658. BANK (National 1813), Paper, Specie and.—
It is a litigated question,
whether the circulation of paper, rather than
of specie, is a good or an evil. In the opinion
of England and of English writers it is a
good; in that of all other nations it is an
evil; and excepting England and her copyist,
the United States, there is not a nation existing,
I believe, which tolerates a paper circulation.
The experiment is going on, however,
desperately in England, pretty boldly
with us, and at the end of the chapter, we
shall see which opinion experience approves:
for I believe it to be one of those cases where
mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until
it is corrected by ruin.—
To J. W. Eppes. Washington ed. vi, 232.
Ford ed., ix, 405.
(M.
Nov. 1813)
