If it were peacetime, Lincoln's arbitrariness would certainly not have been able to go smoothly, but the problem is, this is a time of war!

Although the United States of America has a separation of powers, relatively speaking, the presidency as the head of government and commander-in-chief of the three armed forces is the most powerful, and the others, such as the parliament and the courts, are only to limit the power of the president.

The reason for this is that the birth of the United States of America began with war, and what was needed in times of war was decisiveness, centralization, and efficiency, so the presidency was born, which was both administrative and military, and the original intention was to gather all forces to win the war.

So, in peacetime, the president may have restrictions of one kind or another, but once in time of war, the power of the president increases, and the worse the form, the greater the power of the president.

So, under the premise that the United States is facing both foreign intervention and the defeat of the war ahead, although Lincoln's actions are somewhat unconstitutional, the people in Congress, whether out of self-interest or genuine patriotism, obeyed Lincoln anyway and agreed to the passage of these three bills.

In fact, in Lincoln's three new bills, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Compulsory Military Service Act are not too much of a problem, after all, everyone is not stupid, they know the benefits of these two bills, and the impact on their own interests is not too great, after all, the industrial bourgeoisie is stronger here in the North.

But the Currency Act, or the Paper Money Reform Act, was a bit more shocking to everyone, especially the bankers.

Although bankers are also capitalists, unlike industrial capitalists, they generally do not have factories, and play mainly in finance, or a kind of service industry.

In later generations, the importance of finance is unquestionable, but in this era. Bankers are still important, but their reputation is not good, and this is the common practice in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

And in the United States of America, to say who the strongest and richest bankers are, there is no doubt that it is the Rothschilds, this is not a conspiracy theory, it is purely a matter of reality.

To know. The United States of America was not actually a great power at this time, nor was it a superpower straddling the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and at best, its core territory was the thirteen states of North America.

In 1862, although the United States of America had already acquired a large amount of land in the west through the Mexican-American War, in fact most of the lands that were won by the United States were uninhabited wastelands, and at most they were American colonies, and most of them were not legal states of the United States. For example, New Mexico and Arizona are not legal states in the United States, and this area is still only called New Mexico.

In short, the United States is actually a relatively weak country. The real core region is the thirteen eastern states.

Beginning in the thirties of the nineteenth century, the United States began a period of major construction, in other words, overhaul of infrastructure, such as roads, houses, factories, and so on. And to do this, there is no doubt that a lot of money is needed.

But at that time, the United States was short of money, whether it was gold reserves or silver reserves. It's all pitiful, and there's no money for it.

At this time, European bankers saw business opportunities and began to extend their tentacles, among which the strongest bankers were undoubtedly the Rothschilds.

In other words, in the current United States of America, not only do many factories owe money to the Rothschilds, but even the U.S. government has borrowed money from the Rothschilds to meet the huge military expenditures.

This borrowing money is naturally not borrowing paper money, but borrowing gold, because the Rothschild family at this time is at its peak, but in their family's bank, the gold reserves reached 1.6 billion US dollars, about 2,000 tons of gold, while the gold reserves of the United States at that time were only less than 10 million US dollars, about 13 tons of gold, which shows how big the gap is.

Of course, unlike the conspiracy theories of later generations, although the Rothschilds are rich and creditors, they are only bankers and must live in an environment that respects rules, and if you don't follow the rules, or if you have the gun, the Rothschilds may not be useful.

In other words, the Rothschilds seem to be powerful, but at best they are a financial family serving the powerful of various countries, and everyone likes him only because this family is very good at making money, and in addition, they are more obedient, and they are not really afraid of him.

Like the previous First Bank and the Second Bank of the United States, they are both central banks, but they are private banks, but the license is decided by the U.S. government and Congress.

The reason why the US government has not come up with a central bank is not because it can't, but because it doesn't want to, because if there is a central bank, it has to pay more responsibilities, but if there is no central bank of a national nature, the cost of repaying debts will be lower, and once something goes wrong, it can let this private bank collapse at any time.

In 1862, the U.S. government did not have a central bank at all, but adopted a laissez-faire attitude, that is, any bank could be opened, and the government was only in charge of management and taxation, and only took advantage of the good and not the bad.

Just like the current Lincoln administration, they did borrow a lot of money from the Rothschilds, but they all took some land, bidding projects and the like as collateral, and they were indeed the borrowers, but when it came to fear, it was absolutely impossible.

In other words, the Rothschilds' control over the financial and industrial fields of the United States is only controlled by financial means, but whether it is factories, workers, or infrastructure projects, they are all in the United States and are subject to the management and constraints of the U.S. government.

In the past, the U.S. government talked about credit to people, but it was because it was more beneficial to talk about credit, after all, you don't talk about credit in a country, even if you can get temporary benefits, in the long run, it is the worst situation, and it will make other people stop coming to invest.

However, now that the United States' largest trading partners, China and Great Britain, have declared war on the United States, and France is also very unfriendly to the United States, in this case. It is unlikely that the bankers on their side will invest heavily in the United States.

Since the largest investors are turning against each other, and since those are long-term benefits, and the current crisis in the United States of America is imminent, the Lincoln administration wants short-term benefits more than long-term benefits.

The wealth of financiers is money, so they are not afraid of war, and even like war, because the government has fallen, and they can just change their masters, in case they face war. They pack up their gold and can run away at any time, which is considered to be mobile and flexible, and their ability to avoid risks is very high.

But unlike the industrial capitalists, the greatest wealth of the industrial capitalists is not money, but factories, raw materials, and workers, who are the links of production.

So, when war came, it was the industrial capitalists who suffered the most. Because it is difficult for them to transfer their factories or raw materials, they are also the most resistant. The group of people who are the least supportive of moving the capital.

The reason is simple: Washington is actually an industrial and infrastructure center, and once Washington falls, all these things will fall into the hands of the enemy. Their losses were too heavy.

As a result, the factory owners of the United States were largely supportive of resistance and were also in favor of monetary reform. Because once this reform is carried out, they will be able to repay the bankers with the new paper money issued by the United States of America.

That's right, in order to win over the factory owners and farmers in the North, Lincoln had promised that he would set up a Third Bank of the United States, and then the Third Bank of the United States would issue new dollar bills, and then the bank would repay the loans for the factory owners in the form of interest-free loans.

Specifically, the money that these factory owners had borrowed from the European banks was repaid by the Third Bank of the United States, and as a result, the claims of the factory owners were transferred to the Third Bank of the United States, and the Third Bank of the United States became their largest creditor.

The advantage is that after the transfer of creditor's rights, these factory owners and capitalists do not need to pay additional interest, and only need to repay the principal at that time, and the repayment period is also relaxed, which is of course a good thing for the factory owners.

However, there are conditions to this, and the condition is that the factories must accept paper money issued by the third bank of the United States and agree to settle their settlements with paper money.

These factories in the United States of America, which usually occupy some of the major areas of bulk production, including steel manufacturing, grain processing, salt production, cement, etc., have not yet formed a monopoly industry, but they are already relatively concentrated.

Once all these large enterprises use paper money to settle their settlements, it will be equivalent to tying paper money to these bulk goods, and it will be much easier for the people to accept the new paper money, which is more effective than forcing it to be implemented in the market.

It is conceivable that in addition to the rich, most ordinary people still can't use gold coins, such as a dollar of gold coins, many low-level ordinary Americans may not use it in their lifetime, they generally use penny copper coins.

Then, if you can buy the necessities of food, clothing, housing and transportation with paper money, it will be easy for everyone to accept, anyway, in the eyes of the people, paper money or copper coins, as long as you can exchange for daily necessities, it is enough.

In fact, because the United States of America has always lacked gold and silver, the idea of paper money and reform has long been there, but in the past, those big factory owners and big capitalists who occupied the upper reaches did not agree, so the paper money reform could not be implemented, so the resistance here is not the bottom of the people, the key is those upper class elites.

But now, with the government short of money due to the effects of the war, and the industrial capitalists at risk of losing money or even going out of business, it is better to unite together and plunder the wealth from those bankers.

Why is it said to plunder wealth from bankers? Because according to Lincoln, when these industrial capitalists transferred their debts to the Third Bank of the United States, the Third Bank of the United States would negotiate with the original bankers, and the Third Bank would not be bad at paying their debts, but would only change the repayment method from metal money to paper money!

That's right, whether it is the industrial capitalists or the US government, they used to borrow money with real money, but when they exchange money, they just want to pay for the paper money they print!

Not happy? It doesn't matter, then you can also exchange for something, you don't want paper money, you want U.S. Treasury bonds, and the Treasury bonds can also be repaid as equivalent currency. If you don't want it, then there's no way, anyway, we're like this in the United States now, there's no real money at all, you can do it.

To put it bluntly, the U.S. government is going to pay its debts. It's just that Lincoln has a responsibility, and he has taken this responsibility on his shoulders, and when he becomes this villain, then in the future, if the war ends and the United States needs to normalize relations with other countries, he can regret it again and return to the world family on the gold standard.

In other words, this paper money reform is only to cope with the current crisis, and it is not that the US government really wants to play paper money in the future. It's not that you don't want to, but if other countries still only recognize gold and silver, and don't recognize your paper money, then unless you close yourself to the country, you still have to reserve gold and silver.

Undoubtedly, in terms of its far-reaching significance and practical significance, this monetization reform is the real highlight of the three bills announced by Lincoln in dictatorial means, and it is also a more important move than the Emancipation Proclamation.

To know. The Emancipation Proclamation was at best a moral high ground, and the other thing was to have a few more soldiers, and to add justice to the war itself, in terms of solving practical problems. It's much worse than paper money reform.

After all, in this era of colonialism, the amount of justice has never been the decisive weight of victory, and in the final analysis, it still depends on who is stronger. Whoever can win the victory, only the victor has the right to decide whether his actions are just or unjust, so strength is the most fundamental one. Mr. Lincoln has always been a realist of strength.

In President Lincoln's view, although the United States of America has suffered many setbacks, both militarily and diplomatically, the United States of America has not yet reached the point of no control, after all, the industrial strength, population base, etc., of the United States of America, still far surpass the Southern rebels.

In Washington, in Pittsburgh, in Chicago, etc., they have a large number of factories that can produce all their own ordnance weapons and other military supplies, that is, they can be self-sufficient in terms of weapons and equipment and food production.

And look at the Confederate countries in the south, not only are they far more populous than themselves, they also have no decent industry, all their weapons are imported, and the only thing they can exchange is some agricultural products.

By now, if nothing else, the army of the United States has exceeded 600,000, and the total number of troops in the South does not exceed 300,000, and its own reserve army is still appearing, but the reserve army in the South has slowly dried up, and it is impossible to recruit more soldiers.

So, as Lincoln thought at the beginning, defeat was only temporary, setbacks were short-lived, and as long as the government of the United States worked together, withstood the pressure, and slowly adapted to the war, the final victory would be the United States!

As for the military intervention between China and Britain, although Lincoln was also worried, he did not think it was very important, because in his opinion, as long as he was strong enough, these countries were just taking advantage of the fire, and once they defeated the southern rebels and victory was in sight, they would naturally change their tone again.

Therefore, at present, it is not important to have a qiē, there is only one important thing, and that is to defeat the Nankees and win the final victory!

As long as you win, it's not a problem to do it all!

It is with this mentality that it is clear that Robert. Lee's regiment was less than a hundred miles from Washington, but Lincoln refused to retreat and threw himself into his work with greater enthusiasm.

The bills have been announced, and all that remains is for Lincoln, as president, to implement these bills non-stop.

In order to get the money bill passed, Lincoln held a private reception at which a large number of factory owners in Washington were gathered to explain the benefits of the bill, especially to the factory owners.

At this reception dominated by big capitalists, Lincoln repeatedly emphasized that once Washington fell and the United States of the North failed, the Southerners would inevitably take back these factories and enterprises, and would inevitably continue to implement a tariff-free free trade policy, and would inevitably import a large number of cheap industrial products from China and Britain in order to benefit their farmers' economies.

That is to say, once the South wins, or temporarily wins, then the South Yankees and the Chinese and British behind them will pounce like hungry wolves and snatch your qiē, then there is nothing to do with you.

At that time, the bankers still have a way out, and where is the way out for you factory owners?

Currency reform is different, what the government asks is only for you to temporarily agree to use paper money to settle goods, which means that you have nothing to lose, because paper money is issued by the U.S. government and guaranteed by the U.S. government's taxes, so the credit aspect is indisputable, so it can be said that as long as the U.S. government is still there. Even if the president changes, your banknotes are just as useful.

When the war is over, you can always use paper money to exchange real money with the U.S. government, and of course, you can also use paper money to exchange land and other materials and policies that the government can give, such as paying taxes to the state, and you can pay with paper money.

In other words, to support the reform of the United States' paper money is to protect the family and to defend the country. It is to resist aggression, it is to fight for justice!

I have to say that Lincoln's words are still quite useful, especially since there are still many young people in their thirties among the people he invited, and in this era, the United States has not yet been completely overwhelmed by money and material desires. Even resisting foreign aggression is a matter of concern to these elites.

Moreover, China's timely declaration of war with Great Britain made the situation of the United States of America even more severe. The pressure was greater, but it also changed the nature of the war, turning a simple counterinsurgency war into a patriotic war. It aroused the patriotic fervor of many middle and upper classes of the people of the United States.

So, after much consideration, most of these factory owners agreed to join Lincoln's monetary reform plan. There is only one requirement, that is, the newly established Third National Bank, they must also participate in a share, for this point, Lincoln naturally patted his chest to guarantee, and even asked for it.

After getting rid of these factory owners, Lincoln made people hurry up to prepare for the National Bank of the Heart and prepare for the issuance of paper money, and at the same time gave speeches everywhere, calling on everyone to join the army with full enthusiasm, and repeatedly proposed that the present war was a great patriotic war, a war against aggression, and a just war for freedom.

All in all, Lincoln meant to tell everyone that now is the most dangerous time, and it doesn't matter who you are, no matter what you have done before, at this great moment, you should stand up unconditionally, give your life and passion for this great country, and defend your hard-won property and freedom.

Lincoln not only spoke to the masses of workers, but also to the citizens and to the barracks of the recruiting office, and it can be said that Lincoln walked all over the population of Washington, almost everywhere he went, and fought incessantly in his own unique way.

Lincoln's speech was not only full of enthusiasm, but also coherent, and he would explain in different ways why he was fighting the war, and what the reasons for his announcement of the three bills were, of course, were all single-picked, and in short, it was a great thing.

Not to mention, under Lincoln's incessant speeches, the atmosphere in Washington actually changed immediately, from the original anxiety to impassioned.

Yes, the president is not afraid of such a precious identity, he doesn't run, and they have nearly 100,000 troops here, a large number of weapons and equipment, and a steady stream of follow-up reinforcements, and the enemy is no more than 60,000 people, what are you afraid of? What to run?

The point here is that Washington, although the capital of the United States, was actually a small city of a few thousand people before the Civil War, a pure political center. However, as the war progressed, it became the general command center, so the population rose sharply, and in an instant it exceeded the 300,000 mark, but the largest number were the officers and soldiers and the industrial and commercial capitalists who accompanied them.

Therefore, in fact, even if Washington falls, it will not hurt the United States at all, after all, the industrial base is in New York, Pittsburgh and other places, and Washington is at most a political center and a national symbol.

In other words, although the Potomac Regiment at Gettysburg was weak, less than 30,000 men, Washington was already a large military camp, and there were more than 100,000 reserve troops, but these people were still training in the barracks and had not gone to the battlefield.

So, in the face of Robert. Lee's Northern Virginia Legion, Washington was not without the strength of a war, but quite strong, and if you add a large number of reinforcements from Pittsburgh and New York in the rear, time is actually on the side of the United States.

After the discovery boosted Washington's morale, Lincoln personally led 50,000 reinforcements to Gettysburg, inspected the enemy's situation, and delivered an impassioned speech in the barracks, asking the soldiers to fight for their homes and loved ones, and for justice and freedom.

During the period of the Gettysburg standoff, Robert . . . Lee's corps did not launch a large-scale attack due to the lack of armament and the number of men, but only fought some small battles, basically waiting for reinforcements and supplies honestly, which also gave Lincoln plenty of time to respond.

Thus, by December 21, 1862, both sides were well prepared.

As far as the United States was concerned, through Lincoln's unremitting efforts, the defenders of Gettysburg, the Potomac Corps, were soon replenished to the size of 130,000 troops, and their combat effectiveness had been restored, and reinforcements were still flowing.

On the other hand, Robert. Lee's Northern Virginia Legion had also risen to 90,000 men, and the armament supplies had been replenished, and both sides were well prepared.

The big war is on the verge of breaking out! (To be continued......)