Winchester Gazette

BANK OF THE VALLEY.

We had occasion some time since to notice the base attempts of some unprincipled wretches in the West, to injure the reputation of the Valley Bank in this place, by means of fabricated tales of its bankruptcy, &c.-- Having, as we believed, put down that report, little did we dream that it would soon again be revived nearer home.--The following article, taken from the Baltimore Patriot, will however, show our readers that Baltimore, even Baltimore, contains creatures who, to promote their own selfish views, are vile enough to engage in the infamous business of detraction and falsehood,--By the bye, Editors of Newspapers, in our opinion, hazard much in giving currency, upon slight authority, to reports of the nature referred to.-- Their own reputations are certainly very materially involved in venturing upon such a course.

The general tenure of the Editor of the Patriot's remarks are in our view, highly exceptionable: That Gentleman insinuates, in pretty plain terms, that for the Baltimore Banks to take the Valley paper on deposit, and sending it home might, "with such" a tremendous mass" of it on hand," subject them to loss.--The Editor of the Patriot probably predicates this insinuation of the inability of the Bank to redeem such a tremendous mass of paper, upon the practice that has prevailed (and, for aught we know, does yet prevail) in a city near to which he resides, some of whose Banks, as "report says, have been in the practice of issuing their paper to the modest amount of three or four times the amount of their capital! We, however, assure the Gentleman, that, "tremendous" as the amount of Valley Paper in circulation may be, the business of that institution is managed with such integrity and frugality as to enable the Bank to divide, in honesty and good faith, six per cent to the Stockholders, and that upon an amount but little more than its capital.--All this may seem strange to City people who are accustomed to witness the shameful mismanagement of their Banks; yet it may be satisfactorily explained in few words.-- The Directors of the institution are honest men: There are no Shayers or speculators among them: the Officers also are men of incorruptible integrity: the business of the institution is conducted with an eye solely to the interest of all concerned; its favors are equally distributed; its money is loaned in small sums, well secured and punctually paid; the salaries of the officers sufficient, but not exorbitant; in short, the business of the Bank is conducted, we presume, as utterly different from that of the Baltimore Banks as day is from night, & it may bid defiance to all its enemies:--the article from the Morning Chronicle, exhibits a just view of the conditions upon which the Bank of the Valley is established.

As a further evidence of the liberal disposition of some of the Baltimore papers towards the Valley Bank, we have been informed by a gentleman of respectability, (it escaped our notice,) that in publishing the situation of the Bank last January, the amount of foreign paper on hand, was stated by one of them at $15,000 instead of $150,000! --but this, we suppose, will, to adopt the language of able editors, be termed a typographical mistake; a mere lapsus typi!

Valley Bank. --Yesterday reports were prevalent that the Bank of the Valley, in Virginia, had stopped payment. We have assurances that there are no just grounds for the report, and that the Bank is upon as solid a foundation as any other in that State. It is still, however, a matter of surprise and regret, to find the paper of this Bank so continually redundant here as to form almost our circulating medium. Some measures ought to be adopted to lessen the quantity, or to place it upon a par with the paper of this State and that of the District of Columbia,

We observe that it is a subject of complaint that this paper takes the lead in quantity in various other markets. It has been suggested that the Banks in this city would render an acceptable service by taking it on deposit and sending it home--this would bring upon them all that could be found from here to New York, the District of Columbia and elsewhere, thereby subjecting them to great trouble and expense, to say nothing of the danger of loss, which might occur with such a tremendous mass of it on hand.--Balt. Pat.

Bank of the Valley.--As certain rumours have been afloat, that the Valley Bank had stopped payment, we deem it but an act of common justice, to state that we have conversed with a gentleman who left the Bank at Winchester, at 10 o'clock on Monday morning last, and that no doubt can possibly be entertained of its entire solvency--that nothing can be more untrue than the report above mentioned. By the express terms of the charter, the managers are compelled to make returns every three months of the state of its concerns, to the Governor and Council, upon oath. The governor has farther more power to send an agent at any time to demand the keys, and examine the books and the money in the vaults. It is difficult to conceive of a Bank under regulations more secure.

To shew what opinion the legislature of Virginia entertain of the Valley Bank, and so late as the last session of that body, it may be proper to mention that they have placed its credit on the same footing as that of the Richmond banks, and receive its notes in the state Treasury, as equivalent to money.

Our informant is a gentleman of the very first respectability.

In addition to all these precautionary guards, we will mention that the directors are compelled to make an annual report to the Legislature of the amount of its capital, of its outstanding notes, debts, &c. and it is a further provision in the charter, that the suspension of specie payment dissolves the bank.-- We have this intelligence from a gentleman who is one of the bank directors, and who met with the board a short time since.--Balt. Chronicle.