John M. Forbes to William Cullen Bryant, January 22, 1862

Boston, January 22, 1862.

. . . I have not seen set forth so distinctly as it deserves the point that while speculators, and gamblers, and indeed shrewd men in active business can take care of themselves, no matter how vicious the currency tinkering may be, it is the women and minors, the helpless and the poor generally, upon whom a vicious currency and its consequences are sure to fall hardest. The savings banks represent the accumulations of the poor, and the effect on them ought to be strongly painted; but in point of fact the savings in the hands of the people are larger than those in the banks, and these belong to a still poorer class, who do not accumulate enough to make deposits, or who have not the habits of thrift of the savings bank depositors. Upon this poorer class the loss is going to be still sharper. . . .

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 281-2