State shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation, grant letters of marque and reprisal, coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts." It will thus be seen that the founders of the republic recognized the power to make money and regulate its value as among the essential attributes of sovereignty, equally so with the power to conclude treaties, enter into alliances and confederation. For the constitution expressly grants all these powers to Congress, and prohibits the States from exercising any of them. These powers are indispensable to and inseperable from the sovereignty: for no government can be permanently maintained, nor can a wise administration of justice be secured, where they are not exercised by the sovereignty. While Congress has an undoubted right to exercise the powers here enumerated, and all others granted to it by the constitution, there is not a shadow of authority given to that body to delegate them or any of them to any class of individuals or corporations, or in any way to divest itself for one moment of the right to exercise them. The States or People granted these powers to Congress for the public good, and not for the benefit of any privileged class of individuals or corporations. If the public interest could not be secured when these sovereign powers were exercised by the States, it is not clear to the common mind how it can be promoted when they are wielded by a class of selfish corporations. There is no one of these powers more carefully guarded by the constitution than that to make money and regulate its value.

There is certainly not one particle more authority given to Congress to delegate the sovereign power to make money and regulate its value than there is to delegate the power to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, or to fix the standard of weights and measures. By the terms of the grant Congress is bound to institute money on such a wise and just basis that it shall be under the direct control of the sovereign people who produce the values it is made to represent measure and exchange, that the quantity may at all times be adequate to the amount of property or products to be represented and exchanged, so that it shall be a true measure of value, and distribute products equitably between non-producing capital and labor. This it has utterly failed to do. It has by the delegation of this sovereign power to a class of irresponsible bankers and usurers shamefully-nay criminally-violated this sacred trust, and compelled the producing classes to accept in exchange for the products of their labor and to transact their business with a currency possessing none of the legal properties or powers of money.

A currency that will not pay any debt, public or private, without the consent of the creditor, or that will not legally discharge a judgment rendered by the highest as well as the lowest judicial tribunal in the nation, is not in a legal sense money.

This power no bank note, whether issued by State or national authority, ever possessed; and Congress should not and cannot, without committing an act of perfidy, permit, much less sanction, their emission or circulation. To do so is to give a few soulless banking corporations and avaricious usurers the power to rob the wealth-producing classes at pleasure. I have the almost unbroken authority of the courts for saying that the law knows no such distinction as paper money or gold money-hard money or soft money. They have decided that whatever the supreme law-making power of the nation declares to be a legal tender, or money without regard to the quantity or quality of its material, is the end of the law, and must be accepted in satisfaction for all judgments or liens; this, too, even where the claims are founded upon contracts for the payment of gold dollars.

Congress has definitely fixed the length of the yard and the size of the bushel-but it has not fixed the value of money. The rate of interest determines the value of money; its value is no more fixed by the quantity or quality of its material than the length of the yard or the size of the bushel is fixed by the quantity or quality of their wood. It would be thought unwise and unjust

if Congress should provide that the yard-stick should be made of a rare and costly material, or a few merchants authorized to regulate its length; yet it would not be half so injurious as to empower a few bankers and usurers to regulate the value of money. In the former case the merchant would be brought face to face with the purchaser, and the fraud could be seen and the buyer would have the means of self-protection, while in the latter case the power is invisible, operating silently and unseen, the oppressor being seldom brought in contact with the injured party, and even if the wrong should be detected the party injured would have no means of redress, because it is enforced by national law.

It is claimed by the advocates of a specie currency that the so-called precious metals require about an equal amount of labor for their production the world over, and therefore they are the true measures of all values-that it is the labor incorporated into them that gives them their value as money. If this be true of these metals, it should be true of all the productions of labor. If A produce by one hundred days' mining gold to the value of two hundred dollars, the government will stamp it as money for him; and should B produce by one hundred days labor two hundred bushels of wheat, which the government purchases of him for two hundred dollars, and he is willing to take a piece of paper stamped as money by the government "two hundred dollars," I can see no valid objection against it doing so. It would represent the same amount of labor, and if it had the same legal powers as the gold, it would perform all the functions of money equally as well, coextensive with the jurisdiction of the law, and this is all that coin can do.

Or if D be the owner of a government bond for one thousand dollars, which he wishes to convert into money, and is willing to exchange it for a leral tender Treasury certificate, it is difficult to conceive of any good reason why the government should not make the exchange rather than subject him to a heavy tax for the benefit of some banker.

While what has been said respecting the nature and properties of money may be admitted as true, so far as our home business is concerned, it may be objected that the adoption of such a monetary system would operate injuriously upon our foreign trade; that as all commercial nations have legalized the socalled precious metals as money, we cannot maintain commercial relations with them unless we also legalize them as money. A sufficient answer to this objection is, that our coin is not current or legal money at the standard fixed by our laws in any foreign nation. They only receive it at the standard fixed by their laws, and greatly prefer our bullion to our coin. Besides, legitimate commerce is the exchange of the products of the territory and labor of one nation for those of another, and is never carried on upon legal values, but always upon actual values. We could not add to our comfort or happiness nor increase the national wealth by exchanging our eagles for British sovereigns, money loses its legal powers or value whenever it passes beyond the jurisdiction of the law instituting it. If we did not use these metals for a circulating medium we would have more of them to ship abroad as bullion to settle balances or to exchange for articles of real value.

Again, it is claimed that as all civilized nations have adopted these so-called precious metals for the material of money, if we do not we must return to a state of barbarism. Let me say to this class of philosophers that there is no cause of alarm on this point, for just the reverse of this proposition is true. The idea of the value of money, inhering in its material, is only a relict of barbarism adopted by kings as a means of retaining their "divine right to rule and despoil the people of their substance." It is the aristocratic idea of money and is inimical to liberal institutions, destructive of the natural rights of the people, and must disappear before the advance of civilization and christianity. While all barbarous nations cling to this erroneous idea, all civilized nations are fast coming into the practice of treating it as merely a legalized agent.

If we would maintain our democratic institutions, we must "democratize money by instituting it on such a basis that it shall be under the control of the sovereign people--the servant and not the master and oppressor of labor.

THE RATE OF INTEREST THE GOVERNING POWER IN THE DISTRIBUTION TO CAPITAL AND LABOR.

This is the most important function of money, and one which is probably less clearly understood by the mass of mankind than any other of its powers, which doubtless arises from the fact that it is an invisible power operating silently and unseen. Money, whether of gold, silver or paper, is visible; but the power of interest is invisible, and yet gathers to itself things visible as metals are attracted to a magnet.

This is not only the most governing and influential power, but it is also the most unjust and deceitful of all earthly powers. It entails upon millions excessive toil, poverty and want, while it keeps them ignorant of the cause of their sufferings-for with their tacit consent it silently transfers a large share of their earnings to the hands of others who have never lifted a finger to perform any productive labor!

Physical and intellectual labor employed in production and in the distribution of the products of labor, as well as in the useful professions and callings, is the true and only source of wealth and intellectual culture and development. Labor provides for all the physical and intellectual wants of mankind. Money produces nothing; it only gathers up things already produced, taking products from producers and giving them to its owner.

There are but two purposes to which the products of labor or wealth can be applied. One is the payment of the rent or interest on the capital employed, the other is the payment of labor.

The rate of interest maintained on loans of money determines what proportion of the products of labor shall be awarded to capital for its use, and what proportion shall be paid to the laborers for their productions; the rate of interest on money likewise governs the rent or use of all property. If laborers pay to capital as rent or interest all their surplus products, the laborers, as a body, must work for a mere subsistence of food, clothing and shelter.

"To give an idea to what extent the power of interest operates, it is only necessary to say that all the money lent on bonds and mortgages by individuals, by insurance and trust companies--all lent for United States, State, county, city, railroad, canal, and other bonds to make public improvements, whether these improvements be made by corporations, by the State, or by individuals, also all the money lent by banks, brokers and individuals on promissory notesall these loans are operating with a like centralizing power against the producers and distributers of the national wealth and in favor of the moneylenders, or money. This power also establishes a like rate per cent. to be paid for the use of all property, real and personal, all the goods on hand in the nation and in process of being manufactured, are under tribute to this centralizing power. It is an unavoidable power, because it is instituted and enforced by national law, and is the basis upon which all market values are founded." Every dollar of interest paid for the purposes named, as well as for all other purposes whatever, is as much a charge upon labor as the taxes paid for the support of the government, and every farthing paid beyond an equitable rate is a legal fraud upon the wealth-producing classes, for the govern ment is morally bound to institute money so that it shall distribute the products of labor equitably between non-producing capital and producing labor.

But the question naturally arises, how are we to ascertain what would be a just rate of interest on money. Happily we are not without sufficiently reliable data to approximate the true rate, nearly enough for all practical purposes. Agriculture is the leading interest and foundation of the national

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wealth, and the increase in this important branch of industry may be taken as the true index in all other departments, and the division between landlord and tenant may be safely adopted as the rule of distribution between capital and labor in all other branches of productive industry.

The following is an inventory of the farms and products of agriculture of the nation as per census reports of 1850 and 1860:

or forty-one per cent. for the decade, being a slight fraction over three and one-third per cent. per annum. But as this was the most prosperous decade we have had since the foundation of the government, three and one-third per cent. per annum will be found quite up to the average increase.

Estimating the property, real and personal, in the nation on the 4th of July, 1776, at one thousand millions dollars ($1,000,000,000), and allowing it to have increased at the rate of three and one-third per cent. per annum, the amount would now be twenty billions four hundred and twenty-six millions dollars ($20,426,000,000), which, according to the census report, is a very close approximation to its present value. Now a renter cannot afford to pay over one-third of the net proceeds and keep up all repairs for a good and well-improved farm. If, then, the division of products between capital and labor in this most important branch of productive industry be adopted as the standard of distribution between capital and labor in all other departments of useful industry, it will be seen that the true rate of interest on money should be but one and one-ninth per cent. per annum. While this may be thought by many too low a rate, and that evil consequences would result from its adoption at once, it will, I am quite confident, be found very much nearer the true rate than those now extorted from the producing classes by the Shylocks.

To get a clear idea of the accumulative power of money, and the effect of the different rates of interest in the distribution of the products of labor, we must take the longest possible period in our history. The first permanent settlement on our territory was made at Jamestown, in Virginia, in 1607, or two hundred and sixty-one years ago. I will suppose these settlers to have

purchased of the mother country the entire territory of the United States for ONE DOLLAR, and to have given their obligation therefor, bearing ten per cent. interest, payable, interest and principal, two hundred and sixty-one years after date. With the interest compounded annually, this obligation would fall due the present year, and would amount to the enormous sum of sixty-five billion four hundred and seventy-four million dollars, ($65,474,000,000,) over three times the assessed value of the property of the United States, real and personal.

This result should, I think, convince the most strenuous advocates for the high rates of interest that no people or nation can pay ten per cent. interest without robbing labor and centralizing the wealth in the hands of a few capitalists, and that the sanction of this rate by law is legalized robbery— nothing more, nothing less. Had the same obligation borne three per cent., the amount would be two thousand two hundred and forty-five dollars, ($2,245,) and with the rate at two and a half per cent., the amount would be but six hundred and twenty-eight dollars, ($628.) But it may be claimed that the resources of the country were not developed as rapidly during our colonial condition as since the achievement of our independence. I will, therefore, compare the increase in the national wealth since that period with the accumulative power of money with interest at the four several rates of four, five, seven, and ten per cent. per annum. For this purpose, I will estimate the national wealth, including real and personal property, at one thousand millions of dollars on the 4th of July, 1776. Allowing it to have increased at the rate of three and one-third per cent. per annum, the amount would be on next Independence Day twenty billions four hundred and twenty-six millions dollars, ($20,426,000 000,) which is a very close approximation to the present value of the national wealth. At four per cent., it would be thirty-six billions nine hundred and fifty million dollars, ($36,950,000,000.) At five per cent, it would be eighty-nine billions four hundred millions dollars, ($89,400,000,000.) At seven per cent., it would be five hundred and seven billion dollars, ($507,000,000,000;) and at ten per cent., it would be six thousand four hundred and ninety-seven billion dollars, ($6,497,000,000,000.) Comment on these figures is unnecessary. No honest, intelligent man will claim that the wealth of the nation has increased at the rate of even four per cent. per annum since the declaration of independence.

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The present condition of the country is similar to what it was at the close of the revolutionary war in 1783. We have contracted an enormous national debt, the annual interest on which is greater than that paid by any government on the globe, every dollar of which, interest as well as principal, when paid, must be wrung from the hard earnings of labor. No matter how cunningly taxes are laid, they must in the end all be borne by labor. But it is proposed to bequeath this boon to posterity. In order that we may have a correct idea of the value and blessedness of this bequest, let us suppose the national debt at the close of the revolutionary war, 1783, to have been the same per capita as at present, and our ancestors to have funded it in bonds bearing six per cent., payable, interest and principal, eighty-five years after date. Our population is at this time thirty-seven million five hundred thousand, (37,500,000,) and our debt two billion five hundred million dollars, ($2,500,000,000,) or sixty-six and two-thirds dollars per capita. Our population was in 1783 three million two hundred and forty thousand, (3,240,000,) which would have made the national debt at that time two hundred and sixteen million dollars, ($216,000,000,) which, with the accumulation of interest compounded annually, would now amount to sixty-one billion two hundred and eighty-one million dollars, ($61,281,000,000,) or one thousand six hundred and thirty-four dollars ($1,634) per capita, being nearly three times the present value of the entire national wealth.

It may, however, be objected that eighty-five years would be too long an extension of the time of payment. The proposition to defer the payment of