The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...

Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2
His opinion of the new bank scheme was given to Mr. Moss Kent in the following
letter, dated January 23d:
“I would have made an earlier reply to your letter of the 12th, but, ever since I
received it, have been confined by influenza and gout to my chamber, and chiefly to
my bed; nor am I now in a condition to be as full and explicit as the subject requires.
We must confine ourselves to a general view. I state it, then, as my opinion that the
proposed bank is unnecessary, incompetent, and dangerous. The plan now before me,
instead of checking corruption; will subserve the views of a wicked minister. What is
the evil to be remedied? An excess of paper money which, by reason of the excess,
has depreciated. And what is the remedy proposed? To issue more paper. The seven
millions of treasury bank-notes are avowedly irredeemable, and the other bank-notes
will be equally irredeemable when payment becomes inconvenient. The greatest
mischief is to be apprehended from the success of the scheme. On this bank, is to
depend, should it succeed, the pecuniary interest of the community. Look then at its
provisions. It is, you see, in the hand of the Executive, whose influence is already felt
in the remotest corners of our country: what will it be when aided by this formidable
engine? Reflect that money has more power here than in other countries, from the
disproportion between movables and immovables. It will, when collected, embodied,
and directed by one will, be irresistible.”
To Rufus King, a day later, he wrote on this same subject:
“I am pressed by private business, and days, my dear friend, seem to shorten as the
sun of life declines. I enclose, therefore, my letter to Mr. Kent, and pray you will both
have the goodness to pardon this half way of obeying your orders. In addition to what
the enclosed contains, I will observe here that the scheme is calculated, should it
succeed, to make the commercial and pecuniary interests of the country blindly
subservient to the powers which are for the time being. The Eastern States would be
completely revolutionized. In the probable failure, I think I see a clash of personal
property and an obstacle to the proper arrangement of our finances—a thing not
difficult now, unless I am much deceived respecting a matter which, from the course
of my life, I ought to know something about, if I be not a very stupid fellow.”
On the question of taxation Morris had equally strong views, which he expressed in a
letter to Rufus King, dated January 26th, as follows:
“I fear we differ in opinion on the subject of taxation. Disliking heavy duties, I would
raise revenue principally by internal but not by direct taxes, which are ungracious and
tormenting, and when pushed are no longer taxation but confiscation. A land-tax is
just nowhere, and sovereignly unjust here. Some patriots (sans terres, if not sans
culottes) cry out, ‘Tax land-speculators and oblige them to sell.’ Take care, gentlemen
patriots. If taxing speculalators should become fashionable, stocks may perchance be
annoyed. Considering the extent of our territory, it might be politic, I do not say just,
to tax those who have no land because they have none, or place them under civil
disabilities. Speculators, as such, are not respectable, but they are necessary, and in no
case more so than in the settlement of wild land. It has been tried to prevent
accumulation of large tracts in few hands by confining grants to small tracts, but
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