The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1837-06-21

mind some conclusive evidences against Il,
present system of banking. Mr.. Ingerso
was recently appointed on a Committee, b
Pennsylvania Convention, to take thi
subject into consideration and the following
is part Of minority Report made By
him:
"The whole theory and practice of A.
merican banks are false aud pernicious
Their first act being to lend trust money.
left with them to keep; their next miscon-
duct is to issue mere pronissory notes, in
stead of gold and silver money, which notes
do not represent such money. Then they
make loans of fictitious credit, by secret
and arbitrary discounts, increased or de-
creased with no regard TO public good. The
holders of their unpayable notes calling on
them for money, the banks oblge their
debtors to pay what they have borrowed; +;
thus without any system, ut one time gorg-
ing the community with false plenty, at
another straitenins it with supposed want
las six months ago there was actually no
want of food, though prices indicated dearlh
and at present when in the midst 0: plenty
of money there is none,) distressing all with
either too much or too little of the means
of livelihood. Again, bank loans, such as
they are, are not made to those who want To
the Industrious mechanical classes, but to
the speculatng and exlravagant often by /
bank directors to themselves, with which to |
grind the needy, by usurious lending again |
or to other unworthy favoriies. The la
borious and frugal are rarely assisted, but
those who are stimulated to live beyond ,
their means and pursue course of folly,
luxury nnd insolvency. Nine-tenths of them
become nsovent, for there is not one prize
10 thousand blanks in the bank lottery,
and by their assignments, almost always
secure the bank, leaving other creditors,
friends, and even their own families, to des-
tltution nnd ruin. Ii is mainly through
bank influence that courts of Justice have
been brought to sanction those unjust pre-
ferenccs, which have now become part of
the established law, although condemned
by whole class Of our people as dishonest. .
Banking and all other corporations have
the best means to fortify themselves with s
the first professional talents, SO that laws
nre both made and administered to their
advantage; and by sort of priority in the
payment Of debts, equal to Government
prerogative, they take rank Of all other -
creditors. A report TO the Senate of this
State, made the 18th January, 1921, by a al
committee, of which the chairman was an -.
intelligent merchant of Philadelphia, de- w
clares, that had it not been for the practice "a
so universally prevalent among merchants,
of securing the banks for the sake of en-
dorsers, banking would long since have
been abandoned rs an Improbable trade.
The whole Of the bank system is an impos-
ition and a loss and it may be affirmed,
that those despots who rccoined hard mon
ey and reissued it with an increasing nomi-
nal value, in order to replenish their treas
uries, did not infict as great injustice on
their subjects, as we scourge ourselves with
by yielding the Sovereignty Of the State to
the few thus irresisibIy tempted to depre- tn
ciate money and prosperity, tax industry, pr
and distress the community. or
1t is gross delusion, Of which it is high 49,
lime to disabuse the public, that our bank WI
ing system is the spring Of those rapid inn
and advances in commerce, he
and the useful arts, which ri,
distinguish England and the United States n,
'eyond all other countries. The parentnge
It these Improvements is liberty united with ''
abor. Credit can but lend, while industry sur
lways gives and bank credit never even tai
ends, without encumbering its debtors with ne
nortgages and ypotheca,ions. The goods, =
be towns, roads, canals, and other crea-
ons which we too often ascribe to credit, y"
re really due to work to that incessant col
ibor which freemen delight in whose the
hief pleasure is constant employ nen,. to
nd banks might be struck from existence IN,
'lthout disadvantage to IT, The aud they
fford 10 enterprise is always encumbered
nth onerous securities, quickly and merci- IN
'ssly cxacted individual assistance by by
'ans from capitalists would be much more wh
'rviceable. Bank resources cannot be !
rcater than the aggregate means of the 49,.
and all capitalists would be Wv
nders, if banks were not privileged to mo- me-
Dpollzc loans. They make n specious and
edit the counterfeit Of cspital, sort of the
'lcamic pital, always on the point of ex- soti
osion; every time it bursts diminishing
'nfdence in banks, which must soon be
together exhausted of credit with all who Incl
Ike any heed from experience. There are be q
" now living who have not had more than evil
lie serious warning that discount, loans cost and
ore and yield less than individual loans
I'd that instead of being succor, they are w
tiers to enterprise" stro
a Good J0ke.-The Editor of the Bo,-
n Daily Advocate, few days since, COP op''
INTO ms columns paragraph from one una
Mr.. Websters Speeches delivered in s. disse
!. The Editor Of the Boston Centinel rega
stock the paragraph foe an original pro- moi
ction of the Advocate, and abused its a
iglbor Halle,t like pickpocket for nj. nave
,cc Eoco.sm; but what mus, L,,. ho.m they
horror of him Of the Boston Ceptinel. Der t
zen, 'he next day, he found that the iden- ent-
al loco foco paragraph was no other than A,
dictum of the yeritahle orncle. ihn