John Calhoun - Nationalist

Calhoun came around on the bank issue, advocating the government take the issuing power back from the banks, and even became a fiat money advocate by 1837.

http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/7897401/benton/calhoun_370918....

"I would ask, then, why should the Government mingle its credit with that of private corporations ? No one can doubt but that the Government credit is better than that of any bank—more stable and more safe. Why, then, should it mix it up with the less perfect credit of those institutions ? Why not use its own credit to the amount of its own transactions ? Why should it not be safe in its own hands, while it shall be considered safe in the hands of 800 private institutions scattered all over the country, and which have no other object but their own private profits, to increase which they almost constantly extend their business to the most dangerous extremes ? And why should the community be compelled to give six per cent. discount for the Government credit blended with that of the banks, when the superior credit of the Government could be furnished separately, without discount, to the mutual advantage of the Government and the community ? Why, let me ask, should the Government be exposed to such difficulties as the present, by mingling its credit with the banks, when it could be exempt from all such, by using by itself its own safe credit ? It is time the community, which has so deep an interest in a sound and cheap currency, and the equality of the laws between one portion of the citizens of the country and another, should reflect seriously on these things—not for the purpose of oppressing any interest, but to correct gradually disorders of a dangerous character, which have insensibly, in the long course of years, without being perceived by any one, crept into the state.

The question is, not between credit and no credit, as some would have us believe ; but in what form credit can best perform the functions of a sound and safe currency. On this important point I have freely thrown out my ideas, leaving it to this body and the public to determine what they are worth. Believing that there might be a sound and safe paper currency founded on the credit of Government exclusively. "