The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1898-06-01
SI,yIocIzs.


locks seem to be much more mod
est in their demands upon the gov
eminent now then they were in
1861. Then they demanded % to
SO per cent. upon their gold, but
they had man to deal with who
believed in the people and stood
by them and did all in his power
for the common good, and rather
than submit to the extortinate de
demands of the bankers and mon
ey grabbers who were on the alert
to fatten upon necessities and dis
tress of the government. issued
greenbacks with which to pay the
running expense of the government
and TO maintain the army and ma
Wy. That money answered every
purpose until through the schemes
of the money lenders, the govern
ment itself dishonored it by refus-
ing to receive it for duties ON inn
ports and limiting it's legal tender
functions. BY placing what is
called the 'rider," or in other words
the exception clause upon it they
said to every manufacturer, mer-
chant, mechanic and everybody en-
gagged in legitimate trade and the
productive industries, you are not
as good as the bondholder: you are
of a lower order of creation" The
greenbacks are plenty good enough
for you; and to the soldier and sail
or, although you daily risk your
life in the defense of your coun-
try's flag, you are not as worthy as
the bondholders who sit in their
Offices in Wall street and avail
themselves of ever opportunity to
cry down the credit of the govern
ment and thus depreciate the legal
tender notes in the interest of their
gold. No, you are only the com
mon clay and these deprecated
notes are good enough for you, too.
for after ali your patriotism was
probably dictated by selfshness.
The true patriot is the man who
buys up deprecated legal tender
at from 80 to 60 per cent. and
exchanges these notes with the
government for its bonds dollar for
dollar. That is the kind of patri-
otism that counts, and for the
immense benefit the nation has de-
rived from this patriotic conduct of
the shavers of any paper by which
my life was saved, nothing but
gold, yellow, glittering gold, is good
enough for them" That is the
language we can all read between
the lines in the exception clause on
a greenback if we are SO fortunate
as to possess one.
Why is not silver good enough
for the bondholder? Or why is
not the legal tender note good
enough for him? Is he really what
the exception clause proclaima
him, made of better quality OF
clay than the less fortunate, but far
more honest class who are engaged
in the various productive indus
tries through whose exertions the
wealth is created, which goes TO
pay this better class, this higher
order of humanity, their golden in
terest upon their bonds?
If that clause in the Declaration
of independence which declares
"that all men are created equal be
accepted as true and the Constitu-
ton of the United States recog-
nizes that principle, whence did
Congress get its authority to separ-
ate the people into two classes and
declare that a certain kind of mon
ey is good enough for one class
and compel them to accept it in
payment of debt, and in the same
act declare that the other, the bet
ter class ahould not be required to
accept the same kind of money but
should be paid in something bet
ter?
But, some one says, the govern
ment received gold for these bonds,
therefore it is in honor bound to
pay in the same kind of money it
received. There have been few
bond sold for gold it is true, but
only few, and these few were sold
at price based, not upon gold, but
upon silver, and the government
has never realized more than the
silver price for single bond issue
Money lenders are well aware that
all United States bonds are accord
ing to the terms of the contract
and the law under which they are