Republican gazette — Concord, N.H., 1801-06-11 00:00:00, page 1

[O' Read ! Citizens of Newhampfhire !
Let your Representatives read also !
and kt JUSTICE hold the balance !]
continued from Gazette No. 10.
We now dose the communications of
A STOCKHOLDER
IN THE LATE
Newhampfhire UNION BAN K,
to His FELLOW CITIZENS.
' From the REPUBLICAN LEDGER,
THE beneficial operation of banks un
der proper regulations, in a commercial
country, is To generally underflood, that
any further evidence on that head is up.
necessary.
Banks should be encouraged, not for
the fake of aggrandizing the few who
may be owners of th” stock, nor even
for the additional purpose only of (up
porting a circulating meciium adequate
to the existing quantity of business trans
a&ed, but with the more important de
sign of affording the greatest possible ad
vantage for the further growth of com
merqe, agriculture, manufactures, and
^very other branch of industry adapted
to the situation of our country. To ac
dpmplifh this, it is indifpefable that a ri
valfhip Should be created, in order to
prevent those partialities that otherwise
would naturally arise, and which by con
fining the channels, through which the
paper medium is permitted to pass into
circulation, to the demands of a few
friends, and such others as may be wife
ling to bow fubmiffi m to the will of a
fee of imperious directors, would effec
tual!, prevent that increase of business
which it has been the wisdom of every
enlightened government to promote ;
ever, man of good character, who can
offer proper security at a bank, should
find the fame favorable deception— the
man of small property and of humble pa
rentage no less than the wealthy and the
“ wefcborn." One company of merch
ants with exclusive privileges, might im
port from abroad all the goods of foreign
production, necessary for the confump^
tion of a state; and one company of
traders might dispose of the whole to the
conftimers ; but what would be the pol
icy that would fuffer such a monopoly !
where would be the restraint against a
haughty and domineering deportment,
disobliging and abusive treatment — and
the mod unreasonable and exorbitant
demands? Common sense and common
experience will furnifh an answer.
If exclusive privileges be improper as
relate to the supply of articles of fecon#
dary importance, how much more so in
regard to money, 6 which answers all
things !" " The borrower is indeed ser
vant to the lender" —-nine tenths of the
people are by turns borrowers of mon
ey—is it proper, then, thj&fo large a
proportion of mankind bffade subser
vient to the caprice of a few individuals
distinguished from their fellow men in
no other refpeX than by enjofyqprtoi
leges denied to others?
The proprietors of the N. H. U. Bank
had reasons of a special nature for their
association—they were, with a very few
REPUBLICAN GAZETTE.
CONCORD, jfafamfflttb T H URSDA Y, June u, 1801—No. 19— Vol. I.
LIBERTY AND THE CONSTITUTION.^
exceptions, men not in favor with the
distinguished gentry of the other bank ;
they were generally.men of business, as
has been already represented, and were
owners of one half themavigation of N.
Hampshire, whith being principally em
ployed in Weftindia voyages, the duties
on their homeward bound cargoes were
considerable, and 'by law mult be paid
long before so much could be realized
from the sales of those cargoes, which
renders the assistance of banks peculiar
ly convenient. From the belt compu
tation that can be made, more than one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars have
been paid by them and their immediate
connexions in business to the public re
venues within the last two years—up
wards of twenty thousand otyhich were
paid by one man. The writer of this
has not had access to the col eXor's
books, but believes that three fourths of
the revenue arising from imports in this
state has, for the last two or three years,
been paid by the proprietors of the New
Bank, and those concerned with them in
trade.
These things have been made known
to our rulers, who, strange as it may ap
pear, have fuffered themselves to be
blinded by the intrigues of a few felfifh
men, who have not been content with
sharing in the exclusive privileges of the
Newhampfhire bank, but hold also a
commanding influence in that of New
buryport, by which a combination is so
formed that each bank is secure of the
assistance of the other, in the prosecution
of any plans they may think for their
own interest to adopt. And will the free
citizens of Newhampfhire fuffer that
their brethren should be thus oppressed ?
that those who are employed in purchas
ing and fending abroad the surplus pro
duce of their lands, and returning to
them such articles in their stead as they
stand in need of, and who are contribut
ing in so great a proportion to the public
revenue, (by which alone direX and op
pressive taxes can be prevented) should
become tributary to a few mercenary
speculators! The genius of Newhamp
fhire can never tolerate such abomina^
ble abuse ; it needs only to be know^
to excite the indignation of their
citizens, and to rouse them to am
pation in the interests of their ra
brethren.
As the stockholders in the N- In,
conceived it for their interest to impute
the establishment of a second bank in
Portsmouth to a spirit of opposition to
theirs, and have obstinately persisted in
propagating such an opinion to the pres
ent time, without any other evidence in
its support than a conviction of such im
propriety of conduct on their own parts
as might justly have warranted it; it is
thought proper to shew at large a letter
on the fubjeX from the Directors of the
Newhampfhire Union Bank addressed to
the Dire&ors of the N. H. Bank.
The following is a corred copy:,
Portsmouth, 03.26, 1799.
1% the Diream of the Nrabra,Jbiro Bank.
GENTLEMEN,
THE many suggestions that for several
months past have been industriously pro
pagated by interested persons calculated,
not merely to prejudice the public mind
against the institution of a second bank
in this town, but even to excite impreG
fibns of the most unfavourable kind a^
gainft the charaXers and views of its
proprietors, have been too public and
'unreferved, to escape the notice of the
most cursory observer. The charge of
political opposition, artfully made use of
by some as the most popular engine with
which to accomplish their obje&, with
various other insinuations not having a
colour of evidence in their support, we
presumed could never gain beliefin any
mind where the shadow of candor exist
ed—no means therefore have been em
ployed by uslo counteraX their tenden
cy ; c&tain a&s however, some of a pri
vate, but others of a more public nature,
convince us that there is at least a wil
lingness in some to realize them as just.
The obje& of this communication is,
(without commenting on what has taken
place unfriendly to us) briefly to state—
That the fame motives, which doubtless led
to-the eftabliJhment of ,our bank, viz. pers
final emolument, and a deJire to accommo
date the mercantile part of the community,
have actuated us—That we conceive the in
creased state of commerce here will afford
ample employment for the capitals of both
banks, and of course all controversy will be
unnecessary and ufelefs —That we thorough-
Jy disclaim ever, idea of hojiilit, or opposi
tion from an, mb" m e, whether of a public
or private natures That we are read, to
meetyou on equal and amicable ground, and
on all occasions to reciprocate ever, friends
l, and honorable afl.
From citizen, to citizen, each poffeffng
the fame natural rights,fuch declarations as
these, we trust, are all that can or, ought to
be wifhedfor ; and wefurther add, that if
an, measures Jhall be adopted by us in an,
degree unfavorable Jo ,our interest, the,
will be the result of nectyty, for in no case
will we bejufll, chargeable with aggrefyon.
We are, with esteem, Gentlemen,
your bumble servants,
[Sig„i 6, the Dir^on of the Nuubampfeire
, Union Bank ]
, The public have already been inform
dLdiat no notice was taken of this com
1 Had a decent reply been
her conciliatory 'propofals
Followed. Os this, the di^
N. H. bank were probably
|rcre, a/tf'lhought it better to stand
chargeable with unpplitenefs and inde<
cency, than to be left without a shadow
of excuse for the opposition they were
determined to make.
SERIOUS QUESTIONS.
[O' The opposition to the Newhampz
Jhire Union Bank, was raised when that
Spirit, called Federalism, was at the zenith
of its glor, in Newhampfhire ; Jacobin !
was the watchword adopted b, its oppofers,
as best calculated to work its overthrow- —
The fiaeffe succeeded—a majority of the Court
voted a fa„reffion ad, and Tbe Governor approved
it. But foe charm so broken—a majority of tie
_ People are Genuine Republicans And now it
may perhaps be useful for every Member of
that HoaoraMo Body, who granted exclusive priv
ileges to the proprietor# of the Old Bank, to ^