Now, the willing and capable bank in the premises must possess an adequate supply of non-taxable, interest-bearing Government bonds, upon which, to their full face value, it may issue paper money equal to the exigencies of the great merged corporations. Without the bonds, upon which to issue the money, the bank could not finance the merger.
If the iron manufactories be merged, the necessary sequence must be the merging of the railroads that enter Birmingham. In order to effect the merging of the railroads financing which would duplicate the original example, here cited, must follow.
Commerce, founded on the public debt, is founded upon Government mortgages upon universal private industry.
Must not that kind of commerce subvert free institutions?
Yours truly,
(Signed) John Witherspoon Du Bose.
The writer of the letter on the public debt is the author of the “Life and Times of William L. Yancey,” a book which is a treasure-house of varied and valuable information.
That this Magazine has made such a favorable impression upon so able and representative a man, is of itself a great encouragement to us who are devoting our lives to it.
The question asked by the distinguished Alabamian is a spear-thrust into the very vitals of our vicious system of Class-Rule and Special Privileges.
When Alexander Hamilton set out to make our government as English as the Constitution would admit of, he laid the foundations of his work in the English system of Protection, the English system of Finance, and the English system of Funding the Public Debt.