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View Full Version : It looks like we can thank Dishonest Abe for our current economic mess




AggieforPaul
06-25-2008, 02:02 AM
I was reading DiLorenzo tonight, and he had a quote from Lincoln when Abe was introducing himself as a candidate for Illinois legislature. Lincoln said, "My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance. I am in favor of a national bank . . . in favor of the internal improvements system and a high protective tariff."

And he got his way on all 3. It took a man as persuasive, as charismatic, and as murderous and corrupt as Lincoln to chisel away at the foundation of the gold standard and turn on the printing presses, to nationalize the money supply against the letter of the Constitution, to begin corporate welfare for his cronies using economic arguments Bastiat had laid to waste a century earlier, and to absolutely wreck the Southern economy with mercantilism, and to set into motion the framework for the protectionist b.s that is still hurting American consumers today.

And somehow, masterfully, he convinced the historians that his gunpoint confrontation was all about slavery, even though he had once SAID he had no constitutional authority to end slavery where it already existed, and later said during the war that he was fighting to "save the union" rather than to free the slaves.

I wonder how much more prosperous we would be right now if the rule of Jeffersonian strict Constitutional constructionism had not been hijacked by a dictatorial disciple of Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay?

Zippyjuan
06-25-2008, 11:38 AM
Abe Lincoln created the Fed and took the US off the gold standard- all while he was dead? Pretty impressive. And that assumes that the Fed and not having a gold standard are the causes of our current economic situation and not people's greed.

Some libertarians who argue for getting rid of the income tax suggest using tarrifs to replace it.

acptulsa
06-25-2008, 11:40 AM
Thank you, Zippyjuan. Much appreciated!

Acala
06-25-2008, 11:56 AM
Some libertarians who argue for getting rid of the income tax suggest using tarrifs to replace it.


Ron Paul and others suggest low, UNIFORM tariffs as a source of government revenue. A uniform tariff applies equally to all goods and is designed to raise revenue. Lincoln supported protectionist tariffs - very high tariffs that singled out particular classes of products, mainly manufactured goods from Britain that were competitive with Northern industry. Lincoln's tariffs were designed to disrupt trade to benefit special interests in the North. These tariffs had a disproportionately harsh effect on the South.

nate895
06-25-2008, 12:04 PM
Ron Paul and others suggest low, UNIFORM tariffs as a source of government revenue. A uniform tariff applies equally to all goods and is designed to raise revenue. Lincoln supported protectionist tariffs - very high tariffs that singled out particular classes of products, mainly manufactured goods from Britain that were competitive with Northern industry. Lincoln's tariffs were designed to disrupt trade to benefit special interests in the North. These tariffs had a disproportionately harsh effect on the South.

I believe the South paid over 80% of the Federal revenue before the war. Then the Congress would spend a majority of the budget on projects to help Northern business interests. Sounds like a lovely deal for Southerners. Higher taxes, higher prices, and less government handouts, who wouldn't just sing this government's praises?

Acala
06-25-2008, 01:56 PM
When the South seceded, Lincoln vowed to continue to collect the tariffs. That's why he kept troops in Fort Sumter - to stop and collect tariffs from ships entering Charleston harbor. Essentially trying to collect tariffs on a foreign nation's trade.

Mesogen
06-25-2008, 02:27 PM
Ok, you make it sound like Lincoln came up with these ideas. But I'd like to clear something up. Lincoln was in favor of a central bank but vehemently opposed a privately held central bank.

His greenback program was a way to circumvent the European bankers and create a system whereby the US Treasury would issue its own legal tender, legal tender that was debt free.

Lincoln wanted a central bank that was controlled by the government, not by private interests.

It was thought that he was assassinated because of this.

AggieforPaul
06-25-2008, 03:34 PM
Abe Lincoln created the Fed and took the US off the gold standard- all while he was dead? Pretty impressive. And that assumes that the Fed and not having a gold standard are the causes of our current economic situation and not people's greed.

Some libertarians who argue for getting rid of the income tax suggest using tarrifs to replace it.

I said he set the wheels in motion smart ass. During the war he suspended the requirement that gold specie be tendered as payment, and ran the printing presses to pay for the war.

He was basically Henry Clay's Rottweiler, vowing to curse the United States with protectionism, internal improvements (corporate welfare), a national bank, a centralized government, and empire.

Mesogen
06-25-2008, 04:16 PM
From: http://www.xat.org/xat/usury.html


ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE CIVIL WAR (1861 - 1865)
With the Central Bank killed off, fractional reserve banking moved like a virus through numerous state chartered banks instead causing the instability this form of economics thrives on. When people lose their homes someone else wins them for a fraction of their worth. Depression is good news to the lender; but war causes even more debt and dependency than anything else, so if the money changers couldn't have their Central Bank with a license to print money, a war it would have to be. We can see from this quote of the then chancellor of Germany that slavery was not the only cause for the American Civil War. "The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the US, if they remained as one block, and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world."Otto von Bismark chancellor of Germany 1876 On the 12th of April 1861 this economic war began. Predictably Lincoln, needing money to finance his war effort, went with his secretary of the treasury to New York to apply for the necessary loans. The money changers wishing the Union to fail offered loans at 24% to 36%. Lincoln declined the offer. An old friend of Lincoln's, Colonel Dick Taylor of Chicago was put in charge of solving the problem of how to finance the war. His solution is recorded as this. "Just get Congress to pass a bill authorising the printing of full legal tender treasury notes... and pay your soldiers with them and go ahead and win your war with them also." Colonel Dick Taylor When Lincoln asked if the people of America would accept the notes Taylor said. "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 Constitution."
Colonel Dick Taylor 1 Lincoln agreed to try this solution and printed 450 million dollars worth of the new bills using green ink on the back to distinguish them from other notes. "The government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of consumers..... The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government's greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles, the long-felt want for a uniform medium will be satisfied. The taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest, discounts and exchanges. The financing of all public enterprises, the maintenance of stable government and ordered progress, and the conduct of the Treasury will become matters of practical administration. The people can and will be furnished with a currency as safe as their own government. Money will cease to be the master and become the servant of humanity. Democracy will rise superior to the money power."
Abraham Lincoln 2 From this we see that the solution worked so well Lincoln was seriously considering adopting this emergency measure as a permanent policy. This would have been great for everyone except the money changers who quickly realised how dangerous this policy would be for them. They wasted no time in expressing their view in the London Times. Oddly enough, while the article seems to have been designed to discourage this creative financial policy, in its put down we're clearly able to see the policies goodness. "If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all 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."
Hazard Circular - London Times 1865 From this extract its plan to see that it is the advantage provided by the adopting of this policy which poses a threat to those not using it. 1863, nearly there, Lincoln needed just a bit more money to win the war, and seeing him in this vulnerable state, and knowing that the president could not get the congressional authority to issue more greenbacks, the money changers proposed the passing of the National Bank Act. The act went through. From this point on the entire US money supply would be created out of debt by bankers buying US government bonds and issuing them from reserves for bank notes. The greenbacks continued to be in circulation until 1994, their numbers were not increased but in fact decreased. "In numerous years following the war, the Federal Government ran a heavy surplus. It could not (however) pay off its debt, retire its securities, because to do so meant there would be no bonds to back the national bank notes. To pay off the debt was to destroy the money supply."
John Kenneth Galbrath The American economy has been based on government debt since 1864 and it is locked into this system. Talk of paying off the debt without first reforming the banking system is just talk and a complete impossibility. That same year Lincoln had a pleasant surprise. Turns out the Tsar of Russia, Alexander II, was well aware of the money changers scam. The Tsar was refusing to allow them to set up a central bank in Russia. If Lincoln could limit the power of the money changers and win the war, the bankers would not be able to split America and hand it back to Britain and France as planned. The Tsar knew that this handing back would come at a cost which would eventually need to be paid back by attacking Russia, it being clearly in the money changers sights. The Tsar declared that if France or Britain gave help to the South, Russia would consider this an act of war. Britain and France would instead wait in vain to have the wealth of the colonies returned to them, and while they waited Lincoln won the civil war. With an election coming up the next year, Lincoln himself would wait for renewed public support before reversing the National Bank Act he had been pressured into approving during the war. Lincoln's opposition to the central banks financial control and a proposed return to the gold standard is well documented. He would certainly have killed off the national banks monopoly had he not been killed himself only 41 days after being re-elected. The money changers were pressing for a gold standard because gold was scarce and easier to have a monopoly over. Much of this was already waiting in their hands and each gold merchant was well aware that what they really had could be easily made to seem like much much more. Silver would only widen the field and lower the share so they pressed for... [the return of the gold standard.]
1. Lincoln By Emil Ludwig 1930, containing a letter from Lincoln, also reprinted in Glory to God and the Sucker Democracy A Manuscript Collection of the Letters of Charles H. Lanphier compiled by Charles C. Patton.
2. Abraham Lincoln. Senate document 23, Page 91. 1865.


THE RETURN OF THE GOLD STANDARD (1866 - 1881)
"Right after the Civil War there was considerable talk about reviving Lincoln's brief experiment with the Constitutional monetary system. Had not the European money-trust intervened, it would have no doubt become an established institution."
W.Cleon Skousen. Even after his death, the idea that America might print its own debt free money set off warning bells throughout the entire European banking community. On April 12th in 1866, the American congress passed the Contraction Act, allowing the treasury to call in and retire some of Lincoln's greenbacks, With only the banks standing to gain from this, it's not hard to work out the source of this action. To give the American public the false impression that they would be better off under the gold standard, the money changers used the control they had to cause economic instability and panic the people. This was fairly easy to do by calling in existing loans and refusing to issue new ones, a tried and proven method of causing depression. They would then spread the word through the media they largely controlled that the lack of a single gold standard was the cause of the hardship which ensued, while all this time using the Contraction Act to lower the amount of money in circulation. It went from
$1.8 billion in circulation in 1866 allowing $50.46 per person,
to $1.3 billion in 1867 allowing $44.00 per person,
to $0.6 billion in 1876 making only $14.60 per person and down
to $0.4 billion only ten years later leaving only $6.67 per person
and a continually growing population. Most people believe the economists when they tell us that recessions and depressions are part of the natural flow, but in truth the money supply is controlled by a small minority who have always done so and will continue to do so if we let them. By 1872 the American public was beginning to feel the squeeze, so the Bank of England, scheming in the back rooms, sent Ernest Seyd, with lots of money to bribe congress into demonetising silver. Ernest drafted the legislation himself, which came into law with the passing of the Coinage Act, effectively stopping the minting of silver that year. Here's what he said about his trip, obviously pleased with himself. "I went to America in the winter of 1872-73, authorised to secure, if I could, the passage of a bill demonetising silver. It was in the interest of those I represented - the governors of the Bank of England - to have it done. By 1873, gold coins were the only form of coin money."
Ernest Seyd Or as explained by Senator Daniel of Virginia "In 1872 silver being demonetized in Germany, England, and Holland, a capital of 100,000 pounds ($500,000.00) was raised, Ernest Seyd was sent to this country with this fund as agent for foreign bond holders to effect the same object (demonetization of silver)". 1 Within three years, with 30% of the work force unemployed, the American people began to harken back to the days of silver backed money and the greenbacks. The US Silver Commission was set up to study the problem and responded with telling history: "The disaster of the Dark Ages was caused by decreasing money and falling prices... Without money, civilisation could not have had a beginning, and with a diminishing supply, it must languish and unless relieved, finally perish. At the Christian era the metallic money of the Roman Empire amounted to $1,800,million. By the end of the fifteenth century it had shrunk to less than $200,million. History records no other such disastrous transition as that from the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages..."
United States Silver Commission While they obviously could see the problems being caused by the restricted money supply, this declaration did little to help the problem, and in 1877 riots broke out all over the country. The bank's response was to do nothing except to campaign against the idea that greenbacks should be reissued. The American Bankers Association secretary James Buel expressed the bankers attitude well in a letter to fellow members of the association. He wrote: "It is advisable to do all in your power to sustain such prominent daily and weekly newspapers, especially the Agricultural 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 government issue of money. To repeal the Act creating bank notes, or to restore 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 support our interest that we may control legislation."
James Buel American Bankers Association 2 What this statement exposes is the difference in mentality between your average person and a banker. With a banker 'less really is more' and every need an opportunity to exploit. James Garfield became President in 1881 with a firm grasp of where the problem lay. "Whosoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce... And when you realise that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate."
James Garfield 1881 Within weeks of releasing this statement President Garfield was assassinated. The cry from the streets was to... [Free Silver.]


1. Senator Daniel of Virginia, May 22, 1890, from a speech in Congress, to be found in the Congressional Record, page 5128, quoting from the Bankers Magazine of August, 1873
2. from a circular issued by authority of the Associated Bankers of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston signed by one James Buel, secretary, sent out from 247 Broadway, New York in 1877, to the bankers in all of the States


FREE SILVER (1891 - 1912)
Fleecing of the flock is the term the money changers use for the process of booms and depressions which make it possible for them to repossess property at a fraction of its worth. In 1891 a major fleece was being planned. "On Sept 1st, 1894, we will not renew our loans under any consideration. On Sept 1st we will demand our money. We will foreclose and become mortgagees in possession. We can take two-thirds of the farms west of the Mississippi, and thousands of them east of the Mississippi as well, at our own price... Then the farmers will become tenants as in England..."
1891 American Bankers Association as printed in the Congressional Record of April 29, 1913 The continued gold standard made this possible. William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic candidate for president in 1896, campaigning to bring silver back as a money standard. (free Silver) "We will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labour this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."
William Jennings Bryan Of course the money changers supported his opposition on the Republican side so long as he wanted the gold standard maintained. The factory bosses were somehow convinced to tell their work force that business would close down if Bryan was elected, and everyone would lose their jobs. The Republicans won by a small margin. Bryan tried again in 1900 and in 1908 but lost both times. He became secretary of state under Wilson in 1912 but became disenchanted and resigned in 1915 under suspicious circumstances connected with the sinking of the Lusitania which drove America into the First World War.

lucius
06-25-2008, 04:23 PM
We crossed over the Rubicon with Roosevelt's deficit-spending and have never since regained control of the public purse; he gained these powers by invoking the need to beat "The Crisis", and he produced The Permanent Emergency in which this country still lives in.