Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1859-07-17
The DownfsIl Of Corporate monepolIes
-sm in New York.

law, and out Of abundant caution 1t declared on its
face thatit sbouIa be subject to repeal. The oon-
stitation of 1921, then in f,rcs required vote of
tWo-thirls of each House to pasI any law creating
a corporation. This bill did not pass by that vote,
and its constitutional validity was therefore contest
ed before the judiciary lie the oass Of BoLASDER
! the Bank OF Commerce. In 1910 it was decided by
the highest Court in the State that tae assOcia-
tons" formed under the Law we're not bodies polite
and corpOrpOrate within the meaning of the cOnsi
+! tiOn and tao Law was therefore sustained. Il was
considered, says Chancellor KEsT. (vol. 2, page
272) that the spirit and meaning of tie restrictive
clause in the constitution 10 guard against the
increase of joint stock corporations for banking and
other purposes CT radsand profit TO the corpOrstOrs
with exclusive privileges not enjoyed by the citizens
at large; that though these banking associations
had many of the attributes of corporations they did
not come within tn, legal Interpretation of the
constitution, still less within its spirit and design
The statute conferred the power of Free Banking,
and did not create any monopoly nor secure TO any
association privileges which might not be enjoyed
in the sans manner by all others, place them
beyond the entire control of the Legislature"
These associations if Corporations we're subjeetto the
I CcfeP-
ratops subject tOrspeal After years trial Of this
system, the constitution in 1916 declared that no
special bank charter should ever be enacted in New
York, thst all laws creating corporations assOci
ations for that purpose any other purpose should
be repealable; that State, after fuH trial of
eight years. put down special charters, vested rights
and mOnOpOlies Caa any other evidence, be It that
of Mr.. FILLMORE or Mr.. Governor MORGAN, or Mr..
Any-bodyelse, be conclusive Of its superiority
to the old exploded pint stock system of monopoly?
The next great feature in this system is its sbo-
ton of the principle of monopoly 1t is one of the
plainest maxims of political economy and of re-
publican principle, that the right to make paper
circulation ought tobs suppressed, Oregon, Csli
fornia, Texas Mississippi and Arkansas have DONE in
accordance with the views of WASHINGTON, JEFTER-
SON, and JACKSON, or it ought on some terms to be
granted TO all; the right TO keep money, to buy and
sell bills of exchange and to issue or loan cut
gotiable prOmssOry notes is a right, as General
JACKSON says in his Veto Message not originally
derived from the laws, but is pursuit like mixing,
manufacturing or any other pursit; and it is well
settled law that the right to pursue this occupation
ia Of The common Law rights of every citizen till
prohibited Ses JohnSos, Gu. r.; IL Hamp6rsys.)
It should be, therefore, granted to all, prohibited
to all. Il should not be monopolized by some one
or two thousand citizens. There is no more reason
that one or two thousand citizens should have the
sole right to keep money buy and sell bills of
change, and issue negotiable notes pursuit than
there is that or two chartered companies should
have the sole right to navigate the Cumberland
river, or manufacture iron or open ware houses fer
buying and selling the produce of other people. 1t
is evident that it should bs Put under the opera
ton Of general Law, open to all nome Il will
thus allow of the employment of capital whenever
the owners of that capitol choose TO employ it.
1t will create composition in loans, and tend to the
accommodation of the mass Of the people who wish
to have money kept for them, who wish to buy or
sell exchange, and who wish to invest or borrow
capital.
1t is equally evident from The past experience of
the country that if banks are authorised to lie es-
tablished with capital of $685. with the right
to issue notes as Low as five dollars, without any
obligation keep specie the State will at times
with banks created on borrowed capital, and by the
merest sharpers and adveniurers, without principle,
without capital, and without skill or training in the
business and that inevitably the currency will be
deprecated by excess, and the country involved in
the greatest difficulties sooner or later. by the ex-
pulsiOn Of hs whole of the specie from circulation
So the Legislature may declare that there shall
] be no bank under six millions of capital, that it
should issue 10 note under fifty dollars, that it
should deposit securities to the whole amour. of
its capital stock, and that the stockholders sh1ud
/ be liable for the redemption of its notes to the
| extent of their respective shares, and that il
should keep one-lhird of its deposits and of its
circulation in gold and silver and if there should
be any bank at all it would be monster engine
chiefly in the hands of eastern stockholders, who
subjec: the interests of trade and the dealings of
the people of the State to their own interest So
if the Legislature should say that there should be
no bank in the State IN Ter 100000 based on ipdi-
vidua responsibility and public securilies note
under $50, end that it should hold on hand $780,
900 in specie when there should be $500 600 in
circulation and deposits in their hands the Louis
lana Banks are required to have and that they
should make weekly reports to to the
amount of their circulation, deposits, and specie,
as the Banks Of New York and the Bank Of
England are required TO do, enforced by super
intendent and penal law, and subject to the
control of the Legislature by general law, as in
New York, Massachusetts,, Ohio, Michigan AMI 9th
err States, the system will be the best that has
ever existed in this Safe auy where else. It is
evident to all men of sense that tie system can be
made the worst or it be made the best Of al 9TH
1t can smadeso hard a. to put down all blnks of
circulation or it can be made loose as 10 fill the
lard with shin plaslers aud swindlers. Suppose
they were to authorize the issuance of penny notes,
issued by baaks with $4,000 capital; what would
be the result? Something worse than fifty thou
sand dollar banks with 81 notes, but not much.
Ohio will, on the other hand, by her general law,
admit no Bank in the State with a capital of moro
than $500 OOO Oprevent the injurious influences of
aggregated wealth and power in the hands of few
men.
If the privileges now conferred on the Union
and Planters Banks, and the other Stock Banks be
sae right and proper for those Banks, and for the
people of the State of Tennessee there is prin-
cple of political economy or of republican equIli-
ty which justifes o grant of monopoly of these
privileges to the stockholders of these institu-
tions. If it be right, and just, and proper, that
such privileges bs granted, general Law ought to
authorize other capitalists to organize Banks on
precisely the same terms, and as many of them as