Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1850-01-12
THE BANK.


In addition to the facts set forth some time
since, we find that the District of Charleston
has drawn out of the Bank near One Million OF
Dollars. Here then are three Districts. Char
lesion, Bichland, and Fairfield, that have more
than One Million six hundred thousand Dollars
of the public money, and that sum drawn too
from an institution, the object of whose crea-
tion was to loan this fnd in equal portions to
the different Districts What becomes of the
boastcd argument of the peoples Bank1 II
they mean by that that it belongs to the pco-
pie, that tits the peoples money, that the bank
officers and their favorites have to speculate
upon why we have nothing to say; but if is
their desire to create the impression that it is
Bank for the accommodation of the people,
wejoin issue. Let us examine, then, and see if
the facts will bear such a construction Only
fifteen hundred of the planters and mechanics
have found accommodation, and the most of
these for small sums, while the bank officers
themselves have Eight hundred and fifty thou
sand Dollars, and few af their friends Seven
hundred thousand Dollars more. Does this
look like the peoples Bankl Is this carrying
out the objects Of its creatonl-Reader judge
for yourself
But there are few other matters connected
with the loans of this Bank, which it would be
we'll that the people should know; in which the
intentions of its creation are so plainly viola
ted that one though iic un may see it, Some
years since, Gen. Brisbance was sent as an
agent to this State to procure aid from our Leg
islature for the construction of Railroad in
Georgia. He came to the Legislature, and
that body would not even listen to the propo
sition to take money from the people of this
State to build up Railroads in Georgia But
the agent finding that the Legislature of South
Carolina was not so easily humbuggcd, bctook
himself to the peoples Bank, and that Bank
actually applied the sum of One hundred thou
sand Dollars for the benefit of the people of
Georgia. Yes, reader the peoples Bank have
in fact done this, and that too in the very face
of the refusal of your representatives to have
any thing to dowirh it, Again his peoples
Bank applied the sum of about sixty thousand
Dollars to build up an iron manufactory, and
the sum of Thirty thousand Dollars to build up
awatering place in one Of our neghborng Dis
tricts. Would the people have endorsed the
action of their Legislature had that body APP
piled these sums to these purposesl No, they
would have been hooted from The halls ofthe
State House, and yet this peoples Bank have
actually done that which your Legislature re-
fuseI to do, AMI which they conld not do con.
stitutionally under their oaths How stands
the matter with these loans, on the single one
of the watering place the Bank has lost, yes
absolutely lost the sum of twenty thousand
dollars of the debt, and the interast for seyera
years on The entire loan. Losses have been
sustained on Al least one of ihe others, bit how
much is yelled in the mystery of the banking
house. These facts are all taken from the re
ports drawn from the books of the Bank and
about which there can be no disputc;-they
arc facts which were freely spoken OF in the
Legislature, and which were not denied by the
most strenuous advocate of the Bank, and yet
the people are asked to recharter an institu-
tion that has been thus applying their money
for purposes, which to say the least are out
side of the charter, aud by which large sums
have been lost 1t remains to be seen next
October whether the people of this State are
willing to keep up a Bank for the accommoda-
tion of few persons in a few Districts, ond for
the purpose Of building Railroads in
Georgia. and of erecting iron works and wa
tcring places.