Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1816-02-10

| The Commit ee can discover no other
mode of restraining it,
Though we have just seen the ruin of
the country threatened by banks, there is
no means OF restraining them except by a
bonus, This is the true and only correc-
! tive Of an evil which goes to the destruction
| of the social order; and this corrective
| (the only one) does not prevent or S 9TH
| CT banks petitioning at the same moment,
| Offering to pay the bonus, & yet the report
| applies another corrective and refuses
them charters. IF his be the only correc
tive, why apply it to some and not to all
Ii this be the oniy criterion of the number
| OF banks necessary, why refuse it to any
| Bank offering it j? Besides, suppose the
| banks refuse to give bonus, the iegsa
| ture cannot compel them to give one: then
bonus being the only corrective, and
banks having power to refuse paying be-
nus, there is no CORE tive ~ all.
The words of paragraph AL are scarce
ly less absurd. If 1t be at all incumbent
| on the Gener..l Assembly to grant no new
charter without an adequate premium, it is
alike SO 70 protect the privileges of those
which have already been, or may hereafter
be granted. This can DC efectualiy done
only by the auppressng the practice of
private banking
Now, whatever injury may be done here
after to one bank by another private one,
has already been done to the present banks
By these private ones. Is it this injury
which entities them to favor or the inter
ests. rights and dignity OF the common
wealth, which we are afterwards told they
have violated
Next we learn, Up. 45,] that atrocious
swindiing' has been committed in several
parts of the u. S. by private bankers. In
Virginia, no pery e1tenSive injury has
been inflicted on the couatry. And as they
have not quite ruined us, they should be al
lowed charters. This injury, however,
which moment ago was. not very exten-
sive,' in the next breath becomes real ad-
vantage. /. BY aiding collection of tax
es. 9. By retaining specie in the Common.
wealth. 8. By relieving the country from
pressure
The legislature of Virginia has
now existed IN one form or other more than
200 years, taxes have been collected during
that period Of time without banks, & they
were never until now thought necessary.
If they are necessary, why did not the
legislature foresee the evil, and remedy it
in regular manner, without leaving the
collection Of the revenue to the rapacity cf
a speculation which threatens the country
with rain, by enormous issues of paper up
on God knows what security, bortoned
neither upon specie nor public confidence,
and so far from being sanctioned by law, in
direct violation OF positive law 2.-The
retention Of few silver dollars by these
banks is hardly worth mentioning it will
have no other ef'-ct than to delay little
longer the payment of specie by the Char
tered banks, and that very specie which
has until now been hoard d in barren cof-
fers. may, when the harvest Of speculation
is blasted by public exertion, be exported
from the State. The emission of more
bank paper can certainly not tend to retain
it in Virginia. 8. The sufftrings which
these backs have relieved, were the in
mense evils of having Richmond and 3 lti-
more paper bottomed upon specie, instead
of this balloon paper of the unchartered
banks floating upon the undulations of pub
lie favor without any bottom at all.
Though private banks . moment ago
were denounced as ruinous to chartered
ones, it is now maintained Up. 46] that these
particular IS have been of no manner Of
injury TO the existing banks, because these
banks at present supply the country of the
unchartered ones, with but small part OF
the circulating medium. THIS at present
is truc, because the chartered banks fear
ing run upon their specie Immediately it
began to flow, By these unchartered ones
which had scarcely any of their own, have
as far as possible Withdrawn their notes
from circulation. and the unchartered
banks intending this run have hoarCei up
the notes Of the chartered ones IS some thing
mora nearly an equivalent to specie than
their own. Is it then wonderful that with
these two sponges absorbing SO much Of the
medium every day, that the chartered
bhks should now supply but small part
OF t. three years ago however they sup
piled very large part.
1t is objected in Up. H. thatif the petit
tons be not granted, the currency of the
country Will be supplied from Baltimore
and Alexandria. A strange objection in
deed to hear from the eco ON sts who but
Il moment ago were recommending the
employment OF foreign capital ] Showed
that such employment as they defended
was injurious but, such is the luxuriauce
with which error blooms in their system,
that they are wrong in both their Contra
d.ctofy propositions. They have peri rm-
cd a problem deemed impracticabi, by To-
g clans. 1t has been said that Of two con
Trajectory propositions, If one be false, tine
other must DC true. But these logciaus &c
feni opposite propositions, both Of which
are false. One has already been shewn 20
be so, now for tho other. This part Of
Virginia maintain can as well employ in
the mode she does employ the bank paper
Of Baltimore and Aiexan lria, as she could
50 much paper of her own. The notes is
suing from these banks are not, as in the
case of foreign c2DItal. lent To Virpi a on