UC-NRLF 
 
 ^B 37 13fl 
 
v.: 
 
 CAUSE OF, AND CURE FOR, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 ^ A IJEFmiTIOJY 
 
 OF THE ATTRIBUTES AND QUALITIES 
 • IXmSPEXSABLE IJ^" MOKEY 
 
 AS xl MEDIUM OF COMMERCE 5 - 
 
 AND ALSO, ... 
 
 ■ft ' 
 AN INVESTIGATION OF THE 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE BAXKLYG SYSTEM, 
 
 J\'EWrORk: 
 PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETOR. 
 
 1818. 
 
C3^ 
 
 
 4»: 
 
 ••• • •• • ••» .». •• • 
 
 i 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IN proportion to the weakness of men's minds, they 
 become susceptible of delusions of every kind. 
 
 By whatever means the imbecility is produced, whe- 
 ther pristine ignorance, luxury, or superstition, is im- 
 material, the effects thence resulting are the same. 
 
 Human nature, perhaps, cannot form a greater con- 
 trast, than between the old Roman republic and the mo- 
 dern dealers in beads and catgutj who disgrace the 
 same ground. 
 
 It staggers modern credulity to believe that men 
 could ever be so gulled or infatuated, as to multiply 
 their fancied deities, so as to assign guardians to the 
 seas, forests and brooks. Well might they, who wor- 
 sliipped the deity of a brook, pay their adoration to the 
 sun ; and the first step being taken, the earth was soon 
 covered with deities, so that, at length, bulls, cats and 
 onions came to be worshipped. To do this, men must 
 have been devoid of the least mite of reason and common 
 sense, yet the superstitious enthusiasm that still pre- 
 vails in some countries, is quite as ridiculous, and con^ 
 tinucs a badge of spiritual tyranny an the one hand, and 
 slavery on the other, which infinitely surpasses all the 
 fabled superstition of pagan Rome. But in these states, 
 in this enlightened age, we boast of our liberality, and 
 of having divested our minds of all such superstitions 
 and prejudice's. It is sufficient for us to swallow bank 
 transubstantiations of property ; and yet our infatuation 
 falls little short of the before-cited phrenzy, when we 
 can really believe that the wealth and power of a na- 
 tion, to be truly and substantially expressed and re- 
 presented by scraps of paper, which are jso far from he- 
 
 M17454 
 
IV 
 
 ing property, or the true signs of property, that they 
 signify nothing but iniposter on the one hand, and cre- 
 dulity and foi]y on the other, which may be annihilated 
 by the most trifling ciicumstance — even one breath ot* 
 suspicion would destroy millions in a moment. Whilo 
 we ridicule ancient superstition we have an implicit 
 faith in the bubble3 of banking, and yet it is diilicult to 
 discover a greater absurdity, in ascribing omnipotence 
 to bulls, cats and onions, than for a man to carry about 
 a thousand acres of land, with a mansion-house, out- 
 houses, kc. in his pocket-book, which is,, nevertheless, 
 done among us every day, with great self-complaisance 
 and security. And though we laugh at, him, who, put- 
 ting a wafi r into our mouth, cries Hock est corpus, we 
 have no suspicion of the bank juggler, who, putting 
 some slimsey bits of paper into our hands, tells us it is 
 a freehold estate, a house, or a fine ship of five hun- 
 dred tons. 
 
 This gross bubble is practised every day, even upon 
 the infidelity of avarice itself ; this rather exceeds than 
 falls short of ancient illusions, because the objects it 
 converses with are sensible and more open to detection. 
 So we see wise and honest Americans, of the 19th cen- 
 tury, embracing phantoms for realities, and running 
 mad in schemes of refinement, tastes, pleasures, wealth 
 and power, by the soul aid of this hocus jwcus. When 
 we contemplate paper gold, and paper land, and paper 
 houses, and paper revenues, and paper government, we 
 are apt to believe the fairy tales of Gulliver, and the 
 Arabian Nights, as grave relations of historical facts. 
 Indeed, we live in an age that resembles neither the 
 gold, silver or iron ages t>f the poets ; but may, with an 
 emphatieal propriety, be called the paper age, and the 
 name fools-cap becomes infinitely more appropriate. 
 
CHAP. I. • \ : ' 
 
 A definition of the attrihutes and qualities 
 Indispensable in Money, 
 
 THE barter of commoilitics, or coramunicationofthe 
 fruits of industry, constitute fhe essence of ct>mmerce. 
 
 In the present state of society the partition of em- 
 ployments is almost infinitely diversiiied, and the fruits 
 of well directed industry, or things necessary and use- 
 ful in lifcj are what only can b? called wealth. 
 
 In establishing a mutual exchange of these, the first 
 thing necessary is a standard of computation, or com- 
 mon measure, by which to es^mate the several com- 
 modities that may be olfered for sale, or may be desired 
 by purchasers. This standard, or common measure, 
 called money, must be something well known to the 
 parties and of general or common use. 
 
 It appears, in remote antiquity, that in the early 
 stages of society cattle were the first things made 
 use of as a standard, but from the disproportion of size 
 and fatness, measures of corn, wine and oil soon suc- 
 ceeded, the first of these being the least liable to varia- 
 tion is, of all others, from its nature, more intelligible 
 ^nd unaltei'able than any money that ever was, or ever 
 will be made. The gi-eut alteration in the value* c?f 
 gold and silver is well known to the historian, and is 
 also known to many, by memory, in this country since 
 its first settlement. But after a standard of computa- 
 tion hnrt been agreed on in commerce of the most moderate 
 
extent, something farther is ahsolutely necessary. The 
 ai^tual and immediate barter of commodities couM in 
 few icstauoes fake place. A man might have the thing 
 I wanted to pui^chase ; but he might not need, or de- 
 sire:, ins artjclp 1 was willing to give for it ; another 
 might want what I had to spare, but not have what I 
 in/anted to purchase with it ; besides, bulky articles 
 could not be carried about with convenience or safety. 
 Therefore, it became very early necessary that there 
 should be some sign or signs agreed upon to represent 
 the absent commodity, or rather should represent the 
 standard of computation in all its divisions and multi- 
 plications. These signs must be such as could be easily 
 carried about, and therefore could be readily applied 
 to every transaction connected with the commutation of 
 property. 
 
 These signs are in the nature of a tally — that is to 
 say, they are intended to mark and ascertain a fact. 
 Now the fact is, that tue person who can show these 
 signs, having purchased them by his goods or industry, 
 is entitled to recieve from somebody a certain value to 
 a certain amount, which they specify of the standard of 
 computation. 
 
 These have always references to the standard of 
 computation, and, at last, by that known reference, 
 the distinction between them and the standard is lost, 
 and they become a secondary standard of computation 
 themselves. Thus a piece at first to be the value of a 
 measure of grain, but at last men come to make their 
 i'.argain by the number of pieces, instead of the number 
 of measures, using the sign for the thing signified. 
 Thus, also, an ideal measure, generated by the other 
 two, comes to be a standard of computation ; as the 
 pound was formerlv the money unit, though there was 
 no coin precisely corresponding to it. Thus during the 
 
devolution, in the years 1777 and 1778, paper being, as 
 now, the only circulating medium and greatly depre- 
 ciated, and legislatures, at that time, retaining some 
 sense of honor and honesty, made several attempts to 
 institute rules by which the just value should be ascer- 
 tained ; but finding, by experience, that their efforts 
 were fruitless, the people resorted immediately to tilt 
 original standard of measures of grain, that being the 
 best alternative ; and this mode of computation de- 
 termined the value of silver and gold themselves and 
 was practised in many of these states for some years 
 after the total annihilation of paper circulation, and I 
 am informed that it begins to be resorted to again in 
 some sections of the country. 
 
 Thus it being proved, by the experience both of an- 
 cient and modern times, that all men resigns labor under 
 material defects ; that they ultimately depend on the 
 faith and credit of the persons who are answerable for 
 them. Now whether these are individuals, chartered 
 companies, or even the ruling party of a nation, they 
 are attended with the greatest uncertainty. Therefore 
 something farther is necessary to make a complete 
 symbol or medium of commerce, that is, a pledge or 
 standard of value that may be a security or equivalent 
 for the thing given for it, and at all times and in all 
 places, especially in the same country, be sufficient to 
 Jiurchase a like value of any thing that may be needed 
 l>y him that holds it. An absent commodity well known> 
 Or even an idea well understood, may be a standard of 
 computation and common measure ; any thing may be a 
 sign, and since writing has been known it has been 
 iised. It is, however, totally defective ; there is a total 
 want of value in paper, that shall give, not only a pro- 
 mise or obligatioB^ but actual possession of property 
 
8 
 
 lop pi'operty. Whatever may be made use of that falls 
 short of this is totally unfit for a medium of eommej'ee. 
 
 It has been fouiid by experience, that in gold and silver 
 are united all the qualities requisite for such a stan- 
 dard — they form the great desideratum. It cannot be 
 denied that they have been used for this purpose, in the 
 earliest times, and through every nation in the old 
 world and also in the new. The trutii is, that they 
 alone possess, and in a superior degree, all the qua1i« 
 ties necessary for a standard computation : this will 
 more fully appear, by exan»ining more minutely what 
 qualities a medium of general commerce ought to pos* 
 sess. It ought then to be, ist. valuable — 2d. rare — 3d. 
 portable — 4th. divisible — 5th. durable — 6th. equable. 
 Whoever will examine the matter, with attention, must 
 perceive that any one of these qualities being wanting^ 
 the system would be ruined. 
 
 1st. *' It must be valuable in itself; that is, it must 
 have an intrinsic value, or worth, in substance distinct 
 from form." By value or intrinsic worth here, must be 
 understood precisely the same thing that gives to e>ery 
 other commodity its commercial value: This is, their 
 being either necessary or reniarkably useful for the 
 purposes of life, in a social state, or supposed to be so, 
 and therefore the object of human desire ; without this 
 it could be no more than a bare sign, nor indeed so use- 
 ful in this view as many other signs. But we want 
 somerhing that must not only be a standard of com- 
 putation, but a standard of value, and therefore, capa- 
 ble of being a pledge and security to the holder, for the 
 property or labour he has exchanged for it. Gold and 
 silver have intrinsic value, as metals, because fro'n their 
 ductility, durability and other qualUii's. they are ex- 
 ceedingly fit for domestic utensils, and many oth-r pur- 
 poses in life j this was the foandatioa of their nse, as, a 
 
9 
 
 meJium of coiumeree, and was inseparable from it ; a 
 clear deinonstr'ation of this arises from their beinj; 
 weighed in (iio earliest times, before they were divided 
 into sma'l.M* pieces and passed by taU^, and their vahje 
 determined liy their bu'k or (|uan<ity proportionablj. 
 This circumsranco as a siii;n made tbein worse ; but as 
 a valnable metal made them better. 
 
 The same thin^j; appears cleai'ly from the practice of 
 modern times. Even when they are taken under the 
 management of the rulers of society, and stamped under 
 various denominations, there must be an exact regard 
 liud to their commercial value. The stamp upon them 
 is the sign 5* the intrinsic worth of the meta! is the va- 
 lue. It is now found, and admitted, by every nation, 
 that tliey must give to every piece ^hat ^denomination 
 and value in legal currency, that it bears in bullion, 
 and if any do otherwise, their is neither force nor au- 
 thority sufficient to make it pass. 
 
 2d. That it must be rare, will be more fully illustrat- 
 ed hereafter. Permit me, however, hereto observe, 
 that the medium of commerce must not only be sa rare 
 as to bring it within commercial value, in ordinary 
 cases, but if must be much more rare than most other 
 things, that its value may 'be increased, and a small 
 quantity of it mny represent goods of considerable va- 
 riety and bulk. If gold and silver were only twenty 
 times as plentiful as they were before thecstabli^hmeut 
 of bank monopoly, they would still have a proper value ; 
 could be bought and sold, and be applied to many useful 
 purposes, but would be twenty times as unfit for a medium 
 of commerce, or indeed totally unfit for general circula- 
 tion. 
 
 3d. The circulating medium must be portable. Jt 
 must be capable of being, carried to a distan";e with lit- 
 tle trouble w expense, and of passing from hand to hand 
 with ease and expedition. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 411h The medium of commerce must I)c divisible ; 
 tliis is necessary to answer the division of many com- 
 rriodiufs, and to the eonvenieace of people of different 
 cirennistanees in life. * It is of such importance, that, 
 in (he calculation of a complex and diversified com- 
 merce, we find divisions and fractional parts, even of 
 the smallest coins that have ever yet been "brought inta 
 general use. 
 
 5th. The riedium of commerce ou,;;ht to be durable. 
 This quality is necessary ; first, that in passing con- 
 tinually, from Irand to hand, it may no( be broken or 
 wasted; and. secondly, fhat if it is preserved, or }ayed 
 up, as may be^ sometimes necessary, desirable, or pro- 
 fitable, it may not be liable to be speedily corrupted or 
 consumed. • 
 
 6th. Equiblc — that is, these metals are said to differ 
 from most, or all others ; they, in their virgin state, 
 are exactly the same whether found in Asia, Africa or 
 America. This, in an eminent degree, fits them for a me- 
 dium of circulation, and is an attribute, b< longing to no 
 other production of nature, that- we are yet acquainted 
 with. It is pSain, therefore, that there is nothing* yet 
 known to mankind, in which all the tiecessary qualities, 
 in a medium of eomyneree, are so fully united as in sil- 
 ver and gold, and tliis h the true reason why these me- 
 tals have been applied as the instruments of commei^ce, 
 since the beginning of the world, or as far back *as his- 
 tory enables us to penetriite. 
 
 It is a fact that will not be contradicted, that gold, 
 silver and brass, or rather copper, were the most an- 
 cient metals, and all of them antecedent to iron These 
 metals beings, applied to all th.^ purposes of life, came 
 of course to constitute a great part of the wealth of the 
 people of ancient times. Brass being one of ihe metals 
 earliest known, was made use of for money by ancient 
 
11 
 
 nations. Its being now left out, in a great measure, h 
 on account of wanting one of its vei,\ necessary quali- 
 ties, viz. variety. That it was used for money aniowg 
 the Hebrews, is evident ; for we read of gold, silver and 
 brass, being brouglit as contributions to the tab<^i'niicle 
 in Mo!?(^s' time, and to the building of the temple in the 
 lime of David. 
 
 That brass was made use of as money, in the early 
 times of the Greeks and Romans, evidently appears, l)Otlr 
 from history and from tlie language of iuith nations ; 
 for tliA'e it, is made use of to signify money in g'^neral. 
 That it ceased to serve that purpose afterwards must 
 have been on account of its abundance. It can be ac- 
 counted for in no other way, as the disuse of it is just 
 as universal as the use of it was formerly. 
 
 It is also evident from history, that all these metafs 
 were estimated and passed by weight. We are toM in 
 Oenesis, that Abraham gave to Epron for the cave of 
 Machpelah, four h{im]rcil shekels of silver. The Greek 
 money was of dilFerent weights,/ from the lowest sorts 
 to the talent, which was the largest. The old ISoman 
 M'ord Pondo was, as it were, the standard, and the divi- 
 sions of it, constituted their iliflerent denominations — 
 From this we seem to have derived the word poised.-- 
 It was not long, however, before they came to have 
 cither coins, or, at least, small pieces reckoned by 
 number. Ahimelech gave to Abraham, as Sarah's bro- 
 ther, one thousand keseph ;. and Joseph was sold for 
 twenty keseph. As the word keseph is said to signify 
 silver, they must have been i*eckoned h^ tale, and are 
 probably very justly transjated pieces. Antiquarians 
 and, historians tell us, that some barbarous nations have 
 made use of baser metals : such as lea?', irofu tin, &c. also 
 leather, shells, bark of certain trees, ^vsj. aad we know iii 
 
IS 
 
 tbese (lays, paper, far inferior in many respects to tho 
 worst of ihc foimor, is made use of for money. Some 
 Haiions might, indeed, use lead, iron, &e. upon the same 
 priMci|sles as others use gold and silver, but all this is 
 iisisg the sign s; parate from the standard, and that en- 
 lightened Americans should be imposed on by bank 
 paper, worse by far than savage trinkets, shocks all 
 common sense. 
 
 I think tlte above definition ^vill enable every intelli- 
 gent person to determine what is, or ought (o be, the 
 meaning of the circulating medium. This phrase is in 
 everx bod;y's mouth, and we frequently meet with it in 
 sperq'aes, in legisljitive assemblies, and newspa^jcr pub- 
 lications. 
 
 This pretended want of a circulating medium lias 
 been successfully urged in favor of the banking system, 
 than which nothing ever was, is, or can be more false. 
 It never was believed by those who urged it in favor of 
 banks, nor by those who granted their chasters, if they 
 po8sesse<l comtnon sense, and the least share of infor- 
 mation. Those who did, or do believe it, must be tOr 
 tal^y ignorant of the meaning of the expression. The 
 circulating medium is not yours or mine ; it is not the 
 riches of Peru or the poverty of Lapland. It is that in- 
 de^Dite quantity of the precious metals made use of 
 ami)ng the nations connected in commerce. Whetiicr 
 any particular person, city, or nation, is rich, or poor — 
 has more or less of it comparatively, is nothing to the 
 purpose. Every one ought, and will receive, of the 
 ciifu'ating medium, <h.ji qnanlitA which he is entitled 
 to, by his property or industry, unless it is diverted 
 from its natural channels by the knavery of banking 
 legislnfures, which is the case in this country, as will 
 more iulh appear iMTeafter. It huB been sli own that 
 rariiy is» one cf the attributes of a circulating medium^ 
 
13 
 
 If there were nothing but gokl ar.d silver in circulation, 
 a less quanlil^v would be sufiieient to represent a stated 
 measure of property, and the more plentiful it is, the 
 greater is the quantily neeessiiry to rc|>i'Osent the 'same 
 property or commodity ; hut the comparative riches or 
 poverty of the person, city, or nation, would be the 
 same. I well remember the time when 1 could pur- 
 chase a bushel of wheat, in Dutchess County, for three . 
 fourths of a dcfiar, for which I must now pay tTvo d/l- 
 lars. Was not six shillings then as good, as sixteen 
 now ? and was not the man just as rich who had it ia 
 his pcsscssion ? It would be easy to point out countries 
 where there has been a .greater quantity of the cisvu- 
 lating medium, even in gold and silver, than any where 
 else, and yet, at the same time, greater personal povT- 
 ty, and also public want, and lindoubivdly for the same 
 reason. 
 
 It is well known to the historian that the troops of 
 Philip second, of Spain, mutinized in Flanders, for want 
 of pay, and plundered the city of Antwerp, when Ame- 
 I'ica and the East-Indies are said tj have furnished him 
 with inexhaustable resources.. What docs it signify to 
 the day-laborer, that he gets eight, or. even ten shil- 
 lings per day, when it will scarcely purcliase provij>ion% 
 sufficient to prevent himself and family from perishing ? 
 Are not these things true ? Are they not known to be 
 , 80? Are not gold and silver a circulating rkodium of 
 universal currency ? Are they too scarce fyr the pur- 
 pose when the trappings of a banker's hftrse, or the col- 
 lar of a favorite dog, is ornamented with more of these 
 precious metals, than furnishtd out the stadtholder, 
 nobility and army, of tlie ^even United Provinces, for 
 the whole forty years that they were struggJing against 
 Spanish tyranny. I have only to observe, in this place, 
 that my reader may be like luyseii', a very poor man.; 
 
 4 
 
14 
 
 we want property, rents, resources and credit ; hut ^Ye 
 may rest assured that bank notes will never bring re- 
 lief, but increase our poverty and consequent misery. 
 
 If every man could with fticility obtain the necessa- 
 ries of life, and, obtaining them, feel no uneasy crav- 
 ings after superlluiticF, temptation would lose its power, 
 private interest would accord with public good, and nu- 
 merous crimes would cease. The greatest impediment 
 to such a state of things is, inmost c^ntries, the ir- 
 regular transfer of property, either lirst by vio'enee, 
 or secondly by fraud, and made perpetual by laws of 
 primogeniture. The first arid last of these being un- 
 known in these states, we might suppose that the inor- 
 dinate desire of individuals to possess themselves of the 
 substance, or property of another, by means inconsis- 
 tent with justice, would imdoubtedly be restrained, nay 
 prohibited, and fraud only known by report. Society 
 co'.DCs recommended to us by its tendency to promote 
 our happiness, but most of the miseries of our sj)ecics 
 may be traced to political insthations as their source. 
 
 In a government originating as ours has, and where 
 all its force and autliority is delegated temporarily by 
 the people to theii* representatives j ft would be natural 
 to conclude, that all its laws would be predicated upon 
 the eternaU imchangeable principles of justice and 
 equality, whieh'fiows from nature, and which alone can 
 Ije the infallible guide and foundation of civil law, and 
 all that can be right an() excellent in government. All 
 exercise of authority ought to be in exact conformity 
 equal justice, and must have for its object the felicity 
 of all under its eontrol,*to entitle it to respect and obe- 
 dience. Public happiness, therefore, is the only motive 
 why authority should be exercised, and why the will of 
 the legislature should be obeyed and respected. When 
 laws prove to be contrary to public good^ or partialin their 
 
15 
 
 operation, Ihcy should cease to beiir the sacrcirdiarac- 
 ter of laws, and have no respect paid to them. 
 
 The pulilic felicily is, nevertheless, so inscperai)]y con- 
 nected \vit!i the observance of order, that it is advisa- 
 ble, nay necessary, that the ruled bear patiently, a 
 temporary inconvenience, and pursue the most gentle 
 means for the redress of grievances; yet there is such a 
 thing ar, a laudable jealousy on the part of the govern- 
 ed, ^vhicli should keep pace with the situation of publie 
 aiTairs, which aims at an inviolate enjoyment of our na- 
 tural and political riglits. Every good citizen will not be 
 incessant, but prudent, in his endeavors to seek a happy 
 change in every thing that has not a benign innuenec 
 on public happiness, and none should be more vigilant, 
 ready, or willing for s'uch a change, than men bearing 
 authority who have poAver to rectify wlir^t is improper. 
 They should anticipate wrongs and administer redress 
 when any public measure has taken place which is in- 
 eompatable with public good. Is it not for (his very 
 end that power is delegated to them ? Men. of true 
 wisdom are always'sensibie of their own fallibility — the 
 guardians of the laws should be first to discover their 
 defects. It is no disgrace to any government to recti- 
 fy abuses; it is, on the contrary, a circumstance noi 
 allogetber honorable to the imdcrstanding, or thehearts 
 of rulers, if grievances are continued ; but there is no 
 epithet strong enough to convey the idea of detestation 
 and abhorrence wliicii that government deserves which 
 persists in increasing and perpetuating them. 
 
 The right of acquiring and holding property obtain- 
 ed by virtuous industry, free from the invasion of others, 
 is next to that of liberty, the most sscred. Any in- 
 fraction of (his right o'Jght to be immediately repaired 
 and (he injured restored tothefullenjoymentof thisright. 
 
16 
 
 and the transgressor punished in exact proportion to the > 
 injury done. 
 
 From what has heen said, we may form ideas of the 
 justice of laws, and the duties of government, in carry- 
 ing those laws into execution, so as to render equul justice 
 to every man. 
 
 But it does so happen that government does not al- 
 ways ahide hy tiiose maxims. They lavish favors with 
 an un^sparing hand on one part of the community and 
 witliliold theni from the other part. They grant to 
 hankers the power to pass paper instead of gohl and 
 silvc!' — thereby to increase their money, to any amount 
 they please, hy their notes. They are therehy enabled 
 to ohtaia a great deal more than their proportion of tho 
 products of society, and the other members of society 
 must go without them — hence arises their poverty and 
 misery. The inequality in the laws is a perversion of 
 the laws of nature, and totally repugnant to the princi- 
 ples of equity, which nature ordained for the harmony 
 of her w.orks. The' folJowing considerations may fur-^ 
 thcr elucidate the subject. It is a fact, than which no- 
 thing is more certain, that the prices of every article of 
 commerce is determined by the quantity of money in 
 circulation. Suppose, for instance, that the city of 
 Kew-York contains twenty thou'^.jd Fiimilies, with an 
 income of one dollar per day each ; it must he evident 
 that the vviiole amount purcliased on any one day could 
 not exceed twenty thousand dollars, for the purchasers 
 could pay no more money than they had. The sellers 
 couhi therefore 'get ro more ; the quantity of money 
 determines the pi'ices, and the money buys all. The 
 amount of eve4"y day's sale would he twenty thousand 
 dollars, (Sundays exeeptcd) : the whole amount of the 
 year, would he about six millions two hundred and sixty 
 thousand dollars. But suppose the quantity of money 
 
17 
 
 lo be varied, and each, family lo Lave three dollars, in- 
 stead of one, per day ; then the prices of the articles 
 sold on any one day would be trebled ; they would sell 
 for sixty thousand instead of twenty, and the whole 
 amount of the year would be about eighteen millions 
 seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars. If the 
 quantity of commodities in the market remained the 
 same, the prices must have experienced a three-fold in- 
 crease ,: for what other use can be made of money than 
 to purchase commodilies. If the increase of the one 
 does not keep pace with the other, the effect is sure- — 
 either the prices of commodities must rise or the mo- 
 ney remain useless. 
 
 The experience of the whole civilized world demon- 
 strates that the quantity of money in circulation pro- 
 duces the effects befoi'c-stated. I would ask, what 
 other reason can be assigned, for the great increase of 
 prices of the productions of society in Europe, immedi- 
 ately after the discovery of America, than that it was 
 the immense influx of the precious metals plundered from 
 the Spaniards ? Every man that knows any thing, knows 
 that the prices, or raise of the market, depends on the 
 quantity of money which is brought into it. Money is 
 like every other article of commerce, when there is an 
 abundance of any article, it will be low ; when scarce, 
 it will be sought after and be high. These circum- 
 stances alone, determaie the value of gold or precious 
 stones ; the diamond would be less valuable than mar- 
 ble, and gold than iron, were they obtained in as great 
 abundance. 
 
 Why do we complain of the high prices of provi- 
 sions ? It cannot be in consequence of scarcity that 
 prevents us from having as great a shai^ as our 
 wants require. If we could increase the quantity of 
 our money at pleasure^ we would be able to obtain as 
 
groat a quantity and variety as we oould wish ; but a^ 
 there is bat a IJinited quantity to increase our share, it 
 toiust be taken fi om some other person, who surely 
 wishes to retain what quantity he has, so that it be- 
 comes impossible. If* every man had it in his power to 
 inerease his money at pleasure, every man would keep 
 paee with his neighbor ; this would be the same as bid- 
 ding at auetion — the price would rise in proportion to 
 the money otfered, as was the case with butter, pork, 
 &'. son.e few years past. The value of money will al- 
 ways be in proj)ortion to its quantity. It frequently 
 happens thiit those who increase the quantity of their 
 money, do not always ini'rease their consumption; 
 but this does not alter the general effect of such 
 inereas*; ; no man locks up his money or buries it 
 iif these days. He either uses it himself or lets it to 
 another ; the borrower would not take it if he did not 
 intend to make use of it — and as the only use of money 
 is lb purchase commodities or labor, and that part paid 
 for labor goes to the purchase of commodities, it is evi- 
 dent that it roust ultimately ei^jue to market ; through 
 tv ha tev^T number of intermediate hands it may pass, it 
 must produce the same effect, of adding to the quantity^ 
 as if the fabricator had increased his own consumption. 
 If it is admitted that the issuing of bank notes has 
 enormously increased the money circulation of this 
 country ; it must also be admitted, that this increased 
 circulation has been the means, and real cause of in- 
 creasing the rates of provisions to their present exorbi- 
 tant prices ; for the former is not more evident than the 
 latter, and such being the case, it must be no less evi- 
 dent that the bankers rob every other man in society, 
 by ejrculuting their notes, the same as they would by 
 taxing them, or by stealing their money out of their 
 pockets ! 
 
19 
 
 What difference can there be between inhanciRt* the 
 price of my bxead and lessening the value of uij labo?'. 
 A man sustains the same iojmwj bj having the value of 
 his money reduced, as hy having a part of it stolen. 
 But the iniquity of hanking may be rendered still more 
 obvious by the following i^onsiderations. 
 
 That every man will be able to obtain a share of the 
 productions of society, acfording to the quantily of his 
 money, is most certain. Therefore, as tlie amount of 
 his money is increast^d, he will increase his share of the 
 fruits of labor ; and as the fruits of industry, in any 
 country, are limited, what is added to one man's share 
 must be taken from another ; consequently, the increas- 
 ing the quantity of money in one part of ftociity, must 
 produce the same effect as taking it from the other.— 
 The banker having it in his power to increase the qyin- 
 tity of his money, at pleasure, it has the same effect as 
 taking so much from the other part of the community. 
 Suppose that the whole productions of society were di- 
 vided into one hundred thousand parts, among the in- 
 habitants, in such a proportion that a day laborer 
 should have one part, and he that has ten thousand dol- 
 lars should have ten parts, and every other per&on a 
 certain number of parts, according to his i^icome. If, 
 then, a number of these laborers were to increase their 
 money, by bank notes, to ten thousand dollars each, 
 they would be enabled to procure, or command, ten 
 times the quantity they did before. But where are the 
 additional parts to come from ? must not a new division 
 take place, and a portion be taken from every one of the 
 parts, into which the commodities were before divided, 
 in order to make up the additional number ? Most cer- 
 tainly. 
 
 Therefore, if every man i!i society had been robbed 
 of a part of his money, he would not have sustained ^ 
 
20 
 
 greater injury. If the additional sum had been fabri-f 
 eated by those who had the greatest share before, in- 
 stead of the laborers, the effect would be exactly the 
 same, though perhaps more injurious to the poorer 
 class. 
 
 If the money be increased, it is imraaferial whose 
 possession it is in ; the property must be divided in*o 
 an additional number of parts, to correspond with the 
 additional quantity of money. 
 
 Therefore, those men who increase their money by 
 issuing bank notes, might, with as much justice, put 
 their hands into their neighbors pockets and steal a part 
 of their money. 
 
 It is a fact, in which all men will agree> that every 
 member of society has a right to a share of the produc- 
 tions of society, according to his industry or mo- 
 ney. But when a part of the society are permitted 
 to increase their money at pleasure, by issuing paper, 
 instead of gold and silver, how can he enjoy that right? 
 The banker makes, out of one thousaiid dollars, ten 
 thousand dollars if he pleases. 
 
 Again, we will suppose that all the productions of a 
 country are divided into two equal parts, and that the 
 inhabitants of this country are equally divided, and 
 each part have an equal property ; then suppose one part to 
 double the quantity of their money by issuing bank 
 notes ; then that part of society would be able to obtain 
 two-thirds, instead of one half, of the productions ; 
 consequently the other part could have only one third 
 instead of one half. If the fust part were to treble 
 their money, then they wouhl be able to obtain three- 
 fourths of the productions, and tlie other only one- 
 fourth, and «ontinue in that proportion, according to 
 the increase of money in that part of society. We 
 ivill further suppose tliat all the purchasers in market 
 
Si 
 
 are one liimdred, and eaeli of them conies with an equal 
 sum of money ; then each ought to have an equal share 
 of all the commodities ; hut if fifty of them are hankers 
 and. find they can make a profit, they douhle their mo- 
 ney hy issuing their notes; they can then purchase two 
 thirds of ail the commodities — consequently, the other 
 fifty, who are no hankers, can have but one third, or 
 one third less than they would have had, if there had 
 been no bankers, or if they had not increased their mo- 
 ney. 
 
 The bankers, therefore, might as well have robbed 
 them, at the beginning, of one half of their money, for, 
 in that case, they would have been able to purchase one 
 third of the commodities, instead of one half, and they 
 could purchase no more after the bankers had doubled 
 their money by their notes. 
 
 The whole nation are purchasers in the market ; it is^ 
 therefore, clear, that the bankers rob every other part 
 of the community or nation, as certainly, by issuing 
 their notes, but with more ease and safety, as by steal- 
 ing or by force, compellint,* them to give up a part of 
 their property or labor, and that abandonment of prin- 
 ciple in legislatures, in authorizing the fraud, mighty 
 with the same propriety, authorize force. 
 
 Gold and silver, as has been before shown, are the 
 productions of nature ; possessing, in a supereminent de- 
 gree, all the qualities requisite for such an important 
 purpose, as the standard of justice in commercial ex- 
 change of property. As such a meuium, it has been 
 used from time as remote as history reaches, and was 
 taken under the direction and guardianship of the ru- 
 lers of society, and coined into money at A^gos, nearly 
 nine hundred years before the Christian iEra. Their 
 qualities and weight were determined by <]ie nicest 
 principles of equity. AU nations of the cai lU hinebcen 
 
extremely careful that their money should not be adul- 
 terated ; they have uniformly punished counterfeiters 
 vi'iih death, so that every man should be secure in his 
 right to the productions of society, in proportion (o his 
 money or his labor. Hence it became the true repre- 
 sentative of labor. 
 
 But what is the use now of their wise and honest 
 laws ? while particular men are permitted to encrcase 
 their money by means of bank notes ? Does it require 
 more labor to fabricate a note than to coin false money I 
 a counterfeit dollar cannot possibly be fabricated, in a 
 state of perfection, sufficient to make it pass, short of 
 twenty-five cents, in precious or pure metal ; whereasj 
 the banker will fabricate one hundred dollars with less 
 cxpence ; do not, then, the bankers enjoy the benefit of 
 labor and the -fruit of fraud, without laboring them'- 
 selves, or running any risk of that punishment which 
 fraud deserves ? They rob the laborer as effectually 
 of the fruits of his industry as the coiner could do. It 
 has been remarked, that the coiner receives immedi- 
 ately the whole amount of all the pieces he puts in cir- 
 culation, whereas the bankers receive only a part ; but 
 it will appear, by a strict examination of the case, that 
 the difference is by no means in favor of the coiner, on 
 the scale of profit, but the reverse. 
 
 It was stated by Gov. Tompkins, in his speech, at 
 the opening of the session of the legislature in 1812, 
 that if the bank capital, then about to be solicited, was 
 granted, in addition to what had been before granted, it 
 would enable the bankers to contract debts, or in other 
 words, legally to issue their notes to an amount sixteen 
 times greater than the whole specie capital of the state. 
 
 Although the immovable patriotism of that maD> 
 seconded by a few worthy adherents, at that time pre- 
 vented the grant, it was beyond their power to temove 
 
JS3 • 
 
 tfic golden cbaFm ; it may be seen, by tbe records of 
 subsequent legislatures, that bank capital has been ex- 
 tended to an amount equal to what was then solicited^ 
 This being the fact, a dollar, in bank notes, cannot be 
 i^orth more than six pence, op one sixteenth of its no- 
 mina^ sirm ; all above six pence must be ideal and to* 
 tally visionary. The expense of materials and fabrica- 
 tion cannot exceed one cent on a dollar, and the banker 
 i*eeeives, annually, about ten cents interest, at common 
 discount, for seven pence principal, and as he can vend 
 his paper without restraint or risk, it is evident that the 
 advantage of the banker is vastly greater than that of 
 the coiner, for the banker, in reality, realizes the whole 
 amount and more, tbe moment it passes from his hands, 
 or at least in one year, for a redemption in specie gene- 
 rally, at more than six pence on a dollar, is an impossi- 
 bility. 
 
 As the bankers of Gloucester, in Massachusetts, set 
 an example, some years ago, which has been followed 
 by Messrs. M»Keon & Cheesman, in this state, for the 
 redemption of their notes ; the facjility and convenience 
 of which will, undoubtedly, recommend it to the adop- 
 tion of others, whenever a general demand sliall be 
 made. 
 
 But whatever difference there may be in the profits, 
 the injnry, to the public, is the same ; for, provided an 
 additional sura is brought to market, whether the fabri- 
 cators reap all the profit at once, or from time to lime, 
 or whether they share it themselves or divide it with 
 associates, a certain proportionate rise must jfiecessarily 
 take place in the prices of the necessary articles of life 
 or trade, and though the banker should make but 1000 
 dollars, by tbe emitting 10,000 dollars in bank notes, 
 yet the whole 10,000 dollars is brought to market — the 
 prices of commodities will be raised in the same propor- 
 
^4 
 
 ^ioii as ihe ten thousand dollars bears to all the money 
 before in the muiket, or in circulation, and, of course, 
 the other members of society must be as much deprived of 
 their properly or the produce of their labor as they would 
 have been by the circulation of an equal sum of counter- 
 feit money. In fact, the whole sum of bank notes are 
 a deception ; they are false and a counterfeit — and that 
 majority in legislatures who have authorized them, a 
 band of mercenary swindlers, bought in and leagued 
 with individual companies to rob the industrious, poor 
 and fatten on the spoil. 
 
 Is it, then, surprising, that the laws should regard 
 seemingly different professions, so very differently, that 
 while it sends the poor man to the state-prison for life., 
 (who may be actually in distressing want,) it per- 
 mits the rich man, or banker, to fabricate millions with, 
 impunity ! Tt may, perhaps, be asserted, that there is 
 a farther difference between banking and coining, that 
 the one robs the individual, and the other the public at 
 large. Admit it to be so ; sure it is not saying muck 
 in favor of the banker. 
 
 But it is by no means always the case ; for the mo- 
 ney of a skilful coiner circulates in the same manner, 
 and produces the same effects, as bank notes do ; and 
 whenever the bank fails, the individual is robbed as well 
 as the public. Ask those who hold Gloucester, M*Keon 
 & Cheesman- s notes, and let their individual answers 
 settle the question. Failures of banks frequently hap- 
 pen, and the calamity may become general, for their 
 solvency depends solely on the confidence that is placed 
 on them ; the least suspicion would infallibly run every 
 Lank in the country ; in this respect the analogy be- 
 tween bank paper and counterfeit coin is strongly mark- 
 ed. As long as false coin is not suspected, it passes as 
 
S5 
 
 llie true ; but (he moment suspicion arises the cheat is 
 at an end, and the possessors most he loosers. This is 
 exactly the case with hankers ; general suspicion would 
 overset them all : aod more iudividual injury is annu- 
 ally sustained by the total failure of some banks, and 
 the depreciation of the notes of others, than has been 
 sustained by false coin since the settlement of America. 
 
 Of what consequence are laws against monopolizers 
 and furestallers. The law establishing a bank is a law 
 establishing a monopoly, granting to bankers a privi- 
 lege to monopolize the very sinues of all commerce, to 
 take all legitimate money out f>f circulation, and to sub- 
 stitute false promises, expressed on scraps of paper, in 
 its place, and may also circulate ten. or twenty times the 
 amount in their notes Ihat they have specie to pay ; 
 they may thereby receive a hundred per cent, on their 
 Vf^'dl capits^l, instead of seven, whieh is lawful interest. 
 
 'Wh^t is the use of laws against monopoly, but to pre- 
 vent individuals from engrossing the necessaries of life, 
 ^nd thereby compelling the necessitous to pay an exor- 
 bitant price. It is in consequence of the banker beip^ 
 enabled to emit large sums in paper, that larpi <iums 
 can be obtained for speculation aiul monopoly, ^jhI it is 
 only making paper pass for gold and silver tbat large 
 ^ums can be obtained. There is but a limited quantity 
 of gold and silver in any counti»y 5 it cannot be increas- 
 ed at pleasure, to suit the convenience of the speculator^ 
 as the paper can. 
 
 While this is the caid it will be impossible to pre- 
 vent fliQUoi><>l^ ; so long as we permit men to increase 
 the quantity of their money by means of paper, all ai*- 
 ticles of the lirst necessiry wi-l bear an exorbitant price. 
 In vain are the fruitfulness of our seasons ; in vain are 
 the bounties of nature overflowing our country. The 
 
 4< 
 
^6 
 
 pious and thankful Lcart v/hicli lias been pouring out 
 Us gi'iilituile to the Beneficent Dispcnsei^ of all good, 
 lor causing the earth to overflow with fruitfulness, and 
 felicitating itself with the cheeri»;g hope that a com- 
 fortable supply miglit fail to his lot, which the pretend- 
 ed scarcity of former seasons prevented liim from' en- 
 joying. But, alas! the avidity ofihe monopolizer is 
 sharpened, and increases with the quantity of produc- 
 tions, and the hopes of the labourer is disappointed. 
 Every necessary of life is as far beyond his reach as 
 ever ; the fruits of his labor must first pass through the 
 hands of the monopolizer, to be dealt out to him in 
 cjuantities proportionate to his money, at fifty or a hun- 
 dred per cent. advance.=^ 
 
 * To consider merely the present order of human society, 
 it is evident that the first offence must have been his who 
 began a monopoly, and took advantage of the -weakness of 
 his neighbors, to secure certain exclusive privileges lo him- 
 self. 
 
 The man. on the other hand, who determined to put 
 an end to this monopoly, and who peremptorily demanded 
 what was superfluous to the possessor, and would be of the 
 greatest benefit to himself, appeared to his own mind to be 
 merely avenging the violated laws of nature and justice. — 
 The plausibleness of this reasoning, beyond a doubt, is the 
 original cause of all the crimes in the world. The fruitful 
 source of crimes consists in this circumstance — one man's 
 possessing in abundance, of that which another is destitute, 
 and we must change the nature of mind before we can pre- 
 vent it from being powerfully influenced by this circum- 
 stance, when brought strongly hgjme to^ its preceptions by 
 the nature of its situation. Man must cease to have senses; 
 the pleasures of appetite and variety must cease to gratify, 
 before he can look tamely upon the monopoly of these plea- 
 sures. He must cease to have a sense of justice, before he 
 can clearly and fully approve of this accursed prostitution of 
 legislative power, which foster* and supports such a scene 
 of superfluity and distress. 
 
It is evident, thereibre, that the banking system rcii- 
 tlers the laws against monopoly equally ineffectual with 
 those against eountcrleiiing ami usury. Thus we pull 
 down with c:r own hands the only partition and baniei' 
 that divided and secured every man in the frui(s of in- 
 dustry ; under such an order of things, we might he 
 led to conclude that laws are made rather to regulate, 
 systeniise and encourage, than to suppress fraud and 
 robbery. 
 
 We are frequently insulted by being told, by ouv 
 Avooden-headed afld rotten-hearted legislators, that 
 the robberies committed' by bank notes differ from all 
 others, that they tend to enrich the nation. Admittiag 
 that to be the case, (thoirgh palpably false) and that 
 such a thing were desirable, still it is not less an evil 
 to them who are robbed of their property, or of the 
 fruits of their labor. 
 
 Enriching the nation, as it is called, is by no means de- 
 sirable. Such a wish can only originate in narrovy, 
 perverted minds, who wish to represent the nation in 
 their own characters, and obliterate the history of all 
 others, and by forming their judgment by the deceptive 
 appearance that riches produce. Riches appear to 
 bring many conveniences to those who possess them ; 
 they therefore conclude, that a nation increasing in 
 wealth must, consequently, increase in happiness, than 
 which nothing can be more false and absurd, since it is 
 as impossible for one part of society to grow rich with- 
 out making the other part poor, as for one arm of a ba- 
 lance to be raised without depressing the other. Had 
 all men an equal property, al] would have an equal 
 share of the productions of society, and all would be 
 obliged to labor alike, of course there would be neither 
 rich nor poor. Riches, therefore, is merely a compa- 
 rative term. The rich arc only those who can com- 
 
S8 
 
 iiiand a greater share of the productions of society, 
 than falls to the share of the common people ; and as 
 the number of the wealth v are kicreased, so will the 
 poverty of the others increase. In exact jjropottion as 
 the luxuries of one part of the community are increas- 
 ed, so must the comforts of the other part be diminish- 
 ed, and if it does not tend to lessen the number of in- 
 habitants, it augments the number of poor. I know a 
 town, in the vicinity of New-York, that, twenty years 
 ago, had but one person in it who required any assis.- 
 tance from tlie public ; the same town, though very lit- 
 tle increased in population, has increased thfeir poor an 
 hundred fold. No person who will take the trouble ta 
 examine the Poor-House books and Soup House bill?, 
 and other institutions for the relief of the poor, will en- 
 tertain a doubt that the increase of poverty and distress 
 has keptpftce with our riches, or paper money. 
 
 In tlie New-F>ngland states the effects are the most 
 conspicuous, because they are more populoufe, and their 
 paper systems, heretofore, far the most numerous ; be- 
 sides the increase of their poor, thousands are couipel- 
 lod to emigrate to the western wilderness in a most for- 
 lorn condition, to make room for their more ti^ealfhy 
 neighbor^. In fact, an amount equal to tlie whole ac- 
 tive capital of the states is vested in banking companies, 
 turnpike companies, or some other chartered compa- 
 nies, and the whole of them leagued against all honestj — 
 many of the judges of their courts openly engage in 
 shaving notes. But we need not go abroad for exam- 
 ples of knavery, or the effects of pape;* money ; do We 
 not sec a considerable part of this city taken up by 
 those who have thus enriched themselves, from wlueh 
 mechanics and other useful citizens are driven forever? 
 Such has been the necessary consequence of sufferiUg 
 men to increase their money, by means of bank notes 
 
and similar i^eails, ih^it they have been (hereby Ena- 
 bled to erigroee so largie a share of the pvoductloins of 
 society, as have either rt^dueed those to beggary, ot* 
 forced them to eiiftigrate, Wlio have had no sueh iiiea^s 
 of inereasJng their incomes. 
 
 The effects Of this accursed system, of making paper 
 pass for goUl and silver, has been so artfully disgnis^^d, 
 that little attention has been paid to it by the communi- 
 ty at large. Tlic evils, thence arising, have becj; de- 
 signedly attributed to other causes, purposely to feoti- 
 eeal the real ones. 
 
 In Englamlit has been attributed to the taxes, atrdih 
 this country to commerce, and that commeree has been 
 the caose o'f the great rise in the prices of the produce 
 tiotis of society ; bat on examination it will be found a 
 falsehood. 
 
 "Were all taxes levied on income direietly, they cfdtiltl 
 produce fto effect whatever on the prrifees of comiiiddr- 
 ties ; for, as the pt-ife^s inust depend on the demand, 
 and ^s every man's demand rests with hi^ income, the 
 \Vhofe demand, or the prices 6f all thft Coitimodrties, 
 must likewise depend dn the sum of all the ineotttes. A 
 fax, therefore, merely alters th6 distribution, without 
 irhering tlie stim of the income of a state, as is the caste 
 with a dirfec'ttax ; or incohle could nevet' vary the pric- 
 es of commodities, nor the demand for cotninerce could 
 nevier rai^e the pi*ieeii. Cb'nsidef fot* a moment the 
 staftfe bfdrir commerce ; Europeans rival (is in our ow'n 
 markets, iti some of the staple cbmmoditle^ of our oWn 
 sclJi. ilie ithtnense quantities of pork, beef, butter, &c. 
 WWich are anttuairy imported from Euro()e, and sold in 
 our markets, proves the falsehood of tbat allegation. 
 I'he rate of the market, as has been befot*e observed, 
 does not depend upon the nnmber of |:v'ohA^ers, but 6n 
 the qttantily of thdr taoncy, wliile tliut and the qnatiti- 
 
81) 
 
 ty of commodities remain the same, witliout vaiiation ; 
 the prices will inevitably be the same, whether the pur- 
 chasers be few or many in number, or however une- 
 qually the money may be divided among them. 
 
 If, for example, the number ef buyers in the market 
 amounted to one hundred, with twenty shillings each, 
 all the commodities must be sold for one hundred 
 pounds. If, instead of one hundred, with one pound 
 each, fifty had gone with two pounds each, or if a tax 
 had taken five shillings from one fifty and given it to 
 the other lifty, it would make no alteration in the prices 
 of commodities in the market, for the sellers could only 
 get the hundred pounds. 
 
 Suppose, that in a nation where all the incomes 
 amounted to one hundred millions, the gpvernment 
 should levy a tax of ten millions ; it would be evident 
 that every man's income would be lessened one tenth. 
 If, therefore, the quantities of commodities remained 
 as before the tax, the prices must have fallen one tenth, 
 or the commodities remain unsold ; but if the ten mil- 
 lions taken from the whole, were added to the incomes 
 of a few, the whole amount, or aggregate income, would 
 be restored again to one hundred millions, and con- 
 sequently the prices of commodities would remain the 
 same as they were before the tax was levied, but could 
 not possibly be increased. 
 
 The prices of commodities, therefore, can be increas- 
 ed only by indirect taxes, which, by being levied on ar- 
 ticles of consumption, must create a fictitious increase 
 in the national income, in the same manner that bank 
 notes do ; for as taxes, raised in tais way, do not re- 
 duce men's income nominally, the sum of all the in- 
 comes in the state is increased equal to the amount of 
 taxes. It is not observing this effect of indirect taxes, 
 which made some men in England imagine, that in- 
 
31 
 
 creasing the taxes increased the national riches, and 
 others have asserted, that as they increased the national 
 debt they increased their ability to pay it ; but, as a 
 nation, tliey were neither enriched or impoverished by 
 taxation ; for as the real riches of a nation consists 
 alone in its productions, and while they remain the 
 same, without eitlier increase or diminution, 'it cannot 
 be said to ^row either richer or poorer, whatever may 
 he the fluctuation of the nominal income, or whatever 
 alteration may take place in its distribution. 
 
 Great pains have been and still are taken, to prove 
 that tlie landed and monied interests are inseparable, 
 and that promoting the one necessarily advances the 
 other ; but this is certainly an untruth, for there can- 
 not be but a certain quantity of wealth, power and eon- 
 sequenco, in any state or'nation, whatever the numbers 
 may be among whom that power is divided, or whatever 
 may be the amount of wealth, it is certain that whatev- 
 er one party gains the other must lose. 
 
 Suppose that all the lands in these United States were 
 rented for a term of twenty^one years, for twenty mil- 
 lions annually ; when the revenues from money amount- 
 ed to exactly the same sum, then would not the landed 
 and monied interest, or the monied men, have the same 
 income, or an equal share of all the productions of the 
 country, and an equal share of all the power and influ- 
 ence arising from wealth ? Hut if the monied men 
 were, during that time, to increase or double their in- 
 comes by increasing their money, by means of bank 
 notes, at the end of twenty-one years, their respective 
 power and wealth would be in the proportion of one to 
 two ; that is, the landholders would have one third less 
 of the products of the country, and also one third less 
 of the influence in society ; and the monied men one 
 third more than thev had at the commencement of the 
 
8S 
 
 above period. Thence it is ccHain ibat the bankers, 
 by increasing their own incomes, Ihrougli the means of 
 kmk notes, do absolutely rob Oje landholders of a part 
 crftheir power, and a very considerable part of their pro- 
 perty.* It >viJI be undoubtedly alleged, that increasing 
 the circulation of money raises the price of land, and 
 that may be the case nominally, but not really; there 
 may be more money given in exchange, but the value 
 will iMimain tb« same ; for vhat is the reason that a 
 greater number of pieces of money are given for an acre 
 &f land now, but because that money has lost so much of 
 its value. 
 
 Therefoje, although the landholder, who w is^ed to 
 sell his estate, might receive two Imndred pounds, in- 
 stil of one hundred, yet as the money had lo3t so 
 much of its relative value, in employing it in any ptlu»,r 
 way except in paying old debts, the two hundred pounds 
 will purchase no more of the products of society than 
 the one hundred would have done before the iucrease 
 tciok place, and even if the real value of land should be 
 increased, it by bo means indemnifies bim for the loss 
 sustained in his annual rents ; therefore, the €0ects of 
 an increadcd circulation, in raising the value of land, 
 are of no more service to the landlords than the increase 
 of the nominal value ; for, suppose his lauds to be let 
 for a term of twenty-one years, he cannot raise his rents 
 until the end of that term, though the value of his in- 
 come has been gradually decroa^iog ; forif^one hundred 
 dollars would have gone as far in maintaining a family^ 
 at the begimiing of Uie term, as two hundred at the end 
 of the term, he must have sustained a great loss, and 
 
 * Any man who will take, the tro.iible to examine critical- 
 ly, into the conduct of a majority of the legislature of this 
 state, in 1812, will be satisfied what share of power and in- 
 fluence bankers have with our legislative auihorities. 
 
as 
 
 alfbou^b he raises liis rent at the expiration of tho 
 term, to double the former rent, it neither makes up tho 
 Joss he had before sustained, nor secures him a^inst 
 further loss ; while the circilating medium continues 
 to increase, it will be impossible for him to bring his 
 estate at par wiih the increase but once in twenty.one> 
 years. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that the landed part of tho 
 nation reap no advantage from the increase of the cir- 
 culation bj' the banking system ; but, on the contrary 
 they are greatly the looscrs. All those who have ilxed 
 salaries, such as oflicers in the army and navy, and ma- 
 ny officers in the citil departments, wht) have either fix- 
 ed salaries or stipulated fees, must sustain greater loss- 
 es than the landholders, for the latter sometimes have 
 it in their power to raise their rents, while the formeif 
 are at the mercy of those whose interest is to oppress 
 them. What their reai looses are, is difficult to ascer- 
 tain exactly ; but whoever will take the trouble to 
 compare the expcnces of house-keeping now, with what 
 it was twenty years ago, will find that it itas been in- 
 creased one half in value, by the depreciation of money 
 and the circulation of paper money or bank notes. 
 
 But whatever injury may be done to the rich, the in- 
 jury done to the laboring part of the community, oi» na- 
 tion, is by far the greatest and most to be deplored ; 
 for the rich are only deprived of superfluities, whicb^ 
 may, perhaps, be a benefit rather than an injury, and 
 may excite a laudable sympathy in some of their minds, 
 of which, in the full enjoyment of luxury, they are ge- 
 nerally totally destitute ; but the laborer is deprived of 
 necessaries-^besides, the advanced price has been mutch 
 greater on necessaries than on superfluities; every man 
 is effeetcfl by this in proportion to the part of his in- 
 come employed in either, consequently it falls heaviest 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 on the smallest incomes, where there must be the great- 
 est part, or the whole, applied to the purchase of ne- 
 cessaries. The laborer, therefore, whose whole in- 
 come is employed in this way, must be the greatest suf- 
 ferer. 
 
 The injustice done, hy the circulation of bank notes^ 
 to this cla^s of citizens, is, if possible, more palpable, 
 hy far, than that done to any others, for although 
 the injustice of depriving any man of that share of pro- 
 ductions of society to which he is entitled, by his pro- 
 perty or his money, must be extremely unjust ; }et the 
 injustice of depriving the productive laborer, the man 
 hy whose industry his family is* indebted for their sup- . 
 port, conveniences and even ornameMts, of any part of 
 the small siiare he has been able to retain of the pro- 
 duction of his labor, tnust be peculiarly striking; what 
 words <!a» be found sutiiciently expressive of our indig- 
 nation against, and abhorrence of the conduct of a 
 set of men who should combine to deprive the produc- 
 tive laborer of his wages ? well might the curse of om- 
 nipotence be denounced against them ! Yet this have 
 the bankers positively done, for there cannot be any dif- 
 ference between taking six pence out of a shilling, or 
 reducing the value of a shilling to sixpence, A man 
 is equally injured by having the value of his money re- 
 duced one half, as by having one half stolen away ; the 
 w.iges of a laborer will cot now purchase one half of 
 the most necessary provisions, absolutely necessary fop 
 him in his condition, that his wages would have done 
 before the iestablishinent of banks in this country.-— 
 Therefore, the issuing of bank viotes has as effectually 
 robbed him of one half of his wages, as if they had put 
 their hands into his pocket and stolen it out, or formed 
 a combination to reduce his wages- Whatever may be 
 the reduction at present, it must go on increasiiig con- 
 
^ 35 
 
 iinually, for as macliincry increases its force by circu- 
 lation, they can have no hopes of oht^Jning any propor- 
 tional increase in their wages, for the sense of justice 
 and the principles of right and wrong seem to be oblite- 
 rated, even from the minds of men appointed as ,i>iiar- 
 dians of justice, so that the worthy laborer must starve 
 or be supported by the public. This is (he case at pre- 
 sent with vast numbers, and is annually rapidly in- 
 creasing ; yet we boast of the flourishing state of our 
 commerce, straining every nerve, mortgaging the labor 
 of unborn posterity and the fruits of their industry, to 
 divert commerce from the channel formed by natufe 
 for it ro pass through, vainly striving to compel nature 
 to bow to avarice and art, to facilitate and enlarge com- 
 merce ! Pray what is that commerce worth that can- 
 not maintain those who carry it on ? 
 
 The merchants of the United States, indeed, may be 
 allowed to boast of the benefits of commerce, and par- 
 ticularly those of New York ; the concurrence of fa- 
 vorable circumstances, resulting from our neutrality 
 for many years, during the convulsions of Europe, is, 
 perhaps, unparalleled in commercial history. They 
 tax the community by the profits on their gooc's, and 
 likewise tax the public at large in making them rich 
 by maintaining the poor. 
 
 The condition of tradesmen is equally deplorable | 
 they are no longer paid for what they do ; they must lay 
 Qttt of their money for months and years. Before the 
 establishment of banks, tradesmen and mechanics, were 
 far more punctually and reerularly paid, than they now 
 are ; their losses now, by delays and disappointments, 
 insolvenciei, by taking hills on distant and depreciated 
 banks, which they are obliged to pass at a discount. &c. 
 amounts to at least r>0 per cent, on all their labor, be- 
 sides paying double for e?cry thing they need. It also 
 
36 
 
 amoimts to aiinoist a prohibition to a young man to get 
 into business for himself, for want of large capital, Un> 
 less lie can give credit he can get no custom ; neither 
 can he borrow at reasonable or legal interest and dis- 
 tant payment, because the interest drawn on bank . 
 shares is greater, and payments more punctual, people 
 prefer vesting their money in them to lending to indi- 
 viduals, however worthy or safe ; he is, therefore, 
 forced to work as journeyman for life, and to maintain^ 
 perhaps, a numerous family ; work for a capricious and 
 tyrannical master, pay him a tithe out of his wages and 
 who will deal out his wages how much or how little, as 
 Ills humour or interest dictates ; he is utterly excluded 
 from his political rank, and is a victim to the banking 
 system. 
 
 The worthy capitalist or honest regular trader is also 
 injured in his circumstances, by the idle and desperate 
 adventurer being able to borrow money from the banks^ 
 to rival him in trade, compel him to divide his profits 
 and his business, and thereby reduce him to want and 
 beggery at the close of life, after all his eiforts to avoid 
 it. Their dissipated lives, extravagance and ignorance 
 of business, by not learning its principles by practice^ 
 continually exposes them to miscarriage and failures^ 
 to their utter ruin, and their friends who have become 
 their securities ; the forced sales of their property, 
 continually injures the worthy dealer, and renders all 
 property in trade very precarious. 
 
 The banking system likewise injures all minors ; if 
 they happen to be young at the time property is left 
 them, they will not receive more than half its value 
 when they arrive at the age of 21, if the bankers should 
 be permitted to increase in numbers, and in the increas- 
 ing the circulation of their notes ; all those who have 
 monies in the funds to receive at a future day should 
 look to this. 
 
37 
 
 It is to this prodigious increase of paper that England 
 is imlebted principally for the frequency of her wars, 
 for bank notes not only enables the minister to contract 
 debts and raise supplies, with infinitely greater facility 
 than he otherwise could do, but it renders war absolute- 
 ly necessary for promoting the interest of a very power- 
 ful body of men — I mean the bankers. The increasing 
 the quantity of money to be lent, without a similar in- 
 crease in the quantity wanted to be borrowed, mubt ne- 
 cessarily reduce the interest ? therefore, if the demand 
 for money were not from time to time increased, the 
 constant increase of the quantity to be lent, by means of 
 bank notes, would in time reduce the interest to almost 
 nothing. War, therefore, is the most effectual means 
 of increasing the demand and raising the interest on 
 money, but when war cannot be conveniently resorted 
 to, the enormous exyence of a Canal may serve as a 
 temporary substitute, to serve the interest of money- 
 lenders in tliis slal£. 
 
 The banks, by having a great deal of money belong- 
 ing to other people, which they cannot employ but in 
 such ^ manner as to be able to call it in oa any emer- 
 gency, will always be investing large sums in the funds j 
 and as the interest they receive will be high, in propor- 
 tion as the prices of stocks are low, war, which reduces 
 the prices, must be to them particularly desirable. — 
 But the banks, that have the revenue in their posses^ 
 sion, have an interest in war distinct from that of other 
 banks ; for as all the money raised by taxes is lodged 
 there, the revenue becomes a fund for circulating the 
 notes of the bank,* and as the profits of the proprietors 
 
 * The sound of a great capital abroad may gain credit to 
 the bank, but is not absolutely necessary for an extensive 
 circulation. Tliis will he clearly seen by the operation of 
 the Farmers Exchange Bank, in the state of Rhode-Island, 
 an account of which is hei-caftcr given. 
 
38 
 
 depend on ihe'quanriiy of their paper in circulation, 
 and as that rausi depend on the larjceness of rheir Tunds, 
 war, which, bv increasing the national debt and taxes, 
 increase their funds, must greatly contribute to their 
 advantage. Kven if war was not so immediately for 
 the advantage of t!ue bankers, they would be stilt oblig- 
 ed to supjiort it if the governmoni thought proper; for, 
 as their very <f'xistence depends on deception, it is in 
 the power of government to annihilate them in a mo- 
 ment, by refusing their notes in the payment of taxes. 
 
 They are, therefor*', as much dependent on them, 
 and as much at their command, as if they depended on 
 them for their daily subsistence ; nor is it to be S4ip- 
 posod that men who get rich by the plunder of their 
 neighborsr ean have many scruples in prQ|hioting the 
 \iews of others, however pernicious, and even where 
 they themselves are to share in the profits there can be 
 no doubt of their most cordial support. 
 
 Having shown the great interest that monied men and 
 monied institutions have in creating war, and in sup- 
 porting it after it is created, what then can any man 
 think of the wisdom and morality of the general go- 
 vernment, in leaving all the revenue in the hands of the 
 bankers for many years, averaging an amount equal to 
 twenty millions annually, thereby assisting the bankers 
 if not to bring on war, at least to rob their fellow-citi- 
 zens of an immense amount by enabling them to circu- 
 late a vast deal more paper. 
 
 Suppose a general alarm was jexcited by the immense 
 quantity of hank notes now in circulation, and n general 
 demand made on the banks for cash for their notes, and 
 the people to accept of no more of their paper, would 
 not the bankers pay their notes with any body's cash in 
 their possesssion sooner than fail ? Has the general go- 
 vernment any special security, that in case any such de- 
 
39 
 
 inan<l should be made on tliein, that tliey will not pay 
 their notes with the revenue. 
 
 I'he banking svstem also supports an enormous sys- 
 tem of speculation and monopoly that racks the poles. 
 This may be seen by the conduet of the British mer- 
 chants in the year 1793. In eonsequenee of >vup 
 with France, eonimeree then received a sudden and 
 deadly blow. Notwithstandinj^all their commercial ad- 
 vantages, and the immense aid they received from the 
 banks, it was still insufficient, at those times, to save 
 them from ruin and general bankruptcy ; had not the 
 minister stepped into their aid, by lending them three 
 million pounds sterling, in exchequer and navy bills ! a 
 general bankruptcy would have been the consequence. 
 
 Since then it is evident that the commodities in theii* 
 possession did not belong to th«-ni, in whose possession 
 they were, but had been engrossed by them for specula- 
 tion, by means of paper borrowed from the banks — se- 
 condly, that this specuhition was with a view to triono- 
 poly. If this had not been the case, or it they had com- 
 modities double the amount of their debts, would they 
 not have brought a part of them to market, equal to the 
 amount of their debts, rather than have pawned double 
 the amount ; but it is presumed that the commodities^ 
 in their possession, were not, at a fair market price, 
 worth the amount of their debts ; then nothing could 
 Lave saved them from ruin but screwing up their mo- 
 nopoly to an exorbitant price. M'ith this view, it was 
 of but little consequence to them how much of their 
 commodities were pawned ; their object was to keep 
 them out of the market, and as the loan, borrowed of 
 government, served to pay off their first bills, it enabled 
 them to bring their commodities to market as Srow as 
 they plcHbcd^ so as to inhancc the price two or three 
 fold. 
 
40 
 
 Again, on the i5t!i of March, 1797, the price of wheat 
 was raised to 95 shillings per quarter. There was eve-* 
 ry appearance of famine. The government went to 
 work to strengthen the idea, by ordering a general fast 
 throughout the island. All the ecclesiastical corps, 
 and all the orators of government, were to prevail with 
 the people to believe it to be an approaching famine, 
 and that they should bear it with christian fortitude. 
 However, on the 12th of April, the bubble burst; the 
 wheat fell from 95 to 58 shillings ; and there was every 
 reason to believe that it would have been much lowe^ 
 still, had it not been for the loan lent by government to 
 the merchants, who had engrossed all the grain in the 
 country ; the arrangement was proclaimed in parlia- 
 ment on the ISth of April ; the 17th of May, the mer- 
 chants received the loan of one and an half miiliott 
 pounds sterling, from government ; and on the 28th, 
 wheat bad again risen to 77 shillings. The same game 
 is f>ow playing by the monopolizers of New- York, by 
 the help of the banks. 
 
 Again, on the 2ith of May, 1797, the mtitistcr pro- 
 posed a tax of ten per cent, on all Wsst- India sugars. 
 The merchants in the trade declared they could not 
 pay it. They alledged that the markets were all over- 
 stocked, and that they had early payments to make, 
 and would be obliged to sell, at all events, to make good 
 their contracts. The government lent them a million 
 and a half to pay up their first bills, to enable them to 
 bring their sugars to market as slow as they chose, 
 so as to enhance the price to an extravagant amount, 
 and though the tax was only ten per cent, the sugars, 
 on which it was laid, rose more than seventy per cent, 
 in consequence of it. 
 
 Is it any wonder, then, that the merchant and minis- 
 ter are so kind to each other ! These are commercial 
 
41 
 
 advantages with a witness to it. Before the estahlisli- 
 ment of the hank of England, in 1694, there were no 
 poor people, nor any taxes collected for their support. 
 Now, at this lime, the poor rates in England exceed 
 fifty millions of dollars annually. The government has 
 reduced them to the lowest degradation, and keeps theru 
 down with the hayonet. * 
 
 Having shewn the baneful effects of the banking sys- 
 tem in England, I will endeavour to show that it has 
 produced the same effects in this country ; the like 
 causes will produce the same effects every where. 
 
 It is as notorious a truth as that the sun gives light 
 when it shines, that our merchants, and speculators of 
 every descriptions, borrow millions of dollars (in paper) 
 from our banks annually, to assist them in engrossing 
 every article in life, and particularly those articles in- 
 dispensable to life ^ thereby to enhance the price to an 
 extravagant amount, double or treble their real 
 worth, or what they would be had at without monopoly 5 
 J thus compelling their fellow-men, who>>cannot do with- 
 out them, to give those exorbitant prices. 
 
 And even bankers themselves, by their agents^ en- 
 gage in this fell speculation; witness the butter 8i>ecu- 
 lation, which is fresh in evory man's recollection in this 
 city. Whatever might have been the result of that ac- 
 cursed monopoly, to those engaged in it, it had the 
 effect of raising that article to a price, from which it 
 has Bot at present fell to what it ought to be. And now, 
 while I am writing, there are persons in the city of 
 New-York, who have it in their power to issue bank- 
 Aptes to an amount equal to the engrossing any article 
 in the market which may promise a profitable specu- 
 lation. 
 
 The merchant and dealer, who folfows this practice, 
 might av well; and with as much justice, put their hands 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 into their customcis pockets and steal one lialf of their 
 inoncj away, as to compel Iheni, because their need re- 
 cjuires it. to give double their rral and just value 5 though 
 the means are diiferent the moral is tiic same. 
 
 This base robbery or extortion, throughout all our 
 cities, and even country towns, (lor there is petty bank- 
 ers in thera all) has dcpMived the great majority of the 
 nation from the benefits and the moral influence of our 
 revolution. Their condition is very little better ; and 
 iji a few years more, this banking system will reduce 
 them to a situation as deplorable as that of other coun- 
 tries, where there are no such words or ideas as Liberty 
 and Equality. Does not this system tend directly to 
 reduce the patriotic saldicr, who has hazarded his life 
 10 repel British insolence, to distressing want, and to 
 compel him to beg his bread on the very soil which his 
 blood has purchased and been shed to defend ! how 
 painful the reflection !* 
 
 * The moral prospect, which presented itself at the close 
 of our RcvolulioHjAvas unprecedented in the whole human 
 history. Our country was a political paradise, with free 
 access to the tree of knowledge. The wide world was open 
 before us and without an enemy on its surface ; and all its 
 mhabitants wishing us well. 
 
 This vast continent, repkte in every blessing, of every 
 soil, of every climate ; capable of every production of nature, 
 and this for ever ours I To go to work and enjoy the frui'is 
 of our moderate and salutary labor, was all that was neces- 
 sary for us to do. But it seem to have been our misfortune, 
 that all or at leatrt the worst propensities, that disgrace the 
 human character, predominate in our public councils ; or at 
 least have so far predominated as to produce all the political 
 evils which have befel and now await us, and particularly the 
 Me war. The cupidity of bankers was the generating cause 
 of the opposition to the pacific policy of the immortal Jeffer- 
 son. Had the policy of that peerless patriot and statesman, 
 been seconded by t^ie people of these states, with that degree 
 of energy, which it merited. The thousands of human sac- 
 
43 
 
 » 
 
 No sooner a bank is establisheil in any place, than all 
 the cash disappeai's iVoru circulation. It is taken to the 
 bank as a deposit, luid for safety, as well as to obtain 
 favours from the bankers, even the revenue of the gene- 
 ral government is iodised in the bunks. Averaging 
 nearly twenty millions of dollars annually. 
 
 The Bankers arc thus furnished with immense loan 
 capiial. It becomes an immense fund to circulate their 
 note* upon ; and as the bankers set up the triide with 
 the sole view of gain, the more they issue the more 
 tiiey will gain, und'llie more is wanting to be done; it 
 is fair to infer, that tho^' issue all they can. It may 
 perliaps be asserted that they are limited by law io 
 issue only a certain amount beyond the capital, and to 
 isijiue no more. But is not the temptation rather too 
 strong, with avarice for its auxiliary, for an inoperative 
 Jaw 1,0 proven:, when tlio key to detection is in tlieir 
 own pockets ? rticre is no arithmetical limits that can 
 be -fixed to the amount of paper the bankers may issue 
 while their credit is good, (that is, while suspicion is 
 a sleep.) P;iper can pay paper without end, while rags 
 are to be. had in this (soon will be) ragged country ; and 
 when likely to be pressed for huge sums in specie, they 
 refuse payment. What amount of interest tbey draw 
 from the use of all their notes, it is diiHcult for any oncy 
 not in their secret, to ascertain to any exactness ; but 
 it must be very great — it must be immense. How else 
 can we aceon-it for <heir princely palaces, their plates, 
 
 rifices, whoseblood has been shed upon the altar of banking 
 avarice and the consequent distress which fills our country, 
 would have been prevented, and our country at this day- 
 would have presented a spectacle of happiness of arts, sci- 
 ences, manufactories and agriculture, equal to the supply cf 
 every rational want or wish, and our country, truly in fact 
 (not as now) completely Independent. War is the Pharo, 
 'ible of statc;smen, and a wheel of Fortune to bankers. 
 
44^ 
 
 engravings, their stationary, their printing, their poi- 
 lage, clerics' salaries, their charters, rents, bonuses, 
 docuers, hQ* with the princely fortunes they retire 
 "within a few years. 
 
 The profits of our Banks must he very great, niuch 
 greater than any European Banks. It has induced 
 foreigners to invest large sums in many of them ; they 
 have become principle stockholders in some of thein. 
 Foreigners arethusenahledto draw from us every year 
 large sums of money as Interest, in specie, to the great 
 injury of internal improvement, and making us moi*c 
 dependent on them for every thing wc need They arc 
 tijus promoting their own views and interests on Amer- 
 ican ground. Besides all this, they are attached to 
 foreign habits and influence; they are enemies to our 
 republican institutions ; they agitate our councils, divide 
 our people, set law at defiance, and unuerve the arm of 
 our general government. 
 
 We have nothing in our republican institutions that 
 ean balance this overwhelming foreign influence. The 
 imminent danger, from which we recently made hut a 
 hair-breadth escape, must be fresh in the memory of 
 t>f every man ; the conduct of bankers abundantly prove 
 their hostility to republican forms of government.— 
 They have already purchased a majority of the legig- 
 iative and judicial authority. Their remains only the 
 virtue of the people to prevent them from ingulphing 
 the continent in ruin. The management of the Banks 
 is placed in the hands of directors chosen annually by 
 the stockholders. They have great privileges and au- 
 thority, very little inferiour to the petty despots of the 
 earth. Their services as directors, entitle them to the 
 use of 10, 20, 30, or forty thousand dollars annually ; 
 by paying legal inti rest on it, those sums are allowed 
 according to the capital of the Bank. 
 
45 
 
 They may discount paper for whom they please and 
 to any amount, and the may ruin who they please by re- 
 fusing to continue their discount and compelling imme- 
 diate payment to the Bank — And besides a political 
 viengeance, they have pecuniary vengeance also in the 
 ruin of any man they chose, towards accomplishing this 
 abominable design, their cash priviliges are of the great- 
 est benefit to them. It is to say the least of it, a scene 
 of Corruption from beginning to end ! ! 
 
 A law to establish a Hank is a law to banish every 
 thing useful out of a country. The constant and pro- 
 digious increase of paper manufactured at the banks, 
 and set a float by speculators, raises the prices of all the 
 Commodities of life to an extravagant hight so that me- 
 chanics and labourers are forced by their neccssiHes to 
 demand high wages in order to support themselves. 
 This opperates as a prohibition to many useful arts and 
 manufactories, from ever succeeding in this country^ 
 The injury done to thQ nation in this point is incalcula- 
 ble, besides making us wholy dependant on foreign na- 
 tions for every thing we need, we shall always be em- 
 broiled in their wickedness and wars, while this course 
 of things continues to exist among us.* Besides all (his, 
 it unnerves every kind of virtuous industry by Voiding 
 out temptations to speculations and monopoly, which U 
 ten times worse to the morrais and injurious to society, 
 
 * The policy of the British government is directed against 
 our commerce and manufactories. It has been declared iu 
 parliment that it would be better for them to sacrafice some 
 millions than suffer American manufacturers to succeed, 
 their policy has been aided by the conduct of our anglefied 
 government, Merchants and Bankers, to the total destruc- 
 tion of our manufactories, and the immense sums drawn 
 from us annually in specie to pay for their goods is furnish- 
 ing them again with the sure means of the destruction of our 
 republican institutions. 
 
4(5 
 
 than the increase of paper by Ihe Banks, is to Kiaiiufac- 
 turers. It promotes idleness and dissipation of every 
 description; foreign Aishions, follies, waste and extrava- 
 gance. It drives industry and morality beyond the 
 sphere of its baleful influence, insomuch that a worthy 
 honest man is rare to be found among us. See the daily 
 papers filled with Insolvencies, Bankruptcies and For- 
 geries, an eternal disgrace to the nation. It is the high- 
 est species of gambling that ever was known, it is a 
 shame to any country calling itself civilized to permit it. 
 It is far worse than robery on the high road, for the 
 highway robber puts his life or liberty at stake, there 
 is a risk againit the profit. But our Banking gentry, 
 avoid all dangers and prevent all escapes. '^I'he history 
 of banks is a history of monopoly, and a history of mo- 
 nopoly is a history of the worst specjes of rohery. The 
 history of paper currency among all nations, is a history 
 of robery of the basest sort, it is much like the treach- 
 ery of a pretended friend. We place confidence in his 
 promise and become his seeurify-^he gives us the slip — 
 thus involving ourselves and families in distressing want 
 and poverty. This is exactly the case with Bank Notes, 
 "we suppose they may be paid in cash at any time, but 
 ivhen suspicion arises, the cheat is at an end, the pos- 
 sessors of notes must be the loosers, This has been 
 prooved to demonstration in this country already. Mil- 
 lions of Dollars in paper have been entirely lost, and 
 thousands of families ruined by it. Though strange to 
 tell we play the same game over again. It was expect- 
 ed when the Bank «f the United States began its opper- 
 ations and the banking gentry removed the embargo on 
 specie, that it >vouId again appear in circulation, but 
 there is scarcely any to be seen not even one dollar in 
 cash to a thousand of paper and it is growing scarcer 
 every day. Our Bankers are as true to their interest 
 
47 
 
 ws the needle to the pole. They sell the East India 
 merchants, at a premium, large sums of it anually^ the 
 more specie that is shiped abroad, the bitter far them 
 the more need and room there is to issue and circulate 
 their notes. 
 
 . The English nation had placed great and strong con- 
 fidence in their hank for more than two hundred \ears- 
 In the mon(h of Feb. 1797 a publication was circulated 
 through England in which it was proved that the bank 
 had been insolvent for more than cne hundred and fifty 
 yeais before. In consequence of this publication, tho 
 people who held their paper took an alarm and called 
 lor payment of their notes in cash for which they had 
 given the productions of tlieir labour, this step was 
 justifiable on every principle of equity and prudehce, 
 TliOie who by the proxemity of their situa<ion, or by 
 early information called first on the bank got their pay 
 but those who called last got nothing, the bank failed 
 the real fact was, that they could not pay one penny 
 on the pound for all notes' that they had issed. 
 
 Their government in the true spirit and principles 
 of their fell system made their notes a legal tender, and 
 made them current by the point cf the bayonet. Well 
 might their political orators declaim against French 
 assignats and maxemum laws. Well might the British 
 assist the national assembly of France in the manufac- 
 ture of paper and export it to Britany, and their liber- 
 ality i's equally extended to our bankers by the intro- 
 duction of notes from their Canadian teritory. 
 
 IIow much better was the conduct of our bankers i.i 
 their late refusal to pay their notes ? My fellow-citi- 
 zens may determine the question. The cash which 
 ought to have been apropriated to the payment of the 
 notes of the Bank of England had been shipped to the 
 Continent to pay foreign butchers to murder French 
 
48 
 
 Citizens and destroy their republic and again enslave 
 Fuanee. The cash which ought to be apropriated to the 
 payment of the notes of our bankers is daily shiped off to 
 pay the dividends of foreign stock holders and the im- 
 mense balance ogainst us for European and India ma- 
 nufactories to the utter ruin and destruction of our own, 
 and making our citizens slaves to foreign luxuries, and 
 sapping the very foundation of our republican institu- 
 tions. 
 
 If our Legislatures were in the least acquainted with 
 the history of our country they must have known that 
 in almost every instance of the emision of paper money 
 by whatever athority; it has been a scene of iniquitous 
 fraud depriving the poor of their hard earnings; and 
 of all classes the Republican Soldier has generally been 
 the greatest sufi^erer. In the year one thousand six hun- 
 dred and ninety the then colony of Massachusetts emit- 
 ed a large sum in bills to pay the soldiers who had been 
 employed on an expedition against Canada, these bills 
 were received by them in payment for their services ; 
 the value of them sunk immediately one third, though 
 the expedition against Canada failed the paper money 
 performed the exploit of robbing the soldier and soon 
 got into better hands when the gradually appreciated 
 by being made receivable on taxes. The success of 
 this speculation induced the assembly of Massachusetts 
 to make subsequent emissions, in 171 i, and 1714, and 
 1716, amounting to about half a million of dollars for 
 defraying the expense of the war against Canada, these 
 with emitions for other purposes had greatly augmented 
 the sum and in 1 749 it had depreciated to about six 
 pence on a dollar. 
 
 South Carolina in 1702 projected and undertook an 
 expedition against St. Augustine the expedition failed 
 but a large debt was contracted, anrl paper money was 
 
49 
 
 issued to pay i<, and afterwards in 1712 they issued 
 anotber large sum to defray the expence of the war 
 against the Tuscaroras, this so augmented the sum 
 that it immediately sunk one half and ultimately to one 
 seventh. Pennsylvania in 1 722 issued paper m(»ney to 
 the amount of fifteen-thousand pounds^ ^rhich was af- 
 terward inereased to eighty thousand ; this paper by 
 act of assembly was made a legal tender, so that credi- 
 tors were obliged to take it the same as gold^nd silver : 
 notwithstanding this, it depreciated to a degree that 
 alarmed the landlords. To silence their clamor the 
 assembly made them a grant to indemnefy them, and 
 secure the full value of their cents in sterling money : 
 in fine, all the Colonies at some time or other issued 
 paper money ; it all depreciated more or less ; that 
 which was made soonest payable on taxes, depreciated 
 the least. The eifects and fate of the paper money 
 Issued by Congress in the revoliitionary war is not only 
 well known, but most severely felt by the war worn 
 soldier to the present moment.^ To paint the enormous 
 mischiefs and frauds of paper money in true colours, 
 would exceed the most exalted powers of human intel- 
 lect ; it can only be equalled by that moral depravity 
 and turpitude which has carried this paper system to its 
 present extent, and the evils that await its final close. 
 
 ai i i »»l I , ' I ■ ' ' ' ' l i I ■ Mil II I ■ «i II mmm^^^mmm 
 
 * iS*o country on earth' oVres^o ra^'ch to the services of 
 the 'soldier as the United States of America. 
 
 By no nation on earth have they been so much defrauded, 
 and in a pecuniary point of view so inhumanly treated. 
 When I retrospectively view the flinty hearted Hessian at 
 tlerman town so melted into compassion for the sufferings 
 of his conqueror, as to bestow his own shoes in charity for 
 his relief, and compare him with my vaporing representa- 
 tive in Congress opposing the claims of the revoltitionary 
 iioldicr, I blush and hang my head to think myself a man. 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 The assignats of tiance notwithstanding the national 
 assembly robbed the churcli of her vast domains to 
 support their credit, and their maximum laws. To'make 
 them pass they fell down to nothing, by the assistance 
 of the British minister who caused a great quantity of 
 them to be made and shipped over to Brittany, for the 
 use of the royal ists» 
 
 The British Canadians are constantly carrying on 
 the same trade against these states. They forge im- 
 inence quantities of paper on our different banks, they 
 with it obtain property of our citizens by fraud ; there 
 is scarcely a dealer in all our country, who cannot pro- 
 duce abundant specimens of the ingenuity of this kind 
 of banking gentry, and of, their own losses, and indeed the 
 person, whatever may be his condiiion in life, is ex- 
 tremely fortunate if he has not sustained loss hj this 
 kind of paper. There is no safety for any man, under 
 this order of things. The labour of ages is swept 
 completely away, and the real owners are left exposed 
 to seek for more, or beg their bread as many are com- 
 pelled to do. 
 
 Germany also has been seized with this same mad- 
 ness : her paper in 1809 and 1810, was worth nothing* 
 
 Had the scheme of king James which he adopted in 
 Ireland been resorted to, it would have been wise com- 
 pared with the p*rif»ej' sv^tecn^* 
 
 * Brass and copper-of the basest kind, old cannon, broken 
 bells, household utenbials were collected ; and from every 
 pound weight of such vile metals, were coined four-penny ' 
 pieces to the amount of five pounds nomenal value. What 
 a pUty our honourable and wise corporation had not made 
 use of such materials in their lute enussioas of change ; 
 some of it would undoubtedly be preserved as a record of 
 their scgacity and honesty to future generations. The 
 service of plute presented to their financier though of bet- 
 ter metal, is only one solitary evidence of their magna- 
 nimity. 
 
51 
 
 The laws of a country ought to be the standard of 
 equity, and calculated to impress on the minds of the 
 people the ntonil as well as the legal obligations of re- 
 ciprocal justice. 
 
 Money when considered as the fruiittf many years 
 Industry, as the reward of labour sweat an Aoil, as the 
 widows dower, and the orphans portion, the soldiers 
 compensation for dangers, hair-breath escapes, pinch- 
 ing cold and hunger in his country's cause, as the 
 the means of alleviating affiiction and obtiviniag neces- 
 saries, and making old age comfortable and a scene of 
 rest, has something in it sacred that ought not to he 
 spoiled with or trusted to the airy bubbles of paper 
 currency, though under the control and immediate 
 inspection of the r«lers of a state or nation, much less 
 to a set of men to manage as their int<'.rest, ambition* 
 or avarice may dictate ; wh^se character is drawn by 
 an eminent statesman in nearly the following words, 
 «* Their counting-house is their church, the desk 
 their altar, their ledge their bible, their gain their 
 God, and have faith in none without a good indorser." 
 
 But what may be said, or rather what may not be 
 said of that government which is not only continually 
 chartering companies with bank privileges, but suffer- 
 ing corporations, individuals, merchants, dram-sellers, 
 toll-gatherers, printers, and printers devils, to manu- 
 fucture their own change as their wants or convenience 
 may require. This has been the case and the country 
 inundated with the paltry trash, so that like Egypt of 
 old, " the land stank, so numerous was the fry." l^e- 
 gides the licenced and public money factories ; daily de- 
 tections prove that there are many very many private 
 ones who carry on the business in a private clandestine 
 manner to a great extent, and find means to get it into 
 circulation which cannot be a very difficult maMer, 
 
6S 
 
 since they have brought the art lo so great perfection 
 as to deceive the bankers themselves. Most surely it 
 is high time to look to these things ; but where or to 
 whom shall we look ? our legislative councils are sup- 
 posed to be dn source and guardeans of all political 
 justice, aifi mat is the fountain from which this evil 
 flows, it is here we trace the fellow home, find out his 
 birth-place and his dam. 
 
 Since it has been proved that issuing bank notes is 
 actually a public robbery, and is the cause of most of 
 the evils that torment society and humanity, and that 
 gold and silver are the only legitimate representatives 
 of property, and that they alone should be used for that 
 purpose in preference to ^all other materials, what 
 right or authority have congress, or state legislatures 
 to grant charters to banks, to pass paper instead of 
 gold and silver ? The constitution of the general go- 
 vernment forbids the creation of orders, or granting 
 titles of nobility, but it is silent on the subject of bank- 
 ing, and certainly gives no authority for granting bank 
 privileges, which in their operation and effects are as 
 abhorrent to republican or just principles, and more 
 perniceous in their effects on both the interests and 
 morals of society. An equal number of noblemen to 
 that of bankers in our country, with sinecure pensions 
 would be less expensive and far less injurious to the 
 morals of the citizens. 
 
 It is true that some of our citizens might ape nobility, 
 as our bankers and others now do; but this would only 
 expose them to the contempt of all sensible men, 
 without making them liable to the pains and penalties 
 annexed to the horrible crime of forgery of bank 
 notes. The incumbents would be confined to the sti- 
 pulated amount of income, which might probably be 
 
53 
 
 burthenseme, but by no means equal to tlie sums rob- 
 bed from the public by bankers. 
 
 The constitution as before said, is silent on the sub- 
 ject, of banks, and that for the most evident of all rea- 
 sons, because the people had no such right to delej.-ate. 
 A man may transfer his own personal right, but he can- 
 not transfer the right of society. The right to acquire 
 and hold property by virtuous industry is one of the 
 most sacred rights of man : to deprive him of this right, 
 would be to deprive him of his existence, he can only 
 part with this right in his ceasing to exist. Therefore, 
 A can have no right to deligate to B, the power to take 
 the property of C without an equivalent in exchange. 
 
 Pray what is the value of bank notes, or paper mo- 
 ney ? let the history of what has happened in our own 
 pountry, and in every other country where the 
 fraud has been practiced, answer the question. 
 From these it is evident that the least breath of 
 suspicion would render a cart-load Of them of less 
 value than a pinch of suuif. It therefore appears evi- 
 dent, that governments, general or local, have no such 
 right delegated to them, it is an assumed prerogative, 
 an act of arbitrary power, an act that tends to de- 
 stroy and dissolve the very government they have sworn 
 to maintain, it is an act that common sense, common 
 honesty, and common safety would revolt against. It 
 tends to dissolve the government and to set a drift sll 
 vhe property of the nation, like the barbarian, who by- 
 false signals decojs the mariner on the rocks, that he 
 may have an opportunity of plundering the wreck. 
 This is the case at the present moment, there is proper- 
 ty to an immense amount how ingrossed by speculators 
 and bankers, by nM?ans of bank paper amounting to 
 many millions, and is continually augmenting. Here 
 ;hen the crime is fixed, which cap be neither palliated 
 
54< 
 
 BOP denied, and to which the right of the legislatures 
 Ho not extend. The people ought therefore to hriog 
 those gentry to justice, those who proposed and those 
 who have voted those laws that went to estahlish 
 banUs, they ought to be held amenable in their proper- 
 ty and persons, for all the injury the public have or 
 may sustain by the banking system. Honour and jus- 
 tice demand that the inquiry should be made ; to delay 
 it is to encourage them in it, and to invite others to do 
 the same, until no further attention is paid to the inter- 
 ests of thf nation. There would perhaps be found 
 among some of those exclusive patriots of talents and 
 wealth, who have been in the habit of ijisulting the 
 nation with her distrf sses ; the people ought to know 
 them as the auihors of her calamities. That this as- 
 sumption of legislative power has escaped the lynx eye 
 of the judiciary is impossible, unlers they have been 
 veiled with the opake substance of bank paper, which 
 has been before hinted. 
 
 This subject must have come before them in many 
 shapes, during the many years it has been in operation. 
 It is universally ucderstood, that they were to be 
 judges of the constitutionality of those laws they were 
 called on to execute and enforce, and if they were not 
 made agreeable to that instrument, they ought not to 
 carry them into execution. This is what is generally 
 understood by the independence of the judiciary. If it 
 does not mean this, it is an expression without any 
 meaning, and if it does mean this, how do they recon- 
 cile it to their duty, to pronounce on the law against 
 forgery on the banks, and doom a fellow-man to a 
 long imprisonment at hard labour, for forgery on the 
 banks. If the laws by which banks are established 
 are not constitutional laws, they had no right to exist 
 as such : they are therefore no law, and consequently, 
 
50 
 
 tHe forgery no crime. I believe that some of the geii- 
 tlemeii of the barr have serious scruples on this point, 
 but as I httve never conversed with any of them on the 
 subject, f shall pronounce no opinion upon it, but leave 
 the subject with wiser heads to form their opinions on 
 this subject, and als6 how far the banking system have 
 influenced our judicial authorities. 
 
 There is no iFact more evident, than that the bulk of 
 mankind have been the hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water, for the use and pleasure of knaves and tyrants, 
 from the earliest ages to the present moment ; that 
 they have been imposed on since the institution cf legal 
 society, or in other words, ever since the bounds of 
 property have been established; and that it is our situ- 
 ation as much as any other nation. We labour for our 
 bankers, our landlords, and merchants, and the feudal 
 power of our landlords are very little short of thatiu 
 Hiost European countries. 
 
 But kt me not be understood by this declaration, to 
 be an enemy or an opponent to merchants and com- 
 merce. I am on the contrary friend to both, with Vf ry 
 few exceptions, and tho5e are in favour of the worthy 
 mcrchant,who has a capital of his own honourable ac- 
 quisition, or who has inherited it from his worthy ances- 
 tors,— that he may be entitled to its legitimate advan- 
 tages in exclusion of all intruders, — that he may be 
 known, regarded, and respected as. a worthy labourer 
 in the vineyard of industry, — as having done his sharo 
 of duty ill improving the moral condition of man. — He 
 is now lost and amalgamated among the w reck of 
 things ; my object is to remove as much as in my power 
 the rubbish, and bring forth the upright and honest 
 dealer before the public, as a wordiy model for the 
 present generation to imitate and for posterity to fol- 
 loi^. The nation ought to be restored to her genuine 
 
u 
 
 rights, and every individual to his own, that the worthy 
 man maj be known from the unworthy, that those who 
 labour for the good of society should be restored toi 
 their political rank in society, that they should be re- 
 stored to their just rank among their fellow-men, and 
 to all the domestic comforts that nature hath designed 
 for their general felicity, from which they are or soon 
 will be driven by the banking system, and left in the 
 back ground of human depravity, to wear out their 
 days in woe. It is high time to commence the work of 
 reform, it has been too long delayed, and the favoura- 
 We representation of our situation by great characters, 
 and the responses of their votaries are calculated to in- 
 crease our apathy, and divert our attention from the all 
 iipportant concern of reformation. The condition of 
 Lumanity requires our most active and vigorous exer^ 
 tions I to delay it longer would be dangerous. In a 
 few years more, there may be men with bayonets in 
 their hands to restrain or prevent our efforts, men that 
 will vote charter privileges to and organize robbery ; 
 will not be very likely to hesrtate to provide force ta 
 protect it. Authority that can pronounce sentence and 
 infortean unconstitutional law in one case, can with 
 as little scruple render nugatory, every law that pro- 
 tects the liberty and privileges of the citizen. 
 
 Notwithstanding the immense and almost countless 
 millions of bank money already in the market, there 
 are now before the state legislature petitions praying 
 for charters for several more Banks with capitals of 
 several millions. His Excellency the Governor ob- 
 serves in his message at the opening of the legislature 
 on the subject. « The evils arising from the disorder- 
 ed state of our currency, have been aggravated by the 
 banking opperations of individuals, and the unauthoriz- 
 ed emissions of small notes by corporations. They re- 
 
57 
 
 quire the immediate and correcting interposition of tlie 
 legislature. ** I also submit to jour serious considera- 
 tion whether the incorporation of banks where they are 
 not required by the exigencies of commerce, trade or 
 manufactories, ought to be countenanced. Such insti- 
 tutions having but few deposits of money, must rely for 
 their profits principally upon the circulation of their 
 notes and they are therefore temptied to extend it be- 
 yond their faculties, (more properly expressed) their 
 abilities. Their bills are diffused either in the shape 
 of loans or by the appointing confidential agents, to ex- 
 change them for those of other establishments. But 
 tlie former mode being conducive to profit is at first 
 generally adopted, and in the early stages of their 
 operations, discounts are liberally dispensed. This 
 produces an apparent activity in business and the indi- 
 Qations of prosperity, but it is all fictitious and decep- 
 tive, resembling the hectic heart of a consuming disease^ 
 not the genial warmth of sub«tantial health, a reaction 
 soon takes place.— Their bills are in turn collected by 
 civil institutions, or pass to the banks of great cities ; 
 and payment being required, the Only resource left 
 is to call in their debts, and exact partial or total re- 
 turns of their loans. The continual struggle between 
 conflicting establishments to collect each others notes 
 occasions constant apprehensions." He then proceeds 
 to enumerate some of the mischievous consequences, of 
 the system such as << the banishment of metallic money, 
 the loss of commercial confidence, the exhibition of 
 iictitious capital, the increase of civil prosecutions, the 
 multiplication of crimes, the injurious enhancement of 
 prices, and the dangerous extension of credit, are among 
 the mischiefs which flow from this state of things, 
 and concludes the subject by recommending a serious 
 inquiry, whether a much greater augmentation of such 
 
58 
 
 inilitutiofls, may not in course of time produce an ex- 
 plosion tbat will demoIFsh the whole system. 
 
 These observations of his Excellency most assuredly 
 merit the most profound deliberations of that body to 
 to whom they are addressed, if there are any to be 
 found among those who are advocates of the banking 
 system capable of serious reasoning on that subject. 
 Had their former deliberations been influenced by such 
 suggestions I presume very few banks would have ever 
 had an existence in our country. That merchant, 
 trader, or manufacturer who depends for support from 
 the banks will be always in the most extreme exigen- 
 cies, and will have occasion of access to more than one 
 bank, which may enable him in these exigencies to 
 borrow from one to pay the other, and thereby 
 support his credit. This, as his excellency is 
 pleased to observe, gives the appearance of activity and 
 indications of prosperity to Lis affairs also ; but the 
 same fatal malatfy or hectic is by this intercourse com- 
 iiiunicatcd to his affairs, and although extraordinary 
 industry, or a train of favourable circumstances may 
 procrastinate the period of his final destruction, yet the 
 effect is certain. Desperate adventurers may by loans 
 Irora those accommodating money manufacturers ob- 
 tain large sums, which will enable them to make a 
 dash (as they term it,) which if fortunate, may give 
 them further credit, and enable them to continue their 
 course of speculation, until they eventually involve 
 themselves and their friends in remediless ruin. To 
 such, (and there are thousands such,) I never -would 
 apply the honourable appellation of merchant, or that 
 of mercantile, to auch base robberies as the l>ankers 
 enable them to commit. A great part of the business 
 termed commercial is carried on this way, aud \yere 
 it not for those vermin, the regular and prudent mer- 
 chant would require no other aid from paper^ than that 
 
$9 
 
 in the form of bills of exchange^ and no other ought (o 
 be allowed by any government under heaven. Banks, 
 as many of them are conducted, are mere factories of 
 a commodity called bank bills, and these uiaiiufactories 
 are by far more numerous than those of any other com- 
 modity in the United States, and these bills arc not 
 only introduced into circulation by confidential agents, 
 but wlien they have found their way to our large 
 cities, %re purchased up by the same confidential agents 
 at from 6 to 30 per cent discount. 
 
 There is no useful manufactory carried on in these 
 states that can afford to pay bank interest on tlieir 
 stock, admitting they were sure of successive discounts, 
 and as they cannot be sure of this, their whole stock is 
 liable to be forced into the market and sacrificed to 
 bank rapacity and to their total ruin ; and this has been 
 uniformly the case with many of our most useful man- 
 ufactories to the incalculable injury of the -country. 
 
 There is nothing more certain, than that the com- 
 merce of every country must depend on the quantity, 
 quality and price of its productions. Make as much 
 bank money as you please, it never willjnduce foreign- 
 ers to purchase an^' more of your productions : the 
 more bank money you have the higher price you must 
 pay for the productions of the soil, and also every kind 
 of manufactured articles will come higher in the mar- 
 ket, and consequently, the profit less, and purchasers 
 will get supplied on better terms elsewhere. 
 
 In addition to what has been said on the banking sys- 
 tem, 1 here insert a succinct history of a bank in the 
 state of Itliode Island, near the line of Massachusetts, 
 taken from the democratic press. 
 
 « In the year ISOr?, a bank was established in the 
 town of Gloucester, containing ahout a dozen houses. 
 This bank i^ommonced its operations with n capital 
 
60 
 
 coukposed of two thousand shares of fifty dollars each, 
 amounting to one hundred thousand dollars. From 
 this bank, Andrew Dexter Jun. an illustrious specula- 
 tor, borrowed the small sum of eight^undr(Sd forty-five 
 thousand seven hundred and seventy one dollars in the 
 notes of that bank, for which he gave his promisary 
 notes in a new and improved form. As every revolv- 
 ing year produces novelties to excite admiration and 
 wonder, the reader should not be surprised that this 
 neplus ultra of paper accommodation was reserved for 
 the invention of this village, neither let him wonder 
 why this important discovery was not first made in 
 Boston, New- York, or Philadelphia. This little town 
 has long been miraculous for inventions. As early as 
 the year 177S-9, founderies was established in that 
 vicinity for manufacturing money. A coin was cast in 
 immense quantities in imitation of English hali-pence, 
 which obtained extensive circulation, specimens of 
 which are still to be met with in almost every state in 
 the union. But since the discovery of creating real 
 and substantial wealth by ingenious impressions on 
 slips of handsome paper, which of all others is the 
 greatest ever made by man ! the tedious and laborious 
 practice of procuring materials'and fabricating metallic 
 money is superceeded, and the most penetrating and 
 prolific inventions have been turned to that object. 
 This bank having accomplished all the purposes of its 
 establishment closed its concerns, which circumstance 
 has developed some of the secrets of such institutions, 
 and we may reasonably expect occurrences equally 
 wonderful, on the final result of many other similar 
 institutions, in places of greater consequence. 
 
 Here follows the form of a promisary note, receive^ 
 at the Gloucester bank without indorscr. 
 
61 
 
 " 1 Andrew Dexter Jun. do promise to pay to the 
 President and directors of tlie Farmer's Exchange 
 Bankj, or their order in years from 
 
 the date with interest, at two per cent per annum. It 
 being understood, however, that the said Andrew Dex- 
 ter Jun. shall not be called on to make payment, until 
 Le thinks proper, he being the principal stock^holder, 
 and best knowing when it will be proper to pay the 
 same." 
 
 For the gratification of the reader and further illus- 
 tration of the honesty of bankers, I insert the amount 
 of the respective notes witli their periods of payment. 
 
 ist. Note dated Nov. 4lh. 1808, pay- 1 
 ablejin 8 years, at two per cent interest. J "^ 
 
 2d. Dated Nov. 30th, for the sum of 32,000 
 
 3d. Dated 12th, for the sum of 6,000 
 
 4th. Dated about the same time, for 507,771 
 
 gSi5,r71 
 Making in the whole eight hundred and forty-five 
 thousand seven hundred and seventy one dollars, witli 
 which Dexter carried on a scene of speculation and 
 fraud, similar to what is continually practised by 
 others who have not yet consummated their plans. 
 Hundreds, and perhaps thousands of people deplore 
 the fatal credulity by which they were induced to con- 
 vert their property into this paper, not now wortli a 
 farthing on a thousand dollars, and which has reduced 
 them from affluence, to beggary and wretchedness. 
 
 Not being scrupulous about prices. Dexter and his 
 
 friends possessed themselves of property to an immense 
 
 amount, in the most valuable estates in New-England. 
 
 This bank ceased its operations on the 27th of Feb. 
 
 |809, with tlic sum of specie in its vault, of eighty- 
 
6S 
 
 six dollars and fii'ty cents. The legislature of Rhode- 
 Island^ appointed a committee to investigate the whole 
 ef this nefarious transaction. That committee publish- 
 ed a luminous account for the information of their 
 constituents, from which the substance of this account 
 is taken. I believe, however, that Dexter and friends 
 are left in the full enjoyment of the fruits of their 
 villaoy. 
 
 Besides the banking system, there are other establish- 
 ments equally repugnant to justice, and not only ab- 
 horrent to the principles of republican forms, but to 
 the principles of every other form of government un- 
 der heaven. 
 
 I shall here in addition to what has been said on 
 banks, notice some of them : though they are not so 
 universally inisehievous in their consequences and 
 abominable in their effects, yet they are highly repre- 
 hensible, and are further evidence of the corruption of 
 legislators, and of the little regard paid by them to 
 those laws called constitution^, which have been fram- 
 ed with so much circumspection and care by wise sa- 
 ges, to set bounds to the power of legislative authority, 
 and are sometimes called the supreme laws of the land. 
 
 Totally regardless of every restraint either of law, 
 conscience, or justice, they are at any and at all times 
 ready to promote the interested views of mercenary 
 speculatorSj or in other words, public robbers. 
 
 The establishment of turnpike companies, though 
 they have met w ith considerable opposition, they have 
 nevertheless succeeded universally, and theirT univer- 
 sality has been adduced as an argument, in favour of 
 their utility. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that a combination of mer- 
 cenary wretches, will always succeed in obtaining a 
 majority in their favour, in every case where profit of 
 
63 
 
 cent per cent is Ihe object. Thus they have induced 
 legislatures to wrest the soil of highways from the pub- 
 lic, the rightful owners, and to vest it in themselves, 
 and with it, the power to rob the traveller as he passes* 
 
 The laying out, improving highways or roads, was 
 one of the first improvements of civilized society that 
 history records, and I believe anteriour to the setting 
 up the bounds of individual property in lands ; be this 
 as it may, no one I presume will dispute its antiquity, 
 or the universality of the right, that every son of Adam 
 has in the free legitimate use of the lands thus set 
 apart, like the air we breathe, it is free for every one 
 that has lungs for respiration : so also on original prin- 
 ciples the road or highway, is as free for all the hu- 
 man species who have power to travel. The native 
 Hindoo has an equal right on tlicse principles, to occu- 
 py the roads in the United States as the native citizen^ 
 and this right is made reciprocal in every civilized 
 nation on earth. It is therefore, original, universal, 
 and unalienable. Where then in the name of righteous- 
 ness, do legislaturds obtain the right or the power of 
 vesting this property in the hands of any company of 
 speculators whatever. 
 
 This right could never be delegated by their consti- 
 tuents for it is unalienable ; it is therefore, as in the 
 case of banks, an sissumed prerogative, despotic, and 
 arbitrary. I am sensible that when legislators are 
 called on to vindicate their conduct in this, as in many 
 otlier eases, they begin to recite their precedents and 
 authorities imported from Great Britaiu and elsewhere, 
 and expatiate largely and learnedly on the utility and 
 importance of good roads, of easy communication, the 
 advantages that Lave thence resulted in Europe, &c. 
 I acknowledge the force of their reasons, and lament 
 that they arc so palpable. I know that the rights and 
 
64 
 
 liberties of EnglishmGn were once recognized and re= 
 spceted by their rulers, but they by degrees have beeii 
 wrested from them, one by one, by unprincipled and 
 infamous knaves, until they have no rights left them, 
 except that of being governed by their superiors, in a 
 despotic merciless manner, to which condition we are 
 advancing with gigantic strides. The public are al- 
 ways competent to make all such improvements as will 
 conduce to public happiness and prosperity. To en- 
 deavour to advance those improvements, faster than the 
 public ability will allow, by wresting public rights out 
 of their hands and placing them in the hands of specu- 
 lators to improve for them, is the most damnable of 
 all political herisies; and it is invariably the case, the 
 public are plundered for individual emolument. It is 
 not reasonable to expect, that when the legislature 
 have robbed the people of their interest in the soil of 
 highways, and bestowed it on a company of their fa- 
 vourites, that they will not follow their example, and 
 rob the traveller. 
 
 Men may as well attempt to annihilate the principle 
 of gravity, as to derive public good from political 
 evil, or by legislative interfluence make that right 
 which is naturally and originally wrong. If the inten- 
 tion in vesting the property of roads in the hands of 
 chartered companies was to public advantage, that in- 
 tention has been disappointed; it has succeeded as every 
 public measure eternally will, which is founded in er- 
 roneous and unjust principles. A company chartered 
 for the ostensible purpose of making good roads, and 
 for facilitating inland communication, have widely dif- 
 ferent views ; the avowed end is calculated to reconcile 
 fools, (which unhappily make a majority without, as 
 well as within,) to the measure. The real intention* end 
 and aim of thi$ turnpike gang, like bankers, is to make 
 
6$ 
 
 the most money <hey can nglit op wrong. They set ttt 
 work, make superficial repairs, provide their gates and 
 century boxes at stipulated distances, and as soon as 
 the road passes the sanction of some interested unprin- 
 cipled inspectors, they commence the plunder of the 
 way worn traveller. He is frequently unreasonably de- 
 tained, often insulted and abused, and nine times out of 
 ten pays for making the road worse instead of better. 
 Thousands who wer^ compelled to make long journiea 
 by land during the late war, will attest to the truth of 
 this statement. It is not denied, but that there may be 
 cases in which the local circumstances may be such, as 
 to render it expedient for government to take a road 
 or highway under their immediate guardianship aud con- 
 trol, and circumstances may also render it just to de- 
 mand a contribution from the traveller ; but these cases 
 are extremely rare, and when they do liappen. a con- 
 scientious regard should be had to the rights of the peo- 
 ple, and as soon as necessary improvements ate made^ 
 such interference should immediately cease, and the 
 rights of the people be restored. 
 
 The only legitimate object of all political institutions, 
 is the advantage of the individuiils who are to beimmed- 
 iately or remotely effected by them. All thatcannot be 
 made to centre in this national wealth, prosperity and 
 glory, can be advantagious only to those self-interestied 
 impostors, who from the earliest account of time, have 
 blinded, duped, and confounded the understandings of 
 their fellow-men. the more easily to sink them into de- 
 basement and misery. 
 
 The desire to extend national improvements beyond 
 what the gcnious, inclination and circumstances of the 
 people will justify, is founded in error and prejudice : 
 neither power or knowledge are happiness, nor ean they 
 lontributc any thing towards producing it. unless they 
 
 "^^ 
 
66 
 
 are aceotnpaiiird >vith strict morality and virtue. £veti 
 the desire to promote the acqui!^itioJl and dissemination 
 of science, may become inordinate, and measures may 
 be adopted to effect that 47nrpose3 totally incompatible 
 Avitb justice, virtue, or sound policy, and vvhitJi wi!l 
 uhimalely lend to oppress one part of the community. 
 'i'he poof man of merit may be, by poliiieal establish- 
 ment, thrown into the buck ground, and tlie most use- 
 ful talents and worth, lost to society, while the gradua- 
 ted dunce is basking in the sunshine of public patron- 
 age and fiivour. It becomes us to desire that all men 
 may be made wise, and it becomes us at the same time 
 to desire that every political effort should be founded 
 on such principles of equality, that every member of 
 the political family might participate in the favour. 
 Not that one part should be instructed, by hazarding 
 the morality, happiness, and consequent, well being of 
 the rest. 
 
 This leftds me to make some observations on lotte- 
 <ries. They have generally been granted avowedly by 
 legislatures, to obtain pecuniary aid for the promotion 
 of some particular object, in wHich the interest of the 
 community is materially concerned, the expense of 
 which it seems is considered to be beyond the ability of 
 the public to pay by fair and equal taxation. Govern- 
 ment therefore, to avoid the abhorrent term taxation, 
 iristitute a gamblin*; system, in which they are sure to 
 win the required sum, by indirectly bartering the vir- 
 tue and morality of the people at large, for the promo- 
 tion of objects local in effect and partial in operation. 
 There are now lotteries in opperation for the promotion 
 of medical science, opening roads. &c. I mean not to 
 descend to all the minutia of this scene of legal gam- 
 bling, but will marks its gener»l character and effects. 
 It seems then that government Ibr the purpose of rais- 
 
67 
 
 lug some few thousands of dollars for the promotion of 
 a favourite object, institute this game, apjjoint the 
 managers to conduct it on their behalf, and challenge 
 the public at large to engage in the play : but too im- 
 patient to wait the tardy movement of the public, they 
 offer terms to soine dashing speculators, %o throw for 
 the whole at once, and take the lot. These neyr^ pro- 
 prietors, then divide and subdivide from halves to, six- 
 teenths. The original terms are altered and new ar- 
 rangements made, and the original plan so improved, 
 as to form a variety of games in such a manner, as to 
 suit all ranks, characters, and conditions, from the 
 chancellor to the chimney sweep ; from ten dollars to 
 •five cents ; and at every corner, in every street of city, 
 town and village through the land, the eye is met 
 with a lay- bill, Lottery mid Exchange Office, inviting 
 people to call and play, and (he call is but too effec- 
 tual, for we see them thronged with rich and poor. 
 Mack and white, bond and free, father and son. mo- 
 ther and daughter, ^\l engage with avidity in this ne- 
 farious gambling, all play and all loose, and the few 
 who may chance to win are the most unfortunate. 
 Thus by dexterous management, government wins fif- 
 teen per cent, and the other players, her deputies, 
 eighty- five, and the whole country becomes a scene of 
 gambling. Millions are sported away, and thousands 
 of the citizens from this source, contract a habit of 
 gamjbling and all its concomitant vices, that continue 
 through life. Many who eitgage with timidity at first, 
 l>y his own or his neighbours good luck grows bold, 
 ventures larger, until at length he ventures all and 
 loses all. The time and money squandered in this abo- 
 minable manner since the Medical Science lotteries 
 have been in operation, has been more than double to 
 the amount gained by government, so that the fact po- 
 
68 
 
 .'iitirely is, that instead of promoting medicgil science it 
 ba/» absolutely oromoted a science of gambling, fraud 
 and iniquity, by three times the amount. Thus govern- 
 ment Ja their iaudible zeal for the promotion of a par- 
 ticur^r sRJenee, are patronising and teaching by prac- 
 tice li' science or art, ten thousand times wor«e in its 
 moral ejects, than all the bodily maladies incident to 
 man. 
 
 « Whither by fates decree or natures curse, 
 
 The human race degenerate still to worse ; 
 
 So the boats brawny crew the current stem, 
 
 And slow advancing, struggle with the stream ; "" 
 
 But if they slack their hands or cease to strive. 
 
 Then down the flood with headlong haste they drive.'^ 
 
 Admiting the assertions of > the poet to be .correct, 
 and they are corroborated by high ecclesiastical autho- 
 rity, it most assuredly behovci those who pilot the po- 
 litical bark, to encourage the hearts and strengthen the 
 hands of all orders of subjects, to strive against the 
 torrent of immorality, which threatens a total inunda- 
 tion. 
 
 It is alledged that there are laws with severe penal- 
 ties against vending policies or insuring on the numbers 
 of tickets ; that our pious legislature have taken all 
 possible precaution to prevent this as well as all other 
 vicious and immoral practices. This is just like a profli- 
 gate father correcting his son for throwing the die while 
 he holds the stakes and shares the winings. It has been 
 before observed, that what is originally wrong never 
 can be by legislative or any other authority made inno- 
 cent and right ; and legislatures by the inconsistency 
 of their conduct and by the appointment of men to of- 
 fices totally disqualified by ignorance and vice to fill 
 |hem> hare brought all laws however salutary into dis- 
 
(j9 
 
 t espccl, ami authoi-ilv into merited contempt. Laws 
 necessary and salutary arc trampled on with impunity; 
 and that authority which ought to enforce, ai*e fre- 
 quently among those who infringe them. If the foun- 
 tain is corrupt, it isimpossihle that pure streams should 
 flow from it. But good sometimes arises oui of evil. 
 The manure of the agricuituialist stinks, but is of 
 use ; with it he feeds \m hungary acres, it fertilizes 
 his fields ; and hence the labourers hope. From this 
 iniquitous scene great crops are expected to grow. Two 
 hundred learned sons of Escislnplus, rising like vermin 
 from putrefaction, are the annual antj«*ipa1ed harvest. 
 A formidable auxiliary, sure to those already armed 
 with pill and bolus, Lapes Infcrni, Syringe, knife and 
 saw, to attack the effects of luxury and vice. Tkti can 
 they amputate idle vicious habits, purge out crimes> 
 and by theip emetics cotnpel the body politic to dis- 
 gorge its corruptions ? If so united widi the humble, 
 harmless teachers of religion and morality, these mis- 
 sionaries of science may do much, and the torrent of 
 ihoral evil may meet a check. The acquisition of 
 science is the developement of truth. Truth needs no 
 auxiliary nor requires any ornament, nor yet any aid 
 from political institutions. It requires nothing more 
 from government than to be left to recommend herself 
 by her native intrinsic excellence, and her votaries at 
 full liberty to pursue. Every interference of legisla- 
 tive authority is puerile, impotent and worse than vain. 
 It is the same as establishing by law, one orthodox sect 
 for the promotion of a true system of religion. In every 
 republic, where virtue and rectitude are the ruling 
 principles, and on which their laws are founded, the 
 advancement of science will keep pace with every other 
 interest, and it would be absurd to push it faster. In 
 ai! uncorrupted republic where merit is rcwarded,^or 
 
70 
 
 vather where. merit is considered requisite in a public 
 eharae<er, there are sufhcient indueenients to prompt 
 men to the acquisition of science : and indeed there is 
 apossibility of its out running itself. This has absolutely 
 been the case in some of (he eastern states, science has 
 been a staple commodity ,• and indeed it has become what 
 merchants term a drug in the market, and would have 
 been still worse : it would have hung as a dead weight 
 oa society, were it not for the ignorance and stupidity 
 of their western neighbours. 
 
 In framing laws for the promotion of any particular 
 object, the strictest regard should be paid, not only to 
 all the provisions of such laws, but to every poisibic 
 circumstance bearing tendency and effect, either prox- 
 imate or remote. Viewing it thus, if it appears that 
 though the immediate elFeets will bft salutary and de- 
 sirable, yet the remote consequences will be probably 
 pernicious and dangerous to the morality, and conse- 
 quently, to the happiness of society, which will require 
 the energetical interference of other laws. No object, 
 however important and desirable, can justify theii* 
 adoption. The law authorizing lotteries, is a most 
 palpable case in point. The mischievous effects of this 
 law, has been experienced to that degiee, that legisla* 
 tures have been induced to enact laws with uncommon- 
 jy severe penalties, to restrain excesses to which this law 
 has given birth : yet notwithstanding the unusual se- 
 verity of the penalties of these restraining laws, in open 
 day, in the face of authority, in the most public man- 
 ner, a scene of gambling is carried on, disgraceful to 
 any society calling itself civilized, mueh more christian- 
 ized. And yet legislatures so far from removing the 
 cause, they tell us with great self complaisance and 
 approbation, that much greater sums may be raised 
 by lotteries to augment the revenue. We may there^ 
 
n 
 
 fore expect to hear of an office being established for 
 the purpose of granting licences to policy offices. And 
 since this vice cannot be restrained by law, it will be 
 consistent with modern politics to make it prt^table. 
 It is the duty of a patriotic government, to have its 
 attention forever alive to the sentiments, manners, and 
 habits of the people, to encourage such as are favoura- 
 ble to virtue, and to check in (he bud, such as may lead 
 to disorder, vice, and corruption. But how does their 
 conduct correspond with this maxim ? Government 
 plays the part of an unnatural stepmother, not that of 
 an effectionate parent, when she contents herself by 
 vigorous punishments to revenge the commission of a 
 crime, of which she has herself set the example and 
 hung out a lure ; instead of imbuing the mind with 
 those principles of virtue, which would have rendered 
 punishment unnecessary. Nothing can be more un- 
 questionable, than that the manners and opinions of 
 mankind are of the utmost consequence to the general 
 welfare of society, for manners are nothing more than 
 opinions carried out into action, and such as the foun- 
 tain is, such will be the streams that proceed from it. 
 In truth, the whole system oT restraining laws under 
 these circumstances is a per{)etual struggle against 
 the laws of nature and necessity. The minds of the peo- 
 ple will in all instances be swayed by their own views 
 and propensities : no project can be more absurd, than 
 that of reversing those propensities by the interposition 
 of law. He that sjiould command a conflagatiou to 
 cease, or a tempest to be still, would not display more 
 ignorance of the system of the universe, than he, who 
 with a code of penal laws, expects to restore a corrupt- 
 ed and vicious people, to temperance and virtue. The 
 character of a state or nation, is not thus to be altered, 
 when they are once debauched by the foul example of 
 
^2 
 
 goTernment ; they never can be recovered to purlt y^ 
 Laws are an empty name when emenatiug from an \m- 
 pure source to operate upon a corrupted people. 
 
 All that is to be asked on the part of government in 
 behalf of morality, virtue and science, is a clear stage 
 upon which they may exert their own energies, to ab- 
 stain from holding out incentives to vice, to lay some 
 restraint on the violent disturbers of the peace of soci- 
 ety, that their principles may go on undisturbed to their 
 natural conclusion. There never was an instance where 
 error unaided by power, ever triumphed over virtue 
 and truth. Who would be guilty of the absurdity to 
 believe that with equal arras, truth and virtue can ever 
 be defeated. 
 
 It has been shown that it cannot be the duty of le- 
 gislatures to do any thing detrimental to general hap- 
 piness, and it appears with equal evidence that they 
 have no right to do so. There cannot be a more ab- 
 surd proposition than that which affirms the right of 
 doing wrong. A mistake of this sort has been attend- 
 ed with the m?,st pernicious consequences in public and 
 political assemblies. It cannot be too strongly incul- 
 cated, that legislatures are in no case empowered to es- 
 tablish absurdity and injustice ; that though the people 
 passively submit or assent to it, their submission or 
 cbnsent is not, as has been rediculously asserted, the 
 voice of truth or the voice of God, nor can universal 
 consent convert wrong into right. 
 
 After duly considering the nature and tendency of 
 those laws which go to establish hanking companies, 
 turnpike companies, and lotteries, the reader cannot 
 be surprised at ihe universal complaint of hard times, 
 nor be at a loss respecting the causes that produce them. 
 Hard times is a hackneyed saying, on that aceouat it 
 excites but little attention or interest, because it is 
 
7S 
 
 familiar to ail. It as old and as universal as the esta- 
 blishment of political government, which was its birth- 
 place and its dam ; and it is deplorably true, that it had 
 Its origin in the derelection of honest principles, by po- 
 litical hypocrites of the old world, whose example is 
 strictly copyed by the political apostates of the new. 
 Though the expression might have been in vogue from* 
 the first settlement of this country, it could have had 
 no signification here, after the concomitant dif- 
 ficulties incidental and unavoidable in the settle- 
 ment of a new world were surmotmted ; not until the 
 fell monsters, ambition and avarice, reared their accurs^ 
 heads, obtained the seat, and corrupted the source of 
 law, order and justice, and trampled with contempt up- 
 on the rights of the people. If the expression was 
 used at all, it was founded on nothing more, than the im- 
 agination of the complainant, and the power rested with 
 iiimself to remove the cause. The prudent industrious 
 man was sure of a competency (though poor,) from the 
 fruits of his labour. The impotent were comparitively 
 few, and pauperism only historically known. The scene 
 is changed, hard times do absolutely exist, and some of 
 the immediate causes have been developed. 
 
 Let us pursue the inquiry a little farther, aind see if 
 there areuot causes more remote, which have originated 
 with ourselves, and which have contributed to product" 
 the effects of which we complain. Self-examination is 
 salutary, just and necessary, especially in those who 
 censure the conduct of others. Have we not suffered 
 ourselves to be deceived by political demagogues and 
 impostors, into this fatal thraldom, which without our 
 timely and vigorous exertions, will terminate in the to- 
 tal destruction of our invaluable republican institutions? 
 Not that we have been careless and remiss, but that wc 
 
74 
 
 have been guilty of a prostitution of the exercise of our 
 political franchise, which has operated as a cause 
 of the calamities which now beset, and which are fast 
 maturing to overwhelm hs. I mean the mode pursued 
 by us for the appointment of men, to whom by our suf- 
 ferages we delegate the powers of legeslation. Is it 
 not the case, that we suffer restless, weak and worth- 
 less partisans, to inflame our minds, and induce us to 
 form ourselves into political associations, the obvious 
 tendency of which, is to make a part stand for the whole. 
 A number of us sometimes more, and sometimes less, 
 combine together. Our intention is sometimes avow- 
 ed, but it is always with an intention or view to give to 
 our opinions weight and operation, which the opinion of 
 unconnected individuals cannot possess. A greater 
 number, some from the urgency of their private affairs, 
 some from a temper averse to concourse and confusion, 
 and others from a conscientious disapprobation of the 
 measures pursued, withhold them selves from «uch com- 
 binations. The acrimonious, the intemperate, and the 
 artful, will generally if not always, be found among the 
 most forward in matters of this kind. The prudent, 
 the sober, the sceptical, and contemplative, jthose who 
 have no resentments to indulge or gratify, and no sel- 
 fish motive to promote, will keep aloof, or will be ovep- 
 liorn and lost in this chaos. What justification can be 
 set up, for a few persons, who thus, from mere impe- 
 tuosity of temper occupy a post, the very nature and 
 principles of w^iicb, aiti to pass themselves for some- 
 thing greater and of mm'e importance than they are ? 
 Are we likely to promote our most important concerns 
 by trusting them in such hands ? Can we, or have we 
 any reason to expect any thing but strife, peculation 
 and corruption of tlie blackest sort, as the fruits of 
 
75 
 
 such combinations. Add to this, that associations for the 
 promotion of one particular set of political tenets, has 
 given birth to a counter association in favour of another. 
 Thus we have involved ourselves in annual mischief, 
 confusion and uproar, at our elections, which is a dis- 
 grace to humanity, and which savages would shrinlt 
 from with laudible disgust. 
 
 Folitieal improvement never can he effected or pro- 
 moted but through the medium of the discovery of po- 
 litical truth, but truth never will be investigated where 
 violence passion and weakness take the lead ; to whatever 
 property of the human mind, or accident affecting it, we 
 are to ascribe the phenomenon, certain it is, that truth 
 doth not lie on the surface ; it is laborious and patient stu- 
 dy and reflection that leads to its discovery .If therefore 
 we are desireousto liberate ourselvesor our neighbours 
 from the influence of prejudice, we should suffer nothing 
 but dispassionate argument to bear sway in the discussion. 
 
 The writings, tenets and arguments which offer them- 
 selves to public attention, should rest upon their own 
 merits. No patronage, no recommendations^ np *ist of 
 venerable names of committee men to bribe our appro- 
 bation and sufferage, no importunity to bestow on them 
 pur consideration, and to receive them with favor. These 
 are however, small matters. It is much worse than this 
 when the press is taken under the patronage of these 
 political associations. The publications are far more 
 pernicious. They ^re then perused, not to see whether 
 what they contain be false or true, but that we may 
 learn from them, how we are to think upon the sub- 
 jects in which the leaders of our party wish to instruct 
 us. Thus by our political societies^ political sects are 
 generated upon grounds not less irrational, than the 
 superstitions which once induced men to worship bull?, 
 
76 
 
 cats, and onions. If we wish to ariive at politicai 
 truth we must inquire and think for ourselves. If a 
 hundred men spontaneously engage the whole energy 
 of their faculties on tlie solution of a particular given 
 question, the chance will be greater for success than if 
 only ^\e were engaged upon it, for the same reason the 
 chance will also be increased, in proportion as the in- 
 tellectual operations of these men are individual, and 
 their conclusions are suggested by the reason of the 
 thing under consideration, uninfluenced by any force, 
 either by compulsion or sympathy. But in political 
 associations, each of our objects are to indentify our 
 creed with that of our party. We learn the shiboleth 
 of our sect, and we dare not leave our minds at large 
 in the field of inquiry, lest we should arrive at some ten- 
 net distasteful to our party.. We have no inducement, 
 no temptation to inquire. Party has a more powerful 
 tendency, than perhaps any other circumstance in hu- 
 man affairs, to render the mind quiessant, ignorant and 
 stationary. Instead of making each man an individual, 
 ivhich the good of the whole requires, it resolves all un- 
 derstandings into one common niass, and subtracts from 
 each, all the varieties which could distinguish man 
 from a bruit machine. Having learned the* creed of 
 our party, we have no longer any need of, or employ- 
 ment for those faculties which might lead to a detec- 
 tion of its errors. We have arrived in our minds and 
 opinions at the last page of the volume of truth, and all 
 that remains, is by some means to effect the adoption of 
 our sentiments as the standard of truth, to the whole 
 or a majority of the community. A necessary attend- 
 ant on these political associations, is harangue and de- 
 damation. A majority look to these harangues, as the 
 school in which they are to study, in order to become 
 
ihe reservoirs of practical truth to the rest of mankind. 
 Harangues and deciamation lead to passion and not to 
 knowledge. The memory of the hearer is crowded 
 with pompous nothings, with images not arguments. 
 He is never permitted to he soher enough to w«igh the 
 subject with an unshaken hand. Truth dwells with 
 contemplation. When hope and fear triumph, and re- 
 sentment is perpetually afloat, the faculties of reason 
 and investigation are compelled to quit the field. 
 
 What then have we reason to expect from our repre- 
 sentation when they are formed from the most promi- 
 nent characters in those comhinations of ignorance and 
 corruption ? If we reflect on and examine maturely the 
 conduct of the majority of our legislature in their last 
 session we must be convinced of the propriety of the 
 forgoing observations, and and also feel a conviction of 
 our own errors, in placing confidence in men totally un- 
 worthy of it. Compare the apparent zeal with which 
 they set about correcting the evils resulting from bank 
 institutions, and the disordered state of our currency, 
 Vrith the final result of their proceedings thereon and 
 form your own conclusions. The only remedy for the 
 enormeties heretofore partially and imperfectly describ- 
 ed is alone to be found in the virtue and unanimity of 
 the great bbdy of the people, as has been before hinted. 
 On a due exercise of their constitutional powers and 
 rights (while they are allowed to retain them,) rests the 
 the fate of our invaluable republican institutions. We 
 must if we wish for reformation, turn our attention to 
 men of totally different characters from those who have 
 hitherto enjoyed our preference, to men belonging to 
 110 political faction, to men of immoveable patriotism, 
 to men whose liberal and comprehensive minds are ca- 
 pable of viewing, weighing, and equally balancing the 
 
C8 
 
 interests, of the whole political family, who will strive 
 to suppress all yice and immorality, and as far as the 
 nature of human affairs will permit, to remove every 
 incentive to it, and who never will consent to sacrifice 
 the interest of ninety-nine parts, to the interested views 
 of the hundreth, hy making them tributary to that end ; 
 neither consent, directly to barter the morals of the 
 people to promote the splendour of empiricism,^* lega- 
 lize ignorance, or make stupidity pass for native worth 
 and scientific excellence, nor authorize monopoly and 
 robbery. 
 
 SEVENTY-SIX. 
 
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 phraseology, are informed that this work is not designed to 
 enlighten the wise or instruct the learned. 
 
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