, 1868-01-31


law. despotism over liberty, of capital over
labor-that you are now demanding the
robbery Of the poor Of the necessaies Of life
that the opnlent may riot In its luxuries
To carry out this most wicked purpose you
propose to mortgage the labor Of the poor tc
the bonds OF the rich in all time to come, and
fasten perpetual debt as cancer upon the
body polite
Upon the other hand, propose to pay of
this debt in greenbacks-the very currency
in which il was created-that the people
may be emaucipated at once.
assume that a sound and uniform cur
rency is the literblood of commerce, agricul-
ture, Manufactures and civilization itself, to
which every government must conform its
business, credits aud intercourse with other
governments.
Justice requires a uniform currency to
regulate the relations of capital to labor,
that the rich may not oppress the poor, nor
the creditor consume the substance of the
debtor in exchanges, usury aud extortions.
These are trueisms never doubted and
questions n ,ver raised in the United States,
before the Inauguration of the present great
fraud upon the labor of the country.
Against these manifest principles of JUS
tice and sound policy we have under the
present odious and monstrous funded sys
tenn, two entirely distinct and entirely diff,
ferent kinds of currency-one for the poor
and the other for the rich. The one which
is imposed upon the poor will not carry him
forty leagues from the shores Of his own
country, or be recognized in any Of the ma
tiOns of the earth at any uniform value or
pass as a circulating medium in any transac.
ton of business-wbich at home is the SUBJ
ject matter Of bartering, and is shaved by
the Government at its counters.
This inferior currency is the only compan-
sation which the poor man receives for his
labor-which the soldier receives for bis SER
vices, add his widow aud children inherit for
the rice of their blood-that the farmer re,
ceives 70: bis grain, live stock, fruit, and the
fee simple Of the land itself.
The old man who loaned his gold and sill
yer to secure an income for helplcssness and
old age, is forced to accept Treasury notes iD
payment of both interest and principal, al.
though he may lose twothirds of the entire
value of his debt by the wOrthlessness of
this miserable apology for money.
The mechanic who builds houses out of
purchased with gold aud silver, is
forced to take this paper money in payment
of the purchase, although it was promised
in the precious metals; and no allowance is
made for the depreciation; whilst all debts
contrscted upon sPeOiO basis yet due and
unpaid, are payable 10 this inferior currency,
subject to the fluctuations Of q drunken
money market. The lawyer receives it for
his fees, the physician for bis medicines, the
professor and minister for their salaries.
The poor widow who works to support her
orphan children is forced TO accept this shsd>
ow of money in payment Of her wages, and
the poor girl who in 6lial devotion labors
day and night, denying herself of the com-
forts of life to save her weekly pittance to
bring her INDECENT mother from forei yn
land, is forced to take these rag shadows for
her labor and submit them to the mereenary
discretion of the hesrtless broker in the ex
change for money recognized in the COM
mercial parts Of the world. Even your
protege, the negro, is robbed of the pro-
ducts OF his industry by the worthlessness of
the rags 10 which be is paid, the value of
which be is not even able to decipher.
Snch is the currency created for the bus>
iness and the robbery of the poor, whose me-
cessities forbid the possibility of Govern
ment or any other securities; but who, in
excessive tariff, stamps, increased price upon
their food, raiment, fuel, house rents, medi
clues, burial expenses and other indirect
taxation, surrender fully one>half of all their
labor to give an entire different currency to
a privileged class, created for the purpose of
Overthrowing our republican form of govern
ment, and establishing an oligarcny in imi'
tation of the worst periods of the French
despotism, which exonerated the nobility
from taxation.
Gold and silver, the circulating medium
Of the civilized world, the commercial pass
port to business everywhere, is the especial
of only two classes of the Ameri-
can people, whose princely possession have
placed them beyond the reach of want, who
draw their substance from the other classes,
who, by this very distinction in the two cur
rencies, are crushed beyond the hope of re-
soTery. The first class Of gentlemen who
ale especially cared for in this unjust and
nerelesS wrong, or to use your own delec-
tabls phraseology, -"Natioual vilIainy" and
wholesale swindling,2 are the manufactu-
rers. For their double protection the tar
ifs, already prohibitOry and ruinous to the
are nearly doubled BY the differ
snce in exchange consequent upon the pay
nent of the duties in gold and silver, which
you must know adds nothing to the reveD
lue of the General Government, because it
lrives commerce from the custom house to
he control of the smuggler, and oppresses
.he consumer by adding these tariffs to the
price of his goods, and pays fabulous amounts
INTO the pockets of the B itish manufactu-
-er, who smuegles his goods into British
upon the Vitals of American
commerce.
This evasion of the revenue laws by the
,muggler is made doubly remuuerative by
he excessive duties which are paid in gold.
This payment of duties in gold and silver,
lfter having mutually switched the smuggler