_Third:_ In 1752 the whole country was overrun with paper
money. Mr. Sherman published in that year a little pamphlet,
entitled, "A Caveat Against Injustice, or An Inquiry Into
the Evil Consequences of a Fluctuating Medium of Exchange."
He stated with great clearness and force the arguments which,
unhappily, we have been compelled to repeat more than once
in later generations. He denounced paper money as "a cheat,
vexation, and snare, a medium whereby we are continually cheating
and wronging one another in our dealings and commerce." He
adds, "So long as we import so much more foreign goods than
are necessary, and keep so many merchants and traders employed
to procure and deal them out to us: a great part of which
we might as well make among ourselves; and another great part
of which we had much better be without, especially the spiritous
liquors, of which vast quantities are consumed in the colony
every year, unnecessarily, to the great destruction of estates,
morals, healths and even the lives of many of the inhabitants,--
I say, so long as these things are so, we shall spend a great
part of our labor and substance for that which will not profit
us.
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