SEVEN FINANCIAL CONSPIRACIES
CHAPTER IX.
CONCLUSION.
WE have now completed a brief outline of seven atrocious conspiracies against this government ; conspiracies which for boldness of purpose and cruelty of design, are without a parallel in the annals of crime, and all perpetrated within the brief period of thirteen years ; thirteen years in which the powers of darkness sat enthroned in our national capitol ; thirteen years of utter disregard for the rights of the people ; thirteen years in which class-legislation gave birth to more moneyed and monopolistic powers than ever before cursed any civilized people.
Will it be said I have made misstatements in these charges ? In repiy I only ask that you search the official records in corroboration of what is contained in these pages. I challenge contradiction of the truths set forth in this little volume. Political tricksters may distort these truths ; capitalists may sneer and public opinion derisively shake its head, but the truths remain, and their results are stamped in burning characters upon the heart of a dying nation. The record of the American Congress from February 25, 1862, to January 24, 1875, is a record of the blackest and most heartless crimes. But kind reader, do not for one moment deceive yourself with the thought that this corrupt legislation ceased on that memorable day. Ah, no ; the act of resumption simply completed the infernal machinery by which the money power is crushing out the liberty and lives of the American people. By controlling the finances of the country they have been enabled to form trusts and syndicates which have reduced the people to a wage-slavery more abject and heartless than any chattel slavery that ever cursed God’s earth.
The people having slept until this machinery was perfected, have at last awakened from their dream of freedom to find their liberties fettered, and themselves in the grasp of a system of monopolies whose Titanic enginery is crushing out not only liberty, but life itself. And when we consider the fact that the representatives of these monopolies sit in our congressional halls and practically control the United States Senate, that highest law-making power in the land, who does not tremble for the safety not only of our Republic, but of our civilization. The results of this legislation are being universally realized, and fears may justly be entertained that we have already passed the point beyond which our steps may be retraced and our liberties retrieved.
Yes, the people are awakening, but the money power is on guard, they have entrenched themselves at every available point, and are now clamoring for an appropriation to establish a military power. Let us not be deceived ; this cry for an established militia is not to defend ourselves against a foreign foe ; the enemy is within our gates, sitting in the high places of our country. They tell us “the wealth of the country must be protected.” Ah, the wealth of the country requires protection. It is not labor they would protect ; it is not the oppressed they would have go free, it is not the burden of toil they would lighten, but the wealth of the country demands protection. But what is this wealth that cannot be protected without military force ? Ah, sirs, it is that wealth of which the people have been robbed ; it is the ill-gotten gain of a moneyed oligarchy. It is not the fear of foreign invaders, not the fear that the masses will violate law, but that they will repeal unjust statutes, and restore to the people the inheritance of which they have been so outrageously robbed. Where these robberies will end it is hardly possible to conjecture, but the light is breaking, for God in the multitude of his mercies has raised up a band of sturdy men to stay the dark waters that are overwhelming this people. For twelve years this little Spartan band has stood guard at the mystic pass that leads down to national death. For twelve years the old party Goliaths have stood in awe of this band of Davids, and God has strengthened their arms and multiplied their numbers until there is no place in all this land where their voice is not heard, and where their words do not cause hope to spring up in the hearts of the oppressed.
But spurred on by his appetite for plunder, Shylock still dares to raise his murderous hand against this people. Greed is never satisfied, its ill-gotten gains only serve to sharpen its appetite, and it is ever crying more, MORE. Cunning hands, schemeing brains, degenerate souls, still plot the destruction of this Republic. Their next plan is to destroy the $346,000,000 of greenbacks, which have only been preserved thus far through the untiring vigilance in our national Congress of such men as Weaver, Gillette and the devoted DeLamartyr, aided by the purse, pen and brains of such men as Peter Cooper, Clover, Swinton, West, Norton, Harper, Heath, Berkey, Phillips, Martin, Polk, and an innumerable host whose names are enshrined in the hearts of a grateful people.
Besides the destruction of the greenbacks it is their settled policy to rob us of the silver dollar and place our currency upon a single gold basis. This is another diabolic scheme solely in the interest of the creditor class.
There is not, there cannot be a greater enemy to American producers than John Sherman and that class of men who are devoting all their energies to the destruction of silver as money. With gold as a basis and the banks to issue the paper currency of the country, the people would be entirely at the mercy of Shylock. Indeed, are we not already at the feet of the money power ?
The New York Tribune, under the management of Whitelaw Reid, said :
The time is near when they (the banks) will feel compelled to act strongly. Meanwhile a very good thing has been done. The machinery is now furnished by which, in any emergency, the financial corporations of the east can act together on a single day’s notice with such power that no act of Congress can overcome or resist their decision.
Shades of Horace Greeley ! Can it be possible that the New York Tribune, that once powerful advocate of justice, has become so perverted as to call it “a very good thing,” that the financial corporations of the east are furnished with the machinery whereby they can control Congress. Where are we, then ? Is it the financial corporations of the east, or the United States Congress, that govern this country ? The New York Tribune, that grand old anti-slavery champion, says it is “the financial corporations of the east,” and rejoices in it as “a very good thing.”
What, then, avail the words of Horace Greeley, or the blood of a million martyred soldiers, or the expenditure of five billions of treasure ? Have we not today fifty millions of people under the bondage of financial corporations ? A bondage more galling and more heartless than that beneath the lash of southern slavery—more galling because perpetrated in the name of liberty, more heartless because there is none to heed the cries of the starving white slaves, none to pity them dying, none to bury their dead. The shackles were dropped from four millions of black slaves, not to make them free, but to enslave the whole producing industries of the country, through this infernal bond and bank scheme.
History proves that nothing has been so disastrous to nations as the enactment of laws which favor the few at the expense of the many. There is no robbery so suicidal as that sanctioned by law ; for it not only destroys the morality of the legalized robber, starves and kills the victimized masses, but it degrades the law-maker himself to a level with the most notorious highwayman. Ruskin says : “ The occult theft, theft that hides itself even from itself, and is legal, respectable and cowardly, corrupts the body and soul of man to the very last fibre of them.” And history proves that such legislation destroys nations, degrades humanity, and is a mockery against the most high God. Against the Eternal Judge who will not hold guiltless him who lends a voice to such iniquitous legislation. A legislation that destroys both soul and body of the toiling millions.