Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1830-05-04

an act rather OF cruelty and CAPRICE than of Justice
ana wisdom, us 1t regards the present stockholders
dlviduals honestly obtained, and useullv employed
to the extept of five millions six hundred Thousand
dollars, and the property of the government to the
extent OF one million four hundred Thousand dollars
purely Tor the sake OF change.-It would Indicate
ioudncss for experiment. which wise government
will not indulge upon slight considerations
I But the great injury which would result from
the refusal of Congress to renew the charter of the
present bank, would, beyond all question, be that
which would result to the community at large. II
would be difficult to estimate the extent of the dis
trsss which would naturally and necessarily result
from the sudden withdrawal of more than forty mil
lions OF credit, which the community now enjoys
from the bank. But this would not be the full ex-
Of the operation. The Bank Of the United States
in winding up its concerns would not only Withdraw
its paper from circulation and call i'm its debts
but would unavoidably make such heavy draughts ON
the local institutions for SPECIE os very greatly
curta their discounts The pressure upon the active
industrious, and enterprising classes, who depend
most on the facilities of bank credit would be
tremendous. vast amount of property woud
change hands at half its value, pressing under the
hammer, from the merchants, manufacturers and
farmers to the large moneyed capitalists, who al
ways stand ready to avail themselves of the pecy-
mary embarrassmepts OF the community The large
stockholders of the present bank the very per-
sons whose present lawful gains it would be the
object OF some to cut off, having large s,,rplus
money capital thrown upon their hands, would be
the very first to speculate upon the distress of
the community, and build up princely fortunes up-
on the ruins OF the industrious and active classes
| On the other hand, the females and minors and
persons IN moderate circumstances, who hold stock
in the institution, would sustain an injury in no
degree ntgated by the general distress of the
community.
| very grave and solemn question will be presen-
ted 70 Congress, when they to decide upon the
expediency Of renewing the charter of the present
bank That institution has succeeded in carving the
country through the painful process necessary to
cure deep seated disease in the uationaf currency
The nation, after having suffered the almost convul-
slve agones OF this essary remedy, restor
ed to perfect health In this state of things it will
be for Congress to decide whether it is the part
OF wisdom to expose the country to degree of stuff
erlng almost equal to that which it has already stuff
ered for the purpose of bringing back that very de-
rangement of Che currency, which has been re,neded
by process, necessary as 1t was distressing.
Ifthe bank of the United States were DESTROYED
and the local institutions left without restraining
Influence, the currency would almost certainly re-
lapse into state ofunsoundness The very pressure
which the present bank, in winding up its concerns
would make upon the local institutions, would COM
pei them either to curtai their discounts when most
needed, or to suspend specie payments 1t is not
difhcult to predict which OF these alternatives they
would adopt under the circumstances in which they
would be placed. The mperious wants of suffer
ing community would call for discounts in language
which could not be disregarded. The public neces-
sites would demand and public opinion would sane
ton the suspension or at least an evasion, of specie
payments.
But even if this desperate resort could be avoided
in period Of peace and general prosperity, neither
reason experience will permit us to doubt, that
a state OF war would spaadily bring about all the
evils which fatally affected the credit of the gov-
eminent and the national currency durnr the lat
war with Great Britain. We should be again driv
en- to the miserable round of financial expedi-
ents, which, in little more than two years brouaht
hue olrn tnf
declared national bankruptcy, and places the gov
eminent completely at the mercy of specializing
stockholders.
| The committee feel warranted, by the past expe-
renee or the country IN expressing 1t as their deib
crate opinion, that IN period of war; the financial
resources of the country could not be drawn into eff
cent operation without the aid of national bank and
that the local banks would certainly resort to sus-
pension OF specie payments The maxim is eminent
ly true in modern times, that money is the snew of
military power. In this view of the subject, it does
appear to the committee, that one of the institu-
tlons OF the country, not excepting the army or
navy, is Of more vital Importance than national
bank. II has this decided advantage over the army
and navy: While they are OF scarcely any value eX-
cep in war, the bank is not less useful than either of
them In war, and is almost eninenty usefel in
peace 1t has another advantage still greater If,
like the army or navy,t should cost the nation mil
lions annually to sustain it, the expediency of the ex
penditure might be doubted. But, when it actually
saves to the Government and to the country as the
committee have heretofore attempted to show, more
millions annually than expended in supporting
both the army and navy, itwOuld that if there
was any one measure of national policy, upon which
all the political partesof the country houldbe brought
to unite, by the impressive lessons of experience it
IS that ofmalDtaning national bank.
1t is due to the PERSONS who, for the last ten years,
have been concerned in the administration of the
bank to state that they have performed the delicate
and difficult trust committed to them, in such
ner, as, at the time, to accomplish the great
national ends for which it established and pro-
mote the permanent interest of the stockholders,
with the leas. practicable pressure upon the local
banks. AS far as the committee enabled to form
an opinion, from careful inquiry the bank has been
liberal and ndulgent in its dealings with these instl
tutions and with scarcely exception now stands
in the most amicabie relation 20 them. Some of
those institutions have borne the most dsinerested
and unequyocal testimony in favor of the bank.
II is but strict justice also to remark that the d.
rccton of the mother bank appears TO have absained
with scrupulous Care from bringing the power and
influence of bank to bear upon political questions
and to have selected for the raction of the various
branches business men ia no way connected with