Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1816-04-27
10 TIE ADIroR or TIE E.vQUiaER.

AND" on the subject Of cur banks, and The
present state of our currency, which he
admits to be very dfpiorab'e he speaks n
p style Of authority, 10 the CITIZENS Of the
Towns and the Citizens of the Country
He affects 20 say, in very unqua iicd
manner, what the Executive will do, and
what they will not do, rs to converting the
Legislature, 10 sueprnd or repeal their law,
compelling the banks to pay specie.--He
would have it be believed. that be s IN the
secrets OF the Executive Council nav,
perhaps, that he is some limb or fragment
nf that body. This cannot be the fact.
Fir. Editor. y he writer is some shaver
III disguise. He cannot he "a member of
the Executive body. | infer this from
the piece itse /, as will now attempt to
shew.
This writer expressly admits the state
of our country, in the respect in question,
TO be very desperate. He 4 nits it to be
Sc extreme, that he recommends, as the
only cnre, general system of usury or
shaving. He exhorts the Citizens Of the
country, TO lend their surplus money, TO
the dealers in the banks. at premium of
&C one per cent. per month, or more -
lie wishes TO make the practice of usurv
general ! tosxtend it into the country, a.
m0ng the rultivators Of the Earth. Z" G od's
chosen people 20 and to loosen the founda-
ton ofpu5lic morality Rather than in
cur this evil sooner Tran resort to such
an alternative, would compel the Men,
bers OF the Legislature to travel tn Rich
mond once month | would prefer that
their session should be perpetual, and that
they should repeal, this month, ruinrus
and improv;doni law passed in the lsst-
Can the, that any member of the Execu-
tive body has rcc0mm ended this remedy
Has preferred the interest Of the shavers
TO that of the community at large pre-
sumo not. ! shcnld r3ther EXPECT that
honorable body set their fees AGAINST
this detes'able enorD.ty. should expect
them to recommend it to the Legislature
Il put down Shaving, as far as possible by
causing the laws against usury to be given
IN charge to every grand jury, by eXFeling
usnrers, forever, from the direction Of the
banks, and DENYING hem ell accommoda-
toos, therein, for the purposes Of shaving.
IL IS crying SIN, III any country, that any
set OF individuals should prowl about, To
iatten on the distresses Of thcir fellow-ci
tizens that they shonld get rich, without
one act of honest INDUSTRY, without airy act
OF energy, save that of hunting out their
improvdent fel'ow-citizens, and graduating
their exactions, by the scale Of their ne
cessties
AS to the general system of shaving,
which this writer 50 strongly recommends,
1t is liable to the further objection. that it
will be too slow, to meet the eXigency -
Its, Cike q convention ofthc Legs'a-
ture, by q majority of its own m "mbe7's)
measure too tardy in its operation. and ton
difficult to be effccted.-The mischief will
be p"rpstrate@, before the measure can be
carried into execution. Resides when
all these landholders shall have commen-
cesi their system of uSury, at the rat Of
II per cent. per annum. or 1ore when
they shall have passed the Rub'Cun, on
this subject when they shall have passed
over the bourdary line. between virtue &
vice, who is TO assign to them the stopping
pl cef They will indemnify themselves for
the risque they run, of losing their whole
deht they will require 4 remuneration for
having violated th.-'r conscienCes they
will be carried away in the vortex of vice
thy viii b. come corrupted By the profits Of
thGir nrw occupation and, from ore or
all OF these causes, set no bounds to the ir
exactinns. Is this a state Of things which
car be wished or recommended BY any
menher Of the FxeCutive Council OF
those guardians Of our safety. whose duty
it IS, to see that the public morals be kept
pure and indebted, and the laws faithfully
exrcnted
MS writer unNeTt2keS to assert, that
the Executive will not convene the Legs
lature, unless some restrictive measures
shall be passed by Congress, to urge the
state banks into specie payments, on the
first OF January next, in which case. he
adds, they may be convened, early in No
v0nber, to place our banks on the same
footing with the others. This gives M the
controversy. It admits that an equ,lity or
identity Of interests between all the ba Ks,
is the requisite deSideratum. Admitting,
therefor, that nc such measure shall be
vet TO be called, on this writer's own prin-
ciples. to put our banks on the same /oofiue
with others, who have no day assigned Tor
raging specie. or later days than ours
the effect of which viii. be, that all our pc
Gle will be drawn out, and carried away,
to answer the purposes Of those banks 1t
is impossible to shcw a difference between
the two cases. There is no conceivable
reason Why the Legislature should not be
called III one case, as well as the other
This writer further undertakes to saw.
that the legislature will not be convened,
unless " the people in the country" move
IN the matter unless a respectable por-
ton OF " their Delegates" addresses tho
Executive on the subject. Indeed but
suppose Tie feohie Themselves should adj
dress the Executive, is no respect 20 be
paid to their viii or does this writer ins-
nuate, that il is only those who put in and
scratch Out the Executive body, that are
n be regarded This cant of being pov-
crned On,y bv the wishes of Is fI,f. ne er,i., IN