EiJ:;!-Uffr-Vi';!> 
 
 
 a 
 
 -!;m 
 
 
 
cr 
 i\3 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
CT275.H28 7r'""™"'"-"'"^ 
 
 Life of Col. Jesse Harper of Danville, I 
 
 olln 
 
 3 1924 029 855 206 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029855206 
 
COL, JESSE HARPER 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 Col. Jesse Harper 
 
 OF 
 
 DANVILLE, ILLS. 
 
 FARM -BOY, LAWYER 
 EDITOR, AUTHOR 
 ORATOR, SCHOLAR 
 AND REFORMER 
 
 PRESENTED IN A BRIEF BIO- 
 GRAPHY, TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 CHOICE SELECTIONS PROM HIS 
 SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 
 THROUGHOUT A LONG AND 
 BRILLIANT CAREER; ALSO THE 
 TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS AND 
 FELLOW - WORKERS TO HIS 
 
 ABILITY, WORTH 
 
 AND EXCELLENCE 
 
 Compiled and written by A.. C. BARTON 
 Assisted by REV. W. B. GALLAHER 
 
 BOTH OP DANVILLE, ILLS. 
 
 S 
 CHICAGO ^ 
 
 M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY / 
 
 407-42P DEARBORN ST. I \ 
 
 1904 
 
 '//- 
 
, V i 5 L 
 
 \ 
 
 Y 
 
 
 .ft 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory 3 
 
 Biographical Sketch of Col. Jesse Harper 5 
 
 Funeral of Mrs. Harper ., 16 
 
 Alexander C. Barton 19 
 
 Harper as Rev. W. B. Gallaher Knew Him 38 
 
 The Question Stated 41 
 
 Mr. Harper's Position on Temperance 53 
 
 Thirty Years' Conflict 75 
 
 Murder and Money 102 
 
 Insanity 195 
 
 The Work in the Field 196 
 
 Extracts from Speeches and Writings of Col. Jesse 
 
 Harper 208 
 
 What the Gold Conspirators Want 221 
 
 Land Monopoly 227 
 
 The Fifth Step 246 
 
 The Origin of Money and Its Uses 259 
 
 Appendix 276 
 
 An Odd Fellow's Address 318 
 
 Reception Speech of Jesse Harper, Esq., to the Re- 
 turned Volunteers of Warren County 332 
 
 A Temperance Letter 340 
 
 Hon. Wm. ^. Boyer 342 
 
 The Lecture 344 
 
 Editorials 345 
 
 The Spirit of Speculation 356 
 
 Sunday Laws 362 
 
 Editorial Correspondence 364 
 
 Notice 368 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Real lives are lived, not written. The written life, 
 though splendidly penned in the most glowing and thrill- 
 ing rhetoric, is at best but a verbal photograph of the real 
 life. 
 
 It lacks the fire, the spirit, the living bloom and beauty 
 and the actual personal magnetism of a great man's real 
 life, in flesh and blood, with a mighty, working heart and 
 brain, expressing themselves, by turns, in the bright, 
 flashing wit and humor and in the burning and inspired 
 earnestness and sincerity of lofty, living thoughts and 
 words. 
 
 Therefore, this book can only present a comparatively 
 lifeless picture of the real life of its eminent and dis- 
 tinguished subject, the late Col. Jesse Harper, of Dan- 
 ville, 111. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that the compiler of this 
 book could not obtain more material for it in the form 
 of anecdotes concerning the boyhood of Colonel Harper, 
 and others, exhibiting his peculiarities and eccentricities 
 both as a private citizen and a public man in after life. 
 
 It is much more to be regretted that this book-picture 
 of Colonel Harper's life loses half its fidelity to life, and 
 especially to the inner depths of Colonel Harper's genial, 
 heroic and self-sacrificing soul, through the fact that 
 his vast and carefully preserved correspondence of many 
 years was destroyed by fire. 
 
 This correspondence, in which he had preserved many 
 duplicates of his own letters, embraced eminent names, 
 not only in the ranks of the reforms Colonel Harper 
 represented, but also in the ranks of the two old political 
 parties to which he was so long opposed. This corre- 
 spondence was of great historic importance and value. It 
 not only revealed the innermost depths of Colonel 
 Harper's great soul in all its varied moods and phases, 
 but also revealed the inner history of important reform 
 
4 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 movements, and the untold heroism and self-sacrifice of 
 his grand fellow-workers, from the humblest to the most 
 eminent among them. 
 
 Under these drawbacks this book is issued, with much 
 diffidence and with a deep sense of its inadequacy to do 
 anything like complete justice to the character and serv- 
 ices of Colonel Harper, -and to fulfill the high expecta- 
 tions of the many thousands of his warm and earnest per- 
 sonal friends and admirers, whose kind and considerate 
 indulgence and sympathy we ask. A. C. Barton. 
 
., BRIEF SKETCH 
 
 OF THE LIFE, SERVICES, DEATH AND FUNERAL 
 OF COL. JESSE HARPER. 
 
 Col. Jesse Harper was of the "Lincoln type" of dis- 
 tinguished men. He was of humble origin, being origin- 
 ally a poor farm boy, unschooled in the luxurious gaieties, 
 refinements and polite shams and deceits of falsely called 
 "high life." By dint of great native energy and of a 
 noble ambition to serve humanity, he, like Lincoln, be- 
 came a self-made man of the great common people, 
 endowed with a stubborn, rugged and indomitable hon- 
 esty, a clean, strong, far-reaching intellect and a great, 
 unselfish heart, whose deep world-wide sympathies and 
 affections embraced the toiling millions everywhere. 
 
 He was a plain and uncorrupted man of the people, 
 childlike in his teachableness and in his frank, open and 
 simple ways of living and acting, both publicly and pri- 
 vately ; yet kinglike in his royal command of the heights 
 and depths of the mightiest social and political problems, 
 and prophet-like in his glorious and inspiring visions of 
 the golden dawning of the "better day," when labor 
 shall have its own and justice and liberty shall glorify 
 the whole earth. 
 
 His was indeed a kingly mastery and munificence, in 
 that high and divine thought realm out of which springs 
 the spirit and the genius of all the reforms that bless 
 mankind ; and if he did not live to see his thoughts real- 
 ized it was because that throbbing with the life of God 
 they spanned the ages yet to be and not his own little 
 hour alone. 
 
 The lives of such men prove abundantly that neither 
 mountains of gold nor thrones of imperial power can ever 
 seduce the Lincoln type of great men, to which Colonel 
 Harper belonged, from their incorruptible love of the 
 
6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 common people and their devotion to the common people's 
 dearest rights and liberties. 
 
 If it be true that "Every man has his price," then the 
 "price" of the Colonel Harpers of this world is measured 
 in the coin of God's heavenly kingdom on high, for which 
 coin no dirty and corrupt politician ever had or ever will 
 have the privilege and opportunity of selling his vile 
 services. 
 
 This incorruptible man of the people. Col. Jesse Harper, 
 was born near Rushville, Ind., June 21, 1823, where he 
 remained with his parents till he was thirteen years of 
 age, when, with his parents, he removed to Michigan 
 City, Ind. 
 
 His father was a farmer and a poor man, a born lover 
 of truth and liberty, and so devoted to the anti-slavery 
 cause, in his day, that he was once ridden on a rail 
 through the streets of his home town, for bravely 
 and openly advocating abolition principles at a time when 
 none but grand moral heroes dared to do so. 
 
 It is easy to see, therefore, whence came to the young 
 Jesse that great legacy of sublime courage and heroism, 
 joined to deathless love of liberty, which inspired and 
 glorified his whole life. 
 
 Heredity will tell, and it is certain that love of liberty 
 for the poor, the weak and the down-trodden fired, from 
 birth, every blood-drop in the veins of Jesse Harper. 
 
 Young Jesse labored hard on his father's farm till he 
 was fifteen years of age. Many a time he drove an ox 
 team and hauled logs to the saw mill. 
 
 At Michigan City, Ind., after dropping farm work, he 
 was apprenticed to learn the carpenter and cabinet mak- 
 ers' trade, at which he became a skilled and proficient 
 workman. 
 
 He never went to school till he was fifteen years of age, 
 nt which time he could neither read nor write. 
 
 Yet after leaving the farm, by means of good habits 
 and of careful economy, he was enabled to get schooling, 
 which fitted him, at the age of twenty-one, to enter Ober- 
 lin College, Ohio, an institution famous for its liberty- 
 loving atmosphere and for the great names it has given 
 to the country's history. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 7 
 
 On his return from college he was called on to make 
 the first Fourth of July speech he ever made. Three 
 thousand people of his home town, Michigan City, and 
 its vicinity turned out to hear the "self-made boy orator," 
 as his- friends and neighbors proudly and fondly styled 
 him. 
 
 The oration was a thoughtful, lofty and patriotic effort 
 for so young a speaker, and gave rich promise of the 
 future power and brilliancy of the young orator's then 
 opening career. 
 
 In 1848 Jesse Harper married Miss Laura T. Foster, 
 of La Porte, Ind., where the two went to house-keeping. 
 
 This union of kindred and loving hearts was an ideal 
 one, which had much to do with the success and happi- 
 ness of Colonel Harper's long, busy and eventful life. 
 
 Nature could not have formed a better wife and life 
 companion for a public man and a reformer than Mrs. 
 Harper proved to be. 
 
 Her culture and intelligence with her own love of all 
 reforms for the betterment of humanity eminently fitted 
 her to give excellent counsel and advice and material 
 assistance to her busy and often careworn, and sometimes 
 discouraged, husband. Her noble and untiring devotion 
 to her husband's work and success was a beautiful marvel 
 of patient and unwearying wifely love and confidence, 
 which neither wavered nor slackened up to her death Oct. 
 2, 1895. 
 
 After his marriage Colonel Harper began the study of 
 law at his then home city, La Porte, Ind. He had for 
 a time thought of studying for the ministry, being a very 
 religious young man. But, modestly distrusting his fit- 
 ness for what he conceived to be the most sacred and 
 responsible calling on earth, he finally concluded to fit 
 himself for the lawyer's profession. 
 
 After a couise in the study of law he moved to Wil- 
 liamsport, Ind., where he entered into a law partnership 
 with the Hon. B. F. Gregory, and remained for twenty 
 years in this partnership, the firm name being Gregory & 
 Harper. 
 
 During a part of these twenty years, and prior to i860. 
 Colonel Harper and Abraham Lincoln were colleagues 
 
8 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 in a number of cases in law. This co-working of these 
 kindred spirits Icnit these homely, hearty and brainy self- 
 made men in strong and sympathetic friendship on both 
 sides. 
 
 Thus it was that throughout the famous joint discus- 
 sion between Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, in Illinois, 
 in 1858, Colonel Harper was, perhaps, the nearest and 
 closest friend of Lincoln. 
 
 At the memorable and historic Republican National 
 Convention in Chicago, May 18, i860. Colonel Harper 
 had the distinguished honor, in behalf of the Indiana 
 delegation, of placing in nomination for President of the 
 United States that immortal commoner and world's 
 greatest emancipationist, Abraham Lincoln, whose iinal 
 martyrdom by the assassin's bullet swept the whole civil- 
 ized world with one mighty sea of deep and honest 
 mourning. 
 
 Colonel Harper was always proud that he had the 
 honor to place before this convention, in the high name 
 of his native state, not only the successful candidate for 
 the highest office in the gift of the people, but a candidate 
 who, springing from the lowly bosom of the plain, com- 
 mon people, glorified his exalted station with a deathless 
 honor such as never king or emperor gave to the proud- 
 est throne on earth. 
 
 Mr. Harper was a life-long friend and admirer of 
 Abraham Lincoln and frequently referred to him in his 
 speeches and writings. 
 
 Once when I chanced to visit Colonel Harper, in 1884, 
 the latter showed me a package of letters, carefully tied 
 together, which he said were all autograph letters sent 
 him, from time to time, by Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Among these letters, all of which the Colonel warmly 
 declared that he proudly and fondly cherished, he showed 
 me one in which Mr. Lincoln personally thanked Mr. 
 Harper for bringing his (Lincoln's) name before the 
 Republican convention at Chicago in i860. 
 
 In this year (i860) Colonel Harper became the at- 
 torney for the Wabash Railroad Company, and proved to 
 be able and efficient in that capacity. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Harper raised two companies of soldiers 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 9 
 
 for service in the Union army, and was commissioned a 
 regimental colonel by Oliver P. Morton, the great "war" 
 governor of Indiana. 
 
 Though circumstances prevented Colonel Harper from 
 seeing active service in the war, he nevertheless received 
 the title of Colonel all his life. 
 
 By this familiar title he was affectionately known and 
 honored in many scholarly and comfortable homes all 
 over the United States, but more especially in millions 
 of the humble homes of the toiling masses, from the snows 
 of the Green Mountains to the sands of the Golden 
 Gate, and from the hunter's lodge in the frozen wilds 
 of the far northwest to the farthest cabin in the sunny 
 south's rich paradise of bloom and flowers. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. Harper was editor of the Williamsport, 
 Ind., Republican, and in 1869 he bought the Commercial, 
 in Danville, 111., which paper is still living, as a Repub- 
 lican paper, in the form of a thriving and vigorous even- 
 ing daily. 
 
 In 1872 the Colonel sold out his interests in Williams- 
 port, Ind., and moved his family to Danville, 111., where 
 he practiced law up to 1876. 
 
 In 1876 he was one of the four men who established 
 the Danville Daily News, now a flourishing Republican 
 paper edited ably for years by W. R. Jewell, one of the 
 most prominent and influential Republicans in the State 
 of Illinois, who, though stoutly opposed to Colonel 
 Harper in politics for many years past, has always been 
 his warm and sincere friend personally. 
 
 In 1878 Colonel Harper and Mr. J. T. Mathers started 
 the People's Advocate, a paper published at Jackson- 
 ville, 111. 
 
 To all of these papers Colonel Harper's name and his 
 trenchant and incisive pen gave strong character and 
 force in their different fields of service. 
 
 All these years he was a consistent and devoted Chris- 
 tian of the Presbyterian order of faith, and was a careful 
 and devoted Bible student. 
 
 He had the Bible in many different languages and 
 could read and translate it in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. 
 
 He once made a translation of some passages of the 
 
lo Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 original Greek of the New Testament concerning the 
 resurrection, which was accepted and freely used by emi- 
 ent Biblical scholars. 
 
 He also wrote a pamphlet on "The Resurrection of 
 the Body," which attracted wide attention for its scholar- 
 ship and logic, and greatly strengthened the faith of 
 many. 
 
 He had one of the choicest and most extensive private 
 libraries to be found anywhere in this country. It em- 
 braced the highest and best authorities on a very wide 
 range of topics, in which history, morals, religion and 
 economics were equally and impartially represented. 
 
 Congressmen, senators, governors of states and eminent 
 divines have visited his library to obtain information they 
 could not readily obtain elsewhere. 
 
 It was not till 1876 that Colonel Harper left the Repub- 
 lican party, or, as he preferred to put it, the Republican 
 party had "left him and the original principles of its pure 
 and illustrious founders, to become the trusted friend and 
 ally of the great robber monopolies of the country." 
 
 In this year (1876) he attended the National Green- 
 back Convention in Indianapolis, Ind., as a private citizen, ~^ 
 taking no part in the convention. 
 
 The next week he went to the National Republican 
 Convention held at Toledo, Ohio, going as a private 
 citizen, not as a delegate, although he had been asked 
 to go as a delegate at large, which position he declined 
 to accept. He had been asked if he wanted any place 
 on the ticket to be nominated at the Toledo convention. 
 He answered : 
 
 "No ; I only want to learn what the platform will be, 
 with its inside history, machinery and purposes." 
 
 The convention put forth a "hard money" platform. 
 This decided the Colonel's future political affiliations. A 
 week later Colonel Harper, then a resident of Danville, 
 111., advertised a political meeting at which he would 
 speak on the issues of the hour. 
 
 It was at this meeting that he first, to the great aston- 
 ishment of many of his hearers, squarely and openly de- 
 clared himself in favor of the National Greenback party. 
 
 He soon became one of the leaders of that party. In 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. ii 
 
 this year ( 1876) Colonel Harper gave up the practice of 
 the law to go from one end of the land to the other as 
 an advocate of the principles of the Greenback party, 
 to which work, principally, he devoted all the most active 
 years of his remaining life. 
 
 In 1878, while he was making campaign speeches for 
 the Greenback party in the State of Maine, he was nom- 
 inated as a candidate for congress in the twelfth Illinois 
 congressional district. He returned home in time to 
 make only six speeches before the election, in which he 
 was, of course, defeated, being the candidate of a new 
 and weak party. He received the largest vote ever 
 cast in the district on a third party ticket. 
 
 In 1880 Colonel Harper was chosen chairman of the 
 National Executive Committee of the Greenback party, 
 and issued a circular known as the "Harper Call," asking 
 for five hundred thousand signatures in favor of the 
 Greenback policy. 
 
 Names rolled in from all over the United States and 
 the quota was soon filled. 
 
 Four years later, in 1884, at the "People's Party" state 
 convention held in Bloomington, 111., Mr. Harper was 
 nominated for governor. 
 
 Still later, in 1890, the Farmers' Alliance and F. M. 
 B. A. joined with the People's Party in forming the 
 largest congressional convention ever held in Colonel 
 Harper's district, and at this convention he was nominated 
 for congress on the third ballot. It is needless to add 
 that though he polled a good vote he was defeated as 
 a candidate, having espoused radical principles, for the 
 adoption of which the great conservative majority of his 
 fellow citizens were not yet ripe and ready. 
 
 After this last date (1890) up to within a couple of 
 years before his death Colonel Harper refused to alto- 
 gether lay off his harness, notwithstanding his advanced 
 years ; and when age and weakness began to impair his 
 political campaigning he gave much time, thought and 
 research to the great religious question of "The Second 
 Coming of Christ," with the millennium following, on 
 which latter subject he wrote an able and very interesting 
 book, entitled, "The Millennial Dawn." 
 
12 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The Colonel was a prolific writer as well as an inex- 
 haustible speaker, and has published many interesting 
 and able pamphlets on various subjects. 
 
 His last public address was made in 1897, after which 
 he rapidly declined in health and strength, till death 
 crowned his long, brave and brilliant labors with the 
 blessed balm of rest and the fadeless beauty of finished 
 grace and loveliness. 
 
 Throughout his whole career as a reformer Colonel 
 Harper was a strong and consistent advocate of the tem- 
 perance cause, and made hundreds of vigorous and ear- 
 nest temperance addresses during his life. 
 
 He always viewed the temperance cause as a necessary 
 adjunct of labor reform, and was at all times glad of 
 an opportunity to help the temperance work in any and 
 all of its different phases. 
 
 In 1880 he published a fifty-seven-page pamphlet on 
 "The Liquor Traffic," which was one of the most schol- 
 arly and able efforts on this great and vital subject, and 
 choice extracts from which are given in this book. 
 
 As an orator Colonel Harper had but few equals for 
 wit, humor and eloquence combined. For many splendid 
 years his ringing voice was heard on the rostrum from 
 the far eastern shores of the Atlantic to where the Pacific 
 washes California's golden sands; and he was known 
 from the frozen lakes of the north, in whose zenith gleams 
 the constellation of the Great Bear, to the vine-clad hills 
 and the orange groves that stand bathed in the dreamy 
 beauty of the sun-loved south. 
 
 In the man's great soul this broad and varied expanse 
 was reflected as one common field of sorely beset and 
 suffering humanity, ever crying for more life, light, lib- 
 erty and happiness, and he felt it his divine mission to 
 hear and answer the cry with all the eloquence human 
 tongue could command. 
 
 Colonel Harper was not only a golden-tongued orator 
 and a brilliant, epigrammatic writer, but also a wonderful 
 encyclopedia of varied and extensive knowledge. 
 
 It has been said of him by admiring friends that he 
 had a deeper and wider knowledge of a vast variety of 
 subjects, and had more readiness in communicating that 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 13 
 
 knowledge, than had any other known public man in this 
 country in the last hundred years. 
 
 "None knew him but to love," and, knowing him really 
 and truly, could "name him but to praise." 
 
 At the Allied People's Party Convention in Louisville, 
 Ky., April 3, 1902, the following resolution was adopted, 
 sympathizing with Colonel Harper and his family in the 
 Colonel's last illness : 
 
 "Resolved, That the Allied People's Party, in conven- 
 tion assembled, in Louisville, Ky., April 3, 1902, regret 
 to hear of the dangerous illness of the grand old hero 
 and pioneer reformer, Col. Jesse Harper, who has spent 
 his life in the endeavor to uplift down-trodden humanity, 
 and whose last words to me were to 'Press on in the good 
 ■work till the complete emancipation of oppressed labor 
 is finally and forever achieved.' " 
 
 Colonel Harper ended his grand and noble career by 
 death, after a couple of years of very feeble health, at six 
 o'clock p. m., April 23, 1902, being seventy-nine years of 
 age. 
 
 The funeral services were held at the residence of 
 Aimer Harper, one of the two living sons of Colonel 
 Harper, and with which one the Colonel was residing 
 at the time of his death. Rev. J. M. Gaiser, pastor of the 
 First Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Danville, one 
 of the ablest and most effective orators among the pastors 
 of the city, preached the funeral discourse and conducted 
 the funeral exercises. 
 
 He wisely and- fittingly gave a thoughtful, earnest and 
 sympathetic talk over the remains of the old hero of 
 reform, rather than an ornate and labored sermon; and 
 in this excellent talk gave a vivid and truthful analysis 
 of the life and character of the veteran lover and servant 
 of humanity, lying before him in the sweet and welcome 
 repose of death. 
 
 In his coffin, his cheeks thinned and hollowed by wast- 
 ing sickness. Colonel Harper's face bore a remarkable 
 resemblance to that of his ^wn ideal man, Abraham Lin- 
 coln, as the latter's face is seen in nearly all of the pic- 
 tures representing the first and greatest of our martyred 
 Presidents. This remarkable resemblance was noted by 
 
14 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 a number of persons who looked on Colonel Harper's 
 coffined body. 
 
 The floral funeral tributes were especially choice and 
 beautiful as well as numerous. Many home friends and 
 a number from the country and from other cities attended 
 the funeral. 
 
 The pall-bearers were: A. C. Barton, C. B. Fenton, 
 H. P. Phillips, H. E. Thomas and M. L. Learnard. 
 
 A long line of carriages followed all that was mortal 
 of this eminent man and humble Christian to its last rest- 
 ing place in Spring Hill Cemetery, the lovely Danville 
 burying place. 
 
 Colonel Harper leaves behind him two sons, Aimer and 
 Edward S., the first and younger one being an excellent 
 workman and a successful contractor, and the other a 
 well-known printer, of a thoughtful and progressive 
 mind. 
 
 The Colonel also leaves after him an adopted daughter, 
 a most estimable lady, who is the wife of Mr. Jesse Lucas, 
 of Danville, 111. 
 
 Mrs. Lucas testifies from long experience in the home of 
 Colonel Harper's family that the Colonel was the kindest 
 of husbands and fathers, and bore all trials, ills and re- 
 verses with a wonderful sweetness of temper and a gentle 
 patience and forbearance, born of a kind and loving heart 
 and of a lofty and serene faith in the providence of God. 
 
 Colonel Harper was one of America's truest and grand- 
 est untitled noblemen. 
 
 God's royal stars and ribbons, marking heaven's high- 
 est orders of nobility among men, the stars and ribbons of 
 great thoughts and noble sympathies, adorned his true 
 heart and his grand intellect. 
 
 Without hope of pecuniary or political reward, he gave 
 the whole strength of his great heart and brain to the 
 redemption of his country from what he profoundly and 
 sincerely believed to be the soul-blighting, man-crushing 
 greed and tyranny of corporate wealth, entrenched in 
 corrupt and deceitful legislation. 
 
 No eloquent orator ever pleaded the cause of the toil- 
 ing millions with sublimer enthusiasm, a more massive 
 and masterly logic, a keener wit, a broader humor, or 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 15 
 
 with a more heart-thrilling music in his ringing words 
 of truth and righteousness. 
 
 No statesman and philosopher ever had a wider and 
 deeper grasp of the mighty problems, moral, social, po- 
 litical and religious, in which the highest human progress 
 and happiness, and the greatest glory and dominion of 
 God, are alike involved. 
 
 No braver warrior, no surer swordsman ever drew a 
 keen Damascus blade in any battle of the world's history. 
 His sword, however, was a moral and intellectual one. 
 Its hilt bore royal gems of thought and feeling, instead 
 of princely pearls and diamonds, and its blade shone not 
 alone with the gleam of burnished steel, but with the 
 sparkling dew of loving kindness. No cleaner, purer man 
 ever stood up, unspotted, incorruptible and invincible, in 
 defense of cruelly robbed and crushed humanity, against 
 the mightiest and most daring robbers of all the ages. 
 
 No glorious epic ever possessed more rythmic grace 
 and beauty than did Colonel Harper's long life of lofty, 
 brainy, loving and unselfish devotion to the cause of the 
 bitterly wronged and sorely suffering millions of man- 
 kind. 
 
 Such was Col. Jesse Harper, a childlike man, a witty 
 and brilliant orator, a learned lawyer, a critical scholar, 
 a gifted teacher, a profound philosopher, and a fearless 
 and daring reformer, in whom was beautifully joined and 
 admirably balanced, a clear, strong and massive intellect, 
 with a great, warm and loving heart. 
 
 May this humble book not have been written in vain as 
 a tribute to his memory and to the great reforms for 
 which he so devotedly labored through long and shining 
 years, years as gentle and lovely on their private as they 
 were rugged and militant on their public side. 
 
 May the book help to inspire in the hearts of future 
 rising heroes of reform the sublime spirit and purpose of 
 Colonel Harper's life, that spirit and purpose at whose 
 forward march the altar fires of truth and righteousness 
 spontaneously arise as flowers are born at the footsteps of 
 spring. 
 
FUNERAL OF MRS. HARPER. 
 
 TRIBUTES OF RESPECT FOR A BELOVED AND TALENTED 
 WOMAN. 
 
 Yesterday afternoon at 1 130 o'clock a large number of 
 friends gathered at the late home of Mrs. Laura Terrill 
 Harper, No. 808 North Gilbert street, to take a last leave 
 of the lovable and talented woman whose death occurred 
 last Saturday. Mrs. Harper was the wife of Col. Jesse 
 Harper and a woman of rare intellectual powers. 
 
 The house was entirely filled with friends and neighbors 
 of the deceased. Rev. S. H. Whitlock, of Kimber M. E. 
 Church, assisted by Rev. S. S. Jones, officiated. Rev. 
 Whitlock read a biographical sketch of Mrs. Harper, and 
 also spoke of her life and character. Rev. Jones offered 
 prayer. 
 
 Mesdames E. D. Marsh and V. Peyton and Messrs. 
 J. J. Flux and Orville Herlocker sang "Rock of Ages" 
 and "Asleep in Jesus," favorite hymns of Mrs. Harper. 
 
 The pall-bearers were : Messrs. C. B. Fenton, Captain 
 Ewing, E. H. Langhans, A. J. Fisher, John Whitmeyer 
 and A. C. Barton. A long procession followed the re- 
 mains to Springhill. 
 
 Among the beautiful floral offerings were: Bouquet, 
 E. S. A. ; wreath of white carnations, Mesdames Cole, 
 Snyder, Baum and Schuette ; a beautiful design of car- 
 nations and roses, Hon. J. G. Cannon ; pillow, with the 
 word, "Mother," the family. There were numerous other 
 casket bouquets. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL. 
 
 Laura Terrill Foster, daughter of Seneca and Pauline 
 Foster, was born March 10, 1824, at Easton, Prebble 
 county, Ohio. Her grandfather was Judge Luke Foster, 
 the founder of the female college at Glendale, Ohio, from 
 which institution she received her education and was 
 
 16 
 
MRS. LAURA T. HARPER 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 17 
 
 graduated with honors. With her parents she removed 
 to La Porte, Ind., in 1833. She was married to Col. 
 Jesse Harper in December, 1848, and to them were born 
 four children, two of whom, with their father, still sur- 
 vive. Their names are Edward S. and Aimer F. Harper. 
 The names of the deceased children are Laura, Belle and 
 Pauline Harper. Mrs. Harper also leaves an adopted 
 daughter, Mrs. Jesse Lucas, to mourn her loss. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Harper resided in Williamsport, Ind., about eight- 
 een years. In 1871 they removed from the latter place 
 to this city, where they have since resided. 
 
 Mrs. Harper's life was an intellectual and a helpful 
 one. She contributed to the Capital, Washington, D. C, 
 to the Lily, the Revolution and other temperance papers. 
 She was the author of some very fine poems, one of which 
 was relative to the assassination of President Lincoln. 
 
 Her death was caused by a fall received Sept. 5 on East 
 Main street. On the following day her right side became 
 paralyzed, and on Friday morning, Oct. 4, her left side 
 became helpless. 
 
 IN MEMORY 
 
 Of Mrs. Laura Terrell Harper, wife of the veteran 
 reformer. Col. Jesse Harper, of Danville, 111.: 
 
 They alone live who love. 
 
 And work best deeds ; 
 Their thought all pelf above 
 
 And jarring creeds. 
 
 Who holds the common heart 
 
 Of all the race ; 
 A sacred thing apart. 
 
 In holy place ; 
 
 And seeks no power or gain 
 
 That will not bless, 
 And make toil, tears and pain 
 
 Forever less; 
 
1 8 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Has found the key of life, 
 
 The gate of peace ; 
 The glory wherein strife 
 
 And discord cease. 
 
 And such a one was she 
 
 Through her long life. 
 Of loving ministry 
 
 As Maid and Wife. 
 
 Dead? No. She rests, her bed, 
 
 Hearts warm and true ; 
 On which her presence shed 
 
 Sunshine and dew ! 
 
 Gone ? No. Her words and ways, 
 
 Became a part, 
 Of others' lives and days. 
 
 Their very heart. 
 
 Thus in the warp and woof 
 
 Of lives she blessed; 
 Beneath, beyond her rodf 
 
 Her sweet home nest ; 
 
 She still lives on, a form 
 
 That can not die. 
 Unharmed, undimmed of storm 
 
 And clouded sky ; 
 
 A presence warm, sweet, bright. 
 
 From blemish freed ; 
 To inner touch and sight. 
 
 Herself indeed. 
 
 Rev. W. B. Gallaher. 
 
A C, BARTON 
 
THIS SECOND DIVISION OF THE BOOK CONTAINS 
 TESTIMONY LETTERS. 
 
 ALEXANDER C. BARTON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK. 
 
 The first inspiration that I had to write the life of Mr. 
 Harper was on a beautiful August day in 1884, after Mr. 
 Harper was nominated as a candidate for governor of 
 Illinois. I was living in East Lynn, 111. I went to Dan- 
 ville and while there called at the home of Mr. Harper. 
 He was away, speaking, and while there a newspaper 
 man came to get some information from Mr. Harper for 
 a biographical sketch of him, but he left without getting 
 any information. 
 
 Mrs. Harper said to me : "I am bothered a good deal 
 by newspaper men asking for a sketch of Mr. Harper 
 for the papers. I have not given them anything, and 
 Jesse won't." 
 
 Mrs. Harper then said: "I would rather for you to 
 write up a history of Mr. Harper than any other man I 
 know of. If you wish to I will get you some papers and 
 give you his history from boyhood till you became ac- 
 qainted with him, and you can give a sketch of it to the 
 papers. Then at some future time you can write up 
 something more." 
 
 I said: "All right. I will be glad to do so.' Hence 
 I have had this on my mind for a good many years, and 
 have often thought that if I survived him that I would 
 carry out Mrs. Harper's request and write up a memorial 
 of Mr. Harper, so that his friends could secure one to 
 have in their homes. 
 
 Through this book the influence of Mr. Harper will 
 inspire thousands of young men of the future generations 
 to high and lofty principles, to a pure and true man- 
 
20 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 hood, and to press on for the right and a love for God, 
 country, home and humanity. 
 
 And to those who co-labored with him in the past that 
 he so earnestly labored for, and the thousands who have 
 heard and seen him, this book will inspire them with 
 new hope and enthusiasm for the principles that he so 
 faithfully contended for. 
 
 His integrity and moral character were unimpeach- 
 able. Strictly temperate in all his habits, plain and un- 
 assuming in his personal address, and in all respects most 
 emphatically a man of the people and for the people, he 
 was a true and tried friend of laboring men, and at all 
 times has been found the eloquent advocate of human 
 rights and the elevation of the human race. 
 
 My first recollection of the Colonel was in 1875. ^ 
 was chosen to sit on a jury here in Danville. He and 
 the Hon. J. B. Man had a very hard, complicated case in 
 court. After the evidence was all in the two champions 
 of law had the case in their hands for the finishing touch. 
 They both showed their great ability as lawyers. Mr. 
 Harper had rather the best of it on account of his great 
 oratorical ability, which he displayed in a wonderful mag- 
 netic power. 
 
 The court, the jury and the audience gave him very 
 close attention while he was addressing the jury. 
 
 As a lawyer Mr. Harper was bold, honorable and can- 
 did, clear in his statements and powerful in argument, 
 kind to the bench and jolly to the bar, and the attorneys 
 would always be on hand when Mr. Harper's turn came 
 to address the jury. He always came with keen and 
 very strong points on his case. 
 
 His humor was irrepressible and trenchant, and he 
 cut like a Damascus blade, and it was very lucky for a 
 lawyer to go through an argument in a case with him 
 without being laughed at before the case was finished. 
 He was quick and witty, and his retorts were sometimes 
 scathing, but had no malice. Often the sting was felt, 
 but left no pain, for his rich vein of humor never failed 
 to give an inexhaustible fund of opposite and amusing 
 anecdote, always illustrative and most happily admired, 
 which brought joy to the audience and was instructive 
 to his associates. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 21 
 
 Mr. Harper was well posted in the history both of this 
 country and of foreign countries, as to their antiquity, 
 their productions, their prosperities and their adversities, 
 their power and their weaknesses. 
 
 He wrote many pamphlets concerning the people, of 
 their condition and environments, and oppression in the 
 old country, and had a knowledge of the islands and their 
 people, and general conditions. 
 
 Mr. Harper's knowledge of the geography and history 
 of this country seemed to be as familiar to him as was 
 the county in which he lived. I have frequently asked 
 him about the soil and the production and the general 
 surroundings. He always gave me all the information I 
 wished to know, and in some inquiries I have written 
 to men in certain localities of several counties in different 
 states, and their answers were the same as Mr. Harper 
 gave me. These facts proved to me that he had the most 
 wonderful knowledge upon any question that could have 
 been thought of, and the most ready to tell it than any 
 man I have ever seen or read of. Indeed he was a 
 great teacher of teachers upon any question. He had "a 
 wide knowledge from his extensive travels, and was well 
 versed in history and standard literature, as he had in 
 his great library many quaint and real old books. Some 
 of them were three and a quarter centuries old. He had 
 a library of over three thousand volumes, and from book 
 and pencil marks in the books they showed that he was a 
 constant reader of them. 
 
 He was a very diligent and conscientious student of 
 his books, which he loved, retaining forever any mastery 
 he had once acquired over them, from the fact of his great 
 memory. Of what he had read, seen and gathered from 
 his own observations he had cut and framed together 
 from his own deliberate reflections, sweetened with the 
 perfumes of the forest and the lilies of the valley and the 
 rose of Sharon. 
 
 While he had great ability and much knowledge stored 
 up in his mind, he said to me that he had frequently 
 gathered some of his brightest thoughts from the hum- 
 blest of men that he had ever thought of. On one occa- 
 sion, while he was delivering a speech, a member of 
 
22 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 the audience tried to bother him by asking him some 
 foolish questions and disputing what Mr. Harper had 
 said. I remember the cutting reply Mr. Harper made 
 to him. He said: "My friend, there are stores of 
 knowledge for me to learn ; but from your questions the 
 things you don't know, it would take the largest book 
 in the world to contain it, and what you do know could 
 be written on your thumb nail." 
 
 I well remember the first political speech I ever heard 
 Mr. Harper make, in September, 1876, at Rossville, Til. 
 The meeting was held in Gilbert's Grove. A large crowd 
 had gathered to hear the greenback apostle. Capt. George 
 May delivered a rousing speech for thirty minutes. Then 
 he introduced Mr. Harper. He delivered a telling speech 
 for two hours, and many converts were added to the new 
 party. I was one of the many that were converted to the 
 greenback principles. I have stuck to those principles side 
 by side with Mr. Harper. I have always regarded Mr. 
 Harper as the truest reformer this country has ever pro- 
 duced. He never changed his principles one farthing. He 
 advocated the same political principles and policies year 
 in and year out. He stuck to the same cardinal policies 
 up to his death. 
 
 Three weeks before his death I called to see him, as 
 I often did. I said : "Mr. Harper, I wish you were able 
 to go with me to the Louisville Populist Convention 
 next week." He said, in his feeble voice: "Mr. Barton, 
 you go and stand for the principles we have long fought 
 for. I am done with earthly things. I have fought a 
 good fight. I have done my best to warn the people. 
 Go on in the good fight, for we are right. Nearly all of 
 the unions and labor organizations got their principles 
 from the Peoples party. You and I and many others 
 have been teachers through the press, and from the ros- 
 trum. You will meet many of my old friends at Louis- 
 ville. Stand true to the Peoples party." 
 
 To me these were grand and sublime words, and in- 
 spired me to press on with greater earnestness than ever 
 for the principles he so long contended for. 
 
 I went to Louisville and, sure enough, as I entered into 
 the hotel at the headquarters I met several delegates with 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 23 
 
 whom I had met in conventions before, and the first 
 question asked was : "Tell me what about Mr. Harper." 
 Some would say, "Uncle Jesse Harper," and some 
 "Colonel Harper," and others "my dear friend, Mr. 
 Harper." "Haven't heard from him for a long time." 
 I should say that at least fifty men asked me personally 
 about Mr. Harper, and many others who were anxious 
 to hear from him stood by while I was answering the 
 inquiring ones, and I went up to the second floor to'meet 
 the Illinois delegation. As I stepped into the large hall 
 I met the noted lady orator of the nation, Mrs. Marion 
 Todd, of Michigan. She said: "I am glad to meet you 
 here. What has become of my dear old friend, Jesse 
 Harper?" I said to her: "Sister Todd, I am sorry to 
 inform you that he is now on his deathbed, and I may 
 receive a telegram at any moment of his death." She said, 
 "Is it possible?" and the tears trickled down her face in 
 sadness and love for the great reformer. During the con- 
 vention I was granted permission on the floor to speak 
 in honor of Mr. Harper. The convention was as still as 
 death while I was speaking of the characteristics of the 
 noble hero of humanity and of his illness. I moved that 
 the chairman appoint a committee of three to draft a 
 resolution of condolence to his friends in honor of Mr. 
 Harper. That committee was myself, Mrs. Marion Todd 
 and Mr. Hillis. These resolutions will appear in another 
 place in this book. 
 
 I attended many conventions and conferences with Mr. 
 Harper. He was the most popular man I ever saw in a 
 convention. I have gone with him on different times. 
 As we entered the door at the headquarters where several 
 hundred delegates had gathered they would meet him 
 at the door. He would crowd his way in and set his big 
 grip on the floor, and shake hands and talk for an hour 
 before he would stop. Everybody knew him, and he 
 knew them. I have seen times in conventions when it 
 would become very noisy with great excitement and 
 general confusion. At such times I have seen Mr. 
 Harper rise from his place and quietly walk to the front 
 with a pleasant smile upon his face, and with his short, 
 characteristic, witty speech the whole convention would 
 
24 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 be in a jolly laughter, and perfect harmony would be 
 restored. Such was the magnetic power of Mr. Harper. 
 There are but few men who possess such power. He 
 was a man that never got excited. . Gen. James B. 
 Weaver, of Iowa, after hearing Mr. Harper speak for 
 three hours at St. Louis, said: "Mr. Harper, you will 
 .kill yourself speaking so hard and long as you do." 
 
 AT EAST LYNN, ILL. 
 
 I had secured Mr. Harper for three lectures, for the 
 i6th, 17th and i8th of February, 1878. I shall never 
 forget that occasion, for the whole country compared 
 favorably to the glaciers of Greenland or the icy peaks 
 of Iceland. The whole earth for many miles was im- 
 mersed in a deluge of ice. 
 
 The train that Mr. Harper came on was two hours 
 late. A committee of three — W. H. Gardner, L. N. 
 Caldwell and myself — met him at the train and escorted 
 him to my residence, where he was entertained during 
 his stay. 
 
 On Saturday night he spoke in the Methodist Church 
 on "The Evils of Intemperance." It was a masterly 
 argument. Mr. Harper was well known throughout the 
 whole country as a great temperance orator, and on Sun- 
 day morning the preacher failed to get there. I said to 
 the Sunday school superintendent to ask Mr. Harper 
 to address the congregation. Mr. Harper accepted the 
 invitation. He spoke of Ishmael and Isaac, a portion of 
 which will be found in another place in this book. It 
 was a very interesting lecture and very highly appreci- 
 ated by the audience. At night he spoke on "The Sym- 
 bols of the Bible." This was a very high-toned Bible 
 lecture. 
 
 On Monday night he gave a speech on "The Bond 
 Question." Mr. Harper was very much opposed to the 
 government refunding or issuing bonds when the gov- 
 ernment could issue the money and pay the cash. He 
 said that a man would be very foolish to give his note 
 for a thousand dollars and at the same time have $1,000 
 at his command he could have used. "Again," he said, 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 25 
 
 "suppose that one of you had $1,000 and would loan me 
 $900 for a term of years, and you would pay me four and 
 a half per cent interest on the $1,000. That is exactly 
 what the government is doing for the national banks." 
 
 Mr. Harper often related to me his experiences as he 
 traveled over the country, and he had some very close 
 calls for his life. I remember one with a cyclone. In 
 1885 I engaged him to speak at Hoopeston, 111., about 
 fourteen miles north of Danville, his home. Just as the 
 train passed out of Alvin, a small town, passing through 
 a strip of timber, the engineer saw a huge cyclone to 
 the west of them, and it looked as though it were coming 
 toward them. He stopped his train to take advice from 
 the conductor. The passengers were much excited. As 
 Mr. Harper had seen several cyclones, he said to the 
 engineer : "Unless it changes its course you can run 
 ahead of it. Pull out the throttle and go with all speed." 
 They boarded the train and they ran a mile a minute, and 
 ran ahead of it about two hundred yards. They stopped 
 at Rossville, and chunks of ice fell that weighed five 
 pounds. This was a very destructive cyclone. I saw 
 where it passed over the country, sweeping everything 
 before it. 
 
 IN A BLIZZARD. 
 
 The winter of 1880 Mr. Harper was engaged to speak 
 in Wisconsin and South Dakota. The train ran into a 
 snowdrift fifteen feet deep and the snow filled in behind 
 them. They were two days there before they got out. 
 Every man on the train would take his turn shoveling 
 snow. The conductor got some farmers to haul pro- 
 visions and fuel from a town five miles away. 
 
 In 1878 Mr. Harper was nominated as a candidate for 
 congress by the "greenbackers." At that time Mr. 
 Harper was in Maine, speaking for General Plasted, 
 who was running for governor on the green- 
 back ticket, and was elected. Mr. Harper re- 
 turned home in time to make six speeches in 
 his own district. His first speech was at Fairmount, 
 111. I was told by a prominent citizen of that town 
 that Mr. Harper said: "It would be of great pleasure 
 
26 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 to me to meet my opponent and divide time with him for 
 the next five days." The next day his opponent was seen 
 by a friend of his, and he told him what Mr. Harper 
 said. "Will you meet him?" he was asked. The candi- 
 date replied : "No, sir. My God ! You don't know Mr. 
 Harper as well as I do. I would just as soon run in con- 
 tact with a buzzsaw as to debate with Mr. Harper." 
 There is no question but that Mr. Harper would have 
 been a hard man for an opponent to have met. He once 
 challenged Robert G. Ingersoll on his lecture, "The Mis- 
 takes of Moses." Mr. Ingersoll said : "Mr. Harper, you 
 know too much about Moses." Mr. Ingersoll was well 
 acquainted with Mr. Harper as a man of great ability. 
 
 Mr. Barton. Dear Sir : — You ask me to say a word 
 concerning the late Col. Jesse Harper. It was not my 
 pleasure to know Colonel Harper in his prime. His life 
 was well spent before I was attracted to his work or to 
 those economic questions to which he was devoted. 
 
 I knew him in his later years, and the association is a 
 pleasant memory. His power as a speaker and writer is 
 thoroughly known among those who demand political 
 justice. 
 
 While it is fitting to pay tribute to his memory, yet 
 nothing can be said to add luster to his career. Colonel 
 Harper speaks from the tomb and tells his own story. 
 He has written his own epitaph in his many battles fought 
 for the right against the wrong. He has reared a monu- 
 ment in the hearts of his liberty-loving countrymen, and 
 one which will remain when marble monuments shall 
 have crumbled into dust. 
 
 He planted the good seed, and though it may take 
 years to fully ripen, it will not rot in the soil, but bear 
 fruit in time. 
 
 The planting of righteous thoughts never fail to yield 
 a crop. They withstand both flood and flame. A harvest 
 is as sure as eternity. Good will is life everlasting. When 
 all else perishes, it alone survives. 
 
MRS. MARION TODD 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 27 
 
 "By its good or evil each life is weighed; 
 In motives and deeds is its record made ; 
 In the coin ye pay ye shall be repaid 
 When your wages at last fall due." 
 
 (Mrs.) Marion Todd. 
 
 Mr. Orrin Harper, of Danville, 111., cousin of Jesse 
 Harper, furnishes the following interesting incidents of 
 Colonel Harper's life: 
 
 As to Colonel Harper's mechanical skill, an incident 
 that happened in 1851 will show the reader his ability in 
 that line: A large warehouse was to be built for Kent 
 & Hitchens at Williamsport, Ind., and the Colonel and 
 his brother-in-law, A. S. Foster, bid on the job, and, 
 their bid being the most desirable in the eyes of Messrs. 
 Kent & Hitchens, the contract was awarded to them. 
 As soon as this was learned by other contractors a great 
 howl was set up that the firm of Harper & Foster were 
 inexperienced men, that they were not competent to do 
 the work, which was to be of the most substantial kind 
 of heavy framing; that they were not equipped in any 
 way to do such massive construction. These loud rav- 
 ings got to the ears of Kent & Hitchens, and they began 
 to inquire of other parties, and even went to Harper & 
 Foster and told them that they had fears of their ability 
 to carry out the contract. This at once aroused the 
 energy of Colonel Harper, who told them that he would 
 make a model of the frame, showing every sill, post, 
 beam, girder plate and brace that went into the immense 
 three-story structure, so that they could see the entire 
 structure in miniature. He was told to do so by the 
 builders, and if he succeeded in doing as he agreed it 
 would convince them that the firm of Harper & Foster 
 could build the warehouse. Colonel Harper went to work 
 at once and soon had the model completed, and it was so 
 perfect and true to the plans and specifications that they 
 were told to go ahead with the work. The great building 
 was pushed to a rapid completion, and it proved to be 
 perfect in every particular, and one of the best buildings 
 of its kind in the state. After this building was com- 
 
28 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 pleted the firm of Harper & Foster had no trouble to get 
 all the work they could do. Their services were sought 
 far and near in the construction of heavy framing jobs. 
 
 As to his kindness of heart and showing that he be- 
 lieved in the "brotherhood of man," I will relate an inci- 
 dent that happened a few years later when he was a law- 
 yer, in partnership with Hon. B. F. Gregory : 
 
 A certain county officer who was retiring after his 
 term had expired, found that by his accommodating ac- 
 tions to friends, that he was short in his accounts, and 
 that it took several thousand dollars to settle with the 
 Board of County Commissioners. His bondsmen would 
 not come to his assistance, but wanted the law to take its 
 course, which in that state meant the penitentiary for 
 any shortage in public funds. The retiring officer ap- 
 pealed to his Masonic brethren, some of whom were on 
 his bond, to help him, but they refused. His office was 
 adjoining that of Gregory & Harper, and one day just 
 before the settlement was to be made, he told his troubles 
 to Colonel Harper and asked his advice in the matter. 
 Colonel Harper thought a few moments, then asked the 
 delinquent a question or two as to his property, real and 
 personal, and then told the now thoroughly alarmed 
 officer that he thought he could help him out of his 
 trouble. So the next morning, at a little before 5 o'clock. 
 Colonel Harper boarded the Wabash train and went to 
 Lafayette, where he secured the money to square the 
 accounts of the retiring officer, and returned with it 
 the same day, thus saving a fellow-man from punishment 
 and disgrace, for being too good hearted and not trans- 
 acting public business on sound business principles. 
 
 O. E. H. 
 
 Nashua, Iowa, March 7, 1903. 
 A. C. Barton, Esq., Danville, Illinois. 
 
 Valiant Sir and Brother : Your esteemed letter of 
 recent date, requesting me to write at least a few lines 
 of reminiscence of the life work of the late Col. Jesse 
 Harper, which came under my personal observation, 
 for your biographical book, is before me. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 29 
 
 I first became personally acquainted with Colonel 
 Harper about the year 1878, at Des Moines, Iowa; It 
 was at the time of a state convention, which was called 
 in line with the so-called Peter Cooper Greenback move- 
 ment, having fresh in mind the wicked monetary crime 
 of 1873. The writer hereof chanced at that time to be 
 chairman of the State Central Committee which issued 
 the call, and as such chairman was quite proud of the 
 honor, and very enthusiastic in the work ; and in harmony 
 therewith, secured Moor's Opera House, for the conven- 
 tion, which was filled, so to speak, from cellar to garret, 
 with a multitude of earnest men and women; in part, 
 because we had secured the presence of Col. Jesse 
 Harper, Dr. De La Matyr, J. B. Weaver, E. H. Gillette, 
 and several other eminent speakers, to address the con- 
 vention. 
 
 Able speeches were made by able speakers, but the 
 speech of Col. Jesse Harper wrought the entire large 
 audience to a fever of frenzy, as he portrayed the re- 
 morseless work of the money changers from the days 
 that Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, to 
 the very year in which he was then speaking. 
 
 He stated his premises with clear, logical accuracy, 
 as he would state a case of supreme importance in a 
 court of high record jurisdiction, and then with the same 
 logical accuracy he introduced his testimony and anchored 
 the same conclusively with the highest and undisputed 
 authority, and then followed with eloquent periods of 
 oratory in denunciation of the awful crimes that had been 
 committed, that were then being committed, and that 
 would continue to be committed, with greed of gold as 
 the shibbolith of the business world, unless the people — 
 the power behind the throne — yea — said the speaker, — 
 the very throne itself, — shall awake at once and unite 
 courageously and wisely to hurl the monstrous sin of the 
 ages — greed of gold — from its unrighteous throne of 
 wicked powers. 
 
 The effect of that speech upon the audience was mar- 
 velous. Unity of thought, purpose and deed, followed, 
 as day comes from the night, and a full state ticket, upon 
 
30 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 a clean straight forward platform, was made and pre- 
 sented to the people of our state, coupled with an un- 
 swerving determination to capture the state. 
 
 It is firmly believed by many yet living, who were 
 members of that convention, or in open affiliation with 
 its work, that such would have been the result, but that 
 "Fusion" with the State Democratic Party became an 
 accomplished fact a few days before the morning of 
 election, news of which accomplished fact was hurled 
 pell mell through the state and drove thousands of 
 earnest, intelligent, honest, God-worshipping and hu- 
 manity-loving Republicans back into the party of their 
 choice in the days of its purity of purposes and acts. 
 
 Col. Jesse Harper in that speech touched the living 
 pulse and heart of the people present with his invincible 
 array of facts, his masterly logic of argument, and his 
 burning words of eloquent denunciation of the greed for 
 gold which had so ofttimes destroyed nations and the 
 liberties of the world. 
 
 He then so vividly portrayed the disasters that had 
 come upon the peoples of the world in past historical 
 periods by reason of "Man's inhumanity to man," that 
 solid alarm took possession of the audience. 
 
 Col. Jesse Harper was not only a ripe scholar in the 
 history of the past, but the wisdom of the prophet was 
 a clear part of his great attainments. He was also gen- 
 erous and wholly devoted. 
 
 In 1885 he wrote to me a letter, a part of which I quote : 
 
 "Brother Weller: I send by express, as a donation 
 to you and your paper, a large lot of my published 
 works on money, usury and gold, to help you in your 
 noble work in the cause of humanity, that you are, with 
 others, giving the best efforts of your life to help con- 
 summate. I am donating all my time, and much prop- 
 erty, to the cause of God and humanity. 
 
 "(Signed.) J. Harper." 
 
 Almost ten years after that memorable convention, 
 Colonel Harper wrote to me the following letter, which 
 we have even unto this day regarded as a prophecy. I 
 copy it accurately: 
 
L. H. WELLER 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 31 
 
 "Danville, 111., May 18, 1888. 
 Hon. L. H. Weller, Editor Advocate: 
 
 "It is here — 'Trouble of the Nations.' The re-map- 
 ping of the world is now on. The heated plowshare of 
 Angloism is now turning up the face of 'Mother Earth,' 
 over which Isis has sown tares for forty hundred years. 
 The earth, sociological, politico-religious, reels like a 
 drunken man. And the physical is setting, as it presents 
 to our view, 'the hidden wealth stored within.' The 
 decadence qf the old is patent to our eye, as the train of 
 cars is new, when contrasted with the 'Waggon Boy of 
 the Alleganies.' That Boy represented a day now past; 
 a day when these Jehus 'drove their teams six in hand' 
 as lordly as the 'locomotive driver' now speeds his 'iron 
 horse' over five score miles an hour. 
 
 "Yes, the old is passing, and the new coming. That 
 Greek epic rings through the habitable globe as never 
 since the morning stars sang together — listen: 'Behold 
 I make all things new.' All flesh are stretching forth, 
 heart and hand, to catch the first sight of this coming 
 re-genesis. And the sheen of the no distant panorama 
 is dim as seen now; still we reach to the mighty incog- 
 nita. ' 
 
 "The continents are rousing like the lion from his lair, 
 ready to welcome the new. 
 
 "Angloism and Islamism stand the gladiators at the 
 going out of the 19th century. 
 
 "The one, a ruddy David, with a sling and the pebble 
 of truth; the other, the dotard Goliath, clad in armor, 
 burnished with a lie. 
 
 "The great empires are being furnished the leaves from 
 the tree of liberty, for their healing, and the Islands are 
 waiting for his law. 
 
 "The war cry of Eohim is heard: 'He shall judge 
 among the nations, and rebuke many people.' 
 
 "War's turgid scourge sweeps away the slimy cover- 
 ing of oppression, spread over all nations. 
 
 "The scalpel of humanity is scraping like a potsherd 
 scrapes his fellow. And the islands are being moved 
 out of their />^oc^— politically, socially, religiously, and 
 
32 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 the day-star, new dipped in blood, is rising with heaUng 
 in his wings. 
 
 "Monarchy sees its sunset ; despotism, Uke the wounded 
 serpent, is strengthening for its final blow at justice — 
 a blow of cruelty. 
 
 "It is the overflow period. We are in the mesh of the 
 Divine malediction that has rung along the Appian way 
 for twenty-five centuries — 'I will overturn — overturn — 
 overturn, till he comes whose right it is.' 
 
 "Let the right, a persona come — 
 
 " 'For right is right, as God is sight- 
 To doubt it would be sin.' 
 "Let the English speaking people become the 
 Kingdom of stone — sovereignty of the peoples. 
 (Signed) "J. Harper." 
 
 From the day of that convention to the present I 
 have regarded Colonel Harper as one of the ablest advo- 
 cates in the field of general as well as special reforms 
 essential to the welfare of the human, then, now, and 
 henceforth. 
 
 Your forthcoming Book of Biography relating to Col- 
 onel Harper should be in the hands of thousands of read- 
 ers as an inspiration along the lines he so prophetically 
 and clearly marked out. You can rely on my best efforts 
 to assist you. Sincerely yours, 
 
 L. H. Weller. 
 
 Ex-Congressman L. H. Weller, the writer of the fore- 
 going reminiscence, was born in Connecticut in 1833, and 
 was reared politically as a Democrat of the Jefferson and 
 Jackson school. His first votes were Democratic. The 
 contest between the North and South — a possibly divided 
 government on the Mason and Dixon line — that was 
 waged in 1856, moved him to support the candidacy of 
 Fremont and Freedom. 
 
 His next two national votes were for Lincoln and 
 Liberty. His next national vote was for Grant; there- 
 after Greely, and thereafter for the national candidates 
 of the monetary reform movement. In 1878 he was the 
 nominee of the Peter Cooper greenback element in the 
 4th congressional district in Iowa, at which election Mr. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 33 
 
 Daring was elected and Mr. Allen the last in the race, 
 and Mr. Weller second best. 
 
 In 1882 Mr. Weller was the congressional nominee of 
 the National Greenback party in the said 4th district. 
 Mr. Hoagland was the Democratic nominee, and Mr. 
 Updegraff the Republican nominee. Mr. Weller was 
 elected by 711 majority. 
 
 In 1884 Mr. Weller was the nominee of the National 
 Greenback party, and Mr. W. E. Fuller of the Republican 
 party. The Democrats, at this election, by their conven- 
 tion, indorsed the candidacy of Mr. Weller, who was 
 defeated by 230 majority, although receiving nearly 4,000 
 more votes than when elected. His view of this defeat 
 was, that there had been such rank differences between 
 the leaders of the Democratic party and Republican party 
 as set forth by the speakers and the publications of each, 
 that there had come about a fixed, settled hatred, inter- 
 woven in the very fiber of each, that anything that the 
 label "Democrat" was attached to, was hated by the aver- 
 age Republican ; as also, anything that the label "Repub- 
 lican" was attached to, was hated by the average Demo- 
 crat. 
 
 "JO. A. PARKER." 
 
 NAT. CHAIRMAN PEOPLE'S PARTY. 
 
 Hon. A.C. Barton is in line with the repeated utterances 
 of Colonel Harper, that to do a first-class job of sweep- 
 ing the nation clean of the master monopolies, syndicates 
 and trusts, that a brand new broom, dedicated to the 
 cleanliness sought to be obtained, must be created, and 
 put into the hands of the earnest workers in the field of 
 such reform before victory can crown any efforts. 
 
 The late Col. Jesse Harper was one of nature's noble- 
 men, a patient, selfsacrificing worker in the cause of the 
 common people. He was ever true to his fixed prin- 
 ciples. His death has removed from our counsels one of 
 our ablest advisers. His memory should be an inspira- 
 tion to the young men of our country to serve more zeal- 
 ously the cause of labor. Of him we may well say, 
 
 "He was a man; take him for all in all, I shall not 
 look upon his like again." 
 
34 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Philadelphia, April 6, 1903. 
 A. C. Barton, Esq., Danville, III. 
 
 Dear Sir and Friekd: I am very glad indeed to 
 know that you are getting out a book giving a history of 
 the life and a careful selection from the writings of that 
 noble friend of humanity and advocate of the rights of 
 man, and especially of the industrial classes. Col. Jesse 
 Harper, the friend and co-worker of Abraham Lincoln. 
 He gave his life and work to the education and helping 
 of his fellow men, sacrificing his own material welfare in 
 order to work for the liberation of the industrial classes 
 from the oppression and bondage of the British system 
 of finance and of land monopoly, and from servitude to 
 the modern corporate feudalism. Colonel Harper was a 
 man of unusual intellect and stood high as an orator. He 
 had the courage of his convictions and was able and 
 fearless in expressing them. He was the friend of all 
 men, and in his death the world sustained a real loss. 
 
 Every one of his friends, and every reformer, should 
 have a copy of your forthcoming book, as they will 
 find in it an armory of facts and logic against the op- 
 pressors of the wealth-producers, and will also find in it 
 fresh inspiration to carry on the work of fighting for 
 economic and industrial freedom to which Colonel Har- 
 per devoted his life. 
 
 I had known him personally since 1880. I am sorry 
 to hear of his death. He was a noble man, possessed of 
 unusual ability, which he used for the education and 
 helping of his fellowmen, opposing in his later days finan- 
 cial slavery as strongly and as firmly as he opposed chat- 
 tel slavery in his earlier days. The world needs more 
 such men. 
 
 It was the Colonel's custom when absent from home 
 to send Mrs. Harper by mail a $1 paper coin each and 
 every day of his absence. Yours truly, 
 
 Davitt D. Chidester. 
 
 New York City, June 5, 1903. 
 'Mr. A. C. Barton, Danville, III. 
 
 "Uncle Jesse Harper," as we loved to call him, has 
 
MRS. M. E, lp:ase 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 35 
 
 passed from our mortal vision to where "beyond these 
 voices there is peace." 
 
 His life was given to the services of his fellow men. 
 Through good and evil report, he labored to correct the 
 thinking of his age. He came not to Time's low counter 
 for his pay, but moved in all the majesty of his ripened 
 years to the judgment bar of God. He was a preacher 
 of the gospel of Truth. That his words left their im- 
 press upon the age is a fulfillment of prophecy. The last 
 expression of velocity is rest, the last expression of elo- 
 quence is silence. Standing by our old friend's open 
 grave, glorified by the memories of his fearless, useful 
 life, the highest form of liturgy is to be dumb. 
 
 Mary Elizabeth Lease. 
 
 Colonel Jesse Harper, the well known orator, poli- 
 tician and writer, is dying at the home of his son, Aimer 
 Harper, 904 North Gilbert street. His health has not 
 been good for several months, and his condition during 
 the last few months has been critical. His physician 
 says that he cannot recover, and that his death is but a 
 question of a few hours. 
 
 For a great many years Colonel Harper has enjoyed 
 a national reputation. There is scarcely a state in the 
 Union in which he has not made political speeches. He 
 was one of the most eloquent orators in the country and 
 during political campaigns he was in great demand. He 
 was well known as a Republican speaker, but it was his 
 advocacy of greenback principles that gave him fame 
 as an orator. He enjoyed the distinction of being the 
 ablest exponent of the greenback doctrine, and in the 
 greenback national convention at Indianapolis in 1884, 
 he received 100 votes for the nomination for president of 
 the United States. On the second ballot General Butler 
 was nominated by a small majority. During that cam- 
 paign Colonel Harper canvassed all the states of the 
 middle west, and drew large crowds wherever he went. 
 The announcement that Col. Jesse Harper, of Illinois, 
 was to speak was sufficient to fill the largest hall. Peo- 
 
36 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 pie who did not endorse his greenback tenets were always 
 eager to hear him because of his oratory. He was for 
 many years one of the most popular speakers in this 
 country, and no large gathering was considered complete 
 without Colonel Harper. As a Fouth of July orator he 
 was one of the most popular in the state. It has been 
 charged against him that he gave too much of his time 
 to public speaking and too little to his own private affairs. 
 
 As a writer he was equally entertaining and the books 
 that he wrote were eagerly read. He was the author of 
 a number of books on political economy, the most popular 
 being "Millennium Age," and "Destructive Influences of 
 Civilization." He wrote much for newspapers and maga- 
 zines. Some of the best known men of the Greenback 
 party sought his counsel and many of them he entertained 
 at his beautiful home on the southwest corner of Gilbert 
 and Fairchild streets. He owned one of the best libraries 
 in the county, and in its possession he took especial pride. 
 
 He spent his busy life in an endeavor to better the 
 condition of mankind, to raise to a higher plane the 
 masses, or the sons of toil, as he called the working 
 classes. His death will be regretted by scores of people 
 all over the country who had a sincere regard for him 
 and respect for his political opinions. There will be but 
 one Jesse Harper. 
 
 His first vote was cast for Birney and Hale on the 
 Abolition ticket. He voted for Fremont and Dayton in 
 1856, the first Republican ticket that was ever nominated. 
 In i860 he voted for Lincoln and Hamlin; in 1864 for 
 Lincoln and Johnson, and in 1868 for Grant and Colfax. 
 Danville Daily News, April 23, 1902. 
 
 FROM THE DANVILLE DAILY DEMOCRAT. 
 
 "One of the last of pioneer orators. Death of Col. 
 Jesse Harper at the age of 79. A noted character ; was 
 known to the people of every state in the Union ; was a 
 great campaigner. Few men were better known to the 
 people of this country than Colonel Harper. As a po- 
 litical campaigner and Fourth of July orator, he had few 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 37 
 
 equals, and made speeches in nearly every state in the 
 Union, and was one of the most magnetic men ever upon 
 the platform. He could draw a large crowd and once 
 they came to listen to his eloquence he would hold them 
 until he had spoken the last word. 
 
 "Colonel Harper was a great student of the Bible, and 
 no one was more conversant with the Scriptures than he. 
 He has written a great many pamphlets upon the Bible 
 and other subjects, and had a library containing many 
 books, some of his volumes being two and three hun- 
 dred years old. Colonel Harper was known to but a few 
 of the younger generation in Danville. His duties as a 
 public speaker kept him away from the city weeks and 
 months at a time. By these he was greatly respected and 
 esteemed, and had a kindly word for all he met. He was 
 a most devoted husband, and during the lifetime of his 
 wife it was their greatest pleasure and comfort to be in 
 each other's company. 
 
 "There were many who did not agree with Colonel 
 Harper politically, but they believed him to be sincere 
 in his convictions, and they were always pleased to 
 hear him speak, although they differed on the - great 
 economics of the day." 
 
 Tiffin, O., March 8, 1903. 
 A. C. Barton. 
 
 My Dear Sir : I am glad to know that the name and 
 life work of this moral hero and apostle of truth is to be 
 handed down to posterity. Not alone as a man of pro- 
 found intellect, but of deep convictions and love for hu- 
 manity, should Brother Harper be remembered. Faith- 
 ful among the faithless, he was ever true to his convic- 
 tions. His keen analysis of men and measures, and the 
 philosophy of the rise and fall of nations give to his 
 utterances the authority of a prophet divinely sent. 
 Wishing you the most abundant success, I am truly yours, 
 
 John Seitz. 
 
38 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 HARPER AS REV. W. B. GALLAHER KNEW HIM 
 PERSONALLY. 
 
 From an acquaintance of some ten years with Colonel 
 Harper during his later life, and from many interesting 
 and extended conversations I have had with him on great 
 social, religious and economic problems, I bear glad and 
 willing testimony to his great learning and intense 
 earnestness, to his irrepressible wit and humor joined to 
 deep and burning moral convictions, to his unselfish, de- 
 voted and untiring love of the great common people; to 
 his childlike simplicity, more lovely in its native grace 
 and beauty, than the gleam of painted pomp and of 
 glistening jewels, and to his kinglike moral and intel- 
 lectual wealth, daring and heroism. 
 
 In the speech of men he Hved and died "a poor" man. 
 
 In the vocabulary of Heaven he is written a "billion- 
 aire." 
 
 He piled up no great material wealth, no heaps of 
 shining gold and silver stained with tears and blood. 
 
 Yet he mined in thought and coined in speech, a very 
 California of the golden nuggets of God's grandest truths 
 stamped, not with the form of eagle or goddess, but 
 with the shining face of emancipated and glorified hu- 
 manity. 
 
 "What," asked of me a certain person who believes 
 more in making money than in making reforms, "did 
 Colonel Harper ever do (meaning financially) for his 
 family ?" I replied : "He lifted it, with loving and Her- 
 culean labor, from the common clods of the valley to the 
 proud and shining heights of his sublime kinship with the 
 great names of the noblest and best in human history, 
 among which his own name will stand linked forever to 
 the stars and the ages. And this," I added, "my friend, 
 not all the gold on earth could have done." 
 
 Colonel Harper devoutly believed in the literal second 
 coming of Christ, to make this old earth over again, and 
 to make the "New Earth" the actual home of God as 
 well as the home of purified humanity, dwelling in re- 
 newed bodies and made absolutely free and happy forever 
 in busy and active lives. 
 
REV. W. B. GALLAHER 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 39 
 
 He was both profound and enthusiastic on this great 
 theme, and it was, to my certain knowledge, his inner 
 meat and drink, his perpetual feast and fountain of peace 
 and joy, in the honored quiet of his declining years. 
 
 Instead of sorrowing and murmuring and repining in 
 old age because the reforms in which he had labored with 
 such brilliant hopes, such tireless zeal, such mighty 
 energy and such lofty enthusiasm, had not been accom- 
 plished ; he only became enlarged and sweetened in his 
 moral and intellectual nature, seeing in the "second com- 
 ing" of Christ, with all power and glory, his lifelong 
 ideal earth and its government, with all human tyranny, 
 oppression and evil cast out of its happy borders, at last 
 fully and forever realized. 
 
 It was equally a joy and an honor for anyone to have 
 the friendship and confidence of this great, true and noble 
 man. 
 
 His family, his friends, the world, are all the better 
 that he has lived, and lived such a grand and true, such 
 a broad, loving, heroic and unselfish life'. 
 
 Sweet be his rest and glorious his memory, as long as 
 human hearts still bound and thrill to the music of faith, 
 hope and love, and still long for more perfect life, liberty 
 and happiness. Rev. W. B. Gallaher. 
 
 LET ME DREAM. 
 
 BY. REV. W. B. GALLAHER. 
 
 Dedicated to the Memory of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Let me dream that the sweetest, the grandest, best. 
 
 The hope of ages \on^, 
 Will soon come to all men, and the world's oppressed 
 
 Sing freedom's happy song. 
 
 Let me dream that all men shall brothers become. 
 
 In a great, a mighty love ; 
 While all Hell, in despair at the sight, stands dumb, 
 
 And Heaven is glad above. 
 
40 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Let me dream that the wolf shadows not the door, 
 
 Of any home on earth; 
 And that ragged and shivering want no more 
 
 Blights manhood's grace and worth. 
 
 Let me dream that the red hell of war is gone, 
 
 . With that beyond the grave ; 
 And that God looks not down in sore grief upon 
 A world he cannot save. 
 
 Let me dream Love and Justice flow wide, a sea. 
 
 Sailing o'er which men find 
 Only ports of true happiness, rich and free, 
 
 With gifts for all mankind. 
 
 Let me dream human life is at last a joy, 
 
 A very heaven for all ; 
 That no longer men live to hate, crush, destroy, 
 
 But heed only Love's sweet call. 
 
 Tell me not : "It is only a happy dream, 
 
 And it can never be ; 
 For a cold, selfish greed poisons deep the stream 
 
 Of life, past remedy." 
 
 Nay, this thought blasphemes God through His creature 
 man. 
 
 Whose progress is at stake; 
 And who cannot fulfill God's eternal plan, 
 
 Till Love and Justice break 
 
 The old gyves of humanity's life and hope 
 
 O'er all this groaning earth, 
 And all men shall climb Godward the infinite slope 
 
 Whence Love and Justice have birth. 
 
THIS, THE THIRD DIVISION, CONTAINS THE CHOICEST 
 
 SPEECHES AND WRITINGS OF MR. HARPER 
 
 FOR FIFTY YEARS. 
 
 THE QUESTION STATED. 
 
 "The Conspiracy of the 19th Century," 
 "To Change the Structure of CiviHzation." 
 
 — Figaro. 
 
 Christendom is directly involved, the whole world 
 proximately. 
 
 This age is to end in ruin. 
 
 The great apostasy foretold is here. 
 
 The church and state are under malign influence. 
 
 Greed is god. 
 
 Unclean spirits sway men as never before. 
 
 Class laws rule. 
 
 Caste distinctions reign. 
 
 The truth is covered fathoms deep by political chi- 
 canery and ecclesiastical Jesuitism. 
 
 The right is a myth. 
 
 Cicero said: 
 
 "Justice consists in doing no injury to men." 
 
 Governments now are bulwarks of tyranny. 
 
 Under the cry "liberty" license riots. 
 
 Europe and America are under a plutocracy. 
 
 The "classes" and the "masses" — Which shall sur- 
 render? 
 
 The "masses" are serfs. 
 
 The "classes" satraps. 
 
 Helotism the result — sele esti. 
 
 The problem that confronts the world is money. 
 
 To hide it is the chief aim of the Conspiracy. 
 
 The danger is infinite. 
 
 To conceal this is the secret of governments. 
 
 Europe hatched the "plot." 
 
 41 
 
42 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 America joined. 
 
 Both are now pushing the "scheme." 
 
 The crisis is here. 
 
 The plot developed. 
 
 The flood upon us. 
 
 The key to this bottomless pit is Contraction. 
 
 No word relating to material interests, to human 
 wants, has so much of Satan and so little of God in it. 
 
 Ruin its mission, hell its home. 
 
 This "death, on the pale horse" is to be driven through 
 earth and turn it to a Sodom. 
 
 Debt is to be the Moloch — 
 
 Banks of issue the great red dragon. 
 
 To these, bound hand and foot, labor is to be given. 
 
 Leading figures. 
 
 "Debt and the volume of money." 
 
 Both have been manipulated. 
 
 Both are used as catch words — 
 
 To hide the Conspiracy. 
 
 And both have been used to dishonor God and rob 
 man. Not from inherent qualities, but from the place 
 they are made to assume. 
 
 It took more than sixteen hundred years to destroy the 
 old civilizations. 
 
 The play upon the two words "gold" and "silver" — 
 while contracting the volume at last did it. 
 
 From eighteen hundred million dollars, down to two 
 hundred million dollars, brought the end. 
 
 Two-thirds of the race perished. 
 
 The whole globe reeled near to its death. 
 
 God intervened. 
 
 The great store-house opened as by omnipotence. 
 
 Gold discovery, supplemented by silver, filled the 
 world. 
 
 The earth never saw the like. North America, South 
 America, Australia, Siberia, Africa — 
 
 And the volume of money stirred man, till this century 
 is the gem of the centuries. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 43 
 
 It was the swelling volume of money that brought the 
 miraculous achievements of the 19th century — 
 
 Making it the triumphal arch of the ages. 
 
 To destroy it by a shrinking volume is to make the 
 Conspiracy the complement of Perdition. 
 
 Expansion and contraction mark the most wondrous 
 page of human history. 
 
 This new world, hid from the nations, was selected to 
 show the contrast in its widest light. 
 
 Allison, H. E., says : 
 
 "The two greatest events which have occurred in the 
 history of mankind have been directly brought about by 
 contraction and expansion of the circulating medium of 
 society. 
 
 "The fall of the Roman Empire, so long ascribed in 
 ignorance to heathenism and moral corruption, was in 
 reality brought about by a decline in the silver and gold 
 mines of Spain and Greece. And as if Providence had 
 intended to reveal in the clearest manner the influence 
 of this mighty agent in human affairs, the restoration of 
 mankind from the ruin which these causes had produced 
 was owing to the opposite set of agencies being put in 
 operation. Columbus led the way in the career of reno- 
 vation. When he spread his sails across the Atlantic he 
 bore mankind and is fortunes in his bark. 
 
 "The annual supply of the precious metals for the use 
 of the globe was tripled; before a century had expired 
 the prices of every species of produce were quadrupled. 
 
 "The weight of debt and taxes insensibly wore off un- 
 der the influence of that prodigious increase ; in the reno- 
 vations of industry the relations of society were changed, 
 the weight of feudalism cast off ; the rights of man estab- 
 lished." 
 
 Money is a factor, materially, in God's economies, that 
 leads to the hill-tops of freedom, or sinks to the valleys 
 of death. 
 
 It makes and unmakes ages. 
 
 It gives and takes dispensations. 
 
 It is God's blessing or God's curse — to nations — as it 
 is used. 
 
44 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 THE MARCH OF THE CONSPIRACY. 
 
 At the commencement of the Christian Era there was 
 $1,800,000,000. 
 
 This went out in waste, till at the beginning of the 
 discoveries in the New World there was less than $20,- 
 000,000. * 
 
 Through that long period, the Dark Ages, the race 
 verged on extinction. 
 
 The Silver Commission says : 
 
 "During this period the most extraordinary and baleful 
 changes took place in the condition of the world. 
 
 "Population dwindled and commerce, arts, wealth and 
 freedom all disappeared. The people were reduced to 
 poverty and misery of the most degraded condition of 
 serfdom and slavery. The disintegration of society was 
 almost complete. The conditions of life were so hard 
 that individual selfishness was the only thing consistent 
 with the instinct of self-preservation. All public spirit, 
 all generous emotions, all the noble aspirations of man 
 shriveled and disappeared as the volume of money shrank 
 and prices fell. 
 
 History records no such disastrous transition as that 
 from the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages." 
 
 The mighty Roman Empire had ceased. 
 
 The main cause of this fall of man was brought about 
 by the shrinking volume of money. 
 
 "Money is the great instrument of association, the very 
 fiber of social organism, the vitalizing force of industry, 
 the protoplasm of civilization, and as essential to its exist- 
 ence as oxygen is to animal life. Without money civiliza- 
 tion could not have had a beginning; with diminishing 
 supply it must languish, and unless relieved, finally per- 
 ish."— 5. C. 
 
 Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, California, 1848. 
 In Australia 185 1, and in Siberia 1852. 
 
 "The production of gold never had an equal." — J evens. 
 
 Debt-holders became alarmed. 
 
 Investigation was begun. 
 
 Agents came from Europe and their report tended to 
 allay the excitement. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 45 
 
 The bondholder fought gold! 
 
 That was the plentiful metal. 
 
 It is the volume, not the material, that the creditor class 
 watch. 
 
 Note now. 
 
 As early as 1848 a "plot" was laid to put the world in 
 debt. (McKenzie.) 
 
 Paris, London, Berlin, was the seat — ^parties there laid 
 the scheme. Great banking houses undertook to perfect 
 it. It was worked very cautiously and only a select few 
 were in the full of the secret. 
 
 The McKenzie "cipher" gives the vastness of the 
 scheme. 
 
 It worked so well that by 1854 a mighty debt held by 
 "combined persons" had been created. 
 
 HEUREUX HAZZARD. 
 
 "The syndicate, secretly, is authorized to enlarge the 
 capital, adding to its stock three, four or five times the 
 true capital. To do this the great press of the world 
 must be 'managed.' So the plan will appear, as it is 
 made public, a vast enterprise to benefit the people. In 
 this way debt can be magnified to any amount and the 
 holders of these can easily control legislation. Thus can 
 'combined persons,' by means of 'combination,' perfect 
 this plan."— ^. B. C. 
 
 Since the discovery of gold in California in 1848, $3,- 
 500,000,000 has been added to the coin of the world. As 
 this almost infinite sum was flowing, Europe took alarm. 
 
 In 1854, when the gold flood was at its best, the debt- 
 holders sent commissioners to the gold fields. England 
 and France did not change. But in 1857 Germany and 
 Austria demonetized gold. Secret agents of the money 
 power began to combine to bring about the "era of debt." 
 (Sloan.) 
 
 So as to manage the world by "combined persons" — 
 corporations! 
 
 Bonding and funding was the plan. 
 
 And it was to go on till the fund (debt) thus estab- 
 lished was large enough for the annual interest to absorb 
 
46 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 the yearly increase of wealth. This plan was to embrace 
 Christendom first, finally the world. (Bouro Dispatch.) 
 
 "The powers of darkness have sent forth their hosts 
 to enter into tyrants, the rulers and officials of all Chris- 
 tendom, and Satan is about to work his masterpiece 
 against the happiness of man. There is likely to be an 
 effort made by the capital classes to fasten upon the world 
 a rule through their wealth, and by means of reduced 
 wages, place the masses upon a footing more degrading 
 and dependent than has ever been known in history. The 
 spirit of money worshippers seems to be rapidly develop- 
 ing in this direction." — Leedback. 
 
 The grandeur of modern civilization was brought 
 about by swelling the volume of money. 
 
 The influx of gold scared the plotters. 
 
 The volume of money was defeating their scheme. 
 
 The American rebellion was coming to the front; war 
 was sure. 
 
 This was seized upon as a means to aid the great 
 scheme. 
 
 Secret instructions went forth in cipher and by trusted 
 agents. 
 
 The United States was added to the territory that was 
 to be revolutionized. 
 
 The war began and our money system went to pieces. 
 
 The noted "Hazzard circular" was found "floating 
 about" and its demands began to take shape. 
 
 The legislation asked came into existence slowly, but 
 surely — each act was the well-matured step in a system 
 that would subvert this grand civilization. 
 
 "This fact reveals the real nature of the conspirators 
 who, for the last twenty years, have persistently endeav- 
 ored to demonetize silver and paper money, and who have 
 strenuously resisted every proposition that looked to 
 maintaining the volume of the money or increasing it." 
 — Jones U. S. S. 
 
 "The strikes of the workingmen should be directed 
 against bondholders, annuitants and the income classes 
 of the world." — Jones, U. S. S. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 47 
 
 "Perpetual debt on a gold basis and the volume of 
 money subject to the control of banks." — Swazey. 
 
 This excathedra rules the 19th century. And well has 
 it been said by a dying hero as he listens to the song of 
 greed, 
 
 Bias Malorum. 
 
 "I think it due to the American public, that they should 
 be made acquainted with the most tremendous financial 
 operations ever known to mankind. * * In my confi- 
 dential relations with the various great banking houses 
 as correspondent of a leading firm — and by means of a 
 stray letter which came accidentally into my possession. 
 I acquired information that seems to me of the highest 
 importance. As early as 1863 letters were received by 
 the Rothschilds of this city (Paris). * * Whenever 
 coin is scarce, it inures to the creditor class. * * I 
 have indisputable evidence in my possession that an im- 
 mense fund was raised to bring about the general adop- 
 tion of the gold-metal basis. * * The money writers 
 and political economists in London, Paris, Berlin, Frank- 
 fort and Amsterdam, were either argued into the adop- 
 tion of this view or purchased outright. * * In other 
 words, the great capitalists of the world, by a gigantic 
 conspiracy, managed to tax the whole world twenty-five 
 per cent." — H. G. 
 
 The great wars in Europe, fermented by the conspira- 
 tors who had formed the plot, was the means to create the 
 debt. 
 
 The Crimean war, 1854; the Franco- Prussian, 1859; 
 the United States, 1860-4; the Austro-Prussian, 1866; 
 the Franco- Prussian, 1870; the Russio-Turkish of 1876. 
 
 Thus conspiracies against the happiness of man swelled 
 the national debts to an almost infinite amount. Co- 
 jointly, the "new plan" (Stoddard) of debt-making was 
 being perfected. 
 
 "Chartered corporations" were endowed with vast do- 
 main in lands and enriched by large gifts of public credit. 
 These legal persons took possession of money, the instru- 
 ment that changes the title to property; they also took 
 possession of the means of transportation, which changes 
 
48 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 the place of property. And availing themselves of these 
 corporate privileges and individual rights, they laid upon 
 Christendom the infinite burden of ninety thousand mil- 
 lion dollars of debt! 
 
 THE FIRST PLOT CHANGED. 
 
 As the conspiracy developed, a new fact confronted 
 the conspirators. It was discovered that the gold wave 
 had reached the highest point and was receding. 
 
 And in the light of this fact another still more startling 
 appeared. 
 
 The old worked-out silver mines of the Spaniards had 
 been opened, steam applied to rid them of water and 
 handle the ore, so that they were yielding richer than at 
 their discovery. 
 
 Besides, new mines of fineness unsurpassed were be- 
 ing developed. 
 
 The Comstock Lode appeared to be a miracle in 
 quality and endless in quantity. 
 
 The plot was changed. 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY REVAMPED. 
 
 Silver became the dangerous metal, because the most 
 abundant. 
 
 At the close of the Franco-Prussian war the new plot 
 was complete. 
 
 The trap ready to be sprung. 
 
 The great capitalists of Europe and America were fully 
 in accord. 
 
 The few who led had completed the details. 
 
 Correspondents and trusted agents had "fixed" the 
 press and political leaders. 
 
 Leading powers were ready to fall into the hands of 
 the "Revolutionists of the ipth century." (Saliames.) 
 
 Great writers on political economy — the money branch 
 of it — had shaped the march. 
 
 They had been "seen." (Sturm.) 
 
 "The secret work of 'pimps,' 'spies,' 'clunks' and 
 'bunkos,' is not yet all discovered. 
 
 "Laws were made as they 'dictated,' or changed after 
 they were made." — Bye Play. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 49 
 
 A SINGLE GOLD STANDARD. 
 
 This was the ultimate aim. "Coin" was the word used 
 as the "basis." 
 
 But law officers, secretaries of treasury departments 
 and great bank officials always used "the gold standard" 
 as the end to be reached. Everything that tended to 
 break up the double standard was resorted to. 
 
 The agents of this mighty conspiracy were at every 
 capital in Europe and took possession. The Republic 
 had to meet them. 
 
 And all who could be were corrupted. 
 
 All who could be were bought. 
 
 And certain ones joined the conspiracy. 
 
 The ignorant went to the slaughter like sheep. 
 
 It was of these agents and "enemies" that Secretary 
 Fessenden spoke in his first report after taking the port- 
 folio of the Treasury. 
 
 The policy of the great banking houses of Christen- 
 dom, thus combined, became the most destructive element 
 to human happiness ever instituted among men. 
 
 There is already brought to light much of the inner 
 workings; much is yet to be shown. 
 
 The debt of the world at the end of the Prussian war 
 was enormous. And the "money power" — let us call 
 it that — had got control of every government in Christen- 
 dom, so as to secure the laws and the policies it asked 
 for. The conspiracy had reached its new position and 
 demanded three things — 
 
 GOLD, DEBTS, BANKS. 
 
 The ostensible fight was against "silver" and the 
 "double standard." 
 
 The ultimate end sought, was the control of the vol- 
 ume of money. 
 
 The object — enrich the debt-holder, by robbing the 
 debtor. 
 
 Germany demonetized silver by refusing it at her 
 mints. She thus doubled her gold and the vast amount 
 demanded from France had filled her borders. 
 
 Austria did the same. 
 
50 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The legislation of every country was "tampered with." 
 (Smelser.) Legislators found measures offered by them- 
 selves so changed as to be opposite to what they intended. 
 
 Secret influences were brought to bear to turn the right 
 into the wrong. 
 
 Laws were altered surreptitiously. 
 
 A hidden power shaped legislation, a hand the light 
 never saw. 
 
 Treachery, conspiracy, ignorance, so blended you could 
 not tell where the one began or the other ended. 
 
 Executives of powerful governments signed and gave 
 effect to laws that changed the whole policy of their in- 
 stitutions and did not know it. Such mysterious enact- 
 ments found theij way into the laws of the greatest states 
 in Europe. So potent are these laws upon the affairs of 
 men that in less than two decades the race divided into 
 two classes more marked than was ever known. 
 
 The rich have grown rich faster and the poor have 
 grown poor faster than ever known in the annals of time. 
 The result, elements of danger confront us such as man 
 has never met before. 
 
 OUR LEGISLATION. 
 
 The slave code brought us to the valley of the shadow 
 of death. 
 
 It baptized us in blood and washed the hearthstones 
 with the tears of weeping mothers and dying children. 
 
 It went out amid the terrors of war, leaving an entail- 
 ment not yet settled. 
 
 And the laws following have covered us with greater 
 danger to the Republic than was chattel slavery. 
 
 Take them as they stand and they are a code of honor, 
 because national. 
 
 I. The Act of February 25, 1862. 
 
 The Act of March 25, 1863. 
 The Act of January 6, 1866. 
 The Act of March 18, 1869. 
 The Act of July 14, 1870. 
 The Act of February 12, 1873. 
 The Act of January 14, 1875. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 51 
 
 These seven laws and their correlates are the product 
 of design, their result, a conspiracy. 
 
 They are an estoppel to liberty. 
 
 They are a mandate prohibitum against freedom. 
 
 They are a travesty on government of the people. 
 
 They establish by their cohesion, government of a class. 
 
 A class infinitesimal. 
 
 Less than one-quarter of one per cent of the people. 
 
 They are genera numeros. 
 
 Monopolies generate from them, as death from sin. 
 
 The brood thus spawned are vampires — railroads, tele- 
 graphs, telephones, lands, bonds, oil, gas — on, on, on, the 
 whole crowned by 
 
 THE MONEY POWER. 
 
 They are Satan's masterpiece. 
 
 They are Mammon's code of greed. 
 
 They are Fata Morgana — 
 
 Earth's mirage and hope's gangrene. 
 
 They rob heaven of her jewels and fill hell with the 
 lost. 
 
 They subvert equity. 
 
 They establish inequity. 
 
 They lead the struggles of the class against the mass. 
 
 They mount capital on the shoulders of labor. 
 
 They are a phantasm — 
 
 They turn railroads into a 2x7 genii — "two billions 
 money" and "five billions water." 
 
 They turn telegraphs into a 1x6 genii — "twenty mil- 
 lions money" and "one hundred millions water." 
 
 Capital takes the "6" and grows fat, and labor pays 
 all and grows poor. 
 
 Capital thus "strikes" for higher "dividends" and it is 
 called — "great smartness." 
 
 Labor "strikes" for higher "wages" to pay these 
 higher "dividends" and it is called — "a riot." 
 
 They turn the telephone into a 2x20 genii — "two mil- 
 lions money" and "eighteen millions water." 
 
 They make the land, the bond, the oil and the gas a 
 scourge in the hand of capital to lash the back of labor, 
 as the Greek slave was never tortured. 
 
52 Lije of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 On through the family of genii, ghoul, devil of monop- 
 oly, at last the head-center is reached. 
 
 BANKS AND MONEY. 
 
 They are fire tailed foxes in the wheatfields of produc- 
 tion. 
 
 They are poverty, hunger, despair to labor. 
 
 They are death on the pale horse and hell following to 
 — happiness. 
 
 The Conspiracy is man's oppressor. 
 
 The Conspiracy is earth's destroyer. 
 
 The Conspiracy is God's enemy. 
 
 Man must make himself. 
 
 Intellectually, 
 
 Morally and 
 
 Physically as perfect as possible. 
 
 This is the mortal obligation. How does the Con- 
 spiracy affect him? Does it hinder him in the discharge 
 of these high duties to God, country and self? 
 
 Let the world learn now — so esti alia — that the natural 
 rights of man shall never give place to the vested rights 
 of property. 
 
MR. HARPER'S POSITION ON TEMPERANCE. 
 
 "During the temperance crusade in Indiana in 1859 
 Mr. Harper took an active part. He was a delegate from 
 the Eighth congressional district to the State Temper- 
 ance convention held in Indianapolis, Ind., January 18, 
 1859. 
 
 "Mr. Jesse Harper appealed eloquently to the con- 
 vention against destroying the force and effect of the 
 resolution by the insertion of the word 'Lawful.' His 
 speech was received with great applause by the ultra 
 members of the convention." 
 
 I wish here to insert a portion of a pamphlet on the 
 Liquor Traffic written by Mr. Harper in 1879. It is the 
 best argument I have read on the subject. He says: 
 
 "The giving to the liquor traffic of the sanction of law 
 was and is now a crime against the very life of society. 
 It is a thrust at our Christianity as deadly as any ever 
 conceived by the malice of Satan. Let us name one other 
 general thing which has given this villainous traffic a 
 hold in the world that it never could have had but for the 
 fact of ignoring it as a political question. While it is a 
 great moral question, it is equally a great political ques- 
 tion. And as long as it has the sanction of law — law 
 which is but political enactment — it cannot be put down 
 by moral power. A man who consents by his ballot to 
 the law to fix a legalized liquor traffic upon the statute 
 books of the state and then tries to pray away the effects 
 of his vote, is a hypocrite. Vote as you pray. 
 
 "While under these general statements we wish to de- 
 clare plainly that until the temperance question is made 
 a political issue and the ballot invoked, the crime of 
 drunkenness will increase. Until it is made a party issue 
 it will not be banished from the earth. Slavery lived and 
 flourished amid the fostering prayers of moral suasion 
 for its eradication. But when a party said, in the plenti- 
 tude of its power, 'thus far shalt thou go and no 
 
 53 
 
54 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 further,' and 'here shall thy proud waves be stayed/ 
 then slavery died. So must this wrong — a legalized 
 liquor traffic — ^be abolished. And only in this way can it 
 be done. It is a mistake, a fearful mistake, made by 
 temperance people, not to treat the liquor traffic as a po- 
 litical question. It can never be put down by moral 
 suasion while the law is on its side. And the law will 
 be on its side just as long as it is ignored as a political 
 question. Self-deceived Christians who are led captive 
 by the Devil at his will, find a kind of balm to their con- 
 science in praying and working against the traffic; and 
 being thus seasoned by grace, they are the better prepared 
 to vote with one or the other of the old parties — ^both of 
 which are sold out, and have been for years, to the 
 whisky interest. 
 
 LAW IS CRYSTALLIZED BALLOTS. 
 
 "The attempt that is made (by some) to ease the con- 
 science by setting up that it is morally right to sell sugar 
 and immortal to sell liquor, is to make oneself a hypo- 
 crite. And he who does so, be he Christian or sinner, 
 proves that he has on spectacles smoked in brimstone, 
 and to the soft title hypocrite should be added scoundrel. 
 For if selling liquor as a beverage is morally wrong, then 
 what right has the voter by his ballot, enacted into law, 
 to say that that which is morally wrong shall by law be 
 legally right. No one, we say. Yet just this very kind 
 of hypocrisy is filling the whole land — a thing so appall- 
 ing as to pall heaven in drapery and is stirring hell into 
 jubilees. By the ballot legalize the wrong, then cry 
 moral suasion. Shame ! And yet every silly pated moral 
 reformer who has voted to legalize the traffic is doing 
 this thing. All such are a fraud. All such need to be 
 converted to common honesty before they start out as 
 evangels. All such fellows are moral cowards, base 
 hypocrites and knavish cheats. Those who know no bet- 
 ter are fools, and those who know better are deceptions. 
 As long as the traffic is legalized by means of the ballot, 
 to try to put it down by moral suasion is hypocrisy, and 
 those who vote for the traffic and go about preaching 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 55 
 
 moral suasion are a fraud, and are obtaining money un- 
 der false pretense. 
 
 Believing as we do that when the facts as to the traffic 
 are by the people understood, then the proper remedy 
 will be offered, we earnestly call your attention to the 
 facts. Under the head intoxicants we include distilled, 
 malt and vinous liquors. We take three years, covering 
 a space of twenty years: 
 
 In 1850, cost of production $ 26,000,000 
 
 •In i860, cost of production 57,000,000 
 
 In 1870, cost of production 98,000,000 
 
 Total for three years $183,000,000 
 
 This was for the three years, 1850, i860, 1870. Sup- 
 pose we average each year's cost at the cost of i860, 
 which was $57,000,000. Then the cost of production of 
 intoxicants for twenty years would be one billion one 
 hundred and forty million dollars. Since 1870 the in- 
 crease has been still greater. Let us now take the last 
 year of this twenty — 1870— and see what it cost the 
 country to sustain this traffic in intoxicants — a traffic in 
 human hopes, human souls and jewels of heaven, as it 
 has been aptly termed. Statistics showing the cost to 
 the people for intoxicating liquors for the year 1870: 
 
 Imported and domestic distilled liquor. . .$1,344,000,000 
 
 Brewed and fermented liquors 123,000,000 
 
 Imported wines 15,000,000 
 
 Domestic wines 5,000,000 
 
 Total $1,487,000,000 
 
 Add to this ninety million dollars cost of 
 litigation, cost of crimes, prison ex- 
 penses, etc., that is traceable directly 
 and indirectly to intemperance 90,000,000 
 
 Cost for one year for the traffic $1,577,000,000 
 
 Let us next contrast the cost for living for the same 
 year, and thereby we shall be able to see, as in the very 
 
$6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 shadow of death, what it costs annually to fill hell with 
 the lost. Here are the figures for 1870: 
 
 Cost of flour and meal $530,000,000 
 
 Cost of cotton goods 1 15,000,000 
 
 Cost of boots and shoes 90,000,000 
 
 Cost of clothing 70,000,000 
 
 Cost of woolen goods 60,000,000 
 
 Cost of newspapers and printing 40,000,000 
 
 Total for a year $905,000,000 
 
 We see by this showing that for liquor alone, in a year, 
 one-third more money was paid than for flour, meal, 
 cotton goods, boots and shoes, clothing in general, woolen 
 goods, newspapers, printing, etc. Sad picture! 
 
 Look now for a moment at the number engaged in 
 this work of ruin, this work of death ; persons carrying 
 on this traffic, and who are as much protected in it by 
 law as are those who preach the gospel, minister to the 
 sick and dying, attend to the daily affairs of life and bury 
 the dead as the last duty to our fallen. 
 
 1870. 
 
 There were 140,000 licensed liquor saloons in the coun- 
 try, each having (estimated) 40 daily customers, making 
 5,600,000 drinks. That forty drinks a day at each saloon 
 is not an overestimate, is proved by the fact that Super- 
 intendent Kennedy of the city of New York, by actual 
 tests made at 233 of the average drinking places of the 
 city, found that the daily drinks of each were 134. As 
 a parenthesis let us give you a paragraph from Dyer's 
 official report showing how the deadly traffic in the city 
 of New York is progressing. And mind, the places we 
 refer to are authorized by law. Those other places where 
 they have not the thin guise of hypocrisy covering them, 
 known as "licensed saloons," we pass for the time, pass 
 them so as to take a glance at the "regulated places" — 
 legal places. These legal places have the prayers of min- 
 ister and the people that they may cause death's triumph 
 over body and soul — fill hell with the lost and the treas- 
 ury of the great republic with many shekels. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 57 
 
 New York.— "According to Dyer's official report there 
 are places for selling intoxicating liquors, 5,203. Super- 
 intendent Kennedy placed policemen at 233 of them for 
 twenty- four consecutive hours and this is the result: 
 Each rum-hole receives a daily average of 134 visits, 
 making an aggregate of 697,202 per day, 4,183,212 per 
 week, or 218,224,226 visits in one year. Each visit aver- 
 ages at least fifteen minutes. This gives 5,455,605 days 
 of ten hours each, or 1,848 years. Each rum-hole re- 
 ceives a daily average of $141.53, niaking an aggregate 
 of $736,280.53 per week, or $38,286,590.68 per annum; 
 add the value of lost time at a dollar a day, not including 
 Sundays, and we have for a year $48,612,193.68." 
 
 In still further tabulating the traffic so that we may 
 see its enormity, let it be remembered that: 
 
 "The quantity of distilled, fermented and brewed 
 liquors drank (1870) was sufficient to fill a canal four 
 feet deep and fourteen feet wide and eighty miles long; 
 and if all the drinkers could be placed in procession, five 
 abreast, they would make an army 130 miles long; and 
 if those killed by the intemperate use of spiritous liquors 
 were there also we should see a suicide at every five miles 
 and 550 funerals per day; and if all the places where in- 
 toxicants are sold were placed in rows, in direct line, they 
 would make a street 100 miles long." 
 
 "There are 400,000 more persons engaged in the liquor 
 business in the United States than in preaching the gos- 
 pel and school teaching, and from the effects of intoxi- 
 cating drinks 100,000 are annually sent to prison, 150,- 
 000 to drunkards' graves, and 200,000 children reduced 
 to want." 
 
 "The total number engaged in the business is 560,000, 
 of which 56,663 are employed in making and selling an- 
 nually 5,685,633 barrels of beer." 
 
 "It is estimated (and the estimate is rather over than 
 under) that the cost of the clergy annually is over $12,- 
 000,000; the lawyers, criminals, prisons, etc., cost an- 
 nually $90,000,000, and intoxicating liquors as stated 
 supra cost annually $1,474,000,000." 
 
 "The state of Pennsylvania spent during the year 1870 
 for liquors of all kinds, $152,663,945, and for schools and 
 
58 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 teaching, $5,863,729. She had engaged in the liquor 
 business, 78,800 persons ; she had 16,870 school teachers, 
 and she had 24,000 criminals, four-fifths of whom were 
 made so by strong drink." 
 
 "The city of Philadelphia had 4,160 drinking places, 
 and spent for intoxicating drinks $30,000,000 in one 
 year." 
 
 "Chicago had 2,300 liquor saloons, and spent for in- 
 toxicating liquors $4,000,000." 
 
 "The city of New York had (1875) 7,000 licensed 
 drinking saloons which, if placed in a row in a direct line, 
 would make a street like Broadway thirteen miles long. 
 She spent for intoxicating drinks $60,000,000 during the 
 year. And there were employed in the business 35,000 
 persons. She had 450 churches and chapels; and there 
 were engaged in preaching and teaching the public and 
 private schools 3,000 persons, all of which to support 
 cost $4,500,000. The total sum invested in the liquor 
 business of all kinds amounted to $140,000,000. There 
 was only invested in manufactures $60,000,000, and in 
 banking $80,000,000. The police department cost $3,000- 
 000; for public amusements there were paid $5,000,000. 
 The meat bill was $30,000,000 and the bread $28,000,000. 
 The daily consumption of beer was 40,000 kegs. There 
 were 65,000 arrests for intoxication and disorderly con- 
 duct, and 80,000 persons were in institutions under the 
 care of the Commissioners of Charities." 
 
 According to the New York Tribune "The mere liquors 
 drank by the people in one year in the United States is 
 nearly fifteen hundred million dollars, or three-fifths of 
 the national debt. 
 
 "As the amount of taxes paid by the retailers is pro- 
 portionate to the amount of their sales, we might safely 
 assume that the real quantities sold are much larger, but 
 we are content with the retailers' own figures. But this 
 is not all. In the manufacture of this amount of liquor 
 it is safe to estimate that the materials used, including 
 corn, rye, potatoes, hops and other crops and the labor, 
 are worth fifty per cent, of the liquors produced. This 
 leaves the distillers and brewers a net profit of one hun- 
 dred per cent, on their active capital invested every time 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 59 
 
 it is needed, which surely ought to be enough, as they 
 can "turn' their capital four or five times a year. 
 
 "These estimates show that there are destroyed or con- 
 sumed in making these liquors $750,000,000 worth of 
 grain of various kinds, potatoes, grapes, hops and labor, 
 i. e., this value of these articles is deducted from the use- 
 ful industries of the country, and contributes in no degree 
 to its support. The rye consumed in making whisky 
 would have made bread, and its withdrawal from the 
 supply of rye for bread makes every loaf of bread dearer. 
 So of the other grains. Adding the value of the food 
 products and labor which are withdrawn from all useful 
 channels and practically destroyed in the manufacture of 
 spirituous liquors we find the total destruction of values 
 amounts to $2,250,000,000 per year. Being considerably 
 more than the interest-bearing portion of the national 
 debt. 
 
 "But this is not the entire taxation which the people 
 pay to sustain 'free rum.' To arrive at the grand total 
 we must still add the loss to labor, health and industry 
 of the people which results from consumption. 
 
 "While the benefits of this vast waste of wealth are 
 thus reduced to a minimum, no limit can be assigned to 
 the evils resulting from its consumption in the form of 
 liquors. Twenty-five cents worth of these fluids may 
 unfit a man for business, fifty cents worth may place his 
 whole property at the disposal of a swindler, and seventy- 
 five cents worth may cause him to murder his wife, his 
 parents or his children. 
 
 "But merely the time wasted in intoxication, and the 
 destruction of property resulting from the carelessness 
 and crimes of intoxicated persons, may be estimated at 
 $300,000,000 per annum, and even this is far below the 
 truth. This brings our annual taxation for 'free rum' 
 up to $2,550,000,000, or considerably more than the en- 
 tire principal of the national debt." 
 
 ********* 
 
 TAKE THE PLEDGE. 
 
 Let every person take a pledge — a human pledge — not 
 to make, sell or drink intoxicants. Make the firm resolve 
 
6o Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 to touch not, taste not, handle not. The human pledge 
 against the traffic ! This is a great thing. A pledge not 
 to do a thing or to do a thing, is a noble resolve ; and he 
 who opposes it arrays himself against the idea of prog- 
 ress. In all ages pledges, in the nature of vows and 
 promises, have been made and held as the highest of 
 human obligations. There is something about them that 
 strengthens, and they operate to bind the many into one. 
 A human pledge, the maker relying wholly on his un- 
 aided ability to keep and perform it, is a powerful factor 
 in the accomplishment of a purpose. The pledge, in this 
 sense, has wrought matchless works, as recorded in the 
 annals of the past. The citation of a few will not be 
 amiss : 
 
 Demosthenes, the son of a blacksmith, with only lim- 
 ited opportunities for education, with an imperfect utter- 
 ance, yet, on seeing the multitude moved to enthusiasm 
 by the words of a traveling bard, swore (pledged him- 
 self) that he would bring all Athens to bow at his feet. 
 How well and almost miraculously he kept and performed 
 his pledge history in one of its most radiant pages at- 
 tests. He overcame all difficulties, his energy imparted 
 new hope, his desires begat new life, his pledge acted 
 as the motor which, at last, did bring all Athens to his 
 feet. On the sea shore, with a pebble in his mouth, he 
 created a speech that became smooth as the flowing 
 stream and bewitching as the song of the siren. His ex- 
 ercises as an athlete gave his physical power a tone that 
 raised him from effeminacy to the vigor of a giant. The 
 ripened fruit of the pledge grew so that Demosthenes 
 became "the most illustrious and eloquent orator of all 
 antiquity." 
 
 Tamerlane, called Timur the lame, obscure in his 
 origin, deformed in his physical, being reel-footed, be- 
 came the most renowned of warriors, and the most im- 
 placable of all despots. He was once chided by a shep- 
 herd for his effeminacy and lack of the manly. This so 
 enraged him that he swore (pledged himself) that he 
 would own the world and baptize a city in blood. To 
 realize how fearfully this pledge of wickedness was kept, 
 read of his mighty battles and vast conquests, and look 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 6i 
 
 at last at the city of Bagdad baptized truly in blood. 
 Eighty thousand — men, women and children — given to 
 the sword after the city had surrendered. And most 
 sickening of all, a pyramid of human skulls erected on 
 the great square of the city. Then look at the spectacle 
 of his having Bajazet, his captive, carried through his 
 empire in an iron cage. He kept that fearful vow in his 
 mind as an ever potent venger. 
 
 The pledge of Zanap, in the middle ages, when dark- 
 ness, treachery, treason and murder filled all Europe, is 
 grand indeed. Confidence had almost departed from the 
 earth. This humble man took a message to carry from 
 the camp of the Swiss heroes who, in the mountain passes, 
 were keeping the fires of liberty from entirely dying out. 
 Their friends of the distant cantons were surrounded 
 with like perils and all communication cut oiiF, and the 
 penalty of death attached to whoever should carry a 
 word from one of these camps to the other. Zanap was 
 selected to make the fearful passage from one camp to 
 the other. He was sworn (pledged himself) that rather 
 than divulge the secret ways leading to the camp he 
 would die. He took the message and started on the 
 dreadful march. He was captured — his speech betrayed 
 him. Then every device of torture that the malice of 
 tyrants could invent was brought to bear to wring from 
 him the location of the secret paths which, amid the 
 mountains of snow and glaciers of ice, led to the camp 
 of those patriots. But all in vain. Slow torture drank 
 up his life at last, but his pledge, secure as his heroic 
 manhood was noble, sank with him into the grave. It 
 was a grand pledge and nobly kept. 
 
 And the valor of the Scots in the time of the dreadful 
 wars between the High and the Low Lands, and the 
 sacredness of the pledge, stand unrivaled. Their devo- 
 tion to their pledges have nothing, in all history, more 
 noble. Bryan McClain, as he lights the telegraph fire 
 on the mountain peak that flashes the fact to the clans in 
 the glens, to be shot to death the next moment by the 
 hidden foe, is an illustration of the binding force of the 
 pledge that will forever thrill the human heart. Time 
 will not allow, nor space permit, or we would speak of 
 
62 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 the secret pledges of societies that in all past time, as 
 well as the present, 'have vindicated their power. We 
 must pass on. 
 
 Having touched briefly on a few historical instances 
 where the pledge has wrought like miracles, let us next 
 examine the work of the pledge in the temperance cause. 
 Let us see what simple human pledges have done. And 
 here we are driven, as in former illustrations, to select 
 those only which are most marked and brilliant. And 
 among these the Washingtonian pledge stands most con- 
 spicuous. 
 
 Those six heroes — for heroes they were — who at Bal- 
 timore, in the very shadow of death took that pledge, 
 set a movement on foot that swept over the civilized 
 world and saved from the drunkard's grave such glad 
 numbers as to make the heart thrill with joy. These 
 men were drunkards on the verge of death. Their act 
 was the beginning of the great latter-day movement. It 
 has gone on gaining strength until today it is an army 
 glorious in appointment, triumphant in achievement, 
 moving the world to sympathy by its devotion to the 
 souls and bodies of men. The pledge open, the pledge 
 secret, the pledge in writing, the pledge divine, the 
 pledge of men and women not to make, not to sell, not 
 to drink, the number of these is fast becoming a phalanx 
 that will ultimately overcome all opposition, surmount 
 every obstacle, and in its tireless march sweep the traffic 
 from the face of the earth. 
 
 HOW SHALL THE PLEDGE BE KEPT? 
 
 We have seen in the foregoing what pledges, vows and 
 promises have done, how they have inspired humanity, 
 enabling the weakest to become conquerors. Let us then 
 ask how, by what means, were those most sacred obliga- 
 tions kept? How were, they performed by frail mortals, 
 by simple fallen man? And here we strike a fountain 
 inexhaustible, a sea of strength that is boundless, a power 
 that is God-like — it is prayer. All men should heed 
 this divine maxim : 
 
 "If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God, who 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 63 
 
 giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it 
 shall be given him. — [Bible. 
 
 The works that have been wrought, the achievements 
 that have been accomplished through prayer, are well 
 nigh endless. Prayer is the divine means to clothe the 
 mortal with the strength of the infinite. The answer of 
 prayer is the victory of faith. In order to aid us in lay- 
 ing hold of this proffered arm, which will enable us for 
 our whole life to keep the pledge, let us note a few of the 
 recorded instances where prayer has overcome the world, 
 set natural laws (as they are called) aside, and brought 
 results miraculous. Even the wicked, the unbelieving, 
 know its mysterious power, its potent energies. It is 
 said of Queen Bess — that most remarkable English mon- 
 arch, Elizabeth — that on a. certain occasion, when her 
 empire was convulsed and shaken to its very foundation 
 by dissensions without and within, a royal courtier 
 rushed into her presence without asking the accustomed 
 permission, and in the excitement of his fear told her 
 that the whole Scotch army was crossing the border, 
 with broad-sword and blazing brand in hand, to lay her 
 country waste, and that her majesty's bowmen were not 
 there to meet them. Having thus delivered his message 
 of fear, he waited for the sovereign's order. But she 
 sat unmoved, nor spoke, until the faithful servant, over- 
 come by the imminence of the danger, cried out: "The 
 border is being crossed by your mortal foe." Then the 
 Queen waived him aside as she started for the council 
 chamber, and with a voice that showed weakness indeed, 
 said: "I would rather know of the whole Scotch army 
 coming across the border with broad-sword and blaz- 
 ing brand than to liear of old John Knox on his knees 
 praying." What an admission of the power of prayer. 
 In the dim distance we lack not for just such testimony. 
 
 No language ever portrayed a more touching scene 
 than that recorded of Jacob in his struggle for victory 
 and life. He knew how he had wronged his brother 
 years and years before. Now he is coming face to face 
 with that brother, who is able to avenge himself. Know- 
 ing and feeling all this he took himself aside from all 
 that was dear to him on earth. In the darkness of night, 
 
64 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 he crossed the ford of Jabbok, and there wrestled a man 
 with him until the break of day. Jacob was made a 
 cripple. The agony of soul, the burden on the mortal, 
 was such as man had never known before. The day was 
 coming in the east with glory on its brow. The strug- 
 gling, wrestling Jacob had not during that dread night 
 learned how it would be with Esau, and he said: "Let 
 me go, for the day breaketh." Then cried Jacob — cried 
 only as a soul cries that must have help — "I will not let 
 thee go except thou bless me." That- was victory, for 
 the next we hear is: "What is thy name?" "Jacob." 
 Then the angel of the covenant said: "Thy name shall 
 be no more called Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince thou 
 hast power with God and with man, and hast conquered." 
 
 THE DANGER OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 
 
 In contemplating the manifold dangers inherent in the 
 liquor traffic, and which flow from it, we shall, of course, 
 constantly keep before the mind the wrong, the sin of the 
 traffic, and urge as the surest means of averting the 
 danger and escaping the ruin and death, the taking and 
 keeping of the pledge. 
 
 V. 
 
 1. The liquor traffic is dangerous because it menaces 
 civilization and is the mortal enemy of Christianity. The 
 law protecting and giving legal existence to the liquor 
 traffic is a devilish yahoo who takes all that is deformed 
 in man and energizes it until every passion becomes a 
 genii. These demons go about strong in the support of 
 law, dragging to death — not only temporal but eternal — 
 all on whom they lay their infernal hand. The legalized 
 liquor traffic is a danger, indeed. 
 
 "It is a strange, a woeful sprite 
 As ever frightened human sight." 
 
 2. The danger is infinite, because the liquor traffic 
 destroys the physical, intellectual and moral powers. 
 Drunkenness is surely burning out the very germs of 
 manhood, permeating the coming generations with the 
 virus of death. The baleful effects are becoming here- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 65 
 
 ditary. The fearful law of transmission is showing itself 
 in the degeneracy of the race wherever intoxicants are 
 used. A high medical authority says : "The vitality and 
 the physical and mental organization of the infant pro- 
 ceed directly from the parent." — H. H., 146. In regard 
 to drunkenness the transmited virus may show itself in 
 the child, grandchild or great-grandchild. 
 
 "It frequently happens that the sons of women whose 
 fathers were drunkards will show especial proclivities to 
 the same vice while there has been no such manifesta- 
 tions in such mothers." — T. H. Keckelu. 
 
 He further says : "A parent will transmit his or her 
 own peculiarities. Much will depend upon the condi- 
 tion of the parents at the time the life-impression is 
 given. The direct influence of the father ceases when 
 this is accomplished. It is the actual condition at the 
 time that is liable to be conferred, not what he has been. 
 So, if intoxicated, that appetite will be transmitted to 
 the child."— H. H. V., 48, p. 146, Oct., 1869. 
 
 To this may be added the instance recorded of the 
 child born of a drunken mother and whose father was 
 also a drunkard: "After being drunken almost con- 
 stantly during gestation the mother died in giving birth 
 to the child, and the child was raised by the tender hand 
 of charity. It never tasted any kind of intoxicants dur- 
 ing its short life, yet when it began to walk it staggered 
 like a drunken man, just as its mother did, and so stag- 
 gered through life. At the age of nine it died, having 
 been drunk. from its very birth, and in its body was found 
 alcohol." — Dr. Diary. 
 
 Here is what another says: "The parent should not 
 look in malice or anger on their child. It is but the re- 
 flex of themselves. The drunken parent will see in their 
 child the same stricken thing, a duplicate of their own 
 unbridled passions. They will see a prodigy, a satire, 
 a hideous mockery, a coarse imitation of all their weak- 
 ness, wickedness and crime." — Southworth. 
 
 3. It is dangerous to use it constantly, for that de- 
 feats its use as a medicine (if it can even be used as 
 such). Here is what Dr. Glydon says: "It is a well 
 known fact that the habitual use of stimulants may ren- 
 
66 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 der null and void, at the critical moment, the very medi- 
 cine needed to save life. The vital organs have become 
 dulled by abuse, so hardened by constant use of stimu- 
 lants, as to wholly destroy the effect of medicine. It 
 was this that took the Prince of Wales down to the very 
 jaws of death. Dr. Glydon, H. H. V., 53, 69. We will 
 note a fact here by way of parenthesis : We are aware 
 that there are a class of (so-called) physicians who stick 
 to the Brunoman theory of disease, and believe alcohol 
 to be a panacea for all ills. Dr. Brown, founder of this 
 system, lectured with a bottle of brandy by his side, 
 ruined his health and shortened his life by drink, thus in 
 his own person refuting his own theory." — H. H. V., 
 
 S3. 75- 
 
 The liquor traffic is dangerous because it is the greatest 
 social evil that affects the human race. Sir James Green- 
 wood says: "Whatever difference of opinion of other 
 causes, no sane man will contest the fact that drunken- 
 ness has wrought more mischief than all other social 
 evils put together." — The Seven Curses, 82. Again: 
 "There is not a form of human sin and sorrow in which 
 it does not play a part." — Seven Curses. 
 
 The celebrated Dr. Guthrie, of London, in a letter to . 
 a committee of the House of Commons, says : "Believe 
 me, it is impossible to exaggerate, impossible truthfully 
 to paint the effect of this evil either on those who are 
 addicted to it or those who suffer from it. Crushed 
 husbands, broken-hearted wives, and most of all those 
 poor, innocent children that are dying under cruelty and 
 starvation, that walk unshod the winter snows, and with 
 their matted hear and hollow cheeks and sunken eyes 
 glare out on us wild and savage-like from patched and 
 filthy windows. Nor is the curse confined to the lowest 
 stratum of society. It has cost many a servant her place, 
 and yet greater loss, her virtue. It has ruined trades, 
 despoiled the coronet of its lustre, and damned without 
 number." — 7 Casey, 83. 
 
 5. The liquor traffic is dangerous because of the pois- 
 onous adulterations of all intoxicants. The belief that 
 there is now any such thing as pure liquors is a myth. 
 But if there were, what of it? Nothing; for the con- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 67 
 
 sequences ihat flowed from the drinking of pure liquors 
 in the day of their- existence, were fearful indeed. And 
 now, when we add to this dark picture this — the drinking 
 of adulterated liquors — and they are all the kind we have 
 — then the picture becomes a widespread ruin, a very 
 valley of the shadow of death. Let us enumerate some 
 of the ingredients with which the beer shop-keeper re- 
 brews his beer, and the publican doctor his gin and rum 
 and whisky. We abbreviate from the work, "The Seven 
 Curses of London": 
 
 "The most common way of adulterating beer is by 
 means of coculus indicus. This is known in the trade as 
 'Indian berry.' It is the fruit that grows on the coast of 
 Malabar, bitter and of an intoxicating nature, and is ex- 
 tensively used to increase the intoxicating qualities of 
 liquor. It is a poison. 
 
 Fox Glove is a plant possessing an intensely bitter, 
 nauseating taste, a violent purgative and vomit; pro- 
 duces languor, giddiness, and even death. It is a poison, 
 and is used as an adulterant on account of its intoxicat- 
 ing qualities, which it imparts to the liquors with which 
 it is mixed. 
 
 Green Copperas, a mineral, is used to give the beer 
 froth — a "frothy top," — and adds to its intoxicating 
 qualities. 
 
 Hartshorn. The scrapings of the horns of the com- 
 mon male deer. It is used to mix with the liquors to keep 
 them from souring, and adds to their hot, burning taste. 
 
 Jalap. Deriving its name from Xalapa in Mexico, is 
 a convulvus root, nauseous, and is a powerful purgative. 
 Is used mainly to counteract the constipation properties 
 of intoxicants. 
 
 Nut-galls. These are excresences caused to grow on 
 trees in Asia, Persia, Syria, etc., through the poison of 
 insects. They are intensely bitter, and are used much 
 in dyeing, as they are prolific in color ; are used to give 
 fineness of color to liquor. 
 
 Nux Vomica is a seed out of a fruit the size of an 
 orange. It is an inch in diameter and a quarter thick, 
 has no smell, is a violent, acrid narcotic poison, and is used 
 
68 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 extensively in the manufacture of beer, ale and porter, 
 owing to its intoxicating properties. 
 
 Opium. The thick juice of the white poppy, indi- 
 genous to India, is the most destructive of all the nar- 
 cotic poisons, and it is the most intoxicating. It is most 
 freely used in the manufacture of liquors because its 
 very nature is to yield a larger quantity of intoxicating 
 matter than any other vegetable. 
 
 Oil of Vitriol (sulphuric acid) is a poison of burning 
 nature ; is used to increase the heating qualities of liquors. 
 
 Potash. Made of vegetables and quick lime. This is 
 used to bring the beer back — simply to sweeten beer after 
 it has become sour. 
 
 Wormivood. The seed from this plant is bitter and in- 
 toxicating; is used to increase the stimulating qualities 
 of the liquor. 
 
 Yew-tops. The leaves, seeds and berries are exceed- 
 ingly poisonous, and are used to increase the intoxicating 
 properties of the liquor. Thus are our liquors fixed. 
 
 7. The liquor traffic is dangerous because it encour- 
 ages the use of intoxicants as a medicine, thereby culti- 
 vating a taste for drinks, which may ultimate in the de- 
 struction of both soul and body. We will give an in- 
 stance: Dr. Munroe, of Hull, England, author of the 
 medical work, "The Physiological Action of Alcohol," 
 says: "I will relate a circumstance which occurred to 
 me several years ago, and which made a deep impression 
 on my mind. I was not then a teetotaller — would that 
 I had been — but I conscientiously, though erroneously, 
 believed in the health-imparting properties of stout. 'A 
 hard-working. God-fearing man, a teetotaller of some 
 years standing, suffered greatly from an abscess in the 
 hand. He asked me what to do. I told him to rest and 
 take something to remedy the waste going on. I told 
 him to take a bottle of stout daily. He said, 'I cannot 
 take it, for I have been a teetotaller for many years.' 
 'Well,' says I, 'if you know better than the doctor, it is 
 no use applying to me.' He looked me sorrowfully in 
 the face and said : 'Doctor, I was a drunken man once ; 
 I should not like to be one again.' It was much against 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 69 
 
 his will that I prevailed on him to take the stout. When 
 he got well I praised up the stout as the cause of saving 
 his life, but which I know now was not true. I lectured him 
 on his fanaticism, his teetotalism. I lost sight of him 
 for years, but one fine summer day, when driving through 
 one of our thoroughfares, I saw a poor, miserable, ragged 
 looking man leaning against the door of a public hotise 
 drunk, and incapable of standing alone unsupported. I 
 saw in a moment, although much changed, that it was my 
 teetotaller "friend whom I had persuaded to break his 
 pledge. Looking at him earnestly I said, 'John, is that 
 you ?' He stared at me in a leering kind of a way, and 
 said, 'Y-e-s, it's me.' I remarked, 'I am sorry to see you 
 in this drunken condition, I thought you a teetotaller.' 
 He gazed at me in a way I shall never forget and said : 
 'Doctor, didn't you send me here for that medicine f and 
 then with a kind of demoniac chuckle, more like a fiend 
 than a human, he uttered in such a startling voice as to 
 attract a crowd, 'Doctor, your medicine cured my body 
 as you said, but it damned my soul.' I was appalled ; I 
 felt in some measure that I had been the cause of his 
 death, temporal and eternal. I began to look at what I 
 had done, in stirring up in him an appetite that was about 
 to ultimate in his eternal death. Well, he went on down, 
 down, down ; turned out of church in which once he was 
 an ornament, his life blighted, his prospects destroyed 
 and reduced to a slave of passion for drink, without 
 mercy and without hope. Said I : can that be a medicine 
 which will destroy the body and soul? and the answer 
 came from every aspiration of my nature, no, no, no! 
 The whole theory is wrong. Can you wonder, then, that 
 I never order strong drink for a patient now ?" — 7 c. L., 
 
 84. 
 
 8. The liquor traffic is dangerous, because it pro- 
 motes drunkenness ; drunkenness is aberration and con- 
 stant drinking ultimates in delirium, and finally insanity. 
 Says a noted medical writer: "One of the most terrible 
 results of drinking is the inducing of that kind of in- 
 sanity which takes the name of delirium tremens." He 
 describes this insanity thus: "The casualties of the dis- 
 ease are convulsions, coma, which, if not immediately 
 
70 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 fatal, are apt to leave the sufferer a wreck for the re- 
 mainder of life." — 7 e. L., 90. 
 
 9. The liquor traffic is dangerous because it creates 
 an appetite which at last becomes irresistible. We would 
 speak now briefly of the pathological, or, as it is called, 
 the proximate cause of drunkenness. No impression 
 from any source can affect the mind except through the 
 brain. In drunkenness, therefore, it is the brain that is 
 principally affected. It is only through a healthy brain 
 that healthy manifestations can emanate. Intoxicants 
 destroy the cerebral texture; and the fact is now well 
 established that habitual drunkards have always more or 
 less cerebral disease. And so this voluntary habit, long 
 indulged in, becomes master, and overpowers the will and 
 forces the victim down to death. At the last not a sound 
 tissue or particle of flesh can be found from the sole of 
 the foot to the crown of the head. Read this : 
 
 "So deplorably common has drunkenness been in this 
 country that there are few who have not seen the melan- 
 choly spectacle of the most powerful motives, the most 
 solemn promises and resolutions, a constant sense of 
 shame and danger, the prayers and supplications of 
 friendship, availing as little in reforming the drunkard 
 as they would in arresting an attack of fever or consump- 
 tion. With a full knowledge of the dreadful conse- 
 quences to fortune, character and family, he plunges on 
 in his mad career, deploring, it may be, with unutterable 
 agony of spirit, the resistless impulse by which he is 
 mastered." — R. J. P. I., 550. 
 
 At this point comes the living death of drunkenness — 
 all hope is gone, the will is dead; the fears of hell have 
 lost all terrors : 
 
 "Heaven, like a distant dream. 
 
 Stirs not heart or soul, 
 And ringing, ringing, ringing out. 
 
 Eternal death cries, 'Come.' " 
 
 McManish says : "A young man of 26 years, dead to 
 hope, every morning before breakfast drank a quart of 
 brandy, another before dinner, and a third before retir- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 71 
 
 ing. He had began to drink at sixteen and at twenty-six 
 the habit had become a disease. In vain did he try to 
 resist the insidious passion. With a perfect conscious- 
 ness that he was destroying himself, and with every de- 
 sire to struggle against the demands of appetite, he found 
 it impossible to offer the slightest opposition. The sor- 
 row of a heartTbroken wife, the tears of a loving child, 
 the prayers of a dying mother; neither the joys of life, 
 nor the loss of heaven, could save. In frenzy he cried 
 for drink, and when urged by every consideration of love 
 to God and humanity, to turn from his self-destruction, 
 he replied to all, in the language of a confirmed diunk- 
 ard : 'Give me brandy ; I am willing to endure the pains 
 of hell for it.' " 
 
 "The appetite once formed becomes a moral mania 
 that cannot be resisted. The will has been broken and 
 rendered incapable of volition. Esquirol has treated of 
 dipsomania caused by pathological changes in the use of 
 intoxicating liquors, where the unhappy victims were not 
 morally responsible for their then acts, because by a long 
 habit of drink, they had created a craving for drink im- 
 perious and irresistible." — R. J. P. I., 552. 
 
 Ah! how true is this: "The first drink is the deadly 
 hemlock which leads to the murder of soul and body." 
 "One glass calls for more," is the maxim of the disciples 
 of Bacchus. And this: "The way to become a drunkard 
 is to begin to drink." — K. 
 
 In our unhappy day, when the liquor traffic is used as 
 the crown jewel from which to derive revenue to support 
 civilization, our women are contracting this habit — cre- 
 ating this appetite — are becoming drunkards. This in- 
 stance of a girl, and it is but one of many furnished us : 
 
 "This girl would, upon the slightest cross or disap- 
 pointment, begin to drink and go on till so overcome as 
 to be wholly oblivious, and her appetite was resistless 
 when the mania was upon her." — M., 125. 
 
 "The drunkenness in high life in our cities among the 
 women is appalling." — T. O. V., 79. 
 
 ID. The liquor traffic is dangerous because it destroys 
 our statesmen and the distinguished among us. We have 
 witnessed the sad sight of a drunken president drivelling 
 
72 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 the silly vaporings of a drunkard in the presence of 
 the titled representatives of the governments of the 
 world. No class of officials, sacred or secular, has es- 
 caped the blight of drink; and since the legalization of 
 the traffic the scourge in high places has increased. No 
 station in life is too low for it, none too high. A dis- 
 tinguished senator, in speaking of the enervating effect 
 of strong drink, says : 
 
 "The very first to break down and give out — cave in — 
 are the men who stimulate." — H. H., 53. 
 
 Some of the brightest names of our history have fallen 
 victims to strong drink. Vice-president Wilson says: 
 
 "In this country, and in this age of light, we have an 
 army of five hundred thousand drunkards ; fifty thousand 
 of this number annually sink into drunkards' graves. An 
 army of half million in Christian America. How fear- 
 ful the thought, how appalling the spectacle !" — F. S., 43. 
 
 This appalling spectacle, as the distinguished vice- 
 president calls it, has been personified in language as 
 tragic as any of Webster's by a dying man — one whose 
 young life was crushed out by delirium tremens. He was 
 a bright star, a brilliant genius, poetic, scholarly and 
 noble of soul. And but for the vice of drunkenness — 
 the curse that is destroying the world — would today be 
 a living gladness among us. Here are his last utter- 
 ances : 
 
 "This sea of legal death has become a cauldron. 
 Bubbling, bubbling forever. 
 The dying victims rise from its turgid depths 
 Shaking their gory locks ; 
 
 Then hell, in hideous clamor join, and taunting cry — 
 Semper, thanatos mock." J. W. 
 
 II. The liquor traffic is dangermis because it destroys 
 our wealth. Much has been shown of its waste. So de- 
 tails will not be given here. Remember that the annual 
 cost, as shown, is $2,550,000,000 in this country. In the 
 city of New York, in the single year 1878, $60,000,000 
 were spent for intoxicating drinks. In 1877 a distinguished 
 Lord shows that for intoxicating drinks in the British 
 Isles, more than $700,000,000 were expended in a year. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 73 
 
 This was more than $20 to every man, woman and child 
 in the Kingdom; and this was for the liquor drank by 
 the common people, and does not include those drank 
 by the aristocratic and upper classes, they drinking wine, 
 etc., which cost a much larger sum during the year. 
 Gerrett Smith, a few years ago, when in Richmond, said 
 to the colored people : "If you will not drink a drop of 
 liquor for thirty years, I will guarantee that you will own 
 half the land in Virginia." — [H. V., 53, 135. Mr. Greeley, 
 just before he died, said : "That during the forty years 
 he had lived in New York the poorer classes of the 
 working people had spent enough for whisky to have 
 given them half the property in the city." — [Tribune. 
 
 12. The liquor traiific is dangerous because it corrupts 
 the ballot-box and demoralizes our politics. J. G. Gurney 
 once said that "a pint of whisky in a politician's hand 
 on election day would control more votes than a pint of 
 brains in a sober man's head." Daniel Webster, although 
 addicted to the fearful vice, said in a speech in 1835 • 
 "Intoxicating liquors are a danger to the ballot-box, a 
 menace to our institutions without an equal." And yet 
 we are told to keep temperance out of politics — that it is 
 a moral question. Well, we will consent to keep tem- 
 perance out of politics — if the other side will keep intem- 
 perance out. Dr. Dick says : "When intemperance pre- 
 vails a barrier is interposed to every attempt to raise 
 man from the moral and intellectual degradation into 
 which he has sunk; and where it is so, no power can 
 irradiate his mind with knowledge. With his passions 
 stimulated, his moral powers enervated, he has no faculty 
 for self-government, and is dangerous to society." — 
 [V. I., 28. 
 
 The debauchery of our times, the corruption of our 
 ballot-box, are proof beyond cavil of this truth. In 
 large cities the elective franchise is no better than a 
 farce. Drunkenness has turned this highest privilege of 
 a freeman into a two-edged sword that is being used by 
 bad men to cut down and destroy forever self-govern- 
 ment. The scenes often occurring in the two houses of 
 congress are sickening to think of. In July, 1878, six- 
 teen senators, in a public place, were drunk at one time, 
 
74 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 and four times that number of representatives were under 
 the influence of strong drink. A noted writer for one 
 of the largest journals in the country, says: "Drunken- 
 ness is proving the cause of death to many congress- 
 men." — G. & T. 
 
 13. The liquor traffic is dangerous because it pro- 
 duces eighty-seven per cent, of the crime of the whole 
 country. And to punish this legally produced crime, 
 fifty per cent, of the cost of maintaining the courts is 
 expended. 
 
 14. The liquor traffic is dangerous because it pro- 
 duces more misery than all the other crimes combined. 
 The suffering of women and children, brought on them 
 by it, no pen can describe. The misery in the world 
 to-day, by this dragon of death, drapes all heaven in 
 black, and stirs to wild outbreak the deep chambers of 
 hell. This curse is insatiable. The soul is ruined by it, 
 and death crowned a king. The grave is robbed of hope, 
 and on the fretted arch of the celestial its endless work 
 is written: no drunkard shall inherit the king- 
 dom OF GOD. 
 
 15. Finally, the liquor traffic is dangerous because it 
 is in direct violation of the commands of God. This is 
 its great, its infinite danger. That which violates moral 
 law is wrong — is crime of the highest degree. But that 
 which is allowed by custom and law of the creature, 
 which is directly prohibited by the Creator, is sin — deep 
 and deadly sin, and brings a ruin temporal and eternal. 
 Such a sin is the legalized liquor traffic of modern civil- 
 ization. 
 
THIRTY YEARS CONFLICT. 
 
 THE DICTATION OF 1850 REPEATED IN 1880. 
 
 A brief review of this, marked "Thirty Years," we 
 will now give. 
 
 The year 1850 was memorial ; none like it before, in 
 our history. The great statesmen, Whig and Democratic, 
 met in the capacity of compromisers. 
 
 They attempted to blend in one ornate setting liberty 
 and slavery. They failed. 
 
 They believed that the tinsel touches of the hyperian 
 beauty could be interwoven with the discordant colorings 
 of pandemonium, so as to make all attractive. They 
 were mistaken. 
 
 They strove to make the fruit of freedom grow on 
 the tree of bondage. They did not succeed. 
 
 They taught that the crying of the woman who was 
 compelled to become a mother without being a wife, 
 would harmonize sweetly with the songs of Heaven. 
 Their teaching was a lie! 
 
 And now remember the dark results of the voting 
 hiatus of 1880 "is a deeper cut in the heart of labor than 
 was the legislation of 1850." — H. 
 
 Of the Compromise, it was said by that New England 
 divine, EInathan Davis: 
 
 "A forced embrace by the black ghoul of slavery, of 
 the Goddess of Liberty, and her resisting it, will cause 
 the blood to flow in this land till the ground is made 
 rich by the red effusion." — Sermon in M. C. 
 
 The matchless genius of Henry Clay was expended, 
 to exhaustion, in getting the measure through Congress. 
 It was a measure of fearful import — the mightiest mis- 
 take of statesmanship known in time. The blind leading 
 the blind, for a century, on the slavery question, made 
 such a mistake possible. 
 
 And like all agreements with wrong, like all com- 
 promises with sin, it was to be a finality — it was to fill up 
 
 7S 
 
76 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 the vacant niche in the Temple of Time, on that subject, 
 so that never again "should a dog wag his tongue." 
 Never again should the question of slavery be touched. 
 
 "It was settled," so Mr. Clay declared. 
 
 "No more agitation," rang the voice of Mr. Yancy. 
 
 "Let him be anathama who says that slavery is but 
 divine," was the dulcet speech of Mr. Mason. 
 
 "Woe to him that buildeth a city in blood," swelled 
 'Out from that then despised name — Garrison. 
 
 "There was silence in Heaven, and jubilees in hell," 
 was uttered by — H. 
 
 The Compromise measures included six items: i. 
 Establishing the Northwest boundary of Texas. 2. Es- 
 tablishing a Territorial government for New Mexico. 
 3. Establishing a Territorial government for Utah. 4. 
 The admission of California. 5. The passage of the 
 Fugitive Slave Law. 6. The suppression of slavery in 
 the District of Columbia. 
 
 Upon the passage of this bill there was a storm of 
 indignation at the North and much dissatisfaction at the 
 South. But, it was called the great compromise. All 
 agitation was to stop on the question of slavery. 
 
 Thus they talked. The two old parties, the Whigs and 
 Democrats, having joined hands in sin, both bowed in 
 abjectness to their god — slavery. 
 
 There was a third party that did not bow — the Liberty 
 Party. 
 
 That party talked about slavery, and for its talking 
 got many a free "ride on a rail." 
 
 William L. Yancy said: "The slavery question is 
 settled, and there is to be no more agitation. He who 
 would agitate deserves to be shot." — His letter to Hatch. 
 
 Wm. Lloyd Garrison categorically asked him : "You 
 say the question is settled, and there is to be no more 
 agitation, and he who would agitate deserves to be shot." 
 "Sir; the question is now infinitely unsettled; the agita- 
 tion has only just begun — let the bullets come, they will 
 settle it." — His Colloquy with Coffeen. 
 
 The Abolitionist — the third party — said: "Let the 
 agitation go on, truth will take care of itself." 
 
 Calvin Fletcher said: "There shall be neither slavery 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 77 
 
 or involuntary servitude in the United States, except for 
 the punishment of crime whereof the party is duly con- 
 victed." — Letter to Inman. 
 
 He was denounced as fanatical and criminal. The 
 spirit of arrogance on the part of slavery, was fearful to 
 contemplate. 
 
 Wm. H. Seward wrote: "I fear the encroachments 
 of slavery. The Compromises are but a pretext. That 
 power will claim that it shall own labor, and the issue 
 will become "irrepressible." — Letter to Heckman. 
 
 This letter came to light through A. C. Bell, and found 
 way to the fruitful pen of Stringfellow, and so enraged 
 him that he hurled back upon Mr. Seward this bit of 
 rhetoric : 
 
 "All who labor for their daily bread, or who are de- 
 pendent on their labor for subsistence, are slaves. All 
 females who labor for their daily bread are whores." — 
 G. W. p. 432. 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas, although of the North, bowed 
 before this spirit of arrogance, and in order to reach, if 
 possible, his highest ambition — the presidency— by con- 
 ciliating slavery, used this language, "I hold that this 
 government was made on the white basis by white men 
 for the benefit of white men, and their posterity forever, 
 and should be administered by white men and none 
 others. I do not believe the Almighty made the negro 
 capable of self-government." — His speech at Selma. 
 
 These compromise measures, "which were supported 
 by the leading advocates in Congress, as a finality, were 
 but a pretext to further and strengthen the more devilish 
 enactments of the slave power." — Lovejoy. 
 
 So it may be remarked that when we come to look at 
 the insidious actions of the money power, that: it too intro- 
 duces monstrous measures to settle differences of opinior(, 
 (as the Act of March 18, 1869), but it is a mere pretext, 
 an entrance wedge to still further and more devilish raids 
 upon the rights of man to earn his bread by the sweat 
 of his brow. 
 
 Remember this, in 1852 the Democratic party was the 
 avowed champion of the slave power. But the Whig 
 party was more than willing to do its bidding. The con- 
 
78 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 ventions met to put candidates in the field for President. 
 Pierce was chosen by the Democracy, a man of the North, 
 unknown to fame, "but his trainers knew him well." — 
 Phillips. 
 
 The platform said in efifect: "No more tinkering with 
 the slavery question." The let alone policy was fully 
 adopted. The Whigs put up that great name, General 
 Scott, and said in their platform, "No more agitation of 
 the slavery question." 
 
 Horace Greeley said: "I spit on the platform, but 
 endorse the man." 
 
 The slave power was then also the money power. 
 
 Three billion, five hundred million dollars in slaves 
 gave it a power so potent, that it could take a Free Son 
 of the North, turn him into a bass-wood man, put a 
 dough face upon him, and he would bow as abjectly to 
 the oligarchy of the lash as does the Hindoo devotee to 
 the grinning idol of his worship. 
 
 And let it be remembered that the campaign of 1852, 
 by the Whig and Democratic parties, was conducted 
 much the same as the campaign of 1880 was conducted 
 by the two old parties, Republican and Democratic. 
 
 In 1852, both parties ignored all discussion on living 
 issues, and talked about things that were "settled." So 
 did the two old parties in 1880, ignore all discussion on 
 living issues and talked about things "settled." 
 
 A distinguished Congressman from Michigan said in 
 1879: "that any man who would disturb, by agitation, 
 the financial question, which was settled, ought to be 
 hung." — Burrows. 
 
 The third party in both cases — the Liberty party in 
 1852 and the Greenback party in 1880, "agitated." The 
 former the wrongs of slavery, and the latter the wrongs 
 of a false and murderous financial system. Both were 
 abused as agitators, disturbers of the peace, and were 
 called fools and knaves. 
 
 The Whig party died, notwithstanding the great name 
 that led it. _ The reason was, the slave power had got the 
 legislation it wanted, as far as it had gone, from the 
 Democratic party, and it was willing to trust that party 
 for whatever more it wanted. And so the Whig party, 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 79 
 
 although bidding with all its power, was left, as not being 
 worthy to carry out the programme of the slave power. 
 
 And the analogy holds good in 1880, as applied to the 
 Democratic party. It begged with all its might to be 
 permitted to carry out the financial schemes of the Re- 
 publican party. 
 
 But the money power had got the legislation it wanted, 
 as far as it had gone, from the Republican party, and it 
 was willing to trust that party for whatever more it 
 wanted. And so the Democratic party, although bidding 
 with abject devotion to be put in power, was left to die. 
 
 The slave power of 1852, after the demise of the Whig 
 party, became the party of proscription and dictation. 
 
 The Republican party of 1880, now that the Democratic 
 party is dead, shows the same spirit of presumption and 
 devotion to the money power, that the Democracy did to 
 slavery, and is likely to become as wicked, and ripen as 
 fully into the tyrant. 
 
 Two years from the compromise measures dragged 
 slowly by, and 1852 came, black with portents, and set a 
 new devil loose, who turned a worse than the flame- 
 tailed foxes of Philista among our political corn-fields. 
 
 Senator Douglas brought forward a bill to organize 
 the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. In speaking of 
 the bill, the erratic Linder said: "If all the powder in 
 creation had been emptied into Kimberazo, it would not 
 have produced a greater physical explosion than the 
 moral upheaval which followed the passage of the Ne- 
 braska bill." The bill repealed the old time-honored 
 "Missouri Compromise" of 1820, with its broad rich 
 utterances in favor of liberty. 
 
 "North of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, there 
 shall be neither slavery or involuntary servitude, except 
 for the punishment of crime, whereof the party is duly 
 convicted." 
 
 This stirred the North to its depths and from that hour 
 till the almost inspired words of Lincoln were fulfilled, 
 not a moment of peace was found in this great land. 
 
 The martyred President said: "Until the people are 
 assured that slavery has been put in course of final ex- 
 tinction they will not be satisfied." — Letter to Campbell. 
 
8o Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 This was the view on freedom's side. On the other 
 hand, the South said : 
 
 "There is not a slave-holder in this House or out of it, 
 but who knows perfectly well that whenever slavery is 
 confined within certain limits, its future existence is 
 doomed. It is in view of these things, sir, that the people 
 of Georgia have assembled in convention, and solemnly 
 resolved that if Congress shall pass a law excluding them 
 from the common Territories with their slave property, 
 they will disrupt the ties that bind them to the Union." — 
 G. W. p. 455- 
 
 It was during these halcyon days that the commercial 
 journals said: 
 
 "The grandest cotton crop ever raised. It will lift the 
 South out of debt, and an era of prosperity unsurpassed, 
 will follow." — New York Journal of Commerce. 
 
 Mr. Love joy asked: 
 
 "Did a great cotton crop ever give a night's better rest 
 to a plantation hand, or add a mite of wealth to the toiling 
 bondsmen and women?" 
 
 It was answered back by a paper in New England. 
 
 "The slave is fed and cared for by the master and the 
 products of his labor belong to the owner, and this is the 
 place they were designed to fill." — Boston Journal. 
 
 How exactly the spirit of that utterance fits into this — 
 
 "The era of prosperity now enjo3'ed was scarcely ever 
 known before. Capital is employed so as to aggregate 
 in its accumulations a greater per cent, than ever known 
 and fortunes are made in a decade, that it took ten to 
 accomplish in the ages past." — Qniiiiby's letter on hanks. 
 
 Let us ask this bank champion, how is labor afifected 
 by the "era of prosperity ?" Is "labor so employed as to 
 aggregate in its accumulations" a greater per cent, than 
 ever before ? Can "labor" now, in a "decade" accomplish 
 what in times past, it took "ten" to do ? 
 
 How are the toilers prospering amid this hallelujah of 
 the business boom? This will tell you — 
 
 "The American laborer must make up his mind hence- 
 forth not to be so much better off than the European 
 laborer. Men must be content to work for less wages. 
 In this way the workingman will be nearer that station in 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 8i 
 
 life to which it has pleased God to call him." — New York 
 Daily World. 
 
 "The man who cannot live on bread and water is not 
 fit to live. A family may live on good bread and water 
 in the morning, and bread at midday, and good bread and 
 water at night." — Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 We have seen that the Compromise measures, instead 
 of being a "finality," as was their claim, they were but 
 the index to the book of wrong to be written in blood. 
 
 Governor Morton said: 
 
 "It was thought slavery could be settled by compromise 
 in 1850. And in 1852 the two parties acquiesced in that 
 thought, and the Whig party ceased to be a factor in 
 politics. 
 
 "In 1854 Mr. Douglas introduced his famous Ne- 
 braska bill, and it became the germ of an agitation un- 
 paralleled in history. I became convinced that the living 
 issue was to control the arrogant pretensions of the slave 
 power. To do this, a new party is necessary, and there- 
 fore I go with the new and coming party." — Letter to 
 Col. Meredith. 
 
 The analogy holds good for our times. In 1875 the 
 resumption act passed, to be carried out as a part of the 
 financial scheme. It had four years to run, maturing 
 in operation in 1879. ^'^ 1880 both parties acquiesced in 
 that "finality." 
 
 They said: 
 
 "Let well enough alone," "hands oflf," "it is settled," 
 etc. 
 
 The new party — Greenbackers — said: 
 
 "The living issue is to check the arrogant pretensions 
 of the money power. And to do this, a new party is a 
 necessity." 
 
 And now, remember, by '82 the agitation will have 
 increased so as to be unparalleled in history. The haughty 
 demeanor of the Republican party is a warning that 
 should not go unheeded. 
 
 As illustrative of the spirit of the times and the over- 
 bearing dominancy of slavery in its day, the following 
 choice morsels are submitted: 
 
 Specimens coming from the leaders of the slave power : 
 
82 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "Will you repeal the Missouri Compromise?" "Yes." 
 "And by so doing violate the Compromise measures of 
 1850?" "Yes, I would sooner see the whole of Nebraska 
 a hundred times in the bottom of hell, than to see it a free 
 State."— Dr. Warren, G. W. 458. 
 
 Mr. Seward said in his New York speech : 
 
 "Sir, they cannot do it. The leaders may desire the 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise, but this country has 
 not yet sunk to that depth of degradation." — S. in 1853, 
 N. Y. 
 
 But the "leaders" had their way. So here again the 
 analogy between the slave power and the money power 
 meet. 
 
 The "leaders" of the money aristocracy wanted the 
 terms of payment of the five-twenty bonds changed. They 
 put their design under the guise of the "public honor," 
 the "public credit," etc., and a great name said, "Sir, 
 they cannot do it." — /. R. Giddings in letter to Seaboro. 
 
 "The bonds at the end of five years should be paid in 
 greenbacks and the interest stopped. This is not doing 
 wrong to the bondholder, and it is doing right to the 
 soldier and the whole country." — A. Lincoln in letter to 
 General Waggoner. 
 
 "Yours of the 8th inst. is received, and I most cor- 
 dially agree with every word and sentence of it. I am for 
 the laboring portion of our people — the rich can take care 
 of themselves. While I most scrupulously live up to all 
 the contracts of the government and fight repudiation to 
 the death, I will fight the bondholder as resolutely, when 
 he undertakes to get more than his pound of flesh. We 
 never agreed to pay the 5-20 bonds in gold, no man can 
 ■find it in the bond, and I never will consent to have one 
 payment for the bondholder, and another for the people. 
 It would sink any party, and it ought to. To talk of 
 specie payments or a return to specie under present cir- 
 cumstances, is to talk like a fool. It would destroy the 
 country as effectually as a fire, and any contraction of 
 the currency at this time is about as bad." — Ben Wade 
 in letter to A. Denny. 
 
 "I say that equity and justice are amply satisfied if we 
 redeem these bonds at the end of five years, in the same 
 
Life of Col. fesse Harper. 83 
 
 kind of money of the same intrinsic value it bore at the 
 time they were issued. Gentlemen may reason about the 
 matter over and over again, and they cannot come to any 
 other conclusion, at least, that has been my conclusion 
 after the most careful deliberation. Senators are some- 
 times in the habit, in order to defeat the argument of an 
 antagonist, to say this is repudiation. Why, every State 
 in the Union, without exception, has made its contracts 
 since the legal tender clause, in currency, and paid them 
 in currency." — John Sherman in U. S. S. 
 
 "If under the law as it stands, the bondholder can de- 
 mand only the kind of money he paid, he is a repudiator 
 and an extortioner to demand money more valuable than 
 he gave." — John Sherman in letter to Mann. 
 
 It is seen by the controversy that the "leaders" of the 
 money power "got" what they wanted. In the language 
 of Mr. Giddings: 
 
 "Had their own way in everything they asked for." — 
 /. R. Giddings' conversation with Sheldon. 
 
 In further controversy we shall see that the spirit of 
 dictation knew no bounds. 
 
 Early as June, 1854, a large meeting was held in 
 Leavenworth to give "expression" as it was heralded, and 
 here is the "expression": 
 
 "Resolved, That we shall give no protection to aboli- 
 tionists in Kansas Territory. 
 
 "Resolved, That in Kansas abolitionists need not set 
 their feet. It is decreed by the people, who live adjacent, 
 that their institutions are to be established there. 
 
 "They, abolitionists, must be met, if need be, with the 
 rifle. We must meet them at the very threshold and 
 scourge them back to their caverns of darkness. They 
 have made the issue, and it is for us to meet and repel 
 them even at the point of the bayonet." — G. W. p. 459. 
 
 More than this, the devilish old slave power, then 
 through its representative men, its "leaders," struck at 
 the ballot box in the hands of laboring men, as does the 
 devilish money power, now through its representative 
 men, its "leaders," strike at the ballot box in the hands 
 of laboring men. 
 
 Here is what the slave power said ; 
 
84 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "If any of the 20,000 abolitionists, spoken of by Holly, 
 should be so lucky as to set foot in the Territory (Kan- 
 sas) previous to the adoption of its Constitution, no ballot 
 box at any precinct within its borders would be allowed 
 to be polluted by the introduction of a nigger vote." — 
 G. W. p. 460. 
 
 This was a proclamation by the slave power against 
 the "nigger" — black laborer. 
 
 Here is what the money power said : 
 
 "If these men persist, and attempt to force their green- 
 back money upon capitalists by the ballot, then we will 
 take the ballot from them, if we have to use the bayonet 
 to do it! — Rev. Cook, in Boston. 
 
 The President elect used language about as infamous, 
 in regard to the greenback, utterly denying that it was 
 money. He bowed and kissed the very toe of the money 
 power, and bid for its support, with a devotion that no 
 other man has been able to equal. 
 
 "I want it remembered in the outset, that the greenback 
 currency was and is so known in the courts, and so 
 known everywhere, a forced loan, a loan forced by the 
 government upon its army and upon its other creditors, 
 to meet the great emergencies of the war." — /. A. Gar- 
 field's speech in Congress, 1878. 
 
 Thus he bid for the presidency and got it. He denied 
 the law of his country, and the decisions of the court of 
 last resort. 
 
 "United States notes shall be laivful money and legal 
 tender for all debts except the interest on the public debt 
 and duties on imports." — R. S. U. S., Sec. 3, 588. 
 
 "This Court has recently held that the Legal Tender 
 Acts are constitutional. So by that decision we have two 
 kinds of money in this country, United States notes and 
 coin."— 12 W. S. C. R. 
 
 The old slave power hurled its anathama against the 
 black labor. The money power puts forth its excathedra 
 against labor, without regard to color or previous condi- 
 tion of servitude. 
 
 We have not space or time to further trace the infamy 
 of the slave power, but we wish it to be borne in mind that 
 slavery was a crime against labor. It was capital owning 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 85 
 
 labor, and through its corrupt political power it reached 
 the high place of absolute dictator. Less than three hun- 
 dred thousand slaveholders, less than two per cent, of 
 the people, came at last, this two per cent, class, to own 
 the President, to own the Senate, to own Congress, and 
 so control the Judiciary as to wring from it a decision that 
 said a negro had no rights that a white man is bound to 
 respect. And even went further, bought up the head- 
 centers of the church, and extorted from them the in- 
 famous saying that slavery was a divine institution. 
 
 Now for the contrast: 
 
 Take the great money power of to-day, and you will 
 find it the twin in the iniquity wrought out by its wicked 
 prototype — the slave power. It too, owns the President, 
 owns the Senate, owns the Congress, claims the judiciary, 
 controls the press and has bought up the head-centers of 
 the church, who are declaring that capital shall have the 
 right to decree bread and water as the diet of labor. But 
 if labor attempts to reciprocate on capital, then take the 
 ballot away, if you have to use the bayonet. The great 
 struggle of 1856 gave the country into the hands of the 
 slave power, and she straight way said, I am a queen and 
 shall see no sorrow. She gathered around her all the 
 insignia of royalty and all the hauteur of tyranny. The 
 groan of the slave only made her laugh. The plea of 
 virtue in the bond-women only fanned her lust. 
 
 And liberty went down, down, down, till the goddess 
 wept for freedom lost. The slave oligarchy, in a cry that 
 startled the world — ^like the last leap of mad ambition, 
 o'erdid itself — said capital shall own labor. 
 
 The eventful year 1858 came. The two mighty cham- 
 pions — one of labor — Mr. Lincoln : the other — Mr. Doug- 
 las the apologist of slavery — made a canvass, the like of 
 which was not before known in our history. The great 
 hearted man, Mr. Lincoln, said the House must cease to 
 be divided, or it would fall. Mr. Douglas excused the 
 division. 
 
 Out of this discussion slavery came more haughty than 
 ever, and fully bent on rule or ruin. 
 
 And with a defiance hurled at humanity and a taunt 
 at God, said, in the pride of her heart: 
 
86 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "I will call my slave-role under the shadow of Bunker 
 mW."— Tombs. 
 
 Then one mighty cry, like the voice of many waters, 
 rang out, labor shall be free. 
 
 The struggle of i860 came, and gave the government 
 into the hands of freedom. The slave power rebelled. 
 
 It said the Declaration of Independence was a lie ; that 
 our fathers were mistaken when they declared it. There 
 was no measuring the haughtiness, the impudence, and 
 the criminality of this tyrant of labor. 
 
 The slave power inaugurated war, published a great 
 State paper in which they declared that a white man's 
 republic could only be founded on the perpetual enslave- 
 ment of the black man. 
 
 It baptised the land in blood, watered the hearth-stones 
 with tears, outraged humanity, defied God and was 
 crushed to death amid the boom of the cannon and the 
 wail of the dying. 
 
 Thus died chattel slavery in the republic. And after it, 
 as sequel to it, a more fearful menace to the rights of 
 man to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow — has 
 arisen — the money power; more dangerous because it 
 works and operates through corporate persons. 
 
 The entailments of the war, necessarily left ground for 
 just such a noxious plant. A large bonded debt; unsur- 
 passed activity; ambitious aspirants and labor, the card 
 to be played for. 
 
 The worse fears of the good and the sad misappre- 
 hensions of the benevolent, have all been realized, in the 
 dangerous growth, since the war of corporate persons, 
 legalized monopolies. 
 
 As early as the first year of the war, the great capi- 
 talists of Europe and America saw that slavery in chattel 
 form was doomed to overthrow, and that labor would 
 have to be manipulated by other means. Mr. Lincoln 
 saw it, as with the prophet's eye, before he put forth his 
 second message, and his great heart of love for humanity 
 impelled him to warn his countrymen of the danger. He 
 knew, as but few men know, the fearful wrong of slavery 
 to_ labor, and yet, great as that wrong was, he could and 
 did see a greater. He saw, gradually, but surely coming 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 87 
 
 danger to labor, the heinousness of which no lan- 
 guage can tell. 
 
 To avert it he called attention to it in the strongest and 
 plainest of language: 
 
 "In those documents we find the abridgment of the 
 existing right of suffrage and the denial to the people of 
 all right to participate in the selection of public officers, 
 except the legislative, boldly advocated with labored argu- 
 ments to prove that large control of the people in gov- 
 ernment is the source of all political evil. Monarchy 
 itself is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from 
 the power of the people. In my present position I could 
 scarcely be justified were I to omit raising a warning 
 voice against this approach of returning despotism. It 
 is not needed or fitting here that a general argument 
 should be made in favor of popular institutions, but 
 there is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed 
 as the other, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the 
 effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not 
 above, labor, in' the structure of government. It is 
 assumed that labor is only available in connection with 
 capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else owning 
 capital somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. 
 This assumed it is next considered whether it is best that 
 capital shall hire laborers and thus induce them to work 
 by their own consent, or buy them and drive them to it 
 without their consent. Having proceeded so far, it is 
 naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired 
 laborers, or what we call slave. And further, it is 
 assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in 
 that condition for life. Now, there is no such relation 
 between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any 
 such a thing as a freeman being fixed for life in the 
 condition of a hired laborer. 
 
 Labor is prior to and independent of capital. 
 
 Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never 
 have existed if labor had not first existed. 
 
 Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much 
 the higher consideration. 
 
 The prudent penniless beginner in the world labors for 
 wages for a while, saves a surplus with which to buy 
 
88 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 tools or land for himself, then labors on another while 
 and at length hires another beginner to help him. This 
 is the first, the generous and the prosperous system, which 
 opens the way to all, gives hope to all and consequent 
 energy, progress and improvement of condition to all. 
 No men living are more to be trusted than those who toil 
 up from poverty ; none less inclined to touch or take 
 aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them 
 beware of surrendering a political power which they al- 
 ready possess and which when surrendered will surely 
 be used to close the doors of advancement against such 
 as they and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them 
 till all their liberty shall be lost." — Lincoln's 2d message. 
 
 And there was a great plot laid at this time, to entail 
 upon labor untold injury and to exalt and deify capital 
 is a fact capable of demonstration. 
 
 In the line of confirmation, we quote from a secret 
 correspondence ^o a New York paper, and the editorial 
 on it: 
 
 SILVER CURRENCY IN FRANCE. 
 
 An Alleged Combination of Capitalists to Enrich Them- 
 selves at the Expense of the People Through the De- 
 monetization of Silver. 
 
 The following, from the New York Graphic, printed 
 four years ago, is worthy of reprint, as we shall show 
 hereafter that demonetizing silver was a conspiracy: 
 
 Paris, May 6. — I have recently been in the employ of 
 one of the leading banking houses of the world, and I 
 think it due to the American public, that they should be 
 made acquainted with one of the most tremendous finan- 
 cial operations ever known in the history of mankind. I 
 was trained in early life for a financial career, and I 
 learned to write and speak fluently German, French, Eng- 
 lish and Dutch. 
 
 In my confidential relations with the various great 
 banking houses — as correspondent of a leading firm — 
 and by means of a stray letter which came accidentally 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 89 
 
 into my possession, I acquired information that seems 
 to me of the very highest importance. As far back as 
 1863 letters were received by the Rothschilds in this city 
 pointing out the evil effects which were likely to follow 
 from the use of paper money in America. Prices were 
 then rising in your country, and I judge bankers were 
 puzzled to know what to do with your American securi- 
 ties and evidence of debt. 
 
 The adoption of the "legal tender act," as you called it 
 in your country, made it possible to pay in depreciated 
 paper, debts contracted in coin. Much correspondence 
 ensued among the European bankers touching American 
 affairs, and it led to a determination which, however, was 
 not finally reached until toward the close of the Franco- 
 German war. This determination was for a plan of 
 bringing the power of all the great bankers of the world 
 to substitute the gold basis for all commercial transac- 
 tions in the place of the silver basis, or the mixed basis 
 of gold and silver. 
 
 Whenever there is a scarcity of coin it has inured to 
 the benefit of the creditor class. Prices have ruled low, 
 and a small sum would purchase a good deal of raw or 
 manufactured material. 
 
 But the intercourse between Nations, the invention of 
 paper money, or bills of exchange, of bank currency and 
 credits in fact, all the saving devices of modern commerce 
 tended to make money plenty and prices high. _ Every- 
 thing in that position of affairs worked against the 
 creditor and in favor of the debtor class. 
 
 This, it will be seen, was a beneficial tendency for the 
 masses of the people. It compelled the capitalists tp in- 
 crease their efforts in order to maintain their position. 
 It favored the debtors who are always the enterprising 
 part of the community. 
 
 The man who does not go in debt is the speculator; 
 he lends and absorbs, but does not start new enterprises, 
 nor does he add to the wealth of the community. The 
 consequence of this is, that the cheapening of money is 
 good for all business, and benefits a very large class of 
 the community. 
 
 The great money-lenders of Europe (as the letters 
 
go Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 which passed under my inspection clearly proved) deter- 
 mined to reverse this tide in affairs, this general cheap- 
 ness of money which has been going on for three hun- 
 dred years. I have indisputable evidence in my pos- 
 session, that an immense fund was raised to bring about 
 the general adoption of the gold metal basis. 
 
 The money-writers, and political economists in London, 
 Paris, Berlin, Frankfort and Amsterdam were either 
 argued into the adoption of these views, or purchased 
 outright. Hence the articles in the leading papers in 
 Europe in favor of the gold basis in preference to the 
 silver or mixed basis. 
 
 Of course the object of the great capitalists of Europe 
 is quite apparent in the crusade against silver. By reduc- 
 ing the currency one-half it would add enormously to 
 their wealth by cheapening products and giving them a 
 still greater monopoly of the circulating medium. 
 
 If the records could be searched it would be found that 
 the demonetization of silver in England, Germany and 
 Holland, and its practical demonetization in France, was 
 effected simultaneously with the passage of the gold act 
 by the American Congress — I think that was in 1873 — 
 getting rid of the old silver dollar, the unit of value on 
 which your debt was contracted. 
 
 In other words, the great capitalists of the world, by a 
 gigantic conspiracy, like the Roman emperors of old, 
 managed to tax the whole civilized world from ten to 
 twenty per cent, for their own personal benefit. The 
 object was to make the very rich richer and the very poor 
 poorer. With silver demonetized, gold would, of course, 
 appreciate considerably in value, and all who were 
 creditors to governments, or for individual debts, would 
 have their evidences of debt greatly enhanced in value. 
 Gold is the currency of the rich; silver, throughout the 
 civilized and uncivilized world, is the money of the great 
 mass of the community. 
 
 The small retail traffic of life is all managed by means 
 of silver. By getting rid of silver these rich bankers 
 and capitalists added billions of thalers to their posses- 
 sions. If the facts could ever be brought to light it 
 would be found that the American Congress was bribed 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 91 
 
 by the capitalists of Europe and this country to get rid 
 of the silver dollar, and substitute gold. j 
 
 That corruption was employed in Germany is open to 
 doubt. Bismarck could not be prevailed upon to make 
 the change from silver to gold until he became alarmed 
 at the demoralization caused by the payment of the 
 French indemnity. The vast masses of gold thrown 
 upon Germany by the payment of the French tribute, 
 raised prices, checked production, and stimulated feverish 
 speculation. Thereupon Bismarck was induced to try to 
 utilize the gold by expelling silver. 
 
 In small countries, like Holland, the matter could be 
 easily managed. The movement succeeded in England, 
 although it was apprehended that it would destroy the 
 commerce of India, which is carried on exclusively on a 
 silver basis; and this fear was well founded. But the 
 Economist and other financial papers in London support 
 this gigantic conspiracy of the capitalists. 
 
 You may ask, why do I, a confidential agent, tell of 
 this? Because, frankly, I think the facts ought to be 
 known to the world. Then, I am a red Republican in my 
 heart. I believe in the solidarity of the people — in fra- 
 ternity — in the splendid future in which Europe will be 
 one great republic. It seems to me that the cry should 
 be raised by the laboring classes for a repudiation of all 
 the national debts of the world. The capitalists have 
 shown themselves so tyrannical, so antagonistic to the 
 interests of the masses of the community, that no mercy 
 should be shown to them. They have, by their recent 
 action in the demonetization of silver, added most un- 
 justly to the debts of all nations. And the same want of 
 conscience which they have shown to the community 
 should be manifested toward them in kind. But, alas, 
 the people are without leaders. There is no means of 
 making them understand this very simple matter. But 
 surely the American people ought to know the exact facts 
 in this case, and should apply the remedy if it is possible 
 to do so. HippoLiTE Grenier. 
 
 {From the New York Graphic, July 11.] 
 A short time since a letter was published in the Graphic 
 
92 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 from a person said to be employed in one of the great 
 banking houses of Europe, in which it was alleged that 
 within the knowledge of the writer a great many bankers 
 and capitalists had formed a secret league with far-reach- 
 ing ramifications, having for its object the destruction 
 of silver as a standard of value. It was seen by them, 
 according to this story, that if gold was the only money, 
 it would become scarce and rise in value, and that such 
 a rise would still further augment the wealth of the rich. 
 
 This account went on to say that Bismarck had been 
 induced to adopt the single gold standard for his vast 
 realm, and that it was already in operation in England, 
 which had adopted it after the Napoleonic wars because 
 gold was cheaper than silver, and that other nations 
 would soon follow suit. This secret league also managed 
 to secure, in February, 1873, Congressional action, by 
 which a law was passed, almost unobserved, setting aside 
 the silver dollar, which had been the unit of value for 
 eighty years, and substituting for it the gold measure. 
 This not only made gold the standard of all indebtedness, 
 but eventually carried with it the ultimate measure of 
 gold of all State, county, municipal, corporate and per- 
 sonal indebtedness. 
 
 By this single clandestine act, untold millions were 
 added to the burdens of the debtor class in this country. 
 
 At first we were disposed to question the correctness 
 of the statement of our Paris correspondent, but we are 
 now convinced that there has been a deliberate conspiracy 
 by the Rothschilds, Barings and the great banking houses 
 of Europe and America to add an enormotis burden to 
 debtors and to enrich the holders of unincumbered capi- 
 tal. It is time the country was aroused to its danger. 
 The annihilation of our cheapest standard of value is a 
 direct robbery of producers, and it ought to be restored 
 without delay. This is the overmastering financial issue 
 of the present hour. 
 
 It is idle to talk of resumption in gold. Such resump- 
 tion was not nominated in the bond. The debt was con- 
 tracted to be "paid in coin." To insist on its payment in 
 gold exclusively is an outrageous breach of the public 
 faith, and, if the demand is yielded to, it will result in the 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 93 
 
 distress and affliction for the next ten years of every ma- 
 terial interest in the country. 
 
 This is not merely a National but a cosmopolitan ques- 
 tion. The hard times all over the world to-day are due 
 to this nefarious plot of capitalists to enrich themselves 
 by making, under a false pretense, an arbitrary addition 
 to the amount of money due. 
 
 It is a new levy of the consumers on the producers. 
 We give some extracts to-day bearing on this scheme 
 from Senator Jones' spee'ch, from the Chicago Inter 
 Ocean and from the Cincinnati Commercial, which sim- 
 ultaneously see the peril and join the Graphic in raising 
 the note of warning. These show what ails the Nation 
 and what has paralyzed commerce throughout the civil- 
 ized world. 
 
 The great question of the day is the restoration of the 
 double standard, and the making of the American dollar 
 the legal tender for all debts the same as is the silver 
 ftve-franc piece in thrifty and progressive France. The 
 prosperity of the great European republic as compared 
 with the rest of the world, notwithstanding the enormous 
 indebtedness due to the German war, and the poverty and 
 distress of the conqueror, are both due to the fact that 
 Germany has attempted to exterminate silver, while 
 France has made it a welcome guest. The question in 
 America now is not the immediate resumption of specie 
 payment, but the immediate restoration of silver as a 
 standard of value to the place it occupied under the 
 monetary laws of the country from 1793 to 1873. 
 
 Also, this, from a leading journal as showing the 
 crimes of the money power and all of its aiders and 
 abettors : 
 
 "The fact is, the banks, by having control of the money, 
 are able to control the president, his secretaries. Congress 
 and the press, and by so doing get laws enacted for their 
 especial benefit, and which makes useless drudges of the 
 working classes. The result of this is the government is 
 drifting into bankruptcy, the people into poverty and the 
 people into anarchy and civil war." — E. P. M. 
 
 And this : 
 
 "These rich Jewish capitalists find it necessary to in- 
 
94 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 fluence only a few people in each administration. As 
 bankers, they have direct access to secretaries of the 
 treasuries and financial ministers, and to people who 
 manipulate the press of the world. Upon various plaus- 
 ible pretexts they get laws passed demonetizing silver; 
 which being effected, they take advantage of the ruinous 
 fall in prices which occurs all over the world. From this, 
 they know there will be a reaction in favor of the two 
 metals, and then they profit by the addition to the market 
 value of what they bought at low figures and sell out." — 
 A^. Y. G. 
 
 In another paper, and with accompanying proofs, we 
 have shown that Land Monopoly, Money Monopoly, 
 Class Legislation has been the bane of the world. 
 
 Then we discussed the capital and labor question, 
 showing that these huge monopolies — creatures of class 
 law — are contrary to the laws of God and humanity. 
 They are a trinity of evil ; they are a monster personified, 
 whose ultimate aim is, to deify capital and enslave labor, 
 and erect a monarchy on the ruined republic. 
 
 We call it the conspiracy of the money power against 
 civilization. 
 
 A most eminent statesman in Europe — Ludback — ^has 
 said: 
 
 "The powers of darkness have sent forth their hosts 
 to enter into tyrants, the rulers and officials of all Chris- 
 tendom, and Satan is about to work his masterpiece 
 against the happiness of man." 
 
 He then says : 
 
 "There is likely to be an effort made by the capital 
 class to fasten upon the world a rule through their 
 wealth, and by means of reduced wages place the masses 
 upon a footing more degrading and dependent than has 
 ever been known in history. The spirit of money wor- 
 shippers seem to be rapidly developing in this direction." 
 
 A look into the nest where this scorpion was hatched 
 may prove beneficial. A peep at the young monster that 
 Mr. Lincoln saw coming to "plague us as chattel slavery 
 had never done," may help us to a realization of our true 
 situation. 
 
 That the legislation on the financial question has been 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 95 
 
 a conspiracy, is no longer doubted by any who have 
 looked into the matter. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden, Secretary of the Treasury, said the 
 apparent rise and fall of gold was caused by the manipu- 
 lation of the "secret enemies" of the country. 
 
 Mr. Hazzard sent his circular to those he thought it 
 would do to trust, saying to them that: 
 
 "Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power, 
 and chattel slavery be destroyed. This, I and my Euro- 
 pean friends are in favor of, for slavery is but the owning 
 of labor, and carries with it, to care for the laborer; 
 while the European plan, led in by England, is: capital 
 control of labor by controlling wages. This can be done 
 by controlling the money. 
 
 The great debt that capitalists will see to it, is made 
 out of this war, must be used as the means to control the 
 volume of money. 
 
 To accomplish this they (the bonds) must be used as 
 the banking basis. 
 
 We are now waiting to get the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury to make this recommendation to Congress. 
 
 It will not do to allow the 'greenback,' as it is called, 
 to circulate as money any length of time, for we cannot 
 control them, but we can control the bonds and through 
 them the bank issue." — Hazzard's Circular of 1862. 
 
 Thus the foreign emissary wrote, and it is curious that 
 the Secretary did make just such a recommendation to 
 Congress as this wily agent asked for. Here it is : 
 
 "It (the greenback) should be regarded only as an 
 expedient for emergency. No measure, in my judgment, 
 will meet the necessities of the occasion and prove ade- 
 quate to the provision of the great sums to be required 
 for the suppression of the rebellion, which does not in- 
 clude a firm support to the public credit, through the 
 establishment of a uniform national circulation, secured 
 by the bonds of the United States." — S. P. Chase, Secre- 
 tary, R. P. C. 
 
 It was said in the debates when the 5-20 bonds were 
 under discussion, "that capitalists did not want their prin- 
 cipal, but only interest." 
 
 This is the key-note to the crime. It has been the 
 
g6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 deliberate purpose of the money power, since as early 
 as 1862, that this country should be saddled with a public 
 debt, which, by one means or another, should become a 
 debt in perpetuo. 
 
 This is the very last step in the conspiracy and is well 
 nigh accomplished now. 
 
 We travel the serpentine track of this wily foe of 
 labor, this enemy of Christian civilization, from its first 
 step of crime, in the seven laws it has secured the pas- 
 sage of infamously wicked financial laws. 
 
 1. The act of Congress of 1862, placing two excep- 
 tions on the greenback dollar. 
 
 2. The act of Congress of 1863, creating the national 
 banks. 
 
 3. The act of Congress of 1865, contracting the cur- 
 rency. A law to make less money and more bonds. 
 
 4. The act of Congress of 1869, that changed the 
 condition of payment of the 5-20 bonds, from payment 
 in paper money to payment in coin; also, making the 
 greenback redeemable in coin. 
 
 5. The act of Congress of 1870, authorizing the fund- 
 ing of the bonds. 
 
 6. The act of Congress of 1873, demonetizing silver, 
 thereby making our debt payable in gold alone. 
 
 7. The redemption act of 1875. 
 
 These laws bring us down by their inexorable opera- 
 tion, to — 
 
 1. A single gold standard as a measure of value. 
 
 2. A bonded debt never to be paid. 
 
 3. Bank paper issued on these bonds inflated and con- 
 tracted at the will of the bank corporations, inflation and 
 contraction being the soul and spirit of banking. 
 
 This is our situation, and if allowed to remain, capital 
 becomes supreme, and labor its serf. Corporate persons 
 created by laws, rule the world. Individual persons 
 created by God, serve, struggle and die, at the hands of 
 these monsters. 
 
 Thus we indict the Republican party, and include the 
 Democratic party in the indictment, as accessories in the 
 crime. Both must die if liberty lives. 
 
 We release the masses of both parties, who, through 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 97 
 
 ignorance, fealty to party and cowardice, have condoned 
 the crime to a shameful degree. But the leaders of the 
 Republican party, in the enactment of these laws, we 
 brand as enemies of the human race. The Democratic 
 leaders aided and abetted. 
 
 The PEOPLE demand the repeal and modification of 
 these laws to the end that the money power shall be 
 disarmed and 
 
 1. The bonds paid and not refunded. 
 
 2. Bank issue suppressed and the issue restored to 
 the government, to whom it properly belongs. 
 
 3. All money, whether metal or paper, to be issued 
 by the government and made full legal tender in payment 
 of all debts, public and private. 
 
 4. The free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver 
 to be established by law, at the same weight and fineness 
 of each, as are now fixed by law. 
 
 5. That corporations shall have no greater privilege 
 than other persons. The high seas, the lakes, the navig- 
 able rivers, canals and railroads are all public highways. 
 
 6. That freightage, transportation, the carrying trade, 
 being a part of commerce, shall be regulated by Con- 
 gress as the Constitution directs. 
 
 7. That the public lands shall be kept for homes for 
 the people ; and in all those cases where railroads or other 
 corporations have failed to comply with the terms of their 
 grant, that the lands shall revert to the government for 
 the benefit of the people. 
 
 8. That taxation shall be equal, and no class of per- 
 sons or property shall be exempt from its legitimate bur- 
 den of taxation. 
 
 And, further, the remedy for all this in the very highest 
 sense is: 
 
 1. An honest, intelligent ballot, in remodelling the 
 laws, so that equal and exact justice to all men, with 
 special privileges to none, shall be the rule. 
 
 2. Or, failing in this peaceful and desirable mode, 
 then revolution. 
 
 And this last always comes when burdens become too 
 heavy for humanity to bear. 
 
 Thirty weary years have come and gone. The conflict 
 
98 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 widens, deepens and intensifies. The greed for money in 
 the eyes of those who turn the temple of God into a den 
 of thieves, is appalling. If the world's Omniarch was 
 there he would go to our great temple of liberty, as he did 
 to the temple of God eighteen hundred years ago, and 
 scourge out the thieves; but as Christ has not been in 
 Washington for fifteen years, the robbery goes on. 
 
 All Christendom is in the whirlpool. Eight million 
 trained soldiers stand as a menace to liberty and the rights 
 of man — making life a burden, and death a thing to be 
 desired. 
 
 A few own the land and work it by serfs and slaves 
 really. 
 
 A few control the money and make it an instrument of 
 tyranny, that destroys business, robs labor and fills the 
 world with tears, wrung from suffering humanity. 
 
 An official class lord it over God's heritage. 
 
 The church is corrupt, the state rotten and the people 
 hopeless. 
 
 History is repeating itself; the judgments of God are 
 impending. 
 
 The old prophets' words are actualizing into history — 
 "evil shall go forth from nation to nation." 
 
 The agents of despots from abroad and the money- 
 mongers at home, have conspired together, to usher in 
 the golden age, the millennium of self, where wealth shall 
 be defied and labor enslaved. 
 
 The struggle, hour by hour, becomes more fierce 
 throughout civilization. 
 
 For as the monopoly in money grows stronger, by 
 means of special legislation in the interest of class, so 
 does land monopoly swell into almost infinite proportions. 
 
 Thus the world drifts toward a crisis, not new, but 
 the old one, clothed with a more fiery mission — a mission 
 that shall sweep from the face of the globe special priv- 
 ileges, and leave in their stead a fire-garnished field, where 
 justice shall be administered, equality enjoyed, and gov- 
 ernment of the people, by the people and for the people, 
 spread its equities and its happiness from sea to sea and 
 from the rivers to the ends of the earth. Then shall lead 
 our enfranchised country, and then the climax come ! 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 99 
 
 America! the aegis of liberty: the beacon light of hope. 
 Land of the free church ; land of the free school ; land of 
 the free man. The divinely guided Magi came from the 
 East to worship in the manger, the Omniarch of the world. 
 His star moved west until it bathed in the silver waters 
 of the ocean of setting sun. Then its burning corrusca- 
 tions shone back upon the track where man had taken his 
 weary march, and the glory of that double shining made 
 brighter than halo — America. 
 
 America! baptised in the ravishments which herald the 
 Messianic day. 
 
 America! Sweetest name: shibboleth of the race. 
 
 America! the land of heroes; land of God's planting. 
 Here, the trees stretch forth their giant arms, as though 
 to snatch the star-gems from the blue above to adorn these 
 glorious plains. Here the silvery lakes are shenic beauty ; 
 a dazzling shimmer ; a silent laugh. Here, roll the grand- 
 est rivers of earth, upon whose swelling floods float a 
 commerce, countless in riches, endless in extent. 
 
 Here are soils outrivaling, a thousand fold, the famed 
 valleys of the Hungar-mud ; and here are gold and silver 
 and ores, where: 
 
 "Old Ophir in her haughty pride. 
 This triad sets aside." 
 
 America! to thy new-born glories came the noblest 
 stock: Pilgrims, Hugeunots, men: and on thy teeming 
 bosom planted the tabernacle of empire. Here, swelled 
 from the heart the diapason of the ages their undying 
 anthems. 
 
 "Those darmg men, those gentle wives; say, wherefore 
 
 do they come? 
 Why rend they all the tender ties of kindred and of home? 
 'Tis Heaven assigns their noble work, man's spirit to 
 
 unbind. 
 They come not for themselves alone, they come for all 
 
 mankind ; 
 And to this empire of the West, this glorious boon they 
 
 bring, 
 A church without a Bishop, a State without a King." 
 
loo Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 America ! the Hazalei held back for nearly six thousand 
 years. 
 
 America! the Hesperides of the last times. 
 
 America! Nobler than freedom's home. 
 
 My countrymen, fail not in your high mission. Let not 
 history repeat itself in you. Make, indeed, this land the 
 fruition just pictured. If the temple of liberty fall then 
 all shall be lost. If its fruitage of hope, more sweet than 
 the grapes of Eschol, perish, then shall all die. If this 
 last hope of man fails, if this ivork unequalled, burns 
 to ashes on our fallen altars, then will be actualized into 
 history: "Death upon the pale horse and hell following 
 after him." 
 
 In thus murdering America, blood shall flow to the 
 bridle bits. 
 
 Egypt eclipsed in cruelty by making the bondsman's 
 tears more scalding. 
 
 Babylon outdone in hauteur by making the toiler's 
 chances more galling. 
 
 Persia be overshadowed in the ravishments of wealth 
 by making the excise on labor more unbearable. 
 
 Greece, with her silver isles, "where burning Sappho 
 loved and sung," be more than rivaled in making the 
 down-trodden more wretched. 
 
 And Rome, old iron Rome, be made to pale in her 
 crime against God's workers, when contrasted with this 
 modern oligarchy of evil, where man's right to earn his 
 bread by the sweat of his brow is denied by law, and he 
 reduced to a beggar. 
 
 My countrymen, it shall not be. The God of our 
 fathers loves us too well to permit it. The spirit of our 
 dead ones is incense to the fire of liberty, fanning it to a 
 flame. Even now the heat of their coming is felt flashing 
 against the face of tyrants. The arm is raised to strike ; 
 and when the blow falls, once for all and forever shall 
 it settle the grand question of human history — the rights 
 of man. 
 
 America is the battle ground, Christian civilization the 
 issue. A million hearts feel the glow of the coming 
 regenesis, and ten times a million strong arms are rising 
 in its defense. If justice is not done to all by the per- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. loi 
 
 suasive influence of love, avenging swords shall leap from 
 the scabbard, no more to rest till red-handed wrong has 
 been buried in a grave to which eternal ages shall bring 
 no resurrection. 
 
 This new child of glorious destiny is now ready for the 
 birth. The sky is bright with the rising of the Anastatic 
 day. The fire-wrapted Elijah's are in a thousand forms 
 being caught away. 
 
 The mantles of promise fall upon the Elisha's of 
 prophecy ; the ark of liberty is being raised ; the conse- 
 crated hand of manhood is bearing it to the hilltops of 
 freedom. 
 
 There, amid churches whose spires are bathed in blue, 
 and whose bodies are filled with true worshippers, rings 
 the te deum laudamus. 
 
 There, amid a school system broad as earth and free 
 as air, rings the te deum laudamus. 
 
 And there, amid government of the people, by the peo- 
 ple, and for the people, rings the te deum laudamus. 
 
 There nations as one brotherhood stand uncovered, and 
 hand in hand give universal greeting. 
 
 America, last found, longest hid, is the center gem! 
 
 America has closed the march of misrule and brought 
 perennial day. 
 
 America has become the empire of the setting sun, 
 whose sceptre at last shall "rule from sea to sea, and 
 from the rivers to the ends of the earth." 
 
MURDER AND MONEY. 
 
 Col. Harper: When you spoke here on Saturday, the 
 i8th, you affirmed some propositions that are denied and 
 stated some questions that are disputed. You said : 
 
 1. The cry of "tariff and free trade" were frauds of 
 the most pronounced kind. That the old party leaders 
 were in a joint conspiracy to defraud the people. 
 
 2. It was not the protective tariff that had brought 
 the ruin that menaced the life of the republic, nor would 
 free trade avoid the danger. 
 
 3. It is monopoly in two forms — money and trans- 
 portation. These will ultimate in land monopoly and 
 change the republic into a plutocracy. 
 
 4. Railroads are watered $5,000,000,000, making 
 them — money and water — $7,000,000,000, and on this 
 sum dividends were extorted. 
 
 5. Wheat could be carried from Kansas City to New 
 York for 4 cents a bushel and pay a fair per cent on the 
 actual capital in railroads. While this is true, for more 
 than ten years 28 cents a bushel has been paid. 
 
 6. Murder has increased for twenty years. 
 
 7. We are indebted more than twenty billion dollars. 
 That it would take a third more days' work and a third 
 more of the products of labor to pay our debt (the same 
 amount) than it would at Lee's surrender. 
 
 One gentleman said, "When he stated that we were a 
 nation of murderers, he lied." 
 
 Please answer all these denials through the public press 
 and you will much oblige many who are anxious to know 
 the truth. Yours for humanity, Austin Saybert. 
 
 Sioux Falls, S. D. 
 My Dear Brother: Your letter of February 21 came 
 in due time, but I was away. I thank you for it. I ex- 
 pected the speech yvould cause some heat; two hours 
 and a half is a hot indicator. The speech is all in print, 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 103 
 
 but scattered through pamphlets, newspapers, etc. I 
 know the ground I went over, and will follow you in 
 your suggestions. 
 
 I smile when the tariff and free trade are mentioned, 
 but tears follow when I think of the fearful ruin brought 
 on my countrymen by this false clamor. 
 
 Tariff and free trade have been discussed for more 
 than a hundred years, by the greatest names in our his- 
 tory, and is to-day just as unsettled as at the beginning. 
 The reason — ^because it is an incidental question. 
 
 Till you settle the main question the incidental will re- 
 main unsettled. And as long as our mode of raising reve- 
 nue is continued, "tariff and free trade" will be used as 
 clap-trap to catch the votes of gudgeons. 
 
 How can a protective tariff relieve you from the ex- 
 tortion of railroad monopoly? How can free trade save 
 you from the per cent paid railroads on watered stock ? 
 
 A rate on $2,000,000,000, the proximate cost of rail- 
 roads, would, at certain points, give you 64 cents a bushel 
 for wheat. But the same per cent on $7,000,000,000 — 
 $5,000,000,000 of it water — ^puts your wheat down, at 
 that point, to 40 cents per bushel. 
 
 With these facts before you, where is the honesty of 
 the cry "tariff and free trade"? We say the cry is a 
 fraud, a by-play between the two old parties while they 
 rob you of your wheat. Both tariff and free trade (as 
 now used) are the enemies of production and labor. 
 
 It is the monopoly of home trade, by means of class 
 legislation, in the interest of capital, of money, that im- 
 poverishes to penury the producing classes and crowds 
 labor down to serfdom and death. 
 
 Take ten years, 1873 to 1883, money appreciated 30 
 per cent. Production and labor depreciated a like per 
 cent. And this condition spread over all Christendom. 
 In protection and free trade countries the result was the 
 same — money went up, production and labor went down. 
 Capital grew richer, labor grew poorer and more de- 
 graded. Meanwhile, politicians acted the part of con- 
 spirators against humanity. 
 
104 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 OF CONTRACTION. 
 
 The volume of the money (silver and paper was de- 
 monetized) became so small as to leave the people help- 
 less and bankrupt. This act was the crime of the age. 
 And those who have grown to millionaires by it cry 
 "tariff and free trade" to hide their crime. Will the 
 people ever see this false clamor? Will they ever see 
 this conspiracy to subvert the republic? 
 
 The greatest crime man or government can commit 
 against man's happiness is to contract the volume of 
 money after the debt is made. The debt must be paid 
 with the same volume of money in existence or the debtor 
 is robbed. 
 
 OF THE GOLD STANDARD OF 1873 TO 1883. 
 
 E. C. Bohne, before the American Bankers' associa- 
 tion, at Louisville, Ky., said : "Every creditor is made 30 
 per cent richer (by the gold standard) and every debtor 
 or borrower, and every seller of the products of his labor 
 is made 30 per cent poorer. 
 
 "Having thus proven the fact, I now desire to apply 
 it to the finance of the day. 
 
 "A farmer who owes $10,000, bearing 6 per cent in- 
 terest, ten years ago had to raise 357 bushels of corn to 
 pay the interest on this debt; now he has to raise 435 
 bushels to do the same thing. A wool-grower, under the 
 same circumstances, previously liquidated his interest 
 with 1,000 pounds of wool, while now he has to give the 
 value of 1,800 pounds. An iron-miner, in the same situa- 
 tion, ten years ago paid his yearly interest with about 21 
 tons of pig iron ; now he has to pay the equivalent of 50 
 tons for the same item. And all this increase in the quan- 
 tity of commodities necessary to pay a certain stipulated 
 debt charge comes upon the debtor in the face of a 
 steadily falling market, making his prospects gloomier 
 every year, and decreasing his capacity to get out of debt 
 more and more. On the other hand, ten years ago the 
 creditor, for his annual interest, got but 357 bushels of 
 corn ; now he gets 435 bushels. Ten years ago the cred- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 105 
 
 itor got for his annual interest 1,000 pounds of wool; 
 now he gets 1,800 pounds, etc." 
 
 Now, what honesty for so-called statesmen to bandy 
 at each other "tariff and free trade" ? It was the appre- 
 ciation of the gold and the contraction of the volume that 
 took the corn, the wool and the iron. 
 
 And he who cries "tariff and free trade" is a con- 
 spirator. 
 
 John P. Jones, in United States Senate, says : "The full 
 measure of debts is the money price of the products of 
 human labor. 
 
 "This fact reveals the real motives of the conspirators 
 who, for the last twenty years, have persistently endeav- 
 ored to demonetize silver and paper money, and who 
 have strenuously resisted every proposition that looked 
 toward maintaining the volume or increasing it paf.^ passu 
 with the increasing demand for it." 
 
 The volume was $52 per capita in 1866, and $9 per 
 capita in 1885. 
 
 Here is the devil concealed amid a corrydon of lies. 
 
 Here is the crime of false statesmanship. 
 
 "Tariff and free trade," the clamor of wolves while 
 devouring the flock. 
 
 "Tariff and free trade," the battle-cry of the money 
 barons, while, by contraction, they rob production and 
 murder labor. 
 
 "Tariff and free trade," the shibboleth of corporations 
 and trusts while appropriating, through class laws, the 
 products of the country and fastening serfdom on labor. 
 
 Thus much in passing on "tariff and free trade." 
 
 OF RAILROADS. 
 
 Our railroad system is less than a half century old. 
 The great invention of the nineteenth century, and when 
 used to honor God and bless humanity, they stand at the 
 head of the column of benefactions to the race. 
 
 Instead of this they have become a power for ruin al- 
 most miraculous — simply by their misuse. 
 
 In their construction, fraud, rascality, even crime, has 
 run riot as never witnessed in any age. 
 
 In passing, till the government take them and run them 
 
io6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 in the interest of the people, fraud, rascality and crime 
 will go on. 
 
 Henry Clews, banker, on July 4, 1887, at Woodstock, 
 Conn. : "The law has permitted these undertakings to be 
 conducted with so much concealment, misrepresentation 
 and actual fraud that American credit has become a scan- 
 dal and a by-word. * * * Such are the rewards of 
 immoral financeering, and those bad methods are directly 
 traceable to the encouragement afforded by our negligent- 
 ly constructed laws. * * * To illustrate. 
 
 "Under the laws of New York — which are a fair sam- 
 ple of the laws of other states — a company is formed, the 
 persons registering at Albany the route of the road, the 
 amount of capital stock and bonds to be issued, and a few 
 other particulars. 
 
 "The corporation then form themselves into a syndicate 
 or company for the purpose of contracting to build and 
 equip the road. 
 
 "Here is the first step in 'crooked' financiering. In 
 their capacity as incorporators they make a contract with 
 themselves in the capacity of constructors. 
 
 "Of course, they do not fail to make a bargain to suit 
 their own interests. Usually, the bargain is that the con- 
 struction company undertakes to build the road for 80 
 to 100 per cent of the face value of the first mortgage 
 bonds — with an equal amount of stock, and also a certain 
 amount of second mortgage bonds, thrown in without 
 compensation. 
 
 The first mortgage is supposed to represent the real 
 cash oittlay on the construction and equipment. But, as 
 a matter of fact, the true cash cost of the work done and 
 materials furnished range from 60 to 80 per cent of the 
 amount of the first lien (first mortgage bonds) which 
 has been transferred to the constructors. 
 
 "The construction company dispose of these bonds, part- 
 ly by negotiating their sale to the public through bankers 
 at an advance upon the valuation at which they had re- 
 ceived them, and partly by using them in payment for 
 rails and equipment. 
 
 "Beyond the profits made from building the road for 
 the first mortgage bonds, there remains in the hands of 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 107 
 
 constructors the entire capital stock, and any second bonds 
 they have received, as a clear bonus to be held for future 
 appreciation and to keep control of the company, and be 
 ultimately on a market deftly manipulated for that pur- 
 pose. This is the way our roads are built. 
 
 "The actual cost of railroads is less than one-half the 
 value of the bonds issued. The basis of discredit is thus 
 laid. 
 
 "They rest upon an intrinsically rotten and dishonest 
 foundation, and the end is not yet reached. 
 
 "The mischief, financially, politically and socially, has 
 not yet been reached. In a large number of cases — nearly 
 all — there has been financial reconstruction. Of our 125,- 
 000 miles, with stock and debt of $7,500,000,000, at least 
 60 per cent has gone through this debt-scaling process." 
 
 Thus speaks one of the most distinguished bankers and 
 financiers of the nation. The bondholders who furnished 
 the money get nothing, but the stockholders, representing 
 "water," get all; $2,000,000,000 represents fully the real 
 cost of the roads. On this there is $7,500,000,000. Here 
 is where the monopoly comes in that robs you of your 
 products and crushes labor. 
 
 The railroads have in land grants, exempt from taxa- 
 tion and not subject to settlement, as large an area as 
 New England, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, 
 Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. 
 
 There is left no place for the "masses." The "classes" 
 having appropriated by a subsidized law a domain 
 grander than that of Zinaas, richer than that of Tamar 
 the Mogul, who robbed Asia for a thousand years. 
 
 The Pacific railroad empire comprises three thousand 
 square miles. 
 
 This gift of a "continent" (Wilson), to a "class" — less 
 than one-hundredth part of one per cent of the people — 
 is a crime against the living, without a parallel, and a 
 treason against the unborn, that will never be for- 
 given. 
 
 ******** 
 
 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minne- 
 sota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri owe farm 
 
io8 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 mortgages to the amount of $3,522,000,000, drawing 7 
 
 per cent interest. 
 
 ******** 
 
 This is the saddest picture on earth. A country with 
 less than seventeen (17) to the square mile, reduced to a 
 worse than Russian serfdom, or India herdism, and this 
 crime against homes consummated in twenty years. 
 
 OF PRODUCTION. 
 
 The per cent of cereals produced that was exported : 
 
 1840 — Per cent of cereals exported 2.1 
 
 1850 — Per cent of cereals exported 1.9 
 
 i860 — Per cent of cereals exported 1.8 
 
 1870 — Per cent of cereals exported 3.5 
 
 1880 — Per cent of cereals exported (wheat alone) . .33.0 
 
 How did the farmer fare in these years? In 1840 two 
 per cent of the cereals were exported. In 1880 there was 
 exported of one cereal, wheat, thirty-three per cent of the 
 amount produced. Did a protective tariff protect the 
 farmer? Did free trade save labor? or, did home mono- 
 poly rob and ruin both? 
 
 Here was a mighty increase of exporting wheat. Who 
 got the profit? 
 
 It had to be got to the seaboard before it took its 
 course to Europe. 
 
 Is not production and labor ruined by the extortion of 
 inland carrying trade before the seaboard is reached? 
 
 Is not home monopoly the thief that has robbed produc- 
 tion and oppressed labor ? And, while doing it, to cover its 
 piracy, cried "tariff and free trade"? 
 
 OF CARRYING BY RAIL. 
 
 On page 652, Vol. II, "Transportation to the Sea- 
 board," we find: "Taking the figures of the quotations 
 of the 28th as our standard, and we may say it costs 39 
 cents to send a bushel of wheat from St. Louis to New 
 York. This is 12.4 mills per ton per mile for 1,043 miles 
 on the cheapest kind of freight (unless it be coal) known 
 to our commerce, hauled the maximum distance, with the 
 greatest profit to the company. 
 
 "I will ask you to compare this charge with the cost 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 109 
 
 admitted by the Pennsylvania company in their report, 
 which, on all kinds of freight, on a great number of more 
 or less profitable lines, was 8.98 mills per ton per mile. 
 Assuming the cost to be as great in the present instance, 
 31.2 mills per ton per mile remain as profits; or, if we 
 take the more common rule, that two-thirds of the gross 
 receipts are absorbed by expenses, we have a surplus of 
 4.2 mills per ton per mile remaining. 
 
 "I will ask you further to note that, according to 
 English reports, coal has been carried in quantity, on 
 roads costing nearly three times as much as our own, for 
 3.2 mills per ton per mile. 
 
 "In what I have said I have used St. Louis, one of the 
 most favorably situated business centers of the West, to 
 show you that, even from here, the rates of freight and 
 fares are not nearly reduced to the point where they will 
 best subserve the interest of the people. 
 
 "And the cost of reaching these business centers under 
 local rates, added, and the tax on transportation becomes 
 prohibitory upon many articles, and, checks agricultural, 
 manufacturing and even commercial enterprise. 
 
 "A Tennessee farmer, near Nashville, was required to 
 pay 7 cents per bushel for the transportation of corn 
 twenty-six miles to the city. An Iowa fruit-grower was 
 charged $84 freight on a carload of apples ninety-one 
 miles, or nearly a dollar a mile for car service." 
 
 Two thirds of the gross receipts are allowed to pay ex- 
 penses of operating the roads. Now look at the "scheme" 
 to make up the "expenses." Presidents get $25,000 to 
 $50,000 per year. Other high officials get $10,000 to $20,- 
 000 annually. Fine offices, buildings palatial, and in this 
 way two-thirds of the entire earnings are absorbed. 
 
 The pay to officers is four times as high as it ought 
 to be. 
 
 In this way both production and labor is robbed. 
 
 What honesty is there in the wild cry, "tariff and free 
 trade," when railroads are charging for carrying a bushel 
 of wheat from St. Louis to New York, 39 cents? That 
 will rob a farmer and make him more dependent than a 
 Hurde of Persia. It will reduce labor lower than the 
 Helot of India. 
 
tio Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Here are the other factors that have brought the ruin 
 of the past two decades, as affirmed supra: money and 
 transportation. 
 
 The fiery road over which these twin devils have lashed 
 us is "Contract the volume of money, raise freights, ex- 
 tortion is the result." And while this scheme of piracy 
 has been going on political vampires cry "tariff and free 
 trade." 
 
 OF EQUITY. 
 
 Take Abilene, Kan., nearly equal distance from San 
 Francisco and New York; nearly the center between the 
 copper mines and the capes of Florida. Draw a line north 
 and south through it. And to reach New York from this 
 line with the product of wheat, 28 cents a bushel has been 
 paid during all these years of extortion. 
 
 What should it have cost and paid a liberal per cent 
 to the capital in the roads ? 
 
 Four cents a bushel! 
 
 This would have paid a rate per cent to the carrier 
 double the rate per cent the farmer has made for the 
 entire two decades of years. "On freight, long distance, 
 3.2 mills per ton per mile is sufficient." 
 
 To repeat: "Cannot the rates be reduced even below 
 this (the St. Louis rate supra) from the point desig- 
 nated?" 
 
 "I will ask you further to note that, according to 
 English reports, coal has been carried in quantity, on 
 roads costing nearly three times as much as our own, for 
 3.2 mills per ton per mile." 
 
 A ton of wheat is about thirty-three bushels. At the 
 rates just cited a bushel could be carried from the point 
 given (Abilene) to New York for not exceeding 4 cents 
 a bushel. We include the whole tons carried by rail to 
 get the true aggregate per mile for all. To illustrate: 
 
 A ton of wheat at i cent a ton per mile from St. Louis 
 to New York, counting the distance an even 1,000 miles, 
 would give the railroad $10. On this alone no true cal- 
 culation can be based. Note this: A car follows with 
 twelve men weighing a ton (about 170 pounds to each 
 man). They paid $20 each for the passage, making for 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. iii 
 
 that car twelve times twenty, or $240 — two hundred and 
 forty dollars for the ton! AH factors must be used, in 
 the transportation problem, to get the right ratio. 
 
 And then, instead of 28 cents a bushel from the line 
 drawn, it would not exceed 4 cents a bushel. How can 
 you beat such a home monopoly by crying "tariff and 
 free trade"? 
 
 OF LAND. 
 
 "Make haste to be rich." 
 This is the shibboleth, the battle cry of greed. 
 Here stands the church and the state repeating: 
 And this tabernacle of Mammon is built upon: 
 
 1. The non-right of money; 
 
 2. The non-right of transportation. 
 
 3. The wrong use of public domain. 
 
 Read the record down through the centuries and you 
 will find the robber has been the ruler. 
 
 The land stolen by the despot. 
 
 The carrying done by the syracot, 
 
 And money the triumphant tyracot. 
 
 These three children of greed have buried every em- 
 pire, kingdom and state of the past. Made the world ad 
 van lei — the region of despair. 
 
 The despot of Egypt stole the land. 
 
 Three out of one hundred owned it. 
 
 His lineal descendant — est Bahiloni. 
 
 In Babylon two out of a hundred owned it. 
 
 In Persia one out of a hundred owned it. 
 
 In Greece one-quarter of one owned it. 
 
 In Rome two thousand owned it. 
 
 The march of civilization began in Egypt, died in 
 Rome. 
 
 Eighteen centuries brought death. 
 
 Then it took a thousand years for the earth to rest. 
 
 Two-thirds of the race perished. 
 
 OF DEBTS. 
 
 Senator Stewart, of Nevada, in his speech before the 
 United States senate in 1888, put the debts of Christen- 
 dom at one hundred billion! 
 
112 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 We are indebted in public and quasi public more than 
 twenty billion. To this there is half as much more that is 
 individual debt. — Smeath's tables in The Money sPower. 
 
 It will take a third more of the products of labor and 
 of days' work to pay than at Lee's surrender. — The silver 
 men's letter. 
 
 Look at this: 
 
 1. Bread (cereal). 
 
 2. Meat. 
 
 3. Clothing. 
 
 4. Land, are each lower on the globe than they have 
 been for a hundred years. 
 
 5. Money of account, of all nations, is higher than 
 for a century. — Rogers on Decline of Man. 
 
 To intensify this picture, let it be remembered that 
 Christendom — the fairest portion of earth — is indebted 
 one hundred billion dollars. 
 
 And this infinite amount is all to be paid in labor and 
 products of labor, if paid. 
 
 Then let the young republic — not one-twentieth as old 
 as England — take notice that she owes thirty-five billion 
 dollars ! 
 
 Somni est. 
 
 OF MONEY. 
 
 "Legislation on money has been for centuries a crime, 
 and has at last reached the awful height of treason against 
 humanity." — Moran. 
 
 Legislation, through ignorance and wickedness, has 
 become a plot throughout Christendom to subvert civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 The money trouble is as wide as earth. The most en-- 
 lightened portions suffer most. 
 
 These death throes all over the globe are but the results 
 of the mighty evil, a money system fundamentally zvrong; 
 a money system in its nature destructive of free institU' 
 tions. 
 
 This system is to foster class distinctions. 
 
 This system makes the rich richer, the poor poorer. 
 
 This system is the deadly foe of honest distribution of 
 products. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 113 
 
 It is money that distributes. 
 
 This system is financially the "Mother of harlots." 
 
 Her children are: 
 
 1. The two exceptions in the greenback, 1862. 
 
 2. The national banks, 1863. 
 
 3. The contraction, 1866. 
 
 4. The strengthening public credit, 1869. 
 
 5. The funding, 1870. 
 
 6. The demonetizing (silver), 1873. 
 
 7. The resumption, 1875. 
 
 The intent of these laws and their legitimate has been, 
 as uttered by a distinguished name: "To rob labor and 
 enrich capital. They will idivide the Republic into two 
 classes, more marked than was the slave-holding and the 
 non-slave holding classes. The one more proscriptive, 
 the other more abject. They are the serpent egg that 
 will hatch out an aristocratic monarchy, where wealth is 
 god and where the rich grow daily richer and the poor 
 daily grow poorer. We are sweeping on at a most 
 miraculous speed to this certain end; this certain death 
 of the great Republic." 
 
 That is true. 
 
 The vast fortunes made since the war have been made 
 by financial robbery ! 
 
 To appreciate money by law is robbery. 
 
 To change the volume after debts have been made is 
 to rob the debtor. 
 
 To say one kind of money must be redeemed in an- 
 other kind of money is to establish a system of robbery 
 by law. 
 
 Capital, under corporate name, controlling labor is 
 serfdom. 
 
 The treasury department is the bitterest enemy of the 
 Republic. 
 
 It set in motion : 
 
 1. The contraction policy. 
 
 2. The destruction of greenbacks. 
 
 3. The funding of the debt. 
 
 4. The perpetuation of national banks. 
 
 5. The non-payment of the bonds. 
 
 6. The gold standard. 
 
114 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 This infamous policy is an ex cathedra: 
 
 1. Capital shall rule. 
 
 2. Labor serve. 
 
 The products of the country cornered. 
 
 Money appreciated as never before. 
 
 Vast labor energies unemployed, and that utilized but 
 just life-sustaining in remuneration. 
 
 Discontent as wide-spread as the footprints of man are 
 found. 
 
 In the midst of plenty we die of want. 
 
 The "earnings" of the "kings of the rail" are ample. 
 
 While the pittance of the "Royet of the plow" is 
 mighty small! 
 
 The money power of Europe, with its satellite, Amer- 
 ica, control congress. 
 
 Bank syndicates say, "silver must go" — ^to a subordinate 
 position ; be a kind of best man to gold ; a kind of Sancho 
 Panza to a Don Quixote; a kind of Republican jim-jam 
 to a Democratic Siam. 
 
 Gold to be king alone. 
 
 The secretary of the treasury has ceased to be a min- 
 isterial officer and become "Big Sachem" — ^the frame 
 of laws to suit "Ole Money Bags," as the American citi- 
 zen of African blood would say. 
 
 CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 "Blinded to the cry of millions, whose destitution in- 
 creases hourly, and has only ear for those who deal in 
 options, gamble in stocks and use the government as an 
 instrument to rob God and crucify humanity." — Brooks. 
 
 Lack of honest distribution of the products of labor is 
 filling earth with both sorrow and crime. 
 
 The greed of capital, in its mad rush for dividends, is 
 crowding labor to the wall. 
 
 The cry of want is heard in the midst of plenty. 
 
 The vats overflowing and men starving. 
 
 The fields over-burdened and men dying. 
 
 Over-production of food and the age perishing. 
 
 "Modern conquest, God-robbing," began. "William 
 the Conquerer, and virtue's ravisher" stole England. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. ii^ 
 
 His descendants, now titled nobility — sui, "land 
 pirates," are stealing the world. 
 
 This is done through forms of law. Laws more 
 desperate in conception and fearful in their operation 
 than man has ever known. 
 
 This Republic is in partnership in the scheme of spolia- 
 tion. 
 
 The leaders of political action, the molders of public 
 thought, for twenty years have been framing iniquity 
 into law to murder humanity. 
 
 During this score of years there have been less pes- 
 tilences, less war, by 30 per cent, than any like period of 
 our history, and greater crops by 12 per cent. In spite of 
 God's benefaction and the toil of the "masses," the 
 "classes" have devoured the earth. 
 
 They have secured their gains by infamy, and increased 
 their store by mendacity. 
 
 The lands of Jefferson and Washington are under ir- 
 redeemable bonds to the money power of the Old and 
 New world. 
 
 Usury, from mortgaged farms, is demanding more than 
 the soil, at present prices of products, will produce. 
 
 OF CITIES. 
 
 There are deeps of infamy in this city (Chicago), sur- 
 passing African slavery. All womanly instincts are 
 blighted by hardship, and the purity of the soul crushed — 
 in selling the body for bread to keep death at bay. 
 
 When beastly slave-drivers take the place of consider- 
 ate employes and sell flesh and bone and blood for gain, 
 it is time to call a halt. 
 
 Talk of Birmingham, Sheffield, Edenborough, and 
 women working at the forge ! Mark down in letters black 
 as night the tortures of men, women and children under 
 the wage system of England. Say all that a hot soul can 
 stir up within you against it. Speak like Simos in his 
 charge against hell, and yet, after you have painted it — 
 "grim in damnation" — it is not worse than the same sys- 
 tem in this country. 
 
 Women and girls work in the iron rooms in big manu- 
 
ii6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 factories; feed machinery, lay their hands to work — 
 heavy gross work ; work so dangerous as to cripple and 
 mutilate — life is being wasted in these murder mills, and 
 reason going out in everlasting night. 
 
 The coming mothers of men are being de-womanized 
 — unfitted — ^by unbearable burdens to give to the world 
 the children of men. 
 
 Talk of heathen child destruction! Here is refined 
 cruelty, destroying maternity, to accumulate wealth ! 
 
 Shall we talk of England ? Shall we decry the British 
 Isles, where dwell forty-five million of people, forty mil- 
 lion of whom do not own a foot of land? 
 
 Shall we talk of London, with its three thousand miles 
 of streets, where fifty thousand are shut out every night? 
 
 Shall we talk of the commercial city of the globe, where 
 less than one-quarter of one per cent hold the title to 
 land? A city where homes are denied and the homeless 
 made criminals? Shall we talk of a nation standing 
 proudly among the other sovereignties, where seven mil- 
 lions of its people are fighting death to prevent starva- 
 tion? 
 
 Let us look at home ! 
 
 New York, the empire city of the western world, with 
 its parks, opera places, palatial houses, where wealth 
 floats on golden wings and sleeps on beds as soft as the 
 down beneath the sygnet's wing. 
 
 Look ye ! Down there in "Hanker Alley" ; the "gorgon 
 ground," just outside Parida's Realm. 
 
 There is festering sin! There sorrow plays dirges on 
 breaking heart-strings. There slain children are seethed 
 in their own blood ! 
 
 Ah me! There tenements are cesspools, death dance 
 houses, hell's recruiting station — with two hundred and 
 ninety thousand crowded into one square mile. 
 
 Down upon this valley of the shadow of death look 
 church spires, whose tops bathe in the blue, amid 
 the rustle of wings, and whose worshipers own the tene- 
 ments, where more than half of the children die before 
 they see light. 
 
 "Five years ago it was $1.50 a day ; then we were com- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 117 
 
 fortable. Then they went down to $1.25, then to $1, and 
 then to 80 cents, and 14 hours a day — barely keeps us 
 from starving. 
 
 Is God dead? Has He forgotten there is nothing left 
 but men who grind the face of the poor, who chuckle 
 when they can make a cent or two out of the starving 
 women and children? It is seas of tears that these men 
 sail in. It is our life blood they drink. It is our flesh 
 they eat. God help them if the storm comes, for there 
 will be no help in man. — New York Sewing Women's 
 Journal. 
 
 OF MURDER. 
 
 Has it increased? 
 
 That life is cheap and man desperate, facts are multi- 
 plying all over the earth. There must be cause for this 
 dangerous symptom. A maxim in the economics of the 
 race, shown all along the march of the ages, is this: 
 
 That in proportion to the burden that man has to bear 
 will he deport himself. 
 
 If government, society or individuals burden men, de- 
 bauchery increases in the same ratio that the burden 
 grows heavy. 
 
 The conditions are wider now among men in our Re- 
 public than ever before. The rich are richer and the 
 poor poorer than at any period of the past. Therefore, 
 murders are on the incease. 
 
 Our country leads in this sad picture. The twenty 
 years we are depicting are the most sorrowful found on 
 any page of the past, when compared with our oppor- 
 tunities. Hence, it is called the "Age of Murder." Hor- 
 ace Greeley called it so. Disraeli, prime minister of 
 England, called it so. Facts prove it. 
 
 Class laws grew the fruit. False statesmanship en- 
 acted the laws. The nation must bear the consequences. 
 
 The per cent of murder in 10,000,000 of people is the 
 number taken upon which to make the comparison. 
 
 W. M. Round, of the National Prison association : "The 
 increase of the total population was only twenty per 
 cent for the past five years, ending in 1884, while the 
 increase of crime was sixty-five per cent." 
 
ii8 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 General Brinkerhoof5f : "We cannot blink the fact that 
 the tide of crime is rising. All concur that the flood 
 creeps up year by year." 
 
 Dr. Marshall makes the comparison: "England, 237 
 murders to a population of 10,000,000; Belgium, 240; 
 France, 265; Scandinavia, 266; Germany, 279; Ireland, 
 294; Austria, 310; Russia, 333; Italy, 504; Spain, 633, 
 and the United States, 820 to each 10,000,000 popula- 
 tion." 
 
 These are fearful dangers, awful facts. The declension 
 in our material interests point to the grave. The tomb- 
 stones which mark the place "where the nations lie 
 buried" is a warning. If we follow their track we reach 
 their end. 
 
 Falling prices and falling wages are as sure a sign of 
 a dying age as a falling pulse of a dying man. 
 
 "change the rule." 
 
 Labor, which is prior to capital, shall rule. 
 
 Capital, which is the fruit of labor, shall serve, to this 
 
 END abolish every FRANCHISE. 
 
 1. Th ; national banks. 
 
 2. Railroad corporations. 
 
 3. Telegraph corporations. 
 
 4. Every combine and trust. 
 
 5. The nation, in its sovereign capacity to manage all 
 public functions, at cost of maintenance, in the interest 
 of and for the whole body of the people. 
 
 1. Every special privilege to be taken away. 
 
 2. Every law to be alike equal to all. 
 
 3. Every officer who is to serve the people to be elect- 
 ed by the people — by direct vote. 
 
 4. Strip office of all emoluments; make the holding 
 self-sustaining, but not an article in the political market 
 more desirable than any other, because more, money is 
 to be made out of it. 
 
 Disfranchise the sellers of their votes. Send to the 
 felon's cell those who purchase votes. 
 
 In the spirit of the words of Mr. Lincoln, make this a 
 government of the people, by the people and for the peo- 
 ple. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 119 
 
 BANKS ARE THE SOUL. 
 
 It is the corporation of all corporations, the combine of 
 all combines, the trust of all trusts. 
 
 The present mode and use of it must be rooted up and 
 annihilated. As it now stands, it creates a class who deal 
 in money ; generally they are wholly ignorant of the func- 
 tions of money, and those who know suppress their knowl- 
 edge for the advancement of their gains. 
 
 As the system now stands, and as now used, it leads all 
 other branches of sovereignty in destroying conscience 
 and generating crime. 
 
 It is at the bottom of the troubles now shaking Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
 The emission of money is solely a sovereign act. To 
 bestow it on individuals is to ultimately ruin them and 
 destroy civilization. Its love in human hearts is a deadly 
 distemper. 
 
 Our government intensifies that malady by increasing 
 selfishness and greed. This power over the money must 
 be restored to the people, who are the sovereign power. 
 Let the government manufacture (make) all the money 
 — enough to do the business without credit. 
 
 Place in each state capital, under proper authority, an 
 amount sufficient for that jurisdiction. 
 
 Then at each county seat, where the titles of the lands 
 are recorded, place enough to supply the wants of busi- 
 ness and demands of the people. 
 
 To be furnished at cost — on pledge — to be returned to 
 the depository at any time at the option of the receiver. 
 
 And encourage the use of money, as we do the use of 
 stamps. 
 
 And all money being money, as all stamps are stamps, 
 it could no more be cornered than can stamps be cor- 
 nered. 
 
 And there would be no more speculation in money than 
 there is in stamps. 
 
 All railroad charters should be repealed and the roads. 
 capitalized and run by the government, the agent of the 
 people, at cost, which would be about three mills a ton a 
 mile, while under the present management it is about 
 
120 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 fourteen mills a ton a mile. More than four times as 
 high as in any other civilized country. 
 
 The settlement should be made on -a liberal basis, as 
 these franchises have been granted — ivhich they should 
 not have been. 
 
 Give to those now in control their money and three 
 per cent on it, deducting what they have received, less 
 expense, and thus the system would change without fric- 
 tion. 
 
 7. Take all the land granted back— it should never 
 have been granted — making an equitable settlement in re- 
 gard to it. Then hold it for homes exclusively, to be 
 ready when needed. And not to pass from public domain, 
 except for homes, to be determined as to amount, by 
 actual occupancy and use. 
 
 That not needed for use to be held by the government, 
 the agent, as public domain. If, while it is public domain, 
 any wish to use it for grasses or any other appendage, 
 so as not to injure it, let them use it, paying for the use, 
 and the money so received to go into the public treasury 
 to lessen taxes. 
 
 In order to make those holding large grants willing to 
 let them come back to the people, let them be taxed double 
 the amount of occupied, used lands. This would decen- 
 tralize land, increase homes and diffuse happiness. 
 
 No non-resident alien should own land in this country 
 — no land should ever have been sold to them. Change 
 the law and give them reasonable time to sell. If they do 
 not sell, then the government (the agent) should pay them 
 a just price for their lands and let it become public do- 
 main, as all other lands, except those occupied and used 
 as homes. 
 
 8. Tax all the lands (except the public) and raise 
 balance of revenue to support the government, if any is 
 needed, by an income tax, beginning above one fhotusand 
 dollars. Inaugurate and encourage a policy to enable 
 each family to secure a home — actual occupancy attd use 
 to be the title — paying for it the cost of allotment, setting 
 it from the public domain. 
 
 Exempt such home of the family to the amount of one 
 thousand dollars from taxes and all liens. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 121 
 
 Natural gifts to the race, stored in the earth, beneficial 
 to man, should be under the control of the government, 
 the agent, and worked for the benefit of all the people 
 alike. 
 
 These general outlines, if utilized, will make this earth, 
 in some degree, what seers, prophets, patriots, men in all 
 ages by-gone, have prayed for, sung of, and which we 
 think the Bible promises, justice requires, and humanity 
 is now crying for with a cry that moves the heart of 
 God. 
 
 "WE BELIEVE IT, BILL NYE." 
 
 THE NOBLEST PRODUCTION OF THE AGE. 
 
 The subjoined, taken from The Great West, Denver, 
 Col., is so pertinent to the question of the hour, so grand 
 in scope, and coming from the ablest song writer of the 
 human race, impells us to reproduce it in The People's 
 Advocate, so that all may have the supreme felicity of 
 drinking from the sea of thought. 
 
 It is a great state paper and is addressed to the presi- 
 dent-elect, tendering advice, encouragement and service 
 on two of the most important subjects ever presented to 
 the human mind — "Canals" and "Ingins." 
 
 On these questions, startling alike to all, that profound 
 and sagacious statesman. Bill Nye — who overcame the 
 "Heathen Chinee" in that "wondrous game," made im- 
 mortal in song by Bret Harte — tenders his brain, pen 
 and intimates that if the life of the nation requires it he 
 will take office. 
 
 More touching pathos is not to be found than are the 
 words addressed to the sage of Mentor : 
 
 "Use lead pencil." * * * "Swear a little if it re- 
 lieves you." * * * "Spell cabbage with a 'k' if in a 
 hurry." * * * "This canal business." * * * 
 "Confide in me." * * * "Pour out your soul." 
 * * * "Cabinet position." * * * "Let a poor 
 man have it in my place." 
 
 That about the song is too touching for utterance. The 
 president can never fail with such men around him. It 
 
122 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 is the grandest state paper fulminated since the flood, 
 and in the light of it there can be no doubt but what it 
 will secure for the writer the important place of secretary 
 of state. 
 
 BILL NYE THROBS ALONE FOR "tHE GREAT WEST."' 
 
 Hon. J. A. Garfield, Mentor, Ohio: 
 
 Laramie City, W. T., January 3. — Dear Sir: I have 
 been trying for some time to write you, and, no doubt, 
 you have been very impatient because I did not do so, 
 but I have been in a good deal of a hurry for the past 
 few months, having the Indian question and some other 
 important matters on hand. 
 
 I am aware that nearly every one has the start of me 
 in frankly admitting to you that they secured your elec- 
 tion. But I still hope that it is not too late. 
 
 No! I cannot tell a lie. It was the subscriber who 
 brought about the gratifying result. I haven't the time 
 to go on and show you how I did it, and unless you insist 
 upon it I will omit the tedious details. 
 
 However, the victory is due very largely to a campaign 
 song that I wrote. It was the most touching little gem 
 that the great world of song ever knew. It was called 
 the "New Adjustable Campaign Song," and was so ar- 
 ranged by means of a thumb-screw and movable types 
 that it could be used with your own name or General 
 Hancock's. The ideal was to save time and the wear 
 and tear of intellect. You know what a mental strain 
 it must require to bring forth a melodious chunk or cam- 
 paign song. 
 
 Well, the Republicans did not adopt this song for some 
 reason. Maybe, they thought it lacked soul or expres- 
 sion of intellectual stiffness. Any way, they declined 
 to buy township rights of the author at the nominal price 
 charged. 
 
 The Democracy, however, purchased the song and 
 worked it in the doubtful states. Need I say more? 
 
 Wherever that campaign song of mine struck it left 
 death and desolation. It was the most deadly gob of 
 melody that I ever hurled at a long-suffering public. 
 
 Let people go right on attributing this victory to 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 123 
 
 Conkling, or General Grant, or Blaine, or Dorsey, or 
 Kelly, but you and I away down in our secret souls, 
 away from the prying gaze of the hungry world, well 
 know that there was a hidden cause for this National 
 triumph. 
 
 Probably you will wish to acknowledge this little favor 
 of mine, and in your generous, impulsive way you will 
 ask me to select a cabinet position, but do not do so. Let 
 some poor man have it in my place. 
 
 The Ufe of the ostensible humorist has its little blotches 
 of gloom, of course; and yet is not devoid of sunshine. 
 It is not sunshine with so much glory as the office of sec- 
 retary of state, but a man feels less restraint. He can 
 go home in the night and take off his coat and vest, and 
 eat a dish-pan full of twenty ounce pippins, and swear at 
 the hired girl, and stand off his grocer and it's nobody's 
 business. The great, cold world of selfishness and cast- 
 iron cussedness cannot enter there. 
 
 The newspaper man may not be honored much, but 
 he can spit in the wood box and have a pretty good time 
 if he has a clear conscience and liver that he can depend 
 upon. 
 
 Public life never had any charms for me. I've served 
 my constituents now over four years as justice of the 
 peace, and yet during that whole time I often looked back 
 upon the glad life I led before I had been made the re- 
 cipient of public favor. While I assessed the simple 
 drunk $5 and trimmings with a glad smile, the casual 
 observer little knew that in my breast there lingered a 
 great yearning grief for the days that were gone, when I 
 lived simply on $11 a month and recked not for the 
 future. 
 
 You will find it in that way, too. Now you feel pretty 
 tickled because you are elected president, and you think 
 peace will settle down upon you. Wait till you are hold- 
 ing a big reception some time, and all the great men and 
 pretty women are present, and all eyes are upon you 
 and your off suspender button adjourns and rolls along 
 the floor, then you will wish you were back in some bosky 
 dell of your childhood's days, apart from the jostling 
 throng where you could pull off your coat and vest and 
 
124 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 jab a white-oak plug through your waistband and hitch 
 your suspender on it and be at rest. 
 
 Ah, there is something about this praise and adulation 
 of men that don't seem to fill the aching void. What we 
 need in this country is less adulation and more under- 
 clothes and pie. 
 
 Now, any time you get stuck on your policy or want 
 any good, pregnant thoughts to work in on your mes- 
 sage, I just wish you would feel perfectly free to call on 
 me and I'll give my ideas just as cheerfully as though 
 you had political claims on me. You will, no doubt, 
 want a few suggestions on the Mormon question during 
 your administration. 
 
 I will cheerfully fill you up with brain food of this 
 character free of cost. 
 
 Feel perfectly free at any time to write me on this 
 subject, and write naturally and use your own language. 
 Swear a little if it relieves you. Use a lead pencil and 
 spell just as you would if you were not writing to a great 
 man. Spell cabbage with a "k" if you're in a hurry. 
 
 You're liable, too, to have trouble with this canal busi- 
 ness. Confide in me about it. Pour out your soul to me 
 and I won't give you away. 
 
 You think you know all about canals, but you don't. 
 You don't know the very A B C of this business. You 
 need a calm, clear intellect that you can turn on in a 
 moment. You need a wise, mature judgment that you 
 can uncork when your own is dry. That's the kind you 
 will have the command of by addressing the subscriber. 
 That's the kind of rich, juicy wart of intellect he is the 
 proprietor of. Then there is the Indian question. That 
 will be up for consideration again this spring as soon 
 as horse radish is ripe. 
 
 Then you will probably need a tall, able-bodied, bald- 
 headed mental giant to lean on. You'll begin to look 
 around among your cabinet for the proper man, but he 
 will be busy drawing his salary. That never annoys me. 
 I'm always at leisure. 
 
 Be open and frank with me and I'll be the same with 
 you. If your administration don't suit me I'll tell you, 
 and you mustn't get mad about it. I'll just point out 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 125 
 
 where you've missed it, and then you will know how to do 
 hereafter. Sincerely yours, Bill Nye. 
 
 P. S. — If you want a good man to send as minister to 
 the Cannibal Islands I have one in my mind. He is in 
 good order. Will weigh 200 live weight, and has an ac- 
 count against me for $61.25. B. N. 
 
 "A SAFE INVESTMENT." 
 
 That is the cry, of the bond-mongers — "A safe invest- 
 ment." 
 
 Thus cries Fernando Wood, and he tells capitalists 
 that the best investment is the 3 per cents. He says the 
 government bond affords a safe depository for surplus 
 funds — for funds altogether. 
 
 Well, what if they do ? 
 
 The government is in a gimblet-hole business when it 
 reduces itself to the estate of furnishing a safe place to 
 hide money. 
 
 Such a business is a partnership with thieves, the gov- 
 ernment acting the ignoble part of concealing the stolen 
 goods. 
 
 Money is a "tool" of trade and has no right to be hid 
 away in inactivity. The government has no authority to 
 furnish a safe investment for money, thereby destroy- 
 ing the very life-blood of business. Money is a thing for 
 action — not of rest. 
 
 It must course through the veins of business in cease- 
 less activity, as does the blood course in activity the veins 
 of the body, or the body of business will die, as the body 
 of man would die if the blood ceased to circulate. 
 
 Let the money of the country come out of this safe, 
 dead hole and take its chances. 
 
 This safe investment business is a crime. 
 
 What would you think of Mr. Wood if he should get 
 a bill up in congress entitled, "A safe place to store farm- 
 ing implements"? 
 
 It is a place that the tooth of time, neither sunshine nor 
 rain can afifect. 
 
 "Farmers, put into this safe place your plows, drags, 
 
126 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 reapers, mowers ; your hoes and your shovels, and neither 
 mildew nor rot, fire nor flood, Greenbacker or Communist 
 can affect them. The government will pay you 3 per 
 cent per annum on them." 
 
 What would you think of that kind of a bill to fund 
 our farming tools? How long would such a policy fur- 
 nish our fine-haired congressmen bread or whisky? 
 
 Why fund the "tool" of trade by which exchanges are 
 made in a safe place? Stop its making exchanges. It is 
 just as big a crime as to put the "tool" by which wheat 
 is raised in a house so as to be safe. 
 
 Speak again, Mr. Wood, so that we may know whether 
 you are Balaam or Balaam's . 
 
 "The Money Power." 
 
 The great danger to the Republic. 
 
 Its object to reduce labor to serfdom — as in Europe. 
 
 The way to destroy this power. 
 
 SPEECH AT PITTSBURG, PA., 1885— J. HARPER. 
 
 For two decades of years the money power has been 
 supreme. 
 
 The money power is the greatest enemy of the Repub- 
 lic. 
 
 The money power is the bitterest foe of free institu- 
 tions. 
 
 The money power controls the executive. 
 
 The money power holds the senate. 
 
 The money power cajoles the house, making it a tail 
 to the senate, and a shuttlecock to the president. 
 
 The money power is the bulwark to tyranny, the de- 
 stroyer of civilization. 
 
 The money power is treacherous. 
 
 The money power controls the press. 
 
 The money power has crept into the church and is be- 
 sliming that eden of hope. 
 
 The money power accomplishes its ends by deceit. 
 
 The money power apes the truth to establish sin. 
 
 With God on the lip, its heart is Satan's seat. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 12'j 
 
 With "public honor" as its shibboleth, it passes laws 
 which libel all "honor." 
 
 With "public credit" on its banner, it has bankrupted 
 the country. 
 
 The money power abets every mean act known to the 
 catalogue, under the guise of truth. 
 
 And turns the truth into a lie to deceive and ruin the 
 people. 
 
 The money power for twenty years has shouted, "This 
 must be done for the good of the people." 
 
 The good of the people has been its promise, the ruin 
 of the people its zvork. 
 
 The money power has the soul of a ghoul, and the 
 greed of a vampire. 
 
 The money power lives but to make the rich richer 
 and the poor poorer. 
 
 The money power knows no law but self, no god but 
 Mammon. 
 
 The money power has absolute usufruct of the ma- 
 chinery of the Republican and Democratic parties. 
 
 The potency that executes the decrees of the money 
 power is the national banks. 
 
 Not till there is a party formed outside of both these 
 parties and not controlled by the money power, will relief 
 come to the country. 
 
 Be warned. 
 
 The cry of the siren is already heard. 
 
 Like the jackal, who, before attacking its prey, pro- 
 claims its peaceful habits ; so do these gregarious jackals, 
 who hunt in packs, proclaim their "love for the people." 
 
 Their love is that of the hyena for the lamb. 
 
 Their warning is the hiss of the serpent as it fastens 
 its fangs in your flesh. 
 
 "Look out for betrayal !" 
 
 "The lurid heavens declare it everywhere." 
 
 The Republican Pilates and Democratic Herods are 
 now in the temple planning the crucifixion of another 
 Christ of humanity. 
 
 The house is full of good promises, big speeches and 
 wind. 
 
laS Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The senate, where every trust has been betrayed, every 
 truth sacrificed and the people sold, there is a tempest. 
 
 "The broad sword is unsheathed" — 
 
 And you would think, if words in that body meant 
 anything, then, 
 
 "Heaven's come down our souls to greet. 
 And glory crowns the mercy seat." 
 
 But this is the song of Delilah, to put you to sleep, so 
 that in your dreams you may be shorn of your locks. 
 
 The senate has denounced every attempted wrong 
 against the people since the war ; then enacted that wrong 
 into law. 
 
 Let the good men in that body get out of it, for they 
 are as much out of place in it as an innocent girl is in a 
 Turkish harem. 
 
 A master, whose pictures shall last as long as time, 
 has drawn these tyrants, who promise "bread," but give 
 a "stone"— 
 
 "The policies that result in cruelty and the laws that 
 oppress in their execution, are the policies of deceit and the 
 enactments of treachery." 
 
 The promotors of such policies are hypocrites, and the 
 authors of such laws are traitors. And this is not para- 
 doxical, for the advocates of vile policies and the cham- 
 pions of bad laws have always proclaimed themselves de- 
 fenders of the people. 
 
 Indeed, they have declared, with almost infinite im- 
 pudence, that what they did was injurious to them, but 
 of the highest importance to the people. 
 
 These abnegating gentlemen are aptly epitomized by 
 the proverb: 
 
 "A honey tongue, a heart of gall." — (Daniel Webster 
 in 1838.) How truly the twenty years' legislation, from 
 the end of the war to 1884, can be set down as a honey 
 tongue, a heart of gall! 
 
 On the 25th of February, 1862, the money power de- 
 manded two exceptions to be placed on the "greenback." 
 
 The infamous demand was denounced in both the sen- 
 ate and the house as a cruelty to the people unparalleled 
 
 "The money power had its way." — (O. P. Morton.) 
 
 The people were betrayed. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 129 
 
 On the 25th of March, 1863, the money power de- 
 manded the "National Banks." 
 
 That act is as anti-American, is as anti-Republican, as 
 is Queen Victoria herself, and as despotic as the doctrine 
 of primogeniture. It was denounced in both the senate 
 and the house as class law, that would ultimately "enslave 
 labor." 
 
 "The money power had its way." 
 
 The people were betrayed. 
 
 On the 6th of January, 1866, the money power demand- 
 ed an act authorizing the contracting of the currency, 
 in order to reach "specie payments." In the language of 
 Hugh McCulloch, "to reach a gold standard." 
 
 A greater crime was never conceived, and its execution 
 was murderous as the greed of Shylock could make it. 
 
 It was denounced in both the senate and the house as 
 "legal robbery of the people." — (Reynolds.) 
 
 "The money power had its way." 
 
 The people were betrayed. 
 
 On the i8th of March, 1869, the money power de- 
 manded an act to "strengthen the public credit." 
 
 An infamy that overshadows every name, who knew 
 what he was doing, with a pall as black as that which 
 damns the betrayer. 
 
 It was denounced in both the senate and the house as 
 "robber of the many to enrich the few." — (Davis.) 
 
 "The money power had its way." 
 
 The people were betrayed. 
 
 On the 14th of July, 1870, the money power demanded 
 an act to fund the bonds. 
 
 "A sin against children unborn as damnable as was 
 Herod's against the living." — (Harvey.) 
 
 It was denounced in both the senate and the house as 
 "a mandate against prosperity, a decree against honesty." 
 —(Phillips.) 
 
 It filled the coffers of the fund holders and emptied the 
 bins of the plow holders. One it made a Satrap, the 
 other a Helot. 
 
 "The money power had its way." 
 
 The people were betrayed. 
 
 On the I2th of February, 1873, the money power de- 
 
130 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 manded an act demonetizing silver — that the "silver unit" 
 be stricken out and the "gold unit" substituted. 
 
 A foreigner represented the money power — and zvrote 
 the law. 
 
 He used money to secure the passage of the law and 
 boasted of it after it was done. — (Prof. Willey.) 
 
 While this treason against our domestic affairs was 
 being carried on by secret emissaries, our congress "slum- 
 bered and slept." 
 
 No warning voice was raised. 
 
 But the nightmare of death brooded over the halls 
 where liberty was being sold to money mongers and 
 despots of Europe. 
 
 It was an act of sin never to be forgiven ; a crime never 
 to be extirpated; a treachery without a parallel. 
 
 "The money power had its way." 
 
 The people were betrayed. 
 
 After the act was done, it was denounced by both the 
 senate and the house as "purchased legislation," as a 
 "sell-out of the people." 
 
 But the iniquity stood and stands to-day — the gold unit 
 remains. 
 
 On the 14th of January, 1875, the money power de- 
 manded and secured "the last step in this march of 
 death," the confiscation act. 
 
 A scheme of "villains" to secure what they called specie 
 resumption. 
 
 A scheme to "equalize," not "redeem," money. It was 
 an act of premeditated wickedness, the blackest that ever 
 disgraced the page of a statute book. 
 
 And the men back of it wrote themselves down as 
 enemies of the race. 
 
 It was denounced in both the senate and the house as 
 a crime against man's right to earn his bread. 
 
 "The money power had its way." 
 
 The people were betrayed. 
 
 The harms growing out of it were so great that the 
 people demanded some redress, and the legislation of 
 1878 gave two million dollars a month. 
 
 It was the only alleviation. 
 
 But the money power said, "Silver must be crushed." 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 131 
 
 So silver has been hounded by the whole "gang of 
 money thieves," till at last the president, in abject servil- 
 ity, bows to them and yields the country into their hands. 
 
 The secretary, "cringing and sniffling," also bows to 
 this "god of gold." 
 
 "His heart and the heart of the money power beats 
 in unison." 
 
 "Thus the heart appeals to God." 
 
 Shall it be said again: 
 
 "The money power had its way." 
 
 "Supreme for twenty years." 
 
 That is the record. 
 
 What next? 
 
 1. A gold standard. 
 
 2. A bonded debt in perpetuo. 
 
 3. Silver demonetized. 
 
 4. Greenbacks destroyed. 
 
 5. The national banks perpetual ; the volume of money 
 under their control — they the supreme arbiters of money; 
 the volume to shrink and swell at the will of the money 
 power. 
 
 The fight is for the life of the Republic. 
 
 The money power must surrender, or free institutions 
 perish. 
 
 Shall the president, senate and house all prove a honey 
 tongue, a heart of gall? 
 
 Which? 
 
 The answer: 
 
 The principle of the Greenback party, hacked by a ma- 
 jority and enforced, must triumph before relief will come. 
 
 DANGERS. 
 
 "The mystic ocean of unrest is world wide." — Dis- 
 raeli. 
 
 "The nations are drifting." — Salisbury. 
 
 "The upheaval of humanity is just at hand that shall 
 re-map the globe." — Napoleon III. 
 
 "Dynamite is heralding a new era." — Juliiis Jerome. 
 
 "The storms now shaking earth are the forerunner of 
 the re-genesis." — Simpson. 
 
132 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Look where you will, and you find the fiery words of 
 the Seer actualizing into history, "Evil shall go forth 
 from nation to nation." 
 
 The governments are drifting into the old grooves that 
 end in destruction. 
 
 "Capital haughty, labor sinking, the end nearing." — 
 Ludwick. 
 
 Wages fell from Egypt to Rome, over a period of 
 eighteen hundred years. 
 
 Then the hiatus was reached. 
 
 Labor sank to seven cents a day. 
 
 The epitaph of that age was Death. 
 
 Wages have been falling, falling, falling, and we are 
 reaching the next hiatus — twenty-eight cents a day the 
 globe over. 
 
 Lower than at any time for a hundred years. 
 
 "A falling wage brings us to death; a falling price to 
 ruin." — Vision of the Blessed. 
 
 "The Republic ought to be happy." — Stoddard. 
 
 Is it? 
 
 Are the conditions happifying? 
 
 Seventeen-twentieths of the wage-workers of Christen- 
 dom are within thirty days of starvation. 
 
 The three-twentieths are richer than were the haugh- 
 tiest lords that reigned from Egypt to Rome. 
 
 "Material prosperity never had an equal." — London 
 Letter. 
 
 Who owns this wealth? 
 
 Less than one-quarter of one per cent of the people. 
 
 The national debt, the state debts, and all other corpora- 
 tion debts amount to twenty thousand million dollars. 
 
 This almost infinite amount draws an average annual 
 interest that, after a scant living, it takes the entire sur- 
 plus products to pay, and leaves two hundred and twenty- 
 five million dollars unpaid every year. 
 
 Less than one-quarter of one per cent thus have a mort- 
 gage on us that, under the present policy, will last for- 
 ever. 
 
 We have one hundred and twenty-five thousand miles 
 of railroad, costing about two thousand million dollars. 
 
 Who owns them ? 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 133 
 
 The same less than one-quarter of one per cent. 
 
 There is five thousand million dollars watered stock 
 piled on top, swelling the sum to seven thousand million 
 dollars. 
 
 On this infinite sum is wrung, by an extortion deeper 
 in crime than was slavery, ten per cent annually. 
 
 Making the "kings of the rail" the most despicable 
 tyrants that the sun of civilization ever shone upon. 
 
 And by their rapacity, under the forms of purchased 
 law, they degrade labor and production to a state of 
 bondage not long to be endured. 
 
 These monopolies of transportation have also a land 
 gift, munificent as an empire — as large as nine states like 
 Ohio. 
 
 The telegraph, costing some twenty million dollars, is 
 watered up to eighty million dollars. 
 
 Who own them ? 
 
 The same one-quarter of one per cent. 
 
 And on this superstructure of crime — three-quarters 
 water, one-quarter cash — this little class of law's favor- 
 ites declare a dividend of fifteen per cent. 
 
 Happy one-quarter of one per cent. 
 
 They own the railroads. 
 
 They own the telegraph. 
 
 They own the national debt. 
 
 They own the quasi-public debt. 
 
 They own twenty-four hundred national banks. 
 
 These banks rest upon the debt (bonds) they own — 
 untaxed debt. 
 
 On this debt they are given 90 per cent in notes to 
 loan as money. 
 
 With these gifts and franchises they are omnipotent — 
 while the law sustains them. 
 
 And so they have 
 
 Monopolized the land. 
 
 So that there are more tenants than land owners. 
 
 Who shall help us ? 
 
 They have monopolized the coal. 
 
 They have monopolized the oil. 
 
 They have monopolized the precious metals. 
 
 They have cnished labor. 
 
134 Liifs of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Wages have fallen for twenty years. 
 
 Salaries have raised. 
 
 Until the burden, the sorrow, the ruin, has grown into 
 a mighty wail that reaches from sea to sea. 
 
 Greater business depression than was ever known. 
 
 Society trembles as never witnessed before. 
 
 Failures are increasing. 
 
 Penitentiary offences are increasing. 
 
 Murder on the increase. 
 
 Lunacy on the increase. 
 
 Suicide on the increase. 
 
 Divorce on the increased. 
 
 And the assassination of our rulers shocks the great 
 Republic as a sign of dissolution. 
 
 From the top to the bottom there is gangrene. 
 
 The executive, chosen because of his fitness to represent 
 the nation, as its head, aptly epitomizes our civilization 
 — a father but not a husband — he cannot be expected to 
 rise above the tide that swept him to his present place. 
 
 As a people, so their rulers. 
 
 A nation is known by its laws. 
 
 "Corrupt enactments by designing men are the first- 
 sown seeds of death." — Henry Clay. 
 
 The policies have been corrupt ever since the war. 
 
 The legislation class. 
 
 The result: 
 
 Millionaires on one side, representatives of their class. 
 
 Tramps on the other side, representatives of their class. 
 
 The road is the same other nations have trod. 
 
 The end will be the same. 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY OF WEALTH. 
 
 The history of the twenty years since the war is the 
 darkest in our annals. The inside workings and the out- 
 side manifestations of secret and open enemies have re- 
 sulted in a financial despotism — a conspiracy of tvealth to 
 rule the Republic! 
 
 The treasury department, as it has been manipulated, 
 is the government, and the government is a tyrant. 
 
 Facilis descensus Averni. I wrote in 1866: "The finan- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 135 
 
 cial question is the problem of the age. The liberty and 
 happiness of the people depend upon the rightful settle- 
 ment of it." I was laughed at for my pains. A man of 
 fame said of it: "The gentleman knows as much about 
 finance as he does about business, and he knows nothing 
 about either. All we have to do, to get out of the ex- 
 treme situation forced upon us by the war, is to return 
 to a gold standard — so much for the problem of the age." 
 I have repeated the warning during all these sickening 
 years, and the people refused to believe — and now ruin 
 is upon them. 
 
 "Currency reform is first in the order of importance 
 and of time, and fitly precedes all other reforms, even tax- 
 ation reform, because it will facilitate all other reforms, 
 and because it cannot safely be deferred." Thus the sec- 
 retary talks after twenty and more years of "financial 
 tinkering." 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth" to rule the Republic, 
 through our money system, began during the war. Fos- 
 tered and fed by the leaders of two great parties during 
 these twenty years it became a tyrant — "dangerous to 
 free instituions." These years have been, in the words 
 of Harvey, the "despot's hour in the great Republic." 
 
 Even amid the cannon's roar, the secret enemy sought 
 its opportunity: "Slavery is likely to be abolished by the 
 war power, and chattel slavery be destroyed." This, I 
 and my European friends, are in favor of, for slavery is 
 but the owning of labor, and carries with it, to care for 
 the laborer, while the European plan, led in by England 
 is: capital control of labor by controlling wages. This 
 can be done by controlling the money. The great debt 
 that capitalists will see to it is made out of this war, must 
 be used as the means to control the volume of the money. 
 To accomplish this they (the bonds) must be used as 
 the banking basis. We are now waiting to get the secre- 
 tary of the treasury to make this recommendation to 
 congress. It will not do to allow the "greenbacks," as 
 they are called, to circulate as money any length of time, 
 for we cannot control them, but we can control the bonds, 
 and through them the bank issue. Such is the language 
 in Hazzard's circular of 1862. 
 
136 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Thus the foreign emissary wrote, and it is curious that 
 the secretary did malie just such a recommendation to 
 congress as this agent asked for. Here it is : 
 
 "It (the greenback) should be regarded only as an ex- 
 pedient for emergency. No measure, in my judgment, 
 will meet the necessities of the occasion and prove ad- 
 equate to the provision of the great sums to be required 
 for the suppression of the rebellion, which does not in- 
 clude a firm support to the public credit, through the es- 
 tablishment of a uniform national circulation, secured by 
 the bonds of the United States," said S. P. Chase, secre- 
 tary. 
 
 That was an order of march to the city of the dead. 
 The national banking system is the deepest laid plan to 
 corrupt honesty and destroy liberty ever conceived by 
 man. It has proved to this country a destruction more 
 horrible than the hurricane. It has caused more tears 
 and produced more suffering than pestilence. It. has 
 robbed the masses more ruthlessly than war, and has been 
 more deadly than famine. It was brought forth against 
 the solemn warnings of the sages of the past, and given 
 power that, if not checked, will subvert the Republic. 
 
 The two exceptions on the back of the greenback were 
 put there at the dictation of the bankers. Thad Stevens 
 said of this legislation: "Yes, we had to yield. We did 
 not yield till we found the bankers had to be gratified or 
 the country lost." And looking forward to the horrors 
 of this system of class laws and bank syndicates, he said : 
 "When a few years hence the people shall have been 
 brought to bankruptcy, I shall have the satisfaction of 
 knowing I did all I could to prevent it." 
 
 The "greenbacks" were thus stabbed in the back as a 
 part of the Catalinian conspiracy of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. A distinguished foreigner (Ludback) said: "There 
 is likely to be an effort made by the capital class to fasten 
 upon the world a rule through their wealth, and by means 
 of reduced wages, place the masses upon a footing more 
 degrading and dependent than has ever been known in 
 history. The spirit of money worshippers seems to be 
 rapidly developing in this direction." 
 
 Another great man, Wendell Phillips, said: "The day 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 137 
 
 shall come when capital, in corporate monopoly form, 
 will shake this government to its center. And if the peo- 
 ple are not Spartan in virtue and Baconian in wisdom, 
 the Republic will be subverted and an oligarchy of wealth 
 reared on the altar where liberty was sacrificed. The sen- 
 ate of the United States is fast reaching this end ; the exec- 
 utive branch has been the bulwark of the wealth class 
 and the mightiest power to oppose labor. These two 
 branches in the hands of, and controlled by, money in 
 corporate form will make the popular branch of govern- 
 ment, the lower house, a mere tail to the kite of ruin." 
 
 In spite of these warnings, the Bank Act came, as void 
 of truth as hell is of hope. Then came the new secretary, 
 Hugh McCuUoch, and these words leaped from his 
 mouth: "The first thing to be done is to establish the 
 policy of contraction." 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth," in this utterance, as ef- 
 fectively betrayed honest toil and legitimate business, as 
 did the Judas when he sold the Christ for thirty pieces of 
 silver. 
 
 It was a declaration of war against happiness. 
 
 It was a mandate issued against prosperity. 
 
 It was a mittimus to fill the poorhouses with the desti- 
 tute ; the land with tramps ; the prisons with felons, and 
 the asylums with the demented. 
 
 It was a decree against the hopes of man; a death- 
 strok-e at the heart; it was murderous! 
 
 It was followed by order No. 2, issue4 by the same 
 general: "That the legal-tender acts were war measures, 
 passed in great emergency ; that they be regarded only as 
 temporary; that they ought not to remain in force a day 
 longer than would be necessary to enable the people to 
 prepare for a return to the gold standard; and that the 
 work of retiring the notes which have been issued, should 
 be commenced without delay, and carefully and persist- 
 ently continued, until all are retired." 
 
 Under this inhuman order the people passed into the 
 valley of the shadow of death. The Christ of humanity 
 was crucified between two political thieves. And the 
 Apocalyptic drama — death upon the pale horse and death 
 following — was enacted. 
 
138 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 An ordeal of fire raged, till more than ten thousand 
 millions of dollars of property were transferred from 
 ninety per cent of the people into the hands of ten per 
 cent of the people, at less than twenty per cent of its 
 value. 
 
 Then, the "Conspiracy of Wealth," emboldened by 
 their success, by this scheme of political chicanery, 
 rushed into the temple of liberty and procured from 
 congress that treacherous Confiscation Act. 
 
 "Resolved, That this house cordially concurs in the 
 views of the secretary of the treasury in relation to the 
 necessity of contracting the currency, with a view to as 
 early a resumption of specie payments as the business in- 
 terests of the country will permit ; and we hereby pledge 
 co-operation to this end as speedily as possible." 
 
 That is as infamous an act — whether men know it or 
 not — as ever disgraced the page of a statute book. That 
 "resolution" turned this fair land into a "Black Hole of 
 Calcutta," where men were smothered to death by busi- 
 ness suffocation. Under its blighting influence the springs 
 of life dried up ; hope perished. Amid its consuming 
 ravages a ruined people, a dying nation 
 
 "Marched into the jaws of death 
 Into the gates of hell." 
 
 Millionaires sprang from it as do death fumes from 
 the tomb. Tramps, the legitimate offsprings of million- 
 aires — thronged the highways of the age as thickly as 
 camp fires dot the halls of pandemonia. The "Conspi- 
 racy of Wealth" at this point entered fully upon the field 
 of national conquest. It built the "Bridge of Sighs" — 
 over which the nation has been passing for twenty years. 
 
 * * * The glint of the coming storm begins to 
 light the earth. The old prophets are actualizing in- 
 to history. "Evil shall go forth from nation to na- 
 tion." The agents of despots from abroad, and money 
 mongers at home, have conspired toj-ether to usher in the 
 golden ages — the millennium of self, where wealth shall 
 be defied and Labor enslaved! 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 139 
 
 Infamous laws. Look at the laws made for the one- 
 quarter of one per cent class: 
 
 1. The act of Congress of 1862 placing two excep- 
 tions on the greenback dollar. 
 
 2. The act of Congress of 1863 creating the national 
 banks. 
 
 3. The act of Congress of 1866 contracting the cur- 
 rency — a law to make less money and more bonds. 
 
 4. The act of Congress of 1869, that changed the con- 
 dition of payment of the 5-20 bonds from payment in 
 paper money to payment in coin ; also making the green- 
 backs redeemable in coin — gold and silver. 
 
 5. The act of Congress of 1870 authorizing the fund- 
 ing of the bonds. 
 
 6. The act of Congress of 1873 demonetizing silver, 
 thereby making our debt payable in gold alone. 
 
 7. The resumption act of 1875. 
 
 These laws are essentially class enactments. By tHeir 
 force they create and perpetuate a class. They are not 
 "equal and exact justice to all men with special privileges 
 to none." 
 
 The writer of this article, in 1877, in Milwaukee, after 
 reciting the several laws above set out, used the follow- 
 ing language: "These laws bring us down, by their in- 
 exorable operation, to: i, a single gold standard as a 
 measure of value ; 2, a bonded debt never to be paid ; 3, 
 bank paper issued on these bonds, inflated and contracted 
 at the will of the bank corporations — inflation and con- 
 traction being the soul and spirit of banking." 
 
 For the use of this language the press, both Demo- 
 cratic and Republican, roundly abused me. A prominent 
 Republican paper said : "The man who used such words 
 against the Republican party was either a knave or a 
 fool." A Democratic paper of national circulation said: 
 "Such lingo is a monstrous libel on the Democracy, wbo 
 have opposed banks from the days of Jefferson." 
 
 I said further: "The policy of the leaders of both the 
 old parties has been deceitful ; fair to the ear, but treach- 
 erous to the heart. That they said one thing in their 
 platforms, but shaped the laws and official utterances af- 
 firming the exact opposite of their platforms." 
 
140 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Thus armed, the "Conspiracy of Wealth" has grown 
 in twenty years to be the money power. 
 
 Managed by a bank syndicate, with the privilege of 
 issuing and controlling the volume of money, it has be- 
 come almost infinite. 
 
 Its work is seen everywhere. The railroads are manip- 
 ulated, indeed owned by it. The telegraph does its bid- 
 ding. And both these have been formed into monster 
 monopolies, by the same "Conspiracy of Wealth." Their 
 stocks are watered to the overwhelming sum of five thou- 
 sand millions of dollars. The land — the heritage of the 
 people — is under its blight, and is fast passing from the 
 many to the few. 
 
 The debts, the greatest curse of all, are wholly under 
 the control of this "devil ftsh of ruin." 
 
 Having the control of the volume of the money debt, 
 and the interest on it, it is also under its control. 
 
 This is the fearful condition of the country, and so 
 long as the system continues, the result will be making 
 the rich man richer and the poor man poorer. Not on 
 the principle of equivalent for equivalent, which is equity. 
 But on the principle — non-principle rather — of robbing 
 the poor man of his mite to enhance, to almost infinite 
 proportions, the riches of the rich man. This is the 
 condition today. 
 
 And so infamous has the cause been that society shows 
 signs of dissolution. Failures have increased during 
 the whole twenty years, taken together. Felonies have 
 increased, murders have multiplied, lunacy has become 
 alarming; suicide exceeds all that has gone before; di- 
 vorce — ^breaking up of the marriage relation, the most 
 deadly sign of decay of all — ^has become indeed a danger 
 almost infinite, and the depth has been reached of assassi- 
 nating our rulers. 
 
 These calamities have increased at a ratio greater than 
 in any former period of our history, as compared with 
 our population. 
 
 Thus we have glanced over the period since the war, 
 to refresh our minds. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 141 
 
 WICKED DEMANDS FOR THE FUTURE. 
 
 But, it is asked, were there no restrictions on these vast 
 powers ? We are sorry to say, but few. And they were 
 opposed in their enactment with all the force that could 
 be rallied. Now the restrictions that in the least degree 
 hinder the absolute control of this power it is asked to re- 
 move. More than that; this haughty Conspiracy of 
 Wealth asks for still greater privileges so that its excath- 
 edra may be law, its mandate supreme. 
 
 Act of February 25, 1862, authorizing the greenback. 
 Look at two of Conspiracy's demands : It asks that the 
 greenback shall not be reissued under the law of 1878; 
 that the law authorizing its reissue shall be repealed, the 
 greenback redeemed in gold, and then under the Resump- 
 tion Act the greenback destroyed. 
 
 This done, we would have no legal tender money 
 except gold coin of all denominations and silver dollars 
 (not parts of the dollar). This would add power beyond 
 calculation to the "Conspiracy of wealth" and make it 
 a danger almost omnipotent. 
 
 But if you' would take the two exceptions out of the 
 greenback and make it full legal tender for all demands, 
 it would be a miracle of blessing to the people beyond 
 human estimate and would at the same time stab to the 
 heart with a mortal wound the "Conspiracy of Wealth." 
 
 The Treasury Department is for the "Conspiracy of 
 Wealth" and against the people. 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury, instead of taking the 
 "two stabs" out of the greenback and making it full 
 money, is for stabbing it entirely to death and putting it 
 out of existence ! 
 
 The act of March 25, 1863, creating the national banks 
 is left as it was, with arguments for the enlargement of 
 its privileges. 
 
 There are three bills now pending before the Lower 
 House for the advancement of bank interests, viz., the 
 
142 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 McPherson bill, the Dingley bill and the Potter bill. The 
 Secretary says there is but a small amount of national 
 bank issue out, but if what he asks is granted, then the 
 banks will swell the volume at once. 
 
 The Act of 1866, authorizing the contraction of the 
 currency, has so effectually done its work as to give us 
 less than nine dollars per capita in actual circulation, 
 while in 1864, 1865, and 1866, before this act had af- 
 fected the volume, there was seventy-two dollars per 
 capita — and as a result, during the three years named, 
 being a thousand and ninety-five days in time, there was 
 not as many failures in business as there was in the first 
 twenty-one days of 1885. 
 
 The act of 1869, to "strengthen the public credit," so 
 called, has accomplished its work and been to the coun- 
 try a baptism of blood, a holocaust of hell, and will damn 
 every man who went into it knowing what he did. That 
 act made the bonds and greenbacks payable in "gold and 
 silver coin." The Secretary of the Treasury, as special 
 plunderer for Shylock and agent of the "Conspiracy of 
 Wealth," wants the bonds, if paid at all, paid in gold 
 alone. 
 
 The act of 1870, to fund the debt, has achieved its 
 mission of plunder. The enormity of that act no pen can 
 tell. It can be said of it as was said of Satan's fall: 
 "Hell was moved from beneath to meet its coming." 
 
 When this funding machine was being created, a ma- 
 chine that was to build a city in blood and pave the streets 
 with the muscles of men, "heaven stood appalled and hell 
 rang with jubilee." 
 
 "The 6 per cent bonds have been funded into 4 per 
 cents," cry the Shylocks. Yes, and labor knows that it 
 takes a third more day's work, each ten hours long, to 
 pay $4,000 annual interest on a $100,000 bond than it 
 did in 1866 to pay $6,000, the annual interest on the same 
 $100,000 bond. While you have taken off one-third of 
 the rate of interest, you have, by your infernal money 
 conspiracy, added a weight one-third heavier to the bur- 
 dens. You have robbed labor while uttering the hypo- 
 critical cry of "helping labor." 
 
 Bonds once payable in five years now reach thirty, and 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 143 
 
 must be paid once and three-quarters in interest before 
 the principal can be paid. And both principal and in- 
 terest, during these years of sorrow, are exempt from 
 taxation. 
 
 Yet, in your schemes to overreach the people you have 
 overreached yourselves, and the bonds are now all due 
 and payable. 
 
 The act of 1873, demonetizing silver, has been a kind 
 of hang-fire, a hiatus. Silver was partially restored in 
 1878, but leaving the feature most deadly still in the law 
 —making 25.8 grains of gold coin the unit or dollar, the 
 measure of value. This was a crime, committed by the 
 "Conspiracy of Wealth," that history will write against 
 it. 
 
 And those who knew about it and did the work, will 
 he held as betrayers of the liberties of their country to 
 the demands of foreign despots and home enemies. 
 
 The act of 1875, the resumption law, a masterpiece of 
 sin, has caused a ruin wide as the continent. It has 
 caused sorrow, deep as human suffering can make it. It 
 has robbed as no act ever did. It was as black in con- 
 ception as incendiarism. It was more horrible in execu- 
 tion than the work under the black flag on the Spanish 
 main in the i6th century. 
 
 All these horrors, all these wrongs, are to be condoned. 
 The government is to pass them all by in silence. The 
 march forward is to be: 
 
 1. A gold standard; 
 
 2. Banks of issue ; 
 
 3. The "Conspiracy of wealth" supreme. 
 
 This is all there is of the "financial reform" asked for 
 by the administration. 
 
 Such a financial policy destroys government of the peo- 
 ple, by the people and for the people. 
 
 Such a financial policy, such a "financial reform," as 
 asked for by the Secretary of the Treasury, burns down 
 the temple of liberty, and rears upon its ashes a govern- 
 ment of a class, by a class and for a class — and that class 
 less than one-quarter of one per cent. 
 
 And of them it can be truly said: "No good man ever 
 became rich all of a sudden, all at once." 
 
i4^|. Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Immense and rapid fortunes, generally speaking, are 
 acquired by fraud or violence. 
 
 "cursed be the man that first loved gold/' 
 
 Thus sang old Anacreon twenty-five centuries ago : 
 During all these years gold has been a curse — made so 
 by its lovers. 
 
 Let the whole race of gold-worshippers be cursed. 
 
 Let them find no standing ground upon earth. 
 
 Let them go to their own place — when the Judas went. 
 
 "Gold, gold, in all ages, the curse of mankind, 
 Thy fetters are forged for the soul and the mind." 
 
 Let the golden calf be burned. 
 
 Let its ashes be thrown upon the stream of death to 
 be borne to its native home. 
 
 Let the idol that robs God of worship and man of hon- 
 esty, find no rest outside the pit. 
 
 "A currency in which our monetary unit is coined in 
 gold." — Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 That is the gold standard. 
 
 A gold standard in the great Republic. 
 
 And the world seventy-five billion dollars in debt. 
 
 A gold standard. 
 
 And the Republic owing twenty billion dollars regis- 
 tered debt. 
 
 A gold standard. 
 
 And this nation and its people individually owing ten 
 billion dollars. 
 
 A gold standard. 
 
 The demand of despots. 
 
 The concession of fools. 
 
 THE BANK SPIRIT. 
 
 "The disorders of our currency chiefly arise from the 
 operation of two enactments :" 
 
 I. The act of February 28th, 1878, which has been 
 construed as a permanent appropriation for perpetual 
 Treasury purchase of at least $24,000,000 worth of silver 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 145 
 
 per annum, although from cases mostly foreign, that 
 metal is now of mutable and falling value, which must 
 be manufactured into coins of unlimited legal-tender and 
 issued to the people of the United States, as equivalents 
 of our monetary unit. 
 
 2. The act of May 31, 1878, which indefinitely post- 
 poned fulfillment of the solemn pledge, (March 18, 
 1869) not only of "redemption," but also of payment" 
 of all the obligations of the United States not bearing 
 interest, legalized as $346,000,000 paper money of un- 
 limited legal-tender, and required the post-redemption 
 and issue and reissue of these promises to pay dollars, 
 as equivalent of our monetary unit. But these two evils, 
 which are each a separate menace to the public tranquility 
 and injurious to the public morals and the public faith, 
 etc. — Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 Take that fulmination of the Secretary, altogether, and 
 it amounts to a non sequitar. There are two untruths in 
 it and one assumption which amounts to a falsehood. 
 
 The spirit that gave birth to the national banks is the 
 only spirit that could make such an onslaught upon mor- 
 ality, justice and truth. 
 
 To make such a declaration as that in a State paper, 
 under oath, is simply monstrous. 
 
 1. The United States notes (greenbacks) are not un- 
 limited legal tender. 
 
 They ought to be, they ought to have been made so. 
 But they had two exceptions on them — they are there 
 now. 
 
 2. On the i8th of March, 1869, when the so-called act 
 to strengthen the public credit was passed, gold was not 
 the "unit" of pur monetary value. 
 
 That act (March 18, 1869), speaks of both gold and 
 silver, and s"ays: 
 
 "The United States is solemnly pledged to the pay- 
 ment in coin, of all its obligation, and the United States 
 pledges its faith for the redemption of the United States 
 notes in coin." 
 
 The Funding act of July 14, 1870, makes all the funded 
 bonds payable in coin of the weight and fineness of that 
 date. 
 
146 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 All this the learned Secretary well knew when he 
 penned his wonderful report. 
 
 It was February 12, 1873, that silver was demonetized, 
 and the "gold unit" established. 
 
 When the money despots got such control of our Treas- 
 ury Department as to change our monetary unit. 
 
 On that dreadful night when, as Judge Kelly puts it, 
 such men as Voorhees and Blaine were side-tracked and 
 the "unit" secretly changed. 
 
 The monetary unit was changed from silver to gold. 
 
 Then it was that the despots of Europe — 
 
 "Came, they saw, they conquered." 
 
 The silver unit of 371 1-4 pure silver, 412 1-2 standdrd 
 was dropped. 
 
 And 25 and 8-tenths standard gold was made the "unit 
 of value." 
 
 From April 2, 1792, when the fathers established the 
 "unit" or "dollar," all the way down our history, till the 
 I2th of February, 1873, 371 1-4 grains of pure silver was 
 our monetary unit. 
 
 The change to a gold "unit" under circumstances 
 that taints the affair with indexes of conspiracy is a 
 danger that the Secretary seems to have no conception of. 
 
 Let the American people learn the sooner the better : 
 
 That the act of 1878 only restored partly our silver 
 money — two million a month, and not exceeding four — 
 and it did not repeal the clause in the act of February 
 12, 1873, that changed our monetary unit to gold. 
 
 Let it be remembered forever — 
 
 That act, February 12, 1873, which changed our unit 
 from silver to gold, is an act that will consign to infamy 
 all who knowingly took part in it. 
 
 And now the Secretary of the Treasury asks to have 
 the act of 1878, authorizing two million dollars a month 
 repealed. 
 
 Then we shall be under the act of February 12, 1873, 
 with a golden unit — with a golden dollar that has appre- 
 ciated (by the aid of law) forty per cent in ten years. 
 That will put us fately on the road to ruin. 
 
 We demand as a citizen: that the act of February 12, 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 147 
 
 1873, that surreptitiously fastened the golden unit on us, 
 shall be repealed and the silver monetary unit restored. 
 
 The recommendations of the Secretary are in the in- 
 terest of the few and against the interests of the people 
 at large. 
 
 The recommendations ask for the repeal of just laws 
 and the retention of bad ones. The laws asked to be re- 
 pealed, defective as they are, have saved the country from 
 a ruin, but for them would have been overwhelming. 
 
 The reissue of the legal-tenders and the giving us of 
 two million dollars a month have been the means of sav- 
 ing a remnant of liberty and property to the people. 
 
 The Secreatry now asks, under the guise of a nonsequi- 
 tor, that these laws be repealed in the interest of good 
 morals. 
 
 Bah! 
 
 THE CRIME OF GOLD. 
 
 The Secretary asks this: 
 
 That an unjust law (February 12, 1873), may remain 
 to ruin the people. 
 
 A gold standard will ruin them. 
 
 To change to a gold unit, after our immense debts 
 were made on a silver unit. 
 
 Was so unjust as to allow of no palliation. 
 
 It was a crime. 
 
 To repeal that law and come back to the silver unit 
 under which the debts were made. 
 
 Is the demand of justice. 
 
 THEIR DOOM IN SIGHT. 
 
 What is the matter with the disciples of self? 
 What is the trouble in the camp of the army of pelf? 
 Does the galled jade begin to wince. Ah, ha! 
 This cry of gold is the serene song of greed. 
 This "gold standard" is the watchword of a conspiracy 
 to rob. 
 A Secretary at the end of the war said : 
 "Come to the gold standard." 
 
148 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The cry was raised while the ground was soaking with 
 the blood of the fallen heroes. 
 
 The attempt to carry such a decree into actual fact, 
 would fill the world with a wider ruin than famine, pesti- 
 lence and war combined. 
 
 THE CRY A LIE. 
 
 What do these "money-changers" want? 
 
 The object is not to make actual gold payments. 
 
 But to measure in gold. 
 
 Then pay in something else. 
 
 The debtor paying the difference between two kinds of 
 money. 
 
 The creditor getting it. 
 
 Thus making gold a tyrant in the hands of a few des- 
 pots — and the people turned to helots to fill graves of 
 despair. 
 
 This is the feast to which we are invited. 
 
 It is the missionaries of greed proclaiming the millen- 
 nium of self. 
 
 THE CREDIT DEVIL. 
 
 The legal-tender quality of the United States notes 
 (greenbacks), was not always looked upon as "injurious 
 to morals." 
 
 No. 
 
 When national bank issue is to be "redeemed," then the 
 greenback is the "redeemer." 
 
 We challenge contradiction of the following: 
 
 Make all the national bank issue redeemable in gold, on 
 demand, under penalty of death. 
 
 And a national banker could not be found in the world. 
 
 Bankers do not propose to redeem their notes, in fact. 
 
 The promise is a sham. 
 
 A specie paying banking system is a fraud — a lie. 
 
 It never existed, in fact. 
 
 It never will. 
 
 What is all this clamor about, anyway? 
 
 "Is old earth reeling to a fall ?" 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 149 
 
 Here it is. 
 
 It is to reduce the volume of the legal-tender money. 
 
 That is what the howl along the whole line means. 
 
 What are these "single standard" fellows aiming at? 
 
 Here is the answer: 
 
 To get control of the volume of the money. 
 
 What these "gold-bugs" are driving at, put in another 
 form, is: 
 
 To secure the exclusive right to sell their credit on 
 time and get pay in hand, and also get interest on the 
 credit, during the time it runs. 
 
 To measure the credit thus sold, they want control of 
 the unit of value. 
 
 The smaller the number of "units," the easier con- 
 trolled. 
 
 The smaller the number of units, the more valuable the 
 credit sold. 
 
 This is all there is of the "financial reform" of the 
 Secretary. 
 
 The national banks — and they are the power behind 
 the throne — want the unit of value, stamped on some- 
 thing, so scarce and so little of it, that they can "corner" 
 it. 
 
 And by controlling the material of the "unit" they con- 
 trol the volume. 
 
 And it is the volume of the money that fixes prices. 
 
 THE SLY DODGE 
 
 "To keep this sly dodge" in the dark, my boys, ways 
 that are dark and tricks that are vain must be resorted to. 
 
 This "convertible into coin on demand" is one of them. 
 
 It is the most dastardly lie that ever belched from the 
 throat of a Shylock to rob a helot. 
 
 A specie paying banking system is a contrivance to 
 cheat labor. 
 
 The record this "contrivance" has made reads like the 
 diary of a buccaneer. 
 
150 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 THE CONFIDENCE GAME. 
 
 "It is far better to fix the maximum of legal-tender notes 
 at $300,000,000 supported by a minimum reserve of $100,- 
 000,000 of coin. A demand for coin to exhaust such a 
 reserve may not occur, but, if events force it, then it 
 virould justify a temporary suspension of specie pay- 
 ments." 
 
 That is the way "another Secretary" sets it up. 
 
 Three hundred million United States notes resting on 
 one hundred million coin. 
 
 Three dollars in paper to be "redeemed" in one of 
 coin. These Secretaries of the Treasury have a way of 
 thinking that such a plan would be safe guardian for pub- 
 lic morals and a giant to shield the public faith. 
 
 Hear them talk when under the inspiring influence of 
 their religious fervor: 
 
 "General confidence in these notes (United States) 
 would maintain them at par in coin, and justify their use 
 as reserves of banks and for the redemption of bank 
 notes." 
 
 There is specie payments for you. ^ 
 
 There is "honest money." 
 
 There is a system of lying that beats Simon Luggs. 
 
 United States notes (greenbacks) bottomed on two- 
 thirds confidence and one-third coin as a bank basis. And 
 this "paper money" (greenbacks) is to be used for the 
 "redemption" of bank notes. 
 
 A DOUBT BY A SAINT. 
 
 But at this point the faith of the inventor of this "con- 
 fidence game" became a little weak. A paper "redeemer," 
 supported by two dollars in confidence and one in coin to 
 every three dollars, might fail. 
 
 So this same learned Secretary, to make his bank sys- 
 tem safe beyond all doubt, made bank paper redeemable 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper 151 
 
 in Government paper, then prated like an owl about re- 
 deemable paper, and said national bank paper was good — 
 "the best the world ever saw." 
 
 THE SAINT SPEAKS. i 
 
 "But all experience has shown that there are periods 
 under any system of paper money, however carefully 
 guarded, when it is impossible to maintain actual coin 
 redemption." 
 
 To meet this contingency it would seem to be right to 
 maintain the legal-tender quality of the United States 
 notes. 
 
 That one paragraph consigns to the place of Judas the 
 whole specie bosses system as a fraud unparalleled — as a 
 lie unsurpassed. 
 
 It is impossible to maintain actual coin redemption of 
 bank paper. 
 
 O! wisdom! 
 
 Therefore "keep legal-tender paper monev to redeem 
 them." 
 
 THE SECRETARY. 
 
 Like the weeping goddess in the valley of sorrow ; 
 
 Is baptised in his own sea of tears — Because the "re- 
 demption" of the never-failing "redeemer" of bank notes 
 has been "indefinitely postponed." 
 
 Let Congress pass at once an act, requiring each person 
 to cry thirty days, and abstain from liquid stimulant for 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 Then shall the world move gaily on. 
 
 Then shall tumult cease. 
 
 Then shall civil service become a thing of beauty and 
 a joy forever. 
 
 And then the millennial years, running as smoothly as 
 the oil on Aaron's beard, shall go tripping by. 
 
152 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 A QUESTION ANSWERED. 
 
 "Is the land passing from the many to the few?" — I. 
 Wilson. 
 
 Answer: For sixty-five years of our history three- 
 quarters of the people owned their homes and one-quarter 
 were tenants. 
 
 At the end of the war five-eighths owned their homes 
 and three-eighths were tenants. 
 
 In 1885 three-dghths owned their homes and Hve- 
 eighths were tenants. 
 
 ANOTHER QUESTION. 
 
 Col. Harper, what relation does money bear to com- 
 merce? What is commerce? Please give us what you 
 said at Newcastle, Pa. — /. W. 
 
 COMMERCE ITS RELATION TO MONEY AND TRANSPORTA- 
 TION. 
 
 My object is to illustrate underlying principles, by tak- 
 ing "Commerce" as a text. * * * 
 
 If you will pass along the highways and byways of 
 trade and listen to all that is said of the importance of 
 extending our commerce, you will be led to think that 
 "Commerce" is to the physical creation what Wall street 
 is to Congress — its soul. 
 
 Indeed, the world at large, without "Commerce," would 
 be like a political canvass without whiskey — dead. 
 
 To hear the "long headed" fellows talk of the "desira- 
 bleness" of extending our "Commercial relations," you 
 would think "Commerce" 
 
 "Was the sum of all good." 
 
 "The end of all desire." 
 
 Ah! me, there are statesmen, not only "long headed," 
 but "thick headed," too. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 153 
 
 They affirm : 
 
 "The necessity of extending our Commerce has be- 
 come supreme." 
 
 They are wise men after the pattern of Simon Sieggs. 
 
 Our whole foreign trade is two per cent as compared 
 with our domestic, which is ninety-eight per cent. 
 
 And yet there are men (save the marif) who are dying 
 because our government will not give its whole energies 
 to furnishing a money for the two per cent and let the 
 ninety-eight per cent perish for want of sufficient money 
 to do the vast business transacted at home. 
 
 These "rampant roarers" are shedding barrels of tears 
 over the two per cent but not a tear for the ninety-eight. 
 
 O ! wisdom, be silent. 
 
 O ! reason, be dumb. 
 
 Now for a little sense. 
 
 Ask one of these fellows — 
 
 "What is Commerce?" 
 
 "What is that thing that you say must be extended — 
 extended to foreign countries?" 
 
 "Let us know exactly what you want extended." 
 
 And they are as ignorant on the subject of Commerce 
 as a legislator is on the question of justice. 
 
 If you urge them to give you a definition of "Com- 
 merce" they are as wholly disqualified for the task as is 
 the Secretary of the Treasury to tell the truth on the 
 Silver question. 
 
 Their verbosity of speech is only equalled by their in- 
 anity of sense. Our foreign Commerce should be at- 
 tended to as a wise policy. 
 
 But our home trade must be nurtured and cared for, 
 with our whole strength, in order to the highest happi- 
 ness of the people. 
 
 To neglect our home Commerce is to court the death of 
 the Republic. * * * 
 
 What is Commerce? 
 
 Those who talk learnedly about "extending" it fail to 
 give a definition of it. 
 
 Those who say the extension of our Commerce is a 
 "necessity" are wholly lacking, in clear definition, as to 
 what thev want. 
 
1 54 -^*/^ of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "Commerce" with them is a general term and they 
 cannot intelligently explain, even to a boy, what they 
 are talking about. 
 
 So all the way from Legislative Halls, down to the 
 hustings, there is much noise, little sense and less truth 
 on this question. 
 
 We ask for definitions. 
 
 Let us hear from the people. 
 
 We give ours and from it argue. 
 
 "Commerce" — the traffic in and carrying from one 
 place to another the products of human labor and human 
 genius — derived from nature. 
 
 He who loads his wagon at his barn with wheat, and 
 draws it to the warehouse, is a part of Commerce. 
 
 For he is carrying from one place to another the prod- 
 uct of labor. 
 
 To create "Commerce" — foreign and domestic — two 
 things are essential. 
 
 1. Change of title to the product. 
 
 2. Change of place of the product. 
 
 To extend "Commerce" two things are necessary: 
 
 1. To increase the change of title. 
 
 2. To increase the change of place. 
 
 To do this, two other things are needed : 
 
 1. Some "medium" by which title in products can be 
 changed. 
 
 2. Some "medium" by which the product itself can be 
 moved. 
 
 "Traffic" is merely changing title. 
 
 The merchant selling goods is but changing title — and 
 the more title he can put out of himself into his customer 
 the better the day's business. 
 
 There are two ways of changing title. 
 
 1. By barter. 
 
 2. By money. 
 
 Credit is but elongated change of title, pn usance to be 
 closed by barter or money, in the future. 
 
 These positions being true — it follows : 
 
 I. That there must be a sufficiency of the "medium" 
 to healthfully exchange all the titles that need to be 
 changed. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 155 
 
 2. That there must be a sufficiency of the "medium," 
 to healthfully move to the places required, all products 
 that need moving. 
 
 The sequence to this is: 
 
 In the rightful exchange of title and carrying from 
 place to place the products of labor, to the extent required 
 by the diversified wants of mankind, are the material in- 
 terests of the race, most fully assured. 
 
 While to disturb these great equities of life is to be- 
 come a murderer. 
 
 Before we illustrate these, let us state some maxims. 
 
 1. Man's highest duty — religious and secular — is: 
 To make of himself the best intellectual, moral and 
 
 physical being possible. 
 
 2. To do this he must be fed, clothed and sheltered. 
 Hence, that he may accomplish these high duties which 
 
 he owes to the church (the religious force) and to the 
 state (the government force), he must have free access 
 to nature. 
 
 There must be, therefore, the change of title of products 
 and the change of place of products. 
 
 And it follows that in exact proportion to the change 
 of title in products and the change of place of products, 
 is the happiness of man advanced or retarded. 
 
 Neither the form of government, the age of the world, 
 nor the religious belief in the least degree affect these cen- 
 ter truths in the life of man. 
 
 Labor was the first, the great gift to man. 
 Capital is the fruit. 
 
 Bearing these elementary principles in mind, let us 
 amplify : 
 
 :{: ^ ^ ^ :): ^ ;{: 
 
 Let us, for the "medium" by which title is changed, 
 substitute "dollar." 
 
 And let us, for the "medium" by which the product is 
 moved, substitute "car." 
 
 Then let us suppose that a munificent father, through 
 his bounteous ways, has filled the world, in response to the 
 toil of man, with all that is needed to feed, clothe and shel- 
 ter. 
 
iS6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 And on a certain day it is found that there are "dollars" 
 enough to change the title to products as fast as the de- 
 mands of food, clothing and shelter require. 
 
 And on the same day it is found that there are enough 
 "cars" to move from place to place products as fast as the 
 demands of food, clothing and shelter require. 
 
 Then human interests, material, are at their best. 
 
 The highest mortal state is attained. 
 
 The march then is toward intellectual, moral and physi- 
 cal perfected manhood. 
 
 At this point, when all of material happiness seems to 
 blend with an infinite plan. 
 
 Suppose the government, no matter what its form, 
 should reach forth with sovereign grasp — 
 
 And take half the "cars," lock them up or destroy them. 
 
 Infinite wisdom could alone tell the horrors that would 
 follow. 
 
 Products would gorge in one place, in another place, 
 emptiness. 
 
 One place would have surfeit of food, in another star- 
 vation. 
 
 Earth, the day before fair as Eden, now turned into a 
 lazarretto of death. 
 
 God's bounties destroyed and his blessings turned to 
 a curse. 
 
 And all from the simple fact of stopping one-half of the 
 "cars." 
 
 "Commerce" would be ruined, its necessary elements 
 annihilated. 
 
 What would the just man say, what would he think of 
 a government like that, a government transformed into an 
 enemy of both God and man ? 
 
 But suppose the "cars" are all left and the govern- 
 ment — 
 
 Takes one-half of the "dollars" out of circulation, locks 
 them up or destroys them. 
 
 And, when remonstrated with, instead of changing its 
 course, keeps on till all the "dollars," save one quarter or 
 less, is locked up. 
 
 And then boast that there was just as many dollars as 
 there ever was. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 157 
 
 Such a government would be a tyranny unequalled in 
 the world's history. 
 
 The men who brought such a condition should be to- 
 tally destroyed and their names head the list of infamy in 
 all after ages. 
 
 Mortal man could not tell in all its fullness the suffer- 
 ing that would fill the world. 
 
 Starvation and death, in a march through the fields of 
 desolation, would make a picture that would cause heaven 
 to be draped. 
 
 Business failures would multiply. 
 
 Penitentiary officers would increase. 
 
 Murder would reign. 
 
 Lunacy grow till hope would die. 
 
 Suicide would fatten as it roamed the fields of despair. 
 
 Divorce, with the vengeance of a devil, would threaten 
 with utter extinction the marriage relation — the holiest re- 
 lation of all. 
 
 And then the rulers, no matter of what name, would 
 be stricken to death by the hand of assassination. 
 
 These signs of a dying civilization are lighting up the 
 world to-day. 
 
 Take warning ! 
 
 The locking up or destroying of the "dollar" would 
 be — is — ^infinitely worse than destroying the "cars." 
 
 For the "Credits" (debts) could never be discharged 
 and the "usance" (interest) on them could never be paid. 
 
 So man, bearing a burden, so heavy as to make life a 
 curse — dies in despair. * * * 
 
 The direct effect of locking up the "dollars" is to drive 
 us down to barter. 
 
 The direct effect of locking up the "dollar" is to anni- 
 hilate Commerce. 
 
 The direct effect of locking up the "dollar" is to destroy 
 civilization. 
 
 "Commerce" destroyed, man reduced to a nomad. 
 
 The exchange of title of the infinite variety of products 
 — stops. 
 
 The carrying from place to place of this infinite variety 
 — stops. 
 
 "Old chaos reigns — " 
 
158 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "The damned, in ceaseless jargon — " 
 
 "Ring out hell's jubilee." 
 
 The world — our Republic — 
 
 Is struggling in the midst of this sea of ruin to-day. 
 
 As the "dollars" grow less "Commerce" becomes a 
 curse. 
 
 For the other factor, "cars," double up their demands — 
 
 So that the carrying of products from one place to an- 
 other becomes a monopoly — 
 
 "Infinite in grasp, deathless in purpose." 
 
 And as "dollars" lessen in number, monopoly grows, 
 until the nation hangs in even balance between life and 
 death. 
 
 The value of "dollars" consists in putting them away 
 from you, for something that will feed, clothe and shelter 
 the body. 
 
 So to hoard "dollars" is a crime ! 
 
 The "dollar" is the "medium" to change title. 
 
 So to hoard "dollars" is a crime! 
 
 The "car" is the "medium" to change the plact of prod- 
 ucts. 
 
 So to stop them is a crime. 
 
 And to make them a monopoly is a crime. 
 
 The "dollar" (the medium of exchange) knows no 
 state, no nation — the world is its Held. 
 
 The "car" (all appliances for carrying) knows no state, 
 no nation — the world is its field ! 
 
 "Capital," inspired by greed, has control of both. 
 
 Wherever upon earth God has spread his bounties and 
 laid up in store that which will feed, clothe and shelter, 
 when utilized by labor — there "capital," with the "dollar" 
 in one hand and the "car" in the other, rears its taber- 
 nacle — 
 
 And begins the robbery of God and man. 
 
 It does it by monopolizing the "medium" that changes 
 title to products ; 
 
 And by monopolizing the "medium" that changes the 
 place of products. 
 
 "Capital" has spread its checker-board — it is the world. 
 
 The stake played for — 
 
 Possession of the earth. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 159 
 
 Ajnd when the game is counted, the result declared, it 
 will be — 
 
 Satraps on one side. 
 
 Helots on the other. 
 
 The gold standard means this. 
 
 The fight against silver means this. 
 
 The fight against greenbacks means this. 
 
 The substitution of full legal tender paper money in 
 volume sufficient for all purposes — is the remedy so far as 
 the money question is concerned. 
 
 "THE ENEMIES OF THE REPUBLIC." 
 
 "Let the advocates of gold and the advocates of silver 
 compromise their differences by retiring the United States 
 notes (greenbacks) with the understanding that no more 
 legal tenders shall be issued. This would leave the whole 
 field open to national bank issues, to be redeemed in coin. 
 
 "Any arrangement that will result in the canceling of 
 the legal tenders, followed by an act of congress declar- 
 ing that no more shall be issued, will be accepted by the 
 supporters of a coin basis as a sound settlement of the 
 financial problem. 
 
 "We hope this suggestion may be acted on, for it 
 reaches the bottom of the difficulty. Bank issue convert- 
 ible into coin — well secured by public pledge — and the ir- 
 redeemable United States notes out of the way — this is 
 the need of the hour." — London Letter. 
 
 Thus the syndicate talks. 
 
 Thus the great money power of Europe talks to its 
 allies of the republic 
 
 This is not new. 
 
 The Hazzard Circular of 1862 said greenbacks are 
 "temporary." 
 
 That circular said national bank paper must be "per^ 
 manent." 
 
 Government legal tender paper money; 
 
 Or, bank paper credit. 
 
 This is the struggle. 
 
i6o Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The policy of the leaders of both the old parties, for 
 more than twenty years, has been for the bank issue. 
 
 They have covered their designs by trick and false- 
 hood, so that the people are blind. 
 
 The man — we do not care which side of the coin ques- 
 tion he is on, the gold or the silver — 
 
 If he is for the national banks, he is advocating the 
 most infamous money system recorded in the history of 
 the human race. 
 
 The national banking system is a more deadly enemy 
 to liberty than was chattel slavery. 
 
 It will rob labor more ruthlessly; 
 
 It will endanger our institutions more fatally; 
 
 It will corrupt Christianity more ruinously. 
 
 Be warned. 
 
 Look out for betrayal. 
 
 Wake up. 
 
 The world is drifting on a lee shore. 
 
 The deluge is not far ahead. 
 
 The republic for its life must fight the money power 
 of the world. 
 
 Strike at the heart of the monster that threatens the 
 destruction of Christian Civilization — 
 
 A false money system. 
 
 It is a system that oppresses labor. 
 
 It is a system that destroys liberty. 
 
 It is a system that dishonors God. 
 
 The secret enemies of the republic — 
 
 The money deposits of the world — 
 
 Are planning in secret conclave 
 
 To enslave the race. 
 
 Let congress wake up from its Rip Van Winkle sleep 
 of twenty years. 
 
 Let our law makers grasp the fact : 
 
 That the national banks are the enemy that must be 
 overthrown. 
 
 Let each man be for them or against them. Show your 
 colors. 
 
 If for them, then he is against the people. 
 
 If against them, then on that issue, he is for the people. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. i6i 
 
 They are deadly enemies of free institutions. Both can- 
 not Hve under the same flag. Which shall die? 
 
 "the golden unit/' the despot's song. 
 
 The march to peace is over the broken altars of wrong. 
 
 The bridge of sighs leads to the sea of tears. 
 
 The greed of capital is the prelude to despair. 
 
 The omniarch of the world ought to speak again : 
 
 "Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead." 
 
 Gangrene is the vestibule to the charnel house of death. 
 
 The world drifts; 
 
 Riches defy God. 
 
 The poor die, 
 
 Heaven stands appalled, 
 
 Hell holds jubilee 
 
 And the golden god in silken sheen. 
 
 The state in night-mare holds, 
 
 While storms as fierce as furies march. 
 
 Wrap worlds in fiery folds. 
 
 Policy prates of "material wealth," 
 
 And despots shout their song — 
 
 "That capital is a thing of right." 
 
 "Labor a thing of wrong." 
 
 The political march for twenty years on the money 
 question 
 
 Has been a lie. 
 
 It is no better now. 
 
 Listen : 
 
 We are told by the capitalist that the river to the fair 
 land of business felicity is to be crossed on a golden 
 bridge. 
 
 And this anthem is struck upon every string of the 
 siren harp of tyrants. 
 
 It is false clamor, incongruous as the nightingales 
 which the soul of Sophocles heard singing in the grove of 
 the Furies. 
 
 It is the presage of darkness that threatens the uplift- 
 ing of the shadow of death. 
 
 It is the chorus of fiends echoing from the vaults of 
 Pluto. 
 
1 62 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Such a pean amid the "dying of want," sang by the 
 soulless, seems like the fresco of hope on the walls of 
 hell to heighten the horrors of the damned. 
 
 With a million out of employment, at a loss of a million 
 a day in unearned wealth, the song is a jargon of woe. 
 
 With another half million loss, on half rations, "be- 
 cause too poor to eat," the woe becomes double. 
 
 With sorrows that follow what tongue can tell. 
 
 Hopeless men. 
 
 Heart-broken women, 
 
 Dying children. 
 
 These fill earth with the evangels of despair. 
 
 Business depressions as wide as the world, range lower 
 than they have been in a hundrd years, 
 
 And money almighty! 
 
 What shall be the end ? 
 
 What shall the song declare? 
 
 What shall the harvest be? 
 
 The president strikes hope in the face. 
 
 Congress sleeps, wrangles and votes — 
 
 For the gold unit! 
 
 The judiciary dreams. 
 
 And God denounces this modern money because it 
 comes not up to the help of the people against the mighty 
 — god of gold. 
 
 The railroads have become a tyranny. 
 
 The telegraphs have become a tyranny. 
 
 Land jobbery has become a tyranny. 
 
 Debt has become a tyranny. 
 
 Money has become a tyranny. 
 
 Banks of issue crown the arch and become the sixth fac- 
 tor in the triumphal march to ruin. 
 
 Are there no dangers? 
 
 Fools say "no." 
 
 Are there no wrongs, deep-seated as sin, wide-spread 
 as the world? 
 
 Knaves say "no." 
 
 Look and see. 
 
 The increase of crime is a result of a cause. 
 
 The increase of murder is a result of a cause. 
 
 The increase of lunacy is a residt of a cause. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 163 
 
 The increase of suicide is a result of a cause. 
 
 The increase of divorce is a result of a cause. 
 
 The assassination of our presidents is a result. 
 
 Remove the cause. 
 
 The combined powers of the world cannot destroy a 
 cause by figliting a result. 
 
 Repressive forces, striking at results, cannot remove 
 the cause lying back of it. 
 
 The great depression in business is a result. 
 
 The universal unrest is a result. 
 
 The "strike" is a result. 
 
 Dynamite is a result. 
 
 Labor trouble is a result. 
 
 Growing out of the oppression of labor. 
 
 Capital in the hands of fallen man 
 
 Is a tyrant. 
 
 A few years ago it said — 
 
 "Capital shall own labor." 
 
 Now it says — 
 
 "Capital shall control labor." 
 
 The first was chattel slavery. 
 
 The second is serfdom — 
 
 A greater enemy to labor than the first. 
 
 "It is labor that needs protection, not capital." — Lin- 
 coln. 
 
 MONEY CANNOT BE REDEEMED IN MONEY. 
 
 To Affirm Such a System Is to Affirm a System of 
 Robbery. 
 
 Money is not to be redeemed in money, but in commo- 
 dities and labor, and this redemption — the very life of 
 money — is to go on as long as there are commodities to 
 sell or labor to be employed. 
 
 The Greenback party believes that the exchange ofi 
 property and labor should be for equivalents. 
 
 The old parties believe that property and labor should' 
 be exchanged by operation of law and not on equiva- 
 lents. 
 
 The Greenback party says money must be redeemed.. 
 
164 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The Democrats and Republicans say it need not be re- 
 deemed. 
 
 The Greenback party is the advocate of redeemable 
 money. 
 
 The old hardware parties are for irredeemable money. 
 
 When a greenback dollar is taken to the treasury and 
 a gold dollar given for it the greenback dollar has not 
 been redeemed, but has been exchanged for another kind 
 of dollar. And the gold dollar must be redeemed, or it is 
 irredeemable money. All money, whether metal or pa- 
 per, must be redeemed in commodities and services. 
 
 What sense is there in working yourself into a fury to 
 get your greenback dollar exchanged for a gold dollar 
 when, unless your gold dollar is redeemed, it is of no 
 value? Listen to what some of the most distinguished 
 writers on the subject say : 
 
 "The redemption of money in commodities and 
 services through the clearing houses of the indus- 
 try of the world, from which every one withdraws 
 precisely the things he desires in exchange for the money 
 he holds, is the beau ideal money, under the present sys- 
 tem of the infinite division of labor." — Moran on Money, 
 III. 
 
 There it is in a nut shell. There is the real plan for 
 the redemption of money. 
 
 When a person gets money for goods or work he has 
 not got pay for the goods or labor, but an order for the 
 
 pay- 
 Money of all kinds, whether metal or paper, is merely 
 an order for commodities and services. 
 
 Read this from a work known in both Europe and 
 America : 
 
 "When a laborer has received his wages in money he 
 has not received an equivalent for his services, but only 
 something which will enable him to get what he chooses. 
 The money, therefore, that he possesses is not the equiva- 
 lent, but it is the symbol, the proof, that he has rendered 
 services or property, for which he has not received an 
 equivalent." — Macleod on Banking, 1 124. 
 
 That is the system of the Greenback party. They spurn 
 the devilish system of paper money, to be redeemed in coin 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 165 
 
 — but say all money must be redeemed In commodities 
 and services. 
 
 GUILTY. 
 
 At the Michigan camp meeting General West ar- 
 raigned the two old parties before his vast' audience as 
 jurors, allowing the defendants to testify against each 
 other. 
 
 He first arraigned the Republican party and called on 
 the Democratic National convention to make the charge, 
 which they did through their national platform, as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "What say you Democratic witnesses?" 
 
 "7. We execrate the course of this administration 
 in making places in the civil service a reward for political 
 crime, and demand a reform by statute which shall make 
 it forever impossible for a defeated candidate to bribe his 
 way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon 
 the people. 
 
 "8. The great fraud of 1876-77, by which, upon a 
 false count of the electoral votes of two states, the can- 
 didate defeated at the polls was declared to be president, 
 and for the first time in American history the will of the 
 people was set aside under a threat of military violence, 
 struck a deadly blow at our system of representative gov- 
 ernment." 
 
 Here is the testimony of 4,443,950 witnesses, not 
 Greenbackers, but Democrats, given at the ballot box 
 last November: 
 
 "What say the jury — guilty or not guilty?" 
 
 "Guilty r 
 
 The Democratic party was arraigned, when the follow- 
 ing charge made by the last Republican National con- 
 vention and sustained by the votes of 4,^^/1,950 witnesses 
 at the polls in November last, was preferred: 
 
 "We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual 
 sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and in- 
 satiable lust of office and patronage. That to obtain pos- 
 session of the national and state governments and the 
 control of place and position, they have obstructed all 
 
1 66 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 efforts to promote the purity and conserve the freedom 
 of suffrage; have devised fraudulent certifications and 
 returns ; have labored to unseat lawfully elected members 
 of congress ; to secure at all hazards the vote of a major- 
 ity of the states in the House of Representatives; have 
 endeavored to occupy by force and fraud the places of 
 trust given to others by the people of Maine, and rescued 
 by the courage in action of Maine's patriotic sons ; have, 
 by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in prac- 
 tice, attempted partisan legislation to appropriate bills, 
 upon whose passage the very movements of the govern- 
 ment depends ; have crushed the rights of the individual ; 
 have advocated the principle and sought the favor of re- 
 bellion against the Nation, and have sought to obliterate 
 the sacred memories of the war, and to overcome its in- 
 estimably good results — freedom and individual equal- 
 ity." 
 
 To the charge, in view of the overwhelming testimony 
 in support of it, what say the jury — guilty or not guilty? 
 
 "Guilty." 
 
 In view of the overwhelming proof of guilt against 
 each of the defendants, what is the duty of the American 
 people? Shall these parties, convicted of corruption, 
 longer receive the support of freemen, or shall they be 
 consigned to that oblivion that awaits those in high places 
 who trample justice under foot, and disregard those in- 
 terests they were commissioned to protect? — Harper in 
 People's Advocate. 
 
 CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESSMAN. 
 
 LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 Danville, III.^ Aug. ii, 1890. 
 Hon. S. D. Noe. 
 
 My Dear Sir : — Have just received your letter, as secre- 
 tary, officially notifying me that the Industrial Conven- 
 tion that met in this city on the 6th of August, nominated 
 me for Congress from the 15th District of Illinois; also 
 enclosing a platform adopted by the convention. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 167 
 
 The action of that convention, thus placing me before 
 the people, was a surprise. 
 
 Not having thought of the matter, and having a work 
 before me that required all my time, it seemed out of the 
 question to give any attention to it. 
 
 The platform is a plain, concise statement of the prin- 
 ciple for which I have contended for years, and which I 
 shall continue to do. I am in full accord with it, and be- 
 lieve if the suggestions set forth were carried into opera- 
 tion, that the country would be elevated and strengthened 
 and the people made more happy and prosperous. 
 
 I reproduce the platform you sent me as a part of this 
 letter. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL PLATFORM. 
 
 1. We, the people in convention assembled represent- 
 ing the industrial classes, feel the depression of the times 
 and believe it is the result of unjust and unwise legisla- 
 tion, not only national and state, but local. 
 
 2. We demand the passage of a service pension bill 
 to every honorably discharged Union soldier and sailor 
 of the United States. 
 
 3. We are unalterably opposed to the making and 
 vending of spiritous and malt liquors as beverages, and 
 demand the legislature to submit to a vote of the people a 
 constitutional amendment on the liquor traffic. 
 
 4. A free ballot and an honest count being essential 
 to fair elections, we demand a system of voting similar to 
 the Australian system. 
 
 5. We demand a constitutional amendment making 
 the president, vice president and U. S. senators elective 
 by a direct vote of the people. 
 
 6. We demand such laws as will effectually prevent 
 the dealing in futures of all agricultural and mechanical 
 productions, pursuing a stringent system of procedure 
 in trials as shall secure the prompt conviction and im- 
 posing such penalties as shall secure the most perfect 
 compliance of law. 
 
 7. That the means of transportation and communica- 
 tion be controlled by the people as is the postal system. 
 
i68 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 8. Land grants to corporations, forfeited by reason of 
 non-fulfillment of contracts, should be immediately re- 
 claimed by the government; those who are not residents 
 or citizens should not be allowed to own lands in the 
 United States, and the public domain should be reserved 
 as homes for actual settlers. 
 
 9. The establishment of a monetary system in the in- 
 terest of the masses, instead of the speculator and usurer, 
 by which a circulating medium of full legal tender shall 
 be issued directly to the people without the intervention of 
 banks, and loaned to citizens upon ample security at a rate 
 of three per cent interest ; postal savings banks should be 
 established. Where we have free coinage of gold we 
 should have free coinage of silver. We demand the 
 prompt payment of the national debt. 
 
 ID. A graduated income tax is the most equitable 
 system of taxation, placing the burden on those who can 
 best afford to bear it, instead of laying it on the farmer 
 and producer and exempting millionaires and bond hold- 
 ers. 
 
 11. We demand the enactment of laws for the sup- 
 pression of all trusts and combinations which are designed 
 to enrich the few at the expense of the many. 
 
 12. We believe that the best interests of education 
 demand a uniformity of text books in public schools and 
 demand that all text books be published by the state and 
 sold directly to school boards. 
 
 13. Arbitration should settle all labor disputes. 
 
 14. We demand the weighing of all coal before being 
 screened. Also no employes shall be dispossessed of 
 premises by the employers until after the settlement of 
 their troubles by arbitration. 
 
 15. We are in favor of tariff reform and the free coin- 
 age of gold and silver. We will not support any candi- 
 date for congress unless he declares himself in favor of 
 the principle above. 
 
 16. Resolved, That we believe in a government of the 
 people, by and for the people, based upon the principles 
 laid down in the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 The difficult question for me, that the action of the men 
 composing that convention presents, is, can I best sub- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 169 
 
 serve the principles announced in the platform by being 
 a candidate, or by going on with the work in the same 
 way I have for years. 
 
 My confidence and respect for the men forming that 
 convention is strong and abiding. I thank them for their 
 confidence in me. And whatever may be the outcome, 
 they shall never be betrayed by me. 
 
 To determine my duty, for myself, is a grave and diffi- 
 cult task. And but for the urgent, earnest request of 
 these, I regard true men, to take the place, I should de- 
 cide at once to go on as I have been going for years. 
 
 I have been educating on the great questions that are 
 seeking solution, not alone in this country, but all civiliza- 
 tion as well. 
 
 That this age is facing questions such as man never met 
 before, is so patent as to need no argument. The saying 
 o^ the distinguished senator is profoundly true, "that the 
 country is confronted with emergencies greater, in my 
 judgment, that it has ever been confronted with in the 
 past." 
 
 No consideration of private gain or public revenue can 
 justify the upholding of a system so utterly wrong in 
 principle, suicidal in policy, and disastrous in results as 
 the traffic in intoxicating beverages. 
 
 Wealth to the purple and poverty to the rags, is the 
 frontal piece of the day. The palace and the hovel side 
 by side is the advertisement of the world's shame. 
 
 Persons that God made are bound hand and foot to 
 creatures (corporations) that law made. This is the 
 paradox of all time. 
 
 The corporation, combine, trust, each and all must die. 
 
 If all power is inherent in the people, then let them be- 
 head this three-headed dog whose generic name is the 
 money power. 
 
 A general outline of duty to beget hope, may not be 
 out of place. Look aloft to see how the rigging of the 
 ship of state is farcing. 
 
 And even a higher look than that, may add to the soul 
 dignity, so much needed amid the world-wide storm. 
 
i7o Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "Is there never a chink in the worlds above, , 
 Where they listen to the worlds from below." 
 
 The power which now through the forms of law, rule, 
 must be utterly overthrown — by changing the law by the 
 ballot. 
 
 The reserved rights of the people embraced in the Con- 
 stitution must be restored to them. 
 
 Every franchise of the public trust, granted by law, 
 must be revoked and all public functions, that are sover- 
 eign, operated by the government, the agent of the peo- 
 ple, in the interest of the people, at cost of maintenance. 
 
 The government must be brought back to the perform- 
 ance of justice so as to secure public tranquility. 
 
 A high salaried official class will destroy liberty as a 
 high salaried minister will destroy pure religion. 
 
 Pay for like public duties in the same ratio as paid for 
 like services in private life. The high emoluments now 
 inhering to office holding, creates a mushroom nobility. 
 It leads to buying office because there is money in it. It 
 is the bastard off-spring of efifete aristocracy. 
 
 Strip our institutions of the sickly surrounding of no- 
 bility. Make the buying of office and corrupting the bal- 
 lot felony. 
 
 In the spirit of the words of Mr. Lincoln, make it a 
 government of the people, by the people, for the people. 
 
 Have a correct money system. This present national 
 banking system is the corporation of all corporations, the 
 combine of all combines, the trust of all trusts. The pres- 
 ent mode of work and use of it must be rooted up, anni- 
 hilated. It is at the bottom of the troubles now shaking 
 Christendom. 
 
 The emission of money is a sovereign act. To bestow 
 this power on individuals, is to ultimately ruin and destroy 
 civilization. 
 
 This power over the money must be restored to the peo- 
 ple — it must not be delegated to any class. 
 
 Take all the land granted back — it should never 
 have been granted, making an equitable settlement with 
 those who obtained it under the form of law. Then hold 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 171 
 
 it for homes for the people — use or occupancy being nec- 
 essary to the holding. 
 
 Non-resident aliens not to have title, require them to 
 sell who have title, which they ought not. Make a just 
 settlement, but make residence here absolutely necessary 
 before an alien can have fee in land and must then occupy 
 and use. 
 
 National gifts to the race, stowed in the earth, bene- 
 ficial to man, should be under the control of the govern- 
 ment, the agent of the people, and worked for the equal 
 benefit of all the people alike — stripped of every vestige 
 of monopoly. 
 
 To do all this there must be a meeting of forces who 
 have a common interest. Burke said: "When bad men 
 combine the good must associate, else they fall one by 
 one an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." 
 
 Let us take warning by that, for it is true. 
 
 Let us be warned — 
 
 The turning of the most beneficial of modern discover- 
 ies to the injury of man, has become a danger almost in- 
 finite. 
 
 To permit wrongful to take the place of rightful use, 
 is a fearful injustice. It is national suicide. 
 
 This is true of every invented appliance that aids in the 
 production of wealth. The fact of the aid is so patent 
 that many believe the discovery and use of this machin- 
 ery to be an injury to labor. This is not true. The diffi- 
 culty is not in the machine, but in the misuse of the result 
 — the product. 
 
 Equitable distribution must keep pace with the produc- 
 tion. 
 
 This is the grandest age in history for production, and 
 the most infamous in inequitable distribution. 
 
 The number who produce are infinite; those who dis- 
 tribute by an unjust mode are a unit in comparison. We 
 are at a line that must be crossed; on the other side is a 
 grander civilization, or a more deadly night than any of 
 the past. 
 
172 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Three days work now are equal in production to thir- 
 teen fifty years ago. 
 
 Continue this force of production and continue this 
 mode of distribution and in the close future a few will 
 own the world. 
 
 Production is at fever heat, distribution that is equit- 
 able is at a collapse, the feet of the patient cold. 
 
 To save such a body radical and immediate remedies 
 must be applied. 
 
 How this civilization, presenting the widest extremes 
 ever known, is to be brought to an equipoise, is a question 
 now pressing the brain and heart of the world. These 
 abnormal conditions must be destroyed, and measures 
 instituted that will restore to the normal. 
 
 There must be a stop put to the work of capital appro- 
 priating to itself a greater per cent per annum than the 
 increase of wealth per annum. 
 
 That mode of distribution is more dangerous than was 
 slavery. 
 
 We stimulate production and prevent, by a wrong fac- 
 tor, equitable distribution. 
 
 Following such a course we see the appalling spectacle, 
 to a thousand millionaires we have a million poor. Tax- 
 ation instead of being on wealth and the surplus of wealth, 
 is on the wealth we are attempting to acquire — out of 
 which system grows the modern spoliation of debt — ^born 
 in England and by her cunning become the child of the 
 republic. 
 
 Man must exist — hence association. The government 
 is but the agent of the people. Society in its full sense 
 is the human race. As the earth is diverse so is man. 
 Each nation is bound to do the best for its own people 
 that it can, and maintain reciprocal relations with other 
 states. 
 
 That which you cannot produce at all get of those who 
 do, on terms advantageous as possible to you. 
 
 That which you have the greatest surplus of, get ofif 
 on terms of like character. 
 
 Having thus reciprocated in the two extremes, where 
 you had nothing and where you had all — ^the inside will 
 adjust to these outlines. The nations over against you 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 173 
 
 do the very same, and thus the world fraternizes. These 
 peaceful regulations go on till arbitration takes the place 
 of force and earth becomes the empire of peace. 
 
 Here is broad ground for reciprocity, and to which the 
 nations are looking and the grandest names of earth are 
 bending their energies — to a world disarmed, a world 
 of peace. 
 
 Arbitration the fixed law of nations. 
 
 My Dear Sir: The object of this letter is to help 
 check the growth of greed and self. To help institute 
 equal justice to all and special privileges to none. 
 
 The policy and laws of Christendom ar& a travesty on 
 honesty, satire on religion. Let justice reign, let truth 
 triumph. 
 
 The world thus regulated, society thus harmonized, 
 would at last blend man into one universal brotherhood. 
 
 Thanking you for your courtesy and the convention 
 for their confidence, I accept the nomination offered me 
 by the people, and with my might will carry the standard 
 to the polling day, and then let freemen decide whom 
 they want to serve them in the halls of the national legis- 
 lature. Let the ballot decide the contest. 
 
 Respectfully yours, J. Harper. 
 
 A MONEY FAMINE. 
 
 "Cursed be the man who first loved gold." 
 "Your gold and your silver is rusted through." 
 The election of 1894 has been called a cyclone — a kind 
 of avalanchum cataclyism. The Democratic wail in re- 
 gard to the result is "virtue survives the grave," while 
 the jubilatum of the Republican is "whole in itself and 
 whole in every part.' 
 
 Humanity cries : "And they have cast lots for my peo- 
 ple, and have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for 
 wine, that they might drink." Thus spoke the Hebrew 
 prophet as the Jewish state met its death at the hands of 
 hypocrites, extortioners and usurers. 
 
174 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 A HOROSCOPY. 
 
 "An echo of the past," "An epic of the future." 
 
 1. The vote of the whole country in 1894 will not be 
 up to the vote of 1892 by a good deal. 
 
 2. The People's party will increase its votes as a na- 
 tional growth, about eighty per cent. No other party 
 will increase fheir vote. 
 
 3. The Democratic party will lose a million votes from 
 their '92 overflow and be per consequence swept out of 
 political existence. 
 
 4. The Republican party, by the force of pluralities, 
 with a smaller aggregate vote than '92, will carry the 
 country and make it more solidly Republican than '92 
 made it Democratic. 
 
 We are now waiting to see how these statements are 
 borne out as time passes. 
 
 This "avalanche" will fix the issue for the future, to be 
 fought out between the People's party and the Republican 
 party. 
 
 The election of 1894 will clear the fog of ism, sham 
 and fraud, showing to the most obtuse that the mighty 
 struggle in the Republic is for — a government of the rich, 
 with law power to rule, the poor to be vassalized, under 
 false clamor and denied the right of organization. 
 
 The ordeal is the most fearful in human history. 
 
 The birth agonies of the re-genesis of the age is now 
 felt as wide as the earth. 
 
 Every spot of the globe is in commotion. The Mongo- 
 lian hordes are being moved by an unseen hand and the 
 posthumous child of the new age is clamoring for birth 
 and will not be denied. 
 
 Old parties, like old lives, must give place to the new. 
 
 Parties of like disease die a like death. 
 
 The Republican, in headship, is monarchial, and a full 
 per cent of its make-up are of that class of men believing 
 in a class government. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 175 
 
 The Democratic party is anti-monarchial, and in the 
 make-up a large per cent stand for a mass government. 
 
 But there is a coherent factor in the Democratic party, 
 who stand with the men who are the head ship of the Re- 
 publican party, and are more intense haters of a mass 
 government, and more devotedly attached to a class rule 
 than the Republicans. 
 
 The aggregation into one body, all who hold that man, 
 as such, has capability for self rule, are now trying to 
 mobilize into one army. The People's party is the nu- 
 cleus, while all who are in sympathy with the "Class born 
 to rule," are crystallizing in the camp of the classes. 
 
 This election shows that the Republican party is to be 
 the force used by the "Invisible hand of plutes" to "Es- 
 tablish the monarchy." 
 
 The executive, his aiders and co-workers are in the 
 fight against the republic. 
 
 Calling congress together to strike down silver was 
 to that end. 
 
 The urging to keep the foul cry of tariff at the front 
 was to that end. 
 
 The fraud, purchase and cumulated crime, incident to 
 the late legislation, was to that end. 
 
 The calling out of the federal troops to sustain corpor- 
 ate law breaking was to that end. 
 
 The unlawful and despotic turning the army loose to 
 oppress and crush labor was to that end. 
 
 The calling out, by the executive of the nation, the mil- 
 itary in time of peace, was the first step in establishing a 
 rnilitary monarchy. 
 
 It was inaugurated by the Democratic party, and with 
 a devotion unparalleled, endorsed by the head-ship of the 
 Republican party. 
 
 The trend is : 
 
 "The class rule." 
 
 "The mass serve." 
 
 The gold standard means a government of the rich. 
 
 A convertible money system means a government of the 
 rich. 
 
 A bonded debt system means a government of the rich. 
 
 A silver standard means a government of the rich. 
 
176 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 A monometal and bimetal, both combined, means a gov- 
 ernment of the rich. 
 
 As sure as the uprising, which has never had a parallel, 
 is now upon us, so sure is it that the barbarism of metal 
 money must die. 
 
 As long as they live, as a fraud upon a purer and higher 
 life — so long will Shylock live. 
 
 As long as he lives a convertible money system will 
 live; a bonded debt system will live; the two greatest 
 enemies on earth to-day of God and man. The twin 
 devils are — money loaners and coupon clippers. 
 
 The People's party believes in paper money. 
 
 A life-time fight in the cause of humanity leads us to 
 speak plainly to those who have the love of man at heart. 
 
 We have warred at a disadvantage all through the 
 struggle, from 1876 down. 
 
 I said many times in the hard fight of 1894, what I had 
 said before. I did it that others might see what I called 
 the "Middle of the road." 
 
 We are carrying lots of barbarism along with us. 
 
 Let us unload. 
 
 "Your gold and your silver is rusted and will be a wit- 
 ness against you in that day." 
 
 Let us leave them to the moles and the bats. 
 
 And take paper upon which is impressed to-day, and 
 carrying forward to the future, the first glints of the noon- 
 tide age. 
 
 The following reprint is out of my speech in support of 
 paper money. Many who have heard it wish for it in the 
 Commoner, so I send this particular part as a review of 
 the departures I think that have been made from the cen- 
 ter issue. 
 
 "The policy of the great banking houses of Christen- 
 dom, as now combined, are the most destructive instru- 
 ment of human happiness ever instituted among men." — 
 Salinas. 
 
 "Legal persons have taken possession of money, the 
 instrument that changes the title to property, they have 
 taken control of the appliances of transportation, which 
 changes the place of property, and through them have 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 177 
 
 added the infinite burden to the people of One Hundred 
 and Fifty Billion Dollars."— Stoddard. 
 
 Now how stand individuals and parties, as to these aw- 
 ful conditions? 
 
 As to the People's party and its members : On the 17th 
 of May, 1876, the Independent party was called into ex- 
 istence by the necessities of the people. 
 
 It published a platform and put a presidential ticket in 
 the field — Cooper and Booth. It demanded the issue of 
 "United States notes," full legal tender for all purposes 
 (except on contracts for coin) ; and that it was the duty 
 of the government to provide such a circulating medium 
 for the people — and that bank paper must be suppressed. 
 
 It demanded the immediate repeal of the specie re- 
 sumption act. 
 
 It protested against the sale of any more gold bonds to 
 foreigners. 
 
 It protested against the sale of bonds to buy silver to 
 substitute for the fractional currency. 
 
 The main point made against the party was — it as- 
 sumed that the government could make paper money by 
 its fiat. 
 
 Hence the members of this party were called "fiatist," 
 "crank," lunatic," etc. 
 
 Further, because they insisted that paper could be used 
 as material, they were — "repudiators." 
 
 The whole power of ridicule was let loose on them by 
 the worshipers of "coin." 
 
 Asserting that the "precious metals," gold and silver, 
 had been the world's standard in the past. 
 
 The Independent party of 1876 was a paper money 
 party. 
 
 The "Metal Money Gang" (Jerome) decreed its de- 
 struction at its birth. 
 
 They began poisoning the public mind. 
 
 And secretly striking at our free institutions. 
 
 Deception had been, was then, and is now, the policy 
 pursued. 
 
 This was done to hide the conspiracy, hatched more 
 than a quarter of a century before, to — 
 
 Ultimately establish a gold standard. 
 
178 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "Coin" was the word used to belittle the Independents 
 — who were paper money "fiatists." 
 This "Metal Money Gang" saw an enemy in this new 
 "fiat party" that was dangerous to the death point. 
 
 The demand for the issue of paper money was a mor- 
 tal blow at the metal money system. 
 
 The Independent party demanded the true system. 
 
 Both gold and silver must pass from use as money 
 material, or civilization dies. 
 
 THIS IS THE FIGHT NOW. 
 
 As the Independents adopted the "United States notes" 
 as money, they sealed their fate in the eyes of the "Metal 
 Money Gang." 
 
 And because the "back" of these notes were "green" 
 their supporters were nicknamed "Greenbackers," in de- 
 rision. 
 
 The golden calf worshipers and the disciples of the 
 Ephesian goddess, became pious over much, in their 
 devotion to "intrinsic value." 
 
 And they are raving about it to this day. 
 
 To the discredit of their intelligence on the one hand 
 and the debauchery of their morals on the other. 
 
 It was done to smirch the advocates of paper money 
 and destroy their influence with their fellow men. 
 
 It was done to aid a "money conspiracy" — that has 
 bloomed into proportions to ruin without a parallel in all 
 the past. 
 
 The advocates of a higher civilization were called 
 "weak minded," fit only for the "asylum." 
 
 The "metal standard" men, whether their idol stands 
 on two legs (silver and gold) or on one (gold) — fought 
 the paper money men then and they fight them now. 
 
 In spite of all opposition, the new party made a fear- 
 ful breach in that infamous thing — intrinsic value. 
 Polled three hundred and fifty thousand votes in 1880. 
 And would have been victorious ere this, but for treach- 
 ery and money, corruptly used, as in the betrayal of 
 Christ, by Judas and the priests. 
 
 Then these tyrants of a "gold conspiracy" said — "Divide 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 179 
 
 and conquer." "Time must elapse and other issues to 
 distract the people be raised." This was flashed from 
 the greatest "wealth center of earth," to our shores, 
 "and two parties have rivalled each otlier in carrying on 
 this decree of the money kings of Europe." — Snodgrass. 
 The education by the new party was on the central 
 truth, that money answereth all things — 
 
 AND THAT MONEY PAPER. 
 
 The death of such a party was decreed. 
 
 "Let division and confusion come to destroy this 
 spawn." — ^Armstrong. 
 
 The anti-monopoly party was gotten up to divide the 
 forces. 
 
 Those who were not paper money men led the fight. 
 
 The money power managed the job so successfully 
 that it deceived the elect. 
 
 By 1884 two parties were in the field — ^both "anti." 
 
 A condidate for president was nominated by both — - 
 the Greenbackers and the Anti-Monopolists. 
 
 And the people were "distracted," and the money 
 power laughed. 
 
 The greenback was the true successor. 
 
 "It was still a paper money party — but was anxious to 
 "load up with issues." — Munn. 
 
 It talks of one of the legs of "silver" of the Image 
 set up by the "Metal Money Gang." 
 
 Wanted in the platform. 
 
 The virus of "other issues" began to work in the party 
 — of one idea at first. 
 
 The editor of the Sentinel opposed a motion to amend 
 the platform of 1884 by inserting a resolution demand- 
 ing the remonetization of silver. 
 
 He said we were not "coin champions, but a paper 
 money party." 
 
 And he was right. 
 
 We know that it is the volume of money that regulates 
 prices — hence the crime of demonetizing silver to lessen 
 its volume. 
 
 It was a measure to contract the volume. 
 
i8o Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Gold and silver both gives the larger volume. 
 
 Therefore both should be used to the fullest extent — 
 till both are abandoned. 
 
 For they are wholly insufficient to supply the amount 
 of money needed by the people to do the business of 
 the country — where our per capita debt is $300.00. 
 
 This is the whole of it in a nutshell. 
 
 By 1888 the "single tax" question, as a measure to 
 "distract" and "divide" was thrust upon us. 
 
 And as many as seven industrial organizations were 
 in the field. 
 
 All having the effect to "distract," "divide" and gain 
 "time," which was the prime object of the "Metal Money 
 Gang." 
 
 In the meantime the two dominant parties got in their 
 work. 
 
 Got "time," "distracted" and "divided" the people. 
 
 By sham "issues," "loud talk" and a "subsidized press." 
 — Seitz. 
 
 We, in the main, stuck to paper as a primate, "but 
 loaded up with a mighty load of stuff." — Owens. 
 
 Thus we reached 1892 and both old parties declared 
 for silver by "straddling." 
 
 "As soon as all nations agree to it," or words to that 
 effect. 
 
 The People's party stuck to paper, "but had many 
 strings to its bow." Silver was one of them. 
 
 The country sectionalized. The west and south, to an 
 extent, voted with the People's party, and a million and 
 a quarter of votes were polled. 
 
 But to claim that as a victory for paper money is to be 
 foolhardy. 
 
 Paper money. 
 
 That is the soul of the party. 
 
 There it must win or all is lost. 
 
 Then, where are we at? 
 
 "We came, we saw" — we did not conquer. 
 
 The game of "distracting," "dividing," has worked 
 like a charm. 
 
 I. We have those who believe in a single gold stand- 
 ard. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. i8i 
 
 2. Those who believe in a gold and silver standard, 
 combined. 
 
 3. Both holding in their platform that a paper money 
 must be issued, convertible into "coin" at the option of 
 the holder, to make the volume "ample to do the busi- 
 ness of the country." That is 95 per cent on credit, so 
 as to leave the people at the mercy of the "Metal Money 
 Gang." 
 
 A gang as implacable as death, and as destitute of 
 conscience as Sahara is of vsrater. 
 
 The People's party has become the "Populists." 
 
 And in favor of full legal tender currency, legal tender 
 for all purposes and enough of it to do the business of the 
 country. The word "currency" includes gold, silver and 
 paper. 
 
 The Prohibitionists make the liquor traffic the primate, 
 and on the money question are divided ; have members 
 on both sides of the question. It is not a paper money 
 party. 
 
 Then it is a fact, as we now stand, there is no sole pa- 
 per money party. 
 
 And yet that is the question of the age. 
 
 We mean, the struggle now upon us — upon the world 
 — ^is 
 
 1. Metal money, or 
 
 2. Paper money. 
 
 Both issued by sovereign authority, and by that au- 
 thority only. 
 
 WM. p. ST. JOHN, BANKER, 1 895. 
 
 "Perfection in money, thus provided, would involve 
 the use of neither gold nor silver, nor any other com- 
 modity. 
 
 "Now, if my caution against it will be quoted along 
 with my description of it, I will describe perfect money, 
 to wit: 
 
 "Any convenient substance of about the 'intrinsic' 
 properties of silk-ribbed paper prepared to defy the coun- 
 terfeiter, issued by authority of the law of the 
 
i82 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 United States, and promise no redemption whatever, ex- 
 cept acceptance for all dues to the United States, and 
 also made receivable and payable for all dues and debts, 
 public and private, within the jurisdiction of the United 
 States." 
 
 This is the system of honest people, and only our dis- 
 honesty is in the way of its adoption, says the distin- 
 guished writer. 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 The following I published as my own views ten years 
 ago of issuance and material: 
 
 The money should all be issued by the government 
 and made full legal tender for all purposes. It should 
 be sufficient in volume to do the business of the country 
 without the intervention of credit, on cash, strictly. It 
 should be stamped on material of the least possible com- 
 mercial value consistent with fair durability — on paper. 
 It should be furnished at the cost of making and issuing. 
 It should be redeemable in labor and commodities only, 
 thus making its use among the people perpetual. It 
 should be ample in volume for the maximum of business, 
 some of it to rest when business drops to the minimum. 
 It should be put in circulation through national deposi- 
 tories, situate at the seat of government, the state capi- 
 tals and county seats. In detail: It should be secured 
 by land and products, returnable at any time, by the hold- 
 er, to the depository. The rate for the use, i per cent 
 to the nation, i to the state and i lo the county, paid 
 out of the taxes (or less, if that rate is above the cost of 
 getting it to the people). The United States treasurer, 
 the state treasurer and the county treasurer to be disburs- 
 ing officers. 
 
 The state drawing from the national depository and 
 the counties drawing from the state depositories, 
 amounts equal to the demands of the people. The state 
 being responsible to the general government and the 
 counties to the state government for the money they re- 
 ceive. The citizen to draw from the depository in his 
 jurisdiction for one year, but returnable sooner, if de- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 183 
 
 sired, an amount equal to 25 per cent of the assessed 
 value of his wool, wheat, corn and cotton crops — the 
 four great staples. The hen for the return of the money 
 to be the same that attaches for the payment of taxes. The 
 products thus pledged to be kept in' the store houses, con- 
 nected with the rail and water carrying department, till 
 needed for consumption. 
 
 The drawer of money can only use one of the four 
 pledges at the same time. The right is reserved to him 
 to draw twenty-five per cent of the assessed value of his 
 land, if he has not used either of the product pledges. 
 This system of issuance — shown by the price of these 
 four staples — for a series of ten years, will furnish $60 
 per capita circulating among the people. 
 
 Enabling each member of society to part with that 
 which he has a surplus of and obtaining that which he 
 lacks a sufficiency of — 
 
 Resulting at last, in the actual ownership of homes — 
 in real estate. 
 
 The products used as a pledge being ample to keep the 
 money floating to do all the business for cash. 
 
 The railroads nationalized, the proprietors settled with 
 and the title changed from private to public ownership, 
 and known as the rail and water carrying department. 
 
 With Cabinet minister, as other government depart- 
 ments. 
 
 The telegraph and telephone should be attached to the 
 postoffice department and conducted by it. 
 
 Those who use them paying for use the amount nec- 
 essary to secure revenue sufficient, and no more, for ex- 
 penses of operating. 
 
 EQUIVALENCY OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 That which you cannot produce at all, get of those who 
 do, on terms as advantageous as possible to both. 
 
 That which you have the greatest surplus of, get off 
 on terms of like character. Having thus reciprocated, 
 in the two extremes — where you had all and where you 
 had nothing — ^the inside will adjust to these outside lines. 
 
184 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The nations over against you do the same thing, and 
 thus the world fraternizes. 
 
 These peaceful regulations go on till arbitration takes 
 the place of force, and earth becomes an empire of peace. 
 
 Here is the broad ground, to which the humanities in 
 every nation are looking — 
 
 And the grandest names of earth are bending their 
 energies to effect the blessed state — a world disarmed! 
 
 Arbitration the law of nations, instead of the law of 
 force. 
 
 Heaping the wealth produced by all into $100 piles, 
 and the people into lots of 300 ; then, with his legal wand, 
 "Let one of the 300 people take $70 of the $100, and the 
 299 people take the remaining $30.^ 
 
 About ten cents to each person, while we have to pay 
 an annual interest of $2,720,000,000. 
 
 THE PRECIOUS METALS. 
 
 "The stock of gold in the world to-day is $3,582,605,- 
 000. The stock of silver, $4,042,700,000. These are but 
 a drop in the ocean of the world's trade." — (Suetsber.) 
 About $2.58 per capita of silver and $2.52 in gold. 
 
 To attempt the settlement of international "balances," 
 in this unequaled age of trade and commerce, with a little 
 "nugget of gold and a little pig of silver" — to say nothing 
 of the fifty billion of domestic trade — is a folly, a sin, 
 that only metal money men, blinded by the love of un- 
 fair gain, ever thought of. 
 
 Let the world fraternize on a basis practical — on pa- 
 per "orders," instead of metal "orders" ; 
 
 For that is what "money" is in these "balances." 
 
 It never can, on gold and silver "orders," fraternize. 
 
 To attempt it on both of these idols of the past is to 
 bring periodical bankruptcy. 
 
 And to attempt it on gold alone, is to bring universal 
 repudiation of the deadly burden of debt now upon the 
 world. 
 
 This struggle is for a higher individual and national 
 life. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 185 
 
 THE NEW AGE. 
 
 "The powers of darkness have sent forth their hosts 
 to enter into tyrants, the rulers and officials of all Chris- 
 tendom, and Satan is about to work his masterpiece 
 against the happiness of man. There is likely to be an 
 effort made by the capital classes to fasten upon the world 
 a rule, through their wealth and by means of reduced 
 wages, placing the masses upon a footing more degrad- 
 ing than has ever been known in history. The spirit of 
 money worship seemg^ to be rapidly developing in that di- 
 rection." — Ludback. 
 
 The holy books of the world declare that this age 
 is to go out in trouble, unparalleled in the annals of 
 time. 
 
 The Koran says it shall perish with distress. 
 
 The Vedas says it shall die amid torture. 
 
 The Con Fu (China) says misery shall destroy it. 
 
 The Christ says: "There shall then be great tribula- 
 tion such as there was not since the beginning of the 
 world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." 
 
 A frenzy for wealth will destroy our civilization. — 
 DTsraeli. 
 
 "The world is crazy with greed." — ^Julius Jerome. 
 
 "Any business is tolerated that yields big per cent." — 
 Bascom. 
 
 "Men will commit crime for money." — Hickman. 
 
 "The commerce of the world is legalized or consented 
 to piracy." — Faraigo. 
 
 "There is not an honest trader in England." — Froude. 
 
 "There shall come perilous times, men shall be lovers 
 of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blas- 
 phemers, unholy, lovers of pleasure, without natural af- 
 fection, having a form of Godliness without power." — 
 Bible. 
 
 "Evil shall go forth from nation to nation." — ^Jeremiah. 
 
 "The true will be aped that the untrue may be accom- 
 plished." — Smelser. 
 
1 86 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "God invoked to cloak the service of the devil." — Bur- 
 gess. 
 
 "The great hierarchy that is to startle this age, is the 
 uniting of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches 
 in a formula, to meet, as they will claim, the dangers that 
 free thought and liberalism are bringing on the world. 
 The compact will be both political and religious. This 
 will peril the whole earth and bring trouble as has never 
 been before." — Osman Bey. 
 
 WHAT IS MONEY? 
 
 We have heard Republican speakers during the cam- 
 paign say that a greenback was not money. The way 
 these speakers So the thing is this : They have a treasury 
 note (greenback) — say for five dollars. They read on the 
 face of it, "the United States will pay bearer five dollars." 
 Then they go on and say that this is a promise to pay 
 money and is not money. And they go farther and say, 
 by substituting themselves in the place of the United 
 States, "I (giving their name), promise to pay five dol- 
 lars to bearer." Then they go on and say, "All I can do 
 to keep my credit good is to pay my promise in money ; 
 so, too, must the United States do — pay their promise." 
 Then they emphasize their first assertion that a green- 
 back — that is, a United States note — is not money, but a 
 promise to pay money. 
 
 These are most specious and deceptive arguments, 
 false, indeed, and made as they are, by men of the high- 
 est standing, they are doing a world of injury in demor- 
 alizing the people as to what the greenback is. These men 
 are contradicted by both fact and law. 
 
 The Revised Statutes of the United States, section 
 3,588, page 712, in regard to the greenback, reads thus : 
 
 "United States notes shall be lawful money." 
 
 In this statute the United States says greenbacks are 
 money. Republican speakers of high and low degree 
 say a greenback is not money, but a promise to pay money. 
 Which do you believe, the laws of the United States, 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 187 
 
 passed by Republican law makers, or a political mounte- 
 bank, who, to carry an election, has to dispute the laws of 
 the country? 
 
 The same fellows who hold up a National Bank bill 
 and say, "The First National Bank of Jacksonville prom- 
 ises to pay bearer on demand five dollars," and will say to 
 you that the bankers must pay that amount on demand or 
 have their banks closed, and they know at the time that 
 when you demand the five dollars in money called for by 
 the bank note that the banker can pay his demand note 
 with a five dollar greenback. It — the greenback — is 
 money in the banker's hands — not a promise to pay 
 money. Shame on such demagogues. 
 
 FRUITION. 
 
 Owning a $100,000 bond, and because you own it the 
 government hands you $90,000 as a gift to fructify indus- 
 try with, by loaning it at ten per cent. A man so sit- 
 uated, as he looks at the "blackbacks," can truly say: 
 "Happy day that fixed my choice on thee, my 'bank 
 baby.' " Then taking a fresh "cud" he cries with holy 
 zeal and patriotic fervor : "Down with the rag baby." 
 
 BANK PRIVILEGES. 
 
 1. The National treasury holds their bonds for safe 
 keeping, and collects and pays over the interest free of 
 charge. 
 
 2. The government loans them 90 per cent of the mar- 
 ket value of the bonds on twenty years' time at i per cent 
 per annum. 
 
 3. Both the bonds they deposit and the money they re- 
 ceive are exempt from taxation. 
 
 4. The treasurer is authorized to pay them the inter- 
 est on the bonds one year in advance without rebate. 
 
 5. They are authorized to receive deposits and to loan 
 them out, and to reloan the currency they receive and thus 
 
1 88 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 get double interest — one interest on what the govern- 
 ment owes them and another on what they owe the gov- 
 ernment and the people. 
 
 6. After they have loaned out their money on first- 
 class security, and pay day is approaching, the law of 
 1875 authorizes them to contract and retire their circu- 
 lation, so they can create a panic, bring prices down, and 
 bid in their securities at half their real value. 
 
 7. The same law authorizes them to inflate the cur- 
 rency without limit, and raise prices so as to sell their 
 confiscated securities back to their owners at double the 
 cost they were bid in at. 
 
 What would the bankers say if a crazy Greenback 
 farmer should make the following demands upon one of 
 their institutions : 
 
 Farmer — "Mr. Banker, I have a deed of a farm here 
 which cost me $10,000. I desire to deposit it in your 
 vaults for safe keeping." 
 
 Banker — "All right. You will, of course, be willing to 
 pay us for the care we bestow upon it?" 
 
 Farmer — "Not at all. I want you to loan me $9,000 
 for twenty years at i per cent per annum in consideration 
 of the deposit." 
 
 Banker — "Anything else ?" 
 
 Farmer — "Yes ; I want you to collect the rent on my 
 farm and pay it over to me without trouble or cost on my 
 part." 
 
 Banker— "Anything else?" 
 
 Farmer — "I want you to relieve me from all taxes, na- 
 tional, state and municipal, on both my farm and the 
 money you loan me on my deed." 
 
 Banker— "Is that all?" 
 
 Farmer — "Oh, no; not by a jug full! I want you to 
 pay me the rent on my farm a year in advance, without 
 rebate." 
 
 Banker— "Well, what next?" 
 
 Farmer — "I want you to make me the custodian of 
 your surplus deposits and when you require currency to 
 meet current demands pay me 8 or 10 per cent for the 
 use of it." 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 189 
 
 Banker — "What am I to get for all these privileges to 
 you and sacrifices on my part?" 
 
 Farmer — "One per cent for the $9,000 you loan me, 
 one-half per cent on the deposits you make with me, and 
 the glory of my confidence and the credit you will be 
 honored with from my family." 
 
 TO THE IRISH PEOPLE. 
 
 READ AND THEN CURSE THE POWER THAT HAS SO WRONGED 
 
 YOU. . 
 
 "There are twenty million acres of land on the surface 
 of Ireland — the half of this is owned by thirty-five men. 
 Nearly all of these thirty-five nabobs, with hundreds of 
 other landlords, are permanent absentees from Ireland. 
 
 "Taking the rent of ten million acres at los an acre 
 annually, and the absentees draw the amount of seven 
 and a half million pounds sterling a year. This has been 
 going on time out of mind, but we reckon, it up only from 
 the time the Irish parliament was suppressed up to 1879, 
 a period of seventy-nine years." — /. W. 
 
 PLUNDERED IRELAND. 
 
 How the Irish People by Process of English Law are 
 Robbed and Impoverished. 
 
 AMOUNT OF MONEY STOLEN FROM IRELAND 
 
 Since the Union of That Unfortunate Country with Eng- 
 land. 
 
 ESTIMATE. 
 
 Absentee landlord drain £ 570,000,000 
 
 Custom and revenue 380,000,000 
 
 Compound interest 6,945,000,000 
 
 Total amount of plunder £7,895,000,000 
 
 — Irish World. 
 
igo Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Here is the cause of Ireland's woe, here the reason 
 of her dying want. 
 
 God's land has been robbed from God's bread-eaters 
 and they left to die. 
 
 Here is the page of death's history, written in lines of 
 sin — thirty-five men owning ten million acres of land. 
 
 Material wants must go unsatisfied forever, if this 
 spoliation continues. Here is the secret that fattens the 
 tomb. 
 
 Here the fact that tells why Irish mothers die on the 
 heaths. 
 
 Here is the picture that all Christendom is looking at — ■ 
 
 English law robbing 
 
 Irish labor. 
 
 Ireland the richest. 
 
 Ireland, the Green Isle. 
 
 Ireland, the Emerald; whence the warriors, poets and 
 orators of the country have sprung. 
 
 Ireland, murdered at the hand of English misrule. Ire- 
 land, whose thrilling song will live forever. 
 
 "The harp that once through Tara's halls 
 
 The soul of music shed. 
 Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls 
 
 As if that soul were fled. 
 
 So sleeps the pride of former days 
 
 So glory's thrill is o'er. 
 And hearts that once beat high for praise 
 
 Now feel that pulse no more." — Moore. 
 
 And as the Irishman thinks of the times that are passed 
 and the days of other years, there creeps into the heart 
 memories that stir him, till his face is baptised in tears. 
 
 And as he moves upon the earth, an exile from home, 
 the sweet melody, once the pastoral of his native heath, 
 rings out in sadness — 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 191 
 
 "I feel like one 
 
 Who treads alone 
 
 Some banquet hall deserted, 
 
 Whose lights are fled, 
 
 Whose garland dead 
 
 And all but he departed 1" 
 
 Material wants with the Irish is a question of life and 
 death. 
 
 Hope on, the day dawns, the regenesis comes. — /. 
 Harper. 
 
 Lansing, Mich., July 2, i88r. 
 
 The camp meeting at this place is going on and is a 
 grand success. Some twenty-one states are represented 
 and the crowd is increasing every day, and has been from 
 its commencement on Tuesday. In moral power and in- 
 tellectual force there has been no meeting that would 
 measure up with it in this state in two decades of years. 
 
 There has been some as grand speeches made as have 
 ever been made in Michigan. The principles of repub- 
 lican government have been discussed from as lofty a 
 standpoint as those which inspired the patriot fathers of 
 the Republic. And the feeling has been of that broad, 
 Catholic kind which is always manifest among those who 
 are moved by purpose — one and one common end. The 
 representative men of the party were there, and so the 
 speeches were varied in scope and manner of delivery. But 
 with all the differing shades of thought and modes of ex- 
 pression, there was an agreement as to the grand propo- 
 sitions of the Greenback party. The discussions were 
 generous in sentiment and noble in expressions and free 
 from abuse of anybody. It was not men, but principles ; 
 not tirade, but argument. 
 
 In all that pertains to high purpose, manly instinct, in- 
 tellectual out-reach and moral heroism, the meeting was 
 a model worthy of the men and women who participated 
 in it, and in all these it was a grand success. 
 
 Lansing, the capital city of Michigan, is a beautiful 
 one, beautifully surrounded and tastefully built. The 
 population is about eight thousand, and is on a steady 
 
192 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 increase. It is well supplied with public buildings, 
 churches, schools, hotels, etc. ; the capitol building being 
 a very elegant structure, and commanding an extensive 
 view. 
 
 The people are hospitable, intelligent, and make the 
 stranger feel at home while among them. 
 
 The fair grounds, in which the camp meeting was held, 
 is one of the finest in the state, and we doubt if a finer 
 one can be found in the state. The shade is magnificent ; 
 the soft maple is spread over it so as to exclude the too 
 intense heat of the sun, turning the whole area into a park 
 interspersed with well defined walks and drives, making it 
 have the appearance of one of the sylvian shades de- 
 scribed by Scott, as bordering on the Elysian fields. It 
 is seated so as to give ample opportunity for rest and 
 contemplation, as we view from these the panorama of 
 all that is going on over the grounds. All in all, it is a 
 place that one, if not inspired by it to write poetry, can 
 read it with a sense of pleasure not enjoyed in a less 
 romantic and picturesque place. The buildings for the 
 purpose of carrying out the fair, are substantial and well 
 adapted to the end for which they were erected, and are 
 worthy of the people of Michigan who planned them. 
 
 The stand and seating arrangements for the camp 
 meeting were fine, happily conceived and fully ampli- 
 fied in detail, and added greatly to the beauty and com- 
 fort of the occasion. As to the stand and decorations, 
 they were tasteful to the highest poetic degree. Mottos, 
 inscriptions, cuplets, together with profound maxims, in 
 both ethics, morals and law, adorned its walls, these be- 
 ing relieved and enhanced also in beauty by the skillful 
 festooning of evergreens, 
 
 "Like creepers on the walls of time, 
 Hanging in blissful ease." 
 
 The floral decorations, offerings and mementos were 
 grand and inspiring. The great rod setting in the center 
 of the speakers' platform was a rara avis, made up of 
 the choice and delicate of the whole family of flora. And 
 there through the entire meeting, gave its presence like 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 193 
 
 "A thing as chaste as a holy cross of roses, 
 And charming as a naiad's song." 
 
 There were some touching and most pleasant incidents 
 worthy of special mention — kind of heart offerings — so 
 delicate and touching as to refresh the face with a bap- 
 tism of tears. 
 
 The giving of the flower token in the shape of a horse 
 shoe, by the ladies of Lansing, to "Uncle Solon," and his 
 manly response, is one of them. It was a beautiful offer- 
 ing, made up with all the care and taste of the noble 
 women who conceived and executed it. Large, chaste, 
 beautiful, it lay in its box, about as large again as an 
 ordinary horseshoe, composed of the very finest of the 
 floral family. Thus it lay as it was passed to the hero of 
 them "Steers." As he looked upon them — taken wholly 
 by surprise — then as the stillness was complete, there came 
 the words : "Presented by the ladies of Lansing to Uncle 
 Solon." And the silence for a moment seemed more 
 intense. Then came, in choking utterance: "God bless 
 the hearts that conceived and the hands that gave." 
 
 Then Uncle Solon went off in one of his happy strains 
 and said he would carry it to "Aunt Ann," and it should 
 be made a household memento. The wild flower of 
 Texas and the rose of Maine should blend in one kiss 
 with the "bokay" from Michigan, and all be cherished as 
 the apple of the eye. 
 
 Tears and enthusiasm blended and the scene for a few 
 minutes was touching and feeling to the highest degree. 
 And similar to it was the one where the same ladies pre- 
 sented a like offering to General West, which brought out 
 one of the noblest of sayings from that big-hearted man. 
 
 It was a beautiful wreath of flowers, and when pre- 
 sented to him by the committee with, _ 
 
 "The women of Lansing on behalf of the Greenback 
 women of Michigan, send to their Greenback sisters of 
 Mississippi this love greeting," a shout went up that 
 made the welkin ring. 
 
 The general could not speak for a minute, but then 
 said: 
 
 "I accept it in the same noble spirit in which it is given 
 
194 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 and will present it to the Greenback women of Mississippi 
 as your offering, and then, as far as we are concerned, 
 the Union is restored truly." 
 
 Many other agreeable incidents occurred, many laugh- 
 able episodes burst upon the crowd, causing uproarious 
 hilarity and hearty hand-clapping, the detail of which 
 would be too long for this letter. 
 
 The band whidi entertained the people, calling the as- 
 sembly together by their stirring notes, is no ordinary 
 one. Some of the grandest pieces were executed by it. 
 The make-up and distribution of parts, so as to make 
 a harmony perfect, has been studied and executed to per- 
 fection. 
 
 We never heard sweeter strains than were sent forth in 
 course of the meeting. Pieces were performed in tones 
 so soft and distinct that one was wooed by them, as by 
 the song of the Zephyr. 
 
 Praise was in the mouth of all in regard to the gentle- 
 manly qualities and high musical attainments of the mem- 
 bers of the Lansing Knight Templars' Band. 
 
 The unrivalled Glee Club, of Jacksonville, 111., Profes- 
 sors Lurton and Stout, gave more than satisfaction. Their 
 magnificent singing was more than a success — it proved 
 them the best platform glee singers in the country. * * 
 
 Everything moved just as smoothly as oil in the man- 
 agement and conducting of the daily exercises. 
 
 We were compelled to leave before the feast was over, 
 to be at another place on the Fourth of July, but from the 
 grand things achieved up to 9 p. m., Saturday, we had 
 evidence of an unbounded success and that the camp 
 meeting programme, incorporated for the summer and 
 fall campaign, will achieve the grandest of results, and 
 lead to an organization and massing of forces that will 
 prove resistless. — J. Harper. 
 
INSANITY. 
 
 What is this fearful malady — insanity? At this time 
 an inquiry is pertinent. The president of the United 
 States has been assaulted with the most deadly intent to 
 kill him. That killing (if he dies) will be murder if the 
 party making the atteftipt had the mental capacity to 
 conceive the act and physical ability to execute the design. 
 Murder is for a person with malice aforethought to take 
 the life of any human being. That is, the purpose must 
 be deliberately, maliciously and unlawfully formed and 
 then carried out in order to the crime of murder. 
 
 "Murder — act of unlawfully killing a human being 
 with premeditated malice." 
 
 "Assassination — to murder by secret assault." 
 
 It will be seen by the definitions above that it is essential 
 to both "murder" and 'assassination" that the act must 
 be the result of "premeditated malice." 
 
 Now then, if a person is capable of exercising his mind 
 in "premeditating" a thing is he insane while thus act- 
 ing ? What is "premeditated ?" Can an insane man ex- 
 ercise the mind so as to go through all that is included in 
 the operation of premeditation? 
 
 "Premeditated" — "conceived," "designed," "contrived 
 beforehand." 
 
 Now, if a man can "contrive beforehand," and then 
 after his plans are perfected he go and consummate the act 
 he had before contrived, why should such a person be re- 
 leased because he is callted insane. That would excuse 
 everybody in the world from being punished, and insanity 
 would become the panacea for murder — ^that is, the pun- 
 ishment for murder. — J. Harper, 
 
 195 
 
THE WORK IN THE FIELD. 
 
 The senior,* under the appointment of the Lecture Bu- 
 reau, has been filling an engagement in Missouri. The 
 work in the field is more than prosperous, is more than 
 successful. And this, too, in the business season of the 
 year. The harvest just concluded, the threshing in the 
 very midst of its hurry and the grass and oat crop coming 
 on makes the farming interest of Missouri in tlie month 
 of July, one of hurry, labor and perseverance. Notwith- 
 standing all this the people left their work and came to 
 the meetings at the appointed places and gave rousing 
 responses to the words we uttered. 
 
 The weather, too, was, and is still, hotter than has been 
 known for years, yet this did not keep them away, but at 
 every appointment we had a big and splendid meeting. 
 
 At Warrenton, our first speech, we had propounded to 
 us by a gentleman, this question : "How can you make 
 money out of nothing?" 
 
 We answered we did not think it could be done. We 
 further remarked that the leaders of both the old parties 
 had been trying to do that impossible thing for several 
 years, but had not succeeded in "making money out of 
 nothing," but they had, during the same time, "made to 
 themselves lots of property by opposition to law." That 
 is, they had "made property for themselves out of noth- 
 ing by taking it from their neighbors." 
 
 From Warrenton we took our journey to Mexico. Not 
 the Mexico that Grant has lately returned from, but the 
 beautiful little city of Missouri. And then we had to use 
 the beautiful language of Doiter Doodridge: "High fiyin' 
 and deep divin'." 
 
 We were called a "fool" and we took the coirtpliment 
 in the spirit in which it was given. 
 
 We answered the young sprig who gave us the high 
 title that God always took the foolish ones to confound 
 the wise, and that I was glad to be used to "confound" as 
 
 196 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 197 
 
 wise a man as he. After that the same person asked me 
 to take a — drink of water with him. But we were on our 
 way to the train, having drank coffee at the hotel to such 
 an extent as to preclude all desire for "water." 
 
 Another long ride took us to Marshall, and there we 
 met hosts of friends. "My friend" Miller, of the Slater 
 Monitor, took us by the hand as soon as we "lit out" at 
 the "tavern" — for that is what they call their hotels out 
 there — and shook it, "you bet," as it has not been since he 
 and I met at Meredosia in 1877, and my speech there, as 
 he told, converted him to be a Greenbacker. Well, at Mar- 
 shall, a young lawyer gave out that he would answer me, 
 and I sent him kind words and told him to "pull in," as 
 it was a free fight. 
 
 The hall was packed to its utmost and the weather as 
 hot as it could be, and the sweat poured from the per- 
 spiring body till shirt collar went down as a cabbage leaf 
 in boiling water. 
 
 The question was asked in kindness, so we answered 
 it in equal kindness: "Is not gold the universal money 
 of the world ?" 
 
 We answered that there was no such thing as money 
 OF THE WORLD. That Statement was the clap-trap of 
 demagogues and charletans to cheat the voter and mis- 
 lead him. That every nation claimed and exercised the 
 supreme right of making its own money. We gave the 
 instance recorded of the case in 1847 ii^ England, where 
 gold is the standard, the legal tender money, and that 
 is all the kind of money there is — legal tender. 
 
 We gave the instance, when, in 1847, ^ rnan who had 
 20,000 pounds sterling silver in the bank of England he 
 was forced into bankruptcy. For five thousand dollars, 
 because for his whole one hundred thousand dollars in 
 silver, he could not get a loan of the small sum of five 
 thousand dollars. Gold was money, silver was not. So 
 for one twentieth of what he owed the bank, he was 
 forced to the wall and ruined, and that, too, when the 
 bank held nineteen times as much silver as the man owed 
 the bank. 
 
 Then, as contrast to that showing, we cited the case in 
 1854, of the man who, in Calcutta, India, had in bank 
 
198 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 60,000 pounds sterling, in gold, and owed ten thousand 
 dollars, and yet he was forced into insolvency and crushed 
 because with three hundred thousand dollars in gold in 
 bank, he could not raise on it ten thousand dollars to pay 
 his note. 
 
 In Calcutta silver was money and gold was not. So a 
 man with thirty times as much gold in the bank as he 
 owed, could not pay his debt and was ruined. These 
 illustrations put a face on the case and my young lawyer 
 friend by the time I had got in my three hours, concluded 
 he would put off his reply until he could see Senator Vest 
 and learn from him whether it was a fact that in early 
 times in Virginia, tobacco was used as money and a lot 
 of "Chewers" got hold of the money and "chewed" it up, 
 thereby contracting the currency and bringing on a 
 panic, or words to that effect. 
 
 Well, we had a good time and "Laid on Mackduff," 
 etc. 
 
 *Colonel Jesse Harper, Gen. Ed. Advocate. 
 
 "CONSPIRACY OF WEALTH." 
 
 THE MYSTIC BABYLON OF REVELATION ; A HIERARCHY, 
 POLITICO-RELIGIO, OF EVIL. 
 
 ANOTHER ELOQUENT AND CHARACTERISTIC LETTER FROM 
 COL. JESSE HARPER. 
 
 Col. S. F. Norton, Editor Sentinel : 
 
 "The powers of darkness have sent forth their hosts 
 to enter into tyrants, the rulers and officials of all Chris- 
 tendom, and Satan is about to work his masterpiece 
 against the happiness of man. There is likely to be an 
 effort made by the capital classes to fasten upon the 
 world a rule, through their wealth and by means of re- 
 duced wages, placing the masses upon a footing more de- 
 grading than has ever been known in history. The spirit 
 of money worship seems to be rapidly developing in that 
 direction." — Ludback. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 199 
 
 The holy books of the world declare that this age is 
 to go out in trouble, unparalleled in the annals of time. 
 
 The Koran says it shall perish with distress. 
 
 The Vedas says it shall die amid torture. 
 
 The Con Fu (China) says misery shall destroy it. 
 
 The Christ says : "There shall then be great tribulation 
 such as there was not since the beginning of the world 
 to this time, no, nor ever shall be." 
 
 A frenzy for wealth will destroy our civilization. — 
 DTsraeli. 
 
 "The world is crazy with greed." — Julius Jerome. 
 
 "Any business is tolerated that yields big per cent." — 
 Bascom. 
 
 "Men will commit crime for money." — Hickman. 
 
 "The commerce of the world is legalized or consented 
 to piracy." — Faraigo. 
 
 "There is not an honest trader in England." — Froude. 
 
 "There shall come perilous times, men shall be lovers 
 of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blas- 
 phemers, unholy, lovers of pleasure, without natural af- 
 fection, having a form of Godliness without power." — 
 Bible. 
 
 "Evil shall go forth from nation to nation." — Jeremiah. 
 
 "The true will be aped that the untrue may be accom- 
 plished." — Smelser. 
 
 "God invoked to cloak the service of the devil." — Bur- 
 gess. 
 
 "The great hierarchy that is to startle this age, is the 
 uniting of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches 
 in a formula, to meet, as they will claim, the dangers that 
 free thought and liberalism are bringing on the world. 
 The compact will be both political and religious. This 
 will peril the whole earth and bring trouble such as has 
 never been before." — Osman Bey. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 These strong statements are but the formulated record 
 of the past. History is repeating iself. Man, as of old, 
 has corrupted his way on the earth. 
 
 The right and the wrong have waged their fight from 
 the gates of paradise to this hour. 
 
 The struggle is for the life, the harvest time is here. 
 
200 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 He who looks for peace under present conditions will be 
 disappointed. The time for separating tares and wheat 
 has come and it is like dividing the soul from the body. 
 
 Every nation on earth is against God, against human- 
 ity. 
 
 Their emblems are bloody and cruel — ^Lions, Bears, 
 Leopards, Dogs, Eagles, Snakes, and Nondescripts. All 
 these are life-destroying, flesh-eating monsters. 
 
 The earth, through its long centuries, has been domi- 
 nated by them. The end is near. 
 
 Truth is at the throttle- valve to run the car of justice 
 over the steel-clad way to a government of the people. 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth" has a lie at the throttle 
 valve, running the car of Juggernaut over a highway, 
 made of the bodies and souls of men, to a government 
 of a class. 
 
 This has gone on till heaven is appalled ; 
 
 Hell jubilating. 
 
 Liberty cries "halt." 
 
 Humanity cries "help." 
 
 God hurls Babylon into the ocean. 
 
 Earth jubilates ! 
 
 In her was found everything that the unholy passions 
 of man trafficked in. The catalogue of her commerce 
 fills the heart of this age as full as sin fills hades. 
 
 This is the price current of the board of trade of great 
 Babylon. 
 
 "The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious 
 stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, 
 and scarlet, and all thyme wood, and all manner of vessels 
 of ivory, and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, 
 and of brass, and of marble, and cinnamon, and odors, 
 and ointments, and frankincense, and wine and oil, and 
 fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, 
 and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men — and the fruits 
 (sources of wealth) that the soul lusted after." 
 
 How the "Conspiracy of Wealth" wept as this "queen" 
 sank out of sight. 
 
 Uncovered, appalled, as her smoke ascended, the habit- 
 able globe cried — "Alas, alas, that great city decked 
 with gold \" 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 201 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth" — politico-religio — is 
 Sin's masterpiece. 
 
 It murders humanity; it insults God. 
 
 It thrusts itself to the front; 
 
 It dominates the state ; 
 
 It dominates the church ; 
 
 Every wrong to man is perpetuated under the forms 
 clerical and civic. 
 
 Under the compact the church and the state make the 
 earth a battlefield — Death's recruiting station. 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth" rules states, dictates their 
 policies and makes their laws. 
 
 It governs the church, dictating its creed and ordering 
 its march. 
 
 The age is a misnomer. 
 
 Christianity is a hierarchy of false pretense ; a counter- 
 feit millennium. It must give place to the hierarchy of 
 the skies, the millennium of the Christ. 
 
 We are at the very birth of a higher dispensation, at the 
 very door of the disenthrallment of Christianity — the res- 
 titution of the earth. 
 
 THE EGG OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 The tgg of the serpent was laid during the war that 
 has hatched into a million. 
 
 In 1862 
 
 The "Hazzard Circular" ordered the march to be made 
 — by the "Conspiracy of Wealth." 
 
 The aim was to subvert free institutions by enslaving 
 the masses. 
 
 This maUgn "influence" (power) took possession of 
 the three co-ordinate branches of the government — execu- 
 tive, judicial and legislative. 
 
 And to make their work have the sanctity of religion 
 — bound the church to this three-headed monster. 
 
 The cry was to be a plausible pretext to hide the secret 
 villiany. 
 
 The state and the church must cry aloud — ^both law and 
 reUgion must back the conspiracy. 
 
202 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The trail of the serpent is witnessed in the ruin of 
 twenty-five years. 
 
 1. The two exceptions on. the greenback. 
 
 2. The National Bank act. 
 
 3. The Contraction act. 
 
 4. The Credit Strengfthening act. 
 
 5. The Funding act. 
 
 6. The Demonetizing act. 
 
 7. The Resumption act. 
 
 All cemented by the clamorous lie — "public credit, pub- 
 lic honor." 
 
 The land grants, equal in extent to nine states like 
 Ohio, exempt from taxation and not subject to settlement 
 by homestead or pre-emption. 
 
 This gift of an empire, as large as the six New Eng- 
 land states. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
 Indiana and Michigan, was the morsel thrown to the rail- 
 road corporations. 
 
 Then bonds to the same corruptly created vampire, in 
 amount (now) equal to one hundred million dollars. 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth" 
 
 Dominates the land ; 
 
 Dominates the coal ; 
 
 Dominates the gases (illuminating and heating). 
 
 It dominates the public functions of the government. 
 
 Has taken hold of the reserved rights of the people and 
 
 runs them as private enterprises for its own emolument. 
 * * * * * * 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth" descends to details. It 
 reduced wheat, from 1866 to 1888, from $2.05 (coin) per 
 bushel to 68 cents per bushel. 
 
 It reduced wages from the highest to the lowest, from 
 $2.03 per day in 1866 to 84 cents in 1888. 
 
 It caused more failures than in any 54 years. 
 
 It caused more felonies than in any 48 years. 
 
 It caused more murders than in any 50 years. 
 
 It caused more lunatics than in any 55 years. 
 
 It caused more suicides than in any 60 years. 
 
 It caused more divorces than in any 65 years. 
 
 It assassinated Lincoln and Garfield. 
 
 All this in a quarter of a century! 
 
Life of Col. yesse Harper. 203 
 
 It increased burdens and lessened ability to bear them, 
 then scourged the crushed victims for complaining of the 
 added burden. 
 
 It grew millionaires from 10 in 1866 to 5,000 in 1890. 
 
 It created tramps by enforced poverty — for, making 
 millionaires (by class laws) results in tramps as marriage 
 results in offspring. 
 
 It destroyed hope, engendered despair, and caused sor- 
 row in heaven. 
 
 It swelled the debts, from six billions in 1866 to Thirty- 
 Five Billions in 1888. 
 
 And these debts do not represent Ten, Billions of 
 wealth l\ 
 
 The Twenty-Five Billions is watered stock— fraud. 
 
 It robbed labor everywhere to enrich the money class. 
 
 LABOR DEGRADED MONEY EXALTED. 
 
 Wealth produced has been wrested from the producer 
 without equivalent. The equations of production have 
 been balanced by Greed, so that, of the wealth produced 
 per capita, Labor has two-sevenths and Money five sev- 
 enths. 
 
 It has ruthlessly destroyed homes! 
 
 Five-eighths of the people owned their homes in 1866 
 and only three-eighths were tenants. In 1889 only three- 
 eighths owned their homes and five-eighths were tenants. 
 
 It- caused the crime of all crimes, by fastening on the 
 people the awful condition, viz. : 
 
 Land and products lower ; 
 
 Debts greater; 
 
 Money higher than it has been in a century the globe 
 over. 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth" guided by the masked 
 hand of Money — 
 
 Owns and controls the Executive ; 
 
 Owns and controls the Judiciary; 
 
 Owns and controls the Legislatures of the nation. 
 
 Unless this iron chain that binds our government to 
 corporations, combines and trusts is broken we will be- 
 come landless tenants and groveling serfs. 
 
204 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth" has manipulated the "sil- 
 ver question" and contracted the whole volume of money 
 so as to shrink prices 30 per cent and appreciate gold 43 
 per cent. 
 
 And the government is supinely looking on while one 
 scheme after another is attempted to hold silver in a sub- 
 ordinate place, and thus keep the volume of money small. 
 And these schemes, some one of them, will succeed — 
 money has its way. 
 
 If the people were educated sufficiently to sustain a true 
 civilization they would demonetize both metals and use 
 paper moneyj 
 
 This would be a blow at the heart of this monster ! 
 
 Such a step would exalt Christianity and ennoble gov- 
 ernment and multiply happiness, by ratios untold. 
 
 But we are barbarians — use metal-money — and allow 
 three per cent of population to own seventy per cent of 
 the wealth. 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 The "Conspiracy of Wealth" must be abolished, its 
 methods utterly destroyed. 
 
 This can be done peaceably if the people will. 
 
 The reserved rights of the people, embraced in the con- 
 stitution, must be restored to them. 
 
 Every franchise of a public trust, granted by the law, 
 must be revoked and all public functions, that are sov- 
 ereign, operated by the government, the agent in the in- 
 terest of all the people, at cost of maintenance. 
 
 The government must be brought back to the perform- 
 ance of justice, so as to secure public tranquility. 
 
 A high salaried official class will destroy liberty, as a 
 high salaried ministry will destroy pure religion. 
 
 Pay for like duties in the same ratio as paid for like 
 services in private life. The high emoluments now in- 
 hering to office-holding creates a mushroom nobility. It 
 leads to buying office because "there is money in it." It 
 is the bastard offspring of efifete aristocracy. It is the 
 other angle of a titled nobility, without the culture aiid 
 refinement. It is shoddy and fills office with shoddy men. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 205 
 
 Strip our institutions of the sickly surroundings of no- 
 bility ; 
 
 . Make the buying of office and corrupting the ballot, 
 felony. 
 
 And for the second offense make it capital. 
 
 In the spirit of the words of Mr. Lincoln, make this 
 a government of the people, by the people and for the 
 people. 
 
 Money is the soul of the "Conspiracy of Wealth." 
 
 It is the corporation of all corporations, the combine 
 of all combines, the trust of all trusts. 
 
 The present mode and use of it must be rooted up and 
 annihilated. As it now stands it creates a class who deal 
 in money ; generally they are wholly ignorant of the func- 
 tions of money, and those who know suppress their knowl- 
 edge for the advancement of their gains. 
 
 As the system now stands and as now used, it leads all 
 other branches of sovereignty in destroying conscience 
 and generating crime. 
 
 It is at the bottom of the troubles now shaking Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
 The emission of money is solely a sovereign act. To 
 bestow it on individuals is to ultimately ruin them and de- 
 stroy civilization. Its love in human hearts is a deadly 
 distemper. 
 
 Our government intensifies that malady by increasing 
 Selfishness and Greed. This power over the money must 
 be restored to the people — who are the sovereign power. 
 Let the government manufacture (make) all the money, 
 enough to do the business — without credit. 
 
 Place in each state capital, under proper authority, an 
 amount sufficient for that jurisdiction. 
 
 Then at each county seat — where the titles of the lands 
 are recorded — place enough to supply the wants of busi- 
 ness, and demands of the people. 
 
 To be furnished at cost — at a low rate of interest — on 
 landed pledge, to be returned to the depository at any time 
 at the option of the receiver. 
 
 And encourage the use of money, as we do the use of 
 stamps. 
 
 And all money being money, as all stamps are stamps, 
 
2o6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper 
 
 it could no more be cornered than can stamps be cornered. 
 
 And there would be no more speculation in money than 
 there is in stamps. 
 
 And there would be no more fools who would load 
 themselves down with money than fools now who load 
 themselves down with stamps. Both systems would regu- 
 late themselves to the advancement of humanity. 
 
 For, as the more postage stamps that are put away from 
 each, the more rapid is the growth of Christian civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 So, it would be with money. 
 
 And neither of them (money and stamps) are of any 
 value or use till they are put away — till you part with 
 them. 
 
 Neither could or would it be "cornered" any more 
 than stamps can be "cornered." 
 
 All railroad charters should be repealed and the roads 
 capitalized and run by the government, the agent of the 
 people, at cost, which would be about three mills a 
 ton a mile, while under the present management it is 
 about fourteen mills a ton a mile. More than four times 
 as high as in any other civilized country. 
 
 The settlement should be made on a liberal basis, as 
 these franchises have been granted — which they should 
 not have been. 
 
 Give to those now in control, their money and three per 
 cent on it, deducting what they have received, less ex- 
 pense, and thus the system would change without fric- 
 tion. 
 
 7. Take all the land granted back — it should never 
 have been granted — making an equitable settlement in re- 
 gard to it. Then hold it for homes exclusively, to be 
 ready when needed. And not to pass from public domain 
 — except for homes, to be determined as to amount — ^by 
 actual occupancy and use. 
 
 That not needed for use to be held by the government, 
 the agent, as public domain. If, while it is public domain, 
 any wish to use it — for grasses, or any other appendage — 
 so as not to injure it, let them use it, paying for the use, 
 and the money so received to go into the public treasury 
 to lessen taxes. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 207 
 
 In order to make those holding large grants willing 
 to let them come back to the people let them be taxed 
 double the amount of occupied, used lands. This would 
 decentralize land, increase homes, and diffuse happiness. 
 
 No non-resident alien should own land in this country 
 — no land should ever have been sold to them. Change 
 the law and give them reasonable time to sell. If they 
 do not sell, then the government (the agent) should pay 
 them a just price for their lands and let it become public 
 domain as all other lands — except those occupied and used 
 as homes. 
 
 8. Tax all the lands (except the public) and raise bal- 
 ance of revenue to support the government if any is 
 needed, by an income tax beginning above one thousand 
 dollars. Inaugurate and encourage a policy to enable 
 each family to secure a home — actual occupancy and use 
 to be the title, paying for it the cost of allotment, setting 
 it from the public domain. 
 
 Exempt such home of the family to the amount of one 
 thousand dollars, from taxes and all liens. 
 
 Natural gifts to the race, stored in the earth, beneficial 
 to man, should be under the control of the government, 
 the agent, and worked for the benefit of all the people 
 alike. 
 
 These general outlines, if utilized, will make this earth, 
 in some degree, what seers, prophets, patriots, men, in all 
 ages by-gone, have prayed for, sung of, and which we 
 think the Bible promises, justice requires and humanity 
 is now crying for with a cry that moves the heart of God. 
 
 J. Harper. 
 
 818 N. Gilbert St., Danville, 111. 
 
FROM COL. JESSE HARPER. 
 
 WITH ELOQUENT WORDS HE DESCRIBES THE PAST AND 
 PRESENT. 
 
 AND WITH PROPHETIC PEN FORETELLS THE NEW AGE. 
 
 PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ELEVATION AND BETTER- 
 MENT OF MANKIND. 
 
 SOCIETY WILL AT LAST BLEND IN UNIVERSAL BROTHER- 
 HOOD." 
 
 Danville, 111., June 30, 1893. — Col Norton, Editor Sen- 
 tinel : 
 
 THE NEW CODE. 
 
 Statutes of Justice and decrees of equity will herald the 
 advent of the New Age. 
 
 The mighty Land, Transportation and Money problems 
 will be correlates ; 
 
 And their co-working will bless mankind. 
 
 Just taxation will wipe out the fiction incident to unjust 
 discrimination. 
 
 These principles of right, thus used, will mould men 
 into a brotherhood. 
 
 Government, as manipulated, has grown our infinite 
 resources into a Conspiracy of Wealth. 
 
 This conspiracy must be abolished; 
 
 Its methods destroyed. 
 
 Statutes of justice and decrees of equity will do it. 
 
 The reserved rights of the people, embraced in the 
 constitution, must be restored to them. 
 
 Every franchise of a public trust, granted by law, 
 must be revoked. 
 
 308 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 209 
 
 All public functions that are sovereign must be car- 
 ried on by the government — 
 
 In the interest of all ; 
 
 At the cost of maintenance. 
 
 The government must be brought back to the per- 
 formance of justice; 
 
 So as to secure public tranquility. 
 
 "Economy of resources is a virtue," 
 
 "Waste of substance is a sin." 
 
 A high salaried official class will destroy liberty; 
 
 As a highly paid ministry will corrupt religion. 
 
 Every officer to serve the public must be elected by 
 a direct vote of the people. 
 
 Pay for duties public the same paid for like service 
 in private life. 
 
 Strip office of all emoluments; 
 
 Make the holding self-sustaining; 
 
 Not a thing in the "political market" — 
 
 To be secured through money. 
 
 The corrupt surroundings of official life is debauch- 
 ing. 
 
 It leads to "buying office" — 
 
 By patronage. 
 
 It is the germ of aristocracy. 
 
 It spawns an untitled "nobility"; 
 
 Without culture. 
 
 Strip our institutions of the sickly surroundings of 
 royalty. 
 
 In the language of Mr. Lincoln,, make this a govern- 
 ment of the people, by all the people and for the people. 
 
 Disfranchise the sellers of their votes. 
 
 Send to the penitentiary those who purchase the votes. 
 
 The nation to manage all public functions at 
 
 COST. 
 
 In THE INTEREST OF ALL THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Every special privilege to be abolished. 
 Every law to be alike equal to all. 
 Close the bottomless pit of Contraction. 
 "Ruin its mission, hell its home." 
 "Death on the pale horse" — 
 Enacted into law! 
 
210 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Abolish the debt Moloch, 
 
 "A contrivance against divine law and human reason." 
 
 Abolish the "bank of issue" — 
 
 Demon. 
 
 "It coins the sweat of labor into gold — for Tyrants." 
 
 To shrink the volume and leave the debt is Robbery. 
 
 In doing it the government makes itself the Comple- 
 ment of 
 
 Perdition. 
 
 AboHsh the policy of greed. 
 
 On it stands Church and State shouting: "It is God's 
 time." 
 
 This tabernacle of Mammon is built on; 
 
 The non-right of money, 
 
 The non-right of transportation. 
 
 And the wrong use of the 
 
 Public Domain. 
 
 The record of the past must be changed. 
 
 The land stolen by the despot, 
 
 The carrying done by the syndicate. 
 
 And the money of the triumphant plutocrat — 
 
 Must all be restored to the people. 
 
 These children of greed have made the world a "re- 
 gion of despair." 
 
 Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. 
 
 All traveled this road to death. 
 
 The march of civilization began in Egypt; died in 
 Rome. 
 
 "Life unbearable, no hope." 
 
 Stop modern God-robbing — Robbing his children. 
 
 William the Conqueror stole England. 
 
 His descendants are stealing the world. 
 
 The Republic condones the crime and aids the lar- 
 ceny. 
 
 Stop framing iniquity into law. 
 
 Stop the infamy of redeeming one "money" with 
 another "money." 
 
 Stop swapping "dollars." 
 
 A duplicate of selling Christ for silver. 
 
 Stop this piratical cry, "Capital" controlling "Labor." 
 
 It murders liberty! 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 211 
 
 Stop this slander against God — "overproduction"; 
 
 When millions are starving; 
 
 And our cities a lazzaroni. 
 
 Stop tempting men to crime — 
 
 When punishing them for the act. 
 
 Labor is prior to Capital and shall rule. 
 
 Capital is the fruit of Labor and shall serve. 
 
 LAND AND HOME. 
 
 1. The human race have Almighty endowment in the 
 earth, by title indefeasable and inalienable, 
 
 2. Each one is entitled to a home, indefeasable and 
 inalienable. 
 
 3. Government is a divine appointment, with func- 
 tions to carry out these endowments : 
 
 a. Limited homestead to the point of necessity. 
 
 b. Exempt homesjieads from all taxes, liens and 
 charges, whatever. 
 
 c. The government to hold all unoccupied land for 
 homes only. 
 
 d. Homes to be acquired at the minimum cost of al- 
 lotting them. 
 
 e. Each to acquire herpes on the same terms — neces- 
 sary quantity. 
 
 Then the earth shall be a peaceful habitation. 
 
 These are great statutes of justice and decrees of 
 equity. 
 
 Land grants to corporations are in violation of them, 
 as well as of the Divine law. 
 
 They centralize the land and destroy homes. 
 
 They divert the title, 
 
 They create monopoly. 
 
 They tend to a landed gentry. 
 
 They foster aristocracy. 
 
 They burden the family — 
 
 And ripen the world for destruction. 
 
 We affirm : 
 
 1. The family is a sacred institution; 
 
 2. The house is the "castle" of this God-endowed 
 relation. 
 
212 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 From it we correlate: 
 
 Homes free. 
 
 Homes indefeasible, 
 
 Homes inalienable. 
 
 On these government of the people, by the people and 
 for the people can be maintained. 
 
 Every empire of the past reached its highest estate 
 when most in accord with these views, 
 
 And declined as they parted from them. 
 
 Their total abandonment brought death. 
 
 HOW ACCOMPLISHED. 
 
 Take back all the lands granted, making an equitable 
 settlement in regard to them. 
 
 Then hold them for homes exclusively, to be ready 
 when needed. 
 
 And not to pass from the public domain — 
 
 Except for homes, to be determined as to amount — 
 by use and occupancy, according to the needs of the 
 family. 
 
 This applies to cultivated lands and not to the city 
 holdings. 
 
 That not needed for use to be held by the govern- 
 ment 
 
 As Public Domain. 
 
 While thus situate, if any wish to use it for the grasses, 
 or any other appendage, so as not to injure it, let them 
 use it, paying a stipulated price, the money to go into the 
 public treasury for the benefit of all. 
 
 To incline those holding large grants to surrender 
 them to the people, to again become public domain, tax 
 them double the value of land used for homes. 
 
 Make it impossible to hold land for speculative pur- 
 poses. 
 
 Statutes of justice and decrees of equity will not tol- 
 erate 
 
 Land speculation of cultivatable soil that is rural. 
 
 This policy would decentralize land, increase homes 
 and diffuse happiness. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 213 
 
 A non-resident alien should not own land in this coun- 
 try. Land should not have been sold to them. 
 
 Change the rule. 
 
 Give them reasonable notice to sell their lands. 
 
 If they refuse, then the government shall pay them 
 a reasonable price for their lands and turn them into 
 the public domain. 
 
 All of them to be public domain except the lands oc- 
 cupied as homes. 
 
 A graduated income tax, beginning above one thou- 
 sand dollars. 
 
 Inaugurate and encourage a policy to enable each fam- 
 ily to secure a home — 
 
 Actual occupancy and use to be the title. 
 
 Paying for it only the cost of setting it off from the 
 public domain. 
 
 Exempt such home of the family from all taxation 
 and liens of any sort 
 
 To the amount of one thousand dollars. 
 
 Natural gifts in the earth common to the race, bene- 
 ficial to all men, to be under the control of the govern- 
 ment and open to all — for the benefit of all the people. 
 
 RAILROADS. 
 
 All railroad charters should be repealed, 
 
 And the roads valued and operated by the government 
 as the Railroad Department, the same as any other of 
 the departments; 
 
 Allowing the owners now, to retain five-eighths of 
 their value, as an investment. 
 
 Paying them out of the earnings three per cent per 
 annum, till final liquidation and full ownership by the 
 people. 
 
 The roads to be run at cost of operating. 
 
 That is, a schedule of prices to be paid by the people 
 for the use they require; 
 
 Sufficient in amount to pay the interest, while needed; 
 sinking fund and running expenses. 
 
 This would be about three mills a ton a mile for freight, 
 and one cent a mile passenger fare. 
 
214 ^'^f^ °f C°^- Js^s^ Harper. 
 
 While now it is fourteen mills a ton and three cents 
 for fare. 
 
 Nearly four times what it is in proportions of other 
 civilized countries — as Belgium, Hesse Cassel, etc. 
 
 The settlement should be made with the present own- 
 ers on a liberal basis, as they have acted in pursuance 
 of law. 
 
 Give them three per cent on what they have put in 
 and deduct what they have received, charging them three 
 per cent on it, and reach an equitable adjustment be- 
 tween the outgoing and the incoming management. 
 
 Land grants would be determined and adjusted un- 
 der the rules before described. 
 
 Thus this great national necessity would change from 
 corporate control to government — to an almost infinite 
 advantage to the business of the country, in its vast vol- 
 ume and to the people in their convenience of travel, 
 at so reduced a rate. 
 
 Other countries have tried it and it has been found 
 safer and cheaper. 
 
 MONEY. 
 
 The issuance of money is a requisite of sovereignty. 
 
 It can be coined, made of any material the government 
 issuing it may select. 
 
 The legal question in the United States has been set- 
 tled by the Court I 
 
 "As the act of February 25, 1862, declares that the 
 notes of the United States shall also be lawful money 
 and legal tender in payment of debts, and that act has 
 been sustained by the recent decisions of this Court as 
 valid and constitutional, we according to this decision 
 have two kinds of money, essentially different in their 
 nature, but equally lawful." 
 
 Here the Court of the United States puts metal and 
 paper money on the same constitutional ground, both 
 lawful and constitutional. 
 
 In a later case, the last one before the Court, they are 
 equally clear. 
 
 The case of Sullivan vs. Greenman, in the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, March 3, 1884, the question 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 215 
 
 at bar was, the Constitutionality of the Act of Congress 
 of May 31, 1878. 
 
 "Congress has the Constitutional power to make the 
 treasury notes of the United States a legal tender in the 
 payment of private debts in time of peace as well as in 
 time of war." 
 
 The Court says: "The single question, therefore, to 
 be considered, and upon the answer to which the judg- 
 ment to be rendered between the parties depends, is, 
 whether notes of the United States issued in time of 
 war, under Acts of Congress declaring them to be a 
 legal tender in payment of private debts, and after- 
 wards in time of peace redeemed and paid in gold coin 
 at the treasury and then reissued under the Act of 
 1878, can, under the Constitution of the United States, 
 be a legal tender of such debts." 
 
 "Upon full consideration of the case, the Court is of 
 opinion that they can." 
 
 "We are irresistibly impelled to the conclusion that 
 the impressing upon the treasury notes of the United 
 States the quality of legal tender in payment of private 
 debts, is an appropriate means, and is plainly adapted 
 to the execution of the undelegated powers of Congress, 
 consistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution." 
 
 "Congress is authorized to establish a national cur- 
 rency — either in coin or in paper — and to make that cur- 
 rency legal money for all purposes, as regards the na- 
 tional government or private individuals." 
 
 "It follows that the Act of May 31, 1878, is constitu- 
 tional, that the tender in treasury notes, reissued and 
 kept in circulation Under the act, was a tender of lawful 
 money in payment of the debt." 
 
 This settled the question that the government can 
 make lawful money out of Paper. 
 
 "The question whether at any particular time, in war 
 or in peace, is a political question to be determined by 
 Congress, when the question, exigency arises, and not a 
 judicial question to be afterward passed upon by the 
 Courts." 
 
2i6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 MONEY — ISSUANCE AND MATERIAL. 
 
 The money should all be issued by the government 
 and made full legal tender for all purposes. It should 
 be sufficient in amount to do the business of the country 
 without the intervention of credit — on cash. 
 
 It should be stamped on material of the least com- 
 mercial value, consistent with fair durability — on paper. 
 
 It should be furnished at the cost of making and issu- 
 ing. It should be redeemable in labor and commodi- 
 ties only, thus making its use among the people per- 
 petual. It should be ample in volume for the maximum 
 of business, some of it resting when business drops to 
 the minimum. It should be put into circulation through 
 national depositories, situate at the seat of government, 
 the state capitals and the county seats. In detail, it 
 should be secured by land and products, returnable at 
 any time by the holder to the depository. The rate for 
 the use, one per cent to the nation, one to the state and 
 one to the county, paid out of the taxes, (or less if that 
 rate is above the cost of getting it to the people) the 
 United States treasurer, the state treasurer, and the coun- 
 ty treasurer, to be the disbursing officers. 
 
 The state drawing from the national depository and 
 the counties drawing from the state depository amounts 
 equal to the demands of the people. 
 
 The states being responsible to the general govern- 
 ment, and the counties to the state government, for the 
 money they receive. 
 
 The citizen, to draw from the depository, in his 
 jurisdiction, for one year — ^but returnable at any time — 
 an amount equal to 25 per cent of the assessed value 
 of his wool, wheat, corn and cotton crop, the four great 
 staples. The lien to return the money to be the same 
 that attaches for the payment of taxes. 
 
 The products thus pledged to be kept in the store- 
 houses connected with the "rail and water carrying de- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 217 
 
 partment," till needed for consumption. The drawer 
 of money can only use one of the four pledges at the 
 same time. The right is reserved to him to draw 25 
 per cent of the assessed value of his land, if he has not 
 used either of the product pledges. 
 
 This system of issuance, shown by the price of these 
 four staples, for a series of ten years, will furnish $60 
 per capita, circulating among the people, enabling each 
 member of the society to part with that which he has a 
 surplus of and obtaining that which he lacks a sufficiency 
 of, resulting at last in the actual ownership of homes — 
 in real estate unincumbered — the products used as a 
 pledge being ample to keep the money floating to do all 
 the business for cash. 
 
 OF KNOWLEDGE AND ITS DIFFUSION. 
 
 The telegraph and telephone should be attached to the 
 postoffice department and conducted by it. 
 
 Those who use them paying for use the amount neces- 
 sary to secure revenue sufficient, and no more, for ex- 
 penses of operating. 
 
 Society, in protecting itself against the vicious, which 
 it has a right to do, should restrain them. 
 
 To prevent their injury to the obedient, but not vin- 
 dictively. 
 
 Punishment does not prevent crime. 
 
 Make rules reformatory and not based on vengeance. 
 
 As burdens increase and the conditions of life are 
 made harder, men debauch themselves, and crime in- 
 creases. 
 
 As burdens grow lighter and hopes brighten, men grow 
 better and crime decreases. 
 
 Educate to change men by motive, not by force. 
 
 Do right as a government and men will do right, close 
 on to perfection. 
 
 Equalize burdens. 
 
 Taxation, instead of being on the wealth we have, is 
 to come from the wealth we are striving to acquire. 
 
 This system gives rise to the fearful scourge — debt; 
 a thing that should not exist. 
 
2i8 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Association, not isolation. 
 
 Men must exist, hence "association is a law of life.'' 
 Government is but the agent of the people. 
 Society, in its full sense, is the human race. 
 As the earth is divine, so is man. 
 Each nation is bound to do the best it can for its own 
 people, with the least injury to others. 
 
 EQUIVALENCY OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 That which you cannot produce at all, get of those 
 who do, on terms as advantageous as possible to both. 
 
 That which you have the greatest surplus of, get off 
 on terms of like character. 
 
 Having thus reciprocated, in the two extremes — where 
 you had all and where you had nothing — the inside will 
 adjust to these outside lines. 
 
 The nations over against you do the same thing, and 
 thus the world fraternizes. 
 
 These peaceful regulations go on till arbitration takes 
 the place of force, and earth becomes an empire of peace. 
 
 Here is broad ground, to which the humanities in every 
 nation are looking — 
 
 And the grandest names of earth are bending their 
 energies to effect the blessed state — a world disarmed! 
 
 Arbitration the law of nations, instead of the law of 
 force. 
 
 The world thus regulated; 
 
 Society thus harmonized; would at last blend in uni- 
 versal BROTHERHOOD. 
 
 J. Harper. 
 
 By the one act of forcing a gold standard, it has 
 doubled its income. It has the seats of learning in its 
 mesh, and makes them the recruiting stations in which 
 to grow a class "to shape the laws." The Church, too — 
 the nominal, not the real — the highest organization among 
 men, is lukewarm. It "promises high," but "works low." 
 
 Chicago, as shown from the "Blue Book" — "There are 
 about 2,000 club organizations, 5,000 saloons and 400 
 churches." Then the "Press" and "Forum" spreads a 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 219 
 
 virus that at last has spawned the "imps of the universe." 
 — Sansi. 
 
 "Death on the pale horse and hell following him." 
 
 Laws are framed to centralize wealth in the hands of 
 the few, and to rob the many to destitution and death. 
 
 Greed sits in the market place and, by law, "divides 
 the spoils." Law, secured by bribes that make the ac- 
 tors traitors to humanity. Greed ("business" is his high- 
 sounding name on "'Change,") given him by this en- 
 lightened age— 
 
 An age where the main "operation" with Greed presid- 
 ing, is to double the debts to the creditor and rob the 
 debtor — 
 
 By contracting the volume of money. 
 
 Here is the "scales" by which he divides the products 
 of labor. Heaping the wealth produced by all into one 
 hundred dollar piles, and the people into lots of three 
 hundred ; then, with his legal wand, "Let one of the 400 
 people take $70 of the $100, and the 299 people take 
 the remaining $30." 
 
 About ten cents to each person. 
 
 And this is called Christian civilization, with rulers 
 over the governments, that duplicate Pharaoh and Herod, 
 in decreeing the murder of children. 
 
 God said "Let light be." 
 
 Let the paper money party renew its fight — 
 
 For the money of the future; 
 
 The money of a true civilization ; 
 
 Money enough to do the business ; 
 
 And wipe credit from the face of the earth. 
 
 The "silver" question is an incidental one, for, if it 
 succeeds, it is not a remedy. It is a mere palliative 
 against a gold standard, not a cure. Both metals com- 
 bined are not a remedy for the world's financial trouble. 
 Paper is the remedial measure. 
 
 Let a conference of nations meet to agree upon this 
 system, that can be accomplished — a paper money sys- 
 tem. But without them we can make our own money — 
 paper money. 
 
 We are independent of them. 
 
 Metal money, to pay "balances," is a fraud, a lie. 
 
220 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 It does not pay — it is only an "order" for pay ; so can 
 paper be an "order." 
 
 The "balance" between parties carrying on interna- 
 tional trade and commerce, is not paid in money — no 
 matter of what material the money is made. 
 
 The money is the "order" held till the product, wealth, 
 in transit from one country to another, reaches the place 
 and the party to whom the "balance" is due, and dis- 
 charges it. 
 
 "Equivalent in product, wealth, can only discharge the 
 obligation." — Fillmore. 
 
 To attempt the settlement of internationl "balances," 
 in this unequaled age of trade and commerce, with a little 
 "nugget of gold and a little pig of silver"^— to say noth- 
 ing of the fifty billion of domestic trade — is a folly, a 
 sin, that only metal money men, blinded by the love of 
 unfair gain, ever think of. 
 
 Let the world fraternize on a basis practical — on pa- 
 per "orders," instead of metal "orders"; 
 
 For that is what "money" is, in these "balances." 
 
 It never can, on gold and silver "orders," fraternize. 
 
 To attempt it on both these idols of the past is to bring 
 periodical bankruptcy. 
 
 And to attempt it on gold alone, is to bring universal 
 repudiation of the deadly burden of debt now upon the 
 world. 
 
 This struggle is for a higher individual and national 
 life. 
 
 Heed its warnings. 
 
 Be prompt, for a Cataclysm of Ruin, more destructive 
 than the flood, is now pending. 
 
 J. Harper. 
 
WHAT THE GOLD CONSPIRATORS WANT. 
 
 These conspirators to make gold the only legal money 
 do not want the present prosperity to continue. They 
 want a money famine; they want the legal money to be 
 dear money; they want another slaughter and sacrifice 
 of property; they want confidences destroyed, rates of 
 interest increased, and they want that ruin which re- 
 sults in the transfer of the property of the many to the 
 possession of the few. This conspiracy against green- 
 backs and silver as money, this conspiracy to establish 
 gold as the exclusive debt paying money, is a conspiracy 
 against the welfare of the country, and this conspiracy 
 cannot be hidden under the specious falsehoods which 
 make up this mendacious petition to destroy the legal 
 tender power of the greenback. — Chicago Tribune. 
 
 The above was printed in the Chicago Tribune early 
 in 1880. The "Fillosefer" Joseph, at the time of penning 
 it, was enjoying a lucid interval, hence he wrote the 
 truth. 
 
 If that had come from a Greenback journal — as many 
 just such had before — it would have been vilified as the 
 blatherskiting of a fiat lunatic. 
 
 We suppose they had got the Tribune in a financial 
 corner, so it went for the "conspirators." 
 
 By the way, who are these "conspirators," Mr. 
 Tribune? We say to you in a Christian way, that the 
 Tribune is acting with and supporting the party — the 
 Republican — which has the "gold conspirators" as its 
 chief leaders. 
 
 Mr. Garfield is a "gold conspirator." From his place 
 in the House, as reported in the Congressional Record, 
 when speaking of the act of the i8th of March, 1869, the 
 act to strengthen the public credit, as it is called, and 
 telling how the 5.20 bonds were to be paid said : "The 
 
222 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to the 
 navment." *^ 5}::is^:}i^v 
 
 "And when Congress promised to pay in coin, it was 
 a promise in GOLD coin." 
 
 Thus we have the president-elect, less than two years 
 before he was nominated for president, declaring that the 
 bonds were payable in gold. He is, therefore, a "gold 
 conspirator." 
 
 John Sherman said in 1878, "I say the United States 
 bonds must be paid in gold." He, too, is a "gold con- 
 spirator." 
 
 The Tribune co-operates with, and sings Hosannahs 
 to the Republican party and its policies, and did all within 
 its limited ability to elect the "gold conspirator," Mr. 
 Garfield, to the presidency. Here is consistency, and con- 
 sistency is a jewel, you know. — /. Harper. 
 
 EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Bismarck Grove, Aug. i, 1881. 
 
 J. T. Mathers : Here we are in the midst of a mighty 
 throng of colored people. It is the celebration of British 
 emancipation in the West Indies, and the negro men 
 and women of Kansas are holding high jubilee, and the 
 senior is taking in the situation. I am to speak to them 
 this afternoon and give them the views of the Green- 
 backers on the situation and outlook of the colored man 
 after which we will lay before the readers of the Advo- 
 cate the day's work at this historic grove near the historic 
 city of Lawrence. 
 
 Well, here it is late at night, and the dim flicker of the 
 lights signify that the last of the hilarious throng of 
 celebrators have betaken themselves to the couch and 
 the revelry of the day is over. 
 
 It was a day long to be remembered by the men and 
 women who claim Abraham Lincoln as their "blessed 
 liberator," as they call him. 
 
 Bismarck Grove all day long was resonant with the 
 song of praise and gladness swelling from the full heart 
 of an infranchised race. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 223 
 
 The forenoon was taken up with the regular exercises 
 of speech making and general work, and then the dinner, 
 which was a most tempting afifair. 
 
 At the reassembling, at 2 p. m., the most interesting part 
 of the program began — speaking by invited guests and 
 persons of note. 
 
 The fast-becoming noted Jesse Thompson, of South 
 Bend, Ind., made a speech that electrified the great au- 
 dience and carried everything before it. The ex-slave 
 was master of his subject and proved that bondage for 
 two hundred years of a race will not crush out the man- 
 hood which God implanted. It was a grand effort, and 
 more than one heart beat as towards the verge of burst- 
 ing as the burning eloquence of the noble black man 
 swelled out from his true heart and big intellect. 
 
 General Weaver did his best, too, on that occasion. 
 Short, but it rang like the bugle of Rhoderick Dhu 
 among his clans. 
 
 The senior of the Advocate, as an old time "Aboli- 
 tionist" and "nigger worshiper," was introduced and 
 for a while the uproar was too intense for reporters or 
 anybody else to do anything but shout. Of his speech on 
 that occasion we leave it for others to speak. This much 
 it will suffice to say that the colored people said, as one 
 old mother put it, "If dat ain't old blessed Abraham him- 
 self den it is his spirit come to Bismarck for dis precious 
 occasion. But I know it's Abraham, for my soul is full." 
 
 Yes, the colored people went into ecstacies and we 
 went in on our high horse, and during the time of the 
 delivery the Republicans outside of the amphitheatre 
 were sentimentally " cussin' " that " Abolition gang." 
 
 sK * * * * * 
 
 Well, the day will never be forgotten by either whites 
 or blacks. It was a field day. The sorrows of ten gen- 
 erations were depicted. The horrors of slavery in the 
 Antilles, the more than horrors of -the "middle passage" 
 were set forth in language that burned down into the 
 souls of men. 
 
 Slavery in the West Indies was laid before the eye, 
 and the dying out of hope of a whole race, because of 
 bondage, was depicted in language never to be forgotten. 
 
224 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The fearful wrong of oppression was made plain to all. 
 It was shown that no civilization could long survive 
 the robbery of the masses, and that Spanish nationality 
 in her colonies must die if she did not mend her ways. 
 
 Then the sequel to oppression — that is, slave oppres- 
 sion — was shown, namely, that serfdom in all the world 
 was rising to fill the vacancy left by chattel slavery, and 
 this last condition of mankind would prove infinitely 
 worse than the former. That wage serfdom is and al- 
 ways has been worse for the workers — as to the amount 
 of toil — than chattel slavery. 
 
 That in one case some of the patriarchal still re- 
 mains, in the other it is Bedouinism, which is capital 
 dictating all terms and labor acquiescing in this self-con- 
 stituted tyranny. This is the situation to-day. This is 
 the peril of the hour. And the colored men of the coun- 
 try are just rising from their torpor and begin to realize 
 the true status. 
 
 It is a hopeful sign, the rising of the colored people 
 to the danger. 
 
 We had so much to do in keeping up correspondence, 
 editorial matter and talking to the thousands that we 
 could not gather half the incidents that were constantly 
 occurring and that should be recorded. Others, we doubt 
 not, will chronicle the "incidents." There were dis- 
 tinguished men of Kansas who "dropped into the grove 
 to see how the babe was thriving," as Judge Bailey put 
 it. 
 
 Fellows who are really Greenback men, but are afraid 
 of the "Scribes and Pharisees." So they, like Nico- 
 demus, "go down in the night" to see Christ. Bah, for 
 fools and cowards. 
 
 Judge Bailey is one of the truest men in Kansas. He 
 was an Abolitionist, then a Republican, when the words 
 "bleeding Kansas" meant he who stood for Kansas must 
 be willing to bleed for and even die for Kansas. 
 
 Such a man was Judge Bailey, and now he is with the 
 people, seeing in modern politics, as administered by the 
 Republitans aided by the Democrats, the same old spirit 
 of tyranny made Kansas bleed, and at last baptized the 
 whole land in blood. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 225 
 
 Hence, being for the people, he goes with the party 
 that i$ for the people — the National Greenback La- 
 bor party. Greeting and thanks to you. Judge Bailey. 
 
 Governor Robinson, the first governor of Kansas, is 
 another man who sees the trouble now upon the coun- 
 try, and from a Republican of the Republicans, becomes 
 a Greenbacker. Why? it is asked. Because, as he says, 
 "the Republicans of to-day are no more the Republicans 
 that I stood for with my life in my hand in '56 and '60 
 and through the war than is slavery like liberty." So 
 he, too, is a Greenbacker. Greenbackism means the 
 rights of the people. Modern Republicanism and modern 
 Democratism means the rights of class, and a small 
 class, too." Thus speaks the man who was the first gov- 
 ernor of the state of Kansas. 
 
 On the night of the 2d of August the clans left the 
 grove and encamped upon the classic and historic streets 
 of Lawrence. Massachusetts avenue was the street se- 
 lected and the front of the "Exchange House" the spot. 
 
 This famous hotel is the fourth in number built on the 
 same spot, within a quarter of a century. So, with the 
 consent of the proprietor — and, by the way, he is a hotel 
 keeper that knows just how to make men feel happy — 
 he had the box fixed right in the front of the broad hall, 
 the entrance to the hotel, and said "free speech" is the 
 religion of the Eldridge House. Go on, gentlemen. I 
 believe in the Christian religion and uphold it with my 
 best powers, but if Bob Ingersoll wants to assail it from 
 a box in front of the Eldridge I will furnish the box. 
 A religion that Bob can overthow is a poor kind." So 
 this big hearted man rolled out the box for the Green- 
 backers and they mounted it. A word of reminiscence 
 The ground on which the "Eldridge" now stands was the 
 first covered by the "Free State Hotel," and which was 
 burned by the "Border Ruffins" at the time Lawrence 
 was first burned. That was a large wooden building. 
 
 Then followed a building in stone, a material peculiar 
 to Kansas. It was a large and, for that early day, a 
 fine and imposing one. That shortly afterward was bom- 
 barded by the Jay Hawkers and destroyed and the city 
 again burned. 
 
226 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Then the pretty "Eldridge House" was erected of 
 brick. Still finer and more imposing, that grand house 
 was utterly destroyed and burned by Quantrell, the rebel 
 chief, who raided the town during the war with eight 
 hundred men just before daylight, killing over four 
 hundred men, women and children, and setting with fire 
 balls the whole city on fire and destroying it. 
 
 From the ruins of the third came, and upon the same 
 spot of ground the present Eldridge House now stands. 
 Here, with the consent of the proprietor, the Greenback- 
 ers on the evening of August 2d, pitched their tents and 
 "pitched in," so to speak. 
 
 And that they made the "phur phly" is very manifest 
 from the many complimentary remarks that were made 
 about them by the Republicans and Democrats, who, in 
 the dark, stood round to gather the "drift of things," 
 as they expressed it the next day. And while thus no- 
 ticing the "drift" some of the driftwood struck them and 
 and made them mad. 
 
 One of them was heard to say, as he was taking "sea 
 foam" — the name for plain whisky under the new con- 
 stitution — "that the d — ^n renegade Republicans, like W. 
 H. and others, knew so much of the record and could 
 stir the past so hotly that they had better be bought oflf 
 if it cost everything." 
 
 And that is the way a man high in office talks of stop- 
 ping the Greenbacker, not by answering his argument, 
 but by buying up men to stop the agitation. 
 
 Hell would spew such a man from its jaws. Yet such 
 is the extreme and fearful condition to which the Re- 
 publican and Democratic leaders have sunk. They are 
 willing to buy the very livery of heaven and wear it in 
 the service of the devil. 
 
 Shame on them. — J. Harper. 
 
LAND MONOPOLY. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE LANSING CAMP 
 MEETING. 
 
 BY JESSE HARPER, OF DANVILLE, ILLINOIS. 
 
 Troubles are as widespread as civilization. The dis- 
 ease which affects your material interests, your political 
 life, your moral ideas, is the same disease now working 
 its certain ruin in all Christendom. 
 
 Look where you will and you see the Scripture warn- 
 ing, "evil shall go forth from nation to nation," ful- 
 filling. In every land unrest is manifest. Those un- 
 clean spirits, like frogs, have gone forth and entered 
 the kings of the earth to gather them to the battle. 
 
 Russia totters and rests insecure in her ice-bound 
 nest. "Death to tyrants" meets you, blazing in fury 
 everywhere. 
 
 The strongest government on earth has no strength 
 against its mystic foe. The assassin's knife and bullet 
 is being dyed in blood. Liberty, long trodden beneath 
 the iron heel of despotism, is rising and its pent-up fury 
 develops into scenes appalling to those who love peace. 
 
 Continental Europe seethes and boils like a caldron. 
 The deadly hemlock of decaying autocracy is witnessing 
 in every house from the kings down to the purlieus of 
 the lazzaroni. 
 
 And Western Europe, the land of boasted constitution- 
 al government, reels and swaggers like a drunken man. 
 The old is preparing to give place to the new. The 
 regenesis is dawning. The blazing edge of the coming 
 baptism of fire is seen as it flashes through the corrup- 
 tions of effete society. From Archangel to Lands End; 
 from the ice glaciers of the north to the Bosphorus and 
 Dardanelles, 
 
 227 
 
2 28 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "Over Europe hangs 
 Attila's curse again." 
 
 Cross over to the empire of the setting sun, the repub- 
 lic of the world, and here, like the fabled Atlantas, "there 
 lurks a song of death." 
 
 That there are intensified troubles, such as have always 
 forerun the dying out and renewal of civilization, we 
 have only to cite sickening pages of detail to prove. 
 
 Contrast two periods of our history, two epoch years, 
 the like of which has not been in the past, nor will their 
 equal come to us in the future. The years 1866 and 1878 
 will stand in our records as monumental. They were to 
 us king of the good, king of the beyond. 
 
 The former brought us to the year of peace, after the 
 baptism of blood. The other carried us down to the 
 money system of barbarism and death. 
 
 The year 1866 was the first after the war for the rights 
 of men, the rights of labor. 
 
 The year 1878 landed us upon the barren rock, "specie 
 payment." At the end of that year we reached the un- 
 holy system of fraud and robbery. The system that failed 
 us at the beginning of the war. The system that has 
 failed us fifteen times during the first century of our 
 National life. A system that, in each of its failures had 
 robbed labor of seventy per cent of its earnings and 
 added this same per cent to the capital side of the ledger 
 of wealth. 
 
 The year 1878 turned us over, bound hand and foot, 
 into the hands of the money changers — into the deadly 
 embrace of the trap-door spiders. 
 
 The year 1878 turned us over like sheep to the slaugh- 
 ter into the possession of the Land Monopolists. Money 
 Monopolists, Railroad Monopolists, a trinity of evil, a 
 triad of robbers, whose generic name is the Money 
 Power, a Conspiracy Against Civilization. 
 
 So it is fair to contrast as to troubles the years named. 
 And we will make the contrast as to five things, the in- 
 crease or decrease of which mark the advance of civili- 
 zation, or note its decline to extinction. There are five 
 true indexes of national life and death. They are i, 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 229 
 
 failures or successes in worldly business ! 2, the increase 
 or decrease of penitentiary offenses; 3, the increase or 
 decrease of murders; 4, the increase or decrease of 
 lunacy, and 5, the increase or decrease of suicide. Look 
 now at the picture. Failures in 1866, four hundred and 
 forty-six. Failures in business in 1878, thirteen thou- 
 sand eight hundred and sixty-five. Penitentiary offenses 
 1866, one against twenty-seven in 1878. Murders in 
 1866, one against twenty-three in 1878. Lunatics in 
 1866, one against twenty-one in 1878. Suicides in 1866, 
 one against twenty-nine in 1878. 
 
 These were years of ruin unsurpassed. No period in 
 our history did the social evil so abound, and no period 
 in our history did the liquor traffic so increase. No 
 period in our history did the millionaire rise like a 
 hydra and no period in our history did paupers spring 
 from the ground as mushrooms as in the years 1866 to 
 the end of 1878. There were no tramps in 1866, while 
 in 1878 the land swarmed with them. Essays were 
 solicited by philanthropies suggesting remedies for the 
 scourge of tramps. And laws were passed during the 
 dark hours on the problem of tramps so outrageous that 
 if they had been in force in the days of Christ they would 
 have subjected Him and His disciples to imprisonment 
 for carrying the words of life to the perishing. 
 
 If we cast our eye to Europe we see eight million paid 
 troops, costing eighty per cent of the entire expenses. 
 And yet the word goes out that the government is not 
 strong enough. 
 
 In free America, where the consent of the governed is 
 the just source of the power of the government, we are 
 told also that the government is not strong enough. 
 
 If these are no indexes of trouble then there is no such 
 thing as trouble. 
 
 One other contrast: In 1866 there were fewer crimes 
 committed, according to the ratio of people, than any 
 year of our history. How strange to some, yet true. 
 We were told that a dissolute soldiery would endanger 
 our liberties. That two million of men turned loose, 
 freed from the restraints of military discipline, would fill 
 the land with crime. 
 
230 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Not so. The boys who faced death on five hundred 
 battlefields that liberty and union should be one and 
 inseparable forever were not the men to swell the tide of 
 crime. Men who had carried the flag, shotted and 
 shelled and baptized in blood, learned in this high de- 
 votion to country the worth of union; learned the price- 
 less value of republican institutions. 
 
 So when they came home, bowed once again round the 
 hearthstone and poured forth their prayer, the hand of 
 crime was staid, the year 1866 became an expiator, jus- 
 tice rested, mercy reigned. 
 
 During this passage of business death, from 1866 to 
 1878, the currency was contracted in volume as never 
 before in so short a time. In September, 1865, as shown 
 by the Chicago Inter Ocean, June 29, 1878, the amount 
 of paper issued either by the banks or the government, 
 which performed the functions of money, amounted to 
 $1,996,678,770. 
 
 And this is true. At this time there were about $880,- 
 000,000 of 5 20 six per cent bonds which did not cir- 
 culate as money. That which did circulate and perform 
 the functions of money was legal tender compound in- 
 terest notes $217,024,160; legal tender five per cent notes, 
 $32,536,991 ; treasury notes past due, legal tenders, 
 $1,503,020; 7 30's treasury notes, $830,000,000, part of 
 which had been by law clothed with legal tender power, 
 and the other part of which, not so clothed, yet being 
 worded on their face and back in the same general lan- 
 guage of promise, were largely used as money; tem- 
 porary loan certificates, $107,148,713; certificates of in- 
 debtedness, $85,093,000. Old State bank paper, $78,- 
 867,575 ; National bank paper, $185,000,000. 
 
 By the time J. Cook & Co. failed, September, 1873, 
 the amount had been contracted $1,220,999,085. And 
 the work went on till the circulating medium had been 
 contracted to less than $700,000,000. This monstrous 
 crime produced a ruin more sweeping and wider spread 
 than history records in either ancient or modern times. 
 The change of property, out of the hands of the many 
 into the possession of the few, never had a parallel. More 
 than ten thousand million dollars' worth passed into the 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 231 
 
 hands of ten per cent of the people through forced sales, 
 judgment liens, mortgages, without redemption, trust 
 deeds and railroad confiscations. And these new owners 
 did not pay twenty-five per cent of what the property 
 cost the first owners. 
 
 Hence bankruptcy was almost universal, and all this 
 simply to satisfy the insatiable greed of a few Shylocks, 
 who fattened on the confiscated property which class 
 laws, authorized and empowered them to lay hold on and 
 take possession of. 
 
 This great suffering came upon the country as the re- 
 sult of the contraction policy, the shrinking of the vol- 
 ume of the money, thereby doubling, trebling and even 
 quadrupling the debts of the country, both public and 
 private. 
 
 The enormity of the crime of shrinking the volume of 
 the money is almost beyond calculation. The report of 
 the Silver Commission, at page 61, says as to it: "The 
 mischief which practically threatens the world and which 
 has been the most prolific cause of the social, political 
 and industrial ills which have afflicted it, is that of a de- 
 creasing and deficient money. It is from such a de- 
 ficiency that mankind is now suffering, and it is the actual 
 and present evil. 
 
 Through the infamy of contraction to resumption and 
 the demonetization of silver, gold was appreciated as 
 never before in history in so short a time. The New 
 York Public, in comparing gold with over eight hundred 
 articles used by man, says "from January, 1873, to No- 
 vember, 1878, gold appreciated thirty-four per cent." 
 
 This will suffice to show the great wrong of shrinking 
 the volume of the money, as that question will come up 
 when we reach the class laws. 
 
 r 
 LABOR. 
 
 To toil is the lot of the human race. Labor produces 
 all wealth, so at the very threshold of this discussion 
 against monopoly, the rights of labor should be thor- 
 oughly understood, and that they may be, we give what 
 some of the greatest men in history have said about it. 
 
232 " Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Daniel Webster said in his great speech in 1837: "The 
 great interest of this great country, the producing cause of 
 all prosperity, is labor, labor, labor. The government was 
 made to protect this industry ; to give it both encourage- 
 ment and security ; to that very end, with this precise ob- 
 ject in view, power was given to Congress over the cur- 
 rency and over the money system of the country." 
 
 President Lincoln said, in his second message: "La- 
 bor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is 
 only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if 
 labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior and 
 deserves much the higher consideration." 
 
 Having thus shown, in brief, the supremacy of labor 
 and its high place in the workshop of humanity, let us 
 see what enmity and malice have done to lay burdens in 
 the way. Let us see what obstacles have been laid in the 
 way to prevent man from earning his bread by the sweat 
 of his brow. 
 
 Land monopoly, money monopoly, creatures of class 
 laws have been the bane of the world. 
 
 To obtain a clear view of this a glance at the past is 
 necessary. That great nations have arisen, ruled and 
 fallen we know. That vast empires have stood up, made 
 the earth shake beneath the goings of their feet, the 
 bloody page of history fearfully attests. 
 
 That the groaning earth has been baptized in gore shed 
 at the bid of mad ambition, is a fact, sad as any that 
 comes to us from the past. 
 
 That the tears of the oppressed, the down trodden 
 and dying, at the hands of tyrants, have flown till all 
 heaven wept, the angels of the skies in sorrow affirm. 
 
 Why is it that the ground has been crimsoned with the 
 blood of the slain? Why do states die, empires cease 
 and nations vanish out of sight? Because they lay bur- 
 dens on man that deprive him of the power to earn his 
 bread by the sweat of his brow. They deprive him of 
 land ; hence the first governmental sin is land monopoly. 
 
 The right to the soil is as dear and as much an inalien- 
 able right as the right to life. The depriving of man 
 of either of these is a sin against God and a crime against 
 the life of man. 
 
Life of Col. jfesse Harpef. 233 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 Way back in the dim distance Egypt had a name proud 
 as any written on the escutcheon of the past. In many 
 things she excelled. Building is the greatest achieve- 
 ment of man, and Egypt led all in the divine art. 
 
 The great pyramid of Gizeh is the grandest monument 
 of human history, the mightiest building on earth and the 
 oldest — in. structure a miracle, in extent almost incompre- 
 hensible. Forty centuries have looked upon its glitter- 
 ing sides, and the tooth of time during all these rolling 
 centuries has not been able to eat away the grandeur of 
 the pile. There, as an altar unto the Lord, in the midst 
 of Egypt, It stands. Generations of men have come and 
 gone ; nations have lived and died ; empires rose and fell, 
 and amid all "Cheops Shaft," like a great rock in a weary 
 land, stands — grand, silent, defiant — , symbolized finger 
 of Deity. 
 
 But what of Egypt? She is dead. The song of her 
 death floated on the air forty centuries agone, as fleeing 
 slaves shouted : 
 
 "O sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark seas, 
 Jehovah has triumphed. His people are free." 
 
 At that time one per cent of the people owned all the 
 land, and ninety-nine per cent of the people owned none 
 — were tenants, serfs and slaves. Then Egypt died, and 
 her death-dirge rings yet in the ear of the world. 
 
 Diod Sie. 1 175 says : "The whole of the land of Egypt 
 is divided up and apportioned to three classes — (i) to the 
 priests, (2) to the king, (3) to the soldiers — scarcely a 
 hundredth part to the people. The nation likewise dis- 
 tinguished into three other classes or orders — (i) shep- 
 herds, (2) husbandmen and (3) artificers. These take 
 the land of the priest, king and soldier (sword bearer) 
 on rent." 
 
 There is land monopoly for you; the king, the priest 
 
234 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 and soldier; about one per cent of the population are land- 
 lords, the others their tenants. 
 
 BABYLON. 
 
 Then came golden Babylon, an "empire of glory," and 
 the grandest city the sun ever shone upon, matchless in 
 beauty and wondrous in extent ; sixty miles around ; bat- 
 tlements three hundred feet high ; fifteen hundred streets 
 crossing at right angles, with swinging gardens, laugh- 
 ing fountains mid enchanting vistas. There towered up 
 to the blue above minaret, shaft and obelisk, and there 
 looked down, like sylphs of the empyrean upon the She- 
 mick lake and aravan walls. Thus Babylon stood trans- 
 cendent in ravishments, the city of the globe. 
 
 Outside lay the network of canals, cemented till water- 
 tight as urns, extending from the walls of the city to the 
 border of the empire, and pouring in from their bosom a 
 stream of wealth the like of which man never witnessed 
 before, and which has scarce been equaled since. 
 
 At last this cup of sin filled to overflowing. The 
 haughty ruler, standing upon the shining battlements, mid 
 a forest of temples, uttered the falsehood, "Behold great 
 Babylon, which I have builded !" forgetting in the pride 
 of his heart the toiling millions, who, amid scorching sun 
 rays and drenching rainfall, for centuries had toiled un- 
 der the lash of a task master at three cents a day till death 
 gave them release in the city of the dead. 
 
 Then God blew His breath upon Babylon and she died. 
 Land monopoly, as in Egypt, was the death warrant, for 
 four per cent of the people owned all the land and ninety- 
 six per cent of the people owned none, were tenants, serfs 
 and slaves. — Cyancres, i 13. 
 
 MEDO PERSIA. 
 
 Next in order came the Medo Persian, the silver em- 
 pire, whose ravishing beauty, ostentatious display of 
 power more than rivalled her golden predecessor. The 
 Satraps of Persia, in the day of their dominacy, were the 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 235 
 
 most cruel, debauched and overbearing that ever had a 
 place on earth. 
 
 They set themselves up as gods, and to admit of a su- 
 perior was to bring down on the head of the offender the 
 dire vengeance of these tyrants. Plato says: "So great 
 was the distance between the prince and the subjects 
 that the latter were looked upon as slaves, while the king 
 was looked upon, not only as their sovereign, their abso- 
 lute lord and master, but as a kind of divinity. In a word, 
 the peculiar character of Asiatic nations was servitude 
 and slavery. Luxury to madness on one side and 
 wretched poverty and abject servitude on the other." 
 
 Their robbery of the people eclipsed all that had gone 
 before. The tenure of the property, centered in the hands 
 of the veriest despots. Then to secure themselves in 
 their ill-gotten gains they secured the proverb, which at 
 last became the supreme authority, "that the laws of the 
 Medes and Persians change not." The wage of the toiler 
 came down to that which is received by a slave. Then 
 one long cry of anguish wailed through the land. God 
 blew his breath against Medo Persia and she died. Land 
 monopoly was the death warrant. Less than three per 
 cent of the people owned all the land and ninety-seven per 
 cent of the people owned none — were tenants, serfs and 
 slaves. — Dio Sic. 2-1 1. 
 
 GREECE. 
 
 The brazen empire sprang into life at a single bound. 
 The mad boy of Macedon went forth conquering and to 
 conquer. He charged across the Granicus and turned 
 civilization westward, whence its march ever since. 
 
 Glorious old Greece ! land of beauteous isles, of classic 
 lore and epic song! 
 
 "Where burning Sappho loved and sung." 
 
 Land of mirth and tragedy profound ! How gladsome 
 thy royal works make the world to-day ! Temple, archi- 
 trave and monumental Parthenon stand the proud 
 achievement of the day of thy transcendent sun. 
 
 But like all that had gone before, she, too, forgot man. 
 
236 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Demosthenes in eloquence and pathos, tender as the love 
 of woman, could not stay the tide of death. 
 
 She had risen from nothing to glory through means 
 simple and just. R. H. 2 1241, says : 
 
 "The love of labor removed the vices and passions 
 which generally occasion the ruin of states. They led a 
 laborious life, intent upon the cultivation of their land 
 and the arts, and not excluding the husbandman nor the 
 artificer from the first dignities of the state; preserving 
 between all the citizens and members of the state a great 
 equality, void of pomp, luxury or ostentation. He who 
 had commanded the army for one year fought for the 
 next in the ranks of a private soldier, and was not 
 ashamed of the most common functions of the armies by 
 land or sea. The reigrjing characteristics of all the cities 
 of Greece were particular affection for poverty, a medi- 
 ocrity of fortune, simplicity of buildings, furniture, dress, 
 equipage, domestic and table. It is surprising to con- 
 sider the small recompense with which they were satis- 
 fied for their application in public employments and for 
 the services which they had rendered the state." 
 
 This was the road she traveled to glory. Now look at 
 her in the day of her death : 
 
 "The Greeks fell blindly into the snare which gave the 
 mortal blow to their liberty. The principal causes were 
 disseminating among themselves sectional strife. The 
 Persians, who had learned the power of the steel of the 
 Greeks, resorted to their gold and the policy of bribery. 
 There were Greeks who secretly took these bribes and con- 
 veyed into the hands of foreigners the substance of Greece 
 and her liberty was lost." — R. H. 2:242. 
 
 Thus, too, our republic is going. Americans are fast 
 conveying the substance of our wealth into the hands of 
 foreigners, and our liberty will be lost. Sad, sad the day 
 that saw the decline of classic Greece. 
 
 The bread winners sunk beneath a burden of woe, 
 down, down, down, till tears baptized the land and the 
 cry of the poor filled the air. Then God blew his breath 
 against Greece and she died. Land monopoly was the 
 death warrant, for four per cent owned all the land and 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 237 
 
 ninety-six per cent of the people owned none — were ten- 
 ants, serfs and slaves. 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Then the final mighty effort of man, the grandest feat 
 of his genius and power, was witnessed. 
 
 The fotinding, growth and glory of the Roman Efripire 
 has been the wonder of the world. Begotten in myth, 
 fed upon the ferocity of the wolf, led by the intellect of 
 man, she grew to be at last the palladium of law and the 
 legionary of war. Her "Twelve Tables" underlie the 
 codes of all civilization to-day. Her military prowess has 
 been the admiration of mankind. Her works in every 
 department of human thought and action are unsurpassed. 
 Aqueduct, temple, forum, each stand unparalleled. Thea- 
 ter, hippodrome, drama — in these she leads all. 
 
 Rome has been termed- "The Eternal City." From that 
 center has gone forth blandishments, political chicanery, 
 ecclesiastical Jesuitism, and they for ages upon ages have 
 ruled the world. 
 
 Rome, in her highest glory, was simple in habit and 
 austere in manner. There was but slight distinction be- 
 tween the people. "Citizen" was the name of man. Equal- 
 ity of fortune, generous distribution of land was the law 
 of common consent, and the legal enactment of the state 
 also. 
 
 So rich in achievement was she at one time that eighty- 
 five per cent of the people had title in land. Then the 
 legions were heroes beyond conquering; then Rome was 
 founded on a rock. She but followed the course of the 
 great empires which had preceded her. In the incipiency 
 of them all justice ruled and mercy reigned more largely 
 than at any other period of their life. But as the nations 
 before her turned from those true principles of equity 
 and justice, in the day of their degeneracy, so did Rome. 
 
 She traveled the same road to the same death, to cer- 
 tain destruction. In what way? 
 
 Her volume of money at the commencement of this era 
 was about $1,800,000,000, made up of brass, copper and 
 other metals. This was doomed to destruction. She de- 
 
238 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 termined to shrink the volume and make the lesser vol- 
 ume of a finer metal. So she shrunk the volume to $200,- 
 000,000. A long time was consumed in doing it, but the 
 road was passed over, the goal reached. The S. C. 49, 
 says: "At the Christian era the metallic money of the 
 Roman empire amounted to the sum of $1,800,000,000. 
 By Ihe end of the fifteenth it had shrunk to less than 
 $200,000,000. 
 
 The fatal efl?ect upon the empire and its people came 
 much sooner; and Rome fell by reason of this very 
 shrinking of the volume of the money. The lands passed 
 out of the hands of the people into the hands of the few 
 millionaires, so that when death's great ford was reached, 
 where civilization was to die, we see that 2,000 people 
 owned all the land in the Roman empire. 
 
 When we reach the, dreadful period where the civiliza- 
 tion begun in Egypt, eighteen hundred years before, was 
 to die out then we find two thousand people owning all 
 the land. Less than one per cent of the people owned all, 
 and more than ninety-nine per cent of the people owned 
 none — were tenants, serfs and slaves. 
 
 Land monopoly was the death warrant, a shrinking 
 volume of money the instrument of execution, and class 
 laws the god that directed this destiny. 
 
 Allison, H. E., says : 
 
 "The fall of the Roman empire, so long ascribed in ig- 
 norance to slavery, heathenism and moral corruption, 
 was in reality brought about by a decline in the gold and 
 silver mines of Spain and Greece." 
 
 Oh, what a road of ruin, wasted fortunes, broken hearts 
 and maniac men ! Here is what is said by high antiquity 
 on the point: 
 
 "During this period the most extraordinary and baleful 
 changes took place in the condition of the world. 
 
 "Population dwindled and commerce, arts, wealth and 
 freedom all disappeared. 
 
 "The people were reduced to the poverty and misery of 
 the most degraded condition of serfdom and slavery. The 
 disintegration of society was almost complete. The con- 
 ditions of life were so hard that individual selfishness was 
 the only thing consistent with the instinct of self-preservJi' 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 239 
 
 tion. All public spirit, all generous emotions, all the noble 
 aspirations of man shrivelled and disappeared as tht vol- 
 ume of money shrunk and prices fell. 
 
 "History records no such disastrous transition as that 
 from the Roman empire to the Dark Ages." 
 
 These are wondrous times, history repeating itself be- 
 fore our eyes. The deadly symptoms that forerun the 
 downfall of the Roman empire are seen everywhere in 
 Christendom. A shrinking volume of money, the trans- 
 fer of wealth into the hands of a few by operation of law, 
 with one overshadowing land monopoly is surely destroy- 
 ing civilization and corrupting even to death, Christianity. 
 Let us cite facts. The silver commission says : 
 
 "Money is the great instrument of association, with the 
 very fiber of social organism, the vitalizing force of indus- 
 try, the protoplasm of civilization, and as essential to its 
 existence as oxygen is to animal life. Without money 
 civilization could not have had a beginning; with a di- 
 minishing supply it must languish, and unless relieved 
 finally perish." 
 
 Gibbon says (4:55) : 
 
 "But the plebeians of Rome, of the sedentary and ser- 
 vile arts, had been oppressed from the earliest times by the 
 weight of debt and usury, and the husbandman, during 
 the term of his military services, was obliged to abandon 
 the cultivation of his farm. The lands of Italy, which had 
 been originally divided among the families of free and in- 
 digent proprietors, were so insensibly purchased or 
 usurped by the avarice of the nobles, and in the age which 
 preceded the fall of the republic, that only two thousand 
 citizens were possessed of any independent substance." 
 
 The O. R. W., 412, says : 
 
 "As for the miserable class whom they oppressed, their 
 condition became worse every day from the accession of 
 the emperors. The plebeians had ever disdained those 
 arts which now occupy the middle classes. These were 
 intrusted to slaves; originally they employed themselves 
 upon the lands which have been obtained by conquest. 
 But these lands were gradually absorbed, or usurped by 
 the large proprietors. The small farmers, oppressed with 
 debt and usury, parted with their lands to their wealthy 
 
240 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 creditors ; it was computed in the time of Cicero that there 
 were only about two thousand citizens possessed of inde- 
 pendent property. These two thousand owned the world, 
 the rest were dependent, and they were powerless when 
 deprived of political rights, for the great candidates for 
 public honors and offices liberally paid for votes." 
 
 That is exactly our condition to-day as to the unlawful 
 use of money in purchasing the elective franchise. The 
 wretched condition of the masses is thus told by the same 
 author : 
 
 "The poor were sold into slavery for trifling debts ; 
 they had no home, the poor man had no hope. His wife 
 was a slave to penury, and he no better. The cry for bread 
 by his children greeted him constantly, wretchedness filled 
 his cup and despair his heart. So he sought diversions in 
 the fierce delights of the drama, the gladiatorial contest 
 and games. Death was his only hope as release from suf- 
 fering. Luxury that never had an equal on one side and 
 degradation unsurpassed on the other. Millionaires on 
 one side, beggars on the other. Tyrants and task masters 
 on one side, serfs and slaves on the other. Incomes of 
 one hundred million dollars a year on one side and a third 
 of the people eating at the public expense of the other." 
 
 Livy. B., 2 •.22,, says : 
 
 "While he served in the army during the Sabian war, 
 having not only lost the produce of his farm by the depra- 
 dations of the enemy, but his house being burnt, all his 
 goods plundered, his cattle driven off, and a tax being 
 imposed at a time so distressing to him, he was obliged to 
 run in debt; that these debts aggravated by usury, had 
 consumed, first, his farm, which he had inherited from 
 his father and grandfather ; then the remainder of his sub- 
 stance, and lastly, like a pestilence, had reached his per- 
 son ; that he had been dragged by a creditor, not into serv- 
 itude, but into a house of correction, or rather a place of 
 execution." 
 
 We have glanced over these authorities so as to fasten 
 on the mind the appalling fact that he who monopolizes 
 land is a destroyer of civiHzation and murderer of man. 
 
 Just the things that have been witnessed in the sickly 
 past are seen again. Fortunes up to millions, aye, billions ! 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 241 
 
 in the hands of a few. The many, the masses degraded, 
 starving, hopeless, a third eating at the pubhc expense. 
 
 The assassin's knife, the incendiary's torch, made day 
 and night aHke hideous. Lewdness filled the land, mar- 
 riage was a nullity ; and children in their innocence and 
 helplessness, were marked by their illegitimacy, clinging 
 to them like a curse — such was Rome. 
 
 And to add sorrow to the appalling picture, drunken- 
 ness in high and low life, excelled in enormity and beast- 
 liness, all that had gone before. 
 
 Having traced the sad results, the robbery of land 
 from many until civilization itself died and the dark ages 
 came as the fruitage, let us retrace our steps and see if 
 divine wisdom at the very outset of that march of death 
 did not set an example, which, if followed, would have 
 saved the world from its oft baptisms of tears and blood. 
 
 We will revert briefly to the Jews and the dividing of 
 the land of Canaan by lot. This is a portion of history 
 worthy of our most careful consideration, a transaction 
 not heralded by the world. And following the fall of 
 Egypt, a fall brought on her because of her robbery of the 
 land out of which man has to get his bread, it is a lesson 
 of infinite importance, and will ultimately be followed. 
 
 God put his stamp of disapprobation upon land monop- 
 oly so effectually, in the division of the promised land, as 
 to forever settle the question. 
 
 What was done in Canaan ? See the contrast. 
 
 In the promised land the title to the soil was obtained 
 by "lot," and was so distributed that each bread eater 
 had the place provided to get his bread from. This stands 
 in blazing contrast with Egypt (and all the empires of the 
 world), where the land, by robbery, in fact or in law, had 
 passed into the hands of the few. Consequently the many 
 could get bread only at the will of another. A thing 
 hateful to God and murderous to man. 
 
 Let us examine the land system of Jewery. The lands 
 were disposed of thus: 
 
 "And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying : 'Unto these 
 the land shall be divided for an inheritance,' and Moses 
 commanding the children of Israel saying: 'This is the 
 land which ye shall inherit, and ye shall divide the land 
 
242 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 by lot; to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, 
 and to the few ye shall give the less inheritance, every 
 man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot fall- 
 eth.' " By lot was the inheritance as the Lord commanded. 
 
 "And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh, before the 
 Lord, and then Joshua divided the land unto the children 
 of Israel. 
 
 "The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing 
 thereof is of the Lord." — Bible. 
 
 The lands were, as seen by these examples, divided by 
 divine appointment, so that each one got the portion which 
 God set apart for him. Thus were the children of Israel 
 settled — each one a land-holder. 
 
 The great law announced at the beginning, "Earn your 
 bread by the sweat of your brow," was here utilized and 
 put in reach of all. But as there were crafty and unscru- 
 pulous ones among the people, and as there were simple 
 and confiding ones also, among the people, some plan 
 must be devised to keep the land justly and equitably di- 
 vided, so that all should be able to get bread and have a 
 place to live. And the cupidity of man being well known, 
 the monster things, extortion and usury, also being under- 
 stood, it was necessary to devise a mode by which an 
 equipoise, a general holding (each a portion) by the peo- 
 ple, of the land, a mode that should not nor could not be 
 destroyed. A plan must be instituted among the people 
 where the land monopoly of Egypt could not come. 
 
 THE JUBILEE. 
 
 God's great law is "The land shall not be sold forever, 
 for the land is mine." Lev. 25 123. 
 
 To this end the jubilee was established. It was a statute 
 of limitation against land monopoly, and one of the grand- 
 est ever put upon a statute book. The world must come 
 to it yet universally. A distinguished writer speaking of 
 it uses this language : 
 
 "Its limitation was fifty years. At each occurring period 
 of the half century, all lands reverted to their ancient own- 
 ers. The political design of the law of jubilee was to pre- 
 vent the too great oppression of the poor, as well as their 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 243 
 
 being liable to perpetual slavery. By this means the rich 
 were prevented from accumulating for perpetuity." — R. 
 K., 703. 
 
 The darkest period in history, as has been shown, fol- 
 lowed the fall of the Roman Empire, known as the Dark 
 Ages. And this was brought about by a shrinking vol- 
 ume of money resulting in land robbery. "An increasing 
 value of money, and falling prices have been and are now, 
 more fruitful of human misery than war, pestilence or 
 famine." — Jones. And this fearful disorder went on till 
 the revival of letters. The first indication of life, arose 
 from the wide-spread influence of the Bank of Venice, and 
 soon after the introduction and use of Bills of Exchange, 
 which gave the world of trade a wider circulating me- 
 dium, giving birth to a new spirit of enterprise. 
 
 Through all this long, sorrowful period — from Egypt 
 to the death of Rome — the land tenures were based on 
 ROBBERY. And even the discovery of the New World 
 and instituting a fee in land did not break up the robberies 
 which for more than a thousand years has held Europe's 
 toiling millions down to a vassalage, cruel as the grave. 
 
 All over the continent the "Free Booter" system ob- 
 tains. England leads off in a land monopoly, more foul 
 and deadly than has disgraced the earth (light and knowl- 
 edge considered), since that of Egypt. A word in regard 
 to it and then we will take up the matter as it applies and 
 as it is operating in this country. 
 
 The Inter Ocean, June 29, 1878, on this question, said : 
 "In Great Britain eight persons own more than 200,000 
 acres of land each, and forty-one persons own more than 
 100,000 acres. The largest land holder, according to re- 
 cent report, is the Duke of Sutherland, who owns 1,358,- 
 425 acres of land in Scotland. The Duke of Bauccleugh 
 and Queensburg owns 459,260 acres, Sir James Mathei- 
 son, 406,070 acres, Earl of Bradalbane, 372,729 acres, 
 Earl Learfield, 305,891 acres, Duke of Richmond, 268,407 
 acres. Earl of Fife, 257,652 acres, and Alexander Mather- 
 son, 220,433 acres. 
 
 Thirty-two thousand own the land of the British Isles, 
 where some thirty million people have to subsist. We 
 have a copy of the London Contemporary Review, in 
 
244 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 which George Ogden shows up the land question in its 
 hideousness : "A better notion of the growth of our land 
 monopoly may be obtained from the following : The Earl 
 of Bredalbane can ride on his own land in a single direc- 
 tion loo miles. The Duke of Sutherland owns the coun- 
 ty of the same name. This county reaches from sea to 
 sea. The Duke of Richmond holds possession of 340,000 
 acres at Gordon Castle and Goodwood, and the Duke of 
 Devonshire 96,000 in the county of Derby alone. 
 
 It has been authoritatively stated that less than 160 per- 
 sons now own one-half of England, and three-fourths of 
 Scotland. The way in which political power, so largely 
 monopolized by land proprietors, has been used, may be 
 gleaned from the fact that within the last two hundred 
 years, 7,000,000 acres of common lands have been added 
 to their estates, that is the estate of adjoining proprietors." 
 
 Tenantry is the rule in Europe, and has been for cen- 
 turies as evidenced. A leading article in the New York 
 Times of April 25, says on this point ; * * * "It is a 
 change of ownership of the soil and the creation of a class 
 of landholders on the one hand, and tenant farmers on 
 the other, something similar in both cases, to what has 
 long existed and now exists, in the older countries of 
 Europe." 
 
 The whole policy of this country is shaping things to 
 this end surely and certainly. 
 
 During the past decade and a half of years there has 
 been granted to persons and corporations by the govern- 
 ment land enough to create seven states as large as Ohio. 
 That is a crime in land monopoly exceeding anything in 
 history. 
 
 An empire of land robbed from the living and the yet 
 unborn, and all done at the command and dictation of 
 
 CONSOLIDATED GRASPING CAPITAL. 
 
 Says a distinguished statesman, in reference to the de- 
 cision of the Supreme Court of the United States on this 
 land monopoly question : 
 
 "The deliberate judgment of the highest court in the 
 Union is that where the pre-emption law invites settlers on- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 245 
 
 to the public lands and offers them homes on certain con- 
 ditions with which they are willing and anxious to com- 
 ply, the government may write itself down a liar and take 
 the lands they have settled on. And this is the unanimous 
 opinion of the court. It totally ignores the policy of the 
 government for the past forty years, and when read care- 
 fully in the light of the facts, it will be found to elaborately 
 pettifog the case for the monopolists. I brand it as the 
 
 DRED SCOTT DECISION OF THE AMERICAN LAND POWER. 
 
 It arrays the government against the poor man and 
 makes it the ally of the monopolists. It strikes at the Na- 
 tion's well being, if not its life." 
 
 The remedy for these evils is the thorough renovation 
 of our land policy. This is the question of questions. It 
 underlies every other, and no party deserves to live who 
 will not face it. This question reaches down to the very 
 bedrock of Democracy; for if a few individuals or char- 
 tered corporations may absolutely own millions of acres, 
 then they may own the whole of a state or a continent, and 
 thus practically enslave the people. 
 
 The land holders of a country govern it and therefore 
 the struggle for equal rights, whether this country or 
 Europe, must eventually uphold the natural right of the 
 people to an inheritance in the soil. — G. W. J. 
 
 The fight is for the natural right of inheritance in the 
 soil. The crime of the ages has been the robbery of the 
 soil, and that now 
 
 LAND MONOPOLY 
 
 is the crime of crimes. But we look with hope, hope, hope 
 to the future, for this new continent has divine possibili- 
 ties lying within its embrace. 
 
THE FIFTH STEP. 
 
 The fifth step in the conspiracy was the act of July 14, 
 1870, authorizing the refunding of the pubHc debt. And 
 it should be noticed that the very idea implied in funding 
 a debt, is that it is not to be paid. And the desperate men 
 having secured the passage of the law, March 18, 1869, 
 making all the bonds payable in coin, therefore, for the 
 then present, making it impossible for the government to 
 pay, as it had not the coin. But this was a dangerous con- 
 dition. It was such a high-handed outrage, such an in- 
 famous robbery as had not before been given to the con- 
 spirators — the act of sin, March 18, 1869. The conspira- 
 tors were afraid to rely on that act for fear of its repeal, 
 so the old s'20 must not be paid but refunded ; exchanged 
 for bonds of lower rates, and this the holders of the bonds 
 demanded. The funding act and the supplemental act 
 and the supplemental acts were the result of this scheme 
 of piracy fifteen hundred millions dollars were authorized 
 to be refunded. And both the principal and interest pi 
 the new bond payable in coin of the standard value, and as 
 if this was not enough, both the principal and interest 
 exempted from taxation. Each dollar in the new bond 
 is payable in 25 8-10 of gold or 412 1-2 grains of silver, 
 of the standard weight and fineness of the act of July 14, 
 1870, and this contract is written on the face of each of 
 the new bonds. This all accomplished the cry of funding 
 at a lower rate was blazed forth as the excuse, and pay- 
 ment of the bond in the identical money it was payable in 
 — Greenbacks — was abandoned. 
 
 246 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 247 
 
 A NATIONAL DEBT IN PERPETUO. 
 
 The truth is becoming more and more patent, that the 
 great effort of capitalists is to 
 
 PREVENT THE PAYMENT OF THE DEBT. 
 
 This is proved by the desperate measures that have fol- 
 lowed the refunding act. We have seen that the "dollar" 
 in the new bond is to be "gold" and "silver" of a certain 
 "weight" and "fineness." 
 
 THE NEXT THOUGHT OF THE CONSPIRATORS. 
 
 If the metal can be appreciated, made more valuable, 
 then the bonds become also more valuable. So having se- 
 cured the fifth link in the chain that should bind labor to 
 the wheels of capital, the conspirators were ready to take 
 
 THE SIXTH STEP. 
 
 The sixth step in the conspiracy was the cheat of March 
 12, 1873, 
 
 DEMONETIZING SILVER. 
 
 The remarkable feature about the dropping of the silver 
 dollar, 412 1-2 grains, 9-10 fine, is that no one knew any- 
 thing about it. This is likely true as to the mass of the 
 members ; but while it is true, it proves that there were a 
 few, and they 
 
 CONSPIRATORS, 
 
 who knew all about it, and surreptitiously put the act 
 through. The bill was said to be one thing, while it was 
 altogether another thing. More than that : Discussion was 
 stifled, cut off, and the bill passed under the torture of the 
 rules, 
 
248. Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 WITHOUT BEING READ, 
 
 as required by the law and rules of the House. And still 
 deeper did the crime go. The sections that did the devilish 
 work were hid away in the midst of a bill on 
 
 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
 
 How many took part in the crime and got part of the 
 five hundred thousand dollars said to have been sent here 
 by foreign banks to secure the legislation, may never be 
 known. Mr. Fort, M. C, says : "It was put through un- 
 der the suspension of the rules at the bidding of the 
 
 BONDHOLDERS 
 
 without being read to the House. This law was 
 
 STOLEN THROUGH CONGRESS 
 
 by being hidden in the body of a bill. Mr. Speaker, the 
 story is told in a very few words. It was done in the in- 
 terest of the bondholders, and hence it was done." — Fort, 
 M. C. 
 
 Mr. Kelley, M. C, says : "I was ignorant of the fact 
 that it would demonetize silver, and so were those distin- 
 guished senators, Blaine and Voorhees, who were both 
 in the house at the time." 
 
 "Did you know that the dollar was dropped when the 
 bill passed?" 
 
 "No," said Mr. Blaine. "Did you?" "No," said Mr. 
 Voorhees. 
 
 SOMEBODY KNEW, AND HE OR THEY CONSPIRATORS. 
 
 They were the secret agents of the Money Power in our 
 Congress and secured the passage of a law that has af- 
 fected the world as but few laws have in all time. The 
 Economist of London, says : 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 249 
 
 "The remonetization of silver by the United States 
 would restore the old relations of the metals, and put an 
 end to the disaster brought upon the world by the folly 
 and wickedness of German and American demonetiza- 
 tion." 
 
 The Chicago Tribune says: "That a vast sum of 
 money was expended to secure the legislation, and that the 
 act was a stupendous villiany." 
 
 When the fact is fully realized that all the gold and 
 silver ever coined are wholly inadequate to the work of the 
 exchanges of Christendom, then it will appear how su- 
 premely wicked it was to destroy one-half of the money. 
 And, strange as it may seem, that is just what was done. 
 
 THE OBJECT WAS TO APPRECIATE BONDS AND INCREASE THE 
 PURCHASING POWER OF MONEY. 
 
 All the gold and silver ever coined in the United States 
 up to December 31 was $1,191,140,787; not enough with- 
 in $600,000,000 of paying the outstanding bonds to-day. 
 — L. A., 1878. 
 
 Thus we come to the last link, the crown of sin in the 
 arch of death, 
 
 THE SEVENTH STEP, 
 
 which landed us in John Sherman's heaven. The seventh 
 and last step in the conspiracy was the act of January 14, 
 1875, authorizing and declaring by law the resumption of 
 
 SPECIE PAYMENTS, JANUARY I, 1879. 
 
 This act placed the conspirators in the absolute control 
 of the government. These seven Acts, these laws, and set 
 forth as to their gravaman, fix : 
 
 1. A single gold standard to measure all values. 
 
 2. A bonded debt never to be paid. 
 
 3. Bank paper issued on these bonds and inflated and 
 contracted at the will of the conspirators. 
 
 Thus the money power reached their financial system, 
 their "honest money," and utterly refuse to 
 
2 so Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 ABOLISH THESE CLASS LAWS. 
 
 All the fuss in Congress is over the effort to repeal or 
 modify these laws, and but for the agitation of the Green- 
 back party concerning them and their iniquity, not one of 
 them would have been 
 
 CHANGED IN THE LEAST. 
 
 It has not been possible to give us back the silver dollar 
 as it was originally : It has not been possible to make the 
 greenback legal tender, and all the acts and all the laws 
 passed since the 
 
 SEVEN CLASS LAWS 
 
 were enacted have been construed, as the bank syndicate 
 construe them, to make the burden upon labor more and 
 more oppressive and to enthrone capital more and more 
 absolute. 
 
 This system of money is suited to a monarchy, and if 
 allowed to remain the permanent system will subvert the 
 Republic and erect in its place an 
 
 ARISTOCRATIC DESPOTISM, 
 
 a government of class rule and serf-labor. This condition 
 of things cannot be avoided if these laws remain in force. 
 They create a class who absorb by operation of law and re- 
 duce in time to destitution all other. 
 
 THIS GOLD STANDARD IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY. 
 
 Of such a system President Harrison said : 
 "If there is one measure calculated better than another 
 to produce that state of things where the rich are daily 
 getting richer and the poor daily getting poorer, it is a 
 metallic currency." — Inaugural Address, 1841. 
 
 One of our statesmen speaks thus: "The changes 
 which have been wrought in this country since i860 have 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 251 
 
 all tended to equalize the conditions of life as between 
 this country and Europe, and they are much more 
 nearly alike than a vast majority of Americans are 
 aware."— S., 1878. 
 
 These laws constitute a monster oligarch of wealth. 
 They bring into tangible existence a piratical land 
 monopoly, a free booter monopoly. "Land monopoly" 
 thieves on "land grants," "confiscated lands," "trust 
 deeds," "decrees," and "mortgages." 
 
 "Money monopoly," under the general name Money 
 Power, managed by a "syndicate," aggregates capital 
 by operation of law, till it is next to omnipotent. Its hydra- 
 head bears the insignia of its power in bank corporations, 
 manufacturing corporations, railroad corporations, insur- 
 ance corporations, loan corporations. These are corporate 
 persons; these are bodies of sin and soulless as vampires. 
 
 THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM IS THE KEY TO THE ARCH 
 ^THEY ARE THE CENTER OF CORPORATE POWER. 
 
 These are the genii that are robbing labor, through 
 their selfish greed, till it dies of want in the midst of 
 plenty. 
 
 Having thus set forth the seven steps of the conspiracy, 
 we are to briefly notice the remedy, to which we ask your 
 attention. 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 To give this clearly we must reverse the wrongs step 
 by step. Undo the financial conspiracy. 
 
 THE FIRST STEP. 
 
 The very first step in financial reform is to make the 
 greenback 
 
 FULL LEGAL TENDER MONEY. 
 
 And that the volume shall be sufficiently large to keep all 
 industries healthfully employed. We are met here with 
 the inquiry : What is money ? It is a fair question and 
 needs a fair answer. 
 
252 Life of Col. Jesse Harper 
 
 United States notes (greenbacks) shall be lawful 
 money and a legal tender for all debts, except the interest 
 on the public debt and duties on imports." — Revised Stat- 
 utes, United States, vol. i, p. 712, sec. 3588. 
 
 This is the law of the nation. Further on we shall 
 speak in detail as to the functions of and what money is. 
 
 Here we remark: Take away the two exceptions and 
 the greenback will be a 
 
 PERFECT MONEY. 
 
 More perfect in all the elements which compose a per- 
 fect money than metal money can ever be. 
 
 It is objected that these "United States notes" are not 
 money, but "promises." The objection is not true. For 
 the reason that the sovereign power says, no matter what 
 their form or wording, these notes "shall be lawful 
 money." 
 
 The Inter-Ocean, September 19, 1878, says: "The 
 laws of the country do not regard United States legal ten- 
 der notes as promises to pay, but as 
 
 ABSOLUTE MONEY FIAT MONEY IF YOU CHOOSE. 
 
 The S. p. C. United States, Trebelcock vs. Wilson, et 
 ux., 12 Wall, 69s, says : 
 
 "As the acts of February 25, 1862, declares that the 
 notes of the United States shall also be lawful money and 
 legal tender in payment of debts, and this act has been 
 sustained by the recent decision of this court as valid and 
 constitutional, we have, according to this decision, 
 
 TWO KINDS OF MONEY^ 
 
 essentially dififerent in their nature, but equally lawful." 
 Here the Supreme Court of the United States puts 
 
 metal and paper money on the same constitutional ground 
 
 and holds them both equally constitutional and lawful. 
 This ought to settle the right and authority to "make" 
 
 money, as it is derisively called. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 253 
 
 But it is said to be a "war measure," and that paper 
 money cannot be issued in time of peace. This is an as- 
 sumption. War does not enlarge or diminish the consti- 
 tution. What is constitutional in time of war is consti- 
 tutional in time of peace and vice versa. Further, the 
 Supreme Court, on the "legal tender cases," 12 Wall, de- 
 cided that Congress had the power to fix and measure the 
 necessity for the exercise of such power and that was the 
 end of the matter. If Congress thought the necessity for 
 issuing money — paper money — existed in a time of pro- 
 found peace they could do it and the court would hold 
 their action constitutional. Congress is the sole judge. But 
 suppose it should be held by the court under such a pres- 
 sure as gave birth to the Dred Scott case, that there was 
 no constitutional authority for the issue of legal tender 
 notes (greenbacks) in time of peace. It would only 
 change the ground of the fight. 
 
 The question, as it applies to the rights of man and the 
 well being of the people is not what is in the constitution 
 as now constituted, but is 
 
 LEGAL TENDER PAPER MONEY DEMANDED BY OUR CIVILI- 
 ZATION ? 
 
 If SO, and the constitution forbids it, 
 
 LET THE CONSTITUTION BE AMENDED SO AS TO ALLOW IT. 
 
 This discussion is on the merits of the money, and if 
 right it must and will come. 
 
 More of this, under "money definitions," further on. 
 
 THE SECOND STEP. 
 
 The second step in the remedy is to abolish the national 
 banks of issue. 
 
 We have shown in this paper that banks of issue were 
 repugnant to our institutions and monarchical in their 
 tendency. A word further on that point: 
 
 "The national bank act means a national interest bear- 
 ing debt, high taxes, a timid, inflated, irredeemable, de- 
 based currency for a measure of value." — Colonel Slote, 
 Granger. 
 
254 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 John Adams said of a national bank : "It has thrown 
 the majority into the hands of those who were shapen to 
 Toryism, and in British idolatry did their mother con- 
 ceive them." — State Papers, v. 2. 
 
 Richard Rush said, in 1834, when the fearful fight 
 was going on under Jackson: "I have hardly time to say 
 go on with your patriotic work of extirminating such a 
 corporation (the National bank). In such a warfare 
 with it I am with you heart and hand." — ^5". P., v. 6. 
 
 Lafayette said: "For a long time I saw, with pain, 
 the advance of an aristocratic moneyed institution, which 
 threatened to cast a poisonous mildew over our precious 
 liberties. They (the National banks) would have ren- 
 dered our fair country a passive instrument in their hands, 
 in which case freedom would have vanished from among 
 us. — Letter to Gessie. 
 
 Every word of these great men is true, and are warn- 
 ings coming to us from their honored graves, telling us 
 that a National banking system is an "aristocratic insti- 
 tution" and a "mildew to our precious liberties." 
 
 Knox, comptroller of the treasury, has told just what 
 "specie payments," "national banks" and "resumption" 
 means, and it is quite different from the belief of the 
 masses. We set out some of his choice sayings as verifi- 
 cations of what the great names warned us against. Here 
 is what the bank clerk of the treasury department says. 
 It tells you what your money system is: "There is not 
 sufficient gold or silver coin in the country to pay for the 
 twentieth part of the products of the present year. But 
 the machinery of banks, with its system of checks and 
 bills of exchange and clearing houses, can pay for it in 
 all dollars, every one of which will be an equivalent of 
 the true standard dollar of 25 8 10 grains of gold 9 10 
 fine. 
 
 Resumption does not mean the actual use and handling 
 of gold and silver in every transaction. 
 
 Coin and currency are but the small change used in 
 trade. 
 
 Bank checks and bills of exchange are the instruments 
 employed in all large transactions. 
 
 Resumption means only that the dollar represented by 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 255 
 
 the check shall be equivalent to 25 8-10 grains of gold 
 9-10 fine. (Ms. and Doc, 1877-8, p. 137.) 
 
 Now, that stripped of the fustin and klishmi claver, 
 as Scott would say, means, simply, that banks want to 
 transact 97 per cent of the business of the world on 
 checks and bills that they issue. The other 3 per cent of 
 the business of the world the bankers are willing to be 
 done on money that they control. 
 
 This is the chuckluck of banking. 
 
 Which means — when the people learn to see the fraud 
 and detect the trick — this : 
 
 Banks want to do business on what they 
 owe, a system of robbery that gives them interest 
 on their debts. 
 
 the third step. 
 
 The third step in the remedy is to forever settle the 
 infamous crime of inflation and contraction of the vol- 
 ume of the money. 
 
 It is the volume of the money that governs prices: 
 
 "Other things equal, the general average of prices is 
 determined by the quantity of currency in circulation and 
 prices advance and recede as that is increased or dimin- 
 ished. * * And that is an economic law, as certain as 
 any of the laws of nature." — IV. V., i, p. 221. 
 
 It is the volume of the money, without any regard 
 as to vwhat material the money is composed, that fixes 
 prices. Same authority, so the volume once fixed should 
 not be changed, but grow at the same rate as the popu- 
 lation increases. 
 
 And let it be remarked that a fixed volume of at least 
 sixty dollars per capita would bring blessings upon the 
 country priceless beyond calculation. 
 
 THE FOURTH STEP. 
 
 The fourth step in the remedy is the payment of the 
 bonds. 
 
 A national bonded debt is a bonded curse. We would 
 pay the debt, then burn the bonds into ashes, put the 
 ashes on a stream and coax the stream to pour its ashes 
 
256 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 of bonds into perdition and have no more bonds as long 
 as hades swept its murky rounds. 
 
 To reach this end let legal tender notes take the place 
 of National bank bills, and let the free, unlimited coin- 
 age of gold and silver be established by law, and to 
 make the remedy still more sure and broad let money of 
 every material be issued by the United States, and made 
 full legal tender for all debts, public and private. 
 
 THE FIFTH STEP. 
 
 The fifth step in the remedy is to stop the funding of 
 the debt. As bonds themselves are useless and a crime, 
 the funding them is a double crime. It is a scheme 
 where an eternal paying goes on, but the debt is never 
 paid. Those who have fixed great national debts in per- 
 petuo on the present and coming generations are enemies 
 of the human race, and ought to die for their crimes 
 committed against unborn children. This sham plan of 
 funding at a low rate of interest is a lie. The object is 
 to put the debt beyond the reach of the people and never 
 pay it, and at last settle down to where England is, a 
 public debt never to be paid. An aristocracy lording it 
 over the poor. Labor degraded to serfdom; capital 
 deified to be a robber god. 
 
 THE SIXTH STEP. 
 
 The sixth step in the remedy should be to abolish all 
 distinctions between gold and silver as money. Free coin- 
 age of both should be the law. 
 
 THE SEVENTH STEP. 
 
 The seventh step in the remedy is to stop forever, un- 
 der penalty of death, that infamy of suspension of specie 
 payments and then resumption of specie payments. 
 
 Who set this devilish trap? The bankers. Who 
 profits by it ? The bankers. Who is robbed by it ? The 
 people. What is contraction and resumption ? It is rob- 
 bery. What is a specie paying system? A lie. Who is 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 257 
 
 the author ? Bankers. Who is the father of the scheme ? 
 The devil. Who operates it? Legalized pirates. 
 
 The immortal Webster said, in 1837, when the banks 
 were "suspended" and getting ready to "resume," this: 
 
 "A specie paying system, if issued, is a contrivance 
 invented to cheat the laboring classes of mankind." True 
 as the gospel. 
 
 There are other steps in order to a full remedy, which 
 we will now notice. 
 
 All class laws must be abolished. The railroads must 
 be put under the control of laws that are in the interest 
 of the people. Run as they now are, by the corporations, 
 they are an engine of oppression against the masses of 
 the people. These monopolies must be broken up, and those 
 mighty highways become the property of the people, as 
 the seas, lakes and rivers are. The public highways are 
 incidents to sovereignty and must not be jobbed out in 
 the interest class, but held and controlled by the govern- 
 ment with no intervening agent. 
 
 So must the money monopoly be broken up and the 
 issue of all money restored to the people. The centraliz- 
 ing and aggregation of capital by operation of law must 
 be broken up also. 
 
 CORPORATE PERSONS ARE THE GREAT DANGER OF OUR 
 TIMES. 
 
 The rights of the individual person are forgotten in the 
 clamor for the rights of the corporate person. All the laws 
 are framed that have to do with personal and real prop- 
 erty, with direct reference to the advancement of cor- 
 porate persons and to the injury of individual persons. 
 
 The laws being thus framed create the capital class 
 and the labor class. And the monster thing, thus given 
 legal life, stands revealed, the land monopoly and money 
 monopoly of modern times ; a menace to the life of our 
 Christian civilization. 
 
 Having discussed the questions in group and singly 
 it remains to urge the supremacy of labor over capital in 
 order that civilization may live, and then show that the 
 land question is the one in which labor is to be enfran- 
 
2S8 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 chised. The right of man to an inheritance in the soil is 
 a divine right. 
 
 On the labor problem we will give two authorities, 
 two great names: 
 
 "Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capi- 
 tal is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed 
 if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of 
 capital and deserves much the higher consideration." — 
 Lincoln's second message. 
 
 "I affirm it as my conviction that class laws placmg 
 capital above labor endangers the republic more fatally 
 this hour than did chattel slavery in the day of its haugh- 
 tiest supremacy." 
 
 And this conviction becomes a certainty to me when I 
 read the warning voice of the martyred president — the 
 immortal Lincoln — on this very question, "the effort to 
 place capital above labor will shake the republic, and 
 when the attempt grows into law it will be used to fasten 
 still greater burdens upon the people until all liberty is 
 lost." — Lincoln's Letter to Ellis. 
 
 Daniel Webster said : "Sir, I say it is employment that 
 makes the people happy. This great truth ought never 
 to be forgotten. It ought to be placed upon the title page 
 of every book on political economy intended for America. 
 It ought to head the columns of every farmer's magazine 
 and mechanic's magazine. It should be proclaimed every- 
 where 'that where there is work for the hands, there is 
 work for the tooth ; where there is employment there will 
 be bread.' And in a country like ours, above all others, 
 will this truth hold good. If they can obtain fair com- 
 pensation for their labor they will have good houses, good 
 clothing, good food, and the means of educating their 
 families. Labor will be cheerful and the people happy. 
 The great intent of this great country is labor, labor, 
 LABOR !" — Speech in 1837. 
 
 As a measure of remedy let us give a word of warn- 
 ing as to the dreadful and growing crime of land mo- 
 nopoly. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF MONEY AND ITS USES. 
 
 FROM A SPEECH BY JESSE HARPER. 
 
 HARD BONDS HARD MONEY HARD TIMES. 
 
 Hard money is of the same sort dealt in by the high 
 priests of hypocrisy and Judas Iscariot, the betrayer. 
 And the devilish workings of it, now as then, is to sell 
 the Christ of humanity, dragging millions of toilers down 
 to serfdom and death. And all this, that a legally cre- 
 ated class of drones — an untaxed bond aristocracy — may 
 eat the shelled corn, leaving only the husks for the myriad 
 famishing laborers who produce the corn. 
 
 But before we treat of the "hard" feature in money let 
 us look at the question : What is money ? 
 
 There is to-day a wider difference of opinion on the 
 subject of money than any of so great importance. 
 
 This being so, we deem it prudent before going further 
 to define some terms that are constantly misleading many 
 honest people and prevents the proper understanding 
 of the nature and office of money among civilized men. 
 
 "Wealth and utility are synonymous terms. So are 
 capital and value. But wealth and capital, utility and 
 value are not synonymous, although constantly used as 
 such by most persons. 
 
 And money is not capital but a representation of capi- 
 tal, although the mfaterial (if metal) of which it is made, 
 may be capital, when not used as money. Capital is 
 sought with a view to be consumed or retained ; whereas 
 money is only sought as a means of obtaining useful com- 
 modities and services." — Moran on Money, 17. 
 
 "Money in its ordinary signification is an agency of 
 trade." — The Money Question. 
 
 Another very noted writer says: 
 
 259 
 
26o Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "Money is a legal creation put forth by sovereign au- 
 thority to facilitate the exchange of commodities and ser- 
 vices." — Dr. Swaze quotod, M. M. 
 
 This is a still fuller definition yet in the discussion of 
 so important a question — one that the people have to pass 
 upon. A still more complete one is desirable. Another 
 writer uses this language: 
 
 "Money is a natural medium of exchange for prop- 
 erty and products. It must be instituted and its value 
 fixed by the laws of the nation in order to make it a 
 public tender in the payment of debts. The term money, 
 then, signifies a legal, public medium of exchange. Money 
 has four properties or powers: 
 
 r. Power to represent value. 
 
 2. Power to measure value. 
 
 3. Power to accumulate value by interest. 
 
 4. Power to exchange value." — Kellogg, N. M. S., 66. 
 The third proposition — "power to accumulate value by 
 
 interest," we think unsound and far from true. This, 
 by the way. That definition is fuller. It makes money 
 an agent, which it really is. Hence the proposition is a 
 very fine one, saving the third point, as supra — a most 
 sensible definition, within the reach of the most obtuse. 
 It makes money a tool to work with. 
 
 "Carts and money are both tools, instruments of con- 
 veyance, endowed with the same nature and subject to 
 the same general laws. The question of each is the same 
 —how many is wanted for the work which they are in- 
 tended to do. 
 
 "A cart transfers weight ; money, ownership, and all the 
 world knows that the cartage to be done determines the 
 number of carts. In the same way the ownership of 
 property which requires to be transferred by m'oney, de- 
 termines how much money there ought to be in a na- 
 tion." — Prof. Bonamy Price, P E. 137. 
 
 Here the Professor makes money a "tool," a "cart" in 
 figure. This is right. At another place, as inconsistent 
 as it really is, he plainly infers that all "carts" must be 
 gold. That is, nothing but "gold" can "transfer owner- 
 ship." 
 
 The following is worthy of careful thought : 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 261 
 
 "Money is the measure of the relative value, or rather, 
 the common demonstrator of the value of all things — 
 except itself." — M. M. 66. 
 
 Now look at Prof. Price against himself. In his work 
 quoted supra, on Political Economy, he makes the vol- 
 ume of money the desiderata. In the following in his 
 work. Currency and Banking, it is the material out of 
 which money is made that is the desiderata. 
 
 And this is from one who is wholly a monarchist, has 
 no just ideas of the rights of labor. So he comes down 
 in support of "king money," as a great statesman has 
 called gold money. 
 
 Prof. Price is the gentleman that some one has said 
 this of: "He is a devoted disciple of that system which 
 affirms that one portion of the race are born with golden 
 spoons in their mouth to eat up the soup of the other." 
 So he slashes in for gold. "Coin, metallic coin, is the true 
 money and nothing else is — unless it be a commodity, an 
 ox, a cow, or a piece of salt." — Prof. B. Price, C. and B. 
 
 That is the old Roman system. . They used copper bars 
 and cattle. They used commodities. In his definition 
 the professor makes money and commodities synonymous. 
 This is false and deceptive. He says "coin," "metallic 
 coin," is money. Why did he not say gold and silver 
 are money and go no further? Because they are not, 
 till coined. It takes the sovereign law to make metal into 
 money. Yet this teacher of youth and men says "coined 
 metal alone" is money — except all, yes, ALL commodi- 
 ties. For if "ox," "cow," and "salt" is money, then any 
 commodity is money. 
 
 On the word "alone" he does not tell the truth. For, 
 if the sovereign power, the government, can "coin" (the 
 act of stamping) "gold" and "silver," into money, then 
 it can "coin" (act of stamping) any other commodity into 
 money. The truth is here. No commodity is money. 
 
 Whatever commodity becomes money becomes so by 
 the sovereign act of the government coining, stamping, 
 making it money. 
 
 And one commodity, inherently, is just as susceptible 
 as another for the purpose of coining, stamping, making 
 into money. 
 
262 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 After using the word "alone," he excepts "ox," "cow," 
 "salt." 
 
 Now, if that is true, then a colt, a ship, a piece of coal 
 are equally money, for they are commodities. 
 
 But the simple truth is, neither of the six things — ox, 
 cow, salt, colt, ship, coal — are money. The professor is 
 mistaken, to use a mild phrase. 
 
 And he is sinning against light in so misleading the 
 unwary. It is just as true that gold and silver are not 
 money as it is true that the six articles named are not 
 money. 
 
 His whole intrinsic value theory is a myth, a phantom, 
 a grievous deception ; held on to by the minions of royalty 
 to sustain class and rob labor. And being so, it is the 
 best means within the reach of monarchists for the over- 
 throw of Republican institutions. 
 
 The assumption that gold and silver are money is 
 more false than the assumption of the Chinese juggler, 
 who says the word stands on a terrapin and that the ter- 
 rapin goes clear through and stands on nothing. 
 
 And, if as harmless as though it were the Cosmogony, 
 it would be there with a smile. But when we reveal that 
 this false theory of money is the most grievous wrong, 
 materially speaking, of the age, we cannot pass it with 
 indifference. 
 
 It robs labor and fills the world with hunger, crime 
 and death. It cannot be passed as harmless. It is an 
 Apolyon blocking the way to a higher state policy. It 
 stands in the way of that progress of Christian civiliza- 
 tion for which is the last best hope of man. 
 
 And now, before we go further in the discussion of 
 money, let us give brief attention to the origin of money. 
 
 Money is first mentioned in history i860 years B. C. 
 Gen. 17:12. 
 
 The text is "bought with money." The original word 
 is keh-seph and occurs in the Hebrew, Gen. 12:2, and 
 reads "silver." The reading is "rich in cattle and silver." 
 
 In Gen. 23:9 we find the words "for as much money 
 as it is worth," referring to the ground bought by Abra- 
 ham for burial. The Hebrew word is defined by G. H. 
 L., thus : "Keh-seph," "silver," so called from its paleness, 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 263 
 
 as Green argunos from argos white. Money, which an- 
 ciently consisted of bars or pieces weighed out and not 
 coined. 
 
 Gen. 23:16 reads: "Current (money) with the mer- 
 chant." 
 
 Dr. Conant renders it "current with the merchant," 
 leaving out "money," which is right; for in the a. v. 
 (authorized version) you notice money is in italics, which 
 means that the word is not in the original, and that is 
 true. 
 
 The important point is as to the word "current," be- 
 cause Abraham had "weighed" out to the sons of Hith 
 "silver," which was current with the merchant. 
 
 The original from which "current" comes is gah-vat, 
 and is defined "current, can be passed." — G. H. L. 
 
 He paraphrases the word thus — "money passing among 
 the merchants," i. e., "which passes current." He then 
 adds : "Pieces of silver on which the weight was marked, 
 as among the Chinese; since coined money can hardly 
 have been in existence in the days of Abraham." 
 
 The Vulgate renders the Hebrew gah-var into the 
 Latin probata moneta. 
 
 On the words "current money with the merchant" 
 Brand's Encyclopedia says: 
 
 "From the time of Abraham silver money appears to 
 have been in general use in Egypt and Canaan. This 
 money was weighed out when its value had to be deter- 
 mined, and we may therefore conclude that it was not 
 of a settled system of weights. Throughout the law 
 money is spoken of as in ordinary use, but only silver 
 money." 
 
 Homer speaks of money 11 84 B. C. 
 
 The invention of coining is ascribed to the Lydians, 
 whose monev was gold and silver, coined by the tyrant 
 of Argos 862 B. C. 
 
 Money was coined at Rome 573 B. C. The most an- 
 cient coins known are Macedonia, of the 5th century, 
 B. C. 
 
 Brass money only was in use at Rome previous to 269 
 B. C, when silver was coined. Gold was coined 206 
 B. C. — B. Ency. 
 
264 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Money. The word money is merely the Latin word 
 moneta, Englishized, so to obtain a just view of what 
 money is, as proved by its origin, a true understanding 
 of the original word, and the sense in which it was used 
 is essential. 
 
 We have seen that "money" in the Bible, the oldest 
 historic mention, only meant silver. This is easily ac- 
 counted for. It was translated after the Latin word had 
 become Englishized, so we must reach the meaning of 
 the Latin before we get a clear idea of this English word 
 "money." 
 
 "Moneta" means "adviser," a surname of Juno, in 
 whose temple money was coined. It is called money, be- 
 cause each piece has starnped on it an index of character 
 which advises or informs what it is. There is nothing 
 whatever in the word which means material or particular 
 substance." — Jones. 
 
 It should be marked here as a parenthesis, that the 
 verb "to coin," as it stands in the constitution, bears no 
 signification whatever to the material quality or char- 
 acter of the thing coined ; but relates exclusively to the 
 act to be performed ; that is, "stamping," "making," "in- 
 venting," "fabricating." The act may be performed on 
 anything. — Jones. 
 
 In still further tracing the origin of money, it will aid 
 us if we take into our range of investigation the ques- 
 tion, "Of what money has been been made." 
 
 In Africa, where for centuries, the lowest possible 
 civilization — if civilization at all — has existed, we find 
 "cowry shell" used as money. The money of no faith, 
 savage money. It is "small shells" brought from the 
 Maldives, which passes current as a coin in Hindoostan 
 and in extensive districts of the East. — B. Cyc. 
 
 "The currency on the slave coast is little shells as 
 large as the edge of one's finger, called cowry. It is 
 usual to value two thousand cowries at one dollar." — 
 T. J. B. 
 
 Warnpum, white shells or strings of shells, was used 
 by American Indians as money. — W. D. 
 
 And let it be borne in mind that the simple ideas of 
 the barbarian — untutored and unsung — impress them- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 265 
 
 selves upon the civilization that follows, and it takes 
 centuries of suffering and suffering before they can be 
 eradicated. 
 
 Thus it has been in the money idea. 
 
 The polished Greeks, not able to cut loose at once 
 from the barbarism from whence they sprang, used cat- 
 tle money first, then metal money. Never fully rising to 
 the true idea of money ; but throughout their wonderful, 
 their classic existence, were tied to the wheels of bar- 
 barism, as to their money system. 
 
 So the Carthagenians used cattle, a kind of money 
 that lived through centuries and came down to the middle 
 ages in Europe. 
 
 In Abyssinia salt was and is now generally used so 
 much so by the great hive of the East as to warrant Prof. 
 Price to class "salt" as "money" along with metals. 
 "Living money — slaves and oxen — passed current among 
 the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 In Iceland and Newfoundland cod fish is the money. 
 
 In Scotland for a long time, in parts of the island, 
 nails were used as money. 
 
 In China the bark of the mulberry tree impressed with 
 the inscription of the sovereign was money at the time 
 Marco Polo traveled there. This was a movement, as 
 to money, in the right direction. It was a correct idea. 
 —M. M. 8, W. M. R. 1848, W. N. i :3i, H. Book 6:29. 
 
 These were the shifts of barbarism and ought not for 
 a moment to be tolerated by civilized, enlightened man. 
 
 In our own country, at an early day, we were loaded 
 with the clogs of superstition and barbarous ideas on the 
 money question. 
 
 In Virginia till 1660 tobacco was generally used as 
 money. And this was not confined to that State alone. 
 Wheat in Massachusetts in 1641 was a legal tender in 
 the payment of all debts. — Early Colonial History, 93. 
 
 In France, during the great revolution, on the motion 
 of Saint Andrew, they discussed the question long of 
 making wheat the standard of value and the money of 
 the country. — M. M. 9, Lie P E. Paris. 
 
 Platina was coined in Russia till 1845 ^s money. But 
 the metals, in all ages, mostly used for money has been 
 
266 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 gold and silver — silver leading largely in its use. — M. 
 M. II. 
 
 In China now sycee silver is the principal currency. 
 Sycee silver is merely the ingot of a uniform fineness, 
 paid and received by weight. Silver in bulk, at its pure 
 touch of lOO per cent, takes the place of coined money. 
 
 This is divided into government standard called tail, 
 mace, cash and candareen, each having a decimal portion 
 of the other. And thus nominal money is created by law. 
 The system is simply exchanging commodity by weight. 
 —M. M. 17. 
 
 [The report of Mr. Robinson, consul, on the trade of 
 Shanghai.] 
 
 The coinage of money — a word more in addition to 
 what was said before. 
 
 The Lydians were the first people known to have 
 coined money, gold and silver. This was some nine 
 centuries B. C. Greece followed a century later. Servius 
 Tullius, king of Rome, made the pound weight of cop- 
 per lawful money B. C. 550. After that, B. C. 281, 
 silver was coined, and gold in 207 B. C. — M. M. B. Ency. 
 
 At the time Caesar invaded Britain, A. D. 54, he found 
 coins of tin, iron, brass and gold. The Saxons after- 
 ward coined silver. At the conquest William the Con- 
 queror rejected all the coins but silver, so that for a long 
 time that was the only money. The Conqueror coined 
 no money but silver pennies, called "sterlings" hence the 
 English name for their money — "sterling." 
 
 Henry III. first coined gold pennies weighing 1.120 
 of a pound. At this time also there was coined tin, cop- 
 per, gun metal and pewter and made each and all legal 
 tender for debts. — Macleod T. B. 1:168, M. M. 11. 
 
 The corruption of money has been a fearful wrong, 
 and a word is needed in regard to it. 
 
 As early as 175 B. C. corrupt rules began the great 
 crime against trade, labor and commerce 6f debasing the 
 money. 
 
 They reduced the weight of the coin. 
 
 As stated Servius Tullius made the "as" or pound 
 weight of copper. In about three centuries this had been 
 reduced to about one ounce, or 1.24 of its original weight. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 267 
 
 It is too tedious to trace in detail this crime — so pass 
 down to an epoch age. 
 
 The livre under Charlemagne was 12 oz. pure silver. 
 His successor reduced it so much as to produce riots 
 among the people. 
 
 John the "Good" made seventy-one changes during his 
 short reign. Making the money to suit his wickedness 
 by depreciating through alloy. 
 
 Then appreciating the coin by leaving out the alloy. 
 Thus destroying fortunes and making them as his caprice 
 directed. 
 
 The crime against labor during the middle ages, in 
 this very thing, can scarcely be estimated. And it is an 
 incident to metal money that cannot be prevented. Metal 
 will appreciate and depreciate and no law, human or di- 
 vine, can prevent it as nature is now constituted. And 
 when this fluctuation is aided by the wickedness of man 
 the crime becomes overwhelming. — The M. Q. 93, Gould 
 on B. 29, Wailby Researches M. S. 104. 
 
 HARD TIMES. 
 
 Let us look at the world and see what is the relative 
 status between capital and labor. Are both faring alike ? 
 
 Hard times are filling the world's alms house with the 
 destitute, the prisons with criminals, the world with 
 tramps. 
 
 Napoleon I. said: 
 
 "No nation dare leave its people without work." 
 
 His genius and wonderful ability showed him that as 
 labor was the cause of all wealth, so all laborers should 
 be kept constantly at work, and thus keep the nation's 
 wealth augmenting continually. 
 
 Aside from times that pinch "millions hard," there is 
 a sadder view, if sadder can be ; it is the dying of hope. 
 
 More than three-quarters of the vast, the infinite throng 
 of Christendom, are sinking into hopelessness, to a de- 
 gree not known in modern times. 
 
 Hard times are crushing fortunes and more awful than 
 that, are crushing men. 
 
 Multitudes appear as though at the end of life's jour- 
 
268 Life of Col. Jesse Harper, 
 
 ney. All civilization is sick. How long this can go on 
 before utter despair, is a question sealed in the presence 
 of the Great Ruler. 
 
 We think that the time has come when patience has 
 ceased to be a virtue. 
 
 The people of the world have the right to rise in their 
 majesty and hurl from power those who have brought 
 ruin upon the human race. 
 
 Having, in a general way, looked at hard bonds, hard 
 money, hard times, and given some definitions of what 
 money is made, its debasement, we are now prepared to 
 go further and examine the wrong laws and policies. 
 
 And when we have traced the wrong to the proper 
 place we will know how to remove it. 
 
 These wrongs and vicious policies have endangered 
 civilization — are doing it to-day. 
 
 To point out the remedy, to remove the danger, is 
 work demanded by the highest instincts of humanity. 
 
 THE CURRENCY QUESTION IN DETAIL. 
 
 Before we enter upon detail let us state a thing that 
 we affirm as a great principle. 
 
 NO BOND SHOULD EVER HAVE BEEN ISSUED. 
 
 We ask the readers to remember this position. It 
 may seem strange and startling. Be it so. It is the 
 truth nevertheless. And being so, the next thing wc 
 affirm as a great principle is the bonds should be paid and 
 not refunded. Held subject to payment, not put beyond 
 the reach of the government. 
 
 When paid, let the constitution be amended so that 
 no more bonds can ever be issued, under penalty of 
 death, to those doing it. We mean government bonds. 
 
 The act of February 25th, 1862. This act, as it origi- 
 nally passed the House, passed as a necessity, was the 
 grandest enactment of law, in either ancient or modern 
 times. It was a legal blessing. It was as grand a bless- 
 ing as was ever conferred by law. And it was the means, 
 materially, of our salvation as a nation. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 269 
 
 And yet, it has been denounced by the enemies of the 
 country, whether they knew it or not, the vilest law ever 
 put upon the statute books of a people. 
 
 Those who have thus denounced it had no conception 
 of the matchless worth of the act. 
 
 The surroundings of the day that saw its birth, was 
 marked by peculiarities, such as had jiot been witnessed 
 before. 
 
 A war was upon us of such gigantic proportions as to 
 cause the world to look aghast at the fearful drama. 
 
 Every moneyed institution, specie payment banks, had 
 suspended. They had failed before paying the one hun- 
 dred and fifty million dollars loaned the government. 
 And of gold and silver there was none. 
 
 More must be had or the world's great Republic dies. 
 To show our desperate straits, hear what was said: 
 
 "There is not gold enough to carry on the war fifty 
 days. We must rely mainly on paper money, and there 
 is another thing equally certain, that paper must be irre- 
 deemable. All paper currencies have been and always will 
 be, irredeemable. It is a pleasant fiction to call them re- 
 deemable; it is an agreeable fancy. I would not expose 
 that fiction, only the great emergency that is upon us 
 seems to me to render it more than usually proper that 
 the nation should begin to speak truth to itself, to have 
 done with shams and to deal with realities." — Senator 
 Howe, S. H. L. T., 107. 
 
 It was urged against the bill that to go in debt was out- 
 side of the constitution, and that a debt would ruin us. 
 To this a master mind replied : 
 
 "A great historian and a great Commoner of England, 
 declares that all these cries of bankruptcy and ruin v/ere 
 based upon a double fallacy. They who raised these cries 
 imagine that there was an exact analogy between the case 
 of an individual who is in debt to another and the case 
 of a society which is indebted to itself, and they also for- 
 get that other things grow as well as the debt. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 "It is not because they lack intrinsic value — ^the United 
 States notfs — ^that they need to be made lawful tender, 
 but it is to secure to the government in their issue their 
 
270 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 true value, and to retain for them that true value as you 
 pass them to your noble soldiery in the field and to all 
 classes of the people not engaged — as the most persistent 
 outside opposition to this bill is in endeavoring to destroy 
 the value of them, so that out of the blood of their sinking 
 country they may be able to coin the geins of their in- 
 famy." — Shellebarger's Speech, S. H. L. T. 88. 
 
 Conspirators against the green-back were then laying 
 their schemes to ruin liberty and sell the people. The 
 national banks, agents of the money power, were the 
 men, then as now, who were lying in wait that they 
 might, out of the "blood of their sinking country," 
 coin money. Here is the money system that every Shy- 
 lock in Europe and America set their face against and 
 they succeeded in getting it modified. It was the first 
 victory of the money power. The victory was purchased, 
 was tainted with the same surroundings that tainted the 
 "thirty pieces of silver." It was the high priests of our 
 temple of liberty, selling the people's annointed. 
 
 :1c ^ -^ He ^ :3fi 
 
 "And such United States notes shall be received the 
 same as coin, at their par value, in payments for any 
 loans that may be hereafter sold or negotiated by the 
 secretary of the treasury, and may be reissued from time 
 to time as the exigencies of the public interests shall re- 
 quire. There shall be printed on the back of the United 
 States notes which may be issued under the provisions of 
 this act the following words: 
 
 "The within is a legal tender in payment of all debts, 
 public and private." — S. H. L. T. 97. 
 
 That is the hardest hit at the gold gambling, chuck- 
 lucking in the currency and banking on specie basis that 
 was ever struck. And if it had lived in that shape the 
 whole false theory of hard money, and the ruin incident 
 to it would have died. 
 
 The bankers, agents of the money power, knew it and 
 they swarmed down upon Washington, an army more 
 dangerous to Republican institutions than the Rebels 
 were. They gained their point. 
 
 "The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold 
 And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold." 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 271 
 
 THE GREAT WRONG OF THE SENATE AMENDMENTS. 
 
 The Senate amendments were two, namely: That the 
 interest on the pubhc debt and duties on imports must 
 be paid in coin. 
 
 Here are two things put into the bill that has worked 
 such injury as to scarcely be in the bounds of calculation. 
 It opened up the way for a gold market. But for this 
 no demand for gold would have arisen — a circumstance 
 that would have been above price to the country. Two 
 bidders for gold — the government and the importer. 
 
 These very exceptions put the government under the 
 control of the money power, and it has been kept there 
 ever since. 
 
 The following words seem the utterances of prophecy : 
 
 "The two exceptions. These combined provisions form 
 a mine -of wealth for bankers and brokers. The duties 
 and interest will require $60,000,000 of gold annually and 
 soon double that amount. Now our bankers and brokers 
 have scarcely that amount." — T. S. 1862. 
 
 So infamous did the bill appear to that ablest reasoner 
 of them all that as he came from the Senate conference, 
 where the banking agents of the money power had car- 
 ried the day — "bought the republic" — that he used this 
 awful language in regard to the conspirators : 
 
 "Yes, we had to yield; the Senate was stubborn; we 
 did not yield until we found that the country must be 
 lost of the bankers gratified, and we have sought to save 
 the country in spite of the cupidity of its wealthy citi- 
 zens."—!'. S. R. K. M. Q. 200. 
 
 This distinguished man, Mr. Stevens, used these sig- 
 nificant words : 
 
 "It now creates money and by its very terms declares 
 it a depreciated currency. It makes two classes of money 
 — one for the bankers and brokers and the pther for the 
 people."— T. 5". 1862. 
 
 It was the bankers, agents of the money power of 
 Europe and America, that secured these two exceptions. 
 
272 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The effect of which was to "discredit the lawful money 
 of the United States at its very birth." 
 
 And there was no other money in the country, and by 
 depreciating this they assured the success of this infamous 
 scheme of the gold mongers. "Coining their gains out 
 of the blood of their sinking country." — T. S. 1862. 
 
 This bill, thus mutilated, was allowed to pass, not that 
 it was all the Shylocks wanted, but having started this 
 entrance wedge they waited for the full development 
 of their conspiracy — a conspiracy to break down the re-' 
 public by a money monopoly. 
 
 These are the men, who, after the bill passed the House, 
 came down and manipulated the Senate — "bought th6 
 republic." — Love joy. 
 
 These are the men who had to be "gratified or the 
 country lost." These are the men who were the supple 
 tools, the willing agents of the Shylocks that the money 
 power used. They are bankers, every one of them. No- 
 body opposed the bill but bankers and their satellite 
 brokers. 
 
 Here they are : 
 
 Mr. Coe, Exchange Bank, New York. 
 
 Mr. Nemuly, Merchants' Bank, New York. 
 
 Mr. Martin, Ocean Bank, New York. 
 
 Mr. Gallatin, National Bank, New York. 
 
 Mr. Rogers, Traders' Bank, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mr. Mercer, Farmers' Bank, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mr. Patterson, Weston Bank, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mr. Haven, Merchants' Bank, Boston, Mass. 
 
 Mr. Wally, River Bank, Boston, Mass. 
 
 Mr. Bates, Commercial Bank, Boston, Mass. 
 
 These, joining with the bankers at Washington, and 
 as agents of the bankers of the United States and Europe 
 as well, by means of and through the efforts of their part- 
 ners — the bankers in Congress — established the gold ring 
 that has ruled the country ever since, and will ruin the 
 country if carried to its perfect fruitage. 
 
 This mutilated act — the two exceptions in the green- 
 back — with their correlate, gave the control of the money 
 to the bankers, as agents of the money power. A class 
 was created lacking every element of patriotism, men 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 273 
 
 who were not too severely denounced by that grand old 
 commoner, Stevens. 
 
 Another has said of them as a class : 
 
 "Not a patriotic act can be found in their history. 
 While the soldiers were freely giving their lives, going 
 to the front by the million, the capitalists, who now 
 trample upon them and their children, were only lured 
 from their safe retreats in the midst of their hoarded 
 treasures by vast golden bribes. Neither in law nor equity, 
 neither in the sight of human courts nor courts divine, 
 have they any claim on the forbearance or gratitude of 
 the American people." — Ben. Wade. 
 
 The issue of legal tender money by the government, 
 was a policy that the bankers, agents of the Money Power, 
 saw would finally destroy all banks of issue, hence they 
 must kill it. 
 
 As to the bonds, they saw that they could be used 
 doubly. First, by being hoarded, as interest bearing, 
 untaxed securities; second, as a banking security. 
 
 They saw the ends of banks of issue if the rag baby 
 lived, so the first thing was to cripple the greenback — 
 ultimately destroy it. 
 
 And so connected in the mind of the conspirators, 
 was this act to kill the greenback with the issue of bank 
 paper, that we find the two schemes hatched about the 
 same time. 
 
 The fight began in 1862 was between legal tender gov- 
 ernment money and bank paper money. 
 
 In carrying through this wrong to the people, this rob- 
 bing of labor, this ruin to business, the bankers, agents 
 of the Money Power, had a helper in Mr. Chase, Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury. He was a zealous champion in their 
 behalf. Why he was so we do not stop to inquire, but 
 true it is. No sooner did he get fairly into the office of 
 secretary, than he began to push forward that system of 
 banks of issue, which, under his skillful management, 
 finally ultimated in the national banking system based 
 upon government bonds. 
 
 He was so devoted to the scheme that he only con- 
 sented to the legal tender as a "temporary relief." The 
 
274 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 legal tender was to be supplanted at the earliest moment, 
 by the issue of bank paper, bottomed on bonds. 
 
 The foolish assumption that Mr. Chase is the author 
 of the greenback, is too light to tell even to the marines, 
 and is doing violence to history. 
 
 He was as zealous a devotee to banks of issue as this 
 country ever had. He believed that banks of issue, based 
 on bonds, ought to furnish all the money. 
 
 Instead of Mr. Chase being the author of the greenback, 
 legal tender, he is the author of the National Bank sys- 
 tem. 
 
 Sherman acted as mid-wife and brought the thing to 
 life in its present shape. But Chase is the father. Yet, 
 notwithstanding this, he gave a correct idea of the 
 United States note, the greenback, in his first report. 
 But that is all. He finally said — it is "merely tempo- 
 rary." After issuing the fifty million demand notes, he 
 made this suggestion to Congress, and here is the germ 
 of the national banks. 
 
 "The second contemplates the preparation and delivery 
 to institutions and associations of notes prepared for cir- 
 culation under National direction, and to be secured, as 
 to prompt convertibility into coin, by the pledge of Unit- 
 ed States bonds and other needful regulations." — C. R. 
 to C. S. L. T. 8. 
 
 This system, thus presented, was conceived in the mind 
 of such bankers and capitalists of the world as the Roths- 
 childs, Barings, Drexell and McCullough, and when 
 "hinted" by them to the Secretary of the Treasury of 
 the great American Republic, "he booked it and put it 
 in shape, and by his official influence procured its en- 
 actment." 
 
 And this scheme of ruiri was to be helped forward in 
 its first step by the repeal of the greenback act. 
 
 This plan of the bankers, thus set in motion, had in 
 view, as a central idea, the plan that the National debt 
 should never be paid, after it was all funded into bonds. 
 
 In discussing the question of the creation of the bonds, 
 this language was used: 
 
 "A public creditor looks not to the principle — he wants 
 to know what his interest is to be. The example of Eng- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 275 
 
 land proves this. Nobody supposes England will ever 
 pay her debt, nobody has supposed it for years. All we 
 have to do, therefore, is to secure the interest, no matter 
 about the principal."— 5'. F. U. S. S. 1862. 
 
 So true is this — that is, that the debt was not to be 
 paid — by 1876, the provisions for the sinking fund was 
 abandoned. Witness this: 
 
 "Mr. Morrill, in his report on the finances, in Decem- 
 ber, 1876, acknowledged his inability any longer to pro- 
 vide for the sinking fund." 
 
 Every step in the financial legislation was in a direct 
 line against the payment of the National debt. The fol- 
 lowing, taken from the Nottingham Journal, an English 
 Liberal paper, shows how this result was foreshadowed 
 before the crisis of 1873, by an able English writer, the 
 author of "The Bank Charter Act and the Rate of 
 Interest," Lond. 1873: "To us," he says, "it is indeed 
 a melancholy reflection, and one, withal, worthy of grave 
 pondering, that when the United States shall return again 
 to a convertible currency, the liquidation of their na- 
 tional debt must cease. Our own sinking fund, devised 
 for a similar object, we know, ceased to receive any im- 
 portant payments after the abrogation of the Bank Re- 
 striction Act. No currency, doubtless, but one that was 
 able to sustain a great war, need be expected to liquidate 
 its costs." 
 
 The whole thing was conceived in sin and brought 
 forth in iniquity. And being so even Secretary Chase 
 turned from his bank idol to worship at the fountain of 
 better thought. He did so in his communication to Con- 
 gress, June, 1862. 
 
 "It may properly be further observed that since the 
 United States notes are made legal tender and main- 
 tained nearly at par of gold, by the provision of their 
 convertibility into bonds bearing six per cent interest, 
 it may be well to issue bills of less denomination than 
 five dollars, — C. R., June, 1862. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 MONEY DEFINITIONS — OPINIONS OF THE DISTINGUISHED. 
 
 "It is the essence of money that it possesses intrinsic 
 value." — Huskinson in B. P., 1810. 
 
 Whatever that may mean, it is the key to the strong- 
 hold of all who maintain the hard money theory. 
 
 "Money is a value created by law, to be a scale of 
 valuation and a valid tender for payments." — Prof. Cer- 
 neuchi, B. S. C, 1877. 
 
 Whatever that may mean, it is the stronghold of all 
 who maintain the fiat money theory. 
 
 Where there is no law there is no transgression. A 
 truism. 
 
 Where there is no law, there is no money. A truism 
 also. 
 
 Money, origin: It is mentioned as supra, first, i860 
 B. C. Gen. 17:12. — Hay den Dec. Dates. 
 
 Money, a construction. The verb "to coin," as it stands 
 in the constitution bears no signification whatever to the 
 material, quality of character of the thing coined, but 
 relates exclusively to the act to be performed that is to 
 "stamping," "making," "inventing," "fabricating." The 
 act may be performed on any material. — Jones. 
 
 Daniel Webster said : "Congress shall have power to 
 coin money, to regulate the value thereof, and foreign 
 coin; emit bills of credit or make anything else besides 
 gold and silver coin a legal tender in payment of debts." 
 
 Money — Intrinsic value, Commodity, Aristotle said: 
 "The use of a thing, no matter what it may be, as money, 
 is a use entirely different from the use of it as a commod- 
 ity." 
 
 John Law said: "Paper money must be redeemed in 
 metal money." This was his great mistake. It is the 
 mistake of all hard money men. He said also, "Money 
 
 276 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 277 
 
 is not the value for which goods are exchanged, but the 
 value of which they are exchanged." Which is true. 
 
 Dougald Stewart said : "The commodity value of gold 
 and silver was different from the money value thereof; 
 and that commodity value was not necessary to money. 
 North British Review says: "Metallic money, whilst 
 acting as coin money is identical with paper money in 
 respect to being destitute of intrinsic value. Coin so long 
 as it circulates within the realm for the purpose of buy- 
 ing and selling, loses for the time its intrinsic value." 
 
 The Ency. Britannica says : "Gold and silver as com- 
 modities do not measure the value of gold and silver. 
 When one commodity is exchangeable for others, each 
 measures the value of the other." In such cases neither 
 can be a standard of value. 
 
 Took H. P. et al., say, "As commodities, gold and sil- 
 ver are capital but as money they are mere representa- 
 tives of commodities — of wealth. All the confusion on 
 the subject, and which has mystified the works on econ- 
 omy, arises out of the fact of not discriminating between 
 gold and merchandise and gold as stamped coin." 
 
 President Harrison, Inaugural of 1841, says: "If there 
 is one measure better calculated than another to produce 
 that state of things where the rich are daily getting 
 richer and the poor are daily getting poorer, it is a metal- 
 lic money." 
 
 Dr. Franklin's W. v. 4, says : "It is the legal ten- 
 der, with the knowledge that it can easily be repassed for 
 the same value, that makes the three penny worth of sil- 
 ver pass for six-pence." The silver commission say: 
 "Money is the great instrument of association, the very 
 fibre of social organism, the vitalizing force of industry, 
 and as essential to existence as oxygen is to animal life. 
 Without money civilization languishes, and, unless re- 
 moved finally perishes." 
 
 Money — gold and silver not fit for, owing to their 
 changeableness and fluctuation in value. This principle 
 in them — fluctuation — has in ages past and is now en- 
 dangering civilization. They are not nor can they be 
 standards of value. This assumption for them is a fraud 
 and ruinous to the happiness of man. 
 
278 Life of Col. Jesse Harper, 
 
 Ernest Seyd says : "The saying prevails — gold or sil- 
 ver are standards of value. Hence the controversy about 
 single standard vs. so-called double standard. It is ut- 
 terly wrong to say that gold or silver, either singly or 
 combined, forms the standard of value. * * * AH 
 this grand flourish, with false pretense to modern science 
 and allusion to the 19th century, must fall to the ground, 
 for I have not the slightest doubt that there are logicians 
 in this country who can clearly define the true factorship 
 of money and show the error or clap-trap involved in the 
 phrase respecting standards of value. The doctrines 
 held by our gold valuation school wantonly inflicts an 
 injury upon the world, and entail a kind of deviltry, the 
 curse of which no one can see the end." 
 
 Allison's "History of Europe" says: "The fall of the 
 Roman Empire so long ascribed, in ignorance, to slavery, 
 heathenism and moral corruption, was in reality brought 
 about by a decline, in gold and silver." The mines they 
 knew gave out and the volume shrank away, so that 
 what little was left increased in purchasing power more 
 than three hundred fold. 
 
 The Silver commission says : "History records no such 
 disastrous transitions as that from the Roman Empire 
 to the Dark Ages, and that the disasters of the Dark 
 Ages were caused by the decreasing money." It then 
 adds: "The mischief which practically threatens the 
 world, and which has been the most prolific cause of the 
 social, political, and industrial ills which have afflicted 
 it, is that of a decreasing and deficient money. It is from 
 such a deficiency that mankind are now suffering, and it 
 is the actual and present evil with which we have to deal." 
 
 "Money is power," says: "The immense product of 
 California and Australian mines caused the value of gold 
 to fall from 20 to 50 per cent from 1850 to 1855, below 
 that of 1840 to 1848; and the immense consumption of 
 the precious metals in the arts during the last few years, 
 has appreciated them up to where they were." 
 
 Jevons, Q. in S. C. says: I. "That from the begin- 
 ning of the revolutionary troubles in South America in 
 1809 to the opening of the California mines in 1849 there 
 was a continuous rise in the value of money, and a cor- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 279 
 
 responding fall in the price of commodities — money in- 
 creased in purchasing power during that period 145 per 
 cent. 
 
 2. "That after the year 1849 there occurred a fall on 
 the value of money and a rise in the price of commodities 
 which reached their maximum about 1865. During this 
 period the purchasing power decreased 15 per cent. 
 
 3. "That this decrease in the purchasing power of 
 money has since then been quite overcome, and that its 
 command over property is at least as great as it was in 
 1849 and very much greater than in 1809." 
 
 Paper is to be the money of the future, absolute paper 
 money. This is philosophical and is sustained by right 
 reason. Its volume can be, by law, maintained at a 
 standard, necessary amount, which is the vital point in 
 money of any material. The volume of the precious 
 metals cannot be kept at a standard, necessary amount 
 as all history abundantly attests. Hence, their use as a 
 medium of exchange has subjected mankind to untold 
 suffering through panics, depressions in business and the 
 engendering of almost infinite pauperism, crime and 
 death. 
 
 Paper money, paper credit, the highest view of money, 
 has shown itself the grandest medium of exchange ever 
 known. Gold and silver as counters, (so called) money, 
 are the devise of pauperism and must die when civiliza- 
 tion advances to perfection. 
 
 Gold and silver, it is maintained, by those who hold 
 the hard money theory, never vary. That is: While 
 it is true, say they, that the production of them "may 
 vary at times," yet when the cause of the ages are all 
 taken into account, it is found that their production has 
 been so even and adjusted that they, if not a perfect 
 standard, are the best that has, or that it is believed, can 
 be found. This is their assumption. 
 
 Now, this is neither philosophical in deduction nor 
 sound in right reason. It is a proposition when stripped 
 of its glitter that affirms this, namely : That two of the 
 products acquired by human action, suit themselves to 
 and are the just measure of all other products acquired 
 by human action. 
 
28o Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The perniciousness of this monster hypothesis has 
 never been realized to its full extent. It makes of these 
 two products a tyrant that in the hands of tyrants has 
 caused, and is now causing more suffering to the human 
 race than have war, famine and pestilence combined. 
 
 Money is not nor can it be commodity. Money can- 
 not be produced by labor as commodities are produced 
 by labor. Money, as an entity, is purely an ideal thing. 
 It is the exact opposite of product ; a measure of products, 
 not itself a product, as an adjustor of balances it is ideal- 
 ized equity, pertains exclusively to man, is wholly un- 
 known to the lower orders. Money materialized is a 
 creation of law, devised by man as a progressive, intel- 
 lectual, moral being to help him in the enlargement of his 
 material interests. Its functions are to aid in the produc- 
 tion of more wealth ; to aid him in the distribution of 
 more wealth ; to aid him in the enjoyment of more wealth 
 — wealth being the over-production of labor or the sav- 
 ings of labor. 
 
 Money as a factor is one of the grandest discoveries 
 of the human mind ; it is a "thing," a "tool," a "measure," 
 of all wealth, but is not wealth itself. 
 
 Money as a "thing," a "tool," a "measure," becomes 
 an order universal for commodities and services, the 
 medium of exchange. 
 
 Money known by its "unit" (a dollar with us), is that 
 "thing," that "measure," that "order-universal" by which 
 man measure the products of labor, and is that also which 
 inspires labor to new effort and fills the world with enter- 
 prise. 
 
 Money in its use as an agent, when reduced to form, 
 is simple. It is the "dollar" that buys ; it is the "dollar" 
 that pays, regardless of the material of which it is com- 
 posed. 
 
 These general and critical propositions are abundantly 
 sustained by the best thinkers of the world. Herbert Spen- 
 cer says : "The monetary arrangements of any commun- 
 ity are ultimately dependent, like most other arrange- 
 ments, on the morality of its members. Amongst a peo- 
 ple altogether dishonest every mercantile transaction must 
 be affected in coin or goods ; for promises to pay cannot 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 281 
 
 circulate at all when, by the hypothesis, there is no prob- 
 ability that they will be redeemed. Conversely, amongst 
 perfectly honest people, paper alone will form the cir- 
 culating medium, and metallic money will be needless. 
 Manifestly, therefore, during any intermediate state in 
 which men are neither altogether dishonest, nor alto- 
 gether honest, a mixed currency will exist; and the ratio 
 of paper to coin will vary with the degree of trust in- 
 dividuals place in each other." Here he states the true 
 distinction that exists between barter, exchanging one 
 commodity for another and the exchange of commodities 
 by means of the use of money, and hinges the whole sub- 
 ject on honesty alone. So when two commodities (gold 
 and silver) are set up for the "measure" for all others; 
 made the "standard," then the dishonesty of such a mone- 
 tary system becomes perilous and unbearable. And for 
 that reason these metals ought to be demonetized. 
 
 David Ricardo says: "A regulated paper currency is 
 so great an improvement in commerce that I should 
 greatly regret if prejudice should induce us to return to 
 a system of less utility. The introduction of the precious 
 metals for the purposes of money may with truth be con- 
 sidered as one of the most important steps toward the 
 improvement of commerce and the arts of civilized life. 
 But it is no less true that, with the advancement of knowl- 
 edge and science, we discover that it would be another 
 improvement to banish them again from the employment 
 to which, during the less enhghtened period, they had 
 been so advantageously applied." This is a just con- 
 clusion, as it is undoubtedly true that legal tender paper 
 money is the kind best suited to the operations carried on 
 under a Christian civilization. Benjamin Franklin says: 
 "Gold and silver are not intrinsically of equal value with 
 iron. Their value rests chiefly in the estimation they 
 happen to be in among the generality of nations. Any 
 other well founded credit is as much an equivalent as gold 
 or silver. Paper money well founded has great advan- 
 tages over gold and silver, being light and convenient 
 for handling large sums and not likely to have its volume 
 reduced by demand for exportation. On the whole, no 
 method has hitherto been found to establish a medium 
 
282 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 of trade equal in all its advantages to bills of credit made 
 a general legal tender." 
 
 Here the great philosopher states a fact in support of 
 legal tender paper money that we would do well to heed. 
 He says such money would not have its volume changed 
 by exportation. Hard money men do not pretend to 
 answer it. 
 
 The influx of gold and silver into a country is not an 
 indication of true healthiness or growing wealth. The 
 "Mercantile Theory" of a hundred years ago thought 
 so. The exact reverse is true, and therefore, paper money 
 should be used so as to allow and encourage exportation 
 of gold and silver. 
 
 Maclead says: "According to the crude ideas that 
 were generally received about a century ago, gold and 
 silver were almost universally considered the only species 
 of wealth and it was considered to be the true policy of 
 every country to encourage by every means in its power 
 the influx of bullion and to discourage its export; and 
 most, if not all, of European nations have gone so far, at 
 one time or another, as to prohibit its export. The profit 
 of foreign commerce was estimated solely by the quantity 
 of gold and silver it brought into the country, and the 
 theory of commerce appeared to be reduced to a general 
 scramble among all nations to see which could draw to 
 itself the most gold and silver from the other. Such 
 is the principle of the "Mercantile Theory," it being held 
 true that gold and silver are the most profitable and 
 desirable objects of import. The direct reverse is un- 
 questionably true, that gold and silver are, of all objects 
 of commerce, the least profitable." 
 
 So we say to-day, let both gold and silver go out 
 of the country in infinite amount, if you please; and for 
 them let those articles come back to us that we are willing 
 to exchange the gold and the silver for. 
 
 But to do this our paper money must not be "based" 
 upon them. For if it is, when your "base" goes out two 
 things happen; i, your money (paper) becomes irredeem- 
 able and depreciates ; 2, the volume of coin being shrunk 
 and contracted (in this country) down goes prices and 
 panic ensues. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 283 
 
 The Bank of Venice is an illustration of the power of 
 paper money to sustain commerce and stability. We 
 quote: "There was at Venice that which, more than any 
 previous commercial policy, opened men's eyes to an ad- 
 vantage of great importance, contributing alike to the 
 prosperity of our state and to the benefit of trade. She 
 was the glorious inventress of the guaranteed bank, dif- 
 fering both in its operations and its security from com- 
 mon banks as much as those called public banks. This 
 very efficient made of adjustment, discovered and used 
 so largely at this early period in the history of commerce 
 was not dependent for its efficiency on the guarantee of 
 the public. That guarantee sprung out of the mode in 
 which the bank originated ; this convenient mode of legis- 
 lation came from the use of the new substitute for money. 
 The facility of payment furnished by the bank which 
 made it the admiration of Europe, honorable at once to 
 the government and merchants of Venice, and a support 
 to the pride and power of its people, consisted in substi- 
 tuting as a medium of payments the debt of the Republic 
 for current coin. This system of payments was so well 
 adapted to the exigencies of commerce, that it lasted for 
 more than five hundred years, until destroyed by Na- 
 poleon. And these paper credits ran as high as twenty 
 per centum above coin, at times." 
 
 And there is nothing strange about this. For that 
 mythic thing called "par value," is a fraud. 
 
 "The idea of par value between coin and paper is 
 neither a philosophical deduction, nor a scientific conclu- 
 sion. On the contrary, it is an incident of a vicious money 
 system; the offspring of class-law. And when 'par' be- 
 tween coin and paper exists, it is the unmistakable evi- 
 dence that a robbery by law, has been committed on the 
 right of man and property." — Jomvi. * * * The as- 
 sumption that one kind of money must be redeemed in 
 another kind of money, is a crime against the right of 
 man to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. It vio- 
 lates philosophy and libels science. It destroys a sense 
 of moral obligation, and when carried to its ripe fruitage, 
 turns the temple of God into a den of thieves. — The 
 Money Changers. 
 
284 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Money — no matter of what material composed — must 
 be redeemed in commodities and services, or it is wholly 
 valueless as money, and it needs no other redemption but 
 in commodities and services. — Moran on Money. 
 
 The theory that gold and silver are safe money, because 
 they will be good in the event of the government's over- 
 throw, is not true. It is neither philosophical nor scien- 
 tific as a proposition. Money cannot survive the downfall 
 of the government creating it. And he who believes that 
 money can survive the death of the government stamping 
 it as money is a subject of delusion, and is dreaming out 
 a hiatus of mind, contradicted alike by reason, science, 
 philosophy and fact. And when such dreamer affirms 
 that his gold and silver will have value in the new gov- 
 ernment, he only affirms that which pertains alike to 
 his corn and oil and wine. They, as commodi- 
 ties along with his gold and his silver, as com- 
 modities, will have just such value as the volume 
 of the money of the new government determines, noth- 
 ing more, nothing less. Your money, as such, dies with 
 its creator, and as the production of gold and silver fluc- 
 tuates as much, if not more, than any other two articles, 
 the making them money has endangered to death the 
 governments of earth. Nations have been overthrown by 
 these very causes; and that Christian civilization, is now 
 menaced by them. Therefore, in the language of Mr. 
 Gillespie: "He who would plan a money so unfitted 
 for the present, in the vain hope that it would survive 
 the death of the country ought to die before his country." 
 * * * The influx or reflux of gold and silver, is dan- 
 gerous to trade and commerce and produce unsteadiness 
 in business. Because in thus moving they change the 
 money volume and this unsettles business. As standard 
 money, gold and silver are the prolific parent of inflation 
 and contraction, thereby producing panics, as inevitably 
 and certainly as do decaying vegetables and mushrooms, 
 produce disease. 
 
 And as the volume of the money other things equal, is 
 the center consideration, to even trade and steady prop- 
 erty : gold and silver, .therefore, are unfit agents, either 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 285 
 
 as money, or as commodities, to serve as the circulating 
 medium. 
 
 Prof. Walker says: "Other things equal, the general 
 average of prices is determined by the quantity of cur- 
 rency in circulation, and prices advance and recede as 
 that is increased or diminished. * * * fhis is an 
 economic law as certain as any of the laws of nature." 
 
 "AN APPEAL." 
 
 FOE JUST MONEY AND HUMAN RIGHTS. 
 
 FOR HONEST CARRYING AND LABOR S RIGHTS. 
 
 J. HARPER, DANVILLE, ILL. 
 
 The Specie basis is the Crime of the Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury. 
 
 Paper money is the antidote for it. 
 
 Transportation by Corporate — Monopoly, is the Sin 
 of the age. 
 
 Government ownership of Railroads, is the antidote 
 for it. 
 
 Ignatius Donnelly, says: 
 
 "from A VETERAN. 
 
 "The Famous Jesse Harper, Lincoln's Friend, Thinks 
 the Fight was Fought on the Wrong Issue. — The Peo- 
 ple's Party Platform, Shibboleth, the Specie Basis the 
 Crime of the Nineteenth Century — Paper Money the 
 Antidote." 
 Editor Representative, Nov. 4, 1896. 
 
 The Farce of the body politic in the election of the 
 3rd of November, emphasizes the saying : 
 
 "And all of our yesterdays have lighted fools — 
 The way to dusty death." 
 
 The true reformer was handicapped. 
 
 "Fusion" with a party that looks your way, but walks 
 the other way, shows a lack of Sense. 
 
286 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 "Fusion" with a party to make paper money, legal 
 tender for everything — the kind you want; but to be re- 
 deemed in Coin, which you do not want — To join this 
 kind of "fusion" is to confess yourself a Janus — having 
 two faces. 
 
 This kind of "fusion" leaves the option to the smaller 
 party — "bolt" or be "swallowed." 
 
 This kind of "fusion" is the — "Three Tailors of 
 Tooley," over again. 
 
 This is "fusion" Redivivus Ridiculum. 
 
 This is the day that revives chivalry, and untombs 
 the knight of 300 years ago, drawn by Cervantes, and 
 known as wide as earth, Don Quixote the First, who rep- 
 resented the "fools" of his age, as fully as "Fusion" 
 does the "Knaves" of the present. 
 
 Don, away back there, seated on his war horse, Rosi- 
 nante, followed by his faithful Sancho, on his ass — 
 charged the "Wind Mills" for the space of a day, and 
 the "mills" withstood the charge and smiled. And now, 
 in the Knight errantry for the "precious metals," Don 
 Quixote, Second, mounted on Balaam's "Horse," Cap-a- 
 pie, from head to foot, shout — "Silver the issue" — fol- 
 lowed by his faithful Sancho, on his ass, the twain 
 braying, "Subordinate everything to 'remonetizing' sil- 
 ver." They assault the "Gold bug wind mill" — ^the other 
 half of the false basis. 
 
 And the "mills" as in the case of Don First, withstood 
 the assault and laughed at the push on gold. 
 
 And as the scattered, scar-worn victims of the "silver 
 alone issue" gathered their spoils from the ensanguined 
 field and possessed themselves of the wealth, wrested 
 from the enemy — it was found they had the "issues" and 
 the enemy had the "offices," and with them, much goods 
 laid up for many years. Selah. 
 
 And the wail comes up from the three headed head- 
 quarters. 
 
 "The harvest is past and the Summer is ended and 
 we are not saved." Ah, hah. 
 
 And a lie enticed Ahab, and he was slain at Ramoth- 
 gelead (which is Wall street), with a "Single issue" — ■ 
 a lie. * * * 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 287 
 
 "And they have cast lots for my people, and have given 
 a boy for a harlot and a girl for wine, that they might 
 drinic." Thus spoke ,the Hebrew prophet as the Jewish 
 state met its death at the hands of hypocrites, extor- 
 tioners and usurers. 
 
 Political chicanery boasted of prosperity, while the 
 poor died of want. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Jesuitism boasted of religious converts, 
 while Lazarus lay at Dives' gate ministered to by dogs. 
 
 The rich grew richer. 
 
 The poor grew poorer. 
 
 Boodle takes the place of principle, slander the place 
 of truth. 
 
 Facts are ignored. 
 
 Politicians riot in grossness. 
 
 Mendacity triumphs. 
 
 Pilot and Herod are agreed. 
 
 The Christ of humanity is crucified between two polit- 
 ical thieves. The saints and sinners divide the spoils ; 
 And thus the covenant with death and hell is confirmed. 
 
 Railroads, telegraphs, lands, debts, banks, money, oil 
 mines — all these have been run in the interest of class. 
 
 "False clamour is falsehood." 
 
 Put the fight on ground where truth and justice, and 
 God can support it. 
 
 Inaugurate and encourage a policy to enable each fam- 
 ily to secure a home — 
 
 Actual occupancy and use to be the title. 
 
 Paying for it only the cost of setting it off from the 
 public domain. 
 
 "Paper money is to be the money of the future ; abso- 
 lute paper money." — Moran. 
 
 Let Money vs. Credit be the war cry, as the 19th cen- 
 tury goes out and the 20th century is born to the new 
 life. 
 
 With a Bible, a constitution and money; all stamped 
 on paper — all reflexes from the heart. A flag stamped 
 on silk, the emblem of country — all standing on the 
 earth; God's footstool and man's home. 
 
288 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Mankind can have enough paper money. It cannot 
 have enough of the two metals. 
 
 "Truth against the world." (Motto of the Kumree.) 
 
 From this level of God's engineering let us call to the 
 rich, not alone in warning, but in love, as brother men. 
 
 Note. — For nearly five months no effort that I could 
 put forth, has been spared in the cause of justice and 
 humanity. I worked in season and out of season, with 
 all my intellectual, moral and physical powers, to secure 
 the election of Wm. J. Bryan and Thomas E. Watson, 
 seeing all the time the false issue that inhered in our 
 cause — metal money, a double candidate, a double plat- 
 form, making a political lie. 
 
 Turn to the Omaha Platform, of 1892, which is the 
 first born political child of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence; and when utilized, life, liberty and happiness will 
 be a verity. 
 
 Turn from the mis-rule of political despotism, be- 
 cause the trend of the struggle is: 
 
 TO CENTRALIZE. 
 
 Abolish the debt Moloch. 
 
 "A contrivance against divine law and human reason." 
 Abolish the "batik of issue" demon. 
 
 "It coins the sweat of labor into gold — for Tyrants" 
 — by interest. 
 
 To Shrink the volume and leave the debt status quo is 
 Robbery. 
 
 In doing it the government makes itself the Comple- 
 ment of the Crime. 
 
 This tabernacle of Mammon is built on: 
 
 The non-right of money. 
 
 The non-right of transportation. 
 
 And the wrong use of the Public Domain. 
 
 The record of the past must be changed. 
 
 Stop modern God-robbing — by Robbing his children. 
 
 William the Conqueror stole England. 
 
 His descendants are stealing the world. 
 
 The Republic condones the crime and aids the larceny. 
 
 Stop framing iniquity into law. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 289 
 
 Stop the infamy of redeeming one "money" with an- 
 other "money." 
 
 Stop swapping "dollars" — it is a duplicate of selling 
 Christ for silver. 
 
 Make: 
 
 A graduated income tax, beginning above one thou- 
 sand dollars. 
 
 Exempt such home of the family from all taxation and 
 liens of any sort 
 
 To the amount of one thousand dollars. 
 
 Natural gifts in the earth common to the race, bene- 
 ficial to all men, to be under the control of the govern- 
 ment and open to all — for the benefit of all the people. 
 
 The government t© hold all unoccupied land for homes 
 only. 
 
 Homes to be acquired at the minimum cost of allot- 
 ting them. 
 
 Each to acquire homes on the same terms — necessary 
 quantity. 
 
 As Public Domain. 
 
 While thus situate, if any wish to use it for the 
 grasses, or any other appendage, so as not to injure it, 
 let them use it, paying a stipulated price, the money to 
 go into the public treasury for the benefit of all. 
 
 To induce those holding large grants to surrender them 
 to the people, to again become public domain, tax them 
 double the value of land used for homes. 
 
 Make it impossible to hold land for speculative pur- 
 poses. 
 
 Statutes of justice and decrees of equity will not tol- 
 erate, 
 
 Land speculation of cultivatable soil that is rural. 
 
 This policy would decentralize land, increase homes 
 and diffuse happiness. 
 
 A non-resident alien should not own land in this coun- 
 try. Land should not have been sold to them. 
 
 Change the rule. 
 
 Give them a reasonable notice to sell their lands. 
 
 If they refuse, then the government shall pay them a 
 
290 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 reasonable price for their lands and turn these into the 
 public domain. 
 
 All of these lands to be public domain except those oc- 
 cupied as homes. 
 
 EQUIVALENCY OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 That which you cannot produce at all, get of those who 
 do, on terms as advantageous as possible to both. 
 
 That which you have the greatest surplus of, get ofif 
 on terms of like character. 
 
 Having thus reciprocated, in the two extremes — where 
 you had all and where you had nothing — the inside will 
 adjust to these outside extremes. 
 
 The nations over against you do the same thing, and 
 thus the world fraternizes. 
 
 These peaceful regulations go on till arbitration takes 
 the place of force, and earth becomes an empire of peace. 
 
 Here is broad ground, to which the humanites m every 
 nation are looking — 
 
 And the grandest names on earth are bending their 
 energies to effect the blessed state — a world disarmed! 
 
 Arbitration the law of nations, instead of the law of 
 force. 
 
 The world thus regulated. 
 
 Society thus harmonized, would at last blend in uni- 
 versal BROTHERHOOD. 
 
 Interest on money is murdering the world ; it is a crime 
 against the human race. Strike it to death. 
 
 RAILROADS. 
 
 All railroad charters should be repealed. And the 
 roads valued and paid for to the now owners, and then 
 operated by the government as — 
 
 THE RAIL AND WATER CARRYING DEPART- 
 MENT — the same as any other department, with a cabi- 
 net officer. 
 
 Allowing the owners now to retain five-eighths of their' 
 value as an investment. 
 
 Paying them out of the earnings three per cent per an- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 291 
 
 num till final liquidation and full ownership by the peo- 
 ple. 
 
 The roads to be run at cost of operating. 
 
 That is, a schedule of prices to be paid by the people 
 for their use, 
 
 Sufficient in amount to pay the interest, while needed; 
 sinking fund and running expenses. 
 
 THE MONEY. 
 
 The money should all be issued by the government and 
 made full legal tender for all purposes. It should be suffi- 
 cient in volume to do all the business of the country 
 without the intervention of credit, on cash, strictly. It 
 should be stamped on material of the least possible com- 
 mercial value consistent with fair durability — on paper. 
 It should be furnished at the cost of making and is- 
 suing. It should be redeemable in labor and commodities 
 only, thus making its use among the people perpetual. 
 It should be put in circulation through national deposi- 
 tories, situate at the seat of government, the state capitals 
 and county seats. In detail: It should be secured by 
 land and products, returnable at any time, by the holder, 
 to the depository. 
 
 How the people get the money is shown in every detail 
 in my book, "Land, Transportation and Money." 
 
 Land, Transportation and — Money? It was out early 
 in 1896 in support of the principles of the Omaha plat- 
 form. But there was not much of that platform in the 
 late campaign "on money with the money left out." To 
 illustrate : Suppose the "Money Question" is One"" Bushel. 
 "Silver" is about one quart of the whole make-up, and 
 better left out than put in. 
 
 For the "Metal Money System" is infinitely small when 
 compared with the full humanities of our Omaha plat- 
 form. 
 
 "Silver alone" as an "issue" is a fiasco — failure. _ 
 
 In 1896 it was three-headed. The mountain was in tra- 
 vail and brought forth a mouse. 
 
 I want to get my book with real reform papers. For, 
 while I am young and inexperienced, I know that true 
 
292 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 reform papers are scarce as perpetual food in the happy 
 hunting grounds of the Mythic Valambrosia ; or 53-cent 
 dollars with the masses. 
 
 1. We have those who believe in a single gold stand- 
 ard. 
 
 2. Those who believe in a gold and silver standard 
 combined. 
 
 3. Both holding in their platform that paper money 
 must be issued, convertible into "coin" at the option of 
 the holder, to make the volume "ample to do the business 
 of the country." 
 
 We know that it is the volume of the money that regu- 
 lates prices — hence the crime of demonetizing silver to 
 lessen its volume. 
 
 It was a measure to contract the volume. 
 
 Gold and silver both gives the larger volume. 
 
 Therefore both should be used to the fullest extent — 
 till both are abandoned. 
 
 For they are wholly insufiScient to supply the amount 
 of money needed by the people to do the business of the 
 country. 
 
 This is the whole of it in a nut-shell. 
 
 The peril to our institutions is appalling, and only 
 those who are willing to say "give me liberty or give me 
 death," will be able to abide the fury of the onset of mon- 
 archy. All of us who have stood for a true money system, 
 paper, for the past years will continue the fight. Those 
 who put "success" above principle will leave us. We 
 are at the critical point. We must go forward. Here is 
 the way: 
 
 Paper Money vs. Metal Money is the just system. Peo- 
 ple's ownership, through government, of all public fran- 
 chises vs. corporate ownership of sovereignties, through 
 law by individuals or companies of individuals. The peo- 
 ple to affirm by direct vote every law before it becomes 
 operative. 
 
 Give the people a chance by law to enjoy the increment 
 of their labor. 
 
 Hear the Divine Ruler's voice: 
 
 "Come now, you rich, weep and lament over those mis- 
 eries of yours which are approaching. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 293 
 
 "Your rich stores have decayed, and your garments 
 have become moth-eaten. 
 
 "Your gold and silver have become rusted, and the rust 
 on them will be for a testimony against you, and will 
 consume your bodies like fire. You have laid up treas- 
 ures for the last days. 
 
 "Behold, that hire, which you fraudulently withheld 
 from those laborers who harvested your field, and the 
 loud cries of the reapers have entered the ears of the Lord 
 of Armies." J. Harper. 
 
 Danville, 111., Nov. 4, 1896. 
 
 HARPER ON INCOME TAX. 
 
 "mighty" lawyers with the great masses HE QUOTES 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON THE SUPREME COURT. 
 
 The majority stand for tyranny. 
 The minority for liberty. 
 "This is the paradox of courts." 
 When new questions come to the front. 
 
 The "great" lawyers take the side of tyranny, and the 
 "mighty" lawyers take the side of liberty. And the 
 people, rally to the support of the "mighty" advocates of 
 humanity, till their names become halos, and the principles 
 they contend for become fixed as truth. 
 
 We have had three onsets in the past, and the fourth 
 is on. 
 
 Our first great struggle was the "war of the banks," 
 from Washington to Jackson. The second was the "Dred 
 Scott Decision" — a decision "that sent a system to ruin 
 that it meant to save." The third was the "Income Tax 
 of the war" — that gave us bread to feed the heroes- in 
 blue, and the fourth — "The Income Tax, lately deceased 
 at the hands of the Supreme Court." 
 
 These two count as one. 
 
 All these decisions were made by a divided court, which 
 claimed for its mandates "obedience" and "silence." To 
 speak against them was to outlaw yourself and be classed 
 
294 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 as an enemy to your country and its constitution, an up- 
 rooter of all law, a monster. "An opposer of the major- 
 ity." And after all this "fuss" led in by "great" lawyers 
 as to the "majority" decision. 
 
 The "minority" decision, the outgrowth of brain and 
 heart, became the rule upon which liberty rested, and the 
 "great" lawyers went to "Urup." And so it will be now. 
 
 Let us look at the record and see if there were not some 
 men, not "pretended" men, who called the Supreme Court 
 in question. Let us see if the "minority" have not called 
 the "majority" in question, in language that literally anni- 
 hilates them and the "great" lawyers, "the backers." And 
 these magi in silencing these so-called "courts" laid the 
 foundation of liberty more firmly and widened the high- 
 way of Christian civilization. 
 
 And in doing it planted themselves as beacon lights for 
 the ages. 
 
 In 1791 Congress decided in favor of a bank; in 181 1 
 Congress decided against a bank. 
 
 One Congress in 1815 decided against a bank and an- 
 other in 1816 decided in favor of a bank. Here are con- 
 gressional precedents on both sides. 
 
 Hear Andrew Jackson: 
 
 "It is maintained by the advocates of the bank that its 
 constitutionality, in all its features, ought to be considered 
 Court. To this I cannot assent. Mere precedent is a dan- 
 gerous source of authority, and should not be regarded as 
 gerous source of authority, and should not be regarded as 
 deciding questions of constitutional power, except where 
 the acquiescence of the people and the states can be con- 
 sidered as well settled. * * * Prior to the present 
 Congress, therefore, the precedents drawn from that 
 source were equal. If we resort to the states, the expres- 
 sions of legislative, judicial and executive opinion against 
 the bank have been probably fourfold. There is nothing 
 in precedent, therefore, which, if its authority were ad- 
 mitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act before me." 
 
 The Supreme Court, the same one we have now, once 
 decided a national bank to be constitutional, but this same 
 General Jackson sat down on the court and the decision " 
 and all the "great" lawyers backing the bank, and he sat 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 295 
 
 down with the people, and the "mighty" lawyers who were 
 for the people. 
 
 It was said the bank charter was similar to the Bank of 
 England, the "mother of banks." That saying likely en- 
 raged the General, for, once upon a time, down toward 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, he, with a goodly number 
 of his countrymen who wore "home-made shoes" and 
 "common clothes," had made up their minds to wallop 
 England, and a certain "governor," who was in love 
 with Britain and wanted to go to "Urup," stood in the 
 governor's way. He drew a rawhide and gave the "gov- 
 ernor" a good welting and then thrashed Packingham till 
 he cried "enough," and then the people elected him — "Old 
 Hickory" — President, and he "set" down on a bank and 
 said: 
 
 "If these important decisions had been made with the 
 unanimous concurrence of the judges, and without any 
 apparent partisan bias, * * * ^^^j j^^^j j^ggjj before 
 the court and affirmed and reaffirmed, then it would be a 
 precedent to be respected. * * * If the opinion of 
 the court covered the whole ground of this act, it ought 
 not to control the co-ordinate authorities of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 "Congress, the executive and the court, must each for 
 itself be guided by its own opinion of the constitution. 
 Each public officer who takes an oath to support the con- 
 stitution, swears that he will support it as he understands 
 it and not as it is understood by others." 
 
 A divided court cannot give the opinion of the whole 
 court, so as to stop dicussion, as to which side is right. 
 
 And from 1840 to i860 the Democratic party stood on 
 the Jackson platform of the unconstitutionality of national 
 banks. At the time of that eventful day it straggled into 
 the jungles of the "hunger mud," and there among 
 "horned frogs" and "flat-headed snakes" wandered in con- 
 tempt. But in 1896 it got back to the ground of the 
 Fathers, and the Chicago end of it came out flat-footed 
 against national banks and said plainly that it would take 
 silver, such as Washington had given us, stay at home 
 and not go to "Urup." 
 
 The other end of the party wandered off into the moun- 
 
296 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 tains of "Heipsedam," where the "English lion" roareth 
 and is engaged in herding the "golden calf;" and they 
 give notice that if the people undertake to run the govern- 
 ment that they will "take any office that has a fixed sal- 
 ary." Shirach. 
 
 "Dred Scott." — ^A great philanthropist said of the de- 
 cision: "It is infamous, and affirms pro forma that a 
 black man has no rights that a white man is bound to re- 
 spect." 
 
 "That decision declares that a negro cannot sue in the 
 United States courts." Lincoln, the "mighty" lawyer. 
 
 The constitution formed to "establish justice, insure 
 domestic tranquility and secure the blessings of liberty 
 to ourselves and posterity," "that instrument," the "great" 
 lawyer says, "does not allow courts organized under it to 
 be open to black men." — Douglas. The black man shall 
 not have his "day in court," where the accused and ac- 
 cuser, face to face, there determine who has justice on his 
 side. 
 
 The government, formed to establish justice, by the ipse 
 dixit of the Supreme Court, closed its courts against the 
 black man — Semper dictatum inferna — "always a dictum 
 infernal." 
 
 He who has been beaten, the blood pouring from the 
 wounded body, shall not be heard when the Supreme 
 Court says he shall not. Listen : 
 
 "Great" lawyers say if any one questions the "decision" 
 he is an enemy of his country, an enemy of the constitu- 
 tion of the country, "a red-handed anarchist." 
 
 Hear the "great" lawyer, Douglas : 
 
 "The courts are the tribunals prescribed by the consti- 
 tution and created by the authority of the people to deter- 
 mine, expound and enforce the law. Hence, whoever re- 
 sists the final decision of the highest judicial tribunals 
 aims a deadly blow to our whole republican system of gov- 
 ernment — a blow which if successful would place all our 
 rights and liberties at the mercy of passion, anarchy and 
 violence. I repeat, therefore, that if resistance to the de- 
 cisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in a 
 matter like the points decided in the Dred Scott case, 
 clearly within the jurisdiction as defined in the constitu- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 297 
 
 tion, shall be forced upon the country as a political issue, 
 it will become a distinct and marked issue between the 
 friends and enemies of the constitution — the friends and 
 the enemies of the supremacy of law." 
 
 The same spirit that inspired the "great" lawyer to pen 
 the foregoing, inspired the "great" lawyer to write the 
 following : 
 
 "Humanity overcame the first, and humanity will over- 
 come the second." 
 
 Hear him (Harrison) : 
 
 "You are to answer, then, my fellow citizens, in all the 
 gravity of a great crisis, whether you Vv^ill sustain a party 
 that proposes to destroy the balance which our fathers 
 instituted in our system of government, and whenever a 
 tumultuous Congress disagrees with the Supreme Court 
 and a subservient President is in the White House, that 
 the judgment of the court shall be reconsidered and re- 
 versed by increasing the number of judges and packing 
 the court with men who will decide as Congress wants 
 them to. I cannot exaggerate the gravity, and the im- 
 portance, and the danger of this assault upon our constitu- 
 tional form of government." 
 
 What a Boreas — another god of wind — is Harrison. 
 Here a government is formed to protect us in our life, 
 liberty and property ; each thus protected, to bear the ex- 
 act ratio of burden to his protection. Yet the claim is 
 made that a certain class, equal beneficiaries in protection, 
 shall not be equal in burden bearing, and call upon the 
 court and the "great" lawyers to aid them in their release 
 from equal burden bearing. 
 
 Remember in passing that "resistance to tyrants is obe- 
 dience to God." 
 
 Here "resistance" is plain and is used in its proper and 
 just sense. 
 
 No one is "resisting" the court, as these apologists for 
 a false interpretation of the constitution are asserting. 
 
 The great party and the great names in that party that 
 Douglas was sliming were not "resisting" the Supreme 
 Court. And the great party and the great names in that 
 party that Harrison is sUming are not "resisting" the Su- 
 preme Court. 
 
298 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 INCOME TAX CASE. 
 
 They in each case are opposing the opinion as not being 
 constitutional law, are arguing against its soundness, 
 speaking against its false deductions and wrong conclu- 
 sions, as they have a right to speak, and have the decision 
 changed, overruled, as the people shall determine. 
 
 The minority of the court in the Dred Scott case were 
 not resisting the decision, but giving an opinion against 
 the majority of the court, that sank it to endless oblivion 
 with the "great" lawyers that backed it. And the judges 
 of the minority of the court in the Income Tax case are 
 not resisting the court, but giving an opinion that will 
 consign the majority opinion to an equally deep oblivion 
 with the "great" lawyers that back it. 
 
 The Dred Scott decision was made in the interest of the 
 slave holder who denied the right of liberty and happi- 
 ness to the black man. 
 
 The Income Tax decision was made in the interest of 
 monopoly, that is now threatening the liberty and happi- 
 ness of both the black and the white man. 
 
 Douglas failed to uphold his Supreme Court dictum, 
 and Harrison will be equally powerless to uphold his. 
 
 All power is inherent in the people. They are above the 
 three co-ordinate branches of the government ; are above 
 the constitution; are sovereign; can change all, constitu- 
 tions, decisions and laws, and do justice to all. In doing 
 justice they changed the "Dred" decision, and in doing 
 justice to all they will change the "Tax" decision. 
 
 To proclaim that they who are opposing the soundness 
 in law of a decision of the Supreme Court are resisting, 
 as using force, is applying the word in a false sense to de- 
 ceive and mislead the people. 
 
 And the men who do it are the real anarchists. The 
 little "two-penny liners" of the Douglas day that re-echoed 
 the "stuff" from the mouth of the "boss" were a fraud. 
 
 And the petty 2x4 editors now who ring out the song of 
 their "bosses," are as far aside from the justice that the 
 government was formed to establish, as is the wild Mos- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 299 
 
 lem shouting "Allah" to whet his appetite for Christian 
 blood. 
 
 What has been said aforetime by "mighty" lawyers on 
 this Supreme Court affair? Keep very quiet, bull and 
 bear. Why, this same Supreme Court once decided a na- 
 tional bank to be constitutional, but General Jackson, 
 as President of the United States, disregarded the decision 
 and vetoed a bill for a re-charter, partly on constitutional 
 ground, declaring that each public functionary must sup- 
 port the constitution as he understands it. — Lincoln. 
 
 And this very same Judge Douglas glorified Jackson 
 with a "great" lawyer's glory — said the hero of New Or- 
 leans did right in refusing to abide the decision of a court 
 that ignored the constitution, and set up in its place a 
 court ipse dixit. H. 
 
 Now mark : This same man, so-called, gloated over the 
 total disregard — tramping out the decision of the Supreme 
 Court — by an ipse dixit ; shouting, everybody has a right 
 to talk against it and set down on it. And this is Douglas. 
 H. 
 
 But when another decision is in the interest of those he 
 serves and he wants political service in turn as pay, then 
 the decision becomes sacred, and agitation to reverse it is 
 anarchy. If this sacred decision that I want to stand 
 "shall be forced upon the country as a political issue it 
 will become a distinct and naked issue between the friends 
 and enemies of the constitution." — Douglas. 
 
 "Judge Douglas claims the right to defend the Dred 
 Scott decision. I claim the right to show that it over- 
 rides the constitution." — Lincoln. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 "It would be interesting for him (Douglas) to look over 
 his recent speeches and see how exactly his fierce phillip- 
 pics against us for resisting Supreme Court decisions fall 
 
 upon his own head." — Lincoln. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 "It will call to mind a long and fierce political war in 
 this country upon an issue which, in his own language, 
 and, of course, in his own changeless estimation, was a 
 'distinct issue between the friends and the enemies of 
 the constitution,' and in which war he (Douglas) fought 
 
300 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 in the ranks of the enemies of the constitution." — Lin- 
 coln. 
 
 Here the "mighty" lawyer nailed the "Little Giant" 
 down, boxed forever. Douglas charged Lincoln with re- 
 sisting the Dred Scott decision, v/hich made him an enemy 
 of the constitution, an anarchist. 
 
 "But in the bank war Douglas fought in company with 
 the enemies of the country." — Lincoln. 
 
 "And now to the Dred Scott case. It was made by a di- 
 vided court. Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits 
 of the decision in that respect here. I shall follow his 
 example, believing I could no more impose on McClane 
 
 and Curtis than he could on Taney." — Lincoln. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 "We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) 
 in the obedience to and respect for the judicial depart- 
 ment of the government. * * * But we think the 
 Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know that the court 
 that made it has often overruled its own decisions and we 
 shall do all we can to have it overrule this. We offer no 
 resistance to it." — Lincoln. 
 
 There is where the great party that opposes the Income 
 Tax decision stands — is going to do all it can to have it 
 overruled — not resist it. Mr. Lincoln, measuring the 
 scope of this fearful Dred Scott decision on the black 
 man, said: 
 
 "In those days our Declaration of Independence was 
 held sacred by all, and thought to include all ; but now, to 
 aid in making the bondage of the negro universal and 
 eternal, it is assailed, sneered at, misconstrued, hawked 
 at and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their 
 graves, they could not at all recognize it. All the powers 
 of earth seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon 
 is after him, ambition follows, philosophy follows, and 
 the theology of the day is fast joining the cry. They have 
 him in his prison house ; they have searched his person, 
 and left no prying instrument with him. One after an- 
 other they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him, 
 and now they have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock 
 of a hundred keys, which can never be unlocked without 
 the concurrence of every key; the keys in the hands of 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 301 
 
 a hundred different men, and they scattered to a hundred 
 different and distinct places ; and they stand thinking as 
 to what invention can be produced to make the impossi- 
 biHty of his escape more complete than it is." 
 
 The Income Tax decision is the counterpart. There are 
 millions, hundreds of millions of dollars of incomes in 
 the hands of the rich, who are protected in life, liberty and 
 property and have representation. And the Supreme Court 
 says they shall not pay taxes on their incomes. Our fath- 
 ers said taxation without representation was tyranny. 
 
 Representation and protection without taxation is an 
 unbearable tyranny. Black and white man slavery. 
 
 J, Harper. 
 
 THE GOLD STANDARD WILL DESTROY CIVIL- 
 IZATION. 
 
 "On the Sea of Discontent, on the Hoods of fury." 
 
 That is the condition of Christendom to-day. 
 
 "The mystic ocean of unrest is world-wide." — Disraeli. 
 
 "The nations are drifting." — Salisbury. 
 
 "The upheaval of ^lumanity is just at hand that shall re- 
 map the globe." — Napoleon III. 
 
 "Dynamite is heralding a new era." — Julius Jerome. 
 
 "The storms now shaking the earth are the forerunner 
 of the regenesis." — Simpson. 
 
 Look where you will and you find the fiery words of the 
 Seer actualizing into history, "Evil shall go forth from 
 nation to nation." 
 
 The governments are drifting into the old grooves that 
 end in destruction. 
 
 "Capital haughty, labor sinking, the end nearing." — 
 Ludwick. 
 
 Wages fell from Egypt to Rome, over a period of 
 eighteen hundred years. 
 
 Then the hiatus was reached. 
 
 Labor sank to seven cents a day. 
 
 The epitaph of that age was death. 
 
302 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Wages have been falling, falling, falling, and we are 
 reaching the next hiatus — twenty-eight cents a day the 
 globe over. 
 
 Lower than at any time for a hundred years. 
 
 "A falling wage brings us to death; a falling price to 
 ruin." — Vision of the Blessed. 
 
 "The republic ought to be happy." — Stoddard. 
 
 Is it? 
 
 Are the conditions happifying? 
 
 Seventeen-twentieths of the wage-workers of Christen- 
 dom are within thirty days of starvation. 
 
 The three-twentieths are richer than were the haugh- 
 tiest lords that reigned from Egypt to Rome. 
 
 "Material prosperity never had an equal." — London 
 Letter. 
 
 Who owns this wealth ? 
 
 Less than one-quarter of one per cent of the people. 
 
 The national debt, the state debts, and all other cor- 
 poration debts amount to twenty thousand million dollars. 
 
 This almost infinite amount draws an average annual 
 interest that, after a scant living, it takes the entire sur- 
 plus products to pay, and leaves two hundred and twenty- 
 five million dollars unpaid every year. 
 
 Less than one-quarter of one per cent thus have a mort- 
 gage on us that, under the present policy, will last for- 
 ever. 
 
 We have one hundred and twenty-five thousand miles 
 of railroad, costing about two thousand million dollars. 
 
 Who owns them ? 
 
 The same, less than one-quarter of one per cent. 
 
 There are five thousand million dollars watered stock 
 piled on top, swelling the sum to seven thousand million 
 dollars. 
 
 On this infinite sum is wrung, by an extortion deeper 
 in crime than was slavery, ten per cent annually. 
 
 Making the "kings of the rail" the most despicable ty- 
 rants that the sun of civilization ever shone upon. 
 
 And by their rapacity, under the forms of purchased 
 law, they degrade labor and production to a state of bond- 
 age not long to be endured. 
 
 These monopolies of transportation have also a land 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 303 
 
 gift, munificent as an empire — as large as nine states like 
 Ohio. 
 
 The telegraph, costing some twenty million dollars, 
 is watered up to eighty million dollars. 
 
 Who owns them ? 
 
 The same one-quarter of one per cent. 
 
 And on this superstructure of crime — three-quarters 
 water, one-quarter cash — this little class of law's favorites 
 declare a dividend of fifteen per cent. 
 
 Happy one-quarter of one per cent! 
 
 They own the railroads. 
 
 They own the telegraph. 
 
 They own the national debt. 
 
 They own the quasi-public debt. 
 
 They own twenty-four hundred national banks. 
 
 These banks rest upon the debt (bonds) they own — 
 untaxed debt. 
 
 On this debt they are given 90 per cent in notes to loan 
 as money. 
 
 With these gifts and franchises they are omnipotent — 
 while the law sustains them. 
 
 They have monopolized the lands. 
 
 So that there are more tenants than land owners.*** 
 
 They have monopolized the coal. 
 
 They have monopolized the oil. 
 
 They have monopolized the precious metals. 
 
 They have crushed labor. 
 
 Wages have fallen for twenty years. 
 
 Salaries have raised, 
 
 Until the burden, the sorrow, the ruin, has grown into 
 a mighty wail that reaches from sea to sea. 
 
 Greater business depression than was ever known. 
 
 Society trembles as never witnessed before. 
 
 Failures on the increase. 
 
 Penitentiary offenses on the increase. 
 
 Murder on the increase. 
 
 Lunacy on the increase. 
 
 Suicide on the increase. 
 
 Divorce on the increase. 
 
 And the assassination of our rulers shocks the great 
 republic as a sign of dissolution. 
 
304 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 From the top to the bottom there is rottenness. 
 
 The Executive, chosen because of his fitness to repre- 
 sent the nation, as its head, aptly epitomizes our civiHza- 
 tion — he cannot be expected to rise above the tide that 
 swept him to his present place. 
 
 As a people so their rulers. 
 
 A nation is known by its laws. 
 
 "Corrupt enactments by designing men are the first 
 sown seeds of death." — Henry Clay. 
 
 The policies have been corrupt ever since the war. 
 
 The result : 
 
 Millionaires on one side, representatives of their class. 
 
 Tramps on the other side, representatives of their class. 
 
 The road is the same other nations have trod. 
 
 The end will be the same. 
 
 "THIS GOLDEN UNIT" IS THE DESPOTS' 
 SONG. 
 
 The Crinte of the Age. 
 
 The march to peace is over the broken altars of wrong. 
 
 The bridge of sighs leads to the sea of tears. 
 
 The greed of capital is the prelude to despair. 
 
 The Omniarch of the world ought to speak again: 
 
 "Awake thou that sleepest and arise from Ihe dead." 
 
 Gangrene is the vestibule to the charnel house of death. 
 
 The world drifts ; 
 
 Riches defy God. 
 
 The poor die, 
 
 Heaven stands appalled, ' - 
 
 Hell holds jubilee. 
 
 And the golden god in silken sheen, 
 
 The state in nightmare holds, 
 
 While storms as fierce as the furies march. 
 
 Wraps worlds in sorrow's folds. 
 
 Policy prates of "material wealth," 
 
 And despots shout their song — 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 305 
 
 "That capital is a thing of right." 
 "Labor a thing of wrong." 
 
 The pohtical march for twenty years on the money ques- 
 tion 
 
 Has been a lie. 
 
 Itis no better now. 
 
 ***** **** 
 
 We are told by the capitaHst that the river to the fair 
 land of business felicity is to be crossed on a golden 
 bridge. 
 
 And this anthem is struck upon every string of the siren 
 harp of tyrants. 
 
 It is false clamor, incongruous as the nightingales which 
 the soul of Sophocles heard singing in the grove of the 
 Furies. 
 
 It is the presage of darkness that threatens the coming 
 of the shadow of death. 
 
 It is the chorus of fiends echoing from the vaults of 
 Pluto. 
 
 Such a paen amid the "dying of want," sang by the 
 soulless, seems like the fresco of hope on the walls of hell, 
 to heighten the horrors of the damned. 
 
 With a million out of employment, at a loss of a million 
 a day in unearned wealth, the song is a gorgon of woe. 
 
 With another half million loss, on half rations, "be- 
 cause too poor to eat," the woe becomes double. 
 
 With sorrows that follow what tongue can tell. 
 
 Hopeless men. 
 
 Heart-broken women, 
 
 Dying children. 
 
 These fill earth with the evangels of despair. 
 
 Business depression as wide as the world. 
 
 Prices lower than they have been in a hundred years. 
 
 Money almighty. 
 
 What shall the song declare ? 
 
 What shall the harvest yield ? 
 
 The President strikes hope in the face. 
 
 Congress sleeps, wrangles and votes — 
 
 For the gold unit! 
 
 The judiciary dreams. 
 
 And God denounces this modern Meroz because it 
 
3o6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 comes not up to the help of the people against the mighty 
 — god of gold. 
 
 The railroads have become a tyranny. 
 
 The telegraphs have become a tyranny. 
 
 Land jobbery has become a tyranny. 
 
 Debt has become a tyranny. 
 
 Money has become a tyranny. 
 
 Banks of issue crown the arch and become the sixth 
 factor in the triumphal march to ruin. 
 
 Are there no dangers ? 
 
 Fools say "no." 
 
 Are there no wrongs, deep-seated as sin, wide-spread 
 as the world? 
 
 Knaves say "no." 
 
 Look and see. 
 
 The increase of crime is a result of a cause. 
 
 The increase of murder is the result of a cause. 
 
 The increase of lunacy is a result of a cause. 
 
 The increase of suicide is a result of a cause. 
 
 The increase of divorce is a result of a cause. 
 
 The assassination of our Presidents is a result. 
 
 Remove the cause. 
 
 The combined powers of the world cannot destroy a 
 cause by fighting a result. 
 
 Repressive forces, striking at results, cannot remove 
 the cause lying back of it. 
 
 The great depression in business is a result. 
 
 The universal unrest is a result. 
 
 The "strike" is a result, 
 
 Dynamite is a result, 
 
 Labor trouble is a result, 
 
 Growing out of the oppression of labor. 
 
 Capital in the hands of fallen man 
 
 Is a tyrant. 
 
 A few years ago it said — 
 
 "Capital shall own labor." 
 
 Now it says — 
 
 "Capital shall control labor." 
 
 The first was chattel slavery. 
 
 The second is serfdom — 
 
 A greater enemy to labor than the first. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 307 
 
 "It is labor that needs protection, not capital." — Lin- 
 coln. 
 
 **The money lords of England hold the following mort- 
 gages on the productive industry of that country : 
 
 There are 126,331 of them, out of a population of 32,- 
 000,000, and their holdings, according to The London 
 Bankers Magazine, are as follows : 
 
 Government obligations $3,750,000,000 
 
 Home railways 3,600,000,000 
 
 Other home securities 8,125,000,000 
 
 Total $15,475,000,000 
 
 This vast sum of English indebtedness bears an average 
 annual interest of 4 1-2 per cent, making an annual tax 
 upon labor of $700,000,000. 
 
 ***For sixty-five years of our history three-quarters of 
 the people owned their homes, and one-quarter were ten- 
 ants. At the end of the war five-eighths owned their 
 homes and three-eighths were tenants. In 1885 three- 
 eighths owned their homes and five-eighths were tenants. 
 
 AN INQUIRY CONCERNING SILVER, BI-METAL- 
 ISM AND GOLD. 
 
 THEIR MONEY RELATIONS, AS RECORDED IN THE WORLD'S 
 HISTORIES. THEIR LAW STATUS AMONG MAN- 
 KIND. BOTH PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 By J. Harper, Danville, 111. 
 
 (All Eights Reserved.) 
 
 "Ask for the old paths and walk therein and ye shall 
 find rest for your souls." — ler. 6:16. 
 
 This divine request came to me as I read : 
 
 "For all time gold has been adopted as the standard 
 money of the nations of the earth."— Commercial, Dan- 
 ville, 111. 
 
 The gold dollar has doubled in twenty years. 
 
3o8 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Is this one of the old paths that we are to ask for — ^that 
 we are asking for — so that in walking therein we shall find 
 rest for our souls? 
 
 Let us be plain — square up the statement by the line of 
 truth; and it stands as the most extravagant fulmination 
 of an untruth now in print. 
 
 The propounder of it, I have no doubt, is a fair man, 
 but has no just conception of what he was talking about. 
 
 It contradicts all history. 
 
 It contradicts all constitutions. 
 
 It contradicts all magna chartas. 
 
 It is a travesty on the earth's present condition. 
 
 A 200-cent dollar for the bond holder — gold. 
 
 It is a flat contradiction of the Bible, the Christian's 
 holy book. 
 
 It is a flat contradiction of the Chum-fu of China, the 
 holy book of that great people. 
 
 It is a flat contradiction of the Vedas, the holy book of 
 the Indi. 
 
 it is a flat contradiction of the Koran, the holy book of 
 the Moham. 
 
 And if not tragical in aim, to enthrone the wrong would 
 be otnnis ridiculus est, "the sum total of the ridiculous." 
 
 The English word "money" occurs first in history i860 
 years B. C. 
 
 The English language, when the transaction took place 
 at that remote period, was not in use. 
 
 What we mean is this: 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon — that is, England and the United 
 States, have had translated into English every ancient 
 book, manuscript and writing on earth now known. So 
 that as we go back along the track of the centuries, till 
 we find i860 years B. C, there we meet a man bargaining 
 for a piece of land, and who had the "money" to pay for 
 it. 
 
 He was suffering and bowed down to the very earth 
 with a sorrow, the heaviest man has ever borne. He 
 was looking for a burial place for his wife that lay 
 dead before him. 
 
 The owner of the land sought was a man high among 
 his countrymen — Ephorn (dust). He knew the power 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 309 
 
 of death upon "dust," of which we are formed; so his 
 loving heart came out in words through the lips: 
 
 "My lord, hear me; the field I give thee; take it and 
 bury thy dead." 
 
 The answer — "I will give thee the worth of it in 
 "money." 
 
 And the buyer weighed out the price, "four hundred 
 shekels of silver, current money, with the merchant." 
 
 That transaction was in "time," was on "earth," and 
 the Hittites were a "nation," and "silver" (Heb. Keh 
 Seph) was "standard money." 
 
 "Shekel," Heb. "a certain weight, by which the 
 weight and price of other things are determined." — 
 H. Lex. 
 
 The Hebrews used "silver," weighed by the shekel, 
 as "money," "current money," "standard money." — Heb. 
 Lex. 
 
 And the Hebrews continued to use "silver" as the 
 "standard money" about 850 years before they adopted 
 bimetalism and used the gold shekel as "money." 
 
 "So David gave Oman for the place six hundred 
 shekels of gold by weight." Silver as the standard had 
 occupied the field alone for nearly 850 years and then 
 gold came as a helpmate. 
 
 "Throughout the Law, money is spoken of as in or- 
 dinary use, but only 'silver money.' Gold was not used 
 as money." — Ges. L. T. of D. D. 
 
 Up to David's time, B. C. 1017, gold was not used as 
 money, nor till just 843 years after the introduction of sil- 
 ver as standard money. 
 
 Dr. Hastings, under the title, "Facts About Gold," in 
 S. of G., says: "The first recorded mention of gold as 
 money was the six hundred shekels with which King 
 David bought the threshing floor of Oman, B. C. 1017. 
 
 Croesus, B. C. 560, coined the golden Stater; and 
 Darius, son of Hystaspases, King of Persia, B. C. 538, 
 coined the golden Darius. Gold was also early coined 
 by the Kings of Sicely ; by Gelo, B. C. 491 ; by Hiero, 
 B. C. 478; by Dionysus, B. C. 404; by King Philip of 
 Macedon, B. C. 306."— S. of T. Hay, i, 13. Cy. 
 
3IO Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 The following is the reason why gold was not in the 
 money schedule. 
 
 "Gold was extensively abundant in ancient times. At 
 first it was chiefly used for ornaments. Coined 'money' 
 was not known to the ancients till a comparatively recent 
 date. It (gold) did not depreciate in value, because 
 of the immense quantities used by the wealthy in furni- 
 ture, plate, adornments of their buildings, carriages — 
 everything was ablaze with gold." — B. Dec. O. R. W. 
 S. Com. S. of T. Ges. Heb. 4. 
 
 England (Britain) used silver B. C. 25. Coined sil- 
 ver pennies of 22 1-2 grains and have been using it (sil- 
 ver) ever since. — B. Enc. 
 
 Silver had the field in England alone from B. C. 25 
 to A. D. 1257, when she first coined gold (B. Enc.) as 
 money, and bimetalism has continued ever since. 
 
 Let us look at this "Standard" that the great logician 
 talks about. 
 
 "Standard," that which is established by sovereign 
 power as a rule or measure, by which others are to be 
 adjusted. — W. D. 
 
 A yy-cent dollar for the plozv-holder — silver. 
 
 How could gold be the "standard" of the nation of 
 England (Britain) from B. C. 25 to A. D. 1257, while 
 silver coined by law was "standard money?" 
 
 In A. D. 1257 England (Britain) first coined gold 
 and made it money. — B. Enc. 
 
 What of the 1282 years from B. C. 25 to A. D. 1257? 
 
 Was England (Britain) during these years, as a "na- 
 tion," using "gold as the Standard?" 
 
 It must be so, because this mighty tree among the 
 underbrush cries aloud, "For all time gold has been 
 adopted as the Standard money of the nations of the 
 earth." 
 
 Where on earth was the nation that was doing it? 
 
 Again : 
 
 What of the years from the purchase of the burial 
 field of Ephorn for "silver money," B. C. i860 years, 
 down to the purchase of the threshing floor by David 
 for a place to offer sacrifice? He paid for it in "gold 
 shekels" "weighed out," and is the ftrst named case of 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 311 
 
 gold being used as money, in all history. — H. D. S. of 
 T. H. Die. 
 
 Silver had reached that high place, "Standard 
 Money," 850 years before. 
 
 And not only the Jewish state traveled this road of 
 silver, but all the mighty powers of earth — Egypt, Baby- 
 lon, Persia, Greece and Rome — traveled the same road 
 — the silver standard highway. 
 
 And thus they marched for quite the first thousand 
 years. And, mark you, it was the introduction of gold 
 that made bi-metalism. 
 
 Here entered bi-metalism, and both metals have been 
 used ever since as money by the "nations of the earth." 
 
 Rome, the greatest in both profane and sacred his- 
 tory, the most gigantic and awful, did not reach the gold 
 coin point till B. C. 269, while she had coined silver B. 
 
 c. 573. 
 
 What was the "standard" from 573 till 269, when 
 gold was first coined, and bi-metalism lived — two metals 
 used as standard money. 
 
 Yet this Diogenes of the "tub," seeking the "shining 
 shore," by the "gold route," says: "For all time gold 
 has been adopted as the standard money of the nations 
 of the earth." 
 
 Why, brethren, let me tell you something — "all time" 
 is a long time, and you now come to inform us that all 
 this long time "gold" has been the adopted "standard 
 money" of the nations of the earth. 
 
 Now, to be kind with you, what part, what period, of 
 this long stretch of time will you point out — what place 
 or portion of the earth, the nation was in, where the 
 mandate "adopting" "gold" as the "standard money of 
 the nations of the earth went forth?" 
 
 Why, my dearly beloved Achan — ^the man of the 
 "golden wedge," this "standard" business, nations "on 
 the earth," the very place you refer to — have had a pow- 
 erful sight of trouble over. And that is the trouble now 
 and when you fully get hold of that fact, you will be 
 the last "gold calf" on the planet, to say : "For all time," 
 etc. 
 
312 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 That statement is what our Latin kinfolk call Brutum 
 Fulmen. 
 
 Mr. Barring, of Barring Bros., in his testimony re- 
 garding the break-down * * * says: In Calcutta, 
 where silver was the "standard," gold could not raise 
 any money and men went down overwhelmed in ruin. 
 Following, as the "battle of the standard" pushed on, in 
 Constantinople, where gold was the "standard," silver 
 could get no money, and merchants, all who were in 
 debt, went down to death under the wreck. 
 
 The "time," the part of the "earth" and the "nations," 
 have not yet been found, when and where "all" and each 
 nation stood on gold alone as the "standard money." All 
 "nations" have not stood there in all "time" in all the 
 "earth." 
 
 That is a species of eloquence like the thistledown, 
 light, and floats in the air. 
 
 In fact, the statement is very thin air, when the loca- 
 tion is looked for in "time" on "earth" — then the stand- 
 ard gets lost in the "contiguity of space." 
 
 And when we apply the test to the fourteen hundred 
 million of the present, the statement happens to be doubt- 
 ful. 
 
 The attempt of mankind, from the earliest dawn, has 
 been to adjust themselves to the "precious metals." 
 
 And the two metals have through the ages been "trav- 
 eling companions." 
 
 Silver leading in longer periods and wider in range — 
 as a "single standard." 
 
 Both have been "standard coin." But the "yellow 
 god" — gold, is young in the matter of "single standard" 
 and is trying to push the white "god-silver" — the "first," 
 the "old" "single standard," out of his way — and be- 
 come the second tyrant at Argos. And to "make be- 
 lieve," rounds out the claim in grand-eloquent terms, 
 "for all time," etc. 
 
 This "push" of gold to become standard money of 
 the world, is a torture that is causing all of mankind to 
 writhe in pain. Let us beware. . 
 
 Look now outside of Christendom and we find full 
 seventy-five per cent of the race. How about them? 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 313 
 
 "In China, Sycee, silver, is the principal currency, paid 
 and received by weight. Spanish dollars also circulate 
 there, but only after they have been assayed and stamped 
 as proof that they are of standard fineness." — Moran. 
 
 From a report of their own agent, resident in China, 
 to the British government, we find this: "There is no 
 coined silver or gold currency in China; the only money 
 taken being a copper coin called cash, of small value, 
 1,700 representing a Spanish Carolus dollar. Silver, 
 therefore, in bulk, at its pure touch of 100 per cent, 
 takes the place of a coined measure of value, being di- 
 vided into the government standard weights called teal, 
 mace, cash, candareem, each having a decimal propor- 
 tion to the other; and thus a nominal money is created, 
 although more properly these terms are merely "denom- 
 inations of weight." — M.. on M. 
 
 So the statement "For all time gold has been adopted 
 as the standard money of the nations of the earth" — as 
 to the vast empire of the Chum-fu (god) and Com-fu, 
 the messiah — where five hundred and fifty million dwell, 
 more than one-third of the people of the globe — as to 
 them, it is untrue. As to them it is falsum in uno and 
 falsum in omni. 
 
 This vast nation does not use gold as the standard 
 money. So, too, of India and the Isles of the Ocean. 
 
 It is not true of this republic, never has been true of 
 it. More than half the race use silver (some copper and 
 tokens). About one-quarter uses both metals and less 
 than one-quarter are trying for gold alone. 
 
 And in their ranks — the quarter portion, stand the great 
 creditor nations of earth, a class of whose people, and 
 their allies, hold three-quarters of the debt that mankind 
 owes — one hundred and fifty billion dollars. In secur- 
 ing the payment of the interest on it, in gold, these be- 
 come masters and all others mere dependents. 
 
 The precious metals both are: Gold, $3,582,605,000. 
 Silver, $4,042,700,000. 
 
 "These are but drops in the bucket in the world's 
 Xra.Ae."—Sueteher. 
 
 Yes, "dependents," for the debt can no more be paid in 
 gold than you can buy salvation with money. 
 
314 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Here is the almost infinite danger now threatening 
 the world. 
 
 Metal money must be abandoned and a circulating 
 medium of paper substituted, or the world is doomed. 
 
 Both metals are insufficient. And the attempt to place 
 dependence on one — gold, is the greatest crime a class 
 ever pledged themselves to perpetuate against mankind. 
 This nation is in the storm-center. God help in the strug- 
 gle for Liberty. 
 
 LECTURE BY JESSE HARPER. 
 
 ISHMAEL AND ISAAC AND THEIR DUAL RELATION TO THE 
 
 HUMAN RACE. GOOD GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER 
 
 YET EXISTED AMONG MEN. 
 
 (By Special permission of Colonel Jesse Harper of Dan- 
 ville, 111., we print the following extracts from a lecture 
 which he is now using in a series of public lectures. He 
 is open to a few more engagements during the coming lec- 
 ture season. — Editor Farmers' Sentinel.) 
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE STATE. 
 
 The object of this lecture is to show from the trend of 
 all natural and supernatural forces, the close of the pres- 
 ent economics and the birth of the new ; to speak from a 
 wider base, to present the fearful dangers to both clerical 
 and secular affairs. 
 
 The two names, at their start, represented the two 
 sides of human achievement. 
 
 The Church and the State. They do so to-day. They 
 overshadow every other force. 
 
 Israeli sm and Islamism — the dual problems of the age. 
 
 These two names have influenced mankind as no other 
 two on earth. Their works cover a space of 400 years. 
 They shaped the march of ages, and are doing so now. 
 
 We give some notings from the lecture, to show the 
 style, scope, aim and end, and give glints of the consum- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 315 
 
 mation, as hope, to inspire on the rugged way. The 
 mighty drama covers a struggle from the "paradise lost 
 to the paradise regained." 
 
 God is the fourth word in the Bible; Elohim in their 
 language. A "dual" word which begins in God and ends 
 in Man. 
 
 Immanuel, the Messiah's divine name, is a dual word, 
 begins in Man and ends in God. 
 
 Ishmael is a dual word, begins in truth and ends in 
 God. 
 
 Isaac is a dual word, begins in laughter and ends in joy. 
 
 "the exalted father." 
 
 Go to 1896 B. C. Abram, "exalted father" (no chil- 
 dren at the time), was 75 years old. One child (uno omni) 
 would fill the promise. 
 
 Come down to 1910 B. C. and Gohlahm ("Almighty 
 God") changes the name to Abraham, "Father of Count- 
 less Men and a Multitude of Nations." 
 
 Ishmael and Isaac were sons of this dual named man. 
 The law of duality fills heaven and earth. 
 
 Abraham's prayer was — "O that Ishmael might live 
 before thee." The sequence following is one of the most 
 infinite miracles ever witnessed by the race. Remember 
 this in passing. 
 
 The valley of the shadow of death lies between the two 
 paradises; the king's highway runs through it. 
 
 It is bridged from end to end. The pillar that upholds 
 it is the Rock of Ages. 
 
 The workmanship is dual — Moses and the prophets ; 
 Christ and the apostles. 
 
 They harmonize Debt and Grace, and reconcile Ishmael 
 and Isaac. 
 
 Those who pass over the bridge have admission into the 
 "purchased possession." 
 
 What have these divinely appointed men accomplished ? 
 
 Come 1800 years from the head and one of the seed 
 was miraculously manifested in the flesh — Jesus, Son of 
 Peace. The Angel choir celebrated his Birth with "Peace 
 on Earth," etc. 
 
3i6 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Come down 2,500 years from the head and the other 
 seed was manifested : "Abdallah," "Son of Force." 
 
 BIBLE AND KORAN. 
 
 Both descended lineally from Abraham. 
 The Isaac has the Biblos — "Book." 
 The Ishmael has the Al-Koran — "Book." 
 The Isaac declares miracles. The Ishmael spurns 
 them. 
 
 When miracles were called for, as proofs of his (Ma- 
 homet's) mission, he called himself the Superior of Moses 
 and Jesus, and with an air of authority declared that 
 God had sent Moses and Christ with miracles and yet 
 that men would not be obedient to their word, and that, 
 therefore, he had sent Mahomet, in the last place, with- 
 out miracles, to force them by the power of the sword 
 to do his will. — Rek. Die. Bio. 
 
 Come down the centuries from 1900 B. C. to now, the 
 Ishmael, the Isaac, the Gentile, have struggled for the 
 earth. 
 
 The Isaac built a church dedicated to "El." 
 The Ishmael built a mosque dedicated to "Al." 
 The Gentile built a temple dedicated to "Aiblo." 
 All invoke force; all invoke by prayer; all deny Christ 
 — as personal redeemer of earth. 
 
 GOOD GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER EXISTED. 
 
 During all these sickening, wasting, dying centuries 
 "good government has never existed among men." 
 
 But instead, the wail of the innocent, the wail of the 
 destitute, the wail of the starving, with the groans of the 
 dying, have turned this earth into the valley of the 
 shadow of death. 
 
 These two force and dictate to the Gentile. Inspira- 
 tion utters the language, "Prepare war." 
 
 Each, the Ishmael and the Isaac, have had their triple 
 quadrate. 
 
 Isaac the twelve patriarchs, the twelve apostles; the 
 Christ. 
 
 Ishmael ; the twelve princes, the twelve califs, the Mo- 
 hammed. 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 317 
 
 Isaac is in posterity "Father of nations." 
 Ishmael is in posterity "Father of a great nation." 
 The race is armed as never before. "Beat your plow- 
 shares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears ; 
 the weak say I am strong." 
 
 CONSUMMATION. 
 
 The scripture cited heralds the ending of the "Con- 
 troversy of Zion," "End of Gentile rule," "The second 
 advent of Jesus Christ." 
 
 The 6,000 years from Adam (lunar) close in 1899. 
 And the "six days of creation," typic of the six thousand 
 years of "creation," end with the century, and the twen- 
 tieth century ushers in the Re-Genesis — the mille-annus 
 of the seventh thousand year. 
 
 The coronation (marriage of the second Adam to the 
 second Eve, the "bride") is due, and all nations are cry- 
 ing for deliverance — for an omniarch, the deliverer. 
 
 The Anastasis is going on, unseen to human eye, till 
 the apocalypse bursts upon the age! 
 
 The two basal powers are taking position side by side. 
 The sovereignty of the world is to become the sover- 
 eignty of the Lord and His Christ. 
 
 The earthly Jerusalem is to be the capital. "Become 
 an external excellence," "City of the Great King." Out 
 of which shall go forth the law — ^the word of the Lord. 
 And the lion of the tribe of Judah "shall lead the nations 
 on earth." 
 
 In the Jerusalem, "Abve," capital of the "Kingdom of 
 the Heaven," whose maker and builder is God, "in 
 whose light the nations of the saved work ;" all the 
 dwellers are spiritual, some gone up to the divine nature, 
 the "Bride," deathless as Christ, immortal as God ; others 
 up to the angel nature, to endless life depending on end- 
 less obedience. The dual cities become celebrants of the 
 one name, to which all in earth and heaven bow. 
 
AN ODD FELLOW'S ADDRESS. 
 
 DELIVERED IN DANVILLE, ILLINOIS, AUGUST 21, 1866, BY 
 J. HARPER, OF WILLIAMSPORT, INDIANA. 
 
 (From the Danville Commercial.) 
 
 More than twenty-three hundred years ago, far off 
 on the Orient banks of the Hiddekel, with golden sun- 
 shine overmantling, lay a hoary-headed man, struck 
 down by the Shekinah of Jehovah. His silver locks, gently 
 floating in the breeze, to conscious life as dead, he lay, 
 while the destinies of a world passed in review. As 
 corruption did the entrancing glories make him. Then the 
 angel touched his lip. Omnipotence raised him up, proph- 
 etic fire blazed upon his soul, and his burning eye glanced 
 down the stream of time more than two millennium of 
 years. The vista-glance took in the world wonders, 
 from the day of the Prince-bard of the "Ulai," to our 
 times, — Daniel was in a vision. 
 
 He saw the first great power of the world, "the empire 
 of gold," rise, draw its "Scythian blade," and strike for 
 the heart of humanity. Then the "mystic hand," the 
 "shadeless eye," cropped the air-poised wings and As- 
 syria died. 
 
 He saw rise in its wake the "silver power," the 
 "bear-grasping" Medo, and head to this diademic power, 
 Cyrus, "my prince," stood forth. He bursted the "twelve 
 laved" gates, turned the channels of the deep and caused 
 to sound on Zion's hill, the song of the rescued tribes. 
 Then Persia died. 
 
 He saw spring from the grove-dotted plain, the "Mad 
 Boy of Macedon," and with his brazen Greeks, force 
 the flood-tide of the Granicus, and snatch victory from 
 six million dead-souled Orientals, and by Phalanx 
 charge, turn westward the civilization of the world. 
 
 318 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harp.. . 319 
 
 Then the conqueror fell, conquered by the sting of wine, 
 and Greece died. 
 
 He saw that "nondescript" beast, "monster type of 
 three worlds," mythic remnant of rebellion in heaven, 
 and scourge of the world. He saw it rise from the sea 
 of woe, and with iron teeth and steel, crush to death 
 humanity's Redeemer. He saw Calvary, the Cross, the 
 sun in darkness, the moon in blood, and the stars in 
 blackness, the dead rise and captivity led captive. He 
 saw the ages following, when the decree went forth to 
 blot the Christian name from the earth. Then he saw 
 the "hives" from Asia and the "hordes" from the north, 
 sweep down from their "leafy haunts" and sack the 
 "seven-hilled city," and drown out in blood the civili- 
 zation of the world. He saw the "star of Medina," like 
 the locust, rise from his desert home and with "blue 
 blade," Damascus fine, shake the globe with his sword 
 power. He saw the dark ages, dark as if the frog spirit 
 of Egypt again ruled the world. He saw dismal cen- 
 turies, when occulticy, like "phantom-ghost," cried, "I 
 am piety," for the philosopher's stone was the god of the 
 Medieval ages. He saw the Reformation burst upon man, 
 and Hght, joyous as rain-bow glories, flood the land of 
 the martyr-dyed streamlets of the Waldensic Po. He saw 
 Luther, the faith-lit monk, cut loose from the stake, where 
 sin had tied it, the living word ; and then on angel wing 
 that word was borne everywhere. 
 
 Then he saw the eighteenth century convulsed to 
 death-sleep in a winding sheet, crimson as Meggido's 
 field. As its last hour dawned upon the race, the dread 
 voice of violence seemed the inspired cry : 
 
 "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed gar- 
 ments from Bozrah?" Humanity stood appalled, as 
 fury, hot as fire-flame, swept round the reeling earth, 
 fury, hot as fire, swept round the reeling earth. Then up 
 sprang before his burning eye the "reeking planet," and 
 the swaddling bands of the "infant era" were rolled into 
 the pallid drapery, that robed the dying age, and gem- 
 like, from a world unseen, the Nineteenth Century, in 
 meteoric splendor, flashed. With two-fold Heraldry, its 
 prophetic forecast shone along the Appian way — the Bi- 
 
32 o Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 ble in one hand, the Sword in the other, baptized in the 
 gore-sea of war, its brow decked with the jewel that lit 
 the lowly bed in Bethlehem's manger. When this vision 
 of glorified humanity filled the prophet's eye, his heart 
 welled up, and his visioned lip rang out — "Many shall 
 run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased." 
 
 Thus we have glanced from the gorgeous times of the 
 "Palace Shushan" to the noontime of the triadic cen- 
 tury, the century on which has come the ends of the 
 earth — let us chant its praise, and mourn its woes. 
 
 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Age of triads. What orator can portray it, painter 
 paint it, or poet sing it. The vestibule to fruition's dis- 
 pensation. The physical, intellectual and moral, each 
 find worshipers by the million. These three powers, the 
 world's triad — the state, the church and benevolence, 
 perfect ideas of an imperfect age. The ideal, beauty, 
 sublimity, glory, shapes out from body, soul and spirit, 
 a triad of the pure. — Iron, wood and water, physical 
 deities, three-headed world-gods, read their recorded 
 fame. 
 
 IRON, WOOD, WATER. 
 
 The "rock-ribbed mountains," not a life-time ago, held 
 within their hidden recess the secrets of the globe. Now 
 the "rocks" are read and their record speaks the same 
 language as the living word. The "iron bowels of earth" 
 have yielded to the genius of man treasures of ore, vast as 
 thought can reach. The globe is bound round by hoops 
 dug from the nether world. The magic power of "the 
 dark ore" rules the nations. The needle-gun, rifled 
 cannon, the "T" rail, the buzzing spindle, and the anvil 
 ringing, each alike proclaim this the iron age, decked in 
 gold. Glad notes trill from millions of hearts ; hopes echo" 
 song — coming redemption — sweeps from pole to pole. 
 Prairie lands are glad, the deep-bayed forests shout their 
 concord note, the "little hills clap their hands," all nature 
 sings for joy. The "brave old oak" of a thousand years, 
 the majestic pines, "tall giant" of mammalic-age, seem 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 321 
 
 huge earth arms stretching forth to snatch the star-gems 
 from the blue bosom of ether. Old ocean, smooth like 
 "sheet glass forever" — what myriad jewels adorn thy 
 brow ! The world's marine sport upon thee. Thy spark- 
 ling wavelets, thrown from the prow of the "fleecy sailed 
 craft," are joyous as angel songs. O ! grand thing, "typic 
 synonym," our righteousness is to be like thy combing, 
 dripping, pure waves : 
 
 "May our joys be like linked drops, our righteousness 
 like waves." O! most dread sea, when His ways are 
 upon thee, then thy howling winds seem to say : 
 
 "God moves in a mysterious way. 
 His wonders to perform. 
 He plants his footsteps on the sea, 
 And rides upon the storm." 
 
 From these inanities — iron, wood, water, the century 
 was born, moving, speaking, majestic things, which Bood- 
 hist bards named not — a triad of semi-immortals. 
 
 LOCOMOTIVE, POWER PRESS, TELEGRAPH 
 
 Sing their work. The locomotive, as it snuffs the air 
 and spurns the track, concealing fires within, which make 
 it mad with "speed subHme," shouts, "on," "a mile a min- 
 ute." And on it rushes through city, town and village, 
 through hill, dale, and broad prairies, smoking, dancing, 
 screaming like a new born thing from Vulcan's forge, 
 and stops not, until its fiery jaws lave in the grand old 
 flood of the "Father of Waters," when again it shouts, 
 "seventy-two hours from New York." Action its motto, 
 travel its theme. Stand you at certain points in this 
 moving land, we will show you pass that point every 
 year, a greater number of human beings, than there are 
 people in these States. Everywhere the world is moving 
 on, on, on. 
 
 The Power Press, perfection of this age, its leafy mis- 
 siles are the mind foliage of the world. Like falling 
 leaves, silent and noiseless, they float everywhere. Three 
 hundred and seventy-two languages speak words pre- 
 
322 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 pared by the press, manipulated by the iron monster 
 "Hoe." Jubilee notes swell from all lands, and echo 
 back to their starting, bearing upon their wings the age- 
 watchword, "knowledge shall increase." 
 
 The Telegraph — Lightning glance answers to light- 
 ning glance as the news flits round the globe. The wires, 
 charged with the enginery of heaven, take upon their in- 
 visible wings the thought of the far-off Mogul, and 
 dart down the ice-bound coast, through Siberian snows, 
 and shout at the end of the course, that Bombay and 
 London are within speaking distance. Not satisfied with 
 this wondrous flight, it sinks itself to ocean's bottom, 
 "takes the shelly way, 'mid the blue grottoes eternal 
 fathoms deep." And on, on, on, till its burning tongue 
 thrust into the face of the emporium of the west, and 
 sparkling with baptized fire words, it shouts New York 
 and London send greetings. Five continents clasp hands 
 and two worlds are interlocked by lightning-wires. Pale 
 faced humanity stands aghast at its own doings. 
 
 Thus much for the physical, when geared up by the 
 intellectual. Pass we now to the three great triads of in- 
 tellect and morals combined. The State, the Church 
 and Benevolence. 
 
 THE STATE. 
 
 The power ordained to punish evil doers and to be a 
 praise to them that do well has its triad — war, vio- 
 lence and blood. War, how dread its work, how appall- 
 ing its end, "the battle cry startles the world." A shout 
 like the trumpet's blast rings along the line, where stand, 
 clothed in steel, a million men. They charge and the clash 
 of war's din awakens them from stupor, and pales the 
 cheek of a whole continent of people, and the shout of the 
 victors, after the ordeal of death, swells out like the echo 
 note of a redeemed world. Banners, made glorious as 
 they waved over fields of carnage, are to-day hanging 
 in the gentle breeze, while beneath their silken folds, 
 march to the step of war, eight millions trained infantry, 
 "bulwarks of Christian nations." 
 
 Violence is alive, its fiery thrusts at order and peace, 
 are not the aim of mad fury, but deliberate purpose. The 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 323 
 
 globe shakes, this day, beneath the feet of armed men, 
 as they march to the beck of mad ambition. The race 
 cringes under the blows of venomed sin, and red tides 
 stain the trembling earth. Blood blood, blood, flows 
 everywhere, till humanity's great, stricken heart, fills a 
 lake, deep and broad enough to float the navies of the 
 world. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 How glorious in history, work, and end. Planted 
 by the "Meek Gallilean" upon a "rock" "that the gates 
 of hell should not prevail against," it is an segis on 
 which eternity pours its light. The ages have not shaken 
 it, hell has not moved it — and to-day, star-lit, "bright 
 as a lamp that burneth," it sits a queen, the world's hope 
 and heaven's joy. It, too, has its triad — schools, benevo- 
 lence and prayer. Education is the first-born of religion. 
 Hill-top and valley, singing-glade and broad prairie, each 
 and all, hold, nestling in glad sunshine, "the houses where 
 men are grown." 
 
 Benevolence, her best outgrowth, who can tell its 
 deeds. Millions have felt it. India in her jungles, China 
 in her temples, savagery in its wilds, and the world in 
 its great pest house, have felt the angel grasp, and seen 
 the angel face of benevolence. But her heaven-power 
 is prayer. A power that crowned heads know not. Presi- 
 dents feel not. Senators have not learned, nor 
 have governments acknowledged, the power that moves 
 the world. Look at this picture as a parenthesis. 
 
 Go with us to the battle-field after the dread work 
 is done. Darkness hangs o'er the ensanguined field, the 
 moon is black, like sack-cloth, the stars refuse to look 
 upon the day scene. The charging squadrons are now 
 at rest, the hoof torn turf smokes with human gore. The 
 thunder of the deep-mouthed cannon, rings not along the 
 plain. The havoc is past, the battle ended, the day done 
 — "ten thousand dead upon the field," "twenty thousand 
 stricken ones, mangled with shot and shell," or saber 
 "cut most foul," lie on cot, in tent, or carried to the rear. 
 Twilight sinks apace, night settles like despair, groans 
 fill the air. Go to the tent of the soldier. There is one 
 
324 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 fresh from his cottage home — he is shot to death. He is 
 told that he may not pass nine o'clock. Slowly, but 
 surely, life wastes away. The eye grows dim, cold chills 
 creep towards the heart, pallor drives back the blood 
 from the lip, the dewy sweat of death, clammy with the 
 the damp of the tomb, all tell him that the end is nigh. 
 And now bright scenes of childhood's day come up. 
 Angels come down and roll the stone from memory's 
 grave, hearthstone teachings, infant prayers, angel whis- 
 pers cluster round the dying bed. Mother, Saviour, 
 sweetest names earth ever heard, sweetly blend, and 
 prayer's power lifts the soul to glad glimpses of endless 
 day. As the lip grows stiff, the heart cold, the spirit 
 trembles for flight — the last of earth has come to the 
 boy-martyr. He whispers as death breaks through the 
 veil: 
 
 "I believe thou art praying to-night, mother, 
 
 I feel thou art praying for me. 
 For it comes o'er my soul like a vision of light. 
 
 Yes, I know thou art praying for me. 
 There's a chill on my forehead to-night, mother, 
 
 I'm dying far distant from thee. 
 But the star of my hope is unclouded and bright. 
 
 Because thou art praying for me." 
 
 BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES. 
 
 It is not our purpose to give an account of these, as 
 they stand out in history, as they now are. Benevolence, 
 "good will," is the center grace of both time and eter- 
 nity. All that is beautiful and of good report in earth 
 is of this best gift of heaven to man. Everywhere, all 
 over Christendon are trophies to "kindness" of which 
 we speak. They are the crowning glory of this wondrous 
 age. We are here to speak of the works of one of these 
 benevolent, fraternal societies, The Independent Order 
 of Odd-Fellows. And here a word as to triads, or trinities. 
 The best conceptions that man has ever had of the good 
 and the true, has been as to its triadity. God we know 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 325 
 
 as a trinity. Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Man we 
 know as body, soul and spirit, so of this order. 
 
 ODD-FELLOWSHIP. 
 
 And understand us, we are not here to go back and 
 trace, step by step, this order from its dawn to the day 
 of its grandeur. Not that its principles are obscure. 
 No. For they were born at the very gates of Eden; the 
 flaming sword could not cut them asunder. The flood 
 sixteen hundred years after could not wash them out. 
 They lived on. Come down to the fair plains of Shinar, 
 look into the tent of the "father of the faithful," and 
 you will see them there. "Abram" was "Odd" in leav- 
 ing kindred and country, to go, he knew not whither. 
 Yet the father of nations climbed Moriah's height, looked 
 out upon the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the 
 "Lilies of the valley," covenanted with God, received the 
 promise to become the heir of the world. Or if yet your 
 sight is dim to see the beauties in the ritual, come with 
 us to the cave of Addullam, where the "Shepherd king" 
 lies in "hold," and peep at the "thirty chiefs," each of 
 whom carried a spear whose beam overbalanced that of 
 the famed Ajax, with point like Iddos dart. From there 
 go with us up to the camping place of the "feats of 
 moons." 
 
 See Jonathan and David — Jonathan heir-apparent, and 
 Saul his father, "head and shoulders above the best of 
 the tribes." On the third day, "at eve," the new moon's 
 silvery disk just above the "prison rock" — the "Stone 
 Ezel," grim as the site of Endor's witch-hut, rises out 
 of the flinty plain, rugged, toppling, awful. Behind it 
 David lies. Jonathan leaves his father's angered face, 
 and with sad countenance, goes to meet his friend. What 
 scene so grand ? The destined king, and the king's son — 
 friends, brothers, Odd-Fellows; they make a covenant 
 before God. How grand that vow, how solemn the im- 
 precation: "God do so to me." How pure that love— 
 "Jonathan loved David as he loved his own soul." Out- 
 casts both, one a king without i. throne, the other a king's 
 son forsaking his father. Both outlaws, without house. 
 
326 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 home or kindred that they could stay with. The arrow 
 flew, David's ear caught the sound as it cut the air, the 
 cry rang out "go beyond, the arrow is beyond." 
 
 Bethlehem's youth, Saul's hero son met; stars wit- 
 nessed their vows, the moon smiled upon their" devotions ; 
 humanity's great heart-organ caught up the mellow an- 
 them peal that burst from their living soul-lips, and bore 
 it o'er the vine-clad hills of the holy land, to the mount 
 of redemption, and then on, on, on, down, down, down, 
 till three thousand, two hundred years snatched the echo, 
 and Christianity in diapason wide as the world rings out 
 the glad theme : 
 
 "Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all genera- 
 tion, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever 
 thou hadst established the earth and world, even from 
 everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." Brothers, we 
 speak to you as a living, present order, old indeed in prin- 
 ciple as the world: Your Aim, Motive, Work. With 
 these we shall deal, these be our theme, in brief. 
 
 We were asked not long ago, by one not of us : "What's 
 your aim?" 
 
 We answered, "To make men better." 
 
 The objector replied, "That's a noble aim." 
 
 He then asked, "What's your motive?" 
 
 "To make men think pure thoughts." 
 
 "That is nobler still." 
 
 "What's your work?" 
 
 "To bind up broken hearts." 
 
 Said he, "That's God-like." 
 
 So it is. But you have bad men among you? All do 
 not act as you say your order avows ? 
 
 We know it. Bad men are everywhere. Are the good 
 to be condemned with those who break vows, and are 
 reprobate? What organization on earth that is not 
 cursed with unworthy members. The State, and the 
 Church both are. So Odd-Fellows' Lodges are weighed 
 down by bad members. But what of it. One of the 
 twelve, Judas, betrayed, with a kiss, the Redeemer. We 
 now speak of your 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 327 
 
 EMBLEMS. 
 
 "The painted sticks that make the vulgar laugh." Em- 
 blems are as old as man — inspiration, history, tradition 
 and instinct, alike speak of them. The nomad following 
 his herd, the savage in his haunt, the barbarian in his 
 tent, and the dweller in place, all have emblems. The 
 world is full of emblems, types and symbols. 
 
 To the initiated, they read a glorious language. From 
 them, as the grand procession passes on, we can tell our 
 Lieutenants, Captains, Chiefs and ruling Patriarchs, 
 typic, symbolic, emblematic, all move in beauteous array. 
 We follow not to name all our family jewels, but the 
 chief ones only. 
 
 THE ARK. 
 
 Triadic and glorious, with its Manna, Aaron's Rod, 
 and the Tables, the Book. What world-history, mighty 
 deeds, grand scenery, it brings before the mind. "That 
 box with rings in it, speaks of Sinai," fire. Horeb, Nebo, 
 the smoke, the flame, the voice and God, the "quaking 
 time," so terrible that if a beast touched the mountain 
 it was thrust through with a dart. Omnipotence and man 
 talking, the fast of forty days, the fire-dipped finger, flam- 
 ing out from the face of the black cloud, and writing 
 on the smooth stone; angels hovering in myriad groups 
 around, brought the grandeur of heaven to earth and 
 made a song-theme for both time and eternity. The white 
 bearded "wrestler," as he viewed the wild, dread picture, 
 shouted out in such startling vehemence as to shake 
 nature: "God came from Teman the Holy one from 
 Mount Paran, his glory covered the heavens, and the 
 earth was full of his praise." 
 
 The ark was made in the wilderness and carried in 
 the center of the tribes. Judah in front, Dan in the rear, 
 the other tribes around. The manna was in it, the rod 
 and the book. Manna, bread from heaven, the rod, 
 God's scourge, the book, the word of life— what a glor- 
 
328 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 ious emblem. That was the disposition of angels, fol- 
 lowed by forty years of miracle such as earth never be- 
 fore or since has witnessed — ^three million fed by Al- 
 mighty power. And the center of this host — center of 
 power, center of the system, was the Ark, representative 
 of God, glorious as a cherub from heaven. As we look 
 back upon the flame-lit top of the mountain, read its 
 wonder and its awe, the soul warms into new life, and 
 the lip sings out: 
 
 "The Lord our god is full of might. 
 
 The winds obey his will, 
 He speaks and in his heavenly height. 
 
 The rolling sun stands still, 
 Rebel, ye waves, and o'er the land. 
 
 In threatening accent roar, 
 The Lord uplifts his awful hand, 
 
 And chains you to the shore. 
 His voice sublime is heard afar. 
 
 In distant peals it dies, 
 He yokes the whirlwind to his car. 
 
 And sweeps the howling skies." 
 
 THE THREE LINKS. 
 
 Friendship, Love and Truth, a triad that binds to God. 
 Love the center — "God is Love." In the center of the 
 universe, the great father, in his glorious character of 
 F. L. & T., places himself, as the Saviour of all. His 
 everlasting arms extend, earth and heavenward, one full 
 of friendship to raise men up, the other stretches out to 
 the blue perennial, to bring truth down to man. Thus 
 heaven and earth through love, are made to clasp glad 
 hands, and the song of the skies is the anthem of earth. 
 Friendship, Love and Truth produce a common brother- 
 hood — bird, beast and man; when shorn of their savage 
 ire, bow at a common altar, yield ascriptic praise. 
 
 And as golden sun rays shine along, and light the com- 
 ing day, matinic lay from forest warbler, the mellow low- 
 ing of herd and flock, and the jubilant note from brother 
 man, are heard to sing the enfranchised song, "Friend- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 329 
 
 ship, Love and Trutli." Brothers, the work of your 
 noble order is to bind up the broken-hearted, to touch 
 to life the broken shrines, to gather ashes of lost and 
 scattered urns, and place them in the temple of love. O ! 
 how the heart bleeds as we look at the fallen ones, shorn 
 of the God-like, left half dead in earth's dark places. 
 Well did that great Irish poet sing as he looked upon 
 his fallen brother— thrust from the palace hall to the 
 gutter — wounded and dying, a diamond among cobble- 
 stones, a jewel in filth. As he looked, his music-touched 
 soul threw upon the air that wailing cadence : 
 
 "The harp that once through Tara's hall 
 
 The soul of music shed. 
 Now hangs as mute on Tara's wall 
 
 As if that soul were fled. 
 So sleeps the pride of former days, 
 
 So glory's thrill is o'er, 
 And hearts that once beat high for praise, 
 
 Now feel that pulse no more." 
 
 O ! humanity, hovf many wounds are thine, how sore 
 are thy afflictions. To-day, war-threatened, plague- 
 scourged, thy soul cries for help in piteous strains. 
 Brothers, let us up, and, with full souls, go to the rescue. 
 Look at New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and 
 see gaunt-faced death do its work, in dark allies, dank 
 cellars two stories under ground. Such a view will do 
 you good, your zeal will be kindled anew, your soul 
 touched, and you will go to work. 
 
 We speak not of your work in dollars and cents ; your 
 published records tell the world what you have done in 
 that direction. Marble halls, with turret, dome and spire 
 pointing to the blue above, speak by the million in moneyed 
 investments. Your schools, orphans and benevolence, that 
 the uninitiated know not of, cost millions of money. 
 But your power is moral — that's your great power. And 
 such a triad of scourges rise before you — lying, steal- 
 ing, swearing — that is sweeping the youth of the land to 
 unknown seas, out of hearing of the gavel, out of reach 
 of the church, and away from the life-joy of heaven ; and 
 
330 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 as they rise to man's estate they are met by a triad of 
 woes — drunkenness, murder, treason — ^that leads them 
 from the State, the Church and the Lodgeroom, bHghts 
 their homes, their peace and their hope, and consigns 
 them to misery, death and hell. Brothers, we charge you 
 by all the hallowed instincts of the Lodgeroom, by the 
 wooing of friendship, love and truth, by the light of faith, 
 the power of love and the joys of hope, to oppose, with a 
 zeal that knows no languor, these terrible wrongs — lying, 
 stealing, swearing, drunkenness, murder, treason. Our 
 day — the State, the Church and benevolence, all urge 
 you to this. Will you do it? We urge you by all the 
 conditions of the past, the bright fruition of the future, 
 to do it. We are in Time's great vestibule — the Temple 
 Age lies before us. The days of Sinai are just upon us 
 again ; history is repeating itself. The seven thunders, 
 sealed up eighteen hundred years ago, are now uttering 
 their redemptive voices. The grand old song of the 
 wrestling bard again stirs the nations, its swelling sym- 
 phonies wake the winds chained at the four corners of 
 the earth, and they bear upon th^r flaming wings the 
 Monarch-March : 
 
 "God came from Teman the holy one from Mount 
 Paran, His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was 
 full of His praise." The Messianic shout is just burst- 
 ing upon us, the kingdom that is to extend from sea to 
 sea and from the rivers to the ends of the earth is dawn- 
 ing upon a crying world. 
 
 And finally, my brothers, as you rise at the sound of 
 the gavel, and stand uncovered, let us pledge anew, and 
 as hand clasps hand, in brother-greeting, let the silent 
 pressure bind our hearts in one great brotherhood. Let 
 us, while in this temple, work of our own hand-craft, 
 feel, that it is but an emblem, a type, of the temple of 
 the coming age — that age, the brightness of whose com- 
 ing is noiv radiating all above and around with the golden 
 light of endless day. Let us catch in heart- joy the won- 
 drous re-genesis song that, near two thousand years ago, 
 rang out from the blue Aegean sea, to gladden earth 
 and herald the consummation. Let our souls be wrapped 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 331 
 
 away, till we see by faith's pure light the descending 
 temple, and hear the sweet strains of heaven and earth's 
 anthem pealing through the skies: "And I saw a new 
 heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the 
 first earth were passed away and there is no more sea. 
 * * * And I saw the holy city coming down from 
 God out of heaven. * * * And I heard a great voice 
 saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and 
 He will dwell with them and they shall be His people, 
 and God shall be with them and be their God. * * * 
 And there shall be no more death, neither crying, nor 
 sorrow, nor shall there be any more pain, for the former 
 things have passed away. * * * He that sat upon 
 the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Two 
 worlds know our vows and urge us to work. Two eter- 
 nities look upon us and urge us to work. The times, 
 ""wondrous with God in them," urge us to work. The past 
 with its warnings, the present with its perils, the future 
 with its bliss, all urge us to work. Friendship, Love 
 and Truth stand, "proud in armor bright," ear well 
 attuned to the gavel sound, and cry "Work!" Lis- 
 tening, too, to the world's last rolling diapason, as it 
 thunders from the skies, mutters from the deep, and roars 
 earth-wide — work, for 
 
 "We are living, we are moving ; 
 
 In a grand eventful time. 
 In an age on ages telling, g 
 
 To be living is sublime. 
 Hark ! the waking up of nations. 
 
 Truth and error to the fray. 
 Hark! what soundeth? 'tis creation, 
 
 Groaning for its latter day. 
 Hark! the onset! will ye fold your 
 
 Faith-clad arms in lazy lock? 
 Up! O, Up! thou drowsy soldier. 
 
 Worlds are charging to the shock. 
 Worlds are charging. Heaven beholding : 
 
 Thou hast but an hour to fight ; 
 Now, the blazoned cross unfolding. 
 
 On! right onward for the fight. 
 
RECEPTION SPEECH OF JESSE HARPER, ESQ., 
 
 TO THE RETURNED VOLUNTEERS OF 
 
 WARREN COUNTY. 
 
 DELIVERED AT WEST LEBANON, AUGUST 17TH, 1861. 
 
 (Reported for The Republican.) 
 
 Officers and Soldiers of the Warren Guards: 
 
 By request, and on behalf of this assembly of your 
 fellow citizens, and of the people of Warren county, I 
 extend to you to-day their cordial "welcome home." 
 We welcome you to tender sympathies, to hearts that 
 beat responsive to yours, to all the comforts and endear- 
 ments of home, to the warm embraces of your families 
 and friends, and the congratulations of neighbors, on 
 your return from your short but glorious campaign. We 
 welcome you to basket and to store, to all social influences, 
 to a common brotherhood. The deeds which you have 
 done, and the work which you have accomplished, have 
 given you a claim and a hold upon the hearts of the 
 people. Would that I could express to you all that is 
 mea«t by the welcome which is extended to you to-day 
 by the citizens of Warren. We welcome you home. 
 
 Let us briefly go back over the history of the past 
 four months, during the most of which you have been 
 absent from us. On the 15th of April last, the executive 
 of the country, surrounded by extraordinary circum- 
 stances, issued his proclamation calling upon the people 
 to stand by and defend the government, and the capitol, 
 then in eminent peril, and to rally around its insulted flag. . 
 You nobly sprang into the breach. No mercenary calcu- 
 lations deterred you, no selfish considerations of personal 
 interest, or business engagements, no attachments to 
 family, friends or home, no slothful regards for the com- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 333 
 
 forts and allurements of domestic life weighed with you 
 against the calls of patriotism. In less than six days 
 after the President's proclamation was issued you were 
 ready to march, laying your lives, and all you held most 
 dear, upon the altar of your country. 
 
 You became such heroes, actuated by a like spirit as 
 I once read of in a most thrilling narrative. On the 
 far-off coast of Africa a party of one hundred and sev- 
 enty-five men with their wives and children encountered 
 a terrific storm — a hurricane which swept the ocean like 
 the voice of God. As in its fury the howling storm rushed 
 by the devoted vessel in which they were embarked, the 
 captain assembled his men on deck, and informed them 
 that she must go down. The boats were got ready to 
 launch, and in them they placed the women and children 
 with only a sufficient number of men to enable them to 
 reach the land. All were calm in that hour of danger, 
 almost despair ; none tho't or attempted to save their lives 
 by taking the places of the frailer ones who depended 
 on them. There they stood, that devoted crew, with a 
 heroism of soul which enabled them to meet death with- 
 out a shudder — as heroes only can. The frail boats 
 pushed off with their precious helpless burdens, and 
 while yet in sight, before they had reached the land, 
 the ship went down with all on board, amid the gurgling 
 surges of the mighty deep. But, oh, what a glorious 
 resurrection will be theirs, in that day when the true 
 and the brave shall come forth, pure as a sunbeam, clad 
 in robes of life everlasting. You have been yourselves 
 such men, may the best joys of earth be yours with bliss 
 immortal hereafter. 
 
 Times come in the history of nations when man is 
 raised above selfish motives. This was one of them. 
 Such times make heroes. The ancients elevated these 
 heroes into demi-gods and erected to them temples and 
 altars. In this more enlightened age we call them pa- 
 triots — a nobler name— and such are you. I remember 
 the day you left us. There were many anxious hearts, 
 and many tears were shed, but no one, not even a mother 
 or a wife, said to son or husband, "Stay, go not forth," 
 
334 ^if^ of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 nor upon a single cheek of yours was seen the paleness 
 of fear or a sign of quailing. 
 
 But the scene changes. You are in camp at Indian- 
 apolis. The country is convulsed — ^the danger has come 
 suddenly and unexpected — preparations have not been 
 made for your comfort. Your food is poor, your accom- 
 modations are insufficient — the rain beats upon you and 
 the frost chills you ; you knew the comforts that waited 
 for you at home, but having put your hands to the plow, 
 you turned not back. You remained through all the 
 hardships of camp life faithful to your obligations, faith- 
 ful to your country and to yourselves. At last the order 
 you had so patiently and anxiously waited for, came. You 
 were ordered to march. In a few hours you were landed 
 in an enemy's country. It was truly an enemy's country. 
 All war is terrible and sanguinary, but no war that ever 
 was waged on earth is equal to this. This is civil war 
 in its worst form. The enemies against which you 
 marched were actuated by the worst passions. The war 
 had its origin in the same ambition which impelled Satan 
 to rebel against the King of Heaven. You were sur- 
 rounded by blood-thirsty and stealthy foes. No one 
 knew when he might be shot down from behind some 
 ambuscade. Every tree and bush might conceal a foe. 
 But you quailed not. 
 
 At last you met the enemy superior in numbers, and 
 boasting of their superiority in everything, you met 
 them on their own soil, in the position chosen by them- 
 selves, defended by their breastworks, and under cover of 
 their artillery, and the name of Rich Mountain will ever 
 be memorable for the glorious victory you gained. It 
 makes us proud this day that you are our fellow citi- 
 zens. We are proud of our country, proud that In- 
 dianians there fought and conquered, proud of our coun- 
 try, and proud of you. No man could stand out in 
 the common road, in the face of a foe, with cannon com- 
 manding it charged with deadly grape shot, and not feel 
 the emotion of fear unless actuated by the highest mo- 
 tives. In such a situation you did stand, and you charged 
 gallantly forward, routing your boasting enemies and 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 335 
 
 scattering them to the wind. The three hundred Spartans 
 who fought at Thermopalas are immortal in history, and 
 will live forever in the memory of mankind. They fought 
 for their country; you stand upon the same platform, 
 and your deeds will live. We thank God to-day, that 
 unlike that band of ancient heroes, you have all returned 
 to your homes. Some, indeed, fell in the glorious strife, 
 and their spirits I shall expect to meet on the great plains 
 of felicity, but you are here unharmed to receive the con- 
 gratulations of friends, and the well-earned plaudit, 
 "well done, good and faithful servants of your country," 
 we render to the great Father of us all, our heartfelt 
 thanks to-day, for this crowning mercy. 
 
 And now, fellow citizens, having in your name wel- 
 comed back to home and friends those true men in whom 
 we all feel so deep an interest, let us endeavor from 
 the present situation of our country to learn a lesson, 
 which I verily believe God is intending to teach us. 
 
 Let us take a brief view of the history of ancient na- 
 tions, nations that have arisen, flourished upon earth, that 
 we may, now that the Almighty is shaking us like a fig 
 tree, learn upon what rock they have split and avoid 
 the danger. We are in the midst of war — of war fierce, 
 bloody, intensified by every passion that can lend it 
 horror and make it sanguinary. It is as if some new vol- 
 cano had suddenly reared its head and vomited forth 
 its burning lava over a peaceful and happy country. Upon 
 this subject of war there has been a difference of opinion. 
 Some have even supposed that war is the normal condi- 
 tion of mankind. Others have taken the other extreme 
 and declared for the doctrine of non-resistance. But by 
 most sensible men the medium ground that war is only 
 justifiable in self-defence is assumed as correct. The 
 first great nation which appeared upon the earth was 
 the empire of the Assyrians. They waged wars for 
 purpose of aggression and conquest. They extended their 
 dominion over vast territories. They built their magnifi- 
 cent capital and reveled in power, splendor and luxury 
 such as no nation under heaven had ever enjoyed, and 
 when they had reached the very bight of prosperity then 
 
336 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 ■ King Nebuchadnezzer exclaimed in the pride of his heart, 
 "Is not this great Babylon which I have built." Here 
 was their culminating point. Just then the- Almighty 
 raised up the Medo Persian power, and Cyrus came forth 
 as his instrument to vindicate His claim to be the sover- 
 eign of all the kingdoms of the world. Great Babylon 
 is fallen and her ruins can scarcely be distinguished. 
 Her name is blotted out, because her kings gave not 
 God the glory. There is a God in Israel, let us rely on 
 Him. 
 
 The Medo Persian empire, when its heart was swollen 
 with pride, and it had answered the purposes of the Al- 
 mighty, also fell before the victorious Greeks. The Jap- 
 hetic tribe of man triumphed over the Asiatic. Greece 
 had its Philip and Alexander, who, ente'ring upon a career 
 of mad ambition, overran the world, but they had no 
 thought of God in all their conquests, and Alexander 
 died a miserable spectacle of the littleness of human 
 greatness, and the Greek Empire perished. Then arose 
 the iron power of Rome. While Rome fought only for 
 her rights she did well. But her ambition was unbounded. 
 She levied contributions on all nations, and gathered all 
 their gods in the capitol, but' they could not save her. 
 The true God was not honored in her triumphs, and hav- 
 ing, as she fondly imagined, conquered the world, she 
 perished before the hordes of northern barbarians turned 
 loose for her destruction. Then followed ten centuries 
 of darkness, until Luther sprang forth — when the fires 
 of persecution were kindled, and the sword was whetted, 
 and the blood of martyrs was poured forth at Smithfield 
 and St. Bartholomew. During all this time the great 
 idea had been that governments were made over men. 
 Now a few individuals came across the stormy Atlantic, 
 and founded an empire on other principles. 
 
 They proclaimed that governments were founded 
 among men and derived their powers from the consent of 
 the governed, and they acknowledged God as the Sov- 
 ereign of the universe, the King of kings and Lord of 
 lords. Let us go back to Lexington and Bunker Hill. 
 The men who fought there were inspired by true patriot- 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 337 
 
 ism. They loved the flag of their country ; oh ! that men 
 would love it now as they did then, and oh! that men 
 would now, like Washington, with bended knees implore 
 the blessing of the Almighty before entering upon the 
 bloody conflict. 
 
 Let us learn a lesson from the Swiss Cantons. Look 
 at them as they go into war, even as they join the deadly 
 conflict. How sublime, yet how humble the position of 
 a whole army on bended knees in the face of the enemy, 
 and in simple, confiding, trusting language chant in the 
 sweet carols of the Alp peasant : 
 
 "God of Justice see us, 
 Father, dear, now hear us. 
 In Thee we trust. 
 The battle Thou must order 
 The arm of flesh will fail, 
 But Thou alone our Father, 
 Can make our foes to quail." 
 
 This humble position of the confiding Swiss led the 
 haughty Austrians to suppose they supplicated for mercy, 
 and in their ignorance they rushed down upon the pray- 
 ing peasants. But when within reach of the iron-nerved 
 mountaineers, that patriot band arose and as by the im- 
 pulse of one man like a shaft of death they dashed upon 
 the foe, and down went the haughty oppressor with such 
 a slaughter as that which took place on 
 "Ajalon's height when the sun in the heavens stood still." 
 
 We talk of the superior resources of the north. We 
 trust in our own advantages — we say that we have better 
 men, and the most money, and timber for ships, and the 
 best artillery — but all this will avail us nothing if we 
 do not remember that there is a God in Israel. Look at 
 the battle of Bull Run. Our men thought they had 
 won a glorious victory. They were congratulating them- 
 selves on their victory — ^they had driven back the enemy, 
 the day was theirs — when suddenly, there is a confusion, 
 men's hearts fail them for fear, the victors are terror- 
 stricken, they fall back, the retreat becomes a rout. The 
 
338 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 men who were just now congratulating each other fly for 
 their lives, they imagine that the whole south, men, 
 women and children, are at their heels, and never stop 
 until they have clambered over the fortifications on the 
 Potomac — they have made a distance in six hours which 
 it took them four days to advance over, and now they 
 look back and no one is pursuing them. 
 
 [Here the orator gave a very amusing imitation of 
 the flight and climbing the breastworks, which it was im- 
 possible to report] 
 
 Why was all this ? They had desecrated God's holy day 
 and gone forth in their own strength, and he had turned 
 them back, and bid them know that there is a God in 
 Israel. 
 
 There is yet another thing we want and that is more 
 true patriotism. We must stop talking about the bur- 
 den of taxes. We want such patriotism as Hancock had, 
 when his property was all in danger in Boston — when he 
 said, let John Hancock's property all sink if it will benefit 
 my country. Men have got to pile up all their possessions 
 in one heap, and get on top of it, and make it an altar, 
 and themselves a sacrifice to their country. The man who 
 at this time can talk or think about the loss of property 
 for the sake of the public good is no better than an oyster, 
 and should have lived in that pre-Adamite period when 
 there were no living things but those of the oyster type. 
 
 May God kindle the fire of patriotism in the heart of 
 every man and woman in America — may love of country 
 burn upon the hearts of the people in as bright a flame as 
 it did in the days that tried men's souls ! May such a 
 sacrifice be offered up from the humble heart of this 
 great people, as will bring God once more among us! 
 May we feel his Almighty arm beneath us, as it was in 
 that day when he held up Washington and his little jarmy ! 
 May the fires of '76 once more burn ! May love of country 
 once more revive ! May the glory of our arms inspire us ! 
 May the rich halo which surrounds our old flag illuminate 
 our hearts ! May we as a people rise above every consid- 
 eration that is detrimental to our country ! And in God's 
 name let us pledge life, property, every earthly good — 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 339 
 
 let the glory of Lexington, Bunker Hill, Yorktown be 
 the glory of the whole nation, and sooner than have them 
 divided and claimed by two nations — sooner than this 
 disgrace befall us, let us immolate the nation, pile up the 
 millions of men and property in a vast heap toward 
 heaven and, standing upon it, acknowledge "united we 
 stand, but divided we fall" to rise no more. 
 
 THE MONTICELLO, IND., "SPECTATOR" PRO- 
 POSES NAME OF HAPER FOR LIEU- 
 TENANT GOVERNOR. 
 
 "We take pleasure in announcing the name of Jesse 
 Harper, of Warren county, as a candidate for Lieutenant 
 Governor before the approaching State Convention at 
 Indianapolis. Mr. Harper is well qualified for the posi- 
 tion. His ability as a debater has won for him a host of 
 friends wherever he has appeared in public. If nomi- 
 nated, he would consider it his duty to canvass the entire 
 State in behalf of the Republican cause, and we hazard 
 nothing in saying that very few men could be found who 
 would labor more effectually. 
 
 In the coming contest, the hope that a powerful polit- 
 ical party may be crushed, whose corruptions exceed all 
 parallel, depends upon the nomination of men who are 
 able and willing to spread the truths and principles of 
 the Republican party into the remote recesses of ignor- 
 ance; men who are not afraid to arm themselves with 
 truth and go out to meet the whisky shamocracy; men 
 who believe and act upon the principle that truth is a 
 sufficient weapon to use in behalf of right and justice. 
 
 Jesse Harper is a zealous Republican, an able orator, 
 and an industrious man. The announcement of his name 
 will give satisfaction wherever he is known, and if nomi- 
 nated he will be known over the whole State before the 
 election." — February 8, i860. 
 
A TEMPERANCE LETTER. 
 
 WiLLiAMSPORT, Ia., July 1st, 1858. 
 
 Dear Chief: We have had a good time in our little 
 town. Temperance men feel encouraged, while the re- 
 tailers of rum have been led to reflect a little, to say the 
 least. S. M. Hewlett was with us last evening, and for 
 two hours we were, to a great extent, entranced. Elo- 
 quence, logical argument, and warmth of feeling, went 
 hand-in-hand, the whole interspersed with such racy, 
 pithy, life-drawn anecdotes, as made the two hours 
 seem as but a passing moment. His argument in favor 
 of prohibition was unanswerable, and just in time for this 
 locality — while his forcible appeals and sound reasoning 
 against that iniquitous, death-dealing, sorrow-producing 
 system — the license system — was such as to make glad 
 the heart of every lover of our great reform. We feel 
 to rejoice, because the principles of prohibition, notwith- 
 standing the judicial array that has been made against 
 them, still live, and have as warm, faithful champions, 
 as now walk the face of the green earth. 
 
 Truckling, time-serving politicians, may, and undoubt- 
 edly will oppose the true principles of temperance, and, 
 through duplicity, draw many unassuming, good men 
 after them. Still, the temperance reformation is onward, 
 and will continue to go forward till the liquor traffic is 
 swept from the land. 
 
 In this section of our State, we are working — waking 
 up. We have been crippled by our courts — our pro- 
 hibitory law killed — ^but the friends of that law were 
 not killed with it. No ; verily. And notwithstanding we 
 were greatly cast down, and worried by our houndish 
 foes, nearly to death; yet, Indiana, like the sleeping 
 Phcenix, will arise from her ashes, and scatter these ad- 
 
 340 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 341 
 
 vocates of human misery, pauperism and death, to the 
 four winds. The work is already begun. 
 
 Fifty-eight, in Indiana, will be a stirring time, espe- 
 cially the latter half. Temperance men are now demand- 
 ing of the great political parties, that they put up sound 
 temperance men for office, if they expect their candi- 
 dates to be voted for by the advocates of this reforma- 
 tion. If temperance men are but firm, half the work 
 of destroying the monster is already accomplished. They 
 have been too vacillating. This want of firmness has? 
 injured the cause, much. And now mark what I say: 
 If such men are not put up by the present parties in 
 this State, the consequence will be, that in many of the 
 counties, the dominant parties will be beaten and tem- 
 perance candidates elected. It should be so everywhere, 
 for we have nothing to lose, but much to gain by elect- 
 ing temperance men. 
 
 I will close this already too long and scattered let- 
 ter; and at another time give the general features of 
 the reform in this State. We gave a public invitation 
 to Mr. Hewlett and he has promised to be with us again 
 in September, when we expect to have a good time, for 
 we shall prepare for it from this time on. May success 
 attend friend and co-laborer Hewlett, and may the great 
 and glorious reformation prosper in his hand. May 
 he be long spared for the work, for he is armed and 
 equipped at every point, and is fully equal to the great 
 task he has bound himself to perform. The advocates 
 of license who fall into his hands are wiped out so ef- 
 fectually, that they are not found afterward at all. May 
 temperance men stand firm, be persevering and united; 
 may they ever be found on the rock that can never be 
 shaken — Prohibition. Then shall the work go on in spite 
 of all opposition; and we younger ones of the mighty 
 army see the glorious sight — "No rumseller, nor place 
 where the poison of death is sold." Harper. 
 
HON. WM. R. BOYER. 
 
 Mr. Harper gives sympathetic words on the death of 
 Judge Wm. R. Boyer. 
 
 Oh the first day of February, 1861, Hon. B. F. Gregory 
 announced the death of the Hon. Wm. F. Boyer, late 
 judge of the District Court of the Warren Co., Ind., ju- 
 dicial district, and moved that the court appoint a com- 
 mittee of five to draft resolutions expressive of the loss 
 and sorrow of the court and attorneys. Mr. Harper was 
 appointed on that committee. 
 
 The resolutions having been drawn and read, Jesse 
 Harper, Esq., arose and said that he could not permit 
 the occasion to pass without adding a word expressive 
 of his estimation of Judge Boyer's character, and an 
 acknowledgment of the many kindnesses he had received 
 from him when a young man just commencing the prac- 
 tice of his profession. My acquaintance with Judge 
 Boyer, said Mr. H., commenced in 1850, when he was 
 clerk of the court, and I was a young attorney. My 
 pathway seemed dark in the future, and I was ready to 
 shrink from the attempt to combat with the matured 
 and experienced minds of those who had already suc- 
 ceeded at the bar. I needed a friend, and I found one 
 in Wm. R. Boyer. I opened my heart to him, and he 
 said, "go on in the path you have marked out — and you 
 will succeed." "Persevere in an upright and honest 
 course and success is certain." One of the most beau- 
 tiful traits in Judge Boyer's character was his kindness 
 to young members of the bar. He gave them advice, 
 overlooked their errors and mistakes, and his kind and 
 encouraging look seemed constantly to say to them, 
 "come up higher." We were intimate friends until his 
 death. It has been but a few days since we conversed 
 together on the dangers which threaten our country. 
 
 342 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 343 
 
 Wm. R. Boyer loveci his country as a man loves his 
 friend. The death of no one ever moved me with such 
 power. Is he indeed gone ! Are his Hps sealed forever ! 
 Truly "in the midst of life we are in death." And in 
 this connection I cannot forbear to allude to the absence 
 of one whose familiar form is not seen in his accustomed 
 place. Judge Boyer is dead, and the ablest attorney at 
 this bar, Robt. A. Chandler, lies upon a bed of languish- 
 ing. He, too, we miss in this court of justice in which 
 he has been so many years a prominent figure. These 
 circumstances admonish us to be up and doing and to 
 look well to our steps. Wm. R. Boyer is dead. The 
 bench has lost one of its brightest ornaments, and the 
 community a man in the highest sense of the term. 
 
 Mr. Harper moved that Mr. Nourse be requested to 
 report the proceedings of the court for publication and 
 the court adjourned. 
 
 "DAILY COURIER" (IND.) ON HARPER'S LEC- 
 TURE. 
 
 The Daily Courier, of January 18, i860, had the 
 followipg notice of the lecture: 
 
 Everybody was delighted with Harper's lecture last 
 evening. He wields a polished blade. His lecture is pro- 
 nounced the most entertaining and instructive with which 
 Lafayette has been favored for years. What is the use 
 of going abroad for high-priced talent when a better 
 article can be had nearer home? 
 
 Hon. Jesse Harper, of Williamsport, Ind., recently de- 
 livered a lecture before the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation of Lafayette, on the Gentile World. It is very 
 highly spoken of by the Lafayette Journal. 
 
THE LECTURE. 
 
 Hon. Jesse L. Harper's lecture before the Young Men's 
 Christian Association last evening was largely attended. 
 The subject, "The Gentile World," was handled as only 
 Mr. Harper can handle it. He took the ground that the 
 Christian church of the present day was wrong in the- 
 ory and practice concerning many of the leading ques- 
 tions of public interest. No Christian should engage in 
 war, or in any way associate himself with that which is 
 evil. Wars and strifes belong to the men of the world, 
 and should be settled by them. The crimes of the age 
 are multiplying because of the laxity of the church. Mur- 
 der, theft. Sabbath-breaking and profanity are on the 
 increase. Men are degenerating morally, physically and 
 financially. Nations are groaning under enormous debts, 
 and matters are going at loose ends generally; The lec- 
 turer's manner of putting things frequently brought down 
 the house in rounds of applause, while his thorough 
 knowledge of his subject and earnestness of delivery 
 commanded the most profound attention of the audience. 
 We frankly acknowledge that the lecture is not report- 
 able and can only say that those who do not hear it 
 missed a good lecture. We heard a large number of 
 those who were present express the wish that Mr. H. 
 would favor us again at his earliest convenience. We 
 join in the wish and bespeak for him a crowded house. 
 
 344 
 
COLONEL HARPER'S EDITORIALS IN THE 
 
 WARREN COUNTY "REPUBLICAN" AT 
 
 WILLIAMSPORT, IND., 1866 AND 
 
 T867, AND THE WARREN 
 
 "LEADER." 
 
 THE SUSPENSE 
 
 Of many persons at this time is very great. There is 
 general uneasiness in business circles, money is very un- 
 settled, not only in this country but in Europe. The 
 largest and most disastrous failures of business houses 
 have taken place within the last two months ever known. 
 One house in England failed for two hundred and fifty 
 million dollars, another for a hundred million. Banks 
 there are run upon as they never were before. Even the 
 Bank of England had, by special act, to expand its cir- 
 culation about twenty-five million dollars in order to 
 keep from closing doors on its depositors. 
 
 In our own country a very unsatisfactory feeling is 
 getting up. Antagonism of party and faction, together 
 with the ambitions of designing men are telling direfully 
 upon the future of the nation. 
 
 We have a heavy debt, nationally, state and municipal, 
 of more than four billion. This lays the foundation for 
 heavy taxes, a thing to be dreaded in unsettled times. 
 Then these taxes have been and are now raised in a 
 way that bears very unequally upon the people. The 
 policy has been and there appears to be a determination 
 on the ruling party to stand by that policy to raise the 
 tax by a levy on the industry of the country and not upon 
 its wealth. In addition to this, the great active moving 
 and most reliable part of our monied wealth, our bonded 
 currency, is exempted from taxation. So that something 
 
 34s 
 
346 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 like four thousand million dollars worth of the national 
 credit is free from tax. 
 
 This enables the rich to speculate easily and pay but 
 little relatively to support the government, while the poor, 
 comparative, are bound to give five per cent of their in- 
 come to support the government. This basis is wrong 
 and will have to be abandoned or we will cease to be a 
 republic. It is the first grand step toward the reigning 
 of a ruling class, an aristocracy, whose object it will be 
 eventually to centralize power and establish a monarchy 
 in fact, although they may call it a republic. All these 
 things but tend to increase the suspense that now preys 
 upon the mind of the people. 
 
 PERIL. 
 
 The country is in much peril. Bad men are at work. 
 Good ones must pull together — the people are likely to 
 be deceived, cheated out of their liberty. The great con- 
 vention just met and adjourned at Philadelphia will work 
 to distract and divide the people. Right and wrong are 
 defined to a sharp edge in this country, they are mar- 
 shaling for a terrible struggle. 
 
 The mighty scourge of war through which we have 
 just passed has not cooled down or quieted the fiery pas- 
 sions of the wicked. Evil counsel is shaping the course of 
 the nation. Humanity is suffering at the head of govern- 
 ment. Separation, confusion, distrust — these are waves 
 that run most high in the huge ocean of unrest. From 
 all which we warn our countrymen to look_well to their 
 own safety. It is true, and rrnist be remembered now, 
 that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Let this be 
 borne in mind constantly. The great wrong of Slavery 
 is not dead in spirit, but in name only. Its bloody jaws 
 reek with human gore now, hate — hate for the inoffend- 
 ing race — ^the black man, burns in the white man's bosom 
 and is finding vent in "riot" and "murder !" 
 
 We urge upon all who love God and country to stand 
 by the right now. The floods of wickedness that are 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 347 
 
 sweeping over the land will take no small barrier to re- 
 sist. Politics are unsettled, government is misunderstood. 
 Policy is put for right, demagogueism for statesmanship, 
 consequently heavy woes hang dark and threatening on 
 the borders of the land. 
 
 Finance is insecure, trade unsettled, failures every- 
 where. The state is tempest-tossed and knows no rest. 
 The church is luke warm and worldly. Bitterness fills 
 the heart. Is it, then, a time for the great family of 
 freedom to fall out by the way? No, no, no. 
 
 We belong to that family and we mean to keep the 
 jewel of liberty in it forever. That gem is too preicous 
 to be thrown to swine, but should be kept where it would 
 receive the heart's garnishment and be a joy-star as lib- 
 erty's guardians kneel round the national hearthstone, 
 that was watered with the tears of our patriot fathers 
 and with their blood, poured out in generating upon this 
 continent the true family of freedom. Yes, we stand by 
 and with that family, bone of its bone, and flesh of its 
 flesh. Come into it all who love the diademic jewel — we 
 welcome the white, the red, the black — God, Country and 
 Liberty. 
 
 OUR TEMPERANCE PLEDGE. 
 (Warren "Republican.") 
 
 We pledge ourselves not to drink as a beverage any 
 alcoholic or intoxicating liquors, forever. 
 
 We pledge ourselves to use all honorable means to get 
 all men to take a like pledge. 
 
 We pledge ourselves not to vote for men for any legis- 
 lative offices, state or national, who drink as a beverage 
 alcoholic or intoxicating liquors. 
 
 We pledge ourselves not to aid directly or indirectly 
 to put into legislative offices, state or national, men who 
 are in favor of giving the sanctions of law, in any way, 
 to the liquor traffic. 
 
 We pledge ourselves to use all lawful and just means 
 to persuade the national government to prohibit, by law^ 
 the importation, manufacture and sale (except for medic- 
 
34^ Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 inal and mechanical purposes) all alcoholic and intoxicat- 
 ing liquors. J. Harper. 
 
 P. S. — Our political platform is of the same style, viz. : 
 Put voting and praying on the same side. If this be 
 "craziness, make the most of it." 
 
 WHERE ARE WE? 
 
 In these times of doubt, distrust and peril, no one has 
 any right to hold an equivocal position — we do not wish 
 to. And, as we have for nearly three years held the re- 
 sponsible place of editor of the Republican press of the 
 county, and being about to leave it, a word as to where 
 we are, whether the dangers are all passed, etc. We as- 
 sumed control of the Warren Republican at a time of 
 trouble, such as the nation had never witnessed, in the 
 midst of a war, such as the world never saw. 
 
 For more than twenty years the storm had been gath- 
 ering — men had began to vote against it as early as 1844. 
 Ten years after found us shook with the Nebraska bill, 
 the Whig party dead and the People's party just com- 
 ing to life. In 1856, the Republican party made its first 
 great fight against slavery. In 1858 the times, full of 
 peril, brought to light the great vindicator of liberty, Mr. 
 Lincoln. His debates with Mr. Douglas made him the 
 first man of the nation. In i860 he was made President 
 and war begun before he took his seat, burst like flame 
 along a line two thousand miles. Dark days, sad hearts 
 and new graves, these filled up the years of his first 
 term. But during those four years — as memorable as 
 any in the world's history, he had proclaimed liberty 
 throughout the land. And upon that great act he went 
 before the people for a second election and they vindi- 
 cated him gloriously. 
 
 Then he entered upon his second term — all parties ac- 
 knowledged that slavery was dead — ^the Constitution was 
 amended declaring it so. The rebellion was subdued by 
 the bayonet, the armies of the South all whipped — they 
 were conquered — then they murdered the greatest and as 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 349 
 
 good a man as this nation or the world ever saw, and 
 then we began to go back from the negro and dark clouds 
 began to rise all round the horizon, and today we are 
 divided — because we have gone from the negro. 
 
 This paper has protested all the time against the course. 
 The negro was the problem in the war, is equally so in 
 the peace. Providence gave him freedom, and we now 
 try to withhold the freeman's best franchise from him — 
 voting. For advocating negro suffrage I have been 
 dubbed "crazy" — be it so. The instincts of Plymouth 
 Rock that were born in me and an education at a school 
 like Oberlin, brought me to man's estate with feelings as 
 strong as new life, against the liquor traffic, slavery and 
 unequal political rights. I believe that this day, this re- 
 public in its majority, is hugging to its bosom two of the 
 most deadly wrongs of the world, and if not got rid of 
 will destroy us as a nation — namely: the liquor traffic and 
 unequal political rights. I hate them both. The best part 
 of my life has been spent in fighting them, the remaining 
 portion is dedicated to the same work. 
 
 When I see my brother going down to a death that 
 has no star of hope beyond, my brain burns with a curse 
 upon the rum sin of this godless age. And when I see 
 a half million new graves in which lie my countrymen, 
 put there untimely by the black monster slavery, and 
 when I see a root of that black monster left to poison the 
 heart of the people, I feel such indignation as to wear 
 upon the sinking frame like a slow fever, blood tingles 
 to finger-end and hot words that burn drop upon the 
 paper. 
 
 There are now but two great parties. They are con- 
 tending for the rulership of the iiation. How do they 
 stand on the two great wrongs named? "The National 
 Union Party," made up of the late Southern Confederates 
 in its majority (of whites), the Democratic party of the 
 North, and that portion of the Republican party that go 
 with it. The other party is the Republican. How stand 
 they? The Democratic party (I use not its new name, 
 it is too long) , is in favor of the liquor traffic, its resolu- 
 tions so declare— it always has been. On the other wrong, 
 
35© Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 unequal political rights, it is equally committed. It says 
 this is a white man's government, politically. Mr. Mc- 
 Donald but a short time ago in our town made this point 
 as strong as it could be. He said he and his party was 
 for withholding political power — the vote from the negro 
 forever. The country would be ruined if the negro voted. 
 We would be a mixed government, and. would sink to be 
 a Mexico or a South American Republic. And he ap- 
 pealed to the people to come to the rescue that negro suf- 
 frage would destroy our institutions. 
 
 In a friendly conversation afterward with him, he said : 
 "I know. Harper, you do not accept my position, but then 
 you are wrong." I answered by saying that I had been 
 reputed crazy since my first vote in 1844, because I had 
 been voting all the time to accomplish the very thing — 
 negro voting — that he said "would destroy the nation." 
 I told him further that if that would destroy the nation, 
 the sooner it was destroyed the better. For never, it was 
 proved, that the suffrage on equal footing and condi- 
 tions of all men — freemen, would destroy a Republic, 
 why then such a Republic ought to be destroyed. 
 And I say now of the iniquitous assumption, that a 
 pen nibbed with sin, dipped in the very essence of op- 
 pression, could not write a more damnable tyranny 
 than that. And a party who publicly proclaims siich 
 a doctrine, publicly proclaims its own tyranny and in- 
 famy; a tyranny I will oppose forever. And so I wrote 
 in the Republican when this new party was in session at 
 Philadelphia, that it was a party forming by those of 
 the nation who were bound to turn from the great pledge 
 of Lincoln ("we must never go back from the negro"), 
 and instead of carrying it out, deliberately go hack from 
 the negro. A great party was formed there, opposed to 
 humanity. So we wrote then and so we say now. 
 
 What of the Republican party on the same two wrongs ? 
 Simply this, a party with right instincts, but lacking the 
 moral courage to carry out by acts those instincts. It 
 hates slavery, loves liberty, is friendly to the negro, but 
 lacks courage — has no great moral Chieftain to lead it. 
 It has to bear the odium heaped upon it by its opponentj 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 351 
 
 of being in favor of negro suffrage and equal political 
 rights, when it is not so now, but assumes to be so in the 
 future. We pity the great party that has done so much and 
 at the most critical moment lacks the heroism to do the 
 rest. We lack a Lincoln now, the nation may yet be put 
 into death throes for want of him. We may have to bury 
 another two hundred thousand, for our sins to the harm- 
 less race — but God will raise up the leader for the nation, 
 when he has so fully chastised us that we shall be glad 
 to receive him. 
 
 If the party had followed out to their results the in- 
 stincts that it had, today it would have stood an undivided 
 rock of liberty and equality. But it failed in some meas- 
 ures. And I think Thad. Stephens puts it on the right 
 ground in the following extracts : 
 
 "But our crowning sin was the omission to give home- 
 steads and the right of suffrage in the rebel states to 
 the freedmen who have fought our battles. We have left 
 them the victims of the rebels, who every day shoot them 
 down in cold blood. At Memphis forty-eight were mur- 
 dered under the direction of the municipal authorities, 
 and not a man prosecuted. Behold the awful slaughter 
 of white men and black — of a convention of highly re- 
 spectable men, peaceably assembled in convention at New 
 Orleans, which General Sheridan pronounces more hor- 
 rible than the massacre of Fort Pillow. The President 
 and his squad — it does not deserve the name of party — 
 contend that the war made no changes in the condition 
 of our institutions under the Constitution ; that the rights 
 and liabilities of all our former citizens — rebel as well 
 as loyal — remain unchanged. This exhibits a most de- 
 plorable ignorance or culpable treachery." 
 
 On further he says : 
 
 "The great issue to be met at this election is the ques- 
 tion of negro rights. I shall not deny, but admit, that a 
 fundamental principle of the Republican creed is that ev- 
 ery being possessing an immortal soul is equal before 
 the law. They are not and cannot be equal in strength, 
 height, beauty, intellectual and moral culture, or social 
 acquirements; these are accidents which must govern 
 
352 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 their condition according to circumstances. But in this 
 Republic the same laws must and shall apply to every 
 mortal, American, Irishman, African, German or Turk. 
 It is written by the finger of the Almighty lawgiver : 'Ye 
 shall have one manner of laws, as well for the stranger 
 as for one of your own country, for I am the Lord your 
 God.' I need not be admonished that the support of this 
 doctrine on the eve of an election is dangerous, especially 
 in counties bordering on the slave states. A deep-seated 
 prejudice against races has disfigured the human mind 
 for ages. For two centuries it has oppressed the black 
 man and held him in bondage while slavery had ceased 
 to exist. Now it deprives him of every right in the 
 Southern states. We have joined in inflicting those 
 wrongs. How has the Father of this blameless race 
 awarded this prejudice, treated this despotism? Let the 
 scarfs upon your garments and the gory graves that dot 
 a thousand bloody battle fields give the sad answer. This 
 doctrine may be unpopular with besotted ignorance. But 
 popular or unpopular, I shall stand by it until I am re- 
 lieved of the unprofitable labors of earth. Being the 
 foundation of our Republic, I have full faith in its ulti- 
 mate triumph. I may not live to see it. I may not be 
 worthy of such happiness. If it is to be finally defeated, 
 and the hopes of man thus extinguished, I pray God 
 that, when it happens, I may be insensible to human mis- 
 ery; that my senses may be locked in 'cold obstruction 
 and in death.' " 
 
 It is not too late to do right. And now, good men, 
 preach, pray and vote for the great principle — down with 
 the liquor traffic, up with equal political rights. Ten 
 thousand multiplied hearts are waiting and praying for 
 the true day of jubilee. And it will come to the nation. 
 He will rise up from the rich ashes of the martyred 
 President a second hero, one that can take the fallen 
 cloak of fire-wrapped Elijah and become an Elisha of 
 the prophets, and bear the "golden flag" on to glorious 
 victory. 
 
 With the humble powers God has given me I shall 
 continue to work for these two principles, as I have 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 353 
 
 ever done. I shall in my humble sphere, preach and pray 
 and vote, for God and humanity, country and liberty, 
 truth and religion, waiting and watching for the glad 
 day of deliverance — eye catches that deliverance in the 
 close future. 
 
 I am not alone, big souls fill the land, hope's anchor 
 reaches to the promised land and faith's vision sees 
 the field won, the victory achieved. 
 
 * * * I saw one of these live souls not many days 
 ago. I stood upon the platform, with the war-worn 
 hero as he looked out upon the vast thousands that had 
 come to hear his trumpet words for freedom, man and 
 God. As the multitudes poured in, music rang out, 
 banners, "bullet-shot," "shell-torn," cracked in the 
 breeze. Motto after motto went by the stand, the old 
 flag — the "gridiron," went proudly on as a thing of life. 
 The battle scene for flag and country was again before 
 him, his eagle eye lit up and, like "Jove's war horse for 
 the fray," his heart and lip rang out: "O, that Abraham 
 Lincoln was alive." For if he was, today would there be 
 one flag here higher than all the rest. And upon it would 
 be inscribed the glorious words, "Freedom to all man- 
 kind, and equal political rights to men." And ~the war 
 chief of the Sangamon would snatch that flag and bear 
 it on, on, on. And as he went, the trumpet shout would 
 echo nation wide, "give the ballot to the negro, so 
 that he may help to keep the jewel of liberty in the family 
 of freedom." And his "honey, honest face," proud and 
 "high above a Henry of Navarre," would generate respon- 
 sive gladness in the hearts of millions. And the steady 
 tramp of liberty's host, would be the victors' march to 
 freedom's home — their onset would sweep from the land 
 the haters of liberty, and the republic would be saved." 
 God send the coming man ! 
 "God give us Men ! A time like this demands 
 Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands. 
 Men whom the lusts of office do not kill ; 
 Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy ; 
 Men who possess opinions and a will ; 
 Men who have honor — men who will not lie ; 
 
354 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 Men who can stand before a demagogue, , 
 And face his treacherous flatteries without winking; 
 Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog. 
 In public duty, and in private thinking: 
 For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds. 
 Their large professions and their little deeds. 
 Mingle in selfish strife. Lo! Goodness weeps. 
 Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps." 
 Now, readers of the Republican, farewell. 
 
 THE TAXES. 
 
 The taxes are high, and many of the interests of the 
 country are suffering because it is so. That the burden 
 is heavy in this direction, no one will pretend to deny. 
 On some classes this burden bears more heavily that it 
 does on others. But taxes by the government of the 
 United States, excise and income, is a new thing — a thing 
 not known till within the last five years. Duties on im- 
 ports, customs, sale of public lands, have, from the begin- 
 ning of the government been sufficient to support the 
 government, till the rebellion burst upon us. Then the 
 sad time of our national life caused nearly every house- 
 hold in the great North to mourn, and many and many 
 days the government sustained itself at an expense of 
 two million dollars, and there was a few days when we 
 were making our most heroic efforts that we expended 
 three million dollars per day. 
 
 In those days of trouble. Congress resorted to direct 
 taxation, a thing not before known in the history of the 
 country. Did the people, in the great mass, of the free 
 North object? No. The people of the loyal states were 
 determined to save the Union of the states, and they 
 would furnish the money so that the hand of the gov- 
 ernment should be upheld, the men in the field paid, and 
 the national credit maintained. And so excise and in- 
 come taxes became fixed facts, part of the working of 
 the government, in its mighty struggle of putting down 
 the rebellion. And the people all the while stood by the 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 355 
 
 acts of their agents, lived up to every law of Congress, 
 paid every levy made upon them ; willingly, because they 
 had sworn in the depths of the true heart of the free 
 North, to save the Nation. 
 
 We moved on under these burdens till at last the war 
 concluded, the rebels laid down their arms. More than 
 four long, bloody years had rolled by and their dire acts 
 had become history, a debt of near three thousand mil- 
 lions of dollars, fixed upon the country. 
 
 But the facts that we wish in brief to speak of at this 
 time, are: Shall we ever be relieved of these onerous 
 burdens ; shall one class always be burdened more heav- 
 ily than another? If this excise and income tax is to be 
 the perpetual system of raising the revenues of the gov- 
 ernment, then shall they continue as they have hereto- 
 fore, to rest more heavily on one class than on another? 
 We say not. Let the burdens of the support of the gov- 
 ernment be borne by all equally, as to taxation. Let 
 every man's property he equally taxed. 
 
 Heretofore the taxes have been mainly raised by taxing 
 the industry of the country and not the wealth. And this 
 unequal mode of taxation makes the consumer the one 
 most heavily taxed. Should this course be continued? 
 We think not. Let the wealth of the country be taxed. 
 The wealthy men have more at stake in perpetuating the 
 government than have the poor. 
 
 Now then, how can this thing be accomplished — ^how 
 can the burdens of the poor man be lightened and those 
 of the rich increased? We answer, let less money be 
 raised from incomes and more from wealth. 
 
 Another way; let a thousand or twelve hundred dol- 
 lars be exempt from taxation of a man's income. This 
 will relieve the great middling class, the working class, 
 from an income tax. This course would relieve the man, 
 who, by his day labor, supported his family, from paying 
 on that money that had been expended in the support of 
 those dependent upon him for their bread. As it now is, 
 with only six hundred dollars exempted, a heavy tax is 
 required at the hands of those who by daily labor support 
 their families. This tax should not be so continued. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF SPECULATION. 
 
 The love of wealth has been the sin of the ages. This 
 rank passion of the soul has drowned in perdition untold 
 multitudes of the race. It is said in the Book that the 
 "love of money is the root of all evil." History abund- 
 antly attests the truth of the inspired declaration. The 
 saying, "love of money" includes in it the undue desire 
 for wealth, avarice, display, aggrandizement. As a re- 
 sult, which legitimately flows from it, is haughtiness, vain 
 assumptions, over-estimate of one's self, pride and fash- 
 ion. 
 
 Every one of the things named enters largely into the 
 frame-work of modern society and forms the largest por- 
 tion of the warp and woof of our mis-called civilization. 
 
 Half of the crimes of the world today grow out of 
 and are necessary sequences of our spirit of trade. The 
 mighty operations of commerce, whose fleecy sail whitens 
 every water of the globe, is but the manifestation of the 
 spirit of speculation. The memories of men of forty-five 
 years of age go back to the day when a millionaire was 
 a rare thing. Trade in those unsophisticated times of 
 "log cabins," went upon the basis, as set forth in the dis- 
 cipline, "use not many words in bargaining." Lying 
 then was not a prominent element in traffic— now it is. 
 Deception is the first born of the spirit of speculation; 
 and it is stamped upon the brazen brow of commerce, all 
 over the world. Men may pronounce fine panegyrics 
 upon this "Mystic Babylon," but that cannot alter its true 
 character. Buying and selling by secret marks, by false 
 statement, inuendo and by direct lying, is damning the 
 world. Ships, telegraphs and locomotives make com- 
 merce the mistress of the globe. Her votaries are millions 
 doubly told. This Harlot, decked in purple and full of 
 lasciviousness, spreads her meshic-net over the face of 
 
 356 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 357 
 
 the whole earth and gathers to her treasure from every 
 source, where there is a profit. Ivory from the jungles, 
 gold-dust from mountain gorge and hot plain, fish from 
 the ocean, bread from the world-field, labor from the toil- 
 ing masses, and coins her shining pieces, as the counted- 
 out price for the bodies and souls of men. Lead on by 
 mammon-love, and fanned to a burning zeal, by the spirit 
 of speculation, the many-headed dragon of lust, unbelief 
 and sin, is unable to say: "I set a queen and am no 
 widow and shall see no sorrow." This spirit of specula- 
 tion is filling hell with the lost and robbing heaven of 
 myriads of jewels. It stirs up war, causes famine to the 
 poor and murders the helpless. Its soul is lust, its occu- 
 pation crime. It impiously assumes the garb of light in 
 which to do the works of darkness. It would rob the 
 New Jerusalem of its golden pavements or hell of its 
 "terrible trappings" if thereby it could make cent per 
 centum. 
 
 STREET PREACHING. 
 
 A word at this time on this important subject may not 
 be amiss. The question has been brought before the peo- 
 ple of this community, by the church, and arrangements 
 made to hold a series of meetings on Sunday in the Pub- 
 lic Square, the ministers in charge at the several churches 
 preaching in turn. A notice of the first one of these meet- 
 ings will be seen in another part of this paper. 
 
 We propose to speak of street, or outdoor preaching, 
 as a necessity of the times. The gospel is the light of the 
 world ; that light is mainly carried to the world by means 
 of preaching. The world needs that light, is dying for 
 want of it. It must be carried to the people. Men will 
 not come to the light because their deeds are evil. But 
 there are objections. Then let us see what good can be 
 done in this way. 
 
 We know right well that many good people are op- 
 posed to it. Many Christian men and women think that 
 it is derogatory to the gospel and degrading to the min- 
 istry, to go peddling and hawking the gospel mission at 
 
3S8 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 the street corners. We know that modern Phariseeism, 
 that sits in cushioned pews and thanks God that they are 
 not as other men, are opposed to a gospel that turns Mag- 
 dalenes into jewels of salvation and carries a Lazarus 
 from the rich man's gate to Abraham's bosom. But what 
 of that, Christ preached to the woman at the well. Chris- 
 tianity in these days is in its holiday dress; turns up its 
 nose at the idea of "Gallileean fishermen" or the "Carpen- 
 ter's Son." Shame on our zeal. "Keno dens thicken in 
 every city ; the streets on the Sabbath day are made hide- 
 ous with sin's foul doings. And shall the gospel stay away 
 from these haunts of iniquity? No, no, no. Wherever 
 sin seeks a hiding place and darkness reigns, there let 
 the gospel be preached. The great commission is "go" 
 and preach the gospel to every creature. Wait not for 
 their coming to the place appointed, but go to the fester- 
 ing abodes of crime ; go to the dark alleys, to the thronged 
 street, the busy mart; go to the dark alleys, the squalid 
 garret — ^go everywhere and preach the gospel. And stand 
 not upon the order of your going but go at once. Go 
 proclaim this "power and wisdom" of God to all. Let 
 there be preaching in all the churches, by minister and 
 layman; let there be preaching in the streets, in the 
 groves, on mountain top and in valley, on the plat- 
 form of the car, in shop, store, garret and cellar, office 
 and counting room — in every place where sin has entered 
 and ruin followed, let the gospel be carried and salvation 
 proclaimed. Let the church do this, by minister and lay- 
 man — let her do it now. Lost souls, millions in num- 
 ber, cry for the waters of life; degradation and misery 
 hungers for the bread of life. Sinners away from a fath- 
 er's house, have wasted their substance in riot, are dying 
 for want. The feast is ready in the father's house, prodi- 
 gals return. None are left out, all are invited. Traitors, 
 murderers, robbers, liars, thieves, the abandoned, the lost, 
 to all these the meek Gallilean has said : "Come unto me 
 and I will give you rest." Carry the glad message to 
 them, carry it as coming from the Saviour. They will 
 hear it, carry it now. 
 
 Let us look at another feature. Is it new? Are we 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 359 
 
 urging something that is new ? something up to these new 
 times? Nay, verily. We are for seeking out the old 
 paths and walking in them. "Give us the way our fathers 
 trod," the way apostles and prophets walked. Ah, yes, 
 the old ways that reach back to Eden, to the happy hour 
 when heaven and earth pillowed on the same bosom and 
 God talked to man in the cool of the day, in the shades 
 of the garden. What glory that. 
 
 Time would fail us to go into detail. The church in 
 its purest day preached the gospel to the people in mass, 
 outside of house, booth or tent. 
 
 The sermon on the Mount by the Redeemer, Paul at 
 Murs-Hill, and in the- Market-Space of every city of the 
 Roman world, the almost miraculous success which has 
 attended the church in modern times, since the Reforma- 
 tion, in its oudoor efforts, are all ample proof of its divine 
 origin. 
 
 THE STRIFE. 
 
 The strife in Cincinnati between the two branches of 
 the Republican party is heavy. Smith, of the Gazette, 
 got the nomination for Congress in the 2nd District over 
 General Cary, and the latter says that the nomination 
 was procured by fraud, bribery, purchase of votes, etc. 
 The Trades Union nominated Cary for the same office, 
 and if there is no Democratic candidate in the iield, he 
 will run through and hopes to beat the regular nominee. 
 The "straights," those who go for Smith, say that Cary 
 has gone over to the Democracy. This Cary denies, and 
 thus the muddle gets more and more muddled. We who 
 are outside the field where the fight is going on can see 
 one thing plain enough, namely, that there is a fuss in 
 Cincinnati in the Republican ranks, and that it is likely 
 to work a defeat of that party if the breach is not healed. 
 Has it indeed come to that pass in the Republican party, 
 that it is so overdone with corrupt leaders as to drive 
 from it the true element of the party ? 
 
 In California fraud was charged in the nominating con- 
 vention. That part of the party who forced the nomina- 
 
360 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 tion through, called all who talked of fraud "sore heads," 
 and other classic names. And thus matters moved on till 
 the election day came, and then the Democrats elected the 
 governor. These are bad precedents to be settling on the 
 eve of so great and important an election as that of 1868. 
 We have but a few things more to say about this matter, 
 and we say them now for the benefit of the party in 
 power. 
 
 It claims to be the representation of moral ideas; it 
 asks all good men, Christian men to vote for it, because 
 it is for the right, and that its leaders are the true light 
 of political progress. These are high pretensions and 
 must be made good by acts. Good men must be put for- 
 ward for standard bearers. The people are tired of the 
 abuses of bad men ; they are jealous of their liberties. The 
 demagogue, the rounder, the political trickster, the fel- 
 low or set of fellows who forced themselves into the party 
 to get office for their own advantage, will be defeated. 
 The times are too troublesome and perilous to trust our 
 institutions to the care and keeping of political hacks. 
 
 It is a fact becoming too patent to be covered up, that 
 men who staid at home during the war and made for- 
 tunes out of the very blood and bones of the nation's 
 heroes, are now holding the offices — as they did during 
 the war — and to shake them loose from these fat places, 
 where like leeches they have fastened themselves, is 
 nearly as hard as it would be for one to get rid of his 
 own shadow. The soldiers who were in the front for near 
 four years, beating back the enemies of the Republic, 
 are now thrust on to the back seats and treated as dogs. 
 The one-legged, one-armed boy, who periled his life 
 to save the country of our fathers, stands no chance in 
 the political ring with a wormy politician, who stayed at 
 home and was a "home guard," ready to arrest desert- 
 ers, as they termed every heart-sick soldier, who for a 
 day was found lingering round his home, weeping over 
 the destitution of the families left behind. 
 
 Regular thoroughbred politicians are to the country 
 now what the plague was in Egypt — death to the first 
 born. They gather into squads, parcel out the offices, 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 361 
 
 and then go to work to set the poHtical triggers to give 
 these offices into the hands of the initiated few. A more 
 unscrupulous set of harpies, remorseless vampires, never 
 fattened upon the public confidence than is now imperil- 
 ing the liberty of the people. All the way from the na- 
 tion's head down to the county organizations, are to be 
 found these traders in political booty, which they have 
 robbed from the people. The county offices are all par- 
 celed out, the state offices snugly appropriated, and the 
 national office patronage sold to the highest bidder. "Pol- 
 icy," "keep together," "bolter," and many other slang 
 phrases known to the political profession are constantly 
 rung out as words of terror to the dear people, whom 
 these fellows have taken the contract to deliver from all 
 their troubles. Now look at these county political Samp- 
 sons, and who are they? Fellows who have constitutions 
 equal in toughness to that of a mule, but who, during all 
 the dark days of the war were unable to go to the front be- 
 cause of chronic complaints, whose malignancv was of 
 that sort that could not be reached by the two powerful 
 remedies — Canada and the draft, videlicit. If they had 
 not money enough to buy themselves out of the draft — 
 by patriotic efforts, to get others to go, why, then, they 
 "goed" to Canada. Or, if they stayed at home, they were 
 mighty zealous in getting others to go, to avoid the draft. 
 And oh, what fellows to talk were they, of what they 
 would, that is what "our army" would do, "our country," 
 and words to that effect. In a word, they stayed at home 
 and took care of the seven great New Testament prin- 
 ciples, that they loved, do now love so well, namely, the 
 five loaves and two fishes. In words more modern, they 
 stayed at home and run the offices and pocketed the per- 
 quisities thereof, and for that great self denial they say, 
 now let us pocket the spoils yet for lo these many years, 
 for we be patriots who stayed at home, while you boys 
 in blue were "bummers," "sporting the musket" and liv- 
 ing on "delectable hardtack." Stand aside, soldiers, for 
 we be more holy than thou. 
 
SUNDAY LAWS. 
 
 The great struggle as to whether the Sabbath shall be 
 kept as a sacred day, is fast approaching, and when it 
 fully arrives, it will be one of the most bitter, fierce, con- 
 tests that this country has ever had to encounter. There 
 is a growing disposition to make the Sabbath a kind of 
 gala day, in which festivity, drinking and theatrical per- 
 formances shall be the marked features. Our large cit- 
 ies, and indeed the smaller ones, the towns and villages, 
 are now seats of vice, so patent that good men fear for our 
 institutions. 
 
 And let it be remembered that a nation which pretends 
 to be Christian, even nominally, cannot, dare not, disre- 
 gard the Sabbath. If it does it will certainly come to 
 ruin. The French people at the close of the last century 
 tried the infidel idea of worship. The Sunday was abol- 
 ished, a ninth day ceremony established in its stead, a vile 
 woman set up as the Goddess of Reason. And in blot- 
 ting out the day that commemorated the resurrection of 
 the world's Redeemer they tried to blot out the resurrec- 
 tion itself, by declaring death an "eternal sleep." The 
 grave was made a charnel house, with no hope beyond, 
 and the very tombstones were made to declare Revelation 
 a lie and God a falsifier. To such an extreme did the 
 madness of mean men, in their unholy, senseless attack 
 upon the day that God Almighty had hallowed. Like 
 fools they rushed against the sharp bosses of Jehovah's 
 buckler and they went down like grass before the keen 
 edge of the devouring scythe. 
 
 The "Reign of Terror," fierce as a "thing of hell," 
 leaped full grown into existence and death followed in its 
 train. The Sabbath cannot be tampered with so as to 
 be set aside by law. The Nation that attempts it is but 
 paving the way to its own ruin. The Nations to which 
 
 363 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 363 
 
 the Bible has come must maintain the Sabbath. It is 
 a question that cannot be reasoned about. Revelation 
 knows all reason, but reason cannot know all revelation. 
 The great mistake of the French nation was that they 
 thought that reason could solve all things ; their idea of 
 God was reason. They said there was no reason why one 
 day should be held more sacred than another, except as 
 man saw fit so to do — simply because it was commanded 
 was no reason. Hence, in defiance of revelation, they set 
 up a ninth day rest-day, dedicated it to reason, and their 
 ruin followed and by a vengeance that never had a par- 
 allel, they were driven back to the old ways. 
 
 And now in this country the same species of arguments 
 are being made. That there is no reason in having a law 
 to shield the Sabbath. Well, it is the old farce sought to 
 be played over again. The end will be the same. We 
 write not thus because we have any fear of the Sabbath 
 being blotted out — that can never be done. But we do 
 so to warn our countrymen to beware of the great sin; 
 refrain from the attempt of even trying to do so foolish 
 a thing. For the attempt will bring judgment. Govern- 
 ments can only accomplish the purposes for which they 
 were, and are, raised up. It is not within their province 
 to abolish the Sabbath, but to maintain it by giving it a 
 place upon the statute books. Rationalism is on the in- 
 crease everywhere, and it behooves Christian men, good 
 men, to stand by the great pillars that have stood firm, 
 as the nations have went down. The Sabbath has come 
 to us from the very gates of Paradise. The flaming 
 sword that guarded the way of life and drove man from 
 his home of peace, did not strike down the day of rest. 
 The flood left it a living thing among the dead of almost 
 the entire creation ; the "Ten Commandments" renewed 
 it; the travail of soul, the myriads of graves of the race 
 have not entombed it; atheism has not scathed it; nor 
 have all the powers of sin been able to tarnish it. It 
 stands yet the memorial day of creation, the day-star of 
 the resurrection and the type of that rest that remaineth 
 in the word to come. Let us as a nation, then, guard well 
 the great day of rest. 
 
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Fort Kearney, June 6, 1872. 
 
 I am here for a little rest after a long ride and as I 
 write I look out upon the old trail, where in the days 
 of other years the overland train wound its tortuous 
 course up the gentle flowing Platte. Old memories come 
 upon me and the mind goes back to the California rush 
 for gold. The country is historic. This old fort is a 
 place famous in the annals of our country. And as the 
 painted Indian goes softly by, with his twinkling eye 
 and glancing look, one is brought face to face with the 
 scenes so fearfully depicted in the bloody legends of the 
 west. Imagination will go back to those days. 
 
 There are plenty of the Pawnee Indians here and some 
 of the Sioux. They are dying out in the light of this 
 civilization and in a few years the last, not only of the 
 Mohicans, but the last of the red man will be counted 
 among the things that once were. This Platte Valley 
 is one of the most beautiful in the United States and is 
 fast becoming the seat of one of the most flourishing 
 portions of this country. The beauty is indeed beyond 
 anything yet ever said of it. To stand and look at the 
 hills, green as the finest heather slopes of Scotland, is a 
 treat not to be forgotten. As you glance along the banks 
 of the broad silvery stream and take in the grand pan- 
 orama on both sides, you cannot but think of the beau- 
 tiful pictures so rapturously described by Cooper, Irwin 
 and Scott in their most fascinating stories. What a land 
 of romance is this. But a few years ago the buffalo 
 roamed in wild majesty here, with none, save he of the 
 bow and arrow, to molest or make him afraid. Now the 
 dream of the ages has dawned and the hunting grounds 
 of the braves are being swallowed up by the busy tramp 
 
 364 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 365 
 
 of trade, and the grass so sweet to the luscious jaws of the 
 bison, is giving way to the tame growth and the discord- 
 ant jostle of the rushing multitude. What an age ! The 
 screech of the locomotive scares the coyote and the brindle 
 wolf goes to his lair and the prairie dog to his hole. 
 
 But why multiply words ? The star of empire is going 
 west and its seat is about where I sit and write. The 
 Union Pacific Railroad is one of the greatest enterprises 
 of the age, and its effect on the age and the commerce of 
 the world is not yet fully imagined. 
 
 Now, I will but add that just at this place is now cen- 
 tering some of the grandest schemes of moneyed men 
 ever yet set on foot in this country,' J. H. 
 
 INFORMATION FOR THE MILLION. 
 
 Colonel Harper's testimony to the value and importance 
 of the Wabash Railway Line: 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y., March 13, 1881. 
 
 CoL. Jesse Harper : My Dear Friend — We write you 
 to make inquiry and get information. Your extensive ac- 
 quaintance in every part of the country and your travels 
 all over it assures us that the information we seek you can 
 furnish. And knowing your willingness to serve friends 
 we draw upon you for a big budget. 
 
 Myself and ten or twelve others are now getting ready 
 to make an extensive trip west and southwest. We go to 
 "spy out the land," so to speak. And we are not alone 
 on this "western fever," there will be an immense emigra- 
 tion this season to the west. 
 
 The portions to be examined by us for ourselves and 
 on behalf of those whom we represent you have full 
 knowledge of — Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Western 
 Texas. We may go to the Pacific coast. 
 
 We propose to see this section at early spring, so as 
 to judge of it at that season. 
 
 Will you furnish us all the facts, data, titles, etc. ? Senci 
 
366 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 us all you have written on the subject, if in form that 
 you can do so ; your letters on the valleys of the Platte 
 and the Arkansas rivers; your notes on the valleys and 
 mountains of Colorado; your description of Western 
 Texas, etc. Anything that will be useful to persons look- 
 ing for a place to settle we will be glad of. 
 
 This will inform you of the objects and aims suffic- 
 iently to enable you to furnish us the store of informa- 
 tion in your possession and which will be invaluable to us. 
 
 What is our best route ? 
 
 Having been over this whole section of country you 
 can put us on the "right road," as the old saying runs. 
 You are so familiar with railroad routes and with travel 
 as to be of vast benefit to us in the shape of instruction, 
 suggestions, etc., etc. 
 
 We want information as to the best route. So that 
 in moving out with our families and stuff we shall have 
 knowledge of the way, having passed over jt. * * * 
 Hoping to hear from you, my old time friend, I am, yours 
 as ever, Abel Jones. 
 
 Friends send best wishes. 
 
 Danville, III., March 21, '81. 
 
 Abel Jones : My Dear Friend — Your very kind letter 
 is at hand and I am more than willing to give you every 
 mite of information I can on the subjects and questions 
 inquired about. 
 
 I am glad to hear that yourself and others are looking 
 to the great west. Now is the time to make the move. 
 It is to be the seat of empire in the close future, if we 
 are as wise as we ought to be. In compliance with your 
 request I send of my own writings : 
 
 "Letters on the Platte Valley," "Nebraska climate, 
 soil," "A country that is a country," "The valley of the 
 Arkansas," "Kansas for homes," "Notes on Colorado and 
 New IVIexico," "The Mountain tops and valleys low," 
 "Rainfall, sunshine, the empire west," "Letters on West- 
 ern Texas," "The cattle on a thousand hills," "Summary 
 of climate, soil, stock growing," "Agriculture," "Mineral 
 resources, Ophir beat." 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 367 
 
 Be assured anything I can do shall be done to help you 
 in this enterprise. As to route : Buy your tickets via the 
 WABASH, ST. LOUIS & PACIFIC RAILWAY. That 
 great trunk line will be able to take you through and de- 
 liver you whole. It is the route most direct and most 
 speedy to the vast section you are going to examine. By 
 it every facility will be afforded, every aid given to fur- 
 ther you in your undertaking. Ably officered, skillfully 
 and energetically operated, you will find it the popular, 
 "the people's route." 
 
 And when you get ready to make the move to the new 
 home you will find this 
 
 ROAD THE SAFE, THE SPEEDY, THE CHEAP ONE. 
 
 I send you everything pertaining to it — maps, time 
 tables, with full instructions. 
 
 As I am getting letters similar to yours from New Eng- 
 land, the east generally, I shall publish it, together with 
 mine, in The People's Advocate and in a circular letter, 
 both of which I will send you and which you can furnish 
 to friends. And I will distribute the circular letter 
 throughout the country, so that the information imparted 
 to you may reach the million. Hoping to see you soon, 
 I am yours, as ever. J. Harper. 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S REFERENCES. 
 
 STOP AND THINK. 
 
 "He who thinks cannot long be enslaved. — Newton N. 
 Riddle. 
 
 He who creates a healthy public sentiment does more 
 for his country than he who makes votes for his party. — 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
NOTICE. 
 
 Since my public discussion of the great social and eco- 
 nomic problems has created a demand for my services, I 
 take this method of announcing myself as open for en- 
 gagements. Lecture committees and others desiring to 
 secure me for one or more addresses may do so by writing 
 me personally. Address, A. C. Barton, Danville, 111. 
 
 Mr. Barton spoke at Mayviev^r last evening and deliv- 
 ered a fine lecture. Don't fail to hear him to-night. 
 
 S. A. KiRKPATRICK, 
 
 Jan. 6, 1891. State Sec'y of the State Alliance. 
 
 Mr. Barton is capable of interesting and instructing his 
 audience. His ability to teach upon political reform sub- 
 jects should secure him hundreds of appointments, and 
 hope he may continue in health to do good service. 
 
 Mrs. Marion Todd. 
 
 I have been acquainted with A. C. Barton for many 
 years. He is an earnest and faithful worker in the cause 
 of reform. As a teacher he is honest and well qualified 
 to instruct in the economic questions that now agitate the 
 public mind, and as such I cheerfully recommend him to 
 the industiial organization. A. J. Streeter. 
 
 Mt. Vernon, 111., June 10, 1891. 
 This is to certify that I am personally acquainted with 
 Bro. A. C. Barton, of Danville, 111., and having heard him 
 lecture I can recommend him as well able to expound 
 alliance doctrine and to be an excellent advocate of the 
 cause of the people. F. G. Blood. 
 
 Sec'y of F. A. & U. I. of Illinois. 
 
 Danville, III, June 2, 1891. 
 I have known Hon. A. C. Barton intimately since 1876, 
 368 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 369 
 
 and co-worked with him in the great reform movements 
 that are agitating the country and the world. He is a 
 thorough educator in these mighty movements, both with 
 pen and voice. As a platform speaker he is strong, con- 
 vincing and eloquent, holding his audience to the closest 
 attention. As an advocate of higher civilization and hap- 
 pier condition of the masses he is a power. Those want- 
 ing speeches for a series of meetings, or a single one at 
 big gatherings, can strengthen the cause of humanity and 
 build up their own cause by securing him. I take pleasure 
 in thus speaking of him. J. Harper. 
 
 U. L. CONVENTION AT LEBANON, IND. 
 
 September 13, 1890. 
 Report in Express : At 1 130 the circuit court room 
 was well filled. * * Mr. Barton made a one and three- 
 quarter hours speech; he held the audience absorbed in 
 close attention to the facts. * * His arguments were 
 clear, plain and solid. * * We recommend to any who 
 want a good speaker to engage him. - 
 
 IN THE OPERA HOUSE. 
 
 Mattoon, 111., October 9, 1890. 
 Mr. Barton, an alliance and industrial union organizer, 
 gave, as the cause of the great oppression, the contraction 
 of the currency, concentration of wealth, railroad and land 
 monopolies. As a remedy he advised that $50 instead of 
 $5 be issued from the treasury per capita. * * The 
 speech was good, and as "facts are stubborn things," it 
 had a telling effect. Editor Commercial (Dem.) 
 
 Report of same meeting in National View, Washing- 
 ton, D. C. : A. C. Barton made the main speech of the 
 evening. His speech was well and enthusiastically re- 
 ceived. He kept the audience frequently applauding 
 throughout his speech, by the presentation of solid facts. 
 
370 Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 
 
 * * Such speakers should be kept speaking every day; 
 he is a good one. 
 
 F. M. B. A. and K. OF L. 
 
 GRAND PICNIC AT THE FAIR GROUND AT MARION, IND. 
 
 Dr. William McKinsey is in receipt of a telegram from 
 Hon. A. C. Barton, of Danville, 111., stating that he will 
 be here to address the county F. M. B. A. and K. of L. 
 picnic. The laboring men of this city are requested to 
 attend and hear Mr. Barton, who is reputed to be one of 
 the most forcible and eloquent public speakers in the west. 
 
 THE ADDRESS. 
 
 A. C. Barton, of Danville, 111., a member of both K. of 
 L. and the F. A. & I. U., was introduced. The speaker 
 is a laboring man. He possessed accurate knowledge 
 of the hardships of his class and portrayed them in lan- 
 guage both logical and eloquent, and his talk found echo 
 -in frequent demonstrations and cheers. * * He will 
 address the people on the same subject at the opera house 
 this evening. 
 
 The Marion Daily Leader (Dem.) 
 
 F. M. B. A. RALLY AT WINDSOR, ILL., NOV. i, 
 
 1890. 
 
 MR. BARTON MAKES AN INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 By 1 :30 at least 2,500 people were gathered. Mr. Bar- 
 ton was billed as speaker and was on time early. * * 
 I should like to give all his speech ; it would be valuable. 
 He spoke for two hours and dealt in facts that no man 
 could dispute. It is said by those who heard Mr. Bools 
 of Springfield, Tom Reed and other big speakers, that Mr. 
 Barton made the best speech of the campaign in this coun- 
 ty. * * His speech had a telling effect here, and many 
 
Life of Col. Jesse Harper. 371 
 
 congratulations were extended to him after the speech. 
 He lectured in the church at night. At 7 o'clock the 
 church was full. He talked on a different subject, but 
 was very interesting ; it was a good lecture and the com- 
 mittee ought to keep him speaking all the time. 
 
 A Candidate in National View. 
 
 Mr. A. C. Barton, of Danville, 111., delivered a lecture 
 at the Christian church on Friday night, December 19, 
 to the people of Ogden and vicinity, on the great ques- 
 tions of the age. Mr. Barton gave cause and remedy for 
 hard times, and made some good points on the silver ques- 
 tion. The Ogden Journal (Rep.) 
 
 I take pleasure in recommending Hon. A. C. Barton, of 
 Danville, 111., as one of the leading campaign speakers, 
 having heard him address three large gatherings. He 
 holds his audience spell-bound. I should like to have 
 him in the lecture field for the most of his time. He is a 
 splendid organizer and educator. H. E. Taubenick, 
 
 Washington, D. C.