St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-28
ANOTHER DISCREDITED CUR
RENCY,

to-oners are mistaken in their claim
that silver is the only currency ever
disseminated against by being de-
monetiZed. McMaster has an inter-
esting story in his History of the
American People" about a currency
that was once in vogue, performing
all the functions of silver that has
been demonetized, undoubtedly as the
result of a base and greedy con-
spiracy of the rapacious gold bugs
and the money power of those days.
In fact not only was the currency de-
monetiZed, but the very state that au-
thorized it was dropped as surrepti-
tiously as was the silver dollar in 1873.
What is now Tennessee was in
cluded in the limits of the state of
North Carolina, but the seat of gov
eminent was across the mountains.
and the settlers were neglected, and
they decided to have a state all by
themselves, and so 10 years ago they
met in constitutional convention and
organized the state of Franklin. They
elected legislature, and this body
OF men, more accustomed to using
the rifle than the pen, met to consider
the conditions of the new state and
what it could do to improve them.
The pressing need was money.
There were a few Spanish dollars
that had been brought back from
Natchez, where pelts were sold to
the Spanish traders at that outpost,
and some Of Cardinals rag paper
money was floating about, while the
chevaliers d'industrie, then, as now,
willing to turn a penny without too
strict a regard to it's honesty, had
gilded over some French sous and
passed them for gold moidores. But
the ScantineSs of the supply only
made the larger need more apparent,
as dim candle makes the darkness,
and the legislature set it's wits to
work to supply the deficit.
In the absence of the medium of
exchange in use in the older COM
munities, the people had resorted to
barter, and had established by Gus
tom certain value for their products.
These the legislature Immediately
proceeded to monetiZe. A pound of
sugar, it decreed, should have the ex-
change value of shilling. A coon
skin or that Of a fox was fixed at one
shilling three pence. A gallon of
rye whisky was made currency at the
value of two and sixpence, while
peach brandy and fax linen were, put
on parity at six shillings a gallon
for the one or for yard of the other.
A parity was also established be-
tween deer, otter and beaver skins, if
good and clean, and made currency
at six shillings each.
The precedent was set for our green
hackers and silverites by the legis-
lature Of this state that died in par
turition, by enacting that each and
all of these articles should not only be
a legal tender for debts, but that each
and every officer of the state, from
governor down to hangman, should !
be paid in this kind of money. 1t
was fondly supposed that this cur
rency' had at least one advantage
over gold or silver or paper money, in
that it could not be counterfeited, but
the adroit counterfeiter was as re-
sourceful then as ever since, and it
was soon found that the otter skins
were very largely only coon skins
with otter tails sewed on.
Just how this currency became de-
monetized history does not record.
But there are sufficient reasons to be-
lieve that it was the result of a con-
spiracy of the money power. 1t is
unfortunate that no Congressional
Record preserved for the state of
Franklin the proceedings of it's legis-
lative body, and we are left in doubt
as to the precise methods by which
the gold bugs operated. We may be-
lieve, though, that they had some
thing to do with the action of the
legislature of North Carolina in re-
fusing to recognize the new state,
and that thus they succeeded in de-
monetizing both the wildcat" cur
rency and the state at the same
time.
But be that as it may, we know
from our own experience that, as was
the case with silver, the fur currency
of that day was worth more than it's
legal tender value. In fact, the accu-
racy of aim Of the settlers and their
uncompromising hostility to the ami
mails whose pelts were converted into
currency, as well as their devotion to
the rye whisky. and peach brandy
devotion still existing among their
observation-disclosures have led to the
appreciation Of the currency, just as
silver, when demonetized in 1873, was
worth more as bullion than as coin.
So we may believe that the gold bugs,
alarmed at the depreciation of their
favorite metal, brought about this
earliest decentralization of currency
in this country. We commend this
instance to our silver-loving friends
as an illustration ON which they can
draw to reinforce their case.