A person may possess wealth to the amount of ten thousand dollars upon which he may issue his representatives of value or promises to pay that value. These representatives of value would circulate among those who believe in the capacity and intention of the utterer to give _up_ to them, _when_ demanded, that which they represent. Everybody by his individual right has the authority to issue such representatives of value, and no government has any right to prohibit their circulation; because the people, as individuals, have the right to take or refuse them. The issue of bank notes is upon the same principle, and so long as the government does not in substance _indorse_ these issues, the people have the _perfect_ right to deal in them—to receive and deliver them. But there is an insuperable objection—one which cannot be overcome by any governmental requirements—to these representatives being called the real money of the people, since circumstances over which _neither_ their utterers nor receivers can have _any_ control may render them valueless—may make it impossible for those who uttered them to redeem them—and their holders find themselves with _bits of paper_ representing _nothing_; but for which they parted with real value. So far as this condition is confined to individuals who had no other reason for receiving them, and no other assurance of their real value than the supposed _capacity_ and _intention_ of the uttering person or persons, it is _strictly_ a legitimate condition; and one with which the sufferers can find _no_ fault; since of their own free will and choice they received the utterers assurances that his representatives were of real value. An individual upon his personal judgment, without undue persuasion, accepts another’s representative; if it prove _bad_ he has _himself only_ to blame for the loss, as coming from an error of judgment; and _no power_ or _authority_ has any right to step in to compel the making of amends for this error. _This_ is the simple doctrine of the _rights_ of _individuals_, with which _no third party_ has any right to interfere after the occurrence of the fact. But when banks are organized under certain formula of law, framed by the people or their representatives through government, the people receive and pay out their issues—representatives of their value—_not_ because they have special confidence in the capacity and intention of the individuals who compose the management, _but_ because they _suppose_ the management has conformed to _those certain forms of law_ which are _intended_ to render them safe. In this way the government, at least indirectly, gives _credit_ to the bank, and _currency_ to its issues, and the people accept them _simply_ because the government has done so.