Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-02-02
Bradford geporter.
Towanda, Thursday, February 2, 1865.


out some of the more prominent advan-
tages which the National have over the
State banks, and since, some others have
occurred to us, no less striking, nor less
important One of these is, the unequal
values attached to the notes of the Banks
of the different States, in different local
tiles For instance, the notes Of the Penn
sylvania banks have always been held at
high rate of discount, by the banks, and the
business community of the State of New
York. This depreciation of our bank pa
per is just what the prejudice, the ignor-
ance, and caprice of the people of our sister
state, chose to make it, Their bank paper
is not whit better than ours, yet they see
proper to make difference against us, and
our people have lost largely by means of
this. That too, which is true of these two
contiguous states, is equally true of most
others, and is one of the results growing
out of the practice of allowing each state
to create its own money. Since this sys-
TEN was inaugurated, one has not been able
to travel to distant parts of the country,
without loss No bank has been suffici-
emily known, or rtrusted-save the old United
States Bank, in her palmiest days-to war
rant the passage of her notes currently, IN
all parts of the country and among trav-
cling people, such as ours are, this has been
both a loss, and an Inconvenience. With
the National banks this will, i'll great
measure, be obviated. The manner of their
organization, and the securities on which
they are based, are known to all, which
will tend greatly towards giving them
character, and credence in every part OF
the land The chief reason usually assigned
for refusing paper, from remote localities,
is, that nothing is known Of it. This can
not be said of the National banks. But the
most serious objection to the plan OF allow
ing the different states to create money,
grows out of the fact, that it makes the
currency independent of the general gov
ernment and places it beyond its control
and this gives rise to great difficulties in
times like the present. When the colonies
formed the confederation for the purpose of
resisting the encroachments of England,
they refused to yield the power to make
money, Massachusetts and Maryland hav-
ing already issued coin; but the trouble
which ensued during the war, in conse-
quence of the inability of the Continental
Congress to borrow, and to coin money, ex-
posed this as great weakness and in the
formation of the Constitution, it was the
intention of the leading men of that body,
to remove this difficulty The States Right
men of the South, however, have always
clung to it. The right to charter banks has
been held as one of the reserved rights, and
the extensive practice upon this theory
which has been going on in all the States,
has strengthened this claim Aside from
the injurious effects produced by withhold
ing from Congress the control of the finan-
ces, during the Revolutionary war, it has
so happened, in every serious war we have
had, that the State Banks suspended specie
payments, thereby inficting on the people,
and on the government heavy losses. For,
so soon as specie payments were stopped,
the banks procured its legalization. Then
the country was flooded with paper, and as
it increased, it deprecated. The invariable
result of this was, that all commodities
70 opl +lrao Tho
head orators, and writer's, have contended
throughout this war, that the present high
rates of products, was caused by the issue
of government money but this is far from
the truth. Why did we have, during the
bank suspension Of 1888 and 40, as high
prices as at present, when the general gov
ernment paid all its liabilities in specie
So that federal office-holders had gold, and
the people about a worthless a batch of
rags as were ever used for money. On the
contrary, if the government had issued no
we would have had a much worse
currency, and higher prices for commodities.
If time and space permitted, we could dem
onstrate this by showing the circulation and
discount statements Of the banks, both Of
which tend to initiation An effort was
made some time ago, by New York pa
per, to refute this, by showing that the cir
culation of the banks of that state had fall
len off instead of increased but this wri-
ter left out two considerations which ma
terially change the aspect of the question.
One is, that the notes of the New York
banks, which have mainly constituted the
the currency of the Northwestern states,
have all been driven out by force Of public
opinion, and the government money substi-
tuted By this probably not less than ten
millions of the circulation was sent home
The other is, that he did not take into the
account the discount item, which exhibits
large increase, and this initiates just as
much as circulation. Besides, the city
banks do not use their own paper, but that
of the country banks for discounting, for it
is cheaper and safer, thus stimulating each
other to feed upon the public confidence
RS- Late Richmond papers contain an
official diSDacb from Cen Hardop STATING