issued without being made a general legal tender. The event was,
that as notes payable in time are naturally subject to a discount
proportioned to the time: so these bills fell at the beginning of
the term so low, as that twenty pounds of them became worth no more
than twelve pounds in Pensylvania, the next neighbouring province;
though both had been struck near the same time at the same nominal
value, but the latter was supported by the general legal tender.
The Maryland bills however began to rise as the term shortened, and
towards the end recovered their full value. But, as a depreciating
currency injures creditors, _this_ injured debtors; and by its
continually changing value, appears unfit for the purpose of money,
which should be as fixed as possible in its own value; because it is
to be the measure of the value of other things.
3. _To make the bills_ carry an interest _sufficient to support their
value_.
This too has been tried in some of the New England colonies; but
great inconveniencies were found to attend it. The bills, to fit them
for a currency, are made of various denominations, and some very
low, for the sake of change; there are of them from 10_l._ down to
3_d._ When they first come abroad, they pass easily, and answer the
purpose well enough for a few months; but as soon as the interest
becomes worth computing, the calculation of it on every little bill
in a sum between the dealer and his customers, in shops, warehouses
and markets, takes up much time, to the great hindrance of business.
This evil, however, soon gave place to a worse; for the bills were
in a short time gathered up and hoarded; it being a very tempting
advantage to have money bearing interest, and the principal all the
while in a man's power, ready for bargains that may offer; which
money out on mortgage is not. By this means numbers of people became
usurers with small sums, who could not have found persons to take
such sums of them upon interest, giving good security; and would
therefore not have thought of it; but would rather have employed the
money in some business, if it had been money of the common kind.
Thus trade, instead of being increased by such bills, is diminished;
and by their being shut up in chests, the very end of making them
(viz. to furnish a medium of commerce) is in a great measure, if not
totally defeated.
On the whole, no method has hitherto been formed to establish a
medium of trade, in lieu of money, equal in all its advantages, to
bills of credit--funded on sufficient taxes for discharging it, or
on land-security of double the value for repaying it at the end of
the term; and in the mean time, made a GENERAL LEGAL TENDER. The
experience of now near half a century in the middle colonies has
convinced them of it among themselves; by the great increase of their
settlements, numbers, buildings, improvements, agriculture, shipping,
and commerce. And the same experience has satisfied the British
merchants, who trade thither, that it has been greatly useful to
them, and not in a single instance prejudicial.
It is therefore hoped, that securing the full discharge of British
debts, which are payable here, and in all justice and reason ought
to be fully discharged here in sterling money; the restraint on the
legal tender within the colonies will be taken off; at least for
those colonies that desire it, and where the merchants trading to
them make no objection to it[56].
FOOTNOTES:
[55] The best account I can give of the occasion of the Report, to
which this paper is a reply, is as follows. During the war there had
been a considerable and unusual trade to America, in consequence
of the great fleets and armies on foot there, and the clandestine
dealings with the enemy, who were cut off from their own supplies.
This made great debts. The briskness of the trade ceasing with the
war, the merchants were anxious for payment, which occasioned some
confusion in the colonies, and stirred up a clamour here against
paper-money. The board of trade, of which lord Hilsborough was the
chief, joined in this opposition to paper-money, as appears by the
report. Dr. Franklin being asked to draw up an answer to their
report, wrote the paper given above. B. V.
[56] I understand that Dr. Franklin is the friend who assisted
governor Pownall in drawing up a plan for a general paper-currency
for America, to be established by the British government. See
Governor Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, 5th Edition, p.
199, and 208. B. V.
_To the Freemen of Pensylvania, on the Subject of a particular
Militia-Bill, rejected by the Proprietor's Deputy or Governor._
_Philadelphia, Sept. 28, 1764._
GENTLEMEN,
Your desire of knowing how the militia-bill came to fail in the last
assembly shall immediately be complied with.
As the governor pressed hard for a militia-law to secure the internal
peace of the province, and the people of this country had not been
accustomed to militia service; the house, to make it more generally
agreeable to the freeholders, formed the bill so as that they might
have some share in the election of the officers; to secure them
from having absolute strangers set over them, or persons generally
disagreeable.
This was no more, than that every company should choose, and
recommend to the governor, three persons for each office of captain,
lieutenant, and ensign; _out of which three_, the governor was to
commission _one_, that he thought most proper, or which he pleased,
to be the officer. And that the captains, lieutenants, and ensigns,
so commissioned by the governor, should, in their respective
regiments, choose and recommend three persons for each office of
colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major; out of which three the
governor was to commission _one_, whichever he pleased, to each of
the said offices.
The governor's amendment to the bill in this particular was, to
strike out wholly this privilege of the people, and take to himself
the _sole_ appointment of all the officers.
The next amendment was to aggravate and _enhance all the fines_. A
fine, that the assembly had made one hundred pounds, and thought
heavy enough, the governor required to be three hundred pounds. What
they had made fifty pounds, he required to be one hundred and fifty.
These were fines on the commissioned officers for disobedience to
his commands; but the non-commissioned officers, or common soldiers,
whom, for the same offence, the assembly proposed to fine at ten
pounds, the governor insisted should be fined fifty pounds.
These fines, and some others to be mentioned hereafter, the assembly
thought ruinously high: but when, in a subsequent amendment, the
governor would, for offences among the militia, take away the _trial
by jury_ in the common courts; and required, that the trial should be
by a court-martial, composed of officers of his own sole appointing,
who should have power of sentencing even to death; the house could by
no means consent thus to give up their constituents' liberty, estate,
and life itself, into the absolute power of a proprietary governor;
and so the bill failed.
That you may be assured I do not misrepresent this matter, I shall
give you the last-mentioned amendment (so called) at full length; and
for the truth and exactness of my copy I dare appeal to Mr. Secretary
Shippen.
The words of the bill, p. 43, were, "Every such person, so offending,
being legally convicted thereof, &c." By the words _legally
convicted_, was intended a conviction after legal trial, in the
common course of the laws of the land. But the governor required this
addition immediately to follow the words ["convicted thereof"] viz.
'by a court-martial, shall suffer DEATH, or such other punishment
as such court, by their sentence or decree, shall think proper to
inflict and pronounce. And be it farther enacted by the authority
aforesaid, That when and so often as it may be necessary, the
governor and commander in chief for the time being shall appoint
and commissionate, under the great seal of this province, sixteen
commissioned officers in each regiment; with authority and power to
them, or any thirteen of them, to hold courts-martial, of whom a
field-officer shall always be one, and president of the said court;
and such courts-martial shall, and are hereby impowered to administer
an oath to any witness, in order to the examination or trial of any
of the offences which by this act are made cognizable in such courts,
and shall come before them. Provided always, that in all trials by
a court-martial by virtue of this act, every officer present at
such trial, before any proceedings be had therein, shall take an
_oath_ upon the holy evangelists, before one justice of the peace
in the county where such court is held, who are hereby authorized
to administer the same, in the following words, that is to say, "I
A. B. do swear, that I will duly administer justice according to
evidence, and to the directions of an act, entitled, An act for
forming and regulating the militia of the province of Pensylvania,
without partiality, favour, or affection; and that I will not divulge
the sentence of the court, until it shall be approved of by the
governor or commander in chief of this province for the time being;
neither will I, upon any account, at any time whatsoever, disclose
or _discover the vote or opinion_ of any particular member of the
court-martial. So help me God."--And no sentence of death, or other
sentence shall be given against any offender but by the concurrence
of nine of the officers so sworn. And no sentence, passed against
any offender by such court-martial, shall be put in execution, until
report be made of the whole proceedings to the governor or commander
in chief of this province for the time being, and his directions
signified thereupon.'
It is observable here, that by the common course of justice, a man is
to be tried by a jury of his neighbours and fellows; impannelled by a
sheriff, in whose appointment the people have a choice: the prisoner
too has a right to challenge twenty of the pannel, without giving a
reason, and as many more as he can give reasons for challenging; and
before he can be convicted, the jury are to be unanimous; they are
all to agree that he is guilty, and are therefore all accountable
for their verdict. But by this amendment, the jury (if they may be
so called) are all officers of the governor's sole appointing, and
not one of them can be challenged; and though a common militia-man
is to be tried, no common militia-man shall be of that Jury; and so
far from requiring all to agree, a bare majority shall be sufficient
to condemn you. And lest that majority should be under any check or
restraint, from an apprehension of what the world might think or say
of the severity or injustice of their sentence, an oath is to be
taken, never to discover the vote or opinion of any particular member!
These are some of the chains attempted to be forged for you by the
proprietary faction! Who advised the g----r is not difficult to
know. They are the very men, who now clamour at the assembly for a
proposal of bringing the trial of a particular murder to this county,
from another, where it was not thought safe for any man to be either
juryman or witness; and call it disfranchising the people! who are
now bawling about the constitution, and pretending vast concern for
your liberties! In refusing you the least means of recommending or
expressing your regard for persons to be placed over you as officers,
and who were thus to be made your judges in life and estate; they
have not regarded the example of the king, our wise, as well as
kind master, who, in all his requisitions made to the colonies,
of raising troops for their defence, directed, that "the better to
facilitate the important service, the commissions should be given
to such as from their weight and credit with the people may be best
enabled to effectuate the levies[57]." In establishing a militia
for the defence of the province, how could the "weight and credit"
of men with the people be better discovered, than by the mode that
bill directed; viz. by a majority of those that were to be commanded
nominating three for each office to the governor, of which three he
might take the one he liked best?
However, the courts-martial being established, and all of us thus put
into his honour's absolute power, the governor goes on to enhance
the fines and penalties; thus, in page 49 of the bill, where the
assembly had proposed the fine to be ten shillings, the governor
required it to be ten pounds: in page 50, where a fine of five pounds
was mentioned, the governor's amendment required it to be made fifty
pounds. And in page 44, where the assembly had said, "shall forfeit
and pay any sum not exceeding five pounds," the governor's amendment
says, "shall suffer DEATH, or such other punishment, as shall,
according to the nature of the offence, be inflicted by the sentence
of a court-martial!"
The assembly's refusing to admit of these amendments in that bill
is one of their offences against the Lord Proprietary; for which
that faction are now abusing them in both the languages[58] of the
province, with all the virulence that reverend malice can dictate;
enforced by numberless barefaced falshoods, that only the most
dishonest and base would dare to invent, and none but the most weak
and credulous can possibly believe.
VERITAS.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] See Secretary of State's Letters in the printed Votes.
[58] It is hardly necessary to mention here, that Pensylvania was
settled by a mixture of German and English. B. V.
_Preface by a Member of the Pensylvanian Assembly (Dr. Franklin)
to the Speech of Joseph Galloway, Esq. one of the Members for
Philadelphia County; in Answer to the Speech of John Dickinson,
Esq.; delivered in the House of the Assembly of the Province of
Pensylvania, May 24, 1764, on Occasion of a Petition drawn up by
Order, and then under the Consideration of the House, praying his
Majesty for a Royal, in lieu of a Proprietary, Government_[59].
It is not merely because Mr. Dickinson's speech was ushered into
the world by a preface, that one is made to this of Mr. Galloway.
But as, in that preface, a number of aspersions were thrown on
our assemblies, and their proceedings grossly misrepresented, it
was thought necessary to wipe those aspersions off by some proper
animadversions, and by a true state of facts, to rectify those
misrepresentations.
The preface begins with saying, "That governor Denny (whose
administration will never be mentioned but with disgrace in the
annals of this province) was induced, by considerations to which the
world is now no stranger, to pass sundry acts," &c. thus insinuating,
that by some unusual base bargain, secretly made, but afterwards
discovered, he was induced to pass them.
It is fit therefore, without undertaking to justify all that
governor's administration, to show _what_ those considerations
were. Ever since the revenue of the quit-rents first, and after
that, the revenue of tavern-licences, were settled irrevocably on
our proprietors and governors, they have looked on those incomes as
their proper estate, for which they were under no obligations to the
people: and when they afterwards concurred in passing any useful
laws, they considered them as so many jobs, for which they ought to
be particularly paid. Hence arose the custom of _presents_ twice a
year to the governors, at the close of each session in which laws
were passed, given at the time of passing: they usually amounted to
a thousand pounds per annum. But when the governors and assemblies
disagreed, so that laws were not passed, the presents were withheld.
When a disposition to agree ensued, there sometimes still remained
some _diffidence_. The governors would not pass the laws that were
wanted, without being sure of the money, even all that they called
their arrears; nor the assemblies give the money, without being
sure of the laws. Thence the necessity of some private conference,
in which mutual assurances of good faith might be received and
given, that the transactions should go hand in hand. What name
the impartial reader will give to this kind of commerce, I cannot
say: to me it appears an extortion of more money from the people,
for that to which they had before an undoubted right, both by the
constitution and by purchase; but there was no other shop they could
go to for the commodity they wanted, and they were obliged to comply.
Time established the custom, and made it seem honest; so that our
governors, even those of the most undoubted honour, have practised
it. Governor Thomas, after a long misunderstanding with the assembly,
went more openly to work with them in managing this commerce, and
they with him. The fact is curious, as it stands recorded in the
votes of 1742-3. Sundry bills, sent up to the governor for his
assent, had lain long in his hands, without any answer. Jan. 4, the
house "ordered, that Thomas Leech and Edward Warner wait upon the
governor, and acquaint him, that the house had long waited for his
result on the bills that lie before him, and desire to know, when
they may expect it:" the gentlemen return, and report, "that they
waited upon the governor, and delivered the message of the house
according to order; and that the governor was pleased to say, he had
had the bills long under consideration, and _waited the result_ of
the _house_." The house well understood this hint; and immediately
resolved into a committee of the whole house, to take what was
called _the governor's support_ into consideration; in which they
made (the minutes say) _some progress_; and the next morning it
appears, that that _progress_, whatever it was, had been communicated
to him; for he sent them down this message by his secretary: "Mr.
Speaker, the governor commands me to acquaint you, that as he has
received assurances of a _good disposition_ in the house, he thinks
it incumbent on him to show _the like_ on his part; and therefore
sends down the bills which lay before him, without any amendment." As
this message only showed a good disposition, but contained no promise
to pass the bills, the house seem to have had their doubts; and
therefore, February 2, when they came to resolve, on the report of
the grand committee, to give the money, they guarded their resolves
very cautiously, viz. "Resolved, that _on the passage_ of such bills
as now lie before the governor, (the naturalization bill, and such
other bills as may be presented to him during this sitting) there
be PAID him the sum of _five hundred pounds_. Resolved also, that
on the passage of such bills as now lie before the governor (the
naturalization bill, and such other bills as may be presented to him
this sitting) there be PAID to the governor the _further_ sum of _one
thousand pounds_, for the current year's support; and that orders be
drawn on the treasurer and trustees of the loan-office, pursuant to
these resolves." The orders were accordingly drawn; with which being
acquainted, he appointed a time to pass the bills; which was done
with one hand, while he received the orders in the other: and then
with the utmost politeness [he] thanked the house for the fifteen
hundred pounds, as if it had been a pure free gift, and a mere mark
of their respect and affection. "I _thank you_, gentlemen (says he)
for this instance of _your regard_; which I am the more pleased with,
as it gives an agreeable prospect of _future harmony_ between me
and the representatives of the people." This, reader, is an exact
_counterpart_ of the transaction with governor Denny; except that
Denny sent word to the house, that he would pass the bills _before_
they voted the support. And yet _here_ was no proprietary clamour
about bribery, &c. And why so? Why at that time the proprietary
family, by virtue of a _secret bond_ they had obtained of the
governor at his appointment, were to _share with_ him the sums so
obtained of the people!
This reservation of the proprietaries they were at that time a little
ashamed of; and therefore such bonds were then to be secrets. But
as, in every kind of sinning, frequent repetition lessens shame, and
increases boldness, we find the proprietaries ten years afterwards
openly insisting on these advantages to themselves, _over and above_
what was paid to their deputy: "Wherefore (say they) on this occasion
it is necessary that we should inform the people, through yourselves
their representatives, that as by the constitution _our consent
is necessary_ to their _laws_, at the same time that they have an
_undoubted right_ to such as are necessary for the defence and real
service of the country; so it will tend the better to facilitate
the several matters which must be transacted with us, for their
representatives to show a regard _to us_ and our _interest_." This
was in their answer to the representation of the assembly [Votes,
December, 1754, p. 48.] on the justice of their contributing to
Indian expences, which they had refused. And on this clause the
committee make the following remark: "They tell us their consent
is necessary to our laws, and that it will tend the better to
facilitate the matters which must be transacted with them, for the
representatives to show a regard to their _interest_: that is (as we
understand it) though the proprietaries have a deputy here, supported
by the province, who is, or ought to be, fully impowered to pass all
laws necessary for the service of the country; yet, before we can
obtain such laws, we must facilitate their passage by paying money
for the proprietaries, which they ought to pay; or in some shape make
it their particular _interest_ to pass them. We hope, however, that
if this practice has ever been begun, it will never be continued in
this province; and that since, as this very paragraph allows, we have
an undoubted right to such laws, we shall always be able to obtain
them from the goodness of our sovereign, without going to market
for them to a subject." Time has shown, that those hopes were vain;
they have been obliged to go to that market ever since, directly or
indirectly, or go without their laws. The practice has continued,
and will continue, as long as the proprietary government subsists,
intervening between the crown and the people.
Do not, my courteous reader, take pet at our proprietary
constitution, for these our bargain and sale proceedings in
legislation. It is a happy country where justice, and what was your
own before, can be had for ready money. It is another addition to the
value of money, and of course another spur to industry. Every land
is not so blessed. There are countries where the princely proprietor
claims to be lord of all property; where what is your own shall not
only be wrested from you, but the money you give to have it restored
shall be kept with it; and your offering so much, being a sign of
your being too rich, you shall be plundered of every thing that
remained. These times are not come here yet: your present proprietors
have never been more unreasonable hitherto, than barely to insist on
your fighting in defence of _their_ property, and paying the expence
yourselves; or if their estates must [ah! _must_] be taxed towards
it, that the _best_ of their lands shall be taxed no higher than the
_worst_ of yours.