“Fools believe that calling paper ‘money’ is the way to be rich and happy.”

Originally posted Saturday, August 11, 2012

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‘Knaves assure, and fools believe, that calling paper ‘money’ and making it a tender is the way to be rich and happy….’

The biographical directory of the United States Congress recites many of the accomplishments of American founder Richard Henry Lee, sponsor of the independence resolution and signer of the Declaration of Independence:

a Delegate and a Senator from Virginia; born at “Stratford,” in Westmoreland County, Va., January 20, 1732; after a course of private instruction attended Wakefield Academy, England; returned in 1751; justice of the peace for Westmoreland County 1757; member, house of burgesses 1758-1775; Member of the Continental Congress 1774-1779; sponsor of the independence resolution; a signer of the Declaration of Independence; author of the first national Thanksgiving Day proclamation issued by Congress at York, Pa., October 31, 1777; member, State house of delegates 1777, 1780, 1785; served as colonel of the Westmoreland Militia; again a Member of the Continental Congress 1784-1785 and 1787 and served as President of the Congress in 1784; member of the Virginia convention which ratified the Federal Constitution in 1788; elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1789, until his resignation October 8, 1792; served as President pro tempore during the Second Congress….

Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

Lee on paper money in a letter to Virginia delegate George Mason:

‘Knaves assure, and fools believe, that calling paper ‘money’ and making it a tender is the way to be rich and happy; thus the national mind is kept in continual disturbance by the intrigues of wicked men for fraudulent purposes, for speculative designs.’

[with appreciation to Prof. Farley Grubb, within whose erudite work these trenchant observations, among many others, are reproduced.]