Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-10-23
COMMUNICATED.
OUR BANKING SYsTEM-DOES IT NEED RADI-
CAL AND THOROUGH REFORMATION?

OUR BANKING sYsTEM-DOES 1T NEED RADI-
CAL AND THOROUGH REFORMATION?
Whoever will examine the history of the Banking
System of the country, from the days of the revolu
ton to the present time, cannot but be impressed
with the conviction that there is something radically
defective in it. He will see that it is a system of
expansions and oontrsotions, at time initiating
prices, encouraging excessive importstiOns extra
( vagance, idleuess, wild and reckless speculation
which is rapidly succeeded by contraction, pro
ducing scarcity of the circulating medium, striugen
cy in the money market, mercantile failures, bank
'uptcy, suspension of specie payments by the Banks
decline in the price of all kinds Of property and
general distress throughout the land. That a
system that has been fraught with so little good
and so much evil to the great body of the people,
should still have its advocates amongst US, is to
those who deliberately investigate the subject, a
matter of profound establishment.
Old grey-headed men, whose memory runneth
| not back to the time when they first saw bank
uote seem to have grown up with the impression in
treir minds that Banks of issue were as indspenss
bly necessary to the ransacti1g of the business OF
the country and TO the comfort and convenience of
the people the vegetable productions of the earth
That there is getting along without them. They
| overlook the hundreds of millions of losses which
the honest and laboring classes of the community
have sustained by the total failure of Banks or the
partial depreciation of their paper in their hands
That shrewd and sagscious men, located in the
immediate vicinity of these Institutions, have not
been exempt frem the kind ofloss, and that all
classes of sOciety have been, are, and must con
nue. if the present system of Banking is continued
rferers by the periodical expansions and cOntrac
lions of these institutions which, in truth, may be
said to benefit nobody when honestly conducted,
except those who derive stated salaries therefrOm-
but injure all.
The system is wrong, because the theory on which
it is based-that bank may issue one two or three
dollars in paper, for each dollar of coin in her
vaults or that she may receive deposits to indie
Unite amount and loan them out on time, or even
payable on CALL andyet be prepared, at all times to
meet the demands that may be made on her, is
nothing but humbug. There IS no truth in it. The
history Of the country from the days Of the revou
tien to this time, prove its fallacy. We might as
we'll attempt to make two three or four of the same
size and dimensions, of one in ANYTHING else or
financial M
barrassment and pecuniary distress in psriods Of
contraction both in this country and in Europe, has
always been and will be in proportion to the prece
ding expansion, and the line of departure from the
true standard Of value-gold and silver
Those countries that have issued large amounts of
Bank notes Of all sizes and denominations have
suffered more than those that have confined them.
selves to small amounts and large notes. England
has more Bank notes, and of smaller denominations
than France, and commercial revulsions and hank.
ruptcies are more NUMEROUS, and more freouen, i,
The former than in the latter.
In banks of issue and bank notes we have run
ahead Of the world, and, in this respect have been
,<orse governed than any civilized people on the
globe.
1 may be asked then, are you opposed to all