Condition of Wisconsin Banks , 1852-61. 181 
other states. * * * Notwithstanding the numerous failures 
of banking institutions in other states and the money panic, 
which of late has so generally prevailed, but one of our institu¬ 
tions is reported to have failed to redeem its notes, ” and this 
occasioned (as we have seen above) no loss to the community. 
While from the foregoing it is evident that Wisconsin’s bank¬ 
ing system was eminently satisfactory to the people, and while 
the notes of its banks were at all times redeemable, yet the 
latter formed onty a fourth part of the currency needed in the 
state, and as the banking systems in the other states of the 
Union were unreliable, Wisconsin’s channels of trade were 
filled with a cheap currency and her bankers were forced to ac¬ 
cept and redeem the depreciated notes of the banks of other 
states on a par with their own good currency. Mr. Knox in 
his admirable report on State Banks, 32 says: “In other states 
the best features of the New York law were omitted. The 
shareholders were not made personally liable; the security re¬ 
quired was not sufficient; the notes were issued in proportion 
to the stocks and bonds deposited, and not in proportion 
to the cash capital; no provision was made for the prompt re¬ 
demption of the notes at any commercial center, and a majority 
of the directors and stockholders were frequently non-residents. 
The speculator nominally locates his bank in a com¬ 
munity where it is difficult to reach, and then circulates his 
notes in distant parts of the Union as legal money, assured 
that little of it will be presented for redemption.” The opera¬ 
tors of such schemes were prepared to flood Wisconsin with 
this paper in 1853. 33 
The Wisconsin Bank Comptroller made this suggestion : 34 “The 
business of this state requires a currency of $4,000,000; less 
than one fourth is furnished by the banks of this state; and it 
rests with our legislature to determine whether it is proper for 
our channels of circulation to be filled with the doubtful and 
depreciated currency of far-distant states, whose currency is 
neither secured by the pledge of public stocks or anything else, 
32 Finance Report, Com. Rep’t, 1876, p. 149. 
33 N. Y. Jour, of Commrce , June, 1853. 
4 Compt. Rep’t in Gov. Mess, and Accom. Docs., 1855. 
