5394. MONEY, Standard.—[further continued] .
There is one evil which
awakens me at times, because it jostles me
at every turn. It is that we have now no
measure of value. I am asked eighteen dollars
for a yard of broadcloth, which, when we
had dollars, I used to get for eighteen shillings;
from this I can only understand that
a dollar is now worth but two inches of
broadcloth, but broadcloth is no standard of
measure or value. I do not know, therefore,
whereabouts I stand in the scale of property,
nor what to ask, or what to give for it. I
saw, indeed, the like machinery in action in
the years '80 and '81, and without dissatisfaction;
because in wearing out, it was working
out our salvation. But I see nothing in
this renewal of the game of “Robin's Alive”
but a general demoralization of the nation,
a filching from industry its honest earnings,
wherewith to build up palaces, and raise
gambling stock for swindlers and shavers,
who are to close, too, their career of piracies
by fraudulent bankruptices.—
To Nathaniel Macon. Washington ed. vii, 111.
Ford ed., x, 121.
(M.
1819)
