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THE BANKING SYSTEM IN NEW YORK

[ October 9, 1846]

The New York constitutional convention, in the progress of their labors, have at length got through with the provisions which related to the business of banking. The article as adopted by the convention is in the following form:

1. The legislature shall have no power to pass an act granting special charters for banking purposes, but associations may be formed for such purposes under general laws.

2. The legislature shall have no power to authorize, nor to pass any law sanctioning in any manner, direct or indirect, the suspension of specie payments, by any person, association or incorporation issuing bank notes of any description.

3. The legislature shall provide by law for the registry of all bills or notes issued or put in circulation as money, and shall require ample security for the redemption of the same in specie.

4. The stockholders in every corporation and joint stock association for banking purposes, issuing bank notes, or any kind of paper credits, to circulate as money after the first day of January, 1850, shall be individually responsible to the amount of their respective shares of stock in any such corporation or association for all its debts and liabilities of every kind, contracted after the said first day of January, 1850.

5. In case of the insolvency of any bank or banking association the bill holders thereof shall be entitled to preference in payment over all other creditors of such bank or association.

6. The legislature shall limit the aggregate amount of bank notes to be issued by all the banks and joint stock associations in this state, now existing or which may be hereafter established.

Such is the banking system recommended by the New York Reform Convention. It was adopted by very decisive majorities and embodies the views of four-fifths of the delegates. A motion to amend the first section so as to declare that "the power of issuing paper money shall not be granted by this state" was voted down by seventy-eight nays to eleven ayes-nearly seven to one. The delegate who offered it is one of the very few persons in New York who contend

for the extinction of all bank paper; but in a convention composed of 128 members, a majority of whom profess to be, and were, elected as "Radical Democrats," he could obtain only eleven votes for this "anti-bank" proposition.

The provisions we have quoted seem to us wise, equal, and impartial. The business of banking is thrown open, as it should be, to all who choose to embark in it, the state taking care, however, that no individuals or associations shall issue notes as currency unless ample security for their redemption in specie shall have been previously deposited with the proper authorities. Thus protection is ensured to the bill holders and if through any mischance or mismanagement any of these banking institutions should fail, the bill holders are made preferred creditors. Why cannot this or some similar system be adopted for Wisconsin? Why should not our convention follow, in this particular, in the footsteps of their New York predecessors? Are not the authority and experience of New York of some weight and value in the premises? Can we reasonably expect that there will be more talent, more experience, or more "democracy" in the convention now assembled at Madison, than in that which has just closed its session at Albany? And if not, why should Wisconsin hesitate to receive the testimony and profit by the experience of New York?

SELECTIONS FROM THE MILWAUKEE COURIER

STATE GOVERNMENT

[ November 12, 1845 ]

We believe that the people of the territory are in favor of organizing a state government as soon as it can be legally and conveniently done. We believe that the legislature at the approaching session may provide for the holding [of] a convention to form a constitution, apportion the delegates to the same (on the present basis of representation in the legislature), and designate the day of election as well as for holding the convention. We believe that all this may be done and a constitution framed in season to be presented to Congress at its next session, and Wisconsin [may] become a sovereign and independent state of the Union before the fourth of July, 1846.

This is the will of the people, and the representatives know it as well now as they would if the people had voted upon the question, when such vote, at any rate, would be informal, and could have no more force than public opinion expressed in any other way. This public opinion is already expressed. The time is propitious, and the expediency of the measure undeniable.

ELIGIBILITY OF MINISTERS TO OFFICE

[November 19, 1845]

One of the features of the Texas constitution, we hope, will not be imitated by Wisconsin. No minister of the gospel or priest is eligible to the legislature there. We believe that ministers and priests are quite as good as other men, and quite as safe depositories of public trusts; therefore we would have them eligible to the legislature. Indeed, as they have pre

cisely the same interest in the country, in every respect as other humans, we would have them vote, fight, pay tax, run for Congress, and in all things, so far as the law is concerned, occupy precisely the same ground as other people. We want no church and state legislation.

The above article, from the Southport Telegraph, was copied into the last Wisconsin Argus without any disapproving comment, and in the absence of any note of disapproval we perhaps are justified in presuming that the sentiments of the Telegraph are endorsed by the "metropolitan" paper. Whatever the views of the Telegraph may be in this particular (though sanctioned by the Argus) yet we feel confident that it does not properly reflect the wishes of the majority of the people of the territory upon this subject. This question has been considered upon to a very great extent; and we know of no one topic viewed in connection with our state constitution that has been in conversation so universally approved of by all parties as this feature in the Texas constitution that the Telegraph condemns. We know that a very respectable portion of our people will make a clear exposition upon this point a sine qua non in depositing their votes for delegates to frame the constitution. Such a provision as the Telegraph objects to has long been engrafted upon the New York constitution, and the restriction, we are satisfied, has been attended with the best results.

The messengers from God to man have, or ought to have, a holier ambition in carrying out the precepts of their divine master than in entering the wrangling field of political debate. The mild influences of the one are lost in the angry turmoil of the other. We are willing they may "vote, pay tax, and run," not for Congress, however, but "in the race that is set before them," satisfied that in confining themselves to their proper Christian duties they will reflect a higher and nobler honor on the cause they have espoused than if they are found as political disputants and candidates of a party, which to some extent at least must inevitably weaken their power upon more serious subjects over the

minds of those who are politically opposed to them. A true minister of the gospel, one who faithfully practices the solemn injunctions of his God and whose aim is to add luster to His name, should keep his skirts clear of everything which might, even indirectly, impede his Christian course or lessen that influence which his sacred calling gives him; all of which, if we properly understand what appertains to his profession, should be exclusively exercised for the spiritual improvement and benefit of his fellow man.

We cheerfully subscribe to the last suggestion of the Telegraph, that "we want no church and state legislation," and hope to see no union of the kind; and if the ministers of the "church" will confine themselves within their proper sphere, we think we can assure the Telegraph that the "state" need apprehend no danger from that quarter.

ELIGIBILITY OF MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL TO THE

LEGISLATURE

[November 26, 1845]

Our neighbor of the Gazette is "both surprised and sorry" at the position which the Courier assumes upon this question. It need not surprise or grieve our neighbor to find us differing upon many matters of political concernment. If a difference of opinion is to have this effect upon them, we fear they will have occasion to be sorry very often. We took the bold stand for the exclusion of ministers of the gospel from seats in the legislature after due consideration and a somewhat extensive observation of cause and effect in political matters. We have witnessed the baneful effect upon society of mixing politics and religion, and we wish as far as possible to remove the inducements to do this. We acknowledge the truism of the Gazette that "Ministers are men like ourselves, possessing the same passions, and liable to the same temptations," and hence the danger of holding out before them the prizes of the political race, to incite a

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