« The first part of the quotation ( »If the American people ever allow
private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by
inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow
up around them will deprive the people of all property until their
children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered")
has not been found anywhere in Thomas Jefferson’s writings, to Albert
Gallatin or otherwise. It is identified in Respectfully Quoted as
spurious, and the editor further points out that the words « inflation »
and « deflation » did not come into use until 1864 and 1920,
respectively.[3]
The second part of the quotation ("I believe
that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than
standing armies...") may well be a paraphrase of a statement Jefferson
made in a letter to John Taylor in 1816. He wrote, "And I sincerely
believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than
standing armies ; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by
posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a
large scale.« [4]
The third part of this quotation ( »The issuing
power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to
whom it properly belongs") has not been found in any of Jefferson’s
writings. In fact, he said something rather different in 1813 : "The
States should be applied to, to transfer the right of issuing
circulating paper to Congress exclusively, in perpetuum, if
possible..."[5]
Lastly, we have not found a record of any
publication called The Debate Over the Recharter of the Bank Bill.
There was certainly debate over the recharter of the National Bank
leading up to its expiration in 1811, but a search of Congressional
documents of that period yields none of the verbiage discussed above."