The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-01-21

ALAS How FALLEN.-But q lew months since and
thousands of individuals in community protested "a
prefer bank notes 10 specie. Now few are found Sc
poor as TO do them homage by advocacy. They have
been found 10 be the instruments of fraud fiction by
which property has been made TO change hands with
out The rendering OF an equivalent. Now that thelr
glory has departed and their beauty become faded,
while gold and silver still shine out with their natural
briancy, they are made TO perform quite different
office from that originally intended by their creation
Many OF them carry upon their backs like The scape
goat OF old the imprecations OF those who have sui
fered from their folly or are used to disseminate the
new views of honesty and new principles OF morality
which the miserable paper falsehoods themselves
have produced in the mind Of the community, by
first corruptng and then detrauding it, One OF these
sentiments under our notice last evening, writ
ten upon the back of five dollar certificate OF the
Girard Bank. II reads thus
Friend, you are not bound TO pay your fathers
debts The rights of people Is the sum oil the
rights of individuals therefore
''You are not bound to pay any debt contracted by
| a State out of the time in which you lived. Ame-
RIGA asks not of her sons TO suffer for the oies
crimes of past generations. Go, be worthy OF your
country"
We notice this sentiment which, fiom its situation,
thrust upon the notice of every receiver Of the note
for the purpose OF condemning the prncipe which ~
uters. We contend that we bound 10 pay the
debt of our fathers, since, the offspring of our inme
date progenitors we in common with them derive the
benefits for which those debts were contracted, To
tHat no Dement'S nave accrued, tnat borrower
money has been injulciously applied extravagantly
wasted and therefore has yielded adequate return
Is no justification OF the refusal to pay it back. AS
we expected, and would certainly have used the adj
yantages which Judicous appicaton OF those means
would have given bound to pay the loss
occasloned by an imprudent use Of them. a refusal
TO do SO, in every instance would es' absh the princ
Pile that we should only pay debts when II will prove
to our advantage, principle more remarkable for lis
convenience To the debtor than for its moral honesty
II We say that debts must be paid only by the parties
who contract them, We may with as much propriety
urge that when man dies, We are not bound TO pay
his children the debts that owed to him the chill
dren are of another generation and the obligations are
therefore cancelled. One man may, in consequence.
keep the property of another to which he has Just
clam at the expense Of the children of the latter who
have such claim This is one OF the preppsterous
conclusions which those must rush into who attenptto
mark the dividing line between the past and the present
We cannot from the very nature of the law which
regulates the succession OF generations, limit the
boundaries between them. The world is always fill
ed with the present and society is composed at the
same time of several generations. The infant just
come into the world the man who has reached his
prime, and the aged totterng towards his grave, all
exist at one and the same moment, and the acts OF
one are every day influencing controlling and bind
ing those of the other How then are we to fix the
limit at which the responsibility of the present com
mences' As the world is always present, response
by is always resting upon it, and as long as
tract made by society remains unpertormed, that
cety has not fulfilled all its just obligations And if
these views of the obligations of society correct
how much stronger are they when government be-
comes the subject OF their consideration? govern
ment dies until is either revouonized or de-
stroyed Its acts binding upon the future as
upon the presen far its authorized agents have
power to bind 1.-THE dealings Of others with il are
always upon the faith that has the disposition be
honest and the power and means to perform the en-
gagements into which it enters. Let us not then
shake this confidence in its faith. Let us not then
encourage such a dereliction of duty this senti-
ment would promote. The demoralizing doctrine by
sort of moral propriety is stamped upon the back
Of bill whose plausible face has been promising
thing but fasehoods all the days Of its life.