Page:Short History of Paper Money and Banking.djvu/327

Rh As Banks are the creatures of Government, all the evils they produce must be ascribed to the Government. It is to afford opportunities for speculation to themselves, their personal friends and their political partisans, that our law-givers establish Banks. It was through the attempt to carry on the war by means of Bank notes and Bank credits, that the suspension of specie payments was produced. It was through the connivance of the Government, that the suspension of specie payments was so long continued. It was through the issue of treasury notes, that the amount of Bank notes in circulation was immediately increased. It was that a large amount of public stock might be absorbed, that a Bank was instituted with a capital of thirty-five millions, when there was not room for a credit Bank with a capital of thirty-five thousands. No doubt, also, the disinclination of the Government to suffer the Bank to retain the eighteen millions of public moneys, mentioned by "A Friendly Monitor," had its effect. If the Government had been content to continue to pay the interest on a corresponding amount of public debt, and to let the Bank keep eighteen millions of the public money for its own uses, the crisis might have been—we will not say averted, but it might have been delayed. If it had been delayed, the evil would have been increased. The notion of the early administrators of the Bank of the United Stales, appears to have been, that the Bank should do a business bearing the same proportion to its great capital, that the business of the local Banks bore to their small capitals. If the payment of any portion of the national debt had been deferred to suit their convenience, they would have made a corresponding increase in their business. Even as it was, we have found them complaining, in the spring of 1818, that they could not sign notes fast enough: and the report of the committee of Congress shows, that all the energies of the directors were exerted to increase the circulation, extend the general dealings of the Bank, and raise the price of the stock in the market.

Other men in their situation would probably have acted as they did. It is of very little moment whether it is Mr. or Mr. that is president of a Bank, or whether the or the  are directors. The fault is in the system. Give the management of it to the wisest and best men in the country, and still it will produce evil. No