Benjamin Butler Banks

“ But a bank having notice that a deposit is held by one for the use of or as security for another has only such right of set-off as is not inconsistent with the rights of the latter. Here, the banks had knowledge of the agreements, under which these balances constituted security for the advance made by the United States. By acceptance of the moneys furnished in accordance with the agreement, their right of set-off was made subject to the rights of the United States and the obligations of the contractor. ”

“ When they were in the room every one would talk as though all currency save that of the Musical Banks should be abolished; and yet they knew perfectly well that even the cashiers themselves hardly used the Musical Bank money more than other people. It was expected of them that they should appear to do so, but this was all. The less thoughtful of them did not seem particularly unhappy, but many were plainly sick at heart, though perhaps they hardly knew it, and would not have owned to being so. Some few were opponents of the whole system ”

“ In commercial panics, and in times of general distress, the people as a mass did not so much as even think of turning to these banks. A few individuals might do so, some from habit and early training, some from hope of gain, but few from a genuine belief that the money was good; the masses turned instinctively to the other currency. In a conversation with one of the musical bank managers I ventured to hint this as plainly as politeness would allow. ”

“ St. § 1233a) , providing that no court of the United States shall have jurisdiction of any suit by or against any railroad company upon the ground that such company was incorporated under an act of Congress, and by section 12 of the Act of February 13, 1925. The government owns all the capital stock of petitioner and suits by or against it are plainly within the reasons which prompted the enactment of the proviso in section 12. There is no warrant for an inference that by section 201 (c) Congress intended to take suits by or against Federal Intermediate Credit Banks out of the general rule. ”

“ And the petition for this writ indicates that, except in a few States where local law prohibits such contracts, all the mortgages taken by the Federal Land Banks contain stipulations for attorney's fees for foreclosure. [3] From this it appears that officers charged by law with the administration of the banks have always construed the Act to permit state laws to control. Our attention has not been called to any case in which that construction has been questioned. It is entitled to great weight. ”

“ Phillips, who jeered at the remains of a Union soldier. He is condemned for all of these things by very many people. Many dishonest things were done during his administration, but repose, vigor and security were the characteristics of it. General Butler was a just, efficient, straightforward tyrant, not cruel, but possessed of an inflexible determination to make his will the law and to make his cause succeed. After General Butler came General Banks. ”

“ By will he left 200l. per annum to his librarian at his death, Robert Brown, with the use of his herbarium and library during his life, the reversion being to the British Museum. Brown made over these collections to the nation within a short time after acquiring possession of them. Francis Bauer was also provided for during his life, to enable him to continue his exquisite drawings from new plants at Kew.
The character which Banks has left behind him is that of a munificent patron of science rather than an actual worker himself. His own writings are comparatively trifling. ”

“ In Goergia banks are permitted to lend up to 85 per cent. of their deposits. Unforeseen demands in excess of the reserves required do not tend to show that the crime created by section 28 has been committed. The same may be said as to the other conditions defined as insolvency. The connection between the fact proved and that presumed is not sufficient. Reasoning does not lead from one to the other. Hawes v. Georgia, 258 U.S. 1, 4, 42 S.C.t. 204, 66 L. Ed. 431. The presumption created by section 28 is unreasonable and arbitrary. ”

“ Few men in the country have, in these latter days of politics, been so uniformly successful, even when circumstances were untoward, as Governor Banks. He is known by the people as a lucky man. He succeeds in whatever he undertakes. He has risen from an obscure young man to be Speaker of the National House of Representatives, and Governor of one of the first States of the Union. What may not such a man expect if he be ambitious?
Mr. Banks was born in Waltham, Mass., January 30, 1816, where he received a common school education. ”

“ Yet we do something not so very different from this even in England, and as regards the dual commercial system, all countries have, and have had, a law of the land, and also another law, which, though professedly more sacred, has far less effect on their daily life and actions. It seems as though the need for some law over and above, and sometimes even conflicting with, the law of the land, must spring from something that lies deep down in man's nature ”

“ Every sufferer by the panic was disposed to blame the National Bank for his misfortunes, particularly as it was common rumor that the directors of the Bank had speculated in its stock and had used their influence to cripple local banks. Congress had been obliged to take cognizance of these charges and to appoint a committee to investigate the condition of the institution. On the report of this committee, in January, 1819, the stock of the Bank fell from 140 to 93. The investigation revealed nothing worse than mismanagement; but a vigorous effort was made in Congress to revoke the charter. ”

“ Banks was a man of humble origin. He used to be known as the Waltham Bobbin Boy. He worked in his boyhood and youth in a factory in Waltham. He had very early a passion for reading. When Felton was inaugurated President of Harvard, Banks was Governor. As is the custom, he represented the Commonwealth and inducted the new President into office. There were famous speakers at the Dinner,— Daniel Webster, old Josiah Quincy, Edward Everett, Dr. Walker, Winthrop, and Felton himself. ”

“ Biddle's letter—the recharter of the national bank. The speech was a manifesto against the Jackson administration, and a protest against its continuation in the person of his successor, and an invocation to a general combination against it. All the banks were sought to be united, and made to stand together upon a sense of common danger—the administration their enemy, the national bank their protection. Every industrial pursuit was pictured as crippled and damaged by bad government. ”

“ Banks took an active part in the affairs of the Royal Society. His house was constantly open to men of science, whether British or foreign, and by the urbanity of his manners, and his liberal use of the advantages of fortune, he acquired that popularity which six years afterwards led to his election as President of that distinguished body. Two or three years afterwards a dangerous schism had nearly arisen in the Society, chiefly in consequence of the unreasonable anger of a party of mathematicians, headed by Dr. Horsley, afterwards Bishop of St. ”

“ Nothing more is known about Banks; it is reported that he was buried at St. James's, Westminster. He published nothing except the seven dramas mentioned above, all of which are tragedies in five acts and in verse. Banks is a dreary and illiterate writer, whose blank verse is execrable. ”

“ Their priests try to make us believe that they know more about the unseen world than those whose eyes are still blinded by the seen, can ever know—forgetting that while to deny the existence of an unseen kingdom is bad, to pretend that we know more about it than its bare existence is no better. ”

“ Banks was a man of real good nature, of an easy benevolent disposition, and his friends ever esteemed him as a most agreeable companion. He had none of the petulance, which too frequently renders men of genius unacceptable to their acquaintance. He was of so composed a temper, that he was seldom known to be in a passion, and he wore a perpetual chearfulness in his countenance. ”

“ When man had grown to the perception that in the everlasting Is-and-Is- Not of nature, the world and all that it contains, including man, is at the same time both seen and unseen, he felt the need of two rules of life, one for the seen, and the other for the unseen side of things. ”

“ IN the year 1849, two men were elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives who have had conspicuous careers in the State and nation,—General Nathaniel P. Banks and Henry L. Dawes. General Banks had genius for politics and the generalities of public affairs. As an orator he was peculiar and attractive to an unusual degree. For a long period his popularity was great in his town and district, and finally in the State. A long life was the possession of General Banks, and I have only to consider how its opportunities were treated, and its duties performed. ”

“ Banks is the fact that he never claims credit for doing anything that he can give credit to other people for doing. He has never made any effort to make himself prominent. He simply prefers to get a job done and, if he can use other people and give them credit for doing the work, he is happy to do so.
At the present time Charles Banks is not, by any means, the wealthiest, but I think I am safe in saying that he is the most influential, Negro business 208man in the United States. ”

“ I noticed another thing, moreover, which struck me greatly. I was taken to the opening of one of these banks in a neighbouring town, and saw a large assemblage of cashiers and managers. I sat opposite them and scanned their faces attentively. They did not please me; they lacked, with few exceptions, the true Erewhonian frankness; and an equal number from any other class would have looked happier and better men. When I met them in the streets they did not seem like other people, but had, as a general rule, a cramped expression upon their faces which pained and depressed me. ”

“ The bank commissioner under the Oklahoma law properly may 'become satisfied' of the insolvency of a state bank whenever it is unable to pay its depositors in ordinary course of business and is unable to continue as a going banking concern, even though it has sufficient property to pay all its debts and is not insolvent within the meaning of section 3466 or the federal Bankruptcy Act. ”

“ The result to the public is about the same in both cases; the bank has little or no specie, and its place is supplied by the notes of other banks. The great vice of the banking system in the United States is in banking upon paper—upon the paper of each other—and treating this paper as cash. This may be safe among the banks themselves; it may enable them to settle with one another, and to liquidate reciprocal balances; but to the public it is nothing. In the event of a run upon a bank, or a general run upon all banks, it is specie, and not paper, that is wanted. ”

“ Secure in its hold on Congress, and insolent—as Money ever is when it feels secure—the Biddle Bank thinks to crack a political whip. The main bank is in Philadelphia. There are twenty-five branch banks scattered here and there throughout the country. In pursuance of its determination to dominate politics, the Biddle Bank suddenly refuses loans to the General's friends. Banker Biddle and the Bank are secretly moved to these doughty attitudes by Statesman Clay, who, with his party of the Whigs, has for long been their ally. ”

“ The Bank of the United States can crush hundreds on any day that it pleases. It can send out its agents into every State of the Union, with sealed orders to be opened on a given day, like captains sent into different seas; and can break hundreds of local banks within the same hour, and over an extent of thousands of miles. It can do this with perfect ease—the more easily with resurrection notes—and thus excite a universal panic, crush the resuming banks, and then charge the whole upon the government. ”

“ Let a person's intellect (she continued) be never so sound, unless his body is in absolute health, he can form no judgement worth having on matters of this kind. The body is everything: it need not perhaps be such a strong body (she said this because she saw that I was thinking of the old and infirm-looking folks whom I had seen in the bank) , but it must be in perfect health ”

“ A great measure is the result of many causes and in its promulgation it may bear the name of a person whose contribution has been insignificant relatively.
General Banks had aptitude for public affairs—an aptitude which approached genius. His mind dwelt upon great projects, and never upon petty schemes, nor upon intrigues as a means of success. His warfare was a bold one, and in the open field. In politics he was deficient in organizing qualities, but he had unbounded confidence in his own ability and in the ability of his associates and friends to command and to retain popular support. ”

“ Their enemy is a cunning and a powerful one, and as wicked and unscrupulous as it is cunning and strong. Twelve years ago, the president of that bank which now forbids other banks to resume, declared in an official communication to the Finance Committee of this body, "that there were but few State banks which the Bank of the United States could not DESTROY by an exertion of its POWER." Since that time it has become more powerful ”

“ After his return he became almost autocratic in his power; to him everything of a scientific character seemed to gravitate naturally, and his long tenure of the presidential chair of the Royal Society led him to exercise over it a vigorous authority, which has been denounced as despotic.
Dr. Kippis's account in his pamphlet seems very fairly to describe the disposition of Banks: ‘The temper of the president has been represented as greatly despotic. ”