The Coming Battle

Chapter VI  - The National Banks Wage War Upon the Credit of the United States

Chapter I
Origin of the Money 
Power in America

"The wisdom of the whole nation can see farther than the sages of Westminster Hall (the government). The collective knowledge and penetration of the people at large are more to be depended on than the boasted discernment of all the bar. The reason is clear: Their eyes are not dazzled by the prospects of an opposite interest. The Crown has no lore sufficiently tempting to make them forget themselves and the general good" - Edmund Burke

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"It is a dangerous thing for the tail to attempt to wag the dog, ... The truth is, that in matters of national interest there is no set of people as stupid as the Wall street financiers. ..." - New York Sun

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"The act of January, 1875, clothed the national banks with the power of unlimited and unrestricted contraction and expansion of the currency. It gave them absolute control over the volume of money, and consequently over the market value of labor and all kinds of property. It gave them power to inflate the currency when they could make money through the inflation of prices, and when their interests could be better served by panic, depressed prices and general business stagnation and bankruptcy, they had power to accomplish their end through the contraction of their circulating notes.

"The provisions of the new funding bill materially interfere with their nicely-planned scheme, and deprive the of nearly all their power over sudden contractions and inflation. It puts a limit to their privileges, and bounds to their unwarranted powers.

"Without waiting even for the concurrence of the House in the slight Senate amendments, a large and powerful bank lobby from Wall street and the clearing house association at once bore down upon the White House armed with magazines, Gattling guns and infernal machines of dire calamities, which they threatened would surely explode in the very heart of the nation's business and industries from spontaneous ignition, in case he did not interpose his prerogative to save. They were armed with authority from the national banks represented by the American Bankers Association to inform his Excellency that in case he withheld his veto they would immediately retire their circulation, in which case a money stringency would follow which would be terribly disastrous to every business interest producing the ruinous financial crash which ever befell the country" - Chicago Express,  March 1, 1881

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