Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1859-01-05

will not be slow to bear his testimony. He gets
hatful and they will not amount to enough to pay
his way out of the State-he hurries to pay for his
supper and resume his seat in the cars and stops
perhaps by dim candle to sort out his bundle and
select the right one and after he has aboriously &C
complshed choice he is told that the bill is good
in the neighborhood of the bank but won't pass
there he is often puzzled to make out the bill ITSELF
tits ragged as Lazarus and dirty a beggars wal
let The poor thing has done its best-it occupies
as little room in the pocket as it well cam and keeps
as clean face and sound body as the case will
admit but it is sent errand for which it is not
suited; it passes from hand to hand every moment,
and every hand that touches it takes away a shred
or leaves daub. In the course of foreign travel
the small notes 60 so far and such rough roads,
that like many other travellers they never live to
return home or so lose their identity that they
not recognized when they present themselves
Send out now that for which the small note has
been working, and how different the result If
you are in the dark you can place your hand on it
and present it with confidence to your creditor; it
goes from day to day and from year to year, tossed
from hand to hand, from counter to till, and from
till to counter but it carries the same sound body,
cheerful look and bright face 1t lays snugly in the
purse or pocket and without folding or rolling,
spurns mere local value unlike dunghill paper
dollar that fights only in its own walk but pays
your way and smoothes your difficulties equally well
in Petersburg and Paris, London and China Tur-
key or New York; a rain will not reduce 1t to rag
spark to ashes, but after making the circuit of
the globe encounterng accidents by food 9nd field
visiting Turk, barbarian and Christian, it comes
back to the place set out from with the ring and
the same look with which it departed. The differ
ence is in the fact that wasdviney made, suited
by its physical constituents to the purposes Of mo-
uey, the other is the poor substitute of man.
10 prefer paper for small change is as if the far
80 4 A.,
soft white hand faced muscles and weak frame of
the curled, scented and fine dressed op, to the sur
dy energy and hardened strength of the man of
homespun, his cheek embrowned by toll and expo
sure and his form Injured to the wear and tear of
daily labor. The honest masses will never make
such selection, and they are right
IfMr Speaker, was legislating for banks, endeav-
orng to find means to swell their profits, would
say give them the privilege of issuing small notes;
but acting for the people and with no injustice to
the banks would cut off this source of profit forever
and forever.
1t has been said that if we restrict the issue of
small bills by our own banks. it will have only the
effect of making way for similar currency of other
States, and that while the people will suffer equal
loss, the gain will all go to foreign institutions.
Now sir, in the report made to the present Leg
slature by the bank of the State of South Carolina
the same argument is used against the law passed
there prohibiting the circulation of small notes after
1850; thus both seeking by the wrong doing in the
one to fortiy and perpetuate the wrong doing in the
other. But, sir, we are not called upon to expose
the error of such course of reasoning, for small
notes are already prohibited in Virginia and after
1860, will be in South Carolina, while Tennessee
by her system has brought such discredit on her
banks that they longer circulate their paper
amongst U.S. The time, then, is most suspicious for
reform-do not let us neglect it.
Mr. Spaalar fhora ora fuo facts which 7 xr;cb
gentlemen particularly to remember-one is, that it
has been estimated that from thirty to forty per cent
of the issue of small bills never return to the bank
for redemption torn and disfgured, the bank
is not required to redeem but sixty or seventy dol
lars of the hundred for which it has received value
You see, sir, at once how large source of profit
this must be- and how it is that banks are willing to
pay so large bonus for the privilege. The other
fact is that the circulation of small notes is confined
very much to the laborng and poorer classes of peo
pie The men who do days work and the men
who have but small balance over their yearly ex-
penses receive payment in small bills, while those
who handle their hundreds and thousands refuse
them because of the inconvenience of keeping and
counting them. Nine-tenths therefore of the small
bills will be found in the hands of the poorer classes
Banks break, the poor man loses his all Banks
suspend, he suffers by depreciation of their notes.
while all the time by steady law, independent of
prosperity or adversely, solvency insolvency. they
lose from 80 to 40 per cent by wear, tear and acct
dent There have been times when such q state
| ment would be expected to have but little weight
for the reason that the people supposed to be
created only to be heeced Their fate under each new
form of legislation we'll illustrated in France be-
fore the revolution by wood and copper cuts where
in appeared rustic convoking the poultry of his
barn-yard with this opening address: Dear ami
mails, have assembled you to advise me what sauce
l shall dress you with" But happily these times
are gone blythe people now power in the
State and sovereign power, and their represen-
tatives are here for the express purpose of seeing
that their interests are preserved. To you, then,
gentlemen of the House of Commons | appeal in
the name of the great body of your constituents and
appeal with confidence to pass this bill and secure
to the laboring man the laboring mans true cur
rency, which is capable like him of doing its work
well, and when periodical financial storms sweep
across the sky does not lose its value and leave him
when he most needs its aid to starve with a wallet
full but grows more and more valuable, for it buys
more and more of the necessities of life as the crisis
grows darker and more severe.
Such currency WILL too alleviate the severity of
| panic, for it will constitute metallic reserve
which will flow in to the relief of the Independent
banks, while the necessity Of furnishing gold and
silver for small change will act as a check in flush
times on the temptation to speculate which has
heretofore been too strong for our moneyed instu-
tons.
The experience of the generation which has near
ly passed away was dear bought; why require this
generation, with the burden of State debt increased
nearly tenfold, to pay for another dance of bank
shinplasters Let still continue to be guided by
the lessons of the past and we may expect to follow
after us the same popular approval which rewarded
those who quarter of century ago trod the same
path
HE SOUTH CAROLINA TAX Bill FOR ls59.-We
copy the following from the Columbia correspond
ence fthe Charleston Courier, of Monday:
The tax bill, or bill to raise supplies, was read o
second time in the House, last night. To meet ex
traordlnary expenses there has been an increase Of
thTty i've per centum on the general shares. The
following is the scale of taxation On lands 81 cents
ad oa1oren on every 800 of value according to the
existing classification on slaves 95 cents per head
on free negroes &C., between the ages of Is and 5(
years, s. u per head on city town and yiaee lots