CHAPTER VI. 



GREENBACKS AND BONDS. 



THE HISTORY of greenbacks and bonds is co-relative. 

 The greenback was a necessity, growing out of the war, 

 and, as seems to be evident to a great majority of the 

 people, is a necessity still. A complete history of the 

 present greenback would be highly interesting to the 

 American citizen. Born of the necessities of the times, 

 when the nation, was struggling for existence, it was 

 immediately fell upon by the banker and capitalist, and 

 has been a bone of contention ever since. From the first 

 it was looked upon as an intruder upon the old system, 

 which allowed a syndicate of capitalists and bankers to 

 issue and control the paper money circulation for the 

 people. It having become absolutely necessary for the 

 government to issue its own notes as money, or use the 

 banker's, it chose the former. When it became known to 

 the bankers of Europe and America, that the United 

 States would issue a legal tender paper money, the 

 capitalists of both countries set to work to cripple, as far 

 as was in their power, the usefulness of the greenback, 

 and to reap a rich harvest for themselves in the way of 

 government bonds. "It will not do to let the greenbacks 

 circulate as money any length of time, for we cannot 

 control them," they said through the Hazzard circular. 

 Had the capitalists succeeded in their schemes that is, 

 after having used the greenback as a medium to secure the 

 bonds of the United States at about one-half their face 



