Ik
V
THE ALLI ANCE - INDEPENDENT.
THE CURSE OF GOLD.
Col. Jesse Harper Arraigns Thi3 Graceless
Idol Before the Bar of Truth.
Kellogg, Iowa, Jsly 6, 18G2.
Col. Hauper. Some years ngo yoa printed
n the Advocate ot this State an article rcview
'i5 the Secreiary ortbc Treasury on tho legal
nder notes aii'l the silver dollar. It was the
Dost complete review I ever saw, and aa both
ilio jiartieu place them6elves on a single gold
itandard in their platforms, and are dead tet
igainst Treasury notca, will you please have
'aw article reprinted? I want to use it for cam
saizn purposes. Your friend,
J. II. Wilsox.
"tho United
pledged to the p
fi
Danville, III. , July H, 1803.
JlROTiiKR Wilson. I will have tho article
vintprt in thn New Fobfm. It is eood reading.
.t had gone out of my mind. J . IIakpeu.
"Cursed bo the man who first loved
50W."
So sang old Anacron, twenty-five
senturies ago. During all these years
?old has been made a curse made so
by its lovers.
Let the whole race of gold w orshipers
be cursed. Let them find no standing
ground upon earth. Let them go to
their own place, where the Judas went.
"Gold! Gold! in all ages, the curte of man
kind, I'hy fetters are forged for the soul and the
mind."
Park Benjamin.
Let the golden calf be buried.
Let its ashes bo thrown upon the
stream of death, to be borne to its native
home.
Let the idol that robs God of worship
and man of honesty, find no rest out
Bide of the pit.
"A currency in which our monetary
unit is coined in gold.' Secretary of the
Treasury.
That is the gold standard.
Somi embros alia.
A gold standard in the great Repub
lic And the world seventy-five billion dol
lars in debt.
A gold standard
And the Republic owing twenty bil
lion dollars, registered debt.
A gold standard
And the nation, in its people, in
dividually owing ten billion dollars.
A gold standard
The demand of despots.
The concession of fools.
"The disorders of the country chiefly
arise from the operation of two enact
mcnts: -
1. The act of February 28, 1878,
which has been continued as a per
manent appropriation for perpetual
Treasury purchase of at least $24,000
000 worth of silver per annum, although
from causes mostly foreign, that metal
is of unstable and falling value, which
must be manufactured into coins of un
limited legal tender and issued to our
people as equivalents' of our monetary
unit. , . ,
9 The act of Mav 31. 1878. which
indefinitely postponed fulfillment of the
solemn pledge (Marcn is. iboa; not omy
nf "reriemntion hut also of "payment"
nf nil the obligations of the United
stntns nnt hearing interest, legalized as
ftJUfi.ono naner monev of unlimited
Wn.l tender, and reauired the post re
riomntinn and issue and re-issue of these
promises to pay dollars, as equivalent
nfnnr monetary unit. But these two
evils, which are each a separate menace
tn the. rmhlic tranauilitv and injurious
to public morals and the public faith,
Thp. Secretary of the Treasury.
Take that fulmination altogether and
it is a nnnnauitor. There are two un
truths in it and one assumption that
amounts to a falsehood. The spirit that
rrnvft birth to the national banks, is the
nniv snirit that could make such an as
sail It unon morality, justice and truth.
The Secretary says these two enact
ments
i "Menace nublic tranauilitv."
2. "Are injurious to puDnc morais. -
3. "Are injurious to public faith."
To make such a declaration as that in
a State paper, under oath, is simply
monstrous.
1. The United States notes (green
backs) are not "unlimited" legal tender.
They ought to be, they ought to have
been made so; but they had two excep
tions placed on them they are there
now.
2. On the 18th of March, 1869 when
the so called act to "Strengthen the
Public Credit," was passed, gold was not
4 ".yii of our monetary measure.
awrv i
States is solemnly
tymcnt in coin all of
its obligations and the United
States pledges its faith for the redempt
ion of the United States notcsin cot."
The Funding Act of July 14, '70,
makes all the funded bonds payable in
coin of the weight and fineness of the
date. All this the learned Secretary
well knew when he penned his wonder
ful report.
It was February 12, 1873, that silver
was demonetized, and the gold unit
established.
Then ilm monev desnots got such con
trol of our Treasury Department, as to
change our monetary unit.
On that dreadful night, when, as J udge
Kelly puts it, such men as Voorhecs and
Blaine were siue-tracKcu; men iuu una
was secretly changed.
Then our monetary unit was cuangcu
from silver to gold.
Then it was that the despots of Eu
rope "Came, and saw and conquered.
The silver unit oi dnt pure, aiz
standard, was dropped: and the gold 25
grains eight-tenths standard fine, was
made our monetary unit.
From April 2, 171)2, wiien tne ranters
established the "unit" or "dollar," all
the way down our history, till the 12th
of February, 1873, 371 grains of putt
silver was our monetary unit.
The change to a gold unit under cir
cumstances that taints tho affair with
indexes of conspiracy, is a danger that
the secretary seems have, no conception
Let the American people learn, and
the sooner the better, that the act o!
1878, only partially restored our silvei
money two millions a month, and no!
exceeding four, but it not repeal tin
clause in the act of February 12, 1873.
that changed our monetary unit to gold
LET IT BE REMEMBERED FOREVER,
Hmt thn art which changed our mono
tary unit from silver to gold is a deed
J . . m m . 11 1 J 1
that will consign to miaray an who too
part in it. And now the Secretary o,
Vir Tfofianrv nsks to have the act o
1878, authorizing two millions a month
repealed.
Then we will be under the act of Feb
ruary 12, 1873, with a gold unit, with s
gold dollar that has appreciated (by aic
of law) forty per cent in ten years.
That would place us fatally on tin
road to ruin. Presto change.
We demand as a citizen we repeat it
to the Secretary, who is but our paid
clerk we repeat it to all our clerks all
officials who are the agents of the peo
ple, that the law of February 12, 1873,
giving us the gold unit, must be re
pealed, and the silver unit restored!
A? long as that infamous act, creating
a golden unit, remains, it will be a
1. "Menace to public tranquility."
2. "Injurious to public morals."
3. "Injurious to the public faith."
This is tho road, Mr. Secretary, that
justice marks out. Follow it.
The recommendations of the Secretary
are in the interests of tho law and
against the people at large.
The recommendations of the Secretary
asks the repeal of just laws.
The laws asked to be repealed, defect
ive as they are, have saved the country
from a ruin, but for them, that would
have been overwhelming.
The re-issueof the legal tenders, and
tho giving us two millions of silver per
month, has been the means of saving a
remnant of liberty and property to the
people.
The Secretary now asks, under the
guise of a nonsequitura false assumption
that these laws be repealed. . These
iust laws, that uniust ones may remain.
Tim chancre to a gold unit after our
immense debt was made on a silver unit
was so unjust as to allow no paliation.
TV AMSVO ft i1lVM i
To repeal that law and come back to
the silver unit, under Avnicn tne ueois
were made, is the, demand of hustice.
What is the matter with the disciples
of self? What is the trouble in the camp
of the armv of nelf?
Does the galled jade begin to wince?
Ah, ha!
This crv of gold is the Siren song oi
greed. This "gold standard" is the
watchword of a conspiracy to rob.
A secretary, just at the end of the
war, said: "Come to a gold standard."
The crv was raised while the ground
was yet smokingwith the blood of fallen
heroes.
His mantle has fallen on the Treasury
the dens of the bullion brokers, "Give
us a currency in which our monetary is
coinel in gold."
The attempt to carry such a decree
into actual fact, would fill tho world
with a wider ruin than famine, pestilence
and war combined.
What do these "money changers"
want? The object is not to make actual
gold payments but to measure in gold
then pay in something else; tbo debtor
paying the agio the difference between
two kinds of money. The creditor get
ting the agio.
Thus making gold a tyrant in the
hands of a few despots, and by this trick
the people are turned to helots, to fill
graves of despair. This is tho feast to
which wo arc invited. It is the insa
tiable maw of greed proclaiming the
millennium of sdf. En est alia.
The legal tender quality of tho United
States note (greenback) was not always
looked upon as "injurious to morals."
No!
When national bank issue is to be "re
deemed," then greenbacks is tho re-
We challenge contradiction of the fol
lowing: Make all the national bank issues
redeemable in gold on demand, undei
penalty of deaths and a national bankci
could not be found in the world.
Bankers do not propose to "redccm,;
their notes, in fact.
The promise is a sham.
They never have made good their sys-
turn nf fnlse nromiscs.
A specie paying banking system is 8
fraud and a lie.
It never existed in fact.
Tt. never will.
What is all this clamor about, an)
way?
Is old earth reeling to a fall?
Here it is: -It
is ta reduce the volume of legal ten
der money. That is what the how'
along the whole line means.
What are these "single standard''
fellows aiming at?
Put in another form is:
To secure the exclusive right to sol!
their credit on time and get pay in ad
vance for the credit.
To measure the credit, they want con
trol of the "wnit of value."
Tho smaller flic number of units, tin
easier thev are controlled.
The smaller the number of units, th
more valuable the credit.
This is all there is of the financial re
form of the Secretary.
The national banks and they are tin
power behind the throne want tho uni
of monetary value stamped on something
so scarce, and so little of it, that thoj
can control it. And by controlling tin
material of the unit they control its vol
uie of the units. And it isthevolunn
of money that fixes prices. .
"To keep this sly dodge in the dark
my hoy" "Ways that are dark &n(
tricks that arc vain" arc used.
This "convertible into coin on de
mand," is one of the tricks.
It is the most dastardly lie that wa:
ever belched from the mouth of a Shy
lock to rob a helot. A specie paying
banking system is a contrivance inventec
to cheat labor. The record this "con
tri vance" has made reads like the dian
of a freehooter and meanders like tin
trail of one "sot on" by the jim-jams.
T.ieten
"It is far better to fix the maximum o
legal tender notes at $346,000,000, sup
Dorted bv a minimum revenue of $100,
nno nnn of coin. A demand for coin h
exhaust such a reserve may not occur
but if events force it, then it would jus
t
tify a temporary suspension oi spec
navments."
That is the way another secretarj
puts it up. Three hundred million
United States notes resting on one hun
dred million coin. Three dollars ii
paper to one of coin.
These secretaries of the Treasury hav
a way of thinking that such a plai
would be a safe guardian of public moi
als and a giant to smciu tne puDii
iaith.
ITear them talk when under the in
spiring influence of their religiou
fervor.
"General confidence in these note
(United States) would maintain them a
rnr with coin and iustifv their use a
reserves oi banks and for the redemptioi
ot Dank notes." . -
There is smecis Davment for VOU.
There is a fstem of lying that beat
Simon Suggs' '
based on two-thirds confidence and one
third coin, as a bank basis, and thl
paper money is to bo used for the re
demption of bank notes.
There is three-card montc.
There is a "confidence game."
But at this point the faitli of the in
vestor of the confidence game weakened.
A naner redeemer supported by two
dollars in "confidence" to one dollar in
"coin," to every thrco dollars might
fail.
So this same learned secretary, to
make his bank safe beyond all doubt,
made bank paper redeemable in govern
ment paper money; and then prated like
an owl about "redeemable paper." And
said national bank money wasgood tho ,
best money tho world ever saw, because,
"convertible on demand."
When the secretary utters his man
date, the idols are dumb the oracles
are silent the world stands aghast.
To hear tho secretary speak he has
spoken let the heavens bow before him:
"But all experience has shown that
there are periods under any system of
paper money , however carefully guarded,
when it is impossible to maintain actual
coin redemption. To meet this contin
gency, it would seem to be right to
maintain the legal tender quality of tho
United States notes." ,
That on" paragraph consigns to the
placu of Hildas, tiio Avholo ppecic basis
system as a fraud un parallelled, alio un
cqualed. Here is a secretary a modern
Diogoncs drifting about in the sea of
financial reform, in tho tub of political
confusion.
It is "impossiblo to mr'ntain actual
coin redemption of bank notes." Oh,
wisdom! Therefore, keep legal paper
money under them keep legal paper
money to redeem! -
En cste sohquc.
What is the matter with these fellows?
They make as much noise as Orpheus,
the god or wind,
lias the "hard monev" medicine been
such as to develop flatulency?
The present secretary is smiermg uu
acute attack of hiatus in flatus.
.... . A At ...M!n
1. Tlioro is menace to me puuuu
tranquility.
2. There is injury to tne puoiic mor
als. . .....
3. There is injury to the public taitn.
So says the secretary; because of two
enactments. One of these enactments
gives us legal tender silver dollars, lnc
niior finnefment offends in the "indefi
nite postponement of the redemption of
these same notes." rue secretary oi uiu
Treasury is troubled in his dreams
Unlrrlifo A nn all because or tllO
United States notes the never failing
redeemers of bank notes. Then the
greenback comes to the rescue its re
deeming power is infinite because it w
fiat.
This secretary, like tho weeping god
dess in the valley of sorrow, is'baptizcd
in his own sea of tears because the
"redemption" of the never failing "re-
A . . m .JI f
decmcr" of bank notes, nas oecn mucu-
nitcly. postponed."
Let Congress pass an act an once,
Rcdcmjitos alemmtos; requiring each per
son to cry thirty days, and abstain from
liquid stimulant for twenty-four hours,
as a mark of respect to tne secretary.
. mm .
Then snail tne worm move gauy on.
Then shall tumult cease.
Then shall civil service become a.
thing of beauty, a joy forever.
And then the millennial years go ron-
ingby- . . ..... i'
Ah. me! when will tne wonu cease to
bow to the golden.
When will it cease to worsmp mo sil
ver goddess wherever it does?
Anil cease to aaopt tnesctwo mois iur
money, and adopt - a Lgal tender paper
money?
v ... . . .1.1 i
It will oe Happier man it nas uwu
since Adam left paradise turned out for
believing a lie. told by the author of the
ipecie paying banking system. Selah,
Danville, 111. J. Harper.
Tanglefoot "Oh isn't this waltz
divine?" Miss Smilax "Well, perhaps
it is divine; but it happens to be a
polka instead of a waltz, and the
sooner your feet are acquainted with
the fact the better we are likely to get
along." . v - ' '
Violin makers prize above all other
kinds of wood that which they extract
from the seasoned timber of old houses.
Snd for our .complete book list. Sj
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