Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1850-03-02


The Legislature Of South Carolina
have the control of about three hundred
thousand dollars. This is the sum total
of allthe moneys put under the care and
management of the chosen representa-
tives of the people, amounting to one hun
dred and sixty eight in number. TIE
President of the bank and twelve Drec
tors have under their control and man
agement five or six millions of public
funds, wi ich they lend out as they please,
and appropriate as TO them seems best.
They make an investment of one hun
dred thousand dollars in bank stock, and
and dispose of it a.; ain, without its being
known to the people.
This isnot all. Mr.. Speaker. The
bank not only has ntroI of five or six
millions o. public funds, but the unlim-
ted power of running the State into debt,
and making it Unnecessary that we should
tax the people in order to pay off these
debts. Is not this, sir. power behind
the throne greater than the throne? Are
not these Directors and President more
powerful than the Legislature?
Mr. Speaker, the rights of representa-
tim and taxation were regarded by our
ancestors as inscparable. The least in
fringement of this union was cause enou III
TO make their Anglo.Saxon blood course
more freely through their veins. Itwas
the defence ofthcse great principles of
freedom which made Hampden rebel
and Sydney n martyr; which revolution
lied England under Charles the First,
and separated the American colonies
from Great Britain in the reign of George
the Third. They are rights inc stimabie
to freemen, and formidable to tymn;s en-
ly. Sooner than impair them in the
slightest degree, let the bank and all it's
treasures he scattered to the four winds
of Heaven.
tits said that the bank owes its origin
to a plain, unsophisticated member of
this house, who saw the distresses of the
country in 1912, and was disposed to
remedy them. This, sir, is precisely the
origin to which expect to trace the
bank. 1t was conceived by a kind heart
ed old man, who was utterly unacquaint-
ed with the power and operations of the
institution which he was calling into ex-
istence. The planters and farmers
could make no sales of their produce,
money was exceedingly scarce. and nll
the necessaiies Of life, except those which
grew or were manufacture in our own
State, were very high. Under this state
of things, produced by the embargo and
war, Ar. Joseph Black, of Ab6eville,
proposed the establishment of bank,
which was to lend the people money, and
thereby relieve their di>tresses and ,.ecu-
mary embarrassments. The farmers and
planters we to mortgage their lands,
and receive the sum oftwo thousand dol
lars as loan.
I 4 schere of relief could not have been
conceived IN more profound ignorance.
1t never "a loaned out; and fit had
been, it would have entailed broadcast
the seeds OF ruin and bankruptcy on
tho>e whom it was intended to benefit.
1t was a kindred measure of those relief
laws, stop-laws, and stay-laws which we
usually hear Of when ignorance and dem
agoguism have the ascendancy in newly
settled Stale. The attempt iii France,
short time since, to provide work for
those who were unemployed, by the
newly revolutioniSed government, was
likewise kindred measure. The whole
system, of which thesv measures are part
and parcel, imposes on the government
the duty of supporting the people!
The bank, Immediately after its estab-
lishment, instead of becoming loan