The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-16 00:00:00

tions from the same fate that attended the weakest institu-
tution it professed to supervise. In 1837 it failed, equally
with others, in redeeming its notes, though the two years
allowed by its charter for that purpose had not expired, a
large amount of which remains to the present time out-
standing.
It is true, that having so vast a capital, and strengthened
by the use of all the revenues of the Government, it pos-
sessed more power ; but while it was itself, by that circum-
stance, freed from the control which all banks require, its
paramountesject and inducement were left the same—to
make the most for its stockholders, not to regulate the cur-
rency of the country. Nor has it, as far as we are ad-
vised, been found greatly otherwise elsewhere. The na•
tional character given to the Bank of England has not
prevented excessive fluctuations in their currency, and it
proved unable to keep off a suspension of specie payments,
which lasted near a quarter of a century. And why
should we expect it to be otherwise? A national institu-
tion, though deriving its charter from a different source
than the State banks, is yet constituted upon the same
principles; is conducted by men equally exposed to temp-
tation ; and is liable to the same disasters ; with the
additional disadvantage, that its magnitude occasions
an extent of confusion and distress which the mis-
management of smaller institutions could not produce.
It can scarcely be doubted that the recent suspension of the
United States Bank of Pennsylvania—of which the effects
are felt not in that State alone, but over half the Union—
had its origin in a course of business commenced while it
was a national institution ; and there is no good reason
for supposing that the same consequences would not have
followed had it still derived its powers from the general
Government.
It is in vain, when the influence and impulses are the
same, to look for a difference in conduct or results. By
such creations we do, therefore, but increase the mass of
paper credit and paper currency, without checking their
attendant evils and fluctuations. The extent of power and
the efficiency of organization which we give, so far from
being beneficial, are in practice positively injurious. They
strengthen the chain of dependence throughout the Union,
subject all parts most certainly to common disaster, and
bind every bank more effectually in the first instance to
those of our commercial cities, and in the end to a
foreign power. In a word, I cannot but believe that, with
the full understanding of the operations of our banking
system which experience has produced, public sentiment
is not less opposed to the creation of a national bank for
purposes connected with currency and commerce than for
those connected with the fiscal operations of the Go-
vernment.

Yet the commerce and currency of the country are suf-
fering evils from the operations of the State banks,
which cannot and ought not to be overlooked. By their
means we have been flooded with a depreciated paper, which
it was evidently the design of the framers of the Constitu-
tion to prevent, when they required Congress to " coin
money and regulate the value of foreign coins," and,
when they forbade the States " to coin money, emit bills
of credit, make anything but gold and silver a tender in
payment of debt, or pass any law impairing the obligation
of contracts."

If they did not guard more explicitly against the pre-
sent state of things, it was because they could not have
anticipated that the few banks then existing were to swell
to an extent which would expel to so great a degree the
gold and silver, for which they had provided, from the
channels of circulation, and fill them with a currency
that defeats the object they had in view. No good that
might accrue in a particular case from the exercise of pow-
ers not obviously conferred on the general Government
would authorise its interference, or justify a course that
might in the slightest degree increase, at the expense of the
States, the power of the federal authorities ; nor do I
doubt that the States will apply the remedy. Within the
last few years events have appeared to them too strongly to
be disregarded. They have seen that thelConstitution,
though theoretically adhered to, is subverted in practice ;
that while on the statute books there is no legal tender
but gold and silver, no law impairing the obligations of
contracts, yet that, in point of fact, the privileges conferred
on banking corporations have made their notes the cur-
rency of the country; that the obligations imposed by
these notes are violated under the impulse of interest or
convenience; and that the number and power of the per-
sons connected with these operations, or placed under their
influence, give them a fearful weight when their interest
Is in opposition to the spirit of the Constitution arid laws.
To the people it is immaterial whether these results are
produced by open violations of the latter, or by the workings
of a system of which the result is the same. An inflexible
execution even of the existing statutes of most of the States
would redress many evils now endured; would effectually
show to the banks the dangers of mismanagement which
impunity encourages them to repeat; and would teach ali
corporations the useful lesson that they are the subjects of
the law and the servants of the people. What is still
wanting to effect these objects must be sought in additional
legislation ; or, if that be inadequate, in such further con-
stitutional grants or restrictions as may bring us back into
the path from which we have widely wandered.
In the meantime it is the duty of the general Govern-
ment to co-operate with the States, by a wise exercise of
its constitutional powers, and the enforcement of its exist-
ing laws. The extent to which it may do so by further
enactments I have already adverted to, and the wisdom of
Congress may yet enlarge them. But, above all, it is in-
cumbent upon us to hold erect the principles of morality
and law, constantly executing our own contracts in accord-
ance with the provisions of the Constitution, and thus
serving as a rallying point by which our whole country may
be brought back to that safe and honoured standard.
Our people will not long be insensible to the extent
of the burdens entailed upon them by the false system that
has been operating on their sanguine, energetic, and in-
dustrious character; nor to the means necessary to extri-
cate themselves from these embarrassments. The weight
which presses upon a large portion of the people and the
States is an enormous debt, foreign and domestic. The
foreign debt of our States, corporations, and men of busi.
ness can scarcely be less than two hundred millions of dol-
lars, requiring more than ten millions of dollars a year to
psy the interest. This sum has to be paid out of the ex-
ports of the country, and must of necessity cut off imports
to that extent, or plunge the country more deeply in debt
from year to year. It is easy to see that the increase of this
foreign debt must augment the annual demand on the ex-
ports to pay the interest, and to the same extent diminish the
imports ; and in proportion to the enlargement of the foreign
debt, and the consequent increase of interest, must be the
decrease of the import trade. In lieu of the comforts which
it now brings us, we might have our gigantic banking in-
stitutions, and splendid, but in many instances profitless
railroads and canals, absorbing, to a great extent, in inte-
rest upon the capital borrowed to construct them, the sur-
plus fruits of national industry for years to come, and se-
curing to posterity no adequate return for the comforts
which the labours of their hands might otherwise have se-
cured. It is not by the increase of this debt that relief is
to be sought, but in its diminution.

Upon this point there is, I am happy to say, hope be-
fore us ; not so much in the return of confidence abroad,
which will enable the States to borrow more money,
as in a change of public feeling at home, which prompts
our people to pause in their career, and think of the
means by which det.ts are to be paid before they arc con-
tracted. If we would escape embarrassment, private
and public, we must cease to run in debt, except for ob-
jects of necessity, or such as will yield a certain return.
Let the faith of the States, corporations, and individuals,
already pledged, be kept with the most punctilious
regard. It is due to our national character, as well as
to justice, that this should on the part of each be a fixed
principle of conduct. But it behoves us all to be more chary
in pledging it. By ceasinr, to run in debt, and applying
the surplus of our crops and incomes to the discharge of
existing obligations, buying less and selling more, and
managing all affairs, public and private, with strict eco-
nomy and frugality, we shall see our country soon re-
cover from a temporary depression, arising, not from na-
tural and permanent causes, but from those I have enume-
rated, and advance with renewed vigour in her career of
prosperity.

Fortunately for us, at this moment, when the balance
of trade is greatly against us, and the difficulty of meet-
ing it enhanced by the disturbed state of our money
affairs, the bounties of Providence have come to relieve
us from the consequences of past errors. A faithful ap-
plication of the results of the labours of the last season
will afford partial relief for the present, and perseve-
rance in the same course will, in due season, accomplish
the rest. We have had full experience in time past of
the extraordinary results which can, in this respect, be
brought about in a short period by the united and well-
directed efforts of a community like ours. Our surplus
profits, the energy and industry of our population, and the
wonderful advantage which Providence has bestowed upon
our country, in its climate, its various productions, indis-
pensable to other nations, will, in due time, afford abun-
dant means to perfect the most useful of those objects, for
which the States have been plunging themselves of late in
embarrassment and debt, without imposing on ourselves
or our children such fearful burdens.
But let it be indelibly engraved on our minds that re-
lief is not to be found in expedients. Indebtedness
cannot be lessened by borrowing more money, or.
by changing the form of the debt. The balance of
trade is not to be turned in our favour by creating new
demands upon us abroad. Our currency cannot be
improved by the creation. of new banks, or more
issues from those which now exist. Although these devices
sometimes appear to give
temporary relief they almost in-
variably aggravate the evil in the end. It is only by retrench-
ment and reform, by curtailing public and private
expenditures, by paying our debts, and by reforming our
banking system, that we are to expect effectual relief,
security for the future, and an enduring prosperity. In
shaping the institutions and policy of the General Govern-
ment, so as to promote, as far as it can with its limited
powers, these:important ends, you ma) rely on my moss
cordial co-operation.
That there should have been, in the progress of recent
events, doubts in many quarters, and in some a heated op-
position to every change, cannot surprise us. Doubts are
properly attendant on all reform • and it is peculiarly in the
nature of such abuses as we are
now encountering to seek
to perpetuate their power by means of the influence they
have been permitted to acquire. It is their result, if
not their object, to gain for the few an ascendancy over
the many, by securing to them a monopoly of the cur-
yeney, the medium through which most of the wants of
mankind are supplied—to produce throughout society a
chain of dependence which leads all classes to look to pr,-
vileged associations for the means of speculation and ex-
travagance—to nourish, in preference to the manly virtues
that give dignity
a craving
hv ion gs
pdesire h
them
for
luxurious enjoyment and sudden wealth, which renders
those who seek thetmo
ea
nn d
ent nature,
as
tho
those
—to substitute for Republican simplicity and economical
habits a sickly appetite for effeminate indulgence, and an
inanition of that reckless extravagance which impoverished
and enslaved the industrious people of foreign lands ; and,
at last, to fix upon us, instead of those equal political
rights, the acquisition of which was alike the object and
supposed reward of our revolutionary struggle, a system of
exclusive privileges conferred by partial legislation.
To remove the influences which had thus gradually
grown up among us-,-to deprive them of their deceptive
advantages—to test them by the light of wisdom and truth
oppose the force which they concentrate in their sup.