Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1874-05-05

CATION on nuance, IRON John a. i 1homson, OF
West Virginia, was presented to the club:
SUMMIT POINT, JEFF. Co., w. Va,
April II, 1874.
E. N. Darts, Esq:
My DEAR SIR 81 received on yesterday
your card of the 9th, requesting my 'sviews"
in brief ON three questions that will be dis.
cussed in your contemplated conference. If
| had more time" as some one has said be-
fore me, would have written a 'sshorter let>
ter" but as it is will make it as short as
possible by proceeding to the questions in
order:
"Nlust money of necessity be of intrinsic
value 7" Certainly not; for intrinsic value
| TOR intrinsic value would be pure barter, and
| the intent of money was TO get rid of barter
and its Inconvenience, and to modify barter
through money.
| Second. Money consists of the agreement
of people or State to take it for anything
they have to spare or that others want, and
| for debts and taxes; and the virtue of money
is in the agreement, aud not in its intrinsic
value or its material. The Latin word for
money, to-wit, "mo"eta," implied stamp in
the nature of a seal TO an agreement and the
| Greek word for it, 'nOntiSmd," is from the
Greek ''nomos," which means claw" So that
again money is the creation of the law ''in vi
ternlni," aud the virtue of money is in the
agreement and stamp and not in the intrinsic
value, and by consequence there is NO neccs>
sity for intrinsic value in money.
Third. Money, as defined BY Aristotle, is
"Pledge" or demand" in the hands of the
holder of it for any useful value, as deter>
mined by the law of supply and demand and
as defined by Wallace P. Groom, high modern
authority, is "tok zen, j" oF course for the same
md hyyf Of ;,L-
N. j., again high authority, as ''title, and
for the same purpose. And all must see that
there is no necessity for intrinsic value in a
''pledge," or demand" or ''token," or
"tit!e." On the contrary, 'intrinsic value"
would imply something iu the nature of com
modify, cumbrous and inconvenient-even of
the so-caIIei precious regal metals-nnd
untitled by their fluctuations in value for tho
simple functions of money
Fourth. The adoption of any ono of the
commodities as tho ''instrument of commerce"
is the preference of one producers commodity
over anOther's is special legislation, adding
to it u value it does not by nature possess, aud
when used as money, unless its value is so
regulated that usury on it never exceeds the
natural annual increase of labor and produc-
ton, it becomes, Instead of convenience and
iaclltation of commerce, an obstruction and
an engine of fraud and rnpacity and idIeuess,
aud regular cheating machine to transfer the
net gains Of labor into the hands of its plum
derers. ''Labor produces, usury steals.'
''Should the United States Government
only issue money ~
This question is answered by tho Constitu>
tion of the United States. by section 8, and
10 the following words, Congress shall have
power to coin money and regulate the value
thereof" the entire money power is vested in
that Government nor has it the right con-
stitutionally to delegate this power into the
hands of others, more than the power of "de>
claring war or making peace" or any other
power with which it has been entrusted
Second. The decision of the Supreme
Court Of the United States in regard to legal
tender paper money is full answer to all
quibbling bullionists who 'sstick in the bark"
when they stckle at the word "coin," and
overlook the substance and body of the tree,
which is money.
'Should legislation or demand and supply
regulate the amount of money!"
The object of investing Congress with the
sovereign power of issuing and regulating the.
value of money was to enable it to institute
an instrument of commerce adequate to all
the exchange CT the country" and therefore,
like all other instruments to accomplish other
purposes, money should in amount be ample
to accomplish the purpose designed. aud Com
gress is 10 duty bound to legisate and issue
that amount so that the supply shall be equal
to the demand. What shall the amount
be, and how shall it be made known? LAM
swer, by the wants of the people, and the
fact of sufficient amount of the public credit.
or money! use the terms synonymously-to
effect the exchanges upon the cash principle,
and not compel or necesstate the people to re-
sort for their exchanges to their private
credit, when their interest as common partners
in the public credit or money entities them
as legal right, to exemption from such a
necessity, aud to- equal and untaxed use of
the ''instrument of commerce" created BY
! them, and based not on regal gold, as tyrauts
from the day of Nebuchadnezzar and his
"golden image" would have US believe, but
upon all the labor, and all the products, ami
mate and inanimate, and including even his
sacred majesty bullion, lying between the At
lantic and Pacific Ocean. To think or talk
of confning such a people, with such a
country, and such energies, and such capacity
for production, to the picsyune amount of one
hundred and fifty millions of gold and the
rags of confidence paper tackled to it like the
tail of boys kite, is as absurd it would
be to attempt to ''cork up in bottle" both
of the great oceans or to descend from the
sublime to the ridiculous, as ludicrous as
the idea of great general of ancient tim es
and bullionist too, at that-who said
that one of his lieutenants had 'scorked
up himself and his whole army in bottle"
in the face of the enemy, and in front of
beleaguered city. But all jesting aside,
1 hope the people will not "cork themselves
up in bottle" nor suffer few buIionists in
this country, and their cOnfederates in foreign
lands and despotisms, to ''cork them up.''-
M DUt If tho oanOo1s of all
earth were batteriug down the walls of the
Canitnl IE We snhmit 70 their fna.o;.l II