The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-06-09

ing system lifted mechanics, IC6OFers, ard poor
r.sn out Of their sphere; made them jOstle the
would-be nobility, and nine times in ten, get the
lead Of such broken down idlers, who call them
selves the gentleman class.
Bet, Il will be said, that in lending to so many,
bank must, = the end, be greatly the loser.
No doubt thew will be losses. But they must
be comparatively few in a we'll managed bank,
and wholly Insignificant when the aggregate
amount Of its business is taken into considera-
ton. Losses there will be, it is admitted; and
how are they to be repaired BY the profits
which it realises on its loans over and above its
specie capital.
Six per cent on the specie capital of the bank,
| have mentioned above, would give but six thou
sand dollars per annum. But, as the bank lends
three hundred thousand, it will consequently re-
ceive three times six thousand, or eighteen thou
sand dollars, per annum. These eighteen thou-
sand will enable it, to pay all expenses oil oflce
rent, salaries, stationary and fuel,-to make good
the losses it may sustain, and to give the stock
holders fair remuneration for the money they
put into the common fund of the institution.
Here then, are ample means of profit, security,
and usefulness. Profit to the stockholder, secu-
rity to the public in which its notes circula-
ted and usefulness to that public. A well regula-
ted banking system possesses symmetrical pro-
portions, which maintain in perfect order, the
whole range of its operations 1t DEVELOPS inert
resources leads punctuality in business; rouses
up into activity, labor, which from want of mo-
ney, would otherwise be of sluggish movement;
and inspires the whole community with thatco
fidence in regard to loans or supply of capital,
at moderate, legal rates, which carries along
with it energetic action certainty as to results,
and cheerful, independent spirit throughout the
whole commonwealth of industry.
l speak of course, of banking system as it
has been in this country, and not of the present
times, when there is no regulation. Not of the
present times, when the whole power of the gov
eminent, and the numerous administration press
es, have for years, been sapping the very founda-
ton of the banks. Where every human effort
has been made to break them down, by taking
from them, the very thing by which they live and
breathe, public confidence. First, the admins
most tempting inducements, and when they had
unwarily trusted to its false promises of support
and run into foolish if not ruinous excuses, they
were abandoned to their fate. Instead of gene
rously sustaining them with its powerful inhu-
ence, the administration basely left them, in the
unhappy predicament, in which it had placed
them. Instead of bringing them gently back, te
the safe paths from which it had led them astray
and of netting out to them all the favor to which
they had so just claim, seducerhlke, it deserted
Them No government on earth, was ever before
wanton destruction of useful instruments O
public good, or SO reckless a disruption of thu
whole business of nation. The wonder is, tina
men could be found in republic, to perpetratt
such acts-that free people should have SO Ions
submitted to such tyranny-and that they ant
the banks have been at all able to bear up, un
der the heavy load, that has been mercilessl,
piled upon them
But the day Of retribution is at hand We hav,
the glad promise Of better times, and we ma,
hope that the severe trials we have endured, viii
not be lost to us. We may hope, that the sa,
lesson of experience, taught us by Mr.. Van Buren,
and his advisers, viii make US wiser. That i
will teach us, not again to entrust the govern
ment, to the artful demagogue, the heartless par
ty leader, and his base and greedy tools.
DALLAS.