The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-10-28

claim to have been in power some forty
odd years, that we never have had, during
the existence of that party, good national
money? The reason was because under
their idea this kind of money was uncon-
stitutional, null and void. It was CONTRARY
to the resolutions of 49," They thought
there was no power in congress authoriz-
ing the issuance of any form of paper
money, either by the national banks or bv
the United States. They therefore pro-
vided under the laws then in existence for
state bank paper money. You had, before
the war, banks organized by thirty odd
different states and many territories.
They were issuing paper money without
any general law and without any general
security; there was no provision made to
partial but limited circulation. That
which was issued in Wisconsin went very
we'll here. That issued in Illinois went
pretty we'll there. 1t was ''red dog" mon
ey, blue jay money, and various kinds
OF money. 1t has as many names as an
ordinary counterfeiter, and as many
aliases. This money was of limited cir.
culation, but you were compelled in the
good old democratic times to take this
paper money because you couldn't get any,
thing else. The American people never
have become accustomed and never will
become accustomed to a simple metallic
money composed of gold and silver. They
always have had and always will have
some form of paper money, and the kind
they had then was state bank paper mon
ey. What was the objection to that kind
Of money?
In the first place it was not good. A
bank would break every once in a while.
1t was estimated that the people of the
United States lost 100000 a year by
broken bank paper money in times before
the war; and when the bank broke it went
out of existence. No man ever heard of a
bank in olden times ever making it's
money good. Then, beside, it was counter
feited almost without let or hindrance, 50
that a man in order to find out whether a
bill was counterfeit had to take with him
a book as big as the moral
law, or at least as big
as the New Testament in order to find out
whether the money he received was coun-
terfit or genuine. The if he tried to use
the might pay it out here for groceries
and store goods, but when he crossed the
state line he had to go to brokers'
office and change it. have, since I ar
rived at age, paid 10 per cent. premium
on exchange between the town in which I
lived in Ohio and the city of New York.
The money was bad in many respects. 1t
could be counterfeited easily. it was of
limited circulation, the banks were failing
constantly,so that when a man received the
money at night he didn't know whether
the money would be good in the morning.
Why was it the democratic party couldn't
give us good money? Because the idea
that prevailed in the democratic party was
that congress had no power to authorize
the issuance of national money It was
"AG1N THE RESOLUTION OF '9S.:'
And there the doctrine of state rights
came in.
But when the republican party came in
to power we devised national money. We
gave you first the United States notes,
which are the promises of the United
States to pay money and nothing more.
1t was not money in the true sense, but it
was promise to pay money. 1t was the
best thing we could do then; we were in
the midst of the war Gold and silver had
practically been driven out of the coun-
try. We substituted these United States
notes for other forms Of money, and with
that money we paid our soldiers. We
purchased our supplies, we carried on the
operations Of the war. We were compelled
to do a great many things under the strain
OF war that we probably would not do at
other times. The patriotic feeling Of the
country was aroused. | Will tell you now
what l wouldn't have liked to have told
You then, that if it had been necessary: l
would have voted to have taken the last
shirt off your backs in order to have sus-
tanned the 'sboys in blue"
| When we issued this form Of national
money the democrats opposed it. They
said it was agin the resolution of 49,"
The national congress had no right to
ing men said the money would go out with
the stamp of Cain on its brow. And they
said the time would come when greenbacks
could be bought by the cord. We all
would like to have small portion of Il
cord, know. Laughter. We did the
best we could. We improvised this ma
| tional money. Then the next question
came up: How were we to get rid of the
state bank money? We couldn't pay the
soldiers with it. Outside of its own state
it was good for nothing. Our device was
| this. We levied q tax of ten per cent. on
| state bank circulation, payable every year.
Now, these wild cat" banks couldn't stand
| that kind of taxation. The result was
they retired and gave up their franchises.
Some of them broke, some Of them ''went
up the spout" some of them went into the
national banks and got out of the way. We
had to supply some substitute for this
money, and after a year or two of discus
sion the national bank system was effected.
That, 1 think was the best system that
ever was devised by man. What was that
that system? Anybody might meet and
form an association of five persons; they
might then issue their notes, printed by
| the government of the United States. I
said that as substitute for the state banks.
congress had provided system of national
banks by which any five persons might
form themselves into an association and re-
ceive authority to issue bills in the form
of paper money; but every dollar issued