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336.73    Butler,  Fabius  Melton 
B97L 

Lincoln  Money  Martyred 


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I  FRED  LOCKLEY 

RARE  WESTERN  BOOKS 

4227  S.  E.  Stark  St. 
PORTLAND,  ORE. 


LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 


LINCOLN   MONEY 
MARTYRED 


By 

DR.  R.  E.  SEARCH 


PRICE  $2.00 


1935 

LINCOLN  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

Medical  Arts  Building 

SEATTLE,  WASHINGTON 


Copyright,  1935 

Lincoln  Publishing  Company 

Medical  Arts  Building 

Seattle,  Washington 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION    3 

Chap.  1 — The  Search  for  the  Cause  of  Depressions  Begins 5 

Chap.  2 — The  Birth  of  Money 8 

The  Birth  of  Usury 9 

The  Cause  of  Pogroms  and  Most  Revolutions 10 

Chap.  3 — The  Abuse  of  the  Use  of  Money 12 

Israelites   - 12 

History  of  Money 15 

Ancient  Greece  _ 16 

Rome  18 

Jesus  and  the  Money  Changers 23 

The  Early  Protestant  Leaders  on  Usury 27 

In  Early  England 27 

Chap.  4 — A  History  of  Money  and  Banking  in  Early  Europe 28 

Bank  of  Venice 29 

The  Bank  of  Genoa 29 

The  Bank  of  Amsterdam 30 

The  Bank  of  Hamburg 30 

Usury  the  Persistent  Cause  of  Sin  and  Crime 32 

Chap.  5 — History  of  the  Origin  of  the  Bank  of  England 34 

The  English  Banking  System  Founded 35 

Chap.  6 — The  English  or  Money  Changers'  System  Started 

in  the  United  States 36 

Alexander  Hamilton  37 

Chap.  7— The  Birth  of  Lincoln  Full  Legal  Tender  Money 44 

Lincoln's  Letter  to  Colonel  Taylor _ _ 45 

Chap.  8 — The  Foreign  Money  Changer  Kills  "America's 

Greatest  Blessing"  46 

The  Exception  Clause 46 

The  Hazard  Circular 47 

Chap.  9 — The  Money  Changers  Get  Another  Bank  Law 50 

The  National  Banking  Act 51 

Rothschild's  Letters  — .  51 

Senator  Sherman  Tells  Rothschild  About  Bank  Law 51 

Ikleheimer's  Letter  52 

Chap.  10 — The  National  Banks  Established 55 

What  Secretary  Chase  Said  of  National  Bank  Law 56 

Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Address..— 57 

Lincoln's  Letter  to  Mrs.  Bixby 58 

Chap.  11— The  Civil  War  Ends 58 

The  Money  Changers  Start  Action  Again — Greenbacks  Destroyed..  59 

The  Effect  of  Greenback  Destruction 60 

The  Credit  Strengthening  Act 64 

Chap.  12— The  Gold  Standard  Established  and  Silver  Coinage 

Killed— or  "The  Crime  of  '73" 65 

Luckenbach's  Letters  _ 66 

The  Demonetizing  Act 71 


CONTENTS— Coi2d/2uec/ 

PAGE 
Chap.  13 — The  People  Clamor  for  More  Money 72 

The  Money  Changers  Give  Their  Orders 73 

A  Bank  Letter 73 

Chap.  14 — The  Money  Changers  Order  a  Panic 74 

Another  Bank  Letter 74 

Chap.  15 — Another  Valiant  Lindbergh 76 

From  Lindbergh's  Book ~ 77 

Chap.  16 — The  Money  Changers  Add  Another  Link  to  the  Golden  Chain  79 

Chap.  17 — The  Federal  Reserve 81 

Privileges  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank 83 

Whose  Money  Is  It? 84 

Reserve  Notes  Redeemable  in  Treasury  Gold 84 

United  States  Gold  Notes  Accepted  as  Gold 85 

Chap.  18— The  World  War 86 

Chap.  19 — "American  Peasants"  88 

Chap.  20 — The  Money  Changers  Take  the  United  States  to 

the  Cleaners  89 

Professor  Kemmerer  Tells  How  to  "Deflate" 90 

A  "Deflation  Party" 91 

$520,000,000  Deflation  in  1920 92 

40,000  Commercial  Failures  Estimated  in  1932 92 

"Interst"  and  How  It  Works 93 

Chap.  21— The  Gold  Bill 95 

Speech  of  Hon.  Lewis  T.  McFadden 96 

Morgenthau  and  the  "Blue  Chips" 102 

"Sound  Money"  107 

Chap.  22 — The  Research  Finished 109 

Chap.  23— The  Virginia  Plantation 112 

Chap.  24 — The  Stranger's  Story 114 

Lincoln's  Interview  with  Schyler  Colfax 128 

Chap.  25 — The  Return  to  the  Old  Plantation 131 

Chap.  26 — The  Stranger  Concludes  His  Story 134 

Chap.  27 — The  "Awakening"  136 

Chap.  28 — Conclusion  138 

Appendix  143 

McGeer's  Speech  143 

Editorial  of  "Daily  Province"of  Vancouver,  B.  C 145 

The  Super-World  Government  Chart 146 

Notes  on  "Chart" 147 

What  Is  Money? 149 

"Constitutional  Money"  152 

Supreme  Court  Decision  on  Money 153 


Introduction 

THE  author  wishes  the  reader  to  understand  from  the  begin- 
ning that  only  possibly  a  comparatively  few  of  our  American 
bankers  are  to  be  placed  in  the  class  of  "Money  Changers"  here- 
after spoken  of,  and  can  only  be  censured  for  their  part  in  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  perpetuating  the  devastating,  unchris- 
tian banking  system  that  has  been  fastened  upon  us. 

The  American  bankers  have  taken  the  system  as  it  was,  feel- 
ing it  was  at  least  legal,  and  have  used  it  to  work  out  their  own 
economic  problems  and  it  is  likely  a  regretable  fact  that  a  very 
few  of  them  ever  gave  their  "business"  very  much  philosophical 
thought,  or  speculated  on  the  eventual  effect  of  the  system  upon 
the  affairs  of  their  nation,  and  consequently  nearly  one-half  of 
their  number  have  gone  down  to  bankruptcy  and  disgrace  in  the 
last  fifteen  years,  caught  with  the  rest  of  us  in  the  awful  whirl- 
pool of  money  racketeering  and  manipulation  that  is  drawing 
the  whole  civilized  world  into  its  vortex. 

They,  of  course,  knew  that  for  each  dollar  in  money  deposited 
in  their  bank,  they  could  loan  out  ten  dollars  worth  of  their 
checks,  or  credit,  or  bookkeeping  money,  and  in  return  demand 
in  payment  MONEY,  and  until  recently,  gold  money  at  that.  The 
disastrous  end  of  such  a  vile  system  is  inevitable  now,  as  it  has 
ever  been  down  through  the  centuries ;  the  same  that  caused 
Oliver  Goldsmith  to  write : 

"111  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey. 
Where  wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay." 

So  we  should  not  be  surprised  when  we  find  that  when  the 
government  of  old  Egypt  fell,  four  per  cent  of  the  people  owned 
all  the  wealth. 

When  the  Babylonian  civilization  collapsed,  three  per  cent  of 
the  people  owned  all  the  wealth. 

When  old  Persia  went  down  to  destruction  two  per  cent  of 
the  people  owned  all  the  wealth. 

When  ancient  Greece  went  down  to  ruin  one-half  of  one  per 
cent  of  the  people  owned  all  the  wealth. 

When  the  Roman  Empire  fell  by  the  wayside,  two  thousand 
people  owned  the  wealth  of  the  civilized  world  and  then  followed 
the  Dark  Ages  from  which  they  did  not  recover  until  wealth  was 
scattered  by  continuous  wars,  a  great  share  of  it  being  therein 
destroyed. 

It  is  said  at  this  time  that  less  than  two  (2)  per  cent  of  the 
people  control  ninety  (90)  per  cent  of  the  wealth  of  America. 

The  foregoing  disasters  as  well  as  our  own  present  condition 
were  all  brought  about  by  the  same  thing ;  namel}^,  the  power  in 
the  hands  of  individuals  or  private  groups  to  issue  and  control 
the  value  and  volume  of  the  money  of  the  nation.  This  right,  of 
course,  being  obtained  by  bribery,  corruption,  trickery,  treason, 
murder,  etc. 

Will  our  present  citizens  of  America  carry  on  in  hope  and 
ignorance  and  let  our  nation  collapse  as  did  the  above  mentioned, 


and  also  Russia,  or  will  they  arouse  and  inform  themselves  of 
the  true  conditions  and  stamp  out  the  merciless  system  that 
always  brings  destruction,  and  do  as  Lincoln  intended  doing, 
establish  a  really  equitable  monetary  system  and  an  economic 
security  for  all? 

The  author  hopefully  dedicates  this  volume  as  a  help  to 
America  to  inform  herself  on  the  subject  of  money,  its  uses  and 
abuses. 

It  has  been  necessary  for  obvious  reasons,  to  relate  in  Chap- 
ters 23,  24,  25,  26,  27  of  this  narrative  the  details  concerning,  and 
surrounding  the  death  of  President  Lincoln  in  the  form  of  fiction, 
as  many  scattered  factors,  happenings  and  writings,  must  be  con- 
nected up  to  make  a  completed  whole ;  and  it  is  hoped  the  end 
to  be  obtained  may  justify  the  means,  namely — the  arousing  of 
the  interest  of  our  people  here  in  Lincoln's  homeland,  to  a  point 
where  they  will  individually  and  collectively  inform  themselves 
of  the  true  state  of  affairs  in  this  their  sorely  beleagued  nation, 
and  correct  the  unholy  practices  that  have  brought  about  such 
detestable  conditions. 

It  is  hoped  that  America  may  soon  be  able  to  supply  such  a 
remedy  as  will  make  it  forever  impossible  for  any  individual  or 
group  to  so  manipulate  our  national  affairs ;  and  by  correctly 
applying  the  rugged  principles  of  our  great  Constitution,  so  that 
our  vast  wealth  of  natural  resources  shall  be  justly  distributed 
to  each  and  all,  and  every  man,  woman,  and  child  shall  have  a 
"Fully  Guaranteed  Economic  Security  from  Birth  to  Death." 

This  should  bring  about  a  condition  where  no  one  would  need 
to  worry  or  "think"  of  the  necessities  of  life,  which  would  then 
conform  to  the  teachings  of  Him  who  was  the  promulgator  of 
the  principles  on  which  our  Constitution  and  Government  was 
established,  when  He  said,  "Take  no  thought  for  your  life,  what 
ye  shall  drink ;  or  yet  for  your  body,  what  ye  shall  put  on. ' ' 

In  this,  the  newer  version  of  the  dastardly  murder  of  Amer- 
ica's best  loved  and  greatest  citizen,  friend  and  champion  of  the 
common  people  may  be  found  not  only  the  story  of  the  greatest 
crime  ever  committed  against  the  people  of  this  great  common- 
wealth, but  the  knowledge  that  it  was  the  forging  of  the  most 
important  link  in  the  chain  which  greed,  special  privilege,  and 
money  manipulation  have  fastened  around  the  throats  of  all 
Americans,  and  bound  us  in  a  limitless  morass  of  bonded  debt 
and  mortgages. 

Without  his  premature  death  the  future  actions  of  the  im- 
mortal Lincoln  might  well  have  brought  about  the  revision  or 
repeal  of  the  vicious  laws  forced  upon  him  in  the  emergency  of 
civil  war;  and  the  establishment  of  a  real  National  Currency 
System,  based  on  a  full  legal  tender  "Greenback"  which  he  had 
called,  "America's  Greatest  Blessing,"  that  would  have  enabled 
our  beloved  country  to  forge  ahead  to  a  brilliant  future,  a  great 
united  nation  of  happy  people  for  which  he  worked  so  faithfully 
to  the  last,  and  to  have  us  established  as  he  would  have  wished 
us  to  be— FOREVER  FREE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Search  for  the  Cause  of  Depressions 

Begins 

IT  WAS  in  the  spring  of  1933,  that  I  had  gone  to  Washington, 
D.  C,  for  a  number  of  months  to  do  research  work,  and  to  be 
in  close  touch  with  the  daily  political  happenings  and  to  avail 
myself  of  the  wealth  of  information  to  be  had  in  the  Congres- 
sional Library,  which  was  especially  rich  in  the  material  needed 
for  a  book  I  was  planning  on  the  subject  of  economics,  banking, 
and  the  money  question. 

That  was  the  fourth  year  of  the  great  world  depression,  which, 
up  to  then,  had  caused  such  financial  conditions  as  the  world 
had  never  before  experienced.  Numerous  business  failures  of 
all  kinds,  increasing  in  volume  as  time  went  on;  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  farms  and  homes  lost  by  foreclosure  of  mortgages ; 
thousands  of  banks,  trust  companies,  and  savings  and  loan  com- 
panies forced  to  close  their  doors,  with  all  the  misery  and  losses 
to  the  masses  that  this  entailed. 

Many  were  the  scandals  uncovered  by  the  closing  of  some  of 
these  banks ;  the  looting  of  practically  all  ready  assets  by  officers 
of  the  institutions.  Some  were  allowed  to  go  free,  others  were 
given  various  prison  terms  and  fines,  but  public  confidence  in 
banking  was  generally  badly  shaken  and  private  hoarding  be- 
came more  general.  Safety  deposit  boxes  were  in  great  demand 
and  in  many  instances  male  attendants  had  to  be  put  on  at  the 
safety  vaults  to  help  handle  the  heavy  deposit  boxes. 

The  outlook  was  bad,  indeed,  and  prophecies  of  a  possible 
revolution  were  heard  on  every  hand. 

Much  gold  had  been  exported  to  Europe,  and  especially  to 
France,  with  the  largest  military  establishment.  The  "big  boys" 
with  the  gold  felt  it  would  be  safest  there  in  case  of  trouble. 

The  "Happiness  Boys,"  who  in  the  early  months  of  1929,  had 
glibly  told  us  that  this  was  a  "New  Era"  of  prosperity  and  never 
again  would  we  have  panics  and  bad  times,  and  who,  in  the  latter 
part  of  1929  had  tried  hard  to  "laugh  off"  the  idea  that  we  could 
ever  have  much  of  a  panic  or  depression,  assured  us  the  Federal 
Reserve  System  had  been  erected  for  that  special  purpose,  and 
that  a  very  few  months  would  see  things  bounding  forward  again. 


6  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYKED 

When  those  months  had  passed,  conditions  were  gradually 
getting  worse,  they  having  been  aided  and  reinforced  by  the 
higher-ups  in  the  financial  world  as  well  as  high  government 
officials  who  had  assured  us  that  "Prosperity"  was  now  "just 
around  the  corner,"  and  then  had  for  the  next  few  years  been 
extremely  busy,  with  dodging  us  and  the  bill  collectors,  between 
other  and  still  other  assurances,  excuses,  etc.,  while  they,  them- 
selves, were  hunting  for  "the  corner." 

Finally,  by  this  time,  most  of  the  people  had  begun  to  wake 
up  to  the  fact  that  there  really  had  been  a  corner,  but  it  had  been 
a  "corner"  on  money,  and  that  maybe  prosperity  was  just  around 
that  comer  after  all ;  how  far  around,  however,  no  one  seemed 
to  know. 

Roosevelt  and  the  Democratic  Party  in  general,  had  been 
given  a  large  plurality  in  their  promised  "New  Deal"  with  the 
Reconstruction  Finance  Corporation,  relief  to  banks,  railroads, 
etc. 

Independent  students  had  been  trying  for  many  moons  to  find 
some  real  facts  on  the  subject  of  money  and  finance,  for  a  com- 
prehensive story,  but  none  worth  while  had  broken  into  print 
as  yet. 

Especially  I  had  a  particular  interest  in  the  subject,  for  in 
the  heyday  of  the  boom  of  1929,  I  had  been  persuaded  by  some 
of  my  banking  friends  to  convert  most  of  my  savings  (which  I 
had  carefully  put  into  government  bonds  and  like  security)  into 
cash  and  invest  it  in  a  "real-sure  fire"  proposition  that  would 
make  me  supposedly  independent  for  life.  They  explained,  of 
course,  that  this  being  an  absolutely  "new  era,"  one  of  continu- 
ous prosperity,  I  stood  no  chance  to  lose ;  and  besides  that.  I  was 
getting  in  on  the  "ground  floor."  "Well,  when  the  "new  era" 
ended  in  October,  1929,  our  "sure  thing,"  of  course,  collapsed 
with  all  the  rest,  and  I  awakened  to  find  that,  although  I  had 
been  in  on  the  "ground  floor"  another  crowd  had  been  let  into 
the  "basement,"  and  they  had  made  away  with  all  the  money  and 
assets. 

It  had  been  done  legally,  of  course !  Someone  seemed  to  have 
had  a  law  made  especially  to  fit  that  kind  of  a  case.  Anyway  it 
seemed  that  way  to  me,  who  had  not  been  let  in  with  the  base- 
ment crowd. 

I  right  then  and  there  determined  to  begin  an  investigation 
and  research  into  whether  it  was  possible  that  the  "Happiness 
Boys"  and  the  "money  interests,"  whoever  they  might  be,  had 
built  up  like  situations  all  over  the  country  and  taken  the  whole 
country  to  the  "cleaners." 

I  reasoned  that  the  losses  had  been  so  general  all  over  the 
country  that  a  good  long  article  or  book  on  the  subject  might 
be  of  real  service  to  the  country  in  awakening  a  wider  interest 
in  such  proceedings,  and  that  if  enough  genuine  exposure  could 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  7 

be  made,  that  adequate  laws  might  be  passed  to  control  activ- 
ities in  the  future  that  would  prevent  a  recurrence  of  this 
"Boom,"  "Crash,"  "Depression"  business. 

The  research  work  has  been  practically  completed  and  I  had 
unearthed  some  of  the  most  astounding  information  imaginable. 
The  trail  had  led  me  back  through  the  pages  of  our  ovm  history 
of  America,  through  the  early  English  history,  the  French  Revo- 
lution, to  Rome,  Greece,  and  even  back  to  the  Old  Testament 
times. 

Once  started  on  the  research  there  seemed  no  stopping  place, 
if  I  wanted  to  get  right  do\\Ti  to  the  bottom  of  the  situation.  The 
deeper  I  dug  into  the  maze  of  information  and  history,  the  more 
clearly  it  could  be  seen  that  not  only  our  America,  but  all  the 
civilized  countries  of  the  world  were  up  against  a  situation  so 
grave  that  none  but  the  most  sound  and  basic  matter  and  con- 
elusions  could  be  used. 

I  also  became  convinced  that  panics  and  depressions  were 
always  manifested  in  mainly  one  way — namely,  a  shortage  of 
money  or  a  medium  of  exchange  in  circulation.  AVhy?  What  was 
money  for  ?  Why  money  at  all  ?  If  we  must  use  money,  why  could 
we  not  always  have  a  sufficient  supply?  What  made  the  shortage? 
Was  there  something  w^rong  with  our  money  or  our  system  of 
handling  it?  These  and  other  allied  questions  I  decided,  must  be 
answered  if  I  were  to  come  to  a  basic  analysis  of  the  demoraliz- 
ing and  devastating  depression. 

Many  were  the  records  of  sordid  and  sorrowful  tragedies  of 
former  panics,  depressions,  business  failures,  the  growth  of  large 
"business"  institutions  over  the  charred  and  broken  ruins  of 
the  many  smaller  ones ;  the  rise,  disgrace,  and  fall  of  many  busi- 
ness and  political  figures  of  State,  National,  and  International 
renown ;  I  was  led  through  the  trials  and  persecutions  of  the 
early  Christians ;  through  the  court  of  Pilate,  to  the  cross  on 
Calvary;  and  on  back  into  the  early  beginning  of  the  Tribal 
nations. 

I  had  found,  to  my  own  enlightenment  and  conviction,  that 
the  desire  for  money,  together  with  the  power  it  carries  with  its 
possession  and  its  uses  and  abuses,  had  been  at  the  very  founda- 
tions of  most  of  the  world's  greatest  crimes,  tragedies,  and  mur- 
ders of  many  ages  and  nations,  causing  the  fall  of  one  civiliza- 
tion after  another,  right  down  to  the  present  time.  I  had  also 
become  convinced  that  some  vital  principle  must  be  corrected 
before  we  could  ever  be  rid  of  crimes,  wars,  panics,  etc.,  and  I 
had,  therefore,  come  to  feel  that  the  basic  faults  might  well  be 
looked  for  in  times  when  Individual  Property  Rights  were  first 
recognized  and  accepted  as  an  institution,  and  money  was  first 
used  as  a  medium  of  trading,  or  exchange  of  goods,  labor  and 
services  between  people. 


8  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Birth  of  Money 

IN  THE  early  beginnings,  of  course,  only  pretty  and  rare  rocks, 
and  shells,  and  certain  animals'  teeth  and  claws  were  used  as 
money  or  a  medium  of  exchange.  Later  iron  pieces  and  knives, 
and  still  later  silver  and  gold  were  used.  These  metals,  of  course, 
were  much  harder  to  obtain.  In  the  first  place,  it  took  much  work 
and  hardship  to  mine  and  work  them  into  suitable  pieces  of 
money,  which  still,  tended  to  enhance  the  value  and  attractive- 
ness of  the  tokens  which  were  a  medium  bj^  which  all  "things" 
and  labor  could  be  obtained. 

It  seems  that  by  this  time,  in  the  lives  of  the  Nations,  the  idea 
had  become  fixed  in  the  minds  of  certain  types  of  people,  to  the 
effect  that  the  possession  of  money  in  quantity  gave  the  possessor 
certain  power,  station,  and  prestige,  and  the  command  of  men, 
no  matter  in  what  way  they  became  possessed  of  the  money.  As 
money  was  exchangeable  for  all  things  and  labor,  men  who  pos- 
sessed money  could,  of  course,  command  things  in  direct  propor- 
tion to  the  amount  of  money  they  were  able  to  accumulate. 
Money,  you  see,  had  even  then  taken  on  a  fictitious  value  and 
significance,  far  beyond  the  original  purpose  for  which  it  was 
intended,  namely — just  an  easily  carried  and  cared  for  medium 
in  the  exchange  of  property  and  labor. 

As  this  fictitious,  distorted,  but  definite  idea  of  the  value  and 
use  of,  and  the  possession  of  money  became  more  set  in  the  minds 
of  this  certain  type  of  people,  the  more  they  would  concentrate 
on  ways  and  means,  either  fair  or  foul,  to  obtain  it,  and  resort  to 
all  kinds  of  practices  of  attaining  their  ends. 

This  knowledge  of  money  along  with  the  tricks  and  prac- 
tices of  obtaining  it  and  keeping  it  was,  it  seemed,  handed  down 
from  father  to  son  (of  the  money  changer  class)  each  generation 
adding  its  bit  of  learning  and  sharp  dealings,  and  handing  it 
on  to  descendants.  Now  this  type  of  individual  or  class  would, 
as  time  wore  on  finally  become  "money  minded"  as  it  were,  and 
very  adept,  in  the  art  of  acquiring,  accumulating  and  keeping 
money. 

The  exact  time  or  place  of  the  starting  of  the  practice  of 
manipulating  money  is  rather  obscure  and  uncertain;  but  it  is 
more  than  likely  that  it  began  at  a  time  when  some  community 
was  in  the  throes  of  a  great  crop  shortage,  by  continued  drought, 
and  famine.  At  such  a  time  people  with  much  money  found  that, 
while  they  could  not  eat  the  money,  they  could  command  men 
with  it,  and  had  been  able  to  buy  and  store  away  for  their  use 
vastly  more  than  their  just  share  of  foodstuffs,  and  furthermore, 
that  they  could  trade  their  gold  to  other  nations  for  much  needed 
foods  and  stores  of  goods. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  9 

Although  there  seems  to  be  no  record  left  of  the  beginning 
of  the  practice,  it  seems  most  probable  in  view  of  what  we  now 
know  of  the  present  ways  of  moneyed  men,  that  it  was  during 
one  of  these  times  of  famine  and  stress  that  certain  individuals 
with  much  money  conceived  the  idea  of  trading  this  gold  to  other 
nations  for  foodstuffs  and  in  turn  selling  the  foodstuffs  to  their 
own  fellow  countrymen,  in  their  dire  need,  at  a  great  profit  to 
themselves. 

This  foreign  trading  becoming  extremely  hazardous,  it  fol- 
lowed that  the  men  with  money,  not  wanting  to  risk  their  own 
lives,  would  hire  men  to  go  and  do  this  trading  for  them,  paying 
them  for  their  time  and  expense,  and  adding  this  to  the  cost  of 
the  goods,  to  be  passed  on  to  the  consumer  to  pay,  plus  the  profit. 
Later  on  these  men  hired  to  do  the  trading,  became  traders  in 
their  own  right ;  and  finally  the  most  vicious  and  diabolical  curse 
of  all  the  practices  growing  out  of  the  use  and  abuse  of  money 
was  to  result  from  this  trading  in  time  of  famine  and  stress. 

That  practice  was,  simply,  that  the  man  with  money  loaned 
the  use  of  his  money  to  the  traders  in  whom  he  had  confidence, 
for  them  to  do  the  trading  in  foreign  countries,  and  to  sell  the 
foodstuff's  at  home,  for  which  he,  the  man  with  the  money,  would 
get  a  certain  part  or  per  cent  of  the  profits.  In  other  words,  he 
could  sit  at  home,  in  ease,  safety  and  comfort,  and  let  the  use  of 
his  money  bring  him  more  money  without  any  effort  on  his  part 
whatever,  except  possibly  the  worry  as  to  whether  he  would  get 
his  money  back  safely. 

This  practice  once  started,  was,  of  course,  quickly  expanded 
into  lending  monej'  to  various  persons  in  need,  or  in  time  of 
stress,  for  a  stated  time,  with  an  added  amount  to  be  returned 
with  the  money  loaned. 

THE  BIRTH  OF  USURY 

This  practice,  then,  the  abuse  of  the  use  of  money,  which  we 
know  today  as  interest,  but  which  in  the  beginning  was  called 
usury,  was  destined  to  become  the  greatest  curse  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  the  history  of  its  course  of  practice  down  through 
the  ages  traces  the  rise,  decay,  and  fall  of  one  civilization  after 
another. 

Through  the  centuries,  until  the  last  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  or  so,  the  practice  of  this  most  vicious  and  destructive 
procedure  or  system  of  dealing  in  money,  the  medium  of  ex- 
change, or  as  called  by  some,  the  "Life  Blood  of  the  Nation," 
has  been  very  largely  confined  to  a  certain  type  of  mind,  which 
deals  practically  exclusively  in  the  realm  of  the  material,  that  is, 
a  mind  that  is  only  interested  in  selfish  accumulation  of  money, 
"things,"  or  property  and  the  domination  of  others,  and  not  in 
the  principle  of  live  and  let  live,  a  spirit  of  fair  play,  or  an  equal 
chance  for  all,  but  always  seeking  an  advantage  of  the  other 
fellow. 


10  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYEED 

From  the  very  earliest  records,  we  find  this  money  complex 
type  of  mind  constantly  present,  and  as  it  is  an  expression  of  a 
selfish  trait,  in  that  it  deals  most  exclusively  in  the  realm  of  the 
material  world,  or  of  things,  and  is  strictly  an  economic  applica- 
tion of  mind,  it  is  used  to  enable  a  person  or  group  to  use  these 
practices  to  take  advantage  of  others  among  whom  they  are  liv- 
ing at  the  time. 

It  follows  then,  as  a  reasonable  presumption,  that  this  most 
vicious  of  human  practices  must  have  been  and  was  handed  down 
from  father  to  son  as  a  priceless  heritage  of  knowledge  adverse 
to  the  rest  of  humanity,  to  be  used  and  guarded  as  a  sacred 
heritage. 

The  Cause  of  Pogroms  and  Most  Revolutions 

THE  creed  of  this  type  of  person  or  people  has  always  been 
the  same,  very  simple,  but  most  religiously  adhered  to  and 
practiced.  In  a  few  words  it  is  as  follows :  Buy  low — sell  high — 
accumulate  money — lend  the  money  at  high  usury,  or  interest,  to 
the  people  in  need  and  distress ;  eventually  getting  complete  con- 
trol of  nearly  the  entire  money  of  the  country ;  then  hoarding 
the  money ;  causing  artificial  shortage  of  it  and  consequently 
higher  interest  rates ;  in  turn  forcing  prices  of  commodities  and 
wages  to  a  low  point,  where  none  but  men  with  money  could 
survive  for  long. 

Suffering  and  starvation  would  eventually  breed  rioting  and 
finally  a  great  uprising  would  occur,  ending  in  either  one  of  two 
ways :  the  mob  or  rioters  would  strike  directly  at  the  money 
lenders,  or  against  the  Government. 

First :  When  the  country  was  small  and  the  amount  of  money 
in  circulation  was  very  limited,  it  was  more  easily  and  more 
quickly  "cornered"  by  the  money  lenders  and  the  attention  of 
the  people  easily  directed  to  the  real  cause  of  the  money  shortage, 
for,  of  course,  the  people  would  know  who  they  could  get  money 
from,  and  the  rioting  was  consequently  launched  directly  at  the 
money  lenders. 

Second:  If  the  country  was  large  and  if  the  money  lenders' 
control  had  gone  far  enough  for  them  to  corrupt  legislators  and 
gain  control  of  the  government,  then  the  uprising  would  be  di- 
rected against  the  government ;  and,  that  overthrown,  the  money 
and  lands  would  be  re-distributed  to  the  people  again.  This  of 
course,  with  a  great  loss  of  life  due  to  the  money  lenders  being 
in  control  of  the  army  and  law  enforcement  officers,  and  direct- 
ing them  against  the  people  as  long  as  possible. 

When  the  uprising  occurred  against  the  money  lenders  them- 
selves, it  was  called  a  Pogrom,  and  a  great  massacre  of  the 
money-lending  classes  would  occur  along  with  great  numbers 
of  their  more  or  less  innocent  relations.  These  great  massacres 
would  end  in  the  bulk  of  the  money  of  the  country  being  taken 
back  by  the  people,  from  the  money  lenders,  or  usurers,  as  they 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  11 

were  then  called,  and  the  country  would  after  a  time  quiet  down 
again  to  the  regular  tempo  of  existence ;  money,  the  life  blood  of 
the  country,  having  been  returned  to  its  natural  function — that 
of  a  free,  floating  medium  of  exchange  for  labor  and  commodities. 

When  the  uprisings  occurred  against  the  Government,  and  it 
was  overthrown,  and  a  different  set  of  officials  installed  who,  for 
the  time  being  at  least,  were  not  controlled  by  the  usurers,  that 
would  be  called  a  revolution. 

The  intervals  of  time  between  these  uprisings,  j^ogroms,  or 
revolutions  would  vary  according  to  the  size  of  the  country,  the 
amount  of  money  in  the  country,  and  the  number  of  money- 
changers or  lenders  operating  at  the  time,  and  also  upon  the  rate 
of  interest  or  usury  they  chose  or  could  "get  away  with." 

The  interest  rate  and  the  ease  of  operations  of  the  money 
lenders  was  again  varied  by  the  extent  they  were  able  to  get  into 
the  good  graces  of  the  rulers  of  the  country  by  loans  to  them 
personally,  or  gifts  of  money,  or  a  share  of  usurious  interest 
obtained  from  the  people. 

All  of  these  things  had  a  direct  bearing  upon  the  time  interval 
between  pogroms  or  revolutions.  If  the  usury  rate  was  allowed 
to  be  high,  it  would  not  take  so  long  to  "corner"  the  money  and 
have  all  the  property  mortgaged.  If  it  was  low,  it  would  take 
longer. 

One  of  the  most  peculiar  phases  of  the  money  "cornering" 
craze  of  the  money  changers  is  that  generally  speaking  their 
minds  run  only  to  getting,  lending,  manipulating  and  keeping 
money.  Unless  they  can  get  a  large  usury  rate,  they  never 
seem  to  realize  the  seriousness  of  the  situation  or  the  condition 
they  are  creating,  nor  do  they  care.  Once  in  possession  of  the 
money  they  hang  on  until  they  die  or  are  killed  or  it  has  been 
otherwise  taken  from  them. 

This  thing  has  happened  innumerable  times  down  through 
the  centuries,  but  always  with  the  same  ending.  It  would  seem 
that  they  would  learn  that  in  the  end  that  usury,  like  other 
crimes,  does  not  pay;  but  they  never  have  done  so.  In  times  of 
panic  or  money  shortage,  when  they  become  the  victims  of  mobs, 
they  are  always  loud  in  their  wailings  that  they  are  being  perse- 
cuted. 

It  is  also  said  that  many  times  when  the  money  lenders  have 
seen  a  crisis  in  money  matters  approaching,  they  would,  by  con- 
nection with  trade  or  through  communication  with  their  own 
kind  of  people  in  other  countries,  bring  about  a  war  to  detract 
attention  from  the  money  conditions.  Thus  they  would  have  the 
government  borrow  money  (from  them)  to  finance  war.  The 
money  crisis  would  be  averted  by  the  government  borrowing 
and  putting  money  into  circulation  for  war  materials  and  other 
expenses.  This  was  probably  the  forerunner  of  our  present  gov- 
ernment bond  indebtedness,  as  it  has  all  been  conjured  up  by  the 
same  class  of  people  in  various  ways. 


12  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Now,  what  does  this  loaning  of  money  at  usury  do?  And  why 
was  it  considered  a  great  evil  by  all  the  best  minds  of  all  times, 
including  those  of  the  churches,  until  very  recently — say  the  last 
hundred  and  fifty  years? 

In  the  first  place  we  must  remember  that  money  came  into 
use  solely  for  the  purpose  of  having  "a  something"  easily  cared 
for,  that  would  not  easily  deteriorate,  that  all  could  agree  to 
exchange  their  labor  or  goods  or  commodities  for;  merely  a 
medium  of  exchange,  a  convenience  created  by  law ;  either  by 
common  law,  of  common  consent  and  use,  or  by  statutary  law. 
But  when  money  is  loaned  for  interest  or  usury  or  for  increase, 
it  is  thereby  taken  out  of  its  normal,  natural  use  as  a  medium  of 
exchange  and  becomes  a  commodity  to  be  trafficked  in  and  a 
profit  made  out  of  it,  making  a  slave  of  it,  to  gain  an  unearned 
profit  for  its  owner,  making  its  possession  desirable,  and  attract- 
ive in  an  unnatural  way. 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Abuse  of  the  Use  of  Money 

LET  us  turn  back  through  the  pages  of  history,  as  shown  by 
research,  and  see  what  the  best  minds  had  to  say  about  the 
practice  of  usury  and,  tracing  its  usage  down  through  the  cen- 
turies, see  just  what  the  "abuse"  of  the  use  of  money,  namely — 
the  loaning  of  it  at  interest — has  done  for  humanity;  and  see 
what  part  it  has  had  in  this,  the  worst  depression  or  panic  of  all 
times,  and  decide,  if  we  can,  just  where  our  greatest  mistake  was 
made  and  just  why  it  was  not  corrected  in  time,  but  allowed  to 
go  on  to  such  drastic  conclusion. 

Beginning  way  back  in  the  Old  Testament  days,  we  find  the 
following  items  concerning  the  taking  of  usury,  and  the  teachings 
against  it,  with  the  penalties  therefor. 

There  is  practically  nothing  obtainable  worthy  of  note  of  the 
financial  history  of  Babylonia,  Egypt,  Assyria,  India,  China  and 
even  Phonecia,  a  manufacturing  and  commercial  nation.  But  all 
of  those  nations,  still  existing,  have  a  very  low  volume  of  cur- 
rency or  money.    They  are  known  as  degraded  nations. 

ISRAELITES 

—From  "What  Is  Coming,"  by  L.  E.  Stowe. 
We  have  nothing  of  finance  until  we  reach  Solomon's  time. 
Solomon  obtained  much  wealth  from  commerce,  to  which  he  gave 
much  encouragement,  and  for  several  years  kept  his  people  at 
work  on  public  works.  Then  he  stopped,  and  only  looked  after 
the  pleasures  of  Solomon — aping  the  arrogant  styles  of  foreigners, 
taking  wives  from  among  foreigners  and  aping  their  customs  to 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  13 

please  them.  He  demonetized  silver,  thus  reducing  the  volume 
of  money  and  brought  about  distress  and  a  rebellion  headed  by 
Jeroboam.  It  is  said  that  this  distress  and  dissatisfaction  was 
brought  on  hy  excessive  taxation.  People  do  not  mind  taxation 
when  money  is  plentiful.  Then  there  is  prosperity  and  they  can 
afford  to  be  taxed.  But  this  trouble  came  with  a  contraction  of 
the  volume  of  money.  The  Bible  says  of  this  time  that  silver  was 
of  no  account.  Josephus  saj's  of  this  time  that  silver  was  of  no 
account.  Josephus  saj^s  Solomon  demonetized  silver ;  that  it  was 
neither  used  to  buy  or  sell,  but  we  know  that  it  had  been  used 
for  money  before  that  time.  Abraham  used  silver  to  pay  for  the 
cave  of  Machpelah,  Avhich  was  used  for  a  sepulchre  for  Sarah. 
Silver  was  used  after  that  time,  because  Judas  Iscariot  sold 
Christ  Jesus  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  It  is  evident  that  Solomon 
did  what  the  money  kings  have  done  since;  contracted  the 
volume  of  money  by  demonetizing  silver,  and  he  ruined  his  coun- 
try. Money  became  so  scarce  that  usury  became  the  curse  of  the 
land.  This  caused  old  Nehemiah  to  cry  out,  "I  pray  you  let  us 
leave  off  this  usury."  Neh.  V.  10. 

In  Ezekiel,  Chapter  XXII,  God  tells  why  He  drove  the  Jews 
out  of  the  land  He  had  given  them.  I  recommend  the  reading 
of  this  whole  chapter  carefully,  especially  verses  12  and  15, 
where  God  says: 

"In  thee  have  they  taken  gifts  to  shed  blood.  Thou  has 
taken  usury  and  increase  and  thou  hast  greedily  gained  of  thy 
neighbors  by  extortion  and  hast  forgotten  me,  sayeth  the  Lord 
God. — And  I  will  scatter  thee  among  the  nations  and  disperse 
thee  through  countries  and  will  consume  thy  filthiness  out  of 
thee." 

"The  scattering  of  the  Jews  among  the  nations  is  the  spawn 
that  hatched  the  Red  Dragon,  the  Jew  Money  Power,  centered 
in  Lombard  and  Threadneedle  streets,  London,  England,  and 
which  the  people  of  the  world  will  arise  and  crush  out  and  the 
Jews  with  other  people  will  be  made  to  see  that  the  essence  of 
selfishness,  deception  and  dishonesty  lies  in  usury  or  interest 
on  money." 

Leviticus :  25  C.  36-37  V.  ' '  Take  thou  no  usury  of  him,  or 
increase;  but  fear  thy  God;  that  thy  brother  may  live  with 
thee. 

Thou  shalt  not  give  him  thy  money  upon  usury,  nor  lend 
him  thy  victuals  for  increase." 

Deuteronomy:  23  C.  19  V.  "Thou  shalt  not  lend  upon  usury 
to  thy  brother ;  usury  of  money,  usury  of  victuals,  usury  of  any 
thing  that  is  lent  upon  usury." 

Nehemiah:  5  C.  1-13  V.  "And  there  was  a  great  cry  of  the 
people  and  of  their  wives  against  their  brethren  the  Jews.  For 
there  were  that  said.  We,  our  sons,  and  our  daughters,  are 
many;  therefore,  we  take  up  corn  for  them,  that  we  may  eat 


14  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

and  live.  Some  also  said,  We  have  borrowed  money  for  the 
king's  tribute  and  that  upon  our  lands  and  vineyards.  There 
were  also  them  that  said,  We  have  mortgaged  our  lands,  vine- 
yards, and  houses,  that  Ave  might  buy  corn  because  of  the 
dearth. 

Yet  now  our  flesh  is  as  the  flesh  of  our  brethren,  our  children 
as  their  children;  and  lo,  we  bring  into  bondage  our  sons  and 
our  daughters  to  be  servants,  and  some  of  our  daughters  are 
bought  into  bondage ;  neither  is  it  in  our  power  to  redeem 
them ;  for  other  men  have  our  lands  and  vineyards. 

And  I  was  very  angry,  and  I  rebuked  the  nobles  and  the 
rules,  and  said  unto  them,  Ye  exact  usury,  every  one  of  his 
brother. 

And  I  set  a  great  assembly  against  them.  And  I  said  unto 
them,  we  after  our  ability  have  redeemed  our  brethren,  the 
Jews,  which  were  sold  unto  the  heathen ;  and  will  ye  even  sell 
your  brethren.    Or  shall  they  be  sold  unto  us? 

Then  they  held  their  peace,  and  found  nothing  to  answer. 

Also,  I  said.  It  is  not  good  that  ye  do ;  ought  ye  not  to  walk 
in  the  fear  of  our  God  because  of  the  reproach  of  the  heathen, 
our  enemies?  I  likewise,  and  my  brethren  and  my  servants 
might  exact  of  them  money  and  corn ;  I  pray  you  let  us  leave 
off  this  usury.  Restore,  I  pray  thee,  to  them  even  this  day,  their 
lands,  their  vineyards,  their  oliveyards,  and  their  houses,  also 
the  hundredth  part  of  the  money  and  of  the  corn,  the  vine,  and 
the  oil  that  ye  exact  of  them." 
Nehemiah :  5  C.  1-13  V.  continued : 

"Then  said  they,  we  will  restore  them,  and  will  require 
nothing  of  them;  so  will  we  do  as  thou  sayest.  Then  I  called 
the  priests,  and  took  oath  of  them  that  they  should  do  accord- 
ing to  this  promise ;  also  I  shook  my  lap,  and  said,  so  God 
shake  out  every  man  from  his  house,  and  from  his  labor,  that 
performeth  not  this  promise,  even  thus  he  be  shaken  out  and 
emptied.  And  all  the  congregation  said  Amen,  and  praised  the 
Lord. 

And  the  people  did  according  to  this  promise." 

Ezekiel :  18  C.  10-14  V. 

'*If  he  beget  a  son  that  is  a  robber,  a  shedder  of  blood,  and 
that  doetli  the  like  to  any  one  of  these  things,  and  that  doeth 
not  any  of  these  duties,  but  even  hath  eaten  upon  the  moun- 
tains and  defiled  his  neighbor's  wife,  hath  oppressed  the  poor 
and  needy,  hath  spoiled  by  violence,  hath  not  restored  the 
pledge,  and  hath  lifted  up  his  eyes  to  the  idols,  hath  committed 
abominations ;  hath  given  forth  upon  usury  and  hath  taken  in- 
crease; shall  then  he  live?  He  shall  not  live:  he  hath  done  all 
these  abominations,  he  shall  surely  die;  his  blood  shall  be  upon 
him." 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  15 

Ezekiel:  22  C.  12-13  V. 

"In  thee  have  they  taken  bribes  to  shed  blood;  thou  hast 
taken  usury  and  increase,  and  thou  hast  greedily  gained  of  thy 
neighbor  by  extortion,  and  has  forgotten  me,  sayeth  the  Lord 
God.  Behold  therefore,  I  have  smitten  mine  hand  at  the  dis- 
honest gain  which  thou  hast  made, " 

These  quotations  clearly  show  the  teachings  of  the  religious 
leaders  of  those  times  and  their  laws  against  the  practice  of 
usury.  Can  a  conscientious  Christian  take  interest  and  feel  com- 
fortable after  reading  the  foregoing? 

"We  will  now  see  what  early  European  history  has  to  say. 

HISTORY  OF  MONEY 

'"nr'HE  first  gold  and  silver  coins  were  brought  from  Asia  to 

■*•  Hellas  as  an  article  of  commerce.  Gradually  they  came  into 
use  as  money.  After  the  State  had  commenced  to  coin  its  own 
money,  for  a  long  time  there  existed  only  a  small  amount  of 
coined  money  in  the  land,  and  this  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
the  men  of  business  and  merchants.  As  soon  as  money  ceased  to 
be  an  article  of  trade  like  other  articles  coming  on  the  market, 
when  even  the  poorer  classes  could  not  exist  without  it — the  laws 
of  debt  prevailing  in  the  interest  of  the  proprietors — money,  like 
a  poisonous  plant,  absorbed  and  consumed  the  strength  of  the 
land." — Curtius'  History  of  Greece. 

(Sounds  familiar,  doesn't  it?  "Laws  of  debt  prevailing  in  the 
interest  of  the  proprietors."  Look  about  you,  my  dear  reader,  and 
see  if  this  does  not  fit  our  present  condition.) 

Prescott  in  his  "History  of  Peru"  tells  us  that  gold  was  found 
so  plentiful  by  Pizarro  that  it  fell  in  value  to  an  enormous  extent. 
The  natives  did  not  use  it  for  money  as  their  trading  was  all  by 
barter,  article  for  article.  One  of  the  Spanish  soldiers  traded  a 
hatchet  for  his  two  handfuls  of  gold  and  the  native  ran  away  for 
fear  the  man  would  want  to  trade  back. 

Says  Prescott:  "A  quire  of  paper  was  sold  for  ten  pesos-de- 
oro,  eleven  dollars  and  sixty-seven  cents  of  our  money.  There- 
fore, the  quire  of  paper  exchanged  for  $116.70  in  gold,  reckoned 
in  our  money  of  today. 

A  bottle  of  wine  was  sold  for  sixty  pesos-de-oro,  a  sword  for 
fifty,  a  cloak  for  a  hundred  and  sometimes  more,  a  pair  of  shoes 
for  forty,  a  good  horse  for  seventy-five  hundred." 

Figuring  in  our  money  it  would  look  so: 

A  bottle  of  wine $      700.20 

A  sword  466.80 

A  cloak 167.00 

A  horse  29,175.00 

A  pair  of  shoes 350.10 

All  payable  in  gold  and  silver. 

The  reader  can  show  this  to  his  gold  standard  friends  and 
let  them  explain. 


16  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

In  the  times  of  Rome  aud  Greece  B.  C,  Swinton's  Outline 
History  of  the  World,  page  130,  says :  "The  first  authentic  history 
of  Greece  as  B.  C.  776  and  of  Rome  as  B.  C.  750,  both  countries 
being  described  as  early  organized  republics  and  being  normally 
republic  under  aristocratic  rule  at  the  time  they  were  consoli- 
dated and  the  rich  classes  or  patricians  ruling  except  at  inter- 
vals, when  the  people  being  aroused  by  great  crisis  took  charge 
themselves." 

And  of  "The  public  land  hitherto  practically  monopolized  by 
the  rich,  no  man  should  hold  more  than  500  jugera  (250  acres), 
while  the  remainder  should  be  distributed  in  small  portions 
among  the  Plebians  as  their  own  property." 

— Swinton's  Outline  History  of  the  World,  Page  143. 
"This  sort  of  plan  was,  of  course,  strenuously  opposed  by 
the  rich  Patricians,  but  they  could  not  prevail  against  the  trib- 
unes who  were  successful  in  preventing  the  election  of  officers 
and  of  military  levies." 

"History  tells  us  that  with  these  actions  began  a  Golden  Age 
of  Roman  Politics  and  civil  concord,  to  which  a  temple  was  dedi- 
cated, and  brought  with  it  a  period  of  civic  greatness."  (See 
Swinton's  Outline  History,  page  144.) 

"But  with  all  their  rulings  they  had  not  outlawed  usury,  so 
the  Golden  Age  did  not  or  could  not  last,  and  the  practice  of 
usury  again  built  up  a  'money  power'  which  gradually  under- 
mined the  laws  with  bribery  and  corruption  and  precipitated  an- 
other 'crisis'." 

The  following  excellent  description  of  the  financial  history  of 
the  early  European  period  is  reprinted  Avith  permission  from 
"What  Is  Coming,"  by  L.  E.  Stowe. 

ANCIENT  GREECE 

"We  know  the  people  were  largely  tinctured  with  Socialism, 
and  undoubtedly  like  our  Socialists  of  today,  thought  that  money 
must  be  based  on  something,  and  that  something  must  be  labor, 
or  the  product  of  labor,  consequently  oxen  were  largely  used  as 
monej'  and  a  basis  for  currency  a  cheap  metal.  Undoubtedly  the 
Augean  stables,  belonging  to  King  Augeus  of  Elis  and  said  at 
one  time  to  have  contained  3,000  oxen,  Avere  his  treasure  house, 
1194  B.C. 

* '  Homer  and  Hesiod  never  speak  of  gold  or  silver  money.  They 
express  the  value  of  things  by  saying  they  were  worth  so  many 
oxen.  Homer  values  the  golden  armor  of  Glaucus  at  one  hundred 
oxen,  and  the  brazen  armor  of  Democles  at  nine  oxen. 

"Caesar  issued  a  cheap  metal  money,  receivable  for  taxes  and 
based  upon  cattle  and  bearing  the  device  of  a  horse,  an  ox,  a 
hog,  an  ear  of  corn,  as  the  case  might  be,  to  denote  the  value  of 
different  pieces. 

'  *  Some  of  the  States  or  Colonies  of  ancient  Greece  adopted  iron 
money  as  their  medium  of  exchange. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  17 

"Lycurgus,  the  law  giver  of  Sparta,  adopted  a  system  of  iron 
money,  and  that  it  might  not  be  withdrawn  from  its  legitimate 
purpose  to  be  used  in  the  arts  (for  iron  was  a  scarce  article  in 
those  days),  he  steeped  it  in  vinegar  to  destroy  its  malleability. 

"Xenophon  states  that,  "Most  of  the  states  of  Greece  have 
money  which  is  not  current  except  in  their  own  territory." 

"Plato  recommended  a  double  currency  in  every  nation:  "A 
coin,"  said  he,  "for  the  purpose  of  domestic  exchange  it  must 
have  a  value  among  the  members  of  the  state,  but  no  value  to  the 
rest  of  the  world." 

"For  visiting  and  using  in  other  states  he  proposed  a  coin  of 
intrinsic  value,  which  would  pass  current  in  foreign  states. 

"But  the  money  changers  have  always  fought  a  cheap  money, 
and  when  they  are  successful,  the  people  must  suffer.  In  Attica 
595  B.  C.  they  had  destroyed  cheap  money,  and  interest  was  high. 
There  was  a  mortgage  stone  at  the  corner  of  nearly  every  piece 
of  land,  the  money  loaning  class  had  their  grasp  on  everything, 
and  they  and  their  victims  were  about  to  clash  and  deluge  the 
land  with  blood.  But  they  finally  agreed  to  arbitrate  and  con- 
sented to  leave  the  matter  to  the  philosopher  Solon.  He  said  he 
could  do  nothing  for  them  except  to  draw  up  a  code  of  laws, 
which  if  they  accepted  and  obeyed,  would  save  Attica  from  ruin. 
They  consented.  First  he  abolished  all  interest.  The  foolish  peo- 
ple, hoping  to  someday  become  wealthy  money  loaners  refused 
to  accept  this  as  well  as  did  the  money  loaners.  He  then  ordered 
the  mortgage  stones  taken  up  and  the  debt  forgiven  wherever 
the  payments  returned  a  sum  to  the  loaner  equal  to  the  principal 
first  loaned,  then  to  make  it  possible  for  the  debtor  class  to  meet 
their  obligations  he  increased  the  value  of  money  by  calling  in 
all  of  the  coins  of  the  realm  and  recoining  them  and  nearly  doub- 
ling the  volume  by  reducing  the  amount  of  metal  in  the  coin. 
This  saved  Attica  from  bloodshed  and  ruin. 

"Solon  was  asked  by  Croesus,  king  of  Lydia,  if  tlie  laws,  wliicli 
he  had  made  for  the  Athenians,  were  the  best  that  could  be  given 
them.  He  said,  "Yes,  the  best  they  were  capable  of  receiving." 

"All  through  the  history  of  man  there  has  been  a  continual  war 
between  the  people  and  the  privileged  class.  The  privileged  class 
when  defeated  in  one  locality  gathered  their  silver  and  their 
gold  and  hied  themselves  to  some  other  country  where  they  could 
gain  privileges  to  rob  the  people. 

"After  losing  their  power  in  Greece  many  of  them  retreated 
to  Carthage.  But  people  were  more  clannish  in  those  days  than 
at  the  present  time  and  foreigners  could  not  get  a  foothold  with 
political  influence  in  a  day.  It  took  many  years  before  their  in- 
fluence was  greatly  felt  in  Carthage  and  when  they  did  get  hold 
of  Carthage,  their  blighting  influence  soon  destroyed  the  coun- 
try, as  their  devouring  system  of  usury  and  selfishness  will  bring 
the  most  flourishing  country  to  ruin,  as  surely  as  the  army  worm 


18  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

will  wither  and  blast  the  most  fertile  and  flourishing  fruit  tree, 
when  once  it  gets  a  fair  hold  upon  it. 

"Carthage  was  the  most  prosperous  nation  on  the  globe  at  that 
time.  Her  white  sails  dotted  the  waters  of  the  then  known  world, 
if  indeed  they  did  not  reach  to  that  of  the  new  world.  Her  mines 
produced  $10,000.00  per  day  of  the  precious  metals,  yet  the  metals 
were  not  used  for  money  at  home,  but  were  kept  especially  for 
trade  and  commerce  abroad.  For  home  use  Carthage  had  a 
leather  monej^  and  to  prevent  successful  counterfeiting,  it  con- 
tained a  metal  core,  a  compound  of  metals,  the  compound  a  secret 
of  the  government. 

"Carthage  became  very  rich  and  powerful,  but  there  was  rising 
in  the  west  a  nation  that  was  to  eclipse  her  in  all  her  glory.  Rome 
was  that  rising  power.  Hannibal  being  a  statesman  as  well  as  a 
general,  determined  to  conquer  Rome.  He  hired  his  soldiers  from 
foreign  countries,  equipped  an  army,  marching  through  a  hostile 
country,  he  crossed  the  Alps,  making  friends  of  the  barbarians. 
He  carried  on  a  long  war,  but  finally  was  compelled  to  send  home 
for  assistance,  for  men  and  money.  In  pleading  his  cause  he  said, 
"It  is  now  or  never,  for  it  is  Carthage  or  Rome."  But  he  had 
left  an  enemy  in  Carthage  far  worse  than  those  he  was  fighting. 
The  money  power  had  destroyed  the  cheap  money  and  come  to 
a  money  of  precious  metals.  They  had  control  of  all  government 
offices  and  established  many  useless  institutions  to  make  room  for 
their  people  in  office,  thus  taxing  the  people  heavily  to  meet  the 
expenses.  They  considered  only  their  immediate  interests,  so  re- 
fused aid  to  Hannibal  and  recalled  him.  Hannibal  withdrew  from 
Rome,  Scipio  immediately  followed  him  and  was  soon  thundering 
at  the  gates  of  Carthage.  A  council  of  war  was  called  and  of  course 
Hannibal  was  present,  and  in  the  discussion  that  followed  Hanni- 
bal took  no  part  but  stood  with  folded  arms  and  smiled  at  their 
tribulation.  Senator  Asdrubal  Hoedus  said,  "Hannibal  smiles 
and  his  country  is  in  danger."  "Yes,"  said  Hannibal,  "the  smile 
of  contempt  for  him  who  feels  his  country's  loss,  only,  when  his 
own  interests  are  at  stake,  it  is  sorrow  for  Carthage." 

"With  the  destruction  of  the  cheap  money  of  Carthage  came 
an  era  of  corruption,  even  the  judges  became  so  corrupt  that 
Hannibal  Avhen  made  Preator  was  compelled  to  impeach  the 
whole  bench  of  judges,  and  he  corrected  other  evils,  and  says 
Rollins  the  historian :  ' '  They  exclaimed  vehemently  against  these 
regulations  as  if  their  own  property  had  been  forced  out  of  their 
hands  and  not  the  sums  they  had  plundered  from  the  people." 

' '  We  will  now  note  the  difference  in  the  financial  changes  be- 
tween Carthage  and  Rome." 

ROME 

' '  Money  is  always  scarce  in  new  countries  and  prices  high  and 
interest  runs  up  to  almost  an  unlimited  extent.  There  is  always  a 
vast  amount  of  enterprise  and  push  among  those  who  venture 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  19 

everything  to  establish  a  home  in  a  new  country.  Rome  was  the 
"Star  of  the  Empire"  setting  westward.  She  was  rapidly  in- 
creasing in  population  both  by  immigration  and  by  extending  her 
border  by  conquest.  The  volume  of  money  was  increasing  but 
not  in  proportion  to  population,  consequently,  there  was  always 
a  strife  between  the  privileged  class  and  the  producing  class. 
And  here  is  something  I  wish  to  forciblj^  impress  on  the  minds  of 
the  people ;  the  privileged  class  always  tried  to  destroy  the  force 
and  the  power  of  the  people's  leaders.  Sometimes  by  circulating 
false  reports,  sometimes  through  bribery,  sometimes  by  foisting 
their  own  friends  into  positions  which  they  misuse  and  so  betray 
the  people,  and  sometimes  by  assassination. 

"The  people  seldom,  if  ever,  assassinate  a  ruler  or  leader  ex- 
cept they  go  in  mobs,  but  where  an  individual  does  such  work 
he  generally  does  it  at  the  instigation  of  a  band  of  conspirators. 

"Now  the  bone  of  contention  was  money,  land,  and  political 
rights,  or  abused  privileges,  but  interest  on  money  was  the  lead- 
ing evil.  Marcus  Manlius,  a  patrician,  was  one  of  the  noble  de- 
fenders of  the  people's  cause.  He  was  a  soldier  of  great  physical 
strength  and  when  in  530  B.  C.  the  Gauls  attacked  Rome  the 
poorer  classes  withdrew  and  said  they  had  nothing  to  fight  for. 
(This  shows  that  oppression  and  poverty  destroyed  patriotism.) 
The  soldiers  retreated  to  the  citadel  on  "Tarpin  Rock,"  and  one 
night  when  the  Gauls  attempted  an  assault,  they  scaled  the  rock, 
but  before  scaling  the  walls  Marcus  Manlius  was  awakened  by 
the  squawk  of  the  sacred  geese.  He  sprang  to  the  wall,  and  being 
a  powerful  man,  he  hurled  the  enemy  down  as  fast  as  they  came 
upon  the  wall,  and  made  so  much  noise  as  to  awaken  his  com- 
rades, who  came  to  his  assistance,  and  thus  saved  Rome.  This 
gave  him  great  honor  and  notoriety.  The  Gauls  were  soon  com- 
pelled to  withdraw  when  the  people  were  coaxed  back  with  the 
promise  of  amelioration  of  the  existing  political  evils,  land  limita- 
tion of  ownership,  etc.  In  this  Marcus  Manlius  became  one  of  the 
strongest  defenders  of  the  people's  rights.  The  Patricians  became 
enraged  at  this  and  determined  to  destroy  him,  and  the  foolish 
people  consented  to  hurl  him  to  death  from  the  very  rock  where 
he  gained  his  notoriety. 

"This  narrative  has  no  direct  bearing  upon  the  question  of 
volume  of  money,  nor  have  the  two  narratives  following,  but 
the  reader  should  keep  them  in  mind  as  they  have  a  great  bear- 
ing upon  the  historical  facts  that  follow. 

"Notwithstanding  the  volume  of  money  had  been  largely  in- 
creased by  reducing  the  metal  in  the  coin,  to  carry  on  the  war, 
population  had  increased,  territory  had  increased,  and  much 
treasure  was  hidden  and  lost,  consequently  money  was  still  scarce 
and  prices  of  all  commodities  ranged  high,  as  the  producers  were 
withdrawn  from  their  occupations  to  serve  in  the  army,  so  that 
the  lower  classes  could  hardly  afford  the  humblest  of  food  and 


20  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

clothing,  while  the  privileged  class  lived  in  luxury.  Paper  print- 
ing and  engraving  were  not  then  known,  so  Rome  could  only  in- 
crease the  volume  of  money  by  reducing  the  metal  in  the  coin. 
This  debasing  of  the  coin  the  money  loaning  classes  could  no 
longer  stand. 

"The  volume  of  money  was  not  adequate  to  the  wants  of 
trade,  and  notwithstanding  the  many  attempts  to  control  rates 
of  interest  by  laws,  usury  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  many 
abuses  hea]>ed  upon  the  people  by  the  privileged  class. 

"We  are  now  in  ]33  B.  C.  Tiberius  Gracchus,  one  of  the  trib- 
unes, sought  to  enforce  the  long  neglected  agrarian  laws  limiting 
ownership  of  land  to  500  acres  also  insisting  on  the  wealth  left 
to  Rome  by  King  Attalus  of  Pergamus  by  his  will,  to  be  distribut- 
ed equally  among  the  poor  of  Rome.  This  excited  the  animosity 
of  the  privileged  classes  who  again  set  up  the  cry  of  ambition  and 
collected  enough  fools  from  among  the  people  to  go  dow^n  and 
murder  Tiberius  Grachus  and  three  hundred  of  his  followers. 
Again  I  say,  note  the  manner  of  exciting  the  prejudices  of  the 
people  for  the  purpose  of  using  them  against  their  own  interests. 

"Ten  years  after  the  death  of  Tiberius  Gracchus,  his  young  and 
talented  brother,  Caius  Gracchus  being  elected  tribune,  made  a 
vigorous  attempt  to  carry  out  the  reform  started  by  his  elder 
brother.  This  included  reforms  in  usury  laws.  He  erected  polling 
booths  similar  to  those  now  used  with  the  Australian  system.  At 
a  new  election  he  was  counted  out  (just  as  they  do  these  things 
nowadays).  The  people,  indignant  at  this  fraud  and  outrage, 
arose  in  defense  of  Caius  Gracchus,  the  patricians  fearing  him, 
hired  an  assassin  to  kill  him,  and  then  circulated  the  story  that 
he  called  one  of  his  followers  to  slay  him.  History  gives  us  both 
sides  of  the  story  but  students  of  history  who  understand  human 
nature  believe  the  patricians  murdered  him. 

"We  are  now  in  48  B.  C.  Julius  Caesar,  a  successful  general, 
virtually  ruled  Rome  sometime  before  his  dictatorship.  He  sought 
to  correct  many  existing  evils,  among  which  was  the  limitation 
of  land  ownership.  He  saw  the  abuses  of  the  money  matters.  Up 
to  this  time  the  issuing  or  coining  of  money  had  been  granted  to 
a  few  wealthy  families.  Caesar  took  this  privilege  from  them  and 
restored  it  to  the  government  to  whom  it  belonged.  He  also  created 
a  large  volume  of  cheap  metal  money  and  started  public  works 
and  paid  it  out  to  labor.  This  enraged  the  privileged  classes. 
"The  people  loved  Caesar,"  Mark  Antony  said,  and  he  said 
Caesar  put  away  the  crown  three  times  and  we  know  history  tells 
us  Caesar  did  not  like  to  remain  in  the  city  among  the  corrupt 
politicians.  He  was  a  plain  soldier  and  preferred  the  tield,  and 
notwithstanding  this  the  privileged  class  determined  to  get  rid 
of  him,  and  for  an  excuse  perpetrated  their  old  trick,  as  in  the 
case  of  Manlius  and  Gracchus,  they  charged  ambition,  and  know- 
ing the  manner  of  murdering  these  men  was  still  fresh  in  the 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  21 

minds  of  the  people,  they  dared  not  try  it,  so  concluded  it  would 
be  safer  to  murder  him  with  their  own  hands,  which  they  did 
March  15,  44  B.  C.  But  Mark  Antony  said,  "They  are  gentlemen." 
We  have  just  such  gentlemen  today  who  would  not  hesitate  at 
any  crime  to  further  their  ends." 

"With  the  death  of  Caesar  soon  came  the  death  of  cheap 
money,  but  Caesar's  successful  wars  had  made  Rome  rich  with 
the  precious  metal;  they  amounted  to  $1,800,000,000.  But  the 
mines  now  began  to  peter  out  and  no  new  ones  discovered  and  in 
consequence  of  many  wars,  treasures  were  often  hidden  away  and 
never  found,  so  that  the  contraction  of  the  volume  of  money  was 
very  great.  This  continued  until  civilization  was  nearly  snuffed 
out,  and  the  Dark  Ages  were  the  consequence,  in  which  many  of 
the  arts  were  lost  and  the  finer  feelings  of  man  smothered." 

"The  reader's  attention  is  called  to  the  money  conditions  and 
practices  of  Rome  just  before  it  fell,  that  are  i)resent  here  in  our 
own  America  today.  Usury,  high  taxes,  masses  losing  their  lands 
and  homes ;  debasing  money,  or  as  it  is  called  now  ' '  lowering  the 
value  of  the  dollar";  the  masses  losing  interest  in  and  refusing 
to  support  the  government,  and  now  many  of  our  unemployed 
millions  listening  to  the  fake  remedy  of  "Russian  Communism" 
instead  of  informing  themselves  of  the  real  reason  of  their  dis- 
tress— the  manipulation  and  issuing  and  control  of  the  nation's 
money  by  a  private  group  of  money  changers. 

"The  Roman  Republic,  however,  was  swept  away  to  oblivion 
in  another  great  crisis  about  the  year  27  B.  C.  and  resulted  in 
the  money  power  installing  a  dictator,  Augustus  Caesar,  who 
soon  established  a  policy  of  cruelty  and  violence  against  reforms." 

During  all  the  time  of  which  we  have  been  writing  the  most 
learned  minds  and  philosophers  of  high  standing  were  all  op- 
posed to  usury  (the  loaning  of  money  at  interest),  some  of  whom 
express  themselves  as  follows : 

ARISTOTLE : 

The  Encyclopedia  Britannica  says  of  Aristotle  :  "  In  the  history 
of  European  thought  and  knowledge,  down  to  the  period  of  the 
revival  of  letters,  the  name  of  Aristotle  was  without  a  rival, 
supreme — his  thoughts  also  were,  as  far  as  possible  the  fore- 
runner of  modern  science.  He  was  recognized  as  the  strongest  of 
the  Ancients." 

We  will  certainly  have  to  respect  and  revere  the  teachings 
and  the  thoughts  of  a  man  of  that  calibre,  and  what  was  his  atti- 
tude on  interest  and  usury  in  350  B.  C?  Listen — 

"Money  being  naturally  barren,  to  make  it  breed  money  is 
preposterous,  and  a  perversion  from  the  end  of  its  institution, 
which  was  only  to  serve  the  purpose  of  exchange  and  not  of 
increase. ' ' 

"Usury  is  most  reasonably  detested  as  the  increase  arises 
from  the  money  itself,  and  not  by  employing  it  to  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  intended."  (Aristotle  on  Politics.) 


22  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

"Although  the  monarchy  had  been  abolished,  the  people  of 
Rome  by  no  means  enjoyed  the  blessings  of  a  free  government. 
All  political  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Patricians,  and  Plebians, 
workers  and  producers  were  kept  in  a  condition  of  great  social 
degradation.  Obliged  to  borrow  money  of  their  rich  neighbors, 
they  were  charged  enormous  rates  of  interest,  and  when  unable 
to  pay,  were  delivered  by  the  cruel  laws  to  the  mercy  of  their 
creditors,  who  deprived  them  of  their  lands,  and  reduced  them 
to  the  condition  of  serfs  or  slaves.  *  *  *" 

— Anderson's  New  General  History. 
"It  is  related  that  Napoleon,  when  shown  an  interest  table 
said,  after  some  reflection,  'The  deadly  facts  herein  revealed 
lead  me  to  wonder  that  this  monster,  interest,  has  not  devoured 
the  whole  human  race. '  It  would  have  done  so  long  ago  if  bank- 
ruptcy and  revolution  had  not  acted  as  counter  poisons." 

— Michael  Flurscheim. 
"He  who  would  give  the  name  of  robber  or  parricide  to  the 
iniquitous  invention  of  interest  would  not  be  very  far  from  the 
truth.  What,  indeed,  does  it  signify  if  you  have  made  your- 
selves masters  of  the  wealth  of  another  by  scaling  walls  or  by 
killing  passers  by,  or  if  you  have  acquired  what  belongs  to 
you  by  the  merciless  methods  of  the  loan?" 

— St.  Gregory  of  Nyssa. 
"Why  do  the  masses  work  overtime  for  insufficient  pay? 
Why  has  our  transportation  system  broken  down  ?  In  each  case 
the  answer  is  interest.  If  we  let  the  interest  taker  skim  all  the 
cream  off  the  profits  of  the  transportation  system,  of  course,  it 
will  break  down.  If  not  arrested,  interest  will  throw  to  the 
scrap  heap  humanity  itself." 

— John  Basil  Barnhill. 
It  is  recorded  that  "Cato,  the  Second"  when  asked  his  opin- 
ion on  usury,  replied  by  asking,  "What  do  you  think  of  mur- 
der?" Inferring,  of  course,  that  he  considered  the  two  things 
about  alike. 

It  is  very  plain  to  see  by  the  foregoing  instances  that  when 
usury  is  practised,  it  soon  builds  up  a  powerful  ring  of  money 
lenders  who  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  keep  and  further  their 
use  of  the  practice  of  usury,  and  the  power  that  they  can  attain 
by  corrupting  the  government  officials  with  the  vast  quantities 
of  money  that  must  inevitably  accumulate  by  usury. 

They  do  not  stop  at  wholesale  murder,  nor  any  degree  of 
corruption,  and  generally  end  by  the  overthrow  of  free  govern- 
ment and  the  establishment  of  a  dictator  or  despot  they  can  con- 
trol by  the  use  of  money. 

If  we  wish  to  see  what  eventually  happens  to  this  kind  of 
dictatorship,  we  may  read  what  happened  to  Rome.  In  that  time 
oppression  became  worse  and  worse,  and  people  who  wanted 
liberty  and  freedom  fled  to  other  countries,  and  finally  when  the 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  23 

barbarians  swept  down  in  ever-increasing  numbers,  there  was  not 
enough  patriotism  left  in  the  citizens  for  their  own  country  to 
cause  them  to  defend  it,  and  it  went  down  to  destruction.  (So 
Dunham  tells  us  in  his  work,  "The  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  1,  page 
229.) 

"Cities  were  sacked,  fortresses  were  leveled,  churches  were 

burned,  monasteries  of  both  sexes  destroyed,  the  fields  wasted, 

the  country  abandoned,  so  that  wild  beasts  supplied  the  place 

of  men.  These  are  facts  which  no  sophistry  can  invalidate." 

Not  a  very  pretty  picture  to  contemplate,  but  one  we  certainly 

want  to  avoid  here  in  America. 

lesus  and  the  Money  Changers 

COMING  now  to  the  time  of  Christ's  ministry  on  earth,  we 
have  only  to  refer  to  his  action  of  driving  the  money  chang- 
ers from  the  temple  with  a  scourge  of  cords,  to  get  his  viewpoint 
on  usury  and  the  manipulation  of  money  values,  AND  FOR 
WHICH  HE  DROVE  THEM  FROM  THE  TEMPLE. 

For  many  years  the  people  who  were  in  the  business  of  hand- 
ling money  were  called  bankers,  but  of  recent  years  you  hear 
them  referred  to  as  "money  changers,"  even  by  our  highest 
government  officials — the  same  term  used  by  Jesus  when  He 
drove  them  from  the  Jewish  Temple  of  Jerusalem  and  accused 
them  of  making  the  Temple  a  den  of  robbers.  You  will  find  it 
in  Matthew  21 :12-13,  and  Mark  11 :15-19.  As  this  seems  to  be 
the  one  and  only  time  when  Jesus  used  force  or  "direct  action" 
in  His  ministry.  He  must  have  had  a  very  good  reason  for  do- 
ing so. 

In  looking  up  the  history  of  "banking"  or  practice  of  money 
exchanging  of  that  time,  we  find  the  following  condition  existed : 
There  was  a  "rule"  or  "law"  that  the  tithes  or  taxes  of  the 
church  or  Temple  could  be  paid  only  in  one  certain  coin  called 
the  "half  shekel  of  the  sanctuary."  True,  they  had  several  dif- 
ferent coins  at  that  time,  but  nevertheless,  the  above  law  existed 
and  all  the  people  had  to  obtain  this  particular  coin  with  which 
to  pay  their  taxes  or  dues.  (See  Exodus  30:11-17,  and  36:25-26.) 
And  don't  forget  that  that  was  one  thing  that  they  all  did  in 
those  days — pay  their  Temple  Taxes ! 

Can't  you  see  the  pained  look  on  the  old  money  changer's 
face  when  people  asked  him  why  such  a  law  existed?  "Why  ask 
him  about  it  ?  Surely  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  he  was  just  a 
"poor  fellow  trying  to  get  along."  They  should  go  to  the  law- 
makers and  ask  them ;  they  were  the  wise  ones  ;  they  would  know ; 
they  made  the  law,  not  he."  If  the  reader  would  like  to  know 
how  he  looked  and  acted,  just  go  to  your  banker  and  ask  him  the 
same  question  concerning  the  Gold  Standard. 


24  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Histor}'  is  not  altogether  clear  as  to  just  how  they  coined  their 
niouey  and  got  it  into  circulation  among  the  people  in  those  days, 
but  the  chief  functions  of  the  bankers  seems  to  have  been  the 
changing  of  the  trader's  foreign  money  into  local  money.  This 
business  probably  lagged  somewhat  or  was  not  very  profitable  in 
the  interval  between  the  arrival  of  different  caravans  from  the 
foreign  countries,  at  any  rate  the  aforementioned  law  was  passed 
concerning  the  payment  of  the  Temple  Tax  in  only  one  coin. 

Can't  the  reader  easily  imagine  what  happened?  All  the 
people  had  to  pay  their  Temple  Tax,  and  "had"  to  pay  it  in  ONE 
CERTAIN  COIN,  and  the  volume  of  money  in  those  days  was 
never  very  great  and  especially  this  coin  was  not  too  plentiful. 
The  money  changers,  having  most  of  the  money  anyway,  were, 
of  course,  soon  able  to  "corner"  all  the  special  "Tax  coins"  and 
raise  the  price  or  exchange  rate  to  whatever  they  wished  or  could 
get  for  them. 

Just  to  be  good  and  accommodating  to  their  customers  they 
accordingly  established  themselves  in  the  Temple,  where  the  good 
people  came  to  pay  their  Temple  Tax  and  where  for  a  "price" 
they  could  get  the  "half -shekel  of  the  sanctuary"  with  which  to 
pay  it.  It  is  said  it  cost  them  two  or  more  times  its  actual  worth, 
or  the  buying  power  of  the  "half -shekel"  when  it  was  used  to 
buy  commodities.  The  doves  and  the  animals  that  the  people 
bought  for  sacrifice  also  could  be  bought  only  with  this  same 
"half-shekel  of  the  sanctuary"  or  "special  coin"  that  had  to  be 
obtained  from  the  money  changers. 

So  it  becomes  quite  apparent  that  what  Jesus  objected  to  in 
the  business  of  the  bankers,  at  that  time,  was  not  the  exchanging 
of  foreign  MONEY  into  local  money,  BUT  THE  CHANGING  OF 
THE  VALUE  OF  THE  TEMPLE  TAX  MONEY,  and  robbing 
the  people  of  the  difference  between  the  purchasing  power  and 
the  tax-paying  value  of  the  coin,  when  they  HAD  to  have  it  to 
pay  the  tax  they  HAD  to  pay.  They  had  actually  CHANGED 
THE  VALUE  of  the  monej^,  by  first  making  the  laAV  to  have  their 
Temple  Tax  paid  only  in  ONE  CERTAIN  COIN,  and  then  by 
cornering  the  supply  and  hoarding  it,  then  CHANGING  OR 
RAISING  the  value  by  charging  twice  its  commodity  value,  or 
its  value  in  buying  produce.  Thus  they  were  really  MONEY 
CHANGERS,  as  Jesus  called  them  and  for  which  He  drove  them 
from  the  Temple. 

Now,  we  will  just  step  down  through  the  pages  of  history 
to  1873  in  the  good  old  U.  S.  A.,  when  silver  was  demonitized 
and  gold  was  made  the  standard  money.  If  you  think  that  the 
price  of  MONEY  can't  be  changed,  just  get  your  BUSINESS 
GRAPH  and  see  what  happened  to  the  prices  of  "things"  in  the 
relation  to  gold  from  1873  for  the  next  seven  years,  the  longest 
"depression"  the  U.  S.  had  ever  experienced  up  to  that  time.  As 
it  worked  with  the  "half -shekel  of  the  sanctuary,"  so  also  it 
worked  with  the  Gold  Standard. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  25 

Substituting  the  following  things  in  1873,  for  what  they  were 
then,  in  A.  D.  30,  we  have : 

A.  D.  30  A.  D.  1873 

Law  Makers  Our  Congress 

Money  Changers  International  Bankers 

Temple  Tax  money  or  the  "half      Gold 

shekel  of  the  sanctuary" 
Temple  Tax  Debts,  Interest,  Taxes,  Mort- 

gages 
A  law  making  the  Temple  Tax      A  law  making  the  above  pay- 
])ayable  only  in  one  certain  able  only  in  gold  money, 

coin. 
Do  you  see  anything  changed  in  the  pictures  of  the  two  things 
above  ? 

No,  just  the  same  old  game  of  paying  the  Temple  Tax  in  ONE 
certain  coin.  Look  at  it  closely  and  you  will  see  that  the  same 
people,  the  same  race,  the  same  type  of  minds,  that  were  the 
money  changers  of  2,000  years  ago  and  had  a  law  passed  making 
the  Temple  tax  payable  in  one  certain  coin,  were  the  formulators 
of  the  Gold  Standard  all  over  the  world  of  our  day,  and  the 
"half-shekel  of  the  sanctuary"  becomes  the  ancestor  of  the 
"Gold  Standard."  It  is  the  same  old  game  with  new  surround- 
ings, new  words,  phrases,  and  practices  to  camouflage  and  con- 
fuse the  minds  of  the  people  as  to  the  "why"  of  such  a  condition 
existing. 

Isn't  it  plain  that  the  only  mystery  or  complication  about 
money,  so  far,  is  the  maze  of  explanatory  smokescreens  spread 
bv  the  paid  economists,  and  financiers  to  cover  up  the  ABUSE  of 
the  USE  of  MONEY? 

History  does  not  tell  us  much  of  the  collusion  of  the  law- 
makers, rabbis,  and  money-changers,  in  having  such  a  law  passed, 
nor  of  how  the  tax  money  GOT  BACK  into  the  hands  of  the 
money  changers  from  the  tills  of  the  temple  priests,  nor  at  what 
exchange  rate,  nor  who  received  the  graft,  but  any  nation  may 
look  with  grave  suspicion  upon  a  group  of  people  who  will  up- 
hold and  work  for  a  continuation  of  a  system  of  National  money 
and  finance  in  our  Christian  country  and  in  our  times,  that  had 
such  an  unholy  ancestry. 

In  his  book,  "Money  and  Its  True  Function,"  F.  R.  Burch 
has  the  following  comment : 

"As  long  as  Christ  confined  his  teachings  to  the  realm  of 
morality  and  righteousness,  He  was  undisturbed ;  it  was  not 
till  He  assailed  the  established  economic  system  and  'cast  out' 
the  profiteers  and  'overthrew  the  tables  of  the  money  chang- 
ers,' that  He  was  doomed.  The  following  day  He  was  ques- 
tioned, betraj^ed  on  the  second,  tried  on  the  third  and  on  the 
fourth  crucified." 
Their  court  procedure  seems  to  have  been  much  more  efficient 
in  those  days  than  now. 


26  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

We  now  come  to  the  disciples  of  Christ,  and  what  their  atti- 
tude and  teachings  were,  on  usury. 

The  Apostle  Peter,  telling  the  public  of  his  Vision,  said:  "And 
in  another  lake,  full  of  pitch  and  blood  and  mire  bubbling  up, 
there  stood  men  and  women  up  to  their  knees :  and  these  were 
usurers  and  those  who  had  taken  interest  ..." 

Antinicene  Fathers,  Vol.  9,  page  146. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  in  telling  of  his  Vision,  said:  "And  I  saw 
another  multitude  of  men  and  women,  and  worms  consumed 
them.  But  I  lamented  and  sighing  asked  the  angel  and  said,  'Who 
are  these?'  And  he  said  to  me:  These  are  those  who  exacted  in- 
terest ON  interest,  and  trusted  in  their  riches  and  did  not  hope 
in  God  that  He  was  their  helper." 

Antinicene  Fathers,  Vol.  9,  page  160. 

"The  Apostles  Paul,  Peter,  Stephen,  and  James  were  killed. 
Peter  was  struck,  Stephen  overwhelmed  with  stones,  James  was 
a  victim  of  the  Altar  and  Paul  was  beheaded." 

See  Antinicene  Fathers,  Vol.  13,  page  648. 

The  Catholic  Encyclopedia,  page  235:  "The  early  Catholic 
Church  on  Usury:"  "In  the  article  interest,  we  have  reserved 
the  question  of  the  lawfulness  of  taking  interest  on  money  lent; 
We  have  here  to  consider  first,  usury  as  a  subject  of  controversy; 
and  secondly,  usury  as  condemned  by  all  honest  men  ..." 

And  again  it  says,  page  236,  "The  canonical  laws  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  absolutely  forbade  the  practice." 

We  find  in  Ashley's  English  Economic  History  on  page  149, 
part  I,  edition  III.  "Among  the  canons  of  the  great  Luthern 
Council  held  by  Alexander  III  in  1179,  one  ran  as  follows :  "Since 
in  almost  every  place  the  crime  of  usury  has  been  so  prevalent 
that  many  persons  give  up  all  other  business  and  become  usurers, 
as  if  it  were  permitted,  regarding  not  its  prohibition  in  both  testa- 
ments, we  ordain  that  manifest  usurers  shall  not  be  admitted  to 
communion,  nor  if  they  die,  in  their  sin  receive  the  Christian 
burial,  and  that  no  Priest  shall  accept  their  aim.  Clergy  disobey- 
ing this  order  were  to  be  suspended  from  their  office  until  they 
had  satisfied  their  bishop." 

The  same  Pope,  in  letters  to  the  Arch-Bishop  of  Salerno  and 
Bishop  Priacenza,  had  pronounced  that  usurers,  and  even  the 
heirs  of  usurers,  ought  to  be  compelled  to  restore  their  unjust 
gains  under  similar  penalties.  And  at  another  place  says:  "It 
was  at  another  great  council,  that  of  Lyons  in  1274,  that  Gregory 
X  ventured  to  make  fresh  advance  in  both  these  directions.  In 
one  he  ordains  that  no  community,  corporation  or  individual 
should  permit  foreign  usurers  to  hire  houses,  or  indeed  to  dwell 
at  all  upon  their  lands,  but  rather  should  expel  them  within  three 
months;  and  he  forbids  anyone  to  let  houses  to  them." 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  27 

The  next  Canon  ordained  that  the  wills  of  unrepented  usurers, 
of  usurers  who  did  not  make  restitution  —  should  be  without 
validity.  And  yet  in  another  place  the  same  author  we  find :  ' '  We 
therefore  decree,  with  the  approval  of  this  sacred  council,  of 
Vienne,  that  whatever  authorities,  captains,  rectors,  counsels, 
judges,  councilors,  or  any  others,  presume  to  make  in  the  future 
any  statutes,  either  that  debtors  shall  pay  usury,  or,  that  a  usurer 
is  not  bound  to  restitution,  shall  incur  sentence  of  excommunica- 
tion." 

Considering  our  present  world  plight,  it  would  seem  that  the 
foregoing  decree  was  not  enforced  very  strongly  in  the  later 
centuries. 

For  the  opinion  of  Shakespeare  on  usury  we  need  only  to 
read  "The  Merchant  of  Venice." 

THE  EARLY  PROTESTANT  LEADERS  ON  USURY 

Martin  Luther  (Elliot  on  Usury,  page  71)  : 

"Whosoever  eats  up,  robs,  and  steals  the  nourishment  of 
another,  commits  as  great  a  murder,  as  he  who  carves  a  man  or 
utterly  undoes  him.  Such  does  a  usurer,  and  he  sits  the  while 
on  his  stool,  when  he  OUGHT  to  be  HANGING  from  the  gal- 
lows." 
Calvin : 

"For  we  altogether  condemn  usuries,  we  shall  impose  se- 
verer restrictions  upon  the  consciences  than  the  Lord  Himself 
desired ;  while  if  we  make  the  least  concession,  many  will  use 
it  as  a  pretext  and  will  snatch  at  a  bridleless  license,  which 
can  never  afterward  be  checked  by  any  moderation  or  excep- 
tion." 

IN  EARLY  ENGLAND 
And  again  in  the  work  of  Elliot  on  Usury,  page  262,  we  find : 

"In  the  earliest  periods  of  which  we  have  any  records,  we 
find  that  the  doctrine,  that  the  letting  money  to  hire  was  sin- 
ful, prevailed  universally  over  the  islands  of  Great  Britain.  It 
was  the  prevailing  opinion  that  interest,  or  usury,  as  it  was 
then  called,  was  unjust  gain,  forbidden  by  Divine  Law,  and 
which  a  good  Christian  could  neither  receive  nor  pay.  In  com- 
mon law  the  practice  of  taking  increase  was  classed  among 
the  lowest  crimes  against  public  morals.  So  odious  was  it  among 
Christians  that  the  PRACTICE  WAS  CONFINED  ALMOST 
WHOLLY  TO  THE  JEWS,  WHO  DID  NOT  EXACT  USURY 
OF  THE  JEWS,  BUT  OF  CHRISTIANS." 

"The  laws  of  King  Alfred,  about  900  A.D.,  directed  the 
effects  of  money  lenders  upon  usury  should  be  forfeited  to  the 
King,  their  lands  to  the  lords  upon  whom  they  were  held,  and 
they  should  not  be  buried  in  consecrated  ground. 

"By  the  laws  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  about  1050  A.D., 
the  usurer  forfeited  all  his  property  and  was  declared  an  out- 
law and  banished  from  England.  In  the  reign  of  Henry  II  about 


28  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  estates  of  the  usurers  were 
forfeited  at  their  death  and  their  children  were  disinherited. 

"His  successor,  Richard  I,  was  yet  more  severe,  forbidding 
the  usurers  to  attend  his  coronation,  nor  would  he  protect  them 
from  mob  violence. 

"During  the  thirteenth  century  the  severities  against  the 
usurers  were  not  relaxed.  King  John  confiscated  their  gathered 
wealth  without  scruple.  It  is  recorded  that  he  exacted  an  enor- 
mous fine  of  a  JEW  IN  BRISTOL  for  his  usuries  and  when 
the  JEW  REFUSED  TO  PAY,  he  ordered  one  of  his  teeth  to 
be  drawn  daily  until  he  should  pay.  The  Jew  is  said  to  have 
endured  the  pulling  of  seven,  BUT  THEN  WEAKENED  AND 
PAID  THE  PINE.  It  is  written  in  the  Chronicles  of  England, 
1251  A.D.,  'By  such  usurers  and  licentious  liurs  as  belong  to 
him,  the  realms  had  already  become  sore  corrupted.' 

"In  the  fourteenth  century,  under  the  three  Edwards,  the 
taking  of  interest  was  an  indictable  offense,  and  Edward  III 
made  it  a  capital  crime. 

"Attorney  General  Noy,  in  the  reign  of  James  I,  thought 
the  taking  of  money  by  usury  was  no  better  than  taking  a 
man's  life.  He  said,  'Usurers  are  well  ranked  with  murderers' !" 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A  HISTORY  OF  MONEY  AND  BANKING  OF  EARLY  EUROPE 

The  following  excellent  treatise  on  early  European  banking 
practices  and  money  is  the  most  revealing  and  extensive  the  au- 
thor was  able  to  obtain  on  this  period  and  is  reprinted  with  per- 
mission from  the  book,  "What  Is  Coming,"  by  Lyman  E.  Stowe. 
"With  the  destruction  of  Commerce,  which  always  comes 
if  the  shrinkage  of  the  volume  of  money  is  great  enough,  came 
poverty,  distress,  and  loss  of  patriotism,  and  the  final  downfall 
of  Rome. 

"With  the  breaking  up  of  the  great  Roman  Empire,  came  a 
swarm  of  small  republics.  Each  of  these  tried  to  excel  the 
others  in  offering  protection  in  opposition  to  individual  privi- 
lege. 

"The  Florentines  guarded  their  political  rights  with  such 
jealous  care  that  they  held  their  elections  every  two  months. 

' '  It  was  Venice,  one  of  the  independent  cities,  that  gave  birth 
to  the  mother  of  our  present  credit  system  that  turned  the  tide 
of  commerce  from  a  downward  to  an  upward  current,  which 
gradually  led  to  a  higher  state  of  civilization. 

"For  many  years  the  money  center  rested  Avith  two  indepen- 
dent cities — Venice  and  Genoa. 

"Before  I  proceed  further  I  will  give  a  brief  description  of 
the 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  29 

BANK  OF  VENICE 

"This  bank  was  established  in  the  year  1171,  and  fell  with 
the  fall  of  Venice  in  1812,  thus  standing  for  nearly  six  and  a 
half  centuries. 

"The  Bank  of  Venice  was  a  governmental  bank.  The  Veni- 
tian  government  was  at  war  and  needed  funds  and  was  com- 
pelled to  resort  to  forced  loans  from  its  wealthy  citizens,  for 
which  it  gave  credits  in  bank.  These  credits  were  transferable 
through  a  sort  of  tally  system ;  in  part  or  in  whole,  they  were 
also  receivable  for  taxes  and  dues  to  the  government. 

"The  government  entered  into  no  obligation  to  repay  the 
money.  But  Colwell,  in  his  'Ways  and  Means'  says :  'Reimburse- 
ment of  the  loan  ceased  to  be  regarded  as  either  necessary  or 
desirable.'  Thus  credits  ran  up  and  stood  at  a  premium  of  30 
per  cent  above  coin,  but  was  finally  fixed  at  20  per  cent  above 
coin,  and  this  because  of  their  being  accepted  for  all  dues  to 
the  government.  At  first  the  government  paid  interest  on  de- 
posits but  this  was  abolished  in  1423,  and  all  bills  of  exchange 
payable  in  Venice,  whether  domestic  or  foreign,  were  decreed 
payable  through  the  Bank  of  Venice,  unless  otherwise  specified 
in  the  contract.  For  the  long  existence  of  this  bank  Colwell 
says  that  they  never  suffered  one  panic.  He  further  says  :  ' '  That 
the  inhabitants  of  Venice  were  satisfied.  We  cannot  doubt,  as 
not  an  objection  was  ever  made  to  the  bank,  at  least  none  is 
extant,  neither  book,  nor  speech,  nor  pamphlet  have  been  found 
in  which  merchant  or  dweller  in  Venice  ever  put  forth  any 
condemnations  of  its  theory  or  its  practice'." 

"NoAv  what  have  our  gold  bugs  who  scream  fiat  for  the  pur- 
pose of  scaring  investigators  away  from  the  grain  of  truth,  to 
say  of  this  bit  of  financial  history? 

"Fiat,  indeed !  It  was  this  fiat  system  that  fanned  the  dying 
spark  of  civilization  back  to  life." 

THE  BANK  OF  GENOA 

"Was  a  sister  bank  of  the  Bank  of  Venice,  and  was  established 
early  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Like  the  Bank  of  Venice  it  had 
its  origin  in  the  necessities  of  the  State,  though  loans  upon  which 
it  was  based  were  not  forced  but  were  the  spontaneous  offerings 
of  the  people.  According  to  Caldwell,  the  Bank  of  Genoa  was  the 
first  to  originate  the  bank  note.  The  bank  fell  with  the  overthrow 
of  the  government  at  the  same  time  as  the  fall  of  Venice. 

"For  many  years  these  three  cities, Venice, Genoa  and  Florence 
were  the  money  centers  of  the  world.  But  such  a  system  of  the 
people's  money  was  not  pleasant  or  desirable  to  the  usurious 
class,  consequently,  as  the  "Star  of  Empire"  drifted  westward 
the  money  loaning  class  sought  pastures  new,  and  for  a  time  lo- 
cated in  Amsterdam  where  favorable  privileges  were  granted. 


30  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

THE  BANK  OF  AMSTERDAM 

"Was  founded  in  1609,  on  strictl}^  commercial  basis,  and  not 
to  afford  any  assistance  to  the  government.  As  before  stated, 
Amsterdam  was  the  commercial  center  of  the  world,  and,  of 
course,  offered  the  greatest  inducements  for  a  moneyed  center. 

"The  bank  was  established  on  the  principle  that  coin  once  de- 
posited, could  never  be  withdrawn,  but  the  people  holding  its 
notes  knew  that  the  specie  was  behind  them,  and  it  might  just  as 
well  have  been  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  as  it  was  not  convertible. 
The  bank's  first  capital  consisted  of  silver  coins,  Spanish  ducats, 
but  foreign  coins  of  all  kinds  soon  flowed  into  the  bank,  and  were 
received  at  nine  per  cent  discount.  These  coins  were  melted  up 
and  the  metal  sold,  which  of  course  helped  to  enrich  the  banking 
company. 

"In  1672,  when  Louis  XIV  penetrated  to  Utrecht,  a  great  fear 
arose,  and  people  who  had  accounts  with  the  bank  demanded 
coin,  but  this  was  met  so  promptly  that  confidence  was  restored. 
But  in  1790  the  bank  refused  to  return  in  coin  a  less  amount 
than  250  florins. 

"Notwithstanding,  it  was  supposed  that  the  bank  contained  so 
much  coin  in  its  vaults,  it  became  a  heavy  loaner  to  great  cor- 
porations. It  loaned  the  East  Indian  Trading  Company  more 
than  10,500,000  florins,  which  sum  of  course  it  was  unable  to 
make  up  to  its  dej)Ositors,  and  so  it  assigned  its  claims  and  ex- 
pired. So  much  for  the  first  failure  of  a  specie  basis  promissory 
note  banking  institution." 

THE  BANK  OF  HAMBURG 

""Was  established  in  1619  on  the  model  of  the  Bank  of  Amster- 
dam. It  is  still  in  existence,  and  is  a  flourishing  institution.  (1896) 

"For  a  number  of  years  prior  to  the  fall  of  Amsterdam  the 
commercial  center  was  gradually  changing  from  Amsterdam  to 
London,  England. 

"Holland  had  become  rich  and  prosperous,  and  no  great  con- 
traction of  the  volume  of  money  had  ever  taken  place,  and  after 
the  fall  of  the  Bank  of  Amsterdam,  Holland  adopted  a  favorable 
currency  system  that  has  kept  financial  panics  at  bay. 

"England  had  for  many  years  been  a  good  stamping  ground 
for  the  usurer — both  Jew  and  Gentile. 

"The  English  nobility,  or  governing  classes,  were  mainly  the 
direct  descendants  of  the  old  Vikings  or  Norsemen,  a  piratical 
class  of  adventurers  from  the  far  north,  and  of  course  were  just 
the  class  to  be  bribed  and  influenced  by  the  usurious  money 
loaners,  and  as  a  nation  she  still  pursues  a  piratical  policy  toward 
all  weaker  countries.  But  with  all  her  faults  she  has  always  been 
a  progressive  country,  and  consequently  always  required  a  large 
volume  of  circulating  medium.  Like  old  Rome,  for  a  great  length 
of  time  she  had  no  other  means  of  increasing  that  volume  than  by 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  31 

reducing  the  amount  of  metal  in  the  coin.  Finally  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  I.,  from  1100  to  1695,  the  tally  system  was  adopted,  a 
money  fabricated  out  of  wood.  Says  Jonathan  Duncan,  the  his- 
torian: "Its  intrinsic  value  was  no  more  than  the  value  of  the 
wood  of  which  it  was  fabricated,  but  its  representative  (or  com- 
mercial) value  denoted  large  sums." 

' '  These  were  called  exchequer  values,  and  the  system  was  simi- 
lar to  our  greenback  system,  and  it  extended  down  to  1694,  when 
the  specie  basis.  Bank  of  England  was  established ;  then  the  tally 
system  was  abolished  and  it  brought  ruin.  The  result  of  this  sud- 
den contraction  is  given  by  Devant,  as  follows: 

"The  government  appeared  like  a  distressed  debtor  who 
was  daily  squeezed  to  death  by  the  exorbitant  greediness  of 
the  lender.  The  citizens  began  to  decline  trade,  and  to  turn 
usurers.  Foreign  commerce  had  infinite  discouragement.  'We 
are  going  headlong  to  destruction  with  carrying  on  a  losing 
trade  with  our  neighbors,  and  what  has  brought  us  to  this  low 
estate?' 

"When  paper  money  flourished   (credits)   and  tallies  per- 
formed all  the  offices  of  money,  the  great  payments  for  land  or 
rich  goods,  were  therefore  easily  made,  the  king's  duties  paid, 
and  all  kinds  of  business  easily  transacted." 
"Read  this  and  stick  it  under  the  nose  of  the  knave  or  fool  who 
howls  "Fiat!"  the  moment  you  speak  of  a  government  money 
made  of  cheap  material. 

"We  must  go  back  a  little  and  refer  once  more  to  the  de- 
basement of  British  coins."  Says  Encyclopedia  Britannica  :  "At 
the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  pound  sterling  con- 
tained what  its  name  implied,  a  pound  weight  of  silver,  of  112 
fineness,  the  penny,  which  was  the  commonest  coin,  containing 
a  two  hundred  and  fortieth  part  of  a  pound.  Between  this 
period  and  the  Sixteenth  century  her  penny  was  reduced  to 
one-third  its  ancient  weight. 

"The  English  pound  now  worth  $4.84  of  our  money  (1896),  if 
expressed  in  our  dollars,  would  weigh  less  than  five  ounces,  and 
the  commercial  value  of  the  commodity  worth  about  $2.80.  The 
above  valuation  shows  us  that  silver  was  the  standard  metal  of 
England  down  to  1817. 

"From  Henry  VITI.  there  was  a  continual  debasement  of  the 
metal  money  down  to  1551,  and  says  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica : 
"An  attempt  was  made  at  the  conclusion  of  this  reign  to  issue  a 
coinage  of  genuine  quality,  but  as  the  base  money  continued  in 
circulation,  the  attempt  was  futile."  This  shows  us  that  the 
people  preferred  a  money  that  cost  but  little  for  the  material  of 
which  it  was  made,  and  that  the  desire  for  a  high  priced  com- 
modity came  from  another  source,  i.  e.,  the  money  loaning  class, 
who  wished  to  make  money  out  of  it.  To  quote  another : 


32  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

''Queen  Mary  was  anxious  to  restore  the  ancient  standard, 
but  found  it  impossible  to  do  so.  However,  Elizabeth  called  in 
her  father's  and  brother's  base  money  at  a  low  fixed  rate, 
which  gave  her  a  considerable  profit,  and  put  into  circulation 
money  of  the  old  character  and  quality.  This  was  effected  in 
1560. 

"The  contraction  of  the  volume  of  money,  through  this 
change,  was  soon  felt  in  the  war  of  commercial  distress,  but 
the  dire  results  of  a  dissatisfaction  did  not  reach  its  height 
until  the  autumn  of  1642 — 82  years  after  the  civil  war  broke 
out  under  Cromwell.  Dissatisfaction  and  rebellion  do  not  fol- 
low immediately  upon  the  heels  of  the  cause,  but  take  years  to 
reach  the  point  of  explosion. 

"The  metal  in  the  coins  was  reduced  again  in  Cromwell's 
time.  But  look  at  what  a  cost  of  suffering  and  blood  that  was 
necessary  before  the  people  got  back  to  a  cheaper  and  more 
plentiful  money.  For  many  years  the  goldsmiths  of  England 
were  the  bankers." 

Usury,  the  Persistent  Cause  of  Sin  and  Crime 

After  all  these  experiences  down  through  the  centuries  with 
the  practice,  and  results  of  the  practice,  of  usury,  it  would  seem 
that  the  people  of  the  civilized  world  would  have  banded  together 
and  outlawed  usury  once  and  for  all. 

Such  was  not  the  case,  however,  and  usury  was  to  come  back 
into  power,  stronger  than  ever,  and  has  continued  to  gain  in 
strength,  until  today  it  has  the  whole  world  in  its  strangling 
grasp.  And  there  is  a  very  definite  reason  why  it  revived  and 
came  back  stronger  than  ever  and  continued  to  grow  in  strength 
and  power  throughout  the  centuries. 

That  reason  was  threefold :  first,  there  was  a  feeling  at  that 
time  among  most  of  the  people  that  nothing  but  gold  and  silver 
could  be  regarded  as  "money."  It  was  the  common  belief  that 
money  must  have  within  itself  a  real  value.  This  restriction 
worked  to  the  advantage  of  the  money  lenders  or  usurers,  in 
that  the  volume  of  money,  both  gold  and  silver  being  compara- 
tively small,  they  could  and  did  combine  and  conspire  together 
to  hoard  it  and  keep  it  out  of  circulation.  And  the  effect  of  this 
was,  as  we  have  it  here,  and  all  over  the  world  right  now — and 
for  the  same  reason — a  strangulation  or  restriction  of  all  business 
life,  even  to  international  trade. 

The  second  reason  for  usury's  revival  was  that  the  Jewish 
usurers  revived  their  age  old  practices  of  collusion  with  and 
bribery  of  lawmakers  or  public  officials,  who  accepted  bribes  or 
loans  of  money  in  exchange  for  influence  or  privileges  of  usury. 

The  third  reason  was  the  extension  and  elaboration  of  the 
Jewish  usurer's  method  of  transferring  money  to  keep  from 
being  robbed.  In  those  early  times,  usury  was  not  lawful  and 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  33 

usurers  did  not  have  the  protection  of  the  law,  so  they  con- 
spired and  agreed  among  themselves  to  take  "trade  acceptances" 
or  certificates  of  credit  on  transferring  money  between  them 
without  transferring  the  money  and  subjecting  it  to  robbers.  If 
the  transfer  certificate  was  stolen  and  presented  by  anyone  but 
the  true  bearer  it  was  assigned  to,  it  was  not  paid.  This  practice 
was  in  all  probability  the  ancestor  of  our  present  checking  sys- 
tem in  this  country,  which,  of  course,  enables  commerce  to  be 
carried  on  with  promises,  instead  of  with  real  money,  the  money 
staying  in  the  banks  where  it  can  be  controlled. 

Thus  the  usurers  or  money  changers  could  handle  or  manipu- 
late money  between  themselves  to  the  confusion  of  all  other 
people  as  to  its  whereabouts  and  as  to  how  much  there  was  in 
the  country. 

Instead  of  being  so  clever  as  some  people  claim  they  are  with 
their  various  schemes,  doesn't  it  appear  by  the  foregoing,  and 
the  temple  tax  and  "half -shekel  of  the  sanctuary"  episode,  that 
they  (the  money  changers)  are  just  persistent  instead  of  clever, 
and  use  the  same  old  tricks  handed  down  for  centuries? 

Turning  again  to  early  England,  we  find  the  usurers  kept 
playing  their  nefarious  game,  and  when  repressed  too  strongly 
they  would  conspire  together  and  hide  or  hoard  all  the  gold  and 
silver  money  and  practically  strangle  all  industry  and  trading 
for  want  of  money  to  trade  with. 

Thus  by  hoarding  and  keeping  money  out  of  circulation, 
business  was  strangled,  or  as  we  now  say,  a  "Depression"  oc- 
curred, and  it  became  so  bad  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII,  that  he 
was  "induced"  to  permit  lending  at  interest  of  less  than  10%  in 
order  to  induce  the  money  changers  to  let  loose  of  enough  money 
to  get  trade  going  again  and  people  employed.  This  episode  it 
would  seem,  was  the  real  begining  of  the  legalizing  of  the  vicious 
and  lecherous  practice,  which  was,  forever  after,  to  continue  to 
get  more  and  more  concession  and  "privileges"  from  the  law- 
makers and  rulers  in  one  way  or  another,  right  down  to  our 
present  time,  when  the  power  of  money  seems  to  rule  all  civilized 
countries. 

Quoting  again  from  Elliot  on  Usury:  "Edward  VI  revised 
the  old  laws  condemning  interest.  Mary  I  next  following,  execut- 
ed these  laws  with  extreme  severity  and  the  usurers  again  re- 
newed the  hoarding  of  gold  and  silver." 

The  law  of  Henry  VIII  and  the  decree  of  Elizabeth,  in  which 
she  said,  "The  law  should  be  strongly  construed  for  the  repres- 
sion of  usury,"  were  the  laws  of  England  with  the  rate  of  in- 
terest reduced  until  the  year  1854,  at  which  time  all  laws  on 
usury  were  repealed. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  money  lenders  had  entrenched 
and  established  themselves  as  a  going  "business,"  legalized,  and 
working  with  the  established  government,  in  an  institution  of 


34  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

their  own,  destined  to  become  the  world's  money  capital  for 
many  years  to  come. 

This  was  brought  about  by  the  establishment  of  the  "Bank 
of  England"  in  1694. 

England  was  in  a  war  with  France  and  needed  money  very 
badly  to  carr}-  on  the  war.  It  is  well  to  note  right  here,  that  be- 
ginning with  this  momentous  event  the  establishment  of  this 
first  large  and  governmentally  recognized  bank,  in  England,  that 
its  "Charter"  and  practically  all  subsequent  "enlargements"  of 
the  activities  and  privileges  that  followed,  as  well  as  all  others 
to  follow  in  the  various  countries  of  the  world,  were  obtained  in 
times  when  the  various  governments  were  under  conditions  of 
stress,  and  generally  in  times  of  war,  when  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  government  to  have  "money"  with  which  to 
carry  on  the  war. 

The  reader  maj'  find  with  little  trouble  that  there  are  likely 
some  "banking  interests"  allied  with  munition  firms,  in  which 
they  also  control  the  policy  and  get  the  profits,  being  beyond  a 
reasonable  doubt  also  connected  with,  or  instrumental  in  origi- 
nating, or  bringing  about  "conditions"  which  cause  these  wars 
between  peoples  and  nations,  in  such  cases  "banks"  may  and  do 
"finance  the  government"  with  an  economic  gain  to  themselves 
and  an  enslavement,  by  "debt"  of  the  producing  classes  of  the 
nation,  the  debt  and  interest  being  loaded  on,  of  course,  in  in- 
creased cost  of  commodities,  and  taxes,  which  in  the  end  are 
always  paid  by  the  same  producing  classes. 


CHAPTER  V. 

History  of  the  Origin  of  the  Bank  of  England 

In  the  case  of  the  Bank  of  England  being  given  a  name  to 
imply  that  the  bank  was  owned  by  the  Government,  there  was 
established  a  practice  of  misnaming  Banks  that  has  been  fol- 
lowed through  the  ages  to  the  present  day.  Deception,  make  be- 
lieve, do  you  say?  Surely,  but  we  must  remember  they  are  found 
to  be  two  of  the  greatest  and  most  effective  weapons  or  tools  of 
the  "money  changers"  and  always  have  been  from  the  time  of 
Moses  down  to  the  present. 

They  have  purposely,  consistently  and  continuously  used 
these  tools  to  get  their  schemes  established  and  fastened  upon 
the  people  and  the  government  by  laws,  and  once  established 
they  were,  and  are,  next  to  impossible  to  repeal  or  remove.  Mur- 
der, in  single  or  wholesale,  has  been  used  all  down  through  the 
ages  to  remove  those  who  have  had  the  nerve  to  try  to  resist  their 
practices,  or  try  to  repeal  or  remove  laws  once  established  by 
this  conspiracy  and  bribery. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  35 

The  following  historical  comments  on  the  origin  of  the  Bank 
of  England  from  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  14th  edition,  Vol. 
3,  p.  52,  give  us  a  pretty  clear  idea  of  the  methods  of  the  money 
changers  in  getting  their  schemes  established.  The  reader  will 
please  note  that  the  Bank  was  not  established  by  a  law  called  a 
"Banking  Law,"  but  by  an  act  called  a  "Tonnage  Act."  Later 
you  will  see  that  silver  was  demonetized  in  the  United  States  in 
1873  by  a  bill  that  did  not  disclose  its  purpose  in  its  name,  and 
was,  in  purpose  and  effect,  not  known  generally  for  years,  but  in 
that  time  had  worked  its  ghastly  havoc. 

Note  also  that  the  Bank  of  England's  charter  conveyed  the 
privilege  to  the  bank  of  issuing  Bank  Notes  or  paper  money  to 
the  full  amount  of  its  capital ;  its  capital  in  gold  being  all  loaned 
to  the  Government  at  8%  interest  with  which  to  carry  on  the 
war  with  France,  the  Bankers  thus  had  the  8%  interest  on  their 
capital  loaned  and  all  their  money  back  in  the  issue  of  paper 
money  to  lend  at  interest  to  other  people  in  trade  and  commerce. 
Pretty  soft,  wasn't  it,  for  the  Bankers? 

THE  ENGLISH  BANKING  SYSTEM  FOUNDED 

Excerpt  from  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  14th  Edition,  Vol. 
3,  p.  52: 

"Founders,  John  Thompson  and  Son — Samuel  C,  Cashier, 
Isaac  W.  White. 

"The  Bank  of  England  was  not  the  original  scheme  of 
William  Patterson,  its  founder.  As  is  usual  in  English  political 
history,  it  came  into  being  almost  by  the  back  door,  deriving 
its  life  from  the  Tonnage  Act  of  1694,  of  which  the  preamble 
read,  'An  act  for  granting  to  their  Majesties  several  acts  and 
duties  upon  tonnages  of  ships  and  vessels,  and  upon  beer,  ale, 
and  other  liquors,  for  securing  certain  recompenses  and  ad- 
vantages in  the  said  act  mentioned  to  such  persons  as  shall 
voluntarily  advance  the  sum  of  fifteen  hundred  thousand 
pounds  towards  carrying  on  the  war  with  France. 

"The  bank  clearly  arose  from  the  deal  (Is  this  where  we 
get  the  New  Deal? — author)  bet\veen  the  Government  and  its 
promoters,  the  former  receiving  cash  and  the  latter  the  privi- 
leges. The  capital  was  £1,500,000.00,  the  whole  sum  of  which 
was  advanced  to  the  Government  at  the  rate  of  8%  plus  £4,000 
per  annum  for  expense  or  £100,000  per  annum  in  all ! 

* '  The  privileges  of  a  bank  were  granted  for  12  years  to  the 
corporation,  which  was  allowed  to  deal  in  bills  or  exchange  or 
bullion,  but  not  in  merchandise,  and  to  issue  notes  up  to  a 
volume  equal  to  its  capital." 


36  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  English  or  Money  Changers  Banking 
System  Started  in  the  United  States 

"VyrE  now  come  to  the  banking  system  of  our  own  country.   In 
»▼    1700  Mayer  Amschel  Rothschild  is  recorded  as  saying : 

"Permit  me  to  issue  and  control  the  money  of  a  nation  and 
I  care  not  who  makes  its  laws." 

The  next  year,  1791,  with  his  help,  the  First  United  States 
Bank  was  established  in  this  country.  That  gave  him  and  his 
henchmen  just  that  power. 

As  each  of  the  thirteen  (13)  colonies  were  organized  into 
States,  they  fixed  a  limit  of  6  per  cent  interest  that  might  be 
charged  for  loaning  money  and  a  penalty  of  the  principal  being 
forfeited  by  the  lender  if  he  charged  more  than  6  per  cent.  How 
times  have  changed  money  practices ! 

The  people  in  the  colonies  were  principally  from  England, 
Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Germany,  and  being  used  to  the  lending 
systems  there,  and  knowing  that  England  had  been  compelled 
to  surrender  to  the  money  lenders  in  1694,  when  the  Bank  of 
England  was  established  and  usury  legalized,  they  had  been  led 
to  believe,  likely  through  sentiment  built  up  by  usurers  and  their 
agents  (today  called  propaganda),  that  this  was  the  only  way 
that  the  money  question  could  be  handled. 

There  was  a  prevailing  opinion  in  the  newly  organized  States, 
as  there  had  been  in  England,  that  nothing  was  real  money  except 
that  made  of  gold  and  silver.  So,  the  United  States  Congress 
passed  an  act  establishing  government  owned  and  operated 
"Mints"  where  all  gold  and  silver  that  was  brought  to  them 
would  be  coined  into  money  free  of  charge,  it  being  deemed  a 
necessary  governmental  duty.  It  was  hoped  that  this  would  so 
stimulate  the  production  of  those  two  metals  as  to  furnish  an 
adequate  supply  of  money. 

So-called  State  Banks  (being  privately  owned,  however)  were 
also  allowed  to  be  incorporated  and  were  allowed  to  issue  paper 
money,  but  only  to  be  redeemed  in  money  of  gold  or  silver  coin- 
age. They  could  only  loan  their  real  money,  or  keep  it  and  loan 
paper  money,  but  not  both. 

This  privilege,  as  had  been  the  rule  with  nearly  all  privileges 
pertaining  to  money  and  banking,  was  abused.  In  some  instances 
the  bankers  being  unable  to  withstand  the  temptation  to  issue 
more  money  (paper)  than  they  could  redeem;  some,  of  course, 
"went  broke"  even  as  they  do  today  when  called  on  to  redeem 
their  money. 

All  this  time,  since  the  establishing  of  the  new  Nation,  the 
development  of  the  country  was  increasing  and  money  was  never 
adequate  to  take  care  of  new  needs  and  expansion,  and  there 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MAKTYRED  37 

arose  a  movement  for  the  establishment  of  a  "New  Deal"  in 
banking.  After  years  of  agitation  and  maneuvering  and  manipu- 
lation, in  1791,  Congress  was  induced  to  pass  a  law  (after  long 
debate  and  strong  opposition)  chartering  the  "First  Bank  of 
the  United  States." 

The  reader  will  please  note  here  that  the  identical  tactics  that 
were  used  with  the  establishing  and  naming  of  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land were  again  used,  namely — the  naming  of  the  new  bank  the 
"Bank  of  the  United  States;"  making  it  appear  to  be,  without 
saying  so,  a  bank  owned  by  the  government,  that,  of  course, 
giving  it  the  advantage  of  the  prestige  of  the  government,  and 
the  belief  of  the  people  of  its  consequent  safety  for  the  money 
they  were  to  deposit  in  it. 

More  deception  and  make  believe?  Certainly,  and  as  before 
mentioned,  these  are  two  of  the  main  "stocks  in  trade"  of  the 
"money  changers"  or  usurers. 

It  is  most  unbelievable,  even  at  this  date,  to  find  the  vast  num- 
ber of  people  here  in  the  United  States  actually  believing,  and 
who  will  argue  for  hours  that  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks  are 
"owned"  by  the  "Government."  Such,  of  course,  is  not  true,  as 
they  are  owned  by  private  interests  as  was  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  in  1791. 

The  first  United  States  Bank  was  strongly  opposed  by  both 
Edmund  Randolph,  the  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  Secretary  of  State,  Thomas  Jefferson. 

This  law  was  drafted  and  advocated  by  Alexander  Hamilton. 
In  looking  up  his  record  we  find  that  he  was  born  of  a  French 
Huguenot  mother,  Rachel  Faucett  Levine,  in  the  West  Indies, 
and  was  said  at  that  time  to  be  the  illegitimate  son  of  one  James 
Hamilton,  a  Scotchman,  with  whom  his  mother  had  lived ;  but  at 
the  time  he  was  born,  his  mother  was  married  to  a  Danish  Jew 
by  the  name  of  Levine.  History  also  says  that  others  besides 
James  Hamilton  have  been  named  as  Alexander  Hamilton's 
father. 

Young  Hamilton  was  furnished  plenty  of  money  to  come  to 
the  United  States  when  fifteen  years  old  and  was  educated  in 
New  Jersey  in  a  grammar  school  and  entered  Kings  College  (now 
Columbia  University)  as  a  special  student.  Later  he  studied  law. 

When  we  consider  carefully  his  life's  story  together  with  his 
associates,  and  the  backers  in  the  "First  Bank  of  the  United 
States"  and  the  tactics  used  in  that  deal,  the  long  established 
fact  of  the  Jewish  money  barons  extending  their  help  in  money 
and  credit  to  their  own  people,  in  any  and  all  lands  for  obtaining 
trade  and  special  privileges,  such  as  was  obtained  in  the  Bank 
Charter ;  and  the  fact  also  that  at  the  time  Hamilton  came  to  the 
United  States,  the  Jews  were  not  allowed  citizenship  here,  and 
furthermore,  that  illegitimacy  was  not  considered  such  a  moral 
stigma  by  the  vast  majority  of  Jews  as  by  Gentiles,  as  witness 


38  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

the  customs  said  to  be  put  into  operation  in  Jewish  controlled 
Russia,  since  the  Jewish  Communists  took  control,  and  in  many 
places  throughout  the  Old  Testament ;  considering  all  these  things 
carefully  and  thoughtfully,  and  Hamilton's  action  in  after  years, 
one  may  well  be  able  to  come  to  the  conclusion  that  "deception" 
and  "make-believe"  were  practiced  by  Hamilton,  even  before 
the  "Bank  of  the  United  States"  episode,  and  that  he  was,  as 
some  Jews  are  said  to  admit  privately,  and  to  boast  of  actually, 
the  Jew's  son  to  whom  his  mother  was  married  and  adopted  the 
name  of  Hamilton  with  what  stigma  of  illegitimacy  attached  to 
it,  to  obtain  for  himself  the  coveted  citizenship  of  the  United 
States,  a  most  promising  young  nation. 

At  any  rate,  his  citizenship  Avas  to  be  a  great  thing  for  him, 
as  he  became  a  very  wealthy  man,  with  a  high  social  position, 
something  impossible  for  a  Jew  to  obtain  at  that  time.  He  was 
rewarded  in  the  end  with  a  violent  death  in  a  duel  at  the  hands 
of  Aaron  Burr.  (It  is  recorded  that  the  United  States  accorded 
full  citizenship  to  Jews  in  1783,  the  first  nation  in  the  modern 
world  to  do  so.) 

The  first  "Bank  of  the  United  States"  was  chartered  for 
twenty  (20)  years,  1791-1811,  and  had  a  capital  of  ten  million 
dollars.  It  did  a  thriving  business.  In  1809  a  bill  was  put  before 
Congress  to  renew  its  charter,  which  was  to  expire  two  years 
later.  The  debate  in  Congress  on  this  bill  was  very  heated,  and 
the  State  Legislatures  in  both  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  passed 
resolutions  memoralizing  the  National  Congress  to  prevents  its 
passage.  History  tells  us  that  Thomas  Jefferson  was  violently 
opposed  to  the  renewal  bill. 

After  the  First  Bank  of  the  United  States  had  been  working 
a  sufficient  number  of  years  to  give  Thomas  Jefferson  a  chance 
to  form  an  opinion  on  it,  he  said : 

"I  believe  that  banking  institutions  are  more  dangerous 

to  our  liberties  than  standing  armies.  Already  they  have  raised 

up  a  money  aristocracy  that  has  set  the  government  at  defiance. 

The  issuing  power  (of  money)  should  be  taken  from  the  banks, 

and  restored  to  the  Government  and  to  the  people  to  whom  it 

belongs." 

He  could  not  have  said  more  in  a  thousand  words,  and  the 

above  surely  places  the  great  Jefferson  on  record  for  all  to  see. 

Mr.  P.  B.  Porter,  a  Congressman,  said : 

"Let  the  principle  of  construction  or  implied  power  be 
once  established  in  the  extent  to  which  it  must  be  carried,  in 
order  to  pass  the  bill  (the  Renewal  Bill)  and  you  will  have 
planted  in  the  bosom  of  this  Constitution  a  viper,  which  one 
day  or  another  will  sting  the  liberties  of  this  country  to  the 
heart." 
The  newspapers  of  that  time  are  quoted  as  calling  the  bank 
bill  "A  great  swindle,"  and  in  other  places  referring  to  the  bank 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  39 

as  "A  vulture,"  ''A  viper,"  and  "A  cobra." 

It  would  seem  that  in  view  of  the  last  quotations  the  press  of 
those  days  enjoyed  a  real  freedom  and  were  not  obliged  to  print 
only  what  special  interests  or  large  advertisers  wished  or  allowed 
them  to  print.  As  far  as  the  press  is  concerned — "those  were 
the  good  old  days." 

It  would  seem  also  that  the  majority  of  Congress  of  those 
days  had  a  goodly  quantity  of  real  character,  and  the  intestinal 
stamina  to  stand  up  and  vote  for  the  good  of  the  people,  for  the 
"renewal  bill"  was  killed  and  the  first  "Bank  of  the  United 
States"  ended,  but  with  its  ending  did  not  end  the  activity  of 
the  money  changers. 

The  reader's  attention  is  called  at  this  time  to  two  facts: 
the  first,  a  condition  of  business  and  trade  known  as  "good 
times"  occurs  when  "money"  is  easy  to  obtain,  and  there  is 
plenty  of  it  in  circulation.  There  is  only  one  thing  that  makes 
money  "easy"  to  get  to  do  business  with,  and  that  is  the  attitude 
of  mind  or  the  "feeling"  of  the  man  or  group  of  people  that  have 
the  money  in  their  possession.  It  is  a  fact  that  "money"  as  such, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  all  down  through  history  has  always 
been  in  "few"  hands,  and  if  the  possessors  are  permitted  to  do 
just  what  they  please  with  it,  loan  it  at  usury,  buy  up  and  ' '  cor- 
ner" foodstuffs  or  other  commodities,  and  necessities;  corrupt 
politicians  and  lawmakers  to  get  them  to  pass  laws  enabling  the 
"money  lender"  or  "money  possessors"  to  have  special  privi- 
leges, or  to  control  public  lands  for  their  special  benefit  or  any 
other  privilege  or  thing  they  might  think  of  or  conceive,  then, 
they  are  well  pleased  and  will  invest  or  loan  or  let  loose  of  their 
money,  and  money  is  then  said  to  be  "easy"  and  "good  times 
are  had  by  the  masses."  These  people  are  well  called  the  preda- 
tory class. 

Second,  there  is  a  condition  of  business  and  trade  known  as 
"hard  times"  as  is  aptly,  if  unintentionally,  put  in  the  good  old 
American  song,  "My  Old  Kentucky  Home,"  "Bye  and  bye  hard 
times  comes  a  knocking  at  my  door,  then  my  Old  Kentucky  Home 
goodnight."  That  is  just  exactly  what  happens  when  hard  times 
comes  to  many ;  for  of  the  masses  many  are  compelled  to  say 
"good  night"  and  "good-bye"  to  their  homes,  their  businesses, 
and  other  possessions,  for  which  thej^  had  slaved  many  years  to 
obtain,  only  to  lose  because  money  was  "tight"  and  jobs  scarce. 

These  "hard  times"  and  "tight  money"  are  real  conditions. 
Money  is  hard  to  get  hold  of  by  the  masses,  because  the  money 
possessors  "hold  tight"  to  it  and  do  not  put  it  into,  or  let  it  get 
into  circulation.  Mark  well,  these  times  occur,  when  the  money 
possessors  want  some  special  condition  or  special  law  to  permit 
or  enable  them  to  loan  their  money  at  interest  or  usury,  or  get 
the  rate  of  interest  enlarged,  or  to  get  some  special  privilege  in 
trade  or  commerce  to  enable  them  to  get  special  advantages  over 


40  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

competition,  or  (and  here  is  a  very  large  reason)  to  scare  the 
masses  of  people,  their  legislators,  or  Government  into  giving 
them  what  they,  the  money  lenders,  want,  or  to  "discipline"  or 
get  revenge  upon  the  masses,  or  the  government  for  "acts"  or 
"laws"  passed  or  established,  limiting,  curbing,  or  taking  away 
some  special  privilege  or  concession  they  have  had  before,  to  the 
great  detriment  and  loss  to  the  people  as  a  whole. 

The  reader  will  be  well  advised  to  read  and  memorize  these 
"reasons"  for  good  and  bad,  or  hard  times,  or  times  of  "easy 
money"  and  "tight  money,"  as  the  vast  majority  of  "ups"  and 
' '  downs ' '  of  business  and  trade  the  world  over  are  directly  trace- 
able to  the  tw^o  foregoing  "reasons." 

We  will  now  return  to  the  "killing"  by  Congress  of  the  "re- 
newal bill"  for  renewing  the  charter  of  the  first  "Bank  of  the 
United  States."  As  before  mentioned,  this  bank  had  paid-in 
capital  of  ten  million  dollars  in  gold  and  silver  money,  and  when 
the  bank's  charter  expired  in  1811  the  bank  had  to  be  liquidated 
and  this  "capital"  was  all  returned  in  cash  with  interest  or 
profit  of  something  like  8  per  cent. 

This  was  a  great  amount  of  cash  to  be  put  back  into  private 
hands  at  one  time  for  that  day  and  time,  and  one  would  naturally 
suppose  that  the  money  lenders  would  be  eager  and  willing  to 
lend  it  right  out  again  to  anyone  with  "security"  who  might 
want  it,  and  "easy  money"  and  good  times  would  be  enjoyed  by 
all.  But  such  was  not  the  case.  The  reader  will  please  remember 
the  operation  of  the  second  "reason"  or  the  reason  for 
the  cause  of  "hard  times."  These  money  changers,  or  usurers, 
had  been  deprived  of  a  most  valuable  "concession  and  privilege" 
to  loan  and  issue  money,  which  was  making  them  millions  of 
dollars,  ,and  they  w^ere  not  going  to  submit  meekly  to  any  such 
treatment.  So,  having  been  able  in  twenty  years'  operation  of 
their  ' '  bank, ' '  through  interest  ' '  compounded ' '  and  the  power  to 
issue  money  themselves,  also,  to  gather  to  themselves  nearly  all 
the  actual  gold  and  silver  in  the  States  at  the  time  (at  least  that 
group  and  other  money  lenders  together  had),  they  proceeded 
to  hoard  it,  and  hold  it  out  of  circulation. 

There  is,  of  course,  no  record  at  hand  of  actual  conspiracy 
and  collusion,  but  the  fact  remains,  as  records  of  conditions  at 
that  time  clearly  show,  that  the  most  of  them  began  hoarding 
their  gold  and  silver  money  as  it  came  in,  and  to  refuse  to  loan 
it,  or  let  it  get  into  circulation  in  any  way,  and  soon  a  big 
"panic"  or  time  of  "tight  money"  or  "hard  times"  was  on,  and 
business  and  trade  was  in  a  stagnant  condition.  For  this  there 
was  only  one  reason,  and  the  one  reason  that  always  causes  it, 
namely,  the  shortage  of  money,  brought  about  by  the  "money 
changers"  or  "money  possessors"  hoarding  their  money,  refus- 
ing to  either  loan  it  out,  or  put  it  into  circulation  by  purchase, 
or  by  other  activities  that  require  money. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MAKTYRED  41 

This  hoarding  by  the  former  owners  of  the  closed  "Bank  of 
the  United  States,"  and  other  private  money  lenders,  not  only 
stagnated  business  all  over  the  country,  but  had  taken  so  much 
real  "money"  out  of  circulation  that  the  "State  banks,"  which 
were  comparatively  small  at  that  time,  were  unable  to  stand  the 
strain  of  withdrawals,  always  brought  about  by  "fear,"  which 
the  money  lenders  are  said  to  be  careful  to  spread  abroad  at  such 
times. 

Consequently,  nearly  all  of  the  small  state  banks  failed,  and 
closed  with  untold  suffering  to  the  masses  and  more  stagnation 
of  business,  the  same  as  has  happened  since  October,  1929,  and 
for  identically  the  same  reason,  only  this  last  "depression,"  as 
will  be  shown  later,  had  more  complications. 

Considering  the  claim  that  much  of  the  stock  of  the  "Bank 
of  the  United  States"  was  owned  by  English  money  changers, 
and  remembering  their  habit  of  revenge  and  discipline  on  those 
who  injure  or  thwart  their  plans,  it  may  not  be  a  very  wild  pre- 
sumption that  they  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  provok- 
ing the  cause  of  the  war  of  1812  between  England  and  the  United 
States,  the  year  following  the  revoking  of  their  Bank  Charter, 
in  order  to  discipline  the  "upstart"  Republic  for  so  refusing  to 
let  them  operate. 

We  can  gladly  remember,  though  the  discipline  was  applied 
to  them  instead,  and  administered  by  good  old  Andrew  Jackson 
at  New  Orleans,  who  was  also  to  beat  them  again  later  in  another 
arena. 

It  is  a  notable  and  significant  fact  in  this  connection,  that 
the  American  business  "activity  chart"  of  1931  by  the  Cleveland 
Trust  Co.,  shows  the  amazing  fact  of  a  "war  depression"  at  the 
time  of  the  war  of  1812,  though  wholesale  prices  are  shown  as 
being  away  up  high  as  in  other  previous  wars,  while  in  all  other 
wars  we  had  a  "war  prosperity"  era  during  the  wars.  One  may 
well  conclude  that  this  "depression"  in  the  war  of  1812  was 
"managed"  for  the  foregoing  reasons. 

It  is  one  of  the  saddest  of  facts  that  in  those  times  as  now, 
not  a  sufficient  number  of  the  National  legislators  understood 
the  money  question  or  the  idea  of  a  scientific  money  system 
whereby  any  government  can  create  a  good,  usable,  steady,  stable 
money  supply  that  will  serve  any  and  all  inhabitants  to  the  bene- 
fit of  all,  and  the  loss  of  none. 

So  it  was  to  happen,  as  it  has  many  times  since,  in  one  way 
or  another,  through  misinformation  (in  which  the  money  lending 
fraternities  are  said  to  excel)  and  through  bribery,  persuasion,  or 
social  prestige,  offered  the  National  Congress,  that  they  were 
finally  prevailed  upon  in  1816  to  grant  another  "charter"  to  the 
money  lenders  for  the  second  Bank  of  the  United  States. 

And  just  to  show  you  how  well  the  first  "Bank  of  the  United 
States"  functioned,  and  how  much  money  had  been  made  with 


42  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

its  special  privileges,  and  how  much  of  the  Nation's  supply  of 
money  they  had  been  able  to  get  hold  of  through  their  special 
privilege  interest  racket,  and  hoard  and  hold  out  of  circulation 
and  cause  a  panic  with,  they  were  able  to  and  did,  charter  the 
second  "Bank  of  the  United  States"  for,  not  ten  million  dollars, 
but  for  THIRTY-FIVE  MILLION  DOLLARS!! 

Three  and  one-half  times  as  much  money  as  they  had  had  for 
the  first  one  in  twenty  years.   Not  bad  for  those  times ! 

This  bank  charter  was  to  run  for  another  twenty  years,  but 
the  money  changers  were  to  feel  the  weight  of  the  hand  of  one 
of  America's  real  characters  before  the  expiration  of  their  char- 
ter. Right  away,  however,  the  new  bank  began  to  establish  branch 
banks  like  its  English  ancestor,  the  Bank  of  England,  had  done, 
until  it  had  branches  in  nearly  all  of  the  principal  cities  of  the 
United  States.  Through  the  establishment  of  these  branches,  and 
the  bringing  into  it  institutions  of  money  lenders  in  all  parts  of 
the  country,  and  making  the  Banks'  interest  their  interest  also, 
their  political  influence  was  enormously  increased  over  the  nation. 

History  says,  "good  times"  were  the  order  of  the  day,  and 
why  not?  Had  not  the  money  lenders  been  able  to  get  their  "spe- 
cial privilege"  to  loan  at  interest  "compounded"  legalized,  and 
the  power  to  issue  money  returned  to  them?  They  soon  estab- 
lished themselves  on  a  basis  never  before  enjoyed.  And  was  not 
this  great  country  all  ready  to  be  exploited,  and  were  there  not 
millions  of  sturdy,  hard-working,  honest,  fearless,  w^hite  Chris- 
tian Americans  to  do  the  developing,  with  the  "loans"  of  the 
money  changers  and  to  be  themselves  exploited  through  the  in- 
terest system? 

Does  not  the  "reason"  number  one  of  the  cause  of  "good 
times"  work  in  this  instance,  or  does  it  not?  Read  it  again  now 
and  see.  Referring  again  to  the  aforementioned  chart,  we  find 
that  this  era  of  "good  times"  lasted  until  the  spring  of  1819; 
then  they  had  what  is  called  in  the  aforementioned  chart,  a  ' '  Pri- 
mary Post  War  Depression"  until  1821,  when  up  went  business 
and  a  time  noted  in  the  chart  as  an  "Era  of  Good  Feeling"  and 
from  that  time  on,  to  May,  1835,  there  wasn't  a  10  per  cent  varia- 
tion from  normal,  either  good  or  bad.  Then  up  went  business  in 
a  great  way,  and  for  a  reason  you  will  soon  see. 

The  second  "Bank  of  the  United  States"  charter  was  to  ex- 
pire in  1836,  so  in  1831  there  was  a  bill  presented  to  Congress 
for  renewing  the  Bank's  charter  and  it  was  passed  by  a  small 
majority. 

Andrew  Jackson,  having  been  elected  President  in  1828,  im- 
mediately began  to  show  his  feelings  toward  the  second  "Bank 
of  the  United  States"  by  having  the  money  of  the  Government 
removed  from  it  and  depositing  it  in  State  banks. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  43 

The  president  of  the  "Bank  of  the  United  States,"  Nicholas 
Biddle,  had  gone  to  President  Jackson  in  1832  to  try  to  get  a 
law  passed  giving  them  permission  for  his  bank  to  establish 
branches  in  principal  cities  of  the  Nation ;  explaining  to  the  Pres- 
ident that  if  they  could  get  these  branches  established,  they 
could  soon  get  enough  prestige  to  be  able  to  control  the  policies 
of  the  whole  country. 

Biddle  was  to  find  that  he  had  made  a  grave  mistake  in  "char- 
acter reading"  when  he  put  such  a  proposition  up  to  President 
Andrew  Jackson,  for  no  sooner  had  Mr.  Jackson  heard  what 
Biddle  had  to  say,  than  he  promptly  told  him,  that  if  such  a 
thing  were  possible,  that  "that  thing"  was  a  menace  to  the 
Nation,  and  that  instead  of  helping  him  get  permission  to  estab- 
lish branches,  that  he,  Jackson,  would  do  all  in  his  power  to  keep 
him  from  doing  so ;  and  not  only  that,  but  he  would  also  do  all 
in  his  power  to  have  the  bank  charter  extension  bill  beaten  when 
it  came  up. 

Mr.  Biddle  replied  that  if  Jackson  was  going  to  act  that  way 
about  the  matter,  he  (Biddle)  and  other  bankers  would  finance  a 
campaign  to  prevent  Jackson's  re-election  to  the  presidency. 
President  Jackson  replied  to  that  with  one  of  the  bitterest  presi- 
dential campaigns  ever  held ;  in  which  he  fought  the  bankers  to 
a  finish  and  won  his  re-election  by  a  handsome  majority. 

The  bankers  are  said  to  have  spent  about  three  million  dollars 
of  the  "easy  money"  the  government  had  furnished  them  under 
the  "Bank  of  the  United  States"  charter,  at  a  cost  to  them  of 
one-half  of  one  per  cent,  but  even  this  enormous  slush  fund  was 
not  enough  to  beat  the  "Old  Warrior  of  New  Orleans"  fame  with 
his  message  of  "Truth,"  which  yet  at  that  time  the  common  peo- 
ple were  interested  in,  understood,  and  supported. 

President  Jackson  said  in  that  campaign : 

"If  Congress  has  the  right  under  the  Constitution  to  issue 
paper  money,  it  was  given  them  to  be  used  by  themselves,  not 
to  be  delegated  to  individuals  or  corporations." 
Another  noble  example  of  an  honest  and  rugged  character  in  a 
high  American  office. 

The  money  changers  had  been  able  to  "reach"  enough  Con- 
gressmen to  get  this  bill  passed,  but  were  unable  to  touch  Presi- 
dent Jackson. 

The  congress  was  not  able  to  pass  the  bill  over  the  President's 
veto,  so  that  left  the  Bank's  charter  to  expire  in  1836. 

Referring  again  to  the  Cleveland  Trust  Company  chart,  we 
find  a  "boom"  noted  as  a  "Bank  Credit  Land  Boom"  in  1836 
and  extending  into  1837 ;  and  then  all  of  a  sudden — bang !  and 
down  went  business !  One  may  surmise  that  the  bankers,  seeing 
their  "loaning  days"  were  to  be  over  in  1836,  loaned  all  the 
money  out,  believing  they  could  get  good  returns  for  their  money 
on  a  land  boom,  and  when  the  loans  stopped  suddenly  and  hoard- 


44  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

ing,  by  the  money  changers,  was  again  the  order  of  the  day, 
down  went  business  into  a  "tailspin"  for  two  years. 

We  next  come  to  an  interesting  phase  of  money  and  its  ef- 
fects on  business,  by  noting  the  general  prosperity  of  the  whole 
country,  from  the  money  in  gold,  put  into  circulation  from  the 
great  California  gold  fields  from  1849  to  1857,  showing  clearly 
that  as  long  as  "new"  money  is  adequately  added  to  our  circu- 
lating medium,  in  sufficient  quantity,  business  will  be  "good." 

Next,  we  come  to  probably  the  most  critical  period  in  the 
history  of  our  country  from  a  money  and  banking  standpoint, 
as  well  as  from  the  grave  danger  of  a  severed  Union — that  during 
the  Civil  War  from  1861  to  1865.  The  struggle  that  was  to  rid 
the  country  of  human  slavery  of  the  black  race,  however,  was 
also  to  fasten  upon  the  whole  nation  an  economic  or  money 
slavery,  which  has  endured  to  the  present  time,  and  because  of 
which  our  country's  life  is  in  very  grave  danger. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Birth  of  Lincobi  Full  Legal  Tender  Money 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  had  been  elected  President,  and  in  spite 
of  his  assurance  of  a  sincere  desire  to  serve  all  the  country 
alike,  the  Southern  States  had  "seceded"  from  the  Union  and 
established  a  government  of  their  own,  called  the  Southern  Con- 
federate States  of  America,  seizing  Port  Sumpter  and  other  Gov- 
ernment "stores"  and  arsenals,  and  so  the  war  was  on. 

Lincoln  called  for  volunteer  soldiers  for  three  months,  think- 
ing the  emergency  would  soon  be  over.  Such,  however,  was  not 
to  be  the  case,  and  when  the  three  months  enlistments  were  up, 
it  was  very  plain  then  that  it  was  a  real  war,  and  also  that  the 
government  had  no  ready  money  with  which  to  equip  an  army 
and  proceed  with  the  war. 

It  is  said  that  Lincoln  and  his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  went 
to  the  "bankers"  or  money  lenders  of  New  York  and  applied  for 
loans  to  the  Government  to  carry  on  the  war ;  the  bankers  reply- 
ing, "Well,  war  is  a  hazardous  business,  but  we  can  let  you  have 
it  at  from  2^%  to  36%." 

Appleton  Cyclopedia,  1861,  page  296,  says : 

"The  money  kings  wanted  24%  to  36%  interest  for  loans 
to  our  government  to  conduct  the  Civil  War." 

The  President  and  his  Secretary  are  said  to  have  heatedly 
refused,  and  stated  the  terms  were  outrageous,  scandalous,  un- 
patriotic, etc.,  and  the  money  lenders  are  said  to  have  replied 
that,  "If  the  government  didn't  want  the  money  at  that  figure, 
why,  they  could  loan  it  to  the  Southern  Confederacy,"  and  that 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  45 

is  probably  what  they  did.  President  Lincoln  and  his  Secretary 
were,  of  course,  greatly  disturbed  and  in  a  quandary  as  to  what 
to  do  and  how  to  get  money  to  prosecute  the  war  and  pay  their 
soldiers.  During  Lincoln 's  worrying  over  this  matter,  he  recalled 
that  he  had  a  friend  by  the  name  of  Col.  Dick  Taylor  in  Chicago, 
in  whom  he  had  great  confidence ;  so  he  sent  for  him  and  put  the 
problem  of  finance  up  to  him  to  solve. 

"Why,  Lincoln,"  Taylor  is  said  to  have  replied,  "that  is  easy; 
just  get  Congress  to  pass  a  bill  authorizing  the  printing  of  full 
legal  tender  treasury  notes  or  greenbacks,  and  pay  your  soldiers 
with  them  and  go  ahead  and  win  your  war  with  them  also." 

"Do  you  suppose  the  people  will  take  them?"  Lincoln  is  said 
to  have  asked. 

And  to  this  Taylor  replied : 

"The  people  or  anyone  else  will  not  have  any  choice  in  the 
matter,  if  you  make  them  full  legal  tender.   They  will  have  the 
full  sanction  of  the  government  and  be  just  as  good  as  any 
money;  as  Congress  is  given  that  express  right  by  the  Consti- 
tution, and  the  stamp  of  full  legal  tender  by  the  Government 
is  the  thing-  that  makes  money  good  anytime,  and  this  will  al- 
ways be  as  good  as  any  other  money  inside  the  borders  of  our 
country. ' ' 
And  so  it  is  written  that  that  very  thing  was  done,  the  soldiers 
were  paid  and  some  sixty  million  dollars  of  the  full  legal  tender 
greenbacks  were  issued.   All  were  taken  at  par  and  never  appre- 
ciably fell  below  par  at  any  time,  as  they  were  full  legal  tender 
for  all  debts  both  public  and  private,  and  the  integrity  and  re- 
sources of  the  whole  Nation  guaranteed  their  value. 

President  Lincoln  was  greatly  appreciative  of  this  help  of 
Col.  Taylor  and  just  in  order  that  the  reader  may  have  no  doubt 
of  the  matter,  Mr.  Lincoln's  letter  to  Col.  Taylor  in  regard  to 
this  matter  is  herewith  reproduced : 

"Abraham  Lincoln's  letter  to  Col.  Taylor,"  from  the  New 
York  Tribune,  Dec.  6th,  1891. 

"My  Dear  Colonel  Dick:  I  have  long  determined  to  make 
public  the  origin  of  the  greenback  and  tell  the  world  that  it  is 
Dick  Taylor's  creation.  You  had  always  been  friendly  to  me, 
and  when  troublous  times  fell  on  us,  and  my  shoulders,  though 
broad  and  willing,  were  weak,  and  myself  surrounded  by  such 
circumstances  and  such  people  that  I  knew  not  whom  to  trust, 
then  I  said  in  my  extremity:  'I  will  send  for  Colonel  Taylor; 
he  will  know  what  to  do.'  I  think  it  was  January,  1862,  on  or 
about  the  16th,  that  I  did  so ;  j^ou  came,  and  I  said  to  you : 
'What  can  we  do?'  Said  you,  'Why,  issue  Treasury  notes  bear- 
ing no  interest,  printed  on  the  best  banking  paper.  Issue 
enough  to  pay  off  the  Army  expenses  and  declare  it  legal 
tender.' 


46  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Chase  thought  it  a  hazardous  thing,  but  we  finally  accom- 
plished it  and  gave  the  people  of  this  Republic  THE  GREAT- 
EST BLESSING  THEY  EVER  HAD— their  own  paper  money 
to  pay  their  own  debts. 

It  is  due  you,  the  father  of  the  present  greenback  that  the 
people  should  know  it,  and  I  take  great  pleasure  in  making  it 
known.  How  many  times  I  have  laughed  at  you  telling  me 
plainly,  that  I  was  too  lazy  to  be  anything  but  a  lawyer. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln." 
But  the  wonderful  condition  spoken  of  by  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
not  to  continue.    Our  glorious  country  was  not  to  have  the  con- 
tinuous blessing  of  a  paper  money  to  pay  its  debts  with. 

As  soon  as  Lincoln  began  to  issue  perfectly  good  full  legal 
tender  greenbacks,  good  as  gold  anywhere  in  the  country,  the 
bankers  and  money  changers  saw  that  unless  they  could  stop 
that  sort  of  thing  they  were  ' '  sunk ' '  so  far  as  ever  being  able  to 
issue  money  again  themselves. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Foreign  Money  Changer  Kills  "America's 
Greatest  Blessing" 

THE  money  changers  had  been  able  to  fool  and  hoodwink 
England,  and  keep  her  in  bondage  for  168  years,  and  they 
wanted  very  much  to  continue,  and  to  add  the  balance  of  the 
world  to  their  conquest ;  making  the  people  everywhere  economic 
serfs,  working  for  them.  They  did  not  intend  to  give  up  such  a 
juicy  plum  without  a  "scrap." 

So  they  began  to  polish  their  weapons  of  warfare,  namely — 
bribery,  corruption  of  law  makers,  deception,  make-believe,  po- 
litical pull,  economic  pressure,  and  all  the  rest ;  all  tied  up  nicely 
with  what  propaganda  they  could  make  use  of,  and  commenced 
their  battle  for  world  domination  through  the  power  of  gold. 

The  reader  must  remember  here,  in  order  to  get  the  picture 
clearly  in  mind  that  since  the  closing  of  the  second  United  States 
Bank  money  had  been  of  coined  gold  and  silver  and  gold  and 
silver  certificates  that  the  Mint  would  issue  to  the  owner  of  the 
gold,  for  his  gold  and  silver  coins  and  these  coins  were  held  by 
the  Government  with  which  to  redeem  the  certificates.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  was  the  paper  money  the  bankers  were  allowed  to 
issue  but  always  to  be  redeemed  in  gold  or  silver.  The  idea  of 
any  government  being  so  wise  as  to  figure  that  whatever  they 
wished  to  print  and  accept  as  money  (the  stamp  of  full  legal 
tender,  of  course,  making  it  good  for  all  debts)  was  absolutely 
unheard  of  and  the  money  changers  certainly  intended  to  get  rid 
of  such  a  dangerous   (to  them)   idea. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  47 

So  they  began  their  campaign  of  trying  to  sell  the  masses  on 
the  idea  that  such  money  was  no  good,  a  fraud,  not  "sound 
money,"  and  all  the  rest  of  the  "bunk"  that  can  be  and  is  used 
to  confuse  and  befuddle  the  masses  of  the  people. 

The  following  editorial  printed  in  the  London  Times  about 
the  time  Lincoln 's  greenbacks  were  working  all  right,  and  paying 
debts  the  same  as  gold ;  will  give  the  reader  an  idea  of  their  (the 
spokesmen  of  the  money  changers)  opinion  of  "Lincoln  Green- 
backs ' '  and  what  they  felt  should  be  done  about  it, 

"If  this  mischievous  financial  policy  which  has  had  its  ori- 
gin in  the  North  American  Republic  (greenback  issue  of  money) 
during  the  late  (civil)  war  should  become  endurated  down  to 
a  fixture,  then  that  Government  will  furnish  its  own  money 
without  cost.  It  will  pay  off  its  debts  and  be  without  debts. 
It  will  have  all  the  money  necessary  to  carry  on  its  commerce. 
It  will  become  prosperous  beyond  precedent  in  the  history  of 
the  world.    The  brains  and  wealth  of  all  countries  will  go  to 
North  America.   That  government  must  be  destroyed  or  it  will 
destroy  every  monarchy  on  the  globe."   (From  "Who  Rules 
America"  by  C.  K.  Howe.) 
And  that,  dear  reader,  should  be  plain  enough  to  inform  you 
just  what  the  foreign  money  changers  thought  and  expected  to 
do  about  it. 

It  is  recorded  that  four  days  after  the  passage  of  the  Legal 
Tender  Greenback  law,  there  was  held  in  Washington,  D.  C,  a 
"Bankers'  Convention"  where  bankers  from  New  York,  Boston, 
and  Philadelphia  were  present,  and  one  can  well  imagine  their 
activity  was  directed  to  obtaining  the  help  and  assistance  of  cer- 
tain Senators  and  Representatives  to  get  that  legal  tender  money 
law  crippled  or  repealed,  and  another  private  banking  monopoly 
established. 

Right  here  we  will  take  a  look  through  the  spy  glass,  and  see 
if  we  can  see  ' '  the  helping  hands  across  the  sea, ' '  that  were  after 
having  such  a  bank  to  help  us,  and  sure  enough,  there  they  are ! 
The  same  old  money  changers  from  London  Town,  of  the  "Bank 
of  England,"  "The  Rothschild  Boys"  themselves. 

The  money  changers  of  ' '  good  old  England, ' '  the  same  crowd 
that  helped  Alexander  Hamilton  get  his  first  "Bank  of  the  United 
States"  into  action,  got  busy  and  a  document  called  "The  Hazard 
Circular"  was  distributed  among  the  banking  fraternity  of 
America,  which  contained  the  following  language : 

The  Hazard  Circular 

"Slavery  is  likely  to  be  abolished  by  the  war  power,  and 
chattel  slavery  abolished.  This,  I  and  my  European  friends 
are  in  favor  of,  for  slavery  is  but  the  owning  of  labor,  and 
carries  with  it  the  care  of  the  laborers,  while  the  European 


48  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

plan,  LED  ON  BY  ENGLAND,  is  that  capital  shall  control 
labor  by  controlling  wages." 

"The  great  debt  that  capitalists  will  see  to  it  is  made  out 
of  the  war  (our  own  Civil  War)  must  be  used  to  control  the 
value  of  money.  To  accomplish  this,  the  Government  bonds 
must  be  used  as  a  banking  basis. 

"We  are  now  waiting  for  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of 
the  United  States  to  make  this  recommendation.  IT  WILL 
NOT  DO  TO  ALLOW  GREENBACKS,  AS  THEY  ARE 
CALLED,  TO  CIRCULATE  AS  MONEY  ANY  LENGTH  OF 
TIME,  AS  WE  CANNOT  CONTROL  THAT,  BUT  WE  CAN 
CONTROL  THE  BONDS  AND  THROUGH  THEM  THE 
BANK  ISSUES." 

Does  the  reader  need  any  more  evidence  to  prove  to  him  just 
who  was  behind  the  enslaving  "National  Bank  Act?" 

Does  the  above  "circular"  show  a  Christian  attitude  (that  we 
hear  so  much  about  these  days,  and  to  which  a  special  week  is 
set  aside  to  be  observed  by  all  churches)  of  brotherly  love,  in 
the  helping  "hands  across  the  sea"  or  were  they  not  reaching 
for  our  money  pockets  to  help  themselves? 

It  doesn't  take  a  Philadelphia  lawyer  to  figure  out  just  what 
the  money  changers  were  after.  It  is  very  plain  that  they  were 
aiming  at  having  the  "Government's  Power  to  issue  full  legal 
tender  greenbacks"  killed,  the  act  and  power  which  you  will 
remember  that  "The  Great  Lincoln"  had  said  was  the  "Greatest 
blessing  the  American  people  had  ever  had  bestowed  upon  them," 
and  in  its  place,  the  money  changers  also  wanted  to  put  the  Gov- 
ernment into  an  enormous  indebtedness  to  them  for  bonds  and 
get  back  the  "power"  to  issue  the  paper  money  themselves  on 
bonds. 

Crooked?  Criminal?  Unconstitutional?  Well,  look  around 
you  today  and  see  what  the  consummation  of  their  activity  at 
that  time  has  accomplished,  for  right  there  began  one  of  the 
blackest  pages  ever  to  be  written  into  the  history  of  our  glorious 
country,  binding  our  people  link  by  link  with  a  diabolical  chain 
of  economic  slavery  that  can  well  be  called  the  direct  cause  of 
all  the  grief,  suffering,  poverty,  loss  of  homes,  farms,  business, 
and  all  the  widespread  unemployment  we  are  laboring  under 
today.  Turn  back  and  see  what  Thomas  Jefferson,  one  of  the  men 
who  helped  to  frame  the  Constitution,  had  to  say  about  private 
banks  issuing  money. 

One  of  the  most  awful,  wicked,  and  dastardly  links  of  this 
chain  was  soon  to  be  forged  in  the  removal  of  "America's  Great 
Idol"  and  hero,  who  had  sprung  from  the  ranks  of  the  common 
people,  to  take  the  helm  of  government  at  the  most  critical  time 
in  its  history,  and  with  his  great  courage,  honesty,  and  wisdom, 
to  save  the  Union  from  dissolution  and  destruction. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  49 

Remember,  He  was  the  man  who  first  proved  that  govern- 
ment could  issue  its  own  paper  money,  legally,  honorably,  and 
rightfully,  and  make  it  full  legal  tender  for  all  debts,  both  public 
and  private,  and  make  it  work  as  "The  Greatest  Blessing 
America  Had  Ever  Had." 

Was  he  a  dangerous  man  from  the  money  changer's  point  of 
view? 

Was  he  a  thorn  in  their  sides? 

Could  they  have  continued  their  knavery,  trickery,  bribery, 
and  destructive  work  and  saddled  upon  our  country  a  brutally 
diabolical  law  like  they  did,  and  make  it  stick,  if  Lincoln  had 
lived? 

With  the  help  of  the  "Hazard  Circular"  and  certain  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  the  moneyed  interests  soon  were  at  the  job  of 
taking  away  the  power  of  issuing  full  legal  tender  money  by  the 
Govermnent,  and  the  way  they  were  able  to  accomplish  it  was 
the  following : 

The  reader  will  remember  that  the  money  lenders  are  said  to 
have  demanded  24%  to  36%  interest  from  Lincoln  for  loans  to 
carry  on  the  war,  an  average  of  30%.  Well,  the  next  time  the 
President  asked  for  an  issue  ($60,000,000  had  been  issued  pre- 
viously) of  greenbacks,  a  monkey  wrench  was  thrown  into  the 
machinery  in  the  guise  of  an  amendment  to  the  bill — 

February  25,  1862:  "Exception  Clause"  Act  passed,  making 
the  next  issue  of  greenbacks  read :  Good  for  all  debts  both 
public  and  private  except  duty  on  imports  and  interest  on 
Government  debts. 

As  the  reader  will  readily  see,  this  clause  i)ut  the  government 
in  the  light  of  refusing  its  own  money  for  duty  on  imports,  and 
gave  the  bankers  an  excuse  to  refuse  or  discount  that  issue,  which 
they  promptly  did,  30%,  claiming  that  their  clients  would  not 
take  them,  as  they  could  not  ])ay  their  import  duty  with  them, 
therefore  they  were  not  "sound  money." 

Of  course,  it  could  not  be  intimated  that  they,  the  bankers, 
had  anything  to  do  with  making  the  greenbacks  "that  way." 
Congress  did  that. 

At  any  rate  the  money  lenders  got  their  "pound  of  flesh"  in 
the  form  of  the  30%  discount.  The  propaganda  and  conspiracy 
against  the  greenbacks  kept  up  and  grew  in  strength  as  time 
went  on,  forcing  the  value  of  the  greenbacks  lower  and  lower, 
until  Lincoln  and  his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  were  compelled 
to  surrender  and  call  the  money  changers  in,  Lincoln  remarking, 
so  it  is  said,  that  he  "could  not  fight  two  wars  at  the  same  time, 
the  Confederates  at  the  front  and  the  bankers  in  the  rear,  and 
of  the  two  the  Confederates  were  the  more  honorable." 

One  of  America's  greatest  patriots  of  that  time.  Senator  Thad- 
deus  Stevens,  said  in  one  of  his  speeches  on  the  bill,  February 
20th,  1862: 


50  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

"Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  a  very  few  words  to  say.  I  approach 
the  subject  with  more  depression  of  spirit  than  I  have  before 
approached  any  question.  No  personal  motive  or  feeling  in- 
fluences me.  I  have  a  melancholy  foreboding  that  we  are  about 
to  consummate  a  cunningly  devised  scheme,  which  will  carry 
great  injury  to  all  classes  of  people  throughout  the  Union. 
In  talking  about  the  matter  afterwards,  Senator  Stevens  is 
reported  to  have  said : 

"We  had  to  yield;  we  did  not  yield  until  we  found  that 
the  country  must  be  lost  or  the  bankers  gratified." 
Nice  lot  of  Sunday  School  boys,  those  bankers,  and  the  Con- 
gressmen, who  put  it  over  for  them.  The  reader  may  be  pardoned 
for  speculating  on  the  kind  of  harps  they  are  playing  now. 


CHAPTER  JX. 

The  Money  Changers  Get  Another  Bank  Law 

AND  what  does  the  reader  suppose  the  bankers  did  want  ?  Sure, 
the  same  old  thing,  another  bank  charter  and  the  power  to 
issue  paper  money  themselves,  as  if  their  paper  money  could  be 
as  good  as  full  legal  tender  Government  Greenbacks!  Persistent 
"cusses,"  weren't  they?  Been  working  on  that  since  1836,  and 
now  that  the  country  was  so  in  the  throes  of  a  bloody  Civil  War, 
and  bending  every  effort  to  save  the  very  existence  of  the  Union ; 
it  was  the  most  propitious  time  to  wring  such  a  concession  from 
the  Government !  A  nice,  patriotic,  Christian  way  to  act,  do  you 
say?  Well,  just  remember  that  down  through  the  centuries  that 
same  trick  had  been  worked  time  and  time  again  by  the  same 
tribe  of  people. 

Does  the  reader  not  recall  how  the  Bank  of  England  got 
started  ? 

Do  we  hear  the  reader  saying,  "Cutthroats,"  "Traitors?" 
Well,  maybe  they  were,  it  surely  doesn't  look  just  like  what  a 
patriotic  Christian  gentleman  would  be  guilty  of  doing,  that  is 
sure.  It  does  seem  that  the  citizens  at  that  time  might  have  been 
short  of  a  good  strong  rope  and  a  nice,  large,  strong  limbed  tree. 
The  money  changers  not  only  got  away  with  some  of  the  Nation's 
money;  they  seized  and  MADE  AWAY  WITH  THE  WHOLE 
SYSTEM  OF  MONEY. 

The  following  excerpts  taken  from  Judge  Rutherford's  book, 
"Vindication,"  pages  168  to  179,  said  to  have  appeared  over  30 
years  ago  in  a  St.  Louis  (Mo.)  magazine  and  their  authenticity 
has  never  been  disproved,  is  a  most  complete  and  revealing  evi- 
dence concerning  this  act  of  Congress  and  men  connected  there- 
with, and  gives  a  most  excellent  outline  of  the  working  of  the 
law: 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  51 

NATIONAL  BANKING  ACT 

"The  National  Banking  Law  of  the  United  States  was 
forced  through  Congress  of  the  United  States  and  enacted  by 
Big  Business  agents.  The  money  lords  of  England  and  Amer- 
ica dictated  the  conditions  under  which  they  would  finance  the 
Union  because  much  financing  became  necessary  during  the 
Civil  War.  It  is  practically  certain  that  the  war  between  the 
North  and  the  South  was  fomented  by  the  money  interests  of 
Britain,  the  purpose  being  to  divide  the  States,  that  the  'Old 
Mother  Country'  might  profit  thereby.  John  Sherman  of  Ohio 
was  then  a  member  of  the  United  States  Congress.  .  .  .  From 
1860  to  1890  there  was  scarcely  a  great  financial  measure  with 
which  John  Sherman  was  not  connected.  .  .  Rothschild  Broth- 
ers were  then  the  money  kings  of  Britain.  These  money  chang- 
ers conspired  with  their  allies  in  the  United  States  in  putting 
through  the  United  States  Congress  the  National  Banking  Act. 
Letters  passed  between  Rothschild  Brothers  and  Iklesheimer, 
Morton,  and  Vandergould,  of  Wall  Street,  New  York;  two  of 
which  letters,  together  with  a  circular  appearing  with  them 
and  which  relate  to  the  National  Banking  Act,  are  published 
below : 

Rothschild  Brothers,  Bankers, 
London,  June  25th,  1863. 
Messrs.  Ikleheimer,  Morton,  and  Vandergould, 
No.  3  Wall  St.,  New  York,  U.S.A. 

Dear  Sir:  A  Mr.  John  Sherman  has  written  us  from  a  town  in 
Ohio,  U.  S.  A.,  as  to  the  profits  that  may  be  made  in  the  Na- 
tional Banking  business  under  a  recent  act  of  your  Congress, 
a  copy  of  which  act  accompanied  his  letter.  Apparently  this 
act  has  been  drawn  upon  the  plan  formulated  here  last  summer 
by  the  British  Bankers  Association  and  by  that  Association 
RECOMMENDED  TO  OUR  AMERICAN  FRIENDS  as  one  that 
if  enacted  into  law,  would  prove  highly  profitable  to  the  bank- 
ing fraternity  throughout  the  world. 

Mr.  Sherman  declares  that  there  has  never  been  such  an 
opportunity  for  capitalists  to  accumulate  money,  as  that  pre- 
sented by  this  act,  and  that  the  old  plan  of  State  Banks  is  so 
unpopular,  that  the  new  scheme  will,  by  contrast,  be  most  fa- 
vorably regarded,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  gives  the 
National  Banks  an  almost  absolute  control  of  the  National 
finance.  'THE  FEW  WHO  CAN  UNDERSTAND  THE  SYS- 
TEM,' HE  SAYS,  'WILL  EITHER  BE  SO  INTERESTED  IN 
ITS  PROFITS,  OR  SO  DEPENDENT  OF  ITS  FAVORS  THAT 
THERE  WILL  BE  NO  OPPOSITION  FROM  THAT  CLASS, 
WHILE  ON  THE  OTHER  HAND,  THE  GREAT  BODY  OF 
PEOPLE,  MENTALLY  INCAPABLE  OF  COMPREHEND- 
ING THE  TREMENDOUS  ADVANTAGES  THAT  CAPITAL 
DERIVES  FROM  THE  SYSTEM,  WILL  BEAR  ITS  BUR- 


52  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

DENS  WITHOUT  COMPLAINT  AND  PERHAPS  WITHOUT 
EVEN  SUSPECTING  THAT  THE  SYSTEM  IS  INIMICAL 
TO  THEIR  INTERESTS.' 

Please  advise  fully  as  to  this  matter  and  also  state  whether 
or  not  you  will  be  of  assistance  to  us,  if  we  conclude  to  estab- 
lish a  National  Bank  in  the  City  of  New  York.  If  you  are 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Sherman  (he  appears  to  have  introduced 
the  Banking  Act)  we  will  be  glad  to  know  something  of  him. 
If  we  avail  ourselves  of  the  information  he  furnished,  we  will, 
of  course,  make  DUE  COMPENSATION." 

"Awaiting  your  reply,  we  are 

"Your  respectful  servants, 
"ROTHSCHILD  BROTHERS." 

"New  York  City,  July  6,  1863. 
"Messrs.  Rothschild  Brothers 
London,  England 

"Dear  Sirs:  We  beg  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 
letter  of  June  25th,  in  which  you  refer  to  a  communication  re- 
ceived from  the  Hon.  John  Sherman  of  Ohio,  with  reference  to 
the  advantages  and  profits  of  an  American  investment  under 
the  provisions  of  our  National  Banking  Act. 

"The  fact  that  Mr.  Sherman  speaks  well  of  such  an  invest- 
ment or  of  any  similar  one,  is  certainly  not  without  weight,  for 
that  gentleman  possesses  in  a  marked  degree,  the  distinguish- 
ing characteristics  of  the  successful  financier.  His  temperament 
is  such  that  whatever  his  feelings  may  be  they  never  cause  him 
to  lose  sight  of  the  MAIN  CHANCE.  He  is  young,  shrewd,  and 
ambitious.  He  has  fixed  his  eyes  upon  the  Presidency  of  the 
United  States  and  is  already  a  member  of  Congress.  He  right- 
fully thinks  he  has  everything  to  gain  both  politically  and 
financially  (he  has  financial  ambitions,  too)  by  being  friendly 
with  men  and  institutions  having  large  financial  resources,  and 
which  at  times,  are  not  too  particular  in  their  METHODS, 
either  of  obtaining  government  aid,  or  of  protecting  themselves 
against  unfriendly  legislation.  We  trust  him  here  implicitly. 
His  intellect  and  ambition  combine  to  make  him  exceedingly 
valuable  to  us,  indeed,  we  predict  that  if  his  life  is  spared,  he 
will  prove  to  be  the  best  friend  the  moneyed  interests  of  the 
world  have  ever  had  in  America. 

"As  to  the  organization  of  a  National  Bank  here,  and  the 
nature  and  profits  of  such  an  investment,  we  beg  leave  to  refer 
to  our  printed  circular  enclosed  herein.  Inquiries  by  European 
Capitalists,  concerning  this  matter,  have  been  so  numerous, 
that  for  convenience,  we  have  had  our  views  with  regard  to  it 
put  into  printed  form. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  53 

"Should  you  determine  to  organize  a  bank  in  the  City,  we 

shall  be  glad  to  aid  you.  "VVe  can  easily  find  financial  friends  to 

make  satisfactory  directory,  and  to  fill  official  positions  not 

taken  up  by  the  personal  representatives  you  will  send  over. 

"Your  most  obedient  servants, 

"IKLEHEIMER,  MORTON,  AND 
VANDERGOULD. " 
This  latter  letter,  in  the  paragraph  next  to  the  last,  mentions 
a  circular  enclosed,  and  which  circular  is  inserted  here. 

"IKLEHEIMER,  MORTON,  AND  VANDERGOULD 

"Private  Bankers,  Brokers,  Financial  Agents,  etc. 

"3  Wall  Street,  New  York  City 

"We  have  had  so  many  inquiries  of  late  as  to  the  method  of 
organizing  national  banks  under  the  recent  act  of  Congress, 
and  as  to  the  profits  that  may  reasonably  be  expected  from 
such  an  investment,  that  we  have  thought  it  best  to  issue  this 
brief  circular  as  an  answer  to  all  questions  of  our  friends  and 
clients : 
"1 — Any  number  of  persons,  not  less  than  five,  may  organize 

a  national  banking  corporation. 
"2 — Except  in  cities  having  6,000  inhabitants  or  less,  a  na- 
tional bank  can  not  have  less  than  $1,000,000  capital. 
"3 — They   are    private    corporations    organized    for    private 

gain,  and  select  their  own  officers  and  employees. 
"4 — They  are  not  subject  to  the  control  of  the  state  laws, 

except  as  congress  may  from  time  to  time  provide. 
"5 — They  can  receive  deposits  and  loan  the  same  for  their 

own  benefit. 
"6 — They  can  buy  and  sell  bonds,  and  discount  paper  and 

do  a  general  banking  business. 
"7 — To  start  a  national  bank  on  the  scale  of  $1,000,000  will 
require   the   purchase   of  that   amount    (par  value)    of 
U.  S.  Government  bonds. 
"8 — U.  S.  Government  bonds  can  now  be  purchased  at  50  per 
cent  discount,  so  that  a  bank  of  $1,000,000  capital  can 
be  started  at  this  time  with  only  $500,000. 
"9 — These  bonds  must  be  deposited  with  the  U.  S.  Treasury 
at  Washington  as  security  for  the  national  Bank  cur- 
rency, that  on  the  making  of  the  deposit  will  be  fur- 
nished by  the  government  to  the  bank. 
"10 — The  U.  S.  Government  will  pay  6%  interest  on  the  bonds, 
in  gold,  the  interest  being  paid  semi-annually.  It  will  be 
seen  that  at  the  present  price  bonds,  the  interest  paid  by 
the  government  itself,  will  of  itself  amount  to  12  per  cent 
in  gold,  on  all  the  money  invested. 
"11 — The   U.   S.    Government,   under   the   provisions    of   the 
national  banking  act,   on  having  the   bonds  aforesaid 


54  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

deposited  with  its  treasurer,  will  on  the  strength  of  such 
security,  furnish  national  currency  to  the  bank  deposit- 
ing the  bonds,  at  an  annual  interest  of  only  ONE  per 
cent  per  annum.  Thus  the  deposit  of  $1,000,000  will  se- 
cure the  issue  of  $900,000  in  currency. 

"12 — This  currency  is  printed  by  the  U.  S.  Government  in  a 
form  so  like  greenback  money,  that  many  people  do  not 
detect  the  difference,  although  the  currency  is  but  a 
promise  of  the  bank  to  pay — that  is,  it  is  the  bank's  de- 
mand note,  and  must  be  signed  by  the  Bank's  president 
before  it  can  be  used. 

"13 — The  demand  for  money  is  so  great  that  this  currency 
can  be  readily  loaned  to  the  people  across  the  counter 
of  the  bank  at  a  discount  at  the  rate  of  10  per  cent  at 
30  days'  to  60  days'  time,  making  it  about  12  per  cent 
interest  on  the  currency. 

"14 — The  interest  on  the  bonds,  plus  the  interest  on  the  cur- 
rency which  the  bonds  secure,  plus  incidentals  of  the 
business  ought  to  make  the  gross  earnings  of  the  bank 
amount  to  from  28  to  331/3  per  cent.  The  amount  of  the 
dividends  that  may  be  declared  will  depend  largely 
upon  the  salaries  of  the  officers  that  the  banks  vote 
themselves,  and  the  character  and  rental  charges  of  the 
premises  occupied  by  the  bank  as  a  place  of  business. 
In  case  it  is  thought  best  that  the  showing  of  profits 
should  not  appear  too  large,  the  now  common  plan  of 
having  the  directors  buy  the  bank  buildings  and  then 
raising  the  rent  and  salary  of  the  president  and  cashier 
may  be  adopted. 

"15 — National  banks  are  privileged  to  either  increase  or  con- 
tract their  circulation  at  will,  and,  of  course,  can  grant 
or  withhold  loans  as  they  may  see  fit.  As  the  banks  have 
a  national  organization,  and  can  easily  act  together  in 
withholding  loans  or  extending  them,  it  follows  that  they 
can  by  united  action  in  refusing  to  make  loans,  cause  a 
stringency  in  the  money  market  and  in  a  single  week  or 
even  in  a  single  day  cause  a  decline  in  all  the  products 
of  the  country.  The  tremendous  possibilities  of  specula- 
tion involved  in  this  control  of  the  money  of  a  country 
like  the  United  States  will  be  at  once  understood  by  all 
bankers. 

"16 — National  banks  pay  no  taxes  on  their  bonds,  nor  on  their 
capital,  nor  on  their  deposits.  This  exemption  from  tax- 
ation is  based  on  the  theory  that  the  capital  of  these 
banks  is  invested  in  U.  S.  securities,  and  is  a  remarkable 
permission  of  the  law. 

"17 — The  secretary  may  deposit  the  public  money  with  any 
bank  at  will,  and  to  any  amount.  In  the  suit  of  Mr. 
Branch  against  the  United  States,  reported  in  the  12th 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  55 

volume  of  the  U.  S.  Court  of  Claims,  Reports  on  Page 
287,  it  was  decided  that  such  'Government  deposits  are 
rightfully  mingled  with  other  funds  of  the  bank,  and 
are  loaned  or  otherwise  employed  in  the  ordinary  busi- 
ness of  the  bank,  and  the  bank  becomes  the  debtor  of 
the  United  States  as  it  does  to  other  depositors.' 
"Requesting  that  you  will  regard  this  as  strictly  confiden- 
tial, and  soliciting  any  favors  in  our  line  that  you  may  have  to 
extend,  we  are, 

"Most  respectfully  yours, 

"IKLESHIEMER,  MORTON,  &  VANDERGOULD." 

The  reader  may  draw  his  own  conclusions  as  to  how  much 
aid  the  selfish  bankers  had  from  their  political  allies  in  the 
United  States. 

And  the  letters  seem  to  show  plainly  where  the  scheme  was 
"hatched"  and  RECOMMENDED  to  our  Congress.  Later  in  the 
story  the  reader  will  see  where  another  agent  of  the  foreign 
money  changers  was  in  on  RECOMMENDING  another  wonderful 
scheme  from  England  and  the  House  of  Rothschild. 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  National  Banks  Established 

The  new  law  to  be  called  the  "National  Bank  Act"  was  to 
work  like  this :  The  money  lenders  would  buy  government  bonds 
for  gold  (which  they  had,  and  had  hoarded  it,  creating  a  short- 
age of  it  in  the  same  old  way)  and  would  then  deposit  the  bonds 
with  the  Federal  Treasury  as  security  for  nice,  new,  crisp  paper 
money  to  be  issued  by  the  Government  at  the  cost  of  printing  to 
the  amount  of  90%  of  the  amount  deposited,  and  this  money  was 
to  be  guaranteed  redemption  by  the  Government  in  gold  and 
silver,  and  the  money  changers  were  not  only  to  get  this  nice, 
new,  crisp  money,  but  were  also  to  draw  certain  interest  on  the 
bonds.  The  reader  should  refer  back  now,  to  the  Charter  of  the 
Bank  of  England  and  see  how  much  the  money  changers  had 
learned  in  that  168  years.  Evidently  these  boys  were  showing 
their  great  grandfathers  up  in  great  shape  and  making  them 
look  like  "pikers." 

It  is  found,  of  course,  that  in  the  Bank  of  England  charter 
the  money  changers  were  allowed  to  print  their  own  money  and 
were  also  to  redeem  it  themselves,  but  here  in  our  country,  the 
Government  was  to  guarantee  its  redemption.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted they  were  learning  something  about  the  "business"  or 
"racket,"  whatever  the  reader  prefers  to  call  it,  and  then  again, 
maybe  our  young,  struggling,  hard  pressed  nation  was  easier  to 


56  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

deal  with  and  needed  the  money  worse  to  save  its  very  life,  than 
did  England,  with  its  enemy  France  across  the  channel  and  boats 
scarce. 

When  the  bill  came  up  for  passage  in  Congress  all  the  old 
arguments  of  Jefferson,  Jackson,  and  others,  that  had  been  used 
against  the  two  previous  acts,  chartering  the  First,  and  Second, 
Banks  of  the  United  States,  were  used  and  many  heated  argu- 
ments and  debates  took  place  to  no  avail,  as  the  vicious  Act  was 
finally  passed  and  became  a  law,  passing  the  Senate  however,  by 
only  two  votes. 

The  Secretary  of  Treasury,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  said  when  he 
saw  the  great  error  he  had  committed  in  urging  the  passage  of 
the  bill : 

"My  greatest  financial  mistake  of  my  life.  It  has  built  up 
a  monopoly  that  affects  every  interest  in  the  country.  It  should 
be  repealed,  but  before  this  can  be  accomplished,  the  people 
shall  be  arrayed  on  one  side  and  the  banks  on  another  in  a 
contest  such  as  we  have  never  seen  before  in  this  country." 

Chase's  propliecy  was  to  prove  only  too  true.  However,  out 
of  recognition  of  him  or  his  heirs  one  of  the  largest  banks  of 
America,  made  possible  under  this  law,  was  named  for  him : 
"The  Chase  National  Bank  of  New  York." 

This  Act  was  sponsored  in  the  Senate  by  Senator  John  Sher- 
man, and  in  the  House  by  Congressman  Samuel  Hooper.  It  might 
be  interesting  for  some  one  to  look  into  the  financial  rating  of 
those  able  statesmen  and  what  they  left  when  they  passed  on  to 
where  all  good  legislators  go. 

It  was  a  dastardly  thing  to  do — to  saddle  such  an  iniquitous 
inhuman  system  onto  a  nation,  and  especially  when  it  was  right 
in  the  midst  of  a  war  for  its  very  existence.  But,  of  course,  such 
a  thing  could  have  been  done  only  under  such  circumstances  in 
those  days,  for  honor  in  statesmanship  really  meant  a  great  deal, 
and  not  so  many  of  our  people  and  especially  our  legislators,  had 
become  so  badly  infected  by  the  devastating  bite  of  the  "gold 
bug,"  and  were  still  able  to  put  honor  above  wealth. 

However,  Lincoln  took  the  gold  of  the  money  changers  and 
with  it  fought  the  bloody  war  to  a  victory  for  the  Nation,  and  of 
course,  in  doing  so,  as  a  war  measure  he  wiped  the  curse  of  human 
chattel  slavery  from  our  list  of  accepted  institutions,  having 
WITHOUT  DOUBT,  in  the  back  of  his  mind,  that  once  the  war 
was  out  of  the  way,  he  would  be  better  able  to  once  more  turn 
his  attention  to  the  money  question  and  the  money  changers,  as 
later  events  in  this  story  will  make  clear. 

Does  anyone,  any  sane  person,  think  for  a  minute  that  an 
honest  man,  a  righteous  man,  with  a  love  of  country  as  Lincoln 
had,  would  stand  for  such  knavery  being  put  over  on  his  beloved 
country,  and  not  do  something  about  it,  just  as  soon  as  he  could 
reasonably  do  so? 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MABTYRED  57 

Not  in  a  thousand  years !  Lincoln  was  not  made  of  that  kind 
of  stuff!  He  was  beaten  for  a  time,  but  he  did  know  that  if  the 
Union  was  to  be  saved  (and  that  was  his  greatest  worry)  that 
the  Government  must  have  plenty  of  money  to  carry  on  the 
frightful  war,  to  its  quickest  possible  conclusion,  as  every  day  it 
lasted,  it  added  its  toll  of  human  life  and  misery,  which  grieved 
Lincoln  mightily,  as  can  be  seen  by  many  of  his  speeches  and 
writings.  ; 

No  one  had  grieved  over  the  dreadful  sacrifice  of  life  and 
suffering  more  than  he,  and  he  wished  the  war  to  last  as  short  a 
time  as  possible.  There  is  possibl}^  no  other  index  that  can  better 
show  the  deep  and  sympathetic  grief  and  compassion  for  the  suf- 
fering and  the  great,  just,  and  far-reaching  breadth  of  Lincoln's 
mind  and  character,  and  his  undying  love  for  his  people,  his 
country,  and  humanit}'  at  large  than  his  Gettysburg  Address, 
and  his  letter  to  a  "Little  Gray  Mother''  who  had  lost  five  sons 
in  the  terrible  war,  which  are  as  follows : 

LINCOLN'S  GETTYSBURG  ADDRESS 

November  19,  1863 

"Four  score  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought  forth 
on  this  continent,  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  Liberty,  and 
dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are  created  equal. 

"Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing  whether 
that  nation  or  any  nation,  so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can 
long  endure.  "We  are  met  on  a  great  battlefield  of  that  war. 
We  have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field,  as  a  final 
resting  place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that 
nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we 
should  do  this. 

"But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate — we  cannot 
consecrate — we  cannot  hallow — this  ground.  The  brave  men, 
living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far 
above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little 
note  nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never 
forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  the  living  rather  to  be 
dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought 
here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be 
here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us — that 
from  these  honored  dead,  we  have  increased  devotion  to  that 
cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion — 
that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died 
in  vain — that  this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth 
of  freedom — and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,  shall  not  vanish  from  the  earth." 


58  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

LINCOLN'S  LETTER  TO  MRS.  BIXBY 

(A  mother  who  lost  five  sons  in  the  war.) 
"Mrs.  Bixby,  Boston,  Mass. 

"Dear  Madam:  I  have  been  shown  in  the  files  of  the  War 
Department  a  statement  of  the  Adjutant-General  of  Massa- 
chusetts that  you  are  the  mother  of  five  sons  who  died  glorious- 
ly on  the  field  of  battle.  I  feel  how  weak  and  fruitless  must  be 
any  words  of  mine  which  should  attempt  to  beguile  you  from 
the  grief  of  a  loss  so  overwhelming.  But  I  cannot  refrain  from 
tendering  you  the  consolation  that  may  be  found  in  the  thanks 
of  the  Republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray  that  our  Heavenly 
Father  may  assuage  the  anguish  of  your  bereavement,  and 
leave  you  only  the  cherished  memory  of  the  loved  and  lost, 
and  the  solemn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to  have  laid  so  costly 
a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom. 

"Yours  very  sincerely  and  respectfully, 

"ABRAHAM  LINCOLN." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Civil  War  Ends 

At  last  the  war  was  ended,  with  a  sore  and  bleeding  nation, 
the  North  jubilant  in  its  glory,  but  hardly  a  hearthstone  that  did 
not  have  its  share  of  grief  and  sorrow  for  its  dead  or  maimed 
soldier,  brother  or  father.  The  South,  crushed  to  remain  so  for 
many  years,  for  a  lost  cause,  but  one  in  which  they  believed  to 
the  very  bottom  of  their  hearts  was  a  just  one,  but  thanks  to  God, 
they  were  later  to  realize  they  really  won  their  greatest  victory 
when  they  lost  the  war,  and  were  saved  to  remain  a  part  of  the 
future  Greatest  Nation  the  World  has  ever  known. 

But,  thanks  to  the  Money  Barons,  the  government  had  been 
saddled  with  a  bonded  debt  of  billions  of  dollars,  to  be  met  with 
taxes  for  generations  to  come,  instead  of  the  government  having 
been  allowed  to  continue  issuing  its  full  legal  tender  greenbacks 
which  Lincoln  lauded  as  "America's  greatest  blessing,"  her  own 
paper  money  to  pay  her  own  debts. 

The  suggestions  of  the  English  Money  Changers  in  the  Hazard 
Circular  had  been  carried  out  to  the  letter,  and  from  that  time 
onward,  the  activity  of  these  money  changers  and  their  hench- 
men in  our  Congress,  were  to  be  consistently  and  increasingly 
cunning,  crafty,  diabolical,  and  inhuman,  in  the  different  and 
varied  laws  they  were  to  have  passed;  binding  our  people  in  an 
economic  slavery  that  was  to  grow  worse  from  generation  to 
generation,  to  finally  culminate  in  the  great  crash  of  1929,  fol- 
lowed by  the  most  devastating  depression  the  country  has  ever 
experienced. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  59 

THE  MONEY  CHANGERS  START  ACTION  AGAIN 
GREENBACKS  DESTROYED 

THE  CONTRACTION  ACT :  Authorizing  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  issue  5%  twenty  (20)  year  bonds  and  with  the 
proceeds  RETIRE  U.  S.  currency  including  greenbacks,  and 
cremate,  or  burn  them  up,  which  caused  a  regular  and  systematic 
contraction  of  the  currency  in  circulation ;  a  law  passed  by 
Congress  April  12,  1866. 

These  enemies  of  mankind  who  wished  to  get  control  of  all 
the  money  of  the  world  were  consistently  busy,  figuring  out  new 
schemes,  and  polishing  up  their  old  ones,  that  they  had  used 
since  OLD  TESTAMENT  days.  They  had  done  all  in  their  power 
to  discredit,  ridicule,  and  discount  the  greenback  of  Lincoln's 
time  (the  Exception  Clause  greenbacks)  and  had  gotten  them 
down  in  price,  varying  from  25  to  75  cents  on  the  dollar.  Why? 
Suppose  you  study  the  text  of  the  "National  Bank  Act"  of  1863 
and  see  if  it  doesn't  permit  the  bankers  to  use  greenbacks  to  buy 
the  government  bonds  to  use  to  deposit,  to  get  their  own  money 
issued.  Remember  the  Rothschild  Brothers'  letter  said  that  U.  S. 
Bonds  could  be  had  at  50  cents  on  the  dollar. 

Would  it  pay  the  money  changers  to  ridicule,  discount,  and 
force  the  exchange  value  of  the  greenback  down  to  35  or  50  per 
cent  of  its  face  value  and  then  buy  them  in  at  that  discount,  and 
then  use  them  at  FACE  VALUE  to  buy  government  bonds,  on 
which  they  were  able  to  issue  greenbacks  of  their  own?  Well, 
dear  reader,  jou  figure  it  out  and  see  what  you  get. 

Again,  would  it  help  the  money  changers  to  get  a  law  passed 
forcing  the  government  to  destroy  the  greenbacks,  after  they — 
the  money  changers — had  exchanged  them  to  the  government  for 
bonds ;  would  that  make  just  so  much  less  money  in  circulation, 
and  make  a  better  demand  for  the  paper  money  the  bankers  were 
allowed  to  issue  ?  Figure  that  one  out  also,  and  see  what  you  get. 
The  following  excerpt  from  "Seven  Financial  Conspiracies" 
by  Mrs.  S.  E.  V.  Emery,  printed  in  1879,  will  give  the  reader  a 
true  and  graphic  record  of  the  action  and  results  of  this,  one  of 
the  most  cruel  and  traitorous  Acts  ever  enacted  by  Congress : 

"December  4,  1866,  E.  G.  Spaulding,  a  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
banker,  a  member  of  Congress,  wrote  to  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  McCullough  as  follows : 

"  'You,  no  doubt  now,  to  a  certain  extent,  HAVE  CON- 
TROL OF  THE  CURRENCY  OF  THE  COUNTRY,  and  I  think, 
that  you  will  of  necessity  CONTRACT  MODERATELY,  so  as 
to  preserve  a  tolerable  easy  money  market.  There  may  be  occa- 
sional spasms  of  tightness  for  money,  but  general!}^,  I  shall  look 
for  plenty  of  money  for  at  least  one  year  to  come.' 

"When  this  letter  was  written  the  country  was  in  posses- 
sion of  $1,906,687,770.00   currency.   During  this  year    (1866) 


60  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

there  were  but  520  business  failures  in  the  whole  country,  in- 
volving a  loss  of  but  $17,625,000.  Labor  was  well  paid  and 
fully  employed." 

"1867 — This  year  the  work  of  contraction  was  vigorously 
puslied  and  there  were  2,386  failures,  with  a  total  loss  of  $86,- 
218,000. 

"1868— During  this  year  $473,000,000  of  money  was  de- 
stroyed and  failures  increased  to  2,608,  with  a  loss  to  creditors 
of  $63,774,000.  Money  began  to  be  tight  and  financial  spasms 
were  frequent. 

' '  1869 — During  this  year  over  $500,000,000  of  money  passed 
into  the  cremation  furnace,  producing  2,799  failures  and  a  loss 
of  $75,054,900.  Money  growing  tighter  and  wages  lower. 

"1870— This  year  $67,000,000  of  money  was  destroyed,  and 
3,551  failures  took  place,  involving  a  loss  of  $88,242,000.  Money 
very  scarce  and  wages  of  labor  were  reduced  all  over  the 
country. 

"1871 — $35,000,000  of  money  this  year  was  retired,  with 
2,915  failures,  and  a  loss  of  $85,250,000.  More  men  out  of  work 
and  wages  cut  down. 

"1872— Only  about  $12,000,000  was  destroyed  this  year, 
but  such  had  been  the  strain  upon  the  business  of  the  country 
for  the  past  five  years  that  this  proved  the  last  straw  to  4,069 
business  firms,  involving  a  loss  of  $121,058,000.  More  cutting 
of  wages  and  strikes  talked  of. 

"1873 — This  year  the  storm  reached  its  climax.  Business 
men  had  hoped  that  with  every  returning  season  prospects 
would  brighten  and  money  would  become  plentiful.  Instead  of 
this,  however,  notwithstanding,  but  $1,609,000  was  destroyed; 
the  people  became  panic  stricken,  and  5,183  business  firms  were 
precipitated  into  bankruptcy,  with  a  loss  of  $228,499,000.00. 
500,000  men  were  thrown  out  of  employment,  wages  cut  down 
all  over  the  country  and  strikes  were  frequent  occurrences. 

"1874 — Notwithstanding  the  terrible  results  of  the  past 
year,  the  winepress  of  contraction  still  creaks  on  its  hinges  of 
death,  as  round  and  round  it  sweeps  out  of  circulation  $75,- 
484,000.  Certificates  of  indebtedness  which  have  been  made 
legal  tender  money,  $85,760,000  Treasury  notes,  $6,335,045 
legal  tender,  $3,000,000  Fractional  Currency,  and  $1,000,000 
Bank  notes,  producing  5,832  failures,  and  a  loss  of  $155,239,000 
to  creditors.  A  million  idle  men  began  to  tramp  in  search  of 
work.  Wages  still  declined  and  strikes  were  numerous. 

"1875 — The  volume  of  currency  this  year  was  contracted 
$40,817,418  and  the  failures  reached  7,740  with  a  loss  to  cred- 
itors of  $201,060,000.  Two  million  laborers  out  of  work.  Famine 
and  hunger  began  to  stare  them  in  the  face,  and  tramping  be- 
comes a  profession. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  61 

"1876 — According  to  the  most  reliable  estimates,  the  con- 
traction of  the  currency  this  year  in  the  destruction  of  green- 
backs and  "withdrawal  of  bank  currency  amounts  to  about 
$85,000,000  with  9,092  failures  and— $191,000,000  loss  during 
the  first  quarter  of  the  year.  The  aggregate  failures  of  the  year 
reached  over  10,000  with  losses  not  less  than  $300,000,000.  This 
does  not  include  losses  to  stockholders  by  foreclosure  and  sale 
of  railroads. 

"What  a  record  for  ten  years!  Who  wonders  times  were 
hard  and  men  idle? 

' '  Still  with  all  this  array  of  wreck  and  ruin,  with  the  finger- 
board of  contraction  at  the  close  of  each  year  pointing  to  the 
cause,  the  people  were  asleep,  or  on  their  knees  praying  for 
some  interposition  of  providence  in  their  behalf,  while  John 
Sherman  went  marching  on  with  the  torch  of  death,  to  burn 
the  remaining  $300,000,000  of  the  people's  money. 

"Three  million  men  are  out  of  employment,  bankruptcy 
multiplying  with  great  rapidity.  The  tramp  nuisance  culmi- 
nates. Wages  are  cut  down  to  starvation  prices.  Strikes,  riots, 
and  general  consternation  seize  the  people,  and  the  circulation 
is  cut  down  to  $606,000,000. 

"1877 — The  red  torch  of  the  vandal  lighted  up  the  country 
from  Pittsburgh  to  Chicago.  These  are  the  footprints  of  the 
red-mouthed  despots,  the  money  power,  which  is  still  forging 
chains  for  the  limbs  of  American  industry,  with  a  view  to  en- 
slaving the  American  populace  by  robbing  them  of  their  homes 
and  firesides,  and  then  controlling  their  life,  liberty,  and  pur- 
suit of  happiness  by  controlling  their  wages  through  the  con- 
trol and  monopoly  of  money. 

"1878 — The  volume  of  currency  shrank  to  $11.23  per  capita 
and  this  year  the  number  of  failures  reached  10,478 ;  amount  of 
liabilities  $234,383,132.  But  this  year  gave  us  remonetization  of 
silver  in  the  Bland  Bill,  two  to  four  millions  a  month  of  silver 
dollars  to  put  in  circulation  which  began  to  flow  out  at  the 
close  of  the  year. 

"1879 — Was  the  year  of  specie  resumption;  per  capita, 
$12.65.  The  increased  silver  brought  us  the  boom  of  1879,  fail- 
ures dropped  down  to  6,658;  liabilities  $98,000,000. 

"1880 — The  boom  was  walking  on.  Increase  of  currency 
through  silver  is  doing  its  work,  the  failures  have  shrunk  to 
4,735;  liabilities  only  $65,000,000.  But  the  latter  part  of  this 
year  there  was  an  attempt  to  frighten  Congress  by  the  bankers, 
known  as  the  bankers'  rebellion  of  1880,  and  they  contracted 
their  loans  very  heavily  and  when  money  is  scarce  the  con- 
traction of  credits  is  equivalent  to  a  contraction  of  volume  of 
currency  and  the  consequence  was  that  the  volume  ran  down 
to  $10.23  per  capita. 


62  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

"1881— Failures  increased  to  5,582,  liabilities  at  $81,000,- 
000.  But  confidence  was  in  full  blast  and  business  was  booming 
on  confidence,  immigration  was  increasing  and  consequently 
the  volume  of  currency  was  shrinking  but  credits  were  more 
than  taking  its  place. 

"1882 — The  volume  had  increased  a  little,  per  capita  to 
$11.97 ;  but  the  strain  for  money  was  great  and  failures  in- 
creased to  6,738 ;  liabilities  $101,000,000. 

"1883 — The  volume  per  capita  was  $11.48.  Credit  is  so 
largely  in  excess  of  cash  that  the  strain  is  increasing,  failures 
were  9,184;  liabilities,  $173,000,000. 

"1884 — The  volume  of  money  per  capita  this  year  is  given 
as  $10.17.  Failures,  10,910;  liabilities,  $226,000,000,  and  the 
country  is  piling  up  credit  preparatory  to  a  tremendous  smash. 

"1885— Volume  of  money  per  capita  $8.90.  Failures  11,212, 
liabilities  $267,340,264.  The  papers  are  declaring  there  is  lots 
of  money,  but  business  is  mainly  done  on  expanded  credit. 

"1886— Volume  of  money  per  capita  $7.64.  Failures  12,292; 
liabilities  $229,288,238.  Business  is  lagging,  credits  are  not  be- 
ing pushed  and  failures  are  falling  off  a  little. 

"1887— Volume  per  capita  $6.67.  Failures,  12,042;  liabilities 
$835,121,888.  Credits  still  growing. 

"1888 — Little  change  in  the  volume  of  money.  Credits  that 
have  taken  place  of  money  are  being  urged.  Failures,  13,348 ; 
liabilities,  $247,659,156. 

"1889 — No  change  in  volume;  tendency  to  push  credits. 
Failures,  13,277;  liabilities,  $312,496,742.  A  tendency  to  still 
push  credits. 

"1890 — The  last  j^ear  looked  dangerous,  credits  are  enor- 
mous, but  the  time  is  not  yet  ripe  to  pluck  the  goose,  but  some- 
thing must  be  done. 

"John  Sherman  comes  forward  with  the  fourth  act  of  his 
silver  demonetizing  scheme,  known  as  the  '  Sherman  Bill. '  This 
repealed  the  'Bland  Bill'  and  gave  to  the  country  a  forced  pur- 
chase of  four  and  a  half  million  ounces  of  silver  per  month 
and  the  putting  in  circulation  of  silver  certificates  to  that 
amount.  That  increased  the  currency  two  and  a  half  million 
dollars  per  month  over  the  best  the  secretary  would  do  with 
the  'Bland  Bill.'  This  increase  of  currency  stimulated  trade, 
strengthened  credits  and  business  boomed,  more  on  credits  than 
on  cash  by  many  times,  yet  the  increase  of  cash  had  a  good 
effect  and  brought  the  failures  down  to  10,672 ;  liabilities, 
$175,032,826. 

' '  1891 — The  volume  of  credit  is  expanding  beyond  the  limit 
of  reason  and  cash  is  in  great  demand.  As  a  business  man  I  find 
I  can  discount  bills  and  buy  goods  at  almost  my  own  figures 
for  cash.  But  I  found  myself  warning  everybody  to  stand  from 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  63 

under,  that  bubble  is  about  to  burst.  Increased  business,  from 
the  stimulant  of  a  little  more  money  and  failures  increased  to 
12,394;  liabilities,  $193,178,000. 

"1892 — There  is  as  yet  no  material  change  except  that 
everything  looks  shaky,  like  a  great  balloon  inflated  and  ready 
to  soar  or  collapse.  Many  business  houses  are  shaky.  There  are 
signs  that  the  business  people  are  trying  to  hedge,  preparing 
for  the  storm,  failures,  10,270;  liabilities,  $108,595,248. 

"But  the  blow  is  yet  to  come. 

"Ricardo,  an  eminent  writer  on  political  economy  said: 
'That  commodities  rise  in  price  in  proportion  to  the  increase 
or  diminuation  of  money.  I  hold  that  to  be  a  fact  that  is  in- 
controvertible. ' 

"John  Stuart  Mill,  another  authority,  said:  'If  the  whole 
volume  of  money  in  circulation  were  doubled  prices  would 
double. ' 

"The  Money  Commission,  created  August  15th,  1876,  con- 
sisting 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  disaster  of  the  Dark  Ages 
was  caused  by  decreasing  money  and  falling  prices,  and  that 
the  recovery  therefrom  and  the  prosperity,  which  followed  the 
discovery  of  America,  were  due  to  an  increasing  supply  of  the 
precious  metal  and  rising  prices  will  not  seem  surprising  and 
unreasonable  when  the  noble  functions  of  money  are  consid- 
ered. 

"  'Money  is  the  great  instrument  of  association,  the  very 
fibre  of  social  organism,  the  vitalizing  force  of  industry,  the 
protoplasm  of  civilization  and  as  essential  to  the  existence  as 
is  oxygen  to  animal  life. 

"  'Without  money  civilization  could  not  have  had  a  begin- 
ning, and  with  a  diminishing  supply  it  must  languish  and  un- 
less relieved  finally  perish. 

"  'Falling  prices  and  misery  and  destitution  are  insepar- 
able companions.  It  is  universally  conceded  that  falling  prices 
result  from  the  contraction  of  the  money  volume.'  (U.  S.  Mone- 
tary Commission,  Vol.  1,  page  50.)  And  again  on  page  51: 

"  'The  highest  moral,  intellectual  and  material  development 
of  nations  is  promoted  b.y  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  had  befallen 
the  people  was  the  'shrinkage  of  the  volume  of  money.' 

"To  whom  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  pro- 
duced? Because  the  farmer  has  been  too  industrious  and  pru- 


64  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

dent,  or  the  manufacturers  employed  too  many  laborers  in  the 
production  of  his  commodities?  Is  it  because  millions  of  chil- 
dren are  employed  in  the  mines  and  factories  of  the  country, 
barred  every  blessing  and  privilege  of  childhood?  Is  it  because 
the  saloon  is  sucking  away  the  substance  of  thousands  of  fami- 
lies, and  bringing  desolation  into  their  homes?  Is  it  because 
women  are  selling  their  souls  to  keep  their  bodies  from  starv- 
ing, or  because  a  band  of  train  robbers  are  infesting  the  coun- 
try and  sending  terror  into  hearts  of  the  people? 

"No,  it  is  none  of  these  circumstances  that  have  brought 
such  disaster  to  our  country,  but  it  is  our  selfishness  and  crimi- 
nal legislation  that  has  overwhelmed  us  with  these  alarming 
conditions ! ' ' 
The  following  table  taken  from  the  "Chicago  Inter-Ocean  of 
Chicago,"  a  leading  Republican  paper  of  Illinois  of  that  time, 
will  show  very  graphically  the  extent  of  the  contraction  of  the 
currency  during  those  awful  years  of  manipulation  of  the  Na- 
tion's money  by  the  traitorous  acts  of  the  legislators  paid  to  pro- 
tect the  people  but  instead  sold  out  to  the  money  changers: 

Per 
Year  Currency  Population         Capita 

1865 $1,651,282,373  34,819,581  $47.42 

1866  1,803,702,726  35,537,148  50.76 

1867  1,330,414,677  36,269,502  36.68 

1868  817,199,773  37,016,949  22.08 

1869 750,025,989  37,779,800  19.85 

1870  740,039,179  38,588,371  19.19 

1871  734,244,774  39,750,073  18.47 

1872  736,340,912  40,978,607  17.97 

1873  733,291,749  42,245,110  17.48 

1874 779,031,589  43,550,576  17.89 

1875 778,176,250  44,896,705  17.33 

1876  735,358,832  46,234,344  15.89 

1877 696,443,394  47,714,829  14.60 

The  Credit  Strengthening  Act 

Then,  again  the  money  changers  came  to  the  rescue  (?)  of 
the  Nation  and  another  law  was  passed  on  March  18,  1869,  called 
the  Credit  Strengthening  Act,  but  just  whose  credit  it  strength- 
ened Ave  shall  soon  see.  This  bill  made  the  Bonds  that  the  money 
changers  had  been  able  to  buy  up  with  depreciated  currency, 
payable  in  gold,  at  face  value !  Now  whose  credit  was  strength- 
ened? The  Government  that  exchanged  the  Bonds  at  face  value 
for  depreciated  currency,  which  was  burned  up,  and  then  forced 
to  redeem  the  Bonds  in  gold ;  or  the  money  changers  who  had 
traded  depreciated  greenbacks  at  face  value  for  the  bonds  and 
then  were  able  to  get  full  value  in  GOLD  for  the  Bonds?  Figure 
that  one  out  also. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  65 

July  14,  1870  an  Act  was  passed  pretending  to  be  one  "Re- 
funding the  National  Debt."  A  scheme  postponing  the  payment 
of  the  National  Debt  regardless  of  the  fact  that  the  United  States 
Treasury  had  on  hand  one-half  the  needed  amount  to  pay  it  off. 
This  continued  the  usurious  bonded  load  on  the  people. 

Can  the  reader  imagine  anything  more  rank  and  vile  and 
crooked  to  have  put  over  on  a  nation  that  trusted  in  the  integrity 
of  the  citizen  legislators  paid  by  the  people  to  aid  and  protect 
them,  but  who  instead,  it  would  seem,  sold  out  the  nation  to 
the  foreign  money  changers  ? 

That  sort  of  carrion  surely  deserve  all  that  is  coming  to  them 
both  here  and  hereafter,  and  one  of  these  tine  days  there  is  a 
bare  possibility  that  the  American  people  are  going  to  be  awak- 
ened to  the  rotten  crookedness  that  goes  on  "behind  the  scenes" 
in  the  halls  of  Congress,  and  make  a  real  housecleaning,  and 
when  they  do  there  will  be  much  "weeping  and  wailing  and 
gnashing  of  teeth!"  And  how! 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Gold  Standard  Established  and  Silver 
Coinage  Killed— or— "The  Crime  of  73" 

Next  came  the  diabolical  Act,  known  as  the  "Crime  of  '73," 
which  was  called  an  "Act  Revising  and  Amending  the  Laws 
Relative  to  the  Mints,  Assay  Offices,  and  the  Coinage  of  the 
United  States."  It  passed  the  House  May  27,  1872,  and  the 
Senate  January  17,  1873. 

This  Act,  as  well  as  the  National  Bank  Act  of  1863,  was 
sponsored  in  the  Senate  by  John  Sherman,  and  in  the  House  by 
Samuel  Hooper.  Practically  every  monetary  measure  of  mention 
from  1860  to  1890  and  especially  if  it  was  to  get  more  privileges 
for  the  bankers,  was  sponsored  by  this  same  Senator  John  Sher- 
man. It  might  be  interesting  and  worth  while  for  someone  to  look 
into  the  financial  standing  of  these  two  gentlemen  down  through 
the  years  and  see  how  they  fared  as  friends  of  the  money  chang- 
ers while  being  paid  to  serve  and  protect  the  people  while  in 
Congress. 

There  are  volumes  of  evidence  to  prove  that  this  was  one  of 
the  most  vicious  of  the  many  money  laws  that  have  been  slipped 
over  on  our  Nation,  by  slippery  money  changers,  and  Congress- 
men, to  enslave  us  to  the  foreign  money  changers  of  England 
and  Germany. 

The  subject  is  treated  exhaustively  and  most  interestingly  in 
the  form  of  a  novel,  in  a  volume  called  ' '  A  Tale  of  Two  Nations, ' ' 
by  W.  H.  Harvey  of  Monte  Ne,  Arkansas,  who  was  one  of  the 
staunch  supporters  of  W.  J.  Bryan  in  1896. 


66  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

The  ruling-  class  and  "big  business"  of  England  urged  on 
and  backed  up  by  the  money  changers  of  the  Bank  of  England 
who  had  never  forgiven  nor  become  reconciled  to  America's 
freedom  after  the  struggle  of  1776  and  1812,  and  who  had  done 
all  in  their  power,  short  of  actual  military  help  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  now  perceived  their  chance  to  control  our  money 
system  and  thereby  control  our  country  just  as  effectively  as 
owning  it  and  with  no  responsibility,  as  the  Hazard  Circular  had 
said  about  Chattel  Slaves. 

The  money  changers  had  already  been  able  to  demonetize 
silver  in  England,  Holland,  and  Germany,  and  thereby  cut  their 
volume  of  currenc}^  in  half  or  more,  and  made  all  debts  payable 
in  gold,  and  they  (the  money  changers)  of  course,  owned  the 
gold,  and  they  decided  to  do  likewise  to  America.  So  they  sent 
an  agent,  Ernest  Seyd,  over  here  with  $500,000.00  to  do  the  trick, 
which  was  accomplished  with  the  help  and  connivance  of  a  few 
members  of  our  National  Congress  and  possibly  a  very  few  other 
persons. 

That  the  reader  may  see  for  himself  the  truth  of  the  above 
statement,  we  will  quote  from  the  speech  of  Senator  Daniel  of 
Virginia,  May  22,  1890,  in  Congress,  and  to  be  found  in  the  Con- 
gressional Record,  page  5128,  of  that  date.  He  said : 

"I  take  from  the  Bankers  Magazine  of  August,   1873,   a 

little  extract.   It  says,  'In  1872  silver  being  demonetized  in 

Germany,  England,  and  Holland,  a  capital  of  100,000  pounds 

($500,000.00)   was  raised  and  Ernest  Seyd  was  sent  to   this 

countr}^  Mdth  this  fund  as  agent  for  foreign  bond  holders  to 

effect  the  same  object  (demonetization  of  silver)'." 

With   special   permission   from   the   author,   Mr.   Andrae   B 

Nordskog,  we  quote  from  his  book,  "Spiking  the  Gold,"  another 

document  of  immense  importance,  which  would  seem  to  be  full 

and  adequate  proof  of  the  foregoing  matter. 

' '  One  of  the  most  astounding  documents  ever  to  be  recorded 
in  connection  with  this  legislation  of  1873  is  the  affidavit  made 
by  Mr.  Frederick  A.  Luckenbach  and  acknowledged  before 
Mr.  James  A.  Miller,  Clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State 
of  Colorado.  This  astounding  affidavit  follows: 
"  'State  of  Colorado 
"  'County  of  Arapahoe 

"  'Frederick  A.  Luckenbach,  being  first  duly  sworn  on 
oath,  deposes  and  says :  I  am  62  years  of  age.  I  was  born  in 
Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania.  I  removed  to  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia in  the  year  of  1864,  and  continued  to  reside  there  until 
1866,  when  I  removed  to  the  city  of  New  York.  In  Philadelphia 
I  was  in  the  furniture  business.  In  New  York  I  branched  into 
machinery  and  inventions,  and  am  the  patentee  of  Lucken- 
bach's  new  pulverizer,  which  machines  are  now  in  use  general- 
ly in  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States  and  Europe.  I  now 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  67 

reside  in  Denver,  having  removed  from  New  York  two  years 
ago.  I  am  well  known  in  New  York.  I  have  been  a  member  of 
the  Produce  Exchange  and  am  well  acquainted  with  members 
or  that  body.  I  am  well  known  by  Mr.  Erastus  Wyman. 

"  'In  1865,  I  visited  London,  England,  for  the  purpose  of 
placing  there  Pennsylvania  oil  properties,  in  which  I  was  inter- 
ested. I  took  with  me  letters  of  introduction  to  many  gentle- 
men in  London,  among  them  one  to  Mr.  Ernest  Seyd  from 
Robert  M.  Foust,  ex-treasurer  of  Philadelphia.  I  became  well 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Ernest  Seyd,  and  with  his  brother,  Rich- 
ard Seyd,  who,  I  understand  is  still  living.  I  visited  London 
thereafter,  every  year,  and  at  each  visit  renewed  my  acquaint- 
ance with  Mr.  Seyd,  and  upon  each  occasion  became  his  guest 
at  one  or  more  times — joining  his  family  at  dinner  or  other 
meals. 

"  'In  February,  1874,  while  on  one  of  these  visits,  and 
while  his  guest  for  dinner,  I,  among  other  things,  alluded  to 
rumors  of  parliamentary  corruption,  and  expressed  astonish- 
ment that  such  corruption  existed.  In  reply  to  this,  he  told  me 
that  he  could  relate  facts  about  corruption  of  the  American 
Congress  that  would  place  it  far  ahead  of  the  English  Parlia- 
ment in  that  line.  So  far,  the  conversation  was  at  the  dinner 
table  between  us.  His  brother,  Richard,  and  others  were  there 
also,  but  this  was  table  talk  between  Mr.  Ernest  Seyd  and 
myself.  After  dinner  ended,  he  invited  me  into  another  room, 
where  he  resumed  the  conversation  about  legislative  corrup- 
tion. He  said,  "If  you  will  pledge  me  your  honor  as  a  gentle- 
man not  to  divulge  what  I  am  about  to  tell  you  while  I  live,  I 
will  convince  you  that  what  I  said  about  American  Congress  is 
true."  I  gave  him  the  promise  and  then  he  continued:  "I  went 
to  America  in  the  winter  of  1872-3,  authorized  to  secure,  if  I 
could,  the  passage  of  a  bill  demonetizing  silver.  It  was  in  the 
interest  of  those  I  represented— the  GOVERNORS  OF  THE 
BANK  OF  ENGLAND— to  have  it  done.  I  took  with  me 
100,000  pounds  sterling  ($500,000.00  United  States  money) 
with  instructions  that  if  it  was  not  sufficient  to  accomplish  the 
object  to  draw  for  another  100,000  pounds  or  as  much  more  as 
was  necessary."  He  told  me  that  the  German  bankers  were 
also  interested  in  having  it  accomplished.  He  said:  "I  saw  the 
committees  of  the  House  and  Senate  and  paid  the  money  and 
stayed  in  America  until  I  knew  the  measure  was  safe."  I  asked 
if  he  would  give  me  the  names  of  the  members  to  whom  he 
paid  the  money — but  this  he  declined  to  do.  "Your  people  will 
not  now  comprehend  the  far  reaching  extent  of  that  measure, 
but  they  will  in  after  years.  Whatever  you  may  think  of  the 
corruption  in  the  English  Parliament,  I  assure  you,  I  would 
not  have  dared  make  such  an  attempt  here  as  I  did  in  your 
country."  I  expressed  my  shame  to  him,  for  my  countrymen 


68  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

in  our  legislative  bodies.  The  conversation  drifted  into  other 
subjects  and  after  that — though  I  met  him  many  times — the 
matter  was  never  again  referred  to. 

"'(Signed)    Frederick  A.  Luckenbach. 
"  'Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  at  Denver,  this  ninth 
day  of  May,  A.  D.  1892. 

"  '(Signed)  James  A.  Miller 
"  '(Seal)  Clerk  Supreme  Court, 
"  'State  of  Colorado.'  " 
The  extent  ajid  serious  consequences  as  pointed  out  b}^  Mr. 
Luckenbach,  of  the  "Crime  of  73,"  while  one  of  the  most  vicious 
and  wicked  pieces  of  trickery  ever  "put  over"  on  Congress  and 
by  them,  onto  the  people,  was  not  to  be  realized  for  a  consider- 
able time  by  the  majority  of  Congress,  nor  even  by  the  Presi- 
dent. This  was  so  favorable  to  the  money  changers  that  with  the 
help  of  the  banks,  scattered  throughout  the  country  and  with 
the  influence  they  could  wield  with  their  power  of  loans,  they 
have  been  able  to  keep  Congress  from  repealing  the  law. 

That  Congressman  Samuel  Hooper  had  dealings  with  this 
agent  of  the  money  changers,  Ernest  Seyd,  is  clearly  shown  by 
his  own  speech  when  introducing  the  bill  in  Congress  April  9, 
1872.  What  he  said  may  be  found  in  the  Congressional  Globe  of 
that  date ;  and  in  part  is  as  follows : 

"Mr.  Ernest  Seyd,  of  London,  a  distinguished  writer,  who 
has  given  great  attention  to  the  subject  of  mints  and  coinage, 
after  examining  the  first  draft  of  the  bill,  furnished  many 
valuable   suggestions   which   have   been   incorporated   in   this 
bill." 
Does  that  look  conclusive — or — does  it  not? 
Of  course,  when  the  scheme  was  made  clear  to  the  American 
bankers  that  the  law  would  destroy  the  free  coinage  of  silver, 
and  make  it  just  that  much  easier,  and  advantageous  for  them 
to  loan  their  National  Bank  Notes,  the  paper  money  that  cost 
them  only  fifty  cents  for  a  hundred  dollars,  they  naturally  were 
for  such  a  law  and  did  all  in  their  power  to  uphold  it. 

But  in  order  that  the  reader  may  see  for  himself  what  the 

Senators  and  Congressmen  had  to  say  about  the  bill  being  passed 

fraudulently,  and  how  Samuel  Hooper  plainly  and  intentionally 

misled  his  brother  legislators  when  the  bill  was  under  discussion, 

and  also  what  the  Congressmen  of  after  years  have  said  about 

the  bill,   we  will  quote   them  from  the   Congressional  Record, 

reproduced  in  "Spiking  the  Gold"  by  Mr.  Andrae  B.  Nordskog: 

"The  Congressional  Record  of  the  45th  Congress,  second 

session,  volume  7,  part  2,  page  1605,  records  the  statement  of 

Judge  Kelly  of  Pennsylvania,  who  said  in  part: 

"  'I  was  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  it  (the  revision  of  the 
Coinage  Act  of  1873)  would  demonetize  the  silver  dollar  or  of 
its  dropping  the  silver  from  our  system  of  coins  as  were  those 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  69 

distinguished  Senators,  Messrs.  Blaine  and  Voorhees,  who  were 
then  members  of  the  House,  and  each  of  whom,  a  few  days 
since,  interrogated  the  other :  ' '  Did  you  know  it  was  dropped 
when  the  bill  was  passed?"  "No,"  said  Mr.  Blaine,  "Did  you?" 
"No,"  said  Mr.  Voorhees.  "And  I  do  not  think  there  were 
three  members  in  the  House  that  knew  it ! "  ' 

"The  Congressional  Record,  Volume  7,  part  1,  page  260, 
45th  Congress  reveals  that  Senator  Beck  of  Kentucky  said  re- 
garding this  bill:  'It  (the  bill  demonetizing  silver)  never  was 
understood  by  either  House  of  Congress.  I  say  that  with  full 
knowledge  of  the  facts.  No  newspaper  reporter — and  they  are 
the  most  vigilant  men  I  ever  saw  in  obtaining  information — 
discovered  that  it  had  been  done.'  " 
In  the  Congressional  Record  of  the  44th  Congress,  first  ses- 
sion, volume  4,  part  6,  Appendix,  page  197,  Joseph  Cannon  said : 
"This  legislation  was   had  in  the   forty-second   Congress, 
February  12,  1873,  by  a  bill  to  regulate  the  mints  of  the  United 
States,  and  practically  abolish  silver  as  money  by  failing  to 
provide  for  the  coinage  of  the  silver  dollar.  It  was  not  dis- 
cussed, as  shown  by  the  Record,  and  neither  members  of  Con- 
gress nor  the  people  understood  the  scope  of  the  legislation." 
"And  so  even  old  Uncle  Joe  certifies  to  this  generation  that 
the  demonetizing  of  silver  was  accomplished  because  our  Con- 
gressmen and  the  people  did  not  understand  the  nature  of  the  bill. 
In  the  Congressional  Record,  volume  4,  part  6,  44th  Congress, 
first  session.  Appendix,  page  193,  Mr.  Holman  of  Indiana,  said: 
"I  have  before  me  the  record  of  the  proceedings  of  this 
House  on  the  passage  of  that  measure,  which  no  man  can  read 
without  being  convinced  that  the  measure  and  the  method  of 
its  passage  through  this  House  was  a  'colossal  swindle.'  I  as- 
sert that  the  measure  never  had  the  sanction  of  this  House, 
and  it  does  not  possess  the  moral  force  of  law." 
The  Congressional  Record,  July  13,  1876,  volume  4,  part  5, 
page  4560,  reveals  that  Mr.  Burchard  of  Illinois  said : 

"The  Coinage  Act  of  1873  unaccompanied  by  any  written 
report  upon  the  subject  from  any  committee,  and  unknown  to 
the  members  of  Congress  who,  without  opposition  allowed  it  to 
pass  under  the  belief,  if  not  assurance,  that  it  made  no  altera- 
tion in  the  value  of  the  current  coins,  or  changed  the  unit  of 
value  from  silver  to  gold." 
Senator  Voorhees  of  Indiana,  Congressional  Record,  January 
15,  1876,  page  332,  declared: 

"The  silver  dollar  is  peculiarly  the  laboring  man's  dollar 
as  far  as  he  may  desire  specie  *  *  *  throughout  all  financial 
panics  that  have  assailed  this  country,  no  man  has  been  bold 
enough  to  raise  his  hand  to  strike  it  down ;  no  man  has  ever 
dared  to  whisper  of  a  contemplated  assault  upon  it  and  when 
the  12th  day  of  February,  1873,  approached  the  day  of  doom 


70  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

to  the  American  dollar,  the  dollar  of  our  fathers,  how  silent 
was  the  work  of  the  enemy.  *  *  *  Its  enactment  there  was  as 
completely  unknown  to  the  people  and  indeed  to  four-fifths  of 
Congress  itself  as  the  presence  of  a  burglar  in  a  house  at  mid- 
night to  its  sleeping  inmates." 
The  Congressional  Record,  volume  7,  part  1,  second  session, 

45th  Congress,  page  584,  reveals  that  Mr.  Bright  of  Tennessee 

said: 

"It  (the  bill  demonetizing  silver)  passed  by  fraud  in  the 
House,  never  having  been  printed  in  advance,  being  a  substi- 
tute for  the  printed  bill;  never  having  been  read  at  the  Clerk's 
desk,  the  reading  having  been  dispensed  with  by  an  impression 
that  the  bill  made  no  material  alteration  in  the  coinage  laws ; 
it  was  passed  without  discussion,  being  cut  off  by  operation  of 
the  previous  question.  It  was  passed,  to  my  certain  informa- 
tion under  such  circumstances  that  the  fraud  escaped  the  at- 
tention of  the  most  watchful  as  well  as  the  ablest  statesmen 
in  Congress  at  the  time.  *  *  *  Aye,  sir,  it  was  a  fraud  that 
smells  to  heaven." 
"On  page  208  of  the  Congressional  Record  of  December  14th, 

1877,  is  found  a  reproduction  of  a  letter  to  Representative  Mr. 

Coudray,  from  President  Grant,  dated  October  13,  1873,  eight 

months  after  the  President  had  signed  the  bill,  in  which  the 

President  said  in  part: 

' '  I  wonder  that  silver  is  not  already  coming  into  the  market 
to  supply  the  deficiency  in  the  circulating  medium.  Experience 
has  proved  that  it  takes  about  $40,000,000  of  fractional  cur- 
rency to  make  the  small  change  necessary  for  the  transaction 
of  the  business  of  the  country.  Silver  will  gradually  take  the 
place  of  this  currency,  and  further,  will  become  the  standard 
of  values.  *  *  *  Our  mines  are  now  producing  almost  unlimited 
amounts  of  silver,  and  it  is  becoming  a  question,  'What  shall 
we  do  with  it?'  I  here  suggest  a  solution  which  will  answer 
for  some  years  to  put  it  into  circulation,  keeping  it  here  until 
it  is  fixed,  and  then  we  will  find  other  markets." 
"The   Congressional  Record  of  December  14,   1877,  on  page 

206,  shows  the  statement  made  by  Senator  Herford  wherein  he 

said: 

"I  now  come  to  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  to  my 
mind  one  of  the  most  fraudulent  pieces  of  legislation  this  or 
any  other  country  ever  saw.  I  refer  to  the  manner  of  the  pass- 
age of  the  bill  demonetizing  silver.  I  will  not  occupy  the  time 
of  the  Senate  by  going  over  the  whole  history  of  this  iniquitous 
transaction.  Mr.  Hooper,  since  deceased,  was  at  that  time 
chairman  of  the  committee  having  charge  of  a  bill  which  had 
been  referred  to  his  committee,  and  on  May  27,  1872,  reported 
a  substitute  and  moved  to  suspend  the  rules  and  pass  the  sub- 
stitute, upon  which  motion,  among  other  things,  the  following 
occurred  which  any  Senator  can  find  by  turning  to  the  Con- 
gressional Globe,  part  5,  page  3883." 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  71 

"Senator  Herford  then  submitted  the  debate  which  took  place 
between  Mr.  Hooper  of  Massachusetts  and  other  Congressmen 
at  the  time  that  Mr.  Hooper  succeeded  in  getting  action  on  the 
substitute  bill  (which  had  not  even  been  printed  and  submitted 
to  members  of  the  House)  through  suspension  of  the  rules.  Mr. 
Hooper  stated,  when  asked  by  other  Congressmen  whether  or  not 
this  substitution  bill  affected  the  re-coinage  of  small  coins  such 
as  the  dollar,  that: 

"This  bill  makes  no  change  in  the  existing  law  in  that 
regard.  It  does  not  require  the  re-coinage  of  small  coins." 
On  this  boldly  fraudulent  statement,  110  members  voted  in 
favor  of  the  bill  and  only  13  against  it ;  those  opposing  it  doing 
so  mainly  because  they  did  not  have  the  privilege  of  hearing  the 
original  bill  read  alongside  of  the  substitute  which  very  trickily 
eliminated  the  free  mintage  of  silver  as  will  be  shown  a  little 
later  on. 

"The  smooth  Englishman  who  was  alleged  to  have  spent 
$500,000  bribing  the  American  Congress  in  order  to  demonetize 
silver,  did  his  work  yery  effectively ;  so  eft'ectively  that  the  wisest 
at  our  National  Capital  did  not  detect  the  crime  until  the  law 
was  put  into  operation. 

"This  law  was  "An  Act  Revising  and  Amending  the 
Laws  Relative  to  the  Mints,  Assay  Offices  and  Coinage  of  the 
United  States,  and  reads  as  follows: 

"(a)  That  the  gold  coin  of  the  United  States  shall  be  one 
dollar  a  piece,  which  at  the  weight  of  twenty-five  and  eight- 
tenths  grains  shall  be  the  unit  of  value. 

"(b)  That  the  silver  coins  of  the  United  States  shall  be  a 
trade  dollar,  a  half  dollar  or  fifty-cent  piece,  a  quarter-dollar 
or  twenty-five-cent  piece,  a  dime  or  ten-cent  piece,  and  said 
coins  shall  be  a  leg^l  tender  at  their  nominal  value  for  any 
amount  not  exceeding  five  dollars  in  any  one  payment. 

"(c)  That  no  coins,  either  of  gold  or  silver,  or  minor  coin- 
age, shall  hereafter  be  issued  from  the  Mint,  other  than  those 
of  the  denominations,  standards  and  weights  herein  set  forth." 
—  (Statutes,  424)    ("A,"  "B,"  and  "C"  designations  by  au- 
thor.) 

"It  will  be  noted  upon  re-reading  the  Act  above  quoted  in 
paragraph  "  c  "  that  no  coins,  either  of  gold  or  silver  should  there- 
after be  issued  from  the  Mint,  other  than  those  of  the  denomina- 
tions, standards  and  weights  herein  set  forth.  And  upon  referring 
to  paragraph  "a"  you  will  note  that  the  weight  of  the  gold  was 
provided  for ;  but  when  you  read  paragraph  "  b  "  again,  you  will 
notice  that  the  weight  of  the  silver  is  very  carefully  eliminated. 
This  was  the  crux  of  the  demonetization  scheme. 

"On  page  258  of  the  Congressional  Record  of  January  11, 
1879,  we  find  Senator  Beck  of  Kentucky  saying: 


72  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

' '  I  know  that  the  bondholders  and  monopolists  of  this  coun- 
try are  seeking  to  destroy  all  the  industries  of  this  people  in 
their  greed  to  enhance  the  value  of  their  gold.  I  know  that  the 
act  of  1873  did  more  than  all  else  to  accomplish  that  result, 
and  the  demonetization  act  of  the  Revised  Statutes  was  an 
illegal  and  unconstitutional  consummation  of  the  fraud.  I  want 
to  restore  that  money  to  where  it  was  before,  and  thus  aid  in 
preventing  the  consummation  of  their  designs." 
The  evidence  is  there  from  many  reputable  men,  in  govern- 
ment records,  the  reader  may  form  his  own  conclusions.     The 
shackles  of  Economic  Serfdom  grow  stronger  and  stronger  as 
years  pass  by,  more  legislation  is  slipped  through  Congress  by  the 
use  of  millions  of  hard  earned  money,  filched  from  the  hands  of 
the  American  laborers  and  farmers,  under  crooked  and  branded 
unconstitutional  laws,  which  were  made  for,  and  do  operate  for 
the  benefit  of  the  foreign  money  changers  and  against  the  inter- 
est of  all  American  producers.    Hardly  a  decade  passes,  but  an- 
other link  is  added  to  the  golden  chain  that  holds  us  in  an  eco- 
nomic bondage. 

One  could  hardly  better  describe  "Civilization  After  20  Cen- 
turies of  Christendom"  than  by  this  passage  of  Ferrero  (Great- 
ness and  Decline  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Vol.  1,  p.  223)  :  "The 
Imperial  Democracy  that  held  a  world  beneath  its  sway,  from 
the  Senators  who  have  historic  names,  down  to  the  humblest 
tiller  of  the  soil,  from  Julius  Caesar  down  to  the  smallest  shop- 
keeper in  a  back  street  of  Rome,  was  at  the  mercy  of  a  small 
group  of  usurers."  (Frederick  Soddy:  Wealth,  Virtual  Wealth 
and  Debt,  page  185.) 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  People  Clamor  for  More  Money 

By  the  time  1877  had  rolled  around  the  economic  pressure 
had  increased  until  the  money  changers  were  becoming  fright- 
ened at  the  clamor  for  more  money  in  circulation,  and  the  talk 
of  the  good  old  full  legal  tender  greenbacks  of  "Honest  Abe." 

People  could  not  get  over  the  fact  that  Lincoln  had  produced 
that  kind  of  greenbacks  for  them,  and  they  were  just  as  good  as 
gold  anywhere,  and  couldn't  understand  why  it  could  not  be 
done  again.  Of  course,  the  money  interests  howled  about  its  shin 
plasters  of  the  civil  war  period,  and  how  low  in  value  they  had 
sunk,  not  telling  the  people,  of  course,  that  they  (the  money 
changers)  had  caused  the  exception  clause  to  be  placed  in  the 
act  creating  them,  and  giving  the  money  changers  their  excuse 
to  discount  them.  Furthermore,  do  not  forget,  dear  reader,  that 
the  bankers  all  over  the  country  by  then  were  issuing  "their 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  73 

own"  paper  money  or  National  bank  notes,  and  they  surely 
didn't  want  competition  from  Uncle  Sam  in  manufacturing  paper 
money.  No,  siree !  That  would  be  "unsound"  money  and  that 
wouldn't  do  at  all  for  the  "dear  peepul. " 

The  Money  Changers  Give  Their  Orders 

The  howl  of  the  people  for  more  money  became  so  great  in 
1877,  that  the  American  Bankers  Association  of  247  Broadway, 
New  York  City,  thought  it  time  to  be  up  and  doing  for  them- 
selves. So  it  seems  their  secretary,  Mr.  James  Buel,  sent  a  circular 
letter  to  all  their  members  that  read  like  the  following : 
"Dear  Sir: 

"It  is  advisable  to  do  all  in  your  power  to  sustain  such 
prominent  daily  and  weekly  newspapers,  especially  the  Agri- 
cultural and  Religious  Press,  as  will  oppose  the  greenback  issue 
of  paper  money  and  that  you  will  also  withhold  patronage 
from  all  applicants  who  are  not  willing  to  oppose  the  govern- 
ment issue  of  money. 

"Let  the  government  issue  the  coin  and  the  banks  issue  the 
paper  money  of  the  country;  for  then  we  can  better  protect 
each  other.  To  repeal  the  Act  creating  bank  notes,  or  to  re- 
store to  circulation  the  government  issue  of  money  will  be  to 
provide  the  people  with  money  and  will  therefore  seriously 
affect  our  individual  profits  as  bankers  and  lenders. 

"See  your  Congressman  at  once  and  engage  him  to  sup- 
port our  interests  that  we  may  control  legislation."  (By  per- 
mission from  "Who  Rules  America,"  by  C.  K.  Howe.) 
Well,  there  it  is  in  all  its  nakedness,  telling  the  whole  story. 
The  bankers  all  over  the  country  must  sustain  the  farm  and  re- 
ligious   papers    and    withhold    loans    from    the    borrowers    who 
wouldn't  oppose  the  government  issue  of  "greenbacks"  which 
greenbacks  would  do  the  awful  thing  of  providing  the  people 
with  money  without  interest,  and  thereby  keep  the  profits  of 
usury — the  "vicious,"  "wicked"  custom  that  had  been  practiced 
by  money  changers  and  was  condemned  by  all  great  thinkers 
from  Moses  down — from  the  poor  bankers. 

Then  again,  the  bankers  all  over  the  country  were  to  work  on 
their  Congressmen  and  get  them  to  support  the  interest  of  the 
manipulating  bankers,  that  they  might  control  legislation,  when 
they,  the  Congressmen,  were  elected  and  paid  by  the  people  to 
support  and  protect  the  people's  interests. 

That  letter  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  voter  in  America, 
or,  better  still,  a  law  should  be  passed  compelling  every  banker 
to  have  it  placed  in  a  large  readable  type  on  his  front  window, 
to  thereby  show  what  his  real  assets  are,  and  without  which  he 
could  not  exist,  namely,  control  of  newspapers  and  magazines, 
and  browbeating  their  customers  to  make  them  work  on  their 


74  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Congressmen,  and  putting  pressure  on  the  Congressmen,  them- 
selves, in  order  to  control  legislation  and  to  have  special  acts 
passed,  giving  them   (the  bankers)    SPECIAL  PRIVILEGES. 

Some  press  comments  of  that  time.  (We  wonder  who  owned 
these  papers.)  New  York  Tribune,  January  10,  1878: 

"The  capital  of  the  country  is  organized  at  last,  and  we 
will  see  whether  Congress  will  dare  to  fly  in  its  face." 
The  next  day  it  says : 

"The  time  is  near  when  they  (the  banks)  will  feel  them- 
selves 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  at  a  single  day's  notice,  with  such  power  that  no  act 
of  Congress  can  overcome  or  resist  their  decisions." 
They  knew  what  the   contraction  of  the   volume   of  money 
would  do  and  started  in  to  educate  the  people  to  the  idea  of  sub- 
missive slavery.    About  the  same  time  that  the  above  appeared, 
the  following  appeared  in  the  New  York  World : 

"The  American  laborer  must  make  up  his  mind  henceforth 
not  to  be  so  much  better  off  than  the  European  laborer.  Men 
must  be  content  to  work  for  less  wages.  In  this  way  the  work- 
ing man  will  be  nearer  to  that  station  in  life  to  which  it  has 
pleased  God  to  call  him!" 
A  little  later  in  our  story,  the  reader  will  see  where  the  Ameri- 
can farmer  was  to  be  put  in  his  place  as  a  peasant. 

Following  the  demonetization  of  silver  in  1873,  there  had  been 
the  worst  panic  the  country  had  ever  experienced,  and  there  was 
a  growing  demand  for  money,  and  many  indeed  were  clamoring 
for  good  old  "Lincoln  Greenbacks"  of  full  legal  tender.  So,  to 
stop  them  and  to  quiet  the  country  there  was  passed  in  1878  an 
act  called  the  Sherman  Law  (Old  John  again)  which  allowed  the 
Secretary  to  purchase  and  coin  a  limited  amount  of  silver. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Money  Changers  Order  a  Panic 

The  money  changers  now  wanted  to  get  rid  of  this  and  all 
other  money  that  was  not  National  Bank  notes,  so  it  is  said,  that 
on  March  11,  1893,  a  circular  letter  to  become  known  as  the 
"Panic  Circular  of  1893,"  was  mailed  to  National  Banks  by  the 
American  Bankers  Association.  This  circular  gives  the  reader 
the  "real  goods"  on  the  operation  of  the  legislative  influence  and 
control  bv  the  money  changers.  The  circular  read  as  follows : 
"Dear  Sir: 

The  interest  of  the  National  Banks  require  immediate  finan- 
cial legislation  by  Congress.  Silver  certificates  and  treasury 
notes  must  be  retired  and  National  Bank  Notes  upon  a  gold 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  75 

basis  made  the  only  money.  This  will  require  the  authorization 
of  500  millions  to  1,000  millions  of  new  bonds  as  the  basis  of 
circulation.  You  will  at  once  retire  one-third  of  your  circulation 
and  call  one-half  of  your  loans.  Be  careful  to  make  a  monetary 
stringency  among  your  patrons,  especially  among  influential 
business  men.  Advocate  an  extra  session  of  Congress  to  repeal 
the  purchasing  clause  of  the  Sherman  Law  and  act  with  other 
banks  of  your  city  in  securing  a  large  petition  to  Congress  for 
its  unconditional  repeal  per  accompanying  form.  LTse  personal 
influence  with  your  Congressmen  and  particularly  let  your 
wishes  be  kno\\Ti  to  your  Senators.  The  future  life  of  national 
banks  as  fixed  and  safe  investments,  depends  upon  immediate 
action  as  there  is  an  increasing  sentiment  in  favor  of  Govern- 
ment legal  tender  notes  and  silver  coinage." 

(From  "Who  Rules  America,"  by  C.  K.  Howe.) 

Does  the  reader  begin  to  see  just  how  Congressmen  and  Sena- 
tors come  to  vote  for  laws  favoring  the  money  changers  and 
detrimental  to  the  people?  Can  you  still  believe  that  they  (our 
legislators)  work  for  us,  who  pay  them?  Or  can  you  begin  to  see 
how  we  get  "sold  down  the  river." 

The  next  big  fight  with  the  strongly  intrenched  money  chang- 
ers came  in  1896  when  the  "Great  Commoner,"  William  Jennings 
Bryan,  ran  for  President  on  the  "Free  Silver"  issue  on  the  Demo- 
cratic Ticket. 

Mr.  Byran  had  been  in  Congress  from  Nebraska,  and  was  a 
delegate  to  the  National  Democratic  Convention  at  Chicago  in 
1896,  and  there  made  the  great  emotional  appeal  in  his  "Crown 
of  Thorns  and  Cross  of  Gold"  speech  which  won  him  the  nomi- 
nation for  the  presidency.  Bryan  was  trying  to  get  the  "crime 
of  '73"  law  repealed  and  again  have  the  government  coin  all  the 
silver  brought  to  the  mints,  free  of  charge,  as  it  always  had  been, 
previous  to  1873. 

This  could  not  be  permitted ;  so  the  bankers  showed  the  people 
that  gold  was  quite  sufficient  for  money ;  there  was  plenty  of  it ; 
they  shoveled  out  millions  of  dollars  in  gold  over  the  country  to 
prove  their  case.  They  made  the  psychological  appeal  of  "the 
full  dinner  pail"  and  among  other  things,  so  it  is  said,  induced 
the  manufacturers  and  industrialists  to  inform  their  employees 
that  if  Bryan  was  elected  all  factories  and  plants  would  close 
and  there  would  be  no  work.  This  chicanery  enabled  them  to 
beat  Bryan  by  the  small  margin  of  a  half  million  votes. 

Up  to  1906  the  Democratic  Party  had  alwaj's  been  known  as 
the  Party  of  the  People,  and  had  not  been  ruled  entirely,  at 
least,  by  the  large  interests  and  money  changers.  After  that  time, 
however,  it  made  no  difference  which  party  one  voted  for,  both 
were  the  same,  about  the  only  difference  being  the  slogan  used 
in  their  campaigns. 


76  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Since  that  time  botl)  parties  have  sponsored  and  adopted 
measures  like  the  Initiative  and  Referendum,  which  in  former 
years  had  been  found  only  in  the  Socialist  Party  platform.  Many 
of  these  reforms,  especially  if  they  didn't  amount  to  much  and 
especially  if  they  didn't  operate  against  privately  owned  money 
systems,  were  tolerated.  But  let  any  man  come  out  and  start 
something  against  the  money  changers'  private  racket,  and  just 
as  surely  was  he  crucified  socially  and  politically  at  least,  and 
especially  as  to  his  character.  This  is  done  today  the  same  as  it 
has  been  practiced  down  through  the  centuries;  even  as  Christ 
was  crucified  on  Calvary,  for  driving  the  money  changers  from 
the  Jewish  Temple  for  their  manipulation  of  money  there. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Another  Valiant  Lindbergh 

One  of  the  most  persecuted  of  these  crusaders  for  the  right 
of  the  masses  to  a  decent  living  was  none  other  than  the  father 
of  America's  great  Ace,  "Lindy,"  Charles  A.  Lindbergh,  Sr.  His 
books  "The  Economic  Pinch"  and  "\Yhy  Is  Your  Country  at 
War?"  were  said  to  have  been  suppressed  by  the  Department  of 
Justice  during  the  World  War,  but  by  his  introduction  of  a  most 
scathing  and  revealing  resolution  in  Congress  in  December,  1912, 
concerning  the  investigation  of  the  money  Trust,  he  was  instru- 
mental in  defeating  one  of  the  most  vicious  and  piratical  acts  of 
money  legislation  ever  offered  up  to  that  time ;  an  Act  to  create 
what  was  to  be  known  as  the  National  Reserve  Association,  a 
measure  somewhat  like  the  later  bill,  the  Federal  Reserve  Act. 
This  was  sponsored  by  Senator  Nelson  W.  Aldrich  of  New  York 
and  Congressman  Edward  B.  Vreeland,  a  banker  of  New  York. 
The  Bill  was  to  confer  upon  this  association  the  arbitrary  and 
despotic  right  to  issue  money  and  control  bank  credit  for  fifty 
years. 

And  does  the  reader  ask  himself  if  the  Aldrich  that  is  the 
son-in-law  of  John  D.  Rockefeller  and  chairman  of  the  Board  of 
the  Chase  National  Bank  of  New  York,  the  bank  that  on  its  50th 
birthday  had  resources  just  1,000  times  as  large  as  they  were  on 
its  first  statement,  is  the  son  of  that  Nelson  W.  Aldrich?  Well, 
it  seems  that  is  true,  and  that  at  least  one  son  is  well  taken  care 
of,  but  possibly  the  last  page  of  the  history  concerning  our 
financier  congressmen  has  not  been  written. 

An  extract  from  Congressman  Lindbergh 's  book  regarding  the 
Aldrich-Vreeland  Bill  is  herewith  included,  to  show  you  the  type 
of  man  and  the  courage  of  this,  one  of  America 's  most  courageous 
of  American  servants,  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  Contrast  him  with 
some  you  have  read  about  previously  in  this  narrative  and  thank 
God  that  once  in  a  while  we  get  a  real  man  in  Congress. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  77 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  book,  "Banking  and 
Currency  and  The  Money  Trust,"  by  Congressman  Charles  A. 
Lindbergh,  Sr. : 

"When  the  Aldrich-Vreeland  Emergency  Bill  was  sprung 
in  the  House  in  its  finished  draft  and  ready  for  action  to  be 
taken,  the  debate  was  limited  to  three  hours  and  Banker  Vree- 
land  placed  in  charge.  It  took  so  long  for  copies  of  the  Bill  to 
be  gotten  that  many  members  were  unable  to  secure  a  copy 
until  a  few  minutes  of  the  time  to  vote.  No  member  who  wished 
to  present  the  people 's  side  of  the  case  was  given  sufficient  time 
to  enable  him  to  properly  analyze  the  Bill,  I  asked  for  time 
and  was  told  that  if  I  woiQd  vote  for  the  Bill,  it  would  be  given 
me,  but  not  otherwise.  Others  were  treated  in  the  same  way. 

"Accordingly  on  June  20,  1908,  the  Money  Trust  won  the 
first  fight  and  the  Aldrich-Vreeland  Emergency  Currency  Law 
was  placed  on  the  statute  books.  Thus  was  the  first  precedent 
established  for  the  people's  guarantee  of  the  rich  man's 
watered  securities,  by  making  them  a  basis  on  which  to  issue 
currency.  It  was  the  entering  wedge.  We  had  already  guaran- 
teed the  rich  man's  money,  noAv,  by  this  Act,  the  way  was 
opened,  and  it  was  intended  that  we  should  guarantee  their 
watered  stocks  and  bonds.  Of  course,  they  were  too  keen  to 
attempt  to  complete  it  in  a  single  act,  such  an  enormous  steal 
as  it  would  have  been  if  they  had  included  all  they  hoped  ulti- 
mately to  secure.  They  knew  that  they  would  be  caught  at  it  if 
they  did,  and  so  it  was  planned  that  the  whole  thing  should 
be  done  by  a  succession  of  Acts.  The  first  three  have  taken 
place. 

"Act  No.  1  w^as  the  manufacture,  between  1896-1907, 
through  stock  gambling,  speculation,  and  other  devious  meth- 
ods and  devices  of  tens  of  billions  of  watered  stocks,  bonds, 
and  securities. 

"Act  No.  2  was  the  panic  of  1907,  by  which  method  those 
not  favorable  to  the  money  trust  could  be  squeezed  out  of 
business  and  the  people  frightened  into  demanding  changes  in 
the  banking  and  currency  laws  which  the  Money  Trust  would 
frame.  (Note  again  reason  for  panics  and  hard  times — author.) 

"The  Act  No.  3  was  the  passage  of  the  Aldrich-Vreeland 
Emergency  Currency  Bill  by  which  the  money  trust's  interests 
would  have  the  privilege  of  securing  from  the  Government 
currency  on  their  watered  stocks  and  securities.  But  while  the 
Act  contained  no  authority  to  change  the  form  of  the  Bank 
notes,  the  U.  S.  Treasurer  (in  some  way  that  I  have  been 
unable  to  find  reason  for)  implied  authority  and  changed  the 
form  of  bank  notes  which  were  issued  for  the  banks  on  Gov- 
ernment bonds.  These  notes  had  hitherto  printed  on  them, 
'This  note  is  secured  by  bonds  of  the  United  States.'  He 
changed  it  to  read  as  follows:  'This  note  is  secured  by  bonds 


78  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

of  the  United  States  and  other  securities.'  'Or  other  securities' 
is  the  addition  that  was  secured  by  special  interests. 

"The  main  thing,  however,  that  the  Money  Trust  accom- 
plished as  a  result  of  the  passing  of  this  Act  was  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  National  Monetary  Commission,  the  membership 
of  which  was  chiefly  made  up  of  bankers,  agents,  and  attorneys, 
who  have  generally  been  educated  in  favor  of,  and  to  have  a 
community  interest  with  Money  Trust.  The  National  Monetary 
Commission  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  same  Senator  Nelson 
W.  Aldrich  and  Congressman  Edward  B.  Vreeland,  who  re- 
spectively had  charge  in  the  Senate  and  House  during  the  Act 
creating  it. 

"The  Act  authorized  this  commission  to  spend  money  with- 
out stint  or  account.  It  spent  over  $300,000.00  in  order  to  learn 
how  to  form  a  plan  by  which  to  create  a  greater  money  trust, 
and  it  afterwards  recommended  to  Congress  to  give  this  pro- 
posed trust  a  fifty  year  charter  by  means  of  which  it  could  rob 
all  humanity.  A  bill  for  this  purpose  was  introduced  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Monetary  Commission  and  its  passage  planned  to 
be  the  fourth  and  final  act  of  the  campaign  to  completely  en- 
slave the  people. 

"The  fourth  act,  however,  is  in  incubation  only,  and  it  is 
hoped  by  that  time,  we  realize  the  danger  that  all  of  us  are  now 
in,  for  it  is  the  final  proposed  legislation  which,  if  it  succeeds, 
will  have  us  in  the  complete  control  of  the  moneyed  interests. 
History  records  nothing  so  dramatic  in  design,  nor  so  skillfully 
manipulated,  as  this  attempt  to  create  the  National  Reserve 
Association  (writer's  note:  now  the  Federal  Reserve  System) 
otherwise  called  the  Aldrich  plan — and  no  fact  or  occurrence 
contemplated  for  the  gaining  of  selfish  ends  is  recorded  in  the 
world's  records  which  equal  the  beguiling  methods  of  this 
colossal  undertaking.  Men,  women,  and  children  have  been 
equally  unconscious  of  how  stealthily  this  greatest  of  all  giant 
octopuses — a  greater  Money  Trust  is  reaching  out  its  tentacles 
in  its  efforts  to  bind  all  humanity  in  perpetual  servitude  to  the 
greedy  will  of  this  monster. 

"I  was  in  Congress  when  the  panic  of  1907  occurred,  but  I 
had  previously  familiarized  myself  with  many  of  the  ways  of 
high  financiers.  As  a  result  of  what  I  discovered  in  that  study, 
I  set  about  to  expose  the  Money  Trust,  the  world's  greatest 
financial  giant.  I  knew  that  I  could  not  succeed  unless  I  could 
bring  the  public  sentiment  to  my  aid.  I  had  to  secure  this  or 
fail.  The  money  trust  had  laid  its  plans  long  before  and  was 
already  executing  them.  It  was  then,  and  still  is  TRAINING 
THE  PEOPLE  THEMSELVES,  TO  DEMAND  THE  ENACT- 
MENT OF  THE  ALDRICH  PLAN  OR  A  BILL  SIMILAR  IN 
EFFECT.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  had  already  been 
spent  and  millions  more  reserved  to  be  used  in  the  attempt  to 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  79 

bring  about  a  condition  of  public  mind  that  would  cause  de- 
mand of  the  passage  of  the  bill.  If  no  other  methods  succeeded, 
it  was  planned  to  bring  on  a  violent  panic  and  rush  the  bill 
through  during  the  distress  which  would  result  from  the  panic. 
It  was  figured  that  the  people  would  demand  new  banking  and 
currency  laws ;  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to  get  a 
definitely  practical  plan  before  Congress  when  they  were  in 
an  excited  state  and  that  as  a  result,  the  Aldrich  Plan  would 
slip  safely  through.  It  was  planned  to  pass  that  bill  in  the  Fall 
of  1911   or  1912."   (From  "Who  Rules  America,"  by  C.  K. 
Howe.) 
Well,  dear  reader,  the  above  from  the  Great  Lindbergh's  book 
surely  gives  it  to  us  straight.  No  wonder  it  was  suppressed.  Sad 
to  relate  this  bill  spoken  of  by  Lindbergh  was  later  to  be  passed 
by  Congress  and  called  the  Federal  Reserve  Act.  (By  others  more 
properly  called  the  Federal  "Robbers"  Act.)    This  is  the  law 
under  which  we  live  (or  starve)  today. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  Money  Changers  Add  Another  Link 
to  the  Golden  Chain 

Well,  we  find  it  was  only  a  short  ten  years  until  the  money 
changer  was  back  to  Congress  for  another  big  slice  of  special 
privilege. 

But  how  to  get  it?  We  were  not  at  war  with  anybody,  so  the 
bankers  simply  drew  money  from  circulation  and  called  loans 
and  refused  new  loans,  and  noised  it  about  that  money  was  tight 
— and  a  panic  ensued.  There  was  a  brand  new  emergency,  all 
made  to  order  and  working  fine !  And  ' '  Oh  boy,  Oh  boy, ' '  say 
the  bankers  and  money  changers,  "We  have  just  got  to  rescue 
our  country  or  it  will  all  go  to  the  dogs,  BUT  if  we  do  this,  we 
will  just  have  to  have  more  —  money ;  you  know  money  is 
"tight"  and  hard  to  get,  and  we  have  just  about  got  all  the 
money  from  Uncle  Sam  on  the  Government  bonds  that  we  can 
(and  besides,  those  Government  bonds  are  too  high,  we  simply 
can't  afford  them).  BUT,  we  have  a  whole  vault  full  of  nice 
yellow  corporation  bonds  that  we  have  kindly  floated  in  the  last 
ten  years  and  if  you  (to  our  Congress)  will  just  permit  us  to 
turn  these  over  to  the  Treasury  and  issue  us  nice  new  National 
Bank  notes  on  these  bonds,  then  we  can  loan  out  the  nice  new 
money  and  'save  the  country.'  But  you  will  have  to  hurry,  no 
time  to  lose,  never  can  tell  what  will  happen." 

So  Congress  hurried  and  passed  the  Aldrich- Vreeland  Emerg- 
ency Law  giving  the  money  changers  their  law,  and  the  Secretary 
of  the   Treasury    (kindly,   without   any   authority   in   the   bill) 


80  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYEED 

changed  the  wording  on  the  New  National  Bank  notes  to  read : 
"This  note  is  secured  by  bonds  of  the  United  States  or  other 
securities,"  instead  of  just  "By  the  United  States  Bonds." 

And  believe  it  or  not  he  got  away  with  it.  Marvelous!  Wasn't 
it?  Wouldn't  the  reader  say  that  trick  makes  him  one  of  the 
Money  Changers'  Club?  Can't  you  imagine  how  proud  his  de- 
scendents  will  be  of  him  when  they  find  out  the  above  facts 
about  him? 

The  reader  will  please  refer  again  to  the  two  reasons  why  we 
have  good  times  and  "easy  money"  and  hard  times  and  "tight 
money."  You  can  see  it  worked  again. 

And  then,  that  Emergency  Law?  Who  was  in  a  bad  fix?  The 
people  ?  No !  They  were  well  and  busy  trying  to  make  both  ends 
meet,  but  the  poor  bankers,  they  had  loaned  all  their  money  out 
at  such  legal  usurious  interest  compounded  that  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  it  not  only  ate  up  all  the  principal,  but  mortgaged  all 
the  available  property.  Then  the  banks  had  to  create  the  emerg- 
ency so  they  could  foreclose  a  lot  of  farms,  businesses,  and 
homes.  In  other  words,  they  had  to  liquidate  their  self  created 
jams  in  order  to  clear  the  decks  for  further  loans.  With  the 
panic,  they  could  scare  Congress  into  giving  them  another  special 
privilege. 

Well,  some  day  maybe  the  poor  dumb  American  people  will 
wake  up  to  this  kind  of  "racket"  and  when  they  do — but  we 
must  get  on — for  it  won't  be  long  now  before  the  money  chang- 
ers will  have  all  that  new  money  loaned  out  and  they  will  have 
another  NEW  special  privilege  framed  up  into  the  securing  of 
which  they  will  attempt  to  scare  and  bribe  Congress. 

But  who  is  this  our  long  range  telescope  picks  up  at  the  rail 
of  the  Great  Steamer,  plowing  up  the  Hudson  into  New  York? 
We  will  just  peep  over  his  shoulder  when  he  shows  his  passport. 
Jumping  Jehosaphat,  would  you  believe  it?  None  other  than 
Paul  M.  Warburg,  himself!  The  Jewish  banker  right  from  the 
holy  of  holies  of  all  money  changers — Temples  on  the  Rhine  at 
Frankfort,  Germany,  the  Rothschild  Temple,  itself !  Well,  now 
maybe  this  fellow  can  "figger"  out  something  in  the  way  of 
money-changing  for  us  over  here,  what  with  all  our  periodical 
shortage  of  money.  Not  only  can  he,  dear  reader,  but  he  does! 
And  how !  Of  course,  he  speaks  a  little  broken,  but  his  arms  are 
all  right  so  he  gets  along  first  rate. 

And  then  1912-1913  came  along  and,  said  the  bankers  to  the 
people  who  asked  loans,  "You  know,  boys,  I  can  let  you  have 
only  half  as  much  money  as  you  will  need  on  the  new  work  you 
have  planned;  you  know,  money  is  getting  pretty  "tight"  again, 
and  you  know  these  dreaded  'business  cycles';  they  just  keep 
coming  around,  can't  be  helped,  though,  I  guess.  Kinda  like  poor 
people  and  taxes;  guess  we  will  always  have  them  with  us!" 

"But  did  you  hear  of  that  new  bill  up  before  Congress,  that 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  81 

'feller'  Glass  tells  about?  Calls  it  the  Federal  Reserve  Act,  or 
something  like  that.  And  what  do  you  think,"  said  the  slippery 
banker,  "if  we  just  had  that  law  passed,  we  would  never  have 
any  more  'tight  money'  and  hard  times.  You  fellers  better  write 
your  Congressmen  and  Senators  to  be  sure  to  vote  for  it,  and 
maybe  soon  you  can  get  the  other  half  of  the  loan  you  want  to 
go  ahead  with  your  work." 

And  by  multiplying  that  conversation  by  millions  and  getting 
the  'kept  press'  to  ballyhoo  night  and  day,  and  all  the  Chambers 
of  Commerce  in  the  front  row  with  the  boosters  and  greeters  as- 
sociation, seconded  and  parroted  by  all  the  service  clubs  all  over 
the  country,  the  mighty  Federal  Reserve  Act,  the  ultimate  of 
the  ultimates,  the  last  word  in  banking  and  death  to  all  panics 
and  hard  times,  was  passed  December  23,  1913. 

And  now,  in  1934,  who  do  you  suppose  we  hear  lauded  as  the 
father  of  the  Federal  Reserve  System?  Give  up?  Well,  believe  it 
or  not,  Mr.  Paul  M.  Warburg,  himself;  none  other.  The  gentle- 
man who  was  coached  and  trained  by  the  high  priests  of  the 
money  changers  in  all  the  intricate  and  complicated  money 
manipulation  trickery  known  to  the  "House  of  Rothschild  on  the 
Rhine"  and  who  had  been  in  our  country  only  six  or  eight  years 
before  he  became  the  "father"  of  the  "monstrosity"  (The  Fed- 
eral Robbers  Act). 

And  does  it  work,  this  money  changers'  last  word  in  banking 
practice?  Does  it  make  panics  impossible?  Does  it  make  money 
plentiful  at  all  times?  Does  it  keep  our  farmers  and  industries 
running  at  a  paying  rate?  Well,  dear  reader,  look  about  you  and 
see  the  effect  of  the  "last  word"  put  over  on  us  by  the  "House 
of  Rothschild"  and  decide  for  yourself. 

It  is  said  in  well  informed  circles  now  that  the  Federal  Re- 
serve System  was  especially  prepared  for  us,  and  rushed  through 
Congress  just  in  time  to  have  it  working  smoothly  so  WE 
COULD  FINANCE  AND  PAY  FOR  THE  GREAT  WORLD 
WAR,  that  they,  the  Morgans,  the  Warburgs,  the  Schiffs,  the 
Kuhns,  Loebs,  the  Seligmans,  the  Monds,  the  Sassoons,  the 
Rothschilds,  and  other  Money  Changers  of  their  kind  are  said  to 
have  had  in  preparation  boiling  and  stewing  for  years  and  were 
just  about  ready  to  cut  loose,  and  which  was  "cut  loose"  in 
August,  1914.  And  they  claim  to  pray  to  the  same  God  that  we 
do !  Certainly  it  must  be  that  the  same  God  can  never  favor 
them  and  us  at  the  same  time,  under  such  an  inhuman  system  as 
the  Federal  Reserve  System  has  proven  to  be. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Federal  Reserve 

To  begin  with,  the  Federal  Reserve  System  in  spite  of  the 
name,   "Federal,"   is   a   PRIVATELY   owned   banking   system. 


82  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

NOT  ONE  dollar  of  stock  in  the  system  is  owned  by  our  govern- 
ment as  the  name  would  imply. 

Will  the  reader  kindly  let  his  mind  travel  back  to  the  found- 
ing of  the  FIRST  big  LEGAL  bank  spoken  of  in  an  earlier  chap- 
ter, the  Bank  of  England?  Same  story — privately  owned.  Then 
again,  the  First  Bank  of  the  United  States — the  same  thing 
again.  Sounded  like  the  government  owned  it,  didn't  it?  And 
again,  the  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  ditto — privately 
owned.  Then  later,  a  slight  change,  but  still  confusing  and  mis- 
leading. The  National  Bank  Act,  allowing  charters  of  "National 
Banks."  The  same  old  thing  again.  Deception — make  believe — 
confusion.  Then  the  crowning  glory  of  all  "The  Federal  Reserve 
System"  or  as  some  people  call  it,  "The  Federal  Robber  System." 
The  same  old  stuff  again,  and  if  the  reader  will  start  asking  his 
acquaintances  who  o\\tis  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank  he  will 
likely  be  surprised  at  the  great  number  of  people  that  really  be- 
lieve that  they  are  owned,  or  at  least  controlled,  by  our  Federal 
Government.  So  the  idea  of  the  name  really  works,  and  does  as  it 
is  intended  to  do — confuse  and  mislead  the  people  into  thinking 
the  banks  are  owned  by  the  government. 

Well,  the  foreign  money  changers  should  know  what  will  and 
what  will  not  work.  They  have  had  uninterrupted  experience 
since  the  establishment  of  the  Bank  of  England.  Deception, 
make-believe,  confusion  have  ever  been  among  the  chief  tools  of 
the  money  changers. 

The  reader's  attention  is  again  called  to  the  ADVANCE- 
MENT in  methods,  and  what  the  Money  Changers  had  gotten 
out  of  the  Government  in  the  way  of  laws  and  privileges  com- 
pared to  what  they  received  with  their  charter  for  the  Bank  of 
England. 

You  will  remember,  of  course,  that  at  first,  they  were  not  so 
far  removed  from  the  time  it  was  a  heavy  fine  to  loan  money  at 
usury,  and  near  the  time  also  when  the  old  Jewish  money 
changer  had  seven  teeth  extracted,  one  each  day,  until  he  paid 
his  fine  for  practicing  usury ;  so  they  were  naturally  more  timid 
in  those  days.  But  as  time  went  on,  and  more  and  more  people 
borrowed  money,  and  also  as  more  and  more  people  got  into  the 
loaning  business,  it  became  semi-decent  and  finally  is  now  con- 
sidered as  "honorable"  business,  at  least  hy  some.  Can  you  beat 
it?  But  to  get  on  with  the  matter  of  privileges  asked  of  the  gov- 
ernment by  the  money  changers  with  the  passing  of  the  years : 

The  Bank  of  England  loaned  all  its  capital  to  the  government 
and  was  allowed  to  print  and  issue  (themselves)  an  equal  amount 
of  currency  but  remember,  the  Bankers  had  to  print  their  own 
money  and  also  redeem  it  themselves,  in  gold  and  silver,  and 
were  allowed  to  loan  it  only  once. 

The  First  and  Second  Banks  of  the  United  States  charter 
allowed  the  banks  to  deposit  government  bonds  with  the  Treas- 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  83 

urer,  which  the  bank  got  interest  upon,  and  the  banks  were 
allowed  to  issue  currency  on  the  bonds  which  currency  was 
printed  for  the  banks  by  the  government  at  a  cost  of  $62.50  for 
$100,000.00  in  currency  and  they  were  charged  only  one-half  (Vo) 
of  one  (1%)  per  cent  by  the  government,  so  the  reader  can 
readily  see  that  if  the  banks  had  not  loaned  a  cent  of  the  new 
money,  they  would  have  been  ahead  anyway. 

Then  the  National  Bank  Charter  provided  for  the  bank  to 
have  90%  of  the  value  of  the  bonds  deposited  issued  to  them  in 
currency,  printed  at  cost  by  the  Government  and  redeemable  by 
the  Government.  This  was  soon  changed  to  100%  issue  of  cur- 
rency. Then  what?  Hold  on  to  your  hat,  dear  reader!  They  were, 
through  the  checking  system,  allowed  to  loan  this  money,  not 
once  or  twice,  but  seven  to  ten  times  over  each  year,  by  not 
being  compelled  to  keep  more  than  10%  average  of  the  money 
on  hand  at  any  time  for  a  reserve. 

Well,  that  was  so  easy  and  worked  so  well  that  they  soon  got 
the  same  privilege  with  their  Depositor's  money!  Then  that 
wasn  't  enough !  Next,  they  got  as  you  will  remember,  the  privi- 
lege of  putting  up  commercial  or  corporation  bonds  to  issue  cur- 
rency against  bonds  that  they  had  been  able  to  buy  at  most  any 
old  price  from  nothing  to  something,  instead  of  having  to  buy 
government  bonds.  But  still  it  was  so  easy,  they  might  just  as 
well  have  more  and  bigger  and  better  "privileges." 

So  comes  Mr.  Warburg,  from  the  "House  of  Rothschild  on 
the  Rhine"  and  what  small  privilege  does  he,  as  a  foreign  money 
changer  of  the  worst  type  (for  us  at  least)  figure  out  as  a  proper 
thing  for  the  dumb  American  farmer  and  laboring  man  to  give 
him  and  his  gang  of  banketeers? 

Well,  friends,  this  is  the  beginning  of  one  of  the  blackest 
chapters  of  our  beloved  America's  history. 

If  we,  as  American  citizens,  descendants  of  the  valiant  pa- 
triots of  Bunker  Hill  and  Valley  Forge  and  New  Orleans,  are 
able  to  extricate  ourselves  from  this  awful  mess  of  a  banking 
privilege  and  mire  of  bonded  indebtedness,  it  will  simply  be  be- 
cause we  arise  in  our  wrath  and  hurl  these  foreign  money 
changers  from  the  "House  of  Rothschild  on  the  Rhine"  and 
London  right  back  to  where  they  came  from  and  with  only  what 
they  came  here  with,  and  nothing  more ! 

"Privileges"  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks 
To  begin  with,  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks  not  only  got  a 
charter  to  do  banking,  but  a  right  to  make  all  National  Banks 
join  their  system  and  also  to  deposit  6%  of  their  total  capital 
and  surplus  with  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks  TO  GIVE  THEM 
A  FUND  OF  MONEY  TO  DO  BUSINESS  WITH. 

Think  of  it!  Such  a  colossal  nerve.  And  they  get  away  with 
it.  The  Act  also  provided  that  State  banks  may  "join  up"  with 
the  Federal  Reserve  System  on  like  terms.  It  is  a  wonder  they 


84  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

didn't  make  the  State  banks  give  them  half  of  their  capital! 

What  the  money  changers  were  after,  of  course,  was  absolute 
control  of  all  banks  in  the  United  States,  and  they  are  fast  get- 
ting them,  as  many  of  the  State  banks,  so  it  is  said,  have  been 
forced  into  the  system  in  one  way  or  another. 

The  following  most  excellent  outline  of  the  operation  of  the 
Federal  Reserve  System  is  quoted  with  permission  from  the 
book  "Spiking  the  Gold"  by  Andrae  B.  Nordskog,  and  will  give 
the  reader  the  real  "low  down"  on  the  "Act," 

"WHOSE  MONEY  IS  IT?" 

"When  a  member  bank  applies  to  the  Federal  Reserve 
Bank  for  re-discount  on  its  commercial  paper,  such  paper  must 
be  accompanied  by  40%  in  gold;  that  is,  if  an  application  is 
made  for  a  loan  of  $1,000  collateral  consisting  of  60%  com- 
mercial paper  and  40%  of  gold  must  be  deposited  with  the 
Federal  Reserve  Bank.  On  this  collateral  the  Federal  Reserve 
Bank  may  apply  to  the  United  States  Treasurer  for  the  issu- 
ance of  $1,000  worth  of  Federal  Reserve  notes ;  in  exchange  for 
this  new  currency  the  Treasurer  may  require  a  deposit  of  not 
to  exceed  5%  of  the  gold  included  in  the  40%  deposit  held  by 
the  Federal  Reserve  Bank.  The  law  does  not  say  that  the 
Treasurer  may  require  5%,  it  merely  says  that  he  may  require 
not  to  exceed  5%  ;  so  he  may,  according  to  law,  reduce  this 
requirement  to  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  or  to  nothing  if  he 
thinks  this  is  the  discreet  thing  to  do.  And  this  is  all  of  the 
protection  that  is  given  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  in 
exchange  for  the  billions  of  dollars  worth  of  currency  which 
is  turned  over  to  the  private  corporation,  known  as  the  Fed- 
eral Reserve  Bank  which  is  controlled  by  the  Wall  Street 
bankers." 

"RESERVE  NOTES  REDEEMABLE  IN  TREASURY  GOLD" 

On  each  Federal  Reserve  Note  is  printed  the  following: 
'Redeemable  in  Gold  on  demand  at  the  United  States  Treasury 
or  in  gold  or  lawful  money  at  any  Federal  Reserve  Bank.' 
and  in  letters  many  times  as  large  is  printed  THE  UNITED 
STATES  OF  AMERICA  will  pay  to  the  bearer  on  demand 
FIVE  DOLLARS. '  The  Federal  Reserve  Bank  may,  within  an 
hour  after  receiving  new  crisp  Federal  Reserve  Note  currency 
from  our  U.  S.  Treasury  go  back  to  the  Treasury  and  demand 
Uncle  Sam's  GOLD  in  exchange  for  the  currency,  only  an 
hour  before  issued  to  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank  for  as  small  a 
deposit  as  5%  or  less  of  gold;  and  this  5%  of  gold  is  kept  in 
the  vaults  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank  and  not  in  the  U.  S. 
Treasury  according  to  the  statement  made  to  the  author  by 
an  officer  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank.  This  5%  of  gold,  if  that 
much  is  laid  aside  for  this  kind  of  security,  is  held  in  the 
vaults  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank  by  the  Federal  Reserve 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  85 

Agent  who  acts  as  a  go-between  for  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank 
and  the  Government ;  this  agent  is  appointed  by  the  Federal 
Reserve  Board ;  his  salary  is  paid  by  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank 
and  he  has  his  office  in  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank. 

"It  will  be  noticed  that  the  inscription  on  the  Federal  Re- 
serve Notes  provides  that  the  notes  are  redeemable  'in  gold  on 
demand  at  the  United  States  Treasury,'  but  they  are  redeem- 
able in  gold  or  other  lawful  money  at  any  Federal  Reserve 
Bank.'  The  significance  of  this  subtly  worded  but  well  defined 
discrimination  may  not  be  apparent  at  first  glance ;  but  when 
you  consider  that  in  trying  to  obtain  gold  for  these  notes  at 
the  Federal  Reserve  Bank,  you  may  be  advised  that  you  cannot 
obtain  gold,  and  that  you  will  have  to  accept  other  kinds  of 
paper  money  which  is  termed  lawful  money ;  you  may  then 
begin  to  see  the  reason  for  this  provision  in  the  law.  The  Fed- 
eral Reserve  Bank  may  take  these  same  notes  to  the  United 
States  Treasury  and  demand  Uncle  Sam's  GOLD  and  get  it, 
even  down  to  the  last  available  dollar  which  may  be  in  the 
Treasury  vaults.  The  Federal  Reserve  Bank  may  then  take 
this  gold  from  Uncle  Sam's  vaults  and  ship  it  to  foreign  coun- 
tries ;  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank  has  sent  gold  abroad  to  the 
tune  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars ;  having  shipped  at 
times,  at  the  rate  of  more  than  100  million  dollars  in  gold  per 
week  to  other  countries.  It  has  been  repeatedly  said  by  the 
daily  press  of  this  country  that  Uncle  Sam  has  FIVE  BILLION 
DOLLARS  in  gold  stored  in  the  vaults  in  Washington,  D.  C. ; 
the  fact  is,  that  it  is  less  than  that  by  THREE  BILLIONS  of 
dollars;  recent  reports  show  that  it  has  been  approximately 
one  billion,  seven  hundred  million  dollars  which  is  held  by  our 
U.  S.  Treasury,  and,  should  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank  want  to 
do  so,  it  could  call  in  its  issue  of  Federal  Reserve  Notes  and 
demand  gold  from  our  Treasury  in  exchange  therefor  and  de- 
plete our  gold  supply." 

"UNITED  STATES  GOLD  NOTES  ACCEPTED  AS  GOLD" 

"The  Act  also  provides  that  national  banks  may  deposit 
U.  S.  Gold  Notes  in  lieu  of  gold  with  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank 
in  exchange  for  an  issue  of  Federal  Reserve  Notes ;  in  this  way 
the  bank  making  such  application  to  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank 
may  convert  a  40%  currency  supply  into  a  100%  supply  by 
accompanying  the  40%  gold  deposit  with  60%  of  commercial 
paper  and  by  this  method  increase  its  earning  power  150% 
over  the  old  system.  A  bank  with  $100,000  worth  of  U.  S.  Gold 
Notes  could  increase  its  currency  supply  to  $250,000  by  ob- 
taining Federal  Reserve  Notes,  and,  by  resorting  to  the  com- 
mon practice  of  loaning  out  the  bank's  credit  to  the  extent  of 
ten  dollars  for  each  dollar  it  possesses,  could  increase  its  loan- 
ing powers  from  One  Million  Dollars  to  Two  and  One-Half 
Million  Dollars." 


86  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

The  reader  can  readily  see  by  the  foregoing  that  about  all  the 
"privileges"  left  for  the  money  changers  to  ask  for,  would  be 
to  have  a  nice  brass  ring  put  into  each  one  of  our  noses,  in  order 
that  they  could  absolutely  "control"  the  most  minute  action  of 
each  individual.  But  there  may  just  be  a  few  clauses  in  our  good 
old  Constitution,  that  the  foreign  money  changers  are  not  entire- 
ly familiar  with,  and  then  again  there  may  yet  somewhere  be  just 
a  few  sparks  of  the  old  love  of  home,  and  liberty,  and  country 
alive  in  our  land,  and  such  things  may  grow  fast  and  furious 
when  fanned  too  strenuously  by  the  dominance,  arrogance,  and 
contempt  of  the  same  Foreign  Money  Changers. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  World  War 

The  World  War  came  on  as  per  schedule,  financed  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  American  farmer,  laborer  and  other  classes  that 
bought  bonds  "till  it  hurt"  and  all  through  the  entire  holocaust, 
the  money  changers  were  taking  their  millions  of  blood  money, 
to  swell  their  ever  growing  loot,  and  to  bind  the  nations  of  the 
whole  earth  in  a  morass  of  indebtedness  the  like  of  which  the 
world  had  never  before  witnessed,  all  as  per  schedule  also. 

The  War  end,  found  Germany  and  her  Allies  prostrate  and 
helpless,  and  the  international  trade  of  England,  France,  Ger- 
man}^, and  other  nations  practically  annihilated,  as  all  efforts  of 
the  combatants  had  been  exerted  to  win  the  War.  Then  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  Central  Powers  was  divided  into  numerous  small 
nations,  later  to  be  proven  also  to  have  been  engineered  by  and 
for  the  purposes  of  the  International  Money  Changers. 

Russia  was  politically  destroyed  and  her  Royal  Family  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  intelligentsia  or  upper  and  educated 
and  professional  people  were  murdered,  and  other  millions  forced 
to  starve — all  in  order  that  a  serfdom  might  be  fastened  upon 
that  nation  in  the  name  of  "Communism,"  said  to  have  been 
accomplished  with  money  furnished  by  the  International  Money 
Changers,  as  part  of  their  world  plan  of  conquest. 

America  then,  of  all  Nations,  with  her  greatly  accelerated 
and  developed  "production  line"  factories,  was  in  a  premier 
position  to  be  further  exploited  in  the  guise  of  a  "Foreign  Trade 
Racket." 

The  trade  of  other  Nations,  before  mentioned,  at  a  standstill, 
our  factories  were  "tuned  up"  and  our  most  efficient  "Bond 
Salesmen"  were  also  "tuned  up"  and  we  were  sold  Billions  of 
foreign  bonds  from  all  over  the  world,  to  enable  the  foreign 
countries  to  buy  our  merchandise !  We  were  completely  propa- 
gandized into  trading   our  "birthright"   of  natural  resources, 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MAETYRED  87 

manufactured  into  usable  articles,  for  a  mess  of  Foreign  Pottage 
not  even  of  gold,  but  of  beautifully  lithographed  PROMISES 
TO  PAY  GOLD !  And  they  mostly  remain  promises  today ! 

"Will  the  reader  pause  and  shut  his  eyes  for  a  moment  and  try 
to  visualize  anything  more  ridiculous  and  asinine?  Can't  do  it? 
No,  and  no  one  else  can,  now  that  it  has  happened.  And  who  do 
you  suppose  engineered  the  DEAL  of  unloading  all  those  Bil- 
lions of  Dollars  worth  of  Foreign  Bonds  upon  a  trusting  Ameri- 
can public?  Ask  the  Senate  Investigating  Committee  about  such 
things,  they  know.  The  House  of  Morgan,  the  Fiscal  Agents  for 
the  Bank  of  England,  and  other  foreign  Money  Changers,  in- 
cluding Seligman  Brothers,  Kuhn,  Loeb  &  Co.,  Dillon,  Read  & 
Co.,  together  with  many  other  "Big  Money"  boys  were  proven 
through  their  powerful  banking  connections  to  have  apportioned 
the  bonds  out  to  smaller  banks  all  over  the  country,  and  they 
had  no  choice,  but  accept  and  peddle  their  apportion  to  an  un- 
suspecting and  propagandized  public,  who  had  been  led  to  trust 
them. 

And  did  the  smaller  banks  come  out  handsomely  in  the  end 
with  their  helping  of  the  Foreign  Money  Changers'  Racket? 
Well,  to  date,  records  show  that  one-third  of  all  banks  in  the 
United  States,  some  10,000,  have  gone  broke  in  the  last  ten  years ! 
"He  that  lives  by  the  sword,  shall  perish  by  the  sword,"  seems 
to  work  out  here,  doesn't  it? 

During  the  World  War,  the  Federal  Reserve  System  had 
brought  about  an  inflation  of  the  currency  by  the  great  power 
that  the  Federal  Reserve  Act  had  given  them,  and  by  1920,  on 
June  30th,  the  Federal  Reserve  "money"  or  "greenbacks"  issued 
by  them  stood  at  $3,250,173,000.00.  This  had,  of  course,  put  wages 
up,  and  prices  of  all  commodities  as  well  as  land  values,  as  that 
little  thing  of  an  adequate  supply  of  money  is  all  that  the  Ameri- 
can people  have  ever  needed  to  bring  about  so-called  "Good 
Times"  and  prosperity. 

So,  when  the  Federal  Reserve  had  "dished  out"  the  money, 
high  prices  and  high  wages  were  the  order  of  the  day.  But  this 
was  not  to  last.  The  money  changers  had  floated  billions  of 
stocks  and  bonds  and  they  wanted  to  float  billions  more,  so  com- 
modities must  come  down,  that  is,  what  the  fanner  had  to  sell ! 

In  seven  years  operation  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks  had  been 
able  to  do  pretty  well  for  themselves,  as  by  1920  they  had  worked 
up  their  net  earning  power  to  about  160  per  cent  as  an  average 
for  the  twelve  banks.  Not  bad  for  a  start,  was  it? 

The  original  Federal  Reserve  Act  was  not  entirely  sordid — ^in 
it  was  a  trace  of  kindly  feeling  for  poor  old  Uncle  Sam,  for  he 
was  to  get  about  half  of  the  net  earnings.  They  soon  got  over 
this,  however,  with  a  series  of  "amendments"  enacted  by  a 
"friendly"  congress  (we  wonder  what  it  cost  to  keep  them 
friendly).  The  act  now  gives  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  all  their 


88  LINCOLN  MONEY  MAETYRED 

earnings,  and  leaves  poor  old  Uncle  Sam  only  the  "privilege"  of 
making  for  them  (the  Federal  Reserve  Banks)  the  nice  new 
greenbacks  at  practically  no  cost,  for  them  to  loan  out  to  Uncle 
Sam's  "boys"  and  "girls." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

"American  Peasants" 

In  the  meantime,  however,  when  the  World  War  closed,  the 
American  farmer  was  "sitting  pretty,"  so  he  thought,  but  the 
money  changers  had  other  plans  for  him :  Two  Dollar  Wheat, 
Four  Hundred  Dollars  an  Acre  Land,  and  other  prices  in  propor- 
tion, were  not  to  be  thought  of  for  the  farmer.  Wasn't  he  just  a 
"Clodhopper,"  who  worked  around  in  the  dirt  and  raised  things? 
Why  should  he  have  all  these  good  things  that  such  high  prices 
could  get  for  him?  Automobiles,  telephones,  silk  shirts,  and  some 
of  them  even  bath  tubs!  The  very  idea  of  those  "hicks"  having 
such  things!  Indeed,  as  Mr.  Barney  Baruch,  the  "behind  the 
scenes  advisor"  of  many  presidents,  is  said  to  have  declared, 
"Europe  has  her  PEASANTRY  —  WHY  SHOULDN'T  AMER- 
ICA ? ' '  And  so  the  money  changers  proceeded  to  start  the  Ameri- 
can farmers  on  their  way  to  being  a  PEASANT  CLASS ! ! 

That  was  in  1920,  and  the  "modus  operandi"  or  the  "how  to 
do  it"  was  by  the  way  of  DEFLATION! 

And  how  do  you  sujjpose,  dear  reader,  that  this  deflation 
business  can  be  carried  out?  Your  memory,  at  this  time,  must  be 
refreshed  again  quoting  paragraph  15  of  the  circular  sent  out  by 
Ikelhiemer,  Morton  and  Vandergould,  bankers  of  New  York, 
quoted  previously  as  to  the  privileges  of  the  banks,  given  them 
by  the  National  Bank  Laws : 

"National  Banks  are  privileged  to  either  increase  or  con- 
tract their  circulation  at  will  and,  of  course,  grant  or  withhold 
loans  as  they  see  fit.  As  the  banks  have  a  national  organization 
and  can  easily  act  together  in  withholding  loans  or  extending 
them  it  follows  that  they  can  by  united  action  in  refusing  to 
make  loans,  cause  a  stringency  in  the  money  market  and  in  a 
single  week  cause  a  decline  in  all  the  products  of  the  country. 
The  tremendous  possibilities  of  speculation  involved  in  this 
control  of  the  money  of  a  country  like  the  United  States,  will 
be  at  once  understood  by  all  bankers. ' ' 
The  reader  will  see   by  the   above   article   that  the   Money 
Changers  surely  had  the  power  to  do  as  they  pleased  with  the 
monej^  system  of  our  country,  and  also  knew  just  what  the  con- 
sequences Avould  be.  That  article,  of  course,  was  written  about  the 
"National  Bank  Act"  of  1863,  but,  of  course,  it  would  work 
vastly  better  under  all  the  increasing  privileges  and  powers  since 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  89 

obtained  from  Congress  by  the  Money  Changers  and  still  better 
with  all  the  power  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks  were  able  to  wield 
over  the  other  banks  of  the  Nation. 

Now  to  do  it  and  not  get  caught  at  their  nefarious  work  was 
to  take  a  little  more  deception  and  make  believe,  even  though  it 
was  to  cost  a  few  million  dollars.  What  was  a  few  million  dollars 
to  the  "Federal  Robbers  System"  (pardon  our  mistake)  PVderal 
Reserve  Sj'stem,  when  all  they  had  to  do  was  "let"  the  Govern- 
ment issue  it  for  them.  Besides,  the  reader  must  not  forget  that 
we  still  had  at  the  time  the  highly  trained  (in  the  inner  shrine  of 
the  Money  Changers'  Temple,  the  "House  of  Rothschild  on  the 
Rhine")  Paul  M.  Warburg. 

He  with  his  "sidekick,"  Eugene  Meyer,  could  surely  work 
out  something  that  the  dumb  American  public  would  stand  for 
and  not  get  too  curious  about.  In  this  connection  the  reader  will 
be  well  rewarded  by  turning  again  to  the  two  circulars  on  pages 
73  and  74  of  this  book,  said  to  have  been  ])ut  out  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  American  Bankers  Association  from  their  office  in 
New  York,  one  in  1877  and  the  other  in  1893,  telling  the  bankers 
throughout  the  country  just  what  their  part  would  be  and  how 
to  do  it. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Money  Changers  Take  the  United  States 
to  the  Cleaners 

So  the  Money  Changers  organized  a  "corporation"  to  do 
their  dirty  work,  presumably  because  corporations  do  not  have 
' '  souls, ' '  and  would  not  have  to  go  to  hell  and  burn  f orevermore, 
as  the  Money  Changers  might  have  to  do.  This  corporation  was 
called  the  "Bankers'  Statistics  Corporation"  and  it  was  to  hire 
wise-looking  professors  "that  needed  the  money"  and  other 
"economic  experts"  to  cook  up  a  lot  of  "statistics"  and  reports 
to  use  as  an  "Anesthetic  Argument"  on  those  little  bankers  and 
on  the  public  to  make  the  banker  help,  and  the  public  believe, 
be  still,  and  not  "holler." 

This  plan,  of  course,  was  to  do  the  deflating  by  "classes," 
starting  with  the  farmers,  to  make  a  "peasant"  class  out  of  them, 
knowing,  of  course,  if  thej"  deflated  the  whole  country  at  one 
time,  some  "smart  guy"  might  get  wise  and  "spill  the  beans"! 
We  find  a  most  excellent  description  of  this  episode  by  Mr. 
Nordskog  in  his  book  "Spiking  the  Gold,"  which  we  quote  as 
follows : 

"The  Carnegie  Institute  created  a  department  of  Economics 
and  set  aside  a  fund  of  $1,600,000.00  for  this  work ;  Mr.  War- 
burg was  made  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  fund.  The  Bankers 


90  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Statistics  Corporation  employed  Professor  E.  W.  Kemmerer  of 
Princeton  University,  well  known  economic  expert,  to  make  an 
analysis  of  the  proposed  deflation  program  and  he  presented 
his  views  in  the  form  of  a  book  which  was  later  used  by  the 
Federal  Reserve  Board  as  a  semi-official  document  to  guide  that 
board  over  the  rough  seas  of  deflation. 

"The  introduction  to  Professor  Kemmerer 's  book  was  writ- 
ten by  Frank  A.  Vanderlip,  former  president  of  the  National 
City  Bank  of  New  York,  and  Mr.  Vanderlip  says,  in  part : 

"  'Professor  Kemmerer  shows  why  prices  must  ultimately 
come  down  and  POINTS  OUT  THE  POLICY  TO  BE  PUR- 
SUED IN  ORDER  TO  BRING  ABOUT  DEFLATION.  There 
are  no  more  important  questions  demanding  our  attention  today 
than  these,  and  an  effort  to  put  them  squarely  before  the  pub- 
lic in  simple,  clear  and  conclusive  manner  is  worthy  of  the 
highest  praise  and  the  great  success.  Professor  Kemmerer 's 
book  is  a  most  useful  contribution  to  a  very  vital  subject.' 

''In  his  book  (which  is  entitled  High  Prices  and  Deflation) 
Professor  Kemmerer  says : 

"  'In  general  it  has  taken  it  (the  wealth)  from  the  creditor 
and  given  it  to  the  debtor.' 

"He  was  referring  to  the  inflation  of  currency  which  was 
made  possible  under  the  Federal  Reserve  Act  which  was  to 
act  as  a  panacea  for  all  economic  ills;  but  they  found  that  it 
was  so  good  for  the  working  people  of  this  country  and  the 
business-men  (shopkeepers  as  the  Wall  Street  bankers  called 
them)  that  it  was  deemed  most  expedient  to  take  this  newly- 
found  wealth  away  from  the  debtor  class  and  put  it  into  the 
pockets  of  the  creditor  class,  the  bankers.  The  Professor,  in 
referring  to  the  dangers  confronting  the  debtor  class  in  deflat- 
ing currency,  says: 

"  'Among  the  evils  of  falling  prices  so  strongly  featured  in 
the  monetary  discussions  of  the  last  two  decades  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  three  stood  out  prominently.  They  were : 

"  *(1)  The  injustice  of  a  falling  price  level  to  the  debtor 
class. 

"  '(2)  The  depressing  effect  of  a  falling  price  level  upon 
business. 

"  '  (3)  The  influence  of  a  falling  price  level  in  reducing  the 
demand  for  labor  and  thereby  increasing  unemployment  and 
depressing  wages. 

"  'A  falling  and  prospectively  falling  price  level  is  depress- 
ing to  business.  It  throws  a  wet  blanket  over  industry. 

"  'The  third  evil  result  of  a  substantial  and  continuing 
decline  in  the  price  level  is  its  harmful  effect  upon  the  welfare 
of  labor.  This  is  a  natural  result  of  the  depressing  effect  upon 
business  just  described.  "When  business  holds  back  in  antici- 
pation of  falling  prices,  the  demand  for  labor  declines  and 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  91 

men  are  laid  off.     Increasing  unemployment  causes  hardship 
and  is  a  potent  factor  in  forcing  down  wages  and  weakening 
the  hold  of  trade  unions  on  their  men.     Labor  naturally  re- 
sists wage  reductions,  even  though  the  price  level  is  falling, 
and  this  means  that  a  period  of  falling  prices  is  likely  to  be 
characterized  by  many  labor  troubles.'  " 
The  reader  can  readily  see  by  the  foregoing  that  the  Federal 
Reserve  Bankers  knew  just  what  they  were  about,  and  knew  all 
the  troubles  "deflation"  would  cause,  but,  of  course,  Professor 
Kemmerer  said  prices  ultimately  must  come  down  and  even  told 
them  how,  so  "of  course  it  wasn't  their  fault"  if  things  went 
wrong." 

And  believe  it  or  not,  right  in  their  "book  of  knowledge"  by 
Professor  Kemmerer  as  quoted,  we  can  also  see  the  wherefore  of 
the  new  name  for  a  "deflationary  period."  Heretofore  we  had 
always  had  just  "hard  times"  or  "panics,"  but  since  there  was 
to  be  a  "bigger  and  better"  one,  it  must  have  a  new  name,  so 
the  Money  Changers  casually  lifted  it  out  of  the  "kindly"  Pro- 
fessor's book.  Note  what  he  says  are  the  three  "evil  features" 
of  a  deflation:  "The  DEPRESSING  effect  of  a  falling  price  level 
upon  business,"  "DEPRESSING  wages,"  and  "DEPRESSING 
business."  And  that  just  about  covered  everything,  thought  the 
Money  Changers,  so  they  called  it  a  "DEPRESSION!" 

On  May  18,  1920,  the  Money  Changers  of  the  higher  "Denomi- 
nation" had  a  "deflation  party"  or  meeting  in  Washington, 
D.  C.  Again  quoting  from  "Spiking  the  Gold"  by  Mr.  Nordskog, 
on  that  meeting: 

"Mr.  James  A.  Alexander,  president  of  the  National  Bank 
of  Commerce  of  New  York  City,  attended  this  deflation  meet- 
ing and  urged  an  immediate  deflation  of  currency  by  at  once 
raising  the  re-discount  rate  from  the  prevailing  rate  of  6%  to 
7%.  Mr.  John  T.  Scott,  president  of  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Houston,  Texas,  did  not  agree  with  Mr.  Alexander  that  'credit 
was  a  luxury  and  hard  to  get,'  but  urged  a  program  of  defla- 
tion ;  he  said,  '  I  think  we  should,  and  must  bring  about  a  rea- 
sonable degree  of  deflation  or  contraction.'  He  further  stated 
to  his  fellow  bankers : 

"  *I  see  nothing  in  the  situation  to  justify  the  fear  of  such 
a  commercial  crisis  or  financial  catastrophe  as  we  had  either 
in  1873  or  in  1890,  or  1907.  If  anything  of  that  sort  comes,  IT 
WILL  BE  OUR  FAULT.  THE  FAULT  OF  THOSE  who  are  in 
charge  of  the  banking  and  commercial  interests  of  the  country, 
and  I  do  not  believe  they  are  GOING  TO  BUNGLE  IT.' 

"In  this  we  concur,  we  have  no  quarrels  with  the  bankers 
on  this  point ;  they  stated  that  if  their  deflation  program  re- 
sulted in  a  catastrophe,  THEY  ALONE  WOULD  be  to  blame 
for  it ;  and  they  should  be  made  to  face  the  music.  The  loss 
to  the  farmers  alone  on  account  of  this  deflation  program,  con- 


92  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

sidering  the  drop  in  land  values  and  low  price  levels,  has  been 
in  excess  of  FIFTY  BILLIONS  of  dollars,  or  nearly  double  the 
cost  of  our  participation  in  the  "World  War. 

"The  bankers  caused  our  appraised  property  values  to  drop 
from  more  than  300  BILLION  DOLLARS  down  to  150  BILL- 
ION DOLLARS.  They  thought  they  would  not  bungle  it,  but 
they  did  BUNGLE  IT;  and  bungled  it  terribly;  they  have 
ruined  our  nation.  If  you  do  not  think  so,  just  take  a  look 
at  one  of  our  major  cities,  Chicago,  which  today  is  admitted 
by  its  own  public  officials  to  be  hopelessly  bankrupt.  On  May 
1,  1932,  there  was  an  aggregate  amount  of  690  million  dollars 
due  in  taxes  in  Chicago  and  Cook  County,  of  which  340  million 
dollars  has  been  past  due  since  1928,  1929,  1930,  and  1931.  With 
two-thirds  of  the  value  squeezed  out  by  the  deflating-bankers 
the  taxpayers  are  paying  a  tax  rate  three  times  as  high  as  it 
was  before  the  deflation  took  place,  that  is  why  it  is  difficult  if 
not  impossible  for  them  to  pay  their  taxes. 

•'$520,000,000  Deflation  in  1920" 
"The  race  was  on;  the  bankers  adopted  the  deflation  pro- 
gram ;  in  less  than  a  year  they  had  withdrawn  520  million 
dollars  from  circulation;  that  was  in  actual  cash  (currency. 
Federal  Reserve  notes)  which  was  destroyed.  In  1921  the  same 
amount  was  withdrawn  from  circulation  and  destroyed  in  the 
same  manner.  Later  withdrawals  brought  it  up  to  a  total  of 
two  billion,  nine  millions  of  dollars  at  one  time ;  and  to  these 
cash  withdrawals  must  be  added  the  withdrawals  of  the  credit 
which  are  based  on  the  cash ;  during  a  period  of  fifteen  months 
from  the  fall  of  1930  and  including  the  fall  of  1931  the  banks 
withdrew  credits  to  the  tune  of  more  than  eight  billions  of 
dollars.  Considering  that  we  had  a  total  cash  circulation  of 
approximately  five  billion  dollars  before  the  deflation  program 
began,  the  withdrawals  amounted  to  40%  of  all  our  cash.  This 
left  us  but  60%  of  the  money  with  which  to  buy  goods  which  it 
had  cost  100%  to  produce.  The  natural  law  caused  price  levels 
to  drop.  When  the  money  is  lifted  out  of  one  side  of  the  scale, 
that  side  will  go  up,  and  the  other  side  containing  the  price 
of  wheat  will  go  down.  That  is  why  $3.00  per  bushel  wheat 
went  down  to  17  cents.  The  index  of  commodity  prices,  com- 
pared to  the  pre-war  index  of  1,  stood  at  1.54  in  1920,  but  was 
hammered  down  under  the  pressure  of  the  bankers'  deflation 
program  to  .68  in  1931 ;  this  included  a  list  of  more  than  550 
different  commodities  including  real  estate. 

40,000  Commercial  Failures  Estimated  in  1932 

"In  1920  there  were  but  8,800  commercial  failures  in  the 

United  States.    Following  the  withdrawal  of  one  billion,  forty 

millions  of  dollars  in  1920  and  1921  and  the  destruction  of  this 

money  by  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank  there  were  16,500  com- 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYKED  93 

mercial  failures  in  1923 ;  the  number  of  failures  steadily  in- 
creased under  the  deflation  program  and  in  1931,  there  were 
26,500,  and  according  to  a  recent  report  in  Dun's  Review,  com- 
mercial failures  are  taking  place  in  the  United  States  in  1932 
at  the  rate  of  40,000  per  year ;  this  includes  some  of  the  largest 
and  oldest  business  concerns  in  America." 
After  the  reader  has  finished  the  foregoing  and  still  is  unable 
to  see  just  how  the  Banker  and  Money  Changer  is  able  to  get 
control  of  all  the  money,  we  will  just  mention  the  little  word 
USURY,  that  is  the  heart  of  the  whole  business,  as  is  most  clearly 
shown  in  Elliot's  work  on  Usury,  page  182,  and  reads  as  follows: 
''One  cent  loaned  January  1  A.  D.  1,  drawing  interest  at 
the  rate  of  6%   compounded  annually,  on  January  1,   1895, 
would  amount  to  $8,498,840,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,- 
000,000,000,000.    (8,497,840,000  decillions  of  dollars).   To   pay 
this  in  gold  23  and  1/10  grains  to  the  dollar,  using  it  in  spheres 
of  pure  gold  the  size  of  the  earth,  would  take  610,070,000.000,- 
000,000  such  spheres  to  pay  the  debt." 
The  following  are  the  sums  that  $1.00  will  amount  to  in  100 
years,  loaned  at  the  rates  of  interest  mentioned  and  compounded 
annually : 

At    1  per  cent 2.75 

At    2  per  cent 19.25 

At    3  per  cent 340.00 

At  10  per  cent 13,809.00 

At  12  per  cent 1,174,405.00 

At  18  per  cent 15,145,207.00 

At  24  per  cent 251,799,494.00 

And  at  50  per  cent  it  would  eat  up  the  world. 
Cannot  the  reader  now  understand  upon  reflection  why  it 
was  that  all  through  the  1920  to  1929  period,  farmers  were  all 
having  a  bad  time,  and  why  all  the  banks  in  the  farming  com- 
munities were  going  broke,  while  manufacturers  were  going 
"big"  and  stock  and  bond  sales  and  the  stock  market  were 
booming? 

The  answer  is  that  the  Money  Changers  of  the  High  Temple 
of  the  Federal  Reserve  ("Robber")  System  were  deflating  the 
farmers  through  the  farm  banks  by  forcing  them  to  call  loans 
and  curtail  loaning  privileges.  And  the  rest  of  the  country  was 
to  follow  when  they,  the  Money  Changers,  had  successfully  prop- 
agandized them  all  into  mortgaging  all  their  assets  and  buying 
worthless  foreign  bonds,  and  time  payment  automobiles,  and 
frigidaires,  etc.,  etc.  In  October,  1929,  this  being  effectively  ac- 
complished, they  set  their  "Bears"  to  work  on  the  Stock  Ex- 
change selling  "short"  and  down  went  "McGinty,"  the  Stock 
Market,  to  the  bottom  of  the  "Pit." 

The  reader  can  no  doubt  well  remember  that,  and  the  new- 
fangled "hard  times"  we  have  had  ever  since,  euphoniously 
called  the  "Depression." 


94  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Of  course,  there  were  a  few  who  escaped  the  1929  "crash" 
with  a  little  money,  so  the  Money  Changers  slowed  the  "crash" 
down  from  time  to  time  with  wonderful  messages  like  "Pros- 
perity is  just  around  the  corner,"  and  "Rockefeller  and  Morgan 
are  now  buying  large  blocks  of  stock,"  thus  baiting  the  remain- 
ing suckers  back  into  the  market  and  "cleaning"  them  also. 

And  then  along  comes  Mr.  Roosevelt  with  a  "New  Deal." 
"By  Golly,"  says  the  "D.  A."  (Dumb  American),  "that  sounds 
good,  that  may  be  just  what  we  need."  Not  stopping  to  ask  him- 
self if  he  could  eat  it,  wear  it,  or  otherwise  raise  a  family  on  a 
"New  Deal." 

Then  March  4,  1933,  rolls  around  and  we  find  the  banks  in  a 
race  seeing  who  could  close  first ! 

Twelve  to  seventeen  million  men  out  of  work,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  million  out  of  patience,  and  with  not  much  of 
anything  left  but  "hope." 

President  Roosevelt  obligingly  started  to  work  with  the  banks 
by  closing  all  of  them,  and  proceeded  to  "muff"  the  greatest 
chance  a  single  human  being  has  ever  had,  to  do  a  grand  and 
noble  thing  for  his  country,  the  one  great  thing  our  country  has 
needed  badly  since  1863,  when  the  immortal  Lincoln  was  forced 
under  the  stress  of  a  civil  war  to  accept  the  accursed  National 
Banking  System  of  the  Foreign  Money  Changers. 

And  that  one  thing  was,  while  he  had  the  banks  all  closed, 
simply  to  take  the  whole  country  into  his  confidence  on  the  radio 
and  tell  them  (the  people)  the  real  truth  about  the  Money  Chang- 
ers, and  their  nefarious  banking  schemes,  and  ask  Congress  to 
pass  a  law  taking  over  all  banking  by  our  government  and  issu- 
ing money  in  the  form  of  FULL  LEGAL  TENDER  GREEN- 
BACKS, loaning  it  out  to  business  and  industry  at  cost,  and  start- 
ing great  public  works  programs  with  it  also. 

He  could  have  had  all  of  the  great  mass  of  people  and  a  great 
share  of  the  large  bankers  themselves,  and  75  per  cent  of  the 
smaller  ones  with  him  body  and  soul,  and  a  returning  prosperity 
such  as  we  have  never  before  witnessed,  the  gratitude  of  the 
entire  nation,  and  later  the  whole  civilized  world,  as  soon  as  other 
people  saw  how  it  would  work. 

Does  the  reader  ask,  "Why  in  the  world  didn't  he  do  it?" 
Well,  dear  reader,  do  not  feel  lonesome,  other  millions  have  asked 
and  still  ask,  the  same  question,  and  likely  future  generations 
will  still  be  asking— "  Why  ? " 

After  a  time  all  the  banks  that  still  had  any  money  left  were 
allowed  to  open,  but  the  thousands  with  "frozen  assets"  stayed 
closed.  "Frozen  Assets" — now  that  is  a  new  kind  of  an  "Asset," 
in  the  financial  field,  isn't  it?  It  is  said  that  the  way  they  came 
to  be  called  "frozen  assets"  was  when  so  many  of  the  smaller 
banks  ran  out  of  money  and  were  called  on  for  their  loans  at 
the  Federal  Reserve,  they  would  take  various  assets  of  corpora- 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  95 

tion  stocks  and  bonds,  and  pretty  foreign  bonds  to  the  Federal 
Reserve  and  ask  for  "loans"  on  them,  or  "re-discount"  as  it  is 
called.  All  they  received  from  the  Federal  Reserve  Banker  was 
an  "icy  stare,"  no  cash!  So  those  "no  loan"  assets  became 
known  as  "frozen  assets."  Many  millions  of  indi^'iduals  seem 
to  be  burdened  with  these  "frozen  assets"  they  cannot  get  a 
loan  on. 

The  next  big  thing  in  the  New  Deal  was  labeled  N.I.R.A.  The 
critics  of  this  part  of  the  "New  Deal"  have  this  to  say  of  its 
action:  "It  ruins  the  small  business  man  by  suspending  the 
action  of  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act  against  collusion  and  price 
fixing;  permits  a  great  deal  of  the  new  activity  known  as  "Chis- 
eling," raises  prices  of  commodities  to  the  consumer  without  giv- 
ing him  more  money  with  which  to  buy,  and  thereby  lowers  sales 
volume.  Consequently  it  hinders  instead  of  helps  business." 

The  New  Deal  seems  to  have  been  planned  with  the  same  idea 
as  the  money  racket,  namely,  the  scarcer  a  thing  is  the  higher 
prices  one  can  get  for  it.  The  "brain  trust"  seems  never  to  have 
thought  of  a  way  in  which  a  "consumer,"  the  really  "Forgotten 
Man,"  would  be  able  to  buy  more  commodities  at  an  increased 
price,  to  employ  more  men,  in  factories  to  make  more  commodi- 
ties, to  sell,  to  get  more  money  to  employ  more  men,  etc.,  without 
he,  himself,  the  consumer,  getting  more  money  with  which  to 
buy.  But  perhaps  we  forget!  Maybe  the  "Brain  Trust"  meant  to 
start  the  "buying"  by  the  government  borrowing  money  to  pay 
the  farmers  for  seven  millions  of  hogs  to  be  killed  and  put  into 
fertilizer  or  into  the  river,  and  to  plow  up  millions  of  acres  of 
wheat  and  cotton  so  he  (the  farmer)  could  grow  less,  and  have 
less  income  to  buy  more  commodities,  at  a  high  price — but  no, 
that  doesn't  make  sense  !  No,  certainly  not !  Neither  do  most  other 
plans  put  forth  so  far,  for  a  "planned  recovery"  by  "evolution." 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

The  Gold  Bill 

Then,  along  comes  the  "Gold  Bill,"  heralded  as  a  real  measure 
to  raise  commodity  prices  (so  that  we  can  buy  more  of  them 
without  more  money  with  which  to  buy),  "devalue"  the  dollar, 
stabilize  the  money  value  in  relation  to  foreign  monej^  and  what 
not. 

As  this  is  a  rather  complicated  matter,  it  may  be  well  to  leave 
its  analysis  to  a  man  who  has  had  many  years  of  experience  in 
such  matters  and  has  been  paid  by  the  people  for  it,  and  earned 
his  salary,  having  been  chairman  of  the  Banking  and  Currencj' 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
Congress  for  some  years,  and  should  certainly  know  what  he  is 


96  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

talking  about,  the  Hon.  Louis  T.  McFadden,  Representative  from 
Pennsylvania,  the  same  gentleman  who,  when  opposed  for  re- 
nomination  by  the  forces  of  the  Money  Changers,  was,  by  being 
able  to  tell  his  constituents  the  simple  truth,  re-nominated,  and 
returned  to  Congress,  not  only  on  his  own  ticket,  the  Republican, 
but  also  the  Democrats'. 

Since  fellow  citizens  of  his  home  state  have  so  much  confi- 
dence in  him,  may  we  not  listen  to  him  with  respect  and  see  how 
the  Gold  Bill  will  work?  This  speech  was  made  before  Congress 
on  January  24,  1934,  and  may  be  found  in  the  Congressional  Rec- 
ord of  that  date  (but  not  in  the  newspapers;  do  you  wonder 
why?). 

Mr.  McFadden  said: 

CONGRESSIONAL  RECORD 

Seventy-third  Congress,  Second  Session 

Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  the  Apostle  of  Irredeemable 

Paper  Money 

SPEECH  of  HON.  LOUIS  T.  McFADDEN 

of  Pennsylvania 

In  the  House  of  Representatives  Wednesday,  January  24,  1934. 

Mr.  McFadden.  Mr.  Chairman,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
has  asked  me  to  explain  for  his  benefit  and  for  the  benefit  of 
other  United  States  citizens  the  real  meaning  of  the  Roosevelt 
gold  bill,  the  bill  which  the  House  passed  last  Saturday  by  360 
votes  to  40,  with  32  Members  not  voting. 

Mr.  Chairman,  a  law  against  the  Constitution  is  void.  The 
gold  bill  creates  a  nullity.  Old  John  Marshall  said  that  the  words 
of  the  Constitution  are  not  to  be  twisted  out  of  their  plain,  every- 
day meaning.  The  Constitution  says  Congress  shall  have  power 
to  coin  money  and  to  regulate  the  value  thereof.  This,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, means  that  Congress  has  power  to  make  coins  of  metal  and 
to  stamp  the  true  value  upon  each  one  of  them.  It  does  not  mean 
that  Congress  shall  refuse  to  furnish  the  people  of  the  United 
States  with  an  adequate  coinage,  and  it  does  not  mean  that  a 
theoretical  amount  of  uncoined  metal  shall  be  called  a  coin.  A 
coin  is  an  object  which  may  be  seen  and  felt  and  even  heard  if 
one  tests  the  ring  of  it. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  gold  bill  attempts  to  cut  out,  delete,  and 
destroy  that  part  of  our  great  written  Constitution  pertaining  to 
the  power  of  Congress  to  coin  money  and  to  regulate ;  that  is,  to 
stamp  on  the  metal  coin  the  value  thereof.  The  bill  is  unconsti- 
tutional on  its  face  because  it  seeks  to  nullify  the  Constitution. 
Moreover,  it  is  a  bill  which  is  contrary  to  the  common  law  and 
to  the  law  of  custom  upon  which  the  common  law  rests.  It  at- 
tempts to  legalize  robbery.  It  attempts  by  force  to  deprive  the 
people  of  the  United  States  of  their  right  to  the  currency  of  the 
Constitution.  It  gives  the  international  bankers  power  to  send 
the  gold  belonging  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  a  place 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  97 

of  deposit  reserved  to  themselves  in  Europe.    Mr.  Chairman,  the 
gold  bill  cannot  become  a  valid  law  by  any  constitutional  means. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  let  us  look  at  the  bill  to  see  if  the  legal 
hirelings  of  the  Bank  of  England  and  their  agents,  the  Federal 
Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks,  have  been  able  to 
disguise  its  purpose.  Let  us  see  if  they  were  able  to  clothe  the 
grisly  skeleton  of  their  greed  with  echoes  of  glib  religiosity, 
moral  precepts,  economic  jargon,  and  shop-worn  tags  of  speech, 
according  to  the  fashion  set  by  the  present  administration.  The 
first  thing  that  meets  my  eye  is  the  title.  We  read : 

A  bill  to  protect  the  currency  system  of  the  United  States, 
to  provide  for  a  better  use  of  the  monetary  gold  stock  of  the 
United  States,  and  for  other  purposes. 

It  is  indeed  a  bill  to  protect  the  present  currency  system  of 
the  United  States,  but  it  is  a  bill  to  protect  it  from  the  just  wrath 
of  United  States  citizens.  It  is  a  bill  to  save  for  the  Federal  Re- 
serve Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  their  gigantic  monop- 
oly of  a  special  paper  currency  which  they  steal  from  the  Treas- 
ury and  upon  which  they  charge  the  people  of  the  United  States 
a  heavy  toll  of  interest.  It  is  indeed  a  bill  to  provide  for  a  better 
use  of  the  monetary  gold  stock  of  the  United  States  if  better  use 
means  the  issuance  of  two  sets  of  obligations  against  one  piece  of 
security.  It  is  indeed  a  bill  for  "other  purposes,"  and  those  are 
purposes  which  the  proponents  dare  not  mention. 

Among  the  purposes  of  the  gold  bill  not  mentioned  in  the  title 
is  that  of  pretending  to  take  into  the  Treasury  the  gold  now  held 
by  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks 
and  a  great  effort  has  been  made  to  have  it  appear  that  the  Fed- 
eral Reserve  banks  are  unwilling  to  surrender  the  gold  they  now 
hold  to  the  United  States  Treasury.  This  effort  is  dishonest  for 
two  reasons.  First,  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal 
Reserve  banks  have  already  made  a  profit  of  some  billions  of  dol- 
lars out  of  the  President's  gold  seizures  and  those  billions  were 
stolen  from  the  people  of  the  United  States ;  and,  second,  the 
transfer  is  fictitious.  The  President  sought  to  convince  Members 
of  Congress  that  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  were  resisting  his 
efforts  to  have  the  Treasury  take  possession  of  the  gold,  but  one 
of  the  members  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  spoiled  that  argu- 
ment by  declaring  that  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  had  asked  the 
President  to  have  the  Treasury  take  the  gold. 

You  see,  Mr.  Chairman,  under  this  bill  the  United  States 
Treasury  has  to  pay  for  the  gold.  Although  the  gold  belongs  to 
the  people  and  was  taken  away  from  their  bank  deposits  and 
their  cash  registers  and  their  pocketbooks  in  the  first  place  and 
put  into  the  Federal  Reserve  banks,  and  although  the  Federal 
Reserve  banks  tricked  and  fooled  the  people  into  giving  it  to 
them  for  Federal  Reserve  currency,  which  they  now  refuse  to 
redeem,  and  although  that  gold  does  not  belong  to  the  Federal 


98  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks,  the  United  States 
Treasury  has  to  pay  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal 
Reserve  banks  for  it.  Well,  how  does  this  bill  propose  to  pay  the 
Federal  Reserve  outfit,  how  does  this  bill  provide  that  the  Gov- 
ernment shall  take  over  the  stolen  goods?  It  provides  that  the 
United  States  Government  shall  give  the  Federal  Reserve  Board 
and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  new  gold  certificates  to  the  full 
value  of  the  loot.  The  gold  certificates  will  give  the  Federal  Re- 
serve Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  legal  title  to  the  gold, 
and  the  United  States  Treasury  will  be  nothing  more  than  its 
physical  custodian.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  will  give  the 
Federal  Reserve  banks  gold  for  their  new  gold  certificates  when- 
ever they  ask  for  it.  It  is  a  fraudulent  transfer. 

When  the  individual  citizens  of  the  United  States  were  re- 
quired to  surrender  their  gold  they  were  required  to  surrender 
their  gold  certificates  as  well  as  their  gold  coin  and  bullion.  The 
Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  are  pri- 
vate corporations,  but  they  did  not  obey  the  gold  orders.  They 
did  not  surrender  any  gold  coin,  gold  certificates,  or  gold  bullion. 
On  the  contrar3%  the  gold  which  was  commandeered  from  the 
people  was  given  to  them  as  a  free  gift,  and  now,  after  they  have 
taken  into  their  possession  all  the  gold  belonging  to  the  people 
they  are  ready  to  make  a  pretended  transfer  of  that  gold  to  the 
Government.  Evidently  there  is  law  for  the  common  man  and 
no  law  for  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve 
banks.  The  common  man  must  toe  the  mark,  but  the  Federal 
Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  are  the  agents  of 
the  Bank  of  England,  and  the  law,  it  seems,  does  not  apply  to 
them.  Many  of  the  officials  of  the  Federal  Reserve  outfit  have 
had  charges  of  impeachment  brought  against  them,  but  those 
charges  have  not  been  investigated. 

The  Federal  Reserve  outfit  now  has  in  its  possession  gold  coin, 
gold  certificates,  and  gold  bullion.  But  this  bill  does  not  require 
them  to  surrender  their  present  holdings  of  gold  certificates. 
After  this  bill  becomes  law,  if  such  a  catastrophe  should  occur, 
the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  will 
still  hold  their  present  gold  certificates.  They  may  exchange 
those  gold  certificates  for  gold  between  the  time  this  bill  becomes 
law  and  the  day  the  President  makes  his  proposed  devaluation 
proclamation.  Is  not  this  gift  of  over  $1,000,000,000  in  gold  a 
great  treasure  to  bestow  upon  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the 
Federal  Reserve  banks — the  corrupt  and  sinister  organization 
which  has  bankrupted  the  country  ?  Does  this  not  make  favorites 
of  the  financial  crooks  who  control  it? 

Mr.  Chairman,  all  the  gold  in  the  possession  of  the  Federal 
Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  belongs  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  During  the  last  20  years,  under  the 
vicious  Federal  Reserve  Act,  they  have  taken  it  from  the  people 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  99 

in  exchange  for  Federal  Reserve  currenej"  and  it  has  not  cost 
them  one  penny.  Now  they  come  forward  to  make  a  pretended 
transfer  of  the  people's  gold  coin  and  bullion  to  the  United  States 
Treasury.  Not  one  pennj'  of  the  gold  they  pretend  to  transfer  to 
the  United  States  Treasury  is  owned  by  them ;  every  dollar  of  it 
belongs  to  the  individual  citizens  of  the  United  States.  The 
United  States  Treasury  is  to  buy  it  on  credit  and  to  pay  for  it 
with  new  gold  certificates.  How  does  this  transfer  title  to  the 
United  States  Treasury?  Can  the  Congress  lend  itself  to  such 
a  transaction?  Last  May  I  stated  that,  in  my  opinion,  the 
people's  gold,  unjustly  impounded  in  the  Federal  Reserve  banks, 
should  be  placed  in  the  people's  Treasury,  but  I  did  not  state 
that  it  should  be  placed  there  as  the  property  of  the  Federal  Re- 
serve Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks,  to  be  withdrawn  by 
them  with  gold  certificates  and  to  be  made  exportable  from  the 
United  States  Treasury  to  the  Bank  for  International  Settlements 
in  Europe.  What  this  bill  proposes  to  do  in  connection  with  the 
President's  message  suggesting  that  this  United  States  gold  may 
be  sent  to  Europe  to  be  kept  in  the  Bank  for  International  Settle- 
ments with  the  loot  of  the  central  banks  of  other  countries  is 
one  of  the  greatest  fiscal  frauds  in  history.  It  is  one  of  the  big- 
gest swindles  of  all  time. 

Again.  Mr.  Chairman,  as  you  very  well  know,  the  Federal 
Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  had  paper  cur- 
rency outstanding  to  the  extent  of  about  $5,000,000,000  when  the 
present  administration  came  into  power.  That  currency  was  re- 
deemable in  gold.  It  constituted  the  people's  title  to  all  the  gold 
held  by  the  Federal  Reserve  outfit.  It  constituted  a  first  and  para- 
mount lien  on  all  the  assets  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the 
Federal  Reserve  banks.  Instead  of  taking  over  the  gold  and  the 
assets  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve 
banks,  including  the  great  hoard  of  L^nited  States  wealth  which 
they  have  hidden  in  foreign  countries,  and  honestly  administer- 
ing those  assets  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  who  had  been  de- 
frauded by  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve 
banks,  the  President  of  the  United  States  unlawfully  relieved 
the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks  from 
their  legal  liability  to  redeem  their  Federal  Reserve  currency  in 
gold,  or  in  lawful  money  convertible  into  gold,  and  from  the  sur- 
render of  all  their  assets.  Every  dollar  that  was  unlawfully  taken 
from  the  people  of  the  United  States  by  Roosevelt's  gold  order 
was  given  to  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve 
banks  in  preparation  for  this  great  steal,  this  wholesale  robbery 
of  the  masses  for  the  benefit  of  the  privileged  few.  And  now  that 
American  citizens  have  lost  their  gold,  an  entirely  fictitious  trans- 
fer has  been  arranged  to  deceive  the  people.  Mr.  Chairman,  the 
President  may  underrate  the  mental  capacity  of  the  American 
people  as  much  as  he  likes,  but  I  venture  to  say  there  is  no  man 


100  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

in  the  United  States  so  dumb  that  he  cannot  understand  how  this 
bill  tricks  and  deceives  him. 

The  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Reserve  banks 
have  profited  to  the  extent  of  $5,000,000,000  or  more  by  being 
released  from  their  obligation  to  redeem  their  oustanding 
$5,000,000,000  of  paper  Federal  Reserve  currency  in  gold.  They 
have  profited  by  having  had  over  a  billion  dollars  in  gold  certifi- 
cates saved  to  them.  They  have  profited  during  the  last  20  years 
by  the  criminality  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Board,  which  never 
charged  them  one  penny  in  interest  on  the  great  mass  of  Federal 
Reserve  currency  they  have  taken  from  the  Government.  They 
have  profited  from  their  own  wrongdoing  by  the  unlawful  crea- 
tion of  fictitious  claims  against  the  United  States  Government 
and  the  giving  of  those  claims  to  foreigners,  and  they  have 
profited  by  their  control  of  all  the  public  revenues.  And  now 
they  come  forward  with  a  scheme  to  sell  the  gold  they  have  taken 
from  the  American  people  to  the  Treasury  for  new  gold  certifi- 
cates which  will  give  them  a  legal  title  to  that  gold  and  permit 
them  to  do  as  they  please  with  it.  An  era  of  corruption  is  cul- 
minating in  one  of  the  greatest  crimes  that  has  ever  been  perpe- 
trated against  the  people.  Mark  my  words,,  Mr.  Chairman,  there 
will  be  trouble  here  if  this  bill  becomes  law. 

Why,  Mr.  Chairman,  this  fiscal  fraud,  this  crime  is  so  stupen- 
dous that  the  instigators  and  manipulators  of  it  did  not  dare  to 
have  all  the  transactions  performed  by  one  man.  Each  man  did 
his  part  and  then  got  out  of  Washington  pretending  that  he  dis- 
agreed with  the  President's  money  policy  or  pretending  that  he 
was  ill.  William  H.  Woodin,  who  sat  beside  Albert  H.  Wiggin 
on  the  board  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank  of  New  York  and 
who  acquiesced  in  and  helped  to  perpetrate  the  financial  mis- 
deeds which  bankrupted  the  country,  is  now  hiding  in  a  western 
sanitarium.  Dr.  Sprague,  the  tool  of  the  international  bankers 
and  an  employee  of  the  Bank  of  England,  was,  in  my  opinion, 
put  into  the  Treasury  to  resign  at  a  certain  time  and  to  create 
uncertainty  in  the  minds  of  the  people  by  the  manner  of  his  go- 
ing and  his  subsequent  articles  pleading  for  sound  money.  Mr. 
Chairman,  all  the  bickering  and  the  resignations  and  the  artful 
propaganda  that  has  been  thrown  around  the  monetary  policy  of 
Franklin  D.  Roosevelt  cannot  disguise  the  fact  that  he  was  se- 
lected by  the  international  bankers  to  carry  on  the  work  they 
started  with  the  great  depression ;  that  is,  the  pauperization  of 
the  masses  and  the  seizure  of  American  property  for  their  own 
use  and  benefit,  and  that  he  has  lent  himself  to  their  schemes  by 
unconstitutionally  demanding  and  assuming  the  dictatorial  pow- 
ers which  will  enable  him  to  carry  them  out. 

Another  purpose  of  this  bill  not  mentioned  in  the  title  is  the 
transference  of  a  very  large  quantity  of  United  States  gold  to 
the  Bank  for  International  Settlements.   One  of  the  chief  objects 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  101 

of  the  gold  policy  of  the  present  administration  is  the  sending  of 
gold  taken  by  force  from  its  lawful  American  owners  to  the  Bank 
for  International  Settlements  in  Europe,  where  it  will  be  kept 
with  the  property  of  the  central  banks  of  the  world.  According 
to  the  Hague  convention,  under  which  the  Bank  of  International 
Settlements  was  formed,  gold  deposited  in  the  vaults  of  the  Bank 
for  International  Settlements  is  safe  from  seizure.  Our  gold,  when 
it  goes  there,  will  certainly  be  safe  from  seizure  by  the  United 
States.  The  Bank  for  International  Settlements  is  dominated  by 
the  Bank  of  England.  It  is  not  on  American  soil.  It  is  in  Europe. 
American  gold,  therefore,  will  be  kept  in  Europe.  It  will  be 
placed  where  none  of  the  wage  slaves  of  the  United  States  will 
ever  be  able  to  acquire  any  of  it.  It  will  be  the  capital  and  means 
of  oppression  of  that  international  superstate,  that  financial 
superstate,  which  has  been  after  Uncle  Sam's  gold  money  ever 
since  the  wealth  of  this  country  attracted  the  attention  of  greedy 
European  bankers  and  brought  them  flocking  over  here  to  set  up 
the  suction  pumps  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal 
Reserve  banks. 

The  Bank  for  International  Settlements  is  an  international 
bankers'  bank.  It  is  a  central  bank  of  central  banks.  The  interna- 
tional bankers,  who  brought  about  the  depression,  have  been 
drawing  gold  to  themselves  from  the  common  people  of  every 
land.  It  is  their  intention  to  use  that  gold  for  their  own  purposes. 
They  propose  two  kinds  of  money.  Gold — the  real  money — is 
what  they  intend  to  have  for  themselves,  and  paper  money,  which 
has  no  intrinsic  value  in  itself,  and  which  is  made  out  of  nothing 
and  is  worth  nothing  unless  it  can  be  redeemed  by  the  holder  in 
gold — that  is  for  the  common  people,  or,  as  they  call  us,  the 
peasants 

Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  the  high  priest  of  repudiation,  the 
apostle  of  irredeemable  paper  money,  and  the  man  who  intends 
to  send  United  States  gold  out  of  the  United  States  to  a  place 
where  no  American  citizen  can  claim  it,  this  Franklin  D.  Roose- 
velt characterizes  all  those  who  do  not  agree  with  his  monetary 
policy  as  mules.  If  that  is  true,  what  an  awful  mule  President 
Woodrow  Wilson  must  have  been.  Concerning  Andrew  Jackson, 
Wilson  said : 

"He  had  no  idea  of  allowing  the  country  to  undertake  the 
fatal  experiment  of  an  irredeemable  paper  currency." 
This  is  the  fatal  experiment  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt  has  under- 
taken. This  is  a  part  of  his  policy  of  "bold  experimentation." 
Not  long  ago  he  told  the  people  at  Savannah  that  George  Wash- 
ington, like  himself,  was  an  experimenter.  Mr.  Chairman,  there 
are  no  points  of  resemblance  between  George  Washington  and 
Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  experimental  or  otherwise.  George  Wash- 
ington did  not  take  orders  from  money  changers.  He  did  not  rob 
the  people  of  their  gold.  George  Washington  abhorred  dishonor 


102  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

in  all  its  forms.  He  would  have  died  before  he  would  have  violat- 
ed his  oath  of  office  or  tampered  with  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  the  manner  of  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt.  *  *  * 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  let  us  hear  the  true  purpose  of  the 
$2,000,000,000  fund  which  this  bill  proposes  to  set  up.  I  quote 
from  the  prophecies  of  Henry  Morgenthau,  Mr.  Baruch's  Secre- 
tary of  the  United  States  Treasury,  as  shown  by  the  following 
article  which  appeared  in  the  Washington  Times  of  January  16, 
1934: 

"Treasury  Sees  United  States  Need  of  Blue  Chips 
"When  you  play  poker  you  want  just  as  many  blue  chips 
as  the  other  fellow. 

"That,  in  a  man's  language,  was  the  gist  of  Secretary  Mor- 
genthau's  summing  up  of  the  Roosevelt  proposal  for  a  $2,000,- 
000,000  stabilization  fund  to  protect  the  currency  of  the  United 
States. 

"In  other  words,  the  American  Government  is  engaged  in 
probably  the  greatest  gamble  of  all  time.  The  stake  is  the 
credit  of  the  United  States. 

"To  Equal  British 

"When  asked  why  a  figure  of  2,000  millions  for  the  stabil- 
ization fund  had  been  asked,  Morgenthau  said : 

' '  '  We  figured  we  might  need  an  amount  substantially  equal 
to  the  British  stabilization  fund. 

"  'If  we  are  going  to  play,  we  must  have  as  many  chips  as 
the  other  fellow. 

"  'We  want  every  piece  of  machinery  the  other  countries 
have.  We  want  to  be  in  a  position  to  buy  gold  and  to  sell  gold. ' 

"The  2,000-million  stabilization  fund  will  be  derived  from 
the  Government's  profit  on  the  debasing  of  the  value  of  the 
dollar  to  from  50  to  60  percent  of  the  normal  valuation. 

"Fund  From  Profits 

' '  If  the  debasement  is  50  per  cent,  the  profit  to  the  Govern- 
ment will  be  $4,000,000,000  in  round  numbers.  A  60-cent  dollar 
will  mean  about  2,666  millions  in  profits. 

"Out  of  these  profits  will  come  the  stabilization  fund  to  be 
administered  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  remainder 
being  available  for  any  Government  expenditure.  Morgenthau 
said : 

"  'It  is  possible  that  the  mere  existence  of  the  fund  will  be 
sufficient  to  carry  out  the  law  which  requires  that  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  maintain  all  lawful  money  of  the  Government 
on  parity  with  gold.' 

"The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  charged  with  the  re- 
sponsibility of  administration  of  the  fund  to  carry  out  that 
purpose.  If  any  particular  type  of  currency  issued — United 
States  notes,  for  instance — should  become  depreciated  in  value, 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  103 

the  Treasury  would  go  into  the  market  and  buy  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  that  currency  to  maintain  its  parity.  Operations  in 
the  foreign  markets  to  protect  possible  depreciation  of  the 
dollar  would  be  similar." 

Let  this  quotation  from  Morgenthau  go  down  into  history. 
Long  from  now  some  curious  investigator  of  the  present  age  of 
witchcraft  and  magic  in  the  "White  House  may  unearth  it  and 
reconstruct  the  financial  history  of  the  "new  deal"  from  it,  as 
science  from  a  single  part  reconstructs  the  entire  animal. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  not  the  gambler's  voice  in  Mr.  Morgen- 
thau's  confession  which  most  deserves  political  attention.  We  are 
becoming  accustomed  here  to  gambling  terms  as  they  are  em- 
ployed by  the  executive  branch  of  the  Government,  and  we  can 
well  understand  that  the  Executive  and  his  favorites  must  of 
necessity  speak  the  lingo  of  their  kind.  This  is  a  gambler's  ad- 
ministration, and  all  the  "big  shot"  gamblers  are  here  to  revel  in 
it.  Mr.  Roosevelt  does  not  deny  his  gambling  propensities.  He  is 
a  "new  dealer."  He  is  "on  his  way,"  but  he  "doesn't  know 
where  he  is  going."  He  is  for  a  policy  of  "bold  experimentation," 
just  as  Samuel  InsuU  was  for  a  policy  of  bold  experimentation. 
He  has  not  been  Ben  Smith's  patron  all  these  years  for  nothing. 
But,  Mr.  Chairman,  there  is  something  apart  from  the  vice  of 
gambling  to  be  observed  in  Mr.  Morgenthau 's  utterance,  and  that 
is  its  entire  untruthfulness.  He  would  have  us  believe  that  the 
United  States  is  on  one  side  of  the  fence  and  Great  Britain  on  the 
other.  That,  of  course,  is  not  the  case.  The  United  States  has  been 
placed  in  a  position  of  financial  servitude  to  Great  Britain,  and 
Mr.  Morgenthau 's  loud-sounding  propaganda  is  designed  to  con- 
ceal that  fact  from  the  people.  Great  pains  have  been  taken  to 
conceal  it.  It  would  be  very  damaging  to  this  administration  if 
certain  people  in  the  United  States  should  find  out  about  the 
great  sums  of  United  States  money  which  have  been  sent  to 
England  during  the  past  summer.  Those  funds  were  appropriated 
by  the  Congress  for  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

Mr,  Chairman,  why  should  tax  money  paid  by  American  citi- 
zens be  sent  to  London?  When  England  makes  her  periodical 
gesture  of  insult  toward  the  United  States  by  paying  a  small 
installment  on  the  war  debt  she  owes  us,  she  pays  us  in  debased 
coins,  in  "token"  coins,  to  be  exact.  But  when  Mr,  Roosevelt 
sends  American  money  to  England  he  sends  it  in  gold  or  its 
equivalent.  When  Mr.  Morgenthau  obtains  his  "kitty,"  for  this, 
I  have  been  told,  is  what  he  called  the  proposed  stabilization 
fund  at  the  White  House  a  week  ago  last  Sunday  evening,  Ameri- 
can funds  will  be  fed  to  Europe  more  expeditiously  and  with  less 
secrecy  than  such  operations  now  require.  If  Congress  puts  the 
people's  property  into  a  "kitty,"  someone,  if  he  cannot  be  the 
knight  of  the  bedchamber,  can  at  least  pose  before  royalty  as  the 
knight  of  the  "kitty." 


104  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Mr.  Chairman,  understanding  that  Henry  Morgenthau  is  re- 
lated by  marriage  to  Herbert  Lehman,  Jewish  Governor  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  and  is  related  by  marriage  or  otherwise  to 
the  Seligmans,  of  the  international  Jewish  firm  of  J.  &  W.  Selig, 
man,  who  were  publicly  shown  before  a  Senate  committee  of  in- 
vestigation to  have  offered  a  bribe  to  a  foreign  government ;  and 
to  the  Lewissohns,  a  firm  of  Jewish  international  bankers ;  and 
to  the  Warburgs,  whose  operations  through  Kuhn,  Loeb  &  Co., 
the  International  Acceptance  Bank,  and  the  Bank  of  Manhattan 
Co.  and  other  foreign  and  domestic  institutions  under  their  con- 
trol, have  drained  billions  of  dollars  out  of  the  United  States 
Treasury  and  the  bank  deposits  belonging  to  United  States  citi- 
zens ;  and  to  the  Strauses,  proprietors  of  R.  H.  Macy  &  Co.,  of 
New  York,  which  is  an  outlet  for  foreign  goods  dumped  upon 
this  country  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States  Government, 
which  is  compelled  to  issue  paper  money  on  the  said  foreign  goods 
of  the  Strauses ;  and  that  Mr.  Morgenthau  is  likewise  related  or 
otherwise  connected  with  various  other  members  of  the  Jewish 
banking  community  of  New  York  and  London,  Amsterdam,  and 
other  foreign  financial  centers,  and  that  he  has  as  his  assistant, 
presiding  over  public  funds,  Earle  Bailie,  a  member  of  the  firm 
of  J.  &  W.  Seligman,  bribe  givers  as  aforesaid,  it  seems  to  me 
that  Henry  Morgenthau 's  presence  in  the  United  States  Treasury 
and  the  request  that  Congress  now  give  him  a  $2,000,000,000 
"kitty"  of  the  people's  money  for  gambling  purposes  is  a  strik- 
ing confirmation  of  the  statement  made  by  me  on  the  floor  of  the 
House  on  May  29,  1933,  which  statement  was  as  follows : 

"*  *  *  Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  we  have  come  to  the  place 
where  we  must  decide  whether  we  shall  serve  God  or  Mammon. 
Shall  we  nullify  the  Constitution  at  the  behest  of  the  money 
changers  who  have  unlawfully  taken  all  our  gold  and  lawful 
money  into  their  own  possession  or  shall  we  take  a  stand  here 
in  defense  of  the  faith  of  our  fathers?  Mr.  Chairman,  my  mind 
is  made  up.  I  will  stand  by  the  Constitution.  If  I  should  fail  to 
do  so,  I  should  expect  to  be  met  at  the  train  when  I  go  home 
to  my  district  by  a  delegation  of  honest  Pennsylvania  citizens 
with  50  or  100  feet  of  rope.  I  should  expect  to  be  escorted  to 
the  nearest  tree  to  be  taught  what  it  means  to  vote  for  a  nulli- 
fication of  the  Constitution  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  the  provisions  of  this  repudiation  bill  were 
foretold  by  a  writer  in  the  Dearborn  Independent  some  years 
ago.  There  is,  therefore,  nothing  novel  or  original  about  them. 
The  writer  of  the  article  in  the  Dearborn  Independent  made 
the  following  quotation  prophesying  some  of  the  measures 
which  have  been  introduced  here  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States : 

"  '  (2)  Confiscation  of  money  in  order  to  regulate  its  circu- 
lation. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  105 

"  '  (3)  We  must  introduce  a  unit  of  exchange  based  on  the 
value  of  labor  units,  regardless  of  whether  paper  or  wood  is 
used  as  the  medium.  We  will  issue  money  to  meet  the  normal 
demands  of  every  subject,  adding  a  total  sum  for  every  birth 
and  decreasing  the  total  amount  for  every  death. 

"  '  (4)  Commercial  paper  will  be  bought  by  the  Government, 
which  *  *  *  will  grant  loans  on  a  business  basis.  A  measure  of 
this  character  will  prevent  the  stagnation  of  money,  parasitism, 
and  laziness,  qualities  which  were  useful  to  us  as  long  as  the 
Gentiles  maintained  their  independence,  but  which  are  not 
desirable  to  us  when  our  kingdom  comes. 

''  *  (5)  We  will  replace  stock  exchanges  by  great  Govern- 
ment credit  institutions,  whose  functions  will  be  to  tax  trade 
paper  according  to  Government  regulations.  These  institutions 
will  be  in  such  a  position  that  they  may  market  or  buy  as 
many  as  half  a  billion  industrial  shares  a  day.  Thus  all  in- 
dustrial undertakings  will  become  dependent  on  us.  You  may 
well  imagine  what  power  that  will  give  us. 

"  '  "Remember  that  when  next  you  hear  the  Jewish  plan 
that  'Gentiles'  shall  do  business  with  their  own  bits  of  paper, 
while  Jews  keep  the  gold  reserve  safely  in  their  own  hands.  K 
the  crash  comes,  'Gentiles'  have  the  paper  and  the  Jews  have 
the  gold.  Says  protocol  XXII :  We  hold  in  our  hands  the  great- 
est modern  power — gold;  in  2  days  we  could  free  it  from  our 
treasuries  in  any  desired  quantities."  ' 

"  'The  Jews  are  economists,  esoteric  and  exoteric:  They 
have  one  system  to  tangle  up  the  "Gentile,"  another  which 
they  hope  to  install  when  "Gentile"  stupidity  has  bankrupted 
the  world.  The  Jews  are  economists.  Note  the  number  of  them 
who  teach  economics  in  the  State  universities.  Says  protocol 
VIII: 

"  '  "We  will  surround  our  Government  with  a  whole  world 
of  economists.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  science  of  economics 
is  the  chief  subject  of  instruction  taught  by  the  Jews."  ' 

"Mr.  Chairman,  have  not  most  of  these  predictions  come  to 
pass?  Is  it  not  true  that,  in  the  United  States  today,  the  'Gen- 
tiles' have  the  slips  of  paper  while  the  Jews  have  the  gold  and 
lawful  money  ?  And  is  not  this  repudiation  bill,  a  bill  specifical- 
ly designed  and  written  by  the  Jewish  international  money 
changers  themselves,  in  order  to  perpetuate  their  power?  What 
else  do  you  make  of  it,  Mr.  Chairman?  Does  it  not  cancel  the 
war  debts?  Does  it  not  defraud  the  holders  of  Liberty  bonds 
and  every  other  obligation  calling  for  the  payment  of  money? 
Does  it  not  defraud  the  veterans  of  the  World  War  and  take 
the  value  out  of  their  adjusted-compensation  certificates?" 
Mr.  Chairman,  do  you  not  see  in  this  "kitty"  bill  the  identical 
features  outlined  in  the  Protocols  of  Zion?  Do  you  not  see  the 
Protocols  of  Zion  manifested  in  the  appointment  of  Henry  Mor- 


106  LINCOLN  MONEY  MAHTYRED 

genthau  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ?  It  is  not  by  accident,  is  it, 
that  a  representative  and  a  relative  of  the  money  Jews  of  Wall 
Street  and  foreign  parts  has  been  so  elevated? 

Why,  Mr.  Chairman,  this  "kitty"  bill  takes  the  hitherto  ob- 
scure young  Henry  Morgenthau  and  makes  of  him  a  central  bank 
of  the  United  States.  It  makes  of  him  a  central  bank,  an  institu- 
tion which  Jefferson  declared  is  one  of  deadly  hostility  to  the 
free  institutions  of  the  United  States.  It  exalts  him  above  all 
other  men.  Under  the  powers  to  be  granted  him,  his  conduct  is 
not  subject  to  review  or  control  by  any  other  officer  of  the  United 
States  Government,  not  even  the  President. 

What  this  "kitty"  bill  really  does  is  to  slide  into  the  hands  of 
Henry  Morgenthau  the  emergency  powers  which  Congress  grant- 
ed to  the  President.  Those  powers  will  not  lapse.  Instead,  they 
are  being  slyly  and  dishonestly  transferred  to  the  bankers  and 
after  the  bankers,  in  the  person  of  Henry  Morgenthau,  have  ex- 
ercised them  long  enough  to  get  the  gold  of  the  United  States 
into  their  exclusive  possession  and  to  transfer  it  to  their  den  of 
thieves,  the  Bank  for  International  Settlements,  Congress  may 
take  back  its  constitutional  power  over  the  currency,  but  it  will 
have  nothing  left  to  exercise  it  on.  The  monetary  gold  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  will,  like  the  sons  of  the  people,  be 
buried  in  a  foreign  field. 

Mr.  Chairman,  if  you,  as  one  of  the  party  in  power,  are  think- 
ing of  remaking  the  world  so  that  the  old  America  we  knew  and 
loved  is  to  be  no  more ;  if  you  are  one  of  those  who  is  counte- 
nancing the  placing  of  this  country  under  the  British  Crown  and 
the  pooling  of  all  American  resources  with  those  of  England  and 
Soviet  Russia ;  if  you  are  one  of  those  to  whom  a  title  of  nobility 
appears  to  be  more  desirable  than  plain  citizenship  in  the  Re- 
public founded  by  George  Washington,  I  trust  that  you  will  some 
day  descend  from  the  Speaker's  chair  and  let  us  know  the  rea- 
sons for  your  preference.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  are  not  what 
these  words  depict,  I  trust  that  you  will  come  down  to  the  floor 
and  tell  us  how  constitutional  government  is  to  be  maintained  in 
this  country  if  the  plutocratic  managers  of  the  Democratic  Party 
continue  their  efforts  to  destroy  it.  You,  if  anyone,  should  be  able 
to  give  the  people  of  the  United  States  an  answer  to  this  question. 

Under  this  administration  the  result  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion has  been  reversed.  The  United  States  has  become  an  eco- 
nomic vassal  of  Great  Britain.  The  once  proud  Republic  of  the 
United  States  with  its  great  charter  of  human  freedom,  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  its  written  Constitution,  which 
had  kept  it  free  and  independent  for  over  140  years,  and  its  flag, 
first  made  by  the  hands  of  Betsy  Ross  in  Philadelphia,  and  its 
national  anthem,  born  within  earshot  of  the  British  guns  that 
shelled  Fort  McHenry — all  these,  like  the  American  dollar,  were 
brought  down  from  their  high  estate. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  107 

"Oh,  say,  can  you  see  by  the  dawn's  early  light 
What  so  proudly  we  hailed  at  the  twilight's  last 
gleaming?" 
"Mr.  Chairman,  you  know  very  well  that  you  cannot  see  that 
flag  there  as  it  used  to  be.  Others  started  very  cautiously  to  pull 
it  down.  But  it  was  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  in  his  unlawful  and 
unconstitutional  assumption  of  dictatorial  powers,  who  finally 
lowered  it  and  tore  it  from  its  standard." 

Now  that  the  "Gold  Bill"  is  explained  and  the  reader  knows 
why  he  "turned  in"  his  gold,  and  what  became  of  it,  what  about 
that  "Soldiers'  Bonus"  we  used  to  hear  so  much  about?  Have 
our  Congressmen  forgotten  the  "boys"  that  "made  the  world 
safe  for  democracy,"  or  was  it  safe  for  the  Money  Changers? 
We,  as  a  nation,  are  pledged  by  law  to  pay  them  their  "bonus" 
or  "compensation"  certificates  in  1945,  and  they  surely  need  it 
now  if  they  ever  will !  Will  the  reader  please  remember  how 
President  Lincoln  issued  sixty  million  dollars  in  Full  Legal  Ten- 
der "Greenbacks"  and  paid  his  soldiers! 

Would  the  reader  like  some  real  authority  on  this  subject? 
Then  listen  to  Robert  H.  Hemphill,  financial  authority  and  edi- 
torial writer  on  financial  matters  in  the  Hearst  papers  and  a 
really  profound  student  on  such  matters.  Writing  in  the  Hearst 
papers  of  March  17,  1934,  Mr.  Hemphill  has  the  following  to  say : 

"Sound  Money" 

"During  the  month  of  February,  1934,  we  imported  $371, 
347,100  in  gold. 

"We  paid  for  it  with  'fiat'  money.  Treasury  notes  of  the 
United  States;  'printing  press  money';  'paper  money';  'green- 
backs ' ;  irredeemable  in  gold,  silver  or  any  specific  metal ;  law- 
ful money  of  the  United  States — 'fiat'  money  in  every  sense 
of  the  word. 

"We  have  now  no  other  kind  of  currency. 

"It  is  the  best  money  in  the  world. 

"Despite  the  unlimited  quantity  offered  in  exchange  for 
gold,  and  the  threat  inherent  in  our  huge  secret  stabilization 
fund,  it  has  been  so  far  almost  impossible  to  prevent  our  'fiat' 
money  from  commanding  a  constant  premium  over  its  theo- 
retical par  in  exchange  for  the  most  prized  possession  of  Euro- 
pean Nations — their  gold. 

"It  is  very  important  to  remember  this. 

"We  are  rapidly  approaching  a  situation  where  the  gov- 
ernment MUST  issue  additional  currency. 

"It  will  very  soon  be  the  only  move  remaining. 

"IT  SHOULD  HAVE  BEEN  THE  FIRST  STEP  IN  THE 
RECOVERY  PROGRAM. 


108  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

"Immediately  upon  a  revival  of  the  demand  that  the  gov- 
ernment increase  the  supply  of  currency,  we  shall  again  be 
subjected  to  a  barrage  of  skillfully  designed  and  cunningly 
circulated  propaganda  by  means  of  which  a  small  group  of 
international  bankers  have  been  able,  for  two  centuries  to 
frighten  the  peoples  of  the  civilized  world  against  issuing  their 
own  good  money  in  sufficient  quantities  to  carry  on  their  neces- 
sary commerce. 

"By  this  simple,  crude,  but  amazingly  successful  device 
these  'money  changers' — parasites  in  a  busy  world  intent  on 
creating  and  exchanging  wealth — have  been  able  to  preserve 
for  their  private  and  exclusive  right  the  monopoly  of  manu- 
facturing an  inferior  substitute  for  money  which  they  have 
hypnotized  civilized  nations  into  using,  because  of  their  press- 
ing need  to  exchange  goods  and  services. 

"We  shall  never  recover  on  credit.  Even  if  it  were  obtain- 
able, it  is  uncertain,  unreliable,  does  not  expand  in  accordance 
with  demand,  and  contracts  unexpectedly  and  for  causes  un- 
related to  the  needs  of  commerce  and  industry. 

"Demand  deposits  cannot  be  loaned  to  commerce  and  in- 
dustry. 

"Many  bankers  have  known  this  for  a  long  time. 

"It  required  this  depression  and  the  complete  freezing  of 
the  whole  banking  system  to  teach  the  rest,  but  with  a  very 
few  exceptions,  they  have  all  learned. 


"I  am  convinced  that  the  NRA  experiment  is  running  into 
a  jam.  It  has  developed  into  a  wholly  different  doctrine  than 
the  original  conception. 

"Having  failed  to  stimulate  recovery,  the  present  idea  is 
to  distribute  nonexistent  profits  from  one  group  to  another. 

"Under  any  system  of  reasoning,  the  purchasing  power, 
however,  will  remain  the  same. 

"Instead  of  providing  for  expansion,  which  means  the 
creation  and  exchange  of  more  wealth,  its  underlying  philoso- 
phy is  the  creation  and  exchange  of  less  wealth. 

"It  is  difficult  to  believe  adult  human  beings  at  any  stages 
in  the  development  of  civilization  could  be  led  into  serious 
consideration  of  a  system  founded  on  such  an  absurd  doctrine. 

"We  need  in  circulation  $250.00  per  capita  in  permanent 
uncontractible  currency,  deposited  in  depositaries  and  payable 
on  demand,  to  sustain  the  standard  of  living  to  which  we  had 
arrived  in  1927-29,  to  pay  the  then  prevailing  prices,  wages 
and  costs ;  to  produce  incomes  and  restore  the  property  values 
of  that  period. 

' '  It  makes  no  difference  how  this  currency  is  put  into  circu- 
lation. We  are  all  producers  and  we  are  likewise  all  consum- 
ers ;  each  one  of  us  buys  from  all  of  the  others. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  109 

"If  one  thousand  million  of  new  currency  is  thrown  into 
circulation  anj^where  in  the  system,  it  becomes  almost  imme- 
diately distributed  throughout  the  nation. 


"It  increases  the  transactions  of  the  nation  an  average  of 
36,000  millions  per  year,  and  because  we  all  buy  the  same 
things  in  the  same  order  of  preference,  our  business  increases 
in  the  normal  manner,  first  the  necessities  of  life,  next  the 
necessary  luxuries,  and  lastly  capital  goods. 

"We  are  all  so  anxious  to  produce  and  trade  our  products, 
our  goods  and  our  services,  with  our  neighbors,  that  we  will 
accept  almost  any  kind  of  money  which  we  have  a  fair  chance 
of  passing  on  for  the  things  we  want. 

"In  our  present  situation  the  issue  of  additional  currency 
is  the  only  way  out. ' ' 


Is  there  any  good  reason  that  Congress  cannot  or  should  not 
do  this  now? — or  pass  a  bill  to  "remonetize"  silver?  Is  there  any 
reason  why  that  should  not  be  done  either? 

Yes,  dear  reader,  there  is,  and  that  reason  is — "The  control 
of  our  whole  country  by  the  Foreign  Money  Changers  through 
the  Federal  Reserve  System  of  Banks,  that  have  the  power  to 
issue  unlimited  amounts  of  their  own  "greenbacks"  redeemable 
by  our  government,  and  to  withhold  loans  and  call  loans  and 
inflate  and  deflate  the  currency  and  the  country  at  their  own 
pleasure  and  for  their  own  profit ! ! 

How  long,  OH  GOD,  WILL  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 
STAND  FOR  SUCH  A  CONDITION;  when  all  they  need  is  a 
safe,  sane,  reasonable  plan  of  economic  security  and  "United 
Action"  to  put  it  into  operation? 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

The  Research  Finished 

Well,  it  was  a  gruesome  story  I  had  been  able  to  dig  up  in 
the  Congressional  Library  and  other  sources,  since  the  spring  of 
1933,  and  it  was  a  continuous  wonder  to  me  that  the  rotten 
crookedness  and  corrupting  of  Legislators  and  the  extending  of 
the  grasp  of  the  "money  changers"  into  our  financial  and  busi- 
ness system  could  have  gone  on  year  after  year,  and  generation 
after  generation  getting  progressively  worse,  with  a  mountain  of 
bonded  indebtedness  growing  higher  and  higher,  with  the  chains 
of  national  mortgage  debts  growing  closer  about  the  life  of  our 
people  year  after  year,  and  not  to  be  stopped  somewhere,  some- 
way. 


110  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

I  finally  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  only  for  one  fact 
— our  country  had  been  so  vast  in  extent  and  productiveness, 
that  their  systems  could  continue  to  repeat  until  all  new  territory 
was  exhausted.  As  one  territory  was  opened  up  and  settled  and, 
then  a  few  years  later,  through  hardship,  privations,  and  endless 
toil,  the  people  had  developed  their  lands  enough  to  borrow 
money  and  mortgage  them,  they  did  so  at  the  urge  of  the  bankers 
and  the  high  power  sales  forces  of  the  farm  machinery  and  other 
industries  who  were  greedy  to  extend  their  own  increasing  busi- 
ness. 

Then  in  the  course  of  seven  to  ten  years,  with  a  little  hard 
luck,  sickness,  drought,  frost,  hail  or  grasshoppers,  the  farmers 
failed  to  pay  their  mortgages  and  would  have  them  foreclosed 
for  half  the  value  of  the  farm,  and  so  be  obliged  to  move  on  to 
some  other  new  strip  of  territory,  to  repeat  the  process  all  over 
again,  and  their  hard  won  farms  so  became  "tenanted"  places, 
rented  out  by  the  "Money  Changers"  to  less  progressive  and 
less  fearless  farmers.  The  real  crisis  not  coming,  of  course,  until 
all  the  productive  lands  had  been  taken  up  and  no  more  expan- 
sion was  possible  anywhere  for  the  unfortunate  victims  of  a 
vicious  and  relentlessly  controlled  system  of  money  manipula- 
tion. 

It  took  a  great  and  fearless  people  to  do  this  pioneer  work 
of  our  glorious  past.  And  honest,  hardworking  people  they  were ; 
Indian  fighters  one  day  and  farmers  the  next  in  the  earlier  days, 
and  the  later  days  a  class  that  is  so  graphically  and  excellently 
described  in  the  book,  "With  a  Lantern  in  Her  Hand."  The  days 
that  the  older  people  will  yet  remember  was  told  of  in  the  song 
that  ran  something  like  the  following: 

"You  can  hear  the  hungry  coyote, 
As  he  sneaked  up  through  the  grass. 
Round  my  little  old  sod  shanty. 
On  the  claim." 

How  heartless !  That  a  system  could  be  allowed  to  exist  that 
could  take  homes  from  such  people,  by  a  managed  shortness  of 
money,  after  they,  by  hard  and  fearless  work,  had  carved  them 
for  themselves  from  the  wilderness. 

It  was  true,  at  times  there  would  arise  a  group  of  people  who 
seemed  to  have  some  idea  of  what  was  the  matter,  but  they 
mostly,  like  the  "freesoilers"  and  others,  and  finally  the  "Great 
Commoner,"  Bryan,  from  Nebraska,  with  his  free  silver  cam- 
paign in  1896-1900,  never  could  get  their  programs  over,  but  it  is 
easy  for  one  to  see  now,  that  they,  nearly  one  and  all,  were  only 
seeking  to  treat  symptoms  or  effects  instead  of  causes,  never 
getting  clear  down  to  the  bottom  and  digging  up  the  real  under- 
lying cause  of  the  whole  ghastly  crime  that  had  been  so  ruthless- 
ly sapping  the  very  life  blood  of  our  Nation ;  THE  POWER  OF 
ISSUE  AND  CONTROL  OF  THE  VALUE  AND  VOLUME  OF 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  111 

MONEY  AND  CREDIT,  THE  LIFE  BLOOD  OF  OUR  COUN- 
TRY, TOGETHER  WITH  THE  VICIOUS  LEGALIZED  USURY! 

The  people,  of  course,  were  being  blinded,  hoodwinked,  and 
led  away  from  the  real  menace,  by  insidious  propaganda,  grow- 
ing worse  from  year  to  year  as  the  money  interests  extended  their 
control  of  newspapers,  and  also  their  growing  control  of  big 
business. 

With  the  control  of  business  the  money  interests  controlled 
the  advertising  put  into  the  newspapers.  When  they  could  not 
own  the  paper,  they  could  and  most  always  would,  control  and 
influence  their  editorial  policy,  and  worst  of  all,  prohibit  any- 
thing even  of  news  value  being  printed  that  might  tend  to  cast 
reflections  or  doubts  on  their  nefarious  and  inhuman  grasp  on 
the  money  and  commerce  of  the  nation. 

The  saddest  part  of  all,  of  course,  was  that  our  'Legislators' 
could  be  and  were,  beyond  a  shadow  of  a  doubt,  continually 
bribed  one  way  or  another  by  money  changers,  (with  money  or 
to  get  social  advantages  for  themselves  and  their  families),  to 
pass  and  put  into  effect  legislation  to  aid  and  further  the  dia- 
bolical schemes  of  the  foreign  Money  Changers. 

This  bribery  and  connivance  was  very  adroitly  done,  of 
course,  so  that  legal  proceedure  likely  could  not  have  been  suc- 
cessfully used  against  them,  but  there  is  positively  no  other  way 
than  the  aforementioned  one  of  bribery  and  corruption  of  legis- 
lation, in  which  their  infamous  schemes  and  laws  could  have  been 
put  across. 

As  time  passed  and  more  and  still  more  banks  were  opened, 
these  were  controlled  from  the  top  of  the  system,  and  as  more 
large  business  and  manufacturing  concerns  came  into  their  hands, 
the  officers  and  employees  of  all  these  were  forced  to  become 
henchmen  and  propagandists  for  the  Money  Changers,  as  they 
must  all  eat  and  live  and  have  a  living  for  their  families,  and 
must  have  work  to  do,  so  with  all  the  help,  willingly  or  unwill- 
ingly, given  by  their  employees,  the  small  bankers,  the  indus- 
trialists, and  newspapers,  and  magazines,  and  finally  the  crown- 
ing glory  of  propaganda,  the  movies  and  radio,  the  Money 
Changers  came  into  their  own  by  leaps  and  bounds. 

The  task  which  I  had  set  myself — namely,  to  search  out  and 
assemble  facts  bearing  upon  the  continuous  conspiracy  to  en- 
slave the  people  everywhere  through  manipulation  of  money  and 
credits — was  now  finished.  What  an  aggregation  of  villainous 
acts  were  here  recorded — seemingly  in  overabundance,  but  cer- 
tainly quite  sufficient  to  convince  any  intelligent  citizen  that  our 
present  monetary  system,  and  the  economic  wreckage  caused  by 
it,  are  the  composite  result  of  all  these  conspiracies  operating 
against  and  damning  society. 


112  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

CHAPTER  XXin. 

The  Virginia  Plantation 

Fatigued  as  I  was  from  long  research  and  study,  I  was  very 
happy  to  accept  an  invitation  to  spend  a  month  with  some  dear 
friends  who  had  a  few  years  before  established  themselves  upon 
an  old  Virginia  plantation,  within  a  short  day's  automobile 
journey  from  Washington. 

I  arrived  there  the  latter  part  of  May,  1933,  and  a  more  beau- 
tiful and  ideal  place  in  which  to  rest  and  write  could  not  have 
been  found.  The  place  was  old  but  of  fine  construction,  and  I 
was  given  a  beautifully  situated  room  on  the  ground  floor,  with 
southern  exposure,  having  a  large  French  door  that  opened  into 
an  exquisite  garden  of  fruit  and  flowers  that  was  certainly  con- 
ducive to  rest  and  quiet  I  needed  so  badly  after  my  strenuous 
work  in  Washington. 

My  friend  and  his  wife  (they  had  no  children)  were  fairly 
well  to  do,  having  accumulated  enough  to  keep  them  comfort- 
ably, had  retired  there  to  the  quiet  and  beautiful  valley  to  enjoy 
a  few  years  of  life,  while  yet  young  enough  to  enjoy  it,  a  thing 
most  people  neglect  to  do  until  it  is  too  late.  The  farm  made 
them  a  comfortable  living,  and  as  help  was  very  reasonable,  they 
did  not  have  to  overwork  themselves,  and  were  really  living  the 
lives  of  the  "Gentle  folks  of  the  Old  South." 

I  had  been  there  only  a  short  while  and  had  gotten  my  manu- 
script in  fair  shape,  but  was  not  satisfied  with  it  myself;  it 
seemed  woefully  incomplete  and  the  thought  occurred  to  me 
many  times,  that  at  sometime,  this  whole  diabolical  scheme  of 
binding  our  Nation,  in  a  mountainous  debt  of  economic  slavery, 
could  have  been  stopped  and  a  system  of  some  kind  put  into 
effect,  whereby  our  people  could  have  gone  onward  and  upward 
in  a  free  and  happy  expression  of  their  lives,  in  their  own  indi- 
vidual way,  being  always  and  at  all  times  well  able  to  earn  a 
comfortable  living,  educate  their  children,  and  prepare  a  compe- 
tence for  their  declining  years,  when  their  earning  power  waned, 
and  be  able  to  enjoy  the  sunset  of  life  as  a  reward  for  work  well 
done. 

All  this  seemed  wholly  possible  in  a  land  of  abundance,  and 
especially  since  our  producing  power  had  increased  so  tremen- 
dously, and  I  could  see  no  reason  at  all  why,  that  the  more  we 
produced,  the  poorer  we  got  as  a  nation,  or  to  put  it  into  a  more 
truthful  and  definite  phrase — the  more  we  produced,  and  the 
more  machinery  we  invented  to  do  our  work  for  us,  the  deeper 
into  debt  we  went ! 

Even  with  the  new  environment  I  could  not  keep  my  mind 
from  returning  again  and  again  to  the  circumstances  surrounding 
the  time  of  the  "Great  Emancipator"  and  his  work  and  action, 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  113 

and  especially  that  letter  to  Col.  Taylor  about  the  "Greenback" 
being  the  "Greatest  Blessing"  our  people  had  ever  had  bestowed 
upon  them.  His  thought  upon  all  other  matters  had  been  so  clear, 
righteous,  and  unselfish,  that  he  must  of  necessity  have  had  far 
different  plans  for  our  immediate  future,  than  those  under  which 
our  Government  was  operating  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  just 
before  his  tragic  and  untimely  death. 

Then  also  a  plank  in  the  platform  on  which  he  was  elected  in 
1864,  declared  for  a  National  Currency.  Just  what  kind  of  a 
system  could  he  have  had  in  mind?  Or  was  he  willing  to  give 
the  bankers  most  anything  they  wanted  if  thereby  he  could  save 
the  Union? 

Again  and  again  my  mind  would  ponder  upon  the  strenuous 
days  and  sleepless  nights  he  spent  in  the  early  years  of  the  war, 
with  the  question  of  financing  war  operations ;  his  jubilant  and 
thankful  letter  to  Col.  Taylor  for  devising  a  way  to  relieve  the 
situation,  then  soon  to  have  the  crisis  arise  again ;  the  fight  in 
Congress  over  the  "Exception  Clause"  in  the  "Greenback" 
issue  with  its  final  adoption  and  the  excuse  it  offered,  the  Money 
Changers  discounting  and  depreciating  the  greenback  money 
and  destroying  its  purchasing  power  and  value,  under  a  law  made 
especially  for  the  purpose,  of  course,  then  the  harried  and  wor- 
ried President  being  forced  to  accede  to  the  establishment  of  the 
same  nefarious  Bank  Law  that  had  twice  before  been  killed  and 
thrown  out,  by  his  illustrious  predecessors  in  the  presidency, 
Jefferson  and  Jackson. 

Surely,  being  the  student  that  he  was,  with  his  wisdom  and 
judgment,  he  must  have  known  all  that  had  gone  on  before,  and 
the  reasons  for  the  opposition  of  Jefferson  and  Jackson  and  all 
the  other  fearless  patriots  of  former  years  to  such  a  system  of 
finance. 

Such  a  student  of  the  Constitution  as  he,  and  so  shrewd,  he 
surely  knew  such  a  law  was  unconstitutional.  If  he  had  only 
lived — with  the  war  over,  and  with  four  years  more  in  which  to 
do  things — but  he  didn't  live.  He  was  killed!!  Murdered!!!  HE 
NEVER  HAD  A  CHANCE  TO  PROVE  WHAT  HE  COULD  DO  I 

Such  was  my  thinking  one  night  as  I  lay  on  my  pillow,  when 
I  dropped  into  a  deep  slumber.  Sometime  later  I  woke  with  a 
start,  the  room  all  light,  and  standing  beside  my  bed  was  a  gentle- 
man, seemingly  of  the  old  school,  who  bowed  graciously,  and 
begging  my  pardon  for  the  intrusion,  said  he  understood  I  was 
writing  a  book  on  the  nation's  economic  situation,  and  that  he 
had  some  information  that  might  prove  valuable  to  me.  If  I 
would  allow  him  to  do  so,  he  would  give  me  the  information  and 
be  on  his  way. 

And  this  is  the  strange  and  amazing  story  revealed  to  me 
there  in  the  wee  small  hours  of  the  night,  on  the  Old  Virginia 
Plantation. 


114  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  Stranger's  Story 

I  reached  for  a  note  book  and  pencil  that  lay  on  a  small  table 
beside  my  bed  and  bade  him  proceed. 

"You  have,  of  course,"  he  began,  "gone  quite  thoroughly  into 
the  money  question  in  ancient,  medieval,  early  English  and  early 
American,  and  also  in  our  modern  times,  therefore,  you  must 
have  seen  how  the  thread  of  control,  the  methods  of  procedure, 
the  schemes,  and  the  tricks  have  all  come  down  through  the  cen- 
turies in  an  unbroken  chain,  never  becoming  more  humane  and 
just  toward  the  people,  but  always  waxing  more  severe,  more  in- 
human, and  more  oppressive  with  each  succeeding  generation. 

"It  will  help  you  to  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  system 
and  its  application  if  you  know  and  remember  that  the  same 
class  of  predatory  people  have  been  continuously  unbroken  in 
their  line  of  descent,  the  principal  Money  Changers  and  Money 
Manipulators,  handing  down  their  knowledge  of  money  and  its 
pernicious  and  enslaving  uses  to  each  succeeding  generation,  to 
do  with,  use,  and  improve  upon  the  wicked,  lecherous  practices 
of  the  ages ;  to  subject  other  people  to  their  rule  and  to  take 
from  them  their  hard  earned  produce  of  the  field  and  factories. 

"It  is  true,  of  course,  there  have  been  at  times,  members  of 
other  peoples,  who  have  learned  and  used  some  of  the  tricks  and 
practices  of  the  real  money  changers,  but  usually  in  the  end  they 
were  fleeced  by  the  others  with  the  tricks  they  had  not  learned. 
Furthermore  these  outsiders  were  not  imbued  with  the  necessity 
of  handing  knowledge  of  these  things  down  to  their  children, 
likely  preferring  to  lock  up  the  fact  of  their  use,  in  their  own 
memory,  and  handing  down  only  the  result,  or  the  money  and 
riches,  they  had  been  able  to  obtain  by  their  use. 

' '  The  members  of  the  other  classes  who  have  used  some  of  the 
methods  of  the  'Money  Changers'  have  increased  in  number  in 
the  last  few  centuries,  in  fact,  the  whole  civilized  world  has  be- 
come infected  with  the  pernicious  practice  and  in  the  main  have 
been  a  most  helpful  tool  of  the  Money  Changers,  enabling  them 
to  extend  their  exploiting  methods  into  fields  and  circumstances 
with  which  their  type  of  mind  could  never  cope  and  for  which 
they  have  no  liking. 

"These  activities,  of  course,  are  in  the  realm  of  large  scale 
exploitation  of  natural  resources,  inventions,  and  manufacturing 
processes.  People  like  Rockefeller,  Lipton,  Harriman,  Marshall 
Field,  and  hundreds  of  others,  have  been  allowed  to  become  very 
rich  and  powerful  in  order  to  produce  these  vast  riches,  to  be  in 
turn  manipulated  by  the  'money  changers,'  either  in  ways  of 
commerce  or  in  the  manipulation  of  their  stocks  and  bonds,  which 
has  grown  to  be  one  of  the  large  'rackets'  of  our  day. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  115 

"Then  again,  in  this  way  the  'Money  Changer'  can  stay  in  the 
background  and  escape  having  the  abuse  and  cry  of  'tainted 
money'  attached  to  him,  and  as  he  says  of  himself  in  much  of  his 
literature,  'work  behind  the  scenes.'  These  people  are  also  very 
adept  at  working  'behind  the  scenes'  as  official  'advisors'  or  even 
'unofficial  advisors'  of  governmental  officials  in  key  positions, 
where  their  advice  would  accomplish  their  own  ends  without  re- 
sponsibility for  the  consequences  being  laid  on  them  if  afterwards 
found  out. 

"Many  of  these  'advisors'  are  being  used  today  in  our  gov- 
ernment, in  fact,  more  than  in  any  other  period  of  our  National 
existence,  which  may  have  some  bearing  on  the  condition  of  chaos 
and  depression  in  which  we  find  ourselves  today. 

"So,  you  will  see,  there  are  many  angles  to  our  complicated 
stage  of  civilization  from  which  the  'Money  Changer'  can  work 
his  nefarious  schemes.  Whereas  in  centuries  gone  by  he  had  only 
the  one  graft — loaning  money  at  usury,  now  his  various  forms 
of  manipulation  have  so  covered  up  and  obstructed  the  view  of 
the  common  people  that  his  schemes  can  be  and  are  worked  al- 
most unknown  and  unseen,  and  when  found  out,  the  blame  gen- 
erally can  be,  and  is,  placed  upon  entirely  different  people. 

"These  many  and  varied  schemes,  of  course,  work  out  so  as 
to  cause  depression  and  deflation  periods,  to  come  with  ever  in- 
creasing frequency  and  seriousness. 

"You  are  also  aware  that  the  headquarters  for  all  the  money 
and  credit  manipulation  of  the  world  is  located  in  England, 
France,  Germany  and  Switzerland !  Orders  for  the  world  activity 
originate  and  are  correlated  there.  Comparatively  few  men  are 
involved  in  this  'Inner  Circle'  of  personage  who  plan  to  rule  or 
ruin  the  world." 

"It  may  be  well  to  mention  that  some  students  of  the  Bible  say 
that  "Bible  Prophecy"  says  that  these  people  just  mentioned, 
will  actually  overcome  and  rule  the  world  for  a  time,  and  rule 
with  utmost  severity,  God  using  them  as  a  rod  or  means  of  chas- 
tisement of  the  other  people  of  the  earth,  for  their  transgression 
of  His  laws  and  for  forsaking  His  work,  but  afterward  they  are 
to  be  practically  wiped  off  the  face  of  the  earth,  by  the  perse- 
cuted and  down-trodden  people.  For  we  must  remember  that  God 
carries  on  His  work  pertaining  to  man  through  man's  thought, 
words,  and  actions,  and  it  may  well  be  true  that  anyone  having 
a  continuous  inner  urge  to  do  things  for  the  benefit  of  humanity 
is  receiving  his  "urgings"  from  the  "Place  of  the  Most  High" 
and  that  he  should  be  about  his  work  and  carry  it  out  to  the  very 
best  of  his  ability,  as  the  light  is  given  him  to  do  so." 

I  was  awed  and  amazed  by  this  strange  but  pleasant  person; 
he  seemed  to  have  a  poise  and  ease  of  expression,  and  a  deeper 
knowledge  and  understanding  than  it  had  ever  been  my  pleasure 
to  contact  before,  and  I  gave  him  my  undivided  attention  in  order 


116  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

that  I  might  transcribe  his  every  word.  His  very  being  forbade 
any  doubt  of  his  slightest  utterance  or  conclusion. 

"To  get  on  with  my  story,"  continued  the  stranger,  "thirty 
years  previous  to  the  Civil  War,  there  lived  not  far  from  where 
we  are  now,  a  man,  his  wife,  and  one  child,  by  the  name  of 
Andrews.  Their  ancestors  were  of  the  early  emigration  from  Scot- 
land and  northern  Ireland,  and  like  many  others,  these  ancestors 
had,  by  fearless  work  and  hardship,  carved  them  a  home  out  of 
the  wilderness,  and  in  time  had  become  a  respected  family  of  land 
and  slave  owners,  on  their  extensive  plantation. 

"You  are  likely  questioning  now,  their  ideals  and  actions  re- 
garding slaves,  but  you  must  remember  that  in  the  South  slave 
owning  was  deemed  by  the  'best  people'  perfectly  right  and 
proper,  and  one  of  the  objectives  toward  which  the  average  white 
man  strove  to  attain.  Many  white  men  believed  that  if  they  own- 
ed a  negro,  kept  him  well,  let  him  raise  his  family  and  live  in 
more  or  less  freedom  from  responsibility,  such  a  negro  was  much 
better  off  than  he  would  have  been  in  a  state  of  barbarism, 
the  precarious  existence  from  which  he  had  been  taken  in  Africa. 
There  are  still  some  white  people  who  think  the  same  today. 

"This  child  of  Andrews,"  he  resumed,  "was  brought  up  a 
'gentleman  of  the  Old  South,'  in  every  way;  his  parents  being 
wealthy  and  he  an  only  child.  He  was  given  every  advantage  and 
perhaps  some  that  he  would  have  been  better  off  without.  He  was 
given  a  good  education  and  spent  a  term  in  a  military  school, 
and  as  was  the  custom  of  many  people  of  his  class  in  the  South, 
he  was  sent  to  England  to  finish  his  education  and  to  absorb  the 
manners  of  the  'gentleman.' 

"The  youngster,  being  a  good  looking  chap  of  excellent  bear- 
ing and  agreeable  personality,  with  plenty  of  money,  became 
very  popular  with  a  certain  class  in  England,  and  was  quite  at 
home  there.  The  clubs,  as  well  as  the  drawing  rooms,  saw  much 
of  him,  so  milch  so  that  he  was  fast  becoming  weaned  away  from 
the  land  of  his  fathers,  and  took  on  the  habits  and  customs  of  the 
'leisure'  class  of  England. 

"His  graduation  time  having  arrived,  he  urged  his  parents  to 
make  the  trip  over  from  the  States  to  be  present  at  the  event, 
which  they  did.  Naturally,  they  were  very  proud  and  happy  to 
see  their  youngster  grown  into  such  a  'perfect  gentleman.' 

"This  meeting  with  their  son  was  destined  to  be  their  last, 
however,  for  the  ship  on  which  they  sailed  for  home  was  lost, 
far  out  in  the  Atlantic,  with  all  on  board.  Thus,  left  with  no 
relatives,  the  young  man  had  less  desire  than  ever  to  return  to 
his  native  country. 

"There  was  a  chapter  in  his  life  just  before  he  went  to  Eng- 
land that  may  have  had  not  a  little  to  do  with  his  going  there. 
A  love  affair  with  a  fickle  young  lady  of  Richmond,  where  he 
attended  school,  who  'threw  him  over'  for  a  more  dashing  and 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MAKTYRED  117 

richer  chap.  This  experience  strangely  soured  him  on  his  native 
country  (but  its  remembrance  had  tended  to  keep  him  single)  and 
he  came  to  look  upon  the  old  plantation  as  just  a  source  of  income 
to  keep  him  in  luxury  without  work  or  worry  on  his  part,  as  his 
father  had  obtained  the  services  of  a  very  able  superintendent 
to  oversee  the  plantation. 

"Then  came  the  Civil  War,  when  all  'good  men  and  true' 
were  supposed  to  come  to  the  aid  of  their  country.  As  before 
mentioned,  3'oung  Andrews'  idea  of  'his  country'  was  a  place  to 
keep  him  in  plenty  of  money,  but  he  was  much  concerned  over 
the  possibility  of  the  slaves  being  freed  and  thus  losing  his  in- 
come.   Naturally  his  sympathies  were  with  the  South. 

"The  call  to  the  Confederate  colors  of  all  who  had  received 
training  in  the  military  schools  of  the  South  caused  young  An- 
drews to  return  to  Virginia,  and  so  urgent  was  the  need  for  offi- 
cers that  he  was  at  once  made  a  colonel  and  put  to  training 
troops. 

"It  was  not  many  months,  however,  before  he  was  at  the 
front  in  the  thick  of  the  fighting,  and  it  was  his  misfortune  in  one 
of  the  earlier  major  engagements,  to  be  severely  wounded  by 
shell  fire  and  which  necessitated  his  being  taken  to  the  hospital 
at  Richmond. 

"He  was  much  more  severely  injured  than  at  first  thought, 
and  doomed  to  spend  many  wearj^  months  in  the  hospital,  more 
or  less  neglected,  as  he  had  few  friends  there  now,  and  all  of 
them  had  many  friends  and  their  families'  wounded  to  care  for, 
and  if  killed  to  grieve  for.  So  when  time  came  for  him  to  leave  the 
hospital,  knowing  that  he  was  so  crippled  that  it  would  take  years 
to  fully  recover,  he  returned  to  England,  where  he  could  at  least 
be  away  from  the  strife  and  immediate  worry,  never  dreaming 
the  war  would  be  lost  by  the  South. 

"He  had  been  so  disfigured  by  a  scar  across  his  face,  and  be- 
ing somewhat  sensitive  about  seeing  his  old  friends,  he  located 
in  the  south  of  England  at  a  seaside  village  where  he  could  have 
care  and  comforts  at  moderate  cost.  Even  then  he  was  beginning 
to  feel  the  pinch  of  the  privation  of  war,  as  he  had  tried  to  do 
his  part  as  had  all  like  him,  having  bought  Southern  Confederacy 
bonds  and  so  having  much  of  his  money  tied  up. 

"His  recovery  being  slow,  he  came  to  brooding  over  his  con- 
dition, and  to  in  some  way  blame  the  Northern  States  for  it, 
and  particularly  the  head  of  the  government  of  the  North,  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  as  all  the  papers  he  read  were  bemeaning  him  as  a 
'nigger  lover'  and  a  man  who  would  free  the  slaves  if  he  could, 
and,  of  course,  that  act  alone  would  practically  ruin  young 
Andrews,  for  he  felt  his  fortune  and  future  existence  was  based 
upon  the  'slaves'  he  owned. 

"He  came  to  feel  that  if  Lincoln  could  be  put  out  of  the  way 
the  North  and  South  could  be  induced  to  go  their  separate  ways, 
and  his  slaves  and  property  would  be  saved. 


118  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

"I  see,"  the  stranger  observed,  "that  you  are  thinking  what 
a  very  selfish  view  he  was  taking,  but  you  must  remember  that 
most  all  human  beings  look  at  conditions  or  circumstances  from 
their  own  selfish  viewpoint,  and  I  hope  you  will  take  into  con- 
sideration the  facts  of  the  boy's  rearing  and  early  training,  and 
his  experience  and  state  of  health,  for  all  these  had  a  great  deal 
to  do  with  his  mental  attitude  at  that  time. 

"I  will  tell  you  now,  however,  that  he  was  to  live  to  repent, 
both  his  attitude  and  action,  and,  before  he  passed  on,  to  come 
to  understand  the  innermost  life  of  the  'Great  Emancipator'  and 
to  learn  to  love  and  revere  his  memory  above  all  others. 

"The  final  months  of  the  war  brought  increased  anxiety  and 
diminishing  income  to  young  Andrews.  Even  his  own  plantation 
was  the  battleground  of  a  major  engagement  and  most  of  his 
crops  and  buildings  were  destroyed,  and  his  slaves  scattered  to 
the  four  winds. 

"He  received  this  news  with  sickening  heart,  particularly  as 
his  supply  of  money  was  running  low.  He  therefore  decided  to 
return  to  the  States  to  see  what  could  be  done,  going  to  London 
at  once  to  arrange  for  transportation. 

"There  he  chanced  to  meet  a  man  he  had  known  while  in 
London  attending  school.  This  man's  name  was  Rothberg.  He 
was  related  to,  and  connected  with  one  of  the  great  bankers  of 
England,  or,  as  they  are  sometimes  called,  one  of  the  'Real  Money 
Changers.'  This  chance  meeting  was  to  culminate  in  one  of  the 
great  sorrows  of  young  Andrews'  life. 

"He  mentioned  his  forthcoming  trip  to  Rothberg,  and  in  turn 
was  told  that  he,  Rothberg,  was  leaving  on  the  next  boat  also, 
but  was  going  to  Canada.  Rothberg  was  soon  able  to  convince 
Andrews  that  he  had  better  go  to  Canada  also  and  conduct  his 
investigation  from  there,  as  it  looked  very  much  like  the  South 
would  lose  the  war  and  it  might  not  be  too  'healthy'  for  an 
officer  of  the  Southern  Army  to  be  around  when  the  war  ended. 
It  was  soon  agreed  that  they  would  go  to  Canada  on  the  same 
boat,  they  were  even  able  to  get  a  stateroom  together,  and  were 
soon  out  on  the  briny  deep. 

"Their  conversation  soon  turned  to  America  and  the  condi- 
tion there,  and  Rothberg  was  more  than  delighted  to  hear  young 
Andrews'  view  of  the  situation,  and  especially  to  know  his  atti- 
tude toward  Lincoln.  He  sided  in  with  Andrews  at  once  and  en- 
larged upon  the  desirability  of  removing  Lincoln  from  the  direc- 
tion of  affairs,  and  what  a  good  thing  it  would  be  for  the  South 
and  for  Andrews  in  particular. 

"Their  voyage  was  in  the  early  fall  of  1864,  and  the  second 
day  out  their  ship  ran  into  a  violent  storm.  Andrews  was  not 
concerned  as  he  was  a  good  sailor,  having  crossed  a  number  of 
times.  But  it  was  the  first  experience  of  Rothberg,  who  became 
violently  ill,  and  as  is  usual  with  men  of  his  type,  he  took  it  very 
seriously  and  was  afraid  he  was  going  to  die. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  119 

"The  storm  continued  in  its  fury  and  Rothberg  became  dan- 
gerously ill  and  his  life  was  despaired  of.  But  for  the  efficient 
and  careful  nursing  of  Andrews  he  probably  would  have  passed 
on,  with  a  great  deal  less  to  answer  for  in  the  last  accounting 
than  he  had  when  he  did  pass  on. 

"The  mad  sea  had  temporarily  taken  the  self-sufficiency  out 
of  Rothberg.  Even  though  he  was  better  physically,  his  iron  will 
had  lost  its  temper.  He  was  afraid — fearful  he  might  not  live  to 
carry  out  his  mission.  His  mission !  Ah,  that  was  more  than  life 
to  him.  So,  summoning  Andrews  and  pledging  him  to  secrecy, 
Rothberg  revealed  the  nature  of  his  stupendous  undertaking. 
Would  Andrews  take  his  place — in  case  .  .  .  and  fulfill  the  mis- 
sion ?  He  handed  him  an  order  for  gold  on  the  Bank  of  Montreal, 
for  his  personal  use,  and  in  his  other  hand  was  another  cheek 
for  a  fortune — payable  when  the  mission  should  be  accomplished. 
Andrews  was  stunned  by  the  unexpected  outpouring  of  money 
into  his  lap — for  doing  a  thing  which  he  was  assured  would  at 
the  same  time  be  to  his  own  personal  interest,  but  Rothberg 
assured  him  that  money  was  no  object  at  all  to  his  people,  and 
that  they  had  quite  sufficient  money  to  take  care  of  any  under- 
taking they  felt  was  to  their  advantage. 

"Rothberg  disclosed  to  Andrews  that  his  relatives  and  their 
associates  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  Lincoln  was  not  the 
right  man  to  have  in  the  White  House,  that  he  would  not  listen 
to  'reason'  and  could  not  be  depended  upon  to  do  the  'right 
thing'  by  the  moneyed  interests,  that  he  did  not  intend  to  keep 
the  States  on  a  'Sound  Money  Basis'  and  was  therefore  undesir- 
able and  a  menace  to  them  as  well  as  the  Southern  Confederacy, 
and  that  his  relatives  were  prepared  to  spend  any  amount  of 
money  needed  to  accomplish  his  removal. 

' '  He  also  disclosed  to  Andrews  that  it  was  his  mission  to  go  to 
Canada  and  from  there  contact  someone  in  the  States  who  could 
kidnap  Lincoln,  and  turn  him  over  to  the  Southern  Confederacy, 
to  be  held  to  bargain  with  for  the  best  terms  obtainable  for  the 
South.  Rothberg  claimed  his  relatives  had  influence  with  officials 
of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  and  that  they  would  see  to  it  that 
it  would  be  put  into  the  bargain  for  Lincoln's  safe  return,  that 
he  would  be  supplanted  with  a  person  more  to  their  liking  and 
more  'safe'  on  the  money  question. 

"Rothberg  explained  to  Andrews  that  the  'Aristocrats'  in  the 
world  must  rule  by  the  control  of  money,  and,  of  course,  he  in- 
cluded Andrews  in  that  class,  and  appealed  to  the  selfish  side  of 
Andrews'  nature  to  gain  his  support  and  help.  He  further  ex- 
plained that  the  control  of  money  must  be  made  sure  for  the 
moneyed  men,  and  that  they  were  to  get,  and  keep,  this  control 
the  world  over,  by  the  same  scheme  they  had  used  when  the  Bank 
of  England  had  been  established,  namely,  the  power  to  'issue' 
paper  money  as  a  privilege  of  buying  Government  bonds  and 
depositing  them  with  the  government,  and  later  to  use  'bank 


120  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

credit'  instead  of  money,  because  they  could  issue  or  withhold 
'credit'  at  their  own  pleasure,  thereby  being  able  absolutely  to 
control  the  money  or  'circulating  medium'  of  exchange  of  th« 
world ;  also,  by  being  able  to  vary  the  '  quantity '  of  '  circulating 
medium'  they  could  raise  or  lower  prices  of  commodities  at  their 
will  and  really  control  the  destiny  of  any  and  all  countries. 

"He  told  Andrews  his  people  had  'managed'  the  passage  of 
the  National  Bank  Law  in  the  States  in  1863.  Lincoln,  he  said, 
had  not  been  in  favor  of  it,  because  he  had  been  able  to  see  that  a 
government  could  finance  itself,  by  issuing  full  legal  tender 
greenbacks,  as  he  had  done  for  a  while,  until  his  (Rothberg's) 
people  had  been  able  to  'persuade'  certain  congressmen  and 
senators  that  the  'exception  clause'  should  be  written  into  the 
bill  for  the  next  issue  of  greenbacks. 

"This,  of  course,  they  had  caused  to  be  done,  to  give  their 
banks  an  excuse  for  discounting  them,  and  discrediting  such 
money,  and  making  it  worthless,  and  which  had  given  them  a 
better  chance  to  get  their  own  plan  adopted,  which  they  had  ac- 
complished. 

"He  added,  however,  that  Lincoln  was  to  them  a  rather  'un- 
known quality';  that  he  could  not  be  'dealt  with,'  would  not 
listen  to  'reason,'  and  was  silly  enough  to  think  that  the  common 
people  should  have  a  voice  in  all  things,  and  was  therefore  a  very 
dangerous  man,  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  'Aristocrats'  of  both 
England  and  America,  among  which,  of  course,  he  included 
Andrews  and  himself.  So  Lincoln  must  be  gotten  out  of  the  way 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 

"Lincoln,  he  said,  was  very  popular  with  the  people,  there- 
fore if  he  should  decide  to  do  anything  about  the  money  question, 
such  as  repealing  the  national  bank  law,  which  the  Money  Chang- 
ers, and  relatives  of  Rothberg,  had  forced  upon  Lincoln  in  the 
crisis  of  the  war,  when  he  couldn't  help  himself,  or,  if  he  should 
start  issuing  greenbacks  of  full  legal  tender  again,  his  power 
might  be  too  strong  for  Rothberg's  relatives  to  overcome  in  the 
American  Congress,  as  they  had  been  able  to  do  before. 

"Lincoln,  therefore,  must  be  removed  as  quickly  as  possible, 
before  he  could  attempt  anything,  in  order  that  no  suspicion 
would  be  attached  to  the  Money  Changers,  or  banking  interests ; 
as  would  be  the  case  if  anything  happened  to  Lincoln  during  the 
controversy  over  money. 

"All  this  was  quite  confusing  to  Andrews,  as  he  knew  very 
little  about  money, — only  that  his  people  had  always  furnished 
him  all  he  required,  and  he  believed  he  was  entitled  to  it  in  some 
way,  by  being  the  son  of  a  slave  and  plantation  owner.  So  he  was 
easily  convinced  that  this  might  all  be  true. 

"At  any  rate  he  figured  that  if  they  could  once  get  Lincoln 
over  the  Potomac  River  to  the  Confederate  lines,  his  plantation 
and  slaves  might  yet  be  restored  to  him,  and  that  was  his  big 
worry. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  121 

"Andrews  was  very  short  of  funds,  and  as  the  scheme  seemed 
to  fit  in  with  his  way  of  thinking,  he  was  soon  prevailed  upon 
to  accept  the  order  for  the  gold.  With  the  sharing  of  his  burden 
of  conspiracy  with  another,  Rothberg  fell  off  into  a  deep  sleep, 
to  awake  next  day  much  refreshed. 

"The  storm  subsided  somewhat  and  Rothberg  continued  to 
improve  and  by  the  time  they  reached  Canada,  he  was  able  to  be 
up  and  around,  but  still  he  seemed  pleased  to  have  such  an  able 
assistant,  even  if  he  had  given  him  a  great  deal  of  money.  What 
were  a  few  hundred  thousand  pounds  to  his  people  who  had  mil- 
lions, and  anyway,  wouldn't  it  be  returned  many  thousand  fold 
in  the  years  to  come,  when  his  mission  was  fulfilled." 

"It  is  very  sad  to  relate,"  observed  my  strange  visitor,  "it 
has  been  returned  to  them  many  million  fold  and  still  is  operat- 
ing more  powerfully  than  ever  at  this  time.  But  who  can  tell, 
perhaps  this  bit  of  information  I  am  able  to  give  you,  may  help 
in  arousing  the  countrymen  of  the  Great  Lincoln  to  a  realization 
of  the  cause  of  their  distress  and  enslavement  and  inspire  them 
to  action  to  remove  the  cause. 

"I  sincerely  trust  that  such  will  be  the  case.  After  all  is  said 
and  done,  when  real  Americans  know  the  truth,  they  can  be  de- 
pended upon  to  right  their  wrongs,  and  woe  unto  those  re- 
sponsible for  their  suffering  and  losses. 

"Rothberg  and  Andrews  had  no  sooner  located  themselves 
comfortably  in  Montreal,"  continued  the  stranger,  "when  An- 
drews began  to  look  about  for  possible  acquaintances  from  the 
States,  and  was  soon  able  to  find  a  number  of  officers  of  the  Con- 
federacy, who  were  there,  on  one  errand  or  another,  as  much  of 
the  business  and  conspiracy  of  the  Confederation  was  carried  on 
from  Canada. 

"He  soon  discovered  that  there  was  a  sentiment  favorable  to 
his  plan  among  certain  people  in  the  Northern  States,  and  that 
they  could  be  controlled  if  one  had  the  'wherewith'  to  do  so. 

"This  'wherewith'  was  no  object  to  Rothberg,  and  soon  ave- 
nues of  approach  were  opening  up  and  information  coming  in 
from  the  States. 

"By  now,  however,  another  election  had  been  held  and  Lin- 
coln had  been  returned  to  the  Presidency  by  a  large  majority, 
and  was  fast  becoming  a  national  hero  to  the  North.  Lincoln  was 
letting  it  be  known  also  that  he  was  a  friend  of  the  South,  and 
in  the  event  of  their  surrender,  he  would  see  to  it  that  they  were 
not  mistreated. 

"This  was  making  the  mission  of  Rothberg  more  difficult, 
and  he  was  getting  frantic  appeals  and  demands  for  action  from 
his  relatives,  together  with  new  grants  of  gold  and  a  free  hand 
to  dispense  it.  Rothberg  now  had  a  number  of  people  employed 
getting  newspaper  and  other  information  from  both  the  Southern 
and  Northern  States.  He  was  thus  able  to  keep  informed  of  events 
and  make  his  plans  and  actions  fit  in  with  the  prevailing  condi- 


122  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

tions  in  the  States,  so  that  anything  that  was  done  could  be  laid 
on  to  other  parties.  Bold  and  bitter  threats  of  assassination  of 
Lincoln  were  appearing  in  various  papers  and  places. 

"There  was  a  paper  in  the  South — at  Selma,  Alabama — that 
carried  an  offer  to  remove  Lincoln,  Seward,  and  Johnson  for  a 
million  dollars.  This  advertisement  was  deemed  by  Rothberg  to 
be  the  very  thing  he  was  looking  for  and  on  which  his  plan  was 
laid — a  plan  that  was  discussed  and  put  up  to  his  accomplices  as 
the  'Kidnapping  Plan'." 

Note:  (Excerpt  from  "Lincoln  the  President"  by  Henry  C. 
Whitney,  Vol.  11,  page  320,  which  the  author  inserts  for  the 
readers'  information.)    "A  Million  Dollars  Wanted  to  Have 
Peace  by  the  First  of  March. "  "If  the  citizens  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy  will  furnish  me  with  the  cash  or  good  securities, 
for  the  sum  of  $1,000,000.00,  I  will  cause  the  lives  of  Lincoln, 
Seward,  and  Andrew  Johnson  to  be  taken  by  the  1st  of  March 
next.  This  will  give  us  peace  and  satisfy  the  world  that  tyrants 
cannot  live  in  the  land  of  liberty.  If  this  is  not  accomplished, 
nothing  will  be  claimed  beyond  the  sum  of  $50,000.00  in  ad- 
vance, which  is  supposed  to  be  necessary  to  reach  and  slaughter 
the  three   villains.   I  will   give   myself  $1,000.00  toward   the 
patriotic  purpose.  Everyone  wishing  to  contribute  will  address 
H.  Catawba,  Ala.  Dec.  1,  1864." 
"Finally  the  information  came  that  a   certain  actor,  John 
Wilkes  Booth  by  name,  was  known  to  be  very  hostile  toward 
Lincoln  and  had  been  heard  to  say  while  playing  in  McVickers' 
Theatre  in  Chicago,  two  years  before,  'What  a  glorious  oppor- 
tunity there  is  for  a  man  to  immortalize  himself  by  killing  Lin- 
coln. ' 

"Forthwith,  the  money  was  poured  out  to  bring  Booth  to 
Canada.  Booth  came,  and  they  were  soon  engrossed  in  the  plan 
for  the  'removal'  of  Lincoln  from  the  White  House." 

"You  may,  if  you  wish,"  said  the  Stranger,  at  this  point, 
"confirm  this  trip  of  Booth's  to  Canada,  as  it  is  spoken  of  in  a 
number  of  different  books,  etc.,  concerning  that  period.  (Note : 
One  such  reference  is  to  be  found  in  the  book,  "Lincoln"  by 
Emil  Ludwig,  page  476 : 

'When  Lincoln,  the  enemy  of  his  (Booth's)  country  was 
elected  for  the  second  time.  Booth  went  to  Canada,  the  source 
of  activity  for  Southern  Conspirators  and  spies.  There  it  would 
seem,  he  hatched  a  plan  for  kidnapping  Lincoln,  who  was  to 
be  carried  to  Richmond. 

'Getting  money  from  unknown  sources,  he  always  insisted 
he  made  it  himself,  by  successful  speculations  in  petroleum ;  he 
returned  in  due  course  to  Washington  with  the  intention  of 
carrying  out  his  design  on  the  day  of  the  Inauguration.  He 
tried  to  force  his  way  into  the  eastern  entrance  of  the  Capital 
and  for  a  moment  disturbed  the  line  of  police  guards,  but  was 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MAETYRED  123 

rebuffed  and  declared  later  that  a  valuable  opportunity  had 
been  missed  on  this  occasion. ' 
"This  Booth  was  a  strange  and  emotional  character,"  con- 
tinued the  Stranger,  "as  were  all  of  the  Booth  family,  and  espe- 
cially his  father,  who  you  will  find  well  described  in  a  book  called 
'Myths  After  Lincoln'  by  Lloyd  Lewis." 

Note :  The  following  is  an  excerpt  from  the  book  mentioned, 
and  is  inserted  for  the  information  of  the  reader.  "Religion 
played  strangely  through  this  strange  man.  He  worshipped  at 
all  shrines  alike,  doffed  his  hat  at  every  church  he  passed,  and 
knew  all  the  intricacies  of  every  Faith  so  well  that  all  de- 
nominations claimed  him.  His  family  were  Episcopalians,  the 
Masons  buried  him  in  a  Baptist  vault,  and  away  back  in  his 
ancestry  there  was  Jewish  blood.  Yet,  after  he  died,  there  were 
Catholic  priests  who  believed  that  Booth  was  of  their  faith,  so 
deeply  was  he  grounded  in  the  finer  details  of  their  church 
organization.  Rabbis  believed  that  he  was  a  Jew,  pointing  out 
the  many  times  he  had  joined  them  in  their  synagogue  services, 
SPEAKING  FLUENTLY  THEIR  HEBRAIC  TONGUE.' 
"Booth  returned  to  Washington  and  got  the  word  noised 
about  that  he  had  made  plenty  of  money  in  real  estate  and  pe- 
troleum speculations,  in  order  that  there  would  be  no  suspicion 
of  where  he  really  got  his  gold.  You  must,  of  course,  know,  that 
at  that  time   gold  and  silver   were   quite   unobtainable   in   the 
States,   and  Booth's  possession  of  this   alone   could  make   him 
popular,  and  he  would  have  no  trouble  hiring  accomplices  with 
gold. 

"You  may  also  find  frequent  mention  of  Booth's  having 
plenty  of  gold,  paying  his  associates  in  gold,  keeping  them  in  the 
best  Washington  hotels,  well  supplied  with  money  and  well- 
dressed.  You  will  also  find  that  there  has  never  been  evidence 
produced  to  show  that  Booth  ever  consulted  the  Confederate 
authorities  about  the  kidnapping  plans,  to  see  how  they  felt 
about  it. 

"However,"  continued  the  .stranger,  "Booth  was  supplied 
with  a  goodly  quantity  of  gold  and  arrangements  were  made 
with  certain  banks  to  give  him  more,  as  ordered  by  Rothberg, 
when  it  was  needed,  and  he  was  soon  deeply  immersed  in  his 
plans  for  the  great  tragedy. 

"The  kidnapping  plan  was  at  first  all  that  the  relatives  of 
Rothberg  thought  they  could  have  accomplished  and  were  will- 
ing to  chance  their  ability  to  'manage'  the  circumstances;  as  to 
where  and  how  Lincoln  would  be  killed  once  he  was  within  the 
Southern  Confederate  lines. 

"This,  of  course,  Rothberg  never  mentioned  to  Andrews,  but 
had  other  lines  of  action  started  in  the  Southern  States  for  that 
part  of  his  plan." 


124  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

"It  was  somewhere  about  this  time,"  continued  my  visitor, 
"that  Lincoln  made  the  statement  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  or  in  a 
public  document  (it  really  does  not  matter  which,  as  you  will 
find  it  widely  quoted  in  most  all  works  on  or  about  Lincoln)  that 
was  to  prove  to  be  his  death-warrant." 

"AVhat  a  tragic  thing,"  I  said,  "for  one  to  write  his  own 
death-warrant. ' ' 

"Yes,"  said  the  stranger,  "but  such  it  proved  to  be,  for 
Rothberg  could  plainly  see  by  this  utterance,  that  Lincoln  fully 
realized  the  gravity  of  the  money  situation,  and  with  his  knowl- 
edge, would,  at  his  first  opportunity,  when  he  could  get  the  war 
fiiiished  (which  seemed  to  be  fast  drawing  to  a  close)  put  through 
legislation  that  would  not  only  repeal  their  National  Bank  Law, 
but  would  put  into  use  a  money  system  that  would  make  his 
country  for  all  time,  in  an  economic  way,  the  same  as  he  had 
done  for  the  negroes  in  a  human  way,  FOREVER  FREE.  I  will 
give  you  a  quotation  from  this  death-warrant  in  order  that  you 
may  be  able  to  verify  and  see  for  yourself  how  clear  it  made  the 
issue  to  Rothberg.  It  begins  as  follows : 

"  'I  see  in  the  near  future  a  crisis  approaching  that  un- 
nerves me,  and  causes  me  to  tremble  for  the  safety  of  my  coun- 
try. As  a  result  of  war,  corporations  have  been  enthroned  and 
an  era  of  corruption  in  high  places  will  follow,  and  the  money 
power  will  endeavor  to  prolong  its  reign  by  working  upon  the 
prejudices  of  the  people  until  all  the  wealth  is  aggregated  in  a 
few  hands,  and  the  republic  is  destroyed.  I  feel  at  this  moment 
more  anxiety  for  the  safety  of  our  country  than  ever  before, 
even  in  the  midst  of  war.  God  grant  that  my  forebodings  may 
be  groundless.' 
"The    Money   Changers    could    see,"    continued    my    visitor, 
"that  Lincoln  had  some  clear  definite  idea  in  mind  and  they 
knew  only  too  well  that  Congress  would  not  dare,  in  the  face  of 
the  great  popularity  of  Lincoln  with  the  masses,  to  try  to  thwart 
any  legislation  on  the  money  question  that  he  might  want  passed, 
for  Lincoln  could  go  right  back  to  the  people  with  evidence,  and 
clearly  show  that  the  really  great  men  who  had  gone  before  in 
the  new  republic  had  been  violently  opposed  to  the  principles  of 
the  then  existing  National  Bank  Law. 

"The  principles,  of  course,  were  practically  the  same  as  the 
former  Bank  of  the  United  States.  The  'money  changers'  had 
forced  Lincoln  to  take  them  in  the  crisis  of  the  Civil  War,  with 
enemies  all  around  him,  and  the  Confederate  Armies  pounding 
at  the  gates  of  Washington. 

"So  Rothberg  redoubled  his  efforts  and  urged  Booth  to  get 
action  quickly,  and  at  the  same  time  kept  the  newspapers  of  the 
South  publishing  bold  and  bitter  threats  from  first  here  and  then 
there  to  build  up  the  thought  that  the  deviltry  was  coming  from 
down  there. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  125 

"It  might  be  well  to  state  here,"  explained  the  stranger, 
"that  the  most  charitable  thing  we  can  say  of  young  Andrews 
is  that  he  was  doing  his  part  under  the  impression  that  he  was 
going  to  help  his  part  of  the  country,  and,  of  course,  himself 
greatly,  and  it  seems  that  when  one's  personal  interest  is  in- 
volved to  a  great  extent  it  is  not  very  hard  to  sell  one's  self  on 
the  idea  of  doing  such  a  thing. 

"But  he  was  to  eat  his  heart  out  in  lonelj'-  regret  and  anguish 
for  his  part  in  the  conspiracy.  But  now  he  had  not  lived  long 
enough,  nor  was  he  sufficiently  familiar  with  money  matters  to 
realize  the  enormity  of  what  they  had  helped  accomplish,  to  the 
detriment  of  the  whole  country — North  and  South.  Therefore,  he 
was  incapable  of  seeing  what  a  great  service  he  could  perform 
by  exposing  the  plot. 

"We  must  remember  that  Andrews  had  lost  his  slaves  which 
he  honestly  believed  were  perfectly  right  for  him  to  have,  his 
plantation  was  ruined,  his  life  embittered  by  his  suffering  and 
changed  appearance  by  the  wounds  on  his  face,  and  then  his 
bringing  up  as  an  only  child  had  been  conducive,  of  course,  to 
making  him  more  selfish  than  he  otherwise  might  have  been.  So 
with  these  things  taken  into  account,  he  probably  acted  about  as 
most  others  would  have  in  the  same  circumstances. 

"Events  moved  rapidly  from  that  time  on.  Booth  was  con- 
tinually urged  to  complete  his  mission.  He  had  missed  one  or 
two  opportunities :  once  when  Lincoln  was  supposed  to  be  on  a 
certain  road  at  a  given  time  of  day  as  was  his  daily  custom. 
Booth's  plans  had  been  to  kidnap  him  then  and  rush  him  across 
the  Potomac  into  Virginia.  Booth  had  been  there  at  the  appointed 
time  with  his  henchmen,  waiting  patiently,  but  wiien  finally  the 
President's  carriage  approached  close  enough  for  them  to  see 
clearly,  they  were  much  put  out  to  find  that  instead  of  the  tall 
gaunt  figure  of  the  President,  another  Government  official  was 
using  the  President's  carriage. 

"This  episode  was  verj-  discouraging  to  Booth,  as  he  was  quite 
temperamental  anyway,  and  it  forced  him  to  begin  all  over  again. 
He  was  being  prodded  continually  by  Rothberg,  who  was  afraid 
conditions  were  changing  so  fast  that  it  would  become  more  and 
more  difficult  to  kidnap  Lincoln,  so  he  definitely  decided  in  his 
own  mind  that  the  thing  to  do  was  to  have  Lincoln  killed  out- 
right. Through  a  messenger  he  could  trust,  this  was  communi- 
cated to  Booth,  who,  while  he  talked  loud  and  bragged  much, 
when  it  came  right  down  to  killing,  was  not  so  anxious  about  it, 
and  still  clung  to  the  idea  of  kidnapping,  as  that  was  not  so 
dangerous  and  besides  he  could  become  more  of  a  hero  himself 
with  much  less  danger  to  them  all. 

"In  the  meantime,  Rothberg  was  getting  demands  for  action 
from  England  and  he  was  passing  them  on  to  Booth  with  all  the 
vehemence  he  could  put  into  words. 


126  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

"Sherman  had  just  finished  his  march  to  the  sea  and  was 
turning  North  to  try  to  capture  the  Confederate  leader  Johnson 
with  his  army,  while  General  Grant  was  in  the  last  stages  of  his 
campaign  in  the  capture  of  General  Lee's  mangled,  bleeding,  and 
starving  armj^  of  Virginia. 

"Lincoln  had  made  his  last  memorable  trip  to  Grant's  head- 
quarters, down  the  Potomac  River  in  the  boat  'River  Queen.'  It 
was  while  there  (calling  Sherman  from  the  South  to  meet  with 
Grant  and  himself)  he  gave  them  their  last  and  secret  instruc- 
tions concerning  the  surrender  of  the  Confederates,  the  carrying 
of  which  into  effect  a  short  time  later  was  to  electrify  the  South 
and  show  them  the  true  and  great  character  of  the  Great  Emanci- 
pator, and  at  the  same  time  to  mystify  the  political  leaders  of 
the  North,  who  were  eternally  clamoring  for  vengeance  on  the 
rebel  political  leaders,  as  well  as  officers  and  soldiers." 

I  was  so  amazed  at  the  stranger's  intimate  knowledge  of 
events  surrounding  the  happenings  of  long  ago,  that  I  hardly 
uttered  a  sound,  but  did  my  best  to  take  his  words  down  in  short- 
hand, as  he  told  the  startling  narrative. 

"Lincoln  was  beset  by  two  factions  at  home  that  were  causing 
great  worry,"  continued  he,  "one  the  Abolitionists,  who  feared 
Lincoln  would  fail  to  place  the  negro  in  full  citizenship,  the  other 
those  fearing  that  the  Confederate  officers  and  army  heads  which 
they  called  'Traitors'  would  not  be  punished  severely  enough. 
Lincoln  attended  to  the  latter  on  the  trip  of  the  'River  Queen' 
at  Grant's  headquarters,  and  the  question  of  the  negroes,  he  felt, 
he  could  attend  to  after  the  surrender  of  the  Confederate  Armies. 

"We  all,  of  course,  well  remember  the  action  of  Grant  and 
Sherman  in  receiving  the  surrender  of  Lee  and  the  other  armies 
— paroling  all  (officers  included),  and  permitting  each  soldier  to 
take  a  horse  or  mule  of  his  own. 

"To  the  people  of  both  the  North  and  the  South,"  said  the 
stranger,  "Grant  and  Sherman  had  done  a  wonderful  thing,  but 
the  radical  factions  desiring  the  'Traitors'  punished  were  much 
put  out.  But  Lincoln  merely  reminded  them  that  as  Grant  and 
Sherman  had  released  the  officers  and  men  and  gave  them  their 
word  of  honor  that  they  were  free,  he  (Lincoln)  could  do  noth- 
ing. 

"They  had  been  outsmarted  again.  Lee's  surrender  had  set 
the  North  wild  with  joy  that  the  bloody  war  was  over,  and  Peace 
had  come  once  more.  Loved  ones  who  were  left  could  come  home, 
and  once  more  take  up  the  thread  of  life  where  it  had  been  inter- 
rupted. 

"Rothberg  was  frantic  at  Booth's  delay,  so  trusting  for  his 
safe  passage  in  the  laxity  of  the  border  officials  in  the  rejoicing 
and  uproar  of  Peace,  he  parted  with  more  gold  and  crossed  the 
border  in  the  dead  of  night  and  made  his  way  to  Washington. 

"The  eleventh  of  April  came,  and  Booth,  with  Herold,  one  of 
his  accomplices,  were  in  the  crowd  at  the  White  House,  when 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  127 

Lincoln  made  one  of  his  most  famous  speeches  of  those,  his  last 
days;  pleading:  with  his  people  for  mercy  and  forgiveness  for 
their  brethren  of  the  South.  His  tired,  yet  sincere  voice  pledging 
the  South  to  protect  them  from  the  radical  revenge-seekers  of  the 
North. 

"He  promised  not  to  turn  the  former  slave  owners  over  to 
the  former  slaves,  nor  would  he  even  let  all  the  negroes  vote, 
only  the  small  percentage  of  them  who  could  qualify. 

"These  words  of  Lincoln  were  proof  enough  to  all  Southern 
sympathizers  that  he  was  the  best  friend  the  South  had ;  but  to 
Booth,  it  was  bitter  indeed,  as  he  saw  his  last  chance  for  kid- 
napping Lincoln  and  delivering  him  to  the  South  disappear.  Turn- 
ing to  Herold,  he  whispered,  'Shoot  him  on  the  spot.'  Herold 
naturally  refused,  saying  that  they  were  sure  to  be  caught  there, 
as  they  had  no  chance  to  escape." 

"If  left  to  his  own  devices."  continued  the  stranger,  "Booth 
likely  would  never  have  molested  Lincoln,  but  on  returning  to 
his  hotel  that  night,  who  should  be  waiting  for  him  but  Rothberg 
himself ! 

"Booth  was  greatly  excited  and  amazed  that  Rothberg  should 
come  to  Washington,  but  with  more  of  Rothberg 's  gold  in  his 
pocket  and  liquor  flowing  freely,  and  with  the  urging  of  Roth- 
berg, he  was  soon  ready  for  the  great  moment  whenever  it  should 
come.  Rothberg  stayed  in  hiding,  of  course,  in  the  daytime,  but 
as  soon  as  dusk  settled  over  the  city,  he  was  after  Booth  with 
liquor,  and  urging  him  to  finish  the  job. 

"As  soon  as  it  was  announced  that  Lincoln  and  Grant  would 
be  at  Ford's  Theatre  on  April  14th.  Good  Friday,  they  agreed 
between  themselves  that  there  would  be  the  place  to  act. 

"Rothberg  could  readily  conAanee  Booth  that  the  kidnapping 
plot  was  out  of  the  question,  as  Booth  had  stalled  along  for 
months  and  had  not  accomplished  his  object,  and  that  it  was  up 
to  him,  the  great  actor,  to  show  the  'stuff'  he  was  made  of,  and 
make  a  real  name  for  himself!  This  talk  and  the  liquor  went  to 
Booth's  head,  and  he  'fell'  for  the  theatre  idea,  as  that  was  his 
natural  place  to  work  and  couldn't  he  be  the  big  actor,  though? 

"Rothberg  thought  Booth  would  be  less  likely  to  get  away 
alive  from  a  big  crowd  and  he  was  anxious  to  have  not  only 
Lincoln  out  of  the  way.  but  Booth  also,  as  he  was  well  versed  in 
the  idea,  'Dead  men  tell  no  tales.'  Booth  had  never  told  anyone 
about  his  contact  with  Rothberg,  having  been  coached  by  Roth- 
berg to  accept  all  the  credit  for  the  schemes  himself,  which  he,  in 
his  erratic  mind,  had  been  glad  to  do,  feeling  it  made  more  of  a 
hero  out  of  himself  to  his  accomplices." 

"I  will  mention  right  here,"  said  the  stranger  emphatically, 
"that  all  through  the  turmoil,  excitement  and  anxiety  of  the  last 
days  of  the  war,  with  all  the  armies  surrendering,  the  radicals 
clamoring  for  the  'Southern  Traitors,'  and  the  vast  and  compli- 


128  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

cated  duties  thrust  upon  Lincoln  at  this  time,  he  never  for  long 
let  the  question  of  'money'  leave  his  consciousness.  In  the  morn- 
ing of  his  last  day  alive,  he  had  an  interview  with  Schyler  Colfax 
about  money  and  the  development  of  the  gold  and  silver  mining 
industry  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. ' ' 

NOTE :  The  author  verified  the  foregoing,  and  for  the  read- 
ers'  information,  quotes  the  following: 

LINCOLN'S  INTERVIEW  WITH  SCHYLER  COLFAX  ON 
THE  MORNING  OF  APRIL  14,  1865 
From  the  Constitutional  Edition  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Vol.  7, 
page  370. 

"Mr.  Colfax,  I  want  you  to  take  a  message  from  me  to  the 
miners  whom  you  visit.  I  have  very  large  ideas  of  the  mineral 
wealth  of  our  nation.  I  believe  it  practically  inexhaustible. 
It  abounds  all  over  the  Western  country,  from  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains to  the  Pacific,  and  its  development  has  scarcely  com- 
menced. During  the  war,  when  we  were  adding  a  couple  of 
million  dollars  every  day  to  our  national  debt,  I  did  not  care 
about  encouraging  increase  in  the  volume  of  precious  metals. 
We  had  the  country  to  save  first. 

"But  now  that  the  rebellion  is  overthrown,  and  we  know 
pretty  much  the  amount  of  our  national  debt,  the  more  gold 
and  silver  we  mine,  we  make  the  payment  of  that  debt  so  much 
easier.  Now,"  said  he,  speaking  with  more  emphasis,  "I  am 
going  to  encourage  that,  every  possible  way.  We  shall  have 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  disbanded  soldiers,  and  many  have 
feared  that  their  return  home  might  paralyze  industry  by  fur- 
nishing suddenly  a  supply  of  labor  greater  than  their  demand 
for. 

"I  am  going  to  try  to  attract  them  to  the  hidden  wealth  of 
our  mountain  ranges,  where  there  is  room  enough  for  all.  Im- 
migration, which  even  the  war  has  not  stopped,  will  land  upon 
our  shores  hundreds  of  thousands  more  per  year  from  over- 
crowded Europe.  I  intend  to  point  them  to  the  gold  and  silver 
that  awaits  them  in  the  West.    Tell  the  miners  for  me,  that  I 
shall  promote  their  interests  to  the  utmost  of  my  ability ;  be- 
cause their  prosperity  is  the  prosperity  of  the  nation,  and, 
said  he,  his  eyes  kindling  with  enthusiasm,  we  shall  prove  in 
a  very  few  years  that  we  are  indeed  the  treasury  of  the  world. ' ' 
"As  the  fatal  evening  of  April  14th  crept  around,"  continued 
the  stranger  again,  "Booth  rounded  up  his  gang  and  gave  them 
the  new  plan  that  had  been  impressed  upon  him  by  Rothberg, 
which  followed  the  plan  advertised  in  the  Alabama  paper  some 
months  before,  which  was  to  kill  Lincoln,  Johnson  and  Seward. 
"Booth's  accomplices  rebelled  fiercely,  saying  that  they  were 
only  hired  to  kidnap  Lincoln  and  that  was  all  they  intended  to 
do,  but  Booth's  persuasive  power,  added  to  the  power  of  gold 
and  liquor,  finally  won  them  over,  and  they  were  assigned  their 
posts. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  129 

"As  Booth  convinced  Rothberg,  in  Canada,  by  demonstra- 
tion that  he  was  a  good  shot  with  the  pistol  he  was  appointed,  of 
course,  to  take  the  leading  role  and  get  Lincoln.  This  course  was 
also  to  have  the  best  chance  to  get  Booth  killed  and  out  of  the 
way.  Powell,  one  of  the  conspirators,  was  assigned  to  kill  the 
Secretary  of  State,  Seward,  and  Atzeroldt,  another  accomplice, 
was  assigned  to  kill  Vice-President  Johnson,  and  Herold  was  to 
aid  in  the  get-away. 

''As  you  know,  Atzeroldt  fell  down  completely  on  his  assign- 
ment, being  too  much  under  the  influence  of  liquor. 

"Powell  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  kill  Seward,  and  Herold, 
true  to  his  part,  made  his  way  to  a  meeting  place  with  Booth. 

"Booth,  with  the  assistance  of  plenty  of  strong  liquor  bolster- 
ing up  his  waning  courage,  and  with  the  prompting  and  threats 
of  Rothberg  ringing  in  his  ears,  and  a  dose  of  a  well-known  drug 
administered  by  Rothberg  as  a  stimulant  for  courage  (as  Roth- 
berg so  well  knew),  was  finally  ready  for  his  act. 

' '  So  shortly  after  ten  o  'clock,  while  the  play  at  Ford 's  Theatre 
was  in  progress.  Booth  slipped  quietly  past  the  ticket  taker,  who 
knew  him  as  a  privileged  character,  strolled  casually  up  to  the 
back  of  the  President's  box,  quietly  stepped  inside,  and  with  the 
cunning  and  accuracy  of  a  maniac,  Booth  projected  his  pistol  for- 
ward on  a  level  with  the  back  of  the  President's  head  and  fired. 

"The  great  man  never  spoke — only  slumped  forward,  and 
Booth,  dropping  his  gun  and  drawing  a  knife,  slashed  at  the 
military  aid  of  Lincoln  who  rushed  at  him.  Then  attempting  his 
grandstand  play  as  a  great  tragedian,  he  leaped  from  the  box 
to  the  stage,  catching  his  spurs  in  some  of  the  bunting  decorating 
the  presidential  box,  and  fell  sprawling,  breaking  a  bone  in  one 
leg. 

"With  the  excitement  and  drug  both  acting,  and  burning 
with  humiliation  at  his  accident,  he  hardly  paused,  but  brandish- 
ing his  knife,  he  cried,  'Sic  semper  tyrannis,'  and  half  ran  and 
half  hobbled  from  the  stage,  slashing  at  the  orchestra  leader 
with  his  knife  as  he  passed  near  him,  and  reached  the  stage  door 
on  the  alley  where  his  horse  was  being  held  by  a  boy  they  called 
'Peanuts.'  He  grabbed  his  horse,  and  hurriedly  mounted  him; 
he  cuffed  the  lad  out  of  the  way  and  was  off  for  what  he  thought 
was  Liberty  and  Fame,  with  the  ending  you,  of  course,  know." 

I  broke  into  the  stranger's  narrative  to  ask  if  Booth  was 
really  killed  or  if  it  was  someone  else 's  body  they  got  and  buried, 
but  replying  the  stranger  said,  "Yes,  it  was  Booth,  all  right,  and 
a  queer  person  he  was.  He  never  mentioned  the  secret  part  of 
his  conspiracy  with  Rothberg  to  the  last,  as  he  well  knew  what 
would  happen  to  him,  surely,  if  he  did. 

"But  Rothberg 's  work  was  not  finished.  Booth  had  no  sooner 
accomplished  his  ghastly  deed  than  Rothberg  was  busy  with  his 
gold  getting  rumors,  whisperings  and  confusion  spread  over  all 
the  Capital.  A  few  words  well  placed,  with  a  few  money  changer 


130  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

friends  were  all  that  was  required  to  speed  the  search  for  Booth, 
to  get  him  out  of  the  way  and  hushed.  Large  rewards  were  soon 
offered  and  detectives,  police  and  soldiers  were  soon  combing 
the  country  about  Washington,  then  more  and  still  more  whisper- 
ing and  rumors  were  spread  by  Rothberg's  men,  to  thoroughly 
confuse  and  detract  all  possible  thought  from  the  real  source  of 
the  trouble. 

"Then  when  Booth  was  killed,  more  rumors  were  spread — 
that  it  was  not  Booth 's  body,  to  more  confuse  the  issue,  keep  the 
police  thinking  and  hunting  for  Booth  and  the  higher  ups.  This 
was  all  right  in  line  with  the  long  practiced  procedure  of  the 
money  changers.  Over  the  centuries  in  such  circumstances,  con- 
fusion, deceit,  and  make-believe  have  been  their  chief  tools,  aside 
from  the  use  of  the  power  of  Gold,  which,  of  course,  is  their 
greatest  weapon,  in  their  drive  for  wealth  and  power. 

"As  soon  as  Rothberg  had  concluded  his  whispering  and 
rumor  campaign  and  Booth  was  killed,  of  which  lie  made  sure, 
he  quietly  slipped  over  to  Montreal  again.  Here  he  met  Andrews, 
who  had  in  the  interval  that  Rothberg  was  away,  by  reading 
Lincoln's  late  utterances  and  talking  with  other  Confederate 
officers,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  Lincoln  was  the  South 's 
only  hope  for  fair  play,  and  so  informed  Rothberg,  and  up- 
braided him  for  double-crossing  him  and  dealing  his  Southland 
a  dastardly  blow. 

"Rothberg,  of  course,  was  terribly  sorry  (so  he  said)  and 
blamed  it  all  on  to  Booth,  but  he  could  see  that  Andrews  mis- 
trusted him  and  would  likely  cause  him  trouble.  They  were  at  a 
small  outlying  house  where  they  were  in  the  habit  of  meeting, 
and  which  had  been  fixed  up  comfortably  by  Rothberg.  They 
were  still  quarreling  about  the  assassination,  when  Rothberg 
finally  decided  that  the  best  and  safest  thing  for  him  was  to  get 
Andrews  also  out  of  the  way  and  forthwith  suggested  they  open 
a  bottle  of  old  wine  and  sit  by  the  fire  to  talk  it  over. 

"So  saying,  Rothberg  proceeded  to  open  the  wine,  but  An- 
drews, by  now  thoroughly  mistrusting  him,  was  carefully  watch- 
ing his  actions,  and  after  they  had  had  a  few  rounds  of  wine, 
he  thought  he  saw  Rothberg  drop  something  into  his  (An- 
drews')   glass  before  filling  it  with  wine. 

"Rothberg  was  by  now  slightly  under  the  influence  of  the 
wine  and  was  not  as  careful  as  he  would  otherwise  have  been. 
"When  he  was  attracted  to  the  window  by  a  disturbance  outside, 
Andrews  changed  the  wine  glasses,  just  in  case  he  had  been  right 
in  thinking  Rothberg  had  slipped  something  into  his  glass. 

""When  Rothberg  returned  to  the  table,  Andrews  was  drinking 
his  wine  and  immediately  Rothberg  waxed  jubilant  and  taking 
up  his  glass  finished  it  off  at  a  gulp  and  urged  Andrews  to  do  the 
same  and  have  another.  He  had  no  sooner  gotten  the  words  out 
of  his  mouth  than  a  startled  look  came  over  his  face,  and  turn- 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  131 

ing  deathly  pale,  he  seemed  to  realize  what  had  happened.  Know- 
ing he  was  finished  anyway,  he  grabbed  for  his  gun  to  finish 
Andrews  also,  but  Andrews  was  the  quicker  of  the  two  and 
grabbing  Rothberg's  arm  wrenched  the  pistol  from  him  before 
he  could  use  it. 

"By  now,  the  poison  was  doing  its  deadlj^  work,  and  Roth- 
berg  sank  to  the  floor,  a  victim  of  his  own  dastardly  procedure. 
He  was  soon  dead,  and  Andrews,  removing  all  identifications 
from  Rothberg's  clothing  and  pockets,  washed  his  own  glass  and 
replaced  it  in  Rothberg's  cupboard.  Then  he  removed  the  poison 
receptacle  he  had  found  in  Rothberg's  pocket  and  left  it  open  on 
the  table  by  the  glass,  so  all  could  see  Rothberg  had  just  simply 
committed  suicide. 

"When  this  had  happened,  it  being  quite  dark  by  then,  An- 
drews quietly  left  the  place  and,  quitting  the  hotel  where  he  had 
been  stopping,  he  left  for  Toronto. 

"Thus,  Rothberg,  one  of  the  arch  conspirators  of  the  ghastly 
crime  against  humanity  at  large,  and  America  in  particular,  just 
in  the  very  prime  of  life,  and  just  when  he  thought  all  was  over 
but  the  shouting,  had  been  paid  in  full  with  his  own  coin,  by 
drinking  the  potion  he  had  prepared  for  another;  once  more 
proving  the  old  saying,  'THE  WAGES  OF  SIN  IS  DEATH!' 


CHAPTER  XXV 

The  Return  to  the  Old  Plantation 

"After  a  few  days  in  Toronto,"  resumed  the  stranger,  after 
a  pause,  "Andrews  crossed  the  border  under  an  assumed  name 
and  made  his  way  back  to  his  '  Old  Plantation  Home '  in  Virginia, 
to  see  just  what  the  situation  was  there. 

"The  whole  nation  was  in  the  deepest  mourning  over  the 
death  of  the  martyred  President,  and  by  talking  to  different  per- 
sons and  reading  the  papers,  he  was  more  convinced  than  ever 
of  the  enormous  mistake  that  had  been  made  in  the  assassination 
that  had  plunged  the  whole  nation  into  despair,  just  when  they 
were  all  rejoicing  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  starting  the  work 
of  reconstruction. 

"Andrews'  features  were  changed  greatly  by  scars  across  his 
face  received  in  battle,  when  he  was  forced  to  leave  the  Service, 
and  it  only  required  a  change  to  old  clothes  and  letting  his  beard 
grow  to  some  extent  to  make  his  recognition  quite  improbable. 
He  found  most  of  his  plantation  had  been  fought  over,  fences 
ruined,  weeds  and  brush  taking  much  of  the  land,  and  the  slaves, 
of  course,  dispersed. 

"To  his  consternation,  he  found  also,  that  the  State  author- 
ities had  decided  he  was  dead  and  had  forfeited  his  estate  to  the 


132  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

State  and  some  parts  had  been  sold  to  small  settlers.  The  old 
homestead,  which  was  not  greatly  damaged,  together  with  a  por- 
tion of  the  land,  had  been  purchased  by  his  former  overseer  (who 
had  been  in  his  father's  employ  since  childhood)  and  who,  having 
lived  there  most  of  his  life,  had  through  thrift  managed  to  save 
enough  to  make  the  purchase  possible. 

"The  overseer  was  nearly  sixty  years  old  now,  and  having  no 
children,  he  and  his  wife  were  living  in  the  old  plantation  home- 
stead, with  a  few  of  the  colored  servants,  who  after  the  war  was 
over  had  straggled  back  to  the  only  home  they  had  ever  known ; 
only  too  glad  to  take  their  old  places  at  any  terms ;  the  responsi- 
bility of  freedom  having  been  a  greater  care  than  they  could 
easily  manage. 

"It  was  on  a  beautiful  May  evening  when  Andrews  came  up 
to  the  old  homestead,"  said  the  stranger,  "and  his  old  overseer 
was  just  coming  up  to  the  house  from  the  stables,  when  Andrews 
walked  into  the  yard,  and  was  greeted  in  the  friendly  fashion  of 
that  day.  Any  stranger  had  always  been  welcome  to  a  meal  and 
lodging  at  the  Andrews '  home  and  the  new  owner  kept  to  the  old 
custom.  Inviting  Andrews  in,  he  proceeded  to  make  him  feel  at 
home  by  inviting  him  into  the  'parlor'  and  saying  supper  would 
be  ready  soon,  and  that  he  must  stay  for  supper  with  him  and 
his  wife,  and  if  he  would,  they  would  be  glad  to  have  him  stay 
the  night.  After  a  bountiful  supper  that  brought  back  the  child- 
hood memories  as  nothing  else  could,  his  host  had  lighted  a  fire 
in  the  great  fireplace  and  they  were  ready  to  spend  the  evening. 

"Andrews  mentioned  the  fact  that  though  he  had  in  former 
years  been  familiar  with  that  part  of  the  country,  it  had  been 
some  years  since  he  had  been  there,  having  been  in  the  army, 
and  asked  his  host  to  tell  him  the  news  of  those  parts. 

"It  was  not  long  before  Andrews  was  made  acquainted  with 
all  the  current  news,  as  well  as  an  account  of  what  had  happened 
to  the  Andrews'  homestead,  which  gave  him  plenty  to  occupy  his 
mind  for  the  next  few  days.  The  hour  being  late  he  was  shown 
to  his  own  room,  and  bid  pleasant  dreams.  When  the  door  was 
closed  and  Andrews  turned  to  view  the  room  of  his  childhood, 
he  was  engulfed  in  a  torrent  of  memories  of  the  years  that  had 
passed. 

"As  he  wandered  about  the  room,  examining  this  thing  and 
that,  his  own  things,  all  the  horrible  years  of  war,  hospitals,  in- 
trigue and  murder  of  the  past  year  seemed  to  slip  softly  into  the 
shadows  of  unreality,  and  he  was  just  a  little  boy  again,  in  his 
old  home,  with  things  of  his  childhood.  As  his  memory  traveled 
back  over  the  years,  he  began  to  explore  the  room  to  see  if  all 
his  things  were  in  their  right  place,  as  he  used  to  do  when  he  had 
been  away  from  home  for  a  few  Aveeks.  And  as  he  opened  one 
drawer  after  another,  peered  into  closets,  and  cabinets,  he  was 
greatly  relieved  and  grateful  to  find  that  sure  enough,  all  were 
there  just  like  he  had  left  them  years  ago !  His  marbles,  his  books, 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  133 

his  skates,  his  slingshot,  his  box  of  beautiful  bird  egg-shells,  the 
arrowheads,  his  first  knife  that  his  father  had  given  him  and 
which  he  had  loved  so  much  he  had  hardly  dared  to  use  it,  but 
had  always  saved ;  yes,  they  were  all  there,  and  he  was  again 
living  and  enjoying  the  sensations  of  the  years  gone  by  as  he 
never  thought  to  do  again. 

"Presently  he  was  attracted  to  a  'presence'  across  the  room. 
Who  could  that  strange  man  be,  with  a  straggly  beard  and  the 
scars  across  his  face,  peering  at  him  from  the  depths  of  shadows 
over  his  dresser  ?  He  would  move  over  a  little  and  see  if  he  could 
get  a  better  look  at  him.  But  wait,  how  was  this?  When  he 
moved  the  strange  man  over  the  dresser  moved  also,  he  moved 
back  again  and  so  did  the  other,  and  then  suddenly,  his  mind 
flashed  back  over  the  years  from  childhood  memories  to  the 
world  of  reality,  of  a  middle  aged  man,  the  scarred  stranger  in 
the  mirror  over  the  dresser,  and  his  whole  being  was  convulsed 
and  shaken  by  grief  and  anguish  for  the  days  and  the  loved  ones 
that  had  gone,  never  to  return. 

"The  friendly  eyes  of  a  kind,  but  strict  father,  and  the  loving 
eyes  of  an  indulgent  mother,  now  looked  down  upon  him  from 
their  places  on  the  wall,  and  he  became  the  little  boy  again,  and 
his  mind  wandered  again  in  the  memories  of  the  past.  Finally, 
after  some  hours  of  this  alternate  switching  of  the  scenes  of  life, 
he  crept  silently  into  bed,  and  was  soon  lost  in  the  sleep  of  utter 
exhaustion. 

"But,"  continued  the  stranger,  "Andrews  never  fully  re- 
covered from  the  experience  of  that  night.  The  wounds  on  the 
head  he  had  received ;  the  anxiety  and  tragic  experiences  he  had 
gone  through  recently,  the  great  grief  and  condemnation  he  had 
felt  for  his  part  in  the  death  of  the  Great  Friend  of  his  people, 
and  lastly  the  violent  emotions  of  that  first  night  in  his  boyhood 
room,  these  were  more  than  human  mind  could  bear,  and  from 
that  day  his  mind  would  wander. 

"During  the  next  few  days  in  his  rational  hours,  he  soon  con- 
vinced his  hosts  who  he  was,  and  they  in  the  goodness  of  their 
hearts  insisted  upon  returning  the  old  home  to  him,  but  he  would 
not  have  it  so,  and  insisted  that  he  must  be  'just  a  man'  come 
to  live  with  them. 

"He  seemed  to  some  way  feel  that  his  days  were  numbered, 
and  he  wished  to  do  all  he  could  to  square  himself.  He  insisted 
on  his  old  friend,  the  overseer,  taking  all  his  gold  that  he  had 
obtained  from  Rothberg  and  paying  off  all  the  indebtedness  on 
the  old  home,  and  fixing  it  up  as  it  used  to  be,  and  also  to  find 
those  former  slaves  if  he  could,  and  settle  them  on  farms  of  their 
own  and  start  them  off  right,  which  was  done.  And  for  himself, 
he  only  asked  to  be  able  to  live  in  his  old  room  with  his  boyhood 
memories,  and  be  as  useful  as  he  could. 

"After  all  these  things  mentioned  had  been  done,  Andrews* 
mind  seemed  to  grow  gradually  weaker  and  his  lapses  into  his 


134  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

boyhood  memory  more  frequent  and  prolonged.  He  seemed  to  be 
with  his  mother  and  father  and  boyhood  playmates  for  a  while 
and  then  come  back  to  the  present  with  its  awful  memories  and 
secret  sorrows. 

"His  old  overseer  cared  for  him  kindly,  and  kept  him  away 
from  all  people  at  times  when  his  mind  wandered.  He  gave  to 
him  the  care  and  attention  he  would  have  given  his  own  son. 

"It  was  a  few  years  after  his  first  return,  one  hot  summer 
afternoon,  Andrews  was  sitting  in  his  favorite  place  beneath  a 
great  elm  tree  not  a  great  distance  from  the  old  house,  the  tree 
being  the  same  under  which  he  had  played  through  the  happy 
days  of  his  childhood,  when  a  thunderstorm  came  suddenly  over 
the  hills,  and  lightning  flashed  in  all  directions. 

"His  host  had  called  to  him  to  come  inside,  but  he  had  insisted 
it  would  not  rain  much  and  he  was  right,  it  did  not.  But  right 
in  the  midst  of  the  squall,  a  blinding  flash  of  lightning  blazed 
through  the  tall  reaches  of  the  old  elm  tree,  stripping  some  of 
the  bark  from  the  side.  Andrews,  standing  near  the  trunk  of  the 
tree,  to  be  out  of  the  rain,  seemed  to  draw  up  to  full  height  and 
then  was  seen  to  pitch  forward  and  lie  still.  His  host,  who  had 
been  looking  from  the  window,  ran  to  his  assistance,  but  none 
was  necessary.  Like  the  great  Emancipator,  over  whom  he  con- 
tinually grieved,  he  'belonged  to  the  ages!'  A  merciful  God  had 
at  last  relieved  him  of  his  sins  and  sorrows,  for  which  he  had 
repented  and  asked  forgiveness  many  times  through  the  years. 

"They  buried  him  beneath  the  old  elm,  where  his  moments  of 
happiness  had  been  greatest,  and  there  he  lies  today — another 
martyr  to  the  awful  greed  and  lust  for  power  and  domination  of 
the  foreign  money  changers. " 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

The  Stranger  Concludes  His  Story 

The  stranger  paused,  lost  in  deep  contemplation,  for  a  few 
moments,  of  which  I  had  taken  advantage  to  clear  my  eyes  of 
tears  of  compassion  for  my  unfortunate  countryman  Andrews. 

Presently  the  stranger  spoke  again,  "I  wish  you  to  have  a 
very  clear  idea  in  your  mind  as  to  the  reason  for  Lincoln's  re- 
moval, and  the  consequences  to  the  country,  and  to  the  whole 
world  that  resulted  from  his  death.  You  must  first  realize  that 
since  money  was  first  used  there  has  always  been  a  certain  few 
people  who  coveted  it  and  who  through  deprivations,  hoarding, 
usury,  and  trickery  later  came  to  control  all  money  and  through 
such  control,  to  control  most  all  activities  of  man.  This  control, 
of  course,  became  more  and  more  concentrated  down  through 
the  ages,  being  wrested  from  these  people  from  time  to  time 


LINCOLN  MONEY  JVIARTYRED  135 

through  pogroms,  and  revolutions,  but  eventually  always  return- 
ing to  the  control  of  either  the  same  people  or  their  descendants, 
who  had  either  inherited,  or  had  handed  down  to  them  as  a  price- 
less heritage,  the  money  itself  or  the  'instructions'  as  to  how  in 
devious  ways  to  get  control  of  it. 

"No  government,  up  to  Lincoln's  time,  had  ever  been  able 
to  figure  out  any  way  for  the  government  itself  to  gain  and  keep 
control  of  its  own  money  and  finances. 

"This,  then,  was  the  crux  of  the  whole  situation:  Lincoln 
had,  through  the  help  of  Colonel  Dick  Taylor,  discovered  that 
very  thing,  and  had  used  it  successfully  (making  full  legal  ten- 
der 'greenback'  money),  the  money  they  made  under  their  plan 
being  absolutely  good  money,  never  falling  below  par  at  any 
time,  and  being  even  better  than  the  much  talked  of  'sound 
money'  of  the  Money  Changers  and  their  cohort  legislators. 

"True,  the  Money  Changers  had  been  able  to  get  this  new 
power  awaj"-  from  the  Government  by  having  their  satrap  legis- 
lators in  Congress  pass  the  Exception  Clause  Bill,  making  the 
next  issue  of  greenbacks  good  for  payment  of  all  debts  both 
public  and  private,  EXCEPT  duty  on  imports  and  interest  on 
the  Government  bond  debt,  which,  of  course,  gave  the  Money 
Changers  and  Bankers  the  excuse,  as  they  planned,  to  'discount' 
the  next  issue  of  bills  and  therefore  devalue  and  discredit  them 
in  the  eyes  of  the  public. 

"Lincoln  had,  as  you  remember,  been  forced  to  compromise 
with  the  Money  Changers  (as  he  is  said  to  have  told  friends  he 
could  not  fight  two  wars  at  once — the  Rebels  in  front  and  the 
Bankers  in  the  rear,  and  of  the  two,  the  Rebels  were  the  more 
honorable)  by  giving  them  the  'National  Bank  Law'  in  order  to 
get  money  enough  to  continue  the  war  and  'Save  the  Union' 
which  he  was  bound  and  determined  to  do  at  any  cost ;  knowing, 
of  course,  that  if  and  when  he  did  save  the  Union  and  the  war 
was  over,  he  could  attend  to  the  'business'  of  the  Bankers  and 
Money  Changers. 

"He  did,  therefore,  take  the  gold  of  the  Bankers  under  the 
working  of  the  National  Banking  Law,  and  won  the  war  with  it, 
and  saved  the  Union  (although  he  well  realized  it  would,  and 
did,  plunge  the  nation  into  a  maze  of  bonded  indebtedness  to  the 
bankers),  and  by  doing  these  things,  he  had  become  the  greatest 
hero  the  Nation  had  ever  had ;  that  came  up  from  the  people ; 
who  knew  their  every  problem  and  was  loved  by  all. 

"Naturally,  Congress  would  not  have  dared  to  refuse  Lincoln 
any  legislation  he  had  deemed  right  and  proper  to  have  passed, 
concerning  the  money  system.  This,  the  money  changers  well 
knew  he  had  in  mind,  and  also  the  repeal  of  the  iniquitous  and 
dangerous  National  Bank  Law,  that  they  forced  upon  him  in 
the  crisis  of  the  war,  when  he  could  not  help  himself,  and  also 
that  he  would  put  into  operation  a  real  sound  money  system  that 
would  not  include  the  schemes  and  machinations  of  the  Money 


136  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Changers,  but  would  forever  make  them  an  unnecessary  quantity 
in  our  National  monetary  system,  but  let  them  stay  in  England 
and  Germany  and  any  other  country  that  could  tolerate  their 
nefarious  schemes  for  the  economic  slavery  of  the  masses. 

"The  Money  Changers  knowing  full  well  that  when  Lincoln 
was  able  to  show  the  rest  of  the  world  a  money  system,  simple 
in  action  and  direct  and  adequate  in  its  operation,  to  furnish  the 
masses  a  free  floating,  ever  sufficient,  medium  of  exchange  with- 
out a  morass  of  bonded  indebtedness,  that  they,  the  Money 
Changers,  would  therefore  have  to  eat  their  bread  in  'the  sweat 
of  their  own  faces'  instead  of  in  the  sweat  of  the  other  fellow's 
face. 

"So  knowing  all  these  things  they  did  with  Lincoln  just 
what  they  had  done  many  times  all  down  through  the  centuries 
— had  him  removed  from  power.  And  now  it  must  be  clear  to 
you  that  these  same  Money  Changers,  through  the  power  and 
'puir  which  they  exercised  over  the  text  book  people  down 
through  the  years  permitted  only  a  very  small  account  of  Lin- 
coln's assassination  to  be  printed  in  our  school  histories;  the 
story  of  the  dastardly  assassination  of  the  one  truly  great  hero 
America  ever  had,  that  came  up  through  the  ranks  from  the 
most  humble  position,  through  hardship,  hard  work,  and  priva- 
tion, through  his  own  efforts,  to  the  greatest  office  of  honor  in 
the  power  of  the  people  to  bestow,  and  which  he  so  nobly  and 
effectively  filled.  This  has  been  one  of  their  most  effective  ways 
of  keeping  their  own  devious  actions  from  the  people  by  mini- 
mizing them,  and  also  a  most  effective  way  of  spreading  propa- 
ganda by  putting  it  in  school  books." 

At  this  point,  and  before  I  had  time  to  ask  the  thousand  and 
one  questions  that  had  piled  up  in  my  mind,  as  to  where  he  had 
been  able  to  obtain  all  this  startling  and  amazing  information, 
and  before  I  could  realize  what  he  was  about  to  do,  my  strange 
visitor  begged  my  forgiveness  for  having  disturbed  me  for  so 
long,  saying  he  trusted  to  the  goodness  of  God  that  I  would  be 
able  to  use  what  he  had  given  me,  for  the  relief  of  our  sore  be- 
leagued  countrymen  and  all  humanity,  he  bowed  graciously  and 
disappeared  through  the  door  into  the  outer  darkness  of  the 
night. 

I  closed  my  eyes  and  sank  back  into  my  pillow  exhausted 
from  anxious  attention  and  application  in  taking  down  in  short- 
hand the  story  of  my  strange  visitor  as  he  told  it.  Hours  later 
I  was  awakened  by  the  cheery  voice  of  my  friend  as  he  knocked 
at  my  door  and  called  me  to  get  up  for  breakfast. 

CHAPTER  XXVII 

The  Awakening 

I  awoke  in  a  daze  as  the  remembrance  of  the  visitor  and  his 
story  of  the  amazing  and  tragic  happenings  poured  in  upon  my 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  137 

consciousness.  "Heavens!"  I  exclaimed  to  myself,  "I  must  have 
dreamed  all  that."  And  springing  from  my  bed,  I  reached  for 
my  notebook,  as  I  seemed  to  remember  that  I  had  written  the 
story  down  as  the  stranger  had  recited  it  to  me,  and  sure  enough, 
there  it  was,  page  after  page,  clear  and  distinct  as  any  notes  I 
had  ever  taken  in  my  life,  in  my  own  writing. 

I  was  so  excited  I  could  hardly  dress,  and  as  soon  as  I  could 
make  myself  presentable,  I  rushed  out  to  tell  my  friends  of  the 
experiences  of  the  night.  They  were  beginning  to  have  a  good 
laugh  at  my  expense,  when  I  told  of  the  visitor  and  my  host  re- 
marked that  he  was  afraid  I  had  eaten  too  much  roast  for  dinner 
the  night  before,  and  had  been  working  too  constantly. 

But  you  may  imagine  their  surprise  and  consternation  when  I 
showed  page  after  page  of  my  notes  and  read  the  amazing  nar- 
rative, that  they  vowed  was  impossible  for  me  to  write  in  one 
night!  I  hastened  to  swear  to  them  that  none  of  the  story  had 
existed  the  night  before,  and  that  being  tired  I  had  gone  to  bed 
early.  When  I  came  to  the  place  in  the  story  which  told  of  the 
old  Andrews'  Plantation,  I  noticed  my  hostess  catch  her  breath 
and  start  to  say  something,  but  then  bade  me  proceed.  As  the 
story  progressed  she  and  her  husband  seemed  to  have  come  to  a 
common  agreement  between  themselves,  as  they  would  exchange 
glances  each  time  new  mention  was  made  of  the  Andrews  home. 

When  I  had  finished,  none  of  us  seemed  able  to  speak  for  a 
time.  Then  my  host  asked  if  I  had  any  idea  where  the  Andrews 
plantation  might  be  located.  I  replied  that  the  story  as  I  read  it 
to  them  from  my  notes,  was  all  I  had  to  go  on,  so,  of  course,  I 
knew  nothing  more  than  that. 

They  then  asked  who  my  strange  visitor  was,  and  only  then 
I  realized  for  the  first  time  that  he  had  not  once  spoken  of  him- 
self, and  had  not  even  introduced  himself  on  entering  the  room, 
which  I  had  not  noticed  at  the  time,  having  just  awakened,  which 
I  explained  to  them. 

We  then  had  breakfast  and  discussed  some  of  the  details  of 
the  story  as  we  ate  and  when  we  had  finished,  my  host,  turning 
to  me  said,  "It  seems  incredible,  and  if  anyone  but  you  should 
tell  me  such  a  thing  and  yet  tell  me  that  he  knew  nothing  of  the 
Andrews  plantation,  I  would  know  he  was  just  plain  lying.  But 
we,  of  course,  both  know  that  in  the  days  you  have  been  here, 
you  have  met  no  one  and  have  worked  incessantly,  and  would 
have  no  way  of  knowing,  but  I  must  tell  you  that  this,  our  home, 
is  the  Andrews '  home  spoken  of  by  the  stranger ! 

"The  history  of  the  family  is,  as  we  have  had  it  told  to  us, 
substantially  as  you  relate  it,  even  to  young  Andrews  being 
killed  by  lightning,  and  he  is  actually  buried  up  the  path  a  little 
way  under  a  great  elm  tree  with  a  trace  of  lightning  blast  visible 
on  the  trunk.  But  he  was  supposed  to  have  returned  after  the 
war  with  a  weak  mind,  and  had  been  absent  for  a  time,  sufficient 


138  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

for  the  happenings  to  take  place  and  the  property  to  be  taken  by 
the  State. 

"The  old  superintendent,  who  bought  the  place,  died  without 
children  and  it  passed  on  to  relatives,  and  has  come  down  through 
the  years  practically  unmolested,  and  in  the  parlor,  where  you 
have  not  been  shown  yet,  hangs  the  picture  of  young  Andrews, 
his  father  and  mother,  and  other  relatives.  Come,  I  will  show 
you."  And  with  that  we  all  went  into  the  parlor. 

My  hostess  raised  the  window  shades,  and  as  my  eyes  became 
accustomed  to  the  light,  I  started  back  in  amazement,  for  there, 
looking  straight  at  me  from  the  opposite  wall,  less  the  scars,  was 
the  face  of  my  strange  visitor  of  the  night  before ! 

I  was  so  upset  for  a  time  that  I  could  only  stand  and  stare 
at  the  picture,  and  my  host  and  hostess  hastened  to  ask  what  the 
matter  was.  I  could  scarcely  more  than  utter  the  words  to  ex- 
claim that  my  visitor's  face  and  the  face  before  me,  the  photo- 
graph of  young  Andrews,  were  undoubtedly  the  same ! !  My 
friends  were  stunned  by  my  words  as  I  had  been  at  my  first 
glance  at  the  picture,  and  wringing  her  hands,  my  hostess  ex- 
claimed, "Heavens  above!  Are  we  all  going  mad?" 

"Come,  let  us  get  out  into  the  yard  into  the  sunshine,  and 
into  the  world  of  reality  where  we  can  think." 

We  gladly  followed  her  into  the  yard  and  into  the  world  of 
reality,  only  to  find  in  the  days  to  come  that  the  amazing  tale 
in  my  notebook  strangely  fitted  into  the  maze  of  known  facts 
of  past  history,  which  alone  and  apart  from  each  other,  could 
mean  nothing,  but  when  placed  in  order,  as  they  had  been  by 
my  strange  visitor,  made  one  of  the  most  sinister  and  enlighten- 
ing disclosures  in  our  history,  and  opens  up  to  us,  the  de- 
scendants of  those  brave  and  honest  fighters,  who  loved  and  sup- 
ported the  Great  Emancipator,  in  his  valiant  endeavors,  a  vast 
field  of  useful  knowledge,  that  should  enable  us  to  immediately 
rally  to  the  call  from  the  murdered  martyrs  of  the  past,  to  for- 
ever banish  from  our  beloved  land  this  hideous,  vulturous,  treach- 
erous, murderous  power  of  concentrated  gold,  that  holds  the 
whole  civilized  world  in  a  thrall  of  economic  slavery. 

CHAPTER  XXVni 

Conclusion 

The  cries  of  the  half  starving  and  miserable  children  and 
their  unemployed  parents  come  to  us  from  over  the  nation,  while 
they  are  striving  to  keep  going  in  a  decent  and  orderly  manner, 
while  daily  being  deluded  and  deceived  by  a  subsidized  press 
into  thinking  this  is  "just  one  more  depression  and  will  soon  be 
over"  to  keep  them  still,  while  being  robbed  of  their  last  posses- 
sion and  starved  into  submission. 

Well,  dear  friend,  there  is  the  picture  of  our  America  as  we 
find  it  today.  Your  thought  is  likely;  what  are  we  going  to  do 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  139 

about  it?  If  you  will  stop  to  consider  the  question  for  a  few 
minutes,  you  must  conclude  that  all  conditions,  or  state  of  being, 
that  are  brought  about  by  man,  have  a  well  thought  out  starting 
place,  or  a  foundation,  upon  which  they  are  established,  and 
from  which  all  policies  and  actions  must  be  directed. 

Very  well  then,  we  will  start  with  the  FACT  that  the  whole 
civilized  world  of  today  is  being  more  or  less  controlled  and  ex- 
ploited by  a  group  whom  we  will  call  the  International  Money 
Changers.  We  must  conclude  that  this  group  did  not  come  by,  or 
attain,  this  control  accidentally. 

If  not,  how  did  they  attain  it?  On  what  foundation  are  their 
aims,  policies  and  activities  based?  Anyone  that  gives  this  sub- 
ject careful  consideration  from  the  above  standpoint,  must  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  in  a  nation  where  private  ownership  of 
property  is  practiced,  a  thing  called  money  is  very  necessary  to 
carry  on  what  we  call  business,  or  the  exchange  of  labor  and  the 
products  of  labor  and  services.  This  thing  called  money,  there- 
fore, being  exchangeable  for  each  and  everything  that  exists, 
including  man's  time  at  work,  or  labor,  is  the  one  all  important 
thing  in  a  nation  that  vitally  affects  its  daily  life. 

One  must  conclude,  therefore  that  the  Money  Changers'  group, 
after  having  decided  that  they  wished  to  dominate  and  exploit 
the  people  of  the  world,  must  have  come  to  the  above  conclusion 
also,  and  having  decided  that  the  person,  or  group,  that  could 
get  hold  of  and  control  the  money  of  a  nation,  could  successfully 
control  and  exploit  the  people.  History  bears  out  this  very  con- 
clusion for  we  see  all  down  through  the  centuries  this  same 
identical  group  getting,  hoarding,  lending  at  usury,  and  manipu- 
lating the  money  of  all  nations.  They  have  consistently  operated 
this  racket  and  handed  down  from  father  to  son,  and  family  to 
family,  this  knowledge  and  practice,  as  a  priceless  heritage,  to 
be  guarded  and  used  for  this  very  purpose. 

Once  the  reader  has  definitely  decided  that  the  above  con- 
clusion is  correct  the  questions  present  themselves :  How  did  they 
gain  this  control,  and  what  are  we  going  to  do  about  it? 

You  cannot  have  carefully  read  through  the  pages  of  this 
book  and  not  know  very  definitely  that  the  foreign  money 
changers  got  control  of  our  nation  by  first  controlling  certain  of 
our  National  Legislators,  through  bribery,  corruption,  or  other 
means,  and  influencing,  or  forcing  them  (the  legislators)  to  pass 
laws  giving  the  foreign  money  changer  group  the  privileges  of 
issuing  and  controlling  our  money  system  and  establishing  their 
own  banks  and  banking  system. 

History  tells  us  that  practically  no  great  social  change  or  re- 
form has  ever  taken  place  unless,  and  without,  about  half  of  the 
existing  population  being  killed  off,  and  that  the  downfall  of  each 
civilization,  of  which  we  have  any  record,  occurred  when  a  time 
in  the  life  of  each  one  was  reached  that  practically  all  the  tan- 


140  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYHED 

gible  wealth  of  the  country  was  in  the  hands  of  a  very  small 
per  cent  of  the  people.  That  very  condition  faces  our  nation 
today. 

Shall  we  go  the  same  way  as  past  civilizations?  What  factors 
do  we  possess  today  that  they  of  past  civilization  did  not  possess 
that  might  work  toward  saving  us  from  such  a  fate?  Aside  from 
a  more  general  education,  there  seems  to  be  only  two :  first,  a 
highly  developed  communication  system ;  second,  the  enormously 
increased  power  of  production  per  man. 

The  money  changers  now  have  nearly  complete  control  of  our 
communication  systems  which  they  use  to  propagandize  us  into 
doing  their  bidding.  Many  people  believe  that  the  power  of  gov- 
ernment is  being  used  by  them  now  through  the  many  alphabeti- 
cal organizations  of  the  Brain  Trust  to  get  control  of  our  great 
power  of  production,  even  to  the  killing  of  unborn  pigs,  of  cattle, 
of  sheep,  and  of  plowing  under  and  restricting  the  growing  of 
cotton,  wheat,  corn  and  etc.,  to  be  able  to  completely  control  our 
national  and  individual  life. 

There  is  no  weapon  to  be  used  by  a  group  equal  to  the  power 
of  gold  when  that  is  made  the  basis  of  a  nation's  money.  If  any 
nation  is  now  going  to  try  to  throw  off  the  encircling  chains  of 
economic  slavery  of  the  money  changer  group,  that  nation  must 
FIRST  take  away  from  the  money  changers  their  power  to  con- 
trol the  money  of  the  nation,  for  that  is  their  chief  weapon  and 
through  its  use  and  manipulation  all  other  advantages  are  ob- 
tained, and  all  other  rackets  are  perpetuated. 

Through  the  manipulation  of  the  nation's  money  system,  the 
money  changers  have  now  obtained  virtual  possession  and 
control  of  all  our  principal  communication  and  transportation 
systems,  our  public  utilities  systems;  and  together  with  the  use 
of  money  manipulation,  usury,  stock  exchange  gambling,  and  the 
exploiting  power  of  these  aforementioned  systems  they  have  now 
mortgaged  practically  every  piece  of  property  in  our  nation  to 
themselves. 

Now  just  why  do  the  "Money  Changers"  want  the  power  to 
issue  and  control  money?  Well,  just  suppose  for  instance,  my 
dear  reader,  that  you  were  a  very  selfish  individual  and  wanted 
to  take  every  advantage  you  possibly  could  of  the  people  among 
whom  you  lived,  just  anything  that  all  the  people  had  to  have, 
that  you  could  get  the  law  makers  to  give  you  control  of,  would 
be  a  grand  concession,  would  it  not  ?  You  could  restrict  your  out- 
put and  make  it  scarce  and  consequently  make  the  people  trade 
you  more  of  their  product  for  yours  than  it  was  actually  worth, 
or  in  other  words,  change  the  value  of  your  product  in  terms  of 
exchange  of  produce  ?  Certainly  you  could  and  would  if  you  had 
a  mind  and  disposition  that  the  money  changer  crowd  have,  and 
that  is  just  exactly  what  they  do  with  money,  once  they  get  con- 
trol of  the  issuing  power  of  it.  And  that  is  why  they  are  called 
"Money  Changers."  Now  why  do  they  choose  money  to  exploit? 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  141 

Simply  because  money  was  created  to  be  a  token  or  a  thing 
which  would  stand  for  and  be  exchangeable  for  all  produce  and 
labor,  therefore,  it  is  one  of  the  prime  necessities  in  the  realms  of 
trade  and  commerce  and  another  thing,  it  is  easily  stored,  does 
not  depreciate  in  itself,  and  the  really  big  and  bad  thing  is  it 
CAN  BE  LOANED  AT  INTEREST  or  USURY,  and  be  made  to 
work  for  you  while  you  sleep,  so  back  of  the  whole  mess  is  the 
wicked,  vicious,  hideous  destroyer  of  nations  and  civilizations, 
the  practice  of  "USURY." 

Therefore,  once  we  have  taken  back  the  power  to  issue  and 
control  the  value  and  volume  of  our  money,  and  placed  that  con- 
trol in  the  hands  of  Congress,  where  our  good  old  Constitution 
placed  it,  we  must  use  the  power  of  Eminent  Domain,  also  given 
our  government  by  our  Constitution,  and  take  over  and  operate 
under  our  government  these  systems  of  transportation,  communi- 
cation, oil,  gas  and  coal,  as  they  are  all  natural  monopolies  and 
should  belong  to  our  people  as  a  whole  and  not  for  the  ex- 
ploitation of  any  particular  group. 

Once  these  two  first  steps  are  completed  the  other  necessary 
steps  to  make  our  nation  a  happy,  vigorous,  industrious,  virile, 
law  abiding  nation,  free  from  hunger,  unemployment  and  panic ; 
forging  ahead  to  a  prosperity  and  development  such  as  has  never 
been  known,  will  be  comparatively  easy  to  accomplish. 

And  how  to  bring  this  about? 

Inform  yourself,  tell  your  friends  and  neighbors,  convince 
them,  call  meetings,  educate  yourselves  and  others ;  form  com- 
mittees in  each  district  to  wait  on  your  Congressmen  and  Sena- 
tors and  infonn  them,  in  no  uncertain  terms,  just  exactly  what 
you  want,  and  see  that  they  do  it  or  else — 

You  must  all  remember  that  it  was  only  through  the  ability  to 
corrupt,  bribe,  or  control  in  one  way  or  another,  enough  national 
congressmen  and  senators  to  get  the  necessary  legislation  passed 
to  give  the  Money  Changers  possession  of  our  monetary  systems. 
We  must  get  our  rights  re-established  the  same  way,  by  seeing 
that  our  legislators  pass  the  necessary  laws  to  do  so. 

And  finally,  as  we  realize  that  only  by  a  predatory  group, 
first  obtaining  control  of  our  Nation's  money  system,  can  it  get 
and  control  the  nation,  let  us  insist  on  our  National  Congress 
passing  a  law  making  the  introduction  of  a  measure  in  either  the 
Senate  or  the  House  that  would  in  any  way  take  the  issuing 
power  and  control  of  money  from  the  hands  of  Congress,  a 
treasonable  offense,  punishable  by  death  before  a  firing  squad. 
It  is  high  time  that  we  put  a  stop  to  the  activity  of  treacherous 
legislators  selling  out  their  country. 

The  International  Money  Changers  are  in  the  saddle.  They  are 
out  to  rule  or  ruin  the  world.  Do  you  believe  they  own  the 
money  and  the  munition  works,  that  they  foment  trouble  be- 


142  LINCOLN  MONEY  MAKTYRED 

tween  nations,  get  them  into  war,  loan  the  nations  their  money, 
creating  a  bonded  debt  to  buy  their  munitions,  to  kill  each  other 
off,  deplete  their  manhood  and  mire  them  in  debt  so  they  may  be 
easier  controlled,  all  by  the  power  of  GOLD?  And  their  power 
was  obtained  through  crooked  legislators? 

Mr.  Average  Man  and  Woman  of  our  troubled  America,  you 
have  shifted  the  responsibility  of  your  duty  to  yourself  and  your 
nation — of  giving  time  and  thought  to  what  is  done  by  your 
legislators,  whom  you  send  up  there  to  do  it — long  enough.  It  is 
up  to  you,  individually  and  collectively,  to  get  busy  now,  if  you 
wish  to  save  your  necks  and  the  future  independence  of  your 
nation.  DO  IT  NOW,  TOMORROW  MAY  BE  TOO  LATE ! 

The  voices  of  our  brothers  call  to  us  from  the  graves  in  a  for- 
eign land,  to  make  good  our  pledge  to  them  of  a  "world  safe 
for  Democracy." 

The  voices  of  our  fathers  of  the  Civil  War  call  to  us  from  the 
graves  of  Gettysburg,  to  finish  the  work  they  so  nobly  began,  of 
freeing  mankind  from  slavery,  their  part  to  free  the  black  man 
from  chattel  slavery,  ours  to  free  all  men  from  a  worse  bondage 
— economic  slavery. 

The  voices  of  our  ancestors  of  Bunker  Hill,  Lexington,  and 
Valley  Forge  call  to  us  across  the  years  to  regain  and  uphold 
the  rights  of  Freedom  they  fought  for  so  valiantly,  to  win  for  us. 

Earnestly,  tenderly,  Jesus  is  calling  across  the  centuries  from 
the  Cross  on  Calvary,  "I  am  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life." 
He  set  us  the  example  of  driving  the  Money  Changers  from  the 
Temple.  He  pleads  with  us  through  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  to 
apply  the  principles  of  the  Golden  Rule  in  our  every  day  lives, 
and  redeem  our  debauched  young  people  from  a  life  of  shame 
and  ruin  by  liquor,  drugs,  white  slavery  and  corruption,  that  is 
being  fastened  upon  them  by  the  same  nefarious,  inhuman,  for- 
eign money  changers,  who  own  the  liquor  business,  the  tobacco 
business,  the  drug  traffic,  the  white  slave  traffic.  Find  out  for 
yourself,  the  information  is  available. 

Can  you  sit  still  and  suffer  the  yoke  and  chains  of  a  terrible 
economic  serfdom  to  bind  us,  for  evermore,  when  we  are  so  ard- 
ently called  to  the  service  to  Humanity? 

When  the  God  of  Nature  has  showered  an  abundance  of  all 
good  things  upon  us,  shall  we  meekly  let  it  be  destroyed  and  our- 
selves and  our  descendants  be  forced  into  an  economic  slavery  to 
these  worse  than  devils?  No!  A  thousand  times  NO!  But  "Be- 
neath the  Starry  Flag  together  we  will  firmly  stand,  for  the  free- 
dom of  our  own  beloved  Home." 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  143 

Father  Abraham  we  hear  you  calling  from  a  martyr's  grave — 
"Arise,  ye  Christian  Americans,  while  yet  there  is  time,  and  once 
and  for  all  time  smash  this  arch  enemy  of  Christianity,  De- 
mocracy and  economic  freedom.  The  dawn  of  a  new  and  glorious 
future  of  economic  security,  and  plenty  for  all  awaits  ONLY 
YOUR  UNITED  ACTION. 

APPENDIX 

Corroborative  Evidence 

The  following  article  and  editorial  taken  from  the  Vancouver 
Daily  Province  of  May  2,  1934,  gives  further  light  on  the  subject 
treated  in  this  book. 

OTTAWA,  May  2,  1934  (CP)— Abraham  Lincoln,  the  mar- 
tyred emancipator  of  the  slaves,  was  assassinated  through  the 
machinations  of  a  group  representative  of  the  international 
bankers,  who  feared  the  United  States  President's  national 
credit  ambitions — and  the  plot  was  hatched  in  Toronto  and 
Montreal.  This  was  the  information  imparted  to  the  House  of 
Commons  committee  on  banking  and  commerce  Tuesday  by 
Gerald  G.  McGeer,  K.  C,  Vancouver  lawyer  and  advocate  of 
social  credit,  during  a  five-hour  attack  upon  the  present  finan- 
cial system. 

"The  evidence  discloses  that  instead  of  being  a  patriot, 
John  Wilkes  Booth,  who  assassinated  Lincoln  in  a  Washington 
theatre,  was  a  mercenary,"  Mr.  McGeer  declared.  Basing  his 
beliefs  upon  an  exhaustive  study  of  unexpurgated  copies  of 
the  evidence  given  by  secret  service  agents  at  Booth's  trial,  he 
declared  the  only  group  that  could  benefit  by  Lincoln's  death 
and  who  had  the  money  to  carry  out  such  a  plan,  was  the  in- 
ternational bankers. 

"The  South  worshipped  Lincoln  and  looked  upon  him  as 
the  only  one  who  would  secure  them  justice  in  defeat.  If  they 
wished  to  kill  him  they  had  splendid  opportunities  and  could 
have  secured  a  thousand  who  would  do  the  job,"  McGeer  said. 


Hatched  in  Canada 

"According  to  the  evidence  given  at  the  trial,  the  plot  to 
assassinate  Lincoln  was  first  disclosed  in  Montreal  and  To- 
ronto," Mr.  McGeer  said.  "A  group  of  men  representing  the 
Confederacy  were  operating  in  Canada  with  headquarters  in 
those  cities.  During  the  winter  of  1864  and  1865  they  were 
approached  by  an  unknown  group  with  the  proposition  to 
assassinate  Lincoln, 


144  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

"They  were  not  from  the  South  nor  connected  with  the 
Southern  government,  because  representatives  of  the  South  in 
Canada  hesitated  to  consider  the  proposal  until  it  had  been 
submitted  to  the  South  for  approval. 

"Booth  was  engaged  to  organize  the  assassination.  It  was 
proposed  to  the  Southern  government  as  a  plot  to  kidnap  Lincoln 
and  hold  him  as  a  hostage  for  the  purpose  of  bargaining  for 
terms  of  settlement. 


Cost  No  Factor 

'  *  In  accordance  with  this  plan  a  request  was  made  to  confer 
commissions  in  the  Southern  army  upon  those  who  were  to  en- 
gage in  the  actual  kidnapping  or  assassination  of  Lincoln. 

"The  men  responsible  for  instigating  the  crime  were  un- 
known, but  in  evidence  given  at  the  trial  they  were  described 
as  a  group  which  could  undertake  anything  without  regard  to 
cost. 

"Booth  was  never  a  Southern  patriot  in  the  real  sense.  He 
was  never  in  the  Southern  army,  and  one  of  his  associates  was 
a  deserter  from  that  army. 

"Shortly  before  Lincoln  was  assassinated  one  of  the  men 
engaged  by  Booth  declared  that  he  was  going  away  on  a  visit 
and  that  he  would  return  with  plenty  of  gold. 

"Lincoln  was  wont  to  describe  the  men  opposing  his  green- 
back currency  policy  as  'the  secret  foes  of  the  nation.'  The 
battle  between  Lincoln  and  the  sound  money  men  of  the  day 
was  well  known.  In  1864  he  was  elected  on  a  platform  that 
contained  a  plank  declaring  for  national  currency. 

"Lincoln  was  the  most  powerful  reformer  of  his  day.  Had 
he  lived  he  would  have  established  a  national  currency  system 
in  the  United  States. 

"There  was  only  one  group  in  the  world  at  that  time  who 
could  finance  anything  they  cared  to  attempt  without  regard 
to  cost,  and  who  had  any  reason  to  desire  the  death  of  Lincoln. 

"They  were  the  men  opposed  to  his  national  currency  pro- 
gramme and  who  had  fought  him  throughout  the  whole  Civil 
War  on  his  policy  of  green-back  currency. 

"They  were  the  men  interested  in  the  establishment  of  the 
gold  standard  system  and  the  right  of  the  bankers  to  manage 
the  currency  and  credit  of  every  nation  in  the  world. 

"With  Lincoln  out  of  the  way  they  were  able  to  proceed 
with  that  plan  and  did  proceed  with  it  in  the  United  States. 
Within  eight  years  after  Lincoln's  assassination  silver  was 
demonetized  and  the  gold  standard  money  system  set  up  in  the 
United  States." 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MAKTYKED  145 

Corroborative  Evidence 

From  the  Daily  Province — Wednesday,  May  2,  1934 
McGeer  at  Ottawa 

All  the  despatches  from  Ottawa  suggest  that  Mr.  McGeer 
has  achieved  a  real  personal  triumph  with  his  speech  before 
the  Commons  committee  on  banking  and  currency.  By  virtue 
of  that  single  speech  he  appears  to  have  become  a  national 
figure,  as  Bryau  became  a  national  figure  in  the  United  States 
through  a  single  speech  on  a  similar  topic  nearly  forty  years 
ago. 

The  people  who  haunt  the  halls  and  committee  rooms  on 
Parliament  Hill  and  the  lounges  and  corridors  of  the  Chateau 
Laurier  are  practised  tasters  of  speeches.  They  live  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  public  speaking.  They  are  accustomed  to  listen  to 
the  best  Canada  can  produce  and  they  not  infrequently  hear 
the  best  from  other  lands.  It  is  no  mean  compliment,  then, 
when  the  men  sit  for  six  hours  listening  to  the  criticisms  and 
theories  and  plans  of  the  crusader  from  the  West. 

Mr.  McGeer  has  gone  far  in  the  past  two  or  three  years,  and 
all  through  the  marvelous  energy,  vitality  and  industry  and  the 
native  ability  stored  up  in  himself.  He  was  easily  the  central 
figure  in  the  session  of  the  Legislature  at  Victoria.  He  turned 
the  Public  Accounts  Committee  from  its  usual  practice  of 
tracking  down  petty  partisan  expenditures  to  a  study  of  pub- 
lic finance.  He  forced  his  plan  through  the  committee  and  the 
committee  report  through  the  Legislature.  He  was  a  whole  op- 
position in  himself.  For  days  on  end  he  stole  the  show  from  the 
Premier  and  the  government.  Now,  in  his  single  day  on  Parlia- 
ment Hill,  he  has  stolen  the  show  again. 


Whatever  the  answer,  the  fact  remains  that  Gerry  McGeer 
has  done  more,  probably,  than  any  other  man  to  make  the 
monetary  question  a  national  issue  in  Canada.  It  is  hardly  likely 
he  has  reformed  the  ideas  of  the  hard-boiled  committee  on  cur- 
rency and  banking.  He  probably  never  expected  he  would.  But 
as  the  prophet  of  a  New  Deal  in  Canada,  he  has  got  his  plan 
before  the  country.  He  has  made  criticism  which  can  not  be 
ignored  or  treated  with  contempt.  Whether  they  are  right  or 
wrong  in  their  criticisms,  Gerry  McGeer,  Major  Douglas  and 
the  other  honest  critics  of  the  existing  monetary  system  have 
now  gained  enough  currency  for  their  criticisms  and  theories 
to  demand  a  better  answer  than  has  yet  been  given  by  the 
upholders  of  things  as  they  are." 


146 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 


The  following  chart  and  notes  (revised),  reprinted  from  "New  Economics,"  Melbourne,  Australia, 
November  23,  1934,  gives  a  graphic  picture  of  the  world  setup  as  in  force  today  and  should  cause  all 
lovers  of  liberty  and  democracy  to  think  and  then  act,  while  yet  there  is  time. 


Extra  Legal 


Extra  Territorial 


i 


THE 
SUPER  WORLD  GOVERNMENT 


Extra  Governmental 


of 


Domination  and   Exploitation   Without   Representation 


ORIGINATING 


THE  HIGH  FINANCIAL  POLICY 
THE  WILL  TO  ECONOMIC  SCARCITY 
And  Directing  That  Policy 


THROUGH 


THE  BANK  FOR  INTERNATIONAL  SETTLEMENTS 

In   Switzerland 


T 


Which  Forms  the  Policy  of  and  for 


>< 


THE  AMERICAN        THE  BANK  OF        THE  BANK  OF  FRANCE  AND 

FEDERAL  RESERVE  BOARD     ENGLAND     CENTRAL  BANKS  OF  OTHER  NATIONS 

WHICH  EXTENDS  THE  POLICY  THROUGH 


International  Propaganda  and  Control  Applied  Through 


WORLD   COURT  OF  JUSTICE     PLATFORM^  AND  puLPIT  CENTRAL  BANKS   OF  NATIONS 
(Legal  Repression)  (Moral  Repression) (Financial  Repression) 


AND 


The  Council  of  the  League  of  Nations 
Directing 
The  International  Military  Forces 

And 

The  Assembly  of  the  League  of  Nations 

Controlling 


International  Police  Forces 


I     The  International  Commission  for  Rationing  Nations     I 


ARMAMENTS 
(Self  Protection) 


PEACE  TREATIES  MONETARY  SYSTEMS 

(Territory) (Control  of  Production  and  Consumption) 


ALL  DIRECTLY  INTO 


THE  CABINETS   OF  NATIONS 
(Where  National  Policies  Originate,  and  Are  Passed  on  to) 


THE  PARLIAMENTS  AND  CONGRESSES  OF  NATIONS 

(The  Center  of  Political  Conflict) 
(Where  the  People  of  All  Nations  Are  Sold   Down  the  River) 


>< 


THE  ELECTORATES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 


CAPITALISTS  AND  WORKERS 
(Field  of  Economic  Resistance) 


PRIVATE  INDIVIDUALS 
(Field  of  Social  Resistance) 


Directed   Through 


THE  WILL  TO   ECONOMIC   PLENTY 
THE  POLICY   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL 


'A 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  147 

NOTES  ON  DIAGRAM 

HIGH  FINANCIAL  POLICY.  "Produce  more,  consume 
less."  The  theory  is  that  national  prosperity  depends  on  personal 
abstinence.  Consequence — a  fast  expansion  of  the  MEANS  OF 
PRODUCTION  (capital  resources),  but  no  corresponding  expan- 
sion of  the  means  of  life. 

POLICY  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL.  To  increase  his  consump- 
tion relatively  to  his  expenditure  of  energy.  More  goods  for  less 
work.  Policy  justified  by  reason  of  modern  machine  production. 

THE  DOMINANT  POLICY.  Financial  policy  prevails  because 
it  is  made  effective  through  the  control  of  financial  credit,  which 
is  a  monopoly  of  the  banking  system. 

INSTRUMENTATION  OF  POLICY.  The  banking  system  uses 
its  monopoly  to  encourage  the  multiplication  of  factories  and 
plant,  and  to  discourage  the  output  of  consumable  goods.  The 
result  is  the  "exportable  surplus"  and  the  struggle  to  dump  it 
abroad.  Hence  war.  Against  this  tendency  the  individual  can,  in 
theory,  use  the  power  of  his  vote.  But  as  Finance  defines  the  issues 
on  which  he  may  vote,  his  political  power  is  diverted  to  irrelevant 
issues,  and  so  dissipated. 

INTERNAL  GOVERNMENT.  In  Great  Britain,  the  power 
over  policy  proceeds  from  the  Bank  of  England,  in  association 
with  the  "Big  Five"  banks,  through  the  Treasury,  then  through 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  wlio  delimits  tlie  initiative  ot  nis 
colleagues  in  the  Cabinet.  The  Cabinet  in  its  turn  arranges  the 
main  issues  to  be  discussed  by  Parliamentary  Committees,  and 
debated  by  the  full  House.  If  the  House  should  reject  any  one  of 
these  issues,  it  condemns  itself  to  dissolution.  Notice  that  the 
principle  of  popular  election  ends  at  the  House  of  Commons; 
that  is  the  third  removed  down  from  the  source  of  national  policy. 
The  personnel  of  the  banks,  the  Treasury,  and  the  Cabinet  is 
decided  by  secret  nomination. 

WORLD  GOVERNMENT.  The  accompanying  plan  shows  the 
extension  of  the  above  system  to  international  affairs.  The  "cen- 
tral bank ' '  of  every  nation,  while  dominating  that  nation 's  policy, 
as  described  above,  is  itself  an  agent  administering  the  policy  of 
an  international  banking  trust  of  which  it  is  a  member.  Thus  the 
ultimate  control  of  every  nation's  policy  is  outside  that  nation. 
This  control  is  to  be  exercised,  in  appearance,  by  the  Council  of 
the  League  of  Nations  —  a  sort  of  Cabinet  of  Europe.  The  Assem- 
bly of  the  League  may  be  called  the  European  Parliament.  The 
League's  International  Commissions  of  various  sorts  are  like  so 
many  Parliamentary  Committees.  Notice  that,  unlike  national 
Parliaments,  notl  even  the  Assembly,  much  less  the  Council,  of 
the  League,  is  popularly  elected.  Both  are  secretly  nominated. 
Finance  controls  the  nominations.  Thus,  the  control  of  policy  is 
not,  even  in  form,  granted  to  the  millions  of  people  whose  des- 
tinies are  involved  in  the  system.  Democracy  is  at  an  end  —  if  it 
ever  had  a  beginning. 


148  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

THE  ROLE  OP  NATIONAL  PARLIAMENTS  AND  CON- 
GRESSES. These  institutions  have  no  function  left  but  that  of 
persuading  or  coercing  the  public  into  acquiescence  in  a  condition 
of  economic  scarcity  deliberately  decreed  by  external  financial 
policy.  The  available  national  income  has  to  be  rationed  out  to 
Capital  and  Labor  in  such  manner  as  to  postpone  the  outbreak 
of  industrial  hostilities. 

THE  ROLE  OF  THE  LEAGUE  OP  NATIONS.  This  body's 
function  is  to  ration  the  available  world  income  among  nations 
by  rationing  their  markets  in  such  manner  as  to  postpone  a  fresh 
outbreak  of  war. 

THE  PINAL  ISSUE.  Every  economic  and  political  problem 
in  the  world  can  be  resolved  into  a  conflict  between  the  indi- 
vidual, who  says,  "I  must  consume  in  order  to  live,"  and  the 
world  financial  autocracy,  which  says,  "You  must  not  consume  if 
you  would  live."  The  conflict,  for  instance,  between  Capital  and 
Labor  is  at  root  a  struggle  between  two  bodies  of  would-be  con- 
sumers over  a  given  quantity  of  purchasing  power  which  is  being 
kept  insufficient  by  the  banking  system  as  a  matter  of  policy. 
Neither  party  to  the  struggle  is  responsible  for  the  occasion  of 
the  struggle,  nor  can  remove  it  by  strikes  and  lock-outs. 

THE  MORAL.  This  international  stranglehold  can  be  broken 
when  the  nominated  Cabinet,  or  Congress,  is  faced  by  a  united 
people  on  the  one  vital  issue,  namely:  "That  Pinancial  Credit, 
being  of  this  People,  should  be  controlled  by  this  People  for  this 
People."  Capital  and  Labor  must  call  an  industrial  truce  and  col- 
laborate .  .  .  and  ultimately  to  detach  these  banks  themselves 
from  the  international  trust  which  they  serve.  After  all,  these 
repressive  institutions  are  simply  small  groups  of  ordinary  human 
beings  whose  natural  desires  and  aspirations  are  being  thwarted 
by  reason  of  this  existing  chain  of  institutional  allegiances.  When 
each  nation  resumes  its  power  of  financial  self-determination  — 
when  its  Parliament,  banks,  industries,  and  citizens  are  free  to 
concentrate  on  the  program  of  internal  production  and  consump- 
tion —  there  will  be  no  need  for  a  League  of  Nations,  unless  it  be 
as  a  clearing  house  for  the  renascent  cultures  of  an  emancipated 
world's  peoples. 

Amschel  Mayer  Rothschild  (the  originator  of  the  House  of 
Rothschild)  said,  "Permit  me  to  issue  and  control  the  money  of  a 
nation  and  I  care  not  who  makes  the  laws." 

The  "permitting"  was  begun  when  his  five  sons  were  put  in 
control  of  the  five  great  banks  of  England  and  Europe  and 
given  (?)  the  privilege  of  issuing  the  paper  money. 

President  Garfield  (just  before  he  was  assassinated)  said,  "He 
who  controls  the  money  of  a  nation,  controls  the  nation. ' '  Which 
we  can  now  see  working  in  all  countries  of  the  world.  The  Control 
Board  of  the  Bank  of  International  Settlements  is  said  to  be 
composed  of  one  or  more  members  from  the  board  of  each  of  the 
Central  Banks  of  the  various  nations. 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  149 

Thus  we  find  that  the  people  of  a  nation  never  get  to  vote  on 
the  POLICY  of  their  government,  but  only  on  which  PARTY  the 
Conservative,  or  Liberal,  the  Democratic,  or  Republican,  shall 
ADMINISTER  THE  POLICY  handed  down  from  above  as  here 
shown. 

The  PEOPLE'S  WISH  and  WILL  for  an  ECONOMIC 
PLENTY  is  BETRAYED  and  set  aside,  in  the  Committee  Rooms, 
the  Cloak  Rooms,  the  Bill  Registration  Rooms,  or  by  a  small 
BAND  OF  TRAITOROUS  legislators,  who  sell  the  people  out  to 
the  MONEY  CHANGERS  for  PIECES  OP  SILVER  or  GOLD, 
even  as  did  the  other  Judas  two  thousand  years  ago. 


The  following  resume  of  what  is  money  and  the  judicial  de- 
cisions concerning  our  Congressional  rights  in  the  issue  of  money, 
are  reprinted  with  permission  from  "What  Is  Coming,"  by  L.  E. 
Stowe  and  are  a  very  valuable  collection  for  the  student  of 
money  as  a  reference. 

What  Is  Money? 

Prom  "What  Is  Coming,"  by  L.  E.  Stowe 

For  the  benefit  of  those  who  scoff  at  paper  money  and  gov- 
ernment control  of  the  issue  of  money,  let  us  quote  some  au- 
thorities on  the  subject: 

What  Is  Money? 

"Money  is  a  creation  of  law." — John  Stuart  Mill,  Econo- 
mist. 

"Money  is  a  creation  of  law.  It  is  a  measure  of  value  by 
comparison,  whereby  we  ascertain  the  comparative  values  of 
all  merchandise,  or  it  is  a  sign  which  represents  the  respective 
value  of  all  commodities. ' ' — Blackstone,  the  English  Law  Giver. 

Attorney  General  Ackerman,  in  speaking  of  the  legal  tender 
act,  said:  "We  repeat,  money  is  not  a  substance,  but  an  im- 
pression of  legal  decree." 

"The  theory  of  the  intrinsic  value  of  money  has  been 
abandoned  by  the  best  writers  and  speakers." — Encyclopedia 
Britannica. 

"Metallic  money  while  acting  as  coin,  is  identical  with 
paper  money  in  respect  to  being  destitute  of  intrinsic  value." 
— North  British  Review. 

"An  article  is  determined  to  be  money  by  reason  of  the 
performance  by  it  of  certain  functions,  without  regard  to  its 
former  substance." — Appleton's  American  Encyclopedia. 

"Money  is  an  ideal  thing;  the  coin  or  government  legal 
tender  paper  bill  is  the  tool  or  visible  expression  of  that  ideal 
thing.  The  tool  that  represents  that  idea  depends  as  much  upon 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand  for  its  value  as  does  the  wheat 
or  any  other  commodity. 


150  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

"Congress  alone  has  the  right  to  issue  money  and  regulate 
the  value  thereof." — Our  Constitution. 

"The  general  government  ceases  to  be  independent,  it 
ceases  to  be  safe,  when  the  national  currency  is  at  the  will  of  a 
company." — Thos.  H.  Benton. 

Read  the  following  extract  from  a  speech  of  John  C.  Cal- 
houn of  JSouth  Carolina,  delivered  in  the  United  States  senate 
during  the  panic  of  '37- '38: 

"We  are  told  there  is  no  instance  of  a  government  paper 
that  did  not  depreciate.  In  reply  I  affirm  there  is  none,  assum- 
ing the  form  that  I  propose,  that  even  did  depreciate.  When- 
ever a  paper  receivable  in  the  dues  of  a  government  had  any- 
thing like  a  fair  trial  it  has  succeeded." 

"When  all  our  paper  money  is  made  payable  in  specie  on 
demand,  it  will  prove  the  most  certain  means  that  can  be  used 
to  fertilize  the  rich  man's  field  by  the  sweat  of  the  poor  man's 
brow. ' ' — Daniel  Webster, 

"Whatever  a  government  agrees  to  receive  in  payment  of 
the  public  dues,  as  a  medium  of  circulation  is  money,  no  matter 
what  its  form  may  be,  trading  notes,  drafts,  etc.  Such  bills  or 
paper  issued  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States  is 
money." — Henry  Clay,  in  the  Senate,  1837. 

"Gold  and  silver  are  not  intrinsically  of  the  same  value 
with  iron.  No  method  has  hitherto  been  found  to  establish 
a  medium  of  trade  equal  in  all  its  advantages,  to  bills  of  credit, 
(greenbacks)  made  a  legal  tender." — Benjamin  Franklin. 

"I  sincerely  believe  that  banking  institutions  are  more 
dangerous  to  liberty  than  standing  armies." — Thomas  Jeffer- 
son's Works,  Vol.  VI,  page  608. 

"Bank  paper  must  be  suppressed  and  the  circulating  me- 
dium must  be  restored  to  the  nation,  to  whom  it  belongs.  It  is 
the  only  fund  on  which  they  can  rely  for  loans ;  it  is  the  only 
resource  which  can  never  fail  them,  and  it  is  an  abundant  one 
for  every  necessary  purpose.  Treasury  bills,  bottomed  on  taxes, 
bearing  interest  or  not  bearing  interest,  as  may  be  found  neces- 
sary, thrown  into  circulation,  will  take  the  place  of  so  much 
gold  and  silver." — Thomas  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  VI,  page 
199,  letter  of  September  11th,  1813. 

"I  have  ever  opposed  money  of  bankers;  not  of  those  dis- 
counting for  cash,  but  of  those  fostering  their  own  paper  in  cir- 
culation and  thus  banishing  our  cash.  My  zeal  against  these 
institutions  was  so  warm  and  open  at  the  establishment  of  the 
bank  of  the  United  States  that  I  was  derided  as  a  maniac  by  the 
tribe  of  bank  mongers  who  were  seeking  to  filch  from  the  pub- 
lic."— Thomas  Jefferson  in  a  letter  to  President  Adams,  Jan- 
uary 24,  1814. 

"Charter  a  bank  with  $35,000,000,  let  it  establish  and  learn 
its  power,  and  then  find,  if  you  can,  means  to  bell  that  cat; 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  151 

it  will  be  beyond  your  power;  it  will  over-awe  Congress  and 
laugh  at  your  laws." — John  Randolph. 

"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  coun- 
try than  ever  before,  even  in  the  midst  of  the  war.   God  grant 
that  my  suspicions  may  prove  groundless. ' ' — Abraham  Lincoln. 
"Whoever  controls  the  volume  of  money  in  any  country  is 
absolute  master  of  all  industry  and  commerce." — James  A. 
Garfield. 
King    Solomon    demonetized    silver,    the    lesser    metal,    and 
brought  destruction  and  ruin  to  his  country. 

Five  hundred  B.  C.  the  precious  metals  were  found  inadequate 
to  the  needs  of  Greece.  Solon  reduced  the  metal  in  the  coin, 
thereby  expanding  the  currency,  and  thus  saved  Attica  from  a 
deluge  of  blood. 

Five  hundred  years  later  Julius  Caesar  found  the  precious 
metal  insufficient  to  supply  the  circulating  medium  of  Rome,  and 
he  took  the  privilege  of  coining  money  from  the  wealthy  families, 
to  whom  it  had  been  granted,  and  restored  it  to  the  government, 
to  whom  it  belonged,  and  he  created  a  cheap  metal  money,  and 
established  public  works  and  paid  it  out  to  labor;  thus  creating 
good  times  and  the  people  loved  Caesar,  but  the  wealthy  senators 
murdered  him  with  their  own  hands. 

The  Romans,  on  several  occasions,  were  compelled  to  reduce 
the  metal  in  the  coins  to  increase  the  volume  of  money  to  carry 
on  their  wars. 

"At  the  Christian  era  the  metallic  money  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire amounted  to  $1,800,000,000,  by  the  end  of  the  Fifteenth 
century  it  had  shrunk  to  less  than  $200,000,000.  .  .  .  History 
records  no  other  such  disastrous  transition  as  that  from  the 
Roman  Empire  to  the  Dark  Ages.  ...  It  is  a  suggestive  coinci- 
dence that  the  first  glimmer  of  light  only  came  with  the  in- 
vention of  bills  of  exchange,  and  paper  substitutes,  through 
which  the  scanty  stock  of  the  precious  metals  was  increased  in 
efficiency. ' ' — Report  of  the  United  States  Silver  Commission  in 
1876. 
England  was  compelled  to  reduce  the  metal  in  her  coin  several 
times  and  the  monej-  changers  tried  to  force  her  back,  but  failed. 
She  was  finally  compelled  to  adopt  paper  money  and  suspend 
specie  payment. 

Gold  deserted  the  United  States  on  several  occasions  and  al- 
ways brought  disaster  until  we  resorted  to  paper  money,  when 
the  absence  of  gold  did  not  trouble  us  until  we  attempted  to  get 
back  to  a  gold  standard,  when  it  brought  ruin  and  dispair. 


152  LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED 

Henry  A.  Martin,  the  French  historian,  tells  us  that  France 
tried  to  adopt  a  system  of  paper  money,  but  the  money  changers 
crippled  it  as  did  our  bankers  cripple  our  paper  money  during 
the  Civil  War,  yet  such  prosperity  did  that  money  give  France 
that  England  determined  to  destroy  its  power  and  paid  from 
her  secret  service  fund  one  Dembies,  a  cabinet  officer,  a  hundred 
thousand  crowns  per  annum  to  intrigue  against  this  money  and 
as  much  more  to  M.  D'Argenson  for  the  same  purpose. 

The  bankers  told  Andrew  Jackson  if  he  vetoed  the  old  United 
States  bank  bill  they  would  ruin  the  business  of  the  country.  He 
vetoed  it  and  some  one  tried  to  assassinate  him ;  he  well  knew 
what  for. 

In  1881  Congress  was  flooded  with  petitions  to  pay  the  bonds 
with  paper  or  silver,  or  to  convert  them  into  small  interest  bear- 
ing bonds,  payable  at  the  government's  option.  The  bankers 
said  if  you  do  either  we  will  ruin  the  business  interests.  This  is 
known  as  the  bankers  rebellion  of  1881.  (Freeman  0.  Wiley. 
Whither  Are  We  Drifting  as  a  Nation.)  Congress  failed  to  do 
either,  but  Garfield  did  convert  them  into  small  interest  bearing 
bonds  and  circumstances  point  to  that,  and  his  utterances  upon 
finance  questions  at  that  time  as  the  cause  of  his  assassination. 

Constitutional  Money 

Here  are  the  state  cases  in  which  the  constitutionality  of  the 
legal  tender  money  are  passed  upon,  and  where  the  same  may 
be  found,  and  what  the  judges  said  in  some  of  the  cases : 

Carpenter  vs.  Northfield  Bank  (39  Vt.  46)  ; 

Shollenberger  vs.  Brinton  (52  Pa.,  St.  9)  ; 

Verges  vs.  Gibony  (38  No.  458) ; 

Brown  vs.  Welch  (26  Ind.  116)  ; 

Latham  vs.  United  States  (1  Ct.  of  CI.  149) ; 

Lick  vs.  Falkner  (25  Cal.  404)  ; 

Curiae  vs.  Abadie  (Id.  502)  ; 

Kierskie  vs.  Hedges  (23  Ind.  141) ; 

Britenback  vs.  Turner  (18  Wis.  110)  ; 

Jones  vs.  Harker  (37  Ga.  503) ; 

Reynolds  vs.  Bank  of  the  State  (18  Ind.  467) ; 

Wilson  vs.  Trebilcock  (23  la.  331) ; 

Met.  Bank  vs.  Van  Dyck  (27  N.  Y.  400)  ; 

Hague  vs.  Powers  (39  Borb.  N.  Y.  427)  ; 

Roosevelt  vs.  Bull's  Head  Bank  (45  Ind.  579) ; 

Murry  vs.  Gale  (52  Id.  427)  ; 

George  vs.  Concord  (45  N.  H.  434) ; 

Van  Husan  vs.  Kanouse  (13  Mich.  303)  ; 

Hintra  vs.  Bates  (18  la.  174)  ; 

Maynard  vs.  Newman  (1  Nev.  271) ; 

Milliken  vs.  Sloat  (Id.  573) ; 


LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  153 

Borie  vs.  Trott  (5  Phil.,  Pa.,  366)  ; 

Johnson  vs.  Juey  (4  Coldw.  Tenn.,  608). 

The  above  are  copied  from  the  reports  of  court  decisions  which 
were  not  merely  questions  of  the  constitutional  power  of  Con- 
gress to  issue  legal  tenders  in  time  of  war  or  peace,  but  the  whole 
matter  of  the  necessity  of  all  facts  for  whatever  purpose  not  pro- 
hibited by  the  Constitution. 

Chief  Justice  Chase,  in  Hepburn  vs.  Griswold,  stated  that : 
"The  constitutionality  had  never  been  called  in  question,  except 
as  to  its  retrospective  effect,  and  then  by  the  submission  of  the 
people  to  this  and  contemporaneous  construction  of  other  courts, 
bring  to  its  relief  a  general  principle  of  law,  which  has  all  the 
force  of  law  itself.  The  mere  fact  that  there  is  a  concurrence  is 
an  argument  in  favor  of  the  proposition,  which  is  concurred  in 
by  the  different  courts." 

Attorney-General  Akerman,  in  arguing  in  favor  of  the  consti- 
tutionality, said:  "Congress  has  never  hesitated  to  enact  what 
should  be  legal  tender  in  payment  of  debts.  The  right  to  thus 
FORTY-EIGHT— PC— Lincoln  6Y  6-13 

enact  has  been  assumed  in  twenty-four  statutes,  passed  in  presi- 
dences  of  "Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Jackson, 
Tyler,  Polk,  Fillmore,  Pierce,  Lincoln  and  Johnson.  .  .  .  The  Con- 
stitution nowhere  declares  that  nothing  shall  be  money  unless 
made  of  metal." 

Jullard  vs.  Greenman  (U.  S.  Reports,  Vol.  110,  page  421.) 

Supreme  Court  Decision 

Congress  has  the  constitutional  power  to  make  the  Treasury 
notes  of  the  United  States  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  private 
debts,  in  time  of  peace,  as  well  as  in  time  of  war. 

"Under  the  act  of  May  31st,  1878  (ch.  146),  which  enacts 
that  when  any  United  States  legal  tender  notes  may  be  re- 
deemed or  received  into  the  Treasury,  and  shall  belong  to  the 
United  States,  they  shall  be  reissued  and  paid  out  again,  and 
kept  in  circulation.  Notes  so  reissued  are  a  legal  tender. 

"Submitted  to  Supreme  Court,  1884,  decided  March,  1884, 
the  opinion  of  the  court  being  delivered  by  Mr.  Justice  Gray. 

"Upon  full  consideration  of  the  case  the  court  is  unani- 
mously of  the  opinion  that  it  cannot  be  distinguished  in  prin- 
ciple from  the  cases  heretofore  determined,  repeated  under 
the  names  of  the  Legal  Tender  cases  (12  Wallace),  Dooley  vs. 
Smith  (13  Wallace),  R.  R.  Co.  vs.  Johnson  (15  Wallace),  and 
Maryland  vs.  R.  R.  Co.  (22  Wallace)." 
This  should  forever  set  at  rest  the  question  of  the  rights  of 
government  to  issue  paper  money,  pure  and  simple. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 
336.73B97L  C001 

LINCOLN  MONEY  MARTYRED  SEATTLE.  WASH. 


3  0112  031774349