Gazette of the United-States. (New-York [N.Y.]) 1789-1793, February 10, 1790, Image 1

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    [No. LXXXVII.j
THE TABLET
No. LXXXVII
" Responsibility is the main faring of public prosperity
MOST inen have too great a conltitutional
indolence ever to make distinguished ex
ertions. The vis inertia of our nature is one of the
most llubborn obstacles to be overcomein acquir
ing eminence. There is such anaverfion in the
general run of mankind against making vigorous
efforts, that we find few men who attempt to per
forin any thing bold or difficult. The greatell
incentives mult be suggested to induce men toen
fage in arduous undertakings. And unless in
ultry is kept awake by motives of afliinulating
nature, the higher employments of life would
be neglected, and the important affairs of the
•world would Hand still. It is therefore a wife
expedient to put the weighty concerns of govern
ment under the controul of responsible men.
When a public officer feels hiinfelf responsible
for the effect of his measures, it creates foflrong
an inducement to exertion and fidelity, that we
may generally exped: to fee the public prosperity
promoted in proportion to the weight of the
responsibility which is imposed. The languor
and inattention, which mark the movements of
so great a proportion of the men employed in
public business, result from the imbecility of the
motives which prompt them to perform their du
ty. There are always certain causes in opera
tion pto draw us aside from the public good, and
can only be removed or counteracted by in-
Itituting responsible offices, where the force of
the motive shall be in favor of the object to be
obtained. If an office affords honor and profit ;
if it is held only on good behaviour ; and if the
public eye is at all times open upon the officer,
we may calculate upon his being faithful and ac
tive. Those difficulties that would deter other
people, he surmounts with alacrity. Hisrefpon
libility absorbs those inferior confidcrations
which tempt other men to oppose or negledl the
public welfare.
It is well for the community to guard againlt
intriguing men ; but there is much more reason
to ftiinnlate the lazy and negligent. Wicked
motives are not so common as weak motives, and
there is more danger that men will negledt to do
what they ought, than that they will do what
they ought not. If the momentous affairs of
government are not accompliflied by responsible
characters, they will never be done well or in
season. The emoluments of office fiiould be so
alluring as to engage arefpeitable competition.
This will bring into view the ableU candidates ;
and those who are unfuccefsful will stand as cen
tinels over those who get the appointments. By
this means, the duties ofoffice will be vigorously
performed, and abules either prevented or pun
iflied with a good degree of certainty.
THE OBSERVER.—No. XVI.
The re-eflablijhment of national credit, a measure
both of juflice and found policy.
WE must expecfithe people win be alive to all
those national measures which have a di
rect influence on their property ; this I conlider
not as an evil, but a great fupportof government,
for give them time to be informed, and the whole
weight of their influence will come in to aid the
measures of a just and politic administration.
The pain of acquiring property, and the bene
fits which result from poflefling it, will make a
prudent man careful how it is taken from him.—
Avarice degrades human nature, but a love of
property is a political virtue ; remove this motive
awl civilized society, will be destroyed. An ade
quate provision for the debt of the nation, and
for a fixed public credit, is a fubjeifl which vastly
engages attention. Some diversity of sentiment
is not half so strange, as that so many are united,
and can think and converse amicably ; neither
is this diversity any evidence of diihoneft inten
tions on either part. The particular situation of
American credit, and the unhappy consequences
of its pad decline, have been fumcient to perplex
the opinions ofmany worthy citizens. They are
willing to be just even at the expenceofall fuper
fluiries ; but having only little property and
that hardly earned, and thinking greater taxa
tion needed to retrieve national credit, than will
eventually be found neceflary ; there is a strong
temptation to fay, let the scene end as it hath
begun
Accustomed to fee American paper of low value,
they have forgot that a vail number of citizens,
relying on the honesty of their country, deposi
ted the whole savings of their industry, ana de
pendance of their families ; and that tliei'e very
people or their children are now in deprefled
&mtti ofdMxlxt^
WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1790,
cii cumltances, and kept from despair, by a hope
of returning justice in their country. Many
hundreds of planters who had fold their lands,
that they might locate property more advantage
ously for a numerous family, were caught in that
unluckly moment when business stagnated, and
a frontier situation was dangerous ; all these be
came public creditors.
The molt honest merchants, whose feelings
forbid them to violate the laws of their country,
limiting the high price of foreign articles,thought
it more patriotic to consecrate their property to
its defence. The estate of many thousand or
phans, hath beer deposited in the public treasu
ry, by those who had their pa;rimony in trull.
A prodigious number of private funds sacred
to religion and science, have been loaned to the
public.
The price of the loldiers fatigue, limbs and
life is yet unpaid to hini. When the nation need
ed every exertion of its fubjedts, and could make
no pay, the most industrious and patriotic far
mers fold their provisions for the public faith :
but I will not go on with this recapitulation of
fufferers, for I know that principle, and the pos
sibility of what can be done ; and not passionate
feelings, must form the public mind 011 this fub
jed., and be the ultimate ratio of justice.
An objection against restoring credit, in the
minds of some, is that the debt hath palled from
the original creditors, at a low price, and that a
fulfilment of the public promises would not bene
fit the fufferers.
That conliderable sums have been fold at a low
price, and parted into circulation is a faift ; but
these are only a small prvrt of the aggregate debt.
As little iuins of money compared with the whole
cash of the country, make a great (how at the raf
fling table, in palling several times perhaps, thro'
every hand of the gambling circle : So it is a
small proportion of the national paper, which
hath made the (how in circulation. The specula
tion in paper hath been a kind of gambling, ar
tificially kept up between dillant parts ; a few fa
gacions ones have been fortunate, and many have
been losers. Thus circumstanced, by many times
palling and repafling, a small proportion of the
public paper hath made a great appearance ; and
those securities which have circulated molt, have
much found and little substance, being many of
tViein liable to a tenfold deduction by scaling.
The great weight of debt is still in the hands of
the original holders, men who loaned or did fer
vicc for the country from noble motives, who
were conscious that the nation received from tliein
an equivalent for its promile—men who had rather
brave fomediftrefs in their private circumstances,
than fell their just for a trifle ; who were
determined either to realize a moderate compen
sation, or die with the refle&ion that they had
become poor in a good ceufe, and with a right to
have this inscription over them, " here lies the
man who facrificed-liis all to support American
liberty and sovereignty "
* ° ' • /• _ _
What can the fupreine legislature fay to such
iiien, or to their children when supplicating their
remembrance ? Shall they be told the sum is great
and there will be foine difficulty in deviling
means ? This allowed, but a reply is ready >is
there not more difficulty and diltrefs, in having
the whole' borne by a few, than by the nation at
large ?
Among tliofe who have alienated their public
bonds, there is a variety of cases ; but a few have
been obliged by neceflity, from the tardiness of
the national faith ; the lot of such, is hard and un
fortunate —if wishing and trying to devise could
give them relief, every benevolent spirit would
join in the exertion ; but I do not know it to be
possible, and may the rewarderof virtuous fuffer
ing do them right.
But this is not the cafe with all who have alien
ated their national paper. Many have done it
on the principles and for the purposes of specu
lation ; and have no reason to murmur at the con
sequences.
Many by improving the price of their sale in
some lucrative business, have realized a greater
sum, than the parent holders will ever receive
from the public by the inoft favorable reinftate
tnent of credit, which can be supposed ; such per
sons may speak much of their loss, but have no
to wrangle with the event.
It is well known that the war called up a set of
charaifters, in various departments, and in seve
ral kinds of speculation, who were calculated to
thrive by public confufion, but not by persever
ing industry ; tliefe men held considerable sums
of national paper, which they have since aliena
ted. If the public had at that time paid them in
coin, it would long since have gone from their
hands, and been in pofleflion of the very pefons,
$kks.
[ ~ Publijhed on IVednefday and. Saturday.]
who now hold their public bonds. Men calcula
ted to gain by luch overturns of society as hnp
pened in the American war ; and deliitute of econ*
omy and hard industry, must fall into decline on
the restoration of order, and pcace. The poor
are fubjecfts of our humane commiseration, tlio
imprudence be the cause of their poverty ; but
such as would have scattered their property,
if the nation had early paid them in dollars of
Mexico, have no jull right to clamour againll a
re-establishment of public credit. The meafurcs
of a nation cannot be accommodated to the situa
tion of one or a hundred imprudent subjects ;
and to attempt it would be unjust to a tenfold
greater number, who have a sacred claim on pub
lic truth.
A power to alienate property, is one of the
rights of man,which government ought not to in
vade either diredlly or indirefty by
measures. Suppose [ hold a government bond of
100 dollars, fairly obtained ; isnotfuch bond my
own property ? Have I not the fame right to alie
nate this, as any other kind of property ? Am I
not my own judge of the time, place, and price
of exchange in sale ? Every man knows bell his
own opportunities, and may advance his interest
by felling at a large discount, and this has been
done by many who have fold. For government
to interpose arbitrarily in these matters is destroy
ing its own credit, and an indire<ft way of fraud
ing those who patiently depended on the public
truth. A power of alienating and transfering is
one cooluleration which gives value to any kind
of property, had there been more traflick in na
tional paper, it would always have brought a
greater price. So long as much the greater part
of the public obligations remains with the origi
ginal loaners ; as the transferals which have ta
ken place were without fraud ; considering also
that in many instances, it was more advantageous
for the feller to alienate than to retain his pro
perty ; I cannot determine that it is either just or
politic for government to intermeddle in the mat
ter.
It is not poflible for a nation, or any branch of
its executive to overlook all the private bargains of
jockies, speculators and dunces—No rule of right
can be ascertained—the expenceof attempting it
would bring a new debt on the country, ten fold
greater than all the savings which can be made :
these people must do their own business ; if they
pra&ice knavery the law is open, and the judges
of the land will punish them. The faith of a na
tion is sacred, and its measures ought to be ftabie,
and not diverted from their course by a little
traffick in public paper.
It is from seven to fifteen years since the national
paper was ift'ued ; in a period of this length, na
ture and theneceflary changes of society, in any
country, will produce a ronfiderable revolution
of property ; and I believe it to be a fad:, that a
less proportion of this paper, than of any other
kind of property which can be named, hath
changed its owners. Even in improved lands,
which are the molt liable kind of property ; fix
upon a number of contiguous acres in any inha
bited part of America, of value equal to the nati
onal paper when it issued, and we fliall find a
greater proportion of these lands than of the na
tional and States debts, hath been alienated and
palled over to other owners ; this appears to me
an irrefragable evidence, that there hath been in.
the body of the people, not withstanding all which
hath taken place,a serious dependence on the pub
lic faith, and that it is llill their expectation it
will be re-ftablifhed. Inthefaleof these lands,
there have been many unprofitable bargains to the
fellers ; and many who alienated have spent the
whole amount in folly ; but these are the matters
in which government cannot fafely interfere—
business, commerce and the exchange of property
mull have their course. One quarter of the bar
gains made are detrimental to one, and foine of
them to both parties ; they were made in folly,
but for national policy particularly to infpedi
them would be greater folly, and a molt unman
ageable andendlefs business.
The confiderationsfuggefted in this paper, with
many others which I may hint in future, lead me
to suppose, notwithstanding all the objections I
have ever heard, the re-establishment of public
credit, is a measure of justice due to the creditors,
and that it hath always been expected by the most
honest part of the community, and by those per
sons best acquainted with the nature, operation,
and events of political society.
In my next number, I will endeavour to shew,
that the relloration of credit which justice claims,
is also a meafureof foundnational policy, and the
only poflible means of preventing very extreme
evils.
\_Frcm the American Mercury.]