The People's press, and anti-masonic Democrat. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1836-1838, 1837-09-12

+ circumstances of this nature cannot prevent q
: community so intelligent as ours from ulti-
mately arriving at correct conclusions: encour-
o aged by the firm belief of this truth, | proceed
10 state my views, so far as may be necessary
d 10 clear understanding of the remedies feel
!, it my duty TO propose, and Of the reasons by
which | have been induced to recommend
Them.
The history of trade in the United States for
thd last three or four years, affords the most
convincing evidence that our present condition
is chiefly to be attributed to over.action in all
the departments of business; an over-action de.
irving, perhaps, its first impulse from antece-
deaf causes, but stimulated to its destructive
consequences by excessive issues of bank pa
per, and ether facilities fot ]he acquisition and
enlargement ofcredit. At the commencement
of the year 1884, the banking capital of the U.
States, including that of the national bank then
existing, amounted 10 about two hundred mill
ions of dollars; the bank notes then in circula-
ton to about ninety-6ye millions; and the loars
and discounts of the banks to three hundred
and twenty four millions. Between that time
and the fist of January, 1886, being the last
period to which accurate accounts have been
received, our banking capital has increased to
more than two hundred and fifty millions
our paper circulation to more than one hun
dred and forty millions, and the loans and dis
counts to more than four hundred and fifty-sev-
en- millions. To this vast increase are to be
added the many millions Of credit, acquired by
means Of foreign loans, contracted by the
states and state institutions, and above all, by
the lavish accommodations extended by for
eIgn dealers TO our merchants.
The consequences of this redundancy of
r. Of ha &c I'LL
engendered by it, were foreign debt contract
ed by our citizens, estimated in March last at
more than thirty millions of dollars the extern
sion TO traders in the interior of our country of
credits for supplies greatly beyond the wants of
the people; the investment of thirty-nine and a
half millions of dollars in unproductive public
lands, in the years 1885 and 36, whilst in the
preceding year the sales amounted to only four
and half millions: the creation of debts to an
almost countless amount, for real estate in ex-
listing or anticipated cities and villages equally |
unproductive, and at prices now seen to have |
been greatly disproportionate to their real val |
ue; the expenditure of immense sums in i'm.
provements which in many cases have be.ln |
s..''r . :. f6i,!5aseg lllI6FoVr1ghT Inc diver
sion to other pursuits of much of the labor that
should have been applied to agriculture, there
sums in the importation of grain from Europe
an expenditure which, amounting in 1884 to
about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
was in the first two quarters of the present year
increased to more than two millions Of dollars ;
, and finally, without enumerating other injurI-
Gus results, the rapid growth among all classes,
: and especially in our great commercial towns,
of luxurious habits, founded too often on mere
" fancied wealth, and detrimental alike to the
5 industry, the resources, and the morals of our
S people.
t 1t was so impossible that such state of
r things could long continue, that the prospect
of revulSion was present to the minds of con-
e sideratc men before it actually came. None,
# however, had correctly anticipated its severity
If A concurrence Of circumstances inadequate of
themselves to produce such wide spread and
e calamitous embarrassments tended so greatly
ii to aggravate them, that they cannot be over
d looked in considering their history. Among
: these may be mentioned, as most important, the
y great loss OF capital sustained by our CONNER
d cia emporium in the fire of December 1885
l. a loss the effects of which were moderated al
s. the time, because postponed for q season by
Is the great facilities of credit then existing the
ie disturbing effects in our commercial cites, o
the transfers Of the public moneys required by
Sc the deposit law of June, 1886; and the meas
~ ures adopted by the foreign creditors of ou
Id merchants to reduce their debts, and to with
r. draw from the United States large portion o
g; cur specie.
at However unwilling any of our citizens may
al heretofore have been to assign to these cause
ot the chief fundamentally in producing the pres
n ent state of things, the Developments subse
Of quently made, and the actual condition of othe
l commercial countries, must, as it seems to me
ur dispel all remaining doubts upon the subject
ce 1t has since appeared that evils similar to thos
of suffered by ourselves, have been experienced i
cd Great Britain, on the continent, and indee
throughout the commercial world; and that i
ro' other countries, as we'll as in our own, the
JUS have been uniformly preceded by an undue Ell
on largement OF the boundaries of trade, promp
not ed, as with US, by unprecedented expansions
d. the systems Of credit. A reference to the
EN- mount of banking capital, and the issues of p;
M per credits put in circulation in Great Britain
ON by banks and in other ways, during the yea
he 1884, and 6, will show an augmentation
les the paper currency there, as much dispropo
lis toned to the real wants of trade as in the
PIX. States.
icy With this redundancy of the paper currenc
cy, there was also spirit ofadventurous specul
ng ton, embracing the whole range of human e.
to terprise. Aid was profusely given to projecte
the Improvements; large investments were made
ter foreign stocks and loans; credits for goods