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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
representative will satisfy the demands, or supply the absolute neces- sities of creditors. To remedy the many inconveniencies incident to a cumbersome metalic currency and to furnish greater facilities to operations in money, banks have been incorporated in all countries where com- merce has flourished, or agriculture has prospered beyond the imme- diate wants of a simple predial existence. The experiment of bank- ing has been fully tested by experience, and the almost universal adoption of the expedient affords abundant and incontrovertible evidence of its general utility and .adaptation to the wants and con- Yenience of men. But great diversity of opinion exists in regard to the various modes of creating, and organizing, and managing such institutions. To my mind the objections to private incorporated banks far transcend in practical importance any useful purposes they may have, or are likely to fulfil. In respect to them, our experience is large, full and direct. That many of them have been extensively hneficial, is without doubt; that in general they have been productive of more evil than good, .and have exerted a pernicious influence on society, is no less clear. The examples furnished in the United States, are within the recoUection of every citizen, and they address their monitory voice with peculiar fore~ to our judgment. There, among a kindred people, incorporated banking companies have been created, endowed and cherished every variety of form and modifica- tion of structure. In the early stages of their operatiqns, the system ,ms warmly commended to the people at large, by the additional capital which it seemed to create, and the consequent impetus it gave to .all kinds of business. Industry and enterprise in all the vocations of life derived new vigor and encouragement from the abundant facilities which the free circulation and easy access of a pro,fessedly redeemable bank presented to them; and the nation sprang forward in prosperity amidst the general jubilee of individual excitation. But in process of time, as the banks multiplied in num- bers, and their paper spread over the land, expelling every dollar of specie from circulation, the flattering scene changed, and a paralyz- ing revulsion ensued. The factitious subsitutes for money proved in many instances inconvertible, .and not unfrequently, fraudulent and worthless. The issues of the hes.t and soundest banks, depreciated a short distance from their own locality; the entire currency of the country lost the public confidence, and universal embarrassment and wide spread ruin succeeded. The first consider.able revolution in the monetary system gave rise to a strict scrutiny into the nature and capacities of banks; and it was soon discovered that private incor- porations were essentially unsuitable; liable to be influenced by the vile artifices of corrupt speculators, and were altogether inadequate to supply the general wants of the community. That however sound may be their basiR, and wise their management, they can never inspire and sustain a universal confidence, nor secure a remote and uniform currency to their issues. That their creilit being local, the benefits they confered were necessarily limited. T'o correct t~ese diRabilities by increasing the number of the local banks. would be extending the countless evils incident to such institutions, without effecting a Temedy, or attaining the great object in view; for in the same r.atio
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