The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1846-05-02

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unshaken confidence, the bank still pays.
and the officers strut and swell and
swear, I'VE can cash every dollar
/ WE have out;- present it, we want to
pay, Good easy people..look on in
mute admiration---and stick to it that
the officers word is as good as the bank.
4 With so much evidence Of prosperity
all around, property rising in value,
speculations going on, fortunes being
made in twinkling----the farmer is
drawn from his plough, the mechanic
from his shop, the lawyer from his
books, all must take a chance in the wide
field of speculation. A sells to B, and
B to G, and G again to A, and all make
money; TO be sure, no one can tell how,
bit still tits done. Money easy made,
is easy spent. A made FIVE thousand
in single week, B.six, and C little
more. Rich men must live like rich
men; these paper fortunes are made the
foundation for extravagant living
Houses and furniture, horses and ear.
riages, fine clothes, jewels, Iaces, silks,
and velvets, must be had, because the
gentlemen have made fortunes, are rich
in fact, md must live rich; mean time,
the banks expand their ,issues-nine
tenths Of the real people are quietly at
home, attending to their business; their
greatest fault is that they have TOO much
confidence; anon some one. more cum
ming than the rest. sees through this
their veil Of imaginary prosperity; sees.
that, these "good, sound, solcent, ,oeu
regulated State ,Bdaks," are, in fact, in
soluent. With paper in hand, he pre-
sents himself at the. counter, and de-
mands the specie. Such huttering,
good Lord! The teller looks amazed,
the cashier asks him to call again, the
president is sent for, the note holder is
importunate, the bubble has expanded 10
its utmost tension n, andis about TO burst!
The money is paid, but with such ill
grace as to impair confluence. The
thing is whispered around, the people
get alarmed, notes areypresented, the
bank still pays, but confidence is shaken.
the bank totters and falls-the bubble
bursts, and where, does the ruin fall
On the farmer who remained at his
plough, the shoemaker at his last, the
blacksmith at his anvil; poor men, their
lnoney has turned to dry leaves, and
they are left to curse The confidence
which induced them to take it. ~. - H.
These may be called the abuses of
the banking system. Very well, they
are abuses which are always practised,
and without which. TO a greater or less
extent, banking would be abandoned
as Improbable. It's useless to talk of
preventing these abuses by legislative
restrictions. So long as our courts adj
here to the notion of vested rights in
banking corporation--you had as well
talk of claiming shadow, or bottIeing
a sunbeam, as to. talk of restraining a
bank with laws.
Paper money has tendency tothrow.
industry from the producing, into the
consuming class. From the foundation
of the world. man has struggled I'D vain
10 avoid the sentence pronounced upon.
his sobedience that Shy the sweat of.
his brow should he eat bread.' Banks
are among the ingenious contrivances
resorted to by him to avoid this SEN.
tence OF his Creator, and it is but doing
the invention justice to say, that it has
been in high degree successful. Not
only the immediate drones who hang
around the bank, as cashiers, telers,
clerks, messengers, porters, &C., &C.,
but innumerable Aocks of unfedged BIZ
.peds are sustained In splendid poverty
about all our cities, towns and villages.
These people must eat, drink, and wear
clothes, and some body must produce
what they consume. The farmer,
whose labor is not increased in value
by paper money, is charged with the
sustenance of these fellows-andis is fiat
tered into being thus ingenious heeced,
by being told that tie abundance OF
money has greatly increased the value
of his land, as il the land were any
more productive at twenty dollars the
acre, than it was at ten dollars. a,s,
v What is the intrinsic worth ola bank
biHi .Emphatically nothing. Its not
money; three to one,it is not the rep
resentative dof money. When a bank
with one hundred thosand dollars in
species has loaned one hundred thous-
and dollars in papersit has loaned all
the money which it has-all after that
is trash, % vale cheat, Is bank bill
the representative Of money, when
there is nothing; solid in the vaults Of
the bank2 No, it is mere shadow-7,a
baseless fabric, resting on and; being
supported by public confidence; alarm
that, and the whole ,tnmbles into ruins.