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A moment's reflection must convince you of two
things: first, that lands are of permanent value; that there is
scarcely a possibility of their falling in price, but almost a moral
certainty of their rising exceedingly in value.
And secondly, that our paper currency is
fluctuating, that it has depreciated considerably, and the no human
foresight can, with precision, tell how low it may get, as the rise
or fall of it depends upon contingencies which the utmost stretch of
human sagacity can neither foresee nor prevent...
By parting from you lands, you give a certainty
for an uncertainty, because it is not the nominal price....it is not
ten, fifteen, or twenty pounds an acre, but the relative value of
this sum to specie, or something of substantial worth, that is to
constitute a good price.
The advice I give is that you do not convert
into cash the lands you now hold, faster than a certain prospect of
vesting it in other lands more convenient....
This will, in effect, exchange land for
land. For it is a matter of moonshine to you, considered in
that point of view simply, how much the money depreciates, if you
can discharge one point with another, and get land of equal value to
that you sell.
But far different from this is the case of
those who well for cash and keep the cash by them, put it to
interest, or receive it in annual payments; for, in either of those
cases, if our currency should unfortunately continue to depreciate
in the manner it has done in the course of the last two years, a
pound may not, in the span of two years more, be worth a
shilling....
It may be said that our money may receive a
proper tone again, and in that case it would be an advantage to turn
lands, etc,. into cash for the benefit of the rise.
In answer to this, I shall only observe that
this is a lottery; that it may, or may not, happen; that, if it
should happen, you have lost nothing; if it should not, you have
saved your estate, which in the other case, might have been sunk.
George Washington Oct. 12, 1776
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