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By Greg Bacon (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)
So what was the Civil War all about? There were many factors at play. Northern industrialists had used protective tariffs to prevent their southern states from buying cheaper European goods. Europe retaliated by stopping cotton imports from the South. The Southern states were in a financial bind. They were forced to pay more for most of the necessities of life while their income from cotton exports plummeted. The South grew ncreasingly angry.
But there were other factors at work. ... The central bankers now saw an pportunity to use the North/South divisions to split the rich new nation - t divide and conquer by war. Was this just some sort of wild conspiracy theory? Well, let's look at what a well placed observer of the scene had to say at time.
This was Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, the man who united the German states in 1871. A few years later, in 1876, he is quoted as saying:
"It is not to be doubted, I know of absolute certainty," Bismarck declared, "that the division of the United States into two federations of equal power was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained as one block and were to develop as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset the capitalist domination of Europe over the world."
Within months after the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, the central bankers loaned Napoleon III of France (the nephew of the Waterloo Napoleon) 210 million francs to seize Mexico and station troops along the southern border of the U.S., taking advantage of the Civil War to violate the Monroe Doctrine and return Mexico to colonial rule.
No matter what the outcome of the Civil War, it was hoped that a war-weakened America, heavily indebted to the Money Changers, would open up Central and South America once again to European colonization and domination.
At the same time, Great Britain moved 11,000 troops into Canada and positioned them along America's northern border. The British fleet went on war alert should their quick intervention be called for.
Lincoln knew he was in a bind. He agonized over the fate of the Union. There was a lot more to it than just differences between the North and the South. That's why his emphasis was always on "Union" and not merely the defeat of the South. But Lincoln needed money to win.
In 1861, Lincoln and his Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, went to New York to apply for the necessary war loans. The Money Changers, anxious to maximize their war profits, only offered loans at 24-36% interest. Lincoln said thanks, but no thanks, and returned to Washington. He sent for an old friend, Colonel Dick Taylor of Chicago, and put him onto the problem off financing the War. At one particular meeting, Lincoln asked Taylor how else to finance the war. Taylor put it this way:
"Why, Lincoln, that is easy; just get Congress to pass a bill authorizing the printing of full legal tender treasury notes... pay your soldiers with them and go ahead and win your war with them also."
When Lincoln asked if the people of the United States would accept the notes, Taylor said:
"The people or anyone else will not have any choice in the matter, if you make them full legal tender. They will have the full sanction of the government and be just as good as any money ... the stamp of full legal tender by the Government is the thing that makes money good any time, and this will always be as good as any other money inside the borders of our country. "
So that's exactly what Lincoln did. From 1862 to 1865, with Congressional authorization, he printed up $432,000,000 of the new bills.
In order to distinguish them from private bank notes in circulation, he had them printed with green ink on the back side. That's why the notes were called "Greenbacks." With this new money, Lincoln paid the troops, and bought their supplies. During the course of the war, nearly all of the 450 million dollars of Greenbacks authorized by Congress were printed at no interest to the federal government.
By now Lincoln realized who was really pulling the strings and what was at stake for the American people. ... This is how he explained his monetary views:
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