681. BANKS, Abuses of.—
The crisis of
the abuses of banking is arrived. The banks
have pronounced their own sentence of death.
Between two and three hundred millions of
dollars of their promissory notes are in the
hands of the people, for solid produce and
property sold, and they formally declare they
will not pay them. This is an act of bankruptcy,
of course, and will be so pronounced
by any court before which it shall be brought.
But cui bono? The laws can only uncover
their insolvency, by opening to its suitors
their empty vaults. Thus by the dupery of
our citizens, and tame acquiescence of our
legislators, the nation is plundered of two or
three hundred millions of dollars, treble the
amount of debt contracted in the Revolutionary
war, and which, instead of redeeming our
liberty, has been expended on sumptuous
houses, carriages, and dinners. A fearful
tax! if equalized on all; but overwhelming
and convulsive by its partial fall.—
To Thomas Cooper. Washington ed. vi, 381.
(M.
Sep. 1814)
