muft therefore be revived and fupported, as the principal bafis of the profperity of their country. And they can be revived and fupported only by begetting confidence in government, and between man and man, and by banishing the fear of a tender-law, and this can only be done by annihilating paper-money. 2. Let it not be urged here, that Pennfylvania flourished formerly, under a loan-office. Pennsylvania, then, confifted of a few families, among whom, government had its full operation, and who were feldom deficient in their engagements to the ftate. The cafe is widely different now. What laws can be made, under our feeble conftitution, to compel the early and punctual payment of the intereft or principal of money, lent to fettlers above 300 miles from the feat of government? But further our trade was formerly carried on with men of our own country, and who spoke our own language. But now, we trade with men of all countries and languages. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to ufe a currency, in our commerce with them, which fpeaks a language that is alike intelligible in all countries. Philadelphia was almoft the only port known to foreigners three years ago. Is it not probable, that our papermoney has driven the trade of Europe to the ports of the fouthern and eastern ftates? For it was in Pennsylvania, that paper-money, fince the peace, firft fpread terror among the commercial nations of Europe. It is truly diverting, to hear fome men with, that we had not a filver dollar or a guinea in our country, in order to favour the credit and circulation of our paper-money. Thefe men put me in mind of a ftory, I once heard, of a man who contended, that a faw-duft pudding was better than a flour pudding, because it lay longer in the ftomach, and thereby trengthened the fyftem more than Vol. II. No. I. aliment compofed of flour, which was foon difcharged by the different outlets of the body. In proportion as paper-money acquires the credit and value of fpecie, we expel fpecie from our country. But we do more -we create a foreign debt in proportion to the quantity we emit, of paper-money, and thereby entail poverty, dependence, and flavery upon our country. There is one evil that attends the want of private loans which has never been mentioned. While it leads fome of our monied men, to lodge their cash in foreign banks, it leads others to invest it in real property, and thereby to establish an influence that favours ariftocracy. There are now three times the number of tenants to be found, in all the old counties of the ftate, that there were before the war. This depen dent clafs of people are created only by the impoffibility of borrowing money upon intereft, which formerly was the principal fource of the freeholds-and, of courfe, of the free and independent fpirit of our country. What fhould we think of a man, who would prefer breast-milk and pap for food, because he once thrived upon that diet? We act the fame abfurd part, by fubftituting paper-money for gold and filver. It is the pap and breaft-milk of feeble colonies. Independent ftates should turn, with difguft, from the flimfy diet. Where is the independent nation in the world, except the Americans, that now ufes a paper-currency? The gold and filver of the whole world are at our fervice. Heaven has delivered us, in kindness, from the danger and drudgery of mines, and has commanded the whole world to dig-to refine and to coin for us. The produce of our country is a more inexhaustible fund for fpecie than the mines of Petofi or Peru. E While our industry overbalances our extravagance, or, in other words, while our exports are greater than our imports, there will be a perpetual influx of fpecie among us. Bills of exchange will be the thermometer that will determine the quantity neceffary for our trade and happinefs. When we have too much ipecie, produce will be high, and cath will be exported. When fpecie is fcarce, produce will fall, and the remittances for our imports, will be in bills of exchange. Paper-money forms the wings of fpecie. It haftens its flight from our country. Nor is this all-it produces a debt to Europe exactly proportioned to its quantity, as was mentioned under a former head. I have faid, that I am a friend to a loan-office, in all ftates that have new lands to fettle. I contider it as effential to their profperity-but when thefe ftates become large and independent, this loan-office must be established (for the reafo is that have been, and for others which might be given) only in fpecie. I contider the eftab. lithment of a loan-office, in Pennfylvania, upon these principles, as a matter of unbounded good confequences to the flate. Fifty thoufand pounds, or even a mach lefs fum in specie, appropriated every year, by a loan-olice, for the fettlement of our new lads, would, in a few years, fill every corner of the flate with farmers, and crafe oar wildernets to bloom and balom bise a role. How great mal be the produce, and how extenfive the commerce, of Pennylvania, when every navigable fream and road of the fate, thall be covered with bouts and wagons, loaded with the fruits of the indulry of car inhabitants ? I do not mean to cocine the benefits of the lown-office, be law, to the settlers; bat if we refore confidence in government, by banishing the fear of a tender-law, and caving in all our paper-money, we fall joon create a fund among individuals, large enough for the demands of all the farmers, merchants, and manufacturers in the ftate. There are now many hundred thousand pounds in fpecie locked up in Pennfylvania, which, in a few years, would be lent upon bonds and mortgages, provided we could fatisfy the holders of this money, that their bonds would not be cancelled with paper. I know it is a common thing to abufe brokers and fpeculators for felling our paper-money at a discount, and our farmers, for refufing to take it for the produce of their lands. In the former cafe, we mistake the effect for the caufe. It is depreciated currency that creates brokers and speculators, and not brokers and speculators that create depreciation of our currency. As for our farmers, they fhew their wisdom in refufing to take paper-money for their produce. A merchant finds his money profitable to him, in proportion to the quicknefs with which he parts with it: but the cafe is widely different with the farmer. His profits depend upon his keeping his money in his desk, till he accumulates enough of it to add to the fize or number of his farms. Now paper-money will not answer this purpose. It has had the ftain of depreciation ftamped on it, which cannot be removed while there lives a man that can detail the calamities that were produced by it, during the late war. A farmer, therefore, miftakes his true intereft, who takes more paper-money for his produce, than is feficient to pay his taxes, or to purchate a few pounds of fugar and tea for his family. It is equally abfurd to abuse the bank of North America for deprecisting our paper-money. There is no bank in New Jersey, and yet the paper-money of that fate paffes at a discount of 20 per cent. It is no uncommon thing for a deluded people to trace their misfortunes to falfe crafts. A poor man, who fell from his horfe, in riding between Edinburgh and Leith, and broke his leg, curfed the union of the parliaments of England and Scotland for it. In the beginning of the reign of the prefent king of England, the mobs of London curfed lord Bute as the cause of all their bad weather. cy be received agreeably to law, till the whole of it is taken out of circulation, and afterwards let our laws, in refpect to taxes, revenue, contracts, and commerce, know no other money than gold and filver. O° NESTOR, Let not the public creditors be Paper-Money advocated. alarmed, at any thing contained (Published in Virginia). in this effay. I am pleading their caufe, for I belong to this clafs of UR public papers have alreacitizens. I am contending for the dy furnished us with feveral payment of our intereft in fpecie, well-written pieces from northern instead of paper-money. By this prints, on the fubject of a paper-curmeans we fhall receive, not only rency. The faft approach of our from 6 to 20 per cent. according annual affembly, will probably bring to the tenure by which we hold forth publications from our own ciour certificates, but we fhall ap- tizens, on the fame fubject. It feems preciate the principal of our cer- to engage the converfation of all ranks tificates into fpecie, which will be of people. The thinking part of the an immenfe advantage to us, efpe- community, as well as the unthinkcially to fuch of us as depofited our ing-the honeft man, as well as the all in the funds, in the doubtful and knave, have all their obfervations. gloomy year of 1777. It is to no The enfuing feffion, then, promifes purpofe, to fay, that money, which is to be as important a one, as we have well-funded, will preferve its credit. had fince the revolution. A PAPERWhat money was ever better funded CURRENCY! or, NO PAPER-CURthan our last emiffion of paper? and RENCY! that is the queftion. And yet we fee and feel its depreciation. verily, mr. printer, it is a queflion, Bat, in the prefent ftate of language, at this crifis of our affairs, of fuch and with our imperfect means of dif- magnitude in itself, that that mind fufing knowledge, in Pennsylvania, must be vacant, indeed, which is not how are farmers to know any thing deeply affected at the bare poffibility about funds, or the quantity of mo- of its being determined unrighteourney that is in circulation? Befides, ly. Upon a juft determination of in the fluctuation of power and prin- this fingle queftion, depends, in my ciples, which has lately characterifed humble opinion, whether we fhall, Pennfylvania, who will truft a law, as a ftate, rife to honour, opulence, beyond the duration of our annual profperity, and happinefs; or fink affembly nor let it be faid that the into contempt, poverty, bankruptcy, depreciation of our money is only and wretchedness? Let then neither from 5 to 10 per cent. Thefe dif- learned men, nor critics, wife men, counts form the profits of moft occu- nor fools, wonder-much lefs, laugh pations. The lofs of this profit, there--at any production on this imporfore, muft, in four trades out of five, produce bankruptcy and beg tant fubject, however futile in point of argument-however barren of fentiment, mataphor, figure, or language. For it is a fubject in which the poorest citizen is interested; and about which, men of the meaneft capacities must be concern ed; and, being concerned, will involuntarily as it were-give every affiftance to the fide of the queftion, moft coincident with their ideas of POLICY and JUSTICE. Without further preface, then, know ye, all whom it may concern, that, though I rank myself under the laft defcription of citizens, I can no longer forbear entering the lifts as an advocate for paper-money, in fpite of the contrary opinion being maintained by a certain great perfonage, the publications of celebrated statesmen and politicians, who have for twelve years past, proved themselves as confummate in WISDOM and POLICY, as in FIDELITY and VIRTUE. You may call this, mr. printer, if you pleafe, arrogance and vanity in the extreme. I care not; 'tis a free country we live in, and every man has a right to give his opinions, on public matters, to his fellow-citizens, in the best way he can. If men of genius and talents will not write, they must not be surprised, if those of ordinary capacities do. A true patriot will ever be forward to fhew himself in times of impending danger. And when public affairs have got to the height of defperation, all ceremony and apology for intrufions of this nature, become fuperfluous. I have often heard it faid, that "a fool may ftart a question, which a wife man cannot answer.' Why, then, may not a petty fcribbler, like myfelf, give fuch a hint to a man of abilities, as will tempt him to ftep forth in fupport of a queftion, in which the happiness of thousands is fo immediately involved? For my part, I mean only to offer to the public, in plain, undecorated language, a few," indubitable proofs of the extreme fcarcity of specie," and the impoffibility of our exifting, as a republic, without a very large circulating medium of our own making, unless measures could be adopted, as well to insure a return of the fpecie ex ported fince 1782, as to keep it among us, when regained, leaving the means to effect fuch a desirable end to the legislature. Now, for my proofs. Firft. What can be a greater proof of the "fcarcity of money, and the abfolute impoffibility of people's paying their taxes, much more their just debts," than, in a state like Virginia, where horse-racing is so much a fcience, and indeed very juftlythat it has almoft become a part of our education-and contributes much towards our happiness and greatness— yet, at ten turfs, within the state, there is only 2610l. paid annually, to the owners of winning horses? And it is very evident, this is a branch of business, which would be encouraged, with much larger donations, if money was not too fcarce to be come at." Is it not alfo evident, from the crouds of people which we find in a race-field, and the money expended on fuch an occafion, "scarce as it is," that the very existence of the commonwealth is deeply concerned in the weighty adventures of the day? And yet it cannot be carried on, with proper fpirit, "for want of money.' Secondly, in NOTE. * If Rome, in the days of her happiness and greatness, fubmitted chearfully to laws, which defined the manner of clothing, and the equipage of the different claffes of people, according to their real worthand were therefore calculated to promote induftry, encourage frugality, and to infure independence of circumftances in her citizens-would it be inconfiftent with the spirit of our conftitution, and the nature of our re public, to adopt fimilar laws? par ticularly, prohibiting any man from difpofing of money in the way abovementioned, who was not, in the fulleft comprehenfion of the word-INDEPENDENT and this, no man can NOTE. all public places, we find five four-ters in this ftate-yet, fuch was the wheeled carriages, for one, to be met "prodigious fcarcity of money," that, with twelve years ago: and, if I even in the city of Richmond, and had not an averfion to every thing the large, flourishing, and opulent in the fhape of fatire, I might fay, borough of Petersburg-their audiin many families, we now fee a cha- ence feldom exceeded 200-though not, where never before was known tickets were fold at the moderate any thing above a strong chair, at price of one dollar. Will this be 15 or zol. value-but, as we are in believed of a people, known to be the fall enjoyment of PEACE and liberal in encouraging every kind GLORIOUS INDEPENDENCE, of entertainment, which has the does not the want of FOUR HORSES, leaft tendency to improve our manand livery, to every FOUR WHEELS, ners, or correct our morals? Fourthprove the immense scarcity of mo- ly, an induftrious man had with wy?" Thirdly, though the Ame- much labour, expense, and affiduity, rican company of comedians" con- brought a dog of uncommon fagacidefcended to spend the two laft win- ty, to dance on his hind legs, and, in point of gefture and addrefs, equal to any puppy whatever; yet, after obtaining permiffion to dance his dog, he had the cruel mortification to receive not more than one hundred dollars of a night-fuch was the want of a noble curiofity-but more probably, fuch was the extreme carcity of money."-Fifthly, cockfighting, if I was a man of method, would have followed horfe-racing. At this bumane and manly amufement, there was only 3551. loft and paid down in pits, in the course of the laft fpring; and fuch was the " extreme scarcity of money," that in one pit, there were but three inftances of men lofing ten dollars each on a fingle battle, and paying the fame before the face of a fheriff, who had not, for fix weeks before, been able to obtain from either five dollars for their fpecie tax-fo that, add this to all the money subscribed to purfes, including the petty purse races throughout the ftate, and it amounts to but little more than 4000l.-fay 13,500 dollars. The fums expended in plays, concerts, balls, berbacues, puppet- fhews, legerdemain tricks, puppy-exhibitions, &c. cannot be afcertained with the fame degree of exactness; but it is fuppofed, that they could not exceed this fum-fo that, there is not above be, who is involved in debt or keeps a needy creditor out of his money. I am by no means an enemy to this kind of fport, when fupported upon principles of true honour and liberality. But I do not think it generous, equitable, or juft, that a man should expend money in this, or any other wanton or extravagant way, while there are claims upon his purfe, which he protests he is unable to anfwer. Such things render a manand very juftly too-the fubject of general, and fometimes very fevere reprehenfions; and muft, upon reflexion, convince him, whofe heart is not totally divefted of every particle of fenfibility, that nothing degrades a man more, or renders him a fitter object of burlefque and ridicule, than fupporting an extenfive ftyle of life, on other people's money. And how men, who would piftol their best friends, for calling their honour or their juftice in queftion, can reconcile fuch conduct to themfelves, is a matter no way to be accounted for, but by the eafinefs of a difpofition, naterally juft, but too generous, and carried away by the prevailing, and almoft irrefiftible currents, of fafhi, fhew, and diffipation. |