The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-18
Total


The first war money was issued I'M
der the acts of July II, 1861, and Feb
ruary, 1862, $50, 100000 treasury notes
not bearing interest, and legal tender
for all debts public and private. These
demand notes, unlike all subsequerr
issues, did not contain the exception
clause. consequently they have always
been on a par with gold, showing that
had it not been for the exception
clause on the greenback, they would
always have been on a par with gold.
But the money classes were furious,
They saw no chance for plumber. The
money of the people must be depreci-
ated, and now commences the evolu-
ton of Republican financial policy.
When Congress met in December,
1861. Thaddeus Stevens and E. G.
Spalding, the first as chairman of the
Committee of Ways and Means and
the other as chairman of the sub-com-
mittee, both of them able and honest
men, framed the legal tender act on
principles such as had been in a large
degree endorsed by jefferson and Jack
son. Their purpose was to put the
forthcoming national debt partly into
the form of small circulating notes,
without interest, for a currency, and
partly in the form of interest bearing
bonds payable in coin at the end Of
twenty years. The bonds were to be
on sale as a means of investment and
in order TO take up and fund any in
| fiation of the currency that might ex-
ist at any time.
The money power organized an oppo-
sition. On January IL, 1862, they pre-
scented a series of demands upon the
Finance committee of Congress, which,
If they had been accepted. would have
bound the nation hand and foot. But
Stevens and Spalding were working
for the people Their bill passed the
House by a vote of SO to SO, and the
gold bugs of that day applied their
machina tons exclusively TO the Sem
ate. Thaddeus Stevens himself, refer
ring to the passage of the bill in the
House. says, February 20, 1862:
"A doleful sound came up from the
caverns of bullion brokers and the sa-
looms of the associated banks Their
cashiers and agents were soon on the
ground, and persuaded the Senate,
with but little elaboration, to mang1e
and destroy what it had cost the
House months 20 digest, consider and
pass"
The late William D. Kelley, known
as Pig Iron Kelley" says of Thad-
deus Stevens. when his bill was mutt
lated by the Senate:
moner, with his hat in his hand and
his cane under his arm, when he re-
turned to the House from the final con-
ference, shedding bitter tears over the
result Yes said he, we have had to
yield. The Senate was stubborn. We
did not yield until we Found that the
country must be lost or the banks be
gratified; and we have sought to save
the country in spite of the cupidity of
its wealthiest citizens.
The bill came back to the House. and
these honest men fought Cor the rights
of the people; but the money power
was too strong, and on February 25
1852 the legal tender act passed the
Senate for the last time and became a
law But it was the law Of the banks
of Wall street. not of the people. The
Senate had deprived United States cur
rency of the power to pay interest on
the United States bonded debt 1t must
be pain in coin. and as a consequence
in order 10 get the coin. the ITnitad
States notes were deprived of the
power to pay tariff duties; these must
be paid in coin. Thus the money of
the United States was dishonored in
its creation. 1t was the purpose of
the leaders TO depreciate United States
money; this was the deliberate policy
Of the men who controlled the Repub
mean party says John Sherman a
year later. in his report as chairman
of the Finance committee: ut beca me
necessary to depreciate the notes In
order to create market for the
bonds" Says Samuel Hooper. a mem
Der Of the Committee of WAYS and
Means, in his speech in the House
February 10. 1862
Il am opposed to the Amendment &c
the Senate which requires the interest
of government notes and bonds 70 be
paid absolutely in coin. because its ef.
feet will be to deprec:ate these notes
as compared with coin, by dec1arino,
them in advance To be s0 denrecia teS'
1T creates 4 necessity for the govern
ment to obtain a large amount of coin
by purchase which holds out ar inducs-
tnent TO speculate on the necessity of
the government, by collecting and hoa rd-
ing the coin against the time that II
will ne required by the government to
pay its interest"
And what was the effect of the policy
of depreciation? The money of the
United States went forth with a brand
of infarny upon its face. 1t might pay
soldiers and patriots for their service
on the field of battle, but it was not
good enough for the bankers and the
bondholder. nor for custom duties Soon
It deprecated, as compared with gold
to less than half its face value. This
was what was wanted by those who
sought 10 serve the money changers.
This was pure Hamiltonianism 1t was
the subsidizing of the rich. the impov-