The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-01-03
The Panlc-TAe Huuka.

The pressure and panic in the money market,
and the breaking of several banks, have been
attributed to various causes, and accounted for
In various ways but the most amusing solution,
is that which we find in our amiable contempt
raries, the Journal Of Commerce and the Express.
Bennett" with the one, and the Herald with
the other, have produced the whole Of it. That
villsinous journal has deprived the hard work.
ing portion of the community Of their hard earn
ings, and cheated them out of ten. twenty and
thirty per cent of their daily wages.
This certainly is discovery equal to that of
squaring the circle, and farbeyond any other dis
covery in philosophy ever made in the world.
In past times, it has been supposed that when
banks or their agencies could not redeem
their currency, it arose either from want of
gold and silver in their vaults, or disposition
to cheat the public openly and publicly. If
banks are we'll managed, and conducted on proper
principles, they ought always to be ready to re-
deem their currency when asked to do so. If
,hey are not prepared to do so, they are badly
managed or miserably conducted, and ought to
be crushed like the serpent that
Brought sin into the world and all our woe"
Seriously, however, it is needless for us to
make any reply to such impudent, ridiculous,
ignorant and atrocious charges, as those and
other journals make against the Ne,c York Herald
For nearly twenty-five years past the conductor
of this journal has been connected with the New
York press, either as editor, reporter, or pro-
prietor, and his principles on banking and on
currency have been invariably the same. Never
have his views been falsifed; and it may be re-
membered whether they were falsifed in the
crisis of 1887. During the present crisis he is
equally independent, and will not deceive the
people, in warning them, as far as regards COM
mercial affairs and the currency.
The present pressure has been produced by
natural causes, growing out of the reaction in
commercial affairs in England, and the drain
made by the Mexican war, on the treasury and
the banks of this country. The first effect of
those combined causes is felt by the weak and
ill-managed country banks. Already halt a
dozen ofthose rotten Institutions have broken to
pieces, in this and neighboring States For
years, we have warned the public against some
of those banks, particularly the Plainfeld, the
Lehigh, the Susquehanna, and various others
The free banks of this State, are little better,
and only little. They are only an organization of
a system Of small and petty shaving, and nothing
else, on the community, and especially on the
hard working classes. The State stocks, on
which their pap-ris issued, may be valuable, but
how can a working man, with a few dollars in
his pocket, wait tor months for realization of
those stocks, when he wants his dinner, when
his children are crying for food, when his wife
is hungry and thirsty after hard days work :?
How can such man wait for the slow move
ments of those fnanciers who humbug the COM
munity, and cheat all who come within the
range of their roguery1 The whole system Of
free banks in this State, is nothing but organ
Used, legalised, chartered system of cheating and
swiudling on small scale, under the shape ofdis-
count. The Plainfeld, the Lehigh, the Susque-
hanna, and other banks, are nothing but engines
of roguery, and the people who have been de-
frauded and cheated by them, deserve nothing
else, for they were well warned against them.
The evils ofrotten banking, however, are only
beginning. We much fear that worse is coming,
and we still warn the public, the hard working
man, the daily laborer, and all others, who live
from hand 10 mouth by their daily work, to be
careful of what money they take, to place no
confidence in the Wall street organs or Wall
street brokers, for they are all engaged in the
same system of roguery and plumber on the great
mass Of the community, and have always been
So We trust we shall yet see the banking sys-
tenn purified Of this corruption and villainy.-
There is much yet TO lop off. In our large cities
banks well conducted are useful; but the multi
tude of little institutions that are scattered all
over the mountains and valleys fthe country, and
planted in places where even potatoes would not
grow so barren are they-such institutions are
merely nests of plckpockets, rogues, scoundrels,
and scamps of the deepest dye. What then is to
be donel We think the ,corking portion of the
people of Ne,o York ought to hare a general meet
ing and hare committee to discuss those questions
TO ascertain Dhdt banks are good, and procure
from some legitimate quarter, correct intelligence
on the subject 1t is very certain that no correct
or reliable intelligence can come from Wall
street, or their journals. ow is the time for
the people who have been cheated by banks to
act calmly, quietly, but decidedly, and take care
| of themselves. Who moves first I
STRANGE BEp-FELLows.-Who ever expect
ed TO hav; found Mr.. Calhoun and Mr. Hale,
| Mira nbolition SIN and mira elayerv rowi ~ IN