The Arkansas banner., 1844-10-02

tlmatlon, not the least opJectioii to iiiiit "' ~
 confirms what shall attempt to show here
 after-that is, that he is not only using the
 promise of bank to catch the stock-) -)obbers,
 but should he be elected, intends to use hls |
 bank to uphold and shield him from Just
 responsibility to the popular will. Nor can
 overlook the false game played off upon the public, as to the effects of the bank upon f the prosperity and currency of the country, and about MT. Clay's patriotism and consis- tencv in relation to the bank. The only bank that ever would have voted for, was
 one upon the principal of the first bank lhls bank MT. Clay helped to destroy, and no , man living ever took stronger ground against the constitutionalitv of a Bank ol the United States than Mir. Clay did. Indeed, he treated the pretended claim of Congress to establish a bank with ridcue and as totally talacious, and no one ever painted in more terrific col DTS the evils likely 10 flow from such an in- stitution, than did Mir. Clay ltis true, that after thus speaking, and thus destroying the
 Bank of the United States, Mr. Clay, Ill loI6, f wheeled around and voted for the late Bank, and, in doing SO. in my humble opinion, voied for a bill palpablv violating he constitution.
 By that charter, Congress vested tie Natiot- al Government with corporate powers not granted to t by the constitution, and gave It's
 bar k power to swallow up the real es.ates
 and lands of the country, to an unlimited extent By making the governmental stock holder, and autho,isng the appointment oI directors. it not only turned the government into merchant. but made 1t money chang ; CT, usmcr and Shduer. It was bank formed , for stock-lobhers, who seized It's stock and , commenced swndlimg upon 1t before the
 bank went into operation, and kept IL up nn- t til the bank was as utterly insovent as Il was the day it blowed out i; and think canHoi l be mistaken when say, that al no period ol the existence of the bank, 1t could have re- deemed it's paper and paid fifty cents ill the t dollar ofits stock, and that when MT. Cheeves took possession of it, 1t was not only insol- ? vent to such an extent that it could not return to the stockholders one cent of their ? cap al paid ill, but that for the gove nment : deposits, 1t could not have redeemed it's pa per for single day.
 : Mir. Clay and his party are constantly harp f ing about the purication of the currency un- !, der that bank, and it's influences on ex- f changes This they do i'll the face of truth. 3 When the late bank went into operation, il drew from Kentucky and Kentucky banks every dollar of the capital of the two branches l for Kentucky. being about three millions of l dollars, by selling bills for local paper, at : premium, to our merchants. These bills they cashed by drawing the specie to bank on, l from the Bank of Kontucky and other local I banks. This soon Eurs ell most of the inde = pendant banks, and the Legislature of 1919, T by resolution followed by vote of her : rectors, closed the vaults Of the Bank of l Kentucky, that had heretofore been one of the best and soundest banks in the Uaion-a l bank then abundantly solvent, but the closing l of her vaults reduced her paper to less than e fifty cents on the dol!ar Her paper Was : bought Up at it's reduced rate ol exchange, OH ' which the speculator sued her and realized : his speculations out of his bill box. 0nLtiS l hangs c tale. This move of the specu ator ruined the credit of that bank, and her char : ter was finally repealed. In this bank, the . stockholders were almost entire losers, and e the Sgate being one, was the largest loser.- $ The stock, to the amount of two millions,
 fl belonged to private stockholders, while the e Sate owned lhe other million. Many of the 0 private stockholders were the widows and or
 t phans of men who had died for their country > during the war; but the whole went by the
 IT board, owing to ruthless and merciless spec ,t ulation. During the process of ruin that the It old bank of Kentucky underwent, many of
 the debtors to the branches of the Bank of 1T the United States were ground into utter [, bankruptcy by calls from he branches, and e the Whele circulating medium Cf the State y became worthless rags, and so continued to Q. be for many years. Never was a country Il before more sorely cursed with paper cir }, culalion, for it had nothing but Common '- wealth Bank paper and the tickets of indivi- a duals to do their daily transactions with 0 This paper was full fifty per cent. below par, e and much itlotally worthless. Exchanges l. on this paper medium, for the period of five ; years, or more, ranged from fifty 10 sixty per r. cent below Ear, and exchanges between this q country and the East, on gold and silver y credits ranged at a premiunl against the Stale 1 ot al least two per cent. This false and yi- . clous State of currency reduced labor and ] real estates to less than half their accustomed X rates of value and so great was the deslruc- ? ton of the debtor class, that thousands were } utterly ruined, and those not ruined aItogeh- |, CT, were forced to sell their rich, improved e lands at hall their values, to ray their debts. e and then to seek lands in the far west In }, fact, such was the derangement of the cur e rency, and such was the oppression of the = United States Bark upon the people, that r they, as we'll as heirrepreseniatives, seemed [ to be driven to utter despair. They first 3 passed stay laws, then property laws and r when the Judges declared their laws uncon- stltutiona, they broke up the Court, and, failing mall other measures of relief, attempt
 ed to change the Constitution.
 ? This IS but faint buttrue picture of con l dltion under Mir. Clay's rule, and under Mr. ) Clay's Bank. True, in time, the S.ate, l through it's labor, prospered, and the Bank of [ the United States, having crushed both it's n- l dividual and bank debtors, the circulating 7 medium, for brief space, was good; but the