dence is at length shaken, then a reaction
takes place, and they immediately withdraw the credits they have given,
suddenly curtail their issues, and produce an unexpected and ruinous
contraction of the circulating medium, which is felt by the whole
community. The banks by this means save themselves, and the mischievous
consequences of their imprudence or cupidity are visited upon the
public. Nor does the evil stop here. These ebbs and flows in the
currency and these indiscreet extensions of credit naturally engender
a spirit of speculation injurious to the habits and character of
the people. We have already seen its effects in the wild spirit of
speculation in the public lands and various kinds of stock which within
the last year or two seized upon such a multitude of our citizens and
threatened to pervade all classes of society and to withdraw their
attention from the sober pursuits of honest industry. It is not by
encouraging this spirit that we shall best preserve public virtue
and promote the true interests of our country; but if your currency
continues as exclusively paper as it now is, it will foster this eager
desire to amass wealth without labor; it will multiply the number of
dependents on bank accommodations and bank favors; the temptation to
obtain money at any sacrifice will become stronger and stronger, and
inevitably lead to corruption, which will find its way into your public
councils and destroy at no distant day the purity of your Government.
Some of the evils which arise from this system of paper press with
peculiar hardship upon the class of society least able to bear it.
A portion of this currency frequently becomes depreciated or worthless,
and all of it is easily counterfeited in such a manner as to require
peculiar skill and much experience to distinguish the counterfeit from
the genuine note. These frauds are most generally perpetrated in the
smaller notes, which are used in the daily transactions of ordinary
business, and the losses occasioned by them are commonly thrown upon the
laboring classes of society, whose situation and pursuits put it out of
their power to guard themselves from these impositions, and whose daily
wages are necessary for their subsistence. It is the duty of every
government so to regulate its currency as to protect this numerous
class, as far as practicable, from the impositions of avarice and
fraud. It is more especially the duty of the United States, where the
Governmen