Mexico weekly ledger., 1898-02-03

cent. Then the only thing to be done
was to issue our own legal tender
notes or we would have had q South
ern Confederacy to-day. Mr.. Wiley
says that the greenback was q sde-
preciated currency" I take issue
squarely with him on this question.
I know that most people hold to his
views on that question, but 1t is be-
cause they have not taken time to
investigate for themselves, but have
paid lawyers and money changers to
do their thinking and talking, but
the other fellow paid them the most
and the masses got the worst of 1t.
Money never did do but one thing
that I ever heard Of and that was to
pay debts. The greenback was made
a legal tender for all debts, public and
private, except duties on imports
and interest on the public debt. Now,
Mr.. Wiley, do please tell as when 1t
ever failed to do that thing for which
it was intended, otherwise. acknowl-
edge that you have always been wrong
and join the Populists, get in line with
Jefferson, Jackson and Calhoun and
the founders Of the Republic.
We know that gold appreciated,
that it crawled up to two eighty and
it's strange to me that it did not 60
twice az high. Now, I viii try and
tell how 1t was done. The conditions
OF. the country, as I have already
described, was known by the bankers
of the country and it had been noised
abroad that the government had failed
to borrow money for the purpose of
carrying on the war and was about to
issue legal tender, thus becoming
Independent of the banks and depriv-
ing them of the rs or 80 per cent that
they were trying to force the country
to pay. As early as January 6, 1852,
came forward delegates OF banks from
Boston, New York, Philadelphia and
Washington, realizing that to prevent
the issue of governmentnotes of some
sort would beimpossible they opposed
the legal tender quality and with all
their might resisted the legal tender
clause and partly succeeded-had two
exceptions placed In the bill in order
to create q demand for the gold that
they had on hand when they defaulted
and failed to redeem their outstanding
notes.
II the greenbacks had been made q
legal tender for all debts, greenbacks
would have paid all demands and
there would have been no demand
for gold, but as it was the govern
ment has to say to Mr.. Banker, 81 put
the exception clause in the greenback
to accommodate you and by 10 doing
find that / have no money that will pay
interest OIL my debts and I have called
to ask youto help me out" "AIl right,
Uncle Sam; you did me q great favor
by creating a demand for gold; now I
have you in my power and could
charge you five or ten of your shin
plasters for one of gold, but as it's you
and I will expect favors from you for
all time to come, I will just make it
$3.50 and call it a square deal"
Bankers went to Washington by the
train load (and special train at that)
to oppose the legal tender clause
men with their 207 millions of notes
flying like autumn leaves, men who
boasted that they knew what "honest
money" was, men who said that 1t
must be bank notes redeemable in
pudiating their most solemn promise
and while their old fraudulent, decept-
i've system of s'specie payments" lie
dead at their feet, they came forward
to pirate about q money system. Such
were the men who raised the unholy
opposition to the legal tender and
there were men in Congress then, a.
now, more concerned about banks than
about the country.
Henry A. Wilson said: Gas q prac-
tical question, it is q contest between
brokers, jobbers and money changers
on one hand and the people OF the
United States on the other.n
Judge Bingham said: "Nott to make
them legal tender is to lay the people
at the feet of the bankers and brok-
ere.n
Thad. Stephens said: "Without full
legal tender clause the notes cannot
be kept at par; bankers would depre-
cate them" He again said: ''That when
we proposed to make them full legal
tender congratulation poured In from
merchants, traders, laborers and man
~ufacturers, but a doleful sound came
from the caverns of the bullion brok-
ers and associated banks. Yes, we
had to yield. We did not yield till we
found the bankers had to be gratifed
or the country lost" Again he said:
"When q few years hence the people
shall have been brought to bankrupt
cy, I will have the satisfaction of
knowing that I did all 1 could to pre-
vent it,"
While the Hght was going on be-
tween Hamilton and Jefferson over
the question authorizing banks of
issue, Lord Pitt, q distinguished
man, said, in reference to it: "Let the
Americans adopt their funding SYSTEM
and go into banking institutions and
their boasted independence will be q
sham" r, II. CAUrrHoRN.
4