Mexico weekly ledger., 1898-02-03
Cauthorn's Reply to Whitley.
SOME POINTED QUESTIONS PRO-
POUNDED TO THE YOUNG ST.
LOUIS ATTORNEY.


rsncy Fully Brought 0ut--Some
Quotations From Notable Men
"A Populistic View.
To the Editor of the Ledger.
MEXICO, Mo-, Feb. 1.-"Is the gov
eminent the proper party to issue
paper money!" I am very much
pleased to have MI. Whitley state the
proposition SO fairly and plainly a. he
has done and would have been glad IL
he had defined one term Of the propo-
! sition. That is this: What Is money,
its office and its functions? He tex
poets to furnish reason and history in
support of his proposition ard expects
to hold me to the same task" All
right. Could not please me better for
1 am sure l can furnish both until he
can't rest. He puts Mr.. Jefferson on
the stand and makes him first witness,
and l believe that al established point
| of law 10 that a client cannot impeach
his own witness. Now, let rs hear
what his principal witness has to cay:
81 have ever opposed money Of banks.
Not those discounting for cash, but
those foisting their own paper in cir
culation and thus banishing u cash."
Letter of Thomas jefferson to Presi-
dent Adams, July "a, 1914. Sand SO
the nation may continue to Issue its
bills as far as its want require and
the limits of its circulation will adj
NIT" Letter to John W. Epps, Juno
q, 1918.
On Oct. Is, 1915, in a letter to Mr..
Gallatin, Mr.. Jefferson wrote, "We
are undone, my dear sir, il this bank
ing mania is not suppressed"
Nov. 6, 1913, in letter to MI. Epps,
Jefferson's works, vol. 6, page $50, he
said: "The subscribers may be one, two
or three or more individuals (many
| single individuals being s,ble to pay in
Ave m%illions), whereupon this bank
oligarchy or monarchy enters the field
with ninety millions of dollars to d.
rect and control the politics of the
nation, and the influence Of these in
situations on our politics and into what
scale it will be thrown we have had
abundant experience. Indeed, Eng
land herself may be the real while
her friend and trustee here shall be
the nominal and the sole subscriber"
In another letter Mr.. Jefferson said:
"The power to issue money should be
taken from the banks and restored to
Congress and the people, to which it
properly belongs" Is it not strange
that after all that Mr.. Jefferson has
said against bank issues and in favor
of the people (through Congress issu-
ing their own currency that any man
would bring him into court and under
take to prove that the banks should
issue and control the currency and
thereby shape the destiny of seventy
millions of people and the unborn
generations that are to follow? When
Mr.. jefferson said that the "nation
had no power to make paper money q
legal tender" have no doubt it was
intend to convey the idea that the
government would never have such
power, just because it would not
have been true, for she has had the
power and has issued legal tenders
whenever she has seen ft to do 80 for
more than thirty years, If Grant did
pack the Supreme Court for that pur-
pose. But Mr.. Whitley cannot accuse
Grant Of packing tho Supreme Court
when it rendered decision on March
3, 1884, in the a 9 Of A. d. billiard vs..
Thomas 8. Greene. After rendering
the decision In favor of the legal ten
der the court says, In conclusion:
Congress, "a the Legislature of .
sovereign nation, being empowered
by the constitution to levy and collect
taxes, to pay debts and provide for
the common defense and the general
welfare of the United States, and to
coin money and regulate the value
thereof and Of foreign coins, and to
provide a national currency for the
whole people, in the form OF coin ana
treasury notes and bank bills and the
power to make notes OF the govern
ment a legal tender in payment Of
debts"
Being n of the powers in other
civilized countries and not expressly
withheld from Congress- by the con-
stitution, we are irresistably impelled
to the conclusion that impressing up
on treasury notes of the United States
the quality of being legal tender in
payment of debts is an appropriate
means, conducive and plainly adapted
to the execution of the undoubted
power of Congress, consistent with
the letter and the spirit of the consti-
tuition. Therefore, within the mean
ing of that instrument to resort to this
means Is a political question to be de-
termined by Congress alone and not
by the courts.
1t will not be necessary to quote
from Andrew jackson, for every
school boy knows how he stood in
regard to banks Of issue.
John @. Calhoun in the Senate In
1887 advocated the government issue
OF its own currency. We could pile
up authorities without limit bat this |
ought to be sufficient to satisfy any
man, especially one who claims to be
q Democrat.
Mr.. Wilfey's first objection to gov
eminent issue is that Gall paper money
should be based on property easily
ancI, as . matter OF fact,
the government has no property at all
except what it EFFORTS from it's edti-
Gems by means Of taxation" What 10
the government Louis XIV thought
he was the state. I presume that Mr..
Wiley thinks that President McKin.
ley and q few officials In Washington
the government of these