The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-12-06
FRENCH ASSIGNATS.
What They Were and Were Not.
Some Errors Corrected.


What They We're and Were Not.
Some Errors Corrected.
Two men can hardly discuss the
financial issues, for five minutes, on
4 street corner, or in the market
place, but that one Of them will
ding the French assignats" in the
face Of the other. And every callow
theOrist, fresh from the shallowness
Of college or university, and writing
essays, per order, for the hireling
daily newspap pers, will load his illogi-
cal blunderbuss with "French assig.
nats," and blaze away, with a yell
Of exultation. And every open
mputhed ass in the land, can get the
thistles Of misgovernment out Of his
jaws long enough to bray "French
assignats-whee hee-whee haW-
whee heel"
Now if it were true that the
French people did, in the year 1870,
Issue q form of full legal-tender pa
per money; and that it fell, in five
Years to be worth only 18 per cent
Of it's face, would that prove that
the American people, one hundred
years thereafter, in new world, un-
der vastly different conditions, could
not attempt the same experiment
and make it success. In Europe
whenever any man advocates a re-
publican form Of government. he is
met at once with the cry,-"look at
the French Reign Of Terror" But
We have shown that republic can
be maintained here for more than
= century, without a guillotine, or
the chopping off Of forty thousand
heads of the aristOcracy. In a few
years after the French established
their republic it ended in an empire.
Ours has endured III years. But the
same argument which proves that
state legal-tender paper money can
not be maintained at par because the
French assigndts were not, must
equally prove that a republic cannot
exist here because it failed CEN
tury ago in France.
but were the French assignats le-
gal tender paper-moncy like our full
lcgal-tender greenbacks of the first
sixty million issue? Not at all. At
the outbreak Of the French Revo-
luton one third of all the real-cstate
of the country belonged to the
clergy, and the other twO-thirds to
the aristocracy. The republic be-
gan by contiscating the clergy's real
estate, and providing for it's safe;
and the assiqndts were simply assign
ments of part of that fund, when so
created by sales, to the holders Of
the assigndt paper. They were very
much like our government issue Of
land-warrants, to the Mexican war
veterans, to be located upon public
lands. Their price depended upon
the demand for the land.
"l79O. In the midst of this dis
order a national bankrupt y was ap-
pretended, to avert which the ter
ritorial possessions of the clergy
were declared at the disposal OF the
nation, and ,Dritten designations eOere
sive,. oa tIis fund, which obtained the
name of dssigndts."
Baines Hist. French Req. Vol. 1, p. III.
Carlyle says:
ITO appease the deficit they ven-
tured on hazardous step,-sale Of
tile clergy's lands and SuperfluOus
ediices; most hazardous. Nay, CIV
en- the sale, who is to buy them,
ready money having fled? Where
fore on the 10Th day Of December.
q paper money Of dysigndts, OF bonds,
secured or assigned on the ClericO-
National property and unquestion-
able at least in payment Of that's
decrecd."@
Carlyles Hist. French Rcv. Vol. -.
p. 29S.
But the holders of the assignats
were not, like the Mexican soldiers
or their assigns, empowered to apply
the paper to any special piece of
land; they held claim against the
fund when created, and if there were
no value there could be no fund.
In 1895 ''naandats" were issued en-
titling the holder to enter at once
on the. public lands for the satisfac-
tion OF his claim. But even these
fell very low, for there was no GER
tainty that the revolution would en-
dure and the title given by the state
might not be worth sixpence.
And the, ,assignats were not legal
tender paper money. They 'ccre SIM
ply orders on a fund. And yet they
kept within 80 per cent of their face
value for two years. although the
issue had increased from 1920, co.,
OOO francs to 45,578,OOO,Oc0 francs,
equal to nine billion dollars Of our
money!!
And who will compare poor France,
with it's 25,OOo,oOO people, mostly