The history of Waterbury, Connecticut - citizen hylbom blog

373 HISTOKY OF WATEKBURT.
had been commenced some time before, in connection with Mr. Fowler
of New York and Mr. Pomeroy of Hartford. In 1796, he purchased
the property of the late President Dwight on Greenfield Hill, in this
State, for a summer residence, to which place he retired during a large
portion of each year.
Mr. Bronson was distinguished for his great intellectual power, a
moral courage that nothing could intimidate, untiring industry and the
most scrupulous integrity. Upon any subject to which his attention
was at any time directed, his views were clear and profound, and on all
proper occasions, expressed with great frankness and freedom.
Having closed his partnership firm, he engaged in the banking busi.
ness in Bridgeport, Conn. He possessed the controlling influence in a
bank in that place, and managed its aiiairs for more than thirty years.
His bank was opened on the 21st day of May, 1807, and a rule was
established on that day of the following import.— "No paper, off"ered at
this Bank for discount, will be accepted having more than 60 days to
run to maturity, and every note or bill discounted must be paid at ma-
turity. No renewal or new discount will be made in substitution for or
in aid of the payment of an existing indebtedness." There was no
set form of by-laws enacted. This simple, searching and effective rule
was the solitary but inflexible law for the government of the institution.
In the outset, some of its debtors, regarding a bank in the light of a
benevolent institution, possessing recognized and special privileges, and
therefore bound to accommodate the public, (a heresy alike fjital to the
country and the banks,) denounced the rule as arbitrary and unaccom-
modating. It however was invariably enforced, and its requirements
obeyed. It induced and compelled debtors to carry out the same con-
servative principle in all their private transactions. Each trader con-
ducted his business, not on borrowed bank credit, but on his own capital,
and thus brought the amount of his transactions within his own
means—short credits and quick returns were characteristic of the trans-
actions of the customers of the bank. The gains of the people, the
fruit of honest and patient industry and well considered economy, were
not sudden and spasmodic, but sure and steady. The bank, in short,
only cashed sales, and it was soon proved, after the bank was fairly in
operation, that its ability to discount had no sort of connection with or
dependence on the amount of the capital, and that the latter was of no
use except to inspire confidence. A currency fully equal to the demands
of trade was sustained, and more could not have been sustained,
however large its capital. Its circulating notes were issued only in ex-
change for business paper, representing commodities in transitu, and