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capital and the public confidence. These causes would sustain it and keep it always in its legitimate sphere.

It is recommended that the mother bank should issue no bills of less magnitude than $10, but the branches ought to be allowed to issue bills of $5 each, to the extent of $50,000 each. The issue of one dollar bills is considered necessary in this country; and it is believed, had the banks in the several states in 1837 been permitted to issue such bills, no suspension of specie payments would have taken place. The issue of one dollar bills may therefore be left to the state banks, which would be an advantage to them and the community.

The old bank of the United States deducted half per cent to cash a mint certificate this acted as a direct tax upon the importation of bullion, and prevented in some degree its importation into this country on foreign account, much to the injury of our shipping, the merchants, and people generally. The salaries of the president and directors of the bank and its branches, appointed by the transferable stockholders, should be fixed and limited in the charter.

To show the decided gain that would accrue to the people of this coun try by the establishment of a national bank, and by having portion of its capital set apart expressly to carry on the foreign trade of the country, it may be stated, estimating the pound sterling to be $4 80, the great advantages to be derived by the bank drawing its bills at thirty days sight on London, to be used by its merchants in India and South America, and which would, under the guaranty of the general government, and the collateral deposited with the bank, make them, if possible, more desirable in every part of the world, and much more secure than a British government bill, and consequently would, in process of time, command a preference and a better rate of exchange.

Bills drawn for the last fifteen years by officers of the British govern ment on the home treasury, at thirty days sight, have sold in China, and other ports of India, at 4s. to 4s. 6d. the dollar; at the same time Bank of Scotland bills, at sixty days sight, have sold at 4s. 2d. to 4s. 10d. per dollar; and of the Bank of the United States, when in good credit, and bills on the best London commercial houses, under credits at six months sight, have sold at 4s. 4d. to 5s., in some instances 5s. 1d. to 5s. 2d. per dollar. This is satisfactory evidence that a British government bill has produced to the British treasury from five to ten per cent more than the best commercial bills offered in the India markets. This saving may be made by our merchants by the establishment of the present proposed bank, and would secure to them the foreign carrying trade, and make us independent of the London merchants, and make the American merchants the principal factors for the whole world. All the operations of the American merchants would not then become known, as is now the case, to their London agents, who, it is feared, frequently take advantage of information from their American constituents, to derive advantage to themselves, prejudicial to the interests of their American friends and correspondents.

By taking bills from the bank, instead of opening credits with London merchants, enables the American merchants to purchase foreign produce much less than they could with the best credit procurable from London merchants, and which must necessarily fluctuate according to the prudence or known business engagements of such a concern. Another very important point is gained-the American merchant is enabled to transact all his

ign business, without its ever coming to the knowledge of British merchants; which of itself would frequently insure success to an expedition, and perhaps save the property in cases where a war ensues, and prevent effectually the English merchant from speculating upon advices received through American houses, as has been done probably, much to the injury of American interests.

It is dangerous for an American merchant to open a credit with a London house. Take for example, supposing an American merchant in 1837 had property, say real estate, that cost him $100,000, merchandise $400,000, and bills receivable $400,000-grand total $900,000: now suppose that he owed £60,000 sterling in London, his assets in America would not be satisfactory to the London merchant, and he must therefore sell them for cash, in order to meet his engagements; the consequence would be, that all his property would scarcely realize sufficient, at 22 per cent premium, (paid for bills on London, in 1837,) to pay the £60,000 sterling. His real estate, if sold in 1837, would not have produced over 33 or $35,000; and his merchandise and bills receivable, not over 290 or $300,000 more in cash-say in all, $325,000; an amount just sufficient to pay the £60,000. Now if this debt had been contracted at home, the collaterals being ample, time would have been given, the merchant would have paid his debt, and would have had an independency of some 4 or $500,000 left for himself and family.

It may be asserted without fear of contradiction, that there is no interest in this country but what would be benefited by the establishment of a national bank on the plan now proposed, and that this country would soon have the safest and most beneficial currency in the world.

A bank of this kind would soon render it unnecessary for states to grant any more charters to state institutions; it would keep the state banks in constant check, and prevent them effectually from overissuing. Conse. quently, we should soon have no more state banks than the wants of the community required, and they would be kept always safe for the stockholders and people.

The bank of the United States would soon supply the country with a sound circulation, and after awhile, the state banks would prefer issuing bills of the Bank of the United States to their own; and many state banks would find banking unprofitable, and some would surrender their charters, and we should then have a good currency on sound principles.

This bank having the money of widows, unmarried females, and orphan children, and perhaps of the savings banks, makes it a bank of the people, and no demagogue could attack it injuriously to the public interest. The very severe losses and distress which the unprotected portions of society have recently suffered, such as widows, unmarried females, and orphans, by failures of state banks and want of punctuality in payment of interest on state loans by some of the states, calls loudly upon the public for redress. This bank offers them every guaranty, insures to them their capital and a fixed interest, to be paid punctually semi-annually. And another great benefit to be derived by this class of our community is, it will make them cheerful and happy, and they will of necessity regulate their expenses according to their incomes: this, in a moral point of view, will be productive of great good to the country.

The faithful management of the bank would be secured, as the public would themselves be watchful of their interests; and members of congress

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would be compelled to be vigilant and have the affairs of the bank wisely administered, liberally supported, and impartially judged

The bank would in a measure, if not effectually, prevent peculation on the part of public servants, as all payments would be made direct by the bank to the party interested, and without interference of sub-agents, and would do much to make simple all receipts and disbursements at the different departments at Washington..

As soon as this bank is firmly established, it would be good policy in the bank to issue about $50,000 of bills of $5 each, made payable at each of the branches; this would give a local circulation, and be of advantage to the public. Besides redeeming these bills, the branches ought always to pay specie, if they have it, for such bills as are made payable in New York and New Orleans, whenever presented to them by the community.

The planters and merchants of the south would have a constant bufer of bills on London, in the bank, to the extent required to carry on the foreign commerce of the country, and to answer the wants of the general government.

Let this bank be established when stock to the extent of $5,000,000 is subscribed, and then no further legislation will be required to give the country the best circulating medium and the safest in the world.

ART. IV. IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.

It is with some mortification that a writer on this remnant of barbarism, finds himself under the necessity of treating it as an American subject. A citizen of the United States approaches such a discussion in a spirit and with a feeling such as, we venture to say, no other member of civilized society would do. We call ourselves a free people, and are sometimes egotistical and vain-glorious enough to say, the only free people on earth. Satisfied and complacent as the people of this country may be in the general liberty they enjoy, and proud as the writer of these remarks is of our glorious form of government, of our excellent constitution and the noble institutions which it establishes and guaranties, it must be acknowledged, because the fact is too palpable for denial, that there is a feature in our national policy, grossly disgraceful enough of our system, to humble all our boasting, and almost enough so to neutralize our partialities for the patrimony which we inherit from our fathers. The truth is, our fathers left us free in form, but slaves in fact. They gave us a beautiful theory, but left it open at the same time to an almost unmitigated practical oppression. They left a legacy of liberty to the fortunate, but bequeathed a bitter bondage to the unfortunate! It is because it is thus free in all its other phases, that an American is unwilling to meet this feature of it. He can scarcely bring himself to believe even the evidence of his own senses- -it is almost impossible to realzie a palpable fact. Priding himself, as he has good right to do, in the superiority of his theoretical freedom, it is very difficult for him to recognise the local disease which renders the whole system unhealthy. Satisfied with the soundness of the general health, he would gladly disregard the local ulceration that is upon the body politic. Proud of the plumage which beautifies and

adorns the national peacock, it looks like that gorgeous bird upon its blemishes. It is ashamed of its feet. Every citizen of the United States is free in every thing but his thraldom to his fellow citizen. His government cannot oppress or imprison him but for crime. No foreigner can attack his personal freedom with impunity; and there is no power on earth that can curtail one of his privileges, but the man to whom he happens to owe two and sixpence. To that potent functionary of American society, he is a slave-as much a slave as the blackest and most abject cultivator of cotton in South Carolina or Georgia. He is worse; for while he can be shut up at any moment, at the will of the master who who has bought him; by giving a little earnest money in advance, that very master or monster, no matter by which name he be called, is in many states under no obligations to feed him. He has full authority for incarceration, but may let his victim starve to death if he pleases. Even in our own city and state, where we profess to have abolished imprisonment for debt, unfortunate men may, and many of them actually are entombed, literally entombed in living cemeteries, scarcely more ample in dimensions than the sepulchre of Napoleon at St. Helena, and in no respect more comfortable than the cell of the convict about to take his departure for Sing Sing or Blackwell's Island; and this imprisonment too, without any obligation on the part of the creditor to furnish him with food or firing, without which, in the winter especially, he must of course perish from frost or famine; and from which fate he is only preserved in any season, by the mush and molasses which the city furnishes alike to the felon who has committed a murder, and to the civil delinquent who has been guilty of misfortune!

It is from this general view of the case, strengthened by the particular hardships and enormities of individual circumstances, which led us to the remark with which we commenced these strictures, that a citizen of the United States is naturally unwilling to look upon the Vandalism as Ame. rican. It is certainly more germane to Algiers, and it would certainly be more American to combat it as a despotic feature in the monarchical governments which do not even pretend to "democratic freedom," than to bear our testimony against its iniquity, as a part of our own idolized system of human rights and human freedom.

It is our present purpose to "say our say," without regard to country, and "irrespective," as the abolitionists say, of our professions or our theories. Our theory of freedom in this respect is a farce, and our practice under it is a tragedy.

We are as well aware as others of the importance of the interests which it is the province of our journal to protect, of the great principles which it is its duty to develope and to advocate, and it is our intention in this article to keep them both in view. Our purpose is not particular, but gene ral; and in urging the interests of the debtor, it is no part of it to deny the rights of the creditor. Our humanity shall by no means be inconsist ent with the elevated philosophy which looks alike to the sufferings of the individual and the great interests of the mass. So far from entertaining this narrow notion of the case, we intend to make it apparent before we close our remarks, that while we point out the sufferings of one class, the actual disadvantages to the other are none the less obvious, and that our present system is equally deleterious to both; in itself alike dishonorable to human nature, and to our national professions of freedom and philan. thropy. The case presents no complicated questions of private right or

civil polity, and its whole bearings may be fully considered, by looking a little into three simple points.

1. The rights and interests of the creditor.

2. The situation and rights of the debtor; and,

3. The grand principle on which these rights are founded in the great law of nature, as recognised in our system of government: let us look at them in this way.

First, the rights and interests of the creditor.

These rights are sacred, and we would be among the last to impair or disturb them. He who intrusts his property with another, has the right to reclaim it in any form that can reach it. He who receives that property, pledges not only what he thus receives, but all his own estate, to make it good; and the law should lend its aid in enforcing payment; should make the debtor's property, to the last cent, the property of the creditor. We would not leave even the necessaries of life exempt from the operation of this sacred pledge. A, in getting possession of what before belonged to B, transfers by that very act his own property to that amount to B, and B has, and should have full right to repossess himself of his own, according to the terms of the contract. There is no legitimate qualification of this right. He should have the privilege, if he choose to exercise it, of taking the debtor's bed from under him, and of seizing the last meal provided for his family, while the contract remained unannulled by personal compromise, or by the salutary interposition of a bankrupt law, with provisions humanely guarding the rights and interests of all parties. Such, in our opinion, are the rights of the creditor. What are his interests?

It is his interest, undoubtedly, to obtain the whole amount of his due, if he can; and failing in that, it is his interest to pursue the course that seems likeliest to realize the largest possible portion of that claim, under the circumstances of the case. Does it strike any unstultified mind that it is a very eligible mode of doing this, to shut the debtor up in prison? Is he very likely to improve his prospect of payment, by taking from the man who owes him, all chance of doing so? Would he urge payment, and secure its probability, by rendering it impossible? What man, possessed of even half a share of common sense, would think of getting more manual labor out of his servant, by tying his hands behind him? To force money from a man unable to pay it at the moment, by putting him in prison, and thereby taking even the attempt to do it out of his power, is about upon a par with the wisdom that would draw a loaded wagon up hill by hamstringing the horses that had faltered under the burden. The act, in either case, might minister to the malicious feelings of the moment, and seem to sweeten the disappointment of the man who deemed himself injured by the failure, but it would go very little way towards attaining the end in view, or rather, it would totally defeat it. The mar and the horse, would merely furnish proof to the driver, that he was himself little better than an ass.

The interests of the creditor will always be best subserved, by leaving his debtor at liberty to exert himself in making good his obligations, and instead of crippling those exertions, to assist him in making them. If the debtor be an honest one, his efforts will all be for the advantage of the créditor, and in favor of eventual payment; if a dishonest one, the chance of such a result is not merely lessened, but annihilated. A knave will

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