APRIL 3, 1834.] The Public Devosites. [H. OF R duced by the extraordinary and unexampled spectacle of unknown to the constitution, is exercised by the Execuone of our number falling dead before our eyes, while in tive, that of suspending the execution of the laws, and of the act of addressing the House on a great question of deciding the ancient systems of public policy to be uncondeep and absorbing interest, when we are summoned to stitutional! The people were yesterday contented and pay the last melancholy offices of humanity to another, happy; but now, the whole time of the Legislature would whose death was equally sudden. be insufficient to hear their complaints. The workshops, Mr. Speaker, I never have been able to feel that, on which were a few days since animated by the hum of occasions of this kind, panegyric is an appropriate tribute thriving industry, have shut their doors; and the hands to the memory of the dead. They are beyond the reach are in the streets without bread. Commerce, which had of praise, and it is not by this that they are judged, either the speed of the eagle, has fallen motionless. Agriculin this world or the next. Biographical details, however tural labor, which was then sure of its reward, is already brief, are, in my opinion, not more appropriate. Where withering at the approach of a base currency. the deceased is unknown, they are seldom of any interest. H's name should be his epitaph; and, however blank it may appear to the vacant eye of the passing stranger, it will always have power to call up the recollection of his virtues in the bosom of friendship, and the tear of unLasembled sorrow in the eye of affection-offerings more In this new and appalling condition of our affairs, we are brought into this debate. And how is this debate presented? What is its length or breadth? What is the issue? In the first place, the Secretary of the Treasury sends us forty pages of what he was pleased to call reasons and documents in relation to the removal of the public deposites into grateful and congenial to the disimbodied spirit, than the the State banks. These reasons and documents were reproudest monuments which human art can erect, or the ferred to the Committee of Ways and Means, who remost pompous eulogium which human eloquence can pro- ported back to us one hundred and forty additional pages ounce. Without saying more, sir, I now ask the House of reasons and documents, to prove that the Secretary to bestow upon the memory of the deceased the custom- reasoned well. The debate is opened upon these hunbry testimonials of respect, by adopting the resolutions I dred and eighty pages of reasons and documents, which hold in my hand. Resolved, That the members of this House will attend the funeral of the late JAMES BLAIR, at 4 o'clock, this af ternoon. extend through our whole history, and lie entirely across the whole field of polit political science. Those whose duty it was to present this subject to the consideration of Congress and the people, have taken good care to open a space sufficiently broad for the full Rewolred, That a committee be appointed to take order or superintending the funeral of JAMES BLAIR, deceased, display of all the marching and counter-marching, wheellate a member of this House from the State of South Caro-ing and facing, that appertains to the science of political Resolved, That the members of this House will testify their respect for the memory of JAMES BLAIR by wearing crape on the left arm for thirty days. The resolutions were adopted. The usual notifications THURSDAY, APRIL S. PUBLIC DEPOSITES. tactics. When one position is found weak, and about to give way, it is abandoned, and another is taken up. And although this debate, in varying forms, has been progressing for nearly four months, the issue is yet unsettled. At first we were told that the sufficiency of the Secretary's reasons was the question. But after these reasons had been, for a short time, exposed to the light of the reason of this House, they all evaporated like the fog of the morning before the rising sun. After their disappearance, the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means gave the word, to the right After going through the usual morning business, the reso-about face. Whereupon, he announced that the whole If on of Mr. MARDIS, on the subject of the deposites, being te unfinished business of the first hour, then coming up, Me. CHILTON ALLAN resumed and concluded his marks: the whole of which, entire, are given below. Mr. A. rose and said: Mr. Speaker, have we yet the at to deliberate? And what is the subject for discusDoes the power to legislate for this nation still rein the Congress of the United States? We are rered to forget so much of what we did know, and to to change his front, said that the issue was not bank or ake acquaintance with so many startling novelties-we no bank, but it was a question of "national honor." The are of late been bewildered with so rapid a succession of question has at last assumed a form sufficiently vague to Waordinary events-by such a shifting of scenes-trans- render any more changes unnecessary. There being of powers and presentation of new subjects for con- presented no certain question-no defined issue having kration that it is equally difficult to ascertain the ques- been agreed upon-every one who has addressed the a of debate, and the extent of the remaining powers of controversy was a contest between the Government and the bank, and that the issue was bank or no bank. When the attention of the House was drawn to this new position, the South rose up and manifested its opposition to both the Secretary and the bank. After it was clearly demonstrated that the main question was as widely separated from the bank as the north is from the south, the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, being compelled again Legislature. Republican Government was yesterday in good credit; *believed that the North Americans had virtue and ingence enough to govern themselves upon the princiof representation. To-day we are informed that the House has been left at liberty to select whatever topic best pleased his judgment or fancy. In the discussion of issues, which are daily changing, the gentlemen have a signal advantage over us. We have to bring into the debate facts and reasoning applicable to every new subject; they are under no such necessity: for, presentatives of the people have become so corrupt that no matter what the subject of debate is, or how often the s no longer safe to trust the powers of legislation in question is changed-no matter whether the debate conhands. It was but yesterday that Congress was in cerns the currency-the finances-constitutional libertyundisturbed possession of the legislative power; to-day or the execution of the laws, the gentlemen have one are Secretary of the Treasury entertains us with his specu- gument always ready-one that is equally applicable to all ins upon the common good and general welfare of the subjects-one that equally proves the truth of all propocople, and enacts a scheme for the regulation of the cur-sitions, and answers all objections-one that is equally equally potent to overthrow all that is established, and to uphold all stablishe the innovations that are projected! this magical, wonderworking argument is the battle of Orleans. way. VOL. X.-209 H. OF R.] The Public Deposites. [APRIL S, 1834. In regard to the removal of the deposites, it now seems withdrawn from an administration in which their counsels to be agreed by all parties that it was a measure unwise were disregarded. and impolitic. No man in either House of Congress has Believing that the solicitude of the patriot is far more yet been heard to say that he would have advised the pro- appropriate than the spirit of the partisan, I shall not disceeding. Even the Committee of Ways and Means re-cuss this subject in reference to the men in power at pres fused to join issue on the validity of the Secretary's rea-ent, or with any political views. It is no part of my pursons, and risk a vote of this House on their sufficiency. pose to investigate the motives of any man. I shall deThe defence of the measure upon its merits has been nounce no party. I am willing to allow that the President abandoned. We have heard it announced, from a source has been actuated by pure motives; yet, standing here as high in the confidence of the administration, that the re- the representative of freemen, I must be allowed the moval of the deposites was a measure so manifestly wrong, privilege that appertains to my place, of speaking freely and had been productive of consequences so injurious, of the effect of his measures upon the people of this coun that the error would have been redressed by a vote of try. Personally I feel no unkindness to the administration two-thirds of each House, if it had not been discussed as party. I came to my seat in this House through no angry a party question. political conflict. I have received no party persecution. Sir, I do not consider the opposition to the removal of It has been my fortune to represent the people in both the deposites to have been a party measure. Mr. Liv- Houses of our State Legislature, and in the Congress of ingston, late Secretary of State, Mr. McLane, the present the United States, without opposition. I therefore owes incumbent of that office, Mr. Duane, the Secretary of the debt of gratitude to all parties, to the whole people Treasury, and Governor Cass, Secretary of War, were which I shall never be able adequately to pay. Although selected by General Jackson himself, for their talents, in- my constituents are divided into parties, yet they are formation, and wisdom, to be the guides and counsellors equally devoted to all the principles of free Government of State. It was these eminent men, and not the oppo- and, however some of them may differ from me, there sers of the President, who unanimously agreed that the removal of the deposites would be an invasion of the legis lative power, violative of the laws and constitution, and be productive of general distress in the country, and confusion in the currency. not one that will not justify me in representing boldly of this floor the opinions of a majority. There is one prin ciple and one fact, in regard to which I am sure there wil be a general concurrence among my constituents. Th principle is, that a representative is bound to obey th These opinions have not deprived these men of the will of a majority; and the fact is, that the votes an confidence of General Jackson, or the party. They are opinions which I give here are in obedience to the will t still at the helm of affairs. What has been said against a large majority of my district. But, in the effort to di the removal of the deposites by the opposition, is a mere charge faithfully the duty due to the majority, it woul repetition and amplification of what originated in the President's cabinet. A large portion of the Jackson party, in every section of the Union, and in both Houses of Congress, agree with the President's constitutional advisers as to the impolicy of withdrawing the deposites. Sir, it affords me more pleasure to commend where it is due, than to censure where it is deserved. There are circumstances connected with this transaction highly honorable to the Jackson party, and to the President himself, and calculated to refute the most serious charge that has ever been brought against the party. It has been said that that party were united upon the principle of retaining the power and money of the people in their hands, and that every measure of the Executive was to be blindly supported, right or wrong. If a party so numerous and powerful, in possession of the Government, had determined on such rules of action, the most disastrous results might have been anticipated. Our fears are removed. Strong as may be the cords which bind together parties, overshadowing as may be the President's power and patronage, operative as may be the love of wealth and distinction, we have the satisfaction to know that the love of country and of liberty still predominates in the cabinet. In the midst of the general gloom, it is cheering to the friends of human liberty to see the President's chosen ministers, in his presence, at the footstool of his power, afford me much pleasure to do it in a manner respecti to the feelings of a minority to whom I am so largely debted for personal kindness and liberality. Although it was at first controverted, daily develog ments have at last forced all to acknowledge that whole country is in a condition of discontent and distres The voice of wo has come to us, out of all classes, fro the whole North. We behold freemen, from the Por mac to the Gulf of Mexico, proclaiming that the consti tion has been violated. We now begin to hear, in dista thunder, the responses of the people of the great valli to their Atlantic brethren. Looking upon the altered condition of our country, ma gentlemen assert that it is impossible that the withdraw of the deposites could have produced such effects, and the same time exclaim that the mischief must have be produced by the curtailments of the bank. These gentlemen have forgotten what they told us the commencement of the session: it was then said, ast United States Bank contracted, the State banks wol expand; and that the business of the country, undisturis by the operation, would flow smoothly on in the customá channels. I desire gentlemen to say, in candor, whether it was intended that the Bank of the United States shoulde tract its business as the public deposites were withdraw Whether it was not compelled to curtail its discounts its means of sustaining discounts were withdrawn? Not bowing with reverential awe and obedience to the sacred when we have before us the amount of deposites wi constitution of their country, and the venerated laws of drawn, and the amount of curtailments made by the banl the land, rather than to his commands. will not every one acknowledge that the curtailments, This toleration of the freedom of opinion-this permis- their full extent, have been rendered indispensably sion to his ministers to follow the honest dictates of their cessary, and forced by the withdrawal of the deposite own consciences--is highly honorable to General Jack- Then how can any man say it is the contractions of t son, and worthy of an American President. How condu- bank, and not the removal of the deposites, that he cive it would have been to his fame, to the happiness of caused this distress? The following statement will shor his country, and the safety of his own party, if he had ex- how groundless is the charge against the United State tended the same enlightened toleration, forbearance, and Bank of having curtailed its discounts oppressively. protection to Mr. Duane, that he did to every other mem- The charge that the bank commenced the reduction e ber of his cabinet. And how conducive it would have its loans before the deposites were actually withdraw been to the fame of the dissenting ministers, if they had turns out to be untrue. APRIL 3, 1834.] That, from the 1st of December to the 1st of April, the loans of the bank have been increased Total reduction of loans from the 1st of October, 1833, to the 1st of April, 1834, During which time the public deposites had been reduced : Private deposites, established by Washington and the fathers of the republic. It has existed forty years; has strengthened with our $353,712 95 strength, and grown with our growth, and has become indissolubly identified, with the stability of the currency, 5,057,527 22 and the titles of property, with the security of commerce and the safety of labor. Upon the faith of this system of law and public policy, erected and sustained by legislative, 6,935,568 84 judicial, and executive sanction, for the lapse of nearly 842,834 87 half a century, the people of the United States had re So that the reductions of the loans of the bank, from posed their confidence and their fortunes, entered into the 1st of October to the 1st of April, have been less their contracts, made their calculations, and shaped their by nearly $3,000,000, than the reduction of the deposites. business. The President of the United States, by the exSo far from a desire to oppress the State banks, or ertion of a tremendous and hitherto unknown power, has cripple the trade of the country, the State banks were in- decided that all of these interests stand upon the baseless debted to the United States Bank in the sum of the aver- fabric of an unconstitutional law. Canan any man look upon age amount of $3,464,956; and, during the same time, to a measure that involves the ruin of so many interests, and Wit, from the 1st of October, 1833, to the 1st of April, doubt what it is that has struck this youthful republic from 1834, the United States Bank has actually purchased do- the glow of health and vigor into the consumption that is mestic and foreign bills of exchange to the amount of now so rapidly wasting away its vital energies? It is not 4,671,324. the mere assault upon the bank, but it is the war that has Thus it appears, while the most unjust accusations have been waged upon property; it is not the mere withdrawal been made against the bank, that it has been actually of the deposites from the bank, but it is the withdrawal making exertions to relieve the country, to the great ha- of the legislative and judicial power from Congress and zard of its own safety. the courts; it is not the mere removal of a sum of money The bank is told it has but two years to live; that it from one place to another, but it is the violent pulling must close its concerns; and that it is high time it should out of the key-stone in the great arch of public and pricommence the operation. The bank yields to the com-vate credit, that has let all the interests of the people tumtand, and is then denounced by him who gave the com- ble into ruins with the mouldering rubbish of the State mand for its strict obedience. But, sir, if the withdrawal banks. When it is discovered that the rights of the peoof a few millions of the public deposites from the bank have no guarantee in the legislative power; no shield in ld not produce so much public distress, let me ask you the trial by jury; no support from ancient usage; that the f the curtailment of a few millions of bank discounts can government of laws is substituted by the will of an indiaccount for it? The truth is, that neither the one nor the vidual; can any one doubt what has brought on the body ather, nor both combined, could have brought us to our politic the deep disease that is now corroding the very present situation. We must look for more powerful core of the heart, that is throbbing in every artery, and auses to account for such wonderful effects. New and running along every vein to the extremities? extraordinary, indeed, must be the causes of the evils which have so suddenly prostrated our country: for it was 100 firm to be shaken by any blow of an ordinary kind. The wound must have been inflicted on a part so vital, hitherto held so sacred, that an assault could not have Neen anticipated from any hand. We often deceive ourselves, and mislead the public igment by the use of vague language. When we disthis as a question concerning the removal of the de The fatal decree for the suspension of the laws, and the destruction of the currency, caused confidence to perish. It is not in the ruins of the bank so much as in the wreck of the constitution, that you must look for the cause that has crushed the public prosperity. Much of what I had intended to say having been already better said, and desiring as much as possible to avoid the views taken by others, I shall be brief on a subject nearly exhausted. des, or as affecting the interests and rights of the bank, The charges preferred in these reports against the Bank speak of it as a contest between the Government and of the United States I will not now investigate, for several bank, involving a violation of the public faith, we reasons. 1st. In my judgment, these charges have been arey no adequate description of the recent measures of fully answered, and satisfactorily refuted by several gentlehe administration, and give no just ideas of their conse- men who have preceded me. 2d. The bank was tried by Juences. Neither the speeches on the one side, that the last Congress upon the same charges, and, upon a full are proved the injuries received by the stockholders, and fair hearing, those charges were found to be false by or those on the other, that have described the monster in both Houses of Congress, when a bill was passed to recharmarble palace, wielding the sceptre of despotism, have ter that institution. I do not know how it is in other sections crrectly pointed out the true causes of the public misfor- of the Union, but in Kentucky it is thought that one trial upon the same charge is sufficient. I have said the What is the Bank of the United States? It is thirty- charges were the same; substantially they are; the addixe millions of property, seven of which belong to the tions being unimportant, the case of the French bill being uted States; much of the residue to widows and or- purely a question of law for the decision of the courts. hains. The people of the United States have in their 3d. Because the bank is entitled to trial by jury, the ils $19,000,000 of its notes. The bank was the agent great constitutional right guarantied to every American which $30,000,000 of revenue were collected and dis- citizen. unes. Graed; the common instrument of commerce for the At the commencement of the session, the existence of Whole Union, by which business to the amount of public distress was denied. After the evidence of the 600,000,000 was annually transacted; by its aid in fur- sad reality had forced conviction upon every body, then shing the exchanges, the whole produce of the labor of the mischief was ascribed to the bank; but when Mr. GalIst interior was taken to distant markets, and the neces- latin's report satisfied every candid mind that the curtailwries of life brought from these markets into the interior. ments of the bank had been forced upon it, that they had Trough the agency of the bank, the currency was pre- been made with reluctance, and not faster than was neerved at a fixed value in every part of the Union. cessary to its safety, then we were told, let the mischief This agency, by which the commerce of the country do its worst, "all that trade upon a borrowed capital regulated by which the affairs of the Treasury were ought to break." This project of breaking all that use dministered by which the currency was preserved-was borrowed capital will have an extensive operation. A H. OF R.] The Public Deposites. [APRIL 3, 1834. vast proportion of the whole business of the country is The power of a State Government being local, is wholly done upon a borrowed capital. Almost the whole surplus produce of the labor of the people of the valley of the Mississippi, is carried to market by the aid of borrowed capital. If you break all that use borrowed capital, you break the bone and muscle of the country. Having made these preliminary remarks in reference to the present unhappy and suffering condition of our country, and the manner in which this debate has been shifted from point to point, I will proceed to the discussion of the four following propositions, which, according to my comprehension of the subject, present the true questions that are involved in this controversy: 1st. Shall the currency of the United States be regulated by the national or State Governments? 2d. Shall the fiscal affairs of the United States be administered through the agency of a national bank, or by the State banks? 3d. Ought the public money to be used as a banking capital for the use of the local banks where it is collected, or should it be employed for the use of the whole people of the United States? 4th. Does the custody and control of the public treasure belong to the legislative or executive departments of the Government? imcompetent to the establishment of a currency that shall possess the essential quality of a good currency-equality of value in every part of this great nation. When a State Government undertakes to regulate the currency of the United States, or, in other words, when it undertakes to regulate the commerce and titles to property and labor of the United States, it violates the fun damental principles of republican government, because the whole people of the United States are not represented in the State councils. A State Legislature that exercises the all-pervading sil thority of regulating the currency, usurps the despotic power of legislating upon the fortunes and property of millions whom it does not represent. Now, sir, let us look at the effects of the exercise, on the part of the States, of the mighty power of legislating on the currency; a power that involves the destruction of the principle that no man shall be deprived of his prop erty without his consent. Before the adoption of the federal constitution, the power of the States, in issuing bills of credit and maan facturing paper money, was without restraint. Thi power was freely exercised by all the States. There wa a local depreciated currency in every section of the con The administration experiment proposes to discontinue federacy; there necessarily followed in the train of thi the national bank, and to adopt the notes of the State pestilence ex post facto laws; tender laws; stop laws; law banks as the currency of the United States. Or, in other violative of the obligation of contracts. Sir, the histon words, the proposition is, that Congress shall surrender to of this misrule, from the close of the revolutionary wa the States the regulation of the currency. The Secretary to the adoption of the present constitution, is a full com of the Treasury, after denouncing the national bank as mentary upon the effects of a currency regulated by th unconstitutional, and informing us that we do not intend States. The canker fastened upon the source of produ to renew the charter, proceeds, in page 6 of his report, to tion, upon labor, and paralyzed its efforts; for who wi say, "The State banks can, I have no doubt, furnish a perform the toils and drudgery of life when the rewar general circulating medium quite as uniform in value as is only to be found in valueless paper money? Who woul that which has been afforded by the Bank of the United States; probably more so!" In discussing the question whether the currency of the United States shall be regulated by the General or State Governments, it is not necessary to proceed a single step engage in commerce regulated by no common medium exchange? Who would give credit, when laws that in paired all the obligations of contracts were the order the day? Who would acquire property that might taken from him by a Government in which he was in the dark; our whole history sheds a light full and broad represented? During this period there existed neith upon the subject. What is the currency? It is the stand- public nor private confidence; neither public nor privs ard of value, the representative of property, the regu- credit. Both at home and abroad all confidence in t lator of commerce, the security of labor, the cement of durability and efficiency of the Government was destroye confidence. The power that regulates the currency has labor paralyzed; commerce in confusion; the treasu dominion over all the rights of property and labor. The empty, and the Government unable to afford protect power that can alter the standard of value, can cause the to the people, or comply with its engagements. Go men every where began to despair of the republic. The main radical defect in the former Government the lack of the money power; the power to regulate currency; the power to fix the standard of value. The money power is the highest and most essential tribute of sovereignty; one without which every other arbitrary transfer of property from one part of the community to another. The power to change the value of currency, is a power to tax the people without limit. Taking this view of the currency, is it wise, is it politic, is it safe, to transfer this tremendous power to the States or to the State banks? Or should this power over the currency be retained by Congress, where every free- impotent. What is the war power in the hands of a G man in the nation is represented? When the power over ernment that has no power to provide the means of car the currency is exercised by a State, all the people are ing it on? Of what use is the power to regulate co not represented who, in the course of commerce, use the merce, where there is no common medium of exchang currency. By the exclusive use of such a power on the How can a Government apportion taxation equally in part of the States, the existence of the Union would be jeoparded; for example, in the course of fair commerce, the citizens of the State of Louisiana become indebted to those of Kentucky, in the sum of a million of dollars; and after the creation of this debt, the Legislature of Louisiana I am aware that it is not the view commonly taken; doubles her circulation of paper money by new issues, it is, nevertheless, true that the main cause of the u and thus causes a depreciation of fifty per cent., and by and helpless imbecility of the former Government, her delay and tender laws, forces this depreciated money the lack of the power to establish and maintain a fist on the citizens of Kentucky; thus an honest debt of a mil- standard of value, and, consequently, the power to p lion is discharged with five hundred thousand. Our past tect the labor and regulate the commerce of the peopl history proves that, when the States regulated the curren- and secure the titles of property from the devouring e cy, such events have often occurred; and who does not fects of paper money. An experience so full and uns see in such occurrences, the deep foundations of animos- quivocal, of the necessity of having one fixed standar ity and discord that ultimately would rend assunder this of value, to be maintained and regulated by the comm Legislature, in which all the people of the whole natu Union. country that has no fixed standard of value? Lacking money power, therefore, the former Government destitute of the great mechanical power in politicspower that puts every other power in motion. nevertheless, ure equally, fully, and fairly represented, more than any other cause, induced the people of the United States to adopt the present constitution. To shield themselves from the curse of money of unsteady value, the people caused the following provisions to occupy a prominent place in their constitution: "The Congress shall have power to coin money, regulate the [H. OF R Then, sir, it is in vain to blink the question: disguise it as you may, the proposition of the Secretary to return to a State bank note currency is neither more nor less than to subject the labor and property of this country to the power of the State banks. Disguise it as you may, the return to a State bank note currency will throw all the interests of the people into a condition more unsafe and invalue thereof, and of foreign coins, and fix the standard secure than they were in under the articles of confederaif weights and measures; to provide for the punishment tion. But, sir, as we are now placed under the dominion of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the of the State banks, it behooves us to look at their number United States; to make all laws which shall be necessary and condition. Four hundred and fifty of these banks are ad proper for carrying into execution the foregoing now in operation. There are several hundred broken Jowers. No state shall coin money, emit bills of credit, banks, whose shattered affairs are not yet closed, and a make any thing but gold and silver a tender in payment multitude of new ones which have not yet commenced if debts." business. The circulation of these banks, there is reason These invaluable provisions were inserted in the funda- to believe, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. WILDE] mental law of the land, that the people might be repre-placed rather below the amount. It is not much, if any, unted in the legislation that was to secure their property; short of one hundred millions. hat they might have in their commerce the same measure, These four hundred and fifty banks, for the redemption he same weights, and a currency of the same value, of a hundred millions of notes, have in their vaults but hroughout the whole nation. There can be no doubt about twelve millions of specie. I can recollect formerly, that it was the intention of the convention to take from in banking, it was thought to be a most extravagant issue The States all power over the currency, and to confer its to have three paper dollars for one silver dollar; but the vegulation upon Congress. All the anticipations of good four hundred and fifty State banks now in the United entertained by the fathers of the republic, when they States, take them in the aggregate, have over seven paper charged the Government, and made the standard of value dollars for one silver dollar. Some of the New York the subject of national power, have been more than real- banks have but one cent of silver to the dollar, others a ined. The national industry, under this new shield of cent and a half, and others two cents. security, sprung forth with renovated vigor; commerce To take an average of the notes and deposites of the came out of chaos, and assumed the permanent form im. State banks, they have not one silver dollar to meet twelve parted to it by security. Public credit was established, of their liabilities. and private confidence was restored, and the character of In this condition of the State banks, at a time when conthe nation rose up to a proud elevation among the nations fidence is suspended, when they are daily failing, and of the earth. But, sir, in the face of all our experience, becoming insolvent when a universal suspension of ill view of these plain provisions of the constitution, a specie payments is anticipated-when the New York practice has grown up in the States of circulating paper banks, in their agony, are calling out for assistance-when money through banks, that threatens to deprive us of all the Governor of that State proposes to raise, upon the the benefits of the federal constitution, and to throw the credit of the State, five millions to save the banks-we Government back into the imbecility of the articles of are invited at such a time, by the Secretary of the Treasfederation. We are informed by Mr. Madison that ury, to give up the best currency in the world, and to the evils of a State bank note currency were not foreseen adopt, for the use of this nation, the currency to be fur At the adoption of the constitution. The conclusion that State bank notes that were not made a legal tender were not bills of credit, in the contutional sense, was the great error on this subject, and the introduction to a practice that all sound statesmen now gree is the weak point in our system. But it is now too late to inquire into the constitution nished by the State banks. In regard to the movement in New York, it is a reversal of usage; we have always understood it was the business of the banks to lend money to the people, but it seems the people of that State are to be taxed to raise money to lend to the banks. When the Secretary tells us that the State banks will furnish as good a currency as the national bank, and per ity of State banks; the hold they have of the country is haps better, he has not favored us with any reason for so firm as to forbid all hope of gaining even a hearing on strange an opinion; he has referred to no facts, appealed that point. We must legislate for the country as we find to no authority, rested upon no experience to sustain himand not as we would desire to have it; as practical men self. He has departed from the recorded opinions of all We must take things as they exist. his predecessors, and thrown away all of the experience Sr, let us take a view of the number and condition of ever accumulated in his department. The State banks now in the United States. This inquiry The existence of a State bank currency, as was before feadered necessary by the late determination of the ad- remarked, has ever been regarded by our ablest finanustration to surrender the power of Congress over the ciers as the weak point in our system, the existence of currency, and to return to the use of the notes of the which has been deplored by most of our great statesmen, none of whom have portrayed its fatal effects upon the late banks. On yesterday I endeavored to trace the consequences country more clearly than Mr. Jefferson. the paper money issued by the States before the adop- In his celebrated letter to Mr. Eppes, while at the head ton of the constitution. But, sir, the mode now used by of the Committee of Ways and Means of this House in de States for issuing paper money is far more destructive 1815, during the non-existence of a national bank, and the rights of the people, and every way less secure, when the State banks had involved the country in general than that used before the constitution. Then the bills of ruin, Mr. Jefferson denounced the State banks in unredit were issued by the State; the faith of the States measured terms; showed their dominion over the propas pledged for their redemption; and there was some erty and labor of the country; proved the impossibility guarantee in the responsible situation of the State Legisla- of making a national currency out of their issues, the ures. Now the States issue their paper money through whole of which he showed to be, to use his own language, Tour hundred and fifty irresponsible banks. It has been shown that the power that can fix the amount country. So destructive did Mr. Jefferson consider the and regulate the currency, has full dominion over the whole State bank system to the best hopes of the nation, rights of property, commerce, and labor. froth and trash, and a fraud upon the constitution and the that he entertained the opinion that the States would sur |