The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1897-09-28

anu sur eSij uo Weii az IilS iuooo iu-
slduous, plan that could be adopted.
The necessities of the war furn-
ished the excuse, and so well di-
rected was the effort that the war
was prolonged for three years, and
thousands Of lives sacrificed for no
other purpose than to impoverish
the people and pile up a public
debt that, in the estimation of these
traitors to humanity, to cancel
which would render the united ef-
forts of succeeding generations, un-
availing.
The first move in the great game
was to induce congress to place the
exception clause on the Greenback,
and thus place the government in
the unconstitutional position, that
the power to coin money and to
regulate the value thereof was linn
tied by the line of demarkation
indicated by the exception on the
face lof;the note itself. But look
ing back through the vista fyears,
can any sane man tell what ;nfiu-
ence was exercised over the minds
of the representatives of the people
to induce them to solemnly declare,
by law, that congress, and through
it the people, had the consti'u-
tional power to declare and ordain
that one thing should be legal
money TO liquidate private debts,
and to pay the soldier for his risk
Of life and limb, his exposure and
toll, and yet that this same, should
not be lawful money with which TO
pay interest to those who loaned
money to the government or sold it
munitions Of war, or even in pay
ment of q debt due the government
itself, (namely, custom dutiee.) Oh
ye gods Of high Olympus! was there
ever such an exhibition of imbecil-
ity, idiocy and pure foolishness, by
men alleged to possess the art and
science of state craft in the small
est degree.
While this dastardly act furnish
ed the coin brokers a sure and pro-
fitable market for their coin, it was
soon discovered that they did not
not own a sufficient quantity of
gold and silver to yield profits suf.
ticiently large to satiate their
growing greed, and new schemes
" ere invented to enable these cor.
morants to reap a richer harvest
from the calamilies of a war ridden
people. The green backed treasury
notes had rapidly become popular,
and there was Issued $30O,OO0,O 900
by July 1862, virtually driving out
Of circulation the notes of the State
and private banks. The bankers
Of the country became alarmed and
organized paid lobby to bring
about such change in the finan.
cial policy as would give them con-
troll of the finances Of the govern
ment. A plan was proposed, (bor-
rowed from England,) by which
the government bonds Issued in
1861 and G2 should be made the
basis Of our circulation, which plan
was Incorporated into the National
Banking act Of Feb. 25th, 1868.
BY virtue os this law any number
Of persons, not less than five might
deposit interest bearing bonds of
the u. s. with the United States
treasury as a circulation security,
and be chartered as National
Bank, with privilege to issue the
notes of the bank to an amount
equal to ninety per cent Of the face
value of the bonds so deposited.
The great features of the pla n are
threefold: First, the capital of
was limited by the popula-
ton of the locality; Second, the
bonds bore interest, and were not
subject to taxation, and so were u
good investment, even while they
formed the basis of circulation;
Third, the ninety percent of the !
face value Of the deposited bonds
was IA pure gratuity to the extent
Of eightynine per cent, this nearly
doubling the capital of those en-
gagged in banking.
4
The establlshnen ent of the Nation
al Banks, IL was thought would
,oDfine the control of the money
of the country in the
hands of a, comparatively, few per-
sons, and that this was true Is suf
iciently shown by the report of the
Comptroller OF the currency, which
shows that two years ago 2S5, 100
, n a rn hnIIarn nuunaI fha Nntfoo,I