Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1841-06-18

gulator NO, but as the great ieauer ana P.ome, !"
all those great revulsons of the commercial world
With iron hand il stood like mighty giant, and
reoiced in the confusion, because It felt the conscious
ness that it could itself survive the wreck and rum OF
all around it. Thus it reared lis front IN the van,
and what left in its trail and IN lis truck: De
ISOLATION and destruction-the total ruin Of banks |
and merchants great and small As long as 1t held
the Government credit, it could pepetrate all this IN
safety but, when stripped of this support, y still
fondly imagined that il could so forth as OF Old ike
Samson before his locks were shorn hut, on making
the experiment. it fell like him. eyeless and prisoner
into the hands of its enemies, To make them sport ny
the convulsve throes Of its expiring agony. ihP
characteristics which he had pointed out were not mere
incidents, the effect of particular tunes ana c''eu"
stances They intrinsic and their cause was 70
be found in the very nature of moneyed corporation
The country had had long experience IN 'ns mater
The regulating power OF national banking institution
had been eectualy tried, and had the business woro
been free from expansions and contractions lad
ther. been no reckless speculation the hand,
buoyinp men up with unfounded hope, and no conse
ouen depression OH the other, sinking them in eubar
rassmeut and distress Let gentlemen look al iol?,
At lso5 at 1884 Was not the country, IN each OF
these nerods under the full restraining influence OF
The so highly Wanted national regulator Ana, u
such had been the past, could gentlemen hope better
for the future Could they expect any other conse
quence from system IN which such tehaehc'es were
inherent growing out Of its very nature
And what was the system to be repealed
svsem which supplied to the business of the country
currency of Intrinsic and uniform vane-subect TO
no other iuctuaton than such was incident to the
trade Of the world touchstone by winch the ous'-
ness Of eyery man in the nation was tried and must
BE- governed Whereas the paper OF Bank had no
intrinsic value and subject TO all manner oil Hue
tua,ions al the will Of lis maker. currency whose
only stability consisted III the stock Of public conn
dence which il could accumulate around il, and which
was as liable to be affected by panic, by passion ana
by prejudice by causes more stable and real ouch
was the standard which the Senate was called upon TO
a. ,lnI. haIi phnr
prefer while it threw away that when iau nnelen.
value permanent uniformity, and had been prepared W
the Fathers OF the Constitution for the safety ana
prosperity of their country.
Would gentlemen consent TO destroy at single
blow system promising results such as those he had
described and possessing tendencies such as he had
demonstrated, and pledge themselves TO system OF
darkness and of doubt, exchange 1t for one whose
evils had been demonstrated by experience, and were
uublcly known to the whole country Would gentle
men abolish system now IN existence and IN success
ful operation when no man could say that even such
substitute he had described was within The reach Of
their attainment. To return TO where he began :
would they consent to tear down the old house Tor
berth upon the pavement: 10 do so would, III ms
INDICTMENT be not only unnecessary, but most unwise
Mr.. w. said he presumed that the minds OF the ma
lority Of the Senate were made up, and That lhey
would vote for National Bank but he meant those
gentlemen disrespect when he reminded them that
there was q considerable minority both here and
throughout the country who believed such Bank TO
be unconstitutional, and, If within the Constitution,
dangerous and impotc. lie had attempted to show
that without a very hig. degree Of public confidence,
such an institution could be safe prosperous,
and could il be hoped in the present state OF this c"nn-
try that u paper charter granted by Congress
would possess tusmanc power sufficient 10 draw
around it much Of the public trust as 10 render lhe
Bank standard Of value and regulator OF currency
If any Senator possessed faith Of tins Kind, 1t was
unknown 10 him.
But they were told that a Bank recommended
that great healing measure which was 10 reliere the
,f tbao n
perty and to render money every where current ana
plenty. How it to effect all this All men
agreed that there in the country large excess oil
Banks but they labored under the misfortune OF being
unable to meet their Indebtedness, and they had IN
consequence lost the public confidence. Was Con-
gress 10 remedy this state Of things by adding yet an
other great Bank 10 the list Because any further
than the national credit embodied in such an instI-
tu,ion il would be no better than the rest But sup
posing the experiment to be made, what must be its
practical result Say it should start with capital,
(which he believed he had heard mentioned here OF oO
millions what be the first step In the present
embarrassed Of the local Banks, the Government
must aggregate 30 millions Of dollars TO be drawn
from The present capital Of the country The instant
effects must be to double the existing pressure TO com.
pei the Banks suddenly TO curail their discounts and
their issues by withdrawing large amounts from their
balance of depostes in order to take up the stock
The effect be TO bring every thing TO stand still
And for how long,
How long did gentlemen think it would require to
he presumed that gentleman seriously cherished SO
sld purpose rs pm; the bank in operation before
IT'S entire capital had hrrn paid in That PROJECT had
been tried and exploded The first step, therefore,
would be to obtuin the entire capital oil the bank IN mo-
new But here he might be told BY gentlemen that
they could go abroad and that the money would be
furnished by foreigners. This might be, but he ra-
Their though that if they waited till Englishmen or
Frenchmen parted with their for the stock OF
another Bank of the United States they would have
TO wait Tor long time. This was no mag mary pic
ture 1t could not fail to be the first result OF the
plan. There no man at all acquainted with the
subject who did not know that any OF our CONNER
cal trading towns, the creation of new bank pro-
duced immediate pressure all the banks IN the VI
cnity. National Bank, instead of affecting one neigh
borhood, would cover the entire nation with this very
state Of things National Bank of fifty millions must
produce similar depression in the issues and DIS
counts Of all smaller banks. They would all draw III
their TO the utmost, and then all would start
u, all would invite customers by the facility oi
discounts, and III two wears the country would De
brought back such state Of things as existed IN the
year 1919 Indeed. he wished there ght not even be
such expansion took place in the years 1850 and
1886 All these banks, great and small would be striv-
ing with each other and contending who should issue
the most paper; and this would continue until The great
regulator got It's capital out and its circulation extend
ed Then would come the countermandng order, It's
money would silently return and, if leaned upon the
credit of the nation, might possibly stand the shock
by which all else would be speedily swept away. TINS
what happened in the case of the last Bank, and
would happen again. The last two Administrations
had suffered exceedingly under the complaints Of eter-
nal agitation in our financial system. One plan was
scarcely agreed upon until it gave place TO another,
one law scarce got into operation TILL new law su-
perseded it. That the complaint then, and
what was proposed' The Independent Treasury law
had heen passed the LIST of July, 1910. 1t go
ing into operation without any particular hardship, IT
had vet reached its complete effect, and already the
system must be changed. The law must be repealed
and we must come back to the old system, the first
which had been tried and the which had been most
clearly exploded by the people This might be reform
but to MIR. W. it seemed very much like reform in a
circle Let gentlemen look back from 1888 TO the
present day What had always heen the real com
plant Of business men, Had not their language al
raised by this perpetual change, We will conform
selves any system you devise, only give US time
understand it and to try its merits And yet now,