Authors: Murray N. Rothbard
4
Heath,
Constructive Liberalism
, p. 188.
5
Niles’ Weekly Register
15 (September 19, 1819): 59.
6
Georgia General Assembly,
Journal of the House of Representatives, 1818
(November 18–20, December 1, 1818): 31–40ff.
7
Also see Ambler,
Thomas Ritchie
, p. 76.
8
Reprinted in Philadelphia
Union
, June 4, 1819. Also see the Richmond
Enquirer
, July 16, 1819.
9
“On Crawford’s Currency Report,” in Richmond
Enquirer
, March 21, 1820.
10
Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, March 2, 1819.
11
“A Virginian,”
City of Washington Gazette
, December 22, 1818. “Philo-Economicus” cited Adam Smith in support of the abolition of corporate banking. The reference was erroneous, since Smith had expressly asserted the advantages of the corporate form for the banking business. “Philo-Economicus,” Richmond
Enquirer
, June 1, 1819; Adam Smith,
Wealth of Nations
, pp. 714–15.
12
“Quaesitor,” Richmond
Enquirer
, June 1, 1819; and “Colbert,” November 16, 1819
.
13
“Amphictyon” (Roane), “Hints in Relation to a General Reform of our Banking System,” Richmond
Enquirer
, April 18, 1820. Roane’s article is omitted from the collection of his writings in the
Enquirer
published in the
John P
.
Branch Historical Papers
, Randolph Macon College (1904–05): vols. 1 and 2.
14
Ritchie on Crawford’s Currency Report, Richmond
Enquirer
.
15
Jefferson to John Adams, November 7, 1819, in his
Writings
, Bergh, ed., vol. 15, p. 224.
16
Jefferson to William C. Rives, November 28, 1819, ibid., 15, pp. 229–32.
17
Jefferson to Charles C. Pinckney, September 23, 1820, in ibid., 15, p. 279. Also see Jefferson to Hugh Nelson, March 12, 1820, ibid., p. 258; Jefferson to A. Gallatin, November 24, 1818; December 26, 1820. Also see Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, March 2, 1819.
18
Virginia General Assembly,
Journal of the House of Delegates, 1820–21
(December 4, 1820): 11–12.
19
Delaware General Assembly,
Journal of the House of Representatives, 1819
(February 3, 1819). Only one of the legislators voted for both compulsory resumption and the relief proposals.
20
Ibid.,
1820
(January 29, 1820): 109–14. Apparently, it was the general practice in the state for a bank simply not to appear in answer to a summons against it, and the court would thereupon dismiss the case. Brinckle’s bill provided that in such cases judgment against the bank be recovered by default.
21
Niles’ Weekly Register
15 (September 12, 1818): 33.
22
For commendations of Niles for his anti-bank paper stand, from citizens of Tennessee, Maryland, and Virginia, see
Niles’ Weekly Register
15 (September 5, 1818): 36.
23
The
Federal Gazette
, in fact, took the lead in calling for a general suspension of specie payments. See the criticism in the New York
Daily Advertiser
, March 23, 1819.
24
For example see
Niles’ Weekly Register
16 (August 1, 1818), 377; 15 (September 19, 1818), 58, 245; 20 (March 7, 1821): 36.
25
Daniel Raymond,
Thoughts on Political Economy
(Baltimore: F. Lucas, Jr.,
and E.J. Coale, 1820). A second, more widely known edition was
Elements of Political Economy
, 2 vols. (Baltimore: F. Lucas, Jr., and E.J. Coale, 1823). On Raymond, especially his pro-tariff views, see Dorfman,
Economic Mind
, vol. 2, pp. 566–74.
26
On this question, see also “A Virginian,” “Reflections Excited by the Present State of Banking Operation in the United States,”
City of Washington Gazette
(December 22, 1818); “A Merchant,” Boston
New England Palladium
, June 8, 1819; “Colbert,” Richmond
Enquirer
, November 16, 1819.
27
Raymond,
Elements
, vol. 2, pp. 132 ff.; also see vol. 1, pp. 248–53.
28
Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, March 22, 1819.
29
“A Stockholder,” Baltimore
Federal Republican
, May 27, 1819, reprinted in Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, June 21, 1819. Also see “Cato,”
National Intelligencer
, June 19, 1819; Philadelphia
Union
, June 4, 1819; “Piano E. Sano,” Boston
New England Palladium
, January 18, 1820.
30
“Nicholas Dumbfish,” Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, January 11, 1820.
31
The report was signed on October 4, 1819. The Tammany Society had appointed a committee on August 30 to report on the state of the national economy.
32
John Woodward,
Address of the Society of Tammany to Its Absent Members
(New York, 1819), p. 40.
33
James Madison to Clarkson Crolius, December 1819, in Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, January 22, 1820.
34
“Aristides” (William Peter Van Ness),
A Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Commerce and the Currency of the United States
(New York: C.S. Van Winkle, 1819).
35
Also see “A Richmond Correspondent” in Boston
New England Palladium
, May 28, 1819.
36
New York
American
, March 6, 1819.
37
“Seventy-Six,”
Cause of and Cure for Hard Times
.
38
New York Legislature,
Assembly Journal, 1820
(February 21, 1820): 466–69.
39
New York Legislature,
Senate Journal, 1819
(January 6, 1819): 4–14.
40
Ibid. (January 26, 1819): 66–70.
41
For proposals to eliminate rural banks outside of New York City and Albany, see Albany
Argus
, June 29, 1819, reprinted in the New York
Evening Post
, July 2, 1819.
42
“Senex,” New York
Daily Advertiser
, March 24, 1819. On “Senex,” see Murray N. Rothbard, “Contemporary Opinion of the Depression of 1819–21” (New York: Columbia University, Unpublished master’s essay, 1946), pp. 20ff.
43
New York Legislature,
Senate Journal, 1818
(February 28, 1818): 98.
44
Jacob Barker,
(Appeal) to the Public
(New York, 1819).
45
“Plain Sense,”
An Examination of Jacob Barker’s Appeal to the Public
(New York, 1819).
46
“A Merchant,” in New York
Daily Advertiser
, January 16, 1822.
47
Pennsylvania Legislature,
Journal of the House, 1818–19
(December 29,
1818
, January 30, 1819): 334–39; and
1819–20
(January 4, 1820): 160–62.
48
Niles’ Weekly Register
15 (September 19, 1818): 58–59.
49
Pennsylvania Legislature,
Journal of the House, 1818–19
(January 5, 1819): 138; and (February 1, 1819), p. 345.
50
Pennsylvania Legislature,
Journal of the Senate, 1819–21
(February 14, 1820): 311–37.
51
Ibid.,
1819–21
(January 29, 1820): 221–26.
52
In Raguet’s terminology, banks going beyond 100 percent reserves were, in this respect, “banks of circulation.” In their capacity of storing money, they were “banks of deposit,” and in their capacity of lending their own money or
the borrowed funds of others, they were “banks of discount.” Raguet’s report on bank charters, ibid.,
1820–21
(January 15, 1821): 252–68.
53
Reprinted in Philadelphia
United States Gazette
, January 30, 1819.
54
“A Pennsylvanian,” in Philadelphia
Union
, February 11, 1820.
55
Niles’ Weekly Register
15 (January 2, 1819): 350.
56
Ibid., 16 (April 17, 1819): 132.
57
Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, April 15, 1819.
58
Brigham, “The Period,” p. 292.
59
Vermont General Assembly,
Journal of the House, 1820
(November 10, 1820): 198ff., also (November 13, 1820), pp. 212ff. For an example of New Hampshire antibank opinion, see “C.S.” in Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, November 11, 1819.
60
Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, November 28, 1820.
61
“O.” in Boston
New England Palladium
, July 4, 1820.
62
John Adams to John Taylor, March 12, 1819, in John Adams,
Works
(Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856), vol. 10, p. 375.
63
John Quincy Adams to Peter Paul Francis De Grand, November 16, 1818. De Grand proposed that the government issue paper and lend it at 3 percent to the Bank of the United States, which would in turn lend it at 6 percent to private borrowers. John Quincy Adams,
Writings
, Worthington C. Ford, ed. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1916), vol. 6, pp. 472–73.
64
Esarey, “The First Indiana Banks,” p. 152.
65
On May 16, 1819. See Washington (D.C.)
National Intelligencer
, June 19, 1819.
66
Anderson, “Frontier Economic Problems, I,” p. 63.
67
Ohio General Assembly,
Journal of the House, 1819–20
(December 7, 1819): 9–15.
68
Washington (D.C.)
National lntelligencer
, February 8, 1819.
69
Niles’ Weekly Register
17 (October 30, 1819): 139.
70
Hammond was the recognized leader of the Ohio bar, leader of the Federalist Party in Ohio, and was later to decline a United States Supreme Court nomination tendered him by John Quincy Adams. See Charles B. Galbreath,
History of Ohio
(Chicago: American Historical Society, 1925), vol. 2, p. 468.
71
Maryland and Kentucky had also levied a tax on the Bank before the depression. Kentucky accepted the decision of the Maryland case.
72
The meeting took place on January 30, 1819. See Detroit
Gazette
, February 5, 1819.
73
Secretary of the meeting was J.P. Sheldon, publisher of the Detroit
Gazette
, and also designated printer of the U.S. Laws for the Michigan Territory. Chairman of the Committee was James Abbott, a dry goods merchant. The committee periodically reported its findings in the
Gazette
.
74
Dain,
Every House a Frontier
, pp. 102–03.
75
Nashville
Gazette
, September 15, 1819, cited in Parks, “Felix Grundy”; Tennessee General Assembly,
Journal of the House of Representatives, 1820
(June 28, 1820): 925.
76
Tennessee General Assembly,
Journal of the House of Representatives, 1819
, pp. 75ff., 132ff., 182ff. Of the 20 votes in favor, 17 came from East Tennessee, while only 3 came from mid-Tennessee. Similarly, of the 14 votes opposed, 12 came from mid-Tennessee. Yet, as seen previously, there was a great deal of anti-expansionist opinion in mid-Tennessee. Also see Parks, “Felix Grundy,” pp. 19–43.
77
Parks,
Felix Grundy
, p. 109.
78
Tennessee General Assembly,
Journal of the House of Representatives, 1820
, pp. 39–40; ibid.,
1821
(September 21, 1821): 49.
79
Nashville
Whig
, October 13, 1823, quoted in Charles G. Sellers, Jr.,
James Polk, Jacksonian, 1795–1843
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1957), pp. 79ff.
80
Jesse Bledsoe,
The Speech of Jesse Bledsoe, Esq
. . . .
Concerning Banks
(Lexington, Ky.: Norvell, 1819).
81
Kendall,
Autobiography, passim
.
82
Kentucky General Assembly,
Journal of the House of Representatives, 1818–19
(December 2, 1818): 9–19.