The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1779-02-02 00:00:00, page 1

POSTSCRIPT to HONESTUS, [No. 4 J
g,INCE the publication of my fourth number, in
[3 the Connc&icut Journal Number 585, I find
that there u^e gentlemen of Worthy' characters, for
whom I have the most entire friend^p, who Areriu
ou^y iifid, thdt no public measures ought ever to be
adopted or carried into execution which injure indi
viduals or do injufhee to any, and that the a& there
fore, which makes the currency a fender in law ought
to be repealed ; that it would not in the least affe&
the credit of it, or do injustice to any ; that old tenor
formerly puffed in the country, though it was never
made a lawful tender.
As these sentiments appear to me very extraordi
nary, to be fou,ded in mTrkcjard to be cf dan
gerous tendency however refpe&able and judicious
in other rcfp&fts they may be who advance them, I
think it necefory that they should be carefully exa
mined. and ihall venture to lay before the public
fern? farther thoughts on these points.
With respect to this general principle, that no pub
he measure oughtever to be adopted or persisted in.
which ihall injure individuals and do injustice to
any Ihumbiy conceive that it is not universally true;
but iuconfUeat with the liberty, Safety, common
faufe and common practice of mankind. The uni
vtrf.il feufe and practice of mankind declared that a
defensive war and laws to maintain it, in the best
manner, arc neceflary and just ; as the liberty, lives
.and fafety of a people cannot be secured, many
times, any other way. Befall wars fubje& indivi
dual to great and irrepairable loss and damage.?Ma
^v, t ^^ , fyhfcaed to tl^ Pmbs
and ail theirearitfv inbßauce. ramus:,, rotu^^^d
cities are ruined ; fuffer ten times mclre than their
just proportion in the war, and are not, nor ever can
be in the nature of the case, properly ccrapenfaied.
Tais heverthelefs is, by common consent, determin
ed to be right and just, as it is necessary for the
common fafety and happ'nefs.
This principle is allo mconfiftent with the enact
ing of laws in general : for no law, perhaps ever
was or can be made, how just so ever it may be, as
to its general principle, but what from the peculiar
circumflances offome persons and cases, has done, or
will do iniudice Were not this the case, 1 presume
a court of chancery would never have had a being.
No man of tolerable underfianding, I think, will e
ver maintain that law truely adrainiftered, will do
justice to every person and in every case. Upon this
principle therefore all laws must be repealed, and
none ever enabled hereafter, had fomc person or oiher
in fame particular case should be injured. This is
Efficient to ffiow the absurdity and falifehcod of this
general principle.'
As to this, vh^tthe repealing the tender a& will
^0 ways affed the credit cf the currency it is like
the principle on which I have been remarking, built,
on midaken principles. At firft view it involves in
it this great affardity, that a thing which will answer
but one purpofein twenty, for which individuals
and the public want it, is just as valuable, and
ought to be as much efleemed as one which will an
swer them all. The currency while it is a tender in
law, anfwers,all the purposes of money. It will
pay,debts, defend individuals from their creditors,
from having their hoitfes, -lands, and household furni
ture taken from them by execution, and their persons
from cruel imprifonmenf. But repeal the a& which
makes it a lawful tender, and all the bills the Hates
have emmitted cannot give him this security. It
will now purckafe provisions,clothing and all necef
f^ry supplies for individuals, for families and for
tor armies ; will pay the wages of our soldiers, but
Y tn all might refufe to take it on any account.
Whole families mightperiffi with hunger, let them
have ever so much of the currency on hand, and'
cc mneffaries mi^ht r ; de from one end of the cantin.
^t to the other without being able to buy a single
article wi.h all the bills with which the states could
t>rnifh them They migbt be refund in every pur
ehafeand payment, and thrt under the countenance
of the legislature, and of law. Whether this would
.-.;., ^ff rA, -so depreciate :he vab^
TUESDAY, fam?.! 2, J„ THE „[Number 4 7.32
A$D THS
WEEKLY in telligenc er.
HA RY FORD: Printed by W A TSON and GOGDWI N, near the Great Bridge.
of the money, if not wholly prevent the circulation
of it lam willing to submit to the public. There
appears to me the fame difference between the two
cases, which there is betw a man of the firmeft
health and constitution, who would answer every
purpefe for which the farmer, cr the country would
vyifh to employ him, and one that was maimed, uni
versally debilitated, and hard! 7 worth keeping. In
deed it appears to be a matter ^ doubt whether the
states could purchase any furth?: supplies for the ar
my, or proceed another step in the public defence,
were the currency to be no more a lawful tender.
I speak the sense of the continent on this point.
For why did Congress recommend it to the states to
make the currency a tender in law, and why did
they with universal consent adoptthe measure if it
were not to support and give grater credit to it I To
have made such law with fuel general consent, when
it could give no creditor support to it, or render it
any more uf^fal would have been the most miserable
trifling. This must have bee 1 tor the mountains to
have laboured,and brought ft rtii a ridiculous mouse
indeed. Why have they continued this a& with
universal consent for these th:re years if it has no ef
fe& on the credit of the currency, and is no way ne
cessary for the common defence and fafety ? But if
it were madeat firft for these ?.at purposes, then it
is equally, if not more nec.:ffa^ still, for the fame
reasons. Nor is there any m<c injustice in continu
ing this particular law for thecemmon defence and
fafety, than there is in contineNg the laws which 0-
blige the inhabitants of these Bates to bear arms against
the common enemy, and to continue in a fiate of
war ; in renfequence of w our sea-ports and
frontiers are expoled to ravage and detoia^on, and
individuals to the loss oflife, limbs property; and
to faftain itrepairable loss.
With rtfpeeb to what is further infilled on that
the repealing of this a& will do no injustice, it must
be altogether a mistake. It would in a manner change
the possessors of the property of the country, impo
verish and ruin the friends cf it and put wealth, im
poranceand power intothehandsof its enemies. By
virtue of the tender-aft most of thehard money in the
possession of those, who were friendly to the measures
of the states has been conveyed out cf their hands,
turned into present currency, or lent to the states.
Great sums have been lent to them, much has been
exchanged with their agents for the fame number of
continental dollars. Many in every part of the
country have parted with their hard money to feed
and cbath their friends and neighbours in captivity,
to prevent their perishing with hunger and naked
nefr. Others by virtue of this aft have been oblig
ed to receive vafl fams, that were due in hard money
years ago, in the present currency together with
their old debts, which were as good as silver. And
theaft in its operationhas dispossessed them in a man
ner of all thek hard money and turned it, with their
debts, into the present currency. The enemies of
the country have on the other hand, been all the
time hoarding it up. They have generally refufed
the currency, in payment for old debts; and have
little ofit in their possession. Repeal the a&, in
question, and the friends of the country are in a
great measure deprived of their personal estate. They
will have little or no money, by which they can pay
a single debt. Should it finally ruin the currency,
as I have fheWn there is great reason to fear, the vast
fams of money which have been emitted for the de
fence of the country, amounting to more than eighty
millions of dollars would be loft in the hands of in
dividuals. Here would be a public fraud, amount
ing to more than twenty millions, committed against
the most faithful friends of the liberties of theircoun
try. The enemies of the states will now have the
principal part of the money ; to them most of the out
fia^ding debts will be due; and these circumfiances
will put almofl every advantage into their hands to
distress the country, and to raise themselves to such
wealth and power as might ruin the states, or at beh
greatly injure them. If this would not be injustice,
cruelty, and perfidy both to individuals and to the
Hatas, I confefs, I knew of nothing which can de
serve these names. Nothingcan be mere applicable
to fetch a proceedure than these lines of the
poet.
Tremendous measure ! Black as night it fiands,
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell.
And shakes a dreadful dart.
If I am not a firanger to human nature the country
never would quietly bear such cruel injustice and Op
pression ; but would soon wreck their vengeance on
the authors cf them. But let the states adhere to the
plan they originally adopted, and have for a number
of years persisted in, and all these confluences will
be avoided. Those who have exchanged their gold
and silver for the present currency, or have received
their old debts in continental bills, will, by labour,
merchandise and such commodities as thecountry will
produce, fold at the prices which they ngw bear, be
able to pay their proportion of the public taxes toap
preciate the money, and preserve the original sums
entire, and lose nothing more than the interest of
them for a few years.
As to old tenor's raffing as a currency, though
it never was a lawful tender, no argument can be
derived from thence; because there is little or no kind
of parity between the two cases. The whole affair
of old tenor was such a fraudulent and wicked bu
siness as ought never to be mentioned but with ab
horrence, and can furnifh a plea for notling but
fraud and injustice. All historians who treat cf it
represent it as a continued series of public baud and
unrighteousness *. But as it was never a tender in
law, so it did not dispossess the friends of the coun
try cf their gold, silver and honest debts, and bestow
r.% An their eneb.es : the ex-r&ation2 of the peo
ple were not disappointed, nor was public cenh'.^c,
destroyed by its not being a lawful tender as it was ne
ver designed or expe&ed that it ffiould be. There ne
ver were such quantities cfit in circulation as there are
of the present currency. Thecountry, was not, at
that time in such a divided and critical situation as
at present. No such advantages could have been
expected from the failing of that as our enemies ex
pe& to themselves by ruining the present currency.
No such opposition therefore was made to the passing
ofit, cr pains taken to destroy it, as certainly would
be in this case. Yet alter all, it in a manner ran out
and came to nothing. At beftit is buta poor prece
dent indeed.
I shall only make one observation more on this
point, that it would be little, fany thing ffiort of a
gross violation of the confederation, and of rebellion
against the states, for any particular Bate to repeal a
law which Congress had recommended for the gene
ral fafety. the repealing of which might raise muti
ny in their armies, cut the very fioews of war, and
drfconcert all public measures of defence Were an
individual convicted of doing these things, would he
not be punched as a traitor ? Were any particular
state to repeal the tender-act would it not have all
these effc&s ? How could Congress pay the troops cf
that state in which their currency is net a tender ?
How could their^ommiffaries make a fm;h purchase
in such a state: Were such a state to pay their troops
in hard money, would not the soldiers from the c'ber
states mutiny and disband, unless they were paid in
the fame manner i Or should the troopr of^ state
consent to take their wages at the rate of eivht cr ten
for one, would it not have the fame eff & ! Would
the troops from other &ty s be contented with forty
Shillings per month when they had fi^een or twenty
pounds : Indeed if particular states may take the
regulation ofc ^neral currency into their hands,
and pievent its being a tender in any case, I fee not
how Corgrefs can pay their troops, purchase furies
cr do any thing for the common fafety, If the re-°
gulation of a geroral currency be not in the newer of
the ffate^uniied in Cor,:/, I fee not but that it
will in eftc& fiuSnte the chief defies efthe confe
deration and render the grand council of the states cf
very little importance.
* See Douglas Vol, I. P. 358, 359, 49 2 > i °
495:, and G<vr H. V. IL P; 401 to 405.