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# THE ENORMITY OF THE BANK TAX. The Washington Union very justly remarks, that "the people of the United States are of all others, the most jealous of their liberties. They would spurn the idea of intrusting them to an irresponsible President, an irresponsible Congress, or au irresponsible State Legislature. They demand to have a voice in the choice of all those to whom their rights and their welfare are intrusted. Yet they have for half a century past, permitted their legislators to delegate a power, which exercices a greater influence over the general prosperity and happiness, than ail other functions of government combined, to a set of bank directors and bank officers, in the choice of whom they have no agency, and over whose actions they have no control. They have acquiesced in the delegation of a power, which their legislatures were prohibited by the constitution from exercising themselves, to a small portion of their fellow-citizens; a power to monoplize that medium through which all their wants are supplied; a power that may be exercised at discretion, without limit or control-for experience has proved it beyond the reach of the law; a power to make men rich or poor at pleasure; to convert paupers into millionaries and millionaries into paupers by a resolution of a board of directors; a power that can make money plenty or scarce at pleasure, and gather a harvest from both one and the other; a power that affords the means for the most boundless prodigality at one moment, the next takes the very bread from our mouths; a power whose tyrannical and capricious exercise subjects munkind to exigencies which sorely try their integrity, and, by sudden changes from prosperity to adversity, exposes them to temptations beyond the common standard of human virtue to resist." The truth of these suggestions has been very forcibly illustrated in Tennessee, and the experience of this State is the experience of every other, where the banking system prevails. Who can estimate the annual TAX that our farmers and mechanics have to pay to keep up this splendid system of financial swindling? What community in the State has not lost its hundreds or thousands of dollars, year after year, in counterfeit, broken or depreciated bank paper? And every dollar so lost, is that much abstracted from the accumulations of honest industry, for the benfit of some speculative gambler, who, by authority of law, was licensed to swindle and defraud the public. Broken banks and bank suspensions are matters of such common occurrence, that it is not necessary to refer as far back as the time when the State was flooded with the shinplaster currency of "Oatis, Arnold & Co.," "Chaffin, Kirk & Co.," "Hiwassee Railroad Co.," "Morgan, Allison & Co.," "Paul, Negrin," "Kincannon," &c., &c., to form some conception of the heavy tax which is constantly levied on the pockets of the people for the support of these privileged corporations. We need only recur to the experience of the last two or three years. Among the broken banks are the following: Bank of East Tennessee, supposed to have had a circulation of from six to eight hundred thousand-Farmers' and Merchants' Bank, with a circulation of near a million-Mechanics' Bank, Agricultural Bank, Miners' and Manufacturers' Bank, and the Memphis Savings Institute, whose circulation, though large, we are unable to give. In addition to these, is the famous Central Bank, that has never paid a farthing upon its issue since the day it first closed doors. The millions for which all these banks failed, was a direct TAX upon the pockets of the people-as much so as if the revenue collectors, had gone round and assessed it upon their property. There is scarcely a community in the State, that has not lost its hundreds or thousands by these bankrupt concerns. In addition, we still have on hand quite a respectable circulation of the following banks, at a depreciation of from 30 to 50 per cent.: Bank of Lawrenceburg, Bank of Shelbyville, and Ocoee, and the free banks of Tazewell, Jefferson, Claiborne, Trenton, Knoxville and Nashville. How many thousands have the people been required to loose by these institutions? But these are not all their losses. The very best of the banks have been, and are still at a depreciation. A few of them are quoted, by those who fix up our bank tables, at par. But what is meant by "par?" Simply that it is the best of a bad and depreciated currency. For instance, the notes on the Bank of Tennessee, to be actually at par, should be equivalent to a legal tender to the thing it is intended to represent-gold and silver; and yet they are below par, whenever measured by this standard, from 7 to 10 per cent. Who can estimate the losses of the people of Tennessee? Who can tell the amount paid by them to the support of banks?