Collected Political Writings of James Otis. Otis James

the present state of the currency and commerce of this province afford room for much speculation and discourse is certain; and it is heartily to be wished that people would act as well as speculate, till things are set right. His Honor asserts, that “gold passes at too high a rate compared with silver.” I was at first as much surprised at this assertion, as his Honor ever was at a “whimsical conscience,” for, at the late conference of both Houses, about a fortnight before his Honor published his last thoughts, he very strenuously opposed the province treasurer’s being impowered to contract for gold, and “eventually (as I think he expressed it) making gold a tender”; his Honor then urged “that matters stood very well,” that “the prices already set to gold and silver, all things considered were as good as might be” that “there had then been no difficulty about gold” that “a Johannes

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      had universally passed for eight Dollars” that “the man, who should refuse gold at that rate, would be hiss’d out of all company and society”; and “(as we commonly express it) bring himself into a praemunire” that “innovations, relating to currency, are very dangerous”; and “that the very moving this matter would have a tendency to alarm the people” with much more to the same purpose. After this it was not to be expected that in a fortnight his Honor would be the first to sound this very alarm in a common news paper, and that with an addition of his own name; which very justly imports great weight, as well as sound. Other people (who have published their thoughts, while matters were in debate before, or in the contemplation of the Legislators, and undetermined by them) have been deemed seditious scriblers, incendiaries, and have been solemnly given to understand that it would be taken ill if any thing should be published relating to government, or the administration of liberty of a Briton, and those very important branches of it, the liberty of speech, and of the Press. His Honor has an undoubted right to appear, when he pleases, with his name at full length, in every news paper upon the continent, and so have I, and so has my honest neighbour Mr. Cooke the Cobbler. His Honour, a few sentences further on, accounts in part for his change of stile; “I was in hopes upon my first thoughts, that there was not sufficient grounds for this alarm, and that we might go on for twelve years to come, as well as we have done for twelve years past; but, upon consideration, I find, this cannot be.” From all which I think it clear that his Honor has changed his opinion since the setting of the assembly, and in Christian charity, it ought to be presumed to be upon good grounds, and if so, is one mark of a true philosopher, who always gives up a false opinion upon new light and evidence.

      THIS with his Honor’s example, will abundantly apologize for any sentiments in this answer which may appear to be different from what I advanced in the House of Representatives, or at the conference of both Houses; and hence I would hope that no one will impute such change to a “whimsical conscience,” or a “wrong head,” which epithet I find very liberally bestowed upon all who have the resolution to think, and act for themselves, even if such a fixed determination, should oblige them to oppose the Leviathan in power, or those other overgrown Animals, whose influence and importance is only in exact mathematical proportion to the weight of their purses: I would not by any means be understood, by this to intend a general reflection upon the Rich; for I sincerely declare, that I conceive the characters of a great majority of this class among us to be truly amiable and worthy.

      WE are now told that “it is absolutely necessary, that something should be done to prevent the exportation, being made altogether in silver.”

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      IF any thing can be done consistent with justice and equity, to prevent the farther progress of this newly discovered evil, it is past doubt that every honest man will subscribe to it: but what can be done? that’s yet a question. And before I attempt to answer it, I must be again indulged in expressing my surprize, that none of this danger should ever have reached, his Honor’s ears, ’till since the last sessions of the general assembly, considering that his Honor has for more than thirty years, professedly made money one of the subjects of his contemplation, considering also that his Honor, for many years made a great figure in the mercantile world, and is acquainted with some opulent, speculative, and inspecting, though no trading merchants, and gentry considering too that a great personage, said to be most intimately known to his Honor has been heard to discourse of the great advantages the jews might make here from exchange by reason of the present state of our currency; but above all considering that a man of war has been freighted with dollars, and a near relation of his Honors drew last summer, for five thousand pounds sterling and remitted dollars to secure their acceptance which dollars were bought with those very bills, or which amounts to the same thing, with the gold they were here sold for. “In order to judge what is proper to be done” his Honor refers us “to the time of the exchange of our late depreciating and detestable paper currency.”

      I am not for introducing a paper currency again, but it is certain the sudden exchange of it gave such a convulsion to our commerce that it never has, and it is much to be feared, that it never will recover itself; and it may be safely affirmed, that the benefits hitherto derived to this province by a silver and gold currency, if we add, the temporal and accidental advantages enumerated by his Honor, as parliamentary grants, supplies of the army and navy, during the war, &c. are altogether far short of an equivalent, to what we lost by that fatal shock. I never could compare this to any thing but a similar fondness of some otherwise very able physicians, for a newly discovered nostrum, which is consequently so violently administred to remove some present disorder, that the future health of the patient is risqued, and he is in fact left weak and languid all his days.

      That “trade once diverted, scarce ever returns to its former channel”; that “multitudes of people, constant employ and quick pay, whether they agree to take silver, paper or cockleshels are the riches of a country”; that “domestic improvements, and consequently the commodities raised and manufactured, are the surest measure of the wealth of a people” are observations ne’er the less true for being old.

      His Honor proceeds, “It was then the determination of the government, to have a perpetual invariable standard for the future.”

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      If the government so determined, they then undertook to fix, what strictly speaking is impossible to be fixed. For silver in the nature of human affairs, is variable, as well as gold, and must be so to the end of time; and no act of parliament can alter the nature of things. An ounce of silver is indeed at any one given time of the same value with another ounce of silver of the same fineness & stamp, and so is an ounce of pewter or lead; but every ounce of silver in the universe often varies in its real value. This sufficiently appears by the very facts his Honor has furnished us with, of its frequent rise and fall in England. Is it not a common observation, that all the silver in Europe has fell above half in its real value, since the discovery of the American mines? If by an invariable standard is meant, that the government intended to have a sterling standard, as to fineness that is, the same which now prevails in England, and makes the lawful silver money of G Britain, it is readily granted, this was their intent; and coined silver of sterling alloy, if any thing was intended to be established by the act of 1759 as lawful money of this province at 6s. 8d. per ounce. It is not of a farthing consequence, whether the ounce is called 5s. or 6s 8d. It was the silver of a certain fineness and stamp that was intended to be made lawful money. It is also granted that silver is the most proper for the computative money, or money of account, and if it were not so in itself, the long usage of commercial nations has made it so. But all this don’t exclude gold from being money, lawful money, true sterling money, and a legal tender, provided it be set at a proper rate, not left “to pass in that proportion to silver, as it bears in other parts of the world with which we have commerce.”

      This, with all due submission, seems to be leaving things at a strange loose for common people, in town and country; & they must be acquainted with the course of Exchange, thro the world, before they can judge how many Dollars to give for a Johannes. This with the unavoidable currency of Gold, where Silver is established, I suppose, occasioned the Act for ascertaining the rates of Gold; which is doubtless a good and wholesome Law, and was intended to make Gold