Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-08-11
..nKs AND HARD moNEx

Tanks AM 8A<Lh1 - Af@O-F
: Times change and we change with
them. was an adage of the old Romans.
This is very fully illustrated in the views
entertained by ourgoyernment, TO w.t. the
Grant party, when compared with the
views entertained By the government a
hundred years ago. Then banks were
looked upon, not only with suspicion put
with absolute disfayor. Now they are
one of the most potent. perhaps the most
potent influence in controlling the polItl-
csl dsstinies of the United States. They
are main benefciaries of the taxes paid
by the people, they are the pets Of the
party in power, the legalized monopolists
of the financial business of the whole
country. Gold and silver, the only legal
tender recognized by, we regret to say, an
almost unrecognized, constitution, they
know not. These creations proceeding
from the hot passions and avaricious
appetites engendered by civil war. have
come to be recognized by the masses of
the people not only as legitimate institu-
tons but as essentials TO the existence Of
our republican government--without
which our commerce, Our mining, manu-
featuring and agricultural interests would
all be ruined as fatally as If swept with
the bosom of de=truction.- We are led to
these thoughts by the following extract Of
letter from John Adams to John Taylor,
of Caroline, March II, 1919:
l have never had but one opinion con-
corning banking, from the institution Of
the first, in Philadelphia, by Mr. Robert
! Morris and Mr.. GouVerneur Morris, and
that opinion has uniformly been that the
banks have done more injury to the re-
ligion, morality, tranquility, prosperity,
and even wealth of the nation, than they
can Lave done or ever will do good.
They are like party spirit, the delusion Of
the many for the interest of a few. l
have always thought that Sir Isaac News
ton and Mr.. Locke, hundred years ago,
at least, had scientifically and demonstra-
lively settled al questions of this kind.
Silver and gold are but commodities, as
wheat and lumber; the merchants who
study the necessity, and feel out the
wants of the community, can always i'm
port enough to supply the necessary cir
culaiing currency, as they can broad
cloth or sugar, the trinkets of B;rmiDg-
ham and Manchester, or the hemp of ST.
IBERIA. / am old enough to have seen a
paper currency annihilated a. blow in
Massachusetts, in 100, and silver cur
rency taking its place Immediately, snd
supply every necessity aud every con
venierce. l cannot enlarge upon this
subject; it has always been ioc)mpre-
hensible to me that people so jealous of
their liberty and property as the Ameri-
cans, should so long have borne imposi-
tons with patience and submission, which
would have been trampled under foot in
the meanesU village in Holland or under
gone the fate of Woods half pence in
Ireland. | beg leave to referyou to work
which Mr.. Jefferson has sent me, trans
lated by himself from a French manu-
script of the Count Destute Tracy. His
chapter ''0t morey" contains the seEti-
ment that l have entertained al my life
time. l will quote only few lines from
the snsly ical table, page 81: at is to
be desired, that coin had never borne
other names than those Of their weight,
and that arbitrary denominations, called
moneys of account 6, sd, Cor dollars and
| ceats), etc, had never been used. But
when these denominations, are admitted
and employed in transactions, TO dimin-
ish The qusntity Of m' tai 10 which they
answer, an alteration Of the real coins, is
to steal; and it is q theft which ever To-
| lures him who commits it. A theft Of
| greater magnitude and still more ruIn0us,
is the making of paper money; It is
| greater, because in this monty there is
absolutely no real value; it is more ruin
Gus, because, by its gradual deprecia'i 4
| during al the time of its existence,
/. produces the effect which would be
produced by an infnity of successive de-
teriorations of the coins. All those in
iquities are founded on the false idea,
that money is but sign" Permit me 10
rec mmsnd this volume to your attentive
perussl. life and Works Of JohR
| adams, rot 10, pages 1856