Anne Arundel, (Mr. Donaldson.) That ii its
only drawback—its only evil; a great debt in-
curred under the most promising auspices and the
most flattering inducements and calculations of
prosperity. And, here we are, at this hour, la-
boring under this great incubus. Let us prevent
its recurrence for the time to come. Is there
anything so tempting to individuals, States or
communities as the contraction of debt? Do we
not all know—every one of us—that our judg-
ments will be tempted into flattering speculations,
not doubting that, in the course of a lew months
or years, we may double our ventures? The
same feeling enters into States. I desire to guard
against all such temptations. Let us say to the
Legislature, if you choose to construct public
works, we require you, at the same time that you
create the debt, to lay such a tax as will pay the
interest and the principle; for then, and not oth-
erwise, you will be under a just responsibility to
your constituents.
At a moment in public affairs when upon this
whole nation—as well as upon the States—a
vast burthen of debt was resting heavily, I
urged, in my humble way, and, of course,
only through private channels, that a great mea-
sure of relief should be proposed by which the
General Government would assume all the debts
of the States upon one single condition—that the
States should incorporate in their fundamental
law, an irrepealable provision that no State debt
should ever again be contracted without the im-
position of a tax for its liquidation. I believe
that such a measure would have been wise for
the country—wise for the government of the
Union, wise for the governments of the States.
I repeat now, that the great bane of our prosperity
is the contraction of large debts under tempt-
ing circumstances; and that the greatest security
we can afford to the people will be, that these
debts shall no longer be contracted unless the
urgency is so great as to justify a system of tax-
ation to pay for it.
I have felt it my duty to myself and my con-
stituents, earnestly to invoke the Convention not
to leave open this door—but, looking to it as the
great medium by which the evils that afflict us
have crept in upon the State, to close it now and
forever, that we may relieve ourselves and our
posterity from the apprehension of their recur-
rence.
Some explanations passed between Mr. MC-
LANE and Mr. MERRICK—after which
Mr. MERRICK said, his only object in the re-
marks he had made, was to show that there were
great fluctuations in the value of money; and that
a change was now taking place in that value, to
the advantage of debtors, that is, the rate of in-
terest—the price of money was falling, and would
probably become very low. The honorable gentleman
says, money always maintains its own
value. That may be so when considered separ-
ately; but the proper mode of considering it,
seems to me to be, to view it relatively. And
the very illustration which the gentleman gives,
proves its great relative fluctuation, and the po-
sition I have assumed, to be correct. He says be
knows he can at one time purchase a hat for
44

three dollars, and at another time he will have to
give six dollars for the same or a similar hat; and
this difference I comend, if it arise from the state
of the money market, proves the fluctuations in
the value of money. Like every thing else, the
value of money is regulated by the relations be-
tween supply and demand.
If money becomes abundant, the supply of
all other things purchased with money remain-
ing the same, the price of these other things
will rise in proportion to the increase in the
supply of money; and if the supply of money be
doubled, the three dollar hat will command six
dollars—three dollars is still three dollars, and
six dollars is still six dollars—but it now requires
six dollars to procure the same amount of proper-
ty, or the products of labor, as three dollars
would before command. This is certainly true,
and the great confusion of ideas, the apparent
conflict of facts and consequent difficulty in as-
certaining the truth in such cases, arises from the
fact, that there an most frequently various causes
operating to affect values and prices; some known,
and some unseen and unknown at the time. The
supply of a particular product of industry may
increase more rapidly than the increase of the
supply of money, though both are increasing; and
of course, in that case, the value or price of that
product would not increase. So there may be
greater facility or economy introduced in the
production or manufacture of any article of com-
merce, simultaneously with the influx of a greater
supply of money—of course the money price of
the article so more cheaply produced, does not
rise. And so might a thousand instances be
cited of interfering circumstances which modify
or destroy the effect of the general law, and
seemingly, but in the seeming only, contradict
it. The law is fixed and certain, and operates as
unerringly as gravitation; and as well may it be
said, that the laws of gravitation are not unerr-
ing, because some heavy body is upheld by a coun-
teracting force; as it may be said that superabun-
dance of money will not occasion low rates of in-
terest, and an advance in the prices of other arti-
cles, of which the supply continues the same,
because in some instances other causes of sufficient
force are operating to prevent this result.
I have said, this change in the relative value
of money and stocks, and other articles of com-
merce, was now taking place, and was likely to
increase to great extent; and we all see the evi-
dences of. the fact every where around us. A
state of the money market has arisen, and is
about to arise, greatly advantageous to debtors,
and I wished the State, therefore, to be left with
power to turn to the benefit of her tax-paying
people, the advantages this change will offer.
We have passed through a season of severe money
pressure—great depression of prices. The pen-
dulum is now oscillating to the other side, and I
desire to leave the Legislature power to take ad-
vantage of this favorable oscillation. Credit has,
for a long time been depressed; stocks have been
low; the Legislature have, all along, had this
power; and to deprive them of it, to letter their
hands now, would be about as wise as it would
be for a tobacco planter, who has, during the