H. OF R.] Philadelphia Councils' Memorial. [APRIL 7, 1834. The memorials were then read, ordered to be printed, of the tide waters of the Hudson, and at the termination | depend, and presented a clear and candid review of the of the great inland communication which connects the whole subject. Western country with the seaboard. They are the depositories of the vast products of the western and north-and laid on the table. ern districts of New York, Vermont, Ohio, and of the Lakes. They supply them with merchandise, and purchase their produce. The commerce is immense; that of the city of Albany is greater than any inland town in the United States. PHILADELPHIA COUNCILS' MEMORIAL. Mr. BINNEY presented a memorial of the citizens of the city of Philadelphia, in Select and Common Councils assembled, praying Congress to apply a corrective to The memorialists inform us that the sources of their the disastrous condition of affairs throughout the counformer prosperous trade have been cut off; that the try, and stating their opinion that the only adequate cornegotiations and arrangements heretofore made, prepara-rective was in a recharter of the Bank of the United tory to the spring business, have been interrupted; that States, and a restoration of the former relations between the deposites of the productions of the interior along the the Government and the bank. He said that, in presentgreat channel of trade, at the various points from which ing this memorial, he should adhere to the rule, by giving they are sent to market, are not exhibited as formerly; the character of the body from which it proceeded, and that prices have greatly declined; that wheat, flour, pro- a brief statement of its contents. The Select and Com. visions and lumber, their great staples, cannot be sold, mon Councils, by whose committee the document was except at ruinous sacrifices; and they attribute these dif-handed to him to present, were the Legislature of the ficulties to the course pursued by the executive department of this Government relative to the public deposites, and the unusual and unnecessary hostility manifested, by that department, to the Bank of the United States, with out waiting the action of Congress upon the subject. Corporation of Philadelphia, which had now existed since the first year of the last century. It consisted of two bodies, one annually elected, and the other formed upon an analogy to the Senate of Pennsylvania and to that of the United States, and partially renewed by elections They say a national currency, created and sustained by each year. Its legislative powers were very extensive, a national bank, is essential to the business of the coun- comprehending the whole subject of police, and city im try; that the interchange of commodities between differ-provement, and regulating, for the purposes of public ent sections, with a corresponding interchange of pay- charity as well as for municipal expenditure, a vast ments, cannot be accomplished by means of local bank amount of property, real and personal. Both the bodies paper; that local banks cannot give a general circulation. were composed of men representing every profession and Upon the information of these memorialists confidence interest in the city, and who might be presumed to express may be placed. It is not often that we receive a petition with perfect accuracy the prevailing judgment upon the from the city of Albany, upon any subject. The pros- causes, effects, and remedies, of the present distress. It perous operation of their business, the rapid increase of was to the management of the city concerns by those the trade, population, and property of that city, has bodies, that so much of its late prosperity was to be atconfined the attention of her citizens at home. Nothing tributed. These Councils presented their memorials in but great public necessity, great losses and suffering, two capacities: first, as superintendents of the general great impending danger, not only to the business but to welfare of that community, and, secondly, as the trustees the laws and constitution of the country, would have in- of large funds devoted to charity, and to the improve duced her citizens to come forward and lay their griev-ment of the city. In the character first adverted to, he ances before this House. The movement has been slow, but it has been powerful; and this House, if they do not now know, will learn, that the representations, from the city of Albany, of the decided character here exhibited, afford an accurate index of the opinions of the people in the interior of New York. could make no summary of their representation of existing evils more effectual or more brief, than that which was given in a paragraph of their own memorial. It stated that- "From the date of the removal of the deposites, the scene of public prosperity had rapidly changed. Foreign This memerial may be considered not only important, commerce had nearly ceased: internal trade had been as coming from so large a portion of our fellow-citizens, ruinously diminished by the derangement of the currency but it is also important in another view. When we call and the loss of confidence. The loom of the manufactu to mind that this memorial succeeded the action of the rer was idle--the builder paused in the midst of his en Legislature of the State upon the same subject; when we terprise, and the mechanic and the laborer were left in call to mind that it was followed, within five or six days, active; while the want of labor and its customary reward by a recommendation, from the Governor of New York, left the philanthropist just reason to fear for the moral, to the Legislature, to raise, upon the security of the as well as the fiscal and physical condition of the people." State, five millions of dollars, to relieve the people from In their character as trustees, that corporation held the the distress in which the country has been involved by largest estate that private industry and enterprise had the action of a branch of this Government, we may rest ever accumulated in the United States, and devoted to assured that it is of no ordinary importance, and that it is the public good--the estate of the late Stephen Girard. looked upon in that light at home. The memorialists en- It also held upon trust, for the relief of the indigent lame joy the confidence of the people in the interior; their and blind, the accumulations, not so large, but still very statement will be relied upon, not only as accurate in fact, considerable, of another life of industry, which Mr. Willes but in conclusion. had, with equal munificence, bestowed upon the afflictIt is not to be understood that the memorial indicates a ed. It held also in trust for those from whom it had borchange of opinion as to the necessity of a national cur- rowed money for public improvement, a large sinking rency and a national bank. The State has no hostility fund, destined by the wisest fiscal provision to relieve the to a bank, properly organized and controlled; were it city from debt. The fact which the memorial stated in in order to refer to a paper, it would show the opinions regard to the loss sustained by a portion of these interests, of many leading politicians. This State fully under-the Girard stocks, and the sinking fund, since the re stands the advantage which is to be derived from a well-moval of the public deposites, was a volume in itself, and regulated national paper currency. would furnish some measure of the general and universal In conclusion, Mr. S. remarked that, although the me- loss proceeding from the same cause. morial was very long, he would move to have it read; it that these trusts had lost, in the fall of stocks since the was prepared by those upon whose intelligence we might 1st of October last, a sum exceeding three hundred That fact was, APRIL 7, 1834.] Philadelphia Councils' Memorial. H. of R. thousand dollars. The loss on real estates, rents, and upon the currency of the country, and express their deother sources of revenue, was not particularized. It cided conviction that those "experiments" are detrimenwould probably be found to be equally or more extensive. tal to its best interests-contrary to the spirit and letter Mr. B. said that he would add this testimony to the mass of the constitution, and dangerous to the liberties of the which had accumulated on the table of the House; and people. They deprecate the adoption of this rash and illthe effect of which he trusted would ultimately show, that advised measure, as bearing, with peculiar hardship, upthe resolutions adopted on Friday last, were not definitive, but would yield to the increasing evidence that they were opposed to the interests of the country. He moved that the memorial should be read, laid on the table, and printed. on the interests of our State, which stands pledged to carry out its great scheme of internal improvements, and also to sustain its credit at home and abroad. They assert that, in the contract between the Government and the bank, they recognise the right of the bank to protest against such official acts, whether originating from the President of the United States, or his Secretary of the Treasury, tending to deprive said bank of the custody of the public moneys, for which the bank has paid a valuable consideration. Mr. MCKENNAN rose and said: Mr. Speaker, I beg leave to present the proceedings of a meeting held among my constituents on the all-absorbing topic which has engaged the attention of the House for some time past, and is now agitating the nation, and, in doing so, intend to confine myself strictly within the spirit and meaning of They express the opinion that Congress is and should the rule which has been properly adopted in reference to be considered the guardian of the public treasury, and the presentation of memorials. It will not be considered that, when the President or any of his subordinates interimproper in me to state that the county of Washington, fere with that guardianship, they commit an act which is in which this meeting was held, is one of the largest and not sanctioned by even the color of law. most populous counties in the State of Pennsylvania. Of They give their opinion that the bank has done no act itself, it constitutes a congressional district, and its inhabi- warranting the withdrawal of the deposites, and affirm tants, I venture to affirm, in point of industry, economy, that, consequently, the reasons of the Secretary of the enterprise, intelligence, and morality, will not suffer in Treasury are unsatisfactory and insufficient. comparison with the inhabitants of any other district in They entertain the opinion, and so express themselves, the Union. In that district there are no very large manu- that the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized by the facturing establishments. Its inhabitants are principally charter to withdraw the deposites from the vaults of the agriculturists, engaged in the raising of grain and the grow-bank, in case they were unsafe, but not otherwise, and ing of wool, which latter article has become one of the that, inasmuch as such pretence is not even set up, they great staples, and the principal item in the active wealth of consider the removal of the deposites as illegal and unjusthe county. tifiable.. They condemn the act with reference to the time when it was done, just on the eve of the meeting of the representatives of the people, who are presumed to be acquainted with the wishes of their constituents, and who are the constitutional guardians of the public purse. I am justified in saying that the meeting from which those proceedings emanated was one of the largest political meetings ever convened in the county, It was composed of persons of the first respectability, and of all trades, professions, and callings--of merchants, mechanics, professional men, and farmers--of all political parties, They recognise in the charter of the bank a contract Jackson men, national republicans, and anti-masons. In between the people, through their delegates in Congress, the chairman of the meeting, I recognise the name of a and the stockholders, and assert that it is a usurpation gentleman who, although not a vociferous politician, is one of legislative power in the Executive to interfere with of the most firm and decided friends of the present ad- or modify the nature of that contract against the consent ministration, and my information is, that many others of of the contracting parties; and that the President, in removthe same political complexion were there. It was, sir, em- ing the deposites, with the avowed purpose of compelling phatically a meeting of the people. I have undertaken to the bank to close its concerns before the time stipulated state the fact, that friends of the administration par- in the contract, is a usurpation of the powers of the Leticipated in the proceed ngs of the meeting, not because gislative branch of the Government, and an infringement I believe that the representatives of the people ought not of the chartered rights of the bank. to lend a listening ear to the complaints and the views of citizens of the country, to whatever party they may be long, but merely to satisfy the House that there is a spirit abroad in the land which party trammels cannot confine and cannot suppress. A suffering people will speak out. Having said thus much as to the character and political complexion of the persons who composed the meeting, I now beg leave briefly to give to the House the substance They assert that the "experiment" of substituting of the views and sentiments expressed in their resolves. State banks for a national bank, as fiscal agents, has sig Before doing this, it may be proper to say, that they donally failed; and give their opinion, that the plan pronot complain of present severe distress. The time for the posed as part of the experiment which is to be tried upsale of their principal staple commodity has not yet arri- on the people, of substituting a specie currency for a paved, and they will not feel, in its deepest severity, the injurious effects of the policy of the Government for some months; and although they have already suffered much in the reduction of the prices of their agricultural products, and in the stagnation of business, still they come forward, not so much to complain of distress and suffering, as to raise their voices against what they conceive to be a usurpation of power on behalf of the Executive, and a trampling under foot of the constitution and laws of the country. In the first place, they solemnly and strongly protest against the policy of the General Government, so far as that policy has been developed, in recent experiments They pay a merited compliment to the firmness and integrity of the late Secretary of the Treasury, and condemn the conduct of the Executive in removing him from office for refusing to violate the trust specially committed to his care by act of Congress-a trust which he was bound to execute to the best of his ability, and according to his convictions of right. per one based upon specie, is visionary, and, if carried out, will prove destructive to the prosperity and fiscal operations of the nation. They insist that the plighted faith of the Government demands that the deposites should be forthwith restored, and that, until this is done, all other schemes of relief, unaccompanied with this, will be worse than useless. They express a confident belief that the President has it in his power to restore an unhappy country to her former state of peace and prosperity, and urge, that to do an act that would relieve his fellow-citizens from the horrors of bankruptcy, and the country, which has so often exhibited its devotion to him, from wide-spread ruin, H. OF R.] Memorials respecting the Public Deposites. [APRIL 7, 1834. would be the deed of the patriot; and that the reflection that the United States Bank may not be rechartered and arising from the execution of such duty, should be more that the public deposites may not be restored, and denygrateful to his feelings than the sounding fame, even ing the existence of great distress in that neighborhood. when acquired as a soldier or statesman, upon a thousand The language of the memorial was respectful. It was fields of renown. signed chiefly by farmers, mechanics, and laborers, the Finally, they pronounce the allegation that the Bank of yeomanry of Berks county, men distinguished for the mothe United States has acted improperly and oppressively rality of their habits, and their attachment to the institu in contracting her accomodations, unjust, unfounded, and tions of the country. Their opinions were entitled to redisingenuous, as is clear from the fact that she has not spect at home, and throughout the State, because they withdrawn any thing like an amount equal to what has speak a united and powerful voice through the ballot-box, been abstracted from her vaults. and he hoped they would be respected here, for here the Thus I have given the substance of the resolutions opinion of every citizen was entitled to respect, whether passed by my constituents, which breathe the spirit of free-federal or democrat, bank or anti-bank. He asked the men, and of men alive to the best interests of their country. reading of one of the memorials. I have only to add, that I respond most heartily to the sentiments which they have thus fearlessly and ably avowed, and ask that they be laid upon the table and printed. The memorial was read, ordered to be printed, and laid on the table. The memorials were read, ordered to be printed with the names, and laid on the table. CHESTER COUNTY (PA.) MEMORIAL. Mr. POTTS, addressing the Chair, said he had in his hand twenty-three memorials, signed by sixteen hundred citizens of Chester county, Pennsylvania, in relation to the removal of the public deposites and the recharter of the Bank of the United States. NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY (PA.) MEMORIAL. Mr. ANTHONY presented the memorial of 1,118 citizens of the county of Northumberland, Pennsylvania, approving of the course pursued by the administration in The county of Chester (said Mr. P.) as is doubtless removing the Government deposites from the Bank of well known to every gentleman on this floor, is among the United States, and remarked, that the memorialists the largest and most populous counties of the State of were principally the farmers, the mechanics, and yeoman- Pennsylvania. Possessing a soil, for the most part of ry of the county; that they were among the most honest, great natural fertility, highly improved by good cultiva enterprising, and respectable portion of his constituents; tion, and, although embracing within its limits various that it embraced only a part of the county, and he had manufacturing establishments of iron, cotton, &c., yet it understood that others of similar tenor had been transmit-is mainly an agricultural county; its citizens are princi ted, which were not yet received. He was pleased to ly farmers, practical, independent farmers; men who observe, among the petitioners, the honorable gentle-cultivate their own lands with their own hands. And man's name, who, as his predecessor, had occupied a widely, sir, as it is known for its excellent husbandry, it seat two years on this floor, and many other gentlemen is not less extensively so for the industry, enterprise, with whom he had a personal acquaintance, and felt high-public spirit, and intelligence of its citizens. These me ly gratified that they had recommended the propriety of morials, Mr. Speaker, bear the names of a class of peo the course that had been pursued last Friday by a majori-ple who come befor you, not as Jackson men, nor antity of the House; that although they were not versed in Jackson men, but under the more appropriate title of previous questions," yet their language was, that they freemen. They are not party men, they have no party desired a speedy decision of the question, and prayed purposes to answer. Their object is higher, purer, noCongress not to grant a restoration of the deposites. Af- bler. It is to vindicate the constitution and laws of their ter stating that his constituents viewed with surprise and country. They see in the manner in which the Presi indignation the conduct of the United States Bank, and dent had directed the removal of the public treasures believed that the present pecuniary embarrassment of the country was caused by that institution, he moved that the memorial be read, laid on the table, and printed; which was agreed to. from the custody where the law had placed them, a vio lation of the constitution and the law. They see, sir, by that act, that one of the main defences which the wis dom of their forefathers had thrown around liberty, to guard it from the encroachments of power, has been broken down; and, alarmed for the consequences that must ensue, they come here, sir, and in the respectful but decided language which it befits freemen to use to their representatives, they demand the restoration of the public money's to their proper depository, thereby giving to power the merited rebuke, and inculcating the wholeMr. A. observed that the petitioners were of the highest responsibility," who does it in defiance of the constitu some lesson, that that public officer assumes a fearful respectability and intelligence, and embraced his neigh-tion and the laws. We have, Mr. Speaker, approached bors and many of his intimate personal friends. They an alarming crisis in our affairs, andwere merchants, mechanics, professional men; some of them those who are ranked among that class of citizens from Pennsylvania would please confine himself strictly The SPEAKER here observed, that the gentleman who, in the language of Addison, "Iras et verba locant." to the rule, in stating merely the substance of the memo He said they complained of great pressure and embarrass-rials, as it was now a very late hour, and as there was a ment in the monetary concerns of the country; and re- large number of the States yet to be called. spectfully appeal to Congress for relief; that they ask for Mr. POTTS said that he did not wish to infringe the the restoration of the deposites and renewal of the charter rules of the House; that he had intended making some of the Bank of the United States, with such modifications further remarks, but would forbear, and, as the memeand amendments as experience may have suggested. Herials which he held in his hand were similar to some be moved that the petition be read, laid on the table, and fore presented by him to the House, and read and print printed. Agreed to. ed, he would only ask that these, without reading, be LYCOMING COUNTY (PA.) MEMORIAL. Mr. ANTHONY also presented the memorial of one hundred citizens of Muncy, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, in which they represent that the removal of the deposites from the Bank of the United States was imprudent, illegal, contrary to the spirit of the constitution of the United States, and disrespectful to Congress. BERKS COUNTY (PA.) MEMORIAL. Mr. MUHLENBERG presented memorials signed by 5,480 citizens of Berks county, in Pennsylvania, praying laid on the table. ADAMS COUNTY (PA.) MEMORIAL. APRIL 7, 1834.] Memorials respecting the Public Deposites. [H. OF R. ings of a meeting of the citizens of Adams county, in of all parties; not so here: those from a part of the county Pennsylvania, held at Gettysburg, on the 22d of March of Rockingham were unanimous-those from the county of last. Mr. M. said that the gentleman who had enclosed Shenandoah were opposed by one dissenting voice, to one the proceedings to him, authorized him to say that the of the resolutions, amidst the affirmative sanction of hunmeeting was large and respectable. He said he knew a dreds of its bold yeomanry. But, Mr. Speaker, this large number of the gentlemen himself, whose names appear- majority were of a particular party, they were of that ed in the proceedings, and knew them to be, not only re-party, and of that people and their descendants, who, in spectable, but intelligent. The proceedings are in rela- the days of the Revolution, fought against the British, the tion to the Bank of the United States, and the public de Indians, and the tories, and aided in establishing upon a posites. They are opposed to the recharter of that in- firm basis, the rights of our race. They were of that stitution, and approve of the measures of the adminis-party, who, under the auspices of Mr. Jefferson, effected tration in the removal of the public money from it. They the great civil revolution of 1800. They were of that have also referred to several political topics, not immedi-party who sustained the administration in the late war ately connected with legislation, but relating to a national made for the rights of our sailors, and the liberties of the convention, and the nomination of candidates for the first seas, and who did not then hold out false lights to the offices in the Government. On all of which subjects, enemies of our country, and who in more modern times, Mr. M. said they had expressed their sentiments so much have rallied under no banner but that of the Union. more fully, and so much better than he could, in any condensed remarks he might make, he would ask for their reading. The hour being late, the motion for reading was withdrawn, and the proceedings were ordered to be printed, and laid on the table YORK (PA.) MEMORIAL. Mr. BARNITZ presented the proceedings of a public meeting lately held in the county of York, Pennsylvania, at Wolf's, in West Manchester township, praying a restoration of the public deposites to the United States Bank, and a recharter of the bank. In presenting these proceedings, Mr. B. briefly stated that it was a meeting of a peculiar character, composed of respectable farmers, and others connected with the agricultural interests of the country, who, from their opportunities and situation, were well qualified to form correct opinions as to the present embarrassments, as well as the causes, and remedies for relief. They had a deep interest in the public prosperity; and, in engaging in these proceedings could have no other motives but such as regarded the welfare of the community. After briefly stating the general contents or the resolutions, he moved that they be printed and laid upon the table; which was agreed to. LEXINGTON (KY.) MEMORIAL. Mr. ALLAN, of Kentucky, presented the memorial of the citizens of Lexington and county of Fayette, against the removal of the deposites, &c. He said that, on the presentation of memorials, it had become customary in this House, and in the other, to speak of the character of the memorialists. If high character, intelligence, and experience, give weight to a memorial, then the one which he had the honor now to present ought to receive the most respectful consideration. It comes from the city of Lexington, a name associated in the revolutionary struggle with the first resistance to arbitrary power. The citizens of Lexington, in peace and in war, have ever maintained a character in accordance with all the associations of the name of their city. The inhabitants of a city, who adopted a name to honor the first resistance to despotism, now present themselves before Congress, to protest against usurpation. In looking over the names of these memorialists, I discover that all interests are fully represented: farmers, mechanics, merchants, and professional men, all unite. If long experience in the active pursuits of life enable men to judge truly of the causes of public prosperity and public distress, then he should repose great confidence in the opinions of these memorialists. These men have, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY (MD.) MEMORIAL. in a single age, built a large and flourishing city, and Mr. CARMICHAEL prensented certain proceedings in converted a wilderness into the most highly cultivated Prince George's county, with a memorial signed by 800 country that is to be found in America. A foreigner, to of the voters of that county, praying for the restoration of view their extensive pastures, their cultivated fields, their the deposites. He then went into an explanation of in- spacious mansions, the progress of the arts, the provisions structions he had received from 50 of his constitutions, for education, would believe that all these improvements The men and was going pretty much at large into a statement of had been the slow growth of a thousand years. facts, tending to show that the distress, represented by than has been accomplished in other countries in centuwho have done more in the short term of their own lives the memorialists, had no existence, when he was restrain ed by the Chair. He concluded by stating that the me-ries, after having had full experience in all kinds of curmorial prayed for a restoration, retroactive as well as rency, now tell you that this great nation cannot get along prospective, of the public deposites to the United States upon the basis of a State bank note currency. That a Bank, but did not ask the recharter of the bank. ROCKINGHAM AND SHENANDOAH (VA.) ME MORIALS. Mr. BEALE, from Rockingham and Shenandoah counties, presented memorials against the restoration of the deposites to the Bank of the United States. fixed standard of value is identified with the titles of property, the security of commerce, and the safety of labor. That the only means that ever has been discovered, by which the issues of the State banks could be restrained, and their notes regulated, is the agency of a national bank, established by the national Legislature, and under the government of national laws. These practical men, On presenting the above Mr. BEALE said: Mr. Speaker, guided by the light of experience, recommend that the I present you the resolutions of a people, who, in Virginia, national bank shall be rechartered. They give it as their in all the great struggles for political freedom, bave been opinion, that the taking of the public treasure out of the denominated the 10th legion of its democracy. Their res- custody of the legislative and transferring it to the execu olutions approve of the withdrawal of the public money tive department, was a dangerous violation of the constifrom the Bank of the United States, declare the unconstitution. They believe that the substitution of the State tutionality, illegality, and irresponsibility, of the Bank of banks, as the fiscal agents of the Treasury, will derange the United States, and as therefore dangerous under a the finances and jeopard the public treasure. Government of limited powers. The substance of what these memorialists pray for, is, It has been common upon the presentation of memorials 1st. That Congress will retain the power of regulating and resolutions here, to say that they come from persons the currency, and not surrender it to the State banks. H. OF R.] Memorials respecting the Public Deposites. [APRIL 7, 1834. 2d. That the affairs of the Treasury shall be administered taught and all experience proved to be most favorable to through the agency of a national bank, under the control the cultivation of that only true dignity of character, a of Congress, where the representatives of the people can modest yet manly independence of thought and action. see that their money is safe, and not scatter it through They inhabit the most fertile portion of the Miami valley, the Union in State banks, where it is not subject to the a district of country remarkable for its exuberant procontrol of Congress. 3d. That the public treasure shall duction of those heavy articles of subsistence that are not be taken from the use of the people of the United States, and given to the Eastern cities as a banking capital; and 4th. That the public treasure should be restored to the custody of the legislative department of the Government. every where regarded as necessaries of life. For these (the only subjects of export trade in that country) the memorialists have usually found markets through the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, in the South, and lately through the Ohio canals and the lakes, in the Northmarkets which have yielded an encouraging reward to their industry; I say, sir, their industry, for in that coun HARRISON COUNTY (0.) MEMORIAL. try almost every man engaged in agricultural pursuits Mr. LEAVITT rose and remarked that, two weeks wields his own sickle and scythe, and ploughs with alac since, he had presented to the House several memorials rity his own fields. I may say, without exaggeration, that from the county of Harrison, in the State of Ohio, signed they have a country and population that (if need should by about seventeen hundred persons, making known their be) could realize the boast of the better days of the Roopposition to the restoration of the deposites to the Bank man commonwealth, when "every rood of earth mainof the United States, and to the rechartering of that in- tained its man. Many of these memorialists came to stitution. He now held in his hand another memorial that country whilst the wandering and marauding Indian from the same county, but of an opposite character, which tribes held there a divided empire with the arts and enter it was his purpose presently to offer to the House. Be-prise of civilized life. They have lived, in half the length fore he did so, it became his duty to submit a motion for of years allotted to the life of man, to see the then unbro the printing of the names of the signers to the anti-bank ken forest disappear, and rich plantations, covered with memorials to which he had just referred as having been luxuriant crops, rise up in its place. The Bank of the presented by him on a former day. He would state, in United States has, for the last fifteen years, furnished a explanation of the reasons which governed him in making capital for their trade, and a currency which represented this motion, that, since the presentation of these memo- truly the exchangeable value of their property. This rials, he had been informed that charges and allegations currency, always as good as gold or silver coin, is now had been mutually made by one party against the other, rapidly disappearing, and the paper of State banks, hav in the county of Harrison, of unfairness in obtaining sig-ing an estimated value never equal to its nominal amount, natures to the memorials which had been respectively as rapidly taking its place. Experience, (that sure, but, circulated by them, and both parties had indicated a de- in these times, too much neglected teacher,) dearly sire that the names attached to the several memorials bought, almost fatal, experience, has taught them that should be printed. this last cannot subsist without some power stronger than charter stipulations to regulate and control it. In the present state of affairs they look with fearful anticipations to that ruinous condition in which the establishment of the United States Bank found them, and from which the excellent administration of its functions, as a regulator of currency, redeemed them. Without this institution, they expect to see again currencies of different values in different parts of the Union, with a difference of exchange operating, as it once did, as a tax, varying from two to ten per cent., on every article they buy from the Atlan tic cities. They expect to see State banks, all over the country, sinking into hopeless insolvency, leaving immense amounts of their paper worthless, in possession of those who have earned it with the labor of their own hands. They already feel the baneful influence of a deranged and vicious currency, in the depression of prices and WARREN COUNTY (0.) MEMORIAL. general stagnation of trade. They see in that paralysis which has benumbed the great mercantile cities of the Mr. CORWIN, on presenting a memorial of the citi-North and Southwest, the near and sure approach of ruin zens of Warren county, Ohio, praying the restoration to themselves-for they look to those great hearts of of the public deposites and a recharter of the United trade for the life-blood which is to nourish the industry States Bank, addressed the Chair as follows: and enterprise of that rich interior of which they are a Mr. A. moved that the memorial be printed; which was agreed to. Mr. L., having obtained leave for that purpose, then submitted a motion that the names upon the memorials formerly presented by him should be printed; which was accordingly ordered by the House. Mr. L. then said he was charged with the presentation of a memorial, said to be signed by about two thousand of the inhabitants of the county of Harrison, in favor of the restoration of the public deposites to the Bank of the United States, and the recharter of that institution; which, on motion of Mr. L., with the names attached, was ordered to be printed. Mr. L. also presented a memorial from the same county, signed by upwards of three hundred persons, against the restoration of the deposites, and against the rechartering of the Bank of the United States; which, together with the names, was ordered to be printed. Mr. Speaker: I ain charged with the presentation to part. this House of a memorial, signed by about two thousand These memorialists believe that the evils, present and of the inhabitants of a single county of the district I have prospective, of which they complain, are to be traced to the honor to represent. By reference to the names and the late act of the Secretary of the Treasury in withhold designations of occupations affixed to them, it will be ing the revenues of the country, the money of the people, seen that they are composed of farmers, merchants, and from the United States Bank, where it had been hereto a great variety of those engaged in mechanical pursuits. fore safely kept and usefully employed. They assert They are emigrants, or the descendants of emigrants, what is now conceded by all, that the money of the Gor from every State in the Union, and present in many re- ernment and people was safe in the custody of the United spects a faithful miniature picture of the manners, habits, States Bank, and fear that it is not so in the State banks tastes, and opinions, of the whole American population. that now have it. They insist that as the safety of the They are generally in that condition for which a pious public treasure in the United States Bank is not den ed and wise one of old so fervently prayed-they are neither and as the bank has performed faithfully the duties per rich nor poor, but in that happy medium between the taining to its fiscal agency, that the withdrawal from it o extremes of poverty and wealth which philosophy had the public deposites, is indefensible upon principles o |