After the panic,
Kentucky repealed the charters of these banks and incorporated the
Bank of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, an institution without
stockholders and under officers elected by the legislature and paid
by the state. Its notes were assigned to the counties in proportion
to the taxable property, to be loaned on mortgage securities to
those who needed them "for the purpose of paying his, her, or their
just debts," or to purchase products for exportation. The only real
capital of the bank was a legislative appropriation of seven
thousand dollars to buy the material and plates for printing notes.
In short, the treasury of the state was used as a kind of land bank
of the sort favored in the colonial days for the relief of the
debtors.[Footnote: Cf. Greene, Provincial America Am. Nation, VI.,
chap. xvii.] The legislature then passed a replevin law giving the
debtor a delay of two years to satisfy an execution, in case the
creditor refused to accept notes of the Bank of the Commonwealth of
Kentucky as payment; otherwise the debtor received an extension of
but one year.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213