Action of the Banks.
We are glad to see that the Banks of
Lynchburg and
Petersburg have determined to receive on deposit and pay out all the notes of the Confederate Government, whether issued before or since the 1st of December, 1862. The
Banks here took the contrary course of cooperating with the
Government in the very questionable (mild term!) measure of interdicting a part of its own issues.
The expedient is about to produce an amount of inconvenience to the public that the Banks in
Lynchburg and
Petersburg thought too serious to be allowed, so far as they are concerned; and they did right not to be a party to it. Not only will the effect of the measure be seriously to incommode the public, but very probably to impair the value of the
Confederate money still further in public estimation.
The money put under the ban is in all the country — in the hands of the people — in the hands of men who have no money to lay up in bonds, and who have no more respect for one of the eight per cent. promissory notes than for one which promises nothing but its own amount.
They are faithful to the
Government and kind to its currency.
They seek to purchase something in
Richmond and their money is refused.--They are not wise like the Treasury Department.
They cannot see why a note promising eight per cent. should be worth less than a note which promises no per cent.! They at once conclude that the distinction is outrageous, (if for no better reason, because they lose by it;) that one is no better than the other, and that all are to be doubted.
It is well that some of the Banks decline to assist in the degradation of a part of that currency issued to the people to meet the obligations of the
Government, and the differences in the value of which the people never knew, see no reason for, and ought not to be made the losers by.
