Last week I alluded to the many ways in which the Bankers of Europe were trying to get back into the United States. Here's
a little more on that conspiratorial view of history from 'The Unseen Hand' by Ralph Epperson. Last week I also discussed
the National Banking Act passed by Congress on February 25, 1863 creating a National Bank with the power and authority to
create money to be loaned to the government based not on gold but on debt.
Many people believe the Civil War was fought over the slavery issue. That was not the case at all. I would also like
to add that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation wasn't meant to garner favor with anyone in the North or the South. It didn't
even have anything to do with anyone on this side of the planet. But I'll get to all of that next week.
Part of what caused the Civil War was the Northern Industrialists using protective tariffs to prevent the South from
buying cheaper European goods. Europe paid the Northern states back by stopping the Southern States from exporting their cotton
to Europe. They knew this would create some serious tension here and so they did it. Europe already had a surplus of cotton
so it didn't hurt them. It only hurt the United States by ratcheting up the tensions between the North and the South.
Last week I mentioned Lincoln's issuing of Green Backs to battle the financial situation. Whose idea was that and what
was the rationale? Lincoln put Dick Taylor on to the job of finding funding to help with the war. The best Salmon P. Chase
could do was get loans from the bankers at a twenty eight to thirty-six percent interest rate.
Dick Taylor had an idea however. It was a debt free fiat currency and in his explanation to Lincoln he said "Why, Lincoln
that is easy, just get Congress to pass a bill authorizing the printing of full legal tender treasury notes, pay your soldiers
with them and go ahead and win your war with them also." Lincoln wasn't so sure the people would tolerate this currency
and asked Taylor if he really thought they would accept it. His answer was pretty clear. "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. The stamp of full legal tender by the Government is the thing that makes money good at any time,
and this will always be as good as any other money inside the borders of our country."
Well that kind of put a cramp on imports too now didn't it? It not only dealt with the internal money problems, but also
did a little more damage to European trade.
Here is an interesting excerpt from 'The Unseen Hand' regarding the Civil War:
"In 1938, Jerry Voorhis, a Congressman from California, wrote a pamphlet entitled 'Dollars
and Sense', in which he shared a little bit of history with the American people regarding the Civil War:
In July 1862, an agent of the London Bankers sent the following letter to leading financiers and bankers in the United States
soon after Lincoln's first issue of greenbacks:
"The great debt that capitalists will see to it is made out of the war must be used to control
the volume of money. To accomplish this the bonds must be used as a banking basis.
We are not waiting for the Secretary of the Treasury (Salmon P. Chase) to make this
recommendation to Congress.
It will not do to allow the greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any
length of time, for we cannot control them. But we can control the bonds and through them the bank issues."
Isn't that interesting? They weren't even going to wait for their stooge to do what they would tell him to do. They just
did what they knew needed to be done to protect their interests. The European banker's old modus operandi was to loan money
to one Kingdom and then use another Kingdom to ensure the loan was paid back with interest. The biggest problem the European
bankers had in this case was that they didn't have a Kingdom to deal with here. Lincoln had just circumvented them by issuing
debt free money.
There was also an interesting commentary in the London Times regarding those evil greenbacks:
"If this mischievous financial policy which has its origin in North America, shall become indurate down to the fixture,
then the Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all of
the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The
brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy
on the globe."
In order to make certain that Lincoln understood that they were serious France moved troops into Mexico and installed their
choice of leader, Emperor Maximillian, while the English moved eight thousand troops into Canada. Lincoln tried in vain to
locate somebody to help him save the Union, which at this point is surrounded and worm eaten with internal conspiracies. He
tried in vain to find a European country to back him but they all had a central bank that looked a little too much like ours.
Tune in next week as we see what Lincoln did next.
