Grand Banks

“ She thought of the Fairholm cliffs for a moment, but felt that they were sacred to many recollections with which she would not care to associate this new experience. "I'll show you the chalybeate spring," she said.
They turned out of Orchard Street, and went down the hill to the Beck, a broad, clear, shallow rivulet, that came round a sharp green curve between high banks, well wooded with old trees, all in their heavy, dark-green, summer foliage. ”

“ The words were caught up by those outside, and ran through the crowd like wildfire, gaining strength as they ran, until by the time they reached the outer circle it was affirmed that the bank could pay no more that day.
Those who have witnessed a run on a bank know how the excitement grows until people, ordinarily cool and sane, grow wild and mad, and howl sometimes like beasts at the prospect of losing their money. And so it was now at the White Bank, where the excitement was intense, especially among the small depositors—the women, whose little was all in the bank. ”

“ A remarkable example of such accumulation is the well-known shell-bank a mile and a half south of New Harmony, Indiana, and situated on a high hill 170 feet above the level of an arm of the Wabash River. The bank covers an area of a quarter of an acre, and has attracted the attention of eminent scientists like Leasure, Say, Lyell and others, but nothing of value was developed that would refer the construction of this and similar banks to any people more ancient than the Mound-builders. ”

“ The largest bank is that which runs to the south-west, measuring four yards across, and proving by its massiveness that it is a Roman work. Upon digging, as shown in the plan, at the point of intersection, we found pieces of iron and iron slag, sandstone, charcoal, and Roman pottery similar to that made in Crockle. Many of these banks run for long distances. That to the south-east reaches the top of Sloden Green, about half a mile off, whilst the north-east bank stretches for nearly a mile to Whiteshoot. ”

“ LOUIE COMES TO THE RESCUE When she heard the cry, “Put it in Grey’s Bank, where Sheldon has put his,” she started quickly, struck with a thought of something she had read about. Going into the bank, where two or three were already depositing their money, she drew her father aside and said:
“Do you think the White Bank can stand the run?”
“Doubtful, if the most of them pitch in as they seem likely to do. They are just crazy, and one excites the other.” ”

“ The jealousy of the rural population in respect to banks led them to insist on inserting in bank charters a provision that a certain fraction of the capital should be loaned on mortgage of land. We shall presently see the antagonism, which here arose between parts of the same State, marking the relations of parts of the Union.
We observe that a bank was conceived of primarily as a means of creating wealth. Every one wanted a share in its beneficent operation. If the Legislature created it, all the people ought to participate in its blessings. ”

“ His wife became insane, and died in an asylum in 1883. He survived her only a year, dying suddenly of heart disease on June 8, 1884, at Hartford, Connecticut. His ashes rest in Spring Grove Cemetery in that city, and on Decoration Day the Grand Army of the Republic never fail to strew flowers on the grave of the singer whose words and melodies led many an army to deeds of heroism. May a grateful people keep his memory green, and cause his grave to blossom for “A Thousand Years!”
JOHN WALLACE HUTCHINSON
TENTING ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND.
We’re tenting to-night on the old camp ground ”

“ It is the branches alone which make this astonishing increase. Now, as a branch is merely a local agency of the parent bank, established at a distance for the sake of outlying business, the number of parties engaged in banking who are responsible to the public is not thereby increased, nor is the amount in circulation extended. In fact, the multiplication of the branch banks has been of extraordinary benefit to the public, by affording the inhabitants of even the remotest districts a ready, easy, and favourite method of deposit, and by extinguishing all risks of credit. ”

“ BANK BUILDINGS IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. Why does a New York, a Montreal, or a Toronto bank differ so much in the character and quality of its architecture from a London or Liverpool one? All appear to the average man to serve the same needs. Money may be more powerful on the other side of the Atlantic than it is with us, but it is hardly more respected. Yet there the banks provide temples for their customers while we provide saloon bars, mahogany partitions and all. ”

“ Turn the tables on the Whigs, and call the whole bank system the spawn of aristocracy—remember that. At the same time, gentlemen, be not afraid. No harm will be done to any bank you have a liking for—the essence of the thing is in the noise. We shall have perhaps to kill the banks in the District of Columbia—but that's nothing;—it will be an offering to consistency. All experiments require an exhausted receiver—and the District is ours;—a snug little piece of machinery to play upon. So keep it in mind—Treasury Notes and no Paper Money!—down with Credit, and up with the Independent Treasury! ”

“ It was only after the debt was paid and the surplus revenue began to accumulate that the attraction of this bonanza overcame prudence and good sense. The popular sentiment now swung over again to a mania for banks. Each district wanted a deposit bank so as to get a share in the stream of wealth which was expected to flow from the public treasury. If a deposit could not be obtained, then a bank was formed in order to participate in the carnival of credit and speculation; for a non-deposit bank had the advantage of being bound by no rule. ”

“ The continent will be scattered over with manors much larger than Livingston's, Van Rensselaers's, or Philips's; even our Deacon Strong will have a principality among you Southern folk. What inequality of talents will be produced by these land jobbers. Where tends the mania of banks? At my table in Philadelphia, I once proposed to you to unite in endeavors to obtain an amendment of the constitution prohibiting to the separate States the power of creating banks; but giving Congress authority to establish one bank with a branch in each State, the whole limited to ten millions of dollars. ”

“ General Banks earned for himself the reputation of being a thorough gentleman and, although his after career in the war was not signalized by much success, no failure on his part has been sufficient to erase the respect which he earned from people of all shades of political opinion in that region. His army occupied the low grounds between the Blue Ridge and the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, as, also, Pleasant Valley, while the General's headquarters were at the house of Mr. Jacob Miller, near Sandy Hook. ”

“ HERBERT AND LOUIE Four years passed, and the Grey Bank had not come to the end of its rope. Many besides Widow Brown and old maid Smith, and washerwomen generally, deposited in it, and Mr. Grey seemed to be increasing in wealth and prosperity. ”

“ And if the City, as a whole, is romantic, its banks are doubly and trebly romantic. Nothing is more marvellous than the rapid growth of our banking system, which is twice as great now as it was twenty years ago—and it was great enough then. ”

“ Much of the capital of the present bank was obtained from Europe. We are told in the report of the committee, that foreigners own stock to the amount of seven millions. Is it probable that these capitalists will be as ready to venture their money in the state banks, as in one chartered by the general government? Would they even venture it again in a national bank, after we had shown so vacillating a policy? We establish a bank of that description in 1791—we put it down in 1811, as unconstitutional—we charter another, five years afterwards, 1816, and discontinue that in 1836. ”

“ Even in the terrible crisis of 1672, when the whole Delta of the Rhine was overrun by the French armies, when the white flags were seen from the top of the Stadthouse, there was one place where, amidst the general consternation and confusion, tranquillity and security were still to be found; and that place was the Bank. Why should not the Bank of London be as great and as durable as the Banks of Genoa and of Amsterdam? Before the end of the reign of Charles the Second several plans were proposed, examined, attacked and defended. ”

“ During the economic depression there was much agitation that bank failures were due to small undercapitalized rural banks and that these banks should be supplanted by branches of larger and stronger banks. The Comptroller of the Currency advocated that national banks be permitted to branch regardless of state law. ”

“ By the laws of the United States, any five or more persons with sufficient capital may organize a national bank. A national bank may issue its notes--that is, its promises to pay--as currency, to an amount not exceeding the amount of United States bonds deposited by the bank with the national government. Each federal reserve bank is a large central bank organized by the banks of a certain district. ”

“ We shall, in this generation at least, have no more such speculators stepping into control of large New York banks and using them pretty much as if they, their assets and deposits, were their own property. ”

“ The rent was paid as regularly as it had been in the little tenement in White’s Row. There was no other applicant for the premises, and he contented himself with raising the rent a hundred dollars, to which Mr. Grey made 15no demur. He was satisfied and happy, and an ideal banker, greeting every one with a pleasant smile and word, and making loans in small amounts where the risk was so great that the White Bank would never have taken it. To all human appearance he was on the top wave of prosperity and enjoyed it to the full. ”

“ A bank even of loose earth, six feet high, will sometimes overhang its base a foot or two, as you may see any day in the gravelly banks of the lanes of Hampstead: but make the bank of gravel, equally loose, six hundred feet high, and see if you can get it to overhang a hundred or two! much more if there be weight above it increased in the same proportion. Hence, let any capital be given, whose projection is just safe, and no more, on its existing scale; increase its proportions every way equally, though ever so little, and it is unsafe ”

“ Now that the New York banks have come forward to redeem their obligations, and have shown that sensibility to their own honor, and that regard for the punctual performance of their promises, which once formed the pride and glory of the merchant's and the banker's character, I feel the deepest anxiety for their success in the great contest which is to ensue. ”

“ THE RUN As the judge was a warden, he seldom swore. He didn’t think “the Devil” was a swear word, and he said it now very emphatically, as he clutched his collar.
“A run on my bank! On the First National! That’s as firm as a rock. Inspectors here only a month ago. Why should anybody run, and what for? I can pay every dollar—give me time,” he said.
Then, as he remembered the five thousand dollars Godfrey Sheldon was to draw that morning, and probably had drawn by that time, he gave a little groan, for in case of a prolonged run that might cripple him, he had so much money loaned out. ”

“ The complaint is that the Eastern States have an undue amount of national-bank circulation, and therefore enjoy in a measure a monopoly. I admit this to be true. I will not discuss here the system of banking in all its aspects, but I will inquire how far the establishment of more national banks of issue in the West and South will remedy the real evil complained of—which evil consists in a lack of loanable capital there. If the remedy proposed is to serve any good purpose at all, then the establishment of new national banks of issue must increase the available amount of loanable money. ”

“ In cotton spinning, no single firm far and permanently outstrips the others. There is no tendency to a monarchy in the cotton world; nor, where banking has been left free, is there any tendency to a monarchy in banking either. In Manchester, in Liverpool, and all through England, we have a great number of banks, each with a business more or less good, but we have no single bank with any sort of predominance; nor is there any such bank in Scotland. In the new world of Joint Stock Banks outside the Bank of England, we see much the same phenomenon. ”

“ The Underground is not one of the old banks, nor is it one of the large ones; if Brainard had no other irons in the fire he would not cut much of a figure in business circles. The Underground is simply one in a batch of banks that have sprung up in the last seven or eight years and that are almost unknown, even by name, to men who, in the clearing-house at that time, have since passed on to other and different affairs. It is spoken of as Brainard's bank, just as other banks are spoken of as Shayne's, or Cutter's, or Patterson's. ”

“ Every bank was supposed to be necessarily, more or less, in opposition to every other bank—banks in the same place to be especially in opposition. In consequence, in London, no banker has a chance of being a Bank director, or would ever think of attempting to be one. ”