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THE REFLECTOR.
MILLEDGEVILLE, G. TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1818.
N'h 34.
HANKING.
M NILES WEEKLY 11EGISTEII.
PAPER SYSTEM—NO. V.
icrceive with much satisfaction,
ave in your last Register, but one,
1 an intention of publishing a ta-
hew that the pauperism ol' Eng-
dvanccd step by step with the iii-
hcr paper system, and that the for-
inevitable consequence of the lat-
a fellow laborer, in a good cause,
rtliy, independent and intelligent
all devote this letter principally to
pement of the same subject. In
vc shall not interfere, but on the
strengthen our opposition, and ren-
iope more efficient. Our coiiVsc
fferent though tending to the same
; and if I should happen to repeat
have said, the repetition of truth
harm—nor can two well meaning
no personal intercourse with
, thinking alike on the same snb-
en the force of their respective o-
Your tables of facts, will be unan-
and my own reasonings may pos-
then the public in the conviction
uses you assign for the effect, thus
exist in England, are derived sole-
c influence of the great paper sys-
1 the arguments hitherto used in
f that system in the United .States,
n drawn from the example of Eng
d it is high time that its dangerous
hould be opposed by facts drawn
same source.
f the nearest things to a moral im-
ty in this world, is to convince tnan-
t there may be too much of a good
The next step in the grade of inip.is-
s is o persuade them that what they
cn ail along considering a very great
, is, on the contrary a very great
It is therefore [ fear, almost a liope-
<> to undertake to apprize my worthy
itizeus, that the great exuberance
money, not only contributes to
e nation actually poor, by banishing
nd substituting an imaginary wealth
icc ; hut that it also inevitably im-
tes every class of people but one, by
[hem severely, for the benelit of that
le. The task however hopeless, is
aps quite impossible, especially as at
ament, the perceptions of many of
aders may have been quickened by
al experience of the truth,
finite,n is sometimes of service in ar-
, and 1 will begin mine with one—of
Banks are ingenious devices of men,
money, sanctioned by legislative
without discretion, to impoverish a
y banishing its specie capital, and
tlr people by making them tributary
Ivileged order.
is definition, I believe is not put in-
plain English by any of the learned
on the paper system, I will endeavor
lish it by a plain appeal to honest
sense, that usefulquality, which would
'■ invaluable, did it not so often con-
'come the dupe of interested rogues,
nary theorists.
der to ascertain the true operation of
tem, it is always necessary to look a
yond the sera of its commencement,
how matters stood at that period. It
veto simplify the. matter, if I first
:ase, and then apply it to this coun-
ppose then, a nation, previous to an
Stion of the paper system, was in
n of twenty millions of actual spe
ll was amply sufficient for all the
to which money is usually applied
rt, that it answered all the ends of a
vg medium. We are to pay particu
tion to the fact, that this money is
in the country—that it is bona file
erty of the nation, whiih pays no in
if whatever. At this period the
stem commences its operations, and
suppose a paper currency of forty
created by hanking companies pos-
an exclusive privilege of issuing this
bstitutc for the national .specie. Tw o
cnees will inevitably result from this
tion. The specie capital w ill disap-
s uses will be lost to the nation, as
seen to our cost ;•—for money is an
mbitious tkeinon—«it will not lie idle,
ndemned to obscurity and unprofita-
in one country, will assuredly find
reach another, where it can fulfil
tlaw of gold, “ increase and multi
bus the nation will lose its twenty
f real capital on which it paid no
and will get in its stead forty mil-
aper, on which it pays an interest
twelve per cent—to privileged cof-
, as I shall prove in a subsequent
his letter.
the twenty millions of specie dol
ing been folly adequate to all the.
ants of the nation, the inevitahl
ncc of doubling this capital, and
he wlmlc in circulation, must bp a
great diminution in the value of money—
certainly not less than twenty-five or thirty
per cent. The nation will therefore be tax
ed ten or twelve per cent, on forty millions
of dollars, for which it gains only an acces
sion of twenty millions of paper money, dc-
pi eriated more than one fourth in value.—
Here then is a dead tax on the different class
es of the community, excepting the bank
corporation's, to whom the tax is paid, of re
ally five millions, simply for the great ad
vantage of the difference between a circulat
ing medium of twenty millions, which was
actuallyjvhat it professed to he, and forty
millions of dollars, one half of which mere
ly replaces the twenty millions it has expel
led from the country, and the whole of which
passes at a depreciation of at least one fourth
its nominal value ! Is it a matter of wonder
that every class of people but the privileged
banking order, its pimps, jackails, satellites
and dependants, should wither under a tax
like this, thus silently and imperceptibly
withdrawing from the. proprietor of real pro
perty, and the honest laborer, a portion of
their gains amounting to nearly five millions
of dollars, and giving them nothing or next
to nothing in return ? But it seems we must
shut our eyes and understandings, and be
lieve against the evidence of facts so plain
and undeniable, that the nation is bc'ncfittcd,
by an annual tax of ten per cent, on the pro
fits of its laaor, paid to a privileged order,
while ils actual means of extending those
gains arc only increased by a few millions
of depreciated currency. I hope, that the
definition of banks which may have appear
ed a little startling at first, is now made clear
to the comprehension of those to whom alone
I address myself—the people of plain,straight
forward common sense.
It would appear absolutely impossible to
account for the blindness of the* people of
England to these obvious consequences of
the paper system, did we not revert to the
ingenious system of reasoning, which always
at companies the system of paper. All these
disadvantages, arc more than balanced it
seems, by the high price of lauds, labor, eve
ry thing indeed, by which the land holder
and the laborer are enabled to pay this
great tax to the privileged banking order,
and pocket a surplus besides. And this won
der is brought about by commerce, say these
ingenious rcasooers. Commerce, sic, cun
do great things, but it cannot make foreign
nations pay us more for productions of our
lands and labor, than they pay to other peo
ple. This is a species of favoritism not usu
ally indulged by nations. And here we will
take occasion to apply the foregoing reason
ings to our own country, to whose case they
are most strictly applicable.
^ cry few. if any, of the productions of la
bor in the United States except the labor ap
plied to the land, arc exported to other
countries. Consequently this argument does
not even speciously apply to any other class
of people hut farmers. To them I shall
prove I trust, that, it applies witli nearly as
little justice. If the price of labor is raised
so as to enable the laborer to pay his portion
of the great tax on the paper money issued
in the United States, without actual loss, on
whom docs this additional price fall ? On
those who employ him, and who are they (
the people ol the United States—-consequent
ly the nation is not enriched, because it is
only one class paying what another receives.
The nation can therefore only he benefitted
by this high price of its products and labor,
by its exports, and I have I think proved, in
a foregoing letter, that this cannot happen,
because we export none of our own produc
tions, except those of the soil, which we can
only sell in foreign countries at the price
which is given lor the same productions of
other nations, our rivals in the market. If
the merchant gives more to the farmer or
planter for his produce, than he can got for
it in a foreign market, the nation gains no
thing by it, since the gain of the farmer is
the loss of the merchant. The great plenty
of paper money gives, consequently, no na
tional equivalent, for the great tax it levies,
as I have before proved, on the people—be
cause the riralship of other nations that can
afford to sell cheaper, will always keep down
our foreign market. Tiic whole argument
>f the defenders of tire paper system falls to
the ground, the moment the tax which it lc
vies on labor, cannot be reimbursed to the
laborer, by his employer in an increaso of
wages; to the employed, by an increase in the
value of the product of this labor ; and to the
exporter, by his ability to lay the whole of
this addition on the foreign purchaser.
In the United States there are now in cir
culation, probably, notless than two hundred
millions of paper money. There iB no means
of arriving at certainty in this case, except
by a general call of the legislatures, which
l think ought to be made, fora statement of
the amount. When however, we take into
consideration, the number of our banks, and
the tact that they most necessarily issue
more than twice the amount of their pretend
ed capitals, to divide eight, ten, twelve, nay
fifteen per cent, of profits, independently of
expenses and bad debts, I think two hundred
millions of dollars a moderate calculation.
I am almost afraid to proceed, sir—the
consequences of the truths before stated,
when applied to this country, actually have
induced a severe scrutiny of the principles I
have just laid down, which has ended in a
conviction still more firm. On this two 'iun-
dred millions of dollars the people of the U.
States are paying an interest of at least ten
percent, being more than the amount of all
the taxes levied directly and indirectly by the
government ! And this for what ? For the
support of a privileged order—a paper aris
tocracy—a small minority of the nation—
which cannot become otherwise than a mino
rity—because the majority can never be ben
efitted by a monopoly. T'iie great mass of
the people are therefore forever excluded
from sharing any of the real advantages of
the paper system. Let me go on and divide
this blessing—this tr.x of twenty millions,
among the people, and sec where the greatest
portion—the heaviest weight will fall.
When the means of obtaining the necessa
ries or luxuries of life arc circumscribed to.
the laborers, and the men of real capital,
they have but' two alternatives- Either they
must make the labor or the real capital more
productive, or they must give up—the
one, a portion of the absolute necessaries,
the other, of the luxuries of life. Now, sir,
let us, after having reasoned from the poor
up to the rich, reverse the method and rea
son back again. The rich man can associ-'
ate himself with hanks, and incorporate
himself with the paper aristocracy, by in
vesting his real capital in banks, and thus
buying a title—that of bank director for in
stance, instead of a victim lie becomes an
accomplice, and shares, instead of paying a
portion of this great tax of twenty millions.
If he does not this he must retrench his su
perfluities to escape falling into abject want.
The members of the laboring classes, on
the contrary, until ,'icy acquire, either great
wealth, or great political influence in the ci
ties, are never associated in this dignified
order of privileged paper barons, simply
because they have nothing to contribute hut
their due portion of the twenty millions of
tax, which they are condemned to pay. In
deed, the powerful classes of a community
can generally manage to shift their burthens
,on the laboring people—tlicy gradually de
scend step by step until they Vail upon the
poor, where they stop. They cannot shifi
their burthens—there is iiere no further pro
gress—no reaction. Hero they remain, and
here they fester, and wither, and consume.
In no country where there are privileged
orders, is there not to he found a correspon
ding order of beggars ? These are the op
posite extremes of the system. The beggar
makes the noble, and the noble repays him
for the independence of which he has robbod
him, by subscribing to charitable institu
tions and poor rates. He takes from the
poor laborer the honest gains of his labor,
and repays the pauper by aims. And it can
not he otherwise in such a system ; for al
though by the bountiful distributions of Pro
vidence there is enough on the earth for the
people who inhabit it, if that is left to its na
tural distribution ; yet unerring experience
lias demonstrated in a thousand instances,
that there is no more than enough. There
cannot he a monopoly by one portion of a
community, without a corresponding want
in the other—there cannot be exclusive pri
vileges granted to one class without infring-
the rights of another—there never was
and there never will he princes without
paupers.
Industry always pays the piper for idle
ness—and a race of idle princes and nobility,
that is to say, a privileged order, is much
more expensive than an order of common
paupers. The people are taxed much more
severely to supply the extravagancies of the
one than the w ants of the other. The paper
aristocracy in this country stands precisely in
this situation ; it is taxing the people twen
ty millions of dollars to support its idleness
and extravagance. The laborer gets nothing
of the banks, and is paying a great portion
of this tax. The two hundred millions of
money,on which he is taxed, is no advantage
to him—it does not enable him to do more
work in a day than he did in the time of gold
and silver currency—nor docs he receive for
that labor, as much real value as when he
was paid in silver and gold. Yet is he taxed
some thirty or forty dollars yearly to keep
up the dignity of the paper aristocracy.
To be sure, sir, forty dollars is no great
matter—-a broker would earn a thousand
times that sum in a year, without benefitting
the country a farthing.—A member of the
paper aristocracy, would give that sum for
a fresh salmon, to treat his brother manifi-
cios ; and a speculator would risk ten thou
sand times the amount—of other people’s
money—in the desperate chance of making
ten thousand times as much more. And yet
notwithstanding this astonishing different
it does so happen that this insignificant class
of people who think so much of forty dollars,
do actually contribute more to the real rich
es and physical strength and happiness of a
country, than all the brokers, monopolizers,
and speculators, that ever did, or do, or shall
exist, in the world. In time of peace they
are the sources of all the comforts of the rich
—every time they lift their arms, some re-
nui iite to the comfort of men is supplied,—
and in time of public danger they are the de
fenders of our property—the vindicators of
my rights. I ha/e cast about to find, in what
rank of useful animals to class tho9ft by whom
their happiness is thus sacrificed. They add
neither to the wealth, or the strength of a
nation—they neither administer to our wants
by doing any thing useful, nor do they afford
the means to others to be useful—they are the
drones of society who consume the honey with
out either bringing any to the hive or guarding
what is there.—In short, I ain at a loss to
reconcile their existence to our ideas of a
just Providence, except in the way we ac
count for the existence of all the phenomena
of iltnral evil, by supposing them instruments
for the punishment of mail’s transgressions —
and thus classing them with plague, pesti
lence, famine and other sweeping avengers.
But enough of the picture. I do not wish to
disarm the indignation of the reader, by tur
ning its object into a tiling to excite pity.
Without therefore entering upon an enqui
ry into the comparative rank either of theso
classes occupy in the scale of a nat: >n, I
will content myself with repeating, that’the
laboring class amply deservos the protection
of the government, as well as the paper aris
tocracy, and that it is now stinted in ils en
joyments, and in a fair way of being beggar
ed by the tax it pays to the support of the
paper system. While the active capital of
the country, is thus diverted from those ob
jects that give employment to the industri
ous, to purposes of usury, monopoly, and
speculation, the laborer is left without a ne
cessary supplv of work. Ilcncc arises a
contest for employment, rather than for la-
lorcrs, and the consequence is that the la
borer, instead of being able to insist on an
augmentation of his wages, corresponding
with the depreciation of money, and the con
sequent high price of the necessaries oflifc,
is compelled by his wants, to work at any
wages the rich may choose to give. In eve
ry country, the means of the laboring class,
are so nearly on a par with their absolute
wants, ttiat they cgunot refuse to work a
length of time sufficient to gain an augincrp.
tation of wages, without starving. They
must work at incompetent wages—they pos
sess no superfluities to live upon in the mean
time, and whatever is taken from them—.is
so much taken from their daily bread. Hen re
it is that they first begin to feel the opera
tion of any system injurious to the whole
some prosperity of a nation. It is by them
national distress isfirstfelt—on them it bears
hardest—for they have least to lose. Follow
ing this upwards—we shall find the class of
people next them, possessing the smallest
portion of superfluity, becoming the victims
—an i so on until we come to the great privi
leged order, which has swallowed all, and
is revelling in the spoils of all below. This
is a picture of what England now is—and
what we are every day becoming. The la
borers, and small farmers, and capitalists,
are ruined—while those who have incorpo
rated themselves with the paper system, are,
revelling in inordinate wealth—the wealth
of the present race of British paupers.
Thesft were once the men who paid all the
taxes of the paper system, are now depend-
enton those who possess the fruits of their
labor. These poor victims have nothing
now to pay, and the burthen has fallen on
the next ( lass above them—the farmers, who
will soon like them become the victims /if the
same paper system. Thus every order of
man is approximating nearer to beggary;
and like the companions of Ulysses, each is
watting his turn to be devoured by this tre
mendous Cyclops. In the mean time tlidy
are becoming more easy victims, by' gradu
ally waxing weaker and weaker every day,
from their proportion of the great paper tax,
becoming greater by the total extinction of
one of the orders of men who assisted in its
payment. Thus are we enabled clearly to
perceive how the vital blood may he slowly
drained from the right arm of a nation, and
the wholesome vigor of the whole body de
stroyed, to foster the growth of some filthy
cxcrosccnce, that grows with the decay of
nature, and at length produces exhaustion
and death.
There are two causes however, that will
retard the catastrophe in this country, al
though they cannot finally avert it. Fortu
nately for our welfare, owing to the wide
spread surface of our country, and to some
little dissimilarity of habits and character,
in the different sections, we seldom find a
mania raging equally in aH parts, and at tho
same time. The diseases of tho mind under
which we labor, arc mostly caught from a-
broad, and make their first appearance like
tho Yellow Fever, about tire sea ports.—