The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1846-01-29
Ranking on .RiIIs F,eceivnble..

Banking ON "BiIIs Receivable."
We make the following extract from Mr.
Edgerton's mastery and eloquent speech, in
which he exposed and crushed the danger
gerous innovation of :" Bills Receivable" be-
ing made basis of banking operations. In
secure, dissolute and immoral as the present
banking system is, the proposition Of Alfred
Kelley aimed at nothing less, than bringing
the wealth and industry of the state under
the control of banks, beyond the possibility
Of peaceabe remedy. For if the principle
which the Wing Senate sanctioned had be.
come law, who is there that can SUPPOSE
that its corrupt provisions would have been
confined to that most aristocratic of corpora.
tions, the Life Insurance and Trust Company
of Cincinnati? This is the backward tend.
ency of what the Wings call Bank Reform.
1t is TO add privilege to privilege till the
power of the people is lost in the chartered
franchises of the Rag Barons, who usurp the
emoluments, position and state of tho titled
aristocracy of monarchies. Mr.. Edgerton's
rebuke caused the Senate to pause and re.
trance its steps, but not before the clovsn
foot of federal design had been exposed in
its naked deformity. Let the fact not be
forgotten that Alfred Kelley, the stockholdes
of the Bank, the whig leader in Ohio, took
the infamous ground that evidences Of debt
of corporation should be made a substitute
for gold and silver! and that the mass of
the whig party leaders are but the puppets
with which he plays-and obey his behests
with the same fidelity which the Italian
brgand pays to the robber chief:
By the first section, this Life and Trust
Company, are authorized to carry on the
business of banking; and they may set apart,
out Of any moneys and {" BILLS RECEIVABLE"
belonging thereto, any sum not less than
100000, nor more than $50o,000 as bank.
ing capital; and if the company set apart
less sum than $500,000, they may, at any
time during the year, set apart such addi-
tional sum as they shall think proper, provid-
ed they do not extend the whole capital
beyond the $5O0,00e. Was ever such
power as this given TO any other institution
Until the passage Of the general banking law
of last winter, and the introduction Of this
bill--more outrageous and dishonorabls than
any other-I, in my ignorance, supposed,
it required some money before a company
could commence the business of banking.
What are these "Bills ReccirabIe," upon
which this institution is to receive authority
TO issue money, and that, too, at the rate Of
two or three dollars for one. Why, sir, they
are the notes ofvarous individuals, Of whose
ability to pay, the community, who are to re-
ceive the issues based upon them, can know
nothing, held by the Trust Company for
money which it has already loaned They
are not the money of the Trust Company,
but the bare notes it has received from its
debtors. With this, and this alone, for q
banking capital, the company demands, in
addition to her other perpetual overshsdow-
ing and dangerous powers, the power of
banking. This ia the plain, naked PROPOSE
ton, stripped of all the humbug about its
safety fund, aud its thirty per cent. equivs-
lent' to gold and silver.
1t is, said Mr.. E., demand for authority
to bank upon Indebtedness, and not upon
money, that has already been leaned, and
these bills receivable, or notes, are what tho
company has received in exchange for it;
and it is now proposed that the company
shall loan IFS credit, in the shape and char
acter of bank bills, to two or three times the
amount of its available means of redemption
, the bills receivable-which are alone its
banking capital. This is establishing an en-
f tire new principle in banking, and if l can
not give the gentleman from Franklin, credit
for honesty, l will certainly award to him all
the praise due, for his ingenuity; and the
cause his powers being particularly awak.
} ened on the subject, may be found in the
E fact, that he is a stakeholder in the institu.
ton, and interested in its profits.