Newspapers / The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, … / Sept. 16, 1837, edition 1 / Page 1
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S3- H Whole Xo. 073. Tavb (trough (Edgecombe County, X. C.) dlurdaVi September 16, 1837. Vol. Xlll JV7. 37. I The "Tarborough Press," BVGEOlUiE HOWAHD, j,pblishtJ weekly at 7o Dollars and F iln Ctnls pr year, if paid in advance I'wte Dollars at f lie expiration of the biciil"'11" veiir' r any P1'"1' iei!i f U year, Twenlp Jive Ctn's per month. . (.fibers aie at liberty to discontinue ft an' ,"u' 00 fc',vu:? notice- thereof and ffliriii arreHr those residing at a dii t Jce imiHt invariably pay in advance, or -civea responsible reference in this vicinity, j JvertisemenU not exceeding: 16 lines 'in length (or square) will be inserted at igO cents the first insertion and 25 cts. each ! continuance. Longer ones at that rat ifor eyery square. Advertisements mut bemHiked the number of insertions requi red, or they will be continued until other wise ordered, and chaiffeJ accordingly, j leueti addressed to the Editor must be 'post paid, or t,(7 ,,,ay not be ttended to. isceliancous PHESIDENT'S MESSAGE. Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives : j The act of the 23d of June, 'lS36, regulating the deposites of the public money, and directing 'the employment of State, District, aud Territorial banks lor that pur pose, made it the duly of the Sec retary of the Treasury to discon tinue the use of such of them as 'should at any time refuse to re deem their notes in specie, and to 'substitute other banks, provided a 'sufficient number could be obtain ed to receive the public deposites upon the terms and conditions therein prescribed. The general jaiid almost simultaneous suspen sion of specie payments by the banks in May last, rendered the performance of his duty impera tive, in respect to those which had Ibeeu selected under the act; and jmade it, at the same time, imprac ticable to employ the requisite jnumber of others, upon the pre scribed conditions. The specific regulations established by Con gress for the deposite and safe i keeping of the public moneys, having thus unexpectedly become inoperative, 1 felt it to be my duty to afford you an early opportuni ty for the exercise of your super visory powers over the subject. 1 was also led to apprehend that the suspension of specie pay ments, increasing the embarrass ments before existing in the pecu niary affairs of the country, would so far diminish the public revenue, that the accruing receipts into the Treasury, would not, with the re served five millions, be sufficient to defray the unavoidable expen ses of the Government, until the usual period for the meeting of Congressj whilst the authority to fall upon the Slates, for a portion of the sums deposited with them, was too restricted tp enable the De partment to realize a sufficient amount from that source. These apprehensions have been justified subsequent results, which ren der it certaiu that this deficiency will occur, if additional means be not provided by Congress. The difficulties experienced by the mercantile interest, in meeting lheir engagements, induced them 10 apply to me, previously to the Wual suspension of specie pay ments, for indulgence upon their bonds for duties; and all the relief authorized by law was promptly and cheerfully granted The de pendence of the Treasury upon Jhe avails of these bonds, to ena jfe t to make the deposites with he States required by law, led me in the outset to limit this indul pnee to the first of September, jut it has since beeu extended to "'e first of October, that the mat ter might he submitted to your fur ther direction. Questions were also expected lj arise in the recess in respect to ,he October instalment of those deposites, requiring ihe interposi of Congress. A provision of another act, pass ed about thes et! 10 secure a faithful compliance the obligation of the United 'aies lo satisfy all demands upon 'Vn in specie or its equivalent, I. 1 1. . t ic, hoi convert. hie on the spot 'Uo gold or silver at the will of e oolder and the ability of the wverumeni, with millions on de posite, io meet its engagements in me manner thus required by law, was 'rendered very doubtful by the event to which I have referred. Sensible that adequate provi sions for these unexpected exigen cies could only be made by Con g.ess; convinced that some of them would be indispensably necessary to the public service, before the regular period of your meeting; and desirous also to enable you to exercise, at the earliest moment, your full constitutional powers for the relief of the country, I could not, with propriety, avoid subject ing you to the inconvenience of as sembling at as early a day as the slate of the popular representation would permit, 1 am sure that I have done but justice to your feel ings, in believing that this incon venience will be cheerfully encoun tered, in the hope of rendering your meeting conducive to the good of the country. During the earlier stages of the revulsion through which we have just passed, much acrimonious dis cussion arose, and great diversity of opinion existed, as to its real causes. This was not surprising. The operations of credit are so di versified, and the influences which affect them so numerous, and often so subtle, that even impartial and well-informed persons are seldom found to agree in respect to them To inherent difficulties were also added other tendencies, which were by no means favorable to the discovery of truth. It was hardly to be expected, that those who dis approved the policy of the Gov ernment in relation to the curren cy, would in the excited state of public feeling produced by the oc casion, fail to attribute to that pol icy any extensive embarrassment in the monetary affairs of the coun try. The matter thus became connected .villi the passions aud conflicts of party; opinions were more or less affected by political considerations ; and differences were prolonged which might otherwise have been determined by an appeal to facts", by the ex ercise of reason, or by mutual con cession. It is, however, a cheer ing reflection, that circumstances of this nature cannot prevent a community so intelligent as ours from ultimately arriving at correct conclusions. Encouraged by the firm belief of this truth, I proceed to stale my Views, so tar as may be necessary to a clear understand ing of the remedies, I feel it my duty to propose, and of the rea sons by which 1 have beeu led to recommend them. The history of trade in the United States for the last three or four years, affords the most convincing evidence that our pre sent condition is chiefly to be at tributed to over-action in all the departments of business; an over action deriving, perhaps, its first impulses from antecedent causes, . j . : but stimulated to us obstructive consequences by excessive issues of bank paper, aud by other facil ities for the acquisition and en largement of credit. At the com mencement of the year 1834, the banking capital of the U. States, including that of the national bank then existing, amounted to about two hundred millions of dol lars; the bank notes then in circu lation to about ninety-five millions; and the loans.and discounts of the banks to three hundred and twenty-four millions. Between that time and the first of January, 1836, being the latest period to which accurate accounts have been re ceived, our banking capital was in creased to more'than two hundred and fifiy-one millions; our paper circulation to more than one hun dred aud forty millions, and the urotuuueu the offer of any bank loans and dismuntc in mom . v. mail our hundred and fifty-seven mil lions. To this to be added the many millions of. 7u,li, acquired by means of for eign loans, contracted by the States and Slate institutions, and, auove ail, by the lavish accommo- uations extended by foreign dea- jcrs. io our merchants. The conseauences nf this rorlnn daucy of credii, and of the spirit Ul 'CLKiess speculation engender ed by it, were a foreign debt con traded by our citizens, estimated in March last at more than thin; millions of dollars; the extension to traders in the interior of our country of credits ,for supplies, greatly beyond the wants of the people the investment of thirty nine and a half millions of dollars in unproductive public lands, in the years 1835 and 183G, whilst in the prececQig year the sales amounted to only four and a half millions; the creation of debts, to an almost countless amount, for real estate in existing or anticipat ed cities and villages, equally un productive, and at prices now seen tO have been frrPrilK' rlicnrnnnr. O V "('"J'wi- nonaie to their real value; the ex penditure of immense sums in im provements which, in many cases, have been found to be ruinously improvident; the diversion to other pursuits ot much of the labor that should have been applied to acri culture, tnereuy contributing to the expenditure of large sums in the importation of grain from Eu rope an expenditure which, a mounting in 1834 to about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was, in the first two quarters of the present year, increased to more than two millions of dollars: and. finally, without enumerating other injurious results, the rapid growth among all classes, and especially in our great commercial towns, of luxurious habits, founded too often on merely fancied wealth and de trimental alike to the industry, the resources, and the morals of our people. . ll was so impossible that suck a state of things could long con tinue, that the prospect of revul sion was present to the minds of considerate men before it actually came. None, however, had cor rectly anticipated its severity. A concurrence of circumstances ina dequate of themselves to produce such wide-spread and calamitous embarrassments, tended so greatly to aggravate them, that they can not be overlooked in considering iheir history. Among these may be mentioned, as most prominent, the great loss of capital sustained by our commercial emporium in the fire of December, 1 835 a loss, the effects of which were underra ted at the time, because postponed for a season by the great facilties of credit then existing; the disturb ing effects, in o,ur commercial. ci ties, of the transfers of the public moneys required by the deposite law of June, 1336; and the mea sures adopted by the foreign cred itors of our merchants to reduce their debts, and to withdraw from the United States a large portion of our specie. However unwilling any of our citizens may heretofore have been to assign to these causes the chief instrumentality in producing the present state of things, the devel opments subsequently made, and the actual condition of other com mercial countries, must, as it seems to me, dispel all remaining doubts upon the subject. It has since ap peared that evils, similar to those suffered by ourselves, have been experienced in Great Britain, on the continent, &, indeed, through-j out the commercial world; and that in other countries, as well as in nnr own. thev bave been uni- fnrmlv nreceded by an undue en f the boundaries of trade, prompted, as with us, by unprecedented expansions of the systems of credit A reference to the amount of banking capital, and the issues of paper credits put in circulation in Great Britain, by banks, and in other ways, during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, will show an augmentation of the paper currency there, as much dis proportioned ta the real wants of trade as in the United States. With this reduncy of the paper curren cy, there arose in that country al so a spirit of adventurous specula tion, embracing the whole range of human enterprise. Aid was profusely given to projected im provements ; large investments were made in foreign slocks and and loans; credits for goods Were granted with unbounded liberality to merchants in foreign countries ; and all means of acquiring and employing credit were put in ac tive operation, and extended in their effects to every department of business, and to every quarter! of the globe. The re-action wasj proportioned in its violence to the! extraordinary character of the events which preceded it. The commercial community of Great Britain were.subiected io the creat es! difficulties, and their debtors in this country were not only sudden ly deprived of accustomed aud ex pected credits, but called upon for payments, whieh, in the actual posture of things here, could duly be made through a general pres sure, and at the most ruinous sac rifices. In View of these facts, it would seem impossible for sincere inqui rers alter truth to resist the convic tion, that the causes of the revul sion in both countries have been substantially the same. Two na tions, the most commercial in the world, enjoying but recently the highest degree of apparent pros perity, and maintaining with each other the closest relations, are sud denly, in a time of profound peace, and without any great national dis aster, arrested in their career, and plunged into a state of embarrass ment and distress. In both coun tries we have witnessed the same redundancy of paper money, and other facilities of credit; the same spirit of speculation; the same par lial success; fhe same difficulties and reverses; and, at length, near ly the same overwhelming catas trophe. The most material differ ence between the results in the two couutries has only been, that with us there has also occurred an extensive derangement in the fis cal affairs of. the Federal and Slate Governments, occasioned by the suspension of specie payments by the banks. 1 he history of these causes and effects, in Great Britain and the United Stales, is substantially the history of the revulsion in all other commercial countries. The present and visible effects of these circumstances on the ope rations ot the Government, and on ihe industry of the people, point out the objects which call lor your immediate attention. Thev are lo regulate bv law j - u the safe keeping, transfer, and dis bursement, cf the public moneys, to designate the funds to be receiv- ed and paid by the Government; to enable the .treasury to meet promptly every demand upon it; to prescribe tne terms o indul gence, and the mode of setilefneni to be adopted, as well in collecting from individuals the tevenue that las accrued, as in withdrawing it from former depositories, and to devise and adopt such further mea sures, within the constitutional competency of Congress, as will be best calculated to revive ihe en terprise and to promote the pros perity of the country. t or the deposite, transier, ana disbursement, of the reveuue, Na trona! and Slate banks have always with temporary and limited excep tions, been heretofore employed; but, although advocates of each system are still to be found, it is apparent that the events of the last few months have greatly augment ed the desire, long existing among the people of the United States, to separate the fiscal operations of the Government from those of in dividuals or corporations. Again lo create a national bank, as a fiscal agent, would be. to dis- j but to create fictitious capital, par regard the popular will, twice so-taking at once of the character of lemnly and unequivocally express- notes discounted in bank, and of ed. On no question of domestic) bank notes in circulation, & swel- nohcy is there stronger evidence that the sentiments of a large ma jority are deliberately fixed; andahle manner. These bills have I cannot concur with think they see, in recent events, a proof that these sentiments are, or a reason that they should be, changed. Events, similar in their orisin and character, have lifrptnfm p frequently occurred, without pro ducing any such change; and the lessons of experience must be for gotten, if we suppose that the pre sent overthrow of credit Willi Id have been prevented by ihe exis tence of a national bank. Prone tiess to excessive issues has ever beeu the. vrce of the banking sys tem; a viceas prominent in Nation al as in State institutions. . This propensity is as subservient to the advancement of private interests in the one as in the other; and those who direct them both, being principally guided by the same views, aud influenced by the same motives, will be equally ready to stimulate extravagance of enter prise by improvidence of credit. How strikingly is this conclusion sustained by experience. Tlue Bank of the United Slates, with the vast powers conferred on it by Congress, did not or could not pre vent former and similar embarrass ments; nor has the still greater strength it has been said to pos sess, under its present charter, en abled it, in the existing emergency, to check other institutions, or even to save itself. In Great Britain, where, it has been seen, the same causes have been attended with the same effects, a national bank, possessing powers far grea ter than are asked lor by the warm est advocates of such an institu tion here, has also proved unable to prevent an undue expansion of credit, and the evils thai flow from it. Nor can 1 find any tenable ground for the re-establishmeut of a national bank, in the derange ment alleged at present to exist in the domestic exchanges of the country, or in the facilities it may be capable of affording them. Al though advantages of this sort were anticipated when the first Bank of the United States was created, they were regarded as an incidental accommodation; not one which the Federal Government was bound, or could be called up on, to furnish. This accommoda tion is now. indeed, after the lanse of not many years, demanded from it as among its first duties: and an omission to aid and regulate com mercial exchange, is treated as a ground of loud aud serious com plaint. Such results only serve to exemplify the constant desire, among some of our citizens, to en large ihe powers of the Govern ment, aud extend its control to sub jects with which it should not in terfere. 1 hey can never justify the creation of an institution to promote such objects. On the contrary, they justly excite among the community a more diligent in quiry into ihe character of those operations of trade, towards which it is desired to extend such pecu- lar favors. The various transactions which bear the name of domestic exchan- rrac 1 i (V r tie e A A 1 1 t . I . " jjta, uiuci aoEiiildll V III UieiT 113- ture, operation, and utility. Oue class of them consists of bills of exchange, for the purpose nf trans ferring; actual capital from one part of ihe country lo another nr to anticipate ihe proceeds of pro. perty .actually transmitted. Bills of this description are highly use ful in the movements of trade, and well deserve all the encourage ment which can rightfully be given to them. Another class is made up of bills of exchange, not drawn to transfer acium! rani fa I. nor r,n the credit of properly transmitted, r '"'g the mass of paper credits to a vast extent in ihe most t hjeclion- formed, for the last few vears. large proportion of what ure lei fil ed the domestic exchanges tf the country, serving as the. means of usurious prtfit, and constituting the most unsafe and precarious pa per in circulation. This species of trafic, instead of being upheld, ought to be discountenanced by the Government and the people In transferring its funds from place lo place, ihe Government is on ihe same fooling with the pri vate citizen, ajid may resort lo ihe same legal means; It may do so through the medium of bills drawn from itself, or purchased from others; and in these operations it may, in a manner undoubtedly constiiulional aud legitimate, faci litate and assist exlhanges of indi viduals founded on real transao tions of trade. The exlent to which this may be done, and the best means of effecting it, are en tilled to the fullest consideration. This has been bestowed by ihe Secretary of the Treasury, and his views will be submitted to you in his report. Bui it was not designed by the Constitution that the Government should assume the management of domestic or foreign exchange. It is indeed aulhoriztd to regulate by law the commerce between tha States, and to provide a general standard of value, or medium of exchange, in gold and silver; but it is not its province to aid indi viduals in the transfer of their funds, otherwise than through the facilities afforded by the Post Of fice Department. As justly might it be called on to provide for the transportation of their meichan rlise. These are operations of trade. They ought io he conduct ed by those who are interested in them, in the same manner that tils' incidental difficulties of other pur suits are encountered by other classes of citizens. Such aid has not been deemed necessary in othef countries. Throughout Kurope, the domestic as well as ihe foreign exchanges are carried on by pri vate houses, often, if not general ly, without the assistance of banks. Yet they extend throughout dis tinct sovereignties, and far exceed in amount the real exchanges of the United States. There is no teason why our own may not be conducted in the same manner, with equal cheapness and safety. Certainly this might be accom plished, if it were favored by those most deeply interested? and few can doubt that their own interest, as well as the general welfare of the country, would be promoted by leaving such a subject in the hands of those to whom it proper ly belongs. A system founded on private interest, enterprise and competition, without the aid of legislative grants or regulations by law,, would rapidly prosper; it would he free from ihe it.fluenea of political agitalion, and extend the same excmpiion to trade itself; and it would put an end to ihose complaints of neglect, partiality, injustice, and oppression, which are the unavoidable results of in teiferenci by the Government, in the p oper concerns of individuals. All former attempts on ihe part of the Government to carry its leg isljtion, in this respect, furiher than was designed by the Tonsli mtion, have in the end proved in jurious, and have served only o convince tne greal becy 01 in.. I N . I
The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 16, 1837, edition 1
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