Transcribed by Jeremy M. Snyder and reverse-order proofed by Natalie Byars, Furman University, from the Thaddeus Stevens Papers.
Alexander Campbell’s letter to Stevens is a response and assertion of Stevens’ views and a call for the triumph of his own version of virtue and republican ideals. Campbell openly attacks the Wall Street “harpees ”4 and government officials for mismanaging the nations monetary system. In his letter, Campbell explains that money, in theory, gains its worth from laws established by Congress; therefore, its worth is determined by the laws of Congress and not its value in gold or any other material. Furthermore, a wrongly managed monetary system will only create a slavery worse than that which had been terminated. Campbell states that if money has power over producers (the actual laborers), then the system has failed and the power of the sovereign people has been usurped by the value which they produce. According to Campbell and many others, this seizure of power would be the end of true republicanism. For more information about the monetary crisis and attempts at resolution, consult the interpretive essay following these documents.
2. Greenbacks, nicknamed for their color, were paper bank notes made redeemable for debts, goods and services. Paper currency was the solution offered by Thaddeus Stevens and other Republicans to repudiate the war debt. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of greenbacks in the Legal Tender Cases of the 1860s. Flooding the market with cheap paper currency caused a spiral of devaluation and the federal government was forced to recall and limit the circulation of greenbacks in 1873 and 1874 in order increase and stabilize their value.
3. See David Montgomery, Beyond Equality: Labor and the Radical Republicans 1862-1862. pp. 426--33.
4. Many of the speculators on Wall Street had earned reputations as money hungry extortionists who were making private fortunes from government funded banks. The reference here is to a predatory monster in classical mythology. Among this crowd was Jay Cooke, a railroad speculator and Wall Street broker, who is directly implicated in Campbell’s letter.
Kroose, Herman E., ed. and Paul A. Samuelson. Documentary History of Banking and Currency in the United States. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1969.
Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from the Compromise of . New York: Macmillan & Co., 1910.
Purvis, Thomas L. A Dictionary of American History Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 1995.
Dear Sir
I have read with great pleasure, and deep interest your letter of the 7th inst., on the subject of our national finances and currency and beg that you will accept my most sincere thanks for this clear exposition of the occult science of money, hidden, because if rightly understood the occupation of the harpees of Wall Street and their associates would be gone. Most of the leading journals in the nation are under the control of these pirates and only write at their dictation. I have been disgusted by reading the criticisms on your letter in such papers as the Chicago Journal and Tribune, neither of which published more than garbled extracts of the letter and their articles were as destitute of reason and argument as snow is of heat. I had a full copy of the letter in the Chicago Republican which I have shown to dozens of men of practical common sense, every one of whom heartily endorsed your views, and I am quite certain that nine tenths of all those not interested in banks and non taxed bonds will do likewise; indeed I have heard a number of those who hold bonds admit that the policy you advocate was right and that necessity would compel the nation to adopt it.
I have no doubt that the moneyocracy will attempt to carry through Congress at the coming session their pet scheme of funding the debt in long bonds bearing 5 per cent interest and principal payable in coin and exempt from all taxes, this will be equal to an 8 per cent security subject to like taxation with other property. If they are successful it will fasten the so called national banking system permanently on the country; for it is utterly absurd to suppose that the American people or any other civilized nation will ever consent to transact their business on a purely metalic currency. Say Cooke and his associates in Wall street and elsewhere will then have entire control of the moneyed interest of the nation. Should these enemies of all righteousness succeed in carrying their wicked schemes through Congress it will bankrupt the nation, for the rate of interest in all business transactions will be as high as the rate paid by the government; [interlined: while ]the rate of increase in the national wealth from 1790 to 1860 did not exceed three and one third per cent per annum (estimating it in kind) now it is clear that if money accumulates at the rate of 8 per cent per annum it will soon gather up all the surplus earnings of the industrial classes, taking them from the producers and giving them to the Shylocks--the mere bee- moths of society-- thus impoverishing, degrading, and ultimately reducing to a state of practical servitude the entire laboring population of the nation. But on the contrary if money be instituted on true principles, it will distribute products to producers according to the labor or service performed in their production secure to all their natural rights and strengthen and perpetuate the blessings of civil liberty. When you said “Money is first what the law makes it” you uttered one of the most important truths connected with the whole science of money and political economy.
Ignorance of the true nature and function of money has been a most fruitful source of error in the monetary legislation of this nation and when once they are clearly understood and fully comprehended by our legislators, the chief obstacle in the way of its rightful institution will be removed. All of the properties and powers of money are derived from the law [interlined: instituting it and] making it a legal tender. Its value and usefulness depends upon its legal power to represent measure and exchange and to accumulate value by interest. It has no material value only an immaterial or legal value. The law knows no such distinction as a gold “dollar” or a paper “dollar” whatever Congress or the supreme law making power of a nation declares a legal tender is the end of the law--is money without regard to quantity, quality or value of its material.
The first series of Treasury notes issued are printed on no better paper and have no greater security than the common legal tender but they have the same legal powers as “money” that is given to gold and have been at par with gold ever since they were made receivable for duties on imports and declared a legal tender in the payment of all debts public and private. Money when rightly instituted is a public lien just as a mortgage is a lien on the property named in it. Money is a better lien than the mortgage. The owner of the mortgage can only foreclose it on the property specified in it, while the holder of the money can foreclose on any for sale in the nation. When the money passes beyond the jurisdiction of the law instituting it, it loses its legal value and assumes its commercial value; in other words it becomes a commodity.
The sovereign power to make money and regulate its value is by the Constitution of the United States expressly granted to Congress and positively prohibited to the states. Any currency or circulating medium that is not a legal tender for all debts public and private is not “money” in the legal sense; and [deleted: now] while Congress is unquestionably clothed with full power to declare what shall be money, and to regulate its value, it is not clear to the common mind that any authority is given to that body to delegate this power to any class of individuals or corporations or to authorize the issue of or to permit to circulate as a medium of exchange any thing that has not all the legal powers of money. Thus neither [deleted: of] the notes of the so called national banks nor the common legal tender Treasury notes possess the power to make money and regulate its value, includes the power to control the value of all the property in the nation and to effect its distribution between non producing capital and producing labor and is therefore an essential attribute of sovereignty. No Despotism, Monarchy, or Aristocracy can be maintained while this power is retained by the people, nor can a democracy be maintained where this power is not exercised by the people. Our financiers and political economists commit a grave error when they look to the Monarchies and Aristocracies of Europe for precedent to guide them in the institution of money they lose sight of the important fact that these Governments are founded on the theory of sovereignty in the monarch or in a few nobles, while ours is founded on the principle of absolute inherent sovereignty in the people. If Congress cannot institute money so that it shall be under and subject to the direct control of the sovereign people, who produce the values it is designed to represent measure and exchange and distribute products to producers equitably according to the labor or service performed in their production then must democracy prove a failure and Universal Suffrage a sham.
The war resulted in striking the shackles from the ankle of the slave changed him from a “thing” to a man, but it did not lift the weight from the backs of labor, but on the contrary greatly increased the burden of the wealth producing classes or taxpayers, while money which is equally protected by law with all other property has not only been exempt from all the burdens and sacrifices of the war, but on the contrary its value and consequently its power over labor and property has been greatly increased.
The revolution begun by the emancipation of the slave must be carried forward until labor in every section of our country, and in all departments of useful occupation is freed from the thraldom imposed on it by a wrongly constituted monetary system. If permitted to stop with giving to the slave a mere nominal freedom instead of a blessing, it will prove a withering blasting, burning curse [deleted: for] to mankind for generations to come. The people are ready for the advance; waiting for some leader in Congress to sound the charge, and they will move right on the citadel of the enemy, and thoroughly cleanse the temple of liberty, by casting out the Shylocks and money changers and their allies in Congress and places of official trust. Shall it be said in after times that we had not a man in our National Councils who possessed the intelligence, virtue and courage to lead the people to righteous victory. I send you herewith a copy of a Bill introduced in Congress last month by Hon A.J. Kuykendall of this State, as you will notice the bill contemplates a radical change in our entire monetary system, though not more thorough than in my judgment is actually necessary in order that our monetary system may be in harmony with our democratic institution. If you have not the leisure to consider the bill at length, I would ask your attention particularly to section 9 and that part of the bill that follows to Sec- 24, this being the most important part of it, a very large number of copies of this bill and speech have been circulated throughout the whole country, but more particularly in the Western States and it has met with very [unclear: general] approval by the masses of the people without regard to their party predilections.
I will state that this bill was carefully considered by and is the exponent of the financial views of the Anti Monopoly Association of this state, and the principles of it were incorporated into the Declaration of Principles adopted by the National Labor Congress that met in Chicago in August last. The deep interest I feel in this very important subject is the only appology I [unclear: have] to offer for this intruding on your time and attention when I have the honor to be with great [illegible ].
To
Hon Thaddeus Stevens
(benson/HST41/Purple/stevens4.htm)