Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1816-12-07

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Competent topay specie on thes ot'i on re
ce"p,,-Nr. ii. remarked, that admitting
DI"h sIance OF trade was i'll our favor, wa.
t"earta;n that itwould continue SO, Iha
uould he so on the 10th OF July !-Ad
ltw zoo thattlle balance of trade WAS il
III. favor with the large towns OF the
Tn,tb vet there are other parts OF the
I,"n,ry. grasping at specie, with whom
.ob have no trade at all. May there no;
W run upon us from the immense
''S,nber of banks scattered over the IN
,,rior of the adjacent states But he re-
s;eJ upon one fact, which could not de
1--WE us. During the war, the balance of
trade had been in favor of Boston. Yet
Len the Banks here had cOntrived TO
LII M the paper of the Boston banks,
dard draw from them specie 10 d consider
lille amount perhaps rs much as or
aoo 600 dollars. 10 this argu-
.cent TOO. as the balance of our trade with
Enclapd is against US, one would sup
,ose there would be a drain of Ourspecie to
discharge this balance--and vet the fact
i not so, the newspapers having just
annonnced that member of Congress
,ras about proceeding to England 10 OBJ
,,;n lO, 900, 900 of dollars for The National
Rank. (Mr. Mercer rose to observe, that
e the gentleman supposed from any thing
which had fallen from him that the ba-
lance of trade was against Virginia, he
bepoed leave to undeceive him.) Mr.. Ii.
observed lie did not pretend TO be precise
about the fact, but really bad supposed
from the great influx al gGutis TO our mar
let that the balance of trade wasagainst
us.
Passing over many topics of minor i'm
nortance, lie would select those only of
greater consequence.-Those gentlemen,
Who name a particular day, are Tor getting
specie and paper TO be of the same va
lue on that day. This, he held TO be im-
possible, unless the Northern Banks should
also pay specie on that day. For, adopt
this law, and one of two consequences
must follow either that our banks will
nav specie i'll part, and then stop; or they
will pay out the whole of their specie
Admit the first suppOsition, and is 1t nos
manifest that theirnotes willbecome more
deprecated than they are at this moment?
And what, then, WILDE the result This
very specie, which they will issue, will not
remain in circulation as it is admitted
OH all hands, that two currencies efdiiie-
rent value cannot circulate tosetler-Ihe
specie will retire, in order TO become an
article oftrade the first superstition,
then, be realized, you willnot attain the
object of this bill, which is intended TO
obtain sound currency-Butw what is TO
bethe result, according to the second sup
position The banks could not place
themselves in that situation without
curtailment of their discounts. The sale of
their public stock, of their foreign balan-
ces, and of their foreign notes, will not be
sufficient. Aiterall this sacrifice, the diff
ference between their debts and their spe-
Gle, will be as % to /. They cannot, UNI
der such circumstances, resume their spe-
Gle payments, without having recourse TO
cmtailments And is this the object con-
templated by the bill Do you not per-
ceiye that the effect will be to draw in our
own Virginia notes, aud inundate us with
foreign paper? One-half of our territory
is already in the possession of this ragged
enemy-Do you wish to extend its en-
pre- Take which supposition, then, you
may select-do you not perceive that you
will not enjoy that sound and wholesome
circulation which this bill processes to re-
store The good paper will always be-
GENE subject of speculation.
MIR. II. proceeded 10 animadvert on the
remark of MIR. Mercer, that if there was
not resumption ofspecie payments, com
merce would quit our shores-tliat it
would go to Baltimore-whcrc the Iner-
chants could pay their bonds in depre-
Grated currency. And how does the Gen
tleman propose to remedy this ? BY ma
king the difference between our currency
and that ofBaltimore even greater than it
is at present. Ofcourse, to adopt that
gentleman's argument, will not this in
ducemcnt TO quit our shores be increased
by the additional difference proposed to
be createdI
Some gentlemen have contendcd, that
the banks could pay now, because they
nave more specie in proportion to their
notes in circulation than they formerly
had-but these gentlemen had overlook
ed two considerations 1st that the 9th
er banks had also paid specie at that time,
and had not left our banks to stand "a
lone thus the case Gas the lawyers saw
is not in point; and I'd. that at the time
referred 10, the banks stood in high credit
every body took it for granted, that
they had pecuniary resources TO meet all
their engagements no body knew the IA
mount of specie they had on hand, or of
the notes they had thrown into circulate
on.
But the gentleman from Loudoun had
undertaken to show they could pay spe-
Gle by the Goth of February; because Bos-
ton, with her deposits exceeding .he a.
mount of her specie, had paid and CONT
nued to pay specie. This argument, how
ever, wasa little too good il proved too
much. 1t proves that we have been in AN
error during this whole discussion for,
mat It would be immaterial what proper