evil the federal constitution was formed to cure, and is an evil of such magnitude as undoes all our American advantages. * * More complex, stupendous and perplexing abuse was never organised as government than that which now oppresses this free and thinking nation. Bank excesses have saddled us with stationary stock debts estimated at more than a hundred millions of dollars, and a floating commercial debt exceeding sixty millions, all to foreigners; besides incalculable debts among ourselves. The same excesses, by before-mentioned action on imposts, have encumbered the federal government with an unheard-of surplus of revenue, which it has attempted to get rid of by distribution among the States. But most of it, if not all, lies dead in banks, not one of which can pay it to the State entitled to it in good money. But for a strong and much abused exercise of Executive power the public domain would also be, most of it, transmuted into mere bank credits credits of banks who neither will nor can pay even the coin left in deposit with them. With more than gold and silver enough for affluent circulation, scarce a dollar is to be seen, and paper is undergoing rapid depreciation. Extract from General Hamilton's Letter to Mr. N. Biddle, WHAT We may do this year in redeeming our country from this stupifying lethargy may become impossible the next, until we have fixed upon us one of the greatest curses that can scourge a civilized communityan inconvertible paper currency. When this evil comes in its full potency, and paper is rejected universally as a legal tender by private creditors, as well as that great public creditor, the Government, and the sheriff will take nothing but coin for his levies, then revolution and bloodshed are not long in the rear. It is in a period like this that the great authority to which I have before referred says, "That a man can neither earn nor buy a dinner without speculation. What he receives in the morning will not have the same value at night. What he is compelled to take as pay for an old debt, will not be received as the same when he comes to pay a debt contracted by himself; nor will it be the same when, by prompt payment, he would avoid contracting any debt at all. Industry must wither away; economy must be driven from your country; careful provision will have no existence. Who will labour without knowing the amount of his pay? Who will study to increase what none can estimate? Who will accumulate when he does not know the value of what he saves?" Extracts from an Address to the People of Pennsylvania, by a Democratic Convention, assembled to consider the State of Affairs in 1837. I. THE present condition of the United States, in reference to the currency, and all branches of business that are intimately connected with, and depending upon it, is written in characters too plain and vivid to need much illustration from us. In Pennsylvania especially it is deeply engraved on every foot of our soil. If we turn to the deserted streets of our cities, it is proclaimed in language not to be misunderstood. If we traverse our canals and railroads, we find the " panic" prophecy fulfilled: they are indeed" a barren waste," and bear the indubitable marks of premature desertion and decay. Nearly one-half the cars and boats are withdrawn from operation, and what remain have little to do. The offices are almost sinecures. Their pay, and the interest on the debt, contracted in the construction of our canals and railroads, remain the same as in seasons of prosperity, while the revenue derived from them is lamentably deficient. Unless this downward course be speedily arrested, the State of Pennsylvania is on the highway to bankruptcy and ruin. If we survey the smaller towns, and the country at large, what do we behold but business interrupted merchants and mechanics idle, all the necessaries of life exorbitantly high, the means to purchase them straightened; creditors pressing their demands, and debtors unable to pay. The banks closed, the specie in their vaults shut up from the public, their notes not convertible into gold and silver, the brokers, shavers and speculators, the ill-omened birds of prey that swarm round the prostrate carcase of the public currency, are increasing, and thriving on the wants and misfortunes of the community. The notes of the eastern banks, at a high discount in the western part of the state, and the notes of the western banks at a still higher discount in the eastern part of the state, and the citizens of the different extremities of our widespread union almost cut off from each other in commercial intercourse, and rendered aliens in their own land. In a word, the currency, the very life-blood of business in this active, enterprising, and thrifty nation is so deeply diseased already, that a general paralysis has seized upon our prosperity, and although our government is the most free and fostering in the world, menaces, if some corrective be not applied, to sweep it, with the besom of destruction. To the general view of the subject here given, may be added, this of an individual nature, that every man who thinks he has the honest representative of five dollars in his pocket, in the shape of a five-dollar bill, is egregiously mistaken, for, owing to the depreciation of bank-notes, it is in reality worth little more than three dollars: so that every man who has in his possession, or is compelled to take paper money of great or small denominations, has at once a practical illustration of the injustice and fluctuation of the system. This is no exaggerated picture, fellow-citizens, proofs of its sad reality are before us, and around us, on all sides. The description, harrowing as it is, is re-echoed from city and country, from hill-top and valley, in all sections of the land. * 米 Thus also it happens, in the prosecution of these operations, men become indebted to foreigners, to each other at home, and to the banks; and the banks contract the same kinds of debts, and when payment is demanded, it can only be made by enlarged credits, by incorporating additional banks, and increased issues of paper money. When individuals or banks become involved in debt, they resort to the same means for extrication. They play a bold game (for a game it is), stretch their credit to the utmost limit, and, in common phrase, "make or break," by the adventure. In the case of individuals, when credit fails, the benefit of the insolvent law is their remedy, and, in the case of banks, a suspension of specie payments. And the effects upon their creditors and the public are in both cases the same. This is the process, and this the course that has led to the existing state of things. We appeal to the history of the country for its confirmation. Let any man examine the amount of nominal banking capital, at different periods; and also the spirit of speculation and overtrading as indicated by the imports of the country-the sales of public lands-the price of labour and of the various commercial commodities, and the projects of new towns, and cities, turnpike, canal and railroad companies, and he will find in all cases the latter bear a strict relative proportion to the former. As banks have increased, so have the consequences just enumerated increased in the same proportion. We might have spread the statistical facts before you, but we do not wish to swell this address to a greater length than is necessary; and if any doubt, let them consult the records that are accessible to all. * * The amount of bank capital incorporated in Pennsylvania, when Governor Ritner was elected, was 17,000,000 of dollars: the amount now existing in Pennsylvania is about 58,000,000 of dollars; so that under the auspices of Governor Ritner and his friends, it has been improvidently increased about 41,000,000 of dollars in less than two years. Neither reason nor necessity can be pleaded in justification or excuse of this ruinous policy. Its origin can be found only in a morbid excitement of that wild spirit of speculation which has been always nurtured and sustained by our empty credit system. * * Behold the consequences in our present prostrated and distracted condition; behold them in thousands of failures-cramped and crippled business-abandoned public improvements-industrious men without employment, and their families without bread. SETH SALISBURY, JAMES CLARKE, GEORGE M. Keim, HERNY SHEETZ, Harrisburg, July 7, 1837. * * HENRY C. EYER, JOHN M. EBERMAN, From the Pennsylvanian, 1837. MOVEMENTS OF THE MONOPOLISTS. Ir appears that the stock of the Mechanics' Bank of this city has advanced, within a short time, from about fifty to seventy dollars per share for thirty-five dollars paid. This is the result of a daring movement upon the part of the Bank monopolists, and the treachery of those pretended representatives of the people, who were, not long since, elected on the ground of opposition to monopolies, and against the combined forces of chartered wealth. The rise has taken place in consquence of what is termed a rider, or an additional clause, tacked to a bill for other purposes, which was added to a bill in the Senate, by Doctor Burden, increasing the capital of the Mechanics Bank about 700,000 dollars, and renewing its charter, which does not expire until 1843, for twenty years longer, besides other privileges. It is indeed time for the people of Pennsylvania to look about them, when they are thus made the sport of bold and designing politicians, and their legislators so openly pervert their offices and combine with moneychangers against popular rights. Let the revolution now going on be carried out to its fullest extent. PROCLAMATION FROM GOVERNMENT. In the name, and by the authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, by Joseph Ritner, Governor of the said Commonwealth, A PROCLAMATION. 20th May, 1837. THE main object, then, of this proclamation is, to address the patriotism, the good sense and the interest of the citizens who direct the different banks of the commonwealth. In their hands are placed, by this strange and sudden catastrophe, to a great extent, the present control of our prosperity. But fortunately for the community, the forfeiture or confirmation of the charters of those institutions will depend upon the estimate which public opinion, for the next six months, will form of the use which shall be made of the power that circumstances have thus given. If a reckless pursuit of profit and a disregard of the welfare of society should lead to a sudden and injurious increase of bank issues, the next meeting of the Representatives of an injured community will undoubtedly visit the full penalty of the law on the faithless agents. If, on the other hand, an honest and patriotic application of the power now possessed by them shall prevent the apprehended evils, and shall, at the earliest possible period, restore the currency to its recent healthy condition, acts under other circumstances unlawful, thus proved to have been compelled only by urgent necessity, and thus followed by no sinister perversion of power, will, beyond a doubt, be confirmed. To accomplish which desirable and just result, no exertion will be spared by the Executive at the proper time. * * The banks are believed to be abundantly able to meet all their liabilities. The only danger is to be found in rashness and excitement. It is evident that the present difficulty does not arise from any great inherent defect in our currency, but from an error in its management. The National Government, with an unparalleled surplus of means, cannot pay its debts in the legal currency of the country. SUIT AGAINST THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. [Reported for the Public Ledger.] Before Alderman Thompson, June 5th, 1837. James Young v. The JJ. States Bank. Claim, a 10 dollar Note.-This was a case of a ten dollar note presented to the bank for specie payment, but was refused. After the examination of the evidence, the counsel for the defendant endeavoured to defeat the action, on the ground, Ist, That the plaintiff became possessed of the note for the express purpose of suing-which, it was contended, ell under the definition of common barratry, as defined by the Act of 1700. 2d. That persons obtaining an obligation for the express purpose of suing, are barred from recovering, by Act of Assembly. 3d. That there was not sufficient testimony. For witnesses participating in a suit may be made liable for the costs, and consequently they are interested in the event of the suit. The counsel for the plaintiff admitted that barrators could not recover, but denied that his client in this case was a barrator. Barratry is a crime at common law that subjects the individual guilty of it to severe punishments, and the gist of every crime is the malicious intention. The act of 1700 is very particular on this point. "If any person within this province and territories, in any court within the same, be indicted, proved and adjudged a common barrator, vexing others with unjust and vexatious suits, he shall be adjudged a common barrator, and his suits and actions rejected, if the court see cause for the same, and be punished for his barratry." Has the plaintiff been indicted and proved to be a common barrator? Or, is this an unjust and vexatious suit? The counsel cited Blackstone's Commentaries, where the crime of barratry was more particularly described. "Common barratry is the offence of frequently exciting and stirring up suits and quarrels between his majesty's subjects, either at law or otherwise." 4 Black. 134. Has the plaintiff frequently stirred up suits and quarrels at law or otherwise? Now, sir, the gist of every crime is the intention; and shall a man bringing suit for a just debt be debarred from action and adjudged a barrator in the absence of proof? Where is the evidence of barratry? The witness expressly states that the agreement was, not to sue, but to demand the money of the bank. If the intention was to bring an unjust and vexatious suit, how does the presentation of the note to the bank comport with that intention. Sir, you must perceive that it goes absolutely to defeat it. Suppose the bank had paid the note, who, that has common understanding, does not see that the right of action would have been destroyed. Are you, sir, to infer that men intend to commit a crime from the fact of their having taken the very measures which, from the nature of things, would be the most likely to frustrate that intention? Why, sir, it is preposterous. The counsel then went on to state, that he had been induced io notice this defence, from its novelty, but as there was no proof of barratry, his Honour would not presume it. The second ground of defence was already answered by the witnesses, who stated that the note was obtained for valuable consideration, and for the purpose of obtaining specie; not, as is said, for the express purpose of suing. The third objection to this action is equally without foundation. Where is the evidence that the witnesses on the part of the plaintiff participated in the suit? The proof is merely in the naked assertion of my learned opponent; because, forsooth, this plaintiff consulted with these witnesses to know whether they would come forward and testify as to all they saw, he must be deprived of their testimony, and they must be presumed to participate in the suit, and of course must be made liable to the costs? Why, sir, if this doctrine is to obtain, there is not a solitary case now pending before your courts but the plaintiffs must be barrators, their suits rejected, their just claims totally annihilated, themselves to suffer corporeal punishment, and their innocent witnesses saddled with the costs. Judgment for plaintiff. |