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382 great and universal revulsion would force the general government to re-charter his Bank. The success of his post notes in England and France was another source of gratified vanity to him. In his theory of banking he was one of those who believe that the redemption of the bank note is effected by the merchandise. Hence banking was, for him, an art by which the banker regulated commerce through expansions and contractions of the circulation according to the circumstances which he might observe in the market.

The first effect of the opposite courses taken by New York and Philadelphia was very favorable to his views. The southern trade was transferred from New York to Philadelphia. Southern notes were at a discount of twenty or twenty-five per cent. Receiving these notes from the merchants, the Bank employed them through Bevan and Humphreys in buying cotton. This operation began in July and was intended to move the cotton to Europe in order to meet the post notes of the Bank when they should become due. The firm of Biddle and Humphreys was also formed and established at Liverpool as the agent of this operation. In the extension of the transaction cotton was bought and paid for by drafts on Bevan and Humphreys of Philadelphia, which drafts were discounted by the Bank. Biddle and Humphreys, having sold the cotton, remitted the proceeds to Mr. Jandon, former cashier of the Bank, sent to England as its agent in July. To all this it must be added that the Bank assumed the function of securing, for its producers, a good or fair price for cotton. Jandon's instructions were to protect the interests of the bank, and "of the country at large."

If the Bank had simply been a strong, sound bank, intent on earning profits, it would have sent two or three millions to Europe, selling exchange at one hundred and twelve, and would not have suspended. The rest of the story would then have been very different for all