15359. Bank of New York (New York, NY)

Article Text

THE SUSPENSION. From the Richmond Compiler, October 15. SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. was received in this city yesterday of suspensions by the and Baltimore, and morning adelphia News Banks by the in U. Phil- S. Bank in New York, whereupon meetings of the Directors of ourdifferent Banks were convened and they resolved to suspend specie payments for the present. This course by our Banks, was one unavoidable; and adopted in justice to the Banks themselves, to the trade and interests of Richmond, and to the State: which is a large stockholder in them all. For some time our Banks have had to supply heavy demands upon them from the North for specie; and there were in this city, yesterday, several Northern brokers awaiting the hour of9 o'clock, to make large drafts upon them. But the Directors wisely closed the vaults against them, for it would have been suicidal to pay out when there are no longer means of replenishing, left them. The alternative was presented of suspending immediately, or of submitting to a drain through the brokers, which would in a few weeks either compel them to stop business or suspend specie payments. In the former case our trade would have stopped, and our merchants would have been ruined-in the latter the Banks would have weakened themselves in a manner that would have made resumption still the more difficult with them when the time might arrive. Our Banks did not hesitate, and they ought not to have hesitated. They are justified by our citizens.- the annunciation of their determination all was calm, and there was a general indication of satisfaction at the event. The people in the country may rest assured that our Banks have taken their course under circumstances and in a condition which should impart the most perfect confidence in them. They will be ready to resume the moment the course of the Northern Banks render that expedient and proper. The country has fallen into its present miserable condition, through a series of measures which have been levelled at the banking institutions of the State, and have involved the People and the Union in a common catastrophe. The National Bank was destroyed to strengthen the States; and to give them a better currency in the bills of their local institutions. Now the State banks must be destroyed, to strengthen the Federal Government; and to substitute the paper of the Treasury for the paper of the States. The whole process has carried through from the beginning, the whole war has been waged against the National Bank and the State Banks, to realise the original plan of Gen. Jackson for the organization of an Executive Bank, "with the necessary officersas branch of the Treasury department,"-with Mr. Woodbury for the President, Custom House Collectors as deputy presidents of the branches, and your whole Post Office department an association of financial agents and brokers. To this complexion comes the policy of the administration, painted though it may be an inch thick. Are the American people prepared to sacrifice the banking system of the States, to consummate this dangerous union of political and-monied power hands of the Federal Administration.-New York Courier. The Richmond Whig appropriately brings to mind the remark of T.H. BENTON, in ter, that "ANOTHER SUSPENSION BY THE BANKS MAY BE NECESSARY TO CARRY THROUGH THIS GREAT MEASURE"-meaning the sub-Treasury. This has been the whole and sole desire of the Government. "Give us a suspension," say "and can carry the sub-Treasury.' They have succeeded in their effortsperhaps will succeed in obtaining their darling measure. We shall at any rate see how far they can succeed in repairing the mischief all they have accomplished. The people of parties will lock anxiously for the result.BALT. PAT. "Shall ours be a Government of the Banks, or a Government of the People ?" asks a Van Buren paper. Since the expiration of the charter of the U. States Bank, the Jackson and Van Buren Legislatures of the several States seem to have vied with each other in the manufacture of Banks.-They have increased in the Van Buren States as fast as newspapers; and at the present moment, Van Buren men are giving notice throughout Maryland, of their determination to apply to the Legislature for Bank charters. Let the Van Buren people, then, answer the question. "Shall we have (continues the Van Buren paper) a constitutional treasury, or an unconstitutional treasury ?" We do not see that it is likely to make much difference what the treasury is, inasmuch as the public money is carried off the new kind of public treasurers as rapidly almost as it is collected. Nothing of this kind took place when the public funds were kept by the United States Bank.--Balt. Chron. The gratification of the office-holders at the suspension of specie payments may be traced to the fact that now, asduring the late suspension, they can make a "handsome penny" by selling the specie checks they receive for their salaries. Specie will perhaps be worth 5, 10, or 15 per cent., and the officers of the government being paid in specie can readily make the evchange for bank notes, much to their pecuniary advantage. "One currency for the government and another for the people, is their delight, and so long as they can preserve this state of things they will doubtless doit.-Balt. Chron. PUT UP THE FENCE! The opinion prevails extensively-it spreading widely, and the conviction of its correctness the with all resources, in United cannot States, grows get along stronger smoothly, her and mighty stronger-that her business affairs, without the aid of protecting tar-