The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1857-10-17

exempted from making similar sacrifices when i'm
PEELED by every obligation Of justice and equity
Oh but says the bank advocate, "Ths would dlmin-
sh their dividends and impair the value OF their
stocks. 1t would be unjust to the stockholders,
whose interests it is the first duty Of those who adj
minister the affairs of the bank to protect. -
We must take leave TO deny misrepresentation alto
gether. The first duty of bank directors and Off
GERS is not to their stockholders, but the public
The only pretext ever resorted to either by the
applicants OF the bestowers of bank charters has
been the public good and there is other justif-
cation for granting exclusive privileges to any cti-
gen. or class of citizens, than that it conduces to
this object Banks are not chartered for the benefit
of the stockholders, but the public and if at any
time their interests conflict with each other it is the
first and paramount duty of the bank officers to give
preference to the latter Is it not far better that
a few stockholders, who have taken the chances of
loss gain by their investments, should sustain
temporary loss of small per centage on the value
of their stock and the rate of their dividends than
that the public should be subjected to all the losses
and anxetes consequent the state of things they
have entailed on the whole people? We say, there
effort and resored to every honest expedent to meet
their engagements to the public instead of which,
they were frightened, pretended to be frighten-
ed before they were hurt Instead ofpayng out their
specie to the last dollar, and then shutting their
doors, they shut their doors beforehand and kept
what specie they had snug in their vaults. The
only alternative that here presents itself is this if
these suspending banks are really solvent, there is
no excuse for their not making every eortand every
sacrifice to preserve their faith with the public if
they were not solventf they had either wilfully
ignoranty plunged themselves in difficulties which
rendered suspension unavoidable-they neither de-
pity nor merit our forgiveness, and should
be brought to reckoning which would forever deter
others from initiating their example.
The people of the United States are of all others
the most jealous of their liberties. They would
spurn the idea of intrusting them to an irrespon-
sible President an irresponsible Congress, an IL
responsible State legislature. They demand to have
a voice in the choice of all those to whom their
rights and their welfare are intrusted. Yet they
have for half century past permitted their legisa
tors to delegate power which exercises greater
influence over the general prosperity and happiness
than all other functions of government combined to
q set Of bank directors and bank officers in
the choice of whom they have agency and over
whose actions they have control. They have
quiesced in the delegation of power, which their
legislatures were prohibited by the constitution from
exercising themselves to small portion of their fel-
low-citzens a power to monopolize that medium
through which all their wants supplied power
that may be exercised at discretion, without limit
control-for experience has proved it beyond the
reach of the law power to make rich
poor at pleasure to convert paupers into million
aires and mlonares into paupers by resolution of
board of directors power that can make money
plenty or scarce at pleasure, and gather a harvest
from both one and the other a power that affords
the means for the most boundess prodigality at
one moment, the next takes the very bread from
mouths; power whose tyrannical and capri
cious exercise subjects mankind to exigencies which
sorey try their integrity, and, by sudden changes
from prosperity to adversely, exposes them to temp
tatons beyond the common standard of human viz
tue to resist. 'N'@
We don't believe, though the people of the United
States everywhere-except in wise and brave little
Arkansas-have bowed their necks to this porten-
tous monster that if the question directly pre-
sented to them they would vote for continuance
liberation of this system. We are quite sure the
democracy the cultivators of the soil, the mechan
les and laborers of the country opposed to pa
per circulation in their hearts. They have had suf
cient experience of its consequences and have been
so often the victims of redundances, expansions
contractons reactions and revulsions, as to sicken
them with the entire system. But they have been
often seduced by false statements and false
ings into at least acquiescence. They have been
often misrepresented by their representatives and,
above all, they have suffered their principles to
yield to the imposing fallacy that what increases
the nominal price of agricultural products and
the wages of labor must necessarily be greatly
to their advantage 1t seems impossible to convince
them of what is as plain the on their faces,
that dollar may be worth in the way of barter at
one time as much as two at another and that its
value invariably depreciates in proportion to its null
tiplcation. Nothing but bitter experience (more
bitter than any they have yet encountered will con-
vince them that one good dollar is worth hundred
bad Ones and one industrious of more value to
his country than whole host of manufacturers of
what John Randolph used to call "shin-plasters."
But it is to be hoped they viii live and learn, like
other people that they will get over the specula