Litchfield enquirer., 1837-08-17

to try State BankS-an experiment to carry on the government in a new manner, and without the agencies which it had before employed. do not censure him for this.- He said he could get along without Nation al Bank. He no doubt thought so. He was, however, mistaken. He could not do it : and that's the whole of it.
 In two years after the expiration of the United States Bank, we find that the State Banks have shut up shop. They tell their creditors that they will pay to-morow-pay when they can-can't pay at all. Now, is it for us to set up set of political metaphys- ics as our rule of conduct, instead of living up to the constitution, and to that line of conduct which for forty years has proved to be profitable to the country?
 Let us now, fellow citizens, look at the pro- fessed objects of this "erperiment"- the reasons which induced radical departure MADISON and his compatriots. Two objects were to be accomplished by it. It was,
 1st, To diminish the circulation of bank paper.
 2d, To increase the circulatian of specie.
 Now, how have these been accomplished What has been the result! have, from '32, seen the result. Although not a prophet, have foretold it. knew, as we'll as a man could know what is to take place in the ftl- ture, that what has happened would happen. It is notorious that since the moment when General Jackson first manifested dsposi- ton to put an end to the bank of the United States, the banking capital of the country has increased more than threefold. The de- termination to destroy the National Institu- tion was the signal at which thousands of in- dividuals went forward to establish new banks, and to pour new issues of paper into circulation. They moved, too, with confi- dence, for they knew very we'll that when Gen. Jackson put his foot down against any thing, he was in no hurry to take it up again. The other object was to increase the circu- lation of specie-to put more money in our pockets-to enable the gold to peep through the ''interstices of our long silken purses, and to "flow up the Mississippi" But has this object been attained? Has not the result of the experiment. already been, that there is no specie in the country at all! Why, when we meet an eagle, we meet him as stranger, or as long absent friend, and ask him how he has been?
 Then the result of the experiment. has been-a three fold increase of bank paper, and not dollar of specie to be had!
 For his part, MT. w. said, he regarded this whole |" experiment" as rash and pre- sumptuous innovation; as an instance of self-respect, self-confdence, and self-suffi- ciency, as extraordinary in its original char acter as it was calamitous in its results. He did not understand how any public man could justify himself in carrying on such experiments" upon the happiness, the pros- perity, the business and the means of living of twelve millions of People.
 As to the two proposed objects, his own opinion was not that the State Banks are to be crushed, or unnecessarily or injuriously cramped in their operations. Far from it, But still it was the duty of Government, by some institution, or some measures of its own, to endeavor to keep their issues within rea- sonable bounds, and to save the country from flood ofirredeemable paper.
 As to coming to an exclusive metallic cir culation, he had always regarded it as a chimera, impossible and perfect folly. He was astonished that any sensible man should indulge, either the hope or the desire for such state of things. There is but so much spe- cie in the world, and we can only have our proportion of it.
 It was boasted that we had 80 millions of specie in the country. Suppose it were a hundred and suppose we could retain that amount, and use it as a currency! It would be totally insufficient to carry on the busi- ness ofthe country, independent of the use of any paper, without such reduction of pri- ces as no society or community would sub- init to. If we were to establish an exclusive metallic currency, doubt whether the wheat of the county of Monroe would be worth more than twenty-five or thirty cents bush- el. It is no answer to this to say, that other things would fall in price in the same ratio. If we were now beginning anew-if we were now just setting up a community, such an idea would have weight in it. But we have community formed; with all the numerous relations of debtor and creditor. Men have entered into contracts to pay dollars, not I bushels of wheat and having made these contracts when wheat was a dollar bushel, what right has the Government, by an Ex- perimental alteration of its money system, arbitrarily, and without regard to produc- tion' to consumption, or to supply, to reduce the prlce to twenty five cents! According to the average price of produce, the farmer pays his debt of dollar with one bushel of wheat. But if this new system should be established, he would be obliged to give five bushels of wheat to pay the same amount of a debt.
 Such contraction of the currency would cause revolution. No nation on earth could stand it. Turkey herself would revolt. The notion, therefore, of an exclusive metal lic currency, in the present state of things, was ridiculous. It was mere solemn trifiing with matters of high public interest. It was political quackery in one of its worst forms. It's adoption would ruin commerce, and pros- trate the manly vigor of the country.
 But suppose an exclusive specie circula- ton to be practicable, it would be every way objectionable. It exists but in the despo- tisms of the East. If introduced here, it would throw all commercial power into the hands of the sleepy aristocrat. It would cut up, by the roots, all the hopes of those, in ev- cry part of the country, who, though without