Year: 1865

Forcing Greenbacks into Circulation.


That excessively Loyal Journal, the Washing
ton Standard makes the last and highest test of
devotion to "the Government" to be a willing
ness to take Greenbacks for gold. It plainly
proves that the duty of the people is to receive
and pay out the pretty paper-money of Mr.. Fes-
sender precisely at the same value as coin cur
rency; thus assuming that a promise 20 pay
gold at some period, indefinitely in the future,
is as good as the gold itself. How the Patriots
expect the people to do this, and keep even on
it is "a financial problem" which even the fa-
ther of greenbacks would be puzzled to solve.
To expect solution from the particular Patriot
who does the Loyal and Patriotic for the Wash
ington Standard would be expecting too much.
1t is enough that Patriot has said it--let the
Loyalists and Subjugated Democracy obey with
out impertnent remarks or curious investiga-
tions into the merits of the case.


Dean Swift, in his ''Tale of a Tub" has fur
nished the only parallel to the modest demands
Of this Olympia Loyalist. He makes Peter in
site his brothers Martin and john to a feast, at
which nothing butd bread and water is placed
on the tabla. Assuming all the cordiality of
fraternaI love and generous hospitality, he Of
Fers his brothers each a crust OF bread, remark
ing that they will fnd it most excellent mutton;
pouring out glass of water for each, he as
sures them it is old wine of excellent body
very stimulating and nutritious. The writer
goes on to say that the two brothers "couldn't
see it' no more can the people see the resem-
blance between shinplasters and the bright jing
ling coin-the money that weighs in the pocket
the money that is always current-the hard
money which is made on purpose for the hard
hands that honestly earn it.


The Father of Greenbacks, Mr. Chase, knew
perfectly we'll how to keep greenbacks near par.
He hit the nail on the head after attempting to
shear" gold in New York by selling the gold
ceived for customs-moneys, by the way, SOL
emnly pledged to the payment of interest on the
then Indebtedness of the United States. Says
Mr.. Chase to the gold-operators, 81 will recon-
mend taxation to the amount of $500,000, 900 a
year" This was the most statesmanlike speech
Mr.. Chase ever uttered. He knew perfectly well
that heavy taxation payable in greenbacks,
would rapidly absorb the promises to pay then
floating throughout the country, by creating a
vast demand for the Legal Tender Notes-a de-
mand which did not exist and could not be Gre
, ated in any other way. 1t is true that the Con-
yertible Notes excited a desire for investment in
United States Bonds but taxation made an i'm
perative demand for money that could not be
evaded. But ''the Government" knew that to
tax the people was to reveal the fact that war
was not a cheap amusement. We had been
carrying on war as prohigate heir spends an
inheritance of which he has not yet come into
possession. So ''the Government" kept on by
credits and floating its Indebtedness to as great
an extent as possible, to avoid the payment of
interest and the odium of heavy taxation. 1t
signed post o5its predicated on the death of the
Southern COnfederacy Greenbacks, of course,
went down prices, Of course, went up. Sol
diers only received a heggarly seven dollars
month in Democratic times; Mr., Chase prom
ised to pay them twice as much at some future
time, not distinctly specified but thought to be
pretty close at hand, for the COntederacy must
die in ''ninety days" anyhow, if not previously
sduelched by an avenging Providence, who, 1t
was asserted by Abolition preachers, was un-
doutedly on our side. And speculation ran
wild money abounded, Chase was looked upon
as an improvement on Midas, and the Treasury
Building had a greenback Pactolus flowing out
of its portal. The people were intoxicated with
the new-found wealth, corruption found its way
to high places, and the country for a timeresem-
bled a sinking ship with the crew breaking into
the sprit-rOom in order to have a good time
while it was still possible only the United States
was not sinking, o; rather would not sink, for
all jeff Davis could do and for all Lincoln,
Chase & Co., did do. But in spite of the abd-
ing confidence of the people in the stability of
the United States its currency is below par; the
novelty of the National Currency has worn off;
greeubacks are no longer looked upon as artis
tic curiosities and everybody has experienced
the disadvantage of having to take them at
certain price, and pass them at lesser one
When you invade a mans pocket, and make
free with his money he is apt to be displeased
about it.


But the question is not, Who has been wrong
about this currency heretofore? We shall take
the ground that the government ought to en-
courage and protect those who specially con-
tract to have gold paid to them; for by so doing
il induces the holders of gold to invest it freely;
for the lack of proper protection it is plain that
men will hoard the precious metals, and we
know by experience that unless gold-owners
know that they are to have gold paid in return
for loans they will not part with it, Next by
creating a feeling of uneasiness amongst the De-
mocracy, vast numbers of that party have been
so alarmed for fear their rights and liberties
were to be invaded that they have boarded gold
for emergencies. VIII any reasonable man
doubt this, when he reflects that some of the
scoundrels who have cloaked present miscon-
duct and past misdeeds by pretensions to exces-



Standard be fixed, and unless mans opinions
squared with it he was to be deprived of the
right to ownership in our gold and silver mines2
Have not the Loyalists of Nevada made test
oath by which the ablest and most honorable
men at the bar in that State have been forced to
abandon the legal profession? so that none but
Abolitionists can now appear in Court. We ask,
Would the men who have done this thing besi-
tate to rob Democrats if their courage was equal
to their villainy?


We may sum up then the causes of the aggra-
walton of the sufficiently great evils of paper
currency to be, frst-non- -convertibility of a
portion of the notes, second-over-issue and not
enough taxation, third-attempting to terrorize
the people into admitting the equality of green
backs with gold which being an absurdity no
body would believe, not even Mr.. Chase himself
and, fourth-the uneasy feeling among vast
number of our people who feared that they
might be compelled to seek homes in another
country, and have been quietly boarding gold to
that end. Excessive corruptiOns, governmental
extravagance, habits of expense, indulgence in
foreign luxuries, which must be paid in cash
and the disposition to hoard which always ex-
lists to a certain degree in time of war, addi-
tional reasons for the scarcity of gold. We
have but one more reflection to offer: If ''the