PREFACE.
The suspension of specie payments by all the banks in the United States, south of New England, in the year 1814, and of all, with a very few trifling exceptions, in the year 1837, has strongly impressed the public mind with the belief that there is something defective in the present banking system of this conntry; and it is not, perhaps, venturing too much to assert, that there are now elements at work, which will ultimately overthrow the whole fabric, unless thosewho have the power to remedy the evil, shall introduce the reforms which can alone render a repetition of such a calamity impossible.
It must be evident to every observant mind, that a dislike to hear the truth, when opposed to one's interests or prejudices, is the principal cause of a large portion of the mischievous errors which so generally prevail. Men of education and capacity, who are best qualified to investigate and understand the important principles which belong to the science of public economy, are too apt to view them as of no account, or to despise them when they come in conflict with their purses, or with their political promotion; and hence that knowledge, which is the most
