April 3. 1758 Sr.,

Since I had the last discourse with you1 Relating to the Land Bank Bills,2 I have been much Surprized to find that some of your Freinds have tax'd me with a Combination to distress you in pitching on you to redeem the Bills when so many others stand equally lieble, at a Juncture when you are unhappily engag'd in matters of Importance & dispute. The design of this is to assure you that this unlucky construction is what I did not surmise & the action is such as I absolutely detest. I singled you out only with an Expectation of coming more Speedily at my Money & I'm very sorry that other Circumstances which I have nothing to do with should set my harmless proceeding in so disavantageous a point of Light. But seeing Such is the Unavoidable Construction that some will put upon it I had much rather drop the action than have it in the least Necessary to defend my Charecter from such An detestable Aspersion. If therefore you will pay for the Writ & service (seeing I have been at trouble & expence about the metter) we'll make an End of this misunderstanding & thus by dropping An action so far proceeded in I hope to convince you I would not have commenced it had I forseen the Consequences. I should have Waited on you in person, but am obliged to go out of Town early this Morning. I subscribe yr. hble. sert.

LbC ; addressed: "To William Stoddard Esq. at Boston."

1.

William Stoddard (1693–1775), a Boston merchant, was a director of the Land Bank, or Manufactory Company of 1740. The inflationary nature of this scheme, which was based on securing credit on land security, was denounced by Gov. Jonathan Belcher, who forbade commission holders to retain an association with the bank. Stoddard, to retain his position as justice of the peace, resigned his directorship, but nonetheless had his commission revoked by Belcher (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 5:648–651). The Land Bank was suppressed by Parliament in the summer of 1741 (Davis, Currency and Banking, 1:129–134). See also Publications of the Colonial Society of Mass, vols. 3 & 4.

2.

Thomas Paine had opposed the Land Bank and in 1742 sued a number of Essex County men who "published and are Still Engaged and Interested in a Scheme for Supplying a pretended want of a medium in Trade by setting up a Bank on Land Security."