Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1837-05-31
MERCHANTS BANK OF CIIERiW.

TO THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF THE
MERCHANTS BANK OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT
CIIERAw.
The undersigned having been invited. bv
. 4 vote OF your Board to meet a. your nlace
OF business, and examine into the resources.
liabilities and general standing of the Institu.
| tion under your management, and to express
our opinions thereon, especially on the recent
determination of your Board, to suspend, for
the present, specie payments for your notes
IN circulation, take occasion to offer YOU very
briefly, our views on this subject.
We express no opiniou on the wisdom or
folly OF those counse!s which first adopted this
measure, as relief from the severe pecuniary
distress Ill which this whole country is involved
-un this question men will differ, as their
reason or their politics may dictate. 1t is
sufficiently obvious, what must have been it's
effect on your Institution had you been the
first to resort to it. But gentlemen, it never
has been a question for your deliberation,
whether suspension Of specie payment for
bank notes was on the whole, discreet or a
rash policy-whither this would afford ade.
quate relief to the disease of the times, or
whether its result would not prove more disas.
trous to the monetary system of the country,
than the evil it was intended to counteract-
these questions YOU found already decided at
Your hands-and decided by those tribunals to
whose authority you were compelled to SUBJ
mit-or to pay off your liabilities and close
your business.
New York, from her favorable position,
commercial advantages, and extraordinary
facilities, in the command Of means pos
scsses as it is We'll known, q coritrodag IN
fuence over the industry and as wei as
over the money concerns Of This country
She is the Importer Of all foreign articles of
consumption used in the south-at her coun-
ters we make payment for almost everv
article of foreign o. domestic manufacture
used in our country-and at her counters, We
receive the money for our Cotton, Rice, and
Tobacco, its stap pie products-n whatever ma
terial she pays lis. we can pay and in no other
The banks Of this city first adopted the sus-
pension ofspcclc payments as measure ofre-
lief from'thcir pecunery embarrasments. which
was succeeded almost Immediately, though in
some instances with reluctance, by the banks
of Boston, Philadelphia. Baltimore, Norfolk,
| iIOoliC, lEHc, oy Csciv
other bank in the State of South Carolina.
Th Sc facts were before you when YOU adopt
ed your resolution, to 10 likewise. Indeed
gentlemen we are at a loss to perceive how
YOU could have done otherwise, with decent
regard to your own characters as prudent
men, or without fagrant breach of trust to
| the stockholders you represent-And it ap-
pears to US that the whole South must yield
to the same necessity which presses upouyou
| 1t reQuirs little forecast to discern that if any
portion of it has not yet adopted this measure
! it Will be compelled to do'so stop its business.
New York refuses to pay lis dollar in coin
: for our Cotton, mcst Of which finds its way to
! her market, and of which she is the purchaser
or raymaser. Charleston follows her ex-
! ample, and says to the back country, you
must not look to us-but these are the sources
! from which YOU have hitherto procured your
metals, and be:rg so cut of, YOU must look
elsewhere. 1t is very plain you cannot re-
deem yoar notes in specie and receive your
payments i'll paper and it is equally obvious
that the only alternative lett you is to say to
your country debtors pay US in specie for your
notes. The laws Of the country would COM
! pei them to do so, the bank might have requir-
cd it, and sold their property to have enforced
it. Now gentlemen had the bank assumed
this position, the sweeping ard hopeless ruin
in which it would have involved all its debtors
can neither be portrayed or iInagined-their
lands, their slaves, and every portion of their
estates, and would have become the property
Of the bank etmc.ely nominal prices, leaving
them not only pennylcss but with balances
against them, which in most cases it would
have been impossible for them ever to have paid.
Under this view of the subject gentlemen we
regard the late determination of your Board
to suspend for the present specie payments
for your notes. not merely as measure of irres-
istable necessity but OF imperious, paramount
duty to your numerous debtors, which as a
class, We believe to embrace as much solid
capital, industry and thrift, as can be found
among the same number Of debtors in any
bank II any state.
Having shown then, that withou, regard to
the state of It's own finances, and not merely,
nor maIn y to promote its own convenience,
the Bank has been compelled by necessity
beyond lis control, to suspend The customary
payment of its notes,-& that this necessity has
i'll this case, assumed to higher obligation of
imperative duty-that even if it held the most
undoubted security for million of dollars, and
owed but one tenth of that sum, this necessity
and this duty would have demanded the course
it has sdopted-it next became question Of
our enquiry, is the Public safe! What
are the means of the Bank How are its
funds iDvested-are they adequate to the dis
charge Of its liabilities and can they be made
available, in any other shape, than that ofgod
and silver bullion to the pa ymcnt of its debts.
And in pursuing this branch Of our investiga-
tionwe have not rested in the general state
ment, that more is due to it in dollars & cents
than it owes, but we traced its funds to their
numerous depositaries and determined for our
selves the safety and security Of these depcs-
itaries. And we deem it duty to the immedi-
ate officers ofthe Bank to state here, that thew
promptly and checrfully afforded us every de-
sired facility in TIE conduct of this examina-
tion-;n the production Of books, papers, let