Mobile daily commercial register and patriot., 1841-06-28

On the subject of banking, there are some simple truths which, if they were never forgotten would be of essential service to the people, It should always be borne in mind, fft l. That bank notes not money, but merely
 roises to pay money. If the real property in spe- cie or something else as valuable, be not possessed by those who promise to pay, the promises de- ceptlon-a lie! ,,4-,'.i ii
 g., People continually telling us that confidence is necessary to our system of banking They neg lect however, to inform us that confidence is an eff feet not ause,-that it is absurd to place conf- dence in the promises of bank to pay 1 ,000 ,000 when it is unable to pay $10O,OO0. It was conf dence in the existence of things that have exist that started so many banks, and supported them for years. When their ability to sustain that con- fdence failed, they all burstsd like many bubbles. We might well place confidence in the buoyancy of a straw to sustain us on the ocean. It is too much confidence that has brought the country its present condition sta ir '.ni.' 4i
 8. Whenever paper money will not command specie at par then it is time to lose confidence in it's value. SF
 4. Whenever bank suspends specie payments it
 is then time to withhold confdehce from its promises.
 5. Banks, like men, are actuated by the principle that selfpreservation is the first law of nature.- When, therefore, officers of banks and others con- nected with their prosperity, find that suspendihg specie payment will conduce to their interest (not the people they will suspend; provided public opinion is terrible to them than their pecunary loss; and fpublc opinion were healthy on this sub ject, it would always have this effect. But our e- gislators first corrupted, and, being usually men of influence, they corrupt the opinions of the people, and the result is fraud in suspension and nnumera- ble other ways. .ttrs.m
 6. No checks that have ever been enacted to se- fair dealing in banks, have produced the ef feet for which they were intended, The practical operation of these institutions is so little understood among the mass, that once grant charter to unscru puous men and they can defy them all. Money is the greatest lever in society, and he who possesses the power make it the world as he pleases The people, therefore, without fully comprehending the details of the system may insist one thing viz: that character for prudence and honesty shall be the first qualifications for bank officer. Let them do this and they strike at the very root of the evil The thing IS easy if the people be honest themselves
 There is new a new plan for bank before the people. It is full of what fnanciers call "checks and balances" and it looks very safe and pretty on paper, but is any simple enough to suppose that It be put into practice' Ifso, he is credulous man, and has failed to profit by the innumerable es- sons which have been read for past years Let him look at the United States Bank. 1t, we were told. was governed by all the wisdom and honesty in the country people would have placed their existence in its keeping-yet what is it nowe wreck on the shores of prosperity, scattering ruin through the the hearths of the conding; tears and woe every where and contributing by its example to tempt thousands of weak men into the