The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
On the 6th of the following month, I was appointed by the legislature
a delegate to Congress, the appointment to take place on the 1st of
November ensuing, when that of the existing delegation would expire.
I, accordingly, left home on the 16th of October, arrived at Trenton,
where Congress was sitting, on the 3d of November, and took my seat on
the 4th, on which day Congress adjourned, to meet at Annapolis on the
26th.
Congress had now become a very small body, and the members very remiss
in their attendance on its duties, insomuch, that a majority of the
States, necessary by the Confederation to constitute a House even for
minor business, did not assemble until the 13th of December.
They, as early as January 7,1782, had turned their attention to the
moneys current in the several States, and had directed the Financier,
Robert Morris, to report to them a table of rates, at which the foreign
coins should be received at the treasury. That officer, or rather his
assistant, Gouverneur Morris, answered them on the 15th, in an able
and elaborate statement of the denominations of money current in the
several States, and of the comparative value of the foreign coins
chiefly in circulation with us. He went into the consideration of
the necessity of establishing a standard of value with us, and of the
adoption of a money Unit. He proposed for that Unit, such a fraction
of pure silver as would be a common measure of the penny of every
State, without leaving a fraction. This common divisor he found to be
1-1440 of a dollar, or 1-1600 of the crown sterling. The value of a
dollar was, therefore, to be expressed by 1,440 units, and of a crown
by 1,600; each Unit containing a quarter of a grain of fine silver.
Congress turning again their attention to this subject the following
year, the Financier, by a letter of April 30, 1783, further explained
and urged the Unit he had proposed; but nothing more was done on it
until the ensuing year, when it was again taken up, and referred to a
committee, of which I was a member. The general views of the Financier
were sound, and the principle was ingenious on which he proposed to
found his Unit; but it was too minute for ordinary use, too laborious
for computation, either by the head or in figures. The price of a loaf
of bread, 1-20 of a dollar, would be 72 units.
A pound of butter, 1-5 of a dollar, 288 units.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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