MVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA A^Q MVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA \_-/fa /"A^O DIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Qj/"Ak LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GYu^/fa QJSv) LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA L Sf\\ uu. ERSITY OF CALIFORNIA rfO LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ": LIBI 9| ERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBI >-;^^ffi I ERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA CRIMES OF TEE CIYIL AE, AND CURSE OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM. BY HENRY CLAY DEAN, BALTIMORE: PRINTED FOR THE PUBLISHER, BY J. WESLEY SMITH & BRO. 1869. DEDICATION. To the brave men, who, unmoved by the violence of party; unseduced by the temptations of wealth, and unawed by the cruelty of war, defended the priceless treasures of Constitutional Liberty; endured banishment, tortures, and death, rather than surrender their birthright, transmitted by the Fathers of 1776 To those upright soldiers, who, through five years of carnage, corruption, plunder, rapine, and desolation, preserved their hands unstained with innocent blood, their souls unpolluted with plunder, and maintained their manhood in violate To the laboring poor, whose subsistence is devoured by the combinations of Monopoly, Bankruptcy, Usury, Extortion, Standing Armies, Tax-gatherers and Usurpation To the immortal dead, who surrendered their lives in defence of the honor and safety of their homes, and poured out their blood in rich libations to the God of Liberty is this book dedicated by THE AUTHOR. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by WILLIAM T. SMITHSON, In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the District of Maryland, Stereotyped by UVAN & IlICKETTS. PUBLISHEB S PEEFACE. " THE CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR AND CURSE OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM," which is now presented to the American people, is a most remarkable book. It is a plain rehearsal of thrilling inci dents which have occurred in this country within the past few years ; it is a record of some of the basest crimes ever inflicted upon man by his fellow ; it graphically depicts many heart rending outrages perpetrated upon humanity, in the name of lib erty, by the unbridled passions of a fanatical despotism ; it is a faithful chronicle of passing events and contemplates the char acter of men as photographed by themselves in the sun-light of heaven it views things as they really exist fairly, honestly and openly ; it withdraws the veil of mystery which conceals the hideous form of a ruined government and an oppressed peo ple. History is made to repeat itself, although upon a grander scale than the world ever before contemplated. Every page has been subjected to an unscrupulous inquisition ; facts and figures are made to speak the untrammelled truth, and the entire testimony is unquestionable. The style is terse and the diction uncom promising, and every sentence is clothed in a strong lucid lan guage which has the impress of the masterly hand and spirit of the distinguished author. The work is gotten up in a plain, neat form, sufficiently cheap to be in reach of the general reader ; typographical errors have been avoided as far as possible, and we trust it will find its way to the offices, shops and firesides of the great masses of the labor ing and over-taxed people of the United States. It is the cham pion of truth and justice, and we send it forth on its mission, with full confidence in its power, to defend the right and maintain its principles. WM. T. SMITHSON, Publisher. 21G053 TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Crimes of the Civil War and Curse of the Funding System Reasons for the Publication of this Book 1st, General 2d, Pers onal . . . , 1 BOOK FIKST. OF THE GRIMES AGAINST LIBERTY. CHAPTER i. Destruction of Self- Government 25 CHAPTER II. Destruction of Civilization by Mongrelism 29 CHAPTER III. Invasion of Personal Rights 34 CHAPTER IV. Violation of the Rights of the States by the Federal Government 41 CHAPTER V. Instituting Retrospective Test Oaths to Destroy the Freedom of the Elective Franchise , 50 CHAPTER VI. Destruction of Fair and Free Elections , . . . 64 CHAPTER VII. Disintegration of Congress 69 CHAPTER VIII. The Duress of Congress.... 72 CHAPTER IX. The Character of Congress that Robs us of Liberty .., 75 CHAPTER X. The Corruption of Congress in Creating the Debt 80 CHAPTER XI. Driving the Poor into the Meshes of the Flesh Dealers and Blood Market 96 CHAPTER XII. Violation of the Laws of Nation s 106 CHAPTER XIII. Torture, Cruelty, and Outrage 120 CHAPTER XIV. Overthrow of the Constitution of the United States 142 CHAPTER XV. Degradation of the Judiciary , 145 CHAPTER XVI. The New Nation 15J CHAPTER XVII. Infidelity of the Clergy 175 BOOK SECOND. OF THE CRIMES AGAINST LABOR. CHAPTER I. The Conspiracy of the Treasury Department.... , 184 CHAPTER II. The Manner in which the Loan was Obtained 189 VI CONTENTS. PAGE. CHAPTER III. The War Debt is not a Just Debt 201 CHAPTER IV. The War Debt is Unconstitutional.... 206 CHAPTER V. The War Debt is a Breach of Trust .... 212 CHAPTER VI. We are Unable to Pay this Debt 214 CHAPTER VII. Constitutional Amendments cannot Enforce the Payment of such a Debt 222 CHAPTER VIII, No one Generation can Bind its Successors to Pay its Debts 226 CHAPTER IX. The Duty of the Friends of Peace to Repudiate War Debts , 232 CHAPTER X. A Plan for the Payment of the Debt 238 CHAPTER XI. Correspondence between the Author and Horace Greeley , 242 CHAPTER XII. The Sacred Debt 254 CHAPTER XIII. Repudiation the last Refuge of Profligacy 261 CHAPTER XIV. The Character of the Loan which Constitutes the Debt 269 BOOK THIRD. OF THE CRIMES OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM. CHAPTER I. Usury... 275 CHAPTER II. Curse oi the Funding System 321 CHAPTER III. Debt is Slavery 328 CHAPTER IV. Bondholders and Bondmen , 332 CHAPTER V. The Funding System Destroys a Stable Currency 339 CHAPTER VI. The Funding System will Concentrate the Landed Estates of the Country.... 344 CHAPTER VII. The Funding System Creates Distrust between Capital and Labor 317 CHAPTER VIII. The Sectional Character of the Funding System . 351 BOOK FOURTH. OF THE CRIMES OF THE BANKING SYSTEM. CHAPTER I. Mr. Jefferson s Objections to National Banks 366 CHAPTER II. National Banks Unnecessary 374 CHAPTER III. No Banking System can be made Secure 378 CHAPTER IV. The First Great Crime of the Chase Banking System 383 CONTENTS. Vli PAGE. CHAPTER V. The Second Great Crime of Chase s Banking System 386 CHAPTER VI. The Third Great Crime of Chase s Banking System 391 CHAPTER VII. The Expiring Crime of Chase s Banking System 405 CHAPTER VIII. John Law and Chase, with their Respective Systems Compared 412 CHAPTER IX. Squandering the Public Lands the Basis of Stock- Gambling 420 CHAPTER X. French Assignats and National Bank Notes. 424 BOOK FIFTH. OF THE CRIMES OF THE TARIFF. CHAPTER I. Unhealthy Condition of the Public Mind in Regard to Public Assistance 430 CHAPTER II. Prevailing Ignorance of the Nature of Tariffs ,436 CHAPTER III. Devices to Obstruct Trade 441 CHAPTER IV. No one Nation can Produce Everything 445 CHAPTER V. The two Principles in Favor of a Protective Tariff Contradicted each Other. . . . 447 CHAPTER VI. The Tariff rests upon Endless Contradiction 450 CHAPTER VII. How Protective Tariffs make Goods Cheap 457 CHAPTER VIII. Protective Tariffs are in Conflict with the Genius of our Government , 460 CHAPTER IX. High Tariffs Beget Smuggling 465 CHAPTER X. High Revenue Tariffs Unjust 468 CHAPTER XI. Villainies of the Tariff. 477 CHAPTER XII. Character of Manufacturers , 481 CHAPTER XIII. Curse of Manufacturing Monopolies 487 BOOK SIXTH. OF THE CRIMES OF DESPOTISM. CHAPTER I. The Curse of the Debt Greater than the Debt Itself 493 CHAPTER II. The Tax-Gatherer A 499 CHAPTER III. TheSpies..., 507 CHAPTER IV. Military Usurpers 509 REASONS FOE THE PUBLICATION OF THIS WOEK. IST. GENERAL. THE truth needs neither eulogy nor apology, whilst the most extravagant praises and pretensions are powerless to shield false hood from exposure. * A review of the unfortunate condition of the country presents but little to captivate the reader and even less to stimulate the writer to a style which may entertain the mind which does not at the same time mantle the soul with unutterable shame. Reckless tyrants have trampled down the rights and manhood of the people together, and the poor privilege of complaint con ceded to the dying culprit and not denied to the rich man in hell, prohibited in one-half of the United States. Oar Government is in nothing uniform except its contempt of law, and powerful only for the oppression of the people. Every officer seems to contemplate his office as an engine of destruction in which he is engaged to work the ruin of the partic ular department of government entrusted to his care. The Postmaster General for the last five years has been violat ing the mails. The Secretary of the Treasury has been squandering the public wealth. The Secretary of the Navy has been enfeebling our Naval po^yer. The Secretary of War, all crimsoned with innocent blood, is employing the army for the destruction of the country. 1 2 GENERAL REASONS FOB PUBLICATION. The Secretary of State has been subverting constitutional law, and disgracing our form of government at home and abroad. The Secretary of the Interior has been conniving with public jobbers to defraud the government of its most valuable lands. The Attorney General is gravely burlesquing nonsense itself by denning the Constitutional construction of unconstitutional laws, and is in conspiracy with Military Commissions to murder inno cent women. The President is administering the government through Mili tary Satraps in a manner unknown to Eepublican systems and disgraceful to despotisms which regard the character of those en trusted with power. We now witness ,among our kindred the debasement of a civilized people who are forced to submit to the insult and domination of barbarian negroes and foreign vagabonds. The Courts of the country are infamously corrupt. The State Legislatures and Congress are flagrantly accessible to bribes, which have become the only tangible basis of special and an essential necessity in general legislation. The people of the late Confederate States, after encountering the terrible vicissitudes of war, were overtaken by a famine which inflicted frightful forms of starvation, and are now overrun and robbed by predatory invasions, and endangered by the insurrec tion of domestic savages incited by foreign incendiaries. Each step of advancing usurpation upon the part of these tyrants has been met by a receding cowardice upon the part of the people, which has yielded to its behests. Capital has availed itself of the general distress to combine its powers to oppress labour ; labour has conceded and begged in the vain hope of appeasing capital, until Banks, Tariffs and Usury, the three great criminals of all governments, are now employed by the funded system to create revenues, keep up military estab lishments and enslave the people. This enquiry into the causes and remedy of the condition of the GENERAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. country is prepared for the plain thinking people, who determine to be free from the dangerous errors of demagogues and the over shadowing power of capital. While a people should not be insensible to the glory, grandeur, and power of a good government, and should duly award its just meed to courage, it should never be forgotten that there can be no glory won by self-destruction ; that civil wars should find 110 last ing place in our records; that magnanimity to a fallen victim who has proven his courage on the battle field, should consign to oblivion his faults. Upon the other hand, the thief, robber, murderer or incendiary who, loaded down with the plunder of defenceless families and leaving a desert waste in his bloody trail, fled before avenging armies, should be held up to mankind on the gibbet of history to warn others who have started upon the mistaken road to glory, not to strew their pathway with the relics of virtue and prosperity, nor pave their line of march with human skulls. The people yet, have it within their power to restore their free dom, retrieve their lost character, though unable to bring back the dead, or efface those terrible scars inflicted upon the violated person of liberty in her contests with arbitrary power. The people can no longer look for safety in mercenary party organiza tions, or rely for relief upon demagogues. The freemen of Amer ica must learn to think for themselves. These following questions must be searchingly put to the people : I. By what right can any generation contract to enslave suc cessive generations, and mortgage the labor of future centuries to pay the debt created to satiate hate and aggrandize a lawless cupid ity? II. Can any government justly levy a tax upon the labor of the country to support and increase its untaxed capital, and en slave industry to speculation ? III. By what earthly power can such a claim be enforced upon 4 GENERAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. a people who are aroused to a sense of its injustice, and shrink with horror from the recollection of the bloody crimes which en- tailed it upon us ? IV. Can any government retain its freedom and continue sub ject to subsidies more than equivalent to ordinary rents, which are levied for the benefit of a privileged class upon the labouring and agricultural classes, making the distinction between the rich and the poor clearly marked and indelibly drawn ? Y. Is it profitable, is it desirable, nay, is it possible, to over throw our present system of popular government and substitute for it an arbitrary government, or a monied aristocracy or limited monarchy, for the enforcement of a debt which has been contrac ted for the most part without the authority of law ? VI. Will the people of this country give organic guarantees for the payment of a debt due to citizens of this and other coun tries, the payment of which is subject to the action of the courts, simply to avoid the faithful interpretation of the law by judicial tribunals to which every other claim is legally subjected? VII. Is it possible for any popular government, in violation of all historical precedent, to long continue the victim of this un just and arbitrary power, administered by a few through combi nations of force, fraud and fanaticism ? VIII. If any future Congress should refuse to make appro priations for the liquidation of such debt, or for the payment of standing armies to enforce it, how then could constitutional guar antees protect capital from taxation, or make labor support idle ness in her exorbitant demands ? IX. Were the powers which created this debt legally elected by free and fair elections ? X. Were the Legislative bodies which made the appropriations legally constituted ? XI. In what manner, for what purposes and by what author ity was the money spent which had been thus appropriated ? GENERAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. 5 XII. What must be the relative condition of capital and labor under the direction and control of the funding system ? XIII. By what authority and under what pretense was the present compound system of fraudulent Banking the illicit off spring of Financial debauchery, imposed upon the country ? XIV. Why are the systems of duties, excises and direct taxes levied for the purpose of oppressing the poor and aggrandizing, the rich, to create a hateful monied Oligarchy in the land ? XV. Why have the resources of the country, the business of the people, the harmony of society, and the hopes of civilization and Christianity been swept from the land ? XVI. What shall be done to restore our lost liberties ? All of these questions are now upon us. They are awaiting that careful canvass which ultimately overtakes every subject among thinking people in an enlightened age. The issue may be protracted but cannot be doubtful. God and justice are upon the side of the good and just. Intellect will struggle with intellect, and cultivated reason will reassert her dominion over King Mob and his disgusting retinue of drunken and debauched demagogues, with the multitude of infuriated rabble, drunk with blood and rioting in crime. Socie ty will make her requisitions upon her Jeffersons and Franklins, her Miltons and Lockes, to reconstruct in justice the great super structure of liberty which has been laid in ashes by incendiary fires, and determine questions which have been raised by the passionate fanatics and mercenary tricksters who ascribe to government no higher object than to furnish support to malignant partizans, and aspire to no higher position for themselves than to gather up the fly-blown offal from the table of political power, and boldly avow no other object in political contests than the acquisition of political ascendency. In this contest between idle capital and active labor, each of the contestants will summon all of their ancient allies to their support. 6 GENERAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. Capital will ardently espouse the cause of standing armies, strong governments, the union of Church and State, the growth of mo nopolies, the funding system and arbitrary power. Upon the other hand, labor has no allies but the justice of her cause, the intelligence of her people and the strong arm of self defence. It is refreshing to turn the eye backward through the dim track of centuries, and behold the manly self-respect of our hardy an cestors who suffered not majesty itself to trifle with their liberties or the servants of the king to trample upon the privacy of his subjects. The heavens are darkened with the lowering clouds of a finan cial hurricane which no power can arrest. When the storm comes in its terrible desolation, it will sweep down every thing before it. Standing armies cannot enforce the obligations of such a debt, although they may increase it, and thereby hasten repudiation ; which they are now doing by the establishment of military gov ernment in the South, and which they are proposing in every part of the country. Constitutional amendments cannot enforce the debt. When adopted they will be futile in the hands of revolutionists, who have set the example of repudiating constitutions without amend ments, and all other obligations. We most respectfully commit the public debt to time, which outlaws all claims by limitation. The debt cannot reach the next generation, and if it does it will not be bound by the foolish contracts of this, and will do well if it meets its own obligations. We wish bondholders no worse luck than to fall into the hands of negroes, who want cheap food and raiment, and will vote down tariffs and taxes. Then what becomes of the public debt ? Leaving all these questions to time, the arbiter of events, cast your eyes to the coming storm. GENERAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. 7 We have a high duty to perform, which is to restore the Consti tutional obligations of the Government, to secure the rights of the States and the liberties of the people. And if villainous capital or overbearing monopoly stands in the way, it will not impede our progress or arrest our purpose. It were better that every man in America were bankrupt, than that we be crushed by perpetual debt. The character of the funding system has been examined and exposed because, since the commencement of the war the triple swindle of the banking system has transferred at least $300,000,- 000 of the property and labor of the poor to the coffers of the rich. 1. By inflating the currency from 1862 to 1864, from par to $2 89 100 premium, advancing the price of every article used by the poor in this ratio, and enhancing the value to the extent of the hoarded money in the coffers of the rich. 2. Securing this enhanced value to the rich by funding at par the inflated paper to be paid in gold under pretense of reducing the volume of paper money. 3. When the funding was secured, then renewing the inflation through the National Banks, and giving to corporations a double interest interest on the bonds and discount upon the bank notes, which are untaxed and depreciating. . . . . . . . ^ . The tariff, under pretext of protecting manufactures, has been an instrument in the hands of the rich to oppress the poor. It is a decree passed to limit the amount and quality of the food and raiment of the consumer, for the benefit of the producer. The extent and atrocity of our taxation defies comment. It has placed over us an army of spies, detectives, contractors, general and sub ordinate officers, who meet us at every corner of the street, and in every avenue of business. Placing a money-grabber between the mouths of the poor and the butcher shop a stamp between the medicine and your dying 8 GENERAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. child a tariff between your shivering body and the clothing- store between the muslin shroud and the corpse of your \vife. We may be charged with a purpose to repudiate this debt. Upon this subject I have but a few words - The collection of this debt is a question for the determination of the courts. I shall not, therefore, more than refer it to those courts. Are we bound for this debt ? If so, how and by what law? We are not bound by the Constitution to pay it; because it was contracted in a war to overthrow the Constitution and destroy the system of government under it. We are not bound by the theory of our Government to pay it, because the debt was contracted in the destruction of the Ameri can theory of government. We are not bound by the laws of civilized warfare to pay it ; because these laws, as understood by Americans and laid down by our treaty with Mexico, were violated at every step of the war from its inception to its conclusion. We are not bound in justice to pay this debt, for we have re ceived nothing in return for it. Not only no equivalent, but it has been contracted in the destruction of everything held sacred in property, obligation and security. There has been no qnid pro quo. All this is outside of the consideration of the violence, fraud, opposition and cheats employed in the contraction of the debt. We are not bound in honor to pay this debt. It was contrac ted without our consent. The Congress was elected under the combinations of force, fraud and corruptions ; legislated under the duress imposed by the bay onets held by arbitrary power over Congress and Legislatures ; and the Congress thus assuming to legislate for the country had no constitutional existence. Then there is the court of last resort, before whom all these GENERAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. 9 questions are to be hereafter tried the popular will. I need not predict the result of the issue. Such cases have been tried before the same tribunal. No such debt ever has been paid ; no such debt can be paid ; no such debt ought to be paid ; no such debt will be paid. The Jewish year of jubilee was a year of repudiation, divinely appointed for that purpose. The authors of our system, the purest lights in the constella tions of Liberty, never redeemed their Continental money. But, overlooking the other repudiations of the world, the party in power is a party of repudiation. It repudiated the Constitution of the United States, substituting in its stead edicts, military commissions and proclamations. It repudiated, by positive legislation, the debts due to innocent third persons, corporations and trusts in the Southern States. It repudiated the obligations of servitude, as established by law, between the blacks and whites. The General Government is now officially engaged in the lowest and most dishonorable form of repudiation, by shaving its own paper in the money used. The gold is the only Constitutional form of money for that purpose ; and after carrying on a legisla tion which is resolvable into no other general principle than that of repudiation, the ballot-box, never in love with monopolies, will master repudiation. The bondholders are provoking repudiation. First By refusing to submit their bonds to taxation. Second By making their bonds an . instrument of double monopoly, by using them as the capital in banking as well as drawing interest upon their face. Repudiation offers the only hope of relief to the country. First It takes the corrupting influence of money out of legis lation. Second It rids the country of the whole plague and curse of 10 GENERAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. assessors clerks, collectors, spies, pimps, stamps, tariff, excises and excisemen that now enslave us. It equalizes the general burdens of the war. The poor men gave their lives in battle. This demands that the rich, who grew fat on blood, shall surrender the plunder of war, to save the poor who fought in battle from being further ground by direct and in direct taxation. Repudiation is a fitting conclusion to a war which has destroyed every thing, and now justly concludes by destroying the destroyer. I urge no repudiation ; I ask no action, This condition of things is slowly but surely coming, like the cloud about the size of a man s hand. It is gathering in the West the people are pinched for money. This book has been written with a view to public relief and to inspire the laboring people with courage to defend their rights by the adoption of some plan in harmony with those great laws of nature and of God, which are as unchangeable as his Being. The laws of intelligence, which govern the intercourse and determine the relative position of rational creatures in society ; the laws of superiority, which inspire command, and of inferiority, which yield obedience; the laws of commerce, which supply and stimu late trade ; the laws of finance, which require that the money of the country shall have free circulation from the centres to the far thest extremities of business, mutually strengthening instead of devouring and destroying each other ; the laws of Capital and Labor, as they reciprocally help each other in the development of the wealth and power of the country, and combine to augment the prosperity and happiness of the people. These immutable laws are coeval and must be coexistent with civilized society, and no mere popular clamor or numerical test of a frenzied multitude, under the fraudulent guidance of unscrupulous leaders, can change one iota of their value or diminish a particle of their strength. We must now meet the great issues involved in the terrible PERSONAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. 11 struggle for the supremacy of law over anarchy, of republican government over arbitrary power. Let us then meet them as true men meet an unscrupulous ene my. Let us hasten to the conflict, for conflict will give us victory. 2o. PERSONAL. To the American People : I have a personal reason for the publication of this book. I suffered under the reign of Mr. Lincoln, which was a vibration between anarchy and despotism. Why arrested ? I cannot tell. Have never seen anything like charges, and suppose there were none in such form as would be recognized in any court of justice under the sun ; and yet I am quite sure there was a cause for it, which is this : / am a Democrat ; a devoted friend of the Con stitution of the United States; a sincere lover of the Government and the Union of the States ; am anxious for a reunion, and be lieve it the right and duty of a freeman, in a calm, candid man ner, to discuss in a temperate spirit, the best modes of effecting this purpose. I have dared to participate in these discussions freely, which I have done from convictions of duty. This was the cause of my arrest. For months previous, I thought I saw the seed of contention and civil war scattered in every neighborhood in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Such a soil seemed prepared and ready to receive it, just such a soil as forces up noxious weeds of the rankest growth. The season was adapted to and beyond all description fruitful for the growth of just such plants as the stramonium, the poison mushroom, and the deadly night shade. Weak, wicked men were stirring up strife as a daily avo cation ; thirsting for blood ; listening with a morbid anxiety for the news ; retailing with insane satisfaction the details of some murder, some heart-rending catastrophe, revolting outrage upon 12 PERSONAL, REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. female purity, or savage slaughter of innocent children. They had learned themselves and were teaching others to laugh at the conflagration which laid cities in ashes. They felt that nothing had been well done where the black visage of war had not gone, or the track of the bloody foot of desolation had not been well imprinted. Fury seemed to have become a virtue among those who should have been most calm. Violence was the watchword of those whose vocation was to teach meekness as a law of life, and love as the only preparation for the world to come. Ministers of the Gospel of Peace were teaching such lessons of cruelty, in such a spirit of violence, and in such language of intol erant malice, as made the ordinary mind, yet retaining self con trol, grow sick. Judges of Courts, whose duty it was to keep the peace, in open defiance of the obligations of their oaths of office, in contempt of the long established conservative character of the honorable profession in which they were educated, and to the great scandal of their ermine, went into the rural districts during the current session of their Courts, and delivered harangues, appeal ing to the basest passions of human nature, encouraging crimes most obnoxious to the laws of the country, and indulging in lan guage well calculated to light the whole land in a blaze of furious, endless, lawlessness and civil war. Conservative, quiet, law abiding men of eminence and character in the country, requested me by urgent letters to address the people, and assist them to avert the coming evil among us. With reluctance I entered upon the unthankful task, and commenced an humble argument to the people, urging them to obey the laws, honor the Government, recognize the existing state of things, and above all to preserve the peace inviolate. This I did in an earnest, kind feeling, that aston ished even the Revolutionists, and left them vibrating between personal malice and silent disappointment. I soon learned, some what authoritatively, in their own choice language, that I " would be suppressed/ my " career would be shortened," &c v &c. In PERSONAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. 13 response to this purpose, partisan radical papers began to teem with epithets opprobrious and scandalous, stating groundless, ma licious and inflammatory falsehoods, personal and political. To these attacks I gave no attention, but still pursued the quiet, even tenor of my way, persuading the people to stand firm by the Con stitution, to obey the laws, to provoke no violence and be guilty of no outbreak. Wherever I spoke I found that underneath all the party bit terness and strife, which was but momentary, there was a boiling flood of good feeling, as pure as the waters that gush from be neath the Alpine mountains of perpetual snow. The masses of the people still loved each other, but were misled until their pas sions were hot as the burning sand,and explosive as powder. When I spoke of renewing old associations, reviving Chris tian fellowship, cultivating brotherly love, cheering smiles would play upon their faces, wild huzzas of good feeling would break forth from their manly lips, and tears would sometimes drive each other down their sunburnt cheeks as they prayed the sweet spirit of friendship to return ; the Angel of Mercy to banish the Angel of Death ; and the Genius of Christianity to again assert her supreme sovereignty over our society, over our divided, dis tracted, and well nigh ruined country. Encouraged by the feelings of the people responding to my own, I spoke. Aroused by this motive alone, I addressed the great crowd that listened to me. This is my only offence, clearly and elaborately stated. But all this availed me nothing so long as I was a Democrat, a faith ful supporter of the Constitution, and an ardent lover of the Union, and believed and thought that the integrity of the one was the only conservative po\ver of the other. 14 PERSONAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. THE TIME, THE PLACE, THE MANNER OF MY ARREST. I was on my way from Qulncy, Illinois, to Keosauqua, Iowa, to attend a meeting of the Democratic party. Mobocracy had run riot in Kcokuk for many months under the auspices of the officers commanding the post, and having in charge the Medical Department. I had to pass through Keokuk to reach the cars. Before I landed at the wharf, I learned that the " Gate City," the only paper published in Keokuk, had demanded my arrest. Nearly every Puritan paper in the State had joined in the gen eral howl. The tone of the press reminded me of the bulletins issued in the dark alleys of Paris, or the hand-bills posted on the front of the buildings early on each morning, containing the death warrant of some intended victim of assassination in the most terrible days of the French Revolution. The requisition of the paper was but the foreshadowing of the intention of the malig- nant citizens of Keokuk. All the details of the arrest are not proper for the public eye. I had often heard an old Indian describe the ceremony of running the gauntlet by prisoners of war. The naked, brawny, cowardly savage painted his cheeks red with blood-root, and blackened his teeth with soot and charcoal. He made his trem bling victim shrink as he applied the excrutiating lash to his uncovered person. An old backwoodsman, now no more, who knew Simon Girty well, once told me how that monster had as sisted the Indians to burn poor Col. Crawford at the stake. Girty would laugh, and grin, and taunt his victim, as the flames were gathering around him. He would then again break out into a hollow, fiendish chuckle when the blaze was shrieking with horror in the air. The perverted culture of civilization contributed its force to add to the brutal barbarity of the merci- les? heathens. In my own arrest I had the most vivid picture PERSONAL REASONS FOE PUBLICATION. 15 of just such men leading a furious body of a thousand persons in a mob. My arrest had been agreed upon as soon as my name was regis tered at the Billings House. I could see the Puritans and Roundheads gathering in squads of four or five, talking in a low excited whisper. The fiendish smile was playing on their cheek ; the self satisfied smirk on the lip, and thirst for vengeance was pictured on their countenances. These small gatherings of men embraced the shouting Methodist and witch-burning Puritan, the Universalist and Unitarian, with every intervening class of Fa natics. I was then and am now unconscious of having ever wronged or justly incurred ,the ill will of any human being in the city, from any cause whatever. I called to see Hon. T. W. Clagett on business, and whilst sitting upon the porch with the Judge, I saw a crowd approaching near his gate, who inquired for me, calling out my name. I did not, of course, call in ques tion their authority, for these reasons : Fir st f Every soldier is under a most solemn oath; a very severe penalty to obey the articles of war, which forbid anything like the semblance of a mob. Second, Every officer is held responsible for the discipline and conduct of his soldiers, and whenever they engage in a mob, the officers are either corrupt or imbecile. Third, A young man of the name of Ball, whilst in the office of the Provost Marshal, informed me, with the grin and very much the tone of a Sioux Indian, that he " wanted the boys to take their satisfaction out of me," and that he now arrested- me in due form, and handed me over to the Sergeant of the Provost Guard. I have made this fact plain, because these men, having committed an atrocious crime, would well rid themselves of it by any subterfuge. After my arrest, I was placed in the front of the crowd, with a low-bred, insolent man, who commenced asking me offensive 16 PERSONAL REASONS FOE PUBLICATION. questions, of which I of course took no notice. After hurrying me through several streets, at length a hollow square was formed, where I was taunted, threatened and insulted for a full half hour. I was first informed that death was entirely too mild a punishment to be administered to a " Copperhead," who, in the choice language of their newspaper, was foolhardy and demented enough to venture through Keokuk. The soldiers were all strangers to me, and were led on and prompted to their action by a Puritan clique who had an unset tled account with me for some very candid talk about the year 1860, when I was a candidate for Elector of the State at large on the Democratic ticket, headed by the name of Judge Douglas. These benevolent men thought Nature at fault, that she had not endowed me with at least four separate and distinct lives, that each of them might be entirely gratified in having me put to death in his own choice way. On the outside of the crowd there stood a merchant of thin visage, sharp nose, red head, and ex ceedingly thin lips, who cried out at the top of his voice, " He ought to be drowned, seeing the Mississippi so close at hand," when there went up a yell, "drown him" "DROWN HIM," " DROWN HIM." Near by another of the malignants spoke up and said, " Drowning was entirely too easy and speedy a death for a Copperhead," and cried out, " hang him" " HANG HIM," " HANG HIM." Still another commenced, and the cry went up " shoot him," " SHOOT HIM," " SHOOT HIM." A fourth, with the murderous laugh of a Pawnee, said burn ing would better measure out the allotted punishment, length en the scene of enjoyment, and minister more thoroughly to the gratification of the executioners. This gentleman found no response. Every manner of insult and opprobrious epithet was used to jeer, mortify and offend. After being thus brutally treated, I addressed the crowd for a few moments, and informed them that I had been sick for nearly PERSONAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. 17 a week, was then taking medicine, and desired a place to be at rest. After much parleying, whooping, yelling and coarse insult, I was marched down to the office of the Provost Marshal, and there commanded by this young man, Ball, to strip myself stark naked, which I had to do in the presence of a large crowd, and remaining in that condition for fifteen minutes, whilst my clothes were searched, and each one of the party had taken his full lib erty in about the same kind of jesting that had occurred in the street, except that it was coarser and baser in the room. I told this young man, Ball, that I had understood that he was an offi cer, educated at West Point, from which I inferred that he was a gentleman. He informed me, however, not to my surprise, that he was not a West Pointer, which I placed to the lasting credit of that institution. After I had been allowed to put on my clothes, my carpet sack was sent for to the hotel, carefully searched, and my private letters and papers read aloud in the presence of the crowd, open to the inspection of everybody. After all this was over, Mr. Ball sent some one of the crowd to inform the soldiers that he would assure them that I would be severely dealt with, and they were permitted to retire. I was soon lodged in the Guard House, where there was neither chair, stool, table nor stand. Sergeant Newport kindly furnished me a cot. One filthy towel was the wiping cloth of a large body of men, some with diseased, sore and scrofulous eyes. I cannot better describe the place than I have done in a brief sketch which I wrote whilst there, and which Sergeant Newport, in the pres ence of John H. Craig, Esq., and Judge Trimble, declared was true to life, and I take here great pleasure in stating that Ser geant Newport, as well as every soldier of the Provost Guard, treated me with civility, courtesy and respect, for which I am grateful. 18 PERSONAL EEASONS FOB PUBLICATION. THE GUARD HOUSE. I was informed upon my first entrance into the place, that the central idea of a military prison was to make it as nearly the very essence of hell as was possible. In this they made a capi tal success. The room was about sixteen feet wide by forty-five feet long, with enough taken off of the side to make room for a flight of stairs. In this room there were fifty men lying side by side. They were of almost every conceivable grade, gathered from every rank in society, and charged with every manner of offence known to the laws of God and man. Some of them, even in sickness, lawless and ungovernable, had been sent in from the hospital, breathing the deadly malaria of all the diseases generated by the vices of the army. The stench of venereal taint issuing from their putrid breath, would nauseate the stomach of the oldest Bacchanalian. Another squad that contributed to the more dense population of this semi-infernal chamber, which was elevated to the third story of a dilapidated store-house in the rugged suburbs of a dilapidated river town, was a squad of con valescent soldiers who had been sent up for mobbing a quiet country gentleman to avenge the malice of a drunken Cyprian. In this place there were bushwhackers fresh from the charcoal fields of the guerrilla bands of Missouri, who had stood like hun gry hyenas over the dying innocent victims of their rapacity and lust. On the floor at the farther end of the room lay a gang of rowdies, who were snatched up for infesting a low brothel in the purlieus of the city. Very near them was a group of reckless Rounders, reeking with drugged liquors, infuriated with madness, belching forth oaths, and howling obscene songs, compared with which the jovial scenes of Billingsgate and Fish Market are chaste and modest. This body of ruffians were placed for safe keeping in the Guard House until the whisky had died out on their brain, and its putrid fumes began to poison the atmosphere for a full PERSONAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. 19 city block in every direction around. Intermingled with the others were deserters, escaping the hardships and duties of the armies, together with rebel prisoners arrested on their way back to take up arms against the Government. These two classes of gentlemen were holding a philosophical argument, discussing the especial merits of their respective armies. There were here con fined men who had committed rape, horse thieves, watch thieves, murderers, and traitors, in a common nest huddled together. To add to the interest of this society, every evening the Patrol Guard would gather up the beastly drunk and tumble them in. At about 9 o clock at night the roll was called, and those most able-bodied and desperate were locked in chains, two together. Then the whole crowd would break out in one long, continued hideous yell, compared with which the howls of a gang of half starved prairie wolves is musical and melodious. To add to the attractions of this new habitation, tobacco spittle, the expectora tion of lungs half rotten with Consumption, the contents of Catarrh nostrils, with the spontaneous relief given by nature to drunken men, were indiscriminately scattered over the floor, whilst every stitch of clothes was literally filled with vermin And this was the prison into which a free American citizen was placed for daring to be a Democrat. For fourteen long and loathesome dreary days and nights, fe verish with loss of sleep and gasping for breath, I was confined in this nameless place. Sometimes I would go to the window for a draught of pure air, only to catch the flood of dust that swept through the streets, and was breathed into my nostrils until my lungs became so suffused that I could scarcely inhale or exhale the air, and my tongue became so enlarged at the palate that I could with difficulty swallow my food. The prisoners ate after the soldier, and complained very much of their food. I re ceived my meals regularly from Mrs. Reddington, a kind-hearted Democratic lady of great intelligence and worth, whom even mobs could not deter from doing her duty. 20 PERSONAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. Through the day the prisoners, to give exercise to their limbs, would romp and play like wild horses, until the building would tremble at its base. The long loss of rest made me faint on each returning evening for the quiet of two o clock till four in the morning, which promised the only quiet which could be enjoyed, even for sleep, in this pandemonium. All this I patiently en dured for the sake of the truth. HOW I EMPLOYED MYSELF. These prisoners treated me kindly and respectfully underneath all their infirmities and misfortunes. With many of these poor fellows there was a great fountain of the pure milk of human kind ness still flowing, and a tender sensibility, which, when touched, would break forth in tears, or in tones of subdued affection, for home, and family, and God. I duly recognized their sympathy, and addressed myself to its relief, and spent my time in writing letters for unfortunate husbands to their wives who were left in cabins without food or raiment, except as it was earned by moth ers at the wash-tub or in the broiling sun. Children wrote to their disconsolate parents trembling on the verge of the grave. A wild frolicksome fellow who had grown sad, talked to me of his blackeyed Mary of the frontier, her playful eye, her sweet voice and, and the last pledge of love he had made to her before leaving for the wars. When he spoke, ever and anon a tear would sparkle in his eye, and the innocence of childhood arise in his countenance, checked for a moment by his unfortunate con dition, as the floating clouds obscure the light in its passage over the sun. There were other poor fellows arraigned for grave offences against God and liberty, law and order, whose cases I assisted to prepare for court. There was no amusement other than the place itself. Our only theatrical enjoyment was the outbursts of fine Irish wit entirely refreshed by such whiskey as would never have found a place in Ireland. PERSONAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. 21 This place had a Chaplain, of whom the prisoners knew just nothing at all ; as innocent of human nature and its wants as an Englishman s mastiff* is of the common law of the land. He never spoke to the prisoners of their real spiritual wants, or assisted them in making their condition happier. Yet I am told, and upon this subject have no doubt, that he drew his salary regularly. I left the place with many kind feelings for the in mates. I tried to impress each of them with the conviction that whilst any man may be a prisoner, the prisoner should not forget that he is still a man. Weighing two hundred and thirty pounds, suffocation had well nigh exhausted my strength. At the end of fourteen days, my wife, who is a lady of feeble health and was sick, stopped at the Billings House. I obtained a parole of honor, to be confined to that hotel, where I had permission to remain. During this time the United States Circuit Court was in session in Des Moines, for the purpose of finding indictments. Indictments were found against men for various offences. Any kind of indictment would have been a relief to the Puritan persecutors who were hunting me down. The whole country was raked, scraped, canvassed and scoured by spies, pimps, eaves-droppers, and common in formers in the genuine spirit of Titus Gates. Every effort was used personal spite, political malice, private conversation, news paper scraps,* written speeches, political associations, and party an tecedents, were all thoroughly examined for treason, sedition, or anything which would disparage my love of country or prove my sympathies with its enemies. But no indictment could be found in a good season for indictments, when one was needed to cover up the wrongs committed against law, order and decency by my assailants. It was unfortunate for the safety of the country that my own is not the only instance of wrong suffered, nor this the only act of violence done in the city of Keokuk. They have been fre quent and outrageous. 22 PERSONAL REASONS FOB PUBLICATION. The Constitution newspaper office was destroyed. Mr. Hook er s store was destroyed in the same way. The private dwellings of a number of Democrats were assailed in the dead hour of night by the same persons. Houses were ransacked in the same way ; and a note was sent by this young man, Ball, to an officer, not to attack a private family unti] the husband returned. Now, the time has come when it is the duty of the country to enquire who is to blame in this matter. The soldiers are but par tially accountable. The officers in command are first in fault. A disciplined army, of all other organizations, is not a mob. It cannot be, whether led by officers or carried on by privates. A mob is mutiny, and mutiny is punishable with death. But the very object of an army is to keep down mobs of every kind, and if the army turns mob, then there is nothing left but an anarchy which endangers everybody and everything. This is especially true where the military is supremely above the civil authority. And the officer who engages in this conduct is an outlaw, a pirate, and an assassin. Keokuk is the residence of Hon. Samuel F. Miller, Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. He might, by his word, have stopped these things at any moment. I can conceive how the public mind would have been startled to hear John Mar shall deliver a harangue to a mob in the Public Square of Rich mond, at three o clock on the holy Sabbath morning, after it had assailed the private dwellings, and destroyed the private property of his distinguished, peaceable, law-abiding neighbors. Who would have believed such a thing possible of Robert Grier, or Henry Baldwin of Pittsburgh, of Joseph Story, or Judge Curtis in Boston, or Roger B. Taney in Baltimore ? This is not written in malice. Judge Miller is comparatively a young man, and this gentle hint may arouse his ambition to make himself worthy of the high place he fills. It is just such men as he is that are held responsible to God and the country. PERSONAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. 23 I had not been in the guard house seventy hours for exercising the right of free speech, until Gov. Kirkwood, Congressman Wil son, and Adjutant General Baker, were posted to speak within hearing where I was guarded, and Mr. Wilson endeavored to convince the people that all arbitrary arrests were right, and were not of sufficient frequency. It is these passionate harangues that demoralized the army, and by a strict and fair construction of military law, these men are mutineers ; and so long as it is done there can be no safety to life, liberty, or property. This much I have said in regard to the authors of my arrest. I have thus written, that the public may know the facts. I shall exaggerate nothing, and write nothing in bad feeling. I make no appeal for sympathy, and have no ambition for martyr dom. I have simply performed a duty to my countrymen. You see what may, with the utmost impunity, be done to an Ameri can citizen. I was in danger at any time from assassination from that class of citizens who incite all the mobs. One brave soldier told me during my confinement, that a citizen of Keokuk had of fered him one hundred dollars if he would assassinate me ; and told the soldier that the crime need never be known ; that if ar rested he would be acquitted at once ; that he might charge me with running guard. The same class of citizens spoke of my assassination in the bar-rooms and elsewhere. Every personal acquaintance among the soldiers, sick, well, and convalescent, treated me with kindness. Every demonstration against any one was instigated by the malignant citizens and the imbecile and cor rupt officers. This was a part of the machinery for making war on the Copperheads of the North. The Provost Marshal, was exceedingly tenacious of his rights and duties as an officer, and showed no disposition to favor or screen me from any charge which any testimony might in any- 24 PERSONAL REASONS FOR PUBLICATION. wise justify or fasten upon me. It is just to him, however, to say, that at the time of my arrest he was not at home, and was in no wise a party to the personal insults offered me, but has treated me with civility. I was UNCONDITIONALLY released, more firmly than ever con vinced that the Democratic party should remain united as the only hope of the country. From the effects of this imprisonment I yet suffer. Crimes of the Civil "War. BOOK: CHAPTER I. DESTRUCTION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. SOCIETY is composed of individuals. The rights and powers of society are the aggregate rights and powers of the individuals that compose it. They can be neither more or less, any more than the whole can be more or less than its parts. Society may not do anything which would be criminal in the individual ; for the same moral laws which govern the individual are carried with him into the social compact. Every man has a right to govern him self, subject only to the laws of his being. The rights and powers of self-government in society are derived from its individual members who have transferred them to the whole for the benefit and protection of all, and the more perfect security of each. The individual could not transfer more than he possessed nor society receive more than he transferred. All claims to absolute powers in government or arbitrary Powers in the individual are absurd, all transfers of rights and Powers to society by the individual are subject to the supreme laws of the universe to which all men are responsible. Government is a contract entered into among a people. It is of men purely, and cannot be of more binding force than other contracts made in good faith for just purposes involving equal interests. The rights which governments are made to protect are divine inherent. The powers which governments exercise are 26 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. purely human derivative, dependent upon the will of the people who are governed. Man has power to govern himself. More over, he has no earthly guardian of greater capacity than himself. Self-government then, is not only a right, but a necessity. Man has all of the rights with all of the powers of self-government and self-defence, for the same reasons. All men are capable of self-government, and are the sole judges of its substance, form and details. This is true of the most ignor ant and barbarous nations. It is not a good argument against this doctrine that since the government of one people is not as good as that of another, therefore the people are not capable of self-government whose system is inferior. It is a sufficient answer that they are satisfied with their system, and others have neither right nor interest in the premises. For example, the government of the North American Indians would not satisfy either the desires or ambition of the people of Paris, New York or London. Yet it is a far better government for them than that of any of those cities or their respective countries. There can be no better evidence of this than the fact that it is impossible to persuade these savages to surrender their systems for any other. Every government is the photograph of the will and capacity of the people with whom it originates. What are called improvements in government, no more repre sent the real wants of all people than the portrait of a Caucassian belle represents the naked squaw or half-dressed negro wench. A violation of this law leads to endless mischief. Again, I cite the Indians who have systems of government and religion adapted to themselves, but not to civilized nations. Civilized nations have therefore foolishly, nay wickedly, elated with the superiority of their own institutions, framed by the architectural skill of centuries and happily adjusted to every con ceivable necessity of polished society, attempted to force them upon uncultivated savages, who have nothing in common with them ; and for the enjoyment of which nature has given them no capacity. Therefore every attempt at propagandism among the Indians has been not only a failure, but a positive injury and atrocious crime against nature, who has the greatest capa- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 27 city and most happy facility for the government of her own children. God has provided for the Indian a system of government. He worships a being beyond his comprehension, yet assimilated to himself. His worship has been carefully systematized by his ancestors, and is perfectly in itself, adapted to his nature, if not to his wants. The Indian was not made for the civilization peculiar to the white man. It was a crime to attempt to bestow it upon him with force. The details of the religion and political system of the white race could not be taught to the Indian by persuasion ; nor could it be imposed upon him by any combination of force through the agencies of missionaries, courts or armies. Yet the Indian is capable of self-government, and has a right to govern himself in his own way. There is a very great difference in the degree of the cultiva tion, refinement, and manner of life of different families of the same race and nation, yet the right of each family to live under its own lawful government is unquestionable; and it must be ad mitted that this very difference in family government makes it necessary that each family does govern itself in its own way. "What is true of the family must be true of the nation ; the same principles of right, propriety and law apply in like manner to each and cannot be changed without violence to all. In the en joyment of the right of self-government, the title of every people is inalienable and supreme. These rights can be destroyed only by destroying the commu nities which have inherited them. To destroy communities for the enjoyment of their inherent rights, is a crime of nameless atrocity. To kill a people in the defence of their inalienable rights is murder, to burn their prop erty is arson, to carry it off is robbery, to break open their houses is burglary. Burning -up mills, barns and stack-yards, laying plantations waste to starve innocent women, helpless children, and defenceless age, is crime in its most revolting form a shameful retreat from civilization to barbarism, from which there is no safe return. Whatever may be the plausible pretext for the savage cruelty of desolating campaigns, the whole force of suffering falls upon 28 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. the old men tottering over the grave, the sick who are unable to provide for themselves, the half lame, blind, deaf and dumb the women whom old age and the infirmities of the sex have dis abled from flight, and children who have neither disposition, intelli gence or strength to leave their homes. Such are the victims of these crimes against civilization. The soldier in arms who fights will fly from the desolate countries overrun with this barbarism, and seek refuge where plenty abounds. When their own can no longer sustain them, the soldiers will invade the country whence supplies are drawn, and re-enact in retaliation the horrid crimes which have lain their own country in ashes. With the recollection of destitute parents, the piteous cries of heart-broken children, the screams of ravished wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters, echo in their ears and incite them to revenge. As the sight of their burning homes and ruined families arouse them to wild desperation, they leap like wounded tigers into the conflict, unconscious of danger and fearless of death. The burning of manufactories falls entirely upon the helpless, who, unable to obtain by industry or reprisal what they have lost, through their inability to protect themselves against the invasion and rapine of military force. How inexcusable is the destruction of that property which God has kindly given us to preserve and minister to our comfort. The orchard and vineyard ought not to be disturbed nor the water course changed from its bed, nor springs nor wells be pois oned. These are the common property of the good and the evil upon whom the sun shines, the just and the unjust, upon whom the rain descends. No law can justify nor can any language apologize for these crimes against a people, struggling to maintain the right of self- government. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 29 CHAPTER II. THE DESTRUCTION OF CIVILIZATION BY MONGRELISM. THE earliest governments originated in the family, and were patriarchal. Nations were amplifications of the family and maintained their identity with their integrity, by refusing to amalgamate with other nations. Jacob refused Dinah to her ravisher, and not only did not al low him to marVy into the family, but his sons slew him. The Ammonites and the Moabites were not allowed to enter into the congregation of the Lord. Legitimate governments include nationalities, but not differ ent peoples ; and must be adapted to the character of the gov erned. Different and unequal races cannot live happily or safely un der the same government, upon an equality. 1. This was never attempted before its introduction into South America, Mexico and the West India Islands, and is there an exemplification of all the cruelties of barbarism, di rected by all of the shrewd villainies of civilization. 2. It is unjust and absurd that people, who require entirely different systems, should be subjected to the same form and de tails of government. By this unnatural means the more elevated are degraded by legal association ; whilst the more degraded cannot be elevated by laws above their moral condition and mental capacity. When such an unnatural condition of things may happen, still the people must be governed to give them protection and security. It is then the duty of the superior race in the spirit of jus tice, to assume guardianship over the inferior race, and control 30 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. it by such parental regulations as are adapted to its degraded condition. Such were the systems of the two great statesmen of the world, Moses of ancient, and Jefferson of modern times. Moses reduced the Canaanites to chattel slavery, to secure their subservience to the Jewish people. The law-makers un der the system of Jefferson, having the more difficult task of dealing with three distinct and entirely different races, removed the Indians from among the whites, and subjected the negroes to personal servitude, which in some form or other must exist whilst the races remain in contact, or live in close proximity. When this cannot be done, either through the rebellion of the inferior, or the folly of the superior race, then degradation and anarchy bring both races prostrate together. The remedy for this last condition of things is the removal of the inferior from among the superior, if it be possible. This was the plan adopted for the relief of the Israelites in their subjection to the Egyptians and offers the only ray of hope for the final preservation of American society, and the ultimate re lief of the blacks of America from annihilation. The negro race is tractable and capable of a superficial and limited improvement;, but herein lies the difficulty that they have no capacity for the perpetuity of knowledge or the im provement of their offspring. An elephant may be taught the performance of the most extraordinary feats, but cannot teach them to its young ; so may the negro receive knowledge from the white man, but will not impart it to his children. Their normal condition can no more be permanently changed than can their climates with its fruit and soil. The peaceful servitude of the blacks of the United States has ended in civil war. Every Christian sentiment revolts at a war of races in which the negro must disappear in universal bloodshed. The emigration of the negro from the United States to Africa or elsewhere, is his last refuge of hope. This must be accom plished to save both the negroes and the whites from mutual degradation or mutual destruction. Against this it is argued that the negroes were born here, and ought not therefore to be removed or forced to emigrate. CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAK. 31 But we may urge that the Israelites, through forty years march, left Egypt and emigrated to Canaan to secure their free dom and enjoy their homes and the land of their fathers. That we have removed the Indians from the Atlantic off of their own lands to the farthest verge of the continent, to secure a peaceful separation of the races. The French of South Carolina, the English of North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia, the Catholics of Maryland, the Dutch of New York and New Jersey, the Quakers of Pennsylvania and Delaware, the Puritans of New England, the Germans, Celts, Sclavonians, and Scandinavians, all have come from the land of their birth to secure freedom. Every hotel in the cities is filled with white servant girls, who, for the same reason, are saving their weekly pittances to bring their indigent parents, brothers or sis ters to America. The rapid increase of the white race in the United States makes emigration a necessity. Africa is the only division of the earth that invites emigration and enterprize in vain ; and the negroes the only people who can endure its climate or cultivate its soil. Emigration to Africa secures to the negro self-government. It will secure to him civilization, if he has ca pacity to civilize ; and if he have, what a future for this unfor tunate people to go to the land of their fathers, to cultivate the soil, beautify the plains, navigate the rivers, develop the wealth of the mountains, cultivate the rich valleys of the Niger and the Nile, whiten the coasts of Liberia and Guinea with fleets and merchantmen made of their native forests. They can avail themselves of the generosity of nature to their native land and enter the lists with Europe and America in the agricultural staples of the world. They can unfurl the banner of the Holy Cross to their barbarous brethren, and behold Prin ces come up out of Egypt and Ethiopia and stretch forth her hand to God. This has never yet been, but let it be, if possible. But of it be not possible for a race of people to assume civilization on a conti nent of which they may have exclusive habitation, assisted by the civilized nations of the earth, then it were a crime against civil ization to propose to such a people government a partnership with the master race, whose children in the prosecution of busi- 32 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. ness, trade and enterprize penetrate to the remotest parts of the earth. To the people of the country is committed the removal of this unhappy race and the prevention of the debasing crime of rnongrel- ism, barbarism, idolatry, and the obliteration of office-government. The Mongolian race representing 560,000,000 of the human family in commercial communication with the United States, tempted by the gold mines of California, are pouring their emi gration upon the Pacific coast and have it within their easy reach of power to place fifty millions of their population in the United States, where they will work for less wages, live on less food than Americans. Their votes can be purchased for a trifle. Their habits and morals are of the low, heathen type and their worship idolatrous. They must be excluded from the rights of suffrage to preserve the Pacific governments. Could any government outlive this elective influence? These are not only the Chinese, but they are drift-wood of the Chinese. The dangers of this monstrous Mongrel theory is transparent. It would seem superfluous to recite the failures, horrors, anarchies, despotisms, butcheries, cruel ties, idolatries and recklessness of society consequent upon the Mongrelized governments of Mexico, South America, and the Islands of the Atlantic. After having robbed the Indians of their lands, home and self- government, despoiled their country, corrupted their morals, and butchered them in their wigwams, to get rid of a degraded race ; it seems incredible that an intelligent people should repeat the experiment upon an even more degraded race than the Indian. This is the more remarkable when they propose the elevation of the negro by the degradation of the white race. If it did not involve the prosperity and glory of a continent, it were laughable to read the legislative edicts against the decrees of nature, the cultivation of negroes by its whites, who are inca pable of self-support, and by the merest miracle are outside of insane asylums and schools fop idiots. The condition of the poor negro remains unchanged ; neither his color nor his imbecility have yielded to the weekly meetings of the grand Army of the Kepublic ; nor has the thriftless Afri- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAB. 33 can been fed by the millions squandered upon the revolutionary vagabonds who have rioted upon the public property and destroyed the public peace. The black man, after elections as before it, re mains as ever, the same stupid, stolid creature of circumstance, the victim of chicanery, which impels him to seek shelter under the benign protection of the white man, or perish in his ineffectual attempt to fight climates for which nature has left him literally unprepared. Nature is never defeated, nor will she suffer in the present conflict. 34 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. CHAPTER III. INVASION OF PERSONAL RIGHTS. THERE are rights older than elections, for the protection of which elections are held, which they cannot destroy and dare not invade. Older and more sacred than constitutions, these rights constitute the essential elements of our manhood ; with out which we are mere beasts of burden to be driven by the whip of the master-machines, directed by external forces idiots, lunatics and imbeciles, who tamely yield to the will of their keeper. These rights can be suspended only by the fiat of the Deity, who may hinder our speech, bewilder our understanding, sus pend our powers of thought, or divest us of those sparkling fires of his own intelligence stamped with his image on our be ing ; or they may be surrendered, by our imbecility and pusil lanimity, or by our crimes forfeited to society whose equal rights we invade. These rights are sacred as our person: as the brain which conceives, and the heart which feeds them with its elemental life are indefeasible. Neither legislatures, courts nor kings can justly divest us of our life, liberty, property or pursuit of happiness, without due process of law, or in punishment of crimes. These rights are inalienable, and may no more be sold or bar tered to tyrants, than the limbs may be amputated and sold to the surgeon, or the living body be delivered to the dissecting room, for the purposes of anatomy. These rights are indefeasible. No claim of violence or force can be valid against them. Conquest is armed robbery ; government by conquest is usur pation. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 35 Usurpation is the most enormous crime which can be perpe trated against society. It is robbery in its most offensive form. Other robbers take the property, and suffer the victim to pursue his regular vocation : the usurper absorbs the fountains of life as the sponge drinks up the water, and by one well-directed blow, lays prostrate the great power of a people, that he may enslave talent, and quench the fires of genius in their opening flame. He crushes out liberty with all the noblest elements of a great people who are forced to see through his eyes, hear with his ears, and breathe through his nostrils. Drunken with power, the usurper becomes more degraded than his willing victims. It is the trick of usurpers to confound usurpation with government, that he may conciliate resistance, and appease the law-abiding. Government is a contract ratified by the people. Usurpation is a forcible entry and detainer upon their rights of government. The people of every country are under obligation to obey its laws, but are under the same obligation to resist usurpation. The mere violation of law by a criminal while endangering the public security, need not impair its majesty, w r hich retains the power to enforce its mandates. But usurpation strikes down the law, destroys that house of refuge, without which, society is left to the wanton inroads of desperate men, and the passionate violence of reckless fanatics, who may choose to forage upon their fields, and prey upon their substance. The ordinary law-breaker gratifies some morbid appetite, unbridles some furious passion, or indulges in some vicious habit: the usurper destroys all security of the people, and becomes the enemy of society, which is imperiled by his existence, and can appeal to no law to protect him. When a people have good grounds to believe that their rights will be invaded under cover of the forms of law, and resist the initiatory steps of aggression, the lawful authorities may conduct themselves in such a manner, as to justify the people in prosecu ting a rebellion, which in the beginning was unjustifiable. For resistance to law, every government has ample power to punish offenders; for usurpation, governments have provided no adequate remedy. 36 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Usurpation is a crime which must be repelled rather than punished. When by common consent, any one is deemed a tyrant or usurper, and resists the ordinary modes of redress obtainable by law, or corrupts the fountains of justice, that the people may have no adequate security in the courts, then the people have an undoubted right to repel him as they would a thief in the night, a burglar at their door, or an assassin at their throat. The usur per is thief, burglar and assassin combined, whose compound felonies against society are alike dangerous to every individual. This law of force is the last terrible remedy against usurpation. Resistance to usurpation is just. The usurper has no claims to the protection of law, because his powers are derived from the suspension of law. He holds his power by force, and cannot complain if force overpowers him. The right to dethrone tyrants and usurpers, and destroy them when they cannot be otherwise removed, has had the sanction of liberal and j ust men of all times and countries. Brutus removed Ca?sar by bloody stealth. Although Caesar had interwoven his great name with Roman glory, and added new lustre and renown to the science of arms, yet, after the lapse of centuries, Brutus is canonized in history as the last immortal patriot of Rome. Tell slew Gessler, and the tyrant is indebted to his slayer for a place in history, which is awarded him only to perpetuate the memory of his just death. Our own Indians slay their usurpers with grave and impos ing ceremonies, as the only remedy left them to preserve their liberties. The chief heroes of history are rebels, who have resisted unlawful assumptions of power, such as Washington, Henry and Jeiferson : those who have slain the oppressors of their kins men, as did Moses: those who have avenged their personal wrongs in the blood of their tyrants, as Charlotte Corday, who slew Marat. Those people have been enbalmed in the hearts of Americans, and elevated to the proudest place in the liberal his tory of the world, who have executed their kings for the usurp ation of their rights ; and no executed felons find less sympathy in posterity, than is awarded to the memories of Louis of France and Charles of England. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 37 The revolution of 1776 was a terrible struggle for the main tenance of personal rights, invaded by political power. Revolutions, or even rebellions, are never purely artificial. A mere irruption upon the surface of society will soon pass away with but slight inconvenience to communities. Revolution is the explosion of society from the presence of in congruous elements in conflict. Revolutions cannot be causeless, any more than are fevers, earthquakes, volcanoes or hurricanes. The diseased condition of the human system amply explains the fever ; the convulsions of the earth as fairly interpret the earth quake ; the insatiable stomach of fire which belches forth its vol umes of flaming scoriae, duly accounts for the volcano ; the collis- sion of the elements is the solution of the hurricane. The assump tions of power, trespasses upon liberty, outrages upon rights, with their concomitants, corruptions in office, and exacting annoyances of petty officials ; promptly met by tenacity of self-government, maintenance of individuality, love of liberty, and personal repose, are the common and legitimate causes of revolution. The people never redress their wrongs too speedily, or punish the usurper too severely. It is the business of usurpers to concentrate power, employ mercenary armies, wring taxes from the people to pay for the usurpation of their government and crushing out liberty. Personal liberty is always in danger. It is the life-blood upon which the tigers of usurpation riot. The only safety is to resist every encroachment upon liberty. The defence of personal rights is a duty tantamount to the preservation of life itself. The quiet surrender of liberty is a crime for which cowardice can offer no satisfactory apology, an enormity that admits of no palliation. The crime is multiplied in the father, who compromises his children in the transmission of his slavery. Such is the depravity of tyrants, that failing to apologize for the wrongs perpetrated upon society, they imagine that the public intelligence has undergone the -same changes that their crimes have wrought upon themselves, and exercise usur pation as a matter of right. The questions of personal liberty admit of no argument, they are self-evident. "Whenever a usurper offers a reason why a whole people should be robbed, burned, disfranchised, degraded and destroyed, 38 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. and proceeds to the execution of this horrible work, the people have no remedy left them but the sabre and the musket. Against violent usurpation there is no remedy but resistance ; this is the law of nature which, through the mutations of time, has come down to us unimpaired, maintained by the most astute statesmen, defended by the most heroic warriors, led by the ablest generals, sung by the sublimes! poets, in the most inspir ing song ; instituted by God in the liberation of Israel from Egypt, and approved by the just and generous sentiment of mankind. When the liberties of Rome were usurped by Caesar, the people had no other remedy than that which brought him to the earth by the dagger of Brutus ; nor had the Swiss any other mode of vindicating their liberty against the cruelty of Gessler, than by the vengeful hand of Tell. History has never murmured against the verdict, nor de murred to the jurisdiction of the bloody courts. Charles Stuart was not amenable to the courts of common law ; the maxim was imperious that the King could do no wrong, but that very maxim appealed his case to another court, where all maxims were suspended, and passion s fevered lips were burning in unquenched thirst for royal blood, and must be satiated. The King had no right to complain. He had first destroyed the law and substituted his arbitrary will in its stead ; and when in his extremity, he appealed to the British constitution for pro tection against violence, his remedies failed him. His own vio lence had prepared the scaffold to consummate his ruin ; and end his usurpation and his life together. Louis XVI was not the worst of all the European tyrants. His name was endeared to Americans as their fast and opportune friend in their infant struggle for liberty. But the sovereignty of Louis was an expense upon the life, liberty and property of the subject in wars, prisons and taxation, the implements of tyrants in every age which the enlightened people of France could no longer endure and sought their only relief in his speedy and violent death. It was not the versatile pen of Voltaire, the Revolutionary eloquence of Mirabeau, or the pathetic appeals of Rosseau that CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 39 begat the French Revolution. It was the oppression of the people suffered in their persons, who, after exhausting all other remedies, flew to arms, choosing rather to perish in glorious vindication of their honor and liberty than live in perpetual bondage. It were the better way to arraign, try, and convict tyrants according to the forms of law, but this can never be done. They always cunningly prevent the possibility of legal trials, and defy legal responsibility. What tribunal dare arraign or arrest Julius Caesar ? What remedy had the people ? They dared not even speak of their wrongs. This was sedition. Caesar created and demolished courts; called and prorogued councils. Caesar was ruling tyrant; the people were helpless slaves. Brutus slew Caesar; this was the only remedy for the over shadowing evil a just punishment of his crime. The guilt of his own blood rested on the tyrant s head, which had been justly forfeited to mankind. Assassination is a hideous crime, which undermines the foun dations of society, and brings the grand old temple of human government toppling to the earth, and makes every man seem priina facie the enemy of mankind. Whether the crime be perpetrated by ruler or citizen, king or subject, it loses none of its innate and ineffable horror. But here arises the startling question which must be carried before the high court of history and the great chancery of God, which will in passionless judgment sit upon our actions. Who is the assassin ? The man who in frenzied madness strikes the fatal blow; or the tyrant who overthrows all government destroys his own safety in his rage to torture his enemies ; or gratifies his spite by plunging the country into civil war and universal anarchy ; who regards nothing of law except its power to punish and inflict its penalties to satiate his malice ? A guilty ruler imprisons legislatures, overawes courts by degrading its judges, and gives discretionary license to levy arbitrary taxes, and suspends personal rights ; invites violence and destruction from the people and invokes the judgments of God, which fall upon those who exalt themselves above justice and courts. 40 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Whoever may not be tried for his crimes, invokes judgment without trial. Upon these two axioms have we built the Amer- can system : 1. " THAT ALL JUST POWERS OF GOVERNMENT ARE DERIVED FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED." 2. " KESISTANCE TO TYRANTS is OBEDIENCE TO GOD." CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 41 CHAPTER IV. - VIOLATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE STATES BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. THE war between the States of the Union was not a riot. It was deliberate, systematic and orderly, upon the part of the Southern States. It was not an insurrection or rebellion, every thing was done in subordination to the law and sovereign power of the States, in which it transpired with no more of violence than is common to warfare. It was not a revolution. It changed none of the organic laws of the States, the people armed themselves according to law to repel a threatened invasion of their country, overthrow of their government and violations of their political, legal and social rights in which they failed, and are now realizing their worst anticipated fears. It was a war between independent States, in violation of the Constitution of the United States, as interpreted by its framers ; by the Supreme Court, its legal exponent and the statesmen and publicists, contemporary with its existence. The pretext for the war was the preservation of the Union an organized Union fighting against organized States, the whole destroying its parts was the monstrous absurdity. Among equal contracting parties, rape was substituted for marriage, or consent was extorted by force as the sublimest spectacle of free government. This doctrine is the fruitful parent of all of the machinery of despotism, standing armies, taxations, corruptions and slavery. The rights of the States and the power of the general govern ment have been in harmony from the beginning, a combination for protection without the right or power of destruction. I. The original nineteen Colonies were organized under char ters and contracts from Great Britain, the very terjns of which made them separate in their territory, in their estates, franchise 42 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. and colonial existence; no one colony claiming co-ordinate jurisdiction with or supremacy over the others. In so far as was stipulated by contract, Majesty itself did not dare interfere with these charters. Such was the declaration of the Virginia Convention of 1774. The Colonies made their own laws, and colonists held their property by virtue of their inherent right. It may be tedious, but I trust not interesting, to present an epitome of the condition of the settlement of the colonies. This is the most prominent feature of the whole colonization of the American settlement. That they held their rights by contract with the parent Government, and the franchises which they re ceive were the conditions upon which they accepted their lands ; and these franchises were held by the same tenure, secured in the same instruments with their deeds for their lands the title to the one as indefeasible as the title of the other. The Colony of Massachusetts (then embracing the territory of the future States of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Ehode Island ) was settled under compacts of the emigrants of Novem ber 3d, 1620, chartered March 4th, 1629; also, by charter of January 15th, 1730, with charters explanatory and confirmatory. New Hamspshire when separated in a distinct colony was chartered, and a separate Government instituted September 18th, 1679. Ehode Island governed her people under her separate charter, granted in July 8th, 1662, until September 1742, unchanged, the original charter being deemed a clear guaranty of sovereignty. Connecticut, withdrawing from the Government of the Colony of Massachusetts, instituted her Government under a separate charter, April 23d, 1662. New York, embracing the East and West Jerseys, was gov erned by charter granted March 20th, 1664, April 26th, 1664, June 24th, 1664, and newly patented on February 9th, 1674. New Jersey was chartered March 3d, 1677, and surrendered the charter to the Crown in 1702. Pennsylvania, including Delaware in its provisions, was char tered February 28th, 1681. Granted to William Penn. Maryland was chartered June 20th, 1632. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 43 Virginia was chartered April 10th ; 1606, May 23d, 1609, March 12th, 1612. Korth Carolina, including the territory of South Carolina, was chartered March 20th, 1663, and June 30th, 1665. South Carolina was separated from North Carolina in 1729. Georgia was chartered on June 9th, 1732. This brief epitome of the character of the States and their original organization, is very fully explained in the declaration of Independence, which was the apology offered to mankind by these chartered and separate colonies for resisting the authority of Great Britain. The powers of the Colonies are aptly set forth in the same comprehensive paper. In the whole history of this country, whilst subject to law, there has never been any dispute upon this subject regarding the powers of the States : <( We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the "World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly pub lish and declare that these United Colonies are and ought of right to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES. * * * * And that as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do." By the Articles of Confederation, the true character of the State is set forth in terms so clear that argument or exposition is inadmissible : "ARTICLE I. The style, of this Confederacy shall be the United States of America. "ART. II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and in dependence, and every power and right which is not by this Con federation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. " ART. III. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general wel fare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to or attack made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion. SOVEREIGNTY, trade or any pretense whatever." 44 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. These three articles of the second bond of Union use the very words of sovereignty, independence, &c., which ignorance has rendered obnoxious to men whose only claim to consideration is their lack of knowledge of the plainest, simplest principles of free government. ART. IX. Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, declares " The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. " ART. X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved , to the States respectively, or to the people." It is only necessary here to add that neither the sovereignty nor the independence of the States in any form, or by any impli cation or expression was in the Constitution delegated to the United States, and of consequence remains with the States and with the people. But no persons more than the Republican party believe this ; indeed they concede it when they attempt to force amendments upon it by force, and in such manner as will be reprobated by any court of authority. It seems scarcely possible in the face of the history of our jurisprudence, and the decisions of the courts of the country, that these great truths should be doubted, and an attempt at illustrating these princi ples would be the folly of attempting to paint the sunbeams. But the philosophy which underlies this law is even more striking than the law itself. There is quite as much propriety in having all lands in one farm, all workshops in one building, all religion in one Church, or all families in one house, as to place all people under one Government, or all the States under a consolidated system. The people of the States are of different origin, different re ligion, different manners, customs and habits, and living tinder different climates, with entirely different vocations, demanding different regulations, Such is this diversity that an attempt to destroy the inherited peculiarities of each would be justly regarded as legitimate grounds of revolution or war. The sovereignties of the States rest as a matter of contract upon the charters entered into by the original settlers. But the sovereignties of the new States rest upon a constitutional pro- CRIMES OP TI^E CIVIL WAR. 45 vision which pledges that the United States shall guarantee to every State a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, (but certainly docs not give the right to invade or devastate them, and thereby destroy a repub lican form of government,) and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be convened, against domestic violence. The five new States made out of the bountiful grant of Vir ginia were ceded under this contract of the Congress of the United States before the adoption of the Constitution. " And whenever any of the said States shall have sixty thousand free in habitants therein, such States shall be admitted by its Delegates into the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever." In the treaty by which the Louisiana purchase was ceded to the Government of the United States : " ART. III. The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all of the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States, and in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess." Treaty of 1803. In the cession of the Floridas and other Spanish possessions to the United States, by treaty of February 22, 1819, Article five and six, provides that " The inhabitants of the ceded terri tories shall be secured in the free exercise of their religion with out any restrictions ; and all those who may desire to remove to the Spanish dominions, shall be permitted to sell or export their effects at any time whatever, without being subject, in either case, to duties. (Art. 5.) The inhabitants of the ceded terri tories, which his Catholic Majesty cedes to the United States, by this treaty, shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States as soon as may be consistent with the principles of the Federal Constitution, and admitted to the enjoyment of all the privileges, rights and immunities of the United States." (Art. 6.) 46 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The Joint Resolution by which Texas was admitted into the Union was of singular significance, as it had been an independent State, with which we had diplomatic relations, and was admitted in the following language, and upon the following terms, namely : "Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the State of Texas shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one of the States of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all re spects whatever/ The treaty by which we acquired California and other Mexican Territory is of similar import, and need not be cited. The States made from Southern Territory, like those formed of Vir ginia Territory, had the same general rights as those ceded by treaties with foreign powers. Upon these positive compacts the people settled the new States. The law was the written condition of the settlement. Self-gov ernment was the sine qui non of American emigration, and in vited the inhabitants from every part of Europe to America. No plantation in America is held by a clearer right, or more definite and indefeasible title than are the sovereign powers of the States. STATES RIGHTS. We must abide the doctrines of the first Kentucky resolution, because its abondonment has cost us the loss of State Courts, State Legislatures, State Conventions, legitimate State remedies, and finally, the States themselves have fallen a prey to our sur render of their sovereign powers, and only the plain and simple truths of that resolution, vigorously enforced by us, can offer to the people of the smaller and remoter States any remedy whatever for the evils they suffer, and the wrongs inflicted upon them by the larger and richer States of the seaboard. This resolution has not the purpose, spirit or tendency to the dissolution of the Union, as time and transpiring events now fully demonstrate. But upon the contrary, it is the high and holy purpose of the doctrine to preserve the Union forever, and CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 47 extend the area of its glory not merely by the physical geog raphy of mountains, rivers and lakes, standing armies, tax- gatherers, bank monopolies and consolidated capital, but by that affection, interest and devotion in the States and the people which is inspired by justice, equality and free government. The Union was not made to destroy, but to protect free govern ment and all of the natural rights of the people, to which all government must be subservient. The Union of the States rests upon precisely the same grounds as does that more sacred relation of husband and wife. But no law given could apologize to modern civilization or Christ ianity for the attempt to bind in perpetual legal bonds the deli cate, helpless wife, to the strong and cruel husband. Separation is the last remaining remedy of the weak against the strong, of the injured against the aggressor. By common consent all lib eral governments have interposed divorces and grant alimonies, as the only security of the innocent against the guilty. The argument is not good, that this would separate all families ; but upon the contrary, it makes those who would retain the blessings of the union sacred, more careful of their mutual rights and more diligent to consult their mutual interest, which is the very object of the solemn union. Keligious liberty, with all of the hallowed rights of the con science, draws its entire support from civil liberty. But every Christian, after the most solemn administration of the sacrament by the consecrated officers of religion, exercise the right to withdraw from the tyranny of church government. What is the Church of England, the Church of Luther, the Church of Calvin, and the Greek Church but a rebellion against, and secession from, the Roman Catholic Church? What is the Methodist Episcopal Church but a rebellion against, and secession from, the Church of England ? What is the Protestant Methodist Church but a rebellion against, and secession from, the Methodist Episcopal Church ? What is the Campbellite Church but a rebellion against, and secession from, the Baptist Church? Or, in other words, every subsequent Christian Church, in the full and free exercise of their religious liberty, are obnoxious to the objection of rebellion 48 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. against, and secession from, the parent Church. It were to be desired that all churches should be one, bound in the chains of blessedness and love. But since they will not be, every friend of religious liberty demands for himself and for his Church, the right for separate organization. Civil liberty, the parent of religious liberty, demands the same rights of civil communities which are awarded to religious communities ; and as the church is one by the free government of each separate organization of its members, so is the great union of the States one by the sepa rate government of all the States, as provided in Mr. Jefferson s resolution of 1798. Just as religion in centralization is the pa rent of the most horrible persecution, so is civil centralization the source of the most cruel despotism. Now is the time for the appeal to the doctrine of this resolution. The wisdom and foresight of the statesman and patriot in the assertion of the rights of self-government at a time when every American was perilling his life to maintain them inviolate, was not more remarkable than that when at the very time every right of self-government is imperilled, and tyrants are taking advantage of their temporary power, that Democrats should fear to assert, enforce and defend it, when it is, in fact, the only barrier that stands between us and that despotism which is sweeping as a deadly simoon over every hamlet of the most beautiful country of the continent, leaving desolation in its horrible path, and marking its loathsome trail with innocent blood, and enforcing its power in violation of law. The overthrow of civil government in America was the only way in which these doctrines could be overthrown. Upon the question of coercion Mr. Seward says: " The Federal Government cannot reduce the seceding States to obedience by conquest. 7 " Only an imperial despotic gov ernment can subjugate thoroughly insurrectionary members of the State." " This Federal Republican system is the very one which is most unfitted for such a labor/ The early attempts to fasten odious laws upon the people of the States by the General Government was resisted and con demned by the people in the election of Thomas Jefferson, and the repeal of the alien and sedition laws. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAE. 49 The doctrines of the Government were well established, and could not have been overthrown except by arbitrary power. This was the accepted theory upon which the Government was successfully administered for three-quarters of a century : "Resolved, That the several States composing the United States are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government, but that by compact, under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government, for special pur poses delegated to that Government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their self-government ; and that whenever the General Govern ment assumes undelegated power, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force ; That to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party ; that the Government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers ; but that, as in all other cases of compact among persons having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of refractions as of the mode and measure of redress" 1 he First Kentucky Resolution of 1798. This doctrine was clearly set forth by Daniel Webster in his declaration that this is not a national government : " The Constitution was made by the States, and not by the people united. It should therefore read, We, the people of the States United/ It was voted for by the States in the Convention, submitted to the people of each State severally, and became the Constitution only of the States adopting it. It is a Federal Constitution, and not a National Government." Daniel Webster. So generally conceded was the theory of State sovereignty, that the Chicago Convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, stated it in these words : <c Resolved, 1. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions, according to its own judg ment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political faith depends/ 50 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. CHAPTER V. INSTITUTING RETROSPECTIVE TEST OATHS TO DESTROY THE FREEDOM OF THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. TEST oaths in their mildest forms have always been odious to either a free or honest people, as the most ready means of ensla ving them and corrupting their public officers. In the new system among us the test oath assumed a triple form of enormity against Christianity, civilization, and humanity. These test oaths are retrospective and ex post facto, unconsti tutional and monstrous. This is the ulterior limit to which des potism itself may travel. Under this cover every crime may hide in the shadow of power, and every virtue may be crushed out which seeks protection in the temple of Justice. The unreasonable crime of the Roman tyrant who wrote his laws in small letters and placed them out of sight of the people, is exceeded by the Congress which legislates upon the actions of the past; imposes Constitutional amendments to protect infamous criminals from just punishments due to past crimes against ex isting laws. This test oath is a crime against humanity, which compels men to give testimony against themselves, under pains and penalty of perjury, with disfranchisement upon the one hand and the State s prison on the other. No such power can be reposed in courts or legislatures. The common law which came down to us laden with the learning, liberty, and civilization of centuries, revolts at the crime of forcing a man to testify against himself. His attorney, physician, or minister, is not allowed to reveal professional confidence committed to him. This precaution is a necessity to the integ rity and success of the profession conceded everywhere and never called in question before CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 51 It is in violation of every theory, maxim and truism of our government, against which the united voices of philosophers, philanthropists, poets, heroes and statesmen of all Christendom come up from the grave and down from heaven with one universal denunciation. How can a man subscribe to a test oath to support the Con stitution, when the test oath is the most flagrant violation of that instrument ever suggested by the evil genius of tyrants, since the bloody reigns of the English bigots? This has been the chief instrument of the authors of our debt, to commit the government to the hands of a meagre minority of the lowest, most abandoned and abominable of the population of the invaded States. Learning from Congresa the States newly organized and created by its factions, introduced test oaths to control State gov ernments in the interest of monopolies, after disfranchising the people ; test oaths were administered to attorneys to drive able men from the bar, whilst ministers of the Gospel were not al lowed to perform ceremonies of marriage, bury the dead, baptize families, or preach the word of God without taking this blas phemous oath ; and any drunken magistrate might arrest him in delinquency. To carry the schools with the bar and the pulpit in the interest of the Funding System, schoolmasters were sub jected to the same oaths. Sisters of Charity in Missouri were arrested like felons for teaching orphan children without gov ernment permission, and taken off by beastly constabularies, when engaged in the very act of feeding the hungry and visiting the sick. Test oaths were the natural and necessary accompaniments of the thumbscrew, boot and torture. They are children of dark ages that cannot live in separation. On the 6th day of April, 1789, in the House of Representa tives, Messrs. White, Madison, Trumbull, Gilman and Cadwal- lader, reported the following form of oath to be taken by the members of Congress, according to the requirements of the Con stitution : " I, A. B., a Representative of the United States in the Con gress thereof, do solemnly swear or affirm (as the case may be,) 52 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. in the presence of Almighty God, that I will support the Consti tution of the United States. So help me God." This form remained unchanged until the beginning of the pres ent usurpation. The oaths of supremacy, abjuration and allegiance made with all possible legal severity to exclude Catholics and Quakers from the polls, were not retrospective. The great oifer of repentance under the Christian system, is extended to the worst offenders. The highest hope of the patriot is that all men shall renew their allegiance and the unhappy past be forgotten ; and oblivion kindly afford a sepulchre for the misery, crime and insanity of the five years which have beclouded the most brilliant era of the haman race. The Marquis do Condorcet s defence of Voltaire dissimulation to save him from the penalties of the law was used in these remark able words : " The necessity of lying in order to disavow any work, is an extremity equally repugnant to conscience and noble ness of character, but the crime lies with those unjust men who render such an avowal necessary to the safety of him whom they force to it. If you have made a crime of what is not one ; if by absurd or arbitrary laws you have infringed the natural rights which all men have not only to form an opinion but to render it public, then you deserve to lose the right which every man has of hearing the truth from the mouth of another a right which is the sole basis of that rigorous obligation not to lie. If it is not permitted to deceive the reason, is that to deceive any one, is to do him a wrong or expose yourself to do him one ; but a wrong supposes a right, and no one has the right of seeking to secure himself the benefit of an injustice." It is a crime to apologize for liars who avow opinions which they do not hold, still more to defend those who take false oaths, but the burden of the falsehood or perjury rests upon those who create the test oaths which make men formally abjure their inher ent rights. They are accessories of perjury who make perjury a necessity of life. The Catholic member who took the test oath was not so guilty of pei jury as the tyrant who assumed dominion over the secret CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 53 thoughts of the soul, and rudely interfered between man and his Maker, and thrusts his presence into the avenues of freedom as a hindrance to its existence. The law maker who forces men to lie in self-preservation, has no right to hear the truth. We must always distinguish between the crime and the crim inal. When the highwayman has been killed in the attempt to plunder, he is, notwithstanding his misfortune, the criminal. If the burglar enters your house and demands your money, you are under no obligation to tell him where it is. You have a right to mislead him, because he has no right to know. You are no more to be ensnared by the wiles of an enemy than to be poisoned by the sweetmeats of the incendiary. Ex torted oaths to make you a particeps criminis in your own de struction or degradation, cannot bind you. An oath is the most solemn sanction that can be given, by invocation of the Deity it is always voluntary, and must be kept sacredly, for the foundation of society rests upon it. Only the most intolerant bigots and besotted atheists create test oaths, and no government outlives them which submits to their exaction. The test oath is but one of a family of the most formidable and ferocious wild beasts that prey upon society. The whole brood have been let loose upon us at once. Questions which have been settled for centuries in favor of liberty, have been reopened in favor of despotism. The whole machinery now employed is identical with that of the Florentine Republic, when one party expelled the other as in turn they regained or usurped power; until the tenure of every sacred right vacillated with the caprice, passion and interest of the faction successful for the moment. The fruits are upon us. Assassination of private citizens by public officers ; the exaction of test oaths ; the exclusion of citi zens from the polls ; then their exclusion from the Courts. Government by brute force merely always have and always will precede revolution, and be followed by the wildest anarchy or the most heartless despotism. 54 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER VI. DESTRUCTION OF FAIR AND FREE ELECTION. THE ELECTIONS DO NOT BIND THE PEOPLE IN THE CONSE QUENT LEGISLATION OF THOSE WHO ARE RETURNED AS LEG ISLATORS. "An election in its most usual acceptation, signifies the choice which several persons collectively, make of a person to fill an office or place." " These should be free and uninfluenced, either by hope or fear." " And to render this freedom as perfect as possible, electors are generally exempted from arrest in all cases except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, during their attendance on elections; and in going to and returning from them. And provisions are made by law in several States to prevent the interference or ap pearance of the military, on the election ground." " And as it is essential to the very being of parliament, that elections should be absolutely free, all undue influence whatever upon the electors, is illegal and strongly prohibited. As soon, therefore, as the time and place of election within counties or boroughs are fixed, all soldiers quartered in the place are to re move at least one day before the election, to the distance of two miles or more, and not to return till one day after the poll is ended, except in the liberty of Westminster, or other residence of the royal family, in respect of his majesty s guards, and in fortified places : 8 Geo. 2, c. 30, 3. Riots, likewise, have been frequently determined to make an election void. By vote, also of the House of Commons, no Lord of Parliament or Lord Lieutenant of a county hath any right to interfere in the elec tion of commoners; and by statute, the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports shall not recommend any members therefor. If any officer of the excise, customs, stamps or certain other branches of the revenue, presume to intermeddle in elections, by persuading any voter or dissuading him, he forfeits one hundred pounds, and is disabled to hold any office, consistently with the same principle ; also it has been decided that a wager between CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 55 two electors upon the success of their respective candidates, is illegal and void, for were it permitted, it would manifestly cor rupt the freedom of elections." 1 T. R. 55. Indeed, however, the electors of one branch of the legislature may be secured from any undue influence, from either of the other two, and from all external violence and compulsion. The greatest danger is that in which themselves co-operate by the in famous practice of bribery and corruption to prevent ; which it is enacted that no candidate shall, after the date (usually called the teste) of the writs ; or after the ordering of the writs, that is after the signing of the warrant of the chancellor for issuing the writs, (Sim 165) or after any vacancy, give any money or enter tainment to his electors, or promise to give any, either to par ticular persons or to the place in general, in order to his being elected on pain of being incapable to serve that place in parlia ment : that is, incapable of serving upon that election by 7 and 8 W. 3, c. 4, commonly called the Treating Act. It was decided by one committee, that treating vacates the election only ; and that the candidate was disqualified from being re-elected and sitting upon a second return.. 3 Lud. 455. But a contrary de termination was made by the Southwark committee, in the first session of the Parliament called in 1796; who declared a candi date disqualified on the ground of his having treated at a former election, which was declared void for such treating. It has been supposed that the payment of travelling expenses and a compen sation for loss of time, were not treating or bribery within this or any other statute ; and a bill passed the House of Commons, to subject such case to the penalties imposed by 2 Geo. 2, c. 24, upon persons guilty of bribery. But this bill was rejected in the House of Lords by the opposition of Lord Mansfield, who strenuously maintained that the bill was superfluous ; that such conduct by the laws in being was clearly illegal ; and subject in a court of law to the penalty of bribery. 2 Lud. 67. To guard against gross and flagrant acts of bribery, it is en acted by the 2 Geo. 2, c. 24, (explained and enlarged by the 9 Geo. 2, c. 38 and 16 Geo. 3, c. 11) that if any money, gift, office, employment, or reward be given or promised to be given to any voter, at any time in order to influence him to give or CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. withhold his vote, as well as he that takes as he that offers such a bribe, forfeits 500, and is forever disabled from voting at any election for a member of Parliament and holding any office in any corporation ; unless before conviction, he will discover some other offender of the same kind, and then he is indemnified for his own offence. But these statues do not create any incapacity of sitting in the House; that depends solely on the Treating Act already mentioned. It has been held that it is bribery if a candidate gives an elec tor money to vote for him, though he afterwards votes for another. 3 Burr 1235. And there can be no doubt but it would also be bribery in the voter, for the words of the statute clearly makes the offence mutual. And it has been decided that such vote will not be available to the person to whom it may afterwards be given gratuitously ; though the propriety of this de cision has been questioned by respectable authority. 2 Doug. 416. An instance is given in 4 Doug. S66, of an action in which twenty-two penalties to the amount of XI 1,000 were recovered against one defendant. By the 49 Geo. 3, c. 118, for better securing the independence and purity of Parliament by preventing the procuring or obtain ing seats in Parliament by corrupt practices ; after reciting or promising any gift, office, place or gratuity, to procure the return of a member, if not made for the use of a returning officer, or votes is not bribery within the meaning of the act, (2 Geo. 2, c. 24,) but that such gifts or promises are contrary to the ancient usage, right, and freedom of election, and contrary to the laws and the Constitution. The following penalties are imposed on all persons giving or promising, and on all persons giving or receiving any sum of money, gift or reward, upon any engage ment to procure or endeavor to procure, the election or return of a member of parliament ; viz : on the party giving or prom ising if not returned as a member, 1000; and on the party giving or promising, or privy if not returned a member, forfeit ure of his seat ; and on the party receiving, forfeiture of the money received, and also 500 to be recovered by any party suing for the same in the Superior Courts of Record in Great Britain or Ireland. 1. The act contains a proviso for a any CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 57 legal expense bonafide incurred at or concerning such election." 2. Penalties are also imposed on any persons who shall pro cure or promise to give, or procure any office, place or employ ment to any person upon any express contract, to procure a seat in Parliament, viz : on the member returned (so giving or pro curing, or promising or privy,) loss of his seat ; on the receiver of the office, forfeiture, incapacity and 500 ; and on any per son, (holding any office under the Crown,) who shall give any office, &c., upon any such account, 1000. 3. Actions on this statute must be brought within two years. 4. Beside the penalties thus imposed by the Legislature, bribery is a crime at common law, and punishable by indictment or in formation ; though the Court of King s Bench, will not, in ordi nary cases, grant an information within two years ; the time within which an action may be brought for the penalties, under the statute. 3 Burr 1335, 1337. But this rule does not effect a prosecution by indictment or information by the Attorney Gen eral, who in one case was ordered by the House to prosecute two persons who had procured themselves to be returned by bribery. They were convicted and sentenced by the Court of King s Bench to pay each a fine of 1,000 marks, and to be imprisoned six months. 4 Doug., 292. In order to diminish the expenses of elections, it is enacted by 7 and 8 Geo. c. 37, that no person elected to serve in Parliament shall after the teste of the writ of summons or after the place becomes vacant before his election, by himself or his agent, give or allow to any voter or to any inhabitant of city, county town, etc., any cockade, ribbon, or other mark of distinction. Great abuses have existed in several corporations by the appli cation of the corporate property for electioneering purposes and towards the expenses of the favored candidates. The 2 and 3 W. 4, c. 69, was passed to restrain such application in future, and a variety of provisions are enacted for that purpose ; and members of corporations offending against the act are declared guilty of a misdemeanor. Undue influence being thus endeavoured to be effectually guarded against) the election is to be proceeded with on the day appointed : the Sheriff or other returning officer first taking an 58 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. oath against bribery and for the due execution of his office. As soon as the returning officer lias taken this oath, he must read, or cause to be read, the Bribery Act, under the penalty of 50. The candidates likewise, if required, must swear to their quali fication, or their election shall be void. To inl m s Law Diction ary, Vol. 3, page 50 and 51. Fraud vitiates all contracts, but none more clearly than the issue of an election. For the last five years in this country every conceivable mean ing of the word, election, has been outraged. The work of coercion commenced with the elections in Maryland, after the outbreak of the civil war. Cavalry surrounded the polls to intimidate voters : when this failed, judges of the election were arrested ; sheriffs and their posses were driven away for executing the laws. I cite but an instance. On the day before the election, in 1863, under the order of Schenck, cavalry and infantry went to Salisbury, scattered through the counties of Somerset and Worcester, to spread terror among the people. The proclamation of Gov. Bradford maintaining the law, was set at defiance, and military vagabonds joined in an election of representatives, to ruin the people and destroy the State. When men of character were elected, they were forced to resign upon pain of imprison ment. Such was the course of Senator Holland, elected by eight hundred majority, from Dorchester County. For refusing to resign, Waters was dragged to prison, subjected to every indignity of provost marshals, jailers, and the cruelties suggested by the shallow ingenuity of Wallace, the commander. This was the style and animus of the Congressional election from the Eastern shore to the Youghiogheny. So monstrous and so common were these things, that their detail would be voluminous. In Delaware, the elections employed force in deterring voters from the polls by fraud, in substituting false returns and forged votes. Such were the elections under Schenck on all of the ] Eastern shore. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 59 THE FARCE OF THE LATE ELECTION IN DELAWARE. In a late discussion in the United States Senate, Mr. Saulsbury, (Opposition,) of Delaware, said : " I have seen the armed soldiery of the powers that be at the polls, and by positive interference drive dozens of voters away. This was in my own State (Delaware) no longer ago than last November. The majority of the voters of the State of Delaware at the late election were not allowed to cast their votes at the polls because they did not approve of this Administration. He would ask, Has there ever been any attempt by that State to violate any law of this Government ? Has that State ever given any encouragement by any act or deed to those in revolt against the Government ? He defied any Senator on this floor to show where the State of Delaware had attempted to tear down the fabric of this glorious Union, and yet the party in power, finding that they could not send representatives of their own choice to the other branch of the National Legislature, allow a military man to publish an order that * no citizen should vote unless he should take an oath such as he prescribed/ The hero of a military operation on a railroad can make his will the supreme law of voting and say, You shall not vote unless you become subject to my will/ This was freedom of election, indeed ! The hero of the blood-stained field of Vienna sent his military forces to every election poll in the State of Delaware, authorizing them beforehand what to do, and saying to the people what they must do. A sovereign State thus became a plaything in the hands of a military officer, who has never distinguished himself in any way in the service of his country." In New Hampshire, where physical force was unnecessary, arbi trary power was interposed in a style of which the following is a condensed specimen : "AVAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL S OFFICE, ) Washington, March 13, 1863. / SPECIAL ORDER, No. 34. By the direction of the President, the following officers are hereby dismissed the service of the United States: Lieutenant A. J. Edgerly, 4th New Hampshire Volunteers, for circulating 60 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. Copperhead tickets, and doing all in his power to promote the success of the rebel cause in his State. By order of the Secretary of War. L. THOMAS, Adft Gen. lo the Governor of New Hampshire." The elections in Kentucky were the most horrible pretences for enormous crime. The sickening butcheries of Payne, who dug graves in advance to bury men as they might chance to go by, shocked the people and drove them from the polls. Payne was followed by Burbridge who, to a contemptible im becility, added a shameless brutal instinct. In his treatment of his neighbors, Burbridge vied with the viper that eats its way into the world through the vitals of its mother. With a bloody cruelty at which savages shudder, he drove the people from the polls. At elections for members of Congress, old and respectable citizens were beaten away by military mobs, for offering an of fensive ballot; and tied up by the thumbs to limbs of trees for daring to express an opinion at the polls. Judge Duval was expelled the State by military force, because lie was a candidate for an office he had honorably filled for many years before. New oaths were administered at will and passion ; military orders were issued to enforce arbitrary power ; squads of soldiers were let loose upon the polls in one place and would drive voters from other places, voting over and over again. The frauds were systematized and forces disciplined. Fur loughs and their extension were granted to soldiers upon condi tions disgraceful to their manly vocation and humiliating to manhood itself, that they might interfere in elections. The old tools of despotism were found to be none the less powerful because they had been employed before ; nor the less dangerous because they were cruel, and employed other nnscru- pulous instruments with such covering of fraud and deceit as would escape detection in the act. Those entrusted with this wicked work were cold, cunning, sly and cruel, who measured their work by the necessities of success. In all of the States where military force dare not be employed, a CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 61 system of ballot fraud was practiced which swept the elections without regard to the numbers polled. Wherever the party in power had control of the election board, they would carefully cal culate the numbers necessary to success on the whole county, or would greatly augment former majorities by this simple plan. The board would adjourn for meals, and during the recess, some one secreted for the purpose, remaining in the room with a key to the ballot-box, would unlock it and take out as many Democratic tickets as were necessary to secure the desired majority, and sub stitute them with Republican ballots. This was generally done in some remote room whither the ballot-box was taken, where detection was avoidable. These frauds were so flagrant as to be demonstrable. In some places the majority appeared greater than the actual vote should have been in a fair election ; in other places the vote embraced more than the entire male population. The soldiers frequently voted without regard to their nativity or domicile, and then voted many times the same day at different precincts. Money was employed to buy votes where muskets failed to intimidate voters. Manufactories commanded the votes of their employees with the same facility that the coachman reins his horse, or the shep herd herds his fold. The daily bread of thousands was withheld as the price of their liberty. The banks employed the double thong of usury and protest with their creditors, to compel them to sustain the funded-banking system. The political churches were pressed into the same unholy ser vice by the rich pewholders ; and the minister inveighed in terrible style against his political opponents, and terrified the poorer part of his congregation to vote with the rich and sustain monopolies with fanaticism, under no less sanction than the hopes of heaven, the terrors of hell, and immediate excommunication from the church. Landlords made their tenants vote their tickets under penalty of dispossession ; and in the rural districts, executed their purpose with severity. 62 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Such was the combinations of force and fraud on the elections, where fanaticism and falsehood had failed to secure a controlling influence over the floating vote of the county, which is always necessary to the permanent security of tyrants in ill-gotten power. To cover up the enormity of these outrages pretences were made of fears of intention upon the part of the people to interfere with elections, which are explained by the following order from Gen. Hooker: HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN DEPARTMENT, 1 Cincinnati, October 27, 1864. j CIRCULAR. The commander of this department has received information that it is the intention of a large body of men on the northern frontier on each side of the line, open on one side, and in disguise, on the other, to so organize at the ensuing National Election, as to interfere with the integrity of the election, and when in their power to cast illegal votes ; in fact, in any way interfere with the honest expression of the electors. In view of the foregoing facts, it is made the duty of all officers of the Government, both civil and military, as well as loyal citizens, to guard well the integrity of the ballot-box. All military officers, including Provost Marshals and their assistants, will be held to strict accountability for the adoption of such measures within their districts or commands as will not only prevent illegal voting, but to arrest and bring to justice all who attempt such voting, or endeavor to prevent the honest ex ercise of the elective franchise. The citizens and civil authorities of the towns and cities on the Northern frontier are particularly requested to give any in formation they may have, or may from time to time receive, to the Provost Marshals or military authorities, whose duty it is to inform the nearest Provost Marshal General or other military authority, and to take measures to arrest and confine any and all connected with such organizations. The late raids on the Lakes and in New England are ample evidence that neither life nor property are safe. All Provost Marshals and their assistants, and all military commanders, will take measures to obtain and report at once any information that may lead to the prevention of this inter- CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. C3 ference with the rights of the people, or aid in the arrest and pun ishment of the offenders : they from time to time will report by telegraph any new facts. Local authorities will receive all the aid within the control of the military commander. By command of MAJOR GENERAL HOOKER. Official : Such was the spirit of the elections and the manner of holding them. Under this bold and wicked farce, Charles Upton, an Ohio adventurer, and William E. Lehman, quite as strange a bird in old Virginia, by a few vagabond civilians and drunken soldiers, were authorized to represent a community of a million of people to whom they were strangers, and fasten a debt of thousands of millions of dollars upon the country. Such elections are ipso facto void. Would any bench of jud ges that ever sat in chancery over the affairs of men, allow a tax sale made under a law, which worked a forfeiture for delin quency, if such law had been enacted by men thus elected. If such farces are to be accounted elections, what security have we that monarchy may not supplant our republican form of government. Yfhat security have we for religious liberty ? What security have the poor against the combinations of wealth, influence and political power, which may grind them to the earth ? Upon the other hand, if these elections are inaugurated by the rich, why may not the poor who have superior numbers turn upon their oppressors, and bear down all before them. In such a revolution, leaders are always at hand. Wat Tyler, Jack Cade and John Wilkes never die. The very instruments that were used to destroy the freedom of elections, will join any other counter revolution to destroy the destroyer. Thousands of poor fellows, hurried off to the field of slaughter, return to their homes made desolate by the hands of those that cheered them on their way from home out of employment, or what is worse, disabled. During a relentless revolution, new doctrines have been taught which may not be lost upon them. Equality is a term of broad signification and may be applied to property as well as suffrage. 64 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. If men may forcibly or fraudulently vote in an election to destroy the wrongs of which they may complain, then they may declaim against the inequality of property which is held by the few and absorbs their substance. They may demand the equal ity of ownership and enjoyment of property. The toiling millions who fight the battles, build railroads, clear forests, rear cities and cultivate the soil, are never rich; and may be known by their coarse food, rude habitations, plain dress, unlettered tongue; but they are still men the best, the proud est and purest of our race. When these men shiver in the storm and pass by the stores of those that never toil, thousands of substantial garments yet unworn lying loosely on the shelves, the tatterdemalions will survey themselves and examine their wardrobe. Their toes are breaking through their boots; their elbows grinning through their sleeves ; their knees peeping through their pants ; the long cold winter passing slowly with its fruitless labor and heavy de mand upon the purse ; the leader will lift his dissatisfied voice to his companions, crying the greatest good to the greatest num ber. Here are a hundred of us poor fellows, all covered with rags, and your room is lined with thousands of new suits. We declare for a general divide. The crowd responds and takes a new suit each. The crowd pass on to the grocery and the orator repeats the Agrarian axiom, the greatest good to the greatest number, until the miller and the butcher share the same divis ion. Once emancipated from the exactions of law, like wild beasts, society will slay and devour its members, and they that appeal to violence shall by violence be destroyed. But to violence was added perjury, as the instrument of suc cess in these elections. And when the people have introduced these monstrous crimes into society, they must not be surprised that society is destroyed by its vices. This may be accepted as an unchanging axiom that no state ever adopted a false system of government which did not work out an early ruin for herself. No church ever yielded to an in vasion of doctrine which did not ultimately overthrow its eccle siastical system. Nor can we hope to be an exception to a rule so general and a law so exacting. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 65 "No people ever parted with their liberty without being them selves responsible as the agents, as well as the victims of their degradation. History amply vindicates this truth. Cromwell trampled down the people of Great Britain with a meagre, but furious minority. Lincoln at no time had the support of more than one-third of the electoral vote of the country. But his was the spirited and devilish third. Those of the Church embraced in his party, were the fanatics of every faith ; spiritual adventurers who sow dissension among their people, that they may reap harvests of gain from the ripen ed strife. Of financiers, he gathered around him the stock gamblers ; speculators, usurers and extortioners, who inflame the money market and Avin the prizes in a general bankruptcy. Of the young, the violent attached themselves to his fortunes. Of the thinking, only the shallow and conceited were con sulted. Of the philosophers, statesmen, jurists and Christians, there were none whose counsels were sought or whose opinions were followed. This party, consisting of force and vehemence, lasted longer than if it had been directed by prudent men of great knowledge, which would have been fatal to success. The success of such revolutions depends upon a union of just such forces who, well knowing the weakness and stupidity of those remaining, pre sume their own action upon the non-resistance of the oppressed. This was the secret of the growing power of Lincoln and his men who overthrew the government, and perpetuate the usurpa tion of its powers through the imbecile cowardice of those they have robbed of liberty. The coercion, corruption and control of elections was necessary to the usurpation, and it required but short deliberation to deter mine upon these means to accomplish it. From these elections emanated the public debt ; but the elections were void. I cite alone THE MISSOURI ELECTION. The election in the State of Missouri and city of St. Louis, was 5 66 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. the first fruits of a system of chicanery without parallel in the history of civilization in any country. Can such elections bind any one ? There is not one subtle fraud, or lying subterfuge, or villainous evasion, which has not found its way into the forms of the Constitution of the State of Missouri to fasten in its body those enormous crimes unknown to the English language, which would have raised a rebellion in any country under heaven. I. The test oaths of the dark ages, which were merely pre requisite, have been improved upon and made retrospective in their bearing. II. Men were forced to bear testimony against themselves in violation of all the well-known usages of the judiciary in every country. III. Men were disfranchised and robbed of vested rights without trial. These are grounds of resistance held to by people everywhere. To carry this infernal work into complete operation, force and fraud were necessary, indeed indispensable, and the constitution was conformed exactly to it. The legislature of last winter prepared the programme for carrying on the elections by a ming ling of force and fraud. The vigilance of the President circum vented the evil purposes of the Governor, which preserved us from his mercenary militia, which threatened the polls in every precinct in the State, where it became necessary to overawe the people by threats of coercion to drive them into submission. But the removal of the arms from the hands of these vagabonds, made it a necessity that the whole work should be consummated by fraud alone bald fraud, stark naked was employed to do the work alone. Fraud was introduced as the chief of ceremo nies, and commenced the superintendence of the whole service. It was adjudged a crime sufficient to disfranchise a man that he had fed the hungry, clothed the naked, ministered to the sick, or cared for strangers if any of these persons had been in any wise con nected with the late civil war, though commanded to do these things to all men by the law of God ; the long infernal oaths then administered were so blasphemous, absurd and outrageous, that thousands of good men who love their country and its gov- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 67 eminent with unfaltering devotion, shrank from the horrid dose, and scorned to accept their vote upon such terms ; whilst vaga bonds without homes, foreigners unnaturalized, convicts from prisons, octoroons and Indians, were registered, the only ques tions put, were whether their votes might be manipulated by the party in power for their own purposes of evil. But the registra tion was a failure. There was a clear majority of the registered voters of every county in the State who would have voted the conservative ticket. In St. Louis county, the Radical voters never amounted to more than 5,500 votes without importation from other places. The registration was completed and an nounced as 26,000 votes in round numbers, which would have left nearly 15,000 majority for the conservatives. Such is the con clusion of figures made by the last five years. On this state of facts the people went to the polls. But here they were met by the fraud in the intricate system of districting. All the old ward lines were wiped out, new districts were formed by obscure streets, alleys, and unusual names, so as to confuse the voter, and not one-half of the voters of the city knew where their voting place could be found. And still others could not find their places of registra tion, and when they went to the polls, they were required to bring witnesses of their registration. Neither time nor space will admit of a detail of the wrongs and petty annoyances im posed upon the people to deprive them of voting. But to crown the iniquity, the districts were so gerrymandered as to put a number in a polling district impossible to be polled at one bal lot-box. Then hundreds of men were standing in a solid column, from the window of the polls into the streets, and no one voting, the judge would quibble about the registration for half an hour, and in the meantime the police would hustle in some Radical, who was known by showing his ticket, which had a device upon it, and the police allowed him to pass, and the judges received his vote without question. This was done, so that a dozen Radicals would vote whilst one Democrat was in waiting to deposit his vote. In the meantime the judges would declare that they could not find the name of the Democratic voter. In this way at least 11,000 Democratic voters were dis franchised openly, shamelessly. But this was only a part of the 68 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAS. villainy resorted to by these wicked men. They imported young men from Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania into St. Louis, hid among the confusion of the city, and secretly registered, after the other registrations had ceased, and counted as voters. Iowa con tributed in the same way to the full extent of her capacity, until the meagre number of voters of the Eadicals were somewhat swelled. The murderer, McNeil, was elected in this way, by about one-fifth of the actual votes of St. Louis county. But when every other subterfuge failed them, they played the villain in counting. They multilated the record, destroyed the tickets, and counted only to suit their fraudulent purposes. This is the farce called an election in the State of Missouri. The people en dure it. There are in the county of St. Louis, fairly estimated, 40,000 voters capable of bearing arms. Of these, 7,000 may be radicals, which leaves 33,000 conservatives and democrats, who will not endure forever these infernal wrongs. This leaves about five to one. These 33,000 votes will not endure disfranchisement. It is only a question of time, and that a very short one, how long this shall be endured by a people born free. It does not help the matter that these 7,000 revolutionary voters are adventurers, strangers and speculators; that the men they elect, are mere hangers-on upon society. There is a lurking danger in these wrongs, that threatens revolution. The fathers of the govern ment went to war for far less cause, and sensible men ought to know that in a great city like St. Louis, and a great State like Missouri, there can be no security for property where there is no guarantee for liberty, and the seven thousand imported vaga bonds who disfranchise 33,000 freemen, need not be astonished at any moment to hear of an outbreak. The polls have been closed against them. The courts have become the pitiful tools of the miserable tyrants. CBIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 69 CHAPTER VII. DISINTEGRATION OF CONGRESS. * A free people may not be enslaved by a ruinous debt upon slight pretence or for trivial causes. Such debt must be contracted in strict comformity with law. 1. THE CONGRESS MUST BE LEGALLY CONSTITUTED. 2. IT MUST BE LEGALLY ELECTED. 3. The laws under which a debt is created must be enacted in conformity with the prescribed forms of legislation. 4. The money must be appropriated by law. 5. The purposes for which it is paid out must be legitimate. THE LEGAL CONSTITUTION OF CONGRESS. 1. " All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." 2. " The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. 7 (Art. I, Sec. 2.) 3. " The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six years, and each Senator shall have one vote." (Art. II, Sec. 3.) 4. " No State shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." (Art. V, near the last clause.) These organic laws are not only the rules defining the powers of Congress, but they are the source from whence Congress de rives its existence. There can be no Congress except as thus created. Has there been any such body in the United States within the last six years ? 70 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Has each State at least one representative ? Has there been in session a body composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof? Any disfranchisement of the States in either branch of Con gress divests that body of its power to make laws of binding force upon the people of the States not represented, according to the spirit of the last article of the Constitution if it does not divest it of its entire law-making power. " A minority of each House may compel the attendance of absent members, and under such penalties as each House may provide." But it is abhorent to justice as well as our political system, that a majority in session should expel all the absent members, or a part elected organize before the election of the others, expel them as the elections occur and vote to exclude all who differ with them in opinion. Precisely this has been done by the representatives of a part of the States, who have expelled the members of all of the Southern States, and such members of the Northern States as disagree with them in opinion. Upon the same analogy of power the next Congress may expel New York, then Pennsylvania, and successively combining, may expel all of the larger States, until there are none left except those having sufficient numerical strength to expel the rest. Such a body can have no higher legal existence than seven mem bers of a jury, who bar the door against the entrance of the other five. Such is the glaring usurpation which has created the enormous debt now upon us ; which maintains itself by quartering an army upon one part of the country, enslaving the people by their presence, and robbing the other part in taxation to forage and subsist them. Expulsion of States is the counterpart of secession, resting upon the same thesis. In its organization, Congress is the creature of the Consti tution, with no powers except those derived from the people, clearly set forth in that instrument. There has then been no law- making power in organized existence in the United States for some time. There certainly is not such a power now in exist ence. Any organization pretending to such powers is a usurpa- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 71 tion, baldly, nakedly, clearly, atrociously a usurpation, without an apology founded in the Constitution, whose authority can command obedience by the sword alone, without possessing a single element of moral power over the people. Congress has been a usurpation in the exercise of its legislative func tions. Its whole legislative career has been marked by a perpetual series of usurpations destructive of the fundamental principles of freedom ; any one of which would overthrow civil government, if permitted without rebuke and all of which combined, have changed the entire character of our institutions. Instances might be cited, but a conformity to the spirit of the law is that rare exception to the whole wild and absurd career of that body, which can scarcely be noted. The divisions of States, the abrogation of the States, the military rule of States, the duress of courts, the corruption of courts, the destruction of courts, the imprisonment of legislatures, the threatening of legislatures, the destruction of legislatures, the duress of Congress, the corruption, the mutilation of Congress, the destruction of Congress, are but a part of the general usurpation. 72 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAB. CHAPTER VIII. THE DURESS OF CONGRESS. CONGRESS WAS IN DUEESS DURING THE PERIOD OF THE CON TRACTING OF THE PUBLIC DEBT. No body, either corporate or incorporate, private or public, can do any legal act under the restraints of duress. The nominal Congress was for five years under the most care fully ordered duress, the most exacting espionage, the most com plete terror ever exercised over any deliberative body invested with law-making powers. From the opening of the war until the conclusion of peace, Congress was surrounded with soldiers menaced by an army, whose bristling bayonets gleaming in the sunlight, flashed upon the windows of the Capitol, and fell upon the eyes of this terri fied body. The legislation was dictated by the commander-in- chief of the army, who acted in advance of all legislation. The bold men of the opposition were in perpetual danger of assassination or death by the slow torture of the prison. Mobs were organized in every part of the country, and members of Congress were in danger for every word spoken in conflict with the policy of the President, and were imprisoned at his will. Mr. Vallandigham was arrested, imprisoned and banished by a mob of military idiots under the usurpation of a military com mission. This was inflicted as a punishment for his bold, active, defence of the people whilst in Congress : as well as to intimi date others by the example of his punishment. Mr. Wall, of New Jersey, was imprisoned and brutally treat ed because he was a prominent candidate for United States Senator, a gentleman of great independence and eminent ability. Henry May, of Maryland, a member of Congress, was im prisoned whilst attending the funeral of an illustrious brother, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 73 who had died of disease contracted in the Mexican war, because he was the luminous mind of the Maryland College in Con gress, and the leading spirit of her freemen who stood with un- deviating devotion to the government. Willis J. Allen, a Congressman of Illinois, was kept in prison with felons, under no charge whatever, which an iniquitous Con gress could make a pretext for his expulsion from that body, be cause an example was required to trample down the people of Southern Illinois, and force their acquiescence in the general usurpation. In its legislation, the President neither consulted or awaited the action of Congress, but anticipated it ; and accepted the rati fication of their own debasement with avidity. In all of this imbecile, terrified body, there was no man who dared prefer articles of impeachment against the President for his crimes, or call in question his actions. The mover of impeachment would have been imprisoned and destroyed. Such men as Voorhees, Pendleton, Ben. Wood and Long, pro perly chose, quietly to assist to preserve the remnants of liberty lingering among the people, and expose the outrages daily per petrated upon their representatives. The press of Benjamin Wood had been suppressed by military interference. Such was the terror over the Congress, that its members acted as though their powers were derived from the President, and with disgraceful servility, these miserable slaves and tools of ty rants for five years, day after day, recorded the edicts of the army. This Congress represented nobody, was phrenzied by the scent of blood like a herd of wild buffaloes stamping the ground and rending the air with their hideous lowing. Having lost their reason, these Congressmen gave vent to the most loathe- some forms of passion to hide the shame of their degradation. A body of men dazzled by the gleaming sabre, ready to be turned at any moment upon them, looking at the vacant seats of members of their i)ody, imprisoned for the legitimate exercise of their Constitutional rights, were under such duress as utterly in capacitated them for independent legislation. 74 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. Their attempt at law-making was a broad farce, exciting ridi cule and disgust, rather than merriment. No act of such a body of legislators can bind the conscience of the people ; any more than a deed of trust made under duress, can bind the forced grantors, though the body of the deed should declare that it was their voluntary act and deed. In this terrible reign of crime and usurpation, there were brave men who defied the arbitrary power of the Adminis tration. Among the great men who stood unterrified by threats, un- tempted by bribes, and unmoved by persuasion, was Hon. Ben. G. Harris, of Maryland, who stood solitary and alone in his vote against the subjugation of the people of the Southern States ; was at last arrested for feeding two hungry strangers who were sent to him for the purpose. This occurred after the war was over, when to do such a charity was a Christian virtue, to be coveted by the purest saint. For giving a dollar to satisfy the cravings of hunger of these two poor fellows who were on their way to their desolate homes, after having laid down their arms, after Lee and Johnston had surrendered ; this able statesman, Benjamin G. Harris, was ar rested, confined and dragged before a committee of military vag abonds, declared guilty, and sentenced to three years 7 imprison ment in the penitentiary. Like a true Eoman, he scorned to ask for pardon, and through very shame the President remitted the sentence. But they could neither break the spirit nor sub due the soul of this upright honest man. Others there were who quietly yielded their assent to crimes which they abhorred. CBIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 75 CHAPTER IX. THE CHARACTER OF CONGRESS THAT ROBS Us OF LIBERTY. THE fathers were honest men who sacrificed themselves for the public good. In the earlier history of the country our statesmen lived and died poor, and only those of large estates and liberal patrimonies when they entered public life, retired with a competency ; and a large number died insolvent. Thomas Jefferson spent much of his life in public business ; investing so much money in such historical and political works as would contribute to the more perfect understanding of our new institution, he died poor, and had to be relieved from want in old age by special legislation ; although he had added the Louisiana territory to the Union. James Monroe was utterly destitute in old age and indebted to the charity of friends for a decent burial, although he had fought through the Revolutionary War and added Florida to the Union. Robert Morris, the great American financier, spent his latter years in prison for debt, though he had bestowed a fortune in the service of his country, only less valuable than that of "Washington. George Washington scorned to grow rich from the public treasury. He freely gave his time to the country, accepting only payment for his actual outlays ; although he had added a new power to the Governments of the world. Such was the proud, self-sacrificing spirit of the great Republicans who maintained the high character of the Government. Benton, Clay, Jackson, Webster, Harrison, Scott, Prentiss, the statesmen, heroes, authors and early public men of America, w r ere all poor men, who had not large patrimonies. Such were the examplars of our liberty. 76 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. The Congressmen we elect leave us poor, sell their votes to Eastern capitalist, come home rich, prepared to buy up our lands when they are sold for taxes. They would gladly keep the people cutting each others throats quarreling about other men s business ; whilst they sell our birthright for a mess of pottage. In all of the history of deliberative bodies, no more sorrowful exhibition of manhood has ever been made than the composition of the Thirty-ninth Congress. Schuyler Colfax says, " it was the ablest body of men that ever sat in Congress." I may be mistaken, but think not, when I declare it the most imbecile, corrupt and wicked deliberative body of men that ever spoke the English language. The very evidence which so conclusively demonstrates the strength of this body to Mr. Colfax, is that which so conclusively establishes its weakness with everybody else that he was elected its Speaker. What a beautiful specta cle that would have been to see Henry Clay, or John Bell, or Andrew Stevenson, traversing the country, whilst Speaker of the House of Representatives, delivering a catch-penny lecture in the showman s style, at fifty cents a sight ! Mr. Colfax is not a lawyer that any one ever heard of. He was once a minister, but of such insignificance as to be entirely unknown. He was an editor of a very obscure paper, which has nob been extended in circu lation by the weight of his office, ponderous as he conceives it. In that whole assembly of the Republican party, there was not one eminent lawyer, though it had many lawyers. The first Congressional District of Iowa furnishes the Chairman of the Judiciary, James F. Wilson, yet at every bar in the District there are much abler lawyers than Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson had never been engaged in a first-class civil case, nor a capital case ; and could not at his peril carry a first-class case through all the courts successfully. In Ohio he was a very respectable saddler ; in Iowa, a county court lawyer and political trickster. The analysis might be extended, but we confine it to representa tive men. The Republican party, who were very fully repre sented by preachers, had not among their ministers one eminent pulpit orator, able theological controversalist, author, scholar or divine whose threadbare harangues would not have worn out the patience of the most meek and submissive audience. Perhaps CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 77 the rakish and shallow Grinnell was the ablest of their divines. But Grinnell could not entertain an intelligent audience for an hour upon any topic; and with all of his shameless impudence, would scarcely venture a religious diatribe among the people of his own State, and surely could not sustain a congregation. About government he knows less than nothing; was flogged for his bad manners and deserted by his friends. The Republicans had generals and military officers in the Thirty-ninth Congress, but among their military officials there was not one distinguished character. Schenck was the recognized leader of this class, but Schenck was the very weakest and most unfortunate of all the mili tary men, where military men were chosen for their known inca pacity in military affairs. For his butchery at Vienna, in a well- regulated army, he would have been cashiered for his imbecility, or shot for his crime. His rule in Baltimore was the opprobrium of the war, which gave comparative respectability to Butler. There were among the remainder neither historians, poets, nor philosophers ; and the only way in which they were estimated, was by the amount of money which it was supposed necessary to buy their votes. They were the offals of every profession. Among the lawyers, there was none such as Judge Black, Attor ney-General Gushing, Charles O Connor or Mr. Browning. Thaddeus Stevens, who was a successful advocate and rabble- rouser in early life, never pretended to, nor did his friends claim for him, the rank of the first lawyers of the State ; as was award ed to Buchanan, Ross, Sharswood, Forward, Woodward or Reed. Among the divines in this Congress, there were none such as Bishop Soule, of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; Meade, of the Episcopal ; Fuller, of the Baptist; or the abler Presbyterians of former times. Among the generals, there was none such as Scott, Jackson, Lee or Johnston. Never did a more wretched constituency of fanatics elect a representation of more arrant knaves and impracticable fools ; never was there such a hybrid cross between villainy and stupidity. They went to Congress poor ; came back rich. They were cunning villains, who, if ac cepting bribes, knew how to cover up every trace of their wick edness and corruption ; defy investigations, investigate their own rascality, and declare themselves acquitted. Stevens ; the ablest, 78 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. worst and wickedest of all, yet eschewing open bribes, "hesitates not to tell his own constituency of the bribery in elections of both Representatives and Senators, of bribery, duplicity and cor ruption in the votes which elected his colleague (Cameron), to the Senate. Our Congressmen grew prematurely rich. One only yesterday was a poor man, a schoolmaster and Methodist preacher. He now lives in a palatial mansion in "Washington city, and condescends to visit his home occasionally, to spend a few days in another magnificent baronage. Another was poor, never had heavy cases or large fees ; he is now President of a bank, and very wealthy. Both of these gentlemen were losing money on their salaries, and therefore excused themselves for adding two thousand dollars per annum to their former salaries. This is the history of the whole Congress. How did they make their money ? Where did they get their bank stock ? How did they get it ? You must ask manufacturers how they got their tariffs ; you must ask railroads how they got their lands ; that may give you light. Did these gentlemen take open bribes? Certainly not ; they are entirely too shrewd for all that. They saw other gentlemen in Congress get expelled for that folly. But liberal gentlemen always make presents to their friends. It is enough to know that your Congressmen are rich, and you are poor. Before they went to Congress, you were rich and they were poor. Something wrought the change. But they did not get enough to pay their expenses were actually losing money and voted themselves four thousand dollars each, for past servi ces, to pay expenses. But where did they get the money ? I leave this for you to answer. One-half you make has been given to the manufacturer to pay tariffs. Could not the manufacturers afford to make presents to the men who presented them with at least half of all your earnings ? The bondholder gets a heavy allowance. Could he not afford to make these gentlemen a present ? The railroad companies get manors and millions of acres and bonds, through their votes. Could not they afford to divide out liber ally with the voter ? Steamships get contracts of immense pro fit. Won t they contribute somewhat? Telegraph companies make fortunes. Won t they contribute to save a poor Congress man from penury and want ? This much, however, you know, CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 79 that you pay taxes and are poor, and they receive salaries, paid with your taxes, and are rich, and make bankers and manufac turers rich by their votes. These men, whose sworn duty is to maintain the public peace, after having sold their votes for gain, fear the inquiry and investigation of the people, and cry offensive names of " copperhead, " " secesh, " " rebel, " &c., to avert the curses of the people from their own to the heads of others. So long as they could keep the country engaged in actual warfare, they had the most perfect immunity of murder, arson and robbery. Peace would promptly arrest their crime and their profit together. But unlike high-minded highwaymen, who rob only their ene-^ mies, these Congressmen rob their friends whilst they butcher their enemies, and leave devastation in their pathway, to attest their success in the prosecution of the purposes of their ambition. In the present Congress you have no hope. The men who com pose it have your ruin deliberated. They have sought the pub lic treasury as a means of enriching their private purse. They have used the public sword to gratify their private personal mal ice. They have employed the halls of Congress to defame the American people, and have covertly prostituted every sacred principle of law and liberty, to elevate themselves upon a pedes tal imbedded in the ashes of the Constitution, sprinkled with the blood of the people. Your only hope is in yourselves your thorough, and complete, and compact organization ; in send ing to represent you men of ability and integrity, who love lib erty and fear God. 80 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER X. THE CORRUPTION OF CONGRESS IN CREATING THE DEBT. THE corruptions of Congress are alarming. The black mail, levied by political combination, to secure offices in the larger cities, threatens the entire overthrow of our political system. It is quite as notorious as infamous, that party nominations, equivalent to elections in the larger cities, cost immense sums of money ; sometimes the mayoralty of a city costs the candidates twenty to forty thousand dollars as a condition of nomination. And nearly every officer pays a tribute of his salary, and fees to the combinations from whom he secures his office. Twenty to fifty thousand dollars is regarded a necessity to the candidacy to Congress, and candidates secure it in the same way ; but not by the same honourable means that Englishmen secure positions in the army. Secretaries of the Executive Departments have been engaged in speculations that have secured them immense fortunes sudden ly, and have scarcely concealed the evidence of their crime. The history of modern legislation is simply the details of cor ruption, peculation, bribery and black mail, by which constit uencies are divested of every guaranty of good government. These gentlemen indemnify themselves for outlays in voting millions, in exorbitant tariffs, in voting millions of acres in land grants to corporations, in voting contractors claims, hurried like lightning through committees, and passed without examination in the last hours through the House, when the President has scarcely time to read them. The manufacturers can well aiford to pay millions to compen sate for tens of millions dollars voted into their pockets ; nor would the corporations hesitate to hand over thousands of acres of the millions placed in their hands, and contractors willingly divided their spoils with their benefactors. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 81 From the most pinching want and obscure position, these gentlemen emerge into bank presidents, live in splendid houses, drive magnificent turnouts. Their families, covered with silks and jewelry, and living in oriental style, assume aristocratic airs. The Congressmen, not the people, premeditatedly provoked, perpetuated and would yet continue civil war, as a source of profit, power and position. This could only be done by the perpetration of frauds. The Congress still demand armies to overawe the people, and pretend that war exists, and demands armies that frauds be not discovered ; and if discovered, be not exposed ; and if any one dare expose them, that martial law be declared ; and any person testifying against them, may be arrested under any pretence whatever, tried by court martial, convicted without defence, and executed without the privilege of leaving their denial as a legacy to their families and to justice; at every stage of the proceedings deprived of the unquestionable rights of self-defence. For five years these flagrant murders and robberies have been carried to a startling extent, to rid guilty parties of the odium and punishment due to crime, in which members of Congress were partners with sutlers and commissioners of subsistence, holding a percentage in the profits of the business. Every encampment and army store-house burned, as carefully burned all books and accounts in a common ash heap. In this destruction of papers, the confusion of martial law, the corruptions of office and peculation, were kept from the pub lic view. The votes of Congressmen were bought and sold in the mar ket, as the service of cyprians. The price was regulated by the influence of the member and magnitude of the interest, or the pressing necessity of his vote. So well is the process of corruption understood, that each new member, is beset, by all the blandishments of power, assailing all the weaknesses of human nature. By money and other less reputable means, members of Con gress were bribed to vote for the late Constitutional amendment, or absent themselves from their seats. 6 82 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Nearly every legislative outrage and usurpation is accomplished in the same way, where money fails. Social and political posi tions, is used as a part of the standard currency of corruption. Sometimes a great measure, that tenderly touches the destiny of the country, turns upon the secret embraces of an artful courte zan, who holds at her will the character and social peace of some feeble member of Congress. At other times, a corrupted Con gressman, with the wages of his iniquity in his pocket, will bo seen stepping from the representative seat of a betrayed constit uency, into the voluptuous court of a foreign despot, to revel in the price of his honor, and hide his shame in foreign lands. This Congressional corruption extended to the army, where it found new and richer fields of plunder. Army officers, without capacity, were appointed and promoted by contract. Superior officers sold their influence, to secure appointments and promo tions of inferior officers. Heads of Departments of the general government levied black mail of their inferiors, to keep up style and promote the success of elections, until public offices have become matters of mercenary speculations, like bank, railroad, and other stock. The style in the invaded States is well explained in the follow ing letter: A SOUVENIR OF SHERMAN S BUMMERS. The following letter, says the Columbus (Ga.) Sun and Times, was found in the streets of Columbia, immediately after the army of General Sherman had left. The original is preserved, and can be shown and substantiated, if anybody desires : CAMP NEAR CAMDEN, S. C., Feb. 26, 1865. MY DEAR WIFE I have no time for particulars. We have had a glorious time in this State. Unrestricted license to burn and plunder was the order of the day. The chivalry have been stripped of most of their valuables. Gold watches, silver pitch ers, cups, spoons, forks, &c., are as common in camp as blackber ries. The terms of plunder are as follows : Each company is required to exhibit the results of its operations at any given place one-fifth and first choice falls to the share of the com- mander-in-chief and staff; one-fifth to the corps commanders and CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 83 staff; one-fifth to field officers of regiments, and two-fifths to the company. Officers are not allowed to join these expeditions without dis guising themselves as privates. One of our corps commanders borrowed a suit of rough clothes from one of my men, and was successful in this place. He got a large quantity of silver (among other things an old-time milk pitcher) and a very fine gold watch from a Mrs. DeSaussure, at this place. DeSaussure was one of the F. F. V. s of South Carolina, and was made to fork over liberally. Officers over the rank of captain are not made to put their plunder in the estimate for general distribu tion. This is very unfair, and for that reason, in order to pro tect themselves, subordinate officers and privates keep back every thing that they can carry about their persons, such as rings, ear rings, breast pins, &c., of which, if I ever get home, I have about a quart. T am not joking I have at least a quart of jewelry for you and all the girls, and some No. 1 diamond rings and pins among them. General Sherman has silver and gold enough to start a bank. His share in gold watches alone at Co lumbia was two hundred and seventy-five. But I said I could not go into particulars. All the general officers and many be sides had valuables of every description, down to the embroid ered ladies pocket handkerchiefs. I have my share of them, too. We took gold and silver enough from the cl d rebels to have redeemed their infernal currency twice over. This, (the currency,) whenever we came across it, we burned, as we con sidered it utterly worthless. I wish all the jewelry this army has could be carried to the " Old Bay State." It would deck her out in glorious style ; but, alas! it will be scattered all over the North and Middle States. The d d niggers, as a general rule, prefer to stay at home, particularly after they found out that we only wanted the able-bodied men, (and, to tell you the truth, the youngest and best-looking women.) Sometimes we took off whole families and plantations of niggers, by way of repaying secessionists. But the useless part of them we soon manage to lose ; sometimes in crossing rivers, sometimes in other ways. I shall write to you again from Wilmington, Goldsboro , or some other place in North Carolina. The order to march has arrived, and I must close hurriedly. Love to grandmother and aunt Charlotte. Take care of yourself and children. Don t show this letter out of the family. Your affectionate husband, THOMAS J. MYERS, Lieut., &c. 84 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. P. S. I will send this by the first flag of truce to be mailed, unless I have an opportunity of sending it to Hilton Head. Tell Sallie I am saving a pearl bracelet and ear-rings for her; but Lambert got the necklace and breast-pin of the same set. I am trying to trade him out of them. These were taken from the Misses Jamison, daughters of the President of the South Carolina Secession Convention. We found these on our trip through Georgia. This letter was addressed to Mrs. Thomas J. Myers, Boston, Massachusetts. It need not be a matter of wonder how members buy their election to Congress, buy their nomination, live in grandeur, be stow with munificence, defy the simplest laws of justice, and still return to the legislature halls to repeat their crimes. The government was robbed to fill the pockets of contractors, to furnish places to ambitious men ; to insult, punish, and de grade those who exposed those crimes. The amount of public money squandered is incalculable. The history of wars is the biography of thieves, robbers and sharpers upon the one hand ; and of bankrupt, ruined, honest and silly men who were unfortunate enough to come in contact with them, upon the other hand. With Bonaparte and Alexander, Cyrus and Caesar, Charles XII and Peter the Great, Wellington and Washington, contract ors and sutlers were accounted the value of armies. But in the late war these cormorants were the living substance and most prominent elements of its existence. 1. Contractors sold out their wares at enormous prices, and col luded with officers, defrauded the government, by selling to the army damaged goods, dealing out rations with false weights and measures, selling broken wagons, crippled horses and mules, or col luding with the public enemy to make sale of the same article many ti mcs. These vampires, who were generally partners of mem bers of Congress, made princely fortunes, and are now spending their money in riotous living, revelling among harlots, dwell ing in palaces gorged with viands, drunken with blood, reeking with corruption, and swaggering with self-importance. It required the open mouth of every drowning monster, the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 85 extravagance of every profligate public officer; the destroying torch of every incendiary, and the lavishment of government hirelings upon every vice, to sink this country into its present vortex of crime and debt. The details of this extravagance would fill libraries and fright en the reader. The character of the crimes forbade their publication in the public journals under penalties visited upon obscene publications. The frauds, negligence, crimes and usurpations, embody a com plete system reduced to a science, by collecting all of the tricks of trade, the pilferings of the camp, the horrors of the battle field, the corruptions of government and the usurpations of power into one thoughtfully revised and thoroughly digested code of crime, directed against the people under the supervision of the government. I cite the example of that prodigy of imbecility, pretension and failure, Maj. Gen. John Charles Fremont, and take but a few random passages from thousands of pages of the most trans parent corruption. The bribes exacted of contractors were private, shameful, and extravagant. The frauds on the Quartermaster s Department were numer ous, and extended through all branches under his control and supervision. In the purchase of horses, the government paid 119.50 per head for 1000. The contractor s agent, who is approved by the quartermaster, had charge of the field where the horses were to pass examination. The farmer who sold horses to the government, paid ten dollars entrance fee to the agent ; he then paid another ten dollars fee to their agent for their recommendation to the contractor, who intimi dates the purchaser and buys them at the very lowest figure of $85 to $90, when horses outside were selling at much higher fig ures. In this way these contractors, dividing the plunder with the quartermasters, made independent fortunes. One of the government inspectors was a discharged convict of the Kentucky penitentiary. With such arrangements, with a few good horses, they filled 88 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. the remainder of the contracts with broken down stage, street, car and omnibus horses, which fell dead on the road. Dead horses were lying around the depot where they had been kept. The contractor would buy up these broken-down nags, trot them out full of bran, and peppered, and sold with an understanding, at 115 to $130. First-class horses were at the same time reject ed and denounced, to prevent them from being branded. Ignor ant countrymen would sell the rejected horses at low prices; and the same agent who had rejected them, would afterwards accept them, and the contractor would place them in his complement to give character to the remainder of his damaged stock. In w r agons the frauds was adroitly managed between the con tractor and the government agent. The army would press the wagons into the service, and the contractor present his claim, which was promptly paid, and the profits shared between them. Most of these wagons were unfit for service ; the axles, reach, bolsters, spokes, hubs, &c., were cracked, and the cracks filled with leather and putty, and painted over where the fraud was apparent : these wagons soon broke down and all were worth less. Eleven fortifications were built, when the actual cost was not more than $1 0,000; the amount claimed by contractors was $300,000. Out of the enormous fraud the laborers did not re ceive their wages, for which they clamored at the government office. Fremont rented the magnificent mansion of Mrs. Col. Brant, the cousin of his wife, at $6,000 per annum. His staff lived in a style of like magnificence, in the finest mansions in the neigh borhood. Spacious and extravagant barracks, sufficient for the accom modation of 2,500 men, were erected for Fremont s body-guard of 600 men. The whole building of Benton s barracks cost $150,000. The contract was obtained by bribery, filled fraudulently and accept ed with complicity in the fraud ; and about $75,000 divided among the jobbers and inspectors. Camp kettles, picket pins, oats, clothing, blankets, transporta- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 87 tion tickets, tug-boats ; paying hands in un current funds, and drawing the amount in government money, were all the sources of profits and pretexts for fraud. Equipped in the style of the Chinese Emperor, surrounded by California thieves, Fremont secluded himself from the pub lic gaze ; whilst his armies were defeated, and no one dared ap proach him, and his contractors were speculating upon his seclu sion. This certificate illustrates the modus operandi: CAMP SULLIVAN, WARSAW, Oct. 21, 1861. To COL. WM. BISHOP : The undersigned having been summoned as Board of Survey, to examine and inspect the condition of the horses forwarded to this regiment from St. Louis, and report that we have examined said horses and find seventy-six fit for service, five dead and three hundred and thirty under size, under and over-aged, stifled, ring bone, blind and incurable, unfit for any public service, said horses being a part of the Missouri contract. Very respectfully, DAVID McKEE, Major, GEORGE ROCKWELL, Captain, JOHN SCHEE, Lieutenant. United States District Attorney Jones was associated with Messrs. Thompson and Bowen, in the purchase of horses and mules. Their contract was at $110,80 per head. Bowen sold out to Thompson and Jones for $5,000, in bankable funds. Thompson went to McKinstry for payment on horses, Messrs. Thompson and Jones had furnished, and was told that " another party was interested in these horses, and unless the $5,000 was deducted by Messrs. Thompson and Jones, none of the money could be paid." The $5,000 was kept by McKinstry, and the remainder paid over to Thompson and Jones. Over $500,000 were taken from the government in hay con tracts. By the same collusion, between the contractor and quartermaster, $17,50 was paid for rough Prairie hay, with $8,00 per ton for transportation from St. Louis to Sedalia, when the same quality could have been bought anywhere along the route to Warsaw for $6,00 to $8,00 per ton. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. In such grandeur of style did Fremont surround himself, and such was the complicated machinery that was necessary to his approach, that no one could reach him with communications. ]S T o earthly personage, except the "GRAND LLAMA/ ever assumed such dignity and reserve from the highest to the lowest government officials; all participated in his dignity and were implicated in these crimes, and profited by these speculations which originated in Congress. Every corrupt congressman had a political general, with corresponding numbers of subordinates, the creatures of his power. This list shows some of the uses made of the money that made the public debt. "GENERAL OFFICERS WITHOUT COMMANDS. Secretary Stanton on Wednesday sent to the Senate the names of Major Generals and Brigadier Generals without commands equal to a brigade ; the number of their staffs, their pay, com mutations and rations, and the Major and Brigadier General in command of departments and districts, together with his opinion if they were needed. The pay is monthly pay : Officers of the Regular Army and of Volunteers, together with their ^ respective staffs, without commands, or commands equal to a brigade : George B. McClellan, Major General, $355 ; relieved Nov 7,1862. No staff. John C. Fremont, Major General, $355; relieved August 12 1862. Staff Ansel ine Albert, Colonel, $164; John T. Flain Colonel, $164; Charles Zagonyi, Colonel, $164; John Pilson, Lieutenant Colonel, $146 ; Leonidas Haskell, Major, $110 R ? W. Raymond, Captain, $104. ^ David Hunter, Major-general, $355; relieved June 12, 1863. No staff. On a tour of inspection through military division of the Mississippi. E. A. Hitchcock, Major General, $445 ; has had no command or staff. Commissioner for exchange of prisoners. Irwin McDowell, Major General, $445; relieved September 6, 1862. President of a retiring board since July 12, J863. Staff Franklin Haven, jr., Captain, $129.50, Recorder for Retirinp- Board; Wiadislis Leski, Captain, $129.50; J. DeW. Cutting Captain, $127.50. AY. S. Rosccrans, Major General, $445; relieved October 19, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 89 1863; F. S. Bond, Major, $163; Chas. R. Thompson, Captain, $120.50; E. S. Thorns, Captain, $120.50. Don Carlos Buell, Major General, $355; relieved October 30, 1862. No staff. John A. McClernand, Major General, $355 ; relieved June, 1863. No staff. Lewis Wallace, Major General, $445 ; relieved Nov. 16, 1862 ; on Court-martial duty until November 5, 1863. No staff. General Cadwallader, Major General, $445 ; relieved from a command equal to a brigade, August 16, 1862; commanding post at Philadelphia since July 18, 1862. Staff I. Harwood, First Lieutenant Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, $119.50. E. O. C. Ord, Major General, $456 ; relieved October 28, 1863, on account of sickness. Has since gone to join his army corps. Samuel P. Heintzelman, Major General, $445 ; relieved Oct. 13, 1863. President of General Court-martial in Washington, D. C. Members of his staff serving with Major General Augur. ErastusD. Keyes, Major General, $445 ; relieved July, 1863. No staff. Member of Retiring Board at ^Vilmington, Delaware. A. McD. McCook, Major General, $445 ; relieved October 9, 1863. Staff Caleb Bates, Major, $163; E. D. Williams, Captain, $129.50; F. J. Jones, Captain, $129.50. T. L. Crittenden, Major General, $445 ; relieved October 9, 1863. Staff L. M. Buford, Major, $129.50; J. J. McCook, Captain, $129.50; G. G. Knox, Captain, $129.50. Daniel E. Sickles, Major General, $445 ; relieved July 3, 1863, severely wounded at Gettysburg lost a leg. Staff H. E. Tremaine, Major, $163 ; Alexander Moore, Captain, $129 50. R. H. Milroy, Major General, $355; relieved June 20, 1863. No staff. A. Doubleday, Major General, $445; relieved July 1, 1863, wounded; on court-martial duty. Staff P. Martin, First Lieutenant Forty-seventh New York Volunteers, $119 50; H. T. Lee, First Lieutenant Fourth New York Artillery, $119 50. R. J. Oglesby, Major General, $355 ; relieved July 17, 1863. No staff. Geo. L. Hartsuff, Major General, $445 ; relieved Oct. 3, 1863. Ordered before Retiring Board. Staff E. O. Brown, Major, $163; J. M. Howard, Captain, $129 50; Samuel A. Russell, Captain, $129 50. Andrew Porter, Brigadier General, $232 ; relieved in July, 1862. No staff. 90 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. T. W. Sherman, Brigadier General, $232 ; relieved May 27, 1863; severely wounded at Port Hudson. No staff. William R. Montgomery, Brigadier General, $229 50 ; re lieved in June, 1862; commanding post of Philadelphia, Penn sylvania, until March 11, 1863. Staff J. H. Livingston, Lieutenant Seventh New Jersey Volunteers ; J. H. Montgomery, Lieutenant Thirteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry. James B. Ricketts, Brigadier General, 229 50 ; relieved Nov. 1862 ; on Military Board to try officers in Washington. Stalf B. W. Richard, $129 56. James S. AVadsworth, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved July 17, 1862. Member of Court of Inquiry. Staff H. Menelee, Major, $163; T. Ellsworth, Captain, $129 50. George W. Morrell, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved in February, 1862. Commanding depot for drafted men at Indianapolis, Indiana. No staff. John J. Abercrombie, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved December 9, 1863. Staff William N. Waterbury, First Lieu tenant Fourth New York Artillery, $119 50. L. P. Graham, Brigadier General, $299 50; relieved Aug. 19, 1862. President Board of Examination of sick officers at Annapolis, Md. No staff. Willis A. Gorman, Brigadier General, $232 ; relieved June 27, 1863. No staff. John G. Barnard, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; has had no command ; Chief Engineer of defenses of Washington. Staff B. S. Alexander, Lieutenant-Colonel, $187 ; Assistant Engineer, F. R. Mouther, Captain, $129 50. John P. Hatch, Brigadier General, $229 50 ; relieved August 30,1863; wounded at second battle of Bull Run. Commanding cavalry depot at St. Louis, Mo. No staff. Alvin Schoepf, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved Oct. 15, 1862. Commanding Fort Delaware. No staff. George W. Cullom, Brigadier General, $299 50. Has had no command or staff. Is chief of Gen. Halleck s staff. G. B. Tower, Brigadier General, $232 ; relieved August 31, 1862; severely wounded at second Bull Run. No staff. L. G. Arnold, Brigadier General, $232 ; relieved May 23, 1863 ; no staff; sick ; is ordered before Retiring Board. William S. Ketchum, Brigadier General, $299 50; has had no command nor staff; on duty in War Department. Daniel Tyler, Brigadier General, $292 50 ; relieved June , 1863; is commanding district of Delaware; troops not equal to a brigade. Staff E. L. Taylor, Second Lieutenant First Con necticut Heavy Artillery. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 91 R. B. Mitchell, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved October 23, 1863, on general Court martial at Washington, D. C. No staff. E. R. S. Canby, Brigadier General, $209 50 ; relieved Septem ber 10, 1863; on duty in War Department. No staff. Charles Devens, jr., Brigadier General, $299 58; relieved May 26, 1863, on account of sickness; commanding depot for drafted men, LovelPs Island, Boston Harbor. Staff D. W. Hughes, Captain, $129 50. Max Weber, Brigadier General, $209 50 ; relieved September 17,1862; wounded. No staff. On general Court martial at Washington, D. C. Neal Dow, Brigadier General, $223 ; relieved May 27, 1863. No staff. Wounded and prisoner at Richmond, Va. Charles S. Greene, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved Octo ber 29, 1863. No staff. Badly wounded. On general Court martial at Washington, D. C. John Gibbon, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved July 3, 1863. Wounded in battle of Gettysburg. No staff. Com manding depot for drafted men in Philadelphia. Charles Griffin, Brigadier General, $299 50; relieved October 23, 1863, on account of sickness. On general Court martial at Washington, D. C. Green Clay Smith, Brigadier General, $299 50; relieved August 28, 1863. No staff. Member of House of Represen tatives. B. S. Roberts, Brigadier General, $299 50; relieved Decem ber 2, 1863, by General-in-Chief. No staff. Francis C. Barlow, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved July 4, 1863. Wounded at battle of Gettysburg. No staff. Mason Brayman, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved May 31, 1863. Commanding Camp Dennison, Ohio. Staff C. B. Smith, First Lieutenant, Sixty-first Illinois Volunteers ; $119 50. N. J.Jackson, Brigadier General, $299 50; relieved April 17, 1863. No staff. Commanding depot for drafted men at Riker s Island, New York Harbor. F. B. Spinola, Brigadier General, $299 50; relieved July 23, 1863. Wounded. No staff. On recruiting service at Brook lyn, New York. Solomon Meredith, Brigadier General, $290 50; relieved October 19, 1863. Absent on sick certificate. Staff Samuel H. Meredith, First Lieutenant Nineteenth Indiana Volunteers, $119 50. H. B. Carrington, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; has had no command or staff; on duty with Governor of Indiana. 92 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Win. Hays, Brigadier General, 299 50; relieved September 16, 1863. Assistant Provost Marshal General Southern District of New York. No staff. Adam K. Slemmer, brigadier General, $299 50; has had no command nor staff; President of Board of Examination of Sick Officers, Cincinnati, Ohio. P. C. Pitcher, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; has had no com mand nor staff; assistant to Provost Marshal General at Brat- tlesborough, Vermont. S. A. Meredith, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; has had no com mand or staff; Agent for exchange of prisoners. E. W. Heath, Brigadier General, $299 50; relieved March 26, 1863; no staff ; Commanding depot for drafted men, Con cord, New Hampshire. Wm. W. Orrae, Brigadier General, 299 50; relieved August 31, 1863; no staff. Commanding at Chicago, Illinois. J. T. Copeland, Brigadier General, $299 50 relieved July 1 4, 1863 ; no staff. Commanding depot for drafted men at Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania. S. G. Chaplin, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; has no command nor staff. Commanding depot for drafted men at Grand Rapids, Michigan. T. A. Rowley, Brigadier General, $299 50; relieved July 3, 1863; wounded at battle of Gettysburg. Commanding depot for drafted men at Portland, Maine. No staff. Charles T. Campbell, Brigadier General, $299 50; relieved July, 30, 1863; no staff. On general Court martial at Milwau kee, Wisconsin. H. E. Paine, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved July 3, 1864; lost a leg at Port Hudson. On general Court martial at Washington, D. C. No staff. G. II. Paul, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; relieved July 8, 1863; severely wounded at Gettysburg, and nearly blind. No staff. Robert Allen, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; has had no com mand nor staff. Chief Quartermaster Department of the West. D. H. Rucker, Brigadier General, $299 50 ; has had no com mand nor staff. Chief Depot Quartermaster at Washington, D. C. Recapitulation. Number of Major Generals without com mand equal to brigade, 29 ; number of Brigadier Generals, 47 ; number of staff officers serving on the staffs of general officers without a command equal to a brigade: Colonels, 3; Lieu* tenant Colonels, 2; Majors, 7; Captains, 17; Lieutenants, 9. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 93 Total monthly pay of Major Generals, $8,340 ; total monthly pay of Brigadier Generals, $13 671 50; total monthly pay of Colonels, $490 ; total monthly pay of Lieutenant Colonels, $337 ; total monthly pay of Majors, 1,094; total monthly pay of Cap tains, $2,179; total monthly pay of Lieutenants, $1,070 50. Total, $5,161 50. Grand total, $27,193. NUMBER OF MAJOR AND BRIGADIER GENERALS, COMMAND ING DEPARTMENTS, DISTRICTS AND POSTS. Departments Major Generals, 4; Brigadier Generals, 4. Districts Major Generals, 2; Brigadier Generals, 7. Posts Major Generals, 1 ; Brigadier Generals, 14. Total : Major Generals, 7 ; Briga dier Generals, 25. This list does not include Major Generals Couch, Brooks, Stahl, Sigel and others in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, in com mand of camps, and on apparently nominal duties. Their staffs will swell the list and exhibit an immense expenditure of public money." The Generals rioting at the public expense is but an item. Hale, of New Hampshire, declared in the Senate that, $170,000, 000 had been uselessly (he might have added and corruptly] spent in the construction of vessels. This was squandered upon political friends. In St. Louis the treasury is robbed outright of $280,000. Every Congressman provides for his sons, brothers, and neph ews. $24,000 for one electioneering campaign. The contingent expenses of the House applied for like purpose, $110,902,19. Two bags of gold, containing $6,700, stolen from the Custom House, Philadelphia. Charles H. Cornwall, head of redemption bureau, has been purloining treasury notes instead of destroying them. Many millions of dollars have passed through his hands to be destroyed : no one knows the amount purloined. Millions of dollars worth of government stores were sold to Confederate sutlers, speculators and contractors, the price of which was pocketed by quartermasters. Frauds perpetrated by Surgeon General Hammond, in the purchase of blankets and beef, &c. Frauds upon the New York Custom House. 94 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Blockade running by official connivance, with all of the crimes of treason, embezzlement and defalcation. Cheating the government in buying turpentine and other articles at low, and putting them at exorbitant prices. Using public stores for private purposes. In packing thousands of barrels of stone in saw dust, marked " corn beef" and " MESS PORK/ landing them at some point of imminent danger, and burn it up to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy, at once securing the price of their sham meats, and obliterating the traces of villainy in the destruc tion of the stores. The quartermasters had a system so generally adopted, that they dare not expose each other. The superior officers were so well sweetened with spoils, they, in like manner, were deterred from complaint to the Department. The quartermaster would report forage never fed, rations never ate, transportation never used. It was the opprobrium of the nineteenth century that the pris oners of Camps Douglas, in Chicago; and Chase, in Columbus" Fort Delaware, Johnson s Island ; and every other prison, died by thousands, for the want of food, withheld by quartermasters, who appropriated the money in commutation to themselves. Such was this fraud upon human life, that prisoners 7 gums were sore, their teeth dropping out, their faces emaciated, their tongues parched, their limbs paralyzed by starvation. Although the government had paid the rations due them, such was the systematic fraud and unquenchable thirst for gain, that no suffering could arouse their sympathy, no horror could appal their senses, and no barbarity could stimulate these wicked men to shame or remorse. The quartermaster cheated the government in his official re turns. He cheated the farmer and planter of whom he bought his provisions, in the weights, measures, exaction of his price, and if possible, plundered it under the pretext of confiscation. He finally cheated the soldier in the issue of his rations, and murdered both prisoners and soldiers, by the substitution of de leterious compositions for wholesome food and poisonous drugs for medicines. His official life was a perpetual series of cheats CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 95 and frauds, impositions and oppressions. The sutler exceeded, if possible, the villainies of the quartermaster, availing himself of the soldier s necessity and absence from stores and supplies ; would charge him a thousand per cent, upon the market value of the necessaries of camp life, tempt his last farthing by shame fully perverting his appetite with villainous rum, and filch it from his pocket, which was due to his destitute family at home. The contractor, who supplied the immediate wants of the army, received his contract as a personal and political favor, often with the distinct understanding, that he might rob the govern ment at discretion. Without compunction he furnished the government with shoddy clothes, ill-made shoes and such rations as were refused at the regular markets, and entered into the gen eral system of robbery and murder. The war was made the occasion and the apology for every imaginable species of fraud. 96 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. CHAPTER XI. DRIVING THE POOR INTO THE MESHES OF THE FLESH DEALERS AND BLOOD MARKET. I\o part of our eventful history leaves so dark a shadow upon our blood-stained escutcheon as that of the flesh dealers of the late Avar. Human ingenuity, never at fault in the vast variety of her inventions, was on the alert at the outbreak of the war to induce the poor to enter the army. The popular mind was wrought up to an artificial phrenzy. The manufacturers agreed with the bankers to assist the politicians to force men into the army. All business was suspended; the laboring masses thrown out of employment, bread riots threatened the peace of the cities, and general terror spread throughout the populace. At a given signal the mercenary ecclesiastical politicians broke loose in their Sabbath-day harangues to inflame the passions and prepare the public mind for civil war. Simultaneously all of the places of amusement, pleasure, revelry and crime followed the hue and cry. Eecruiting sergeants went out among the starving rabble to gather up an army. Billy Wilson and his regiment of tatterdemalions, paraded before Ply mouth Church, to receive the benediction of its infidel pastor, who took his position for blood, and was followed by thousands of the mer cenary clergy on the mission of plunder. These gentlemen opened their pulpits and portrayed to the poor the startling alter native of enlistment or starvation. They hurled their horrible anathemas, and made their absurd charges against the Southern people. They appealed to the people to fly to arms in defence of their homes, which were neither invaded nor threatened with invasion ; to fight for liberty, which had not been endangered except by the usurpers who were demanding their services to overthrow all liberty ; to fight for self-government, which they were themselves destroying ; to fight for the Union, which they CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 97 were pledged to dissolve; to fight to preserve the peace, har mony, strength and glory of the country, by destroying the foun dations of society. These absurdities were taken up by the press and repeated on the rostrum, and became a part of the standard literature of the day. The manufacturers closed up their mills, sold out their operatives to the recruiting sergeant, under pretense of encourag ing the war, out of which they could build up a monopoly. Merchants refused credit to the poor, to drive them into the army, that they might more readily sell their goods. Capitalists joined in the general clamor for war, that they might put the country under bonds and own the people. Such was the death-dealing coalition which withheld employ ment from the artizan, laborer and dependent poor of the cities and crowded rural districts. A brief period of idleness drove the people to want and beggary. Idleness and precarious living prepared the people for anything that promised bread. Every manner of argument was used, and every kind of bait was held out, as an inducement to the poor to rush to the army to fight the battles of plunder for the rich. To these absurdities were added barefaced falsehoods, to mis lead the ignorant and delude the unwary. Under this terrible pressure the first call to arms was soon filled. To facilitate recruiting, designing leaders made feigned provisions for the families of enlisted soldiers, which for a time were paid with some promptitude. The local family bounties were doled out in slow and stinted payments, and soon discon tinued altogether. The sufferings of the families of the soldiers were extreme, and induced many pitiful and threatening demon strations among others, the most formidable in New York, in 1863, when the poor, in self-defense, without leaders, system or purpose, in the spontaneous madness inspired by the injustice suffered from heartless tyrants, broke out into indiscriminate burning, pillage and destruction wasted their strength and ruined their cause. Early in the second year of the war, it assumed a purely mer cenary character, stimulated by the hopes of plunder. The pub lic morality was undermined, licentiousness reigned to an extent 7 98 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. without parallel or precedent among us, the recital of which is forbidden by decency. Thieves, burglars and highwaymen in fested every part of the country. The three worst classes of men were let loose without restraint upon society. Deserters from the Federal army, who had no means of support, dared not return home, and, unable to escape to foreign lands, were compelled to seek subsistence and forage clandestinely, alike off friend and foe, if such persons may be said to have friends; deserters from the Confederate army, who had not manhood to defend their homes, families, and burning country, from Tartarian desolation ; and whining refugees, who had adopted the South as* their home, participated in the govern ment, and assisted to inflame the civil war, and then fled to the Northern States to put their persons and opinions up at public sale to the highest bidder; bounty jumpers and professional mercenaries. This last and most respectable of these three clas ses, made fortunes by accepting bounties, then deserting, then re-enlisting travelling in gangs from place to place under the superintendence of shrewd leaders. These mercenaries would change their clothes, color their hair, shave their whiskers, and make all other external changes necessary to prevent their detec tion. Some of these unfortunate fellows were executed, but this seemed only to stimulate enterprise in others. The more the currency depreciated the higher the bounty; the greater the bounty the greater the competition to obtain it. Thousands of the vagrant rabble of Canada came over to receive the premium offered upon human life, and bore their treasure safely off, chuck ling over the discomfiture of the poor Americans who w r ere driven by draft after draft to fill quotas at enormous expense, who were no better off at the conclusion than in the beginning of the conscription. Confederate soldiers who had escaped from Northern prisons and fled for refuge to Canada, pinched by the rigid climate, anxious to return to their people, seeing no other manner of escape, enlisted in the Federal army, took the bounty, and fled to their old regiments in the Confederate service, bearing off the spoils of plunder, with such intelligence as opportunity afforded, doing double and more effectual good to their cause than they could have done in any other branch of the service. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 99 Thousands of enlisted soldiers, having first entered the army without bounty, became excited over the bounty mania, and engaged in bounty-jumping. They would leave the ranks at every available opportunity, re-enlist and take the bounty. Sometimes, in traveling several hundred miles, whole companies would disperse through the connivance of officers, re-enlist several times, take bounties and share the spoils liberally with their delinquent commanders. This mercenary spirit spread throughout every part of the army like a contagion. The soldiers caught the infection until the army became a reckless, mercenary mob, or unfortunate conscripts driven to the slaughter. The bounty given to the soldiers gave rise to a new class of speculators, and a new traffic, unknown to the Christian world. These dealers in human flesh became masters of the blood market, and were the exact counterpart of the bounty-j umpers. At every corner of the streets were posted on the cellar-doors and stairway entrances, such advertisements as the following : " The highest price paid for Substitutes ;" " Substitutes bought and sold here. This flagrant and abominable traffic was carried on in the streets. The blood-brokers made from two to five hundred dollars on the sale of one human being to the butcher stalls, just as body- snatchers make fortunes in exhuming corpses from the grave or stealing them from the dead-house. In all this carnival there was no voice raised to defend the outraged rights of the poor. The war was making the rich richer, which could only be ac complished by making the poor poorer. The churches grew more gaudy, the theatres more profligate, amusements more li centious, the people more extravagant, bankers more ostentatious, the lawless more reckless, and all business less and less responsible. The poor had no friends. It was a crime to be poor. 11 Long, long labor, little rest ; Still to toil, to be oppressed ; Drained by taxes of his store, Punished next for being poor; This is the poor wretch slot, Born within the straw-roofed cot." They were drafted into the army, bought and sold upon the auction blocks like beasts of the field. Never before did such a pitiless storm rain its vengeance down upon the devoted heads 100 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. of the people as that which fell upon the helpless classes subject to military duty. Large families were as carefully picked as droves of cattle, separating those fatted for the butcher s stall from the herd. The children of widows who were unable to exert a strict control over the older male members of their fam ilies, just entering into manhood at a time when they could have supported their bereaved parent, were hurried off to the flesh market. The husbands of poor women who were barely able to struggle against the hungry wolf of starvation, were caught in this man-trap. When drafted, men were driven from home at the point of the bayonet, black and w r hite chained together like felons ; on the same day you would read in flaming placards : " The conscripts went singing and cheerful on their way." After the press, the natural guardian of Liberty, joined with the min istry, the trustees of the virtue of the world* to delude the masses into the army, the work was accomplished. For each recruit obtained fifteen dollars was given as a premium. The pitiful cries of children, clinging to their father, whose face they were looking upon for the last time; the plaintive appeal of the poor woman frantically begging the release of her husband, never moved a muscle in the brazen faces of the hardened wretches engaged in this nefarious business. The unscrupulous flesh-broker added to the bounty, whiskey highly seasoned with inflammatory drugs, to stultify the senses. In this condition the unfortunate creature was readily dragged from his family, and the cries of wife and children drowned by the sound of the fife and drum. The degradation of society was consummate. Parents might be seen selling their children in the conscript market, and walking complacently away with the price of their own blood in their pocket. Since the destruction of Jerusalem, where women cooked and ate their own offspring, no such revolting traffic had been known among a Christian people. The condition of the recruiting service was the unerring thermometer which indicated the depraved moral state of the atmosphere. These recruiting stations were kept in the dens of drunkenness, in back rooms with by-way entrances, where military officers in every stage of inebriety, from the silly chatter to the delirium CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 101 tremens, with complete control of the bar-room and its inmates, were turning human beings into demons to send to the army from this pandemonium. Gambling hells were called into requisition located in dark cellars or remote places, out of the public gaze. The bounty- broker, if not an expert in the science of the thieving games, would soon have one ready to strip the victim of everything, so that he would gladly seek refuge in the army to hide his mis fortune and shame together. Houses of ill-fame were darkened by heavy blinds, and the young men from the country enticed into their meshes, and through chicanery, driven to desperation, sought solace in a mercenary warfare, where they might forget their shame in battle and replenish their purses by plunder. False charges of crime against innocent men were trumped up. The accused, to rid himself of the traps of perjury prepared for his destruction, choosing the army only in preference to the State s prison, was forced to enlist. Only the hyenas who live on human flesh, and the jackals who hounded up the prey for the lions in this shameful traffic, practiced their revolting busi ness in the public gaze. As a horrible exhibition of the lower ing condition of public morals, this work was accepted as a matter of course, and was apologized for by those who dare not justify its crime. It is due to mankind, and the civilization of the world, that these crimes be made public, that the frightful condition of American morals should alarm the whole family of man and frighten them away from this horrible path. Everything conspired to degrade society. The conscription bill was the finishing stroke of the bloody crime of usurpation, and wrought an entire change in our institutions. It was the first attempt in our history to work a complete despotism. As far back in the history of the Britons as the time when the great Julius Csesar was driven back to his scattered fleet and expelled from the island by the undisciplined forces of Casselbelan, the military service was voluntary, and in Rome slaves were not allowed to bear arms. Conscription is unknown in Great Britain, and an attempt to conscript would cost the sovereign both throne and head at the same righteous blow. Men were indiscriminately pressed into the army, without re- 102 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. gtird to the protection of age. The rulers exhibited a want of foresight not common. The woodsman provides for the second growth of the forest which his deadly axe is felling to the earth, the farmer is careful to preserve his seed-grain, the herdsman looks after his growing stock, which shall succeed the sires and dames now driven to the butcher s stall ; but these monsters of despotism set all the laws of production at defiance in raising their armies, as they had hitherto scoffed at the sim plest laws of justice in the administration of the government. Every male human being between the ages of twenty and forty- five, except those who might be exempted by the whims or bri bery of the surgeon, Avere swept into the army. These surgeons for the most part were a grave burlesque upon the medical pro fession, who seemed to have no errand into the world except to disgrace the science of arms and the arts of war. They were superannuated quacks, who had retired before aspiring midwives from tlte profession. They were, with rare exceptions, country and cily doctors, without practice at a time when and in commu nities where, the services of good physicians were in great de mand. They were brawling politicians in their immediate neighborhoods. They could be seen sitting from breakfast until dinner, and immediately after dinner to resume their seats in the exact position which they had left on the counter of the country store, or just as faithfully occupying the stranger s warm corner in the village tavern, during the long winters, asking imperti nent questions of travelers, until their names were historic in the annals of neighborhood scandals. These gentlemen would break the monotony of life and embellish the general usefulness of their career by entertaining half-grown boys, strong-minded women and feeble-minded men with speeches at the nearest school-house or cross-roads. They would stuff ballot-boxes, intimidate voters, and engineer neighborhood slanders. You could see them, on the sultry days of a long, lonesome, idle summer, re treating with the approach of the sun from one side to the other, in the shade of the same village tavern enlivened with their winter haunt. They wore cross-barred breeches, shingled hair and military hat Canada whiskers and paper shirt-collars. They had patiently waited for coming events, and, to their own CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAB. 103 surprise, found tliemselves floating on the floodtide of prosperity. Every dog shall have his day, and their time had come. They were, of all others, the very men for promotion. They could discuss the topics of the day with a narrow volubility which commended them to the authorities. Such was the specimen average of the great mass of men who volunteered their services, and were chosen to break up families, in their capacity as ex amining surgeons. Such were the men composing the examining boards, before whom the unfortunate conscript was placed for approval a compliment after which he did not seek. The whole military strength subject to draft was duly recorded and examined, either before or after the conscription. They called it conscription ; in the consummation of the tyranny they cast off all dissemblance, which was no longer necessary to their purpose. The names of men were cast into the lottery of death, which dealt out its unwelcome tickets to nearly every household. The reigning spirit of fraud forced itself into the Provost Marshal s office, and took entire possession of the draft. Provost Marshals amassed immense fortunes, through agencies of exemption, which contracted to free the citizens from the fatal draft of the conscript wheel. This, like all other villainies of the Departments, was reduced to a clearly-defined system. Tickets intended for po litical enemies, or military victims, or those who had not been able to buy themselves off, were written and dried with ordinary blotting paper, whilst the tickets intended for political friends were heavily sanded on a full, heavy hand of ink. The sand remaining on the paper, made them readily distinguishable from the other tickets on the slightest touch. To cover up the ap pearance of fraud, the drawing was performed by blind men, who, being first handsomely bribed and duly let into the secret, could each time bring forth the ticket of the doomed man. Such was the villainy and revenge that ruled the chances of death in the horrible conscription which forced unwilling men to perpetrate the awful crime of murder against brave men who were defending their homes from conflagration, their beds from violation, and their hearths from the stain of innocent blood. After his endorsement by the Provost Marshal, as chosen by 104 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. the Government, he was placed in close care of the surgeon* The first introduction he had to this professional, gentleman was in his native nakedness, for the most thorough, critical and in solent examination. In the rural districts, the examination was generally in rooms exposed by the windows and other apertures to the public gaze, making amusement for the crowd outside watching and jeering, which was done to deter the timid from submission to examination at all. When the performance com menced, the unfortunate victim stood pale as death trembling like an aspen leaf in an autumn storm. The surgeon, with a coarse grin, would lift the upper lip, put his forefinger into his mouth and examine the teeth, just after the manner of the horse- jockey examining his nag making the conscript walk, trot and kick in truly equine style then lift up his hand and cough, subject to unnameable indignities at the discretion of the surgeon, until the crowd was fully satisfied with their victim. He was then removed to make way for new subjects, who in succession followed each other. After this examination was concluded, it did not by any means follow that the conscript was either held or freed, according to the condition of his health or qualification for the service. The question of his qualification was determined by entirely irrelevant considerations. If he was a relative or personal friend, or could buy off, he was generally accounted safe. On the other hand, if a personal enemy, or poor, all ef forts at exemption were more than thrown away. The exemption board was a very powerful engine of political power. Thousands were exempted as the price of their votes at the coming elec tion. As soon as the recruit was accepted as fit for service, the flesh ghoul was ready to buy him for enlistment. These narrow-minded politicians made the examining board a fruitful source of gratification of hate, spite, and an immense revenue. Thousands of able-bodied men, in the vigor of life, and fulness of strength, were exempted, whilst many poor men who had never been fit for any military duty whatever, were dragged to the army, or died on the way. A most painful instance occurred, in which the unfortunate conscript, who was rudely hur ried through the examination and approved by the brutal surgeon, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 105 took a fit of coughing and bled to death in the room where he was examined. Hundreds who had been exempted, boasted in the streets that their political opinions had secured their exemp tion. The partizans declared their determination to conscript all those who believed the war a crime. This became a matter of grave reflection. Many believed it a crime to go to war at all ; a greater crime to destroy the right of self-government in making war on those who defended it ; a still greater crime to butcher their own kindred ; an enormous offense to burn up the homes and fields, desecrate the churches, break down the enclosures and monuments of the dead of a Christian and highly civilized people. Millions saw that this war upon the South was the successful instrument of enslaving the whole country, and that every man and dollar devoted to it was a contribution to our degradation, which was already hopeless. All that was sacred in conviction, holy in religion, and solemn in divine obligation, was imperiled. To surrender these convictions debased the man, yet this was the demand made in the insulted name of the God of Truth. It was to commit these crimes, and destroy the safeguards which protected our liberty, that the debt was created to make our slavery perpetual. Upon whose conscience and by what law can any such debt bind a free and enlightened people ? 106 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER XII. VIOLATION OF THE LAW OF NATIONS. THE TREATY WITH MEXICO is the American doctrine of the conduct of war. Article 22nd. If (which is not to be expected and which God forbid) war should unhappily break out between the two repub lics, they do now, with a view to such calamity, solemnly pledge themselves to each other and to the world to observe the follow ing rules, absolutely where the nature of the subject permits, and as closely as possible in all cases where such absolute obser vance shall be impossible. 1. The merchants of either republic, then residing in the other, shall be allowed to remain twelve months, (for those dwelling in the interior, and six months for those dwelling at the sea ports), to collect their debts and settle their affairs ; during which period they shall enjoy the same protection, and be on the same footing in all respects, as the citizens or subjects of the most friendly nations ; and, at the expiration thereof, or at any time before. They shall have full liberty to depart, carrying off all their effects without molestation or hindrance ; conforming therein to the same laws which the citizens or subjects of the most friendly nations are required to conform to. Upon the entrance of the armies of either nation into the terri tories of the other, women and children, ecclesiastics, scholars of every faculty, cultivators of the earth, merchants, artisans, man ufacturers and fishermen, unarmed and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages or places, and in general all persons whose occu pations are for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their respective employments unmo lested in their persons. JS"or shall their houses or goods be burnt, or otherwise destroyed, nor their cattle taken, nor their fields wasted by the armed force into whose power, by the events of war they may happen to fall; but if the necessity arise to take anything from them for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at an equitable price. All churches, hospitals, schools, colleges, libraries and other establishments for charita- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 107 ble and beneficent purposes, shall be respected, and all persons connected with the same, protected in the discharge of their duties and the pursuit of their vocations. 2. In order that the fate of prisoners of war may be allevia ted, all such practices as those of sending them into distant, in clement or unwholesome districts, or crowding them into close and noxious places, shall be studiously avoided. They shall not be confined in dungeons, prison-ships or prisons ; nor be put in irons, or bound or otherwise restrained in the use of their limbs. The officers shall enjoy liberty on their paroles within conve nient districts and have comfortable quarters. And the common soldiers shall be disposed in cantonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise, and lodged in barracks as roomy and good as are provided by the party in whose power they are, for its own troops. But if any officer shall break his parole by leaving the district so assigned him, or any other soldier shall escape from the limits of his cantonment, after they shall have been designated to him, such individual, officer, or other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of the benefit of this article, as provides for his liberty on parole or in cantonment ; and if any soldier so breaking his parole, or any common soldier so escaping from the limits assigned him, shall afterward be found in arms previously to his being regularly exchanged, the person so offending shall be dealt with according to the established laws of war. The officers shall be daily furnished by the party in whose power they are, with as many rations and of the same articles as are allowed either in kind or by commutation to officers of equal rank in its own army, and all others shall be daily furnished with such rations as are allowed to a common soldier in its own service, the value of all which supplies shall, at the close of the war, or at periods to be agreed upon by the respective comman ders, be paid by the other party on the mutual adjustment of accounts for the subsistence of prisoners ; and such accounts shall not be mingled with or set off against any others, nor the balance due on them be withheld as a compensation or reprisal for any cause whatever, real or pretended. Each party shall be allowed to keep a commissary of prisoners, appointed by itself with every cantonment of prisoners in possession of the other, which com missary shall see the prisoners as often as he pleases, shall be allowed to receive exempt from all duties or taxes and to dis tribute whatever comforts may be sent to them by their friends ; and shall be free to transmit his reports in open letters to the party by whom he is employed. And it is declared that neither the pretence that war dissolves all treaties, nor any other, what- 108 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. ever shall be considered as annulling or suspending the solemn covenant contained in this article ; on the contrary, the state of war is that precisely that for which it is provided, and during which its stipulations are to be sacredly observed as the most acknowledged obligations under the law of nature or of nations. This treaty is a compendium of the laws of nations, which must govern us until we abandon Christianity as a system and civilization as a law among men. This treaty was made after the greatest chieftain then living had fully possessed the Capital of the State invaded. When the arms of a fallen foe had yielded all hope of resistance, and the Mexicans, the weakest and most degraded of all our neighbor ing Powers, were incapable of longer endurance at our mercy. This treaty was made when the Evangelical Church, in the fervor of the living faith, breathed the pure spirit of char ity, Love to God and love to man long before bishops joined with infidels to possess and despoil other peoples, Churches, claiming " the war power " to rob and possess, and appealing to the civil power to ratify the robbery, or thanking Congress for instituting military governments. The Senate which ratified this treaty, was the immediate des cendants of the Revolutionary fathers. Elevated high above all mere passion when the great men of the Christian era were zealously seeking the reformation of bad governments and the destruction of arbitrary power; when the true spirit of political justice pervaded the institutions of the country, and real friends of progress looked to the extirpation of war as a remedy for any of the evils of government. No more terrible commentary can be made upon the conduct of the late civil war than this treaty with Mexico ; that the duty and the crime of the American people may be placed in exact justaposition. The following description of the vandalism of war, is from the pen of one of the most distinguished jurists of the country : " On the 20th of December, 1862, Gen. Grant was endeavoring to push his army of eighty thousand men through the interior of the State of Mississippi, along the line of the Central Rail Road, with the view of capturing Jackson and assailing Yicks- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 109 burg from the East. His progress had been slow and tedious, owing to the fact that he was compelled to rebuild every rail road bridge and trestle along the track, while the heavy rains of the season had rendered the ordinary roads almost impassable by army trains and artillery. His advance was within seven miles of Grenada, but the main body of his force was on the banks of the Yockany, eight miles south of Oxford, considerably depleted by the absence of the numerous detachments required to garri son the towns and guard the railroad, from Columbus, Ky., which was his base of supplies, to Oxford, Mississippi, which was the most southerly point to which the road had been re paired. Several weeks had been spent reconstructing the long bridge over the Tallahatchie, seventeen miles south of Holly Springs, and, in the meantime, the immense supplies of every description, required for so large an invading army, had .been transported from Columbus to Holly Springs, where they were placed in depot, awaiting the completion of the bridge below. Federal officers estimated the cost of those supplies at seven millions of dollars. A Federal garrison of some two thousand men occupied the town, as a protection to the stores. Grant and his men were confident and boastful, expecting to occupy Vicks- burg before the middle of January. Just before daylight on the morning of the 20th of Decem ber, the Confederate General Van Dorn, at the head of a small cavalry force, surprised and captured the garrison of Holly Springs, without the loss of a man on his part. The Federal loss was but one killed and two wounded. Scarcely a score of the garrison contrived to escape. Van Dorn proceeded at once to destroy Grant s supplies, by firing the buildings in which they were stored. He also burnt several thousand bales of cot ton, most of which, the planters in the vicinity had been plundered, and which was then awaiting shipment to the North. A long train of cars, laden with army supplies, which was on the point for starting for Oxford, shared the same fate. By three o clock, P. M., the work of destruction was completed, and Van Dorn, who was well aware that a largely superior force might be concentrated against him there within a few hours, paroled his prisoners upon the spot and withdrew towards Jackson, Tenn. By this single blow, alone, the entire plan of Grant s campaign was disastrously defeated. He was unable, for want of ammu nition, to give battle to Pemberton at Grenada; the country around him, as far as his foraging parties could scour it with safety, was stripped of all supplies; his communications with Columbus and with Memphis were cut off by Van Dorn s opera- 110 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. tions upon the railroad above, and a hurried retreat upon Mem phis was his only resource against actual starvation. This retro grade movement was commenced on the 20th of December, and on the afternoon of the next day, the Federal troops, crest-fallen and exasperated, re-entered Holly Springs. As they marched through the streets, the citizens, gazing upon them through the windows, were admonished, by brick-bats and other missiles hurled at them from the ranks, that they were to be held respon sible for the brilliant exploit of Van Dorn. Those ferocious soldiers, who, on their backward march from Oxford, through a thickly-settled region, had burned every house along the road, were at once turned loose to gratify their cu pidity and wreak their malice upon the citizens. The work of indiscriminate pillage was instantly inaugurated. Every dwelling was soon swarming with men in uniform, some of whom wore the shoulder-straps of captains and colonels, who, with oaths and curses, brandishing their weapons, and threatening death to any who should oppose them, ransacked every nook and corner, every drawer, closet, cupboard, work-box, trunk or other receptacle in which money, plate and other valuables might be stored, and "confiscated" or "jay-hawked" to use their own expressive synonym for robbery whatever of value they were able to carry off with them. Nothing came amiss to these marauders. Provisions, money, silver plate, jewelry, watches, blankets and other covering, parlor ornaments, daguerreotypes, books, china, glass-ware, table cutlery, kitchen utensils, clothing, (and espe cially rich and costly articles of ladies apparel, with which these brigands afterwards decked the sable damsels who filled their camps,) all such articles, as well as the contents of the numerous stores in the town, were speedily appropriated. Furniture, in some instances, was uninjured by the soldiers, either during or after the process of plunder. In others, such articles as ward robes and bureaus, which were locked, were broken open, the soldiers refusing, even when the keys were presented to them, to use them, or suffer them to be used for unlocking them. In other cases still, all the furniture in the house was smashed, and everything of value, that had not been stolen, wantonly destroyed. While this work of pillage was proceeding, many of the soldiers announced their purpose of burning the town, and declared that they had been ordered to do so. Within half an hour after the Federal troops had re-entered the town, a dense smoke rising from the residence cf Mrs. John D. Martin, a wealthy widow lady, indicated that the torch of the incendiary had been brought into requisition. The soldiers CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. Ill fired her premises, including the negro houses and all the other buildings on the grounds, and stood by, preventing her servants from removing anything of hers from the dwelling, or of their own from their habitations, until the flames had made such pro gress that the buildings could no longer be approached. It was avowed that this was a punishment inflicted upon Mrs. Martin for her conduct on the previous day. The crime of which she had been guilty was this : She had a son, a captain of cavalry in the Confederate army. He came to Holly Springs, the day before, with Van Dorn ; and his mother, seeing him at a distance, requested the writer to call him to her. He came and dismounted by her side, and she kissed him in the street. She detained him as he was about to hasten away, to beg him to show any kindness in. his power to a Federal officer, naming him, who had that morning been taken prisoner by Van Dorn, and who, said she, " has afforded protection to your poor mother and your little brother and sister." Promising to remember the benefactor of his mother, he rode off to rejoin his company. The writer witnessed the entire interview between the mother and the son, and he has set forth, in all its enormity, the particulars of that offense which was visited upon her by the conflagration of her sumptuous home, with all its treasures of art and beauty, and its thousand holy mementoes of other years. Wm. F. Mason, Esq., upwards of sixty years of age, and an invalid, for his presumption in daring to implore some soldiers not to enter the room where his wife lay sick, was knocked down with the buts of their muskets, kicked, trampled on, and left for dead. His dwelling, filled with rich and costly furniture, was then completely " gutted." Three weeks afterwards, his life was still considered to be in danger from the frightful injuries he had sustained. Many other citizens were subjected to personal vio lence, while none, whatever their age, sex or condition, escaped the most brutal insults that could be heaped upon them. The epithets applied to ladies by the freebooters who thronged through their houses day after day, are unfit for publication. (" Damned bitch of a secesh whore" was one of the most decent of those which were unusually employed.) As darkness drew on, the soldiers fired other dwellings, in di- ferent parts of the town ; and, during the whole of that Aveary night, the wretched inhabitants, fearing to lie down, lest they should be consumed in their houses, watched the flames that were devouring the houses of their neighbors, not knowing at what moment it might become necessary for them also to flee for their lives. For two long weeks afterwards, while the Fed- 112 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. erals continued to occupy the town, and the different divisions, with their long trains, were slowly passing through, did this reign of terror continue. Not a night passed, during that period, that was not lit up by the flames of blazing houses ; and not a woman dared to disrobe herself for slumber, or even to seek re pose at all during the night, unless she knew that the house was watched by those who would give her prompt notice of it should it be fired. More than a third of the town was reduced to ashes, and, had it been compactly built, scarcely a dwelling would have escaped. Personal insults were not those alone to which the people of Holly Springs were compelled to submit. The Presbyterian Church was used, without necessity, as a depository of ordnance stores. The Episcopal Church, of which the late Dr. J. H. Ingraham had been rector, was broken open, the seats destroyed, the carpets cut up, the prayer-books mutilated, the organ chopped open with axes and the pipes taken out of it by the soldiers to amuse themselves with, upon the streets, the altar disgustingly defiled, the walls defaced with obscene inscriptions, and the build ing itself devoted to the vilest of human uses. Nor was this all. Even the beautiful cemetery of the town was not spared from the hand of ruthless violence. The soldiers entered its hallowed precincts with sledge-hammers and axes, broke down the orna mental iron railings around the private lots, made a wreck of the costly monuments that marked the resting-place of the departed, uprooted the shrubbery, and left that spot, which, but the day before, had been so lovely, a scene of ruin and devastation. Gen. Grant, during the commission of these outrages, had his quarters in the finest house in the town that of AV r m. Henry Cox, Esq. He could not have been ignorant of what was going on ; and yet if he ever made an effort to prevent these atrocities or to punish the offenders, or if he ever expressed a regret that they had occurred, the citizens of Holly Springs never learned the fact. If a commander, who shrinks from the responsibility of openly ordering the perpetration of such barbarities by his troops, wishes to encourage his men in acts of vandalism, he has but to imitate the example of Gen. Grant at Holly Springs shut his eyes and say nothing. VANDALISM IN OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI. During the summer and autumn of 1862, Gen. Pemberton, at the head of a considerable Confederate force, held a strongly- fortified position on the left bank of the Tallahatchie Elver, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 113 thirteen miles north of Oxford, Mississippi, on the line of the Mississippi Central Railroad. Late in the month of November of that year, while Gen. Grant, with a vastly superior army, was pressing him in front, from the north, Gen. Pemberton, learning that his eommunications with Jackson and Yicksburg were threatened by an expedition which had set out from Helena with the object of capturing Grenada, decided to fall back him self upon Grenada. He withdrew from the river without loss of men or stores, and occupied his new position at his leisure, his rear-guard only having, in the meantime, a few unimportant skirmishes with Grant s advance. One of these skirmishes oc curred a short distance north of Oxford, and was prolonged only until a train of cars laden with army stores, could be safely got away from the railroad station. The Confederates then re tired unmolested, completely evacuating the town, and some time elapsed before the Federals entered it. The citizens were aware that Grant s forces were at hand, and that they might be expected at any moment to make their appearance ; but being themselves unarmed and defenceless, they apprehended no personal danger, and many of them, led by curiosity, remained upon the street. They were destined shortly to be undeceived. The Federal advance, consisting of Kansas and Wisconsin cavalry, armed with repeating rifles, rushed into the town like a whirlwind, firing indiscriminately upon every one found in the streets. A boy of fourteen, the son of a widowed mother, was shot down while he was chopping wood in the yard. A negro man, belonging to Dr. R. R. Chilton, went to a gate with a couple of his master s children, to look at the soldiers as they passed. A volley was directed at the group, and the poor negro fell, shot through both thighs. An elderly citizen, quietly walking along the street, was fired on by a squad of cavalry. Drawing a white handker chief from his pocket, he waved it at them in token of surrender. The murderous wretches replied by another volley. He then endeavored to gain the shelter of a neighboring building, and, as he ran, the soldiers galloped forward and sent a third volley after him, but he escaped unhurt. Doubtless, had the workman ship of the " Union " soldiers been commensurate with their malignity, at least two score of inoffensive citizens would then have been butchered in cold blood, for more than fifty of them were fired on. It is almost needless to observe that this conduct of the troops was not provoked by any attempted resistance on the part of the citizens. The cavalry rapidly scoured the different streets of the town, and then, finding that they had no armed enemies to fear, they 8 114 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. commenced the work of pillage and destruction. It was late in the afternoon when they entered the town. Before the morning dawned again, the place had been so thoroughly sacked that little remained to tempt the cupidity of the spoiler. Those "jay hawkers 7 well understood the art of " making night hideous" to the inhabitants, whose dwellings were overrun by ferocious and brutal ruffians, many of them intoxicated, who searched everywhere for valuables, appropriated all that they coveted, including, in many cases, the personal ornaments and even the dresses of ladies; demanding the surrender of watches and money at the mouth of the pistol, and wantonly destroying what they were unable to remove. Looking-glasses were smashed, pianos broken up, carpets cut to pieces, china demolished, paintings mutilated by thrusting bayonets through them, windows destroyed, feather beds ripped up and their contents given to the winds, and, in many cases, the large stocks of provisions which the families of that region were accustomed to keep in their smoke houses, were rendered unfit for food by knocking in the heads of barrels containing sugar, molasses, flour, vinegar, etc., and mingling all together with salt and ordure from the stable. Many a family who on the morning of the 2nd of December were surrounded with every comfort and supplied with stores sufficient for a twelvemonth, were twenty-four hours thereafter, without a morsel of food upon their premises, or even the means of preparing the most simple meal, for they had been deprived of everything that could serve as a cooking utensil. From time to time, during the 3rd and 4th of December, fresh bodies of Federal troops arrived in the town, and these, in turn, swarmed through every habitation, eagerly seeking to glean something from the wreck that had been left by their comrades, and exasperated against the citizens because they had so little remaining to be plundered. In one instance a negro woman was encouraged to make a per sonal assault upon her mistress, and armed soldiers stood by, declaring that they would shoot the latter if she resisted. Refined and delicate ladies were compelled to listen to every species of profane and obscene language ; to submit to the grossest and most cruel insults, and, too often, even to the only outrages that can be perpetrated against womanhood. Every horse, mule, ox, cow, hog, sheep and fowl belonging to the inhabitants of the town and of the surrounding country, as far as Grant s foraging parties could penetrate, was remorselessly confiscated ; all the corn, forage and provisions that could be found were seized, and nothing paid for. Cotton was worth sixty cents a pound. Grant issued an order forbidding sales at a CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 115 higher price than twenty-five cents. If owners refused to sell at that price, it was taken from them without payment. One man, Mr. Fernandez, preferred to burn his cotton. In revenge, the Federals burned every building on his plantation, with all that they contained. Gen. Grant was in Oxford when a portion of the outrages above enumerated were committed by his troops, and he made no efforts either to prevent them or to punish the perpetrators. One of the highest offences known to military law is the vio lation, by a soldier, of a safe conduct granted by his commander. Gen. Grant however, while at Oxford, suffered his pass to be violated with impunity. The Hon. James M. Howry, of Oxford, obtained a pass from Gen. Grant, requiring all United States troops to permit him to proceed unmolested, with a wagon and certain trunks, to his plantation, some forty miles below. Judge Howry was met, about five miles from town, by a company of Federal cavalry belonging to Quinby s Division, who compelled him to halt. He produced Gen. Grant s pass, countersigned by Gen. Quinby, but the soldiers, cursing him and Grant and Quinby, refused to respect the pass. They stripped the Judge to the skin, robbed him of all the money found upon his person, broke open and rifled his trunks, stole his mules and saddle- horses, and left him in the wood. He made his way back to Oxford and reported the facts to Gen. Grant, who listened im patiently to his statement and refused to afford him the slightest redress. Judge Howry was the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the University of Mississippi, a literary institution of high rep utation, located at Oxford. The voluminous archives of the University were deposited in Judge Howry s office, and the Federal officers were aware of this fact. Such documents else where have ever been regarded, by the custom of all civilized countries, as sacred from the hand of violence in war. But, in Oxford, the Federal soldiers were permitted by their officers in open day, to break open Judge Howry s office and to scatter the documents found therein, which can never be replaced, in the deep mud of the streets. The collection of the State Geological Survey, which had been gathered and arranged with vast labor during many years, were contained in the University buildings at Oxford. The Federal soldiery were permitted to despoil that collection of everything they considered curious, leaving what remained an almost undis- tinguishable mass of rubbish." A most reliable and responsible colonel of the Federal army 116 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. told the writer that after the new levies were taken to the West ern armies, that he travelled from Corinth down through the State of Mississippi by the lurid light of burning houses, plan tations and cotton fields ; until the whole heavens were covered with a sheet of flame, night after night, until they reached Holly Spring by the illumination of these infernal bonfires. Every attempt to arrest this work upon the part of the old regulars was at the peril of their lives, which were endangered by the inflam matory harangues of the chaplains and demagogues. These are given as illustrations of the character of the war. THE BRUTAL HUNTER UNPARALLELED FIENDISHNESS. [From the Richmond Enquirer, September 13.] The following letter, not written for publication, is from the daughter of a gentleman in Clark county, Va., whose house was lately burned by the enemy. He had previously been despoiled of all his, sheep, cattle, horses and hogs, by the invaders. It tells of coarse brutality and fiendishness unequaled in civilized warfare : CLARK COUNTY, VA., Aug. 24, 1864. MY DEAR SISTERS : Since that terrible day that we were deprived of house and home, I have neither had time nor nerve to write to you ; but now that an opportunity offers to let you hear of our personal safety, I must try to tell you of all that has befallen us. I feel almost frantic to think of it, and night and day the horrors of the scene are present with me. To-day, two weeks ago, my aunt, Mrs. S., was taken sick, and day after day she grew worse until Thursday night, at half-past 12 o clock, she breathed her last. Poor mother was with her and wrote imme diately to father and myself to come, and just as I lighted the lamp to read the note, the report of firearms reached our ears. I immediately extinguished the light, as we were surrounded by the enemy, and from what we had heard in the evening, we con jectured the shots proceeded from the picket-post which Mosby had attacked. Of course, father and I could not go to mother until morning, he then went and mother returned with him. Just at the mo ment of return, sixty Yankees rode up to the house. One of the officers seized the horse mother rode and demanded to know where she had been ; mother was completely overcome and could not answer. I replied, "she is just from the death-bed of her CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 117 sister, and if you have any heart or manly feeling, tell me quiet ly your business, and I will attend to it." He turned to father with an expression of fiendish delight on his countenance, and said : " I have orders to burn every house on your farm." Father demanded the charges against him, and he (Captain) re plied : " Because Mosby murdered one of our pickets last night, and there was a light seen in this house, and we know Mosby came from this house." We protested he had not, and told him the reason we had a light for a minute. . Father then begged to be taken to Gen. Ouster as a hostage, and asked him to spare his house on account of his sick wife, sick son-in-law, and two helpless little infants. The Captain replied, " Men, to your work ; take what you want and fire as you go." " Guard that man down here, and carry him up to headquarters." " That man " was my sick husband, and in my agony I fell on my knees to that brute to spare my sick husband and take me. With a mocking laugh at my request he sent his surgeon to examine him, and thank God, the surgeon had a heart, and instead of saying anything to Dr. B., he said to me, " Come, go with me, and I will help you to save some clothes." The house was then on fire, and the men plundering and firing as they went. My poor old father and myself went back to the captain and besought him, for God s sake, to come and stop the men until Ave could get even a change of clothes. He re plied, " My presence is not needed ;" and at last when we began to throw some things out of the windows, and he thought he might pick up some valuables, he carne up to the house. Near ly everything we threw out was stolen clothes, jewelry, silver, and something of everything they carried off. Some of them had bundles as large as a child before and behind them. One of them swore I should not take from the burning house my dear little boy Charlie, who was asleep, because they said he would grow up to be a rebel. I pushed by the man and told him, as soon as he was large enough I would put a gun in his hands and tell him of all we had suffered, and if he did not fight with an unequalled bravery, he would not be my son. One of the brutes held my mother in the store-room, while some others rifled it and set it on fire. One took me by the shoulders and threw me from the top to the bot tom of the steps. The last time I was in the house I seized my box of jewelry ; a man, or rather a devil, jerked it from me, and scattered the contents on the floor. I caught up one of my dia mond rings, the bracelet sister C. gave me, and the children s bracelets and several other things, when the wretch seized me and held me, and got them from me. 118 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. In less than fifteen minutes the flames had enveloped the whole house. The labors of mother and father for thirty-three years were destroyed in fifteen minutes. They rifled father s secretary, where all his public and private papers were, and then set the pieces of furniture on fire. The officers went off loaded with the richest part of the plun der. Not a carpet was saved, not a comfort, not a bureau, not a washstancl, but one pitcher and basin. They stole two dozen handsome silver spoons, nearly all the jewelry belonging to mother and myself, twenty-six pairs of linen sheets, and three hundred pounds of sugar were burned and stolen. Oh ! the worst is yet to be told. When the flames burst from every part of our dear, old comfortable home, my darling mother s reason gave way. For twenty-four hours she was a raving maniac. She fainted away time after time, and after she became sensible, it would have touched a heart of stone to have witnessed her sorrow. She grieved for the home where her children had been born and bred and died, where she had seen sorrow and pleasure. Every corner and spot in it and every thing in it was associated with some dear remembrance. My poor father bore it like a hero, and with tears streaming down his face, said : "Oh! my child, you have let the Yankees shake your confidence in God." In my agony I had called out: "Oh ! God, why hast thou forsaken us ? " Oh! no words can describe the horrors of that day. The next day (Saturday) we had to place the remains of my dear aunt in the grave without a word. The vandals would not per mit a minister to come out of Berryville or from the neighbor hood ; we had to send to Loudon for a coffin and to put the grave in the garden. We had a supply of flour which could have been saved, but the wretches knocked the heads of the bar rels out to prevent our moving it. The trunks containing the winter clothes were rifled. I lost nearly all my clothes. What they did not carry off they set on fire. A handsome silk dress which mother had given me and had been made but a few weeks, one of them took, and said, " he knew that he was going to take that to his old woman/ I was reaching to the top of a press, getting down some house linen, when a demon took a large scrap bag, and two cambric wrappers and set them on fire just under me. I saw my danger and sprang over to save my life, though now I feel the effects of the heated flames. Tell brother T. I fought for his picture, and when I ibuncl I could could not save it, I broke it to pieces. Some days afterward mother and I went to Gen. Ouster s head- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 119 quarters to try to recover some of father s papers and some of the silver. Of course we got none. But we told him of the con duct of his men and officers, and told him we would publish it to the world. They burned three houses ; ours was the first. A short time after they left our house, Mosby passed by and overtook them, and killed, it is said, thirty of them. Even my purse was stolen with every cent of money we had. 120 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER XIII. TORTURE, CRUELTY AND OUTRAGE. THE MONSTER MNEIL. IN the town of Palmyra, Missouri, John McNeil had his headquarters as colonel of a Missouri regiment and commander of the post. An officious person who had acted as a spy and common in former, named Andrew Allsman, who was engaged in the de testable business of having his neighbors arrested upon charges of disloyalty, and securing the scoutings and ravages from every house that was not summarily burned to the earth. This had so long been his vocation that he was universally loathed by people of every shade of opinion, and soon brought upon himself the fate common to all such persons in every county, where the spirit of self-defence is an element of human nature. In his search for victims for the prison which was kept at Pal myra, this man was missed ; nobody knew when, or where, or how; whether drowned in the river absconding from the army, or killed by Federal soldiers or concealed Confederates. His failure to return was made the pretext for a series of the most horrible crimes ever recorded in any country, civilized or barbarous. John McNeil is a Nova Scotian by birth, the descendant of the expelled tories of the American Revolution, who took sides against the colonists in the rebellion against Great Britain. He is by trade a hatter, who made some money in the Mexican war. He had lived in Saint Louis for many years, simply distin guished for his activity in grog-shop politics. He was soon in the market on the outbreak of the war, and received a colonel s commission. Without courage, military knowledge or expe- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 121 rience, he entered the army for the purpose of murder and rob bery. As the tool of McNeil, W. H. Strachan acted in the capacity of provost marshal general, whose enormities exceed anything in the wicked annals of human depravity. At the instigation of McNeil, the provost marshal went to the prison, filled with quiet, inoffensive farmers, and selected ten men of age and respectability ; among the rest an old Judge of Knox county, all of whom had helpless families at home, in des titution and unprotected. These names, which should be remembered as among the vic tims of the reign of the Monster of the Christian era, were as follows : William Baker, Thomas Huston, Morgan Bixler, John Y.Mc- Pheeters of Lewis, Herbert Hudson, John M. Wade, Marion Lavi of Rails, Capt. Thomas A. Snyder of Monroe, Eleazer Lake of Scotland, and Hiram Smith of Knox county, were sen tenced to be shot without trial or any of the forms of military law, by a military commander whose grade could not have given ratification to a court-martial, had one been held; had the parties been charged with crime, which they were not. Mr. Humphreys, also in prison, was to have been shot instead of one of those named above, but which one the author has not the means of knowing. The change in the persons transpired in this way : Early on the morning of the execution, Mrs. Mary Humphreys came to see her husband before his death, to intercede for his re- lease. She first went to see McNeil, who frowned, stormed, and let loose a volley of such horrible oaths at her for daring to plead for her husband s life that she fled away through fear, and when she closed the door, the unnameable fiend cursed her with blasphemous assurances that her husband should be dispatched to hell at one o clock. The poor affrighted woman, with bleed ing heart, hastened to the provost marshal s office, and quite fainted away as she besought him to intercede with McNeil for the preservation of her husband s life. With a savage, taunting grin, Strachan said " that may be done, madam, by getting me three hundred dollars." This she did through the kindness of two gentlemen, who advanced the money at once. 122 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. She returned with the money and paid it to Strachan. Mrs. Humphrey had her little daughter by her side, when she sank into her seat with exhaustion. Scarcely had she taken her place, until Strachan told her that she had still to do something else to secure her husband s release. At this moment he thrust the lit tle girl out of the door and threatened the fainting woman with the execution of her husband. She fell as a lifeless corpse to the floor. After he had filled his pockets with money and satia ted his lust, the provost marshal released poor Humphreys. Another innocent victim was taken in his place to cover up the hideous crime. The newspapers were commanded to publish the falsehood that some one had volunteered to die in his stead. The additional murdered man was a sacrifice to the venality, murder and rape of the provost marshal. The victim was an unobtrusive young man, caught up and dragged off as a wild beast to the slaughter, without any further notice than was neces sary to prepare to walk from the jail to the scene of murder. The other eleven were notified of their contemplated murder some eighteen hours before the appointed moment of the tragedy. Eev. James S. Green, of the city of Palmyra, remained with them through the night. Between eleven and twelve o clock the next day, three gov ernment wagons drove to the jail with ten rough boxes, upon which the ten martyrs to brutal demon ism, were seated. This appalling spectacle was made more frightful by the rough jeering of the mercenaries who guarded the victims to the place of butchery. The jolting wagons were driven through street after street, which was abandoned by every human being ; wo men fainting at the awful spectacle, clasping their children more closely to their bosoms, as the murderers, with blood pictured in their countenances, were screaming in hoarse tones the word of command. The company of stranger adventurers, mercenaries, and the vilest resident population, formed a circle at the scene, in imita tion of the Roman slaughter in the time of JS T ero, Caligula and Commodus, to feast their sensual eyes on blood and amuse them selves with the piteous shrieks of the dying men. This infer nal saturnalia commenced with music. Everything was done CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 123 which might harrow the feelings and torture the soul. The rough coffins were placed before them in such manner as to excite horror; the grave opened its yawning mouth to terrify them ; but they stood unmoved amid the frenzied, murderous mob. Capt. Snyder was dressed in beautiful black, with white vest ; magnificent head covered with rich wavy locks that fell around his broad should ers like the mane of a lion. When the mercenaries were pre paring to consummate this horrible crime, they at last seemed conscious of the character and the magnitude of this awful work, grew pale and trembled : even the brutal Strachan seemed alarm ed at his own nameless and compounded crimes of lust, avarice and murder. Rev. Mr. Rhodes, a meek and unobtrusive min ister of the Baptist Church, prayed with the dying men, and Strachan reached out his bloody hands to bid them adieu. They generously forgave their murderers. To lengthen out the cruel tragedy, the guns were fired at dif ferent times that death might be dealt out in broken periods. Two of the men were killed outright. Capt. Snyder sprang to his feet, faced the soldiers, pierced their cowardly faces with his unbandaged eagle eye fell forward to rise no more. The other seven were wounded, mangled and butchered in detail, with pistols ; whilst the ear was rent with their piteous groans, praying to find refuge in death. The whole butchery occupied some fifteen minutes. The country was appalled at the recital of these crimes, and incredulous of the facts. The newspapers were suppressed to prevent their publication, and the exposure of the perpetrators. The punishment of the criminals was demanded by public justice and expected by everybody except the criminals, who well understood the cruelty and corruption of the Executive Department. To cover up these crimes by a judicial farce, nearly two years afterwards, charges were preferred against Strachan ; he was con victed upon the foregoing state of facts, and sentence passed upon him. The sentence was remitted and Strachan promoted. For this crime McNeil was promoted by Lincoln to brigadier general and kept in office. In all of the history of European wars, Asiatic butcheries, Indian cruelties and negro atrocities, 124 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. there can be found no parallel instance in which the murder of men without any of the forms of trial, was accompanied with the rape of the wives of those designated by the lottery of death as the price of the husband s liberty. There was nothing left undone to make the whole scene cruel, loathesome and revolting. This outrage unpunished, gave license for crime, cruelty, out rage and disorder everywhere. It would require the pen of every writer, the paper of every manufacturer, for a year, to recount them ; the human imagination sickens in contemplation of them. In the next year after the MclSfeil butchery, in the neighboring city of Hannibal, occurred a similar crime, equally monstrous in its details. J. T. K. Heyward commanded a body of enrolled brigands in Marion County, known as the railroad brigade, who foraged upon the people and plundered the country. Hugh B. Bloom, a drunken soldier of the Federal army, re turning to his regiment, muttered some offensive words in the presence of Heyward s men. Bloom was immediately dragged from the steamboat upon which he was traveling and carried be fore Heyward. Heyward improvised a military court, tried the drunken man, and condemned him to immediate death. Whilst the poor wretch was unconscious of his condition, dis qualified for self-defence, and unable to understand the fearful nature of his peril, he was hurried off to the most public place, on the river side ; the people of the town, trembling with fear, were compelled to witness the horrid scene. The worst was yet to come. Old and respectable citizens, be cause known for their quiet demeanor and hatred of violence, were dragged down to witness the horrid spectacle. Twelve of these gentlemen were presented with muskets, and commanded to fire at the trembling inebriate sitting upon his coffin. To enforce this fiendish order to make private gentlemen com mit public murder, Heyward s brigands were placed immediately behind the squad of private citizens and commanded to fire upon the first who hesitated to fire at Bloom. As the shuddering man sank down beneath the terrible volley of musketry, Heyward CEIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAK. 125 turned upon the people and warned them of their impending fate in the murder of this man. The spectacle was revolting in itself. It was terrible in view of the fact, that these militia were unauthorized by law for any such purpose ; that the execution was without the shadow of law, that the victim was a Union soldier, who had committed no of fence ; that the men who were forced to do this horrid work were unwilling to commit the crime, and protested against being made the instruments of such bloody horror. But how ineffably shocking that the perpetrator, Hey ward, should be a member of a Christian church, and assume the office of Sabbath School teacher ; that little children should look upon the horrible visage of the murderous wretch as their instructor. This Heyward, secluded from the enquiring world, overawing and corrupting the press of his own neighborhood, was the most satanic of all the local tyrants of Missouri. At one time he gathered all of the old and respectable citizens of Hannibal, including such highly cultivated gentlemen of spotless escutcheon, as Hon. A. W. Lamb, into a dilapidated, falling house, and placed powder under it to blow it to atoms, in case Hannibal should be visited by rebels. In Monroe county, two farmers were arrested by the provost marshal s guard, taken a short distance from home, shot down and thrown into the field with the swine. On the next day the recognized fragments of the bodies were gathered up by the neighbors and carried to their respective houses, and prepared for interment. The citizens were so respectable, the murder so brutal, the outrage so revolting, that people gathered from a large distance around, to bury in decency the remains of those who had been so shockingly destroyed. When the funeral procession had been formed, the provost mar shal sent his guard to disperse them ; declaring that no person opposed to the war, should have public burial. The heart-broken families had to go unattended to the grave of their respective head ; each one dreading the danger that beset the highway upon their return home ; and feeling even more in danger from marauders in the secret chambers of their own domicil. 120 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Daring this drunken reign of horrors, innocent people were shot down upon their door sills, called into their gardens upon pretended business, butchered and left lying, that their families might not know their whereabouts until their bodies were de composed. Women were ravished, houses burned, plantations laid waste. Judge Richardson was shot whilst in the court house in which he presided, in Scotland county. Rev. Wm. Headlee, a minister of the gospel, was shot upon the highway ; and all of these mur derers, robbers and incendiaries, are yet at large. Dr. Glasscock, a physician, was dragged from his own house by soldiers, under pretence of taking him to court as a witness, against the earnest prayers of his children and slaves, was shot, mangled, disfigured and mutilated, then brought to his own yard and thrown down like a dead animal. To prevent punishment by law, these criminals repealed the laws against their crimes ; and provided in the constitution that crime should go unpunished if committed by themselves. To make themselves secure in their crime and to give immu nity from punishment, they disfranchised the masses of the peo ple ; and in the city of St. Louis the criminal vote elected the criminal McNeil as the sheriff of the county of St. Louis the tool of the weakest and most malignant tyrants. ST. GEORGE, TUCKER Co., VA., Nov. 2&th, 1862. MR. ADAM HARPER, SIR In consequence of certain robberies which have been committed on Union citizens of this county by bands of gueril las, you are hereby assessed to the amount ($285.00) two hundred arid eighty-five dollars, to make good their losses ; and upon your failure to comply with the above assessment by the 8th day of December, the following order has been issued to me by Brio-. Gen. R. H. Milroy: You are to burn their houses, seize all their property and shoot them. You will be sure that you strictly carry out this order. You will inform the inhabitants for ten or fifteen miles around your camp, on all the roads approaching the town upon which the enemy may approach, that they must dash in and give you CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 127 notice, and upon any one failing to do so, you will burn their houses and shoot the men. By order Brig. Gen. R. H. MILROY, H. KELLOG, Capt. Commanding Post. Mr. Harper was an old gentlemen, over 82 years of age, a cripple, and can neither read nor write the English language, though a good German scholar. This gentlemen was one of twelve children, had served in the war of 1812, was the son of a Revolutionary soldier who bore his musket during the whole war, inherited a woodland tract, and built up a substantial home in the midst of Western Virginia. This was only one of a class which swept over West Virginia, and left the beautiful valleys of Tygart and the Potomac rivers in ashes and desolation. It is to pay for crimes like these, and keep in employment the men who committed them that created the debt now weighing the people down. It was to pay such monsters, with their tools, that money was refunded by the general government to the State of Missouri and West Virginia, and the taxes saddled upon the people of the country. The following letter gives its own explanation : MACON, GA., October 7, 1867. HENRY CLAY DEAN, Mount Pleasant, Iowa : DEAR SIR I have read your late communication addressed to " The Prisoners of War, and victims of arbitrary arrests in the United States of America. " You allege that " the Congress of the United States refused to extend the investigation contemplated by a resolution, adopted by that body on the 10th of July, 1867, appointing certain par ties to investigate the treatment of prisoners of war, and Union citizens held by the Confederate authorities during the rebellion, to the prisoners of war, victims of arbitrary power and military usurpation by the authority of the Federal administration." Appreciating your object "to put the truth upon the record," and concurring in your patriotic suggestion that " it is the duty of every American to look to the honor of his country and the preservation of the truth of history, " I have felt constrained to 128 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. respond to the call made in your circular, so far as to acquaint the public, through you, with the following precise, simple, and unexaggerated statement of facts : When the Capitol of the Confederate States was evacuated, the specie belonging to the Richmond banks was removed, with the archives of the government, to Washington, Ga. Early after the close of the war, a wagon train conveying this specie from Washington to Abbeville, S. C., was attacked and robbed of an amount approximating to $100,000, by a body of disband ed cavalry of the Confederate army. A few weeks subsequent to this event, Brigadier General Ed ward A. Wild, with an escort consisting of twelve negro soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant Seaton, of Captain Alfred Cooley s company, (156th Regiment of N. Y. Volunteers) repaired to the scene of the robbery in the vicinity of Danburg, Wilkes county, Georgia. By the order of Gen. Wild, and in his pres ence, A. D. Chenault, a Methodist minister, weighing 275 pounds, his brother, John N. Chenault, of moderate size, and a son of the latter, only 15 years of age, but weighing 230 pounds, were arrested and taken to an adjacent wood, where the money abstracted from the train, or a portion of it, was supposed to be concealed. Failing to produce the money upon the order of General Wild, these three citizens, who enjoy the esteem and confidence of all who knew them, were suspended by their thumbs, with the view of extorting confessions as to the place of its con cealment. Mr. John N. Chenault was twice subjected to this torture, and on one occasion until he fainted, and was then cut down. Rev. A. D. Chenault was also hung up twice by his thumbs, and until Gen. Wild was induced only by his groans and cries to release him from his agony. The youth, A. F. Che nault, was hung up once, and until lie exhibited evident signs of fainting, when he was cut down. Whilst this scene was being enacted, Gen. Wild and his subaltern were both present, direct ing the whole operations. These citizens, with the exception of John N. Chenault, who was unable to be removed, were then sent under guard to Washington, fifteen miles distant. By order of Gen. Wild, a daughter of John N. Chenault, about the age of seventeen years, universally beloved in her neighborhood, and distinguished for her piety, was searched, by being stripped, in the presence of the Lieutenant, who was charged with the execution of the order. When her gar ments, piece by piece, were taken from her and the very last one upon her was reached, in the instincts of her native modesty, she threw herself upon a bed and sought to conceal her person with CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 129 its covering, she was ordered to stand out upon the floor until stripped to perfect nakedness. By order of Gen. Wild, the wife of John N. Chenault was arrested and taken under guard to Washington, where she was incarcerated for several days, fed on bread and water, in one of the petit jury rooms of the court house, and after she had been forced to leave at her home her nursing infant, but nine months old, where it continued to remain until its mother was released. During the period of her imprisonment, Gen. Wild was waited upon at his hotel by three citizens of the county, to wit : Francis G. Wingfield, Richard T. Walton, and your correspondent, who importuned this officer to permit one of the party to take Mrs. Chenault to his residence in the village, each pledging his neck, and all tendering bond, with security, in any amount which he would be pleased to nominate, for her appearance at any time and place in obedience to his order. This request Gen. Wild promptly and emphatically refused, but graciously allowed her friends to supply her with suitable food at the place of her con finement. The tortures and indignities thus inflicted upon this family, who are respected and esteemed by all who knew them, failed to discover any evidence whatever of their complicity in the rob bery, or any knowledge of the concealment of any of its fruits. The facts thus detailed were reported in substance to Major General James B. Steadman, then on duty at Augusta, Ga., who immediately ordered his Inspector General (whose name is not remembered) to Washington, with instructions to collect the evi dence as to the truth of the representations made to him. After spending several days at Washington and its vicinity, in the ex amination of witnesses, this officer observed that the facts which he had elicited fully corroborated the statements which had been forwarded to Gen. Steadman. Gen. Wild was removed by the order of Gen. Steadman, and ordered to Washington City. Charges were also preferred against him, but the public is not advised that even as much as a reprimand was ever administered to him. The foregoing statement of facts will be avouched by many citizens of Washington, and of Wilkes and Lincoln counties. You are respectfully referred to James M. Dyson, Gabriel Toombs, Green P. Cozarfc, Hon. Garnett Andrews, Dr. J. J. Kobertson, Dr. James H. Lane, Dr. J. B. Ficklin, Eichard T. Walton, Dr. John Haynes Walton, and David G. Cotting, the present editor of the Republican, at Augusta. Prompted by no spirit of personal malevolence, but in obedience 9 130 CEIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. alone to the instinct of a virtuous patriotism, I have thus "a 1 round unvarnished tale delivered " of some of the actings and doings of this officer, studiously refraining from any denunciation, and suppressing every suggestion the least calculated to excite the prejudices or inflame the passions of the public. I am, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, JOHN B. WEEMS. An attempt to record the crimes committed during the civil war would fill volumes and excite horror. We can only indicate the crimes rather than give detail of their circumstances. One gentleman from Vicksburg, writes in justly indignant language of the rape and robbery of his wife ; that he has sought redress in vain of the military authorities. Another of the vio lation of two ladies by beastly mercenaries, until one dies, and the other lives a raving maniac. A lady writes from Liberty, Missouri, that her father, Mr. Payne, a minister of Christ, was murdered by the military and left out from his dwelling for several days, until found by some neighbors in a mutilated condition. A gentleman writes that a wretch named Harding boasts that he had beaten out the brains of a wounded Confederate prisoner at the battle of Drainesville. The affidavit of Thomas E. Gilkerson states that negro soldiers were promoted to corporals for shooting white prisoners at Point Lookout, where he was a prisoner. That he was transferred to Elmira, ISTew York, where pris oners were starved into skeletons ; were reduced to the necessity of robbing the night-stool of the meats which, being spoiled, could not be eaten by the sick, was thrown into the bucket of excrements, taken out and washed to satisfy their distressing hunger. That for inquiring of Lieutenant Whitney, of Koch ester, New York, for some clothes which the deponent believed were sent to him in a box, the deponent was confined three days in a dun geon and fed on bread and water. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 131 That two men in ward twenty-two were starved until they eat a dog, for which offence they were severely punished. That negroes were placed on guard. That while on guard, a negro called a prisoner over the dead line, which the prisoner did not recognize as such, and the negro shot him dead, and went unpunished. That shooting prisoners without cause or provocation, was of frequent occurrence by the negro guards. This affidavit was taken before Dan l Jackson, Justice of the Peace. Joseph Hetterphran, from Fayetteville, Georgia, writes that he was captured on the 27th of January, 1864, in East Tennes see; searched and robbed with his companions of everything. They were hurried by forced marches to Knoxville, nearly frozen and starved ; were then confined in the penitentiary, where the treatment all the time grew worse ; were finally taken to Rock Island, where he had no blanket, was stinted in fuel, food and raiment. In this horrible place the prisoners ate dogs and rats. The poor fellows tried to get the crumbs that fell from the bread wagons ; a great many died of diseases induced by starvation : others starved outright. In the meantime the sutler would sell provisions to the rich Confederates, whilst the poor were driven to starvation. This prison was guarded by negroes for a consid erable time. The negroes frequently shot the prisoners down through wantonness, just as they did at Elmira. The officer who led negroes to kill the people of his own race, can sink to no lower depth of degradation. Henry J. Moses writes from Woodbine, Texas, that he was taken prisoner at Games Farm, near Richmond, Virginia, and confined at Point Lookout during the month of May, 1864, and then taken to Fort Delaware, where he remained until the 24th of August. When Gen. Foster demanded the removal of six hundred of the prisoners, they were placed on board the steamer Crescent, and kept in the hold seventeen days, suffocating with heat, drinking bilge water, and eating salt pork and crackers in very stinted allowances. The hatchway was frequently closed, and all of the horrors of the African slave trade revived in their persons and treatment. After enduring this terrible form of 132 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. torture, they were placed on Morris Island, under the fire of their own guns for forty-three days, guarded by negroes. The dead-line rope was stretched as a pretext for shooting those who should even by accident touch it. Taunts, gibes, jeers, and in sults of every kind were heaped upon the prisoners. Paul H. Earle, of Alabama, for no offence whatever, was shot at ; another time the tent was fired into, and two sleeping soldiers badly wounded, by order of the Lieutenant. As it always has been and ever will be, the negroes behaved much better than the whito fiends who commanded them. How could it be otherwise ? A man raised in Christian communities who would let loose bar barians to burn up and destroy the habitations of women and children of his own race, has not one conceiveable iota of space in which to sink deeper in degradation. After all of the acts of cruelty and ingenuity to starve these poor fellows, they were finally confined in Fort Pulaski, fed upon a pint of musty kiln-dried corn, with a rotten pickle each day. On this diet they were kept for forty-four days, when the scurvy broke out and killed over two hundred of the number. After such loathesome suffering as makes human nature shudder, incarcerated in damp cells without blankets, some with no coats, Mr. Moses adds that " nothing but the preserving hand of God kept us through those trying hours." How much greater was the crime of a Christian people, that the ministry in the peace ful regions were inflaming, this horrible work instead of allevia ting the sufferings of the people. Added to all of the other atrocious crimes arid cruelties, the insane were in like manner tortured. An old gentleman named Fitzgerald, infirm and in sane, who ate opium to alleviate his pain, was denied his medi cine for which he begged, until death kindly came to open the prison doors and release him from his agony. The prisoners say that Foster instigated these cruelties. The names and references of the parties clothe the whole statement with an unmistakeable semblance of truth. The corroboration is conclusive. John L. Waring, of Brandywine, Prince George s county, Maryland, states that he was a prisoner of war for more than two years : that a private soldier killed in his presence an inof fensive prisoner in Carroll prison, who sat by the window, and was promoted from the ranks, to corporal, for the crime. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 133 Forney s Chronicle, in noticing the death, and apologizing for the crime, falsely stated that young Hardcastle, the prisoner killed, was cursing the guard. The room-mate of Hardcastle, who, like Hardcastle, had been arrested upon no charges whatever, soon after this murder was released, but died shortly after in consequence of the cruel prison treatment. Mr. Waring was removed from Carroll prison to Point Look out, where the prisoners were detailed to load and unload vessels; were robbed by negroes of the trinkets made in prison ; some were shot by negroes, carpet sacks were robbed of clothing, and hospital stewards and sanitary commissions ate the provisions sent to prisoners and soldiers, or extorted exorbitant prices from the person to whom they had been sent. The negroes offered every manner of indignity to the prison ers. Among other crimes they shot a dying man on his attempt to relieve nature. The conduct of the negroes at Point Lookout was incited by their white officers until it was frightful. Henry H. Knight writes from Gary, Wake county, North Carolina, that he was captured at Gettysburg, taken to Fort Delaware, and suffered all that cold and mud could inflict upon their comfort and convenience. He was driven from poorly warmed stoves by Federal officers. The soldiers were beaten, starved and frozen to death. Seven were frozen one morning; others of them went to the hospital and died. At other times they were driven through the water, and were alternately robbed, frozen, tortured and starved. The great amount sent them by relatives was appropriated by the guards for their own use; and if they made complaint, the prisoners were shot, and the improb able story told that they had run guard, and that would be the last of their crime heard in the Fort against the guards. Some of these poor fellows were whole days without fire, when the snow was a foot deep, or the water covering the ground. The author saw hundreds of these prisoners in the city of Pitts- burg in the early summer of 1865, on their way to the South west, in the most loathesome condition. Their pitiable suffering and mournful stories were sickening, and would crimson the cheek with unutterable shame and horror. No words can por- 134 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. tray the picture that he saw with his own eyes. Swollen gums, teeth dropping from the jaws, eyes bursting with scurvy, limbs paralyzed, hair Jailing off of the heads, frozen hands and feet. These were those that escaped. The dead concealed the crimes of the murderers in the grave which was closed upon them, by hundreds. W. C. Osborn, of Opelika, Alabama, states that he was cap tured on the 4th of July, 1863, and confined in Fort Delaware; that the rations were three crackers twice a day ; most of the time no meat at all, but occasionally a very small piece of salt beef or pork. That he drank water within fifteen feet of the excrement of the Fort, and could get no other. When cold weather returned, the beds of each man were searched, and only one blanket left him. The barracks were inferior, and men. frozen to death in the terrible winter of 18634. Prisoners were shot for the most trivial offences. One man s brains were blown out and scattered on the walls, where they remained for many days, for no oflence other than looking over the bounds, uncon sciously. For other offences, men were tied up by the thumbs just so that their toes might touch the ground, for three hours at a time, until they would turn black in the face. Others were placed astride of joists, and forced to remain in that attitude for hours at a time, the coldest weather. These crimes against the persons of the prisoners, and their starvation, were carefully concealed from the public eye, and the Philadelphia papers made every effort to deceive the public in regard to these mat ters. On inspection days, when the people were admitted to the grounds, the prisoners got three times as much as upon other days. This was done to delude the people of the country, who never had any sympathy with these horrible crimes. Presley N. Morris, of Henry county, Georgia, was captured by Wildcr s brigade, was divested of everything, marched five clays on one meal each day, carried through filthy cars to Camp Morton, Indiana, on the 19th of October, 1863, where he was imprisoned in an old horse stable on the Fair ground, without blanket, thinly clad, and without fire, until January, 1864, when he received one blanket ; his body covered with rags and ver min, when the snow was from six; to ten inches deep. Two CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 135 stoves were all that was used to .warm three hundred men, and then wood for half the time only was allowed. The prisoners were compelled to remain out in the cold in this condition from nine o clock, A. M., to four o clock, P. M., no difference what was the condition of the weather. In October, 1864, the prison ers were drawn up in line, stripped of all their bedding, except one blanket, and robbed of all money ; and Mr. Morris was robbed of three hundred dollars, with other valuables, none of which were ever returned ; was beaten over the head because a piece of money was found near his feet, by one Fifer. Money sent him was purloined by the officers through whose hands it came. Another says be belonged to Grigsby s regiment ; was sent to Camp Morton ; and corroborates the statement of Mr. Morris in regard to Camp Morton. He was soon, after his capture, sent to Camp Douglas near Chicago. In this place the prisoners were shot at by sharpshooters and Indians ; sometimes were kept in close confinement for forty-eight hours. Sometimes a half-dozen prisoners were placed upon a rude machine called " Morgan s horse," which was very sharp, and compelled to sit more than two hours at a time, with weights to their legs. Others were tied up by their thumbs. They were searched once every week. The prisoners were whipped with leather straps and sticks, after the manner of whipping brutes. Upon one occasion, when a guard discovered a beef-bone thrown from the window of num ber six, he made all of the prisoners form in line and touch the ground with the fore finger without bending the knee. All who could not do this were beaten. A young man was shot for picking up snow to quench his thirst, when the hydrant had been closed for several days. New and cruel punishments were inflicted, as whim, passion, or pure malignity indicated. Win. Howard, a Baptist minister, sixty years of age, of Graves county, Kentucky, was taken, with his daughters, and beaten over the head with a sabre, until the sabre was broken ; and he was otherwise cruelly treated. Lucius T. Harding writes that on the 14th of October, the large steamer General Foster came to his place. The sailors entered the house, kicked his sick children, and robbed him of 136 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR everything. That white officers led negro raids into Westmore land and Richmond counties. Women were violated wherever they were caught by the negroes, with the utmost impunity. N. D. Hall, of Larkinville, Alabama, a soldier of Western Virginia, during Hunter s, Crook s and Averill s horrible desola tion of Virginia, says that the rebels found a negro man and child, both dead, and a negro woman stripped naked, whose bleeding person had been outraged by Averill s men. That AverilFs men offered to give to Dr. Patton s wife, in Greenbrier county, West Virginia, fifteen negro children which they had stolen, and which she refused to take from them. To rid themselves of the burden, and the children from suffering, they were thrown into Greenbrier river. In the valley below Staunton, Crook s men tied an old gen tleman, and violated his only daughter in his presence, until she fainted. In Bedford county he saw the corpse of one, and the other sister a raving maniac, from violation of their persons. Desola tion was left in the trail of these men. An aged and respectable minister was hanged in Middletown, Va., by military order, for shooting a soldier in the attempt to violate his daughter in his own house in Greenbrier county. David Nelson, of Jackson, was shot because his son was in the Confederate army. Another person named Peters, a mere boy, was shot for hav ing a pistol hidden. Garland A. Snead, of Augusta, Ga., said he was taken prison er at Fisher s Hill, Va., September, 1864; sent to Point Look out, which was in the care of one Brady, who had been an offi cer of negro cavalry. He was starved for five days, had chronic diarrhoea; was forced to use bad water, the good water being refused them. Men died frequently of sheer neglect. He was sent off to make room for other prisoners, because he was believed to be in a dy ing condition ; as it was manifestly the purpose to poison all that could be destroyed by deleterious food and water, or by neglect of their wants. He said that negroes fired into their beds at night; and one was promoted for killing a prisoner, from the ranks to sergeant. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 137 Claiborne Sneed, of Augusta, Ga., writes from Johnson s Isl and : that prisoners were frequently shot without an excuse ; that prisoners having the small pox, were brought to Johnson s Island on purpose to inoculate the rest of the prisoners, and that many died of that disease ; a crime for which civilized govern ment visits the most terrible penalties. Yet this disease, thus planted, was kept there until it had spent its force. That the rations were bad, and prisoners went to bed suffering the pangs of hunger. That although Lake Erie was not one hundred yards distant, yet these prisoners were forced to drink from three holes dug in the prison bounds, surrounded by twenty-six sinks, the filth of which oozed into the water. This treatment, in no wise better than the inoculation of small pox, and even more loathsome than that disease, caused many prisoners to contract chronic diarrhoea in a country where that disease is not common. It is impossible for human language to portray the horrible crim inality of the wicked men who inflicted these tortures upon hu man beings, and at the same time caused the detention of North ern prisoners in loathesome Southern prisons, through a fiendish love of suffering ; and the unwillingness to have exchanges, paroles^ and releases granted to the unfortunate, innocent men of both armies, unnaturally led to mutual destruction ? What apology can the infidel ministry of the country offer for such crimes ? and upon their head must the curse ever rest who sustained these thieves. J. C. Moore, son of Col. David Moore, of the Federal army, writes that he was taken prisoner at Helena, Arkansas, July 4, 1863, with 1750 prisoners. The poor fellows, half starved, were met at St. Louis by a supply of apples, cakes, tobacco and money. The officer having them in charge threatened the boys with imprisonment, who extended these friendships to these un fortunate men. That he was taken to the Alton prison, where men were kept with ball and chain at work in the street, for mere peccadilloes, where the keepers shot their victims and stab bed them, with all of the indignities usual in the prisons every where, which seemed under control of no military, but rather governed by the instigation of the devil. 138 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. L. P. Hall and Win. Perry, of Chico Butte, California, were arrested ; had their press destroyed ; were handcuffed together in Jackson, Amada county, with ball and chain attached to their legs, and driven to labor on the Public Works at Alcatross. Fifty-two others were treated in like manner. Hall and Perry were finally discharged without charges or trial. In the persons of these gentlemen, were violated all the rights of freedom of person, of the press, of speech, and finally they were starved, and released after enduring the most offensive insults at the hands of a cowardly enemy. This crime transpired in Califor nia, where war had not gone, and their imprisonment was with out pretence. T. Walton Mason, of Adairville, Logan Co., Ivy., says that he was surrendered by Gen. Jno. Morgan in Ohio, July 26th, 1863, and imprisoned at Camp Chase, then removed to Camp Douglas, where all of the horrors of that place were revived. In this camp Choctaw Indians were employed as guards. When money was given to the guards to buy provisions, th.3 white guards wouldpooket tho money. Tiis In liana s!iam3l tlia whites for this breach of faith and petty theft. In November, 1863, seven escaped prisoners were returned, and subjected to the most cruel torture. They were taken out in the presence of the garrison and tortured with the thumb-screw until they fainted with pain. In February, 1864, the cruelty became extreme; they beat pris oners with clubs and a leather belt, with a U. S. buckle at the end of it. They shot prisoners without provocation. For spilling the least water on the floor, the prisoner was elevated on a four inch scantling fifteen feet high, and tortured for two or three hours. For any similar offence, when the perpetrator was not known, the whole regiment was marched out and kept in the cold all day, sometimes freezing their limbs in the effort. Because a sick man vomited on his floor, the whole of the prisoners, in the dead hour of a chilling cold night, were made to stand out in their night clothes, until frozen, and from which several died, whilst others lost their health, which they never recovered. Mr. Mason was driven by this night s cruelty into the hospi tal, where, among empyrics, he refused to take their medicines; in turn his own physician was not allowed to see him. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 139 From twelve to thirty prisoners died every day, during the months of July, August, September and October, from brutal treatment. When James Wandle, a Virginia giant near seven feet high, died, through neglect in the hospital, the ward-master could not lay him in the small coffin which was furnished, but his body in a most brutal manner was stamped down into its nar row limits to prepare it for the grave. Such were the every day affairs of this loathesome place. Again, in the coldest winter night, the prisoners were aroused and driven out in the storm barefooted, in their nig] it clothes, and made to sit down until the snow melted under them. Late in December, several hundred prisoners came from Hood s army, near Nashville, almost destitute of clothing ; coming from a warm climate, they were kept out all night in the cold, shiver ing and freezing. Upon the next morning, nearly one hundred were sent to the hospital. As a consequence, many of their limbs were frozen and required amputation, and death kindly came to the relief of all. J. Risque Hutter, late Lieutenant-Colonel llth Regiment Virginia Infantry, writes that he was captured at Gettysburg, and was eighteen months in prison on Johnson s Island. During the tyranny of a fellow of the name of Hill, rations were reduced and stinted ; that prisoners were neglected in sick ness ; straw and other necessaries were declared contraband. That suffering from thirst was common, right on " the shores of the lake-bound prison." That the rations were indifferent in quality and insufficient in quantity to satisfy hunger. Rats were eaten by hundreds of prisoners, who regarded themselves fortunate to get them, such was the reduced condition of the prisoners. That Colonel Hutter s brother, an officer in the Confederate army, on duty in Danville, Virginia, went to Lieutenant Bing- ham and agreed to furnish them with all of the comforts of life, if he would have the necessaries furnished Colonel Hutter through his friends at home. Colonel Hutter had Lieutenant Bingham furnished with everything he desired, and when ar rangements were made to furnish similar articles to Colonel 140 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Hutter, in Johnson s Island, Hill would not permit it. When the matter was referred to Washington, the refusal was sustained. The above abbreviated statement has been made from ably written details of individual wrongs each gentleman giving name, date, place and specific charges. The latter would make a large bound volume of itself, which a want of space only apologizes for the abridgment. John M. Weiner was formerly Mayor of the City of St. Louis, was arrested in that city and kept in prison without any charges against him whatever. After the cruel treatment common to St. Louis prisons, he was transferred to Alton penitentiary, and from there made his escape, and was killed near Springfield, Missouri. Mrs. Weiner sent for her husband s body for burial in Bella- fontaine Cemetery. Whilst his wife and friends were preparing his body for burial Samuel K. Curtis sent a squad of soldiers who stole the corpse from his wife, and buried it in a secret place. Mrs. Beatty was arrested for begging the release of Major Wolf, who was sentenced to be shot in retaliation. Wolf was respited and then exchanged; but Mrs. Beatty was put in prison, manacled, shackled, and chained with a heavy ball until the iron cut through her tender limbs, and the flesh rotted be neath the irons, until she was attacked with chills; and in a lone cell, not permitted to see a human being, when her mind gave way under the terrible treatment. The surgeon protested against this vicious cruelty ; still it was continued, until the very sight of the poor creature was frightful. So she continued until Rosecrans was removed. After Rosecrans was broken down in the army, like Burnside, he tried to retrieve his lost fortunes by cruelty, but failed. Neither the release of Strachaii from the penalties of the court martial for his participation in the McNeil murders, and robbery and rape of Mrs. Mary Humphries ; nor his barbarity could save him from the contempt of the radicals. After his brutalities in these cases, the Democrats loathed him, and he now lies hidden among the rubbish of the war, mid the remnants of abandoned barracks, rusty guns and broken wagons, to be heard of no more forever. Mrs. Beatty was tried by court CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 141 martial and acquitted, but will wear the marks of cruelty to the grave. One of the most horrible murders of the State of Missouri, was that committed by an old counterfeiter named Babcock, who shot Judge Wright and his three sons, after decoying them from their own door. The details are too horrible for human pen. This wretched criminal, Babcock, was elected to the Legis lature by disfranchising the people of his county by military force. This murderer is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and dispenses the Gospel to the people. Through disgust, horror and shame, I cast my pen aside, and sit in amazement, that for crimes like these an angry God has not by His breath, cursed the earth, and sent it as a floating pan demonium throughout the immensity of space, as a warning to other worlds, if other worlds there be so depraved, corrupted and lost to the charities of life and the mercies of God. Dr. Gideon S. Bailey in wealth and character, is one of the first citizens of the State of Iowa. He had attended Abraham Lincoln s reputed father in his last illness for many months, and had received not one cent in compensation. Yet Dr. Bailey was arrested, placed in the very same filthy place in which the author was imprisoned, and kept there for a number of days. The weather was exceedingly sultry ; Dr. Bailey was in very feeble health, when he was carried down to Saint Louis on the hurricane deck of a steamer. When in St. Louis, he was placed in Gratiot street prison, where he was subjected to every manner of filth, torture and suffering. The debt due him for the attendance upon Mr. Lincoln, re mains unpaid ; though the doctor will bear the effects of his in carceration to the grave. 142 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER XIY. OVERTHROW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. THE evil which the war assumed to arrest, was a part of the Constitution of the country, not to be reached by war, because the Constitution prescribed the laws of war, and could not be supposed to make war upon itself. It was a war of States, with all of its attendant evils in which the government was guilty of usurpation. If it be granted that a government of written law, deriving its authority from the consent of the people and embodying its powers in a specific constitution, may be destroyed by an army raised by itself for its own protection under a vague war power, then constitutional government contains the elements of inevitable self-destruction and is of no value whatever. If it be conceded that such an anomaly as a war power may exist, independent of written constitutions, then we have no gov ernment, but are simply ruled by arbitrary power. We may as justly repeat this to correct a political wrong and triplicate it to cure a moral evil. But if we are to follow out the analogy, we must allow a few over-heated zealots to judge of the time, place and occasion of war. If tin s be granted, the country will be in volved in perpetual war, and the habitations of enlightened na tions desolated under the empty pretence of reform, until there would not be a painting, poem, or printed leaf spared by the in vader s hoof and torch to mark the faintest outlines of civiliza tion. For if this shallow subterfuge be allowed, everything is surrendered. To create wars upon moral pretence is to overturn the moral law, the source and the foundation of all laws, and Christianity, the standard by which every good must be measured. When CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 143 the supreme law of the universe is made and unmade to gratify the whims and passions of the wicked, then we have nothing left on earth to preserve its peace. Each war lays the foundation of other and more malignant quarrels out of which other wars grow, until the people will estimate the attributes of manhood by the tenacity of the bull dog, the ferocity of the tiger, and the hyena s thirst for blood. Each war brings with it an increasing corresponding waste in positive and relative expenses, with an increasing recklessness of the powers that hold the purse and command the sword in exact inverse ratio, as the government is unable to carry on the war with a metallic currency or paper money issued upon a specie basis. If the principles be established upon which the late war was incited and prosecuted, the reconstruction of republican govern ment is complete, audit must not be overlooked that the elements of war are always on hand. Political and military leaders stand waiting with arguments for precipitating war. Thousands of fanatics in every country, would gladly crush out every form of religion which they may deem offensive to their convictions of doctrine, sacraments, or minor forms. For this purpose they would appeal to God and insist that his glory was involved in the issue ; that the nation s honor was imperilled and subjected to the most terrible scourges of heaven. Each of these bands of fanatics would involve us in war, which, commencing to-morrow, would last a hundred ages ; and at the end these fiends would still thirst for blood and hunt their prey like famished wolves let loose upon sheep folds. These wars, which are each as legitimate as the other, would in volve the people to such a train of insolvencies as bewilders the powers of calculation. These curses are transmitted without a single blessing, mixed or unmixed, with all of their attending evils which always precede and inevitably follow revolutions and civil war. These doctrines have involved us in a system of financial crime, following the worst precepts of the worst governments of the world in the line of their most dangerous precedents; whilst we 144 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. are copying implicitly the most odious of their worst administra tions. There has been none more pernicious than the one re vived after having been exploded at least once in every genera tion. That we have a right to transmit a debt to posterity for payment of wars of revenge and reforms by wars, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 145 CHAPTER XV. DEGRADATION OF THE JUDICIARY. THE virtue of woman, the honor of soldiers, and the piety of the pulpit, are not more essential to the preservation of liberty than is the purity of the judiciary. Among all of the crimes, misfortunes and blunders of the last five years, there has been nothing so deplorable as the stains which have fallen upon the ermine of the American judiciary. Our early history was marked by the purity and power, intel ligence and integrity of the bench, which contributed to the highest of all human offices, the good name of Marshal Kent Story, Rawle, Tucker and Taney. Only one attempt at impeachment occurred, which was the earnest effort of the people to preserve their liberties against ju dicial encroachment. For the most trifling peccadiloes, judges were called to account; and Judge Addison, otherwise a learned jurist, was dismissed for the arbitrary exercise of legitimate powers. It was the highest purpose of our political system to preserve the purity of the judicial robes from every pollution. Our early judges were not speculators, peculators, or politi cians ; never interfered with elections, or made political speeches. No supreme judge was ever nominated for any other office. Although the bench was filled with our oldest statesmen, the magistrate, whose duty it was not bear the sword of God in vain, retired from the outer world ; and closing his eyes to passion, in terest or prejudice, poised the even balances, and closed his eyes, that he might see no person ; closed his ears, that he might hear no human voice ; forgot his friends and enemies, kindred and strangers ; opened his mind to the lucid light which fell from the throne of justice, and determined his judgment. 10 146 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Every American justice felt security in the protection of the unstained escutcheon of the Supreme Court of the United States. The purity of the judiciary, with the confidence of the people, extended to the inferior courts of the State, and were well main tained together. The change was abrupt, violent and startling in the courts ; as it had before been in every other department. The men of char acter, ability and learning, had all disappeared in the clouds that hung over the scenes of our opening civil war, and were lost in the long continued conflict. Taney passed away ; Curtis resigned ; M Lean died, and Camp bell, the ablest of the younger members of the court, left with the State of Alabama, in the secession from the Union. The old Supreme Court, which, in stately poverty, independent of Presidents and Congress, foreign courts, and funded debts, sat to determine the difficulties of the people. It seemed almost a dream that there was a body of pure men, unbought by money, unmoved by passion, unchanged by fear, who determined the causes of the people, guarded the outposts of liberty, and defended the Constitution. The arm that closed the door of that reverend temple of jus tice against the poor, and thrust out these grave arbiters, com mitted such a crime as may scarcely ever find repetition among us. It were impossible to name the imbecile, wicked men who now fill these places. Many volumes might enumerate, but not detail, the crimes committed, the woes inflicted, the robberies ap proved, and the sufferings entailed upon the country by the wick edness, negligence, and pusillanimity of the judiciary which now offends the very name of justice in every part of the country. The exemplification of the general crime and profligacy in the judiciary, its insolence, pretension, incompetence and dishonesty, could scarcely be more perfect than is afforded in the arrest, treat ment, torture, farce and false pretence, in the case of Mr. Jeffer son Davis, late President of the Confederate States. It is, however, but one of many and not the greatest instances of the insecurity of the people. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 147 THE TRIAL OF MR. JEFFERSON DAVIS THE DEPLORABLE CON DITION OF THE AMERICAN JUDICIARY THE HYPOCRISY AND INCOMPETENCY OF S. P. CHASE. After the conclusion of the late war, every good man hoped, as a source of consolation, that quiet, peace and good will would return to the country. Every government of modern times had set the example of general amnesty, and it seemed but the exer cise of the simplest common sense for President Johnson to pave the way for general prosperity and universal harmony by a gen eral amnesty. This he did not do. Following the bad advice of the prince of liars and cunning demagogues, Seward, and under the dictation of the monster Stanton, Mr. Johnson let go by the golden opportunity of proclaiming the oblivion of all the unhappy past. For two long years the world was shocked at the rjenned cruelty visited upon Mr. Davis after his arrest. The government lent its countenance to the slander of himself and family ; that he was a coward, dressed in woman s clothes, not withstanding he wore upon his person scars inflicted by enemies whilst fighting under the colors of the old United States on the bloody battle-fields of Mexico. His pure and excellent father, who had been a Revolutionary soldier and many years in his grave, was slandered as a desperate character. When imprisoned contrary to the usages of civilized warfare in dealing with such prisoners, he was ironed most rudely, and without any justifica tion, offered the harshest indignities by the lowest and most cow ardly wretches. For two long years the most horrible tortures ever offered to a dying man worse than the thumb-screw or boot, because more exquisite and enduring - were inflicted upon this prisoner. Being nearly blind, and his eyes painfully sensi tive to the light, the glaring painful rays were thrown upon them for two long years. Having suffered for a quarter of a century from the most excruciating nervous disease, the rough, rude tread of the soldier re-echoed in the vaults of the damp and gloomy prison from morning till night, from night till morn ing, each day hoping that this slow, acute, distressing torture would bereave him of his reason, and give to the ghouls a pre text for declaring him insane for his treason, or that he might die on their hands. He was subjected to such treatment as the vilest outcast prisoners are never made to endure; was not allowed for a time the use of knives and forks, and ate his rude meals with his fingers. That he might be bereft of the privilege of seeing a human face, or hearing the human voice, the guard 148 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. were not allowed to speak to him. After an imprisonment of two such years as only the English prison ships or the black hole of Calcutta could equal, he was led out under pretence of trial. Attorney General Speed says that he preserved him from a military butchery at the hands of Stanton. A reward was offered for Mr. Davis, as a conspirator assisting in the death of President Lincoln. Among all of the perjured Conovers, none could be hired to swear against him ; among all the suborning Ashleys, there was none to procure witnesses for the purpose, until the trial was abandoned. Finally, when insulted humanity be gan to complain, outraged decency hung her head and justice shrieked in agony at such crimes as made angels weep, a trial was proposed for Mr. Davis. In all this time the Northern Protes tant clergy were crying for blood and executions, praying for the death of Mr. Davis and the damnation of rebels. In all these continued outrages, not one word was uttered for mercy, humanity, or civilization. The preachers exceeded all bounds of vindictiveness. Like the medicine-men of the Indians, or like the priests of the Grand Llama, or like the conjurers among the Mokalolo negroes, to whose place they aspired, the preachers each to exceed the others, and all to join in one general outcry for revenge, blood and brutality, justified every crime that was committed against a feeble old man, tottering on the verge of the grave, whose only crime was that he accepted an office at the hands of the people who had determined to erect a new government; and who was just as guilty and no more than every other person participating in the revolution precipitated by the wickedness of such men as Wade, Chase, John Brown, Ger- rit Smith and Garrison, and resisted by Davis, Toombs, &c. When the trial was proposed, objections were raised every where among the persecutors to a trial in the civil courts. After a long conflict, it was finally concluded to enact this farce in the city of Richmond, early in the Spring of 1867. The history of the bail bond, Greeley, &c., is before the country. After the trial of Mr. Davis was agreed upon, it was a matter of dispute before whom it should take place. The old and able District Judges of Virginia were moved during the civil war. In fact, if Virginia is not a State, within the meaning of that term of the Constitution of the United States, how can there be Uni ted States District Judges in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Flor ida, Arkansas or Alabama? How can the New York shyster, Dick Busteed, be District Judge in the State of Alabama, if Ala bama is not a State? and why should such an irresponsible vulgarian fill such a place against the will of a people who have, CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 149 in their own community, able Judges of the common law, who would have dignified and adorned the British or American judi ciary at any period of its history ? If it is replied that these pure and able men were not loyal, and that the loyal men of Alabama had neither sense, decency nor dignity, then it is far better for the cause of justice and truth, that decent, honest reb els be appointed to do justice between man and man, than that the sinks of New York be dragged that its shysters, pettifoggers and barraters be searched for the lowest, meanest, most abandoned and abominable among them, to be sent to a distant land to eat oysters, levy black-mail and pretend to be Judges in a State that is not a State, in a court that is not a court, according to laws that are not laws or that are suspended as law r s. In the State of Virginia where JeiFerson Davis was indicted, but which the prosecutors say is not a State the late President ap pointed one John C. Underwood to preside in a judicial district which is not by law a judicial district. The qualifications of this creature Underwood to preside over the trial of Mr. Davis or any other person in court, is very clearly analysed as follows : He is a sham Judge in Virginia, according to their own posi tion, for no other reason than because he is not a Virginian. When everybody else was living in peace, quiet and harmony, this Underwood had rendered himself so obnoxious to the peo ple by his association with negroes, and stirring up strife and in surrection, that he was intolerable, and excluded the society of gentlemen, for which he had no earthly qualification. But he was grieved that the people would give him no plausible excuse for fleeing as a martyr from home. Because they would not, he went North and declared himself a martyr to liberty ! The New York Tribune and other Northern papers manufactured a mar tyr of him. But nobody killed him, nobody hurt him, nobody cared for him. He was secure in the public contempt. Underwood formerly kept a stand of second-hand books in the street stalls of New York, it is said; and failing to mend his fortunes at that business, went to Virginia, where he became a lawyer under the new state of things. As a lawyer nobody knows hun, and everybody laughs at the idea of his being a law yer at all. The measureless, atrocious corruption of this creature if so stupid a person can be corrupt is evinced in the confiscation sales, at which Underwood decreed forfeiture, bid in the proper ty, and confirmed the sales by which he came into possession of property at ten per cent, of its true value. 150 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Tin s character of a judge would charitably preclude from his court any human being entitled to justice in either civil or crim inal courts. Underwood, grossly ignorant and stupid as he might be, would be exceedingly harmless before an intelligent, old-fashioned Virginia jury, such as tried Aaron Burr, or were ordinarily summoned into the courts of John Marshall, Philip P. Barbour, Pennybacker or Brockenborough. But, as though to burlesque all the judiciary, and have Barney Williams in his comic character, play in the District Court where there is no district, this man Underwood summoned negro jury men to sit upon the jury which was to try Mr. D.avis, and actually had them summoned for that purpose preparatory to the trial. The trial of Mr. Davis before Underwood by a negro jury would be such a farce as was never played before. Chandler, the District Attorney, or Speed, if he had been re tained, would be in his element in such a place. These fellows, for the first time in their lives, could dictate laws to the courts. But when Charles O Connor and Wm. B. Keed would commence their argument, the scene would beggar all description. When these gentlemen would commence to quote authorities upon the law of nations, such as Paifendorf, Grotious, Burlamqni and Montesquieu, the judge would declare that he had never heard these judges before, and the negro jury men would swear that they were Jews among the Dutch that had lately emigrated to Virginia; whilst Chandler would pompously assume that such authorities were not allowable in an enlighten ed court. But these Judges, Busteed and Chandler, are but a fair sam ple of the new and shining lights that have been introduced into the reconstructed judiciary of the country. Sam Miller, of Iowa, and Judge of the North-western District, was formerly a Kentucky mountain doctor of but poor success in the medical profession. He read the Iowa code, was never in a legislative body, was never a judge in any of the State courts, had but a few years 7 practice, was quite ignorant of the common law. This Judge Miller is a sample, and quite an average of the late judi cial appointments. But Mr. Davis enemies actually became ashamed to have him tried before Judge Underwood, and tried to have Chase sit upon the trial. Chase testifies before the Impeachment Committee that he knew of no reason why Davis was not tried. Last spring Chase could not try him ; therefore the trial was postponed. . In November, Chase could not try him; therefore the trial was postponed until March. In March, Chase was sitting on the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAR. 151 Supreme Bench, and therefore the trial was postponed again, and probably will continue to be postponed, unless President Johnson learns some sense, and to get rid of all this farce hypocrisy and villainy by a short cut, issues a general am nesty proclamation, and invites all refugees home to attend to business, build up the country, and establish quiet, harmony and peace. Salmon P. Chase will defer sitting upon the trial of Davis as long as possible. There are many reasons why Mr. Chase does not desire to enter into such a trial. The iirst is, that Mr. Chase is not a profound, thoroughly read or extensively practiced lawyer. But he is a very shrewd man, and may direct attention from that fact, even on the Supreme Bench, surrounded as he is by very common-place men, and enlightened, as he always is, by the ablest members of the bar, such as Black, Cushing, and O Connor. But in a case like the treason of Davis, Chase is not prepared for such con troversy as will be hurled into that great American conflict. Chase was never a lawyer of eminence in Ohio ; he rarely appeared before the Supreme Court, and was never ranked with Henry Stanbery, Thomas Ewing, Thurman, Judge McLean, Pugh, Kanney, or the older and abler men of the Ohio bar. Chase is a politician merely. Unfortunately for himself in this trial, he is a revolutionist. Chase issued an inflammatory rev olutionary address on Sunday against the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He, as Governor, Senator, and in every other position, took the highest States rights and secession grounds upon the subject of the resistance of the General Government by the States re fusing to obey requisitions, the return of fugitives from justice, and in every other essential feature of the destructive doctrines, Mr. Chase would justly rank with the secessionists. The country demands a fair trial before just and able judges. That this is not done is a scandal to the country, in which Chief Justice Chase is the chief and guilty party. During the whole period of the war the land was one grand, frightful, destroying mob. The Supreme Court sat quietly by the murderers and bade them God-speed. The writ of Habeas Corpus was denied to prisoners ; indeed, the imbecile old man who presided over the Southern District of Ohio gave, as a reason for refusal to issue the writ in the case of Mr. "Vallandigham, that he feared the military interference ; and, like a school-boy, ran away from the bench and met the military 152 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. mob, to receive their congratulations and encourage them in their crimes against liberty. The men appointed to the Supreme Bench were zealous as fresh converts to the doctrines of arbitrary power. An infuriated mob of vagabond soldiers that lingered around o O the hospitals in Keokuk, assailed the house of Judge Clagett. The daughter of the Judge, in exceedingly feeble health, lying in bed in the dead hours of the night, was awakened by the firing of cannon, when the broken glass of the window fell upon her face and mangled her flesh, from which she never recovered, but which hastened her journey to the realms of light. After these mobs had gone the round, insulting and terrifying the people, they proceeded to receive the congratulations of Judge Miller, newly appointed to the Supreme Bench. The Judge congratulated and cheered these criminals in their lawless carousals. Among the new district appointees was Charles Sherman, of the Northern District of Ohio, who could not, at the peril of his salvation, have carried a case through the ordinary State Courts without assistance. This man, in the early part of the war, was engaged in a menial military service. When Judge Hall, of Bucyrus, was arrested, from the cruel ties of which he died, this man Sherman declared that the ob ject of these arrests was to make Democracy odious, and subject the Democrats to general denunciation. This man was a 1 most busy and mischievous element of the Provost Marshal s espionage. Such was the selvage of the legal profession, that was by the most questionable means placed in the judgment-seat as guard ians of your children, distributors of your estates, and the trus tees of liberty upon the American continent. The destruction of the judiciary brings with it no compensa tion itself to atone for the injuries inflicted upon the people. Self-respect alone preserves personal dignity and maintains personal honor. The judiciary of our ancestors yielded not to the command of kings, nor changed their verdict in the presence of armies. The just judge is God s vicegerent upon earth, clothed with divine powers, who bears not the sword of God in vain. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 153 The American judiciary have broken down the lofty standard of justice, and dragged their holy ermine in the dust; like trembling sycophants they begged for peace and yielded up prin ciples of justice, that the iron heart and the brazen face of the tyrants, supported by armies, could not wrench from our fathers. How inscrutably rewards follow works, must now be felt on every bench in the land. The decisions of the highest courts are treated with contempt, and the judges feel flattered that they are not hurried off to the nearest prisons ; and have so abased themselves that they readily approve the most disgraceful insults offered to the judicial ermine in every part of the country. Military Commissions, whose very existence has been declared unconstitutional, enforce their decis ions to execution. In pursuance of these military usurpations, innocent men are pining away in loathesome prisons or enduring the most excruciating torture in lonely islands of the seacoast; men who have never been tried or sentenced by any recognized court of competent authority, who have an inalienable right to the protection of law, for which the good name of the American government has been pledged in her Constitution, her laws, her treaties, her public declarations, and her diplomatic associations with the civilized world. Indignant justice turns her head away from the picture of her humiliation. The people avoid their ancient temple of security. Society shudders in contemplation of the startling truth, that the holy altars of justice have become a den of thieves. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAK. CHAPTER XVI. "THE NEW NATION." THERE is this difference between the villain and the fool, that while the villain deceives other people, the fool deceives himself. This is also the difference between the hypocrite and the zealot; and these two form the body of every destructive revolution. The revolutionary character of the late war, and the revolution in our theory and form of governments, are as complete as force and purpose make them. The revolutionists in triumph have called this a " New Nation," not without reason. This name is significant of the entire abolition of our old civil governments in America. Since the year 1860 we have had three " New Nations/ under their several governments de facto, with such thrilling termina tions as startled mankind. The first of these was the Confederate States, over which Mr. Davis was elected President. The second, the Mexican empire under the assumed reign of Maximilian, who came from Austria to replant the European system upon the American continent, as the heir of Charles V, and protege of Louis Napoleon. The third was the usurpation of Abraham Lincoln, which entirely abrogated the Constitution of the United States and ruled the people by arbitrary power. The fate of these rulers is a most significant vindication of the law of God, that he who takes up the sword shall perish by the sword. The Confederate States were overthrown ; the President cap tured ; imprisoned, chained, tortured and released on bail, after CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 155 suffering ten thousand deaths at the hands of torturers, such as would have added cruelty to the reign of the Borgias. The people of the Confederate States have been abandoned to a system for which neither the history nor the philosophy of gov ernment furnishes a name or a parallel. Under pretence of reconstructing the States of the Union, every vestige of liberty has been destroyed. The Reconstruction. Bill is the most monstrous crime of the Christian era. It is a crime against free government in this that it disfran chises without indictment, trial, or any other process of law, the learned, intelligent and highly cultivated citizens representing the business, manufactures, commerce, navigation and property of eleven millions of people who, from time immemorial, have been free. It is a crime against civilization in this that it transfers the powers of legislation and administration from the violently dis franchised intellect of the country, to the will, passion and vio lence of the African barbarians among them; who trample down those glorious landmarks and eminent triumphs of progress which have cost centuries of labor and celebrates the genius of ages. It is a crime against Christianity in this that it transfers the government of a Christian people to the control of a degraded, imbecile race of heathens, who yet retain the idolatry and super stitions of the most revolting systems of heathen worship. It is a crime against reason in this, that it places bayonets in the hands of the unreasoning rabble, to destroy life, liberty and property at will, in violation of that established custom, among savage and civilized men, of committing the rule of tribes, na tions and kingdoms, to the ablest and purest men. It is a crime against human nature, which commits its preser vation to its most elevated and superior races, and the most emi nent and trustworthy of every race, in this, that it degrades the highest type of the human family to a subordination to the very lowest species of the race of man. The Reconstruction Bill is in its details and execution more atrocious than any usurpation ever exercised by Great Britain over Ireland, by Russia over Poland, by Austria over Hungary, 156 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR, cruel and abominable as they have been in this, that the rulers of these conquered people were of the same general race, customs, habits, religion and color, while the voters to whom is committed the rule of the people of the excluded States are of a different race, with no common sympathies, capacities, interests ; destinies or hopes. The Mexican empire was destroyed by the people ; the Em peror summarily butchered by his military enemies, and the mon grel savages of the country returned to their native element of anarchy. The third New Nation entirely destroyed constitu tional government, introduced conscription, the old machinery of Eastern tyrants, and disintegrated the old State governments until nothing of the past remains. The wicked and unfortunate President, who declared himself above constitutions and laws, built a pyramidal throne upon bones and skulls, cemented by the blood of our citizens, which was undermined and fell. The usurper suffered that terrible retribution of God which no roan escapes. " Whoso sheddeth man s blood, by man also shall his blood be shed." How fearfully and how wonderfully has God punished the wicked men who have overthrown our American system of gov ernment by consent. Lovejoy, who led the revolutionary van with a fiery, furious eloquence the ablest of them all departed in the midst of his years, after having laid down the cross to take up the sword. Next followed Baker, who left the heavenly avocation and abandoned the sword of the Spirit for " the bubble reputation in the cannon s mouth," was slaughtered on the battle-field, the victim of ferocious military imbecility. Winter Davis, who led the rabble mob of Baltimore for years, played spy upon his neighbors, until Baltimore ran red with blood, and in Chicago announced and advocated the horrible doc trine of negro voting to retain political power, consumed by the vindictive fires of his own vengeance, is no more. Poor old Giddings was smitten down in a billiard saloon in a foreign land. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 157 Gen. Lane, who ravaged Missouri, and kindled the first fires of the civil war, haunted by the apparitions of his murdered victims, who followed him day and night, blew out his own brains, and sought refuge in the midnight of eternity, where sunless regions would hide him from the frown of Heaven. Preston King sat guard at the portals of the White House on the day of the carnival which concluded the saturnalia of Lincoln s horrible reign of crime and terror. Poor Anna Surratt fell upon the door-steps of the Presiden tial mansion, praying admission to pour her flood of tears upon the feet of an Executive, sworn to give every human being a fair trial according to law, and plead in the ear of God for jus tice through His appointed vicegerent upon earth. The poor girl was thrust away from the outer door by the servant, who, smiling upon every one else, frowned upon her. In the inner chamber, sat King and the President, deaf to the appeals of law, justice, mercy, and human nature. Mrs. Surratt was arrested, insulted, manacled, shackled, tor tured, murdered without law, without evidence, without a court, without trial. Florence, Turkey or Russia, in their darkest days, might well have blushed at these proceedings. Only the Indians, Negroes and Chinese had given precedent for this new and horrible style of things. When on the scaffold, the coward ly soldier appointed to the sickening, bloody work, thrust him self between her and her priest, to suppress her dying declara tion of innocence. She was entirely exculpated by Powell, who stabbed Seward. She brought up from the altars of God the testimonials of a devoted ministry to a spotless Christian life from childhood. Even the military commission, with cruel fanatics like Hunter, malignant creatures like Bingham, miser able, sinister wretches like Eakin, and the abortionist and vil lage-burner Harris, recommended her to mercy. The cold blooded murderer Stanton, kept from the President the paper. The hypocritical villain Holt, all smeared with innocent blood, was ashamed of the murder of the woman. Preston King made the White House merry as on the day when Willie Lincoln mingled the suppressed groans of his last hours with the revelry of the ball-room beneath. This proved too much for King. 158 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. When wine no longer inflamed his passions into hilarity, nor beclouded his understanding, his soul was seized with amaurosis. The rattling chains that bound her to the damp, gloomy cell ; the coarse, rough voice of the mercenaries, mellowed by contact with the silvery, innocent tones of the martyr; the grating of the prison doors ; the rattling of musketry ; that last, sweet word whispered in the ear of her spiritual father, " I am innocent" sounded like the last awakening trumpet of God in his ear. Night after night the manacled victim of perjury and arbitrary power would alternate the apparition with her heavenly vest ments, as she stood before his bedside, or paced his room, or aroused him from his sleep, to hear the piteous cries of the beau tiful Anna, standing by the Presidential mansion, or kneeling upon the cold stone, begging the Saviour to intercede with the Heavenly Father to move the stony hearts of tyrants to pity, and save her mother. Scarcely had the swooning sleep of opiates quieted his broken rest, until the murdered woman would stalk forth from the unconsecrated grave, and point the sleeper to the scars upon her body, the coarse habiliments and unhallowed scenes of the execution. The innocent, unprotected, homeless daughter would again join her mother in the scene. He awoke, arose, dressed himself,- sought comfort in society ; fled to the busy scenes of office, but there still stood by his side the phantom of the martyred woman and her lovely child. The cruel stories of provost guards, the distress created by the tax-gatherer, the rev elry of political victories, only intensified his suffering. The pronunciation of the names of these injured people startled his nervous system and shook his frame. The apparitions accompanied him to the table, followed him on the streets, mingled in the crowds of the ferry-boat; as one pursued by a legion of demons, he fled ; and in his delirium, sought a hiding-place on the ocean, only to awake up to meet his victim face to face, before the judgment-seat of God. Many of these wicked men, pursued by their crimes, sought refuge in their own destruction. Others, more guilty, remain among us, only to flee to other lands, endure the punishment provided by law, or receive pardon for their crimes at the hands of a merciful, injured people. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 159 Such are the inscrutable judgments of God that follow wick edness. THE CIVIL WAR HAS DESTROYED THE DECENCY AND DIGNITY OF PUBLIC OFFICERS. The simplicity of our fathers was accompanied by a decency and dignity of deportment, which awarded to them the admira tion of the governments of the world. George Washington had an inherent personal majesty which could not be imitated by all the magnificent trappings of imperial power. Jefferson preserved a grand simplicity that commanded uni versal respect. Our Presidents had all been cultivated gentlemen of simple manners and exemplary personal habits. The Presidential Mansion was distinguished for the propriety, purity and excellent taste of its inmates. No such debauchee as Henry VIII. ; no such libertine as George IV.; no such volup tuary as Louis XIV., had filled the Executive chair. No such person as Catherine II., or the female courtiers of Southern Europe, had friends at the White House. From Martha Washington downward to Mrs. Pierce, the wives of the Presi dents were distinguished for their intelligence, taste, and purity of character; the true representatives of the real womanhood of America. No soldier ever stood guard to a President, or cavalcade was quartered upon the quiet grounds of his unpretending home. The beautiful bronze statue of Jackson, the citizen, soldier, President, was the only indication of military presence at the White House. Plain, simple, accessible and communicative, our earlier Pres idents walked out upon the street, unattended; and like other quiet gentlemen, were known only by their personal acquaintances from the community in which they mingled. The levees were open to every citizen who understood the proprieties of life and conformed to the usages of society. The rich and poor met together ; the military and civilian were the common guests, and each were alike protected by law. 160 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. Foreign ministers, who came from courts guarded by bayonets, were amazed at the ease with which thirty millions of freemen were governed without sabres, bayonets, epaulettes, or provost .marshals guards. The virtue and intelligence of our ladies had captivated foreign ministers, who took them to foreign courts to share the honors bestowed by sovereign powers. Such was our enviable history at the opening of the civil war. The advent of President Lincoln to the White House inaugu rated a new era in the social morals of the country. The aged President, Buchanan, in the evening of life, retired from the White House, which had been kept in a style of elegant simplicity by his accomplished niece, Miss Harriet Lane. Mrs. Lincoln, whose well known history is before the public, entered the Presidential home as the presiding genius. She was soon surrounded by teachers of etiquette, dancing masters, and the new style of flippant gentility which took possession of the country. In presenting a simple statement of the manners, customs, visitors, and appointees, the mildest form of justice seems a cru elty scarcely less than torture to the new-comers. Soon after the advent of the new occupants, the White House was crowded with a new class of visitors, editors, politicians, and adventurers. N. P. Willis, conspicuous in scandal trials, wrote elaborate essays and sketches of the " rosy queen/ 7 the " little prince," and such sickening communications as excited sur prise even among the sycophants of power. Sickles was an inti mate friend and adviser of the President, and Wyckoff, the European seandal-mongsr, cams to teach the lessons of manners to the "rosy queen" and "little princes." Those persons who had been unknown heretofore in the circle of the higher departments of the Government, were now its chief directors. A large volume would not contain the list of these new-comers into political circles. The military appointments were made in jest and were intend ed for jest. The foreign ministers were such as never represented any other government abroad. A striking illustration of Mr. Lincoln s CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 161 advisers is given in the two ministers who went to make terms of peace with Mr. Jefferson Davis. Jacques, a Methodist minister, went to Eichmond ; entered into an insolent interview with the President of the Confederate States ; returned to Louisville ; entered as an accomplice in a murder, and killed, with his own unborn child, an unprotected woman whom he had previously destroyed. Gilmore returned to New England to answer in court for the seduction of his own servant. These are samples of the appointees in the army, in the courts, everywhere. But the government of the White House exceeded all powers of description, and from the decency of its manage ment, forbids broad allusions. The White House was surrounded by soldiers. " The little Princes " could detain regiments. The sovereign of the New Nation was surrounded by cavalcades wherever he went, as his companions and friends. The history of the indiscretions, inde cencies and follies of each regiment, would require the details of a large volume. The sovereign ascended the throne with a very common town property worth nothing like ten thousand dollars. He lived four years in the greatest extravagance ; received only one hun dred thousand dollars salary, and left an estate worth an eighth of a million. Every applicant for office preceded or followed his application with a bribe in shape of presents to the President, in the form of fine horses and carriages, silver plate, cashmere shawls, Brussels carpets, silk wardrobes, and all that was known, to assail the avarice of the corrupt, or allure the weakness of the vain. Every officer used his office as a source of profit to himself, to be divided with the officer immediately above him at the ex pense of the people, the amount of which was never known until it was sunk in the general bankruptcy of the public debt, and reappeared in the funding system. Mr. Lincoln s name was prominent in cotton speculation ; in deed, he did not hesitate to engage in giving passes to trade with the enemy to friends, including relatives of members of the Cabinet. In one case, the father of Gen. Grant claimed a com- 11 162 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. mission upon cotton, bought under a pass from his son, which even a venal judge felt constrained to denounce in court as shame ful. The court of Lincoln to all of its excesses, profligacies and corruption, added venality and penuriousness. During his life time, Lincoln made a handsome fortune, to say nothing of those unsettled accounts with public officers, which death closed to their benefit and the loss of his estate, which his relict is now vainly endeavoring to collect. At his death, perhaps, the smallest crime committed against decency, was the entire removal of all the valuable property of the Presidential mansion by his widow. But she is a woman, and we forbear comment. In all history, wars are accounted the greatest human calamity that the angry God can inflict upon a wicked people. Wars are always unjust and unequal in their bearing upon society. The late war was especially so. It grew out of a controversy con cerning the government, which the masses of the people did not well understand. They had no opportunity to examine and no time to devote to them. These controversies involved the pride, ambition and persona? interest of military and political leaders, who had scarcely any thing in common with the people. The whole controversy might have been amicably settled to the advantage of everybody There was a savage joy glowing in the countenance of every fanatic at the outbreak of the war. It is not the purpose of this book to examine any mere details of battles, but rather to pre sent the condition of the public mind under the influence of the usurpation. It was an exceedingly brilliant Sabbath morning when the two armies of American brothers met in the sanguinary struggle of death, common disgrace and destruction. To the Congress, the occasion seemed a holiday ; and the com batants excited in the Congress the same feeling usually aroused in the most profligate of spectators, of cock-fighting, bull-bait ing, and the gladiatorial scenes of the Romans. The churches opened their morning service by the ringing of bells and the playing of organs. Only the women and children were present; CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 163 the minister, as he passed the streets, met horses, buggies, barouches, stages, omnibuses, and carriages of every description, loaded down with wines, brandies, whiskey, ales, beer, and every variety of drink. Members of Congress, Ministers of States, blooming cyprians and professional thieves, strangely commingled, went yelling and singing merrily on their way. Wagon loads of handcuffs were prepared for the arrest and confinement of the enemy s prisoners. Billiard-tables, backgammon boards, decks of cards and boxes of dice, were provided for the pastime and amusement of the army followers. Congress had adjourned for the purpose of feasting their eyes upon the harrowing, bloody sights of the battle-field, and charm ing their ears with martial music which would drown the cries of the terrified, the groans of the dying, and shrieks of the wounded. Except in the magnificence of numbers, everything upon this holy Sabbath reminds one of the great army of Xerxes. Volup tuousness and pride, luxury and licentiousness, extravagance, frivolity and crime, ran wild together. The whole city of Wash ington was drunk on liquors, abandoned to lust, and thirsting for blood. The evening scene can never be described. The return of the spectators and soldiers together, was the most highly-wrought picture of a living mutiny of soldiers, rout of armies, fright of teamsters, and frenzy of camp-followers. Wagons were deserted, carriages broken, forage overturned in the road, provisions scat tered in the streets, soldiers running away from the officers, and officers running away from the army. Ministers of religion, like poor Lovejoy and Gurley, running for life; senators fleeing in advance of the t soldiers, knocking them off of their vehicles, and describing them as " poor brutes, and miserable wretches, struggling with each other for means to fly in the general escapade. Members of Congress fell into the hands of the enemy, and were retained as prisoners. Running in confusion, the whole vagrant, panic-stricken mass of distracted rabble reached Wash ington, where, for five years, every vice had unlicensed reign, and every indulgence became morbid and abominable. 164 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The Congress were passing laws against polygamy, when Stevens jocosely, yet truly observed, that some of them had their wives in Washington and their mistresses at home; whilst others had their mistresses in Washington and their wives at home. To conciliate temperance demands, drunken members enacted whiskey excises, and grew rich upon the profits. Since the fall of Babylon no such corruption, depravity and crime ever scandalized any city or country, as the gathered con tractors, spies, pimps, thieves, office-hunters, office-holders, spec ulators, stock-gamblers, peculators and prostitutes of Washing ton city. The Congress corrupted the army, and the army overawed Congress. Military officers used their place as a stepping-stone to Congress, and Congress employed their offices to secure con tracts. Men charged with bribery, like Cameron, were appointed to cabinet places. When the Congress charged him with corrup tion in the cabinet, the President sent him upon a foreign mis sion. When he returned home, he bought his way into the Senate. When the legislature was charged with bribery, the very body accused of the crime were appointed a committee to examine into the charge, and reported themselves innocent. Stevens said of Cameron to Lincoln, that " he might be safely trusted with a furnace of red hot stoves." To this corruption, pervading a whole administration, was added revelry, feastings, and such riotous living as had never been introduced before in the Presidential mansion. All the eariy Presilents and their families were of high social position, but it was the dignity of enlightened gentlemen and ladies, seasoned with the solemnity of position. Things were now entirely changed. Upon one occasion, the favorite child of the President was ly ing in the very jaws of death ; the physician was carefully counting the sinking pulsations in his little arm, and dared not leave his bedside. The whole land was in mourning ; thousands of brave men were slowly perishing, others were dying with their wounds, or lay slaughtered on the battle-field. The scene of desolation in the South was appalling ; the suffering in the North CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 165 was pitiable. But death presented no obstacle to this Presiden tial revelry. As the groans of the wounded soldiers were hushed by the thundering cannon and deafening drum, the expiring groans of the dying child were drowned in the tones of the Bac chanalian s songs, and the revelry of the small hours of the night. These effeminate corruptions in the society of the newly es tablished nation, extended in the most alarming violence to the extremities of the land. Citizens were banished for defending the Constitution. This was commenced in Burnside s drunken campaign in the State of Ohio, in 1863. A defeated, disgraced and impotent general officer of the army of the United States, in violation of law, was appointed military satrap of Ohio. Fresh from the bloody, inglorious and horrible battle-fields of Virginia, where all his forrnsr follies, frailties and disasters ripened and concentrated in the overwhelming defeat, rout and slaughter of brave soldiers, led into the man-trap and deadfall by his imbecility, which will forever doom the connection of the unfortunate field with his infamous name as the butcher of Fredericksburg. This man came clothed with arbitrary power, to rule the State and destroy the people. He entered upon his duties prompted by the worst advisers that ever ruined a reckless man, and amused his Bacchanalian associates, surrounded by their harems of cyprians, with dis gusting braggadocia, to frighten the unarmed citizens whose lives were at his mercy. Within speaking distance of where I now write, he assembled a military commission to destroy one of the ablest and most re- \iowned citizens of Ohio, and by this persecution indissolubly connected his name with civil liberty, and endeared it to man kind. This military commission was conducted by one DeCourcy, an unnaturalized British mercenary. The Judge Advocate, Cutts, of this insolent usurpation, was subsequently convicted by court- martial for playing bopeep through a lady s transom, but was retained with his rank as quite a proper person for the espionage 166 CHIMES OF 1 HE CIVIL WAK. branch of the public service. The history is before you, and forbids amplification. These men, led by the tool Burnside, committed a crime against liberty which invoked the just resist ance of the people. A corrupt and cringing Governor, who had bartered his prin ciples for position, abandoned the rights of the people and ab jured the sovereignty of the State for the patronage of the general Government, exchanged the proud position of Governor of a free State for the cringing tool of the central tyrant. After banishment, then came arbitrary arrests everywhere. The lash was employed upon enlisted soldiers without trial. One case occurred in the city of Pittsburg, with aggravated cruelty; they afterwards became common. The torture was revived to extort confessions. All the abandoned cruelties of the mediaeval ages, were instituted as wonderful discoveries and progress. But in no place was the cruelty and recklessness of human life so manifest as in the treatment of prisoners, which was the most horrible feature of the war. The process was so atrocious, cruel-infernal in its detail, that it startles the belief of a Christian age. The first step was to destroy the country and women and children were driven to destitution, which led to a second crime against decency, humanity and nature itself; droves of women were sent hundreds of miles from home, under the pretext that there was nothing left for them to subsist upon in their own country. Desolation and ruin befel these unprotected strangers in an enemies 7 land. The desolation of the land also stinted the rations of the sol diers, until their destitution was extreme. There was such a great scarcity of food in the Confederate States for the people, that the soldiers were unable to feed or care for the prisoners who fell into their hands ; so that healthy prison-life became impossible. Second. Medicines were indiscriminately destroyed with burn ing cities, villages and stores; and remedies were not permitted to be borne to the sick and suffering. Drug stores were given to the flames, and many were executed as spies for carrying medi cines upon their persons, to save the lives of their sick families. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 167 A lady going South, was stripped and examined by the wives of two Senators, who took from her a few grains of quinine which she had saved for her dying child, although one of these women had only lately buried her own child. The good sense of the commander restored the medicine to the lady. Third. The government of the United States refused to ex change prisoners, and offered as apology, that it could not afford to exchange men in health for sick men. In many cases, the treatment of prisoners was atrocious. In Camp Douglas the prisoners froze their feet ; were guarded and shot at by Indians; shot at by the guards; punished with a coarse, shocking cruelty for trivial offences. In other cases, the prisoners bought themselves out with money; were reported dead, and their burial expenses paid. And it were difficult to determine whether avarice or malice were the ruling spirit of the prison. In Camp Chase, the privation, suffering and torture were ex treme ; at Fort Delaware, Johnson s Island and Rock Island, the cruelty was of the Esquimaux type. In all of these prisons, the stinting and sickening mixtures of food was even more de structive of life than the battle-field. The Federal reports show that a larger proportion of Confed erate prisoners died in Federal prisons than of Federals in rebel prisons. Contemplating the crimes, cruelties and sufferings, in the United States, in the nineteenth century, under a Christian dis pensation, perpetrated by Christians, the soul sinks in agony at the sad and gloomy spectacle. The tortures were gross and fiendish. When Dr. William A. Howies, an old soldier of the Mexican war, and Mr. Milligan, an eminent lawyer of Indiana, were, by a mock military court, condemned, it was arranged to take these aged gentlemen out upon the scaffold, put the ropes around their necks, and offer public taunts and gibes, and then return them to the State s Prison. During the confinement in the Ohio penitentiary, Mr. Milligan, who was not a physician, was forced to extract teeth, and in one case, fractured a jaw-bone in the attempt. Is it possible that the people of Ohio know the outrages practiced upon these gentle- 168 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. men ? who, in family, breeding, intelligence and general charac ter, were greatly the superior of any of the State officers who super vised their incarceration. Dr. Olds was denied the Bible and robbed of his medicines in prison, by the keeper. In passing Mr. Vallandigham through the lines, an attempt was made by an officer to excite the soldiers to violence; failing in the attempt, the officer boasted that he had saved the life of Mr. Vallandigham. This officer has been a minister, a colonel and member of Congress, and out of very shame, his vanity shall not be gratified by giving his name in this book. Such was the reigning crime and cruelty in the New Nation. Families were turned out-doors to provide for the traveling harlots of military officers. The property of everybody was appropriated at will by these guardians of the new nation, who came to "protect " the people. The evil day came and the years drew nigh, when the tyrant found no pleasure in them. Good Friday was the sad day of the crucifixion of the blessed Son of Mary ; on that day the heavens wore their black and gloomy garments; the sun refused to shine; the veil of the Temple was rent. The God-like head of Jesus was crowned with thorns. The purest of all that was born of a woman, He was condemned to die between two thieves. The kindest of all that wore the hu man form, He died of the most excruciating torture ; the love liest of all who lived, He was followed with the most malig nant hate. They smote Him, spit upon Him, buffetted Him, drove nails in His hands and feet, thrust a spear into His body. He in whose tongue there was no guile, was taunted, reviled, insulted. He who was the exhaustless fountain of life, died that we might live. Such were the themes and associations of this blessed day. To the Christian it was a day of fasting, of solemn recollection of the pangs of the crucifixion. For more than eighteen centuries had this holy day been held in solemn reverence. As far as the compass had directed th e vessel that ploughed the main to distant lands, had this day been CHIMES OP THE CIVIL WAE. 169 kept sacred on the ocean. And wide as the circuit of the sun had Christians honored the custom, and abased themselves before heaven in vindication of their sorrow and their shame for the crimes of a guilty world. Tolling bells and mournful chants, robes of black and dar kened windows, were signals of the deep feelings of distress which each returning anniversary brought back to the Christian mind. But America was already in mourning. Every household had yielded its first-born to the battle-field. Lincoln had filled a new graveyard in every neighborhood, whose white monuments were reared to commemorate his bloody reign. Wives whose husbands had been slain on distant fields of carnage, died in prison, or had been shot clown like brutes, were huddling their little ones around their meagre fires, or wasting their feeble strength in gathering food, or weeping over the ab sent father. Children, penniless and lonely, were going to and fro in search of shelter. Old people whose darling sons, the last remaining hope of life, had been hurried to the grave, sat disconsolate in their ruined homes. Hundreds of thousands homeless, turned away from the ashes of their dwellings, were mourning in the land ; half a continent was in ruins ; trade destroyed ; commerce broken up ; private intercourse interrupted in every community. At every cross-road and corner of the street, armless sleeves were falling by the side of stalwart frames ; young men hobbling on crutches; hospitals filled with the sick, whose pitiful eyes were staring into the grave ; and ambulances loaded down with the wounded, whose dying shrieks rent the air. The pitiless hand of an angry God left nothing undone which could afflict the people. Our cup of sorrow was full. Good Friday was opportune for our worship, our sufferings, and our sorrow. Scarcely had the light of the sun closed in upon the evening, until the White House was filled with its usual revelry, and the President and family, passing chapels, churches and cathedrals, 170 CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAE. entered the fashionable resort of a licentious city. His box wag opened and closed. The house was filled to its utmost capacity. A low, coarse play, " Oar American Cousin," was to be re peated, to pander to the tastes of the imperial visitors. Shak- speare, Addison, Sheridan or Ben Johnson, were too stale for the royalty of the New Nation. This was a gala day, and the theatre was chosen as a fitting place to obliviate all the recollections of Calvary, ail of the sufferings of the poor, the woes of the victims of carnage and incendiary desolation. The cries of the suffering were lost in the glee of merriment. Never before was crowd so jubilant. There were newly made officers, promoted from gambling hells and lower sinks of vice; contractors grown rich of robbery ; fashionable women who had emerged from low estate, and brought everything with them to their new positions, but their virtue. Never was dress so gay, or apparel so brilliant. All of the silks, jewelry and diamonds, economized by the labor of centuries in the South, had been pillaged of the people and distributed in the armies ; but the army was in the theatres, bracelets, rings, chains, keys, watches, silks, cashmeres, robes, everything seemed studded with dia monds, burning with lustre. But when the dazzling light shone down in effulgence from the mammoth chandeliers, the scene was thrilling. Down low in the pit were the torch-men, fresh from the field of plunder in Georgia, who had walked for months upon the ashes of burning plantations. The teamsters had wantonly shot down herds of all the domestic animals, to starve the people. These were the officers who led them, inflamed with lust and drunken on blood. Around them were the abandoned women who shared their plunder, arrayed in the costume of ladies whose stolen garments they wore. Thieves and pickpockets, stock gamblers and poker-players, in one motley gang, were all doing homage to the usurper of the New Nation. The players were preparing to feed the ear with brilliant levity, as the eye was feasted with the scenes around. Just at this moment stepped upon the stage a lithe, strong, beautiful form. His broad, pale forehead stood out from a rich CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 171 crest of coal black hair that fell in luxuriance around his neck. This personage was mysterious and historic. He bore the name of a proud Englishman, in whose person English liberty had been outraged and vindicated. His father wore the name of that great Roman tyrant s slayer, Brutus. He had been a dramatist by profession and inheritance, who learned his plays and felt them as he spoke them. With him the drama was a thing of life and thus he acted ; it was life itself which seemed the jest. He loved his father, and he believed the doc trines of his plays. He looked around him and saw a nation sunken in slavery ; the poor butchered, the rich revelling ; the brave crushed out, sycophants exalted ; flatterers growing rich ; thieves rioting in wealth ; brave, honest men pining in prison, or seeking shelter under the shadow of foreign thrones ; and no man dared raise his voice against these crimes. With his single accomplice, Powell, without suggestion, he conceived the tragedy and turned toward the mock royal box. His eyes, like bursting balls of fire, fell full upon the object of his rage; he fired his pistol, his victim fell lifeless, and spoke no word to be remem bered. Booth leaped upon the stage, crying "sic semper ty- rannis." Lincoln has been compared to Washington; herein they differed. Washington was modest, reticent, dfgnified; Lincoln was familiar, garrulous and clownish. Washington Avas wise, sincere and determined. Lincoln was cunning, treacherous and fickle. Washington refused presents, pay for his services, and emolu ments for his sacrifices. Lincoln kept each member of his family as beggars for pres ents, silent partners in contracts, and grew wealthy from the spoils of office. Washington established constitutional liberty among men, upon the sure foundations of law. Lincoln tore up that very Constitution, and set up his arbitrary will instead. Washington was religiously careful in the selection of the ablest, purest men of the country to administer the government; 172 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. choosing those who differed with him in opinion, for the good of the country. Lincoln selected the weakest, worst and most corrupt men of the country, because they agreed with him in opinion, and served him cheerfully as instruments of usurpation. Washington moulded chaos into order, stability and legitimate government. Lincoln dissolved the government, and left the country in an archy. Washington received the spontaneous devotion of his country men through the press which he had made free, and the people who were secure in their liberty. Lincoln enforced the most extravagant adulation from his own hired presses, his officers who were plundering the country, and the pulpit bribed to chant his praises. Washington went to every part of the land, unattended by military array, except those crowds of old volunteers of liberty, who came to pay their respect to his person, and congratulate the country upon the success of constitutional government. Women, with woven garlands, met him wherever he went. Beautiful maidens and sweet little children, strewed his walks with flow ers. From the day of the inauguration to the hour of his tragical death, Lincoln was never out of the reach of the sound of artil lery ; was surrounded by soldiers to guard his person ; flatterers and courtiers to corrupt his heart ; and female sycophants beg ging favors, dispensing praises, and making merry in his court. After his term of office, Washington retired to his farm, to open the hospitable door of his mansion to his old confreres in arms, and entertain visitors who sought his company to learn more of manly liberty. In the strength of his mind and the vigor of a green old age, surrounded by friends who loved him, he surrendered his soul to God, to be mourned by his country men and honored by mankind. Lincoln closed his life as stated above. There was a singular resemblance between Claudius Nero, and Abraham Lincoln, In early life, Nero was remarkable for his jovial habit of illus tration. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 173 Lincoln s whole field of logic, illustration, ridicule and satire, was anecdote and stories. Nero proposed many reforms under Seneca and Burrhus, and grew in popularity among the people, until he was accounted a god. Lincoln commenced his administration as a benevolent re former, under the auspices of all the reformers of the country. Nero s subjects rebelled against his usurpation. Lincoln s sub jects anticipated his usurpation. Such rulers always create re bellions and excite resistance. Nero played the drama of the destruction of Troy, during the seven days burning of Rome. Lincoln attended balls and engaged in festivities during the five years conflagration of the country, and the wanton, bloody slaughter of his countrymen ; and had vile songs sung among his dying armies. Nero rebuilt Rome at his own expense, by extortion and rob bery, and the tyrant was liberal to the suiferers. In this Nero excelled Lincoln, who repaired no damages of burning cities. Nero threw prisoners to wild beasts ; Lincoln kept prisoners confined in cold prisons, where their limbs were frozen ; in filthy prisons where they were eaten up with vermin ; starved them until they died of scurvy and other loathesome diseases, after months of terror, torture and cruelty. Nero put Christians to death under false pretence, to gratify the worshippers of the Pantheon. Lincoln corrupted one part of the Church to engage in war fare with the other part, and burned twelve hundred houses of worship; mutilated grave-yards; and left whole cities, churches and all in ashes ; dragged ministers from their knees in the very act of worship ; tied them up by their thumbs ; had their daughters stripped naked by negro soldiers, under the command of white officers. Suetonius, under Nero, butchered eighty thousand Britons, defended by Queen Boadicea. His officers flogged Boadicea and ravished her daughters ; and lost thousands of Romans in the attempt to subdue the Britons, who were defending their homes, altars and grave-yards. 174 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Lincoln let loose Turchin to ravish the women of Athens, Alabama; Banks and Butler to rob New Orleans; Sheridan to burn up Virginia ; Sherman to ravage the South with desolating fires ; Payne and Burbridge to murder in Kentucky ; Neil, Strachan and the vagabond thieves, to murder, rob and destroy Missouri, until one million of his murdered countrymen butch ered each other by his command. Every department of Nero s government was signalized by licentiousness and debauchery, nameless and loath esome. Lincoln s court was the resort of debauchees ; the Treasury Department was a harem ; the public officers were one great un restrained multitude who yielded to the coarsest appetites of nature, stimulated by strong drinks and inflamed by the indul gence of every other vice. In this did Nero, to his credit, diifer from Lincoln. The generals of Nero respected the works of arts, the paintings, poems and manuscripts of the learned, and the discoveries of genius. Upon the other hand, Lincoln destroyed everything that indi cated superior civilization. In one instance, a general officer of scientific pretension, arrayed his daughter in the stolen garments of the wife of C. C. Clay, an old Senator of Alabama. During the invasion of Huntsville, Mr. Clay s house was robbed of its jewelry, the heir-looms of three generations, taken against the tearful prayers of his black servant. The exquisitely beautiful statue of his dead babe, was ground to powder before his eyes. An appeal to Lincoln s men, that any object was of scientific value, only hastened its destruction ; his wars were directed against civilization. Nero fled before the judgment of the Senate, and died by his own hand. Lincoln could not have survived his crimes, so un relenting is the retributive justice of God. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR, 175 CHAPTER XVII. INFIDELITY OF THE CLERGY. THE SUPREMACY OF GOD IS THE CARDINAL DOCTRINE OP MODERN CIVILIZATION. God is just, wise, good, merciful, kind, intelligent, reasonable and supreme. In our consideration of the supremacy of God, we must clear ly distinguish between what is human and what is divine. Truth is of God ; sectaires are of men purely ; worship is due to God ; but its manner is entirely human. The gospel is of Christ and consistent with itself. Churches are of men, and in most unhappy conflict with each other. The great universe is the temple of the omnipotent, omnipresent, ever-living God ; it is that great Church in which Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant may look up through nature to her great architect, and live and learn forever more. Presbyteries, conferences, associations, con ventions and synods, are the local and sectarized assemblies in which mere men circumscribe that broad, deep, high and holy worship of the living God, which was, in the beginning, wide as illimitable space and pure as innocence. Keligion is the sun s brightest shadow of the Deity imprinted upon the soul, which, when duly stamped, will, with glowing beauty, shine mid the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds ; and when the ele ments melt with fervent heat and the fading light of the solar system has grown dim with age, " will shine as the brightness of the. firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and forever." A land without God is, in that hopeless orphanage, infinitely more deplorable than a family bereft of its father. A people without a church, has invited the departure of God from their midst. A church, without piety profanes God, by associating his infinite perfection with the wickedness of men. 176 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The great commandments of God are these: 1. To love God with all thy mind and all thy soul, and all thy heart and all thy strength. 2. To love thy neighbor as thyself. To love God is to love his attributes ; for no man hath seen God at any time. To love God is to love justice, to love mercy, to love truth, to love holiness and integrity, to love God is more; it is to do jus tice, love mercy, and walk humbly before Him. " Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this : To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keep himself unspotted from the world." " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples ; that ye love one an other." " God so loved the world that he gave his only begot ten Son, that whosoever believed in him, might not perish, but have everlasting life." To love God is to love peace ; for He is " the God of peace." The entrance of Jesus into the world was heralded by mes sengers crying, " Peace on earth, good will to man, glory to God in the highest." " Blessed are the peace-makers." These were the unchanging axioms of Christianity, in vindi cation of which, the Son of Mary offered up his life in sacrifice for man. The office of the Christian ministry is the highest vocation of life : the church the most sacred repository of the truth upon earth. These are the earthen vessels to which God has commit ted the great treasures of life : the guardians of the gospel, the trustees of our immortality. The ministers of the New Testament baptizes the children, marry the mature, and bury the dead. A faithful priesthood have limitless power over a devoted people, to preserve them from evil, or direct them to good. In the United States, the clergy were supported by the voluntary contributions of the peo ple, and had the utmost social power over them. They taught the schools, assumed control over all of the charitable institutions of the country. Before the outbreak of the late civil war, it was within THE EASY POWER OF THE CLERGY TO HAVE PREVENTED IT. What a magnificent spectacle would it have presented to the wicked world, for the united clergy of America, to wrest the CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAtt. 177 sword from the hands of the frenzied people* Suppose every minister had visited each member of his flock, and prayed with every family in his church for peace. Each conference, presby tery, synod and convention, had taught it as the duty of the churches to preserve the priceless treasure of peace. Each sermon on the holy Sabbath, had carefully abstained from the subjects that irritated the public mind and cultivated the social peace of every community. Each denomination join ed with the others to cultivate the spirit of kindness, the love of God and the love of men, brotherly love and personal kindness and the whole joined as the sacramental Host of God. All of the wicked, designing, corrupt and malicious men of America would have failed to provoke war or disturb the quiet waters of peace. Suppose, upon a given day, the whole American church had joined in simultaneous prayers to God, to preserve peace, to restore quiet, and let a free and enlightened people settle the dif ferences of opinion without a conflict of arms. War never could have stained the pure escutcheon of American glory ; or one- half of the land engage in butchering their neighbors of the other half. What stinging reproach must stir the souls of the American ministry, who let the happy moments pass in which they could have saved widowhood of its pangs, orphanage of its destitution, war of its carnage, plunder of its treasure, fires of their fuel, and crime of its victims ; but they did not. But if the clergy had quietly left the affair of the world to the care of the world, and stood silently by, there would have been no Avar ; but this they did not do. The clergy of the country inflamed the public passion until war was inevitable. Mr. Beecher of Brooklyn, gave his church to collect money to buy firearms, long before war was believed in evitable or thought possible. The same crime was repeated in every part of the country ; and the violence, acrimony and passion of the pulpit, would have created war in any country. In violation of the law of God, the churches went to law with each other about questions purely ecclesiastical, that Christians should have settled among themselves. 12 178 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The church papers indulged in all of the usual bitterness, slander and slang of the wicked world. The churches were divided, one after another, until the last ves tige of good feeling seemed to be determined by arbitrary lines. When war commenced, the ministers were recruiting sergeants, and their churches turned into military posts. The old fashion ed "mourners bench," "anxious seat" and class-meeting room, was converted into recruiting stalls. The old Mahommedanism was revived, that whoever left the world for the battle-field, was saved without the atoning blood of the crucifixion ; and thousands, who had learned the reli gion of self-denial, restitution and reformation, repentance, faith and perfect love, sought immortality through the carnage, suffer ing and courage of the battle-field, where the resurrection would know no distinction, except between loyalty and rebellion; or recognize any who had not valiantly laid down their lives in the cause of the " New Nation." Every innovation by the army, the Executive or Congress, was adopted as a new canon of reli gion, or a new article of religious faith. There seemed nothing too atrocious for them to press as a weight upon the Christian church. They would adopt one horrible doctrine after another, as a part of the Christian faith. When Lincoln committed a crime, the churches adopted it as a virtue. There was not a crime com* mitted, or a doctrine taught in the reign of Elizabeth, the Stuarts, or Henry VIII., that has not, in some form or other, been re- adopted in ecclesiastical platforms. In many parts of the coun try, the church took the lead of the most extravagant dema gogues in questions in no wise relevant to church affairs. It is not an unsafe calculation that seven-eights of the minis try of the country, were infidels in faith. The scenes of the conferences were more violent, virulent and unscrupulous, than the ordinary political convention. Some of the ministers preached sermons in favor of the theatre, because Lincoln had met his death in that place of amusement. The Presbyterian General Assembly, which met in St. Louis, was the most violent deliberative body that ever met in the coun try in its most violent times. "When the conference met in the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 179 city of Springfield, during the last year of the war, Governor Yates entered the conference room, whereupon that body sus pended their proceedings to hear a speech from his excellency. The Governor indulged in the most exuberant style of profanity, which elicited the wildest applause, and was succeeded by scan dals against the people, which would not have been tolerated in any well-regulated drinking house. The Governor had just re turned from one of his strolls in the army, with a lieutenant s wife, to whom he had granted the commission of major; which called forth a scandalous correspondence between this woman and a Senator s wife, of a character not to be entertained in this work. When the war commenced, a new and inviting field was open ed for the ministry : to each regiment was appointed a chaplain, and each chaplain received a salary equal to a captain of cavalry. This brought the whole ambitious clergy into the field. The politicians used the clergy to raise a company, as the price of their chaplain s commission. And in this way the minister, after preaching a malignant sermon to inflame his congregation, would spend the week among the poor people of his flock, gathering up the hale, stalwart men, and bearing them to the nearest re cruiting station, to be culled, examined, accepted, or rejected, after the manner of receiving horses from contractors. In this way, many ministers sold out all of the young men of their con- gregjSion to the provost marshal. 5?ne minister exhibited the greatest anxiety for success ; very much of the same kind and style that candidates for lieutenant and constable betray in their contests for place. Each neighborhood Was scoured by the preacher. He prom ised to each recruit an office, sometimes the same office to half a dozen persons, and each minister had made the same number of promises to as many different recruits. This created dissatisfaction, distrust, and sometimes actual con flict between the soldiers. But the contest between the ministers for the chaplain s place, was intense, bitter, and disgusting. Denomination, interest, favor, in fluence and politics, were urged, and not unfrequently the appoint ing power would vascillate, and crimination and recrimination fol low the venal attempt to sell out the business and profit of the office. 180 CRIMES OF a HE CIVIL WAR. Having obtained the place in this questionable manner, the office became a disgrace to the army, and only a few good and faithful men shared the toils of the common soldiers, and lived faithful lives. Those failing to get chaplains commissions in the army, sought chaplains positions in hospitals: others took up the sword and sought military office. These ministers carried all of the zeal of the pulpit into the neighborhood broils; and were prominent in mobs, riots and arbitrary arrests. You might see them strutting into the house of God, with epaulettes on their shoulders ; sitting in the streets retailing obscene stories, a la Lincoln, to the young recruits. These military ministers went to the army and inflamed the new levies, so that the old army officers were unable to restrain them ; and for hundreds of miles the army would travel night after night, by the lurid light of burning plantations. The di vine bully would superintend a street fight, or turn holy brigand and drive some poor affrighted woman from her home. Such was their general deportment in the field. How blasphemous and absurd to hear of a military minister of the Gospel. St. Paul on a raid, John the Evangelist on a scout, Colonel John Wesley, Major John Calvin, Martin Luther quartermas ter, John Bunyan wagon-master. Yet such were the abominable absurdities practiced upon the people by these hypocritical pre tenders and baptized infidels. The preachers attended conventions and secured nominations. They used the pulpit to get nominations in the army, and used the army to get places in the civil government, and used their places in the civil government to rob the government. In the blood market you would see these representatives of Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apostles, engage as flesh- dealers, speculating upon the body and blood of their neighbors children, or selling the immortal souls of adults whom they had baptized as children. At other times they were taking advantage of personal friend ships to persuade away the first-born child of widows families. After eating a hearty dinner, would speculate upon the child that grew the corn that fed them, and make money off the broken heart that bade them welcome to her cottage. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 181 Grave Bishops were sending telegraphic congratulations to a corrupt Congress for establishing arbitrary power in the country. Other Bishops were traveling to Europe to hunt up mercenary tools of tyrants to join in the general butchery of their country men. Still others, who were using military force to drive the poor people from the churches which had escaped the vandal flame, and trying to steal what they could not burn. It would be difficult to conceive a picture of Paul following the army of Suetonius into Britain, to steal the groves from the Druids. But these ministers were brethren of the same church, of the same faith, of the same baptism. What a fearful crime has this been against religion. What can these men say to honest heathen, who reproach the Gospel for their crimes who teach religion ? These men have done lasting harm to God s poor. Thousands there are in poverty, distress, and who are homeless, who find food, raiment and shelter in their undying trust in Christ and the Gospel. How infinitely wicked those, who at one fell swoop, have wiped away the world s last hope by their infidelity and crime ! The Gospel of Christ is to the poor a pillar of fire in the wilderness of time ; a " sunbeam in the storm of death," and reveals a beacon on the distant shores of that bourne whence no traveler returns. How will these ministers approach the savages of the frontier with the Gospel of Christ, where the military minister, Chiv- ington, butchered in cold blood, two hundred women and child ren in their winter lodges ? With what fiendish audacity must that people go, who call that man brother, and offer the Gospel to the Indian. In that ancient uncorrupted faith of our fathers, who wor shipped in groves ; in that simplicity of the Gospel taught us by the simple-minded children of true religion ; in the consolations of religion which are offered alike to the rich and the poor, the learned and unlearned ; in the immutable love of God, we may look for consolation and comfort, and from these bloody-minded priests, these mercenary ministers, these sinister hypocrites, these 182 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. unbelieving pretenders, let us turn away, to " behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." To the other ministerial debasement was added the crowning act of religious prostitution by another Bishop, who followed the corpse of the dead tyrant through the land, to teach young men how bloody tyrants could ascend through theatres and crimes to the kingdom of heaven. What a spectacle would that have been to see Paul bearing around the body of dead Nero sounding the praises of his butcheries, commending his debaucheries, magnifying his mercy, and paying homage to his love of God. What must have been the transition, were it true, that Lincoln ascended on high. Passing from the theatre to the throne of God; from the so ciety of the voluptuous multitude of criminals to the court of heaven ; from the crowd of thieves and cyprians to the white- vested elders and the saints of light. Such was the blasphemy, burlesque and abomination over the body of Lincoln, carried over the land to excite the violence of the weak and wicked, followed by a frenzied people. Such has been the conduct and infidelity of the American clergy to the sacred trusts of Christianity. The worst of all the infidels who took possession of the church was the round-head of Cromwell. The great criminal of Christian civilization the Puritan is still the same unchanged and un changeable, zealous, treacherous fiend that he was before he set foot upon the continent of America. Not a whit different in purpose, spirit and character, than when he stood grinning with infernal joy by the stake, throwing burning faggots and hot embers upon the naked body of Michael Servetus while he was writhing under the excruciating tortures of a slow fire fed by green hickory wood, in the public squares of Geneva. The Puritan is precisely the same amiable character that he was, when he hung Quakers, burned witches, and drowned An abaptists ; when he made merchandize of American institutions, and held out blue lights to British ships, and smuggled British goods through the blockade in the interest of King George, in his second attempt to enslave the American colonies. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 183 Nor has he changed his nature or abandoned his character ; since he grew rich and made his merchants opulent in the African slave trade. His varied aggressions upon the rights of his neighbors change only with his means and facilities, and the only hope which he offers to the world of improvement, is in the introduction of a system of self-destruction, which he has made commensurate with his people, and promises an early extermination of his race. The Puritan who has propogated his errors and begotten new forms of religious crimes, is still encroaching upon our civil rights. To prevent the union of Church and State, with the intoler ance of the one and the corruption of the other, to restore the primitive simplicity of the Church, and the national rights to the people, the divorce of Church and State must be complete. In the spirit of the fear of God, the love of man and the truth of history, do we warn our countrymen against these crimes and dangers that environ us. CJLUMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CRIMES AGAINST LABOR. CHAPTER I. THE CONSPIRACY OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT. THE Treasury Department has always held the first place in the governments of the world; and is justly accounted equal to the genius, cultivation and endurance of the ablest minds. The names of Colbert, Turgott, Necker, John Law, and "Wil liam Pitt, Morris Hamilton and Biddle, with the various sys tems of finance, which they represent, are so interwoven in the history of Europe and America, that their success and failures, with their causes and consequences, is a science complete in it self. In the institution of written government in the United States, the power and resources of the country to carry on a successful financial system, was not the least hazardous part of the great experiment. The failure in the Treasury Department would have been the signal of anarchy in every branch of trade and industry. Agriculture, commerce and manufactures, were alike depend ant upon a just, thorough and stable system of weights, measures, and moneys which would serve all of the purposes of exchange among themselves, and extend their business to the different na tions of the earth. Our fathers were duly warned of the dangers which threaten ed our unique system. The long catalogue of monetary crimes ; the maintenance of aristocracies; the slavery of labor to capital in every govern ment of Europe, were before them. The Kt vohitionary struggle, which brought our infant gov- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 185 eminent to the light of the world, witnessed a bankruptcy only less deplorable than colonial dependency ; and forced a confes sion of inability to pay the soldier who had bought its liberty with his blood ; and indefinitely deferred the support of the widows and orphans of the brave men who slept on the battle field; and the remnant, maimed and wounded, who survived the conflict. With this embarrassing introduction into the family of gov ernments, the American people were singularly circumspect in their choice of the great men who were appointed guardians of the public wealth. The office of Secretary of the Treasury, has contributed to the literature of the country, historical names, embracing its first characters, that would have adorned the biographical annals of any country ; whose preliminary education had qualified them for the station to which they added lustre. The office involved onerous responsibility ; required compre hensive grasp of intellect, and taxed to its utmost capacity the richest genius. It has been prudently offered and reluctantly accepted, by the most distinguished Americans among whom were Hamilton, a jurist, a general and statesman, who had cultivated the gener ous fertility of his native powers to their highest susceptibilities of improvement ; whose honored name comes down from an other century, with its burning glory undimmed. Samuel Dex ter, a distinguished son of Massachusetts, when she indulged in a just pride of her statesman ; Albert Gallatin, the friend of Lafayette, profoundly versed in the varied theories of govern ment ; Richard Rush, Louis McLane, and Wm. H. Crawford ; Roger B. Taney, the contemporary and peer of Wirt, Pinkney, Martin, Webster, and Legare. He was the very first of all the American jurists, whose name will pass down the current of time with the history of our jurisprudence, as its purest and most distin guished ornament. A proud and glorious hero, who, in the mid night of the nineteenth century, when surrounded by bayonets, deafened by cannon ; amid the sound of drums and the shouts of the rabble; when the judiciary of the country were imprisoned, and their sacred ermine trampled under the filthy feet of tyrants ; 186 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. when the blood of murder bedaubed the temple .of justice, and violence held holiday in legislative halls ; opposed by President and Congress ; standing alone ; all that was left of the glory and grandeur of the age of liberty ; his eye not dimmed ; his natu ral force unabated; he denounced the usurpations which were sweeping away the last vestiges of constitutional government, and registered the mandates of his court as his only legacy to a country which tamely surrendered to the behests of power. The court, too feeble to enforce its edicts, gave way to brute force. In quiet imitation of his court, his enfeebled body surrendered to time and his great spirit returned to the bosom of his Creator, who gave its lustrous fires. There were also Levi Woodbury, Thomas Ewing, Thomas Corwin and Walter Forward, who occupied this distinguished position. No defalcation or discrepancy in settlements, had scandalized the Treasury Department until Salmon P. Chase, as Secretary, purchased his way into the favor of the rich, and made himself a power equal to any European monarch ; which he employed with far less regard to the rights of the people, and left his sin ister face engraved upon an irredeemable paper currency, which the latest generations of the people will detest as the insignia of our bondage and shame ; who now defiles the pure ermine laid down by Taney, and divides his time in the various vocations of inciting negro riots ; travelling in oriental style, at the govern ment expense, in ships fitted up for the purpose, and delaying decisions which involve the liberties of the people and the vital ity of free government. Such had been the character of the great men who filled this place before the late civil war, and such is the instrument of despotism and corruption who has destroyed its character, per verted its purpose, and fastened its great weight upon the neck of the people. After the introduction of the odious and abominable Funded System, and the venal ascension of Chase to the Supreme Bench, the guardianship of the Treasury passed into the hands of an obscure gentleman who had never filled a higher position than that of officer in a village bank, whose principal duty and re- CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 187 qulsite knowledge was the extraction of the largest interest from the smallest capital, singularly in conflict with that of Secretary of the Treasury, who must pay the greatest debt, with the least private oppression and public disaster. Such were the charac ter, attainments, and qualifications of the new agent which called him to the care and supervision of the entire business property and financial destiny of the country, the collection and disburse ment of the public moneys of the government. Mr. McCulloch being entirely unknown to our political, judi cial or literary history, the people of the country have no confi dence in either his ability to manage the public affairs, or his integrity to expose the enormous frauds and monstrous corrup tions of Chase, his predecessor. It would be neither appropriate nor pardonable to censorious ly comment upon the qualifications and experience possessed by this public officer, to prepare him for the onerous and multifa rious duties of his great public trust. But there seems an incurable mania raging among the people for filling exalted places with sturdy intellect, but which it is noteworthy, is not reciprocated by the intelligent business men of the country. Whilst politicians are chosing rail-splitters to fill the Presi dential chair, and enfranchising barbarian negroes, the farmers are not willing to employ bank-clerks to split rails, or school masters to cultivate the soil. This public functionary, with a patronizing air, proposes as truths, old absurdities which were exploded by facts and philos ophy long before the Christain era, and which have never since bp^n defended by any respectable authors upon political science. The conduct of Mr. McCulloch challenges criticism and provokes censure. His financial reports are the most extraor dinary of our revolutionary times; balderdash which, if applied to government, will ruin the country and bankrupt the people, leaving its business prostrate and its responsibilities accumula ting in a perpetually increasing ratio. His financial plans, and strangely interwoven political theories, are the most complete exhibition of that light-headedness pecu liar to sudden elevation, for which nature has not always made adequate previous provision. 188 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The people have no right to complain of an officer because he holds office ; they should rather lend their fullest support to the earnest, trustworthy public servant who deals with the common wealth so that the property of the people is subservient to their legitimate wants ; but when the agents of the people conspire with their enemies to overthrow civil government and enslave them, no expose can be too frank, fearless or early, and no re sistance can be too positive or decisive. Such is the attempt now made upon the labor of the country through the Secretary of the Treasury. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 189 CHAPTER II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE LOAN WAS OBTAINED. THE manner in which this loan was obtained, is set forth in graphic style by the Secretary of the Treasury in the following extraordinary document : TJ. s. 7-30 LOAN. The Secretary of the Treasury gives notice that subscriptions will be received for Coupon Treasury Notes, payable three years from August 15, 1864, with semi-annual interest at the rate of seven and three-tenths per cent, per annum, principal and interest both to be paid in lawful money. These notes will be convertible at the option of the holder, at maturity, into six per cent, gold-bearing bonds, payable not less than five nor more than twenty years from their date, as Gov ernment may elect. They will be issued in denominations of $50, $100, $500, $1,000 and $5,000, and all subscriptions must be for fifty dollars or some multiple of fifty dollars. As the notes draw interest from August 15, persons making deposits subsequent to that date must pay the interest accrued from date of note to date of deposit. Parties depositing twenty-five thousand dollars and upward for these notes at any one time, will be allowed a commission of one-quarter of one per cent. SPECIAL ADVANTAGES OF THIS LOAN. IT is A NATIONAL SAVINGS BANK, oifering a higher rate of interest than any other, and the best security. Any savings bank which pays its depositors in U. S. Notes, considers that it is pay ing in the best circulating medium of the country, and it cannot pay in anything better, for its own assests are either in govern ment securities or in notes or bonds payable in government pa per. 190 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CONVERTIBLE INTO A 6 PER CENT. 5-20 GOLD BOND. In addition to the very liberal interest on the notes for three years, this privilege of conversion is now worth about three per cent, per annum, for the current rate for 5-20 Bonds is not less than nine per cent, premium, and before the war the premium on six per cent. U. S. Stocks was over twenty per cent. It will be seen that the actual profit on this loan, at the present market rate, is not less than ten per cent per annum. ITS EXEMPTION FROM STATE OR MUNICIPAL TAXATION. But aside from all the advantages we have enumerated, a spe cial Act of Congress exempts all Bonds and Treasury Notes from local taxation. On the average, this exemption is worth about two per cent, per annum, according to the rate of taxation in va rious parts of the country. It is believed that no securities oifer so great inducements to lenders as those issued by the Government. In all other forms of indebtedness, the faith or ability of private parties or stock companies, or separate communities, only, is pledged for payment, while the whole property of the country is held to secure the discharge of all the obligations of the United States. Subscriptions will be received by the Treasurer of the United States at Washington, the several assistant Treasurers and desig nated Depositories, and by the FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF CINCINNATI, O. SECOND " " THIRD " FOURTH " " and by all National banks which are depositories of public money, and ALL RESPECTABLE BANKS AND BANKERS throughout the country will give further information, and AFFORD EVERY FACILITY TO SUBSCRIBERS. Secretary Chase assumes that a national debt is a national blessing. The substance of the argument to prove this absurdity assumes that the debt is due from the people of the United States to the people of the United States ; that the country owes CRIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAR. 191 that much to itself. But it is also a debt due from the poor to the rich ; from labor to capital ; from the industrious, who have nothing but what they earn ; to the opulent, who have amassed their fortunes from the labor of the poor. It is a debt paid from patient, honest industry, to impatient, pompous idleness. The very nature of this debt is more op pressive that it is due from one class to another class of the same people, which makes the hardship greater ; that it taxes the humble classes to perpetuate an invidious distinction to their injury; stints the bread of their children to add to the extrava gance of their insolent oppressor. No debt can become so in vidious without this distinctive feature. The nearer you bring the oppressor and the oppressed in con tact, the more crushing will be the slavery. The following absurdities are assumed in regard to our debt : 1. That it has added the full amount of itself to our capital; that we are worth $4,000,000,000 more by being that amount in debt ; that war is the most profitable condition of society ; debt the only source of profit ; public robbers the only patriots ; and extravagance the highway to prosperity. 2. That " a national debt is the only bond of union." " That protection and excise are essential to each other ; both are neces- ary to sustain the national debt; neither alone could uphold its weight ; and without the national debt, neither system of revenue could endure with the indispensably necessary quality of steadiness and permanence." The purpose of the permanence of the debt is the settled pol icy of the authors of the funded system. 3.. Upon this debt was erected the National Banking System, elsewhere examined. This remarkable paper was issued when the government was in the jaws of bankruptcy, and the exchange board of the great money market was hawking government bonds at thirty-four to forty cents on the dollar. The world was invited to pay into the treasury the worthless trash which had been paid out in ex orbitant prices for worthless wares ; in exchange for which the government would give them finally one dollar in gold-bearing bonds at six per cent. 192 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. This prodigal offer was nearly two hundred percent, premium above the price paid, drawing nearly triple interest upon the original sum loaned, after three years race in paper. As an in ducement to perpetuate this robbery upon the public, the Secre tary offered to pay one-fourth of one per cent, to every one who will deposite twenty-five thousand dollars or upwards at any one time. At this gloomy period, with the whole superstructure of gov ernment groaning beneath the burden, this loan was proposed as a National Savings Bank, offering a higher rate of interest than any other. No other government offers such rates of interest ; no solvent government can pay more than three or four per cent.; even European despotisms dare not impose heavier bur dens upon an unwilling people for long periods, upon large sums. Governments ought never borrow money, but in times of peace prepare for war, which was the custom of the ancient re publics, and a wide departure from which is the destruction of re publican government. Secretary Chase, who thus serves his political schemes, and replenishes his private purse, assures the purchaser of bonds that " The privilege of conversion is now worth about three per cent, per annum for the current rate, for 5-20 bonds is not less than nine per cent, premium. On six per cent. U. S. Stocks be fore the war the premium was over twenty per cent. It will be seen that the actual profit on this loan at the present market rate is not less than ten per cent, per annum." It seems incredible that such a publication should have been made by any public officer acting in his place. It is remarkable that the tax-payers read it with patience. This inviting investment was secured at about thirty-four cents on the dollar. Could the exaggerated statement of a bitter political enemy, in the heat of a violent campaign, assail the Secretary with more vehemence, or more effectually damage the credit of the government, than is done in this naked statement? This loan-broker assures the tax-payers that the debt draws a higher interest than any other borrower pays; and notifies the slaves, serfs, vassals and Helots of the United States, that these CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 193 bonds are exempt from taxation. These arguments alone ought to have enlisted all the floating capital of the world. But he reaches the climax, and guarantees the borrower that these bonds are a first mortgage upon all of the property of the whole country, real or personal, and the people are the mortgagees. If these bonds and debts are valid, then the property of the country is worth nothing. If it were exposed at public sale in every financial metropolis of the world, and the capital of man kind invited to competition in the market, the property would not realize the money necessary to pay the debts of the country. We are but tenants at will, paying rents on our own land. If our property is worth anything, it is just in proportion as this monstrous debt is repudiated. This is an overpowering argu ment in favor of repudiation, and can be answered only by re pudiation. These bonds become more odious in their applica tion as the basis of the Banking System, the base-born, offspring of crime and misfortune, with the attributes of each. A NATIONAL DEBT IS A NATIONAL CURSE. In every despotism, a national debt is a necessity to the exer cise of arbitrary power; or the maintenance of the privileged orders, who employ the wealth of the country to subjugate labor to taxation, which is the specific office of a national debt. The four great powers of Europe have each a permanent national debt, and employ the people in wars of conquest to prevent revo lution at home or in throwing off the oppression of the constant and unrelenting system of taxation ; which alternates their condi tion between slavery for the support of the profligate royalty and the conquest of other helpless, harmless people, to increase the extent of their domain and the number of the slaves. Debt. Interest. Debt per capita. France in 1853, $2,304,000,000.. ..$132,360,000.... $62.12 Austria in 1864, 1,263,400,000.... 75,100,000,... 36.00 Great Britain in 1863, 4,000,918,944.... 127,564,548.... 20.00 United States in 1866, 4,000,000,000.,... 292,000,000.... 125.00 Russia in 1864, 1,116,800,000.... 27,100,000.... 19.64 Thaddeus Stevens, Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, says : 13 194 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Our war debt is estimated at from three to four billions of dollars. In my judgment, when all is funded and the pensions capitalized, it will reach more than four billions. The interest at 6 per cent, only, (now much more) $240,000,000 The ordinary expenses of our Government are 120,000,000 For some years the extraordinary expenses of our army and navy will be 110,000,000 $470,000,000 Four hundred and seventy millions to be raised by taxation ! Our present heavy taxes will not in ordinary years, produce but little more than half that sum. Can our people bear double their present taxation ? He who unnecessarily causes it, will be accursed from generation to generation. It is fashionable to be little our public debt, lest the people should become alarmed, and political parties should suffer. I have never found it wise to de ceive the people. They can always be trusted with the truth. Capitalists will not be affected, for they can not be deceived. Confide in the people, and you will avoid repudiation. Deceive them, and lead them into false measures, and you may produce it. We pity the poor Englishmen whose national debt and burden some taxation we have heard deplored from our childhood. The debt of Great Britain is just about as much as ours, (4,000,000,- 000) four billions. But in effect it is but half as large, it bears but three per cent, interest. The current year the Chancellor of the Exchequer tells us, the interest was $131, 806,990, ours, when all shall be funded, will be nearly double. As the prelude and consequence of the monstrous doctrines taught by Secretary Chase and the consequent issue of a volatile paper money, every avenue of trade was filled with an inflated currency. The men who commenced and carried through the war, appealed to the avarice of the rich, the fears of the timid, and the love of plunder, to the speculators and stock gamblers, un til the alarming spectacle was presented to the financial world, of a prosperity based upon the violation of every well known axiom of political economy. Indeed, every project was a new inven tion in the progressive march of power and glory. Albeit, the same thing had been exploded at least once in every generation of thirty years, and had as certainly ruined every people who CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 195 had foolishly adopted it. Every discarded barbarity which had been stamped with the opprobrium of the Christian era was her alded as a new and bold stroke of military policy, indicated by humanity and justified by necessity, as the offspring of genius and harbinger of the millenium. The charlatans who control public affairs, quite as careful of their fame as they have been of their power, propose to defend their crimes as virtues, and commend their ignorance and stupid ity as the highest intelligence and most brilliant invention. Every thing was accounted marvellous, because, in fact, it was friv olous and insolent. Balderdash has been served up to the people as profound discoveries in the sciences of arms, finances and gov ernment, and strange enough, the people crowded together like sheep, trembled with fear, listened and believed, exercised faith and quietly put on the yoke of bondage. THESE THINGS WERE SCARCELY RESISTED. The base and shameful cowardice of those who assumed leadership, the wicked and heartless betrayal of their old friends by those who were entrusted with the defence of liberty and the mercenary instincts of those who engaged in a war of plunder, weakened the ranks of the friends of free in stitutions and emboldened the enemies of liberty until at last the great body of people became tame, lost their courage and dared not open their mouths through fear of drunken vagabonds, wear ing government epaulettes, and licensed to shoot down whoever might cross their pathway. Those reckless mercenaries gathered up from the purlieus of cities, or those dastardly wretches who, through fear of the battle-field and long continued habits of crime, prepared to commit every manner of depredation, were stationed through the country for that purpose, ready to be hissed on by a mob of civilians who were making fortunes by the war ; and ecclesiastics, whose salaries were regulated by the fluctuations of the currency. Never did the resistless flood-tide sweep away all obstructions in its path more completely, than did this rain of lampblack and rags, greenbacks and bonds, contracts and official positions, which found their way everywhere. Boot-blacks and barbers, hack-drivers and ostlers, prostitutes and pimps, had open oyster suppers and public receptions ; whilst gamblers hung their destinies upon the good or ill luck of the wheel 196 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. of fortune, and would light their cigars with government scrip. The city hotels and fashionable watering-places were infested with a fortunate rabble who drove true gentility from the country, and made arbitrary changes in the laws of fashion, radical as the brokers and government financiers had made in the laws of money and commerce. Ignorant men and gross women, fresh from the army, or dripping with petroleum, scandalized society j whilst the cultivated minds of the country sought society in se clusion, or went in disgust to foreign lands. Everybody was rich, money was begging owners, everything commanded enormous prices, which kept advancing ; money was increasing in amount until one dollar (gold and silver) command ed nearly three dollars of the government pledges. Thus was a double crime perpetrated upon the country. First. Every dol lar which had been loaned in good faith in gold, often in cases to save valuable property from execution, was now paid in scrip, which had no intrinsic value and was subject to the mutations of a profligate paper currency. The debtor paid his debt in these government pledges, the courts came to the rescue and repudiated two-thirds of the value of the debt. This was so universal that it is not a violent presumption that all of the outstanding debts of the country were paid with fifty cents on the dollar ; and in fact, fully one-half of the whole indebtedness of private individ uals was in this way utterly repudiated; and when the injured party appealed to the courts, the courts sustained the repudiation and decreed that the debts should be cancelled by the payments of depreciated government scrip substituted for gold and silver. This was, in fact, no payment of the debt, but simply a transfer of it from the man who paid it to the government, which as sumed it by the issue of its paper; and this money which he seemed to get was the very shadow of the money which he was entitled to; and after receiving this mere paper, he had to be taxed enormously to pay the very debt which was thus transferred from the debtor to the government ; and from the government back to the creditor, to be paid in taxes ; and the very debt which was due him and with which he had proposed to pay outstanding debts, which were a lien upon his property ; but the lien simply changed its owner and was finally placed back upon his property CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 197 in a tax of perpetual duration, due the government, to be issued out to its specially favoured creditors in gold. But this system of finance became noisome in every market ; the government was the cheif buyer, overriding all competition. When the dray man, planter or railroad wanted to buy a horse, the government agent outbid him or drove him entirely out of the market. The Federal contractor went in competition with the butcher, to buy cattle ; and made the soldier in the field bid against his half-starved family at home, to increase the price of beef. The government agent was bidding against the people in the price of every commodity. This reduced the country into two general classes. The one class of government employees, the other were serfs to support and subsist them. Every article used for the sustenance of life, or the comforts of living, was seized upon by the government agents, who knew no bounds to prices, except their own whims. The poorer people had to take the inferior articles at a vastly increased rate. The government managers were unrestricted in their extravagance. They measured the capacity to meet contracts only by the power of the government printing-presses to issue promises to pay. This was the only re straint imposed upon those who held the entire control of the property of the country. With the whole land under martial law, the Congress under duress, the independent judges in jail, newspapers that wrote one word of the tendency of the govern ment to bankruptcy, were summarily suppressed ; and public speakers hurried off to forts, who denounced this public profli gacy. In was in this state of affairs an easy matter to print money ad libitum, and involve the country in a debt of thousands of millions of dollars. It requires but a slight acquaintance with the philosophy of finance to understand that the true method for the conduct of a great civil or foreign war, is to contract prices with the increase of expenditures ; that the rich, who hoard provis ions, shall bear the weight of the burdens imposed upon the coun try, rather than the poor, whose existence is at stake in the vacilla tion of prices of the necessaries of life, shall be driven to star vation. When usurpation is the chief element in the conduct of the war, and starvation is added to force to drive the poor into the ranks of the army then forced loans should be made 198 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. from the rich to encourage voluntary service, instead of driving poor men from their families into the slaughter pens. This would equalize the burdens of the war and present the accumu lations of a burthensome debt upon the people. In carrying on the late civil war, the government borrowed everything and paid nothing; intrigued with the banks, that in collusion they might rob the country of everything. To initiate the fraud, it was pre tended that the government was under lasting obligations to the bankers for favors of money, when in fact the bankers lent noth ing but the weight of their credit to oppress the people and carry out the war ; that in return the government might use the banking-system as an engine of perpetual oppression of the peo ple to enrich its officers. After borrowing everything which was to loan, they then bor rowed from the industry, liberty and hopes of every succeeding generation, to enrich the profligate extortioners, usurers, specu lators, adventurers and mercenaries who, having destroyed the country by war, would enslave the people by taxation. The true standard by which to measure the amount of taxes paid by a people, is the difference in the prices paid for the same article at different times, under nearly the same general circum stances. This is the only means where nearly the whole amount is carefully concealed under cover of duties, excises and other deceitful means of hiding taxations, which have been so gener ally resorted to by the treacherous legislation of modern times. The effect of this war and consequent taxation in regard to the cost of living. Mark the contrast with the prices we paid : GEOCEBIES. Democratic Price in 1860. Abolition Price in 1805. Teas 45u50c. per Ib. Teas 1 00a$2 50 Sugars .8 9c. " Sugars 20 oO Coffees 14 IGc. " Coffees Go Nutmegs 50 5Gc. Nutmegs Pepper 8 9c. " Pepper G5 Allspice G 8c. Allspice 50 Cinnamon 20 22c. Cinnamon 100 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 199 DRY GOODS DOMESTIC. Brown Sheetings . .8 Jc. per yd. Brown Sheetings . .65c. per yd. Prints, Calicoes, etc 5Jc. " Prints, Cal icoes, etc 40c. Bleached Muslins.. .5|c. " Bleached Muslins.. .75c. Canton Flannels... 10c. " Canton Flannels... 90c. " * * . .- C* FOREIGN. Delaines 15Jc. per yd. Delaines , 7 5c. per yd. DressGoods 25c. " Dress Goods 80c. " Velvets $250 " Velvets 1200 < RAW COTTON, ETC. Cotton laps 18c. perlb. Cotton laps $1 75perlb. Wadding 40c. " Wadding 220 " Carpet Chain 20c. " Carpet Chain.. ... 110 " Lamp Wick 20c. " Lamp Wick 1 50 METALS, ETC. Lead 6c. perlb. Lead 32c. perlb. Antimony 13c. " Antimony 75c. " Block.Tin 31c. " Block Tin 90c. " COAL. Of which the poor man s fire consumes as much as that which , blazes in the rich man s parlor in former days could be had for four or five dollars ; it now costs fourteen and fifteen dollars a ton. CLOTHS. Satinets , 45a50c. per yd. $1 75 per yd. Broadcloths, Cassimeres, etc., have increased from 100 to 150 per ct. DRUGS have increased in price on an average of 200 per ct. TOBACCO Manufactured Cavendish Tobacco has risen from 35 cents to $1 25 per pound. CIGARS have advanced from $20 to $60 and $200 per thous and. FOREIGN STATIONERY, since the scarcity of specie, has risen 50 per cent. The above table made out from the actual market prices, is a very fair exhibit of what the masses of the poor suffer, as well as 200 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. pay for, iu contribution to the debt. The increasing pressure upon the poor of the country, is precipitating the crisis. The poverty of the country and the sufferings of the people, are the irreputable arguments which must stare Chief Justice Chase in the eyes when the people have turued upon their oppres sors. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 201 CHAPTER III. THE WAR DEBT is NOT A JUST DEBT. WHAT is a just and what an unjust debt? To fasten upon thirty millions of people, by a minority of votes, and transmit to their posterity in the most palpable case, will always be a matter of doubt which can never be satisfactorily determined either by the contention of debate or the conflict of war. There never yet has been a party in power in any government which excited or prosecuted a war, whether to satiate revenge or gratify ambition, that did not at the same time assume the con test as not only justifiable, but just ; not only necessary, but holy. Such is the brief epitome of the arguments upon all wars. Such were declared the character and purposes of the wars of the Stuarts to crush the proud spirit of liberty in the English people, the war of King George to enslave America, wars against Ireland, Scotland and the East Indies by Great Britain, indeed all wars by all tyrants. Every war has been the heated theme of songs and prayers, thanksgiving and praise, on every side, by all parties engaged ; has been used as the machinery by which the human passions might be inflamed to their highest pitch of intensity ; and re ligious sentiment used as the vehicle in which tyrants rode into power, and the habiliments worn by demons to enter the high priesthood, bearing the palm-wreath of victory or making their mournful dirge as victory or defeat befel them or the other army in conflict. This evident consciousness of right was not confined to one party alone. Each contending side was alike appealing to heaven for vindication of their mottoes, and denunciation of the wickedness of their enemies. Indeed, it is the common and remarkable feature of the history of all wars, that the same self-adulatory harangues in very nearly the same phraseology, making due allowance for 202 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. the difference of language and the habits, passions or customs of the people, have been employed in every country only with the slightest difference in America and Kussia, England and China, Spain and Judea. The same imprecations of those they met in battle seem stereotyped in the mind, and painted only in new colors, without a change of feature. Held by the light of Christianity, all wars are wicked. They are doubly wicked when Christians are engaged in mutual de struction ; but they are atrocious beyond all power of expression when they involve people of a common blood, brethren in the flesh and in the spirit. It is only when pervading infidelity and thorough corruption coalesce to destroy the Church and State together, that such wars can transpire and escape the opprobrium of both civilization and Christianity. All such wars are at best but organized systems of robbery, with a common tendency and common end to the ruin of the country, the overthrow of just government, and the robbery and degradation of the people. In full view of the wrongs and evils of war, the self-evident rights of man, and the clearly wicked and spiteful character of this war, what authority will be called in requisition to justify the attempt to bind generation after generation, loaded with an immoveable debt, to the car-wheel of bankruptcy, and destroy our form of government. This debt was incurred to carry on a war conceived in the foulest passions of depraved human nature, carried on for the mercenary purposes of personal gain by a systematized corruption, cruelty and crime; condemned by every conception of justice, and outdoing in all of the elements of wrong, the startling crimes charged by Edmund Burke against Warren Hastings (whilst Governor of India) in the British Parliament. In all of this wicked, cruel war, there has been but these un changeable objects in view : to glut the avarice of the rich, to satiate the vengeance of the spiteful, and minister to the most grovelling appetites of the vicious; to make the people the slaves of money and their armies the tools of tyrants. This argument in behalf of the late civil war is somewhat CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 203 changed, but is not strengthened, when the proposition assumes that the war was carried on (which is now upon all hands con ceded) to abolish the system of African servitude in the United States. The argument concedes two points presented in this review : 1. There was no evil in slavery which could be abolished by war, to give it efficiency in times of peace. This is quite clear in itself, but it is fully conceded in the fact of the government, by the change demanded in the Constitution, and through du ress and fraud added to it. 2. The great improvement in the condition of the negro by his transfer from Africa to America, will place it beyond cavil in history that he suffered no evil in the exchange of countries, conditions and character. It is quite as apparent that he has received no benefit from the late transition from organized protection to social anarchy. 3. Whatever may have been the will of the people which is the great common law of America when legally expressed concerning the status of the negro, there has been nothing done for his benefit by war which might not have been far better done peaceably, without the shedding of blood, the destruction of property, and the overthrow of the republican form of govern ment, the triple enormities perpetrated by the late revolution. The debt is not just in this, that we have had no quid pro quo. THE PEOPLE AEE NOT BOUND IN JUSTICE TO PAY THIS DEBT. We have received nothing in return for it. Our currency is destroyed, our liberties gone, our institutions overthrown, leaves us nothing for all that we have lost, all that we have squandered and all that we have surrendered, to say nothing of the enor mous debt that we have contracted and yet hangs over us. The eternal law that every sale implies a price, the quid pro quo leaves this debt without approximating a material consideration, adequate or inadequate to its payment. THIS DEBT MIGHT HAVE BEEN AVOIDED. The evidence is everywhere at hand. By a strict adherence to the constitution in the enunciation of political principles, it 204 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. never could have transpired. An honest, earnest address to the people from President Lincoln after his election, would have thoroughly settled the public mind, quieted excitement, prevent ed civil wars, with the consequent blood, carnage and crime. Upon the inauguration of the President, a clear and implicit declaration of his purpose and constitutional integrity would have disarmed those already in arms, and restored quiet to the country, and utterly ruined the leaders of the secession move ment by destroying the pretexts for secession. Congress could have arrested the war by manly avowals in the beginning of its session in 1861, notwithstanding the well ground ed distrust which had fixed itself in the public mind. By the least exhibition of justice upon the part of the administration, the war would have been avoided. The administration of Lincoln saw the absolute necessity of general public bribery to make the shadows of money abundant among the people, and intoxicate them with the appearances of wealth, and postpone taxation to posterity. They used no more restraints upon expenditures than the profligate libertine, who measures his extravagance by his power to destroy property and capacity to create debt. It was in view of creating war and preventing the exposure of the nakedness of the administration, that presses were destroy ed, free speech prohibited and elections treated as a farce, to des troy the liberties of the people, with all of the solemn forms of law. The administration of the government forced issues be tween capital and labor, arbitrary power and rational govern ment. It has been made our duty in self-preservation to teach tyrants that all elections shall be fair and free, to teach usurpers that the will of the people shall be the supreme law of the land. That no debt contracted to enslave them shall be paid. Self-res pect imposes this duty upon the people, to impress this lesson upon despots, that legislation shall be pure and untrammelled. It is a duty that we owe to free government, that no statute en acted, no debt contracted, no obligation imposed by corrupt or unfair legislation, shall be of such binding force as that a failure in the courts to declare them void, shall prevent the people at their will, from repudiating them. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAR. 205 This will instruct capitalists and gamblers in stocks, who swindle themselves into wealth, that they may not trample labor into the dust with impunity, nor safely connive at the overthrow of constitutional government, to amass immense wealth. 206 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. CHAPTER IV. THE WAR DEBT is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. BY what authority did the President destroy State govern ment? "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and, on application of the Legislature, from domestic violence." Const. Art. IV, Sec. 4. What Governor or Legislature of what State applied to the President to protect them against domestic violence ? On the contrary, when the President asked the Governors of Tennessee, Virginia, Missouri and Kentucky, to do this, they indignantly declined the work of butchery proposed ; the Presi dent had no right to invade any State. There w r as no domestic violence ; the operation of law was unclogged until the President commenced the work of disinte gration. There were no changes made in the State laws and State constitutions, which were not made in conformity with the organic laws. By what authority did the President imprison the Legislature of Maryland ? incarcerate Judges of the several States of the Union ? " The judicial power of the United States shall not be con strued to extend to any suit of law or equity, commenced or to be prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State or by subjects of a foreign power." Xlth Amend ment to the Constitution. How much less the right to wage war against a State. "What may not be done peaceably, may not be forcibly done. Judgment always precedes execution. A war levied against a State is unconstitutional. A debt contracted for such purpose is likewise CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 207 unconstitutional. No such war could grow out of the Consti tution, nor the debt be of valid obligation. The people are not bound by the Constitution to pay this debt, because it was entirely unauthorized by the Constitution. It was created in violation of the Constitution, for the purpose of overthrowing the Constitution. From the beginning there was scarcely anything lawfully done . and what was otherwise lawfully done, was done in an unlawful manner. The general emulation in civil and military life, was to see who could set the laws most at defiance. These facts are conceded by the authors and instigators of the war. 1. They passed acts of immunity to cover their crimes. 2. They offered amendments to the Constitution to legalize their usurpations. 3. They propose amendments to make the debt obligatory upon the country. How can a debt bind a people which is not made according to law? WE ARE NOT BOUND BY THE THEORY OF OUR GOVERNMENT TO PAY THIS DEBT. The war was waged in violation of the theory of our govern ment by consent in the exact form, spirit and purpose of arbi trary government, to destroy the republican system. How then, can such a debt have constitutional force or obli gation to bind any one, since it was made in the interest of self- destruction, and to pay for violence done to and butchery of the people. In its stead was a monarchy in everything but the name, in which the President was guarded in the style of the Czar and Sultan, with all of the brutality of the one and the pomp of the other ; with all of the trappings of monarchy and the violence of despotism. With the overthrow of our system and theory of government,, and the adoption of the imperial style and military guard, the most intimate friend of Washington, Jefferson or Monroe, would have entirely failed to recognize the old and familiar forms that gave us characteristic distinction everywhere. 208 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. A new and unique system was substituted. We had the forms of republican government enforced or obstructed, or both, as occasion might demand or necessity might justify. It was not republican, for nobody was free. The citizens and soldiers were alternately arrested, State and military officers were spending their terms in guard-houses or military prisons, as whim, interest or caprice might suggest, at the will of their masters, who were not always known, for it was as difficult to learn who directed affairs as it was to know who was loyal. Everybody was conscripted ; everybody was an officer : everybody was arrested ; everybody was removed from office; everybody was reinstated in turn, just as the President might be persuaded by the last committee of merchants, ministers, loyal leaguers, free negroes or ruling mad ams of the sanitary commission or sewing society. Never was there such a medley of tragedy and farce, murder and mockery, of grave pronunciamentos and the most ridiculous government follies. Anarchy, which knows no law, was reduced to a system by which anarchies were to be let loose and restrained as occasion might require, or circumstances might dictate. From the gov ernment nothing could be known of its character except occa sionally an act in lucid intervals. instance butone form of crime : LETTRE DE CACHET OUR FRENCH DESPOTISM. This extraordinary proceeding is entirely unknown to the in stitutions of this country, and quite as great a stranger to the British Common Law. It, of course, could not issue from our courts of judicature, and is entirely unknown to the more stern, though more candid, process of military courts. So utterly repugnant to all sense of justice, liberality and the universally accorded rights of man is it, that it has never been exercised anywhere in the despotism of Europe, except very rarely indeed, before the seventeenth century, and then only by the most heartless of all the European tyrants. Towards the close of the seventeenth century, Louis the Great, (XIV) then in power, gave to the French throne a power and magnificence which eclipsed that of all of his predecessors. His reign was an era distinguished by great learning, fashion CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 209 and gaiety. The lettres de cachet had formerly been used to delay the course of justice, but during the reign of this monarch, any person who could find access to court to either the King or his Ministers could obtain these lettres; and to gratify malice, or serve the ends of mercenary purposes, upon the most trivial pretexts ; and by this means thousands of persons were imprisoned for life, or for a term of years. So monstrous was the character of these outrages committed, that the people were intimidated, money extorted, suits founded by injustice, with drawn dowers, marriages made available, and, in short, the most intolerable slavery and abject servitude which ever disgraced any people, was quietly effected during the reign of this French Prince. But during the reign of Louis XV, France was almost entire ly engaged in war, and gave but little attention to the govern ment of the people at home. She lost the Canadas in a war with Great Britain, and came nigh ruining the army, navy, treasury, and church, and entirely prostrated all that was left of the judi ciary. The ministers of this monarch used these lettres to most sin gular effect. Indeed, they became a matter of commerce, and were openly and publicly sold by the strumpet of one of the ministers of the king. They were also granted by the king for the purpose of shielding his favorites or their friends from the consequences of their crimes. They were sometimes bought to rid a family of heirs who stood immediately in the way of an expectant inheritance, and for the purpose of gratifying spites in family quarrels. During the contentions of the Mirabeau fam ily, not less than fifty-nine lettres de cachet were issued by one or the other of the family, of course, for monied consideration. But the evils of this extraordinary proceeding did not stop with these. Independent members of Parliament and of the Magistracy were proscribed and punished by means of these war warrants. This corruption became enormous, and was in the French history what Jeffrey s campaign was to England ; and when Louis the XVI. tried to control and remedy it he failed. Among all of the evils and blessings of the French Kevolu- 14 210 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. . tion, this one thing will be worthy of eternal remembrance that it swept away this monstrous evil which never had an ex istence before among civilized people, and which has never been since revived until Wm. H. Seward, of America, inaugura ted it as a part of the administration of the General Govern ment, in violation of the Constitution of the United States, every instinct of civil liberty, and the very genius of free gov ernment. This is the scandal of the nineteenth century, the opprobrium of the history of North America, and it is most remarkable how nearly in resemblance the use made of this warrant by French tyrants is to that use made of it by the American tyrant, whose villainy promises to Benedict Arnold but secondary claims to supreme infamy in American history. Judge Taney was threatened with imprisonment for rendering a legitimate judicial decision in a case legitimately before him. Mayor Barrett, of Washington City, was imprisoned because he would not be the tool of a member of the Cabinet, for purely mercenary purposes. Mr. Barrett needs no higher evidence of his loyalty to the government, than his appointment as a commis sioner to value emancipated slaves, and no nobler exhibition of his real manhood than his refusal to accept the appointment. The imprisonment of innocent men all over the country, to gratify private malice, the arrest of whole legislative bodies, the despot ism of the central power, in confining men and withholding the charge for which they are confined, makes the analogy complete between the use of these lettres in France and in America. This, however, must be observed, that in France, the lettres de cachet were always allowed to be a violation of those hered itary and traditional rights of Frenchmen which they had always enjoyed. But for the exercise of all these extraordinary powers, Mr. Seward says in his letter to Lord Lyons, October 14th, 1861, " That for the purpose of quelling the insurrection, the Presi dent has the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus when ever, wheresoever, and in whatsoever extent * * * in his judgment it requires." And the tenor of the Secretary s arguments is to prove that this is in accordance with the Constitution of the United States. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 211 The following is perhaps even more extraordinary than any thing upon the subject. " For the exercise of that discretion, he, as well as his advisers, among whom are the Secretaries of State and of War, is responsible by .law before the highest tribunal of the Republic, and amenable also to the judgment of his country men, and the enlightened opinion of the civilized world. This is the language of Mr. Seward to a Foreign Court. To his countrymen he is scarcely so courteous, but makes the condi tion of their release depend upon the relinquishment of their right to hold him and his advisers "responsible by law" before the highest tribunal of the Republic. Whatever may be the judgment of his countrymen, " the en lightened opinion of the civilized world " shudders at the revi val in America of the despotism of the 17th and 18th centuries in France. Nor does the plea of necessity make it better. This plea is as old as crime itself. Cain says the slaughter of Abel was neces sary To what ? That he might be the only heir of Adam ; the only friend of God but not to the triumph of right. England pleads necessity for the oppression of Ireland. Aus tria has the same plea in extenuation of her wrongs to Hungary. So pleads Russia in her treatment of Poland Necessary to what ? The power of the one and the wrongs of the other. But not necessary to the cause of justice, the triumph of right. What necessity for these warrants of Mr. Seward ? to put down the war ? No ; the Constitution can do that amply, easily and fully. Necessary to make men love the institutions of the coun try ? No. Necessary for what ? To keep tyrants in power, to overthrow the Government, to crush out the spirit of Liberty, to invert the engine of progress and drive back the car of civil ization three centuries, to hold council with and learn at the feet of French tyrants. Oh, Lord, how long shall these things be ! Shall not the ballot-box bring " the judgment of our country men " to hurl these men from power and welcome back the de parted spirit of Liberty ; or shall not the repudiated debt teach capital the danger of loaning money to destroy liberty. 212 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTEK Y. THE WAR DEBT is A BREACH OF TRUST. A DEBT MAY BE CONTRACTED UNDER SUCH SYSTEMATIC BREACHES OF TRUST UPON THE PART OF PUBLIC OFFICERS, as to have no moral binding force upon the people, though ostensi bly for the most unquestionable public good. This is especially true where the contractors were privy to the fraud. The only security that popular governments have for the faith ful performance of contracts, that nothing stronger than public opinion is held for the payment of debts, because no suits can be entertained by a sovereign power to coerce itself. When the questions which originate wars and public debts, largely divide the public mind, then the justice and probabilities of its liquidation become a matter just as doubtful as the vaga ries of human opinion and political integrity. But the question may be evenly balanced in the public judgment. Public opin ion may be restrained concerning it. It becomes still more un certain, how far the public conscience may feel bound for the pay ment ; but each succeeding decade with its accumulating respon sibilities, will feel less and less bound in honor to meet an obli gation which, at the best, holds but a feeble grasp upon the pub lic responsibility. When it is clear that the majority of a full million and a half of actual voters, not engaged in war, were opposed to the war as a remedy for existing evils, or that the debt and war were both frauds upon the public credulity and destructive of our system of government, then the payment of the debt becomes impossi ble. This is precisely the case of our war and war debt. Abraham Lincoln reached the Presidency by a great minority in both the first and second elections. In the second election, the minority CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 213 was even greater than in the first, amounting to 1,200,000 less than a majority of the votes of the people, not accounting the fraud and force, applied to divest the election of every attribute of choice. But the strength of this argument is irresistible. Every vote cast at the election of 1860, was given to candidates pledged in public professions of political faith, including the ablest speeches of Mr. Lincoln himself, against coercion or war. He had, in the most public manner avowed, and in the most solemn oaths sworn before heaven and earth, not to interfere with the existing con dition of things in the government. The right of one-half of the States to overrun and destroy the other half, had been denied by all of the leading statesmen, North and South, in every period of our history, and by the courts in the exercise of their plenary powers. 214 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER VI. WE ARE UNABLE TO PAY THIS DEBT. THERE is no subject upon which even statesmen are so fre quently the victims of delusion as that of the resources of their own country. Whether in regard to the relation which their wealth bears to their indebtedness, or the relation which their resources bear to that of other nations ; and quite as vague are their notions about their ability to pay enormous debts. One source of this deception is the value which they attach to prop erty, based upon the crazy inflation of the currency and the cor rupt imaginations of speculators engaged in stock-gambling. This delusion is not peculiar to the financiers of our own age and country. It has been universal. Such is the intoxicating nature of trade and commerce in the height of a paper bubble. Just before the outbreak of the French Revolution, which was precipitated by national bankruptcy, and the reckless vio lence which always accompanies bold loaning and extravagant living, even the most illustrious English statesman were dazzled and carried away with the grandeur of its profligacy, and for a time believed the French finances solid and immoveable, because the national credit was pledged for its redemption. Edmund Burke was so completely captivated with Necker s theory, that when Necker wrote a history of his political views and administration, confessing his failure, and the fallacies of his opinion, Burke was dismayed and mortified at his own sim plicity in being the victim of such hollow expedients; nearly every one of which remind one of the present times. Indeed, in all times, these expedients and subterfuges are the same. The younger William Pitt, the most searching analytical mind of his day, saw entirely through Necker s financial scheme, and the ruin that would follow it, and in consequence, refused the CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 215 tempting offer of the hand of Necker s gifted daughter, Madame de Stael. It were amusing were it not sorrowful, to contemplate the picture which Secretary Chase has drawn of his financial plans in the ruin of the country. A complete detail of the financial history of the Treasury and the currency, with its shams, tricks, and villainies consequent upon them, practiced by himself, would rival in romance the confessions of Barnum in the exhibition of his Japanese Mermaid, Joyce Heath, Tom Thumb, the woolly horse, and "WHAT is IT?"; the low artifices to which they both resorted to deceive the people ; the one in shows for their amusement, the other in falsehoods to overthrow their liberty. We have never duly considered the present condition of our resources since the conclusion of the war, and the preliminary questions to be settled before we commence our calculation. 1. The war drove out of the country thousands of millions of capital, much of its own bullion, in consequence of its general unsafety. 2. It destroyed thousands of millions of dollars of capital in the Southern States, which could no longer be taxed. 3. The destruction of hundreds of millions of dollars in the Confederate States rendered unavailable other hundreds of millions of dollars in the Northern States, which were depend ent upon the South for a market. 4. There has been no increase of a single article produced in the United States which could be exported, or added to the fi nancial prosperity of the country, except kerosene oil, which is a late discovery, and insignificant matter. A blind, stupid and destructive fanaticism assumes that our re sources are incomparably greater than at any time heretofore. This they demonstrate by the magnitude of our public debt, which they denominate as so much active capital ; and the de struction of public and private property, which they parade as a triumph over treason. The chief source of this delusion is that they account our money as capital, when in fact, it is the certified evidence of our debt and poverty. The bonds held are simply the amount of debt which we hold against ourselves. 216 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. There is no more common expression or delusion in regard to the public debt than this, that since the debt is mostly due among ourselves, and brings as much property from one as they take from another. Tin s is not true, in fact, any more than that it is an argument. The bonds are not all due among ourselves; but upon the contrary, they were directly sold to European capitalists, as far as it was possible to get them into that market, where they are quoted from the market reports of London, Amster dam, and Paris ; but millions of these bonds were bought in America by European capitalists, and re-invested in bank stocks under European auspices. It was this investment of European capital in American se curities which was the most complete solution of the visit of the European capitalists to this country, which excited as much curios ity, and elicited as much parade, as did Japanese Tommy s ad vent into the city of New York. It is the most disgusting form of balderdash to maintain that poor men own bonds, or any other interest-bearing securities in America, any more than in Europe. The mere fact that some of these bonds are the property of American citizens, makes it in no sense different from their ownership abroad. Once cast upon the market, they will seek the idle capital of the world, and absorb it. The debt is an offset to the resources of the country, and must be deducted to their full amount from them in the calcu lation of our wealth. It injures every department of wealth, commerce, manufactures, agriculture and navigation. It with draws from active business to positive idleness, all of the capital to the full extent of the funding system. THE CONVERSION OF THE BONDS INTO BANK NOTES IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RESOURCES OF THE PEOPLE. Not one dollar passes out of the bonds into National bank currency which does not cost the public nearly one hundred per cent, in interest on the bonds interest, on the bank notes and the ruinous premium paid upon the depreciated currency with which they bought their bonds, besides the extravagant bonus which CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 217 was given as an inducement to purchase them. Every bond holder realizes this amount of money for his bonds. Against such profits in investment there can be no successful competition. Railroads cannot be built. How is it possible for them to offer an equivalent security to these bonds ? Commerce is checked, because the bonds are proof against ship wreck ; and who can in vest in the legitimate trade of the ocean against such odds. The Western people cannot hope for the usual improvement of their lands, because no investment in improvements can justify the pay ment of more than six per cant., and scarcely that amount can be realized in agricultural pursuits with the entire destruction of our exports and commerce, and a most extraordinary increase of our current government expenses. Our standing army is quad rupled. The expenses of each soldier is twice as much as for merly. The clerical force of every department is more than duplicated. This is the financial condition of the country and a fair exhibit of its resources and capacity to liquidate its debt. It is a most notable fact, that during the administration of Mr. Buchanan, the chief tangible accusation against him, was the extravagance with which he administered the government and the exceeding great difficulty with which the money was raised, and that he left the treasury empty at the end of his term. Mr. Buchanan left the country free from debt, in the most healthy industrial condition ; the people not only in comfortable, but in affluent circumstances. Such is the contrast. THE WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. What has been added to the productive wealth of the country to meet the additional expenditures ? It may be safely assumed that no one branch of industry has been increased in the last five years, except that used or destroyed in the military service, con sisting of arms, ammunition, artillery, &c. WE HAVE LOST WITHOUT ANY COMPENSATION WHATEVER. 2,600,000 able-bodied men were taken from actual produc tive business ; from the plough, the loom, the anvil and build ings of the country, whose daily labor added millions to the stock of American capital. The horses, mules, cattle, sheep, hogs, wagons, gears, neces- 218 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. sary to the support of such armies during four years of uninter rupted and constantly augmenting warfare, the entire value of which has been scarcely less than $5,000,000,000, which may be added to the calculation, but does not present the full extent of the loss we suffer. No nation or man has ever trampled with impunity upon the clearly written law of God, or the well-defined rights of man, without answering directly for his crime. The law of God is a crystal mirror which reflects back upon, the soul of every rational being, the exact character of the mo tives of his heart and the action of his life. No man, nation nor age, ever committed a crime or perpetrated an enormity, which did not fling its monstrous image back upon its guilty perpetra tor. Nor have we escaped in either morals or finances, this clearly marked law of the living God. When Sheridan s high waymen carried the torch through Virginia, and the hordes of Sherman s incendiaries were turned loose upon the defenceless people of Georgia, the United States were the sufferers. The cotton-fields destroyed made our corn-fields worthless and the very same communities which sent armies to burn cotton-fields, had to burn their corn-fields for fuel. The poor man in the army burned the clothes of his family, under the delusion that he was impoverishing the cotton planters, and did not discover his mistake until he returned from the war and found that the cotton goods which he used to buy for ten cents, now cost him fifty. He was wild with excitement over the iires that swept down the sugar-house, and never dreamed of his own suffering, until his children were crying for syrups which he could not buy. Such has been the complete work of destruction and the entire mutilation of our available resources that nearly every article which secured to us the balance of trade abroad, hemp, cotton, rice, sugar and tobacco, with tar, resin and turpentine, was des troyed by our own hands, and our resources cut off by our own folly. THE PROCESS OF EXHAUSTION". The cotton plant supplied the people with its fibre for clothing. The regular supply of this staple was bought by the people of CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 219 the North and West, and paid for by the products of their cattle, horses, hogs, sheep and agriculture. When the Southern States ceased to produce cotton, the Northern people had to rely upon the production of wool. The ancient habits of the American Revolution were revived in the Southern States. Women went to the loom and the spinning- wheel, and every thriving household became a primitive manufac tory. In the Northern States woolen manufactories of great extent were kept in operation, and the demand for wool became ab- sorbant. In less than four years, the whole agricultural aspect of the country was changed. Sheep took the place of horses and cattle in the mountain dis tricts, and supplanted the culture of swine in the Western States, until horses commanded the most extravagant prices, and neat cattle sold at the former prices for hogs, and a single hog sold at the price formerly paid for a yoke of oxen or an ordinary horse. This process of depletion went on, until a famine stared the peo ple in the face. The introduction of sheep into the country drove the cattle out, for neither cattle or horses will thrive in the same pasturage with sheep. During all this time of general depletion, the people believed themselves in the height of pros perity. They mistook their own debt for their own wealth, as though the mortgage upon their farms, created by government liabilities, was actual wealth. This delusion, kept up by the system of Secretary Chase, had a powerful agency in the pro traction of the war, and did much to conciliate those time-serving statesmen who knew that ruin must follow such political econo my, but hoped to indemnify themselves for all losses in the gen eral plunder in which they might share. In addition to the men in military life, the war employed quite three millions of producers out of a population of twenty millions. The labor and wages of this vast army of men would have built railroads as a net-work in the States from which they were dragged away. Their idleness would have been a calamity, a severe blow, from which it Avould require a great State an age to recover. If these men had been idle, our ships of Avar safely anchored, and our costly armaments sca^ered to the winds, the 220 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. loss would have been comparatively small ; but added to this was the loss to the whole country of the labor of nearly one million, of men during the same period. The cost of their arms, ammu nition, artillery, clothing and all incidental expenses to defend against this invasion of the vast army arrayed in the North, by both sea and land, added to the entire destruction of the exports of cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar, molasses and everything grown and exported in the Confederate States. The daily occurring losses from idle men and idle lands, with the daily accruing expenses of military rule, are increasing these losses and impairing our power to recuperate our exhaustive system. WHAT THE SOUTH HAS LOST. Matthew F. Maury, who, at the commencement of the rebel lion, was in charge of the National Observatory in Washing ton, has written a three column letter to the London Morning Herald, in which he gives the following estimate of the losses of the South caused by the war : <e I estimate the amount of the pecuniary losses incurred by the people of the Southern Confederacy, in their late attempt at independence, to be not less than $7,000,000,000 (seven thousand millions of dollars) viz : By emancipation $3,000,000,000 Expenses of the war 2,000,000,000 Destruction of private property 1,000,000,000 Additional taxation imposed by the victor for payment of Federal war debt, say $10,- 000,000 per annum, equal to interest on... 1,000,000,000 Total $7,000,000,000 This loss falls upon less than eight millions of whites, who have, moreover, in addition, to contribute largely to the support of the four millions of blacks who have been suddenly turned loose among them, and who, for the present at least, are incapa ble of caring for themselves. This $7,000,000,000 of money was the accumulated wealth of centuries ; it constituted nearly the whole industrial plan and capital of the South. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 221 THE DEBT COULD NOT BE PAID IF IT WERE JUST AND DESIRABLE TO PAY IT. 1. The experience of the world has been that no people have been able to lay up anything above their current expenses, and such repairs and improvements as the increase of population and the accumulating demands of society render necessary. 2. That the increase of population of every country brings with it a pro rata diminution of wealth per capita. 3. That every generation of people are better able to pay the debts of their own creation than the generations which succeed them. 4. That the growing age of every country carries with it more than an equal growth of expenditures, and to that extent inca pacitates it to pay the debts of its own creation, and makes the payment of prior debts impossible. 5. This has always been the condition of society and will con tinue to be. 6. Each generation will have its wars and consequent expen ses, and cannot, nor ought not to bear the expenses of wars of pre ceding generations. There are three ways of disposing of such a debt, each of which has its conveniences. 1. By repudiating the obligations of the debt entirely, which would bring the burden of the evil upon the rich, who have hoarded their means and invested them in government credits. 2. By funding the debt and paying the interest on it after the manner of British debt. This impoverishes the poor and places them where the British have left their poor, in perpetual servi tude. The funding system has been elsewhere examined ; or 3. By abolishing the funding system and banking system, built upon it, freeing the people from its onerous burdens and in its stead issuing certificates, entitling the holder to such share pro rata, as he may be entitled to upon a final settlement, in which the public lands or a part of them, may be hypothecated for the redemption of these certificates. The liberty of the people demands an immediate abolition of the whole funding system. 222 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER VII. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS CANNOT ENFORCE THE PAYMENT OF SUCH A DEBT. TlIE PAYMENT OF ALL PUBLIC DEBTS, WHETHER OF BONDS OB OTHERWISE, IS DEPENDANT ENTIRELY UPON THE WILL OF EACH SUCCESSIVE CONGRESS, WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT APPRO PRIATE MONIES OR LEVY TAXES TO MEET THE PAYMENT OF INTEREST OR TAXATION. The bond may be just ; the debt made out in due form ; the case may go before the general court of claims, and be adjudged as binding, but Congress may decline appropriations to pay the debt. "Who can or will force Congress ? "What mandamus can force them to levy taxes ? Even a State cannot be sued on her bonds, or levies of execution be made upon her property by the highest courts of the country. But who elect the Congress of the United States? The people the debtors, who are bounden in their property and in their labor by this mortgage ; who will every day feel it the more with the increasing debt and advancing time. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS WOULD NOT GIVE MORE PERMANENT SECURITY TO THE ULTIMATE PAYMENT OF THE BONDS, NOR WOULD AN OATH TAKEN TO KEEP THE CON STITUTION MAKE THE BONDS MORE VALID, OR REPUDIATION LESS CERTAIN. What provision of the Constitution was ever more sacred to personal liberty, national character, and the distinction of race, than the great writ of right to Anglo-Americans. It came down to us hallowed by the benedictions of all that was great, learned, noble and illustrious, in English literature, law, blood and valor. The purest Anglo-Saxon blood had stained the execution-block in atonement of its violation. In CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. 223 the church, it was part of the religion of the establishment, which had saved deans, prebendaries, and prelates from persecu tion, disgrace and death ; dukes and earls, who found their no bility too feeble to protect their persons against violence, and their characters from infamy, fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope which was set before them in the writ of habeas cor pus. The poorest vagabond upon English soil inherited this protection as he did the pure breeze of the ocean, which mingled with the first breath that he drew. To Americans, it was older and more sacred than the Constitution, which came not to abridge, but to secure more perfectly the rights of man contract ed by monarchy. Yet notwithstanding these safeguards of lib erty, secured by the fire kindled on its hallowed altars, and flaming around its adamantine walls, the habeas corpus is no longer an American writ, secured to the citizens of the United States by law. The essential liberties of man, the apparently unapproacha ble character of his safeguard, the sanction of the highest courts, nor the solemn oaths daily repeated by public officers, from the President downward, offers not the least security to the citizen, or lends efficiency to habeas corpus. The Constitution itself has been avowedly but the servant of necessity, to be laid away at any time, or to be used only as a pretext for making war upon everything and everybody who become obnoxious to those in power ; or stood in the way of some favorite scheme of usurpation or plunder. After six years ex perience of daily recurring crime and suffering, from the absence of a government to protect the people, it is the wildest folly and most alarming madness to calculate upon constitutional guaran ties to enforce an odious and, each day growing more obnoxious, debt. The wisdom of the hope of the ultimate payment of this debt, is not greatly enhanced by the recollection of the succes sive repudiations which have marked each month of the passing four years of blood and crime, bankruptcy and ruin. It is an excusable episode in this chapter to allude to the ab surdity which brings forth daily amendments to the Constitution just when the existing organic law seems to operate with binding force upon nobody, and to improve the system of oaths and im- 224 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. provise new ones at a time when the most solemn oaths are ridi culed as a farce, and perjury enters into the very essence of the political party organizations of the ruling power of the country. It is but fair dealing with the bondholders, to honestly warn them that their securities are held by the most uncertain of all tenures, the never changing popular will of a country in a period of stormy revolution not yet concluded, the ultimate direction of which is unfathomable as chaos and uncertain as the trade winds. THE SPIEIT OF THE AGE HAS GEOWN AGAINST THE COL LECTION OF DEBTS BY FOECE. Imprisonment for debt has been abolished in the country, and the repeal of all laws for the collection of debts, has been ably urged by eminent philanthro pists and statesmen of accredited ability. Homestead laws and laws of exemption of property, real and personal, from execution, exhibit the true idea of popular senti ment and opinion, upon the payment of debts which virtually enslave the people. An amendment to the Constitution will be practically void, de claring that the VALIDITY OF THE PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNI TED STATES, AUTHOEIZED BY LAW, INCLUDING DEBTS INCUE- EED FOE PAYMENT OF PENSIONS AND BOUNTIES FOE SEEVICE IN SUPPEESSING INSUEEECTION OE EEBELLON, SHALL NOT BE QUESTIONED. This proposed amendment adds no new binding legal force to the old provisions of the Federal Constitution, but opens up many new questions for the future adjudications of courts, which add nothing to the security of the bondholders but imperil their claims. It will be impossible to establish the fact of either rebellion or insurrection in the United States, where the parties were recog nized as belligerants by the home and foreign POWEES, and the SOVEEEIGN and independent existence of the States was the cor ner-stone of the Union. These questions once raised, will be discussed with a practical view, and the entire change of interests involved will carry with it the change of opinions. Then the beautiful combination of potential words will be quite non-efficient to secure the payment of the bonds. It is upon the fickle goddess of public opinion CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 225 that these bonds must rely for redemption and ultimate payment. The same public opinion which poisoned Socrates for teaching atheism to the youth of Athens, and then worshipped him as a god ; the very same which " cried crucify him, and release unto us Barabbas" ; that followed Robespierre through his triumphal march of blood and crime, cheering him with loud hosannas on the way, and executing him at the finale of his career, is that which makes and unmakes man and empires in the same breath the bonds, if redeemed at all, must be paid by appropriations from the public treasury. Appropriations must be raised by taxes levied by Congress, and Congress is elected by the people. These two questions recur with amazing force to the mind : 1st. By what power will you force Congress to legislate appro priations for the payment of a debt which they determine not to pay ? 2d. How will you force the people to elect a Congress favor able to the payment of such a debt, if they are determined not to do it ? When the terrible issue comes upon the people, the conflict between the unyielding pressure of debt and taxation and the evanescent fumes of party spirits, every minor objection will be met at the threshold. The Constitutional Amendment is the worst, and for the bond holder, the most unreliable of all his hopes. Experience has taught, at the most terrible rates of tuition, to the unhappy people of America, that Constitutional provisions have failed to re strain the most aggravated violation of its own reserved powers, and for the purpose of enforcing positive obligations, has been entirely inoperative. Only one instance need be cited in illus tration of this argument: The duty of Congress to establish uniform laws upon the sub ject of bankruptcy throughout the United States, which to this day, with all of the combined influence of business working in its favor, has not been permanently done, though several times attempted. . 15 226 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER VIII. No ONE GENERATION CAN BIND ITS SUCCESSORS TO PAY ITS DEBTS. BY WHAT EIGHT CAN ANY ONE GENERATION CONTRACT TO ENSLAVE SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS, AND MORTGAGE THE LA BOR OF FUTURE CENTURIES, TO PAY A DEBT CREATED TO SA TIATE HATE AND AGGRANDIZE A LAWLESS CUPIDITY ? All just debts are based upon mutual honor and mutual ben efit; upon the QUID PRO QUO; but the very essence of the contract is that both parties are capable of contracting, and give a rational assent to the obligations which bind them. WHAT is A DEBT ? " Any kind of a just demand. " (Bouvier Dictionary.) It is that obligation which one person may volun tarily lay himself under to another to be computed by the stand ards of value then in vogue. The voluntary repudiation of a just debt is no less a crime than the robbery of honest creditors by any other means of fraud or force. A contract cannot be voluntary or of binding obligation upon the next genaration, which has been entered into by this gener ation. It is impossible ; the contract had no consent of the party upon whom the obligation falls. To this rule, founded in justice, there can be no variations, except in the following cases : 1st. When a debt shall have been contracted for the erection of some public improvement necessary to the permanent admin istration of justice, or the maintenance of law among the people, such as court houses, jails, &c. 2d. A canal dug or railroad built at the public expense, fas tened upon the property of the country, inures to the benefit of posterity, and is the representative to future generations of the energy, industry, genius and enterprize of their ancestry. But CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 227 the most magnificent monuments ever reared to the honor of human genius and mechanical skill, have been justly accounted too costly for the endorsement and redemption of future genera tions. But in all such cases the creditors may have justly no other security for the payment of what may remain due upon it, than that which is afforded in the value, use, and profits of the public improvement itself. This maxim must hold good in all just governments. A contract made by past generations cannot even bind the honor of the present generation, who may have declared against the justice of the act for which the debt has been contracted. It may have been a vision or a whim, in which the persons engaged by contract robbed the public. It may have been unjust or unnecessary. What is true in the private affairs of men must be true of their public matters, since the public is but the aggregate of the private. * If a banker builds a great house for his business, or a miller establishes his mill at great expense and involves a debt, which he is unable to liquidate, no one dreams of entailing this debt upon his children, although his estate should pay but a trifling portion of the encumbrance which passes away with his property. The son can, in no sense, be responsible, because he had no voice in the contract ; and elects to waive his rights in the in heritance, and is under no obligation to consider the action of his father as binding upon his honor or conscience. This is the law of every free country ; freedom demands this much, otherwise the son would be a slave to the improvidence of the father. A very few generations would create caste in society, that would make slavery absolute, which time could not efface without revolution. What may not be done by the individual, may not justly be done by the government. The golden rule, " whatsoever ye would have men do unto you, do ye even so unto them," was given for nations as well as for men, and is alike obligatory upon both. There is no appli cation of the principle that " all just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed/ more forcible or just than to that of taxation. No ONE GENERATION OF MEN HAVE THE RIGHT OF CONTRACT, 228 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. OK CAN BIND THE SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS TO PAY A DEBT CONTRACTED TO MAINTAIN ANY RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL PARTY, OR ANY SYSTEM OF RELIGION AND POLITICS. 1. Every system of government is comparatively good or evil, as it expresses the wishes of the people, who are the source of just power; or as it conforms or disagrees with those funda mental self-evident rights of man which are elevated above the legitimate reach of legislation, and the violation of which is an unpardonable trespass upon the prerogative of human nature. 2. Each generation for itself has the right to make, alter, amend, or conform the existing systems to its will, is under per sonal obligations to pay all of the expenses incident to and con sequent upon the conduct or change of the government. The reasons for this are two-foid and apparent. First, they are the only persons interested in the change, for if the generation which preceded us, are not competent judges of the laws* for this generation, how is it possible for us to be infallible arbiters of the opinions of the next generation ? and by what right do they assume to mortgage their soul, understanding and conscience, to particular doctrines in advance, and mortgage their labor to the heirs of bondholders in all future time. The principle is not only absurd and dangerous, but it is the most complete system of slavery imaginable, by which each generation in advance of its birth, is assigned to labor ; the kind, amount, when, where and how, beforehand to pay the expense of the riot, profligacy, debauchery of thieving contractors, loathesome prostitutes, and effeminate military officers. The immediate offspring of the shavers, usurers, extortioners and misers, who grew fat upon the blood of the sires, the grief of their mothers and the destitution of themselves, now doomed to perpetual taxation. The second reason is even stronger than the first. It is the duty of every man to pay for what he receives. This is the touchstone of honesty itself, that he does it willingly. Then they who work a violent revolution are, by common consent, the only ones benefited by it ; they are under obligations to defray its expenses, and immediate levies of tax as the revolution transpires, is the only legitimate mode of paying it. The old maxim, " in times of peace prepare for war/ was the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 229 fixed law of governments among our fathers, and each generation transmitted to its successor a treasury filled with money, as the means of carrying on wars in national defence, which was often diverted to the purpose of civil wars and squandered in the en slavement and degradation of the people. But in such a war as that which has just closed, payment of the debt resolves itself into two very plain questions. 1. If it has been a blessing to the people or a public benefit, then those re ceiving the benefit ought not to hesitate cheerfully to bear the ex penses ; much more, they ought to forgive the indebtedness in curred as held by them in notes or bonds. 2. But if the revolution is a great public curse, and has de stroyed all that is sacred in principle and desirable in property, how wicked a crime must it be against natural justice to ask an injured people to pay a debt consequent upon a contract, forced upon them to consummate their own degradation, slavery and utter ruin. NO DEBT INCURRED BY A WAR OF ANY KIND CAN POSSIBLY BIND THE SUCCEEDING GENERATION. 1st. They have not consented to it, which is the essence of the contract, and without which, the parties held obliged .to pay, are in the very same condition of the traveller met by the highway men, who cry, " Stand and deliver " " Your money or your life." It is the application of force purely as a means of taking and applying property. 2nd. The war which may seem just to the fathers, may seem unjust to the children, and the children may contract a debt equal to that contracted by the fathers for the purpose of sub verting the very system established by them, and leave a double debt upon the grandchildren, who disagree with both the father and grandfather, and believe that both wars were unnecessary, unjust, cruel and disgraceful, and that their causes might have been readily removed by the slightest forbearance and the sim plest appeal to reason. 3d. If the claims upon which a transmitted debt are based be the self-sacrifice of those who contracted it, then let it be verified by the sacrifice ; for if the debt is transmitted, there has been no 230 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. equal sacrifice. It is a sacrifice of the lives of the poor, but not of the wealth of the rich. If it were just and necessary that the poor people, who always fight the battles of a country, should sacrifice their lives, how much greater the necessity that the rich should sacrifice their property in a common cause. But how very unjust is it that the property and labor of the surviving soldiers and their children, in all time to come, should be held in perpet ual mortgage to pay the debt and accruing interest to those who made merchandise of the blood and treasures of their comrades and parents. These reasons are not only just, but they are con clusive against the entailment of such debt upon posterity. This is THE CHIEF COENEK-STONE of our government, that there can be no hereditary rulers, either of kings or nobility, transmitted from one generation to another; neither by succes sion nor appointment by birth or condition. The second great principle and corollary of the first, is, that no one generation has the power to bind an organic law irrevo cably upon a succeeding generation, any more than kings have the right to appoint successors, or the people may be governed by the laws of royal descent. The third great principle and corollary of the first and second is, that there is no just power in any one generation to mortgage the labor of a succeeding gen eration, without transmitting the means of payment ; and then it is purely optional with the succeeding generations, whether they will accept the conditions upon which it is done. The debt is represented as " a first mortgage upon the property of the United States" but it is rather a bill of credit drawn upon the prosper ity of the people, which they will repudiate and send to protest in eternity. The power to create and transmit such a debt is a most terri ble revival of the old hard-hearted Jewish doctrine, that " The father ate sour grapes and put the children s teeth on edge/ "We are met with the philanthropic argument, that the debt was a contract to give to the country liberty. This is impossi ble. For the very taxation necessary to pay the interest on the debt, is itself a slavery intolerable and insupportable, from which the people will be forced to fly to strange lands and seek refuge in perpetual alienage; or, as the alternative de- CEIMES OP THE CIVIL WAE. 231 mand, repudiation of both principal and interest as the only re maining remedy. The great idea upon which the late civil war was waged, w r as that no one man may enslave his cotemporary under any pre tence whatever. It is the acme of the triumph claimed by its friends and instigators, that this great question was settled by the force of arms and sealed with the richest blood of a whole generation of civilized men, that innocent involuntary servitude shall find no legal tolerance among us. But what a fatal conclusion to this argument is it that we may transmit slavery and unrequited obligations to be exacted by un born generations from each other, through the funding system. Sifted of their sophistry, the arguments used to extenuate the crime of transmitting mortgages to posterity, would as well apologize for the transmission of scrofula, consumption or other diseases. Carried to its legitimate results, the present system assumes that the profligacy of each generation may mortgage the prosperity and labor of all generations succeeding it, until the full value of the property is exhausted, the labor absorbed in advance, and capital as effectually own labor as the grazier owns the bullock, or the mule only, awaiting the time when age will consign them to the collar and the yoke. Deducting food, raiment and shelter, the owner pockets the earnings of thfc >oor very much in the same manner. 232 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER IX. THE DUTY OF THE FRIENDS OF PEACE TO REPUDIATE WAR DEBTS. ALL, wars of modern times have been under the control of capitalists. In Europe, the moneyed kings dictate terms to their political sovereigns, control wars and make peace. In America, the bankers contrived the late civil war. It was quite as much a scheme of money as of policy. War would not have been created if the banks had refused to engage in it. It could not have been carried on, if the capital of the country had man fully opposed it. The liberty of the people, the peace of the world and material prosperity of the poor would have been undisturbed, and even the condition of the negroes would have been better than now, but for these men. The capitalists and stock-gamblers in Europe, by their alliance with the political adventurers of America, carefully planned this war, in the interest of despotism and the funding systems. They anticipated every argument and prepared the public mind for war in advance. During the war they prepared for the debt and continued the war, that the debt might reach its present enormous extent. These gamesters upon human life and public misfortune, have fattened upon the bloody conflicts of emperors and kings, and inherit fortunes coined out of the most frightful battles of mod ern times. Austria, France, Prussia and England have been fet tered by the mortgages entailed by these brokers, upon their prop erty and industry. Such is the perfection of the conspiracy against the property of the world, entered into by these stock gamblers, that war is always precipitated upon a particular country, whenever it is be lieved to be ripe for revolution or fat enough to enrich the money trade. CKIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 233 For the purpose of creating civil war, destroying the agricul ture of the South, entailing a debt upon the people and, if possi ble, the utter destruction of Republican government in the United States, English emissaries were, by the monied interests of Europe, under religious guise, sent to America to stir up civil war. Pamphleteers added their wicked labors to the work. Sum- ner s celebrated visit to Europe was in the same general interest^ and when Gen. James Shields of the United States army, had left the valley of the Shenandoah, Sumner assured him that he was glad that the rebels were not entirely defeated, because his great object would not be accomplished if they were. The de struction of our prosperity, the ultimatum of the stock gamblers, had not been reached. The raid of John Brown and the parti- zan conflicts, were but incidents in the grand purpose to create war and base a funding system upon it. Such has been the unbroken success of the professional mis chief-makers of the world, that they have succeeded in Europe for a full half century, in fastening ruin and bankruptcy upon every sovereignty which was directed by their counsels or fell into their grasp. Bonaparte eluded their machinations ; this only provoked their wrath and drove them to the combinations which culminated at "Waterloo, in the destruction of his empire and liberty. The Mexican war was the first game played by the American stockbrokers, upon which the general peace of the Western Hem isphere was staked and lost. The late civil war has been a suc cess, and if the stakes are delivered up by the ruined people to the stockgamblers, permanent peace in the United States is gone forever. The successes have emboldened the stockbrokers, and given them possession of every avenue to popular favor and power. The pulpit, the press and the army, have been used as their in strument, to secure their prize in the blood market of the world. These instruments of popular favor speak of war as the only means of government to be used upon every occasion to gratify spites, to punish indignities, or secure plunder. Unless this spirit be arrested promptly, our peace is imperilled and will be destroyed. 234 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. There is only one way to counteract this wicked spirit ; and that is, to give notice to the world that debts contracted in such an enterprize, bind no one and cannot be collected. If it be wicked to engage in wars, it is also unjust to pay money to carry on wars ; but if it be unjust to carry on wars by ready money, how much more atrocious to carry them on by anticipating the credit of generations. It is the duty of all sincere peace men to make a demonstration against this usurpation ; and let it be un derstood that no debt made on the interest of a war of premedi tated plunder, can be enforced upon a free people, or be sanc tioned by the friends of peace. There is an Equity, which, in all public affairs, looks to the pur poses, the mode and the application of monies in the creation of debts, when debts have been created in fraud, for purposes of cor ruption, and the parties issuing evidences of debt were particeps criminis and beneficiaries, then the question goes back to the legislatures, which must levy taxes before they can be collected. The new legislature must be elected by the people. The people of no country hasten to pay debts known to be fradulent or un just. Against the indiscriminate payment of no debt ever con tracted, has there been so many conclusive arguments for utter repudiation as the debt now claimed by the foreign capitalists and domestic speculators, holding bonds and certificates of in debtedness against the United States, as the basis of a perpetual system of gambling upon the labor and commerce of the country. The objectors and objections are susceptible of a clear and easy classification, and when carefully embodied, embrace all of the elements of good government. 1. EVERY CONSISTENT FRIEND OF PEACE MUST OPPOSE THE PAYMENT OF THE DEBT. If it be wrong to engage in a war of unparalleled cruelty and horror, it cannot be right to compensate the worst participants in it ; men whose business is to inflame wars, to fatten upon the blood of the innocent, and hoard up the treasure gained by the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of human beings, hurried into the presence of God without thought or preparation. "What care these men the brokers in immortal souls for CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAlR. 235 the burning of cities, barns, mills, and the desolation of whole regions of cultivated lands ; with the food arid raiment of de- crepid old men, feeble women, and helpless children ; the razing of churches and desecration of cemeteries ? Experience for the last three centuries demonstrates that the capitalists of the world hold the peace and the destiny of nations in their hands ; they create war and make peace. The supersti tions of religion and the malignity of politics, are under the mercenary control of capital. The payment of this debt is a test question of civilization, which the gamblers in public stocks, watch with an intense interest, that Christians might well emu late in the propagation of the gospel. Wars in Europe have placed her mercenary bankers in prince ly opulence. They furnish the sinews of war, and command peace whenever they have sufficiently involved the imperial powers to secure an increase of annuities, and kings quiescently yield to their behests. These kingly brokers watch the probabilities of war with the same keen scent that vultures follow the camp of moving armies, to fatten on the offal. Such has been their success and sagacity, that whilst kings exercise arbitrary power over the lives and liberties of their subjects, by war and conscription, these bankers divide the regal power by subsidizing the labor of the subjects of kings in advance, absorbing it in taxations levied at their dic tation ; purchasing kings, bribing judges, suborning witnesses, entering into partnerships with legislatures, commissioning mili tary officers, and hiring standing armies to stamp out the liber ties of the people, who are forced to support all of these by tax ation. The United States have laid the foundation for just such a comprehensive system of monied oligarchy. There is now thrust into our faces the frightful picture, by every newspaper under the control of capital, predictions of war, and clamoring for blood as the remedy for every trivial evil, that adventurers may reap a rich harvest from the vices of the wicked, the follies of the weak, and the general profligacy of society. Such is the spirit of fanaticism, and the maddened temper of bad men as piring to power, that all argument is ridiculed, except that which 236 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. opens up a new field of plunder, or draws new victims into the net of their insatiate lust of gain. If such men succeed in funding and consolidating the public debt made during the war, they have established a precedent which will assure them the power to incite a war at any time hereafter, when whim, interest or bad feeling may indicate either its profit or necessity. A strict and rigid settlement, ac cording to the equities of eternal justice, is the only remedy for the great evil upon us. This is the clearest and most direct way to teach these gentlemen what they may not do, although they inflame the vilest passions of human nature into war; yet they must be taught that they cannot control the public conscience to enslave itself, and enforce perpetual bondage upon a people born free ; that they cannot safely create and carry on wars, wicked and destructive in themselves, which might be averted, but for the persistent chicanery of capital, which uses all of the well known arts of diplomacy to involve the people in civil war ; which, failing in every other means to precipitate their revolutionary ends upon the country, connive at war, eschew compromise, and mob and murder the friends of peace. The only hope of peace is in the destruction of the prosperity of mercenaries engaged in provoking civil wars. He is neither an intelligent nor a true friend of peace, who will not boldly repudiate every illegal, fraudulent and vicious claim against the labor of the people to satiate the venality of capital, fattened on blood. This style of mortgaging labor in anticipated taxation is a wicked device of modern times, to carry on wars of conquest, wars of sub jugation, wars for plunder and wars to feed the malignity of bad men. It has never been successfully carried out to ensure more than annually accruing interest on the debt, and then only at reduced rates, and when it could be made the ministering servant of a system of aristocracy and overbearing power. Let it be an avowed article of American faith, that 110 war of money, no war for money can be successfully prosecuted and carried on under the auspices of a free people; henceforth capitalists will have neither the will or power to involve a peaceful people in uni- CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 237 versal carnage. Such has been the work of war upon our social system^sought to be ratiified by the sanction of the people in the submission to this debt, that it binds us hand and foot and adds to war slavery, to slavery all of its concomitant degra dation. 238 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. CHAPTER X A PLAN FOR THE PAYMENT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT. I. Let the government pay to the holders of all the different kinds of bonds, government certificates to the full amount of their face. II. Let the national banks be compelled at once to surrender their bonds and redeem their national bank notes with these treasury notes or certificates, and abolish the whole national bank ing system, appointing receivers to compel them to go into liqui dation. III. At once reestablish the sub-treasury system for the safe keeping of the government monies. IV. Eestore in its full force the specie basis of our currency according to the Constitution, to all contracts entered into after the year 1867 ; but for the protection of the business of the country, let all debts created from the institution of the so-called legal-tender, as a currency, until the restoration of the gold and silver basis, be paid in these government certificates, not because they are a legal-tender, but because a vicious legislation misled the people and drove them into the use of this paper money. V. Let parties, by contract, take these certificates as they would any other article of commodity by special agreement. VI. Let these certificates be liable to execution as any other personal property, for all debts contracted after the restoration of the constitutional legal-tender; then let them be sold to the highest bidder for gold and silver. VII. Private banking can be carried on then as now, upon the personal responsibility of the bankers, like all other business, upon the personal liability and capacity and integrity of the in dividuals, without loaning the aid of the government to enrich the banks or defraud the people. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 239 VIII. Let the government lift these certificates in payment of duties, at all her ports and in payment of public lands at their appraised value ; but in no case to be less than the minimum price now paid for the railroad land and all mineral lands, at their actual value, in greenbacks or government certificates. IX. The abolition of the revenue system, with its army of officers, and public and private espionage, and the adoption of the old plan of raising revenue. X. Abolish all interest upon public debts of every kind. The above plan embodies a remedy for all of the evils of the funding system, and must be adopted preliminary to all others. This is necessary to prevent a permanent coalition of " the purse and the sword," which are now united to absorb the labor and crush out the independence of the people. Until we are rid of the bonds and their consequent taxation, and abolish the banks with their consequent usury, it is useless to propose the protec tion of labor against the encroachments of capital, because capital assumes to own labor, and labor creates the money that pays both taxes and interest. Until the abolition of the revenue system, it is quite as use less to denounce tariffs, because tariffs are the legitimate children of funding systems, and necessary to the payment of interest on the debt. Capital is sensitive in the covetousness of her interests, and villainous in the exercise of her power and cowardly withal. Labor is cool, powerful, courageous and honest. When fairly aroused and completely marshaled, the laboring masses have de molished the combinations of capital in every country where the conflict has been provoked. The debt is a vampire which drinks the fountains of our arte rial system dry, and keeps up a financial police who hunt down the people through every avenue of trade to spy out their liber ties. The above simple solution of the funded debt obliterates the corruption fund, which controls legislation, taints our judiciary, and drives on the military satraps to their Asiatic saturnalia. It will do more. It puts the capital of the country upon one general equality of employment, risk, anxiety and enterprise ; 240 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. and gives capitalists an interest in common with the people, and gives the people an immunity from the encroachment of capital, and the espionage and annoyance of government vermin. The plan is not premature, but actually necessary to be adopt ed at once, as the only means of saving us from another coil of the military boa-constrictor, to crush our bones, or prevent us from being swallowed alive by the anaconda of the funding sys tem, which lies with gaping mouth ready to receive its meal, all covered with slime and saliva. The debt is woven into a complete mesh-work that involves every part of the business of the country in ruin. The payment of the bonds in treasury notes is the only way to disentangle and unfold these voracious serpents, which are gathering its coils around the American republican system, to crush its bones, and mingle them with its flesh in a per fect jelly, the more readily to devour it. The payment of the bonds by greenbacks so far simplifies this complicated question that it leaves the currency in the very condition in which it was placed by the government, unencumbered by the funding system ; the revenue system, which collects the interest upon the bonds ; the banking system, which is reared upon the funding system ; the tariff system, which feeds it ; the military system which will ultimately be employed to enforce the collection of the income and tariff system. It is just that the bondholders receive these treasury notes for their bonds from the people ; which is precisely the same kind of currency which they received for the horses, mules, wagons, transportation, rations and clothing furnished by the people to the government. The same exactly which the borrower who received gold of the lender, returned in payment of his debt after years of pro tracted loans and stay of execution. The same which liquidated soldiers bounties and monthly pay then back pay and pensions for wounded soldiers, orphans and widows. The same which pays the physician, attorney, professor and minister of the gospel, for their skill and services. The same which is given in return for the labor of the mechanic, CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 241 artisan and toiling multitudes, whose drooping brows respond to the necessities of enterprise ; who construct our railroads, dig our canals, cultivate our soil and build our cities. The same which has been declared by the Supreme Court as a legal-tender in the payment of all debts. It is not proposed in this chapter, to affirm or deny the validity or justice of this opinion, but simply to call attention to the fact. The treasury notes with which the bonds should be liquidated are as good as the legal-tender which liquidate the bank notes themselves. There is a necessity to pay off the bonds with treasury notes, for the following obvious and unanswerable con siderations, namely : Because it is paying the bonds in the paper with which they were bought. Because it is necessary to our present freedom. Because it does not involve the question of the payment of the debt, but leaves it open. Because it takes idle capital untaxed from the hands of idle men, and engages both in actiye business. 242 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR, CHAPTER XI. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND HORACE GREELEY. SIR : In a recent issue of the Tribune, I observe the following epithets applied to those who favor the liquidation by the pay ment of the public debt in greenbacks, the cancellation of the bonds which are devouring us with interest, and the obliteration of the national banking system, which is employed in the interest of monopoly to crush out the liberties of the people and hoard the necessaries of life, and starve and freeze the poor, to enrich illegitimate speculation. You say that "such a proposition would shame any swindler that ever uttered counterfeit money or passed off bogus checks. No one will countenance any of these devices for loading debts instead of paying them, who is not in heart and soul a villain. Any republican or war democrat who lends them a shadow of countenance proves himself an ingrate, a villain, and a fool. We are quite willing to see the copperheads place themselves upon a platform of repudiation, for it is high time that a career of infamy should be closed in a death of shame." I confess that the above styla of argument seems not indebted to Bacon, Locke or Whately, for its cogency, and quite indepen dent of Addison, Irving or Burke for the delicate choice of its language, and is indeed original and characteristic. In the year 1865, in a number of speeches delivered in the State of New Jersey, and published in a number of newspapers in different parts of the United States, I first proposed the pay ment of the bonds in greenbacks, as we were then, and are now, paying everything else in that kind of currency; and our courts were then, and are now, enforcing all private and public contracts upon that basis. I then did, and now do, believe that this is the only practicable, wise, just and equitable method of disposing of this monstrous load, which you have time and again argued must stint the poor in their food, raiment, fuel and shelter for generations to come, and of course cannot affect the rich, to whom it is paid. Notwithstanding the employment of your choice epithets, I CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 243 hereby propose to discuss this question through the Tribune, allowing me two columns of your paper every week, until the whole subject has fairly passed in review. Or I will meet you in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Louisville, Chicago, or any of the eastern cities, and publicly debate the questions involved in my propositions. If you will meet me in any of the cities indicated, I will, in view of your style of arguments, give you two hours, and will be content with one alternately. In case you should not except either of these propositions, I extend the invitation to Wendell Phillips, Senator Henry Wilson, or to your glib-tongued neighbor, Henry Ward Beecher. It may not be unkind to inform you that I am now addressing audiences of from three to ten thousand persons every day, com posed of republicans and democrats, all of whom heartily en dorse the plan, and among the number are many eminent officers of the late Federal army, including gentlemen of both political parties. I await your early reply, preliminary to arrangements for discussion. I am very respectfully, your obedient servant, HENRY CLAY DEAN. OFFICE OF THE TRIBUNE, "I NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 67. / MR. DEAN Sir: I have yours of the 29th ult. Should I ever consent to argue the propriety and policy of wholesale swindling, I shall take your proposal into consideration. I do not know where the cause of national villainy could find a fitter advocate than yourself. Yours, HORACE GREELEY. HENRY CLAY DEAN, ML Pleasant, Iowa. HORACE GREELEY, ESQ. : Sir : I hereby acknowledge the receipt of your polite note of the 8th ultimo. Though not surprised at the courteous tone and philosophical air of your brief epistle, I confess to a gratification in observing that you have added to your varied accomplish ments the brilliancy of wit as an embellishment of your labored essays, and that you adorn your private correspondence with those jewels of literature which have hitherto been confined to the bar-room and ball-alley, which, however, you have very properly redeemed from their vulgar use as most singularly becoming the style, compass and subject matter of your teaching, 244 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. and so happily adapted to the tastes, associations and wants of your political pupils and associates. I accept, with due appreciation, the reasons which you assign for your silence upon the great questions of political economy involved in the unfortunate condition of the country, and rather attribute to your modesty what you claim for your sense of justice. You will pardon me for the assurance that, however much I may be startled at the use of such comprehensive terms as " wholesale swindling " and " national villainy ;" yet this style of language has been so long in vogue among gentlemen of very moderate attainments, that it utterly fails to produce conviction when offered as a substitute for logic, and scarcely succeeds in captivating when employed as a rhetorical flourish to ornament unhappy conceptions of ruinous dogmas. Without any pretension to that astuteness requisite to reply to such startling propositions as are embodied in the sweeping denunciations of "wholesale swindling" and "national villainy," I charge you and the free-booters and highwaymen whom you have led in the work of wholesale swindling and national vil lainy the burning of cities, the overthrow of States, the desola tion of the most beautiful countries, the murder of the innocent, the supremacy of anarchy over law, of despotism over liberty, of capital over labor, that you are now demanding the robbery of the poor of the necessaries of life, that the opulent may riot in its luxuries. To carry out this most wicked purpose, you propose to mortgage the labor of the poor to the bonds of the rich in all time to come, and fasten a perpetual debt as a cancer upon the body politic. Upon the other hand, I propose to pay off this debt in green backs, the very currency in which it was created, that the people may be emancipated at once. I assume that a sound and uniform currency is the life-blood of commerce, agriculture, manufactories, and civilization itself, to which every government must conform its business, credits and intercourse with other governments. Justice requires a uniform currency to regulate the relations of capital to labor, that the rich may not oppress the poor, nor the creditor consume the substance of the debtor in exchanges, usury and extortions. These are truisms never doubted and questions never raised in the United States before the inauguration of the present great fraud upon the labor of the country. Against these manifest principles of justice and sound policy CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 245 we have under the present odious and monstrous " FUNDING SYSTEM/ two entirely distinct and entirely different kinds of currencies one for the poor and the other for the rich. The one which is imposed upon the poor will not carry him forty leagues from the shores of his own country, or be recognized in any of the nations of the earth at any uniform value, or pass as a circulating medium in any transaction of business which at home is the subject matter of every manner of bartering, and is shaved by the government at its counters. This inferior currency is the only compensation which the poor man receives for his labor which the soldier receives for his services, and his widow and children inherit as the price of his blood that the farmer receives for his grain, live stock, fruit, and for the fee simple of the land itself. The old man who loaned his gold and silver to secure an in come for helplessness and old age, is forced to accept treasury notes in payment of both interest and principal, although he may lose two-thirds of the entire value of his debt by the worthlessness of this miserable apology for money. The mechanic who builds houses out of materials purchased with gold and silver, is forced to take this paper money in pay ment of the purchase, although it was promised in the precious metals ; and no allowance is made for the depreciation ; whilst all debts contracted upon a specie basis yet due and unpaid, are payable in this inferior currency, subject to the fluctuations of a drunken money market. The lawyer receives it for his fees, the physician for his medicines, the professor and minister for his salary. The poor widow who works to support her orphan children, is forced to accept this shadow of money in payment of her wages ; and the poor girl who, in filial devotion, labors day and night, denying herself of the comforts of life to save her weekly pittance to bring her indigent mother from a foreign land, is forced to take these rag shadows of her labor and submit them to the mercenary discretion of the heartless broker, in the ex change for money recognized in the commercial ports of the world. Even your protege, the negro, is robbed of the products of his industry by the worthlessness of the rags in which he is paid, the value of which he is not even able to decipher. Such is the currency created for the business and robbery of the poor, whose necessities forbid the possibility of their owner ship of government or any other securities ; but who, in exces sive tariff, stamps, increased price upon their food, raiment, fuel, house rents, medicines, burial expenses, and other indirect tax ation, surrendered lull one-half of all their labor to give an en- 246 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. tirely different currency to a privileged class, created for the purpose of overthrowing our republican form of government, and establishing an oligarchy in imitation of the worst period of the French despotism which exonerated the nobility from taxa tion. Gold and silver, the circulating medium of the civilized world, the commercial passport to business everywhere, is the especial property of only two classes of the American people, whose princely possessions placed them beyond the reach of want; who draw their substance from all other classes, who, by this very distinction in the two currencies, are crushed beyond the hope of recovery. The first class of gentlemen who are espe cially cared for in this unjust and merciless wrong, or, to use your own delectable phraseology, " national villainy " and " wholesale swindling," are the manufacturers. For their double protection, the tariffs, already prohibitory and ruinous to the consumer, are nearly doubled by the difference in exchange consequent upon the payment of the duties in gold and silver, which you must know, adds nothing to the revenue of the General Government, because it drives commerce from the custom-house, to the con trol of the smuggler, and oppresses the consumer by adding these tariffs to the price of his goods, and pays fabulous amounts into the pockets of the British manufacturer, who smuggles his goods into British vessels to feed British merchantmen upon the vitals of American commerce. This evasion of the revenue laws by the smuggler, is made doubly remunerative by the excessive duties which are paid in gold. This payment of duties in gold and silver, after having mutually enriched the smuggler and monopolist at the expense of the government cheated of its dues, and the poor who are robbed by the duties, is then carefully husbanded as a golden fund for the payment of the bondholder. The bondholder is the second class of gentlemen who receive gold and silver in payment of their bonds and the accruing in terest. Of these two classes you are the especial champion. There can be no possible reason, founded in justice, why the bondholder should be paid either the principal or interest of his debt in any other currency than that which by law is declared a legal-tender in payment of all other debts. The greenbacks either are or they are not a legal-tender in the payment of debts. If they are not a legal-tender in the payment of debts, then the Congress which so enacted, the courts which sustain the enactments, and the party which enforced this legis- ktion at the point of the bayonet, have by legislative usurpation, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 247 judicial corruption, and arbitrary power, committed a crime upon the laboring poor for the benefit of the idle rich, for which "wholesale swindling" and "national villainy" are terms of but faint expression. In this legislation you and your ilk have repudiated a large proportion of the debts due between man and man in the ordinary, business of the country, and have begotten a system of " swindling " compared with which wild-cat banks, Mississippi poker and the faro gamblers are genteel and honest. Xor does it acid anything to your honor, or mitigate your crime, that this "swindling" and " villainy" of yours was soaked in the best blood of the land, out of which you have coined the gold, accruing interest and the bonds which bear it, which has meta morphosed you from plain Horace Greeley, the printer, into his Lordship, Hon. Horace Greeley, the bondholder from the de fender of the negro slave into the oppressor of the white free man. But if these treasury notes are a legal-tender, then the govern ment cannot refuse to take its own paper in payment of its own debts; and there can be no apology, founded injustice, for the demand of any other currency than greenbacks in the payment of duties or any other debt due the government. The same reasons make it obligatory upon the bondholder to take this money in payment of his accruing interest, and finally in payment of his bonds ; also, if this money is a legal-tender, gold and silver can be no more than a legal-tender. If it was a legal-tender in the purchase of bonds, so it is a legal-tender in payment of bonds. If this money is by law a legal-tender, then any discrimination made by the government in the payment of its creditors, is unjust and invidious. That the laborer who works in navy yards and forts, and the soldier who perils his life in battle, shall be paid in lampblack and rags, and the bankers, bondholders, usurers, extortioners and brokers, shall be paid in gold and silver bought up by the greenbacks sacrificed in the hands of other government creditors, is an offence against justice, for which no pretext can be offered, and involves the government in every possible crime included in the euphonious terms em ployed by yourself of " wholesale swindling " and " NATIONAL VILLAINY." It places the Government in the attitude of a swindling bank rupt who involves himself in debts which he is unable to pay, and then, to rid himself of his obligations, buys up his own notes at such discount as is induced by a knowledge of his bad char acter and insolvency, that he may repeat his swindle as often as he may renew his bankruptcy by profligacy and extravagance. 248 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. This very thing the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States has been doing for the last seven years. The pitiable and disgraceful spectacle has been presented to the people of the United States, of the Government Agent, sitting in Wall street, buying up Government obligations in competition with the sharp ers of Europe and the swindlers of America, including the bond holders who, taking advantage of the poverty of the Govern ment, bought up her certificates of credit in their manifold forms. In this wise the Government assumed a position involving one of these two mortifying conclusions : First That it was unable to pay its debts, and making a public confession of bankruptcy ; or, secondly, that it was squandering the public moneys in an unjust discrimination in currencies of equal value. The payment of the bonds in greenbacks is neither "wholesale swindling " or " national villainy," if greenbacks are a legal tender in payment of debts ; and if greenbacks are not a legal ten der in payment of debts, then the payment of bonds in this pre tended currency is not half so monstrous a wholesale swindle or national villainy as the imposition of this paper currency upon the laboring and producing classes of this country in exchange for their toil, and the fruits of the earth, and the liquidation of gold and silver-created debts due to honest creditors, untainted with usury or fraud. Indeed, if, as you assume, that the pay ment of debts in greenbacks is a national villainy and wholesale swindling, then with what name will you designate those who have based the whole public and private property and business of the country upon this " wholesale swindling " and " national villainy/ 7 refusing even to recognize the difference in exchange consequent upon the depreciation of paper money. The extent of this swindle and villainy if it be swindle and villainy to pay debts in greenbacks can be measured only by the aggregate wealth and business of the whole country, which for five years have been involved in the action of the Federal Government. To pay off the bonds in greenbacks either is or is not a " na tional villainy" and "wholesale swindle." If it is, then pray what apology can you make to the civilized world for your participation in this crime, and what atonement can you make for the privation, poverty, bankruptcy and robbery of the poor ; the crime and degradation of the people consequent upon the unnatural inflation of the currency? And how can you excuse the creation of an aristocracy, irresponsible to the or dinary laws of taxation, and building up a system of monopoly which absorbs the labor of the poor and establishes the relation CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 249 of lord and vassal, in a form which can never exist in a free country ? But if to pay oif the bonds in greenbacks is not a swindle, then why not do this at once, and in one righteous blow strike down the whole army of assessors, collectors, spies, pimps, detectives, sponges, vampires and excisemen; with the unnecessary, unjust, unequal and oppressive systems of taxation which are necessary to support them in their detestable vocations. In any view of the subject, the payment of bonds in greenbacks is eminently just. If these greenbacks are a legal tender, they are most properly the currency in which these bonds should be paid. If they are not a legal tender, then the men who bought these bonds in a valueless currency, cannot complain if their debts are liquidated in precisely the same currency as that which they paid for the bond, leaving the bondholder in precisely the same financial con dition that he was before he bought the bonds. The payment of the bonds in gold and silver would be " wholesale swindling " and " national robbery," by which the people would lose twice the amount of the original debt in the final payment, and twice the amount of the annually-accruing interest, as well as paying the expenses of supporting a consum ing arrny of officers, who devour the substance of the people, which are themselves an incubus upon society, to be dreaded and abolished at the earliest possible day as the only means of re storing the lost liberties of the people. The extent of this fraud upon the people is measured by the difference between par and 40 per cent. If the greenbacks are not a legal tender, then still should the bondholders take them as payment of their interest and bonds. If they are not a legal tender, they are a " wholesale swindle " and " national robbery." But they were conceived, created and put in vogue by the bankers, brokers and extortioners of Europe and America, who connived corruptly with the men in power in the United States to perpetrate this wholesale swindling and na tional robbery, to overthrow our simple American system of gov ernment and substitute the odious, rotten, British funding system in its stead. It is but just that, failing to permanently swindle the people, they should be paid in their own money. These brokers and "public robbers," these bondholders and " national villains," should feel grateful towards a forbearing people, that they receive anything at all in compensation for their crime against liberty and economy. But these certificates of credit are a fraud upon the public 250 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. economy and the labor of the people, which supports the Gov ernment. A fraud which the bondholders well knew, and bought the bonds because they knew they were a fraud, by which they were the only gainers and the people were the victims. These bonds were hawked in the markets in every country in the world, and sold at merely nominal prices. As the result of this stupendous swindle and villainy, we have this double spec tacle of robbery. The European emigrant flying from the standing armies, aristocrasies, monopolies and funded debts of Europe, coming to America to pay tariffs, stamps, license, and every form of direct and indirect taxation, for the support of the very system from which he had fled and the very men who had ground him to the earth in Europe, who are now the holders of American bonds, which they bought at forty cents on the dollar. The Federal soldier who receives bounty and monthly pay, returns home to give one-half of all he earns, in the various forms of taxation, to refund to the bondholder that which he thought he was receiving from the Government ; and for the pretended pay given to him for a few years service in war, he is enslaved in perpetual servitude to the manufacturers and bond holders, bankers and usurers, who have grown rich upon his blood and the poverty that follows in the wake of destroying armies ; whilst the widow and orphan of the soldier pay back in the increased price of their food, raiment, fuel and house rent at least twenty per cent, more than the pretended pension which they seem to receive. The masses of the poor are harassed with taxes, ground down by these levies upon their labor, until they are robbed of the comforts and stinted in the necessaries of life, to support an army of civil officers, who gather up their labor, and the military forces which are necessary to enslave the country. I need not remind you that not one dollar of these bonds cost its face in the purchase, but I will remind you what you ought, but seem not to know, that although Congress has the power " to borrow money upon the credit of the United States," yet it has no right to squander money, and no act of profligacy of one Congress can bind either its successors in office or the people whom they have misrepresented. The payment of bonds in greenbacks is not repudiation in any other sense than the payment of any other debts in greenbacks. The Government of the United States either can or it cannot liquidate its debts and redeem its credits now issued in the form of greenbacks, bonds, certificates, etc. If it cannot redeem them, then we have already reached repudiation in its worst form of CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 251 bankruptcy, and have sounded the lowest depths of our financial ruin ; all further argument upon the subject is uselessly squan dered upon a ruined country. But if we can pay the bonds with the accruing interest duly compounded for twenty or forty years, we are really paying them off every eleven and two-third years, leaving us the original debt to draw interest in all time to come, which I believe is our plan of making a national debt a national blessing. We have also left us the civil and military armies, which still consume the substance of the people. How much easier then, will it be for us to pay off this debt at once in green backs and save this vast amount of interest, and release the peo ple from the support of these armies engaged in robbing and oppressing them. But if we cannot pay off the bonds directly in greenbacks, how is it possible to pay the interest ; the armies that are genera ted by them ; the banks with their multitudes of officers, and the usury extortion and swindling which levy their exhausting contributions upon the people, and after this finally pay off the bonds. You and your friends complain that the payment of bonds in greenbacks will overwhelm the country in a paper currency, which will make it worthless. Greenbacks are money, and there fore a legal tender. They are also the standard and measure of value, or they are not. If they are a standard of value, then bonds, property, public and private credits, gold, silver, and everything else, must conform to it. If they are not a standard of value, then again, Mr. Greeley, what apology can you make to your readers for the " national villainy " and " wholesale swind ling " in lampblack and rags, which you have perpetrated upon the country, as the leader and organ. of this particular circulating medium. If you should undertake this difficult task -of riding two horses travelling in opposite directions and fail, you will hardly convince intelligent people by the ,use of slang phrases that you have succeeded, unless at the same time you shall re lieve them of taxation which weighs them to the earth. The bonds as they now stand will never be paid in gold and sil ver, neither the principal, nor the interest very long. The question will be fairly laid before the people, and time will perfect a com plete organization of the horny-handed laborers of the Mississ ippi Valley, who will forget mere party issues, and demand the payment of the bonds in greenbacks, a release of the idle cap ital now enchained in the funding system, and its active employ ment in the business of the country. We are growing in numbers, increasing in power, and com- 252 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. pacting our forces. You now refuse to argue the case, but the people understand the argument, and when aroused will sweep you down like leaves in a burning forest. Even the bondholders will gladly seek refuge in this mode of adjusting the public debt to preserve the debt from absolute and overwhelming repudiation. I will not call in question the modesty of a gentleman who procured the publication of his biography in his early manhood, before he had conquered a city, governed a nation, or invented any new or useful implement of industry. I will not sit in judgment -over the fitness of a gentleman who defends wholesale swindling and national villainy, who commenced his career as a journalist by catering to the low tastes of the rabble, in the in terest of the second-rate theatres of New York, who leaped from the disgusting pit of the Bowery to the lead of city morality. I will not call in question the candor of a moralist who lent his paper to the use of the monstrous villainies of the spiritualists in the days of their wildest absurdities, for the purpose of selling his paper, then laughing in his sleeve, gravely informs the people that he did all this for their benefit. I will not impugn the motives of a generous hearted gentleman who has labored in the interest of agrarianism until the deluded people have built up your paper, and then suddenly became the defender of hereditary monopoly, growing rich in the change of opinions and patrons. I will not indulge in malignant expressions^ in regard to the courage of a hero who tamely allows a bully to break a cane over his head, and then turns to seek his revenge in the entire destruc tion of the civilization and glory of a continent, whose best blood has been shed to slake his thirst in an appall ng civil war. I will refrain from an allusion to the honesty of a lobbyist, who pockets one thousand dollars as a gift of river contractors, and after slandering everybody else, seeks refuge in libel suits, where the truth will not be allowed in testimony to justify the publica tion. He is certainly a fit person to decline to argue the ques tion of the payment of the bonds in greenbacks, because it is " wholesale swindling/ who denounced the taking of constructive mileage, and books which pertained to the business of the repre sentative, and afterwards voted for the same gift of books, for which he was arraigned at the time for falsehood by Dr. Tom O. Edwards, a Congressman from Ohio, the glaring character of which was so flagrant and transparent, that many years after wards, Geo. G. Dunn, of Indiana, in his place in the House, simply recited the facts which effectually silenced your batteries, then directed against moderate republicans. This circumstance CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 253 loses none of its force in the fact that your assailants were your life-long political confreres. I can scarcely refrain from levity in the recollection that you connived at your own arrest and momentary imprisonment in Europe, to give notoriety to your self and circulation to your newspaper in America, and then be come the advocate of arrests without authority of law, and lent your Tribune to the entire obliteration of the safegurds of liberty and the corruption of a generation of your countrymen. I will, however, do you justice in the only consistent act of your life. Having yourself taught secession as the leading tenet of your political faith, you were but carrying out your own prin ciples to generously relieve Mr. Jefferson Davis by going his bail. Having no time for personal controversy, and no disposition to bandy epithets even with yourself, much less with the insects whom you so properly portray as in control of your party press, I will not waste time in the discussion of your courage, your consistency, your integrity or your veracity ; this has all been attended to in your biography. I therefore again renew my challenge, and hope you will try to exculpate yourself from the charge of particeps criminis in the " wholesale swindling " and " national villainy," and argue the question proposed in my last letter. I am yours, HENEY CLAY DEAN. DUBUQUE, IOWA, Oct. 1st, 1867. 254 CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER XII. ) THE SACRED DEBT. THE debt of the United States overshadows all of our con ceptions of the value of property, and confuses the clearest mind. In the computation of numbers, in its attempt to apprehend the amount, it stands as an impassable mountain between a powerful people and their prosperity ; a great gulf yawning between the exactions of their government and their liberties. But there is a part of the unaudited obligation of the people to the living, dying and dead, which, sacred in its nature, must become so more and more as the objects of its creation slowly disappear from the masses of the people. This is that which will forever bind the consciences of good men to relieve the wants and promptly pay that which is due to the widows, orphans and wounded soldiers, in pensions, bounties and back pay. Their claim is the price of wasted human life and manhood. They command the sympathies and are dependent upon the prompt justice of the country, for support. The care of these is a debt of honor which fairly mortgages the property of the country and the consciences of the people. By the unvarying usages of all valorous peoples, the true sol dier is entitled to consideration and support. With Americans who are prouder of our prowess than of our Christian virtues ; more emulous of our acquisitions of territory than of our scru pulous adherence to principles of justice; more reliant upon physical power than reason, for the perpetuity of our govern ment ; who esteem valor as the highest attribute of manhood, to be consistent with ourselves must support our disabled soldiers, no difference where they fought, or whether the wars were just or unjust. This obligation is primary and imperious, and ex tends to all those brave men who, moved by the love of country, CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 255 imperilled their lives in defence of their convictions, whether in the Federal or Confederate service ; each acting, as he believed, in obedience to law, and following the direction of the highest instincts and noblest impulses of his better nature. After the first impulses die out and the ardor of sensation cools off in times of war, all armies are recruited with unwilling men driven as cattle to the slaughter, or caught as fish in the net, having neither the power to resist the forces of conscription, or the means to es cape the meshes laid to entrap them. They obey the government de facto, and are not permitted to enquire after the government de jure. In the late mournful conflict, four gloomy years witnessed the triumph of arms ; the suppression of reason, the supremacy of brute force, and the universal slavery of the people to military caprice. Death planted his thorny hedge around every habitation, and no one dare cross the threshold of his own dwelling, except by martial command, at his peril. The Federal soldier was conscripted, and left the harassing choice of being shot down on his own hearth, for resisting authority; shot or hung for desertion, or blown away by the enemy s cannon on the battle-field. The Confed erate, in like manner pressed into the army, was stimulated to active warfare by the invasion of the enemy, to fight in defence of all that was held sacred to home, or hope, or tradition, which were swept down with a reckless and ruthless devastation, that left desolation in its pathway. Each soldier did what he was compelled to do. How vain the unnatural conception, that all of the essential attributes of a redeemed and glorious nature, stamped with the impress of the deity, may be obliterated by the extravagant exercise of a senseless and ferocious legislation. Such legislation, discriminating against the plainest precepts of justice, and most palpable behests of right, are the basis of our current action. * These legislators dream of the burial, of the affection and devotion of the child in the tomb, of the father who fell on his door-sill in defence of the honor of his hearth stone, and sanctity of the family altar. This infernal crime against nature in all of the wicked annals of a fallen race, never has been consummated, never will be whilst the last lingering scintillation of the light of the image 256 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. and glory of God, shining in the face of Jesus Christ, glows through the darkened avenues of immortal man. The child will honor the parent that gave him birth ; Nature has ordained it so ; God has rewarded it as a holy duty, with the first promise of long life, the land of the parent and child, and has appointed the earthly parent as the medium through which he preserves the worship of His eternal throne. After the close of the late war, to rob the unfortunate soldiers of the Confederate army of their pension bounties and back pay due them, and their still more unfortunate families, an amendment was proposed to the Constitution of the United States. The enactment of such a law is shocking atheism, which blots out the very idea of a father. It is sacrilegious, and erases from the decalogue its great commandment, " Honor thy father and thy mother ." It is no less a crime against charity than an offence against religion. It demands that men shall withhold a just debt from the maimed, disabled, disfigured and distressed of their own household. The strange commingling of angelic aspirations and animal attachment in our being, will forever preserve a free and enlight ened people from the forgetfulness of the wrongs inflicted upon, and sufferings endured by devoted ancestry. Eleven millions of the most refined and proud-spirited people of the nineteenth century will not suffer the wrongs repeated upon themselves to obliterate the recollections of the sufferings and self-denial of their fathers by the same relentless hands, nor ought such a people attempt to drown their sorrows in the sea of their degradation. Vain creatures, miserable wretches, lustful savages, mercenary robbers, inhuman murderers, incarnate fiends, whose wicked hands are bathed in the hallowed blood of inno cence, whose vile passions of covetousness, hate, and brutal amours have been glutted, but not satiated, upon defenceless victims of misfortune, you mistake the decrees of fate, the des tinies of fortune, and more than all, the unchangeable retribu tions of justice, who dream that the cruelty of tyrants can ob literate the instincts of our being. All such laws as the proposed amendment will be vain. These edicts will be transmitted to the next generation, who will visit the consecrated graves of their CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 257 canonized fathers, baptize them with their tears, and swear by the throne of eternal justice, to vindicate their memories and avenge their wrongs. Others who look upon the fragments of the bodies of the im mortal dead, scattered on the mountains or sinking in the swamps, will be stimulated to retaliation by that unutterable horror "which lends poetry to the distance and transfers to the intellect that which before reveled in the passions, and makes that hatred a duty and principle, which before had been but an irritation. From the ashes of ruined mansions will arise poets who infuse the notes of sorrow in their national muse to touch to tenderness the enduring passions of human nature, where philosophers and statesmen had hitherto addressed the understanding and appealed to the interest merely. These poets, aroused with a deep and abiding sense of their own \vrongs, will paint in colors of fire touching, horrible, revolting suffering, crimes and torture, which the besotted public journals had bespattered or suppressed, but which will find responding images in the chambers of the souls of those who saw and suffered them ; and which truthful chronicles of passing events were suppressed for daring to ex pose. This amendment of the Constitution will not modify the pas sions of the generations who nurture these reflections as the only inheritance of their father s, spared them from the ravages of fire. These legacies will lose nothing in either amount or importance, transmitted by the traditional tongues of those who participated in them ; and they will become infinitely more pre cious, and be preserved with more care than profligates bestow upon the patrimonies of richer but less honorable ancestors. When, for a simple difference of opinion, such a civil war as ours had transpired, and the generous combatants, forgetting the conflicts just closed, had, in a general truce, kindly buried their dead, and with mutual forgiveness for the hateful past, joined in perpetual friendship and alliance, much less then than now would have been the fever of the soul, and the fire of the blood enkindling in the bosom of all that is superhuman and sub-hu man in strange combination. Even then the pride that begets affection and the affection that begets pride, nay ; more, the affec- 17 258 . CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. tion and pride that begets that devotion which is only less than worship, and partakes of the nature of worship itself of the dead, and an adoration of their memory, will reeall all of their valiant deeds, and make their very vices seem virtues to their injured and insulted offspring. Long after the names of their persecutors are forgotten, and the stench of their infamy arises from the grave, every maimed and wounded soldier who fought to defend their homes from the torch, and their wives, sisters, mothers and daughters from insult and outrage, will be cheered by the children of the schools as he passes by the roadside. It will seem as a charity of heaven to bestow the good things of the earth upon the soldiers widow ; and his orphans will be accounted the children of the commonwealth ; and they who went to battle to destroy them, will be called their murderers. Then will every memento be readily gathered up and carefully laid by, as a relic of those better days of American history, when a proud and noble people, smarting under insult an d threatened with invasion, dared resist violent usurpation with arms, to preserve their rights of self-governments, the forms of religious worship in their churches, and the sanctity of their grave yards. It is a mockery of the great laws of our being, and an insult to that inexplicable philosophy of sympathy which inevitably attracts us to those we love in the distant generation of the past, and those to whom we look with hope in the dim distance of the future, to presume that military orders, legislative edicts, and ex hibitions of governmental brutality, can efface the veneration which the devoted living, cherish for the immortal dead. The rancorous denunciation of party spirit will not transmit its bitterness in triumph over those natural affections which have their deep foundations laid in the commandments of God, and nurtured by the nobler instincts of man. This was a war of revenge ; the lowest passion of the human soul which God has benevolently denied to nearly all of the lower order of animals. But it will scarcely satisfy a whole people to denounce their fathers as traitors, rebels and outlaws ; or change their con victions to heap upon them all the obloquy of the vocabulary of tyrants. An injured and insulted people will slowly rally CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 259 and become defiant, will repel these charges with eulogies of the heroic patriotism of their fathers in defending constitutional right, which madmen, robbers, and tyrants had invaded with mercenary armies. The sullen masses will scowl at the charge of rebellion, and prove usurpation of powers not granted by the constitution, and stud their arguments with diamonds and jewels which were strewed along the whole history of the ante-revolutionary period, and fixed as ornamental in the Declaration of Independence, in the Constitution of the United States, and in the teachings of all of our statesmen. To the charge of outlawry they will challenge trial by jury, and proudly point to the records of their courts as administered injustice and enforced by law. But writhing under injustice which may find no redress, these people will nurse their untamed passions, and grief will seek ref uge in revenge. Such has been the historic sequel of tyranny every where. When inflamed to its highest frenzy, revenge is more than all other passions ; lawless, because of all it is the basest. The cur rent checked in its deep, silent course, leaps over dams and ob structions, seeking its natural outlet in revolution. It is the duty of the Southern people to care for the Southern soldiers, their orphans and widows ; a duty sacred as the obliga tions of society, whether composed or decomposed. It is the duty of the Northern people to care for theirs. Here is the great distinction justly drawn between the two-fold character of our debt, what is funded to the capitalists and what is due to the soldier. The capitalist pleads his aid in the great cause of the war and the sacred character of his debt as a reason why it should not be repudiated, but that is doubly the stronger argument for the re pudiation of the mere bonded debt ; that men having the great est amount of property are most benefited by it, and can well aiford to forgive the debt. The battles of the country having been fought by the laboring masses, it is unjust that they should labor in all time to come, in slavery, to pay the extortioners, usurers, brokers and bankers 260 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. who have coined fortunes out of their blood to economize it to their children. But the debt due the soldier in both sections of the country, is one of charity and honor, which it is cruel to re pudiate. It is equally unjust that capital should be allowed to get rid of a debt which in every age, country and form of government, has been accounted a mortgage upon the property, affections and hQjiQj of a CHIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. 261 CHAPTER XIII. REPUDIATION THE LAST REFUGE OF PROFLIGACY. As there are catch words that serve to cheer multitudes on to the ardent ready service of tyrants, and make them hasten jubi lantly on their way to the most degrading servitude, so are there other words that dampen the ardor of good men in the manly pursuit of justice. When men would throw off an oppressive yoke, they are de nominated rebels, as though there were any other means of free ing an injured people from oppression, except by resistance with a force more than equal to that employed by the oppressor. When a people, ground to the earth, would fain give their earn ings to their families and cast off the terrible yoke of debt, each attempt is resisted by the mad-dog cry of repudiation. There is an odium affixed to the word repudiation, much more attributable to circumstances than to substances. THE EXTENT OF REPUDIATION. The human family have lived in perpetual bankruptcy. The account books of the world demonstrate that nine out of every ten of the inventors, business men, merchants and bankers of the world, after having lived on the labor of the poor, have died in solvent. This is repudiation in its most absolute form. They did not pay, they could not pay their debts. The creditor lost his debt, repudiation could not go farther. In full view of this natural condition of things, THE JEWISH LAW WISELY PRO VIDED FOR PERIODICAL REPUDIATION. So carefully were the inequalities of life, the injustice of men and the sufferings of the poor contemplated by Moses, that provis ions were made in the Jewish economy for the liberation of all debtors from their debts, the restoration of their lands and the 262 CEIMES OP THE CIVIL WAE. entire emancipation of the people from the power of the oppres sor, that in the year of jubilee, there was an universal repudia tion of debts, cancellation of mortgages and restoration of prop erty to the former owners. The justice, wisdom, and policy of the Mosaic law is the admiration of mankind, but the acme of the Jewish system was repudiation of debts, without which there could have been no jubilee. Total repudiation among the Jews, was a periodical remedy for oppression, and relief of the people ; not only of their ordinary debts, but this remedy extended to the return of their lands which had been mortgaged. In the terse language of Josephus, " The jubilee wherein debtors were freed from their debts, and those slaves set at liberty, which slaves be came such though they were of the same stock, by transgressing some of those laws, whose punishment was riot capital, but they were punished by methods of slavery." This jubilee was the great national festival of the Jews, the only people to whom God deigned direct revelations. The celebration of this occasion was just in principle, wise in policy and a necessity to the poor. This provision of the Jewish law was founded on this great axiom of political economy, that the debtor is by virtue of their relation, the slave of the creditor, so also, is the borrower the servant of the lender. Debt begets peonage in Mexico, imprisonment in England, scandal, suffering and servitude every where. The purity of public morals, the sanctity of religion, the freedom of elections, the impartiality of the judiciary, the independence of the citizen and the dignity of free government cannot be long maintained by a people oppressed by a ponderous national debt. The Jewish system which held all of their people equal, under, subject. to, and protected by law, forbid the existence of transmissible debt in their personal responsibility. THE AMERICAN FATHERS REPUDIATED THEIR DEBT. His tory will forever fail in the attempt to present to mankind a purer, loftier-minded generation than the founders of the Amer ican Government or a more worthy or useful generation than the creditors of the American revolutionary Congress, yet it became necessary that the debt involved in the issuance of Continental Currency be repudiated by the Congress who failed to appropriate CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 263 money for the payment of the debt, and it was gracefully sub mitted to by the people. The reasons were few, direct, and over whelming. The people had just escaped from a successful, though terrible conflict, for freedom from a foreign despotism. The largest number of them had fled or been banished the gov ernments of the old world to escape the crushing taxation con sequent upon the national debts created by wars to maintain a magnificent sovereignty. These things were fresh on their minds ; they knew that the debt would make them slaves of petty tyrants ; they anticipated and avoided what we suffer in helplessness and cowardice. With the overthrow of British power in America, our fathers accomplished the suppression of a rnonied aristocracy. The very oppression from which the Colonists sought escape, emanated in a national funding debt, that mortgaged the labor of every British subject in every quarter of the globe and in the isles of the sea. The very monarch against whose oppressive power they rebelled, drew his sustenance from this funded debt. The aristocracy, against whose existence they provided pro hibitions in the Constitution, was not to be compared in odious- ness to the bonded aristocracy proposed by the funding system of the United States. The taxation against which they made war and fought, was in villainy, oppression and magnitude not comparable with that with which we are now oppressed and overburdened. The Continental money was never redeemed, and thousands of the poorer and middle classes were bankrupted, by the failure of the Government to redeem it with equivalents. It sank in value to three shillings on the pound, and finally became utterly worth less. Austria, France and England have in their turn, followed the fortunes of war and repudiated in some form or other. But why should we refer to Austria, to France, or burden these pa ges with the dry details of the repudiation consequent upon the revolution of every country in the world, when we have adopted repudiation as the law of the land. We have spent the last decade in repudiation of the highest of all obligations, our written constitutional contracts, and finally the Constitution it- 264 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. self. "We were the only people upon the face of the earth who recognized government as a contract entered into by the people with themselves for their protection. This was not a mere rhe torical flourish or glittering generality ; it was a fact reduced to a system, and the people had entered into a written agreement, a constitution for their own government and the restriction of their lawgivers, who were but their servants, chosen for the purpose. Those who were born under its influence, and reared by its be neficence, need but its mention to venerate its authors, and follow its fortunes, and imperil their lives in its defence. The very war in the prosecution of which, this debt was crea ted was a repudiation of the contract of self-government in de tail, in its substance and vitality. Those well-recognized person al rights which had made the English Constitution the pride of the Christian era, were struck down at one blow. The free dom of the press, the freedom of speech, the freedom of con science, the right of trial by jury, the Habeas Corpus, were repudiated, and all of the Constitutional interpreters of law were made subservient to the arbitrary will of every person, acting in violation of law by military authority. If this be true, is it possible that any debt contracted in overthrowing a system of government, can be of binding force under that same govern ment? Every constitutional element of civil power in the country which was by law invested with authority to contract, was in duress ; utterly incapable of contracting or bending either itself, or those it represented, for it could represent no one. The obligation of the slave to work for his master was purely a legal one ; an investment of money under the protection of law. If it were a sinful one, it was the sin of the whole country and not of any class of men. It was the sin of the law, not of the slaveholder. This relation we have repudiated with the full sum of three thousand millions of dollars of money legally invested in this particular interest. It is true that it was argued that this system was oppressive ; so do I argue that the debt is oppressive beyond all endurance. It is argued that slavery was unjust; so do I argue that this funding system is unjust. It is argued that the system of slavery was cruel ; that it was used to enslave the CKIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 265 poor and helpless black man. So do I argue that the present debt is used as a means to enslave the poor white man with the black man, to make them both the servants of the capitalist and bondholder. It is emphatically presented, that the system of slavery was transmitted from the parents to innocent children yet unborn. So do I argue that the bonded system of our debt is being trans mitted to innocent generations, who will be stinted of sustenance in their mother s womb, and oppressed all the days of their lives, to pay the penalty of their perpetual servitude to their task masters. But if such a repudiation in contravention of law, may be made under the plea of military necessity for the overthrow of a written constitution, how much stronger is the argument for the repudiation of a debt of equal magnitude, under the plea of a civil necessity, for the perpetuity of a system of free gov ernment in which the distinction between the rich and the poor shall be merely of the imagination ? It is argued that African slavery created an overbearing aristocracy. So we argue that the bonds have created a most offensive oligarchy, that not only claims to rule society, but assumes to rule the government. The Government of the United States has pressed repudiation further. It has prohibited the payment of debts contracted by the different Confederate States during the last five years, and made their repudiation, a prerequisite condition to their re-ad mission into the Union. The repudiation of these debts was the more remarkable and flagrantly unjust, that it was an unnecessary interference between the debtor and creditor, when it could in no wise interfere with the existing and accruing relations of the citizens of the States and the Federal government the more so that the debts were not all by any means voluntarily contracted upon the part of the creditors, and were for monies borrowed to construct railroads, and all of the necessary machinery of civil government without which people can have no political or social existence. Debts made sacred by all of the formal obligations of contract. Debts by loans forced from unwilling people and applied in the ordinary transactions of legitimate business. Debts forced from men who took no part in the late civil war. Debts due to soldiers conscripted into an army by the supreme 266 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. power of a State, acknowledged as belligerent, whose wages were the only means of the support of their families, were all repu diated. The total amount repudiated is quite four billions of dollars. Revolutions never go backward ; and it is impossible in the nature of human philosophy that a revolution inaugurated by repudiating all of the paraphernalia of government; repu diating debts, constitutions, treaties its own contracts to ex change prisoners and every other obligation, will halt by the wayside to cavil about small matters of honor in repudiating a system of oppression founded in fraud. TlIE BASIS OF THE DOMINANT PAHTY WHICH INVOLVED THE COUNTRY IN THE DEBT, IS REVOLUTIONARY, AND FOUNDED UPON UNIVERSAL REPUDIATION. The character of a repudiator is most strikingly drawn by the late- Senator DOUGLAS in a delineation of his Senatorial col league : " TRUMBULL was one of our own cotcmporaries. He was born and raised in old Connecticut ; was bred a Federalist, but, removing to Georgia, turned nullifier when nullification was popular, and as soon as he had disposed of his clocks and w T ound up his business, and migrated to Illinois, turned politician and lawyer. Here he made his appearance in 1841 as a member of the Legislature. He became noted as the author of the scheme to repudiate a large portion of the State debt of Illinois." It is surprising that it should have escaped the observation of intelligent gentlemen, that the work of repudiation has not been confined to the action of Congress as affecting the people of the Southern States merely. They have applied it to their European, creditors. In the payment of the interest of the public debt in New York^ the Legislature computed the interest not according to the monetary value of treasury notes, but a paper dollar for a gold dollar, when they were worth not fifty per cent, on their nominal value. Here was a repudiation of fifty per cent, of the debt. The same system of repudiation has been brought near to us and become universal. A borrowed of B in 1860, the sum of 100,000 in gold. B pays him in August, 1864, with $100,- 000 in greenbacks, equal in gold to $3 5,000 ; a repudiation of $65,000. This repudiation extended to the interest on the widow s an- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 267 nuity, and to every financial transaction : a repudiation of sixty- five per cent, of all debts and indebtedness in the country. But it is the misfortune of government itself, that repudiation has been general and enormous by the United States. It was computed by Judge Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, that more than $800,000,000 in coin, or about $2,000,000,000 in greenbacks, as computed in July, 1864, had been unprovided for in Congressional legislative appropriations since 1789, the date of the adoption of the Constitution. Such is the uncertainty of the claims dependent upon government liquidation ; such the enormous repudiation of debts which seemed just to the creditors. Like the " graveyard " in the Mississippi, which is strewn with the fragments of ruined ships, warn the approaching steamers to carefully feel their way through the maelstrom, so will shrewd capitalists as carefully look to the investment of money in the doubtful debts due from the United States, contracted in the frenzied heat of political excitement, at a time when the country was ruled by a party representing a minority of the people, to destroy the government in flagrant opposition to a vast majority. But there is no fact in the history of this war debt more start ling than this : that the great body of these bankers and bond holders were, at the beginning of the war, but poor men ; many of them helpless bankrupts, and many of the pretended loans were mere collusions between bankers and government officers, entered into for the purpose of creating money for the one and power for the other, at the expense of the people, who would be required to raise standing armies from their children to support this power and contribute taxes from their labor to maintain the funding system. This has always been the case in the history of paper money inflations : that the pretended benefactors of government have been simply swindlers, who have imposed upon the people their worthless promises to pay in lieu of money as the pretext for their robbery. This is true, with scarcely an exception, in every country, that the government is never assisted by paper money in any war Those who issue it amass fortunes by the issue. To this one our country has not been an exception. 268 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. In the history of insolvent estates, bankrupts, merchants, contested debts and repudiated obligations, which make up the assests of the last six years, it must not startle mankind that the honest people have thrown off the yoke rudely placed upon them by reckless and unscrupulous tyrants. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 269 CHAPTER XIV. THE CHARACTER OF THE LOAN WHICH CONSTITUTES THE DEBT. THE superior virtues, claims and character of the public debt Lave been urged with wonderful pertinacity to demonstrate that the debt is not only solvent beyond contingency, but invested with mysterious charms and attractions which have enamored the slaves of their masters, and set the people begging for heavier tasks. It is urged that This debt differs from all other debts in the fact that all other loans are held by a very few persons, whilst this particular debt is owned by everybody. This is not true, and if it were, would be of no importance whatever, in the force with which the debt must drive us to bankruptcy and repudiation. It is not true that these bonds are even generally owned by the common people of the country. They are precisely like other bonds in every other country in the world; they belong to the rich, who, having no use for their money, loan it in the best market. The very small bonds which were intended to popu larize this loan, were scattered broadcast among the people of moderate circumstances in life. But the great laws of gravitation were brought to bear upon them. It were impossible that the scattered drops, puddles, and pools of water escape the laws of absorption, and not find their way back to the sea or the skies ; but not less absurd to suppose that the poor, the moderate, or even the middle classes of society will control or hold in any permanent form, the funded stocks of any country. In the United States the first year was a failure in this attempt. Thous ands of well meaning, deluded people thought to assist the government by buying up its securities; as the old lady gave her feeble breath to aid the hurricane. 270 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. But the immediate wants of their families soon drove the poor people with their small bonds into market as an inconvenient currency, and many of these humble speculators lost the interest with from three to ten per cent, of their loyal investments, and were but poorly repaid for their enterprise, with the ardor of their patriotism greatly damped and damaged. The gradual contraction of the bank note circulation will soon throw all of these bonds into the market, except those held by the capitalist. This will press down their value to a heavier dis count, and each poor bondholder who has lost in the sale of his bond, will then sympathize with the taxpayer, who must meet the accruing interest. The abundance of the small bonds as a part of the currency, will increase as the currency contracts its volume. Then the bonds will find their way into the vault of the millionaire ; will be bought and sold in Europe. America, drained of her specie, will be unable to even approximate to the redemption of her national bank notes. This brings the direct conflict of the nations, and revives the old strife between the in stitutions of the old and new world between ennobled capital and republican labor. American republicans will very unwil lingly support European monopolies, who took advantage of their internal dissensions and pressing necessities to buy up their obligations at ruinous rates of discount. To get rid of this perpetual slavery, any subterfuge will be sought. It were better to do anything which would bring relief. Repudiation will be declared the only hope. Repudiation will be announced as the just and legitimate remedy; will appear in platforms, conven tions, be inscribed on flags and patriotic mottoes. It has been the source of unlimited assurance among bond holders, that there could be no failure in the ultimate payment, of the bonds, because the government was so pledged as to make the failure impossible. This has been anticipated, but there has been no greater fallacy urged or relied upon as an unfailing source of solvency of the bonds, " that so many men own and are interested in them, therefore they will be paid." In looking over the notes and list of debtors, the thoughtful creditors are much more concerned about the number, condition, liability and responsibility of their debtors than of their co- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 271 creditors. Now, who are these debtors ? They are the people of the country who own none of these bonds ; the tax -payers who pay the stamps, tariffs and taxes levied for the support of the bondholder, the men who dig the canals, build the railroads, level the forests, enclose the prairies ; the murmuring music of whose . steady-going mills coin the wealth of America. These tax-payers are the voters of the country ; when they awake from their slumber in defence of their rights, in performance of the duties they owe to themselves, their families, their country, and God, will rush in one vast moving cloud to the polls, and paint repudiation on their banners. Honest, able leaders will cheer fully carry their cause before the country. The very same mer cenary hirelings who now pollute the halls of Congress and bear in their pockets triple bribes from the bankers, for bank legisla tion, from the manufacturers for votes to impose tariffs, and from contractors for appropriations when they see the temper of the people, will hasten to render them their services to repudiate this very debt. When the legal tender is absorbed in the purchase of bonds and burned up by the Treasury Department, or which is just as probable in the corrupt vascillations of the parvenues who have been added to the Supreme Bench, under a change of cir cumstances, should, by the merest accident, do right and de clare that treasury notes are not a legal tender under the Constitu tion. Then pray what have the people left them to pay their debts, transact their business, meet their accruing taxes, and carry on the extravagance of governing the country by a mili tary despotism. For any of these purposes, there will be left no gold and silver to bear any adequate relation to the business of the country. A speedy return to specie payment will be repudiation in an other form ; will snuff national banks entirely out as a taper light is quenched in an autumnal storm; the very day upon which the legal tender is placed upon its constitutional basis, the bank note currency will sink, from New York to San Francisco, full one hundred per cent. The time employed to go through the farce of redemption, would not occupy thirty minutes to each bank. 272 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. Then will a free press, not suborned, dare speak boldly out, and join the general denunciation by honest men, of the whole mammoth, murderous swindle. Demagogues, catching the gen eral current in its charge, will also change. The corruption of the tyrants, who have trifled with the public liberty and appro priated the public property to themselves, will be exposed and denounced with the more readiness by their confreres, who will dread the public wrath none the less, because they have partici pated in the general crime. But when the true character of our debt is fully fathomed, bankruptcy will overwhelm us, and repudiation is the end of national banking, and repudiation is inevitable. The national bank currency cannot be secured against insol vency by any kind of bonds, much less by the bonds now issued by the .government, for the depreciation of the bonds carries the currency down with it. The history yet fresh, of free banking in every State in the Union, where it has been adopted, fully explodes the folly, that a fluctuating system of reckless and irre sponsible State indebtedness affords any reliable guaranty for the redemption of bank paper issued upon its credit. The property of the country, although the very best possible security, is not a good guaranty for its redemption. If the estates of the country were put into the market of the world, they would not command the amount in cash, unless the bond holders and other creditors of the government, would accept the property and relinquish the debt, which they would not be insane enough to do, and agree to bear the burdens of a govern ment so administered as to create and perpetuate such a debt. But when the naked question comes to the direct issue of the de livery up of the property of the country, then the alternative is easy, natural, ready, popular. Repudiation is the refuge of a ruined people from perpetual slavery, sought with eagerness and accepted with joy. There are two overpowering causes operating to make bonds worthless, at the very time when they approximate to the largest fractional part of the available wealth of a country. These causes are wonderfully operative in a government like ours. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 273 The people have been educated to freedom of opinion, of speech, and of action ; but in nothing have they been hitherto so free as from Federal taxation ; scarcely one of the present generation ever saw a Federal tax-gatherer. They were even incredulous as to the existence of the abhorrent hordes of vam pires that suck the blood of labor in every despotism of Europe. Every religious anniversary of the country was enlivened by graphic pictures, drawn of European suffering, produced by the hands of the excisemen and tithe-collectors. Our fourth of July was a holiday set apart for the purpose of denouncing, with righteous vehemence, the costliness of arbi trary governments, the extravagance of rulers, the profligacy of the rich and the consequent suffering of the poor. Now, when in this country, the road-sides are strewed and the highways be set with tax-gatherers, men are unwilling to believe their own eyes. The audacity of these leeches and the innumerable army of them, at first overwhelmed the people ; nay more, they were confounded. The tax-payer has at length, after great forbear ance, commenced murmuring, and one universal storm hangs lowering over the country ; its clouds cover the sun, its vapors fill the air. When thoroughly aroused, as time and distress must arouse those still retaining their self-respect ; and w T hen they speak, freely as men must speak, who are not deprived of their powers of speech, they will grow restive, form combinations and raise en masse, and put an end to the general curse entailed upon them. Such has been the steady course of justice in every age of the world. The time may be slow and seem long to the impatient, but it will certainly come as the immutable j ustice of God. The terror of the storm will so gather strength -in the delay, that when let loose, will sweep clown every obstacle in its angry path way, to complete repudiation. With how much less of good feeling will the toiling multitudes, with the sweat dripping from their brows, covenant to transmit this accumulating curse to their latest generation. No such debt ever has been paid. It is but simple justice to candor to assume that no one believes that this debt ever will be paid. It ought not to be paid unless it is the settled policy 18 274 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. of the government, and the full purpose of the people, in our revolutionized condition to make our slavery universal, uncon ditional and perpetual. That the debt should be paid is abhorrent to every sentiment of justice ; to agree that it shall not be paid, is repudiation. The payment of the bonds will find its friends turned to enemies, with the change of circumstances. The interests of men will emancipate them ; self-preservation will intervene, and stand between them and their past thraldom. The faithful press, un muzzled by military power, will be joined by the faithless press following the indications of the popular current. The working men of the country will clamor to wipe out the debt and forget it. The greedy patriots having enriched themselves on the spoils and plunder of war, will no longer remain quietly under the taxation of their stolen property, which may not be so read ily convertible into bonds. The soldiers who fought longest and hardest in battle, will scarcely accept perpetual bondage to pay the untaxed bondholder as a boon in compensation for his risk of life in the terrible struggles of the army. The same bold spirit which led him to the war, and defied danger at the cannon s mouth, will meet the untitled monied aristocracy of the country, and demand the emancipation of labor from the relentless grip of capital. The cry will become general, and no one will hear it sooner, or feel its piercing shrieks with more terror, than the bondholders who are drawing quadruple compounded interest on their bonds and bank stock. When the panic comes, and come it must, the bondholders will sell out their bonds, or cast them upon the market. Depre ciation will be the prelude of repudiation. When the bonds have gone down, there is nothing left for the banks to command a dollar upon, and this is repudiation itself. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 275 IBOOIK: CR1MES OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM. CHAPTER I. USURY. THE OFFSPRING OF PUBLIC DEBT AND BANKING. AN EN QUIRY INTO THE CAUSES OF THE FINANCIAL DISTRESS WHICH NOW PERVADES THE COUNTRY. WHEN the most beautiful country is deserted by men in search of homes in less inviting lands, when the richest land goes beg ging for tenants, and its soil is choking with weeds where corn ought to grow, when the taxes of the people in a simple form of government in time of peace, are so burdensome that the best citizens are preparing a voluntary confiscation of their property, and from necessity suffering it to go to sale for the payment of taxes and trivial debts, when sheriffs sales are exposing to sac rifice the property of the honest, industrious, producing classes, until the value of all property is merely nominal, it is eminently proper to inquire after the causes of this extraordinary condition of things, and carefully apply the remedy. THE CAUSE is EMBRACED IN THIS BRIEF SENTENCE ; CAPI- ITAL HAS ASSUMED TO PLACE A YOKE UPON THE NECK OF LABOR, AND LABOR HAS TAMELY SUBMITTED TO THE INDIG NITY. In this Republican Government, MONEY is A KING WHICH CAN DO NO WRONG. Money assumes the prerogative of ruling the country and de fying the laws of the land. It walks boldly into the legislative halls and arrogates all of the rights, powers, and immunities of supreme Lawgiver. Money has laid under tribute the labor and property of the country, 276 CKIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. controls public interests and public men. No class of the people receive legislative consideration, except money brokers and paper shavers. Sliylocks, who have been the opprobrium and derision of the civili2:ed world in all ages, feared by the poor, detested by the rich and despised by all men, are now with an air of respecta bility, intruding themselves into courts of justice, invoking the strong arm of the law to enforce their fraudulent contracts, and give reputability to a business outlawed. Grave teachers in Israel are engaged in money-broking and demand usury at the hands of their flocks. Literary and eleemosynary institutions, built by money wrung from the hard earnings of the laboring masses by oppressive tax ation, are made the pretexts for scandalous speculations on public money and heartless speculations upon individual necessities, by unscrupulous men in the promotion of their private business. The evils of usury, one of the odious forms in which capital makes war upon labor, is felt in every branch of business, in ar resting its action in every avocation of life, thwarting its legiti mate purpose. It is proposed to examine the rights of labor over capital, the rights of property which are assailed by money unrestrained by usury laws. The following proposition is submitted as the basis of our ar gument : All capital is nothing more than the super addition of labor, either mental or physical, to the great gifts of God, which have been bestowed in common upon mankind, and ichich by na ture, no man can have an absolute but merely an usufructuary right of property. This proposition is so plain as to commend itself without illus tration. Kings who claim to rule the world by virtue of the grace of God, also claim a hereditary property in the soil, man, labor and all. But the success of our government will explode this traditional nonsense. Capital is nothing which labor has not made it. A more perfect representation of a splendid poverty is not within the range of human imagination, than that of our first parents, who were degraded from the spontaneous living be stowed upon them by their Maker, to the empty title of great CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 277 wealth which was bestowed upon them, upon the condition that they should labor for it. As solitary strangers on a virgin planet, they could look out upon all the vast wealth, its mountains of gold, its oceans of fish, its broad plains of inexhaustible riches, sufficient for the support of endless generations of their posterity ; the herds of the fields, the beasts of the forest, the fowls of the air. the fruits of the tropics, the sweet, pure waters yet undisturbed by the convul sions of the deluge, were all theirs. But in the abundance of the earth, Adam and his newly created bride could reduce noth ing into possession without industry. They had, therefore, to go to work and receive their daily bread under the restriction of the inexorable law of their Creator, " in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread till thou return unto the ground." From the day of Adam s abandonment of the garden of Eden until now, the laws of production have been the same. They are unchange ably eternal. No man can make an honest living without labor ; that labor which either originates or gives a new form to some thing else, which in its original state was without value or which increases its present value. Here comes the true distinction between MAKING- MONEY and TAKING MONEY. He who adds wealth to the world in more than an equal amount to that which he appproriates to himself, is a maker of money. He who appropriates to himself wealth, for which society has received no equivalent, is a taker of money, and that wealth is the property of some one else, who had produced it and by his labor has made it a part of the com mon stock of the wealth of society. It matters not that the producer cannot be identified among the millions of the earth ; the ownership is precisely the same as where the owner has lost his watch, which was found, and by a singular misfortune, the loser and finder were strangers to each other, though each is sen sible of his relative loss and gain. The one knows he has found that which was not his own, and the other is confident that he lost that which was his own. Though the loss may not be repaired, it is still the same. Capital cannot labor, nor can it produce anything except under the direction of the intelligent laborer, to whom society is indebted for every thing 278 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. which it enjoys. Whatever exists, is the production of labor and of God. Whoever does not labor, produces nothing ; and if he lives at all, is the consumer of other men s labor and is a thief upon the wealth of society. This is true of all mere capi talists, who are consumers, but produce nothing. Human rights have no greater enemy than those who live upon the products of money loaned upon usury, cormorants who quench their thirst with draughts of the life-blood of labor. WHAT IS MONEY ? OF THE NATURE AND USES OF MONEY ? It is impossible in the nature of things that any one man should produce everything necessary to his convenience, comfort and luxury. It is quite as difficult to suppose a condition of things in which, by mere barter, the different members of a community should entirely accommodate their mutual wants. It is utterly impos sible that even nations should produce all of the varied luxuries of life, which are offsprings of such varied climates, soils and circumstances. Then how shall one nation procure the products of another nation with which it has nothing to exchange ? for in this case barter, which is used to accommodate society and in dividuals, fails to meet the wants of the nation from which it has to import, but which has nothing to export in return. To remedy this evil, there is but one plan which can obviate universal inconvenience in exchange, and that is, to measure the value and W 7 orth of the product, and give to that value a repre sentative measure which will command a like value in some other place, or, if possible, in every other place. By this means the value may be measured everywhere, and no loss sustained by change of location. For this purpose, all civilized nations have established certain measures which they denominate money. Some nations employ one article as money ; other nations employ something else. For the purpose of exchange and transfer, the Spartans used iron. The ancient Mexicans employed cacao. Barbarous nations used various measures or standards by which the worth of houses, lands, cattle, and everything else was measured, in the character, value, substance, quantity, and material of their money. People have differed as much as in CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 279 their civilization, arts, arms, science, literature and religion, until a general intercourse of civilized nations made it necessary that a common substance should represent the value of the different commodities used in common among them. This substance is designated by law as money ; not by com mon consent or custom merely, but by positive law. Gold and silver have been adopted as the material out of which money shall be made. But gold and silver differ as much in their relative values, forms, sizes, figures and shapes, as do the measurements of weights, superficial or solid measures of other substances. But all of these differences are dependent upon the statutory law of the several countries which determine them. There can be nothing less equivocal than that money is the crea ture of law, without any intrinsic value as money, except just what the law invests it with. The law determines what shall be money and herein lies the great power of money, that its value is so determined by legislation, that every piece bears on its face the precise value which it will represent at every counter, and the amount of credit to which it will be entitled in every court of justice. The law not only determines the value of money, but it determines what shall be the specific substance of money to the exclusion of everything else whatever. In the phraseology of the Constitution of the United States, " no State * * * * shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debt." And every government exer cises a like authority, and determines what shall be the ex act value per ounce penny weight and grain of the several metals which are used as money, and change these regulations from time to time, as it may, in its discretion, see proper. But the power of creating money is one with which no other person or power than the government can be invested. The government declares in what quantities silver may be paid, and in what sums gold may be de manded by the creditor of the debtor. And to these declarations of law must the debtor submit without discretion. Money has no competitor and can have no substitute. By legislation, money is made monarch of commerce, banking, manufacturing, agriculture. It is as safe for the liberties of the people to allow monarchy to rule without restraint, as it is for 280 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. the business of the country to allow money to exact interest with out restraint. Independent of this legal value of gold and silver they would be a more matter of commerce ;" and in times of finan oial distress, would be a comparitively worthless one as are gold rings, gold watches, silver trinkets, &c. It would be uncandid in an investigation of this kind not to give the opposite view of this subject, by the two greatest writers upon political economy, of the free trade school, Jean Baptiste Say and Dr. Francis Way land. The views of these gentlemen are entirely similar. I there fore prefer to give those of the elder writer, Mr. Say, who says, " I have referred to custom and not to authority of government, the choice of the particular article that is to act as money in preference to every other." In answer to Mr. Say, it may be said, with great propriety, that in a country where there is no credits, if such a civilized country there can be, it would be of small importance, indeed, whether or not there was corned money, or any other legal tender ; for the people, then in their bartering, could make exchanges of such articles as the one may need and the other have for sale. But the law has left no such discretion when future payment is to be made. Where the law has not specifically said what shall be the measure of value and how a debt shall be paid, it has inferred, and by construction of law, that for all debts, where the contract does not positively provide for some other payment, the creditors will demand gold and silver. And when the chaff is blown away, the sum and substance, that is the truth of Mr. Say s and Dr. Way land s theory, is this, that where men choose to trade horses, or barter other articles, the law does not interfere. But it is not true that upon any contract, the payment of money due is to be referred to custom ; but it is the positive demand of the law which will fully enforce its claims. But the great use of money is not only as a measure of the present value of other articles in trade, but its chief purpose is as a standard measure of value, months and even years hence ; and the very agreement to pay such contract in such money, is leased upon the universal recognition of the legal standard coin of gold and silver, as determined by the government. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 281 In contracts to be filled in the future, everything is referred to this omnipotence of the law, in making and determining the value of money. MONEY IS NOT MERCHANDIZE, BUT A MEASURE OF MER CHANDIZE. Money is a measure of value ; as such it bears precisely the same general relation to the determination of value in all com modities, that the yard-stick bears to the measure of cloth, that the bushel bears to the measure of grain, that the acre bears to the measure of land, and the stone, hundred, or ton, bears to the determination of weights. In each of these various measures, the law fixes their size and makes them just what they are, and by that legal adjustment, the amount due on a contract is deter mined, where weight or measure is stipulated for. This argu ment is but a practical truth which cannot be called in question. A dollar in value is as clear an expression and as universally understood as is a yard of cloth, a bushel of wheat, a ton of hay, or any other similar expression. Mr. Say, however, holds that, " money is not a measure, be cause it has an intrinsic value." It is true that gold and silver, lampblack and rags, have an intrinsic value, but they certainly have no such value as in anywise corresponds with the intrinsic value with which they have been invested by the positive au thority of law, which confers upon them the despotic power of money. But having an intrinsic value as metal, is certainly not a good reason why gold and silver made into money, may not neverthe less be a measure. There is an intrinsic value in the wood of which the yard stick is made, and the additional labor put upon it, is equal to that much timber in any other form, or in anything else. Yet as a measure of cloth, it is a standard ; and no difference what the fluctuation may be in the monetary value of the cloth, the yard stick is the unchangeable measure of quantity, because the law has established it, and the yard-stick alone can determine the amount in measure to be settled in legal contest. The same is true of the material and labor used in making all CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. other weights and measures, and is true of all the coins, and pa per money authorized and established by law as money, for the circulating medium of exchange. But in no weight, measure, coin or paper money, are the in trinsic and extrinsic values the same, or nearly the same. Nature and the ordinary uses to which they are applied, gives to the various metals, wood and paper, &c., their intrinsic value. Their extrinsic value as money is given them by positive law, which appoints to them their uses, and communicates to them a corresponding value. In this light does the law treat these weights, measures, and coins ; and for the change of a standard measure, the alteration of a standard weight, the mutilation, corruption, or counterfeit ing coin of the Government, the forging or counterfeiting of the current paper of the country, the offenders are punishable by law, and the offences classed together. Measures, weights and coins are justly classed together by law givers and historians, sacred and profane. The corruption of these standards is an offence in each case, alike punishable. Each is the creature of law for a specific purpose. Money is a meas ure of value, nothing more. THE GREAT POWER OF MONEY. I shall quote from Mr. Say, who says with peculiar emphasis : " I have referred to custom, and not to the authority of govern ment, the choice of the particular article that is to act as money in preference to every other ; for though a government may coin what it pleases to call crowns, it does not oblige the subject to give his goods in exchange for these crowns, at least not where property is at all respected. 7 In some impracticable sense, as a purely visionary theory, this may reflect the mere shadow of truth, but is not practically true. The Government compels men to take gold and silver (and in this country unlawfully, even paper promises to pay,) coin in payment of debts. If Mr. Say were to sell his lands in barter for houses, and the vendees were to fail to make the due ex change of property, the law would unquestionably compel him to take crowns, eagles, or some other gold and silver coin, equiv- CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 283 alent according to the Government standard of the value of the property delinquent in the trade. It is from government that the specific value of money and supreme power is derived by which it makes commerce and men its obsequious servants. Again Mr. Say observes : " Custom, therefore, and not the mandate of authority, designates the specific product that shall pass for money exclusively, whether crown pieces or any other commodity whatever." Mr. Say s " therefore " is logical nonsense, and is without foun dation either in fact or constitutional law, and is another instance of the length to which a dreaming theorist will go in the face of experience and the well-settled facts of life. But as a ruinous offset to Mr. Say s " therefore" he admits that it is the use of gold and silver as coin that gives to the ma terial its principal value as metal ; and, of course, its extrinsic value as money ; and of consequence its great power, which it receives from the law. Of paper money, bank notes, &c., there cannot be so much as the appearance of money, except what it derives from the law which gives to it the representative character of money. Independent of law, there is no money ; by law anything may be declared money ; and money is the king of commerce. The power of money is never so apparent as when it brings the exacting creditor in domination over the unfortunate debtor. Here money commands ; every kind of merchandize obeys its mandate. As a consequence, to pay debts, executions are issued, which must be satisfied in money, and here the power of money is abso lute. This power of the creditor over the debtor is enormous. For though it be necessary that one hundred fold should be sold of any other property to secure the gold and silver, the property must be sacrificed to satisfy the claims of the law in the payment of the debt. The scarcity of money, the unhappy condition of the property for sale in the demands of the law for gold and silver, are of no consideration whatever. The legal execution demands the money in the payment of the debts, and no loss of the debtor meets with any allowance at the hand of 284 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. the creditor. The gold and silver must be paid, because the law declares it. The law interposes its strong arm to assist the creditor to get a certain sum, bearing the stamp of government coin, and it compels the debtor to pay that sum in that coin. It was for this very purpose that gold and silver were bought and coined to ac commodate the people. So great is the power of money, that if A owes B $1,000, for the payment of that amount of money B may have $1,000 in cattle, $1,000 in grain, $1,000 in land sacri ficed to pay the $1,000 in money ; if, owing, however, to the pe culiar circumstances of trade and commerce, this great sacrifice of property should at public sale realize only $500 in gold and silver, the creditor who may have bought the $3000 worth of property for the $500, still holds a judgment of $500 against the debtor upon the unsatisfied execution, and may have to sacrifice another $3,000, or any amount of property necessary to secure the amount of the remaining $500 in gold and silver. Such is the supreme power of money over any mere commodity, and such is the specific power conferred upon it by the govern ment, a power conferred upon no merchandize, but yet a power essential to the existence of money. A most shallow fallacy of the brokers is this : that money is like any other article of commerce, and ought to be free ; and the holder should be allowed to sell it for the same that he sells any other article of trade or commerce. In this brief, false sentence, lies the kernel of the argument of the usurers. If the law had left other articles of commerce as free as money, then might the argument have some force, but the law first in terfered to destroy the equality of money and merchandize, which, in the nature of things, originally existed. Now, if the same law which provides that gold and silver be assayed and coined, and their legal value stamped upon them, had also appointed appraisers of corn, wheat, horses, cattle, sheep, land, houses, &c., to give them a fixed and definite value in the payment of debts, at which value they were to pass cur rent, then the value of gold and silver with other articles would have been upon a level, and each article of commerce could have CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 285 gone into the market without embarrassment of legal preference. But this was not done. Gold was then valued, and all other property must be sacrificed to meet that value. So sensibly have the financiers of the different States of the Union felt the inequality of money with other forms of wealth, that in finan cial distress, stay laws have been enacted to atone for the crime of usury, and appraisement laws have been passed to give all merchandize its relative value in the hands of the law of the individual State, which gold and silver and coin have by the positive laws of the General Government. The absolute power of money over merchandize is graphically set forth in the fol lowing extract from a message of Governor Wise to the Virginia Legislature : " The assumptions that money is merchandize, and that money is made scarce on account of the usury laws, are not only false positions, but they are preposterous absurdities." Money exists only by legislation. Merchandize is the product of individual labor, or of private enterprize. Money is the legal standard by which value is measured. Merchandize is that which is valued by the aid of this standard. Money, as such, has no intrinsic value. Merchandize is sought for only on ac count of its intrinsic value. Money is perpetual in its nature, and is designed for all time. Merchandize is temporary, and adapted to special wants, and made for wear or consumption. Money is concentrative centering in the keeping of the few. Merchandize is diffusive, being required and consumed by many. Money is a legal certificate of value, and is transferable for what it represents. Merchandize is the tiling valued for what it is, or its uses. If money were merchandize, as money, then a yard stick would be merchandize as a measure, and the cloths would measure the yard-stick, as much as the yard-stick measures the cloth. If money be merchandize, and a law is passed to make it so, then all merchandize should be made by law money, which would be a literal destruction of the invention of money. Whatever commodity be selected to serve as money, is invested with a special power, and it is the greatest power conferred by the Government. The proposition that because a man possesses the legal right to demand what he pleases for his land, his mer- 286 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. chandize, and all other property, that therefore he ought to be authorized to ask and receive what he pleases for his money that because the free-trade principle prevails beneficially in rela tion to all other subjects of property, therefore it would operate beneficially in relation to money is a proposition to confer upon money all of the privileges, as to terms, that belong to merchan dize. A. owns horses, and houses and money. By law he can let his horses and houses for whatever he can obtain. Why should he not have the same power to get as much as he can for his money ? The substance of the answer which I should give to this merely popular and plausible argument is this : if this ar gument, which proceeds from the creditor s side of the house, could be so modified as to place money on a level, in all respects, with merchandize or other property, no rational man would object to the change. But they do not propose equality of function and power. They do not mean to equalize the powers of money and merchandize. The creditor says : I ought to have the privilege of using my money as merchandize, to obtain the most I can for its use. Very well. But if money is to have all of the privi leges of merchandize, then merchandize should have all of the privileges of money. If they are put on a level as to the use of the creditor, they should be put on a level as to the use of the debtor. But will the creditor consent that land or a bale of goods shall be made a tender in payment of his debts ? Why not ? If one is as much an article of trade as the other, they should be treated alike in all respects. It was not the design of the law so to treat them. The same law which gives to the creditor the power of refusing everything but gold and silver in the payment of his debt, ought to fix the value of that gold and silver. But by this new theory the creditor is not only entitled to refuse everything but gold and silver, but to be the judge of its value ; or, in other words, to demand what he pleases by the way of interest. To be consistent, the law which confers greater privileges upon money than upon merchandize, should also impose upon it greater restraints. If they, therefore, propose to destroy this preeminence of money, so far as regards its use by the creditor, they should des- CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 287 stroy It so far as regards its use by the debtor. But what they do propose is, to extend the privilege of the creditor, in fixing the value of his money, but not to extend the privileges of the debtor in the use of his merchandize. If money is to be treated as merchandize by the creditor, merchandize should be treated as money by the debtor. But to treat money as merchandize, to give to the creditor the power of asking what he pleases for its use, is a desecration of its original and sole design. It was crea ted by government as a test of value, as a medium of exchange. It stands as a boundary tree in the forest; neither adjoining owner has a right to use it for any other purpose. It derives all its value from government, and government alone ought to fix its value. Money pays a debt at the will of the debtor, but law recognizes no such power in merchandize. Money has a mini mum and maximum power according to law, otherwise it could not be a standard of value with any more consistency, than gov ernment can authorize unlimited yard-sticks or unlimited bush els ; but prices of merchandize fluctuate, and in relation to the legal standard, according to demand and supply. Money is the instrument of exchange, of settlement among traders. Merchan dize is the stock in trade to be exchanged. Money is authorized by law for convenience, not profit ; merchandize is produced by the labor of the people, and for profit. Money as merchandize, ceases to be money ; merchandize as money no where exists ex cept by legislation. Money exists only as a relative agent for measuring the value of other things ; merchandize is prized for what it is itself. Money is an agent to promote want, merchandize supplies want. Money saves labor, merchandize sustains it. Money makes the price, merchandize pays it. Money is borrowed and loaned, merchandize is bought and sold. Whatever may be said to the contrary, these fundamental distinctions are universally acknowl edged ; for while people are content to borrow money on special terms of security, all are earnest to sell merchandize on credit and without security. Purchasers of merchandize are politely and urgently solicited to buy, while borrowers of money are cere moniously permitted to make their propositions. As all pro ducts designed for use, or ornament, or consumption, are to be 288 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. weighed, measured, tested or valued, the governments of all na tions prescribe by law the means, and hence, we have weights, measures, tests and money so ordered, that all may understand their uses and render them available at the least possible ex pense. Such instruments, designed by government for the con venience of the people, require the protecting power of the most stringent laws. MONEY IS THE PROPERTY OF THE GOVERNMENT FROM WHICH IT RECEIVES ALL ITS POWERS, AND IT IS THE DUTY OF THE GOVERNMENT TO RESTRAIN THOSE POWERS BY USURY LAWS. There must always be made in the discussion of questions in political economy, as there is in the nature of things a clear distinction between the property which a man has by virtue of his own right and the property with which he is invested by a public franchise, or office. The first is inherent, and according to the fundamental prin ciples of our government and institutions, indefeasible. The other is purely conventional and derivative from the govern ment dependent upon it, and may be either perpetuated or de stroyed by it. Of the classes of public franchise or public property created for private use, in which men have no real, but a usufructuary right of property, there are many, but this one general charac ter they all have in common. They are the creatures of Law, and can claim no higher origin than Statute Law ; in it they live, and move and have their being, and it is a great perver sion of those sacred principles which lie at the foundation of all law and all government, and the Constitutional rights of men, to confound these franchises with that absolute property which every man, by nature, has a right to in the fruits of the land planted by his own hands in wild beasts subdued by his own powers in tame animals raised by his own industry in all the legitimate fruits of his own labor. Of these mere creatures of the law, we may emimerate but a few of the classes which are rather inconveniences of society than the rights of any individual. Of these are, 1. All weights, measures, and standards of every kind. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 289 2. All ferries, highways, bridges, and public buildings. 3. All offices, ministerial, judicial and executive. In the first class, we very justly place money, which is, as has been proven above, the measure of value, as it is ascribed to every species of property. The legitimate use of money is entirely analogous to public franchises, which derive their entire power from legislation ; and because the law has invested them with power which by abuse, might become the source of a grievous public annoyance. The law, with great wisdom and justice, restrains their power to abuse their trust and prevent that which was intended as a public con venience, from being employed as the pretext and machinery of private robbery. Of this class of franchises, I choose for illustration the Ferry, whose rates of charges are fixed by law, because their special license prevents competition and divests the public of its right of choice of common carriers ; and of consequence leaves to the discretion of the Ferryman what the rate of his conveyance may be, and unless restricted by law, would be a source of public op pression. Hacks, licensed by city authorities, are for the same reason subjected to the same law of rates and charges. Since their busi ness is created by law, the law has a right to regulate its powers. The lists might be extended, but enough for the purpose has been adduced. Public offices, which are created by law for the same reason, are restrained by law in the receipt of fees to a stipulated sum, for the very just reason that the law which gives compensation at all, has the indisputable right to say how much that compensa tion shall be. Otherwise public officers would be but instru ments and engines of despotism. So, money which is made by the law, for purposes of com merce merely, is very properly restrained in the amount of inter est which it may demand. Otherwise, money which was made as the measure of the value of merchandize, becomes the pretext of its universal sacrifice and depreciation, if not its destruction. Money is the same kind of property vested in the government as are highways, offices and other franchises of a similar charao 19 290 CEIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. ter. And the government has precisely the same right to control, direct and restrain the one, as it has to govern the other. The analogies between these franchises are natural and striking. Money is very properly likened to a highway in which every man has a usufructuary interest, but in which no man has an exclusive right. The analogy of the power of creation and reg ulation is complete. The highway, not without intrinsic value for purposes of agri culture, in its appropriation to the public service, becomes essen tial to the prosecution of the business and enjoyment of the people, and indispensable to the transportation of the country. On the other hand, gold and silver have an intrinsic value, but when made into money they are absolutely necessary to the existence of commerce they are both the creatures of law; each is made under the direction of, and supported by law. As the government taxes the people for the coining of money, so the people are taxed to keep up the highway, that no man dare obstruct it. And in every civilized country the circulation of money is most carefully guarded from obstruction. The interest which every ma has in the unobstructed highway and the free circulation of a sound currency, is personal as well as public. If the highway be ob structed, the necessary comforts and luxuries of life which are borne upon it, are cheaper or dearer, just as it is obstructed or free from obstruction. Precisely the same effect is produced in making it difficult to obtain the same articles by the obstruction of the circulation of money. Who will pretend that it is not the duty of the government, which builds the highway for the public at the public expense, to protect the public in the enjoyment of if; against nuisances of every kind ? What would be the public feeling if any man should presume, contrary to the law, to gather toll of travellers for his own personal use? But suppose some man should ob struct the road permanently, that he might hire his own team to assist travellers to pass by his own house and thereby secure to himself enormous fees for his labor ; would society tolerate it ? Could any law give protection to such marauders ? But money is no more than a highway. Like it, it is made by law for the use of the people. Just as the obstruction of the public highway CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 291 affects every traveler, so does the obstruction of the circulation of the currency of a country affect every man. But it especially affects the poor who are dependent on money to procure their daily bread, their raiment, their house-rent and their fuel. To obstruct the free circulation of money by usury, is a refined method of Political Economy for starving and enslaving the poorer classes, which they feel, as though it were positively done by law. But this state of things is induced by the prevalence of usury. Money serves the same purpose in the commercial world, which a public officer does in the administration of law. Money bears precisely the same relation to the commerce of the country which a Judge bears to the administration of justice. The obstruction of justice by bribery is precisely the same kind of offence as the obstruction of commerce by usury. What would be the condition of the country when a Judge could be hired for the individual purposes of a man who chanced to have a suit in court? And what must be the commercial condition of the country when the medium of circulation is turned from its legiti mate purposes by brokers, usurers and paper-shavers ? But how much more deplorable is the evil, when the currency is turned from the general purposes of business and is made subservient to the oppression of the poor, the affliction of the unfortunate, and the general ruin of the country ? Can any country long survive such enormous wrongs? The money of the country may be properly compared to the blood of the physical system, without which the limbs would be powerless. Any obstruction in the circulation of the blood seriously and dangerously affects the health, producing palsy in the limbs, or apoplexy in the brain. This indeed is a true picture of our country at the present time, which is paralyzed in all its extremities with festering corrup tion, and apoplexy in all the great centres of trade. Just as blood is the life of the man and a regulator of the health, and a distributor of vitality to every part of the system, so is money to commerce and business of every kind. Now when the same power is given by law to other property in commanding a posi tive value in the payment of debts which is now given to gold and silver coin for the same purpose, then may all usury laws cease to be a necessary protection against the dangerous power of 292 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. money, but not until then would it be just, or right, or good policy, or safe to repeal the usury laws of the country, or leave the immense power of money without any restraint. It will be conceded by every practical man, that money is a necessary medium of exchange, that its power as a measure of value is an essential element of the money itself. But since the power given it by the Government, as money, is the source of its own positive value, which, when unrestrained, becomes monstrous, it is the duty of the Government to remove every possible obstruction in their power to its free circulation, so that as the blood in the human body imparts life to all the ex tremities, money, as a circulating medium, shall pass as a measure of exchange and value of commerce to every part of community, discharging its offices as the financial servant of the people in every department of business, imparting vitality to the commerce of the whole country. To effect this purpose it is necessary that the rate of interest be so regulated by law that it will be to the advantage of all men not to retain money as a fluctuating commodity, but to use it as a standard measure of the value of other things which they may purchase with it. What would be the skill and science of the physician who would recommend a system of health based upon the theory that the vitality would be as perfect when the blood is obstructed, and cannot circulate through the human body as when it was unob structed and free ? But precisely such a political economist is he who recommends obstructions to the free circulation of money, by allowing enormous rates of interest, or what is the same, op poses the arrest of the great wrong of usury. The money of the country is essential to the transaction of its business. No trade can be carried on without money. The mer chant must have money to buy his goods, the manufacturer to pay his hands and to purchase the raw material, and the daily laborer to buy his daily bread. If they cannot obtain money, their business must stop at once. When the consumers cease to be employed and have not money, then must the farmer lose his market, and with that comes a gen eral stagnation of legitimate business, and ruin follows in its CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAH. 293 tram everywhere, since no business can be carried on without money. In such a state of things hard times necessarily ensue, just such times as are felt by the people everywhere ; felt in every business ; felt by everybody except by those enemies of trade, the usurers, who exact an exorbitant interest, just in proportion as it becomes impossible to pay money at all. The next question which presents itself is, can the various classes who have no money, relieve themselves by applying to these brokers or usurers? To this we answer most positively, they cannot. There is no business in prosperous times that can be honestly carried on by paying twenty-five per cent, on the capital invested. Nay, ten per cent, after duly requiting the laborer and not im posing on the consumer, is a ruinous tariff. Indeed six per cent, is a very high interest in any legitimate business. If the busi ness of a country be ruined, the laborer will go where he can find employment, the manufacturer where he can carry on his busi ness with health and success ; the mechanic where the increase of population demands his labor and skill, or in other words, the whole producing power of the State removes from the place where the channels of commerce are obstructed by usury, to where the people are protected by laws from the power of money in the hands of the holders, just as ships or vessels leave the obstructed rivers or seas where pirates roam at large, for seas whose waters are unobstructed, and on whose waves they may safely sail with out hindrance. The vast emigration from the country cannot fail to affect the Southern States in its numerical strength, military force, and pro ductive capacity. We might amplify our illustrations, were it necessary. A prostrate State with languishing business, ruined trade, and a population who are offering their homesteads for sale, while thousands are actually abandoning the farms on which they first settled, in consequence of the paralyzed condition of every kind of business, attest the truth of all that has been set forth. The specific cause will be carefully examined in another place. One of the great objections to all usurious contracts, is that the parties to such contracts do not meet upon an equality as in the transaction of other business. 294 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. The most ready method of determining the question whether they do meet upon terms of equality, is to consider who are the borrowers of money. Who are the borrowers of money ? Men who, if they had the means, would gladly pay their debts, but who cannot sell their farms, or even their homesteads for money, for the money is in the hands of men who propose to use it only as an instrument of oppression to grind the faces of the poor ; men who choose to buy other men s farms at public sale at a discount of seventy- five per cent, upon the recognized market value. These usurers having by mortgages and in other ways involved a very large proportion of the whole people in their meshes, have no disposi tion to pay a fair and honest value for property when they can so readily sacrifice it, gain possession of it, hold the obligation of their victim and hold him a slave for life ; or until the debt is paid, cause him to be annoyed by duns, notices and executions through usury, long after the original debt has been discharged. There is one class of borrowers who would, if possible, relieve themselves from the toils of other usurers, but in doing this, find themselves only changing their oppressors, relentless masters. Do these men meet as equals in the transactions of their busi ness ? Is not the borrower in duress and at the will of the len der ? Indeed, the usurer will boastingly say of his victim : " It was the best he could do ; he had to do this or do worse." Another class of borrowers are suggested in this connection ; men who were sufferers in a general calamity who were des titute in a wide-spread famine ; farmers who had no wheat with which to seed their lands, nor money left to buy it. These men call upon brokers to borrow money to buy seed-grain the loan to be paid after harvest. The farmer must have seed -wheat or lose his summer s work and thus rob his family of their bread ; and the broker, knowing the necessity of the farmer, takes advantage of it and loans him money at the very highest usury rates, in times of great financial distress. Were the parties in this transaction on an equality as contrac tors ? Was there no power of the oppressor here but what the oppressed could resist ? To all this the usurer, with unusual bland- ness, replies : " It is far better that the man should get his CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAK. 295 grain than to let his farm be idle and his family suffer from in creasing want." All this may be true, but it is a fearful revelation of the utter destitution of moral principle in the bosom of the broker. Like all other men who live by plunder, he limits his right to exact only by the capacity of his victim to endure. He would sell him as a slave, or take his life, could he thus secure his usury, but for the interposition of the law. And he will continue to perpetrate this robbery until the same law which protects his liberty and his life, interferes to protect his property. But among other borrowers, are men thrown out of employ ment who are unable to earn their daily bread. The money- holder will not bring under cultivation his wild land to give employment to the laborer. That would take money. He will not build houses, for that would reduce his capital. He will do nothing that employs labor for himself, or that will employ his money in legitimate trade or divert it from the channels of usury ; nor can any one else borrow it at these ruinous rates, to engage in any legitimate business which would give employment to laborers, artists or mechanics. To carry on a business under such circumstances, would be ruinous in the extreme. The re sult is, the laboring man remains idle ; his family must suffer from pinching want, and to get his daily bread, he must mort gage his homestead or jstarve, beg, or steal. He has no other alternative. Again, the usurer who is "the mildest-mannered man that ever scuttled ship or cut a throat," will loan him money to buy his bread with real-estate for security, and with the most perfect sangfroid say, "I pity the poor fellow; it was the very best thing that he could do and I accommodated him." Are the parties to the contract equal here? Is the borrower on a level with the lender ? And how else than by a strict and penal usury, can the evil apparent be arrested ? Whether is it better for the State to protect the industrious, who produce everything, from want or crime, or to protect usurers who pro duce nothing, in the commission of the greatest crime known to political economy, the prostration of legitimate business, des truction of the means of an honest subsistence the poor pit tance left to the laboring classes. 29 6 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. There is another class of borrowers who, it is thought, ought to be more heavily taxed ; they are men to loan to whom it is dangerous, and because it is a great risk to loan to them, we are told " that to exact usury of them, is right." The true theory in this class of loans is this : The whole is a species of gambling which would not exist but for the extor tion of usury tolerated by law. All civilized nations legislate against gambling, betting upon elections, the sale of lottery tickets, and all other gaming. Why, then, should we legislate against all bets or risks at stakes of money, and refuse to sup press usury the only argument for which is, that it may, when duly used, earn money from reckless speculators. If there were no other argument for the passage of usury laws, this one would be sufficient. Usury is made a pretext for reckless speculation and public gambling. It is frequently urged that speculators borrow money, and are under obligation to pay usury, and the money loaner has a right to exact usury of him, because he is a speculator. The argument is badly founded, for if usury be given by speculators, borrowers to pay debts will certainly not be able to get money at less rates, and, as a consequence, what is defended as a just punishment to adventurers, is only a badly-conceived defence of stock or other gambling, which falls with its full force upon the whole country, and most severely upon the productive class, beyond whose reach money is always placed in times of general distress. This very borrowing of money by speculators at ruinous rates, makes money so scarce at a fair commercial interest diverting it from its legitimate purposes, so as to make it impossible that debtors can borrow it to pay their legitimate debts. The business of the country in the very nature of things, must be carried on by the laborer of the operatives, and the net profits must be distributed among the capitalists, the conductors of the manufactory and the daily laborer. If enormous profits are made, the consumer must pay them. But competition in a very short time, usually regulates any serious evil which may arise from this cause, and nothing which is generally recognized as an article of commerce or trade, or which may be increased by the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 297 option of public industry, can long remain the subject matter of monopoly. But, in the division of the net profits, the first claim that will be met is that of the capitalists, which is always secured by mortgage deeds of trusts, voluntary confessions of judgment, personal or collateral securities of such character as makes the interest of the capitalist not only secure, but convertible into cash at pleasure, unless it be in times of extraordinary pressure The capitalist is well secured in his investment, when the nominal owner who has the remaining control of the effects and assets will, of course, secure to himself a lion s share of the net profits, and, as in every other contest between labor and capital, labor has to yield an obedient neck to the yoke capital places upon her by the unfair legislation of the country. The operative has only one or other of these alternatives. He must either take the pittance which may be left after the division of the profits between the capitalist and the controller of his capital, or be driven from an honest employment to the destitute home of a hungry family who are dependent on his labor. Now, what in honesty and justice should be done to a fair dis tribution of the profits of the manufactory ? Should not the laborer be first rewarded for his work; next the chief operator who takes supervision of the establishment ; and then, if anything be left, let it be given to the capital which neither toils nor spins. If capital refuses to contribute by its aid to the general work because it cannot enslave the laborer, then ought restrictions to be duly thrown around it to prevent money which was made for the public use from becoming an instrument of public oppres sion ? This is thought to be an unanswerable argument against the enactment of all usury laws. BOTH PARTIES CONSENT TO THE USURIOUS BARGAIN. This would be no argument worthy of weight, even if it were true. That two criminals consent to a wrong in which one is a sufferer, is not a valid consent for the very highest of reasons, that the public good is involved and the public Government is interested in the protection of all her citizens in life, liberty and CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. property. For this reason homestead exemption laws have been passed, not merely for the specific protection of an individual, but for the protection of society itself against the aggressions of greedy and unscrupulous men who would utterly impoverish their fellow men only, that they may send them as mendicants to be supported at public expense. For the same cause, also, laws are made against all crime, that the public may thereby be protected against bankruptcy and the people from pauperism. Adultery certainly is a crime, though both parties consent to its commission. And the law makes it punishable for the reason that society becomes the sufferer, since it has to make provision for the support of bastard children, for which pure citizens are taxed. Society has a higher claim in the vindication of her own character from scandal, which, if permitted, would degrade the morals and utterly bankrupt the public. It is of very little consequence that two criminals conspire against the peace, order and dignity of the State, and plead in justification of their guilt that they both consented, since it is their very consent that con stitutes the essence or. animus of their crime. So gambling of every kind is done by the consent of both parties. But here, very properly, the law interferes to arrest the crime and punish it; for society itself is invaded, since in every instance of gain by one party and loss by the other, the relative ability of the loser to provide for himself and family is injured if not destroyed, and the chance that he will become a public charge is greatly augmented. What would a community of gamblers be but a community of paupers, sooner or later, to be supported by the public wealth drawn from the sweat of the faces of the producing or laboring classes ? But does this consent make the matter less a crime against the peace and honor of society ? or that even a majority agree to corrupt the fountains of morals, and grind with taxes the only men who contribute to its real wealth, does this make the injury less? In this case as in all others, it is the consent which constitutes the crime, and makes its less equivocal and more dangerous, be cause more powerful. Duelling is done by consent of both parties. The mere consent CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAl 299 of two men to commit a murder, is not a good reason for the permission of the crime, when the very essence of murder is that it was done premeditatedly. Society does not choose to grant an immunity to men who cast a fearful gloom upon her destiny, and have nothing to offer in palliation of their crimes, except impudent defiance of all law and audacious contempt for the rights of peaceable communities. Usury is done by the consent of both parties. But is that a reason why men should commit a great wrong on society, ob structing the business, labor and commerce of the country by gambling in the currency ? The consent of the parties only ag gravates the crime of voluntarily disregarding the majesty of the law. We will now examine the question Who are the parties consenting? Are they the same as the parties really interested in the illegal transaction ? They are not. The country is the first and a paramount party in all transactions affecting her own honor. The first great duty, and obligation, and debt due from every citizen is to the State, and without a proper regard to this obligation, there can be no law, no country, no society, no order ? no security. Has the State given her consent to any of the crimes to which we have alluded ? Has she not prohibited them by positive law ? And can any man be said to give his consent to a transaction which, as a law-abiding citizen, he has bound him self not to do ? The country has not consented to the crime of usury, and the laws of all civilized nations prohibit it. Every man s creditor, and his creditor and family, are bona fide parties to every transaction which in any wise may affect his property and its products until their debts are liquidated. But do the creditors of men, as parties to the transactions of usury, give their consent to the payment of usury to others, while the principal part of their honest debts remains unpaid ? Surely such consent not, to anything connected with the crime of usury. But the Almighty just, wise, and good Creator, has made other parties to nearly every transaction of this kind. By His wise providence, it is the imperious duty of all men to support their parents in old age, to maintain their children in helpless infancy, to protect and defend, to educate and enlighten them, to justly share their 300 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. earnings and their interests with their wives ; and all of these parties have an indefeasible interest in the moral character and good name of the child, the father, the husband ; therefore, the crimes of usury, duelling, gambling, adultery, are held by the general consent of these intensely interested parties, as detestable crimes. Who, then, are the parties in usurious contracts ? They are the State, the creditors and the families of the victims of usury. But these parties never give their consent, and consequently, the argument of consent between the parties in usury falls to the ground. Even if they did give their consent, that fact would be of no force, since no law can exonerate criminals from guilt, simply because they consented to commit crime. CONSIDERATION OF THE CHARACTER OF THE BORROWERS MEN WHO ARE FORCED TO PAY USURY. The great body of borrowers are already debtors ; men who are the victims of a general calamity, a financial crisis which is brought about by financial gambling, and at the will of the bro kers, bankers, capitalists; other men who always have the law of the country male to their order; or who, if the laws are not in con formity with their purposes, through the power of money, bid defiance to all law, as they have in their very business stifled all conviction of the right of other men and retributive justice. Once the victim of such a crisis, honest poor men, who scorn to assign their property or make a fraudulent conveyance, borrow money to pay their honest debts. But in their refusal to borrow money, and in their determination to do right, they fall victims to m.3n who despise right, and who under the cover of law, commit every outrage upon the rights of property and human nature. But if the creditor be dishonest, then comes premature assign ments, delays in the payment of debts, and general failures that are felt through the avenues of business and trade ; or fraudulent conveyances, or surreptitious business transactions that demoralize society at its foundation. If there were no other reasons for the enactment of the usury laws than the protection of men who become victims of this ne cessity, that would of itself be sufficient to carry out the great CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 301 first purpose of government in the protection of the weak from the aggressions of the strong. Such borrowers are involuntary. The second class of borrowers business men, upon whose success the employment and subsistence of the poorer classes are dependent. A system of heavy interest, or usury, either drives them out of business and crushes out the laborers employed by them, or if they continue in business, paying usury, they are overwhelmed in a hopeless bankruptcy sooner or later : the sooner the better. The third class of borrowers are speculators or sub-brokers, who take special contracts of hunting up men in distress, and do a more base, heartless, grinding business in a lower way than their principals. Still, Mr. Say and Rev. Dr. Wayland speak of " supply and demand as regulating the whole matter, and that injustice is done to no one." But what are the facts ? These borrowers increase the rate of interest and increase the demand for money, and with that increase, the oppression of the debtor by the creditor ; and just as in every other case, the hard ship falls with crushing weight upon the helpless and unpro tected. Indeed, the price paid by the usurer for money to com mit usury with, places money for the time being out of the reach of the oppressed debtor, and makes it impossible to carry on his legitimate business, and destroys the vitality of commerce and business of every kind; nor is there any greater fallacy than that the speculator has to pay the usury ? The speculator makes the poor man pay it in his advanced prices, on what he sells, but more generally the whole have to suffer together; the loaner, the speculator and the thousands who deal with them, are all in volved in a general bankruptcy. The other side of usury is j ust about as fairly presented by giving THE CHARACTER OF USURY AS DEVELOPED IN HIS HABITS OF CONDUCTING HIS BUSINESS. All his business is done in the very teeth of the law, in viola tion of the peace, policy and statute of the State. A good man .may, in the moment of excitement, commit an act of indiscre tion and violate a law, but he will always hasten to repair it. 302 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. But the usurer violates the laws of the country in every single transaction of his trade, and his office sets precisely the same example of obedience to the public law as does the saloon of the professional gambler to whose vocation it is so nearly allied ; or as does the keeper of the grog-shop, who, like himself, prospers only as his customers sink to ruin. Every transaction of the broker s shop is a falsehood, and car ries a deceit upon its face. His papers assert a lie in the amount borrowed ; they cover up a truth in the amount falsely wrung from his victim. When they sue in the Courts of Chancery, they institute their suits by perjury, and make the courts of jus tice subservient to their crime. They don t pretend to collect their debts by the ordinary method. Every debt in default is a suit in court. Every misfortune which may disable their victim from prompt payment, is followed by an execution. What is now the condition of the country ? What is it that fills every advertisement column of the newspapers ? The sheriff s sales-list: the executed property of victims of brokers shops. What business chiefly engages the courts that are now busy be yond all precedent ? The answer is, to collect usurious debts. The usurer only loans to men in necessity : other men avoid him, as they dread the pestilential breath of bankruptcy; robbery and ruin. He loans to the unfortunate for the obvious reason, that other men could save themselves from his deadly grasp. Upon the other hand, the usurer could hope for nothing but in the necessity and ignorance of the unfortunate, which are his great staple in trade. Like a sea- vulture that scents the foe ted breath of the dying sailor, and follows the vessel until his body has been cast into its watery tomb, only to be devoured by the hungry monster, so the usurer instinctively learns the unhealthy condition of the community, and follows his devoted victim until the last hope of recovery has passed away, only to consume his substance and devour his property. He is unmoved, though living by the violation of all law and trampling upon all justice. He has no sympathy with any one. He lives upon the necessities of men. He would save a drown ing man if he could fix a paying price, or drive a good bargain CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 303 with the man before he sunk. Such is the usurer and such are the men upon whom he preys. And it is but an act of justice to him to say that he is sometimes a worshipper in the temple of God. But this is only the finishing stroke of a deceit which scruples not to approach the Deity and invite him to become a particeps criminis in a hypocricy which invades the very holy of holies of heaven itself. He, too, is found giving alms in public, just as incendiaries hastening to accomplish the destruction of their victims by the knife, poison the food that there may be no escape. So this venal creature of corruption assails the altar of sacrifice, and with his filthy lucre, attempts to poison the watchmen upon the outer walls of the Temple of Truth, that he might thrust his hidden poignard to the heart of Christianity, and over its mangled remains grind the faces of the poor, until by common consent, robbery is made reputable in the Church of God. THE JEWISH LAW ON USURY. The Jewish law forbade all interest, usury or increase what ever, either upon money, grain, any of the necessaries of life, or any other commodity. This great principle had its foundation in the true philosophy of all equal and just government, that every man shall pro duce an amount equal at least to what he consumes. The settled maxim of Jewish law was this : " He that does not work, shall not eat." This maxim was just and right. It guaranteed to the people at large equality, and to every man justice. Every one lived upon his labor. No man lived upon his capital in his money, by taking usury of his brother. His only hope of success in business was based upon carefully husbanding and appropriating his means to such useful purposes in agriculture and the arts, &c., as gave him due compensation for his labor and ingenuity. The Jewish law was founded upon this great pillar of eternal justice : " Whatever ye would that men should do unto you, even do ye unto them." Such a law could not well tolerate such a system as usury, which makes labor entirely subservient to 304 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. capital, and subsidizes industry for the benefit and support of idleness and crime. The language of the law is alike explicit, clear, and in exact harmony with the true spirit of justice and benevolence which was breathed through the whole Jewish system. " If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. If thou at all take thy neighbor s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down." Exodus, 22d chapter, 25th and 26th verses. " If thy brother be waxen poor and fallen into decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him. Yea, though he be a stran ger or a sojourner, that he may live with thee, take thou no usury of him or increase, but fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase." Lev. 15th chap., S5-37 verses. " Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother, upon usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything which is lent upon usury. Unto a stranger thou mayst lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to, in the land whither thou goest to possess it." The Jewish people were for the most part engaged in agricul tural pursuits ; and by the law every man had his allotted posi tion. It was the purpose of the law to suffer no man to be idle, to foster no idleness, to engender no crime ; for idleness begets crime, and is inseparable from it. The equality of her people was the glory of her government, and the bulwark of her strength. This equality could only be maintained in the spirit of justice, by allotting to every man the fruits of his own labor, and allow ing no man to live upon the labor of others, and appropriating the surplus, whatever it might be, of the aggregate labor of the whole people, to the support of the infirm and unfortunate. But where every man labors, there would be but few infirm; where there was no speculation, there were scarcely any unfortu nate in business. The policy of the Jews was to allow to each other in dealing or loaning money no increase or usury, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL. WAR. 305 which was with them convertible terms, for the reasons indica ted in the foregoing. Indeed, there was a still higher rule, the great principle upon which the whole Jewish law is founded. " To love thy neighbor as thyself." This law could never be carried out, either in the letter or in the spirit, where usury in any sense had the countenance of law, or the sanction of public sentiment. But the Jews did loan on usury to neighboring nations, which, though no better in morals, was a very adroit stroke in political economy. By sending their money abroad to labor they could ruin the Canaanites and soon gain all of their property, which in a very short time, by very moderate rates of interest, would ex haust the principal in usury and leave those nations bankrupt. Capital invited into the State to make us rich on such a disinterested errand, could not be expected to come unblessed with the kind wishes and benediction of that most benevolent and charitable class of public benefactors the usurer. With the invitation of the law and the gospel, the legislator and the minister, with the approving smile of the Christian, and the constituent, the philanthropic broker from the far-off East, went to work to make money for the Western people after this wise. He bought up depreciated and worthless railroad bonds, and other equally valuable stocks, upon which brokers, gamblers, or blacklegs play poker on stakes of counterfeit money. This they called a basis of banking. They bought beautiful fine paper, and drew pictures of superannuated politicians upon it, and called it money. This MONEY was sent to ACCOMMODATE the people. There were a million of dollars sent to assist in im proving the country, at the moderate rate of twenty-five per centum per annum. These millions of dollars were loaned on very reasonable security. They only asked of the people two or three endorsers beside the borrower ; and only about five times the amount mortgaged, and then gave them at least three weeks beyond the maturity of their deed of trust, to raise the money ; and then if the money was not raised, they would only buy in the property for at least half the amount of the debt and wait for the balance until the debtor could earn it. Their million of Eastern capital which came to labor for four years 20 306 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. found already a million of circulating medium. But neither their million nor our million, begat another dollar at the end of the four years. The interest of their million at twenty-five per cent., \vas just another million, so their million having done its errand very gracefully, bowed to the people, taking the other million to pay the usury, leaving us without a currency of any kind. Then steps in another equally friendly class of public benefactors, to sell the mortgaged property of the country all simply because usury lowered the rates of interest. Never was sagacity more highly honored than that of the Jews, who would suffer no increase to be taken of each other ; for thereby they prevented general poverty and consequent crime. Nor was ever ruin to a neighboring nation more certainly effected than in the exactions of usury by the Jews, in their loaning of money to the Canaanites. And after the improvement in arts and science for many centuries, and the regulations of Jewish law in political economy, there can be offered no amendment which will command the approving judgment of future ages, or which will not be ultimately discarded by statesmen, as a ruinous innovation of reckless adventurers in the science of government. The wrongs endured by labor at the hands of capital, cannot be more graphically pictured than has been done by the hand of desolation at the present time. Behold thousands of field-hands who have spent the past summer in raising millions of bushels of grain with their own hands, on soil given to mankind in common by the Almighty, when winter comes, are refused enough of bread to sustain them, and can find no employment by which to secure money enough to purchase the necessaries of life, to save their families from famine, and are compelled to pay usury on money, and mortgage their homesteads to secure the payment, as the mild alternative ! Is not this a fearful com mentary upon the justice of the world, that from the cradle to the grave, the poor, who produce the wealth of the country, are to a great extent, denied the luxuries, the comforts, and almost the essentials of living, while the rich revel in the excesses of the products of the labor of the poor ? It is in the contract of the organization of society, that justice shall be done to each, and protection shall be afforded to all. But without usury Jaws CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAB. 307 this cannot be done. The difference of the power of money over every other article of trade, is almost as great as that of capital over labor. Every other kind of property is taxed np to its full value, and is made to bear more than its share of the expenses in the wars and improvements of the country, while under no circumstances can it yield the profits of money, even at 6 per cent, per annum. THE EFFECTS OF USURY ON TRADE. The real character of usury, and its effects upon trade, are concisely and powerfully presented in the statute of Anne, enacted in 1714 : " Whereas the reducing of interest to ten, and from thence to eight, and thence to six in the hundred, has, by experience, been found very beneficial to trade, and improvement of lands ; and whereas the heavy burden of the late long and expensive war hath been chiefly borne by the owners of the land of this king dom, by reason whereof they have been necessitated to contract very large debts, and thereby, and by the abatement in the value of their lands, are become greatly impoverished ; and whereas, by reason of the great interest and profit of money made at home, the foreign trade has been neglected," &c. This statute has been vindicated by the judgment, wisdom, and experience of the British government, for nearly a century and a half, and the reasons are as good to-day as they were then, and are as true in America as they are in Europe. That no injustice may be done to any one, it may be suggested that no other capital than money, though productive and gener ative, can make such vast profits as money loaned at 6 per cent, interest. Though money is really unproductive, and yields no thing; yet it is like the spade or the plough, which does no thing excepting only as it is directed by the hand of the laborer. This accompanying statement shows how impossible it is to pay usury, although it may be contracted, and the impossibility to pay it, is a conclusive reason why usury should not be tolera ted as a matter of civil contract. An eminent statistician of Boston has taken the pains to show what would be the effect of different rates of interest upon money 308 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. in Massachusetts, for a term of 40 years, a period proportioned to the being of a State. He takes : Loans and discounts of Banks in Massachusetts, Dec. 4, 1854 $93,000,000 Interest thereon, 40 years interest taken in ad vance every six months, and added to principal, at 6 per cent, per annum 1,063,455,000 do. do. at 7 per cent per annum, 1,607,970,000 Difference between 6 and 7 per cent. 40 years... $544,515,000 Nearly the valuation of the whole State of Mas sachusetts in 1850, which was. $508,000,634 Interest on $93,000,000, 40 years, at 8 per cent. 2,436,600,000 do. do. do. at 6 per cent 1,063,455,000 Difference between 6 and 8 per cent. 40 years... $1,373,145,000 Valuation of Massachusetts deducted 598,000,634 Difference between 6 and 8 per cent. 40 years more than value of Mass, in 1850 $775,144,366 THE GEEAT OUTEAGE PEEPETEATED IN ALLOWING BANKS TO TAKE USUEY. It is true that we have a usury law for banks as well as for individuals. They have the right to issue notes far beyond their present capacity to redeem. But if individuals are suffered by law to take twenty-five or thirty-six per cent, usury, why not grant to banks the same privilege? They, however, do take this privilege. In the loan of $1,000 for thirty days, the nomi nal interest is ten per cent. But gentlemen like these are not to be outwitted, for after taking out the interest of the note, and thus paying ten per cent, on money never received, the borrower has to take money on N. York at 1^ per ct. discount, or more, as the case may be, and when he has paid the exchange and interest, he finds the amount is at least twenty-five per cent, per annum; thus making three dollars for every dollar of capital nominally invested. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 309 This precious privilege of loaning credit, or promises to pay, is peculiar to chartered institutions. But they receive their power to make money from the law, and after hiding under its shelter and receiving its protection, these gentlemen of the banks will complain that it is a great wrong done them that they are not allowed by law to loan at any rate in their discretion, and it is very difficult to give any good reason why banks should not take usury just as other persons do. But the whole is evidence conclusive of the destructive policy of allowing either banks or individuals to obstruct the business of the country in that way. ON THE SCARCITY OF MONEY. Another of the fallacies which deludes the public mind, but which has no support in either experience or common sense, is that the interest of money ought to be high or low as money is scarce or plenty. If it be true that money is scarce, its scarcity is only relative, and is in proportion to the debts which are to be paid by it. If the debts of a country are heavy and the cur rency is inadequate to its ready payment, then is usury intoler able ; for all usury only increases the debt which is already too large to be liquidated by the existing amount of money. The result is, that usury in hard times inevitably bankrupts men who, in better times, might endure its pressure for a time, but now are crushed and destroyed by its force. The reason there is a scarcity of money is this : The brokers have money to loan when the farmers have nothing to sell, and the mechanic can find no market for his labor, nor the merchant for his merchan dise. They are in the greatest need of money, and the broker gives out that it is scarce, and he loans at ruinous rates until his stock is exhausted ; he then calls in the aid of his old friend, the banker, who can accommodate to the fullest extent of his demand ; or if he should need further help, he calls on his finan cial adjunct, the counterfeiter, who is engaged in corrupting the currency and coin of the country, just as the broker is engaged in obstructing their free circulation among the people each doing his utmost to enrich himself by robbing the country. 810 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL After sending their paper trash to the farthest extremities of the land, thereby making flush times and plenty of money, to make the excitement general and the delusion complete, they engage in sham sales of railroad bonds, running them up to par and far above par, and quoting them in their bank detectors as the most valuable of all securities, until every one is anxious to exchange property for railroad stock. By this trick of the trade, the brokers rid themselves of all this trash ; get all the money of the country into their coffers ; secure mortgages upon all of the real estate which may be embarrassed, and the individual notes of unsuspecting endorsers, all of which have been given for fancy stocks and moonshine investments. Then, in the spirit of pub lic benefactors, they commence to warn the public and create a panic, send startling telegraphic dispatches to the daily papers, setting forth some European failures, and then conspire together to crush two or three leading commercial houses in the several cen tres of trade. This, of course, destroys public confidence, and then a general upheaving in the monetary world ensues, and a crash in all business soon follows. Then a BANK-NOTE DETECTOK, containing the latest news, is issued by the brokers, in which they expose counterfeit money, decimate bank paper, and outlaw railroad and city bonds, which have been sent out to the public by their own hands, and then, with a cool impudence, which would challenge the admiration of the devil, they commence the mad-dog cry of hard times and scarcity of money. The truth is, that money is just as plenty in hard times, as a general thing, as in others, with only this difference: that in easy times, money is in the hands of the people; m hard times, it is in the hands of the few who combine to make it scarce, that they may speculate upon it. This is the brief history of the cause of the scarcity of money. Money will be used in business, whether interest is high or low ; that is what it was coined for, and it is the only use which can be made of it, except that if the rates of money are high, it can not be used advantageously in business; if low, it can. Usury laws certainly do not lessen the amount of money ; they only protect it in its proper and legitimate service ; and certainly it must be manifest to every one, that when nothing makes money CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 311 but money itself, and that by usury, that the rich who receive it are made richer, and the poor who pay it are made poorer, when if, by usury laws capital was restrained, it would flow into the legitimate channels of business, and labor would be employed and remunerated, and such a thing as an entire stagnation in business, by which ruin overtakes so many, would be entirely unknown in the country. In proof of this, we summon the fact that in times of peace a financial crisis has never occurred, which was not produced by speculation and usury. By a trick of stock-gamblers, they create a superabundance of paper money, railroad bonds and fancy stocks, that a pressure may ensue, in the meantime passing it into other hands at high rates, just as greenhorn gamblers on Mis sissippi steamboats are permitted at cards to win the first games, to inspire self-confidence that the old blackleg may, at his leisure, sweep the stakes and seize the pile. THE MORALS OF USUEY. The question of usury is not only one of political economy, affecting the vitality of commerce, the integrity of the civil gov ernment and the transactions of all the current business of the country, but also one which, in every age of the world among civilized nations, has been a part of the religion of the churches and a pillar of morality. This crime is forbidden in the Decalogue, under the broad and comprehensive commandment : " Thou shalt not steal." To steal is to take the property without due compensation, contrary to the wish and against the consent of the lawful owner. Taking usury is clearly and plainly inhibited by this com mandment. The common clandestine thief takes advantage of the owner, and purloins his property without his consent. The highway robber assaults the traveller, takes advantage of his weakness, and divests him of his property against his will and without his consent. The burglar enters the dwelling at night, and availing himself of the slumber of the inmates, carries off the property, contrary to the consent of the owner. The incen- 312 CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. diary goes at midnight and destroys by torchlight, houses and property, without the consent of the owners. The broker, usurer and paper-shaver (convertible terms) find their victims in neces sity, and take their usurious interest without their real consent. Side by side with their robbery, arson, burglary, swindling, USURY takes its place as a violation of the great law of God, " Thou shalt not steal." In perfect conformity or harmony with the characteristics of usury, is the denunciation it receives in the fifteenth psalm. He is excluded from the tabernacle of worship in the wilderness, from the temple at Jerusalem and from the kingdom of God. The classification given to the usurer by the great political economist, is well worthy of the attention of be lievers in Divine Revelation, and it will commend itself to the good sense of the people everywhere. The usurer is excluded : 1st. From the society of those who "walk uprightly" those who are fair and honest in their dealings with their fellow men. 2d. From those "who work in righteousness." 3d. From men who " speak the truth in their heart." He is then associated in character with those : 1st. Who " backbite with their tongue." 2d. Who " do evil to their neighbor." 3d. Who " take up a reproach against their neighbor." 4th. With those in whose eyes a vile person is countenanced. 5th. With those who dishonor them that fear the Lord. Cth. With those who take a reward against the innocent, either by swearing falsely to condemn them, or by espousing the cause of the guilty. This general denunciation, in which the usurer is made con spicuously enormous at first sight, appears ungenerous only be cause his crime has been made comparatively reputable through, the very power which his money has given to him. He has sought to subsidize the press and secure its advocacy of the doc trine of FREE TRADE IN MONEY ; he has almost silenced the voice of the pulpit against his great wrong, and he has succeed ed in introducing text-books in the colleges of the country, making this precious system a part of the standard science of political economy. Then, of course, the subject of usury is kept CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 313 from the view of three great classes of the community the readers of newspapers, the attendants on churches and students at colleges. But the truth of God will not be silenced. Heaven s law is unchangeably eternal, and it is eminently proper that the opinions of the psalmist and the just judgment of God concern ing usury and the usurer, shall be vindicated. The usurer cannot be an upright man or one that worketh righteousness. There is one great law for all upright men. It is this : " Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." It scarcely needs analysis to prove the utter impossibility of the usurer conforming to this law : 1st. He violates the law of God plainly and unequivocally. 2d. He violates the law of the land which puts a limit to the in crease of interest on money. 3d. He violates the very essence of the law which says : " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 7 / The usurer is very justly classed with men who speak falsely in their heart. His papers are drawn to avoid the letter of the law ; his business is for the most part done privately, to avoid arrest when his crime of usury may be plead in court ; he is a man who makes the very paper presented to the court show forth a lie. The uprightness and morality of usury may well be judged of, when it is remembered that nearly every transaction in a broker s shop is amenable to the criminal laws of the land. Nor is it an injustice to give him his place side by side with him that backbiteth with his tongue ; for no slander doth so destroy the reputation of a business-man as that he is indebted to the brokers. Nor do any class of men so relentlessly seek the de struction of their victim as do the brokers. The courts are filled with the foreclosures of mortgages by which property is to be sacrificed in the hands of the debtors. The newspapers are filled with the publication to the world of the unnecessary ruin and forced bankruptcy of the unfortunate body of men who fall a prey to brokers. " HE DOETH EVIL TO HIS NEIGH- BOB." The wages of labor, the whole value of property, the happiness of the community, and the peace of families, are de stroyed by usury. Every sheriff s sale is a stroke at the value of property, and affects the third and disinterested party only 314 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. second to the immediate sufferers, and makes properly value less. Nor is the comparison an injustice to the usurer when he is placed upon a level with the man who takes a reward against the innocent ; who hires himself to prosecute an innocent man, or he who forswears himself for money. The wretch who would extort a promise of reward from a drowning man, is the fit com panion of him who would extort money from a man in any other kind of distress whatever. So after this manner the word of God deals with the usurer. HOW THE EIGHTS OP PROPEETY ARE INJURED BY USURY. We will only cite the sheriff s sale as an illustration of this point. A. owns property, but wishes to sell it. It is worth 5,000 in cash. B. wishes to buy just such property and thinks the price a fair one, but C. has mortgaged his farm to D., and cannot borrow the money to redeem it at a less rate than twenty- five per cent., which rate of interest he has been paying for the last two years ; but even at that rate he cannot give the addi tional security. His property is already mortgaged for one-fourth of its value, and it is now due. The result is, his farm goes to sale and only brings $2,000, though it is well worth $8,000, and is so regarded, and the mortgagee (the usurer) buys the property at that price. But B., who would buy the property of A., sees that property sells at one-fourth of its accredited value at sheriff s sale, and declines purchasing it; for the frequency of sheriffs sales utterly depreciates the value of all property ; so he awaits and prefers to buy at sheriffs sale, or, what is its equivalent, he will seek out some good farm whose owner is in distress, loans his money to him; mortgages his property; has a sheriffs sale of his own, and gets his property at a corresponding sacrifice. When sheriffs sales are common, property has no value : money alone is valuable and has power. THE EVIL EFFECTS OF USURY UPON SOCIETY INDUCING CRIME. The most lamentable feature in the character of usury is its CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 315 results. Thousands of those who become the victims of this crime, shrink from the public gaze, and flee from society and seek refuge in obscure and solitary poverty, to hide their weak ness and disgrace ; whilst others grow desperate, and feeling that society has tolerated their robbery, grow reckless and engage in open theft and robbery to indemnify themselves for the forays made upon them under cover of law. There are still others who are broken-hearted and fly to the bowl and sink under the consuming fires of dissipation and in temperance. But there are the great masses who are thrown out of employment, who are driven to either crime or starvation as a fearful alternative. Usury is the greatest of financial crime. The great estimate placed upon wealth and the social and political power which it commands, makes it the desire of all to make money, even at the expense of virtue. To be rich is to be everything worthy of human aspiration. It is for this cause that men peril every thing to become wealthy. The great majority of the young men of this country are poor ; they have, in order to commence busi ness, to borrow money. In times like the present, they have to pay usury ; to succeed in business they must make more than can be ordinarily made in the legitimate business. They early learn habits of dishonesty, to atone for their poverty, and the crime of usury practiced on them. If they see failure staring them in the face, the office of the lottery is their first resort, and, like the foolish philosopher who sought the source of the rain bow to gather colors, they buy lottery tickets until their present money and visionary hopes have forever passed away together. To be dishonored in the usurer s office, to endure protest, is more than their youthful hope can brook. In hopes of redeem ing his paper in due time, upon the part of the drawer, and a determination that he shall redeem it at the time appointed upon the part of the drawer, the note is drawn with a forged endorse ment. Then soon comes open forgery. In other cases, passing counterfeit money and bold, open robbery and theft and mur der are resorted to, to repair a fortune squandered upon usurers. Unfortunately for the country in every crisis, we have such ex hibitions of crime as make any other illustrations superfluous. 316 CEIMES OP THE CIVIL. WAK. And to fasten the guilt where it lies directly, these times are made by the broker to order. For want of employment, thousands of men commit crime, who loathe it until necessity has forced them to resort to it as the means of a livelihood. And whatever supports even idle ness, contributes to crime in all of its various forms and charac ters. Men who live and have not property, must labor, beg, steal, or starve. When there is no employment to be had, men cannot labor. They will not and ought not to starve ; then the country has the revolting alternative of pauperism or theft, as the means of support for the masses of the people who live by daily labor. Upon the other hand, the evil is not less to even the usurer and his family. In his case, is an example of a man living in idleness by the commission of crime as an avocation in life, giv ing respectability to offensive wrong-doing. THE EXTENT OF THE EVIL IS SUCH AS TO DEMAND MOST STRIN GENT LAWS AGAINST USURY. In an impartially written article a great injustice would be done, to a most momentous question, to suffer any merely political con sideration to have any bearing upon it whatever. Every con sideration of that character has been carefully excluded. But the truth must not be sacrificed to gratify even a political party, no difference under what name it may be recognized, especially when all the political parties of the country are alike implicated in the great wrong of paper-shaving. Paper-shaving is an evil in which the State governments have not only been a participant, but direct sufferers, and the whole people have been victims. Railroad companies have been formed, of which counties become heavy stockholders. Bonds were issued, drawing high per cent, interest per annum, for every dollar of which the counties, and all of their improvements, are bound by mortgage. These mortgaged bonds have been sold in market down as low as fifty per cent. Here, then, is the most ruinous usury given by the country or their guardians, to stock-brokers, besides a constantly accruing CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 317 interest on money, which the people have never received. But the States have set no better example to their citizens. For any delinquent taxes necessary to pay this extraordinary squander ing, the law demands twenty-five per cent, interest until paid, when the interest is at least fifty per cent, upon the amount realized in the sale of the bonds. "Will a free people long tolerate this outrage upon their rights ? Can any State prosper under such rule, or rather misrule? The evil has assumed the form of peculation, or public rob bery, upon the part of public officers. The money of the various treasuries of the States, has been used as the basis of nearly half of the country, in which some of the treasurers have been par ticipants in the swindle and usury. Nor did the country fare any better when the public lands were brought into market. Brokers and the lackeys of brokers, sat in the land-office levy ing black-mail upon distant purchasers who were hunting homes ; and loaning money at forty per cent, interest per annum. Merchants have had to pay a corresponding tax for the use of money, when the very prevalence of usury made it impossible for them to collect their debts. Every part of society, every branch of business, and all the citizens of the States, have felt the evil. No man, except the usurer, has escaped the general ruin. The clear and unquestionable right to legislate against usury, arises from the very nature of the government of society. The true object of all just government, is to protect men in the en joyment of their rights ; to protect or preserve the weak from the aggression of the strong ; to prevent the learned from impos ing on the unlearned ; to rescue the innocent from the conspir acies of the malicious ; to place the unsuspecting honest man as far as may be, beyond the grasp of the vicious. For the purpose of justice, it is of no consequence whatever, how the rights of men are invaded, nor by whom society is in corporated, for the purpose of protecting each of its members from injury and aggression. Unless society proposes to do this much, it were better to abandon it for that personal protection and self-defence which all men are entitled to* 318 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. One of the essential rights of man is the right to property, and taking or appropriating any man s property to the use of another, and contrary to his will, is such an outrage and crime as make it the duty of society to recognize and punish. If this be not done, individual rights would be better protected without laws an 1 without society. The strong need no protection, but the weak and defenceless do, and hence the necessity for society and its proper basis. One of the strongest and most frequently urged objection to USURY LAWS is, that " they cannot be enforced." Is this the case ? Can it be true ? Suppose they cannot be en forced. What is the reason ? Is it possible that the legal power of money is such that it defies the laws even in the hands of men who are bound by oath to execute them ? It is not well worth the trouble of every political economist, to look into this matter. It is well worthy the attention of the moralist also. The corrupting power of money is such that it undermines the positive commandments of God ; overrides the laws and regu lations of the Church, and draws into the current of its destruc tive power, the whole Christian system of morals. That a law is not executed is no argument for its repeal, but is an overwhelming reason in favor of increased effort to secure its execution. Let us see what it amounts to. Among the In dians, where theft is accounted a national virtue, to make laws against theft would be thought a great folly. On the frontier, it is deemed imprudent to legislate against carrying concealed weapons, because they are found in the pockets of every man. To allow the various classes of criminals of the country to pre scribe the legislation against crime, would soon rid your statute- book of the whole criminal code. But, say the friends of usury, the present law cannot be enforced. Why not ? Have we no justice of the peace? no constables? no sheriffs? no courts? no jails? no grand jurors? no honest men to testify? no prosecuting attorney to do his duty? no honest jurors to fix his penalty? no officers to enforce it ? Let it not go out to the world that we are in a state of anarchy ! Ah, but replies the objector very wisely, you cannot get them all convicted. Ah, ha! when and in what country were all horse-thieves arrested and convicted, all mur derers brought to justice and all incendiaries discovered ? None under heaven. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAH. 319 Must civilized communities, therefore, repeal all laws and abol ish all penalties against theft, murder and arson? This would be the conclusion according to that analogy of argument ; and the conclusion is just as forcible in the one case as in the other. Plow shall the law be enforced ? By the influence of magis trates, who, instead of ridiculing the law and speaking contempt uously of the moral regulations of the government, ought to remember the solemn obligations of their oath, and not forget that the faithful magistrate bears not the sword of God in vain. Let all peace officers instead of notifying the public that usury laws cannot be enforced, trace the violations to their origin, and deal with the criminal according to law. Let the Prosecuting Attorney fearlessly do his duty. Let Grand Jury-men report and investigate all delinquencies coming within their notice or arresting their attention. Let every law-abiding citizen remem ber that it is a strict observance and faithful execution of the laws of our land that gives security to our lives, liberty and proper ty ; and if this law be enforced, the blessings of Heaven and the prosperity of the country will accompany its execution ; no dif ference what the law may be within the clearly recognized limits of the Constitution of the State. Make the law against usury penal, with fine and imprison ment, as in New York and Tennessee. Make it a disqualifica tion for office, as in Florida. Make it the duty of the Grand Jury to present, and the Prosecuting Attorney to prosecute the usurer as he does other felons who are not as well dressed as himself, and you will soon hear no more of the cry from the timid and the boast of the usurer, that usury laws cannot be executed. The enormity of the character of the usurer, the intense hol- lowness and perfidy of his real nature, is nowhere exhibited in such hideous aspects, as it is in his appeal to the deeply injured and outraged debtor s honor to pay his usurious debts. After having taken advantage of the poor fellow s necessity, binding up his property by mortgage, then harassing him by duns, then obstructing him in his business transactions, and dis honoring him among business men then, after all his efforts, fail to destroy him, with most extraordinary civility, he appeals 320 CHIMES OP THE CIVIL WAE. to him and tells him, " You are in honor bound to pay your usurious debts." And even professed Christians will use this argument to enforce usury. It is the old argument of honor among thieves, with just this difference, that the old argument applied to the case where both parties were alike dishonest. Is it possible that any well-informed or honest man will contend that there is any obligation resting on any citizen to violate the laws of his country ? If the laws may be violated with impu nity, there is no longer any security for life, liberty or property. But if the usury laws may be violated without punishment, why may not any and every other law ? Who is to be the judge of the particular laws which may be violated with impunity, and which men are in honor bound to violate ? CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 321 CHAPTER II. CURSE OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM. ^ PUBLIC stocks in all countries have been justly accounted a great incubus upon trade. They are always the property and support of idle people, who live on the interest as annuities. This of fers to both idle men and idle capital a premium for their idle ness, and destroys the ordinary business of a country, by with drawing the active capital necessary to legitimate, general and successful prosecution of trade and industry. These idlers live upon the labor of the people, dragged from them by the tax gang. Just as standing armies are recruited from the families of the poor, so are taxes gathered from the labor of the poor, to keep up the market value of public stocks. The funding system embodies all of the odious features blend ed, of monarchy, aristocracy, and military despotism. It is a species of government which is made up of, and administered by bondholders, bankers, idlers, speculators, stockbrokers, consumers of other men s labor, tax-gatherers, exciseman, spies, and mili tary satraps for the subjugation of producers and tax-payers. No diiference what may be the nominal form, such a government is essentially a despotism. The funding systems are always based upon public debts, for the purpose of transferring the control of the government into the hands of bondholders as security for their obligations. "Whilst the funding systems last, the government is adminis tered in the interest of the bondholders, who control its legisla tion. Every independent government is jealous of the rival power of those monied oligarchies, which dethrone monarchies and destroy governments by the transfer of the debt from the people of the country from whom it is due to strangers, who thereby secure a powerful and dangerous influence in the govern ment, and work its destruction. 21 322 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the system of voluntary gov ernment, was the deadly enemy of the funding system ; because the American debt, if concentrated in any government of Europe, through its agents and emissaries, would exercise undue influ ence in our own, but if scattered through many governments, would secure againstthe new government dangerous combinations. In the present funding systems all of these evils are combined. THE EXTENT AND AMOUNT OF THE DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. December 3d, 1866, the Secretary of the Treasury reports our debt at $2,551,422,121.20. Including treasury notes, it was $2,681,751,081.82. These are the figures given by the Secretary of the Treasury. In June 20, 1866, the audited debt was $2,783,425,879.21. The uncertainty, the want of candor and pervading corruption of the Treasury Department, make it impossible to ascertain the exact amount, but the outstanding claims, accounts, certificates, bounties unpaid and every other form of debt with capitalized pensions, will swell the amount to the estimate of Thaddeus Ste vens, at $4,000,000,000 at least, and the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury to the contrary, notwithstanding, the debt is constantly increasing, and will increase in all time to come, under the present management. THE FRAUDS OF THE BONDS. FIRST, They cost but about forty cents on the dollar. To pay them, the value of the face will be two hundred and fifty per cent., or in plainer English, we pay the debt twice and one-half. SECOND, We are paying interest on these bonds at the rate of 7.30 per cent, in greenbacks, on the face of the notes, which, considering their real value at forty cents on the dollar, is 18.25 per cent. ; but when these seven-thirty bonds are changed into six per cent, gold-bearing bonds, then we are paying in gold fif teen per cent., besides paying the debt twice and. a half. But if these bonds are made the basis of banking, the banks clear fifteen per cent, per annum. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 323 Then the banker has upon the original amount invested, as follows, namely : Interest on bonds, 15 per cent, gold, in greenbacks at 149 21 per cent. Amount invested in banking, 15 per cent, on the face and upon the whole 45 per cent. Total interest per annum 66 percent. In August 2, 1864, one dollar in gold would buy $2.89 in greenbacks. Every soldier under the old law was entitled to $100 bounty in gold. The soldier was paid in greenbacks, and went to the brokers to buy gold, and got for his hundred dollars in greenbacks, thirty- four dollars in gold. On the same day, the broker who had the one hundred dollars which the soldier ought to have had, took his hundred dollars into the market and sold it for two hundred and eighty-nine dollars, drawing 6 per cent, interest in gold. The interest for one year would be 17.34 cents in gold, or 17.34 per cent, on the original one hundred dollars. This 17.34 turned into greenbacks at 1.60 for gold, the selling price next year would make in greenbacks 27.74 per cent. Then the National Bank stock was worth 15 per cent, interest. Interest on the original investment ,..-.43.35 per cent. Total interest $71. 19 greenbacks. Making more than twice in greenbacks, for one year s interest given to the banker, what was given to the soldier in gold for his whole bounty. In fact, the banker s dollar draws 71.19 per cent, interest. And the banker s dollar to him was worth just 8.12 times as much as the soldier s was to him. The interest on the debt, duly compounded, will pay the debt every eleven and two-thirds years. It will, without further compounding, pay it off twice in every 324 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. twenty-three and one-third years. It will pay it three times every thirty-five years. It will pay it four times every forty-six and two-third years, and still this hateful monopoly remains with all of the army of revenue officers, and army of military officers devouring the whole country, putting the yoke as a fixture on the necks of the people, and placing the bondholders beyond the reach of want, and irresponsible to any form of taxation. THE CURSE AND POWERS OF CORRUPTION OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM. The funding system is a political machinery of greater power, more complicated and intricate in its ramifications, than exists, or can long exist in any elective system of government, which exerts an influence utterly incompatible with any manner of con stitutional freedom freedom of elections, freedom of speech, freedom of the press or purity of the judiciary. The extent of this power is incalculable. The magnitude of its force is irresistible. Five hundred millions of dollars annually collected and ex pended collected from the laborers already oppressed, to be lavished upon capitalists already corrupted and overbearing has the double power to destroy free government and degrade the people, for which purpose it is employed. The amount thus collected from the people places every manner of business at the mercy of capital, which may create or destroy at will, and keep it in perpetual terror and control its political action. The amount thus disbursed is a corruption fund employed in the subornation of the people. The whole money of the fund ing system is at the service of the monopolists, to buy up the bread, meat and clothing, and extort double prices from the poor at the peril of their living. In addition to the power of the money employed, is the power exercised by the army of asses sors, collectors, inspectors, detectives, spies, pimps and common informers, who consume a revenue sufficient to carry on the gov ernment. These officers employ their functions in direct influ ence upon all the elections, and under the present revenue sys- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 325 tern, suspend distilleries for violations of the law if the propri etors and employees withhold their support at elections from the party in power ; or compound with them, if they consent to exert an active influence in favor of the local adherents of the ruling political organization, with other manufacturing establish ments. Other corresponding means are employed for the same purpose. These officers are regularly distributed throughout the coun try, and with their subordinates, who are active tricksters, schooled in the low artifices which disgrace America, and carry elections, there is nowhere else such a complete political police. But these men are, without our consent, employed in our name paid with our money. The influence of this vast, varied and corrupting patronage extends farther, and is even more baleful ; it reaches into the community at large, silences the opposition ol all aspirants to place and favor, and secures their active co-opera tion in the perpetuity of the nefarious system, hoping to re ceive place as their reward. But the other army of bank officers, presidents, cashiers, tell ers, clerks, runners, directors, &c., &c., with the oligarchy of bondholders, are an active, organized force engaged in the plan ning, scheming and execution of every conceivable deception and crime necessary to success. The enormous sum, of which the people are annually robbed, defies all powers and departments of Government. Legislation is under its influence. Poor, miserable mendicants are elected to Congress to represent their people. This is applied in their purchase. They come home independent, live in magnificence, and forget their constituencies. Just in this manner has money bought up the unfaithful, from Epialtes at Thermopylaa who betrayed Leonidas, down to Benedict Arnold who betrayed Washington. The judiciary is in like manner the tool of capital. The poor are afraid, because in danger of these tyrants, bought and bribed in advance. Their suits against banks, bondholders or green backs, are decided before the pleadings are made out. Consti tutions, laws, or long established judicial decisions, areas dust in the balances when weighed with the moneys at the command of 3 J(5 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. the funding system. And when incorruptible integrity resists these encroachments, ready-made impeachments remove the judges from their places. Even the Executive of a great people cringes before this om- nific power, and after surrendering the dignity of his office, and shrinking from the prompt execution of the Constitution and maintenance of the country, buys the poor privilege of filling an office robbed of its glory, sitting in a chair divested of its au thority, representing a department absorbed by usurpation by bartering and doling out these multitudes of offices as a quid pro quo for the continuance of his scandalized place without impeach ment. This subornation is carried into conventions of all par ties everywhere. You will see bankers, brokers, usurers, extor tioners, shavers, street corner loaners, either by themselves or through their supple tools, at every public gathering, presiding, making motions, offering resolutions, drumming up votes, cho king off opposition, and strangling fair debate. The money of the funding system is employed in bribing and corrupting the metropolitan pulpit, and dribbling out meagre fees to the rural clergy, who engage in organizing their churches into auxiliary political parties in support of the capital that em ploys them. The Freedmen s Bureau costs the United States nearly a quar ter of a hundred million of dollars in actual cash, besides the loss of time, vagrancy, crime, degradation and anarchy, which are unsettling the foundations of Southern society, and destroy ing the sources and avenues of the general wealth of the coun try. Yet this Bureau is the legitimate child of the funding sys tem, and spends the annual appropriations in schisms, in churches, in the employment and bribery for political purposes, of all the convertible elements of the Southern States, using the brute force of armies to murder and subjugate those who can be neither suborned by actual bribes or bought by position. The history of lost causes, subjugated peoples and conquered territory, is the story of bribery. Golden gags, silver silences, and great places bestowed upon sudden conversions, such is our history. The list of names, blacker than the ink which refuses to record them, would make a biographical dictionary which would shame the annals of the infernal regions. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAR. 327 Yet such is the power of capital and the aggregation of wealth, a-ainst which, like half-grown growling children, we whine and find fault ; and then, like misanthropic sages, we reason and ph osophize to a people who laugh at our complaints and never read philosophy, but rally to strengthen the force which, with accu mulating power and accelerating sweep, levels us to the earth. 328 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER III. DEBT is SLAVERY. THE debt of the United States is slavery, which becomes more exacting as the debt increases in volume. This debt has all the attributes of national and personal sla very, and fixes itself alike on the realty and personalty of the country. IT MORTGAGES OUR REAL ESTATE. Salmon P. Chase did not hesitate to publish to the world through his factotum, Cooke, that the debt was a " first mort gage" upon all of the property of the United States. This affects the title of the lands and leaves every man but a tenant upon his own property, who may be ousted by the mort gagee upon the first failure to meet the appointed instalment assessed in taxes. The mortgagee is pursuing the same oppres sive and delusive course that is always pursued by every other mortgagee, with the intent to absorb the mortgager. Seeing that the land will always remain to be seized for the debt after every thing else fails, the mortgager first absorbs the personal property of his victim, then executes his land and holds both the realty and personalty in forfeiture of payment. Our creditor commences on food, raiment and medicines, which we must have if we live at all by tariffs, and takes at least one half before we are allowed to reduce them to possession. This strikes every body. Then he continues, by exacting stamps of every soul that can make a contract, pay a debt, or take a receipt ; this includes all of the very poorest laborers. Then he exacts an income tax upon every man who can make a thousand dollars per annum ; this is to strike the young and CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 329 thrifty classes, just entering upon active life, oftentimes with parents and invalid relatives to support. From him five per cent, is exacted. Slight taxes are imposed upon gross amusements, all to feed the greater vices of life. Just here the tax list ends, as it reaches the mortgager, the bondholder who owns the mortgage remainder of the real estate, and receives the tax lists, stamp duties, excise and tariffs, to pay- up the interests accruing upon the mortgage notes. This gentleman is our master, who has so long reveled in wealth that he does not know his own slaves when he meets them abroad, and has not for them that affection which association, responsibility and interest give to the ordinary master. These are our untitled nobility. They are destitute of employment, indeed, they need no employment, every man who wields a plow, spade, anvil, loom or machinery of any kind, is his servant. Every woman who superintends kitchen, garden, or boarding- house, hands over to the bondholder all her surplus earnings after making daily tributes upon the necessaries of life, enjoying no luxuries for herself. The bondholder sits like a blind beggar by the way-side, shuts his eyes, extends his hands and cries of each one passing, in his piteous tones, " can t you give a poor man a penny." Lamartine, Kossuth, O Connell and all the re nowned beggars, public and private, of modern times, in present ing the wants, claims and necessities of themselves, or the men dicants whom they represent, are not to be compared with these indigent, honest, disinterested, patriotic, nay, more, philan thropic bondholders. The tariff upon food, raiment, medicines, and all that we ne cessarily use, is a system of allowance as exact but more stinted, than has ever been imposed upon any laboring slaves, and when labor itself gives out, the laborer no longer of service to his mas ter, is carted to the alms house, where his allowance and helpless ness are complete. Like every other system of slavery, the law-making power is in the hands of the master. The laboring masses are allowed to vote, but if he is a tenant, the landlord controls his vote or ousts him. If he is a laborer, the employer follows him to the polls, examines his ticket, puts a spy upon his track, and dismisses him for an -attempt to vote against his will. 330 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. If he is an operative, the manufacturer notifies him that all the hands are expected to vote the ticket of the proprietor, upon penalty of loss of employment. If he is a house or body servant, he is disposed of in a more summary manner. The bank holds the same rod in a quiet way over its debtors, endorsers and dependencies, who are expected to sustain the power that sustains them. The control is as complete over the polls as ever was held by Spartan over helot, by Jew over bondman, by Russian over serf, by master over slave. The footprints of the master precedes the slave into legisla tive halls, where he assumes the arrogant airs and commands in the same authoritative tones. Here the people s servants are bought with their own money, to betray their sacred trust, and add a new thread to the screw to press them down, or remove a link to shorten the chain which will bind them more closely to the car-wheel of oppression. In the court, the Judge is overawed with social proscription or sweetened with presents which could not be taken by an honest judiciary, or be given in evidence as bribes. Like courts, like juries, misdirected by judges and overawed or corrupted by capital, or failing in this, attorneys are bought up, witnesses are intimidated or corrupted, until the slave suitor gladly abandons his claim and leaves the court in disgust. The failure of one discourages the rest, and capital as thoroughly subdues the contestant, as the master would subjugate his slave by the bludgeon or cat o nine tails. Such is the multiform slavery of Americans by this debt, that every element of servitude has been transferred from the worst European governments to our American system. The Austrian and Prussian, flying from Provost Marshals, military government, arbitrary power and oppressive taxation, to preserve the credit of the reigning tyrant, comes to America to be greeted by all the odious appendages from which he has fled in Europe. The Irishman flies to escape a government made up of spies, adventurers and domestic enemies, to see the same style of eminent revived in the United States. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 331 Military establishments to suppress free enquiry, are the accom paniment of this style of government, which are always neces sary to collect taxes and transfer the lands when the mortgages are foreclosed to secure the payment of taxes. Is this not slavery, or is it robbery, which takes your labor be fore it has been reduced to money, by levying taxes which must be deducted from your crops, in tariifs which must be paid in the purchase of your food and raiment? What is taxation without an equivalent, but rents? What are tariffs but subsidies, and what is slavery but the exactions of tariffs and taxes, which con sume your labor and the time employed ? What is transmitted debt but transmitted slavery, in its most deceitful form, against which philosophers have denounced as cruel and unjust; for the relief of which genius has no invention and industry no power ? To free the country of these tariffs and relieve it of this taxa tion, and emancipate ourselves from the crushing weight of this exhausting and exhaustless slavery, is the primary and over shadowing necessity of our political and social existence. 332 CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR, CHAPTER IV. BONDHOLDERS AND BONDMEN. THE funding system has introduced a privileged, governing class into the country, who are exempt like the French aristoc- /, from taxation. They are known by the euphonious title of bondholders, with their corresponding peasants, the bond- racy of I men. THE BONDHOLDER WITH HIS DEPENDANTS, THE BONDMEN. The bondholder is a gentleman without business. He needs no business. His fortune is secure beyond peradventure. He has no risk of flood or fire, of rise or fall in the market. He has a first mortgage upon all of the property of the United States, and you are the mortgagees. Fire consumes cities and lays waste plantations ; whole communities are impoverished. The bondholder sits indifferently smoking his pipe, and with dignified nonchalance, remarks, " true, the great city is burned down, but I hold a security upon the grounds upon which it was built, which secures me!" Floods sweep away mills, and devastate plantations, and send out the ruined planters as beggars in the land, but the bondholder is secure ; he has a mortgage on the water power when the mills are gone, upon the lands when the fen ces have floated to the Gulf. "When the merchantman plows the ocean to bring wealth from other lands, leaves his money to pay for his outward-bound cargo, to be taxed like other moneys, and sinks his home-bound cargo in the perils of the sea, the bondholder consoles himself that he has lost nothing, that his interest recedes nothing in amount, and his bonds depreciate nothing in value. Even the speculator, the cold-blooded, heartless speculator, mis taking his chances in the monopolization of the food and raiment CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAU. 333 of the poor, loses his fortune in the sudden changes of the market, and fails, the bondholder breaks out in a hollow, hoarse laugh, and exclaims, " markets and all belong to me. No difference who starves or who freezes. I get my interest and these people must pay their taxes." It is conceded everywhere that the aristocracy of Great Britain, in the exercise of power, deportment, and sense of justice, are eminently above the monied oligarchy, from which they fly as before the pestilence. The bondholder sends his children to school, but the property- holder pays his taxes. He drives his magnificent carriage over the roads laden with his privileged family, but the man who drives the dray, the two-horse wagon, and plows the land, pays the tax. He charters his conveyance and pays no tax. Mag nificent public edifices are reared for public schools. He sends his children to school, but from his funded public stock, pays no taxes. The thief who steals his bonds is arraigned at the public expense, but the bondholder contributes nothing to the payment of the expenses consequent. No such monied aristocracy now exists on the face of the earth none such ever existed any where else before. The Koth- childs of Europe, the Astors of America, the bankers, brokers, railroad, steamship, telegraph and great real estate owners of the world, have to run their risks of trade and perils of enterprize. Counties must keep up their organization, but he contributes nothing toward the payment of expenses. State Governments must exist by levies upon the labors of the people, but the bond holder contributes nothing. The bondholder is a gentleman dressed in purple and fine linen, and fares sumptuously every day. Each returning half year brings his semi-annual income. The bondmen arc a very different class of people, who are holden in their property, in their business, in their persons, in the bread they eat, in the clothes they wear, in the fuel they consume, in the books they read, in the light they burn, in the houses they live in, and the beds they lie on, for the payment of the annually accruing interest, on the debt due these bondholders. The bond men pay an average of at least one hundred per cent., from re tailers 7 profits ; and the stamps, duties and commissions which 334 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. follow the raw material from the cotton field to the sewing ma- * o chine, from the wool on the back of the sheep to the retailers 7 counter, on everything they wear, in tariffs, for the double pur pose of paying the interest on these bonds, and protecting New England manufacturers in extorting double price for their goods. He pays his landlord s income tax upon the rent of his houses, and lias the stamp and all other duties, apparently paid by the capitalist, added to the first cost of every commodity, ate, drank and worn, by himself and family. The landlord adds it to his rent ; the butcher adds it to his meat bill ; the baker adds it to his loaf; the wood and coal merchant adds it to the price of his fuel ; the druggist adds it to his medicines ; the lawyer, physi cian, school-master and minister, add it to their fee bill ; the rail road, steamboat and coachman add it to your fare; the merchant adds it to your shroud ; the sexton adds it to the price of your grave ; the monument-builder charges it upon your tombstone, and then, with retrospective grasp, this system of monstrous tax ation covers the margin of your will with stamps, and transmits its odious incumbrances and curses to your children as an inheri tance forever. As the towering pyramid, whose lofty spire is raised above the clouds to bask in eternal sunlight, rests upon the rough granite that is hidden in the sands, so these bondholders, who have the first mortgage upon the property of the United States, elevated far above responsibility to revenue laws, rest their for tunes upon the strong, laboring masses, who produce the wealth of the country, and are consumed in the taxes, rents, extortions and usury of landlords, manufacturers, tax-gatherers and excise men, who are mere middlemen to hand over the products of labor from the industry of the country to the bondholders. This is the way that the abundance of paper money finds its way from the field and shop of the producer, into the coffer and treasury of the consumer. This is the modus operandi of the passage of the products of Western labor into the hands of Eastern monopolies -the answer to the query why it is, in the incredible profusion of a paper currency, the Western people are pressed for money, and seeking relief in vain. The bondholders are placing the people in very much the same condition with the old plantation ^ slave." As the "slaves" had their holidays to spend their CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 335 annual earnings in social glee, the Western tax-payers have a fortnight of plenty at the sales of the pork and wool crops, after which they are kept upon a perpetual strain, seeking credit and fighting off debts that devour them with interests and obstruct their business. Never before has a class distinction been made so obnoxious and disgusting. Without intelligence, without culture, without hospitality, without honor, an ignorant, pretentious, moneyed aristocracy are supported, by the toil of the poor, and none so poor as not to contribute at least one-half of their subsistence to pay these bondholders. There is no escape from this drag-net of despotism, except in dispensing with food, raiment, fire and shel ter. Death is your only hope of relief, and the grave the only avenue to the house of refuge and temple of security against the voracious jaws of this infernal system. This tribute laid upon property, this blackmail levied upon poverty, this punishment inflicted upon industry, this outrage upon justice, equality and God, this premium oifered to stock-gambling, this subsidy obse quiously given to capital, this reward bestowed upon idleness, this oligarchy based upon human suffering and human corrup tion, this grand gulf yawning between the West and the East, this impassible mountain between capital and labor, this startling universal robbery is paid over from log cabins to brown-stone fronts, from the cellar and garret to suburban mansions, from the toil-worn laborer, who drives the dray and two-horse wagon, to the gentleman who rides in his carriage, four horses, postillions and footmen, from plain plank floors to Brussels carpets, from lindsey-woolsey to cashmere and silks; spinning-wheels hand it over to pianos, and horny hands to silk gloves. Each new year a new middle-man becomes necessary to your existence. In all the departments of manufacture, and business, and trade, the rich will grow richer, the poor will grow poorer, until they sink be neath the crushing weight of tariffs, taxes, imposts and stamp duties. Such a system of taxation which exempts the rich and oppresses the poor, which fosters capital and oppresses labor, has never been imposed upon any other people under heaven. To continue this system for twenty years, without mitigation, would produce rebellion in Eussia, Austria, Turkey, or China. 336 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. For two years, the blind leading the blind, have been groping in the dark for imaginary causes for the scarcity of money; the high prices, the independence of the rich, the precarious condition of the poor, and the general suffering of all. The shallowest reas ons have been given, the most ridiculous causes have been charged, and the most absurd remedies have been proposed for the relief of the unhealthy and dangerous condition of public affairs. The causes of our increasing poverty are manifest to every political economist, and are fully analyzed above. This funded system is replete with fraud and oppression of every character. It supports idle men in their idleness and makes them respectable and powerful, because they are idle. " Like the lilies of the valley, they toil not, neither do they spin ; yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." These idle gentlemen crowd the watering-places in the summer season to taunt the cholera in their security. In the winter, they retire to first-class hotels, and dine, and sup, and breakfast on costly dishes, and make the tour of Europe, and visit the Holy Land, and make extravagant purchases because they have not where withal to bestow their riches. The days are too long and the nights are too inconvenient to afford their wonted sleep. Opera houses, theatres and fashionable resorts, absorb their time; gouts, dyspepsia and fashionable diseases, close up their career to the general satisfaction of mankind. The government has made it their interest to be idle ; any in vestment of their capital would endanger their comparative pros perity. The government has done much more for them than they could possibly do for themselves. If these idlers had placed the even dollar against the even dollar, the rates of interest al- loAved on the bonds would forbid the temerity of further adven ture as unnecessary and reckless ; but the investment of one dol lar to secure three, with the interest on three dollars is the very highest rate of untaxed interest ever known from governments to creditors. The government offers to these men a premium for their idleness, which they accept and enjoy. But the iniquity of the idleness of the bondholders is augmen ted by the idleness of the capital which they have locked up in their coffers, which produces nothing, contributes to the produc- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 337 tion of nothing, encourages the production of nothing. It neither builds cities, extends railroads, or improves farms. If cities are built, the extravagant rates of interest must con sume the profits of the labor employed, and devour the capital invested ; and by the cunning jugglery of the capitalist, who manipulates the money of the idle men, issued in bank notes, se cured upon these idle bonds, in nine cases out of ten, after the building is ate up by usury and extortion, the genius of the architect, the labor of the mechanic and the enterprise of the builder, fall a prey to the royal power of the bondholder, who takes possession of his game with the same confidence and non chalance of the old trapper who has caught his new game in the old trap, and would have been disappointed, if it had not fallen an easy prey to his bait. If railroads are built, it is upon some such fraudulent scheme as inveigles whole communities to subscribe vast amounts of money to be given in mortgage to these idlers, usurers and ex tortioners, and when they are placed in running order, at the merest nominal sum transferred to the mortgagee, as an inheri tance, to endure to all time, transmitted to their children and children s children, who will live at ease upon the fare paid by the children of those who built the road, and were robbed of its income and control. If farms are improved, the heavy rate of interest consumes the value of the improvement and trenches upon the principal, until the sunburnt pioneer grows weary of the vexation, and gladly gives up farm and improvement, and makes a new trial on the frontier for a home and burial-place. This funded system is the lion in the lair, giving out his illness that all of the beasts of the forest may offer him their condo lence; but the tracks of the visitors all point one way; none ever return. These idle men not only hold in reserve their idle capital from the business of the country, but this capital eats, though it works not. The cattle, and swine, and horses, and sheep, work and feed them. The fields of grain, and mines of ore, and muscles of the million, are their servants. The orchard, and vine, and bushes, 22 338 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. yield their yearly fruits to add new revenues to the monster, whose open mouth is annually closed upon everything which may be measured by value. These fund-men command labor to feed, clothe and support them. Like the sloth, they coil themselves up and fill them selves with the fruits gathered by the hands of others, or like that other aristocratic gentleman, the swine, live only to enjoy the sublime pleasures of life, to eat ; drink, and sleep, without labor. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 339 CHAPTER V. THE FUNDING SYSTEM DESTROYS A STABLE CURRENCY. THE existence of the funding system has given as its first fruits, the entire destruction of money ; and concentrates even paper money in the centres and drains it from the extremities of trade. A STARTLING FACT NO SPECIE IN CIRCULATION. There cannot be a more startling fact presented to any people than this, that in the richest gold country upon earth, there is not one gold dollar in ordinary circulation, notwithstanding the Constitution of the United States has made gold and silver the only legal tender for the payment of debts. The constitu tional question of banking need not be argued ; it is sufficient to state the Constitution in its own language by prohibition and authority. Its prohibition, " No State shall * * * coin money, emit bills of credit, (or) make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts." Art. II., Sec. 10. It authorizes the Congress of the United States "to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the stand ards of weights and measures ; to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States." Art. /., See. 8. These brief, yet comprehensive paragraphs embody all that is contained in the Constitution, from which are deduced these manifest truths : 1st. To coin money does not imply the right to establish banks. 2d. Promises to pay by any person or corporation, cannot by any construction of law be metamorphosed into money. Promi ses to pay are not money, they are credits. 340 CRIMES QF THE CIVIL WAR. Money is the evidence of wealth, held to represent values. Credit is the evidence of poverty, held to represent indebtedness. Money has a positive value, fixed and stamped upon it by law, which, when used in commerce, commands its specific value; notes or credits are in themselves, nothing but the promises de pendent upon the solvency or insolvency of others for their value. Money is the standard value of commerce, by which it is measured and controlled ; credit is a beggar upon commerce for time to pay for goods taken up in advance of payment. Credit is just as much money as the shadow of a house is a house its picture, nothing more. Money is payment beyond which no in quiry is made; credit is the promise of money, without the pay ment of which it is entirely worthless. By the common consent of mankind, money, which is an imperishable certificate of value, made of gold and silver, is the accredited agent and vehicle of commerce among all the civilized nations of the earth. Paper money has a limited arena of circulation, with varying value, having no value except that which may attach to the character of the payer. Paper money is a promise to pay on demand ; if it is not to be paid on demand, it may never be paid ; if never paid, it is worthless. Money is perpetually valuable. Money is coined. Bank notes are printed ; under the Constitution of the United States, they cannot be made money. But " National Bank notes " are bills of credit for which the Government of the United States has no power to make itself responsible. Bank notes are printed promises of the bill usurer and extortioner, to pay what everybody in America knows that they can t pay, won t pay, and don t intend to pay, and only promise to pay to give them character to rob, cheat and overreach the people of the country, under pretext of furnishing them with money which they do not furnish them, which they cannot furnish them, be cause they have no money to pay their notes, and after years of smooth swindling, will break up in a general robbery. This National Bank money gives no security for its payment, other than promises to pay. It is the reflected shadow of a shadow. But why this false pretence of money to carry on the business of a great country, whose commerce is commensurate with the hai<- itable globe ? CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 341 1. It is not because we have no gold or silver. No country upon the earth is so rich in the precious metals as ours. 2. Because we use a paper money which no other people will use, our gold and silver are drained from us to foreign lands, and worthless paper, monstrous frauds and visionary prices, rule the markets of the country. The result is manifest, that there is no gold left in the country. 3. The banks don t need gold or silver for their business. One promise to pay redeems another promise to pay ad infmitum ; just as the old tavern-keeper and his wife drank up a barrel of whiskey on a two-pence which passed from one to the other as they alternately played the landlord and customer, and had but the two-pence left for the liquor drank. This condition of the banks leaves them without either gold or silver in vaults ; indeed, they make no such pretension. 4. But whilst the country is drained of gold, with an incredi ble folly, they have placed it in the hands of unscrupulous vil lains, who have mortgaged the entire available property of the country to bankers, brokers, usurers, extortioners, and foreign Shy locks, to pay a debt which is drawing a double interest, interest in gold, to be paid to the bankers who use the bonds as a pretext for banking, and then interest on the bank notes which are borrowed out of the banks, as a currency for the people. Such is the absolute scarcity of the precious metals in the coun try, that no debts are paid and no business transacted with gold and silver. The poor, who would lay up money for old age, have to make heavy sacrifices to get gold, or those who buy pro ducts raised in other climes, or who would visit foreign lands, have to enter into the brokers merciless jaws, to be devoured iu exchange and usury. To add to all of the other follies in a sys tem where not one sensible thing has been done, our gold wealth has been transferred to English bankers and Chinese miners. EXTRAORDINARY CONDITION OF THINGS. Not less amazing is it that where Congress has made a promise to pay a legal tender, that kind of money is becoming so scarce that complaints come up from every part of the country that 342 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. money is tight, and business is embarrassed and lags in conse quence. We need not look around for the cause of this state of things. The Government has issued an immense amount of bonds, which have fastened upon us the English funding system with all its odious features, crimes and enormities, draughts upon our productive strength sufficient to absorb the annual labor of the country. In all the evil devices of faro bank and steamboat poker, nothing like the American system of revenue exists among any rational people. This condition of things challenges our examination. In the cities of New York, Boston, Phila delphia, and the East, paper money exists in the greatest abun dance, and can find no permanent investment in business, but seeks it in bonds. In the Western States, money is so scarce that there is not enough for business, the payment of taxes and the improvement of the country ; since the bounty-money dis tributed among the soldiers has been exhausted. This disparity of condition between the two sections is not accidental, but is the necessary offspring of a funding system, which gives the property of one part of the country in taxation and mortgage to the other. By this process, as fast as the people of the agricul tural districts sell their products, the money is at once transfer red to the tax-gatherer, in payment of taxes, and the tax-gatherer hands it over to the treasurer, who pays it out to the bondholder in liquidation of the interest on his bonds. This process is an nual in his income ; it is perpetual in his daily expenses, and universal upon all that he consumes. The process of exhaustion has been going imperceptibly on until the farms are stripped of their finest herds, and the agricultural regions are sinking under the pressure. 1st. The interest on the public debt amounts to several times the sum necessary to administer the Government of the United States with economy. There is included in the debt the gold-bearing bonds, the greenback-bearing bonds, the compound interest treasury notes, and the various honest claims, which have been long due, and de ferred claims, which, by collusion with the heads of departments, are allowed. To all this you must add : 2d. The assessors, collectors, clerks, overseers, detectives and CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 343 other detestable appendages of arbitrary power, which are of themselves a consuming army of cormorants, eating out our sub stance, and destroying our financial resources and prosperity. As an additional reserve corps, to be supported by the people and paid for extorting from them in the exacting usury of the bank, we may add to the list of vampires who suck the blood from the poor ; bank presidents, cashiers, tellers and clerks, direc tors, attorneys, agents and lobby members employed to corrupt the legislatures of the country, and wrest the representative power of the people from their own hands, and employ it for their own destruction at the public expense. 3d. The bonds pay no taxes, and saddle the payment upon the labor and land of the country. After this manner is the scarcity of paper money among the people reduced : 1. The greenbacks, which draw no interest, are converted into bonds which draw interest. The result is, that the conversion of every million of dollars makes just that much more to pay, and that much less to pay it in. 2. As the amount of greenbacks is lessened, and the amount of bonds is increased, the value of the interest and bond is each increased, and the amount of debt in that ratio becomes greater, and by exacting gold to pay the bonds, the debt would be nearly triple the amount of itself, as contracted in greenbacks. The bondholders and bankers combine to make greenbacks scarce, to make bonds valuable. Hence the scarcity of paper money amidst its plenty. 344 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER VI. THE FUNDING SYSTEM WILL CONCENTRATE THE LANDED ESTATES OF THE COUNTRY. THE oligarchy created under the funding system, will not be content with gathering the fruits of the soil and the wages of labor ; merely they will here, as in all the other countries cursed with this system, buy up manors, estates, and whole regions of country, to the exclusion of the poor, whom they are engaged in impoverishing. The country is utterly, hopelessly bankrupt. "We owe more than we are worth, and spend more than we make. That is bankruptcy itself in its worst, most dangerous and wickedest form. That is the most absolute repudiation which cannot be paid. That is the most sickening insolvency which approaches you to assure you that it would gladly pay you if it could, but is sorry to say that it cannot. He has not the means, and can not control them to pay you. This is our condition in few words. But the worst is not yet on us, but is slowly approaching, with the heavy, steady tread of death. Last year the incomes were not as heavy as they were the year before, and this year not as heavy as they were last, and next year they will be much lighter still. What then ? It is intended to get through with the next Presidential election, and carry out the military programme laid down by the present Congress, and rule the people by force. Then what ? They must levy a land tax, instead of an income tax. And then what? They will let the land go to sale, and then let the bondholders buy up the land for taxes, and pay the purchase money with coupons, and pay the taxes next year with other coupons, and let the owners of the land rent and be ten ants under the bondholder who buys it up. The land tax was first laid in the beginning of the war, and millions of acres CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 345 would have been sold and placed beyond redemption, but the shrewd capitalists of the country foresaw that the war would be arrested in that event. The direct taxation of lands would frighten the people, which would defeat the purpose of mort gaging the whole country to their funding system. They post poned the land tax until the coupons would accumulate so as to buy up the lands, at their sales for taxes, which will give the bondholders both the lands and bonds. In every res pect, this land scheme resembles the workings of the feudal sys tem which the Congress of the United States are attempting to practically engraft upon the American system. This is pre cisely the way that the whole landed estates have passed out of the hands of the masses of the people into the hands of the land lords of Great Britain and the continent; and just in this way is it contemplated that the real property of the United States shall pass out of the hands of the middle classes into the hands of the bondholders in this country, and make the two distinctive classes, landlords and tenants, absolute here as they are in Europe. Al ready immense fortunes are transmitted from parents to children, to continue for all time ; and poverty is, in like manner, trans mitted to the poor, who inherit nothing but the taxes imposed upon their parents. The claptrap of negro-voting is only to reduce the poor white people down to the level of the negroes, that they may be op pressed without complaining, and when they complain that they will have no power to resist and here, just as in Europe, make their dependence a sure guaranty of submission to the lords and task-masters. There is in the United States no intelligent body of the people who believe the negro the equal of the white man ; who believe the negro capable of self-government in partnership witli the white man, who believe that the negro can be highly cultivated, who do not know that the negro has never governed himself, that civilization yields to barbarism and Christianity to heathenism, wherever the experiment is enforced. But these men would surrender the whole system of Christianity and civ ilization to gain a momentary service of the negro at the polls, to make the bonded system permanent and perpetual. Such are the delusions of hope and the corruptions of party influence, 346 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. that with these startling strides to power staring them in the face, they are unwilling to believe the warning until it is too late to relieve their danger. When told that their lands must be held for the payment of taxes, and finally sold to pay them, they reply : " But we will not bid when our lands are put up to sale." And then what? That is just what the bondholder wants. When you won t bid on the land, then the bondholder will bid on it, so that it will pass out of your hands into his hands, and there remain. " But," says my Kepublican farmer friend, " we will combine and prevent them bidding off our land at the tax sales." Be not too hasty. These land sales will be made by the United States Marshal at a great distance from the homes of the poor people, who can t combine against them. But look to it. There is now in preparation Paine s military bill, which will place a large military force to guard the demands of the bond holder, enforce the sales of the Marshal, and drive back all op position. For, remember, this work commenced with the sword, will continue with the sword until ended by the sword. But when these sales take place, there is no redemption of lands for the poor. The title of the bondholder will be complete. It is for this very purpose that the present Congress want to confiscate the Southern lands to divide them among the negroes ; first, to secure their votes to pass oppressive laws ; and, second, to secure negro soldiers to keep down insurrection among the poor whites, when the impoverished treasury has forced their lands into the market. So, early as the first years of the war, the entire control of the lands of the country were compassed by the stock-gamblers, and the funding system amply sufficient to swallow everything, was the proper mortgage to foreclose and conclude them. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 347 CHAPTER VII. THE FUNDING SYSTEM CREATES DISTRUST BETWEEN CAPITAL AND LABOR. SOCIETY is now in its most perplexing condition just verg ing upon anarchy, those elements that nature has placed in har mony, are now in unnecessary conflict and threaten to destroy each other. The laboring masses are weary of perpetually toil ing with but little recreation, like cattle, in the tread-mill. They desire shorter periods of labor and longer periods of rest, recrea tion and instruction. This is not only right, but it is eminently desirable. Very naturally have they looked to the amelioration of their own condition, and quite as naturally are they seeking the means and time for the support and instruction of their fam ilies. The contractors, of course, would like to have as much work done as they can get for the amount of money paid, and shrewd business men generally calculate these things with exact ness, and no legislative interference in fixing times of labor ever can remedy evils so deeply rooted as the one which now afflicts and threatens to overwhelm us. In all of the conflicts of labor and capital, capital gets the better; because capital strikes quietly, but hurls her deadly blows with vehemence unseen, and ten to one, that the laborers are set to quarreling with each other, whilst capital goes on eating up their substance. Somebody has struck a terrible blow at the laborer, and he is staggering under it and reeling upon the verge of ruin. You can see it manifest in the high rents on cheap houses, in the high rates of poor living, in the high prices of flimsy clothing, in the extravagant fare on the railroads, steamboats and stage coaches, in the coarse raiment of his children, in the general poverty of his life. But in all this the contractor suffers with the mechanic, and 348 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. it is always unfortunate that they who have a common interest and common suffering should fall out by the way at a time when they ought to unite against a common enemy which lies in wait to destroy them. This is not all. In the present state of affairs, Loth workmen and contractors will soon fall to the ground to gether, unless there is a change in our affairs. But let us return and look after the real cause of the trouble, which now threatens. First. We have a debt which, with all of its responsibilities and ramifications, according to the estimate of Thaddeus Stevens, is $4,000,000,000. This debt is being funded, and is drawing a heavier interest than any other similar debt under any other Government in the world. This interest has to be paid. It has to be paid with money. This money has to be earned by the men who labor and create property, because the Government re ceives no taxes from the bonds or other forms of capital employed in its security. This money has to be raised in tariffs and direct taxes in their various forms. The laboring men who are com plaining of the contractors, are now paying full one hundred per cent, upon all they eat, wear and consume. This seems hard, and hard it is. The laborer complains of the contractor, but the contractor is paying just the same exorbitant rates, and is in danger of soon being unable to carry on his work. Then the laborer turns round to complain of the farmer, but the farmer is the victim of the same oppression. He pays taxes, stamps, tar iffs and incomes, until it is with difficulty that he lives. Then all combine to complain of railroads, steamboats, &c., but they are struggling with the same monster, the great debt, and all suffer together. Then, practically the laborer works ten hours and gets pay for five, because the other five hours are given to the manufacturer and the tax-gatherer. First You have to pay this enormous interest, which ought to support five such Governments. Second You have to take bread out of your children s mouths ; clothes off of their backs ; wood and coal off of your fire, and rent from your house, to pay to keep up the Negro Bu reau, which costs as much as the general Government used to cost in the best days of the Eepublic. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 349 Third You have to share in like manner with the standing army, appointed to trample down the Southern States, and which is intended, under the Paine Military bill, to be employed to keep down strikes in the Northern cities, coal-mines and manufacto ries. After you have made this decimation of your living, then you are called upon to give another portion to keep up the stand ing army of revenue officers. Fourth You have to keep an army of Congressmen, who, instead of relieving you of debt, are giving away the public lands, and accepting bribes to vote away your liberty. These draughts upon your labor will keep farmers, contractors, me chanics a-nd everybody else poor. Here lies the evil. Now for the remedy. Vote down the present extravagant system of gov ernment. Vote down standing armies, which you are now pay ing to destroy the South, and ruin the trade of the West ; vote down tariffs, vote down the present corrupt system of legislation, vote down the men who are keeping up strife among you. Suppose you were to imitate the demagogue who wanted five pecks in a bushel when he bought, and three pecks when he sold ; the price regulates the value. What the laborers really want is to get the most money for the least labor, so as to be able to save it for themselves and families. This you cannot do until you get rid of this taxation. Political economy is a system as exact as geometry, not to be overturned by mere ranting. We therefore advise the laboring masses to go to your firesides, study your interests and rights, and learn to protect them. Dismiss from your lead, ignorant babblers who never did a day s work in their life, and know nothing more of the science of political economy than children; but believe you to be igno rant and play the demagogue with their balderdash, or contract ors, farmers and laborers will all go down together. The first and only thing to be done is to get rid of taxation, which grinds us all into the very dust. The ballot-box is your place to seek a remedy. But whilst the very best half of the people are dis franchised, and the richest half of the United States is in ruin and ashes, starving and helpless, and the whole available capital of the country is either idle on your hands or drawing incredible usury, you have no relief. 350 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. These things will be no better, but will continue growing worse under this misrule, until the financial system is ruined, lying in a common heap with the laws, Constitution, and liber ties of the people. Credit implies debt. We have thousands of millions of credit, on the market, which represents our debt. But debt implies poverty, and we have mistaken our poverty for wealth, which it is not ; and unless we get rid of this debt and taxation, we may work sixteen hours in the day, and still be pinched with cold, gaunt with famine, and not be able to save ourselves from nakedness and want. As in medicine, so in politics; all specifics are delusive and dangerous. Whenever the currency, which is the blood of the commercial world, is pure, then commerce and industry of every kind will thrive. Thrown to the extremity of the whole body politic, every function will be healthy and every organ active. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAB. 351 CHAPTEE VIII. THE SECTIONAL CHARACTER OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM. THE people of the United States have just emerged, but not recovered, from a sectional war of fearful magnitude and relent less ferocity. The pretext for the war was the conflict between Northern and Southern labor ; the one free, the other slave labor. It is not less remarkable than the war itself, that its closing legislation has created an issue between the West and the East, in ivhich Western labor and agricultural industry have allied the South and the West, to make common cause against Eastern cap ital and manufacturing machinery. The most wonderful improvements of modern times, are those applied to the cultivation of the soil and the gathering of the crops. The reaper, mower, raker, binder, pitcher, thresher, cleaner, and the other varied machinery and implements of hus bandry, are so many insentient intelligences, called up by the genius of man to minister to his support and relieve his muscles; armies of active laborers, who ask neither food nor raiment, which are proof against disease, and may be reproduced at pleas ure in all time to come. In the true spirit of progress, these offsprings of invention and testimonials of our divinity, should have been co-laborers to assist the producers in the most perfect development, of the incal culable resources of the country. But, unfortunately, these mute helpmates have been used in competition with agriculture, and the changes wrought in this revolution of industry, have added comparatively nothing to the relative wages of labor, or the diffusion of increasing prosperity among the agricultural classes of the country ; but that it may be seen in the more costly carriages, the more stately mansions, 352 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. the richer costumes and more arrogant air of the capitalists who own the railroads and steamships which transport your pro duce from your door, the telegraph which informs or deceives you in the matter of its value, the bank which decrees its mar ket price, and the untaxed bonds which absorb it in annual in terest, and the Congress and legislature who throw their legis lative dice, and gamble upon the liberty and labor of the coun try. The funding system has changed our entire relation to the East, as the war has changed the relation of the North to the South. THE EASTERN" MANUFACTURERS DEVOUR WESTERN LABOR. Eastern capital is a vast, dry sponge, dipped into the fountains of Western labor, to absorb them. Eastern cupidity, lank, hun gry and voracious, like Pharoah s lean kine, comes down upon the burdened grain fields, full cattle, sheep and horses of the West, in each season, to devour and destroy us, cat us up, and return half famished again, no nearer satisfied than before. They meet us with deception, and our people hail their deceit, and cm- brace it. Under pretence of freeing black barbarian slaves turned loose to starve, they have enslaved the industrial pursuits of the whole Mississippi Valley. The valleys of the Nile have no such corn-fields, the mines of Ophir have no such gold, the hills of Judea had no such herds of cattle, Egypt had no such swine, and Job had no such flocks of sheep as ours. The commercial power and importance of this immense valley of alluvial and mineral lands, is not only incalculable, but in comprehensible. Our iron ore from Lake Superior, is transport ed to the very gateway of the iron mountains of Virginia and Pennsylvania, such is the superiority (and does not itself greatly excel the iron of Missouri,) for manufacturing. Our lead mines of Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois, are outside of the range of competition. Our resources of wealth are measureless and increasing. But such is the servile condition of the West ern States, that New England absorbs annually all our profits, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAR. 353 and levies new mortgages upon our farms with enormous per centage, as a growing debt. This conflict was begotten of the funding system and must co exist with it ; all mere subterfuges of taxing the bonds will scarcely improve it, much less cure it. When the wages of labor and the products of the soil of a great country are at once trans ferred to a distant country, it brings nothing in return. Bank ruptcy must be imminent and immediate. The process of drain ing is simple and exhaustive. The farmer pays over to the mer chant, the merchant to the manufacturer, and the manufacturer divides it with the banker, who is also the bondholder. This takes half he raises ; the other half is paid to the tax-payer, and the tax-payer pays it to the treasurer, and the treasurer pays it to the bondholder. In this way, the bondholder gets all that we pay for our goods, which is not absorbed by the manufacturer, and the interest on the bank notes issued, and gets all of the taxes not consumed by the assessors, collectors and spies, to pay interest on his bonds. In this way the whole earnings of the people of the West pass into the hands of the East, and the laborer acts as the servant of capital. This condition of things has been induced by monstrous crimes, which will be atoned for in fearful retribution. THE FIRST CRIME OF NEW ENGLAND AGAINST AGRICULTURE SHE DESTROYED OUR NATURAL MARKET. The people of the immediate Mississippi Valley were corn and hog growers, mule and cattle raisers. The vast natural meadows opened up herding grounds, unsurpassed in the natural history of the world. Scarcely had the buffalo taken up his westward line of march, until the Devonshire and Durham cov ered the plains in such multitudes and droves, as promised meat and leather for the whole continent. Wherever the furrow was turned, the ploughman was repaid with a return which invited immigration from every part of the world. Such was the char acter and employment of the people from Lake Pepin to St. Louis, east and west of the Mighty Waters. They were the natural feeders of the people of the lower Mis- 23 354 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. sissippi, who were raising cotton, sugar, hemp, tobacco, and rice. Our people were at peace with these people. They paid us well and promptly, and opened up for us a market sure, and per petual. They sold their products to every monied country in the civ ilized world, and paid us money for everything they bought, and everything we raised they were anxious to buy. We both lived on the banks of the Mississippi, without great capital, with a small amount of labor, and at a trifling cost. Our people built barges, loaded them with corn, put their horses and cattle and swine on steamboats, and in a few days they sold their produce and made an early return. In this way we could have lived as peaceable neighbors forever. New England bought her cotton from our neighbors of the lower Mississippi. She wrought it into goods. We bought them and asked no questions. The manufacturers of New England grew rich, and shared the general prosperity of the country. With this she was not satisfied. She sent wicked men to disseminate mischief among the people. She made open, actual war upon the troops of the United States, levied war upon the flag of the Union, as far back as 1856. She got bad and reckless men to engage in civil war in Kansas and Virginia, under John Brown, and the Governor of the State to furnish arms to begin it. The history is before you. Shame throws her mantle over these crimes, and blushes for the country. Through the instigation of New England, we sent troops to bum up the cotton fields. After the return of our troops, we had to burn up our own corn-fields, for there was nobody to buy our corn. We had ruined our only customers. We could not send our corn to New England, without selling five bushels at home to pay the freight of one bushel to market. The excuse of New England was, her conscientious scruples against the crime of human slavery. This was the merest pre tence ; for, at the very time they were clamoring against the wickedness of slavery, which separated families, the Governor of Massachusetts was engaged in sending ship loads of women away from the State, to hunt husbands on the slope of the Pacific, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 355 and many of whom landed in New York brothels. But New England had a purpose in no wise inconsistent with her early slave-trading history. This purpose was to divert our trade and enslave our labor, to pension manufacturers and create lord- lings in an untaxed, bonded aristocracy. This she accomplished by her first great crime After destroying our great highway to the markets of the world through the Mississippi, New England drove us into her market to be robbed by her carriers on the way, and by her mer chants and manufacturers in the market place. THE SECOND CRIME OF NEW ENGLAND AGAINST WESTERN AGRICULTURE. "When New England had baptised the floodtide of our mighty river with the richest blood of our young men, had inflamed the country into civil war, and blockaded our ports, we had but one customer left New England. She owned the railroads, she watched the markets ; and if the price of wheat increased one cent, they would increase the price of freight two cents on the bushel, leaving us one cent less in the price of the wheat than before the rise. After having destroyed our natural highway to our natural market, she drove us to her artificial thoroughfare, and prevented the possibility of profit upon anything we had to sell or export; so that the benefits of an ordinary rise and fall of the market were not allowed to extend to us. A more com plete vassalage of an agricultural to a manufacturing people is inconceivable. After New England had begun the war, she then inflamed the Western soldiers with incendiary harangues, and took the flower of the Western States to fight the bloody battles and endure the terrible campaigns in the swamps. Whilst Massachusetts was hiring negroes in the South, Indians in the West, vagabonds and criminals in Europe, to fill her quota, the very best blood of the Western States went en masse to the Avar. It was a sorrowful picture to see our poor men burning up cotton, to return home and find their ragged families paying five prices for their muslin ; burning up sugar planta- 356 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. tions, when their wives and children were crying for saccharine to sweeten their coffee ; spreading desolation in the South to destroy ourselves and enrich New England. THE THIRD CRIME OF NEW ENGLAND AGAINST WESTERN AGRI CULTURE, IN TAXING WESTERN MANUFACTURES BY EXCISE, WHILE EASTERN MANUFACTURES WERE PROTECTED BY HEAVY TARIFF DUTIES. The Corn States of the Mississippi Valley had no market for their corn. In the south, it could not be exported ; its bulk and weight forbade it. The cholera swept off their hogs by the mil lion, and their corn was rotting in the crib and in the field, and would not pay the gathering. It was a cheap fuel. There was nothing left the people but to distil their corn, to put it in such form as to send it to market. This distilled corn is the basis of nearly every form of medicine ; is used in paints, for medical and mechanical purposes ; is a staple as necessary to legitimate business as iron or cloth. Yet while New England was demand ing a tariff of fifty cents a yard on all cloths, coarse and fine, besides thirty-five per cent, ad valorem, quite doubling the price of all the clothing of the poor of the country, the pretence was to protect domestic manufactures ; she levied an excise duty of eight hundred per cent, upon the liquors manufactured for all medical and mechanical purposes in the Western States. The pretence was to prevent intoxication and crime, and the punish ment of liquor dealers. The truth is. that the excise made all the old whisky dealers rich, and injured nobody except the West ern people, who had a vast amount of corn they were under the necessity of selling at some price ; and by this legislation were forced to sell it for a song, or use it for fuel. THE FOURTH CRIME OF NEW ENGLAND AGAINST WESTERN AGRICULTURE. After the destruction of the Southern market, the spread of the great swine plague, and the adoption of the monstrous excise system against high wine ; the people of the Western States commenced CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 357 wool -growing upon a most extensive scale, stocking their farms, at very heavy expense, with the best blood in Europe and Amer ica ; building barns and sheds, and changing their former pur suits, adapting their entire business and capital to the new enter prise. This was, with them, the commencement of this form of production. It was that very condition of things for which even general free trade men believed protection admissible. The pro tection given to the manufacturers of woolen goods was greater than had ever been exacted or demanded before in the history of manufacturers anywhere; and was under pretence of giving pro tection, also, to the wool-growers : but in the very same bill the coarse wools, of which they manufacture their cloth, (which is protected at least one hundred per cent.) has an average duty of but little more than one per cent. This bill lets in coarse wool from South America to the destruction of wool-growing in this country ; is bought by New England manufacturers and sold to the poor people of the country with an added tariff of one hun dred per cent. ; at the same stroke, smiting down the wool-grow er and the wearer of their manufactures. This final blow leaves the Western farmer no business, which is not absorbed by New England. THE IMPOSITIONS UPON THE WESTERN PEOPLE. To delude the Western people, New England proposes slight tariffs upon those articles of production, which it is impossible that competition should import from abroad ; which are, however, consumed by competition at home and for the protection of which, tariffs afford no remedy whatever. Suppose a duty of twenty cents were imposed upon a bushel of foreign corn ; this could give no protection to any corn raised in the Mississippi valley, because the competition comes from the farmers who surround him. There is a gentleman, surnamed gaunt famine, who with a coarse indifference to good society, always improves your market, but leaves you nothing to sell. The Eastern capitalists have taught Western producers to be lieve that favorite theory of tyrants, that " every new tax creates 358 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. a new ability in the subject to bear it, and each increase of public burden increases proportionately the industry of the people." But like all other increases of industry, it imposes new tasks upon the old laborers to increase the facilities for the groser en joyment of the rich. These tasks increased, fall with such weight upon the people, that they sink under it. They have to work harder, without living better than before, realizing less for their labor. These complications of sectional difficulties must be simplified to be understood. The great civil war upon the Southern States was covertly directed against the West, because the vassalage of the South to the East assures the vassalage of the West to the East. If the East can disfranchise the South, they need not disfran chise the West, nor fear the issue in a contest between the sec tions. She is now the most powerful. The East now holds the West in her hands with a deadly grasp. With the South disfranchised, the West subsidized, the East ern States lose the resistance of the one, purchase the acquies cence of the other, through their representation, and leave the people powerless, bound in chains forged by themselves. The robberies and oppressions of the tariff, are oppressions of the West by the East. The robberies and swindles of the bonds, are swindles of the East upon the West. The usuries, extortions and exchanges, are Eastern drafts upon Western industry. The machinery of capital is complete, and opens up an avenue through which Western labor flows in a steady stream into the reservoirs of Eastern capital. The real and sham Insurance companies of Eastern capital, levy a heavy tribute upon everything which may be consumed by flood or fire. JSfew England owns the railroads, telegraphs, and every other means of transportation. She holds mortgages upon the new cities of the lakes. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 359 The towns and villages of the frontier, are under Eastern domination and capital, which has been gathered from bounties paid to fisheries, and duties imposed upon manufactured goods. Eastern capital controls the Western State legislation, courts and literature. The national banks are Eastern banks, created to control Western business and absorb Western labor. Under the same dictation, the President would exclude every one owning over $20,000, from general amnesty ; driving the capital from the Southern States, already reduced to beggary. All legislative protection of the East is at the expense of the West. Between the interests of the East and the West, there is noth ing in common. The people have different pursuits, different population and different markets. These markets are so remote from each other that it is a matter demonstrable that we may send our produce to Liverpool by way of New Orleans, and pay all expenses, contingent and direct, at a less cost and greater profit than we can transport it to Boston, through our almost perfect railroad system, under Eastern control. This is true of the whole country west of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio rivers. But this need not be so if a generous system of legislation and just employment of capital is made. The protective tariffs inure entirely to the benefit of the East at the expense of the West: because manufacturing is sectional, confined to the East. The West have no facilities for manufacturing such articles as we import from the East. The Western States are too remote from the East to exchange commodities upon terms as favorable as they could with Europe under fair reciprocity treaties. But precisely the same relation borne to New England by the West, is sustained by the South. Between the West and South there is a community of interest which makes them tenants in common of the great agricultural regions of the United States. The difference is in the manual force which created and di rected their respective labor. 360 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. In the West, by the free Caucasian controlling as well as working his field, he is the actuary of his own plantation and business. The South use the labor of the ignorant, barbarous people, placed under their guardianship. Between these systems there was the most perfect harmony ; in their operations, they exhibited the most perfect symmetry. Every Constitutional Amendment proposed, is an amendment aimed at the West. The payment of the debt must be by the West, which pro duces everything, and pays the tariffs, &c. The inventive genius of villainy could suggest no new scheme of plunder which has not been prominent in the embarassmeut of trade and the robbery of the West by the East. Every principle of economy urged as a plea for the protec tion of herself, is applied to the oppression of the West. The East demands protection for her own manufactures, and oifer, as apology, that manufactures are essential to national wealth. In the same sessions of legislation, she demands penal taxation for articles manufactured in the Western States, and pleads that they contribute to the moral evils of the country. The government has paid bounties to Eastern whale-hunters, to build up commerce; but she prohibits, by duties, the importa tion of all foreign goods, and thereby dispenses with merchant men and destroys commerce. New England demands a premium upon everything she raises upon her stony soil and inhospitable clirne, and demands a tax upon cotton, oil, and every other product, because they are the product of rebels. They secured the abrogation of the Cana dian reciprocity treaty, to secure a trifling protection to a few half-starved Eastern iarmers and lumber merchants, but which could not possibly affect the Western farmer, whose crop would be exhausted in the transportation, long before it could reach a point of competition with the same Canadian article, and our superior facilities defy competition on our own ground. Such is the stupidity of the Western people, that they are rearing monuments to perpetuate their own shame, and cele brating anniversaries to commemorate their own subjugation. We were using our own armies to destroy our own markets. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. When the husky voice of a mongrel fanaticism drove the Western States into an unnatural market, and forced an unnatu ral alliance with New England, (bearing precisely the same rela tion to her haughty ally, that poor Jim Boswell bore to Dr. Johnson,) they seem flattered by very much the same style of adulation employed by the great lexicographer to his factotum. History illustrates no such voluntary debasement as that of the Western people ; with such a population, resources, produc tions and dependencies, surrendered without hesitation, to mas ters so exacting and remote from them. This condition of things will continue whilst the people remain ignorant of their wants, powers, duties, and obligation to themselves and society. Their representatives will grow rich in the sale of the liberties of their constituencies, and revel in wealth in their presence. Such is the condition of the brewing sectional strife between the great divisions of the country. Time moves slowly along, and at its heels drags on the ap pointed events of fate, and the purposes of destiny are slowly filling up their measure. Money is becoming all the time a little scarcer. Houses are scarce, and nobody builds, because their money is safely locked up in bonds ; and bonds pay better, and cost less in taxation, than anything else. It will not justify the farmer to break prairie, fence fields, plant orchards, or engage in any other speculation or enterprize. All these things are taxed beyond endurance; but bonds are not taxed and not taxable. They draw a higher interest, paid by a deluded people, on long time, than a second-rate merchant can afford to pay on a sixty day s note in a country bank, and retain his credit. But this will be the hardest year of taxation ever known in the Western States, and the most difficult year in which to pay taxes. The war has literally swept from the plantation, horses, mules, cattle, swine, and everything but sheep, which have taken the place of the cotton-boll. Horses were slaughtered in battle, or worn out on the march ; cattle were wantonly shot down in large herds, and left to perish, whilst the primest of the land were slaugh tered for beef; and then the hog cholera swept like an Egyptian plague from farm to farm, sometimes leaving scarcely the seed of the race in its train. 362 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The farmers are nothing like so rich this year as they were last, and will be much poorer next. Emigration from the valley to the mountains has commenced, through the scarcity of money ; and many who returned from the war with money in their pock ets, are now without a dime, entering on the struggle for life, in competition with the negro as a day laborer ; and the men whose battles they fought, employ the negro in preference to the poor white man, who has served their purpose. The people of the country, like the Secretary of the Treasury, seem oblivious of their financial condition. They talk like people who are out of debt; like a rich lunatic who had burned up his fine farms, torn out his dams, shot down his horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, destroyed his mills, dismissed his intelligent clerks and business men, and invited his laboring hands to a general drunken spree, as the status of their future condition ; and after the universal destruction of his productive power for which he has paid enor mous sums, he goes to work to speculate upon his future pros pects; of the yield of farms without hands, laid waste; the manufactory of mills lying in ashes; dams levelled with the waters ; of the increase of his dead horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, and issues a proclamation to his drunken rabble, that the next will exceed all former crops ; and jubilant over his financial condition and the prowess of his rapscalleons and slubberdegul- lions, and proud of the attractive beauty of his yahoos, threatens to extend this plantation style of improvement. This is the condition of the whole Southern States. In the Western, buggies in the summer, and sleighs in the winter, with the music of their jingling bells, have not so much custom and go out at lower prices than formerly. The Western soldiers who fought with a desperation rarely wit nessed on the field, and marched with an endurance rarely rival led in the movement of armies, are now poor, many of them maimed and broken down ; none of them rich. Of the faithful men who volunteered through devotion to the cause in which they fought, the suffering is very great and the money which ought to be devoted to the comforts, is thrown away in tariffs upon the necessaries of life, and the home of the active warrior is only less desolate than those whose domicil he left in ashes. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 363 Nearly all of the bounty money has been expended. Blue coats on the village squares are becoming scarcer, loafers more abundant, crime on the increase, grain selling lower, taxes in creasing, money becoming scarcer, and complaint becoming gen eral, with only this unfortunate difficulty, that the seat of the disease has not been reached. THE CONDITION OF THE WESTEKN STATES. There is much ado about railroads, monopolies, and building railroads, and cutting canals, and uniting oceans by common channels, &c., as a remedy for the evils of expensive transporta tion. The people are in a condition of perturbation. The only good that may come of this is the attention which it may arouse and the enquiry which it may elicit, and ultimately lead to a sus picion, at least, of the true consequences of the troubles of which they complain. They complain of the railroad monopolies. This is unfair. The freights and passage are not unusually or un necessarily high, as compared with everything else. Their stamp duties are imposed by the act of the General Government. Their income taxes, with the other legal obstructions to free commerce, make high prices a necessity to their very existence. The evil is beyond that, and will be recurred to again. The evil is in this fact, that the country owes an incalculably oppressive debt that will hold in bonds the industrial energies in all time to come. Every part of the whole body politic will groan under it ; the legs will grow weary and tremble in their effort to stand alone. The back will grow weak, the head dizzy, and the stomach lose its digestion, until the whole paralyzed frame lies prostrate and dead. Only the babbling tongue of loyalty, unconscious of the evils upon us, will cry for new taxation. The West has either to yield to these impositions and make a cowardly transmission of the burdens to her children, or at once to prepare to throw off the yoke, and emancipate herself and her country together. Let Western men every where unite upon this general basis. 1. EQUALITY OF LABOR AND ITS PRODUCTS. 2. THAT NO ONE SPECIES OF INDUSTRY SHALL BE SUP PORTED AT THE EXPENSE OF ANOTHER. 364 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 3. Reciprocity treaties as the basis of commerce among civil ized nations. 4. The abolition of the funding system, with its standing ar mies, banks, protective tariffs, and gambling corporations, based upon visionary capital. 5. The restoration of the Constitution of the United States, as a perpetual bond of union among all the States, and a wall of fire, with its leaping flames to environ the liberties of the people. PEOPLE OF THE WEST OF ALL NAMES, emancipate yourselves from the leagues, societies and combinations of party, which are always corrupt and corrupting ; elevate your souls to the contem plation of those great truths which were sealed by the blood of our fathers, of which our material interests were the most endur ing testimonial. Cast your eye forward to the future dwelling place of our children, together in a great valley, with all of the diversities of wealth, and sources of happiness, grandeur of em pire and beauty of scenery, which adorned the primeval habita tions of our first parents. Let the sacred ashes of our fathers, preserved undisturbed in the beautiful cemeteries adorned by our children, remind us of the glories of the past, and the growth, prosperity and power of our posterity, stimulate us to firmly de mand and unflinchingly maintain our equal rights of commerce, agriculture, representation and constitutional government. This, honest men will not deny us, and no power of villainy can extort by violence. We appeal to the young men of the Mississippi Valley to join us in the movement to save us from the bondage of the capital ists. The young men of this great valley, of both armies, in spired by youthful fire and love of country, as they understood it, went to war with each other. Now the war is over. The Mississippi Valley, once the garden of the world, sits in desola tion, while Eastern capital, enriched by your mutual blood, is absorbing your labor. In Heaven s beneficent name, let all the past be forgotten, and call back the precious recollection that we are brethren ; forget not that the crystal waters of Lake Pepin, which reflect the images of the lovely daughters of the upper Mississippi, sweep on their majestic course, and cast back the shadows of the children of the Gulf, that we are all one. Upon CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 365 this one subject we can all agree ; " Radical/ " Rebel," Conser vative, Democrat, that Saint Louis must not be tributary to Boston; that Chicago must no longer be the mere tenant of Eastern capitalists ; that we, who hold the granary of the world in our hands, need not go begging for bread. Then let us or ganize, without regard to subjects of discord, and unite to rid us of this debasing servitude. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAS. CRIMES OF THE BANKING SYSTEM. CHAPTER I. MR. JEFFERSON S OBJECTIONS TO NATIONAL BANKS. 1. To form the subscribers into a corporation. 2. To enable them in their corporate capacities, to receive grants of land, and so far, is against the laws of mortmain. [NOTE. Though the Constitution controls the laws of mort main, so far as to permit Congress itself to hold lauds for certain purposes, yet not so far as to permit them to communicate a sim ilar right to other corporate bodies.] 3. To make alien subscribers capable of holding lands, so far, is against the laws of alienage. 4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a proprietor, to a certain line of successors, and so far, changes the course of descent. 5. To put the lands out of the reach of forfeiture or escheat, and so far, is against the laws of forfeiture and escheat. 6. To transmit personal chatties to successors in a certain line,, and so far, is against the laws of distribution. 7. To give them the sole and exclusive right of banking, under the national authority, and so far, is against the laws of monopoly. 8. To communicate to them a power to make laws, paramount to the laws of the States, for so they must be construed ; to pro tect the institution from the control of the State Legislatures, and so, probably, they will be construed. I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground ; that all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohib ited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, or to the people. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 367 Amendment. To take a single step beyond the bounda ries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power ; no longer suscep tible of any definition. The incorporation of a bank and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been dele gated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the enumerated powers, for these are:- - 1. A power to lay taxes for the purpose of paying the debts of the United States, but no debt is paid by this bill nor any tax laid. Were it a bill to raise money, its organization in the Senate would condemn it by the Constitution. 2. To borrow money ; but this bill neither borrows money, nor insures the borrowing of it. The proprietors of the bank will be just as free as any other money-holders to lend, or not to lend their money to the public. The operation proposed in the bill, first, to lend them two millions and then borrow them back again, cannot change the nature of the latter act, which will still be a payment and not a loan, call it by what name you please. 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the States, and with the Indian tribes. To erect a bank and regulate commerce, are very different acts. He who erects a bank, creates a subject of commerce in its bills ; so does he who makes a bushel of wheat, or digs a dollar out of the mines. Yet neither of these persons regulate commerce thereby. To make a thing which may be bought and sold, is not to pre scribe regulations for buying and selling. Besides, if this were an exercise of the power of regulating commerce, it would be void, as extending as much to the internal commerce of every State as to its external. For the power given to the Congress by the Constitution does not extend to the internal regulation of the commerce of a State ; that is to say, of the commerce between citizen and citizen, which remains exclusively with its own legislature : but to its external commerce only, that is to say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign nations, or with the Indian tribes. Accordingly, the bill does not propose the measure as a regulation of trade, but as productive of considerable advantage to trade. Still less 368 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. are these powers covered by any other of the special enumer ations. II. ISTor are they within either of the general phrases, which are the two following : 1. To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States ; that is to say, to lay taxes for the purpose of pro viding for the general welfare. For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose, for which the power is to be exercised. Congress is not to lay taxes ad libitiumj for any purpose they please, but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like manner, they are not to do anything they please, to provide for the general well, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not as a describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the preceding and sub sequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase. That of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States, and as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they pleased. It is an established rule of construction, where a phrase will bear either of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not that which will render all the others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straightly within the enume rated powers ; and those without which as means these powers, could not be carried into effect. It is known that the very power now proposed as a means, was rejected as an end by the conven tion which formed the Constitution. A proposition was made to them, to authorize Congress to open canals, and an amendatory one to empower them to incorporate. But the whole was reject ed, and one of the reasons of the rejection urged in debate, was, that they then would have a power to erect a bank, which would render the greater cities, where there were prejudices and jeal ousies upon that subject, adverse to the reception of $he Consti tution. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 369 2. The second general phrase is, to make all laws necessary and proper, for carrying .into execution the enumerated powers. But they can all be carried into execution without a bank. A bank, therefore, is not necessary, and consequently, not authorized by this phrase. It has been much urged that a bank will give great facility or convenience in the collection of taxes. Suppose this were true ; yet the Constitution allows only the means which are necessary, not those which are merely convenient for effecting the enume rated powers ; if such a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase, as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go every one, for there is no one which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience, in some way or other, to some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up all the dele gated powers and reduce the whole to one phrase, as before ob served. Therefore it was, that the Constitution restrained them to tho, necessary means ; that is to say, to those means, without which, the grant of the power would be nugatory. * * * * Perhaps bank bills may be a more convenient vehicle than Treasury orders, but a little difference in the degree of conve nience cannot constitute the necessity, which the Constitution makes the ground for assuming any non-enumerated power. * * Can it be thought that the Constitution intended that for a shade or two of convenience, more or less, Congress should be authorized to break down the most ancient and fundamental laws of the several States, such as those against mortmain, the laws against alienage, the rules of descent, the acts of distribution, the laws of escheat and forfeiture, and the laws of monopoly ? Nothing but a necessity, invincible by any other means, can justify such a prostration of laws, which constitute the pillars of our whole system of jurisprudence. Will Congress be too straight-laced to carry the Constitution into honest effect, unless they may pass over the foundation laws of the State Government for the slightest convenience to theirs ? The negative of the President, is the shield provided by the Constitution to protect against the invasions of the legislature. 1. The rights of the Executive. 24 370 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 2. Of the judiciary. 3. Of the States and State Legislatures. The present is the case of a right, remaining exclusively with the States, and is consequently one of those intended by the Con stitution, to be placed under his protection. It must be added, however, that unless the President s mind on a view of every thing, which is urged for or against this bill, is tolerably clear, that it is unauthorized by the Constitution, if the pro and the con hang so even as to balance this judgment, a just respect for the wisdom of the legislature, would natu rally desire the balance in favor of their opinion. It is chiefly for cases where they are clearly misled by error, ambition, or in terest, that the Constitution has placed a check in the negative of the President. Feb y 15, 1791. THOS. JEFFERSON. The Constitution makes gold and silver the only legal tender in payment of debt. The word pay, means to return something, for something else of equal value. A promissory note may be an equivalent in expectancy, but a promise to pay is not payment, whether made by individual or the government. Governments may, as heretofore, use a diversity of substances for money; leather, iron, tobacco, gold and silver; but it must be something more than a promise to pay. To carry out the Constitution, Congress has the power " to coin money." Upon this single and restricted power, the foundations of our agriculture, commerce, manufactures and every other in terest was laid. A paper currency had ruined a generation of the noblest of our race. Continental money, yet unredeemed, was lying in the drawers of the rich and the poor, who had been made poor by its insolvency. The paper subterfuge had been a failure everywhere. It had made no promise which it had not broken a thousand times else where. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 371 They wisely made their money of the precious metals, and stamped it with a fixed value. A departure from this standard by the employment of banks as the disbursing agent of the gov ernment, had paralyzed its energy in universal bankruptcy. The whole subject was elaborately presented in his most forci ble style, by Mr. Clay, who had served in Congress with the great men of the revolution, and led for a full generation, the ablest of all our statesmen in the most brilliant history of the American Congress. MR. CLAY S VIEWS OF THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF A NA TIONAL BANK, IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, IN 1811. " The vagrant power to erect a bank, after having wandered through the whole Constitution in quest of some congenial spot to fasten upon, has been, at length, located by the gentleman from Georgia, on that provision which authorizes Congress to lay and collect taxes. In 1791, the power is referred to one part of the instrument; in 1811, to another. Sometimes it is alleged to be deducible from the power to regulate commerce. Hard pressed here, it appears and shows itself under the grant to coin money. What is the nature of this government ? It is emphatically federal, vested with an aggregate of specified powers for general purposes, conceded by existing sovereignties, who have them selves retained what is not so conceded. It is said there are cases in which it must act on implied powers. This is not contro verted, but the implication must be necessary, and obviously flow from the enumerated powers with which it is allied. The power to charter companies is not specified in the grant, and I contend, is of a nature not transferable by mere implication. In the ex ercise of this gigantic power, we have seen an East India Com pany erected, which has carried dismay, desolation and death, throughout one of the largest portions of the habitable world, a company which is in itself a sovereignty ; which has subvert ed empires, and set up new dynasties, and has not only made . war, but war against its legitimate sovereign ! Under the in fluence of this power, we have seen arise a South Sea Company, 372 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. and a Mississippi Company, that distracted and convulsed all Europe, and menaced a total overthrow of all credit and confi dence, and to produce universal bankruptcy. Is it to be imagin ed that a power so vast would have been left by the Constitution,, to doubtful inference ? It has been alleged that there are many instances in the Constitution, where powers, in their nature in cidental, and which would necessarily have been vested along with the principal, are, nevertheless, expressly enumerated ; and the power to make rules and regulations for the government of the land and naval forces, which, it is said, is incidental to the power to raise armies, and provide a navy, is given as an exam ple. What does this prove? How extremely cautious the Con vention were to leave as little as possible to implications. In all cases where incidental powers are acted upon, the principal and incidental ought to be congenial with each other, and partake of a common nature. The incidental power ought to be strictly subordinate and limited to the end proposed to be attained by the specific power. In other words, under the name of accom plishing one object, which is specified, the power implied ought not to be made to embrace other objects, which are not specified in the Constitution. If, then, as it is contended, you could es tablish a bank to collect and distribute the revenue, it ought to be expressly restricted to the purpose of such collection and dis tribution. It is mockery, worse than usurpation, to establish it for a law ful object, which is not lawful. In deducing the power to create corporations, such as I have described it, from the power to lay and collect taxes, the relation and condition of principal and in cident, are prostrated and destroyed. The accessory is exalted above the principal. As well it might be said that the great lu minary of day is accessory, a satellite to the humblest star that twinkles forth its feeble light in the firmament of heaven. Look at it in another aspect. Seven-tenths of its capital are in the hands of foreigners, chiefly English subjects. We are possibly on the eve of a rupture with that nation. Should such an event occur, do you apprehend that the English premier would expe rience any difficulty in obtaining the entire control of this insti tution? Republics, above all other governments, ought most CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 37*3 seriously to guard against foreign influence. All history proves that the internal dissensions excited by foreign intrigue, have produced the downfall of almost every free government that has hitherto existed ; and yet gentlemen contend that we are benefit ed by the possession of this foreign capital." Prophecy never foretold human fortunes better. It is the most painful of all our present evils, that Europe holds a large amount of American bonds, and has loaned them to Americans, as the basis of bank stock. These European bondholders are largely in the interest of both the political parties and at all the nominating boards. The agents of European capital will freely lavish their money, and corrupt every sentiment of American democracy and republicanism to control American politics. In any event of foreign complication, the interests of capital will be subsidized by European Powers and agencies. These banking institutions are under a most alarming Euro pean espionage, and all legislation is accessible to this influence. England can preserve Ireland through the bond stock of her bankers. Austria hold her grasp tighter on Hungary, through her cap ital. Bismarck will be stronger through this system of mon opoly. The whole change in our manners and morals to that of des potism, had its origin in the funding system. Our affinity for Russia against Poland, was the legitimate off spring of a funding system which made serfs of laborers, robbed one-half of the country of its representation, and elevated bar barians to the office and status of citizens. 374 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. CHAPTER II. NATIONAL BANKS UNNECESSARY. CONFIDENCE is THE FOUNDATION OF THE BANKING SYS TEM. This is not the mere calculating logic of the usurer, based upon facts, figures, and responsible securities. The confidence of the public credits, for I shall call him such, is of a much higher and more sublimated character. He must believe that the man who owes him three dollars, with first one dollar to pay it, makes his debt abundantly secure. That John Law redeemed eighty dollars of his Mississippi stocks at par, with one dollar in gold, or that our immense cir culation of paper money may be readily redeemed in gold and silver coin. He must be willing to imperil the wages of his labor, the price of his property, the sanctity of his homestead, the profits of his business and support of his family, in promises to pay from a system which has regularly, every decade, bankrupted itself, depreciated its entire value and scattered distress in every avenue of business and trade, throughout the whole range of its circulation. He must believe that a faithful promise to pay, which never has been and never can be paid, except in the exchange of one false promise, for many, each alike, beyond the reach of redemp tion. Both Law and Robespierre declared that their paper sys tem would be successful, if the people would give it their un limited confidence, which, in other words, means that the bank notes are unquestionably solvent if there is never any demand for payment, which holds equally good of all other obligations, and which plan, if duly followed out, would ensure the solvency of all obligations whatever. CKIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. 375 The destruction of the old United States bank, had made the name of Andrew Jackson illustrious among his political ad mirers, as a statesman, as it had been before immortal as a hero. His fame was a guarantee to the people of the United States, that a system of speculative banking should never be revived under the auspices of the government. The existence of such a monstrous fraud upon the currency, credit, and industry of the country, as the new banking system, could have found no standing-place but for these bonds, which were made for that purpose. The paper issued by these banks, is the first certain step to ward repudiation. It is not a legal tender, and is morever, sub ject to all of the fluctuations incident to any other mere paper currency. It is not and cannot be adequately secured 1 against deprecia tion. It is, in fact, a form of repudiation which in every ten years changes bv the misfortune of trade, the full half of the capital of the country, from the hands of the producer and legiti mate retainer, to the hands of the speculator, stock gamblers, and adventurers. No system of paper money can be solvent, unless it be a cur rency fairly based upon the business credit of a good man or corporation, firmly secured by indestructible property ; but this can never be done, for such a currency should be based upon the positive capital, and not the indebtedness of the government. There can be neither argument or apology successfully made for the issue of money, either by or under the auspices of the government, against the direct and unequivocal prohibition of the Constitution. The entire absence of a circulating medium for the transaction of business, may be plead as a necessity ; but this could never occur in a fair administration of government, con trolled by constitutional laws. Such gold-commanding staples, as cotton, tobacco, hemp, sugar, rice, and gold mines which rival the wealth of Ophir and pour a steady stream of the pre cious metals into the lap of the public treasury administered by statesmen, with integrity, could command the gold of the world. Necessity, the profligate prostitute, whose shameless face is not abashed to hold up her hideous, nameless, mongrel offspring, as 376 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. tlie proper and legitimate children of chance, stands ready to plead for banking, just as she pleads for murder by military commission, robbery by arbitrary taxation, and every other form of crime convenient or subservient for the purposes of power. Governments, like individuals, when unable to pay her debts, may give evidences of indebtedness, and ours may, with much more show of candor than of constitutional authority, issue treas ury notes as legal tender. But for the establishment of banks, there can be neither constitutional authority or sound argument. Bankruptcy, the certain prelude of repudiation, must follow in evitably. The revolutionary audacity which hesitates at no wrong, and scruples at no adventure, will scarcely assume to make this worthless bank paper a legal tender without a change of the Constitution. It is incomprehensible, that in the infinite amendments offer ed to the Constitution, that this one has not been proposed to force the creditor to accept " national bank " notes as a legal tender in payment of debts, and compel him to pay his taxes in gold and silver, just as treasury notes were forced upon the peo ple as a legal tender, yet were not received in payment of duties, which was perhaps the only reason why they should be issued by the general government, as money at all, in the prosecution of the commercial business of the country. This national bank currency was substituted for the treasury notes, which were made a legal tender by Congressional legisla tion, only to make way for the issue of bonds. At every point of this tangled jungle of controversy, new questions arise, which are best answered as they come legiti mately up. 1. The banks were not necessary as banks of issue, to give to the people, a circulating medium, for these two obvious reasons : First. These bank notes were not and could not be made a legal tender in the payment of debts, under the most liberal or even extravagant interpretation of the Constitution, and, as such, added nothing to the circulating medium, nor contributed in any manner whatever, to the wealth, business, or industry of the country. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 377 Second. The " NATIONAL BANK " notes supplanted and drove from circulation the treasury notes which, by law, were made legal tender in the payment of debts ; and whether constitutional or not, met the existing wants of the people, as accepted by them in the transaction of business, and to which they had accommo dated themselves. Third. The national banks are a nuisance in their character as banks of issue, from the two foregoing considerations ; since every national bank note, if redeemed at all, must be redeemed in treas ury notes, denominated a legal tender. Then why not give to the people the treasury notes as a valid legal tender, as a circu lating medium, directly from the United States treasury, instead of Jndirectly through bonds, corporations, usurers, extortioners, and banks, as an invalid currency, which is not a legal tender. 378 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER III. No BANKING SYSTEM CAN BE MADE SECURE. THE PEOPLE HAVE NO SECUEITY IN ANY SYSTEM OF BANK PAPER; HAVE LOST IMMENSE AMOUNTS BY THE BANKING SYSTEM, WHICH STAND AS AN IRRESISTIBLE ARGUMENT AGAINST THE SYSTEM ITSELF. Among all of the illustrious men who have filled the office of Secretary of the Treasury, there was scarcely the superior of Judge Woodbury, who, whether as Governor, Senator, Secretary or Judge, was alike of integrity, above suspicion, and intellect profound and broad, who administered the affairs of the Treasury in the most critical period of our financial history, with an ability never excelled. The judgment of such a man transmitted as a treas ure to posterity, is a landmark of science. In times like these, such well-matured opinions ought to guide our deliberations. To this great statesman we are indebted for the following table of the aggregate losses since 1798, to the people, through the existence of banks, and the use of bank paper : 1. Losses through banks that have failed since 1798 on their capital, circulation and deposits $108,000,000 2. Losses by depreciation on bank notes through suspension of specie payments by banks $ 95,000,000 3. Losses by destruction of bank notes by ac cident 7,121,332 4. The losses through counterfeit notes, from 1790 to 1841, over and above what would have been on coin , $ 112,220,400 5. Amount of interest paid to banks for the use of banking institutions $1400,000,000 6. Losses by fluctuations from bank currency, CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 379 affecting prices of living, sacrifices of property at sheriffs 7 sales, from 1790 up to 1860 $ 300,000,000 Total $2,022,341,332 The process of the losses are very easily illustrated. Sup pose the currency of the United States amounts to $700,000,000 at any given time; the currency is quoted at 150; within one month it falls in quotation to 125, of one-sixth of the whole amount of currency, $116,666,666: somebody loses this, but this is true of the fluctuation on shorter and smaller amounts. In the course of the year they amount to full one hundred per cent., counting the advances and declines of the market. Leaving all of this entirely out of the account, which is so transparent, the amount of losses duly computed foot up the enormous sum of $1927,341,732 Amount lost by legal tender, national banks and bonds during the last five years $1999,000,000 The enormous sum of. $3,926,341,732 There are several other matters incidental in the history of the American banking system, among which may be named the fact that the amount of capital upon which issues are made, is never paid in, and very often not ten per cent, of the whole amount is ever connected with the bank. The process is a very simple one. The borrower and the lender exchanges notes ; the borrower pays a heavy per cent, to the bank for loaning his security, and the banker actually lives upon the interest of what he owes, and finally, when pay-day comes, the bank note must be redeemed by the money of the borrower, who pays the banker s debts, and the banker draws the interest. The banker is a middle-man, authorized by law to rob the public. The national bank notes have no credit which the government does not bestow upon them. From January, 1866, to January, 1867, the national banks drew from the Treas ury, interest on $300,000,000, amounting to $18,000,000; in 1868 the banks will get interest on that $18,000,000, $1,080,000, in addition to the $18,000,000, $19,080,000, making in all $37,080,000. 380 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. In 1869, the banks will draw their interest on the $300,000,- 000 18,000,000, also on the $37,080,000 $2,224,800 ; total, $57,309,800. In 1870, on the $300,000,000, $18,000,000, and on $37,080,000, making a total of $78,743,088 carried onto the year 1906, the interest, with its compoundings, will amount to the enormous sum of $2,739,000,000. But to this must be added the interest compounded in the form of discount in bank notes. To the people the sum is incalculable, and would bank rupt any people under heavens, and reduces the question to one of time ; simply when the explosion must come. The expedient of a national bank is never a good one. Judge Woodbury says : " It is equally vain to expect relief from a na tional bank of any kind. Aside from its unconstitutionality and dangers to public liberty, I will merely say as to the constitutional question, that the States rights man, or democrat, of 1798, who can swallow this new fiscal bank as constitutional, could swallow both Jonah and the whale, as the whale did Jonah alone" This was said of a bank merely. What possible argument could statesmen offer in apology for such a costly infernal machine as that which now " grinds the faces of the poor " under the name of " National Bank " ? The history of the whole transaction is one of incredibility. Under this system Congress issued Treasury notes, and declared them a legal tender. The people had conformed their business to this condition of things. Under the independent Treasury system, the Congress issued Treasury notes, payable on demand in other notes, or pledged to receive them in payment of postage, duties, etc., and other of these notes it put on the public at com pound interest. These notes would have been a failure in the beginning, but for the application of such coercive legislation as was used by John Law and the Duke of Orleans, to sustain the Mississippi bubble, and brought by Robespierre and Mirabeau to give cur rency to the assignats and mandats. The first of these expe dients was to declare these Treasury notes a legal tender in the payment of debts which had been contracted in gold and silver, though they were at a discount of sixty per cent. For this there was no law. There could be no law for such purpose. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 381 But this difficulty was readily disposed of. Martial law was de clared. The property of the country was under military rule, at the mercy of any upstart military official. Wherever the army might be brought to oppress the people, those who had property found it best to surrender it without cavil. Slungshots, bludgeons, were the only arguments used by these gentlemen in their determination of cases. In the courts he could find no redress for grievances ; they, too, were under martial law. Every judicial officer of character was harassed at every point, if known to be in opposition to the party in power. The best men of the bench were imprisoned ; the others willingly yielded to the pressure, and the government was careful not to raise the question of the legality of the paper money, and the opposition dared not. Although the issue of this currency as a legal tender was a stupendous fraud, which wrought great injustice upon its victims, yet the people framed their contracts, adjusted their business, and arranged their affairs, in view of the necessity of receiving these notes in payment of debts and fulfilment of con tracts. They learned to accommodate the price of their grain, the wages of labor, the value of merchandise, and the business of the country, to the new and sorrowful condition of things which was now upon us. In doing this the loss of debts, the sacrifice of business, the depreciation of property, and all the concomitants of a change of currency, were endured by the people, especially the laboring masses. Congress had no power to issue notes as money. The power of Congress is specific, and limited in these words : " To coin money, and regulate the value there of, and of foreign coin, and fix the standards of weight and measures, to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting ihe securities and coin of the United States." " No State shall coin money, emit bills of credit, or make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts, in defiance of this clear provision of the Constitution. This question is so clear, and is stated so explicitly, that it defies the possibility of argument to add to it conclusions. In regard to Treasury notes for the temporary purposes of meeting the cur rent wants and expenses of the government, but not as a legal tender, Albert Gallatin says: "Used as soberly as they have 382 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. been of late years by the Treasury department, and provided they are kept at par, they are the most convenient mode of sup plying a temporary deficiency in revenue, as well as the most convenient substitute for currency in the payment of debts." .Keeping these notes at par is not only the measure of the capa city of a nation to sustain her credit, but it is the only just and fair criterion by which a nation may determine the point at which her debt must cease to accumulate, to preserve her from excessive taxation. Of the debt, Gallatin says : " A public debt was always an evil to be avoided whenever practicable ; hardly ever justifiable, except in time of war. It has a tenden cy, perhaps more than any other cause, to concentrate the national wealth into the hands of a small number of individuals, and it feeds the drones of society." George Washington did not hesi tate to denounce the bondholders of the Revolution as "IDLERS, USURERS and EXTORTIONERS." CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 383 CHAPTER IY. THE FIRST GREAT CRIME OF THE CHASE BANKING SYSTEM. THE NATIONAL BANKS ARE A GLARING FRAUD, to which the Government HAS MADE ITSELF A CRIMINAL PARTY IN OP PRESSING THE PEOPLE. First. The Bondholders, who are the Bankers, are secured in the payment of their bonds, in legal tender, to the full amount of their face. In the second place, the note-holders have no adequate secu rity for the redemption of the notes, or any reliable guaranty against depreciation. The Banking system as now organized, was an unnecessary ob struction to the circulation of paper money, an oppressive rob bery of the people by the Government, in conspiracy with spec ulators. The crime of the system has been threefold. First, in issu ing any treasury notes at all, under the general system of coer cion adopted as the theory of the Government by their own in terpretation of the Constitution. If they had the right to coerce a State by physical force, and the right to coerce soldiers by conscription, to be employed in the coercion of a State, then, inasmuch as the laws and institutions of a State, and the life of a human being, are of greater value than their money, they had the right to enforce loans from the rich to carry on the war ; which would have preserved prices at their usual rates, except the rise in value consequent upon the increased demand upon articles of trade. But this they did not do ; and by their unwise course, the Government, in issuing fab ulous sums of Treasury notes, not only oppressed the poor with high prices for all of the necessaries of life, but also increased the price of everything which was bought for its own use, which was oppressive upon both the Government and the poor people. 384 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. But at the same time, this very inflation of money was of the greatest advantage to the rich, who, from the beginning to the ending of the war, contributed nothing of their wealth. As the currency depreciated, the rich put their gold into the market, which was rated worth as high as two hundred and eighty-nine cents in Treasury notes for each dollar of gold or silver. While the poor were bearing the burdens of the war, paying this heavy corresponding advance on all that they ate and wore, furnishing their ablest-bodied men to make out the monthly butcher s bill of the horrible war. The rich were coining money from their idle capital hoarded in their drawers. This was the first crime premeditatedly committed, to prepare for the second crime. If this issue of treasury notes had not been made, specie payments need not have been suspended, and the losses of the war would have been confined to the army and their ravages, making due calculation for the loss of labor, di version of capital, and destruction of commerce in the conflict of arms. Up to the commencement of the war, in 1861, for a period of a full quarter of a century, the Independent Treasury system had carried us safely along, embracing a period of war with a Foreign Power. It was a divorce between the Government and the Banking system, which drained the pockets of the people and distracted the business of the country. The Independent Treasury system made the business of the country independent in its relations to the financial managers, and threw speculators upon their own re sources, for means to carry on their own vocation. The great objects of the Independent Treasury system was to place it out of the power of the combination of Capital, to coerce the Government, and make the legislation of the country inde pendent. From a specie basis there never should have been a departure. In no departure from this, is there either profit or safety to the Government, or to the people. Until the return, no difference at what apparent cost it may be, all business is im perilled. Under pretext of necessity and under cover of the Independ ent Treasury system, Congress issued the Treasury notes and de- CHIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. 385 clared them a legal tender, and after exceeding inconvenience, which is always incident to a change of the basis and character of a national currency, the people conformed their business to the altered condition of things. THE SECOND CHIME WAS COMMITTED UNDER PRETENCE OF GETTING RID OF THE EVILS OF THE FIRST. Just when the People had adjusted the trade of the country to the character of the currency, this new National Banking System was projected as a means of relief, and pretext for perpetual speculation and stock-gambling upon the industry of the laborer and economy of the frugal. This was done covertly, and by the most scandalous false pre tense. The Secretary of the Treasury, in conspiracy with the Bank ers of the country, created the public debt, which reached an amount incomprehensible and incalculable by figures, which makes the head dizzy in contemplation. The conspirators raised the hue and cry about the inflation of the currency, high prices and paper money, which should be contracted to a healthy amount and condition. The contraction of the currency was made even more remu nerative than the inflation. The bankers, brokers, extortioners, usurers, and stock gam blers, united in conspiracy with public officers in immediate prox imity to the Treasury and revenue, to deprecate the profligate redundancy of the currency, and immediately went to work to buy up the outstanding notes which were drawing no interest and were serving the purposes of a circulating medium as well as any other mere paper currency could do which promised no coin as a basis of redemption, and much better than any substi tute which was not a legal tender in the payment of debts. But the redundancy in the currency was the ruinous evil com plained of by the conspirators, and the only conceivable remedy was the contraction of its volume. 25 386 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER Y. THE SECOND GREAT CRIME OF CHASE S BANKING SYSTEM. THE ISSUE OF BONDS WAS THE SECOND CRIME AND THE REMEDY PROPOSED FOR THE EXPANSION. This was perpetrated by a series of crimes which, step by step, paved the way for the second robbery of the people ; at the same time divesting them of a possibility of any remedy whatever. I. The primary movement was the adoption of the funding system and the issue of bonds as the only possible means of creating a permanent and varied aristocracy, without the know ledge of the people, or the necessity of its incorporation in the Constitution of the United States ; a measure for which the pub lic mind was not yet prepared nor well in the course of prepara tion. No special titles of nobility are tolerated. Any other wealth is evanescent, measured by success in business. Fortune or misfortune plays at her will, and whim, with the accumulations of industry, the grasp of avarice, and over-reach ing speculation. But this funding system will make an aristoc racy permanent and oifensive. It places labor at the disposal of idlers, and make serfs of all laborers, and reduces farmers to mere tenants at will. II. This aristocracy, created by the funding system, based upon an untaxed mortgage of t}ie property and labor of the country, could readily ba made transmissible, to pass from sire to son. The extortioners and usurers, who hold their mortgage upon the labor of the present generation, will transmit their bonds to their children, to pass as a mortgage upon the children of the laborers who now pay it, inheriting from their parents only the right to be taxed. This process was to be carried out and to be paid in paper money, until age had made the debt respectable and blotted out CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 387 its shameful history ; until arbitrary power has crushed out the spirit of free inquiry. This matter was carefully considered in laying the foundation for a perpetual aristocracy as its complete basis. In the United States, there was not ground-work, other than, the funding system. THERE COULD NOT BE A MILITARY ARISTOCRACY, UNDER THE FEDERAL SYSTEM, FOR THESE REASONS : First. There were too many military men in the country alike ambitious of distinction, and lustful of power to invest them with exclusive rule. Second. The jealousies so natural to military men, would lead to endless divisions in such an organization, and the original selections of military officers were too indiscriminate for such a purpose. Third. Money was required as the basis of commanding aris tocracy. This the military of the country had not, and more than all, it was impossible to transmit an aristocracy of this kind, had it been possible which it was not to create it. THERE COULD NOT BE A CLERICAL ARISTOCRACY, AS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 1st. There was no established Church and no established religion, no common faith, no common purposes of organization. 2d. The denominations were too numerous, and in all the ele ments of their faith, too diverse, and in their organization, too jealous of rivalry, to make any common establishment at that time possible. 3d. Like the military, they were without financial establish ment and commanded no influence, except that which was given them by their wealthy congregations. THE CAPITALISTS OF THE COUNTRY were the only elements out of which to create a perpetual aristocracy, who could trans mit their wealth and power together, as the Rothschilds in Europe. 1. This could be done without exciting any other comment whatever, during their establishment and after it had been estab lished. Funding, the old thorough and exacting system of finan cial slavery, was the method adopted to effect this purpose. 388 CKIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 2. This made the bondholders an aristocracy at once, without any intervening ceremonials. The ownership of the bonds had a profound meaning, which told more upon the material interests of the country than stars or garters. The issue of the bonds sealed the aristocracy and made it complete, and may be seen in the course of legislation, in every department of the govern ment, in every part of the country. When a measure of legisla tion is called up before Congress, the aristocracy is represented in their capital, but the people have no voice. When a tariff of duties is to be imposed, the manufacturers, with their attorneys, are heard before Congressional committees, who never grow poorer by their presence. But the poor con sumers, who are as many thousands to one, are never heard ; they have no voice, no representative. When a question of currency is involved, the presidents of banks go as a caucus to inform the Congress what is demanded for the general good ; but the millions, whose food and raiment are dependent upon the circulating medium, are not even consult ed, and have no voice raised in their behalf. This oligarchy of bondholders is worse even than the British aristocracy, which has been based upon noble blood or distin guished services, which must preserve its self-respect to preserve its existence, and seek the security of their order in the good will of the people. The American aristocracy, the offspring of American corrup tion, has a supreme will over the mercenary Congress that gave it being, who are but the supple tools of the various forms of the capital of the country. 1. This aristocracy of wealth has not only its own inherent power, but it has the hired power of the corrupted clergy which it readily controls, as they are dependent upon public charity for a livelihood. For, of out of the twelve chosen by the Saviour, one denied, another betrayed, and all, except two, fled from their Master. Think not strange then, of corruptions now. 2. It effectually controls the government, and with it the military ; and each new expense of hiring mercenaries, who are ready to fight for anybody or anything, which will pay them, is borne by the people in new taxes added to those that already CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 389 weigh them down, of which, however, the bondholders are still exempt. In the creation of the funding system, the Congressmen were duly bribed and suborned, and are now nominated through the influence of capital, which avails itself of party frenzy; which is employed as motive power to impel the machinery of party corruption. Having the mercenary clergy under their control to inflame and mislead their flocks, they can then set the mili tary on the people, who will gladly pay taxes or submit to any thing to get rid of the insult and plunder of a soldiery, who will eventually be called in to aid the execution of the writs of the tax-gatherer. For it must not be forgotten that when incomes fail to yield revenue, as they soon must, then the land will be sold for taxes, and the bondholders will buy them up with in terest on the bonds, at his own price. This second crime has given to the people of the United States, such a style of government, as leaves to them only the alter native of slavery or repudiation. Already have these issues been made. II. THE MANNER OP THE FUNDING was a high-handed rob bery of the people, even greater than the inflation of the currency in the first place. The volume of the currency had grown to such enormous pro portions, that treasury notes had lost their entire relative value to gold and silver. Just then the bonds were placed upon the mar ket, at an average cost ranging from thirty-five to fifty cents on the dollar. These bonds were bought up and paid for in legal tender notes. So that, by an edict of the conspirators, all of the available capital of the country was increased from two to three hundred per cent, in the hands of its owner, and, of necessity, all of the unavailable capital, or real estate and personal property, was on the same proportion actually diminished, as the bonds thus issued became a lien upon the other wealth of the country. It is not only a safe, but it is a liberal calculation to assume, that, by the second crime, a gift of at least one-half of the whole funded debt of the United States was made to the capitalists, on the bonds issued, to be paid by the extreme poor and middling 390 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. classes in stinting their daily bread, their ordinary wearing ap parel and fuel. As the funding system and stock gambling has been examined elsewhere, we dismiss this subject merely with this statement. III. THE PEIVILEGES OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM was a silent crime, the real enormity of which was not well understood at the time. It t was the consummation of all the villainies incident to the establishment of a privileged order. These bondholders, by this act, were placed upon a level with the old French aris tocracy who were not taxed, the very fact of which induced the French Revolution ; and to the credit of our fallen race be it recorded, that just this crime always has, and surely always will, excite rebellion anywhere. There was another manner of currency the cause for the issue of which, no national exposition has ever been given, nor, perhaps, ever will be. These were the compound interest legal tender notes which were issued in the earlier part of the war, when the bankers feared their ability to sufficiently involve the country, as to make it necessary to resort to the funding system. There was never known to be any distinction in the market, or current value among the rural populations, between the legal tender and the compound interest, nor any cause for their issue. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 391 CHAPTER VI. THE THIRD GREAT CRIME OF CHASE S BANKING SYSTEM. THE THIRD CRIME WHICH CONSUMMATED THE WICKEDNESS OF NATIONAL BANKS, WAS PERPETRATED UNDER THE PRE TENCE THAT THE CURRENCY HAD BEEN TOO SUDDENLY CON TRACTED. For they had no sooner bought up the bonds, than, they discovered the country needed an inflated currency to pay an inflated public debt. Then, by an act of Congress, approved June 3, 1864, the bonds were made the basis, or rather the pretext, for a system of National Banking, with " all such incidental powers as shall be necessary to carry on the business of banking by discounting and negotiating promissory notes, drafts, bills of exchange, and other evidences of debt ; by receiving deposites ; by buying and selling exchange, coin and bullion ; by loaning money on personal secu rity ; by obtaining, issuing and circulating notes according to the provisions of this act," &c. This system, like its predecessors, was a system of crimes which were distributed regularly along the pathway of its exist ence. I. The first crime or blunder of the new banking system was that it was allowed to issue money upon the faith or credit of the bonds, and receive at the same time a heavy interest upon both the bonds which they held, and the notes which they issued, at the very highest interest tolerated in the State in which the bank is located, and preparatory to the most extravagant and usurious rates. The Governors of several of the States, duly bribed, have recommended the entire repeal of the usury laws for the benefit of the banks. Congress authorized the issue of " National Bank Currency " to supply the place of the legal tender treasury note, which had 392 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. been withdrawn to buy up these bonds. But, before one dollar of this national bank currency found its way into circulation, the borrower had to pay ten per cent, discount, which, duly com pounded in a year, would be nearly fifteen per cent, per annum, which thus aggregates: Interest on Government Bonds 7 3-10 per cent. Bank discount, exchange, &c., duly footed. ..15 " To pay for collecting and disbursing, all told. . . 15 " 37 3-10 per cent. On the whole circulation this is very nearly what every dollar costs the people before it finds its way into the borrower s pocket. The current value of the depreciated currency which was given for the bonds, was but little more than one-third of its face, making every bond issued in the shape of National Bank notes, cost about 90 per cent, per annum, after making due and fair allowance for all discrepancies exacted from the pockets of the people, to be paid to a bonded aristocracy free from taxation for the ostensible purpose of exchanging the notes of the Treasury of the United States, for notes on a corporation ; but for the real purpose of building up a privileged class in the country, to control its property, business, elections and government. (If this calculation was made upon the 5-20 bonds, on which six per cent, interest in gold is paid, arid upon which the bank cur rency is based, the percentage would be greater ; but it is upon the 7-30s, they being issued to supply the place of the Treasury notes withdrawn to make way for the bank notes.) Here it may be well to consider the evil which was suffered by the people in the change of paper money, to induce the creation of Banks. It must be apparent to all, that the issue of these bonds was unnecessary to the prosecution of the war. The very moment that the legal tender notes were declared money under the arbi trary power of the Government, they were the very best thing in the shape of promises to pay that the people could have for currency, where there was no money. Then why issue bonds? But if any pretence is offered for the issue of the first bonds, to get money, or rather paper, or it may have been some gold, there CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 393 was no possible financial necessity for the sale of bonds after the Government commenced the issue of greenbacks. The reason is patent on its face. It was two-fold. They issued bonds free from taxation to give the rich men -of the country an opportu nity to. invest their money in this manner, that the party might control and use their wealth to retain the political power of the country. There was another reason quite as transparent as this ; it was that national banking had been voted down, overthrown, was dead, buried by Jackson, and could be raised over his immortal fame, only by force and fraud. But these men wanted national banking, with its fraud and corruption. This was the plan to revive it : issue bonds to draw interest to the bankers as the basis of the banks ; then let the banks issue their paper and draw in terest on short loans, and compounded from the people who bor rowed the notes from the bank to pay the interest. By this pro cess the banker draws double interest interest on his bonds which he bought, and interest on the bank notes which he issues, but it is all the same money. But on all this he is freed entirely from the taxation which is imposed on every other species of property. The folly was allowed of inflating a currency, just when it ought to have been contracted. Of creating high prices just when the price of everything should have been reduced. There was even, after this folly, one remedy which would have equalized the burden, and with some degree of fairness, distribu ted the losses suffered by the people among those who had un fairly gained by the inflation. This remedy was a simple as well as equitable one, which was to allow the Treasury notes without interest, to remain as the en tire circulating medium of the country, until they were absorbed in duties, taxes and fees, due the general and State Governments and in this way the general debt, the burden, would scarcely have been felt among the people, except in the losses of the war, des olation, plunder, and death. But no sooner had the bonds been issued and the fate of the people been irrevocably sealed, than Greeley and others clamored for an immediate specie basis. 394 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAR. This would secure the payment of the bonds and their in terest in gold, which would have been, as has been shown, at enormous interest, considering the cost of the bonds, which were to be fastened as a nameless, endless curse, upon our posterity for ever. This subject is well worthy of illustration, and entirely susceptible of it. The fact was entirely covered up by the speculators and over looked by the people, that a great debt, created in an inflated currency, must be paid in an inflated currency, if paid at all. The ordinary transactions of life require this. The man who bought his farm when wheat was a dollar a bushel, and pork was ten dollars per hundred pounds, and made his first payment, hoping to pay the remaining debt out of the proceeds of his crop, when wheat falls to fifty cents a bushel and pork to three dollars a hundred, he will have to duplicate his crop of wheat and trip licate his stock of pork, or surrender his farm and lose his first payment. What is true of private affairs, is preeminently true of the affairs of the public. Even now, if the immediate payment of these first mortgages in treasury notes, precisely what they were originally exchanged for, would relieve the country of the National Banks, another body of leeches, fastened upon the body political, with the collectors, assessors, and the whole retinue of government cormorants, would feast upon the labors of the poor. To this might be returned the answer, that this would beget general ruin and destroy the value of the currency. But the currency which we now have, has no value ; it is neither a measure nor standard of value, and to the people of the country, it is of the very least possible importance, what becomes of it. Whatever else may become of the present currency, the issue of the Treasury notes would relieve the people of the burdens of taxation to pay the interest on the bonds, upon the one hand, and give to the country a currency, which the law has declared a legal tender, without the additional taxation to support thousands of banks, and tens of thousands of bank ers clerks, tellers, and their useless and extravagant army of public profligates. And if the government, which has been buy ing its own paper, at thirty -six to fifty cents on the dollar, wants CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 395 to pay the debt and redeem its notes, it can do it even at lower figures than it has ever touched before, and at once return to a gold and silver basis ; the debt is due from the poor people, and let the money be bought up at the lowest possible figures. It is a duty in honesty and candor, duly to notify the bond holders that this is the only conceivable way in which the bonds may approximate to a final payment. THE SECOND CEIME OF THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM WAS THE LEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF THE FIRST. The Secretary of the Treasury talks of reducing the volume of the currency, and, at an early day, to resume specie payment. The thing is preposterous, unless the government chooses this as the most direct road to repudiation, for in that case the pay ment of the debt is impossible. The return of a million of men to agricultural pursuits, will bring down the price of every kind of produce to a merely nom inal value, and leaving the Western farmers without a compen sating market, except the unprofitable one, created by famine. The volume of currency is contracting already in the rural districts, and then comes the crash. Then must be realized this self-demonstrating argument, that whoever owes more than he is worth, and spends more than he makes, is bankrupt. THE BONA FIDE RESUME OF SPECIE BASIS, WHILE THE BONDS ARE IN EXISTENCE, WOULD BE CRIME PERPETRATED AND A GIGANTIC FRAUD OF THE BONDHOLDERS UPON THE PEOPLE ; WHEREBY THEY DOUBLE THE VALUE OF THE GOVERNMENT BONDS AND IN THE SAME RATIO DISABLE THE PEOPLE TO PAY THEM. Mr McCulloch congratulates the country upon the exceeding great revenue from duties and other sources, and makes this the basis of his hopes of an early return to specie payment, and the easy and ready facility for the payment of the public debt. His illustrious predecessor, Albert Gallatin, entirely differs with Sec retary McCulloch. Mr. Gallatin says : "Theunforeseen^unexampled accumulation of the public reve- 396 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. nue, was one of the principal proximate causes of the disasters that followed." This was not only true of the great financial crisis that convulsed the United States banks, through the bank issues and stock gambling, but it is universally true in every system of irresponsible banking, where there is no specie pay ment. The bank paper falls far below par, and then there is an impossibility of buying any property or paying any debt abroad, except with gold and silver, for just as fast as the precious metals, whether in coin or bullion, are unlocked from the coffers of the miser and flow into the channels of trade, they are swept away in the current of commerce, and used to pay for every conceiva ble luxury consumed by the rich bondholders, who, secure in his income from the bondage of the people, is only concerned about inventing means to expend what he has made, and provide to waste in extravagance, what the foolish people are paying in self- denial. The gold and silver of the country is soon disposed of; and the very day that an attempt is made to resume the specie pay ment and restore a specie basis in the transactions of the business of the country, every avenue of trade will realize what is now startlingly manifest to thoughtful men, that we are utterly and hopelessly bankrupt. It is not w r ithin the reach of human power to avert the approaching calamity, and this is quite well under stood among intelligent financiers. Among the stock-gamblers, the only purpose in view, is to postpone the time and prolong the day of the final explosion. In the meantime, the shrewd and unscrupulous, who have con tributed their full share to the general bankruptcy, will econo mize their means, arrange their affairs, shift their men on the chess board and shuffle the cards; so that the poor and middle classes may be left with an empty hand, in a game where the rich always win, the poor always lose, and capital lies as a sponge to drink up the hard earnings of labor. But in the contraction of the currency, precisely the same crime for the same purpose, ruinous in itself, was repeated, which was first committed in its expansion. In regard to the return to a specie basis, Albert Gallatin says, " Its process was much too prompt. The legislature was not, and CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 397 could not be aware, how slow and gradual the diminution of dis counts must be, in order that universal distress may not ensue." The violent and precipitate changes to which we have subjected the value of the miserable rag system, which we call currency, would ruin any people under heaven. Nothing but a miracle, where miracles are neither wrought nor promised, could save us from bankruptcy. Let us for a mo ment look at these sudden transitions of the currency. In Jan uary, 1862, the legal tender notes were currency at par. In De cember of the same year, it required one hundred and sixty dol lars of this paper to buy one hundred dollars in gold. Allowing the circulation of paper currency to have been seven hundred millions, then, in the transaction of business, there was a loss of four hundred and twenty millions of dollars, which fell on those in whose hands the change occurred. This was inevitable, for the one hundred and sixty dollars paid in December, was of no more value than the one hundred dollars borrowed in January. In any part of the civilized world, only gold and silver would have been received in payment of any exchange or commodity bought with this one hundred and sixty dollars. Then somebody lost sixty dollars in legal tender, which was required to buy the gold dollar of the banker, your tea of the Chinese, your coffee of the West Indies, and other necessaries, to say nothing of the luxuries, of life. This loss was not sustained by the banker any more than the trap was laid to catch the trapper. The capitalists of the country who took charge of the government in 1861, well under standing the theory of our financial revolution which was to ac company the entire change of our form of government, improved the occasion, and made the disasters of the country minister to their munificence ; whilst every orphan, widow and superannuated person living on their income, invested in property such as rents annuities, etc., were robbed of the difference between one dollar in gold in January, and one dollar in paper in December, -just thirty -seven and one-half per cent of the entire value of his debt. But in July, 1864, the one hundred dollars in gold due for money lent years before, was paid in legal tender, when it re quired of that paper two dollars and eighty-five cents to buy a dol lar in gold ; which subjected the creditor to a loss of sixty-five and 398 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. seven-tenth per cent, of his whole debt, an aggregate loss upon the currency of the country of four hundred and fifty-nine million nine hundred thousand, or nearly two-thirds of the whole curren cy in circulation in the country. This was another positive loss of that amount of money by somebody. Just at that very time, when the national credit was simply as brown paper with the risks of a lottery, the Secretary of the Treasury placed enormous sums of " Assignors" " Man date," " East India Company stock" " Mississippi bubble scr ip" or the different style of bonds, were thrown upon the market to con tract the inflated currency. These bonds are a mortgage on the United States to pay one dollar in gold for thirty-four cents and three mills ; in plainer language, the government engaged to pay three dollars for one, and thus pay 18 per cent, per annum on each dollar in gold. Two-thirds of this debt was a naked robbery upon the labor of the country, perpetrated by Secretary Chase. Having disposed of these bonds to American and European capitalists, the basis of their aristocracy was complete. There was some exception to this general rule. Strange as - it may sound to the ear of common sense, yet it was announced that a few vagrant fifty and one hundred dollar bonds were issued for the accommodation of the poor. Perhaps several out of many hundred millions of dollars were bought up by the mechanics and others, who could command a few hundred dollars in money. Like everything held by this class of persons, it was by but a feeble tenure. And there was a speculation of slight moment in getting these bonds out of the hands of this class of public creditors. The conspiracy of Secretarys agents and Senators, etc., went to work to depreciate the bonds, and leave them at a discount, which alarmed those bondholders who were not in the secret. Such were glad to sell them at a discount, which was precipitated by the necessities upon them, for the current expenses of living. After this temporary panic, the Secretary of the Treasury, in order to make the bonds more valuable, and ap proximate a gold standard, so that the capital of the country might be drawn from its legitimate channels, went into the market to beat down the gold, (or really to raise the standard of CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 399 the bonds), and give a fictitious value to the new bank paper, so that one dollar in gold, which cost $2.85, may now be bought for $1.25, which, in a circulation of $700,000,000 to the holders of money, is equal to the enormous sum of $1,120,000,000, more than one-eleventh of the whole taxable real and personal prop erty of the United States, according to the census of 1860. These fluctuations have been by design, and growing out of the very nature of the stock-gambling, upon which the national banking system is established. The aggregate losses of the country during the crusade against liberty and rational civil government, may be summed up as follows, namely : By depreciation of the currency from January, 1862, to January, 1863 $ 420,000,000 From January, 1863, to July, 1864 457,000,000 From July, 1864, to April, 1866 1,120,000,000 Making a total of. $1,997,000,000 All of which has resulted from a violation of Mr. Gallatin s maxim, which heads these remarks. Now it is true that these depreciations did not take money from the country; it passed from the hands of Americans. This very fact made it worse, that it passed from the hands of poor Americans to rich Americans ; from the ignorant, unsus pecting, and the confiding, into the hands of the shrewd, de signing, and faithless, just as all of this debt will, which is due among ourselves, to ourselves, and creates distinctions based upon that fact, and makes them, therefore, the more odious. IF THE BUSINESS AND LABOR OF THE COUNTRY ARE TO BE REDUCED TO A SPECIE BASIS, which the Secretary demands, then must the people demand that these bonds and notes be re duced to a specie basis. The Secretary of the Treasury has been voluminous in his essays upon the public faith, honor and credit, in the payment of European capitalists, who, after grinding their own poor people to powder, come to America to reinvest the interest extorted from them in American bonds, and extend their aristocratic dominion to the laboring classes of the United States, in part- 400 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. nership with the demagogues, usurers, and extortioners, who en slave their neighbors to riot upon their industry. Is it not a most remarkable fact that this astute gentleman, with all of the great body of interested financiers, who are fastidiously affected about American honor, have never uttered one word about the rights of the people whose property is mortgaged by this terrible taxation ? The debt was created in an inflated currency, which virtually repudiated about sixty per cent, of every debt which it assumed to pay upon the one hand, and gave an increased nominal value to the property of the country upon the other hand. Upon a specie basis to which you reduce the currency to make things even, the debt payable, and the government solvent, the debt should be at once reduced, as not only the first, but the only step which may be taken in the pathway of ultimate set tlement. By a specie basis is meant the exact amount of specie which it required to buy these bonds at the date of issue. The Secretary of the Treasury has been putting gold on the market to excite the value of this flimsy, ragged money, and in the same ratio, increase the public debt. In this he has committed a crime, perpetrated a direct robbery on labor, which must be taxed to pay it. This truth is susceptible of easy illustration. Suppose the debts of the country, Federal, State, county, corporate and indi vidual, of every kind, all told, amount to $8,000,000,000, which is not wide of the mark ; suppose that this debt was contracted, when one dollar in gold could have bought three dollars in legal tender in the market, then one dollar in gold would have paid three dollars of this debt. The Secretary of the Treasury, am bitious to keep up what he calls the credit of the government, hurries post-haste into the market to sell his gold, and thereby make his bonds and paper more valuable, and virtually increase the debt up to a par value in gold, for which the country re ceived but about forty per cent., including frauds, thefts, decep tions, &c., &c. In this process the Secretary commits a double crime. In the first place he depreciates the nominal value of produce and property in the exact ratio in which he travels toward a specie CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 401 payment. But he does not thereby depreciate the debt, interest or value of the bonds ; but on the contrary, whenever he has succeeded in reducing the currency to a specie standard, the corresponding value of labor is reduced, and, to the farmers of the country, he has practically increased the debt three-fold. By this course he is deceiving the country in regard to our ability to pay the public debt. He is giving to the bonds a fic- ticious value, which will be exploded upon the announcement of a return to a specie payment. By this means capital is with drawn from commerce, navigation, manufactures and agriculture, amounting to more in the injury inflicted than could be counter acted by all of the duties, bounties, prohibitions and drawbacks the government might choose to bestow upon these various branches of wealth, industry and public enterprise. What is still worse in a corresponding ratio, the people who have to pay the interest on the bonds, find their means to pay the debt diminish in exact proportion with the par value of their bonds. The zeal of Secretary McCulloch may be justly likened to the sinner who procrastinates ; has each day one day s more sin to repent of, and one day less in which to repent. So, every dollar in legal tender exchanged for bonds, gave to the people one dol lar more to pay, and subtracting it from the value of the cur rency, gave them one dollar less to pay it in. But in the re duction of the circulating medium to a specie standard, precisely the same thing is done in a different manner, by the apprecia tion of the price of bonds. All of the hollow expedients of Chase, Fessenden, and McCulloch, to make this paper equal to gold, are and must be, a failure forever. Each miserable subterfuge has only increased the value of the public debt, and to the same extent crippled the power of the people to pay it ; and diverted the productive cap ital of the country from business into the Treasury of the United States, from whence it cannot return, without the enormous rates of interest indicated and illustrated above, upon the bonds and upon the notes issued from them. The great difficulty with Secretary McCulloch is, that he overlooks the mortifying fact that he is a victim and tool of the designing Chase, who fled from his own cob-house to the Su- 26 402 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. preme Bench, to try patriots for treason, and exercise his judi cial functions to rob the people of the South of their property, to indemnify the people of the North for robberies perpetrated upon them by himself. The cardinal and overshadowing evil from which all the other trivial evils flow, is, that we are in debt, and have not means adequate to its liquidation. The taxes, duties and stamps eat up our productive power. These alone would be burdensome if the merchandize and wares we use were freely bestowed upon us; but added to the prices, they are onerous, enormous, ruinous ; and each day growing more burdensome by the monstrous follies of the men who ad minister our affairs. The first repudiation of existing debts by positive legislation, was a wrong difficult to apologize for; but the duplication and triplication of the private and public debt of the country by an artificial appreciation of an irredeemable currency, is even more reprehensible. Each step has been a faux pas, and each proposed remedy a hollow subterfuge, not approximating the dignity of a sophism. Every transparent claptrap and each exploded theory of the past, has been revived to sustain this tottering trestle-work of fraud and corruption. The whole has failed failed worse than assig- nats worse than the laws of Mississippi, a bubble worse than Continental currency ; for each of these in their day in some measure, freed the country from debt. But this paper phantom has reared in its shadow an overbearing power far exceeding in atrocity and insolence, the usurpations, of the East India Com pany. The last whim of the Secretary of the Treasury assumes that the people of the country are idiots, and proposes a sinking fund of one per cent, compounded, &c., &c.; the very same miserable stuff which John Law proposed as the introduction of his French Financial Jubilee. But who will borrow at this compound in terest ? There is a refreshing humor in the cool and calculating impudence of the giant borrower turning loaner on the small scale of the sinking fund ; and is only equalled by the proposition to loan Mexico some twelve millions of dollars, whilst the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 403 United States were borrowing hundreds of millions, for the purpose of restoring order in that distracted country, when an archy was reigning supreme in our midst, and hundreds of thous ands were dying in camp hospitals and battle-fields. There have been many embarassed borrowers ; but never yet was one known to pay his debt by loaning. The financiers of England and France each have tried and failed in this same project. The payment of the debt has always been impossible. These varied plans are all absurd. The Na tional Banking system makes it doubly so. The capacity of a people to pay a debt created in an inflated currency with the same means only in a contracted currency, is very fully illustrated in the every day transactions of life. When the debt was in the act of creation, corn brought one dollar in cash in the market at the principal railroad stations in the Western States. Now, the one-third of this is regarded a high price, except where famine reigns. This, then, is a con traction of two-thirds of the productive power of the country which must meet this debt. Or it is in fact a triplication of the debt. For the debt is not diminished with the means of its payment one farthing, either in its principal or its accruing interest. In all the vacillations of business, commerce, and navigation, the debt is stationary, and the interest well established. The usurers have so adjusted this, that whoever may lose or suffer diminution in their claim, the bonds and the Banker s claim sutler nothing. The last great crime in the establishment of the National Banks, is their insolvency, and the impossibility of securing the currency issued from them. The question of their bankruptcy is only one of time. The whole paper fabric rests upon the bonds and immutability of the public credit. These can be no more secure than the Continental money, nor the obligation any greater to redeem them ; but it was never redeemed. , These are no more sacred than the United States Bank of Pennsylvania, and it was closed up in insolvency. 404 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. They can have no stronger written guarantees than those of the Constitution which protected African Slavery, which was protected by the British Government from 1680, and afterwards by the Constitution, and recognized by all the judicial authority of the land. And slavery has been abolished. The security of the bonds is no greater. The private inter ests of the people are the only indemnity in popular govern ments for the enforcement of claims of any character which must be adjudicated before courts. This must, of necessity, be true; for our highest courts, in any question of government, is simply a select political assembly, scarcely ever free from the worst taints of party prejudice, and interest, as time hath abundantly dem onstrated. It is growing all the time more so. When parties are formed, as formed they will be, upon this basis, repudiation will be a direct issue, to be voted for or against. At first, it will be rejected, but the debt will still remain; the interest will be still accruing, the taxes will still be growing, and the people will be unable to pay them. The persistency of the bold men who strike for liberty and lead the people, will gain them position and power. This issue will scatter the present combination of parties to the four winds. Inspired by hopes of plunder, led and control led by trimmers and malignant men, their combinations are nei ther powerful nor enduring. They are like the vultures that follow the scent of armies, to gather up the offal. Or like sneak-thieves and shoplifters, who are always idle and never busy, except when the cry of fire gives them notice of opportunity to load themselves with plunder. But in a great contest, such men will soon give place to earnest friends of true liberty, who will sweep the bonds from the face of the earth, and with them will fall the Banks, tottering to the ground. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 405 CHAPTER VII. THE EXPIRING CRIME OF CHASE S BANKING SYSTEM. ANNEXED is a statement showing the amount of the national debt for each year, since the organization of the government : 1791 $75,463,476 1821 $89,987,428 1792 77,227,924 1822 93,549,677 1793...., 80,352,634 1823 90,875,877 1794 78,427,405 1824 90,269,778 1795 80,747,587 1825 83,788,433 1796 83,862,172 1826 81,054,060 1797 82,064,479 1827 73,987,357 1798 79,228,529 1828 67,475,044 1799 78,408,670 1829 , 58,481,414 1800 82,976,294 1830 48,665,406 1801 83,038,051 1831 39,423,492 1802 80,712,632 1832 14,322,235 1803 , 77,054,686 1833 7,001,099 1804 86,427,121 1834 4,760>082 1805 82,312,150 1835 37,733 1806 75,723,271 1836 37,513 1807 69,218,399 1837 1,878,224 1808 65,196,318 1838 4,857,660 1809 57,023,192 1839 11,988,738 1810 53,173,217 1840 5,125,078 1811 48,005,588 1841 6,727,398 1812 45,209,738 1842 15,028,486 1813 55,962,828 1843 26,898,953 1814 81,487,846 1844 26,143,896 1815 99,833,660 1845 16,801,647 1816 127,334,934 1846 24,256,495 1817 103,491,965 1847 45,659,495 1818 ..103,466,634 1848 65,804,450 1819 95,529,648 1849 64,704,693 1820 91,015,566 1850 64,228,238 406 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 1851 $62,560,395 1857 $25,165,155 1852 67,560,390 1858 44,910,778 1853 56,336,187 1859 58,754,699 1854 44,975,456 1860 74,985,299 1855 39,960,733 1861 110.000,000 1856 30,963,210 A thrill of unutterable anguish penetrates the soul of an American, in overlooking the above table. The long period required to extinguish the meagre part of the revolutionary debt assumed by our fathers, was an unheeded warning to their children. The protracted period, through which the small debt of 1816 draggled through the economical administrations of Monroe, Adams and Jackson, reminds us that the youngest child will not live to see the great debt of the civil war liquidated. The war debt of 1816 would not have carried us through six months of our present peace establishment kept up by armies, nor paid one-half of the annual interest on our debt. The following table exhibits values, but does not exhibit the bold robberies of the weekly faro-bank, fed upon the fluctuations of this miserable currency. VALUE OF A CURRENT DOLLAR TO COIN. The following table shows the relative value of a currency dollar to coin, at the different rates of premium from 1 to 100. The fractions given are as near the cents as they can be approach ed, without the aid of parts of mills. The table will be found valuable for preservation, and will tend to undeceive many who are of the impression that the amount of premium must be sub tracted from the currency dollar, in order to ascertain its relative value : f Value of a Vahie of a Prem. Current Dollar. Prem. Current Dollar. 101 99 106 94} 102 98 107 93J 103 97 108 92J 104.... 96-| 109 91f 105 95i 110 90} CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAE. 407 Value of a Value of a. Pretn. Current Dollar. Prem. Ciirrent Dollar. Ill 90 153 65f 112 89J 154 65 113 881 155 64} 114 87| 156 64J- 115 86{ 157 63f 116 86i 158 63J 117 851 159 62} 118 ....84} 160 52} 119 S4i 161 62 120 83| 162 61} 121 ; 82f 163 :.61f 122 82 164 61 123 81J 165 60f 124 80f 166 60J 125 80 167 59J 126 79| 168 59} 127 78} 169..., 59J- 128 .78J 170 58J 129 77J- 171 58} 130 77 172.., 58J 131... 76f 173 57} 132 75| 174 57} 133 751 175 57J 134 74f 176 7 56} 135 74 177 56| 136 73J 178 55J 137 73 179 65} 138 721 180 551 139 72 181 55J 140 71} 182 55 141 71 183 54} 142 70| 184 54i 143 69J 185 54 144 69} 186 53} 145 , 69 187. 53} 146 68} 188 53i 147 68 189 , 53 148 67} 190 52| 149 67 191 52f 150 65f 192 52J 151 66J 193.... 51 J 152 65} 194 , 51J 408 CEIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. Value of a Value of a Prem- Current Dollar. Prem. Current Dollar. 195 51 j 198 , 5QJ 196 51 199 50J 197 50f 200 50 These gamblers would induce bankruptcy anywhere, and we cannot hope to avert the hand of fate. The following illustrates to simple minds the process of ruin : 1. $1.50 in paper buys one dollar in gold. The $1.50 in paper is worth 66f 2. $1.25 in paper buys $1.00 in gold. The$1.00 in paper is worth , , 80 Amount lost on each dollar 13f cts. Allowing the currency to be $800,000,000. There is an actual loss in the discrepancy of $107,000,000. Should this money appreciate, that $1.60 of paper is worth $1.00 in gold, then the paper is worth 52 J cents on the dollar. Then there is a distributed loss of the difference of $220,000,- 000. It does not mend the matter that this money remains in the hands of Americans. So does the money won and lost among gamblers, with this difference, that gamblers play back with the chances of loss, and risk their purse. In this game, as fast as the money is won of the people, it is carefully funded in gold and silver, preparatory to the coming storm which Heaven will not avert, although it fall with pitiless rage upon the poor. The following is a statement of the bank note circulation of the country at various periods of highest and lowest issues prior to the war : January, 1830 $ 61,324,000 1835 103,692,495 1836 140,301,038 1837 149,185,890 1843 , ,... 58,564,000 1856 195,747,950 1857 214,778,822 " 1858 155,208,344 1860 207,102,200 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 409 It will be noticed by the statement that the bank note circu lation of the United States increased from $61,324,000 to $149,- 185,890 between the 1st of January, 1830, and the 1st of Janu ary, 1837, in which latter year the great financial collapse took place, fell from $149,185,890 in 1837, to $58,564,000 in 1843, and rose to $214,778,822 on the first of January, 1857, in which year the next severe crisis occurred ; falling during that year to $155,208,344, and rising to $207,102,000 on the 1st of January, 1860. The following is a statement of bank deposits and loans in the same years : Years. Deposits, Loans. January 1, 1830 $ 55,560,000 $200,451,000 1835 83,081,000 365,163,000 " 1836 115,104,000 457,506,000 " 1837 127,397,000 525,115,000 " 1843 56,168,000 254,544,000 " 1856 212,706,000 634,183,000 " 1857 230,351,000 684,456,000 " 1858 e 185,932,000 583,165,000 " 1860 253,802,000 691,945,000 On the 30th of September, the date of their last quarterly re ports, the deposits and loans of the national banks (the Secretary has no reliable returns of these items from the few remaining State banks) were as follows : Deposits, individual and government $544,150,194 Loans 485,314,029 To which should be added Investments in U. S. bonds and other U. S. securi ties $427,731,600 ?913,045,629 These figures are a history in themselves, exhibiting not only the past and present condition of the country in matters of ex ceeding interest, but indicating unerringly the dangerous direc tion in which the financial current is sweeping. 410 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. On the 1st January, in the memorable year 1837, the bank note circulation of the United States was $149,185,890, the de posits were $127,397,000, the loans $525,115,000. In January, 1857, the year of the next great crisis, the circulation was $214,- 778,822, the deposits were $230,351,000, the loans $684,456,000. There are no statistics to exhibit the amount of specie actually in circulation in those periods, but it would be a liberal estimate to put it at $30,000,000 for 1837, and $50,000,000 for 1857. The above report, exhibits all of the premonitory symptoms of bankruptcy which we are now suffering under our present irresponsible banking system. Its failures, frauds, robberies, tricks, and overreachings, form its chief legal learning and litera ture. The impossibility of the redemption of the national bank currency, becomes each day more absolute by its expansion. A cursory observation of this table leaves the impression that the banking system cannot explode. The banks have always more loaned out than the amount of their circulation and their deposits. Whence the insolvency ? The solution is easy. In the first place, the banks loan nothing but a promise to pay, when they have nothing to pay that promise with. The specie in the vaults of the banks is never more in careful times than one-tenth of the value of their circulation. In the second place, as fast as the banks issue their notes, they gather up the coin and hoard it where the responsibilities of the bank may not reach it, and substitute paper in its stead; then the banks break up their debtors by the extortions of usury for their own worthless promises to pay. All this goes well enough, until somebody wants gold and silver in considerable amounts, which the bank is not able to pay. This brings everybody to their senses. Everybody then rushes to the bank; the bank closes, and can t pay. It issues its notes on other banks, in payment to save itself, and other banks do precisely likewise, and each depends on the other in a circle, all falling together. Having nothing to save themselves, they cannot hope to save each other. This very evil is now on the banking system. The bank CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. 411 notes have supplanted the greenbacks, which will soon be de stroyed. Then the bank notes can not be redeemed with green backs, but must be with gold and silver. This the banks have not, nor have the people. The banks will explode, the people will have no money, can pay. no debts, and must then abandon their property or repudiate. Confidence will give way, and then the banking system ceases, just as Mormonism, Mahom- medanism, and every other fraud vanishes with the touch of analysis. With this will come ruin, disaster, crime, distress and disappointment, with all of the evils incident to universal bank ruptcy. But terrible as this may be, we will be amply compen sated by the relief which it will bring to the people. 412 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER VIII. JOHN LAW AND CHASE, WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE SYSTEMS. INSANITY feeds on extravagance seasoned with absurdity. Fi nancial insanity has a specific villainy in its composition and shows signs of intelligent aberrations, which makes the compound the most dangerous manifestation of craziness known to the philoso phy of minds and money. Our insane philosophers are of a different character, and rather use the insanity of others to profit and play upon the imagination of the victims, while they very philosophically pocket the proceeds of their speculation. This class of financiers avail themselves of the intoxication of the people, upon some abstract question which has no legitimate connection with the public prosperity, but the agitation of which will provoke civil or foreign wars, and inaugurate a credit system, out of which the shrewd can coin fortunes of the blood and miseries of the peo ple, who are used as passive instruments in the transaction. When this condition of things is contemplated, history is ransacked to find examples and precedents upon which to build the bubble, with the same care that builders look through the various systems of architecture for plans 0:1 whicjh. to rear their courts and temples. The projectors of our scheme exerted all their powers of research for this same purpose. John Law is their patron saint of financial glory ; and the assignats and mandats of Mira- beau and Robespierre, their beau ideals of national currency. Sec retary Chase had searched every financial history to discover the most refined means of robbing the people without their knowledge, and plotting their ruin by indirection. There was nothing left undone in this way; he found and adopted it. He gained the most extraordinary victory over the people. He who had overturned the most essential branch of civil government, was appointed to administer the law, give sanction to its violation and CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 413 cover up his crimes and defaults, which have been so complicated, and so easily susceptible of obliteration. John Law was the son of an Edinburgh goldsmith, and born in 1681. He commenced active business as a revenue officer, soon after the union of Scot land and England, when the revenue was in great disorder. At this early day, Law projected the establishment of a bank, with paper issue to the amount of the value of all the lands in the kingdom. His scheme was promptly rejected with scarcely an entertainment by British statesmen. But it was the child of his fertile genius, the only offspring of his brain, which he cherished, until it ruined him and left an Empire in ruins, and its whole population suffering all that is common and peculiar to the over throw of business and commerce. The story of John Law and French speculation, the Mississippi bubble and Gaulish ex travagance, has been painted by the peerless pen of "Washington Irving. It will not bear imitation. Law was a gambler and adventurer of the school of fine gentlemen. He fought a duel and killed a gentleman who fought to vindicate his sister, whom Law had debauched; he fled the kingdom to escape punishment, and gave a romantic turn to his escapade by running away with another man s wife. He soon spent the small estate left him by his father. He visited Genoa and Venice, from both of which cities he was banished as a desiguing adventurer. At Turin he proposed his financial scheme to the Duke of Savoy, who treated it and himself in the same manner with the statesmen and bank ers of England. Law, like every other scheming fanatic, knew no limit to his energy, and at last found his friend in the Duke of Orleans, who was then regent of the kingdom. His scheme proposed to pay the debt of the nation, which was to be assumed by an association, who would make enough in the operation to pay themselves for their labor. The Duke of Savoy repulsed Law by assuring him that he was not rich enough to turn spend thrift. The basis of this system was confidence, and the Comptroller General Desmarets had to reject it, because confidence in every thing was destroyed. The Duke of Orleans had two thousand million of francs na tional debt. The country was at peace. The people taken cap- 414 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. tive by novelty, were prepared for anything which wore a new face or promised indemnity to speculation, and offered some new plan for capital to absorb the labor of the country, by making the laborers believe that they were living upon the products of capital. Law first established a bank of his own. He soon induced the regent to make it a bank of government deposit for all of the revenue of the kingdom; it afterwards became the great actuary of the Mississippi Company, which promised riches to every body. The public grew wild with the excitement, and the prospect of gain, drove the unemployed capital of Paris to seek a permanent investment in the joint stock of the Mississippi Company. Such was the spirit of this public gambling, that men exchanged their houses, stores, and means of living, for shares in the great concentrated capital of the Mississippi Company. The bank paper, at first distrusted, was now circulated with startling profusion ; it first doubled, soon quadrupled its circula tion, and the people dreamed it wealth, and made it the basis of a fearful extravagance. Every body and every profession indulg ed in every manner of luxury, which soon made its way into those countries which held commercial intercourse with France, and quietly carried off her gold, while her people were intoxicated with the profusion of paper money. John Law s bank was declared "KING S BANK." In 1718, it monopolized the trade of Senegal, acquired the privilege of the old East India Company, founded by the great French states man, Colbert, but which had suddenly fatten into decay and abandoned its trade. To the merchants of Saint JVlabo, it under took to collect the public revenue; indeed, so absorbing was the business and scope of Law s bank, that all business seemed as a mere appendage to it, and the finances of the kingdom were at the mercy of this corporation of mere traders. This corporation presented a grandeur of establishment, and commanded such a vast variety of interest, and seemed based upon so solid a foun dation, that its stock augmented to twenty times beyond its origi nal value. The courtiers, adventurers, and gamblers, were living upon this public frenzy, which it was within the power, and certainly the duty of the regent to have promptly arrested, which he could at CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 415 any time have done and saved the people from the consequent disaster; but his immediate friends were making an apparent for tune in the general carnival, he looked no further than the pres ent, and let the future take care of itself. The disorders of the currency became the source of their wealth. The fluctuations in the value of their stock conferred upon men heretofore unknown, immense wealth, which, when, with proper foresight, they con verted into other property, left them independent. In the short est possible period of time, there were several who accumulated princely fortunes. Law himself, seduced by system and intoxi cated by the general drunkenness of society, had fabricated so many bills that his chimerical value of paper in 1719, was eighty times greater than all of the specie circulation in the kingdom. The government paid in paper all of the State stock. The re gent could no longer control a machine so immense, so compli cated, and the rapid movement of which hurried him away in spite of himself. The old school financiers combined with the banks to drain the royal bank, by drawing considerable sums in specie from it every day. This made every one try to convert his paper into gold. This was impossible, as it always is in the great expansion of a credit system based upon confidence merely. The dispro portion of specie to the paper issued, is enormous. Credit now began to find a foundation of fact, and exploded with a terrible crash. Then came the expedients which are always resorted to by princes, to save the sinking credit of the paper system. The regent issued edicts, but they were powerless. A real distress naturally succeeded to so much fictitious wealth. After this, Law was appointed Comptroller-General of Finances, at the very time when it was utterly out of his power to perform the very duties of the station for which he was especially called. In 1720 ? a year marked by the total subversion of private fortunes, and the ruins of the finance of the kingdom, Law changed his alle giance and religion, became a French Catholic, and lord of a splendid manor. The banker was metamorphosed into a Minis ter of State. He was the associate of dukes, peers, marshals of France, and bishops of the Church, in the halls of the palace. He had not long been in his official position, until disorder was 416 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. at its height. The Parliament of Paris opposed the follies of Lav/, and was driven from Paris to Pontoise, by the Prince, who still stood by Law with a royal fidelity. But before half a year of his official life had transpired, John Law was driven, by the ruined rabble, from Paris; carrying with him scarcely anything of all his vast accumulations, the merest figment of his evan escent opulence. The Dutch and the English imbibed the spirit of stock-gam bling, and built up rapid and immense fortunes, upon the public credulity. Amsterdam and London became largely involved in the same general folly, succeeded by the same general distress ; each sys tem of swindling, never failed to find dupes among the people. Associations were formed to carry on imaginary commerce. Rot terdam was ruined for a time. London was overwhelmed in 1720. There resulted, from this mania in France and England, a prodigious number of failures, fraud, public and private robber ies, and all of the moral depravity consequent upon ungovernable cupidity. But the abundance of money, and apparent wealth, reconciled the people to every species of usurpation which, at other times, in the history of France, would have precipitated a general rev olution. The notable points of resemblance between Chase and Law, are very remarkable. Both were demagogues ; both were stock- gamblers ; both rode into position under false pretences ; both were for a time successful. Law kept his mistress, and intro duced her into the royal palace, where she felt annoyed by the presence of the real ladies of France, and said " there was not so tiresome an animal in the world as a duchess." Chase changed the Treasury Department into a harem, where the seraglios of vile women were ostensibly employed in the service of the gov ernment : yet kept for the most degrading purposes, under the auspices of the Comptroller, who, being retained by the Secre tary in his place, voluntarily submitted to bearing the odium of the published scandal for the salary of office, and the vain-glo rious privilege of appearing upon the fifty cent fractional cur- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 417 rency. Law traveled in state ; Chase exceeded this. He coast ed the land in government vessels, at the public expense, amount ing to many times the whole salary appropriated to him by the government. Law enriched himself, but Chase endowed near relatives with special privileges, and made merchants and banking princes, with his wonderful munificence. The careful analogist will see those natural and striking peculiarities in Law developed in Chase. After reading the advertisement, for the sale of bonds, the fol lowing will certainly exhibit the immediate fruits in a style startling to the simplicity of republican institutions : A lady, who has been on a visit to Mr. Jay Cooke s new pala tial mansion, near Philadelphia, whose foundations were built on the blood and bones, and skeletons of American citizens, slain in hostile combat, thus writes : " I can t describe what it is like. I don t think anything grander, more beautiful, more splendid, or more in keeping, could be imagined. And the Cookes are just the kind of people to live in it. L. is a perfect brunette, and her sister S., who is younger, is a blonde. L. s room is furnished in bright crimson satin, and S. s in light blue satin. Just beyond their rooms is still another bedroom, which belongs to the girls, and is called the spare bedroom, and is intended for any friend whom they wish to invite to visit them. C. was occupying this room. Everything in the house, with the exception of Mrs. Cookers boudoir and a few of the paintings, is American. Mr. Cooke would have nothing else. In the sitting-room is a large, old fash ioned, open fire-place, with andirons, which Mr. Cooke s mother presented to him. There is every kind of room in the house that you could think of billiard-room ; amusement room, where they have a regular stage, foot-lights, &c.; music room, where they have an elegant square grand Chickering piano. I can t tell you of all the rooms, for it would take me all night, and even then, you wouldn t have a very clear idea of them." This is, perhaps, a fair description of Secretary Chase s facto tum, who accompanied him on his pleasure excursions. This fortune coined of misfortune ; this wealth extracted from poverty ; this magnificence built of the self-denial of cabins and hovels, is explained by the picture of the people who pay the interest on the bonds sold to Mr. Jay Cooke. 27 418 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. " The average density of population in New York city, is equal to 32,000 per square mile, its 1100 acres of parks and- other open spaces, being included in the estimate. This gives to each person a space twelve yards long by eight wide, in which to live and move and have his being. But this breathing space is very unevenly distributed, for while the resident of the 12th ward may claim upon a fair division with his neighbors, 596 square yards for his individual com fort, the dweller in the hovels and tenement shells of the 10th ward must be thankful for seventeen yards ; and he who worries through a fevered sleep in the llth ward, can claim but sixteen. These estimates include streets and other open spaces, so that the curious in such matters may judge of the close com panionship which is enforced in these localities, where men, women, and children, were packed at the rate of one hundred and ninety- six thousand to the square mile. In other words, as shown by the tables which we published, the tract bounded by Division street, the Bowery, East Fourteenth street and the East river, comprising the 10th, llth, 13th and 17th wards, and contain ing 1.16 square miles, is populated by 196,441 persons, a greater number than were possessed by any city in the Union in 1860, excepting New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Balti more. The 10th ward has more people than Jersey City, Hart ford or Mobile had at that time; the llth exceeds the limits at that time of Charleston, Detroit, Pittsburg, Providence or San Francisco; while the 17th, covering but about one-half square mile, contains more people than did Albany, Louisville or Washington." This condition of the poor is the penalty paid by the poor to the rich, and the calculation is easy. Just compute the amount spent and consumed on such palaces, divide it by wages of poor men, and you then have the number necessary to keep it ; double the number, then you have the number of Jay Cookers slaves who live on half fare. Here closes the analogy between these two men. Law was impelled, contrary to his better judgment, to accept the highest financial position in the French Government, just at a time when he could not make it available for either himself or the Government. Upon the other hand, Chase was driven on to the Supreme Bench, to rid Lincoln of a Presidential rival, at a time when the Bench could bring him CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 419 no honors, nor his services contribute anything to the jurispru dence of the country. Law left the country in disguise, fleeing before the multitudes who had been ruined by his profligacy. Chase shifted his responsibility, and, entering upon his new career, exemplified precisely the same ability for the judicial ermine, that he had shown for the exchequer to defile and de stroy it. As a Chief Justice of a Court before which all dis putes must be adjudicated, he anticipated his judgments in Bank, in his political harangues among crazy, illiterate barbarians, in New Orleans, Charleston and Washington ; and in like manner before New England colleges, upon the very questions upon which he would be called to decide, as the principal member of the Court of last resort. William Sprague, a young, stupid and wealthy inebriate, who represents Rhode Island in the United States Senate, married the daughter of the Secretary, and con trolled the speculations in cotton, amounting to many millions of dollars. To accommodate an evening party, Mrs. Sprague built a special house for her ball-room, for an evening carousal, at a heavy cost, and tore it away the next morning, in imitation of the extravagance of the reign of Nero, which every Depart ment seemed anxious to emulate. 420 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. CHAPTER IX. SQUANDERING THE PUBLIC LANDS THE BASIS OF STOCK-GAMBLING. THE PRETEXT FOR STOCK-GAMBLING IN THE UNITED STATES TO PREVENT THE EARLY PAYMENT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT. THE history of stock gambling, which has been many times written by graphic pens, Avould justify repetition, if not ampli fication, did time and space permit. The great power and evil of this system, is, that it enables companies and individuals to treat the public credits and debts as gamblers do cards, giving to stocks a public value different from the real value, making due allowances for the possible rise or fall in the market. In these transactions there are always two persons engaged : the one who understands well the mar ket, and the other who thinks that he does, but does not; in simple language, the shrewd who win, and the conceited who lose. This system is the source of fabulous wealth, and embraces all of the modern theories of banking tariff, wars, and consequent public debts and credits. It is the faro bank of our present system of politics. It capitalizes everything, and places a pros pective, rather than an actual value upon all property ; and upon the products, profits and appreciations of property, audits com binations, and pretends to fairly divide the difference between the present and prospective value of representative paper. Since the invention of old-fashioned falsehood in the infernal regions, there has perhaps never been a system of such universal fraud, as that of stock-gambling. It is the first-born child of paper money, and the parent of all the evils, crimes and decep tions, corruptions and frauds, incident to periodical and wide spread bankruptcy, in which the great body of a people are CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 421 ruined in their property, which has been absorbed by the cunning few. This form of wickedness and source of sorrow, cannot exist without debt and public calamities, upon which it feeds and creates. The art of printing facilitates this mode of gambling in latter times, when it embraces in its range, railroads, telegraphs, salt, oil, cotton, woolen and iron manufactures, and everything which has a doubtful or problematical value. The debt of Great Britain, contracted by the Revolution of 1688, was perhaps the foundation of extensive stock-gambling in England. Upon this the Bank of England was established in 1697, which loaned the amount of its capital stock to the gov ernment. The ambrotypes of this debt were issued in the form of bank notes. From that day to this, in every country where confidence can be commanded, to mortgage property upon the facile promises of gentlemen, bank notes are freely issued, and other forms of security enter into the circulating medium. The South Sea Joint Stock Company, John Law s Mississippi bubble, with its explosion of business and its train of miseries, which the great common sense of Colbert, the financial expe rience of Turgot, and versatile genius of Necker, could only baffle, until the elements of discord sought vent in Revolution. This Revolution, having no money upon which to carry on its wars, gave rise to a stock-jobbing, which reached the fabulous sum of $8,437,535,000. The stock-gambling of the world has been reduced to a sys tem, and has its markets, and boards of trade. Boards of trade were established in France, at Toulon in 1549, at Rouen 1556, in London by Elizabeth in person in 1566. The Parisian Bourse was established in 1724. The first stock-gambling in America grew out of the Conti nental money, which was issued to the amount of $359,000,000, in a population of not more than 3,500,000. This vast amount of irredeemable paper was reduced by a certain kind of funding, to $76,000,000 in 1795; and finally to $39,135,000 in 1812. The necessities of the war of the Revolution induced this sys tem, but the determined virtue of our fathers, who were weary and ruined by a paper wealth, made them restive under its perpetuity. 422 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. There was, however, one mode in which the most extravagant profligacy might be indulged unsuspected, under various false pretences, and build up a system of stock-gambling in the dis tribution of the public lands. The public lands were given in trust by the older States for the payment of the public debt, and held sacred for that pur pose. In our earlier history, from this there was no digression. But for several years these lands had been used as the basis of a system of stock-gambling, under the shallow and false pre tense of giving bounties to soldiers. This commenced in the payment of the soldiers of the earlier wars, then to the Mexican soldiers, then was extended to the surviving soldiers of the war of 1812, then to soldiers of the Black Hawk, Florida, and other Indian wars. These gifts were ostensibly bestowed upon the soldier or his legal representatives, but in fact, was a scrip issued for the bene fit of stock-gamblers, bought up for a few drinks of whiskey, in the certificates of discharge ; and of all the scrip issued, not one soldier, or his family, in every fifty, received any benefit from this scrip, and it was not intended that they should. The whole scheme was one laid by Congressmen and speculators, to swindle both the soldiers and the government, and the scheme was a success. You may now see homeless Mexican soldiers wander ing through the land, who sold their certificates of discharge for a meal s victuals or a night s lodging, under the very shadow of palaces reared by the money coined of their blood. In this way the double wrong was perpetrated, the soldier robbed of his legitimate pension, and the government defrauded of the richest mineral mountains, and the most productive valleys upon the face of the earth. Just at the time when this sacred trust-fund should have been scrupulously appropriated to the payment of the public debt, now frightfully augmenting, it was under charitable pretences converted into scrip, which soon found its way into the coffers of the brokers. Lands were granted to build agricultural colleges, under pre tence of educating the poor of the country, to till the land. This was a double fraud in the interest of stock-gambling. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL. WAR. 423 First. These pieces of scrip were sold at less than one-half of the accredited land office value, to build these colleges. Second. When the colleges are built, they will be appropriated to the use of the children of the rich, precisely as the military academy at West Point and other military institutions have been, and for the purposes of education, be the merest farce. These grants were unjust in principle and wrong in policy. If the general government has power to educate the States in specific learning, then the money should have been directly appropriated, without sacrifice of value. These lands were, in like manner, given for homesteads with equal injustice. The government had no more power to give away the public lands, than it had to appropriate the money with which they are bought, to buy blacksmiths , carpenters 7 , or bricklayers 7 tools for young people just entering the trade. This extravagant waste of the resources of the country is but a part of the funding system, to make stock-jobbing a perpetual institution, for which it is not improbable that the government may establish a bureau ; and, like the French, subjected to gov ernment espionage, as they have already disposed of other gaming, houses of prostitution, &c. This is a humiliating commentary upon both our wealth and prosperity, that the greatest gold producing country of mod ern times, is cursed with a worthless, irredeemable currency, without a dollar of gold for business, exchange, or commerce. But this comes of stock-gambling, and will continue with it. Is this not sorrowful, that in less than five years from the beginning of our indebtedness, we were paying more interest upon our debt than any other government upon the face of the earth ? With a population and resources greatly inferior to that of Great Britain, Russia, or France, that all of the property, labor, and accumulation of three centuries, is squandered in the fraudulent enforcement of a political vagary by incompetent men, all for a war which may be repeated at every period when force is chosen, instead of reason, for the arbitrament of disputes, until the country is left without military force, financial credit, or the semblance of justice in the government, or freedom iu the spirit of the people, and the public lands held to secure the pay ment squandered without a purpose. 424 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. CHAPTER X. FRENCH ASSIGNATS AND NATIONAL BANK NOTES. WHEN Robespierre had thoroughly engaged the French people in the horribl e revolution, he was puzzled to create a fund to carry on a war which promised no ending. Those who held bullion were early removing their effects to such places as would elude the search of the hungry Jacobins. The banks, of course, would surrender nothing to politics, and there was but this one thing left to Robespierre, to pledge the credit of his revolution for its success. If it succeeded, to pay the debt ; if it failed, to let the debt go in the general defeat with the rest. When he pledged the credit of his bloody usurpation, he assumed to pledge the wealth, honor, and military strength of the French people for the scraps of paper, which promised to pay vast sums of money to ravaging armies, for destroying their property and lib erty ; to usurpers for overturning the established system of gov ernment and to diplomats, for negotiating with foreign govern ments, to recognize the new condition of things. For this pur pose paper money, the supple tool of tyranny in all modern governments, was the first subterfuge. It was a " first mort gage " upon all the realty and personalty of France, which was not only a legal tender, but it was an imprisonable offence to re fuse it for any marketable commodity whatever. The revolu tionists issued their legal tender, which they denominated assig- nats ; they forced the issue and employed violence, to make the people take them until they became utterly worthless. The his tory of this currency so exactly resembles that of our own revo lutionists, it seems the emanation of the same brain, based upon the same political theories, with the same precise purpose in view, tending to analogous results. The revolutionists bore a striking resemblance to each other. The boldly avowed plans CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WATS. 425 of Robespierre were not more shameful, and were wonderfully similar to those of Stevens, Greeley, and the abler revolutionists of America. The people of France could not be expected vol untarily to pay the expenses of revolution, to destroy their national glory, their proud and brilliant history by fanatics, any more than will the people of the United States, when they re turn to reason, implicitly accept the transmitted debt to pay for the overthrow of liberty and the Constitution. The basis of the issue of the assignats and that of the debt of the United States, is singularly the same. The payment of the assignats and the payment of the national debt, will not materially differ in the end. The French fanatics declared the confiscation of all the landed property of the clergy of the kingdom, and with the money thus derived, proposed to redeem the assignats ; 400,000,- 000 of this currency were issued by the constituent assembly, with the consent of Louis XVI., before he was led to the block. Yielding to this extravagant demand, was the first unfortunate step to the fatal conclusion of his reign. During the same year, Mirabeau, to enrich himself, his family, friends, and immediate partizans, by the possession of the lauded estates, tried to secure the issue of 2,000,000,000 new assignats, was prevented only by wiser members, who saw through the transparent veil which failed to cover up his designs. By this plan the rich usurers would own the landed estates and wealth of the nation, which was insufficient to redeem the as signats ; in this wise, they would own both and hold perpetual mortgage on the labor of the people. Precisely in this way have the usurers and adventurers com bined to own and destroy our own country ; to own what they could not destroy, and destroy what they could not own. The first issue of legal tender was based upon the contemplated con fiscation of the property of the Southern States as the means of redemption. Thaddeus Stevens never hesitated to declare the utter impos sibility of the payment of the public debt, unless they confisca ted the property of the South. Stevens borrowed his views of Mirabeau, that the holders of securities would support the new order of things as the only 426 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. security for redemption; both assume the same class of facts, in volving the same ruinous theories. 1. That the only hope of a government is the support it re ceives from capital. Indeed, the labor of men, horses, and ma chinery, is treated as the property of the capitalist, and as differ ing nothing in character from each other. 2. That those who are not owners of property, will, of neces sity, blindly follow the dictation of capital. These theories could not outlive the spirit of revolution. The French and American revolutionists would enforce and record a robbery by one edict, and speak most delicately of honor in the next. In all of their complicated theories, they overlooked the impos ing financial facts, that debts, which are readily contracted by legislatures, are not paid by legislative enactments alone, but by money and labor extorted from the people ; that no resolution, declairing a debt eternally binding, is of any intrinsic value, unless the debtor is able to pay it. Each were repeating the foolish delusion upon all of the avenues of trade, that the debt was so generally distributed, that some part of it was due to every body ; which is always the case in all bankruptcies, that the creditors are numerous enough, whilst every thing depends upon the number and wealth of the debtors. While the usurers were gathering up the wealth of the coun try, to share it with the demagogues, who were distracting the finances by legislation, the work of explosion and repudiation was amply providing relief for the people and quietly working their way among the masses. The issue of assignats was continued until they reached 40,- 000,000,000, and became utterly worthless, like continental money and confederate currency. Every argument employed by Mirabeau, has been repeated in a less powerful and less attractive form by the American fanatics. Step by step have the American apes played second-hand fiends to the arch-infer nals of Paris. When the assignats would buy nothing and were worth nothing, a new subterfuge was adopted to supply the revolution with means to ruin the country. The incendiaries issued 600,000,000 of mandats. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 427 In 1796, they issued 2,400,000,000 more of the same currency the mandats followed the assignats in the downward current. It is worthy of examination to trace the similarity of purpose and action, of the revolutionists of France and America. The first measure of each, was confiscation as the basis of secu rity for a circulating medium. The French constituent assembly, representing a mere faction of the French people under the audacious lead of Mirabeau, placed the property of the clergy at the disposal of the State, by virtue of the character of the proprietors. The majority of Congress, representing not more than one- third of the people of the United States, placed the property of slaveholders in the same condition, because they were slavehold ers by law and inheritance. Confiscation works destruction everywhere, and confiscated property has never been enjoyed, because the lands are as worth less for sale as they are dangerous for enjoyment. After the failure of the assignats and confiscation, the property of emigrants was sequestered to secure the mandats, but added nothing to their value. The over issue of money, general inse curity of person, property, and every thing which appealed to law for protection, destroyed all values. The extravagant price of every thing, the distrust of the producer in the markets, which they would gladly have abandoned as places in which they were driven to be robbed, alarmed everybody. The speculators and usurers would not permit the wages of labor to keep pace with the price of provisions, since this would destroy their schemes of plunder. Capital always robs labor, for there is nothing else to rob. The poor complained of the usurers, the extortioners, and the rich. To reduce prices, Marat proposed to multiply the provis ion stores, and at his instigation, the mob was let loose upon the markets. Finally, goods were taken without payment, grain diminished, prices increased. At length, the Convention adopted the Stevens plea of making trading in gold a penal offence. Gold dealers were subjected to severe surveillance, much after the style of the present system of liquor manufactories, with hired spies to watch the business as it transpired before them. 428 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Each new proposed alleviation proved a new evil. The tax- gatherers ate up the taxes, the revenue collectors ate up the reve nue, manufactures ceased work, farms were abandoned, relaxation of the revolutionary rigor only hastened the downfall of their dynasty, which must soon have died in any event, of its own vio lence and extravagance. The very rigor of the law to sustain the assignats, precipitated their destruction. After the failure of successive issues, came the forced loans from the rich. To such poverty was the country reduced, and such was the worthlessness of the assignats, that the government enforced the payment of taxes in kind produced on the land. The mandats followed the assignats, just as the National Bank currency followed the issue of greenbacks. The assignats were specially secured, the mandats were secured on the lands gener ally. The mandats soon followed the assignats. The calamities of this monstrous financial profligacy produced more wide-spread misery, more sudden changes from comfort to poverty, more ini quity in transactions between both individuals and the govern ment, more losses to all persons engaged in every department of industry and trade, more discontent, profligacy, disturbance and outrage, than the massacre in September, the war in L Vendee, the proscriptions in the provinces and all the sanguinary violence of the reign of terror. This fearful finale of paper money in France, is the legitimate result of her profligacy. The American Congress has been the exact reflex of the constituent assembly. The gold bill, the le gal tender bill, the gold-bearing bond, was the reproduction of French folly and crime, with this one difference : That the French fanaticism, somewhat seasoned with justice, aimed their blows at despotism; the American fanaticism, direc ted by a reckless dishonesty, struck at republican government, and destroyed its Constitution. The French repudiated the as signats, with the crimes which brought them into being; the Americans are building the funding system upon a depreciated currency, to fasten slavery upon the industry of the country, to transmit to our children that which was before but a temporary evil, to be avoided and eschewed. Debt is the measure of our personal liberty. Only the Rus- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 429 slan aristocracy could enforce the Russian debt. It requires the whole force of the monarchy, aristocracy, and monopoly of Great Britain, who own the labor and production of the country in advance of their creation, to make the British debt available for oppression. In America, the question is exceedingly simple, the repudiation of this debt, or the abandonment of the republi can system of government. The military despotism in the South, is the first step in ad vancing crime to overthrow liberty: a necessary plan to carry out the funding system, to collect such a debt, and prepare the people of the North to submit to military espionage and force as the accompaniment of their revenue system. The Congress has reduced the American people to a choice among three methods of extrication : The first, the British funding system fastened upon us. The second, the French paper system of paying with green backs, and the hypothecation of the greenbacks, for the public lands, so as to leave no public debt. The third is outright repudiation. The first must be destroy ed at all hazards. The second may be done or pave the way for the third. The people must be free from the task-masters of capital. 430 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. BOOK CEIMES OF TITE TARIFF. CHAPTER I. UNHEALTHY CONDITION OF THE PUBLIC MIND IN REGARD TO PUBLIC ASSISTANCE. THE UNHEALTHY CONDITION OF THE PUBLIC MIND, AND THE BUSINESS OF THE COUNTRY, IS THE HARBINGER OF GEN ERAL BANKRUPTCY. The unsettled, discontented, and feverish state of the public mind, is a clear index of our approaching ruin. The people of the country are complaining, pleading, and regretting, in singular confusion. In appeals to Congress for redress, assistance, and prohibition, as the case may be, agricul ture, commerce, and manufactures, send up their committees to besiege Congress, call upon the President, and ask relief at the hands of the Government. Soldiers are praying for more bounty, widows ask an increase of pension, free negroes demand more rations, ministers are seeking new chaplaincies, members of Congress increase their own salaries, and connive at the creation of large standing armies, to enlarge the extent and diversity of their patronage. These new requirements of the functions of government, make new demands upon the public treasury. Heavier taxation, and more extensive resources, must be exhausted, to meet the increas ing depletion. But you have scarcely caught a passing glimpse of these mul titudes, seeking relief from the treasury, these mendicants upon government folly, and crazy, popular liberality, until your atten tion is attracted to other committees, deputed from every other conceivable interest, demanding exemption from taxation of CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. 431 every kind. What is scarcely less remarkable than incongru ous, these t\vo classes are met and jostled, by a third, and quite as numerous a class, demanding protection for everything they create or do. All of these gentlemen maintain their claims, by arguments both new and old, extreme and absurd, conclusive and ad captandum, the very challenge of which, would invite violence from their hands. This motley mob of instructors in political economy, are more than outdone by the philosophers who propose the introduction of new systems of moral and political truth for the govern ment of the world. The humble minister of the meek and lowly Son of Man, ar rayed in the latest and most fashionable style of the elite, with diamond rings, and French broadcloth coat, and silk velvet vest, imperial and moustache highly perfumed with musk, comes to exemplify his peaceful mission, by a demand, in the name of Heaven, of a revival of war, as the only means of propitiating the good will, and securing the favor, of the Prince of Peace ; and persistently demand violence as the only efficient means of showing the merciful character of their divine mission. Their cry for blood is to exemplify their devotion to the great Master who never resented an injury ; and their vengeful addresses are given in proof of their forgiving spirit. The New England Puritan, with his whining cant and nasal twang, next approaches upon his philanthropic mission of levy ing an impost duty, of an hundred per cent, upon the original cost of the cloth of the poor man s wardrobe. He comes in this political tableaux, as the friend of our common race, and piteously pleads for the amelioration of the wrongs of mankind, which, he is religiously persuaded, will be best subserved by paying three prices, and a reasonable profit, for Ms goods and wares. Next approaches the friend of universal suffrage, r/ho proposes to extend the rights of self-government, by disfranchising all of the civilized elements of society, and enfranchising barbarians, as the most ready means of paying the public debt, in this most striking, common-sense way ; by levying taxes, without the con sent of the people who shall pay them, and depriving the owners of property of the power of resisting their collection. 432 CRIMES OF THE CTVTL This insanity which pervades society, in regard to the public debt, is precisely that which seizes every insolvent debtor. Ambi tious to be rich, and careful to conceal his misfortune, he resorts to every possible scheme, and embraces every subterfuge which offers relief; but with that fatuity which involved him, he will pursue his shadows until they disappear in the setting sun of his gloomy life. Governments are multitudes of men who have combined their powers, and wealth, and folly, and insanity, dif ferent from individuals only in their magnitude. The great financial calamity of the United States is, that we are in debt, without adequate means of payment. Every other obstacle, in the way of our progress, power, and glory, is magni fied by this cardinal evil. Every subterfuge of speculation, every refuge of lies, has been exhausted to make our poverty seem wealth, and our blanched cheek of shame wear the face of honor. The last miserable shift of these commercial simpletons, is to pay the debt by a constitutional amendment, embracing the views of the gentlemen above alluded to ; then to secure the payment, more completely, by passing laws, from time to time, that the public debt never shall be repudiated. There is nothing more ridiculous than an attempt to enact laws which may never be repealed. Such attempts always cast a just suspicion upon the law itself, which claims immunity from examination. Such laws inevitably lead to oppression, which will seek freedom in revolution. A government which enforces only such laws as may serve the purpose of tyrants, and obliviates such as are necessary to preserve liberty, is unspeakeably worse than simple arbitrary power, and will command no more respect than that which is extorted by force. Of this character, are all laws which repudiate one class of debts outright, and make ob ligatory forever another class, based upon the same general principles, when the justice and obligation of each arc in the nature of things subject to the judgment of each successive gen eration. Forever, at the most moderate calculation, is a long time hence, and must see many changes in its checquered course. Wise men are content to legislate for to-day, whilst the prudent as wisely care for the morrow. God alone is the lawgiver of eternity.. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 433 THE UNCERTAIN CHARACTER OF THIS DEBT. This great debt is a purely human affair, not invested with a single attribute of Divinity, and must be subjected to all of the examinations, criticisms, disputations, and legal ordeals pe culiar to all other mere indebtedness, and it must not be for gotten that it is not a part of the history of the world, that man kind grow impatient for opportunities to pay public debts. Senator Sumner once declared that his " people were clamoring for heavier taxation," and were indignant because they were not permitted to contribute more freely of their money to the sup port of the Government. I confess frankly that I never knew just such a case. The railroad system of the country has given a wide scope to the passion for indebtedness, peculiar to the American people, and illustrates their anxieties to meet claims incurred by stock- gambling. The multiplicity of claims and law-suits consequent, are a striking commentary upon the desire of the people to pay public debts without cavil. There is scarcely an instance of railroad obligations having been met without contest and resist ance. The simple history of these contests makes a large acqui sition to the legal literature of the country, and nothing but the living, active power, and permeating identity, of railroads with the necessary business of the country, enables them to secure the recognition of debts fairly contracted with communities and States. The voluntary subscriptions to great public enterprises are rarely realized to the amount of fifty per cent. The debt of the United States, whether in bonds as the foun dation of a hateful aristocracy, or in banks, the engine of per petual illegitimate speculation, will ultimately be contested before the highest tribunals known to the contests of time the frail, fickle, treacherous court of popular will yet only less potent than the decrees of the HIGH CHANCERY ABOVE. When the issues in the debt are fully made out, every step of the dangerous road through which we have passed, will be ex amined with a care which shall make men dizzy in contempla tion of the chasms beneath, and the fearful, crumbling precipices 28 434 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. along the tottering edges of which a drunken nation has stag gered, and reeled, singing her bacchanalian songs, leaving sepul chres of the immortal dead, churches of the living God, gardens, cities, and plantations, the discoveries of science, the works of art, and the monuments of religion, in ashes, as the only land marks by which their hateful march can be retraced. This is all that will remain of a cultivated refinement and peerless civil ization. The constitutionality of the purposes for which appropriations were made, and the consequent debts contracted, will be carefully examined, if not before, will, after the furious fires of passion have died out, and the bitterness of strife has been dissi pated in the changes of time. The contest will involve everything at every step of time. A national debt, standing on the rails of the track of the advancing destiny of a great country, a millstone hanging around the neck of labor, an impassable gulf, with its boiling maelstrom lying between and separating the fortunes of the rich from the daily wants of the poor, a treasure from which bribery draws her legislative poison, and corrupts the fountains of justice. This debt is a stream of power, which accumulates as it sweeps swiftly on, increasing in volume, to the vast sea of the future. This financial despotism on the one side has arrayed its pla toons, companies, battalions, regiments and grand army of asses sors, collectors, and spies, to possess the property and discover the liberty of the people. Against them, on the other side, are the people, who array their forces. The eighteen hundred thousand citizens who refused to vote for Abraham Lincoln, in A. D. 1864. The whole Southern people who resisted his usurpation with arms. The millions of poor people who have been ruined by the war. The soldiers, and their ruined families, who have nothing left of their meagre savings, and grow restive in contemplation of the fortunes of contractors, and speculators, coined from the blood of their fallen comrades. The landholder, and every man who contributes to the sup port of the special, privileged, untaxed, and untitled bonded aristocracy. These are the parties to the great contest. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 435 When the issue is fairly made up, the trial will be short, speedy, and decisive. In this terrible conflict, the empty clamor of " loyal ty/ 7 the clap-trap of " national life," will pass away with their concomitant slang phrases. Of all these evanescent things, the people will grow weary, and time will administer her own reme dy. Debts are not the more enduring, because the more costly luxuries of party organization. In this struggle for liberty, there will be a thorough canvass ; the power of the legislation which proposes to fasten the yoke upon the necks of an unwilling people as an appendage, if not an ornament, to their existence. 436 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER II. PREVAILING IGNORANCE OF THE NATURE OF TARIFFS. EXOEBITAKT duties levied upon importations of every kind, is the natural result of a debt which involves the country in bankruptcy. This is not an accident merely of the indebtedness, but was clearly foreseen, and as certainly intended, by the pro jectors of the present revolution, as one of its immediate and necessary results. The necessity for a protective system of duties was, in itself, worth the price of a million of lives to those who were profit ably bartering in human blood, and was cheaply purchased by the desolation of half a continent, to those who were stealing what had escaped the general conflagration. One class of people claim the right of living by their wits. This they attempted, not in the manly struggle of mind with mind, in the learned professions, in the invention of new and useful implements of labor, in the discoveries of new truths of nature, new principles in science, or new doctrines in philoso phy ; but the protection of their particular business in which government is laid under requisition for their support. The extent of the vassalage of the laboring classes of the United States to vicious legislation, exceeds anything known in the his tory of the commerce and industry of nations. The most de plorable feature of this system of oppression is, that those who suffer under it seem unconscious of the weight of the burdens imposed, and are continually attributing the evil to other inade quate causes. They are sinking under the load, yet scarcely discern the un- pitying hand that presses harder and harder each succeeding year, adding new tasks of labor to meet the old demands of life, and each year falling shorter than the year preceding, of its comforts. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 437 The unseen tyrant has adroitly placed some other image be tween himself and his victim, to receive the blows in revenge for the injuries inflicted. The laborer has felt the pinchings of want, the gnawings of hunger, and the piercing winds against which he had no ade quate protection. He cast his eye in every direction, but could discern no sufficient cause for the destitution, and want, that met him at his door-sill when he returned half famished from his daily labor, without being able to economize for the evening of life or those days of sorrow, when ill health or accident, would commence to devour the penny saved to alleviate the sufferings of old age. Just at this moment the cunning capitalist would point him to the people of the Southern States, and denounce their prosperity as the secret cause of the poverty of the North ern laborer. The laborer who overlooked his plunderer in the person who addressed him, commenced a crusade against the people of the South as his worst enemy, who stood between him and his wont ed happiness. The long sanguinary civil war ensued, and with its termination came the destruction of our market; the annihil ation of our foreign exchange, and in their stead arose our great competitor in the market of the world. Here is the real source of general poverty which demands re lief. The measure of the financial oppression of any people, is the taxes imposed upon their property, and drawbacks upon their industry. It is the chief aim of intriguers, in the affairs of government and finances, to keep the taxation of the people out of view. The discovery was made at an early period of civilization, that oppressive taxation was the never failing source of revolu tion. It was the greatest improvement in the art of govern ment, to learn how to tax men without their knowledge, and he was the ablest statesman who could extract most from the pro ducing classes without complaint, and collect the money before it entered the purse of the tax-payer. This occult science was called " Duties." The very general ignorance of the people, of the nature, oppres- 438 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. sion, and extent of the system of duties in the United States, should not excite surprise, when it is known that this want of knowledge pervades the ruling elements of the country, and is common among her leading statesmen. President Lincoln, in the route from his home in Springfield, Illinois, to Washington city, delivered, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the great Western emporium of manufactures, the following vague, incoherent, and extraordinary speech about this question, which had involved the controversies of the Senate from the foundation of the gov ernment, and touching the sources of nearly all of the revenue which had supported its administration and paid its public debt. HEAR HIM : "It is often said that the specialty of Pennsylva nia assuming that direct taxation is not to be adopted, the tariff question must be as durable as the government itself. It is a question of national housekeeping. It is to the gov ernment what replenishing the meal-tub is to the family ever varying circumstances will require frequent modifications as to amount needed and sources of supply : so far, then, there is little difference of opinion among the people. It is as to whether, and how far duties on imports shall be adjusted to favor home pro ductions. In the home market the controversy begins. One party insists that such adjustment oppresses one class for the advantage of another; while the other party argues that with its incidents and in the long run, all classes are benefited. In the Chicago platform there is a plank upon this subject, which should be a general law to the incoming administration. We should do neither more nor less, than we gave the people reason to believe we would, when they gave us their votes. The plank is as I now read : Resolved, That while providing revenue for the support of the general government, by duties upon imports, sound policy re quires such an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interests of the whole country ; and we commend that policy of national exchanges, which se cures to the working men liberal wages, to agriculture remune rative prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate re ward for their skill, labor, and enterprize, and to the nation, com mercial prosperity and independence. As with all general propositions, there will be shades of dif- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAH. 439 ference in construing this. I have by no means a thoroughly matured j udgrnent upon this subject, especially as to details, some ideas are all." The tariff, under the pretext of protecting manufactures, has been an instrument in the hands of the rich to oppress the poor. It is a decree passed to limit the amount and quality of the food and raiment of the consumer, for the benefit of the producer. The extent and atrocity of our taxation defies comment. It has placed over us an army of spies, detectives, contractors, general and subordinate officers, who meet us at every corner of the streets and in every avenue of business. Placing a money-grabber between the mouths of the poor and the butcher-shop, a stamp between the medicine and your dying child, a tariff between your shivering body and the clothing-store, between the muslin shroud and the corpse of your wife. WHAT is A DUTY ? A protective duty upon importations, is a tax levied upon the consumer and paid to the producer, to main tain manufactures, under the pretext that manufacturing is not able to sustain itself. It is more; it is a restriction laid upon commerce, which is intended to destroy the communication be tween powers for the exchange of such articles as may be manu factured in their respective nations. WHAT is COMMERCE? Commerce is not only asMcCulluch defines it, " coeval with the first dawn of civilization/ but it is the prime civilizer of the world and the great medium through which the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life, are extended to the whole family of man, by reciprocal exchange with those who, having one or more articles in greater quantities than they can consume, exchange them with other persons, who, in like quantities, have other and different commodities. It is in these mutual exchanges, that the business of the world is created and enlarged ; and by commerce, that multifarious wealth is found in modern times, so generally and equally distributed among civilized nations. Commerce is a source of wealth, which adds that which is im ported to the original and created wealth of the country, which is thereby the richer by the importation ; and exports those sur plus commodities, which the people can dispense with as well, 440 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. and thus, whilst increasing the variety and extent of the com forts and luxuries of a nation, dispenses in return to other nations an equivalent for their productions, and a variety of the blessings, which God has kindly intended for all. That people are placed within the reach of the greatest variety of the products of the earth, who have the most perfect system of commerce. And he is an enemy of civilization who obstructs commerce and restricts trade. So tenaciously do men cling to their selfish barbarism, that they have yielded to the freedom of trade with as much reluctance as tyrants have conceded the rights of representation, the writ of right, or the supremacy of the civil over the military power. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 441 CHAPTER III. DEVICES TO OBSTRUCT TRADE. HUMAN ingenuity has never been more severely taxed than in the effort to find out some new method of restricting trade, for the benefit of those already engaged in particular pursuits. These restrictions may be curiously summed up as a system in itself, which has been in operation to restrain competition, lest freedom might endanger the interests of monopoly. I. The exclusive privileges of corporations, which overshadow the business of the towns and villages, roots out the individual efforts of the mechanic, who endeavors to carry on his trade sin gle-handed. In Great Britain this was done. 1. By restricting the number of apprentices to an exceedingly small proportion of those who might profitably be engaged in the business. 2. By extending the term of service of apprenticeship, to a length which forbids entrance by those who would desire to learn such trades, or engage in such business. Working the double hardship of preventing young men from engaging in businesses for which nature had given them both taste and capacities, and the people from having the advantage of healthy competition. The number of years required, were such as forced the appren tice to forego the advantages of a liberal education in early life, or employ his maturer years, almost the length of time necessary to earn a competency at any of the pursuits of the artizan, which was untrammeled by conditions; whilst a master who kept* more than a given number of apprentices, was laid under penal ties as great as those imposed upon men for the commission of crime of the lower grade, with which it is classed, by laws still in force, in enlightened countries of Europe. 3. The restriction was so framed, that neither the customer 442 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. could choose his workman, nor the workman follow his occupa tion, lest some incorporated monopoly should lose the profits se cured to it. All of this was entirely unknown to the ancients, who had no apprentices. It is the invention of monopoly, made to perpetuate itself by law. This, too, is in violation of the laws of industry, which require due stimulants, and secures no better workmanship, which de pends upon the skill of the master of the shop, who is stimulated to perfection and integrity of his work, by the continuation of his business, and the customers who support it. 4. The unwillingness to impart the knowledge and advantages of trade, is another mode resorted to, and somewhat modified by the laws granting letters patent for a limited term of years, which generally remunerates the inventor in a fair proportion, according to the appreciated value of his inventive genius, and may scarcely be regarded as an obstruction to trade ; whilst the others enumerated, not only obstruct the business itself, but also hinder its free circulation, and invade the law of supply and de mand, and stand in the way of the progressive development of a true and liberal civilization. In 1601, Queen Elizabeth had granted letters patent, with exclusive privileges, to some private persons, for the sale of cer tain commodities. The Queen learned, through the Commons, that these monop olies were exercised as so many breaches of the people s privi leges, and annulled them, for the most part, leaving the remainder to the courts ; whereupon the Commons deputed eighty of their number to wait upon her with their thanks, whereupon she made the following speech : " I owe you hearty thanks and commendations for your singular good will towards me, not only in your hearts and thoughts, but which you have openly expressed and declared, whereby you have recalled me from an error proceeding from my ignorance, not my will. These things had, undeservedly, turned to my disgrace (to whom nothing is more dear than the safety and love of my people), had not such harpies and horse-leeches as these, been made known and discovered to me, by you. I had rather my heart and hand should perish, than that either my heart or CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 443 hand should allow such privileges, to monopolists, as may be prejudicial to my people. The splendor of Eegal Majesty hath not so blinded mine eyes, that licentious power should prevail with me more than justice. The glory of the name of a king may deceive princes, as gilded pills may deceive a rich patient, but I am none of those princes : for I know that the commonwealth is to be governed for the good and advantage of those that are committed to me, not of myself to whom it is entrusted, and that an account is, one day, to be given betore another judgment-seat. I think myself most happy that, by God s assistance, I have hitherto so prosper ously governed the commonwealth, in all respects, and that I have had such subjects as, for their good, I would willingly leave both kingdom, and life, also. I beseech you that, whatever mis demeanors and miscarriages others are guilty of, by their false suggestions, may not be imputed to me. Let the testimony of a clear conscience, entirely, in all respects, excuse me. You are not ignorant that princes servants are oftentimes too much set upon their own private advantages, that the truth is frequently con cealed from princes, and they cannot themselves look narrowly in all things, upon whose shoulders lieth continually the heavy weight of the greatest and most important affairs." 5th. The laws which prevented workmen from combining to exact greater wages under heavy penalties, yet did not prevent the masters and corporation from combining to exact more work and less compensation. Such was the character of the 8th stat ute of George III. 6th. The regulation of prices by law in favor of the manu facturer. Now there can be no doubt that when a corporation receives its franchises and exclusive privileges from government, that the government not only has the right, but it is their bounden duty to restrain the powers which they have granted, that the public may not be oppressed by a franchise granted by itself. So various and absurd have been the subterfuges to which monopolists, hard pressed, have resorted to perpetuate their power and cover up their frauds, that the barest recital would fill many volumes. It is with the principal and most enormous of these which I have now to deal, because it is the naked est apology made by the rich to invoke legislative aid to oppress the poor. It is the hollowest appeal for a franchise of the powerful, to 444 * CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAB. crush out the weak ; the right of the well-dressed to pluck the tattered garments from the poorly clad; the right of the laud- lord to grind the tenant; the privilege of the coal dealer to freeze the shivering body of the fireless. " Tariff in its most comprehensive sense is a table alphabeti cally arranged, specifying the various duties, drawbacks, bounties, &c., charged and allowed on the importation and exportation of articles of foreign and domestic produce." THE ODIOUS OBSTRUCTION TO AMERICAN COMMERCE IS THE DUTY UPON FOREIGN IMPORTS. There is in the weakness of human nature an inherent love of self-deception, which bears us unconsciously away upon the swelling tide of sure destruction, when, under the delusion that we are floating upon the unbroken waves of prosperity to cer tain bliss. This hallucination approaches a frenzy when it seizes men laboring under the excitements peculiar to religion or politics, w T hen led by artful and ambitious men, under the trans parent guise of patriotism or piety, as the vilest imposters find the most ready access to the hearts of honest men by extrava gant professions of devotion to their country and God. This very delusion has, strangely enough, taken possession of Americans in the consideration of every thing which pertains to their government, and beclouded their understanding upon every subject of public economy. Men who complain of taxes which they fully comprehend, are fascinated and delighted with the idea of supporting the government by tariffs ten-fold more ex pensive and a thousand times more odious, which take their property without their knowledge. CMMES OF THE CIVIL WAS. 445 CHAPTER IV. No ONE NATION CAN PRODUCE EVERYTHING, No ONE NATION CAN PRODUCE EVERYTHING WHICH IT CON SUMES, WITHOUT DENYING TO ITS POPULATION MUCH THAT THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION COULD SUPPLY THEM WITH, IN EXCHANGE FOR THE SURPLUS WHICH THEY PRODUCE AT HOME. IN support of this view I again call in the American philoso pher, who says, " Several of the princes of Europe have, of late, from an opinion of advantage to arise by producing all com modities and manufactures within their own dominion, so as to diminish or render useless their importations, endeavor to entice workmen from other countries by high salaries, privileges, &c., pretending to be skilled in various great manufactures. Imagining that America must be in want of them, and the Congress would probably be disposed to imitate the princes above mentioned, have proposed to go over on condition of hav ing their passage paid, lands given, salaries appointed, exclusive privileges for terms of years. Such persons, on reading the Ar ticles of Confederation, will find that Congress has no power committed to them, nor money put into their hands, for such purposes, and that if any encouragement be given, it must be by the government of some separate State. This, however, has been rarely done in America, and when it has been done, it has rarely succeeded so as to establish a manufacture, which the country was not so ripe for, as to encourage private persons to set it up, labor being generally too dear there, and hands diffi cult to be kept together, every one desiring to be master, and the cheapness of the land inclining many to leave trade for agricul ture. Some, indeed, have met with success, and are carried on to advantage, but they are such as require only a few hands, or wherein great part of the work is performed by machines. 446 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Goods that are bulky, and of so small value as not to well bear the expense of freight, may often be made cheaper in the country than they can be imported, and the manufacture of such goods will be profitable whenever there is sufficient demand. The farmers of America produce, indeed, a great deal of wool and flax, and none is exported ; it is all worked up ; but it is in the way of domestic manufacture. The buying up of quantities of wool and flax, with the design to employ spinners, weavers, etc., and from great establishments producing quantities of linen and woolen goods for sale, has been several times attempted in differ ent provinces, but those projects have generally failed, goods of equal value being imported cheaper ; and when the government has been solicited to support such schemes by encouragement in money, or by imposing duties on importations of such goods, it has been generally refused, upon this principle, that if the country is ripe for manufacture, it may be carried on by private persons to advantage ; and if not, its great establishments of manufacture require great numbers of poor to do the work, for small wages. Those poor are found in Europe, but will not be found in America, till the lands were all taken up and cultiva ted ; and the excess of the people who cannot get land, want em ployment. The manufacture of silk, they say, is natural in France, as that of cloth is in England, because each country pro duces in plenty the first materials ; but if England will have a man ufactory of silk as well as that of cloth, and France that of cloth as well as that of silk, these unnatural operations must be sup ported by mutual prohibitions, or high duties on the importa tions of each other s goods, by which means the workmen are enabled to tax the home consumer by greater prices, while the wages they receive, make them neither happier nor richer, since they only drink more and work less ; therefore the governments in America do nothing to encourage such projects." At the time of this writing, Dr. Franklin was engaged in stirring up a rebellion which startled the world, and gave being to a new and unique system of government, by making war against a most trifling tea tax and insignificant stamp duties, just as the French afterwards rebelled against the salt tax, and every spirited people have resisted, and will ultimately triumph, over petty tyranny. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 447 CHAPTER V. THE Two PRINCIPLES IN FAVOR OF A PROTECTIVE TARIFF CONTRADICTED EACH OTHER. THE theory of a protective tariff rests upon the two following propositions with others deducible from them, which contradict each other : I. That a high duty protects the home manufacturer, by pre venting the importation of foreign goods. II. That a high duty is the best and only means of creating a revenue for the support of the government. Tariffs bring revenue to the government, by collecting it of importations ; tariffs do not, therefore, prohibit, but invite, im portations as the successful means of raising revenue. If, to protect the manufacturer, upon the other hand, a tariff prohibits importation, it does not, therefore, create a revenue. The whole system is a fraud upon labor, and an obstruction to commerce. The Protectionists assume two facts fatal to their theory among civilized nations. First, that every nation owes its prosperity to non-purchase of other nations, and manufacture everything, not only that for which nature has given them capacity, but everything which by the most absurd and oppressive aid, the government may assist them to manufacture. In brief, they propose a non-intercourse with the highly-civ ilized kingdoms of the earth, as exclusive as the Chinese in everything, but the wall which surrounds the Celestial Empire. The second fact assumed in support of the first, is, that man ufactures, and not commerce, build up and enrich a country. History, however otherwise in conflict, sustains the fact that agriculture builds up commerce, and prohibitory tariffs of duties upon foreign imports, destroy both. 448 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. This view is sustained by Doctor Franklin, the most profound of all of our political philosophers, a Doctor of Laws when that proud title was conferred by St. Andrew s and Oxford only upon those to whom honors were due, when refused to princes of the royal blood, and long before it was bandied about in reciprocal compliments, or paid out as so much stock in trade in the com merce of corruption. A law -giving economist, who will be re cognized as authority everywhere, he was the cotemporary and friend of Adam Smith, Hume, Burke, Fox, Chatham, and his remarkable son, William Pitt, and the associate of all of the great est men of the eighteenth century in Europe and America, and was inferior to none of his associates. He lived through the most wonderful period of the Christian era, in which political truths were discussed with unbridled freedom, and political sys tems sprung from the inventive brains of the most illustrious of the heroes and ablest statesmen who ever spoke, or wrote, or thought in the English language. In a letter to a French gen tleman, he says : " We are much pleased with the disposition of your Govern ment to favour commerce manifested in the late Keglement. You appear to be possessed of a truth which few governments are possessed of. That A must take some of B s produce, other wise B will not be able to pay for that he would take of A." In regard to protection in England, he says : " We see much in Parliamentary proceedings, and in pamph lets and papers, of the injury, of the concessions to Ireland, will do to the manufactures of England, while the people of England seem to be quite forgotten, as if quite out of the question. If the Irish can manufacture cottons, and stuffs, and silks, and lin ens, and cutlery, and toys, and books, &c., &c., so as to sell them cheaper in England than the manufacturers of England sell them, is this not good for the people of England who are not manufacturers? And will not even the manufacturers them selves share the benefit ? Since, if cottons are cheaper, all of the other manufacturers who wear cottons will save in that article, and so with all of the rest." It may be justly added, that no better evidence of this simple CHIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAK. 449 truth need be adduced, than the practice that each manufacturer, without the slightest regard to the question of protection of his neighboring manufacturer, buys stuffs wherever they may be bought cheapest. And it is a marvellous commentary upon the present Congress and its irrational legislation, that they are adorning their Halls with foreign furniture, and treading foreign carpets beneath their feet, and wrapping foreign broadcloths about their persons. 29 450 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTEK VI. THE TARIFF RESTS UPON ENDLESS CONTRADICTION. THE Protective Tariff assumes that everything should be manufactured at home, to give employment to labor that labor ers are idle. In the very next breath, it assumes that the reason why we need a duty on goods, is, that the labor is so scarce and wages are so high, that we cannot compete with foreign manufactures. The whole system rests on a sophism. The farmer wants fish, but has not the time to fish, has no water to fish in, and no nets to fish with. But the fisherman has all of these. The farmer plows lands for cotton, corn, or wheat, and catches his fish in that way without risk, and the fisherman raised his cotton, wheat, or corn, with the net. If the farmer had gone fishing, he might have given that par ticular employment to himself and others ; but, instead of this, the same amount of labor was employed by fishermen, and the farmer got his fish whilst he employed his labor in raising pro vision from the soil, and the fisherman gets his provision by catching fish. The great argument for protection or prohibition, that it is wrong to prefer foreign manufactures to our own, might be just, but is inapplicable. If the foreigner buys our oils and cotton in exchange, then our production is his production, and his production is our pro duction. We produce his manufacture with our oil and cotton, and he produces our oil and cotton with his manufactures, as clearly as though each wrought with his respective implements of labor. This law is one which regulates itself with great care and pro priety ; for, when we can raise nothing to sell, we cease buying ; CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. 451 but when did any industrious people become so reduced ? Un der the tariff system, the poor are paying one hundred per cent, upon the necessaries of life, thereby reducing them to starvation ; and at the same time, the Governor of Massachusetts is trans porting the surplus female population to distant lands, under pretence that they are unable to maintain themselves. The protectionists complain, that manufactured goods sell too cheap ; but who ever heard a buyer complain that what he bought was too cheap? There can be no other possible use of manu factories to any country, than to afford cheap goods for the people. They ought to exist for the benefit of the people, and not for their oppression. The friends of high duties declare that by protection, our manufactories can successfully enter into compe tition with foreign manufacturers, but this is manifestly untrue. If our manufactures can compete with foreign markets, after the duties which they must pay in foreign ports, how much more easily may they undersell them where they pay no duty. If this argument in favor of the tariffs were true, it destroys the main one, which demands protection against foreign competition. TARIFF DUTIES are simply a tax levied upon poor people be cause they are poor, to prevent them from having all that they need to eat, and wear, and warm themselves with. The manner in which the injustice works is apparent. A is a poor man, and wants a suit of plain clothes, on which he has to pay a tariff of one hundred per cent. He complains that a suit worth twenty-five dollars should cost him fifty dollars. But he is in formed that B is engaged in manufacturing, and unless he gets protection by a tariff, the British will be able to undersell him in his own market, and moreover, that the Government needs tariffs to pay its necessary current expenses. Now it happens that B and the English merchant, come to the market together with goods at equal first cost. A could buy his suit of the Englishman at twenty-five dollars and the tariff, which makes fifty dollars. But A buys the suit of B for forty- nine dollars and fifty cents. In other words, the poor laboring man pays twenty-four dollars and fifty cents to the rich manu facturer, who has cleared one hundred and thirty per cent., prov ing that he needed no protection upon the one hand, and the Government receives no revenue upon the other hand. 452 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. Daniel Webster, in his great speech of 1824, thus argues this question : " Gentlemen tell us they are in favor of domestic industry. So am I. They would give it protection. So would I. But then, all domestic industry is not confined to manufactures. The employment of agriculture, commerce, and navigation, are all branches of the same American industry. They all furnish em ployment for American capital and American labor. And when the question is, whether these duties shall be laid for the purpose of giving further encouragement to particular manufactures, every reasonable man must ask himself, both, whether the pro posed new encouragement be necessary, and whether it can be given without injustice to other branches of industry." Trying our manufacturers by this rule, they have no right to expect further protection, but the people have a right to demand a reduction. There is one kind of protection which may not be so objectionable in free governments, that duty which may be collected of foreigners, and, at the same time, in no wise tax our own people. If you can conceive of such an one, you have a fair idea of an im partial tariff for the protection of manufacturers, which, I frankly confess, I have not. But, allowing the justice of the principle of protection for the purpose of building up manufacturers, there is only one way of doing it. That is by paying a direct bounty to them, for the erection of manufactures, as we have been doing to keep up New England fisheries. This method has this advantage over the other methods, that we then know precisely what we are paying, where it goes, how it goes, who gives it, and who gets it. But, if it were right to protect capital against labor, why would it not be just, upon the same principle, to protect labor against capital. If it were right to prohibit the importation of foreign goods, because they are in competition with domestic manufactures, then it would be right to prohibit foreign emigration, because it cheapens American labor. These doctrines are both wrong, but a protective tariff is the exact and consistent counterpart of Know- Nothingism. There can be no possible reason for the one which would not well sustain the other. There is a heartless cruelty in this style of legislation, that shocks the moral sense. Can CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 453 there be a more pitiable spectacle upon earth, than to see thous ands of poor people, shivering with cold, and crowding around a half-fed fire, forced to pay more than fifty per cent, duty, to the coal monopolists, when the very earth is filled with coal ? This is a duty paid by the destitute to the speculator, who has the monopoly of the richest gifts of heaven. It would contrib ute infinitely more to the wealth of the country, and the happi ness of the poor, for the government, under restrictions, to pur chase coal lands for the use of the poor, for, next to water, it is the most pressing necessity of life, for which there can be no possible substitute. But this legislative cruelty extends to every thing which sustains the poor, as the following carefully prepared Table exhibits : THE TARIFF SWINDLE - - HOW CONSUMERS ARE LEGALLY ROBBED - COST OF PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF CONSUMP TION WITH OR WITHOUT A TARIFF. Value without A nft of Ami prem A mt tariff Whole cost to our Ltlrtf/ (t-t yurt, t> N. Y. Tea per Ib $1.00.... Po^nov (f 20 gold. 35.. 17 pd. as tar, 17.... .... 8.... cur. 25. . . mercKts. 4JM CO . . . wp -L f_/^j 45 << " 20 ... 23.... 75... ... 95 Tnlvipprk 10 .. 51 23 74 , 84 Coffee " 16.... 6} 3.... Nails per 100 Ibs 2.50....$ 51.75 80,...$ J2.55.. . . . 5.05 2 Iron 2.50.... 1.12 40.... 1.62.. ... 4.12 Trace chains pr 100 Ibs. 8.00.... 3.30 1.50.... 4.80.. ...12.80 Stoves " ... 3.00.... 1.80 80.... 2.60.. ... 5.61 Sugar 6.00.... 4.60 2.07.... 6.67.. ...12.67 Salt per bbl 1.50.... 87 38.... 1.25.. ... 2.75 Brandy per gal 2.00. . . . Wine per doz. bottles. 6.00.... 2.70 6.00 1.21.... 3.00.... 3.91.. 9.60.. ... 5.91 ...15.60 Hand saw 1.00.... 48 20.... 68.. .. 1.68 Cigars per 100 2.00.... 4.00.... 92 2.60 41.... 1.17.... 1.33.. 2.77.. ... 3.38 ... 7.77 Three-ply carpet pr yd. 80 .... Broadcloth per yd... ... 4.00.... 48 2.40 21.... 1.08.... 69.. 3.48.. ... 1.49 ... 7.48 Calico " 20.... 9 i... 4.... 13^ 33 J " 15.... 3 i... 3J.. 12, .... 27 454 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. COST OF AN ORDINARY SUIT OF CLOTHES FOR A LABO MAN, WITH AND WITHOUT A TARIFF. Whole Value Merck s Cost . ant t of Prem. Ad tion l Profit inN.Y. profit of "with no tariff in on cost to of 33 / cts. tariff. gold. gold, mercKts. tnerchfs. Wool bat... 81.00... 33.. .ft! .33.. 57... 25.. 82... ^7.J RING 2.43 2.40 19.70 Undershirt.. Coat 1 00 33 . 1 32 . 50 9,9! 75! 24.. 5.25..1 8.00... 2.66. ..10.66.. 4.75.. 2.03.6.78.. .S Shirt 1.50... 50... 2.00.. 75. 33.1.08... 35.. 3.45 Pants 3.00... 1.00... 4.00.. 1.75.. 78.2.53... 83.. 7.36 Drawers 1.00... 33... 1.32.. 50. 22. 72... 24.. 2.40 Vest 1.50... 50... 2.00.. 75. 38.1.08... 35.. 3.45 Gloves... 1.00... 33... 1.33.. 60. 27. 87... 26.. 2.45 $23.98 $43.86 COST OF DRESSING A FARMER S WIFE OR DAUGHTER WITH OR WITHOUT A TARIFF. Profit Cost Whole Premium A dded Profit Whole Val. in of with no amount on cost to of cost, N. Y. Mercttt. Tariff. Tariff. gold. mercWt mercttt. tar. ad Hat and trim.. .2. 00.. 66. ..2 66. ..1.40.. 63.. 2.03.. 67.. 5.13 Flannel dress.. .3. 10.. 1.03. ..4.13. ..2. 60.. 1.23.. 3. 83.. 1.27.. 9. 23 Flannel skirt.. .2.00.. 66. ..2.66. ..1.65.. 75.. 2.40.. 80.. 5 80 Domestic 12yds2. 00.. 66. ..2. 66. ..1.72.. 32.. 1.04.. 34.. 4.04 Balmoral 2.00.. 66. ..2.66. ..1.65.. 75.. 2.40.. 80 .5.86 Worsted Hose.. 33.. 11... 44... 16.. 7.. 30.. 8.. 75 Gloves 30.. 10... 40... 21.. 9.. 30.. 10.. 80 Web or net.... 60.. 20... 80... 42.. 19.. 61.. 20.. 1.61 Handkerchief... 21.. 7... 28... 10.. 4.. 14.. 5.. 47 Collar ... 15.. 5... 20... 8.. 2.. 11.. 4.. 35 Cost without tariff .....$16.89 With tariff. $34.04 Democratic Almanac, page 80. THE TARIFF, WHICH IS A PROTECTION TO EASTERN MON- The protection afforded by the tariff, is partial in its opera tions, and makes the hardship greater, because it destroys the manufacturers in one portion of the country, to build up those CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 455 of another. If there were justice in protection at all, the West ern people should at once have protection against New England. New England can undersell the West and break up her small manufacturers through her protection, but the West receives no advantage in return. The Western people can trade with greater facility by water, with London, than by railroad with Boston and our own small manufacturers could successfully compete with both Great Britain and New England, without a protective tariff. In the discussion of this question, it must not be forgotten that there are two classes of manufacturers the one class de manding protection, the other able to manufacture without any assistance from government. The first class, composed of a few pampered stock companies, which avail themselves of the irre sponsible privileges of their charters, make immense sums of money by extortion, and take advantage of the necessities created by this very protection. But there are manufacturing establish ments that demand no protection, and need none, which furnish nearly all of the domestic cloths, satinets, and linsey-woolseys, made and worn by the rural Western people ; and enliven the farms and households of the land, with the hum of the wheel and the loom, and distribute to the various mechanics through the villages, where the small farmer may find a ready market for the pro ducts ; and in exchange, receive the labor at his door, of the hat ter, shoemaker, blacksmith, and other mechanics. The incor porated manufacturer, who enslaved his operatives to make his machinery profitable, and then robs the people of duties to give him immunities, is the very worst enemy of that form of domes tic industry, which gives to the farmer a market at his door, and diffuses the wealth and business of the country in due propor tion; and which may be kept up, or discontinued without great expense, just as the price of their commodities demand. Thous ands who could sell their products to the village manufacturer and mechanic, who live at their door, and benefit them all with that which would be otherwise wasted, because there was no market for it, and of which the mechanic would be deprived, because he was not in proximity to it. This is the old and well-known history of our ancestors, when every neighborhood had its card- 456 CEIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. ing machines and fulling mills, long before pianos and physi cians, novels and French pills, were introduced into society as the standard necessaries of life. This style of manufacture has been the staple product of the Border and Western States, and to master the science of cloths and linens, was a part of the edu cation of a good housewife. But in the protection which brings higher prices, there is noth ing added to the general wealth. This increased amount in the prices, is paid from one to another of our own people : for the tariff has no power to effect sales in foreign markets. The only effect is to extort a greater price from the poor to aggrandize the rich ; a tribute from labor to capital, without adding one cent to the general wealth of the country. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. fc 457 CHAPTEE VII. How PROTECTIVE TARIFFS MAKE GOODS CHEAP. THE PROTECTIONISTS, AS THOUGH TO BURLESQUE ALL COM MON SENSE, ASSUME THAT PROTECTIVE TARIFFS REDUCE THE PRICES OF ARTICLES MANUFACTURED, TO WHICH PROTECTION IS EXTENDED. If this be true, it is a conclusive argument against such tariffs, as unnecessary. The advocates of protective duties go much further : they in sist that the prices of manufactured goods decrease as the duty increases. It is quite impossible to present the arguments to which such absurdity is driven to sustain itself. You have only to conceive what is most paradoxical and ab surd in commerce and finances, to fully comprehend the range and compass of their teachings. Their theories of political econ omy are addressed to that peculiar cast of minds who have re ceived these monstrosities as axioms : that barbarians have a right to govern civilized people, to enforce the funding and pro tective systems, that Christ and Paul presided over civil wars, that the torture is a part of civilized warfare not incompatible with Christian perfection, that test oaths and proscription are recognized elements of liberal republican governments. To such minds it were difficult to present an absurdity so gross, a proposition so monstrous, or contradiction so palpable, as to challenge their doubts. There are times when a high protective tariff lowers the price, just as there is a time when misers give up their money ; a time when tyrants relinquish power, and usurers fail to renew their notes; when dissolution breaks their hold. So with the manu facturing system, which invokes protection from the Government. After they have robbed the poor to aggrandize the rich ; by high tariffs, it works its own destruction. 458 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The premium offered by the government to high tariffs, diverts capital from its legitimate channel to the objects which receive protection ; the natural result is, that those articles from the manufacture, of which capital is taken, become scarce, and the poor have to pay enormous prices for them, which are no longer manufactured ; whilst the articles, which are protected by government, are created far beyond the legitimate demand, and ruin the manufacturer, because the amount manufactured exceeds the relative proportion which it ought to bear to other articles in market. But if all manufactures are protected by tariffs, then they draw capital and labor from commerce and agriculture, and destroy their relative supply in the market, and raise the prices in corresponding ratios : so that ruin overtakes the manufacturer through the artificial protection extended to him by the govern ment. This ruin is wrought in the most simple and natural manner. 1. The excessive duty impoverishes the consumer and makes him unable to buy. 2. The very tariffs which impoverish the consumer, pass into the pocket of the manufacturer, enrich his business and make trade unhealthy, until the vast amounts of capital and labor in vited into it, create great stocks of goods, which accumulate in the country. 3. Then the abundance of goods and the bankruptcy of the people, bring down prices far below their actual cost. The con sequence never remote is, that the manufacturer suffers bank ruptcy from his unnatural prosperity, and finally needs protec tion ; which he cannot hope to get against a crazy home competi tion, and they all sink in ruin together. 4. This diverts frightened capital from manufacturing entirely, and at last the very foreign goods, against which protection has been levelled, of necessity itself, overrun the country and new protection is demanded for new follies. This is the only conceivable instance in which protective tariffs can make cheaper the manufactured goods upon which duties are levied. Upon the other hand, a steady adherence to legitimate trade, would make the supply and demand in each branch of industry^ in relative and profitable proportion. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 459 Now we need answer the simple-minded enquirer who would ask: What shall we manufacture? The answer is at hand; whatever may be manufactured with profit, just as what we ex port will be that which may be exported with profit. In the munificence of nature, she has kindly provided for the wants of men in the distribution of her benefits and the happy adaptation of business to the wants in every country on earth. Trade is too extensive, involves too many interests, compre hends too many persons,, is too intricately interwoven in the web of society, to possibly admit of that general supervision assumed by the protective system. Trade is, by the laws of our being, committed to the care of the whole human family ; each man is the especial guardian of that part which he assumes and the slightest violation of its laws, not only punishes him with its losses, but in the very act, transfers his lost share to others warn ed by his example, who must suifer the penalties of the same same violated law. Every interference by government, is an unjust and unpardonable trespass upon those sacred rights of self-preservation, which may not be done without injustice to the poor and the consequent suffering of that unfortunate class of people, who have no voice in Congress, which can be heard in the clamor of contractors. The revelry of debauchees and con flict of money-changers, have turned the sacred halls of the temple of liberty into a den of thieves, and hold a general jubi lee in the overthrow of free government. 460 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. CHAPTER VIII. PROTECTIVE TARIFFS ARE IN CONFLICT WITH THE GENIUS OF OUR GOVERNMENT. IT is the duty of all governments to protect the people by gen eral laws, equally operative, effecting in like manner, every citi zen. Such is the spirit and genius of our federative republican system, which provides, that "No State shall grant any title of nobility." (Art. II, See. 19, Clause 15.) "And no title of no bility shall be granted by Congress." (Art. II, Sec. 9, Clause 7.) " No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one State over those of another ; nor shall vessels bound to or from one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another." (Art. II, Sec. 9, Clause 6.) " Uniform laws of naturalization," " uniform laws " on the subject of " bankruptcies throughout the United States," evince the elevated spirit of the fathers, above all injustice or par tiality. What may not be directly done, may not be done indirectly. What may not be done in violation of the letter, may not be done in violation of the spirit of the law. But in the duties levied upon imports, which discriminate in favor of specific ar ticles, protecting one class of the people at the expense of the other classes, there is as clearly a privileged order, as though the members of it were called Barons, Earls, or Lords. This offence against the spirit of our system is the very essence of protective tariffs. All legislative interference in trade, is a wrong perpetrated against those to whose injury the discrimination is made. Every duty levied upon articles manufactured, takes from the consumer, and puts into the hands of the manufacturer, the exact amount of money which makes the difference between the price of the article, with and without duty, which the govern- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 461 raent has no more right to take from the consumer and give to the manufacturer, than it has to send agents into the field of the wheat-grower, and take his wheat, for the use and benefit of the cotton-grower, or, take one-half of the wages of the black smiths, carpenters, stone masons, schoolmasters, and physicians, to bestow luxuries upon the iron masters, woolen manufacturers, and bankers. There is no possible difference between taxing the poor one-half of all that they expend for food and raiment, and add ing the amount in duties on what they use; or in sending a pub lic officer to seize it in their trunks, or attach it in the hands of their employees, and handing it over to the manufacturer. The people have been injured by the immense but natural exercise of the protective power of government ; until every man ufacturer, every farmer, and nearly every other business man, be gins to believe and feel that, in some mysterious way, the govern ment owes him a living, and that he is, therefore, entitled to 1 public support in his business and trade, without regard to the wants, interests, or rights of other men. In this wicked legislation, the only persons placed beyond the pale of protection, are those who most need it. Those, whose suffering arouses sympathy in the bosom of philanthropy, are actually taxed to support the idle, profligate, and voluptuous. Such is the perverted condition of the morals of trade. Manufactures, and the products of the earth, were made for the supply of men ; and men were not created for the benefit and ownership of manufacturers, bankers, and monopolists. The poor certainly have the same right to demand cheap food and raiment, in the natural markets of the world, that the rich have to demand government aid, to increase their profits upon the food and raiment of the poor. The manufacturers and capitalists complain, that a refusal to enslave the poor by tariffs, to protect them, is an invasion of cer tain mysterious rights of property, which they acquire by virtue of their vocation. But the protection itself, is an invasion of life, doubling the demands upon labor, without increasing its power to satisfy want. " That man takes my life, who takes that on which I live." It is the right, and, moreover, the bounden duty, of the poor, 462 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. to their large and growing families, to buy as cheap as they can ; and no earthly power hath a just right to invade this prerogative of nature, and life itself. The corn laws of England, which were kept up at the expense of human life, have no advocates among the friends of free and liberal government. But why should not the people of an inhospitable climate, have cheap clothing ? Is it not most remarkable, that the man who denies this right to the poor, is a manufacturing prince, who de mands half his earnings to ride in fine carriages, live in splendid houses, riot on luxuries, and bequeath millions to his offspring? No subject is susceptible of so many, and such striking illus trations. A fair statement is a demonstration. The whole pro tective system, is simply one to limit the amount of food and raiment used by the poor. This is undeniable. 1. The duty increases the price, just the amount added to the original selling price ; if it did not do this, it could be of no possible advantage to the manufacturer. 2. If it adds to the price, it diminishes the quantity, or the quality, to that extent. A tariff on clothes, or clothing, is a limitation of the amount to be worn by the poor, who have a given amount of money, and can only lay that out ; and the increase on the price per yard is a diminution in the number of yards. But to illustrate this fully : A. has a large family, needs four beds with coverlets and blankets, with just money enough to buy them ; but there is a duty levied of one hundred per cent, upon bed-clothes, so that the man has to accommodate his family with two beds, instead of four. The other two beds have been, by the government, presented to some manufacturer, whose sons are pleasure-hunting in Europe, and whose daughters are revelling in Boston. The poor farmer has to limit the shoes on his horses, by the tariff on iron ; as well as the shoes for his family, by the tariff on leather. These men look upon the reasonable price of the commodities necessary to the support of the poor, as the veriest calamities. The tariff being made for the benefit of the manufacturers, he limits the amount of supply against the poor, just as the govern ment interferes to augment the prices. \Yhat is the difference between licensing manufacturers to pil- CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 463 lage the agricultural and commercial interests of a country to the amount of one-half their value, and adding such duties to their manufactured goods, as doubles their price to the consumer ? In each case the loss is the same. It does not make it better that the manufacturer pleads poverty or inveighs against competiters. Legitimate business begets competition. A man who sells water, finds a competitor in the rivers and rain. Dealers in oils and candles, finds a competitor in the sun. The ice merchant finds a competitor in long winters. The woolen clothier is ruined by short, mild winters. Every merchant is endangered by two ene mies, the lack of demand and the superabundance of supply ; but the customers are always that much the gainer by the com petition. Restrictions of trade, or destruction of competition, afford no remedy for any of the evils complained of by the pro tectionists. The want of employment among willing, indus trious men, is always caused by the unnatural restrictions upon trade, which, like water, seeks its level ; and will only stop its wonted course when dammed up, or drained by unnatural causes. The protectionists, to provide against the disasters of trade, de mand that the washer-woman must pay four cents more on soap per pound, for fear the soap-maker, worth only one hundred thous and dollars, will be ruined by being undersold by foreign man ufactures. That is hard enough, but then she has to pay a duty of one dollar on a pair of shoes for her children, for fear the shoe merchant and leather dealer, with half a million, will be broken up by foreign competition. But the same demand is made for her cotton and woolen clothes, to protect the manufac turer, worth only millions, from foreign competition and bank ruptcy. Then she must pay one hundred per cent, upon her andirons and smoothing irons ; to protect the iron-mongers, worth millions more; and the same for the cutler, worth quite as much. So the poor woman supports two families by her constant labor and sinks to the grave through poverty. Is it any wonder that she is poor, and with such a premium given, is it any wonder that those she supports, are rich ? The manufacturer complains that he is not making the money, yet somebody else has it. The highwayman has a like complaint, that he lost many dollars by losing opportunities to get it : the only difference between these 464 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. gentlemen, is, that the law would prosecute the one and protect the other, in their vocations of plunder. "Whenever the business of the manufacturer is not remunerative, then he must change it, just as farmers change their grain, and stock-raisers change their stocks, when it ceases to pay them for their labor. Adam Smith says : " To prohibit by a perpetual law, the im portation of foreign corn and cattle, is, in reality, to enact that the population and industry of the community shall, at no time, exceed what the rude produce of its own soil can maintain." ( Wealth of Nations, Book iv, chap. 2) But what is true of corn and cattle, is precisely true of every other product, whether raw or manufactured ; and a tariif law is simply a law, limiting the amount of what may be ate or worn by the laboring masses, or poorer people of a country. CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 465 CHAPTEK IX. HIGH TARIFFS BEGET SMUGGLING. THE EVILS OF A PKOTECTIVE TAEIFF. IT is the enemy of the government in the destruction of that part of its revenues, which are provided to come through duties. The amount of protection given by duties to manufacturers, is precisely the premium offered to smugglers who, ever on the qui vive, have the entire accessible American coast to enter into competition with American manufacturers, where Vice-Presi- dent Breckenridge and Senator Benjamin could pass through a carefully blockaded coast, when the whole United States navy was assisting the whole Federal army to preserve the coast in violate. The smuggling cruisers, in times of profound peace, will cheerfully run the risks, to reap the enormous profits of the adventure. For it must not be forgotten that when there is a duty of one hundred per cent, to protect the manufacturer, there is a premium of one hundred per cent, offered to smugglers to carry on their business. The army and navy requisite to successfully guard the Ameri can coast against smugglers in times of high tariff, would not be sustained by ten times the revenues derived from such tariffs to support them. Yet smuggling does but little to reduce the price of goods, and leaves to the people the difficult choice, whether to pay their money for goods to the tariff swindlers, or British smugglers. Such is the extent of the smuggling and the vast capital, and the great number of ships employed, that it is very clear that the amount of good. brought in that way is not less than those imported ; but thehe smugglers share with the manu facturers in the protection of duties. Moreover, this illicit commerce is transferred from American 30 466 CKIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. to British vessels ; striking its triple blow at manufacturers, commerce and agriculture, in imitation of its parent, the Pro tective Tariff, by the smaller amounts paid into the custom houses. This fact is demonstrated in the accompanying tables: In the year 1790. t First tariff 5 per cent. " " 1798 ....Raised to 12J " " 1804 Raised to 15 J- " " " 1812 Raised to 27 " " 1816 Reduced to 25 " " " 1824 Raised to 28 " " 1828 Raised to 90 " During the war of 1812, the home manufacture of every kind of goods was greatly stimulated by the condition of the people ; the spirit of trade in the country, was destroyed by the war, every farm-house had the wheel and the loom as a part of its furniture : and the young women of the house were operatives under the superintendence of the mother; while the fathers and brothers were in the army, fighting for free trade and sailors rights. The following table will exhibit the fact incontestable, of the receipts of customs from the year 1815 to 1827: 1815 836,306,022 51 1816 27,484,100 36 1817 17,524,775 15 1818 21,828,451 48 1819 17,116,702 96 1820 12,449,556 15 1821 15,898,443 42 1822 20,500,775 91 1823 , 17,003,570 80 1824 20,385,430 42 1825 24,358,202 57 1826 , 20,248,054 30 1827 22,472,067 03 In 1815 the receipts were $36,306,022 51 In 1827 " " " 22,472,067 03 $13,833,955 48 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 467 A falling off, tinder the protective system, of nearly fifty per cent., notwithstanding the increase of population, is quite as great, which makes the disparity still greater ; instead of decreas ing from $36,306,022.51 in 1815, to $19,700,000, it ought to have increased to $44,900,000. These tables have been taken far back, when the workings of the government were regular and under no pressure, and where the result of the two systems were discernible in the collection of the revenue. This demonstrates another fact, that what is denominated the protective system, not only adds heavily to the expenses of the necessaries of life, but it depletes the treasury and forces a larger direct taxation upon the country. 468 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. CHAPTEE X. HIGH REVENUE TARIFFS UNJUST. THE great debt has given a pretext for levying a revenue tariff, placed at the highest figures. The Tariff, as a source of revenue, is simply a tax to be reg ulated as any other tax, upon the same principles and relative assessment upon the people. The Revenue Tariff, considered purely as a tax, is unjust, whether compared with the obligations of the people to support the government, or the tariffs of other nations. In Athens, tariffs or duties on corn, were one-fifth or twenty per cent. In England, for revenue purposes, never more than twenty per cent., though often but five per cent., before 1787. Even the re taliatory taxation was no higher than twenty-seven per cent. Experience has demonstrated that anything over twenty per cent, is not a revenue, but a protective tariff. Duties in France rarely exceed eighteen per cent., when it was raised on linen to twenty per cent., the people murmured almost to revolution. In Holland, the richest, and in Switzerland, the freest gov ernment in Europe, the people boasted that their tariffs never exceeded twelve per cent., and even now, they scarcely ever ex ceed twenty per cent. Cuba is the richest of all the "West India Islands, peerless in agricultural productions and commercial intercourse with the world. Her exports amount to four times as much per capita as those of the United States, and three times as much as those of Great Britain. Her tariff duties are generally less than twenty per cent., and scarcely ever reach twenty-five per cent., in a fair and equal computation. Alexander Hamilton, the father of the protective system, pro posed in his report, no such protective duties on either iron or CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 469 wool, as those which now oppress us. There are now from forty to one hundred and fifty per cent, on iron, and from fifty to two hundred per cent, on woolens and cottons ; on all of the neces saries of life the tariff of duties is five times as high as was re commended by Hamilton. Even spirits paid but one shil ling per gallon. The first tariff under the Constitution, when money was scarce, and American manufactures were weak, did not exceed twelve- and-a-half per cent.; in a single instance it approached fifteen. Until after the second war with Great Britain, there was scarcely an article which paid a higher duty than twenty per cent., gen erally at ten or fifteen. A table of duties from 1790 to 1823, in this chapter, shows the scale of duty. But the duty which is actually imposed, is at least twenty to twenty-five per cent, more than appears in the list to pay the profit of the exporter on the money advanced. The tariffs of 1816, 1824, 1828, were made purely for pro tection. Lord John Russell says : " It is obvious, that high protective duties check importation, and, consequently, are unproductive to the revenue; and experience shows that the profit to the trader, the benefit to the consumer, and the fiscal interests of the coun try are sacrificed where heavy import duties impede the in terchange of commodities with other nations. The same states man says : But upon a careful view of our commercial imposts, we came to the conclusion, that by removing prohibitions and lessening restrictions, it was possible to replenish the treasury, and, at the same time, to secure to the working classes a greater command of the necessaries of life, at steady and moderate prices." A and B have each $1,000 in money. A hoards his $1,000, withdrawing it from circulation and trade, in this way damaging business ; he pays at most, not more than two per cent, in taxation. B lays out his money in business, and for everything he buys, must pay fifty to one hundred per cent, on the original cost, to be di vided between revenue officers and manufacturers. Is this just? Is it wise? Can argument vindicate this wickedness and folly. Yet this is precisely what we do to the injury of the poor, who 470 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAB. have to spend all they earn, and for the protection of the rich, who keep all they have, and continually add to their store. If duties are levied as a tax for revenue purposes, there is just one fair way in which to do it, and that is to place an equal tax upon all exportations, in about the same ratio that other taxes are levied. The amount of real and personal property in the United States in 1860, was estimated by the census as follows, namely : The assessed value of real estate $6,973,106,049 Personalty 5,111,553,956 $12,084,669,005 The true reported value $16,159,616,068 Two per cent, is a high and heavy tax upon property, and would be, if levied upon the whole taxable property of the United States, $24,169,338,010 ; or if levied upon the true value of the property of the United States, would be the enormous sum of $32,319,232,136, which would not pay the interest upon the public debt, capitalized with its pensions, annuities, standing armies of military and civil officers. This sum of interest is frightful, but not to be compared with a tariff which, calculating every thing fairly of duty profit, reaches the enormous sum of one hundred per cent, upon every thing used by the people ; and a levy of taxes made upon the property of the United States, making the present tariff the basis, would not be one cent less than $8,079,808,034. But what reason can be given why one class of citizens and one manner of property should be taxed at the expense of others, in a just, fair and equal government, for the protection of all. But there is another view to take of this subject. No people can long afford to pay more than six per cent, on loaned money. The interest on the whole of the property of the United States, at six percent., would be $699,576,964. This sum of interest is exceedingly meagre when compared with the monstrous tariff paid by the people. That a duty may be levied in reasonable sums for the purpose of revenue upon such articles as contribute to voluptuousness, CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 471 and affect not the ordinary commodities of life, is not objection able, since it goes into the treasury of the United States from about the same person and in the same amounts that it would by direct taxation ; even then, five per cent, is a very heavy amount for the consumer to pay upon every article for consump tion, and the proper estimate to place upon this amount, is to compare it with the rate of taxes upon land and money, which ought never to be more than two per cent., (and then this rate of taxation should be only for short periods), and the interest which he receives upon loans, which rarely exceeds eight per cent, per annum. The labor and business of the masses of the people rarely pay more than six per cent., unless it is in the specific view of the starvation of the poorer class of people. It will be difficult to justify the payment of one hundred per cent, upon their daily bread, who, with all of their earnings, are sorely enough pressed to equally share the comforts with the carefully sheltered domestic animals ; for it must be borne in mind, that the poor not only pay a tariff upon what they wear, but they pay the tariff on the goods consumed by the farmer, who adds on the price of his grain, though it makes him no richer. The tariff of 1842, then odious as amounting almost to a poll tax, was about two dollars a head upon the people of the United Statss, amounting to double the expenses of the government annually since its foundation ; including all of the wars with Great Britain, the quasi French war, and all of the Indian wars up to that time. But the tariff of 1842 is incomparably lighter than the one under which we suffer. This tariff is in finitely more odious than the trivial tea tax, which provoked our Revolution ; and more burdensome than the French salt tax, which provoked the French Revolution. Alexander Hamilton wisely concludes that commerce is the real source of wealth of a great people ; then arises the question, whether a people, with peerless commercial facilities, advantages and resources, may, with safety, surrender this power of wealth which must forever place them most eminent among nations ; to pander to the illegitimate lust of wealth of a few narrow-minded, selfish monopolists, who, living in opulence, demand support at the public expense. The United States have facilities for 472 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. commerce never before enjoyed in the history of maratime nations. Our sea-coast is commensurate with our whole western and eastern boundary, embracing a large portion of the southern and northern limits. It brings us into communication directly with Asia, Africa, and Europe, South America and Australia, without circumlocution of route. But our inland position is scarcely in ferior. The Mississippi, arising in the icebergs, reaches out her extended arms, gathers her waters from the snows of the moun tains, the evaporations of the lakes , and the clouds of the con tinent makes a high way; which could bear on its bosom all of the products of the earth, for thousands of miles, through the entire Union, of which it is the chief natural bond. The Missouri, in no wise inferior in capacity or extent, penetra ting the inexhaustible wealth of the Rocky Mountains and the Ohio, drains the western slope of the Alleghenies ; the Illi nois, which forms a beautiful avenue to the lakes; the Ten nessee and Cumberland, which reach out semi-distant to the gulf; the Monongahela, that flows beautifully along the base of the mountains; the Alleghenies, that ventures near to the bays of the Atlantic; the James, the Hudson, the Connecticut, the Potomac, and the St. Lawrence, that open up a highway to the ocean. Such facilities for commerce there never has been in any other country. But the facilities for creating and supporting merchantmen and navies, is certainly not equalled anywhere. Forests hedging up the rivers and clothing the mountains, in themselves the foundation of a trade and commerce which, for centuries to come, will give employment to the carrying trade. The products of our soil duly apportioned, borne to its legiti- market, will bring in return the tea of China, the spices of the Indies, the silks t of France, and the products of the world, in exchange for our industry. A wonderful commerce may be established in all parts of the earth, giving them the fruits of the soil in exchange for their wares, and cultivating a kindlier feeling and nearer neighborhood with all mankind ; enriching our houses and cities with the wealth of their trade, and giving in payment, what would otherwise perish on the ground ; carrying out the spirit of CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 473 freedom in commerce, the most powerful and efficient of all the agents of civilization and Christianity. But tariffs for revenue are unequal, as tariffs for protection are unjust. Every tenant in the buildings of William B. Astor, who supports a family in propriety and decency, and every clerk of A. T. Stewart, or of the Eothschilds, pays just as much in tariffs as does his principal. Stewart and Astor, whose property amount to millions, pay no more in duties for what they eat and wear for its protection by the government, than do their clerks, who have nothing but their naked hands to feed their families. It is only the more remarkable that the stupidity of men should form a covering for such rank injustice. The iron on the farmer s plain wagon, worth $100, pays at least three times the amount of tariff that is paid by the merchant prince s coach worth $2,000. The poor woman who drinks her coffee to strengthen her nerves, pays precisely the same amount of tax which is paid by the wife of the millionaire ; and the crippled old man, tottering on the grave s mouth, with scarcely enough money to finish the journey of life, pays for his tea and opiates, precisely what is paid by Jay Cooke, who revels in luxury, and gambles upon the public stocks. Alexander Hamilton, in his celebrated report on domestic manufactures, makes the following suggestions, and uses the fol- Jowing arguments : " Pecuniary bounties have been found one of the most effica cious means of encouraging manufactures, and it is in some views the best. Its advantages are these : " 1. It is a species of encouragement more positive and direct than any other, and for that very reason, has a more immediate tendency to stimulate and uphold new enterprises. " 2. It avoids the inconvenience of a temporary augmentation of price, which is incited to some other modes, or it produces it in a less degree. " 3. Bounties have not like high protecting duties, a tendency to produce scarcity. " 4. Bounties are sometimes not only the best, but the only proper expedient for uniting the encouragement of a new object of agriculture, with a new object of manufacture. " It cannot escape notice, that a duty upon the importation of an article cannot otherwise aid the domestic production of it, than by giving the latter greater advantages in the home mar- 474 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. ket. It can have no influence upon the advantageous sale of the article produced in foreign markets ; no tendency, therefore, to promote its exportation. " As often as a duty, upon a foreign article, makes an addition to its price, it causes an extra expense to the community, for the benefit of the domestic manufacturer ; a bounty does no more. " Protecting duties of this nature, evidently amount to a virtual bounty upon the domestic fabrics, since, by enhancing the charges on foreign articles, they enable the national manufactures to undersell all their competitors." The greatest variety could not court a more flattering tribute to its convictions, than the views of Hamilton against duties. Now, whenever it may be apparent that any species of manu facturing is necessary to the general welfare of the country, and cannot be constructed by the manufacturer himself, without gov ernment aid, then let the government extend such aid as may be necessary. This plan is honest, because it is direct. The people know just what they pay; to whom, and how they pay it. There can be no evasion of revenue laws by smuggling, which is now so common that mankind look upon the smuggler as a public benefactor, furnishing the poor with cheap goods ; and it will be many centuries before a sense of justice will condemn the smuggler, who assists the stinted poor to sustain the manu facturing princes and money lords in the enjoyment of an odious monopoly, which inures to the positive oppression of the labor of the country. Mr. Jeiferson uses this demonstrative language in regard to the tariff policy : " I duly received yours of the 23d ultimo, as also two pamphlets you were so kind as to send me. That on the tariff I observed, was soon reprinted in Ritchie s Enquirer. I was only sorry he did not postpone it till the meeting of Con gress, when it would have gotten into the hands of the members, and could not fail to have a great effect, perhaps a decisive one. It is really an extraordinary proposition that the agricultural, mercantile and navigation classes , should be taxed to maintain that of manufactures." CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 475 PETITION OF THE MEKCHANTS OF LONDON TO PARLIAMENT. " To the Honorable the House of Commons of the United King doms of Great Britain and Ireland^ The humble petition of the undersigned merchants of the city of London, showeth that for eign commerce is eminently conducive to the wealth and pros perity of a country, by enabling it to import the commodities for the production of which the soil, capital, climate and indus try of other countries are best calculated, and to export, in pay ment, those articles for which its own situation is better adapted. " That freedom from restraint is calculated to give the utmost extension to foreign trade, and the best direction to the capital and industry of the country. "That the maxim of buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest, which regulates every merchant in his individual dealings, is strictly applicable, as the best rule for the traders of the whole nation. "That a policy founded on these principles would render the commerce of the world an interchange of mutual advantages, and diffuse an increase of wealth and enjoyments among the in habitants of each State. ***#;; This declaration of axioms in political economy, by so able a body as London merchants, in a country where such vast sums of wealth are invested in manufactures, is significant of the fol lowing facts, which they state at great length in detail : " 1. That tariffs inflict on the bulk of consumers the necessity of submitting to privations, in the quantity or quality of commodi ties. " 2. That restriction in commerce does not add to our own wealth, but it is demonstrable that the importation of articles into the country, does not diminish our wealth, but it enables us to sell what we do not want, by buying what we do want, from those who manufacture them. This is just what makes com merce. " 3. That no ultimate benefit accrues to those manufacturers in whose favor prohibitory duties have been passed. " 4. That if you prohibit one article by heavy duties, the de mand will come up from all other producers upon the govern ment upon their behalf, and drive them to the necessity of ex cluding everything which we produce gold among the rest CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. for it is with a gold-producing people a commodity, in nu^et as .veil as a medium of exchange. We then do on mper what the Chinese do by stone; we build great walls around our commer cial existence beyond which it is not allowed to pass 5. That the most liberal is the most politic course." CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 477 CHAPTEE XL VILLAINIES OF THE TARIFF. THE injustice of the protective system is scarcely more bare faced, than the corruptions of the revenue system of duties. These are so apparent, that proof becomes difficult to make it plainer. If 10,000,000 families, or 30,000,000 persons, wear an article upon which the duty is fifty per cent., or amounts to fifty dollars, they then pay $300,000,000, per annum; not for the support of government, but for the enriching of manufacturing princes, who are already clamoring, because they have not where withal to spend their means ; or barns and houses in which to store their goods. But the flagrant villainy of this system of robbery, is still more apparent in a case like this : A has $1,000,000 worth of stuffs, on hand, and a duty of one hundred per cent, is levied upon this kind of goods. By this very legis lation, $1,000,000 is placed in the hands of the fortunate owner. Not by chance, however, but generally by connivance and bri bery of unprincipled Congressmen, who are in the secret service of the wholesalers. What a crime against justice, and honor, and humanity, that enormous sums should be made out of the very life-blood of the people, their food, and fire, and raiment, and shelter. But this crime often becomes a powerful instrument of specu lation, and immense sums of money are made, by the collusion of members of Congress, and immense holders of stocks. We cite but an instance, which was consummated by flagrant bri bery of members of Congress, who sold their votes for immense sums, to the whiskey owners, and then gravely cast them in favor of an exorbitant duty upon the manufacture of alcohol and spir- itous liquors. The extent of this enormous speculation, may be gathered from the following statistics : 478 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. The amount of spiritous liquors distilled in the year 1860, in the United States alone, was 88,002,988 gallons, at an estimated value of $24,253,176, at the time of the passage of the duty on such liquors. It is safe to calculate that there was, at least, the products of two years on hand. Then we have 176,005,976 gallons, with a value of $48,506,352, with a duty of $2,00 per gallon, $352,071,952 added to the wealth of these liquor holders, or more than seven-hundred per cent, upon the original value, leaving $300,000,000 in their hands, after they had used fifty millions of dollars for the purchase of a corrupt and mercenary Congress, who were, most likely, bought for a less sum, and their votes put into the market at a lower price ; but this calcu lation makes due allowance for the payment of commission, to that vast army who throng the Capital to corrupt its legislation, and pollute the atmosphere which poisons everything with w r hich it comes in contact, and attempts the destruction of everything with which it is brought in conflict. The frauds practiced in Congress, begets the wicked cheats practiced in consequence of it. After the Congress had raised the price of whiskey, unfortunately it did not abolish men s vicious appetites. There was even more whiskey and delete rious combinations drank, than ever before. But this trespass upon health, and happiness, was the result of the premium offered by the foolish and corrupt legislation, which debauched its members and enriched the whiskey dealers. But all tariffs are premiums offered to fraud. The necessities of the poor drive them to seek refuge in low prices, and the cheats in manufacture, form at least two-thirds of the articles of every kind in the whole market. Shoes, hats, cloths, cottons, and mixtures of every kind, and these are all bought by the poor, who are unable to buy the first quality. With these pre miums offered to fraud, which stimulate smuggling, to bring sound wares to the country, be not surprised that the home vil lains with less scruples, should impose upon the consumer, as the foreign smuggler stealthily defrauds the government. The de liberate cheats perpetrated upon the market, never could extend without the aid of tariff, but such is their extent, that the con sumer is never surprised except when, by the merest accident, he CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 479 finds himself the lucky purchaser of an article which does not readily fall to pieces by the handling. These frauds are the legitimate results of the system of duties, and they practically discriminate in the same kind of food and raiment, in favor of the rich and opulent. So struck and stung with this injustice was Henry Clay, that in 1832, he says in the UNITED STATES SENATE : "!F THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE USE OF OBJECTS OF CONSUMPTION DE TERMINE THEIR CLASSIFICATION, COFFEE, TEA, AND THE SPICES, IN THE PRESENT CONDITION OF CIVILIZED SOCIETY, MAY BE CONSIDERED NECESSARIES, EVEN IF THEY ARE LUXU RIES. WHY ARE NOT THE POOR, BY CHEAPENING THEIR PRICES, IF THAT CAN BE EFFECTED, BE ALLOWED TO USE THEM." TAXATION AND TARIFFS COMPARED. In the ever changing effort to lighten the burdens of taxation by shifting it from one place to another, it must finally rest upon the shoulders of labor, which not only pays everything, but produces everything. All the weight of taxation falls upon labor, and is a drain upon the creative energies of the country. Capital always manages to get into coalition with the govern ing power to oppress labor. Capital pays nothing. When houses are taxed, the landlord transfers the tax to the tenant, and adds it to the rent, and gen erally exacts it in advance. If the land is taxed, the proprietor deducts the taxes from the value of the crops. Necessity compels this, for if he did not, he would have to dispose of his property to relieve him of taxation. If this taxation is made in the form of tariff, then the manu facturer adds it to the price of his goods, with the stamps, profits, interest, storage, freight, clerk hire, and house rent, until it reaches the squalid hovels of the poor, who never lay up a month s rent in advance, or provisions beyond their weekly wages. The successive accumulations are piled up by the last retailer, who doles out his goods as his customers may be able to *80 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. pay for them. Every item of intervening cost is added as it comes due at each counter, until it has gone the routine of trade. The rich tax-payer knows the amount of his taxes, feels the weight, and complains of it ; whilst the half-starved, half-naked wretch who pays the tariff, is assured that it is so much added for his protection, and that it has cheapened his food and rai ment to the full amount of the tariff levied. These simple-minded people believe these absurdities, with the same credulous wonder that they witness jugglers take off heads and put them on again, shoot bullets into his hat, and wrap it up in his handkerchief. They cannot tell when or how, but are will ing to take his oath that it has been done. It is so that the poor fellow pays, all told, quite one hundred per cent, upon his food and raiment. He pays two dollars for what one ought to buy, but they prove to him that he gets it the cheaper by paying two prices for it. The taxes and tariffs of late have thrown off all disguise, and aim their blows at the poor by taxing, directly, those things which are necessary to his existence. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL, WAR. 481 CHAPTER XII. CHARACTER OF MANUFACTURERS. WHO ARE THESE MANUFACTURERS who ask immunities not common to the citizen ? They amount to the merest handful of the American people, of whom they demand support, by levying tribute on the price of the commodities of life. In this class, you must exclude the following classes of busi ness, namely: 1. The whole agricultural population. 2. Those engaged in commercial pursuits. 3. Those engaged in the fisheries. 4. The country tradesmen. 5. The miners of oil, gold, copper, &c. 6. Professional men of all classes. 7. Daily laborers. 8. Those engaged in the public works of the country. Leaving an exceedingly meagre interest, demanding a protec tive tariff, and, it may be assumed, without controversy, that there is not a single interest, material to the prosperity of the country, which needs protective duties, other than those which are inci dental, by raising revenue for the support of the government. There can be no reason, founded in justice or right, for the protection of any one business, at the expense of another. The claim set up is a fraud upon all of the laws of industry. Intelli gent labor will always apply itself to such pursuits as will most liberally remunerate the operative, and, at the same time, con tribute most to the general wealth. Any departure from this rule, is a sacrifice of the common good, and a waste of labor. The cotton planter demands no protection, because his labor remunerates him. The cotton planter needs no protection, be cause protection could not benefit him. 31 482 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The manufacturer asks protection, and pleads as cause, that he has to employ labor at such prices, and in such business, as will not remunerate him. This, although it is not true, as is amply proven by their own reports, which exceed all other brandies of business, would be a good reason for the abandonment of a pri vate business, which could not be carried on without public do nations; but certainly not for the appropriation of the daily wages of the poor people of the country, to support manufactur ing princes in opulence ; nor could it change the laws of political economy. If the manufacturer in New England may make this demand and receive this aid, where shall it lead us? Some gentleman has a few mulberry trees, or has planted a thousand acres of the morus multicaulisj has purchased many thousand silk worms, has, at great expense, gone to Europe, and employed much time in learning the whole silk business ; and applies to Congress to pro hibit the importation of silk, by making every person who wears silks, pay such duty upon all of the silks worn in the country, as would remunerate him for his expenses, loss of time, &c. Some enterprising gentlemen propose to raise tea in competi tion with the Chinese, and demand protection against that peo ple who can raise his beverage cheaper ; and both the silk and tea growers, give as a reason, why they cannot compete with the Chinese or French, in the growth of the several articles, is the depreciated prices of labor in France and China ; as the woolen and iron manufacturers urge the exceedingly low wages of labor in England, and the iron producing countries of Europe. What remedy do these magnanimous gentlemen propose to make up for the low wages of labor ? Why, simply taking one half of all the wages, in duties on their tea, coffee, sugar, hats, coats, breeches, on every thing from the soul of the feet to the crown of the head, from the very laborers for whom they are demanding protection of the government, and incorporated in that very protection. Another enterprising gentleman in the mountains, inaccessible by railroads, and surrounded by barren deserts, has an iron bed and coal field, covering a full thousand acres of land, and that is his only property j and unless the government will prohibit the CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 483 importation of iron from elsewhere, or levy a tax upon every body who uses iron, of one hundred per cent., is ruined, or, at least, has lost the value of a vast speculation, which cost him a song ; and his vast cataract of unequaled \vater power will go on wasting its force in the sea, until the end of time. But it is well worthy of enquiry, whether it is not really better that this gen tleman forego his princely speculation, than that every poor man in America should pay two prices for his iron, and in the general exaction of manufactures, reduce the wages of his labor one-half, before it has reached his pocket. It were far better for the peo ple -using iron, to knight him, grant him a peerage, or pay his board at the Astor or Girard, with his family, for life. This is the true and just test of the productive power of any business, that it is, at least, self-supporting. It ought to yield such profits as will pay the fair interest on the money invested, and wages suitable to the ability of the managers and operatives. Whenever it does not realize this much, self-preservation requires its immediate abandonment. The great (not Secretary) McCulloch, says : "A man who does not succeed in a business carried on at his own door, so well as one who resides a hundred miles off, must look for the cause in his own want of skill and industry, and should seek rather to improve himself, than to discard his rival." This is the unchangeable law of trade, and the immutable law of justice. It is the life of industry, and the secret power of liberty, that men choose and change their avocations, as they may be made profitable and agreeable. The protection by law, of a privileged class, by oppressing or abridging the rights of the people, or at the expense of the en joyment of others, is the most odious style of aristocracy, and the most oppressive and offensive mode of predatory inroads upon private property. It were laughable to hear the pitiful, canting Puritan, whin ing in his nasal twang, for protection of his manufactures, at the very time, when his profits have absorbed the labor of the coun- l try ; but it is deplorable to see the consumers, the poor of the country, trodden down by the most odious, monstrous taxation, to support this injustice. 484 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. There can be no more ridiculous jumble of political economy, nor a greater outrage upon the prosperity of a people, than the support of one branch of industry, at the positive expense of all the other industry of the country. Yet this body of political empyrics scarcely cease their eulo gies upon the benefits to manufacture, until they declare, in rhapsody, their devotion to commerce; this is less remarkable, when it is remembered how this confusion was embodied by the Chicago Convention, which President Lincoln never hesitated to declare, as the interpretation of his political views, and paramount to all constitutional obligations. Commerce, more than any other branch of industry, creates wealth, and dispenses affluence with a liberal hand; and opens up to the people an abundance of the necessaries and comforts of life, and places within their reach, the luxuries of the world. Commerce is the source of the wealth of all great countries, without which no first-class power ever has or ever will exist. Commerce and agriculture are twin sisters, mutually embrac ing and supporting each other. Commerce makes free cities, and agriculture makes free countries. Both agriculture and com merce, are the patrons of manufactures. Agriculture feeds manufactures, and commerce bears them each to their legitimate market, and acts as factor for both. They are all the common property of the world, and cannot be re strained. The protective tariff is the enemy of all these great sources of wealth, power, and glory, of a great nation. The protective tariff is a misnomer ; it was never made to pro tect manufactures as a system of universal wealth, but to destroy their universality, by prohibiting, restricting, and encouraging them, as the case might be, under pretense of fostering some par ticular manufactory in some given locality, at the expense of the whole manufacturing world beside. The tariff is the positive enemy of commerce, destroying its business of transportation by the prohibition of importation and exportation of goods, without which there can be no commerce to prevent the manufacture of articles, but to protect their prices in favor of the rich and against the poor. The object of the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 485 tariff is not to increase, but to diminish manufactures, that the monopoly, which absorbs the business, may necessitate the con sumer to buy at advanced and exorbitant prices. The tariff is the bane of agriculture : exacting a tribute of full one-half of its products ; to settle the controversies and conten tions between rival manufactories. The tariff is a selfish mercenary, which wars in the interest of monopoly. After it has destroyed manufactures, by setting them at war with each other, driven commerce from the ocean for the want of employment, and robbed agriculture of half her hard earnings, to take sides with fighting manufactures ; the narrow, monopolizing spirit of prohibitory tariffs would, were it possible, lay a restriction upon the clouds, that it might specu late upon water, just as they hoard flour and meat to speculate upon the anguish of the destitute. These monopolists have erected no toll-gates upon the ocean, only because she cannot be placed in bonds ; but they have, at every port of entry, a collector s office, to gather up the wealth of the world as a tax upon what God had ordained as free. The air that men breathe, has not been monopolized by a joint stock company, only because its unchain ed liberty defies the prison of the tyrant, and passes through the store-houses of the monopolist, without restraint ; who would dole it out to the poor, or tax the wealth of the rich, for the privilege of indulging in its luxury. The sun would add to the list of monopolies, and his precious light be a fortune in the hands of some shrewd, sharp man, were his glories within his monopolizing reach, and the foun tain of his light subjected to his control. The purpose of commerce is to extend and command trade ; knowing no bounds but the habitable globe. It catches the commission of the Saviour to the Apostles, as it falls from his lips : " Go ye into all the world, preaching the gospel to every creature/ 7 and fulfils its appointed mission. The office of the tariff is to arrest trade, and cut off inter course with other nations, and travel back in the pathway of progression to the ages, when each tribe of savages was content to kill the beast in his lair, to clothe himself with its skin, and eat its flesh with his fingers. 486 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The old philosopher, Franklin, never at a loss for illustra tions, which shone from his clear mind like the rays of the sun, says : " I have seen so much embarassment, and so little advan tage in all the restraining and compulsive systems, that I feel myself strongly inclined to believe that a State which leaves all her ports open to all the world upon equal terms, will, by that means, have foreign commodities cheaper, and sell its own pro ducts dearer, and, on the whole, be most prosperous." Again : " Perhaps it would be better if government meddle no further with trade than to protect it, and let it have its course. Most of the statutes or acts, edicts, arrests, and placards of Par liament, princes and States, for regulating, directing, or restrict ing trade, have, we think, been either political blunders, or jobs obtained by artful men for private advantage, under pretence of public good. When Colbert assembled some wise, good mer chants of France, and desired their advice and opinion how he could best serve and promote commerce, their answer was in these three words only : Laissez nous faire let us alone. It is said by a very solid writer, that * he is well advanced in the science of politics, who knows the full force of that maxim, < Pas trop Gouverner not to govern too much ; which would be of more use when applied to trade, than in any other public concern. It were, therefore, to be wished, that the commerce was as free between all of the nations of the earth, as between the several counties of England ; so would all, by mutual com munications, obtain more enjoyment." These propositions are demonstrative, and forbid amplification. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAB. 487 CHAPTER XIII. CURSE OF MANUFACTURING MONOPOLIES IF the doctrine of protection were *J all admissable in a gov ernment of equals, there are no Basses of industrial pursuits that contribute so little to the Happiness of society, as the manufac turing companies *<! monopolists of the country. There are no classes f> people so degraded by the direct supervision of the 1 employer, as are the operatives in these establishments. Like the clock, they are forced to move with mechanical pre cision. The watchman keeps the time exact of their entrance into the work-shop, and carefully notes their application during the working hours. Children are educated mechanically to this business, and grow up destitute of social advantages, and die al most in the same condition. Their labor and surveillance are only less degrading than States prison life, and, beyond all com parison, more confining, monotonous, and exhaustive of human life, than any plantation labor hitherto assigned to any part of the American slaves. Their manhood is absorbed in that of the proprietor of the establishment in which they are employed. On election mornings, the proprietor s party ticket is hung up in large letters, where it will attract the attention of every voter, with the general understanding that the operative should cast his vote for it. If, on the election day, he should vote in oppo sition, he will be called to the paymaster s room and informed that his services are no longer needed in the establishment. This exercise of freedom rarely occurs, however. A long con tinued bondage keeps him in poverty, until he finally looks upon his work-shop as the horse looks upon the tread-mill, and is so impoverished that he could not remove from it if he would. He has no place to go, and worse than all, his factory life has 488 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. disqualified him from the pursuit of any other business, if he de sired to go, or had the means to remove. Not a greater propor tion of these men escape from this bondage than did the slaves from the plantations. The able exposition by British reformers of the condition of their manufacturing systems, could not be improved upon, and apply quite as appropriately to America. *WQ quote from one of the most moderate and philosophical, that the increaz/ of our manufacturing system has unquestionably effected already a vmsiderable revolution in the morals and hab its, which had previously characterized the bulk of the inhabi tants of this country. The coined and crowded state of man ufactories has a decided tendency to shorten the average dura tion of human life, and to corrupt the feelings of the workmen employed in them ; we therefore doubt whether tmy augmenta tion of profit to be expected from a great extension of ouv man ufacturing system would, in the eye of an intelligent and humane, legislator, compensate for the moral and social evils unavoida bly connected with it." THOMAS JEFFERSON ON THE EVILS OF AMERICAN MANUFAC TURES. "The political economists of Europe, have established it as a principle, that every State should endeavor to manufacture for it self; and this principle, like many others, we transfer to America, without calculating the difference of circumstance, which should often produce a difference of result. In Europe, the lands are either cultivated, or locked up against the cultivator. Manufac ture must, therefore, be resorted to from necessity, not of choice, to support the surplus of their people. But we have an immen sity of land, courting the industry of the husbandman. Is it best, then, that all our citizens should be employed in its improve ment, or, that one-half should be called off from that, to exercise manufactures, and handicraft arts for the other. Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, (if ever lie had a chosen people,) whose breasts He has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus in which He keeps alive that sacred fire, which, otherwise, might escape from the face of the earth. Corruption of morals, in the mass of cul tivators, is a phenomenon, of which no age nor nation has fur- CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 489 nished an example. It is the mark set on those who are not looking tip to heaven, to their own soil, and industry, as does the husbandman, for their subsistance depend for it on casualties and caprice of customers. Dependence begets subservience, and venality suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. Thus, the natural progress and conse quence of the arts, has sometimes been retarded by accidental circumstances ; but, generally speaking, the proportion which the aggregate of the other classes of citizens bear, in any state to that of its husbandmen, is the proportion of its unsound to its healthy parts, and is a good enough barometer whereby to meas ure its degree of corruption. While we have land to labor, then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a work-bench, or twirling a distaff; carpenters, masons, smiths, are wanting in husbandry, but, for the general operations of manufacture, let our workshops remain in Europe. It is better to carry provis ions and materials to workmen there, than bring -them to the provisions and materials and, with them, their manners and principles. The loss by the transportation of commodities across the Atlantic, will be made up in happiness and permanence of government. The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor ; a degeneracy in these, is a canker soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution." THr. DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR. How si^wly have we advanced in that progressive civilization which destroys the castes of poverty and wealth, to establish on firm foundations the just distinction between virtue and vice, ignorance and knowledge, coarseness and culture. When we contemplate the great and perpetually deepening and widening chasm which, by wicked men, is kept up between the rich and poor " in the earth, which is the Lord s, with the fulness thereof, and all that dwell therein/ where all were created in his image, and heirs of his heritage, we are startled at our own crimes. The distinction begins in the cradle, and travels slowly to the grave, keeping regular step to the mournful music of the op pressed, whose quiet songs come up from the deep-toned strings of a broken heart, and die out unheard in the hovel and garret, each step marking the haughty march of the oppressor. 490 CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. The child of the poor, breasting the storm in thin raiment ; the child of the rich, dressed in purple and fine linen. The poor live in open cabins, the rich in splendid mansions. The poor man s child eats coarse food on rough tables, the rich man s child " fares sumptuously every day." The poor man s child struggles with ignorance, though his immortal mind is a burning diamond hid in the rubbish of pov erty, groping in darkness for an aperture to emit its brilliant light, which will shine long after the fires of the sun have died out. The rich man s stupid child, surrounded by a troop of pro fessors, is dragged and driven through the rugged road of the classics, to the altar of the Alma Mater, with as vivid a view of its wealth and beauty, as the prisoner has of the romantic scenery of the Alps or Alleghenies, through which he has been hurried blindfolded, and in broken trips, in the dead of night. At the holy altar of marriage, the poor man takes his poorer bride as a companion to travel through the dismal road of fac tory life, each day, to deliver at night the profits of his wages to the manufacturing lord, retaining only the scanty pittance to strengthen him to add new tribute to his master s treasury. The rich man marries one richer than himself, that he m*y rise one step higher, as he tramples down the poor one step kwer. Each day he receives the wages of his machinery, the piv>fits of his hired hands, the tariff upon goods, the rents upon Jands, the usury upon monies, the dividends of banks, the revenue from railroads, and the income of estates; to add new tasks to his hire lings, increased power to his machinery, higher tariffs upon his goods, advanced rents upon his houses and lands, higher rates of usury upon his monies, greater dividends upon his banks, larger revenues from his railroads, appreciating incomes from his estates. When sickness comes to the poor man s cabin, the nostrums of the country store, are his only remedy, if perchance he may spare money from the mouths of his children to buy them. The rich man commands the greatest medical skill of the land, which is brought to his aid. When the poor man dies, encircled by his humble friends, he CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 491 is soon forgotten by the world. He is -quietly laid in his grave under the shadow of the forest oak, which is bathed with the honest tears of his orphan children, left destitute, to travel alone over the same rough road which he has forsaken gladly. When the insatiate grave has claimed its own, the spring birds warble the funeral service ; the wild eglantine grows upon his grave ; his body has gone quietly to the earth, and his spirit to the God who gave it. Or perchance a friendless pauper, whose end is described in Thomas Noell s PAUPER S DRIVE. " There s a grim one horse hearse in a jolly round trot, To the church-yard a pauper is going, I wot. The road it is rough, and the hearse has no springs, And hark to the dirge that the sad driver sings, " Rattle his bones over the stones He s only a pauper whom nobody owns." Oh where are the mourners ? Alas ! there are none i He has left not a gap in the world, now he s gone, Not a tear in the eye of child, woman, or man. To the grave with his carcass as fast as you can. " Rattle his bones over the stones, He s only a pauper whom nobody owns." What a jolting, and cracking, and splashing, and din, The whip how it cracks, the wheels how they spin, How the dirt right and left o er the hedges is hurled. The Pauper at length makes a noise in the world. " Rattle his bones over the stones, He s only a pauper whom nobody owns." Poor pauper defunct, he has made some approach To gentility, now that he s stretched on a coach. He s taking a drive in his carriage at last, But it will not be long, if he goes on so fast. " Rattle his bones over the stones, He s only a pauper whom nobody owns." But a truce to this strain, for my soul it is sad To think that a heart in humanity clad, Should make, like the brute, such a desolate end, And depart from the light without leaving a friend. Bear softly his bones over the stones, Though a pauper, he s one whom his Maker yet owns." " The rich man also died, and in hell he lifted up his eyes." His body is robed in grandeur, dead though he be. He is fol lowed to the tomb by the bankers, brokers, lawyers, merchants, and physicians, and reverend clergy, who participated in his 492 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. luxury, were partners in his enjoyments, cured his maladies, de fended his crimes, and gave ecclesiastical condolence to his last hours. As though God were mocked and Heaven could be hoodwinked, the pageantry is kept up until disgusted human nature sickens in contemplation. The body of the rich man, putrid with vo luptuous living, scarcely sinks to the vault in which it is hid from mortal eyes, until the worms commence their feast in fight ing for the most delicious morsels of his body. His children enter chancery suits for the possession of his estates. To per petuate the revelry, the furious devils keep up the infernal har mony, contending for dominion of his soul. The distinction is perpetuated beyond the grave. The rich man is careful in his will to provide for his memory. True, he grasped everything within his reach, robbed the government, cheated the ignorant, beat God s people, ground the faces of the poor, amassed a fortune which bore the expenses of his fam ily magnificently to ruin. Yet notwithstanding, the well-paid clergyman chants his praises as a saint of light. On the most beautiful spot in the consecrated cemetery, a monument is reared to his memory, to delude the world. On that monument should be written : Sacred to the memory of Dives, the manufacturing Prince, who lived in a palatial mansion, travelled with his splen did retinue in oriental grandeur, reveled in opulence ; died as he lived, surrounded by servile flatterers, was laid out in state, the expenses of all of which was borne by the suffering poor, who gave at least one-half of all they should have ate and worn, as a tribute to his dazzling glory. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. , 493 CRIMES OF DESPOTISM. , CHAPTEE I. THE CURSE OF THE DEBT GREATER THAN THE DEBT ITSELF. THE burdens of taxation, consequent upon the Federal debt, are but its smallest evils subsequent. The very nature of this debt requires the appliances of des potism for its collection. 1. To secure the debt, labor must be kept in subjection to capital, so that no mere freak of liberty may work out the enian- cipation of the people, and no perad venture shall allow failure to intervene. 2. The process is simple. Just disfranchise the men of prop erty, and enfranchise those negroes who have none; confiscate the property of the rich land-holders, and divide up their lands among vagabonds ; then issue a proclamation, that every man is a criminal who owns $20,000, and does not purchase or procure a pardon. 3. The proposition is simplified by allowing the creatures and instruments of the bondholders, who have no property, to vote away the property of others. 4. Then suffer none to fill offices of trust, profit, or power, ex cept the tools of monopolies ; and exclude all of known ability, or integrity of character. 5. To complete the degradation of the people and enforce these odious measures, prescribe test oaths, which scandalize civiliza tion, and thereby get rid of the opposition to the payment of the bonds. 6. Engraft an amendment upon the Constitution, which makes this unconstitutional, illegal, unjust, and cruel debt a primary 494 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. part of the government, so that every member of Congress must swear to support it, and be estopped from uttering one word against it, or be expelled for proposing its abrogation in any form. 7. The suffrage of negroes and Chinese, and a mercenary sol diery, would be requisite to sustain higher tariffs, excessive taxation, and extend a surer guaranty to bondholders. Everybody now understands that it is the settled purpose of the mongrel party to adopt the following measures: 1. Negro voting in every State in the Union. 2. A standing army in every Congressional district. 3. The conscription systems of Europe for filling up the army. 4. The general confiscation of property of the Southern peo ple. 5. The division of the lands among the negroes. 6. Arming the negroes as soldiers, and mingling them among the whites, all of which is to be done to secure the negro vote of the Southern States. But these measures are mere instrumentalities preparatory and subservient to the higher purpose of these monsters of cruelty and crime, to establish as permanent institutions of the govern ment: 1. The British funded system. 2. Banking systems and stock-gambling. 3. Tariffs to support manufacturers, by starving and freezing the poor. 4. An army of tax-gatherers to corrupt the elective franchise, and keep the people in surveillance. All these things are necessary to be done, that this funding system may be fastened as a fixture, and transmitted as an in heritance upon the country, untaxed and appreciating in value and amount. The machinery for this purpose, is now being test ed in the enforcement of the reconstruction military govern ments in the South, to prepare for its enforcement in every part of the Northern States. The very worst elements of society now in communities, and the loosest driftwood which sweeps by in the flood-tides of emigration, from North to South, under the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 495 auspices of the Freedmen s Bureau, will be added tc the voting strength of the country, whose government is administered as a pretext for the robbery of the people. Already highwaymen and convicts, of States prisons, made the executioners of laws too infamous to be enforced by good men. MILITARY SATRAPS. Experience has given to history this one truth, which will never change its force among men ; that funded debts and stand ing armies will enslave any people. These evils are inseparable. A standing army will necessitate a funding debt, to support it ; and a funding debt will require a standing army to collect it. No sooner was the funding system fairly adopted, than the cunning stock-gamblers were on the alert, and provided the mili tary scheme, now in operation, for the government of the people without law, by the arbitrary will of military governors, of nameless odium. In one case, a debauchee, whose life has been equalized only by his amours, murders, and infamy suspends courts, decides the titles of estates, and holds the lives of the people in his hand, to be disposed of at will. In another, a blustering military pretender, who lost his army, commissary stores, parade coat, and commission ; a drunkard, a loafer, and braggart, is now playing military governor and tyrant, conquering women and children, and associating, in disgusting familiarity, with abandoned negroes. This nameless crime against civilization, of placing barbarians over cultivated gentlemen ; crime against Christianity, in placing heathen over Christians ; against human nature, in placing the most loathesome of all the family of man over the most highly refined of the Caucasian race, is but an offspring of this villain ous funding system. History affords neither precedent nor parallel, for the attempt to place the vagabond rabble in the government of a country, over her refined and able men. The decent people still exercise a limited liberty of speech, under duress. The right of free speech is gone ; liberty of the 496 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAE. press lias been suppressed by usurpation. They now exercise their freedom at their peril. They enjoy precisely the same lib erties which are occasionally indulged in Spain, Austria, France^ and Eussia, by the indifference of the tyrants or the utter pusil lanimity of the people, who are so habitually stupefied by con stant submission to the debasing yoke, that they are no longer sensible to the indignities perpetrated upon their rights and per sons. Under the horror in which they live, the common law of our degradation assures us that they hold their liberties at the mercy of the tyrants who bear sway over them ; that all that has been done is lawful, and may therefore be done again, as it was done before. The only guarantee left them, is that which they may have in revolution. Constitutional liberty in the United States is the footstool of tyrants, by which they clamber to power. The Constitution is made the merest pretext by which office and authority are assumed ; but the most flimsy apology for the protection of the people against the invasions of their rights. The Constitution is virtually repealed ; those sworn to protect and defend it, make it the subject of ridicule. The great law of the majorities, is just as feeble to interpose its power for our protection, as the Constitution heretofore has been. It was the minority that overturned the Constitution, in defiance of the majority, and has systematically proceeded to destroy all gov ernment. We are living under a usurpation of manifold atro city. Those claiming authority over us are usurpers. A usurp er is one who takes from the people their rights. This is the highest signification of the term. There may be many, as well as one usurper. The style of tyranny now employed to control the people, is the most thorough, complete, and complicated usurpation that was ever employed to rule or destroy liberty in any country. The preliminary measures by which power was attained, were simple usurpations. The elections were usurpa tions in all of their varied machinery. The disfranchisement was a usurpation, for no citizen may be divested of any right, without first having forfeited it by due process of law. But dis franchisement has been the essence of their elections disfran chisement, without trial, without arrest, simply by sweeping legislation. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 497 The satrapy was a necessity to the destruction of liberty, and doubly necessary to the disfranchisement of the whites, and the enfranchisement of the negroes. But this army must be perpetuated and strengthened, to en force the crazy schemes and unnatural system of government con templated. Language is too feeble to describe, and credulity too faint, to apprehend the real condition of the government, and outrage im posed upon the people of the satrapys. Counterfeiters, against whom indictments lay unsatisfied ; mur derers, dripping with innocent blood, who escaped the gibbet s noose by the pardoning grace of generous Governors, are control- ing legislative assemblies. But this is an essential part of the machinery necessary to carry out this carefully adjusted system of public robbery, and will be amplified as necessity demands. What apology can we offer for the governments of West Vir ginia, Tennessee, and Missouri? Nothing but that they are necessary to protect the interest of the funding debt, the monop olists, and money oligarchy, based upon the bonds. These are, moreover, the model governments now on trial, to be made gen eral as the debt requires it. Such is the varied suffering, crime and oppression inflicted upon the people by the satrapys, that the subjugation of Ireland, the butchery of Hungarians by Haynau, and the slaughter of Poles by the Russian despots, will be forgotten in the recital of the fiendish barbarities practiced by northern armies, government agents, and the freedman s bureau, upon the whites arid blacks of the Southern States. It will add no argument to the general plea, that the Russian and American despots sought alliance and interchanged civilities. This was but natural, that a semi-civ- o ilized despot, who holds his people at his will, should congratu late a cotemporary tyrant upon the abrogation and overthrow of all constitutional restrictions upon absolute power. But it will be the marvel of all history, that the attempt was made to tax a people for their own degradation, demanding the remaining tenth for burning the nine-tenths of all they had ; after destroying their implements of labor, driving thousands 32 498 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. of helpless women into exile in a foreign land, exacting the pro duct of the naked lands, destroying medicines and food, putting men to death for failing to minister to the sick, and feed the hungry. The funding system created by the civil war, ends in a slavery infinitely more intolerable than that which was proposed to be destroyed by it. All of the invasions of liberty known to conquerers, have been made upon the American people. All of the outrages peculiar to spiteful tyrants, have been re peated among us. All of the deceptions common to cruel des pots, have been perpetrated with a jocular glee, that makes us shudder. The horrors of war, the miseries of bankruptcy, the murder of women, degradation of men, and destruction of gov ernment goes on, still the criminals hold up their heads and boast of prosperity, and aspire to continue their rule in the land. Such is the deceit of wickedness, and such are the delusions of crime when committed by public officers. In the exhaustless ingenuity of tyranny to perpetuate itself, it will riot in the vitals of its victim, until wasted strength is followed by the feverish delirium, and delirium is quickly suc ceeded by death. The hectic flush that paints the cheek of the breathing corpse, is readily mistaken for the opening bloom of health. The fiery cancer which is slowly devouring the organs of health, lies hid in life s secret chambers, and laps the blood that warms the heart; whilst the victim revels in luxury, un conscious of danger, until he awakens from his dreams in the jaws of death. The feverish prosperity created by artificial wealth, is the na tural prelude of general bankruptcy. The cancer of despotism, concealed under the alluring name of liberty, has eaten out the vitals of our institutions, and left us powerless. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 499 CHAPTER II. THE TAX-GATHERER. THE tax-gatherer is the chief personage of the funding sys tem, who, at the cheapest wages, performs the most offensive ser vice in the rudest manner. He is generally chosen for his want of feeling and insolence in the common walks of life. He wrenches alike from widow and orphan, from puling childhood and decrepit age. His wide range of discretionary plunder in cludes stamps, incomes, licenses, and excises. He demands a moiety of the coal that warms the shivering body, the match that kindles the fire, the bread that feeds the tottering frame, the raiment that hides the feeble limbs, and the medicines that kind ly come to pour their oil into the wasting lamp of life, to everything which relentless nature has imposed as a necessity upon our being. This unpopular appendage of all bad governments ; the pes tilential scourge of monarchies, almost unknown to us, is now an embellishment in the hideous picture of the bloody times. The Federal tax-gatherer, a trespasser upon liberty, unknown to our forefathers, who sat smoking their pipes beside their log- heap fires, while they told the simple story of freedom to their children s children. The oldest living men had never seen this plague of Egyptian frogs, locusts and lice combined, except in the brief sojourn of the excise. In western Pennsylvania, the proud yeomanry, to resist the excise, raised up against the Father of his Country, and it was the crowning act of the life of the great Washington, to urge its early repeal. But this sentinel of Puritanism (the Publican) can be seen at every corner of the street. His office is put in the most prominent places in your cities, around your court-houses, in 500 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. your towns, his subs, and deputies and spies, and pimps, and detectives, his countless retinue, are quartered upon the public. They employ paper mills and printing-presses, to keep their ac counts against the people, armies of clerks to record them, and multitudes to go out and gather up the substance of the land, distilled from the sweat of the brow of the yeomanry. This gentleman still pays his periodical visits to your houses ; peering into your garden, to see what you raise ; poking his nose into your pots, to smell what you eat ; prying into your ward robes, to see what you wear. He is not satisfied with mere ob servations. Lest something should escape his espionage, he swears you upon the Holy Evangelist to search your heart, and then publishes your private business to the public eye, for the double purpose of inviting the usurer to take advantage of your financial condition, and call in your mischief-making neighbors to turn common informer upon you. Dr Johnson has happily defined these men " EXCISE : hateful tax levied upon commodi ties, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid." li With hundred rows of teeth the shark exceeds, And on all trades like Cassawar she feeds." MANEL. "Hire large houses and oppress the poor By farmed excise." DUYDEN. The tax-gatherer comes with the stamp, as of old ; your business is entrammeled with the odious stamp the hateful badge of that galling servitude which our proud fathers scorned to place upon their deeds, choosing rather to let their contracts and con veyances rest upon their word of honor, than to surrender their right to dispose of private property or transact confidential busi ness, without the interference of the government espionage. It was the long cherished pride of our glorious ancestors, that the unchallenged power of George III, could not impose upon a free people a system which conceded their abjection. This system of unspeakable oppression has become universal and unsparing. These hungry task-masters come down upon you like a wolf on the fold. They stamp your deeds ; stamp your affidavits; stamp your agreements and appraisements; CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 501 stamp your assignments ; stamp your bank-checks and bills of exchange ; stamp your bills of lading and bills of sale ; stamp your bonds ; stamp your cards ; stamp your certificates of loan, certificates of deposit, certificates of stock, certificates of profit, certificates of record, certificates of weight, certificates of every kind, certified transcripts ; stamp your charters ; stamp your clearances ; stamp your contracts ; stamp your conveyances ; stamp your entries ; stamp your insurances ; stamp your leases ; stamp your legal documents, your letters of credit, and letters of administration; stamp your manifests; stamp your mort gages ; stamp your pension papers and passage tickets ; stamp your matches; stamp your cigars; stamp your medicines, your perfumeries, cosmetics ; stamp your powers of attorney ; stamp your photographs : stamp your probates of will, your bonds of executors, letters of appointment, certificates of ap pointment ; stamp your protests and promissory notes ; stamp your quit claim deeds, releases and discharges; stamp your receipts ; stamp your returns ; stamp your deeds of trust ; stamp the varied contents of your warehouses. The widow, sheltered in her shanty, standing by the bedside of her dying child, is not permitted to light her lamp, until she pays for the stamp imposed upon the matches; nor can she ad minister the medicine, until she has paid for the stamp upon the phial or box containing it. The photograph of your dead wife, or mother, or sister, or daughter, or that of the Immaculate Saviour of mankind, must be defaced with the vulgar picture of the sinister countenance of some vain-glorious plundering tyrant, who, not content with robbing the laboring masses, thrusts his indecent presence upon your attention, in the moments of your most sacred devotion, or in the more sacred chamber of your grief. The tax-gatherer is a toll-dish"upon the food, as a sponge-cloth upon the raiment of the laboring masses, to enrich the opulent. The income tax enslaves your productions ; and, in the wealth of their mercenary ingenuity, all the means devised by the in finite resources of despotism and fraud, have failed to meet the growing demands of the fathomless debt, which will bind in chains the progressive industry of the unborn generation of our race. 502 CEIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. The business of these tax-gatherers is even more detestable, when we remember the purposes for which the money is collected. This universal scourge of nations is now omnipresent. He perambulates the Shenandoah Valley, searching among the ruins of the old and magnificent mansions, for the taxes upon what has been left. He adds to the unremunerative toil of tax- gatherer, the benevolent mission of colporteur, and sells the pho tograph of Philip Sheridan, with the panoramic scenes of the burning valley, embellished with the report of his campaign among the defenceless women and children, emblazoned in capi tal letters : "I HAVE DESTROYED OVER TWO THOUSAND BARNS, FILLED WITH WHEAT, AND HAY, AND FARMING IMPLEMENTS; OVER SEVENTY MILLS, FILLED WITH FLOUR, AND WHEAT; ALL OF THE HOUSES WITHIN AN AREA OF FIVE MILES, WERE BURNED." P. H. Sheridan, &c. These pictures will stir up the smouldering fires of a glorious manhood, smothered, but still alive. The women, poor, but proud as on the day when the monster trod their sacred hearths as a scourge of darkness, will not cheer fully give the fruits of their labor to pay the remaining debt in curred in their destruction. Time will not improve the temper of their children, growing into manhood, who hear the thrilling story from the mother s lips, of their absent father, whose smiling face they barely recollect, as disappearing in the smoke of their burning homes. The tax-gatherer in the invaded States, who has been ostler or hangman in the North, whence he has been expelled as the de bris of society, will, with his venal hirelings, enter upon their duty in Lexington, Virginia, which distant generations will ven erate, as the home and tomb of the immortal Jackson. Amid the scenes where fiends, invested with the human form, gloated their eyes with the lurid glare of burning villas, feasted their ears with the shrieks of the aged and infirm, struggling to escape the consuming fire, like satyrs dressed in military costume, danced upon the ashes of libraries, bestowed by states- CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. 503 men, philosophers, jurists, warriors and divines, as keepsakes of liberty. Nor will the impudence of the versatile collector be in the least abashed, to bear with him the life-sized likeness of the idiot Hunter, who left in flames the cottage that gave him shelter in childhood, burned the house in which he was born, and desolated the home of the negro nurse who gave him suck ; insatiate with hate, driven from his pillage with inferior force, strewing his march with the starving, wounded, and dead, that fell victims to his imbecile cruelty. The tax-gatherer will grow merry, when, with a coarse grin, he assures the people that their taxes shall be appropriated to pay for dismantling the monument of Washington, and leveling in ashes the literary institution which wore his name, and burning the village homes of women and children, in the quiet recesses of the mountain. This government menial will carry his business and espionage to Columbia, where the most beautiful inland city of America stood monumental of a peerless civilization. This lovely homo of a prosperous people was adorned with statues, paintings, libraries, institutions of public charts, spacious temples of the living God, beautiful edifices reared to the pro mulgation of learning, science, and the fine arts, rich in the tro phies of a revolution which had secured our common indepen dence; their archives were cherished with a fond devotion, only less precious than the sepulchres of her Pickneys, Haynes, Lowndes, Butlers, Calhouns, and Hamptons. "Where now the charred trunk of the magnolia and palmetto, mingle their withered branches with the smoky columns of ruined streets and avenues, laid waste by barbarian hordes, will the tax-gatherer go, to sift the cinders, like an Eastern juggler, to get from the ashes, the tribute due his government. To amuse himself, and terrify the people, he takes the biogra phy and portrait of Tecumseh Sherman, who wore not in vain, his savage patronymic, in his march of desolation from the great river to the ocean. He will explain the justice of taxation, by exhibiting Sherman s correspondence with Wade Hampton, who defended Columbia ; whose father, Wade Hampton, defended the 504 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. country against the British, in 1812; whose grandfather, Wade Hampton, fought side by side with Henry Lee, in the old revo lutionary war. These memorials would remind the people of the precious privileges of "the best government the world ever saw" stimulate them to admiration of their benefactor, and a cheerful surrender in taxes, what has escaped the general conflag ration. The tax-gatherer suffers no conscientious qualms to interfere with the faithful execution of his commands ; no difference how repulsive to others, or to nature, his offensive task may be. In Jackson, the taskmaster of the people will search for his quota of levies amid the ruins of the capital ; among the ashes of archives, evidences of property, records of estate upon which helpless widows and innocent orphans were dependent for food and raiment, and shelter, to pay the expenses of the conflag ration. The publican is the representative of the new nation ; he will leave nothing, either nefarious or odious, undone. He will glean the fields of their scattered grain. He will carry his duplicate into every business, trade, industry, and inheritance. He will go where arbitrary taxes were levied, under the shallow pretence of assisting the government ; but for the real purpose of enriching the worst and weakest usurpers, by robbing the people. He will not forget St. Louis, where furniture, carpet?, libra ries, and household goods, were indiscriminately seized, and dis tributed among pimps, spies, and vagabonds, who loitered around the mock Inilitary heroes, as vultures linger around the putrid remains of an effete carcass. The publican will congratulate his victims upon their good fortune in escaping so well, and expect their gratitude, that the military lords had not chosen to chop off their heads, like a French cook disposes of his capons. The tariff does its work so handsomely among the laboring masses, that other taxation would be superfluous and impossible. The power of the publican is the plummet which sounds the depths of our financial ruin, and hopeless degradation. He will CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 505 urge, with ferocious pertinacity, his repulsive errand, until the great question is brought, for final adjustment, before the last great court of popular will. After he has returned from his Southern tour, he can commence his peregrinations among the unslaughtered, of the hundreds of thousands who were driven like oxen to the butchers stall, or like sheep to the slaughter. He can press his demand upon those whose children were slain like wild beasts mercilessly hurled before breast-works, and trampled down like dust and convince them, if he can, that their property shall be mortgaged, to pay the expenses incident to their degradation, and buy the chains which are forged for their perpetual slavery. The tax-gatherer assumes an elevation of character, talks exhaustless logic, and stately rhetoric, to convince the people that the highest purpose of life is to enslave themselves by taxation, to pay incendiaries for burn ing up cities, destroying records, and wantonly exterminating flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, droves of horses, mules and hogs, and carrying on a war in their midst; compared with which the desolations of Alva, Alaric, Timour, and Ghenghis, were mild and gentle. This argument will be repelled by the homeless children of these ruined people ; they will protest against the payment of these taxes upon all they eat, and drink, and wear, to pay the despoilers of their homes. As long as the human heart can moisten the emotions of re venge, and veneration for brave and martyred ancestry remains a hallowed instinct of exalted human nature, the children and the children s children of the desolate country, will lift up their voices to the God of Justice, in protest against the pay ment of the debt made in the overthrow of their government ; laying waste their country, destroying their liberty, butchering their young men, insulting their old men, and letting loose a degraded, heathen race, led by a mercenary army, upon their women and children. The tax-gatherers in a subjugated country are always the worst men. Good men will not participate in the robbery of the people, and avoid such offices. What must be the condition of a country governed by its worst men, who use their wicked power to perpetuate itself. 506 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Nothing but force can perpetuate such government, and no thing but robbery can maintain such force. The tax-gatherers 7 government is but an adjunct to military dictation. No difference which precedes the other, they are mutually supporting, and survive or perish together. CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 507 CHAPTER III. THE SPIES. WITH the other vampyres which prey upon our liberties, are troops of private spies upon the business and opinions of men. Of all the detestable wretches that feed upon the frailties, follies, and vices of the people, there are none so universally loathed as the spy. As far back as military history and science found enduring record, the spy has been entitled to no more solemn trial than the drum-head court-martial, or no more dignified mode of death than the halter. Even noble earls and kings have been promptly put to death for the crime of acting as spy. The Earl of March, in 1328, was impeached, condemned and executed upon these two charges : 1. That he seized the government of the kingdom, without authority, and contrary to the express decree of Parliament. 2. That he had placed spies around the King s person, upon all of his actions, that he might not free himself from them. King Richard II, was condemned for high treason, because he kept spies upon the people, to Fpy out their wealth and liberties, at the public expense, and claiming to be master and owner of his subjects estates. This has been for the last six years, a government of spies. During the war, they were crowded into public houses, hired in kitchens, eaves-dropping in parlors, prowling around houses of ill-fame. In citizen s garb, he assumed the character of minis ter, contractor, or politician, cheating the government out of money, and imposing upon the credulity of the people. During the life-time of Lincoln, he kept three thousand spies in his employment. He relied entirely upon them for his knowl edge of public affairs. But the system of spies is now so essen- 508 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAK. tially a part of the revenue machinery, that each assessor and col lector has his spy at his heels. This infamous vocation has become a remunerative business, under the fostering care of the government, as a part of the sys tem of reform. These spies hire themselves to extortioners, and speculators, to make their periodical reports, and subject every business man to their caprice, either to be ruined by their malice, or impoverished by their black mail. It makes infidels of us all. We deny what we see, and scarcely credit our senses when we behold these things among- us: that the tyrants who inflict them still live, and docility is lost in im becility among the sufferers. These things were utterly unknown to our early institutions. It is difficult to realize the magnitude, power, and atrocity of this oppression. When its crushing weight first fell upon us, we were first surprised, then astonished, then appalled, then par alyzed and subdued. All of our conceptions of the Swiss tyranny, in the conflict between Gessler and Tell, were more than realized. All the traditions of Jeffrey s court in the celebrated " bloody campaign," has been outdone before our eyes, in the murder of Mrs. Surratt. The petty annoyances of the landlord system, the miseries, oppressions, and robberies of Irish absenteeism, are so exactly renewed among us, that the blood is chilled in contemplation of the sufferings of a brave and honest people, determined to be free ; under a shameful and annoying espionage, unknown to free government, the opprobrium of all governments. This system will increase with the growth of the other depart ments of oppression. In France, there was in the times of Louis XVI, an army of patrols, constantly employed to secure their fiscal regulations against the inroads of contraband trade. Necker computes the number of these spies, in his time, at twenty thousand. In the civil and military service of the United States, the number is incredible and increasing, and as the mili tary usurpation gradually extends northward, the ratio of spies and conspirators will grow more numerous and more insolent. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER IV. MILITARY USURPERS. HE is a silly fellow who dreams that such a debt as that which throws its dark shadow over our destiny, can be collected, with out a standing army of mercenaries, of great magnitude and widely diffused. The first installment is a yoke now galling the necks of the Southern people, quite as much intended for the North ; and a quiet resignation to the unreasoning behests of military usurpa tion, will be neither misinterpreted or misappropriated. Just as soon as the military authority is fully established over the civil power of the Southern States, it will then feel its way for the permanent establishment of military power in all of the North ern States, for the double purpose of overawing the people, and giving employment to an increased standing army, officered by the sons, brothers, nephews, relatives, and friends of members of Congress. Immense standing armies have not only destroyed the liberties of every free people where they have been allowed a foothold, but they have as certainly bankrupted every monarchy or des potism where they have been employed to enforce the laws of the kingdom, or edicts of the emperor. The Paine Military Bill is the consummation of the military government of the United States. When once in operation, soldiers will be placed in the neighborhood of every large man ufactory, mine and furnace, to keep down strikes among the operatives. They will soon be a necessary appendage of every revenue collector s office, to seize for sale such property as may be necessary to pay the current taxes ; and act as spies upon the little remaining liberty of the poor, and detectives upon the property of the people. 510 CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. These hirelings will grind out the last remaining substance of the people, who are each year growing poorer under the crush ing weight of oppression, and still they endure it. Smitten stones will talk with fiery tongue; And the worm, when trodden will turn ; But cowards, ye cringe to the crudest wrongs, And answer with never a spurn. Then torture, oh tyrants, the spiritless drove, Old England s Helots will bear ; There s no hell in their hatred, no God in their love, Nor shame in their dearth s despair. For our fathers are praying for pauper pay, Our mothers with death s kiss are white, Our sons are the rich man s serfs by day, And our daughters his slaves by night. " The tearless are drunk with our tears ; have they driven The God of the poor man mad ? For we weary of waiting the help of Heaven, And the battle goes still with the bad. Oh, but death for death, and life for life; It were better to take and give, "With hand to throat, and knife to knife, Than die out as thousands live! For our fathers are praying for pauper pay, Our mothers with death s kiss are white; Our sons are the rich man s serfs by day, And our daughters his slaves by night. "Fearless and few were the heroes of old, Who played the peerless part ; We are fifty-fold, but the gangrene gold Hath eaten out Hampden s heart. With their faces to danger, like freemen they fought, With their daring, all heart and hand ; And the thunder deed followed the lightning thought, When they stood for their own good land. For our fathers are praying, &c. " When the heart of one-half the world doth beat, Akin to the brave and true ; And the tramp of Democracy s earthquake feet, Goes thrilling the wide world through, We should not be living in darkness and dust, And dying like slaves in the night; But, big with the might of the inward must, We should battle for freedom and right. For our fathers are praying," &c. To this extremity are the bondholders driving the people, un willing to risk the payment of the hateful debt, in the ordinary chances of business. The bondholders, through their instru- CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAK. 511 ments in Congress, have invoked the military power, ostensibly to restore the Southern States to the " Union" but really to or ganize a monstrous standing army, to establish the English funding system, and collect the taxes, and pay the interest in all time to come, to abolish the forms, as they have already de stroyed, the spirit of liberty. "War is the statesman s game, the priest s delight, The lawyer s jest, the hired assassin s trade. And to those royal murderers whose mean thrones Are bought by crimes of treachery and gore, The bread they eat, the staff on which they lean, Guards, garbed in blood-red livery, surround Their palaces, participate the crimes That force defends, and from a nation s rage Secures the crown, which all the curses reach That famine, frenzy, woe and penury breathe. These are the hired bravoes who defend The tyrant s throne the bullies of his fear; These are the sinks and channels of worst vice, The refuse of society, the dregs Of all that is most vile ; their cold hearts blend Deceit with sternness, ignorance with pride, All that is mean and villainous with rage, Which hopelessness of good, and self-contempt Alone might kindle. They are decked in wealth, Honor and power, then are sent abroad To do their work. The pestilence that stalks In gloomy triumph through some eastern land Is less destroying. They cajole with gold And promises of fame, the thoughtless youth Already crushed with servitude ; he knows Eis wretchedness too late, and cherishes Eepentance for his ruin, when his doom Is sealed in gold and blood." The day of our degradation is here. Never before in our brief, but glorious history, could any soldier, proud of his fame, have. been bribed or forced or persuaded to hold military power, to crush out civil law. Anthony Wayne, Ethan Allen, Israel Putnam, or Daniel Morgan, Francis Marion, old Wade Hamp ton, Starke, or Sumpter, would rather have perished at the stake, in imitation of the heroic Crawford. Philip Schuyler, Nathan- ael Greene, Alexander Hamilton, or George Washington, scorned the money and despised the power of kings in such a demand. Benedict Arnold did do it, and the very jewels which glitter on their crowns of glory, are the more brilliant, when sparkling through the cloud that overhangs that other nameless name. 512 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAB. These were more than soldiers. They loved liberty, and un derstood the cause in which they fought. Washington, John Adams, his son, Jefferson, or any of the fathers of liberty, would have perished, rather than promulgate this crime infernal. The military reconstruction law is a bid for anarchy and civil war. The country, by its lawgivers, is placed beyond the reach of law. " When Nero High over flaming Rome, with savage joy, Lowered like a fiend, drank with enraptured ear The shrieks of agonizing death, beheld The frightful desolation spread, and felt A new created sense within his soul Thrill to the sight, and vibrate to the sound : Thinkest thou his grandeur had not overcome The force of human kindness? And when Rome With one stern blow hurled not the tyrant down, Crushed not the arm, red with her dearest blood, Had not submissive abjectness destroyed Nature s suggestions." QUEEN MAD. THE END. CHAPTER V. The Christian justly ascribes his inalienable rights to the gift of God. The Citizen fondly traces the assertion of his liberty down through ages of conflict and scenes of violence. A brave and persistent ancestry are not the less endeared to us for the tenacity with which they held fast those privileges, secured even by kingly Governments, and the boldness with which they contended with Kings for the surrender of pre rogatives which had been assumed at the expense of right. Among the Archives of Europe there is no paper so dear to Freemen as the GREAT CHARTER extorted from John by the Barons. This foundation stone of British liberty saved to her people the rivers of blood which drained the heart of France in the Revolution of 1789. It gave to the people of England an immunity from the long continued oppressions which brought Louis the XVI. to the block, and the horrors which have culminated in the expulsion of Isabella from Spain. Had the Liberties of all Europe been even thus guaranteed the field of Waterloo and the ages of war, the oppression of the poor, and the Riot of Kings could never have been inter woven into the history of Christian Civilization in the heart of the most refined ages of the most eminently cultivated spot of the earth. John Lackland forgot that he was the creature of the peo ple whose rights he trampled down. This monster had murdered his nephew Arthur as the only means of reaching the throne of his Father. A Liber tine, a tyrant, and a murderer. He was divested of his pos session in France, excommunicated by the Pope of Rome and abandoned by^ the subjects of his own Kingdom for the 514 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. violation of the Great Charter, which had been extorted from him as a bond to keep the peace. The people of Eng land never lost sight of the danger of liberty from power in the hands of their Kings. They therefore made each mon arch hold this Charter sacred. To the brave Barons were the people indebted for the Charter which secured these rights to them and the people who held under them whose treasure and blood furnish the food and material of wars. This Charter emboldened the people to struggle with each successive Sovereign until the present enlightened English nation may well rejoice in a constitutional freedom, which is the pride of their people and the glory of Christendom. Edward the First was forced to reaffirm this Charter as a condition upon which he should hold the Crown. The Statute of Treasons in 1350 again confirms the sanc tity of Magria Charta. In the third year of Charles the First whilst playing ty rant upon the throne he was forced to affirm this Charter embodied in the petition of Rights. It was again reaffirmed in the Habeas Corpus Act of 1672, in the reign of Charles the Second. It was incorporated into the Bill of Rights upon the ascension of William and Mary to the Throne of Great Britain, when James was forced to abandon his country and his throne for the viola tion of this Charter. The Feudal System which encumbered the Lands, the spirit of superstition which engendered the spirit of persecu tion against the Jews, the uncultivated character of the people, were all insufficient combined to destroy their love of liberty, their attachment to self government and the right to local Legislation. Even in that early age the Barons despised the Divine right of Kings. The intelligent people well understood their right. Lord Lyttleton says in his Persian letters : " If the privileges of the people of England be concessions CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 515 from the Crown, is not the power of the Crown itself a con cession from the people ?" Feeble as were these early struggles of the people to se cure their rights, there were many great truths which found their way to the hearts of the people and transmitted as fire side law to their children. Among these, the most precious was the right of resistance to the arbitrary exercise of authority. Blackstone asserts these rights in this fearless style : " To vindicate these rights (of self-defence), when actually vio lated or attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the Courts of Law : next, to the right of peti tioning the King and Parliament for redress of grievances : and lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self- preservation and defence/ Deloline says : " This right of opposing violence in whatever shape and from whatever quarter it may come, is so generally acknowledged that the Courts of Law have sometimes grounded their judgement upon it." I shall relate on this head a fact which is some what remarkable : " A Constable, being out of his precinct, arrested a woman whose name was Anna Dekeins one TOOLY took her part, and in the heat of the fray killed the assistant of the Constable. Being prosecuted for murder, he alleged in his defence that the illegality of the imprisonment was a sufficient provocation to make the Homicide excusable and entitled him to the benefit of the Clergy. The Jury, having settled the matter of fact, left the criminality of it to be de cided by the Judge, by returning a special verdict. The cause was adjourned to the King s Bench, and thence again to Serjeant s Inn for the opinion of the twelve Judges." Judge Holt, in delivering their opinion, says : " If one be imprisoned upon an unlawful authority, it is a sufficient provocation to all people out of compassion, much more so when it is done under color of justice, and when the liberty of the subject is invaded, it is a provocation to all the sub- CHIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. jects of England, a man ought to be concerned for Magna Gharta." Although Tooly did not know that the Constable was out of his precinct, yet, notwithstanding this, seven of the Judges adjudged him guilty only of manslaughter, and ad mitted him to the benefit of the Clergy. The English held this truth sacred, that the cause of the humblest subject was the cause of the whole Kealm. In the late Struggle in this country it was the duty of the people to have preserved their liberties inviolable from un lawful attacks, whether made under Civil or Military pre tence. The Marshal sworn to support the Constitution, who arrested citizens at the command of Wm. H. Seward, who was not a judicial officer, should have been served as Tooly served the Constable, or treated as any other trespasser. Had this course been promptly taken with the kidnappers and highwaymen who usurped power to outrage Public Lib erty, these crimes would soon have ceased. It was the duty of the people to have swept from the face of the Earth those loathesome dens of torture in which thousands of the best citizens of the State were crowded, in sulted and murdered without trial, or even accusation. This summary process would soon have restored peace to communities, and confined the war to the armies. In every community where the people with manly courage met and chastised the aggressors, the aggressions ceased at once. In Bucyrus, Ohio, when vagabonds from the Army under took the destruction of private property, they were promptly punished by the people and the aggressions ceased. So was it everywhere, that the people promptly punished any attempt at violence upon the rights of the people. So dangerous is it to yield to the first inroads upon our liberty, that the life of its invaders is not to be compared in value to that liberty itself, which has been environed by the sabres of the seven bravest and most illustrious of our race, defended by the strongest of all our Statesmen, and adorned CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. 517 by the purest of Christians as second in their devotion only to God himself. AKTICLE XV. SEC. 1. The right of any Citizen of United States to vote shall not be denied or abriged by the United States, or any State by reason of race, color, or previous condition of Sla very of any citizen or class of the United States. SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce by ap propriate legislation the Provisions of this Article. The second section accompanying the three last counterfit amendments were hitherto regarded unnecesssary appenda ges of the ordinary amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The usurpation of power, by this means, rendered it necessary to these amendments to invoke addi tional legislative aid. The analysis of XVth Amendment is the most terrible re view of the degredation of an enlightened people. The article proposed embraces every race NEGRO, INDIAN, MONGO LIAN, MALAY, ESQUIMAUX, AUSTRALIAN and by the utmost charity the European. This clause, were it adopted, would array the Government of the United States against the law of Moses, and against the history of civilization ! It is a direct attack upon the law, philosophy, and progress of the Christian era, "or pre vious condition of slavery. This clearly embraces the discharged Convicts of all the various races, who have unfortunately been enslaved for their crimes ; this construction is legitimate and beyond escape. The hatefulness of the picture, whose hideous countenance now stares us in the face, cannot be exaggerated. Familiarity with crime has debased the moral sense of the people until the diseases, incident to the body, have been transferred to the mind, and the loathesomeness of crime has become the standard of desire with those who rule and op press us. 518 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America : ARTICLE I CONGRESS. SECTION I Legislative Powers. ^ 1 . All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. SECTION II House of Representatives. 1 . The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every secon.d year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. Qualification of Members Appointment. 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty -five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall he made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such man ner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rnode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, Neiv Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. SECTION III Senate. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six years ; and each Senator shall have one vote. 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year; so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary appoint ments, until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 519 3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally devided. 5. The Senate shall choose their officers, and also a President pro tempore. in the absense of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of Presi dent of the United States, 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments ; when sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath, or affirmation. When the President of of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside ; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend farther than to removeal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States ; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law. SECTION IV Election of Members. 1. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Repre sentatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the place of choosing Senators. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year,, and .such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. SECTION V Powers of Each House, 1. Ea ch House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such pen alties, as each House may provide. 2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 3. Each House shall keep a journal of its. proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. ARTICLE VI Compensation, Privileges, etc. 1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall, in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the Unised States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time ; and no person holding any office under the Uniied States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office. SECTION VII Bills and Resolutions, etc. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose, or concur with amendments, as on other bills. 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United 520 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. States ; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his ob jections, to that House which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objec tions at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration, two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall, likewise, be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 3. Every order, resolution or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of representatives may be necessary (except^m a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States ; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. SECTION VIII Powers of Congress, 1. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States, but all duties, imposts and excises, shall be uniform throughout the United States. 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States. 3- To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes. 4. To establish an uniform Rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States. 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States. *7. To establish post-offices and post roads. 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations ; 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules con cerning captures on land and water ; 12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriations of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years j 13. To provide and maintain a navy ; 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces ; 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions ; 16. To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. 17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 521 Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings ; and, 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof. SECTION IX Prohibitions and Privileges 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars on each person. 2. The privileges of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another ; nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. t. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appro priation made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. 8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. SECTION X State Restrictions, 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation ; grant let ters of marque and reprisal, coin money, emit bills of credit, make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts, pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or du ties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws, and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or com pact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. ARTICLE II PRESIDENT. 1 . The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his offiee during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows: 2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Repre sentatives, to which the State may be entitled in the Congress ; but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. 3. [The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one, at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the Presi- 522 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. dent of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appoint ed ; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the represen tation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the Presi dent, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.] [This clause altogether altered and supplied by the XII Amendment."] 4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the Electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same throughout the United States. 5. No person, except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resigna tion, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States or any of them. 8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation : " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, pro tect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." SECTION II Powers of the President. 1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actu al service of the United States ; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeach ment. 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nom inate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambas sadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 523 during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session. SECTION III Duties of the President. \. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and reccommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and, in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such a time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care that Ihe laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. SECTION IV Impeachment of Officers. 1. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. ARTICLE III JUDICIARY. SECTION I Courts Judges. I . The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. SECTION II Judicial Powers Civil Criminal. 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity, arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made under their authority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies be tween two or more States between a State and the citizens of another State between citizens of different States between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizen or subjects. 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to the law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed ; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall beat such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. SECTION III Treason. 1. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war agains^ them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or in confession in open court. 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attained. ARTICLE IV STATB RIGHTS. SECTION I Restitution and Privileges. 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by gen- 524 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. eral laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. SECTION II Privilege of Citizens. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the Executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be re moved to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 3. No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. SECTION III New States. 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress. 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. SECTION IV State Governments Republican. 1. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence. ARTICLE V AMENDMENTS. 1. The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose admendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for pro posing amendments, which in either case, shall be valid to all intents and pur poses, as part of this Constitution when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year 1808 shall in any man ner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no State without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. ARTICLE VI DEBTS. 1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this constitu tion, as under the confederation. 2. This Constiiution, and the laws of the United States which shall be madein pursuance thereof ; and all treaties made, or which shall he made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the Supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every Slate shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound t-y oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualifi cation to any office or public trust under the United States. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 525 ARTICLE VII RATIFICATION. 1. The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the Twelfth. In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names. GEORGE WASHINGTON, President, and Deputy from Virginia. Attest: WM. JACKSON, Secretary. AMENDMENTS. Articles in addition to, and amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the Fifth article of the original Constitution. ARTICLE I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibi" ting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. ARTICLE II. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. ARTICLE III. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the con sent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law. ARTICLE IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no war rants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized. ARTICLE V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service, in time of war or public danger, nor shall any person be subject, for the same offense, to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, with out due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. ARTICLE VI. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confront ed with the witnesses againt him, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. ARTICLE VII. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. 526 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR ARTICLE VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted. ARTICLE IX. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ARTICLE X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor pro hibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people ARTICLE XI. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States, by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State. ARTICLE XII. The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for Presi dent and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not bean inhabitant of the same State with themselves : they shall name in their ballots the persons voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all per sons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the Govern ment of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate : the President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote : a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessrry to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President, shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. An article intended as a thirteenth amendment to the Constitution was pro posed at the Second Session of the Eleventh Congress, but was not ratified by a sufficient number of States to become valid as a part of the Constitution. It is erroneously given in an edition of the Laws of the United States, published by Bioren and Duane in 1815. [NOTE, The eleventh article of the amendments to the Constitution was pro posed at the Second Session of the Third Congress, the twelfth article, at the First Session of the Eighth Congress, and the thirteenth article at the Second Session of the Eleventh Congress.] ARTICLE XIII. SEC, 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment foe CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 527 crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate Legis lation. THE CONSTITUTION of the United States was, by common consent, a compact between the States. The Federal Gov ernment assumed none of the powers, because clothed with none of the attributes of a municipal or State government, nor exercised any authority over the citizens of the States in the possession of their property, the Domestic Kelations, or in the punishment of offences against liberty, property or life. THE BILL OF RIGHTS was incorporated into the State Con stitution because the people looked to the State for protec tion. The Federal government was a compact for the protection of the States. It was to prevent the Federal government from assuming authority by a constructive jurisdiction that the twelve arti cles of Amendments were legally added to the Constitution. During the last eight years numberless Amendments have been proposed to the Constitution by every manner of peo ple assuming authority. The pretended XHIth, XlVth and XVth Amendments can have no legal power or authority. I. Because there has been no adequate power in being to make such Amendments. i. As hath been demonstrated elsewhere in this work there has been no such body as a Congress to make these Amendments. 2. There have not been three fourths of the Legislatures of the United States in Session at any time since the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty one. 528 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. There have been no Legislatures in Session in any of the States expelled from the Union by the usurpations of Congress. 3. The assemblages of strangers, who have met with the negroes, and pretended to pass laws in the various Capitals of those States excluded from the Union, represented neither the person, property , interest, residence, opinion, nor con sent of the people of the States in which they were assembled. These assemblies were but conspiracies which should have been ejected by violence as usurpers and vagabonds. At no period in the history of civilization would the Courts of law have regarded such an assemblage of mendicant strag glers, as the present mock Legislatures of the excluded States, as other than a disorderly assemblage of evil disposed persons, engaged in works of malicious mischief in commu nities with which they had no identity. II. This disintegrated Congress, with these negro and gipsy mobs, styling themselves Legislatures, were the foun tain of authority from which springs these new articles of Organic Law. But if the Congress and Legislatures had been duly con stituted, even then would the Amendments have failed to abolish Slavery. III. There can be no power vested in Congress to inter fere with the internal affairs of the State, because Congress was created to protect and defend ; but not to destroy the inherent rights of self-government. But what should not escape observation is that the scope of the Xlllth Amendment would not reach the abolition of Slavery had it been duly adopted. The language employed is prohibitory, simply "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment, for crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their " jurisdiction/ In the matter of personal relations of any kind the United States have never exercised or claimed jurisdiction in the States ; but there is no other Amendments or clause in this CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 529 Amendment conferring C( JURISDICTION." However readily the Constitution may prohibit slavery within its " JURISDICTION/ Yet it may not trespass upon the jurisdiction of the States without delegated authority in matters, in which the State has always exercised sovereign control. But if the Congress and Legislature had been legally constituted, which they were not ; Had they possessed power as a legal body to make such Amendments, which they had not ; Did the jurisdiction of the United States extend to the States, which it does not, still this amendment would affect the existence of slavery only in the Forts, Arsenals and other territory where the " jurisdiction / of the United States is supreme. It is of no consequence in this enquiry whether slavery be right or wrong, profitable or ruinous. The general government did not create the condition of slavery. This subject was under the entire control and < ju risdiction" of the State government, and there the jurisdic tion yet remains and cannot be surrendered without its con sent. This question involves not only the question of slavery _, but with it the identity of the State and the right of self- government. The Constitution, like any other written instrument, must be interpreted, consistent with itself. It cannot do and at the same time not do. It cannot be and at the same time not be. It cannot assume Powers which are not granted when it has its existence from the delegated powers from others. At no time have the people had greater need than now to act upon this plain maxim, that what may not be clone directly, may not be indirectly done, and that what is fraudu lently done is not done at all. These sham Amendments are but the legitimate fruits of a war of Kapine, murder and desolation. 530 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. ARTICLE XIV. SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. nor deny to any person without its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. SECTION 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States accord ing to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and V ice-President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of rep resentation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. SECTION 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or ty hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. SECTION 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties or services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debtor obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. SECTION 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Article XIV is obnoxious to a greater degree in all of the objections urged against Article XIII with these additional. I. A State can not exist without power to regulate its own citizenship ; when it loses this, it ceases to be a State by the very relation of agent, which the general government sus tains to the State Governments, such Amendment would be void unless by a specific change in the form of the governments, which could no longer be Kepublican in form, but rather a dependency upon central power who gave to it charters with such conditions as occasion might require or convenience suggest. Except the usurpation there is nothing new in the amendment as every State in the Union had governed the people by law ; each subjecting every class of persons to such regulation as good order required. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 531 Section 3 can have no power to exclude persons guilty of even insurrection or rebellion heretofore, "because the amend ment does not repeal the 3d clause of Section 9, Article I, which declares that c No BILL OF ATTAINDER OR EXPOST FACTO LAW SHALL BE PASSED. Nor does the amendment assume a retrospective form to include the persons engaged in the late sectional war. If it did, then the words engaged in "insurrection or rebel lion" would not include persons engaged in a sectional war bewteen the States in obedience to the laws of the States, where the Powers of the earth following the example of the two contending governments de facto acknowledged and ac corded to each other all of the rights of Belligerents, by a thousand Parleys, Cartels, and other military arrangements. 2. The Constitution does not grant power to the general government to prescribe qualifications of officers for any of the States. This Amendment does not provide for the exercise of any such power by the Federal Government. An Amendment providing for the punishment of persons for prohibiting their occupation of civil or military offices, where the government is not vested with the necessary jurisdiction is thus far in operative and void. So far as insurrection, rebellion, &c., being purnished by disqualification for Federal offices, this is within the scope of the law making power, without amendment, since the language of the article is not retrospective, and could not be valid if it were. Congress has made itself the laughing stock of the world by the fact of removing legal disabilities ; and those late of the Confederates have excited the just contempt of real Heroes who have sought this boon of enfranchisment from the hands of Congress. The most remarkable fact connected with this Amendment was the lack of Audacity to couple with the Amendment the repeal of the clause prohibiting "expost facto laws," and giv ing to the article a retrospective scope. But since it has not, 532 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. the whole code of laws made under this State of Anarchy will involve the country in litigation for years to come. To give sanctity to the great Public Debt embedded in treachery, robbery and murder, the fourth section of this Article XIV was introduced and certified as a part of the Or ganic Law of the land. We will add nothing to the discussion in this work of the Public Debt. The Congress clearly did not give a retrospective inter pretation to this section. They did not indemnify the losers by Continental Money ; nor the Creditors of the Government, who, since its organi zation according to Judge Woodbury have lost nearly 1000 millions of just debts by repudiation ; nor did they indemnify women, children, infants, orphans and helpless old people for property destroyed by or appropriated to the use of the Federal Army. This attempt to usurp power by a Constitutional Amend ment was a bribe offered to the Capital of the country to as sist in the destruction of popular government. Notwithstanding this attempt, every debt may be ques tioned the law which authorized the debt may be question ed the Amendment may be questioned as an instrument entitled to no more consideration as a part of the Constitu tion of the United States than would be a deed for property which had been extorted from a Grantor, chained hand and foot, and acknowledged before a corrupt magistrate, who lends the sanctity of his official seal to enforce the fraud. All of these amendments will be duly cancelled by repudia tion. THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY; OR, THE GREAT CHARTER GRANTED BY KING JOHN TO HIS SUBJECTS IN THE YEAR 1215. JOHN, by the grace of God, King of England, Duke of Normandy, and Aquitain, and Earl of Anjou ; to all Archbishops, Bishops, Abbotts, Piors, Earls, Barons, Sheriffs, Officers, and to all Bailiffs and other his faithful Subjects Greeting : Know ye that we in the Presence of God and for the Health of our Souls and the Souls of our Ancestors, and Heirs, and to the Honor of God and the Exalta tion of the Holy Church, and Amendment of our Kingdom, by Advice of our ven erable Fathers, Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Henry, Archbishop of Dublin, William, Bishop of London, Peter of Winchester, Jocelin of Bath and Glastenbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, Bishops : and Master Pandulph, the Popes Sub-Deacon and antient Servant, Brother to Aymerick, Master of the Temple in England, and the Noble Persons William the Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, William Earl of Salisbury, William Earl of Warren, William Earl of Amndell, Alande Galoway Constable of Scotland, Warren Fitz gerald, Peter Fitz Herbert, and Hug ode Burgh, Seneschals of Poictou, Hugode Nevil, Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Bassett, Alan Bassett, Philip de Albeney, Robert de Ropple, John Marshall, John Fitz Hugh and others our Liegemen have in the first place granted to God and by this our present Charter confirmed for us and our Heirs forever, I. That the Church of England shall be free, and enjoy her whole Rights and Lib erties inviolable. And we will have then so to be observed that it may appear that the Freedom of Elections, which was reckond most necessary for the Church of England, and which we granted and conferr d for our Charter and obtain d the confirmation of from Pope Innocent the Third, before the Discord between Us and our Barons, was of our meer free will : which Charter we shall observe and do will it to be faithfully observed by our Heirs forever. II. We have also granted to all the Freemen of our Kingdom, for Us and our Heirs forever, all the under written Liberties, to have and to hold to them and their Heirs of Us and ouc Heirs. III. If any of our Earls, or Barons, or others, who hold of Us in Chief by Military Service, shall die, and at the time of his death his Heir shall be of full age, and owe a Relief, he shall have his inheritance by the antient Relief; that is to say, the Heir or Heirs of an Earl, for a whole Earls Barony, by an hundred Pounds. The Heir or Heirs of a Baron, for a whole Barony, by an hundred Marks : the Heir or Heirs of a Knight, for a whole Knight s Fee by an Hundred Shillings; and he that oweth less shall give less, according to the Antient Custom of Fees. IV. But if the Heir of any such shall be under Age, and shall be in Ward, his Lord shall not have the Wardship of him, nor his Land, before he hath received his Homage ; and, after such Heir shall be in Ward, and shall attain to the Age of One and Twenty Years, he shall have his Inheritance without Relief or without Fine. Yet so, that if he be made a Knight while he is under Age, neverthless the Land shall remain in the Custody of the Lord, until the aforesaid Time. 534 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Y. The Warden of the Land ofsuch Heir, who shall be under Age, shall take of tli< Land of such Heir, only reasonable Issues, reasonable Costoms, and reasonable Service, and that without Destruction and Wasts of the Men or Things upon the Estate : And if we shall commit the Guardianship of those Lands to the Sheriff or any other, who is answerable to us for the Issues of the Land ; and if he shall make Destruction and waste upon the Wardland, we will compel him to give Sat isfaction, and the Land thall be committed to two lawful and discreet Tenants of that Fee, who in like manner shall be answerable for the Issues to Us or to Him AY horn we shall assign as hath been said. VI. But the Warden, so long as he shall have the Wardship of the Land, shall keep up and maintain the Houses, Parks, Warrens, Ponds, Mills, and other things pertaining to the Land, out of the Issues of the same Land; and shall restore to the Heir, when he comes of full Age, his whole Land stock d with Plows, and all other Things, at least, whatever he received. And all these things shall be ob served in the Custodies of vacant Archbishopricks, Bishopricks, Abbies, Pionies, Churches and Dignities which appertain to us ; except that these Wardships are not to be sold. VII. Heirs shall be married without Disparagement; so that before Matrimony shal be contracted, those who are nearest to the Heir in blood shall be made acquainted with it. VIII. A Widow, after the Death of her Husband, shall forthwith and without any Difficulty, have her Marriage, and her Inheritance ; nor shall she give anything for her Dower, or her Marriage, or her Inheritance, which her Husband and she held at the Day of his Death : And she may remain in the Capital Messuage or Mansion House of her Husband forty Days after his Death; within which Term her JJower shall be assigned, if it was not assigned before, or unless the House shall be a Castle, and if she departs from the Castle, there shall forthwith be provided for her a compleate House, in which she may decently dwell, till her Dower be to her assigned, as hath been said ; and she shall in the meantime have her reasonable Estate in competent maintenance (out of the Common Revenue.} And there shall be assigned to her for her Dower the third Part of all her Husband s Lands, which were his in his Lifetime, except she were endow d with less at the Chnrch Door. IX. No Widow shall be destein d to marry herself, so long as she has a mind to live without a Husband; But, yet she shall give Security that she will not marry without our Assent, if she holds of Us; or without the consent of the Lord of whom she holds, if she holds of another. X. Neither we nor our Bailiffs shall seize any Land or Kent for an Debt, so long as there shall be Chattels of the Debtor s upon the Premises sufficient to pay the Debt, and that the Debtor be ready to satisfy it. Nor shall Sureties of the Debtor be distrain d, so long as the principal Debtor be sufficient for the payment of the Debt. XI. And if the principal Debtor fail in the payment of the Debt, not having where withal to discharge it, or will not discharge it when he is able, then the Sureties shall answer the Debt, and if they will they shall have the Lands and Rents of the Debtor, until they shall be satisfied for the Debt which they paid for him ; unless the principal Debtor can show himself acquitted thereof against the said Sureties. XII. If any one have borrow d anything of the Jews, more <jr less, and dies before the CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR 535 Debt be satisfied, there shall be no interest paid for the Debt, so long as the Heir is under Age. of whatsoever he may hold ; And if the Debt falls into our hands we \vill take only the Chaitle mentioned in the Charter or Instrument. XIII. If any one shall die indebted to Jeios, his Wife shall have her Dower, and pay Nothing of that Debt; and if the Deceased left Children under Age, they shall have Necessaries provided for them according to the Tenement (or Real Estate) of the Deceas d, and out of the Residue of the Debt shall be paid ; saving however the Service of the Lords. In like manner the Debts due to other Persons than Jews shall be paid. XIV. T will not impose any Scutage or Aid in our Kingdom, unless by the Common Council of our Kingdom, except to redeem our Person, and to makeour Eldest Son a Knight, and once to Marry our Eldest Daughter ; and for this there shall only be paid a reasonable Aid. XV. In like Manner it shall be concerning the Aids of the City of London; and the City of London shall have all its antient Liberties and free Customs, as well by Land as by Water. XVI. Furthermore, we will, and grant that all other Cities and Burroughs, and Towns and Barons of the Cinque Ports, and all other Ports, shall have all their Liberties and free Customs j and shall have the Common Council of the Kingdom concern ing the Assessment of their Aids, except in the three Cases aforesaid. XVII. And for the assessing of Scutages we shall cause to be summon d the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbotts, Earls, and Great Barons of the Realm singly by our Letters. XVIII. And furthermore, we shall cause to be summoned in general by our Sheriffs, and Bailiffs, all others who hold of us in Chief, at a certain Day, that is to say, Forty Days (before their Meeting] at least, to a certain Place, arid in all Letters of such Summons we will declare the Cause of the Summons. XIX. And Summons being thus made, the Business shall proceed on the Day appoint ed, according to the Advice of such as shall be present, altho all that were Sum moned come not. XX. We will not for the future grant to any one, that he may take Aid of his own Free Tenents, unless to redeem his Body, and to make his Eldest Son a Knight, and once to Marry his Eldest Daughter ; arid for this there shall only be paid a reasonable Aid. XXI. No Man shall be distrein d to perform more Service for a Knight s Fee or other Free Tenement than is due from thence. XXII. Common Pleas shall not follow our Court, but shall be holden in some certain Place : Tryals upon the Writs of Novel Disseision and of Mont d Ancestor and of Darreine Presentment shall be taken but in their proper Counties and after this Manner: We, or (if We shall be out of the Realm) our Chief Justiciary, shall send our Justiciaries through every County by turns yearly, who with the Knights of the Shires, shall hold the said Assizes in the Counties. 53G CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. XXIII. And those Matters, which at the coming of the Justiciaries so sent into the Counties to hold the said Assizes, cannot be determined in any other Place in their Circuits: And those things which by reason of the Difficulty of the Articles, can not be determined by those Justiciaries, shall be referred to our Justiciaries of the Bench. XXIV. Assizes of Darreine Presentment to Churches shall be always taken before the Judiciaries of the Bench. XXV. A Free Man shall not be Amerced for a small Fault, but according to the Man ner of the Fault, and for a great Crime, in Proportion to the Heinousness of it, Saving to him his Contentment, and after the same Manner a Merchant Saving to him his Merchandize. XXVI. And a Villain of any other than our own, shall be amerced after the same Man ner, saving to him his Wainage, if he fall under our Mercy ; and none of the afore said Amerciaments shall be assessed but by the Bath of honest and lawful Men of the Neighborhood of the County. XXVII. Earls and Barons shall not be amerced but by their Peers, and according to the Quality of the Offence. XXVIII. No Ecclesiastical Person shall be amerced in Proportion to his Benefice, but ac cording to his Loy Tennement and the Greatness of his Offence. XXIX. Neither a Pown, nor an Penson shall be distrein d to make Bridges over Rivers, unless that antiently and of Right they are bound to do it. XXX. No River for the future shall be imbanked, but what was imbanked in time of King Henry, our Grandfather. XXXI. No Sheriff, Constable* Coroner or other our Bailiffs, shall hold Pleas of the Crown. XXXII. All Counties, Hundreds, Wapentakes and Ty things, shall stand at the old Farm, without any Increase, except in our Demesne Lands. XXXIII. If any one, that holds of us a Loy Fee dies, and the Sheriff or our Bailiff shows our Letters and Patents of Summons concerning the Debt due to us from the De ceased, it shall be lawful for the Sheriff or our Bailiff io Attach and Register the Chattels of the Deceased found upon his Loy Fee, to the Value of the Debt, by the View of Lawful Men, so as nothing be removed until our whole Debt be paid ; and the Rest shall be left to the Executors to fulfill the Will of the Deceased ; and if there be Nothing due from him to Us, all the Chatties shall remain to the Deceased, saving to his Wife and Children their reasonable Shares. XXXIV. If any Freeman dies Intestate, his Chattels shall be distributed by the Hand of his nearest Relations and Friends by View of the Church, saving to every one his Debts, which the Deceased owed. XXXV. No Constable or Bailiff of ours shall tail j Corn or other Chattels of any Man who CRIMES OP THE CIVIL WAR. 537 is not of the Town where the Castle is, unless he presently gives him money for it, or hath respite of Payment from the Seller : But if he be of the same Town, he shall pay him within Forty Days. XXXVI. ^ No Constable shall distrein any Knight to give Money for Castle Guard, if he himself will do it in his own Person, or by another able Man, in case he shall be hindered by any reasonable Cause. XXXVII. And if We shall lead him, or if We shall send him into the Army, he shall be free from Castle Guard, for the time he shall be in the Army, by one Command, for the Fee for which he did Service in the Army. XXXVIII. No Sheriff or Bailiff of ours or any other, shall take Horses or Carts of any one for Carriage without paying according to the Rate antiently appointed ; that is to say, for a Cart and two Horses Ten Pence a Day ; and for a Cart with three Horses Fourteen Pence a Day. XXXIX. No Demesne Cart of any Ecclesiastical Person, or Knight, or any Lady, shall be taken by our Officers ; neither shall We or our Officers or others, take any Mans Timber for our Castles, or other Uses, unless by the consent of the owner of the Timber. XL. We will retain the Land of those that are convicted of Felony but one Year and a Day, and then they shall be delivered to the Lord of the Fee. XLI. All Wares for the time to come shall be demolished in the River of Thames and Madevay, and throughout all England, except upon tha Sea-Coast. XLII. The Writ which is called Precipe, for the future shall not be granted to any one of any Tenement, whereby a Free-Man may loose his Cause. XLIII. There shall be one Measure of W r ine and one of the Ale through our whole Realm, and one Measure of Corn ; that is to say, the London Quarter, and one Breadth of dyed Cloth and Russets and Haberjects; that is to say, Two Ells within the Lists ; and the Weight shall be as the Measures. XLIV. From henceforward Nothing shall be given or taken for a Writ of Inquisition, from him that desires an Inquisition of Life or Limbs, but shall be granted gratis and not denied. XLV. If any one holds of us by Fee Farm, or Soccage, or Burgage, and holds Lands of another by Military Service, We will not have the Wardship of the Heir or Land, which belongs to another Man sFee, by reason of what he holds of us by Fee Farm, Soccage or Burgage: Nor will we have the Wardship of the Fee-Farm, Soccage, or JBurgage, unless the Fee-Farm is bound to perform Military Service. XLVI. > will not have the Wardship of an Heir, nor of any Land, what he holds of - by Military Service, by reason of any Petit Serganty he holds of us, as by - of giving us Daggers, Arrows or the like. 538 CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. XL VII. No Buliff for the future shall put any Man to his Law, Nor to an oath, upon his Single Accusation, without credible Witnesses produced to prove it. XLVIII. No Freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned or disseis d of his Free-hold or Liber ties, or Free-Customs, or Outlaw d, or Banish d, or any way Destroy d ; nor will we pass upon him, or commit him to Prison, unless by the legal Judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. XLIX. We will sell to no Man, we will deny no Man, nor defer Riylit nor Justice. L. All Merchants, unless they be publickly prohibited, shall have safe and secure Conduct to go out of, and come into England; and to stay there, and to pass as well by Land as by Water, to buy and sell by the antient and allow d Customs, without any evil Tolls, except in time of AVar, or when they shall be of any Nation at War with us. LI. And if there shall be found any such in our Land in the beginning of a War they shall be attached, without damage to their Bodies or Goods, until it may be known unto us, or our Chief Justiciary how our Merchants be treated in the Na tion at War with us ; and if ours be safe there, they shall be safe in our Land. LIT. It shall be lawful for the Time to come, for any one to go out of our Kingdom, and return safely or securely by Land or by W T ater, saving his Allegiance to us ; unless in time of War by some short space for the common Benefit of the Kingdom, except Prisoners and Out-laws (according to the Law of the Land) and people in AVar with us, and Merchants who shall be in such Condition as is above men tioned. Lin. If any Man holds of any Escheat, as of the Honour of Wallingford, Loloque, Lan caster, Nottingham, or of other Escheats, which are in our hands, and are Baronies, and dies, his Heir shall not give any other Relief or perform any other Service to us than he would to the Baron ; if the Barony were in possession of the Barony, we will hold it after the same manner the Baron held it ; nor will we by reason of such Birony or Escheat, have any Escheat or Wardship, of any of our men, unless he that held the Barony or Escheat, held of us in Chief elsewhere. LIV. Those Men who dwell without the Forest, from henceforth shall not come be fore our Justiciaries of the Forest upon Summons, but such as are impleaded, or are Pledges for and that were attach d for something concerning the Forest. LV. All AA oods that were taken into the Forest by King Richard our Brother, shall forthwith be laid out again, unless they were our Demesne Woods. LVI. No Freeman for the future shall give or sell any more of his Lands, but so that out of the Residue, \\\Q Service due to the Lord of the -Fee may be sufficiently per formed. LVII. All Patrons of Abbies, who have Charter of the Kings of England of the Ad- vowson, or have it by any antient Tenure or Possession, may have the Custod" of them when void, as they ought to have, and as was declared before. CRIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 539 LYIII. No Man shall be taken or imprison d upon the Appeal of a Woman for the Death of any other Man than her husband. LIX. No County Court for the future shall be holden but from month to month ; and where there used to be a greater Interval let it be so continued. LX. Neither any Sheriff nor his Bailiff shall keep his Turn on the Hundred oft ner than twice in a Year and only in the accustomed Place ; that is, once after Easter, and once after Michaelmas ; and the view of the Frank Pledge shall be held after Michalmas, without Occasion, and so that every one shall have his Liberties, which he had and was wont to have in the Time of King Henry our Grandfather, or such as he obtained afterwards. LXI. But the View of Frank-Pledge shall be so made, that our Peace may be kept, and that the Tything be full, as it wont to be. LXII. And the Sheriffs shall not seek Occasions, bnt shall be content with what the Sheriff was wont to have for making his View in the Time of King Henry our Grandfather. LXIII. For the time to come, it shall not be lawful for any Man to give his Land to a Religious House, so as to take it again, and hold it of that House. LXIV. Nor shall it be lawful for any Religious House to receive Land, so as to grant it to him again of whom they received it, to hold of him. If any Man for the future shall so give his land to a Religious House, and be convicted thereof, his gift shall be void, and the Land shall be forfeited to the Lord of the Fee. LXV. Scutage for the future shall not be taken as it was used to be taken in the Time of King Henry our Grandfather ; and that the Sheriff shall oppress no Man, but be content with what he was wont to have. LXVI. All the aforesaid Customs and Liberties, which we have granted to be holden in our Realm, as much as belongs to us, towards all our Men of our Kingdom we will observe. And all Men of this our Kingdom, as well as Clerks as Laicks shall observe the same, as much as belongs to them towards their men. LXVII. Saving to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbotts, Priors, Templars, Hospitallers, Earls Barons, Knights, and all others, as well ecclesiasticks as Seculars, the Liberties and free Customs which they had before : These being witnesses, $c. RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (510)642-6753 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 2 8 SITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY fb LIFORNIA LIBIA SITY OF CUIFORNU LIBRARY OF THF. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ft) ? Y<2 OJ/^XQ SITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA n- \V5- N