Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"Everything predicted by the enemies of banks, in the beginning, is now
coming to pass. We are to be ruined now by a deluge of bank paper, as
we were formerly by the old Continental paper. It is cruel that such
revolutions in private fortunes should be at the mercy of avaricious
adventurers, who instead of employing their capital, if any they have,
in manufactures commerce, and other useful pursuits, make it an
instrument to burden all the interchanges of property with their
swindling profits, profits which are the price of no useful industry of
theirs. Prudent men must be on their guard in this game of Robin's
alive, and take care that the spark does not extinguish in their hands.
I am an enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but
coin. But our whole country is so fascinated by this Jack o' lantern
wealth, that they will not stop short of its total and fatal
explosion." [14]