The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1845-04-18
Protest Of the Democratic Senators.
In SENATE OF OHIo,l
March II, l945.
Mr.. BARTLEY, on behalf Of himself and
others, presented the following


The undersigned, in the exercise of the
rights guaranteed to them by the constitution
Of the State, hereby dissent from, and enter
upon the Journal of the Senate, this their
solemn protest, against the passage of the
bill to incorporate the State Bank Of Ohio
and other banking companies, and to this
they are impelled as well by sense of the
duty due to themselves as the representa-
tives Of free people, as from the great con-
siderations arising out Of a just regard for
the public welfare. We, therefore, protest
against the passage of said bill, because,
LIST, In defiance of all past experience
this bill proposes suddenly to inundate the
State with paper circulation, which by its
provisions may extend TO nearly twenty mil
liens of dollars, and that too, without any
thing like a just or safe specie basis.
End. The people of Ohio, after suffering
innumerable evils from excessive banking, are
now recovering from its effects, and their
!, growing prosperity must under the prov-
sions of this law again become the victim of
redundant, irresponsible paper circulation,
the effect of which will be to enrich the few
at the expense Of the many.
3rd. If successful in going into operation,
the provisions of this bill will suddenly with
draw from its present established invest
ments, and force into other and different
hands an amount of capital so enormously
large, as is provided for by this bill, that its
effect must be 10 derange the present healthy
business operations of the country, and
wither and blight the best interests Of the
people.
4lh. By such sudden and enormous in
crease of the paper circulation, prices will
become inflated, existing values will be af-
fected and our importations prodigiously in.
creased, while our expectations must to a
great extent be cut off.
9th. The price of our exports being of ne
cessity regulated by the markets of the
world, every advance of price at home, above
that which can be justified in foreign mar
kets, only tends to hinder expectation, and
confning the market for our products to the
limits of our State, impovershes the people,
as it prevents men from paying foreign arti-
cles with their own domestic products.
9th. Banks of issue, if necessary under
any circumstances whatever, are only to be
tolerated as the legitimate aids of commerce
and should never be established for any
other purpose; but this bill creates banks in
almost every county in the State, where
their temptations may be offered 10 lure the
people into extravaganza, seduce them into
speculation, dissatisfy every man with the
slow proceeds of honest industry and labor,
and spread madness and folly broadcast
throughout the land.
7th. Creating such number of banking
institutions, all entering upon business at
the same time, in order to secure circula-
ton for their notes, they must and will en-
ter into severe competition to obtain bor-
rowers, which of necessity will lead to i'm
prudent and bad loans, and they weaken and
eventually destroy the ability of the banks
to redeem their obligations 10 the public.
9Th. The imitation of the paper circulation
authorized by this bill cannot add to the
value of our products. The nominal prices
which it may for a short time give to proper
ty, will be evidence only of the depreciation
Of the currency; and this depreciation will
keep pace with the expansion Of the circu-
lation, until, by rendering the gold and sill
yer in measure unnecessary as currency,
the specie will be expelled from circulation
Ill tHC CldlC3 duu tiC WuOlO oJotSHl Will
plode, and contraction ensue, spreading
embarrassment, disaster and wide spread
bankruptcy throughout the business opera
tions of our people.
9th. All past experience, and the immu-
table laws which govern the currency of the
commercial world, teach us that this unna-
tural imitation of the currency by an issue Of
paper, mnst inevitably very soon be followed
by ruinous contraction, thus destroying all
stability in our currency as standard of
value, changing the effects and obligations
of contracts, and destroying all reliance
upon the uniform operations of commerce,
and all confidence in the integrity and abili-
ty Of the business men Of the country.
10th The immense issue of paper money
will create debt, but it cannot create capital,
and while it will not add any to the substan-
tial wealth of the people of the State, it
will enable few, by means of their exclu-
sivo and extraordinary privileges, to amass
wealth and to live in affiuence and splendor
from the produce of the industrious and
most useful part of community.
llth. The bill cxempts the stockholders
frem individual liability for the debts of the
banks, and repudiates all the other conserva-
tive safeguards and liabilities in banking for
which majority of the people of this State
have for many years been contending, and
confers the powers Of banks of issue upon
terms 80 loose and unguarded as to show an
utter disregard of the public interests-a
disregard alike of the severe lessons taught
by experience, and of salutary recomm enda-
tons of the most prudent and experienced
bankers themselves, and in utter contempt
~c ,,,,bl;o opipioD