The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1837-10-07

more than any other class that you are 70 look lor the
ready means TO aid you In time OF war Sir, they
have always responded 10 your call They were
never found waning in the most perilous periods of
your history. Whatever Of glory or q honor, or
Of prosperity this nation enjoys II ls nuebed in no
small degree 10 the patriotism Oh inc merchants
They have contributed their full share towards es-
tablishing your national character at home and
abroad. They will continue TO sustain it, until
their broken and sublued spirits shall think IL no
longer worth preserving
Sir the great deSideratum in this well In
every new country Is CAPITAL 10 carry on It's bust
ness This cannot be found TO the extent thai il is
desired, In our own country we have all the sub
sianlial elements OF prosperity,with an extent OF
territory surprising the proudeSt kingdoms OF Eu-
rope, with every variety Of soil and climate; with
popular institutions, and free Government, and
combining all the advantages which make up the
sum of peoples happiness and nations greatness
lack but the capital necessary 10 bring all these
elements into life and being This can only be OBJ
tanned by well regulated banks and by paper credit
credit is the only substitute for capital in new
country. Old countries, where capital has been ac-
cumulating for ages, may more easily dispense with
it but new one, like our own. cannot do without
1t. Look 10 western New York Tor It's magic infu-
ence Sec il in a few years converted from will
dcrness To fruitful fields Look 10 The western Stales
now exhibiting the proud evidences of rapid and
progressive improvement, where but few years
since there no trace of civilization. BY its
means the whole country is more than halfa century
in advance of what il would have been without IT,
ed by our own people, and trust it will continue to
be appreciated by them, Notwithstanding the efforts
that are making TO undervalue it, and eventually TO
PROSTATE it, 1t has been, perhaps, still more appre-
cated abroad than by us II has become the admi-
ration of all Europe For time the infant strides of
our young and growing republic asonished the world
The old Governments of Europe saw US springing
at one bound from childhood TO the manhood OF our
existence. They that credit was the nurture of
our infant growth as well as the support of maturer
years To this cause, some Of the abes writers of
Great Britain attribute our unparalleled improve
ment in all that renders a people prosperous and a
nation powerful. cannot torbear on this occasion,
to quote the language Of one of them:
EVERY body knows that the States of the Union
embrace territory most of ii of the highest tert
lily, equal 10 the surface of all Europe including
Russia, on this side of the Ural mountains, about
eighteen times the whole area of France, and thirty
times that Of The British Islands. In this immense
territory there is population of about twelve mil
lions OF men, almost all active industrious and ener
getc, doubling every thirty years, and capable, If
sustained at the rate of increase of producing
in two centuries two hundred millions of human
beings, in comfort and happiness. What then is
wanting to sustain the fortunes of state in such
unparalleled circumstances OF abundance Nothing
but CAPITAL. This, however, is Indispensable and
il is obviously impossible, even with the most indus
trious, saving, and active population in the world
that the existing wealth can be proporioned either
10 the boundlesS extent Of waste land capable of cul-
tivaton, or the constantly increasing wants of
d
state that the utility of banks and paper credit is
most strongly felt, and that paper circulation
based sound principles, becomes an indispensable
element in the progress of social Improvement.
Banks the great instrument by which integri-
ty and talent supply the want of capital by which
prudence and industry setting out on the basis of
paper credit attain at length TO the solid advantages
of substantial capital. Such system quadruples at
once the active capital of the country by producing
paper capital based on credit, which, as long as
that credit remains mistaken, answers all the pur-
poses OF encouraging industry Just well as the
metallic treasures of Mexico and Peru. ltprevents
a large portion of the national wealth from being
absorbed in the Improbable and unproductive form
of metallic currency and provides for the neces-
sary circulation at fifth part of its cost Old states
in which capital is redundant, .and all home en-
ployment nearly filled up may dispense with pa
per currency, just the finished scholar may dis
card the rudimentS or the accomplished equestrian
forget theiesso of the maaegc but till that last
stage has arrived il is the greatest act of national
insanity 10 destroy restrain except within those
limits which the public safety requires the invaua-
BILE ally OF paper circulation. Ii has quadrupied
in the last half century the wealth of Scotland and
multiplied ten fold that of America. But for the
powerful impulse given BY the advances of bankers
and the large capital which they put in motion, the
industry of the United States instead of having long
ago crossed the Allegheny Mountains and given
birth to four millions of men in the valley Of the
Mississippi, would have been still slowly advancing
along the shores of the Atlantic and not vet have
pierced the profound soiitudes Of the Ohio or Mis-
souri,"
And ii is apparent that such establishments, if
rightly understood are eminently favorable TO the
progress of Freedom and the real interests of the
working classes. Capital-sold weath--is ever
essentially ariStocratic. IL never can be very pc
morally or widely diffused, at least in large masses
and therefore, banks which lend helping hand to
enterprise and activity in the earlier and more
eventul periods of their career and enable them TO
mlintain the struggle with older establishments
having ADVANTAGE q lOnp-trP1
realized wealth, are emnently favorable TO the po-
pular classes and the best support to the cause of
liberty. Without banks, commercial state must
speedily fall, and ever has fallen, under the do
minion Of few ovcrgrown mcrcanti establish
ments; industry and activity can never maintain
their ground in the competition from want Of CAPT
tai The banker with his notes has done as much
for the cause OF freedom as either the printer with
his printing-prcsS, or the schoolmaster with his
grammar"
To this authority permit me to add that of the
philosophic and liberal democratic French travel
Ter, Mn. CHEvALrrR:
"Credi, is the primary element of life in the u
States; they literally live on it. Without credit
those popuouS towns which arise all sides, as if
by cnchantment-thoSe rich states which fringe the
margin of the Atlantic, which stretch TO the west of
the Allegheny, and extend along the course Of the
Ohio and the Mississippi, would have been still
savage forests and bo!,omlcss morasscs
The banks have acted rs the lever
which has enabled the Americans to establish
among themselves TO their own great profit the ag
riculture and ndusry-of Europe, and which has
covered their territories with cities canals, rail.
roads, manufactures and fertile fields; in word,
every thing which constitutes civilization With
out the banks the cutivator would have been deSi-
tute Of capital Tor his most necessary advance; he
would have had no instruments for the clearing of
his farm and if the system has led in many cases to
absurd and gambling speculations, il is tho sys-
EN- which has enabled the farmer to purchase land
for two dollars the acre, which he afterwards sold
for ten or hundred. The mechanics, who are
so loud in their condemnation Of the banking
system forget, that it is 10 il that they owe the in
dustral activity which has enabled them TO earn
from five to eight shillings a-day of wages They