The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1837-09-16

| Excepting the service which they perform
as money, how very small is that minority of
my fellow citizens, whose comfort would be
materially affected by the humiliation OF gold
and silveri
Those who, agreeable 10 the proverb, have
been born 10 silver spoon, might be an
moved at the necessity Of using horn, iron,
or pewter, or even the new German alloy of
nickel and copper, but could such annoyance
be deemed matter in which the majority
need sympathize These remarks respect
ing the inulility Of silver, otherwise than as
money, 10 the great mass OF society, apply
with greater force in the case Of gold, which
excepting as a material for the trinkets OF the
| wealthy, is Of no use whatever in our demo-
cratic Republic Were all the good that
| gold and silver do the laboring class through
out the world, the only basis of their value,
obviously there is no metal which would be
| in less estimation.
The great basis of value which those me-
tails have, is 10 crafty The ostentation Of The
rich, 10 enable The noblemaa, the king, the
pacha, nabob or sultan to appear IN that spien-
dor phieh they consider as necessary TO their
rank; by which, while actually inferior in
virtue, they may to the eye appear before
them in worldly splendor. The royal coach,
and the hveries of its coachmen and laqueys,
groan under the tawdry exhibition Of the
most precious of the metals. In the palaces
of the nobility may be seen ornaments Of
massive silver or gold and the table furni-
ture frequently made of silver, and in some
instances Of gold. That minority Of man
kind may crafty their pride and their vanity
by glittering and expensive trinkets which
the majority cannot afford, is then the princi-
pal source Of the value Of gold and silver.
Can any thing be more anti-C christian, or
less consistent with the true spirit of demo-
cracy than this species Of qualification And
shall we, the democratic republicans Of North
America, allow our country to be dependent
for its prosperity on such basis Can those
who believe in Christianity, conceive that
while teaching through the Messiah, that
worldly ostentation should be avoided as in
imcal to morality and the will of God, that
the Deity would render value of two metals
founded on that basis indispensable thereto!
But it may be alleged that however it may
be contrary to the principles of genuine de-
mocracy, or Christianity, to found human pros
perity on value attached to gold and silver,
by the rices Of aristocrais, the m0narchist, and
the despois Of the uorld, yet that experience
has proved the necessity of this basis. This
is the argument used in favor Of monarchical
and aristocraiical government. At the outset
of our republic. melancholy predictions were
founded on the lessons Of experience II was
shown that in the old world, democratic re-
publicans had never succeeded for any length
OF time and thence the inference that we
could not have free republic. But did our
ancestors on that account hesitate to make the
grand, and will still hope, successful expert
ment of our republican constitution Those
who reason from Europe to America, found
their arguments on inadmissible premises.
They would reason as if America bore the
same relation to Europe, as young tree to an
old one; as if one country in the old world
ever was as ours now is, or our country ever
could be what Europe is at present. Though
in some respects young, in others our country
is more mature than Europe.
How many proscriptive abuses are adhered
to in that part Of the world, which we have
re medied In how many improvements have
we already taken the lead
deny that gold and silver are indispensa-
bic to human prosperity, though admit that
so long as pride, vanity, and ostentation, are
inseparable from human nature, these articles
will, of all other merchandise, be most con-
venienl as the medium of commercial inter-
change between those who will not, or can
not, resort to paper credit. Moreover, as a
received standard Of value. they are highly
J. important, and the ability to pay specie will
always be beneficial as one of the sources of
pecuniary credit. They are usually spoken
of as the basis of our currency in bank notes,
and yet every man of common sense must
know that they constitute only small fraction
of the means which our banks have to meet
their obligations.
When it is seen that piece Of coin may
wear in circulation until condemned as too
light, and that during the century in which
this result has been effected, it has produced,
nothing more than sentimental impression Of
its possible utility upon the minds Of its pos
SEES sors that meanwhile its cost has been
many times sunk by the accumulation of lost
interest /; can any one be surprised that hui
man ingenuity should devise less costly means
of exciting similar sentiment: and shouid
those means be devised, can it be imagined that
they ,ciH be disused. Evidently both reason
and sand experience demon strateS that they are
uastly more liable to be abused
i "A. orL