"It is because the administration is hostile to silver; and thus it is surrendering this country to the Shylocks of the Old World who have made war upon it"
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A policy argument dressed up as siege rhetoric, Bland turns a technical fight over currency into a moral drama with villains, traitors, and a nation on the verge of being sold off. The “hostile to silver” charge isn’t just about bimetallism; it’s a way to brand the administration as aligned with Eastern finance and indifferent to debt-burdened farmers and laborers who wanted more money in circulation. Silver, in this worldview, is relief: inflate slightly, loosen credit, let ordinary people breathe. Gold is austerity disguised as “sound money.”
The line works because it collapses complicated macroeconomics into a clear story of betrayal. “Surrendering this country” militarizes monetary policy, implying that choosing gold isn’t merely mistaken but treasonous. That framing mattered in the 1890s, when deflation and tight credit punished borrowers and made “money” feel like a rigged system rather than a neutral tool. By externalizing the enemy as the “Old World,” Bland taps a long American reflex: suspicion of European capital and aristocratic influence, a populist nationalism that turns bank policy into a struggle for sovereignty.
The ugliest lever is “Shylocks.” Borrowed from Shakespeare, it’s shorthand for the moneylender as a predatory outsider; in American politics of the era it often functioned as coded (and sometimes explicit) antisemitism. It’s not incidental: it weaponizes cultural prejudice to make economic opponents seem not only wrong, but monstrous. Bland isn’t just selling silver. He’s selling a scapegoat.
The line works because it collapses complicated macroeconomics into a clear story of betrayal. “Surrendering this country” militarizes monetary policy, implying that choosing gold isn’t merely mistaken but treasonous. That framing mattered in the 1890s, when deflation and tight credit punished borrowers and made “money” feel like a rigged system rather than a neutral tool. By externalizing the enemy as the “Old World,” Bland taps a long American reflex: suspicion of European capital and aristocratic influence, a populist nationalism that turns bank policy into a struggle for sovereignty.
The ugliest lever is “Shylocks.” Borrowed from Shakespeare, it’s shorthand for the moneylender as a predatory outsider; in American politics of the era it often functioned as coded (and sometimes explicit) antisemitism. It’s not incidental: it weaponizes cultural prejudice to make economic opponents seem not only wrong, but monstrous. Bland isn’t just selling silver. He’s selling a scapegoat.
Quote Details
| Topic | Money |
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