History for ready reference, Volumes 1 to 5

Part 2 — Chapter III. (These four articles abrogated by the four articles following them, 118-122.) Article 118. The Federal Constitution may at any time be amended. (continued 114)

Reading edition

W. G. Sumner, Andrew Jackson, chapter 11.

Jackson was overwhelmingly elected, and feeling convinced that his war upon the Bank had received the approval of the people, he determined to remove the public deposits from its keeping on his own responsibility. "With this view he removed (in the spring of 1833) the Secretary of the Treasury, who would not consent to remove the deposits, and appointed William J. Duane, of Pennsylvania, in his place. He proved to be no more compliant than his predecessor. After many attempts to persuade him, the President announced to the Cabinet his final decision that the deposits must be removed. The Reasons given were that the law gave the Secretary, not Congress, control of the deposits, that it was improper to leave them longer in a bank whose charter would so soon expire, that the Bank's funds had been largely used for political purposes, that its inability to pay all its depositors had been shown by its efforts to procure an extension of time from its creditors in Europe, and that its four government directors had been systematically kept from knowledge of its management. Secretary Duane refused either to remove the deposits or to resign his office, and pronounced the proposed removal unnecessary, unwise, vindictive, arbitrary, and unjust. He was at once removed from office, and Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, appointed in his place. The necessary Orders for Removal were given by Secretary Taney. It was not strictly a removal, for all previous deposits were left in the Bank, to be drawn upon until exhausted. It was rather a cessation. The deposits were afterwards made in various State banks, and the Bank of the United States was compelled to call in its loans. The commercial distress which followed in consequence probably strengthened the President in the end by giving a convincing proof of the Bank's power as an antagonist to the Government."

A. Johnston, History of American Politics, chapter 13.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1837-1841. The Wild Cat Banks of Michigan.

"Michigan became a State in January, 1837. Almost the first act of her State legislature was the passage of a general banking law under which any ten or more freeholders of any county might organize themselves into a corporation for the transaction of banking business. Of the nominal capital of a bank only ten per cent. in specie was required to be paid when subscriptions to the stock were made, and twenty per cent. additional in specie when the bank began business. For the further security of the notes which were to be issued as currency, the stockholders were to give first mortgages upon real estate, to be estimated at its cash value by at least three county officers, the mortgages to be filed with the auditor-general of the State. A bank commissioner was appointed to superintend the organization of the banks, and to attest the legality of their proceedings to the auditor-general, who, upon receiving such attestation, was to deliver to the banks circulating notes amounting to two and a half times the capital certified to as having been paid in. This law was passed in obedience to a popular cry that the banking business had become an 'odious monopoly' that ought to be broken up. Its design was to 'introduce free competition into what was considered a profitable branch of business heretofore monopolized by a few favored corporations.' Anybody was to be given fair opportunities for entering the business on equal terms with everybody else. The act was passed in March, 1837, and the legislature adjourned till November 9 following. Before the latter date arrived, in fact before any banks had been organized under the law, a financial panic seized the whole country. An era of wild speculation reached a climax, the banks in all the principal cities of the country suspended specie payments, and State legislatures were called together to devise remedies to meet the situation. That of Michigan was convened in special session in June, and its remedy for the case of Michigan was to leave the general banking law in force, and to add to it full authority for banks organized under it to begin the business of issuing bills in a state of suspension—that is, to flood the State with an irredeemable currency, based upon thirty per cent. of specie and seventy per cent. of land mortgage bonds."

Cheap-Money Experiments (from the Century Magazine), pages 75-77.

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"Wild lands that had been recently bought of the government at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre were now valued at ten or twenty times that amount, and lots in villages that still existed only on paper had a worth for banking purposes only limited by the conscience of the officer who was to take the securities. Any ten freeholders of a county must be poor indeed if they could not give sufficient security to answer the purpose of the general banking law. The requirement of the payment of thirty per cent. of the capital stock in specie was more difficult to be complied with. But as the payment was to be made to the bank itself, the difficulty was gotten over in various ingenious ways, which the author of the general banking law could hardly have anticipated. In some cases, stock notes in terms payable in specie, or the certificates of individuals which stated—untruly—that the maker held a specified sum of specie for the bank, were counted as specie itself; in others, a small sum of specie was paid in and taken out, and the process repeated over and over until the aggregate of payments equaled the sum required; in still others, the specie with which one bank was organized was passed from town to town and made to answer the purposes of several. By the first day of January, 1838, articles of association for twenty-one banks had been filed, making, with the banks before in existence, an average of one to less than five thousand people. Some of them were absolutely without capital, and some were organized by scheming men in New York and elsewhere, who took the bills away with them to circulate abroad, putting out none at home. For some, locations as inaccessible as possible were selected, that the bills might not come back to plague the managers. The bank commissioners say in their report for 1838, of their journey for inspection: 'The singular spectacle was presented of the officers of the State seeking for banks in situations the most inaccessible and remote from trade, and finding at every step an increase of labor by the discovery of new and unknown organizations. Before they could be arrested the mischief was done: large issues were in circulation and no adequate remedy for the evil.' One bank was found housed in a saw-mill, and it was said with pardonable exaggeration in one of the public papers. 'Every village plat with a house, or even without a house, if it had a hollow stump to serve as a vault, was the site of a bank.' … The governor, when he delivered his annual message in January, 1838, still had confidence in the general banking law, which he said 'offered to all persons the privilege of banking under certain guards and restrictions,' and he declared that 'the principles upon which this law is based are certainly correct, destroying as they do the odious feature of a banking monopoly, and giving equal rights to all classes of the community.' … The aggregate amount of private indebtedness had by this time become enormous, and the pressure for payment was serious and disquieting. … The people must have relief; and what relief could be so certain or so speedy as more banks and more money? More banks therefore continued to be organized, and the paper current flowed out among the people in increasing volume. … At the beginning of 1839 the bank commissioners estimated that there were a million dollars of bills of insolvent banks in the hands of individuals and unavailable. Yet the governor, in his annual message delivered in January, found it a 'source of unfeigned gratification to be able to congratulate [the legislature] on the prosperous condition to which our rising commonwealth has attained.' … Then came stay laws, and laws to compel creditors to take lands at a valuation. They were doubtful in point of utility, and more than doubtful in point of morality and constitutionality. The federal bankrupt act of 1841 first brought substantial relief: it brought almost no dividends to creditors, but it relieved debtors from their crushing burdens and permitted them, sobered and in their right minds, to enter once more the fields of industry and activity. The extraordinary history of the attempt to break up an 'odious monopoly' in banking by making everybody a banker, and to create prosperity by unlimited issues of paper currency, was brought at length to a fit conclusion."

T. M. Cooley, Michigan, chapter 13.

See WILD CAT BANKS.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1838. Free Banking Law of New York.

"On April 18th, 1838, the monopoly of banking under special charters, was brought to a close in the State of New York, by the passage of the act 'to authorize the business of Banking.' Under this law Associations for Banking purposes and Individual Bankers, were authorized to carry on the business of Banking, by establishing offices of deposit, discount and circulation. Subsequently a separate Department was organized at Albany, called 'The Bank Department,' with a Superintendent, who was charged with the supervision of all the banks in the State. Under this law institutions could be organized simply as banks of 'discount and deposit,' and might also add the issuing of a paper currency to circulate as money. At first the law provided that State and United States stocks for one-half, and bonds and mortgages for the other half, might be deposited as security for the circulating notes to be issued by Banks and individual Bankers. Upon a fair trial, however, it was found that when a bank failed, and the Bank Department was called upon to redeem the circulating notes of such bank, the mortgages could not be made available in time to meet the demand. … By an amendment of the law the receiving of mortgages as security for circulating notes was discontinued."

E. G. Spaulding, One Hundred Years of Progress in the Business of Banking, page 48.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1844. The English Bank Charter Act.

"By an act of parliament passed in 1838, conferring certain privileges on the Bank of England, it was provided that the charter granted to that body should expire in 1855, but the power was reserved to the legislature, on giving six months' notice, to revise the charter ten years earlier. Availing themselves of this option, the government proposed a measure for regulating the entire monetary system of the country."

W. C. Taylor, Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel, volume 3, chapter 7.

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"The growth of commerce, and in particular the establishment of numerous joint-stock banks had given a dangerous impulse to issues of paper money, which were not then restricted by law. Even the Bank of England did not observe any fixed proportion between the amount of notes which it issued and the amount of bullion which it kept in reserve. When introducing this subject to the House of Commons, Peel remarked that within the last twenty years there had been four periods when a contraction of issues had been necessary in order to maintain the convertibility of paper, and that in none of these had the Bank of England acted with vigour equal to the emergency. In the latest of these periods, from June of 1838 to June of 1839, the amount of bullion in the Bank had fallen to little more than £4,000,000, whilst the total of paper in circulation had risen to little less than £30,000,000. … Peel was not the first to devise the methods which he adopted. Mr. Jones Loyd, afterwards Lord Overstone, who impressed the learned with his tracts and the vulgar with his riches, had advised the principal changes in the law relating to the issue of paper money which Peel effected by the Bank Charter Act. These changes were three in number. The first was to separate totally the two departments of the Bank of England, the banking department and the issue department. The banking department was left to be managed as best the wisdom of the directors could devise for the profit of the shareholders. The issue department was placed under regulations which deprived the Bank of any discretion in its management, and may almost be said to have made it a department of the State. The second innovation was to limit the issue of paper by the Bank of England to an amount proportioned to the value of its assets. The Bank was allowed to issue notes to the amount of £14,000,000 against Government securities in its possession. The Government owed the Bank a debt of £11,000,000, besides which the Bank held Exchequer Bills. But the amount over £14,000,000 which the Bank could issue was not, henceforwards, to be more than the equivalent of the bullion in its possession. By this means it was made certain that the Bank would be able to give coin for any of its notes which might be presented to it. The third innovation was to limit the issues of the country banks. The power of issuing notes was denied to any private or joint-stock banks founded after the date of the Act. It was recognized in those banks which already possessed it, but limited to a total sum of £8,500,000, the average quantity of such notes which had been in circulation during the years immediately preceding. It was provided that if any of the banks which retained this privilege should cease to exist or to issue notes, the Bank of England should be entitled to increase its note circulation by a sum equal to two-thirds of the amount of the former issues of the bank which ceased to issue paper. The Bank of England was required in this contingency to augment the reserve fund. By Acts passed in the succeeding year, the principles of the English Bank Charter Act were applied to Scotland and Ireland, with such modifications as the peculiar circumstances of those kingdoms required. The Bank Charter Act has ever since been the subject of voluminous and contradictory criticism, both by political economists and by men of business."

F. C. Montague, Life of Sir Robert Peel, chapter 8.

ALSO IN: Bonamy Price, The Bank Charter Act of 1844 (Fraser's Magazine, June, 1865).

W. C. Taylor, Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel, volume 3, chapter 7.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1848-1893. Production of the Precious Metals in the last half-century. The Silver Question in the United States.

"The total (estimated) stock of gold in the world in 1848, was £560,000,000. As for the annual production, it had varied considerably since the beginning of the century [from £3,000,000 to £8,000,000]. Such was the state of things immediately preceding 1848. In that year the Californian discoveries took place, and these were followed by the discoveries in Australia in 1851.

See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1848-1849; and AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1839-1855.

For these three years the annual average production is set down by the Economist at £9,000,000, but from this date the production suddenly rose to, for 1852, £27,000.000, and continued to rise till 1856, when it attained its maximum of £32,250,000. At this stage a decline in the returns occurred, the lowest point reached being in 1860, when they fell to £18,683,000, but from this they rose again, and for the last ten years [before 1873] have maintained an average of about £20,500,000; the returns for the year 1871 being £20,811,000. The total amount of gold added to the world's stock by this twenty years' production has been about £500,000,000, an amount nearly equal to that existing in the world at the date of the discoveries: in other words, the stock of gold in the world has been nearly doubled since that time."

J. E. Cairnes, Essays in Political Economy, pages 160-161.

"The yearly average of gold production in the twenty-five years from 1851-75 was $127,000,000. The yearly average product of silver for the same period was $51,000,000. The average annual product of gold for the fifteen years from 1876 to 1890 declined to $108,000,000; a minus of 15 per cent. The average annual product of silver for the same period increased to $116,000,000; a plus of 127 per cent. There is the whole silver question."

L. R. Ehrich, The Question of Silver, page 21.

"From 1793—the date of the first issue of silver coin by the United States—to 1834 the silver and the gold dollar were alike authorized to be received as legal tender in payment of debt, but silver alone circulated. Subsequently, however, silver was not used, except in fractional payments, or, since 1853, as a subsidiary coin. The silver coin, as a coin of circulation, had become obsolete. The reason why, prior to 1834, payments were made exclusively in silver, and subsequently to that date in gold, is found in the fact that prior to the legislation of 1834 … the standard silver coins were relatively the cheaper, and consequently circulated to the exclusion of the gold; while during the later period the standard gold coins were the cheaper, circulating to the exclusion of the silver. The Coinage Act of 1873, by which the coinage of the silver dollar was discontinued, became a law on February 12th of that year. The act of February 28, 1878, which passed Congress by a two-thirds vote over the veto of President Hayes, again provided for the coinage of a silver dollar of 412.5 grains, the silver bullion to be purchased at the market price by the Government, and the amount so purchased and coined not to be less than two millions of dollars per month. During the debate on this bill the charge was repeatedly made, in and out of Congress, that the previous act of 1873, discontinuing the free coinage of the silver dollar, was passed surreptitiously. {2218} This statement has no foundation in fact. The report of the writer, who was then Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, transmitted to Congress in 1870 by the Secretary, three times distinctly stated that the bill accompanying it proposed to discontinue the issue of the silver dollar-piece. Various experts, to whom it had been submitted, approved this feature of the bill, and their opinions were printed by order of Congress."

J. J. Knox, United States Notes, chapter 10.

"The bill of 1878, generally spoken of as the 'Bland' bill, directed the secretary of the treasury to purchase not less than two million nor more than four million dollars' worth of silver bullion per month, to coin it into silver dollars, said silver dollars to be full legal tender at 'their nominal value.' Also, that the holder of ten or more of these silver dollars could exchange them for silver certificates, said certificates being 'receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues.' The bill was pushed and passed by the efforts, principally, of the greenback inflationists and the representatives of the silver States. … Since 1878 [to 1891], 405,000,000 silver dollars have been coined. Of these 348,000,000 are still lying in the treasury vaults. No comment is needed. The Bland-Allison act did not hold up silver. In 1870 it was worth $1.12 an ounce, in 1880 $1.14, '81 $1.13, '82 $1.13, '83 $1.11, '86 99 cents, until in '89 it reached 93½ cents an ounce. That is, in 1880 the commercial ratio was 22:1 and the coin value of the Bland-Allison silver dollar was 72 cents. In March, 1800, a bill was reported to the House by the committee of 'coinage, weights and measures,' based on a plan proposed by Secretary Windom. … The bill passed the House. The Senate passed it with an amendment making provision for free and unlimited coinage. It finally went to a conference committee which reported the bill that became a law, July 14, 1890. This bill directs the secretary of the treasury to purchase four and one-half million ounces of silver a month at the market price, to give legal tender treasury notes therefor, said notes being redeemable in gold or silver coin at the option of the government, 'it being the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio.' It was believed that this bill would raise the price of silver. … To-day [December 8, 1891] the silver in our dollar is actually worth 73 cents."

L. R. Ehrich, The Question of Silver, pages 21-25.

See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1873, 1878, and 1890-1893.

In the summer of 1893, a financial crisis, produced in the judgment of the best informed by the operation of the silver-purchase law of 1890 (known commonly as the Sherman Act) became so serious that President Cleveland called a special session of Congress to deal with it. In his Message to Congress, at the opening of its session, the President said: "With plenteous crops, with abundant promise of remunerative production and manufacture, with unusual invitation to safe investment, and with satisfactory assurance to business enterprise, suddenly financial fear and distrust have sprung up on every side. Numerous moneyed institutions have suspended because abundant assets were not immediately available to meet the demands of the frightened depositors. Surviving corporations and individuals are content to keep in hand the money they are usually anxious to loan, and those engaged in legitimate business are surprised to find that the securities they offer for loans, though heretofore satisfactory, are no longer accepted. Values supposed to be fixed are fast becoming conjectural, and loss and failure have involved every branch of business. I believe these things are principally chargeable to congressional legislation touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the General Government. This legislation is embodied in a statute passed on the 14th day of July, 1890, which was the culmination of much agitation on the subject involved, and which may be considered a truce, after a long struggle between the advocates of free silver coinage and those intending to be more conservative." A bill to repeal the act of July 14, 1890 (the Sherman law, so called), was passed by both houses and received the President's signature, Nov. 1, 1893.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1853-1874. The Latin Union and the Silver Question.

"The gold discoveries of California and Australia were directly the cause of the Latin Union. … In 1853, when the subsidiary silver of the United States had disappeared before the cheapened gold, we reduced the quantity of silver in the small coins sufficiently to keep them dollar for dollar below the value of gold. Switzerland followed this example of the United States in her law of January 31, 1860; but, instead of distinctly reducing the weight of pure silver in her small coins, she accomplished the same end by lowering the fineness of standard for these coins to 800 thousandths fine. … Meanwhile France and Italy had a higher standard for their coins than Switzerland, and as the neighboring states, which had the franc system of coinage in common, found each other's coins in circulation within their own limits, it was clear that the cheaper Swiss coins, according to Gresham's law, must drive out the dearer French and Italian coins, which contained more pure silver, but which passed current at the same nominal value. The Swiss coins of 800 thousandths fine began to pass the French frontier and to displace the French coins of a similar denomination; and the French coins were exported, melted, and recoined in Switzerland at a profit. This, of course, brought forth a decree in France (April 14, 1864), which prohibited the receipt of these Swiss coins at the public offices of France, the customs-offices, etc., and they were consequently refused in common trade among individuals. Belgium also, as well as Switzerland, began to think it necessary to deal with the questions affecting her silver small coins, which were leaving that country for the same reason that they were leaving Switzerland. Belgium then undertook to make overtures to France, in order that some concerted action might be undertaken by the four countries using the franc system—Italy, Belgium, France, and Switzerland—to remedy the evil to which all were exposed by the disappearance of their silver coin needed in every-day transactions. The discoveries of gold had forced a reconsideration of their coinage systems. In consequence of these overtures, a conference of delegates representing the Latin states just mentioned assembled in Paris, November 20, 1865. … The Conference, fully realizing the effects of the fall of gold in driving out their silver coins, agreed to establish a uniform coinage in the four countries, on the essential principles adopted by the United States in 1853. {2219} They lowered the silver pieces of two francs, one franc, fifty centimes, and twenty centimes from a standard of 900 thousandths fine to a uniform fineness of 835 thousandths, reducing these coins to the position of a subsidiary currency. They retained for the countries of the Latin Union, however, the system of bimetallism. Gold pieces of one hundred, fifty, twenty, ten, and five francs were to be coined, together with five-franc pieces of silver, and all at a standard of 900 thousandths fine. Free coinage at a ratio of 15½:1, was thereby granted to any holder of either gold or silver bullion who wanted silver coins of five francs, or gold coins from five francs and upward. … The subsidiary silver coins (below five francs) were made a legal tender between individuals of the state which coined them to the amount of fifty francs. … The treaty was ratified, and went into effect August 1, 1866, to continue until January 1, 1880, or about fifteen years. … The downward tendency of silver in 1873 led the Latin Union to fear that the demonetized silver of Germany would flood their own mints if they continued the free coinage of five-franc silver pieces at a legal ratio of 15½:1. … This condition of things led to the meeting of delegates from the countries of the Latin Union at Paris, January 30, 1874, who there agreed to a treaty supplementary to that originally formed in 1865, and determined on withdrawing from individuals the full power of free coinage by limiting to a moderate sum the amount of silver five-franc pieces which should be coined by each state of the Union during the year 1874. The date of this suspension of coinage by the Latin Union is regarded by all authorities as of great import in regard to the value of silver."

J. L. Laughlin, The History of Bimetallism in the United States, pages 146-155.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1861-1878. The Legal-tender notes, or Greenbacks, the National Bank System, of the American Civil War.

"In January, 1861, the paper currency of the United States was furnished by 1,600 private corporations, organized under thirty-four different State laws. The circulation of the banks amounted to $202,000,000, of which only about $50,000,000 were issued in the States which in April, 1861, undertook to set up an independent government. About $150,000,000 were in circulation in the loyal States, including West Virginia. When Congress met in extraordinary session on the 4th of July, the three-months volunteers, who had hastened to the defence of the capital, were confronting the rebel army on the line of the Potomac, and the first great battle at Bull Run was impending. President Lincoln called upon Congress to provide for the enlistment of 400,000 men, and Secretary Chase submitted estimates for probable expenditures amounting to $318,000,000. The treasury was empty, and the expenses of the government were rapidly approaching a million dollars a day. The ordinary expenses of the government, during the year ending on the 30th of June, 1861, had been $62,000,000, and even this sum had not been supplied by the revenue, which amounted to only $41,000,000. The rest had been borrowed. It was now necessary to provide for an expenditure increased fivefold, and amounting to eight times the income of the country, Secretary Chase advised that $80,000,000 be provided by taxation, and $240,000,000 by loans; and that, in anticipation of revenue, provision be made for the issue of $50,000,000 of treasury notes, redeemable on demand in coin. 'The greatest care will, however, be requisite,' he said, 'to prevent the degradation of such issues into an irredeemable paper currency, than which no more certainly fatal expedient for impoverishing the masses and discrediting the government of any country can well be devised.' The desired authority was granted by Congress. The Secretary was authorized to borrow, on the credit of the United States, not exceeding $250,000,000, and, 'as a part of the above loan,' to issue an exchange for coin, or pay for salaries or other dues from the United States, not over $50,000,000 of treasury notes, bearing no interest, but payable on demand at Philadelphia, New York, or Boston. The act does not say, 'payable in coin,' for nobody had then imagined that any other form of payment was possible. Congress adjourned on the 6th of August, after passing an act to provide an increased revenue from imports, and laying a direct tax of $20,000,000 upon the States, and a tax of 3 per cent. upon the excess of all private incomes above $800. The Secretary immediately invited the banks of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston to assist in the negotiation of the proposed loans, and they loyally responded. On the 19th of August they took $50,000,000 of three years 7-30 bonds at par; on the 1st of October, $50,000,000 more of the same securities at par; and on the 16th of November, $50,000,000 of twenty years 6 per cents., at a rate making the interest equivalent to 7 per cent. These advances relieved the temporary necessities of the treasury, and, when Congress reassembled in December, Secretary Chase was prepared to recommend a permanent financial policy. The solid basis of this policy was to be taxation. … It was estimated, a revenue of $90,000,000 would be needed; and to secure that sum, the Secretary advised that the duties on tea, coffee, and sugar be increased; that a direct tax of $20,000,000 be assessed on the States; that the income tax be modified so as to produce $10,000,000, and that duties be laid on liquors, tobacco, carriages, legacies, bank-notes, bills payable, and conveyances. For the extraordinary expenses of the war it was necessary to depend upon loans, and the authority to be granted for this purpose the Secretary left 'to the better judgment of Congress,' only suggesting that the rate of interest should be regulated by law, and that the time had come when the government might properly claim a part, at least, of the advantage of the paper circulation, then constituting a loan without interest from the people to the banks. There were two ways, Secretary Chase said, in which this advantage might be secured: 1. By increasing the issue of United States notes, and taxing the bank-notes out of existence. 2. By providing a national currency, to be issued by the banks but secured by the pledge of United States bonds. The former plan the Secretary did not recommend, regarding the hazard of a depreciating and finally worthless currency as far outweighing the probable benefits of the measure. … Congress had hardly begun to consider these recommendations, when the situation was completely changed by the suspension of specie payments, on the 28th of December, by the banks of New York, followed by the suspension of the other banks in the country, and compelling the treasury also to suspend. {2220} This suspension was the result of a panic occasioned by the shadow of war with England. … To provide for the pressing wants of the treasury, Congress, on the 12th of February, 1862, authorized the issue of $10,000,000 more of demand notes. Before the end of the session further issues were provided for, making the aggregate of United States notes $300,000,000, besides fractional currency. There was a long debate upon the propriety of making these notes a legal tender for private debts, and it seemed for a time that the measure would be defeated by this dispute. [The bill authorizing the issue of legal tender notes known afterwards as 'Greenbacks' was prepared by the Hon. E. G. Spaulding, who subsequently wrote the history of the measure.] Secretary Chase finally advised the concession of this point; nevertheless, 55 votes in the House of Representatives … were recorded against the provision making the notes a tender for private debts. Congress also empowered the Secretary to borrow $500,000,000 on 5-20 year 6 per cent. bonds, besides a temporary loan of $100,000,000, and provided that the interest on the bonds should be paid in coin, and that the customs should be collected in coin for that purpose. Nothing was said about the principal, for it was taken for granted that specie payments would be resumed before the payment of the principal of the debt would be undertaken. … Congress had thus adopted the plan which the Secretary of the Treasury did not recommend, and neglected the proposition which he preferred. … When Congress met in December, 1862, the magnitude of the war had become fully apparent. … The enormous demands upon the treasury … had exhausted the resources provided by Congress. The disbursements in November amounted to $59,847,077—two millions a day. Unpaid requisitions had accumulated amounting to $46,000,000. The total receipts for the year then current, ending June 30, 1863, were estimated at $511,000,000; the expenditures at $788,000,000; leaving $277,000,000 to be provided for. There were only two ways to obtain this sum—by a fresh issue of United States notes, or by new interest-bearing loans. But the gold premium had advanced in October to 34; the notes were already at a discount of 25 per cent. The consequences of an addition of $277,000,000 to the volume of currency, the Secretary said, would be 'inflation of prices, increase of expenditures, augmentation of debt, and, ultimately, disastrous defeat of the very purposes sought to be obtained by it.' He therefore recommended an increase in the amount authorized to be borrowed on the 5-20 bonds. … In order to create a market for the bonds, he again recommended the creation of banking associations under a national law requiring them to secure their circulation by a deposit of government bonds. The suggestion thus renewed was not received with favor by Congress. … On the 7th of January Mr. Hooper offered again his bill to provide a national currency, secured by a pledge of United States bonds, but the next day Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, submitted the bill with an adverse report from the committee on ways and means. On the 14th of January Mr. Stevens reported a resolution authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue $100,000,000 more of United States notes for the immediate payment of the army and navy. The resolution passed the House at once, and the Senate the next day. … On the 19th of January President Lincoln sent a special message to the House, announcing that he had signed the joint resolution authorizing a new issue of United States notes, but adding that he considered it his duty to express his sincere regret that it had been found necessary to add such a sum to an already redundant currency, while the suspended banks were still left free to increase their circulation at will. He warned Congress that such a policy must soon produce disastrous consequences, and the warning was effective. On the 25th of January Senator Sherman offered a bill to provide a national currency, differing in some respects from Mr. Hooper's in the House. The bill passed the Senate on the 12th of February, 23 to 21, and the House on the 20th, 78 to 64. … It was signed by the President on the 25th of February, 1863."

H. W. Richardson, The National Banks, chapter 2.

"One immediate effect of the Legal Tender Act was to destroy our credit abroad. Stocks were sent home for sale, and, as Bagebot shows, Lombard Street was closed to a nation which had adopted legal tender paper money. … By August all specie had disappeared from circulation, and postage-stamps and private note-issues took its place. In July a bill was passed for issuing stamps as fractional currency, but in March 1863, another act was passed providing for an issue of 50,000,000 in notes for fractional parts of a dollar—not legal tender. For many years the actual issue was only 30,000,000, the amount of silver fractional coins in circulation in the North, east of the Rocky Mountains, when the war broke out. … Gold rose to 200-220 or above, making the paper worth 45 or 50 cts., at which point the 5 per cent. ten-forties floated. The amount sold up to October 31st, 1865, was $172,770,100. Mr. Spaulding reckons up the paper issues which acted more or less as currency, on January 30th, 1864, at $1,125,877,034; 812,000,000 bore no interest."

W. G. Sumner, History of American Currency, pages 204-208.

The paper-money issues of the Civil War were not brought to parity of value with gold until near the close of the year 1878. The 1st day of January, 1879, had been fixed for resumption by an act passed in 1875; but that date was generally anticipated in practical business by a few months.

A. S. Bolles, Financial History of the United States, 1861-1885, book 1, chapters 4, 5, 8, and 11, and book 2, chapter 2.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1871-1873. Adoption of the Gold Standard by Germany.

"At the close of the Franco-Prussian war the new German Empire found the opportunity … for the establishment of a uniform coinage throughout its numerous small states, and was essentially aided in its plan at this time by the receipt of the enormous war-indemnity from France, of which $54,600,000 was paid to Germany in French gold coin. Besides this, Germany received from France bills of exchange in payment of the indemnity which gave Germany the title to gold in places, such as London, on which the bills were drawn. Gold in this way left London for Berlin. With a large stock of gold on hand, Germany began a series of measures to change her circulation from silver to gold. {2221} Her circulation in 1870, before the change was made, was composed substantially of silver and paper money, with no more than 4 per cent of the whole circulation in gold. … The substitution of gold instead of silver in a country like Germany which had a single silver medium was carried out by a path which led first to temporary bimetallism and later to gold monometallism. And for this purpose the preparatory measures were passed December 4, 1871. … This law of 1871 created new gold coins, current equally with existing silver coins, at rates of exchange which were based on a ratio between the gold and silver coins of 1:15½. The silver coins were not demonetized by this law; their coinage was for the present only discontinued; but there was no doubt as to the intention of the Government in the future. … The next and decisive step toward a single gold standard was taken by the act of July 9, 1873. … By this measure gold was established as the monetary standard of the country, with the 'mark' as the unit, and silver was used, as in the United States in 1853, in a subsidiary service. … Under the terms of this legislation Germany began to withdraw her old silver coinage, and to sell as bullion whatever silver was not recoined into the new subsidiary currency."

J. L. Laughlin, History of Bimetallism in the United States, pages 136-140.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1893. Stoppage of the free Coinage of Silver in India.

The free coinage of silver in India was stopped by the Government in June, 1893, thus taking the first step toward the establishment of the gold standard in that country.

—————MONEY AND BANKING: End—————

—————MONGOLS: Start————

MONGOLS: Origin and earliest history.

"The name Mongol (according to Schmidt) is derived from the word Mong, meaning brave, daring, bold, an etymology which is acquiesced in by Dr. Schott. Ssanang Setzen says it was first given to the race in the time of Jingis Khan, but it is of much older date than his time, as we know from the Chinese accounts. … They point further, as the statements of Raschid do, to the Mongols having at first been merely one tribe of a great confederacy, whose name was probably extended to the whole when the prowess of the Imperial House which governed it gained the supremacy. We learn lastly from them that the generic name by which the race was known in early times to the Chinese was Shi wei, the Mongols having, in fact, been a tribe of the Shi wei. … The Shi wei were known to the Chinese from the 7th century; they then consisted of various detached hordes, subject to the Thu kiu, or Turks. … After the fall of the Yuan-Yuan, the Turks, by whom they were overthrown, acquired the supreme control of Eastern Asia. They had, under the name of Hiong nu, been masters of the Mongolian desert and its border land from a very early period, and under their new name of Turks they merely reconquered a position from which they had been driven some centuries before. Everywhere in Mongol history we find evidence of their presence, the titles Khakan, Khan, Bigui or Beg, Terkhan, &c., are common to both races, while the same names occur among Mongol and Turkish chiefs. … This fact of the former predominance of Turkish influence in further Asia supports the traditions collected by Raschid, Abulghazi, &c., … which trace the race of Mongol Khans up to the old royal race of the Turks."

H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, volume 1, pages 27-32.

"Here [in the eastern portion of Asia known as the desert of Gobi], from time immemorial, the Mongols, a people nearly akin to the Turks in language and physiognomy, had made their home, leading a miserable nomadic life in the midst of a wild and barren country, unrecognised by their neighbours, and their very name unknown centuries after their kinsmen, the Turks, had been exercising an all-powerful influence over the destinies of Western Asia."

A. Vámbéry, History of Bokhara, chapter 8.

MONKS.

See AUSTIN CANONS; BENEDICTINE ORDERS; CAPUCHINS; CARMELITE FRIARS; CARTHUSIAN ORDER; CISTERCIAN ORDER; CLAIRVAUX; CLUGNY; MENDICANT ORDERS; RECOLLECTS; SERVITES; THEATINES; TRAPPISTS.

MONMOUTH, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (JUNE).

MONMOUTH'S REBELLION.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1685 (MAY-JULY).

MONOCACY, Battle of the.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (JULY: VIRGINIA-MARYLAND).

MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY.

See NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY; also, JACOBITE CHURCH.

MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY, The.

"The Council of Chalcedon having decided that our Lord possessed two natures, united but not confused, the Eutychian error condemned by it is supposed to have been virtually reproduced by the Monothelites, who maintained that the two natures were so united as to have but one will. This heresy is ascribed to Heraclius the Greek emperor, who adopted it as a political project for reconciling and reclaiming the Monophysites to the Church, and thus to the empire. The Armenians as a body had held, for a long time, the Monophysite (a form of the Eutychian) heresy, and were then in danger of breaking their allegiance to the emperor, as they had done to the Church; and it was chiefly to prevent the threatened rupture that Heraclius made a secret compromise with some of their principal men. … Neither … the strenuous efforts of the Greek emperors Heraclius and Constans, nor the concession of Honorius the Roman pontiff to the soundness of the Monothelite doctrine, could introduce it into the Church. Heraclius published in A. D. 639 an Ecthesis, or a formula, in which Monotheism was covertly introduced. The sixth general council, held in Constantinople A. D. 680, condemned both the heresy and Honorius, the Roman pontiff who had countenanced it. {2225} 'The doctrine of the Monothelites, thus condemned and exploded by the Council of Constantinople, found a place of refuge among the Mardaites, a people who inhabited the mountains of Libanus and Anti-Libanus, and who, about the conclusion of this century, received the name of Maronites from John Maro, their first bishop-a name which they still retain.' … In the time of the Crusaders, the Maronites united with them in their wars against the Saracens, and subsequently (A. D. 1182) in their faith. After the evacuation of Syria by the Crusaders, the Maronites, as their former allies, had to bear the vengeance of the Saracenic kings; and for a long time they defended themselves as they could, sometimes inflicting serious injury on the Moslem army, and at others suffering the revengeful fury of their enemies. They ultimately submitted to the rule of their Mohammedan masters, and are now good subjects of the sultan. … The Maronites now … are entirely free from the Monothelite heresy, which they doubtless followed in their earlier history; nor, indeed, does there appear a single vestige of it in their histories, theological books, or liturgies. Their faith in the person of Christ and in all the articles of religion is now, as it has been for a long time past, in exact uniformity with the doctrines of the Roman Church."

J. Wortabet, Researches into the Religions of Syria, pages 103-111; with foot-note.

ALSO IN: H. F. Tozer, The Church and the Eastern Empire, chapter 5.

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 47.

P. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, volume 4, chapter 11, sections 109-111.

MONROE, James, Opposition to the Federal Constitution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787-1789.

Presidential election and administration.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816, to 1825.

MONROE DOCTRINE, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1823.

MONROVIA.

See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1816-1847.

—————MONS: Start————

MONS: A. D. 1572. Capture by Louis of Nassau, recovery by the Spaniards, and massacre.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1572-1573.

MONS: A. D. 1691. Siege and surrender to Louis XIV.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1689-1691.

MONS: A. D. 1697. Restored to Spain.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1697.

MONS: A. D. 1709. Siege and reduction by Marlborough and Prince Eugene.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1708-1709.

MONS: A. D. 1713. Transferred to Holland.

See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.

MONS: A. D 1746-1748. Taken by the French and restored to Austria.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1746-1747; and AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, THE CONGRESS.

—————MONS: End————

MONS GRAMPIUS, Battle of.

See GRAMPIANS.

MONS SACER, Secession of the Roman Plebeians to.

See ROME: B. C. 494-492.

MONS TARPEIUS.

See CAPITOLINE HILL.

MONSIEUR.

Under the old regime, in France, this was the special designation of the elder among the king's brothers.

MONT ST. JEAN, Battle of.

The battle of Waterloo— is sometimes so called by the French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1815 (JUNE).

MONTAGNAIS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, and ATHAPASCAN FAMILY.

MONTAGNARDS, OR THE MOUNTAIN.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1791 (OCTOBER); 1792 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER); and after, to 1794-1795 (JULY-APRIL).

MONTAGNE NOIRE, Battle of (1794).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1795 (OCTOBER-MAY).

—————MONTANA: Start————

MONTANA: A. D. 1803, Partly or wholly embraced in the Louisiana Purchase. The question.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

MONTANA: A. D. 1864-1889. Organization as a Territory and admission as a State.

Montana received its Territorial organization in 1864, and was admitted to the Union as a State in 1889.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1889-1890.

—————MONTANA: End————

MONTANISTS.

A name given to the followers of Montanus, who appeared in the 2d century, among the Christians of Phrygia, claiming that the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, "had, by divine appointment, descended upon him for the purpose of foretelling things of the greatest moment that were about to happen, and promulgating a better and more perfect discipline of life and morals. … This sect continued to flourish down to the 5th century."

J. L. von Mosheim, Historical Commentaries, 2d Century, section. 66.

MONTAPERTI, Battle of (1260).

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1248-1278.

MONTAUBAN, Siege of (1621).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1620-1622.

MONTAUKS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

MONTBÉLIARD, Battle of (1871).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1870-1871.

MONTCALM, and the defense of Canada.

See CANADA: A. D. 1756, to 1759.

MONTE CASEROS, Battle of (1852).

See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1819-1874.

MONTE CASINO, The Monastery of.

See BENEDICTINE ORDERS.

MONTE ROTUNDO, Battle of (1867).

See ITALY: A. D. 1867-1870.

MONTE SAN GIOVANNI, Battle and massacre (1495).

See ITALY: A. D. 1494-1496.

MONTEBELLO, Battle of (1800).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY).

Battle of (1859.)

See ITALY: A. D. 1856-1859.

MONTECATINI, Battle of (1315).

See ITALY: A. D. 1313-1330.

MONTENEGRO.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

MONTENOTTE, Battles at (1796).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER).

MONTEREAU, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).

MONTEREAU, The Bridge of (1419).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1415-1419.

MONTEREY, California: Possession taken by the American fleet (1846).

See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1846-1847.

MONTEREY, Mexico: Siege by the Americans (1846).

See MEXICO: A. D. 1846-1847.

MONTEREY, Pennsylvania, The Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JUNE-JULY: PENNSYLVANIA).

MONTEVIDEO: Founding of the city.

See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1580-1777.

{2226}

MONTEZUMA, The so-called Empire of.

See MEXICO: A. D. 1325-1502.

MONTFORT, Simon de (the elder), The Crusade of.

See CRUSADES: A. D.1201-1203.

MONTFORT, Simon de (the younger), The English Parliament and the Barons' war.

See PARLIAMENT, THE ENGLISH: EARLY STAGES IN ITS EVOLUTION; and ENGLAND: A. D. 1216-1274.

MONTGOMERY, General Richard, and his expedition against Quebec.

See CANADA: A. D. 1775-1776.

MONTGOMERY CONSTITUTION and Government.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY).

MONTI OF SIENA, The.

See SIENA.

MONTLEHERY, Battle of (1465).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1461-1468.

—————MONTMÉDY: Start————

MONTMÉDY: A. D. 1657. Siege and capture by the French and English.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1655-1658.

MONTMÉDY: A. D. 1659. Cession to France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1659-1661.

—————MONTMÉDY: End————

MONTMIRAIL, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).

MONTPELIER, Treaty of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1620-1622.

MONTPELIER, Second Treaty of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.

MONTPENSIER, Mademoiselle, and the Fronde.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1651-1653.

—————MONTREAL: Start————

MONTREAL: A. D. 1535. The Naming of the Island.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1534-1535.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1611. The founding of the City by Champlain.

See CANADA: A. D. 1611-1616.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1641-1657. Settlement under the seigniory of the Sulpicians.

See CANADA: A.D. 1637-1657.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1689. Destructive attack by the Iroquois.

See CANADA: A. D. 1640-1700.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1690. Threatened by the English Colonists.

See CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1760. The surrender of the city and of all Canada to the English.

See CANADA: A. D. 1760.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1775-1776. Taken by the Americans and recovered by the British.

See CANADA: A. D. 1775-1776.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1813. Abortive expedition of American forces against the city.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).

—————MONTREAL: End————

MONTROSE, and the Covenanters.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1638-1640; and 1644-1645.

MONZA, Battle of (1412).

See ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447.

MONZON, MONÇON, Treaty of (1626).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.

MOODKEE, Battle of (1845).

See INDIA: A. D. 1845-1849.

MOOKERHYDE, Battle of (1574).

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1573-1574.

MOOLTAN, MULTAN: A. D. 1848-1849. Siege and capture by the English.

See INDIA: A. D. 1845-1849.

MOORE, Sir John: Campaign in Spain and death.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1808-1809 (AUGUST-JANUARY).

MOORE'S CREEK, Battle of (1776).

See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1775-1776.

MOORISH SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES.

See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL.

—————MOORS: Start————

MOORS, OR MAURI, Origin.

See NUMIDIANS.

MOORS: A. D. 698-709. Arab conquest.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 647-709; and MAROCCO.

MOORS: A. D. 711-713. Conquest of Spain.

See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713, and after.

MOORS: 11-13th Centuries. The Almoravides and Almohades in Morocco.

See ALMORAVIDES; and ALMOHADES.

MOORS: A. D. 1492-1609. Persecution and final expulsion from Spain. The deadly effect upon that country.

"After the reduction … of the last Mohammedan kingdom in Spain, the great object of the Spaniards became to convert those whom they had conquered [in violation of the treaty made on the surrender of Granada]. … By torturing some, by burning others, and by threatening all, they at length succeeded; and we are assured that, after the year 1526, there was no Mohammedan in Spain, who had not been converted to Christianity. Immense numbers of them were baptized by force; but being baptized, it was held that they belonged to the Church, and were amenable to her discipline. That discipline was administered by the Inquisition, which, during the rest of the 16th century, subjected these new Christians, or Moriscoes, as they were now called, to the most barbarous treatment. The genuineness of their forced conversions was doubted; it therefore became the business of the Church to inquire into their sincerity. The civil government lent its aid; and among other enactments, an edict was issued by Philip II., in 1566, ordering the Moriscoes to abandon everything which by the slightest possibility could remind them of their former religion. They were commanded, under severe penalties, to learn Spanish, and to give up all their Arabic books. They were forbidden to read their native language, or to write it, or even to speak it in their own houses. Their ceremonies and their very games were strictly prohibited. They were to indulge in no amusements which had been practised by their fathers; neither were they to wear such clothes as they had been accustomed to. Their women were to go unveiled; and, as bathing was a heathenish custom, an public baths were to be destroyed, and even an baths in private houses. By these and similar measures, these unhappy people were at length goaded into rebellion; and in 1568 they took the desperate step of measuring their force against that of the whole Spanish monarchy. The result could hardly be doubted; but the Moriscoes maddened by their sufferings, and fighting for their all, protracted the contest till 1571, when the insurrection was finally put down. By this unsuccessful effort they were greatly reduced in numbers and in strength; and during the remaining 27 years of the reign of Philip II. we hear comparatively little of them. Notwithstanding an occasional outbreak, the old animosities were subsiding, and in the course of time would probably have disappeared. At all events, there was no pretence for violence on the part of the Spaniards, since it was absurd to suppose that the Moriscoes, weakened in every way, humbled, broken, and scattered through the kingdom, could, even if they desired it, effect anything against the resources of the executive government. {2227} But, after the death of Philip II., that movement began … which, contrary to the course of affairs in other nations, secured to the Spanish clergy in the 17th century, more power than they had possessed in the 16th. The consequences of this were immediately apparent. The clergy did not think that the steps taken by Philip II. against the Moriscoes were sufficiently decisive. … Under his successor, the clergy … gained fresh strength, and they soon felt themselves sufficiently powerful to begin another and final crusade against the miserable remains of the Moorish nation. The Archbishop of Valencia was the first to take the field. In 1602, this eminent prelate presented a memorial to Philip III. against the Moriscoes; and finding that his views were cordially supported by the clergy, and not discouraged by the crown, he followed up the blow by another memorial having the same object. … He declared that the Armada, which Philip II. sent against England in 1588, had been destroyed, because God would not allow even that pious enterprise to succeed, while those who undertook it, left heretics undisturbed at home. For the same reason, the late expedition to Algiers had failed; it being evidently the will of Heaven that nothing should prosper while Spain was inhabited by apostates. He, therefore, exhorted the king to exile all the Moriscoes, except some whom he might condemn to work in the galleys, and others who could become slaves, and labour in the mines of America. This, he added, would make the reign of Philip glorious to all posterity, and would raise his fame far above that of his predecessors, who in this matter had neglected their obvious duty. … That they should all be slain, instead of being banished, was the desire of a powerful party in the Church, who thought that such signal punishment would work good by striking terror into the heretics of every nation. Bleda, the celebrated Dominican, one of the most influential men of his time, wished this to be done, and to be done thoroughly. He said, that, for the sake of example, every Morisco in Spain should have his throat cut; because it was impossible to tell which of them were Christians at heart, and it was enough to leave the matter to God, who knew his own, and who would reward in the next world those who were really Catholics. … The religious scruples of Philip III. forbade him to struggle with the Church; and his minister Lerma would not risk his own authority by even the show of opposition. In 1609 he announced to the king, that the expulsion of the Moriscoes had become necessary. 'The resolution,' replied Philip, 'is a great one; let it be executed.' And executed it was, with unflinching barbarity. About 1,000,000 of the most industrious inhabitants of Spain were hunted out like wild beasts, because the sincerity of their religious opinions was doubtful. Many were slain, as they approached the coast; others were beaten and plundered; and the majority, in the most wretched plight, sailed for Africa. During the passage, the crew, in many of the ships, rose upon them, butchered the men, ravished the women, and threw the children into the sea. Those who escaped this fate, landed on the coast of Barbary, where they were attacked by the Bedouins, and many of them put to the sword. Others made their way into the desert, and perished from famine. Of the number of lives actually sacrificed, we have no authentic account; but it is said, on very good authority, that in one expedition, in which 140,000 were carried to Africa, upwards of 100,000 suffered death in its most frightful forms within a few months after their expulsion from Spain. Now, for the first time, the Church was really triumphant. For the first time there was not a heretic to be seen between the Pyrenees and the Straits of Gibraltar. All were orthodox, and all were loyal. Every inhabitant of that great country obeyed the Church, and feared the king. And from this happy combination, it was believed that the prosperity and grandeur of Spain were sure to follow. … The effects upon the material prosperity of Spain may be stated in a few words. From nearly every part of the country, large bodies of industrious agriculturists and expert artificers were suddenly withdrawn. The best systems of husbandry then known, were practised by the Moriscoes, who tilled and irrigated with indefatigable labour. The cultivation of rice, cotton, and sugar, and the manufacture of silk and paper were almost confined to them. By their expulsion all this was destroyed at a blow, and most of it was destroyed for ever. For the Spanish Christians considered such pursuits beneath their dignity. In their judgment, war and religion were the only two avocations worthy of being followed. To fight for the king, or to enter the Church was honourable; but everything else was mean and sordid. When, therefore, the Moriscoes were thrust out of Spain, there was no one to fill their place; arts and manufactures either degenerated, or were entirely lost, and immense regions of arable land were left uncultivated. … Whole districts were suddenly deserted, and down to the present day have never been repeopled. These solitudes gave refuge to smugglers and brigands, who succeeded the industrious inhabitants formerly occupying them; and it is said that from the expulsion of the Moriscoes is to be dated the existence of those organized bands of robbers, which, after this period, became the scourge of Spain, and which no subsequent government has been able entirely to extirpate. To these disastrous consequences, others were added, of a different, and, if possible, of a still more serious kind. The victory gained by the Church increased both her power and her reputation. … The greatest men, with hardly an exception, became ecclesiastics, and all temporal considerations, all views of earthly policy, were despised and set at nought. No one inquired; no one doubted; no one presumed to ask if all this was right. The minds of men succumbed and were prostrate. While every other country was advancing, Spain alone was receding. Every other country was making some addition to knowledge, creating some art, or enlarging some science, Spain numbed into a death-like torpor, spellbound and entranced by the accursed superstition which preyed on her strength, presented to Europe a solitary instance of constant decay."

H. T. Buckle, History of Civilization, volume 2, chapter 8.

ALSO IN: W. H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip II., book 5, chapters 1-8 (volume 3).

R. Watson, History of the Reign of Philip III., book 4.

J. Dunlop, Memoirs of Spain, 1621-1700, volume 1, chapter 1.

See, also, INQUISITION: A. D. 1203-1525.

MOORS: 15-19th Centuries. The kingdom of Marocco.

See MAROCCO.

—————MOORS: End————

MOPH.

See MEMPHIS.

{2228}

MOQUELUMNAN FAMILY, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MOQUELUMNAN FAMILY.

MOQUIS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PUEBLOS.

MORA, The.

The name of the ship which bore William the Conqueror to England, and which was the gift of his wife, the Duchess Matilda.

MORAT, Battle of (1476).

See BURGUNDY (THE FRENCH DUKEDOM): A. D. 1476-1477.

—————MORAVIA: Start————

MORAVIA: Its people and their early history.

See BOHEMIA: ITS PEOPLE, &c.

MORAVIA: 9th Century. Conversion to Christianity. The kingdom of Svatopluk and its obscure destruction.

"Moravia has not even a legendary history. Her name appears for the first time at the beginning of the 9th century, under its Slav form, Morava (German 'March,' 'Moehren'). It is used to denote at the same time a tributary of the Danube and the country it waters; it is met with again in the lower valley of that stream, in Servia, and appears to have a Slav origin. During the 7th and 8th centuries there is no doubt Moravia was divided among several princes, and had a hard struggle against the Avars. The first prince whose name is known was Moïmir, who ruled at the beginning of the 9th century. … During his reign Christianity made some progress in Moravia. … Moïmir tried to withstand the Germans, but was not successful; and in 846 Louis the German invaded his country, deposed him, and made his nephew Rostislav, whom the chroniclers call Rastiz, ruler in his stead. … The new prince, Rostislav, determined to secure both the political and moral freedom of his country. He fortified his frontiers and then declared war against the emperor. He was victorious, and when once peace was secured he undertook a systematic conversion of his people. Thus came about one of the great episodes in the history of the Slavs, and their Church, the mission of the apostles Cyril and Methodius. … After having struggled successfully for some time against the Germans" Rostislav was "betrayed by his nephew and vassal, Svatopluk, into the hands of Karloman, duke of Carinthia and son of Louis the German, who put out his eyes and shut him up in a monastery. Svatopluk believed himself sure of the succession to his uncle as the price of his treachery, but a very different reward fell to his lot, as Karloman, trusting but little in his fidelity to the Germans, threw him also into captivity. The German yoke was, however, hateful to the Moravians; they soon rebelled, and Karloman hoped to avert the danger by releasing Svatopluk and placing him at the head of an army. Svatopluk marched against the Moravians, then suddenly joined his forces to theirs and attacked the Germans. This time the independence of Moravia was secured, and was recognized by the treaty of Forcheim (874). … Thenceforward peace reigned between Svatopluk and Louis the German. … At one time he [Svatopluk] was the most powerful monarch of the Slavs; Rome was in treaty with him, Bohemia gravitated towards the orbit of Moravia, while Moravia held the empire in check. … At this time [891] the kingdom of Svatopluk … included, besides Moravia and the present Austrian Silesia, the subject country of Bohemia, the Slav tribes on the Elbe and the Vistula as far as the neighbourhood of Magdeburg, part of Western Galicia, the country of the Slovaks, and Lower Pannonia." But Svatopluk was ruined by war with his neighbor, Arnulf, duke of Pannonia. The latter "entered into an alliance with Braclav, a Slovene prince, sought the aid of the king of the Bulgarians, and, what was of far graver importance, summoned to his help the Magyars, who had just settled themselves on the Lower Danube. Swabians, Bavarians, Franks, Magyars, and Slovenes rushed simultaneously upon Moravia. Overwhelmed by numbers, Svatopluk made no attempt at resistance; he shut up his troops in fortresses, and abandoned the open country to the enemy, who ravaged it for four whole weeks. Then hostilities ceased; but no durable peace could exist between the two adversaries. War began again in the following year, when death freed Arnulf from Svatopluk. … At his death he left three sons; he chose the eldest, Moïmir II., as his heir, and assigned appanages to each of the others. On his death-bed he begged them to live at peace with one another, but his advice was not followed. … Bohemia soon threw off those bonds which had attached her as a vassal to Svatopluk; the Magyars invaded Moravian Pannonia, and forced Moïmir into an alliance with them. … In the year 900 the Bavarians, together with the Chekhs, invaded Moravia. In 903 the name of Moïmir disappears. As to the cause of his death, as to how it was that suddenly and for ever the kingdom of Moravia was destroyed, the chronicles tell us nothing. Cosmas of Prague shows us Moravia at the mercy of Germans, Chekhs, and Hungarians; then history is silent, towns and castles crumble to pieces, churches are overthrown, the people are scattered."

L. Leger, History of Austro-Hungary, chapter 4.

ALSO IN: G. F. Maclear, Conversion of the West: The Slavs, chapter 4.

MORAVIA: A. D. 1355. Absorption in the kingdom of Bohemia.

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1355.

—————MORAVIA: End—————

MORAVIAN OR BOHEMIAN BRETHREN (Unitas Fratrum): Origin and early history.

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1434-1457; and 1621-1648.

MORAVIAN OR BOHEMIAN BRETHREN (Unitas Fratrum): In Saxony and in America. The Indian Missions.

"In 1722, and in the seven following years, a considerable number of these 'Brethren,' led by Christian David, who were persecuted in their homes, were received by Count Zinzendorf on his estate at Berthelsdorf in Saxony. They founded a village called Herrnhut, or 'the Watch of the Lord.' There they were joined by Christians from other places in Germany, and, after some time, Zinzendorf took up his abode among them, and became their principal guide and pastor. … In 1737, he consecrated himself wholly to the service of God in connection with the Moravian settlement, and was ordained a bishop. … Zinzendorf had before been received into the Lutheran ministry. The peculiar fervor which characterized his religious work, and certain particulars in his teaching, caused the Saxon Government, which was wedded to the traditional ways of Lutheranism, to exclude him from Saxony for about ten years (1736-1747). He prosecuted his religious labors in Frankfort, journeyed through Holland and England, made a voyage to the West Indies, and, in 1741, another voyage to America. {2229} New branches of the Moravian body he planted in the countries which he visited. … It was a church within a church that Zinzendorf aimed to establish. It was far from his purpose to found a sect antagonistic to the national churches in the midst of which the Moravian societies arose. … With a religious life remarkable as combining warm emotion with a quiet and serene type of feeling, the community of Zinzendorf connected a missionary zeal not equalled at that time in any other Protestant communion. Although few in number, they sent their gospel messengers to all quarters of the globe."

G. P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church, pages 506-507.

The first settlement of the Moravians in America was planted in Georgia, in 1735. "But Oglethorpe's border war with the Spaniards compelled him to call every man in his colony to arms, and the Moravians, rather than forsake their principles [of non-resistance, and dependence upon prayer], abandoned their lands and escaped to Pennsylvania [1740]. Here some of their brethren were already fixed. Among the refugees was the young David Zeisberger, the future head of the Ohio missions. Bethlehem on the Lehigh became, and is yet, the centre in America of their double system of missions and education. They bought lands, laid out villages and farms, built houses, shops, and mills, but everywhere, and first of all, houses of prayer, in thankfulness for the peace and prosperity at length found. The first mission established by Zinzendorf in the colonies was in 1741, among the Mohican Indians, near the borders of New York and Connecticut. The bigoted people and authorities of the neighborhood by outrages and persecution drove them off, so that they were forced to take refuge on the Lehigh. The brethren established them in a new colony twenty miles above Bethlehem, to which they gave the name of Gnadenhütten (Tents of Grace). The prosperity of the Mohicans attracted the attention and visits of the Indians beyond. The nearest were the Delawares, between whom and the Mohicans there were strong ties of affinity, as branches of the old Lenni Lenape stock. Relations were thus formed between the Moravians and the Delawares. And by the fraternization between the Delawares and Shawanees … and their gradual emigration to the West to escape the encroachments of Penn's people, it occurred that the Moravian missionaries, Zeisberger foremost, accompanied their Delaware and Mohican converts to the Susquehanna in 1765, and again, when driven from there by the cession at Fort Stanwix, journeyed with them across the Alleghanies to Goshgoshink, a town established by the unconverted Delawares far up the Alleghany River." In 1770, having gained some important converts among the Delawares of the Wolf clan, at Kuskuskee, on Big Beaver Creek, they transferred themselves to that place, naming it Friedenstadt. But there they were opposed with such hostility by warriors and white traders that they determined "to plunge a step further into the wilderness, and go to the head chief of the Delawares at Gepelmukpechenk (Stillwater, or Tuscarawi) on the Muskingum. It was near this village that Christian Frederick Post, the brave, enterprising pioneer of the Moravians, had established himself in 1761, with the approbation of the chiefs. … By marriage with an Indian wife he had forfeited his regular standing with the congregation. His intimate acquaintance with the Indians, and their languages and customs, so far gained upon them that in 1762 he was permitted to take Heckewelder to share his cabin and establish a school for the Indian children. But in the autumn the threatened outburst of Pontiac's war had compelled them to flee." Early in 1772 the Moravian colony "was invited by the council at Tuscarawi, the Wyandots west of them approving it, to come with all their Indian brethren from the Alleghany and Susquehanna, and settle on the Muskingum (as the Tuscarawas was then called), and upon any lands that they might choose." The invitation was accepted. "The pioneer party, in the removal from the Beaver to Ohio, consisted of Zeisberger and five Indian families, 28 persons, who arrived at this beautiful ground May 3, 1772. … The site was at the large spring, and appropriately it was named for it Shoenbrun. In August arrived the Missionaries Ettwein and Heckewelder, with the main body of Christian Indians who had been invited from the Alleghany and the Susquehanna, about 250 in number. … This, and further accessions from the east in September, made it advisable to divide the colony into two villages. The second [named Gnadenhütten] was established ten miles below Shoenbrun. … In April, 1773, the remnants of the mission on the Beaver joined their brethren in Ohio. The whole body of the Moravian Indians … was now united and at rest under the shelter of the unconverted but … tolerant Delaware warriors. … The population of the Moravian villages at the close of 1775 was 414 persons. … The calamity of the Moravians was the war of the American Revolution. It developed the dangerous fact that their villages … were close upon the direct line between Pittsburgh and Detroit, the outposts of the two contending forces." The peaceful settlement became an object of hostility to the meaner spirits on both sides. In September, 1781, by order of the British commander at Detroit, they were expelled from their settlement, robbed of all their possessions, and sent to Sandusky. In the following February, a half-starved party of them, numbering 96, who had ventured back to their ravaged homes, for the purpose of gleaning the corn left standing in the fields, were massacred by a brutal American force, from the Ohio. "So perished the Moravian missions on the Muskingum. Not that the pious founders ceased their labors, or that these consecrated scenes knew them no more. But their Indian communities, the germ of their work, the sign of what was to be accomplished by them in the great Indian problem, were scattered and gone, Zeisberger, at their head, labored with the remnants of their congregation for years in Canada. They then transferred themselves temporarily to settlements on the Sandusky, the Huron, and the Cuyahoga rivers. At last he and Heckewelder, with the survivors of these wanderings, went back to their lands on the Tuscarawas, now surrounded by the whites, but fully secured to them by the generosity of Congress."

R. King, Ohio, chapter 6.

ALSO IN: D. Cranz, History of the United Brethren.

F. Bovet, The Banished Count (Life of Zinzendorf).

E. de Schweinitz, Life and Times of David Zeisberger.

D. Zeisberger, Diary.

D. Berger, United Brethren (American Church History), volume 12.

{2230}

—————MOREA: Start————

MOREA: Origin of the name.

"The Morea must … have come into general use, as the name of the peninsula [of the Peloponnesus] among the Greeks, after the Latin conquest [of 1204-1205], even allowing that the term was used among foreigners before the arrival of the Franks. … The name Morea was, however, at first applied only to the western coast of the Peloponnesus, or perhaps more particularly to Elis, which the epitome of Strabo points out as a district exclusively Sclavonian, and which, to this day, preserves a number of Sclavonian names. … Originally the word appears to be the same geographical denomination which the Sclavonians of the north had given to a mountain district of Thrace in the chain of Mount Rhodope. In the 14th century the name of this province is written by the Emperor Cantacuzenos, who must have been well acquainted with it personally, Morrha. Even as late as the 14th century, the Morea is mentioned in official documents relating to the Frank principality as a province of the Peloponnesus, though the name was then commonly applied to the whole peninsula."

G. Finlay, History of Greece from its Conquest by the Crusaders, chapter 1, section 4.

MOREA: The Principality of the.

See ACHAIA: A. D. 1205-1387.

—————MOREA: End————

MOREAU, General, The Campaigns and the military and political fortunes of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER); 1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL); 1799 (APRIL-SEPTEMBER), (NOVEMBER); 1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY); and 1804-1805; also, GERMANY: A. D. 1813 (AUGUST).

MORETON BAY DISTRICT.

See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1800-1840, and 1859.

MORGAN, General Daniel, and the War or the American Revolution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780-1781.

MORGAN, General John H., and his raid into Ohio and Indiana.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JULY: KENTUCKY).

MORGAN, William, The abduction of.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1826-1832.

MORGANATIC MARRIAGES.

"Besides the dowry which was given before the marriage ceremony had been performed, it was customary [among some of the ancient German peoples] for the husband to make his wife a present on the morning after the first night. This was called the 'morgengabe,' or morning gift, the presenting of which, where no previous ceremony had been observed, constituted a particular kind of connexion called matrimonium morganaticam, or 'morganatic marriage. As the liberality of the husband was apt to be excessive, we find the amount limited by the Langobardian laws to one fourth of the bridegroom's substance."

W. C. Perry, The Franks, chapter 10.

MORGARTEN, Battle or (1315).

See SWITZERLAND: THE THREE FOREST CANTONS.

MORINI, The.

See BELGÆ.

MORISCOES.

This name was given to the Moors in Spain after their nominal and compulsory conversion to Christianity.

See MOORS: A. D. 1492-1609.

MORMAERS, MAARMORS.

A title, signifying great Maer or Steward, borne by certain princes or sub-kings of provinces in Scotland in the 10th and 11th centuries. The Macbeth of history was Mormaer of Moray.

W. F. Skene, Celtic Scotland, volume 3, pages 49-51.

See, also, SCOTLAND: A. D. 1039-1054.

MORMANS, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).

—————MORMONISM: Start————

MORMONISM: A. D. 1805-1830. Joseph Smith and the Book or Mormon.

"Joseph Smith, Jr., who … appears in the character of the first Mormon prophet, and the putative founder of Mormonism and the Church of Latter Day Saints, was born in Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, December 13, 1805. He was the son of Joseph Smith, Sr., who, with his wife Lucy and their family, removed from Royalton, Vermont, to Palmyra, New York, in the summer of 1816. The family embraced nine children, Joseph, Jr., being the fourth in the order of their ages. … At Palmyra, Mr. Smith, Sr., opened 'a cake and beer shop,' as described by his signboard, doing business on a small scale, by the profits of which, added to the earnings of an occasional day's work on hire by himself and his elder sons, for the village and farming people, he was understood to secure a scanty but honest living for himself and family. … In 1818 they settled upon a nearly wild or unimproved piece of land, mostly covered with standing timber, situate about two miles south of Palmyra. … Little improvement was made upon this land by the Smith family in the way of clearing, fencing, or tillage. … The larger proportion of the time of the Smiths … was spent in hunting and fishing … and idly lounging around the stores and shops in the village. … At this period in the life and career of Joseph Smith, Jr., or 'Joe Smith,' as he was universally named, and the Smith family, they were popularly regarded as an illiterate, whiskey-drinking, shiftless, irreligious race of people—the first named, the chief subject of this biography, being unanimously voted the laziest and most worthless of the generation. … Taciturnity was among his characteristic idiosyncrasies, and he seldom spoke to anyone outside of his intimate associates, except when first addressed by another; and then, by reason of his extravagancies of statement, his word was received with the least confidence by those who knew him best. He could utter the most palpable exaggeration or marvellous absurdity with the utmost apparent gravity. … He was, however, proverbially good-natured, very rarely if ever indulging in any combative spirit toward anyone, whatever might be the provocation, and yet was never known to laugh. Albeit, he seemed to be the pride of his indulgent father, who has been heard to boast of him as the 'genus of the family,' quoting his own expression. Joseph, moreover, as he grew in years, had learned to read comprehensively, in which qualification he was far in advance of his elder brother, and even of his father. … As he … advanced in reading and knowledge, he assumed a spiritual or religious turn of mind, and frequently perused the Bible, becoming quite familiar with portions thereof. … The final conclusion announced by him was, that all sectarianism was fallacious, all the churches on a false foundation, and the Bible a fable. … In September, 1819, a curious stone was found in the digging of a well upon the premises of Mr. Clark Chase, near Palmyra. This stone attracted particular notice on account of its peculiar shape, resembling that of a child's foot. It was of a whitish, glassy appearance, though opaque, resembling quartz. {2231} Joseph Smith, Sr., and his elder sons Alvin and Hyrum, did the chief labor of this well-digging, and Joseph, Jr., who had been a frequenter in the progress of the work, as an idle looker-on and lounger, manifested a special fancy for this geological curiosity, and he carried it home with him. … Very soon the pretension transpired that he could see wonderful things by its aid. … The most glittering sights revealed to the mortal vision of the young impostor, in the manner stated, were hidden treasures of great value, including enormous deposits of gold and silver sealed in earthen pots or iron chests, and buried in the earth in the immediate vicinity of the place where he stood. These discoveries finally became too dazzling for his eyes in daylight, and he had to shade his vision by looking at the stone in his hat! … The imposture was renewed and repeated at frequent intervals from 1820 to 1827, various localities being the scenes of … delusive searches for money [for carrying on which Smith collected contributions from his dupes], as pointed out by the revelations of the magic stone. … Numerous traces of the excavations left by Smith are yet remaining as evidences of his impostures and the folly of his dupes, though most of them have become obliterated by the clearing off and tilling of the lands where they were made." In the summer of 1827 "Smith had a remarkable vision. He pretended that, while engaged in secret prayer, alone in the wilderness, an 'angel of the Lord' appeared to him, with the glad tidings that 'all his sins had been forgiven'; … also that he had received a 'promise that the true doctrine and the fulness of the doctrine and the fulness of the gospel should at some future time be revealed to him.' … In the fall of the same year Smith had yet a more miraculous and astonishing vision than any preceding one. He now arrogated to himself, by authority of 'the spirit of revelation,' and in accordance with the previous 'promises' made to him, a far higher sphere in the scale of human existence, assuming to possess the gift and power of 'prophet, seer, and revelator.' On this assumption he announced to his family friends and the bigoted persons who had adhered to his supernaturalism, that he was 'commanded,' upon a secretly fixed day and hour, to go alone to a certain spot revealed to him by the angel, and there take out of the earth a metallic book of great antiquity in its origin, and of immortal importance in its consequences to the world, which was a record, in mystic letters or characters, of the long-lost tribes of Israel, … who had primarily inhabited this continent, and which no human being besides himself could see and live; and the power to translate which to the nations of the earth was also given to him only, as the chosen servant of God. … Accordingly, when the appointed hour came, the prophet, assuming his practised air of mystery, took in hand his money-digging spade and a large napkin, and went off in silence and alone in the solitude of the forest, and after an absence of some three hours returned, apparently with his sacred charge concealed within the folds of the napkin. … With the book was also found, or so pretended, a huge pair of spectacles in a perfect state of preservation, or the Urim and Thummim, as afterward interpreted, whereby the mystic record was to be translated and the wonderful dealings of God revealed to man, by the superhuman power of Joseph Smith. … The sacred treasure was not seen by mortal eyes, save those of the one anointed, until after the lapse of a year or longer time, when it was found expedient to have a new revelation, as Smith's bare word had utterly failed to gain a convert beyond his original circle of believers. By this amended revelation, the veritable existence of the book was certified to by eleven witnesses of Smith's selection. It was then heralded as the Golden Bible, or Book of Mormon, and as the beginning of a new gospel dispensation. … The spot from which the book is alleged to have been taken is the yet partially visible pit where the money speculators had previously dug for another kind of treasure, which is upon the summit of what has ever since been known as 'Mormon Hill,' now owned by Mr. Anson Robinson, in the town of Manchester, New York. This book … was finally described by Smith and his echoes as consisting of metallic leaves or plates resembling gold, bound together in a volume by three rings running through one edge of them, the leaves opening like an ordinary paper book. … Translations and interpretations were now entered upon by the prophet," and in 1830 the "Book of Mormon" was printed and published at Palmyra, New York, a well-to-do farmer, Martin Harris, paying the expense. "In claiming for the statements herein set forth the character of fairness and authenticity, it is perhaps appropriate to add … that the locality of the malversations resulting in the Mormon scheme is the author's birthplace; that he was well acquainted with 'Joe Smith,' the first Mormon prophet, and with his father and all the Smith family, since their removal to Palmyra from Vermont … ; that he was equally acquainted with Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery, and with most of the earlier followers of Smith, either as money-diggers or Mormons; that he established at Palmyra, in 1823, and was for many years editor and proprietor of the 'Wayne Sentinel,' and was editorially connected with that paper at the printing by its press of the original edition of the 'Book of Mormon' in 1830; that in the progress of the work he performed much of the reading of the proof-sheets, comparing the same with the manuscript copies, and in the meantime had frequent and familiar interviews with the pioneer Mormons."