y at the expense of
the people, when all the world knows that the Civil War was organized
by slaveholders to destroy the national government and to set up
a slaveholding confederacy in the south upon its ruins. The
'Shylock,' described by Mrs. Emery, is a phantom of her imagination.
The 'Shylocks of the war' were the men who furnished the means to
carry on the government, and included in their number the most
patriotic citizens of the northern states, who, uniting their means
with the services and sacrifices of our soldiers, put down the
rebellion, abolished slavery, and preserved and strengthened our
government.

"The first of her 'conspiracies' she calls the exception clause in
the act of February 25, 1862, by which the duties on imported goods
were required to be paid in coin in order to provide the means to
pay the interest on coin bonds in coin. This clause had not only
the cordial support of Secretary Chase, but of President Lincoln,
and proved to be the most important financial aid of the government
devised during the war. Goods being imported upon coin values, it
was but right that the duty to the government should be paid in
the same coin. Otherwise the duties would have been constantly
diminishing with the lessening purchasing power of our greenbacks.
If the interest of our debt had not been paid in coin, we could
have borrowed no money abroad, and the rate of interest, instead
of diminishing as it did, would have been largely increased, and
the volume of our paper money would necessarily have had to be
increased and its value would have gone down lower and lower, and
probably ended, as Confederate money did, in being as worthless as
rags. This exception clause saved our public credit by making a
market for our bonds, and the coin was paid by foreigners for the
privilege of entering our markets.

"As for the national banking system--the second of her 'conspiracies'
--it is now conceded to have produced the best form of paper money
issued by banks that has ever been devised. It was organized to
take the place of the state banks, which, at the beginning of the
war, had outstanding over $200,000,000 of notes, of value varying
from state to state, and most of them at a discount of from five
to twenty-five per cent. It was absolutely necessary to get rid
of these state bank notes and to substitute for them bank notes
secured beyond doubt by the deposit of United States bonds, a system
so perfect that fro