Maumee express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1837-1838, 1837-04-22

of wealth. "Ihe adventurers," says the
Able Rynal, "were not satisfied with
Bare association withthe Company which
bad obtained the possession Of that fine
country. The prorrietors were applied
to from all quarters for large tracts of
lands for plantations, which, it was re-
presented. would yield, in a few years,
Ia hundred times the sum necessary to be
laid out upon them. The richest and
most intelligent men in the nation were
the most forward in making these pur-
chases and such as could not afford to
become purchasers, solicited the man.
agement of plantations, or even to be
employed in cultivating them. During
this general infatuation, all persons who
offered themselves, whether Frenchmen
or foreigners, were prorniscuously crow
ded into ships. and landed on the burn
ing sands of the Biloxi, district in
West Florida, between Pensacola and
the mouth of the Mississippi, where a
French settlement had been inconsider-
ately formed, and where these unhappy
men perished in thousands, of want and
vexalion, the miserable victims of po-
li,ical imposture and of their own blind
avidity.'
| But these were not the only vaunted
sources of expected returns. The Com
pany had loaned to the government l.
2OO,OOO,OOO, and had taken as pledge,
to secure and pay this debt, all the reven-
ues of the country, amounting, on paper,
to the sum of O6,OOO,0OO per annum.
fBut the currency, with which these op.
erations were performed, and which had
flooded the country, consisted of the
Companys bank paper, which they had
issued to the amount of one thousand
millions. This currency was bottomed
on great deal less specie even than the
banking of the present day; and by an
arret of the 2lst December, l7l9, the
bank paper was ordered to be taken at
per cent. above the value of the cur
rent coins which it professed to repre-
sent. ,..
In the midst of this general infatua-
ton, Law himself became the idol Of
popular favor. Honors were showered
upon him from all quarters. The learn
ed societies contended with each other
for the distinction of enrolling his name
among their members; and the govern
ment, in order that it might avail itself
of his services, and that he might avail
himself of the official station, made him
comptroller-general of the finances, or,
in other, words, prime minister of the
kingdom. How coolly and adrotly he
carried on his great hoax, is evident from
the following remarks of Posllethwate,
In which, after enumerating the various
Eextraordinary sights and wonders to
which the times had given birth, he says
"Seventhly and lastly-We have seen
a private gentleman raise himself by the
dexterity of his management, to be the
greatest subject in the world to have
all the princes, the nobility, the public
ministers, and even the government it.
self, at his beck, and above three hun
dred coaches. of morning at his levee
himself behaving with all the modesty
imaginable; not elevated by his good
fortune, nor discomposed by the applica-
ton to SO much business, but calm and
serene, and always present to himself
answering briefly and pertinently to ev-
cry new discourse, despaiching every
body's business with readiness inimita-
bic, and every day producing new won
ders in the great affair of the public
which was upon bis hands,
Thus armed with the whole financial
power of the country, there seemed to
be no bounds to the operations Of the
Company of which Law was the head.
The whole thing became fancy stock,
and u thought or calculation of returns
Or dividends was swallowed up in the
enormous speculation upon the shares
The original proprietors
we're in haste to make all the money they
;ould, and to convert their shares into
gold; and the few other bankers who 5
lad kept aloof from the speculation,
oreseeing that a great crisis was sap,, u
fastened to collect all the :
specie they could lay their hands upon, \
ind began to drain the Company's cof- :
ers by all the means within their reach. u
At this period the shares had reached y
he enormous price of 10000 livres, at Q
which price their aggregate nominal ?
'alue exceeded by more than eighty ?
ines the amount of all the specie in the Il
country. In this state Of things, the gown
which had wilfully and wicked n
y lentits aid to the delusion of its infat-
lated subjects, saw that ruin was the |,
'nly remedy, and that this mighty fabric v
must be Frustrated ia the dust upon the n