Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1819-01-19

and the cities where they were est3pilsneu
were made TO feel the pressure. The Bal
timore debt to the parent bank will be
found to have regularly increased with the
reduction. of rs debts to the other Offices,
until it RENTED 1907, 900 dollars in bills
Of exchange on London-whch remit
tance is connected, by the testimony OF j.,
w. M'Culloch, esq. with the negotiation
explained IN the letter Of the President,
XIV. The loan which resulted from that
negotiation was on pledge of stock that
had been pledged at Baltimore; the bank
assumed it and received the bills of ex-
change, and paid for them by giving
check on the New-York office for the a
mount, at the time the Baltimore Office was
indebted to tile parent bank more than 6
millions of dollars.
1t might have been supposed that the
pressure of the Baltimore office, upon those
more north, was owing to its being pres
+ sed by its southern and western offlces.-
( The fact will however appear from the ia
+, bic XII, that, until September last it was
indebted to the Office at Lexington, that the
debts of CincInatti, Chilicothe and Louis
vile to it were, small in amount, and that
the only office which has constantly owed It
is New Orleans, and that office not to
large amount until lately.
From these facts it would seem to result
that the embarrassment of the Bank OF the
United States, in receiving the notes OF all
its Offices did not arise so much from the
fair and ordinary balance of trade which
might have been calculated and provided
for as from the excessive discounts granted
at some of the offices, particularly from
Baltimore and Philadelphia, and the drafts.
consequent upon those discounts which
were made upon the other Offices. From
the correspondence of the bans with its
offices, it is obvious that this was the OPT
Mon of The directors and the of1icers-it is
distinctly assigned as one of the grounds
for refusing he note, Of the Offices in the
report OF the committee, X, and il is more
strongly urged in the letter Of the Boston
Office submitted and adopted by the Presl'
dent, TX, and is eloquently enforced in Sc
veral of his letters.
This committee is not prepared TO say
that an uniformly equal currency could
have been maint sihed under the most au-
spicious circumstances p; they are inclined
10 the opinion that such an attempt would
be hopeless, but they consider its abandon
ment at the time as having been produced
by the causes before stated. The efforts 4
the bank 10 meet the payment OF its notes at
all its Offices north of Charleston. were GER
tairly great, and particularly at New York
and Boston, as,will appear from the reso-
lutons marked XVI, and the account of
! specie RENTED XVII. The relnquish-
ment Of the attempt was involuntary and
reluctant.
From the testimony Of the Cashier and
TeIlerof the bank, The Teller o! the Bank
of North America, and of the Cashier and
Teller of the Office at Baltimore, it will
appear very satisfactorily, that the conduct
! of the bank and that Office in adopting the
new system of refusing the notes of the
! branches, was perfectly fair and equitable
that the bank and the Baltimore office
promptly paid and received the notes of the
other Offices which they had paid out pre-
yious 10 the change Of the system, whene-
yer application was made for the purpose,
and that in no instance have they refused
to do so. Injury probably was suffered by
those who had received the deprecated
notes in the usual course of business, but
the committee cannot perceive how the
I, bank could have changed its system in any
manner less injurious to itself and less in
convenient 10 the public than that whish
was adopted.
The committee are of opinion, taats in
stead of conducting with the aledged rigor
towards the state banks, the Bank of the
United States is liable to the more serious
charge of having increased the amount of
notes in circulation, by its acceptance of
them in those places, where it was known
they would not be redeemed in specie, and
by making them in the manner before men,
toned, the only circulating medium IL that
part of the country. The forbearance Of
the bank towards the state banks is vindi;'
Gated on the ground of its being the only