quently the metals themselves, became highly and universally desirable, more so than any other article of the same weight and bulk. Hence they contained more value in the same bulk, and were in more universal demand, than any other article, and hence they became universally exchangeable, and assumed the character of money.

"Government did not give them this exchangeable quality; but finding they already possessed it, government took and divided them into pieces of different weights and sizes, putting on them certain stamps to designate their true weights and their real fineness. This saved the trouble of weighing these metals whenever they were exchanged for anything else, and guarded the community against counterfeit gold and silver. But these metals evidently did not derive their value from these stamps; but these stamps merely designated the value which they had before, and rendered it visible to everybody at the first view. Each nation affixes stamps of its own, which are not, generally, regarded by any other nation. English, French, Dutch, and the coins of all other nations pass among us only by their weight and fineness. When these are well known, they are received for a certain sum in our own money, to which their value is equal; but when they are not well known, we resort to the weight and fineness as ascertained by actual weighing and examination to ascertain their value.

"Hence it is evident that gold and silver have become money, not because government has put particular stamps or marks upon them, but because they are universally exchangeable, and contain more value in the same bulk than any other article. These metals have been stamped to gratify the pride of princes, by presenting their likenesses to their subjects and teaching them a lesson of reverence for their king on every piece of money they receive; but chiefly to designate the value of the metal which every particular piece contains. Other articles might be used for the same purpose, but with less convenience. The Spartans had iron money. To contain much value their coins were made of enormous size and weight. This article was not universally exchangeable, and of course they could not carry on trade in their own money. It was the object of their lawgiver to prevent trade. But it well may be doubted whether this provision alone would have produced so great an effect. In Mexico, before its conquest by the Spaniards, gold and silver were too abundant to contain great value in a small bulk. They were valuable, but not more so than would have been iron could the people have obtained it. Gold and silver were not coined by the government into money; but there was a valuable nut which was used among the people to a considerable extent as money. Among them it was universally exchangeable. Copper is used in many countries, and to a considerable extent in the United States, as money.

"From these principles it results that gold and silver, whether coined or uncoined, contain nearly the same amount of value, and the only advantage which they possess over every other article is that they contain more value in the same bulk and are universally exchangeable. Gold and silver are not the representatives of property, but they are property itself as much as iron, brass, houses, or lands. A silver bowl is as much property as an axe, and the silver out of which the bowl could be made is as much property as the iron out of which an axe could be made. 'When we exchange the produce of our farms or of our manufactories for eagles and dollars, we merely exchange one value for another. A dollar is as much property and more useful than a barrel of corn or a ham of bacon which we can never eat, because we can at any time exchange the dollar for something else. Property is evidently not confined to that which we can eat, drink, or wear, but extends to everything we possess which has value.

"Money is but a name for a particular species of property, land, of another, wheat, of another, etc., etc. Because these articles have different names they do not cease to be property.

"We have already said that the advantage which money has over every other species of property is, that it contains more value in the same bulk and is universally exchangeable.

"Any of the other species of property can always be had for money, but money cannot always be had for any other particular species of property.

"Money is constantly represented as a standard of value. Nothing can be more erroneous. The value of gold and silver is less variable and less fluctuating than that of any other article; but it is by no means uniform. Before the discovery of America the quantity of gold and silver circulating in the world was much less than it is at present, and its value was proportionally greater. But on the conquest of Mexico and South America by the Spaniards the immense quantities of the precious metals derived from that source in some degree diminished the demand, and, until lately, a diminution in the demand, and a reduction in the value of those articles has been, ever since, gradually progressing. This variation, although small in one year or ten years, has been considerable in four hundred years. Hence it appears that the standard of value, as it has been called, is itself fluctuating. There is less value in a dollar now than there was one hundred years ago. The idea of a standard precludes variation. What should we think of a yard which was longer one day than it was the preceding? What of a gallon that would hold more one day than it would the next? These standards, as well as that of weight, can be made forever unchangeable. They are made up of divisions and quali

ties of matter, not of operations of the mind. There is a difference between them and value similar to that between matter and mind. The former you can divide and mark by lines and bounds; but the latter is invisible, intangible, and not subject to human control. Until the operations of mind and the various causes which put them in action are reduced to fixed rules, value can never be measured or reduced to a standard."

From Mr. Kendall's third article, treating of a paper currency, we make the following extract:

"Of paper currency, as it is generally understood, there are two kinds, bank-notes and government paper. Bank-notes are the written promises of certain corporations. When men borrow bank-notes, they merely exchange their promise for the promise of the bank. When I borrow one hundred dollars, I give my written promise to pay that value of gold or silver, and receive from the bank the written promise of the corporation to pay to me, or anybody who may be the bearer, that value in gold or silver.

"The advantage which I gain is, that the credit of the bank being much better established and more generally known than mine, the community will more readily confide in the due performance of its promises. The advantage which the bank gains is, that it receives interest on the value which I have promised to pay while its own promises made on the same transaction are not performed, or, in other words, before the notes issued to me return upon the bank and draw out the gold and silver.

"The other kind of paper currency is government paper. This is but an extension of the same principle. In whatever shape it may be issued it is but the mere promise of the government. It has no value in itself, it derives none from the stamp put upon it by government, but is a promise to pay the holder a certain value on demand or at some future period. If government makes more promises than it can perform, they become useless, and its currency depreciates. Within the memory of many men living, there have been two striking instances of abortive attempts to make the promises of government a circulating medium. The first was the continental money of our Revolution, and the second the assignats of the French. Why did our continental money depreciate and become useless? Because the paper dollars had no intrinsic value, and it was evident the government had promised what it could not perform. Laws were made to sustain it, but in vain. Had all the governmental money been made of gold and silver, would it have depreciated and become useless? We all know it would not. And why? Because the gold and silver are intrinsically valuable, but paper is not. When the

government gives the people a silver dollar it gives them something really valuable, but when it gives them a paper dollar it gives them a promise to give real value. If these metals and the paper derived their value only from being declared money by the government, a paper dollar would at all times be as valuable as a silver dollar. They would always remain a standard of value. But reason teaches that a promise is not so valuable as the thing promised, whether it be made by an individual, a bank, or a government. Not all the power of all the governments on earth can make a bit of paper as large as a man's hand as valuable in itself as the silver contained in a dollar. They may declare that it shall be a dollar, it may pass by that name, but it will have no more value than a linen rag.

"From these facts and principles we infer that it is as impossible for government to furnish to a country a circulating medium which has no intrinsic value as it is to give the same value to a scrap of paper which there is in a silver dollar. Every attempt at it will end in public embarrassment and loss."

Mr. Kendall was diverted from his purpose to discuss the subject of property laws on general principles, by the turn which was given to the discussion by other writers. He had in a very brief article corrected some erroneous notions commonly entertained in relation to the execution laws of the other States, derived from speeches made in the legislature. The accuracy of his statements was called in question in a communication signed "A friend to Relief," which he published, with the reply, in the "Argus" of May 18th, 1820. To this article "A friend to Relief" replied in the "Commentator," giving a personal turn to the controversy. In the "Argus" of June 8th, 1820, Mr. Kendall responded.

This "Friend to Relief" was, and continued to be to the day of his death, Mr. Kendall's personal friend; but at that time he was hopelessly involved in debt, though the owner of much real property. He was finally entirely ruined; and nine years after this controversy Mr. Kendall, satisfied of his integrity, appointed him, unsolicited, to a clerkship in Washington, which he held to the day of his death.

CHAPTER VIII.

WHILE Mr. Kendall was thus wielding his vigorous pen in the support of measures he deemed so essential to the prosperity of his adopted State, he mingled freely in society, evidently seeking one whom he could love, and whose love in return would satisfy the natural longing of his heart. The same discrimination and sound sense characterized his conduct in this as in other affairs. Fond of female society, in which his genial temperament and amiable manners made him a favorite, ready to mingle in the dance and contribute to the pleasure of others, he yet looked for more solid accomplishments in the woman who should be his wife. These he happily found in the person of Miss Mary B. Woolfolk, who, with her parents, resided at a small village in Jefferson County.

In October, 1818, they were married at her father's house. The following have been selected from many letters written about this time:

FROM MISS MARY B. WOOLFOLK.

MR. KENDALL, I have perused the contents of your paper, and hope you will forgive me for having the boldness to write to you. But I write because I know what I have to relate I could not deliver verbally.

Before I proceed any further, I must tell you that I have an unfortunate brother and sister, but you have heard of them, no doubt, not capable of taking care of themselves, and it is designed by my father and mother for me to take them under my care at their death, if they should survive their parents. I feel it my duty, and never could be happy to see them anywhere else but under my protection after the decease of my parents.

I wish not to keep you in suspense, therefore, if you think you can grant me the privilege of taking care of my unfortunate brother and sister, and also give them your protection, and if my parents approve of our attachment, I do not blush to say that in spending the remainder of my life with you my happiness would be as great as I could expect in this world.

My father will provide for these children more liberally than the rest of us. I shall only have to take care of them.

MARY B. WOOLFOLK.