e* ^ • •
THE JOURNAL. JOURNAL.
~ t
.:
HUNTINGDON, PA.
Thursday Morning, April 29, 1552.
3. SEWELL STEWART—Enrron.
TERMS OF PUBLICATION:
Tun “HuNTirtoDos JOURNAL" is published at
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if paid in advance, per annum, $1,50
If paid during the year, 1,75
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To Clubs of live or more, in advance, • • 1,25
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six mouths, and no paper will he discontinued un
til all nrrearages are paid, unless at the option of
the publisher.
V. B. PALMER
Is our authorized agent in Philadelphia, New
York And Baltimore, to receive advertisements,
And any persons in those cities wishing to adver
tise in our columns, will please call on him.
FOR THE PRESIDENCY IN 1852,
WINFIELD SCOTT,
OF NE\V JERSEY
FOR VICE PRESIDENT 1N 1852,
JAMES C. JONES,
OF TENNESSEE.
?I= •
FOR CANAL COMMISSIONER,
JACOB HOFFMAN,
OF BELIES COUNTY.
J. & W. Saxton and George Gwin
have magnificent new goods—Bricker has
groceries and liquors of all descriptions—
Ed. Snare has a fresh lot of fine jewelry—
A. S. Harrison has bacon, fish and feed—
Alex. Cartoon has a fine lot of goods at the
Elephant—C. S. Black has good boots and
shoes—Graffius Miller and Christian Couts
keep good taverns; and Dr. Miller is great
on a tooth.
ADMITTED.—John N. Prowell and Sam
uel T. Brown were admitted to practice
law during the late session of the court.—
Mr. Prowell is about opening an office in
town. We have not heard the destination
of Mr. Brown.
Err It will be perceived by the veto in
to-day's paper that one of the cog-wheels
in the Locofoco Bank Factory has become
somewhat damaged. Mr. Bigler thinks ho
knows more than all the Legislature put
together, and is lecturing the boys about
things which they are as well acquainted
with as his. Such a season of vetoes has
never been witnessed in this country. The
people send representatives to make laws
and a little pile of dissolving dust blown
into the gubernatorial chair front the banks
of the Chickelacamoose, says, that they are
not fit to do such things. Oh liberty and
equality ! What a humbug !
Kr' By the Senate apportionment for
members of Congress, Blair, Huntingdon,
Mifflin and Union compose our district.—
By the one passed the House, it is Blair,
Huntingdon, Bedford and Somerset. Both
these are too decidedly Whig. The object
in to make the Whig strength in the State
as inefficient as possible. _These Whig
counties should be arranged in such way
as to carry two Whig Congressmen instead
of one.
[Cr The House has agreed to adjourn
on the 29th of April, but it has not passed
the Senate. The most important business
is still to do. The adjournment will not
take place before the sth or 6th of May.
The appropriation bill is very large.
The State debt will be very materially. in
creased. The people will soon find that
the man who keeps down the State debt is
not Governor. When Bigler goes out of
office the debt will bo about forty millions.
0:r Col. Wm. T. Wilson, lately enga
ged in this office and favorably known in
this county, has become a co-editor and
proprietor of the Clinton Tribune, publish
ed at Lock Haven. He has our best wish
es for his success.
II?" The Whig State Journal and Har
risburg American have united their forces
wader the title of the Whig State Journal,
and published by J. J. Clyde & Co. The
Whig State Journal is now, as it has here
tofore been, a splendid weekly paper, and
merits the large patronage, which, we are
informed, it enjoys.
0:7 - Tivonty tliouaand dollara have been
itubseribod to the stook of the World's Ex
hibition, in New York,
Homestead Exemption.
Go it, Juniata, you rascal you—you
know us but wo don't know you. If we
did, we might pick a hole in your moral
constitution, for you are evidently a great
liar. You say in the last Globe that our
notions on this subject tend to dishonesty—
that we are trying to break down the cred
it system, and are opposed to the payment
of honest debts. Why dear Mister Juni
ata, you have certainly "mistaken the scope
of the. Apostle." We are the friend of a
flush and healthy business system—one that
will never have to call on the lancet of
such money-shavers as Juniata, to jerk the
blood out of it. But you say that you are
a friend of the laboring classes. This must
certainly be a mistake. If you were to
take a ramble through the gloomy cham
bers of your heart, you would soon discov
er,
that instead of it being garnished with
love and friendship, it would be tenanted
with crickets and nerway rats and all that
kind of vermin that delight to revel in the,
shadows of desolation. The laboring class
es don't appreciate your friendship.
A Tut Er.
We would like to have some intimation
of the carcass that travelled into our law
office during the first week of the court and
stole three numbers of the N. York Week
ly Tribune, hanging there on a file. Why
didn't the thief steal our Bible or Penn
sylvania .Blackstone, or some book that we
could replace? But to steal the best pa
per in the world, when it was evident we
were trying to preserve them, is a crime so
deep that the English language cannot fur
nish words sufficiently strong for its de
nounciation. We close in the expressive
language of Dan Eiseubise in the midst of
a big fight—" Hold me ! I'm pustin with
intignation!"
P. S. We will give 12i cents a piece
for the numbers of 27th March last and 3d
and 10th April inst., of Weekly Tribune.
Cam' The Court at its late session refused
to grant license to any one, against whom
a remonstrance appeared, no difference how
small the same might be. This is carrying
out the Maine Liquor law before it has
passed the Legislature, and very consider
ably
running the same into the ground.—
Some important points are left without a
public house; Fhile at others, whore one
had been granted at January and an ap
plication for another equally as unexcep
tionable was made at April, the latter was
refused, because it was assailed by a small
remonstrance. This is granting a monopo
ly of the liquor traffic without in the least
subserving the purposes of temperance; for
one tavern in a ylace will sell just as much
of the combustible juices of hell as would
two or wore. One can damn as many hus
bands, haggard as many wives, and manu
facture as many widows and orphans as
two could in the same place, while at the
same time, one could not accommodate the
travelling and business public as well as
two.
Two respectable men in a place, in this
business, will do no more harm than one
reputable person will do; and will do noth
ing like the injury to the public that one
brutal character will do. If the applicants
are honest and good citizens the number of
houses licensed will work no extra barns to
the community.
The Huntingdon County Mutual
Insurance Company.
The following persons have been incor
porated under the above name, by an act
which has recently passed the Legislature,
to wit : David Stewart, John lsett, David
McMurtrie, John Oaks, James Gwin, John
Hewitt, Dutton Madden, John Rung, Jas.
Moore, Kenzie L. Green, David Fraker,
John Stever, James Ewing, James Entre
kin and John Brewster, and are constitu
ted a board of Directors until the first Mon
day of May, 1853 or until others are elect
ed in their stead. The above named per
sons will meet in Huntingdon on the first
Monday of June next, (1852) to hold their
first election of directors. The business
of the above company will be conducted in
Huntingdon.
Dow,themthor of the Maine
liquor law, was a candidate for Mayor of
Portland, and the Maine question was made
the issue in the contest; the affect of which
was that Albion K. Parris was triumphant
ly elected and the Maine law defeated.
This certainly looks as if the Maine laW was
a failure at the fountain head where it first
obtained au existence.
[r_r The place in the Supreme Court,
made vacant by the death of Judge Coul
ter, was tendered by the Governor, to G.
W. Woodward, who declined. It was then
tendered to Thomas S. Bell, member of the
late Court, who, it it said, will accept.
[From the 13.eading Journal.]
" HEAD HIM OR DIE:,
The Locofocos are just now engaged in
the interesting though somewhat difficult
game of •heading off' Gen. Scott. They
evidently think the old General an ugly
customer, who, if made the Whig candi
date, would be likely to spoil their sport
in the ensuing presidential campaign.—
However much they disagree as to who
shall be their own candidate, they are all
united in the opinion that Gen. SCOTT
should not be our's. Indeed, so prevalent
is this notion in the opposition ranks, that
'if the choice of the Whig Candidate were
left to the Baltimore Convention, it is ab
solutely certain that the old Hero would
have a very poor tow. They say he is
'unfit' for the offialt-that ho is in the hainis
of the Abolitionists--that he is not sound
on the Compromise, and putting all these
things together, would be by odds the
weakest man the Whigs could select. It
is certainly very kind of them to take such
an interest in our affairs, and very ungrate
ful in us not to follow their advice and give
old 'Fuss and Feathers' the go by--very !
But what in politics is good for the goose
may not be so good for the gander. A
Whig candidate to suit the Locos, might
not altogether suit the Whigs. If they
prefer anybody else to Scott, that fact alone
forms a pretty good reason why we should
prefer Scott to anybody else. In matters
of this kind, we incline to the opinion,—
warranted by past experience—that oppo
sition prejudices, like Rory O'Moore's
'dhrtunes,' should always be taken by 'con
traries.' In the case in point the 'reproach
on their lips' is merely intended to pull the
'wool' over our eyes. The trick is too
transparent. Gentlemen of the opposition,
it won't do. You can't come it !
But badinage aside, Gen. Scott is our
man if we wish to succeed, and the Loco
, focos know it! They are afraid of him,
and there's where the shoe pinches! They
didn't like Harrison in 1840;—ho was an
'old granny.' They abhorred Clay in 1844
—because he was a 'gambler' and a 'duel
list,' and Polk was a 'much better Tariff
man!' They opposed the nomination of
Taylor, in '4B, as 'not fit to be made;'—he
was no politician, fought Indians with
'blood hounds,' owned several hundred ne
grecs, and branded them like a heathen.—
Just now they are great sticklers for the
rights of the South, and Scott is suspected
of a leaning towards 'abolitionism!' It is
really curious to note these mutations
these idiosynoraeies of the opposition, pe
riodically manifested on the approach of
each Whig National Convention. If it be
asked why, like the heathen, they are al
ways "imagining vain things," the answer
doubtless, will be found in the words of the
Psalmist, given in the same chapter—" B
ecause they fear to be dashed in pieces like
a potter's vessel," at each quadrennial re
turn of a Presidential Campaign.
To prove that Gen. Scott is sound on the
Compromise, we quote an extract trom a
letter to the Washington Republic, written
by the Hon. EDWARD STANLEY, of North
Carolina—the same STANLEY, who recent
ly gave Mr. Giddings such a drubbing in
the House, and who will hardly be accused
of sympathizing with Northern Abolition
ism in any shape or form. He speaks by
'1 the card. Hear hint :
It is, I believe, certain that no man
can receive the vote of North Carolina who
is not known to be in favor of maintaining
the Compromise acts as a final settlement.
There is probably no man in the State who
holds a different opinion. Our greatest
leader, Mr. Clay himself, if, in answer to
the prayer of millions, he could be resto
red to health and youthful vigor, with all
the enthusiasm which he only could excite,
could not receive the electoral vote of North
Carolina, if he were a candidate, and op
posed to the Compromise bills.
But it is duo to myself to say that I have
never said, and will not now say, that as I
can't' and won't go for Scott." On the
contrary, I have always said I knew he was
as earnest, ardent, and zealous a friend of
the Compromise measures as there was in
the United States. I know, of my own
knowledge, that he was so, before their
passage through Congress, and after
wards. I heard him reprove northern men
who were opposed to them, before they
passed Congress,
iu such strong terms that
1 thought would offend them. 1 know he
is a southern man by birth. The country
knows be poured out his blood on the north
ern frontier, under the stars and stripes,
receiving wounds, the scars of which he
yet bears, while fighting against England's
haughty power in the war of 1812. The
world knows the wonders he achieved with
northern and southern, eastern and western
soldiers, in that unparalleled march from
Vera Cruz to Mexico. I know he is a true
Republican, and has always been; and I
have no fear that such a man woud not
prove as true to his country's best interests
in peace as he has been in war.
1 do not believe, at this time, th;re is
one man in Congress, from any section
or of any party, tVhig, Democrat, or Free
Soil, who does not know General Scott!
is in favor of maintaining the Compro-1
mise acts."
This is a clincher! If anybody opposes
Gem Scott after this on the ground of his
presumed hostility to the adjustment mea
sures of last session, he must be either a
knave or a fool, or something of both.—
The Locofocos must now try some other
game. They must warm up the 'hasty
plate of soup,'—hire Ex-Secretary Marcy,
(who has had some experience in 'mending
breaches,') to harrass his 'rear'—depute
the renowned Pillow to throw up another
'ditch'—forward a new 'pass' to Santa-An
na, and urge him to take the field once
more against his late rival—get up a drum
head Court Martial as they did' in Mexico
or do some other desperate thing, and be
quick about it, or it will be too late. In
a few - weeks more the 'conquering hero'
will be on his way to the White House !
Let the 'old fogies' and the 'young fogies,'
arouse! " Speed, Marcy, speed !"—Up
James—(Fits) James ! Arm Douglass,
arm !
Lewis, gird on your 'broken sword,'
No 'stump' demands its rusty blade ;
01,1 'San Jacinto: pass the word—
"Go it ye cripples !"—"who's !druid !"
Onward !—be this your battle cry—
Head WINFIELD SCOTT hint or die!"
Whig National Convention.
The Whig congressional Caucus re-assem
bled in the U. S. Senate Chamber on Tues
day evening, agreeably to adjournment., and
after a session of several hours, agreed upon
Baltimore as the place, and the 16th of
June as the time, for the meeting of the
Whig National Convention to nominate can
didates for President and Vice President of
the United States. Seine difficulty was oc
casioned during the session by an effort on
the part of several Southern ultras to oh
tain the passage of a preamble and resolu
tions, re-affirming the Compromise, intro
duced into the first caucus, but the Chair
man, Mr. MArlaum, very properly ruled the
resolution out of order, as it was no part I
of the duty or business of the caucus to
lay down a course of action for the govern
ment of the Convention. An appeal hav
ing been taken by the disorganizers, the i
decision of the chair was triumphantly sus
tained, whereupon nine factionists, most of
whom represent States that are always
against us with drew in a huff, Among the
Southerners remaining were Senators Jones
and .Mangurn, and Representatives, Cul
lom, Moorhead, Dockery, S.tanly, and oth
ers, who although warm friends of the Com
promise, agreed with the majority that the
caucus was not the proper place to pass
resolutions of the kind proposed. The ma
jority of the Southern Whigs acted patriot
' ically, and do not appear to have been in
the least disconcerted by the course of their
intractable brethren.. No harm was done
by what took place, and the Conference,
after the 'secession' of the ultras, conduct
ed the proceedings in good temper and ad
journed with the best feelings.
The Caucus having thus attended to, with
out exceeding their duty, it will now de
volve upon the Convention, when assem
bled in pursuance of the call, to lay down
a platform that will be generally accepta
ble to the great body of the Whigs, South
as well as North. With exception of a
very few agitators, whose numbers are too
inconsiderable to occasion any disquietude,
the Whigs of the country approve and will
sustain the Compromise, everywhere, in
good faith. Our three candidates for the
Presidency, upon whom alone the nomi
nation can fall, are all known to be not
merely favorable to those measures, but
ready to give them their unqualified appro
val. There is no Free Soil or Abolition
candidate in the field on the Whig side,
and if there were, he would have no earth
ly chance of procuring oven a respectable
support, much less a nomination, at the
hands of the Convention. The measures
of adjustment advocated by our leading
Whig Statesmen, and endorsed by our pres
ent Whig Administration, have a peculiar
claim upon Whig support, and will be re
endorsed promptly and eheefully by the
representatives of the party when called
upon to act in their collective capacity.—
,We have no fears on this score. Those
who anticipate a different issue, will find in
jla few months that they have alarmed them
selves to no purpose, while the intracta
isles who have conspired to breed a distur
j bance iu the Whig ranks, will as assuredly
fail in the accomplishment of their design.
[Reading Journal.
LEATHER INSPECTOR.—W. M. ARM
STRONG, has recieved his Commission as
Inspector of Leather for the city and coun
ty of Philadelphia, from Governor BIOLER,
and has appointed ANDREW NOBLE of the
Northern Liberties, and Wm. FLAKE, of
the oity, his deputies.
ELEVEN BANKS VETOED !
VIE co ita
To the Senate and House of Representatives
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
GENTLEMEN ;-Bill No. 590, on the tiles
of the Senate, entitled "Au Act to incorpor
ate the Meadville Bank," with a capital of
I $lOO,OOO, has been presented for my colisid
eration, together with others, providine: for
the establishment of sundry new banks,' to
be located as follows, to wit : one at Pitts-
I burg, with a capital of $300,000, another at
Allentown, Lehigh county, with a capital of
$150,000, another at Eiie, with a capital of
I $150,000, another at Carlisle, with a capital
of $lOO,OOO, atiother at New Castle, Law
rence comity, with a capital of $lOO,OOO,
another at Tamaqua. Schuylkill county,. with
a capitol of $6100,000, another at Mauch
Chunk, Carbon county, with a capital of
$lOO,OOO, another at Phwnixville, Chester
county, with a capital of $200,000, another
at Monongahela city, Washington county,
with a capital of $lOO,OOO, also, another, to
add $160,000 to the capital stock of the
Southwark bank, in the county of Philadel
phia.
Since the General Asssmbly has thus indi
cated to me their views on the subject of in
creasing the banking capital cif the State, I
have given the question, in all its bearings,
my most anxious consideration—have con
templated the probable effects of this propo
sed measure upon the interests of the whole
I people of the State—upon the laborer, me
chanie, flamer, merchant, and manufacturer,
and bringing to the aid of my judgement,
the lights furnished by the past experience
of the country, I have arrived at the
conclusion that it is my solemn duty,
however unpleasant, to differ with you
on this subject. To dissent from the wish
es of the representativcs of the people, on a
question of public policy, is painful to me in
the extreme, but to shrink from the respon
sibility of performing a conscious duty,
would be cowardly and criminal.
in returning so large a number of bank
bills without my sanction, for the reconsid
eration of the General Assembly, I deem it
right that I should present my reasons for so
doing at length, in one message, and have
reference to this as applicable to these mea
sures severally.
On assuming the duties of the Executive
office, I distinctly announced, "that, in my
opinion, no pretext can justify the creation
of a superabundant amount orp.,per money,
and that it was with painful alarm I have
witnessed a growing disposition in the en
tire country to increase the use of this me
dium on a small specie basis, regardless of
the inevitable effects of the large accessions
of coin which California is furnishing to this
country and to the world. Every people
should have a circulating medium as a mat
ter of convenience, and should have what
ever amount the transaction of wholesome
business affairs may demand; lint unfortu
nately we are too unwilling to stop at the
proper point in the creation of this medium.
That as coin becomes abundant it should
supplant and render unnecessary the use of
paper, is to my mind, the plainest teaching
of common sense. Such practical effect Js
demanded by the true interests of the people.'
The sentiments thus announced, I have
long entertained, and their correctness is the
more confirmed by every day's experience
and reflection. I should, by assenting to
these bills, agree practically to reverse this
doctrine and maintain that as coin becomes
abundant, the paper medium should be in
creased. This position would be so mani
festly unsound that argument is not necessa
ry to refute it.
The proposed new banks would mid to
the present banking capital of the State an
aggregate sum of $1,550,000, or over ten per
cent. on the active capital now in use, and
thus swell the present amount of our paper
circulation to the extent of four or five mil
lions.
Whilst I am not prepared to say, that at
the proper time,a bank might not be useful,if
properly managed, at Borne of the -points na
med, I have had no difficulty whatever is
satisfying my mind that there is, at this time,
no real
of
for such an extensive in
crease of paper money, nor that if such in
crease were permitted, the effect would be
prejudicial to the true interests of the mass
of people, and that it would exercise a de
moralizing influence upon the busbies affairs
of the State. The immediate effect would
be , I have no doubt, to enhance the nominal
prices of all kinds of goods and property, by
the depreciation of bank paper, stimulating
thereby a spirit of wild and fanciful specula
'lion, begetting prodigality arid idleness, the
legitimate fruits of an inflated curreney.—
All violent movements on this subject are
unwise and especially injurious to the unwa
ry citizen. Experience has demonstraled
that all sudden expansions and contractions
of a paper currency, exercise a prejudicial
influence on the real prosperity of thu coun
try. Such sudden convulsions, it is true,are
sometimes turned to the advantage of tho
shrewd capitalists, but the unsuspecting far
mer or mechanic, enticed from his safe pur
suit by the fair promises of the expansion, is
crushed in his new experiment, by the
vie
lence of the contraction.
If it be True that "experience teaches trio
don"—and none will doubt this—the peo
of Pennsylvania should be wise on this sub
ject, :Ind a mere reference to that experiment
it seems to rne, should be sufficient to awa
ken them to the dangers of the measure in
gnes,tloll.
* Thu consequences of a similar policy,
adopted in 1814, regardless of the admoiii
; tions of the sagacious and patriotic Snyder,
are still remembered by setae who partici
,
• paled in the scenes of those days, and are
known to all of us as a dark page in the his
, tory of the State. Let no mita flatter himself
with the belief that the same cause will not
produce the same effect in the future that it
has dune in the past. The country, it is
true, is now inhabited by. a new generation,
but the nature of man has undergone no
change since the days of Snyder—his impul
ses acid objects are the saute, and, the lairs of
trade remain unaltered; end assuredly, if we
rush into the errors of that day, we may
justly anticipate a similar retribution. Nor
Is this the only practical demonstration of
the danger of the proposed policy, to be found
in our history. Who does not remember
something of the condition of aflitirs that ex
isted thiough the whole extent of our vast
country during the years 1834—'35—'36.
Who has forgot the warning voice of the pa
triotic Jackson, admonishing the people
against the consequences of an inflated cur
rency and an unrestrained system of credit,
which then pervaded our business circles,
arid affected, deeply domestic arrangements.
But his warning was not heeded until it was
too late to arrest the evil. The. Cleat bank
exidaesion of that pried engendered a spirit
of desperate speculation and habits o f prodi
gality which distinguished alike the career
of States, corporations and individuals. And
who can contemplate, without regret and
shame, the disgrace anti misery which fol
lowed as a leghimate consequence. The
imaginary fortunes of individuals were dis
pelled as fog before the rising sun, and the
rheshes of the speculator were rent asunder
as cobwebs_ before the torrent of revulsion
that ensued. States, corporations and indi
viduals were prostrated beneath its weight—
then plighted faith became a by-word and
scoff, and their credit was hawked! about in
the market and offered for a mere fraction of
its nominal value. Whilst the unwary citi
zen who had become misled by this artificial
state of affairs, including widows and or
phans, whose meatus under the force of the
delusion, had been invested in schemes pure
ly speculative, found themselves thrown
houseless and penniless upon the charity of
the public. Nor is this all. The effect of
extending the banking capital of this State,
in 1836, by the charter of the United States
and other banks, from a little over fourteen
to exceeding fifty-ei,„olit millions, and its sud
den reelection, in a few years afterwards, to
an active capital of less than nineteen mil
lions, were scarcely less disastrous. The
consecinences to our State credit, to the trade
and commerce of our people, and to the hon
or of the Commonwealth abroad, are topics
too unpleasant to be discussed at this day,
and I only allude to them as so many admo
nitions against the tendency of the effort
now making to increase the amount of batik
ing capital, evidently calculated to produce
a somewhat similar state of affairs.
These expansions are delusive and unprof
itable, and as shown by their past history,
dearly inimical to the rights and interest of
labor. From an able report made to Con
gress on this subject, in 1840, I have gather
ed some interesting facts, which speak a
language that cannot be misunderstood.—
They are to the effect that, from 1834 to 1836,
the Increase of paper currency in the United
States was near 98 per cent.—that the ad
vance in the price of that kind of real estate,
which was constantly in the market, was
over one hundred per cent.—in stocks real
and fancy, about one hundred and twenty
per cent.—in flout, pork, corn, &c., about
sixty per cent., and in the price of labor,
the source of all real wealth, but a little over
sixteen per cent. But not so when the con
traction comes, for then labor bears the first
shock, and depreciates most severely. In
every view, therefore, is a fluctuating cur
rency prejudicial to the interests of the la
borer. Labor is the last thing to rise in
price, and does so least, with au inflation, of
the currency, but sutlers first and most se
verely under the contraction. Besides du
rin„q• the times of such inflation; the laborer
is forced to receive his wages at the stan
dard price of a sound currency in that which
is depreciated, and purchase his necessaries
at the high prices consequent upon such de
pression. Such expansions, in addition, aro
adverse to the real prosperity of the country;
retards rather than advance it. The artificial
growth produced by the expansion is more
than counteracted by the paralysing influence
of the contraction, and the aggregate pros
perity is less than it would be were the coun
try left to its steady natural advance.
But how clearly impoverishing is the ef
fect of an inflated currency upon all our
State and national interests, now closely
pressed by foreign competition. It virtually
opens our ports to invite such rivalry against
all these pursuits, and no rate of twill that
the wisdom of Congress eau devise, within
any reasonable limit, can counteract its in
fluence. It greatly enhances the nominal
prices of goods and commodities in this,
above what they will bear in other countries,
whilst at the same time it retards rather than
facilitates their production. It thus gives
the foreign producer the opportunity of man
ufacturing at the low rates of his own coun
try, and selling at the inflated prices of ours;
for he receives his pay not in our depreciated
paper but in gold and silver. It is this state
of the currency, more than any other feature
in the policy of this country, that enables the
foreign manufacturer to compete, it not to
undersell the American producer in our own
markets. '
But where is the evidence that so largo an
increase of the banking capital is required 1
and why authorize such increase all at one
time? During the official service of my
two last predecessors, covering a period of
nine years, but four new banks of issue wore
created; and when has Pennsylvania been
more prosperous than durity , ' that time?—
Whet, since fi rst injured by her heavy debt,
did her credit stand higher, and when did
the labor of her citizens reap a better reward?
She has, during that whole time, stood erect,
maintained her faith, and by the proper ex
ercise of her own inherent elements of
wealth, has been steadily extricating herself
from the embarrassments biought upon her
by a spirit of prodigality, transfused through
out the whole country as the consequence of
two expansions of paper money, to which I
have already referred.
There is now near nineteen millions of
banking capital in the state, of which about
four and a half millions of dollars are invest
ed in stocks, bonds, &c., a business not ne
cessarily connected with banking, nor con
. tetnplated in the creation of banks. This
fact furnishes some evidence that at times
there had been mere banking capital than the
legitimate business of these institutions
seemed to requite, and certainly there is
nothing in the present condition of the coun
try to justify so large an accession to our pa
per medium.
The present petiod is one distinguished
for the great abundance of coin. The mines
of California and Australi have recently been
contributing to swell inordinately the usual
supply which other parts of the world still
continue unabatedly to furnish. Money is
unusually plenty in this country, and has
not been so much so, liar su cheap in Europe,
for many years. The Bank of England now
contains the enormous sum of near ninety
millions of gold and silver, whilst in France
and Holland there is an evident excess
above the demands of business, In the
United Slates we have a full supply, which
is new being rapidly augmented by new re ,
ceipts. These receipts, as I learn from reli
able, though unofficial sources, by imports
tion and coinage, fur the months of January,
February and March, amounted to over thir,
teen millions and a half, leaving in this
country, after deducting all experts of specie,
for the same period, a balance of near seven
millions of dollars. This ratio of increase
would soon double and thrible the whole cap,
ital of the country. And it is worthy of IT.