Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men: Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and Prominent Citizens
History
Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men: Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and Prominent Citizens
Cleveland (Ohio) -- Biography; Cleveland (Ohio) -- History
During the same session a question arose in which Mr. Kelly took an
active part, in opposition to the great body of his party, the event of
which vindicated his sagacity and practical statesmanship. The question
was upon a bill to grant to the Ohio Life and Trust Company authority to
issue bills to circulate as currency, to the extent of half a million of
dollars. At the time this bill was introduced no banking System had been
adopted by the legislature; most of the charters of the old banks had
expired prior to that time, and the State was without an adequate bank
circulation of its own. The chief stockholders and managers of that
corporation were men of high character and great wealth. The company had
been successfully managed, and its credit was then deservedly high. Also
the principal men of the company were leading Whigs, among these were
Judges Jacob Burnett and John E. Wright of Cincinnati, Nathaniel Wright
of Cincinnati and Alfred Kelley Esq., who was also at the same time a
member of the senate from the Franklin district, and this application on
the part of the company was backed by the presence and Personal influence
of these gentlemen. The plea made by this company for this additional
banking privilege was exceedingly plausible, and the measure was approved
in a caucus of the Whig members almost without inquiry. The bill was
introduced into the Senate by the Hon. Alfred Kelley, and its success was
considered certain. Mr. Moses Kelly, alone of his party, expressed his
opposition to the bill. Urged as the measure was by so many leading men,'
and introduced by the acknowledged leader of the party, it seemed that
such opposition must be fruitless. But on the third reading of the bill
Mr. Kelly attacked it in a speech of great vigor, and strength of
argument. He opposed it as unjust towards any banking system that might
be established and as unwise in giving additional privileges to an
already powerful corporation. Bat he opposed it chiefly because it gave
to the corporation power to issue bills as money simply on individual
security. He contended that whenever the State permitted any corporation
or organization to issue bills to pass as money the faith of the State
should be pledged to their ultimate redemption. While paying a high
compliment to the ability and integrity of the managers of the Ohio Life
and Trust Company, he declared there was no security but what in the
future it might pass into the control of Wall street shavers and brokers,
and from thence to ruin, and the people of the State left remediless with
a worthless circulation in their hands. His vigorous opposition, and the
strength of his argument awakened the attention of the party to the evils
of the measure, and notwithstanding its powerful backing, the bill was
effectually killed by Mr. Kelly's speech.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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