wsiTiumi, 
 
 NO. 3.] COLUMBUS, APRIL 15. [184C. 
 
 HIGHLY IMPORTANT 
 
 LETTERS ON THE CURRENCY: 
 
 ' ' FROM DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN STATESMEN. ' ' 
 
 During the sitting of the last 8th of January State Convention of Ohio, the Dem¬ 
 ocratic Editors present, (comprising a goodly portion of those in the state,) ever 
 ready to forward the great work of extending pure republican principles, held a 
 convention of their own, immediately on the adoption of the noble issues presented 
 in Col. Tod’s admirable letter, and the strong resolutions of the Convention, to 
 give additional impulse to the canvass. This Editorial Convention appointed a com¬ 
 mittee of publication, to collect facts in relation to paper money, chartered monop¬ 
 olies, &e. This committee, in pursuance of their duties, among other things, 
 instructed their Chairman to send a circular to prominent and leading men of the 
 democratic party, in all parts of the Union, to ascertain the sentiments of democratic 
 statesmen, who had thought long and honestly on the subject, and to concentrate 
 those opinions in a form for circulation, to show (if such were the fact) that the 
 democracy of Ohio were not an isolated branch of the party, fighting on a local or 
 distinct issue; but only avowing with their accustomed boldness, truths, eternal, 
 immutable, and of wide spread popularity among the best thinkers of the Union. 
 
 A number of letters have been received in reply, and a great many more are 
 promised at an early period, which will be duly laid before the public. Tho idea 
 that this is a local question, pertaining to the Ohio democracy, will he seen at once 
 to be erroneous. The democracy of Ohio have planted themselves on great, leading 
 and fundamental principles—preservative of man’s freedom and equality, in all 
 latitudes and all longitudes. To these, they will adhere with that boldness, sincerity, 
 and vigilance, which are their characteristics—looking neither to the right nor to the 
 left—following neither doubtful leaders nor dubious principles. 
 
 We present in this number of the “Facts for the People,” several most admirable 
 letters, which will produce a powerful effect on the public mind, and rejoice the 
 hearts of thousands. We call the very especial attention of the people of Ohio, to 
 the excellent letter of Governor Ford, of Illinois. It tells volumes of truth. The 
 banks of Ohio were established under the whig pretext of furnishing a home cur¬ 
 rency. To do so, they collected what specie they could lay their hands on, as a 
 basis upon which to issue paper; but instead of issuing their paper in tho state, and 
 at home, to supply the vacancy occasioned by the withdrawal of gold and silver, they 
 send it off to other states, and thus leave Ohio literally without any currency at all. 
 Hence, the universal cry in our state, that times never were so tight—money never 
 so scarce. The democracy of Ohio have determined to lay bare these tricks by which 
 the state is harassed, and the people almost driven to despair. By the iniquitous whig 
 bank bill, the people of Ohio are deprived of any currency at all; and Mi- 
 
18 
 
 nois, and other western states, are cursed with a foreign currency of shin-plasters, 
 debasing the standard of value, and harassing her citizens for the want of a legal 
 tender to pay their debts. But let the people of Illinois be firm in their adherence 
 to sound doctrines. They shall not always be cursed by the false doctrines of Ohio 
 whiggery. The people of Ohio are intelligent and virtuous; and, as impracticable 
 as it may be supposed to be, for her democracy to carry through the great issues of 
 freedom and truth which they have avowed, in consequence of the opposing power 
 of her new batch of banks, yet, that they will do it, is the firm belief of the best 
 informed in the state. 
 
 The letters, also, of Governor Brown, of Mississippi, of Governor Drew, of 
 Arkansas, and of Senators Turney, of Tennessee, and Cameron, of Pennsylvania, 
 are worthy of the brightest days of republican freedom, and entitle their authors to 
 the everlasting gratitude of the democracy of Ohio, and the lovers of truth and 
 a virtuous government, every where. In the previous numbers of this irregular- 
 little work, the letters of Washington and Jackson, on the same subject, havo beer, 
 given, as well as the sentiments of Mr Jefferson and others. 
 
 In the next number will he published an excellent letter from Com. Charles 
 Stewart, the “Old Ironsides” of the ocean, and those of several others, (if received, 
 according to promise,) scarcely less distinguished for honors and for patriotism,. 
 
 LETTER FROM THE GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Executive Department, ^ 
 Sfringfied, Illinois, Feb. 16, 1846. $ 
 
 Sir:—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt o f your esteemed 
 1'avor of the 29th ultimo, covering a series of resolutions of the late 
 democratic convention of the State of Ohio, against banking and char¬ 
 tered monopolies; and in favor of a specie currency. 
 
 As chairman of the democratic corresponding committee, of the 
 State of Ohio, you request my opinion on these subjects; and you are 
 pleased to suppose that my opinions may have weight with your fel¬ 
 low citizens. I cannot flatter myself that any opinion of mine, would 
 have, or could have, any influence, in the great State of Ohio, where 
 1 am a total stranger. If it should be thought, however, that, from 
 the position which I occupy, as governor of a state that has rid itself 
 of Banks during my administration, my opinions may have any— 
 the least influence in Ohio, they are readily and cheerfully given; and 
 I regret, only, that the press of official duty will not permit me, on 
 this occasion, to state all the reasons upon which those opinions arc 
 founded. 
 
 We, in the State of Illinois, are free from the evils of banking. Our 
 people have put down banking at home; but we are afflicted with the 
 circulation of bank rags from abroad. And no State has afflicted us 
 more, in this way, than the State.of Ohio. The banks, under your 
 new system, have flooded the whole west with their trashy one, two, 
 and three dollar notes. Gold and Silver'were plentiful, until within a 
 lew months past. The banks of Ohio, in the mean time, have put out 
 
19 
 
 their shin.plasters; and it is now exceedingly difficult to get change, 
 except in small notes. It is made quite an argument here, in favor 
 of hanking at home, that we cannot control the legislation of other 
 states. That other states will have banks, and that we must and will 
 take their paper. But if your democracy is as true and genuine as 
 ours, you will sweep them all. by the board. Other states will fol¬ 
 low the glorious example of Illinois and Ohio, and thus, this main 
 pillar of the ragocracy will fall, even as the temple of Dagon. 
 
 Our banks in Illinois never did any good for the people, even in 
 their palmiest days. Nor am I aware that any person made any 
 money out of them, except such as were in the secret, about the time 
 they were going to break. During, their existence, they inflated and 
 deranged the currency and exchanges; banished gold and silver; 
 created high prices at home, and thereby prevented the profitable ex¬ 
 portation of our produce abroad. They demoralised the community, 
 by creating a general desire for sudden affluence. They promoted 
 idleness and speculation; and discouraged industry and enterprise. In 
 a word, they promoted ageneral desire among men, to “live by their 
 wits; ” and were the cause of many of them failing, “ for want of 
 stock.” We w'ere never so prosperous in Illinois, as we have 
 been since the banks were dead; until we were overrun by the rag 
 issues of Indiana and Ohio. 
 
 I have not observed that the honest, laboring, industrious people 
 need banks. Those who do want them, are generally those who are 
 cunning and sagacious in business; men who seek to live by their 
 “smartness.” Such are the men, generally, who own and control 
 banks; and, of course, they will control them to their own advantage, 
 and to the advantage of their class, with whom, it is natural, they 
 should sympathise most. By a man who seeks to live by his wits, 
 I mean one who does nothing physically; one who adds nothing to 
 the knowledge or the production of the country; but who works “head 
 work,” and by that means, comes to the possession and enjoyment of 
 the fruits of other men’s labor. 
 
 If it were possible for a bank to be honest, and safe for the com¬ 
 munity at large, the circulation of bank notes of denominations of 
 from $20 to $50, might be convenient for merchants. But it is a 
 thing unheard-of, except in one instance, that a bank has been restric¬ 
 ted to the issue of large notes, in the first instance, that it did not 
 finally succeed in getting the privilege of issuing small ones. Indeed, 
 one great objection to banks is, that when once created, they are too 
 strong for the people, and for their legislatures. A bank can never be 
 brought to judgment for delinquency. It is too powerful an offender, 
 to submit to punishment. And every attempt of the kind, has but 
 verified the old Athenian definition of law; which is, that law is a 
 cob-web, to catch small flies; but that the big ones all get through it. 
 
 No such powerful associations ought to exist under a republican 
 government. The principle of our government is, that all will volun¬ 
 tarily submit to the laws, except abandoned rogues. These can be 
 coerced, by the ordinary forms of our courts. But associated wealth 
 
20 
 
 may, and does, trample the laws under foot with impunity. A hank 
 charter is a most excellent device to enable the moral, the orderly, 
 and, in some instances, the members of churches, to swindle, without 
 incurring the odium of being branded as rogues. 
 
 It has always appeared to me, that a people may choose what kind 
 of a currency they will have. If they prefer paper, they will have 
 it; and specie will be banished. If they prefer specie, they can have 
 it; and bank notes will be banished. Every country, in the long run, 
 is obliged to be supplied with its due proportion of money, as com¬ 
 pared with other countries. There is just so much money in the 
 world, to be divided out, amongst all mankind, in proportion to their 
 exchangeable cash commodities in market. Money is like water. It 
 will find its equilibrium, and unite itself to property all over the 
 world. We may come into the general division, if we choose, and 
 take all in paper; or we may take part in paper, and part in specie; 
 or we may take our share all in 'specie, and put off the bank rags 
 upon the unwise of other nations. 
 
 If it were not for the banks and bank issues making money un¬ 
 naturally abundant, and thus creating exorbitant prices, wo would 
 never hear of a want of protection to our manufactures. Give us a 
 specie currency, and our manufacturers will undersell the world in 
 the world’s markets, both at home and abroad. Give us a specie cur¬ 
 rency, and our western farmers will need no abrogation of the corn 
 laws in England. In despite of the corn laws, they will accumulate 
 their piles, stacks, and cords of pork, beef, and grain, upon the shores 
 of Europe, until the agriculturists there will be overwhelmed. 
 
 But the main argument against a specie currency is, that paper is 
 the most convenient; that specie is heavy and inconvenient to carry. 
 I do not know that I am qualified to answer this argument. I have 
 never found any difficulty in carrying all the money I ever had at one 
 time, when put into gold. And I do declare, that I would like, for one, 
 to know how it would feel, to have more gold than I could carry. 
 There are but few such lucky fellows; and I do not think that the 
 currency of the country should be annually convulsed, and rendered 
 hazardous, all the time, for their convenience. 
 
 You are about to have a great contest in Ohio, the progress of which 
 will convulse the State; the parties there, are to survive or perish 
 with the banks. The issue, on your part, is no banks; and a specie 
 currency. Your Ohio banks are acting so badly, in issuing and cir¬ 
 culating shinplaster notes, that I heartily wish you success. I do not 
 wish to interfere in the domestic policy of a sister state; but the 
 course of Ohio is afflicting this state, and the whole west. If your 
 banks will not overrun us with small notes, we will let them alone. 
 Let them keep their rags at hoihe, instead of lending them to produce 
 speculators, to be put into circulation all over the country. At this 
 moment, the Ohio banks are a curse to the whole west. Some of our 
 merchants in this city, will make and win a bet, any day of the week, 
 except Sunday, that they have received notes on thirty different banks 
 in the course of the day. One bet of this kind has been won, upon 
 forty. Thus it is all over the country. 
 
21 
 
 But, my dear sir, I very much doubt the issueof the present contest 
 in your State. The hanks have hut too lately come into power. 
 They yet have money to lend, and favors to grant. In a little while, 
 they will have lent all their means, and will begin to collect. Then 
 will come the day of retribution. In the meantime, golden opinions 
 will he theirs. A goodly portion of the democracy, I fear, will be 
 wheedled and cajoled into their support. In our state, there are some 
 of the democracy, who were very tender-footed whilst the banks had 
 power. But now that they arc dead, they are ready to kick and toma¬ 
 hawk the dead lions. I know some who absolutely belonged to the 
 banks; and for whom the hanks could have maintained an action of 
 trover, or replevin, in any court of justice during the days of bank 
 power, who are now the fiercest in their denunciations. And when 
 we were about to provide for winding up the dead monsters, by a pru¬ 
 dent system, which secured the State stock, these gentlemen, to show 
 their utter aversion to all banks, would be satisfied with nothing short 
 of right-out bank slaughter, by tomahawk and scalping-knife, in total 
 disregard of all the public interests at stake. Thank God, there were 
 but few such patriots. Nor can I believe there are many in Ohio. 
 But such as there are, I fear will be found on the side of the banks 
 as long as they have power; and will thus aid the defeat of the demo¬ 
 cracy in the coming contest. You will, however, be sure of them 
 when the banks break; and they will even be better democrats than 
 the old veterans. Let such be marked now. Now is the time to 
 mark every bank slave. 
 
 I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 THOMAS FORD. 
 
 To S. Medary, Esqr., 
 
 Chairman Ohio Democratic Corresponding Committee. 
 
 LETTER FROM THE GOVERNOR OF MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 Jackson, Mississippi, Feb. 7, 1846. 
 
 S. Medary, Esq. — Dear Sir: I am honored by the receipt of yours 
 of the 29th ult., covering resolutions passed by a Convention of the 
 Democracy of Ohio. The resolutions pledging, as they do, my politi¬ 
 cal brethren in the empire State of the west, to the correct doctrine 
 of hostility to chartered privileges, and a speedy return to the cur¬ 
 rency of the constitution, meet my hearty approbation. 
 
 All banking corporations are conceived in fraud, and are brought 
 forth in derogation of that principle of political equality, which is the 
 boast of eve ry true democrat. Suppose there to be ten individuals in 
 the city of Columbus, having each ten thousand dollars , which they 
 are desirous of loaning at interest. Nine of these apply for a char¬ 
 ter, which the legislature grants; stipulating that the company may 
 loan three dollars for each one paid in. They pay in 90,000 doi- 
 
22 
 
 lars, and immediately proceed to loan two hundred and seventy thous¬ 
 and dollars; thus they get interest three times over on their money. 
 The other one loans his money at interest, and gets nothing but single 
 interest; perhaps he loans it to the other nine at six percent.; they put 
 it in bank, and loan out three for one, atsix per cent., and thus get 18 
 per cent. This is legitimate banking, and it is legalized swindling. 
 But they do not stop here; they frequently loan, five, six, ten and even 
 twenty for one; for every dollar loaned, they demand the interest 
 just as if they had a specie dollar to redeem it, if the paperwero pre¬ 
 sented. Nor is this all; the success of the company at Columbus, 
 will excite emulation at Zanesville; ten citizens there have each ten 
 thousand dollars which they wish to loan, at least they have the notes 
 of the Columbus Bank, and that’s as good as specie. They apply for 
 and get a charter, with like limitations and restrictions; the stock is 
 subscribed, and the notes of the Columbus Bank presented for pay¬ 
 ment to enable them to pay the stock; the cash is drawn and paid in. 
 The Zanesville Bank is put under way. The people have confidence. 
 It would be next to treason not to have confidence. Presently the 
 specie is all, or nearly all, taken back to Columbus; mean time, the 
 Zanesville Bank has issued, or is issuing, her three for one, on this 
 same specie. Money is plenty, and every body has confidence ,—why 
 shouldn’t they have—the bank pays all demands on it ? Things are pros¬ 
 perous; the planter’s ground, which wasonly worth ten dollars the acre, 
 last year, is worth SIS now, and other things in proportion. Things 
 move on very smoothly; the banks operate to a charm; blessings like 
 these ought to be multiplied; another bank is started at Dayton, and 
 this same specie is made to perform its part, and again three to one is 
 loaned. By this time things look very prosperous, the farmer’s land is 
 up to 20 dollars the acre. A confiding people have unshaken confi¬ 
 dence, the bank still pays, and the officers strut and swell and swear, 
 ;i We can cash every dollar WE have out; present it, we want to pay.” 
 Good easy people look on in mute admiration—and stick to it that the 
 officers’ word is as good as the bank. With so much evidence of pros¬ 
 perity all around, property rising in value, speculations going on, 
 fortunes being made in a twinkling—the farmer is drawn from his 
 plough, the mechanic from his shop, the lawyer from his books, all 
 must take a chance in the wide field of speculation. A sells to B, and 
 B to C, and C again to A, and all make money; to be sure, no one can 
 tell how, but still it is done. Money easy made, is easy spent. A made 
 five thousand in a single week, B six, and C a little more. Rich men 
 must live like rich men; these paper fortunes arc made the founda¬ 
 tion for extravagant living. Houses and furniture, horses and car¬ 
 riages, fine clothes, jewels, laces, silks, and velvets, must be had, be¬ 
 cause the gentlemen have made fortunes, are rich in fact, and must 
 live rich; mean time, the banks expand their issues—nine tenths of 
 the real people are quietly at home, attending to their business; their 
 greatest fault is that they have too much confidence ; anon. some one, 
 more cunning than the rest, sees through this their veil of imaginary 
 prospertv; sees that, these ‘■‘good, sound, solvent, well regulated State 
 
Banks,” arc. in fact, insolvent. With paper in hand, he presents him¬ 
 self at the counter, and demands the specie. Such a fluttering, good 
 Lord! The teller looks amazed, the cashier asks him to call again, 
 the president is sent for, the note holder is importunate, the bubble has 
 expanded to its utmost tension, and is about to burst! The money is 
 paid, but with such ill grace as to impair confidence. The thing is 
 whispered around, the people get alarmed, notes are presented, the 
 bank still pays, hut confidence is shaken, the bank totters and falls—the 
 bubble bursts, and where does the ruin fall? On the farmer who re¬ 
 mained at his plough, the shoemaker at his last, the blacksmith at his 
 anvil; poor men, their money has turned to dry leaves, and they are 
 left to curse the confidence which induced them to take it. 
 
 These may be called the abuses of the banking system. Very well, 
 they are abuses which arc always practised, and without which, to a 
 greater or less extent, banking would bo abandoned as unprofitable. It 
 is useless to talk of preventing these abuses by legislative restrictions. 
 So long as our courts adhere to the notion of vested rights in a bank¬ 
 ing corporation—you had as well talk of chaining a shadow, or bottle- 
 ing a sunbeam, as to talk of restraining a bank with laws. 
 
 Paper money has a tendency to throw industry from the producing, 
 into the consuming class. From the foundation of the world, man has 
 struggled in vain to avoid the sentence pronounced upon hisdisobediencc 
 that “by the sweat of his brow should he eat bread.” Banks are among 
 the ingenious contrivances resorted to by him to avoid this sentence 
 of his Creator, and it is but doing the invention justice to say, that it 
 has been in a high degree successful. Not only the immediate drones 
 who hang around the bank, as cashiers, tellers, clerks, messengers, 
 porters, &c.,&c., but innumerable flocks of unfledged bipeds arc sus¬ 
 tained in splendid poverty about all our cities, towns and villages. 
 These people must eat, drink, and wear clothes, and some body must 
 produce what they consume. The farmer, whose labor is not in¬ 
 creased in value by paper money, is charged with the sustenance of 
 these follows—and is flattered into being thus ingeniously fleeced, bv 
 being told that the abundance of money has greatly increased the 
 value of his land, as if the land were nny more productive at twenty 
 dollars the acre, than it was at ten dollars. 
 
 What is the intrinsic worth of a bank bill? Emphatically nothing. 
 It is not money; three to one, it is not the representative of money. 
 When a bank with one hundred thousand dollars in specie, has loaned 
 one hundred thousand dollars in paper, it has loaned all the money 
 which it has—all after that is trash, a vile cheat. Is a bank bill the 
 representative of money, when there is nothing solid in the vaults of 
 the hank ? No, it is a mere shadow—a baseless fabric, resting on and 
 being supported by public confidence; alarm that, and the whole tum¬ 
 bles into ruins. Ah, but, says the banker, v 7 e have our bills receivable, 
 they constitute our capital. Indeed, then I borrow a thousand dollars in 
 notes from the bank, and leave mv own note, as its representative, and 
 
24 
 
 It is a principle of trade, familiar to us all, that the price of property 
 is regulated by the quantity of money in the country, (by money, we 
 mean that which is used as a circulating medium, whether metal or 
 paper.) If the bank expands its issues, property rises in value, and 
 prices are high. If the bank contracts, property falls in value, and 
 prices go down. Thus, instead of gold and silver constituting the 
 standard of value, the whims, caprices, or corruptions of bank officers 
 regulate the standard. I suppose it need not be asserted, that the 
 honest men who had been purified in the red hot furnace of the re¬ 
 volution, never contemplated any such thing. They believed the 
 laboring man was worthy of his hire, and they made aconstitution which 
 they thought would ensure him wages which he could feel in his 
 pocket, and hear its jingle. 
 
 I have, in a hurried and exceedingly imperfect manner, thrown to¬ 
 gether a few thoughts suggested by the resolutions of your convention; 
 my time is too much employed to allow me to elaborate the subject; 
 but I must again express my hearty concurrence in the wise resolu¬ 
 tions of the Ohio democracy. You will have trouble in making the 
 masses understand and appreciate the benefits and blessings of a purely 
 metallic currency. In this State, we were, for a time, overthrown on 
 the question; but “fortune favors the brave;” we adhered to our de¬ 
 votion, and have now a pure gold and silver currency. Money is 
 plenty, prices are stable, people are satisfied, loafers are scarce, 
 morality is in the ascendant—scrub aristocracy is defunct, and we are 
 rapidly coming to be what nature intended we should he, a groat and 
 a happy people. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 A. G. BROWN. 
 
 LETTER FROM THE GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS. 
 
 Executive Office, ( 
 Little Rock, Feb. 14,1846. \ 
 
 Sir :—In response to your letter of the 29th Jan. last, written at 
 the instance of a committee appointed on the 8th of that month, at a 
 convention held in the city of Columbus, by the democracy of Ohio, 
 1 am persuaded I shall be unable to advance one single idea in addi¬ 
 tion to the accumulated mass of information, which I suppose it is 
 your purpose to invite from the distinguished of our party in every 
 state. 
 
 But the subject of currency is so intimately interwoven with all our 
 relations, both public and private, that I have contemplated the sub¬ 
 ject in reference to ‘the greatest amount of blessings to the greatest 
 number of my fellows,’ and am free to say, so far as my experience 
 and reflection go, that, viewed in all its phases, the banlang system, 
 whether under authority from the General Government, or a single 
 state, is one of more demoralizing and corrupting influences on the 
 
25 
 
 wealthy and influential, and of uncertainty, oppression, and ruin to 
 the masses, than any other in the catalogue of monopolies. And, 
 waiving the constitutionality of establishing such institutions, either 
 by state or nation, (debateable in the one instance as in the other,) 1 
 meet the question upon the broad principles of equal justice,—terms 
 which, if applied to such institutions, are truly inapplicable; but for 
 their trial, condemnation, and total annihilation, by exposing to the 
 publicgaze the secret operations of a Bank of Discount—a monopoly of 
 legal rights and exemptions extended to a few capitalists, that they 
 may hoard their money and issue their credit, by loaning to solvent 
 men upon sufficient security, bank paper, purporting to be redeemable 
 in gold and silver when presented at the counter, but with the dis¬ 
 tinct understanding that it shall circulate before payment is demand¬ 
 ed. This ‘promise to pay’ boars no interest; but the note given in 
 lieu of it, however well secured, not only bears interest, but pays that 
 interest in advance, in the shape of discount which, by ‘bank usage’ 
 of computing interest, is made compound. The exclusive privileges 
 embrace that of issuing three paper dollars of ‘promise’ to one of ac¬ 
 tual ability, which is predicated upon a sound state of the currency, 
 generally, when the very act of such issues deranges the equilibrium, 
 and renders the operation less safe. Thus, by an accumulation of 
 banks and their issues, entirely destroying public confidence, causinga 
 general explosion, and consequent depreciation of such circulation. 
 
 During the mania of discounts, the‘knowing ones’ use their credit 
 and that of their friends, to enable them to acquire the most stable 
 and productive property—property the least liable to fluctuation, and 
 to dispose of such as, from the spirit of the times, has been inflated 
 by the easy acquisition of money. Then, by parting with the valu¬ 
 able and safe property for sound funds, and a ready conversion of 
 them into depreciated paper,—say 50 per cent, below par,—the for¬ 
 tunate few—the stock-jobbers, and strikers of bank officers—make 
 immense fortunes. And who suffer 1 all classes: the agriculturist, 
 the merchant, (sometimes;) the mechanic, the day laborer, and all the 
 producing class of the people. And to the extent that a few are 
 largely gainers, so, to the same extent, are the great body of the peo¬ 
 ple losers, without the least shadow of corresponding benefit there¬ 
 from. 
 
 The great Creator gave us for a medium, the precious metals, de¬ 
 positing them in the bowels of the earth in such abundance, only, as 
 to afford the requisite amount to measure the relative value of all we 
 buy and sell. To enlarge the amount of that medium threefold, is 
 but to inflate, by a fictitious representation, the real worth of property 
 to a threefold nominal value; which the slightest circumstance—the 
 mere dust in the balance—preponderating on the side of dishonesty 
 of a single individual, holding high rank in one of those institutions, 
 or a wrong estimate made by an honest man, is sufficient to blast the 
 credit of the soundest bank that ever existed. The disaster of one 
 bank falls heavily upon all in its vicinity; and thus, the tide of bank¬ 
 ing prosperity is forever upon the ebb and flow, affording all the ad- 
 
26 
 
 vantages of the circumstance to the wary and dishonest, and taxing, 
 indirectly, the only valuable portion of society. 
 
 This brings me to the conclusion to which your committee have so 
 happily arrived: ‘that all chartered privileges are destructive of 
 equality, and hostile to free institutionsand while commending the 
 democracy of Ohio for their patriotism and singleness of purpose, in 
 the bold stand they have taken in the cause of human liberty, permit 
 me also lo tender, through you, my high respect and admiration. 
 
 Banks are said to be the hand-maidens of credit; and if credit, in 
 its broadest sense, were a blessing when properly dispensed, dishon¬ 
 est and incompetent hand-maidens would bo a serious draw-backupon 
 the good results. Viewed in every sense, banks are a curse. They 
 injure those who manage them; those who participate in the accom¬ 
 modations, and those who refuse; individuals are injured, states are 
 injured; our people, in mass, are the crippled victims of an imagin¬ 
 ary speculation. Our young, but once prosperous state, under the 
 banking system provided for in her constitution, has been reduced to 
 the very brink of ruin; her collection laws, in some districts, ren¬ 
 dered inoperative ; the moral obligation to pay just debts, has been 
 weakened; and I am admonished by a thousand evils growing up 
 every day under it. May an all-wise Providence avert worse conse¬ 
 quences which may arise from the mistaken policy of establishing 
 banks in Arkansas. May He guide and direct the democracy of Ohio, 
 ‘to choose the better part,’ of honest, domestic policy; and inspire 
 her statesmen with confidence in the sufficiency of gold and silver, to 
 buy all they make, and to pay for all they may have to buy; and to 
 feel the necessity of winding up and terminating the new, as well as 
 the old, manufactories of paper currency in your state. In after 
 ages, the praises of unborn millions, upon reading the history of the 
 first half of the 19th century, will mark the efficiency of truth and 
 common honesty, and bestow one meed of praise upon that party 
 which, guided by a spirit of justice and equality, shall have accom¬ 
 plished so much for future generations. 
 
 In conclusion, I will pledge you the co-operation of the democracy 
 of Arkansas, in the good cause so nobly commenced by the democratic 
 convention of your state, upon that auspicious day—the 8th of Jan¬ 
 uary—together with my own feeble exertions to serve both them 
 and yourself. With the highest respect, 
 
 I am, very truly, yours, 
 
 ' THOMAS S. DREW. 
 
 Col. S. Medary, 
 
 Chr. Com. Bern. Convention, Ohio. 
 
 LETTER FROM SENATOR TURNEY, OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 Washington City, February 10, 1846. 
 Sir :—Your communication of the 28th of January last, enclosing 
 the resolutions adopted by the Democratic State Convention of Ohio, 
 
27 
 
 on the 8th of January, in relation to a paper currency, and chartered 
 special privileges, and requesting my opinions and views in reference 
 to the principles therein contained, is now before me; and in answer 
 to your inquiry, I have no hesitation in saying, that, if the creation of 
 banking incorporations with power to issue paper promises as a cur¬ 
 rency, were now a new question for the people to determine in their 
 sovereign capacity, or through representatives chosen for that pur¬ 
 pose, I have no doubt that the whole democracy of the Union, and a 
 large portion of the thinking men of all parties, would concur in the 
 opinion which I hold to bo the sound one on this subject: that the 
 state legislatures have no power, directly or indirectly, to create or 
 authorize issues of. paper currencies by their own act, or through the 
 medium of banking incorporations. 
 
 I need not inquire as to the power of Congress, under the constitu¬ 
 tion, to establish such an incorporation, as that question has been so 
 definitely settled by the people of this country, as to be considered no 
 longer an open question, or a measure upon which any party will be 
 likely to venture, at least so long as the people are true to themselves 
 in the choice of their representatives, with regard to this now ac¬ 
 knowledged ‘■obsolete idea.’ 
 
 But in regard to State Banks of issue, how stands the Constitution 
 of the United States, and what is its fair and honest interpretation? 
 By the 10th section of the 1st article, it is declared as one of the ex¬ 
 press powers granted by the states to Congress, and, therefore, not 
 reserved to be used by a state; that ‘no state shall coin money, emit 
 bills of credit, or make any thing but gold and silver coin, a tender in 
 payment of debt.’ 
 
 Now, what are bank bills issued by incorporated state banks? It 
 cannot be contended that they are money, for they arc only promises 
 to pay money; and if they are money, then clearly it would be as 
 much a violation of the Constitution for a state to make them, or 
 authorize them to be made, as to make or authorize others to make gold 
 or silver coin. 
 
 Neither are they a legal currency in payment of debts, because the 
 states can make nothing a tender in payment of debts, but gold and 
 silver coin. 
 
 A bank bill, then, or any paper promise issued by authority of a 
 legislature as a currency, must be a bill of credit, which a state is 
 expressly prohibited from emitting. And it is only the fact that the 
 states have emitted this species of bills of credit so long, in violation 
 of the Constitution, that can for a moment make it a question. 
 
 But it may be said, that the states do not emit those bank bills of 
 credit, because it is done by the corporations the legislature creates, 
 and that not on the credit of the state, but of the corporations. 
 
 The answer to this is, that such a course is less honest towards the 
 citizens of a state, and others who are obliged in trade to take these 
 bills as money which the state authorizes their corporations to issue, 
 and then leaves the holders to suffer the loss if the banks fail, than it 
 would be if the state should directly issue the bills and redeem them 
 
28 
 
 itself. If a state makes paper money an equivalent for money, it 
 ought, in common fair dealing, to make it as good as money in all 
 cases to him who takes it as money, and parts with his property or 
 labor for it. 
 
 But a further answer is, that it is an evasive violation of the spirit 
 of the Constitution, if not of its letter, for a state to undertake to do 
 through these banking corporations what it has no power to do itself. 
 Will it be pretended that a state can confer on a corporation—the 
 creature of the state—greater powers than the state itself possesses ? 
 This would truly make the creature greater than the creator, which 
 is absurd. 
 
 Those who maintain the doctrine here denied, in order to evade the 
 Constitution, must contend for this absurdity. They admit that a 
 state cannot emit bills of credit, and if it directly issued bank bills 
 itself, it would be a manifest violation of the Constitution. But a 
 legislature that creates a corporation can, by law, define its powers, 
 duties, and privileges. Therefore, a state, having no power to emit 
 a single bill of credit, but desiring to exercise that power, in order to 
 enable her to do so, incorporates a bank, and by its charter empowers 
 it to emit bills of credit in its own name. 
 
 Now, if this can be constitutionally done, it matters not what prac¬ 
 tice, or the decisions of courts may have been, the conclusion is plain, 
 that the prohibition referred to in the Constitution, is become a dead 
 letter; and the object of its illustrious framers, who were ‘hard money 
 men,’ is thus evaded and entirely defeated, and the door is thrown 
 open to ‘paper money,’ just as wide as it was when the U. S. Govern¬ 
 ment was changed from the Confederation to the Constitution, mainly 
 to close that door to ruin. 
 
 But, sir, aside from this plain view of the constitutional prohibition, 
 I am opposed to all banking incorpo rations of issue, as being anti¬ 
 republican in their tendency, hostile to equal rights and privileges, 
 and destructive of the safe, permanent interests, the happiness and 
 sound prosperity of our people. 
 
 They never afford substantial relief to an oppressed or distressed 
 community. On the contrary, they are the most powerless when 
 their aid is most wanted; and they contribute more by their fluctua¬ 
 tions, their expansions and contractions, to unsettle the value of prop¬ 
 erty, and involve men in debt, and embarrass and oppress the people, 
 than they ever have, or ever can do, to confer benefits that are last¬ 
 ing upon themselves or the community. 
 
 In prosperity, when money is least wanted, they make it most 
 plentiful. Credit expands beyond means, property rises beyond its fair 
 value, and every body runs in debt at the highest possible prices. 
 The bubble bursts—a reverse comes—debtors who could get all the 
 credit they wanted to buy with, can get nothing to pay with; down 
 goes property; bank bills, instead of being the dollar they went for 
 when they used to buy with, are ten, twenty, and fifty per cent, less 
 to pay with; and between a depreciated currency and depreciated 
 
29 
 
 property, both the creditor and the debtor, the seller and the buyer, 
 are involved in a common ruin. 
 
 At the bottom of this ruin, the banks are always found, and their 
 influence is by far most pernicious in substantially agricultural com¬ 
 munities. This will be seen by tracing their operation in the dis¬ 
 tresses that have often occurred, and will continue, periodically, to 
 occur, as long as the present system exists. When the country is 
 free from debt, and every man who is industriously engaged in his 
 present avocation, is prosperous, and accumulating—if by slow, by 
 sure means—a competence to support him in the evening of life, and 
 when he needs no expanded credit from banks, to induce him to ven¬ 
 ture beyond his means or ability, in grasping for wealth, at this crisis 
 the bank, flushed with paper money, and no call for specie to redeem 
 its bills, pushes its loans upon the citizen, seduces him from his accus¬ 
 tomed pursuits, allures him with the hope of acquiring hidden 
 wealth without labor, into wild aud reckless speculations; and just 
 when he is most pressed for want of new loans to pay old ones, leaves 
 him, not only ruined himself, but the cause of embarrassment and ruin 
 to his friends and neighbors who became his endorsers. 
 
 But the speculator and the over-trader are not the only sufferers. 
 They make others suffer. Induced by the facility of getting money 
 of the banks in easy times, the merchant and trader extend them¬ 
 selves on borrowed capital beyond their means, and beyond the wants 
 and ability of the community; and as prices always rise when bank 
 paper is plenty, and fall as it contracts, the consumer not only pays 
 the highest prices for his goods, but he also pays the bank interest to 
 the trader on borrowed capital. 
 
 Thus, the hard-working man who means to live within his means, 
 is compelled to buy at the highest prices when the banks make money 
 plentiful; and the moment they make it scarce, he finds the dollar he 
 earns, paying not more than two-thirds or three-quarters of the dollar 
 he owes. 
 
 Again, the depreciation of bank bills, and the loss by failures of 
 banks, fall most heavily on the laboring community. When money 
 is plenty and credit expanded, the banks throw into circulation all the 
 bills they can issue, and drive the specie out of the pockets of the 
 people. Their paper every where becomes a substitute for money. 
 Paper money is plentiful and cheap, and property, increased by this 
 false standard, rises exorbitantly high. Pursuing this course of ar¬ 
 tificial prosperity for a few years, the people become greatly in¬ 
 debted, and when the crisis comes, the paper is forced home upon the 
 bank, and it turns out to be nothing but paper. There is no gold or 
 silver, or not one dollar to thirty, to redeem the paper promises; 
 suspension follows; and down go the depreciated bills. And in whose 
 hands are these bills ? Not of the borrower and speculator, who got 
 them from the bank on false credit, but in the hands of the farmer, 
 the mechanic, the honest unsuspecting laboring community, who re¬ 
 ceived them from the borrower, at par value, for their produce, their 
 
work, anil their toil. Such men are least able to retain the bills till 
 something may be got for them. In their necessity or alarm, lest 
 they lose the whole, they sell their notes to the nearest broker; to the 
 speculator who borrowed them from the bank, or, perhaps, the bank 
 directors and agents themselves, at ten, twenty, and fifty per cent, 
 discount; and thus, while the poor bill-holder loses this discount 
 upon his moderate earnings, the rich borrower makes that amount in 
 clear profit, by taking up his notes at par with the money he bought 
 at discount. 
 
 When this crisis arises, in pecuniary affairs, how are the debts of 
 a community, between man and man, to be paid ? The gold and sil¬ 
 ver coin has been driven out of the country by the bank bills, which 
 pretend to represent it, being so much below specie in value. The 
 debtor who has property abundant to pay his debts in good times, can 
 find nothing to pay with. The banks are down, and cannot loan him 
 even their depreciated bills; and if he could borrow them, he would 
 be still worse off, because he must take a depreciated paper dollar 
 of the bank, for which, when his note comes due, lie must pay a full 
 dollar back, with interest; and with this depreciated paper, he pays 
 his debts at the rate of three for two, or two for one, as the discount 
 may happen to be. If ho sells his property instead of his credit, to 
 get the means of payment, the property which lie bought high upon 
 bank expansion, is now down to almost nothing, under bank suspen¬ 
 sion ; and even at that price, he gets only depreciated bank bills for 
 it; and thus, he burns out his candle at both ends, and is irretrievably 
 a ruined man. 
 
 This is the more likely to follow, from the fact that these bank 
 facilities, as they are called, always induce men, in times of expansion, 
 to run in debt beyond their ability to pay. 
 
 It is not only so with the supposed rich, but the man of moderate 
 means: the farmer, mechanic, or laborer, when he gets money easy, 
 and a high price for every thing, runs in debt for himself and family, 
 thinking he will always get money as easily as ho does then. His 
 wife and daughters persuade him that he can afford more; and thus 
 extravagance creeps into many a worthy family, where there had 
 been nothing but thrift and frugality before. 
 
 A revulsion in the operations of this banking system, always comes 
 when the indebtedness of the people gets to the highest point. The 
 banks cannot then loan even their depreciated paper; and they com¬ 
 mence curtailing and collecting their debts, thus constantly diminishing 
 the quantity of circulating medium : and in this way, when money is the 
 hardest to be got, and property the lowest to get it with, the people arc 
 pressed to pay debts contracted when money was plenty and prop¬ 
 erty exorbitantly high. Thus situated, the debtor must follow the 
 fashion of the banks, and break; or he must sell his property himself, 
 at half what it cost him, or the sheriff will sell it for him. 
 
 These are the plain palpable evils of this system of bank paper 
 money, which every man in the community has either felt himself, 
 or seen all around him. From 1837 to 1842, these bank suspensions. 
 
31 
 
 —either all over the country, or locally,—occurred no less than five 
 times, lasting, for some periods, a whole year; thus, averaging nearly 
 an annual suspension, That the same disasters have not been as fre¬ 
 quent since that period, is mainly owing to the country getting rid, 
 at last, of that destructive high-pressure paper machine—the United 
 States Bank. But the system, though less combustible, perhaps, is 
 far from being safe. 
 
 From the returns collected by the present Secretary of the Treas¬ 
 ury, (Mr. Walker,) from seven hundred and seven state banks, we 
 have, for the year 1845, in immediate liabilities of the banks, for bills 
 in circulation and deposit, heo hundred and three millions nine hundred 
 and sixty-six thousand dollars; and of immediate means to pay,butninc/y- 
 two millions six hundred and eighty-seven thousand dollars; leaving 
 ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN MILLIONS TWO HUNDRED 
 AND SEVENTY-NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS, which the banks 
 would be wholly unable to pay, in the event of a money panic, or 
 credit crisis; and thus, instead of the banks trusting the people, the 
 people are trusting the banks to that amount. In this respect, rve 
 are worse off now, than in any year since 1841, or since the resump¬ 
 tion of specie payments, universally, in 1842. 
 
 The same returns made to the Secretary of the Treasury show, 
 that this excess of immediate liabilities over means, was, in 1841, 
 one hundred and three millions five hundred and thirty-nine thou¬ 
 sand. In 1842, ninety millions two hundred and sixty-six thousand. 
 In 1843, sixty-two millions one hundred and twenty-one thousand; 
 and in 1844, eighty-seven millions six hundred and fifty-six thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 The tendency of all this, taken with the expansion of the banks, 
 which is now over two hundred and eighty millions, should, I think, 
 begin to open the eyes of the people, and satisfy them that your res¬ 
 olutions are well-timed. 
 
 I will only say a word more upon the cost of all this paper machinery 
 to the people. The returns I have referred to, show that the 
 banks have out at loan, two hundred and eighty-eight millions six hun¬ 
 dred and seventeen thousand one hundred and thirty-one dollars, and 
 they have in specie forty-four million two hundred and forty-one 
 thousand two hundred and forty-two dollars. The specie funds, which 
 are about six millions and a half, are probably not very reliable. 
 Here is less than one to six; so that the banks are receiving from the 
 people, six times more interest on every dollar that they let out, 
 than men receive for their money who do not enjoy banking privi¬ 
 leges ! The banks, in fact, are receiving an interest on about two 
 hundred and forty-four millions of dollars, for which they pay no in¬ 
 terest, and which exists in no form of property, but stamped bank 
 paper. Thus, to support these banks, the people pay, annually, 
 fourteen millions six hundred and forty thousand dollars, in interest, for 
 which the banks give them nothing but paper credit, and this', too, 
 subject to the fluctuations and losses above described. To show, at 
 a glance, what these losses are, I have before me a report of the Sec¬ 
 retary of the Treasury, (Feb. 12th, 1841,) made to the U. S. Senate, in 
 
32 
 
 which (page 14) is a statement of the losses to the people, since 1789, 
 through banks and the use of bank paper; and the aggregate of this 
 loss, by bank failures, suspensions, notes destroyed, counterfeits, and 
 sacrifices of property by fluctuations in currency, is computed at 
 three hundred and sixty-five millions four hundred and fifty-one thousand 
 dollars ! 
 
 So long as the people continue this system, so long, in my judgment, 
 they will continue to bo taxed by it more severely than by all the 
 other modes of taxation to which they are subjected, by state or na¬ 
 tion. It is a system of false credit, too unfounded in its basis—too 
 dangerous and delusive—and in the end, ruinous, by always exacting 
 more than it gives. The wholesome and solid credit, between man 
 and man, founded on means, integrity, and fair enterprize, would, in 
 my opinion, produce, in the end, more substantial, individual and ma¬ 
 terial wealth, dovelope more safely and surely, the resources of this 
 great country; and be, in all respects, more congenial to the habits 
 of our people—to the equal and general distribution of property—to 
 the advancement of democratic institutions, and to the prosperity 
 and happiness of our common country. 
 
 I have the honor to be, with high respect, 
 
 Your ob’t. serv’t. HOPKINS L. TURNEY. 
 
 LETTER FROM SENATOR CAMERON OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Washington City, D. C., Feb. 6, 1846. 
 
 Sir :—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, 
 from Columbus, of the 27th ult., containing the resolutions of the 
 Convention, held in Columbus on the 8th of January. 
 
 On behalf of the committee, you request my ‘views upon the evils 
 of a paper currency, and the superior advantages of gold and silver— 
 the constitutional currency.’ 
 
 The American people have, by this time, suffered enough from the 
 pernicious and demoralizing influence of a paper currency, and I 
 could add but little to- the common stock of knowledge, were I to- 
 enter into a detailed account of the practical workings of the system, 
 and the inevitable evils that grow out of it. It has always been my 
 opinion, that the whole system-of incorporated-banking, whether for 
 the United States, or for the states themselves, was an unfortunate 
 departure from the letter and spirit of our Constitution. 
 
 It now remains with the people to restore the circulation provided 
 by the Constitution, and to abolish a currency which- is never a just 
 standard, and oftentimes of no value. 
 
 It is interwoven with every transaction of the community. No 
 man, however humble, but that he is daily exposed to its unequal 
 exactions. The property of the wealthy, and the labor of the poor, 
 arc subject to its influence, and entangled in its meshes. 
 
 I am, sir, with respect. 
 
 SIMON CAMERON. 
 
 be had for $1 |«er hundred, of 
 
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