Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-12-03
Thomas H Benton OM the FL.
mancial Crisis Sub Treasury
Gold and Silver Currency-Ex-
else Tax on Bank paper-SmalI
nOtes-ban1ru K rupt In Vsfor banks.

, mancial Crisis Sub Treasury
Gold and Silver Currency-Ex
!, else Tax ON Bank paper-Smal
! rupt In Wsfer banks
-'li;- wAsH1NoroS, c. street. Nov. Is. 1857
To the Editors Of the Natiorai Fnttlz:gencer:
GENTLEMEN-Newspapers, desirou
of the establishment of a National Bank
are quoting what General Jackson sale
in favor Of such an institution at tn,
, beginning of his Presidenck I hav,
to remind all such papers that what wa.
so said was said before General Jackson
saw a prospect of restoring the curren
, cy of the Constitution, and that after he
saw that prospect he said pqthing. more
! in favor Of banks, National tabss b,aa
tbs.copkrarE sslaAofet duiinr the re-
Il d ihder Of hisspublic life to restore and
4 preserve the hard money currency which
the founders of our Government had
secured Gas they -believed) for us. The
plan of that restoration and prescrva-
ltio4 consisted of five parts, namely :: I
70 revive the gold currency by correct
ing the erroneou: standard of 179I.t. O.
I To create demand for hard money by
making it theiexclusiye currency of the
Federal Treasury. 3. To make sure of
this. hard money by keeping it in its own
treasures. 4. To suppress all paper
currency under $50 by stamp duty
5. To wind up all defaulting banks by
a bankrupt law against delinqdents.
., The first three of these five parts were
accomplished, and to these we are in
debted for twenty years exemption
from 1887 to 1957-from bank suspen-
sions and deprecated currency; also for
carrying the country through foreign
war-the Mexican War-without paper
money, and with the public securities
above par; also for having in the coun-
| try at this time full fifteen times as
much. hard money as We had in the time
of. the late Bank of the United States;
and we arc indebted to the wants of the
two latter parts of the plan for what we
now see /: Nearly two thousand banks
in the country, a, great part of them
frauds from the beginning, and the bad
governing the good; general susper-
sion, in season of peace and prosperi-
ty; people forced to use deprecated pa
per when there is more hard money in
the country than its business could en-
ploy; men and women begging for work
and unable to obtain it, when the coun-
try needs all the work they can do and
has the means to pay fo5sit; families
crying for bread when bouutiful Pro-
violence has given the most exuberant
crops that ever were seen; the business
of twenty-five millions of people de-
ranged, disordcrcd and thrown out of
Joint And all this the work of the
base part of the banks, falling down of
themselves for want of foundations, and
dragging the solid ones after them. For
it is, in this case of bank suspensions,
as it is with ship sinking at sea, where
those who cannot swim drag down those
who can. A stamp duty on their notes,
and bankrupt process against them
selves, would have saved the country
from the calahnities it now endures; for
many Of the base order Of banks would
have been unable to ''make currency"
for want of money to pay for stamps on
their notes, and others would have been
proper subjects for the bankrupt process
in the first few days of their existence.
The restoration of the gold currency
was effected under General Jackson's
administration; the establishment of the
hard money currency for the Federal
Government and the keeping of its own
treasures were accomplished under Mr.
took the full responsibility of recon-
men ding these three measures and also
the two others, the two for the imposi-
ton of stamp duty on all paper money
under twenty dollars, and for a bank
rupt act against defaulting banks. Bills
were repeatedly brought. into Congress
for both purposes, but were always de-
feated by the detection of the paper mo-
ncy wing of the Democratic party.
The most plausible of the open OBJ
jcctions make against the stamp duty
was in the expense and the extensive
machinery for its collection. That was
answered by providing cheap and
simple process for both purposes
clerk in the Treasury Department for a
superintendent of the business, and the
clerks of the Federal Courts to deliver
out the stamps which they receive from
the Treasury. The am cunt of the duty.
and whether it should apply to all notes
or only those to be suppressed, were
questions on which there was room for
some diversity of opinion. The pre-
dominant opinion was, that there should
be duty upon all notes issued as cur
rency, (for what more fit to be taxed
than the moneyed power Z? the duty be-
ing the same on all notes. and such as
the large ones could easily carry and
the small ones not. The amount of the
duty was held necessary to be large
far greater than in Great Britain; for
there no note is reissued; no one goes
out of the bank second time, so that
the duty in England is paid every time
the bank puts out note. Not SO in
the United States. Here note is re-
issued until it is worn out-until it has
become too ragged to hold together, or
too filthy to be handled, or too defaced
to be deciphered A small duty is,
therefore, sufficient in Great Britain; it
would require very heavy one to be
its equivalent in the United States
Among the penalties for violating the
act, either by issuing, receiving or pas
ing the unstamped paper, should be
disqualification to retain or receive
Federal appointment; for the pursuit of
office ia so general at this time in oHr