The
Whiskey Rebellion by William Hodgeland, 2006, Excerpts
In Pennsylvania, the
radical state constitution allowed ordinary people an unusual degree of access
to the government. The Pennsylvania assembly became a tense place. Throughout
the eighties, power lurched back and forth from the party of creditors and
merchants. The thing that truly dismayed the Morris circle was the Pennsylvania
property requirement for voting: virtually none. Nor was there one for holding
office. The poor could not only vote in Pennsylvania but also hold office.
Morris and other
creditors had picked up depreciated Pennsylvania bonds, at a fraction of face
value, from people in urgent need of cash. Having bought at a deep discount,
creditors now hoped to get the state not merely to pay interest on but to
actually pay off the debt, at face value, for an overnight creditor bonanza.
The radicals proposed
instead to depreciate the bonds, by law, to real market value, about
one-quarter face value, and make those depreciated certificates a legal tender
for paying taxes, state mortgages, public fees of kinds, requiring creditors to
accept that paper for payments on loans – never indeed redeeming them in gold
and silver. Morris and other creditors, forced to accept these depreciated
bills, castigated paper as the legalized pillage of the rich.
Pennsylvania State Flag
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