442 



THE f ARMEKS' REGISTER. 



FALSE PRETEXCE OF THE BANKS OF HAVING 

 RESUMED PAYMENT. 



The 15ih o( this month was the day when, 

 according to the previous promise and annun- 

 ciation oi' the ridiculous convention of bank pre- 

 sidents, the banks of this state were simultaneous- 

 ly and fully to resume payment, 45 days in ad- 

 vance of the lime when the law will compel that 

 measure. And accordingly, on that day, as the 

 banks and their newspapers declare, they did re- 

 sume payment. Moreover, it is a matter of boast 

 in the newspapers, (according to usage and es- 

 tablished precedent,) that very lew demands for 

 specie have been made on them, (and almost 

 none of any consideration,) which fact is assumed 

 as evidence of the still abiding confidence of thq 

 coramuniiy in these self-degraded institutions. 

 We dissent entirely from these inferences and 

 assumptions ; and, further, declare that there has 

 been no real or bona fide resumpiion of payments; 

 and that the present action of the several banks 

 of Virginia, which is claimed to be resumption 

 of payment, is but a new or lather continued part 

 and parcel of the general system of falsehood and 

 moral fraud which characterize the whole legal- 

 ized banking system and policy, and consequent 

 banking operations, of the slate of Virginia. 



The legal branch feature of the banks, alone, 

 without any designed action on the part^of the 

 banks to use it for fraudulent ends, would of itsell 

 protect them from paying specie better than any 

 specific obstruction imposed by law would serve 

 for independent banks, having no branches. But 

 this protection becomes incalculably greater, when 

 the facility ottered is used, as it has been by the 

 several banks of Virginia, to send the notes of 

 each branch as far as possible from the place where 

 alone they are payable. The dishonest course 

 has been regularly and for a long time pursued, of 

 issuing at each bank and branch as few as possible 

 (indeed almost none) of its own notes, but issuing, 

 instead, the notes of other branches, as remole as 

 possible. Thus the branch bank of Virginia at 

 Petersburg, regularly issued notes for ^1 and ^2 

 (which the law required to be paid in specie, but 

 which requisition was thus easily and effectually 

 evaded, as the law makers, i. e. ihe bank presi- 

 dents, designed it should be,) of the Buchanan 

 branch ; and we presume that the Buchanan 

 branch issued those of the Petersburg or Norfolk 

 branches. Wytheville is the place of payment 

 for most of the Farmers' Bank small notes issued 

 and circulated here. The same general course 

 has been pursued by all, and the banks had this 



meana perfectly in their power as to their general 

 issues, because during the long past time of iheir 

 suspension of payment, there was no reason or in- 

 ducement for any individual to prefer a Peters- 

 burg or a Richmond note to one of Wytheville 

 or Charlestown, when neither was payable in 

 specie ; and neither was there any mode left by 

 the law and the couris, to compel a bank to pay 

 in even its own notes, instead of those of a distant 

 branch. 



The effect of this long continued procedure io, 

 that the circulation of each town in Virginia, and 

 its surrounding country, is filled entirely with 

 bank notes of distant banks and branches, (or of 

 foreign bank notes, serving the banks' purposes 

 even better,) and scarcely any notes are to be 

 met with of the banks or branches close at hand. 

 We infer this from the state of things in the town ' 

 in which we reside. It is here very rare to see 

 a bank note payable at either of the three branch 

 banks located here. 



What renders this procedure of the banks still 

 more conducive to its dishonest end, is that in or for 

 Virginia there is no one centre of trade. If the 

 ultimate market of all the state was either Rich- 

 mond, Norfolk, or even New York directly, the 

 ■bank notes, no matter how scattered at first, 

 would soon reach places where they are payable. 

 But unfortunately for the general interests of this 

 state, its trade is divided between its Atlantic 

 towns, and Baltimore and the Ohio and Missis- 

 sippi markets. And iheie is less trading inter- 

 course between each two of the three great pro- 

 ducing regions, than there is between Richmond 

 and Liverpool. This condition and separation of 

 trade and of markets multiplies the facilities of the 

 banks for keeping their notes away from the only 

 places at which their payment can be effectually 

 claimed. 



Having thus well prepared to meet all possible 

 contingencies, the banks have delcared what they 

 call a resumption of payments. And how have 

 they resumed 1 They still refuse to pay specie, 

 or even their own notes,- for checks, whether 

 drawn upon general deposites or for debts collect- 

 ed. And all that they will pay is their own notes, 

 when any such by chance stray homeward from 

 the distant places in Which only they were issued 

 for circulation. And, thus, even if every holder 

 of a note, or other obligation really payable in 

 specie at home, were to dare to demand specie 

 for it, there would be no possibility of any early 

 and considerable demand being made on any of 

 the banks. But, nevertheless, their day of reckon- 

 ing is not far distant. There is now existing and 



