ble institution must be strengthened in the minds of our fellow citizens, by the consideration, that, without it, these hapless orphans would have been a burthen on the community and must have been supported at the public expense. and we heard it stated, many were killed by clubs. Our sportsmen have not lacked in industry, and nearly every one has by this time had a taste of Pidgeon Pot-Pie.One gentleman in this neighbourhood has about 40 doz. en in his corn-crib, which he took in a net, and which The number of orphans at present in the institution is he is feeding for market. The Philadelphians, we pre33, and the managers have to regret that while the ap-sume will have a bountiful supply of them, for they are plications for admission are numerous their available re- taken to market in wagon loads. One wagon which we sources will not authorise them, at present, to receive saw passing along had 400 dozen, taken in New Jersey. any more. Intelligencer. The managers in the name of these orphans return thanks to those of their fellow citizens, by whose liberality they have been enabled to rescue so many interesting objects from physical suffering, and from moral degradation. Their only ambition is, to be able to extend more widely still, the sphere of this charity. They are bound also to take this occasion, to express their gratitude to Dr. A. B. Tucker, and Mr. Henry M. Zollickoffer; the former for his gratuitous and unremitting professional attendance to the health of the children and the pious ladies who take care of them; and the latter for his liberality in supplying the institution gratis, with medicines out of his store, and in many cases, sending out at his own expense for such as did not happen to be in his store at the time. These are instances of disinterested benevolence, on which humanity reflects with delight. March, 19, 1830. A line of packets has been established between this city and Port Deposit, and the business commenced with a spirit which promises to reward the enterprising proprietors. Since the latter part of last week, about 7000 bbls. of flour have been brought into the city, and from the reports of those engaged in the business, a much larger number will be introduced during the week to come. The canal, which is now in fine order, presents other advantages to the city of no less importance. Several lines of packets are now running to Baltimore, to Alexandria, to Fredericksburg, Norfolk, and Richmond, and a variety of transient vessels are trading to the sev eral towns on the Eastern shore. During the week ending on the 17th, 102 vessels passed through the locks, and as the spring trade is only commencing, we may readily suppose that the number will greatly increase. Phila. Price Current. More Coal.-Several miles above Dunstown in Trimble township, Lycoming county, on Lick Run, three quarters of a mile from the West branch of the Susquehanna; there has been opened an inexhaustable bed of coal by Mr. John Hepburn, of Northumberland. The coal is of a superior quality to any that we have seen in use in this part of the country, it is Anthracite, of a beautiful appearance, light and porous, and burns lively when put into a coal grate, or stove; it emits no sulphurous smell, but has the effluvim of tar. Three hundred tons of this excellent mineral are now lying at the quarry, and will be on to market as soon as the navigation of the river will permit.-Lewisburg Union Co. Hickory. Bituminous Coal.-We are informed that a body of bituminous coal has been discovered three fourths of a mile above Montgomery's Ferry, and three miles below Liverpool in Perry County. As far as the examination has been made, the vein of coal is about six feet in depth or thickness, and what renders it peculiarly valuable is its contiguity to the Pennsylvania Canal and the river Susquehanna, being but a few yards from either. We understand that this new mine of wealth is the property of Thomas Gallagher, Esq. of the neighbourhood of Liverpool.-Chronicle, Wild Pidgeons.Immense flocks of these beautiful birds have been flying about this neighbourhood for several days. On Friday during the severe equinoctial storm, they were taken in immense quantities, in nets, THE REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA. DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE. VOL. V.-NO. 16. EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD. PHILADELPHIA, APRIL 17, 1830. NATIONAL CURRENCY. of direct dependence on the officers of Government, at variance with the whole scheme of our institutions.The limit to which this currency should be issued, the Mr. Smith, of Maryland, made the following Report: persons to whom it would be lent, the securities taken The Committee on Finance, to which was referred a reso- for its repayment, the places where it should be redeemlution of the 30th December, 1829, directing the Comed, involve great complication and great hazard, regardmittee to inquire into the expediency of establishing an ing it merely in a financial point of view, while, on more uniform National Currency of the United States, and enlarged considerations of political expediency, the ob to report thereon to the Senate, report: jections to it are, in the opinion of the committee, insupThat nothing short of the imperative order of the erable and fatal. Senate could induce the committee to enter on a subject so surrounded with difficulty. They undertake it with diffidence and a distrust of their capacity to elucidate a subject that has engaged many nations, and the pens of the ablest writers, without, as yet, coming to any definite conclusion. It still remains to be determined, What is the soundest and most uniform currency? One nation assumes one system, another a different plan.In one nation a plan is devised, and succeeds for a time by prudent and restrictive emissions. Elated with suc- The currency of the United States, the only legal curcess, large and more extensive emissions are risqued; rency, is gold and silver. All debts to the Government, a rapid nominal rise of all property takes place; the peo- and all debts to individuals, being received in that meple are not aware that such nominal rise is the effect of dium, and in no other. As, however, the amount of depreciation; the bubble bursts, and ruin to the unsus- coin requisite for these purposes would be unmanageapecting, is the consequence. All history shows such a ble and inconvenient, the United States, like other comresult in several nations, and particularly in that of the mercial countries, have adopted the system of making United States. The committee, engaged on a variety credit supply many of the uses of coin; and numerous of subjects, cannot devote so much time on the resolu- banking companies have been established, issuing notes, tion as the mover must believe would be necessary to promissing to pay on demand, gold and silver. The develope fully the question before them, to wit: A sound Government of the United States has established one of and uniform National Currency. Presuming, from the a similar character; and for the convenience of the comtenor of the resolution, that the uniform National Cur-munity, the public revenue is collected in gold and silrency proposed must be prepared by the National Gov-ver, the notes of the Bank of the United United States ernment, circulated under its authority, and maintained and of such solvent State banks, as the Bank of the Unitby its credit, the committee have complied with the in-ed States and its branches will receive as cash. struction of the Senate, by endeavouring to devise some plan, through which the agency of the Government, in such a measure, could be safe or useful; but after giving to it all the consideration they could bestow, their reflections have resulted in a belief that any such measure must resolve itself, at last, into a mere system of paper money, issued by the Government. The resort to the issue of a paper money has been often the desperate expedient of the wants of a nation. It has then found its justification only in the necessity which created it: yetsuch are its inevitable evils, that every prudent Government has the moment its pressing exigencies permitted, returned to the only safe basis of a circulating medium, the precious metals, and the private credits attached to the use of them. Such were the expedients of the Government of the United States during its two wars, such its immediate abandonment of them at the return of peace. But, in the present condition of the Treasury of the United States, with a revenue far beyond its wants, with a debt almost nominal, and hastening to its entire extinguish ment, such a measure is not needed by the interests of the Government, nor is there the slightest indication of its being demanded by the wants of the country. Of such an issue of paper money, the Executive at Washington would be the natural fountain. The agents was collected; and yet it has been so collected and disof the Executive, the natural channels. The individ-tributed, without the loss, as far as the committee can uals, corporations and states who borrowed it, must be- learn, of a single dollar, and without the expense of a sincome debtors to the Government; and the inevitable gle dollar to the Government. That a currency, by consequence would be, the creation of a monied engine which the Government has been thus enabled to collect VOL. V. These, with other receiving officers, which need not be specified, compose an aggregate of more than 9,000 persons, dispersed through the whole of the Union, who collect the public revenue. From these persons, the Government has for the ten years preceding the 1st of January, 1830, received, $230,068,855 17. This sum has been collected in every section of this widely extended country. It has been disbursed at other points, many thousand miles distant from the places where it 31 NO. 120 Believing such a scheme to be impracticable, the committee were consoled with the reflection that it is unnecessary, as they are satisfied that the country is in the enjoyment of an uniform national currency, not only sound and uniform in itself, and perfectly adapted to all the purposes of the Government and the community, but more sound and uniform than that possessed by any other country. The importance of this truth will justify the committee in stating some details to establish it. The currency, therefore, of the United States, in its relation to the Government of the United States, consists of gold and silver, and of notes equivalent to gold and silver. And the inquiry which naturally presents itself, is, whether this mixed mass of currency is sound and uniform for all the practical purposes of the Government, and the trade of the Union. That it is so, will appear from the following fact: 1st. The Government receives its revenue from343 Custom Houses, 42 Land Offices, 8,004 Post Offices, 134 Receivers of Internal Revenue, 37 Marshals, S3 Clerks of Courts. and transfer such an amount of revenue to pay its army paid in silver; which is throughout the Union equal to and navy, and all its expenses, and the national debt, is silver in payment to the Government and payments to unsafe and unsound, cannot readily be believed: for individuals in business; and which, whenever silver is there can be no surer test of its sufficiency, than the needed in any part of the country, will command it, simple fact that every dollar received in the form without the charge of the slightest fraction of a per of a bank note, in the remotest parts of the interior, centage. By means of this currency, funds are transis, without charge, converted into a silver dollar, at ev-mitted at an expense less than in any other country. In ery one of the vast number of places where the services no other country can a merchant do what every citizen of the Government requires its disbursement. The Sec- of the United States can do-deposit for instance, his retary of the Treasury, in his report of the 6th Decem- silver at St. Louis, or Nashville, or New Orleans, and ber, 1828, declares that, during the four years preced-receive notes, which he can carry with him 1,000 or 1," ing, the receipts of the Government had amounted to 500 miles, to the Atlantic cities, and there receive for more than ninety-seven millions of dollars, and that "all them an equivalent amount of silver, without any expayments on account of the public debt, whether for in- pense whatever; and in no possible event an expense terest or principal; all on account of pensions; all for beyond a quarter of one per cent. If, however, a cit the civil list; for the army; for the navy; or for whatever izen does not wish to incur the anxiety of carrying these purpose wanted, in any part of the Union, have been notes with him, or to run the hazard of the mail, he may, punctually met." The same officer states, that "It is instead of them, receive a draft, payable to himself or the preservation of a good currency that can alone im- his agent alone, so as to ensure the receipt of an equal part stability to property, and prevent those fluctua- amount, at an expense of not and often not of the actions in its value, hurtful alike to individuals, and to na- tual cost of carrying the silver. The owner of funds, for intional wealth. This advantage, the Bank has secured to stance, at St. Louis or Nashville, can transfer them to the community, by confining within prudent limits its Philadelphia for one-half per cent.; from New Orleans, issues of paper," &c. &c. generally, without any charge at all-at most, one-half per cent; from Mobile, from par to one-half per cent.; from Savannah, at one-half per cent.; and from Charleston, at from par to one-quarter per cent. 2d. If this currency is thus sound and uniform for the Government, it is not less so to the community. The basis of all good currency should be the precious metals, gold and silver; and in a mixed currency of paper This seems to present a state of currency approaching circulating with gold or silver, and convertible into it, as near to perfection as could be desired: for here is a the great object to be attained is, that the paper should currency issued at twenty-four different parts of the Ualways be equal to gold or silver; that is, it should al-nion, obtainable by any citizen who has money or credways be exchangeable for gold or silver. Such a cur it. When in his possession, it is equivalent to silver in rency is perfect, uniting the convenience of a portable all his dealings with all the 9,000 agents of the Govern material with the safety of a metallic medium. Now it ment, throughout the Union. In all his dealings with cannot be doubted, that throughout this whole country, the interior it is better than silver; in all his dealings with the circulating bank notes are equal to specie, and con- the commercial cities, equal to silver; and if, for any pur vertible into specie. There may be, and probably are, pose, he desires the silver with which he bought it, it is exceptions; because among banks, as among men, there at his disposal, almost universally, without any diminu are some who make a show of unreal strength. But it tion, and never more than a diminution of one quarter is a fact so familiar to the experience of every citizen in per cent, It is not easy to imagine, it is scarcely neces the community as to be undeniable, that, in all the At- sary to desire, any currency better than this. lantic and commercial cities, and generally speaking It is not among its least advantages, that it bears a throughout the whole country, the notes of the State proper relation to the real business and exchanges of banks are equal to gold or silver. The committee do the country; being issued only to those whose credit not mean to say that there may not be too many banks, entitles them to it, increasing with the wants of the ac or that insolvencies do not occasionally occur among tive operations of society, and diminishing, as these subthem; but as every bank which desires to maintain its side, into comparative inactivity-while it is the radical character, must be ready to make settlements with the vice of all Government paper to be issued without reBank of the United States, as the agent of the Govern-gard to the business of the community, and to be gov ment, or be immediately discredited, and must therefore erned wholly by considerations of convenience to the keep its notes equal to gold or silver, there can be little Government. danger to the community, while the issues of the banks are restrained from running to excess, by the salutary control of the Bank of the United States, whose own circulation is extremely moderate, compared with the amount of its capital. Accordingly, the fact is, that the general credit of the bank is good, and that their paper is always convertible into gold or silver, and for all local purposes forms a local currency equivalent to gold and silver. There is, however, superadded to this currency, a general currency more known,more trusted,& more valuable than the local currency, which is employed in the exchange between different parts of the country. These are thenotes of the national bank. These notes are receivable for the Government, by the 9,000 receivers, scattered throughout every part of the country. They are in fact, in thecourse of business,paid in gold or silver,though they are not legally, or necessarily so paid, by the branches of the bank in every section of the Union. In all commercial places they are received, in all transactions, without any reduction in value, and never, under any circumstances, does the paper, from the remotest branches, vary beyond a quarter of one per cent, in its actual exchange for silver. Here, then, is a currency as safe as silver; more convenient, and more valuable than silver, which, through the whole western and southern, and interior parts of the Union, is eagerly sought in exchange for silver; which in those sections, often bears a premium After escaping so recently from the degradation of a depreciated paper currency, the committee would ab stain from every thing which might, however remotely, revive it. The period is not remote when, in the language of the late Secretary of the Treasury, the country was oppressed by a "currency without any basis of coin, or other effective check, and of no value, as a me dium of remittance or exchange, beyond the jurisdiction of the State whence it had been issued-a currency that not unfrequently imposed upon the Treasury the necessity of meeeting, by extravagant premiums, the mere act of transferring the revenue, collected at one point, to defray unavoidable expense at another." It is still within the recollections of the Senate, when, at the seat of Government itself, specie could only be bad at 20 or 22 per cent. in exchange for the bank pa per promises to pay specie; that for bank notes of Baltimore, 2 per cent. were paid; for those of Philadelphia, 6 to 7 per cent.; for those of New York, 15 to 16 per cent.; and for those of Boston, 20 to 22 per cent.; ruinous inequalities, which have now happily disappeared. 3d. The soundness of the currency may be further illustrated by the present condition of the foreign ex changes. Exchange on England is, at the present moment, more than one per cent. under par; that is, more than one per cent. in favor of the United States. This being 1830.1 the real fact, disguised by the common forms of quoting exchange on England at between 8 and 9 per cent. premium. It would lead the committee too far from its present purpose to explain that the original estimate of the A-4 better than Baltimore. merican dollar, as being worth four shillings and sixpence, and that, therefore the English pound sterling is worth $4 44, is wholly erroneous, and occasions a constant misapprehension of the real state of our intercourse with Great Britain. The Spanish dollar has not, for a century, been worth four and six pence; the American dollar never was; and whatever artificial value we may assign to our coins, is wholly unavailing to them in the crucibles of London or Paris. According to the latest accounts from London, at the close of December last, the Spanish dollar, instead of being worth four shillings and sixpence, or 54 pence, was worth only 49 pence; the American dollar at least one-fourth per cent. less; so that to produce one hundred times four and sixpence, it would be necessary to send to England, not 100 dollars, but 109 1-16 Spanish dollars, or 1094 of the United States' dollars. If to this be added the expenses and charges of sending the money and converting it into English gold, it will cost 111; so that 111 is at this moment, the real par of exchange between the United States and England. If, therefore, a bill at sight can be procured for less than this sum, or a bill at sixty days for one per cent. less, say 110 per cent. it is cheaper than sending silver; that is to say, he who has silver to send to England can purchase a bill on London for a greater amount than he would get if he shipped the sil ver itself, and of course exchange would be in favor of the United States against England. Now, such bills can be bought at a less rate, by more than one per cent. in every city in the United States. NATIONAL CURRENCY. This fact is conclusive as to the state of the currency. If the bank notes of the country were not equal to specie, specie would be at a premium, which it no where is at present. If the currency were unsound, more must be paid of that currency in order to produce an equal amount of coin in another country, where these bank notes do not circulate. But if, as is the case at present, the bank notes are convertible into specie, if you can buy with bank notes as much as you can buy with silver, and if, in the transactions of the country abroad, the merchants, who, if the notes were not equal to coin, would go to the bank and ship the coin, can pay as much debt in foreign countries with the notes as by sending the coin; there seems nothing wanting to complete the evidence of the soundness and uniformity of the currency. On the whole, the committee are of opinion that the present state of the currency is safe for the community, and eminently useful to the Government; that for some years past, it has been improving by the infusion into the circulating medium of a larger portion of coin, and the substitution of the paper of more solvent banks in lieu of those of inferior credit; and that, if left to the gress of existing laws and institutions, the partial inconveniences, which still remain, of the paper currency of the last war, will be wholly and insensibly remedied. Under these circumstances, they deem it prudent to abstain from all legislation; to abide by the practical good which the country enjoys, and to put nothing to hazard by doubtful experiments. pro The committee submit, for the information of the Senate, certain questions propounded to the President of the Bank of the United States, together with his answers thereto, and a document furnished by that officer, showing the rates of exchange at which drafts are drawn by the Bank of the United States and its offices of discount and deposite; and ask to be discharged from the further consideration of the subject. Questions submitted to the President of the Bank of the 243 not Philadelphia paper ten per cent. worse than Boston, Q. 2. Were not the State Banks indebted to the Government in large sums, which they could not have paid in sound currency? If so, to what amount? And did not the bank in many instances assume those debts, and pay them in good currency, (if so, to what amount?) and indulge those banks until it was convenient for them to pay? and did not the Bank lose money by such indulgence? A. In the years 1817 and 1818 the Government transferred to the bank at Philadelphia, from the State institutions, 7,472,419 87 dollars, which was cashed, and 3,336,691 67 dollars of special deposite, to be collected by the bank, making 10,809,111 54 dollars. The loss sustained by the bank, I cannot estimate. I should willingly compromise for a loss of only 200,000 dollars. Q. 3. Has the bank at any time oppressed any of the State banks? A. Never. There are very few banks which might not have been destroyed by an exertion of the power of the bank. None have ever been injured. Many have been saved. And more have been, and are constantly relieved, when it is found that they are solvent, but are suffering under temporary difficulty. Q. 4. When a State bank becomes indebted to the bank to an improper extent, what course do you pur sue? Do you let them go beyond a certain amount, and what is that amount? A. The great object is to keep the State banks within proper limits; to make them shape their business according to their means. For this purpose they are called upon to settle; never forced to pay specie if it can be avoided, but payment is taken in their bills of exchange, or suffered to lie occasionally until the bank can turn round; no amount of debt is fixed, because the principle we wish to establish is, that every bank should always be ready to provide for its notes. Q. 5. If you give drafts on any of the branches, or from one branch on another, or on the mother bank, what is the commission charged? A. The charge for drafts is less than the transportaof specie. I send a detailed statement on this point. Q. 6. Do you, and at every branch, pay specie on demand? Has there ever been a refusal? A. Never. Q. 7. Can you state whether specie is more or less abundant in the United States at present, than at any former period? A. At the present moment, I think, specie is more It comes in as usual. And the abundant than usual. state of the exchanges with Europe is such that it is cheaper to buy bills, than to ship coin. The bank had, on the first instant, 7,608,000 dollars, which is more than it has had for nine years past. Q. 8. When the debt is annually paid off to foreigners,do they remit in specie or bills of exchange? Do you supply the means in either way? A. When foreigners are paid off, a part is re-invested in other stocks, a part goes in bills, a considerable portion of which are bills of the bank. Specie is never resorted to unless the bill market is so high as to make that mode of remittance cheaper. Q. 9. Since you commenced the purchase and sale of bills of exchange, has the rate varied; if so, to what extent? A. The operations of the bank in exchanges has had the effect of preventing the great fluctuations to which they were previously liable. Q. 10. What is the reason that exchange on England continues above what was formerly considered the par, that is, the dollar valued at 4s. 6 pence sterling? Is it that the intrinsic value of the dollar has been found to be less than 4s. 6d.? If so, what is that intrinsic | 4. 6d. when it never has been worth four and sixpence, value? and of course when it goes abroad, it is estimated not by A. The reason is, that we choose to call our dollar the name we give it, but according to its real value. RATES OF EXCHANGE At which Drafts are drawn by the Bank of the United States and its Offices of Discount and Deposite. BankU. States Charleston par par 1 par par a par a par a Portland par par par par a 1 par a par a Savannah par a par par a par apar a Portsmouth par par a par a par a par a par a par a par a par par par a par 1 1 par par a par apar a par apar a par a 4 par a par a par a $ Boston Mobile 1 par par a $ par a par a par a par apar a 1 3 par a par a par a par a par a par apar a par a par a par a 1 par apara par apar a par a par a par a par a par a par a par a ipar a par a 1 1 New Orleans 1 Providence par a 3 Hartford par par par par a par a par a par a BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. Report or the Secretary of the Treasury on the United States Bank, made to Congress on the 28th of December, 1829. General Statement. Funded debt United States, various, $11,635,290 90 St. Louis 1 par a par a par a par a 鼍 $ par apar a par New-York Nashville par par a a 1 par par Louisville Baltimore par par par par par par 3 par a par Washington par a par a par a par a par a par a par a par a par a Bills discounted on per- Richmond Cincinnati par par apar a par a par a par apara par Norfolk Pittsburg par par par par a par apar a 31,126,407 30 251,128 88 1,120,964 90 Domestic bills of exchange,7,718,029 03 par apar apar a [par par Buffalo par a par a par par a 1 par a 40,216,530 11 |
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