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Editorial
November 20, 1839
The Rhode Island Republican
Newport, Newport County, Rhode Island
What is this article about?
Editorial denounces Merchants Bank for paying dividends in specie while Rhode Island residents endure depreciated currency and 10-12% excise taxes benefiting the privileged class, calling it an insult and urging voters to remember at polls.
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INSULT TO INJURY.
"Of all Governments, the most intolerable, is that of an Aristocracy, where the privileged order exempt their own class from the burdens imposed on the common people."—Montesquieu.
If ever a people had occasion to feel the bitterness of an unprovoked insult, it must have been on reading the following notice:-
MERCHANTS BANK.
A dividend has been declared payable on or after Saturday, November 9. Dividends of fifty dollars and upwards are payable in checks on New York, and all dividends under that sum in bills of specie paying banks.
H. E. HUDSON, Cashier.
Here it is. We ask the people of Rhode Island to look at it. While the great body of the people are patiently suffering all the hardships of a depreciated currency—while they are in the daily payment of an odious excise of from 10 to 12 per cent on every article of consumption, for the benefit of a single class, a privileged order—This same order have the effrontery to advertise publicly, that the proceeds of this tax will be paid in specie or specie funds!
If the people of Rhode Island fail to remember these wrongs and this gratuitous insult when they appear at the polls, then we say they richly merit all the burdens which bank legislation has bound to their shoulders.
Prov. Herald.
From the N. Y. New Era.
"Of all Governments, the most intolerable, is that of an Aristocracy, where the privileged order exempt their own class from the burdens imposed on the common people."—Montesquieu.
If ever a people had occasion to feel the bitterness of an unprovoked insult, it must have been on reading the following notice:-
MERCHANTS BANK.
A dividend has been declared payable on or after Saturday, November 9. Dividends of fifty dollars and upwards are payable in checks on New York, and all dividends under that sum in bills of specie paying banks.
H. E. HUDSON, Cashier.
Here it is. We ask the people of Rhode Island to look at it. While the great body of the people are patiently suffering all the hardships of a depreciated currency—while they are in the daily payment of an odious excise of from 10 to 12 per cent on every article of consumption, for the benefit of a single class, a privileged order—This same order have the effrontery to advertise publicly, that the proceeds of this tax will be paid in specie or specie funds!
If the people of Rhode Island fail to remember these wrongs and this gratuitous insult when they appear at the polls, then we say they richly merit all the burdens which bank legislation has bound to their shoulders.
Prov. Herald.
From the N. Y. New Era.
What sub-type of article is it?
Economic Policy
Taxation
What keywords are associated?
Merchants Bank
Depreciated Currency
Excise Tax
Privileged Order
Rhode Island Banking
Dividend Policy
What entities or persons were involved?
Merchants Bank
H. E. Hudson
People Of Rhode Island
Prov. Herald
N. Y. New Era
Editorial Details
Primary Topic
Criticism Of Merchants Bank Dividend Policy Amid Currency Depreciation And Excise Taxes
Stance / Tone
Strongly Critical Of Privileged Banking Class And Urging Electoral Remembrance
Key Figures
Merchants Bank
H. E. Hudson
People Of Rhode Island
Prov. Herald
N. Y. New Era
Key Arguments
Banks Exempt Themselves From Depreciated Currency Burdens While Imposing Excise Taxes On The People
Dividend Payments In Specie Or New York Checks Insult The Suffering Public
People Should Remember These Wrongs At The Polls To Avoid Deserving Their Burdens