UC-NRLF SB 37 747 o lating medium. Conventions, to consist of four or five adjacent States, were, more- over, designated by Congress as necessary, in order to regulate the price of labour, manufactures, country produce, and all imported goods, as well as the charges of inn-holders; and to enact suitable i laws \tp empower the commissaries of the army to take from fore- stallers, engrossers and others, who might have a larger supply than their families required, all such articles for government use as were wanted, and at such cost as the law thus enacted should fix. The price of provisions, and of every thing needed by the army, was to be settled also in this arbitrary way : and all for the purpose, say 1 1 Congress, of checking " a spirit of sharping and extortion, and the rapid and excessive rise of every thing." Amid all these coercive regulations, it could not but be obvious to every thinking man, that the only cause of the derangement of the prices was the excessive issue of paper. In the year 1778, a very laudable effort was made to create a sinking fund, by establishing an annual tax of six millions of dollars for eighteen years. A committee was directed to prepare a plan that should specifically appropriate that sum to the extinguishment of the Continental debt. Yet very little confidence was placed in those good intentions, if we may judge by the rapid depreciation at this period ; which, indeed, was such, that Congress could no longer force the circulation at prescribed rates, in reference to metallic money; and it was, therefore, resolved by that body, on the 8th of October, 1778, "that all limitation of prices of silver and gold be taken off." The circular to the States, when the tax for the year 1779 was 17 called for, is a very moving address, replete with ardent feeling, and contains, among other matter, the following in relation to paper money: 3 J~ " Being in the outset at war, without arms or ammunition, without military discipline or permanent finances, without an established government or allies, enfeebled by habitual attachments to our very enemies, we were precipitated into all the expensive operations inci- dent to a state of war, with one of the most formidable nations on earth we, from necessity, embraced the expedient of emitting paper money on the faith of the United States; an expedient which had often been successfully practised in separate colonies, while we were subject to British dominion. Large issues were of consequence ne- cessary, and the paper currency multiplied, of course, beyond what was required for the purposes of a circulating medium. To raise the value of our paper money, nevertheless, and to redeem it, will not, we are persuaded, be difficult." They only ask for time and patience, and fix on the first day of January, 1797, or about eighteen years, for the full payment of their debts. A few months after, when the depreciation of the currency kept on increasing, that illustrious Congress raised its voice again, in the following appeal:- *$=<* v j_ " America, almost totally stripped of commerce, and in the weak- ness of youth, as it were, with a staff and a sling only,' dared, * in the name of the Lord of Hosts,' to engage a gigantic adversary pre- pared at all points, boasting of his strength, and of whom even mighty warriors 'were greatly afraid.' Our enemies prosecuting the war by sea and land with implacable fury, taxation at home and borrowing abroad, in the midst of difficulties and dangers, were alike impracticable. Hence the necessity of new emissions." 18 The whole of this address^ too long for insertion) is evincive oi strong anxiety, but without despondency. On the contrary, it speaks throughout the language of patriotic firmness, never for a moment admitting a doubt of success. Neither does it attempt to disguise the appalling state of affairs. The naked truth is told, and a remedy proposed for every calamity. Among the numerous vexations which annoyed Congress, loud and frequent complaints refer to monopo- lizers, and the prodigality of the inferior officers, both civil and mili- tary. New emissions continued until two hundred millions of dollars were in circulation at one time; that is to say, seven or eight times as much as was wanted for a circulating medium : consisting, too, of bills bearing no interest; having no specific fund appropriated for their redemption ; nothing, in short, but the promises of a govern- ment ill organized, and in a state of revolution. They could not fail to break down. No patriotism, however ardent, could sustain them. Yet the brave men, at the head of affairs, went into a computation suited to allay the fears of the people, and showed by a State Paper, which will be presently cited, that resources belonged to the country sufficient to meet all demands. But the last day of the usefulness of Continental Paper Money was fast approaching. The bills of the individual States had generally become so worthless, that even Congress would not receive them into its treasury. Congressional bills were, however, kept in circulation at a great discount until May, 1781, when they fell to five hundred, and subsequently to one thousand paper dollars for one silver, and ceased as a currency. Two hundred millions lost all their value, and were laid aside. The annihilation was so complete, that barbers' shops were pa- 19 ^^ pered, in jest, with the bills ; and the sailors, on returning from their cruise, being paid off in bundles of this worthless money, had suits of clothes made of it, and with characteristic lightheartedness turned their loss into a frolic, by parading through the streets in decayed finery, which, in its better days, had passed for thousands of dol- lars ! The campaign of 1781 was carried on in solid coin; nevertheless the bills of a few of the States still lingered in circulation. I have in my possession the receipt of Thomas Knox, dated at Boston hi that year, for three thousand three hundred dollars, for piloting in and out of port, a distance of nine miles each way, the French frigate UAstree, commanded by the celebrated Laperouse. The specie price was twenty dollars. I possess, likewise, original documentary papers, in tabular detail, showing a loss, by the public chest of Rochambeau's army, of one million six hundred and sixty-one thousand, eight hundred and se- venty-two dollars. The iritendant of the army endorsed on the bundles " This paper being at present valueless, the loss must be charged to the king." But it must be recollected, that for some years its most favourable discount was forty for one. In General Washington's account current with the United States, the last transaction in paper currency is dated May, 1781. The discredit and final rejection of that money was owing, in a great measure, to the illiberal terms of the confederation. Had Con- gress possessed, unfettered, the power of taxation and levying of im- posts, the emissions would have been moderate, and somewhat pro- portioned to the specie in the country. But what could they do under such a compact as follows : 1st. They were authorized to recommend to the several States, 20 and nothing more, the consent of every one of which was necessary, to give legal sanction to any act so recommended. 2dly. They could not assess or levy taxes. 3dly. They had no power to execute punishments, except in the military department. 4thly. They could not regulate trade. 5thly. They could institute no general judicial powers. 6thly. Neither could they regulate public roads, or inland naviga- tion. With such an inefficient form of government, they failed in almost every appeal for pecuniary aid. They were even denied, by the single veto of Rhode Island, the establishment of an impost of only five per cent, on imported goods, which, after great difficulty and delay, had been ratified by all the other States. Unanimity being a constitutional requirement, that measure, so obviously necessary, so moderate in its amount, so gentle and equal in its operation, was defeated by the negative of the smallest State in the confederation. Nor could the entreaty of Congress, contained in a long argumenta- tive report, addressed to Rhode Island, and drawn up by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Thomas Fitzsimmons, cause that State to retract. A letter from Benjamin Franklin, on this subject, dated Passy, December 23, 1782, says: "Our people certainly ought to do more for themselves. It is absurd the pretending to be lovers of liberty, while they grudge paying for the defence of it. It is said here, that an impost of five per cent, on all goods imported, though a most reasonable proposition, had not been agreed to by all the States, and was, therefore, frustrated." Sustaining the bills of credit, by the public, under such circum- stances, and for the length of time they did so, appears to me, one 21 of the most praiseworthy passages in our revolutionary history, pregnant alike with honour to our forefathers for their confidence in the illustrious administrators of the government, and with fidelity to the glorious cause for which they fought. And this reliance on the honourable intentions of the Congress of that day is fully vindicated by a manifesto issued by that body, which, although inserted in a former essay on this subject, is, from the noble sentiments it con- tains, worthy of a second transcript here^j " Suppose," says the Congress of 1779, "that at the conclusion of the war, the emissions should amount to two hundred millions ; that the loans should amount to another hundred millions ; then the whole national debt of the United States would be three hundred millions. There are at present three millions of inhabitants in the thirteen States: Three hundred millions of dollars divided among three mil- lions of people, would give to each person one hundred dollars. And is there," they ask, " an individual in America, unable, in the course of eighteen or twenty years, to pay that small sum? Again, suppose the whole debt assessed, as it ought to be, on the inhabitants, in pro- portion to their respective estates, what would then be the share of the poorer people ? Perhaps not ten dollars ! And if twenty years be taken to pay the debt, the number of inhabitants will be more than doubled, and the ability to pay increased, of course, more than two- fold." This encouraging language was held on the 13th of September, 1779. Subsequently they recur to the same subject thus: "Paper money is the only kind which will not make unto itself wings and fly away. It will remain with us ; it will not forsake us." They then repeat their conviction of the ability of the country to redeem it ; and having pledged for the support of independence their lives, 22 their fortunes, and their sacred honour, the same pledge is given to the public for the full payment of all their paper emissions. A con- trary sentiment is rejected with scorn ; and proceeding in their ad- dress, with the earnestness of honest men, they speak of a bankrupt, faithless republic, as a novelty in the political world. " It would ap- pear," say they, " like a common prostitute among chaste and re- spectable matrons. The pride of America revolts from the idea. Her citizens know for what purposes these emissions were made, and they must be redeemed. He must entertain a high opinion of American credulity who supposes the people capable of believing that all America will act against the faith, the honour and the inte- rest of all America. Knowing, as we all do, the value of national character, and impressed with a due sense of the immutable laws of justice and honour, it is impossible that America should think, with- out horror, of such an execrable deed." Thus spoke the band of able statesmen who governed in those days. No thought of repudiation was for a moment tolerated. They had created the paper currency, they suggested a feasible scheme for its redemption, and theyuheld the honest purpose of executing that scheme. But they had no power. The jealousy of the States coun- teracted their good intentions. What THEY could not redeem them- selves, was assumed by a generous constituency. The people who bore the brunt of an eight years' war, and victoriously established independence, sustained, without a murmur, the whole tax, and vo- luntarily reduced to utter nothingness, the greatest item in the cost of the revolution ; and thus waived all claim upon posterity for its payment. This was, undoubtedly, a severe tax ; yet, when examined with care, it will be found less heavy than it seems at first sight. Let us 23 - ? take the largest sum, by which the people could ever have been af- fected, say three hundred millions, at twenty for one, which is only half the rate fixed by Congress. Twenty for one on three hundred millions, will give fifteen millions of sound money. These fifteen millions having been used as currency for six years, give an annual average of two millions and a half. That sum, among a population of three millions, would not be a poll tax of one dollar; or if the three millions of inhabitants be divided into families of six persons each, making five hundred thousand families, the annual loss per family would be only five dollars ! In all probability the real loss was less to many, than this proportion ; because the bills passed with great activity, from hand to hand, to their last days, even when five hundred for one; never remaining locked up, nor long with- drawn from circulation. They were divided too into small sums, from one dollar to eighty, and always convertible at the current ex- change, into every kind of real and personal property ; and in their hourly rapid passage, leaving with each temporary possessor, the . trifling loss only of their daily depreciation. No system of credit, as we all know now by sad experience, can be made durable, when in the shape of currency the issues exceed the wants of a medium of trade, or when in the more permanent form of bonds, or certificates of public security, they come forth, without a competent tax to pay the interest, and a sinking fund to discharge the principal. The over-issues in Continental money being excessive, fell off in value, of course, while as a natural conse- quence, property of all kinds rose in proportion. This increase of price in goods, was attempted to be remedied in most of the States, by acts of limitation, fixing under high penalties the maximum at which property should be sold. These ordinances were rigidly executed- 24 Stores were broken open by authorized committees, and goods seized and sold at the limited legal prices; vrhile the owners stood accused before the public of a design to depreciate the currency, and were called tories and speculators, and otherwise stigmatized as enemies to their country. But those high-handed persecutions and robberies did not arrest the depreciation on one side, nor the appreciation on the other. Money sank and goods rose. Yet ail army of more than thirty thousand men, and a small navy, were supported; the wheels of government kept in motion, and the enemy kept at bay ! How could such paper funds sustain such an expense? A writer in the year 1779, says, "posterity will hardly credit it; but," continues he, " the universal rage and zeal of the people, through all the States, / for an emancipation from a power that claimed a right to bind them in all cases whatsoever, supplied all defects, and made apparent im- possibilities, really practicable." Another great error was the making this money a legal tender. It was a source of immense injustice between debtor and creditor. It favoured most, in the language of a cotemporary, the slack, the dissipated, the lazy and dilatory, who paid their creditors often at one-twentieth of the value of the debt when it was contracted. This sad expedient was suggested to the States by Congress itself. But that body, which consisted of about fifty members, whose great abili- ties and spotless integrity stand unimpeached, had the candour to confess their mistake, and urged upon the States an immediate re- peal, which was, after much solicitation, effected; yet not until thousands of fortunes had been ruined, including chiefly the most generous and patriotic; while the benefit went alone to the avari- cious and idle. v> 25 The people " worried and fretted " by tender-laws, limitation of prices, and other compulsory means used by the States to force the circulation, and bolster up the value of paper, occasionally appeared heartless and out of patience. That feeling prevailed especially at the time when Congress, in 1780, recommended a monthly tax of fifteen millions, payable in specie or in paper, at forty for one, and was the cause of its failure. The intention of this act was to destroy the bills as they came in, and to issue other bills at par, bearing an interest of six per cent., to an amount not exceeding a twentieth part of the nominal sum thus brought in to be destroyed. But the community had become momentarily paralyzed, and turned a deaf ear to all new projects. They stood, as an eye-witness says, " amid impending destruction, when all occupations of town and country were nearly at a stop." Government, not having the power to compel the payment of taxes, could only entreat or menace. In vain, however, did they proclaim, threaten, villify, and decree, that "whoever should refuse to receive in payment Continental Bills, should be deemed and treated as an enemy of his country, and be precluded from all trade and intercourse with the inhabitants ;" in other words be outlawed: in vain did they accompany these threats with penal, tender and limitation laws, associated too with military force; all proved ineffectual. This brow-beating and coercion seemed, says Peletiah Webster, who wrote in 1781, "like water sprinkled on a blacksmith's forge, which indeed deadens the flame for a moment, but increases the heat and force of the internal fire." One instance of arbitrary power flowed from those laws which would disgrace the annals of an absolute government; and it was exercised too by Pennsylvania. The General Assembly, on the 25th March, 1780, issued one hundred thousand pounds of paper bills founded on D 26 the failh of the State, on some City lots in Philadelphia, and on the Province island at the mouth of the river Schuylkill, which at that time belonged to the State [hence the emission was called island- money]. This issue was followed up by an act, dated December 23d, of the same year, making the bills a legal tender. The penalty for not taking them in payment of goods, lands, &c., was for the first offence, forfeiture of double the sum offered ; and for the second offence, a confiscation of half the offender's lands, goods and Civ-XJ&V*^*^ chattels, and imprisonment of his person during the war.* Bad as the Continental Bills had become in the latter period of their existence, they always bore the stamp of nationality, and passed currently at the exchange of the day throughout the land; whereas the emissions of the States, made on their individual responsibility, and at various rates of exchange, were not received beyond the limits of each State ; so that one State would not take the bills of another State. They were only used for municipal purposes and local trade, as wampum had been in the early days of Massachusetts and other parts of New England, bundles of tobacco in Virginia, and stamped wood or leather elsewhere. Those persons who happened to be the last holders of the Conti- nental Bills, put up quietly with their loss. The mighty monster, as that expiring currency was called in those days, departed unla- mented. An attempt, which proved abortive, was made some time after to dig up its skeleton, but it never was resuscitated. Its ser- vices when alive were incalculable; and it cannot be too often re- peated, that it saved the State, and gained our independence. It was the cheap price, and our emancipation the rich purchase. To * This debt was subsequently paid in full. 27 posterity was that independence transmitted, by those who achieved it and paid for it by bearing the whole loss on the paper currency, which was the principal item of its cost. The Continental Money endured for nearly six years, and during that long period worked as a most powerful state-engine ; and was, says a writer who saw its operation, " a prodigy of revenue, and of exceeding mysterious and magical agency. Bubbles of a like sort, in other countries lasted but a few months, and then burst into nothing ; but this held out for years, and seemed to retain a vigorous constitution to its last ; for its circulation was never more brisk than just before it died at five hundred for one ! and when it expired, it de- parted without a groan or struggle, or being in the least lamented." As I have already observed, the loss was divided and subdivided into such fractional parts during the five or six years' circulation of the millions of paper dollars, that they were laid aside, not only un- paid and unhonoured, but even unwept. The people were tired of the daily variation of prices, and felt how ridiculous was the state of a currency which required five hundred dollars in paper, to pay for a breakfast that could be bought for a silver half-dollar. It car- ried no regret with it, and seems doomed to sleep in silence, un- friended and unsung; unless, indeed, some attempt be now and then made to awaken a transient touch of sympathy, such as I aim at in this humble sketch. With it disappeared that unjust and erroneous legislation of making paper money a legal tender. Happily, such tyranny cannot \ -X\ return : the Constitution of the United States forbidding the enact ment of laws making any kind of money a tender, except gold and ^ silver. w Vice arid immorality were greatly encouraged, no doubt, by that 28 ever-varying currency. This I grant, yet something I hope to offer in extenuation. We cannot deny that during the revolution laws were broken, morals debased, and the nation turned into a gambling community, which upset the fortunes of thousands, broke down trade, paralyzed industry, and scattered ruin far and wide. Our own historians have dwelt in sorrowful and emphatic terms upon those sad times; nor are the notices of foreign authors less instructive and interesting. Gordon, in his history of the Independence of the United States, says, that without paper money the Americans could not have car- ried on the war. The public benefit of it in that instance will com- pensate, in the estimation of patriotic politicians, for the immense evils of which it has otherwise been the occasion. The tender-laws on one hand, and depreciation on the other, rendered it the bane of society. All classes were infected. It produced a rage for spe- culation. The mechanic, the fanner, the lawyer, the physician, the member of Congress, and even a few of the clergy, in some places, were contaminated. The morals of the people were corrupted be- yond any thing that could have been believed, prior to the event. All ties of honour, blood, gratitude, humanity and justice were dis- solved. Old debts were paid when the paper money was more than seventy for one. Brothers defrauded brothers, children parents, and parents children. Widows, orphans, and others, were paid for mo- ney lent in specie, with depreciated paper, which they were compel- led to received. A person who had been supplied with specie, in the jail of Philadelphia, while the British had possession of the city, re- paid it in paper at a tenth part of its value. Stedman, an officer in Cornwallis' army, who wrote an account of the American War, treats this subject copiously and impartially. I 29 omit, however, some extracts that I had prepared, in order to intro- duce the opinion of a distinguished Frenchman, made up from per- sonal association with the American people when in the height of the Revolutionary War. But before I transcribe his judgment of our countrymen, I may remark, that at one period of the contest there was, as is conceded in the Journals of Congress, an absence of exer- tion approaching to dangerous indifference, and which elicited strong appeals from that body. This apathy attracted the attention of foreigners employed in our army, and became the subject of an of- ficial communication from one of them, Mons. Du Portail, who was Colonel in the French service, and Brigadier General in the Ameri- can army. He resided many years in Pennsylvania after the peace of 1783, and in 1791 returned to France, where he became minister at war. The despatch, from which I take the following extracts, is dated at the encampment at White Marsh, 12th November, 1777, and is addressed to the Comte de St. Germain, the then minister of war to Louis XVI., and is marked private. A Monseigneur le Comte de St. Germain, ministre de la guerre. [Pour vous seulement, Monseigneur.] " Les Americains reussiront-ils a se rendre libres, ou non? En France, ou Ton ne peut juger que par les fails, on jugera pour 1'affir- mative. Nous, qui avons vu comment les choses se sont passees, ne penserons pas de meme. A parler franchement, ce n'est pas par la bonne conduite des Americains, que la campagne en general s'est terminee assez heureusement ; mais par la faute des Anglois." "Avant la guerre, les peuples Americains, sans vivre dans le luxe, jouissoient de tout ce qui est necessaire pour rendre la vie agreable et heureuse. Us passoient une grande partie de leurs temps a fumer et a boire du the, ou des liqueurs spiritueuses. Telles etoient les 30 habitudes de ces peuples. II ne seroit done pas surprenant, que le changement d'une vie effeminee, transformee subitcment en cclle de guerrier, qui est dure et penible, leur fit preferer le joug des Anglois, a une liberte achctee aux depens des douceurs de la vie. Ce que je vous dis, ne peut que vous surprendre, Monseigneur, mais tel est ce peuple, qui, mou, sans energie, sans vigueur, sans passion pour la cause dans laquelle il s'est engage, ne la soutient que parcequ'il suit 1'impulsion qu'on lui a premierement donnee. II y a cent fois plus d'enthousiasme pour cette revolution dans quel cafe de Paris que ce soit, qu'il n'y en a dans les provinces unies ensemble. II est done necessaire, pour achever cette Revolution, que la France fournisse a ce peuple, tout ce qui lui est necessaire, afin qu'il trouve la guerre moins dure a sontenir. II est vraie qu'il lui en coutera quelque mil- lions ; mais ils seront bien employes en aneantissant le pouvoir de PAngleterre, qui depouillee de ces colonies, sans marine, et sans commerce, perdra sa grandeur, et laissera la France sans rivale." " En considerant la chose en general, il me paroit que ce qui se passe maintenant en Amerique, doit degouter les Europeens, d'avoir aucune affaire a demeler avec les colonies de ce continent." "Le Congres m'a eleve au rang de Brigadier General." These extracts, placed here in the original French, I translate as follows : "Will, or will not, the Americans obtain their independence? In France, where things are estimated according to the naked facts of passing events, they will answer affirmatively. But we, who see how things are managed here, think differently. To be candid, I must say that it is not owing to the good conduct of the Americans that the campaign closed with tolerable success, but rather in conse- quence of the blunders committed by the English." 31 "Before the war the Americans, without living in luxury, pos- sessed every thing necessary to make life agreeable and happy. They passed a great part of their time in smoking, drinking tea and spirituous liquors. Such was the customary habits of this people. Is it surprising, then, that a sudden change from such effeminacy to the rugged and painful duty of a warrior, should lead them to prefer the yoke of the English, to freedom bought at the cost of all those comforts of life? What I am about to say, my lord, may surprise you, but such is the fact: this is a sluggish people, without energy, without vigour, without affection for the cause in which they are en- gaged, and which they sustain simply by the impulse or influence which put them in motion at the outset. There is an hundred times more enthusiasm for the revolution, in any one coffee-house what- ever in Paris, than in all the United States put together. It will, therefore, be expedient, in order to finish the revolution, that France should supply this country with every thing necessary, so as to re- lieve the people from the burden of the war. It will cost France a few millions, but they will be well employed in annihilating the power and authority of the English, who, when stripped of their colonies and their commerce, will lose their greatness, and leave France without a rival." " Upon duly considering the general aspect of affairs, it appears to me that what is passing in America is suited to disgust Europeans, and prevent their interfering in the concerns of the colonies of this continent." Such is the picture of our countrymen, drawn by a Gallo- Ameri- can officer. I intended to have added some extracts from the French pens of Brissot de Warville, the Duke de Liancourt, and Messrs. Volney and Talleyrand; but I have already reached the limits 32 usually assigned to papers communicated in this form, and will only add, in reference to Monsieur Du Portail's opinions, that his prejudice and ignorance may be found repeated and amplified in the writings of all the above named distinguished foreigners: whose fanciful theo- ries, presumptuous prophecies, and absurd conclusions, have turned out, in the march of time, only the more glaringly false and prepos- terous, the one than the other ! Those indolent Americans of Du Portail have continued to be, what they always were, intelligent, brave, industrious and enterprising. Some passing relaxation of re- volutionary zeal may have happened, when the ardour of the people fell short of the wishes of their more eager rulers; but, in the main, our countrymen have not been sluggish, and certainly were never indifferent on the subject of their independence. How could it be so, when, with the "go ahead" motto in their hearts and in their actions, they have built up an empire as powerful and populous, at this day, as was France itself, when our fathers first landed on the shores of Virginia and on the rock of Plymouth ? A space of time from that period to this, for the creation of a nation of nearly twenty millions of people, not greater than two lives of Russian longevity! Our own Revolutionary Congress, as we have seen, looked " with horror on the execrable deed" of leaving their bills unpaid. More sensitive on this head than their constituents, they trusted to posterity for their honourable discharge: that posterity, never- theless, down to the present generation, have never bestowed a thought upon the pledged faith of their illustrious fathers. They neglected, even in the palmy days of " high built abundance," with " heap on heap" in their treasury those days when the States, in- dividually, were solicited to relieve the general government of its vast surplus revenue they neglected, even then, to look back upon 33 that just debt, and to remember favourably those bills that stood guard, as it were, in times of imminent danger; answering the calls of every department of government and of the people in their various occupations; carrying us through the perils of a long war, with pledge upon pledge that they should be honourably paid in the calmer days of peace. They did nothing ! nothing ! ! But has not " Honour" the moral conscience of a State," been sometimes forfeited elsewhere as well as among us? Painful as this confession is, in reference to our own country, similar examples of shame and reproach, the result, not of dire necessity, but of high- handed fraud, may be traced in the history of other countries. I do not place them here, however, in vindication of ourselves, but to disqualify those European nations, where they have occurred, from pointing the finger of scorn at America. In Burnet's history of his own times, we find that Charles II. shut up his exchequer for two years, and scattered dismay and ruin throughout his kingdom. Actions commenced against debtors were not allowed to proceed : bankers were broken, and trade paralyzed. The same historian alludes to the disastrous explosion of the South Sea Company, with which may be coupled John Laws' Bank and Mississippi land scheme, the shares of which, in 1718, rose to twenty times their original value, and then sank to nothing. But two operations by France, upon a stupendous scale, are precisely in point, and possess a perfect resemblance to Continental Money, both for the good they effected, and for their subsequent extinction without being redeemed. The first was an emission by the constituent as- sembly of France, in 1790, of a paper money called assignat, which, although based, in general terms, on the proceeds of the sale 34 of the confiscated goods of the church, were so lavishly issued, as to increase to the incredible sum of forty thousand millions of livres, when they depreciated to nothing. Then followed a second kind of paper money, called mandate, which even the guillotine of Robes- pierre could not sustain. They were founded, like the assignat, on confiscated property; and two thousand four hundred millions of livres were issued, which, after defraying the expense of one cam- paign, lost all their value. Philip V., the first Bourbon prince who reigned in Spain, left a debt of forty-five millions of piastres, which his successor refused to acknowledge, and it was left unpaid. After the battle of the 12th of April, 1782, between De Grasse and Rodney, the shattered remnant of the French fleet, under the Marquis de Vaudreuil, came to Boston. Its outfit and re-embarka- tion of Rochambeaux's army occasioned a vast expense, which was paid by bills on the French treasury. They were drawn at the cus- tomary usance of sixty days, but the government of France post- poned their payment for twelve months; and to protect the mer- chants who had negotiated them, from damages, the king retained the bills, and forbade his notaries making any protest. The men of 1776, upon whom cotemporary writers, in both Eng- land and France, have heaped so much opprobrium, and whom we, on the contrary, delight to honour and praise, were they better or worse than their descendants? The general sentiment is, I think, that we are, at the present day, less strict in the observance of the moral duties of life ; less moderate and honest in the pursuit of wealth: in short, that we are a degene- rate race. But in all this I believe there is a mistake ; and I will endeavour to show that we, of the living generation, stand for good. 35 in a scale as well balanced against evil, as the men of the last cen- tury; and in the exercise of many virtues surpass them. It is said to be an infirmity of old age, to estimate unfavourably "the sayings and doings" of the present time; and to refer back to the days of early life for bright examples in manners and morals. I am an old man, and I do not attest by my judgment or feelings, the truth of that adage. The present race, the men now in active influence, who form this great nation, are said to have declined in moral worth ; to have dishonoured by cunning and crime the cause of republicanism, and disgraced the good name which their revolu- tionary fathers had established and transmitted. I offer the following vindication. My recollection goes back pretty distinctly more than sixty years, and I can aver that crimes of as deep a dye were committed in those days, as strike us with such horror when they now occur. But iS there did not exist then a legion of newspapers, with agents in all directions, eager to collect, exaggerate and publish ; and of course they were not circulated. The utmost extravagance of our times in speculation by corporations even, can be matched by individuals * who lived fifty years ago. Public securities were made to vary from two to twenty-eight shillings on the pound; private associa- tions were formed in all the chief towns to forestall more than half the capital of the first Bank of the United States, by purchasing as high as thirty per cent, advance on the par value, the funded debt which was to constitute the larger part of the stock of that bank. The excitement was great; the project failed, and extensive ruin followed. | But extravagant as were the operations in stocks, they fell far short of the speculations in land. Half of Western New York, large 36 tracts in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and elsewhere, amounting to many millions of acres, were purchased by individuals as mono- polists. Phelps and Gorham from the east, Morris, Nicholson, Greenleaf, Wilson, and others, in the middle States, making Phila- delphia their head quarters, acquired and held for a short time such vast possessions, that the debts of Nicholson, yet unliquidated, are said to amount to twelve millions of dollars. Barry and Law aimed at purchasing the whole City of Washington, in 1798. Wilson gave a single bond for a million two hundred thousand dollars, bearing six per cent, interest ; and that was but one item in his vast negotiations. The immense loss by these speculators, all of whom failed, did not fall short, perhaps, of those by banks in our times ; and those losses were inflicted upon a nation of less than five mil- lions of inhabitants. Robert Morris, too, whose public career had been so splendid, and whose downfall may be mentioned at this dis- tant period without indelicacy, since it is matter of history, spent four years a prisoner in our debtor's apartment, while Wilson, whose ruin was as complete, died in confinement for debt in North Carolina. All their colleagues and adjuncts went to destruction, to the incalculable loss of the very many who trusted them. What shall we say of lotteries, then a universal expedient for raising money ; licensed gambling shops authorized by every State in the Union, and now as universally suppressed. In politics, slow as we may be in believing it, there was half a century ago, more violence, more marked separation in social life, more virulent hatred infinitely more, than now. What aged man can forget the heart-burning and outrage before and during the days of the black cockade, when that badge was worn as the signal of de- fiance from one party to the other ! Then, were the presses of Peter 37 Porcupine and his opponents in full action, and licentious to a de- gree never yet surpassed. In Congress, on the floor of the House of Representatives, vulgar scuffling, and indecent personalities, dis- graced that body. We may name as a prominent example, the contest between Matthew Lyon and Griswold. Burr in the Senate, and Hamilton in the Cabinet, agitated the whole nation by their violent jarring, which ended in the death of the latter by the hand of the former. Compare the riotous elections of those days when federalism and anti-federalism engendered such party heat, with the quiet ballot of the great national election of 1840, when two millions and a half of votes were given, without commotion or disorder. And how can we sufficiently congratulate ourselves on the im- provement in temperance! None can estimate its importance so well as the aged. Fifty years ago, it was no disgrace for young men to visit a party of ladies stupefied or elevated by wine. Modern manners would not tolerate this. Male servants were generally given to drunkenness : and until arrested by temperance associations, intoxication was threatening us with universal sway. But it is in religion that the most impressive and most salutary re- formation has taken place. This is attested by the great increase of piety, and consequent increase of churches. Those holy temples now filled with devout attendants, were then few in number and sadly neglected. At the period of our revolution, the superstition and cruelty of witchcraft was only passing away, to be succeeded by religious indifference, and even rank infidelity. Recollect, for a moment, Frederick of Prussia, surrounded by Vol- taire, D'Argens, Maupertuis, and in correspondence with D'Alembert and the Parisian encyclopedists ; in England, Hume, Godwin, and his wife, Mary Woolstoncraft ; in America, Thomas Paine ! All uniting 38 to deride and destroy Christianity, by ridiculing its ministers and holy doctrines, in writings of unrestrained freedom ; by unsettling the belief of the religious, and confirming the unfaithful ; by presump- tuously putting man's feeble reason in the place of divine revelation. Set in contrast with those licentious times, the awakened piety of this day, in every church of every sect. Crowds of worshippers tes- tify to the truth of their amendment, by regular and zealous devotion in those seats, which were formerly deserted. This salutary change will check the progress of crime. It has checked it. Isolated in- stances of high offences are no proof to the contrary. The people collectively become more sober in t^eir habits, and more serious in the worship of God, will find those plague-spots which continue to disfigure their moral character, gradually removed, by the joint in- - fluence of temperance and religion. One distinctive mark of refined civilization has been allowed to form a national trait, by universal consent, abroad and at home ; namely, the deference paid to woman. Every where, within the wide range of our country, she is defend- ed and protected. It is a generous virtue, which foreigners agree, one and all, to allow us. A female may traverse the country alone, and visit every point of the compass, in perfect personal security, and be certain of meeting always with attention and respect; having no other protector, in the steamers and on rail-roads, than their cap- tains and agents. This is notorious and of every day occurrence. Virtuous women, young and handsome, start alone, and without fear, from the Missouri, to descend to New Orleans in the south, or wend their way to the Atlantic, up the Ohio, amid a motley compa- ny of entire strangers, and thus traverse thousands of miles, unap- prehensive of rudeness or interruption. 39 In conclusion, let us hope that this improvement in morals, will eventually act as a corrective on the temporary defalcation in the public engagements, which now exist in parts of our country ; ever bearing in mind that at the adoption of our national Constitution, there was a public debt of ninety-four millions, the interest on which * had not been paid for six years, and the principal was currently sold at the reduced price of twelve dollars for one hundred ; yet the whole was paid at par. A similar redemption awaits, I trust, the depre- ciated State debts of the present day. T The paper money of the revolution, however, was of a character wholly dissimilar. It was a depreciated medium almost during its whole existence ; and having sunk gradually to nothing, could never possess the claim for redemption that belongs to a bond, for which full value, as expressed on its face, was paid to government. But while that artificial currency lasted, it was a happy illusion, which worked the miracle of reality. Without its agency, we should have been subdued, and have crept along, at a colonial pace, as Canada has done. Without it, the valley of the Mississippi would have remained a wilderness; the Spaniards would still have been masters of the great outlets of the south ; our manufactures would \ not have been allowed to reach even to the making of a hobnail, and our star-spangled banner would never have been unfurled. The cause for which the defunct old Continental Money was put . forth, has been gained. It has prevented our subjugation, and placed us on the proud eminence we now occupy. Those who bore its burden, when in transit, bore it cheerfully; and made it the happy instrument of our national existence. In cherishing, with filial affec- tion, the memory of those brave men, we may pass by their faults 40 with indulgence ; always resolving to cling with constancy and love, to the privilege of self-government, which they thus won and trans- mitted to us. May, 1843. ^ ^ I FOURTEEN DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed beakfcAMMiihifliUiMaflMibBe recall. 4Feb'63Hly LD 21-100m-2,'55 (B139s22)476 General Li^-ary University of California Berkeley V\ 3.0% YC E4 si c , THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY v ' : .