The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1837-07-22
Number 13.

The amount Of bank capital Incorporated
in Pennsylvania, when Governor Ritner
was elected, was $l7, 900, ,OOO-the amount
now existing in Pennsylvania, is about
Fy'y-eigM Millions Of Dollars, so that
under the auspices of Gov. Ritner and his
friends, it has been improvidently increased
about Forty-one Millions Of Dollars in less
than two years. Neither reason nor neces.
sity can be pleadedin justification or excuse
OF this ruinous policy. lis origin can be
found only in morbid excitement of that
wild spirit of speculation, which has been
always nurtured & sustained by our empty
credit system. AS we have already obsery-
ed, the measures of the national administra-
ton, during the last eight years, were cal
culated to impose some check on the ex-
tension OF this system, and in their opera
ton, had levelled the most powerful and the
most dangerous of the foster mothers of
speculation and overtrading with the dust.
The bank of the United States, the head
& front ofthe credit system in this country,
connected with, and supported by the bank
OF England, was obliged to yield to the SUI
premacy, OF the popular will, and had it
been suffered to sink quietly to rest, it would
have been not merely barren victory over
that all-pervading spirit, that has Terminated
in the present disorders of the currency, but
it would have constituted a substantial and
salutary reform. A concurrence of most
extraordinary events had placed Governor
Hltner and his friends in power, Just as this
was about to be consummated, and they,
with that blind disregard of. consequences
that ever signalizes the speculator, and the
disciple of credit deusion, snatched the ex-
Piring institution from impending dissolu-
ton, and conferred upon it prolonged ex-
istence, with .unheard Of powers.-So great
an increase of the nominal capital of single
state, and at one point, the city of Phila-
delphia, in so short, a time, was sought to
be justified, on the, ground that it would be
an actual addition of Ihirty,fUe Millions of
Dollars to the capital of the state, which
would not only enable ii to meet the shock
attending the extinction of the banks of the
United States, but would supply abundance
OF money to complete our wide extended in
| ternal Improvements, and prepare Pennsyl-
vanla to Outstrip in the march of advance
ment and prosperity, every other state and
nation in the world.-The charter of that
d
Governor Ritners and his adherents, which
would be regarded by after ages as the prou-
dest in the annals of the state. We were
to be rescued from debt, bankruptcy and
ruin, and the basis of our prosperity resting
on this bank, was to be as firm and immo.
vable as the everlasting hills. :,
But how has experience falsifed all these
cheering prophecies! The very reverse is
true. The supporters Of the credit system
in the other states, and in England, were
struck aghast at the temerity of Pennsyl-
vania. The bank, under whose sway, as a
national institution. the currency of the
country had reeled and rocked for twenty
years, as soon as it became a state institu-
tion, was so obviously disproportioned to
the wants and condition of the country, as
to throw the entire credit system into con-
fusion, and bring it precipitately upon our
heads.
This catastrophe has doubtless been has
tened by the ruinous policy of the advisers
of Gov. Rtner, in their conduct in reference
to all the measures of the national goverIi-
ment. They have spread panics, pressures,
and false alarms throughout the country,
until public opinion, both here and abroad,
is worked up to a state of feyerish excite
ment, sinking and rising alternately at every
breeze, as unfxed and unsteady as the wind
that swayed it. They seem to have labored
to destroy confidence, and to depreciate our
credit, with so much assiduity and success,
that both In this country and ip.Europe,
our merchants, business men, and banks,
are believed to be on the very verge Of IN
how righteously does Di-
vine Justice order its retribution, for the
very men who now endure these suffer-
ihgs most deeply, are the authors of those
calumnies- on the country and its govern
nent, which have accelerated the crisis! 1t
is now upon us, and let candid world judge
who is to blame.
III. The remedy to be proposed is not as
EASILY carried into effect as it is suggested.
It is evidently to be found, in removing, or
n checking and controlling effectually, the
,auses that have led to bur present situation.
If credit system, on the principles of our
system, be radically defective and wrong in
tself, the remedy must consist in abrogating
he entire system, or in so regulating it, as
% correct its defects. Much must be left to
he wisdom ofthe legislature, but we NAV