THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



157 



ers? Who that admires, as all must do, (he i viilue in the property of the agricuHural interest, 

 abilities of niniiv of the condnclors ol' our Far- i aniounted to hundreds of millions ordoliars. Truiv 



mers' Kofrisiers, will ascribe their silence on this 

 all-absorbinc» topic of the currency, to any want 

 of appreciation of its importance, or of capacity 

 to investipate it? Those ainonn; agriculturists 

 who cannot be charsred with nei?lect of all intel- 

 lectual exercise, yet have their feelinirs ton much 

 entjrossed, and their reading too much confined to 

 parly recriminations, or to mere practicfil details 

 of experimental agriculture in the strictest sense 

 of the word. 



Commerce could not flourish without agricul- 

 ture and manufactures, and their productions as 

 its basis and material ; on the other hand what 

 but commerce can iiive activity and value to 'he 

 culture and products of the soil and the loom 7 

 Aijain — did any nation ever exist where credit 

 was so necessary and important, to purchase labor, 

 to foster .genius, and tn developo dormant but 

 fruitllil resources, as in this vastly extensive and 

 unexplored country, whose mountain sides and 

 valleys need but the plough and the pick to yield 

 unbouded wealth and the mea'hs of sustaining a 

 population without limits — yet if an agricultural 

 paper should eulogise commerce, and invoke the 

 legislature to irivc it encouragement, as the hand- 

 maid of agriculture, and the great promoter of 

 civilization and the arts; if it should advocate a 

 system of financial legislation under which credit 

 shall supply to genius and industry ihe place ol 

 capital — straightway it shall he denounced, and 

 by many thrown up, as being inimical to a party, 



there is no question of more vital importance to 

 I he agricultural interest than the proper regulation 

 of the currency; and we greatly desire, and will 

 lend our humble efloris, in this journal and else- 

 where, to extend information on this subject, and 

 to urge the agricultural class to assume their right, 

 and io act and to govern in this matter. 



But it is very strange, that, agreeing so perfectly 

 in the premises, our brother editor and we should 

 differ so widely in our conclusions. For, from his 

 remariis following the above, (and which we do 

 not copy,) it is evident that he considers the policy 

 that would most restrain bank paper issues as the 

 most hurtful to a sound condition of the currency ; 

 while, on the contrary, we would advocate still 

 more restraint, (though not by the usual and 

 abjurd and ridiculous mode ot'legislalive prohibi- 

 tions and penalties ;) and deem irredeemable paper 

 money and irresponsible banking operations and 

 bank credit, existing and sustained merely by go- 

 vernment, as constituting the greatest curse of our 

 country. By the fraudulent and irresponsible 

 banking- system of this country, a state of general 

 bankruptcy was produced between 1S13 to 1819 ; 



whose views have been interpreted and condensed | and a like condition of things is now threatening, 

 in the memorable exclamation — "perish com- unless prevented by restraining or stopping the 



merce, perish credit." Hence the difficulty of dis 

 cussing, impartially, a question which, next after 

 a iew cardinal principles of liberty, — such as the 

 freedom of speech and of suffrage, the independ- 

 ence of the legislature on the executive branch 

 of the government, and the trial by jury, — is of 

 the highest practical importance to every citizen 

 of the republic, and we repeat, to none more, if 

 as much, as to the farmer and planter. * * * 



We entirely concur with our brotlKir agricultu- 

 ral editor in the general position assumed by hinn 

 above. The agricultural interest, more than an,v 

 other, is deeply concerned in securing and preserv- 

 ing a sou?i^cwrrenc!/; and though the direction (or 

 misdirection) of banking and the currency, has 

 been heretofore left to the management exclu- 

 sively of merchants, and bank debtors, and exer- 

 cised for their exclusive profit, 'it rightly belongs 

 to the agricultural class — not only because of their 

 legal right, as forming the great and general in- 

 terest of the country, but because of their much 

 deeper stake in the game. A change of only 5 

 per cent, in the value of (he currency, which is 

 but an ordinary and every-day degree of fluctua- 

 tion, is enough to alter the value of the lands and 

 farming stock, and other property of farmers, to 

 the amount of perhaps twenty millions of dollars. 

 And when money values are altered by the depre- 

 ciation of the currency to the extent that was 

 produced in 1815, the losses, or the destruction of 



opera'ions of all really bankrupt institutions. We 

 are far from belonging to the " perish credit, perish 

 commerce"' school, stigmatized above. We 

 value, and desire for the country, as much as any 

 can do, a sou7id credit system founded on confi- 

 dence properly placed. And we would leave banks 

 as well as individuals to acquire and retain or to 

 lose their credit, and the confidence of the public, 

 by their acts, and their reputation for wealth, 

 honesty, and fidelity to their engagements. We 

 would not oppose, but would advocatey>ee trade 

 in banking and in money, as in every thing else ; 

 and would not object to any amount, of baukino-, 

 if done upon the proper capital and credit of the 

 bankers. But while being thus willing to accord 

 to the business every facility and degree of free- 

 dom that any other trade or mode of investing 

 capital possesses, we would not grant a tittle more 

 than other pursuits enjoy by law ; but would leave 

 banks and banking to stand or to fall, by their own 

 acts, and their own success and credit, or the re- 

 verse, and to be as strictly responsible as any in- 

 dividual traders; and by no means would we con- 

 sent to build up their credit and their profits, by giv- 

 ing them the Use of the mone_v, or sustaining them 

 by the credit, of either state or federal government, 

 and still less of using government interposition in 

 their favor whenever requisite to save them from 

 the proper eoneequcncce of bankruptcy. 



