Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1837-09-13
CHERNW GAZETTE
wEDNESDAY..S 13. 1887.

wEDNESOAY.'SEPTE 3. 1887.
PRESIDENTS MEssAGE.-This docu ulnent
was brought to our town from Washington IN
the short time of thiry,t'co hours and thirty
fire minutes. On Friday morning we issuedlt
. in form. of an extra, which we sent off to
all.our subscribers whom we supposed 1t could
reach before they would receive the message
through some other channel After the Gus
tom Of all publishers of'newspapers we insert
It alsoin the columns of our paper.
Itis not our purpose to review the message
which would require an article as long as the
document itself; but We shall advert cursorly
to one of its positions. 1t ascrlbcs the pres
ent state of the country to "oVer-action In all
the departments OF business" caused by ex-
. cessive increase of Bank capital, and. exces-
sive issues of bank notes; that is, to the vast
amount of debts. contracted in the, country
This, in one view of the subject, is no doubt
true. If every body had been clear of debt
when the national government undertook to
imprare the currency, the attempt would have
caused much less suffering than It has. But
to what was the great increase OF bank capital
and the consequent increase Of debt, owing I!
Unquestiohably to the. Killing of the U. s.
Bank which was the work of the national gov
.ernment. :.
Did the mere incrcase'of bank capital and
the consequent increase of Indebtedness to
banks and individuals, Of themselves, cause
the distress inthe country! No. They only
constituted state Of things in which unskll1
ful 'tanipering with the currency produced that
effect. Suppose an engineer should under
take to improve a bridge BY removing the
s!eepers on one side Of it and the first person
who afterwards undertook to ride on that SIDE
of it should tilt over into the stream, to whom
should the accident be.ascribed 1t may be
answered, to the rider; for if he had rema,9-
ed ON land or had heaisd the stream, instead
of undertaking to cross it on the bridge lie
would not have fallen into it. True enough.
But if the bridge had been let alone, and had
remained what it ought to have been, he night
have crossed in saiety,.and reached his Jour
news end easier and sooner than by heading
tile stream. If the government had let the
currency alone, ,lten il uas doing meN enough,
the country would never have suffered as 1t
has done. And even after the great balance
wheel, the national institution, had been re-
moved, if only judnlous means. had been re-
sorted to, gradually 20 correct the evils when
followed. the work might have been accom-
plished without.any such revuision as has now
been experienced. The President greatly
oyer.rates the distress in Gceat Britain France
and other countries Of Europe, when he CONS
pares it to that in this country, and errs
when he ascribes it to- similar cause
: It was, intruth caused in Great Britain, chief
" if not entirely, BY the injudlcious attempts
of the U. S. government to derange the course
of trade by compelling our merchants to I'M
port more specie than the accustomed wants
Of the country called for, and by the intimate
: connection of the commercial interests of the
two Juntries, which caused the very great
embarrassment experienced here to extend,
in some measure, ACROSS the Atlantic. And
as to any slight and temporary distress expert:
enced in other countries of Europe.lt sprung
only from theif connection with Great Britain.
CoNGREss.-This body met on the fourth.