Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1837-01-04

buy a bill of exchange on a foreign
country cheaper than you can SEM
specie TO that country. Accordingly
much specie comes ln-none goes out
This too, at a moment when the ex.
change for the last crop is exhausted,
and that of the new crop has not YET
come into the market-and when we
are on the point of sending 10 Europe
the produce ofthe country, to the a.
mount OF eighty or one hundred mill.
ions of dollars. How then has the
country over traded? Exchange with
all the world is in favor of New York.
How then can New York have over.
traded Her merchants have sold
goods to the merchants of the interior.
who are willing TO pay, and under or.
binary circumstances able to pay--but
by the mere fault of the government,
as obvious as if an earthquake had
swallowed them up, their debtors are
disabled from making immediate pay.
ment. II is not that the Atlantic mer-
chants have sold them too many goods,
but that the government prevents their
receiving payment for any. Moreover
in the commercial cities money can be
had. though at extravagnnt rates, for
capitalists add TO their ordinary char
ges for the use OF il a high insurance
against the loss of it. 1t il not, then,
so much that no money 10 not to be
procured, as that doubt and alarm in
crease the hazards offending il.
Then as to the banks. Ii 10 quite
probable that many of the banks have
extended their issues-but whose fault
is it3 Who called these banks into
existence The Executive. Who
tempted emo goaded them to these is.
suesl Undoubtedly the Executive
The country, five years ago, was in
possession of the most beautiful machi-
merry o%fcurrency and exchanges the
world ever saw. X consisted OF a num-.
Der Of State Banks protected, and, az
the same time, restrained by the Bank
ofthe United States.
The people of the United States,
through their representatives, recher.
tered that institution. But the execu.
tive, disconnected with its independence
rejected the act of Congressman the
favorite topic of defamation was, that
the States would make banks, and that
these banks could create a better sys-
tenn OF currency and exchanges. The
States accordingly made banks--and
then followed idle parades about the
loans of these banks, and their enlarg-
ed dealings in exchange. And what
is the consequences? The Bank of the
Uuited States has not ceased to exist
more than seven months, and already
the whole currency and exchanges are
running into inextricable confusion, and
the industry ofthe country is ~burdened
with extrayagant charges on all the
commercial intercourse Of the Union.
And now, when these banks have
been created by the executive, and
urged into these excuses, instead Of
gentle and gradual remedies, a fierce
crusade is raised against them-the
funds are suddenly and harshly taken
from them, and they are forced to ex.
traordlnary NEAR of defence against
the very power which brough. them
into being. They received and were
expected to receive, in payment for the
Government, the notes of ench other,
and the notes Of other banks, and the
facility with which they did so, was a
ground of special commentator by the
Government. And now that Govern
ment has let loose upon them a demand
for specie, to the whole amount Of these
notes. | go further. There is an
outcry abroad, raised by faction and
echoed by folly, against the banks in
the United States. Until it was distur-
bed by the Government, the banking
system of the United States was at
least as good as that of any CONNER
cial country. What was desired for
its perfection, a precisely what
have long %s.riven to accomplishing WI
den the metallic basis of the currency,
by a greater infusion Of com into the
smaller channels of circulation. This
was in gradual and ~judicious train Of
accomplishment. But this miserable
f~oolery about an exclusive metallic cur-
rency, is quite is absurd as to discard
the steamboats,, and go back to polling
up the Mississippi. Banks may often
err from want of skill, and occasional
ly be injurious as steam is--but it is
not the less true, hat the banks of this
country have been the great instru-
ent of its improvement, and that du-
ring all the commissions of the last MI
teen years, for every American BANK
which has failed at least ten English
banks have failed.
So with regard to the lands. For me
last few years, the amount OF the ale
of the public lands has been a constant
theme Of REORGANIZATION with the exec
utiye. In the very last message, on
the 18th of December, 1885, he re-
peats the same strain. "Among the
eridences Of the increasing prosperity