Note 57 — Chapter II · A SURVEY OF ECONOMIC INTERESTS IN 1787

“The public securities of the United States of America were a dead, inactive kind of property, previous to the establishment of the constitution of the new government; then they became at once the object of avarice. They before had an existence as to value, on the slender hope of having something done for them at some distant future period; and obtained a motion only from the sagacity of the few, who happened to be right in their conjectures respecting the then future events of American financeering. Upon the adoption of the new system of government they assumed all the properties of a rising credit, and became an immense active capital for commerce.” James Sullivan, An Inquiry into the Origin and Use of Money (1792). Duane Pamphlets, Library of Congress.