Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1832-08-16

are so 0nerOus as 10 produce u1d" VI tnsF
which no country can bear without
and occasional distress" His
remedy is TO compel3hcm to pay the whole
Of the. debt which have contracted, in
Urr;oa short of foursvears. Now, Mr.. Presi-
dent. If thev cannot Day the interest without
distress, how are th15 TO pay the principal?
IF thew cannot pay Sfhrt, how are they toI
nav the whole! Wkether she payment of
the interest be or be not a burthen to them is
a question for themselYfs to decide, respect
ing which they might disposed tolispense
with the kindness Of the President. Il instead
Of borrowing thirty millions from the Bank
they had borrowed like sum from Girard,
John Jacob Aston, or any other banker, what
would they think of one who should come to
them and say" Gentlemen of the West. It
will ruin you TO pay the interest on that debt,
and therefore I will oblige you to pay the
whole of the principalin less than four years."
Would they not reply" We knowwhat we
are about; mind your own business; we are
satisfied that 10 ours, we can make not only
the interest on what we loan, but a fair profit
hesides !"
A great mistake exists about the Yves
tern operation Of the Bank. 1t is not the
Bank, but the basiness, the commerce OF the
West, and the operations of Government, that
OCCASION
from the West to the Atlantic States. What
is the actual course Of things? The business
and commerce Of the West are carried on
with New Orleans, with the Southern and
Southwestern States and with the Atlantic
cities. We transport our dead or inanimatc
produce to New Orleans. and receive in re-
turn checks Or drafts ofthe Bank of the Uni
ted States, at a premium ola half per cent
We send by our drovers, our live stock to the
South aud South West, and receive similar
checks in return. With these drafts or cheeks,
our merchants proceed to the Atlantic cities,
and purchase domestic Or foreign goods for
Western consumption. The lead and fur
trade of Missouri and Illinois is also carried
on principally through the agency of the
Bank of the United States. The Govern
ment also transfers to places where it is want.
cd, through the Bank. the sums accumulated
at the different land Offices for purchases Of
the public lands.
Now all these varied operations must go
on-all these remittances must he made
Bank of the United States or no Bank. The
Bank does not create, but it facilitates them.
The Bank is a mere vehicle just as much SO
as the eambOat is the vehicle which trans !
ports our produce TO the great mart of New
Orleans, and not the grower of that produce.
to tho Bank the transfer of money from the
West to the East AnnihiIate the Bank to-
morrow, and similar transfers Of capital, the
same description Of pecuniary operations,
must be continued; not so well, it is true, but
performed they must be. i'll or well, under
any state of circumstances.
The true questions are. how are they now
how were they conducted prior to
The existence of the Bank, how would theNls
be after it ceased! / can tell you what was
Dur condition before the Bank was establish
ID !; and, as reason from past to future ex-
oerience, under analogous circumstances, /
IAN venture to predict what it will probably
Dc without the Bank.
Before the establishment of the Bank of
he United States, the exchange business
# the West was carried on by premium,
which was generally paid on all remittan-
,es to the East, Of two and a half per cent
The aggregate amount of all remittances,
throughout the whole circle of the year was
very great, and instead of the sum then paid,
we now pay half per cent. or nothing. If the
notes of the bank of the United States be us
I'd. Prior to the Bank, we were without
The capital Of the thirty millions which that
institution now supplies. stimulating our in
instry and invigOrating our enterprise. In
ASS'~S"y W. H~'S uV SRCCsO PdyMk DdUks |
carcely any currency other than that Of pa
Der of the Bank of the United States and its
How is the West to pay this enormous
lebt Of thirty millions Of dollars? II is inn
possible. 1t cannot be done. General dis
ress, certain. widespread, inevitable ruin,
must be the consequences of an attempt to
enforce the payment. Depression in the value of
all property, sheriff's sales & sacriices--bank-
fuptcy must necessarily ensue and, with
them, relief laws. paper money, prostration
Of the courts Of justice, evils from which we
have just emerged, must again, with all their
train ct Affections, visit our country. But il
IS argued by the gentleman from Tennessee
lMr. Whitc) that similar predictions were
made, without being realized, from the down
fall OF the old Bank of the United States.-l
1t is, however, TO be rec0llected, that the old |
Bank did not possess one third of the capital !
Of the present; that il had but one Office west |
OF the monntains, whilst the present has nine !: |
and that it had little or no debt due to Il in
that quarter, whilst the present bank has thir- |
" miilions. The war, too, which shortly
followed the downfall Of the old Bank. and
the suspension of specie payments which
soon followed the war, prevented the injury
unprecedented from the disconiinnance Of the
old Bank.
The same gentleman further argues that
the day at payment must come; aud he asks
when, better than now IL il 10 be indefr;ta-