Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

compelled to pursue some honest and laudable occupation.

from the mechanical and agricultural interests to represent us in our Legislative halls, and the almost useless army of nonproducers will be sensibly diminished.

Among all the objects of reform that of our present judiciary system is one of the most important. We are not yet It is for the interest of the lawyers to a free people we are governed by the have the laws so complicated that no one laws of England-the decisions of West- can understand them but themselves. minster Hall-and are little better even Are they proper persons to legislate now, at least in this respect, than colo- for a community of freemen? "The nies of Great Brittian. It is something people of Rome in the most corrupt at which posterity will marvel that a re- ages, justly considered it the most intolepublican country so long consented to rable tyranny, when one of their despots live under the laws of a monarchy--the had the laws written in a small hand, and judge made laws of Old England; that posted up so high, that the people could the decisions of ages of barbarism and not not conveniently read them. But ignorance are the guide of American shall we, who claim to be free and equal, judges in an American Court; that we voluntarily continue in a state of almost of all the nations of the earth have no total ignorance? with laws so multiplied, code of our own, but are governed by so obscure, and so contradictory, as to the musty precedents of common law render the general knowledge of them which have been handed down since the impossible?" Do we call ourselves freeNorman conquest. "One of the most men and yet allow those who have moenormous usurpations of the judiciary, nopolized our halls of justice to prevent is the claim and posession of common an American from pleading his own law jurisdiction. Common law, although cause, and managing his own case-by contained in ten thousand different books, their infamous bar rules and hollow is said to be unwritten law, deposited mockery? only in the head of the judge, so that The common law system of England whatever he says is common law, must which we have engrafted upon our rebe common law, and it is impossible to publican institutions, is based upon deknow, before the judge decides, what ception, extortion, villainy and fraud; it the law is. But still in order to justify annihilates justice under the garb of justhe judge in all his iniquitous decisions, tice; it is one of the most potent of all they have recourse to precedents, or pre-engines in the hands of an air bubble vious decisions. And however unjust aristocracy to rob the many to benefit and wicked any decision may be, if a the few-to crush down the people, and previous decision of the same kind can to keep them in a state bordering upon be found, either in ancient or modern European vassalage. Next to the banktimes, in Great Britain or in any of the ing monopoly, this is the most vexatious, States in the Union, the Judge justifies demoralizing, oppressive to the working himself before the public, and escapes men of our country, of all the stupenwith impunity." Why is it that these dous frauds that have been practised upcrying evils are borne with the patience of the stupid ox in the furrow? Why is it that we allow ourselves to be gov. erned by laws that no one can read or understand? So long as we continue to send Lawyers to the Legislature to Let our own courts of law be theroughmake our laws, so long will they remain ly reformed. Let the article of justice unintelligible to the great mass of the be cheapened and brought to every community; and so long shall we be man's door, at all seasons of the year; destitute of a code of our own, and im- let local courts be organized upon some port our laws from countries whose in- safe and simple plan, in which the parties stitutions are the very opposite of our can manage their own cases without the Let disinterested men be selected' aid of the hungry leeches of the law.

own.

on them by crafty and designing men. Why do we hear of the "uncertainty of the law" any more than the uncertainty of building a house, or making a pair of shoes?

There is a kind of courts in Denmark already been laid before the public in and some other countries, called Courts pamphlet form.* A few words however of Reconciliation, where all technicalities may not be inappropriate, as to the manin the pleadings are dispensed with.- ner in which Bank charters are obtained, "The parties litigant come into court ad and bank capitals formed. Bank chartell their own stories, witnesses are then ters are often obtained by palpable bareexamined by the court and jury, the judge faced robbery. They are frequently the expounds the law to the jury, who then offspring of private iniquity and public retire and make up their verdict. In fraud. The law-maker turns stock jobSwitzerland, Denmark, and Hamburg, ber--sells his principles, not like Judas their success has been prodigious. Thus of old for thirty pieces of silver, but in Denmark, where they were introduced for thirty shares of bank stock. about thirty years ago, the number of usually kept as secret as possible, though causes brought into other courts was at in many instances the treason is boasted once reduced to one third their former ofas having been a handsome speculation. amount; and in Hamburg, many thousands of causes are every year disposed of finally in this way.'

This is

If there are members whose consciences are composed of a different material from gum elastic, they threaten him with "Could we have such courts, posses- the destruction of some favorite bill if ing general jurisdiction by consent of par- he opposes their bank, and the monopoly ties, organized in every senatorial district, is granted. To such an extent is special to hold monthly sessions, and presided legislation carried in our country, that over by judges learned in the law, elec- one would suppose that our legislatures. ted by the people, paid by the parties were merely the agents of stock-jobbers litigants, I have no doubt but the advan- and speculators, as most of their laws tages of such tribunals to the people are enacted for the especial benefit of would be immensely great, and the re- those useless classes. form would be as popular as it would The charter is obtained, the stock is. be beneficial. But the lawyers who profit subscribed for, and now for the capital. Take for instance the mammoth bank of largely by the present unrighteous system, and also that portion of every com- Charleston, with its capital of two milmunity who venerate antiquated customs lions. The charter expressly declares and usages, no matter how injurious they that 'the capital stock of the said bank shall may be to the public weal, would oppose be devided into twenty thousand shares. the reform with all their might; but the of one hundred dollars each share, and body of the people, now so grievously twenty-five per cent., or twenty five dol. oppressed by the present system, would lars on each share shall be paid at the think and act very differently from the time of subscribing, and the balance of interested and bigoted few. Please turn seventy-five per cent., or seventy-five the subject over in your minds, and also dollars on each share shall be paid as folread the article entitled law reform No. lows viz. on the first Monday in Novem102, Edinburgh Review. The public ber, 1835, twenty-five dollars on each mind is much disquieted on the subject of law imposition, it therefore becomes the duty of the friends of the people to look the evils complained of boldly in the face, and if possible prescribe a remedy."

Among all the labor saving machines invented by human ingenuity to enable men to grow rich without earning any thing, that of manufacturing money out of paper rags holds the highest place in the estimation of many. On this subject I need not enlarge--as my views have

share; and the remainder, being fifty dollars on each share, shall be paid within six months thereafter, at the discretion of the directors," &c. Now who does not know that this was not only intended to be paid in but kept in, as a basis for the issues of its paper? Was not this manifestly the contract with the State on the part of the corporation? And how

See the Banking Bubble burst; or the corruption of the paper money system relieved by bleeding; eighty eight octavo pages-- price 50 cents.

has it been fulfilled? When the Banks holder generally pays his first installment failed to make money out of the credu- in coin or bills of other banks, and re

lity of the people, this mammoth of iniquity, had only One Hundred and eighty thousand dollars on hand instead of Two Millions. Has not its charter been violated-and if so will not the people demand that it shall be given up?

ceives what is called a stock note. When the other installments become due, he hypothecates his stock--that is, pledges it at one desk of the bank, and borrows so much money and pays it back at another desk; in other words, he takes a paper When the Banks blew up without pay- promise out of one pocket, and puts it ing a farthing upon the million of what into the other pocket, and this is called they owed, there was an aggregate Bank paying his debts. And a very convenicapital of three hundred and sixty-five ent way it is--the only difficulty is that millions, their loans and discounts amoun- but few have the privilege of discharging ted to near 600 millions, their bills in cir- their obligations without paying any thing. culation to 125 millions more; and they If the mechanic owes money he is comhas less than 40 millions in specie all told! pelled to pay it with toil, and sweat and One dollar to pay eighteen. Do we need fatigue. The banks that are such a great any argument to prove the system a most public blessing, afford him no facilities enormous fraud? In many places the for growing rich upon what he owes, of capital with which banks are formed, is paying his debts with a mere scratch of borrowed for a single day, and returned the pen. Suppose the cabinet maker within twenty-four hours to the lenders. should petition to the Legislature for the In an eastern city there is a "circulating same privilege that the banks enjoy, of medium" that has formed bank capitals almost without number; circulating in kegs by the cart load, inspected by the commissioners and then circulating back again to its owners, leaving not a dollar behind. When the capital is paid in, it does not stay in, but is loaned out the first opportunity. Every bank that has less specie on hand at any one time than the full amount of its capital, should forfeit its charter. The Legislature contracted that its loans should be gold and silver, not promissory notes, not stereotyped cities in the wilderness-or building lots in the swamps estimated a million of times above their value. A bank in Rhode Island has been doing a business of upwards of half a million, and has only 68 dollars in specie. It has made 7000 dollars per annum on 68 dollars actual capital, without labor, after paying all its expences. Can we wonder that men are in favor of banks when they can make twenty times as much by moonshine, as the laborer can by unremitting toil?

making one pine table pass for eighteen rose-wood or mahogany ones; should ask for a charter by which he should receive interest on all the debts he owed, as the banks do now; that should enable him to make one hours labor sell for more than a months toil does at present-what would be said by the lawgivers of the land? They would tell him he was a swindler

they would throw his petition under the table, and kick him down stairs. Why? Suppose he was not rich and could not talk Latin, do we not boast of our land of liberty? Why should not a useful branch of productive industry be as worthy of support by exclusive privileges, as manufacturing money out of paper, which has no intrinsic value, and which a breath of public suspicion may at any time destroy? Why should mere representatives of debt, the mere promise to pay the money which paper bills acknowledge the banks owe, be considered money and circulated as such? Let paper be confined to its legitimate purposes, as a mere commercial meThe basis of our banks is credit, hol- dium, to bills of exchange, drafts, &c. low, unsound, rotten credit, not money; Why should the promissory notes of a their capitals are paper promises, in many bank be considered money any more than cases the promissory notes of broken mer- the promissory notes of an individual? chants; their assets are reckoned at the Why should a bank receive interest on its old exorbitant prices, when they have debts, any more than a farmer or mechanfallen from 30 to 50 per cent. The stock-ic? Why should the banks be allowed to

them facilities and they madly plunge into the vortex of overtrading, until universal bankruptcy covers the land with desolation.

issue promissory notes without interest, and receive in exchange the notes of others bearing interest? why should they demand the best possible security for the notes they issue, and at the same secure "The tornado which has been sweeping nothing to the holders of their bills but over our commercial cities, and affecting, the empty promise of an irresponsible to a greater or less extent, the whole corporation? why should they, in short, country, will be productive of good in the be allowed to take every thing from the end. It will turn the minds of men from people, and give them nothing in return their hallucinations to the sober realities but a strip of paper with a picture stamp- of life--teach them that industry is the ed on one side of it? We rejoice that the way to wealth--and that competence is people are beginning to appreciate these wealth. It will read to many a lesson on valueless promises to pay. A thief hav- the subject of extravagance, which they ing recently stolen some bank bills, the greatly needed; and make them better jury considered them in the light of brown because more commercial citizens-by paper, worth so much per ponnd at the sweeping away the corrupting example shop, and brought in a verdict according- they were setting before others, and which ly. Take away the charter from a bank has been literally ruining the youth of our and no one would trust them for a pound country. It will turn back the attention of tea. And yet upon their worthless of men to the pursuits of agriculturepromises, these representstives of debt and convince them that the good old faand insolvency, the banks receive an shioned, slow and sure method of getting enormous interest, which industry pays. along, is, after all, the best. It will scatBanks can never exist in a community ter the golden dreams which have been without engendering sordid, grasping dancing before so many thousands of our overreaching habits, and every evil that countrymen, and luring them on into follows in the train of unhallowed love of scenes of gambling, and speculation, and pelf. They are the fruitful source of the ruin. It will again graduate the relative money getting, money loving spirit that value of things; the lithographic cities pervades our land, checking all the nobler will be turned into potatoe patches and feelings, freezing all the better sympa- corn fields, and their value be once more thies of the human heart. The young, estimated by their productiveness per just starting into life, see the rich, be he acre.--It will introduce the people of the idiot, knave or hypocrite, bowed to and country to a better knowledge of our almost worshipped, because he is worth banking and paper systems than they money, while the amiable, the gifted, and have heretofore possessed-and lead to the good, are treated with cold contempt an effort, at least, to effect some radical if they happen to be poor. This indu- improvements in those systems, which ces them to follow the advice of the dying shall strengthen their power to do good,, father-" my son, get money, honestly if and limit their power to do evil. It will' you can, but-get money." This be- afford an instructive lesson to the governcomes the ruling passion of their lives; ment and the banks-and, we trust, lead for the accomplishment of this object they to a separation--a bill divorcing the. seem ready not only to sacrifice all-moral Treasury from the money changers. In principle, but every earthly enjoyment all these respects, and many more, good and comfort. They wish to grow rich in will evidently come out of evil; and the a day or a month-this they know can- greatest source of apprehension for the not be done by becoming planters or me- future, is the fact, that, as individuals and chanics; so they become gamblers-I as a people, we soon forget the wisdom beg pardon-speculators--merchants, taught us in these lessons of experience." buyers and sellers. They, like the banks have no money, and like them, they loan their credit, their debts, and make money on what they owe. The banks afford

We might here indulge in some profitable reflections, upon the evanescence of property; upon the egregious folly of those who base their hopes of earthly

[ocr errors]

now are

pru

paper money is that it deranges the measure of value; making that which should be permanent and fixed as the everlasting hills, liable to the most ruinous fluctuations and distressing revulsions.We might constitute india rubber a measure of length, to elongate or contract at the pleasure of the holder, with the same propriety as to make paper money a

measure of value.

The following has been attributed to Hon. Amos Kendall to whose gigantic efforts in destoying the U. S. Bank, the people of this country owe such a vast debt of gratitude.— He maintains that an exact proportion should be maintained between the measure and the thing to be measured.

[ocr errors]

happiness and distinction upon wealth alone, which a breath may destroy. How frequently does it happen, that the millionare of yesterday becomes the beggar of to-day; the mass heaped up by a long life of enterprise and toil, 'is utterly dis solved, leaving not a wreck behind.' It might also not be unprofitable to inquire how many of the families of those who have been reduced in their circumstances by the sudden reverse of fortune, have received an education which prepares them to meet the fearful tempest of adversity with calmness and resignation. How many of the sons have been fitted to maintain themselves by some useful employment? How many of the daughters are prepared to superintend What would be said of a merchant who the concerns of a household with kept pounds of different weights, which he dence and economy? Of what value was suffered to change at pleasure, putting off through these means upon their custmoers those trifles called accom- first one quantity then another, of the same plishments, compared with a knowledge commodity, for the same price, and pretendof domestic economy? How many can ing he gave the same amount to each? This make their own garments, or mend those is precisely what the bankers do. 'The valalready made? That female education ue of their currency is perpetually changing all over the world is sadly deficient, is a as they expand or contract the quantity, and melancholy and startling truth. How yet it is made the measure of prices, as if it strange is it that those who exercise such said to have no value but what depends on a remained fixed; and now, when it may be a deep and potent influence over the des- contingency, and that contingency varying, tiny of man, whose smiles call into exer- according to the ability of the different banks cise the first emotions in the infantile bo- to redeem their respective issues, they are som, who cherishes and expands the first still the measure of prices. If any of the ungerm of the dawning faculties, who gives privileged portion of society were thus, for the earliest direction to the human mind their own advantage, to change their weights -how strange it is, that the great duties and measures, and commit, under such a veil of secrecy as shields the doings of bank that will devolve upon an American modirectors, daily and hourly frauds upon the ther, should be lost sight of at all our community, would it be tolerated? It is not seminaries! The pupil is taught to thrum tolerated in unprivileged persons. The grothe piano, speak a little Latin and French, cery keeper who uses false weights is subject paint upon velvet, and she has completed to indictment and punishment. The miller, her education; she is now about as pro- using a false peck, or bushel would be carried fitable for a wife as a wax doll of the to a state prison. The coiner uttering light same size. To the all controlling influ- money from his mint might find his way to ence of the mother is committed the the gallows--and this, notwithstanding his the penitentiary-in old times, he reached priceless trust of forming and moulding coinage possessed considerable intrinsic valthe young and tender heart--and can it ue. But the money makers of paper, who be of small importance in what manner adulterate and depreciate it-who, even this responsible duty is performed? Will while it is convertible into specie, by secret it not have an influence upon the future expansions or contractions, will make, imcharacter and destiny of the child? perceptibly to the great body of the people, a where is there a female seminary in difference which, as a standard of value, America, in which the mind is prepared would be equal to turning a pound into half a pound-or, on the other hand, substituting to become the monitor and guide of a one pound for two-and who by refusing to household of fremen? But to return. redeem their notes instantly, almost enOne of the most serious objections to-tirely withdraw the whole lawful currency

« AnteriorContinuar »