of the country, almost annihilated, and little else than specie remained, to answer the demands incurred by importations. The money, of course, was drawn off; and this being inadequate to the purpose of discharging the whole amount of foreign contracts, the residue was chiefly sunk by the bankruptcies of the importers. The scarcity of specie, arising principally from this cause, was attended with evident consequences; it checked commercial intercourse throughout the community, and furnished reluctant debtors with an apology for withholding their dues both from individuals and the publick. Another effect of the war which was exceedingly operative in the commotions that took place in Massachusetts, if it may not be called their primary cause, was the accumulation of private debts. The confusion of the times had excused or prevented most persons from discharging their contracts. Some indeed availed themselves of an advantage, which the laws of the country, for a long time put into their hands, and paid their creditors in a depreciated currency; and some have discharged their obligations in a more honourable manner: But great part of the community were yet loaded with ancient debts, made still more burdensome from an increase of interest. Private contracts were first made to give place to the payment of pub lick taxes, from an idea that the scarcity of specie did not admit of the payment of both. The former therefore, were made payable in other property than money, by an act of the 3rd of July, 1782, commonly known by the name of the Tender Act. By this it was provided that executions issued for private demands might be satisfied by neat cattle and other articles particularly enumerated, at an appraisement of impartial men under oath. This act was obnoxious both to constitutional and equitable objections; but the necessity of the case overruled them all in the opinion of a majority in the government. The operation of the act was not altogether coincident with the ideas of its patrons. Its chief effect was to suspend lawsuits, which, by delaying, only strengthened and enlarged the evil when the year's existence of the law expired. But there was a circumstance which sprung out of this measure, infinitely more detrimental than any burden that it was intended to remove. was the first signal for hostilities between creditors and debtors, betwixt the rich and the poor, between the few and the many. It was by this act that the citizens of Massachusetts, experienced, that retrospective laws were not a violation of their boasted constitution, in the opinion of their legislature; and the multitude of debtors first felt from it, at an hour when their perplexities might lead them to an undue use of any It advantage, that their creditors were under their control. Their principle rapidly increased, and pretences sprung out of it, in many instances, for stopping the execution of law in private cases, at length, for the bolder attack upon the courts themselves. Whenever discontent becomes the only condition of indulgence among any people, they cannot be happy, and, least of all, a people situated as those of Massachusetts were, at this singular period. They were just about quitting a well fought contest, in which almost every man had personally assisted. The applause of the world was fresh on their minds, and they felt a title to retirement and repose. Whatever interrupted this right, naturally appeared like a grievance, and became discountenanced as an abridgment of their liberties. They could not realize that they had shed their blood in the field, to be worn out with burdensome taxes at home; or that they had contended, to secure to their creditors, a right to drag them into courts and prisons. . . . G. R. Minot, History of Insurrections in Massachusetts (Boston, 1810), 11-16 passim. 15. The Views of an Incorrigible By BENJAMIN FRANKLIN An interesting morsel on the flourishing state of the country. I AM here in the bosom of my family, and am not only happy myself, but have the felicity of seeing my country so. Be assured, that all the stories spread in the English papers of our distresses, and confusions, and discontents with our new governments, are as chimerical as the history of my being in chains at Algiers. They exist only in the wishes of our enemies. America never was in higher prosperity, her produce abundant and bearing a good price, her working people all employed and well paid, and all property in lands and houses of more than treble the value it bore before the war; and, our commerce being no longer the monopoly of British merchants, we are furnished with all the foreign commodities we need, at much more reasonable rates than heretofore. So that we have no doubt of being able to discharge more speedily the debt incurred by the war, than at first was apprehended. Our modes of collecting taxes are indeed as yet imperfect, and we have need of more skill in financiering; but we improve in that kind of knowledge daily by experience. That our people are contented with the revolution, with their new constitutions, and their foreign connexions nothing can afford a stronger proof, than the universally cordial and joyous reception with which they welcomed the return of one, that was supposed to have had a considerable share in promoting them. All this is in answer to that part of your letter, in which you seem to have been too much impressed with some of the ideas, which those lying English papers endeavour to inculcate concerning us. Jared Sparks, Works of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1840), X. 253-254. 16. "Head Versus Heart" (1786) Part of a half humorous sketch written in Franklin's manner. Heart. I see things wonderfully contrived sometimes, to make us happy. Where could they find such objects as in America, for the exercise of their enchanting art? especially the lady, who paints landscapes so inimitably. She wants only subjects worthy of immortality, to render her pencil immortal. The Falling Spring, the Cascade of Niagara, the passage of the Potomac through the Blue Blue Mountains, the Natural |