Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1824-01-27

ing Banks with social existance. For if tn,
necessity for them be original and common to eve
ry community, then that necessity can never cease
or diminish from circumstances, and lift be acct.
dental and created by our long and familiar use Of
those 1tutions, III that event it must strengthen
with the revolution of every minute that is super
added to their existence. Is wise then furnish
the friends of Banking with arguments, which are
accommodating IN force with the certainty and ra-
pidIty of time, and which must ultimately from the
mere process OF rolling, become irresistible For
the first time, Since the of the late calamites
which prevailed SO extensively in the u States
and which have been every where ascribed by i'm
teiilgent men to the same cause, the state of Vr-
ginia has now an opportunity of reviewing and ex-
pressing legislative opinion the effects of the
Banking System. BY extending the charter of that
Bank which is about to expire, they virtually afx
legislative sanction all the consequences which
have flowed from their introduction. They &C
knowledge that they have been managed with pru-
dence, moderation, and impartiality-that their
tendency has been to increase the moral indepen-
dence Oh the people, to lessen that degrading sur
rttHa'ice, which the poor are naturally too prone
to pay to the rich-to enlarge the wealth and hap
pifiess of the community, and confine them without
the virtuous bounds of legitimate industry. Banks
are either productive of good, or they not. Ii
the asst limb of the proposition be true, its trut,
must be exhibited in their consequences upon soci-
ETY., in its improved moral and physical condi-
ton. Let the advocates of the Banking System,
recommend 1t to the favor of the Legislature and
the county, by developing tn blessings ithas distri-
buted through this Nation or this State. For wer-
A-one years 1t hes been in full and efsc,ual oper-
alton, and IFS most Jealous partzans would uot ask
a longer period for a fair and full experiments
Where are the cities that it has reared up, the lands
1T has fertilized, the public Improvements it has
effected or the classes it has enriched, with the ex-
cepton of the individuals who have administered
IT, their connexions, their dependents and their ia
vofltes Within the last ten years, the population
OF the state has refrigerated, its agriculture dwin-
died. its merchants have become insolvent, and ev-
cry department., financial, agricultural and moral,
has exhibited, and still exhibits the melancholy
symptoms of gradual and general decay If it be
Unfair to ascribe this respondent of things,
wholly to the deleterious influence of Banks, tits at
least incumbent the friends of the SYSTEM to point
out some more plausible and rational cause of its
existence. If they are disposed to deny its agency
IN producing the evils under which the country is
suffering, let them enumerate one single good eff
fact it has conferred. For my part, know not
one, 1t can fairly claim as its own. ~
have enleavored thus far to prove that the
question of extension is literally one of principle,
IN which Considerations of interest either to the
state in its corporate capacity, to individuals,
ought to have sort of influence. If the Legis-
tnre is persuaded, that the original apprehensions
entertained by many of our wisest and safest poll
tieiaus, that the influence of large monied corpor-
ations was unfriendy to the spirit of our Govern
inent, have been disproved by the Banking expe-
rience of Virginia-if they of opinion, that
those institutions have fulfilled all the anticipa-
tons INDUCED in at the time of their creation, then
will they be justified i'll extending the period of the
charter of the Farmers Bank, and even in making
1t perpetual. This unquestionally, is the true
ground on which this great question ought to be
n rPn lie to all intar md
to create, for without legislative act of extensions
the functions of the corporation would cease at the
termination of its first limit. The present Legsla-
ture have in truth more responsibility to incur, in
their decision the application of the memoriasts,
than the Legislature of 1903, which past the first
act for Incorporating Bank within the limits of
Virginia for as they were venturing upon an I'M
tried experiment, which promised numerous bene-
fits to counterbalance its probable disadvantages
so the present Legislature in extending the charter
of the Farmers Bank, will be converting their ex-
pertinent into settled habit of the country, when
too i'll the estimation of all disnterested men, il
has not only failed in confering its promised bless
ings but has introduced unexpected and nnumer :
bic disasters. What they scarcely excusable
in hazarding doubtful experiment, the present
Legislature cannot be justified in confirming, after
the btteres and the fullest experience. beg leave
again to repeat the idea that extension of the
charter in the case before us, must be tantamount
to permanent and Interchangeable incorp ration OF
the Banking System among us, for every argument
now employed to enforce the measure, will derive
new strength from time and circumse ances, and the
example OF the present Legislature, will in 1888 be
quoted as precedent.
1 will proceed briefly to notice, in their order,
some of the arguments derived from expediency,
which the memorialsts have incorporated in their
petition, addressed to the present General Assembly
The first of these, which with rhetorical dexterity
they have placed in the front of the argument is,
" that whether we have banks of our own or not,
we shall be exposed all the evils of paper cur
rency either of the banks of other States, of the
U. States Bank and its branches" That there is
much force in this reasoning, it would be uncandid
as well as unavailulg to deny. But it may be re-
Piled that the branches of the u. States Bank To-
Gated in this State, which would be located here
In the event of the discontinuance of the State
banks, would be fully competent do all the bust
ness of the State. That the State currency thus
withdrawn from circulation, would be instantly and
sffectually substituted by the paper of that Bank
and that 1t Is better to have uniform than che
quered currency. Other States in course of ii
might and would follow the example of VIRGINIA
and ultimately the great desideratuu of ehecting
the whole exchange of the country, in CURRENCY OF
the same origin and the same value, might be ac-
compiished Established, as admit the Bank oil
the U. States was, in opposition to the wishes OF
the people, and in violation of the Federal Consti-
tutlon 1t would be absurd to permit hostility it to
Interfere with more important arrangements; or to
refrain from doing that which is both right and ex-
pedient from the fear of doing that institution in
directly service. 1t is established by law among
US, and is as independent Of will of our dis
like. Many who denied to Congress the power to
incorporate such an institution, acknowledged the
expediency other considerations of establishing
-and as it is too late to assert its unconstituton-
atty, it would be both liberal and beneficial to the
country, to afford it every facility of realising the