THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



]65 



This hank pnys (since February Isl,) all its own 

 notes presented lor specie, and has paid .some checks, 

 But the circulation ol Petersburg, and of all the 

 surrounding country, is filled up almost entirely 

 with the paper money of other and remote banks 

 of Virginia, and of North Carolina; and scarcely 

 can a note o( tlie Petersburg branch bank of Vir- 

 ginia be found in the circulation of the town. We 

 liave. examined every note which has passed 

 through our bands. since early in January, and 

 can assert .that, in the two months, we have not 

 seen a single note of the Petersburg brancli bank 

 in circulation in tliis town. Of the other two 

 banks, very Ccw of their own notes (and which 

 they do not pay) have been met with in that time 

 in circulation here — all of which together would 

 not have amounted to a hundred dollars. 



A person who had heard nothing conccrnintr 

 the tricks of the banking trade, would be at a total 

 loss to conceive how the circulation of any town 

 and its neighboring country, consisting exclusively 

 of paper currency, should be almost destitute of 

 any notes htil those of the banks of distant towns, 

 with which there was no trading connexion. We, 

 who are not in the secrets ofthe banks, can only inter 

 the causes and the motives, from the visible course 

 of procedure, and the general results. Since the 

 general bank suspension in 1837, (which came 

 unexpectedly upon the banks here, and before 

 they had prepared to pay specie as is now so easily 

 done,) it has been the policy of all of theni to send 

 the notes of each bank as far i'rom home as possi- 

 ble, and to use, in their issues, the notes of (he 

 most distant banks. The wide extent of Virginia, 

 and the lillie commercial intercourse between 

 several of the different sections and the existing 

 system of mother banks and branches, all ad- 

 mirably helped to aid this object. Of course we 

 cannot prove that the notes of the different banks 

 were systematically exchanged for this purpose; 

 but we all know these facts : that, as a general 

 rule, a check on the bank of Virginia, at Peters- 

 burg, would, (unless some peculiar circumstances 

 caused an exception,) be paid in notes of other 

 and distant branches, or, still rpore generally, in 

 North Carolina notes entirely. Nobody objected 

 to these notes of other banks, (as they had both 

 a legal and moral right to do,) because, all being 

 non-paying banks, the notes of ail were equally 

 good, or equally ba'd. The friends of the banks 

 of course wished payments to be made in this 

 manner, for the benefit ofthe banks ; and the (ew 

 enemies who ilared to avow hostility, had no 

 ground to object to this substituted foreign pa- 

 per, as it was equally current, equally responsible, 

 and alike inconvertible into specie. It is easy 

 enough, then, to understand how, by this policy 



being pursued for years together, that eacli bank 

 should very effectually fill the circulation of its 

 own sphere of operations with foreign notes, for 

 which no demand on it for specie could be made. 

 And thus, every bank and branch in Virginia has 

 been so liir safe from any considerable demand 

 for specie, made by presenting its own notes. But 

 this exception cannot last long. There is now an 

 inducement, which did not before exist while no 

 notes were paid, to return all notes to the sources 

 whence they issued, and where alone they pos- 

 sess the value of being convertible into specie. 

 Already the brokers (who alone can and do, for 

 their own gain,'eiiher curb or punish the worst 

 transgressions of banks,) are working to produce 

 tliis end ; and their operations would soon compel 

 all our banks to be honestly responsible, or to stop, 

 if the expected legislative act of indulgence and 

 indemnity should be withheld. 



Well ! we have satisfactorily explained how it 

 it is, that BO far, it has cost the "specie-paying 

 banks" very little specie to claim and maintain 

 that character, by paying their own notes. But 

 their heaviest responsibility was upon checks — 

 and these they refuse to pay, except in "current 

 notes," which new (but now very current) term 

 nseans the worst money that the bank, for its own 

 purposes and gain, has chosen to receive on de- 

 posite — as the notes of Wheeling, and Winchester, 

 and Wytheville, and Kanawha, by the Richmond 

 banks, and the notes of North Carolina, by the 

 Petersburg banks. Thus this principal source 

 of claim for specie is efiectually cut off. 



We will not undertake to affirm that this course 

 is indefensible at law — though we fully believe so. 

 But it certainly never, could have been designed 

 to be permitted by the charter. If the law indeed 

 sanctions such an evasion ofthe obligation to pay 

 specie, then it would be just as well to remove 

 every check and restraint. For when once the 

 people have been accustomed, by use, to this new 

 principle-of bankmg and of bank moraHty, it can 

 be extended so as to cover every desirable case. 

 If the most remote branches in Virginia are not 

 far enough apart, and enough unconnected in 

 trade to prevent the return of the notes, nor even 

 the exchange with (^or borrowing from') the North 

 Carolina banks, to effect the desired purpose, then 

 the notes of Virginia may be sent to Tennessee 

 and Michigan, and the notes of those states 

 brought here and made " bankable " money, and 

 of course " current notes;" and it would be then 

 next to impossible to draw enough money eveii 

 from a solvent bank, to compel its insolvency to be 

 tested. If this system makes a " specie-paying" 

 bank, it is very ridiculous for any contest to be 

 made, either by the bank men against paying 



