The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1815-01-07

1st The specie in our Banks is nor all
gone, we soler:nly assure the good folks in the
Country. How long it would be, before it
would have vanished, if the Banks had not
suspended its payment, is another question:
1t Tomorrow, for Instance, the vaults of the
Bank were to be unlocked, as OLA m the
last Enquirer contended they ought to be, all
our gold and silver ''rches would soon take
wing''-for the balance of trade by.isg against
this State, the dollars would have gone where
so many have gone before them-to the North
and to the South. And how then should we
have been placed With n paper circua-
ting medium, rather less valuable than it is at
present, from there being less or no gold and
silver i'll the banks to take it up-Those per-
sons, therefore, who are so tar deuded by
their imaginationS, as to be continually knock
ing at the vaults of the banks, for specie,
are in their own lght--the gold or silver, the
moment they were let out, woula take wing
tor other regions, and leave the paper me-
dunn behind them, of smaller value than it
was before. 1t is the interest, therefore, of
every citizen to keep up the value of the pa
per, and to rest satisfied that the Banks will
take it up, and give gold and silver fori it,
when Peace shall return with " healing in
her wings
But 2ndly. 1t is not solely nor principally
the specie, which is left in the banks, on
which the credit of the bank-notes is built
1t is the mass fthe notes of those, who have
dealt with the Banks. i'll other words, the
property which is pledged by those notes,
which forms the sure and mistaken foundat-
on OF these institutions. Mark tue Course of
the business The Bank lends out us noes,
and gets in lieu of them the notes of A, b. c.
&c. with an endorser to them, Thus the
property OF two, sometimes three, persons is
bound and pledged Ivy the negociabe notes.
fnn he anlye
conducted with discretion, & no one disputes
the management of the Virginia - nGs. Ga
JOINT Committee of the Legislature have tie
iy given them credit 70 r this discretion they
have taken care for every note of theirs which
IS oar TO have ii their vaults the notes. or in o.
I lrr W res hs at W ofti.e frotiertv,
OF two sufficient persons. Before then, these
banks can break; before their notes can de-
preciate IN their intrinsic vallrr, the houses &
lots in our towns and many of the lands in the
Country, must sink in the eulph of ruin y,
X, &, &c. must all fail, before the Bank can
fail
Srd. But the hanks have not only specie
capitalin part, and an intrinsic value in real
md either property as their undation--hut
the'r notes have an immediate and hoSitipe
value lst. They are g d in the payment of
all cur State tares, say from to 500. 0Oo do,
lars per annum, and to that amount they will
good in the payment of all the debts which
are dus 10 the Bank, and FIR that purpose
they will aLSvayS be III demand The whole
mass OF property, which is pledged to the
Banks, cHn only be discharged from this lien,
by 50 much gold and silver being paid into the
Is Ahss, or somuch Of their Notes being retur-
ned t. them. If Gold and Silver are not to
be pr cured, recourse must be had 10 PAPER
for which there Will consequently be de
mand
We lock upon this statement as go clear
and conclusive, Is to ieeve no room for ap-
prenension about the stability of the Banks
we shonld treat these institutions with for
| bearance; we houldnnrrish, instead of dis
| tressing them receive their paper, instead
Of running it down; FOR when Peace comes to
! bless us. specie vii flow m, and the most
deiuded will confess that he has bsen mista-
ken about the Virginia Banks.-We speak
principally, Of them, because it is our be ief
that they have been prudently managed, and
that for what they have put our they have ia
ken fn an equivalent pledge.