Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1834-04-24
CONTINUED from fourth page. ]

be the Judgment she is to form OF the eX-
perimept now on trial, but her own Judg- T
ment2 She considers, and, according to the
report of the committee. she is bound to 9
consider, that the sentence of death has
zone forth against hef; and if this be SO,
what principle compels her to put the capt.
tal of her stockholders risk upon the is
sue of an experiment?
The alleged pressure by the bank in Au-
gust and September, 1888, with view to
coerce rccharter, requires to be particu-
larry considered, for two reasons: first, be-
cause it is believed that what the bank has
done, is doing, and will probably be forced
to continue to do, is IN perfect coincidence
in all its parts with the plan which the
secretary intended, by the removal OF the
deposites, TO force upon the bank and the
country.
/. The imputed design of the bank to
coerce the renewal of its charter, is an in
ference from the mere fact OF its re.luc-
tions. There is nothing else suggested toI
Justify the imputation, and its proprlety Isl
consequently not TO be made either more
or less clear by argument. Ii such was
the design of the bank, it is impossible tol
imagine any plan that could more eifectu-
ally have promoted it, than that of the
secretary. The fact of pressure and dis
tress in August and September, 1888, isl
now known to have been assumed as a
motive for the removal, without sufficient
evidence or consideration. Pressure, and
distress are, it is true, terms which indicate
comparative rather than absolute difficulty
and therefore, it is not easy to prove that
the payment Of debts to bank is not al
ways the occasion Of some pressure and dis
tress to those who are compelled to pay
But such as are sufficiently at ease to con-
slider what was the condition of the country
during the sixty days which preceded the
removal of the public deposites, and toI
compare it with that which it has assumed
in the course of the last two months, will
admit that the state the country, up to the
hour of removing the deposiles, was state
of comparative beatitude. In the now es-
tablished sense of pressure and distress.
the commercial cities and the country, up
to the removal of the deposites, were Who'll
ly exempt from every appearance of either.
That justification of the secretary's mo-
tive fails therefore entirely in point Of fact.
Had any such pressure existed, the inten
ton to remove was so justly apprehended,
for months before it was executed, and the
reductions by the Bank of the United States
in August and September were so indispen-
sible to her safety, in the extraordinary re-
lation in which the treasury was about to
place her, that few persons, who consider
the subject dispassionately, would be in
clined to infer a purpose of coercion from
that which could be SO much more natural
ly traced to the motive of seIf-protection.
2. But the conclusive answer to the
secretary's reason is, that what the bank
did, is doing, and must continue to do,
was, and is, aud will continue to be, the
inevitable effect as well as the declared
purpose, Of the secretary's plan. That
plan seems Of late to have been put a.
side for the more satisfactory occupa-
sion of censuring the bank. 1t deserves
to be recalled to the consideration Of
the house. tbs to be rccollected that
the secretary assumes as postulate,
that the notes of the bank, as soon as
the charter expires on the Sd of March,
1886, evil lose the peculiar value they
now possess, and the notes payable al
distant places become ms much depre
ciated AS the notes Of local banks; and
if in the mean time no other currency is
substituted in its place by common con-
sent, it is easy to foresee the extent of
the embarrassment which would be caus-
ed by the sudden arrangement of the
circulating medium" The secretary
then proceeds TO say, that sit is of the
hrst Importance to the interests of the
public, that these notes should all be Ia.
ken out of circulation before they de.
preciate in the hands ofindividuals who
hold them; and they ought TO be with,
drawn gradually, and their places sup
Piled as they retire, by the currency
which will become the substitute for
Them" The secretary then immediate
~ inquiries, "How long will it require
for the ordinary operations of commerce
and the reduction of discounts by the
bank, to withdraw the amount of cir
culation before mentioned, without Civ
ing shock to the currency, or produ-
cling distressing pressure upon the
community" The secretary answers
his own question-"I am convinced that
the time which remained for the charter
to run after the LIST Of October, 1.-THE day
on which the first order for removal took
effect, was not more than was prope,
RI 81 fbo ab:ook ..,:.I