THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



549 



sate for euch an unlimited aiui unkoowii extent ol 

 vaeealage to foreign states. 



Let us illustrate this state of vassalage. 



When the constitution of Virginia was under 

 revisal and amendment, suppose that (brmai pro- 

 posals had been submitted to the Convention, Irom 

 the governments of Pennsylvania and Maryland, 

 offering each to pay to Virginia ■$ 100,000 a year, 

 for the perpetual privilege of those states making 

 the currency of Virginia, its depreciation, the 

 •market value of property, the fluctuation of value 

 &c. &c., to accord precisely and fully to such ex- 

 tent as those states might choose to do for them- 

 selves by means of their irredeemable paper. 

 And even limit the monstrous supposition of the 

 rate of the extent of evil (though it is indeed 

 unlimitable,) to just what has existed in Virginia 

 for the last five years, and what must exist tor 

 the next five, or until the resumption of Pennsyl- 

 vania shall cease, if her existing law be indeed 

 held sacred. We may safely assume that not 

 one voice in the Convention of Virginia would 

 have been found in favor of yielding, for the con- 

 sideration of ^200,000 a year, those rights and in- 

 terests of Virginia which are yielded for nothing 

 by the argument of our present opponents. And 

 such yielding would have been deemed as unprofi- 

 table in regard to the mere pecuniary interests of 

 the people of Virginia, as it would be degrading 

 and inlamoua to an independent commonwealth. 



But this argument lor continued supension does 

 not go as far as it admits of being fairly carried. 

 If the example of Pennsylvania and Maryland 

 in the general matter of suspension ought to be 

 always followed by Virginia, so the extent of 

 such suspension, as to mode and legal limit of 

 time, should also be conformed to. 



Now Virginia preserves, by the act of last ses- 

 sion, something like a specie currency of small 

 change, by compelling the banks to redeem their 

 small notes (for ^1 and ^2) in specie. These 

 small note? are carried in for specie, much to the 

 annoyanrc and diminution of profit of the banks ; 

 and doubil''ss all of these notes that reach Balti- 

 more and Philadelphia are collected for that pur- 

 pose by the brokers. To avoid this one remaining 

 feature of specie- paying by our banks, and its 

 certain consequences in the presenting them by 

 brokers for redemption, our legislature certainly 

 ought (to carry out the argument !br the banks,) 

 to make these small notes irredeemable ; and, to 

 supply the want of email change, permit, as in 

 Maryland, bills to be issued by corporations or in- 

 individuals as low as for 6 cents. Then, no specie 



could be drawn li-om our banks, and there would 

 l)e none of it in circulation ; and the nuisance (or 

 the blessing) of a discredited and greatly depre- 

 ciated "shin-plaster'' currency, such as exists in 

 Maryland, would be universal in Virginia. With- 

 out this to complete the benefit, the existing 

 partial redeeming law of Virginia leaves the 

 banks and the country fully exposed to at least a 

 part of the alleged evils of resumption of specie 

 payments. 



Again : As the argument for continued suspen- 

 sion claims that ihe banks of Virginia ought not 

 to resume payments until those of Pennsylvania 

 and Maryland resume, (we omit all other neigh- 

 boring states, to which the rule will also apply — ) 

 let us see what is the shortest time at which such 

 permission to resume may be expected. By the 

 very infamous law of Pennsylvania, passed by 

 the gaining of bribed votes in the last hour of 

 a long session, the legislature of the bankrupt 

 commonwealth of Pennsylvania made a bargain 

 and league with her fraudulent banks, by which 

 both the state and the banks were to aid each 

 other in cheating the community. The banks 

 were allowed by this law to continue their sus- 

 pension of payraents_/f;r five more years from that 

 time; and as a condition of this unheard-of 

 measure of fraudulent privilege, the indulged 

 banks were to lend to the state three millions of 

 dollars, for the same five years; with the proviso, 

 that if the loan should not then be paid, the bank 

 suspension shall still continue, until the loan shall 

 be paid. Here, then, is a suspension of payments 

 certainly fixed on Pennsylvania, and of course (ac- 

 cording to the argument we oppose) upon Mary- 

 land and upon Virginia, for five years at least ; and 

 that merely that a government, which is afraid to 

 lay taxes to pay the interest of its debts, might be 

 enabled to borrow irredeemable bank notes for that 

 purpose. But that is not all, nor half. Can any 

 man believe that a government acting thus, and 

 (or such inducements, will pay the principal so 

 borrowed within 5 years'? And if not, then the 

 suspension is to be continued, not only on Penn- 

 sylvania, but as a consequence on Virginia, until 

 the debt shall be fully paid. And now, we put 

 it to the farmers of Virginia, to the people in 

 general, and even to our honest and disinter- 

 ested opponents, (who have received from the 

 bank organs as true, and have used this argument, 

 and wish to apply the rule lor the continuation of 

 suspension in Virginia,) whether they are willing 

 to abide the time, the pleasure and the interests, 

 ofihe siovernment and the banks of PennsylvaniH, 

 for the commencement of the resumption of pay- 



