Arkansas true Democrat., 1859-07-27
The Rank Nota Law.


 the law prohibiting the circulation of ."picter rags" of the denomination of five dollars. Just now, others who require a little attention at our hands are urging their claims upon our consideration and we devote good deal of space to them.- However, we must glance at the positions assumed in the last number of the Gazette. The character of the arguments, or what ever you may choose to call them, advanc- ed by the opponents of this measure is the best evidence in the world of its necessity and advantage.
 The Gazette sets out with heavy ora cular opinion that the legislature transcen- de'l its power and the act must be proper ly resisted or lead to direful consequences, and all that sort of thing. Having en- frightened the world touching his views thereon and put them on record for the be- neht of future generations, he ext proceeds to give us Ca spread eagle" paragraph concerning life. liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and afirms that he has yet to see a man of note who admits the right of man to govern himself and denies him the right to attach value to any thing he chooses. If man pleases to give five dollars for piece of brown paper he is at perfect liberty to do SO. Many of us have seen children, compelled to remain in the house during rainy day, get pieces of broken glass and fragments of china, and play ' keeping store" With grave faces they would buy and sell, the bits of glass and china representing money. Will any man of note, or without note, stand before an intelligent people and say the young sters have no right to consider their pieces of crockery to be money?
 The next step of the Gazette is to admit that the only constitutional currency is gold and silver but it cannot see why citizen may not regard bank bill as valu- able. Considering that they are generally we'll executed specimens of engraving, we confess that we cannot see into 1t either To man who has a taste for the fine arts they might be regarded with interest, but we incline to the belief that farmers and the hard listed yeomanry of the country pre- fer the medallion work to be found on gold and silver coins.
 Next the substitution of gold and sil- yer currency in lieu of an unsubstantial paper one, is somehow mixed mp with the abolition of slavery. This can be done we are told by a parity of reasoning and the legislature
 Next we have a dissertation on vested rights and groan at the agrarian tenden- cies of democracy.
 This political Jeremiah then lifts up his head, ceases his wailing and breaks into q strain of prophecy We are told that pro- perty and labor will be deprecated, those who owe debt will have to pay out, the State debt will have to be met by taxation, all of which will be twice as oppressive as it would heve been if the legislature had let rag money alone.
 The article winds up with declaring that office holders and usIrers are only to be benefited and then refers to hard money countries. From all of which it is as clear as luminous and logical mind can make 1t, that the representative of thing is more valuable than the thing itself When you hand farmer a pictured paper and tell him that 1t represents half eagle, he may stupidly prefer 10 take lhe gold, for he reasons, if the paper represents the gold and before il becomes money must be exchanged for specie, he might as well take the gold al once
 Currency has its ebbs and flows andlike fluid seeks it's level If yon crowd out paper the specie flows in to supply ita place; if you permit the country to be flooded with paper, the specie ebl,S and retires- If the paper dollar is the representative of the silver one why use the substitute when the original is here? The Gazette seems to consider paper as money. when really, 1t only represents money which is supposed to be somewhere. Its value consists in its convertibility into Specie--if by reason of its being bill of broken bank, or pro- nounccd to be counterfeit, it cannot be changed into specie, it IS worthless. Yak ing the best case that can be made, ad- hitting that banks never break, that all bills are genuine, and that the bill-holder can convert his rag into gold at pleasure, we cannot sec that he is a whit better off than the man by his side with an equal amount in gold. Nor will the banishment of small notes depreciate the value of pro. perty and labor, for specie usurps it's place and the truth is a contrary effect produced. Years ago the great argument in favor of a paper currency was that there was not sufficient gold and silver for all purposes. The vast productions of gold within few years has destroyed this argument and now they fall back on "vested rights" and int- nations of possible dangers.
 Having demonstrated that vested rights, the value of property and labor and divers other things are endangered by the passage of the law, we wait to he shown that thoughts, floods, short crops and other ca lamities are to follow
 Meantime. what is writ, IS writ'' and if people will prefer specie to rags, solid silver to himsy, irresponsible paper and the thing itself to it's pretended representative; if they will obstinately refuse to be plum dered, shaved and cheated by banks, bro- kers and counterfeiters, they will do so against the brilliant light and vast knowl- edge poured upon them from the Gazette
 The Old Line Democrat.
 In view of the establishment of a naner.