Betsy Gaskins (Dimicrat), Wife of Jobe Gaskins (Republican) / Or, Uncle Tom's Cabin Up to Date

by W. I. Hood

“Above all things good policy is to be used, that the treasures and money of the state be not gathered into a few hands; for, otherwise, a state may have great stock and yet starve. And money is like muck, not good unless spread. This is done by suppressing, or at least keeping a strait hand upon the devouring trade of usury, engrossing, great pasturages and the like.”—Bacon.

THE following is a carefully prepared collection of quotations from the writings and speeches of eminent statesmen, jurists, financiers and economists, ancient and modern, foreign and American. It will be found not only interesting and instructive to the casual reader, but of extreme value to the student for reference:

Alexander Hamilton (report on the mint, 1791): “To annul the use of either of the metals as money is to abridge the quantity of the circulating medium. It is liable to all the objections that arise from a comparison of the benefits of a full with the evils of a scanty circulation.”

Benjamin Franklin, April 3, 1792 (Jared Sparks, page 255): “Want of money in a country reduces the price of that part of its products which is used in trade. A plentiful currency will occasion the trading produce to bear a good price.”

Page 185 of his autobiography (speaking of his pamphlet on “The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency,” for the purpose of increasing the circulation): “It was well received by the common people in general, but the rich men disliked it, for it increased as well as strengthened the clamor for more money. The utility of this currency by experience became so evident as never to be much disputed, so that it grew soon to be £55,000, and in 1879 to £80,000, since which it rose to £350,000, trade, buildings and inhabitants all the while increasing.”

Daniel Webster: “A contraction of the currency, even if not sudden, contracts business, discourages enterprise and restrains the commercial spirit. A sudden contraction aggravates these circumstances.”

Henry Clay (debate on the sub-treasury, 1840): “The proposed substitution of an exclusive metallic currency to the medium with which we have been so long familiar is forbidden by the principles of eternal justice. Assuming the currency of the country to consist of two-thirds paper and one of specie, and assuming, also, that the money of a country, whatever may be its component parts, regulates all values, and expresses the true amount which the debtor has to pay his creditor, the effect of the change upon that relation, and upon the property of the country, would be most ruinous. All property would be reduced in value to one-third of its present nominal amount, and every debtor would, in effect, have to pay three times as much as he had contracted for. The pressure of our foreign debt would be three times as great as it is, while the six hundred millions, which is about the sum now probably due to the banks from the people, would be multiplied to eighteen hundred millions!... A man, for example, owning property to the value of $5,000, contracts a debt of $5,000. By the reduction of one-half of the currency of the country, his property in effect becomes reduced to the value of $2,500. But his debt undergoes no corresponding reduction.... But if the effect of this hard money policy upon the debtor class be injurious, it is still more disastrous, if possible, on the laboring classes.... Of all the subjects of national policy, not one ought to be touched with so much delicacy as that of the wages—in other words, the bread—of the poor man. In dwelling, as I have often done, with inexpressible satisfaction, upon the many advantages of our country, there is not one that has given me more delight than the high price of manual labor. There is not one which indicates more clearly the prosperity of the mass of the community....

“The revulsions of 1837 produced a far greater havoc than was experienced in the period above mentioned. The ruin came quick and fearful. There were few that could save themselves. Property of every description was parted with at sacrifices that were astounding, and as for the currency, there was scarcely any at all. In some parts of the interior of Pennsylvania the people were obliged to divide bank notes into halves, quarters, eighths, and so on, and agree from necessity to use them as money. In Ohio, with all her abundance, it was hard to get money to pay taxes. The sheriff of Muskingum County, as stated in the Guernsey Times, in the summer of 1842, sold at auction one four-horse wagon at $5.50; ten hogs at 6¼ cents each; two horses (said to be worth from $50 to $75 each) at $2 each; two cows at $1 each; a barrel of sugar at $1.50, and a store of goods at that rate. In Pike County, Missouri, as stated by the Hannibal Journal, the sheriff sold three horses at $1.50 each; one large ox at 12½ cents; five cows, two steers and one calf, the lot at $3.25; twenty sheep at 13½ cents each; twenty-four hogs for 25 cents for the lot; one eight-day clock at $2.50; a lot of tobacco, seven or eight hogsheads, at $5; three stacks of hay at 25 cents each.”

Horace Greeley (“Political Economy,” page 65): “They [false economists] assume that if half the money in a country leaves it for goods imported, the residue will perform the functions previously devolved on the whole, save only that there will be a general reduction of prices. I, on the contrary, issue an appeal to the experience of mankind to sustain me that in such cases the remainder, so far from subserving the end formerly answered by the larger volume of currency, will not even subserve half of it, for it will all but cease to circulate at all.... In its absence the people will quite generally be driven back to barter, a discouragement of industry and a long stride on the downward road to barbarism.”

Treasurer Spinner (that portion of his report for December, 1873, which was suppressed by President Grant): “When ... legitimate money becomes more and more abundant, credits are asked for and given on shorter and shorter time, until the time comes when there is money sufficient to transact all the legitimate business and to effect all necessary exchanges of the merchantable commodities of the country; then private credits will be almost entirely unknown, as will commercial revulsions and consequent panics.... Inflation can only be when the people are excessively in debt. Such is not the position when money is plentiful; for when money is plentiful people get out of debt and acquire habits of promptness, punctuality, and pay as they go.”