Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-10-02
as a decox to divert attention from the great

as decoy to divert attention from the great
questions and principles which are involved,
one thing is most certain: the grossest
Misrepresentation or ignorance of the laws of
trade and currency, as developed by ex-
perience, prevails among those who are lead
ing and instigating the crusade. The Pres
dent. in Arranging the banks as the sole
cause of the late revulsion. would seem TO be
ignorant of the fact that commercial and
monetary revulson NAV occur from oyertratl-
ing in communities in which the currency is
altogether metallic. If any nation or people
whose currency is composed exclusively OF
gold and silver, buy more from foreign
nation or people than they can pay for i'll the
ordinary products Of their own industry. the
balance must be paid in the precious metals;
and if this unequal trade continues for any
length of time. the currency or circulating
medium falls below the amount necessary to
a healthy state of commerce and exchanges
and then prices fall, credit is impaired, and
| trade comes TO a stand just as certainly as
/ though the currency had consisted chiefly Of
bank notes.
If the President is really not ignorant that
the late Revision may have proceeded mainly
from other causes than the excess of bank
| issues and discounts, why does he urge the
war against banks and paper circulation
with such earnestness? The impression
produced upon the common mind. by his
views as expressed in his annual message up
on this subject, is. that if we had no banks OF
issue-no bank-note circulation-if we had a
gold and silver, hard-money currency, we
should never hear of any more commercial
revuls ons, bankruptcies private distress, OF
the stoppage of individual enterprise.
/ see, sir. that the President, in all that he
has said upon this subject, has allowed his
Judgment to be quite too much biased by the
known prejudices which, from various causes
exist in the minds of large portion Of the
people of this country against all banks and
bank paper, and the instructive preference OF
the masses for gold and silver over their re-
preventative value in paper. A late eminent
citizen, long member OF this body, made a
gold and silver or hard-money Government
his hobby. as we all know. That distinguish
ed gentleman did more to prejudice large
class of the people against banks and bank
notes. and to fasten conviction upon their
minds that their interest would be best promo
ted by currency exclusively of gold and
silver, by a single but very simple PROPOSE
ton. and his peculiar mode of illustrating it,
than all the elaborate speeches made upon
the subject in either House of Congress, His
proposition was. that every paper dollar in
circulation expelled gold or silver dollar,
and so of hank noIe OF any greater denOmi-
nation. If kept out of circulation its equiv
alent amount Of gold or silver. To be salts
fed that gold or silver coin was more val
liable than a bank note of equivalent nOmi-
nal value, however good the credit of the
bank which issued it. any man had only to
ask himself when called upon to pay debt
and his money on hand consisted in part of
gold and silver coin and in part of bank notes,
which he would pay out-the hard money
or the paper-the currency which is imper-
ishable or that which is perishablc. This
simple interrogatOry was enough to set
tie the question with all who were not engag-
ed in trade, or who had not leisure to study
the question a science The fallacy of the
argument as one intended to show that all
banks and bank paper ought to be dispensed
with. lay too deep for detection by an ordi-
nary inquirer.
There are some important truths or doc
trineS connected with the subjects of which
the President and those who sustain his views
would seem ignorant, or behind the age.
From the time of Adam Smith it has been adj
mittcd by writers upon political economy
that bsnk notes, or a paper circulation found
ed upon such securities us insure their CONVEX
tibilty into gold and silver on demand, are
of equal value in all respects to gold and slv-
er. A not less important fact. which appears
to be ignored 10y the President is the supe-
rior advantages and convenience, in some re-
spccts, of paper currency, or circulation
convertible into gold or silver. A sound
paper circulation has not only the advantage
of cheapncsS and convenience, las medium of
exchange, but to the extent that it takes the
place of gold and silver that would otherwise
be required to be kept in circulation in any
community or country as a medium of ex-
change. it adds to the floating or unfxed CAPT
tai of the country. The gold and silver dol
lar released or expelled from circulation by a
paper dollar, being no longer required as a
medium of eXchange-in which employment
il could not increase, but, on the contrary
daily lose by observation-disclosures part of the
active and productive capital of the country
and adds its due proportion of increase to It's
wealth.
If. therefore, the President and those who
support his policicy should succeed in putting
down all banks of issue, and provide no other
paper circulation OF equal value, it car be
demonstrated that 500, 900 900 at least would
be withdrawn from the present productive
capital of the country, without any equiva-
lent benefit.
But. after all, cannot suppose that the
President is so profoundly ignorant of these
laws of currency and trade as his policy in
making war upon the banks and pandering TO
the popular prejudice against paper money
would seem to indicate. When he assumes
that the present monetary and commercial
condition of the country is to be accounted
for by the excessive issues of bank notes, the
eXtravagant expansion of bank credits and
discounts. and suggests no other remedy for
these evils except to subject the banks TO the
penalties of bankrupt law, he must suppos-
ed in charity to him as an intelligent gentle
man, to be controlled by some higher law, by
| more imperative obligations in his present
position than any which the true interests OF
the country would dictate or prescribe. How
is il that he makes no reference in his mes
sage to any practical remedy for the evils OF
a deranged currencyl Because he is forbid
den by the creed of the party which brought
him into power. / do not wish to speak OF
this subject if it could be avoided, in refer
ence to parties at all; but we know that a
large amount of the political capital of the
Democratic party, and which they have WELD
ed with great effect for the last quarter of a
century, is founded in opposition to United
States Bank. 1t has been SYSTEMATICALLY par
AIDED every four years in their platforms-Op-
position. unrelenting opposition To a United
States Bank Look at the Baltimore and
Cincinnati platforms, and every preceding
platform from the time of General Jackson
and you will find that opposition to United
States Bank is prominent article in the
creed Of that party; and yet. in the last tif-
teen years, at least, nobody, Wing or Ameri-
can, has proposed the establishment of a
United States Bank. 1t has for twenty years
been held up as IA monster, raw-head and
bloody-bones to brighten the weak and timid
1t answers the same invaluable purpose to the
Democratic party that for half century or
more the Pretender did to corrupt Ministry
of the British Crown. 1t was only necessary
in Protestant England to get up some alarm
about the Pretender and Popery to silence all
opposition To the Cabinet Ministers or to the
policy of the reigning dynasty.
The President is forbidden by his political
creed 10 recommend United States Bank;
yet the organs Of British sentiment, as have
shown by the extract read from leading
British journal, while they agree with the
President in assigning our ill-regulated bank
system a. the sole cause OF the late Revision,
which they have particular reasons for doing,
admonish him that the evil can only be cor
rected by some regulator in the nature of a