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Saved by the National Banks
Near the end of the war, the South was on its knees and the
U.S. Government was nearly bankrupt. Seeing their opportunity,
the Bankers offered to loan the U.S. Government enough to see it
through. Lincoln said no. He would find another way.
What he did then was to ask Congress for permission to print
paper money. Even though he knew it was unconstitutional (only
gold and silver are lawful U.S. money), it was the only way he
knew to buy provisions for the Army -- but only if the U.S. banks
would accept it. They did. When Lincoln gave his word that the
Government would redeem those notes for gold and silver at a
later time, they believed him and honored the notes. By doing
this, the planned takeover by the Bankers was averted -- at that
time.
The Bankers' Revenge -- Assassination
Because he had given his word to the nation's bankers;
because he had promised the South that, upon surrender, the
Government would help them rebuild; and because he had promised
the Southerners there would be no recriminations or punishments
if they again swore loyalty to the Union, Lincoln knew he had to
get re-elected, though he was tired, tormented by migraine
headaches, and worried about his suffering family life. He had
to make sure those promises were kept.
Lincoln's complete thwarting of the International Bankers'
plans doomed him to assassination at their hands. Papers found
in Booth's locker show communications with an agent hired by the
Rothschild family.
Weeks before he was killed, Lincoln knew he would die in
office. His spies were reporting plots to kill him; it was only
a matter of who got to him first. So, he met regularly with his
Vice President, Andrew Johnson, and educated him as quickly as he
could so that he could follow through on Lincoln's promises.
Johnson listened carefully and understood what was expected of
him, and why. Then, after Lincoln's murder, he did exactly as he
was supposed to do.
In school, when we were taught this part of American
history, we were told that Andrew Johnson was uneducated and
ignorant, and fumbled continuously in office, which was
supposedly why he was impeached. Johnson was of humble origin,
but he was an honest, self-educated man who stood firmly for what
he saw clearly were the best interests of his country. This is
what got him impeached.
Impeachment!
At this time, the only men in Congress were those
representing the northern States. After Fort Sumter, all the
southern States had seceded. After Lincoln's death, Congress
began passing laws to punish the South, in contradiction to
Lincoln's promise. Johnson began vetoing them, sometimes three
and four times, until Congress began passing them over his veto.
One particular bill that he vetoed, the Civil Rights Bill, was
intended to make all former slaves automatic citizens of the
Federal Government, and under its direct jurisdiction (and
protection). This seemed like a compassionate and generous
gesture to the newly freed slaves but, as Johnson pointed out, it
would have serious consequences for the Negroes. In his veto
message in March of 1866, Johnson pointed out the pitfalls of
this bill:
He [the Negro] must, of necessity, from his previous
unfortunate condition of servitude, be less informed as to
the nature and character of our institutions than he who,
coming from abroad, has to some extent at least,
familiarized himself with the principles of a government to
which he voluntarily entrusts "life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness".
The 1st Section of the bill also contains an
enumeration of the rights to be enjoyed by these classes so
made citizens "in every state and territory in the United
States". These rights are "to make and enforce contracts;
to sue, be parties, and give evidence; to inherit,
purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal
property"; and to have "full and equal benefit of all laws
and proceedings for the security of person and property as
is enjoyed by white citizens". So too, they are made
subject to the same punishment, pains and penalties, in
common with white citizens ....
[emphasis added]
Johnson could clearly see that to immediately place a string
of governmental "rights and benefits" upon a totally naive and
uneducated people as the Negroes, would also make them easy prey
for every carpetbagger who would trick them into contracts, in
which they would have no knowledge of the legal ramifications.
This bill would, in effect, make the former slaves as slaves
again to different masters: unscrupulous businessmen, attorneys
and judges.
Johnson saw that this bill was also a means of foisting
unconstitutional jurisdiction of the Federal Government in every
state:
Thus a perfect equality of the white and colored races
is attempted to be fixed by federal law in every state of
the Union over the vast field of state jurisdiction covered
by these enumerated rights.
If Congress can declare by law who shall hold lands,
who shall testify, who shall have capacity to make a
contract in a state, then Congress can by law also declare
who, without regard to color or race, shall have the right
to sit as a juror or as a judge, to hold any office, and
finally, to vote "in every state and territory of the United
States".
The legislation thus proposed invades the judicial
power of the state. It says to every state court or judge:
if you decide that this act is unconstitutional; if you
refuse, under the prohibition of a state law, to allow a
Negro to testify; if you hold that over such a subject
matter the state law is paramount ... your error of
judgment, however conscientious, shall abject you to fine
and imprisonment.
The Legislative Department of the government of the
United States thus takes from the Judicial Department of the
states the sacred and exclusive duty of judicial decision
and converts the state judge into a mere ministerial
officer, bound to decide according to the will of Congress.
[emphasis added]
Johnson then continued with an additional warning as to the
virtually unlimited power given to appointed agents:
The Section of the bill provides that officers and
agents of the Freedman's Bureau shall be empowered to make
arrests and also that other officers may be specially
commissioned for that purpose by the President of the United
States. It also authorizes circuit courts of the United
States and the superior courts of the territories to
appoint, without limitation, commissioners, who are to be
charged with the performance of quasi-judicial duties.
These numerous agents are made to constitute a sort of
police, in addition to the military, and are authorized to
summon a posse comitatus, and even to call to their aid such
portion of the land and naval forces of the United States or
of the militia ....
This extraordinary power is to be conferred upon agents
irresponsible to the government and to the people, to whose
number the discretion of the commissioners is the only limit
and in whose hands such authority might be made a terrible
engine of wrong, oppression and fraud.
The 7th Section provides that a fee ... shall be paid
to each commissioner in every case brought before him, and a
fee ... to his deputy or deputies for each person he or they
may arrest and take before any such commissioner ....
All those fees are to be "paid out of the Treasury of
the United States" whether there is a conviction or not;
but in the case of conviction they are to be recoverable
from the defendant. It seems to me that under the influence
of such temptations, bad men might convert any law, however
beneficent, into an instrument of persecution and fraud.
To me, the details of the bill seem fraught with evil.
It is another step, or rather stride, toward centralization
and the concentration of all legislative powers in the
national government.
[emphasis added]
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