"It is said that our paper is as good as silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank where it issues. This is not true. One, two, or three persons might have it; but a general application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave a ruinous proportion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form."
Thomas Jefferson

January 1, 1970

Quote Details

Sources

ME 13:426

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson