362 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



BEPRECIATBD AND WORTHLESS BANK NOTES, 

 AND SUBSCRIFTiONS TO THE FARMERS' RE- 

 GISTER. 



at 30 per cent, discount. (We refer not to actual 

 frauds in payments, by gentlemen of high stand- 

 ing too, in paper almost worihit es here, arid diecre- 

 , dited at home — as Brandon paper formerly, and 

 From the depreciation of the paper (and now ; ^^-^^ (Florida) Bank notes recently.) We have 

 sole) currency of the country, which is the gene- ,q j^^g^ ^ ^^^^^, jjg^ount on nearly all the bank 



ral result of the swindling banking system, all 

 branches of business sud'er greatly — and all per- 

 Bons, except usurers, and traders in exchange, and 

 especially the banks, which manufacture this depre- 

 ciated currency, and whose greatest profit now 

 consists in the depreciation and discrediting of their 

 own notes, caused by their own illegal and disho- 

 nest action. But our particular employment, as 

 publisher of a periodical, perhaps sutlers more 

 than any other; and if our subscribers continue to 

 delay payment upon the ground of difficulty to 

 obtain better funds, or to pay us in depreciated 

 money as many have done latterly — and this cur- 

 rency should still continue to grow worse and 

 worse, as we expect ii will — then our publication 

 and business must be broken down, even with a 

 subscription list larger and more valuable on pa- 

 per, than it ever has been before. We had thought 

 that the words of our conditions, (ihough adopted 

 long before the banks had reached their now very 

 general degree of (raud, and their issues of depre- 

 ciation and deserved discredit,) would have guard- 

 cd^against very heavy losses by discount on mo- 

 ney worse than that of our own banks in Virginia 

 — which is bad enough. But not so. It is not 

 only that particular banks and their notes, former- 

 ly in something like good credit, have become dis- 

 credited, but also that many subscribers seem to 

 think that a depreciated bank note has at least one 

 peculiar value — which is, to serve as payn)ent for 

 the Farmefa' Register. 



Owing to the great and still increasing losses 

 from this source, we must require hereafter full 

 compliance by subscriberp, in regard to the bank 

 notes they send, with the long existing conditions 

 of publication. These have long required, 1st, 

 thai remittances shall be in notes or checks on 

 specie- paying banks, if any such there be in the 

 etate in which the subscriber resides ; 2(lly, if there 

 be no such notes, (and there are none now, south 

 of New York, that we ever see, e.xcf pi of South 

 Carolina banks,) then, that payment shall be made 

 in notes of par value in Virginia, (that is, not more 

 depreciated than the bank notes of Virginia,)— 

 and Sdly, if neither ooe or the oiher can be done, 

 any notes of a city bank, of iho state in which 

 the subscriber resides, would te received—sup- 

 posing of course that such would be among the 

 best currency of that state. Now, even under 

 these restrictions, (or professing to respect them,) 

 we have had paper sent us which we cannot se'l 



notes (or all such as are sent to us,) of Georgia 

 and Alabama. By the prices current it would 

 seem that Savannah and Augusta notes are as 

 good at home 8S these of Virginia are at home. 

 But not one of these city bank notes have we 

 seen, while remittances have been sent us of notes 

 of every smaller town and every more discredited 

 bank in Georgia. In other cases, notes are sent, as 

 of "specie-paying banks," because the bank au- 

 thorities, and the newspapers acting under their 

 orders, called them so — when such notes were 5 to 

 10 per cent, below specie at home, and much more 

 abroad. By the way — there is only one mode of 

 testing whether a bank is specie paying, or non- 

 specie-paying ; and that rule is infallible. If the 

 notes of a bank, where issued, are worth less than 

 specie, it is certain that the bank is not truly and 

 fully paying specie ; and all the assertions or oaths 

 of bank officers and directors, and bank debtors 

 and bank slaves, and newspaper editors, to the con- 

 trary, are not worth a straw as testimony, if in oppo- 

 sition to the simple fact of even so much as one per 

 cent, discount. Yet some banks whose notes are 

 5 per cent, below par at home, and 20 abroad, 

 have claimed to be "specie-paying" — and their 

 officers and directors, and men too of high standing, 

 are not ashamed to maintain the truth of the pal- 

 pable and self-evident falsehood. 



It is impossible that we can devise any form of 

 phrase for our conditions, which shall serve to 

 meet and guard against all the old and the new 

 frauds of issuers of paper money — and therefore it 

 will not be attempted farther than has been done al- 

 ready by the long used words of our conditions. 

 Subscribers who desire to comply with their obli- 

 gations, can do so, at least with a little delay, by 

 sending paper not depreciated (below specie) at 

 most above 5 per cent, at home, and which might 

 not be worse than 10 per cent discount in Virgi- 

 nia. This would be a heavy loss, and perhaps 

 enough to ruin our business, if continued long. 

 But we cannot longer submit, voluntarily, to re- 

 ceive much worse currency, and in some cases, 

 as it would seem, selected by the lenders because 

 of its low value. Nor will the claim to pay such 

 discredited notes be admitted the sooner, because 

 the bank adds to its other frauds the false asser- 

 tion that it pays specie ; or because such fraudulent 

 and discredited or bankrupt bank may be located 

 in a city. 



We are obliged to bear all losses which our dis- 

 tant subscribers choose to pot upon m. if they 



