The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1846-02-26
JEFFERSON ON THE CURRENCY.


JEFFERSON ON THE CURRENCY.
The following curious resolution was adop-
ted at a meeting of some Of the democrats
of Bedford township, Stark county, who,
though they agree with their party on all
other matters, do not approve of the issue
made on the currency question, by the late
State Conventon:-
ReSolred, That the democrats of Bed
ford, with unhinching adherence to the doc
trines of the true Jeffersonian school, will go
democracy as it DGs and as it is, and they
would cheerfully 60 Tod as he was, but not
as he is.
Now, if the gentlemen who adopted the
above resolution, are resolved to unfinching-
ly adhere "to the doctrines of the true
Jeffersonian school," they must become
hard money men at once; for if the consti-
tutional currency ever had true friend and
a Jealous advocate, that friend and advocate
was Thomas Jefferson. Yet do the Bedford
democrats indirectly charge him with having
been the friend of a paper currency, for if
their resolution does not mean that, it is
without meaning. Where do they find any
thing, either in the state papers or the
voluminous correspondence of Mr.. Jefferson,
which will warrant their imputng to him,
what he himself would have .Segarded as
among the worst of political heresles? Do
they find it in his letter to John Taylor, of
Caroline, in which he says-"The system of
banking is one we have both ever reprobated.
| contemplate it as blot left on our consti-
tutons, which, if not covered, will end in
their destruction; while it is already hit at
by gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping
away in its progress the fortunes and morals
of our citizens?" Do they find it in his let
ter to Mr.. Eppes, in which he asks" Are
we to give up our gold ard silver medium,
lis intrinsic solidiiy, its universal value, and
its saving powers in time of war; and to sub
sttute for it paper, with all its train of evils,
moral, political, and physical, which l will
not pretend 10 enumerateW Do they find
it in his stringent declaration, that the object
of the paper system is " to enrich swinders
at the expense of the honest and industrious
portion Of the nation?" Or, in what part of
his productions can they have acquired their
remarkably singular knowledge? Is their
opinion warranted by cognizance of any
act of his, which Can be interpreted into an
endorsement of the paper system? Having
taken some pains to inform ourseli OF Mr.
Jeferson's history, and of his opinions on
important questions, we should really like to
know if we have 80 far misunderstood the
import of his acts and words, as to have re-
garded him as hard money man, and he, all
the while, the friend of the unconstitutional
currency.
No-Jef1erson cannot be quoted in sup
port of any system of banking which con-
fers special privileges upon those engaged
in operating under it. The revolutionary
worthless had seen the evils which flow from
the use of paper as currency, and they
wished not the country to be delugea with
irredeemable issues. Experience had not
been lost upon them, and some of their
most solemn declarations were against this
system of constant expansion and contrac-
tion-ths making the measure of value, as
elastic as India rubber, or the consciences of
some of its friends and benefciaries. They
knew that, however it might delude for
time, with show of prosperity, it must, in
the end, bring corruption, ruin, and national
degradation, to the Union. Hence their
aversion to it, and the pointed terms in
which that profound feeling was often ex-
pressed. TO refer to Jefferson in support of
the paper system, is as inaccurate as it would
be to quote Washington against national in
dependence, Hamilton in favor of repudia-
ton, or franklin in defence ofrelgious into
lerance.