"
It stood just forty-eight hours from the date of this prophecy, and
then closed its doors, leaving our neighborhood poorer by the
disaster over two hundred thousand dollars. There was scarcely a
struggle in dying, for the institution had suffered such an
exhausting depletion that when its extremity came it passed from
existence without a throe. A Receiver was immediately appointed, and
the assets examined. These consisted, mainly, of bills receivable
under discount, not probably worth now ten cents on the dollar.
Three-fourths of this paper was drawn or endorsed by New York firms
or individuals, most of whom had already failed. The personal
account of Ralph Dewey showed him to be a debtor to the Bank in the
sum of nearly a hundred thousand dollars. The President, Joshua
Kling, had not been seen since the evening of the day on which the
doors of the Clinton Bank were shut, never to be opened for business
again. His accounts were all in confusion. The Cashier, who had
succeeded him on his elevation to the Presidency of the institution;
was a mere creature in his hands; and from his revelations it was
plain that robbery had been progressing for some time on a grand
scale.
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