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From the South Carolinian.
# THE BANK OF THE STATE.
TO THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA:
Fellow Citizens: The time for electing members to the Legislature is fast approaching, and we ought to take the matter seriously into consideration.
We ought to know the opinions of the Candidates, on all important questions which are to come before the Legislature; and to elect such men as we know will be true to the planting interest of the country; for I consider this the most important interest, and that it has greater claims to the fostering care of the Legislature, than all other interests put together.
The planters and farmers compose that class of the community, out of whom all other professions make their living; and it stands them in hand to take care of themselves.
My principal object, fellow-citizens, on the present occrsion, is to invite your attention to the consideration of a question which, in the course of a few years, must and will be decided by the Legislature; viz: whether our present Banking system in this State shall be continued or abolished.
It is a question of great importance to the privi-leged order of Stockholders; and, fellow-citizens, it is of greater importance to you. Your liberty and independence as freemen, depend upon it; your prosperity and safety depend upon it; the future price of your labor and prosperity depend upon it; and, in short, your very existence and salvation as an agricultural people, depend upon it.
That the question is one of great importance to the priviledged order of stockholders, I presume all who understand the privileges they exercise and enjoy, will readily admit. The Legislature, in chartering the Banks, gave them the right to create and make money, and also allowed them the privilege of issuing three or four dollars of paper money for one of specie in their vaults.
Let us for a moment, examine the history of these institutions.
The termination of the charter of the United States Bank, furnished the excuse for chartering new banks; and what was the result? Why, in the place of a Branch of the United States Bank in Charleston, with a capital of one million of dollars, the Legislature chartered the Banks of Charleston, Cheraw, Camden, Columbia, Hamburg, Georgetown, and the great Rail Road Bank; with an increase of Bank Capital in the State of some twenty millions of dollars!
This was the great error into which our State ran, and which gave rise to the wild speculation, and the shaving operations that have overrun the country, and involved the people so largely in debt. Soon after these Banks went into operation, they had the country flooded with their promises to pay; and a spirit of speculation was produced, which far exceeded any thing ever known before in this State. Immense profits were realized in Bank dividends, and in the sales of Bank stock; and after all the in ans of specu-lating, shaving, and skinning, were exhausted, then came suspensions, pressure, and ruin; and the Banks stopped their accommodations. They are unable or unwilling to continue their former accommodations. They have the command of so large an amount of Bank Capital, that they control the whole monetary concerns of the State. They have for several years controlled the price of your produce, and actually now control the price of all the property of the country. Their funds, instead of being used for the legitimate purposes of Banking, or for the accommodation of the great interests of the coury, are used to accommodate speculators; and in shaving and skinning, in every way their imagmations can devise.
And now, let me ask, why were these institutions ever chartered? Can they carry on Banking better, or safer for the interests of the people, than your own State institution! Are their promises to pay, any better, or are they as good as those of the Bank of the State! Or do they give better security to the country against suspensions, and ultimate loss? I apprehend that these interrogatories must all be answered in the negative. Why, then, shall we continue institutions, whose operations have had the effect of enriching the priviledged order of stock-holders, and ruming or injuring almost every body else? Why should they not be abolished! Who can give any good reason why this should not be done! Who would object? I answer, none but the priviledged order of stockholders, who live in fine houses, and ride in their carriages, and live easy, while the poor and hard-working classes are toiling to pay them interest money, or perhaps to be cheated out of a portion of their earnings, by some of their shaving operations.
I would ask, why are such rights and privile-ges granted to the monied aristocracy, in a republican government, which promises, equality and equai rights to ah! Why should such powers and privileges be conferred on any set of men! They have the power to create money out of nothing, and they also have the power to
