Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1837-09-14


ted period which has now SO abruptly closed.
The connection thus repeatedly attempted,
proved unsatisfactory OH each successive oc-
casion, nosw outstanding the various measures
which were adopted To facilitate or insure its
success. On the last OCCASION, 10 the year
1883, the employment Of the State banks was
guarded especially inevery way which cxpe-
rience and cau,,on could suggest. Personal
security was required for the safe keeping
and prompt payment Of the moneys to be re-
ceived, aud full returns Of their conditions
were, from time TO time, to be made by the
repositories. In Tire FIRST stages the mea-
sure was scDinently successful, notwitbstand-
hog the violent opposition of the Bank OF the
United States,and the nnceasing efforts made
TO overthrow it, The selected banks per-
formed with fidelity, and without any EN-
barrassulent to themselves or to the cominu-
nifty, their engagements to the Government,
and the system promised TO DO permanently
useful. But when il became necessary, un-
der the act of June, 1896, to withdraw from
them the public money, for the purpose Of
placing it IN additional institutions, or Of
transferring IL 10 the States, they found it, in
many cases, incooveDient to comply with the
demands Of the Treasury, and numerous and
pressing applications were made for lndul-
gence or relief As the instalments under
the deposite law became payable, their own
ciDbarrassmemts, md the necessity under
which they lay Of cnr'ailing their discounts
aud calling in their de BITS, increased the gen
eral Distress, and contributed, with other
causes, to hasten the revulson in Which, al
length, they. in common with the other banks,
were fatally Involved.
Under these circumstances, il becomes our
solemn duty to inquire whether there are
not, in any connection between the Govern
Incnt and banks Of issue, evils Of great mag
nituJe, inherent in i,s very natdre,and against
which no precaation can cfftctuaIly guard.
Unforeseen in the organization of the GO
vernment, and forced OIL the Treasury BY
early necessitcs, the practice Of employing
banks was IN truth, from the beginning, more
measure Of emergency than Of sound poll
cy. When we started into existence as u
nation in add; to the burdens Of the new
Government, we assumed all the large but
honorable load Of debt which, was tie price
of our liberty; bnt we hcsitated To weigh
down the infant industry of the country by
nesorting to adequate taxation for the neccs-
sary revenue. Tbe facilities of banks, in re-
turn Tor the privileges they acquired, were
promptly offered and perhaps too readily ac
ing the hong continuance Of national debt,
nGd the intervening difficulties Of foreign
war, the connection was continued from mo
hves of convenience; but these causes have
long since passed away. We have no en-
erGencrs- that made banks necessary to aid
the wants Of The Treasury; we have no load
OF national debt to- provide fur, and we have
on actual deposite n large surplus. No pub
Ic hn
newal Of a connexion that circumstances have
dissolved. The complete organization OF our
Government, the abundance of our resources,
the general harmony which prevails between
the different States, nod with foreign powers,
all enable us now to select the system most
consistent with the Constitutions, und most
conducive to the public welfare. Should we,
then, connect the Treasury for fourth time
with the local banks, il can only be under a
conviction that past failures have arisen from
accidental, not Inherent defects.
A danger, difficult, If not impossible, to be
~s-idS1 q. su~h aU arrangement, is made
strIkingiy e.ident in the very event by which
1t has now been defeated. A sudden act of
the banks entrusted with the funds of the
people, deprivcs the Treasury, without fault
or agency OF the government, of the ability
TO pay its creditors in the currency they have
by law right to demand. This circumstance
no huctuatlon of commerce could have pro.
duced, If the public revenue had been col
lected IN the Iegal currency, and kept in that
form by the officers Of the Treasury. The !
citizen whose money was in bank, receives it
back, since the suspension, ut a sacrifice in
its amount, whilst he who kept in the legal
currency OF the country, and in lis own pos
session, pursues, without loss, the current of
hls business. The government, placed in
the situation of the former is involved in EN-
barrassments it conta not have suffered had
1t pursued the course Of the latter. These
embarrassnents are, moreover augmented by
those salutary and unjust laws which forbid
it to use deprecated currency, and, by so
doing, take from the government the ability
which individuals have Of accommodating
their transactions to such catastrophe.
A system which can, in time Of profound
peace, when there is large revenue laid by,
thus suddenly prevent the application aud
the use Of the money Of the people, in the
manner nnd for the nbjects they have direct
ed, cannot be wise; but who can think, with
out painful reflection, that under it, the same
unforeseen events might have befallen Tvs in
the midst of a war, and taken from US, at the |
moment when most wanted, the use of those
very means which were treasured up to pro-
mote the national welfare, and guard our ma
tional rights? To such .embarrassments and
10 such dangers will this government be al
ways exposed, whilst II takes the moneys
raised for. and necessary to, the public SER
vice, ont Of the hands Of its officers, and con-
verts them into mere right of action against
corporations entrusted with the possession Of
them. Nor can such results he effectually
guarded against in such a system without in
vesting the Executive with control over
the Banks themselves, whether State or Ma