The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1842-12-23


mails. The post Office laws have been
honestly administered, and fidelity has
been observed in accounting for, and pay
ing over by the subordina,es Of the depart
menls, the moneys which have been re-
ceived. For the details of The service, |
refer you 10 the report.
tlaiter myself tha; the exhibition thus
made Of the condition Of the public admi-
nisiration will serve to convince You tina,
every proper attention has been paid to
the interests Of the country by those who
have been called to the heads of the differ
ent departments. The reduction il the
annual expenditures Of the government al
ready accomplished. furnishes sure evil
dencc tina. economy in the application OF
the public moneys is regarded as para
mornt duty.
AT peace with all the worll--ihe per-
sonal liberty of the citizen sacredly main
tanned, and his rights secured under poll
teal Institutions deriving all their .uthori-
ty from the direct sanction Of the people
with soil fertile almost beyond exam
Pile, and country blessed with every
diversity of climate and production, what
remains to be done in order to advance the
happiness and prosperity of such peo-
pie (! Under ordinary circumstances, this
inquiry could readily be answered. The
best that probably could he done for a
people inhabiting such country, would
be TO forify their peace and security in
the prosecution Of their various pursuits,
by guarding them against invasion from
without, and violence from within. The
rest, for the greater part, might be left to
their own energy and enterprise. The
chief embarrassments which, at the mo-
ment, exhibit themselves, have arisen from
Over-aciion and The most difficult task
which remains to be accomplished is that
Of correcting and overcoming its effects.
Between the years 1888 and 1888, aldi-
lions were made to bank capital and bank
issues, in the form of notes designed for
circulation. TO an extent enormously great.
The question seemed to be, not how the
best currency could be provided, bat in
what manner the greatest amount of bank |
paper could be put in circulation. Thus,
a vast ainountof what was called money
since, for the time being, it answered the
purposes Of money-was thrown upon the
country; aal over issue which was atten-
ded, as necessary consequence, by an
exlravagant increase Of the prices Of all ar
tic!cs of property, the spread of specn-
tive mania all over the country, and has
finally ended in a general Indebtedness on
the part Of states and individuals, the pros
tra!ion Of public and private credit de-
probation in the market value of real
and personal estate, and has left large dis
tricts of country almost entirely without
any circulating medium. In view of the
fact that, in 1880. the whole bank-no,c
circulation within the u. States amounted
10 but $0l, 1928, S9S. according to the ,rea-
sury statements, and that an addition had
been made thereto of the the enormous
sum of SSS, 900, 600 in seven years, (,he
on the Is, Of January, 1897,
being stated a. Sl40,ls5, 800 aided by
The great facilities afforded in obtaining
oans from European capitalists, who were
seized with the same speculative mania
which prevailed in the United States.
and the large imporlaiions Of funds from
abroad, the result of stock sales and loans
no one can be surprized at the apparent
but unsubsianilal state of prosperity which
everywhere prevailed over the land and |
while little cause of surprise should be felt
at the present prostralion Of everything,
aud the ruin which has befallen so many
of our fellow citizens in the sudden with
drawal from circulation of so large an
amount of bank issues since lS37--ex-
cepilng, MS is believed, the amount added
oil the paper currency, for a similar period
anleccl lent TO l837-il ceases to be mat
ter OF establishment that such extensive
shipwreck should have been made of prl-
vate fortunes, or that difficulty should en-
ist in meeting their engagements on the
part OF the debtor states. Apar, from
which, if there be taken into account the
immense losses sustained in the dishonor
of numerous banks, it is less a matter OF
surprise that insolvency should have visi.
led many of our fellow citizens, than that
so many should have escaped the blighling
influences of the times.
In the solemn conviction of these truths,
and with an ardent desire to meet the
pressing necessities of the country, felt
il to be my duty TO cause TO be submitted
70 you, at the commencement of your late