6374. PAPER MONEY, Silver for.—
It
is said that our paper is as good as silver, because
we may have silver for it at the bank
where it issues. This is not true. One, two,
or three persons might have it; but a general
application would soon exhaust their vaults,
and leave a ruinous proportion of their paper
in its intrinsic worthless form. It is a fallacious
pretence, for another reason. The inhabitants
of the banking cities might obtain cash for
their paper, as far as the cash of the vaults
would hold out, but distance puts it out of
the power of the country to do this. A
farmer having a note of a Boston or Charleston
bank, distant hundreds of miles, has no
means of calling for the cash. And while
these calls are impracticable for the country,
the banks have no fear of their being made
from the towns; because their inhabitants are
mostly on their books, and there on sufferance
only, and during good behavior.—
To J. W. Eppes. Washington ed. vi, 243.
Ford ed., ix, 414.
(M.
Nov. 1813)
