The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-03-05
SPEECH OF Mr., C, G. MEMMINGER,
On the Question Of Recharterins the Bank Of
the STATE of South Carolina -Delirered IN
the House Of Representatives., Dec. 9, le4s.

caNCLUDED.
In other States of the Union, State Banks
have been tried North Carolina, Kentucky,
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi have each iii
turn made an experiment, and the experience of
each is decided condemnation, as far as con-
necton with the State is concerned. In Ala
bama, where the plan seemed successful for
time, the catastrophe was the most disastrous of
any; and the history Of its Bank is now the
worst page in lfr annals. In no one instance
can an example be found to save the system
from general reprobation; and South Carolina
is probably the only State in the Union in whicA
an elaborate argument is required to conviuce
her people of the evil tendency of this system:
Even the Bank of England itself woald be
preferred, if it had less connection with the Gov-
ernment In every attempt to unite them' some-
thing injurious to both has resulted; and even
one of the least burdensome arrangements be-
tween the Government and the Bank, has re.
ceived the significant name Of the Dead Weight.
7. Fanything further were necessary to set.
tie the question, the experience and history OF
our own Bank would be conclusive.
A very cursory view of its history will show,
that whenever an occasion has arisen, 1t has
swerved the State from her true course, and
plunged her into complicated and embarrassing
transactions, with which she would otherwise
have had no connection. -.
five were even now clear of this Bank, the
simplicity of our Treasury operations would
surprise our whole people. The Sinking Fund
in the hands of the Bank would pay off the whole
debt of the State, and leave surplus OF some
six thousand dollars If therefore VIC could rid
ourselves of the Bank, with all its mass of mon
ey borrowed to lend out again, its complication
Of Fire Loan, Surplus Revenue, ct III genus
omne, we would be able once more to have
Treasury which the people could understand
We would be entirely free from debt, with the
exception of that loaned to build their houses to
the citizens of Charleston, and the whole OF f''i
would be paid in few years, as theF -
come in. But as long as this incubus nit
ted to nestle upon the State, so long nl-.st we
expect compexity, difficulty and debt
will not undertake to say that the Bank has
caused all the debt which has been incurred by
the State, because my experience does not reach
back to the Internal Improvement debt OF lS2o.
But if the experience of the last ten years be u
guide, it may reasonably be inferred that if there
had been. no Bank, the Internal improvement
projectors of 1920 must have known that they
would have to tax the people to pay their debt,
and that fact may have arrested their progress.
One thing is certain, that about the time this
debt became payable, the State became involv-
ed in most pernicious and unnecessary career
OF debt, which has embarrassed her finances
from that time to the present
In 1887, the Surplus Revenue Of the United
States to the extent of one million Of dollars was
paid to the State. This was delivered over for
a time to the Bank, until it should be called in
for the great Cincinnati Railroad, to which it
was devoted In the following year, 1888,
Charleston was destroyed by the terrible fire
which desolated that City. From every quar-
ter of the State, the warm hearted sons of Car
olina came together at the call Of the Governor,
to devise means of relief AS one of the Rep
resentatives of Charleston, it became my duty
to be present, and in behalf of that afflicted City,
we, her Representatives, had prepared our plan,
in which the relief we sought was proposed
No one man ever imagined that the Bank of the
State had any concern in the matter one way
or another. remember well the deep mortifi.
cation, and | may say indignation, which felt,
when saw Bill produced by some of the ac-
tive partisans Of the Bank, evidently drawn be.
forehand, in which for the first time was devel-
oped this scheme of dividing the charity of the
State between the desolate City and the ever.
meddling Bank | found myself unable to sub.
NIT to the most unnatural alliance, and endeav-
ored to break the folds of the chain which was
being forged. My colleagues appealed to me
by every tie which binds human nature together
There sat our City, solitary, amid sackcloth and
ashes, with the voice of lamentation sounding
from her midst. And |, too, had felt constrain.
ed to add to her distresses, by fastening upon
her the law which compelled the citizens to re-
build their dwellings of brick, then SO dear, as
almost to be denial of common right felt
the appeal to be too strong to allow me to stand
in the way ofrelief, more especially as the mix.
ture of the Bank was question Of expediency,
and not of morals. Iyielded my assent to the
measure, just as the wretch on the verge of ruin
admits the last per centage of the usurer-but
even he may be brought forward as witness
to the extortion, as am now, to the undue ill.,.
fiuence and unwarrantable interference of the
Bank in this matter.
do not believe the assertion that the Legis.
lature would not have aided Charleston, but for
the expectationof benefit to the Bank All that
Charleston asked was the credit of the State,
and for that she offered security the most unex