The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1779-01-05 00:00:00, page 1

'rom the CONNECTICUT JOURNAL.
HONE S TU,S.
Number 11.
CT^HE reasonings, in number firft, dohbtlefs, give
[ fufficient evidence that the currency must be
. ,orted. Such great and general injustice, such
•, impolicy and prostitution of all public faith
ihoncr, must be the consequence of neglecting it,
.✓ may well shock the mind of every wife and good
man. On the other hand, no such general evils can
takeplace. By Efficient finking funds, at home, or
by borrowing three or four millions abroad, and fell-.
ing bills of exchange to our merchants, to that a
mount, which bills would, doubtless at firft be pur
chased at the rateof fix or eight for one, and at no
timelower than two and an half, the circulating me
dium might be, in alittle time so leffmed, in quan
.ity as to appreciate to its original value. Then
such bills as shall be outstanding at the several peri
ods fixed of their redemption, may be paid in gold
and silver, if the peffeffors shall chafe it. Few, per
haps, when this comes to be the case, will desire it.
This being done, which I ihill attempt hereafter, to
Row not to be at all impracticable, the public credit;
fafety and honor will be secured. A'l public funds
put into thelcan offices, astothe substance of them,
will remain undiminished. This will be the case
with all such fortunes and inheritances as originally
consisted in solid coin,or in obligations for it,and with
allold debts which have been putimtothe public funds
or have lain on hand in bills of the present currency.
The moneys of merchants, seamen, officers of the ar
my, and the great disproportion of money in the
hands of feme particular Rates, will gradually appre
ciate, and what shall not be expended in the present
emergencies will be as good as gold and silver. Men
of all charaders w 11 reap the desired fruits of their
uncommon exertions, labours and dangers. The
debts now outstanding, be they nine tenths, as has
been supposed or one half, or what proportion they
may,of those due at the commencement of the present
trouble, will at latt come in at their original value
Or should they be paid in at present, all that shall
lie upon hand will be as good at lafl, as when it be
came due. With regard to the officers and Soldiers
of our armies, committees may be appointed, by the
Rates, at the close of the war, to take a complete view
of all tha has been done for hem, by way of boun
ty, wages clothing, and of Applying their families,
and to determine what remains due to them. This,
be it more or less, ought to be punctually paid.
Then the fame tax may jhflly be laid on them as on
others to defray the public expence, and no general
injustice will be done. This is the only way, that
falls within the comvfs of my thoughts in" which
juflice can generally be done, and public faith,
Safety, and honor be maintained.
Bating the injustice which would be done to great
bodies cf men, by making the currency a tender at
1x for one, it would be dangerous wfth regard to in
dividuals, and no little injustice might be done in
ways which have not yet been suggested. For in
• Stance, let a debt cf an hundred pounds be paid in at
'-ate of fix for one, this laid up till the money ap
prec to its original value, becomes fix hundred
pounds ; a debt of a thousand pounds become fix
thpufand ; and fortunes, at this rate will be made at
once by cunning men. Only let their debts be paid
1 at this rate, and the ver, men, who are now for
the me^fure, having got the money, will tack right
'bout, and be for Supporting the currency at all ad
ventures. And will not the poor debtor who thus
parted with his money, be taxed unjustly to make it
fas good as gold and silver to the man who received
it ofhim at such a depreciated rate? Oi the other
hand, funpofing this should not be the case, but by
this measure. the currency receives a mortal wound
and runs out ; then the creditor loses his whole debt,
by the very measure which was defined to help
him. At leaffifit does not occasion the loss of the
'hole, it reduces him to a State of utter uncertainty
: - 'it : for if public faith uhviolated cannot keep
^^ aminal value the fixing it at fix for ont,
/..▼♦Cm -^-Jo^ta- PC R . t.Kr f^tfel^ •,•'" r bm# ra ^
TUESDAY, January 5,.0T% T H E<. [Number 728.
CONNECTICUT COURANT,
AND T HE
VE E K L Y INTELLIGENCE R.
HARTFORD: Printed by W ATSON and GOODWIN, near the Great Brjdgi.
there a Angle week. But the creditor will, to his
great mortification find it finking irfhis hands to
twelve or fifteen for one. Indeed when legislatures
h:ve made such improvement as that by a marvel
lous kind of chymiftry, they can reduce gold and
silver into rags and paper , and then, confident with
public faith and justice reduce that, which, by their
own resolutions is a Filling to two pence, will find
little difficulty in reducing the two pence to a far
thing or a cypher.;
Besides should the enemy soon withdraw from us;
and a free communication be opened from one fitter
Bate to another. .the great difficulty of land carriage
cease, and goods flow into our ports, the demand for
labour, necessaries and foreign articles would greatly
alter. Some articles would probably fink one half.
So that there would be great injustice done to indi
viduals by paying debts at fix for one. Indeed this
is just as good policy as that of the mariner who alarm
ed with the found of Scylle, with a full gale, runs
foul of Charybdis. On the whole the evidence ap
pears to me to amount even to a demonstration that
the money must be Supported and redeemed accord
ing to the public resolutions.
Connecticut, Nov. 6, 1778.
[The following is inferred by particular defire.]
" Secure he hands his front undaunted Shows,
Alone he combats, 'midft a hot of fees
Far more than death, he dreads a fully'd name,
And if he dies, would close his death with fame."
To the Citizens and Freemen of the United
States of AMERICA.
IT was well said by a certain illuflrious Chief
to his King, on taking his leave : --'• I go to
fight your Majesty's enemies in the field ; I leave
you Sire, to contend with mine at hr ae." Thus
every man who is called by the voice cfhis country,
to engage in its Service, and to expose his life in its
defence, has a right to expert, that his person and
character should be. Secured against the storms of
clamour and detraction, the Shafts of envy, or the
Secret plots of undermining foes. All those he is sure
to meet, who comes in the way of the interested,
or ambitious pursuit of others, and who determines
to perform all the duties of his place, with integrity.
When such a person is appointed to any important
flation, he can scarcely fail to stir up the felfifh pas
sions of the envious, the ambitious, arid the malig
nant, who will watch and m freprefent his actions,
and twist every occasion that times of confufion and
public calamity too often, present, to fully and as
perfe his character , and to defame those qualities in
him which they have.not the virtue to imitate, with
a view to remove such an obflacle to their wishes,
and if possible, to rife to his envied situation.
It is much to be lamented, that nothing has been
more common among us, upon any public calamity,
or Signal misfortune happening, than to look out for
feme conspicuous person, or one placed in an elevated
situation, to hunt down and facrifice, with a pre
tended design to fatisfy, but in fad to amuse and de
ceive the people, with a shew of atoning for the im
aginary faults of the individual, who is thus given
up to the cries of a fa&ion, and to conceal, in reality,
the ignorance and mifconduß of those very men, who
raise the hue and cry against him, in which they can
only hope to succeed, by preventing him from
chaining a public hearing. ,
But if a person who has discharged his duty to his
country, with fidelity, cannot be secured from the
rude assaults of those demons of detraction, that roam
abroad, seeking whose reputation they may devour :
If these are permited to fix their envenomed teeth in
him, and by the basest, falfeft calumnies, to tear and
wound his fame, fortune, ,peace and happiness, orto
call for a public facrifice of the firft.officers in any
department without a previous trial; what less is it,
than to level with the dust every thing that is most
sacred amongst men, to violate the peace and order
of society, and the common rights of human nature,
and to trample upder feet ^ll laws, human and di
vine ? In such a service, where is the honor of ac
r.nGno , f„,ff ?v% ;• fife r 4 r , , v fy
person is fee ire from the devouring jaws 0 obl.q^y ?
If clamours are excited, or accufati®ns are brought
against men appointed to the charge f any depart
ment, who have given unequivocal proofs of tkeir
attachment to the true liberties and welfare of their
country, of their ftri& regard to justice, and their
watchful care of its interests, ought they not to have
an impartial trial, and to be heard publicly in their
defence, before any sentence of pun fhment, degra
dation or censure pass upon them, fierce it is known
and observed by all, that those whose behaviour in
places of trust is more meritorious and felf denying,
are most liable to be traduced by the tongues of en
vy and malice, and that very conded, which view
ed through the mediumof passion or inlereft, appears
distorted and unnatural, when cleared from the mist.
with which clamour and prejudice have surrounded
it, may claim the warmest approbation of the virtu
ous and discerning ?
If such then, is the value of a spotless reputation;
that, like virgin modeKy it ought to be guarded with
the greatest circamfpe&on, from any aspersions that
may be attempted to be thrown upon it, by the cen
sorious and malevolent, and if he whose public cha
ra&er is defamed, is shunned as a wafting plague,
what have we to boast, in the present fir<tyes"for
Liberty and Independence, that is worthy cf the
contest if, upon the faAious cries of interested or
wicked men, we may be delivered up to aid evil;
wotfe than slavery, the death of our good name ?
To what moreaaial injury can we be exposed, if de
signing men have it in their power to get a person
condemned degraded, or punished as criminal,
without a previous inquiry or trial, and, 6 under
an appearance of proftcuHug the guilty, to injure
and oppress the innocent.” Is not this the essence
of the vilest species of slavery?
This is a breach of the M<gna Char^a of every
freeman, for the security of which, our forefathers
bled, and which they transmitted to us, as the most
invaluable inheritance; and shall we, their degene
rate offspring, cowardly fuffer the rich jewel to be
torn from us, as though unworthy to wear it ? To
call for the condemnation of any man unheard, is
to require the fobverfion cf those liberties for which
America roused to arms... It is to shake the founda
tions of all authority and obedience, which are laid
in a security of our person, fame and property, and
in a protection from violence and injustice If a
precedent is of that weight that is commonly allow
ed, we ought to eppofe every unrighteous attempt
to introduce or establish one so dangerous to the li
bY%°f the '" b ' e ° otherwise a blinded people,
whilf tthey fondly, but mistakenly imagine they are
in the enjoyment of liberties, purchased at the ex
pence of bloo'd and treaiute profusely lavished, only
hug a delusion, and inflead of Juno, clasp a phantom,
not perceiving that if they trust such power out r.f
th^r hands, they allow others to forge fetters for
their posterity, and to lay +he ground work of the
most absolute despotism, and meft abje& Slavery, to
the completion ofwhich, there never will be want
ing either workmen or materials.
" People who are struggling for freedom, ought
to be convinced that it is more than a mere name.
To accomplish which, the laws muft' be supreme,
and every man know (the meanest fubje& as well as
he who balks in the funihine of favour) that if he a&s
agreeable to those laws, no other man or body of men,
however great, numerous, or powerful, can injure
him in his person, property or reputation/ ' This,
and this only, is the kind of liberty that deserves to
be contended for, even unto death.
What but the very opposite to this, has been ex
perienced by persons of the most illustrious charac
ters and distinguished virtues and talents this coun
try can boast ? A Putnam, an Arnold a Sullivan,
a Schuyler and a Sinclair, Generals, of whom some
are equally celebrated by friends and foes, for their
honour, courage,a&ivity, and other military virtues,
have successively felt the flings of the rancorous and
malevolent, when want of success attended any en
terprize in which they were concerned. To this lift
let me add the name of Mifflin whose chamber has
been infifofo; attacked by the clamours of fiafo