Page:A History of Banking in the United States.djvu/392

 their capital. December 13th, it was enacted that banks which have forfeited their charters shall be wound up by three commissioners appointed by the Governor, suit to be instituted against the stockholders for any deficiency; but this was not to apply to the Central Bank.

All the acts of the last four years which had laid burdens on the Central Bank were repealed December 22, 1843. Payments on account of the State debt and of the appropriations were to be made at the treasury, which thus once more assumed all its own fiscal functions which were taken from the bank. The Central Bank was to do no more business. Any surplus revenue of the State was to be applied to the payment of its notes, which were to be burned. A number of the banks were at this time winding up under assignment. The assignments were approved by the Legislature because nobody could be found who was willing to be a receiver.

December 28, 1843, it was enacted that after February 1, 1844, all payments from the State treasury should be in specie or specie funds. The Governor was authorized to issue bonds at seven per cent., payable in New York, for not more than $150,000, in order to get the fund. An equivalent amount of Central Bank notes was to be withdrawn from the treasury and burned. The charter of the Central Bank was extended in liquidation, from time to time, until 1860. In an act of February 22, 1850, it was recited that the State was liable for claims on account of the Darien Bank, many of which were believed to be illegal and unjust. The directors of the Central Bank were ordered to inquire on what terms they could all be settled. In 1854, there was an arbitration between the State and the creditors of the Darien Bank. The Governor was authorized by law to issue bonds to settle the State's obligation. A number of suits were begun against the State, in 1855, to test its liability for the debts of the Bank of Darien. It was held that the debt of an insolvent to the State had priority over other debts, which priority the State did not lose by becoming a stockholder; furthermore, that, as the State had redeemed more than half the circulation of the bank, it had no further liability as a stockholder. In 1856 the assets of the Central Bank were absorbed into the treasury.

.—A stay law was passed in 1842, postponing execution upon the payment of costs and ten per cent. on the debt every sixty days. The Governor, in his message of January, 1843, said that it was good but did not go far enough; and he recommended a redemption law, with liberty to the debtor to recover his property within a specified time by paying to the purchaser the price, with interest.

The Committee on Corporations of 1842 charged the managers of the Union Bank with negligence and every kind of abuse and malfeasance in banking, but declared them all vices incident to the system on which the bank was based, and not the peculiar fault of the managers.

We have seen that the Territorial Council chafed under the attempts of