place in their currency, which was followed, in August and September, 1814, by a suspension of specie payments by all the banks south of New England. This increased the expansion, and "money became plenty❞— such as it was.

"The notes of the city banks became depreciated 20 per cent., and those of the country banks from 25 to 50, and specie so entirely disappeared from circulation, that even the fractional parts of a dollar were substituted by small notes and tickets, issued by banks, corporations, and individuals. Each city, town, and county, had its own local currency, bearing no equivalency with, or a fixed proportion to any other; the consequence of which was, that a new and extensive class of brokers sprang into existence. Counterfeiters also added to the mass of paper in circulation. Congress chartered the second Bank of the United States, with a capital of thirty-five millions of dollars, on the 10th day of April, 1816, with corporate powers which expired on the 3d of March, 1836.

No sooner was this measure adopted, than the numerous city banks, alarmed for their safety, resolved upon a retrograde movement, and with the reduction of their loans, commenced a reac. tion, which was accompanied by great mercantile distress. The result of this procedure, how. was a gradual amelioration of the currency, insomuch that by the month of July of that year, the depreciation of the notes of the banks in Philadelphia was brought to 7 or 8 per cent., and by the month of December to considerably less.

ever,

The Bank of the United States, the subscriptions to which were opened on the first Monday of July, 1816, commenced its operations about the 1st of January, 1817."*

A rigorous commercial pressure ensued, commencing about the year 1818, and continuing for a number of years. During this pressure the legislature was beset with petitions and plans for relief, such as stay laws, valuation laws, projects for loan offices, and similar schemes, which were not adopted. An interval of calm ensued in financial affairs from 1823 to 1828.

With the opening of the coal mines, and the commencement of the great system of internal improvements, about the year 1828-29, a spirit of speculation sprung up among all classes of citizens, unparalleled in the history of the United States. The state found no difficulty in procuring loans, generally from capitalists in Great Britain, for the prosecution of her public works. Incorporated companies and banks followed the example of the state; and individuals, who were not sufficiently known to procure loans abroad, found no difficulty in getting them at home. The banks expanded; the excitement continued to increase; as mines were discovered and opened, and public works laid out, towns were projected, town lots were multiplied, and passed almost like currency from hand to hand; extensive manufactories were established "to develop the resources of the state;" real estate, agricultural produce, and merchandise rose in price nearly double; the former indeed, in many cases, ten-fold; in short, all the world was getting rich, and that without labor.

In 1836, the charter of the second Bank of the United States expired, but the United States Bank of Pennsylvania was chartered by the state legislature, with the same capital of $35,000,000, and, purchasing the assets and assuming the liabilities of the old bank, continued the business under the same roof. In 1837, a reaction commenced. All the banks, with very rare exceptions, suspended specie payments throughout the Union. A resumption was attempted in 1839, but was only persevered in by the banks of New England and New York. This new suspension, however, was not generally followed by contraction of the

See Report to the State Senate, Jan. 29, 1820, "on the present distressed and embarrassed state of the commonwealth”-copied in Hazard's Register, Vol. IV. p. 136.

currency in Pennsylvania until early in 1841, when another attempt was made to resume, but it proved fatal to the United States Bank of Pennsylvania, and the Girard Bank, which were obliged to go into liquidation; while nearly all the banks of this state, and of all the states south and west of it continued their suspension.* To relieve the distressing pressure throughout the state consequent upon the downfall of the great banks, and the general reaction of all private speculations, and also to provide temporary means for meeting the demands upon the state treasury, the banks, still in a state of suspension, were permitted, by a law of 4th May, 1841, to issue small notes, of the denomination of $1, $2, and $3, which were loaned to the state, and were redeemable in state stock whenever $100 were presented in one parcel. The treasury of the state still being embarrassed, the state stocks became depreciated, (being at one time as low as $35 for $100,) and the small notes depending upon it, sympathized in the depreciation, but not to an equal extent. An attempt to coerce the banks to specie payments, in the spring of 1842, was unsuc

*Depreciation of Stocks.-A calculation showing the relative value of the stocks held in Pennsylvania now, and three years ago, would be an interesting document. The wisest and best of our citizens have been deceived. Nay, some of those who railed most, at what they described as the ingenuity and falsehood of others, have also committed egregious errors.

To illustrate the matter, we invite attention to the following table. It will be seen that we have mentioned only a portion of the stocks that have been bought and sold in our market within the last few years. The picture it presents is frightful indeed. It will be seen that out of a capital of little more than sixty-two millions of dollars, there is an aggregate loss of nearly fifty-seven millions!-Bicknell's Reporter of 1841.

[To this table have been added, by the compiler, two columns, bringing the quotations down to June, 1843, from which the further aggregate loss may be easily estimated. An improvement will be noticed in the last column.]

cessful, the state having made no adequate provision for the redemption of the small notes, (called Relief Notes.) A few city banks resumed; others failed; the country banks generally remained in a state of suspension, and the relief notes, at a discount of from 7 to 10 per cent., formed the only currency throughout the state. During this year the state made only a partial payment, in depreciated funds, of the semiannual interest on her stocks, and her credit, hitherto sustained with difficulty, sunk with that of other delinquent states. The legislative provisions of 1842 and 1843, especially the tax law of July, 1842, may in time replenish the exhausted treasury, and resuscitate the credit of the state. The following statement, compiled from Gov. Porter's message of 4th January, 1843, exhibits the amount of the public funded debt of the state, and the objects for which it has been contracted.

The whole amount of the present funded debt of the state, exclusive of the deposit of the surplus revenue, is $37,937,788 24. This debt is reimbursable as follows:

Balance of loan per act of 14th April, 1838,

$15,000 00

56,022 60

62,500 00

4,194,242 08

In the year 1841,

1844,

1846,

1847,

72,335 06

To the funded debt, as stated above,

Should be added the amount due domestic creditors, (contractors, &c.) a little over

Relief Notes, payable in State Stock,

And the interest on the State debts, payable in Feb. 1843,

Total debt in Feb. 1843, about

$37,937,788 1,000,000 2,113,650

874,278

$41,925,716

The public improvements for which the principal amount of the state debt has been incurred, consist of 7934 miles of canals and railways completed, and 140 miles of canals in progress of construction and nearly completed.

The finished works are the following:

The Delaware canal, from Easton to tide at Bristol,

The main line of canal and railway from Philadelphia to Pittsburg,

Canal from Beaver, on the Ohio river, to the mouth of the French creek feeder, in the direction of Erie,

Canal from Franklin, on the Allegheny river, to Conneaut lake,

Canal, Susquehanna and North Branch, from Duncan's Island to Lackawanna,
Canal, West Branch, from Northumberland to Farrandsville,

Several side cuts and navigable feeders,

Total, canals and railways completed,

Canals in progress, and nearly completed:

North Branch extension, from Lackawanna to New York line,

Erie extension, from the mouth of the French creek Feeder to Erie harbor,
Wiconisco Canal, from Duncan's Island to Wiconisco creek,

Total canals in progress,

MILES.

59

3954

97

494

1111

73

7

7934

90

381

124

140

The state has always met the payment of the interest upon the public debt with punctuality, until the semi-annual payment due on the 1st of August, 1842, when, for want of adequate provision for that purpose, certificates of the amount due to each holder of the stock were issued, bearing an interest of six per cent., payable in one year.

On the 2d May, 1837, a convention, of which John Sergeant was elected president, assembled at Harrisburg for the purpose of revising the constitution of the commonwealth. Adjourning in July, the convention met again at Harrisburg in October, and removed in December to Philadelphia, where their labors were closed on the 22d Feb. 1838. The amendments were adopted by the people at the subsequent annual election. In conformity with the more important amendments, the political year commences in January; rotation in office is secured by allowing the governor but two terms of three years each, in any term of nine years; the senatorial term is reduced to three years; the power of the legislature to grant banking privileges is abridged and regulated; private property cannot be taken for public use without compensation previously secured; the governor's patronage is nearly all taken away, and the election of many officers heretofore appointed by him is vested in the people or their representatives; the governor's nomination of judicial officers must be confirmed in the senate with open doors; all life offices are abolished; judges of the supreme court are to be commissioned for fifteen years,-presidents of the common pleas, and other law judges, for ten years, and associate judges for five years-if they so long behave themselves well; the right of suffrage is extended to all white freemen twenty-one years old, one year resident in the state, having within two years paid a tax assessed ten days before the election, and having resided ten days immediately preceding in the district; white freemen between the age of 21 and 22, citizens of the United States, having resided a year in the state and ten days in the district, may vote without paying any tax; two successive legislatures, with the approbation of the people at a subsequent election, once in five years, may add to the constitution whatever other amendments experience may require.

ADAMS COUNTY.

ADAMS COUNTY Wwas formerly a part of York, from which it was separated by the Act of 22d Jan. 1800. Length 27 m., breadth 24; area, 528 sq. miles. Population in 1800, 13,172; in 1810, 15,152; in 1820, 19,370; in 1830, 21,378; in 1840, 23,044. The lofty chain called the South Mountain, sweeps around the northern and western boundaries, passing into Maryland and Virginia under the well-known name of the Blue Ridge. The prevailing rocks of this mountain are the massive silicious sandstones of Formation I. of the great secondary series, according to the classification of the state geologist. The old red sandstone also appears in some places. The lower hills and valleys which compose the remainder of the county belong principally to the "middle secondary series," composed of blue, red, and green shales, talcose rocks, and gray sandstones. Here and there a bed of limestone has been protruded-a valuable acquisition for the neighboring farmers. Iron ore is found in several localities, and the dense forests of the mountain furnish abundance of charcoal for smelting it. Copper ore has also been found in some places, in the shape of green and blue carbonate, with a little native copper; but the furnace built for smelting it by Mr. Thompson in the southwestern part of the county, has been abandoned as unprofitable. There have been occasional rumors and surmises of the existence of gold and silver mines; but hitherto the most successful mode of obtaining gold in Adams county, has been by that peculiar mixture of lime and red shale so well known and skilfully practised among the German farmers during the last fifteen years.

Several iron furnaces are or have been in operation, among which the Caledonia furnace, on the Chambersburg road, and the Maria furnace, owned by Messrs. Stevens and Paxton, in Hamilton Ban township, are the most prominent.

The silicious and broken lands of the mountains are poorly adapted to agricultural purposes; but the rolling slate lands in the lower and middle portions of the county furnish some excellent farms, on which there thrives an industrious and frugal people.

There are no navigable streams in the county, yet it is well watered, and useful mill seats are abundant. Rock, Marsh, Middle, and Toms creeks, branches of the Monocasy river, drain the southern and middle sections of the county, and flow into Maryland. Latimore, Bermudian, and Opossum creeks, water the northeastern section, forming the sources of the Conewago creek, which flows through York county into the Susquehanna.

There are fifteen or twenty well-built public bridges, and, in all, about ninety miles of excellent turnpike roads. A track has been graded, at an expense to the state of about $700,000, for a railroad from Gettysburg to the Maryland line, intended to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio road; but the rails have never been laid, and the work is now suspended—perhaps abandoned. This is the road which, from its very circuitous and expensive character, has been stigmatized by some state politicians as "the Tape-worm.”