Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1882-03-09
over coin, SO large that it was finally

ONNl lOlb1 OO ~ blihb ~ ""S
fixed by law at twenty per cent"
Ultimately, however, as the influx
of specie in settlement of foreign bal
ances of account became so great that
the merchants were annoyed by it.
much it is presumaDle, as our own
merchants are pestered by accumula-
ton of trade dollars, an office forspecie
deposits was created, where parties
could transfer on its books to the credit
of others, exactly as the Brooklyn ware
houses daily do with provisions, -four,
grain and cotton.
Although political economists who
desire in the interest of bullionists and
usurers to ignCre the wondrous teach
lngs which the experience of Venice
conveys, rather studiously kept her
monetary history in the background,
all statesmen know it, and when the
choice is forced upon them to sacrifice
the nation they represent, or to ignore
gold and silver as money, they eenelal-
ly act honestly.
Thus, the government OF Great
Britain, February Goth 1877, ordered the
Bank OF England to pay out no more
specie; and large amount of paper
currency was issued, some of which
was of smaller denominations tha" :"
merly. These conditions co. ed
until May 1st, 1928, lover t. J.six
years. during which perio' com
merce, manufactures and ' hth of
England grew as never before or since
In 1S4S, when crowns were tumbling
and thrones. tottering throughout Eu-
rope, and the French people bauished
the Orleans dynasty, specie went with
it, but the magnificent genius of Lamar
tine and his associates brought order
I from chaos, stimulated industry by I'LL
ing its veins with legal tender paper
money, turned the balance Of trade in
favor Of the republic and brought back
many times more specie than the timOr-
GUS monarchists and bullionists had
withdrawn.
1t is little Or no eXaggeration to
claim that the financial statesmen Of
the French republic, quarter of Il
century later when the country was in
the iron grasp of the German invaders,
relinquished to them all the specie III
the vaults of the Bank of France,
again stimulated industry to its utter
most, again filed the markets of the
world to repletiOn with its manufac-
lures, paid in less than five years its
war fine of over 81 l,lOO,O 900, and ac-
cumulated more specie than all the rest
of Europe combined.
The foregoing gives a practical ex-
ample of how nation, perhaps the
least blest by nature on this planet.
did, by discarding the DISTURBING and
expensive element of specie liquidation
not only avoid the monetary panics
which have always devastated specie
based commerce and industry, but by
the commercial development thereby
induced, was recognized and crowned
by the then highest authority of
Christendom as the sovereign of the
seas.
This nation, the most magnihcentlv
endowed by nature of any in present or
past history, disregarding the teachings
of her elder sister-republic's practice,
slayishly continues her subserviency to
an ideal of impossible specie liquida-
ton.
AS tool of trade our present green
back developed to full legal tender
Is much more than the equivalent of
the clumsy Venetian expedient of per-
sJnal transfer of credit in the presence
of both debtor and creditor on the bank
books, as our grsenback effects such
transfer by delivery, and is infinitely
more trustworthy than anything based
upon specie, as the latter rests solely
upon one or two of our most limited
products, while the former is based not
only upon the precious metals, but up
on all the production and wealth of
this republic.
Such demoralizing an example as
that of Venice was as displeasing, and
perhaps as dangerous to certain schools
pf political economy as would have
been the example of thriving FREQ
darkey in the palmy days of our pecu'
liar institution, and the fiat of Napole'
on went forth saying:
"Venice must fall to those to whom
we give the Italian continent, but
meanwhile we will take its vessels,
strip its arsenals and destroy its bank"
Napoleon confessed that his "hatred
of Venice" inspired the ukase, and ALI
son par excellence the historian Of
Europe says:
"The page of history has nothing
more tniquitous to present, 1t is dark
er in atfocity than the partit OF OF
Poland"
But her history yet lives and other
nations will rehabilitate her genius.
Al. Iar