284 
fuch as would have been morally and po- 
litically impoifible to have taken place, 
except by, and during, the war ? 
3. What advantage or difadvantage 
had we, compared with Frazce, in the 
quantity of circulating fpecie, or {pecie 
capable of being drawn into circulation, 
when we fuffered ourfelves to be engaged 
in this war ? 
4. What have we reafon to expect 
will be our ftate with refpe& to circula- 
ting fpecre, if the war continues Srx 
Mownrus ; or as long as it cam continue, 
be that period greater or lefs ? 
5. Though faper, while confidently 
regarded as certainly convertible into 
cofo at pleafure, ferves as an equivalent 
for coin in time of peace, and even fur- 
nifhes a dreadful facility in commencing 
‘war, which cafh without paper could not 
furnifh , will it be poffible in a country 
which has a fettled order of government, 
‘and a fyftem of refources adapted to a 
ftate of internal tranquillity, and derived 
from fuch a ftate, to carry on a war with 
paper, no longer convertible into cafh at 
pleafure, with a credit which can be af- 
fected in its eféztial qualities by a fimple 
order of the executive, without any thing 
to apprize the public of the terms oa 
which the public: creditor, or the indi- 
vidual note-holder, poflefs their fecurity 
to-day, or on what other terms they may 
be compelled to hold it to-morrow? 
Would not fimilar expedients have been 
thought too extraordinary to be fupported 
even by thofe governments which have 
been treated as the moft diforganized. 
6. Is the circulation of //a// notes, in 
lieu of cafh, an expedient which can be 
permanently fare or ufeful? Is it not 
rather a refort which, though it may 
palliate fer a time the evils and diftreffes 
refulting from a moft alarming deficiency 
of cirtulating fpecie, mutt neceffarily 
tend to aggravate the evil whichit covers 
from immediate feeling and obferyation ; 
and to introduce that evil, with all the 
uncertainty, diftrefs, and lofs, confufion 
and ruin which accompany :t, into all 
the leading’ branches, and every minuteft 
ramification of civil life? And in the 
progrefs of this calamity to its ultimate 
fatal point, muft not the laborious poor, 
who have neither time, information, nor 
means of fubfiftence, adequate to cope 
avith the intricacies and hazards of fuch 
a currency, be the greateft and furetft fuf- 
ferers ; fo far as they can be drawn or 
driven within the yortex of fuch 2 circu- 
Yation? If they can mot be fo drawn or 
driven, 1s it not ineffectual ? if they can, 
Queries relative to Public Affairs. 
[ April, 
is it not evidently pernicious and deftruc- 
fave? | a 3 
7. Ought not al! paper currency, which 
on emergency is introduced as a general 
circulating medium, to fupply a general 
deficiency of cafh, to be fuch as repre- 
fents land, or fome certainly convertible 
property, fo that it may differ as little 
as pofiible from the affured value of that 
which it is introduced to reprefent ? 
8. Is not every partnerfhip of. govern- 
ment in the concerns of a national bank, 
and all authority affumed and exercifed 
over the property of fuch bank, or the 
terms of its contract with thofe who rely 
upon itscredit, inconfiftent with the foun- 
dations of that credit, which are, inde- 
pendence and inviolability im its engage- 
ments # ; 
g. Is not all idea of a public guarantee, 
whether executive, legiflative, or of what- 
ever form, abfolutely fallacious, when ap- 
plied toa banking company, and, infiead 
‘ef adding, does it not impeach and dete- 
riorate the credit and the fecurity of fuch 
a company, by affuming that it has not 
a fuffcient bafis of its own on which te 
reft, aad compelling it to lean on an over- 
bearing fupport ? _ 
10. Is nota government which makes 
vaft loans from a banking company, and 
infifts upon retaining the cafh of the com- 
pany for its own exigencies, and that the 
company fhall anfwer their’s no otherwife 
than by paper, till farther order, and then 
farther infifts that fuch company fhall be 
guaranteed by a government thus acting, 
preciiely in the fituation of a computift, 
who fhould multiply a pofitive fam by a 
Negative, by way of increafing it? If 
fuch negative fum be taken indefinitely, 
will it not neceffarily convert into nega- 
tive any definite pofitive fum to which it 
is applied? If definite jtfelf, will it not 
operate as fubduétion, leaving only the 
difference as the refult remaining on the 
pofitive fide? Sueh is the effeét of bor- 
rowing, and retaining, and inffting, and 
guaranteeing unqueftioned folvency by a 
government thus circumftanced and thus 
proceeding. Whether is it beft for fuch 
a government to pay the company ever 
in part, or to lend them, willing or 
unwilling, the finking weight of its 
name? 
11. If War wilbout invafion has been 
attended with /xcb circumf{tances, what 
would be the effect of invafion added 
12. Is it not now at leait apparent: that 
no naval fuperiority on our part, while 
France pofleffes tranfports, men, arms, the 
fpirit of enterprize, can fecure us Aet 
the 
