Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-12-03

This is not guess work, but bottomeG
upon authentic data; for the statistic.
of political economy show that nation!
can only use certain amounts of money
some more, some less, according to theil
pursuits. Thus, highly manufactur
ing country, where the employer need!
money necessarily to carry on his bu
siness in the purchase of raw materials
and the payment. of operatives, and il
the construction or repair of building!
and machinery, and where the opera
tives themselves need money daily fo
the support of their families, the quan
tfty of money required is far greater
than in an agricultural and planting
country, where the farmer raises his
own supplies, and has his crops and pro
duee to pay large demands. And there
fore England, the foremost manufactu
ring country, requires the greatest a
mount of money, and has it, to wit
about S11 q head; and Russia, SO large
ly agricultural, requires the least amour
efimoney, and can employ but about 81
a head. So the United States, in small
part manufacturing and largely agrieul.
tural and planting, would find her max
imum demand for money somewhere
half between the two-say, eight dollars
head which, at the present amount
of the white population, (say twenty five
millions would give two hundred mil
lions as the national, demand; always re-
membering that the great payments are
made with crops and bills of exchange
founded on the proceeds Of industry
And thus it becomes proposition de-
monstrated that the United States, since
the correction of the gold standard
twenty-three years ago. have received
a supply of gold 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 ninety millions to be re-
naming in the country at the com
mencement of the present panic; and
since that time more than twelve mil
lions have arrived, and very little gone
out; SO that three hundred millions
would be the present estimate of the
amount of gold and silver in the coun-
try-being one hundred millions more
than the business of the country would
employ. Three hundred millions is .ex
actly fifteen times as much as the Uni
ted States possessed in the time of the
late Bank of the United States. Twen-
ty millions was the whole amount at the
time, and that all in. silver--not a par
ticle of gold being then in circulation
And it is exactly thirty times as much
as the whole Union possessed at the time
of the termination of the first National
Bank-the whole supply being then but
ten millions, and that all silver
Under these circumstances, $780,
100000 of gold in the country, peace
and prosperity throughout Europe and
America, great crops and good health, }
there was nothing in the state of the
country to justify the suspension, nor
anything to justify its continuance-
The only solution Of such a catastrophe
is the obvious one, to wit the failure
of bad banks, and the consequent run
which their failure made upon the good
ones. The insolvent pulled down their
solvent; and the Legislatures of several
States have put all on an equality; but
the solvent should repulsc the associa-
ton. The living body should not be
tied to the dead one. The solvent
should reconlmence their payments, and
make visible the broad line between the
sound and the rotten, which the Legis-
lature have covered up; and public SEN
timcnt would then soon dispose of the
latter, in spite of legislative Indulgence
The solvent banks can and will re-
sumo. and that will satisfy those who do
not look beyond the evil of the day, but
to those who look ahead and see new
evils in the perspective, and to the leg
islative power whose duty it is to pro-
vide against evils before they happen,
something more will be seen to be nee
essary. \ recurrence of such calami-
ties, in the view Of all such, should be
guarded against, and that can be effec-
tually done by two acts of Federal leg
islation-a stamp duty OIL, paper cur
rency, and bankrupt law against bank
rupt banks.
There is not monarch in Europe
who would treat his subjects, or suffer
them to be treated, as the people of the
United States are treated by the base
part of their own banks, and the indul-
gent Legislatures which legalize their
violations of law, promises and con-
tracts. The issue CT currency and its
regulation Is an attribute OF sovereign
ty, and everywhere is exercised by the
sovereign power, except in the United
States. Here, also, it was intended to
be an attribute of sovereignty, and was
placed in the hands of Congress, and
limited to the issue of gold and silver
and the regulation of its value For
our present Government was formed by
hard money men, who had seen and felt
the disastrous and dem oralizing effect of
paper money, and were anxious to save
their posterity from such calamities as
they had suffered. They did their part
to save US. Shall we be false to our
selves and them? Respectfully,
THOMAS 81. BENTON.
ng This is crate prospect; as the
prisoner said in peeping out of his cell