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tended, that the principle of hanking
upon mortgage, ior instance, is to
lend i»ml give credit to those who
have property, and a desire to melt
it down ; and is therefore much the
safest mode, because the property
mortgaged, whether real or personal,
i b a security in the hands of the
company for the paper in circulation.
'Phis is admitted, while commerce
is in a flourishing state and brings in
a balance of trade to the country.—
it is then that banks lend and give
/.redit, for they have no occasion to
borrow. But whenever the balance
of trade turns against the country,
front causes unforeseen; when the
state, where banks are established,
begins to owe a balance to other
stales or nations ; the companies of
those banks are then obliged to pay
it jin coin or bills of exchange.—
Then are visible the first symptoms
of decay and the decline of trade.
The country is then t<J be exhausted
of its Gold and Silver coin to ena-
i ble the banks to pay that balance.
The inevitable and ruinous conse
quence of this would be, that the bank
paper in circulation would be return
ed to the bank whence it issued, and
coin demanded for it.
The coin, il to be found in the bank,
would be taken, away, add nothing
b i t in its place but the paper in circu
lation ; if not to be found, the com-
panv, upon a return of their notes
issued upon credit, would of neces
sity be compelled to stop payment.
As the return of every year’s ba
lance against the State would make
a new demand for coin necesarv ; in
the same proportion to the dem.shd
of payment in coin, would the pa
per of the bank be thrown out of cir
culation, and the country left in a
deplorable situation. Every state
therefore before it makes the p iper of
any bank a legal tender, even could it
do so under the constitution of the
United States, ought, for the safety
and future welfare of its citiz 11s, to
see" upon what security that paper
stands, which is to become the in
strument of commerce, a part of e-
vejy man’s private property ; and
which, if any part of it should once
tail, either through the knavery, mis
conduct, or misfortune of a particu
far company, would cast a general
discredit upon all p iper, and be a
means of bringing on those dreadful
calamities which have been realized
in the old world, and which so ma
ny people anticipate in the new, from
the establishment of Banks, and
making their paper, which bears no
interest; a legal tender in the pay
ment of debts. These principles
more strongly apply to the prostrate
situation in which trade lies in Geor
gia, than perhaps, to that of any o-
ther state in the Union. The prices
of Cotton and Tobacco have fallen in
the same proportion as those of fo
reign merchandize, with which the
country lias heen inundated, have ri
sen, The consequence must be,
that the exports will not defray the
costs and charges of the imports. A
balance of trade therefore, will be left
8g tinalTthe State, and must be paid
in gold and silver from the Banks
In this exhausted and forlorn situa-
, tion, who are to be (he real suffer
Not the bankers,not the stock
holders, who, by than; immense pro
fits, have amassed princely fortunes ;
but the people on whose funds they
have drawn ; whose cotton and to
bacco they have purchased for
song—fora bauble out of the stores
and resold on a profit of one hun
dred per cent, in the way ol exchange
The circulation of paper money
therefore, for either commercial or
pgi icultural benefit, may be ol tern
porary and transient utility to a lew
individuals, who have capital and
solid property which they may wish
to melt down for the advancement
of their fortunes, or (which is more
probable,) the payment of their debts
but can never be of any real intrinsic
or lasting advantage to auy country
much less so an agricultural one
citizen who is embarrassed and
would wish to go to a Bank to pledge
capital which he may have occasion
to melt down, what would he re
ceive in return, for his obligation
bearing 8 per cent interest? No
thing but paper money which bear
V no interest, and is ever liable to
thousand accidents. His property
therefore, is pledged, not only tor th
return of the paper loaned, or gold
and silver in lieu thereof ; but tor
(he rate per cunt agreed on, whether
it be the lawful interest or any othe
rate, that may i;e considered as an
equivalent for the loan. So various
and multiform ate the operations
a l^nk, t{iat it vould require vo
lumes to delineate ;tnd trace them in
all-their involutions, ramifications
and consequences. The prices of
the staple commodities of a country,.,
where Banks are established, are in
a great measure regulated by them.
They fluctuate, remain stationary,
rise and sink to the last point of e-
levation or depression, according as
the tide of commercial enterprize
and monopoly ebbs and flows in
their favour.
According to the principles by
which these institutions are, and e-
ver have heen regulated, there is
nothing certain, nothing permanent
and lasting, on which a great, agri
cultural state can fasten, as a securi
ty for the prosperity of her citizens.
Ol what commercial advantage would
be the establishment of a bank in
Augusta or in Petersburg, to the mer
chants of Milledgeville, of Greens-
boroug’n, of Athens, of Lexington,
or those of any other place on the
waters of the Oconee ? If any, it
must he very small; if little or nore
to them, it is, if possible, of still
less advantage to the people. The
course of trade for the produce of
ail those counties which lie adjacent
to the Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers,
is down the Altamaha to Darien,
and Brunswick. A large capital once
established at either of those places
would give new life and vigor to the
settlements on these rivers.
At the same time that it would
invigorate and give additional secu
rity to these newsettltments, it would
open the navigation of the principal
water courses, and accelerate the
growth and prosperity of those
towns upon the sea coast, from which
trade is now drawn, round by the
way of Tiber to Savannah. This
would give a larger scope for the ad
vancement of industry, and to the
state, those solid advantages, those
true riches, which consist in its
strength and population. Time will
shew the futility of all calculations of
profit to an agricultural people from
the establishment of Banks, and point
out the errors into which other states
have run, from similar establish
ments. The effects produced by
them are seen from their connection
ith 1 he governments of Europe.
There they are considered as a na
tional blessing ! If they can be so
to any people, il must be to a com
mercial one, who subsist almost sole-
by commerce, and depredations
committed upon that of other nati
ons. The same reasoning which
would apply in favor of these institu
tions in a commercial manufacturing
state, cannot apply in an agricultural
country, where connnei ce and manu
factures are in their infancy. Geor
gia is an agricultural state, and must
ever remain so, while there is land
more than sufficient for all the pur
poses of cultivation. One of the
leading consequences, flowing from
the establishment of a bank, and
making its paper a legal tender in
payment of debts, would be, to cre
ate a fictitious credit, by inundating
the country with paper money, (which
is nothing more than the representa
tive of gold and silver) and thereby
lraining it of those precious metals.
This paper can never pass current,
as every one knows, except in the
state where it originated, and is set
afloat. The citizens of other states
will not take it in payment of debts ;
anti foreigners will not receive it
at all.
Like gold and silver, it will not
pass current in o.her countries
or States ; and for that reason, it
must subject the citizens of the State
where it is current, to many incon-
veniencies from the want of those
metals. What would be the con
sequences resulting to the State & its
citizens, in case the securities, upon
which the Bank in contemplation is
about to be established, should fail ?
They are more easily imagined than
described. Yet, that there arc fai
lures of this kind, and that too with
in the limits of the United States, is
a fact within the knowledge of all
mercantile men of any information.
To many of the citizens who may
have much of this paper in their
hands, insolvency and bankruptcy
would be, (as it has been elsewhere
the case) the inevitable result.
Have the people of this country So
soon forgotten the disastrous con
sequences v'hich flowed from the e-
mission of paper money in time of
the war ? are not the effects produc
ed by the depreciation of that mo
ney, still visible in many of the fa
milies of this State ? What securi
ty can be given, that like causes will
not produce like effects, and that all
those direful consequences, seen a-
faroff, and emanating from the cor
rupt governments of. Europe, will
not be realized in this country ?
Banks are handmaids that minister
to the wants of merchants, and aid
them in the accumulation of im
mense fortunes ; but whenever they
minister to the wants ol government,
they are like Pandora's Pox, scatter
ing their baneful influence through
every pore, vein, and artery of the
body politic. Is not this evident
from the present deplorable situation
and prostrate condition of the sub
jects of Great Britain ; which at this
time, from the most recent calculati
ons, owes to these fnonopolizing * u *
stitutions, (the Banks'), upwards of
one thousand millions of pounds
sterling, for the payment of the in
terest of which, the revenues ol the
nation are pledged, and the people,
to supply aliment tor these devour
ing volcanoes, are loaded and groan
ing under the most enormous bur
thens. Is this an enviable, or in
any way, a desirable situation, that
the citizens of this state, or those ol
the United States, should blindfold
ed, and heedlessly plunge them
selves and their posterity into it, by
pursuing the same steps that Eng
land has done. If it were easy to
foresee all the consequences that
must result from the establishment
and incorporation ol Banks,
would he morally impossible that
they should ever obtain ground, or
ever acquire foot-hold in free go
vernments, that have lor their basis,
and whose ruling principle is, the li
berty, the personal security, and hap
piness of the citizen. The most ob
vious and immediate result of the
establishment and incorporation oi a
Bank at Augnsta, would be, the de
pression of the rising prosperity ol the
frontier settlements, by turning the
course of trade from its natural chan
nels across the country to the North
Eeastern boundary of' the State ;
thence down the Savannah river to
the town of Savannah. There the
staple articles of these settlements
find vent, and meet a return in mer
chandize by the way of Augusta ;
thence across the country by land to
Milledgeville, and other places oi
trade ; for the freight and expences
of which, the consumer, that is, the
planter, the mechanic, and t)ie labour
ing class of citizens, must pay out oi
the small profits (if any,) which they
make from their farms, trades and
professions. This bird’s-eye view ol
the piobuble effect of the Banking
System, upon the inland trade and
navigation of this State, should it
meet countenance from the Legisla
ture, in the manner contemplated,
will be a sufficient outline to those
whose duty it is to extend their en
quiries beyond the limitsol a News
paper communication.
PUBLIUS.
I he Latest News.
BY LAST NIGHT S MAIL.
NATCHEZ, October 8.
We have received nothing very
late from West-Floridu—It is said
though, that the Conventionalists are
becoming pretty strong, and that they
have betwen five and six hundred
men in the fort of Baton-Rouge. The
friends of the old Spanish Monarchy,
are embodying themselves in the eas
tern part of the province, to resist the
Conventionalists.
themselves in readiness to march at a
moment’s warning. This is a pre
cautionary measure, in consequence
of the threatening aspect of affairs in
West Florida. We learn by a gen
tleman from Havanna, that the recent
revolutionary movements in Florida
are attributed by the Spaniards to
the improper interference ot the A-
mericans.
judge Toulmin, of the Mississip
pi Territory, in his charge to the
gran ! jury of Washington county,
at the late September term, has made
some severe animadversiohs on the^
conduct of certain settlors in the
By the Representatives of the people eastern section of that territory, who
An opinion is generally entertained that
all original Essays published in a News-
Paper, are congenial with the sentiments of
the Editor. This impression is not correct.
The Publisher of a News-Paper should not
set up his own judgment as the standard of
orthodoxy. The Editor of this piper, in
publifhing the Essays signed Publius, had
no intention to manifest opposition to the
Bank at Augufta. The subject however, is
certainly not an improper one for discus
sion. Iimaynot.be ami‘8 to remark, that
the Essays of Publius are not written by
the distinguished member of the Legislature
to whom they have bees ascribed.
Elections. On Saturday last
both branches of the Legislature pro
ceeded by ballot to the election of 4
Brigadier Generals, to fill the vacan
cies occasioned by the death ol
Generals Glascock Sijackson, the
removal of Gens. Adams Jk Harris ;
onthesame day cameonthe elections
of Judges and Solicitors for the se
veral Circuits, and of Aft. General.
BRIGADIER GENERAL3.
Col. Wm. Byne was elected for the Sd
Brigade, lit Division.
Col. Valentine Walker for tst. do. 2d do.
Col Eppes Brown, for 2 1 do. 2d do.
Col. Frederick Beall for 2d do 4th do.
JUDGES.
Eastern Circuit, Jo in M Berrien, Esq
Middle do. Robert Walker, Esq.
Western do' Young Gresham, Esq
Ocmulgee do p.'trr Early. Esq
ATTORNEY GENERAL.
John Forsy'h, E«q
SOLICI TORS GENERAL.
Eastern Circuit, John Kell, Esq
Western do Oliver Skinner, Esq
Ocmulgee do B Franklin, Esq
Our Subscribers in Greene
county are assured, that their papers
have been duly forwarded from this
office ; and it is with regret and sur
prize we learn they have not been
regularly received at Greensborough
—Our efforts shall be immediately
used to discover the cause ol the^
failure ; at any rate, we shall be a-
ble to convince our Subcribcrs that
the fault is not On our part.
ofW n st-Florida.
A DECLARATION.
It is known to the world with how
much fidelity the good people of this
territory have professed and main
tained allegiance to their legitimate
sovereign while any hope remained
of receiving from him protection for
their property and lives. Without
making any unnecessary innovation
in the established principles of the
government, we had voluntarily a-
dopted certain regulations in concert
with our first magistrate for the ex
press purpose of preserving this ter
ritory and shewing our attachment
to the government which had here
tofore protected us. This cojnpuct
which was entered into with good
faith on our part, will forever remain
an honorable testimony of our up
right intentions and inviolable fide
ity to our king and parent country,'
While so much as a sh itlmv of legiti
mate authority remained to be ex
ercised over 11s—We sought only a
speedy remedy forsuch ev ils as seem
ed to endanger our existence and
prosperity, and were encouraged by
our governor with solemn promises
of assistance and co-operation. But
those measures which were intended
for our preservation, he has endea
vored to pervert into an engine ol
destruction, bv encouraging, in the
most perfidious manner the violation
of ordinances sanctioned^ establish
ed by himself as the law of the land.
Being thus left without any hope
of protection from the mother coun
try, betrat ed by a magistrate whose
duty it was to hive provided for
the safety and tranquility of th
people and government committed
to his charge, and exposed to ail tlu
evils of a state of anarchy, which we
have so long endeavored to avert j
it becomes our duty to provide for
our own security as a free and inde
pendent state, absolved from all al
iegiance to a government which no
longer protects 11s.
We, then lore, the representat ve*
aforesaid, appealing to the supreim
ruler of the world for tile rectitude
of our intentions, do solemnly pub
lish arid declare the several districts
composing tlvs Territory of Wes'.
Florida to be a free and independent
State, and that they have a right to
institute for themselves such form
of government as they may think
conducive to their safety and happi
ness,—to form treaties—to establish
commerce—to provide for their com
mon defence, and do all acts which
may of right be done by a sovereign
and independent nation—At the
same time declaring all acts within
die said territory of West-Florida
after this date by any tribunal or au
thorities not deriving their powers
from the people agreeable to the pro
visions of this convention, to be null
and void—and calling upon all fo
reign nations to respect this our de
claration, acknowledging our inde-
dence, and givingussui.il aid as may
be consistent with the laws and usa
ges of nations.
This declaration made in convcn
tion,atthetownui Baton Rouge,
on the 26th day of September,
in the year of cur Lord, on
thousand eight hundred and ten
—We the representatives in the
name, and on behalf of our con
stituents, do hereby solemnly
pledge ourselves to support with
our lives and fortunes.
(Signed) John H- Johnson,
John Mills,
John IV. Leonard,
William Barrow,
Philip Hicky,
John Morse an,
Edmund Hawes,
Thomas Lilly,
WilSiam Spider,
John Rhea, President.
By order of the Convention,
Andrew Steele,sec.
have threatened to make an attack on
the town of Mobile, in West Flori
da. The charge is at great length,
and the paper which we have receiv
ed contains only the first part ot it;
when the remainder of the charge
comes to hand we shall give it to
our readers.
We are informed that orders have
heen issued by brigadier general
Hampton, who is now on a visit to
this city, for a detachment ot the
troops in this harbor to proceed im
mediately for the south western fron
tiers of the state of Georgia.
Commodore Samuel Barron died
of an Apoplexy in Norfolk, Va. on
the 29th ultimo.
The last mail brings the official
account of the taking iff B aton Rouge
by the Troops of the Florida Con
vention—Of the Governor’s Troops,
Grand J*re, the commandant of Ba
ton Rouge was mortally wound d ;
one private killed an 1 four badly
.wounded ; 21 prisoners were taken—
the rest of the garrison escaped by
flight.
London accounts to the 28th Sep
tember, received at Charleston, fur
nish nothing of importance.
Several persons had been arrested
in Paris about the middle ol Septe.ri-
h r, on suspicion of having conspir
'd against the life of Bonaparte.'
Our subscribers will observe
hat the size of the Journal is consi
derably enlarged.
fry-** Sealed Proposals for Pruring
the I.awsand Journals of the pres-nt 9elIio« Of
the Legislature, (till e received hy the Subicri-
her, until "Yiday the tixteenth imi at 4 o'clock
P. M ——Uy order of the Comm tree,
IV. D i/inr.
November 14. 3 * 1 *
Charleston, November 3.
Governor Holmes, of"the Missis
sippi Territory, has ordered de
tachments from the several regiments
of militia in that territory to hold
For Sale,
Cogniac Brandy ;
1 loll and Gin ;
Madeira Wine;
London Porter ;
Spanish Segars;
Salmon and Mackarel;
Fresh Chocolate and Coffee ;
Cheese, Onions Ik Nor. Cider,
Vlinonds and Raisins;
Fresh Mustard; and various
Articles of first quality.
P. Menard.
Nov, 14th. 3—U
The Subscriber,
Accustomed thro’ many years past
to teach the Creek, Latin and English
Ijinguages, Geography, ci'c. will 0-
|pen at his own house,, 9 miles b low
\Greensborough, on the 1st day of Ja
nuary, 1811,
A Grammar School,
at the following prices : For Greek or
Latin, S 5 ; English Gram. or Geo-,
grapliy 8 3 75, by the quarter, paid
in advance—the quarter to consist of
twelve weeks—Boarding can be had
very reasonably—/’/it* situation is
healthy, and entirely rural; free from
the temptations to vice and idleness,
peculiar to towns.
Francis Cummins, A. M.
P. S. The school will com/nence if
ten students engage.
Greene county, Nov 14 3—
Fen Dollars Reward.
STRAVED from the Subfcrihcr on the firft
of May laft, a CH SNU r SORRiil. HOR-.E,
about *1 feet 6 inches high large hla e /uce, all
white feet, and one as high uy a» the knee, a-
bout eleven year* old. A Dark Day C.ilr went
off with him JOEL S <’KK S >.
November 14 9 3t
Mr. GriMith’s Rail.
Mi.Griffith, will have a Bal a: his Dan
cing Kiom, (at Mr. P«ttr M••nam's.) to
morrow evening, to r.omme.'Cr at p.x,
continue until one o’clock.—Tickets to be
had of Mr. Griffiths personally, at one
dollar each, whn h will admit a gentleman
and a lady. Mr. Gr ffi h. will provide good
music, and the room (hail be well i:hi'rvna».
ted—He will introduce a n.imUr of hand*
tome Co intry Dances ; (if the company
should requeft) Proper Donr-Kccpc's
will be provided, and no person will e ,ij.
mitrr< J without a ticket., Nov. 14
P. 8. No lit kcti wiii bt sold after 6 o’clock