the constitution of the United. States, in re-
gard to this question of currency, let them
now, without interfering with any vested
rights, without interfering with any rights
that have grown up in the State, let them
now determine that no charters of banks
shall hereafter he renewed, and that no new
charters shall be issued. I believe that this
is the best time for this State to meet' and
determine this question.
Mr. STIRLING, I have an amendment to
suggest to my colleague (Mr. Cushing, ) which
I hope he will accept. I desire to vote for his
proposition, because I think the principle it
involves is a proper one. As a declaration
on our part I think it is important, though as
it does not affect the issues of banks already
in existence, I do not think it can have a vast
amount of practical effect. I suppose that
under any state of affairs, whether the na-
tional government provides a currency or not,
no one will object to banks of discount and
deposit. I do not regard it as by any means
certain that the United States will retain the
present system as a permanent one, I am not
willing to rest the banking institutions of this
State upon a political majority in Congress.
And it is perfectly well known that if the
democratic party obtains a majority in Con-
gress, they will repeal this United States
banking system, if possible.
Then there is the question of issuing green-
hacks. The scarcity of greenbacks is owing
to the fact that the government is endeavor-
ing to keep up the system of national banks,
and is not issuing greenbacks,
I propose as an amendment to the amend-
ment of my colleague, to insert, in place of
that portion of this section which he proposes
to have stricken out, the following :
"With power to issue notes to pass as
money, so long as the United States shall pro-
vide by law a national paper currency."
The section will then read as follows;
" The general assembly shall grant no char-
ter for banking purposes, or renew any bank-
ing corporation now in existence, with power
to issue notes to pass as money, so long as the
United States shall provide by law a national
paper currency
Mr. CUSHING. I will accept that amend-
ment
The question was upon the amendment of
Mr. CUSHING as modified.
Mr. CHAMBERS. I had hoped that some
gentleman from Baltimore city would have
undertaken to relieve the banks of that city
from the very serious imputation we have
heard here, that they are all insolvent. I do
not think there is the slightest foundation for
any such assertion. I have been intimate
with some of those banks; I have had the
honor to be a director in some of them. I do
not believe there is a bank in Baltimore,
which, if it wound up its affairs to-morrow, |
would not be able to pay largely over one
hundred per cent. to its stockholders.
Mr. CUSHING. Does the gentleman believe
they would be solvent, if called upon to re-
deem their issues in gold and silver?
Mr. CHAMBERS. That is not the gentleman's
proposition.
Mr CUSHING. I beg the gentleman's par-
don; that is exactly my proposition. Any
redemption but in gold and silver would be
insolvency. The issues of the bank must be
redeemed for that for which it was given
to be redeemed; or they are not redeemed at
all.
Mr. CHAMBERS. What sort of a syllogism
is involved in the gentleman's argument?
He says that the government paper has taken
the place of gold and silver, and that the
banks are full of that which is equivalent
to gold and silver, and still they are not sol-
vent.
Mr. CUSHING. Why did the legislature of
the State pass the stay law ?
Mr. CHAMBERS. I do not know. I do not
believe there was any necessity for it.
Mr. CUSHING. What does the gentleman
suppose to have been the reason ?
Mr. CHAMBERS. A pressure was brought
to bear, and it was adopted because it was
supposed that it would relieve the people.
But I do not believe any such law was re-
quired. I believe the State would have done
better without it. Farmers bad abundant
crops generally, and received large prices for
them. It is true they received government
paper in payment, hut the gentleman has just
told us that government paper has taken the
place of gold and silver.
Now, I am very unwilling to have the state-
ment go abroad that the banks of Baltimore
are all unsound, for the gentleman's reasons
will not go along with the statement. We
have heard some strange things here in re-
gard to this business of banking. If I un-
derstood the gentleman correctly, his state-
ment really goes to this extent; that the
laws of the State of Maryland, relieving the
banks of this State from the necessity of pay-
ing gold and silver fur their issues has caused
a rise in the price of gold in New York to
270 or 280 per cent. Now, if that be so, our
banks are more important than I had sup-
posed; their paper has more influence in the
commercial world than I had any idea of.
Now, I think the rise in gold is owing to a
very different cause.
I hope the Convention will require some
better reasons than have yet been given, be-
fore they will indorse this effort to strike at
an interest in our State which is so large, and
which involves such an amount.
Mr. STIRLING. The amendment only af-
fects the issuing of new bank charters; it af-
fects no bank now in existence.
Mr. CHAMBERS. It does not affect banks in
existence for the terms for which their char- |
