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the JEFFERSONIAN
A Weekly Paper Edited by THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON.
Vol. 111. No. 1.
Watson Tells Why He Tabors Greenbacks
When W. J. Bryan was told Thomas E.
Watson, of Georgia, who was the Populist
candidate for Vice-President on the Bryan
ticket in 1896, would advocate greenback
money at a White House luncheon to be held
next Monday, he said:
“I won’t comment on that until I see it
over Mr. Watson’s own signature. That
paper may have copied the interview from
The World.”
The World had printed no such interview,
but telegraphed Mr. Watson a request to make
his position clear, and also to outline the
arguments he will make to the President.
Here is the answer wired by the noted
Populist:
Thomson, Ga., Dec. 2.
To the Editor of The World:
Your telegram received. I cannot under
stand why Mr. Bryan should receive in
credulously the statement that I would advise
the President to issue greenbacks. Mr. Bryan
knows perfectly w y ell that lam and always
have been a greenbacker. In other words,
I have always contended that the Constitution
of the United States vested in the Govern
ment the right to create money.
In his messages of 1815 and 1816 Presi
dent Madison took the same position that I
now take. In Gen. Jackson’s famolus fight on
the national bank he took the same position
which I now take. When President Lincoln
issued greenbacks during the war he also took
the position that the Government had the
right to create national currency out of any
material that it saw fit to select. The Su
preme Court of the United States, in the cele
brated case of Juillard against Grenman,
distinctly decided that the Constitution gave
to Congress the right to create money and
of any material that it saw fit to select.
This decision, known as the “ Legal Tender
Decision.” was made in 1884, but prior to
that time the same principle had been decided
by the great New England Judge Story, who
delivered the opinion of the majority of the
Supreme Court. The case is reported in.
“Second Mason, pages 1 to 8.”
Former Issues of Greenbacks.
The acts of 1862 and 1863, which author
ized an issue of $450,000,000 of greenbacks
have never been repealed. It is true that in
1866 Congress provided that these greenback
notes might be .retired to the extent of $lO,
000,000 per month for six months and then
at the rate of $4,000,000 per month.
In the exercise of the discretion thus given
the Secretary began to destroy the green
backs. Before he was stopped by act of Con
gress he had burned $44,000,000 of these
notes. But there was so much indignation on
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, January 2, 1908.
the part of the people against this destruc
tion of their money that in February, 1868,
Congress suspended the act which gave the
Secretary the discretion to destroy the green
backs.
When the panic of 1873 came on there was
a clamor for more money, just as there is now.
In response to that popular demand the Gov
erment reissued $26,000,000 of the notes which
had been cancelled under the discretionary
act of 1866. In 1875 Congress, provided
again that the greenback notes might be re
duced to the sum of $300,000,000. Again the
Secretary of the Treasury began to destroy
the greenbacks. Once more however, the
people cried out against this contraction of
the currency, and in 1878 Gen. Grant used
his great influence to put a stop to it. By
the act of May 31, 1878, the Secretary of the
Treasury was required to reissue the green
backs as fast as they were redeemed and can
celled. In other words, the process of con
traction was checked.
At the time this w r as done the outstanding
amount of the greenbacks was $346,681,000
in round numbers. At this sum they have
stood ever since. My contention is that the
Government should now do precisely what
the Government did under similar circum
stances in 1873.
I
Advice to Mr. Bryan.
I am astonished that Mr. Bryan should ex
press any surprise when he reads my position
is that which squares so absolutely with the
historic Democratic position. Let him study
Jackson’s farewell address. Let him study
the speeches of Thomas 11. Benton. Let him
peruse the messages of Mr. Madison. Let
him master the financial letters of Thomas
Jefferson. Let him grasp the splendid train
of reasoning in which John C. Calhoun argues
in favor of governmental currency and he will
then be better able to recognize what i»
genuine Jeffersonian Democracy when he
sees it. - *
The national banks are given the use of
the two hundred and fifty millions of the
public funds. This is wrong. They are
given bonds for which they do not pay and
for whose issue there is no good reason. This
is wrong. The present Administration has
followed the example of President Cleveland
and President McKinley rather than the
precedent of 1873. To the astonishment of
the radicals Mr. Bryan has not challenged
the right of the national bankers to perpetu
ate their undemocratic system, but has sug
gested a governmental guaranty in their be
half which would perpetuate the system which
Jefferson, Benton and Jackson so bitterly an
tagonized.
I profoundly regret to see that Mr. Bryan
is disposed to Sidestep the money question.
He cannot succeed in doing so. It is the
burning question of the hour and cannot be
put aside. The single gold standard violates
the Constitution* and gives too much power
to the few who control the gold. The nation
al banking system has brought the country
to the verge of ruin and must be fought to
the deafL If Mr. Bryan refuses to grapple
with the enemies of the public wealth leader
ship of the Jeffersonian Democrats will slip
out of his hands. THOMAS E. WATSON.
—New York World.
WATSON AND FINANCE.
If the Chancellor Oxenstiern lived in •ur
day, he, would brobably change his famous
admonition to something like this: “Behold,
my son, with how little knowledge history is
writ.” Mr. Thomas E. Watson, in a commu
nication addressed to the Post, and printed on
Wednesday, delivered himself of this specimen
of misinformation:
“The first issue of treasury noses, under Mr.
Lincoln’s adminstration, was $50,000,000, and
these greenbacks were ‘full legal tender be
tween man and man.’ These notes did not de
preciate, but circulated on equality with coin,
for the simple reason that every citizen
oould do as much with a paper dollar as he
could with a coin dollar.”
Did Mr. Watson, who pleads guilty to the
charge of being a lawyer, ever read the acts
creating “the first issue of treasury notes'?”
Possibly not, and if he did, he has forgot its
terms and its import. The dates of those
statutes were July 17 and August 5, 1861.
They were not “greenbacks,” and were never
so classed in the financial nomenclature of
our Government until Mr. Tom Watson thus
distinguished them, so far as our poor infor
mation advises us. And it is proper to add
that they were not made full legal tender
until the act of March 17, 1862, was approved.
Beides. they were $60,000,000 and not $50,-
000,000.
But that is not all. This very issue Mr.
Watson extols so flatteringly, was, in express
terms of the law creating it,' redeemable in
coin on demand of the holder and there was
a dollar in coin behind every dollar of them,
and that is' what made them as valuable
before they got to be full legal tender as they
were after the law made them so. They were
hoarded just like gold, and by midsummer of
1862 they were as hard to get as gold, while
the sure-enough greenback that Mr. Watson
confounds them with, grew on 'blackberry
briers, to be had for the picking, so to speak.
It is manifest that Mr. Watson has never
(Continued on Page Thirteen.)
Price five Cents.