Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-01-12


p Sir To insure the people a sound oir-
culation, appears to you, Mr.. President, to
oe lone of the highest and most RESPONSE
BILE duties of Government" the one, too,
requiring "the utmost possible wisdom and
SKILL" SO to adapt it to .'the wants OF in-
ternal trade and foreign exchanges" AS to
prevent fluctuations in the value of property,
such as the American historian is so fire.
quently called upon to record. "Un(ortu-
nateiy," however, in your estimation.
"under the construction of the Federal
Constitution, which has now prevailed too
long to be changed, this important and
delicate duty has been discovered from the
coming power, and virtually transferred to
more than fourteen hundred State banks.
acting independently of each other, and
regulating their paper issues almost exclu-
sively by regard to the present interest
of their stockholders .-t
Such being the unhappy results of our
Federal system, the central Government
cannot, as you say, edo much to provide
against a recurrence of existing evils"
Utterly powerless itself for good, while
surrounded by local governments all-pow-
erful for evil, all that it can do is TO '.rely
upon the patriotism and wisdom of the
States for the prevention and redress Of
the evil. If they" as you continue, twill
afford us a real specie basis for our paper
circulation by increasing the denomination
of bank notes, first to twenty, and after
ward to fifty dollars; if they will require
that the banks shall, at all times, keep on
hand at least one dollar in gold and silver
for every three dollars of their circulation
and deposits; and if they will provide, by
self-executing enactment, which nothing
can arrest, that the moment they suspend
they shall goi into liquidation, l believe that
such provisions, with weekly publication
by each bank of statement of its condi-
! ton, would go far to secure us against
future suspensions of specie payments"
That efforts will me made to do these
things is highly probable, but to what pur-
pose? None whatsoever The records Of
our State Legislatures, for the last twenty
years, present to view host of laws having;
for their object the production of state Of
things such as you here desire; aud yet,
on the first occasion, they are set aside..
and as unhesitatingly, by the same legis-
lative bodies, as has been the famous pro-
vision in the Charter Act of the Bank Of
England Why is this? Because the reg
ulalion of the currency, on this side of the
Atlantic, has been in the hands of men as
little capable of executing that "highest
and most responsible of the duties of gov
ernment," as Messrs. Overton ard Peel
are proved to have been on the other
The provision of the English law being.
ike those irpour own charlers--based upon
a fallacy, has now been twice suspended;
and suspended it must again be whenever
the time shall arrive that its services will
again be needed. So it is, and SO must IL
continue to be. with all similar provisions
in the charters of this country as longI rs
the action of the central Government shall
continue to be hostile to the establishment
of perfect currency; for there, and not
with the local institutions, lies tue diff
Guilty, rs you may rest assured,
Let it be supposed, however. that the
States continue To pursue their own course
doing, in the future. precisely as they
have done in the past-~creating banks d6
li6ituza. and not providing. effectively, for
carrying ont the plan that is here sug-
ges;ed. That they will not SO provide.
seems very evident. More than twenty
years since, one Of your predecessors de-
nounced banks and bank notes. in terms
as strong As those now used by you:
and since that time, their denunciation
has constituted an essential portion of
the creed Of the great Democratic party
that party Of which you, Sir, are the repre-
sentative; but, with no other effect, as yet,
than that of more than squadrupling tho
number of banking institutions-the 328
banks of 1880 being now represented by