The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1786-02-13 00:00:00, page 2

carriage, receive it voluntarily without the compulsi
on of a tender; but if paper be not as valuable as
coin, people ought not to be compelled* by tenders to
receive it as coin. The very imposition of a tender
on paper currency not only supposes, but impliedly
and strongly confeffes, that the currency is not of any
value. Did it ever enter into the head of any man to
impoie a tender on dollars, guineas and other coins,
to give them a circulation ? The individual, who re
fufes to accept a less value for a greater, does what he
ought to do ; he ads with honour and with justice :
while the sovereign power, who forces upon the indi
vidual a very little in lieu of a very much, does what
power ought not to do; it afts with fhameful injus
tice. A tender on any paper of any government is un
just ; the tenders on the papers of the former government
were unjust ; for a tender on paper contains a falfehood,
is of no value : whereby possibly, in the use of the belt
paper, and actually often in the use of the worlt pa
per, people are dripped of their property without any
confederation received. Measure for measure, weight
for weight, value for value, like for like, and peace
and not injury, is the law of righteousness prescribed to
all the world by that legislator who never erred.
Which violates this law, the individual who refufes
to deliver his property for nothing, or the power
which forces it from him for nothing ? Hear the dia
logue between them.
Individual. May it please sovereign power. I am
aged three score and ten. My obligation of a thousand
pounds, gold or silver money, is the earnings of
the sweat of my brow, during my manhood and my
strength. If I be deprived of it, I mult perish with
hunger and cold. The paper tendered to me is
worth nothing. I am a supplicant for justice, value
for value.
Power. How dare you, firrah, address me in that
language ? Justice is the topic of fools, who know
nothing of the wisdom of politics, of the arcana of
government, or of the mystery of administration. Pha
roah imprisoned his fubjeds in dungeons, Nebuchad
nezzar reduced their houses to dunghils, and cast their
persons into fiery furnaces seven times heated, and the
Popes have roasted Heretics. My will is not only a
law, but the reason of a law. When I command, you
(hall obey. Ido now command, that you do sincerely
believe, that this paper is as yellow and as heavy as
gold, and as hard as a Spanish milled dollar.
Individual. O most puissant power, spare an indivi
dual in his weakness, and pardon his ignorance. I
do now sincerely believe, that this paper is as yel
low and as heavy as gold, and as hard as a Spanish
dollar; for now my eyes are helped to fee aright,
and my hands to feel aright.
Individual aside. O good Lord, what a deliverance
from dungeons, dunghils, fiery furnaces and roastings!
The natural, necessary and usual consequence of
forcing a circulation of paper by tenders is defrauding
and despoiling people of their property without giving
them a consideration. Bills without a tender would
be less likely to depreciate than bills with a tender.
If they were emitted without a tender, an attempt to
depreciate them to answer the speculating purpose of
paying a debt at less than value would lose its aim,
and consequently be less likely to be pradtifed. The
command to deliver without an equivalent, whether
promulgated by Redmon O'Hanlon on the highway,
or by Crefar in the senate, is sure to receive condem
nation before the tribunal of reason. Tenders on de-
preciating paper are not only oppressions of the fubjeds
of the Rate, and violations of the natural right of pri
vate property, but they are deceptive injuries, and pe
nal retrofpedions. Contrasts are sacred, and ought
never to be violated. Laws ought always to be a f<-
curity to every man's property. A man's actions,
guided by law, ought to be confirmed forever. But
tenders sport with contrasts, they repeal the force of
law, and fine a man for his legal conduct in the pe
nalty of bis whole fortune. A man resting upon the
basis of law, places out his property to day to be re
paid in value. A tender on depreciating paper to-
morrow deprives him of every (hilling he is worth in
the world. He ads under one law to day, he is
judged under another to-morrow, he is ensnared, and
his innocence is converted into guilt. He fuffers, be
cause, like a good fubjed, he confided in the govern
ment. He fuffers, because, being an honest man, he
could not fufped his neighbour of dishonesty. He
fuffers, because he could not prophesy that the legisla
ture would be so unjust as to enad a defrauding law,
and because he could not forefee what then lay con
cealed from all mortal beings. The iniquity of the
penal retrofpe&ion of tenders beggars all description.
The wisdom of all the states have in Congress explod
ed tenders ; the justice of each state has rejected ten
ders; the wisest of the states have refufed to adopt
again tenders; the courts of New-Jersey have rung
with the injustice of tenders; parties have execrated
tenders, and pradifed the most refined artifice, firft
to evade them, and in the end to elude their ef
fects ; and, finally, piety has rendered judges
astute in applying conftrudions to defeat entirely
the unrighteous con sequences of tenders. What
has ever been so unanimously cursed by every man,
woman and child in New-Jersey as tenders? De
preciated paper with a tender is the beggary, the
misery and the abhorrence of individuals; and the
poverty, the weakness and the difhonour of govern
ment. If New-Jersey did not contain a flrilling of
coin in all her dominions, and had but one arrow left
in her quiver, policy, drawn either from the situation
of the individual, or from the situation of the govern
ment, would advise her to (hoot without hesitation
that single remaining arrow against tenders on depreciat
ing paper. Why emit the loan-office paper of the year
1786 with a tender? Why may not the bills circulate
a year or two until the publick knows at what rate the
it legislatively declares an article to be offome value, which
market fettles their value : The loan-office paper of
1774 in this particular affords a precedent of justice
worthy of imitation. The bills of 1774 were emitted
without a tender. The great and the crying injustice,
and the diminution of the resources of government,
effected by tenders and depreciating paper, are fuffi
cient to have taught all the sovereign powers of the
earth this ufeful lesson, that the principles of justice
are not only their duty, but their wisest policy. While
New-Jersey is so abhorrent of tenders, and while she
is so fore under the smart of former tenders, the mode
of emitting paper without a tender appears to cool
reason more prudent than to emit the paper armed
with a tender as with a two-edged sword, ready to
do milchief at every step, like a mad bull let loose
among a crowd of people. Bills without a tender
would answer the good consequences of paper, if any
good therecan be, and in some degree would prevent their
evil consequences. A year or two hence, when the
market has fettled their value, a tender if necessary
may be imposed upon them at their fixed price. Pa
per without a tender would be liable to much fewer ob
jections in point of justice than paper with a tender.
What good effect will a tender have? Will a tender
qualify the bills to pay the national foreign debt? Not
in the least. Dutchmen and Frenchmen do not learn
the value of paper from tenders, but from instant re
alization or exchange into coin on demand. Willa
tender qualify the bills to pay our national domestic
debt? Not with value and injustice. The soldier who
has fought, the artisan who has wrought, and the
husbandman who has supplied, has a right to value.
A tender would not pay them with value, but most
probably would deprive them of their right. Paper
paid into the treasury at little or no value must be
paid out at little or no value. Will a tender give the
bills a greater currency or value in the market? Not
in the lead. Every one in the market will receive
them at none other than at their current rate of exchange.
Will the tender render the bill to the holder a wealth
like produce, or a representative of wealth like coin ?
Not either in the least. Will the tender render the
bill to the Rate either wealth or the reprefentative' of
wealth to encreafe her power? Not in the least. lam
fatigued with negative aufwers refpeding tenders;
what question can I a(k, that will admit of an affir
mative one? Let me try again. Will a tender qualify
the bills to pay debts? It is urged that a tender will
have that blessed effect. O solacing answer! O what
heartfelt comfort does this last answer afford! Being
wearied out with enumerating the evils of tenders,
let us pause, let us take breath, since we have difeo
vered one qualification which has the appearance of
a benefit! Let me resume the pen, and, with
leave of the reader, let me examine the last answer.
It is urged that a tender will qualify the bills to pay
debts. If to pay a debt means to pay value for value,
to do justice, and to do to another what we would
require him to do to us, a tender will not qualify the
bills to have that good effeft, for a tender can neither
secure their value, nor give them a greater value than
they would have without a tender: and to pay de
preciated paper with a tender is no more paying a
debt than a bankrupt pays a debt When he pays six
pence in the pound ; is no more giving value for value
than a jockey does when with an old horse, not worth
a Drilling, he in an exchange cheats his neighbour out
of a good one worth fifty pounds; and is no more
doing justice than a gambler does when, with a fraudu
lent card, he cheats a fair player out of the bet. But
if to pay a debt means nothing more than to dis
charge a debtor from the demand of a creditor, this
may be done with much less trouble and much less
expence than by emitting loan-office paper with a ten
der. An aft dissolving all debts prior to the firft day
of January 1786 could have that blessed effeft. An
aft railing coin in the payment of debts to a tenfold
value, and imposing a tender on it at that rate, could
have that solacing consequence. An act railing cop
pers in the payment of debts to three pounds a piece,
and imposing a tender on them at that denomination,
could give a debtor in that particular as much com
fort as his conscience in such a case would permit
him to take. If coin and coppers at that proportion
should be deemed too valuable for a creditor, a ten
der in the payment of debts might be imposed on oyfter
fhells. And I cannot fay but that a creditor might
receive by oylter-fhells more value than by paper cur
rency with a tender; for I am of opinion, that the
lime in a hundred oyster-shells is of more value than
the paper in a bill of a hundred dollars. Tenders can
not answer any beneficial purpose, but may in the
end answer very fraudulent purposes. The inhabi
tants of New-Jersey have been defrauded of more
property by tenders on depreciating paper than by all
the felonies committed within her territory since the
firft European planted his foot within her limits.
When one confiders the importunity and urgency of
some for a TENDER on paper and a TENDER
on paper and for the Lord's fake a TENDER
on paper and one might as well be in Purgatory
as to live a moment longer without a TENDER on
paper ; I fay, when one confiders this mad pother for
a TENDER on paper this wild hurlyburly for
a TENDER on paper this noisy hubbub for a
TENDER on paper— and this yelling hue and
cry for a TENDER on paper: one would be ready
to conclude, that the idea and the profpeft of paying
pah debts at the cheap rate of a hundredth part of
their value, and of keeping the creditor and the flie
riff from the door with depreciating paper, armed
with a tender, and the idea and profpe& of making
iniquitous (peculations in future, were the secret mo
tives of this bellowing outcry; but I repress the
thought, and would hope better things of my fellow
fubjedts. The fear of tenders on depreciating paper
has done and is daily doing great injury to the state.
Monied men, impressed with appreheufions of being
I. A depreciating paper without a tender effects
great injulticc, but with a tender much greater in
justice.
2. A depreciating paper with a tender occasions
poverty and idleness both in creditor and debtor. The
former, being injured by his loss, has no encourage
ment to industry; and the latter, being enabled to
difeharge the debt with less than value, is not fub
jedted by compulsion to industry.
3. When depreciating paper with a tender has lef-'
fened the industry of the ftibjeds, then as well the
wealth and surplus of the property of the fubjeds,
as the resources of the government for taxes, are di
minished. If surplus fails, commerce muff either fail
or be carried on to a disadvantage. If taxes fail, the
strength of government fails. The consequence is,
that depreciating paper with a tender lessens proper
ty, commerce and the resources of government.
4. Produce, fruits, labour and coin are wealth to
a government; but government-paper is poverty to a
government. If one hundred thousand pounds of pa
per currency were emitted and circulated so brilkly
that all the debts in the state were paid in one month,
neither the people nor the government would be one
penny the richer. But if debts to the amount of one
hundied thousand pounds were paid by produce,
fruits, labour or coin, the people would be one hun
dred thousand pounds the richer, and the government
would have further resources.
5. Debts are paid in all well regulated governments
by rendering value for value, either in produce, fruits,
labour, coin, or other real and substantial value.
6. Injustice ought not to be done; idleness ought
not to be promoted; industry ought not to be ba
nished ; the state ought not to be weakened ; but agri
culture ought to be improved; the arts of industry
ought to be introduced; commere ought to be ex
tended ; the finances of the state ought to be arranged ;
the soldier, the artisan and the husbandman, ought to
be paid; the administration of government ought to
be strengthened; and the worst of all schemes, the
emission of a paper currency with a tender, ought
to be omitted.
7. I conclude, that a paper currency with a tender
is inexpedient in New-Jersey at present.
EUGENIO.
paid in reduced paper wearing a tender, refute td
augment circulation by loaning their coin either to
government for a publick purpose, or to individuals in
the utmost distress. The large sums of gold and sil
ver, the property of opulent people in New-Jersey,
deposited in the banks of Philadelphia and New-Yorfe,
merely for security without any emolument, and the
sums locked up in strong boxes, do create a strong
probability, that New-Jersey owns more coin than is
required for her circulation. Any candid enquirer
will probably fatisfy himfelf, that the coin now with
held from circulation in New-Jersey, and the coin
ready to be withheld at the firft appearance of loan
office paper, by far exceeds the sum proposed 0 be
thrown into circulation by the emission of r
currency. The fear of a tender on depi\
per certainly does deprive the state of the ~r it \
the circulation of large sums of gold and hi
revival of confidence and of credit among all n, •.
a steady and equitable policy, founded on fixed
permanent laws, securing the property of the fuh^
at value, would, by influencing the creditor to in
duftry and to loans, and the debtor to industry and to
honest payments, supply New-Jersey with more mo
ney and with more resources than all the paper-mints
in the world could. O tender on depreciating paper,
thou haft many enemies, but few friends! All man
kind is armed against you. The citizen of the world
execrates you, the philosopher condemns you, and the
historian transmits you with infamy to posterity. Hav
ing investigated your origin, and delineated a few
principal traits in your hated picture, I now conclude
this head, leaving some poetic pen in an elegy to exe
cute you on a fcaffold under the gallows.
111. Thirdly, I shall subjoin some general observa
tions.
Pleas'd <witb the <vhiflling of a name,
See Whiggifm damn'd to e-oerlafling fame.
THE question about the expediency, and the con
veniency, of a new edition of bills of credit,
is of such importance that it behoves every tory, who
has a real concern for his own prosperity, and 1 may
venture to fay for the very existence of the fraternity,
most seriously to revolve in his mind this momentous
fubjed, big with rite fate of our riling progeny, and
to oblige his friends at large with his speculations
upon it. The many advantages which must flow from
so salutary a measure are almost innumerable, and,
as all of them are not likely to occur to one person,
I with that those who have clear ideas of the matter,
and may be very confident of their abilities to dress
them in such language, as they would choose to have
them appear in before the world ; Iwifh, I fay, that such
of my brothers would honour me, and the rest of
the brotherhood, with their observations upon this
very interesting fubjed, (dressed in as fine a suit as
possible) or on any other conducive to the ruin of the
United States, and our emolument, directed to out
old friend, J. R. at New-York, for the press. Af
ter Providence has so severely frowned upon us, as
to enable these states to triumph over the power of
Great-Britain, and us united, in the late war, which
we in mercy waged against them, and in which our
final success appeared in the eye of human reason ve
ry probable, it is to be hoped that we (hall conduct
ourselves in our private charter, as still enemies 10