Note 64 — {90} LETTER VIII

The supply of specie in the Western country had always been inadequate. Until the numerous state banks began to flood the country with paper money, about the second decade of the century, barter was regularly employed. Flint was in the West when the financial stringency that followed the War of 1812-15 was beginning to be felt in that region, and the reaction against the worthless state banks had set in. See post; also McMaster, History of the United States, iv, pp. 484-487.—Ed.