Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1856-02-20


Section seven allows it to accept and receice ,oo
eys in trust, to accumulate the interest or ;n,om.
thereof at such rates and in such name, as NM,
agreed on, or to allo or pay such interest or iaeo.
thereon as may be stipulated and agreed on 6et,een
the parties with proviso that the Interest ma,
be taken in advance section eight allows the com.
pany I" to tssue certificates for the amount of nh
moneys deposited wih them in trust, achich certif
Gates shall 6eassigna6le and transferable, under x.,
regulations mag be prescribed" &C.; section min.
authorizes the company to invest the stock of III.
corporation accruing from its business in stocks If
the United States any Of the States, or corporations
and section ten limits the capital to $780, O0O Such
is the substance Of its every object and of all is
powers. Now We put it to the fair-minded reader
if there is any appearance here, gentle insnu,.
ton even of a bank, with power to issue paper
money. Can there be grosser usurpation than to
ground on these simple provisions which exist in
dozen insurance acts of the Legislature, and as IA
the deposit portion thereof in quite as many CON.
corning Savings Institutions the "undoubted
right" under the charter. "to issue the SIS and
SOS complained Off" The legerdemain by which
the Greensborough Mutual Life Insurance anil
Trust Company" became bank of deposit die
count and circulation without tax on its capit,,
while other banks were taxed-without a penalty
for failing to pay on demand, even in paper
while all other banks were subjected to penalty Of
twelve per cent. for not paying in gold and silver
without being required to report to the Legislature
of it's circulation even while all other banks are 70.
qured to make reports of both their specie and eli.
without individual liability for the redemn
ton of its issues, while all banks Chartered siuco
1888 arc made thus liable we say the legerdeman
by which this plain and simple machine was meta.
morphosed into bank of issue and circulation as
the Observer, representing the Bank of Fayetteville
in the most affectionate and patronzing manner adj
mts it to be, is really shallow that no one could
even have guessed it.
Some of our readers, perhaps, do not understand
the rationale. Well, it is simply this: When YOU
deposit five dollars, you entitled by the charter
to certificate for five dollars but instead of giving
you one certificate for five dollars, you arc supplied
with fre certificates of one dollar each; and in or.
der that the may never return, to poster HE com.
pany for redemption, they are dressed in holiday
clothes and sent out their travels to remote parts
where their good appearance may be passport to
yet more distant parts until they get lost in the
mazes of the world, and die far from home, I'M
wcpt." Now these are the sis and $2's complain
ed OF" which the Observer so patronizngly takes
under his care, and lays them alongside the SIS and
$2's of the Bank of Fayetteville, and over them
raises his small note song of lamentation
The Observer and Patriot are wonderfully hard to
convince that the issue of small notes is opposed to
the current and well settled opinion of the people of
have the testimony of fourteen Legislatures out of
fifteen, which have sat since $780, and there is no
one, unless perchance the Observer and Patriot who
affects to think-if even they do-that the Legisla
turc of the excepted year, 1913, intended to allow
the emission of small notes. The law of 1880, pro-
hibiting the circulation of small notes, has been in
force ever since its passage. The session of 1885,
Immediately preceding the charter of the Bank of
Fayetteville in lS4S added the fourth to the list of
banks in being, by chartering the Commercial Bank
of Wilmington, and provided expressly that "no
note shall be ISSUED by the Bank under the denom.
nation of three dollars" At the session of 1850 the
Legislature passed acts-rst to increase the capital
of the Bank of Cape Fear; second, TO charter the
Bank of Washington; third, to amend the charter
of the Commercial Bank of Wilmington; fourth, to
amend the act establishing the Bank of Fayetteville
fifth. to recharter the Merchants Bank of Newbern
and sixth, to charter the Bank of Wadesborough.-
In every one of these acts the provision is special
and emphatic, that no note shall be issued of less
denomination than So. And in that relating to the
Bank of Fayetteville just incorporated and barely in
operation it is enacted in rebuke of the embryo
sumption to issue small notes, that the said bank
may issue notes Of the denomination of three dol.
lars, but no notes shall be issued by the said bank
TOR u smaller sum tAan three dollars"
Such is the evidence of public opinion from 1880
to 1916 inclusive and such is the evidence of that
opinion in 1850. Let see what it vas in 1852:
At the session of this year there were chartered
first tho Bank of Charlotte; second, the Farmers
Bank; and third, the Bank of Yanceyville. In the
charters of all there is express prohibition Of the
issue OF notes for less sum than three dollars
How was it in 1854? At that session banks were
chartered as follows First, the Bank of Clarendon
second, the Bank of Cape Fear; third, the Bank of
the State of North Carolina fourth, the Bank Of
Wilmington and to increase the capital stock
OF the Commercial Bank of Wilmington. In all OF
these no issues allowed for less sum than three
dollars.
But there are legislative rebukes of the practice
Of issuing small notes by the Bank of Fayetteville,
and OF the assumption to issue circulating paper
medium by 1.-the Greensborough Mutual Life In
surance and Trust Company" which are no less
significant OF the uniform opinion of the Legislature
on the subject
In regard to the small notes issued by the former,
the assumption was ,rebnked in 1850, in the most
express terms, as has been already shown. Also'
by the resolution of 1854, (Which did not come from