Year: 1861

composed, while our capital ia not only
as great as ever, but is constantly increas-
ing, that the exchange value Of money is
to 8 per cent. higher here than in Eng
land and France. Sterling exchange ia
now selling at 81 to 7 per cent. We can buv
in England the sovereign, or as much nure
gold as the sovereign contains, for g. 72 or
$47z, worth to us in .. s. coin, $A87,65:
and We can buy in France S francs IS cent.
INES Of gold for the value of S francs 1ai
centames in our dollar, Of course ne pay
tnese purchasing values in wheat and pro-
visions Of Illinois and other Western States
ne are doing capital business in this
line every dime Of gold we are getting in
return, being a clear gain and realization
OF absolute wealth, because Illinois and the
other States are not appreciably exhausted
thereby; they hare the land and the labor
to produce all the exports required to con-
tlnue the traffic for generations yet unborn.
They will reproduce these products, and
the gold they are now receiving becomes a
clear addition to their capital and wealth.


But Illinois is uneasy with the business
wants to stop it The banks of the whole
country want to stop it, and will do so with
the aid Of the national government, very
soon, by converting public debt into cur
rency. The government itself is thrssting
in paper stopper of $50, ,o0o, 900, made up
in its own Offices without the help Of the
banks. The business must be stopped; 1t
is unnatural to US to have money and
wealth; we are used to debt and insolY-
ency, and must have the debt currency to
accommodate very long cherished habits
and drive the gold away by initiating prices
and installing price for value, in utter loss.
This is what we are now preparing to do
with yigor.


It surely ought to be selfevident to any
and every man Of good common sense,
that currency consisting Of money, that
is to say, Of razue, the product Of labor, is
wealth; whether it be corn, cattle, beaver
skins, tobacco, gold, silver, iron, copper, OF
any other commodity Of value; many
such commodities having been employed
as money here and elsewhere. Either Of
these, as the medium of exchange, will
measure and create price, that is, an equiva-
lent ralue, and will pay it, and as matter
Of course it will pay debt. It ought to be
equally evident that o currency consisting
of debt, that is to say, Of promises to pay
money, is not value or wealth, for by law
higher than human statutes the promise to
pay a thing cannot be the thing ITSELF
Yet this currency Of promises will form
medium Of exchange as convenient
as money, expel money and occupy its
place, removing at the same time so much
means Of payment It will create price
like money, and in creating price it creates
debt, but can never pay it; it can never
| pay either price OF debt. In the nature OF
things it only promises; something else
must perform, and that something else
must be ralue in the thing, or equivalent to
| the thing promised. But the promise
measures and creates price without the
value to pay it with; it has no material
equivalent, and the price, which is the only
equivalent Of the promise; can last no
longer than the promise; when the prom.
Use is Withdrawn, as Of late in the set-of
| by contraction Of bank loans, the price
must fall, and the debts contracted by it,
measure mast find a weak place some,
where; they will reach corner where
they must be discharged in bankruptcy.
| Money has double nature. The i'm
pcrtancc Of a knowledge Of this truth i
scarcely suspected, but it will ultimately
abolish the debt currency. FErst-As al
instrument Of exchange and measure 0
price, it is not wealth; for any quantity


equally efficient the smaller efecting e5
change equally as well as the larger, on1,
at lover prices, 1n this respect ita attri
butte is merely -p7Sce, and it raises prices b1
an equivalent depreciation Of money, 81
much more money being required in ex
change for other things; the one effec
compromising the other, leaving the public
wealth the same in the value Of everything
Tut money, only requiring the more money
TO transact the same business with q mort
cumbrous currency, and placing the com
munity at a disadvantage in regard to othe1
communities by encouraging imports, and
d'scouraging home productions. Deb
tulfls this object quite as well as money
Treasury demand notes, bank notes anG
credits, without regard to specie reserves
good-1ooking counterfeit notes, bad-look
ing shin-plasters, worthless promises, un
developed stump-tail, any thing that pub
lie credulity consents to circulate, is, 10
the time, q perfect medium of exchange
creating price and maintaining price, not
dime Of which it can ever pay. The pop
u'ar delusion in this matter is complete


Your debtor hands you banI
note and you consider yourself paid
but you are 10 more paid than 70,
were before; it is but a transte
of debt and you have yet to collect tn


bill Of the bank; or you also may transfe


and obtain value for it. Then it is tn


commodity OF service received that pay
Tor the commodity OF service delivered
whether years or months before, or at til


moment The note performs the Office Q


q medium Of exchange, but it pays moth


ing, and q counterfeit note would fulfill th


purpose just as well But while the not


exists it is suspension Of payment Of it


own amount, and Of the counter deb


which it supports, and which is supporte


by it in the discount line of the bank. Gu
whole debt currency is nothing but 8 con


tinued suspension Of payment. It neve


pays anything.


Stcond-Money is the material equivs
lent Of all objects Of value. In this It


spect its attribute is value and it pay
debt. 1t is q commercial commodity an


utility which is wealth as a commod
ity and not merely as money. This an
all other commodities would be value an
!, wealth if there were no price and n
money in existence; the difference bein
only q matter Of convenience in effectin
exchanges. The more we have Of this th
t greater is our wealth


t This is the great and essential attribut
:. Of money-vLUE-and that public opi1


ion which supposes debt to possess It IN th