SEVEN FINANCIAL CONSPIRACIES
CHAPTER VII.
DEMONETIZATION OF SILVER.
HAVING refunded and made payable in coin the bonds which had not cost their holders more than sixty cents on the dollar, the casual observer is satisfied that the last robbery has been perpetrated. But the busy brain of avarice is ever reaching out, not after new truths, but for gain, gain, GAIN ; and we next find these civilized brigands have consummated a scheme for the demonetization of silver. This act, passed, in 1873, destroyed the money quality of silver, and thus produced a farther contraction of the currency. The object of this act was first to prevent the payment of the bonds, and second to increase their value.
Never in this country had there been an investment so safe and yet so reliable. Shylock, with his hoarded millions, could rest on beds of down. Neither fire, flood, mildew nor blight brought anxiety to him. He seemed to rest in assurance of the Divine favor, having obeyed the injunction to “lay up his treasure where moth and rust could not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal.” Indeed, the entire country had become sponsor for his wealth, for under the law every producer and millions of wage-workers had been instituted a vigilance committee to look after his welfare. Why should he not be opposed to having his bond investment disturbed ? The government held that property in safe keeping and did not charge a cent for the favor ; it collected his interest and paid it over to him free of charge ; it paid his gold interest in advance and exempted him from taxation ; the insurance agent and tax gatherer were strangers to him, they did not molest or make him afraid, and being thus fortified, he was content to let the producers of wealth eke out a miserable existence while he fared sumptuously every day. But it was not the American capitalist alone who entered into this murderous scheme for demonetizing silver. In the Banker’s Magazine of August, 1873, we find the following on this subject :
In 1872, silver being demonetized in France, England and Holland, a capital of $500,000 was raised, and Ernest Seyd of London was sent to this country with this fund, as agent of the foreign bond holders and capitalists, to effect the same object (demonetization of silver), which was accomplished.
There you have it, a paid agent of English capitalists sent to this country with $500,000 to buy the American Congress and rob the American people. In corroboration of this testimony we read from the Congressional Globe of April 9,1872, page 2804, these words :
Ernest Seyd of London, a distinguished writer and bullionist, who is now here, has given great attention to the subject of mint and coinage. After having examined the first draft of this bill (for the demonetization of silver) he made various sensible suggestions, which the committee adopted and embodied in the bill.
So says Mr. Hooper, who, at that time, was chairman of the committee on coinage, but I will further add that I heard Hon. Gilbert De Lamartyr say that Judge Kelly told him that he (Kelly) saw the original draft of the bill for the demonetization of silver, and it was in Ernest Seyd’s own handwriting. God of our fathers ! A British capitalist sent here to make laws for the American people. England failed to subjugate us by the bullet, but she stole into our Congressional halls and by the crafty use of gold, obtained possession of the ballot, and today, American industry pays tribute to England, despite our blood-bought seal of independence.
Not only did the demonetization of silver prevent, or at least retard the payment of the bonds, but it added to the value of the gold in which these bonds were then to be paid. Every dollar taken from circulation adds to the value of that which is left, hence the demonetization of silver increases the value of gold. After England had demonetized silver, our silver dollar, containing 412½ grains, was not worth as much in that country by at least ten cents on the dollar, as our gold dollar containing 25.8 grains of gold. By destroying the money value of silver, bonds became payable in gold only, thus adding immensely to their value. A British capitalist, holding $100.000,000 of our four per cent bonds, received an annual interest of $4,000,000, which paid in standard silver would be worth ten per cent, or $400,000 less than it would be if paid in gold. This would make a difference in his daily interest of $1,096. Is it not clear why English capitalists were anxious for the United States to demonetize silver, and why they could afford to send Ernest Seyd to this country with a capital of $500,000 to accomplish this object ?
Just here will the reader stop for a moment and consider why the Rothschilds, who control the financial policy of England, as the brokers and security-holders of America control ours, why they could afford to pay, not only the paltry half -million with which they bought the demonetization of silver, but many millions more had it been necessary ? Our civil war opened the eyes of England. She knew that her welfare nay, almost her existence, depended upon America’s supply of cotton, meat and cereals ; these were liable to fail, either in rebellion at home or in war with foreign nations. But she was the world’s great creditor, for she held the bonds of all nations, and if she could make them payable in the dearest money in the world, it would enhance her securities many millions, and if she could insure herself an ample supply of wheat and cotton she would be independent of us under all circumstances. Now, since she owned and controlled all India, that great wheat and cotton country, she saw that, with India’s cheap labor and the demonetization of American silver, she would have a double leverage over America and her productions. Silver money is used exclusively in India. England coins that money, and if, with eighty cents, she could buy silver, stamp and pass it for a dollar in payment for India’s wheat and cotton, she not only gained the 20 per cent from her own subjects, but in consequence of the demonetization of silver in America, her debtors here were compelled to pay her at least ten per cent more than they would have paid had not silver been demonetized. Let it also be borne in mind that this discount, whether much or little, was so much new capital with which to open up the interior of India to compete with America and her productions.
The injury to the people of this country through the demonetization of silver can never, perhaps, be justly estimated. The panic of 1873 which ensued, was one of the most disastrous that ever befell any people. Language fails in a description of the blighting misery that desolated the country ; the ravages of war are scarcely comparable with it. From the demonetization of silver, in 1873, to its remonetization in 1878, may well be called the dark days of our Republic. Bankruptcies and financial disaster brought in train their legitimate offspring ; and the statistics of those and the ensuing years are voluminous with the most startling and loathsome crimes. Murder, insanity, suicide, divorce, drunkenness and all forms of immorality and crime have increased from that day to this in the most appalling ratio. Will any man say that legislation has had nothing to do with the startling increase of crime in our country ? Every result is produced from certain causes, and it is certain that no more like begets like than that the increase of misery and crime in our country are the direct results of evil legislation. And it is impossible for a nation long to remain free whose laws are made granting special privileges to the few and ignoring the rights of the many. The contraction of the currency, commencing with the destruction of the greenbacks in 1866, and the stringency increased by the demonetization of silver in 1873, has been productive of more misery and crime to the people of this country than all the wars, pestilence and famine with which they have ever been afflicted.
In regard to the policy of contraction, Prof. Walker, of Yale College, who is not a politician, nor a statesman, but a cool, unbiased writer and teacher, says :
When the process of contraction commences, the first class on which it falls is the merchants of the large cities, they find it difficult to get money to pay their notes ; the next class is the manufacturer, the sale of his goods at once falls off ; laborers and mechanics next feel the pressure, they are thrown out of employment ; and, lastly, the farmer finds a dull sale for his produce ; and all, unsuspicious of the real cause, have a vague idea that their difficulties are owing to the hard times. * * We have become so familiar with these periodical revolutions in trade, that we look upon them as the natural phenomenon of business, but it is not so.
Ricardo, another eminent writer on political economy, says :
That commodities rise in price in proportion to the increase or diminution of money, I hold to be a fact that is incontrovertible.
John Stewart Mill says :
If the whole volume of money in circulation were doubled, prices would double.
The money commission, created August 15, 1876, consisting of three United States Senators, three members of the House, and three secretaries, made a report March 2, 1877, in which appear these words :
“ That the disasters of the Dark Ages were caused by decreasing money and falling prices, and that the recovery therefrom and the comparative prosperity which followed the discovery of America were due to an increasing supply of the precious metal and rising prices, will not seem surprising or unreasonable when the noble functions of money are considered. Money is the great instrument of association, the very fiber of social organism, the vitalizing force of industry, the protoplasm of civilization and as essential to its existence as oxygen is to animal life. Without money civilization could not have had a beginning, and with a diminishing supply it must languish and unless relieved finally perish.”
“ Falling prices and misery and destitution are inseparable companions.” It is universally conceded that falling prices result from the contraction of the money volume. U.S. Monetary Commission, Vol. 1, p. 50.
Again p. 51, “ The highest moral, intellectual and material development of nations is promoted by the use of money, unchanging in its value.”
Here we have the conclusion of nine prominent statesmen, who, after an exhaustive examination, emphatically declare that the “true and only cause” of the calamities that have befallen the people is “the shrinkage in the volume of money.” To whom, then, shall we charge these calamities that have come upon us like a flood ? Is it the extravagance of the people ? Is it because too many of the necessaries of life have been produced ? Because the farmer has been too industrious and prudent, or the manufacturer employed too many laborers in the production of his commodities ? Is it because millions of children are employed in the mines and factories of the country, denied every blessing and privilege of childhood ? Is it because the dram shop is sucking away the sustenance of thousands of families, and bringing desolation into their homes ? Is it because women are selling their souls to keep their bodies from starving, or because a band of train robbers are infesting the country and sending terror into the hearts of the people ? No, it is none of these circumstances that have brought such disaster upon our country, but it is a selfish and criminal legislation that has overwhelmed us with these alarming conditions.
When the fiend of civil war was desolating the land, when the great heart of the nation throbbed in agony, and the people were bowed in mourning, then a band of men, with murderous purposes, went, not into the battlefield, but into the very sanctuary of our country, the holy place of government, and there, under the guise of patriot and benefactor, pillaged the soldier, and plotted the most diabolical scheme of robbery that ever blackened a historic page. Who were these men ? Ah, history is writing their names in a most damning record, they are drenched with the blood of martyred children, and the agonizing cry of forty millions of enslaved people is ascending continually day and night. Do you ask for evidence that this people were deliberately robbed by a band of men at the head of our government, who were in league with the money power of Europe ? If so, please read and ponder the “confidential” circular which was issued in 1862 by English capitalists, who commissioned one Hazzard, a London banker, to propagate its principles among American bankers with a view of having the financial legislation of Congress pave the way for its final adoption as the settled policy of this nation. How well they succeeded is best told by millions of wrecked fortunes and ruined homes. Here is the infernal document :
Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power, and chattel slavery destroyed. This, I and my European friends are in favor of, for slavery is but the owning of labor, and carries with it the care for the laborer ; while the European plan, led on by England, is capital control of labor, by controlling wages. This can be done by controlling the money. The great debt that capitalists will see to it is made out of the war, must be used as a measure to control the volume of money. To accomplish this the bonds must be used as a banking basis. We are now waiting to get the secretary of the treasury to make his recommendation to Congress. It will not do to allow the greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any length of time, for we cannot control that.
About the middle of the present century Sir John Lubbock, of England, declared :
There is likely to be an effort made by the capital class to fasten upon the world a rule through their wealth, and by means of reduced wages place the masses upon a footing more degrading and dependent than has ever been known in history. The spirit of money-worshippers seems to be rapidly developing in this direction.
A few years later Abraham Lincoln reiterated the same sentiment in his message to Congress in 1861. (See Barrett’s Life of Lincoln, pages 309 and 310.) This important warning is ommitted in the later histories :
Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit raising a warning voice against the approach of returning despotism. There is one point to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above labor, in the structure of government. * * Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already have, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost.
These are the words of warning from our country’s sainted martyr, but alas, how little heeded.
Again near the close of the war, in reply to a letter from a friend in Illinois, President Lincoln said :
Yes we may all congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its close. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. The best blood of the flower of American youth has been freely offered upon our country’s altar that the nation might live. It has been indeed a trying hour for the republic ; but I see in the near future, a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.
As a result of the war corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.
What a wonderful prophecy, and how terribly it is being fulfilled.