The paid-in capital of the banks in the respective States and Territories, the currency delivered to them, (a considerable portion of which has not been put into circulation,) and the bonds deposited with the Treasurer to secure their notes, are as follows: State. Capital stock Circulation. Bonds. Maine. New Hampshire. District of Columbia.. West Virginia. Kentucky Indiana.. Illinois_ Michigan Wisconsin. $2, 749, 800. 00 25, 909, 040. 00 300, 000. 00 200, 000. 00 4, 201, 671. 26 4, 147, 837. 25 1, 165, 090. 00 1,040, 277. 00 Minnesota 903, 050 590, 000. 00 442, 000 Iowa.. 603, 000 1, 215, 000. 00 945, 900 Nebraska Territory. 1,092, 000 Kansas 30, 000 100, 000. 00 49, 000 Missouri. 55, 000 1, 621, 530. 00 722, 000 Tennessee. 865, 000 340, 000. 00 234, 380 Louisiana 263, 000 500, 000. 00 180, 000 200, 000 Total... 108, 964, 597. 28 65, 864, 650 81, 961, 450 A detailed statement of the affairs of each bank on the first Monday of October last, with an abstract of the condition of all of them in the aggregate on that day, is herewith submitted, together with the names and compensation of the clerks, and the total expenses of the bureau for the fiscal year. A large proportion of the circulating notes which have been furnished by the Comptroller was intended to take the place and is taking the place of the circulation of such State banks as have been converted into national ones, or of those whose notes have been voluntarily retired, or have been returned from those parts of the country in which the notes of the United States and of the national banks are alone current; so that the currency delivered to the national banks is not and will not be altogether an addition to the paper money of the country, but rather, to a considerable extent, the substitution of it for that of the State banks. It is perhaps to be regretted that so many new banks have been organized in States where, before the passage of the act, there was no deficiency of banking capital. There would have been less cause for apprehension that banking capital in any of the States was being too rapidly increased, if, by suitable legislation of the States, State banks had been sooner authorized to avail themselves of the benefits of the national currency act, and the managers of banks, where the necessary legislation had been obtained, had more promptly discerned the inevitable tendency of the public sentiment, and co-operated with the government in its efforts to nationalize the bank note circulation of the country. It was not the intention of the originators and friends of the system, nor has it been the policy of the Comptroller, to swell, through the instrumentality of the national banks, the volume of paper money. On the contrary, the system was designed to check overissues by requiring ample security for every dollar which should be put into circulation, and it has been the aim of the Comptroller so to administer the law as to prevent, instead of encouraging, an unhealthy and dangerous expansion of credits. I am happy in being able to say that my apprehensions of a too rapid increase of national banks have been much lessened by the recent action of many State banks. The legislature of Pennsylvania, following the example of the legislatures of Massachusetts, Connecticut, &c., has recently authorized the banks of that State to reorganize under the national system, and the stockholders of so many of them are availing themselves of this authority, as to render it quite certain that at an early day there will be in this great central State, without a dangerous increase of its banking capital, but one system of banking. In fact, the indications are now unmistakable that the time is not far distant when the people of the United States will be everywhere relieved of a bank note circulation of limited credit and uncertain value, and supplied with one of uniform credit and as solvent as the nation. It has been the earnest wish of the Comptroller that this desirable result should be brought about through the agency of existing banks, rather than by the organization of new ones, so that the national circulation might be introduced with as little increase of banking capital as possible. A national bank note currency will be one of the compensations for the heavy debt which has been incurred in the terrible contest in which the nation has been involved. If it can be everywhere introduced, as now seems probable, without creating a dangerous bank note inflation, it will prove to be a compensation which more than anything else will reconcile the people to the burdens which the war must necessarily impose upon them. It will be so by its tendency to regulate domestic exchanges, by the stability it will give to trade, in preventing unsecured issues and bank note panics, by saving the people from losses in the use of paper money, and by its influence in securing and perpetuating the national unity which is the ark of our safety. It is an interesting fact, that this great change is taking place this great financial revolution, if I may so call it, is being accomplished, without disturbing the business of the country. State banks, whose conversions are facilitated by enabling acts, are being daily reorganized without a curtailment of discounts, or even a temporary derangement of their affairs. Nearly all the banking capital of Philadelphia has been recently nationalized, with scarcely an interruption of the business of the banks for a single day. In States where no enabling legislation has been obtained, the change from the State to the national system is attended with more difficulty. But even in these States, by the organization of national banks by the stockholders of State banks, and the transfer of the assets of the latter to the former, the change has been already, in many instances, effected without loss to the owners, and with very little practical inconvenience to the managers. It is also an interesting fact, that the stock of State banks which have been changed into national associations has not been depreciated by the change; on the contrary, the shares of most of them have been appreciated, and I know of no instance in which their real or market value has been injuriously affected by it. This fact sufficiently refutes the charge, sometimes urged against the system, that it was being forced upon the country to the prejudice of the stockholders of State institutions. It may be proper for me to state another fact in this connexion of interest to the public, which is, that the national banks are, without any known exceptions, in safe, although some of them are in inexperienced hands, and that the fears that the national banking system would be the means of filling the country with banks of fictitious capitals, and be a reproduction, on a large scale, of the stock banking systems of States in which they had proved to be a failure, if not a fraud, are, from present indications, without a real foundation. The fact that such apprehensions were entertained or were professed to be entertained by the bankers of a State, in which a system similar in some of its main features was in practical operation, intimidated, for a while, the capitalists of other States, and retarded the reorganization of State banks, but worked no permanent injury to the national system. On the contrary, the expression of these fears has led to a thorough examination of the act, and a careful observation of its administration, and the result has been favorable to both. It has been discovered that in many important particulars the national system differs from, and is an improvement upon, the State system, which it the most closely resembles; that it restricts circulation to ninety per cent. of the bonds on deposit with the Treasurer, and prohibits the banks from issuing notes to an amount exceeding their bona fide paid up capitals, sworn to by their officers; that every interior national bank, in addition to redeeming its notes at its own counter, is compelled to redeem at par, at some commercial centre, thereby tending to prevent high rates of exchange between the different sections of the country, and that, in case of the failure of a bank to redeem its notes according to the provisions of the act, these notes, instead of being depreciated, would be at once redeemable in lawful money, at the treasury of the United States. It has been also ascertained that the Comptroller is requiring the most satisfactory references or credentials in regard to the standing and responsibility of the persons proposing to organize national banks, and is instituting a system of examinations which will do much to expose and check improper practices on the part of the bankers, and violations of the wholesome provisions of the law. This examination of the act, and the observation of the manner in which it it is being administered, have resulted in the entering up of a popular judgment in favor of the national banking system; a judgment, not that the system is a perfect one, nor free from danger of abuse, but that it is a safer system, better adapted to the nature of our political institutions, and to our commercial necessities, giving more strength to the government, with less risk of its being used by the government against the just rights of the States, or the rights of the people, than any system which has yet been devised, and that by such amendments of the act as experience may show to be needful, it may be made as little objectionable, and as beneficial to the government and the people, as any paper money banking system that wisdom and experience are likely to invent. It promises to give to the people that long existing "desideratum," a national currency without a national bank, a bank note circulation of uniform value without the creation of a moneyed power in a few hands over the politics and business of the country. Of course this system depends for its success upon the maintenance of the faith and credit of the nation, which, in their turn, depend upon the preservation of the national integrity. If these fail, the national banking system will fail; but it will go down with all other important interests, and will be but a part of the general wreck. That such a calamity is not in store for us is the confident hope and belief of all true men of the loyal States. The anxieties and apprehensions which have existed heretofore on this point are rapidly disappearing as the loyal mind of the United States has hardened to the inexorable resolution that the Union shall be preserved, and the public credit shall be maintained, no matter what sacrifices and burdens the execution of this resolution may involve. It is a common objection to the national banking system, on the part of some who favor a national currency, that it will deprive the government of the privilege it might safely use, and the field it might profitably occupy, by the continued circulation of its own notes. Why, it is asked, should not the government drive out of circulation all bank notes, and continue to issue, as it has done since the commencement of the war, its own notes, and thus save the interest which otherwise will go to the banks? In answer, I would remark: The banking interest in the United States is an important one; it has grown with the business of the country, and has been largely instrumental in developing the national resources and in increasing the national wealth. Banks of issue, badly and dishonestly as many of them have been managed, and disastrous as have been the failures which bad management and dishonesty have produced, have still been of unquestionable advantage to the people. The capital of the country has been largely, and in good faith, invested in them, and thousands of stockholders depend upon the dividends upon their bank stock for support. It is an interest which has stood by the government in its struggles with a gigantic rebellion; and now, when it is indispensable that the government should control the issues of paper money, there has been created a national banking system, not to destroy the State banks but to absorb them, and that, too, without prejudice to their stockholders. Governments should not be bankers. None has existed which could be safely trusted with the privilege of permanently issuing its own notes as money. Circulating notes have been issued under peculiar circumstances by other governments, as it is now being done by that of the United States, but the judgment of the world is against it as a permanent policy, and nothing but an overpowering public exigency will at any time justify it. Under popular institutions like ours no more dangerous, no more corrupting power could be lodged in the 92180 0-63- -25 hands of the party in possession of the government; none more perilous to official probity, and free elections. Give to a party dominant in the legislative and executive branches of the government the authority of issuing paper money for the purpose of furnishing the country with its currency, subject as it would be to no restraint but its own pleasure, and what guaranty would there be that this authority would be honestly and judiciously used? If there were no risk in the preparation of the notes, and checks were provided to make fraudulent issues an impossibility, the power of issuing government promises as a circulating medium is too dangerous a one to be conferred upon any party, except under extraordinary circumstances. The present issue of United States notes as lawful money, and the decisions of the courts sustaining the constitutionality of the issue, have been justified by the consideration that under a great public necessity, when the nation's life is in peril, policies must be framed and laws must be interpreted with a view to the preservation of the government. This is the paramount consideration to which all others must bend. Whatever opinions may have been, in times past, entertained in regard to the propriety of the issue of United States notes, and the expediency as well as the constitutionality of the law making them a legal tender, there are now, I apprehend, very few intelligent persons who are not persuaded that without these notes, and the character of lawful money given to them by Congress and confirmed by the courts, the credit of the nation would have given way at the very outbreak of the rebellion. When the war has been concluded, and the exigency which made the issue of government notes a necessity has ceased to exist, there will be very few to advocate the continued use of them on the ground of economy. If, however, there were no objections of the kind alluded to, there are other objections to the permanent issue of circulating notes by the government, which must be apparent to all who have considered the object and uses of a paper currency. Paper money has been found to be useful, or rather an absolute necessity in all commercial countries for the convenient transaction of business, and as a circulating representative of values too large to be represented by coin. Although the fruitful cause of great evils, by reason of its unregulated use, and of its uncertain and frequently deceptive character, the general utility of it can hardly be questioned. Now, what is needed in a paper circulating medium, is, that it should be convertible into coin; that it should be sufficient in amount to answer the purposes of legitimate business; that it should not, on the one hand, by being overissued, encourage extravagance and speculation and give an artificial and unreliable value to property; nor, on the other hand, by being reduced below the proper standard, interrupt business and unsettle values. It should be supplied to just the extent of the demands of a healthy trade. It should be increased as the regular business of the country may require its increase, and be diminished as the proper demand for it is diminished. It is not pretended that banks of issue have furnished this kind of circulation. Bank notes, with few exceptions, have been convertible |