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INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDIES 



Mr. Pepper was a merchant of Rising Sun. Merchants, as a 

 class, were notoriously opposed to the State Bank. The poHcy 

 of the Bank for the last ten years had been to refuse loans to mer- 

 chants for the carrying on of their ordinary business. The traders 

 and farmers were just as notoriously in favor of the State Bank 

 for the reason that the Bank had favored them in lending them 

 money to buy stock to fatten, or to buy up produce for shipment. 

 Mr. Pepper, moreover, was a Jacksonian ofRce holder, and his 

 attitude toward all political questions was colored by Jackson's 

 views. 



On October 24, James Pariden reopened the bank question by 

 offering a resolution providing for incorporation under a general 

 law and requiring that no bank be incorporated without making 

 the stockholders individually liable to the full amount of their 

 stock. A proviso also extended the State Bank charter until Jan- 

 uary 1, 1865, since the bonds for its capital were not payable till 

 that time.* 



Mr. Rariden had been in public life for a quarter of a century. 

 He had represented his county in both branches of the state legis- 

 lature and twice had sat for his district in congress. By profession 

 he was a lawyer, and rode the circuit in the old fashion, along with 

 Senator O. H. Smith and Judge Eggleston. He was a native of 

 Kentucky, whence he moved to Brookville, thence to Salisbury, 

 and finally to Cambridge City, where he died in 1856.^ He was 

 the outspoken champion of the State Bank. As soon as he had 

 taken his seat, Mr. Lockhart of Evansville introduced the follow- 

 ing resolution: ''That in the opinion of this convention the inter- 

 ests of the people and the honor of the state demand that a pro- 

 vision be inserted in the Constitution prohibiting the Legislature 

 from incorporating any bank or banking institution in this state." 



On October 25, Mr. Pepper's resolution came up for discussion, 

 and he addressed the Convention. He said that this was a ques- 

 tion about which there should be no division of opinion among 

 Republicans.^ The doctrines of the separation of church and 

 state, and the separation of government and banks were equally 

 Republican in their character. This was, in his opinion, the most 

 important question to be decided in this convention. He was in 

 favor of separating state and banks and was opposed to what was 



* Debates, p. 215. 



' O. H. Smith, Early Indiana Trials and Sketches, p. 164. This is a volume of reminiscenceB by- 

 Senator O. H. Smith, usually referred to as Smith's Sketches. It was published in Cincinnati in 

 1858. 



• A rather interesting illustration to show that the term Republican was still applied to the old 

 Democratic party of Jackson and Jefferson. 



