﻿ESAEET : STATE BAXKIXG IX IXDIAXA 



225 



addressed a note to Secretary Crawford in behalf of the Farmers 

 and Mechanics' Bank, that officer gave it his immediate attention. 



The ]\Iadison bank had previously offered to handle the public 

 deposits on the same conditions as were accorded by the treasury 

 to the bank at Cincinnati. These condition? were: an unquahfied 

 specie pajTtient by the bank; an agreement to take as ^'cash" all 

 the money at the land office (but the cashier had the right, and it 

 was made his duty, to send every month to the land office a list of 

 banks whose notes were to be accepted); a permanent deposit of 

 840,000 which was to be allowed the bank for its service, and all 

 above which was to be transferred monthly to the Branch Bank of the 

 United States; and a provision that the bank was to send a monthly 

 statement to the Secretary of the Treasury, together with a bank 

 statement and a list of its debtors. 



The bank at Madison discharged its obhgations punctually, 

 and complied cheerfully with every requirement of the treasury ;'5 

 but the inveterate hostility of the Bank of the United States con- 

 tinued. On the 18th of August, 1821, the Secretary of the Treasury 

 asked President Langdon Cheeves of the Bank of the United States 

 to make arrangements with some local banks in the West, to handle 

 the pension money to be disbursed there. In the list recommended 

 was the bank at Madison. Cheeves, however, refused to have 

 financial dealings with any of them.^^ At this time nearly all the 

 banks in the West were broken, and large sums of government 

 money were tied up in them or lost.^" By refusing, or omitting, 



Hendricks to Crawford, May 11, 1S20: "Should Mr. Crawford adopt the principle of giving 

 the deposits of pubhc moneys to anj- local bank of the western country we would recommend the 

 Farmers and Mechanics' of Madison, Indiana, as one entitled to the fullest confidence. We are well 

 ac-quainted with the reputation of that institution and consider its solvency and good management 

 as w.^11 ascertained as that of any bank in the western country. The president and many of its stock- 

 holders are men of wealth and integrity. In our opinion the treasury would be p:-rfectly safe in 

 depositing its funds in that institution." A??i. Sta. Pa., Fin., I^^ 744. 



-Crawford to Sering, .July 7, 1S20. Am. Sta. Pa., Fin., Ill, 739. 

 Crawford to Cashier of Farmers and Mechanics' Bank, September 18. 1S21: "ft is presumed 

 .rom the punctuality with which your bank has always made its transfers that the surplus has 

 already been placed to the credit of the treasurer of the United States. The treasurer has accord- 

 ingly been instructed to draw on you in favor of the Bank of the United States at Louisville for 

 >140,000." Am. Sia. Pa., Fin., IV, 701. 



-•" "The Bank refuses to deal with the banks in Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois, for reasons it 

 would be invidious to mention, but among them are the general bad conditions of the currency in 

 tho-? states and the laws impairing the obligation of contracts passed bj' their legislatures and the 

 actual depreciation of their notes." Cheeves to the Secretary of Treasury, Am. Sta. Pa., Fin., IV, 956. 



1- The Huntsville (Ala.) Bank owed §64,044 



Bank of Kentucky 58,943 



Bank of Missouri 152,, 342 



Bank of Vincennes 168,453 



Bank of Edwards villa (111.) 46,202 



Farmers and Mechanics' Bank of Cincinnati 36,966 



The greater part of this was repaid, but the delay caused great annoyance to the treasury. 



