Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-09-05
AMONG THE RECORDS.
HOW THEY VOTED ON THE Ex-
TENSION OF NATIONAL
BANK CHARTERS.
The Power OF the Banks Over the Cur
renCy and Over the Business
of the Country.

No question before the American
people is equal in Importance to the
money question, and no phase of the
money question is of equal Importance
to tbet relating to the power to issue
it. The constitution of the United
States gives congress the power TO
coin money and regulate the value
thereof. To coin means TO create,
and the Supreme court of the United
States has said that congress has the
power to issue or create paper money,
and to make it a legal tender
in the payment of debts In
i540 the democratic party
declared that congress had no right
to charter a United States bank. 8"
They further declared that such an
institution was dangerous to the lib
critics of the people and calculated TO
place the business of the country
within the control of a concentrated
money power and above the laws and
the will of the people" That plank
was reaffirmed in every platform up
TO 1860. Since that time both parties
have espoIsed the cause of the banks
of issue. jefferson said that banks
were more dangerous than standing
armies" At another time, in a letter
to Mr.. Eppes, he said, bank paper
must be suppressed and the circulat-
ing medium restored TO the people to
whom it belongs" John c. Calhoun
said, THE bank is a union of the gov
ernment and the money power-a
union far more dangerous than church
and state" Henry Clay said, II con-
ceive the establishment of a national
bank dangerous to the safety
and welfare of this republic"
1hos. II. Benton said Govern
ment ought not to delegate this power
issuing money! if it could. 1t is too
great a power TO be trusted to any
banking company whatever, or to any
authority but the highest and most
responsible government" In two of
Andrew Jackson's messages he op-
posed it with all the int nsitv of his
nature. In his farewell address he
said:
THE result of the ill-a dvised legis-
lation, which established this great
monopoly, was to concentrate the
whole moneyed power of the Union.
with its boundless means of corrup-
tion, and its numerous dependents.
1nder the direction and command of
one acknowledged head; thus or
ganizing this particular interest as
one body, and securing to it unity
and concert of action, throughout tie
United States, and enabling it to
bring forward, upon any occasio its
entire and undivided strength to sun
port or defeat any ,leasure of the
government In the hands of this
formidable power, thus perfectly or
ganized, was also placed unlimited
dominion over the amount of the cir
culating medium, giving it the power
to regulate the value of property and
the fruits of labor, in every quarter
of the Union; and to bestow prosper-
ity or bring ruin upon any city or
section of the country, as mig ht best
comport with it's own interest or
policy"
No principle in political economy is
better established than that the
volume of money regulates its value
as compared with commodities In
other words the volume of money in
circulation likes prices. Then the
power that controls the volume of
mon'y also controls prices of commo-
dities Fer this very reason, SAYS
Daniel Webster. Congress was given
control over the currency The