Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1858-02-05
The New Bank Law.
AN ACT.

AN ACT,
TO enforce the Resumption of Specie Payment
by the Suspended Banks to offer to their
acceptance certain amendments to their
Charter, and for other purposes.
SECTION 1. Be Il enacted By the General
Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That it
it shall be, and is hereby made, the duty
of the several banks in this State, which
have suspended specie payment, to resume
the payment of specie ON all notes issued
by them, on or before the first day of No
vember, 1858; and from and after the first
day of July, 1858, no such bank in this
State shall issue, emit, pay out or circulate
any note of less denomination than five
dollars and from and after the first day
of January, 1859, no note of less denom-
nation than ten dollars and from and
after the passage of this Act, no bank,
agent, person, or corporation licensed or
chartered to do banking or brokerage
business in this State, shall be permitted
to pay out for circulation the note of any
corporation or association of individuals
which has not been chartered by the State
of Tennessee violation Of this provision
shall be a misdemeanor, and any person
or corporation as aforesaid convicted there
of, shall be fined not less than five hun
dred dollars, and not more than two
thousand dollars nor shall any bank pay
out the notes of any bank chartered by
this State, except its own or branches, and
then only as provided in the 9TH section
of this act; and no bank in this State,
shall directly, or indirectly, sell or dispose
of gold or silver, or sell or dispose of the
notes of any bank whatever, for any pre-
MUM or discount whatever and it is
hereby expressly declared, that the traffic
or trade in the legal currency, or in un-
current bank notes, is not a privilege in
tended to be, or granted to the banks by
their charters. No bank in this State shall
pay over any dividends or profits to any
.tockholders or owners Of stock, during
the time of suspension of specie payments
except the profits arising form the Bank
of Tennessee, or the dividends to which
the State is entitled from the stock owned
by it in the Union and Planters Banks,
which are to be paid to the State as d.
rected, by existing laws. No bank shall
hereafter pay interest, or any considera-
ton whatever, for money of any kind,
deposited with them, whether such money
be in gold or silver, bank notes or paper
currency of any kind. No bank in this
State, while suspended, or failing to re-
deem its notes in gold and silver, shall be
permitted by itself its officers or agents to
sell exchange upon any place in the U. S.
for higher premium than two per cent
SEC. 2. Be Il further enacted, That any
bank in this State which has suspended
specie payment of its notes, be and is here.
by required TO fl, its acceptance in writ
ing, with the Comptroller of the State, to
the several limitations and provisions con-
tanned in the first section of this act, with
in forty days from the time of its passage,
as an amendment to, and part and par
eel Of its charter. On the failure Of such
bank, last aforesaid, to file its acceptance
of the provisions ofthe first section of this
act, as an amendment to its charter, within
the time above prescribed, the Attorney
General of the Judicial Circuit, in which
said bank is located, on being notified Of
the non acceptance by it of the provisions
of the first section of this act, shall pro-
coed, in the name of the State, and at her
suit, to institute all legal and proper steps
to have ruch non -accepting banks char
ter pronounced forfeited and annulled, for
violation Of its charter by suspension of
specie payment, or other cause or causes,
and its affairs wound up as in such cases is
prescribed by law. 1t shall be the duty
of the Comptroller to inform the Attorney
General of any acceptance. Any
bank accepting the provisions of the first
section of this act, as an amendment to its
charter, and after such acceptance failing to
comply with such provisions, such failure
shall be and is declared cause of forfeiture
of charter. All contracts made by it after
the time when it shall have failed to COM