, 1842-12-10

STATE banks was giVeH-diu TO avn
butte of sovereign and independen'
Estates was to be curtailed. All tx
'pected to have the use of the "pub!lt
dcrosites,7 and 1t was their Legitimate
business to "regulate the currency
In 1920, the number of banks in the
y. States, was sos, with an aulhoriz'
ed capital of Sl57,1lo,6l1. In 1880
there were $50 banks, with a capital
of e68; showing IN increase
of only about 100000 OF capital in
ten years. Now, in 1882 the aggre-
gate capitai of the local and State
banks besides the U. s. Bunk, was
S44O,O0O,OOO; showing an increase
oI banking capital authorized by the
Estates alone, Of S33O,OOO,OOO, in the
period of seven years, and that under
the so called Democratic Admiaisra-
lions of Jackson and Van Buren,! is
it at all strange that this currency
tinkering should have attached the
enormously fictitious value to labour
and property, and engcndered the
spiri, Of speculation OF thai period,
that followed these causes9 That the
people should have bought more To-
reign notions than they sold of their
own commodities to them; especially
as we enabled them BY low duties on
theirs la afford them low, while
! there was not on their part 4 re-
crrsocal reduction oil dltieS. And
further. from this enormous issue OF
Bank paper, from 1888 10 1887, by
which we had apparently such slime
tnnes,H the people should have bought
more than they sold, and that specie
had 10 be shipped! Snce the year
1888 there has been u constant en-
portaiion of Specie 10 England, TILL
within. the las, three monrhs. TO pay
the mefcaniile debt, to say nothing Of
the State debts for banking purposes.
Is it at all STANCE, that.from these causes,
the banks should break, and the people
be in the distressed condition they arc?
Whereas there were in flourishing times
$l0O, DOC, 600 Of specie in the L States,
besides the good paper of that period, 1t
is believed there arc not $4,000 900 of
specie now, and veryllittlc good papcar.
To which party is this over-bankine al
tributable? Had the Wings such influ-
ence under Jackson and Van Buren, as TO
have chartered all these banks, as they
arc charged with being the bank party?
They hsve, and still do advocate the
policy of char,ering a National Bank
and never wished TO entirely prevent the
States from exercising the same pri,i-
lege; but were opposed to depending en-
tirely upon them for a currency, and
wished to limit them in it. The Wings
acknowledge the responsibility of such
banks as they made, and iwillingly COIN
pare their management with the Locofoco
concerns. They are responsible for the
Kentucky and Indiana banks and their
management. Ofthe Locofoco concerns
will only instance Mississippi. In
1880 she had only one bank with a capi-
tai of less than 81 900 900. In 1897
she had % banks, with a capital of$39,.
OOO, 1000.
If the Bank of Missouri is i~nstanced
for her solvency, l ask why she has nc
bonds in Euopc? Because she could
not sell sny there. Was not a good and
true loco foco sent there 70 sell bonds IN
1887, but the market was glutted with
State bonds-and had she sold bonds and
issued paper on the avails here, she
would have been a suspended concern,
like the Illinois banks. Does she do bu-
~siness enough to pay her officers and the
"interest on her bonds?"
Under the influence of these vast ex-
pansions of paper money, states, coun-
ties and corporations, as well as individ-
uals embarked in enterprises ofimprove.
ment and speculation, that now fearfully
astonish themselves, as well as subject
them to the ridiculc of the world, and to
the losses they have suffered. And
thousands have yet to sustain further
losses. Had the Legislature, two years