The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1779-07-03 00:00:00, page 1

For the PENNSYLVANIA PACKET.
Mr. DUNLA P,
I recoiled to have read sometime ago a Speech in the
Packet which ought to be spoken in Congress, upon the
fubjed of the Continental money—l beg you would give
the following Speech which ought to be spoken to the
Congress upon the fame fubjed a place in your ufeful pa
per, and you will oblige Yours,
June i. 7. LEONIDAS.
Gentlemen,
IMPRESSED with a sense of that dignity which you
derive from the nature of your power over this Coun
try, I should feel myfelf overcome with the fight of my
audience, did I not confider myfelf at the fame time as one
of the people from whom you derive your authority. Let
the fubjeds of monarchs tremble at the feet of t eir fove
reigns—lt is the glory of the citizens of America to ap-.
proach their rulers with very different emotions. We
confider government as instituted only for our happiness.
We therefore invert the fyflems of government which are
now eflablifhed in Europe, and instead of addressing you
as maflers, I presume in the namepf all the honest Whigs
in America to address you as the servants of the public
upon a fubjed of the utmost importance to the fafety and
liberties of this country.
I perceive, by your late publication, that you are no
strangers to the low value of your money. But why have
you delayed so long to complain of this evil to your con
stituents ? Why has the disease been fuffered to run oa to
its last Rage before you raised the cry of danger in the
ears of your country ? It is in vain to blame the arts of
your enemies, or the infamous practices of monopolizers
and foreftallers. The present depreciated Rate of your
money, must be traced only to the mistakes of the Congress.
It is true, a'ter you had emitted a certain sum, you in
stituted Loan-Offices to borrow money upon the Credit of
the United States. But could you expert while the press
was kept labouring night and day, that any number of
men would lend you money, when by realizing it in the
most trifling article of merchandize they might in a few
months double their nominal sum? Had you flopped the
press, and at the fame time called upori your constituents
for loans, I have no doubt but with ceconomy you might
have carried on the war to the present day with not more
than thirty millions of dollars in circulation.
But I haftea to point out to you those defers in your
management of the affairs of this country, which have had
the principal effe& in depreciating your money.
I. You have committed the expenditure of your money
to too many hands. Had you made the principals of
each of the Staff Departments alone responsible for the ex-'
penditure es public money, you might have saved millions
to the Continent ; but by trusting every Deputy of the
Departments, you have multiplied the temptations and
opportunities of peculation in proportion to the number
of Deputies in each of them.
2. You have been too negligent in the choice of the of
ficers to whom you have committed the treasure of your
country. You have aHed as if you thought there was ho
connexion between private and public virtue. How ma
ny of your officers have been called from billiard tables
and taverns to execute the most important commissions
under yoa ! These are theorem who have reduced the va
lue of your money. How could you expert the public to
esteem it when they saw it entrusted to such hands?
3. You have neglected to call for a frequent settlement
of the accounts of officers in the Staff Department. Hence
have arisen leisure and opportunities for embezzlement
and fraud. This negligenc(has not only encreafed the"
quantity of money, but has been the means of continuing
men in office who, if a speedy and ftriff scrutiny had been
made into their accompts, would long ago have been dis- 1
miffed from the service of their country.
4. What shall I fay of the commissions you have allotvN
ed to the Quarter-Matters and Commissaries with all their
hosts of Deputies? It was a bounty offered by Congress
to ruin the money. Read th%urnals of your House for
April, May and June, 1774, They contain little tlfe
than grants of millions of dollars to your Quarter-Mas
ters and Commissaries. lam far from impeaching every
maa who handles public money; but look into every
County of this an^ the neighbouring States, and fee the
change in the mariners of most of the Deputies in the Staff
Departments.—Come with me to a vendue. Th% man
of ancient patrimonial estate is outbid for every thing by'
an Affi Rant -Deputy-Quarter- M^fter's Clerk. See! him'
lay down bis —l retraft the word— your ten thousands Lor
a farm. There is no end to his purchases. And u.lefs
you put a stop to the amazing perquisites of your Staff
Officers, I exped in a few years to fee the Delegates of
Congress the tenants of their own Quarter Matters and
Commiffiries. When this shall happen, I hope you will
be taught frugality, and find some, of your present officers,
as hard masters as they were unfaithful fervauts, as a just
punishment upon you for the temptations and opportuni
ties you threw in their way of acquiring fortunes at the
sixpence ®f their country.
$. You have injured your mopey by neglecting too long
S A TURDA ^ ', J V£¥ 3 , so
THE
° R THE
GENERAL ADVERTISER
[ Price 2S. 6d. single, 2s. by the quantity.
to recommend taxation to the States, and by substituting
in the room of it the palliative remedy of laws for re t ul t
in ^ the prices of goods. These laws must ever be partial and
temporary in their operation. They moreover defeat them
folves by relaxing the fpfings of enterprize and mdufiry.
You might as well attempt to prevent the rising of the tide
of yonder Delaware, by a resolution of Congress, as to
prevent the depreciation of your money by laws, for re u r
lating the prices of goods. If these laws were capable of
execution, thVy would prove infiantly fatal to the two pil
lars of ouroppofition, agriculture and commerce.
I shall fay nothing ot the resolution of January zd, for
calling the emissions of May 20, 177 , and April 1 1, 1778,
out of circulation. Thejeeiings of your condiments rebel
led at firft fight against the measure of finking forty mil
lions of dollars dead in their hands at one blow. It is too
well known that your money has languished ever since be
neath the weight of this ill judged resolution. Likea girl,
whose character has been iufpeaed, it comes forward %ith
diffidence into company, and in some placesowes it,good
reception in the world more to the bullying of its cullies,
than to a conviction of its intrinsic merit.
Having pointed out the causes of the depreciation of y°ur
money, I go on to fliew the evils it has producedin this
country.—And here, had I a thoufmd tongues, they
would not be fufficient to exhaust the fubje&. It is the
Lureof ail the monopolizing and foreflailing on the Con -
tinent. Speculation in every class and proieffisn of people
is the natural offspring of the progressive depreciation of
your money. The extravagance and luxury of the times
are oesafioned by nothing but the low value whi.h is set
upon your money. By y®ur feeble attempts to support it,
you have established iniquity and unrighteoufuefs by law.
See ! yonder poor widow surrounded with a family <f
children : mark her diftraded countenance ! her orphans
are crying for bread, and she has none to give them. Sie
has spent the last dollar oi a handtome principal which file
was compelled to receive at the rate of one fhilllhg in the
pound. Indeed, Gentlemen, you have taught usto repent
of our frugality, and to lament over the "remains of our
integrity as the only obfiacles that have laid in rhe way of
our interest and happiness In a word, the laws of God,
and the ties of confanguinity,— even a saint's religion,—a
feldier's honor,—and a brother's friendfhip are hardly fui
ficient to protect us from fraud in all @ur contracts with
Continental money.
Where are the men who filled these feats in the year
1774.? Where is the spirit or the illuftricus Randolph
who presided over your counsels in the beginning of the
controversy ? Happy foul ! in being taken away before
thou waft obliged to witness the degeneracy of thy coun
trymen. Oh! (if a visit to thy once beloved country will
4 not m<rr thy present happiness) defeend and inspire every
• Member of this House with thy zeal for the honor of our
cause ^-thy' industry and punctuality in bufimefi—thy
candor and magnanimity in debates- -thy perfect freedom
from party and colonial attachments, and with all thy
other riational virtues, which have placed thee upon an e
quality with the firft charters of antiquity, and which
will transmit thy name with theirs to the latest posterity!
Income now to mention those things which alone can re
fiore tile credit of your money, and secure to you the esteem
and confidence of your countrymen.
1. Let it be your firft care to do juflice to the widow and
orphan. You acknowledge the depreciation of your mo
ney every time you affint to a report from your. Treasury
Board, and yet you fuffer resolutions to remain unrepealed
which recommend laws to be enaCted for making it p.fs for
equal nominal sums in bonds and debts at the old valuation
of money. For Heaven's fake let not our most righteous
cause be any longer tarnished with such blocking injustice.
I am not disposed so pry too much into the secrets of the
I divine government of our country, but I will r isk the charge
foof fuperftitiun in asserting, that I believe the injustice
) which has been committed under the (antlion of law, to
the helpless members of our community, is one of the prin
cipal reasons why the Supreme Being has so long kept back
from us the blessings of peace, and why he has made this
summer so big with all the 4!lara ties of war.
2. As the quantity of four money is the source of its
depreciation, let me conjufe you immediately to stop your
presses. Every dollar you emit after the present day is
replete with poison to the liberties and virtue of our coun
try. The firft hand that touches it proves the falfliood of
its denomination. You have not a moment to iofe in do
ing this most necessary business. I Ihall pause while you
dispatch a messenger to your printing-offices to put a ftoo
to the manufactory of dollars. The news of this measure
will be more welcome to your constituents than the news
of an hundred new alliances without it. I have no doubt
but that it will immediately raise the value of your money
4 or 500 per cent.
1 fP en Loan Offices in every county, and in every
diftrid of every State in the Union. Let men be em
ployed to persuade the citizens of America to deposit their
money in your funds. And as an encouragement tolend
ers, give 8 per cent, to every man who lends you above
20,000 pounds, and 7 per cent, to every man who lends
above 10,000 pounds. Be assured there will be real ceca-
Publi^ed every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ]
4 Instantly negotiate a foreign loan. lam no firm
er to the offer of money that has been made to you by ore
of the ^edthieft nations in Europe. To contend about the
manner of applying it, or about the persons the most fuit
acle to be lent for it, is as absurd as if a man Ihould employ
^n hour or two in ^ifpuring with a croud about the most
suitable kind of water to put out a fire that was confuting
his dwelling house. Should you, draw bills upon your
qommiffi^rs to the amount of fix milliousofSpanifh dol
lars, you blight immediately reduce the debt to a moder
ate compass, and by reducing the quantity of money in
cir ulation, prevent a great deal of that mifehief which a
mes from the great disproportion between the quantity of
money now and formerly among us. If your foreign loan
could oe converted into such goods as would suit the Ame
rican market, and imported under a fafe convoy, the,
might be fold to a great advantage, and rhe money arifinS
from the files might be lodged in your Treasury, or com,
mitten tq <..e flares, according to the success you met
with iq your d >meftie loans.
5 . Ifthefe hints areduly improved, taxation will become
A ufeful remedy m ppreciating your money. But with
out flopping the press, and without loans upon other prin
ciples turn those already eftablimed, taxation will frve
on yto fink the value of your money. The farmer and
l .ndholder will immediately put the tax you demand from
t..em upon them produce and lands. But
6. Nothing will do without a total change in the ftaff
departments. Quick as the thunder follows the lightning,
let reformation follow abuses; and punishment the crimes
of your delinquent officers. Let it.never be said that a
single defaulter of public money found a Patron or Advo
cate within these walls I believe your hands are perfectly
clean. Nay, I will go further and add that your facrinces
of private interest and dom< ftic happiness ir, title you to the
highest praise of your country, but if we were to jud^ of
your characters by your conduct towards some public'cul-.
prits, who have been charged with the groffe.fi frauds, we
should have reason to fufpeti that you were paid for your
lenity, by drawing a flmre with them in the plunder of
your country.
Hark the roaring of cannon ! —joyful found I They
proclaim the fafe arrival of a fleet loaded with European
and Weft-Indii goods The navy of Britain tha # once
spread terror arid deflation along your coafis, beheld
their triumphant entry into our bay, without daring to
oppose them. Cast your eyes cm of yonder windows.
See ! our harbour crouded with Flipping, many of which
have just been taken from oar enemies.— Read our news
papers, and behold the triumphs of our great ally in the
Channel of England. The navy of France rifts superior
to the once irrefi flable navy of Britain. In a word, every
thing from without wears a most flattering afpeH.' Our
independence is as firmly established zs the mountains of
Alleghany, and our situation gives us a right to demand
an honorable peace. But, alas! what a^i these things.
Your money—your money will render independence' a
misfortune, and peace a curse to this country. Liberty
Liberty, thou once adored, but now neglected objed of
our wihes!—Liberty, I fay, can only be maintained by
virtue. We fought for independence only became we
thoughtthe liberties of America could never be fafe or
perpetual in a re-union with Great -Brita in. independence
therefore is not the end of the present ftrugde; it is only
one of the means of eftablithing our liberties ; and even
peace itfelf is not the objed of the present war. It is Li
berty. And ^u might as well think of preserving
animal life ina burning volcano, as to think of preserving
liberty in the focitty or neighbourhood of your money.
I have fears within me that I am almost afraid to utter^
None of you can be unacquainted with the di pravity @f
morals and manners that preceded the overthrow of the
Commonwealth of Rome. The euefts of universal vice
are the fame, whether produced by plentiful emissions of
money, or by the artful designs of a Marius or Sylla.
Are you sure we have no Caesars nor Cromwells in this
country ? Are four new governments equal to all the ex
igencies of the States? Have not the Committees now es
tablishing among us arisen from the mifehiefs that have
been introduced by the quantity of your money ? What is
their tendency ? Do they not lead to the necessity of more
arbitrary governments than by fixed laws and c in ftitutions?
But I must quit this fubjed. Let your own knowledge in
history aid of human nature supply the rest.
Rouse then, Gentlemen, to a fe-ufe of the danger of these
infant States that are committed to your care. Let us
read f&nething more than " Yeas" and “ Nays," and.
questions for re< ommitting and postponing business in your
Journals. Your money—your money—demands every
thought, and every hour. You have more to dread from
this quarter than you have from all the Britons,
Hessians, New Levies, Refugees, 'lndians and Negroes
that are now in arms against you- I conjure you. there
fore, immediately to bind yourselves to each other by an
oath, not to cat, drink or Keep till you have arrested your
money in its progress towards deftrudion, and fixed ifi
upon a permanent foundation.
homy in this measure, and your constituents will thank
you for it.