The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1780-04-19 00:00:00, page 1

Mr. COLLINS,
MR. Honeftus proceeds, and shews himfelf
as lavish of censure without reason, as
of proof without foundation. He fays,
" Indeed could we suppose Congress
wicked enough to make the experiment, &c." Who
does not now fee that all the arguments I have offer
ed in support of the equity and jujlice of that plan,
are effectually confuted by the bare, though bold,
assertion of this master of algebraical reasoning ? who
perhaps may suppose jujlice and equity wickedness, et
vice versa. Why has he not proved the charge in
three words ?— Can it be possible that he charges
wickedness upon giving the full value to a person for
his money, and to secure him from future loss in it ?
If so, then I suppose robbing twenty to pay one
twenty-fold the value of his money, must be bis jus
tice. —Or is it, exempting, as much as possible, the
inoffeniive and defenceless orphans, widows, and Su
perannuated, in such a tax, and thereby restoring the
money they may have preserved to its original value ?
If so, then I suppose the hastening progress of what
will soon bring all such to lamentable beggary, mult
be bis virtue. —Or is he harping upon the old cord, a
breach of national faith ? If so, why may a gentle
man, who can prove the futility of regulation in three
words, not have indulged me with the proofs I have
repeatedly requeued of such affertors / But let me be
permitted to prosecute this favourite topick of some,
a little farther.
I humbly conceive Congress, the august represen
tative body of the empire, to lay under the obligati
on of more than one kind of faith refpe&ing the na
tion they represent. This nation has entrusted them
with their purses for its defence. Do not the most so,
lemn obligations demand their flwb hi the applicati
on of this money ; and their most vigorous exertions
in this defence ? If then any future Congress Ihould
manage matters so, that the greater moiety of their
constituents should become obliged, by the appreci
ation of this money, to launch out millions not for
the government or defence of the nation, but to fill
the purses of a herd of depreciating speculators, who
have preyed upon our vitals in an hour of distress ;
Would this be confident with the faith they owe their
constituents ?— Or suppose they should be so intent
and attached to this appreciation, that, for the fake
of it, they should neglect the military operations for
the defence of the nation, and deftru&ibn, in part or
whole, should thence ensue; or they be conitrained
to content to a disadvantageous and dishonourable
peace : Would this be their faith to the nation ?—
Would not all the di/lrefs, all the bloodshed, all the
deflruction, all the disadvantage and difhonour, all
consequent on such neglect, be laid to their charge?
From the foregoing observations it appears how
exceeding careful such bodies ought to be in pledging
the national faith, left the nation Should be led into
the dreadful dilemma of breaking its faith, or ruin
ing the greater part of the community.
But let affertors of the pledged faith for the appre
ciation of this money shew whether it is pledged fur
the, whole or part. If the whole, then fongreis has
been guilty of the most unparalleled protuliou of the
publick's money that any government ever has been ;
to spend, in the course of three years, for the sup
port of a war no more extensive than ours, so many
hundred millions of Spanish milled dollais: Then
would the nation be under an absolute necessity of
breaking this pledged faith, because there is a moral
impossibility to fulfil it. If only in part, let them
point out which part. The faces of the bills are all
of the fameimport. I repeat the question; for which
of these bills is this faith pledged ?—Perhaps some
may ailedge the resolves of Congress fpr the redemp
tion of these bills, and thence infer, if the quantity
is reduced the value mult increase until it afriyeS/o
its original value. I frankly acknowledge, this faith
is pledged for the redemption of the bills. And to
it ought to be. But is there the lead Ihadow of rea
son that it is therefore pledged for the confequence*?
* The argument, that as the quantity decreases,
the value must increase, I humbly conceive not to be
conclusive in this case ; because this deficiency may be
supplied by specie or barter. It is manifeJl that the
whole now, is about equal in value io what four mil
lions was three years ago : Then, if thirty millions is a
necessary medium, this falls fbort twenty-fix millions.
Why then does not this deficiency appreciate the money ?
Why does it continue depreciating ? It appears to me,
that the nature of trade will operate as powerfully a
gainjl the appreciation as speculation does now in fa
vour of the depreciation : For, in that case, the trader
muftfell for. left than he gave, in hopes of gaining in va
lue what be lc^l in quantity, But are th; generality of
NEW-JERSEY
[Vol. lII.]
WEDNESDAY, April 19, 1780.
They have resolved that the whole shall be funk in
eighteen years ; is it a breach of faith if it is done in
one ? The different Legillaturcs are to fink it by tax;
has Congress pledged this faith that money shall not
be taxed' for linking it ?Hf then a tax 011 money it
felf is found j ujl, and the leaf burdenfame and ruin
ous to the community at large, hc,w can the redemp
tion of the depreciated part, by such a tax, infringe
this national faith ? Yea, if the remaining value was
established and secured the fame as it originally was,
would not this coincide with the spirit of the fore
going inference? Has not this money funk and loft
the half or two-thirds of its value lince the time this.
plan was recommended? which, 1 am confident,
would have been preserved, if such plan had been
then adopted. And who knows where the linking
of its value will stop ?
On a candid review of the foregoing observations,
I am truly at a loss to find on what that gentleman
founds his bold charge of wickedness.
But if this gentleman could luppofe Congress wick
ed enough to make the experiment, he dubiously in
fers, " happily they would find it impracticable." —
Towards the conclulion of my sixth number I have
said, " Ihould the plan I have recommended, or any
similar one, appear to our Legillature or our repre
sentatives in Congress, proper to be pursued, pru
dence will dictate to them not to undertake so un
common and bold a step, without being previously
allured that you (my fellow-citizens) will cordially
support them in the execution, when resolved upon."
I feel confident there would not have been a thou
sandth part of the hazard to make the experiment in
this manner, there will be jn attempting to appreciate
this money by law or taxes on real property, nor of
danger there is to the whole empire in pursuing the
fame line of conduct, hitherto done with refpeCt to
this money.
But fays Honeftus, " indeed it is not easy to Con
ceive how the mere alteration of certain characters,
&c. could relieve us of any part of the burden, which
the support of the war necessarily brings upon us."
I fay, an alteration of mere characters in new emissi
ons on some such foundation as 1 have before menti
oned, would greatly alleviate our burdens. This I at
tempt to prove by the following arguments :
1. Multitudes of the yeomanry of America, the
bulwark of our fafety, look on our enormous nominal
debt for which, as Congress tells them, tbeir estates
stand mortgaged, with concern and dread, This is
a CQnfideration which evidently tends ; —To difeou
rage them ; —To cause them to fret at their rulers ; —
To fufpeCt government ; —To pay taxes with reluc
tance ; for fay they, what does it avail to pay taxes ?
the debt Itill increases manifold upon us. Now, such
change of figures would at once relieve us from this
burden. Though our true national debt amounts in
fad to a tyifle, yet the nominal obligation is rose to an
enormous sum—Just like a man's having obtained an
obligation from me by mere dint of extortion and
fraud, conditioned for the payment of four or five
thousand pounds for what was worth no more than
an hundred. The just debt I could easily pay; the
other would reduce me to beggary. And I was in
jujlice bound to pay only the hundred pounds, I ask
whether the mere alteration, of these characters, from
four or five thousand to one hundred in that obliga
tion, would probably relieve me of any part of my
burden ? And whether I would not pay the hundred
pounds with a thousand times the cheerfulnefs I could
give ten pounds in part payment of the other sum?
2. The changable value of the present money, makes
the burden of the war fall exceeding unequal. The
man who mult pay his tax this year with money he has
procured twelve or eighteen months ago, must evi
dently pay three, four, or five times as much in va
lue to him, as one who has procured his within the
two or three months last past, though they both pay
an equal nominal sum part of our burden
would manifeftly be removed if money was brought
to the fixed value I have before mentioned.
3. As the standard value of our present money is
deltroyed by the depreciation, 1 presume it will be
traders inclined to such hazards ? Will fuel )hazard
fegve tbeir present purposes ? It is aljb evident that such
money will afford the greatfl profits by being laid up,
qfbicb will unavoidably deflroy commerce, or force an
other medium. In the latter, this money will become
ufelc,; and the different Legislatures fall under an ab
foluta nt;fity to collect taxes for jinking this money, in
the medium which shall circulate at a certain value,
and then ff\,r course of exchange ; which cannot be
high for a thi.ofai had become useless. If then from
such natural 'ca^ 1 money shall never appreciate,
' will this violate the 1 w^dfaith of the nation ?
THE
GAZETTE.
found exceeding difficult to fix any other contrary to
what is read in the face of the bill. But new emis
sions, on the foundation before proposed, would not,
and be attended with this additional advantage, that
the national debt would not be its only fund, as the
present, but also real property. For the elucidation
of which, let me suppose I took a bond three years
ago for a thousand Spanish milled dollars, which now
is paid me in continental; I may tell my debtor,
this sum amounts only to a fortieth or fiftieth of what
I gave you ; and he reply, fee the face of the bills. To
whom am I to apply for those Spanish milled dol
lars which the bills were intended to represent, and
received for value to their amount ? Evidently to no
one. In the other, the debtor's real property would
be the fund to me, as much as a bank for its notes ;
for 1 then would be entitled to apply to him for the
real value, which the Spanish milled dollars were
made to represent i^ Qie contrast. Is it not inanifeft
that such alteration of characters would prevent ihou
fands from being loaded with burdens under which
many, according to the present course of money,
will probably groan, as in the pangs of death ?
4. It is inconteftible, that a fufficiency of the cir
culating medium is of the lad importance for the sup
port of war. Bet us suppose that our present mili
tary operations require an annual supply of eight mil
lions, and but four millions in circulation ; then, if we
confider how unequally this money is always divid
ed, and how much of it is required to carry on the ne
cefiary trade, the impossibility of railing the requisite
supplies from this money is evident to a demonstrati
on.—lt is also evident, that the depreciation of the
present money has all along vastly exceeded the quan
tity; let then ever so much be emitted, at such a
rate, the quantity of the medium must inevitably re
main vastly deficient. But the fixed value ofthe other
would afford government an opportunity of emitting
a fufficiency, and thereby enable the nation to raise
the annual supplies by taxes and loans.
If the foregoing reasons be duly and candidly con
sidered, what in the name of common sense can be th^
cause that Mr. Honeftus cannot conceive how such an
alteration of characters can relieve us of great part of
our burden, which the support of the war necessarily
brings upon us?
He proceeds, " but," fays the true Patriot, " we
shall get rid of an immense load of debt by it :" —He
said nominal debt. Why was this important adjective,
in that connection, omitted ? " This," fays he, " cer
tainly would not be the mod honourable way of dis
charging it." —1 fay, the most honourable way of dis
charging a nominal debt ; and leave the arguments
I have offered for the support of it, in the course of
my numbers, to confront his bold, though bare,
affertion*.
This gentleman is perfectly at a loss to divine in
what this great debt consists : And I am as much, to
divine what he means by his ambiguous and sophistical
realbning on this fubjeft. He insinuates, that there
is no national debt but what one nation owes to ano
ther. —What a perverting the lenfe of a known term
is this ! What well-founded buz is made about Eng
land's immense national debt ! Do such authors only
mean their foreign loans? A mere trifle to so wealthy
a nation. The import of the term national debt evi
dently is, any debt which the nation collectively confder
ed is bound to difebarge —either to individuals among
themselves, or to any foreign nation. What can Mr.
Honeftus have in view, to attempt this strange expe
riment ? Suppose our foreign debt is and remains a
trifle, what would that be to me isl should be reduc
ed to beggary by taxes to appreciate millions in the
hands of bale speculators ?
I cordially join Mr. Honeftus in his opinion, that
restitution Ihould be made to those who have borne
more than their equal proportion, in the support of
this war, by reason of the depreciation. But let that
gentleman give us a scale of equal taxation, whereby
it may be alcertained what sums each of such indivi
duals ought to be reimbursed; and also the propor
tionate funis of those who ought to make up this re
jmburfement. Can he possibly believe that the sole
view of Congress, in the resolves he cites, was such
reimbursement ? While he asserts it, he seems to im
peach their judgment. Who can believe such a won
derful fatum, that an eighteen years fluctuation of a
* I have there proved, that as much as our bills of
credit were depreciated, exactly so much of the national
debt was thereby paid with the general content of the
nation . Consequently burfuing the plan I bad recom
mended would only be (what common prudence dictates )
taking a receipt for being dijebarged f om so m*ch oj
the national debt, to prevent a demand for vbat is
already paid.
[Numb. 121.]