Page:A History of Banking in the United States.djvu/329

 was insolvent; in London its securities were unsalable, and its credit was broken.

The New York banks were confident of their ability to sustain specie payments. "There is every reason to be sure that New York will go on well." The "American" said that the monetary stringency on both sides of the water was due to the borrowings of the Bank of the United States; that New York must persevere; that she would, if she kept a sound currency, become the center of home and foreign trade. October 15th, the Philadelphia banks stopped redeeming their fives, having lost in five days $156,000 in that way. During 1837-8 the banks of Pennsylvania made dividends, although it was prohibited in the charters of most of them. After the suspension of 1839 most of the banks at Philadelphia resolved not to declare dividends until the pleasure of the Legislature could be known.

The monthly reports of the United States Bank to the Auditor-general were suspended from October, 1838. After its failure in October 1839, that officer demanded a return, and those for thirteen months were sent all together in November following. It is alleged in interrogatories put to the cashier in a suit by Kuhn against the Bank, on an attachment, that the latest one (November, 1839), showed a surplus of $4 millions, and that it was so published here, but that a committee in the Bank found that the surplus was only $1 million; it was so sent to Jaudon and published in England, and reprinted here. The post-notes were reported to the Auditor $900,000 more than to Jaudon. If these were subtracted the surplus would dwindle to $100,000.

October 11th, a meeting of merchants was held at Boston to confer with the banks about an extension of discounts. A resolution to suspend payment on notes of $5 and above was rejected. At a bank meeting on the 17th, it was resolved that the banks were able to sustain specie payments. On the 24th, the rate for first rate four months paper was three per cent. per month. The rate at New York was about the same. All the safety fund notes were discredited. Specie was coming from all parts of the country and being exported. On the 23d the banks of Philadelphia published an address to the public, in which they declared that the suspension of 1837 was necessary and proper; that all was going on well when New York prematurely resumed; that this forced the rest to follow; that Philadelphia had followed the correct policy in making loans to the South and Southwest; that the pretended resumption broke down in that section first. They then operate on the prejudice against the exportation of specie and against England, declaring that the banks could have paid specie but that it would have sacrificed the country around them to find means to buy food for the people of England. This address well stated one view of the situation and of the policy to be pursued. Up to this time there had been hope and belief that the worst was over and that at any time prosperity might return, and it