Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1869-06-15

days allotted them by nature! Neither with
such medium, as before named, hard money
can there be money monopoly; for the
money or exchanging medium being, in fact,
labor-for gold and silver are labor UisiJle
and tangiJIe-and all things being at the
Standard of labor-all who willed to labour
would have in themselves the wherewith to
exchange for any thing, they wanted, at the
natural price and standard and the occtpa-
ton of Shylock-the unproductite money
inonser and shaver of the hard ernings of
labor would be ended, and forever! Nor
let it be supposed that this labor or cash me-
dunn, as some falsely say, would Danish all
credit; far from it: For while it Would take
away from shavers and shaving shops the
enormous exactOns now made out Of indi-
viduals, and for the use of their otCn credit
it would restore to each individual all the
personal credit to which he was fairly entitled,
from his industry, his capacity, Ills honesty
and his means and, at the s6he time, the sum
of all these individual credits-for mathe>
maticai!y the parts are equal to the whole
would be fully equal, in all the transactions of
life aud business; to that incorporated credit,
now consolidated in the hands of shavers and
shaving shops, and welded with so much
partiality and tavoritism, and at such killing
assured, that all the privileges, credits, and
powers of corporations, are bt. the sum, of the
privileges, credits, and powers, distracted from,
themselves Now, if it be asked what mean
by ''cxactions made out of individuals for the
use of their Otcn credit ?" l answer That
when an individual puts his note, we'll en-
dOlsed by others and backed by all the prop
erty he owns, into a Bank, and then only
receives its note--when he exchanges his
promise to pay for simply its promise to pay ,
and then pays or 10 Per cent. on the trans
action, he is, in fact, only paying this or 10
per cent. for the use Of his OWn credit and
his ocm credit that, under the hard money or
cash system now advocated he could as YELL
have used, aud without having levied upon
him the black mail now levied, by this sum
Of all til.aiuy on all abour, and to its utter
impoverishment and enslavement.
With, sir, these general allegations
throSu out in loose order and by way of in
ducomciit aud intrOductiCn-l will endeavor
to come back to the propositions Of my first
letter to you, to.wit: that paper money is
,thitc slurc,y, and that if you ever expect to
cufran chise labor from the cnthralment i'm
posed ci it by capital, and to elevate it from
the degradation OF hircing and menial to the
dignity of principal and partner, the first
thing you must do is to strike down all paper
a.oncy n'nl N>my Until 5Ou do this, it will
be utterly impossible for nine men out of ten
to become the owners Of property; aud, of
course, they will in SOL c fashion, 'rh'tc or
Gtdch, be the property of others.
set out then with the two propositions of
my first letter, and which | say "hangs
the explanation of the causes Of the incquai
tv between capital and labor" and l shall
b,,, ,Io l,rbt cf +bCSa pl,;n nd irrn
lu.able axicms; to show by practical exam
pies and instances the working by thich pa
per money institutes white slavery, and conf
pcls the many to become the menials aud
hireIings Of the few. The propositions arc
these:
"LfoN 1oropcry is at Iubor prices-and
g0M dnd sHccr are tabor prices, for 1t takes
Ih0r to get Mcm-Hen all 'cho Iobor can buy
ind ocQ~ire pynpcrty at MJors prices."
son Me oiheT huMa, il oN property is at
credit priccS-Gmd pnpcr money is credit 10ri-
ccs-theu The man ,ch0 has most credit idma
he Is the rich man or copituiiSO ,oW engroSs
and OwI. property, and c9MtroI and e"Slote IT,
GOr."
Now I have said above, that usury and pa
per money must be utterly set aside and abol-
isLcd, if all men are to have fair and equal
chances for the acquisition Of property. For
even though the exchanging medium be gold
and silycr-labor's standard, because equiva-
lent to labor-yet, if usury be tolerated, all
the odds and advantages will be in favor of
the few and cunning spectators who are ever
IN the look out to take undue and ujust, in
n word. dishonest advantage Of labor, In
fact. I desire to s,loa that, after the introduc-
ton of money among men-and simply for
the purpose Of facilitating their exchanges
the first departure from honesty and fairness
was usury-any usury on that moncy-and
in the next place, if usury on real money
Is iniouitous and uni ust and fraudulent, that,
in sixty-fold degree, if not much more, Is
the introduction of paper money, and then,
even usury on it! [ think L shall be able to
show that, in this last and super-added enor-
nifty of rascalty and fraud on the part of idle
and rascaly usurers against the great mass OF
honest and laboring men, they have exceeded
even the prohibited enormity of the scrip
lures, of .sscething the kid in its mothers milk"
The first undertaking, then, on my part, is
to show that the docttine of Moses, Aristotle,
and Bacon the three foremost men among
the Jews, the Greeks, and the Caucassians-
is right, and righteous, and just, to-wit that
no usury-not a iarthing's profit on money
should for one moment be tolerated and that
when it is tolerated, it leads, at once, to an
unequal and unjust division of property
among men, and puts it into the power Of a
few rascals, by unjust abuse of money,
common measure Of labor and values intro
duccd by all and for the benefit of ALTO
pervert it to their own especiel benefit, as
though they had created it and introduced it
themselves and not al! the entire people and
as though they had an absolute ocncrship and
property i'll any given amount of money,
whereas they have, like other men, only
qualified property in it, to.wit: to use it as
an crchdngimy medium in bona fde transact
tions between themselves and others, where
real values and productions and property are
exchanged and passed from hand to hand
To facilitate such exchanges is the true and
proper and only Legitimate design and func-
ton of money. If strictly confined to this