p §m$mmmim>:^::': '■<: ,'; wmm LABOR AND Finance Revolution BY B. S. HEATH. "Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates aud men decay; Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied."' 33 05 7 CHICAGO, ILL. 1880. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, By B. S. heath. In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. prikted by Ottaway & Company, 147 & 149 Fifth Avenue, Chicago. ELECTROTTPED BY Blomgren Bros. & Co. 162 & 164 Clark Street, Chicago. • • • • « « • • • -r i- INTIlODUCTIO]Sr. -C- >- as To Liberty and Labor this volume is respectfully dedicated. In presenting it to the public the author is not unmindful of the responsibility resting upon him, "" and he has therefore, with scrupulous care and conscien- tious regard for the best interests of his fellow country- '- men, endeavored to treat fairly, honorably, truthfully, . but fearlessly the various subjects discussed. ^,; In this country, where the government, the laws, the political, social, financial and educational institutions are just what the majority choose to make them, it is of the most vital importance that this majority be properly educated, so that these institutions may promote the general welfare. Vji Humanity is groaning and dying upon the rack of N false and pernicious theories — theories based upon the serfdom and degradation of the masses. From time immemorial, a law- favored and a law-mak- ing aristocratic few, have rolled in idle luxury at the expense of the toiling many. They have devised, promulgated, and confirmed in the human mind, political as well as religious dogmas, both degrading and enslaving, which have become so deeply and firmly rooted that it is next to impossible to eradicate them. God in His wisdom and benevolence placed the whole human family upon the stream of time, and furnished 3 4 INTRODUCTION. all with the necessary means and facilities for a safe and prosperous voyage. He provided ample resources to gratify every normal desire, hope and aspiration of man; and had not avarice, selfishness and ambition confiscated the patrimony of unborn generations, the world to-day might have been an Eden, and men, knowing neither want nor misery, would have been at peace with one another, and in harmony with every department of nature. The mission of the age is to restore to humanity its confiscated patrimony, to eradicate false and pernicious theories, and to establish society upon the rock of Eter- nal Truth, Justice and Equality. To do this, old errors must be exposed, their dangers and evil tendencies clearly demonstrated, and truth so plainly illustrated that he who runs may read and understand. Every man of mature age has seen and experienced " good times " and " hard times." Many remember tlie prosperous days of 1855 and '56, and many a financial wreck to-day dates its misfortunes to the crash of '57. In 1865 there were but 530 business failures in the United States, with liabilities but a trifle over $8,000,- 000. In 1875 there were 7,044: business failures, with a loss of over $200,000,000. Why this change in ten years? Why were all departments of trade and all kinds of labor active and prosperous in 1855 and 1865, and why the reverse in the years that immediately succeeded? The resources of nature had not dried up. The earth had not refused her annual abundance. INTRODUCTION. O The sun continued to shine, the rains to fall, and the seasons to come and go. The energies of man had not abated or his wants diminished. The cattle on a thousand hills, the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the beasts of the forest, as well as their aboriginal competitor, fared as sumptuously, and were supplied as abundantly during the periods of em- barrassed, bankrupted, starving and demoralized civili- zation, as ever. Hard times, then, as well as the bankruptcies, enforced idleness, starvation, and the crime, misery and moral degradation growing out of conditions like the present, being unnatural, not in accordance with, or the result of anv natural law, must be attributed to that kind of unwise and pernicious legislation which history proves to have produced similar results in all ages of the world. It is the mission of the age to correct these errors in human legislation, to adopt and establish pulicies and systems, in accord with, rather than in opposition to divine law. The aim of government should be to protect man in his natural rights, " to insure domestic tranquility," "to promote the general welfare," and to insure the blessings of liberty. No one will deny but these objects have been shame- fully neglected. The riglits to sin, starve and suffer, are about the only ones vouchsafed to American toilers to-day. The times aggravate and provoke discord and violence, and threaten anarchy rather than peace and tranquility. The finance legislation of the past few years has been disastrous to the general welfare; it has deprived the 6 INTRODUCTION. masses of the blessings of liberty, and if allowed to re- main in force, that blessed boon must sooner or later become erased from our inventory of inheritance, and the sons of Revolutionary sires consigned to that doom to which the same system has subjected the toilers of the Old World. Should this volume aid in convincing any number of my fellow countrymen of the correctness of the princi- ples and policy it advocates, it will vindicate the judg- ment of those who induced me to prepare it for publi- cation; and should it be the means of enlisting any number of recruits for the little army now being organ- ized to revolutionize the social, political, and financial institutions of the age, so as to emancipate labor, and establish society upon the basis of Justice, Equity and Human Rights, it will gratify the most ardent wish of The Author. Chicago, III., 1880. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION 3 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 11 CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES 13 CHAPTER I. THE COMING REVOLUTION 37 CHAPTER II. OUR RESOURCES 41 CHAPTER III. CAUSE OF THE DARK AGES 44 Effects of Currency Contraction ' 49 CHAPTER IV. NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF MONEY 54 Material of Money , 58 Antiquity of the Greenback System 60 Power to Create Money 64 Value 69 Price 73 CHAPTER V. COLONIAL MONEY 75 CHAPTER VI. CONTINENTAL MONEY - 79 Tlie first United States Bank 88 The second United States Bank 91 State Banks 94 CHAPTER VII. BANK OF VENICE 98 7 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. METALLIC MONEY. 104 Not a Standard of Value 106 Digest of Coinage Acts 112 Coin in tlie United States 112 The World's Annual Production of Gold and Silver 123 Annual Consumption in the Arts 124 Gold, Silver and Base Metal in Europe 124 Annual Production from American Mines 125 Amount of Coin and Bullion in Bank of England 126 Amount Held by the Bank of France 126 Silver Standard Countries 127 Double Standard Countries 127 Gold Standard Countries 128 Average Gold Value of Greenbacks from 1864 to 1878 128 Why and How Silver was Demonetized 128 CHAPTER IX. NATIONAL BANKS j 133 Legal Tender of Bank Notes 134 National Bank Circulation 134 Security of Bank Notes 137 Amount Outstanding 137 Circulation of Bank of France 137 Number of Banks, Capital, Surplus, and Profits 138 Imperial Bank of Germany 138 Bank Taxation 139 Origin of Bank Notes 140 Constitutionality of Bank Notes 143 CHAPTER X. LEGAL TENDER PAPER MONEY 147 Amount of Legal Tender Paper Money in the World 147 The Greenback 148 Constitutionality of the Legal Tender Act — Decision of the Supreme Court 153 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. THE PUBLIC DEBT 158 Of France, England and America compared 162 CHAPTER XII. DIGEST OP FINANCE LEGISLATION SINCE 1860 168 CHAPTER XIII. THE BONDAGE 183 CHAPTER XIV. TABLES -- 188 What the Bonds Cost 188 Foreign Coins. 189 Monthly Range of Gold, 1803 to 1868 190 Amount of Paper Currency, 1854 to 1879 ..191 Refunding 192 Bonds to Mature 1880 and 1881 192 Exports and Imports 193 Agricultural Products 193 Money in tlie Country 193 Debts, Revenues, etc., of Nations 1.. 194 Public Debt of the United States from 1791 to 1879 195 Population, Capitals, and Areas of Nations .196 Table of Prices for Fifty Years 197 Compound Interest Table.. 199 Value of Farm Products, 1878,1879 200 Importation of Specie_ 201 Power of Interest to Rob .201 The Increasing Value of Money 202 Salaries of Public Officers 203 Supreme Court of the United States 204 Business Failures 205 Circulation aud Specie of State Banks 206 Popular Vote of 1856 207 " of 1876 208 10 CONTENTS. PART SECOND. CHAPTER I. THE RIGHTS OF MAN 209 CHAPTER II. THE LAND QUESTION - 214 CHAPTER III. DEBT AND USURY 224 CHAPTER IV. NATIONAL CONVENTIONS 233 CHAPTER V. GREENBACK LABOR PLATFORM 239 Jefferson's Political Maxims 241 CHAPTER VI WHAT CONGRESS HAS DONE FOR SHYLOCK 243 CHAPTER VII. OUR FLAT-HEAD POLICY 246 CHAPTER VIII. THE GREAT NATIONAL BEAR 249 CHAPTER IX. ENGLAND'S AMERICAN POLICY 252 CHAPTER X. THE ARROGANCE OF CAPITAL 258 CHAPTER XI. A FARMERS' REPUBLIC 264 CHAPTER XII. CONCLUSION 277 THE DEMON TASK MASTER (POEM) 283 APPENDIX. NOTES, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 284-302 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 11 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the sep- arate aod equal station to whicli the laws of nature and of nature's God entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they .should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness. That to secure these rights, governments are Instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to insti- tute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to eflecl their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to sutler, while evils are suflerable, than to right them by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw oif such government, and to provide new guards for their future secu- rity. Such has been the patient sufierance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former sys- tems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world : He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and neces- sary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in th^ir operation till his assent should be obtained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncom- fortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole measure of fatiguing them into compliance with his. measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time after such dissolution, to cause otters to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of 12 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. ' He has made 'judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected ^ multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States : For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: For imposing taxes on us without our consent : For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: For transporting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended offenses : For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrarj'- government, and enlarg- ing its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instru- ment for introducing the same al)solute rule into these colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally, the powers of our government: For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his pro- tection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt cur towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercen- aries to complete the work of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcel}' paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civ- ilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the execution- ers of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hand?. He lias excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeav- ored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indiaa CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMEBIC A. 13 savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc- tion of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms ; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time, of attempts made by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us> We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and mag- nanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably inter- rupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acqulese in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends. 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 publish and declare: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be totally dissolved; 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. And, for the support of this declaration, and in a firm reliance upon the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for ^ the common defense, promote the general tcelfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Article I. Section I. — 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. 14 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Sec. II. — 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and electors in each State shall have the qualifications requi- site for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. 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 wlio 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 res'iective 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 be 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; ]\Iassa- chusetts, eight; Rhode Isl-and and Providence Plantations, one; Con- necticut, five; New York, six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, eight; Delaware, one; Maryland, six; Virginia, ten; North Caro- lina, 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. Sec. III. — 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, 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 vacan- cies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained 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 divided. 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a Presi- dent jiro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 15 When sitting for that purpose they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside ; and no person shall be convicted without the concur- rence of two-thirds of tlie members present. 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal 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. Sec. IV. — 1. The times, places and manner af holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in the State by tlie legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 2. The Congress shall ass'einble 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. Sec. V. — 1. Each house shall be judge of the elections, returns and qualificaiionsof its own members, and a majority of each shall con- stitute a qunrum 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 penalties 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 otiier, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. Sec. VI. — 1. The senators and representatives shall receive a com- pensation 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 going to and returning fiom 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 United Slates, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person holding any oftice under the United States, shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office. Sec. VII. — 1. AH 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 become a law, be presented to the President of the United States ; if he approve he shall sign it ; but if 16 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. not he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If afier 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 sliall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sunday excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in iike 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 on 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 re-passed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. Sec. VIII. — The Congress sliall have power — ^ 1. 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 sev- eral 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 tix the standard of weights and measures. 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of theljnited States. \ 7. To establish post ofBces 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 oflenses against the law of nations. 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. 13. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years. 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, CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 17 and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the ser- vice 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 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 car- rying into execution the foregoing powers, and other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof Sec. IX. — 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall thinkproper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to" the year one thousand, eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such impor- tation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 2. The privilege 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 propor- tion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore 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 ves- sels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement aud account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be pub- lished from time to time. 8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no person holding any office of profit and trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State. Sec. X. — 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or con- federation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any im- posts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessaiy for executing its inspection law; 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 of 2 18 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war. unless actually invaded, or in such imminent dan- ger as will not admit of delay. A.RTICLE II. Section I. — 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office 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 representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no senator or representative, or person holding an ofBce of trustor 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 list thej- shall sign and certify, and trans- mit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to the President 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 per- son having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap- pomted ; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Represen- tatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for Presi- dent ; and if no person shall 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 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. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should re- main two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them the Vice President. 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 eligi- ble to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office w^ho 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, resignation or inability to discharge the powers and duties of u < a o S -a a 3 C a < CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 19 the said office, the same shall devolve upoa the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, res- ignation or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declar- ing 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 dur- ing 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, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Sec. II. — 1. The President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual 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 oflFenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senate present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and con- sent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, and other public min- isters and consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments herein are not otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law ; but the Con- gress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they may 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 during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session. Sec. III.— He shall from time to time give to the Congress infor- mation of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consider- ation such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he mav, 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 time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public minis- ters; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. Sec. IV.— The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 20 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Article III. Section I. — The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Con- gress 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, vphich shall not be diminished during their continu- ance in office. Sec. II. — 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 author- ity; to all cases afiecling ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to con- troversies to which the United States shall be a party; to comroversies between two or more States ; between a State and citizens of another State; between citizens of dilferent 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, citizens 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 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 be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. Sec. III. — 1. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of trea- son unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on 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. Section I. — 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 general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. Sec. II. — 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, CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 21 shall on demand of the executiv'e authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed 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. Sec. III. — 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 con- sent 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 prop- erty belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or any particular State. Sec. IV. — 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 can not be convened) against do- mestic violence. Article V. The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a conventioiT for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Consti- tution, 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 one thou- sand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner 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. 1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, asunder the Confederation. 2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 22 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judi- cial officers, both of the United States and of the several States shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support the Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. Article VII. The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so rati- fying the same. Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the States present the seventh day of September in Ihe 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, G": WASHINGTON, President, and Deputy from Virginia. The Constitution was adopted by the Convention on the 17tli of September, 1787, appointed in pursuance of the Resolution of the Confederation of the 31st of February, 1787, and ratified by the Con- ventions of the several States, as follows : Delaware, December 7lh, 1787, unanimously. Pennsylvania. December 12lh, 1787, by a vote of 46 to 23. New Jersey, December I8lh, 1787, unanimously. Georgia. January 2d, 1788, unanimously. Connecticut, January tith, 1788, by a vote of 128 to 40. Massachusetts, February 6ih, 1788, by a vote of 187 to 168. Maryland, April 28lh, 1788, bv a vole of 63 to 12. South Carolina, May 23d, 1788, by a vote of 149 to 73. New Hampshire, June 21sf, 1788, by a vole of 57 to 47. Virginia, June 25th, 1788. by a vote of 89 to 79. New York, July 26lh, 1788, by a vote of 30 to 25. North Carolina, November 21st, 1789, by a vote of 193 to 75. Rhode Island, May 29th, 1790, by a majority of 2. Vermont, January 10th, 1791, by a vote of 105 to 4. Declared ratified by resolution of the Congress, September 13th, 1788. The first Congress under its provisions was to have met in New York, March 4th, 1789, but on that day no quorum was present in either House. The House of Representatives organized on the 1st of April, and the Senate secured a quorum on the 6th of April, 1789. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. Article I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assem- ble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 23 Article II. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the aecurity 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 consent 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 warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Article V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infa- mous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except iu 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, without due process of law ; nor shall public 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 dis- trict 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 confronted with the witnesses against 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 ex- ceed 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. Article VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Article IX. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 24 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Article X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respect- ively, or to the people. Article XI. [Proposed by Congress March 5th, 1794, and declared in force January 8, 1798.J 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. [Proposed December 12th, 1803, in the first session of the Eighth Congress, and declared in force September 25th, 1804.] The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballols the person voted for as Vice President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, ana transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President 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 for President, shall be 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 Presi- dent, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by bal- lot, 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 the 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 Irom the two hiahest members 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 necessarj^ to a choice. But no person constitutionally inel- igible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of President of the United States. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 25 AUTICLE XIII. [Proposed by Congress February 1st, 1865, and declared in force December 18th, 1865. Ratified by Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massa- chusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon,'Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin — 32 States out of 36. Ratified conditionally by Alabama and Mississippi. Rejected by Delaware and Kentucky — 2. Not acted upon by Texas.] Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by ap- propriate legislation. - Article XIV. [Proposed by Congress June 16th, 1866, and declared in force July, 1868. Ratified by Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Ver- mont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin — 33 States out of 37. Of the above, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia (9) first rejected the amendment, but finally ratified it. New Jersey and Ohio (2) rescinded their ratification. Rejected by Delaware, Kentucky and Maryland— 3. No final action was taken by California — 1.] Section I. 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 citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any per- son of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Sec. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according 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 Vice President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial oflScers of a State, or the mem- bers of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabit- ants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in 26 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation 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. Sec. 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any Stale, 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 two-thirds vote of each house remove such disability. Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, author- ized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or 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. Sec. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this Article. Article XV. [Proposed by Congress February 26th, 1869, and declared in force March 30th, 1870. Ratified by Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Miciiigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Vir- ginia, and Wisconsin — 30 States out of 37. Of the above, Georgia and Ohio at first rejected but finally ratified. New York rescinded its ratification. Rejected by California, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jer- sey, and Oregon —6. No final action was taken by Tennessee — l.J Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Sec. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Note.— Another proposed amendment, styled Article XIII., was proposed by Congress to the State legislatures at the second session of Ihe 36th Congress, March 2d, 1861: "Art. XIII.— No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congres? the power to abolish or interfere within any State with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." It was not acted upon by a majority of the States. LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. CHAPTER I. THE COMING REVOLUTION. The world has always contained two classes of people, one that lived by honest labor and the other that lived off of honest labor. In early times the former had fixed habitations, occu- pied their time in tilling the soil and raising flocks and herds. They provided for their own wants; they had few incentives to crime and violence. They were governed more by their natural instincts of justice, and respect and attachment for one another, than by arbitrary rules, hence their government was sim- ple, democratic and inexpensive. The other class consisted of roving bandits, who band- ed together under chiefs or leaders, and subsisted by swooping down upon and plundering the peaceful herd- ers. After years of marauding, a band, strong enough, would select a certain territory, rich in products and producers, overcome and subdue the people and then di- vide the spoils between themselves according to rank. ^ Each brigand had his portion of the territory set off to himself, and each was invested with a title to nobility according to rank, and possessions, and clothed with au- thority to exact from each of his serfs, or tenants, such 37 28 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. contributions as the robber chief and his council might determine. The chief became " monarch," his brigands " nobility," and thus was royalty and aristocracy established. That aristocracy might be limited to the royal few, and not be lost and diffused among the plebian masses, the law of primogeniture was established, entailing upon the eldest son of each noble, the exclusive right to inherit the estates and title of the father. The throne of England was established by the chief of a Norman banditti, her titles of nobility inheri-ted from freebooters, and her soil wrenched from its right- ful owners whom they reduced to serfdom, as the curfew bell proclaimed the " Divine right" of robber rule. Thus did bands of ruffians parcel out the world, di- vide it into dominions, and establish thrones on an as- sumption of power, for their own personal aggrandize- ment. They considered the conquered not as prisoners, or citizens, but as property whose toil and products be- longed to them and not to the conquered. As civilization advanced, and robbery became obnox- ious to the more sensitive and refined intelligence of the age, as royalty became ashamed of its ancestry, its suc- cessors have attempted to obliterate the history of its beginning by assuming new relations to the balance of humanity, and new appearances to cut off" the entail of its disgrace, while its principles and its objects remain the same. What was originally plunder, has assumed the softer names of revenue and rent^ and the powers which royalty usurped, it affects to inherit. Thus was monarchy in Europe established, the divine THE COMING KEVOLUTION. 29 right to rule inherited, and the titles of nobility origi- nated. '^ The same two classes exist to-day, as of old, both in Europe and America. We have the toiling, tax-paying producers, and the idle, non-taxed, who absorb the fat of the land without labor. ^^The valleys of this grand republic, with their unpar- alleled resources, and their millions of industrious, in- telligent toilers, afford tempting inducements to the avarice of civilized brigandage. But instead of collect-- ing their horsemen, they collect lobbies, and marshal them against state and national legislatures. Instead ot captains, they select lawyers. Instead of mail and spear they use statutes. Instead of scooping up the wealth of the valleys and leaving the peasants free, mod- ern brigandage demands the increase for the next cen- tury, and has set guards of law to enforce its delivery. They craved fifteen hundred millions of interest spoil, and drew it with the war debt, which need not have been a debt. " Their greed grows with their wealth, and their avarice intensities with their success, and craving three thou- sand millions more, they have saddled the levy upon labor by their damnable funding scheme. Not yet satisfied, but fearing to create alarm and revolt among their dupes, they have doubled the levy by depreciating values and doubling the purchasing power of the levy. /^ The English brigands practice a slightly different method of robbery. There are thousands of them, but we will give a few as examples. Their system is that of pensions and annuities. Under the pretense of loan- ing to the government, a boss robber, for some trivial consideration, is allowed a perpetual annual income for 30 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. himself and his heirs for all time to come, which labor and its posterity are compelled to pay, thus establishing two classes, the nobility who feast and fatten oft' of labor through their annuities, and the serf, or toiler, who is compelled to clothe himself in rags that the noble rob- ber may dress in purple. There is another class whose nobility is based upon their pensions. These pensions are hereditary, and many of them date back to the reign of Charles II. Very few people in England have any idea of the extent of the pension list in that country. A pension of £4,000 a year was allowed by Charles II. to Sir L. Charges and his heirs. This pension has been held for over two hundred years, and is annually paid to the heirs. The yearly pensions of a few of the nobility are as follows: Earl Nelson, per annum $17,000 Lord Rodney 5,000 Duke of Wellington 20,000 Viscount Eversby 20,000 Lord Pagent 6,000 W. G. Romaine 5,000 C.V. Villien 6,000 S. H. Walpole 10,000 Viscount Exmouth has held a pension of $10,000 per annum for sixty-four years. Viscount St. Vincent was allowed a pension of $15,000 in 1606. In the duke of Marlborough's name stands a pension of $22,000 per annum, granted in 1710, which has cost England $2,360,000. The heirs of the duke of Schomberg have been drawing a pension of $20,000 a year ever since 1695. This was granted for no service or consideration to the government or the people of England who are now taxed to pay it, but simply because Schomberg was a personal friend of King William III. Thus did the brigands of the past seize sovereign THE COMING REVOLUTION. 31 power, and parcel out to one another and their heirs and assigns forever, royal pensions to be collected from the toil and blood of the peasantry. Every title of nobility in England has a pension be- hind it, conferred upon some ancestor as a share of the spoils, when ancient brigandism declared itself the no- bility and pensioned their posterity upon the toil of un- born generations of plebians and serfs. The English system of high-toned robbery varies slightly from the one being inaugurated in America, but the principle, the object, and the results are identical. The object of both is to establish an idle, untaxed aristocracy of wealth, accumulated through incomes not earned by those who receive them, but filched from labor without consideration. / That which was called robbery and plunder in old times, is called usury and taxation to-day. The robl)er castles have given away to banking houses and boards of trade. While the brigand has assumed the title of financier, and exchanged his battle ax for bonds, and his shield and armor for special legislation. The depredations of civilized brigandry are as de- structive to the peace and happiness of society as were those of their barbarous predecessors. Death by the bludgeon and the lance of the freebooters was no more deadly than is that produced by want, starvation and suicide; while the colossal fortunes amassed by usury, rents, the contraction and appreciation of money, are no less the results of robbery, than were the accumula- tion of the ancient banditti by plunder. It matters but little by what process the few untaxed idlers manage to get possession of the wealth products of the toilers it is the result that constitutes the crime, and not the name given to the process. 32 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. During the last twelve years a hundred thousand men and firms have been ruined financially, and over sixteen hundred million of dollars wrenched from them by bankruptcy and the shrinkage of values, while those who have been able to stand under the pressure, find the value of their possessions dwindled to one-third their real worth, that the swallowing process may be made easy, when confidence in resumption shall enable the money sharks to open their bank inflation throats to gulp down what remains. Governments, whether mo- narchial or representative, are but faro tables for gam- blers, and the people are the dupes of the games, and it will be so until the masses become more intelligent in public matters, less partisan in their prejudices, and command their servants in high places, instead of being controlled and blindly led by them. Our pilgrim fathers fled from the religious intoler- ance and persecutions of Old England, and bore patient- ly the dangers and privations of the wilderness, to enjoy the liberty of hanging witches, banishing Baptists and whippiug Quakers in I^ew England. Our patriotic fathers of '76 fought seven long years to defend and establish the equal, inalienable rights of all men to life, liberty and the pursuits of happiness; then celebrated their success, and sealed their blood-bought victories by riveting the chains of bondage on the limbs and souls of millions of their battle-scarred companions. A century passed away before the law recognized the patriotic professions of its makers, and even this con- cession was wrung out of the blood-stained garments of thousands who fell at the feet of the bondsmen in their efforts to include them also in the inventory of " all men." THE COMING REVOLUTION. 33 In this country revolutions have consisted in bloody- struggles to establish in practice, and in fact, such meas- ures and principles as a previous revolution had declared in theory to be right and just. To-day we are living under laws, and are governed by systems, social, political and financial, as much at vari- ance with the essence and spirit of the constitution, under which they were enacted, as was the institution of slavery with the spirit of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. The preamble to the constitution which was designed as a brief interpretation of its spirit, declares that it was ordained and established '■^ For the purpose of trans- mitting to posterity the blessings of liberty^ to establish justice, to insure clomestiG tranquility^ and to promote the general welfare P'' ' To secure the benefits of these pledges, and to enjoy, in fact, the privileges and rights thus declared to be man's inheritance, are the important and just demands which will precipitate the pending revolution. Whether this revolution shall be characterized by the blood stains and heart aches which mark the pathway of its predecessors, depends upon the means used by avarice, greed, ambition and selfishness, to deprive the present generation of their inalienable rights, and pos- terity of its patrimony. What is that liberty which the present policy of our law makers has in store for posterity? The soil, the parent of humanity, from whose breast all substance must come — the green earth, which God filled with goodness and gave to all His children as an inher- itance jointly and in common, -has been usurped by avarice and greed, whose heirs will hold it to purchase 3 3-i LABOE AND FINANCE KEYOLUTION. tlie toil of unborn generations as effectual] j as the title to the mother carried with it the services and life-long toil of every dark son and daughter of the South. This is not all. Posterity has not only been robbed of its rights to the soil, compelling it to enter the world a pauper and a trespasser in law, but a burden is being prepared to hang about its neck in the form of an im- mortalized public debt, whose interest-fetters will bind its limbs and forever deprive it of the liberty our fathers enjoined upon us to transmit to those who should come after us. The present generation has an undoubted right to contract debts of its own, and to clothe the law with power to collect them, if it chooses to do so; but what unborn soul has authorized, or by what right do we authorize Cono-ress to control and take away the free- dom of posterity, and impose upon coming generations conditions and burdens wdio were not here to give or withhold their consent? ^ The coming revolution will break every fetter forged for posterity, and transmit to it the blessing of liberty as required by the constitution and the laws of God. " To establish justice," is another object that will be contended for by the coming revolution. Uniform tax- ation, every person and interest to pay for the support of the government just in proportion to the amount of protection required, and benefits conferred. The abolition of all laws creating monopolies, and granting special privileges, and the establishment of such as will insure to labor and enterprise the full ben- efit and enjoyment of the fruits of their toil. Usury will be shorn of its power to rob, and usurers pass into history as the law-protected brigands of a darker age. THE COMING REVOLUTION. 35 Then, when the medium of commercial exchano-es shall be wrested from the control of the usurer, and restored to its legitimate service as a hand-maid, and not a robber of labor — and when, by the establishment of justice, the wealth products of labor shall be equitably distributed among their producers, domestic tranquil- ity will then, and not till tlien, be insured. All of which will tend '' to promote the geney^al wel- fare.'''' That this revolution will come, and that these ends wall be accomplished, is as certain as that they were recognized by our fathers as rvjht, and bequeathed to this generation under the blood seal of the revolution of 1776, as a joint inheritance. That it is at onr doors, is evident from the numbers and earnestness of those demanding it, represented by the million votes cast at the recent elections. May it be bloodless, and wronght by a substitution of ballots for the bullets of its predecessors. But let it come. Nothing short of a radical and absolute financial rev- olution will meet the demands of the age. The day of patch-work reform, and relief measures under a system based on robbery and oppression, has passed. The financial and monarchical systems of Christendom are twin-sisters, each dependent upon the other for exist- ence; in fact, each is but part of a perfect whole, which, when united, constitute tyranny in the most absolute and oppressive form. AVithout the " money of the world," the monarchies of the world could not endure for a generation, and that rej^ublic which adopts the monarchical financial system can remain such only in name. It may have the form of a republic, but it will possess the soul of a tyrant. 36 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. The revolution of '76 is not yet completed. The true republic is not yet born. Tlie eflbrts of our fathers, like those of too many of the present day, were for re- form, simply. They appealed for a redress of grievances. The blood that flowed at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill was not for liberty and independence, but for tem- porary relief. The war of the revolution was not at first waged against the system of monarchy, but against the severity of the monarch. It was not to break or remove the yoke of the king, but to lighten its pressure, and not until they found that all their eftorts were futile did the most venturesome mind dare to strike at the root of the evil, and declare for a government by the people. Those were times that not only tried men's souls, but tested their wisdom, their patriotism, and their statesmanship. They traced the cause of their sufferings back of parliament, to the crown. They traced it to a system of government based upon injustice, and supported by oppression. They saw that redress and relief, under such a system, would be but temporary patch-work. They resolved to strike at what they deemed the great tap root of the evil, and emancipate themselves from the rule of hereditary tyrants, for throughout the world they saw misery and monarchy marching hand in hand, and inspired by a nobler spirit than had before animated a people they cried aloud: " O, ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old w^orld is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe, Asia and Africa have long since expelled her,, and Europe regards her au alien and a stranger. Let America receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for the oppressed of earth." THE COMING REVOLUTION. 37 When told that reconciliation and relief nnder the protection of the crown was the wisest policy, they cited the cruelties and the inhumanities inflicted upon them by the crown. The writer of the crisis said: " Hath your house been burnt? " Hath your property been destroyed before your face? " Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? •' Have you lost a parent or a child by the tyrant's liand, and you the wretched ruined survivor? " H' you have not, tlien you are not a judge of those •who have. But if vou have, and can still shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy of the name of husband, father, brother or lover, and whatever may be jour rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant." Another inconsistency of a government by the people was the long-cherished custom of centralizinc; or mate- rializing sovereignty in some one individual to be exer- cised for the masses. It was tauntingly asked: " What will be your king in the Republic?" and the answer was : " I'll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal brute of Britain. yet that we may not appear defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth, placed on the divine law — the AVord of God ; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know that so far as we approve of a monarch in America the law is 'king.'''' Our fathers supposed that when they had thrown ofl' the yoke of King George, they had, as far as they were concerned, dethroned the tyrant. They looked over the o«^ 38 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. world, and saw misery, poverty and degredation among the tax-burdened and royally oppressed people, and nat- urally attributed man's hard lot to the tyranny of mon- archs, and the lack of self-government among the masses. But the light of a century has disclosed the fact that away back of the monarch, in his gilded den, sits the real tyrant, Avarice. That monarchical governments, the tyranny of kings, and the hereditary succession of power, are simply outgrowths of an underlying system of rob- bery so old that it is revered, and so popular that at the communion table of Christendom it is given the seat of honor. Gold for money, that usury may rob, is the cor- ner stone of every throne in Europe, and the foundation of the political rings which rule, oppress, and rob the in- dustries of the republic. When our fathers cast off the British yoke, they kept the yoke- maker, and set him up in business. Specie basis, and the inevitable debt sys- tem for nsury, is the arch tyrant which is oppressing and crushing humanity to-day. This is the monster which must be dethroned, and his scepter broken. "With our fathers let us say: " 0, ye that love mankind, ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot in the old world is overrun with the oppressions of specie basis and usury. It has driven freedom from the habitations of civilization, and Christi- anity from Christendom. Let us receive these fugitives, and with an exchange medium of intelligence, and a nobler civilization, that which struck the manacles from the limbs of African slavery, prepare an asylum for the oppressed of all nations; and when the worshipers of the golden tyrant tauntingly ask, "What's your fiat basis?"' tell them it is intelligence and popular sovereignty, with THE COMING REVOLUTION. 39 God's green earth, and the fullness thereof as collaterals. And when unlimited coinage and silver bill compro- mises are claimed to be ample panaceas for the ills we have been and are suffering, put the questions which patriotism put to Toryism in 1776. Have you lost your home? Has your property been sacrificed before your face, under the sheriff's hammer? Has your fortune been swept away by the shrinkage of values? Has your business been ruined, and your children made beggars? Are your wife and children destitute of bed to lie on or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or child by suicide, from want or despair? Have disease and death entered your un thatched roof, and carried off your idols, and you the wretched, ruined survivors? Are you out of employment, tramping up and down the earth for sustenance, or eking out a prison life, in preference to starvation? Are you one of the millions who have been bank- rupted, robbed and ruined for life, with hopes blasted, prospects blighted, a living wreck, that the usurer might lay in his harvest of gold, dress in fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day? If you have suffered none of these things, you are not a judge of those who have. But if you have, knowing them to be the fruits of specie basis and usury, and still shake hands with those who advocate the murderous system, then you are unworthy the name of freemen, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have "the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant." 40 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. "With the exception of the incidents and results of the revolution of '76, national affairs and national politics never presented questions of such momentous importance to the American people as stand to-day foremost on the calendar of public discussion. Circumstances seem to be culminating to precipitate a struggle which may, and probably will, result in another revolution of greater importance to the world than any which has preceded it. The revolution of a century ago was the triumph of democracy over monarchy, the ballot over the scepter. The struggle now pending, is between the same spirit that won the victories of the revolution, and demon- strated the possibility of political liberty, and that power behind the throne, stronger and more despotic than he who sat upon it. As vigilance is the price of liberty, every patriot is called upon to contribute his share. CHAPTER II. OUR RESOURCES. Probably no territory on earth of the same area is more richly endowed with natural resources and the ele- ments of wealth and prosperity, than that embraced within the United States. It possesses every variety of climate, soil and production, with unmeasured and un- imagined mineral deposits of every conceivable variety magnificent forests of timber, with ocean-bound coasts on the east and west, on the north, a chain of inland seas, and the land-locked gulf on the south, while a net work of the grandest rivers in the world afford natural highways, and cheap and .easy transportation and dis- tribution of the products of labor, and the bountiful supplies of nature's store houses. AV hence came these generous supplies, and for whom were tliey designed? After God had created the earth and the fullness thereof. He created man, the crown and coronation of His work, and gav^e the earth into his possession, with instructions to multiply and replenish. He said to man, " Behold, I have given to you every herb bearing seed, to you it sliall be for meat. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earthy and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." All of these are the free o-ifts of God to man. Each man inherits, in common with the universal brother- hood of man, these blessings. "We are all heirs uf God, 41 42 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. and joint and equal heirs of these, Plis gifts. There is enough for all the needs and luxuries of the human race, and an abundance to spare for the beasts of the Held, the fish of the sea, and the fowls of the air. Every soul is born into the world naked and helpless, but anticipating its advent and wants, a benevolent Creator has from the morning of creation supplied an abundance to satisfy all the needs and luxuries of His creatures, and if any child of God is not in the full en- joyment of all that is necessary for his bodily wants and soul's development, it is because he has been deprived of his just inheritance by the hand of legalized robbery. In the United States there is yet sufficient unclaimed and unoccupied soil to give every man a farm. Sufficient unowned and unpossessed timber, stone, brick, paint, nail, and glass material to construct for every family a palace. Ample unclaimed and unappropriated facilities for raising cotton, woolen, silk, and fur fabrics to con- struct royal robes for every man, woman and child in America, Abundance of material going to waste to fashion into form elegant furniture, carpets, bedding, and ornamentation for every palace and home in the land. There are millions of acres of uncultivated soil pregnant and groaning with the elements of food for every hungry family. There is no lack of skill and labor to raise, fashion, and produce from natural resources an abundance to supply every want and gratify every desire, taste, hope, and holy aspiration of man. Nature's storehouse is full of unclaimed raw material, requiring only the magic touch of labor to bring forth that which will sat- isfy every want of man. Millions of laborers stand idle in the market places, offering their services and begging to be employed. OUR KESOURCES. 45 Millions of women and children go linngry and half clad tlirongh the streets begging for bread and clothing. Famine stalks abroad at noon-day, while the vanlts of nature are bursting with the fullness of food. Able bodied and skillful laborers are tramping the streets for a beggar's subsistence, and moulding them- selves into felons that they may be adapted to the con- ditions which surround them. "What is the matter? No lack of resources. No lack of skill to fashion , or labor to produce. No lack of transportation to distrib- ute and exchange the fruits of earth and the products of skill. But one thing for which the earth cries aloud, and for want of which humanity is rapidly going down- grade to perdition. '- Without money, civilization could never have had a beginning. With an insufticient quan- tity of it, it will languish, and finally die." With an abundant supply, our country can be made a paradise,and our generation inaugurate the millennium. It is not gold and silver we want, but the money tliat carried the nation through the war, fought our battles in the clouds, spanned the continent and bound the two oceans tocjether with iron bands. It will give us cdlleges in place of prisons, schools in place of courts, increase in place of ruinous taxation, teachers in place of sheriffs and policemen, refinement in place of demoralization, skilled artisans in place of tramps, wealth in place of poverty, justice in place of robbery, and peace on earth and good will toward one another in place of crime and violence. Unlike other nations of earth, the people of America have the means in their own hands, and the power in their own sovereignty, to bring about these glorious results. CHAPTER III, CAUSE OF THE " DAKK AGES." FACTS GLEANED FROM THE REPORT OF THE MONETARY COM- MISSION. "At the Christian era, the metallic money of the Roman empire amounted to one thousand^ eight Min- dred million dollars. By the end of the fifteenth cen- tury, it had shrunk to less than two hundred million dollars. " During this period, the most extraordinary and baleful change took place in the condition of the world. Commerce, art, wealth and freedom disappeared. The people were reduced by poverty and misery to the most degraded condition of serfdom and slavery. '' Whether the cause or not, this period was coinci- dent with the shrinkage in the volume of money which had no historic parallel. " The crumbling of institutions kept even step with the shrinkage in the stock of money and ihe falling of prices. " It is a suggestive coincidence, that the first glimmer of light only came with the invention of bills of ex- change, and paper substitutes, through which the scanty stock of precious metals was increased in efiiciency. " It needed the heroic treatment of rising 2>^'ices to enable society to re-unite its shattered links, to shake ofi" the shackles of feudalism, to re-light and uplift the almost extinguished torch of civilization. 44 CAUSE OF THE DARK AGES. 45 "That the disasters of the Dark Ages were caused by decreasing money and falling prices, and that the re- covery therefrom and the comparative prosperity which followed the discovery of America, were due to an increasing supply of the precious metals and rising prices, will not seem surprising or unreasonable when the noble functions of money are considered. " Money is the great instrument of association, the very fibre of social organism, the vitalizing force of industry, the protoplasm of civilization, and as essential to its existence as oxygen is to animal life. " Without money civilization could not have had a beginning, with a diminishing sii'pplyit must languish^ and, unless reWexed, finally j^e^ish. "Symptoms of disaster, similar to thoso which befell society during the dark ages, were observable on every hand during the first half of this century. " In 1809 the revolutionary war between Spain and her American colonies broke out. These troubles resulted in a great diminution of the production of the precious metals, which was quickly indicated by a fall in general prices. " The purchasing power of the precious metals in- creased between 1809 and 1848 fully 145 per cent., or, in other words, the general range of prices was 60 per cent, lower in 1848 than it was in 1809. " During this time the volume of money did not materially decrease, but the supply was not sufficient to keep the stock up to the proper correspondence with the increasing demand of advancing civilization. "The world has rarely passed through a more gloomy period than this one. Again do we find falling prices, and misery and destitution inseparable companions. 46 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. " The poverty and distress of the industrial masses were intense and universaL In England the sufferings of the people found expression in demands upon Parlia- ment, for relief, in bread riots. The military arm had to be strengthened to prevent the all-pervading discon- tent from ripening into open revolt. (3n the Continent the lires of revolution smoldered everywhere and blazed out at many points, threatening the overthrow of States and the subversion of social institutions. " Wherever and whenever the mutterings of discon- tent were hushed bv the fear of increased standing armies, the foundation of society were honeycombed by powerful secret political organizations. " The cause at work to produce this state of things was so subtle, and its advances so silent, that the masses were entirely ignorant of its nature. They had come to regard money as an institution fixed and immovable in value, and when prices of property and wages of labor fell, they charged the fault not to the money, but to property and the employer. " They were taught that the mischief was the result of over-production. Never having observed that over-pro- duction was complained of only when the money stock was decreasing, their prejudices were aroused against labor-saving machinery. " They were angered at capital because it either de- clined altogether to embark in industrial enterprises, or would only embark in them upon the condition of em- ploying labor at the most scanty remuneration. " They forgot that falling prices compelled capital to avoid such enterprises on any other conditions, and, for the most part, to avoid them entirely. They did not comprehend that money in shrinking volume was the CAUSE OF THE DAKK AGES. 47 prolific parent of enforced idleness and poverty, and that falling prices divorced money, capital, and labor; but tliey none the less felt the paralyzing pressure of the shrinking metallic shroud that was closing around industry." William Jacob, F, R. S., gives the following table, showing the progress of contraction to the year 806, when the lamp of civilization went out, and the night of the dark ages prevented him from continuing the report: A. D. 14 $1,790,000,000 A. D. 230 909,000,000 A. D. 410 537,000,000 A. D. 663 256,000,000 A. D. 806 168,000,000 The first glimmer of light from the midnight of the gold and silver era, came on the wings of paper substi- tutes, the invention of bills of exchange. EFFECTS OF CURKENCY CONTRACTION. The effects of a decreasing volume of currencj' upon the business, prosperity, and people of a country are well stated in the following extracts:* "While the volume of money is decreasing, even though very slowly, the value of each unit of money is increasing in a corresponding ratio, and property and wages are decreasing. "Those who have contracted to pay money, find that it is constantly becoming more difiicult to meet their en- gagements. The margin of securities melt rapidly, and their confiscation by the creditor becomes only a question of time. "All productive enterprises are discouraged and stag- nate, because the cost of producing commodities to-day will not be covered by the price obtainable for them to- *Coiigressioual Monetary Commission. 48 LABOR AND FINANCE KEVOLUTION. morrow. Exchanges become sluggish, because those who have money will not part with it for either property or service, for the obvious reason that money alone is increasing in value^ while everything else is decreasing in price. "This results in the withdrawal of money from the channels of circulation, and its deposit in great hordes where it can exert no influence on prices. ^'Money in shrinking volume becomes the j9«ramc>w«^ object of commerce^ instead of the beneficent instrument. Instead of mobilizing industry, it poisons and dries up its life currents. "It is the fruitful source of political and social dis- turbance. "It foments strife between labor and other forms of capital, while itself, hidden away, gorges on both. "It rewards close-fisted lenders, and filches from, and bankrupts, enterprising producers." The Americaii Review (1876) says: " Diminishing money and falling prices are not only oppressive upon debtors, but they cause stagna- tion in business, reduce production, and enforce idle- ness. Falling markets annihilate profits, and as it is only the expectation of gain that stimulates capital to invest in operations, inadequate employment is found for labor, and those who are employed can only be so on diminished wages." Leon Fanchet (1843) says: " If all the nations of Europe adopt the system of Great Britain, the price of gold would be raised beyond measure, and we should see produced a result lamentable enough." David Hume, in Essays on Money, says: CAUSE OF THE DARK AGES. 49 "•We find that in every kingdom into which money begins to flow in greater abundance than formerly, every- thing takes a new face; labor and industry gain life, the merchants become more enterprising, the manufacturers more diligent and skillful, and the farmer follows his plow with greater attention and alacrity. The good pol- icy of the government consists of keeping it, if possible, still increasing^ as long as there is an undeveloped re- source or room for a new emigrant, because by that means there is kept alive a spirit of industry in the na- tion, which increases the stock oflahor, in which consists all real power and riches. "A nation whose money decreases, is actually weaker and more miserable than other nations, which possess less money, but are on the increasing hand." "Wm. H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, in his report, Feb., 1820, says: "All intelligent writers on currency agree that when it is decreasing in amount, poverty and misery must prevail." The following table, compiled from official sources, shows the amount of our circulation, per capita, and its contraction from 1865 to 1877: YEAR. CURRENCY. POP. PER CAP. 1865 $1,651,282,373 1,803,702,726 1,330,414,677 817,199,773 750,025,989 740,039,179 734,244,774 736,349,912 738,291,749 779,031,589 778,176,250 735,358,832 696,443,394 34,819,531 35,537,148 36,269,502 37,016,949 37,779,800 38,558,371 39,750,073 40,978,607 42,245,110 43,550,756 44,896,705 46,284,344 47,714,829 $47.42 1866 60.76 1867 36.68 1868 1869 22.08 19.85 1870 19.19 1871 18.47 1872 - 17.97 1873 17.48 1874 17.84 1875 17.33 1876 1877 15.89 14.60 4 50 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. The component elements of the above volume of paper money in each year comprise the following items, ac- cordino; as these were in existence at the time: Demand, and one and two year treasury notes, (acts of Dec. 37, 1857: Dec. 17, 1860, and March 2, 1861); temporary ten day loans and one year certificates of indebtedness; treasury notes payable in two years and sixty days; seven- thirty three year notes; compound interest notes; three per cent, certificates: non-interest bearing demand and legal tender notes (acts of July 17, 1861; Feb. 25, 1862; July 11, 1872, and March 3, 1961); fractional currency; State bank notes; and national bank notes. That business failures have resulted from, and kept even pace with, the contraction of the currency, there is no doubt, as the following table, prepared by Dunn,, Barlow & Co-., will show: Hugh McCuUoch was aware of the depressing and pan icy influences of contraction when he said, in 1866: " The process of contracting the circulation of the government notes should go on just as rajiidly as possible without producikg a FINANCIAL CRASH." McCuUoch was wise enough to anticipate the results of contraction. Hon. A. G. Spaulding, an eminent banker and mem- ber of congress from New York, wrote McCuUoch, in 1866, then secretary, to "• contract slowly^ so as to main- tain A TOLERABLE EASY MONEY MARKET FOR AT LEAST A YEAR TO COME." Sherman himself, then honest, stated in the senate that such contraction of the currency as was anticipated in the bill, '' would jyroduce the most disastrous finan- cial results that ever hefell the nation.''^ Figures won't lie. CAUSE OF THE DARK AGES. 51 We all know that the panic and crash of 1857, dur- ing which year over 4,000 business failures took ])lace, involving a loss of over $200,000,000 by bankruptcies, was wholly produced by the loss and contraction of the bank currency of the country, resulting from the expor- tation of coin from the United States to meet an extra- ordinary European demand. The panic and crash of 1860, during which year over 6,000 business failures took place, was caused b}' the loss and contraction of nearlj^ all our western currency by failure of banks based upon southern state stocks. After the greenback era of 1862, the number of failures diminished with the increasing of the currenc}', and when contraction commenced, in 1866, the failures com- menced to increase and kept even pace with such con- traction. Here are the figures, which arfe worth more than all the sophisms of demagogues. Year. Number. Amount. 1857 4,932 $291,750,000 1858. 4225 95,749,000 1859 3,913 64,394,000 1860 3.673 79,807,000 1861 6,993 207,210,000 1862. 1,652 23,049,300 1883 485 6,864,700 1864 520 8,579,000 1865 530 17,625,000 1866 632 47,333,000 1867 2,386 86,218,000 1868 6,608 ■ 63,774,000 1869 2,799 75,054,000 1870 3,551 88,242,000 1871 2,915 85,252,000 1872 4,069 121,056,000 1873 5,183 228,499,000 1874 5,830 155,239000 1875 7,740 201,060,353 1876 9,092 191,117,786 1877 8,872 190,660,936 1878 10,478 234,383,132 1879 (six months) 4,058 65,779,398 52 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. If the nmnber of failures for the first six months of the year 1879 were less than the number for the corre- sponding time the previous year, it is no evidence that the cause was being removed, but like the apparent improved condition of a scourge-cursed Memphis, there were fewer cases because there were fewer victims to destroy. Secretary Sherman denies that resumption had any hand in the catastrophe, because the collapse occurred fourteen months before the act was passed. He failed to state that the object of contraction was to appreciate the remaining greenbacks to an equivalency with gold, and the act simply specified the day when the money sharks anticipated that they would, through contraction, reach that point. But notwithstanding the great appre- ciation of gold itself, it being some 3i per cent, from 1873 to 1879, contractions had been so rapid and disas- trous to general values that the remaining greenbacks caught up with gold before the day appointed. It is true the congressional act providing for resumption on January 1, 1879, did not produce the panic, but prepar- ing our national finances to enable congress to safely predict, and set a day when such a result could be legal- ized, did the work. As the true causes Secretary Sherman ascribes " the waste of war^'' ^^ over -'production^'' " wild speculation^'* '"'^'mjiated prices^'' etc. How an over-production of pro- ducts could possibly co-exist with the wastes of war, and how the two could combine to result in a panic and widespread bankruptcy nine years after the war termi- nated^ the learned demagogue left the public to cypher out. "Inflated prices" and "over production" are equally inconsistent coincidents. Inflated prices generally have CAUSE OF THE DARK AGES. 53 the effect to deplete stocks. It is generally the low priced stocks that move slow and accumulate. The chief cause ascribed by Mr. Sherman was our ^^irredeemahle paper currency that varied in value from day to dayP Let an insulted public pause one moment, and consider if there ever was a day, while gold was bobbing between 100 and 285, but every dollar of this irredeemable paper money would pay a dollar of debts. The $2,000,000,000 of losses were not the result of irredeemable paper money, for with that money — as bad as it was, every debt could have been paid. It was for the want of it that disaster came. AVhen the currency was poorest, relatively to gold, our prosperity was greatest, and our financial disasters fewest, nor was there a symptom or an indication of financial prostration until contraction had forced an undue inflation of credits. CHAPTER IV. THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF MONEY, •' Money is the national medium of exchange for prop- erty and products. It must be instituted, and its value must be fixed by the laws of the nation, in order to make it a public tender in payment of debts. No debt can be paid with property or with individual notes, except by consent of the creditor; but when money is tendered, all creditors are compelled to receive it in full satisfac- tion of debts. The aim of legislation in reo^ulatino; the value of money is to insure to all individuals, in making- exchanges of their property for money, the full value of their products or property. Debts are postponements of the time of payment for tlie property or products re- ceived; and loans of money, and all rents of property, are mere rents of the use of certain amounts of legal or actual value, which use is to be paid for at the expira- tion of a specified period. Money is the legal tender,, and must be offered and received in payment for all these debts, " Certain properties are by law given to some substance, which bears the name and performs the functions of money. The term money ^ then, signifies a legal, public medium of exchange, which possesses all the qualifica- tions necessary to effect a just exchange of property. In the discussion of the nature of money, it will appear that its properties are, in trutli, the creation of law, and entirely different from the properties of the things which it exchanges. • 54 THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF MONEY. 00 " Money has four properties or powers, \\z.: 2^oioer to represent value, power to measure value ^ power to accu- mulate value hy interest, and power to exchange value. These properties are co-essential to a medium of ex- change: it is impossible that any one of them should ex- ist in such a medium independently of the others. The material of money is a legalized agents employed to ex- press these powers, and I'ender them available in trade. The powers of money, which alone render it useful, are created by legislation, therefore money can possess none but legal value. All legal value depends upon the actual value that it represents. "Some writers, instead of considerini; money as a me- dium of exchange, call it capital seeking investment. If money be capital, it is already invested; because the capital would consist in the inherent value of the mate- rial of the money, and not in the thing the money seeks to obtain. But, when money has found one investment, it is as much a seeker for a second and a third invest- ment, as if it had not been invested at all. It is always seeking investment, without being invested. It is no more real capital than a very poor horse, of which the appearance is such that he will do very well to exchange off. But if he should finally fall into the hands of a person who had not the good fortune to exchange him again for something else, the owner would have to depend upon his few useful qualities. And if a currency were formed in the various nations independently of gold and silver, and coins should cease to be a tender in payment of debts, the value of coins would depend upon their inherent qualities, as metals, as much as the value of the horse when he could be no longer exchanged for more than his actual worth, would depend upon the lit- 56 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. tie labor that lie could perform, or upon liis hide and bones. The price of the gold and of the horse would then depend upon their actual, usefulness, and not upon any capabilities for exchange. " Money is, then, a combination of legal powers, ex- pressed upon metal, paper, or some other substance; its value is the standard, or determiner of the value of all other things, and it serves as a public medium of ex- change for land, labor, and all commodities." — Kellog. Scattered throughout the length and breadth of the land, are the millions of workers, engaged in producing those commodities demanded for the needs and luxuries of man. These productions alone constitute wealth. Commerce consists in the modes and methods of dis- tributing tlie various products of skill, so that each pro- ducer may enjoy the benefit of the product of every other man. To accomplish this, with the least possible expense to both producer and consumer, is the mission of true po- litical economy. An universally accepted and recog- nized medium of exchange is as essential as safe and cheap transportation. One exchanges ownership, the other location. Hence, cheap and abundant money is as essential to the prosperity of both producer and consumer, as abund- ant and cheap transportation. If the medium of transportation is limited, or inade- quate to effect the necessary change of location, con- sumption must be limited, and people in every part of the country must go destitute, and perhaps suffer for the want of many things which are produced in abundance but cannot be distributed. With such limited trans- portation, those who monopolize it can command any THE NATURE ANP FUNCTIONS OF MONEY. 57 portion of the surplus of a country's production they choose, for transporting the balance. The result would be, low prices and an overstock at every point of pro- duction, and destitution and high prices, at every point of consumption. The same principle will hold good in regard to the medium of exchange. As it takes a cer- tain number of cars to move the surplus products of the country from the places of production to the places of consumption, so it takes a certain number of dollars to eifect the exchanges of ownership. If cars are too scarce, products accumulate, prices fall, and labor is thrown out of employment. If dollars are too few, exchanges cannot be made, products accumulate on the hands of producers, prices decline, and labor is thrown out of employment. If railroads ramify all parts of the country, and roll- ing stock is abundant, the location of commodities can be changed at cost, and a fair recompense for use of the means invested. So if dollars are abundant, and not controlled by monopoly, exchanges of ownership may be so readily and cheaply effected as to provide every laborer and producer with a ready market, full employ- ment, ample reward, and an abundance to supply all necessary wants and to gratify all proper desires. As an abundance of railroads lessens the profits of the rail- road kings, and prevents them from fleecing the public, so an abundance of money lessens the banker's profits, and prevents him from robbing the producers of wealth. An expansion of either would bless the masses; a con- traction of either would enrich their owners. As well style a single railroad track across the continent, and the exorbitant profits it could make on the amount in- vested, ''honest transportation," and call such limited 58 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. facilities, a " sound policy," as limit money to a safe gold basis and depress prices to the gold standard, and call it " honest money," and a " sound policy." Nothing is honest that robs, and no policy is sound that deprives society of its natural wants, and tends to demoralize, rather than to elevate the human race. Be- fore the wealth producers and toilers of this country can be free, and enjoy the fruits of their own labor, both money and transportation must be wrested from the hands of monopoly, and, controlled by wise legislation, made the servants and not the masters of labor. MATERIAL OF MONEY, Mr. Madden, author of coins of the Jews, states that in the West Indies and South America, pins, a slice of bread, a pinch of snuff, a dram of whisky, soap, choco- late and eggs were current money. The aboriginal inhabitants of America used wampum, and cocoanuts. As late as 1635, wampum was made a leeral tender in Massachusetts among the colonists. Silver being demonetized in Great Britain, Thomas Baring says that in 1847 it was impossible to raise any money whatever on £60,000 of silver. During a similar crisis in Calcutta in 1864, it was equally impossible to raise a single rupee on £20,000 of £rold, that metal beino; demonetized in India. In Britain at an early time a double standard was used, called "living money" and "dead money," or slaves and cattle, and land and metal. In the twelfth centurv, 2:old and silver coins were re- deeraable in leather legal tenders in Sicily, under Wil- liam I. the" nature and functions of money. 59 In the fourteenth centnry, the Chinese used a money coined from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. The inhabitants of the coast of Africa use an ''ideal" money — a sign of value, without money. In the South Sea Islands beads and tools of iron were long used as money. Salt is the current money of Abyssinia, codfish of Ice- land and Newfoundland. At an early day, deer and coon skins were legal tender in the State of Illinois. In 1574, large amounts of pasteboard money were coined in Holland. Rome used both wooden and leather money about 700 B. C. Tin money was coined by Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse. Platinum was coined in Russia from 1S2S to 18-15. The Spaniards used leather money as late as 1574. Under the Caesars, lands were made money. The Carthagenians had leather money. France used leather money in 1360. Sir John Mandeville, who traveled among the Asiatic nations in the 14th century, gives an account of an ancient fiat money used by the great Chan of Persia and Tartary, which is given by Jevon, in his "Money and Mechanism of Exchange," as follows: "This Emperour may dispenden als moche as he wile, wilhouten estymacioun. For he despeadelh not, he maketh no money, but of Lether emprented, or of Papyre. And of that money, is some of gretter prys, and som of lasse prys, aftre the dy vesiteer of his Statutes. And when that Money hathe ronne so longe that it begynneth to waste, then men beren'it to the Emperoure's Tresorye; and than thei taken newe money lor the olde And that money gothe thorghe out all the Cnntree and thorshe out all his Provynces. " For there, and beyond hem, thei mak no Money nouther of Gold nor Sylver." 60 LABOK AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. ANTIQUITY OF THE GREENBACK SYSTEM. The hard money advocates characterize the popular uprising of the people in favor of a representative money as a "craze," a "financial epidemic," a political bubble, that will soon burst, and leave its followers stranded on the rocks of error and delusion. These linancial savans would do well to bear in mind that the so-called "fiat" or non-intrinsic money theory is not new. It is as old as civilization. It liad its origin when men were honest, and only yielded to l)rute force in the hands of ambitious tyrants, who established a currency of intrinsic value — the easier to enslave and rob the masses. Even after gold and silver were adopted, it was discov- ered that these metals did not increase proportionately with other commodities; and the wisdom of ancient legislators perceived that production must be arrested if no other distributive instrument than gold and silver were employed. We quote from Jonathan Duncan: "One of the earliest plans adopted to surmount the difficulty was the creation of a National Currency in each independent State, for internal trade; and its distinctive characteristic was the total ahsence of intrinsic value, which effectually PREVENTED ITS EXPORTATION. "This invention greatly economized the use of the precious metals, allowing them to be wholly employed in discharging the halance of foreign trade. "Thus the cities of Byzantium and Clazomense pro- vided ii'on money for their own citizens, which circulated at home for the value impressed on it by public au- thority." THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF. MONEY. 61 The monetary laws of Lycurgus were founded npon the same principle; who deprived his money of even the intrinsic value of iron, by lirst destroying its malleabil- ity, so it could not be converted even into implements of labor, Seneca states that the Spartans used leather money, having a stamp to show what value it represented, and by whose authority it was issued. Plato recommended a double currency in every nation: " A coin," he said, " for the purposes of domestic ex- change and to pay wages to hired servants and settlers, for which purpose I afhrm it must have value among the members of the State, hiit no value to the rest of the worldP For visiting, and using in other States, Plato proposed a coin of intrinsic value, which would pass current in foreign States. Xenophon states that " most of the States of Greece have money which is not current except in their own territory." Homer and Ilesiod never speak of gold or silver money. They express the value of things by saying they are worth so many oxen. They estimated the riches of a man by the number of his flocks, and the wealth of a nation by the abund- ance of its pastures. Homer values the golden armor of Glaucus at 100 oxen, and the brazen armor of Damocles at nine oxen. Csesar had " tribute money," representing a tax to be paid, which was issued by the government, based upon taxes. It bought property, paid for labor, discharged debts, and was redeemed in taxes. It bore inscriptions representing real money, which was cattle and property. 62 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. Thus, for greater cattle tliej were stamped with the figure of a horse or an ox; for less, with that of a hog; for corn fields, with an ear of corn; for a poll tax, with the head of a man. " On these historical facts," says Duncan, " we have evidence that all things of value, capable of being transferred from man to man, were accounted real MONEY, and they were all represented by symbols, or tokens, by which device they (the things of value) were rendered movable in the shape of currency representa- tives." The real money — the property of value, was the basis and security on which the tokens were issued, and wlioever held a token, was admonished by it that he was a creditor to its amount on the real money of the country. Mone}', in the strict sense of the term, is whatever the communitv consents to use as a medium of exchancfe The constitution of the United States clothes congress with the power to "coin money and regulate the value thereof," but is silent in reference to the material upon which the money function shall be stamped. Money, in the strict sense of the term, does not possess intrinsic value more than a court judgment, or a statute of law. The value of gold and silver, which we call intrinsic, is not so, but is a value placed upon those metals by law. Gold and silver are as abundant for the real uses of those metals as iron is for its real uses, and \yere the precious metals stripped of their artificial, legal or fiat value, their abundance for the real needs and uses of society would reduce their intrinsic value to that of iron or lead. The credit of the governments of the world, the faith of the people that these governments will re- ceive their coins at their face and weight value, and that THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF MONEY, 63 they will enforce the legal tender qualities of* such coin are all that give them a value above their weight of iron. Of the commercial exchange of the world, Col- well and other standard authors estimate that they are made as follows: With coin 50 Paper curreucy 2 50 Other credit devices 97 00 100 00 The banking system the world over, supplies a cur- rency of credit. The Bank of England has long used about $75,000,- 000 of government debt as money, irredeemable. The banks grow rich by loaning their own credit, and that of their customers. They loan the credit of those who borrow credit of them. Through the machinery for swapping promises, called a clearing house, the banks are enabled to form a ring, and loan, also, each other's credits. The report of the comptroller shows that the banks are to-day loaning and drawing interest on three times as much credit as there is money in the countrj'. It is the same in all the civilized world. Credit of one kind and another, constitutes tlie great bulk of the world's medium of exchange, while the precious metals consti- tute less than one-half of one per cent. As congress has the power, why then should it not coin the govern- ment credit, make it legal tender, and thus supply a more uniform medium of exchange, and one less expen- sive than that supplied by banks and capitalists? There is but one objection, and that is, it would deprive the banks and money sharks of their rich interest har- vests from loaning their own, and their customers credits for usury. Gold is not the money of the world, even 64 LABOR A2f D FINANCE KEVOLUTION. restricting money to coin and bank paper, for the entire stock of Europe and America aggregates but a trifle over $1,900,000,000 against over $3,000,000,000 of gov- ernment and bank issues. The States are prohibited from making anything but gold and silver legal tender, but congress is not; for the first leiral tender the o-overnraent ever coined under the constitution was copper, which was a full legal tender for any and all amounts. No one disputes the right of the government to issue bills of credit, or treasury notes, and the supreme court has decided that this being con- ceded, '•'■the incidental 'power of giving such bills the quality of legal tender follows as a matter of course.'''' There is not sufiicient gold and silver in the world to serve as a universal medium of exchange, hence it can- not be a money of the world. Bank and individual credit lack the necessary stability, safety and responsi- bility to constitute a money of the world, hence, they are not appropriate. The government credit alone, based upon the powers of its sovereignty and the com- bined credit, consent and mutual interest of society, can supply a safe, reliable, ample and uniform currency to efl'ect all the necessary exchanges of commerce, and do away with that class of vampires, cormorants and mid- dle-men, who now monopolize the supply, that they may reap the lion's share of labor's productions. POWER TO CREATE MONEY. The Constitution of the United States, Art. I, Sec. VIII, 5, declares congress shall have power to coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and fix a standard of weights and measures. " To coin money," as used in the constitution does not THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF MONEY. 65 mean to shape, fashion, weigh, and stamp pieces of metal or paper. It simply means to determine wJiat shall con- stitute the lawful money of the realm. This is a power inherent in sovereignty, and as sovereignty rests with the people in a republic, this prerogative was delegated to congress to be exercised for the people. A literal interpretation of the clause would be: " Congress shall liave power to determine what shall constitute the ex- change medium and lawful tender for debts in the United States." It certainly does not mean that con- gress shall perform the manual and mechanical labor of stamping coin or notes; if it does, then all of our mints are unconstitutional institutions. Congress has power to determine the material and style of the token or thing which shall^ represent the value of a dollar, when such value is agreed upon between the parties to an ex- change; also the different denominations of such tokens, the functions they shall perform, and the extent and for what purposes they shall be lawful tender for debts. The value of money is its purchasing power, which is governed by its volume, or the relation which the total volume sustains to the total volume of the ex- changeable commodities of a country. The larger the money volume in proportion to the exchangeable com- modity volume of a country, the less is the purchasing power of the former, and the higher are the prices of the latter. Hence, the value of money can be regulated only by regulating its volume, and as this sovereign power has been delegated to Congress in trust for the benefit of all the people, that body has no warrant in the constitution to delegate this important trust to indi- viduals or corporations for their private benefit. Neither the people nor Congress have power to regulate the in- Q6 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. trinsic value of money or anything else; it is only its exchange value that they can regulate. Whenever the intrinsic value of money rises above its exchange value, it ceases to serve the purposes of money, and goes to speculating on its commodity merits. Jonathan Duncan says of money: "It may surprise some of our readers to be told that from the reign of Henry the First, down to the establishment of the Bank of England, the legal tender money of England was fabricated out of wood. "Its intrinsic value was no more than the value of the wood of which it was fabricated, but its representa- tive value denoted large sums. "At this time Exchequer Tallies, the representatives of value, having no intrinsic value in themselves, sus- tained trade; but what happened when the tallies were extino-uislied, and the monev preroo-ative of the crown was transferred to the Bank of England f The reader will bear in mind that the tally system of England was similar to our greenback legal-tender sys- tem. It supplied a home currency sufficient for the de- mands of commerce, which was not subject to the panics, pressures and financial disturbances which are always liable to occur from an exportable currency of intrinsic value. The result upon the prosperity of the kingdom by the retirement of the legal-tender, and the introduction of the gold and silver basis system of the Bank of England, is given by Davenant, as follows: "The government appeared like a distressed debtor, who was daily squeezed to death by the exorbitant greediness of the lender. The citizens began to decline trade, and to turn usu- rers. THE NxVTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF MONEY. 67 "Foreio^n commerce had infinite discouraijements. "We are f^oino: lieadlonoj to destruction with carrvinar on a losin<^ trade with our neighbors; and what has brought ns to this loio ebb? "When paper credit flourished, and tallies performed all the ofiices of money, the great payments for lands, or rich goods, M^ere therefore easily made, the king's duties paid, and all kinds of business easily transacted." Just as now, nnder our system, the usurious system of the Bank of England induced capital to leave the fields of production, and capitalists to invest for usury. Interest was more profitable than production, and while the rich, through usury, grew richer; the poor, by production and excessive taxation to pay usury, grew poorer. The legal tender system of America is not new. It has cropped out all along the history of civilization, but like the frogs in the fable, it has been stoned back by Shylocks and usurers, and strangled by law-protected grged and selfishness. It again came to the surface in England from 1797 till 1820, during which period that kingdom leaped with giant strides on the road of prosperit3% but no sooner was the kingdom safe from the dangers of foreign foes, than it turned upon its own friends and defenders, and crushed their hopes and prosperity by a return to the damnable system of contraction, gold basis and usury. The United States was compelled to adopt the rational legal-tender system during the War of the Rebellion, but no sooner had peace been restored when the old British system of bankruptcy, desolation and death was attempted to be saddled upon us again. It is very hard to divorce the public mind from the 68 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. idea that money must necessarily be a thing, and that thing, possessed of the intrinsic value of its face or stamp. As the body of man possesses no more of intrinsic value than a lump of earth of its weight, so should the body of money possess no more intrinsic value than its weight of the cheapest product of earth. It is not the body of man, or the material of which it is made, that constitutes the wealth of the soul, but that invisible element, or spirit, breathed into it, and stamped upon its face, by the sovereign power of the universe. A lump of gold weighing 25.8 grains, troy, is not a dollar. It will not pay a dollar of debt in any country on the globe. It is not money. But without taking from, or adding to, it a particle of matter, we pass it iin- der the mint dies, and behold it comes out a living, legal tender, debt-paying dollar. We lay it on the railroad track, allow a train of cars to run over it, and although it has lost none of its weight, fineness or intrinsic value, the dollar has fled, it is no longer money, and will not legally pay a debt of ten cents. Where has the dollar gone? Where, and what, was that element, or principle called money, or a dollar? In its crude natural state it did not possess it. It went under the mint dies and came out with a soul of money — a living legal tender. It possessed a new, and a debt-paying function, which it did not before possess. Under the car wheel it lost that function, or quality. Its legal tender spirit was driven out of it. It became a dead commodity. Its money soul had departed. Now, what is money? THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF MONEY. 69 Not the material body of 25.8 grains of metal, for although that still existed before it went to the mint, and after the car wheels passed over it, the monej^ prin- ciple was not in it. Money, then, is not material, nor does it possess intrinsic value; for the intrinsic value of 25.8 grains of gold was not changed from the time it came from the ore bed till its flattened form was taken from under the car wheel. If money, then, is the spirit of legal tender breathed into an organic or material form by the sovereign power of the government, as the spirit of man is breathed by God into the soul's clayey tenement, why clamor for a body, or hope to obtain an equal in intrinsic value to the spirit that inhabits it? As Pagans worship a material deity of wood or stone, so let financial idolators, who cannot comprehend or grasp the idea of the spirit of money, worship the im- age of gold and silver, while a higher wisdom, a more refined civilization, and a more exalted manhood aband- on this Pagan materialism, and substitute the true and the living. VALUE. E. P. Elder, in his treaties on political enconomy, says: " Money is no more a standard of the value of the things exchanged than is any other commodity." Speaking of the precious metals, Adam Smith says: *' Constantly varying in their own value, they can never be made an accurate measure of the value of other commodities." Colwell, in his Ways and Means of Payment, says: " Another attribute generally given to the precious metals is that they are a standard of value. "This is inaccurate. _ " Gold cannot, in the mint, be made the standard for silver, nor can silver be made the standard for gold. Much less, taking the whole 70 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. range of articles for human consumption, can tliey be a standard of value to which all can be referred. The term standard is, then, inac- curately applied, when it is used with any signification. If gold is a standard at all, It is a standard of payment, but not of value." We can measure a quart of milk with a quart meas- ure, and that measure will measure that amount a thou- sand diflferent times, and during as many different years. But who ever heard of a dollar, no matter how "honest" it was, or how universally the world recognized it as such, that would measure, or represent, the value of a given amount of wheat any two years, or even two days, in succession? If money measures values, there would be no neces- sity for "price currents," "market reports," goods marking, or bantering in trade. When we wish to measure the value of anything, we do not approach it with coin or legal tender. An experienced lapidary is .better than all the gold in Christendom to determine the value of a jewel. If we w^ant a piece of property appraised, we do not employ gold, but intelligent ex- perience, and sound judgment. After intelligence has ascertained the value, we express it in money terms. The unit of value, the dollar for instance, is used to ex- press the value which intelligence has determined. We measure value, then, with brains, and express it in terms of money, as we measure yards by the stick, and ex- press them in numbers. „So money is no more the measure of values than figures are the measure of yards. Price is the relation of commodities to the money of account. Value is the relation of commodities to the labor, or force, usually required to produce them. Adam Smith says: "Labor, never varying in its o .u value, is alone the ultimate and real standard by which the value of all commodities can, at all times and places, be estimated aud compared. It is their real value ; money is their nominal price only." , THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF MONEY. 71 Carey defines value as ^'■simply the measure of resist- ance that labor and skill meet in subduing natural ob- jects to human use.'^ The value of commodities is not changed by high or low price. For instance, wheat may be a dollar a bushel in gold in Canada, and two dollars a bushel in green- backs in the United States. Supposing a Canadian farmer and an Illinois farmer meet in New York with a cargo of fifty bushels of wheat each, the Canadian re- ceiving one dollar per bushel in gold, and the Illinois farmer two dollars per bushel in greenbacks. Have they received equal value, or the representative of equal value? Certainly, for the $50 of gold will purchase the same quantity of labor, dry goods, groceries or other commodities that the $100 of greenbacks will.- The only difference is, the greenbacks will pay twice the amount of debts in the United States that the gold will in Canada, but their purchasing power is no greater. The larger the volume of money, the more active its cir- culation, the more lively and the better times are, and the higher prices are. It matters not how high ])rices are in the currency of the country, it does not change the value relation between labor and commodities. The proceeds of the sale of high priced commodities in this country, will purchase no more or less of English man- ufactures, than the pi'oceeds 6f the sale of the same com- modities in England, or Germany, where prices may be 50 per cent. less. Wheat may be five dollars per bushel in American money, and but one dollar in English money, while its value may be the same in each coun- try, measured by the purchasing power of its proceeds. The money of the conntry should be sufficiently abundant to render its circulation free and easy, and 72 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. readily obtainable at all times. The question of great importance is, after the volume of money and general prices are once established, to keep them uniform and unvarying. If prices drop, debtors are wronged. If they advance above what they were when the debt was contracted, the creditor is wronged. All debts should be paid in a money having the same purchasing power, no more nor less, than money possessed at the time the obliijation was incurred. It is the great decline in prices, and the appreciation of money, giving creditors double the value of their dues, robbing debtors of half the value of their labor and products, that has given rise to the greenback movement. To pay to-day, when prices are down to a gold valua- tion, debts contracted when prices corresponded to thirty or forty dollars per capita of circulation, is an out- rageous swindle, nothing short of robbery upon ev^ery debtor and tax- payer in the nation. Why should iiine- tenths of the people be robbed for all time to come, for the sake of feathering the nests and double paying the other tenth, who neither produce wealth, nor contribute to the support of the government by whose laws they receive their unjust gains? If there were no debts drawing fixed amounts of in- terest, the gold basis for money would have no advocates. The mountains of the world's debt, whose fixed interest yields colossal annual fortunes to their owners, were created almost wholly when prices were very high, and money very cheap, and to double the value of these debts, and the purchasing power of their annual income, the dollars in which it lias to be paid have been doubled in value by limiting currency to a gold basis and de- pressing prices to a gold standard. This injustice is THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF MONEY. 73 what the greenback party aims to overcome by cutting loose from gold and greenback equiv^alency, and lessen- ing the purchasing power of money, by increasing its volume. PRICES. Prices are the estimate of mankind of the relative value of one thing to another, «s compared with money. The term " price " is ordinarily employed to denote the amount of value possessed by a given thing expressed in terms of money. Thus, when we say ''wheat is worth a dollar a bushel," a dollar is the price of a bushel of wheat. But while we constantly use lauijuaffe in such a way as to imply that the value of the thing to wliich we affix the "price" is the sole fact we wish to determine, in reality, we put a price on the money as much as we do on whatever we " price." When we say " corn is worth a half a dollar a bushel," we virtually say that the price of a dollar is two bushels of corn. The aver- age scale of prices measures the value of money as effectually as money measures the prices of commodi- ties. The scale of prices is governed chiefly by two in- fluences. First, the volume of legal tender money in circulation; for, increase the volume, and the price of labor rises, and that raises the price of commodities. Diminish the amount of money, and wages and commodities fall in price. Money is like everything else. The scarcer it is, the dearer it is, and the more labor or commodities it takes to purchase a given sum. Second, the extent to which public and private credit is employed in the form of notes, checks, bills of ex- change, etc. It is n(jt the amount of money in existence 74 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. wliicli determines prices, so miicli as the amount in ac- tive circulation. From 1S66 to 1873 the circulatine; medium was diminished bj the funding of over a thou- sand million greenbacks and treasury notes, still prices were kept up by the substitutions of inflated credits in place of money until the crash of the latter year pro- duced a sudden and actual contraction of money, and credit, of over a thousand million dollars in a day, which caused prices to fall like the forest before a cyclone. Prior to tliis time, prices had become established, and all debts and contracts were made with reference to these prices. But the contraction of the currency enhanced the value of money, depreciated prices, and robbed every man who sustained the relation of debtor, or contractor, whose obligations were incurred on the scale of prices previously existing. CHAPTER V. COLONIAL MONEY. From "Sumner's Reminiscences of Colonial Times," we learn that for many generations after the first settle- ment of the Colonies, the work of production was slow and laborious, and the surplus products, at least such as could find their way to foreign markets, were hardly suf- ficient to procure in return the common necessaries of life. The small sums of money brought to the country by the settlers were soon exhausted, sent abroad for mer- chandise; and trade, for the most part, had to be carried on by the inconvenient method of barter. The Indians found along the shores of Long Island Sound, were more advanced in civilization than those further north, and used a circulating medium of exchange, consistino- of beads of two kinds, one white, made out of the end of a periwinkle shell, and the other black, made out of the dark part of a clam shell. They were rubbed down and polished, and, when artistically arranged in strings or belts, formed objects of real beauty. These beads circu- lated among the Indians as money, one black bead being reckoned as worth two white ones, and were kninvn as Wampurn. The Colonists came to use them, first in their trade with the Indians, and then among themselves. In Massachusetts they became by custom, the common currency of the colony, and were made a legal tender in small sums. The first issue of paper money made in the Colonies, was made by Massachusetts in 1690, six 75 76 LABOR AND FINANCE BP: VOLUTION. years before the establishment of the Bank of England. An expedition had been sent ont against Canada, and, retnrning without spoils, and in a state of misery, the soldiers were clamorous for their pay. So £7,000 were issued in notes from 5s. to £5. The form of these notes or bills was as follows: " This indented bill of ten shillings, due from the Massachusetts colony to the possessor, shall he iii value equal to money ^ and shall be accordingly accepted by the treasurer, and receivers subordinate to him in all public payments, and for any stock at any time in the treasury." They circulated at par with coin for twenty years, until redeemed. In 1703, another issue of £15,- 000 was authorized, which were made a legal tender for private debts. In 1716, another issue to the amount of £150,000 was authorized, to be distributed among the different counties of the province, and to be put into the hands of five trustees in each county, to be appointed by the legislature, to be let out on real estate securitj^ in the county in specific sums for the space of ten years, at 5 per cent, per annum. Another act for £50,000, in bills, was passed in 1720, which resulted in clearing Massachusetts of debt in 1773. In 1720, bills were issued by the colony of Rhode Island, and were made legal tender for all debts. The colony of Connecticut issued similar bills at various times between 1709 and 1731. New York began to issue bills in 1709; Penn- sylvania, in 1723; I^Iaryland, in 1733; Delaware, in 1739; Virginia, in 1755; and South Carolina, in 1703. The first emission of bills by Virginia bore 5 per cent, interest, and, according to Jefferson, in a very short time not one of them was to be found in circulation. They were locked up for the interest. " We then," savs Jef- COLONIAL MONEY. 77 ferson, ''' issued bills hottomed on a redeeming tax, but bearing no interest — these were readily received, and never depreciated a farthing. Several hundred thou- sand dollars of this colonial paper money remained in circulation more than twenty years at par with gold, with no other basis, or advantage, than being receivable for debts and taxes." But in 1751, Parliament, controlled by the money power of Great Britain, and becoming alarmed at the prosperity and growing independence of the colonies, passed an act forbidding the issue of any more paper money, and in 1763 all colonial acts for issuing paper money were declared by act of Pari lament void. Dr. Franklin visited England and protested against the act, but without avail. He stated to the British authorities that before the issue of colonial money, the colonies were stripped of gold and silver. That there were great dif- ficulties for the w^ant of money, as trade had to be car- ried on by the extremely inconvenient method of bar- ter. But that the introduction of colonial paper money had given new life to business, promoted greatly the settlement and development of the country, whereby the provinces had greatly increased in inhabitants, and their exports had been increased tenfold. This Parliamentary prohibition, more than anything else, led to the discontent which resulted in the Eevolu- tion. The colonial legal tender greenback system caused rich and powerful states to spring up in the wilderness as if by magic, but then, as now, it was liable to edu- cate society into a better system than that of specie, and make production independent of the usuer. It had to be strangled. The shylocks of Change Alley feared its influence upon the institutions of the old world, and as 78 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. the ruling powers of all monarchies are but the tools of the Money Power, Parliament had to obey. During the Revolutionary struggle, the colonies or states issued what has since been known as continental money, a description of which, from the pen of Warwick Martin, is given in the following chapter. CHAPTER VI. CONTINENTAL MONEY ACT OF JUNE .25, 1775. This act was passed more than one year before inde- pendence was declared. It authorized the issue of $2,- 000,000 of notes, which read as follows: ''This note entitles the bearer to receive Spanish mill dollars, or the value thereof in gold or silver, according to the resolution of Congress of the 10th of May, 1775." We need not say that that was neither money nor a promise to pay money emanating from any individual State or nation. The note authorized the party holding it to receive theretor Spanish mill dollars, or their equiv- alent in gold or silver; but it did not obligate any person, State or nation to pay said dollars, or other coin. THE ACT OF JULY 25, 1775. This act provides for the issue of another $1,000,000 of these notes. The act of December 26, 1775, also provides for the issue of $3,000,000 more of said notes, making $6,000,000 issued before Independence day. This act also provided for the sinking, as it was termed, of all notes issued under acts of Congress. Each colony was to appoint a treasurer, who should give security. Each colony was to provide ways and means to sink its portion of the bills of credit authorized by Congress. 79 so LABOR AND FINANCE KEVOLUTION. The amount to be redeemed by each colony was to be in proportion to population. A census was to be taken to ascertain the number of people in each colony. Until this was completed, the whole number of people in the colonies was assumed at 3,000,000 souls. The estimated number in each colony is given, and the amount of liability of each for the bills is stated. The bills were not to be redeemed by the States united as a nation, but by the States in their indi- vidual capacity — each State acting for itself. Each colony was to commence redeeming the notes in 1779, and close in 1783 — being eight years from the time they were issued. The treasurers of the colonies were required to receive the bills for taxes imposed to take them up, but not for any other taxes. Tliis was a strange provision, tending to depreciate. On the 2Sth of December, 1779, Congress took notice of a report then in circulation, to the eiFect that Congress never intended to redeem the notes, Congress pronounced this an unfounded charge, which did them great injust- ice, and greatly injured the bills in the estimation of the people. They passed an act pledging the faith of the United Colonies for the payment of these bills. On December 31, 1779, Congress ordained that the $15,000,000 due from the colonies be paid, and that eighteen years be granted them instead of four, as pre- viously provided, in which to make the balance of the payments, and that the amount of each annual payment be limited to $6,000,000, commencing in 1780. About $200,000,000 of this money were issued. We can not, in this article, refer to all the acts in proof. We point out the defects in this money, and show the causes of its depreciation in the following manner: CONTINENTAL MONEY. 81 The States were contending with the greatest nation on earth. Her armies had generally been victorious on land. She was conceded to be the mistress of the seas. The States were poorly prepared for war with such a power. They had no army, no navy, no fortifications^ no arms, no ammunition, no credit, no money. The odds were immensely against them, viewed from a mili- tary standpoint. The contest was not only doubtful, but from any standpoint except justice and right, was overwhelmingly in favor of Great Britain. Under these circumstances it would have been difficult to maintain a State paper circulation at par had Congress adopted the best method of doing it. But with the means adopted, it is astonishing that any sujscess attended their efibrts to keep the Government circulation at par. At the time $6,000,000 of this money were issued, in- dependence had not been declared. The States were still colonies, and the people and Congress subjects of Great Britain, stvlins^ themselves in their communication to the throne, "Your Majesty's most faithful subjects." They were engaged in petitioning for and demanding their rights as "British subjects." They were also pre- paring to defend their rights and maintain them, if de- nied to them by the mother country. To raise and equip an army for that purpose, was at first their only object in issuing these bills of credit. At this time the United States was not a nation. The power delegated to Con- gress by the States extended only to soliciting and de- manding a restoration of rights, and to prepare for war, if need be. Congress was little else than an advisory counsel to the States. They possessed no power to im- pose and collect taxes or duties, and did not attempt it. They exacted that the States should impose taxes 6 82 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. and collect them; but the States could comply with the wishes of Congress in this behalf, or neglect to do so, and some of them did the latter. The bills of credit emitted by Congress were not made legal tender in payment of private debts, and weve not made receivable for debts due Congress or the colonies. Congress had no debts due them. They collected no duties on imports, or internal revenue. These impo- sitions and collections were confined to the States. To Congress it was all outgo and no income. They made their own money, and paid it out to equip and sustain the army, and to support a limited civil service. There was but one means through which the money issued and paid out by the Continental Treasurer could get back into his hands. Of this we shall speak hereafter. Previous to 1779 the faith of the States, as expressed by Congress* was pledged for the redemption of the bills emitted; but the faith of Congress, or of a National Government of any kind, was not pledged. The law did not, at any time, read that Congress would pay, or that the Treasurer would pay, but that the States as in- dividuals, not collectively, would pay. Everybody knew that the duty of paying or redeeming the bills devolved upon the States in their individual capacity, not upon Congress or a nation. Each State was bound only for its portion. The debt was divided among the States according to population. This fact, at the beginning of 1799, or thereabout, was extensively circulated among the people, to the prejudice of Congress, and to the depreciation of the bills. Con- gress noticed the change, and pledged the faith of the United States for the redemption of the bills, and soon after commenced giving certificates of indebtedness bearing interest for them. CONTINENTAL MONEY. 83 But another most fatal mistake in the issue of this money was in making it payable not only in coin, but in that which was at a premium over other coin. It should not have been redeemable in coin of any kind; it should have been made legal tender — lawful money. The States had only about $5,000,000 of coin, all told. It was impossible to make the redemption in coin, and no such promise should have been given. If no coin had been promised in the law, or in the notes, no one would have expected coin, and it would not have been demanded. But the law expressly promised coin. When the people presented the notes at the treasury of a State, or that of Congress, and demanded the fullillment of the promise, and learned that the coin could not be paid, the credit of the notes was injured — though the people stood the disappointment, and continued to receive and pay the money until another injurious circumstanced 'occurred. Very unwisely, the Continental money was not made as though intended to circulate as money. For the pur- pose of giving it credit above other notes, it was made payable in coin, which was at a premium. The failure to pa}^ coin for it, as promised, reduced it somewhat in value; and the failure of the States to redeem it, as pro- vided by law, reduced it still lower. The extension of time in which the States were to redeem the notes, from four years after 1779 to nineteen years after that time, had a still greater depressing effect. The fact that the printing of the notes was, of neces- sity, poorly done, caused them to be counterfeited in large quantities, so that few persons could know the good notes from the counterfeits. The people feared to receive them. This counterfeiting was a trick of the enemy to destroy the money. 84 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. At the time these notes began to depreciate, it was the darkest in the Revohition. Our armies had not been successful in battle. The British had been reinforced. The contest, with men of weak faith, was doubtful. The people did not need to be told that if the cause failed the money vv^ould be worthless. The cause of the col- onies depended upon sustaining the money of the col- onies. Great Britain well knew this; and for the pur- pose of destroying the Revolution, the armies of the Crown, with the aid of British gold and silver, and their allies, the Tories, used all their powers to cut off from the colonies the sinews of war, and thus to destroy the American cause. Much of the depreciation of the bills of credit was owing to these efforts. Had this money been both issued and redeemable by the nation or Government; had the Government pos- sessed the power to impose duties on imports and inter- nal taxes, and to collect them; had the bills been made, by the act creating them, legal tender in payment of all private debts and receivable for debts due the nation and individuals, with power in the General Government to make its authority respected; had nothing been said in the law or in the notes about paying in specie, as was done on the issue of our treasury notes, and no provi- sion been made for the States to receive them in coin, not more than $50,000,000 need to have been issued. The money paid out would have returned to the treas- ury for taxes and duties, and could have been re -paid out. This would have obviated the necessity of issuing three-fourths of the bills issued, and kept those out at par, or nearly so, with coin. But whether par with coin or not, they would have been a sure, sound circulation, with which the loyal people would hav^e been satisfied. CONTINENTAL MONEY. . 85 But our fathers, though great and wise in counsel, and brave and patriotic in battle and trial, do not appear to have understood the proper method of conducting the finances of a great people in time of war. They were misled by the idea that a people in a protracted war could sustain a specie currency, or one based upon cur- rency, and that when the able-bodied men of the nation were in camp or on the battle-field, instead of at the plow or anvil, and the productive industries of the coun- try were prostrate, millions upon millions could be col- lected from the people to supply armies, or to redeem a currency by which they were supplied. Their fatal error was in making their bills payable in premium coin, on demand, and providing that the money should be redeemed in eight years, by taxes collected from an impoverished people, instead of issuing the bills as a permanent circulation, making them legal tender and par with coin by receiving and paying them for every- thing for which coin was paid and received. What would have been the result if, in 1862 and 1863, the United States, with all their resources and power, had pursued the policy of our father in 1775 and 1776. It is impossible to compute the millions lost by the Amer- ican people in the last 100 years by the specie delusion. But this money was wanting in all these monitary char- acteristics. At all times, when debts were to be paid by the Continental Congress, it was necessary to issue new money, instead of paying tlierefor that which had been received into the Treasury for taxes or duties, or in exchanire for interest certificates and bonds. The circu- lation therefore increased to four times the wants of trade and commerce, and became, for this and the other reasons assigned, depreciated. 86 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. But depreciated and imperfect as this money was, it enabled our fathers to achieve their and our independ- ence. But for the Continental money the Revolution would have been a failure. It enabled Congress to equip and sustain armies until 1780, when other nations espoused our cause and loaned us money, and aided in fighting our battles. For four long years of war this was our only money. In ITSO and 1781 France became our ally and loaned us $5,000,000 in coin. We confess to a want of admiration of those states- men who compare the United States of America in 1879 to the Continental government of 1775 and 1776, and the paper issues of the Continental Congress, with those of the United States at this time; and insist that because the former money was a partial failure the latter must of necessity be. We have little or no confidence in the honesty or patriotism of those hired authors who now, at the bidding of Wall Street, point to the example of the Continental government as a warning to the great- est nation on earth not to issue paper money. Let them be reminded of the following facts: Our fathers were not at the time a nation. They had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor i n support of their right to be independent. We, through their sacrifices, have been a nation nearly 100 years. They numbered only 3,000,000 of souls; we number 50,000,- 000. Thirteen States composed the confederation; we number thirty-eight States and ten Territories. Their western boundary was the Mississippi River; ours is the Pacific Ocean. They had no fortifications, no army, no navy, no canals, no railroads, no steamboats, no steam- ships, no constitution nor laws made thereunder; no legislative, judicial, and executive departments of the CONTINENTAL MONEY. * 87 Government; no national duties on imports, no national internal revenue, no manufactories, no experienced arti- sans, no money, no credit, no army, no navy, and tlieir foreign commerce was at the time cut oft'. We have fortifications at every assailable point; can in a short time put a million of brave men under arms, well equipped, and can cover the ocean with our ships. Our canals connect our inland seas with the ocean. The whole Union is chequered with railroads, connecting all j)arts of the country, even the Atlantic and Pacific. Our manufacturing establishments are found in every State of the Union. Our machine shops have been supplied with the most experienced artisans. Our agricultural products enable us to export $500,000,000 per annum. Our duties on imports amount to $200,000,000 annually; our internal revenue to more than $100,000,000. Our production of the precious metals amounts to $70,000,- 000 per year. In view of these facts, how preposterous to compare the United States in 1879 with the Conti- nental Government in 1776, and their issues of paper money with those of the United States now. The Con- tinental Government failed to meet its obligations. The Government of the United States under the Constitution never has. In 1776 the Continental Government had es- tablished no credit at home or abroad. The Government of the United States has established a first-class credit both at home and abroad. A currency issued by the Government of the United States, made legal tender in all parts of the nation, paid out for all debts due by the Government, and received into tlie treasury for all debts due the nation, can never be at discount. Mr. Calhoun, in a few words, expresses the difference between Continental money and United States Treasury 88 LABQK AND FINANCE REVOLUTION notes. He says the former was a promise to yjay with- out revenue, but the latter is a promise to receive for rev^enue, with an abundance of revenue to receive. "We add that the former promise was not made by a nation to be fulfilled by a nation. The latter is made by a nation having the ability to perform, THE FIRST BANK OF THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE CON- STITUTION.* This bank was chartered by Congress in 1791. The capital was $10,000,000. One-fifth of the stock was owned by the United States and $8,000,000 by the peo- ple. Six of the eight millions were Government indebt- edness; and $2,000,000 — money. The tenth section of the charter made the notes of the l^ank those of the na- tion, by providing that for twenty years they should be received for all dues to the Government. This institution was the depository of all Government money, the fiscal agent of the United States, the commis- sioner of all Government loans, received all the revenues of the nation, paid all the debts of the Government, and its notes were made by the Mth section of the act, re- ceivable for all obligations due the Government for twenty years, or during the life of the charter. The bank always paid coin when demanded, but the notes were legal tender to the Governinent; and, therefore, satis- factory to the people, whether the bank paid coin or not. This was made plain by the law, and was demonstrated ill the last four years of the life of the charter, when the most bitter controversy was carried on between the bank and the President and Cabinet. The bank, it was charged, had attempted to control. *Warwick Martin. UNITED STATES BANKS. 89 and had controlled elections in the State, and was then laboring to control those of the nation. Reports charg- ing the bank with corruption, and even insolvency, were circulated; but the notes of the institution were le coin it, making its private coinage a criminal offense? 106 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. Why not let any one make it, and dispose of it in market as of any other commodity? If money be mer- chandise, why is it, that it can be at all times exchanged for property and products, in any part of the country, and that all other more necessary commodities are at certain times esteemed almost worthless, compared with it? It is answered, that it is because it is made by law a legal ten- der in payment for debts — that it has this superiority over every other commodity. But the very answer proves that it is not a commodity; for a legal tender is a crea- tion by law of certain properties which do not naturally belong to any substance, but which are made to repre- sent all substances, and to control their exchange." NOT A STANDARD OF VALUE. It is utterly impossible to make gold uniform as a standard or measure of value: It being a commodity and bearing a commercial value, it rises and falls in market like any other production. The act known as the Peel Act, of 1845, made gold receivable at the Baidv of England at the rate of three pounds, nineteen shilling, and nine pence per ounce of pure metal. Doubleday's Financial History of Eng- land, page 277, has the following statement of the fluctuations of gold in that country for the ten years from 1810 to 1820, compared with the present standard price by the Peel Act, £3, 19s, 9d: 1810 £4, 5s, Od 1811 .£4, 17s, Id 1812 - £5, 8s, Od 1813 £5, 10s, Od 1814 £5, ls,Od 1815 ...£4, 12s, 9d 1816.. £3, 18s, 6d 1817 £4, Os, Od 1818 £4, Is, 5d 1819 £4, 3s, Od 1820 £3, 17s, 10>^d METALLIC MONEY, 107 *I insert the following comparative table of English money from Sir Frederick Eden. The unit, or present value, refers of course to that of the shilling before the last coinage, which reduced it: Conquest, 1066 28 E. I.. 1300 18 E. III., 1344 20 E. III., 1346 27 E. III., 1353 13 H. IV., 1412 4E. IV., 1464 18 H. VIII. 1527 34 H. VIII. 1543 36 H. VIII. 1545 37 H. VIII. 1546 5 E. VI., 1551 6 E. VI., 1552 1 Mary, 1553 2 Eliz., 1560 43 Eliz.. 1601 Vauie of pound bterlinsi present Proportion. money. 3 IS IH 2.906 2 17 5 2.871 2 12 5H 2.633 2 11 8 2.583 2 6 6 2.335 1 18 9 1.937 1 11 1.55 1 7 6% 1.378 1 3 314 1.163 13 UK 0.698 9 BH 0.466 4 1% 0.233 1 684: 1.038 1 5?^ 1.024 1 8 1.033 1 1.000 English law had decided and assumed to compel an ounce of gold to be worth £3, 19s, 9d, according to the stamp they had put on an ounce of their 2^'^f& gold metal. The stamp put on a piece of metal by a Government mint, is supposed to indicate its value, or to express its measuring quality or purchasing power under the law. But by the above table it will be seen that in ISIO an ounce of pure gold by the same stamp-counting measure of value was worth, bought, and was received at £4, 5s, in 1812, £5, 8s, and on up, in 1813, to £5, 10s, and then down, in 1820, to £3, 17s, 10|d; and this was not as compared with any paper money, but with itself, in value at diiferent periods of only a few months apart. The wealth concentrating and labor impoverishing machine of the British Government being drawn on, in 1810, for an ounce of ]nire gold, would count out £4, 5s *Note by Hallam. lOS LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. woi'th, as footed up by the stamp on the coins; drawn on for an ounce of pure gold in 1812, it would count out £5, 8s worth, drawn on in 1844 for the same, it would count out £3, 17s, 10|-d worth — unless it had suspended, as it has made a rule of doing periodically, as the gold basis has always done. How did it happen that the absolute measures fluctu- ated so that it could not swallow as much of itself at one time as another? And this is the absolute money stand- ard that our popular preachers, bondholders and shylocks worship. Did the ounce weigh less, and then more, changing the fixed law of gravitation, during 1810 and 1812, or did the value of the metal, gold, itself by law the arbitrary measure of value, change? The following statistics, compiled by W. Kimball, of New Haven, Conn., show the price of gold, flour and beef from 1860 to 1874, during which period the volume of currency swell from about $400,000,000 to near $2,- 000,000,000, and was contracted again to $779,000,000, and gold fluctuated all the way from 1.00 to 2.85. YEAR. 18G0 1801 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1873 1873 '874 GOLD. FLOUR. BEEF. $1.00 $5.35 $10.75 1.00 5.50 9.00 1.00 to 1.37 5.47 12.00 1.37 to 1.733^ 5.87 13.50 1.73 to 3.85 >^ 6.30 13.35 lAQU 9.72 30.00 1.41 7.60 19.00 1.37 9.43 13.50 1.36 870 15.00 1.24 5.70 14.00 1.10 4.93 14,00 1.08 5.50 13.50 1.11 6.00 10.00 1.12 5 55 11.00 1.13 5.95 10.37 METALLIC MONEY. 109 Accompanying this table are the following comments and conclusions: "These figures demonstrate that the value of gold, as money, has not been governed bj^ the volume of currency, and that it is not the price of gold that governs the value of products or confidence among business men, or the stability of their commercial relations. "Money represents ideal values; its standard is regulated by ideal conceptions of the people using it, or the power using it must have the force to cause its acceptance. Uncivilized tribes use shells, beads, etc. Heathen nations use metallic coins. As civilization ad- vanced, coin was found inadequate to meet the wants of commercial exchange, and to meet the ideal conception of that age, a currency was founded on a coin basis, issuing three or more dollars for one of coin." Professor Jevons, in "Money, Mechanism and Ex- change," shows from statistics read before the London Statistical Society in 1865, that the valtte of gold between 1789 and 1809, fell in the ratio of 100 to 5i, or by 46 per cent. From 1806 to 1859 it rose again in the extra- ordinary ratio of 100 to 245, or by 145 per cent, "rend- ering Government annuities and all fixed payments almost two and a half times as valuable as thev were in 1809, prostrating and paralysing industries in the same ratio that debts and fixed incomes became more valuable, and gold increased in value and ptirchasing power.'' After 1846 the gold discoveries in California and Aus- tralia increased the world's annual supply from $61,- 000,000 that year to $181,000,000 in 1851, diminishing its value and producing power 36 per cent. Since 1846 the annual product of gold has steadily diminished in quantity from $124,000,000 that year to about $80,000,- 000 in 1877. The New York Public, a prominent financial news- paper of the bullion school, furnishes statistics to de- monstrate that the purchasing power of gold has increased 34 per cent, since 1873, and that there has 110 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. been a corresponding shrinkage in wages of labor and the general prices of products. The London Economist of a late date is also of the opinion that gold has been advancing in value since 1873. To establish this conclusion, it takes the average prices of 22 articles in 1815 to 1850 at 100, and makes a comparison, of which the following are the principal points: From 1850 to 1S57 there was a rise from 100 to 136; to 1859, a fall to 115; to 1864 a rise to 172; to 1869, a fall to 121: a tem- porary advance in 1870 to 122; and in the succeeding years fluctuations as below: 1871, 118; 1872, 129; 1873, 134; 1874, 131; 1875, 136; 1876,123; 1877, 123; 1878, (December) 104. It will be observed that the fio^nres of the Economist show an increase in the value of gold from 1873 to 1878 of 30 per cent, while the calculation of the Public puts the rise in gold at 34 per cent. One figures upon com- modities in London, and the other in New York. The effects of shrinking and swelling values of money upon the industrial and commercial prosperity of a country are most disastrous. The greatest prosperity, and the highest moral, intel- lectual and material development of a nation are pro- moted by the use of money unchanging in value. The fallina: value of monev, induced bv an increase of its quantity, has invariably been followed by an increased business activity and general prosperity, and vice versa. It was scarce and dear money that cast over the world the pall of the Dark Ages, and not till the discovery of America unlocked the vaults of Potosi, in 1570, increased the volume of money, diminishing its purchasing power, and advancing the prices of labor and products, did METALLIC MONEY. Ill the torch of civilization lig'lit up tlie world, or the shackles of feudalism fall from the limbs of society. What is meant bv dear and cheap money? What is the standard, above which we are to know it is dear, and below which it is cheap? We have our zero, above or below which the mercury is a sure indicator of temperature. The ocean level is the standard of altitude, and the equator of latitude. These standards are unvarying and reliable. We are told that gold is a standard of value. It can not be a standard of its own value, and as it is subject to all the changes and fluctuations of other products it is unreliable as a standard of other values Uniformity of general 'prices^ is the only reliable standard of money value. All things being equal, the average value of commod- ities will remain steady and uniform, with a steady and uniform volume of money. This is self-evident, and the only question is, how can the purchasing power of money be fixed and permanently maintained? Only by substituting for the precious metals a domes- tic medium of exchange, whose volume, and purchasing as well as debt-paying power, are within the control of the Government for the benefit of labor and enter- prise. What matters it if gold is one, or one thousand per cent, premium? As a domestic money we have no use for it, and our business prosperity should not be jeopard- ized by being linked to its ever-varying and uncertain fortunes. Gold has nearly doubled in value and purchasing power since 1S64. We need a cheaper money, within the reach of every hand of toil. 112 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. COINAGE ACTS. {Compiled and digested, by W. L. Fawcett.) The following includes all the clauses of all the laws of the United States (and the previous Confederation of States) from 1781 to 1876, as they relate to the Weighty Fineness and Legal -Tender Value of United States and foreign coins. This summary is intended as historic of tlie policy of the Government in regard to gold and silver coins and the relative values of the two metals: Articles of Confederation between the States, adopted March 1, 1781. § 1. The United Slates in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority or by that of the respective States, fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States. [By act of the Congress of the Confederation passed August 8, 1786, and by the ordinance of October 16, 1786, a silver dollar, containing 370.64 grains of pure silver, was established as the " unit of account," though the Confederation had not established any mint, and no such coins as were specified by the act were coined anywhere. The dollar thus established was intended to be the equivalent of 4s. 6d. sterling, but fell short of it by about two per cent.J The Constitution, adopted September 17, 1787. The Congress shall have power — g 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States. § 3. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. No State shall coin monej^ emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts. Act April 2, 1792. That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dimes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and mills or thousandths, a dime being the tenth part of a dollar, a cent the hun- drelh part of a dollar, a mill the thousandth part of a dollar, and that all accounts in the public offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regula- tion. § 4. That a mint for the purpose of a national coinage be and the same is established ; to be situate and carried on at the seat of govern- ment of the United States for the time being. g 5. There shall be, from time to time, struck and coined at said METALLIC MONEY. 113 mint, coins of gold, silver and copper, of the following denomina- tions, values and descriptions, viz.: Eagles— each to be of the value often dollars or units, and to contain 247 >^ grains of pure, or 270 grams of standard gold. Il'tlf ck gles—e-dch to be of the value of five dollars or units, and to contain 123^:^ grains of pure, or 135 grains of standard gold. Quarter eagles— each to be of the value of two dollars and a half dollar, and to contain 61% grains of pure, or 61% grains of standard gold. Dollars or units — each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar, as the same is now current, and to contain 371 14' grains of pure, or 410 grains of standard silver. Ilalf dollars — each to be of half the value of the dollar or unit, and to contain 185% grains of pure, or 208 grains of standard silver. Quarter dol- lars — each to be of one-fourth the value of the dollar or unit, and to contain 92f| grains of pure, or 104 grains of standard silver. JJismes — each to be one-tenth of the value of a dollar or unit, and to contain 373^ grains of pure, or 41f grains of standard silver. Half dismes — each to be of the value of one-twentieth of a dollar, and to contain 18t5 grains of pure, or 20f- grains of standard silver. Cents— en h 10 be of the value of one hundredth part of a dollar, and to contain 11 pennyweights of copper. Half cents — each to be of the value of half a cent, and to contain 5)^ pennyweights of copper. § 6. The proportional value of gold to silver in all coins which shall, by law, be current as money within the United States shall be as fifteen to one, according to quantity in weight of pure gold and pure silver; that is to say, every fifteen pounds weight of pure silver shall be of equal value iu all payments with one pound weight of pure gold', and so in proportion as to greater or less quantities of the respective metals. Act February 9, 1793. § 7. At the expiration of three years next ensuing from the time when the coinage of gold and silver, agreeably to the act entitled " An act establishing a mint and regulating the coins of the United States," shall commence at the mint of the United States (which shall be announced by proclamation of the President of the United States), all foreign gold coins and all foreign silver coins, except Spauisli milled dollars and parts of such dollars, shall cease to be legal tender as aforesaid. (See § 13.) § 8. All foreign gold and silver coins, except Spanish milled dol- lars and parts of such dollars, which shall be received in payment for moneys due to the United States after the said time when the coining of gold and silver coins shall begin at the mint of the United States, shall, previously to their being issued in circulation be coined anew, in conformity to the act entitled "An act establishing a mint and regulating the coins of the United Stales." (See § 19.) Act March 2, 1799. § 9. All foreign coins and currencies shall be estimated at the fol- lowing rates, viz. : Each pound sterling of Great Britain at four dol- lars and forty-four cents ($4.44) ; each Uv7-e tournois of France at eigh- teen and a half cents (ISj;^); each florin or guilder of the Union Netherlands at forty cents (40); each mark-banco of Hamburg at 8 114 LABOR AND FINANCE EEVOLUTION. thirty-three and one-third cents (33^) ; each rix, dollar of Denmark at one hundred (100) cents; each real of plate and each rial of vellon of Spain, the former at ten cents and the latter at five cents each; each mib-ee of Portugal at one dollar and twenty-four cents; each pound sterling of Ireland at four dollars and ten cents; each tale of China at one dollar and forty-eight cents; each pagoda of India at one dollar and ninety-four cents; each rupee of Bengal at fifty-five and one-half cents; and all other denominations of money, as nearly as may be to the said rates or the intrinsic value thereof, compared with money of the United States. g 10. All duties and fees to be collected shall be payable in money of the United States, or in foreign gold and silver coins at the fol- lowing rates, tliat is to say: the gold coins of Great Britain and Port- ugal of the standard prior to the year 1793 at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains of the actual weight thereof; the gold coins of France, Spain and the dominions of Spain, of the standard prior to the year 1792, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains and two-fifths of a grain of the actual weight thereof; Spanish milled dollars at the rate of one hundred cents for each dollar, the actual weight whereof shall not be less than seventeen (17) pennyweights and seven (7) grains — and in proportion for the parts of a dollar; crowns of France at the rate of one hundred and ten cents for each crown ; the actual weight whereof shall not be less than eighteen (18) pennyw3ights and seventeen (17) grains — and in proportion for the parts of a crown, Provided, that no foreign crowns shall be receivable which are not by law a legal tender for the payment of all debts — except in consequence of a proclama- tion by the President of the United States authorizing such foreign coins to be received in payment of duties and fees as aforesaid. ■Act March 3, 1801. § 11. The foreign coins and currencies hereinafter mentioned shall be estimated in the computation of duties at the following rates: each sicca rupee of Bengal and each rupee of Bombay at fifty cents, and each star pagoda of Madras at one hundred and eighty-four cents. Act April 10, 1806. § 12. Foreign gold and silver coins shall pass current as money within the United States, and be a legal tender for the payment of all debts and demands at the several and respective rates following, and not otherwise, viz. : The gold coins of Great Britain and Portugal of their present standard at the rate of one hundred cents.for every twenty-seven grains of the standard weight thereof; the gold coins of France, Spain and the dominions of Spain, of tlieir present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains and two-fifths of a grain of the actual weight thereof. Spanish milled dollars at the rate of one hundred cents for each, the actual weight whereof shall not be less than seventeen (17) pennyweights and seven (7) grains, and in proportion for the parts of a dollar. Crowns of France at the rate of one hundred and ten cents for each crown, the actual weight whereof shall not be less than eighteen (18) METALLIC MOJS^EY 115 pennyweights and seventeen (17) grains, and in proportion for the parts of a crown. And it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to cause assays of the foreign gold and silver coins of the description made current by this act, and which shall issue subse- quently to the passage of this act, and shall circulate in the United States— at the mint aforesaid, at least once in every year, and to make report of the result thereof to Congress, for the purpose of enabling Congress to make such coins current— if they shall deem the same to be proper — at their real standard value. § 13. That the first section of the act entitled "An act regulating foreign coins and for other purposes," passed the 9tli day^of Feb- ruary, 1793, be and the same is hereby repealed, and the operation of the second section of the same act is hereby suspended for and during the space of three years from the passage of this act. (See §7-8.) Act March 3, 1823. § 14. The following gold coins shall be received in all payments on account of public lands at the several and respective rates follow- ing and not otherwise, viz.: the gold coins of Great Britain and Portugal of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains, or eighty-eight, cents and eight-ninths (88 8-9) per pennyweight; the gold coins of France, ot their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents fo.r every twenty-seven and one-half grains or eighty-seven and a quarter (87 %) cents per pennyweight, and the gold coins of Spain, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-eight and a half grains, or eighty-four cents per pennyweight. § 15. It sha'll be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to cause assays of the foregoing coins to be made at the mint of the United States at least once in every year, and make report of the result thereof to Congress. Act June 25, 1S34. • ^ 16. The following silver coins shall be of the legal value, and shall pass current as money within the United States, by tale for the payment of all debts and demands at the rate of one hundred cents to the dollar, that is to say, the dollars of Mexico, Peru, Chili and Central America, of not less weight than four hundred .and fifteen grains each, and those re-stamped in Brazil of the like weight, of not less fineness than ten ounces fifteen peunyweighls of pure silver in the troy pound of twelve ounces of standard silver; and the five- franc pieces of France, when of not less fineness than ten (10) ounces and sixteen (16) pennyweights in twelve ounces troy weight of standard silver, and weighing not less than three hundred and eighty-four grains each— at the rate of ninety-three (93) cents each. § 17. The following gold coins shall pass current as money in the* United States, and be receivable in all payments by weight .'for the payment of all debts and demands at the rates following, that is to say; the gold coins of Great Britain, Portugal and Brazil, of not less than twenty-two (22) carats fine, at the rate of ninety-four cents and 116 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. eight-tenths of a cent (94^^ per pennyweight; the gold coins of France, nine-tenths fine, at tiie rate of ninety-three cents and oae- tentli of a cent (03^^ per pennyweight, and the gold coins of Spain, Mexico and Columbia, of the fineness of twenty (20) carats, three grains and seven-sixteenths (S^-'g) of a grain, at the rate of eighty-nine cents and nine-tenths of a cent (SOj^^) per pennyweight. Act January 18, 1837. § 18. The standard for both gold and silver coins of the United States shall hereafter be such that of one thousand parts by weight nine hundred shall be of pure metal and one hundred of alloy, and the alloy of silver coins shall be of copper, and the alloy of the gold coins shall be of copper and silver, provided that the silver do not exceed one-half the alloy. § 19. Of the silver coins, the dollar shall be of the weight of 4123^ grains; the half dollar of the weight of 20634 grains; the quarter dol- lar of the weight of 103i^ grains ; the dime, or tenth part of a dollar^ of the weight of 41 1^ grains, and the half dime, or twentieth part of a dollar, of the weight of 20% grains. § 20. And that dollars, half dollars, quarter dollars, dimes and half dimes shall be legal tenders of payment according to their nom- inal value for any sums whatever. i; 21. Of the gold coins, the weight of the eagrZe shall be 2.58 grains;, that of the half eagle 129 grains, and of the quarter eagle 64)^ grains. g 22. And that for all sums whatever the eagle shall be a legal tender of payment for ten dollars, the half eagle for five dollars, and the quarter eagle for two and a half dollars. Act July 21, 1842. § 23. In all payments by or to the treasury, whether made here or in foreign countries where it becomes necessary to compute the value of the pound sterliae, it shall be deemed equal to four dollars and eighty-four cents ($4.84). Act March 3, 1843. § 24. The following gold coins shall pass current as money in the United States and be receivable by weight for the payment of all debts and demands at the rates following, that is to say; the gold coins of Great Britain, of not less than nine hundred and fifteen and a half thousandths (915)^-1,000) in fineness, at ninety-four cents and six- tenths (94/q) of a cent per pennyweight, and the gold coins of France, of not less than eight hundred and ninety-nine thousandths (y'oiyff) ^'^ fineness, at ninety-two cents and nine-tenths of a cent (92j%) per pen- nyweight. The following foreign silver coins shall pass current as money within the United States and he receivable by tale for the payment ■ of all debts and demands at the following rates, that is to say; the Spanish pillar dollars, and the dollars of Mexico, Peru and Bolivia, of not less than eight hundred and ninety-seven thousandths (yoVo) ^'^ fineness and four hundred and fifteen (415) grains in weight, at one hundred cents each, and the five-franc pieces of France, of not less ETALLIC MONEY. 117 thaa nine hundred tliousandths (j6°^) ^^ fineuess aud three hundred and eighty-four (i384) grains in weight, at ninety-three (93) cents each. Act March 3, 1849. g 35. There shall be from time to time struck and coined at the mint of the United States aud tlie branches thereof— conformably in all respects to law, aud conformably in all respects to the standartl for gold coins now established by law — coins of gold of the following denominations and value, viz. : Double eagles, each to be of the value of twenty dollars or units, aud gold dollars, each to be of the value of one dollar, or unit. g 26. For all sums whatever the double eagle shall be a legal ten- der for twenty dollars, and the gold dollar shall be a legal tender for one dollar. § 27. In adjusting the weights of gold coins henceforward the fol- lowing deviations from the standard weight shall not be exceeded in any of the single pieces, namely: in the double eagles, the eagle and the half eagle, one-half of a grain; and in the quarter eagle and gold dollar, one quarter of a grain; and that in weighing a large number of pieces together, when delivered from the chief coiner to the treas- urer, and from the treasurer to the depositors, the diviation from the standard weight shall not exceed three pennyweights in one thousand double eagles; two pennyweights in one thousand eagles; one and one-half pennyweights in one thousand half eagles; one pennyweight in one thousand quarter eagles, and one-half of a pennyweight in one thousand gold dollars. Act March 3, 1851. % 28. It shall be lawful to coin at the mint of the United States and its branches a piece of the denomination and legal value of three cents, orthree-huudredthsof a dollar, to Decomposed of three-fourths silver aud one-fourth cooper, and to weigh twelve (12) grains aud three-eighths (%) of a grain ; that it shall be a legal tender in payment of debts for all sums of thirty cents and under. Act February 21, 1S53. % 29. That the weight of the Jialf dollar, or piece of fifty cents, shall be' one hundred and ninety-two (192) grains; and the quarter dollar, dime and half dime shall be respectively one-half, one-fifth and one- tenth of the weight of the half dollar. § 30. The silver corns issued in conformity with the above section shall be legal tenders in payment of debts for all sums not exceeding five dollars. § 31. From time to time there shall be struck aud coined at the mfnt of the United States and the branches thereof, conformably in all respects to the standard of gold coius now established by law, a coin of gold of the value of three dollars or units. % 82. And that hereafter the three cent piece now authorized by law shall be made of the weight of three-fiftieths of the weight of the half dollar, as provided in said act, and of the same standard of fine- ness. And said act, entitled " An act amendatory of existing laws relative to the half dollar, quarter dollar, dime and half dime,'' shall 118 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. take effect and be in full force from and after the first day of April, 1853, anything to the contrary notwithstanding. Act February 21, 1857. § 33. The standard weight of the cent coined at the mint shall be seventy-two (72) grains, or three-twentieths of an ounce troy, with no greater deviation than four grains in each piece; and said cent shall be composed of eighty-eight (88) per centum of copper and twelve (12) per centum of nickel. And the coinage of the fialf cent shall cease. Act February 21, 1857. % 34. The pieces commonly known as the quarter, eighth and six- teenth of the Spanish pillar dollar and of the Mexican dollar shall be receivable at the Treasury of the United States and its several offices, and the several postoffices and land offices, at the rates of valuation following, viz. : the fourtli of a dollar, or piece of two reals at twenty cents; the eighth of a dollar, or piece of one real, at ten cents; and. the sixteenth of a dollar, or half real, at five cents. § 35. All fanner acts authorizing the currency of foreign gold or silver coins, and declaring the same a legal tender in payment of debt's, are hereby repealed; but it shall be the duty of the director of the mint to cause assays to be made fr(>m time to time of such foreign coins as may be known to commerce, to determine their average weight, fineness and value, and to embrace in his annual report a statement of the results thereof. Act April 22, 1864. § 36. The standard weight of the cent coined at the mint of the United States shall be forty-eight grains, or one-tenth of one ounce troy, and said cent shall be composed of ninety-five per centum of copper and five per centum of tin and zinc in such proportions as shall be determined by the director of the mint; and there shall be from time to time struck and coined at the mint a two-ceut piece of the same composition, the standard weight of which shall be ninety- six grains, or one-fifth of an ounce troy, with no greater diviation than four trains to each piece. §37. The said coins shall be a legal tender in any payment, the one cent coin to the amount often cents, and the two cent coin to the amount of twenty cents; and it shall be lawful to pay out said coins in exchange for the lawful currency of the United States (ex- cept cents or half cents issued under former acts of Congress) in suit- able sums, by the treasurer of the mint, and by such other depositaries as the secretary of the treasury may designate. Act March 3, 1865. § 38. There shall be coined at the mint of the United States a three cent piece composed of copper and nickel in such proportion — not exceeding twenty-five (25) per centum of nickel — as shall be de- termined by the director of the mint, the standard weight of which shall be thirty grains, with no greater deviation than four grains to each piece. METALLIC MONEY. 119 §. 39. The said coin shall be a legal lender in any payment to the amount of sixty cents; and it shall be lawful to pay out said coins in exchange for the lawful currency of the United States (except cents or half cents or two cent pieces issued under former acts of Congress) in suitable sums, by the treasurer of the mint, and by such other depositaries as the secretary of the treasury may designate. Pro- vided, that from and after the passage of this act no issues of frac- tional notes of the United States shall be of less denomination than five cents. § 40. The one and two cent coins of the United States shall not be a legal tender for any payment exceeding four cents in amount (previous laws to the contrary repealed). Act May 16, 18G6. § 41. There shall be coined at the mint of the United States a five cent piece, composed of copper and nickel in such proportion — not exceeding twenty-five centum of nickel — as shall be determined by the director of ttie mint, the standard weight of wiiich shall be sev- enty-seven and sixteen hundredths grains, with no greater deviation than two grains to each piece. § 43. Said coins shall be a legal tender in any payment to the amount of one dollar; and it shall be lawful to pay out said coins for lawful currency of the United States, in suitable sums, by the treasurer of the mint, and by such other depositaries as the secretary of the treasury may designate. § 43. That from and after the passage of this act no issue of fractional notes of the United States shall be of less denomination than ten cents. S^ 44. It shall be lawful for the treasurer and the several assistant treasurers of tlie United States to redeem in national currency^ under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the secretary of the treasury, the coins herein authorized to be issued when presented in sums of not less than one liundred dollars. Act March 3, 1871. § 45. That the secretary of the treasury is required to redeem in lawful money all copper, bronze, copper-nickel and base-metal coin- age of every kind hitherto authorized by law, when presented in sums of not less than twenty dollars. Act February 12, 1873. § 46. That the gold coins of the United States shall be a One Dollar Piece, which, at the standard weight of twenty-five and eight-tenths (25^^) grains shall be the Unit of Value; a Quarter Eagle, or two and a half dollar piece; a Three Dollar Piece; a Half Eagle, or five dollar piece; an Eagle, or ten dollar piece; and a Double Eagle, or twenty dollar piece. And the standard weight of tlie Gold Dollar shall be twenty-five and eight-tenths grains; of the Quarter Eagle sixty-four and one-half grains; of the Three Dol- lar Piece seventy-seven and four-tenths grains; of the Half Eagle one hundred and twenty-nine grains; of tlie Eagle two hundred and 120 LABOK AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. fifty-eight grains; of the Double Eagle five hundred and sixteen grains, which coins shall be a legal tender in all payments at their nominal value when not below tiie standard weight and limit of tol- erance provided in this act, and that when reduced in weight below said standard and tolerance shall be a legal tender in proportion to their actual weight. Any gold coins of the United States, if reduced by natural abra- sion not more than a half of one per cent, below the standard weight after twenty years' circulation, and at a ratable proportion for any less period, shall be received at their nominal value at the United States treasury. § 47. The silver coins of the United States shall be a Trade Dol- lar, a Half Dollar, a Quarter Dollar, a Dime. And the weight of the Trade Dollar shall be four hundred and twenty (420) grains troy; the weight of the Half Dollar shall be twelve grams and one-half of a (jraiii; the Quarter Dollar and the Dime shall be respectively one- half and one-fifth the weight of said half dollar; and said coins shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for any amount not exceed- ing five dollars in one payment. § 48. The standard for both gold and silver coins of the United States shall be such that of one thousand parts by weight nine hun- dred shall be of pure metal and one hundred of alloy. The alloy of the silver coins shall be of copper. The alloy of the gold coins shall be of copper, or of copper and silver, but the silver shall in no case exceed oue-tenth of the whole alloy. § 49. The minor coins of the United States shall be a Five Cent Piece, a Three Cent Piece and a One Cent Piece. The alloy for the five and three cent pieces shall be of copper and nickel, to be com- posed of three-fourths copper and one-fourth nickel. The alloy of the one cent i)iece shall be ninety-five per centum of copper and five per centum of tin and zinc, in such proportions as shall be determined by the director of the mint. The weight of the five cent piece shall be seventy-seven and sixteen hundredths grains troy ; of the three cent pieces thirty grains, and of the one cent piece forty-eight grains. § 50. No coins, either of gold, silver or minor coinage, shall here- after be issued from the mint other than those of the denominations, standards and weights set forth in this title. § 51. Silver coins, other than the trade dollars, shall be paid out at the several mints and at the assay office in New York City in ex- change for gold coins at par, in sums not less than one hundred dol- lars. § 52. Nothing herein contained shall, however, prevent the pay- ment of silver coins at their nominal value for silver parted from yold, as provided in this title, or for change less than one dollar in settlement of gold deposits. g 53. In adjusting the weights of the gold coins the following deviations shall not be exceeded in any single piece: In the double eagle and the eagle, one-half of a grain; inlhe half eagle, the three dollar piece, the quarter eagle and the one dollar piece, one-fourth of a grain, and in weighing a number of pieces together, when de- livered by the coiner to the superintendent and by the superintendent METALLIC MONEY. 121 to the depositor, the deviation from the standard weight shall not exceed one-huudredth of an ounce in five thousand dollars in double eagles, eagles, half eagles or quarter eagles, or in one thousand dol- lars in three dollar pieces or one dollar pieces. § 54. In adjusting the weight of the silver coins the following de- viations shall not be exceeded in any single piece: In the dollar, the half dollar, the quarter dollar and in the dime, one and one-half grains, and in weighing a large number of pieces the deviations shall not exceed two-hundredths of an ounce in one thousand dollars, half dollars, or quarter dollai's, and one-hundredth of an ounce in one thousand dimes. § 55. In adjusting the weight of the minor coins provided by this title, there shall be no greater deviation allowed than three grains for the five cent piece, and two grains lor the three and one cent pieces. g 56. That all other acts and parts of acts pertaining to the mints, assay offices and coinage of the United States, inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed : Provided, Th&i this act shall not be construed to affect any act done, right accrued, or pen- alty incurred under former acts, but every such right is hereby saved. Act March 3, 1873. § 57. The value of the sovereign, or pound sterling, shall be deemed equal to four dollars eighty-six cents and six and one-half mills; and all contracts made after the first day of January, 1874, based on an assumed par of exchange with Great Britain, of fifty- four pence to the dollar, of four dollars forty-four cents and four-ninths cents to the sovereign, or pound sterling, shall be null and void. Act March 3, 1875. § 58. That there shall be from time to time coined at the mints of the United States, conformably in all respects to the coinage act of 1873, a coin of silver of the denomination of twenty cents, and of the weight of five grams. That the twenty cent piece shall be a legal tender at its nomiual value for any amount not exceeding five dollars in any one payment. That in adjusting the weight of the twenty cent piece, the deviation from the standard weight shall not exceed one and one-half grains. Act July 13, 1876. § 59. That the trade dollar shall not hereafter be a legal tender. 122 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. COIN IN THE UNITED STATES. Estimate of the amount of coin in the country from 1854 to 1876. (Official report of Treasury Department.) Coin in Banks. Total in the Country. 1854 $59,410,000 55.945,000 59,714.000 59.372,000 60,705,000 $240,000,000 1855 1856 1857 1858 - 1859 .• :i!..j,000,000 1860. 1861 1862. 1863 1864 1865 1866 1869 1870 (October) ..: 6,000,000 6,000,000 5,000.000 5,000.000 5,500,000 5,000,000 6,000,000 121,000,000 1871 (October) 116,000,000 1872 (October) 102,000,000 1873 (October) 109,000,000 1874 (October) 110,000,000 1875 (October) 100,01)0,000 1976 (J une) 102,000,000 Tlie amount of gold and silver in the United States treasury, on Xov 1, 1879, was as follows: Gold Coin $171,517,713 Silver Coin 50,078,620 Total $221,596,333 The Director of the mint in his report for this year, estimates that the amount of coin in the country on June 30, 1879, was as follows: Estimated amount June 30, 1878 $327,781898 Nqt gold coinage for the year 39,290,009 Net silver coinage for the year 26,518,642 Importation of silver 5,180,015 Total $393,770,564 Deduct net exportation of gold 228,881 Total estimated amount $398,541,663 METALLIC MONEY. 123 Of which, Estimated amount of gold $286,490 698 Silver coin $112,050,985 Added since June 30 to November 1, of silver $9,- 405.370; of gold $19,259,799, making the stock of coin in the country at the latter date, $-127,206,852. THE WORLD S ANNUAL PRODUCTION. GOLD AND SILVER. The following is the Journal des Economists table of the production of gold and silver each year since 1S52: 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. 1857. 1858. 1859. 1860. 1861. 1862. 1863. :864- 1865. 1866- 1867. 1868. 1869. 1870. 1871. 1872. 1873. 1874. 1875. Gold, Silver, Millious. Millions. $1821.^ $401^ 155 40K 127 40>^ 135 401^ 1471^ 40K 133 403^ 124^ 40>^ 1243^ 401^ 119 401^^ 114 42^ m% 45 107 49 113 511^ 120 52 121 50^ 116 54 120 50 121 47J^ 116 51)^ 1161^ 61 loiK 65 1031^ 70 901^ 71^ a?^ 62 Total Oold and Silver, Millions. $223 m% 175^ 188 173^ 165 165 159^ 1561.2' 1521^ 156 1U% 173 170 170 1681.^ 167^ 1771^ 163 1591^ 124 LABOK AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. Assumed progress of the annual consumption of gold in the arts, by the loss and abrasion of coins, and by the loss, wear and accumulation of jewelry: {W. L. Fawcett.) ' Tear. Millions. Year. Millions. 1839 25 25.5 26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29 29.5 30 32 34 37 40 43 47 51 1857 55 1840 1858 59 1841 1859 63 1843 1860 67 71 1843 1861 1844 1845 1846..., 1863 1863 1864 74 77 81 1847 1865 85 1848 1866 89 1849 1867 92 1850 1868 93 1851 1869 97 1852 1870 101 1853 1871 105 1854 1873 109 1855 1873.... 110 1856 1874 108 Gold, silver and base metal coin and gold and silver bullion in circulation and in banks in all Europe. Great Britain France Germany Austria. Russia Italy. Spain Sweden Belgium Switzerland All other States of Europe. Gold. $443,500,000 650,000,000 380,000,000 800,000,000 11,872,500,000 Silver and Base Metal. $ 80,000,000 350,000,000 370,000,000 200,000,000 250,000,000 145,000,000 200,000,000 70,000,000 38.000,000 5,000,000 360,000,000 $2,060,000,000 i METALLIC MONEY. 125 {From Dr. Lindermaii's Official Report.) Annual Product of gold and silver from the American ?nines. Year. Gold. Silver. Total. 1870 - $50,000,000 43,500,000 36,000,000 36,000,000 40,000,000 40,000,000 44,300,000 $16,000,000 23,000,000 28,750.000 35,750,000 32,000,000 32,000,000 41,500,000 $ 66,000 000 1871 66,500 000 1873 64,750,000 1873 71,750 000 1874 72 000 000 1875 72,000,000 85,700,000 1876 1877 (Wells,Fargo & Co.'s est.) 100 000 000 COINAGE FOR THE YEAB 1879. {From the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury.) The value of the gold coinage executed during the year was $40,086,912 00 Of standard silver dollars _. 27,227,500 00 Of subsidiary silver coin 3S2 50 Of minor coin. 97,798 00 Total 68,312,592 50 The bullion production from the mines of the United States for the last year is estimated by the Director to be nearly eighty million dollars, the proportions of gold and silver being about equal. The year's total produc- tion is less than that of the preceding year, caused by a diminution in the yield in the mines of Nevada, which was not compensated by increased production in other places. The Director estimates the coin in the country on Oc- tober 31, 1879, at $305,750,497 of gold, and $121,456,- 355 of silver. The bullion in the mints and New York assay office at that date awaiting coinage, amounted to $49,931,035 of gold, and $4,553,182 of silver, making the total amount of coin and bullion $481,691,069. The total amount of silver dollars coined to Novem- ber 1, 1879, under the act of February 28, 1878, was 126 LABOR AND FINANCE EEVOLUTION. $45,206,200, of whicli $13,002,842 was in circulation, and the remainder, $32,203,358, in the Treasury at that time. The total amount of specie imported from January 1, 1879, to November 15, is $75,512,392, of which $65,- 121,200 has arrived since August 1. The production of precious metals for the fiscal year 1879 are estimated by the Director of the Mint at $79,711,990, of which $38,- 899,858 is gold, and $10,812,132 is silver. The following table shows the amount of bullion held by the Bank of England in each year from 1870 to 1879:* (£=5 dollars.) (£=5 dollars.) 1870 S103,900,000 1875 $119,600,000 1871 - 117,950,000 1876 148,500,000 1872 112,900,000 1877 126,850,000 1873 113,500,000 1878 . 119,200,000 1874 111,450,000 1879 150,942,980 The amount of coin held by the Bank of France on December 31 of each year from 1870 to 1878, and also on October 30, 1879, is shown by the following table :f Date. Gold Coin and bullion. (5fr.=$l.) Silver coin and bullion. (5 fr.=$l.) Total. Dec. 31, 1870 « 85,740,000 "^110,680,000 131,740,000 122,260,000 204,220,000 284,860,000 306,080,000 235,420,000 196,720,000 169,000,000 1 13,700,000 16,240,000 25,520,000 81,260,000 62,640,000 101.000,000 127,720,000 178,080,000 211,620,000 241,800,000 $ 99,440,000 126,920,000 158,260,000 153,520.000 Dec. 31, 1871 Dec. 31. 1872 Dec. 31, 1873 Dec. 31, 1874 266 860 000 Dec. 31, 1875 355 860,000 Dec. 31, 1876 433 800 000 Dec. 31, 1877 408 500,000 Dec. 31, 1878 408 340 000 Oct. 30,1879 410,800,000 8 *Page 412 of the Statistical Societj^ June, 1879. fFrom the Bulletin de Statistique, as quoted in the Bankers^ Maga- zine, New York, vol. xiii, page 740, except the item for the present year, •which was obtained from the Financial Chronicle of New York, of November 15, 1879. METALLIC MONEY. 127 The following is a statement of different nations, not including the United States, with their estimated popu- lations, classified according to their metallic standards: SILVER-STANDARD COUNTRIES. Population. Russia 76,000,000 Austria.... 36,000,000 Egypt 4,500,000 Mexico 8,000,000 Central America 2,600,000 Ecuador 1,300,000 Peru 3,400,000 China .«. 400,000,000 British India 237,144,456 768,944,456 As Russia and Austria both have legal tender paper money, their population will be non-effective in relation to the matter in hand, until they resume specie pay- ments, or commence to hoard specie with a view to such payments. With that deduction, the population actually using the silver standard is 656,9'i-i,456. DOUBLE-STANDARD COUNTRIES. Population. Greece 1,400,000 Roumania 4,000,000 Colombia 2,900,000 Venezuela 1,600,000 Chili 1,900,000 Uruguay '. 400,000 Paraguay 1,200,000 Japan 33,000,000 Holland 3,700,000 France 36,200,000 Belgium 5,100,000 Switzerland 2,700,000 Italy 26,800,000 Spain 16,400,000 137,300,000 As Italy has not only a legal tender paper money, but substantially no metallic money in circulation, its pop- ulation may be set down as non-effective, thus reducing 128 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. the population of this group to 110,500,000. In Hol- land, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Spain, contain- ing a population of 6J:,100,000, the coinage of silver is either limited or entirely suspended. GOLD-STANDARD COUNTRIES. Population. Great Britain 32,000,000 Canada, Cape of Good Hope, and Australian Colonies... 7,000,000 Germany 42,000,000 Norway ' 1,700,000 Sweden 4,300,000 Denmark v 1.800.000 Portugal 4,000,000 92,800,000 The average value of the standard gold dollar, in legal tender paper dollars, during the month of July in each year, from 1864 to 1878, and also on January 1, 1879: 1864. 1805. 1866. 1867. 1868. 1869. 1870. 1871. Cts. 258.1 Cts. 142. 1 Cts. 151.6 Cts. 139.4 Cts. 142.7 Cts. 136. 1 Cts. 116. 8 Cts. 112.4 1872. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. Cts. 114.3 Cts. 115. 7 Cts. 110.0 Cts. 114. 8 Cts. 112. 1 Cts. 105. 8 Cts. 100.6 Cts. 100.0 WHY AND HOW SILVER WAS DEMONETIZED. The scheme for the demonetizing of one of the so- called precious metals originated with the money or creditor class, not for the public good or general welfare, but was prompted solely by selfishness on the part of that class. It originated soon after Lhe rich gold discoveries of California and Australia, at a time when it was thought METALLIC MONEY. 129 tliat the increased production of tlie precious metals would seriously aifect the value of money by the antici- pated rise in general prices. In 1857, in his work ("Fall of Gold") Chevalier said: "The quantity of gold annually thrown on the general market ap- proaches, in round numbers, a milliard of francs ($200,000,000). For a long series of years California and Australia must produce such quantities as to render a marked decline in its value inevitable. "It is absolutely certain that a production so vast should be accom- panied with a great reduction in its value. "In no direction can a new outlet be seen sufficiently large to absorb the extraordinary production of gold, so as to prevent a fall in its value. "Unless, then, we possess a very robust faith in the immobility of human affairs, we must regard the fall in the value of gold as an event for which we should prepare without loss of time." Under this and similar appeals from different parts of Europe, by the money and creditor class, who saw, in the near future, their coin and their securities depreci- ating in value relatively as the poor man's labor, and the producer's wealth increased through the increased volume of money, Germany, Austria and several other countries demonetized gold. On this subject the Congressional monetary commis- sion says: " The movement in Europe for the general demonetization of gold would have become general, but for the resistance of France. It was changed in 1865 into a movement for the demonetization of silver. " But this change from demonetizing gold to demonetizing silver was more of form than of substance. The object aimed at by both was a disuse of one of the money metals, to protect the creditor classes and those having fixed incomes against a fall in the value of money, and arise in general prices, of labor and property.'^ The commission adds: " This is the pith and marrow of the monetary discussions of the past twenty years. In all the European discussions after 1848, and prior to the German demonetization of silver and its consequences, the point made was not that eilher metal had depreciated relatively to the other, but that by reason of extraordinary supplies of gold from California and Australia about 1805, and by new supplies of silver 9 130 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. from Nevada, both metals had depreciated relatively to labor and commodities, and that kings, princes and olBce holders, having fixed incomes, and the creditor class, ]xa,\\x\g fixed annuities, were being in- jured by a rise in the price of labor and commodities." The laboring and producing classes were getting the better of the idle, non-taxed and non-producing classes. So long as the double standard existed, a new supply of either metal was an addition to and onlv aftected the general mass of money, and not the relative value of the metals. The " fall in "•old " which Chevalier lamented in 1857, was its fall in relation to iwoferty. In order, therefore, to protect the " income classes " it was claimed to be necessary to demonetize one of the metals, and gold^ being the metal which then promised the most abundant yield, was selected for the purpose. It was not a fall in gold relatively to silver., which caused Germany to demonetize gold in 1857, neither was it a fall in the value of silver in 1871-73 which in- duced several countries in Europe and the United States to demonetize silver. The principal causes which led these countries to adopt finally the gold standard and reject the silver, was, first, the persistence with which England clung to the gold, made a European union upon a single metal other than gold impossible; and second, the discoveries of the Nevada silver mines. We can readily see liow the creditor class of kingdoms and empires, and that class' of born and law perpetuated rulers who depend upon " fixed incomes," could thus outrage and impose upon the laboring and producing classes, who have no voice in the legislatian of their respective countries; but it is astonishing that a free people, exercising absolute sovereignty, should be so blind to their own interest as to allow the "creditor" and "fixed income" class thus to rob and destroy them. METALLIC MONEY. 131 The sole object of tlie resumption of gold payments and the demonetization of silver in the United States as in Europe, was to enhance the value of the creditors' 'principal and interest^ and the " fixed incomes " of the salaried officials, by low and degrading prices of labor and production. The demonetization of silver in the United States was a fraud upon the people, if not upon Congress and the administi-ation. From the report of the Silver Commission we obtain the following facts, also. The Act of February 12, 18T3, is a long act of sixty-seven sections, regulating all the details of the mint: It does not demonetize the old silver dollar, or any of the silver coins of standard weight issued prior to 1S74. The silver dollar is not named in it, and it would escape the casual observation that the dollar was in &,x\y way affected by it. Precisely what the act did, was to authorize the coin- age of silver half dollars, quartei-s, and dimes below standard weight, and of a new silver coin for Asiatic commerce, above standard weight, called the "' trade dol- lar," and prohibited these coins from being legal tender for more than five dollars in any one payment. None of these coins were legal tender for more than that amount under the act of February 25, 1853. It contained no prohibition of the coinage of the old silver dollar, except the following, which would not likely at- tract the attention of anyone: " No coins shall hei-eaftor be issued from the mint other than the denominations, standards and weights herein set forth." The act of February i2, 1873, did not demonetize, nor affect in any manner, the legal tender functions of the full-weighted silver coins that had been minted prior to 132 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. its passage, but the 17th section deprived §ilver bul- lion of its right of being coined into full legal tender money on either Government or private account. In no section of the act was it specifically pointed out or referred to, that the efi'ect of the act was to change the standard of values of gold and silver, to gold alone. The act when passed was not read, except by title, and that title, instead of expressing its real character, read: ^^ A71 act revising and ajnending the laws relating to the mint, assay offices and coinage of the United States^ It is notorious that this transcendent change in the money systems of the country, affecting the most vital interests, was carried through without the knowledge or observation of the people. It was neither demanded by the resolutions of public meetings or political conven- tions, nor asked for in petitions from the people. In its relations to a double or single standard it was hardly mentioned in the House, and not at all in the Senate. The press of the country was silent, and for three years it rested unobserved by the public. The actual demonetization of silver, coined and un- coined, was not completed until 1874, in June, by the following section (3586) of the Revised Statutes: " The silver coins of the United States shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for any amount not ex- ceeding five dollars in any one payment." Whereas the act of February 12, 1873, did not de- monetize or in any way affect the silver dollar of 1853, or authorize its discontinuance, or prevent its coinage, the above clause was interpolated into the Statutes hy the revisers, and as the statutes thus revised were enacted in bulk, the demonetization of the silver dollar was eftected. CHAPTER IX. NATIONAL BAXKS. DIGEST OF THE ORIGINAL ACT. Tije National Banking law provides: First: That any nuUiLer of persons not less than live may form an asso- ciation for carrying on the business of banking. Second: Tliat any such association shall have corpor- ate power, to have succession for the period of twenty years, to make contracts, to sue and be sued, etc. Third: The cajntal of such associations shall not be less than $50,000 in ]ilaces whose population does not exceed six thousand; not less than $100,000 in places whose population exceeds six thousand; and not less than $200,000 in places whose population exceeds fifty thousand. Fourth: The acrorreccate amount of circulation is fixed at $354,000,000, to be apportioned as follows: $150,000,- 000 amono^ the several states and territories according to representative poj^ulation; $150,000,000 to be dis- tributed by the secretary of the treasury according to his discretion; and the remaining $54,000,000 to such states and territories, having less than their share, as may make application prior to July 12, 1871. Fifth: No association is authorized to commence bus- iness until it shall have deposited United States bonds to the amount of $30,000 with the treasurer of the United States. 133 134 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. Sixth: Every such association is entitled to receive froni the comptroller of the currency circulating notes to the amount of ninety per cent, of the capital stock, if it does not exceed $500,000; eighty per cent, if it exceeds $500,000, but does not exceed $1,000,000; sev- enty-five per cent, if it exceeds $1,000,000, but does not exceed $3,000,000 ; and sixty per cent, if it exceeds $3,000,000. THE LEGAL TENDER OF BANK NOTES. Section 23 of the Act provides that such notes (bank notes) shall circulate the same as money; and the same shall be received at par in all parts of the United States in ]myment of taxes, excises, public lands, and all other dues to the United States, except for duties on imports; and also for all salaries and other debts and demands owing by the United States to individuals, corporations, and associations within the United States, except inter- est on the public debt, and in redemption of the national currency. Section 32 provides that ever}' association formed or existing under the provisions of this act shall take and receive at par, for any debt or liability to said associa- tion, any and all notes or bills issued by any association existing under and by virtue of this act. NATIONAL BANK CIRCULATION. {From Report of Comptroller of the Currency, 1879.) The act of February 25, 1S63, and the subsequent act of June 3, 1S61, authorized the issue of $300,000,- 000 of national bank circulation, which was increased by the act of July 12, 18T0, to $354,000,000. The act of June 20, 1ST4, authorized any national l)ank desiring NATIONAL BANKS. 135 to withdraw its circulating notes, in whole or in part, to deposit lawful money with the treasurer of the United States in sums of not less than $9,000, and to withdraw a proportionate amount of bonds held as security for such notes; and the act of June 14, 1875, repealed all previous provisions restricting the aggregate amount of national bank circulation, and required the secretaiy of the treasury to retire legal tender notes to an amount equal to eiglity per cent, of the national banknotes there- after issued, until the amount of such legal tender notes outstanding should be |300,000,000 and no more. That provision of the act which required a reduction of United States legal tender notes was, however, repealed by the the act of May 31, 1878. Subsequent to the passage of the act of June 20, 1874, and that of January 14, 1875, whicli latter act authorized the retirement and re-issue of national bank notes at the pleasure of the banks, the circulation steadily decreased in volume until the year 1877, the total decrease in this interval being $30,869,- 655. During the year ending November 1, 1878, there was an increase of $4,216,684, and during the year end- ing November 1, 1879, a further increase of $14,742,503, as will be seen from the following table, which exhibits the total outstanding circulation, not including muti- lated notes in transit, on the 1st day of November of each year for the last thirteen years, and also upon the dates of the acts above named: November 1, 1867.. November 1, 1868.. November 1, 1869 . . November 1, 1870.. November 1, 1871.. November 1, 1872.. November 1, 1873.. June 20, 1874 1399,153,296 300,002,234 299,910,419 302,607,942 324.810,656 341,512,772 348,382,046 349,894,182 November 1, 1874.. January 14, 1875... November 1, 1875.. November 1, 1876 . November 1, 1877.. May 31. 1878 November 1, 1878.. November 1, 1879 $351,927,240 351,801,450 345,586,902 321,150,718 316,775.111 321,232,099 320,991,795 335,134,504 136 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. Since the passage of the act of June 20, 1874, $90,- 229,886 of legal tender notes have been deposited in the treasury by the national banks, for the purjjose of re- ducing their circulation, and $81,136,362 of bank notes have been redeemed, destroyed, and retired. From the date of the passage of the act of January 14, 1875, to that of the act of May 31, 1878, which ])rohib- ited the further cancellation of legal tender notes, $44,- 148,730 of additional circulation was issued, and legal tender notes equal to eighty per cent, thereof, or $35,- 318,984, was retired, leaving the amount authorized $346,681,016, which is the amount of legal tender notes now outstanding. The amount of additional circulation issued for the year ending November 1, 1879, was $22,933,490, of which $7,494,170 was issued during the months of Sep- tember and October. The amount issued to banks or- ganized during the year was $2,615,440; the amount retired was $8,190,987 ; the actual increase for the year beinir $14,742,503. During the year endine: No- v^ember 1, 1879, lawful money to the amount of $10,- 319,398 was deposited with the treasurer to retire circu- lation, of which amount $2,936,063 was deposited by banks in liquidation. The amount previously deposited under the act of June 20, 1874, was $65,164,523, and by banks in liquidation $14,745,965, to which is to be added a balance of $3,813,675 remaining from deposits made bv li(pudating banks prior to the passage of that act. Deducting from the total, $94,043,561, the amount of circulating notes redeemed and destroyed without re- issue ($81,136,362), there remained in the hands of the treasurer on November 1, 1879, $12,907,199 of lawful money for the redemption and retirement of bank cir- culation. NATIONAL BANKS. 137 SECURITY OF CIRCULATING NOTES, The following table exhibits the classes and amounts of United States bonds held by the Treasurer on the 1st day of November, 1879, to secure the redemption of the circulating notes of the national bardvs: CURRENCY OUTSTANDING. Treasury notes outstanding • $346,081,010 National banlc notes outstanding 337,181.418 Gold in the Treasury, less certificates held by the banks 157,900,193 Silver in the Treasury 50,078,020 Coin in the banlis (October 2) 42,173,731 Total $934,074,978 The following table gives the circulation of the Bank of France and its branches, with the number of pieces, and the denomination in francs and dollars, on January 30, 1879: Number of pit:ces. Denominations Value of eachpiece in dollars. Amount in francs. .\mount in do'lars. (Fr.=20 cents.) 5 5,000 francs. 1,000 25 000 5, 000 1,382,379 1,000 n-aucs. 200 l,382,37!t,(l00 276,475,800 753,599 500 fiaucs. 100 376,799.500 75,35S.900 3,087 200 francs. 40 617,400 123.480 5,046,051 100 francs. 20 504,t;03,100 100,920.620 316,l(i6 50 francs. 10 15,808,300 3,161 660 29,525 25 francs. 5 ■;38,12:. 147.625 42ti,537 20 francs. 4 8,530,740 1,706,148 806,653 5 francs. Forms out of 1 1,033,265 206,653 1,245 date. 4.36,400 87.280 8,l(i5,227 2.-.;9(l.il70,fi30 4.'S.I'.M.ltl6 138 LABOR AND FINANCE KEVOLUTION. The following table shows the capital, surplus, divi- dends, and total, earnings of all the national banks, for each half-year from March 1, 1869, to Sept. 1, 1879: Period of six months, ending Sept. Mar. Sept. Mar. Sept. Mar. Sept. Mar. Sept. Mar. Sept. Mar. Sept. Mar. Sept. Mar. Sept. Mar. Sept. Ma"-. Sept. 18(19... ISTO... 1870... 1871... 1871... 1872... 187-2... 1873... 1873 — 1874... 1874... 1876... 1875... 1876... 1876... 1877... 1?77... 1878.-- 1878.-. 1879... 1879... No. of banks. 1,481 1 ..'i71 1,601 1 ,i>U.'5 1,69.3 1 ,7.)U 1.8.V2 1.912 1.9.1.5 1.967 1,971 •.',0U7 2,047 2.076 2,081 2,080 2,072 2,074 2,047 2.043 2.045 Capital. $401 ,650,802 416,366,991 42.5,317,104 428,699,165 445,999,264 450,693,706 465,676,023 475,918,683 488,1(10,951 489,510,323 489,9.38,284 493,568.831 497,8 •4,H.33 504,209,491 500,482,271 496,651.580 486,.324 860 475.609.751 470,231,896 464,413,996 455,132,056 Surplus. $82,105,848 86,118,210 91,630.620 94,672,401 98.286,591 99 431,243 105,181,942 114,2.57,288 118.113.848 123,469,859 128.364,039 131.560.637 134,123,649 134,467,595 132,251,078 130,872,165 124,.349,254 122,3; 3..561 118,687,134 116,744,135 115,149,.35l Total Dividends. $21,767,831 •Jl, 479,095 21,080,343 22,205,150 22,125.279 22.859,826 2:3,827.289 24.826,061 24,823,029 23,.529.998 24,929,307 24,750,816 24.317,785 24,811,581 22,.563,829 21,803,969 22,117,116 18,982,390 17,959,223 17,541,054 17,401,867 Total Net Earnings. $29,221,184 28,996,934 26,808,885 27,243,162 27,315.311 27,502,539 30,572,891 31,926,478 33,122,000 29,544,120 30,036,811 29,136,007 28,800,217 23,097,921 20,540,231 19,592.962 15.274,028 16,946,696 13,658,893 14,678,660 16,873,200 The following table exhibits by denominations the circulation of the Imperial Bank of Germany on Janu- ary 1, 1879, in thalers and marks, which have been con- verted into our currencv: Thai ers. Marks. % »■ ^ x OD 1 in Cm o .2 '■4-J c3 C S3 o O cj ■ a -§1! 5-^ C o 'i o a a a "ofl - u Amount hirs. (1 75 cents a o a 0) 0.= >"p. Amount lars. (M cents.) 194 500 thalers. 375 00 72.750 218,444 1,000 marks. 250 54,611,000 2,517 100 thaiers. 75 00 188,775 2<.7,018 500 marks. 125 25,877,250 l,745i 50 thalers. 37.50 65.456 3,395,0591 100 marks. 25 84,876,487 9,194 25 thalers. 18.75 172.388 9,31U 10 thalers. 7.50 69,836 22,962 569.205 3.820,52U 165.364,7.37 NATIONAL BANKS. 139 BANK TAXATION. Banks of all kinds, National and otherwise, are sub- ject to the following tax: On capital beyond the average amount invested in bonds, one-half of one per cent. On average deposits, one-half of one per cent. On circulation, one per cent, per annum. Total annual tax paid by the banks on circulation since 1864: 1864 $53,096 97 1865 733,247 59 1866 2,106,785 30 1867 2,868,636 78 1868 2,946,343 07 1869 2,957,416 73 1870 - -- 2,949,744 13 1871 2,987,021 69 1872 3.193,570 03 1873 - 3,353,186 13 1874 - - 3,404,483 11 1875 3,283,405 89 1876 - 3,091,795 76 1877 --- 2,899037 09 1878 2,948,047 08 1879 3,009,647 16 Aggregating 42,785,464 51 According to the last report of the Comptroller of the currency, page -IT, the amount of taxes paid by tlie na- tional banks on their circulation, for 1S79, was $3,009,- 617.16. The Government paid the banks for the same period $17,152,396.75 interest on tlie bonds deposited as security for circulation (page 23), or $1-4,142, 749. 59 more than the Government received in taxes on circu- lation. The national banks also pay taxes on their cap- ital and deposits the same as state, savings and private banks. The only tax paid by them, and not paid by other banks, is the tax on circulation, on which they re- 140 LABOE AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. ceive from the Government more than four times as much as they return. On deposits the national banks paid, in 1879, $3,309,- 668,90. Other banks paid during the same period on deposits $2,351,911.74. On capital the national banks paid $191,920, while other banks paid $830,068— nearly twice as much as the national banks. The following table exhibits, bv denominations, the amount of national bank and legal tender notes out- standing on November 1, 1879: 1879. 1878. Aggregate. 1877. Denominations. .\mount of national bunk notes. Amount of legal tender notes. Aggregate. Aggregate. Ones Twos $3,567,200 2,"92,49S 97.911,820 109,736,240 72,652,160 21 ,.324 ,900 26,911,600 641,.'i00 283,00) §19,320,302 18,938,365 61,611,033 71,711.318 68,793,773 24,853.045 31,428,180 22,446.500 22,828,500 3,250,000 2,500,000 $22,887,502 21,030,863 1.59,.522,853 181,447,.5.'i8 141.445,9-33 46.177,945 58.339,780 23,088,000 2.3,1 11, .500 3.2.50,000 2,500,000 13..586 §24,652 750 22,915,0(16 148,116,015 168,908,071 131,785.709 47,658,995 58,331,470 31,1.59,000 33,794,500 $28,606,915 26,883,428 Fives Tens 146,437,048 161,459,711 Twenties 126.290,995 Fifiies... One Hundreds Five Hundred'* One Tliousands Five Thousands .52,363,815 58,976.670 35,956,000 34,380,500 Ten Thousands Add for fractions of notes not present- ed or destroyed 13.586 11.561 *1, 010,800 Totals 335,134,5(4 347,681,016 1,000,000 682,815,520 1,000,000 667,333,137 1 000.000 672,365,882 Deduct for legal ten- der notes destroyed in Chicago fire Totals. 335,134, f04 346,681,016 681.815.520 666,333,137 672,365,882 ♦Includes $1,000,COO destroyed inChicajo fire; denominations unknown. ORIGIN OF BANK NOTES. A device for regulating the value of coin. J'or cen- turies they were not redeemable, but bore a premium. Jevons informs us that the bank note system had its origin in Italy, from five to seven centuries ago. In NATIONAL BANKS. 141 those days the circulating medium consisted of a mix- ture of coins of various and unknown quality and value, and much of it clipped and debased. In receiving money the merchant had to weigh and estimate the fineness of each coin, or be to the trouble and expense of having it assayed, and much trouble, loss of time and risk of fraud thus arose. It became, therefore, the custom in the mercantile re- publics of Italy to deposit such money in bank, where its value was accurately estimated, once, for all, no more to go into circulation, and the amount placed to the credit of the depositor. The banks of Hamburg and Amsterdam were estab- lished on a similar system. The coins placed to the credit of individuals in those l)anks were called hank money. It was " hanhed^'' set, or placed there to remain, and instead of being used in ordinary transactions of commerce, fajyer representatives, or transferable certifi- cates of the value and amount of the deposit were used instead. In some instances, as the Bank of Venice, payments were made by the parties attending the bank at a par- ticular hour, and ordering transfers of credit to be made in the bank books. These transfers of credit constituted the currency, or circulating medium of the republic. It was always of full value, often commanding a pre- mium, while all trouble and errors of counting and valu- \\\v it were avoided. This system avoided all losses of money by robbery or shipwreck and piracy. It avoided the nefarious prac- tice of abstracting from the value of the coins by plug- ging, sweating and counterfeiting, and above all it saved 142 LABOR AND FINANCE EEVOLUTION. the loss of deteriorature by wear of circulation, which is estimated at three per cent, each year. Paper transfers were attended bj no such risk. Being legal tender, and known to represent the actual value of their face, they possessed all the commercial value of the thing represented, besides the additional value of their convenience and safet^'. For five hundred years this was the currency of Italy, under which her wealth and commerce surpassed that of any other nation on the globe. If one of earth's productions was ample security on which to base the currency of Italy, which carried her through centuries of uninterrupted prosperity, how much more ample is the deposit of the domain itself, with all its productions, for the basis of our medium of exchange! ,No banker or buUionist complains of bank currency, which is nothing more or less than transferable tokens 'of credit. The banker deposits with the comptroller of the cur- rency his bonds, and he becomes a creditor of the Gov- ernment, nothing more or less, to the amount so depos- ited. For convenience sake, and as evidence that the Gov- ernment is indebted to him, he asks that the affffreirate of his credit may be cut up into small denominations, to be transferred to third parties, and pass from hand to hand in the ordinary transactions of business. Every person to whom one of these bits of paper is paid becomes a creditor to the Government to the amount represented by it. The injustice of this system is, that the banker, after he has transferred nine-tenths of his claim aijainst the NATIONAL BANKS. 143 Government to third parties, he not only continues to draw interest on the M'hole amount, while those to whom he has transferred his claim, get no interest, but are com- pelled to pay the banker interest on that portion of the public debt he has parted with. THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF BANK MONEY. No one will deny that bank notes are intended, and in fact are, a substitute for money. Their necessity grows out of a deficiency of money. Congress has authority, which it derives from the constitution, to coin money and regulate the value thereof. If authority exists anywhere to coin a substitute, it must rest with that branch of the Government author- ized to coin the real. The very fact that congress dele- gates the power to banks, and the fact that banks claim to derive their power from congress, to issue paper sub- stitutes for coin, are admissions that congress possessed the power, else how could it confer what it did not pos- sess? All the powers of congress are derived from the con- stitution, and if that instrument confers the power to coin money substitutes, it is implied in that clause con- ferring power to coin money. Has congress a right to delegate its control over the coinage of gold and silver to private corporations? If not. whence does it derive its authority to delegate to banking associations its con- trol over coin substitutes? Congress could not grant the substitute prerogative to the banks unless it first possessed it. If it ever possessed it, it held it as a trust, to exercise for the benefit of the people as their agent If it never possessed the substitute prerogativ^e, it could not confer it upon banks, hence, they exercise a usurped 14-i LAIiOK AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. power. If congress does possess the prerogative, it has no more right to delegate it than it has to delegate the power to coin inonej. Is the right to issue, regulate and control the currency of the country a natural individual right, or a function of sovereignty? If a natural individual right, is not the monopoly of it by the national banks in violation of the spirit of our republican form of Government which was instituted to protect all men in the full enjoyment of their natural rights, instead of depriving them of one of them ? If it is a function of sovereignty, how can it be exer- cised by any except such as are chosen by the sovereign people from time to time to exercise it? If congress has a right to. confer the monetary func- tion of sovereignty upon a hereditary succession, has it not the same right to dispose of any and all sovereign powers in the same manner? The two ffreat arms of national sovereisrntv are the purse and the sword; if it is wise to confer one upon a hereditary succession, why not dispose of the other in the same manner? If it is safe to trust the monetary prerogative of the na- tion to the present generation of bankers and their heirs and assigns forever, without regard to fitness and quali- fication, why not trust the war power of the Government to the present generation of brigadiers, their heirs and assigns forever? Yiewed in its true li^ht, is not the national banking: system a long step towards the establishment of sover- eignty based upon hereditary succession, is it not a big block wrenched from the temple of liberty and planted as the corner stone of imperialism, a powerful element NATIONAL BANKS. 145 of sovereignty crowned with the divine right of kings? As the Federal Government possesses no powers except sucli as were delegated to it by the people and enumer- ated in the constitution, was not the bank act, conferring and perpetuating delegated powders uyjon foreigners and aliens, a gross betrayal of trust, if not treason against the people? Has the Government a constitutional right to delegate powers entrusted to it, especially to be exercised by it for the people? If not, is not the national bank act a palpable viola- tion of tlie constitution, and its enforcement a usurpa- tion of power not warranted by that instrument? The answer to these inquiries are left to the intelli- gent reader. If bank notes are money, from whence do they derive their money qualities? If the Government can create money for the banks, why not for itself and the people? If greenbacks are money, how can the power of the Government to create money be denied? If greenbacks are not money, did the bondholders ever loan any money to the Government, having loaned noth- ing but greenbacks? If the dehts of a nation are good security on which to base its monev, why is not its wealth better? If the Government chooses to farm out its control over the currency to private parties, why not grant the privi- lege to those wdio need it in the productionof wealth, in- stead of giving it to an idle monopoly to rob, blackmail and oppress the producers of wealth? Why should the money power that has accumulated 10 146 LABOR AND FINANCE EEVOLUTION. •colossal fortunes solely through Government protection and favoritism, be exempt from all Government sup- port, when those out of whom it has made these for- tunes are compelled to bear all the public burdens in addition to being robbed? When orders went forth from the treasury department at Washington, through the New York clearing house, to the Wall Street gold exchange, to turn the gold dial to 100, and let it remain there till further orders — what was resumption but the fiat of John Sherman? If it is as inconsistent to re-issue a United States note after it has once been redeemed as it would be tore-issue a note of hand after it had been paid, as the goldites claim, why will not the same principle apply to bank notes? If the right to pay the bonds in greenbacks is denied on the ground that one debt cannot be paid with another, then have any of the soldiers been really paid, or any of the millions of debts and mortgages, that have been can- celled with greenbacks and bank notes? CHAPTER X. LEGAL TENDER PAPER MONEY. Nearly all civilized nations recocrnize the sovereiofu right of Government to make its treasury notes legal ten- der. In the following table we follow^ thefio'ures of the Di- rector of the mint, adding thereto the statement of the amounts of paper money which is legal tender in the countries named: Countries. United States. Great Britain. Sweden i^orway Denmark France Austria Italy.. Russia Spain Peru Brazil Canada Japan Turkey Gold. $305,750,497 M8,619,043 15,000.000 10,000,000 20,000,1100 733,400,000 43,200,000 17,000,000 108,000,000 130,000,000 63,000 6,291,385 30,000,000 Sliver fill tender. $45,206,200 366,700,000 27,360,000 40.000,0(10 1,819,900 10,000,000 Total paper. Paper lesjal tender. $683,943,799 209,148,875 11,680,000 10,300.000 18,900,000 466,755,000 322,938,f^54 315,000,000 587,907,562 33,795,000 13.900,000 91,000,000 29,047.742 14S,000 100,000,000 $346,601,000 200,000,000 11,680,000 10.300,000 18,900,000 'i"i8,9y3",4ii 305 000,000 360.000,000 40.000,000 13.900.000 91,000.000 10.674.850 100,000,000 100,000,000 The authorities for these statements of the amount of legal tender paper money in these countries, are as fol- lows: United States, debt statement; Great Britain, weekly report Bank of England; Sweden, American Almanac, 1879, page 242; Norway, Report of Silver Commission, page 518; Denmark, Keport of Silver Commission, page 169; Austria, Silver Commission, page 114; Italy, Silver Commission, page 243; Enssia, United States Mint Report, page 101; Peru, Silver 147 148 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. Commission, page 114; Brazil, same, 158; Canada, Re- port of United States Mint, 1879, page 30; Japan, Re- port on Foreign Relations, 1879, page 386; Turkey esti- mated. The universal experience of all Governments is that gold, as the exclusive legal tender money, is not sufficient to enable any people to carry on their domestic and for- eign trade, and that where the quantity of full legal tender silver coin is not, in addition to the gold, in large quantities, or is excluded altogether, then there must be an issue of legal tender paper, either by the Government direct, or by the banks under the authority of the Gov- ernment, as is the case in England and the Scandinavian States. So thoroughly is this supported by the expe- rience of other nations that if by judicial or other pro- ceedings the present legal tender greenbacks of this country shall be forced into retirement, an amendment to the Coiistitution, authorizing the issueof paper money having a legal tender quality will become a national necessity. THE GREENBACK. At the breaking out of the rebellion, the Government found itself destitute of the means necessary to cany on a gigantic war, and unable to procure such means from ordinary sources. It applied to the great banks of the country, and found that aid from that source was too limited, and to uncertain, to be depended upon. The banks finalW agreed that, if specie payments could be indefinitely suspended, they would supply the Govern- ment with an unlimited amount of their promises to pay — their non-interest bearing bank notes — in ex- LEGAL TENDER PAPER MONEY. 149 change for the Government's interest-bearing promises to pay — coin bonds. Wlien the Government saw that the war had to l>e carried on witliont the use of coin — with paper money based upon credit — it conceived the idea that its own credit, coupled with its sovereign power of conferring the legal tender quality upon its evidences of indebted- ness, was far better, cheaper, and more reliable than that of the banks. This idea was embodied in the first legal tender act, and reported to the House by the Ways and Means Committee, January 7, 1862. Its constitutionality received the approval of the At- torney General, and its announcement met with popular and unyjaralleled favor, as it was destined to meet the nation's needs. The greenback has the safest, most reliable, and per- manent basis of any money in the world. No man ever accepts money in payment, with a view, or for the purpose of obtaining its basis. It must be borne in mind that gold and silver coin require the same kind of basis to give them their money value, that green- backs do. Without the basis that underlies coin, the precious metals would be comparatively worthless. Let the civilized world demonetize these metals, and for all the uses society has for them, they would not command their weiglit in blank greenback paper. The moment their fiat money value is taken from them they will cease to be even ornamental, for the beauty- loving eye of unbiased nature sees greater splendor in colored glass than in gold or silver. What is the basis of i2:old and silver? Durinir the financial crisis of England in 1847, when legal tender 150 LABOR AND FINANCE KP:VOLUTION. debt-paying money was in urgent demand, no man could borrow a £5 note on a thousand dollars' worth of silver. Why? Because the basis of silver coin had been re- moved by demonetization, and although i-t was intrinsic- ally as valuable as ever, it did not possess money functions. It was a dead body without the legal tender soul. The basis of man is his immortal spirit; when that takes its flight, the body becomes valueless, like demonetized metal. In Calcutta, where silver only is legal tender, during a money stringency in 1864, it was impossible to borrow a dollar on gold; and merchants who had hun- dreds of thousands of gold coin, were obliged to allow their notes to go to protest, because they could -not bor- row $10 of silver on a bushel of gold. The question is not, "AV^hat kind is the dollar," but "What will it do?" Has it the legal tender basis under it, and does it possess debt-paying functions? Henri Cernuschi, an eminent French writer on finance, author of ''Bi-metallic Monev." said before the congressional monetary commission in 1877: ■ "■Money is a value created by law. Its basis is legal and not material. It is, perhaps, not easy to convince one that the value of metallic money is created by law. It is, huioever, the fact. If you suppose that gold and silver are not money — are not legal tender — their value is lost.'' In reference to legal tender greenbacks, Mr. Cernuschi says : "Many people suppose their value depends upon the promise of the Government to repay them in metal one day or other. This promise does not add to the purchasing power of paper money. It makes no diiference of what material money is composed, whether it is ci'stly or otherwise; the law op legal tender gives value TO MONEY, and that value is increased or diminished in froportion as its volume is greater or lessy Men accept money in payment, not to use, but to ex- change for something they can use. They require a basis as surety, that the money will perform this office. LEGAL TENDER PAPER MONEY. 151 Bank notes, not a legal tender, having no legal value, simply a representative of legal value, must have that legal value as a basis, or they fail even to be represent- atives. Not so with greenbacks or coin. Their basis is ••^he law, making them a tender for taxes and debts, pul)- lic and private; and as long as the l^w continues their basis is secure. The basis of bank notes, if coin, is tnacherous. It may take wings and fly to foreign coun- tries, leaving its representative worthless. But the basis of ':he greenback is anchored in the laws of the land, and in every debt of the nation, public and private. Bank currency is always considered safe when based on thirty- three per cent, of its face in redemption material, and wher, based on a reserve of resumption material in ex- cess tf its face, it commands a premium over the par of the btsis. Greenbacks being legal tender are based on the puljlic and private credit of the country. Every dol- lar of it is redeemable in debts and taxes as good as gold, and if $150,000,000 of coin in the country is am- ple to cirry $600,000,000 of paper at par, it is strange if fifteen thousand millions of private and corporate debts, aid $1,000,000,000 of annual taxes cannot carry $2,000,000,000 of greenbacks at par witli those debts and taxes. The bisis of coin is the credit of the nations, or the faith and confidence which the public have that the different nations will retain the enforced coin standard. Metal coins are simply representatives of the mmetized credit of all nations, while greenbacks are repr^entatives of the coined credit of the United States, eich being current money within the jurisdiction of the nstion or nations which thus represent their mon- etized credit, and no further. Coin money does not 152 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. strengthen a Government as greenbacks do. The whole fabric of oiir Government might tumble to the ground without loss to the holders of gold, whose metal is as valuable in Europe as here. In fact, wars, panics, finan- cial crashes, revolutions and periods of bankruptcy are harvest seasons for gold owners, who rather encourage such disasters than otherwise. But with greenbacks it is diiferent. They are based upon the laws of tl;e United States alone, hence, with the destruction of our Government they would become worthless. Were the legal tender money of the United States limited to greenbacks alone, they would aft'ord the niost ])erfect safeguard to the perpetuity of the Government that could be conceived of, for every man, even jf he lacked patriotism, would be impelled by self-interest to snpport and defend the Government that gave 'value to his money, as much as he would to defend the hot' that contained it. So by all the arguments of reasc/n and j^hilosoph}^ the greenback is the best and most securely based money in the world. LEGAL TENDERS CONSTITUTIONAL IN TIME OF PEACE ji^S WELL AS IN TIME OF WAR — EVERY OBJECTION Aff- SWERED BY THE SUPREME COURT. I The newspapers and orators in the interest, if not in the employ, of tlie bankers and bondholders, aigue that the Supreme Court of the United States decideji the le- gal tender act unconstitutional in time of peace It will, however, be found that the court rendered no such de- cision. The sul^stance of the decision bearing on this ])oint was that the mode or manner of provicing the means for the maintenance of the Governmerit was a legislative and not a judicial question, and asit is as LEGAL TENDER PAPER MONEY. 153 mucli the duty of Congress to provide the means for maintaining the Government in time of peace as in time of war, its power must be the same in both cases. This is common sense as well as common honestj^. The cases of Knox vs. Lee, and Parker vs. Davis were consolidated and brought before the Supreme Court, and, at the request of the court, the question of the con- stitutionality of the legal tender acts was to be fully ar- gued, and finally settled by the court, so that the ques- tion should be forever put at rest. In this case the court held that the legal tender acts were constitutional as applied both to past and future contracts. The court says : "Before we can hold the legal tender acts unconstitutional we must be convinced they were not appropriate means, or means conducive to the execution of any or all of the powers of Congress or the Gov- ernment, not appropriate in any degree (fur we are not judges of that degree of appropriation) or we must hold they were prohibited." — 12 Wallace, U. S. Supreme Court Reports, page 509. "The degree of the necessity for any congressional enactment, or the relative degree of its appropriateness, is for consideration in Con- gress, not here. When the law is not prohibited, and is really calcu- lated to effect any of the objects intrusted to the Government, to undertake here to inquire into the degree of its necessity, would be to pass the line whicli circumscribes the judicial department, and to tread on legislative ground. — Ibid, 5i2. It will be seen that tlie question is not decided upon the contingency of war, but the whole matter of the necessity of any constitutional enactment is left to con- gress. The court says: "The constitution was intended to frame a Government as distin- guished from a league or compact, a Government supreme in some particulars over States and people. It was designed to provide the same currency having a uniform legal value in all the Stales. It was for this reason the power to coin money and regulate its value was conferred upo)i. the Federal Government, while tlie same power to emit bills of credit was withheld from the States. The States no longer can declare what shall be money or regulate its value. Whatever power there is over the curr-'ncy is vested in congress. If thejjower to declare what is money is not in congress it is annihilated." — Ibid, 545. '^ And generally when one of such powers was expressly denied 154 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. to the States only, it was for the purpose of rendering the federal power more complete and exclusive; how sensible, then, its framers must have been that emergencies might arise when the precious met- als 'might "prove iruulequate to the necessities of the Government and the demands of the people — when it is remembered that paper money was almost exclusively in use in the States as a medium of exchange, and when the great evil sought to be remedied was the want of uniform- ity in tiie current value of money, it might be argued, we say, that the gift of power to coin money and regulate the value thereof, was understood as conveying general power over the currency and which had belonged to the States and whicli they had surrendered."' — Ibid, 54(3 * * * * " By the obligation of a contract to pay money is to pay that which law shall recognize as money when the payment is to he made. " If there is anything settled by decision it is this, and we do not understand it to be controverted. No one ever doubted that a debt of one thousand dollars, contracted before 1834 could be paid by one hundred eagles coined after that year, thougii they contained no more gold than ninetyfour eagles when the contract icas made, and this is not because of the intrinsic value of the coin, but because of its legal value. The eagles coined after 1»34 were not money until they were authorized by law, and had they been coined before, without a law fixing their legal value, they could no more have paid a debt than uncoined bullion, or cotton or wheat. Every contract for the pay- ment of money is necessarily subject to the constitutional power of the Government over tlie currency, whatever that power may be. and the obligation of the parties is, therefore, assumed with reference to that power."— Ibid, .548-9. " If therefore, they (the legal tenders) were what we have endeav- ored to show, appropriate ends, tiiey were not transgressive of the authority vested in congress." — Ibid, 552. "It is hardly correct to speak of a standard value. The constitu- tion does not speak of it. It contemplates a standard for that whicli has gravity or extension ; but value is an ideal thing. The Coinage Acts fix its unit as a dollar, but the gold or silver thing we call a dol- lar is, in no sense a standard of a dollar, it is a representative of it. There might never have been apiece of money of the denomination of a dollar. * * * * " It will be seen that we hold the acts of congress constitutional as applied to contracts made before or after their passage." — Ibid, 553. For the iiiforraation of those who profess to believ^e that the court was packed to procure a decision confirm- ing the constitutionality of the legal tender act, I will give the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall, wlio in the case of McCullough vs. Maryland, says: " When the act is not prohibited, and is calculated to effect any of the objects intrusted to the Government, to undertake here to incjuire into the degree of its necessity would be to p>nss the line which circum- scribes the judicial department, anil to tread on legislative ground." , to LEGAL TENDER PAPER MONEY. 155 THE BONE OF CONTENTION. Seventeen years, side by side, the greenback lias prov^ed itself under all circumstances fully e(|ual to the bank note. There is no instance on record where the bank note has been jjreferred, and no instance where the greenback has been refused in the ordinary commercial transactions of the country. It is an established fact, which no one will dispute, that as a medium of exchange, a tool of trade, the greenback, has established its equal- ity at least, with the best bank note ever issued. The bank note has no qualities which render it superior to the greenback. On the other hand, does the greenback possess any virtues or qualities not possessed by the bank note, which recommend it as superior to the bank note? It does. There are three important considerations why the greenback should displace the bank note en- tirely. 1. It is legal tender between man and man, which the bank note is not. 2. "When the greenback is issued, it serves the Gov- ernment as money for the amount its face represeiits, saving the people that amount of taxation. When the Government prepares a million dollars of greenbacks, it has come in possession of that amount of money witli- out drawing it from society, by direct ur indirect taxa- tion. It is so much clear gain for the people. The substitution of greenbacks for the amount of bank notes now outstanding would be a net gain of §387,181,418 to the Government, and save in taxation that amount to the taxpayers. 3. It costs nothing to keep the greenback in circula- 156 LABOR AND FIXANCE REVOLUTION. tion. The expense of printing, is all that attaches to it, and that is not greater than tlie cost of printing tlie l>ank note, which the Government also has to pay; but the bank note costs an average of 5 percent, per annum, the amount of interest the people are compelled to pay on the bonds upon which it is based. Already the in- dustries of the country have redeemed every hank note in circulation^ in gold,' — by paying since 1863, $350,000,- 000 of gold interest on the bonds held by the Govern- ment, as security for the bank circulation. The Gov- ernment furnishes the security for the bank note, and the people pay the bank for the use of it. JS^o one de- nies but at least $1,000,000,000 of currency is necessary for this country when enterprise is in its full tide of ac- tivity. If the competing greenback was out of the way, there is not the least doubt but the bank currency would be immediately inflated to that sum, or more. The great issue now is, which kind of paper money shall prevail. The banks are determined to drive out all competi- tion, that thev mav have the l)enefit of the entire circu- lation. The Greenback party is equally determined that the people shall have the beneflt of it, by allowing the Government to issue the whole amount, and save, not only that amount from taxes, but forty or fifty millions every year of interest which they will be compelled to pay on the bonds upon which the bank note must be based. The pecuniary stake at issue between the Greenback party and the Bank party 'is $1,000,000,000 cash down, and at least $10,000,000 a year for all time to come. If the opposition prevail, the Government will lose the $350,000,000 of greenbacks now in circulation, by being obliged to redeem and retire them; a perpetual bank tax of forty or fifty millions a j-ear will be saddled LEGAL TENDER PAPER MONEY. 157 x upon the country, and to get the $1,000,000,000 of bank currency into circulation, $3,000,000,000 of property will have to be mortgaged to the banks, and an annual interest of not less than $100,000,000 paid thein, time without end. There is another consideration of no less importance than those already alluded to, in connection with this matter, and that is the political danger of depriving the people of the right to control so important and dangerous a power as the monetary prerogative; and conferring it upon a hereditary and alien dynasty. There is more truth than poetry in the declaration that " money is power." He who holds the purse, commands the sword of any nation, and nine-tenths of the public debt, which constitutes the foundation of our banking system, is in the control of foreign capitalists, who hate democracy, and flourish best in the soil of imperialism. Are the people of America prepared to surrender their sover- eignty into the hands of aliens and tyrants? Some one objects to the greenback full legal tender, because it is irredeemable — and claims the superiority of the bank note because it is redeemable. Money is fit for nothing else, it can be used for no other purpose while it remains money. No matter of what it is com- posed. Money is created to pay for labor, and debts, and to exchange commodities, and needs redemption no more than a horse or a steamboat. "We might object to buying farms, and stock, and tools, because they are ir- redeemable. The righteous need no redemption — only the damned — hence it is well for the bank note that sal- vation has been provided for it, and its savior and re- deemer, so far, has been the greenback, which never fell, but is the redeemer of all things temporal, even the nation itself. CHAPTER XL THE PUBLIC DEBT. The following table exhibits the classification of the interest-bearing indebtedness of the United States, on August 31, 1S65, and on the 1st of July annually, in- cluding interest-bearing treasury notes used as currency, as reported by Secretary Sherman, January 1, ISSO: [F)-om Report of Secretary of Treasury^ Date. Aug. July July July July July July July July July July July July July July .31, 186j 1, IStiti 1, IStiT 1, 1868 1, 1869 1, 1870 1, 1871 1, 187-.i 1, 1873 1, 1874 1. 1875 1. 1876 1, 1877 1, 1878 1, 187ft 6 per cent, bonds. per cent, 4i per cent, bond^. bonds. $908,518 1,008.388 l,4-.il,llU 1,841,.521 1,886.341 1,764,93-^ 1.613,8 1,374,883 l,-.i81,d38 l,'.il3,624 1,100,865 981,999 854. 21 7.38.619 310 93-2 091 ,4r. that part of any road now constructed. Sec. 6. That the grants af iresaid are made upon condition that said company shall pay said bonds at maturity, and shall keep said railroad and telegraph line in repair and use, and shall at all times transmit dispatches over said telegraph line, and transport mails, troops and munitions of war, supplies and public stores upon said railroad for the Government, whenever required to do so by any department thereof, and that the Government shall at all times have the preference in the use of the same for all the purposes aforesaid (at fair and reasonable rates of compensation, not to exceed the amounts paid by private parties for the same kind of service); and all com- pensation for services rendered for the Government shall be applied to tlie payment of said bonds and interest until the whole amount is fully paid. Said company may also pay the United States, wholly or in part, in the same or other bonds, treasury notes, or other evi- dences of debt against the United States, to be allowed at par; and after said road is completed, until said bonds and interest are paid, at least five per centum of the net earnings of said road shall also be annually applied to the payment thereof. 172 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. Act July 11, 1862. Tliat the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized to issue, in additioa to the amounts heretofore autliorized, on the credit of the United States, one hundred and fifty millions of dollars of United States notes, not bearing interest, payable to bearer at the treasury of the United States, and of such denominations as he may deem expedient: Provided, That no note shall be issued for the fractional part of a dollar, and not more that thirty-five millions shall be of lower denominations than five dollars; and such notes shall be re- ceivable in payment of all loans made to the United States, and of all taxes, internal duties, excises, debts and demands of every kind due to the United States, except duties on imports and interest, and of all claims and demands against the United States, except for in- terest upon bonds, notes, and certificates of debt or deposit; and shall also be lawful money and a legal tender in pa^-meut of all debts, public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports and interest, as aforesaid. And any holder of said United States notes depositing any sum not less that fifty dollars, or some multi|)le of fifty dollars, witb tlie treasurer of the United States, or either of the assistant treasurers, shall receive in exchange therefor duplicate cer- tificates of dep().-it,one of which may be transmitted to the secretary of the treasury, who shall thereupon issue to tlie iiolder an equal amount of bonds of the United States, coupon or registered, us may by said holder be desired, bearing interest at the rate of six per centum per annum, payable semi-annually, and redeemable at the pleasure of the United States after five years, and payable twenty years from the date thereof: Provided, howe»er. That any notes issued under this act may be paid in coi^, instead of being received in ex- change for certificates of deposit as above specified at the direction of the secretary of the treasury. And the secretary of tlie treasury may exchange for such notes, on such terms as he "shall think most beneficial to the public interest, any bonds of the United States bear- ing six per centum interest, and redeemable after five and payable in twenty years, which liave been or may be lawfully issued under the provisions of any existing act; may reissue the notes so received in exchange ; may receive and cancel any notes heretofore lawfully issued under congress, and in lieu thereof iss le an equal amount in notes such as are authorized by this act; and may purchase, at rates not exceeding one-eighth of one per centum, any bonds or certificates of debt of the United States as he may deem advisable. Joint Resolution January 17, 1863. That the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized, if required by the exigencies of the public service, to issue on the credit of the United States the sum of one hundred millions of dollars of United States notes in such form as he may deem expedient, not bearing in- terest, payable to bearer on demand, and of sucli denominations, not less than one dollar, as he may prescribe, which notes so issued shall be lawful money and a legal tender, like the similar notes heretofore authorized, in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports and interest on the public debt. FINANCE LEGISLATION. 173 Act March S, 1S63. That the secretary of the treasury be, and is hereby, authorized to borrow, Irom time to time, on the credit of the United States, a sum not exceeding three hundred millions of dollars for the current fiscal year, and six hundred millions for the next fiscal year, and to issue theref(jr coupon or registered bunds, payable at the pleasure of the Government after such periods as may be fixed by the secretary, not less tlian ten nor more than forty years from date in coin, and of such denominations, not less than filty dollars, as he may deem expedient, bearing interest at a rate not exceeding six per centum per annum, payable on bonds not exceeding one hundred dollars, annually, and on all others semi-annually, in coin; and he may in his discretion, dispose of such bonds at any time, upon such terms as he may deem most advisable, for lawful money of the United States, or for any of the certificates of indebtedness or deposit that may at any time be unpaid, or for any of the treasury notes heretofore issued or which may be issued under the provisions of this act. And all the bonds and treasury notes issued under the provisions of this act shall be exempt from taxation by or under state or municipal authority: Pro- vided, That there shall be outstanding of bonds, treasury notes, and United States notes, at any time, issued under the provisions of this act, no greater amount altogether than the sum of nine hundred mil- lions of dollars. That the secretary of the treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to issue, on the credit of the United States, four hundred millions of dollars in treasury notes, payable at the pleasure of the United States, or at such time or times not exceeding three years from date as may be found most beneficial to the public interests, and bearing interest at a rate not exceeding six per centum per annum, payable at periods expressed on the face of said treasury notes ; and tlie interest on the said treasury notes and on certificates of indebtedness and deposits hereafter issued, shall be paid in lawful money. The treasury notes thus issued shall be of such denominations as the secretary may direct, not less than ten dollars, and may be disposed of on the best terms that can be obtained, or maybe paid to any creditor of the United States willing to receive the same at par. And said treas- ury notes may be made a legal ^tender to the same extent as the United States notes, for their face value, excluding interest; or they may be made exchangeable under regulations prescribed by the secretary of the treasury, by the holder thereof, at the treasury in the City of Washington, or at the office of any assistant treasurer or depositary designated for that purpose, for Uniled States notes equal in amount to the treasury notes offered for exchange, together with the interest accrued and due thereon, at the date of interest payment next pre- ceding such exchange. And in lieu of any amount of said treasury notes thus exchanged, or redeemed or paid at maturity, the secretary may issue an equal amount of other treasury notes; and the treasury notes so exchanged, redeemed or paid, shall be cancelled and des- troyed as the secretary may direct. In order to secure certain and prompt exchanges of the United States notes for treasury notes when required as above i)rovided, the secretary shall have power to issue United States notes to the amount of one hundred^and fifty millions of 174 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. dollars, which may be used if necessaiy for such exchanges; but no part of the United States notes authorized by ihis secticjn shall be issued for or applied to any other purposes than said exchanges; and whenever any amount sliall have been so issued and applied, the same shall be replaced as soon as practicable irom the sales of treas- ury notes for United States notes. That the secretary of the treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized, if required by the exigencies of the public service, for the payment of the army and navy, and other creditors of the Government, to issue to the credit of the United States the sum of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars of United States notes, including the amount of such notes heretofore authorized by tlie joint resolution approved January seventeen, eighteen-hundred and sixty-three, in such torm as he may deem expedient, not bearing interest, payable to bearer, and of such denominations, not less than one dollar, as he may prescribe, which notes so issued shall be lawful money and a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the UiViteil States, except for duties on imports and interest on the public debt; ancl any of the said notes, wlieii returned to the treasury, may be reissueu from time to time as the exigencies of the public service may require. And in lieu of any of said notes, or other United States notes, returned to the treasurv,'and cancelled or destroyed, tliere may be issued equal amounts of United States notes, such as are authorized by this act. And so much of the act to authorize the issue of United States notes, and for other purposes, approved February twenfy-five, eighteen hun- dred and sixty-two, and of the act to authorize an additional issue ot United States notes, and for other purposes, approved July eleven, eighteen hundred and sixtyMwo, as restricts the negotiation of ''onds to market value, is hereby repealed. And the holders of United States notes, issued under and by virtue of said acts, shall present the same for the purpose of exchanging the same for bonds, as therein provided, on or before the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and thereafter the right so to exchange the same shall cease and determine. That in lieu of postage and revenue stamps for fractional currency, and of fractional notes, commonly called postage currency, issued or to be issued, the secretary of the treasury may issue fractional notes of like amounts in such form as he may deem expedient, anO. may provide for the engraving, preparation and issue thereof in the treasury department building. And all such notes issued shall be exchangeable by the assistant treasurers and designated depositaries for United States notes, in suras not less than three dollars, and shall be receivable for postage and revenue stamps, and also in payment of any dues to the United States less than five dollars, except dues on im- ports, and shall be redeemed on presentation at the treasury of the United States in such sums and under such regulations as the secretary of the treasury shall prescribe • Provided, That the whole amount of fractional currency issued, including postage and revenue stamps issued as currency, shall not exceed fifty millions of dollars. That the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized to receive deposits of gold coin and bullion with the treasurer or any assistant treasurer ofl,he United States, in sums not less than twenty dollars. it 4. FINANCE LEGISLATION. 175 and to issue certificates therefor in denominations of not less tlian twenty dollars each, corresponding with the denominations of the United States notes. The coin and bullion deposited for or repre- sentiug the certificates of deposit shall be retained in the treasury for the payment of the same on demand. And certificates representing coin in the treasury may be issued in payment of interest on the pub- lic debt, which certificates, together with those issued for coin and bullion deposited, shall not at any time exceed twenty per centum beyond the amount of coin and bullion in the treasury; and the cer- tificates for coin or bullion in the treasury shall be received at par in payment for duties on imports. Act March 3, 1S64. That in lieu of so much of the loan authorized by the act of March 3, 1863, the secretary of the treasury be and is hereby authorized to borrow, on the credit of the United States, not exceeding two hun- dred millions of dollars during the current fiscal year, bearing date March first, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, or any subsequent period, redeemable at the pleasure of the Government after any period not less than five years, and payable at any period not more than forty years from date, in coin, bearing interest not exceeding six per centum a year — and he may dispose of such bonds at any time, on such terms as he may deem most advisable, for lawful money of the United States, or, at his discretion, for treasury notes, certifi- cates of indebtedness or certificates of deposit issued under any act of Congress. Joint Resolution March 17, 1864. That the secretary of the treasury be authorized to anticipate the payment of interest on the public debt, by any period not exceeding one year, from time to time, either with or without a rebate of interest upon the coupons, as to him may seem expedient, and he is hereby authorized to dispose of any gold* in the treasury of the United States not necessary for the payment of interest on the public debt. Act June 30, 1864. That the secretary of the treasury be authorized to borrow four hundred millions of dollars, and to issue bonds of the United States, redeemable at the pleasure of the Government after any period not less than five nor more than forty years from date, and bear an annual interest not exceeding six per centum, payable semi-annually in coin. The secretary of the treasury may issue on the credit of the United States, and in lieu of an equal amount of bonds authorized by the preceding section, and as a part of said loan, not exceeding two hun- dred millions of dollars, in treasury notes of any denomination not less than ten dollars, payable at any time not exceeding three ^-ears from date, or, if thought more expedient, redeemable at any time after three years from date, and bearing interest not exceeding the rate of seven and three-tenths per centum, payable in lawful money ♦This is the first instancn of the use of the word " cold " instead of " coin" or " gold and silver " in any of the laws of the United States with regard to money obligations of the Government issued since 1860. 176 LAliOK AND FINANCE KEVOLUTION. at maturity. And such of them as shall be made payable, principal and interest, at maturity, shall be a legal tender to the same extent as United States notes, for their face value, excluding interest, and may be paid to any creditor of the United States at their face value, ex- cluding interest, or to any creditor willing to receive them at par, in- cluding interest. That the total amount of bonds and treasury notes authorized by the first and second sections of this act shall not exceed four hundred millions of dollars, in addition to the amounts heretofore issued; nnr shall the total amounts of United States notes, issued or to be issued, ever exceed four hundred millions of dollars, and such adaitional sums, not exceedina; titty millions of dollars, as may be temporarily required for the redemption of temporary loan ; nor shall any treasury note bearins; interest, issued under this act, be a legal tender in pay- ment or redemption of any notes issued by any bank, banking asso- ciation, or banker, calculated or intended to circulate as money. The secretary of the treasury may issue notes of tlie fractions of a dollar as now used for currency, in such form, with such inscriptions, and with such safeguards against counterfeiting, as he may judge best; but the whole amount of all descriptions of notes or stamps less than one dollar issued as currency, shall not exceed fifty millions of dollars. Amendment to Pacific Railroad Act, July 2, 1864. That section five of said act be so modified and amended that the Union Pacific Railroad Company, the Central Pacific Railroad Com- pany, and any other company authorized to participate in the con- struction of said road, may, on tlie completion of each section of said road, as provided in this act and the act to which this act is an amendment, issue their first mortgage bonds on their respective rail- road and telegraph lines to an amount not exceeding the amount of the bonds of the United States, and of even tenor aad date, time of maturity, rate and character of interest, with the bonds authorized to be issued to said railroad companies respectively. And the lien of the United States bonds sliall be subordinate to that of the bonds of any or either of said companies hereby authorized to be issued on their respective roads, property and eciuipments, except as to the pro- visions of the sixth section of the act to which this act is an amend- ment, relating to the transmission of dispatches and the transportation of mails, troops, munitions of war, supplies and public stores for the Government of the United States. Act January 28, 1865. That in lieu of any bonds authorized to be issued by the first section of the act entitled "A.n act to provide ways and means for the support of the Government," approved June 30, 1864, that may remain unsold at the date of this act, the secretary of the treasury may issue, under the authority of said act, treasury notes of the description and char- acter authorized by the second section of said act- Provided, That the whole amount of bonds authorized as aforesaid and treasury notes issued and to be issued in lieu thereof shall not exceed the sum of four hundred millions of dollars ;* and such treasury notes may be disposed of for lawful money, or for any other treasury notes or cer- FINANCE LEGISLATION. 177 tificates of indebtedness or certificates of deposit issued under any previous act of Congress ; and sucli notes sliall be exempt from tax- ation by or under State or municipal autliority. Act March 3, 1S65. Tliat tlie secretary of the treasury be, and lie is hereby, authorized to borrow, from time to time, on tlie credit of the United States, in addition to the amounts heretofore authorized, any sums not exceed- ing, in the aggregate, six hundred millions of dollars, and to i<^sue therefor bonds or treasury notes of the United States in such form as he may prescribe; and so much thereof as may be issued in bonds shall be of denominations not less than fifty dollars, and may be made payable at any period not more than forty years from date of issue, or may be made redeemable, at the pleasure of the Government, at or after any period not less than five years nor more than forty years from date, or may be made redeemable and payable as afore- said, as may be expressed upon tlieir face ; and so much thereof as may be issued in treasury notes may be made controvertible into any bonds authorized by this act. Provided, Tliat the rate of interest on any such bonds or treasury notes, when payable in coin, shall not exceed six per centum per annum ; and when not payable in coin shall not exceed seven and three-tenths per centum per annum. Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as authorizing the issue of legal-tender notes in any form. Act April 12, 1866. That the act approved March 3, 1865, shall be extended and con- strued to authorize the secretary of the treasury, at his discretion, to receive any treasury notes or other obligations issued under any act of Congress, whether bearing interest or not, in exchange for any description of bonds authorized by the act to which this is an amend- ment; and also to dispose of any description of bonds authorized by said act, either in the United States or elsewhere, to such an amount, in such manner and at such rates as he may think advisable, for lawful money of the United States or for any treasury notes, certifi- cates of idebtedness or certificates of deposit, or other representatives of value which have been or which may be issued under any act of Congress, the proceeds thereof to be used only for retiring treasury notes or other obligations issued under any act of Congress; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to auihorize any increase of the public debt: Provided, That of the United States notes not more than ten millions of dollars may be retired and cancelled within six months from the passage of this act, and thereafter not more than four millions of dollars in any one month. Act March 2, 1867. That for the purpose of redeeming and retiring any compound- interest notes outstanding, the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized and directed to issue temporary loan certificates in the manner prescribed by sectioq four of the act entitled "An act to authorize the issue of United States notes and for the redemption or 12 178 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. funding thereof, and for funding the floating debt of the United States." approved February twenty-tiftb, eighteen hundred and sixty- two ; bearing interest at a rate not exceeding three per centum per annum, principal and interest payable in lawful money on demand ; and said certificates of temporary loan may constitute and be held, by any national bank holding or owning the same, as a part of the reserve provided tor in sections thirty-one and thirty-two of the act entitled "An act to provide a national currency, secured by a pledge of United States bonds, and to provide for the circulation and re- demption thereof: " Provided, that the amount of such certificates outstanding at any time shall not exceed fifty millions of dollars. Act July 25, 1868. That for the sole purpose of redeeming and retiring the remainder of the compound-interest notes outstanding, the secretary of the treasury is authorized to issue an additional amount of temporary loan certificates not exceeding twenty-five millions of dollars, said certificates to bear three per cent, interest, payable in lawful money. An Act to strengthen the public credit, approved March 18, 1869. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled : That in order to remove any doubt as to the purpose of the Government to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors, and to settle couflicting questions and interpretations by the law by virtue of which such obligations have been contracted, it is herein^ provided and declared that the faith of the United States is solemnlj' pledged to the pay- ment in coin or its equivalent of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest, known as the United States notes, and of all the interest-bearing obligations of the United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the issue of such obligations has expressly provided that the same may be paid in lawful money, or other currency than gold and silver. But none of said interest-bear- ing obligations not already due shall be redeemed or paid before maturity, unless at such time United States notes shall be converti- ble into coin at the option of the holder, or unless at such time bonds of the United States bearing a lower rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemed can be sold at par in coin. And the- United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make provisions at the earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin. Funding Act, July 14, 1870. That the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized to issue in a sum or sums not exceeding in the aggregate two hundred millions of dollars, coupon or registered bonds of the United States, in such forms as he may prescribe, and of denominations ot fifty dollars, or some multiple of that sum, redeemable in coin of the present stand- ard value, at the pleasure of the United States, after ten years from the date of their issue, and bearing interest, payable semi-annually in such coin, at the rate of five per cent, per annum; also a sum or sums not exceeding in the aggregate three hundred millions of dollars FINANCE LEGISLATION. 179 of like bonds, the same in all respects, bat payable at the pleasure of the United States, after fifteen years from their issue, and bearing interest at the rate of four and a half per cent, per annum; also a sum or sums not exceeding in the aggregate one thousand millions of dollars of like bonds, the same in ail respects, but payable at the pleasure of the United States after thirty years from liie date of their issue, and bearing interest at the rate of four per cent, per annum ; all of which said several classes of bonds and the interest thereon shall be exempt from the payment of all taxes or duties of the United Stales, as well as from taxation in any form b}' or under State, municipal or local authority; and the said bonds shall have set forth and expressed upon their face the above specified condi- tions, and shall, with their coupons, be made payable at the treasury of the United States. But nothing in this act, or in any other law now in force, shall be construed to authorize any increase whatever of the bonded debt of the United States. Tliat the secretary of tlie treasury is hereby authorized to sell and dispose of any of the bonds issued under this act, at not less tiian their par value for coin, and to apply the proceeds thereof to the redemption of any of the bonds of the United States outstanding, and known as five-twenty bonds, at their par value; or lie may ex- change the same fur such five-twenty bonds, par for par; but the bonds hereby authorized shall be used for mi other purpose whatso- ever. And a sum not exceeding one-half of one per cent, of the bonds herein authorized is hereby appropriated to pay the expense of preparing, issuing, advertising and disposing of the same. That the payment of any of the bonds hereby authorized after the expiration of the said several terms of ten, fifteen and thirty years, shall be made in amounts to be determined from time to time by the secretary of the treasury at his discretion, the bonds so to be paid to be distinguished and described by the dates and numbers, beginnmg for each successive payment with tlie bonds of eacii class last dated and numbered, of the time of which intended payment or redemp- tion the secretary of the treasury shall give public notice, and the interest on the particular bonds so selected at any time to be paid shall cease at the expiration of three mouths from the date of su di notice. That the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized, with any coin in the treasury of the United States which he may lawfully apply to such purpose, or which may be derived from the sale of any of the bonds, the issue of which is provided for in this act, to pay at par and cancel any six per cent, bonds of the United States of the kind known as five-twenty bonds, which have beconie or shall liere- after become redeemable by ihe terms of their issue. But the par- ticular bonds so to be paid and cancelled shall in all cases be indi- cated and specified by class, date, and number, in the order of their numbers and issue, beginning with the first numbered and issued, in public notice to be given liy the secretary of the treasury, and in three months after the date of such public notice the interest on the bonds so selected and advertised to be paid shall cease. That the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized, at any time within two years from the passage of this act, to receive gold ISU LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. coin of the United States on deposit for not less than thirty days, in sums of not less than one hundred dollars, with the treasurer, or any assistant treasurer of the United States authorized by the secretary of the treasury to receive the same, who shall issue therefor certifi- cates of deposit, made in such form as the secretary of the treasury shall prescribe, and said certificates of deposit shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding two and a half per cent, per annum; and any amount of gold coin so deposited may be withdrawn from deposit at any time after thirty days from the date of deposit, and after ten days' notice and on the return of said certificates- Provided, That the interest on all such deposits shall cease and determine at the pleasure of the secretary of the treasury. And not less thaa twenty-five per cent, of the coin deposited for or represented by said certificates of deposit shah be retained in the treasury for the pay- ment of said certificates; and the excess bejond twenty-five per cent, may be applied, at the discretion of the secretary of the treasury, to the payment or redemption of such outstanding bonds of tlie United States h-^retofore issued and known as the five-twenty bonds, as he may designate under the provisions of the fourth section of this act; and any certificate of deposit issued as aforesaid may be received at par, with the interest accrued thereon, in payment for any bonds authorized to be issued by this act. Act January 20, 1871. That the amount of bonds authorized by the act approved July 14, 1870, entitled " An act to authorize the refunding of the national debt," to be issued bearing five per centum interest per annum, be^ and the same is, increased to five hundred millions of dollars, and the interest of any portion of the bonds issued under said act, or this act, may, at the direction of the secretary of the treasuiy, be made payable quarter-yearly : Provided, however, that ih'is act shall not be construed to authorize any increase of the total amount of bonds pro- vided for by the act to which this act is an amendment. Act June 2, 1872. That the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized to receive United States notes on deposit witliout interest from banic associa- tions, and to issue certificates therefor. The certificates issued may be held and counted by national banks as part of their reserve. That nothing contained in this act shall be construed to authorize any expansion or contraction of the currency; and the United States notes for which such certificates are issued, or other United States notes of like amount, shall be held as special deposits in the treasury and used only for the redemption of such certificates. Act December 17, 1873. Tliat for the purpose of redeeming the bonds called the loan of 1858, it is hereby declared to be the pleasure of the United States to pay all the coupon bonds of said loan on the first day of January, 1874. That the secretary of the treasury may issue an equal amount at par of principal and interest of five per cent, bonds of the funded loan under the act for refunding the national debt, approved Janu- FINANCE LEGISLATION. 181 aiy 20, 1871, for any of the bonds of the loan of 1858, which the holders thereof may, on or before the 1st of February, 1874, elect to exchange. Specie Resumption Act of January 24, 1875. § 1. That the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized and required, as rapidly as practicable, to cause to be coined at the mints of the United States, silver coins of the denominations of ten, twenty- five and fifty cents, of standard value, and to issue them in redemp- tion of an equal number and amount of fractional currency of simi- lar denominations, or, at his discretion, he may issue such silver coins through the mints, the sub-treasuries, public depositories and post-offices of the United States; and upon such issue he is hereby authorized and required to redeem an equal amount of such fractional currency until the whole amount of such fraciional currency out- standing shall be redeemed. § 2. That so much of section 3524 of tte Revised Statutes of the United States as provides for a charge of one-sixih of one per centum for converting standard gold bullion iutu coin is hereby repealed, and hereafter no charge shall be made for that service. i^ 3. That section 5777 of the Revised Statutes of Ihe United States, limiting tlie aggregate amount of the circulating notes of the national banking associations, be and is hereby, repealed, and each existing banking assocjetion may increase its circulating notes in accordance with the existing law, without respect to s lid aggre- gate limit; and new bankina; associations maybe organized in'ac- cordance witli the existing law, without respect to the aggregate limit; and the provisions of the law for the withdrawal and redis- tribution of national-hank currency among the several States and Territories are hereby repealed; and whenever and so often as cir- culating notes shall be issued to any such banking associat-ion, so increasing its capital or circulating notes, or so newly oreanized as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the secretary of the treasury to redeem ilie legal-tender United States notes in excess only of $300,- 000,000 to the amount of eighty per centum of the sum of national- bank notes so issued to any such banking association as afore^aid, and to continue such redemption as such circulating notes are issued until there shall be outstanding the sum of $300,000!o00 of such legal- tender United States notes, and no more. And on and after the 1st day of January, A. D. 1879, the secretary of the treasury shall redeem in coin the United Stales legal-tender notes then outstanding on iheir presentatron for redemption at the office of the assistant treasurer of the United States, in the City of New York, in sums of not less than f 50. And to enable the secretary of the treasury to prepare and provide for the redemption in this act authorized or required, he is authorized to use ary surplus revenues from time to time in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to issue, sell and dispose of, at not less than par in coin, either of the description of bonds of the United States described in tiieact of Congress approved July 14, 1870, entitled "An act to authorize ihe refunding of the national debt," with like privileges and exemptions, to the extent necessary to carry this act into effect, and to use the proceeds thereof for the purposes 182 LABOR AXD FINAXCE REVOLUTION. aforesaid. And all provisions of law inconsistent with the pro- visions of this act are hereby repealed. Subsidiary Silver Coin Law, Joint Resolution of Congress July 13, 1876. § 1. That the secretary of the treasury, under such limits and regulations as will best secure a just and fair distribution of the same through the country, may issue the silver coin at auj- time in the treasuiy, to an amount not exceeding $10,000,000, in exchange for an equal amount of legal-tender notes, and notes so received in exchange shall be kept as a special fund, separate and apart from all other money in the treasury, and be issued only upon the retirement and destruction of a like sum of fractional currency received at the treasury in payment of dues to the United States, and said fractional currency, when so substituted, shall be destroyed and held as part of the sinking fund, as provided in the act approved April 17, 1876. § 2. That the trade dollar shall not hereafter be a legal tender, and the secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized to limit from time to time the coinage thereof to such an amount as he may deem sutficient to meet the export demand for the same. ^ 8. That in addition to the amount of subsidiary silver coin authorized by law to be issued in redemption of the fractional cur- rency, it shall be lawful to manufacture at the several mints, and issue through the treasury and its several offices, such coin to an amount that, including the amount of subsidiary silver coin and of fractional currencv outstanding, shall in the aggregate not exceed at any time $50,000,000. g 4. That the silver bullion required for the purposes of this act shall be purchased from time to time at the market rate by the sec- retary of the treasuiy with any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, but no purchase of bullion shall be made under this resolution when the market rate for the same shall be such as will not admit of the coinage and issue as herein provided wiihout loss to the treasury, and any gain or seigniorage arising from this coin- age shall be accounted for and paid into the treasury as provided under existini^ laws relative to subsidiary coinage, provided that the amount of money at any time invested in such silver bullion, exclu- sive of such resulting coin, shall not exceed $200,000. CHAPTER XIII. THE BOND AGE. The world has passed through several periods called "Ages," each characterized by some important feature of the time. Thus, we had the Stone Age, when stone was not only used as tools for the husbandman, weapons for the w-ar- rior, but for tablets on which the events of the period and its literature were inscribed. Passing from this over to the Iron Age, the Bronze Age, the Dark Age, and the Golden Age, we find ourselves living in the Bond Age. This is characterized by its enormous infla- tion of credits. Civilization, the increased facilities for travel and transportation, and the enlarged diversity of the wants of the period, have greatly augmented the demands for the exchange medium, while the precious metals, " the money of the world," are being exhausted, their supply diminishing and their cost of production increasing. So urgent have been the increasing de- mands for an enlarged volume of exchange medium, that private, corporate, municipal and national credits have been substituted for coin, to an extent never before known in the history of the world. Within the last twenty years the indebtedness of the world has quadrupled. It constitutes a monument ter- rible to contemplate. The national, railroad and municipal debt of Europe and North America are estimated as follows: 183 184: LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. National debts $23,400,000,000 Railroad debts.. 5,000.000,000 State and municipal debts 5,600,000,000 Total. 134,000,000,000 The individual, and other corporate indebtedness will exceed the above three fold, making the interest-bearing burden of Europe and America not less than a hundred and fifty thousand million. That of the United States is appalling. General A. J. Warner, of Ohio, has published a carefully prepared statement showing the increase of the municipal indebt- edness from 1866 to 1876. His figures, giving the condition of 130 cities, show that during these ten years their average debt has in- creased 200 per cent.; taxation, 83 per cent.; valuation, 75 per cent.; population, only 33 per cent. That the indebtedness of eleven States, to wit.: New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Min- nesota, Kansas, Missouri, Connecticut, Georgia and Kliode Island, has increased from $286,179,060 in 1870 to $546,289,528 in 1878. That while the debt and taxes of these states have doubled, the increase in the value of property has been slight, being from $7,172,148,175 in 1870 to $7,333,696,- 515 in 1878. The local or municipal indebtedness of the United States has incrersed from $850,000,000 in 1870 to $1,051,206,112 in 1878. In 1866 the as^cyreficate State debt of the United States was $390,000,000 and now eleven States owe nearly $550,000,000. The Westminster Review for January, 1876, estimated that the national debts of the world then aggregated £4,598,000,000, or $22,990,000,000. Our national debt is about $2,000,000,000. THE BOND AGE. 185 Some other public and corporate debts have been com- puted by careful authorities as follows: States $390,000,000 Cities, towns and counties 850,000,000 Railroads 2,459,000,000 Canals 105,000,000 Total $3,804,000,000 The figures for railroads are taken from Poor's Man- ual, 1876-'77. Of debts of manufacturing, mining, and other companies, no estimates have ever been attempted. Of another form of permanent debt in this country, of mortgages upon real estate, it can only be said that it is exceedingly great. The permanent investments of the national, State, and savings banks, insurance companies, and trust companies of New York City amounted at the commencement of the present year to about $500,000,000. These invest- ments include $205,000,000 in real estate mortgages. According to the most recent returns from savings banks which are accessible, those in the six New Eng- land States, having $438,000,000 in deposits, had in- vested $228,000,000, or rather more than one-half, in real estate mortgages; those in the State of New York, having $316,677,000 in deposits, had invested $116,154,- 000 in the same way; and of those in New Jersey, 45 per cent, of the deposits are so invested. It may be fairly inferred from these statements that the aggregate value of real estate mortgages held by monied institutions is very large. Tlie value of tliose held by individuals must be still larger. The loans and discounts of the national banks October 2, 1876, were $927,000,000. In November, 1875, the capital of State and private banks was $209,000,000, not reckoning a large surplus, and $487,000,000 of deposits, and the 186 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. savings banks had $884,000,000 of deposits. Nearly tlie whole of this vast aggregate must have been employed in loans of some kind. A considerable proportion of the farms in the West, especially in the newer States, are known to be mortgaged. Of the 630,099 traders and manufacturers on the book of the mercantile agency of Dunn, Barlow & Co., in 1876, 9,022 failed, with aver- age liabilities of ^21,020. If that is assumed to be the average liability of the whole 630,099, the aggregate liability would be $13,244,000,000. Those who think that the failures sliould be ascribed, not to a relative de- ficiency of assets, but to an excess of .debts above the average, will reduce this estimate. But it is also to be taken into account that the books of this agency do not contain the names of all the persons described as traders and manufacturers, nor of a vast number not described as such that are large operators and debtors. There are other forms of debt in this country, which consist of the rents reserved on long leases of either land and buildings, or land alone to be built upon by the lessees. Tiie amount of this kind of indebtedness in the larger cities is enormous, and the effect upon it of a shrinking money is especially ruinous. The prostra- tion of business, which destroys or greatly reduces the value of buildino-s hired for commercial or manufactur- ing purposes, does not affect the right of the landlord to exact in full the stipulated rent. The source from which it was expected to be paid may be dried up, but the liability to pay it remains undiminished. Indebt- edness under long leases figures largely in the lists of debts scheduled in bankrupt courts, and largely also among the losses of those who have so far managed to keep out of such courts. THE BOND AGE. 187 Poor's Manual states the share-capital of the railroads at $2,198,000,000, and their debts at $2,459,000,000 being a j^roportion of share-capital to debt of eighty- nine to one hnndred. This shows a considerable excess of debt over capital stock. Tlie financial condition of the railroads illustrates the condition of a large propor- tion of the corporate and individual property in the United States. The country is new and unsurpassed in natural resources, the population venturesome, ingenious and industrious, and enterprises of all kinds, from the greatest to the smallest, are undertaken by corporations and individuals on small capital. It is considered pru- dent for companies or individuals to undertake opera- tions with only means enough of their own to constitute a security for loans wherewith to complete them. This view of what is prudent may or may not be well taken, but it is natural to a young and progressive people. It has made the American economical system one vast net- work of debts and credits, and of long debts and long credits. CHAPTER XIV. TABLES. WHAT THE BONDS COST SHYLOCK, AND HIS PROFITS. The Shylqcks of the gold exchange for years kept gold up, that they might buy greenbacks cheap, to in- vest in bonds at par, and below is the result, showing the year, the amount of greenbacks exchanged for bonds and the amount in gold the greenbacks were purchased for: Tear. Bonds. Cost in gold. la 1862 $60,982,450 160,987,550 381,292,250 279,646,150 124,914,400 421,469,550 425,443.800 $44,030 649 In 1863 101,890,850 In 1864 189,697,636 In 1865 208 214,090 In 1866 88,591,773 In 1867 303,215,303 In 1868 312 826,32.3 Total... $1,854,736,150 $1,248,466,624 Here is a net profit of $606,269,526 Add interest since. 1,430,000,000 Harvest for eleven years $2,036,269,526 The above figures are taken from the public record and may be relied upon. The bondholders have re- ceived back more tlian twice the value thev loaned, and still hold the bonds to draw more every year, until they mature, when they expect to receiv^e their face in gold, or keep the blister drawing until it is paid. 188 TABLES. 189 Showing the values in United States money of the pure gold and silver representing respectively, the mon- etary units and standard coins of foreign countries, Jan- uary 1, 1876. Treasury Department, Washington, D. C, Jan. 1, 1876. The estimate of values contained in the following talle has been made by the Director of the Mint, and is hereby proclaimed in com- pliance with the provisions of law : Country- Monetary Unit. Austria .. Belgium . Florin Franc . Bolivia .. Brazil Brit. Possessions in N. America. Bogota Central America. Chili Denmark Ecuador Egypt France Dollar - Millreis of 1,000 reis. Dollar Peso Dollar Great Britain Greece - German Empire. Japan India Italy Liberia Mexico Netherlands ... Norway Peru Portugal Russia Sandwich Islands Spain Sweden Switzerland. Tripoli Tunis Peso Crown Dollar Pound of 100 piasters Franc Pound sterling. Standard. Silver Gold and silver.. Gold and silver.. Gold Viilue m U. S. Money. Gold Gold Silver Gold Gold Silver.... Gold Gold and silver Gold... Drachma Mark Yeu Rupee of 16 annas . Lira Dollar Dollar. — X Florin Crown Dollar .MiUreis of 1,000 reis Roubel of 100 copecs Dollar Peseta of 100 centimes Crown Franc Gold and Silver.. Gold Gold Silver Gold and Silver.. Gold... Turkey United States of Colombia Mahbub of 20 piasters Piaster of 16 caroubs. Piaster Peso Silver.. Gold and Sliver Gold... Silver.. Gold... Silver.. Gold Go'd and Silver. Gold Gold and Silver.. Silver Silver Gold Silver..-. .45.3 .19.3 .96.5 54.5 $1.00 •96.5 .91.8 .91.2 .26.8 .91.8 4.97.4 .19.3 .19.3 .23.8 .99.7 .43.6 .19.3 1.00 .99.8 .38.5 .26.8 .91.8 1.08 .73.4 1.00 .19.3 .26.8 .19.3 .82.9 .11.8 .04.3 .91.8 Standard Coins. F4orin. 5, 10 and 20 francs. Escudo, % bolivar and bolivar. None. Dollar. Condor, doubloon and escudo. 10 and 20 crowns. Dollar. (ters. 5, 10, 25 and 50 pias- 5, 10 and 20 francs. J^ sovereign and sovereign. 5, 10. 2(1, 50 and 100 drachrpas. .'i, 10 and 20 marks. 1, 2, 5, 10and20yen. 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100' lire. Peso or dollar, 5, 10, 25 and 50 centavo. Fiorin; 10 guldens, gold, $4.01.9) 10 and 20 crowns. 2, 5 and 10 millreis. %, 14 and 1 rouble. 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pesetas. 10 and 20 crowns. 5, 10 and 20 francs. 25. 50, 100, 250 and; 500 piasters. B. H. BRISTOW, Secretary of the Treasury. 190 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. MONTHLY RANGE OF THE GOLD PREMIUM FOR 14 YEARS. The following table shows the prices of gold at New York, for lowest and hio-hest each month durino; fourteen years. The left-handed column of each year shows the lowest price, and the right-hand column the highest. CO as CO Ci ^ 1-1 O O ^ LI O o o c- ?o r^ -c/fxi Hx ccH ^+0 5*0 H-* H^^ '"♦» =:*'' -^ ^^ I005C-C-05C10CO-^COO»Ttl CO Ct CO CO- ?2 00 -^ -n* -^ CO 01 CO 00 T-H Hx -icj -5*0 t-HcD Hx icf* xH« 5:100 itix «)x -H" Hod t-ooi-iooQOOov:!.';.— t- co-TiTtiTrcocO'^Tt'-rfTtHrtico a(^ 5:+x irt^ t-ix 5:ix sc^x Hx -f.^ '-x CJt-coo^i-^cr^rci-^st-co oococococococico-^^coco to o CO 1-^ 1.-JX ofto -^;-i H^ -i?» sy.? ccW" H"* Hx :CfX uttx xH* TTOtSCl—t-LOCit-TfCO^ -^rticoci-^ooio-rfiireTti'^ K-f Hx -Hii-tx, -fji ^4 -fN -*) ^.t OlOLOlfflOt^lr-OCOlCt---^ coco ^-fx Kf* XW Tf -H O' 10 c- -.r. 00 CI ao CO-— OCC-^-*iTf<-^TjCCOO»OC>CS-r -.< T-i -.-H ^ T-H C>? OJ CQ CO 101 0» 05 vHC-O55O00C5(M-»-'lCC5OS^ 1862. 1863. ocH* -*?^ sH" *^x xH -ix «|.t< 0^ oc-irtOsiocoicaico^Tj'o"! ittt-l:-IO»C-*Tti<0J-*lCl«lO -*> -*' -H -»x ojx »**-*'-+* -te -Ri -K H* H-f >C-^C}IOJ-^C50rff'*t-CO-H 000000 CJ^CQCOCCCO . ■ ^-tX ^X -i-TJ ,.4X -t5> ^^ --(« nj5>>— ''-i<0}C005(N50l?»OVO January February March April May June July August September October. November December in 00 1— 1 5*0 K((X -*?! KtX -t?) H* <** 5*C ^JI 5*0 Hni COiCt-100£-l>rfC-£-ttlO srH* H-* 5Ctx H-* 55^* ''-tX' -♦<). -*ri r^X lO^X ■rHCO-^^mOi— ■OJCC'^-^O} T-l -♦5> «-.)XKtX-4,,+*H0D-(,H*5*XMB)HTf OJCOCOtt^OOOIOOOOOJIO} -tX «*» -ft X*.)- c-iX -»5) -<^ 5*0 5CH- -^ Ot— ^i— T— OCxc5;::ctOO .-Ht— ^r-(T-H^H■^HOOOOT-^^- CO co r+* -+D -|M -PC «*0 H* 5-^' H.* -*X -(^. -(51 c(x Tt<100005COCO»00'— OtOJ 1— ' i-H tH t— * 1-^ 1— < T— t .— < ^— T— 1 T— < 1— <|ao Hx i/*D sew -fi^ * K^ iSx -n-x -fX Ktx T-iCQTfCO«)OL'r'^Ot~:;5CO ^rt_rtT-i.-H^,-.,-HOOO (OJ I- 00 T— 1 r^ -t5J -f* 5*0 rj-* Hv -^x -*x -tx H^ -t51 T-' CO Tp "^ 4C i-O iC iC "^ CO .^ -«N xH Hoc -*x -r5' -*x 5:(.t -fr* 5*d ;*o CO C5 C5 C5 C^ CO CO <0i OJ CI 1-1 T— OOOOt--*— It— Ii-HtHt-I^-i-H .— ( 1— < .— 1 1—1 .--• .— < T— ' ^^ 1— < r-H T-H .— 4 00 Hf-(.f.<*0XH'r+*-tX«tX-+»5*C i5:tXS*0 T^ 01 •^ 1-1 Ci 00 CO CO lO »o OJ -♦sixH'+o-*" .a:|.)csH'<*X5:H'-t5i5*o5*o OOOOi— It— i-i-hOJt-iOOO t-it-Ht-It-It-It— 1t-(t-ht-Ht— ii-lO .-f* -t5J 5*0 0*X -P< XH !** «Ml-H.Hl5<5*0 CO— '?0iC10-*C>C'1»C0-^-^ OC>}-HT-iT-l-rt}T-'iX'-^ cocococo-^coeocoooocjc^f <^ C~fX H.+ K*X -tX HtJ. Xt* -tX' -♦X H^ ■*00'-'* oo J.O o o oc c if; 00 m I o — « : X — I X' o . 'i-H CO : iTi o : *OQC c -woo; Tf(Ne!050iNiffl©' L- L- i- t- 50 O CO o ; ^ >. ■sjjaBa ajBjg o oo o o o o oo. oTt! x' X lO rr <^ a>^i- Tf tc lO ■" ox OJ • « — «c o o cf X ; t' c5 c oo oo o o 5 CO t- jos o o oo o o — _ o c_^ ", r in CJ ^' ) o a-, i- .'irj'co'oo' o xro CJ r-. U I »ft oi CO c: c^ O 00 :c '^^^ ' < »n c. ^^ :o ai o fo c^ IT '-^ '^ 1 <-■ ■» o ;c c; X »n « ■^^ CI •-' • -^^t- t-«,o GO »f: s — ^ I in ;o CO '1 5*'cj i-Ti-^S'^ 5- I ^ ' 9J[aBa; [BnoiiB^T •^ouajjtio lBaoi;oBJ^ ^ CO iO c* o ~» 1-': ■ cr. c: or ' CO i-oi ^ !06 0» — '^ CO — GC ^ O* -T QO 5 CI O CO I 3 ys ?? Oi I L- C» O C r CO CO c; > 05 TT CO )0 c 0* O OJ Ol O *T CO ^ ^ n; ■rp i-iQO o »o i-« to C^ *— I O: r: ^- ^ — CJ ^■ c^ ^ ^ ■ mojTT ' "^ -^ CO 8 a: O C^ -? CO * o cc --c t- 0» t- — . CO -^ o QC {.' O X! OJ OJ CO irt C:. w X: CO '00 Q CO 1-. T-« O iC tr^irO CO O I- t^^O' i-'^OJ^C: l- X 5j CO C O o'l'oTo '-^ot''—'^':'x'--c :y^cr. x'^ctT-^i-T^' tc a: uo ;c o cr. Tf oi c;' c: 00 i- t- TT- CO -.3 X 00 mc-oii— 'CDOt-''— I"— — »-iO_oqOooi^S):o OrH T-TcO O r-T^O X; '^X oo '^ a lO cT cT "^ co m CO CO CO o I - i-o L.O L*; iC 1.0 »o CO I- -^ lO -r ^ i-»COtJ"tPt}ooo ooo 1 o'c'iio'co o o , C OJ TJ* --C OJ CO , O — lO X OJ O 3 O if; o o •jBai qOB8 t jfjUf '38iOM 188J81UI panodmoo •jb8jC q388 I jfinp 'sajOK JB8ji aaiqx 08"i (8981 '8 qoJ«I\[ ;3V) sAsp 09 11 puB •sjX s ui aiqBiCBd's'a^oti AIU8B3JX O<:DCI-»r«,^C>XC0a;irtt-X Sir; — cr. -x *- if; to X i- ^ -^ CJ ^ I- O^co T-x — t--if;' o {-c ■ — oc ' ' o o o o c> CJ c* X »■- in in in in l£r!SS~'-'--^ — otot-o J [ ^,f^cj o; rr t-cj cox ^ in CO I- I t 7-< X Tf'co'in't^x ffc ^o't^co rr" 1 ' t- r? o CJ m -^ ^ r^ o 4r '-J ^ 5 > .TT CO -5'_^rH Om CJCJCJ ri >^.-l ;:i I I CO C> oo T-i I I in rj' •ivbS. qDBa I jfinf 'ssanpaiqapaijo sajBo giiasf) jbbX ano puR saBoi jCep-oi jCaBiOdniaj, I i\np SaipnBjejno CiQ.'Ag 'oad pnB '0981 ir38a'i98rKqo-iBi\[ ■jX z ptiB ipoB puBcaaQ ;c t- ^ — o 3i CJ a: ;c m o,to^o — CI CO i--" ICJ CJ — 0-. oooooooo t- CJ r-i .- t^ O O O :o CO o o CO CO co^in in in o^o ^ iff 30 CD in' CO Co' CO x' 00 CO — o;xooxxoD C»_X rl r- c'co iQCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJinooOininin lO'-;-; — — T-H -- — — C)inif5t-t-t-cj ^,^o;^in oiint--incjooxt— cOininin CO c; f- X 00 1-^ o' o x' rr '^' -^ ^ '^' ■^' -^ *^S^St-^^'-'^ooia5o;a-. osoio; '-'XXCJt-(t-i»-i»-i»-i o'cj' ■"Jif^cOt-XOlO^^OCO^lOCOC-XCSOt-HOCO-ViOCOt^OOOS in in in in in in CD en CO CO CO --o CO CO CO -^ t- 1- I— i- t- 1- I'- 1- 1-» t- OOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXQCGO 192 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. The following table shows the transactions in refund- ing since March 1, 1877: Title of Loan. Loan of 1858 Ten-forties of 1864 ... Five-twenties of 1865. Consols of 1865 Consols of 1867 Consols of 1868 Total. Rate per ct. Am't refunded. 5 $260,000 5 193,800,250 6 100,436,050 .6^ 202,663,100 6 310,622,750 6 37,473,800 845,345,950 The following described bonds will mature in 1880 and 1881; Authorizing Act. Rate of interest. Date of Maturity. Amount. February 8,1861 6 6 6 6 5 Dec. 31, 1880. June 30, 1881. June 30, 1881. Julyl, 1881. May 1, 1881. $18,415,000 July 17and Aug. 5, 1861... March 3, 1863 182,605,550 71,787,000 Maich 2, 1861 823,800 July 14, '70, and Jan. 20, '71 508,440,350 Total - 782,071,700 The entire transactions in refunding since 1870 have been as follows: Title of Loan. Loan of 1858 Ten-forties of 1864. Five-twenties of 1862 Five-twenties of March, 1864. Five-twenties of June, 1864... Five-twenties of 1865 Consols of 1865 Consols of 1867 Consols of 1868 Total Rate per ct. 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 Am't Refunded. $14,217,000 193,890,250 401,143,750 1,327,100 59,185,450 160,144,500 211,387,050 316,423,800 37.677,050 1,395,345,950 TABLES. 193 Of the $363,802,400 of U. S. bonds held as security for circulation of national banks, there are of 6 per cents $59,315,450 5 per cents 131,801,600 A% per cents 34,866,950 4_per cents 138,318,400 Excess of exports over imports in the fiscal year, are as follows: 1876 _ $97,648,481 1877 151,152,094 1878 - 257,814,234 1879 264,661,666 The department of agriculture estimates the product for 1879, as follows: Corn 1,601,000,000 bushels Wheat 449,000,000 " Oats 364,000,000 " Barley 40,000,000 " Rye 24.000,000 Cotton 2,217,000,000 pound* Tobacco 384,000,000 Amount and disposition of money in the country^ January 1, 1880, as follows : Greenbacks and bank notes $699,634,759 Coin and bullion 398,770.564 In treasury $221,596,333— $1,098,405,323 Bank reserves 109,752,489— 331,348,822 $767,056,501 Estimated loss of currency 130,000,000 Total currency available $637,056,501 The national banks receive annually upon bonds de- posited for the security of their circulation $17,152,396.75 They return tax upon circulation at 1 per cent 3,009,647.16 Net gain from the Government $14,142,749.59 Profits on circulation at 8 per cent 24,884,084.00 Total annual profit on circulation $39,026,833.59 13 194 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. DEBTS, REVENUES, EXPENDITURES AND COMMERCE OF NATIONS (1878). Compiled from the Almanach de Gotha, the Statist- ical Abstract of the United Kingdom, and from official documents. The figures are for the latest attainable years as to each country: Countries. ArgentinelRepublic. Austria Proper Austria-Hungary Belgium .:.. Bolivia Brazil Canada Chili China Colombia Denmark Ecuador Egypt France Germany". Gt. Britain & Ireland Greece Guiana Hawaiian Islands... Hungary Proper India, British Italy Japan Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands Norway Paraguay Peru Persia Portugal Roumania Russia Servia - Siam Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United States Uruguay .. Venezuela.. Total debts. Public debt. $68,416,043 1,419,096,072 205,999,970 2:J2,684,553 17.500,000 368,351,139 112,248,378 50,677.600 3,200,000 15,399,304 5-',000,000 17.500,000 450,.540,000 4,695,600,000 30.000,000 3,625.296,585 40,012,000 460,000 548,022 274.-358,915 576,634,330 1,977.117,845 148.924.725 2,400,000 395,500,000 391,242,322 13,.526,128 12.098,117 213,482.680 No debt. 428,977,613 60,000,000 1,420,092,043 5,000,000 2,401,612,'JOl 39,241.142 6,225,000 1.012,712,200 2,046,027,066 43,615,000 62,659,687 22,937,036,780 Revenue. $20,683,537 186,776,170 60.000,000 50,048,972 2,929,574 72,548,454 22,700,000 21.294.383 230,000,000 3,114.619 13,464,066 20.800,000 54,820,818 514,605.716 135.584,249 392,825,180 7.765,360 1,590.000 504.095 106,1)69,2.58 252.649,885 279,550,000 63.120,600 1 ,438,600 23.807,671 43.973,345 11,364,220 609,000 29.801,195 8.240,000 29,568,816 19,.578,885 409.377.280 2,968,422 4,000,000 131,500,01,0 23.563,201 8,297,480 88,764,050 269,800,587 6,965,683 3,549,000 Expendi- tures. $20,663,337 202,035,039 58.845,695 49.045.128 4,505,504 67,789,297 24,100,000 22,052,187 2,779,410 13,074.620 21.500,455 54.7-37 .670 519.334,162 13.5,000.000 390,626,140 7,832 768 4.580,01 '0 460,000 116,902.036 272,503,145 278,121 .440 62,993,8-50 1,409,344 24.891.522 48.785,061 10,726,500 750,000 33.755.373 8,750,000 29.720.336 19.578,885 410.557,403 2,924,779 4.000,000 131,824,000 21,872,193 8,524.400 140,000,000 238,660,009 6,809,000 3,642,500 Imports. $34,910,290 258.450,000 258,504,000 5,750,000 88.045,520 93,200,000 39,050.197 105,000,000 6,949,028 50,311,240 7,596.264 29.000,000 4,111,000 918,8.50.000 1 .869,695,885 7911,035,000 1.811.770 1,682,000 179,000,000 265,899,000 24,087,515 29.062.407 275,416,000 52,017.280 565,595 5,625,000 38,131,520 16,200,000 365,426,400 6,197,000 7.100,000 114,000,000 85,906,800 Not given, 72,430,000 492,090,406 21,917,800 12,000,000 Exports. $44,041,131 204,800,000 222.920,400 5,000,000 104,232,800 89,851,328 37,139,961 114,000,000 9,994,386 3:i,933,640 3,913,536 68,000,000 9.280,000 608,21 Hl.OOO 1,283,883,010 713,978,200 2,241,040 2,090,000 282,600,000 243,371,000 27,669,465 31,659,151 261,750,000 33,933,640 607,653 37,.500.O00 2,813,000 26,448,600 28,440,000 422,966,400 5,500,000 8,-300,000 90,000,000 62,532,960 Not given. 658,637,457 16,953,000 17,000,000 I TABLES. 195 PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1791-1879. Statement of outstanding principal of the public debt of the United States on the 1st of January of each year from 1791 to 1842, inclusive; and on the 1st of July of each year from 1843 to 1879, inclusive: (From the Annual Report of tlie Secretary of the Treasury on the Finances.) 1791.. $75,463,476 5'^ 1831.. $89,987,437 66 1851.. $68,304 796 03 1792- . 77,337,934 66 1833.. 93,546,676 98 1853.. 66,199,341 71 1793.. 80,353,634 04 1833.. 90,875,877 38 1853.. 59,803,117 70 1794.. 78,437,404 77 1834.. 90,369,777 77 1854.. • 42,342.222 42 1795.. 80,747,587 39 1835.. 83,788,433 71 1855.. 35,586,858 56 1796.. 83,763,173 07 1826.. 81,054,059 99 1856.. 31,972,537 90 1797.. 83,064,479 33 1837.. 73,987,357 30 1857.. 28,690,831 85 1798.. 79,338,539 13 1828.. 67,475,043 87 1858.. 44,911,881 03 1799.. 78,408,669 77 L8-29.. 58,421,413 67 1859.. 58,496,837 88 1800.. 83,976,294 35 1830- . 48,565,406 50 I860.. 64 842,287 88 1801.. 83,038,050 80 1831.. 39,123,191 68 1861.. 90,580,873 73 1803.. 86,713,633 35 1833.. 24,333,335 18 1862.. 524,176,412 13 1803.. 77,054,686 30 1833.. 7,001,698 83 1863.. 1,119,772,138 63 1804.. 86,437,130 88 1834.. 4,760,082 08 1864- . 1,815,784 370 57 1805.. 83,313,150 50 1835 . . 37,513 05 1865.- 2,680,647,869 74 1806.. 75,733,370 66 1836.. 336,957 83 1866.. 2,773,236,173 69 1807.. 69,218,398 64 1837.. 3,308,124 07 1867.- 2,678,126,103 87 1808.. 65,196,317 97 1838.. 10,434,331 14 1868-. 2,611,687,851 19 1809.. 57,023,192 09 1839.. 3,573,343 83 1869.- 2,588,452,213 94 1810.. 53,173,317 52 1840.- 5,250,875 54 1870.. 2,480,672,427 81 1811.. 48.005,587 76 1841.. 13,594,480 73 1871.. 2,353,211,332 32 1813.. 45,309,737 90 1843.. 20,601,226 28 1872.. 2,253 251,328 78 1813.. 55,963,837 57 1843.. 32,742,922 00 1873.. 2,234,482,993 20 1814.. 81,487,846 24 1844.. 23,461,652 50 1874.. 2,251,690,468 33 1815.. 99,833,660 15 1845.. 15,925,303 01 1875.. 2,232,284,531 95 1816.. 137,334,933 74 1846.. 15,550,202 97 1876.. 2,180,395,067 15 1817.. 123,491,965 16 1847.. 38,826,534 77 1877.. 2,205,301392 10 1818.. 103,466,633 83 1848.. 47,034,862 23 1878.. 3,256,205,892 53 1819.. 95,539,648 28 1849.. 63,061,858 69 1879.. 2,245,495,072 04 1830.. 91,015,566 15 1850.. 63,452,773 55 196 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. POPULATION, CAPITALS AND AREAS OF PRINCIPAL NA- TIONS. Countries. Argentine Republic .. Austria-Hungary Belgium Bolivia Brazil Canada, Dominion of Chili Chinege Empire Colombia Egypt Denmark Ecuador France Germany Great|Britainand Ireland Greece India, British Italy Japan Mexico Morocco Netherlands Norway Paraguay Persia Peru Portugal Russian Empire Roumania Servia Siam Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Uruguay United States Venezuela Capital. Buenos Ayres Vienna Brussels La Paz Rio de Janeiro... Ottawa Santiago Pekin Bogota Cairo Copenhagen Quito Paris Berlin London Athens Calcutta Rome Yeddo Mexico Morocco Amsterdam Christiania Asuncion Teheran Lima Lisbon St. Petersburg... Bucharest Belgrade Bangkok Madrid Stockholm .. Berne Constantinople.. Montevideo Washington Caracas Inhab- Last Area itants Cen- Popnlation. Square to the sus. Miles. Square Mile. 1875 1,715,681 871,000 1.96 1869 35,904,435 226,406 158.58 18ti6 4.839,094 11,412 424,03 1861 1,742,352 473,300 3.70 1872 10,108,291 3,275,326 3.08 1871 3,602,321 3,483,952 1.03 1875 2,068,447 130,977 15.79 Est. 433,500,000 3,924.627 110.45 1870 2,951,311 432,400 6 07 Est. 5,252,000 212,600 24.70 1870 1,912,142 14,553 131.32 1875 866,137 218,984 3.49 1876 36,905,788 201,900 182.79 1875 42,727,360 212,091 201.45 1871 31,628,.338 121,230 268,08 1870 1,457,894 19,941 72.96 1871 190,663,623 950,919 200,50 1875 27,482,174 112,677 243.91 1874 33,625,678 156,604 214.71 1871 9,276,079 1,0,30,442 9.0O Est. 6,000.0(10 219,000 27.,39 1876 3,865,456 20,527 188.31 1876 1,807,555 122,280 14.78 1873 221,079 57,303 3,85 Est. 6,500,000 648,000 10.03 1876 2,673.075 502.760 5.31 1872 4,429,382 36,510 121.31 1876 86.952,347 8,404.767 10.34 1873 5,073,000 16,817 301.65 1874 1,352,822 19721 68 59 Est. 6,300,000 250,000 25.20 1870 16,835,506 182.758 92.11 1876 4,429,713 270,980 2.5,90 1876 2,759,854 15,233 181.17 Est. 31,939,738 1,812,048 17.62 1876 445,000 70,000 6,35 1870 38,925,598 3,603,884 10.80 1873 1,784,197 368,235 4.9'^ I TABLES. 197 SI tin C3 U P< s CD <» OS -o -« a' ^ ^ •a rn OD o y ^ S o o ^ ^ <» ^ r^a « a 2 o i^ ^ 1^ •s> o 611 o to JO .9 \^ rii j—t H Em 3 i ""* ^ V w ^ t3 SS •ri fiS ^ T) a, p ?=> w pa a '^-, ■r^ a o H &, 03 s 93 P. T3 ^ o c CO *t- ^ H CO x: L- i- t- t- in in I- c- « o: t- ;0 •[aqsnq idd 'iixsQ ^ "30 o o o? {- lo c^ ic in 00 '?» •* o in ^TTininin-^'Q'-^Tj'-^oTcocO'n'co •sp^d pajpunq Jad '80T)i QOc^ooooinininoooo o o in o o o in c-» c^ c< o o in in •punod aad 'asasqo ^inco^OTrminmoL-oj-oot- •punod J3d 'jDjjng ^aoiniOT}'-ow'?JinT}«cO'OQO •punod J8d 'pjBT ^o^i>o:ooinina33^xc:c^T-'rro ■p,d J8d 'paJionie 'suibh -2Q003OS-. c:mcoscn0500C5«o •[DJjBq aad 'ssdui 'jaag inoinoiooooooinooo t^OO 0000000000O-. CC0OQ0C:iNT •[ajjcq j3d 'ssani 'JlJOj in Dinoooooccoooo (Mini-^ooin:::.inoioooin CO — -H•^c>»-'COcc^■^w^Dr?^- ■uoi[bS aod 'uSisjo.i 'sassBioj^ ^■^■jDt-oinoy^'-jDinin^QOOin ^ 1! CJ 0( M Si « Ol IJ 5J CJ IJ OJ -^ JO •aoi[Ba .lod COCOC0COCO!>tC0coin-Tini-i •uojpiBqo J8d '[BOO SS5Sg885ggS88S 8,1 Z! Z! ci^ z^ ^ ^~ S ^ *''^ '''^ ^~ ~ ^ •[aiJTjq J 3d '[Baui ujo.") o 4f; c o »o uj if^ o i^ c> *? »n o o ic i- ifi o « L- oi »r^ t- CO ;o I- *.- i-O •[aqsnq .lod uioo TT t- :d iO »n irt in t.- 1- »o t • a-, o X •(ajjcq Jad 'ano[^ c) o» t- 1- c t^ m t- c t~ c un o Of i-i-^COCOOXt-COOCOOOiCCD lo in in in X ■^ in :^ tc in in I- c: X ■[aqsnq Jod iBoq^\i o in o -r .n -^o in in X in -^ r- in in o X o o t- o K 0) o< o o c; in X ^ r- « ^ ^^^^^ in -^ t-^ X c: c — oj -M CO CO -^T c-r o? TO CO :o :o cnxxx^xxxxxxxxxx 198 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. c c t^iom^Tj'toincs — O: —' Tf O O! o> 00 CC CO ' cOi«irtinco:oco»c •^•*T)<-*in-'*T) (N CC Tj- CJ TT CO C'J CO CO TO t* CC X !?> "t? r: GO X CO :r: 00 t^ £- GO l- aoaoi3;oiO-«'^ooa5-jiOJ3!ca3300CR3iooo3303incc»i-c t-rp — lO .': O c; tt c 1-': -Tj- W 11 t— ._ T-. .-H ^ ^ f1 ^ « ^ :Dcc©»C5GO00-^CO 1 1 • >OO^0303O00 1 • 1 i i i M i i i i i • 1 j 1 ; i ; ; . - CO lOOiooowoou^iniftomoooiftOooirtOirtoooocoooooooooo oooo'^^oj^c^'WOi-T'i—tOirDco'^wcOinciTioooi-ot-caiurjiocoi'-uTco CO'rpT)'0:QOCOiTOC^'*^O^rrC5COO^l-C:»nt^:CX:OjTj«05tDl>OOcCC:'='rr'^'^0'^ '?>-^t-»cC2C:TrcO"^XT':co;i— a:j'TrcoOTr:ccO'?JOCOino»oooo»CGOO'-« coG^dC^'-'Oi'MC'Jooc47«c^NC^':?«c^c-t'?if7 — OOc:— tCtO'^>r-xCa:Gr:QD^-■X)l- iW — C^i— — i-t»-«>— «—'— ^-'-•^- •-•.»-■ W«— C*CO'T-J'?i(?JC^0*C?C0C0COC0N'>*CO0/CiC^i?*0^'7* ^ .c V- ir; ir: ir:; o -r^ o o if5 o ir^ o iC o •;: o o c: iCio u:: if^ o i*^ ^ o o t- »n o Ol-WJ^CiC^OOTTOOC^Oi-C^iCi-S^OOir^l-L-t-.-'riOC^rOCr-.iOGC.-O X'a"^'^'^Tj'T^'^to^ccr^iCif5iC»Otrtt-ooOTra;;oco^cD^otrttD:o:occ oooooc>ooooooooooooooooooooooooo^~ooo~o {-r-tfjrfr-i-.OoDCOiOi.OCO'MClO C^'t- •WOw»r3"^O'—C0 0»a0OdG0O0C^--^iCiC:DC0 cocococO'7icococccococ»c--x.^??ooc5Ct*Cicoosi-'^c*^:c — o — iriOtc-^»r2,-t^oo»0'«t ■M ^ i-t i-i *-i t-H 1-1 .-1 ^ CO » CO O* iO CO ^ W Ol « C^ (M r^ T- ^- OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTii^OCiAOiJ^OCrOOOO^OOiOCC. t-:oi-coirtiOinif2cOiCi>'iC:oiniC^c-»r;!:o»r:*rtiOiraTj'X'GO£ncoaococst-:c^ir5ir30:c t-I^t^OiD:DOOt-»f;TOCOcOO — lOiOOJinOOino — '^OtOiOOiOiCiOOti^XOOift cococ^coc^o>CJTfnocoo*'?tc~JcococOTfTrcocococOi:ococo*ot--'«5«o'-OTrTrTrcocOTj"'rrco ^t-O*-0l-C0.='C0XX'OOrfOX'?iO'?JWX5DX':>*-r:Ot-;0O»fiXtCCly:?-r;O00c0-r c:i04ni3inTrini-t:-i.-i-;c^t-'OXOC5t-'int-xi--!Ct-c^xc5:t--.co:iCi-t-toi-Oit' t*xo:o:o:o-i:x»r:coxcooOi'Xi-.o<»-HC^(>tc*!r*rrXci--'>*'^i-0:^i7J?ccT^ir5-XJt-x:5;o^-'^JW'^»';*^l:-X05C:'-'0*cOT»/^:c o? Tf Tt" "^ Tf Tj" Tt< T T ^ — ^ »^ »o »f5 iTi o »o if5 trt lO :o to ^ cc o ^ ^ iC ^ '.^ !■— i— i— J— t— i— r— xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxocxxx TABLES. 199 COMPOUND INTEREST. The Amount of One Dollar for Fifty Years. Years. 3prCent. 4prCem. 5pr Cent. 6pr Cent. 8 pr Cent. 10 pr Cent. Years. 1 1-C300 1-0400 1-0500 1-0600 1-0800 1-1000 1 2 1-0609 1.0816 1-1025 1-1236 1-1664 1-2100 2 3 10927 1-1249 1-1576 1-1910 1-2597 1-3310 3 4 M255 1-1699 1-2155 1 -26-^5 1-36(15 1 4641 4 5 1-1593 1-2167 1-2763 l-:i382 1-4693 1-6105 5 6 11941 1-2653 1-3401 1-4185 1-5869 1-7716 6 7 1-2299 1 3159 1-4071 1-5036 1-7138 1-9487 7 8 1-2668 1 3686 1-4775 1-59.38 1 -8509 2-14-:i6 8 9 1-3048 1-4233 1-5513 1-6895 1 9990 2-3579 9 10 1-3439 1-4802 1 6289 1-7908 2-1589 2.5937 10 11 1-3842 1-5395 1-7103 1-8983 2-3316 2-8531 11 12 1-4258 1-6010 1 7959 201-22 2-5182 31384 12 13 1 4685 1-6651 1-8856 2-1. -329 27196 3-4523 13 14 1-5126 1-7317 1-9799 2-26(19 2-9372 3-7975 14 *15 1 5580 1 -8009 2-0789 2-3966 3- 1722 4-1773 *15 16 1-6047 1-873C 2 1829 2-5404 3-4259 4-59 16 17 1 6528 1-9479 2-29-.:o 2-6928 3-7000 5-0545 17 18 1-70-24 20258 2-4066 2-8543 a -9960 5-5599 18 19 1-7535 2-1068 2 5270 3 0256 4-3157 6-1159 19 20 1-8061 21911 2 6533 3-2071 4-6610 6-7274 20 21 1-8603 2-2788 2 7860 3-3996 5 0338 7-4002 21 22 1-9161 2-3699 2-9.>53 3 6035 5-4365 8-1403 22 23 1-9736 2-4647 3-0715 3-8197 5-8715 8 9513 23 24 2 03-28 2-5633 3-2-251 4-0489 6-3412 9 8497 24 25 2-0938 2-6H58 3-3864 4-2919 6-8485 10-8347 25 26 2-1566 2-7725 3-5557 4-.5494 7 3904 11-9182 26 27 2-2213 2 8834 3-7335 4-8223 7-9881 13-1100 27 28 2.2S79 2-9987 3 9202 5-1117 8-6271 14-4210 28 29 2-3566 3-1187 41162 5-4184 9 3173 15-8631 29 30 2-4273 3-2434 4-3219 57435 1006'27 174494 30 31 2-5001 3-3731 4-5380 6-0881 10-8677 19-1943 31 32 2-5751 3 -.5081 4-7649 6-4534 11-7371 21-1138 32 33 2-6523 3-6484 50032 6-8406 12-6761 23-2-252 33 34 2-7319 3 7943 5-2533 7-2511 13-6902 25-5477 34 85 2-8139 3-9461 5.5160 7-6861 14-7853 28-1024 35 36 2-8983 41039 5-7918 8-1473 15-9682 30 91-27 36 37 2-9852 4-2681 60814 8-6368 17 2456 84.0039 37 38 3-0748 4-4388 6 -.38.55 9-1543 18-6-2.53 37-4043 38 39 3-1670 4-6164 6-7048 9-7035 20-11.53 41 1448 39 40 3-26-20 4-8010 7 0400 1(1-28.57 •21-7245 45-2593 40 41 3-3599 4-9931 7-3920 10-9029 23 •46-25 49-7852 41 42 3-4607 5-19'2S 7.7616 11-5570 25-3395 54.7637 42 43 3-5645 5-4005 8- 1497 12-2505 27-3666 60-2401 43 44 3-6715 5-6165 8-5572 12-9855 •29-5.560 66"2641 44 45 3-7816 5.8411 8 9850 13-7646 31-9204 72-8905 45 46 3-8950 6-07-48 9-4343 14-5905 34-4741 80- 1795 46 47 40119 6-3178 9-9060 15-4ti59 37'2:W0 88-1975 47 48 4-1323 6-5705 10-4013 16-3939 40-2106 97 0172 48 49 4-2562 6-8333 10-9213 17-3775 43-4274 106-7190 49 50 4-38:i9 7-1067 11-5674 18-4202 46.9016 1 17-3409 50 ♦Example.— $1 accumulated for fifteen -years, at 3 per cent, interest, will amount to $1.56; at 4 per cent., to $1.80; at 5 per cent., to $2.08; at 6 per cent., to $2.40; at 8 per cent., to |3.17; at 10 per cent., to $4.18. 200 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. The following tables prepared at the agricultural de- partment from the estimated and reported crop returns, show the amount of the several staples named raised in the United States for the years 1878 and 1879. PRODUCTS AND VALUE FOR 1879: Crops. Wheat, bushels £oTn, bushels Oats, bushels Rye, bushels Barley, bushels Buckwheat, bushels. Cotton, bales :. Tobacco, lbs Hay, tons Potatoes, bushels Total. Products. 448,755,000 1,544,899,000 364,253,000 23,646,500 40,184,200 13,145,650 5,020,387 382,459,659 35,668,000 181,469.000 Values. $489,008,000 580,259,000 120,855,000 15,505,000 23,625,300 7,860,480 231,000,000 21 545,591 325,851,280 78.971,000 $1,894,480,651 COMPARISON WITH 1878. The statement for the year 1878 is as follows; Crops. Products. Values. Wheat, bushels 460,122,400 1,488,218,750 414,478,500 25,842,790 42,245,630 12,246 820 5,216,603 392,546,700 39,608,296 124,126,650 $326,340,424 Corn, bushels 441,153,4u5 Oats, bushels 101,940,830 Rye, bushels Barley, bushels 13,592,726 24,483,315 Buckwheat, bushels Cotton, bales 6,454,120 193 854,641 Tobacco, lbs . 22,137,428 Hay, tons 295,543,952 Potatoes, bushels 73,059,125 Total $1,498,559,966 From this report it will be seen that the value of the crop of 1879 exceeds that of the preceding year by over $400,000,000. TABLES. 201 Total amount of specie imported from January 1, 1879, to November 15, was $75,512,092. Production for the fiscal year 1879, $79,711,990, of which $38,899,- 850 was gold, and $40,812,132 was silver. Average rate of interest on commercial paper in the City of New York in 1874, 6.4 per cent. In 1879, it averaged 4.4 per cent. Average rate of interest of the Bank of England, January 30, 1878, was 2 per cent. On November 7, 1879, it was 3 per cent. Average in- terest of the Bank of France, November 7, 1879, was 3 per cent. Tlie comptroller's office employs ninety-seven men to take charge of the national banking department who are paid by the Government, and their salaries are as follows : 1 Receives $5,000 a year. 1 " 2,800 " 4 " 2,200 each. 5 " 2,000 8 " ..-• 1,800 11 " ---- -- 1.400 8 " 1,200 2 " 1,000 1 " 840 3 " 720 5 " 600 40 " 900 Annual expenses for dies, plates, printing, etc., are $104,420. THE POWER OF INTEREST TO ROB. Money at 2 per cent.^ doubles in 35 years. Money at 3 " .. - -, Money at 4 " Money at 5 " Money at 6 " Money at 7 " Money at 8 " Money at 9 '• Money at 10 " Our national, State, municipal, corporate and indi- "• 23 " " 17 " u 14 u " 11 " " 10 " u 9 u " 8 " 11 7 ti 202 LABOR AND FINANCE KEVOLUTION. • vidual indebtedness, held by the usurer classes, amounts to OS" QY fourteen thousand nhillion dollars: drawing an average annual interest of six per cent. The total wealth of the United States at present valu- ation, does not exceed thirtv thousand million dollars. Contraction of the currency to a specie basis will per- petuate and immortalize this indebtedness, so that Shy- lock will receive the equivalent of the entire country every twenty-two years, for all time to come. Did the nation ever need a savior more than now ? Greenbacks saved it once, and nothing but a plenty of debt-paying greenbacks will save our country now from confiscation, and our people from pauperism and slavery. THE INCREASING- VALUE OF MONEY. The constitution enjoins upon Congress, among other things, the duty of coining money and regulating the value thereof. The only way the value of money can be regulated is by regulating its quantity. This is a prerogative specially delegated to Congress, and as the chief object of Government is to promote the general welfare, it would seem that the time of Congress could be much more profitably spent than in the exhaust- ive eflforts of one party in knocking down the political pins of the other as fast as set up. There is nothing the commercial and industrial in- terests of the country so much need as a check on the increasing value of money. In 1865 a dollar was worth 20 pounds of flour. In 1867 " " " 22 In 18(i9 " " " 30 In 1872 ' " " 33 In 1874 " " " 35 " " In 1876 " " " 45 In 1878 " " " 60 " " TABLES. 203 Thus, while debt, interest and taxes remain stationary, dollars are becoming so valualjle that men can hardly procure enough, with the greatest economy, to meet maturing obligations and defray current expenses. SALARIES OF PUBLIC OFFICERS. The following table contains a condensed list of the salaries of some of the principal public officers in the United States: President of the United States $50,000 Vice-President of the United States 8,000 Seven Cabinet officers, each 8,000 Ministers to England, France, Germany and Russia, each... 17,500 Seven other Foreign Ministers, each 12,000 Three " " " " 10,000 Nine " " " " 7,500 Consuls get from $3,000 to -. 6,000 Supreme Court Judges, each 10,000 Supreme Couit of Claims Judges, each 4,500 District Judges, from 3,500 to 4,000 Governors cf New York and Pennsylvania, each 10,000 Governors of California, Colorado and Nevada, each.. 6,000 Governors of other States, $1,000 to 5,000 PUBLIC DEBT PER CAPITA. In 1860 the public debt per capita was $1.90, and the interest per capita was 11 cents. In 1879 the public debt per capita was $50, and the interest $2.50 per capita. This seems but a trifle, but when w^e reflect that this is a steady, ceaseless, never-ending drain of $2.50 per annum for every man, woman and child in America for all time to come, its efi:ects will be like holding out at arm's length a pound weight, which at first requires slight strength, but soon becomes exhaust- ing, and finally unendurable. Ireland has been reduced from affluence to her present condition of misery and abject poverty by a steady rent drain of $1.60 per capita since her soil went into the hands of absent landlords. 204 LABOR AND FINANCE KEVOLUTION. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. Chief Justices. John Jayt. John Rutledget-.. Oliver Ellswortht. John Marshall. Roger B. Taney. Salmon P. Chaee. Morrison R. Waite. Associate Justices. John Rutledget.. vVilliam Cushing. James Wilson John Blaiit Rob. H. Harnsont James Iredell Thomas Johnsont vVilliam Patterson Samuel Chase Bus'd Washington Alfred Alooret William Johnson. Brock'tLivingston Thomas Todd .... Joseph Story Gabriel Duvalf. - Smith Thompson. RobenTrirable... John McLean Henrv Baldwin .. James M. Wayne§ Pliilip P. Barbour John Catron John McKinley.. Peter V. Daniel .. Samuel Nelsont.- Lcvi Woodbury .. Roberto. Griert.. B'-'iij. R. Curtist . John.A..Campbellt Nathan Cliflbrd .. Noah H. Swayne. Samuel F. Miller. Diivid Davist Stephen J. Field. William Strong. .. Joseph P. Bradley Ward Hunt 39 John M.Harlan.. State Whence Appointed Term of Service New York. S. Carolina Mass Penn Virginia.... .Maryland.. N. Carolina Maryland.. New Jersey S. Carolina Maryland.. Conn Virginia .. N. Carolina Virginia .. S. Carolina New York. Kentucky.. Mass Maryland New York. Kentucky.. Ohio Penn Georgia Maryland.. Virginia .. Teuiiessee - Alabuna... Virginia ... New York New Hamp Penn Mass .\labama... Maine Ohio Iowa Illinois California.. Ohio Penn New Jersey New York. Ohio Kentucky.. - o 1789-179.1 ■89-1791 1789-1810 1789-1798 1789-1796 1789-1790 1790-1799 1791-1793 '93-180K 1795-1795 1796-1811 1796-1801 179S-1829 1799-1804 ISOl-1835 1804-1834 1806-1823 1807-18-26 1811-1845 1811-1836 18-23-1845 18-26-1828 18-29-1861 1830-1846 1835-1867 1836-1864 1836-1841 1837-1865 1837-18.52 1841-1.%0 184.5-1872 1845-1851 1846-1889 1851-1857 1853-1861 1857-...- 1861-.... 186-2-.... 186-2-1877 1866-.. . 1864-187 1870-.. . 1870-.. . 1872-.. . 1874-.. . 1877-... 1745 1739 1733 1742 1732 1745 1751 1732 1745 1739 1741 1745 1762 1755 17.55 1771 1757 1765 1779 17.51 1761 177'; 1785 1779 1790 17 1 83 1778 1780 1785 1792 1789 1794 1809 1811 1803 1805 1816 1815 1816 1808 1808 1813 1811 1816 1833 1829 1800 1810 1798 1800 1790 1799 1819 1806 1800 1811 1807 1829 1810 1835 1834 18-23 18-26 1845 1844 1845 1828 1861 1846 1S67 1864 1841 1865 1852 i860 1873 1851 1870 1874 1873 *The figures before the names of the Associate Justices indicate the order of their appointment. The numbers following refer to the same numbers in the first column, and show the vacancy filled by each appointment. tResigned. jPresided one term of the court; appointment not confirmed bv the Senate. §The Supreme Court, at its first session in 1790, consisted of a Chief Justice and five Associates. The number of Associate Justices was increased to sis in 1807 by the appointment of Thomas Toddj^mcreased to eight in 1837 by the appointments of John Catron and John McKinley; increased to nine in 1863 by the appointment of Stephen J. Field; decreased to eight on the death of John Catron in 1865; de- creased to seven on the death of James M. Wayne in 1867; and again increased to eight in 1870. TABLES. 205 FAir-UEES OF BUSINESS MEN. In the following table we give the number of failures each year from 1857 to 1879, and the amount of liabil- ities: Year. Number. Amount. 1857 4,932 4,225 3,913 3,673 6,993 1,652 485 520 530 532 2,386 2,008 2,799 3,551 2,915 4,069 5,183 5,882 7,740 9,092 8,873 10,478 $201,750,000 1858 95,749,000 1859 64,394,000 I860 79,807,000 1861 207,210,000 1862 23,049,309 1863 6,864,700 1864 8.579,000 1865 17,625,000 1866 47,333,000 1867 86,208,000 1868 63,774,000 1869 75,954,009 1870 1871 88,242,! lOO 86,252,000 1872 121,056,000 1873 228,499,000 1874 155,339,000 1875 - 201,070,363 1876 191,119.786 1877 190,660,936 1878.. 234,383,132 1879.-..-. Tn May, 1878, Congress passed an act to stop the de- struction of greenbacks, since which time the currency has been increasing in volume, times have been getting better, and the number of bankruptcies have been de- creasing. 206 LABOR AXD FINANCE KEYOLUTION. A STARTLING TABLE OF FIGURES THE GREAT MAELSTROM OF ERROR EXPOSED TO VIEW. The following table exhibits a statement of the num- ber of State banks, the amount of their circulating notes, and the amount of specie thej held at different periods from ITS-i to 1861: Year. 1784. 1790. 1796. 1800. 1811. 1815. 1820. 1830. 1834. 1835. 1836 1837 1838. 1839- 1840. 1841- 1843. 1843. 1844. 1845. 1846. 1847. 1848. 1849. 1850. 1851. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. 1857. 1858. 1859. 1860. 1861. No.B'ks. Circulation. 3 $2,000,000 4 2,500.000 24 10,500,000 28 10,500,000 89 28,100,000 208 110,000,000 308 44,863,344 330 61,323,838 506 94,839,570 704 103,692,495 713 140,301,038 788 149,185,890 829 116,138,910 840 135,170,995 901 106,968,572 784 107,290,214 692 83,734,011 691 58,563,608 696 75,167,646 707 89,680,711 707 105,552,427 715 105.509 766 751 128,506,091 782 114,743,415 824 131,366,526 879 155,165,251 750 146,072,780 1208 204,689,207 1307 186.952,226 1898 195,747,950 1416 214,'778,882 1423 155,208,344 1476 193,306,818 1562 207,102,477 1601 203 005 767 Specie. $10,000,000 9,000 000 16,500,000 17,500,000 15,400,000 17,000,000 19,820,240 22,114,917 43,937,625 40,019,594 37,915,340 35,184,112 45.132,673 33,105,155 34,813,958 28,440,423 33,515,806 49,898,269 44,241,242 42,012,095 35,132,516 46,369,765 43,619,368 45,379,345 48,671,048 47,138,592 59,410,253 53,944,546 59,314,063 58,349,838 74.412.832 104,537,818 83,594,537 87.674,507 TABLES. 207 If the reader will examine closely the above table thev will discover three inir)ortant facts. 1. That the number of banks in operation at different periods in- creased and diminished greatly. 2. That tlie volume of bank notes in circulation was subject to rapid and extensive expansion and contraction. 3. That the amount of specie held by the banks up to 181 1 gradu- ally preponderated over the volume of bank notes, and that thereafter it was subject to expansion and contrac- tion to a marked degree, but was always less than half in volume to that of bank notes out any one time. POPULAK VOTE OF 1856. States. James Buchanan Democratic. John C. Fremont Republican. M. Fillmore, American. Total Vote. Vote. Maj. Vote. Maj. Vote. Maj. 1 Alabama Arkansas California Connecticut .. Delaware Florida Georsrta Illinois Indiana Iowa 46,739 21,910 53.365 34,995 8,004 6,358 56,758 105,348 118,670 36,171 > 74,642 22,164 39,080 39,115 39,240 52,13f; 35,446 68,164 32,789 46,943 195,878 48,246 170,874 230,710 6,680 Electors 73,638 31,169 10,569 89,706 52,843 18,187 ll,12:i * 17,200 "l',52l 1,525 14,350 t9,159 1,909 "'b',9i2 1,455 "ll'2.5i 9,640 "*"l8",605 ""ll",360 ""\sm> chosen 7,460 15,530 ""29",i05 28,552 111,787 36,165 2,615 6,175 4,8 '.3 42,228 37,444 22,386 9,180 67,416 20,709 3,-325 47,460 19,626 1,660 24,195 48,524 422 24,115 124,604 36,886 •28,126 82,175 1,675 lature. 66,178 15,639 545 60.310 579 •- - - - ""'8,664 75,291 9 32,697 3 4 5 6 20,691 4-^,715 308 ""sjios 110,221 80,325 14,487 11,191 7 98,806 238,981 235,431 89,304 8 9 in 96,189 94,375 43,954 314 "|Y,784 n 1'^ Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Mississippi... Missouri N. Hampshire New Jersey .. New York North Carolina Ohio 142,372 42 873 13 14 15 16 17 18 67,379 28! 108,190 71,762 24,974 "49", .324 17,966 109,784 86,8.56 167,056 125,558 59,641 106,683 19 20 21 9-7 38,345 28,338 276,007 J 5,314 $80,129 71,5.56 99,396 596,489 85,132 n 187,49; 147,510 11,467 by the tl6,623 """3412 Legis- 386,497 24 25 fjf, Pennsylvania . Rhode Island. South Carolina Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia Wisconsin Total Buchanan's Pli 460,395 19,822 27 139,816 2R 46,808 29 30 31 39,561 291 66,090 28,447 "'i2;6'8 50,675 150,307 119,512 1,838,169 irality... 142,353 t496.905 1,341,264 146,730 874,534 8,064 4,053,967 ♦Plurality over Fillmore. tPlurality over Fremont. ^Plurality over Buchanan. 208 LABOR AND FINANCE KEVOLUTION. POPULAR VOTE OF 1876. States. S. J. Tilden, Democratic. R. B. Hayes, Republican. O 33 O a si •is ti a 'u o o * Total Vote. Vote. Maj. Vote. Maj. 1 Alabama Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut . . Delaware Ploi-idat Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa 102,002 58,071 76,465 Electors 61,934 13,381 22.923 130,088 258,601 213,526 112,099 37,902 159,690 70,508 49,823 91,7b0 108,777 141,095 48,799 112,173 203,077 17,554 9,308 38,509 115,962 521.!'49 125,427 323,182 14,149 368,158 10,712 90,906 135,166 104 755 20,254 139,670 56,455 123,927 33,772 19,113 chosen 1,712 2,629 ""79",642 "§5,515 "59",772 "19,756 "59^568 54,389 " 11,690 26.568 17,010 "43^600 59,955 "44^112 12,384 68,230 38,669 79,269 by Legist 59,034 10.752 23,849 50,446 278,232 208.011 171,327 78,322 97,156 75,135 66,300 71.981 150,063 166,534 72,962 52,605 145,029 31,916 10,383 41,539 103,517 489,207 108,417 330,698 15,206 384,122 15,787 91,870 89,566 44,800 44,092 95,558 42,698 130,668 170,232 97,029 ?, ""2;738 lature. 289 47 3 4 19 155,800 5 fi 774 378 36 122,156 24,133 7 926 46,772 8 180.534 554.493 431,070 292 463 9 10 11 1.971 "M.igi 32,511 ""4',627 15,814 "4b'.42.3 15,542 21,780 17,233 9,533 9,001 7.776 1,914 141 "'36 110 818 286 '"23 12 13 14 Kansas Kentucky Louisiana:!: Maine Maryland Massachusetts Mictiigan Minnesota Mississippi ... Missouri Nebraska Nevada N. Hampshire New Jersey... New York.... North Carolina Ohio 124,133 259,6(18 145,643 116,786 15 663 33 779 9.060 2.311 16 17 18 19 20 10 84 766 72 ""7i 163,804 259,703 317,526 124,144 164,778 21 22 23 94 " 10^326 1,075 2,954 3.498 2,320 ""76 712 1.987 64 1,599 97 117 351,765 53.506 19.691 80.124 220.234 1,017,3:» 233,844 25 26 27 43 2,359 .l",828 2*2 2,747 547 9,375 4,947 964 8,057 510 7.187 68 1.636 76 658 649 29 Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island. South Carolina Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia WesfVirginia. Wisconsin Total Tilden's Major 29.865 30 31 3i> 1.319 60 83 758.8H9 26,627 182 776 33 222.732 34 149.555 64,346 S5 23,838 36 235,228 37 38 ""5^205 1,373 1.509 "'27 9,522 2,636 100,52e 256,131 4,284,757 ity 545,672 156,909 4,033.950 248,501 81.740 8,412,605 ♦Scattering includes the votes of the anti-Masonic and American Alliance tickets. tReturning Board's count, Nov. 28, 1876. A majority of 94 to 1,197 was claimed for Tilden by the Democrats, and the opinion of ihe Supreme Court of Florida gave Tilden 94 majority. ^Returning Board's count. The figures on the face of the returns, when opened by the Board, are claimed to have been: Tilden. 82,326; Hayes, 77,023. Tilden's majority, 5,303. §Plurality over Hayes. PART SECOND. CHAPTER I. THE EIGHTS OF MAN. Every history and traditionary account of creation agree in establishing the unity of man, that the whole human race is of one degree, or grade; and consequently that " all men are born free and equal in respect to nat- ural rights, in the same manner as if posterity had been continued by creation instead of generation^ Paine, in "Natural Rights of Man," says: "Natural rights are those which always appertain to maa in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the rights of others. — Civil rights are those which appertain to man in right of his being a member of society. Every civil right has for its founda- tion some natural right pre-existing in the individual, but to which his individual Ipower is not, in all cases, sufficiently competent. Of this kind are all those which relate to security and protection. " From this short review, it will be easy to distinguish between that class of natural rights which man retains after entering into society, and those which he throws into common stock as a member of so- ciety. "The natural rights which he retains, are all those in which the power to execute is as perfect in the individual as the right itself. Among this class, as is before mentioned, are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind; consequently, religion is one of those rights. The natural rights which are not retained, are all those in which, though the right is perfect in the individual, the power to execute them is defective. They answer not his purposes. A man by natural right, has a right to judge in his own cause; and so far as the right of the mind is concerned, he never surrenders it: but what availeth it him to judge, if he has not power to redress it? He there- 14 209 210 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. fore deposits this right in the common stock of society, and takes the arm of society, of which he is a part, in preference and in addi- tion to his own. Society grants him nothing. Every man is a pro- prietor in society, and draws on the capital as a matter of right. " From these premises, two or three certain conclusions will follow. " 1st, That every civil right grows out of a natural right ; or, in other •words, is a natural riglit exchanged. "2d, That civil power properly considered as such, is made up of the aggregate of that class of the natural rights of man, which be- comes defective in the individual m point of power, and answers not his purpose, but when collected to a focus, becomes competent to the purpose of every one. "3d, That the power produced by the aggregate of natural rights, imperfect in power in the individual, cannot be applied to invade the natural rights wliich are retained in the individual, and in which the power to execute is as perfect as the right itself" Deprived of these rights by the arbitrary powers of unjust law,' the subjects of despotism and monarchical governments become slaves, and serfs, to the extent that these rights are denied them. To escape the slavery of despotism, the early settlers of America left the land of their birth and oppression, traversed the wilderness of waves, and made their homes among the wild men, and the wild beasts of the new world. But oppression followed them. Like a beast of prey it smelled their blood afar off", and followed their trail. They cheerftilly bore the trials and hardships of the wilderness, but when in addition to these, their op- pressors placed upon their necks the yoke they had made themselves exiles to escape, it was more than nature could endure. Relying upon their own strength, the justice of their cause, and the aid of Divine power, they promulgated to the world the great charter of natural and civil rights upon which our Government is claimed to be estab-- lished. They took the ground that all power exercised over a people must have some beginning, or origin. It must be either delegated or assumed. There are no THE RIGHTS OF MAN. 211 Other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. The bill of rights pro- claimed by our fathers contained the following: I. That men are born and should always continue free in respect to their natural rights. II. That the people is essentially the source of all sovereignty, nor can any individual, or any body of men, be entitled to any authority which is not especially de- rived from the people. III. That the just powers of Government are derived from the consent of the governed. IV. That political liberty consists in the power and right of doing anything that does not injure another. V. That law should be an expression of the will of the people. These glorious principles, these inalienable gifts of God to man, were wrenched from the Lion's jaws by our fathers after seven long years of bloody struggle, and they, soon after, made them over, assigned and be- queathed them to their posterity forever as a joint inheritance, in the following words: ''''For the purpose of forming a raore perfect Union j to establish justice; to insure domestic tranquility, to promote the general welfare, and to transmit to pos- terity the hlessings of liberty, do ordain and establish this Constitution,'''' etc. Those old patriot heroes believed that men possessed rights, as well as kings. That all men are created equal, and are endowed with certain inalienable rights; that among these rights, are life, liberty and the pursuits of happiness, and that Governments are established among men to secure these rights. Not for personal aggrand- izement, not to oppress the people, not to create and 212 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. foster grinding and robbing monopolies, not to deprive a portion of humanty of their natural rights that a fa- vored few maj' ^njoy a double portion — not to deprive men of their birthrights and blessings bequeathed to them by a benevolent Creator. They further declared that w-.enever any form of Government became destructive to these ends, it is the rig fit of the people to alter or aholish it! The aristocracies of the Old World have robbed the masses of every natural right except the right to toil, suiSfer, and die. The poor of Ireland and India suffer and starve, not because there are not fertile lands and abundant har- vests, but because the ungodly laws of Britian have robbed the people of their right to the soil, and given to an aristocratic few all the sustenance from the bosom of our common mother earth, and being protected in this robbery by the arbitrary power of the Government, the poor landless tenants are compelled to toil a life time for the crumbs which fall from the table of their lordly robber brothers. Man inherits from his Creator certain natural rights, among which are: The control of his own body, labor, skill and genius. All the powers of his body and mind, and the right to exercise them in any manner he sees fit, provided he does not interfere with the rights of any other individual. He has an absolute right to his own time, and cannot rightfully be the slave (jf another. These are his indi- vidual rights, which cannot be justly claimed, controlled or usurped by another. Then man inherits in common with his brother man, the means of Life, Liberty and Happiness, and the THE EIGHTS OF MAN. '213 facilities to fulfill his destiny, and accomplish his mis- sion on earth. The air to vitalize the life-currents of his body, is his in common with all animated nature, and its monopoly by any man, or set of men, under cover of law, would be legalized murder, and the masses who had not the means to purchase their breath, would be justified in putting to death the monopolizer, or in abolishing the Govern- ment creating it; in self defense. Light and water are also man's common heritage, and no man has a moral right to deprive another of these life-giving elements. The day for work, and the night for rest — the seasons as they come and go, are the joint inheritance of humanity. But the most important item, perhaps, in the inven- tory of man's natural rights, is his inalienable right to occupy, till and enjoy the fruits of his pro-rata of God's green earth, a right which is more fully discussed in the following chapter. CHAPTER 11. THE LAXD QUESTION. " I see no reapon or natural right why a deed upon parchment should convey the domain of land." — Blackstonb. One of the most momentous questions of the day, a question that is destined in tlie near future to shake civilization from center to circumference, is the Land Question. What this question is, is well defined by that emi- nent political economist, John G. Drew, in "Land Labor and Money in History." " The term Land Reform as it is now currently used, defines a great and rapidly ^rowing demand that — "•First, No more land shall be occupied by a person or family than he or they can and will properly cultivate; ^'Second, That all control of lands shall be vested in the State as trustee for its citizens, thus debarring all and any from proprietorship of land, and confining their ownership Iq the jproducts tliereof i\\\^\\\Q improvements thereon resulting from their enterprise and industry. "That such conditions w^ere recognized in the Theoc- racy of the Jews under the Mosaic dispensation is clearly demonstrated by the Fiats of Jehovah that ' the land should not be sold forever,' and the supplementary leg- islation fixing every fiftieth year, as a sabbath of sab- baths, a jubilee of years when leases should be renewed or cancelled, the bonds of the oppressed should be bro- ken and the enslaved, whether by debtor other bondage, 214 THE LAND QUESTION. 215 should go free. Every reader of the Bible knoAvs that, and every priest and clergymen can explain the same. "All eminent historians admit the antiquity of the teaching, and no legalist who values his reputation, Blackstone included, dare deny the entire logic of the position. " Knowing the utter im potency of efforts honestly and logically directed to successfully combat the arguments of those advocating land reform, the predatory classes have recourse to their only remaining weapon, black- guarding and abuse; exactly as the skunk, not endowed by nature with nol>ler weapons of off'ense and defense, hurls his execrable tilth at his enemy, which is, by sensi- tive people and animals, more carefully avoided than the more deadly but less dirty weapons of nobler creatures. " Contrary to the rules which govern other professional gamblers, they play their best or worst card first, and slap the face of their intended victim with the charge that he is an agrarian. " In a large majority of instances this is enough to silence the audacious iconoclast, who supposes from the self-satistied and triumphant tone with which the shot was fired, that it is some newly invented and intensely con- centrated missive, containing the sublimated essence of every sin possible to imagine. '' It is possibly more deeply penetrative and devastative- ly explosive projectile than its old fashioned prototype, "you are an abolitionist," which in the past generation knocked down and kept down many a noble fellow, until, when the time arrived, he sprang to his feet to face the more deadly but less detestable missives of the bomb and bullet in defense of his cherished thoughts. "Let us pick up and examine that dreadful term and see what it means and what it is made of ^16 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. " Niebuhr, the eminent German historian of Rome, an- tagonizing the great theory that farming was not proper for freemen, says: " ' To what more than her system of colonization, a branch of her agrarian scheme, was she [Rome] indebted for the security and extension of her froutier ? A host of warriors were trained up ready to take the field at the call of their country, yet no less ready to ex- change the sword for the plowshare. " ' it is not, however, in a military point of view that the value of these institution* is evident. They were of no less domestic import- ance in providing against the phenomena so frequently met with in great cities of the most squalid indigence by the side of the most profuse extravagance.' '' Or as Yictor Hugo would say, monstrous oppulence and monstrous poverty. " Considering that Xiebuhr ranks as amongst the most conservative of historians, his testimony is of peculiar value. " Dr. Thomas Arnold, very pleasantly known to many as the much-loved principal of the Rugby School when Thomas Plughes was a pupil therein, says of the first land reform known in Roman history: "'By a strange compensation of fortune the first Roman whose greatness is really historical is the man whose deeds no poet sang and whose memory the early annalists, repeating the language of the party who destroyed him, have branded with the charge of Treason and attempted Tyranny. This was Spurius Cassius. He procured, al- though at the price of his own life [in the fifth century before Christ], the enactment of the first agrarian law.' " Dr. Arnold notes as reigning not long afterward ' the good King Servius TulliusI; and quotes him approv- ingly as an 'agrarian' who divided among the common people the public lands. ^ In or about the year 468 before Christ, new consuls were appointed and they were disposed to execute the Agrarian law of Spurius Cassius and settle the people on the unused lands. To this they were strenuously op- posed by the patrician classes who, as before noted, had THE LAND QUESTION. 217 assassinated the author of the hiw. For two years a violent political conflict raged which was only abated by the ravages of a devastating pestilence perhaps in- duced and certainly intensified by popular suffering. " On abatement of the pestilence the Land Question again came up for consideration, and, strange to say, was not supported by the Democratic party. The most charitable historians account for this sudden lethargy by supposing that the people, educated by the prolonged discussion, deemed that simply freedom of the public lands was but too partial a reform and demanded more or nothing. " No ])rogress was made for nearly seventy years, when in 399, before Christ, a revival of tlie agrarian law was proposed by the people's tribunes, which was successfully opposed by the aristocracy. The people, by advice of the tribunes, then refused to pay taxes^ which is, per- haps, the earliest instance of withholding supplies to kill vicious legislation. "Thirty-one years passed over without progress, but then (before Christ, 368) Licinius was elected Tribune. " He introduced three laws, which are known as the Licinian code, but although often referred to their texts seem to have been studiously suppressed. "The first is described as a law to relieve the people from the overwhelming and increasing pressure of debt, and provided that whatever had been paid on a debt in interest, should be deducted from the principal, "Dr. Arnolcl, in commenting on this law, says: " ' If the rate of interest had been high, and if a debt had been long standing, the sum paid in interest would not only have equaled, but must in some cases have actually exceeded the amount of tlie prin- cipal, so that the creditor, far from having anything more to receive, would rather have had something to refund.' 218 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. " The Second Law was claimed to be necessary to save tlie people when once out of debt from all need and apology for getting into debt again, and provided that citizens should be granted lands from the public domain (ager publicus) restricting individual occupancy to 500 Jugera — about 300 acres each. " The Third Law provided that the commons should be placed politically on a level with the patricians. " As might have been expected, the mere proposal of these laws raised a terrific row among the patrician classes, who by trying to prevent the reading of them to the people (there were no printing presses then) and otherwise obstructing legislation and retarding intelli- gence, literally and actually performed the same drama in Rome 2,248 years ago that is now acted by Speaker Randall in the American House of Representatives in ignoring the people's representatives, and the subsidized press co-operate in their Conspiracy of Silence for the repression of current history and stifling proposed legis- lation. "• For five years this struggle continued. Government was suspended, and historians have not yet ceased to wonder that society was not extinguished. " At length, by Patrician influence, Marcus Furius Camillus was made Dictator, and he instantly sum- moned all citizens capable of bearing arms to rally around his standard; but his orders were utterly disre- garded, and the Senate, to allay the popular fury, called on him to resign his dictatorship, which he did, and died two years later of the pestilence which the miseries of the people had created. "The Liciiiian code then became the law of Rome, and in commemoration of so grand an event as the uni- THE LAND QUESTION. 210 fication of the Roman people, the affirmation of equality and fraternity, a new temple was erected on the Capi- toline hill and dedicated to Concord." For the information of the general reader, as well as to place on the proper page of history a record of the views and arguments of that large and rapidly increas- ing class who are battling for '' Land Reform," or the " emancipation of the soil from the bondage of ownership in man," I append the following: "The soil is a free gift of God to all His creatures in common ; each individual has as valid a right and title to all« the soil that is neces- sary to the subsistance of himself and family as he has to the air, the water, and the light of day. " They deny the right of Governments to barter away to land monop- olists the patrimony of unborn generations. If the three or four mil- lions of people who inhabited this country when the Republic was es- tablished held sutticient land for their own use, who gave them the right to convey, or the Government to receive as merchandise the soil which is now demanded for 50,000,000 souls ? "They had the same right to barter away the liberties of posterity as to compel unborn millions to serve landlords ten or fit'teen of the best years of their lives to redeem their confiscated patrimony. "Was the unoccupied soil free as God designed it, all the labor of the individual would be his own. "How is it now ? Suppose a young man is compelled to purchase a farm of 160 acres, and to pay some land robber $10 per acre. This would amount to $1,600, and this sum he must earn by the sweat of his brow. " It will take him ten years, with close economy, to save up this amount. " Now, this young man has been the land robbers' slave ten years. He has been deprived of ten years of his liberty and pursuit of happiness, to purchase the freedom to enjoy his own rightful heritage. The land robbers might just as well have held him in slavery ten years by a contract with the Government before he was born, and then set him free to go and claim his own, as to make him serve ten years to redeem his own. It may be said that to deprive the land monopolies of their surplus acres, would be interfering with vested rights. So the slave oicners said iphen the Oovernment restored to the bondmen their rights to life, liberty and the pursuits ofliappiness. So says every man who is called upon to yield up wrongfully-obtained wealth. There are no rights in icrongs, vested or otherioise. " The title to stolen goods vests in the real owner, it matters not how many hands they have passed through, or how great a price was paid the thief. Unborn souls cannot rightfully be deprived of their patri- mony by the wrongs of their predecessors. 220 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. " Every man should be regarded as equally eatitled to all the free gifts of God to His creatures, the soil included. Each man inherits, in common with the universal brotherhood, these blessings. Like every other element of nature, the soil was made for humanity. " It is proper for the Government to hold it in trust for those of the present and future generations who may need to occupy and till it, but as an article of merchandise it was never intended in the economy of nature, nor is it permitted by the statutes of the Divine law. " I'he merchandise of men should be limited to the productions of their hands and skill. The soil should be free. The improvements a man puts upon land are his own. Those, he can sell, or dispose of, but god's son,, never! " 3Ian will never be free until the soil from which he derives suste- nance is free. "Thirty millions of people in America are houseless and homeless. They are trespassers on every sod upon which they place their feet, except in tlie public highway, while huge monopolies and giant cor- porations hold by gift from the Government sufficient land to give every family in the nation a farm and the means of subsistanee. " Our homestead law, it is true, gives to every head of a family 160 acres if he will occupy it; but the huge grants of land to railroa'd and other corporations have pushed individual homesteads so far into the wilderness, that a family is compelled to exile itself from civilization to avail itself of the Government's generosity( ?). The earth is the Lord's, and He deu.ands it for His children. " He has never parted with the title to a foot of it, and He com- mands tiie millions of wandering, law made, ' trespassers ' to go and CLAIM THEIR INHERITANCE! " Man's rights to occupy, till, and enjoy the products of any unoc- cupied soil of earth, is as valid, and as inalienable, as his rights to live and breathe, and no man possesses a natural right, nor have Gov- ernments the mornl right to confirm in man the ownership, or con- trol of more soil than he can till and is necessary for his and his family's subsistanee, while there is one landless soul on earth." These are the afgumeuts of the land fefomners. From an Etiropean stand point, especially England and Ireland, where millions of God's poor have been robbed of their soil, where millions of acres are used as sporting and play grounds for the royal robbers, these arguments have much force. In America, the condition of the landless is not so bad at present, but no one can deny the fact that the tendency and ultimate results of the specie basis, debt and usury systems which we have adopted is to concentrate landed estates, as well as other capital in the hands of the few. THE LAND QUESTION. 221 Pliney says, •' The colossal fortunes which ruined Italy and caused the downfall of Rome, were due to the con- centration of estates through usury or interests " USURY DID THIS, AND COINED MONEY." Many suppose that the " Land Question," or Land Reform is a blow aimed at the large agricultural interest of the West — a blow aimed at those enterprising and thrifty farmers who hold titles to several hundred acres of soil, and produce a large surplus of farm crops. This is a mistake. The movement is to protect this very class of men in the enjoyment of their estates. The policy which the Land Reformers are fighting against, if allowed to prevail, will rob every farmer in the West of his lands, as surely as the lands of a million English farmers passed into the hands of 30,000 of the nobility through a similar policy. This, the money power fully understand, and through their organ, the New York Times, have given notice to the farmers of the country to prepare for the event. They first dis- tressed the farmers by depriving the country of money, which reduced values, depressed prices, and made it im- possible for them to pay their taxes and defray current expenses from the proceeds of the farm. " COME INTO MY PARLOE " SAID THE SPIDER TO THE FLY. On the 12th day of August, 1877, referring to the far- mer's hard lot, the New York Times said : "Is there a way of deliverance? There seems to be but one remedy, and that is a slow one, and not im- mediately eftective. To reach it both farmers and cap- italists need to be educated to it, but it seems to be 222 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. inevitable that it must come about in course of time. It is a change of owaership of the soil, and the creation of a class of land-owners on the one hand, and of tenant farmers on the other, something similar in both cases, to what has long existed and now exists, in the older coun- tries of Europe, and similar, also, to a system that is common in our own State of California, " Those farmers who are land poor, must sell, and hecome tenants in place of ovjners of the soil. The hoarded, idle capital must he invested, in these lands and turned over to the poor farmers, who will at once he set upon their feet — not to go and loaf about towns and villages, spending their money while it may last, but to buy with his money stock, fertilizers, implements and machines, and go to work to cultivate the soil profit- ably. Instead of their money being sunk and dead in unproductive acres, it will be invested in cows, sheep, swine of improved breeds; in guano and fertilizers, b}" which the crops will be doubled or trebled. It will then become active and productive, and capable of doubling itself within the year. The farmer will be relieved of the burden of a bad investment on which lie now makes no interest, and his money will be placed where it will do the most good. He will at once be lifted from pov- erty to financial ease, and in place of an unsalable farm he will have to show for his money some propert}'^ that will realize all that it is worth at a public sale at 24 hours' notice. " Everything seems ripe for the change. Half the farms in the country are ready to be sold if buyers would only appear, and hundreds that can now be bought for less than their value 20 or 30 years ago, need only some judicious outlay to make them as productive as THE LAND QUESTION. ^ 223 ever. Few farmers can hope to provide their sons witli farms of their own, and there is no place for these young men in the over-crowded cities. But to stock a rented farm is not so difficult a matter for a father intent on starting a son in life. This would be easy to do if the farm could be rented on a long and satisfactory lease. But before this can be done the owner of the land must hold it as a permanent investment, and not as a property to be offered for sale to the iirst comer. When farm land is so held by the owner, there will be some prob- ability, if not certainty, that it will be permanently im- proved, and then such property will be largely sought for by tenants who will be able and willing to rent it on long leases and cultivate it in a more productive and profitable manner than farms are now worked. And then will begin a new era in American agriculture, and one that seems to be very desirable." It is to defeat this deep laid and damnable plot of the money power, and prevent the rich few from gobbling up the soil of America, as it has been gol)bled up in England and Ireland — it is to save our farmers from serfdom, and our free soil from the bondage of monopoly, that the Land Reform movement is pushed to the front. CHAPTER III. DEBT AND USURY. " Owe no man anything," was the injunction of a wiser and better man than ancient or modern Shy lock. Debt is slavery, which the law should not recognize. If a man voluntarily bind himself to his neighbor, it is his right — his liberty is his own property; but the right of the neighbor to hold such liberty a moment against the will of the owner, should not be recognized by law. We would prevent the necessity of debt and usury, by an ample supply of exchange medium to do a cash bus- iness. We would abolish the legal relations of debtor and creditor, by repealing all laws for the collection of debt, made after a certain period. It will be said that such a volume of money will render the currency worth- less. We deny it, and challenge reasonable proof. There are two great classes in this country who have use for an exchange medium. The producers, of which there are millions, who receive for their products the current money of account. The volume of their pro- ducts amounts annually to about $6,000,000,000. There is in circulation to pay for this enormous product but about $600,000,000 of currency, or one .dollar of cur- rency for ten of products. This deficiency of currency compels products to move slow^ly, and as our lines of transportation are long, causes trade of all kinds to be sluggish, depresses prices,and compels enormous inflation of credits as a substitute for money. Cities, counties, 224 DEBT AND USURY 225 states, corporations and individuals are obliged to antic- ipate future incomes, and issue instead, their interest- bearincj obliirations. There is another class that handle these $6,000,000,- 000 of products, or the surplus over the consumption of the producers. They use a different exchange medium. They are the bankers, brokers, and great interna- tional traders. Their medium of exchange consists of the producers' interest-bearing obligations — bonds and mort- gages. Every well secured debt goes to inflate the v^ol- ume of their currency. They never go in debt or pay interest. They have no need of it. The millions upon millions of international transactions are carried on with the use of less than four per cent, of legal tender. The debt system is their main dependence, their chief stock in trade. This furnishes them an inflated medium of exchange, amounting to many thousands of dollars per capita. The less money the people have, the more they are obliged to go in debt, and the more they go in debt, if debts are well secured, the larger is the interest in- come of the sharks, and the more their currency is in- flated. Scarcity of money among the people aids the sharks in more ways than one. It supplies them with a large volume of currency. It prevents the people from contracting it by payment of debts. It yields them a large interest income. It enables them to control the market, and bull and bear prices, to suit their interest. It keeps the people in slavery to them, and enables them through the immense 15 226 LABOR AND FINANCE KEVOLUTION. wealth they reap, to control elections, dictate legislation, and thus perpetuate their devilish system of injustice and robbery. We would abolish this system of slavery. We would emancipate humanity from the bondage of debt and usury. It is the mission of the coming revolution. AUTHORITIES ON USURY — TACITUS ON THE SUBJECT. " The exaction of interest for the loan of money has been one of the greatest evils of the Roman common- wealth." A DETESTABLE CUSTOM. The practice of receiving interest on money is detest- able, as by it the increase of our fortune arises from the money itself, and not by the employing it to the pur- pose for which it was intended." — Aristotle, Book II, Chap. I. RECEIVE NO MORE THAN YOU GIVE. Decretal, Gratian 14:- -Quest. 14, C. 1. — " If you lend your money to a man from whom you expect more than you gave, not money alone, but any other thing, whether it be wheat, wine, oil, or any other article; if you expect to receive any more than you gave you are a usurer, and, in that respect, reprehensible, not praiseworthy." — St. Augustine on Psalm xxxvi. An. 405. COUNCIL OF Trent's catechism. " Whatever is received above the principal lent, or that capital that was given, whether it be money or any- thing else that may be purchased or estimated for money, is usury. For it is written in Ezekiel xvi: ' Thou shalt DEBT AND USUKY. 227 not take usury and increase.' And in Luke vi. 35, our Lord says: ' Lend, hoping for nothing thereby.' Even among the Gentiles iisury was always considered a most grievous and most odious crimed ^'nothing exceeds in barbarity the modern system OF usury." St. Chrysostom., Horn. 5, on Matt., says: ^'Nothing exceeds in harharity the modern system of usury. \\\- deed, these usurers traffic on other people's misfortunes, seeking gain through their adversity; under the pretence of compassion, they dig for the distressed a pit of mis- ery; under the pretence of giving aid, they grind the indigent; extending the hand to receive them into har- bor from the storm, they allure him only to be ship- wrecked upon shoals and shelves of an unforeseen whirlpool." "There is nothing really more monstrous in any re- corded savagery or absurdity of mankind than that Gov- ernments should be able to get money for any folly they may choose to commit by selling to capitalists the right of taxing future generations to the end of time. All the crudest wars inflicted, all the basest luxuries grasped by the idle classes, are thus paid for by the poor a hundred times over. And yet I am obliged to keep my money in the funds or the bank, because I know of no other mode of keeping it safe; and if I refuse to take the interest, I should only throw it into the hands of the very people who would use it for these evil pur- poses, or, at all events- for less good than I can. Nev- ertheless, it is daily becoming a more grave question with me what it may presently be right to do. It may be better to diminish private charities, and much more, 228 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. mj own luxury of life, than to comply in any sort with a national sin. But I am not agitated nor anxious in the matter; content to know my principle, and to work steadily towards better fulfillment of it." — John Ruskin. BISHOP jewel's testimony. In 1560 Bishop Jewel, an eminent Christian divine, wrote as follows on the crime of usury: '"Usury is a kind of lending of money, or corne, or oyle, or wine, or of any other thing, wherein, upon covenants and bargaine, we receive again the whole principall which we deliv- ered, and someivhat more, for the use and occupying of the same; as if I lend 100 pound, and for it covenant to receive 105 pound, or any other summe, greater than was the summe which I did lend, this is what we call usury; such a kind of bargaining as no good man or godly man ever used. Such a kind of bargaining as all men that ever feared God's judgments hav^e alwaies ab- hored and condemned. It is filthy gaines and a workc of darkness, it is a monster in nature, the overthrow of mighty kingdoms, the destruction of flourishing States, the decay of wealthy cities, the plagues of the world, and the misery of the people; it is theft, it is the emurth- ering of our bretlii-en, it's the curse of God and the curse of the people. This is usury. By these signs and tokens you may know it. For wheresoever it raigneth all those mischiefs ensue. USURY THE WORK OF THE DEVIL. "Whence springetli usury? Soone shewed. Even thence whence theft, murder, adultery, the plagues, and destruc- tion of the people doe spring. All these are the workes of DEBT AND USURY. 229 the divell, and the workes of the flesh. Christ telleth the Pharisees, You are of your father the divell, and the lusts of your father you will doe. Even so may it truely be sayd to the usurer. Thou art of thy father the divell, and the lusts of thy father thou wilt doe, and therefore thou hast pleasure in his workes. The divell entered into the heart of Judas, and put in him this greediness, and covetousness of gaine, for which he was content to sell his Master. Juda's heart was the shop, the divell was the foreman to work in it. They that will be rich fall into tentation and snares, and into many foolish and noysome lusts, which drowne men in per- dition and destruction. For the desire of money is the root of all evil. And St. John saith. Whosoever com- mitteth sinne is of the Divell: I. Joh., 3-8. Thus we see that the d^vill is the planter and father of usury. WHAT ARE THE FRUITS OF USURY. "A. 1. It dissolveth the knot and fellowship of man- kind. 2. It hardeneth man's heart. 3. It maketh men unnatural, and bereaveth them of charity, and love for their dearest friends. 4. It breedeth misery and pro- voketh the wrath of God from heaven. 5. It consumeth rich men, it eateth up the poor, it maketh bankrupts and undoeth many householders. 6. The poore occupiers are driven to flee, their wives are left alone, their children are hopeless, and driven to beg their bread, thiough the unmerciful dealing of the covetous usurer. "He that is, an usurer, wishes that all others may lacke and come to him and borrow of him; that all others may lose, so that he may have gain. Therefore our old forefathers so much abhored this trade, that they thought an usurer unworthy to live in the company of 230 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. Christian men. They suffered not a usurer to be wit- nesse in matters of Law. Thej suffered him not to make a Testament, and to bestow his goods by will. When an usurer dyed, they would not suffer him to be buried in places appointed for the burial of Christians, So highly did they mislike the unmerciful spoyling and deceiving our brethren. '•But what speak I of the ancient Fathers of the Cliurch? There nev^er was any religion, nor sect, nor state, nor degree, nor profession of men, but they have disliked it. Philosophers, Greeks, Latins, lawyers, divines, Catholice, heretics; all tongues and nations have ever thought an usurer as dangerous as a theefe. The very sense of nature proves it to be so. If the stones could speak, they would say as much." god's LAW ON USURY. "And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen into decay with thee, then shalt thou relieve him,' yea though he be a stranger or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon nsury^ nor lend him thy victuals for inc?'ease.^^ — Lev. xxv. 35, 36. " If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor that dwelleth with thee, thou shalt not be hard upon him as an ex-tortioner, nor oppress him with usuries." — Ex. xxii. ^21^. "And I rebuked the nobles and' magistrates, and said to them: Do you every one exact usury of your brethren? And I gathered together a great assembly against them." Nehemiah v. 7. " Thou shalt not ^end to thy brother money to usury, nor corn, nor any other thing. To thy brother tiiou DEBT AND USUKY. 231 shalt lend that which he wanteth without usury, that the Lord may bless thee in all thy works." — Deut. xxiii. 19, 20. " Go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your mis- eries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten; your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you; and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. * * * * Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter; ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you." — James v. 1-6. "• Henry YIII was the first monarch who legalized, usury in Christendom, Calvin was the first prominent religious teacher who defended it, and Cromwell en- dorsed it, which so delighted the Jews that they believed him to be the promised Messiah, to give them the domin- ion of tlie world, and instituted worship of him in their synagogues, which worship Cromwell promptly sup- pressed, but permitted tlieir more devastative practices. " All throuirh these ages to that time, the churches, both Catholic and Protestant, warred upon usury with the same consistency and persistency that they did upon the other deadly sins, but thereafter churchmen became comparatively lukewarm. The term usury fell into dis- use, and the word interest was substituted therefor. Hume, the historian, by no means inclined to liberal ideas, refers very quaintly but pointedly to this substi- tution as ' a lucky accident in language which has great effect upon men's ideas.' " — Dreiv. 232 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. A hundred years before Hume's time, Shakespeare's keen eye had detected the cliange of terms, and he made Shylock say of Antonio: How like a fawning publican he looks! I hate him, for he is a Christian : But more, for that in low simplicity He lends out money gratis, and brings down The rate of usance here with us in Venice. He rails, where merchants most do congregate, On me, my bargains and my well won thrift, Which he calls interest. CHAPTER IV CONVENTIONS. BRIEF HISTORY OF NATIONAL POLITICAL CONVENTIONS. {From Oreeley & Cleveland's Political Text-Book, 1860, and other sources.) National Conventions for the nomination of candidates for Presi- dent and Vice President are of comparatively recent ont^in. In the earlier political history of the United States, under the Federal Cou- stiiUtion, candidate for President and Vice President were nomi- nated by C'ingressional and legislative caucuses. Washington was elected as first President under the Constitution, and re-elected for a second term by a unanimous, or nearly unanimous, concurrence of the American people; but an opposition jiarty gradually grew up in Congress, which became formidable during its second terra, and which ultimately crystallized into what was then called the Republi- can Party. John Adams, of Massachusetts, was prominent among the leading Federalists, while Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was pre-eminently the author and oracle of the Republican Party, and, by common consent, they were the opposing candidates for the Presi- dency, on Washington's retirement in 1796-7. 1800. — The first Congressional Caucus to nominate candidates for President and Vice President is said to have been held in Philadel- phia, in the year 1800, and to have oondnated Mr. Jefferson for the first office, and Aaron Burr for the second. These candidates were electeil after a desperate struggle, beating John Adams and Charles O. Pinckney, of South Carolina. 1804. — In 1804 Mr. Jetterson was re-elected President, with George Clinton, of New York, for Vice, encountering but slight opposition; Messrs. Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King, the opposing candi- dates, receiving only 14 out of 176 electoral votes. We have been unable to find any record as to the manner of their nomination. lf<08. — In January, 1808, when Mr. Jefferson's second term was about to close, a Republican Congressional Caucus was iield at Washington, to decide as to the relative claims of Madison and Mon- roe for the successioa, the Legislature of Virginia, which had been said to exert a potent influence over such questions, being, on this occasion, unable to agree as to which of her favored sous should have the preference. Ninety-four out of the l;]6 Republican members of Congress attended this caucus, and declared their preference of Mr. Madison, who received 83 votes, the remaining 11 being divided be- tween Mr. Monroe and George Clinton. The opposition then sup- 233 234 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. ported Mr. Pinckney, but Mr. Madison was elected by a large majorily. 1813. — Toward the close of Mr. Madison's earlier term he was nominated for re-election by a Congressional Caucus, held at Wash- ington in May, 1812. In September, of tlie same year, a convention of the opposition representing eleven States, was held in the City of New York, which nominated DeWitt Clinton, of New York, for President. He was also put in nomination by the Republican Legis- lature of New York. The ensuing canvass resulted in the re-election of Mr. Madison, who received 128 electoral votes to 89 for DeWitt Clinton. 181G. — In 1816 the Republican Congressional Caucus nominated James Monroe, who received in the caucus 65 votes, to 54 for Wm. H. Crawford, of Georgia. The opposition, or Federalists, named Rufus King, of New York, who received only 34 electoral votes out of 217. 1820. — There was no opposition to the re-election of Mr. Monroe in 1820, a single (Republican) vote being cast against him, and for John Quincy Adams. 1824. — In 1824 the Republican Parly could not^be induced to abide by the decision of a Congressional Caucus. A large majority of the Republican members formally refused to participate iu such a gath- ering, or be governed by its decision; still, a caucus was called, and attended by the friends of Mr. Crawford alone. Of the 2G1 Members of Congress at this time, 216 were Democrats or Republicans; yet only 66 responded to their names at roll-call, 64 of whom voted "for Mr. Crawford, as the Republican nominee for President. This nom- ination was very extensively repudiated throughout the country, and three competing Republican candidates were brought into the field through legislative and other machinery, viz.: Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and John Quincy Adams. The result of this famous " scrub-race " for the Presidency was, that no one was elected by the people, Gen. Jackson receiving 99 electoral votes, Mr. Adams 84, Mr. Crawford 41, and Mr. Clay 37. The election then devolved on the House of Representatives, when Mr. Adams was chosen, receiving the votes of 13 States, against 7 for Gen. Jackson and 4 for Mr. Craw- ford. This was the end of " King Caucus." 1828. — Gen. Jackson was immediately thereafter put in nomination for the ensuing term by the Lesrislature of Tennessee, having only Mr. Adams for an opponent in 1828, when he was elected by a decided majority, receiving 178 electoral votes, to 83 for Mr. Adams. The first political National Convention in this country of which we have any record was held at Philadelphia in September, 1830, styled the United States Anti-Masonic Convention. It was composed of 96 delegates. Francis Granger, of New York, presided, but no business was transacted. In compliance with its call, a National Anti-Masonic Conventloa was held at Baltimore in September, 1831, which nominated William Wirt, of Maryland, for President, and Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsyl- vania, for Vice President. The candidates accepted the nomination, and received the electoral vote of Vermont only. 1833. — There was no open opposition in the Democratic Party to CONVENTIONS. 235 the nomination of Gen. Jackson for a second term in 1832, but tlie party was not so well satisfied with Mr. Calhoun, the Vice-President, so a convention was called to meet at Baltimore, in May, 1883, to nominate a candidate for the second offlce. Mr. Van Buren received more than two-thirds of all the votes cast, and was declared nominated. The National Republicans met in convention at Baltimore, De- cember 12, 1831. Seventeen States and the District of Columbia were represented by 157 delegates, who cast an unanimous vote for Henry Clay, of Kentucky, for President. 1836. — In May, 1835, a Democratic National Convention, represent- ing twenty-one States, assembled at Baltimore. A. rule was adopted, that two-thirds of the whole number of votes should be necessary to make a nomination, or to decide any question connected therewith. On the first balliit for President, Mr. Van Buren was nominated unanimously, receiving 265 votes. In 1835, Gen. William H. Harrison, of Ohio, was nominated for President, with Francis Granger for Vice-President, by a Whig State Convention at Harrisburg, Pa. Gen. Harrison also received nomina- tions in Maryland, New York, Ohio, and other States. 1840. — A Whig National Convention, representing twenty-one States,*met at Harrisburg, Pa., December 4, 1839. James Barbour, of Virginia, presided, and the result of the first ballot was the nom- ination of Gen. William H. Harrison, of Ohio, who received 148 votes, to 90 for Henry Clay, and 16 for Gen. Wiufield Scott. John Tyler, of Virginia, was unanimously nominated as the Whig candidate for Vice-President. A Convention of Abolitionists was held at Warsaw, N. Y., on the 13th of November, 1839, and nominated for President James G. Bir- ney, of New York, and for Vice-President, Francis J. Lemoyne, of Pennsylvania. These gentlemen declined the nomination. Never- theless, they received a total of 7,6U9 votes, in various Free States. A Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore, May 5, 1840, to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President. The Convention then unanimously nominated Mr. Van Buren for re-elec- tion as President. 1844. — A AVhig National Convention assembled in Baltimore on the 1st of May, 1844, in which every State in the Union was repre- sented, and Mr. Clay was nominated for President by acclamation. A Democratic National Convention assembled at Baltimore on the 27th of May, 1844, adopted the two-tliirds rule, and, after a stormy session of three days, James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was nominated for President, aud Silas Wright, of New York, for Vice-President. Mr. Wright declined the nomination, and George M. Dallas, of Penn- sylvania, was selected. The Liberty Party National Convention met at Buftalo on the 30th of August, 1843. James G, Birney, of Michigan, was unanimously nominated for President, with Thomas Morris, of Ohio, for Vice- President. 1848. — A Whig National Convention met at Philadelphia on the 7th of June, 1848. After a rather stormy session of three days. Gen. Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, was nominated for President, and Mil- lard Fillmore, of New York, for Vice-President 236 LABOR AND FINANCE KEVOLUTION. The Democratic National Convention for 1348 assembled in Balti- more on the 22d of May. The two-thirds rule was adopted, and Gen, Lewis Cass was nominated for President on the fourth ballot. On the 9th of August, 1845, a Free Democratic or Free Soil Con- vention was held at BufTalo, which was attended by delegates from seventeen States. Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, pre- sided, and the Convention nominated Messrs. Van Buren and Adams as candidates for Presideut and Vice-President. 1853. — The Whig National Convention of 1852 assembled at Balti- more on the 16th of June, and after an exciting session of six days, nominated Gen. Winfield Scott as President, on the fift3'-third ballot. The Democratic Convention of 1852 assembled at Baltimore on the 1st of June, and the two-thirds rule was adopted. Gen. Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, was nominated fur President, on the fort^'-ninth ballot. The Free Soil Democracy held a National Convention at Pittsburg, on the llth of August, 1852, Henry Wilson of Mass., presiding. All the Free States were represented, with Delaware, Virgmia, Kentucky and Maryland. John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, was nominated for President, with Geo. W. Julian, of Indiana, for Vice-President. 1856. — The Republican National Convention of 1856 met at Phila- delphia on the 17th of June. Col. John C. Fremont was unanimously nominated, liaving received 359 votes on the first ballot against 196 lor Jolm McLean. On February 22, 1856, the American National Nominating Con- vention oriranized at Philadelphia, with 221 delegates in attendance. Millard Fillmore was declared to be the nominee, with Andrew Jackson Donelson, of Tennessee, for Vice-President. The Democratic National Convention of 1856 met at Cincinnati on -tlie 2d of June, and nominated James Buchanan on the seventeenth ballot'.^ John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, was unanimously nom- inated for Vice-Prisident. A Republican National Convention assembled at Chicago on May 16, 1800, delegates being in attendance from all the Free States, as also from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency on the third ballot, receiving 854 out of 466 votes; his principal ompetitors being William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. 1860. — A Democratic National Convention assembled at Charleston, S. C, on the 23d of April, 1860, with full delegations present from every State. Dissensions arising, chiefly out of the question of slavery in the Territories, too great to be reconciled, the delegations from seven Southern States withdrew, and the convention adjourned, after fifty-seven inetfectual ballots for a candidate, to meet at Balti- more, June 18. Here Stephen A. Douglas was nominated for Pres- ident, and B. Fitzpatrick for Vice-President. The latter declined, and H. V. Johnson was substituted by the National Committee. The Convention of Seceders nominated John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane. A " Constitutional Union" Convention from twenty States met at Baltimore, May 9, 1860, and nominated John Bell and Edward Everett for the Presidency and Vice- Presidency. CONVENTIONS. 237 1864. — The Republican National Convention met at Baltimore, June 7. The re-nomination, for President, of Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, was made unanimous, he having received the votes of all the States except Missouri, cast for Gen. Grant. For Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, was nominated on the second ballot, his principal competitors being D. S. Dickinson and H. Hamlin. The Demncratic National Convention met at Chicago, 111., August 29. Nominations — President, George B. McCh'llan, of New Jer- sey; Vice-President, George H. Pendleton, of Ohio. 1868. — The National Republican Convention met at Chicago, 111., May 20. Nominations — President, Ulysses S, Grant, of Illinois; Vice-President, Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana. The Democratic National Convention met at New York, July 4. Nominations — President, Horatio Seymour, of New York ; Vice- President, Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri. 1872. — The Liberal Republican Convention met at Cincinnati, Ohio, May 1. Nominations — President, Horace Greeley, of New York, on tiie sixth ballot, by 482 votes, against 187 for David Davis, of Illinois; Vice-President, B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, on the second ballot. The Republican National Convention met at Philadelphia, Pa., June 5. Nominations— President, ¥lysses S. Grant, on the first ballot, unanimously; Vice-President, Henry Wil.-on, of Massachu- setts, receiving 364 j^ votes against 321 1^ for Schuyler Colfax. The Democratic National Convention met at Baliimore, Md., July 9. Nominations — Pri'>ident, Horace Greeley, on the first ballot, receiving 686 votes to 38 scattering; Vice-President, B. Gratz Brown, who received 713 votes. The Democratic ("Straiijht Out") Convention met at Louisville, Ky., September 3. Nominations— President, Charles O'Conor, of New York; Vice-President, John Q. Adams, of Massachusetts. The nominations were declined. 1876. — The Republican National Conveuticm met at Cincinnati, Oliio, June 14. Nominations— President, Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, on the seventh ballot, receiving 384 votes, to 351 for J. G. Blaine, and isl for B, H. Brislow; Vice- President, William A.Wheeler, of New York. The Demncratic National Ceritj without gold could be real. They prayed for the return of their idol, and warned society that for all its seeming prosperity and delusive dreams of wealth, cor- responding sacrifices must be made to their idol or the country would be a howling bedlam of madmen and f^inatics. So on the 12th day of April, 1866, Keeper McCulloch was ordered to commence neg-otiations for a bear. Immense sacrifices of men and property fol- lowed. The first year 2,000 men fell, and over $80,000,- 000 were lost. Each succeeding year the number of human sacrifices increased, and the amount of pecuniary loss augmented, until the reinstatement of the beast in 18T9, 10,000 men and firms having fallen, and $300,000,000 wealth being sacrificed in the previous year. Now we have our blood-thirsty god re-installed, and John Sherman as high priest. Over and above his depredations on society, past and prospective, which is beyond computation, he has cost our treasury direct $230,000,000, for which our bonds are out drawing interest from labor. Yes, we have on our hands a two hundred and thirty million dollar bear, of no use to society but to eat annu- ally ten or fifteen million dollars' worth of food which society has to furnish, and to be in fashion with the idol- atrous nations of Europe, every one of which to-day is a bleeding: sacrifice to this brutish o-od. There he stands watched over and adored by John Sherman, devouring the substance of the people, jeopardizing commerce and trade and menacing labor and enterprise at every step. These be thy gods, oh. Shy lock ! CHAPTER IX. ENGLAND'S AMERICAN POLICY. ENGLAND IS PREPARING BY MODERN COMMERCIAL MEIHODS TO ABSORB THE SUBSTANCE OF AMERICA. It is officially announced that William H. Vanderbilt has sold 250,000 shares of the New York Central stock to a syndicate of New York capitalists, representing the heaviest banking houses of London, and thus parted with his control over that thoroughfare. This colossal railroad syndicate includes most, or all, of John Sher- man's famous bond syndicate, notably August Belmont :amblers in the product of others' toil. Not one of the ninety-eight per cent, of the people objected to the increase of the money volume, or complained that greenbacks had been substituted for gold. After the war, when the nation's existence, and the perpetuity of the union were no longer in jeopardy, a system of con- traction was inaugurated, to squeeze out of use and cir- culation the excess of money which the war had forced into the channels of trade and production. So in his report of December 4, 1865, Hugh McCuUoch said to Congress: "The issue of United States notes as lawful money -was a measure of expediency, doubtless, and becessary in the great emergency in which it WKS adopted, but this emergency no longer exists, and how- ever sat iKfactonj these notes may be as a circulating medium, and how- ever desirable may be the saving of interest, these considerations will not satisfy a departure from that construction of the constitution which is "essential to the equal and harmonious working of our peculiar institutions^ The "peculiar institutions" which Mr. McCuUoch re- ferred to as being unbalanced by the excess of war money, were not those of labor, enterprise and produc- tion, for which alone money is required, but the banking institutions, the gambling dens of the Money Power, whose nefarious occupation was gone, and whose sources of robbery were cut olf, while the Government stood between them and the producer, and supplied the latter with ample means of production. These were the "pecu- liar institutions," from one of which in Indiana Mr. McCuUoch was called to Washington to place in "equal and harmonious working order again." He adds: "The rapidity with which the Government notes can be withdrawn will depend upon the ability of the secretaries lo dispose of securities. The secretary therefore respectfully hut most earnestly recommends, 'First, That Congress declare that the compound interest notes, shall cease to be a legal tender. Second, That the secretary be author A farmers' republic. 269 ized to sell bonds of the United States bearing interest at a rate not exceeding 6 per cent. /or the jnirpose of retiring not only compound interest notes, hut the United States notes. '■'■The first thing to be done is to edahlish a policy of contraction^ This, Congress established by resolution on the IStli of December, 1S65. How many of theelev'6n millions of producers, toiling in their shops and factories, delving in the subterranean store houses of the earth, or bending their backs to the harvest sun, petitioned Mr. McCulloch to make these suggestions to Congress on its meeting? How many of these millions asked that the thing for which they were all toiling might be made more scarce and difficult to obtain? How many of them prayed that instead of receiving greenbacks for their products, they might be made to pay a semi-annual gold bonus to have them destroyed? How many of them voluntarily consented to have the value of their property depreciated one-half and the value of their products reduced? How many of them consented to be turned into the streets, their families into the poor house, a hundred thousand bankrupted — and the most fortunate among them to be taxed beyond their ability to pay — simply to conform to a system of contraction, for the benefit of whom? Reader, do you believe a single laborer or producer, or manufacturer or a miner, a merchant or a transporter of merchandise, a farmer or a mechanic, would have voted for this measure if he had been called upon, and had known the result? Not one. Not one of the eleven millions asked for it or was even consulted in regard to it. Outside of the eleven millions of producers is a class — two per cent, of the population — who live off of labor, 270 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. controlling and gambling in its necessities. A class who " weave not neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." A class who never added one farthing to the wealth of the world, who are not entitled to handle a dollar of money, never having produced its equivalent, as ex- empt from taxation as infants, and having to bear no more risks, burdens, or responsibilities in the affairs of the Government than the inmates of the poor house, arrogate to themselves not only the governing and law- making power, but the right to control and monopolize the most important instrument of production, with which they may gamble and win the product. During all the dark days of contraction, while the wealth products of labor were shrinking in a direct ratio with the shrink- age of the money volume, the usurer's lamps burned brighter and brigter as the purchasing capacity of his interest dollars expanded to absorb the shrinking value of labor products. As men of enterprise and produc- tion fell, the gambler rose higher and higher on the prostrate forms of his victims. As the wrecks of productive enterprises increased, the foundations of banking institutions multiplied. As the wages of labor and prices of products diminished, the value of interest and interest obligations augmented. As the garments of the laborer and his wife and little ones faded and fringed, those of the gambler and his household changed to purple and fine linen. As the wolves of want and starvation gathered at the doors of enforced idleness, pomp and luxury abounded in the temples of Mammon. Here is the proof. A prominent Iowa farmer, Hon. Samuel Sinnett, wrote, in 1878: A FARMERS KEPUBLIC. 271 "The prices of some, articles are eighteen per cent, lower than thej were before the war. Corn has not been so low since 1845, except in 1861, Cotton not so low in twentj-three years, and mess pork, not since 1844. These prices render the farmer hopeless, destroy liis energy, and dwarf his manhood nntil he only seeks to struggle along from year to year without trying to keep up his improvements, from the fact that all the enter- prising of this class are becoming bankrupts, and his real estate is shrinking in value while he finds himself actually burdened with products that will not net him the price of production. At Des Moines the average price of pork (live hogs) is two dollars per hundred, corn from twelve to fifteen cents, hay from two to four dollars per ton, and other products in proportion. " Now, I assert that none of these articles can be pro- duced for less than fifty per cent, in advance of these prices. No farmer in the West expects to receive any interest on the capital he has invested in his farm under present prices, and as many of them are in debt, and their farms mortgaged, it is easy to perceive that ulti- mate ruin must soon come. Tiie New York Journal of Commerce, January 1, makes a comparison of prices in tha'. city for a decade, with the following showin g: PRODUCTS. 1868. 1878. Flour -- $8 75 to |9 50 $1 40 .16 cts. $24 00 $21 00 $32 00 .45 cts. .19 ets. $3 10 to $3 50 Oats Cott(jn 1)61" lb .34 cts. .07 els. Hay, per ton. Mess Pork |9 00 $7 05 Mess Beef Butter $14 50 .10 cts. Cheese - - - — rfi — — .8 3 7 cts. 272 LABOR AND FINANCE REVOLUTION. The Boston Advertiser published a table of prices in tliat city on January 1, 1879, as compared with those of 1860, as follows: PRODUCTS. 1860. 1879. Mess Pork |17 to |18 $11 05 .13 cts. .13 cts. .70 cts. $8.50 to $9 $1U 00 .06 to .07 cts. nyi cts. .35 to 48 cts. Mess Beef Lard Hams Cora While these products have declined in value nearly one-half since the specie payment period of 1860, and their producers are the bearers of the great bulk of the tax burden, the national tax has increased from $56,054,599 in 1860, to $2.37,446,776 in 1878, while state, county, town and municipal taxation has at least doubled. Under the finance system which has produced this condition of things, and which both the old political parties are pledged to perpetuate and aggravate by still more stringent legislation, what hope is there for the farmer? As low as prices are and daily shrinking, the policy of the Money Power is forcing upon the farmer competition more destructive to his interests than Chi- nese immigration is to the labor of the Pacific coast. But England's policy is "cheap labor, cheap bread." and she is carrying it out in the United States throusrh the agency of her capital in the hands of leading politicians, with as much ease as she does in India and Ireland. The policy of contraction as expressed by that eminent member and representative of the English Cobden Club, David A. Wells, in the following words, has done the work : ji. farmers' republic. 273 " Discarding all indirect mellinds, I would adopt what may be called the 'crematiou' process, or I would have it eiij>iQed on the secretary of the treasury to destroy by burnins^ on a given day of every week, commencing at the earliest practicable moment, a certain amount of legal tender notes, fixing the minimum at not less than $500,000 per week." Having portrayed the present and prospective condi- tion of the American farmer under the Demo-Republi- can finance policy, and the causes which have produced, and must inevitably perpetuate if not aggravate it, let us see what effect this same policy has had upon the prosperity of that other class who reap not, neither do they spin. During the long tedious years of ruin and bankruptcy among farmers and proditcers, from 1866 to 1878, Wil- liam H. English, the Democratic nominee for Yice President, was President of the First National Bank of Indianapolis. Upon retiring from that trust, in 1877, he made a report to the stockholders, from which the followinsf is an extract: " I congratulate the officers and stockholders of our enterprise. The bank lias bien in operation fourteen years under my control, with a capital stock of $500,000. In the meantime, it has volunta- rily returned $500,000 of cajiital stock back to its stockholders, be- sides paying them in dividends $1,49K,250, part of vvliich was in iio'