Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-06-26
From the Raleigh Sentinel

The Federal COurt-The Bank Case.
The Bank casa-Thomas Branch & Sons
of Petersburg, Va, VS. VIM. Grimes, Esq,
stockholder of the Bank OF Washington,
n. c., to which we alluded several days ago,
was not concluded until Tuesday. The
case was ably argued for the plaintiffs by
Messrs. D. M. Carter and Ed. Graham
Haywood, and by Gov. Bragg and W. S.
Mason, Esq, for the defence, from Friday
until Tuesday. Our engagements prevent
ed us from hearing the argument, but we
al ability. The case was submitted to the
jury by bis Honor, Judge Brooks, in a con-
else and perspicuous charge on the law and
the evidence on Tuesday. The jury re-
tired and in a short time returned with a
verdict in favor of the defendant. The
counsel for the plaintiffs presented excep-
tions to the ruling of the Judge, and the
case will probably go up to the Supreme
Court of the United States. It is a case
involving consequences in which large
number of persons in the State are deeply
interested, as there are understood to be
several others of similar character pend
ing Whatever may be the law, the equity of
the case will strike every person as being
on the side of the defendants.
Tending a period of strong excitement
against the Banks of this State year ago,
a clause was inserted in the charters of sew
eral of them by the Legislature, binding
the stockholders personally for the debts
not to be merited by any mismanagement
of the Banks, but prompted by the then
prevailing hostility to all Banks, was ac-
cepted by the stockholders of said Banks.
Our Banks were, for so many years, con-
Quoted with such skill and propriety, and
had become SO essential, as was generally
believed, to the business of the coun-
try, that much of the opposition to them
abated, their notes being generally equal
to specie, and those clauses in their char
ters came to be regarded as nullity, al
though the precedent was kept up in the
charters of some of the new Banks. But
for the unfortunate civil war, which, even
to this day Radicals will not admit is at an
end, no difficulty would probably have
ever occurred between the Banks and theil
bill holders. The late disastrous war de-
stroyed every Bank in the State, not be-
cause they were mismanaged by the stock
holders or officers, but partly, if not chiefly.
because Of the exigencies of its condition
and the general pecuniary calamities which
befel our entire people. Though every one
of them, We presume, at the close of the
war, held ample means in State and indi
vidual bonds to meet their entire indebted
ness, yet, when the State, in obedience tt
the President and the party in power
abolished slavery and repudiated her deb
incurred during the war, thus destroying
at least -fourths of the resourcesiof the
Banks upon which they relied for the
redemption of their notes, every Bank be
came insolvent. The suit above alluded te
is designed to test before the Courts thu
liability of the stockholders in said Banks
as to their personal responsibility to re
deem the outstanding notes of the Banks
or pay whatever liabilities existed agains
the Banks. -. -.r.... .sas1z5 se--e
No class of persons in this State hav
suffered more from the calamities of tn
war than the stockholders of the Banks =
Generally, they were shareholders, and