THE PROVINCIAL LAND BANK. ^ 



party the least of two evils, they fell in with the scheme; and, after 

 that, the country was divided between the public and private bank. 

 The House of Eepresentatives was nearly equally divided, but 

 rather favorers of the private bank, from the great influence of the 

 Boston members In the House, and a great number of persons of the 

 town out of it. The controversy had a universal spread, and di- 

 vided towns, parishes, and particular families. 



"At length, after a long struggle, the party for the public bank 

 prevailed in the General Court for a loan of £.50.000 in bills of credit, 

 which were put into the hands of trustees, and let for five years 

 only, to any of the inhabitants, at 5 per cent interest, one-fifth part 

 of the principal to be paid annually. This lessened the number of 

 the party for the private bank; but it increased the zeal, and raised 

 a strong resentment, in those that remained."— (Thomas Hutchin- 

 son: "History of Massachusetts," vol. ii., p 188). 



It is utterly inconceivable that any company of sane men should 

 have seriously proposed to issue paper money destitute of all fixed 

 and determinate value as compared with gold and silver, imagining 

 that such money would circulate as currency. If paper money has 

 "no certain value compared with silver and gold," it has no certain 

 value compared with any commodity whatever; that is, it has no 

 certain value at all: for, since gold and silver have a determinate 

 value as compared with exchangeable commodities, all paper money 

 that may be estimated in terms of marketable commodities, may be 

 estimated in terms of silver and gold. Our author will permit us to 

 suspect that his uncompromising hostility, not only to the land- 

 bank, but also to everything else of a democratic tendency, blinded 

 his eyes to the true nature of the institution he describes. Our sus- 

 picion is strengthened when we read that the paper money in ques- 

 tion was to have a determinate value, since it was to have been se- 

 cured by a pledge of "real estate to a sufficient value." The pro- 

 jectors of the scheme probably Intended that the members of the 

 company should redeem their bills from the bill-holders by receiv- 

 ing them, in all payments, in lieu of determinate and specified 

 amounts of gold and silver; and such a method of redemption 

 would have given the bills "a certain value as compared with sil- 

 ver and gold."* 



In view of this extract from Governor Hutchinson's history, we 



*"North Carolina, just after the Revolution, issued a large amount 

 of paper, which was made receivable in dues to her. It was also made a 

 legal tender; which, of course, was not obligatory after the adoption of 

 the Federal Constitution. A large amount, say between four and five 

 hundred thousand dollars, remained in circulation afttrthat period, and 

 continued to circulate for more than twenty years, at par with gold and 

 silver duringthe whole time, with no otiier ad vantage than being received 

 in the revenue of the State, whicli was much less than one hundred thou- 

 sand dollars per annum."— John C. Calhoun: Speech on the bill author- 

 izing an issue of treasury notes. Sent. 19. isar. 



