Maumee express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1837-1838, 1837-09-16

under which they lay Of curtailing thei
discounts and callnig in their debts, in
creased their general distress, and con
tributed with other causes, to hasten the
revulsion in which at length, they, ii
common with other banks, were fatal,
involved. ~ e
Under these circumstances it become,
our solemn duty to enquire whethe
there are not in any connection between
the Government and banks of issue, evil
ofgreat magnitude, inherent in its very
nature, and against which ne precau
tions can eflectually guard.
Unforeseen in the organization of thu
Government, and forced on the Treasu
ry by early necessities, the practice O
employing banks was in truth, from thu
beginning more measure Of emergen
cy than sound policy. When W.
started into existence as a nation, in ad
dition to the burdens of the new Govern
ment, we assumed all the large bu
honorable load of debt which was thu
price OF our liberty; but we hesitatet
to weigh down the infant industry Of tht
country by resorting to adequate tax
alton for the necessary revenue.
The facilities of banks, in return fol
the privileges they acquired, they
promptly offered and perhaps too readily
received by an embarrassed Treasury
During the long continuance of ma
tional debt, and the intervening diff
culties of a foreign war, the connection
was continued from motives of conven
ience, but the causes have long since
passed away. We have no emergen.
cies that make banks necessary to aid
in the wants of the Treasury. We have
no load Of national debt to provide for
we have in actual deposit a large sur
plus. No public interest, therefore now
requires the renewal of a connection
that circumstances have dissolved. The
complete organization of our Govern
ment, the abundance of resources, the
general harmony which prevails among
the different States, and with foreign
Powers, all enable us now to select the
system most consistent with the Con
and most conducive to the
public welfare. Should we, then con-
meet the Treasury for the 9TH time with
the local banks it can be only under a
conviction that the past failures have ari-
sen from accidental not inherent defects.
A danger, difficult, if not impossible,
to be avoided in such an arrangement,
is made strikingly evident in the very
event by which it has now been defeated.
A sudden act of the banks intrusted
with the funds ofthe people deprives 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 circum-
stance no fluctuation of commerce could
have produced, if the public revenue had
been collected in the legal currency and
kept in that form by the officers Of the
Treasury. The citizen whose money
was in bank receives it back, since the
at a sacrifice in its amount !;
whilst he whokept itin the legal curren-
cy of the country, and in his own poses
sion, pursues without loss, the current Of
his business. The Government, placed
in the situation Of the former, is involved
in embarrassment it could not have suf-
fered, had it pursued the course Of the
latter. These embarrassments are aug
by those salutary and just laws
which forbid us TO use deprecated
and, by so doing, take from
The Government the ability which indi-
viduals have Of accommodating their
transactions to such a catastrophe.
A system which can, in time ofpro-
found peace, when there is a large rev.
,nue laid by, thus suddenly prevent the
application and the use of money of the
people, in the manner and for the object
hey have directed, cannot be wise but
who can think without painful refec-
lion, that, under it the same unforeseen
events might have befallen us in the
midst of a war, and taken from us, at
The moment when most wanted, the use
of those very means which were treas
lred up to promote the national welfare
and guard our national rightsl To
such embarrasments and to such dan
gers will this government be always ex-
posed, whilst it takes the monies raised
Tor, and, necessary to the public service,
put OF the hands Of its own officers, and
them into mere right Of action
against corporations entrusted with the
possession of them. Nor can such results
be effectually guarded against in such
i system without investing the Execu-
i've with a control over the banks
themselves, whether State or National,
hat might with reason be objected to.