Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1873-07-15
SFnsit Of gefffrs0l1.
JEFFERSON County, West Va.
TUESDAY MORNING, JULY IS, 1s7a.
IFor the Spirit of Jeffer.on.l
WHAT rs MONEY?

by every free citizen, 10 q free community,
(lf he wishes to contintc free) both TO hitn>
self and others; and until he thorone COM
prehends it, and it is denuded of ali mystery.
and stands naked in broad daylight: Indeed,
1t is astounding'to see how little this great and
vital question has been studied aud reflected
on by the strongest aud best minds among u.s.
was particularly struck with this fact few
days since when, on my horse and Just leav-
ing town, said to one of the clearest headed
men among Us (snd in advising him to urge
on the formation Of clubs and granges) that
it the farmers were united We should soon
nave money at two FER cent. per annum and
railroad rates at a fair remuneration on tEieir
capital. His reply was, in regard to money.
that lie did not wish to see it so low as two
per cent. [ had not time to ask him his OBJ
lection to low rate of interest. or to debate
the matter with him; otherwise should have
asked him which he preferred high tnres or
toao fdres; aud as l am sure he would have
answered "l0,o tdaes;" should, then, have
showed him that interest-any and all inter>
est-is, stripped of all ambiguity" nothing
but ta1 and that, as the rate Of interest is
the rate of ercAange, in objecting to low
interest, he was objecting, in fact, to low tax
alton, and in favor ofhigh taxation Interest
then, assert, is nothing but a faa end in
establishing Banks and authorizing them to
regulate and fix interest, the government has
surrendered to them the power Of taration,
and to an Unlimited and dangerous. and most
culpable extent. To prove that interest is
tax, and nothing but tax, and the right to
exact it nothing but the taring po,cer. 1 have
only to refer to the history of banking in
Pennsylvania before the revolutionary war.
and as, heretofore, quoted by me from the
golden writings of that sterling old democrat.
Jno. Taylor, of Caroline: "That State. (says
hey Wills. province, became banker. It
made and loaned paper currency at a mode.
rate interest. The interest paid for it to the
State, .cns far, applied to public use This
is banking, strIpt Of It's ambiguity: Simply
an indirect mode of taxation, successfully
used to raise national revenue. The idea that
it was net tao, because individuals borrowed
the money, and collected and paid the tax,
would be an assertion in every view less ten.
able, than that an mpoSt upon ordinary
licences WAS not tax, because such licences
were voluntarily taken and confined to n few
persons; the reimbursement. derived from the
privilege IN bofh cases, transfers tie tar from
the individuals to the public.
"'lhe differences between the Pennsvl-
vanlan and the present mode of Banking, are.
that then the f0r was paid by inr7iri,7unZs to
tie p"6/r; now it is paid by the 7ul1ic to in>
dch'a,nis. Then it was paid to assist inGust,v.
and defray 2'ubhic expenses now to enrich
idleness, and supply the means of luxury to a
separate interest," Then tho public required
knowledge of the amount paid, from It's own
representatives, now it pays an amount I'M
Eno'cn, to corporations in which it is not rep.
resented Then the public received five or six
per centum OF individuals for paper currency
now 1t pays ten or twelve per centum to in.
fI,rf fl,a
of paper currency could not corrupt ley,s1u-
f"rcs or nurture aristocracy: This must do
both. THAT being dealt out by the public in
fercs', and not by the interest of n,onopozv
circulated through nation like coin, liable to
no artificial fuctuation, and hecat fair, useful
and honest compel tion tbs being regulated
by separate interest, is made to cause prices
to fluctnate with view to personal and local
emolument Ihnt did not n,onopol;ze and
expel specie his commences with the FIRST
measure, and terminates with the second, so
as to make itself indispensabIy necessary"
But my object, in this extract, is not only
to convince the gentleman. alluded to. that
interest ''stript of all ambiguity" is a toe
and that to be opposed to i0,c interest is to be
opposed to lo'o or light taxation but further
to suggest to him that, while cheap money
cannot do any wrofg or injustice to single
injustice to multitudes, and is, in fact, rob.
berry of the multitude-the guieless and un.
thinking multitude-by the sasacious and
cunning and through an instrunentality of
their own creation for the msc of all for ex-
changes, but for the property, and estate, and
absolute, vendible, haasuGstantiatcG COM
modify of none.
Is it reasonable to suppose that an entire
nation would create artificial, technical
legal estate for few special favorites, from
which without labor they can draw ten or
twenty per cent.-or, they claim, any per
cent. they can get-when their o,sn estate. at
the hands of nature and God, -to~wit: their
estate in brains and muscles by the laws
OF nature, and statistical demonstration. linz
tied to three and o"e>hhird per cent and if
employed in the cultivation of the earth to
ttco per cent?
There should be no such thing acknowl-
edged, or permitted to exist, as separate
and not pirate thing or entity 1t is so re.
garded and defined in the Constitution of the
United States: Congress shall coin money
Cor stamp it if made of paper) and regulate
the ua'"c herecf:" 1t is thing of public
creation for the sole purpose of enabling
workers and producers to exchange their work
and productions for equivalent values thew
may stand in need of; and never for the pur
pose of creating special Investment, or estate
IN da,c, for monied faction or aristocracy
who; without work or labor can control the
prices and values of all labor, and even the
very soil from which it draws it's sustenance.
What, then, is justice. and what is the
remedy for the evils that the country is now
langnishing under? say, to reclaim at once
the great sovereign power of s'eminent do
main in land from the grasp of the railroad
monopoly, the great sovereign power of "em-
inent dominion" in money from Bankers,
brokers, aud shavers, and a heartless, usurions
monied Aristocracy, and to restore them to
the hands of the peoples agents-th their gov>