Paper Currency. 



Sons of Boston! Sleep no Longer! 



"Wednesday, June 16, 1779. 

 You are requested to meet on the floor of the Old South Meeting - 

 House to-morrow morning, at 9 o'clock, at which time the bell will 

 ring. 



Eouse and catch the Philadelphia spirit, rid the community of those 

 monopolizers and extortioners, who, like canker-worms, are gnawing 

 at your vitals. They are reducing the currency to waste-paper by re- 

 fusing to take it for many articles. The infection is dangerous. We 

 have borne with such wretches ; but will bear no longer. Public ex- 

 ample at this time would be a public benefit. You, then, that have 

 articles to sell, lower your prices; you that have houses to let, refuse 

 not the currency for rent; for, inspired with the spirit of those heroes 

 and patriots who have struggled and bled for their country, and moved 

 with the cries and distress of the widow, the orphan, and the neces- 

 sitous, Boston shall no longer be your place of security. Ye inhabit- 

 ants of Nantucket, who first introduced the accursed crime of refus- 

 ing paper money, quit the place, or destruction shall attend your 

 property, and your persons be the object of vengeance. 



K. B. Lawyers, keep yourselves to yourselves. 



But terrorism could not give economic force to a currency, the re- 

 demption of which was questionable. The abundance of this paper 

 money made it of little value, and it was the old story over again. 

 All the noble sentiments respecting public faith, which had been ut- 

 tered by the government, were forgotten or ignored, and a scaling 

 down plan of redemption was adopted. Judge Story in his "Com- 

 mentaries on the Constitution," tells us what became of these bills: 



" In March, 1780, the States were required to bring in the bills at 

 forty for one; and new bills were then to be issued in lieu of them, 

 bearing an interest of five per cent, redeemable in six years, to be issued 

 on the credit of the individual States and guaranteed by the United 

 States. This new scheme of finance was equally unavailing. Few of 

 the old bills were brought in, and, of course, few of the new were is- 

 sued. At last the continental bills became of so little value that they 

 ceased to circulate and, in the course of the year 1780, they quietly 

 died in the hands of their possessors. Thus were redeemed the solemn 

 pledges of the national government ! Thus was a paper currency, 

 which was declared to be equal to gold and silver, suffered to perish 

 in the hands of persons compelled to take it, and the very enormity of 



