VoL. V, No. 34.]
rEnme
or• THE
HUNTINGDON JOURNAL.
The 6. inURNAL" will be published every
Wednesday morning, at two dollars a year,
If paid IN ADVANCE, and if not paid with
in six months, two dollars and a half.
Every person who obtains five subscribers,
and forwards price of subscription, shall be
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one year.
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until all arrearages are paid.
it-" All communications must be addressed
to the Editor, POST PAID, or they will not
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ve cents per square will be charged. If no
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dingly.
AGENTS.
The Minting - don Journal.
Daniel Teague, Orbisonia; David Blair,
F.sq. Shade Gap; Benjamin Lease, Shirlrys
burg; Eliel Smith, Esq. Cfrikottetown; Jas.
Entriken, jr. Cefii,- Run; Hugh Madden,
Esq. Springfield; Dr. S. S. Dewey, Bir
mingham; James Morrow, Union Furnace ;
John Sislrr, Warrior Mark; James Davis,
Esq. TVest township ; 1). H. Moore, Esq
Frankstown; Eph. Gilbreath, Esq. Holli
daysburr; Henry Neff, Alexandria; Aaron
Burns, Williamsburg; A. J. Stewart, fYater
Street; Win. Reed, Esq. Mo ria township;
Solomon Hamer. Arff's Mill; James Dysart,
Mouth Spruce Creek; Wm. Murray, Esq.
Grausville; John Crum, Manor Hill; Jas.
E. Stewart, Sinking Valley; L. C. Kessler,
Min Creek.
Intere•stin Correspondence.
HUNIIICDOI, June '23, 1810.
James !IL Bell, Eq.
The undersigned
citizens of our borough, feeling anxious
to render you their thanks for the able
end indepodent course pursued by you
in the Hall of the Senate in behalf of them
selves, as well as the great body of your
constituents; earnestly request the honor
of your company at a dinner of the 4th
of July.
. . . _
In doing so, they seek not to offer you
any of the fulsome adulation of partisans,
but simply to show you their gratitude for
your faithful and fearless course. Ile
whose conscience tells him he has 'done his
duty" needs not the praise of party spirit.
He who has shown himself the ltepresen•
tative of the whole People, and not of pa
ty, merits, and should receive the thanks
of all.
We wish to race! you, thus publicly,
that we may say in public, what we say
in private, that your duty has been honest.
ly and faithfully performed. You will
except from U 9 the consideration of our
highest esteem.
J. G. Miles, Thos Fisher, John AP-
Cohan, Daniel Africa, Jac3b Miller, 0.
Jackson and o'hers.
INNTowner', June 29th, 1840.
To Messrs. J. Geo. Miles, Thomas Fish.
er, John MeCahan, Daniel *ice - 4 fa
ce) Miller, George Jackson, and others.
GENTLEMEN:-
I have received your
communication of the 23.1 instant, expres
sing your approbation of my Legislative!
course of conduct, and inviting me to at
tend a dinner in this place on me 4th ol•.
duly next ; for %Well favorable expression
of your opinions and feelings, 1 return
you m thanks. •
In f orming
rming an opinion :led coming to a
conclusion 1.11 regard to the conduct of
any particular member, or of the whole of
the members as a body, it should always
he borne in mind, that the sessions of our
Legislature commencing in January last
and ending (luring the present month,
were held under circumstances, and a
situation of things, positive and relative,
the most difficult, the most perplexing,
and the must momentous, as regards the
interests and prosperity or our State, of
any which were ever hold in Pennsylva
nia, excepting only those held during the
period of our revolution. That ender
such circumstances, any member, or mem
ers, or any other person, whatever hisj
situation may be, should have come to an
Arroneous conclusion, and erred in judg,
built and in action, seems to me, from an
•enlightened and generous people, to call
rather ,charitable forbearance of con
demnation, than general, indiscriminate
and . wholmiale denunciation. For myself,
I will not presume to say or think, that
what I have done, the course I have pur
sued, and what 1 wished to have done,
was the best that could have been done,
or proposed under . the existing state of
things : but I can truly say, that notwith
standing whatever errors or failings, indu
ced by the force of surrounding circom
stances, or constitutional teinpernment, I
• may have committed or fallen into, that
in what I have done, and desired to effect
THE ;
.1 4
•
• 4-1 '"
e)
in my legislative capacity, I have been in
fluenced, governed and impelled by the
wish, single and alone, of advancing the
permanent and substantial interests of my
native State, and of promoting the wel
fare•and happiness of all the people with
in it, according to the best of my judgment
and abilities, and to effect those desirable
objects I have used and exerted all the
mind, industry and powers which have
fallen to my lot.
In the present rosition of affairs, it may
not be deemed amiss, nor the time and
occasion inappropriate, as I intend decli
ning the homier of the dinner you propose,
if I should, as briefly as I can and the na
ture of the subjects will admit of, state
the views I hold, and the opinions I have
been influenced by, in regard to some of
the more prominent matters which the last
Legislature were called on to consider,
and requieed to decide.
Foremost among those, and indeed, that
upon which all the others depended was
the question of the currency. All agreed
that our monetary affairs were in a most
deplorable condition, and that something
must be done to remedy them. All agreed
that in order to apply a remedy properly
and judiciously, it was necessary correct •
ly to understand the cause or causes of
their present situation. But on this sub
ject, when they came to be assigned and
expressed by different individuals, as well
in as out of the Legislature, they were as
different and numerous, all their various
shades being considered, as there were
individuals to express them. This is not
at all surprising when it is considered,
that it is a subject which is connected and
intimately intermingles with, and influ•
ences every transaction in life, and that
each person will view it through a medium
differing from that of all others. It would
be an impossible and useless task to at
tempt to enumerate those diGrent opin•
tins. '1 hey may he exemplified by each
person reflecting and clearly fist% in his
own mind what his own opinion is, (a
thing by the bye, which not one third of
those who talk most on this - subject, and
complain loudest ever have done, or ever
will do,) and then take it for granted that
every other person in the known world,
in a greater or less degree, differs from
him. D9y opinion on this subject is, that
the person who attributes our present sit.
nation in reference to money matters to
any one cause alone, is in error:—.That
the present result is produced by a com•
bination of causes, many of them very ,
difTerent in their character, but all tend
inn to the same point. In the first place,
and one among the principle causes of
our present situation is this;—we are lit
erally and emphatically a go•ahead peo
ple, possessing, and constitutionally stn.
bued with more enterprise and energy of
character, than any other nation, on the
globe. This national characteristic has
its advantages and uses, and very great
and beneficial they are, especially m a
new country like ours, the resources and
capabilities of which are as yet, but par
tially developed. But it has its corres
pondent disadvantage—that of causing us
occasionally to overstep the bounds of
prudence m bqsiness matters, of which
money is die principal ingredient. While
this energy of character induces us to,
grapple with, and enables us to overcome
difficulties, which those possessing less of
this quality would utterly shrink from, it
at the same time renders us heedless of
those causes and their consequences,
which du not attract our attention, and
cause UR to feel their pressure onerously
at their commencement, and which alone'
become of vital importance, and arrive at
such a point as imperiously calls our at
tention to them, by reason of their pro•
gressive accumulation during a series of
years. Looking back, this point seems to
be arrived at by us at once, at least, in
about every twenty years. For the last
five or six years, or more, we have bought
inure than we sold, we have bought much
more than we paid for. This can only
be remedied by our buying for a number
of years, less than we sell. For the last
three or four years especially, during
which there has been a pressure in the
money market of Europe, more particu•
lady of England, the merchants and Man
ufacturers of that sountry being pressed
to raise means, not content with filling
the large orders of our merchants, have
sent in to us very large amounts of goods
to sell on their own account at auction ;
and our citizens led away by the induce
ment and temptation of getting them, on
time, for less than they were customarily
sold at, have iecautiously and without re
flecting on theaonsequeuces, purchased,
when they did not need tkem. I know it
is the fashion, the custom with many to
blame all this on the banks. But in my
opinion this is doing injustice to the banks,'
and is not in accords nee with the truth.
For I believe the banks are as much if
not more influenced by the opinieas and
actions ut the people surrounding them,
who have no immediate and direct Inter
est in theso,as the people are by the banks.
"ONE COUNTRY, ONE CONSTFTUTION, ONE DESTINY."
A. W. BENEDICT PUBLISHER AND PROPRIETOR.
HUNTINGDON, PENNSYLVANIA, WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1840
(No doubt the banks, or rather the persons
1 conducting them have their share of blame
' and imprudence to answer for, as well as
the residue of the people. But the truth
is, in my judgment, our present difficul
ties, to a great extent, have their origin
in that go-ahead principle to which I have
alluded, which seems to be so deeply en
grafted in our natures. And the fashion
able clamour which charges all the evils
with which we are beset on the banks
alone, has its origin in another principle
inherent in our nature, that is; that when
the evil (lay comes upon us, we are diss
posed to blame every other person and
thing, rather than admit that we ought to
take any share of the blame to ourselves.
If what. I have last stated be not correct,
how comes it, that we often see the in
habitants of a section of country, distant
from any bank, applying for, and anxious , .
ly endeavoring to obtain a bank for them
selves? Surely no person will pretend
that any existing bank would urge or in.
duce people so situated, to establish a
new bank, and thereby restrict or prevent
the circulation of its own paper in that
section. Another of the causes which
have tended in some degree to produce
the present state of things, is, that within
about three years there has been, beyond
the ordinary amount of such casualities,
destroyed by tire in our principal sea port
towns property to et least the value of
from thirty to fifty millions of dollars.
So great a destruction of property in so
short a time could not lake place, without
eventually producing some perceptibly
unfavorable effect. Another is, that for
the last two years previous to l8:39, the
principal article of export from Pennsyl
vania to foreign countries, grain, failed,
and instead of exporting we lied to import
it. And another among the many combi
ned causes producing tie present state of
things, which is the last I shall now men
tion, though I do not acording to my judg
ment, by any means, consider it among the
least, has been the action of dte General
Government of late years, and its interfe
rence with and in regard to, the currency
of the country, ostensibly avowing its ob.
ject to be, the bettering of that currency.
I do not say this in the way of, or with
the view to controversy; nor by way of
taunt : but front the most solemn and de
liberate conviction, after the fullest re
flection, of its truth. Nor do I say this
with the tiew of raising or discussing the
question, whether the late and present
Executive of the General Government
have in their course of action, or rather
courses of action, which have been at dif
ferent times respectively pursued by them
been induced thereto by any objects of a
sinister character, or were other than
those they have ostensibly avowed. But
it seems to me that the results mud con
sequences justify this conclusion. And
when it is considered that it is admitted
by all, at least by all who have any cor
rect understanding of the subject, that
the currency, especially in such a nation
as ours, composed of different govern
ments, to a great extent independent of
each other, is of all others the most intri
cate, delicate and difficult to arrange and
properly regulate.—That it is generally
conceded that it is doubtful whether a
man of the most capacious and powerful
mind, although his attention be exclusive
ly devoted to the subject, can fully and
correctly understand it, in all its bear
ings, and foresee, and prov;de against,
the, to him, unforeseen contingencies,
which may influence it--That it is not
pretended that either the late or present
Executive of the General Government, in
the course of their busy lives in other pure
suits, ever turned their attention to it, to
any considerable extent. Can it be sup
posed, is it likely, that they or either of
them while pressed at all times with the
cares of State, could mark out a new
course on this perplexing question, radi
cally change the existing state of things,
and that too with but little, if any, pre
liminary preparation, even though actua
ted by the purest and Ink intentions,
without in all probability rendering what
ever there was of evil, worse, and that
which might possibly be complicated and
confused, still worse confounded? So
acting, under such circumstances, if they
did not, it would % )p the incrust accident,
and almost a miracle.
One assertion very commonly made,
and promulgated with an untiring zeal
and industry worthy of a better cause, by
the particular favorites and especial
friends of the present and late adminis
trations of the General Government, I
feel compelled here to notice;—that is,
"That the reason the people cannot get
specie, is, that the banks have it all or
nearly all hoarded up, in their vaults, and
under their owe control, and are unwil
ling to give it out to the people of the
country." This, so far front being the
truth, is directly the reverse of it. And
that this assertion instead of being true, is
directly contrary to the truth, can be
readily perceived by any one who will
take the trouble to reflect un the subject.
INB can and do derive whatever specie
there may be in the country at any time,
from two sources alone: Ist, What is coin
ed at the several mints in the nation; and
2nd, NVliat is imported from foreign coun
tries. No one I presume will pretend that
the General Government, which alone has
control of what is coined at the mints,
being as much opposed to banks as it is
pretended they are, take the specie as soon
as soon as it is coined at the mints, and
place it it. the banks,—in what those es
pecial friends are pleased to call "char
tered monopolies destitute of a soul," to
keep it from the people. That is not to be
presumed, and is not pretended. The
General Government then has the com
plete and sole control, direction and dis
bursement of all the specie coined at the
mitts. It is paid out to members of Con
gress, officers of Government, and it is
lair to presume, souse of it to those espe
cial friends, for their disinterested cla
mour against the banks, in payment of
their claims, while other less faithful, and
therefore less favored creditors are put off
with, and are fain to get and be content
with "the filthy rags." 'Phis specie thus
obtained by those persons is sold by them
to the brokers at a premium of 5, 8 or 10
per cent., or whatever the premium at the
time may be, who again sell it, to mer
chants to ship off to Europe or China for
the payment of goods; or to pay for duties
on imports, for public lands, or postages.
So well is this known, and so perfectly
understood, that there have been Signs in
Washington city stating, "The highest
price will be given here, to members of
Congress and officers of Government for
what gold they may receive." And a
similar notice was given, as an advertise
ment, in the official paper in that city for
a short time. It is perfectly obvious that'
the banks never will procure the specie of :
the country, by purchasing it at a premi- i
um, because it is directly against their'
interest to do so, unless where they are
compelled to procure it, to pay out again
in discharge of liabilities they are forced
to pay. And it is likewise obvious that
no man will pay a debt due by his► to a
bank, at least not one of any considerable
amount, in specie, especially when lie can
sell that specie to a broker at a premium
and get the notes of the bank, or those of
others, which will answer his purpose
equally as well in payment of his debt to
the bank. Again, of late years the Gen
eral Government has required the pay
ment of all duties on imports, all purcha
ses cf public lands;sand all or neatly all
postages to be paid in specie, or the notes
of specie paying hanks. The payment of
all which, it will readily be percieved,
will require and absorb a very large pro
portion of our specie, whether imported
into or coined in the country. All this
large amount of the specie id the country
is thus again placed under the control and
direction of the General Government.
On the other hand it is manifest, thnt the
Banks never can, and never will, hoard
up specie for the mere sake of hoarding
it up, because it is directly contrary to
their interests to do so ; and I can hardly
think that even those especial and pre
tended disinterested friends of the Gener
al Government, to whom I have alluded,
will pretend that those institutions—,soul
less monsters,' as they are pleased to call
them, though they be, would do that
which was against their own interets. It
never can be, and never is, the interest
of any Bank to keep—to hoard up mere
specie in its vaults than will be sufficient
to meet the current demands for specie
of the country in which it is located.
Whatever amount any Bank has beyond
this, is a dead loss to it ;—no interest ac
crues ott, and no benefit is derived from
it. And it therefore follows as a natural
consequence that no Batik ever will close
its vaults and refuse its specie to the peo
ple of the country, in which it is located,
except to prevent the exportation of that
specie to foreign countries. What would
be our situation if a large proportion of
our specie which furnishes the basis of our
circulation were withdrawn from the coun
try altogether 7 All can see and under
stand it.
All these things being considered, no
disinterested, intelligent and candid mats,
wishing to ascertain the truth, can doubt,
but that the General Government and its
different officers have the possession, the
control, and the direction of much the lar
ger portion of the specie of the country ;
and that if the common people of the coun
try do not get a proper proportion of this
specie, that the General Government and
its officers are principally, if not alone to
blame. The General Government and its
officers ought not to, ( though no doubt
they will), complain at being so blamed,
when the promises of that General Gov
ernment and its officers, while "the cur
rency was being bettered," are recollec
ted,—that specie—the "yellow boys"
should shortly ascend our streams, and
descend upon the yeomanry of the coun
try in golden showers. The troth is the
more intelligent of those especial friends
of the General Government ashen they
make the assertion to which I have allu
ded, perfectly well understand that it is
only one of the many "humbugs," "gull•
traps," and "gilded hooks" which are to
be used to catch the Gudgeons.
But whether I am correct in supposing
what I have stated to be among the prom
inent causes producing the present state
of things, I will turn to what was admit
ted to be our situation at the meeting of
the Legislature in January last, and was
done, and proposed to be done in that
Legislature. Our Banks hail suspended
specie paythents in the previous October.
It was admitted that the people of the U.
States were indebted to Europe, princi
pally to England somewhere from 60 to
100 millions of dollars, independent of
the debts due by the States, the interest
on nearly all of which had to be paid in
Europe;—being an amount of foreign in
debtedness, (without including the prin
cipal of the debts due by the States), about
equal to the whole estimated amount of
specie in the United States.' The people
and institutions of Pennsylvania owed
their full proportion of this foreign debt.
It had been contracted in the manner I
have stated. The goods for which it had
been created had been sold by our citizens
to the citizens of the South, the South
West and the West, who, their monetary
affairs being in a still worse and more em
barrassed condition than ours were, and
those goods remained unpaid for, could
not pay for them at the present, nnr for
some time to come, but who it was expec
ted and hoped, if a reasonable time was
allowed, would be enabled to pay at least
a considerable portion of their indebted
ness in produce, which would be equally
as valuable and available as specie for
the payment of our foreign debt. The
people of Pennsylvania, it was admitted
on all hands were abundantly able to pad
all the debts due by them, if they could
but get but a portion, a moiety of the
debts due to them by others.
In this state of things what would have
been the result and consequences of com
pelling an immediate resumption of specie
payments by the Banks ? The result is
obvious. Every dollar of specie in our
Banks would have been immediately
drawn out of them by the British and
other European agents resident in New
York, Boston, and the other commercial
cities of the North and East, and forth
with shipped to Europe in payment of this
foreign debt, which they to a great ex
tent had created, as I have before stated,
by forcing in upon us their goods, and in
ducing our citizens to purchase them by
the temptation of offering them, on time,
at a less price than usual.- This having
been done, our Banks would have been
compelled to call upon our citizens fur
what was due from them, which would
have compelled the payment of all, or
nearly all, the specie among our citizens
in the country, into our Banks,—to be a
gain swept out of them by a similar pro
cess into this vortex of foreign debt.
Tile consequences of which will be but too
well understood by every reflecting mind,
and need not be described at length. For
whose benefit, I again ask, would all
this, producing one general scene of wide
spread ruin and distress among our citi
zens, have been ? Not certainly for the
citizens of our own State. Not even for
the citizens of our sister States. But for
the benefit of those British and other for
eign merchants and manufacturers who
had created this indebtedness, to a very
great extent by forcing their goodsi n upon
us, as 1 have previously stated, thereby in
effect creating our citizens, their factors to
sell those goods to the people of the South,
the South West& West, and then calling
upon us for the payment in specie, before
it could be obtained, or its equivalent val
ue in produce, from those to whom they
were sold. If the Legislature had com
pelled during last winter, the immediate
resumption of specie payments by our
Banks, I firmly believe, that not one dol
lar of the specie in them would have been
gotten and retained by the people of Penn
sylvania, and not only that, but what little
specie there was among the people of the
country would have been eventually drain
ed from them, excecpt, perhaps, here and
there a single dollar, solitary and alone,
mourning the departure of its likenesses.
NN'hile on the other hand by pursuing a
contrary course, and
,giving to our Banks
a reasonable time to prepare for resutnp
tion, there was reasonable ground to hope
and believe, that our institutions and cit
izens warned and awakened by the despe
ration of their present situation, would be
rendered more prudent and economical,
fur a time at least, and during this period
would be enabled by means of produce
and the collection of debts due to them
from others, to pry ofra considerablapor
tion of their foreign indebtedness, and
arrange to avoid a demand in specie fur
the residue, or the greater part of it;
thereby saving and keeping within our own
limier* and limits, in our own Banks and
among the people of the country, at least
a considerable portion of what specie we'
now have, subject to our own control,
and for our own ties.
[WIIoLE . No. 242.
What was done by the Legislature on
this subject is already Itutiwn to you.
That resolutions were introduced into the
Senate by myself, which became a law.
providing that the Banks should resume
specie payments on the 15th. of January
next ;—that if any Bank within the Com
monwealth after that date should refuse to
pay any of its liabilities in gold or silver,
on jproof being made of the fact before
any President Judge at the expiration of
ten days froin the period of refusal, and
the money being then unpaid, the charter
of such Bank should be absolutely for
feited on this proof being filed, (which the
Judge is forthwith required to do), among
the records of the county of %%Inch he is
a Judge; and that the false swearng by
any officer of a Bank in relattion to any
of the statements required to be made by
law of the situation of the Balk, should
be punished as perjury, by confinement
in the Penitentiary, not less than one,
nor more than six years.
It will readily be conceived that no one
person would be successful in getting en.
acted into haws, all the propositions which
he believed would be beneficial for the re
gulation of our Banks and currency.
Such was the case, as regards myself.
While acting as one of the committee of
conference ou the Bill previously before
the Senate for the regulating of the Banks,
1 had drawn up a Bill, which, in additions
to the foregoing provisions, provided
tat. That from 'and aftgr the 15th of
January next each Bank within the Com
monwealth should take and receive, at
par, in payment of coy debt or debts due
and owing to it, the notes of all the oth
er chartered and specie•paying Banks of
'the Commonwealth.
Prohibiting. the several Banks of
the Commonwealth under the penalty of
the forfeiture of their several charters, to
b 3 declaredr: rfeited as above named, from
issuing after the passage of the act, any
note or notes in the form or similitude of
Bank notes, or otherwise, payable at a fu
ture day, usually denominated Post
notes.
Sd. That the making of any loan by
any Rink in the Commonwealth ou the
security, direct or collateral, of any stock
or stocks whatever, or engagements or ob
ligations in the nature of stocks, should
'be a forfeiture of its charter, to be decla
red forfeited as before mentioned.
4th. Prohibiting the Banks of the Com
monwealth from making directly or indi—
rectly any loan to, or for the use of any
person ostensibly engaged in the business
of a note or mortey Broker.
sth. Prohibiting the Banks of the Com
monwealth from purchasing and holding
any Bank or other stock, except the stock
or loans of this Commonwealth, or of the
United States, under the penalty of for
feiting a sum equal to the amount thereof,
6th. Prohibiting the Banka from loan
ing to or for the use of their directors
beyond a certain proportionate amount, in
the aggregate, of their several capital
stocks actually paid in, graduated from
not exceeding twenty-five per cent of the
capital stock, when not exceeding $300,-
000, to not exceeding two and a half per
cent of the capital stock when it excee
ded 82,500,000, sad requiring the aggre
gate amount loaned to directors to be sta
ted in the quarterly statements made by
each Bank.
And 7th. Provisions to prevent fraudu•
lent or impreper conduct or operations by
the officers of the Banks, and to prel'ent
the evasion of the foregoing previsions,
of such a character as would have ren
dered it utterly impracticable that suck
things could take place, without imme
diate exposure. Together with other pro
visions of a minor character. To pro
cure the adoption of these provisions by
the Committee of Conference, is addition.
to the resolutions alluded to, I exerted my
self to the utmost extent. And I do firm
ly and truly believe that they would have
been adopted, and would now be the law
of the land, if it had not been for a pow
er and influence front beyond the limits
of this State, which was brought to bear
on the Committee of Conference, and
Legislature, some time after the Commits
tee of Conference was appointed. Ido
riot say this unadvisedly, but from, facts
and circumstances within my own knowl
edge. Aided by this influence, that por
tion of the Legislature, which in my opin—
ion went for ultra—destructive measures,
were enabled to prevent the adoption of
those provisions, unless the period for
resumption was fixed in the middle of the
fall business, (during the spring and fall
business seasons being the worst, and
must injurious to the community of all
possible periols to fix for the time of
ie
sumption,) and just beflire the fell elec
tions to answer the purposes and advance
the interests of a particular political par
ty, and without additional provisions were
added, which according to my judgment,
went to destroy the objects they professed
to regulate, and others which were clears
ly uuconstitutional. I for sty part, hav
ing never had any immetliato interest, di•
rect ur indirect, in any Link, Lar•ng