Page:A History of Banking in the United States.djvu/276

 by it placed on the same footing as foreign bills of exchange; debts never to exceed twice the capital; twelve per cent. penalty for refusal or unreasonable delay to pay notes or deposits in specie, with forfeiture of charter; may begin when $200,000 paid in in specie and $300,000 in notes of the United States Bank; the State to have an option for five years, to take any part of 5,000 shares, and to have no other right than other stockholders; the bank not to lend on its own stock or on real estate.

The Bank of Kentucky was incorporated, with its seat at Louisville, February 22, 1834, for thirty years; capital, $5 millions; not more than six nor less than four branches; lowest note, $5; twelve per cent. penalty, as in the case of the Louisville Bank; the State to take 20,000 shares when 10,000 shares are privately subscribed; the State to appoint three out of eleven directors. The State scrip issued for the State subscription might be sold by the bank, which became liable, by endorsement, for the interest anywhere in the United States; but the State paid the interest into the bank. The section in all the bank charters about the obligation of the banks for the interest on the State scrip is very obscure. An act of March 3, 1842, shows that the Northern Bank of Kentucky was held bound to pay the interest on the State bonds in its capital. The bank was to redeem this scrip out of the dividends due to the State, paying over the residue to the State. The bank was to reserve the five per cent. on $1 million of scrip out of the dividend, and the surplus was to go to pay, as far as possible, for the second 10,000 shares, so that the dividends seemed to be appropriated twice.

The Northern Bank of Kentucky was incorporated February 20, 1835, for thirty years; capital, $3 millions; its seat at Lexington, with not less than three nor more than four branches; the State to take half the capital; the State dividends, over and above the charges on the scrip issued for its stock, were set apart for the interest on the internal improvement loans. Small notes were forbidden, February 28, 1835, after one year from that date. If received, they were not to discharge the debt. This was not to apply to the notes of the old Bank of Kentucky or of the Bank of the Commonwealth.

In 1838, a very earnest attempt was made to get a charter for the Southwestern Railroad Bank from Kentucky. The scheme was that North and South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee should concurrently charter the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Railroad, and the Southwestern Railroad Bank. Each State on State rights principles was to prescribe the action of the bank within its limits. The bank was to go into effect if three States consented to it, which they did; Kentucky alone rejected it. It passed the Senate by one majority and was lost in the House by a tie vote. Wickliffe, who was charged with the effort to carry the measure in Kentucky, explained that the Southwestern Railroad Bank was intended to negotiate the stock of the railroad in London and elsewhere. Two shares in the road go with one in the bank, so that the State or individual stockholder will receive through the bank a certain and immediate profit on one-third of the capital invested,