The North-Carolina standard., 1838-09-05

charters IS but restoration OF the right to the
favored individuals, in modified form. They
that the General Government, hay
ing had no agency of right, or in fact, in re-
straining the use Of credit, or forbidding
private banking within the States, has, no
power to restore the right, in either general
or modified form, the power belonging ex-
to the States which took it away
And they think Congress has as rightful pow
er to abrogate all the State laws against bank
ing, & restore the right to every citizen with
out restraint, as they have to restore it i'll a
qualified shape under the conditions ofa bank
charter.
These, and many other arguments of great
force, may be employed to prove the uncon
stitutionality of a Bank of the United States.
But whatever may have been, or are now,
our several conclusions upon that point, we
unanimously concur in the opinion that the
re-establishment of a Bank of the United
States is unnecessary, inexpedlent, and dan
gerous to the public liberty. go
A few years experience has given much
additional force to the arguments originally
urged against such an institution. A leading
argument in favor of it is, that the State banks,
of themselves, are incompetent to manage
their affairs prudently, or to maintain specie
payments and preserve sound currency; and
that a Bank of the United States is necessary !;
to check and control them. Do those who
use this argument reflect that it is an argat-
n1ent against popular government qtseJ?
The people constitute the governing power
in the United States, and it is by their authorl-
tv that the State banks are created. This ar
gument assumes that the people are lncom-
petent to check and control a class of institu-
tons which they create, and that new agent,
unknown to the States and irresponsible to
them or to the people, must be introduced, to
save them from the disastrous consequences
of their own acts.
Is this Republican doctrine? On the con-
trarv, is it not the leading argument in favor
of monopoly and absolute power throughout
the world Why do kings reign, and princes
exercise absolute dominion, but because the
people are assumed to be incompetent to act
wisely, and protect themselves against the evil
consequences of their own ignorance and
error2
Assume that the State banks are incona-
petent to the ends for which they are created,
and will necessarily run into periodical ex-
cesses, entailing great evils upon the country,
to what source would Republican look for
remedy? Would he say that the people
cannot be trusted to amend their own institul-
! ttions. and that we must have an irresponsible
corporation to prevent these evils? Would
he not rather justly conclude thatthe banking
system itself was defective, and undertake to
reform it, SO as to bring it under the control
of the people, through their constitutional or,
gans rather than to assume that 1t cannot be
regulated otherwise than by the introduction
of power competent to contend Tor mastery
with the Government itself?
We reject both the premises and the con
IL Lii faiiJ QI0F
popular Governments in the States, who
created these institutions, fully competent to
!. modify and reform them, and to impose al
those checks and restraints upon them which
) the banking system is capable OF receiving.
To awaken the people to due sense O
the magnitude of that power which the ad
vocates of Bank of the United States woulC
create, let us look at the amount IN 'Emen anc
money! which they propose to make depen
dant upon one institution.
The number of State banks and branches
: now, is 929. The number of presidents, oil
rectors, and other officers is not over estimated
t at eight thousand two hundred The numbe
: ofstockholders may be safely estimated at three
7 hundred and twenty thousand; and the mum
Der of debtors, exclusive of stockholders, a
}. sir hundred and fifty thousand. Th
aggregate of these is near million OF persons
whose business relations and pecuniary inter
| ests are directly involved. The capital OF al
), the banks is about $317,636,77O; and tn
e amount of their loans about S4S5,63l ,867.-
l Here, then, we have a mass of about ono mil
y. lion ofpersons, md money and credit to al
# amount exceeding .fve hundred aaillion
Y of dollars, which are, in great degree, de
), pendant upon the operations OF this ban
S credit system.
e Left to be governed by the general laws c
h trade and credit, these elements of power ma
It continue to be comparatively harmless i
Il their effects upon our political institutions
$ but what does the Opposition party propose
/ 1t proposes, by the establishment OF a N;
n tional Bank, to increase, concentrate, an
l, combine those elements in one corporation
1t The project is not merely to establish ne1
: Bank, with an immense capital, but 1t IS ais
If to give head and manager to the million
re persons and five hundred millions OF dollar
it embraced in the existing State banks:
te When the first Bank of the United State
ID was created, with eleven millions Of capita
IS the number of State banks did not excee
it four, and their capital was not over two mi nj