194 
Wisconsin - State Agricultural Society. 
There was no legal restraint on the banks as to number, and in 
only two States, Massachusetts and Louisiana, was there any 
restraint on the issue or any definite proportion fixed by law be¬ 
tween the gold in their vaults, and the bills emitted. What was the 
condition of our national banks in 1873? By the report of the 
comptroller of the currency, September 12, we see the following, 
(page 220:) 
Immediate liabilities of 1,976 national banks: 
Circulation.. $339,081,799 
Deposits of all kinds. 638,612,451 
Total. 1,077,694 250 
They held at the same time: 
Legal-tenders. $92,347,663 
Specie. 19,868,469 
United States certificate of deposits. 20,610,000 
Total. 132,826,132 
Equal to 13.6 per cent, of immediate liabilities. In addition to 
this reserve, the banks had— 
Due from redeeming agents. $93,584,000 
Clearing-house certificates. 175,000 
Equal to 9.7 per cent., making the total reserve 23.3 per cent. 
This was the condition of the national banks one week prior to 
their general suspension. 
To sum up, there never existed a bank which issued its bills for 
circulation and received deposits and made loans, but what has sus¬ 
pended, or done worse, if it had any occasion to. They are only a 
source of danger, and always fail just when they ought to stand. 
We have previously asserted that the whole system of the emis¬ 
sion of a circulating medium by banking institutions was essentially 
vicious, and the evil is greatly aggravated when the emission is 
largely inflation, sometimes all inflation, not a pretence of a basis ; 
as instance, the “ wild-cat banking ” in our western States a few 
years since. When you add to the altvays-liable-to-suspend con¬ 
dition, of an issuance of four times the amount of bills of credit 
to circulate as currency, of the coin in their vaults, (and this is the 
