164 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Now all this is changed. All ihe banks and 

 branches in Virginia, exceping two in this town, 

 (which peculiar circumstances con)pelled to aban- 

 don all such pretence,) have been, eince February 

 Isl, and siill are, what, in the current language 

 of the day, are called " specie-paying 6artA's." Yet, 

 we have before pres-umed to pronounce, and still 

 pronounce, that there is not even one bank or 

 branch in Virginia, that deserves the character 

 of specie-paying. 



It is highly important to the interest of the 

 great agricultural community to know the truth 

 in regard to even this question alone ; and, as it 

 is an isolated question, which may be discussed 

 separately, and without the neccessity of attack- 

 ing, directly, the main defences of the general 

 banking policy and banking ethics of this country, 

 it is possible that on this one separate quesiion, 

 at least, the truth may be reached, and made 

 clear to our agricultural and country readers, 

 whose interests, are not concerned in keeping the 

 truth concealed, and in sustaining every misdeed 

 and moral fraud perpetrated by the banks. 



In the first place — p^ain as this question would 

 be considered under other circumstances, and 

 easy of satisfactory solution, there is almost an 

 entire want of facts in regard to the present pay- 

 ments of the banks in Virginia, except such as 

 each ir.quirer may learn liom merely verl)al and 

 private information in the neighborhood of each 

 particular bank office. The newspapers are either 

 silent on every point on which truth would be 

 of disservice to the banks, or, more generally, 

 utter what the bank authorities prompt, and wish 

 tne public to believe ; and no opposite statement is 

 permitted to go before the public, until conceal- 

 ment is either no longer possible, or no longer 

 profitable to the banks. 



Thus, for example, the principal newspapers of 

 this state not only announced the commencement 

 of a full and bona-fida payment of specie by the 

 banks of Virginia, on Feb. Isi, but proclaimed 

 and boasted thai specie piymenls were continued 

 — and would be continued in 8|)ite of every thino' 

 —after the Philadelphia and Baltimore banks 

 had again suspended payments. If any contra- 

 diction of this boast of the banks has since ap- 

 |>eared in anyone of the principal newspapers of 

 Virginia, or of the union, it is more than we 

 have been able to learn. It would be as vain to 

 look to the commercial newspaper press, any 

 where south of Philadelphia, for full and correct 

 statements in regard to the banks, as it would 

 have been under the rule of the Inquisition of 

 Spain to have sought in that country for testimony 

 against the doctrines and claims of the catholic 



church. We therefore readily admit that we 

 have no (/irecitestimony that all or any of the 

 various banks of Virginia, other than those of 

 our neighborhood, are not now in the fullest 

 sense *^ specie-paying banks''' — in as much as not 

 a word oJ' contradiction in any newspaper has 

 reached us, to the general declaration of general 

 specie-paying, which had been put out by all the 

 banks and newspapers on Feb. 1st. But, we may 

 venture to infer, (in the absence o( all more cer- 

 tain and trust-worthy testimony,) that the gene- 

 ral course of all the banks of Virginia, in this 

 respect, is alike — and, at any rate, that the course 

 of all the different branches of one bank must 

 (in essentials) be the same ; and, il" we shall show 

 that there is certainly no specie-paying bank Iq 

 Richmond, nor in Petersburg, it cannot but be 

 believed that there is no such thing in all Vir- 

 ginia — ^il' indeed, now in any other state south of 

 New York. 



Fur greater certainty and clearness, let us nar- 

 row our ground and our observations to the town 

 of Petersburg, in which we reside. Ot' the three 

 banks here, as belore stated, two slopped specie- 

 payments, immediately after the first news of the 

 last suspension in Philadelphia, and alter only six 

 days of (so-called) "resumption of payments ' in 

 Virginia. This stoppage of payment would still 

 have been called (in bank language) C()nti7iuing 

 to pay specie J but a check on one, and bills of 

 lh£ other bank, having been proiwplly protested, 

 and the demand lor specie, by check, having been 

 .eri/orcec/ upon the Farmers' Bank, the pretence of 

 paying specie, as ke|)t up by other banks, would 

 have been manilestly lutile and ridiculous in these 

 cases at home. The question then is settled as to 

 these two banks; and they are entitled at least to 

 the credit of confessing (no matter how reluctantly 

 It was exiracied from ihem) that they do not pay 

 specie ; and in this respect, at least, they deserve 

 more commendation than any of their "specie- 

 paying-' sisterhood. 



The branch bank of Virginia of Petersburg, 

 then, is the only one of our three banks which still 

 professes to pay specie ; and we shall proceed to 

 examine the value of that profession. And here 

 let us remark that we take that office as a 

 sample, and from which to infiir the conduct of all 

 others, because we fully believe that noneother 

 in Virginia has better complied with its obliga- 

 tions, or better deserves the character of a "specie- 

 paying bank." And we are thus particular in 

 acquitiing this bank from charges which many 

 others are justly obnoxious to, because of .our 

 desire to subject one whose course we deem 

 the least objectionable, of all known, to the test 

 question of specie-paying or not. 



