6.6 KiB
- The Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin F - Mark Skousen
- The Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin F - Mark Skousen
The Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin F - Mark Skousen
This may come as anti-social today, but really good to see how such social rules can be useful. None of this could work without postal service
My father, a very wise man, us’d to say nothing was more common than for those who lov’d one another at a distance, to find many causes of dislike when they came together; and therefore he did not approve of visits to relations in distant places, which could not well be short enough for them to part good friends.
The Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin F - Mark Skousen
Such social rules would sound extreme today, and impossible before postal service.
My father, a very wise man, us’d to say nothing was more common than for those who lov’d one another at a distance, to find many causes of dislike when they came together; and therefore he did not approve of visits to relations in distant places, which could not well be short enough for them to part good friends. I saw a proof of it, in the disgusts between him and his brother Benjamin; and tho’ I was a child I still remember how affectionate their correspondence was while they were separated, and the disputes and misunderstandings they had when they came to live some time together in the same house.
Franklin agrees the historic times are yet to begin
The rapid progress true science now makes occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born so soon. It is impossible to imagine the heights to which the power of man may be carried over matter in a thousand years. We may perhaps learn to deprive large masses of their gravity and give them absolute levity for the sake of easy transport. Agriculture may diminish its labour and double it produce. All diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured, not excepting even that of old age, and our lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian standard. O that moral science were as fair a way of improvement, that men would cease to be wolves to one another, and that human beings would at length learn what they now improperly call humanity! We make great improvements in nature daily. There is one I wish to see in moral philosophy: the discovery of a plan that would induce and oblige nations to settle their disputes without first cutting one another’s throats. When will human reason be sufficiently improv’d to see the advantage of this! When will men be convinc’d that even successful wars do at length become misfortunes to those who unjustly commenc’d them, and who triumph’d blindly in their success, not seeing all its consequences.
Fiat currency pays for war
THIS CURRENCY AS WE MANAGED IT WAS A WONDERFUL MACHINE
The principal difficulty at the time in America consisted in the depreciation of our currency, owing to the over-quantities issued, and the diminished demand for it in commerce. The depreciation of our money greatly affected salaried men, widows and orphans. I received a report from the Congress how the manners of the country were much affected by the depreciation, so that almost every officer, civil or military, felt a desire to engage in speculation, finding that his salary was inadequate to the harping demands which were made upon him for the necessaries of life. I took all the pains I could in Congress to prevent the depreciation by proposing first that the bills should bear interest; this was rejected, and they were struck accordingly. Secondly, after the first emission, I proposed that we should stop, strike no more, but borrow on interest those which had issued. This was not approved and more bills were issued. When, from the too great quantity, these began to depreciate, they agreed to borrow on interest, and I propos’d that in order to fix the value of the principal, the interest should be promis’d in hard dollars. This was objected to as impracticable. When the whole mass of the currency was under way in depreciation, the momentum of its descent was too great to be stopped. The only remedy then seemed to be a diminution of the quantity by a vigorous taxation, of great nominal sums, which the people were more able to pay in proportion to the quantity and diminished value. The only consolation under the evil is that the public debt was proportionably diminish’d with the depreciation, by an imperceptible tax everyone paid as the value fell between his receiving and paying such sums as pass’d thro’ his hands. For it should always be remembered that the original intention was to sink the bills by taxes, which as effectually extinguish the debt as an actual redemption. This effect of paper currency is not understood in Europe. And indeed the whole is a mystery even to the politicians; how we were able to continue a war four years without money; and how we could pay with paper that had no previously fix’d fund appropriated specifically to redeem it. This currency as we managed it was a wonderful machine. It performed its office when we issued it; it paid and clothed the troops, and provided victuals and ammunition; and when we were oblig’d to issue a quantity excessive, it paid itself off by depreciation. An expedition to Canada was deferred for want of a sufficient quantity of hard money. The Canadians were afraid of paper and would not take the Congress’s money. To enter a country which you mean to make a friend of, with an army that must have occasion every day for fresh provision in horses, carriages, and labour of every kind; having no acceptable money to pay those that serve you; and to be obliged therefore to take that service by force, is the sure way to disgust, offend, and by degrees make enemies of the whole people, after which all operations will be more difficult, all motions discovered, and every endeavour used to have us driven back out of their country.