Whether they will be chartered as national
banks.
It seems to me that if you strike oat of
existence our country banks, as you will
do by this provision as now amended, and
consolidate all the moneyed interest of the
State in the city of Baltimore, you will do
an infinite amount of injustice to the country
people. The country banks are invaluable
to us; all of us go to them to obtain money
when we need it, and if we have character
and standing in the community we can get
it. We cannot go to Baltimore city and
obtain money of the banks there, because we
are not known there. But if a man in the
country is well known to be honest and reli-
able, he can get as much money as he wants
for fair and legitimate speculations and op
erations. But he cannot get it in Baltimore
unless he has two or three acquaintances there
of means and standing who will indorse
his application to the banks. I think the
country banks are in quite as good repute as
the city banks, and better than some of them.
And the banks of Carroll county are in bet-
ter repute than almost any other banks in
any State outside of cities. Let us leave this
matter to those who are the most deeply in-
terested in the operations of those banks.
The people of the whole community are in-
terested in them, and should be left to
control the matter, through their representa-
tives, as they may see proper.
And a very important matter which this
Convention ought to consider is, not what
section or article can we adopt here by a
mere majority vote, but what sort of a con-
stitution can we frame which will secure the
approval of the people. If you incorporate
in the constitution we are now framing arti-
cles or provisions which are obnoxious to the
people of the State, yon thereby imperil the
success of the constitution when it cornea to
be acted upon by the people; and it would
be infinitely better that we had not assembled
here at all, than that the constitution we may
adopt shall bedefeated by the people. If you
strike down the country bunks in this State,
you will array against this constitution al-
most every man in all the counties, because
they are nearly all directly or indirectly in-
terested in the country banks. That is a
matter which I think we better take into con-
sideration. I do not think we ought to insist
upon our private prejudices in this matter.
We should consider what is for the public
good, and what we can carry through by the
vole of the people. We should guard against
incorporating any provision in the constitu-
tion which may run counter to the sentiment
of the great body of the people. I am very
sure that nine-tenths of the people of my
county are opposed to any interference
with the banks, and that if you insert a pro-
vision here striking down their banks, they
will vote against this constitution. |
Now, I want the constitution which we
shall frame here to be adopted by the people.
I want all our action here to be approved by
the people. And I think the worst thing we
can do will be to insert a provision in the
constitution which is against the prevailing
sentiment of the people of the counties of this
State.
Mr. CUSHING. Will the gentleman state
how the country banks are interfered with
by this provision ?
Mr SMITH, of Carroll. They are interfered
with indirectly, if not directly, by concen-
trating all the moneyed interest of the State
in the city of Baltimore.
Mr. CUSHING. How is that done?
Mr. NEGLEY. If the gentleman will allow
me, I will answer that question. It is done
in this way: it is a notorious fact that the
banks of the city of Baltimore, do not make
their money by their circulation. They do
not care anything about their circulation.
They make their money by their deposits.
The country banks cannot compete with the
city banks in point of deposit, and if you
cut them off from the benefit of circulation,
they must go under. The regular statements
of the city banks show that they very seldom
have more than a circulation of about one-
fourth of their capital, because their deposits
are so enormous. Their rules are such that
before a man can get accommodation at a
bank in the city, he is required to have a
certain amount of deposits there all the time.
We do not require anything like that in the
country.
Mr. SMITH, of Carroll. And to pay two-
and-a-half or three per cent. discount, besides
having his deposit in the bank.
Mr. NEGLEY. Yes, sir. He must have a
certain amount of deposit in the bank before
he can get accommodation.
Now what is the use of interfering with
this matter at all? The object is to get out
of circulation, to strike out of existence, all
bank paper except that guarantied by gov-
ernment securities. Now, if the little State
of Maryland, by anything we could do in
this convention, could accomplish such a re-
sult as that I would vole for it. But can we
doit? What use is there in our striking
down our State banking institutions, when
Pennsylvania and Virginia on either band,
are allowed to multiply such institutions ad
infinitum, to reap the benefit of a circulation
in our midst? We can do nothing in this
matter that will accomplish anything.
And the object designed by gentlemen
from Baltimore city will be reached very soon
in this way: The Congress of the United
States has now imposed a tax of six per cent.
on all the circulation of State banks beyond
ninety per cent. of their capital. In other
words, a State bank having a capital of
$100,000, has no inducement to put out more
than $90,000 of notes, because it must pay a |
