H. or R.]

Addison County (VL.) Memorial.

[MAT 5, 1834

Jy strange if he should attempt to shield himself by saying throughout the Union, in proclaiming their decree of con the contract was avoided and cancelled, when it appeared demnation of Executive assumptions, through the peace that he had always neglected and refused even to bring able, constitutional, truth-telling, power-enlightening bu the subject before such tribunal. I venture to say, sir, lot-box.

there is not a justice of the peace in the State of Vermont, I see clearly, sir, that this remedy for the troubles of (and their number is large, I believe about 1,500,) who the country cannot be immediate. I wish, therefore, s would tolerate such a defence for a moment. The party that the President would retrace his steps, and, as far who should undertake to set up such a defence would be is now possible, permit the free citizens of this country to

send up to him their aspirations of gratitude for his in tary services, unmingled with louder notes of lamentanon over their ruined fortunes, their broken faith, their lated laws. But if that cannot be, why, we must wait that is all, sir.

called a shameless fellow, that sought to justify a vile act by calling his adversary hard names; and the lawyer who should stake his reputation by making it, would be frowned out of court as an impudent and incurable pettifogger. These memorialists, perceiving the Secretary's reasons for the removal of the deposites to be precisely of this character, deem them entirely unsatisfactory and insufficient; and, sir, they are utterly astonished that the House of of the memorialists, he would move that the memorial de

Representatives of this great nation should have been in session five months without making the same discovery.

Mr. Speaker, these memorialists further complain that the public faith has been violated, not by the officer to whose care the law had intrusted the public money, but by one in whom no authority to do the act, or give reasons for it, had been confided. They complain, sir, that the President, in vaulting ambition, has leaped over the head of the sentinel of the law, thrust his arm into the national treasury, and emptied the contents of the public

Mr. H. concluded by saying that, as the only step in his power to take towards carrying into effect the wishes read, printed, and referred to the Committee of Ways and Means. Agreed to.

ADDISON COUNTY (VT.) MEMORIAL. Mr. SLADE, of Vermont, said he was charged with the proceedings of a numerous and respectable meeting of citizens of the county of Addison, in that State, on the subject of the deposites and the currency, accom panied by a memorial upon the same subject, which the asked leave to present to the House. In doing this, ha

ther portion of the people of Vermont.

chest into depositories of his own. They complain, sir, would endeavor to confine himself within the rule which that, by the same act with which he seized the public restricts debate on the presentation of memorials--a rule treasure, he unlawfully armed himself with the veto pow- which he felt less inclined to transgress, after the very in er, to defend it in his own hands against all approaches of teresting remarks which had just fallen from his colleagu the people, except through a majority of two-thirds of [Mr. HALL] on presenting a similar memorial from and their representatives in both Houses of Congress. They complain, sir, that, having thus taken possession of the public treasure, and thus shielded it from the people, he is now, in jeopardy of its safety, and in usurpation of the legislative power, unconstitutionally using it to sustain the credit and enhance the profits of favored banks, and to regulate the currency of the country. These memorialists are alarmed, sir, at the assumption of these high powers citizens and voters of the district which he had the h

by the Executive; and their alarm is not lessened by the apprehension--to them a mortifying one--that their alarm may be unshared by a majority of the chosen guardians of the public treasure in this House.

I will not, Mr. Speaker, undertake to declare the opinions of these memorialists upon the late attempt of the President to direct the manner and prescribe the forms in which the Legislature shall, in all due humility, speak

Mr. S. said he had heretofore had the honor of pres senting memorials, signed by 1,779 citizens of one of th two counties which composed his district. To the mel morial which he now held in his hand were attached the names of 1,948 citizens of the remaining county in that district. Thirty-seven hundred and twenty-seven of the

nor to represent, had thus presented, in the Halls of Con gress, their earnest remonstrances against the late act the Executive, and their supplications for relief.

The resolutions and memorial which I now presc said Mr. S., come from the county which gave me birth and in which I have spent the greater portion of my bfs These citizens, sir, are my neighbors and friends. know them well. The great mass of them are lords

of the acts of the Executive, nor upon the various other the soil, and cultivate it with their own hands; and, ri extraordinary claims of power set forth in the protest; nor though they are in the exuberance of that soil, they ar will I undertake to declare their opinions upon the still yet richer in the industry, the frugality, the intelligence more recent annunciation of the President, that he will and the virtue, with which, in common with all the pro cease to perform his executive duties, unless his constitu-ple of that prosperous and happy State, they are pre-em tional advisers, in obedience to der to him their discussos mandate, su....

ballpen, nently distinguished. They are descendants, too, of the ment, regist20 fetion, and, in licu of their own judg-unflinching band of resolute and hardy men who achie wasyon verhis will--because, sir, when this memorialled the independence, and founded the institutions,

gned, the official papers to which I allude had not Vermont. It need not, therefore, be said that they ar en promulgated.

But, sir, I will venture to predict that the sons of the whigs of '75, who, in the dawn of the Revolution, were the first in the land to proclaim the authority of the "Continental Congress" within the walls of a fortress of the Crown, will not, in 1834, tamely submit to see the rights of that Congress, or any portion of it, trampled under the foot of prerogative power.

I do not mean by this, sir, that I suppose the "Green

jealous of their rights; and that, while they feel the effect of the late measures of the Executive Government, they ar capable of understanding their origin, and sitting in julg ment upon their authors. When I left these people, re six months ago, said Mr. S., to discharge the duties their representative here, they were in a state of prosper and peace. The active labors of the year had been close" and crowned with plenty; and though anxiously alive the proceedings of the Executive, affecting the curren

Mountain Boys" will resort to any violent or illegal meas- of the country, they calmed their anxieties and quie ures. No, sir, they are a peaceable and orderly, as well their apprehensions, by the anticipation of the speedy as an intelligent people; and there will be no necessity sembling of Congress, and the hope that its wisdom for such measures. They will not, in my opinion, even devise a remedy for the evils which they felt, and the s resume the weapons with which they were wont to chas- greater which they feared. They have waited longtise the ancient enemies of the State, "the twigs of the patiently. The dark cloud which, six months ag wilderness." It will be sufficient for them to do, what I peared in the distant horizon, has risen, and spread sc have no doubt they will do--unite with their brother whigs the heavens, and now threatens them with ruin.

exclusively metallic.

(H. oF R.

ve looked to Congress for relief in vain. And they President, that the country must return to a currency ve seen the people, who poured their complaints into ear of the Executive, rudely repulsed, and told to go The memorial which accompanies these resolutions relief to the institution which it had been the purpose, describes the existing embarrassment of that community; d the effort, and the boast, of that Executive to prostrate states that it has succeeded a condition of unprecedented d crush. They have, at length, been roused. They plenty and prosperity; and that, if the "experiment" is elieve the time has come for them to speak; and they persisted in, this state of things must grow worse, and ave spoken through the resolutions and memorial which their principal staple, wool, as well as their other pronow present, in a language which it becomes this House ducts, must wholly fall of a market, or be disposed of at hear and regard.

ruinous sacrifices.

The meeting at which these resolutions were adopted, In this crisis, so full of interest to these memorialists, ad this memorial drawn up, was, I am informed, one of they look to Congress for relief from the effects of the e largest and most respectable ever held in that county; measures of the President-measures which they feel the ad was presided over by an individual who has, for the more intensely, because they have emanated not from st twelve years, with unwavering fidelity to the interests the Government which the constitution has provided, but Vermont, represented her in the Senate of the United from the mere will and pleasure of a single branch of that ates. The meeting was composed, indiscriminately, of Government. To the misrule of the government of the tizens belonging to the two leading parties in the State; constitution, should they at any time be destined to suffer hose contests with each other have not rendered them under it, they might submit with a becoming cheerfulsensible to the alarming assumptions of power by the ness; but the usurpations of one man they cannot patientKecutive, or the disastrous consequences which they ly endure.

are visited upon a confiding people. In looking over You will permit me to add, Mr. Speaker, that it can be ne list of names attached to the memorial, I perceive that no triffing cause which has brought together this large ach of these parties has contributed its full share to this assemblage of citizens, and produced the strong and dexpression of sentiments, which, I hazard nothing in say-cided expressions of opinion which come to us through ag, are the sentiments of at least nine-tenths of the peo- these resolutions and this memorial. The people of Adle of Vermont. And I am gratified to perceive, also, dison county are not given to excitement. Their educa. me names of men who, when i left them, were as firmly tion, their habits, and their employments are adverse to Itached to General Jackson as the firmest; but who have it. When they undertake to speak, you may be assured ad the independence to speak what they think and feel, they have something to say; and something which dewhen the interests of their country are made the sport of xecutive usurpation.

serves to be regarded. And, sir, while they address this body in the decided language of these resolutions and Having said thus much of the citizens of whose senti- this memorial, permit me to assure you that there is a nents I have been made the organ, I will detain the depth and intensity of feeling among them, on this subHouse a few moments with a statement of the substance ject, which no language they have permitted themselves of their resolutions and memorial. to use is capable of describing. Among the communica

Impressed with a conviction, rendered deep and pain- tions with which my private correspondence with them al by existing suffering, that a sound currency is indis- has favored me, I hold in my hand a letter from a member ensable in "rendering stable the rewards of industry, of the committee which reported the resolutions and and preserving uniform the value of property," they re- memorial now presented, an extract from which I beg olve that upon Congress, and upon Congress alone, de- permission to read. The writer is a farmer of moderate

olves the duty of providing and maintaining such a curency; and that an interference with the subject, by the President, is foreign to his appropriate duties.

They regard the removal of the deposites as the priDary cause of the existing embarrassments; and that, not imply by a change of the location of a given amount of the public money, but by the hostile attitude of the Executive towards the Bank of the United States, involving the violation of a solemn contract with that instiation; subjecting the delicate question of the currency to a mere party control; striking fatal blow at public confidence, and necessarily producing a feeling of deep and incurable distrust among capitalists and moneyed in Kitutions. This act they regard as an unwarrantable and

a

fortune, and is a fair specimen of the independence and intelligence of that community. After speaking of the reduction in the prices of the various articles of produce within the last six months, ranging from twenty-five to forty per centum, and alluding to the distressing apprehensions among the farmers of a corresponding and even greater depression in the price of the coming crop of wool, their main dependence, he says:

"Money, were there any to be had, would command twenty-five per centum as readily now as it would eight per centum a year ago. This is hard for the common people; and we are all such. It is of no advantage to us, who are in debt, that our cattle graze on our fields, and our sheep cover our hills. They will not pay our debts.

langerous exercise of power, resorted to by the President A year ago, it was with considerable difficulty that labor for purposes not within the range of his legitimate duties. could be obtained to carry on our farms, even at the They do not deem it necessary to enter into the question laborer's own price. Now we are thronged with applicants with regard to a renewal of the charter of the present for labor. Travel which way you will, you meet them, Bank of the United States, in the discussion of which sometimes in great numbers, seeking employment. They they are not disposed to merge the higher questions of an are not the worthless, nor intemperate; but good, honest, intringement upon its chartered rights, and a violation of industrious men, many of whom were, a year ago, in a the constitution of the country. Those rights they would good business-a business that, at least, made their firesee restored, and that constitution redeemed. To the sides cheerful.

relief which a consequent restoration of public confidence "But, perish credit!" And it might have been add. would necessarily produce, they would hope to see added, ed, perish honest industry; for it certainly will, if the that they deem essential to the permanent prosperity of President's experiment is persevered in. And what is a he country-the establishment of a national bank, with Government good for, if industry is not protected? I am uch safeguards as the wisdom of Congress may be able worth $1,000 less to-day than I was a year ago. I have, o devise. They disclaim the advocacy of a paper cur- indeed, still enough to feed my family; but, should the ency without an adequate specie basis; but they regard men in power persist in the present course, regardless of s eminently visionary and impracticable, the notion the cries of a suffering people, I know not how long I which has lately sprung up among the conceptions of the may have even that.

H. OF R.]

Burlington (Vt.) and Seneca Falls (N. Y.) Memorials.

[MAT 5, 1834.

"How long is this state of things to be endured? How marked that the memorialists regard the derangement of long is the Government of this mighty republic to remain the currency, and consequent depression of business, as in the hands of the President, and its money to be locked owing to an improper, unjust, and unnecessary assump

up in his thousand-and-one chests? Would it not be well (Ethan Allen like) to demand the keys-if not by the authority of the Continental Congress, by the authority of a higher power?"

Mr. Speaker, this is the language of a man of truth and soberness of a man who is in a condition to sympathize deeply with the farmers and mechanics of Addison county. Shall the complaints of such men remain unheeded, and their supplications be denied? Whatever fate might await them, if they had thought proper to apply elsewhere, I trust that here their prayer for relief will meet at least with a respectful and earnest consideration.

I ask that the resolutions and memorial be laid upon the table, and printed. Agreed to.

BURLINGTON (VT.) MEMORIAL.

Mr. ALLEN, of Vermont, said that, at a former period of the session, he had presented a memorial of the citizens of Burlington, and likewise resolutions and a

tion of power in the President, in causing a removal of the public moneys from the Bank of the United States; and they pray for a restoration thereof, and a recharter of the bank, as a proper remedy for the evil. As evidence that this was the settled sentiment of the people of Vermont, Mr. A. said he would refer to the fact that there was a branch of the Bank of the United States located at Burlington, by the side of a bank of the State established in the same village; and, although it might well be sup posed that the location of that institution in this place would have an effect to curtail the discounts of that and some fifteen or sixteen other banks of the State, yet no director or stockholder of any one of them, to his knowledge, had ever objected to the establishment of a branch in that State. Indeed, so thoroughly convinced were they of its salutary influence upon the currencs, that no one desired its removal. These memorialista treat the project of a metallic currency in the midst of a host of State banks, over which the General Government

memorial of the citizens of the county of Chittenden, has no control, as visionary; and that sufficient evidence upon the question which yet agitates the nation; that he has already been had to produce conviction that such a was now charged with the presentation of the proceedings experiment must fail. Mr. A. alluded to the memoris of a meeting of the young men of Burlington. The meet- as treating the question of the constitutionality of a bank ing was numerously attended, and the resolutions were as settled; and that, after a similar institution receivin agreed to and the memorial adopted by a unanimous vote; the official sanction of Washington, the present that that he was acquainted with most of those who signed Madison, and having been repeatedly settled by the jud the memorial; they were his neighbors; amongst them cial decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States were men of as much intelligence and ability as were to with Marshall at their head, and recognised and settien be found in any other community. They were men en- by almost every tribunal in the United States, it ough gaged in the professions, merchants, mechanics, and not again to be agitated.

others, employed in all the ordinary occupations in life. Concurring in these sentiments, he moved that the pr The memorial has attached to it one hundred and forty-ceedings be read and printed.

eight names: amongst them were persons who had here

tofore acted with the administration.

SENECA FALLS (N. Y.) MEMORIAL.

Mr. CLARK, of New York, rose and said:

Mr. A. said the sentiments contained in this memorial were similar to those which he had heretofore presented, Mr. Speaker: I am requested to present to the Hous as well as to those which had come from other portions of the proceedings of a meeting held in the town of ser the State, which his colleague had just presented. Upon eca Falls on the 29th day of March last. The vlag these questions the views and sentiments of the inhabitants in which the meeting was held is one of the mid of the whole State were alike; with few exceptions, they flourishing in western New York. Its extensive m speak a similar language, and hold similar views. In the and manufacturing establishments necessarily feel th various proceedings which have been presented from pressure, which the memorialists admit is somewhat st different parts of the State, they had learned the senti- vere. ments of the whole. Mr. A. further remarked that there Unlike many of the petitions and memorials whe was not a more democratic State in the Union than Ver- have been presented here, claiming to be of a no-part mont; and that, from that circumstance, their proceed- character, this meeting was composed exclusively of th ings were entitled to the consideration of this body; from friends of the administration. Numerous resolutions wel the liberality of their constitution and laws, as well as reported by a committee of highly respectable genth from the pursuits of its inhabitants, it could not be other-men, all of whom I know; and I will embrace the opps wise; that, from the numerous representation of their tunity here afforded me, to say that, from the amount Legislature, (there being a member from each township,) business in which they are engaged, and their general i the short period of election of all its officers, (even the telligence, they are well calculated, both to feel the judges being annually chosen,) and the moderate com-extent of the pressure, and justly to appreciate its caus pensation allowed to each, it followed that there was but One of the gentlemen composing this committee is th little distinction in the different classes of society in the sheriff of the county; another, Mr. Bayard, who present State. The term aristocracy was not known. Whether the resolutions to the meeting, is extensively engaged they speak in primary assemblies or in legislative bodies, the manufacture of flour, an article which, it is said t theirs was emphatically the expression of the people. the friends of the bank, has suffered most by what the Mr. A. alluded to the inhabitants of the State as mostly are pleased to call the ruinous measures of the admini agriculturists, with the usual mercantile business for tration. The report of the committee was unanimou such a community; and that the manufacturing and me- adopted.

chanic arts were beginning to flourish; that considerable In pursuance, Mr. Speaker, of the duty enjoined t commercial business was carried on, and as much, and the rules of this House, I will very briefly state the col probably more, from Burlington than from any other tents of such of the resolutions as apply most directly 1 place in the State; that being situated upon the margin of the question which has agitated Congress and the natio Lake Champlain, and having communication by water from the commencement of the session to the presel southwardly to New York, and northwardly to Quebec, time.

the inhabitants of this village engaged in business would They resolve that the Bank of the United States oug! as soon be affected by a derangement of the circulating not to be rechartered; that the deposite of publi medium as any portion of the State. Mr. A. further re-moneys ought not to be made in the Bank of the Unite

States, nor in any of its branches; that, in their estimation, the State banks are fully adequate to discharge the duties of fiscal agents of the Government; that they have Jull confidence in the resources of this country, and beFeve that its prosperity does not depend on the existence of any moneyed institution; that the firmness and patriotism of Andrew Jackson, at this crisis, deserves the lasting gratitude of the American people.

They further resolve, that the restoration of the deposres, or the recharter of the bank, would, in their opinion, be equivalent to a surrender of national liberty; and that they believe the patriotic people of New York will be ready to endure any pecuniary privation rather than sub

ealy currency recognised by the constitution is a hard

[H. or R.

signed by about one thousand eight hundred electors of that county.

Mr. F. remarked that the memorialists were generally farmers; I perceive, however, he said, the names of some merchants and professional men. Manufacturing, in the county where they reside, which is one of the two counties I have the honor to represent, is confined principally to paper and flour. Embracing a large portion of the fine valley of the Genesee, this is one of the best wheatgrowing counties in the State; and many of the men whose names are here enrolled had on hand, upon the 1st of last October, from one to three, and some, I believe, as many as four thousand bushels, from their own fields, mit to the dictation of a great moneyed power; that the destined for market. These men, let me assure gentlemen who talk so confidently of exaggerations on this money currency, resting on the broad basis of the pre- subject, and affect to believe the pressure is all made "to cious metals; and that a paper currency, subject as it is, order," are not under the necessity of using artificial of necessity, to a perpetual fluctuation, is but the scourge means to create distress, and they find panic enough in of honest industry, and the pander of a pampered aris- their granaries and storehouses. The thousands of bushtocracy; that the efforts of partisan leaders and presses els of wheat remaining in the hands of these memorialists, to produce a panic among business men, a scarcity of waiting buyers at seventy or eighty cents, would have money, and generally to derange the currency, is a spe- commanded, last autumn, a dollar. The confidence then mes of political warfare peculiar to the advocates of a grand moneyed monopoly, and deserving the execration and punishment of a civilized community; that the recent combined attacks upon the safety-fund banks of that State, while it demonstrated their title to public confidence, was in unwarrantable assault, which, though severely felt by the people of that State, was chiefly designed to affect the distinguished statesman under whose auspices the fety-fund banks were associated together for the protection of the public; that the present pressure and scarcity of money are not justly attributable to the removal of the deposites, and would have been more severe but for that timely measure; that they have proceeded, in some degree, from the tariff act of 1833, but more especially from the course and conduct of the bank itself-the speeches and efforts of its partisans and presses all laboring with the common design of creating a political and fiscal necessity for the renewal of the charter of the bank.

These, sir, are the sentiments of freemen, who would not violate the integrity of the constitution to prolong the existence of a dangerous moneyed monopoly, and who will not permit pecuniary considerations to control their judgments and actions on a question involving the prosperity of our free institutions.

Subsequently to the period when these resolutions were adopted, I have received information, on which I can rely with certainty, that confidence is again in a great measure restored; the different kinds of produce rapidly rising in value; that wheat, the staple production of that section of country, was selling at eig eighty-seven and a half cents bushel, and that a farther advance was warranted by the price of flour in the city of New York; that the large amount of business doing on the canals justified the belief that the toll this season will exceed that of any former

year.

a

The citizens of New York, having recovered from the pecuniary embarrassment under which they labored for a short period, will now have leisure calmly to examine into the cause of the pressure. If, upon that examination,

felt that prices would not fall, and the hope that they might advance, combined, with various other ordinary considerations, to keep it from market, till a cause new to all, not foreseen by your memorialists, and to them as disastrous as it was unexpected, reached and filled with dismay, as industrious, as enterprising, and as sound a population as can be found within these United States. They have not, as you see, Mr. Speaker, made haste to complain; there is nothing of the boisterous, bustling politician in the habits of these memorialists; they are not of the clamorous, noisy school. Satisfy these men that this sacrifice of their property, this blast upon their hopes, is due to the safety, the honor, the well-being of the nation, and, my word for it, sir, you would have no complaining from the valley of the Genesec. But they lack this satisfaction; they have not this support; they do not thus believe. Their own good sense, applied to the facts laid before them, has produced a deep, and, as I most solemnly believe, a well-founded conviction, that an unnecessary, an illegal, and a most unfortunate executive movement occasioned their difficulties, and that a mistaken and unfeeling pertinacity seems likely to continue and increase them. They respectfully ask Congress, "as that branch of Government intrusted, by the constitution, with the control of the currency of the country," to interpose, in some way, to relieve their "present embarrassments and their gloomy anticipations." They suggest, as an act of justice, the immediate restoration of the deposites; and, as the most promising remedy for the evils which exist, the renewal, for a shorter or a longer period, of the charter of the United States Bank; but these suggestions are not extorted by the fear of bank frowns, or bought up by the hope of bank facilities. These memorialists are not within the range of either. They view a bank, as they view the other necessary and appropriate institutions of this Government, to be created or not, continued or discontinued, modified and moulded, as the best interests of the country, and the whole country, require. It is not their individual pecuniary inter

they shall become satisfied, as I believe they will, that it est, however obnoxious they may have rendered them.

was produced solely for the purpose of effecting a recharter of the United States Bank, that institution, with its leading political friends, who have used it for party purposes, will receive the unanimous condemnation of an indignant and injured people.

The memorial was referred.

GENESEE (N. Y.) MEMORIAL.

Mr. P. C. FULLER presented the proceedings of a meeting held at Genesee, in the county of Livingston, and State of New York, together with a memorial, VOL. X.-248

selves to the general charge of being under corrupting influences, which they consult. They are from seventy to a hundred miles from its nearest branch; and I do not believe that eighteen men, or even half the number, out of the eighteen hundred who have placed their names here, ever owed the bank a dollar, or ever received a direct favor from it in any way. They derive, in common with their fellow-citizens, a conveniency from the currency it furnishes; they perceive and appreciate its usefulness, in many and various forms; they are of opinion that, in the absence of all commanding and sufficient reaH. OF R.]

Onondaga county (N. Y.) Memorial.

[MAY 5, 1834.

sons, it has been harshly pursued and its rights invaded. The meeting which adopted these resolutions was held They pretend not to decide whether it has, in all instan- at a favorable time to pronounce a just judgment upon ces, been managed in the best possible manner; they are, the topics which they had met to deliberate upon. It doubtless, aware that important alterations have become was not suddenly called together under the influence of necessary in the laws which should govern it; but they a panic, which had been excited throughout the whole do not perceive the appalling dangers to freedom and country, promoted and urged on by certain presses, poour liberties which are said to be necessarily involved in litical partisans, and interested individuals, and which, to the operations of a United States Bank; nor can they say the least, was not diminished by those speeches which discern any proper connexion, or any just proportion, were distributed through the country, in which imagination between the offences charged upon the present bank, had depicted, in glowing colors, the wide-spread ruin and the tremendous punishment inflicted, by way of and distress which was to come upon the people, and remedy, upon an unsuspecting, a patriotic, but an abused which was charged, in advance, to the policy of the a community.

The memorial was referred.

ONONDAGA CO. (N. Y.) MEMORIAL.

Mr. TAYLOR presented a memorial from a large and respectable meeting of the citizens of Onondaga county, New York, approving of the course of the Government in relation to the United States Bank.

In presenting the above, Mr. T. addressed the Chair

as follows:

ministration. I say, sir, this meeting was not sudderle called under such circumstances. They had waited, deliberated, witnessed the panic, felt the pressure, and carefully investigated the cause; and then, sir, they assembled to give an expression of opinion thus maturely and delib. erately formed. This meeting was also called immediately after the elections had been held in the several towns of the county, at which the people had indicated their political sentiments by electing town officers friendly to the administration, in fourteen out of seventeen towna of which the county is composed: and in perhaps every

Mr. Speaker: I have received, and am requested to present to this House, the proceedings and resolutions of town resolutions had been passed by the people, expressa meeting held in the county of Onondaga, New York, ing their views upon the political questions of the day. chiefly relating to those important political questions It was, sir, under such favorable circumstances for form which have long occupied the time and attention of Con- ing a correct judgment, and of knowing public sentiment, gress, and which have agitated the public mind through that the republicans of the county of Onondaga ct out the whole country. I do not say, sir, a meeting com-vened and adopted these resolutions, as the deliberate posed of all political parties, as has been frequently as- sense, not only of that meeting, which was largely at serted here of other meetings called for similar purposes, tended, but also of a majority, a respectable majority though I apprehend of not less distinctive political char- the people of the county, as was evident from the rece acter, but a meeting of the friends of the administration, elections. And, sir, instead of that change of politica of such as belong to a political party, a party uniformly sentiment which is said to have taken place in the publi known and distinguished as the republican party. In mind, we find them reiterating the opinions which they presenting these resolutions, I trust I shall be indulged in have expressed on former occasions, approving the policy a few brief remarks as to the population and business of of this administration, and particularly as relates to thi this county, the circumstances under which the meeting United States Bank. And in reference to the removal o was called, and the character of the resolutions.

Leave being granted by the House,

the Government deposites from the bank, believing tha the curtailment of its discounts which was in rapid pr

Mr. T. proceeded: The county of Onondaga con- gress, if with the view of winding up its affairs at the extained, at the last census, a population of 58,974, proba- piration of its charter, rendered the deposites useless bly at this time more than 60,000. It is an agricultural, the bank, and advantageous to the local institutions in all and particularly a wheat-growing county. It is, also, to fording the necessary accommodations to the public; o some extent, a manufacturing county, in which are situ- if with the view of oppressing the people, and coercia ated several cotton and woollen factories, flour mills, and a compliance with its wishes, the deposites ought not t a variety of other manufacturing establishments, besides remain in the hands of an institution with such danger the extensive salt-works at Salina, where are manufac- power, and alarming designs upon the interests and inde tured annually more than a million and a half bushels of pendence of the people-designs rendered the mors salt, being more than one-third of all the salt manufac- certain by subsequent events-they have resolved, tured in the United States. It will readily be seen that the removal of the Government deposites from the Unite this, together with the mercantile transactions for such a States Bank was dictated by a wise forecaste of event business and population, and the purchase of the produce rendering such a measure necessary."

of that section of country on the line of the canal that They have observed, sir, the general policy of this a extends through the county, must require a large amount ministration; the vigilant care with which the Executiv of capital. This statement, sir, is made only for the pur- has endeavored to guard the constitution from encroach pose of showing that such a population and business must ments; and the example of moral courage displayed necessarily be affected by any causes deranging or mate- his endeavors, on the one hand, to preserve the Unc rially affecting the inoneyed affairs of the country.

from the disorganizing effects of that construction of

It has, sir, been common for gentlemen, when present-federal compact which finds in the sovereign power st ing memorials or resolutions of meetings, to speak of the "reserved right" of any one State, "the rightful rem intelligence and patriotism of their constituents; but, sir, edy" for what a majority of its citizens might deem an my constituents require of me no compliment of this sort. unconstitutional law; and, on the other, to prevent the Like the people of other sections of the country, they dangerous effects of that liberal construction which, t very well understand the bearing and effects upon their implication, would concentrate all power in the hands own interests, the permanent interests of their country, the Federal Government. And, notwithstanding, sir, and its political institutions, of any measure of Govern- has been denounced both here and elsewhere for the par ment, or of any power seeking an extraneous influence he has taken relative to the recent disposal of the Got over the action of the Government, or the interests and ernment deposites, as having usurped authority and vio liberties of the people; and I trust, sir, they have pa- lated law, and the free use of the terms despot, tyratt triotism enough to resist any such influence, by proper usurper, &c., they have not been able to discover that means, even should it require a temporary sacrifice of in the removal of a Secretary of the Treasury who d individual interest or convenience. fered with the President on a prominent measure of tu