Litchfield enquirer., 1837-11-09


 T~~..crs FROM MR. CusHMG's SRHRcH' :. n. sHs 5;U to postpone Ase payment gf hhe foalFfh
 ;ustaE,nens of tho SuTpkWs Revenue.
 CAUSES OF PUBLIC DIsTREss.
 The President says, and believe ninl. that in spite of ," the passions and conflicts oI paS. fv. .tfhese causes cannot fail to be fairly un- Iarstood. sooner or later. They will be- Thev cannot be disguised now, from any one who chooses to see. How does the President himself explain the matter
 His expositiona is remarkable. Chiefly "oyeraction in all the departments of busi- ness" stimulated by "excessive issues of bank paper,'' and by other facilities of credit, and bringing in it's train the evils of specula- tion and extravagancc 1; this "overaction' aggravated in it's effects by the great confla- grafton in New York, the transfer of the pub lie deposites under the DepOsite Act, and the conduct of the Bank of England.
 aOveraction'' in business, then, produced by excess of bank issues, that is the cause, upon the showing of the President. NoW' do not undertake to adopt the Presidents ex- p1anation as aohoIy true; for If the queslon of !. oyeraction'' were examined on its own proper merits, it would be perceived not to be so relain n matter. But Iargue upon the pre- misses presented to me by the President 0Overaction" we assume, if you will, as the iumediate cause of the existing financial and commercial disorders in the United States. Then what is the cause of tue cause The causa causGns? For the President himself tells us of !" ANTEcEDENT CAUSES" And what are these antecedent causes? How came the bank issues to be excessive! To talk of -oyeraction and to step there, is only telling half the facts. A magazine is blown up.- You say it is by an explosion of gun powder. Be it so. demand-who laid the train! Who applied the match! What produced this overaction 2" Every body knows, the President himself knows, he is too wise a man to deny, the real facts of the case The Message tells us that, in the two years from 1884 to 1886, bank capital in the United States increased from 200 to 241 millions, notes in circulation from 95 to 40, and discounts from 3A to 457 mil- lions. Now, what induced this rapid aug mentation of bank capital, bank issues, and bank discounts? For these are the evils which constitute the burden of the Message. a It is all matter of unquestionable history. The fact is notorious, that the increase of bank capital began simultaneously with the indication of disposition on the part of the late President to obstruct the recharter of the Bank of the United States. Bank capital went on augmenting, alongside of the remov- al of the deposites and the progress of the Executive war against the bank. In lSll, the number of.State banks was eighty -eight. with capital of $42,6l 601 in 1916, the number had risen to two hundred and forty. six, with capital of $s9,622,422. In 1880 the number was three hundred and twenty nine, with capital of $e1 10, ,192,26S; in 1887 the number (branches included) was eight hundred and twenty three, with capital o1 $376,421, ,166, (Ex Doc. lS36-7, no 65, P 2O6) Inthe long period from the foundation of the Government to the beginning of the last Administration, the whole number oi banks created was less, in the proportion o1 329 to 494, with capitals less, in the propor. tion of $11O,192,269 to 266,226,90O, than were created in the seven years of that Ad ministration Nor is this mere casual CO incidence of facts They belong to eacf other as cause and effect. Thatthis augmen tation of bank capital was occasioned, or a least accelerated, by the adversary action 9 the late President against the United States Bank, is thing beyond dispute. It was don' professedly to supply the vacuum in the mo ney market anticipated to follow the death that bank. It was urged as necessary to thu success of the late Presidents policy. Riva institutions sprang up under the auspices Q his "experiment," in the expectation ofaad vantage from the Government deposites which were even begged as party boon b, minions ofthe Administration.
 Not only do we know this to be so, lookin, back uponthe past in the certainty of actua experience, but the progress of events wa distinctly foreseen at the time, and the resul unerringly predicted by the great men wht opposed the wild schemes of the late Presi dent. In the debates of that day, MT. Web ster said Under apretence ofa design to re turn 10 carrency achich shall De all specie, ,c gre hkely 10 h0ue currency in which there shGl De TO specie Gt Gl. We are in danger of being orerohelmed atjth irredeemable poper, mere pape. representing, not gold and sitter, TO, str, repre- senttng nothing but broken promises, bad faiih bGnkrupt corporations, cheGted creditors, and ruined People" Mir. Binney said: "Th' project of the Secretary of the Treasury as tonishes me; it has astonished the country *9* It is the dearly avowed design [, bring, second time, upon this land, the CUTS, of an unregulated, uncontrolled State banl paper currency. Y If the proiec shall be successful, we are again to see the paper missiles shooting in every direction through the country, Q Arrangement of all values, Appreciated circulation, q suspensio, of specie payments, then further extension o the same detestable paper, a tillgreater de preciation, with failures of traders and fail ures of banks in it's train." MT Adams said Your President has nsnrped legislative DOW CT. He hoo laid hisr hands upnn ynur freas ure. He has seized it, and now yields it a. a weapon fpower to himself and of plundel to his partizans. His chosen State Banks are to be his Repositories, and engine. to restore metallic currency. With what in tuitiye sagacity are the means adapted to the end! Sir, his State banks would hurl the nation--they are already hurling it--inte unipersal 5arkruptcy. Hishand must be stay. ed ar the nation ia NndOna