16407. North River Bank (New York, NY)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Reopening
Bank Type
state
Start Date
August 2, 1837
Location
New York, New York (40.714, -74.006)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
7422909f

Response Measures

None

Description

Articles (Aug 1837) discuss North River Bank as one of the 'suspended banks' but report it began to redeem notes / paid a suit, indicating it was resuming specie payments rather than remaining closed. No explicit run is described in the texts provided.

Events (3)
1. August 2, 1837 Suspension
Cause Details
Part of the broader group of 'suspended banks' under the suspension law; general suspension policy and strained assets from West India trade mentioned in articles.
Newspaper Excerpt
the North River Bank this day, has began to redeem its notes rather than stand Sais.
Source
newspapers
2. August 5, 1837 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
The North River Bank this day paid $65 and costs upon a suit brought against them before the case went to trial. Suits are multiplying every day upon these suspended banks,
Source
newspapers
3. August 10, 1837 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
The North River Bank, for instance, has new in jeopardy more than one-third of its capital. It has been engaged in the West India trade. The nature of its assets is well known.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (3)
1. August 3, 1837 Morning Herald New York, NY
Article from Morning Herald, August 3, 1837

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Article Text

MONEY MARKET. Wednesday, August 2, 1 P. M. Stocks went up today at the second call considerably. Buyers were more numerous than-sellers. The fancies were indulged in to some extent. Mohawk disappeared entirely.Specie IS coming down. Spanish dollars, a scarce article, are as low as 111, and Halves are at 81 A goodly quantity was on sale this morning at different bullion offices. United States notes were paid out in exchange for specie at 1 per sent discount. The paper of the old bank will be used for exchanges in spite of the cry agaiast them. We are glad to learn that the North River Bank this day, has began to redeem its notes rather than stand Sais. Why should not banks pay their debts? If they will not pay them, let them be compelled by law to come up to the evea line of justice. Six O'CLOCK, P.M. The activity in the stock market rather felt off at the second board. It appears that the usury and the mortgage laws have the effect of driving all floating capital into stocks. Capitalists will not lend on either of these laws, believing that stocks are as low as they can be, and therefore any change in the money market cannot affect their value injuriously. The suspension, usury, and mortgage laws of the last legislature have had a most remarkable operation on the movements of trade, money, and commerce throughout the summer. By the suspension law, and the arrangements entered into, under it, by the banks, a vast amount of bank facilities are thrown into the hands of the country traders at the expense of the city.On the 1st of July about $1,700,000 of country safety fund paper lay in the banks in Wall street, yielding an interest of 6 per cent. On this day it is calculated that this amount has swelled up to $3,000,000. The city banks prefer this kind of security to that of our own merchants. Accordingly they are in no haste to call upon the country banks to redeem their issues. The city banks receive as much interest for these balances as they would for discounting commercial paper. On the contrary the country banks charge 7 per cent, besides the exchange. The country traders, therefore, receive the very facilities of our own banks at the expense of the city. This is one of the singular effects of the ridiculous suspension law. On the other hand, the state of public feeling is very hostile to any continuance of the suspension. At this moment suits to nearly $10,000 are pending against the various banks for specie on their notes-and our juries are decided tha. there is no bar to the recovery in that law. The judges think otherwise, but what are the opinion of judges in opposition to public opinion? The Secretary of the Treasury, in a late document, says that two-thirds of the deposite banks can resuine specie payments immediately. In this city unless the banks adopt some action, the suits against them will increase.- Will they do so? We know not-but here is a table of their means of redemption:-

2. August 10, 1837 Morning Herald New York, NY
Article from Morning Herald, August 10, 1837

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Article Text

DIORC very DOCK From whatever source the Bank of America may have derived its $600,000 of specie is of no consequence to the public. The first duty of every bank is to its bill holders. This institution ought to resume immediately. It has more than specie enough in its vaults to redeem its paper, and it ought not to class itself voluntarily among those banks which were forced to suspend by bad management, &c. We have nothing to do with the engagements of this or any other bank. As coiners of money, and so authorized by the supreme power of the state, we have to do with them. The Bank of America then, can resume if she pleases. In relation to the other banks in the list, their ability to redeem their promises is plainly marked out in our classification. The bill-holder will look surprised to find that every one of them is unable to pay coin for their notes on demand. But he must recollect that the profits of each of these banks far exceed their circulation. They have then a fund to which they can resort if they wish to relieve the community of the heavy tax it is now paying to support them. There are other curious facts connected with the business of some of these banks. The North River Bank, for instance, has new in jeopardy more than one-third of its capital. It has been engaged in the West India trade. The nature of its assets is well known. The Commercial is in a worse condition. She has almost one-half of her capital tied up in the Mississippi trade. Her portfolio presents a fine array of figures, but their realization will be an impossibility. The Phenix and State Banks are swamped in exchange to fully one-fourth of their capital. The securities they hold are little better than their own notes. When they come to touch the "siller" for them, they wille be egregiously disappointed. The Mechanics' Bank may reckon its losses at $400,000 in the kiting system, besides having the death of its cashier to answer for. When the whole batch of the city banks come to be weighed in the scales of justice and right, the classification we have given will be totally changed. It has been urged that the amounts under the head of circulation in the bank statement are not really in the hands of the people forming a currency. Why did not the banks then deduct the notes of each other in their possession, and give us the actual circulation as the Boston banks do? If they cheose to mystify their statements, let them abide by the consequence. We have two other curious and interesting tables Supposing for a moment that the government is a preferred creditor, and that the bill holder must be thrust aside, see how the twelve deposite banks stand affected. of United Stated Manico - Servicio in

3. August 19, 1837 The Columbia Democrat Bloomsburg, PA
Article from The Columbia Democrat, August 19, 1837

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Article Text

BALTIMORE, August 5. # THE BANKS. The following is the concluding paragraph of the letter of the New York correspon-dent of the Merchant, which we take from that paper of yesterday. We lay it before our readers as one of "the signs of the times." We know no one subject upon which so great an unanimity of opinion exists, as that of an early resumption of specie payment by the banks. Excepting the speculators and shavers, there is but one voice on the subject. "The North River Bank this day paid $65 and costs upon a suit brought against them before the case went to trial. Suits are multiplying every day upon these sus-pended banks, Bill holders begin to look up since the decision in the case of Windt vs. the Commercial. A storm is brewing. The only way for the banks to escape it is to resume at once. You cannot pick a jury out of five hundred men, that would give a verdict in favor of a bank that will not re-deem its notes on demand."—Republican.