684 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



And now, my friends, before I take my leave, I to operate,) and any extension of the loan will 



I have only to express my regrets, that truth 

 should have compelled me to give you eo dis- 

 couraging a picture of what appears to me to l)e 

 our present coiidiiion and future prospects. But 

 if ii has the same effect on you, as the thoughts 

 which produced it have had on myself, it will only 

 rouse us lo greater exertions in our cause, than 

 we have ever yet made. This cause is far, very 

 farlrom being hopeless ; nay, the dawn of better 

 things is clearly visible to the mind's eye, in seve- 

 ral parts of our stale, especially in and around 

 our good city of Richmond, from which ought al- 

 ways to emanate good examples in every branch 

 of productive industry. Even with us, the pre- 

 sent effort is very encouraging, if it will but last. 

 Then, let us al'l determine never, no, " ?ieuer to 

 give up the ship,'''' but return to our respective 

 homes with hearts and voices always ready to 

 join in the animating cry of— onward, onv/ard let 

 us march in united eff'orts so to improve the agri- 

 culture of our good old mother, Virginia, that the 

 exemplary progress of her eons in husbandry 

 ffjay soon become as much the theme ol just and 

 universal praise in her days of peace, as were 

 their glorious deeds of patriotism and valor iu 

 the time of war. 



THE QUESTION OF BANK RESUMPTION, 

 CONTINUE!) SUSPENSION. 



Addressed to the Members of the Legislature 

 Virginia. 



of 



No. 1. — The operation ariu effects of the state be- 

 ing a borrower from the banks. 



Notwithstanding that the time fixed by law for 

 the banks to re,ume payment (or the limit ol 

 legal indulgence to their suspension) is so near, 

 and though theie are so many apparent indica- 

 tions of an intention to resume, we have scarcely 

 any expectation of its being done. The bank 

 presidents and the other most influential bankites 

 and merchants already pronounce early resump- 

 tion to be " impossible." The two principal ob- 

 jections to resumption generally urged are, first, 

 that the banks ol' Virginia cannot resume pay- 

 ment without ruin to the banks and to trade, so long 

 as those of Maryland and Pennsylvania refuse 

 to pay — and 2f)d, that the resumption of the banks 

 will force the payment of all debts, to the ruin of 

 the indebted class. Each of those two objec- 

 tions has been met and opposed at length in pre- 

 vious articles of this publication, and it is unneces- 

 sary here to repeat our reasons lor admitting nei- 

 tiier to be true or valid. But there is another ob- 

 jection whiih has not yet been presented promi- 

 nently, which we would be much more inclined 

 to acknowledge to be insuperable, and which cer- 

 tainly will render resumption very difficult to the 

 banks, if not " impossible," without being Ibllow- 

 ed by their absolute and avowed stoppage and 

 bankruptcy. This condition is the consequence 

 of the debt incurred by the state at the las' ses- 

 sion to the banks, of $360,000, and which it will 

 be proposed to renew and extend, and probably 

 to double, at this session. The fact of lending so 

 much paper to the state last winter was used by 

 the banks as a pretext lor renewing their suspen- 

 sion of payments, (which in fact had not ceased 



be made the implied or understood condition of 

 the legislature's permitting the continuation of the 

 Iraudulent suspension for as Ions a time as the 

 loan shall remain unpaid : so that Virginia will be, 

 like bankrupt Pennsylvania, bound by its legisla- 

 tion, and implied contract, to maintain the con- 

 tinuance of an irredeemable currency. There- 

 lore, those anti-suspension members of the le- 

 gislature who will vote lor any such extension 

 or renewal of the loan, will be in eff'ect voting 

 lor coatinued suspension of payment, and plenary 

 indulgence to bank failures and bank fraud. 



But ilj after such renewal of the loan, it will be 

 as the bankites will then claim, and as we are 

 inclined to admit, "impossible" for the banks 

 10 resume, (salely for the banks,) it will be be- 

 cause they never will be able; and that they must 

 break, or cease to operate, whenever compelled 

 to meet their debts and obligations. If so, indeed, 

 (which is not our assertion, but the inference from 

 the bankite arguments,) the unjust indulgence 

 afforded by the legislature merely now prevents 

 the evidence being exhibited, and the bankruptcy 

 being declared, wliich already exists. For a con- 

 tinued necessity for suspension and inability of 

 a bank to make payment, is a permanent stop- 

 page of payment, or actual bankruptcy. Were 

 we ever so well convinced of this being true, it 

 would only serve as an additional reason for 

 urging the v/inding up, or suffering to expire, 

 so rotten and incurable a system of irresponsible 

 banking. 



If, upon the banks resuming specie payments, 

 bona fide, an exhausting and ruinous run were 

 made on them by the holders of more of their 

 notes than they could pay, it could only be the 

 result of the false and Iraudulent conduct of banks 

 having destroyed the former general confidence 

 in their truth., honesty, and ultimate solvency. It 

 would be impossible that any other cause than 

 such loss of confidence (and that loss thus caus- 

 ed by their suspension of payment) could bring 

 together at once even one-third of the widely 

 dispersed notes, to be presented lor specie. Such 

 large demands can never be made on any bank 

 believed to be solvent, and its notes truly re- 

 deemable. Therelbre, if such danger be now 

 impending, (independent of further loans being 

 made lo the state,) it is owing to the forfeiture 

 of credit and reputation by the banks ; and that 

 cause must grow in strength, and power of effiect, 

 with the longer continuance of suspension. And 

 it is obvious that if such loss of public confidence 

 would now be sufficient to make resumption dan- 

 gerous to the banks, every year, or month, 

 added to the delay, will serve greatly to increase 

 that danger. The only means of avoiding it 

 will be — what the leading and most zealous bank- 

 ites now aim a(, but dare not yet to confess — the 

 fixed governmental policy of an irredeemable 

 bank paper currency. Gentlemen legislators! 

 unless you design to go this length, it is perfectly 

 useless to permit a further extension of bank sus- 

 pension. No further delay, or indulgence, will 

 make the banks better prepared, either in will, in 

 money, or in credit and reputation, to meet the 

 more severe trial at a later time. 



It is almost certain that this capital reason for 

 continued suspension will be afTorded by the mak- 

 ing a new loan (of irredeemable paper) from the 

 banks. The existing debt to the banke is paya- 



