In a short time, the paper was sunk as low as our continental currency, before its death.
The confusion was general; the regent and Law were obliged to fly the kingdom; and both died in obscurity, the one in Italy, and the other, if I mistake not, in the Netherlands. In France there was a total change of property; poor men made fortunes by speculation, and the rich were beggared. The result of the whole was, that the paper was called in at a discount, by means similar to theforty for oneact of the United States.
But the principal view I have in stating this example is, to show the effect of a sudden inundation of money upon industry and morals. No sooner did the nation feel an increase of the quantity of money, but the kingdom was overrun with speculators; men who left useful occupations, for the prospect of rapid accumulations of wealth. Knavery, over reaching, idleness, prodigality, and every kind of vice prevailed, and filled the kingdom with distress, confusion, and poverty.
The South Sea bubble, in England, was a farce of a similar kind, but its effects were less extensiv.
The continental currency was not the sole cause of the idleness and speculation, which prevailed in this country, about the years 1780, 1781, and 1782. Vast quantities of specie were introduced by the French army, by the Spanish trade, and by a clandestine intercourse with the British garrisons. At the close of the war, there was more than double the quantity of gold and silver in the country, which was necessary for the purposes of a regular commerce.
This extraordinary circulation of specie had its usual, its certain effect; it prompted multitudes to quit manual labor for trade. This circumstance, in conjunction with the disbanding of the army, which left great numbers of men without employment, and with a rage for foreign goods, which was always strong, and was then increased by a long war, filled our commercial towns with hosts of adventurers in business. The consequent influx of goods and enormous credit necessary to obtain them, are evils that deeply affect this country. I will not attempt a detail of the state of commerce in the United States; but observe that the necessary exportation of specie was the happiest event that could befal the United States; the only event that could turn industry into its proper channel, and reduce the commerce of the country to a proportion with the agriculture.
Dissipation was another consequence of a flood of money. No country perhaps on earth can exhibit such a spirit of dissipation among men, who derive their support from business, as America. It is supposed by good judges, that the expenses of subsistence, dress and equipage, were nearly doubled in the commercial towns, the two first years of the peace. I have no doubt the support of the common people was enhanced twenty five per cent. This augmentation of expenses, with a dimunition of productiv industry, are the consequences of too much money, and a scarcity is our only remedy.
Short sighted people complain of the present scarcity; but it is the only hope of our political salvation; and that Legislature which ventures to remove popular complaints, by a coinage of great quantities of specie, or by its substitute, paper, checks industry, keeps alive a spirit of dissipation, and retards the increase of solid wealth. If this has been necessary, it is a necessity sincerely to be lamented.
But there is one source of idleness and corruption, which is general in America, and bids fair to be of long duration. I refer to the different species of federal and State securities, which are every where diffused, and of fluctuating value. These evidences of our debts open such prospects for rapid accumulations of property to every class of people, that men cannot withstand the temptation: Thousands are drawn from useful occupations into a course of life, which cannot possibly benefit society; which must render them useless, and probably will render them bad men, and dangerous members of a community.
What remedy can be applied to so great an evil, it is not for me to determin. But if I may offer my sentiments freely, I must acknowlege that I think no measure can produce so much mischief, as the circulation of a depreciated changeable currency. Let all our debts be placed on the footing of bank stock, and made transferable only at the treasury; or let the present evidences of it be called in, and new notes issued, payable only to the creditor or original holder; or let the securities be purchased at their current discount, let some method be adopted to draw them from circulation; for they destroy public and private confidence; they cut the sinews of industry; they operate like a slow poison, dissolving thestaminaof government, moral principles.
No paper should circulate in a commercial country, which is not a representativ of ready cash; it must at least command punctual interest, and security of the principal when demanded. Without these requisits, all notes will certainly depreciate. Most of our public securities want all the requisits of a paper currency.But if they did not; if they were equal in value to bank notes or specie, still the sums are much too large for a circulating medium in America. The amount of the continental and State certificates, with the emissions of paper by particular States, cannot be less than seventy millions of dollars, which is seven times the sum necessary for a circulation.
Were they equal in value to gold and silver, the whole medium would depreciate, specie as well as paper. But as they want every requisit of a paper currency, the whole depreciation falls upon the securities.
An alarming consequence of the State of our public debt remains to be considered. Want of confidence in the public, added to the vast quantity of paper, has sunk it to a third, sixth, or eighth part of its nominal value. Most of the creditors of the public have parted with their securities at a great discount, and are thus robbed of the monies which they earned by the sweat of the brow. Men of property have purchased them for a trifle, and in some States receive the interest in specie. In Massachusetts, this is the case with respect to some part of the State debt. When a man buys a note of twenty shillings value for five, and receives the interest, six per cent. in specie, he in fact receives twenty four per cent. on his money.
This is one source of the insurrection in Massachusetts. The people feel the injustice of paying such an interest to men who earned but a small part of it, and whose sole merit is, that they have more money than their fellow citizens who suffer the loss by depreciation. Those men in particular, who fought for our independence, or loaned their property to save the country, view with indignant resentment, that law which obliges them to pay twenty four per cent. interest on the securities, which they have sold for a fourth, or an eighth part of their honest demands.
This cannot justify the violent steps taken by the people; because petitions, and united firmness in a constitutional way, would have procured redress. ButI state the facts to shew the effects of speculation, or rather, of the want of faith in public engagements.
Such are the consequences of a variable medium; neglect to industry; application to irregular commerce; relaxation of principles in social intercourse; distrust of individuals; loss of confidence in the public, and of respect for laws; innumerable acts of injustice between man and man, and between the State and the subject; popular uneasiness, murmurs and insurrections. And such effects will exist till their cause shall be removed. Not the creation of a Supreme Power over the United States, is an object of more importance, than the annihilation of every species of fluctuating currency.
That instability of law, to which republics are prone, is another source of corruption. Multiplication and changes of law have a great effect in weakening the force of government, by preventing or destroying habits. Law acquires force by a steady operation, and government acquires dignity and respect, in proportion to the uniformity of its proceedings. Necessity perhaps has made our federal and provincial governments frequently shift their measures, and the unforeseen or unavoidable variations of public securities, with the impossibility of commanding the resources of the continent, to fulfil engagements, all predict a continuation of the evil. But the whole wisdom of Legislatures should be exerted to devise a system of measures which may preclude the necessity of changes that tend to bring government into contempt.
A mild or lax execution of law may also have a bad effect in lessening the respect for its officers. In a monarchy, there is no reasoning with the executive; the will of the prince inspires terror. In our governments, the officers are often familiar, and will even delay justice as long as possible to assist the prisoner.
In some of the eastern States, the frequency and mildness of laws, have introduced very singular habits. The people of Connecticut respect the laws as much as any people; they would not be guilty of disobedience; they mean generally to pay their debts, but arenot very anxious to be punctual. They suppose a creditor can wait for his money longer than the period when it is due, and think it hard if he will not.[38]
This mild execution of law, and a consequential habit of dilatoriness, which arise from the spirit of equality, are still prevalent amongst the body of the people. These gave rise to the late incorporation of several commercial towns, with large powers; an expedient which has answered the purpose of giving to commerce the advantage of energy and dispatch in the collection of debts. As most of the business is done in the cities, this effect will gradually extend itself, and form different habits.
The great misfortune of the multiplicity of laws and frequency of litigation, is, that they weaken a respect for the executiv authority, destroy the principle of honor, and transfer the disgrace, which ought to follow delinquency in payment, from a man's reputation, to the administration of justice. The lawyers and courts are impeached, when the whole blame ought to fall upon the debtor for his impunctuality. Honor, a substitute for honesty, has more influence upon men than law; for in the one case, a man's character is at stake, and in the other, his property. When a man's character suffers not, by a failure of engagements, and by a public prosecution, the collection of debts must be slow. But when a man's reputation is suspended on the punctual discharge of his contracts, he will spare no pains to do it; and this is or ought to be the case in all commercial countries.
Extensiv credit, in a popular government, is always pernicious, and may be fatal. When the people are deeply or generally involved, they have power and strong temptations to introduce an abolition of debts; an agrarian law, or that modern refinement on the Roman plan, which is a substitute for both, a paper currency, issued on depreciating principles. Rhode Islandis a melancholy proof of this truth, and New Hampshire narrowly escaped the deplorable evils. In governments like ours, it is policy to make it the interest of people to be honest. In short, the whole art of governing consists in binding each individual by his particular interest, to promote the aggregate interest of the community.
Massachusetts affords a striking example of the danger incurred by too many private debts. During the war the operation of justice was necessarily suspended, and debts were constantly multiplying and accumulating. When law came to be rigorously enforced, the people were distressed beyond measure, particularly in the western counties, where people are poorer than in the parts of the State better settled, and nearer to market. These private debts crowded hard, and operated with the demands of the federal creditors, to push the people into violent measures.
The planters in Virginia owe immense sums of money to the British merchants. What is the consequence? a law, suspending the collection of British debts. The loss of their slaves is the ostensible excuse for this law; but a more solid reason must be, the utter impossibility of immediately discharging the debts. In our governments the men who owe the money, make the laws; and a general embarrassment of circumstances is too strong a temptation to evade or suspend the performance of justice. For this reason, the wisdom of the Legislature might cooperate with the interest of the merchant, to check a general credit. In some cases it might be safe and wise to withdraw the protection of law from debts of certain descriptions. It is an excellent law in one State, which ordains, that no tavern debt, of more than two days standing, shall be recoverable by law. It prevents tavern haunting and its consequences, idleness, drunkenness and quarrels. Perhaps laws of this kind have the best effect in introducing punctual payments. Their first effect is to prevent credit; but they gradually change a man's regard for his property, to a more activ and efficient principle, an attention to his character.
In the present anarchy in Massachusetts, monied men get credit with the merchant, and are punctual to fulfil engagements, as they are sensible that the merchant relies solely on their honor. The certain ultimate tendency of withdrawing the protection of law from particular kinds of debts, is to discourage tricks and evasions, and introduce habits of punctuality in commerce.
The present state of our public credit hath the same effect. Repeated violations of public faith, the circulation of a variable medium of trade, the contempt of law, the perpetual fear of new legislativ schemes for discharging our debts, and of tender laws, have made men very cautious in giving credit, and when they do give it, they depend more on the honor of a man than on any security derived from law. This one happy effect of want of confidence in the public, is some small consolation for an infinite variety of political evils and distresses.
Laws to prevent credit would be beneficial to poor people. With respect to the contraction of debts, people at large, in some measure, resemble children; they are not judges even of their own interest. They anticipate their incomes, and very often, by miscalculation, much more than their incomes. But this is not the worst effect; an easy credit throws them off their guard in their expenses. In general we observe that a slow, laborious acquisition of property, creates a caution in expenditures, and gradually forms the miser. On the other hand, a sudden acquisition of money, either by gambling, lotteries, privateering, or marriage, has a tendency to open the heart, or throw the man off his guard, and thus makes him prodigal in his expenses. Perhaps this is ever the case, except when a penurious habit has been previously formed.
An easy and extensiv credit has a similar effect. When people can possess themselves of property without previous labor, they consume it with improvident liberality. A prudent man will not; but a large proportion of mankind have not prudence and fortitudeenough to resist the demands of pride and appetite. Thus they often riot on other men's property, which they would not labor to procure. They form habits of indolence and extravagance, which ruin their families, and impoverish their creditors.
Another effect of extensiv credit, is a multitude of lawyers. Every thing which tends to create disputes, to multiply debts, weaken a regard to commercial engagements, and place the collection of debts on law, rather than on honour, increases the encouragement of lawyers. The profession of law is honorable, and the professors, I scruple not to aver, as liberal, honest and respectable, as any class of men in the State. But their business must be considered as a public evil, except in the drafting of legal instruments, and in some real important disputes. Such is the habit of trusting to law, for the recovery of debts, that, in some of the eastern States, one half or two thirds of the lawyers are mere collectors. They bring forward suits for small debts, that are not disputed; they recover judgement upon default, they take out executions, and live upon their fees.
The evil is not so great in the middle States; but it is great in all the States. Never was there such a rage for the study of law. From one end of the continent to the other, the students of this science are multiplying without number. An infallible proof that the business is lucrativ.
The insurgents in Massachusetts enumerate lawyers among their grievances. They wish the Legislature to limit their number and their demands. Short sighted mortals! They seem not to consider that lawyers grow out of their own follies, and that the only radical remedy for the evil is, to contract no more debts than they can pay, with strict punctuality.
The number of professional men in a State should be as few as possible; for they do not increase the property of the State, but liv on the property acquired by others.
There is little danger that the number of clergymen will be too great. In a few instances, religious parties may have multiplied their teachers to too great a number, and perhaps in some parts of the country, a few more ministers of the gospel would be very useful.
Physicians will multiply in proportion to the luxuries and idleness of men. They cannot be limited by law, for people will be as intemperate and as lazy as they please.
But an artful Legislature will take away some of the causes of litigation, and thus curtail the number of lawyers. We may always determin the degree of corruption, in commercial habits, by the number of civil suits in the courts of law. The multiplication of lawyers is a proof of private embarrassments in any State; it is a convincing proof that in America these embarrassments are numberless. The evil is of such magnitude insomeStates, as to suspend the operation of law, and inallit produces distrust among men, renders property unsafe, and perplexes our mutual intercourse. In this situation, with popular governments, and an unbounded rage for magnificent living, perhaps the only effectual remedy for a multitude of public evils, is the restraining of credit. It might even be useful to destroy all credit on the security of law, except debts of certain descriptions, where mortgages might be given. This would not check business, but it would oblige people to exercise a principle of honor, and to have recourse to industry, and ready payment for articles which their necessities or their fancies require. We should then be better able to determin, whether bucks and bloods, in high life, "who roll the thundering chariot o'er the ground," are sporting with their own property, or that of honest creditors.
I cannot close these remarks without observing how much this country owes to particular classes of people for the practice of the commercial virtues. To the Friends, the Germans and the Dutch, this country is indebted for that industry and provident economy,which enables them to subsist without anxiety, and to be honest and punctual, without embarrassment.
Happy would it be for this country, if these virtues were more generally practised. Paper money and foreign credit are mere temporary expedients to keep up theappearance of wealthand splendor; but they are miserable substitutes for solid property. The only way to become rich at home and respectable abroad, is to become industrious, and to throw off our slavish dependence on foreign manners, which obliges us to sacrifice our opinions, our taste, and our interest, to the policy and aggrandizement of other nations.
ON PAPER MONEY.
[Published atBaltimore, August 9, 1785.]
Messrs.Printers,
I observed a paragraph of intelligence in your Journal, of the 26th of July, respecting the circulation of paper currency in North Carolina. I am not disposed to dispute the truth of the fact, that paper currency passes in that State at par with specie; but I should be very sorry to see it drawn into a precedent for other States.
The scarcity of cashis a general complaint, and superficial observers impute the evil to a wrong cause, while shallow reasoners would remedy it by an emission of paper credit.
The real state of our commerce is this; since the ratification of peace, the quantity of goods imported into the United States has been much greater than what was necessary for the consumption of the inhabitants. Perhaps I shall not be wide of the truth, when I suppose that one third of the importations would supply the demands of people. The consequence is, the other two thirds continue on hand as a superfluity. The merchant finds no market for his goods, and erroneously imputes the evil to a scarcity of cash. But the real truth is, people do not want his goods; they purchase what they want, and find cash or produce to make payment; but the surplus remains in store.
In every trading nation, there ought to be a due proportion between the commercial interest, the agricultural and the manufacturing. Whenever the farmers and manufacturers are too numerous for the merchants, produce and manufactures will be plentiful and cheap; trade will of course be lucrativ. Whenever the merchants are too numerous for the laborers, the importations ofthe former will exceed the wants of the latter; of course goods will not find vent; and the merchant who owes nothing may lie and sleep in indolence, while the merchant who deals on creditmust fail. The experience of almost every day proves thetruth of this reasoning. I will suppose that the number of merchants, and the quantity of goods in Baltimore, are double to what they were two years ago; and the market for goods is nearly the same. The effect will be, that the same profit of business will be divided among double the number of men, while, at the same time, rents and the price of provision in market will be double. The clear profit of the merchant will therefore be reduced to one fourth part of what it was two years ago. I submit to the inhabitants of thisflourishingtown, whether this is a mere supposition, or a moderate state of facts; and whether this reasoning will not, in a greater or less degree, apply to every commercial town in the United States.
But is not money scarce? With respect to the quantity of goods in store,money is very scarce: With respect to the produce of the country, there ismoney enough. Almost every article of home produce will command cash; but the merchant cannot get cash for his goods. Money is the representativ of goods bought and sold. I will suppose, for the sake of argument, that two years ago there was cash enough in the country to purchase all the goods in market at the usual advance. I will suppose that the quantity of goods has been trebled since that time. In this case, had the quantity of money continued the same, there would have been cash enough to purchase just one third of the goods. But suppose what is true, that at the time the quantity of goods increases in this proportion, the quantity of money in circulation diminishes in the same proportion. In this case there will be but one third of the cash to purchase three times the goods. Thus but one sixth part of the goods can be purchased by the circulating cash. The merchant must then lower the price of his goods to one sixth of their value, or keepthem on hand. This reasoning, however mathematical, is just, and applies to all commercial countries. It is a fair state of facts in America. But though the quantity of money is greatly diminished, yet there is sufficient to represent the produce of the country, which in quantity continues the same. The price is however lowered by the diminution of the quantity of circulating cash.
Whether the quantity of cash is diminished, and the quantity of goods increased in the exact proportion above stated, is not material, the foregoing reasoning being sufficient to illustrate the principle. The probability is, that the disproportion between the goods in market and the cash in circulation, is greater than I have supposed.
The following propositions, I venture to assert, are generally, if not universally, true:
1. That the imports of a country should never exceed its exports. In other words, the value of the goods imported should never exceed the value of the superfluous produce, or that part of the produce which the inhabitants do not want for their own consumption.
2. That too great a quantity of cash in circulation, is a much greater evil than too small a quantity.
3. That too much money in a commercial country will inevitably produce a scarcity.
4. That the wealth of a country does not consist in cash, but in the produce of industry, viz. in agriculture and manufactures.
5. That in a commercial country, where people are industrious, there can never be, for any long time, a want of cash sufficient for a medium.
The first proposition is universally acknowleged to be true.
The second is less obvious, but equally true. Too much money raises the price of labor and of its effects; deprives us consequently of a foreign market; produces indolence and dissipation; than which greater evils cannot happen to a State. The sudden increaseof money, by large emissions of paper credit, at the beginning of the late war, produced more luxury, indolence, corruption of morals, and other fatal effects, than all other causes that ever took place in America. We feel these evils to this moment. On the other hand, a scarcity of cash, tho it cramps commerce for a moment, always checks the evils before mentioned, lowers the price of labor, and produce will of course find a profitable market; it produces economy and industry, and consequently preserves the morals of the people; for industry goes further in preserving purity of morals, than all the sermons that were ever preached.
This leads to an illustration of the third proposition. If too much money in a country raises the price of labor and of produce, the consequence is, that people will go abroad for articles, because they are cheaper in foreign markets, and they will purchase as long as they can get cash. Importations will be multiplied till the country is drained of cash, and then business will return to a new channel. The history of trade in America, the last two years, is an illustration of this proposition.
The fourth proposition, also, is illustrated by facts. I will suppose that ten millions of dollars are sufficient for a medium in America: Let that sum be instantaneously augmented to twenty millions, and the country is not a farthing richer, for the price of goods will be immediately doubled.Twodollars, in the latter case, purchase no more thanonein the former. People ignorantly suppose that goods rise in value; when the fact is, money falls in value. Continental currency was a proof of this. There was cash enough for a medium in the country before the war; and the addition of two hundred millions of dollars did not increase the wealth of the country one farthing; nor would the whole purchase more than the ten millions of specie which circulated before the war. Had the paper all been Spanish milled dollars, the effect would have been the same, had they continued in the country, and not been hoarded.
The fifth proposition depends on this simple fact, that money is a fluid in the commercial world, rolling from hand to hand wherever it is wanted, and there is any thing to purchase it. Let the produce of a country excel, in the least degree, the consumption, and it will never want money.
Admitting the foregoing observations to be true, both the necessity and policy of emitting paper, vanish at once. Supposing paper currency to preserve its credit, still so far from increasing the medium of trade, that in a few months it will drive all the specie from the country. Bank notes and bills of exchange are useful in facilitating a change or conveyance of property; but to issue paper credit, merely with a view to increase the circulating medium, in a country where the people may have just as much gold and silver as they are pleased to work for, is the height of folly. If people are indolent, or extravagant, all the paper currency under heaven will not make them rich, or supply their wants of cash. If people are industrious and frugal, and purchase no more foreign goods than they can pay for in superfluous produce, they will ever have cash enough. Their whole system of commerce stands on these single facts.
If the merchants bring more goods than people want, businessmust be dull; money with themmust be scarce. At the close of the war, cash was plentiful and goods scarce. This made business lively, till people had procured a supply. Remittances were made in cash, so long as it could be obtained. That period is past, and the merchant must now look for remittances where alone they ought ever to be found, in the produce of the country. Business is just now returning into its proper channel, from which it had been diverted by the violence of war, and the fluctuations of paper credit. The rapid population of a country is an agreeable circumstance; but every profession ought to increase in a due proportion. Supposing ten thousand carpenters were to land in Baltimore at once, would they have business? Or would they not exclaim,business is dull,money is scarce? Every one might have a trifle of business, but they could notall make fortunes.
An event similar to this has taken place in Baltimore. The reputation for business which Baltimore had acquired just at the close of the war, brought merchants here from every part of the world, and almost one half of the town has been built within two years. How, in the name of common sense, do the merchants expect to find business? The people who come to this market, multiply gradually, and double in about thirty years. But the merchants who supply the goods have doubled, if not trebled, in numbers and stock, within three years. There is, however, an expedient which will yet enable them all to liv by trade. Let every merchant send abroad to Ireland or Germany, and bring over his hundred able industrious farmers, and fix them on the fertile lands of Maryland, which now lie useless and uncultivated in the hands of the Nabobs: Or let three fourths of the traders quit the business. Either of these expedients will make cash plentiful; and one of them must take place.
I will just make one further remark; the want of a properunionamong the States, will always render our commerce fluctuating and unprofitable. We may do as much business as we please; but if the duties and restrictions on our trade remain, and the flag of the United States is insulted as it has been, and each State is laying duties on the trade of its neighbor, our commerce cannot be reduced to a system, and our profits must be uncertain. The want of aContinental Powerto guard the honor of the whole body, and reduce our measures to one uniform system, is the great source of endless calamities. We shall feel national abuse, till Congress are vested with powers sufficient togovernandprotectus; and till that period, foreigners, like so many harpies, will prey upon our commerce, and disappoint the exertions of our industry.
OnREDRESSofGRIEVANCES.
NEWBURY PORT, 1786.
By some resolves of the discontented people of this State, (Massachusetts) it appears that the true cause of public grievances is mistaken, and consequently the mode of redress will be mistaken. It is laughable enough to hear the people gravely resolving, that the sitting of the general court at Boston is a grievance, when every body may recollect that about twelve years ago, the removal of the Legislature to Cambridge, was a grievance; an unconstitutional stretch of power, that threw the province into a bustle. A great change, since Hutchinson's time! Boston then was the only proper seat of the Legislature.
Lawyers, too, are squeezed into the catalogue of grievances. Why, sir, lawyers are a consequence; not a cause of public evils. They grow out of the laziness, dilatoriness in payment of debts, breaches of contract, and other vices of the people; just as mushrooms grow out of dunghills after a shower, or as distilleries spring out of thetastefor New England rum. The sober, industrious, frugal Dutch, in New York, and the Quakers and Germans in Pensylvania, have no occasion for lawyers; a collector never calls upon them twice, and they feel no grievances. Before the war, there was, in Orange county, New York, but one action of debt tried in eighteen years. O happy people! happy times! no grievances.
Mr. Printer, I saw a man the other day,carryinga bushel or two of flaxseed. Flaxseed is a cash article, and cash pays taxes. The man wanted cash to pay his taxes; hemusthave cash; but, Mr. Printer, half an hour afterwards, I saw him half drunk, and his saddle bags filled with coffee. But, sir, coffee pays no taxes.
Another, a few days ago, brought a lamb to market. Lambs command cash, and cash pays taxes; but the good countryman went to a store, and bought a feather; five shillings for a feather, Mr. Printer, and feathers pay no taxes. Is it not agrievance, sir, that feathers and ribbands, and coffee and new rum, will not pay taxes?
Now, Mr. Printer, in my humble opinion, there are but two effectual methods of redressing grievances; one depends on the people as individuals, and the other on the Supreme Executiv authority.
As to the first, let every person, whether farmer, mechanic, lawyer, or doctor, provide a small box, (a small boxwill be big enough) with a hole in the lid. When he receives a shilling, let him put six pence into the box, and use the other six pence in providing for his family; not rum or feathers, but good bread and meat. Let this box remain untouched, until the collector shall call. Then let it be opened, the tax paid, and the overplus of cash may be expended on gauze, ribbands, tea, and New England rum. Let the box then be put into its place again, to receive pence for the next collector. This method, Mr. Printer, will redress all grievances, without the trouble, noise and expense of town meetings, conventions and mobs.
As to the other method, sir, I can only say, were I at the head of the Executiv authority, I should soon put the question to a decisiv issue. It should be determined, on the first insurrection, whether our lives and our properties shall be secure under the law and the constitution of the State, or whether they must depend on the mad resolves of illegal meetings. Honest men then would know whether they may rest in safety at home, or whether they must seek for tranquillity in some distant country.
TheDEVILis in you.[39]
PROVIDENCE, 1786.
That the political body, like the animal, is liable to violent diseases, which, for a time, baffle the healing art, is a truth which we all acknowlege, and which most of us lament. But as most of the disorders, incident to the human frame, are the consequence of an intemperate indulgence of its appetites, or of neglecting the most obvious means of safety; so most of the popular tumults, which disturb government, arise from an abuse of its blessings, or an inattention to its principles. A man of a robust constitution, relying on its strength, riots in gratifications which weaken thestamina vitæ; the surfeiting pleasures of a few years destroy the power of enjoyment; and the full fed voloptuary feels a rapid transition to the meagre valetudinarian. Thus people who enjoy an uncommon share of political privileges, often carry their freedom to licentiousness, and put it out of their power to enjoy society by destroying its support.
Too much healthis adisease, which often requires a very strict regimen;too much libertyis the worst oftyranny; andwealthmay be accumulated to such a degree as toimpoverisha State. Ifallmen attempt to becomemasters, themostof them would necessarily becomeslavesin the attempt; and couldevery manon earth possess millions of joes,every manwould bepoorerthanany manis now, and infinitely more wretched, because they could not procure the necessaries of life.
My countrymen, it is a common saying now, thatthe devil is in you. I question the influence of the devil, however, in these affairs. Divines and politicians agree in this, to father all evil upon the devil;but the effects ascribed to this prince of evil spirits, both in the moral and political world, I ascribe to the wickedness and ignorance of the human heart. Taking the wordDevilin this sense, he isinyou, andamongyou, in a variety of shapes.
In the first place, theweakness of our federal government is the devil. It prevents the adoption of any measures that are requisit for us, as a nation; it keeps us from paying our honest debts; it also throws out of our power all the profits of commerce, and this drains us of cash. Is not this the devil? Yes, my countrymen, an empty purse is thedevil.
You say you are jealous of your rights, and dare not trust Congress. Well, that jealousy is an evil spirit, and all evil spirits aredevils. So far the devil is in you. You act, in this particular, just like the crew of a ship, who would not trust the helm withoneof their number, because he mightpossiblyrun her ashore, when by leaving her without a pilot, they werecertainof shipwreck. You act just like men, who in raising a building, would not have a master workman, because hemightgive out wrong orders. You will be masters yourselves; and as you are not all ready to lift at the same time, one labors at a stick of timber, then another, then a third; you are then vexed that it is not raised; why let a master order thirteen of you to take hold together, and you will lift it at once. Every family has amaster(or amistress—I beg the ladies' pardon.) When a ship or a house is to be built, there is a master; when highways are repairing, there is a master; every little school has a master; the continent is a great school; the boys are numerous, and full of roguish tricks, and there is nomaster. The boys in this great school play truant, and there is no person to chastise them. Do you think, my countrymen, that America is more easily governed than a school? You do very well in small matters; extend your reason to great ones. Would you not laugh at a farmer who would fasten a cable to a plough, and yet attempt to draw a house with a cobweb? "And Nathan said unto David,thou art the man." You think a master necessary to govern afewharmless children in a school or family; yet leave thousands of great rogues to be governed bygood advice. Believe me, my friends, for I amserious; youlose rights, because you will not giv your magistrates authority toprotect them. Your liberty is despotism, because it has no control; your power is nothing, because it is not united.
But further, luxury rages among you, and luxury isthe devil. The war has sent this evil demon to impoverish people, and embarrass the public. The articles of rum and tea alone, which are drank in this country, would pay all its taxes. But when we add, sugar, coffee, feathers, and the whole list of baubles and trinkets, what an enormous expense? No wonder you want paper currency. My countrymen are all grown very tasty! Feathers and jordans must all be imported! Certainly gentlemen, the devil is among you. A Hampshire man, who drinks forty shillings worth of rum in a year, and never thinks of the expense, will raise a mob to reduce the governor's salary, which does not amount to three pence a man per annum. Is not this the devil?
My countrymen—A writer appeared, not long ago, informing you how to redress grievances.[40]He givs excellent advice. Let every man make a little box, and put into itfour penceevery day. This in a year will amount to six pounds one shilling and eight pence, a sum more than sufficient to pay any poor man's tax. Any man can pay three or four pence a day, though no poor man can, at the end of a year, pay six pounds. Take my advice, every man of you, and you will hardly feel your taxes.
But further, atender lawis thedevil. When I trust a man a sum of money, I expect he will return the full value. That Legislature which says my debtor may pay me withone thirdof the value he received, commits a deliberate act of villany; an act for which anindividual, in any government, would be honoredwith a whipping post, and in most governments, with a gallows. When a man makes dollars, one third of which only is silver, and passes them for good coin, he must lose his ears, &c.
But Legislatures can, with the solemn face of rulers, and guardians of justice, boldly give currency to anadulterated coin, enjoin it upon debtors to cheat their creditors, and enforce their systematic knavery with legal penalties. The differences between the man who makes and passes counterfeit money, and the man who tenders his creditor one third of the value of the debt, and demands a discharge, is the same as between a thief and a robber. The first cheats his neighbor in the dark, and takes his property without his knowlege: The last boldly meets him at noon day, tells him he is a rascal, and demands his purse.
My countrymen, the devil is among you. Makepaperas much as you please; make it a tender in allfuture contracts, or let it rest on its own bottom: But remember that past contracts aresacred things; that Legislatures have no right to interfere with them; they have no right to say, a debt shall be paid at a discount, or in any manner which the parties never intended. It is the business of justice to fulfil the intention of parties in contracts, not to defeat them. To paybona fidecontracts for cash, in paper of little value, or in old horses, would be a dishonest attempt in an individual; but for Legislatures to frame laws to support and encourage such detestable villany, is like a judge who should inscribe the arms of a rogue over the feat of justice, or clergymen who should convert into bawdy-houses the temples of Jehovah. My countrymen, the world says, the devil is in you: Mankind detest you as they would a nest of robbers.
But lastly, mobs and conventions are devils. Good men love law and legal measures. Knaves only fear law, and try to destroy it. My countrymen, if a constitutional Legislature cannot redress a grievance, a mob never can. Laws are the security of life and property; nay, what is more, of liberty. The manwho encourages a mob to prevent the operation of law, ceases to befree or safe; for the same principle which leads a man to put a bayonet to the breast of a judge, will lead him to take property where he can find it; and when the judge dare not act, where is the loser's remedy? Alas, my friends, too much liberty is no liberty at all. Giv me any thing but mobs; for mobs are the devil in his worst shape. I would shoot the leader of a mob, sooner than a midnight ruffian. People may have grievances, perhaps, and no man would more readily hold up his hand to redress them than myself; but mobs rebel against laws of their own, and rebellion is a crime which admits of no palliation.
My countrymen, I am a private, peaceable man. I have nothing to win or to lose by the game of paper currency; butI revere justice. I would sooner pick oakum all my life, than stain my reputation, or pay my creditor one farthing less than his honest demands.
While you attempt to trade to advantage, without aheadto combine all the States into systematic, uniform measures, the world will laugh at you for fools. While merchants take and giv credit, the world will call them idiots, and laugh at their ruin. While farmers get credit, borrow money, and mortgage their farms, the world will call them fools, and laugh at their embarrassments. While all men liv beyond their income, and are harrassed with duns and sheriffs, no man will pity them, or giv them relief. But when mobs and conventions oppose the courts of justice, and Legislatures make paper or old horses a legal tender in all cases, the world will exclaim with one voice—Ye are rogues, and the devil is in you!
NEW LONDON, OCTOBER, 1786.
DESULTORY THOUGHTS.
No government has preserved more general and uninterrupted tranquillity for a long period, than that of Connecticut. This is a strong proof of the force of habit, and the danger that ever attends great alterations of government or a suspension of law. Every system of civil policy must take its complexion from the spirit and manners of the people.
Whatever political constitutions may be formed on paper, or in the philosopher's closet, those only can be permanent which arise out of the genius of the people.
A jealous uneasy temper has sometimes appeared, among the people of this State; but as this has always proceeded from restless, ambitious men, whose designs have been reprobated as soon as detected, this uneasiness has always subsided without any violence to the Constitution. We do not advert to the time when the course of law has been forcibly obstructed in Connecticut.
In the middle and southern States the corrupt English mode of elections has been adopted: We see men meanly stoop to advertise for an office, or beg the votes of their countrymen. In those States elections are often mere riots; almost always attended with disputes and bloody noses, and sometimes with greater violence. In Connecticut, a man never advertises for an office, nor do we know that a man ever solicited a vote for himself. We cannot name the election that produced a dispute, even in words.
It belongs to the unprincipled of other States and countries to deride religion and its preachers. It belongs to the coxcombs of courts, the productions of dancing schools and playhouses, to ridicule our bashfuldeportment and simplicity of manners. We revere the ancient institutions of schools and churches in this State. We revere the discipline which has given such a mild complexion to the manners of its inhabitants, and secured private satisfaction and public tranquillity.
Paper moneyis the present hobby horse of the States, and every State has more or less of thepaper madness. What a pity it is mankind will not discern their right hands from their left.Cash is scarce, is the general cry. Well, this proves nothing more than that the balance of trade is against us, and that we eat, drink, and wear more foreign commodities than we can pay for in produce: That is, we spend more than we earn; or in other words,we are poor.
But nothing shows the folly of people more, than their attempts to remedy the evil by apaper currency. This isignorance, it isabsurdityin the extreme. Do not people know that the addition of millions and millions of money does not increase the value of a circulating medium one farthing. Do they not know that the value of a medium ought not to be increased beyond a certain ratio, even if it could be? and that to increase the circulating cash of one State beyond the circulating cash of other States, is a material injury to it. These propositions are as demonstrable as any problem in Euclid. Ten millions of dollars in specie were supposed to be the medium in America before the war. Congress issued at first five millions in bills. As these cameintocirculation, specie wentout; consequently they held their nominal and real value on par, for the nominal value of the medium was not much increased. Congress sent out another sum in bills; the nominal value of the medium was doubled, the bills sunk one half, and the real value of the medium remained the same. This was the subsequent progress; every emission sunk the real value of bills, and two hundred millions of dollars were, in the end, worth just ten millions in specie, and no more. Towards the close of the war, the specie in America was more than doubled; it sunk to less than half its former value,and the paper bills sunk in the same proportion; from forty to eighty for one, nearly. We had too much specie in the country, in the years 1782 and 1783; it ruined hundreds of merchants, and injured the community.
But it is said, we want a circulating medium. This is not true; we have too much in circulation. The specie and paper now circulating in America, amounts to fifty or sixty millions of dollars; whereas we want not more than ten or fifteen millions. The paper is therefore sunk in real value, so as to reduce the real value of the whole medium to that sum which is wanted. We may make millions of paper if we please; but we shall not add one farthing to the property of the State. Money is not wealth in a State, but the representativ of wealth. A paper currency may answer a temporary purpose of enabling people to pay debts; but it is not an advantage even to the debtor, unless it is depreciated; and in this case it is an injury to the creditor. If the paper retains its value, the debtor must sooner or later purchase it with the produce of his labor; and if it depreciates, it is the tool of knaves while it circulates; it ruins thousands of honest unsuspecting people; it gives the game to the idle speculator, who is a nuisance to the State; it stabs public credit and private confidence; and what is worse than all, it unhinges the obligations which unite mankind. A fluctuation of medium in a State makes more fatal ravages among the morals of people, than a pestilence among their lives. O America! happy would it have been for thy peace, thy morals, thy industry, if, instead of a depreciation of paper bills and securities, stamped with public faith, millions of infernal spirits had been let loose among thy inhabitants! Never, never wilt thou experience the return of industry, economy, private confidence and public content, till every species of depreciated and fluctuating medium shall be annihilated; till Legislatures learn to revere justice, and dread a breach of faith more than the vengeance of vindictiv heaven!
Americans! you talk of a scarcity of cash. Well, the only remedy is, to enable Congress to place our commerce on a footing with the trade of other nations. Foreign States have nothing to do with Massachusetts or New York. They must make treaties withUnited America, or not make them at all. And while we boast of the independence of particular States, we lose all the benefits of independence. For fear that Congress would abuse their powers and enrich themselves, we, like the dog in the manger, will not even enrich ourselves. We complain of poverty, and yetgivthe profits of our trade to foreign nations. Infatuated men! We have one truth to learn—That nothing but the absolute power of regulating our commerce, vested in some federal head, can ever restore to us cash, or turn the balance of trade in our favor. New York alone, by its advantageous situation, is growing rich upon the spoils of her neighbors, and impoverishing the continent to fill her own treasury.
Lawyers, you say, O deluded Americans! are an evil. Will you always be fools? Why lawyers are as good men as others: I venture to say further, that lawyers in this country have devised and brought about the wisest public measures that any State has adopted. My countrymen, the expense of supporting a hundred lawyers is a very great and a very needless expense. You pay to lawyers and courts every year thirty or forty thousand pounds. A great expense, indeed! But courts and lawyers are not to be blamed. The people are the cause of the evil, and they alone, as individuals, are able to remedy it. And yet the remedy is very simple.Cease to run in debt, orpay your debts punctually; then lawyers will cease to exist, and court houses will be shut. If you wish or expect any other remedy than this, you certainly will be disappointed. A man, who purposely rushes down a precipice and breaks his arm, has no right to say, that surgeons are an evil in society. A Legislature may unjustly limit the surgeon's fee; but the broken arm must be healed, and a surgeon is the only man to do it.
My friends, learn wisdom. You are peaceable yet, and let the distractions of your neighbors teach you to preserve your tranquillity.
Spend less money than you earn, and you will every day grow richer. Never run in debt, and lawyers will become farmers. Never make paper money, and you will not cheat your citizens, nor have it to redeem. Above all, pay your public debts, for independence and the confederation require it.
NEW HAVEN, DECEMBER, 1786.
ADVICEtoCONNECTICUT FOLKS.
my friends,
Times are hard; money is scarce; taxes are high, and private debts push us. What shall we do? Why, hear a few facts, stubborn facts, and then take a bit of advice.
In the year 1637, our good forefathers declared an offensiv war against the Pequot Indians. Their troops were ninety men. Weathersfield was ordered to furnish a hog for this army, Windsor a ram goat, and Hartford a hogshead of beer, and four or five gallons of strong water.[41]
This was ancient simplicity! Let us make a little estimation of the expenses annually incurred in Connecticut. (I say incurred, for we can contract debts, though we cannot pay them.)
I will just make a distinction between necessary and unnecessary expenses.
Now comes RUM, my friends.
Ninety nine hundredths unnecessary.
This is a fact: Deny it if you can, good folks. Now, say not a word about taxes, judges, lawyers, courts, and women's extravagance. Your government, your courts, your lawyers, your clergymen, your schools, and your poor, do not all cost you so much asone paltry article, which does you little or no good, but is as destructiv of your lives as fire and brimstone.
But let us proceed.
The whole settlement will stand thus:
Now, good people, I have a word of advice for you. I will tell you how to pay your taxes and debts, without feeling them.
1st. Fee no lawyers.
You say lawyers have too high fees. I say they have not. They cost me not one farthing. Do as I have always done, and lawyers' fees will be no trouble at all. If I want a new coat, or my wife wants a new gown, we have agreed to wear the old ones until we have got cash or produce to pay for them. When we buy, we pay in hand; we get things cheaper than our neighbors; merchants never dun us, and we have no lawyers' fees to pay. When we see sheriffs and dunsknocking at the doors of our neighbors, we laugh at their folly. Besides, I keep a little drawer in my desk, with money enough in it to pay the next tax; and I never touch a farthing until the collector calls. Now, good folks, if you will take the same method, you will save out of lawyers' fees and court charges, on the most moderate calculations, 20,000l. a year.
2dly. I allow my family but two gallons of rum a year. This is enough for any family, and too much for most of them. I drink cyder and beer of my own manufacture; and my wife makes excellent beer, I assure you. I advise you all to do the same. I am astonished at you, good folks. Not a mechanic or a laborer goes to work for a merchant, but he carries home a bottle of rum. Not a load of wood comes to town, but a gallon bottle is tied to the cart stake to be filled with rum. Scarcely a woman comes to town with tow cloth, but she has a wooden gallon bottle in one side of her saddle bags, to fill with rum. A stranger would think you to be a nation of Indians by your thirst for this paltry liquor. Take a bit of advice from a good friend of yours. Get two gallons of rum in a year; have two or three frolics of innocent mirth; keep a little spirit for a medicine, and let your common drink be the produce or manufacture of this country. This will make a saving of almost 400,000 gallons of rum, or 80,000l. a year.
3dly. Never buy any useless clothing.
Keep a good suit for Sundays and other public days; but let your common wearing apparel be good substantial cloths, and linens of your own manufacture. Let your wives and daughters lay aside their plumes. Feathers and fripperies suit the Cherokees or the wench in your kitchen; but they little become the fair daughters of America.[42]Out of the dry goods imported, you may save 50,000l. a year.
These savings amount to 150,000l. a year. This is more than enough to pay the interest of all our public debts.
My countrymen, I am not trifling with you: I am serious. You feel the facts I state; you know you are poor, and ought to know, the fault is all your own. Are you not satisfied with the food and drink which this country affords? The beef, the pork, the wheat, the corn, the butter, the cheese, the cyder, the beer, those luxuries which are heaped in profusion upon your tables? If not, you must expect to be poor. In vain do you wish for mines of gold and silver. A mine would be the greatest curse that could befal this country. There is gold and silver enough in the world, and if you have not enough of it, it is because you consume all you earn in useless food and drink. In vain do you wish to increase the quantity of cash by a mint, or by paper emissions. Should it rain millions of joes into your chimnies, on your present system of expenses, you would still have no money. It would leave the country in streams. Trifle not with serious subjects, nor spend your breath in empty wishes. Reform; economize. This is the whole of your political duty. You may reason, speculate, complain, raise mobs, spend life in railing at Congress and your rulers; but unless you import less than you export, unless you spend less than you earn, you will eternally be poor.