Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1842-03-12

promises or orders for the payment of mon. |
ey, according to their tenor. And willis,
paper actually and truly redeemable in
coin on demand, is not money, still less is
that paper in any sense money, which,
whether profcssedly or not, is yet, in point
of fact, not redeemable in coin on demand.
Bank paper, if il stand on a solid specie
basis, has circulation by reason of its con-
venience, and its being therefore preferred
10 the coin itself. This preference NAV
continue TO exist so as to have the effect of
keeping suspended in circulation at all times
q quantity of the paper, and to free the
banks from the necessity of retaining al
ways on hand an amount of specie equal
to the an,ount of paper issued. And thus
cheap medium of circulation is supplied
in place of dear one. And if the redemp-
ton of its bills be continually enforced, and
the prudence of its conduct necessarily tcs-
ted and secured, the operation is useful
one to the community, as well as profta-
bic one to the bank.
But in this way the bank acquires the
faculty, not, indeed, OF creating value, but
of creating at will that which commands
value. 1t is tempted by the cupidity of
gain to expand its issues. The redeema-
bility in coin, set forth on the face of its
paper, comes to be fiction or a falsehood.
If the Government Of country see fit to
permit this operation to go on, or the peo
pie Inadvertently acquiesce in it, the grad
usl expansion of the currency stimulates to
an artificial excitement in business, proper
~ rises in nominal value, it is quickly ex-
changed for that which has no intrinsic
value, and every thing wears the aspect of
high prosperity, until the bubble Of inflated
paper circulation bursts throwing all the
currency into confusion, suddenly reducing
prices, arresting business, and filing the
community with bankruptcy and distress.
Hence, If ii be needful to legislatc con-
corning the coined standard Of value, it is
equally, and for the same reasons, needful
10 legislate concerning that which takes its
place, performs its functions, augments its
nominal quantity, effects its value and acts
potentially in all the relations of labor and
property. Ii is idle to forbid individuals to
coin money. if they be left to make at will
that which usurps all the uses of money
And, accordingly. in those countries where
the issue of paper to circulate as money
exists. it exists by permission and under
regulation of Government.
And IL speedily becomes government
question in another and still more impor-
ing currency as money, is, in fact, to bor-
row money, and command commercial val
ses, at will. Why, then, should individuals
or corporations have the exclusive enjoy
ment of this withdrawing power! Why
should not Government itself participate
in it, or take it ia itselfl 1t has done so.-
BY the issue of bills of credit or assignats,
1t has, under the pressure of war and for
eign invasion, absorbed all the labor and
property of the community for public uses.
There is no difference of principle be-
tween bills not redeemabe in specie issued
by the Government for circulation as cur
rency, and similar bills issued in the same
way by corporations or by individuals, ex-
cept that Government may have the pow
or to make them forced legal TENDER
Nor is it material, if they be not actually
rcdeemabe in specie, whether they be is
sued on faith and credit only, like the COM
mon promissory notes of individuals, or
whether they be nominally secured by the
pledge Of lands or effects set apart for their
redemption. In either case such bills con-
% stitute an act of 6orro,cing, not an emission
of money. In both cases, the course of
things is the same, whether they be issued
on public or private responsibility. They
continue to have currency as money, Sc
long as, from ignorance, inadvertence, OF
necessity, men voluntarily receive thcm.-
But under the most favorable circumstances
possible, and when such bills are issued up
on the highest conceivable credit, ano
though governments inculcate, and commu
mites believe, that the bills are equal in val
ue to coin, still they speedily begin to un
dergo gradual depreciation, indicated il
the rise of the comparative price of the
precious metals. And in general, of all sucl
issues, the faic is the same, gradual depre
citation in value to greater or less extent
sometimes absolutely TO nothing, having thu
effect to impose and levy a tax on the com
nunity, to abstract from it property or la
Dor without compensation, necriy to the 10
tai amount of such depreciation.
There have been, and may once mUre be
occasions imposing upon Government I'M
indispensable necessity Of resortng to sucl
means of obtaining resources as the only
possible ones to maintain its independence
or existence. In such cases, Government
representing the political unity, and WELD.
ing the physical force, of the nation, has the
right to take the property or labor of indi.
viduals for the salvation of all. And the
question of the form of taxation in which
this shall be done, whether by the forced
course of paper currency or otherwise
may be reduced to mere problem of ex.
pcdiency or practicabiity. But in every
such operation the premises arc case OF
%helming public necessity.