Columbus Democrat. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 18??-18??, 1837-01-21
For tie Democrat
MIR. RIDDLES LETTER.

Mr.. EpIToR:-I request the privilege of the
use Of a small part of your columns, IN order to
offer few desutory thoughts which have occur
red to me upon reading one Of Mr.. BIddles cur
rency letters lately written by ham to John z.
Adams, and now going the rounds Of the news
papers. Ii We are to credit, or place reliance
upon the pulis of certain parlIzan editors and po-
hticians, vino seem to feel themselves out of the
line of their duty when they do not eulogise eve
ry thing that is said and done in derogaiion of the
present administration, these letters are most mas
terly and unanswerabe productions, whereas |
believe the fact to be, that if they had appeared
even in the most respectable newspapers as anon
ymous productions, or without the name of IN.
Bidde' tackled to them, they would have passed
off without any notice, or without undergoing a
second edition by being so much as copied into
a single other paper, except, perhaps, that Of
some partIzan whose taste they might suit and
who happened at the time to be out Of matter to
fill up his paper
1t Is an old maxim among young men, that
"grey hairs ale not always WISDOM" and TO which
might very properly be added the assertion, that
bank men, stock joJbers and panic makers, do
not always tell the truth OF reason iarly which is,
think fully exemphtied in the case referred to.
1t is evident that the whole object with this let
ter writer in usherng forth his epstles to the
world at the time and under the circumstances
which he has, is but another attempt to caole the
people of the United States into surrender
of their pecuniary concerns arr transactions, to
that monled arstocracy, among whom he himself
has been so prominent Mr.. Blddle charges the
whole OF the late and present embarrassment in
the money market, to the mismanagement of the
revenue and specie treasury order; and sets out,
1929, with no longer notice than from the list
of March preceding, the United States Bank
paid the amount of $S,7l5,462 81 Of the pub
lie debt; and that although it took the whole
amount then in the treasury of the United States,
except the sum of $l64,365 and although two
millions of this amount was paid TO foreigners, Il
was done without producing any sensible afiec
upon the country. This case is presented, o
course, to show his superior skill and sagacity il
regulating money matters; but it untortunatel!
proves too much for him and his coadjutors
e for if they could do this much in 1929, the,
b could have done as much in 1882, after the U. s
D Bank charter was vetoed; and amounts virtual
to an admission that the panic during that yea
:, was attributable to the Bank; or in other words
that the Bank and its friends could have prevent
y ed tiff they had thought proper to do so.
The manner in which he charges the treasur
to have been mismanaged, is because the secre
d taiy of the treasury has caused the portion
o of the funds in the public treasury, which wer
/ given to the States under the distribution ac
y passed at the last session of Congress- to b
V removed to each of those States, in their respeC
tive proportions, which he thinks ought TO hay
remained in the Eastern cities until the momeI
that the law went into effect: and then the me
"a | ncy not nave DccH aCtudlly ItiloNtu, Dut u
k amount have been paid by warrants from each
: the States, which would have been purchased b
II merchants and others wanting funds at Ne
= York aud other points at which the deposits WEI
- located and says, "ihat there is 20 indn dual, al
:, no State in the Union, that would not prefer pa,
4 ments in New York, or the North Atlantic cite
a to payments any where else; and for this obviot
reason, that money is worth more there than al
= where else" Now this assertion happens n
, to be the fact but the truth TO be, that money
the State Of Mississippi, for instance, is wor
If more than / is in New York, or perhaps "al
/ where else" If, for instance, in New York it
4 known that an individual has gwen as high as
y the rate of 25 per cent per annum for the use
money, his creditors will look at that crcm
- stance with much suspicion and socitude; wher
!, as, in this State, there have been within the la
~ three or four years more fortunes, or at lea
IS completeness made by borrowing money at Il
Xt means viii out capital. 1t arises from the We
On advantageous Investments which may be mat
with money in the public lands, and from Il
: great profits the staple agricultural products hay
=, afforded Of late years; and this is the case mo-
20 or less in all the new States. As to the fact III
Eastern funds usually command premium,
no more proves that money is worth more at Il
Eastward than it is here, than the fact that gre
~, sells at bit drink in our coffee houses prove
C. that all that is distilled is worth thatprce.
ne both cases people will purchase just SO much
:. them as suits their convenience or taste, and e.
~ pect so far to pay per cent to those whose bus