Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1855-08-15

LIE .OLD BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.
We, few days ago. noticed the fact
that the trustees ofthe Bank of the United
States will make a final dividend on the
90thsof September, when the concern will
cease in any shape to exist. The ALBANY
Atlas, abiding to the matter; SAYS
asst has taken fourteen years to wind
Up the concern, and at the end the stock-
holders lose all, and the other cred;tors
get little. The bank was originally char.
tered at period of great financial depres.
sion and distress, when the failure of State
banks after the war, had deprived The
people OF currency. The constitutional
objections TO its existence were lost sioht
OF in the desire to secure its ADVANTAGES.
The government became holder Of The
stock TO the amount Of one-fFth' of the
eaptal' aud 1t received the deposits of
public customs. When the question of
its rechatter came up. the exigencies
whloh';had called it into existence had
ceased, and the objections to it subsisted
The old democrats, who never believed
that such an institution was embraced in
the objects of the confederation. or was
to be endured uuder democratic inter
probation of the constitution. renewed
their objections to its recharter. General
Jackson believed that all the public ser
vice required could be rendered BY an
agency more purely governmental, and
which would not interfere with or renu-
lnte' the monetary affairs of the people.
1.-The bank had assumed the function
OF a regulator Of credits of the country,
and assumed to hold national iurisdic-
ton over State banks, while it's own adj
mInlstratlon was based on the same vic
ious system which made the local banks
so often 'delusion and nuisance. How
Mr.. BiddIe undertook to perpetuate his
character by the purchase OF presses and
the bribery of politicians is we'll known.
With as much folly as wickedness he con-
tended that the bank had right to ex~
pend the money of the institution in a
warfare and upon the government, its
leading stakeholder. The panic. the dis
tress committee, the suspension, the rev.
Olutlon, bloodless. as yet the attempt 10
control the cotton market-the immense
speculation of the bank followed. The
energy and wisdom Of jackson and Van
Buren, were successful, and the monster
was Frustrated !; though in its fall it
brought down State credit, and cast
deep stain not yet eradicated upon the
American name. But though thus de
teated. it managed 20 perpetuate its in.
fanny by new phase of corruption. I'm
der the pretence Of improving the com
mon schools and assisting the internal i'm
provements of Pennsylvania the old
bank was recnartered as a State instiCu-
ton. upon condition of immense largesses
n tho Stota opH oftor ,vo1l l.,
Pcnditure of money among the members
Of the two Houses.
" But this concern could not corrupt
others without becoming corrupt ITSELF
There is law that regulates the inter
course Of vice, and threatens it with dread
full punishment, having their source in
mutual foulness. The old Mother OF
denominations was rotten to the BONE
Patches and paint could not conceal the
internal ravages, and after waddlng about
few years in bloated vice, she rolled
over and died. There were gay young |
politicians that haunted the house she
lived in. Where are they? What did
they become The story has moral in
it. which time has not failed to engrave
deeply on the history of the country,
where politicians may gather future in-
struction. 1t is that no accumulation of
wealth, however great, can hold an even
contest with a free people that corruption
cannot reach the masses and that poll
tcians, who ally themselves in contest
ON the side of associated wealth and mon
Opoly. against ideas Of popular liberty,
become suspected by the people, and no
talents or virtues can outweigh the bur
den of this suspicion"