The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-03-17

duced than which hothihS wouiu navy o'N'
,,o,e opporlune as matters have stood Oul
...ders are fully aware Of the deplorable condl-
ion INTO which the credit of local banks and
,,bsr moneyed institutions has fallen Tor months
.s, owing 10 the want Of basis, the value Of
ybich would be generally recognized as equi-
,aept to that Of gold and silver. In the secu-
,;tes of the Government, such basis would
have existed, and thus would the currency OF
rho country have been sustained in sound and
wholesome state What, then, must have fol
,wed Instead of having bank bills of local in
s,;mtions, at a depreciation greater or less, &C
,ordng to local circumstances, these securities
would have been Of equal value every where
or nearly so, aud the industry OF the work
,g classes would not have been taxed,
., il has been, TO pay for the real or sup
oosed worthlessness of the circulating me-
dunn. II will perhaps be said that admitting
all this TO be true, the amount required by
the public service, even according to the esti-
mates presented would not have been adequate
10 the wants Of the people. To certain ex-
tent the objection may be valid one, but by no
blush, be imagined In the first place, suppos-
ing Government securities to be equivalent to
coin for all home purposes, these securities be-
ing in possession of the local banks would have
enabled those institutions to discount safely to
twice or three times their amount, and, conse-
quently, would have swelled the supply Of cir
cuating medium TO corresponding extent. In
other words, the $s,OOO,OOO required for the ma
val service would, in the hands Of the State
Banks, have enabled them to issue TO the
amount of from $l6,000,000 TO $24,000,000.
Nor does the process stop here, as every days.
experience among business men will show. A
ten dollar bill paid 10 A. b. in discharge of in
debtedness, does not remain with him, but is i'm
mediately passed away to c. D., by whom it is
transferred 10 E. +. who, in turn, gives it to G.
H., and so on. Thus, during given time, it
goes through, we will say twenty different hands,
and cancels as it goes, in each case, Indebtedness
TO the amount of SO. Now, il is evident, that
the $40 of which we speak, in twenty transfers,
will pay two hundred dollars Of debt instead of
ten dollars. Taking then the ground that
100000 of Government scrip will sustain a
local circulation Of say $l6,000,000, and that
these sixteen millions will cancel obligations in
the course of a days transactions to fpe times
its own amount, we have the surprising pract-
cal result that the $S,000,000 can be safely
made available, directly and indirectly, to the
payment Of no less than $90,000,000 of debt.
We have here selected FIVE as the number of
4. 4 l....
case once came to our knowledge in which,
under ordinary circumstances il was ascertain
ed that 500 had paid in single day $500 Of
debt. Believing practical results to be peculiar
ly valuable ia the way of Illustration, we will re-
late the circumstance. A friend of ours was
applied TO in the morning for the loan Of 800:
he had not the money by him, but having pre-
viously loaned 800, to be returned on that day
he went and procured it for the applicant. The
receiver took it, and the same note being return
ed to the original lender in the course Of the
day, he determined, for curiostys sake, TO find out
through what number OF hands it had passed
He learned, on inquiry, that the person who hat
borrow, it from him had made use Of il 10 pay
a loan from another neighbor, who, in turn, had
paid it to second, by whom it was paid over to
a third who paid it back to the first lender and
by this means the note had paid engagements,
within the day, .fpe times its own amount. We
give this instance merely by way Of illustrating
the every day course Of business, and leave it to
the intelligence of our readers to make the APP
pllcation of it 10 the point which we are endea-
,I,t iIot VI kic t,t
little further. let US take the case Of a
mechanic who earns his ten dollars week,
which sum we will suppose to be the amount
Of expense incurred by half dozen or ten fami
lies with whom he has dealings. On receipt OF
his ten dollars, on Saturday night, our mechanic
pays his grocer for the tea, &C., furnished dur
ing the week, his baker for hi bread, his butcher
for his meat and so on Each Of these persons
in turn pays his little weekly debts, having each
received the sum mentioned in the interchange
of services rendered for work performed. Is it
not evident that, in its limited circle OF opera
ton, if the services reciprocated be among ten
persons, the ten dollars will have paid one hun
dred2 Such is the effect Of circulating medium,
as experience shows; and we are at loss to
discover how the debts to be paid by the So 900,
900 can be confined to that or any thing like
that amount 1t will be seen that we have here
taken, for the purposes Of the argument, the es
innate Of a single department but if we take
$15000,000, the amount contemplated to be fur
nished by the Exchequer scheme alone, TO say
nothing of the Government expenditure, we
shall find that, instead of furnishing the means
OF paying debts TO that amount only, it must
have served to discharge obligations to an inf
nitely greater extent.
Keeping the process above described in view
we will ask Congress to assign, if It can, a
limit to the benefits which its procrastination
has withheld from the country, during time OF