Arkansas true Democrat., 1857-12-29
On Banks and Currency-A Valuable Let
 ter from Col. Benton.
 WAsHINGToN, c. STREET, Nov. 15. '57.

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 GENTLEMEN: Many papers, desrous of the | establishment of a National bank, are Guotinp what Gen. Jackson said in favor of such an in stltutlon at the beginning of his presidency. have to remind all such papers that what was so sad, was said before Gen. Jackson saw T prospect ot restoring the currency of the Consti- tutlon, and that, after he saw that prospect he said nothing more in favor of banks. National or State, but the contrary, and labored during the remainder Of his public life to preserve the hard money currency, which the founders of our CO., vernment had securel Gas they believed) for us. | The plan of that restoration and preservation consisted of five parts, namely, l. To revive the gold currency by correcting the erroneous standard of l791. 2. To create demand for hard money, by making 1t the exclusive curren- cy of the federal treasury 8. To make sure of this hard money by keeping it in its own treasu- res 4. To suppress all paper currency under twenty dollars by stamp duty. 5. To wind upall defaulting banks by bankrupt law against delinquens.
 The first three of these five parts were accom- pllshed and to these we are indebted for twenty years emption--from 1887 to l957-.from bank suspensions and depreciated currency; also. for carrying the country through a foreign war the MeNlcan-wlthout paper money. and with the public securities above par; also for havino m the country 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 are in- debted to the want of the two latter parts of the plan Tor what we now see; nearly two thousand banks Tn the country, great part of them frauds | rom the beginning, and the bad governing the | good; general suspension in season of peace and prosperity; people forced to use deprecated | paper when there IS more hard money in the country than its business could employ: men and women begging for work, and unable to ob- tam It, when the country needs all the work they can do, and has means to pay for it: fami- les crying for bread, when a bountiful Provi dence has gwen the most exuberant crops that | ever were seen; the business of twenty if ve mil lions ot people deranged, disordered and thrown out of Jolnt; and all this the work of the base part of the banks falling down of themselves TOT want or 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, Wheie those who cannot sWim drag down those who can. stamp duty on their notes and a bankrupt process against themselves, would have saved the country from the calamities it now endlreS; for many of the base order of banks would have been unable to MAKE CUR. | RENCY Tor want of money to pay for stamps on thelr notes, and others would have been proncr subjects Tor the bankrupt process in the first few days of ther existence.
 The restoration of the gold currency was ef feet ed under Gen. ,Jackson's administration. inc establishment of the hard money currency for the federal government, and the kccpinc of its own money in it's own treasuries. was accom-. plIshed under Mr. Van Buren, both of which presidents took the full responsibility of recom meholh9 these three measures, and also tho two others-the two for the imposition of stamn duty on all paper money under twenty dollars. and for bankrupt act against defautinp banks Bills were repeatedly brought into Congress for both purposes, but were always defeated by the de'ection of the paper money wing of the de- mocratic party.
 The most plausible of the open obiections made against the stamp duty was in the expense and the extensive machinery for its collection. That was answered by providing a cheap and simple process for both purposes a 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 amount of the duty. and whether it should apply to all notes or only to those intended to be suppressed, were questions on which there was room for diversity of opn ! ion. The predominant opinion was that there should be duty upon all notes issued as a cur rencv Gor what more fit to be taxed than the moneyed powerO the duty being the same on all notes, and such 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 d se- cord time, so that the duty in England Is paid every time the bank puts out a note Not so in the United States. Iere a note is re- issued up- ' ic f bn. to hold together, or too filthy to be handled or too much defaced to be deciphered A small duty is therefore, sufficient in Great Britain: it would require very heavy one to be its eoui- vaent in the United States. Among the penal ties for violating the act, either by issuing re- ceiving, or passing the unstamped paper, should | be a disqualification to retain or receive d federal appointment; for the pursuit of office is so general at this time in our country, and so ardent, that, in anaving class so large, influential, and active against the unstamped notes, their crcu- lation would be effectually checl1mated
 The paper money wing of the democracy was still more against the bankrupt act against bank. rupt banks than against the stamp tax on notes; and acting with the habitual opponents of the party to which they protessed to belong, easily defeated all the bills. The open objection came from the lawyers, with their professional idea drawn chiefly from British statutes, that mer- chants and traders were the proper subjects of the bankrupt law although every late British statute on the subject includes banks, (the bank of England excepted;) and in single season of suspension Chat of 1913-'14-'15) nnetv-two of these banks had been subjected to commis- sions of bankruptcy. But this remedy was not of English but nf Roman origin as its name would show, ("bancus' and "r9ptas,''l and bankers were the original objects of the law, as the same name also shows. Broken Bench' is the English of the Latin name, and was so called because the bankers (money changers of tha. time, as now in the east) had their benches in public places, on which they sat and did busi- ness; and when any one became delinquent, or criminal, he was driven away and his bench was broken. And thus in its origin, bankruptcy was process against banks and ankerS, and still is in Great Britain; and hence retains it's original name of broken bench the bench 50 broken being the sign and warning to the public that the banker himself was insovent, and le, prived of his place of doing business.
 Banking in the United States is the most unrrstrained and unsafe that there is in the world; and unsafe ever for solid and well con ducted banks, there being enough of the unsolid and badly conducted to fall down of them selves every few years and to drag down the IeSt WItn them. ne laWS put lew restraints or penalties upon them; and these restraints and penalties are regularly repealed just as often as the community needs the benefit of them. It is by name in some places, and by fact in others, system of free banking" which the hard money democracy was accustomed to call. free swindling. Anybody becomes banker that pleases, and issues small notes and sends them off to distance to be circulated and lost. and to sink upon the heads of the laboring peo pie. favorite plan is to issue notes at any place, payable at another far of, out of the way, and difficult to be got at, so as to compel the holder to submit to shave. That mode of doing business was invented by Scotchman of Aberdeen in 1906; but he was in Great Britain. not in the United States; and the British Minis try and the British Parliament immediately took cognizance of the inventor and his inlita tors, and placed them all in the category of | swindlers, and so put an end to their operations