Sir, let me say to you, and through you to the profligate minions of power, the drudging slaves of the palace, and to the haughty and imperious lord of that palace at their head, that this wealth of the people, is their own. It was earned by their toil, preserved by their economy, and will be secured by their vigilance and valor. One of the eldest curses of God, is on him who removes his neighbor's landmark; and next to him, in execrable delinquency, is he who, without warrant of law, turns back the key, or breaks the lock, and thrusts his hand into his neighbor's coffers. Do not pretend to gull the working-men of America and who does not work here, unless it be he who is fed by Executive patronage ?-by telling them that their own wealth, managed by their own agents, will, unless it be preserved by Executive usurpation, subvert and destroy their liberty.

Sir, these moneyed institutions, with the Bank of the United States at the head of them, regulating all the issues of Bank notes, and keeping the paper currency of the country at a par with gold and silver, and with the currency of other countries, were established by the people, in aid of their own reserved power, and right to work for themselves, and for their own individual emolument. These moneyed institutions put in motion, and render productive, the whole labor of the people, by land and by sea.

Do you hear the sound of the axe, see the forests fall around, and the clearing extended over new regions? It is the money of these institutions, which gave the first blow. Is the plough in motion on a thousand fields, and carrying culture to the very hill tops of your country? This money of the people, sharpens the share, and feeds and invigorates the team. Do the sounds of your spindles and looms, make music with the sound of your waterfalls; and are your fabrics sent into all parts of our country, and to foreign nations? The treasure, gathered and laid up by the people in these their moneyed establishments, was the great agent, moving all this machinery. Are the saw and the hammer, heard over the whole country, building workshops, warehouses, mansions, temples, villages, and cities? What but this store of wealth, collected and laid up, by the labor and economy of the people, in the banking establishments of our country, has called into activity the skill and the strength of mechanical labor, and thereby ornamented, as if by enchantment, the whole face of our country? What sea is left unvexed, by the oars or the keels of your fisheries or commerce ? Sir, not a line is drawn; not a harpoon thrown; not an oar blade glitters in the sun; nor a sail whitens above the wave, without that invigorating current of vitality, the money of our country, which, feeding and sustaining every department of labor, puts it all into animated and productive motion; and which, for that great purpose, has, in former years, by so much toil, care, and economy, been earned, saved, and secured in your banking system-that great vital organ, propelling and circulating this life-blood of human industry, throughout every member and limb, of the whole vast and gigantic body of your national labor.

Yes, Sir, you did see or hear, by land or by sea, the movements of the axe, the saw, the hammer, the spindle, the loom, the oar, the sail; and all put into motion, and productive efficiency, by this great system established by the people. You did see all these, in a most healthy, and active, and prosperous condition, until the ruthless hand of unlicensed power, struck at the very heart of that athletic, and vigorous system; and drew out that blood of life, which has left the arm of labor too feeble to be lifted up, and the whole body tottering, falling, and ready to perish.

Sir, in what nation on earth, was ever such a ruthless conflict? It is a war of the Executive, at the head of his army of office-holding minions and parasites, against the people, in their most vital and sacred interests: those money interests, by which the people sustain, and conduct those very labors, which furnish the revenues of the nation, and support the Government. This revenue was once small, two or three millions at most. It has since, in some years, arisen as high as thirty-six millions. We are told it will be, this year, thirty-two millions.

From this revenue, drawn from the labors of the people, this Executive and his host of officers, receive their salaries. They are literally fed, clothed, and sheltered, by the labors of that very people whom they are thus fighting to destroy. What an unnatural war! "It is as if this mouth should tear this hand for lifting food to it."

The revenue of the nation is, I repeat, drawn from the labors of the people. By the Constitution, the people have given to Congress the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; for the purpose of paying the public debt, providing for the common defence, and promoting the general welfare of the United States. The revenue raised, by these provisions, has been levied by laws enacted by Congress; it has, until last October, been kept by laws enacted by Congress, appropriating that revenue, according to the provisions of the Constitution, to the great national purposes for which it was paid into the public coffers, by the people. This revenue, so paid into their treasury, by the people, constitutes, and is, the money power of the nation; the great source of vitality and efficient action, in all parts of the great commonwealth of our country.

Sir, there has been, during the last four or five years, a great effort, a continued labor and struggle, made by the Chief Magistrate of the United States, to bring into his own control this money power of the nation; and thereby to unite, in his own hands, this overwhelming power, with the political power, vested in him by the Constitution. Permit me, Sir, in examining the question under debate, to consider the legal and Constitutional provisions, made to prevent the union of these two powers, in the hands of one man; the efforts made by the Executive, to abolish these provisions; the ultimate political purposes of these Executive efforts; and, last of all, the condition of our country, if those political purposes should be established. From these several points of view, may be made all the observations and remarks, needful for me to make, on the Secretary's reasons, on the Resolution before us, or on the amendment of it sent up to the Chair by me.

By the wisdom of those men who framed our Constitution, and established the present form of government, these two powers were separated. For they well knew, that, if the political power, and the money power of our country, should ever be grasped, and wielded, by one and the same man, the Constitution and the laws, and the liberties of the people, would be swallowed up and lost in his power; and, whether the administration of that man might be mild and merciful, or, as it is now, outrageous and cruel, it must, and it would be a despotism.

To establish and secure this separation, the Constitution, at the third section of the fourth article, vested in Congress the money power, by the following words: "Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property belonging to the United States."

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These words comprehend all the property owned by the people of the United States, as a nation, or community. The treasure, the public money, the money power, if it be property, and if it belong to the United States, the power not only " to make all needful rules and regulations"-that is, to enact laws, all needful laws, concerning that treasure; but also the power " to dispose of it," is vested in Congress. This power, then, comprehends not only the legisla. tive power over this treasure, given by the words, "to make all needful rules and regulations;" but also somewhat more than that legislative power; and whatever is intended by the words, "to dispose of" that treasure, is vested in Congress. Now, Sir, what is, in common or legal language, meant or intended by the words "to dispose of," when applied to lands and tenements, goods and chattels? You make, to your agent, a deed of attorney, by which you empower him "to dispose of" all your property, in France or England. Is he not your trustee; and do you not empower him to terminate, and take up all your relations of ownership, to any thing in which you may have property, in France or England ? Will there be any thing remaining to be done, concerning that property, which will render it necessary for you to constitute another agent, before all your property, in those countries, can be, for a suitable consideration, changed from your ownership to that of some other person; and the proceeds brought over, and paid over into your hands? If a man make his last will and testament, and thereby empowers his executors " to dispose of" all his lands and other property, for the purposes set forth in that last will and testament; will any thing be left for any other person to do, in this matter, after the executors shall so have "disposed of" such lands, and other property? If a power to dispose of your property, in France or England, vests in your agent the power to do all, which you could, in that respect, do with such property; and a power, given to executors, by the testator, to dispose of his lands, and other property, vests in such executors the power to do all with those lands, and other property, which the testator himself could have done, while in full life, for the same purposes; then, a power, vested by the people in Congress " to dispose of" their treasure, their public money, does vest in Congress all the power to do with that treasure whatever the people themselves, if it were practicable for them to act, could do with it, for the purposes for which that power

was so vested in Congress. The power "to dispose of" property, therefore, means the power to do with it all, which can, under all existing relations of that property to all concerned in it, be done with or concerning it. This power " to dispose of," to do all with property, when vested in one person, does necessarily exclude all other persons from any power to do any thing with or concerning such property. If, therefore, Congress have all the power "to dispose of" the treasure of the nation, no other department of the Government can have any power " to dispose of " that treasure. If this power be, as it most certainly is, given to Congress, expressly, by so many words, in the Constitution, then is it most absurd to say, that the same power, to dispose of this treasure, this money power of the people, can, by any implication whatever, be given to the President. If, by the power "to dispose of" this treasure, be intended the power to do concerning it all things whatever which can be done with it, from the time when it goes out of the pockets of the people, and begins to be the treasure of the nation; until it ceases to be the public treasure, and is disbursed, or paid away to all those persons, either employed in the public service, or entitled to receive it as public creditors, according to the purposes for which it was first levied and collected; and if, by the Constitution, this whole power be vested in Congress; then, all persons employed in the collection, in the keeping, or in the disbursing, and paying out this treasure, are, and must be, the agents of Congress; and constituted and appointed, no matter by whom, to aid and assist them "to dispose of" this treasure; and are, and must be, accountable to them, and to them alone, for the diligence and fidelity wherewith they do and perform this service. According to this great principle, and to the provisions of the Constitution, that law was enacted, by which the Treasury Department was established. For that purpose, this Department was, by the law establishing it, made independent of the Executive branch of the Government. This law was approved on the 2d day of September, 1789. It was the twelfth enactment made by that illustrious Congress which organized and put into operation, our present form of Government. It was enacted upon the highest and most deliberate consideration; and was one of the seventy-four laws, the formation and establishment of which employed the most distinguished men of this nation, during that laborious and protracted session from the fourth day of