Studies in American History 
59 
serpent that would swallow up all the state banks, a strangler 
of liberty, and other things even more uncomplimentary.^^ 
The Bank of the United States was bitterly attacked in the 
Kentucky legislature in the fall of 1818, but it was also de- 
fended and praised by part of the press for the aid it had 
given, and the Kentucky Gazette in its editorials charged 
openly again and again that the prejudices and enmity 
aroused against the United States Bank were due largely to 
the presence in the legislature of too many members inter- 
ested in the state banks, too many presidents and directors 
who inspired this hatred for selfish reasons. It inquired 
where Kentucky people would get nearly $3,000,000 which 
had been lent to them by the two branch national banks if 
they insisted on their removal from the state.^® However, 
hardly an issue of the Gazette appeared during 1819 which did 
not have a letter or article sent to the editor denouncing the 
United States Bank. The branch banks in Kentucky made 
the mistake of encouraging speculation by regulating certain 
state banks which needed little checking and by leaving paper 
circulation to the least capable and least sound institutions; 
also by being harsh, drastic, and relentless in their collections 
to save themselves. Therefore, it was inevitable that in Ken- 
tucky, as elsewhere, there were created enemies who in their 
appeals to ignorance and blind state prejudices invited serious 
trouble for the United States Bank locally, and, later, for 
the nation at large.^^ Viewed from any standpoint, the United 
States Bank was an important factor in precipitating the 
problems with which Kentucky was struggling.®® 
Kentucky had still another important problem to meet, the 
beginnings of which she inherited from Virginia when about 
ready to enter statehood. It was the question of land grants 
to individuals by the mother state and the rights and 
privileges of the occupying claimant when another claim for 
priority to his land was presented to him. Altho the trouble 
over what became known as the occupying-claimant laws did 
not become acute until the period of severe financial distress 
32 Kentucky Ga;zette, October 2, 1818. 
Ibid., December 25, 1818, January 8, 1819, February 5, 1819, February 19, 1819. 
^Autobiography of Amos Kendall, 202; Turner, The Rise of the Neio West, 136; 
Schouler, History of the United States of America unde^' the Constitution, 1783-1865, 
III, 117, 118; Kerr (ed.). History of Kentucky, II, 595-599; Channing, History of the 
United States of America, V, 314, 315. 
35 Doolan, in The Green Bag, XI, 179 (1899) ; McElroy, Kentucky in the Nation’s 
History, 383. 
