The Daily Dispatch: may 31, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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Northern cupidity.

--One would be at a loss if asked to give a reason for the withholding by the Northern engravers of bank plates, paid for by Southern men, and held by the parties only that the parties concerned might be further enriched by new jobs; yet such plates are withheld on the rather flimsy pretext that they are contraband of war. The true reason is the love of gain: the parties having the plates in possession knowing that they can never hope for more jobs of like description, they take the robber's privilege of sequestering what they have in possession, because at present they could only be made to restore it through the promptings of an honest conscience. Having no article of the last mentioned kind about their persons, they rejoice in the chance of stealing property, for making which, they have been most munificently rewarded. Very many of the bankers of Richmond are seriously inconvenienced by the species of theft and piracy above alluded to. We are taught that out of evil good cometh, and the maxim will prove true in regard to this matter. Our banks and bankers will give the preference in future to our own engravers.--They will be forced to do this from the fact that a burnt child dreads the fire. The present war, forced on us by Yankee cupidity and fanaticism, will do us good. It will teach us to rely on ourselves.