532 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



Berkey says: "That the Senate was controlled in its 

 action in regard to the legal tender bill by improper influ- 

 ences is not a matter of conjecture, but of history.'' 



In a speech made by Hon. W. D. Kelley, at Philadel- 

 phia, January 15, 1876, he says: 



U I remember the grand old commoner, Thaddeus 

 Stevens, with hat in his hand and his cane under his arm, 

 when he returned to the House after the final conference, 

 and shedding bitter tears over the result. 'Yes,' said he, 

 'we have had to yield. The Senate was stubborn. We 

 did not yield until we found that the country must be lost 

 or the banks be gratified, and we have sought to save the 

 country in spite of the banks. ' ' 



So the bill passed the House with the Senate amend- 

 ments, and the President signed it. 



Thad. Stevens knew that the New York, Boston and 

 Philadelphia bankers had bought up the Senate. He 

 knew those bankers' avarice, and the Senate's greed for 

 money outweighed their loyalty or love of country. He 

 knew that they would see the republic shattered into frag- 

 ments, the government crippled and handcuffed and the 

 soldiers unpaid and starving, rather than yield their grasp 

 on the money monopoly of the nation. 



"The money kings of Europe, who had made their 

 billions from the war debts of the old country, looked to 

 the fertile soil of American enterprise for a harvest. 



"We had no bonds for them to set on, and absorb our 

 increasing wealth. They looked with eager eyes to our 

 growing prosperity, and licked their bloody chops to devour 

 our increase. W T ar was their only hope. War they must 

 have. War would necessitate money money would 

 demand bonds bonds would draw interest, even gold 

 interest, with which they could fill their European coffers; 

 and interest would prove a sickle with which they could 

 harvest the annual crops of American industry. 



