442 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



tinue so to choose, and can so sustain the banks 

 in their refusal, in spite of any operation of a 

 United States bank. Indeed, as soon, and as long, 

 as a state bank boldly refuses to pay its notes and 

 other dues, and it is sustained in such refusal by 

 the law of the land, the bank is thereby made 

 invulnerable against all assaults. It is entrenched 

 behind impregnable barriers, constructed of its 

 own discredit and infamy. The banks of Virgi- 

 nia could commence specie payments to-morrow, 

 and maintain them, if compelled to that honest 

 course bj^ any external power. But in so doing, 

 they must lose all their present dividends, which, 

 whether of nci/'rq/i7s or o[' capital, are now the 

 fruits of legalized cheating and robbing the com- 

 munity. They would either have to contract 

 their business, or to use its gains in purchasins 

 specie to meet liabilities. There possibly may 

 be plenty of other and stronger reasons (or estab- 

 lishing a Uniied S'ates bank, which we mean not 

 here to discuss ; but this one inducement held 

 out, and so genentlly relied on, of its causing the 

 state banks to pay specie, is certainly the weakest 

 and most contemptible of all pretences. The 

 state of Virginia, the people and the irovernment, 

 either do or cfoyioi c/toose to sustain the banks of 

 Virginia (as they are sustained by law) in their 

 present dishonest refusal to pay their debts. If 

 the choice is to sustain this dishonest course, all 

 compulsory action, to the contrary, of a Uniied 

 States bank will be utterly futile. If the state 

 government requires the banks to pay, there is 

 certainly no need to go abroad for an agent to 

 compel that whii^h the general laws of the land 

 would sufficiently exact, if the exclusive privileges 

 to banks, of indulgence to fraud, were merely 

 withdrawn. Taylor of Caroline. 



explanation' in regard to a part of mr. 

 turner's address. 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Roseneath, July 21, 1841. 

 Dear sir, — 



My friend. Gen. Richardson, informed me this 

 morning, that, in a conversation that he had re- 

 cently had with you, you told him that you in- 

 tended to publish the address delivered at the late 

 meeting of our agricultural "society. I will not 

 disguise the fact, that I fi^el considerably flattered 

 with this token ol' your approbation. But my ob- 

 ject in writing is !o say, that I do not feel wiliinof 

 that this production should thus come before the 

 public, without a word or two of explanation. It 

 would appear from the letter of the address, that I 

 am in favor of a United States bank. Now the 

 lact is, that I am no more in favor ol a United 

 States bank, than of any other bank. I went upon 

 the principle that our merchants and other tradintr 

 people would have a hank of some kind. This 

 being the case, I thought and still think it good 

 policy to tolerate, and even patronize, that bank 

 which is least objectionable. And as the late 

 United States Bank did actually equalize the cur- 

 rency, I gave it a decided preference over other 

 banks, the currency of which is in a wretchedly 

 disordered state. The sentiment intended to be 

 conveyed is simply this: that that bank suits 

 farmers the best which makes one man's dollar 



equal to that of another, all over the world. I 

 care not by what name it is called, if it have the 

 above effect, that is the bank for farmers. If you 

 publish the address, please make the above ex- 

 planation. As to our long-specching legislature, 

 and our shaving banks, I thought ihey deserved 

 a lashing, and I gave it to them with all the se- 

 verity of which I was capable. With best re- 

 spects, &c. J. H. Turner. 



[The foregoing letter was received after the 

 portion ol the address which appears in the pre. 

 ceding sheet was in type. It is inserted as early 

 thereafter as could be done without much inconve- 

 nience. It is not only due to Mr. Turner to per- 

 mit him to explain his meaning, hut his explana- 

 tion is also due to the public, inasmuch as his lan- 

 guage had been reported, and understood by many, 

 as a thorough approval and recommendation of 

 a United States bank. If he is " no more in fa- 

 vor of a Uniied Slates bank than of any other [ex- 

 isting] bank," he is then (hy his context) enough 

 opposed to both kinds. But it is certain that Mr. 

 Turner's words have been construed as highly in 

 lavor of the establishing of a United States bank ; 

 and one of the most striking prools of that im- 

 pression has reached us since his letter. A writer 

 in the Lynchburg Virginian, who is regularly ar- 

 guing, and at length, in favor of a United Slates 

 bank, when he comes to treat of the " Expedien- 

 cy, " copies entire and adopts all ihai part of the ad- 

 dress which refers to banks, paper money and ex- 

 change — being content to bear and to repeat the 

 well-deserved censures therein cast upon the disho- 

 nest course of the non-paying state banke, for the 

 sakeoftheshort passage in favorofa national bank. 

 The writer introduces the extract with only the fol- 

 lowing words : — " 2. lis expediency. On this point 

 we shall be content with the following practical 

 argument, for which we are indebted to the llev, 

 Jesse H. Turner, the president of the Henrico 

 Agricultural Society. It is the argument of a 

 farmer, not of a politician — and it cannot fail, ap- 

 pealing as it does to the common sense of every 

 man, to exert a wholesome influence on the pub- 

 lic mind." 



In answer to Mr. Turner's mistaken ground, 

 that the late United States Bank "actually equal- 

 ized the currency," we shall add nothing more to 

 what has been already said in the preceding pages 

 of this number. — Ed. F. R.] 



THE SEASON AND CROPS. 



The wheat crop of lower and middle Virginia 

 will certainly fall far short of the sanguine antici- 

 pations which we held and expressed, and which 

 were entertained by most farmers, just before (he 



