The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-03-05

\ ofhe State is virtually made the cndorscr Of
ne notes of the favored few to whom the mon.
f(cy is loaned.
7. Because the Bank of the State, when first
established, was based upon funds which the
State had acquired as actual, without injury to
the public treasury but the new policy now
proposed, of raising money for the Bank by in
creasing the public debt, involves the State
Treasury in all the casualties and dangers of
banking operations, and is subversive of that
great principle avowed by the State, of keeping
the Public Treasury independent of Banks.
8. Because the great facility with which mo-
ney can be raised upon the public credit, has a
tendency to seduce the public servants from
their duty, and to confer upon those who lend
out the money to a secret and dangerous con-
troll over the councils of the State
3. Because the experience of the Bank of tho
State has proved, that its profits have been d.
minishcd as its capital has been increased; that
for the last four years, even without reserving
any fund to meet future losses, its average of
profit has been only S 70 per cent; that the
proposition therefore, that the State should bor.
row money at per cent? to lend out 5 l-2, sub
ject also to the usual casualties, of banking,
cannot fail to result in loss, which must even.
tual lly be made good by taxing the people.
c. G. Memminger, Henry Gourdin, q. p.
Herndon, Allard H. Beln, ]. H. Adams, w. T.
Ellerbe, Otis Mills, Edward Frost, A. G. Ma.
grath, Wade s. Cothran, J. NJ Walker, c. B.
Griffin, Geo. Anderson, D. Atkinson, J. D. vii.
son, J. w. Jones, ]. A. Aston, F. w. Davie,
John Schnierle, Henry J. Smith, Robert s. AL
lison, Henry Smith, Paul Quattlebaum, Fl. H.
Thomson, Thomas H. Pope, J. Sheppard, Will
liam Aiken, L. F. .Rhame, ]. Chesnut, Jr, C.
Dudley, J. Washington Rice, Saml. Jackson,
Daniel Y Jenkins, s. NJ Earle, B. s. Massey,
+. Edwin Ware, J. Wingard
. The refusal of the Bank to cancel these Bonds
Of tho State, under these circumstances, and the
still more unjustifable refusal to permit SO large
body of the Representatives of the people to
exhibit and record their reasons, speak Ian
guage which cannot be misunderstood. They
demonstrate the disastrous influences which the
Bank has exercised upon the public councils !;
and establish beyond doubt how completely
| the public authorities are swerved from the true
| path of duty wherever this Bank is concerned
But it is not only tits influence upon the pub
lie authorities that the experience and history Of
the Bank exhibits its injurious action; its own
doings, within its own sphere Of action, furnish
the most conclusive evidence.
Take the single operation in Charleston Bank
Stock. In that great bubble, where 81 millions
of dollars were subscribed by a community run
mad, to raise Bank Capital Of two millions,
the Bank of the State was among the foremost
of the spectators. Without consulting the
Legislature the Board of Directors subscribe
more than their whole capital to another Bank,
in which the public authorities never conceived
the possibility of placing their funds; and ever
since the Bank of Charleston has been in exis.
tence, the State has been in fact one of its lar
gest Stockholders, and is even now involved in
the hazards Of the operations of that Bank.
The same thing is true of the two Georgia
Railroads.&c. the Nesbit Manufacturing Com.
pany, the Limestone Springs, and all those
loans to incorporate Companies, which are a.
mong the most hazardous and long protracted
of the debts of the Bank.
The history of the Bank exhibits another fea-
ture which cannot be disguised. The Directors
ofthe Bank exhibit sulid mass of liability, a.
mounting to upwards of seven hundred thous.
and dollars; and fto this be added the liabilities
of the Officers of the Bank, it results that those
conducting the affairs ofthe Bank have taken to
their own use three. .fourths of the whole actual
capital of the Bank What a commentary
] upon what is called the Peoples Bank! Then
let there be added to this the fact that the Bank
has already lost, through its Directors, upwards
of four hundred thousand dollars, and all the
outlines of the picture are filled out 1t makes
apparent that the true name of the subject is not
the Peoples Bank. 1t is the Directors Bank!
But will not pursue this branch of the SUBJ
iect any further. Enough has been said to es-
tablish all the propositions for which we con-
tend, and to demonstrate the evils attendant
upon the continuance Of the Bank of the State.
It merely; remains to dispose of some of the
objections which are urged against any interfer'
ence with the Bank.
OBJECTIONS.
l. The first and most prominent fthese objec-
tions is, that the Bank is pledged to our Foreign
Creditors, and that we are bound to continue its
existence until the period at which the debt is pay
able.
If this argument hold good, it would furnish DIN
instance of one of the most fragrant frauds ever
perpetrated upon the people; and the very fact
that it is gravey urged by the friends of the Bank,
shows the shifts TO which they are willing to resort
10 sustain the continuance of the Bank. The a.
mount of the argument is this: The Banks exis-
tence terminates by the law of its charter in 1856.
BY All Act of the Legislature, the Governor was