The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-05-05
From. the ~ Y. Sun.
LOOK OUT FOR BETTER TIMES"

We deem it a duty to caution our readers against
the evils of "better times 1t is evident that the
banks throughout the country are mpaently waiting
| to bless the country with an abundance of money
again. Circumstances have driven them to
curtailment within the past year. There has been
great danger of general explosion, owing to the
tensive shipments of specie last fall and the process
Of liquid alton to which many institutions have been
driven in the course of the winter and spring. The
movements of coin for the purpose Of enabling the
sound banks in some parts of the South and West to
resume, and the sweeping operations ofthe Bankrupt
law have also excited apprehensions and all of these
causes together have produced wonderful and un-
precedented contraction of the currency
The pressure in the money market, resulting from
this state of things occasions the cry of "hard times
and people generally look forward with anxiety to the
| period when the banks will loosen the strings and
| make "beter times" But the banks themselves de-
the arrival Of this period earnestly than any
of their customers Their business, their prime OBJ
| jec their leading motives are 10 make money, and
this they only do by issuing and crcu ating
preventative of money which costs them nothing, but
which, owing to the confidence of the public, will
| produce much profit as real money.
! We therefore look fo1 sudden expansion and an
extensive issue of paper money at the earliest moment
that the state Of public feeling will admit of it. The
history of paper money from the first moment of its
existence the present hour proves that extreme
always follows another ard that the farther the PEN
dulurn is driven in direction much farther will
it swing in the other. To this rule not solitary ex-
| ception will be found
This fact not the only thing established by finan-
cal history important lesson is taught in the
results which inevitably flow from it. The "better
tines produced by bank expansions in truth pro-
ductve oftenold greater evils than the severes pres
They not only lay the foundation for other re
vulsons and pecuniay distress, but they unsee the
| public mind and corrode the public morals
Hence it is that we feel impeled to caution the pub
lie against the called "beter tines which, if they
have not already commenced, cannot be far off. We
do expect the tide or prevent the expan-
sion which is sure to come; but we would admonish
our readers to beware of the gided bait let them
look around them, and count, if they can the thou
sands whom it has led to destruction and let each
one resolve depend upon his industry, his own
moral energy, his capital, however small it may
be- rather than upon the fatal credit which such fcti-
tous "better times" may give him for a moment.
1t is much to be regretted that cannot have re-
lief from the severe pressure upon the money market
without being carried to the opposite extreme. But
cannot, with our present banking system the thing
is impossible. There is sautary influence that
will stop the banks at the proper point when the pro-
cess of expansion gets fairly under way. Obeyine
no impulse but MISUNDERSTANDING to result bu
their pecuniary profit shall see them strain &c
f the utmost extremity their means of making money
Their loans and discounts will be rapidly increased
and their circulation extended TO the farthes possb.
limits. w hat will follow? Precisely what has fol-
lowed every similar pansion since the creation of thu
world; and what that is all mankind have learned
from painful experience Therefore we say let eact
man be wise for himself, and take warning in time