The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-02-28
SEVEN FINhNGIAL C0NSPIRAGIES.
which Have Enslaved the American People.
Published by Permission of the Author,
Mrs. S. E. v Emery.
CHAPTER ".
CONTRACTION.

trated against the people of this
country through this internal system
of legalized robbery. Having pur-
chased their bonds with government
money, deprecated from 80 to 60 per
cent, ION account of the exception
clause; and having exempted them
from taxation, with advanced inter
est payable in gold, it would seem
that the climax of audacity had been
reached. But who can fathom the
greed of the money shark, or set
bounds to the voracity of civilized
brigand?
The fourth act in Shylock's TRACE
dy, by which the government and this
great people were sacrificed, is famil-
iarly known as the credit-strengh-
ening act, by which the 500
bonds were made payable in coin.
This act, approved March 10, 1869,
added to the burdens of the people
more than six hundred millions of
dollars. 1t is claimed by many bond
holders and their leaders, that the act
which authorized the issue of these
bonds made them payable in gold.
But there is no such possible inter
probation of the act, and if they were
issued payable in gold in the first
place why did they pass the credit
strengthening act of 1869? The very
fact that they passed that act four
years after the close of the war, when
the country was at peace with the
world and itself, is proof beyond
question that they were at first made
payable in legal tender, and that this
law was passed for no other purpose
than that of doubling the wealth of
the bond holder, which, of necessity,
must and did double the burdens of
the people. Further, we have unde-
niable proof that the act was secured
through the most soulless strategy,
and that Grant, Sherman and Nor
ton were parties to it. There is not
the slightest doubt but that Grants
election to the presidency and Sher-
mans appointment to the treasury
were secured through their pledges
to obtain the passage of this infam-
Gus act. Those who opposed the meas
ure were denounced as regulators,
and in his inaugural address Grant
warned his party that no repudiatOr
of one farthing of the public debt
would be trusted in public place.
Immediately upon his Inauguration
an extra session of Congress was
called. The first bill presented, the
first bill passed, the first act ap-
proved, the first document signed by
President Grant was this Infamous
credit-strengthening act, by which
the people who placed him in power,
were robbed of millions of dollars.
Circumstantial evidence also proves
beyond doubt that the election of
Grant and defeat of Seymour was a
bargain and sale between the leaders
of the old parties, and the most vii
famous betrayal of public trust ever
practiced upon an unsuspecting peo-
pie. There had been an attempt to
pass the credit-strengthening act
during the session of 1867 and 1868
but it failed. The democratic party
nominated Horatio Seymour on a
platform opposed to the coin pay
ment of currency obligations. The
republican party nominated U. S..
Grant on the urgent solicitation
and petition of forty capitalists Of
New York City.
August Belmont was chairman Of
the democratic national committee:
he was also agents of the ROths-
childs, who were in possession of sew
eral hundred millions Of the 5-2O
bonds, and particularly interested in
the credit-strengthening act. AS
early as March -, 1868, Baron James
Rothschild instructed August Bel
mont that unless the Democratic
party went in for paying the $40
bonds it must be defeated. The first
step was to have the convention held
in New York City, and it convened
July 4, 1868. Belmont was unable to
control the convention. or at least
that part of the platform pertaining
to the coin payment of bonds. But
besides being chairman of the demo-
cratic national committee, he also
owened large interest in the New
York World, the leading democratic
paper in the country. Although he
had made sale doubtless a sham) of
interest in the paper, he could still
control it more easily than he could
control the democratic convention,
and on the 10Th of October, only
few days before election, it came out
with a double-leaded editorial de-
nouncing Seymour as unavailable and
unfit for president, and advised his
withdrawal.
This action had the effect for which
AUTOMATICALLY if was intended. that of