703. BANKS, Excess of.—[continued].
A parcel of mushroom
banks have set up in every State, have filled
the country with their notes, and have thereby
banished all our specie. A twelvemonth ago
they all declared they could not pay cash for
their own notes, and notwithstanding this act
of bankruptcy, this trash has of necessity been
passing among us, because we have no other
medium of exchange, and is still taken and
passed from hand to hand, as you remember
the old Continental money to have been in
the Revolutionary war; every one getting rid
of it as quickly as he can, by laying it out in
property of any sort at double, treble and
manifold higher prices. * * * A general
crush is daily expected when this trash will
be lost in the hands of the holders. This will
take place the moment some specie returns
among us, or so soon as the government will
issue bills of circulation. The little they have
issued is greatly sought after, and a premium
given for them which is rising fast.—
To Phillip Mazzei.
Ford ed., ix, 524.
(M.
Aug. 1815)
