Arkansas true Democrat., 1857-12-29

qulfed to be on hand, but it must be shown ana that continually, that it is there. This is accomplished by the publication of the quarter weekly average of the liabilities and assets of 'ne o,nks, from which the public can always see "i,em the bank has crossed the line of safety. r. r,o" olhereht th's from banking in the United o'"teS' where no proportioRable rate of specie ~ tue i'aDiiiueS Is even prescribed: and when iiVe, ten, hity, an hundred paper dollars for one hard one in the vault, is frequently issued.
 put one thlng was wanting to complete the lities ol our banking system to utter unwortb;- ness and that one thing has been discovered- It Is dlspensation of the specie basis Throuoh- out 'ne world, so tar as paper money is known, specie basis Is deemed necessary to an ins.itu. "'n "h'ch issues promises to pay specie. Not so m the United States. Paper upon paper has become the vogue with Us. Stocks, and the notes ol other banks, are the sandy" founda- are built VI" "''''N'
 do not expatate upon the evils of small paper money; they are palpable to every ob- o'cNef ana only require enumeration: l. It ufl'es away all hard money of equal denomina: 'io'ls' TOT, Tn competition between two curren- cieS the nearest Is always the conqueror and chaSes the other out of the field. 2. It is the SA the mass ot the counterfeits consist of small notes. 3. It demoralZes the community. for people, not being willing to lose note for which they have given value, instead of burnino if when rejected by knowing one as counterfeit. put It back in the pocket and offer it aoan to an ignorant person who receives it, and who goes through the same process when rejected in his hands, 4. Small notes make the panics and bring on the runs which break down good banks. TOT these small notes being in the hands of the | masses when they get alarmed, they assemble py thousands at the doors of the institution wnlch issued the notes, demand the money, oIeaN the banks, and propagate the alarm which chey themselves feel until 1t becomes general; loi nothih9 Is more contagious than a moneyed Pailic, nor anything more unmanageabe ,. It Piiia@es the poor and the ignorant; for every oase note' every one that is counterfeit, or on d oioheh oahR, or on bauk that never existed, aiehouSh II Wlll run for while, must stop some ""eie' ana, when It does, is sure to stop in'the h'tlluS ol the poor and uniformed upon that class least able to bear the loss, who hay no adVantage from banks while in operation, and who bear the loss when they stop. 6. It ex. cites to swlndling; for knaves, with nothing but orass Tor their capital and that in their faces in- stead of their coffers, are induced to set up manufactures ot small paper, to be sent abroad ana sunk upon the hands of those among whom It Is scattered; all that is so sunk being clear gains to the manufacturer. 7 It induces and even compelS people to be wasteful of their mo- hey; Tor such IS the natural, honest, and just coHtelhpt and distrust of small notes, that he or She 1hat receives one, hurries off to lay 1t out Tor something not needed, while piece of gold ol me same amount would be valued and cher iShed, and laid by and added to, until enough accumulated to make purch SC of something needed and useful. s. It subjects the payer to be cheated or worsted in change; loI, giving pa per Tn payment he must receive the change in other paper, and for this purpose, the meanest, most ragged, dirty, and worthless will always be picked out and showed upon him. In short, such are the evils, the crimes, the demoraliza- ton, and cheating of small paper money, that all natlonS except the United States, place it in the category of a criminal agent, and suppress it accordingly.
 IWenty-odd years ago, when we were labor ing to restore the constitutional currency of the government and the people, the ready objection, repeated by all the friends of paper money, was, that there was not gold and silver ill the world to carry on the business of the United States; and the ready answer to that objection was, that there was precisely enough, and that ex- actlv enough would come to the United States II We would only create demand for it by cor rectlng the gold standard, make it the govern ment currency, and suppressing small paper- Only a part of these things have been done, and there have flowed into the United States. or been obtained from our own mines, about four or i've mes as much gold as the business of the Uni States could employ. The supply has been nearly thousand millions of dollars. and the business of the United States would only employ about two hundred millions.- 1 his Is not guess work, but bottomed upon au- theutlc data; for the statistics of political econo- my show that nations can only use certain amounts of money, some more, some less, ac- cordlng to their pursuits. Thus, highly manufacturing country, where the employer needs money necessarily to carry on his busi- hess III tine purchase of raw materials, and the paymenS of operatives, and in the construction or repair of buildings and machinery, and where the operatives themselves need money daily for the support of their families, the quantity of money required Is far greater than in an agri- cultural and planting country where the farmer raises his own supplies, and has his crops and produce to pay large demands.
 And therefore, England, the foremost manu- tacturlns country, requires the greatest amount ot money; and has it, to- aot, about eleven dol lars head; and Russia, so largely agricultural, reqrires the least amount of money, and can employ but about four dollars a head So the United States, ln small part manufacturing and largely agrcultural and planting, would find her maximum demand for money somewhere halt way between the two--sav, eight dollars head; which, at the present amount of the N hite population, (say twenty five millions,l would 9lve two hundred millions as the national de- maId always remembering hat the great pay ments are made with crops and bills of exchange founded on the proceeds of industry. And thus It becomes proposition demonstrated that the United States, since the correction of the gold standard twenty-three years ago, have received supply of gold equal to four or five times the amount which the business operations of the people could employ. Of that amount the leading banks estimated two hundred and nine- ty millions to be remaining in the country at the commencement of the present panic; and since chat time more than twelve millions have arrived, and very little gone out; 50 that three hundred millions would be the present estimate of the amount of gold and silver in the country: being one hundred millions more than the busi- ness of the country would employ Three hundred millions Is exactly fifteen times as much as the United States possessed in the time of the late bank of the United States Twenty millions was the whole amount to that time, and that all in silver not particle of gold being then ln circulation. And it is exactly tkirty times as much as the whole Union possessed at the time of the termination of the first national bank; the whole supply being but ten millions, and that all silver
 Under the circumstances, $500, 100000 in gold in the country, peace, prosperity through out Europe and America great crops and good heath,) there was nothing in the state of the country to justify the suspension nor anything to justify ils continuance The only solution of such catastrophe is the obvious one, to aoit, the failure of bad banks and the consequent run which their failure made upon the good ones The insolvent pulled down the solven; and the legislature of several States have put all on an equality; but the solvent should repulse the as soclation. The living body should not be tied to the dead one. The solvent should recom mence their payments, and make visible the broad line between the sound and the rotten, which the Legislatures haya oovarad mn. ,nd