123 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 2 



tion, as well as tbe public whom they have served by 

 their labors and talents. But we do not hire out either 

 our pages, or an editorial mask, for the purpose of puf- 

 finj; the commodities of any salesman, whether of high 

 or low degree. 



We are sensible that this dishonorable practice is so 

 general, and so perfectly understood b}' tiie initiated, 

 that those who propose to obtain and pay for such a 

 deceptious mode of reaching the public ear and con- 

 fidence, consider it as requiring nothing unusual, and 

 certainly not as an insult to the editor, and a designed 

 fraud on the public. But for this supposed mode of 

 thinking, the foregoing "editorial" and requests would 

 not have been sent us by persons with whom we have 

 no personal acquaintance, and have had no previous 

 transactions whatever. We have also seen the same 

 article, given "as editorial" in at least one late paper; 

 and the publication in nearly the same words thus ask- 

 ed of several editors, wouldof itself serve to betray the 

 common origin of all. If correspondents (whether for 

 their own or the public good,) see fit to write pieces to 

 appear as "editorial" they at least ought, in common 

 decency, not to make several diiferent "cat's-paw" 

 editors present their several apparent productions in 

 nearly the same form and words. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



MOKTIILY COMBIERCIAL RKPORT. 



The disasters which have been accumulating 

 for some time past, have now produced distress, 

 and absolute ruin, to an extent that it is painful to 

 describe. The newspapers teem with accounts of 

 the wide spread desolation which has overwhelmed 

 the country. The agricultural and conmiercial 

 interests are prostrated, and have involved in their 

 ruin the banks and the public finances of the coun- 

 try. It is needless to do more than refer to the 

 daily journals for the particulars, and to record the 

 general result. 



The removal of restraint on the state banks — 

 the increase of their temporary means for grant- 

 ing loans, by the deposite of more than forty mil- 

 lions belonging to the federal government in 

 their vaults, which were made its treasury, on 

 which they were allowed, and in express terms 

 authorized, to extend facilities — the consequent in- 

 crease of loans and issues of paper, thus creating 

 high prices and wild speculation — the heavy drain 

 of specie from Europe, which rendered counter- 

 action there necessary; all these causes have pro- 

 duced a prostration of credit abroad and at home 

 almost unparalleled. The contraction, which 

 must necessarily have taken place, sooner or later, 

 has caused mercantile failures in number and 

 amount exceeding all Ibrmer precedent; these have 

 been followed by the suspension of specie pay- 

 ments by the banks, and, as a necessary conse- 

 quence, by the inability of the government to pay 

 its debts in the only currency which the law re- 

 cognizes, and which it requires from its debtors, 

 without a possibility of compliance on their part. 

 An utter derangement of the currency exists, and 

 there is now no legal circulatinfr medium. 



The country never before exhibiied such a scene 

 of distress, from which none, whether rich or poor, 

 are exempt. There is now no medium of ex- 

 change between different places, whether near or 



remote. Private bills of exchange are discreditedj 

 and the banks cannot furnish dralts on each other. 

 Those drawn by one bank on another have been 

 protested, and even those drawn by the government 

 on its selected depositories are in some instances 

 before they can be resumed: the laborers who 

 were employed on them deprived of the means of 

 subsistence. Many manufactories are closed, 

 while the raw materials they used are reduced in 

 price to a lower rate than was ever before known, 

 disiiraced. Remittances cannot be made; the tra- 

 veller can obtain no currency which will pay his 

 expenses from one state to another. Even post- 

 ages and pett}' expenses cannot be paid in the 

 silver which is required, unless by purchasing it at 

 a hiL";!! premium. 



Already corporations and individuals, in those 

 states wliere the prohibitory laws are not very se- 

 vere, issue bills lor sums of five cents to a dollar, 

 to be circulated as change, and some of them pro- 

 bably never to be redeemed. The state of things, 

 in this respect, which existed about ihe year 1S14, 

 has returned, but in an aggravated form, for pri- 

 vate credit does not exist. How long it is to con- 

 tinue cannot now be foreseen — mercantile indus- 

 try and enterprise are prostrated — conmierce is at 

 a stand, and the evils which originated in this 

 country are extending to those with which we 

 had the greatest intercourse. 



The national and state legislatures are called to 

 convene for the purpose of devising remedies or 

 palliatives for these evils; evils which have long 

 been amicipafed, and efi'ort^ made in vain to avert 

 them. In the great markets, the prices of produce 

 are scarcely quoted — means cannot be found to 

 purchase it. In New Orleans a few sales of Ala- 

 bama and Tennessee cotton of average quality are 

 made at 6 to 7 cents— of Louisiana and Mississippi 

 at S to 9; flour at |!5| a 6. Consignees ol tobacco 

 in that city, have, in some instances, been unable 

 or unwilling to advance money for the freight, and 

 the municipal authorities have taken charge of it. 



In our own market, the only sales of cotton are 

 to the mills — the highest price 10 cents, and rang- 

 ing down to 6 cents. Tobacco, which the plant- 

 ers brins slowly to market, sells at -SH to $5;^-. 

 At present there is no price for wheat, and should 

 an averaije crop be made, of which the prospect 

 is unfiivorable, it is not seen how, in the present 

 state of things, the millers will be able to obtain 

 funds to purchase it, fLister than they can sell and 

 realize cash for the flour. 



So completely is commerce between neighbor- 

 insr cities mterrupted, that wheat is quoted on the 

 same day, and of the same quality, in Philadelphia, 

 at-'a2, and in N. York, at .^il 50. 



The price of flour in Richmond is $6^ a ^7— 

 mere retail sales. In New York, ^8^ a ^9;^. 



The cash sales at auction, of some articles, are 

 greatly below the cost in the country whence they 

 are inqwrted. Coffee, for example, has been sold 

 in New York, at 8 to 9 cents — VVest India sugar 

 at 6 to 7 cents — while the same articles cannot be 

 purchased on credit at prices at all proportionate. 



Stocks of almost every description have been 

 sold, in the large cities, lower than at any former 

 period: some at one half or one third of their par 

 value. The suspension of specie payments has 

 fended to advance the prices of stocks and of ar- 

 ticles generally; but specie has at the same time 

 advanced in the same ratio, being now at a premi- 



