The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-12-29
HARD TIMES.
lrRox The LrscHBURG vrRerSrAS.l


commercial men in a nutshell. The follow.
ing are his views:
"The Secretary of the Treasury estimates
the amount of specie in the country, on the
Both Of September last, ut e24l 100000. He
says: "Of this sum there was about $50 .OOO,-
600 in the banks and S26O00,0OO in the u.
States Treasury; the rest being in circulation
among the people or boarded up.
At the period of the discovery Of gold in
California, there was in the country about
Sl0o,O00,O0o, and of this $50O0O,OOO was
held by banks and S50,000,o00 by individuals.
Thus, in about seven years the amount in
the bank vaults has only increased $4,000.
900, while the amount in private hands has
increased S95,OOO.000.
1t is chiefly held where 1t is not wanted,
and has not materially increased where it is
vitality necessary; for the enlargement of bu
siness operations has rendered essential an
extension of bank facilities, requiring a cor.
responding increase of the specie basis.
The arrangement of credit, caused by the
diminuton of bank accommodations, is the
true key of the present hard times: and there
will be no relief until, growing out of the in
tcrruption of business, those who have hoard
ed the specie shall be compelled to spend it,
and it will thus find its way back TO the
banks"
1t is here a subject worthy of the gravest
consideration in the present emergency, that
among the parties aho slave boarded the
specie" of the land and are still hoarding it
thus taking away the basis, and per force urg-
ing diminution of bank ccommodations-
are the Sub IreaSurerS Of The Unied States
There is an abundance of specie in the coun-
try, if the estimate of the Secretary of the
Treasury, and we do not doubt it, be correct.
The total of specie in banks and Treasury
repositories amounts to $S6,000,000 against
$50 S35,775 in 1851, and S54,5O0O00 in
lS4S. In the latter year there were only
$S,lOl,353 reported in the Treasury deposi.
tories, whilst on the S0th September, 1854,
the Secretary tells us the amount then locked
up was S26,OOO,O nearly three times
more than the whole specie basis of all
the banks of the city of New York, and about
eight times greater than that of all the banks
in Virginia. Now how is it, with this abun-
dance of specie in New York and in the coun-
try, the banks are crippled in their accommo-
dations by the want of an available supply i?
We hear that the brokers carry it off-whcre!
to New York And whyl On account, we
are told, of the demand for expectation 20
meet foreign bills. But is there not another
source of demand there aiding to drain the
specie from every corner Off the land Is there
not another power, located at that financial
centre, whose very existence at the present
time is essentially nntagonstc to the opera
tions of every State bank in the Union! The
banks of Virginia are now cramped in their
operations by the deficit of specie basis
which they cannot hold. The specie is es-
sential to their operations. 1t is also essen
tial to the transactions of the general govern
ment and its officers in New York. State
notes, the currency Of the people, will not
answer, and the consequence is, the weaker
party is dislurnished and has to succumb.-
The importer must pay his customs, duties
and the broker is the agent who profits by
his necessities, and in whose hands are placed
the funds received from the Virginia mer-
chant to be offered for immediate redemption
at the Virginia Bank from whence they were
issued. Mr.. Guthrie locks up the metallic
proceeds; and thus, with an actual abundance
of specie, state banking institutions are en-
barrassed, and credit as consequence is i'm
paired by the want of II due supply.
In conclusion, and in illustration of the
fact that the policy upon which the SUBJ
Treasury scheme is administered can and
does vitality affect the business of the country,
we quote the following remarks, delivered by
Mr. Dix, then Assistant Treasurer, at New
York, in the Autumn of 1853. In his lauda-
tions of the manner in which the various de.
partments had been conducted under the
present administration, he attempted TO show
that the b-Treasury has been instrumental
in arresting n revulsion scarcely less severe
than that of 1897" and added =
"From May to September there was pre-
vaent bias to over action in almost every
business Legitimate and legitimaie-int trade,
banking, stock jobbing and land speculation,
under the impulse given to commercial enter
prise. The Treasury balance ran M to more
than ten millions. This rapid accumulation
of coin, and the enormous sum of ten millions
thus withdrawn from the reach of operators,
checked in very salutary manner the gencr-
al tendency TO over action"
If the treasury balance of ten millions had
the effect here claimed for it, to what degree
may we think it possible that the balance
last September, of S26,OOO,OOO, locked up in
the federal vaults, has served to check, not in
salutory manner" but with paralysing effect,
the credit and financial operations of the
country? The Sub-Treasury, it will be here
recollected, was grand experiment in the
"divorce of bank and State" 1t may be irrele
want, but rs n curious enquiry we venture to
ask, what may we think of the character of
the divorce under which the agents of the
federal government could thus check the
tendencies of trade at will, as Mr.. Dix him
self claims had been done?
The total OF the average amount Of Specie Of the
New York city banks for the week ending Dec, was
SlO9s3 40 On LIST Oct 1858. the Specie in the banks
Of Virginia was s3,A47,OI2.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 90.
There has been much excitement in monied