Back in 1819, Thomas Jefferson recommended that John Adams read the book Treatise on Political Economy by Destutt de Tracy, published in 1817. While doing so, Adams wrote to Jefferson citing Chapter 6, On Money, from which he quotes:
“When these denominations are admitted & employed in transactions to diminish the quantity of metal to which they answer by an alteration of the real coins, is to steal, a theft of greater magnitude & still more ruinous is the making of paper. It is greater because in this money there is absolutely no real value. It is more ruinous because by its gradual depreciation during all the time of its existence it produces the effect which would be produced by an infinity of successive deteriorations of the coin.”
Adams then summarizes:
“That is to say an infinity of successive felonious larcenies. If this is true as I believe it is, we Americans are the most thievish people that ever existed, we have been stealing from each other for an hundred & fifty years.”
Read the rest of the article from the Tenth Amendment Center here.
Check out Treatise on Political Economy at Lifeology Bookshop:
And while we’re on the subject, here’s an interesting video, also from the Tenth Amendment Center, entitled 8 Founders on the Evils of Paper Money, worth a watch:
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