this kind were found in his house.
Finally he made clean breast Of it before the
whole multitude and told them that having been
brought up an engraver, he had during the last
two years become connected with gang of this
sort, and had been hard at work manufacturing
false bank bills on a large scale.
The question naturally presents itself, what is
going to become of honest men? What can
those do who live by buying and selling? The
losses of the retail storekeepers are becomming
every year larger and larger, Notwithstanding
counterfeit detectors and every other precaution.
In the East Indies the Kings and Princes have
cheated SO in the coinage that in Burmah every
man who sells carries his scale and weights, and
weighs all his silver as he receives it; and they
hoxo ,,,Io <xf of
silver, and can tell how much 1t is adulterated.--
But we seem about to have no security that our
coins what they seem.
Ages efore the birth of Chemistry the al
chemists were, occupied in seeking some means by
which all metals might be transmitted into gold.
1t never seemed to enter into their minds that
the ultimate effect of all this would if successful,
be to transmute gold down in point Of value aud
importance to the average of other metals. It is
so in all these modern attempts ofa baser kind
to counterfeit, instead of transmitting. 1t is fen
times as injurious 10 the community so much
money distracted or stolen, or so much lead openly
mixed with all our coins. The uncertainty, the
time the risk of buying and selling, makes men
avoid exchanges, except at much larger profits, to
pay for all this Unless it be broken U? our whole
currency will become deprecated incalculably.
But there is worse depreciation than all this
indicated in the extension of counterfeiting op-
erations; it 6 the depreciation of moral character
among men of sufficient mechanical ingenuity
and intellectual entertainments to render them
most dangerous TO the community. The social
position of many of these operators makes them
doubly dangerous and doubly deleterious. Some
times we build great hopes for the future of our
country from the increased education Of the mas
ses. But let us not be blind to the fact that mere
intellectual progress, without proper training in
habits Of moral and social virtue and conformity
to law, will only tend more rapidly to demoralize
and destroy, rendering those who possess these
advantages more ingenious, and therefore more
dangerous -ace of pickpockets and counterfeiters,
Who would wish to see razor in the hand of
every madman? Yet such is knowledge and skill
to the unprincpled. 4.
There are times when virtue and religion seem
to carry their triumphs into the highest quarters
of public well as private life, SO openly and
powerfully that all begin to hope new era has
dawned upon mankind, But, on the other hand
such gIimpses of life, public and private, as are
sometimes seen are not flattering to our progress
in virtue The revival Of the slave trade in the
South, and the progress offrauds and counterfeit
ing at the North and West, all in defiance oflhs
laws equally Of God and man, shows that law as /.
law has not .hat power on the public conscience
ii ought to possess, and must be brought to pos,
sess, to insure the perpetuty of free Government
Unless children are instructed, in the school-house
and at home, that law and right are to be res-
peced, that not ingenious merely, but honest and
true ways ofmakng money are alone to be sought
unless specific instructions on the points enter in
to pulpit teachings the lesson will have to be en-
forced in other and sterner methods. The neglect
of education is not the remedy to be thought Of
but the additional instructions Of which we speak
are loudly called Philadelphia Ledger.