490 "THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



of the United States, to fill it with funds from banks out- 

 side of New York, and without delay. 



The Republican party instituted the national banking 

 system, but if they ever dreamed of making such wholesale, 

 gratuitous donations of the free use of the people's money, 

 they did not put their plans in operation. The Democratic 

 officials have certainly out-Heroded Herod himself. Upon 

 this issue it is useless for the Democratic libertine to throw 

 stones at the Republican harlot, for both are guilty. That 

 the leaders of the Republican party are open and avowed 

 advocates of national banks is not denied by their adhe- 

 rents. It is strange, however, that with inexcusable 

 inconsistency, the large body of followers in the Demo- 

 cratic party, who claim to adhere to the time-honored 

 principles and doctrines of the old constitutional Democ- 

 racy as taught by such illustrious statesmen as Jefferson, 

 Jackson, Calhoun and others, will still persist in the face 

 of the records, and action of their leaders, in believing that 

 their party is opposed to national banks. That such was 

 the case up to 1860 there is not the shadow of a doubt. 

 And as late as 1868, the party, assembled in national con- 

 vention, adopted the following conservative plank in their 

 platform : 



u SECTION 5. One currency for the government and 

 the people, the laborer and the office-holder, the pensioner 

 and the soldier, the producer and the bond-holder.'' 



It was the last intimation, as a national party, of any 

 opposition to national banks. At that time, and for years 

 afterward, August Belmont was chairman of the National 

 Democratic Committee. Mr. Belmont was a banker 

 and the American agent of the Rothchilds, who held 

 millions of dollars of government bonds. He succeeded 

 in side-tracking the Democratic party upon the National 

 banking question. For a number of years, however, 

 States and individuals made a gallant fight for this old 



