Early New York Paper Currency. 



55 



The general assembly continued its sittings until April 

 3d, 1775, when the country was in a state of revolution. 

 The provincial congress of New York which succeeded the 

 general assembly, arose out of a recommendation of the 

 continental congress for each colony to organize a gov- 

 ernment for itself. It assembled on the 20th of April, 

 1775, and continued the government of New York during 

 that period, and its resolutions and orders constituted our 

 laws. In conducting the great struggle of the revolution, 

 it experienced in common with other provinces and the 

 continental congress the exceeding difficulty of procuring 

 money for the subsistence of a suffering army. 1 Early in 

 its session a committee was appointed to take into con- 

 sideration the expediency of emitting a paper currency, 

 which committee immediately prepared and presented 

 (May 30, 1775) an elaborate report. 



The conclusions formed were, that there was a smaller 

 amount of gold and silver in this colony than in several 

 others, and that it would be impossible to collect a sufficient 

 sum without issuing a paper curreney of some sort. Three 

 modes were proposed by which it could be issued. First: 

 that every colony should strike for itself the sum appor- 

 tioned or to to be apportioned by the continental congress. 



Second: that the continental congress should- strike 

 the whole sum necessary and each colony become bound 

 to sink its proportionate part. 



Third: that the continental congress should strike the 

 whole sum and apportionate the several shares to the 



was referred to a committee. In the assembly the following was proposed : 

 *'an eye in a cloud, — a cart and coffins, — three felons on a gallows, — a 

 weeping father and mother with several children, — a burning pit, human 

 figures forced into it by fiends, and a label with these words — Let the 

 name of the money maker rot." The penalty of the law — capital punish- 

 ment, was in several cases carried out. See papers of that date. 



1 During the Revolution our revenue officers were in the hands of the 

 British. 



