IRLF 3D3 * v -2-Z.&*., --J! -T r- \ University ' c; i *3 of California. K r r < >K y *^\ *~* ^^m^T^m - 7^"- \ (7 ' NOTHING BUT THE ADDRESS CAN BE PLACED ON THIS S IDEAS SCIENCE OF GOOD GOVERNMENT IN ADDRESSES, LETTERS AND ARTICLES STRICTLY NATIONAL CURRENCY, TARIFF AND CIVIL SERVICE. -^ ^, --*-*; >SN BF rruiVEHSIIl HON. PETER COOPER, LL.D. SECOND EDITION. COOPER INSTITUTE. NEW YORK: TROWS PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 201-213 EAST TWELFTH STREET. 1883. COPYMGHT, 1883, PETER COOPER. t 2 dJ5' s J3ook , Or tt .A. 35e5,887 Interest due on above 33,092,616 $2,224,658,503 Less cash in Treasury 154,299,886 Debt at May 1, 1877 $2,070,358,617 Debt at July 7, 1866- 2,783,425,879 Reduction since July 1, 1866 (10 10-12 years) $713,067,262 Since the close of the war, or from July 1, 1865 to April 1, 1877 (llf , 8 114 COIN AND PAPEK CTJKKENCY. I hold our Government bound to give back to the people their small currency, that was costing them nothing, and then call in the silver currency, that has been put in its place at a cost of $31,738,400 paid for silver up to April 20, 1877. This silver should be immediately withdrawn, and used in the purchase of foreign bonds, thus saving for the American people an amount of interest, if compounded, that would pay the national debt several times in one hundred years, and at the same time give the country a more convenient currency, which would be more than paid for by the amount, that would be worn out and lost by its use. If silver change is ever needed, it can be had with only the cost of coining it by the Government, as nearly all the silver, produced in the country, will go into coins, whenever the Government will coin it without cost to its owners. I find myself compelled to agree with Senator Jones, where he says that " the present is the acceptable time to undo the unwitting and blundering work of 1873. . . . We cannot, we dare not, avoid speedy action on the sub- ject. Not only does reason, justice and authority unite in urging us to retrace our steps, but the organic law commands us to do so, and the presence of peril enjoins what the law commands" years), the interest on the public debt was $1,422,057,567, or $121,000,000 per annum ! The universal cry over the land is for employment. When well em- ployed the people are well clothed, well fed and well housed. The adjustment of the fiscal question NOT for one class, but for the masses must be made ere prosperity is ours. The recall from Europe of our gold bonds (by sale of commodities, placing them at low interest) and sub- stituting greenbacks for national bank-notes, would remove grievous bur- dens, providing employment by stimulating our depressed industries. Will President Hayes inaugurate this just policy, insuring general pros- perity and spontaneous "resumption," or the par of paper with gold? The true remedy for national relief from the enslavement of debt, with its burden of taxation, is the substitution of greenbacks for national bank-notes. The national banks have received since 1866 twenty-one millions of dollars interest on bonds deposited with the Government. COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 115 I have ventured this long letter in the firm belief, that the adoption of a permanent, unfluctuating national currency, as before stated, equal to the amount actually found in cir- culation at the close of the war, and that amount should never be increased or diminished, only as per capita with the increase of the inhabitants of our country such a measure of all internal values, with a revenue tariff of specific duties to be obtained from the smallest number of articles, that will give the amount needed for an economical government such a national policy would introduce prosperity once more into the trade, commerce and finances of this country. NOTE. Expansion versus Contraction. The following statistics from the London Economist demonstrate the fact, that the expansion of French Government legal tenders has kept pace with the accumulation of specie, and materially develops the home interests of. that country: "Of legal tenders in April, 1869, the circulation was 214 millions dollars, and in April, 1876, 494 millions, being an increase in seven years of 280 millions, or 130 per cent. ! Of specie and bullion in December, 1869, the stock was 247 millions dollars, and in November, 1876, 432 millions, or an increase in seven years of 185 millions, or 75 per cent. ! The striking prosperity of French industries under the above fiscal policy augurs strongly for an expansion equal to the amount found in circulation at the close of the war, and against a contraction." Our Government has, from its origin, neglected to perform one of the most important duties, enjoined on it by the Con- stitution, where it says, that Congress shall have power, not only to coin money, but to regulate the value thereof. This can be and should have been done by an Act of Congress to regulate the value of money by fixing the amount, that can be legally collected as interest for the use of money. 116 COIN AND PAPEE CURRENCY. When such an Act has been provided to prevent extortion- ate demands for the use or interest on money, and when the law has been repealed, that is now paralyzing the country with the terrible fact, that some fifteen hundred millions of dollars, now due from the people to the banks, with all the other debts, that are to become due in 1879, are ~by law made payable in gold, then the way will be opei^ed for a restora- tion of confidence and a permanent financial relief. The law contracting the currency is now taking from the people their legal money, costing the Government and the people nothing, and then converting this same currency into a national debt, for which the people are to be taxed for the next thirty years. It should never be forgotten, that the first sixty mil- lions of Treasury notes were issued and made " receivable in payments of duties on imports a lawful money and a legal tender" The fact that the sixty millions then issued did continue receivable at the Treasury on a par with gold, when gold was selling at 285 in currency, this fact is proof positive, that had the Government made all the greenbacks full legal tender, instead of sending them out partially demonetized and repudiated, they would never have fallen below par. It was the partial demonetization and the contraction of the currency, that has so effectually destroyed confidence and dried up the sources of both production and consumption. The people are deprived of tJieir currency, which had for years formed the life blood of the trade and commerce of our country. My efforts in all I have written, have been to call and fix the attention of the American people on those truths and principles, so grandly set forth and declared in the Pre- amble to the Constitution, formed for us by the Fathers and founders of a Government, intended to establish jus- tice as the true and only sure means, by which the general welfare of the American people can be substantially pro- moted. Hoping and believing, that your best efforts will be given COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 117 to secure for our beloved country the blessings of a good Government, I remain, yours, with great respect, PETER COOPER. NEW YORK, August 6, 1877. His EXCELLENCY R. B. HAYES, HONORED SIR Although I have but lately addressed you an open letter on the sad state of the industrial and financial conditions of our common country, and the causes, that have brought it about ; yet the events, that have since transpired, while they have given additional emphasis to that appeal, justify me in once more addressing you on the same subject. Surely, the peaceful expostulations and complaints of so many thousands of your fellow-citizens, going up from every part of this distressed country, not to speak of the violence and lawlessness, which this distress has occasioned, not only appeal to your humanity and patriotism, but call for the most earnest and instant action on the part of the Govern- ment, of which you are the chief Executive. From your past patriotic life and action, and from your present wise and conciliating conduct in the political affairs of this country, we have every reason to hope a new and straight path of relief will be found for the manifest evils, under which this country is laboring. It is with this hope, and, at my advanced age, with no other motive than the welfare of our beloved country, that I unite with thousands of my fellow-citizens in calling your attention, and that of your political advisers, not only to the facts, which are obvious enough, but to the causes and the remedies, that ought to be considered in devising the best means of curing the present evils. The facts themselves are appalling to any patriotic heart. More than two hundred thousand men, within the last few weeks, have joined in " strikes" on the various railroad lines, the workshops and the mines of the country, on ac- 118 COIN AND PAPER CUEEENCY. count of further reduction in their wages, already reduced to the living point. That some of these strikes have been attended with lawless and unjustifiable violence, only shows the intensity of the evils complained of, and the despair of the sufferers. For four years past, since the " panic of 1873," millions of men and women, in this hitherto rich and pros- perous country, have been thrown out of employment, or living on precarious and inadequate wages, have felt embit- tered with a lot, in which neither economy nor industry, nor a cheerful willingness to work hard, can bring any allevia- tion. Is it to be wondered at, that enforced idleness has made tramps of so many of our laboring population, or induced them to join the criminal and dangerous classes ? During this same period, immigration into this country of the hardy and industrious of all nations, who have hither- to built up our country, has, in a great measure, stopped, while thousands of artisans and mechanics, whom a prosper- ous country cannot spare, are emigrating, to other countries. Our manufactories are, many of them, closed, or running at a loss, or giving starvation prices to their operatives. Our merchants are demanding the reduction of their rents, dis- charging many of their employes, and such as are in debt are fast going into bankruptcy. The mining and railroad interests of the country, x on which the income and the em- ployment of so many thousands depend, are fast succumb- ing to the general failure in the finances of the country, so that their stocks have become depreciated or worthless, and their employes discharged or mutinous on account of re- duced wages. Real estate has depreciated to less than half of what it would have brought four years ago ; much of it cannot be sold for any price, and mortgages of one-quarter its value, if foreclosed, swallow up the whole. The thriv- ing and enterprising farmer of the West, especially, feels this rise in the value of money, as compared with labor or property. With the hardy toil of years, he has opened and improved his farm, and the comparative small loan, which COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 119 laid but a light weight on the resources of his land in pros- perous times, and with a sufficiency of money, is now threat- ening to swallow up the labor of his life ! Even the banks and the loaning institutions, not being able to invest their money on " good securities," are embarrassed on both sides the failure of their debtors, that throws so many of the securities on their hands, and makes bonds and mort- gages a " glut in the market," and the difficulty of making any new loans or investments, so that money " goes a beg- ging " at one and a half and two per cent. ! But these moneyed men are very patient with their trou- bles in this respect, for they know, that money is appreciat- ing in value all the time ! It may be now that loanable capital, on good security, is gathered largely in the moneyed centres, and much of it comparatively idle ; but this is no great hardship to those, who own the capital, in the presence of the fact, that money is appreciating in its relative value, while waiting for active investment. This is the secret why money seeks no active investment now, but only good se- curity, or idleness. The country at large, its various indus- trial, enterprises and its labor are in want of money. Is there any fact more obvious than this ? Nor is it the rich that want money, but the poor, as a necessary condition for selling the labor", which is their sole possession. Hence, to the poor man, cheap money is equivalent to cheap bread. Ever since 1865, this country has been losing its money. During the last ten years, thousands of millions of money have been swallowed in Government and railroad bonds and other securities, and in importations which, till lately, have far exceeded our exportations. It is a fact on record in the books of the United States Treasury, and by such authori- ties as Spaulding in his " History of the Currency," Mr. Maynard, Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Cur- rency in Congress, and Spinner, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, that this country had, up to the year 1865, issued in different forms of currency and treasury notes, current as money among the people, $2,192,395,527 ! This vast sum 120 COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. t had, on the first of November, 1873, shrunk to $631,488,- 676 (see Congressional Record, March 31, 1874). In the year 1865, there was in the hands of the people, as a currency, $58 per head ; in 1875 the currency of all kinds was only a little more than $17 per head. You may call this currency a vast debt of the people, as it was incurred by the Government to save the life of the nation. But it was money every dollar of it. It was paid by the Government " for value received ;" it was used by the people to pay their debts, to measure the value of their property, and, as your present Secretary of the Treasury, Sherman, said in his seat in the Senate, " every citizen of the United States had conformed his business to the legal tender clause." This currency was also the creature of law, and under the entire control of the Government, but held in trust for the benefit of the people, as are all its functions. Was it either just or humane to allow $1,100,000,000 of this cur- rency, a large part bearing no interest, but paying labor, and fructifying every business enterprise, to be absorbed into bonds in the space of eight years, bearing a heavy inter- est, 'of which the bondholder bore no share ? (See Spauld- ing's "History of the Currency.") -The Government seemed to administer this vast currency, as if there was but one interest in the nation to be promoted, and that the profit of those, who desired to fund their money with the greatest security, and to make money scarce and of high rate of interest ! TJiis is tlie issue of the hour / this is the battle of the people and for the people, in which the present adminis- tration is called upon to declare vihich side it will take. If this policy was unjust and ruinous at the first, it is unjust and ruinous now. If it has led us from prosperity into adversity, the only course is to retrace our steps, to stop this funding and give the people back their money, justly earned and hardly won by the toils, perils and sacri- fices of the people. But as this vast and life-giving cur- rency has now gone irretrievably into bonds, and the bonds ed the maximum of its increase. Now I would ask, is there a man so blind, as not to see the debasing consequences, which must follow, morally and politically, by thus elevating the money above all other powers in this State, and giving it such overwhelming con- trol ? Can it be done, without debasing the noble and inde- pendent spirit, which created our free institutions, arid with- out which it is impossible to maintain them ? Can it be done without spreading over the land one all-absorbing spirit of gain, which shall extinguish all the more elevated feelings of our nature, and raise him, who may dispense the favors of banks, in public estimation, over the philosopher, the statesman, the divine, the patriot, the warrior, or those en- gaged in the active and productive pursuits of society ? Can this be done without inverting the order of the moral world, and bringing down in the end, on the people, who may have the folly and the weakness to permit it, unheard of calami- ties ? To guard against these, it is clear, that something must be done to prevent mere private corporations from exercis- ing such unlimited control over the currency of the country, and, through it, the fortunes of individuals and the com- munity. To effect this I can imagine no measure more sim- ple, effectual and practicable, than the entire and final divorce of the unholy and unconstitutional connection be- tween Government and Bank the great measure of de- liverance and liberty, as happily expressed by the able and patriotic statesman (General Gordon), who will have the lasting honor of having first proposed it in Congress. This once adopted, the whole system may be gradually and safely reformed, as experience and reflection may point out, and the country saved from unnumbered woes. Permit me in conclusion to offer the following senti- ment: The great and leading measure of the age It rests upon the imperishable foundation of truth, and though it may be COIN AND PAPEE CUEEENCT. 277 defeated at first, its final triumph, if supported with energy and perseverance, is certain. With great respect, I am, etc. J. C. CALHOTJN. Calvin Graves, Esq., and others of the Committee." Mr. Chase in a report said : " It has been well questioned by the most eminent states- men, whether a currency of bank notes, issued by local in- stitutions under State laws, is not, in fact, prohibited by the National Constitution. Such emissions certainly fall within the spirit, if not within the letter, of the constitutional pro- hibition of the emission of bills of credit by the States, and of the making by them of anything, except gold and silver coin, a legal tender in payment of debts." However this may be, it is too clear to be reasonably dis- puted, that Congress, under its constitutional powers to lay taxes, to regulate commerce and the value of coin, pos- sesses ample authority to control the credit circulation, which enters so largely into the transactions of commerce and affects in so many ways the value of coin. In the judg- ment of the Secretary, the time has arrived, when Congress should exercise this authority. And years later, the Hon. E. G. Spaulding, although a National Bank President, branded in his " Financial History of the War," (page 188) the bank issue as " an inflation of the currency " and therefore, not only useless, but mis- chievous. John Earl Williams, President of the Metropolitan Na- tional Bank of New York, a banker second to no other in experience, success or position, says : " I would suggest that Congress assume, at once, the in- herent, sovereign prerogative of a Government of the peo- ple, by the people and for the people, and exercise it by furnishing all the inhabitants of the United States with a uniform national ciirrency. Surely the people, and the people only, have a natural 278 COIN AND PAPEE CUEEENCY. right to all the advantages, emolument or income, that may inure from the issue of either one thousand dollar bonds, with interest, or ten dollar notes without, based on the faith and credit of the nation. This principle, simple, clear and undeniable, ought to be recognized as fundamental, and the only safe and proper basis, on which may securely rest all the circulating medium of the country ; for the sole benefit of all the people, and not, as now, for the profit of a class of stockholders." As some of my early theoretic lessons in finance come from Albert Gallatin, who was Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson and Madison, I quote a report of a meeting of " The New York Board of Currency " from the " Courier and Enquirer." As Gallatin died, 1S49, this report was written over thirty years ago : NEW YORK BOARD OF CURRENCY. PETER COOPER, Esq., First Yice-President, occupied the Chair, in the absence of the President, Mr. GALLATIN, who is in Europe. A Communication was read relative to the objects of the Board, from an aged merchant of great experience, retired in the Isle of "Wight. He referred to the injurious influences exerted upon the productive industry of Great Britain by increasing taxation and the excesses of the credit system in that country, and advised earnest attention in the United States to the establishment and maintenance of a sound currency, the best means of securing steady progress in the development of all the resources of the country. The letter concluded : " I most sincerely wish you all possible success in your endeavors to establish the Banking system upon a safe and solid foundation. It is the most important and patriotic mission you could undertake. America is more happily circumstanced in many respects perhaps than any other nation. Not being burdened and embarrassed with a heavy debt, you are left free to pursue the course, that true COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 279 wisdom shall point out, and it would be no easy task for any one to estimate all the national advantages which now lie within your reach." " The Recording Secretary submitted mathematical dia- grams, prepared by Mr. John V. Yatman, who is engaged in perfecting a series of illustrations of American commerce, currency, and prices since 1790, in which the statistics of each of the seventy years are presented in a condensed form. , MR. YATMAN explained the mathematical principles gov- erning him in the efforts he is making to demonstrate the practical operation of the laws of currency and prices. The result is a complete vindication of the views promulgated by this Board. HON. GEORGE OPDYKE spoke of the rapid progress which sound views of currency were making throughout the country. ' He had long since demonstrated to his own satis- faction, with mathematical certainty, the truth of the prin- ciples of currency advocated by this Board. Their truth is advocated by experienced bankers and merchants, and it is a great error to suppose that a sound system of banking is on the average, less productive of profit than an erroneous sys- tem. The latter revolves around a vortex of bankruptcy into which it is constantly liable to be plunged upon the recurrence of adverse movements in trade and commerce. The former is uniformly and permanently remunerative, and of great advantage to the community. It is a gratifying fact, identified with the currency question, that the interests of the people and of the Banks go hand-in-hand in favor of a sound system. There is no clashing of interests in the path of duty which has been marked out by true principles, in this case. He spoke with approbation of the work which Mr. Yatman had undertaken. He considered it important because it would establish, by positive demonstration, upon the basis of actual experience, those truths in monetary science upon which so much difference of opinion had existed. 280 COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. HON. JOHN COCHRANE, Member of Congress, and Chair- man of the Committee on Commerce of the House of Repre- sentatives, being called upon, referred to the interest he felt in the discussions of the Board. He had found that there is a great difference between the theories of money and the practical influence exerted by money upon all the economical interests of a community, and in this Board he found that questions of money were discussed in the light of practical experience. Once illuminate the public mind, expose the errors of those systems which seek to confer the attributes of money upon a fiction, and error falls dead, the appliances of the opponents of truths perish. This Board is in the cor- rect line of truth, and as true principles of currency are applied, so the correct line of national development will be discovered. We are in the focus of a vast future civilization. A deviation now from Christian truth will be an eternal loss to that future. Guided by truth, with our boundless com- mercial resources and growing population, w r hen money, the instrument of commerce, goes forth in its purity, how vast will be the results ! If failure should again overwhelm us, the vitality of truth would reveal the line of duty amid every wreck and disaster. Without the financial wisdom that is guided by experience, our commerce will continue exposed to disasters. Hence, he concluded, the work of currency reform is part of the Christian progress of the world." PETER COOPER, Esq., referred to the opinions which had been expressed by the immortal Washington. Not the amount of currency, but the Teal worth exhibited in the rapidity of circulation, is what constitutes a sound circula- ting medium. A fictitious currency was termed by Washing- ton * the shadow without the substance.' "Mr. Yatrnan's mathematical illustrations were referred to a Committee, consisting of Messrs. William A. Booth, Joseph Lawrence, Wilson G. Hunt, Benjamin H. Field, George Opdyke, and John Eadie. The Board adjourned for two weeks." COIN AND PAPEE CURRENCY. 281 " To THE EDITOR OF THE TELEGRAM : The substitution of greenbacks for national bank nqtes is admitted to be the pivot, on which the money question turns. This point is strongly urged in the valuable writings of W. H. Winder, who says, in the following synopsis of his " Resumption Factors :" First, an ability to meet all specie demands ; second, that said demand is limited to the foreign debt ; third, that gold, equal to our wants, cannot be accumu- lated with said debt outstanding ; fourth, that the extinction of said debt would secure a genuine specie system, making our paper irresistibly on par with gold ; fifth, that this spe- cific can alone be gained by developing our resources, keep- ing the people employed, making the exports double the imports and substituting greenbacks for national bank notes. Statistics show, that the national and State Government debts and expenses are, per capita, $150 per annum, or '$3 per week, or 50c. per day. It is also seen, that national banks in thirty years will suck from the productive industries $400,000,000 more than the entire public debt, or $2,450,- 000,000, every dollar of which would be saved by the exclu- sive use of the people's greenback. Manifestly greenbacks by the people and for the people, would alone make labor in demand, ending strikes and hard times, scattering peace and plenty over the land. The venerable Peter Cooper, in his letter to President Hayes of the 6th of August, wisely states : Government, by a judicious tariff, can do much toward promoting indus- tries and encouraging capital for manufacturing, since we cannot as a nation buy anything cheap, that leaves our own good raw materials unused and our own labor unemployed. Right shall rule and conquer error, Ballots vanquish every wrong, Money kings be struck with terror, Freedom be the nation's song. WILSON WATSON." August 13, 18T7. 282 COIN AND PAPEK CTJEKENCY. FROM SWING'S SPEECH ON KESUMPTION, 1877. " No greater injury could be inflicted on a people by its Government, than the reduction of the volume of currency, to which the business and values of the country were ad- justed. To decrease the value of money was to strike at the interests of the whole body of the people. No man could engage profitably in merchandise, while the values, which he was handling, were failing, etc. . . . I do not appeal to that money power, which seeks its for- tune over the wrecked happiness and accumulations of its fellow-men a power, to which our unhappy civil war gave birth which has grown so enormous through unjust financial legislation ; which now < bestrides our narrow world like a colossus,' which subsidizes the press, which captures states- men and parties, and makes them its subservient tools; which hounds down and villifies every public man, who dares to raise his voice against it. That power, in the flush and arrogance of its enormous and ill-gotten gains, has a heart of stone, not to be touched by human sympathy and compassion. I appeal to the masses, to their faithful Repre- sentatives (I thank God) of both political parties on this floor. The true aim of government is the greatest good to the greatest number, and whoever by legislation or otherwise changes the value of a contract, is as accursed as he, who re- moves his neighbor's landmarks. For twelve years past the financial legislation of this country has been dictated, one would think, in Lombard Street or Wall Street, and the peo- ple have been plundered by every fresh enactment. They have suffered the fate of the giant Gulliver, when tied down by the Lilliputians. Thank God they are about to rise to burst the bonds, which their petty foes have fastened upon them, while sleeping, and to walk abroad again in their own majesty," etc. . . . COIN AND PAPEE CUEEENCY. 283 SENATOR VOOKHEES ON THE FISCAL POLICY OF THE GOV- ERNMENT, DECEMBER 16, 1881. " MR. PRESIDENT : It is now nearly nine years since silver money was destroyed in this country by the repeal of the law of 1792, authorizing its coinage. This famous act of fraud upon a long and well-settled financial policy and of wrong and injustice to the business and labor of the American people, was consummated on the 12th day of February, 1873. And then for five years and sixteen days it remained upon the statute-books to curse the land. It took the people that length of time to discover, overtake and wipe out this act of unwarranted and clandestine legis- lation. But, when the evil work came to be fully compre- hended throughout the country, the popular voice was neither slow nor timid in making itself heard. It did not salute the ears of legislators with the soft music of a sighing zephyr, dallying with summer flowers ; it came here rather with the fierce and commanding majesty of the hurricane in its wrath ; it came from every seat of honest enterprise and industry ; from the farmer, the manufacturer, the mechanic, the merchant, the trader, t^e wage laborer, from every class of business people, and it came breathing forth the indig- nation of a constituency, who found themselves betrayed and juggled in a matter of domestic policy, vital to their prosperity and happiness. On the 28th day of February, 1878, the voice of the American people was obeyed in these halls, and silver money, the money of "Washington, the unit of value, de- vised by Jefferson, the money of great minds in avery age of civilized man, the money of the Constitution, the money of every period and of every political party of this Repub- lic, until a recent day, was restored by law to coinage and to circulation. Let that day be remembered forever in the American calendar as one, on which a great victory was obtained, the first in many years, by the industrious, pro- ductive masses over the usury-gathering, idle, unproductive 284 COIN AND PAPER CUEEENCY. few. This triumph of popular justice was not the less pre- cious to honest and generous minds, because of the scenes and circumstances, which attended it. The act for the res- toration of silver money was passed through both branches of Congress in the face of prophecies of evil to the coun- try, etc. . . . When their pretended concern for the welfare of the country, and their real concern for their own enormous pro- fits, were exposed and disregarded here, they bent their faces confidently toward the Executive Department of the Government, that last refuge, as it seems, for special privi- leges to favored classes: They were not mistaken; they did not make their appeal to that Department in vain, etc. . . . In defiance of the public will, in contempt of the policy of the Government for more than four-score years, and in open disregard of the wants of trade and business, the ad- ministration of Mr. Hayes sent to us his puny protest against the dreadful consequences of silver money. His veto, however, was swept aside by the Congress of the United States, as people brush cobwebs out of their way. The 'bill, restoring the silver dollar to its place in the coin- age laws of the Government, was enacted into a law, .over all combined opposition, by the tremendous vote of 196 to 73 in the House, and 46 to 19 in the Senate. And now, sir, what response has the business of the coun- try, during nearly four years past, made to the evil and ve- hement prognostications against the use of silver money ? Has it brought ruin, has it brought calamity, has it brought distress to the people ? "Who has the hardihood to say so ? On the contrary, behold a contrast in the condition of the country. The five years, during which silver did not exist as legal currency, were years of the most appalling financial disaster ever known in American history. I am speaking now of what all men know, and stating that, which no man will deny ? From 1873 to 1878 there was a period of mourning over lost property, lost homes and lost labor, in COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 285 every active business community in the United States, etc. . . . The passage of the Silver Bill v was accompanied by the groans and lamentations of the associated national banks, expressed in many a sombre memorial, petition, remon- strance and expostulation, laid before Congress, etc. . . . The Act of Congress, by which silver was dishonored, was a prominent feature in a most unrighteous and criminal en- deavor to so contract, cut down and diminish the amount of money in use among the people, that the hoarded millions of the banker and the capitalist would have more power in the affairs of men, than all the other powers of this Govern- ment combined. The dream of certain minds, in this coun- try, has been for many years past to create in fact, if not in name, an order of aristocracy, a privileged class, with their rank and importance founded, not upon intellect, culture, refinement, grace or goodness, but upon their success in the practice of avarice, the meanest and most sordid passion of the human heart ever spoken of in the heavens above or the earth below. In furtherance of this purpose the possession of money, especially in considerable sums, being a badge of the new nobility, the common people were to have as little of it as possible, and for that little to be dependent entirely on the lords of capital, etc. . . . The Secretary in trying to make the impression, that sil- ver money is a drug and a failure, and that the people do not want it. Who can justify this assault upon the exist- ence of a hundred millions of currency, possessed of the same purchasing power as gold ? I denounce it, and chal- lenge the friends of such a policy, if it has any here, to come to its rescue. Let those, who will or dare, stand forth as its champions. This issue, thus forced without reason or justice upon the country, will be met by the country, and its authors will be sternly rebuked. Such a movement, however, against financial stability and security, must necessarily have a powerful inspiration in some deeply interested quarter. We are not left in doubt 286 COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. at all as to the source of that inspiration. In connection with the proposed retirement of silver, and in order to quiet the fear in the public mind of a destructive financial con- traction, the Secretary, as the mouthpiece of the banks, is good enough to say in his report : ' There need be no apprehension of a too limited paper circulation. The national banks are ready to issue their notes in such quantities as the laws of trade demand, and as security therefor the Government will hold an equivalent in its own bonds,' etc. We are told, that the national banks are ready to issue their notes in place of the silver currency, marked for de- struction, and to do so in such quantity as the laws of trade demand, the banks themselves, of course, being the judges of the laws of trade and of their demands. The country is to depend, in other words, on the interest or the generosity of the banks for its supply of money, etc. . . . The question, here presented by the Secretary of the Treasury, is whether to such minds shall be surrendered the entire control of supply and circulation of the currency. Who is ready to support such a proposition ? Has national bank money been furnished at so little expense to the people, that they want it to take the place of all other kinds ? I do not wonder, that the banks want a total monopoly of the currency ; but it is astounding to me, that taxpayers should be willing for them to have any control at all of that vital question. The desire of the banks to destroy silver and greenbacks is very easily understood, etc. . . . It is difficult, in moderate terms, to characterize such a recommendation. It is a wanton and, to my mind, a criminal assault upon the financial stability and the business prosperity of the whole country, etc. But the Secretary of the Treasury does not stop with the recommendation I have cited, for the destruction of good money in the form of silver certificates ; he modestly asks for the repeal of the act of February 28, 1878, providing for the coinage of silver, and requests, that the whole subject be COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 287 left by Congress to his discretion to coin much or little or none at all, as he may think best. His language is as fol- lows: ' It is therefore recommended, that the provision for the coinage of a fixed amounteach month be repealed, and the Secretary be authorized to coin only so much, as will be ne- cessary to supply the demand.' It is very obvious, that the object of this recommenda- tion, on the part of the Secretary of the Treasury, is to drive silver entirely out of circulation. This will be seen from the fact, that he attempts in his report to show, that there is no demand for silver, and aims to make a false im- pression, that it has been difficult to put silver money in circulation. I quote as follows from his report : ' As required by the act of February 28, 18T8, the De- partment has caused to be coined into standard silver dollars each month at least 2,000,000 in value of bullion of that metal. Constant efforts have been made to give circulation to this coin, the expense of transferring it to all points, where it was called for, having been paid by the Government. Only about thirty-four millions are now in circulation, leav- ing more than sixty-six millions in the vaults, and there is no apparent reason why its circulation should rapidly increase.' Sir, what must be thought of the candor or the intel- ligence of this public officer in speaking of sixty-six millions of silver in the vaults with no apparent reason for an in- crease of its circulation, when in point of fact every dollar of it is now in circulation in the form of a paper currency resting upon a specie basis ? etc. The profits of national banking, under our present system have been, and continue to be, something almost fabulous, and it is natural, that those engaged in it, should desire to expand their operations over the entire currency of the country. This is the solution of their ceaseless agitation of more power over the finances. But a short time ago they were demanding, through the Executive and the then 288 COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. Secretary of the Treasury, now the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Sherman), that the legal tender debt paying quality of ' over three hundred and forty-six millions of greenbacks, then at par with gold, should be withdrawn, and that this money, costing the people nothing for its circulation, should be left to perish by the wayside. This was to be done in order, that the banks might issue their notes in its place ' in such quantity as the laws of trade demand,' according to the broad discretion, now conceded by the Secretary. Let us look, however, for a moment in this connection at the cost to the people of bank note currency, and see whether a circulating medium so expensive should supplant all others. The bank note circulation has averaged in round numbers about $280,000,000 during the last eighteen years. Govern- ment bonds, owned by the bankers and drawing interest from the labor of the people, were pledged to the amount of over $320,000,000 for the security of this circulation. The interest, paid by the people and received by the banks on these bonds, may be stated at an average of not less than $17,000,000 a year; this, for eighteen years, amounting to over $300,000,000 for the blessings of bank found money. By adding to this interest account the profits of the banks on their circulation and their deposits, it will be that they have received enough gains from the pockets of the people, since their creation, to pay off two-thirds at least of the national debt. And these vast sums have been paid to the banks simply for the privilege of receiving through their hands a little more than one-third of our currency, of no better quality than the other currencies, for whose cir- culation there was no tax on anybody. Is this such a show- ing as to entice Congress to abandon the whole financial question to the banks ? etc. . . . Against the present paroxysm of greed on the part of corporate and consolidated banking capital, demanding through one of the departments of the Government the dis- grace and the overthrow of silver money, I invoke the judg- ment and co-operation of all the busy multitudes of indus- COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 289 trious men and women throughout all this broad, progres- sive land," etc. . . . A NEW BUSINESS FOB NATIONAL BANKS. (New York Herald, January 28, 1882.) " Whenever a financial measure is proposed in Congress, ostensibly, perhaps really, for the public good, but by which the national banks may possibly benefit, a very howl is raised over the country, crying out that nothing should be done, which will add to their already great strength and vast influence. The various bills before Congress on mat- ters, connected with the public funds, are closely watched for hidden evidences of national bank jobbery, and the pass- ing of necessary measures is often delayed by the close in- spection of these financial detectives. Congressman Till- man, it would seem, has, . however, quite evaded the close scrutiny of a little bill, now before the House, to authorize national banks to make loans upon mortgage of real estate. On its face it is a harmless affair ; but it is really a most dangerous bill, which should be carefully inquired into and combated by believers in a safe and conservative system of banking. It relieves the banks of the restriction, now im- posed on the investment of their funds, enables them to enter the real estate market as speculators, allows them to invest in mortgages of any and all kinds, does not bar di- rectors from loaning the funds of the bank to a member of the direction, and, in fact, permits them to do what they will without let or hindrance in negotiating loans on good, bad or indifferent real estate security. It opens the door to worthless investments and to financial knavery of various kinds, and threatens to inaugurate a new business for national banks, for which they were not organized, which is beyond the limits of their legitimate functions, and which can only breed distrust in their ultimate soundness, 19 290 COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. and will eventually create serious trouble in the business community." " Dr. Newman preached to a large congregation, in his church on Madison Avenue, on abuses of partisan rule in New York, and the moral responsibility of our citizens. His text was Exodus, xviii., 21 " 'Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place over them to be rulers.' The great need of the honr, he said, is a political con- science, which will respond to* every voice of duty and of justice. Each man should have a conception of his clear political duties, a realization of his individual responsibility in the issues of an election, a manifest interest in the moral character of officials, not unlike that, which he feels in the character of the minister of his church, the teacher of his children and the agent of his business. Two objections are offered in apology for the non -perfor- mance of our sacred politico-religious duty the uncongeni- ality of politics and the lack of time to attend thereto. A man might as well plead the unpleasantness to pay his debts, to keep his bridal vows, to obey his God. A man, who boasts / never vote might better boast 1 never pray, for prayers and votes are always the same before the bar of God. Do you plead, that the professed politician is so degraded, the caucus so low and the Convention so corrupt ? Plead the same objections against business associations. A politician is a saint to some business men. Clean out the politician and improve the Convention. If Christ came into this world of sin to save it, the saint should go to the caucus to redeem it. Not a few plead business cares, but intense selfishness- is the root of evil. Such men forget, that were it not for organized society they would neither have wealth nor pleasure. COIN AND PAPER CUEKENOY. 291 SPEECH OF HON. IRA S. HASELTINE, OF MISSOURI, IN THE HOUSE OF KEPRESENTATIVES, MAY 13, 1882, ON THE BILL TO ENABLE NATIONAL BANKING ASSOCIATIONS TO EXTEND THEIR CORPORATE EXISTENCE. MR. HASELTINE said : MR. SPEAKER : I propose the following amendment : " That all the interest-bearing indebtedness of the United States now due or optional with the Government, and all other interest-bearing indebtedness as it shall hereafter be- come due, shall be paid in lawful money of the United States. "SEC. 2. That all money now in the Treasury, and all revenues of the United States Government not otherwise appropriated, shall be applied in payment of the interest- bearing debt. " SEC. 3. That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorized and required to issue non-interest-bear- ing Treasury notes of the United States of the denominations of one, two, five, ten, twenty, fifty, and one hundred dollars, which shall be made lawful money and a legal tender at its face value for all taxes, revenues, and debts, public and pri- vate, within the United States, which may be necessary in addition to the aforesaid money and revenues to pay the said interest-bearing debt now due, and also the interest-bearing debt now optional with the Government, and all other in- terest-bearing debts as they shall respectively become due. " That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and required to issue Treasury notes made a full legal tender and lawful money in denominations convenient for currency, and in quantity equal to any contraction which may be caused by the withdrawal of national-bank notes. " SEC. 4. That all acts and parts of acts in conflict here- with be, and the same are hereby, repealed." Mr. Speaker, this amendment provides for paying into the circulation all money and revenues not otherwise appropri- 292 COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. ated, and issuing legal-tender currency to take the place of interest-bearing bonds now due, or optional with the Govern- ment, and also to take the place of national-bank currency. It provides against any contraction by the withdrawal of bank paper and saves to the people from $12,000,000 to $15,000,- 000 per annum. The adoption of this amendment would provide for the payment of the interest-bearing debt and supply the people with money which is preferred to gold. Mr. Speaker, Hon. Peter Cooper, the great American philanthropist and political economist, who in moral and patriotic grandeur is second to no man of his time, in his late petition to Congress protests against the passage of the bill under consideration as reported by the committee, and presents the argument for a just and enlightened policy so clearly and forcibly that I deem it due to the cause and in the interest of good government and humanity to give his petition entire, etc. (See " Congressional Record") "Letter to the New York Independent by the Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, of Elmira, in reply to an extract, pre- viously published in that journal : " ( If these Greenbackers had as much sense as persistency we should think very well of them.' Independent, July 7, 1882. "Mr. Editor and readers of the Independent, have you ever read for yourselves the authoritative deliverance of this 6 National ' party ? Not less than thirty times, during the last two years, acquaintances of mine have asked me, How can you, with your intelligence, allow yourself to be called a Greeiibackerf To which question I make answer as above : 4 Have you read our platforms ? ' I find invariably, that they have not, and when I name over one by one our car- dinal doctrines, I have to find a man, who does not agree with us. No one can yet foresee which one of our half dozen doc- trines, is first to arrest the public ear and hold it long enough to get an answer. But, mark my words : They will COIN AND PAPEE CUEEENCY. 293 force themselves in some order upon general attention more and more, because each and every one handles a vital ques- tion. Earnest men, disgusted with the mean and mercenary phase of 'politics,' when once they come into a convention or council of Greenbackers, are refreshed to find themselves in company with intelligent and unambitious men of princi- ple; men, who modestly illustrate that, which Goldwin Smith prayed for : ' Heaven preserve England and make her public men think what will become of themselves at the next election.' " Mr. Editor, we have i persistence,' because we have ' sense.' At a time, when the venerable statesmen of the United States Senate concentrate their sublime powers of debate upon the little Penn Yan post-office, and after listen- ing to c masterly orations ', vote upon the question, whether Lapham or Miller shall name the postmaster, it would seem as if it were time for somebody, somewhere, to call atten- tion to questions of scope and dignity. Already the organized Anti-Monopoly League in this and other States, has borrowed one of the principal demands of the Nationals and made it a rally. All right. Already every business man in the land prefers a green- back Treasury note to any other form of paper or metal money. And we Greenbackers say : All right, we say so, too. Who of all the readers of the Independent for a moment doubts, that the multiplication and encouragement of small freehold farms and homes is a good policy for any State ? Who that has read or thought fails to perceive, that vast plantations, estates, ranches, grain or stock farms, held by one patron or capitalist landlord, have been and are ruinous to Rome, Ireland, France, and even to New York ? Ought not limitation laws to find some place on our statute books ? Ought not a corporation, that has received land grants as compensation for work to be done, to either do the work or else quit selling off the lands and pocketing the proceeds ? 294 COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. If the control of the Mississippi, as a free water-way for commerce, was of such importance, as to justify the Lou- isiana purchase and furnish our strongest argument against secession and a split Union, is not the control of transcon- tinental railways of far greater importance channels that they are of a far greater commerce and travel ? If we noisily protest, that foreigners must not control the Isthmus canals, how can it be safe to allow Gould and Yan- verbilt to control transcontinental railways ? If, for purposes of revenue, our Government inspects whiskey and certifies the proof so much spirit and so much water why not inspect stocks and forbid dividends on waterings, and call into the Treasury the earnings, now ab- sorbed by barefaced frauds? Questions like these interest us Greenbackers far more, than the faction fights, that absorb the attention of the two great parties. As a Christian pastor and teacher, I invite young citizens to discuss these questions, for they yield an education every way. But as between the two old parties I am not able to dis- cern any difference of doctrine or policy ; nor do I find, that party leaders set any great value upon public discussion, or controlling votes or carrying elections. Hubbell is assessing the Republican officeholders. Con- ventions inquire chiefly for candidates with a barrel, which they are ready to tap with a big anger. Yotes are bought by the hundreds in this little city of Elmira, under disguise as thin as a bride's veil. The appropriation bills in Con- gress are of interest chiefly, as furnishing the corruption fund of political war. Goodness, openness and honesty are sneered at as Sunday School politics. I know no difference between Republican and Democrat, except that one is in and fat, the other out and hungry. And when the tidings came over the land of a new Na- tional party, with principles inscribed on its banners, one would think, that good citizens, overweary with watching for a chance to be active in public affairs, without being COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 295 compromised by the company of liars, conspirators and thieves, would at least run and read the inscription. The only fault I find with my Greenback friends is, that they put too many good things in their platforms. Too much sense, O Independent ! not too little. They talk about too many things. If counsel might avail in these unsatisfactory days, I would advise every patriot to forsake the two old parties and join the prohibition army, or the Anti-Monopoly League, or the Greenback party. Join anything, anywhere, that enter- tains and proclaims principles, of which you can make your- self an enthusiastic advocate, year after year, no matter how the election goes, nor which Senator controls the Penn Yan post-office. There is a pure and bright political enthusiasm which, next after the inspirations of home and the hope of heaven, is the noblest stir possible to man. I know Greenbackers not a few, who have felt this quickening. Many such were at Albany at their recent Convention. With them or with their like it is an honor and a refreshment to be associated. THOMAS K. BEECHER." Elmira, K Y. XETTEK OF REV. HOWARD CROSBY. " October 21, 1882. "EDITOR JUSTICE. " SIR ; If we are true in our desire to overthrow mono- polies and the tyranny of wealth, which are the greatest dan- gers our Republican institutions have to fear, 1 cannot see how we can avoid voting against the candidates (however excellent in personal character), who have been nominated by these evil powers. I am a Republican, and have always voted the Republican ticket ; because I believed the Repub- lican party represented political wisdom and virtue, as against demagogism and anarchy. But, if the helm of the Republican party is to be seized by a selfish class interest, its wisdom and virtue are gone. The only way for true 296 COIN AND PAPEK CUERENCY. Eepublicans to bring back tlie party to its purity, is to vote down the nominees of the conspirators. But this (say some) will give'the State to the Democrats. Yery well ! Let the Democrats have control. I'll trust an honest Democratic party rather, than a dishonest Republican party. We know what the Democratic party is, and will be on our guard ; but a Republican party, that professes a high morality, while promoting rascality, will only deceive. The election of the present Republican State ticket would be the endorsement of bribery, fraud and the tyranny of ike money power. No consideration whatever can justify this. Fortunately the Democratic party have given us can- didates of the very highest character, whom we all can re- spect and support without any qualms. By their election, not the Republican party, but the miserable, dirty wire- pullers, will be defeated, and a blow will be given to Mon- opoly, Greed, Trickery & Co., under which they will stagger to their holes. The whole question, which the voters at the coming elec- tion have to meet, may be narrowed down to this, Shall we have money -lords to rule us f or specifically, Shall we con- demn Governor Cornell for vetoing the Elevated Railroad Tax Sill f The aye to the latter means aye to the former. I make no apology for meddling with politics. I am an American, a citizen and native of New York. I never sold my birthright. When great moral crises arise, I will not hesitate to speak as loudly as I can for the truth. With mere local and personal politics I have nothing to do. I add these last words for the benefit of those, who suppose clergymen are either women or children. Yours very truly, HOWAED CROSBY." "The Rev. Elbert S. Porter, D.D., who has long. been known as a Stalwart Republican, discussed the political situ- ation last Sunday night, in the Bedford Avenue Reform Church, Brooklyn, E. D., of which he is pastor. Dr. For- COIN AND PAPEE CUEEENCY. 297 ter prophesied the early dissolution of both the political par- ties, as the old questions were no longer live issues, and nothing but the spoils kept either party together. A new party, formed by the best men of both parties, would come into the control of the Government and its platform would be civil service reform and Anti-monopoly. It would be a good thing, he continued, for the Republican party to be defeated this year in New York, as it doubtless would be de- feated. The Republican party never stood so high as it did now, when its members were unwilling to submit to machine dictation and preferred defeat rather, than victory by fraud. I have voted the Eepublican ticket since 1860, he contin- ued, on State and national issues, but the party is so cor- rupt now and is so eager to clutch at money, that it is best to defeat it." " The Rev. D. M. Hodge, pastor of the Harlem Univer- salist Church, preached in the evening on Politics, taking his text from Deuteronomy xvi., 18, 19, 20 4 Judges and officers shalt thou make theean all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes, and thou shalt judge the people with just judgment.' This, he said, is the political council of the Mosaic law. It urges the duty of the people to make their own judges and officers. I have not any very high opinion of what are commonly known as political sermons. I should not know how to preach one. But the subject of politics itself is one,, which commands a great deal of the thought and time of the people. The present condition of political affairs is notoriously corrupt. From secret conclaves and nominating conventions comes up a stench of evil, offensive in the nostrils of honest men, so that men say : ' The whole business of politics is so corrupt and disreputable, its methods are so full of intrigue and dishonesty, that it seems most consistent with the dig- nity of the Christian pulpit and of high-minded men to let politics severely alone, to ignore the subject altogether.' But it is this kind of dignity, that is killing us. It suits the 298 COIN AND PAPEE CURRENCY. politicians too well. All that a low, mean, lying, forging, intriguing demagogue wants is to be let alone. The greatest danger, that threatens our institutions grows out of the apathy of our best and most intelligent citizens. Upon every citizen rest the duties, the obligations of citizen- ship. He has no right to neglect them, or put them aside and to leave honest and disinterested men anxious for good Government in an impotent minority. You are a citizen of the United States of America, of the planet Earth, and the best thing you can possibly do, is to roll up the sleeves of your dignity, vote and work against the demagogues, and so help to improve the sanitary condi- tion of American politics. If you don't do this with all your intelligence and integrity you don't count. Be inde- pendent ! If both parties, or both sets of candidates, are ob- jectionable, be your own party, till you find somebody of your own way of thinking ; nominate your men and vote for them." GENERAL WEAVER'S SPEECH AT COOPER UNION, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 5, 1882. " Let me state the issues separately. They are as follows : First What shall be the permanent system of finance in the nation, which, when adopted, shall exist as long as the Kepublic shall last ? Shall it be a system, where the power to issue the money and control its volume shall be delegated to an irresponsible hanking monopoly, or shall it be a sys- tem, where the people govern themselves upon finance, as they do in war, peace and the domestic relations ? This is a very great question, because the finances of a country relate to the moral and physical welfare of every soul, that lives under the flag, and every hour that they live. It takes hold, not only of the physical condition of man, but also upon the spiritual and intellectual conditions, etc. This question of finance takes hold of the trinity in man. The Saviour understood that very well, when He fed His AND PAPER CURRENCY. 299 hungry disciples before He preached to them. The second great question is cognate to the first : Shall the railroad corporations be brought into subjugation to law and be com- pelled to work in harmony with labor, or shall they become our modern barons, lords and masters ? Third, Shall the public debt remain ? that cancer upon the body politic, which, when it only amounted to about $16,000,000 in the days of Jefferson, so troubled him, that he wrote concerning it : i When I think of the public debt, I cannot sleep upon my pillow, so certain am I, that, if allowed to remain, it will undermine the liberties of the American people.' " Now, here is a trinity of great questions, and out of the trinity grow a group of other questions, such as the land question, and various other questions, that to-day agitate the heart and the brain of the American people. These are the great issues. Why do you require a new party to settle them ? Give me your close attention upon this point. Prominent National Bankers are Republicans. Prominent National Bankers are Democrats. Prominent railroad kings are Re- publicans. Prominent railroad kings are Democrats. Prom- inent Democrats own large interests in Government bonds, and when they meet in their national conventions, they sim- ply train both the old organizations in the interest of those monopolies, etc. Hence the monopolists come into the old parties and do their work, throw their influence and great wealth upon the side of the monopoly factions, and the re- sult is, they control your conventions and control your nom- inations, etc. The monopolies are all confederated together. They fight under one flag, they are all In sympathy with each other, and the great mother monopoly of them all is the national banking monopoly. I wish to illustrate briefly the bank monopoly by a couple of bills, which I hold in my hand. This one dollar bill is a greenback, and this one a national bank bill. Now, these two bills represent the second edition of William H. Seward's" < Irrepressible conflict,' that is still going on in this 300 COLNT AKD PAPER CURRENCY. country ; the irrepressible conflict between the people and the people's money on the one side, and corporations and corporation money on the other. I say the conflict is irrepressible, for one or the other must go. The decree has gone forth on the one hand, that the green- backs shall go, and we declare, that the national banks shall go. The Eepublican party has declared war against the greenback, and we respond," ' Lay on, Macduff,' " and you know the balance of the quotation. Now, this greenback bill is the money of the Constitution. I say that, because ike Supreme Court of ike United States has decided, that a greenback is constitutional money / not because issued in the time of war, but they have decided it to be constitu- tional, upon the broad pedestal of the Constitution itself. It is, then, the money of the Constitution. It is the money of the Constitution in a far dearer sense than that, because we know it saved the Constitution, when the storm and tempest were howling about her. Things don't happen in this world as often as you may think they do. There is " 6 A divinity which shapes our ends,' " and consequently it is very appropriate, that you should have the picture on this constitutional money, that I find here, the picture of the Father of his Country, who presided over the Constitutional Convention. Yery appropriate, that this picture should be upon that bill. Now there is a picture upon this national bank bill, that is also appropriate. Two women, bare- headed and bare-footed, in a wheat-field, shocking wheat, emblematic of the poverty, engendered by this system of finance. Now, when the Government of the United States issued that greenback dollar and paid it out, it got value received for it. That was right, was it not ? The Government ought not to give away its money. I have no reference to pen- sions ; that is not a gift. Nor have I any reference to pro- per charities, the Government sometimes has to indulge in ; but, as a rule, the Government ought not to give its money COIN AKD PAPEE CUEEENCY. 301 away. So, when the Government issued, that dollar, it got value received. We have $346,000,000 of greenback money in circulation. When the Government paid it out, it paid $346,000,000 of debt. That was right, etc. ... But when the Government paid out this national bank bill to the First National Bank of the City of New York, how much did it get ? They did not get a cent. It was a clear donation. The Government does get one per cent, per an- num tax ; that is all. But it did not get it in advance. When the Government issued that bill it was a clear dona- tion to the Bank. Now, we have $357,000,000 of that kind of money in circulation, and when the Government issued it, it was a gift of $357,000,000 ; and to what class of men ? Rich or poor? Rich men, who already had their money invested in Government bonds, and were shirking every burden, that you people have to bear. Tell me why the Government of the United States should do that thing? If I have a $100,000 bond, or if the bank, which issued that bill had a $100,000 bond deposited as security for their cir- culation, they continue, and are, to-day, drawing interest on every farthing of that bond, and the Government, in addi- tion to that, gave them back $90,000 in national bank cur- rency. You give the national banker $90,000 simply, because he is the fortunate owner of a $100,000 bond, that draws a high rate of interest and pays no taxes. O, that some spirit, some influence may be breathed upon the people, that shall arouse them to a sense of their real situation ! At the end of the first century of our national life, through cruel class legislation, every avenue and agent of commercial life and activity have been wrenched from the people, and turned over to corporate control and greed. We, to-day, practically have but one railroad, one banking organization, one telegraph company, and one express com- pany. Now we declare to yon, that these things must not be so. We are building a new structure, a new party ; what shall be its chief corner stone ? Early in the year I860, Abraham Lincoln made a speech in this hall. Let his voice 302 COIN AND PAPER CUEEENCY. be heard again here to-night. President Lincoln, in his first annual message, December 3, 1861, declared as fol- lows : " ' There is one point, to which I desire to call atten- tion ; it is the attempt to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the structure of Government. Labor is prior to capital. Capital is the fruit of labor, and could not exist, if labor had not first existed. Labor, there- fore, deserves much the higher consideration.' "This is the chief corner-stone of the new political party. But how hollow and meaningless is Mr. Lincoln's declaration, when read in the light of the class legislation of the past fifteen years ! Capital has not only been placed upon " < an equal footing with labor,' " but by law it has been made the mas- ter and oppressor of labor. It is the mission of the Na- tional party to destroy this abnormal condition of things and to restore labor to its rightful supremacy. Not that we would bring on a conflict between capital and labor, but that we would prevent it. Labor and capital were joined together by our all- wise Creator. Let no man put them asunder. Their relations must be most intimate, friendly and tender. But this is not the case at present. A man owning a $50,000, 4f per cent. Government bond can now, under the law, without doing a day's work, convert his fifty thousand investment into an investment of more than one hundred thousand. He can deposit his 50,000, 4| per cent., and draw ninety per cent, of the market value of his bond in national bank currency, while his neighbor with $50,000 invested in productive industry, of course, can do no such thing, but must labor and lose, and in addition bear an undue share of the burdens of the State. How long, I ask, will this condition of things be allowed to exist ? Labor is compelled to borrow from those, who do not work, and whose wealth is given to them by statutory enactment. The laborer makes his money by hard knocks, and the bond- holder his by " Be it enacted, etc. . . . Why, my fellow-citizens, between the teachings of modern Republicanism and the doctrine of Abraham Lincoln, con- COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 303 cerning the rights of labor, there is a gulf as wide as that between the rich man and Lazarus, after the latter had reached heaven and the former had been cast down to hell. It was the maxim of our Fathers, that industry, economy and wise investment of surplus earnings in productive pur- suits constituted the only legitimate road to affluence. Eut it is not so to-day. Industry toils as a slave to corporate greed, etc. . . . Confederated monopolies hold the issues of life and death in their hands. They dictate to the producer what he shall have for his toil, and to the con- sumer what he shall pay for the bread of life. The most dazzling, and heretofore unheard-of fortunes, are being piled up by means of this extortion. And in turn this wrongful accumulation of wealth is being openly used to subsidize the press, employ the best trained talent of the country, and to corrupt public officials, Legislatures, Con- gress, and judicial tribunals. Who is able to deny these things ? Why, if you wish to get a glimpse of the influence of corporations over your Government, contemplate for a moment the awful fact, that the Government, in utter vio- lation of its trust, has given away to railroad corporations over 250,000,000 acres of the public domain, that was in- tended by a kind Providence as homes for our children. An area nine times larger than the great State of Ohio ! Just think of that for a moment, and your hearts will grow sick within you, etc. . . . Now, whence must our help come in this extremity ? I answer, from the people and through the instrumentality of a new party. Forgetting ourselves we must continue to go forth, every one of us, as evangels of truth, educating and arousing the latent energies and hearts of the people. The remedy must come through the ballot lox, and it must come in harmony with the business safety of the community. We seek no violent or doubtful methods, but only to usher in purer methods and the rightful reign of the people over their own affairs. We shall not be disappointed, for our party is strictly 304 COIN AND PAPEK CUKKENCY. national in all of its aims and aspirations. Sectional ani- mosities are wholly unknown within our party, and the South will gladly strike hand with us to usher in the new civili- zation. Fortunately for that section of our Union, she is free, comparatively, from bank monopoly and other corporate power. She has now the opportunity, rarely offered to any people, to become the leader in an emancipation, that will endear her forever to mankind. She will not be slow to see the great opportunity. Her statesmen, less sordid than many in other localities, are awake to the situation. We hail her people as co-laborers in the greatest reform move- ment ever inaugurated since the dawn of human history. Political animosities perish and are forgotten in the presence of our National, our most fraternal organization. Let us take courage from the recent, large gains at the West, and go forward. We stand at the ushering in of a new era. Old things, old parties, shall pass away, and lo, all things shall become new ! " HON. WILLIAM S. HOLMAN, OF INDIANA, ON NATIONAL BANKS AND MONOPOLY, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. May 16, 1882. " Those patriotic institutions, which gentlemen are so anxious to invest with the absolute control of your currency the life-blood of your business and prosperity were per- fectly willing to overturn your admirable monetary system, disorder your industries, and throw multitudes of men out of employment to defeat an ordinary and proper act of legislation, affecting them about one per cent on their bonds, when you were furnishing them $343,000,000 of paper at your expense, with Government indorsement at one per cent, per annum. These banks are making a steady and persistent war on your greenback money, silver certificates and the silver dol- lar, and are already supported by high officers of the Gov- ernment. Does any gentlemen on this floor doubt that, if COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 305 the system is permanently established by the passage of this bill which, at no remote day, at the demand of these banks, your greenback money and silver certificates will be retired and national bank notes substituted in their place ? Their system is well defined and simple gold coin the only stand- ard of value, and no taxation by the Government, even the one per cent, they pay you for their circulation to be re- moved. The Comptroller of the Currency, the representa- tive of the system, in his last report, page 52, says ": 6 The Comptroller again respectfully repeats his recom- mendation for the repeal of the law, imposing a tax upon bank capital, deposits and the two per cent, stamp upon bank checks.' " And on page 58 of the report urges, that Congress shall limit the States in taxing the shares of stock, and yet during the last year there was paid out of your Treasury at the ex- pense of the Comptroller's Office alone for the benefit of the banks $214,118.50. Have great capital interests been so mindful of the w6l- fare of the people, that you can safely trust your currency to their keeping ? If so, when has it been displayed ? I re- member very well, when a distinguished capitalist of Mas- sachusetts rose on this floor to ask for the passage of the bill to reorganize the Mint (an event so often mentioned here). I remember very well the incident, the questions and the answers^ that accompanied the passage of that in- nocently-titled bill through the House, which struck from your coinage the silver dollar, and did it, too, on the very eve of the period, when the coinage of the silver dollar was to be vital to the public welfare. I would rather indulge the belief, that the distinguished gentleman was not fully conscious of the measure under his control, and of which I believe he was not the author ; but I am confident, that no man can carefully consider the events of that period and the men, who were then at this Capitol, and recall events transpiring in Europe, and the state of our public debt, and the fact, that the debts of the nations 20 306 COIN AND PAPER CUKKENCY. then exceeded in volume any example in history, without being impressed with the belief, that that measure was not a mere incident of ordinary legislation, but a part of a con- spiracy of great capitalists against the labor of mankind. Our silver certificate is not a new idea. I think I have read, that the Dutch suggested the idea. The frugal burgo- masters of Amsterdam perceived the convenience of paper money a long time ago and organized a bank. The only law of that bank was that, when a paper dollar was issued, a silver dollar should be put in the vaults to pay it, when it came back. I have entire faith in this system of silver certificates, and believe they will play an important and most valuable part in your currency system. But the audacious and persistent war made upon the legal tender notes, the silver dollar, and the silver certificate by the great bankers ought to inform our people, that in the early future there will be no divided control of your currency. The Government will issue all forms of currency for the common benefit of the people, or the national banks will issue it all on the credit and at the expense of the Government for the benefit of the banks. There is no country, where corporations exercise as tre- mendous a power as in our own. It is true, that incorpor- ated companies exist in Great Britain, and to a limited extent in the nations of continental Europe. There are ninety banks in France, with thirty-seven millions of people; but in all those nations corporations are hedged in and restricted by wholesome laws, and are made subordinate to the public good, except where they have been organized for the ex- press purpose of giving strength to monarchical power, and then they have been made subordinate to Government, even if organized to oppress the people," etc. . . . THE GOVERNMENT STAMP MAKES MONEY. " We have now a varied currency in this country, which passes at the same valuation, as fixed by the Government, COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 307 though its so-called intrinsic value is unlike in every case. To please those, who fix the gold dollar as the proper basis, we will place that first, and give the value in gold of each of the other dollars, which can ~buy just as much labor, food, or anything else as the gold dollar purchases : The gold dollars, 100 cents. The Trade silver, 420 gr. . . . 99| " The Daddy dollar, 412i gr. . . . 97 " The Mexican, 417i gr. . . . 99 Two half-dollars, 371i gr. . . . 88 20 nickels, 5c 1TJ " 33J 3c 16f " The Greenback It will be observed, here are eight distinct kinds of money, which circulate indiscriminately in our country, and the least valuable, intrinsically, as compared with gold, buys just as much as any of the others. We want no better argument, than the table above to explode all the fallacies of the bullionists. It is the stamp of the Govern- ment, that maJces money. Without it nothing is money." WENDELL PHILLIPS ON PAPER CURRENCY. " Men call the Greenback movement a delusion and fan- aticism. What is fanaticism? It is enthusiasm blinding judgment. It is prejudice obstinately clinging to theories in spite of facts, which disprove them. Let us ask, then, who to-day are the fanatics, judging by this rule. Look at facts, the world over. Whenever, during the last century, either of our great nations has seen its existence threatened by civil war, or foreign assault, instantly that nation has run to the shelter of paper currency, and generally been thus enabled to survive the storm. This is a fact, not a dream. Does this prove, that paper currency is necessarily ruin and shipwreck ? Does it not rather look as if a paper currency had some quality in it, that called forth to the last dollar the resources of the people, and so stimulated their energies, 308 COIN AND PAPEE CURRENCY. that they could avail themselves of all their possible and hidden power ? When a man strips to fight for his life, he puts himself in the condition and posture to do his best. When a nation girds herself for a last desperate struggle for existence, what does history tell us she has uniformly done ? History tells us, that a nation in such extremity has uniformly thrown off every incumbrance, stopped every drain upon her resources, stimulated every possible power of production, economized all her means, and guarded herself, as carefully as possible, from all foreign interference with her business prosperity. How has she secured and effected all this ? History answers, 4 By resorting to a paper currency.' There need be no fear of communism. Capital and labor have no dividing line here. Like the colors on a dove's neck, they join and unite everywhere. We have mingled freely with workingmen, and never yet met one, who did not believe and proclaim, that the interests of capital and labor were one." WARNING TO GREENBACK MEN. "Xo new party ever made such rapid strides as the National Greenback Labor Party, and no issues were ever presented, that so vitally affected the dearest interests of every laborer and producer. Of its final triumph and success there is no doubt. Knowing this, many ambitious aspirants, for position and recognition, will attempt to force their virtues and claims upon the party, and if they cannot succeed with the major- ity, they will attempt to divide and disrupt our organization, with a hope of forcing a recognition by using and control- ing a minority. Spurn all such disorganizing demagogues, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the main army for certain and early victory. Give no countenance to disorganizing ego- tists and place-hunters ; but let the people and the position seek out the most worthy to bear our standards." COIN AND PAPEE CURRENCY. 309 I append the following quotation from a " History of Finance in England^" by S. A. Goddard, Birmingham, to show, that our only hope of security from the desolating blight of periodical panics must be found in a non-export- cible paper currency. These facts are so identical in their general character with the facts in this country, that it can be easily seen they must spring from the same causes and from a similar system of finance. Hence they bear directly upon the questions now under discussion, and for this purpose seem to me very instructive and convincing. Mr. Goddard introduces his pamphlet thus : " The writer, having seen and felt the disastrous effects of five great panics in England and their accompanying panics in America, which upon each recurrence have put a stop to trade, ruined clients and broken up arrangements and connections, formed after long, diligent and expensive exertion, is desirous of impressing on those, who have not studied the subject, that similar panics will certainly occur periodically, so long as the present monetary system is continued. If, in pursuing this search, it be found, that a similar depression of business to that now experienced, and to which these inquiries relate, has been witnessed periodically ^ for a series of years, presenting on each return precisely the same characteristics ; and if, during the whole of these years, it be found, that a system has prevailed, upon which the business transactions, thus depressed, have been based, and that no other system, condition or circumstance, having any material general bearing on these transactions, has existed, or been in force throughout the same period, then it is fair to conclude, that to this system may the depression be attributed, and that a repetition of these periods of depres- sion is to be averted only through a reformation of the system. The Bank of England and Provincial Bank Notes con- 310 COIN AND PAPEK CUEEENCY. stituted the money of the country for a period of twenty- six years, performing all the necessary functions of money, effecting the exchanges of property, enabling capital to employ labor, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked ; and also enabling the Government whether for good or evil, need not enter into this consideration to carry on a great war, and bring it to a triumphant conclusion. These notes, at no time a legal tender, passed current, and were taken in payment upon all occasions ; a fact highly creditable to the good feeling and patriotism of the people. When the war terminated, the bank commenced prepar- ations for a return to specie payments, occasioning a general stringency in the money market, causing a fall of prices, injury to credit, and the prostration of trade. The return of peace, which should have gladdened all hearts, bringing with it prosperity and happiness, brought sadness and sor- row to thousands. Vast numbers of persons were thrown out of employment; the laboring classes became tumultu- ous, and the Government, during a time of profound peace, achieved by the patriotism and valor of these same classes, suspended the Habeas Corpus Act, in order to drown their cries and stifle their complaints. Lord Liverpool told the agriculturists, who memorialized him on the subject of their difficulties, that ' over-produc- tion was the cause of the low prices of agricultural produce,' and this at a time, when the Government was encouraging emigration, because there were too many mouths to feed ; and he told the manufacturers of Manchester and Birming- ham, who waited upon him with respect to their distresses, that they ' made too many goods ; ' ' they had overstocked the markets of the world.' The consumption of cotton at the time being about one-eighth of what it now is, and the make of iron and of Birmingham goods being not far from the same proportion. Government, however, became alarmed ; and extended the time for returning to specie payments to the year 1819, which caused a revival of confidence, indicating, as it was COIN AND PAPER CURRENCY. 311 supposed to do, the intention of the Government to pursue a lenient policy in regard to the bank ; consequently new life was given to the people, but only for a time, for the bank, in preparing for resumption in 1819, soon obliterated all signs of amendment, and the depression continued. In this dilemma it called upon the Government for re- lief, and the call was too significant to be disregarded. Lord Castlereagh brought into Parliament five money bills in one night, one of them permitting the circulation of one-pound notes ten years longer, viz., from 1823 to 1833, and all of them designed to increase money facilities, passing them through as rapidly as the forms of Parliament would permit. The effect of these measures was great and immediate. Confidence revived, labor everywhere found full employ- ment, and ere long there was not a cottage in the land where the benign influence of an increased medium of ex- change between labor aud capital was not felt." Looking back to past years and learning from experience the cause of the present depression in business, must be plain to any observant mind. It is primarily the damage to confidence in men and things, and to decreased ability to purchase on the part of dealers and consumers, occasioned by the panic, caused by a monetary system, still in full action, that deceives and cheats the community ; lifting it up at one time to dash it down at another, as has been al- ready stated ; bribing the people to enter into business and to undertake hazardous enterprises, and after alluring them on, removing the prop, -which should sustain them, and leaving them to their fate. PETER COOPER. A BRIEF HISTORY OF- THE FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE AMERI- CAN GOVERNMENT, FOR THE LAST SEVENTEEN YEARS, FROM 1862 TO 1879. 1. In 1861 a great civil war broke out in the country, in- volving the integrity of the Union. 2. In 1862 began the Legal Tender Act, which was 312 COIN AND PAPEE CUEEENCY. framed 'to supply the means, men and money to sustain the Government. A loan of two hundred millions was effected with the State banks ; but when they found, that their notes were to be deposited in the "Sub-Treasury," and not left with the banks, subject to check, and that they might be called to re- deem their notes in coin, they threw up most of the loan, and offered their irredeemable notes to the Government, as money. (See Spaulding's "History of the Legal Tender Money.") 3. Secretary Chase preferred " the credit of the Govern- ment, cut up into small pieces, and circulated as money." 4. Then began the Legal Tender Acts, which put into the circulation, in the course of eight years, about $2,800,000,000 in different forms of legal tenders, of which $430,000,000, was in the form of greenbacks. Every one of these Acts was accompanied with a Funding Section, which provided for the withdrawal of the legal tenders from circulation, and the funding of them into "long bonds," mostly six per cent, interest, payable in coin, and in five or in forty years at the option of the Government. (See Spaulding.) 5. These Legal Tenders passed into the circulation, as money, and in the course of ten years from 1862 to 1873 were gradually absorbed in the " long bonds ; " withdrawn from the circulation, because the capitalists preferred the credit of the Government, thus extended to them at six per cent, in coin, to any private investment of their money in the labor and enterprise of -the country at large. This was largely due to foreign capitalists, who were eager to invest their surplus capital in the Government, at a gold valuation of the legal tender, which had then sunk to forty and fifty cents on the dollar in gold and still, further, were payable in " store orders " on foreign goods. 6. The capitalists overdid the " absorbing process," hav- ing reduced the legal tenders to a legal currency of about 350,000,000 and brought on the "panic of 1873." 7. Meanwhile, by the Bank Acts of 1863-64, the national COHS" AND PAPEE CUEEENCY. 313 banks laid tlieir plans of turning the bonds into bank, cur- rency without surrendering the bonds. The Government made the bank circulation as good as greenbacks, and redeem- able in greenbacks. 8. But the greenbacks must be brought under the dom- ination of gold not merely to an equal value, and made convertible into gold over the business counter, but redeem- able by the full stress of the law. The whole responsibility of redeeming both the national bank currency and the greenbacks, is thus thrown on the Government, which can do this in no other way, if the notes are not convertible in an open market, than by issuing more coin bonds. 9. In pursuance of this policy of the gold capitalists, the Government was induced to pass the "Act to strengthen the Public Credit" (with the European capitalists) in 1870, making the whole public debt payable in coin / then, soon after, surreptitiously demonetizing silver, by stopping the coining of the silver dollar, and thus making gold the sole legal tender for the paper. But this monstrous legislation was repealed, when the object became too apparent. 10. Finally, the Act of 1875 made it compulsory on the Treasury of the United States to resume specie payments on January 1, 1879. This was the culmination of the gold and coin domination. TARIFF. FKOM my earliest manhood I ever thought, that a good Government should encourage and protect its subjects as parents do their children. Inventors and manufacturers, in a new country, have to train themselves and then teach and educate their workmen and women, before they can succeed in turning raw materials into articles, which can compare with those of older countries. Moreover, work- shops and factories should start and grow in order to de- velop home markets, so that the tiller of the soil and mechanic can benefit each other. The mason, carpenter, blacksmith, etc., are as indispensable to the farmer, as the farmer is to them. They create markets for each other's products, and become mutual consumers. As early as 1846, 1 wrote the following letter to Hon. Eobert J. Walker, political economist and free-trader, and since that date I have devoted much thought and time to Finance and Tariff, as may be noticed from what precedes and follows : THE TARIFF BILL. NEW YORK, June 15, 1846. TO THE HON. BOBERT J. WALKEK, Secretary of the Treasury. SIB: On the 6th of September last, I received from the Hon. C. W. Lawrence, Collector of the Port of New York, a letter, enclosing from your honorable self certain inter- rogatories, and requesting any information, which I might 316 TAEIFF. be able to afford the Government in relation to my particu- lar branch of business. My works were at that time just on the point of starting, and of course, I could not furnish any statistics, which would have been of a reliable nature. I thought it better, therefore, not to communicate with you, although I had for many years been led to look closely into our monetary and commercial regulations, and to arrive at certain definite conclusions in regard to the true commer- cial policy of our Government. At the earnest solicitation, however, of many persons, to whom my views were known, and who believe, that the present moment demands a pub- lic expression of opinion on the part of those, whose busi- ness has led them to pay especial attention to these matters, I am induced to request your attention to the following out- line of the true principles, which, in my humble opinion, should guide the action bf the Government in the present position of our commercial relations. The true policy of every Government looks to national wealth and independence ; in other words, the security of the rewards of honest industry to individual enterprise, and the production within its own limits, as far as practicable, of whatever is necessary for the support and happiness of its constituent members. The earth is the sole source of wealth 1st, by the mineral treasures, contained within its bosom; 2d, by the vegetable productions, which it fur- nishes upon its surface. To obtain either, two things are necessary physical labor and human ingenuity; and to apply these two agents most perfectly and successfully, mankind must not endeavor to labor in both fields ; but one portion must devote itself to agricultural pursuits, while the other must be employed in developing and giving a useful form to the crude masses, in which Nature has seen fit to place her treasures. The value of a day's labor will be that amount, which furnishes a comfortable sub- sistence to the laborer and his family, and enables him to lay by sufficient to meet the wants of sickness and old age ; and the natural standard of value will be some article, TAEIFF. 317 whose bulk is small in comparison with the cost of produc- ing it, and which, for a long period of time, is least subject to wear and variation. Just in proportion, then, as a nation so distributes its labor, that there is a mutual dependence between its members, and the' results of its industry are so varied, as to meet the wants of the whole community, and its standard of value is uniform, just in that proportion does it approximate to the perfection of political organiza- tion ; just in proportion, on the other hand, as it confines itself to one particular channel of industry, and is depend- ent on foreign nations for everything else, and its standard of value is ever wavering and uncertain, in that same pro- portion is it ill-governed and certain to entail ruin and misery upon its members. The practical bearing of these cardinal principles, obvious enough in themselves, will per- haps be shown in a more striking and forcible light by a practical illustration, in itself an argument, and leading to certain conclusions, which I cannot help thinking, will leave no doubt as to the course of policy, which the Gov- ernment of the United States should pursue in the present crisis, as its action at this time must determine the destinies of the country, for good or for evil, for many years to come. Let us suppose two separate and independent Govern- ments to exist in the same country, separated from each other only by a narrow stream ; possessing the same natural advantages, the same energy of character, and adopting as the measure of the value of property, one uniform currency. For the sake of convenience let us distinguish these Govern- ments as the upper and lower. After many years of uni- form progress, during which time their only circulating medium was composed of gold and silver, or for the sake of transportation, of certificates of the actual possession of gold and silver, let us suppose, that the upper Government fancied that its condition could be bettered by pouring paper money, not representing the actual possession of gold and silver, into the volume of its circulating medium. The effect is obvious, and is set forth in the language of 318 TAEIFF. Washington, when he declares, " That in exact proportion as you pour paper money into the volume of circulating medium, in that proportion will every thing in a country rise in price." A bushel of corn, although it will feed no more ; a day's labor, although it will produce no more, will be increased in price. Is it not clear, then, that the lower Government, adhering to its old, unadulterated standard of value, will continue to produce the bushel of corn at the old cost, carry it across the river and sell it for the advanced price ? And so long as the old or upper Gov- ernment continues to redeem its bills with silver or gold, just so long will the lower Government continue to send over the river every article, that it can possibly spare, and will find it to its interest to take nothing in return but sil- ver and gold, as everything else it can obtain at home at a cheaper rate. This traffic will continue, until the upper Government finds, that the operation of its internal trade becomes so embarrassed by the absolute want of silver and gold, that some remedy must be devised. It must stop this continual drain of specie, and therefore it attempts to fence out its neighbors by a tariff of heavy duties, the im- mediate operation of which is, if paper money is allowed to increase, to add the amount of the duty to the previous price of every imported article then in the country ; and this advance in price would straightway be seized upon, by those immediately interested, for pouring another issue of paper money into the volume of circulation. The imme- diate effect of this increase of paper money would be an advance in price ; importations would again commence, the tariff must again be raised, and high prices and high tariffs would go hand in hand, until by such a course of policy expensive, idle and luxurious habits would be diffused among the people to such an extent, that in accordance with the immutable laws of trade, where there is consumption without production, they would become involved in one general ruin, opening wide the chances for a few to amass huge fortunes, that they had never earned, out of the gen- TARIFF. eral wreck of the many. An attentive consideration of these principles will lead to three natural conclusions : First, That it is the duty of every Government to secure to itself the most uniform and intrinsically valuable stand- ard of value possible ; a standard, which the experience of all time has proved to be gold and silver ; in other words, that the circulating medium of a country should be com- posed of gold and silver coins, or paper representative of the actual existence of gold and silver, dollar for dollar, or representative of property, the actual accumulation of labor done. Second, That a tariff, based upon a currency, which is uncertain and fluctuating in its nature, will in itself be ut- terly inefficient to produce the effects for which it was de- signed, and will be but the first act in the great drama of expansion, convulsion and general bankruptcy. Third, That between countries, starting in the race of political existence at the same time, with the same energy and the same natural advantages, and adopting one uniform standard of value, no tariff of protective duties would be necessary or ought to be adopted. How then does the past policy of our country square with the principles, stated in these three conclusions ? And first as to its standard of value. From the earliest history of this country, as an independent Government, instead of con- fining our currency to gold and silver and to paper repre- sentative of labor actually performed, as has been mainly the policy for many years of those countries, from which we import most, we have allowed paper to be issued, which has its value founded not upon the accumulations of hon- est industry but upon the confiding faith of an unsuspect- ing public, and the desire of many men to do business beyond their means. The result has already been shown ; and while at first all were ready to admit, that a protective tariff was necessary to develop these mineral treasures, that Nature has show- ered upon us in such abundance, and to mingle with the 320 TAEIFF. music of her waterfalls the busy hum of machinery, and to afford a ready, convenient and certain market for our agricultural produce ; men, finding that the tariff did not produce, the effects anticipated, have been induced to at- tribute its failure to its own inherent weakness, rather than the true cause, namely, an ever expanding and contracting currency. We have already seen, that a tariff, founded on such a basis, must from the nature of things be inefficient, deceptive and futile. But does "it hence follow, that a protective tariff is not necessary for this country to induce the manufacture of those articles, the raw material for which is found here in as great perfection, and can be wrought into useful and necessary articles, with as little expense of human labor as in any other country in the world ? In our original paral- lel we started the two Governments in the race of political existence at the same time, and hence we reached the third conclusion above stated ; but in order to understand the true position of this country in regard to other producing countries, we must vary the parallel in this wise. We must suppose the upper Government had been in existence for a thousand years, continually advancing in science, knowl- edge of the arts, the development of its internal resources, the experience of its producing classes and in population, till at length a large number of its inhabitants concluded to emigrate into a new land, possessing advantages and re- sources superior even to those of the mother country, but which required industry, ingenuity, capital and time to de- velop. The raw material, from the fertility and adaptation of the soil, they could produce, with much greater facility than the mother country ; but from the unfortunate adop- tion of a paper currency, the want of capital to start a manufacturing system successfully, and the great demand for labor consequent upon a new settlement, the cost of producing the finished article would be considerably greater than in the mother country, even with the difference of freight in their favor. TAEIFF. 321 The result is, that to the extent, which the mother coun- try absolutely requires the natural produce of its offspring, the latter will be supplied with the manufactured article. Any surplus of agricultural produce, which they may have beyond that limit, will first tend to lower the price of the whole raw material of the country, and must finally be left to decay. What, then, are the remedies, that should be applied ? In the first place, the standard of currency must be at least as valuable and uniform as in the mother country. It will then, and not till then, become apparent what amount of tariff must be imposed to offer a sufficient bounty to capi- talists to invest their property in manufacturing establish- ments. It is plain, that the amount of bounty required would be just enough to counterbalance the advantages, which the mother country possesses, in having had her manufacturing system in operation for a series of years. With our currency, regulated in this way, and with the nat- ural and political advantages, which we possess, freed as we are from standing armies and the load of taxation, which weighs the nations of Europe down to the earth, our coun- trymen would be astonished at the small amount of uniform bounty, which would be required to open a thousand chan- nels of domestic industry, and afford a home market for almost every article of domestic growth. And the compe- tition, which would be the necessary result of an extended manufacturing system, would soon bring the article to the lowest price, at which it could be afforded. In this country millions are already invested, and thou- sands of operatives are usefully and successfully employed in the various manufacturing pursuits. By well directed efforts of capital and skill, the country has been furnished with almost every species of manufactured articles of bet- ter quality and mainly at cheaper rates, than has ever be- fore been the case on the average of any ten previous years ; and our farmers have had a sure and steady market at home for every variety of agricultural produce to the extent of 21 322 TARIFF. the wants of all the persons, employed in manufacturing pursuits. Will it stimulate the industry of our country, or secure the rewards of labor to the hands, that earn them, by adopting such a course of legislation, as will sacrifice these millions, and turn these thousands out of employ- ment ? Certainly not ; for in exact proportion as men are made sure in the rewards of honest and useful labor, they become prosperous, virtuous and happy ; and in the same proportion as men are deceived and deprived of their just rewards, they become discouraged, vicious and desperate. A course of policy, that will give the greatest stability to the operations of trade, and excite the fewest apprehen- sions of coming distress and pressure, will best promote the substantial interests of the country. I would, therefore, venture to suggest the only means, that seem practicable to effect this object. First I would recommend the immediate adoption of the Sub-Treasury, and that its action upon the currency should be made gradual, by the collection of twenty per cent, of the revenue in specie every year, until the whole amount should be collected in gold and silver. Secondly I would recommend, that the changes in the tariff should also be made, to take effect gradually, and that the duties should be of a specific nature, and not on the ad valorem basis ; because the latter allows persons devoid of honesty to resort to fraud, and break down every mer- chant, who may pursue an honorable business ; because it subjects the revenue to constant change in amount, just as the prices of imported articles rise and fall, the revenue be- ing least, when the Government needs it most. And, finally, because, when the prices are high and the manufacturer needs no protection, it affords him protection of the amplest kind ; but when prices are low, and the manufacturer must, if ever, shield himself under the tariff, but very slight pro- tection is afforded. This will fee made apparent by refer- ring to a list of prices of any one leading article for some years back. The price of iron, for example, as shown by TARIFF. 323 the books of Messrs. Jevon, Banks & Co., of Liverpool, lias fluctuated from 15 in 1825, to 4 10 in 1843, per ton, and within the past eighteen months, from 7 to 11. What protection would an ad valorem duty have afforded in 1843, when the English were seeking a market at any price ? It must have produced the immediate stoppage of every roll- ing mill in this country. The same facts would be shown by referring to any other leading article. I would suggest, therefore, as the proper course, that the Government should ascertain as soon as may be practicable, and as accurately as possible, what articles are paying a duty injurious to the best interests of our country, and that the excess of duties, now imposed in a specific form on those articles be gradu- ally reduced, say twenty per cent, per annum, until the whole amount, collected by the operation of the tariff, be barely sufficient to meet the wants of an economical administra- tion of the Government. We should thus gradually arrive at a tariff, based upon a revenue standard, and at the same time afford protection to the manufacturer in such a way, that he could be ready for each change in the tariff, until it reaches the revenue basis. Thirdly The Sub-Treasury should be made to take effect at least one year, before any change of the tariff should go into operation, in order to give it time to bring the currency under its influence, and prevent the banks and enemies of the present administration from producing a panic, by operating on the fears and affecting the interests of the community to such an extent, that it might result in a change of administration, and bring again into power those, whose favorite idols are a national bank, a high tariff, and inflated currency, with all their terrific power for mis- chief, " fertilizing the rich man's field with the sweat of the poor man's brow." I should hardly have ventured to obtrude my views on these subjects upon your attention, although they are the results of the experience of more than forty years, inces- santly devoted to mechanical and mercantile pursuits, were 324 TAKIFF. I not deeply impressed with the conviction, that the mas- terly policy, sketched out by the Government of Great Britain, will render the action of the present Congress, upon the great questions of the currency and the tariff, more deeply fraught with good or evil to the best interests of the country, than at any period within my recollection. In all the changes, which the wisdom of our Congress shall see lit to adopt, the proposed changes in the commercial policy of Great Britain should be kept strictly in view. That Government finds, that by reason of past restraints on its own commerce, it has eaten its bread for thirty years at 9 per barrel, and that by a radical change of its own policy the price may be reduced to $6 per barrel, thereby widen- ing its own market, already nearly co-extensive with the world, and becoming in our own market a more formidable competitor, in the same proportion as its bread is made cheaper. Will it answer then for this Government, at this moment, to aid the already overgrown capital of Great Britain, to break down the manufactures of our country, that are* just struggling into existence, and force these op- eratives, at present engaged in manufactures, into competi- tion with the agricultural producers, instead of being the consumers of the results of the labor of the latter ? No one more ardently desires a free and unrestricted in- terchange of commodities between the two countries than myself, and no one more firmly and hopefully believes, that the day will come, when the ports of both nations will be thrown wide open to every flag, that waves upon the ocean a consummation, which the recent auspicious action of the Senate on the Oregon question is well calculated to forward ; but in endeavoring to effect this desirable object, we should not blindly and hastily uproot the very system, which we have for years been endeavoring to encourage ; but the change should be made gradual, so as to allow time for the full development of our internal resources, the ap- plication of our water powers to the purposes, for which Nature prepared them, the acquirement of the requisite TARIFF. 325 skill and the investment of the necessary capital to carry on our manufactures successfully. Our fellow citizens would then feel certain of a permanent system, and a sure guarantee, that the just rewards of ingenuity and skill would be secured to individual enterprise ; and the good and great of every land, who have their eyes fixed upon this country, as the precursor and harbinger of a better human- ity throughout the world, would be cheered and encouraged with the conviction, that after seventy years of independ- ence, both the people of the United States and their Eepre- jsentatives are still looking to the only objects, worthy of a liberal Government the best interests of all classes in our common country, and the onward progress of free prin- ciples. I have the honor to be, Yery respectfully, Your obedient servant, PETER COOPEB. LETTER TO HON. H. J. REDFIELD. NEW YORK, January 17, SIR: Your letter, dated December 24, 1867, addressed to me, in the Batavia Spirit of the Times, and republished in the EVENING POST of the 6th instant, has, within the past few days, been called to my attention, and I now take the earliest opportunity of replying to it. I am pleased to receive the views of an old and respected citizen on the subjects on which it treats ; and, although we have arrived at different conclusions on these subjects, yet the discussion of them in a frank and kindly manner can- not be otherwise than useful. For myself, I am indeed conscious, as you remind me^ that I am an old man, liable to error and frailty, as we all are, but yet I trust, not so warped either by my prejudices or my interest as to be incapable of the honest investiga- tion of arguments, presented for my consideration, even 326 TAKIFF. though in opposition to long cherished convictions. And I will as frankly say, my dear Sir, that the record of your long and useful life gives assurance, that no unworthy in- fluence will be permitted by you to sway your judgment or influence your conduct in this matter. I have at the outset to complain of the manner of your reference to the tariff legislation of the country, as calcu- lated to convey very incorrect impressions upon that sub- ject, and mislead those, who are uninformed respecting it. The inference, naturally to be drawn from your letter, would be, that the effort to stimulate domestic manufac- tures, which you illustrate by the figure of the people car- rying an infant in their arms, was something strange and exceptional in the policy of civilized nations, and contrary to the genius of American institutions. You forgot, that the system of protection to home labor, which you so earnestly condemn, is to-day acted on by every civilized nation on the Earth, and has the sanction of the states- men and rulers, not only in Europe, hut our own country, whose wisdom mankind has acknowledged and universally respects. The principles, Sir, which you denounce with such severity, have been held from the beginning by the founders and great political teachers of the nation, men whom we are accustomed to honor, and whose opinions have just weight with us on other subjects. Among these I might name Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson and many others, whose recorded words defend and maintain the doctrine you decry. Of these I shall only quote the words of Jackson, whose advocacy of the principles of pro- tection you seem to doubt. ANDREW JACKSON ON THE TAKIFF. In writing to Dr. Coleman, in 1824, Andrew Jackson thus fully and unequivocally expressed himself on the tariff question : " You ask my opinion on the tariff. I answer, that I am TARIFF. 327 in favor of a judicious examination and revision of it ; and so far as the tariff bill before us embraces the design of fostering and protecting, preserving within ourselves the means of national defence and independence, particularly in a state of war, I would advocate and support it. The experience of the late war ought to teach us a lesson, and one never to be forgotten. If our liberty and Republican form of government, procured for us by our Revolutionary Fathers, are worth the blood and treasure, at which they were obtained, it is. surely our duty to protect and defend them. This tariff I mean a judicious one possesses more fanciful than real danger. I will ask : What is the real situation of the agriculturist? Where has the American farmer a market for his surplus products? Except for cotton, he has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not this clearly prove, when there is no market either at home or abroad, that there is too much labor employed in agriculture, and that the channels for labor should be mul- tiplied? Common sense points out the remedy. Draw from agriculture the superabundant labor ; employ it in mechanism and manufactures; thereby creating a home market for your bread stuffs and distributing labor to the most profitable account and benefit to the country. Take from agriculture in the United States six hundred thousand men, women and children, and you will at once give a home market for more breadstuffs, than all Europe now fur- nishes us. In short, Sir, we have been too long subject to the policy of British merchants. It is time, that we should become a little more Americanized, and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of England, feed our own, or else, in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we should be rendered paupers ourselves." And in his second annual message to Congress, Decem- ber 7, 1830, he closes an argument in favor of the Consti- tutional right to adjust the custom duties, as to encourage domestic industry with these words : " In this conclusion I ana confirmed as well by the opiii- 328 TAEIFF. ions of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who have each repeatedly recommended the exer- cise of this right under the Constitution, as by the uniform practice of Congress, the continual acquiescence of the States, and the general understanding of the people." But, not only has this principle of protection to domestic industry been advocated by the most illustrious of our American statesmen, but it has been received and acted on by every civilized nation on the Earth. It has been the steady policy of France since the days of Colbert, enforced more strongly and consistently by the first Napoleon, and (notwithstanding all that has been said about the " French treaty ") steadily maintained by the present Emperor. In England for five centuries the policy has prevailed since the days of Edward the Third, and if twenty-five years ago she thought if practicable to relax the restrictions she had placed upon the importation of foreign manufactures, she is now aware of the mistake, and awaking to a sense of the fatal danger she incurred, and already her discontented operatives are demanding the restoration of protection against the cheaper labor of their continental rivals, and her farmers are claiming a prohibitory duty on foreign cattle, imported into the country. In Kussia, that land so like our own in the magnitude of its undeveloped resources, the wisdom and necessity of fostering domestic production is understood and acted on. And in the history of the German Zolverein for the past five and thirty years is found at once the evidence and illustration of the wisdom of pro- tection to home industry among a people, where all prop- erty is measured by a uniform standard. THE TARIFF LEGISLATION OF THE UNITED STATES. You give, Sir, in a condensed form, what you design as a history of the tariff legislation of the United States for the last fifty years. I do not regard it either as accurate or specific, as such a statement would need be for any safe TAEIFF. 329 purpose of argument, and as I think, that exact information on this subject is of great importance, I take the liberty of quoting a passage from a letter of Mr. Henry C. Carey, which is valuable for the historical evidence it affords, that Governmental interference, on behalf of manufactures, has always produced general national prosperity, and that the withdrawal of that interference has as invariably resulted in industrial distress and commercial disaster : " Fifty years since, the second war with Great Britain came to a close, leaving our people well provided with mills and furnaces, all of which were actively engaged in making demand for labor and for raw materials of every kind. Money was then abundant, and the public debt was trivial in amount. Two years later we entered upon the British free trade system, and at once all was changed. Mills and furnaces were closed ; labor ceased to be in demand ; and our poor- houses were everywhere filled. Money becoming scarce and interest high, land declined to a third of its previous price. Banks stopped payment. The sheriff everywhere found full demand for all his time, and mortgagees entered everywhere into possession. The rich were made richer, but the farmer and mechanic, and all but the very rich, were ruined. Trivial as were then the expenses of the Government, the Treasury could not meet them. Such was the state of things, that induced General Jackson to ask the question, ' Where has the American farmer -a market for his surplus produce ? ' To the state of things here described were we, in 1828, indebted for the first thoroughly national tariff. Almost from the moment of its passage, activity and life took the place of the palsy, that previously existed. Furnaces and mills were built ; labor came into demand ; immigration increased, and so large became, the demand, for the products of the farm, that our markets scarcely felt the effect of changes in that of England ; the public revenues so rapidly increased, that it became necessary to exempt from duty 330 TARIFF. tea, coffee, and many other articles ; and the public debt was finally, extinguished. The history of the world to that hour presents no case of prosperity so universal as that, which here existed at the date of the repeal of the great national tariff of 1828. Had it been maintained in existence, we should have had no secession war, and at this hour the South would exhibit a state of society, in which the land owners had become rich, while their slaves had been gradually becoming free, with profit to themselves, to their owners and the nation at large. It was, however, repealed in 1833, and the repeal was followed by a succession of British free-trade crises, the whole ending in 1842 in a state of things directly the reverse of that above described. Mills and furnaces were closed ; mechanics were starving ; money was scarce and dear ; land had fallen to half its previous prices ; the sheriff was everywhere at work; banks were in a state of suspension ; states repudiated payment of their debts ; the Treasury was unable to borrow a dollar, except at a high rate of interest: and bankruptcy among merchants and traders was so universal, that Congress found itself com- pelled to pass a bankrupt act. Again, and for the third time, protection was restored by the passage of the Tariff Act of 1842. Under it, in less than five years, the production of iron rose from two hun- dred and twenty thousand tons to eight hundred thousand tons ; and so universal was the prosperity that, large as was the increase, it was wholly insufficient to meet the great demand. Mines were everywhere being sunk. Labor was in great demand, and wages were high, as a consequence of which immigration speedily trebled in its amount. Money was abundant and cheap, and the sheriff found but little to do. Public and private revenues were great be- yond all previous precedents, and throughout the land there reigned a prosperity more universal than had, in the whole history of the world, ever before been known. Once more, in 1846, however, did the Serpent prop- TARIFF. 331 erly represented on this occasion by British free-traders make his way into Paradise, and now a dozen years elapsed, in the course of which, notwithstanding the discovery of California mines money commanded a rate of interest higher, as 1 believe, than had ever been known in the coun- try for so long a period of time. British iron and cloth came in and gold went out, and with each successive day the dependence of our farmers on foreign markets became more complete. With 1857 came the culmination of the system, merchants and manufacturers being ruined, banks being compelled to suspend payment, and the Treasury being reduced to a condition of bankruptcy, nearly ap- proaching that, which had existed at the close of the free- trade periods, commencing in 1817 and 1834. In the three years that followed, labor was everywhere in excess ; wages were low ; immigration fell below the point, at which it had stood twenty years before ; the home market for food diminished, arid the foreign one proved so utterly worth- less, that the whole export to all the manufacturing nations of Europe, as I have already stated, amounted to but little more than $10,000,000." The losses, brought on our country by a failure on the part of the Government to steadily protect the great indus- tries of the nation, ever strikingly manifest by the loss to the whole country of a steam marine, which was won for us by men, who deserved a better fate than they received. It was for the want of a few paltry millions to protect a steam marine, so nobly won and of such inestimable value to our country it was because of the failure of our Govern- ment to protect its " child " that England was permitted, by her protective policy to her own steamships (at but a small cost) to distance us in a race for supremacy in ocean steam navigation, and take from us a steam marine, that would have been worth thousands of millions to our coun- try, and would possibly have saved us from the terrible war through which we have passed. 332 TAEIFF. INFANT MANUFACTURES. You refer, Sir, with some sarcasm, to the "infant manu- factures," which you think have been so long carried in the arms of the people, to their wrong and cost, as you suppose, and assume the superiority of European productiveness, and suggest, that our incapacity to manufacture being thus established, we should abandon our effort at deliverance from our industrial bondage to the Old World. To this, Sir, I reply that while, as I have stated, the countries of West- ern Europe have for centuries enjoyed constant, persistent and adequate protection, never relaxed, never abated, until it was rendered unnecessary by the natural growth of their "infant," our manufacturing system has not had either constant or adequate protection for more than four years at a time, and that only twice before the Rebellion. The compromise tariff of 1833, being avowedly designed as a measure, calculated and intended to lead toward free-trade, as the writer can personally testify from his conversations had with Mr. Calhoun at the time. You speak of the " larcenous provisions " of tariff acts to which you allude, as though a great wrong had been in- flicted on the masses of the people for the benefit of the " class " of manufacturers. You forget or you ignore the fact, that the time, when these manufacturers thus pros- pered, labor was in demand and wages high, immigration increased, farm products found a large and profitable home market, the revenue was abundant, merchants and farmers were alike successful, and general prosperity prevailed. You forget or you ignore the fact, that in stimulating do- mestic manufactures we but increase the demand' for agri- cultural produce, and bring to the farmer's door a market more certain and more profitable, than he can possibly find abroad. You speak of twenty-five years (!) of " high protection," as though the manufacturers of the country alone were in- terested, putting aside entirely the consideration of the fact 3 TAEIFF. 333 that all the taxation, needed for the nation's wants, was supplied from this source ; that thus the visits of the tax- gatherer to the fanner were entirely dispensed with, and most articles in general consumption among our people, such as tea and coffee, were rendered exempt from duty. PROFITS OF MANUFACTURERS. You indict the manufacturers of the United States for their selfishness and want of patriotism, in securing the enact- ment of protective laws, and contrast with it the course, which you allege to have been pursued by the farmers. Sir, I do not care to enter on the ungracious task of comparing one class of my fellow-citizens with another, the more so, as during the late fearful trial, through which our country has passed, the magnanimous and self-sacrificing patriotism of them both has been so conspicuously vindicated ; but, as one of those implicated in the charge you make, I may, perhaps, be permitted to state one fact from my own personal expe- rience as a manufacturer, calculated to show, that, if we had been grasping, as you represent, our object of making large gains has, at least, not been accomplished. During a period of over thirty years, engaged in the manufacture of iron, the capital invested by me has not on the average yielded me four per cent, per annum, and this with all the skill, energy and perseverance, which I was able to com- mand in promoting its profitable employment ; and that my own case was not exceptional may be gathered from the fact, that during the same period nearly, if not quite all my brother manufacturers, who were engaged largely in the same industry, were compelled to succumb to the pres- sure of adverse circumstances, caused by the fluctuating policy of the general Government, and to pass into bank- ruptcy. Such has been the experience, through which the men of enterprise, genius and capital have passed, who were in- duced to volunteer at the time of the country's greatest need 334 TAEIFF. as pioneers in the great work of establishing our manufac- turing independence, and at the sacrifice, in most cases, of their own fortunes, laid the foundation of that noble fabric of industrial independence, which we rejoice to see now rising solid and symmetrical in this great land. THE TARIFF AND THE WOOL- GKO WEES. That the farmers sought, and rightfully sought, protec- tion, when their interests demanded it, the experience of the sugar-planters of the South and the wool-growers of the North abundantly testifies ; and I must confess my surprise at the representation you make of the recent legislation in favor of the growers of wool. You say, " it is believed by many, that the wool-grower is at length, under recent acts of Congress, equally protected with the manufacturer. It may be so. The stable door may be locked after the horse is stolen. But in the meantime the manufacturer has been made rich has doubled and quadrupled his capital, while the wool-grower has grown poor, and in many cases lost his capital." You remember, Sir, that at the close of the last session of Congress, after a bill, designed to amend the present tariff law, had been rejected in the Senate, chiefly through the influence of the Western States, a wool tariff was sud- denly enacted, having for its special object the interest of the wool-growers of the country. For this tariff, I rejoice to know, the true friends of domestic industry in Congress, with a noble consistency, voted, albeit their ow r n plan of legislation had but just been defeated by the Representatives in the Senate of these very wool-growers. I regret, Sir, that you do not appreciate the benefits, thus accorded to this branch of agricultural industry that you do not, I think, is attributable to your failure to examine the facts for the very objection you make, that the recent law has not bene- fited wool production, has been thus well answered in the monthly report for December, 1867, at the Department of TAEIFF. 335 Agriculture, in which, on this subject, are the following words : " The close of the war found full supplies of woollen goods, and immense stores of unused army clothing ; and in anticipation of legislation, affecting importation nearly as many woollens were introduced in a single year as were imported during the entire period of the war. In this state of facts, utter annihilation of wool-growing and manufac- turing was only prevented by the operation of the law in repressing further importation, and inspiring confidence in the future, when the immense surplus should be ex- hausted. It has produced all the advantages, that its most sanguine friends could claim for it, in preventing, in a large degree, ruinous depression and the sacrifice of flocks, and in paving the way for entire success for the future, which shall benefit' every interest of agriculture and every branch of industry." THE MOEEILL TAEIFF. You speak with vehement execration of the Morrill tariff of 1861, as " capping the climax in the history of this in- iquitous legislation ; " but entirely overlook the circum- stances, under which that measure was passed. The free- trade tariff of 1857 has just produced the effects, which were expected from it by the wisest thinkers in the land, and the condition of things, then existing, was well described in the following extract from Mr. Carey : " With 1857 came the culmination of the system. Merchants and manufac- turers became ruined, banks being compelled to suspend payment, and the Treasury being reduced to a condition of bankruptcy. In the three years that followed, labor \\ as everywhere in excess. Wages were low, immigration be- low the point, at which it had stood for twenty years be- fore, the home market for food diminished, and the foreign one proved so utterly worthless, that the whole export to all the manufacturing nations of Europe amounted to little more than $10,000,000." Such was the condition of things, 336 TAEIFF. that suggested the necessity of the Morrill tariff, which was a change in the policy of the country, the necessity of which had been made palpable by the undeniable failures of the free-trade policy of 1857. But never was a law so mis- represented as this has been. Forgive me, Sir, if I express a doubt as to your having yourself accurate information on the subject. THE PROTECTIVE POLICY OF FRANCE. To illustrate, I shall compare it in those branches, with which I am myself most familiar (connected with the iron industry) with the celebrated Anglo-French treaty, adopted a few months previously between the French and English Governments, and the praises of which have -been so widely sung as a glorious triumph of " free-trade principles." It was declared to be an abandonment by France of her " pro- tective system." NAMES OF AKTICLES. Quanti- ties. French duties under the Anglo - French treaty in Ameri- can money. United States duties under the Morrill tariff. Iron, pig and old. cast iron ..... ton. ton. ton. ton. ton. ton. ton. ton. cwt. cwt. ton. ton. ton. Ib. * Ib. Ib. $4 39 6 35 13 68 13 68 25 41 to 31 28 8 30 17 58 29 32 97| i m 19 54 25 40 48 85 l-i% 2 &i ^ $6 00 6 00 15 00 12 00 20 00 to 25 00 11 20 20 00 22 40 1 12 2 24 30 to 33 44 80 44 80 lc. and 2c. 2c. and 15

ng as his own little society was undisturbed, the simple Hindoo gave himself no concern about what might happen at the capital. Though often over-taxed and plundered by invading ar- mies, the country continued both rich and prosperous," until an East India Company, chartered and sustained by the power of Great Britain, commenced a war of encroach- ments on the trade and commerce of that country. This war of commercial interests led to a war of conquest, which, after the battle of Plassey, had established British power in India. " The country became filled with adven- turers ; men whose sole object was to accumulate fortunes, by any means, however foul," as was shown by the indig- nant denunciation of Burke in the ' Parliament of Great Britain. Fox declared, in a speech on the East India bill, that " the country was laid waste with fire and sword, and the land once distinguished most above others by the cheer- ful face of fraternal government and protected labor, the chosen seat of cultivation and plenty, is now almost a TARIFF. 361 dreary desert, covered with rushes and briars, jungles and wild beasts." . . . Macaulay says, " The misgovernment was carried to such an extent, as seemed hardly compatible with the existence of society. They forced the natives to buy dear and sell cheap." They insulted, with impunity, the tribunals, the police and the fiscal authorities of the country. Enormous fortunes were thus rapidly accumulated at Calcutta, where 30,000,000 of- human beings were reduced to the extremity of wretchedness. They had been accustomed to live under tyranny; but never tyranny like this. Under their old masters, they had one resource when the evil became in- supportable, the people pulled down the Government. Eut the English Government was not to be shaken off. That Government, oppressive as the most oppressive form of barbarian despotism, was strong with all the strength of civilization. It resembled the government of evil genii rather than the government of human tyrants. . . . Under the title of .Zamindas. a landed aristocracy was created and held accountable for the collection of the taxes. Fullerton, a member of the Madras Council, says: "Im- agine the revenue leviable through the agency of 100,000 revenue officers ; collected or remitted at their discretion, according to the occupant's means of paying, whether from produce of the land or his separate property ; and, in order to encourage every man to act as a spy on his neighbor and report his means of paying, that he may save himself from all extra demand, imagine all the cultivators of a vil- lage liable at all times to a separate demand, in order to make up the failure of one or more individuals of the par- ish. Imagine collectors to every county, acting under the orders of a Board, on the avowed principle of destroying all competition for labor by a general equalization of as- sessments, seizing and sending back all runaways to each other. Lastly, imagine the collector, the sole magistrate or Justice of the Peace of the county; through the medium of whom alone, complaint of personal grievance, suffered 862 TAKIFF. by the subject, can reach the Superior Court. Imagine at the same time every subordinate officer, employed in the collection of the land-revenue to be a police officer, vested with the power to confine, put in the stocks and flay any inhabitant within his range, on any charge, without oath of the accuser or sworn recorded evidence in the case." . . . Under this state of things, " the works constructed for irri- gation have gone to ruin, and the richest lands have been abandoned." Capt. Westmacot tells his readers, that in places the longest under British rule, there is the largest amount of depravity and crime. Campbell, one of the most distin- guished of British poets, characterizes the course of their policy in India prophetically when he says : " Foes of mankind, her guardian spirits say, Revolving ages bring the bitter day, When heaven's unerring aim shall fall on you, And blood for blood these Indian plains bedew." " The immolations of an Indian Juggernaut," says a recent writer, " dwindle into insignificance before it, and yet .to maintain this trade the towns and cities have been laid in ruins." The middleman system of Ireland and of the "West Indies was transplanted to those countries of the East, to wliich Macaulay declares, that " the English Gov- ernment became as oppressive as the most oppressive form of barbarian despotism." The poor Hindoo was not al- lowed to make salt from the waters of the ocean. Every form of tax and exaction was forced on that people, in or- der to drive them to send all their cotton and wool to Eng- land (tiic ^ ^~ >rkshop of the world) to be converted and returned. Sir Robert Peel says : " The effects in India ex- hibit themselves in such a ruin and distress, that no paral- lel can be found in the annals of commerce" The great city of Decca, that only TO years since contained 90,000 houses, "and exported millions of pieces of the finest qual- ity of goods, is now a mass of ruins." The same authority TAEIFF. says: "For the accomplishment of this work of destruc- tion, the children of Lancashire, England, were employed 15 to 17 hours per day during the week, and until 12 o'clock on Sunday, cleaning and oiling machinery, for which they received two shillings and nine pence per week. The object was to underwork the poor Hindoo, and drive him from the markets of the world." The pound of cotton, costing in India one cent, was passed through Brit- ish looms, and sold to the Hindoo for from 40 to 60 cents. "Thus England was enriched, as India became impoverished. Step by step, British power was extended, and everywhere was adopted the Hindoo principle, that the sovereign, as proprietor of the soil, was entitled to half the gross produce" While these exorbitant local taxes were expended among its own people, the burden could be borne ; when these taxes were drawn from the people and expended on absentee landlords, the burden brought desolation and premature death to millions of the peo- ple of that country. History tells us, that one-half of the labor of that people ran to waste for the want of employ- ment. The exactions of British power in China, made to force the sale of opium in that country, are stated to cause the death annually of 500,000 of the Chinese people, besides a tax of nearly $20,000,000. The ruin of Portugal was ef- fected by the Government's having been induced to adopt a British commercial policy, which broke up the harmony of the agricultural and mechanical interests interests, that had for so long a time made Portugal rich and prosperous. " It is less than 200 years since the merchants of London petitioned their Government to restrain. jlus of $150,000,000, 241 Switzerland, 14 404 INDEX. Tariff, 315-394 Tariff Commissioners, 375-383 Telegram, New York Evening, 281 Tilden, Hon. S., 63, 67, 76 Thurman, Senator, 385 Tillman, Hon. Mr., 289 Times, New York, 201, 202 Tobacco, 385 Tramps, 250 Treasury Notes, 3, 4, 57, 158, 270, 373 Tribune, New York, 23, 195, 372 Turkey, 356, 393 Tyranny of the Money Power, 296 Union League Club, 9, 195 United States Bank, 5, 23, 27, 221, 222 Usury, 208 Vanderbilt, W., 179 Venice, Bank of, 223, 373 Voorhees, Senator, 283-289 Vortex, 86 W Wade, Hon. B. F., 345 Wages, 93 Walker, Hon. Robert J., 315-325 War against Legal Tenders, 245 War, Commercial, 359-370 Ward, Hon. E. B., 341, 380 Warner, Hon. Richard, 236-243, 249 Warning to Greenback Men, 308 Warren, Marwin, 124 Washington, George, 240, 280, 318, '328 Waterloo, 126, 135 Watson, Wilson, 281, 386 Weaver, General, 298-304 Webster, Daniel, 42, 123, 157, 168, 199, 207, 232, 250, 259, 377 Wells, David A., 349, 350, 392 West, 391 West Indies, 363, 364 Westmacot, Captain, 362 Wheat, 387 White, Professor, 13 Williams, John Earl, 19, 196, 197, 233, 274 Wilson, Hon. H., 348 Winder, W. H., 281 Wool, 385 Wool Growers, 334, 335 Workingmen, 201, 308 Workshops, 315 World, New York, 385 Yatman, JohnV., 279 Yonge, Mr., 26 Zamindas, 861 Zollverein, German, 328 i;silfEiiii|s 7 S?B a.?- * a.*-* S fJ|t%|lf|l|||ffsfl ^ ---'*'** OiBO^a'i'sOO-d. i si;i1^f slilollliii toP&tSft&P S3i&g&S$^ Q3 O-B B !-: 2 E crO 2 3 f 2,g O 2 ""c 2 o '-"R 3,1 s tr^l S ?r!^S^ S I i&l?Ii||v^^ ^ es^g-e^^s PO- 'S&f^B^^s olg-oO^^P-P t B 3 ^ _*Hf 1 '').s : S'c3