A Dash of Sult N Papper 04/15/20> Rest his soul… Abe Lincoln.

in #dailydose4 years ago

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So April 15th....

So April 15th here in the USA is normally “tax day” but since nothing is normal at this time the IRS has been understanding enough to push the tax filing deadline date back to July 15th this year.

Other than being tax day, April 15th, it also is the anniversary of one of the US Presidents death. That president was “Honest” Abe Lincoln. I can’t swear to how honest he was but I can swear that tax day and the anniversary of his death aren’t by coincidence.

You see, honest Abe needed to funds to fight the Confederate States in what was called the “Civil War”. Kind of an oxymoronic name, “civil war”; nothing “civil” in killing each other best that I can tell.

Regardless of the name, Abe had to finance his share of the war so he sold bonds to England that was in 10 year and 40 year maturity dates.

Recognize those numbers...

Recognize those numbers, 10 & 40? Those also have significance usually on April 15th as well. Most people here in the USA will usually file their taxes on some variation of the form 1040 IRS collection of forms. Now most people would think that if those bonds were 10 year and 40 year bonds that they would have been paid off a long, long time ago.

Well, think again...

Well, think again. Those bonds have never been paid off. That income tax you pay each year goes to pay the interest on the bonds. That might sound absolutely crazy but it is true, you see the bonds Abe sold to England were payable in gold coin, and by the time the war ended , (wrong choice of word) was stopped the United States and the Confederate States were flat out of gold coin.
So the civil war never ended, because if it had ended, the USA would have had to pay in gold coin the face value of the bonds 10 years and 40 years after the peace treaty was signed.

A peace treaty...

A peace treaty never has been signed to signify the end of the civil war, and so we continue to pay the interest on the bonds. So the money collected is bundled up each year and shipped off to the Queen of England.

I imagine we’ll have to pay her some sort of “late payment fee” this year, but who gives a rats ass anyway? I’m sure 45 extras days isn’t going to kill her because she knows that the IRS is the most feared collection agency in the world and they will get her your money.

Just to be totally honest here, it wasn’t just Abe and his men selling bonds to England. The Confederate States sold them similar bonds as well payable in gold coin too. England played both sides of the war and has profited very well from it, probably even more than they ever expected too.

Now some of...

Now some of you regular readers may have already known this because I have mentioned it before, and I apologize if you didn’t learn anything new here today. Since I’ve picked up 13 new followers since the fork here to HIVE I thought they might like to what you already do.

So like old Paul Harvey said to end his news cast, “Now you know the rest of the story.”

Until next time,
Sult

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It really wasn't Lincoln that didn't end the war, it was Andy Johnson (who never, ever was called 'honest').

Like all really awful ideas, the 'progressive income tax' started out with a purity of ideal. Clip the war profiteers that hired replacements to fight and made huge piles of money off the war at a far higher rate than the poor Irish immigrants that actually did the fighting and dying. Seems it didn't work out that way.

Do you know that the immigrants were paid $15 per month in the Union Army? In paper? Once in a while? That the King of England (a direct relative of the current bond holder) manipulated the 'potato famine' to send more Irish to America? You think any of that is related?

So we are still paying bonds for every war we've ever fought. It's a tradition now. You'd think FDR would have traded some of the Lend Lease equipment that kept England alive in WWII for Civil War Bonds. Didn't happen.

Sigh. Happy Tax Day Sult.

Well the war ended and both sides agreed to end the fighting in an "armistice" because when they sat down and figured out that neither side had the funds to pay back the bonds and figured they probably wouldn't collectively have it the time frame they agreed to "not end " it but cease fighting. That way England couldn't just "re-po" the country.
I did know about the Irish and that side of history, my father was 100% full Irish, so I grew up hearing all to often those stories. You can bet the bank the "potato famine" was orchestrated to supply more bodies at a cheap wage and higher price.
I don't know about the FDR and Lend Lease deal in much detail so I can't say if he even considered that on trading some of the bonds in exchange, chances are he didn't or it didn't extinguish much if he did.
I've already quit paying "income tax" so April 15 is just another day, just like July 15, or August 15.
Speaking of days, April 26 is coming up soon. You might recall I proclaimed that day as "National Hemi Day" in honor of the Mopar 426 Hemi engine. I am thinking of running a photo contest in honor of it, so if you have any photos of Hemi engines or old muscle cars with Hemi engines you might want to start digging those out.
Thanks for the support,
Sult

Howdy sir sultnpapper! It is very interesting indeed about the 1040 form and England was smart to play both sides of the war!

Yep, they knew what they doing those Brits did.