DATE: August 3, 1816

TOWN: Baltimore

SOURCE: Niles' Weekly Register

By referring to the letter of the secretary of the treasury (see page 376), it will be seen that measures have been resolved on to bring about a commencement of specie payments. The operations ought to be gradual, and the secretary's plan seems to give satisfaction to all except those who have been depredating on the poor and needy, by buying and selling the things called bank notes. Some inconvenience will be suffered from the procedure; it may add somewhat to the difficulties felt by the scarcity of money, and make it most needful for the ordinary transactions of life--but it will eminently tend to bring us back to that old and honest state of things when a bank note was worth its mark on the face of it--and check a system of speculation and robbery--of "combinations in crime," which, for atrocity and extent, has never had a parallel in the United States.