The
expenditures of the Government for the year 1838--the last for which we
have had the report--were forty millions. Thus it is seen that if the
whole revenue be collected in specie, it will take more than half of all
the specie in the nation to do it. By this means more than half of all
the specie belonging to the fifteen millions of souls who compose the
whole population of the country is thrown into the hands of the public
office-holders, and other public creditors comprising in number perhaps
not more than one quarter of a million, leaving the other fourteen
millions and three quarters to get along as they best can, with less than
one half of the specie of the country, and whatever rags and shinplasters
they may be able to put, and keep, in circulation. By this means, every
office-holder and other public creditor may, and most likely will, set up
shaver; and a most glorious harvest will the specie-men have of it,--each
specie-man, upon a fair division, having to his share the fleecing of
about fifty-nine rag-men. In all candor let me ask, was such a system
for benefiting the few at the expense of the many ever before devised?
And was the sacred name of Democracy ever before made to indorse such an
enormity against the rights of the people?
I have already said that the subtreasury will reduce the quantity of
money in circulation.
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