Lawrenceburg Bank - Lawrenceburg, TN

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: state
Start Date: November 23, 1854
Location: Lawrenceburg, Tennessee (35.242, -87.335)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 0129d17a

Response Measures

None

Description

Article (published 1857) reports that the Lawrenceburg Bank 'has suspended' (letter dated Nov 23, 1854) and describes refusal to redeem notes, heavy discounting, and apparent charter/management violations. No reopening is mentioned; suspension appears permanent/leading to closure. I corrected date inference from the letter's dateline (Nov 23, 1854).

Events (1)

1. November 23, 1854 Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Bank refused redemption of its notes in coin or other bank paper; heavy discounting of its notes and apparent charter/management violations (issuance beyond capital, stockholders' notes treated as capital).
Newspaper Excerpt: That this bank has suspended is no news, or agreeable announcement to its note-holders
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. December 2, 1857 Nashville Union and American Nashville, TN

Article from Nashville Union and American, December 2, 1857

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Article Text

COMMUNICATED. LAWRENCEBURG BANK, At the session of the Legislature of 1847-8, an institution chartered, styledthe "Lawrenceburg Bank of Tennessee." All the rights, powers and privileges, liabilities restrictions, which wasconferred and imposed upon the Planters' Bank of Tennessee, was granted to, and reserved in said act of incorporation, with the additional requirement that the individual property of the stockholders should be liable for the issues of said Bank, as well as for all other debts contracted by the Company. This is substantially the act of incorporation, as may be seen by reference to the acts of the Legislature of that date. Page 359, chapter 207, sections 3, 4, 5 and 6. The 1st section creates the Hartsville and Nashville Glass and Soda Manufacturing Company, the 2d section isin the following language: "That this General Assembly reserves to itself and all future Legislatures, the right to alter, amend and annul, any charter of incorporation that has been, or may be granted by this Legislature, whenever in the opinion of the General Assembly the public good may require it." Does this section authorize the present General Assembly to repeal the act of incorporation, if the public good, (as does the public will,) require it? Many of us who are as ignorant of the construction of statutes, as we are of the powers, privileges and rights of banks and bankers, desire in these distressed commercial times to learn if Tennessee banks with their ruinous policy upon the industrial pursuits of the country will ever have an end. That this bank has suspended is no news, or agreeable announcement to its note-holders, including farmers, mechanics, and other working classess. The discount upon its notes have ranged from 10 to 50 per cent, and is now readily procured on the streets of your city at from 25 to 30, and promptly refused by all your banks. If the 2d section would authorize repeal; is here not adequate evidence under the eye of the people's representatives, thatthe" public good requires" and public justice demands action upon the reservation made in the 2d section of the act of their creation? And yet no resolution, no proposition of repeal is to be seen or heard. No allusion has been made to the peculiar language contained in the 2d section-peculiar because no other act incorpo rating & Bank Company furnishes & similar section. The Bank refuses the redemption of her notes in coin, or in other bank paper, and it is currently reported on the streets of Lawrenceburg, upon the authority of B. F. Mathews, Esq., and W. P. H. Turner, that a stockholder and director of the bank refused to receive sevendollars of Lawrenceburg men. ey in discharge of a debt due from Mr. Turner. Think of it. A stockholder and director refusing such a sum, in the midst of & community, where exclusive privileges have been granted, which enabled him to demand and receive more for his credit, than citizens not engaged in banking could get for gold or silver, unless they acted in violation of law. The Company has also refused to receive their notes and give their promissory notes due in four months, bearing lawful interest. Will the General Assembly legalize & suspension, or longer tolerate & banking institution, if they have the power to repeal the same, which cannot give to the people a better and safer currency! But if no such meaning attaches to the act passed, February 5, 1848, if the 2d section be intended to apply to the 1st section, and not the subsequent sections of the same chapter and act where two Companies derive their corporate powers from, and there is no necessity for action on the contingency mentioned in the act. There is still, in my opinion, other reasons why this bank should receive the attention of the General Assembly. The 1st section of the Charter of the Planters' Bank requires the payment of gold and silver as g stock. This section was wholly disregarded, as I learn from authentic sources; andstockholders filed in the bank their individual notes, which was received and declared to be stock, and upon such stock paper emissions was made. The 2d, 11th and 12th articles of incorporation, have not, it is generally understood and believed been observed. The 15th section, unless the notes of stockholders are declared to be capital stock paid in, has been violated, not only by issuances exceeding one hundred per cent, but has nodoubt, upon gold and silver, exceeded five hundred per cent. If the Legislature investigates and examines the condition of this bank, it will discover who owes it, and what they owe it for. I I oppose all banks, without malice to the share b FARMER. holders. fo HICKORY GROVE, Lawrence CO. Nov. 23, 1854.