An excerpt from MR. LINCOLN GOES TO WAR THE REASONS BEHIND LINCOLN’S DECISION TO WAGE WAR ON THE CONFEDERACY h/t Brock Townsend
Before hostilities began, Colonel
Baldwin was selected to carry out a private mission, at the direction of
the Virginia Secession convention. His instructions were to meet
with Abraham Lincoln in April 1861 and negotiate a peaceful settlement.
The South was not anxious to go to war and sought to diffuse the
schism between the two regions. The deck was stacked heavily in favor of
the North – their population was at least three times that of the
South; the North had a decided manufacturing advantage; the North a
government, army, navy, etc. Colonel Baldwin found out first hand that
there was one issue where Lincoln would not compromise – taxes!
Lincoln greeted him as follows: “Well,
I suppose this is Colonel Baldwin of Virginia? I have hearn of you a
good deal, and am glad to see you. How d’ye, do sir?” Colonel Baldwin
presented his note of credential or introduction, which Lincoln read,
sitting upon the edge of the bed, and spitting from time to time on the carpet.”
sitting upon the edge of the bed, and spitting from time to time on the carpet.”
Title 18 United States Code, Section 331
Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces,
mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of
the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins
which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as
money within the United States; or Whoever fraudulently possesses,
passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter,
publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin,
knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired,
diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened – Shall be fined under this
title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
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This statute can be found online on Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute website: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/331.html The statute is also available on the website of the United States Mint (where they emphasize the word “fraudulently”). http://www.usmint.gov/consumer/18USC331.cfm
David DeGerolamo
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