have been frequent and great changes of opinion on the most important subjects. At one time the great body of the people of the South and West were opposed to a navy; but experience has corrected their error. Many of the most distinguished men have changed their opinions on the question of a national bank-Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe among others. Thirty years ago the people of the Eastern States were rather opposed to the manufacturing policy, the South and West for it; and now the East for it, and the South and West, or a great portion of them, against it. Let experience, the best of all teachers, learn us to act wisely, in relation to the existing crisis in our public affairs. Let us reason together with frankness, and in a spirit of patriotism, and with bosoms animated with no other feeling than the public good, apply such remedies to the disorders in the currency which experience has proved to be efficacious, and restore once more a healthy action to the body politic. Let us have no more new, untried nostrums. The brokers and shavers are now reaping a rich harvest from this ruinous condition of the currency, and the loss must ultimately fall on the laboring and industrious classes of the community. The vacillating and unstable policy of the Government has shaken the confidence of moneyed men, who are now hoarding their treasures because they are unable to calculate the results and consequences of the present state of things, afraid to lend or invest their money.

[H. or R.

President of this free people to imitate the example of kings and emperors a few centuries past, who hoarded up at the capital all the gold and silver they could extort or filch from their subjects, to carry on wars of ambition and conquest. Neither my pursuits nor reflections have led me to explore, with the eye of a profound financier, the monetary systems of the commercial world in all their ramifications and effects; but I believe I may venture to say that neither this nor any other people can long have more than their fair proportion of the gold and silver of the commercial nations. If we should be able to obtain an excess, so as to produce a pressure in other countries, that excess would soon leave us and return to places where it would be wanted; nor can bolts, or bars, or vaults, embargoes, prohibitions, pains or penalties, arrest the current estab lished by the laws of trade, which no power, the most despotic, had ever been able to control. The currency of Great Britain and France consisted of gold chiefly, and paper, with this difference, that in Great Britain the proportion of paper, in the form of bank notes, to gold, was greater than in France. With these countries we have more commerce than with any others. Our currency has generally consisted of silver chiefly, and paper in the form of bank notes, with a greater proportion of paper than in either Great Britain or France; and the specie must flow from those countries to this, and from this back, according to the laws of trade, regardless of any laws or regulations of either.

In this

Mr. Chairman, in exploring the causes of our present difficulties, I shall not go back to the removal of the deposites, but content myself with the recital of a few extracts in relation to this subject. There is no doubt that the extensive and extravagant speculations in the public lands, diverting twenty or thirty or forty millions of dollars from the ordinary channels of trade and business, may have had some influence. The unusual importation of gold from England and France may have produced a pressure for specie there, which, reacting on this country, produced a rapid return of it, and forced the banks, for self-preservation, to suspend specie payments. conflict and pressure in both countries, cotton fell, merchants failed, and a shock was given to confidence, credit, and business; and owing to the fall of cotton, with other causes, a large balance was created against us in favor of Europe. In this state of things, the Government, instead of denouncing the State banks, and threatening to crush them by destroying their credit and issuing commissions of bankruptcy, should, on account of the people, if not the banks, have exerted all their power and influence to sustain their credit and confidence in them and their paper, the only currency among the people.

Mr. Chairman, the farmers of the West, when they sell their stock or other products of their industry, want that sound, good currency to which they have been accustomed; and when they sent agents here to correct existing evils, they did not expect them to provide good money for themselves only, but for their masters-the great body of the people. This bill provides that no money shall be received for land, or at the custom-houses, but gold and silver. Twenty or thirty millions of gold and silver are to be drawn from the interior every year into the land offices, and to the large cities on the seaboard, where it is to remain until paid out to the public officers-to the navy, army, and for the public works; and I fear it will be slow in its march back to the interior States, where there will be little or no public expenditures. How the State banks can resume specie payments, or maintain specie payments under this operation, I must leave to better judges to decide. From five to ten millions must be generally locked up in the Government vaults, and withdrawn from circulation. To reconcile us to this experiment, we are told that we are to have a hard-money constitutional currency. I will not, by exploding paper money convertible into specie, and establishing an exclusive metallic medium, carry this nation back to a rude and half civilized age, before commerce, enterprise, and navigation had enlightened and civilized the nations; but will content myself with the facts and examples furnished by the most enlightened and powerful people of modern times, as the basis of my opin-munity, by encouraging creditors to refuse to take the loion and reasoning on this question. On a territory of no greater extent than Delaware or Rhode Island, or the city of New York or Philadelphia, a hard-money medium would be practicable, and a paper medium could be dispensed with. It can only suit a small territory, where the popu lation is dense, where it can be removed from place to place without much expense or hazard; but in this extensive country it must be evident, on a moment's reflection, that convenience and necessity require a paper representative of specie. Every traveller through this vast territory, with a moderate amount of the precious metals, would be exposed to hazard; the weight of his trunk or saddlebags would give notice, at every inu at which he stopped, of the amount of his treasure; and when large sums are to be transported to distant places, the peril and expense would be increased.

I will not, Mr. Chairman, by my vote, authorize the

The effort made to carry into effect, at this moment, the hard-money policy, and cast off the State banks, is calculated to have the most disastrous consequences on the com

cal currencies for their debts; to reduce the value of property, and unjustly change the relation of creditors and debtors. The Legislatures of the States may be driven to stop execution, unless the creditors will take paper, as has been done by Virginia at her last session. Mr. Chairman, we do not realize the dangerous consequences to result from the disordered condition of the monetary system. Derangement of the currency, loss of confidence and credit, is the hinge upon which many revolutions have turned in civilized countries. It is well known that the derangement of the finances, and destruction of public and private credit, was the immediate cause of that revolution in France which deluged that country with blood. At an early day an insurrection occurred in the State of Massachusetts; and in my own State, not more than ten or twelve years ago, after we had created numerous banks, the creditors and debtors had a most angry conflict; and, after relief

laws, judge-breaking, and a temporary war upon our judiciary, the people of that State were brought to the verge of civil war. On no condition of the State ought we to look with more deep concern than a disordered state of the monetary system. There are duties of more paramount obligation on the Congress of the United States, than to exercise all the powers granted them by the constitution, to restore a sound and healthy action to that currency which regulates the transactions of the people. To preserve union, establish justice, and insure domestic tranquillity, are among the leading objects of the federal compact.

[Oct. 12, 1837.

the nation. From the commencement of the Government, the national bank and State banks had lived in harmony and worked together for the good and prosperity of this rising nation. By their joint efforts spurious and fictitious banks had been kept under, and, during the existence of a national and good State banks, the people had been secure against a vicious national or local currency.

Mr. Chairman, if I was as jealous of men in power as a political man ought to be in this free Government, I should incline to believe that the plan has been long and deeply laid to destroy the present banking system of the nation, Mr. Chairman, another unmeaning and complex no- national and local, for the pupose of rearing up on its tion is to be presented to the nation to reconcile them ruins a great Government bank, to be wielded by those in to this new and dangerous project. They are to be power; yes, sir, to concentrate in the hands of the Execamused with the cant phrase, that Government ought utive not only the sword, but the great money power of to be divorced from the banks; and the people, who have this nation. The first bank to be destroyed was that of based all their transactions on the local banks and the cur- the United States; and, that accomplished, the next to be rency furnished by them, are to be abandoned to shift for sacrificed were State banks; and it might have been supthemselves, under the denunciation and slanders of the posed, from what occurred in 1814 and 1815, that they Government-that same Government that brought many would fall an easy prey from similar causes; and then a of these banks into existence, and assured the people they Government bank would seem to be a necessary result of were to be confided in, and that they would furnish a bet- the destruction of all others; for, sir, it has never been ter currency, and do the business of exchange on better imagined by the enlightened men of this country that the terms, or as good, and more extensively, than the Bank of fiscal and commercial business of the United States could the United States ever had. And this language was held be carried on over our extended territory, by an exclusive by the administration up to the 4th of March last, when metallic medium. Until lately, I was utterly at a loss to the late President, in his farewell address, only about eight conjecture the motive which induced the friends of the weeks before the banks all suspended specie payments, administration to oppose, with such zeal and violence of from causes to which I have briefly adverted, announced to denunciation, the charter of the late Bank of the United the nation that all was well in regard to our banks and States by the State of Pennsylvania; and what is most currency. If those placed by the people of this country extraordinary is, that a distinguished citizen of Pennsylat the head of public affairs, for their supposed wisdom and vania, now on a foreign mission, should have so lately adpatriotism, could not foresee the fatal catastrophe which vocated, in the public prints, the revolutionary course of was to occur in so short a time, how can they criminate annulling, in a convention, the solemn charters granted with such wanton and unfeeling cruelty the conduct of the by that State. The bank had ceased to exist as a nationbanks which had followed their counsels? For, sir, I have al institution; and why there should have been such hosnow before me the letter of Secretary Taney to the depostility to its incorporation by the State of Pennsylvania, I ite banks, after the removal of the deposites, in which he could not divine, until this sub-Treasury scheme was anexhorts the State banks to expand their issues, and to be nounced in the late message of the President. It is posliberal in their accommodations to the community. No sible that it was apprehended that a State bank of such sooner, however, had the shock been felt by the banks, magnitude, under State authority, might present some oband their doors closed, than the friends of the administra-stacle to the great destroyer of banks, and embarrass the tion became alarmed lest censure and reproach should fall on the administration, and "let slip the dogs of war" on the banks, in order to make them the scape-goats to bear off the sins and blunders of the administration..

Sir, how many of the deposite banks are insolvent, and how much is the Government likely to lose by them? I should like to have a candid answer to this question. I am sure that I have not been informed. If any are likely to prove insolvent, they ought to be designated. On the contrary, we are informed by the Secretary that the public money placed in them will be ultimately safe. Their whole crime, then, consists in having expanded their issues in conformity to the advice of the Secretary of the Treasury, and the approbation of the Government, and, under an unexpected revulsion in trade, and a pressure for specie, which the wisest men among us did not foresee, suspended specie payments. In this hour of difficulty and alarm, Mr. POPE said he would ask of every candid man whether the Government, after having nationalized these banks and their paper, were not bound in gratitude to their bank friends and the people to put forth all their strength and constitutional power to aid and sustain their credit and the confidence of the community in their paper ?

Mr. P. said he had not much sympathy for those banks which accepted the deposites at the time of their removal from the United States Bank, because they had been hired and seduced to embark their influence in a crusade against the national bank, which they will find, and ought to have known long since, is the best regulator of our paper system, and the great conservator of the sound State banks of

scheme under consideration, designed, if I am not greatly deceived, to lay the foundation of a great Treasury bank.

In looking at the past and present course of things, I am led back to the discussions, in the Virginia convention, of this constitution, between Patrick Henry, the first orator of ancient or modern times, and one who looked through the deeds of men, and the late Mr. Madison, among the most virtuous and enlightened statesmen in America. Mr. Madison could not believe that any President would remove a good officer without reasonable cause, and supposed that the powers of Government were so arranged and divided that there could be no undue or dangerous accumulation in any department. Mr. Henry, with prophetic vision, at the same time that he bestowed a merited eulogium on the virtues and intelligence of Mr. Madison, said, in emphatic terms, that, unfortunately for himself, and unfortunately for his country, he had been bred up in the dark closets of study, and knew nothing of mankind. Sir, said Mr. Henry, whatever others may think, however they may admire this constitution, to me it has an awful squinting towards monarchy. Mr. Henry had studied human nature thoroughly, and explored, with the eye of a wary stateman, all the secret springs of human actions, and foresaw, or thought he foresaw, a strong tendency in this Government, to concentrate too much strength in the Executive head, and predicted that at no distant day he would be more absolute in fact, if not in form, than any monarch on the British throne since the Revolution of 1688. Mr. Chairman, from what I have observed within a few years past, I fear Mr. Henry's predictions will be fulfilled, unless every man who thinks

this free system is worth preserving will stand forth and contribute his mite to check this tendency to prostrate all other departments at the feet of the Executive.

I know that many gentlemen calculate that this cant phrase of divorce of Government from banks is to carry them triumphantly through the pending struggle; but if they mount this petty, poor hobby, they will soon find themselves cast into insignificance. They rely too much on the credulity of the people, and underrate their intelligence. In prosperous times, when they feel no distress or suffering from the measures of the administration, they cannot be easily roused to resist error; but in times like the present, gentlemen may be assured that the whole intellect and energy of the people will be brought into action to vindicate their rights and interests.

[H. of R.

which renders the wheels of trade smooth and easy, and he considers the thorough concoction and circulation of money through a State of much importance.

The people of the United States, in convention assembled, were deeply impressed with the necessity of granting to Congress full power over the subjects of commerce, external and internal, and currency; and, to make their intention more manifest, they denied to the States the power of coining money or emitting bills of credit. The evil which had been experienced from the power of the States to coin money or emit bills of credit, and the danger and inconvenience of permitting the States to regulate commerce with foreign nations, or with each other, induced the convention to vest Congress with plenary and exclusive sovereignty over these subjects; and I put it to gentlemen to answer whether the powers and duties of this Government in relation to currency and commerce are not as ample and imperative under the limitations of the constitution, as can be imposed on any other Government. The States and people of the States have not reserved any control or sovereignty over these subjects, but have surrendered them to Congress.

The respect I have for many gentlemen who talk about a divorce of the Government from all banks, induces me to examine more gravely than might seem to be necessary or proper, the nature and character of this divorce. The parties to be divorced are the Government on the one part, and the banks, and, I would add, the people, on the other part. Now, sir, what is the Government, the party of the first part? It is, Mr. Chairman, if I understand the ma'ter, The people of these States, by their relation to this the States and people acting here in all the Departments by Government, are bound, by their money and their arms, agents; this is a Government of the people and States, to stand by and support it in good and evil times, and who are at present acting by selected agents, in one branch, have a right to demand the exercise of all the power and the States acting by agents selected by them in their cor- means within the sphere of their authority, to give them a porate capacity. Now, sir, what are the banks of the good currency, a fair measure of value to insure a just reStates but money corporations, created by the States, fur- lation between creditor and debtor, and preserve a healthy nishing bank money or currency for the people of the action in the external and internal commerce of the counStates, and solemnly made by this Government money try. Nor can the Government refuse or neglect to peragents of the United States, and furnishing, with the sanc- form these duties to the extent of their power and means, tion of this Government, bank money for the Government without a criminal violation of their highest duties and oband people of the United States! The stock of some banks ligations. If those placed in authority are too elevated to is owned exclusively by the States; in some the stock is feel for the distresses of the people, or not wise enough to owned in part by the States and in part by the people; perceive the remedies necessary and proper to cure existin others, the whole is owned entirely by citizens. This ing disorders; are so tight laced with commitment and condivorce, then, if I can comprehend the true character of it, sistencies as to be unable to act the part demanded by the is a separation of the States, banks, and people, from the exigencies of the times and the voice of a disturbed naStates, banks, and people. There is something so obscure tion, let them retire from the post assigned them, and give and preposterous in the proposition advanced, that the Gov- place to wiser and better men, who have not sought the erninent of the nation ought to sever itself from the States post of honor at the expense of principle and the public and people, and leave the people to struggle with a ruinous good; will not be committed against measures essential to currency, without an effort to correct the evil, that I am at a maintain credit and confidence, and protect the great loss for argument to combat such an incomprehensible, idle springs of the public prosperity. How different is the phantom. Am I to understand gentlemen that the existing language held by the administration of public affairs in currencies in the nation, practically the money of the people, this country, from that held by the administration of long the standard and measure of value among them, the basis Great Britain and the whigs of that country. In the of all their contracts and transactions, is to be left in chaotic year 1793, when the people of that country were overdisorder and confusion, without an effort on our part to ap-whelmed with difficulties and embarrassments, and the ply a correct ve, and that we, the agents of the people, are merely to provide good money for ourselves and public officers that we, a select few only, are to be taken care of?

Mr. Chairman, let us reflect like faithful representatives and guardians of the public prosperity and happiness, and act effectively in obedience to the dictates of duty and patriotism. Let us exert all the powers granted by the constitution to redeem our country from the evils and dangers which surround it. It is proper to examine the powers of this Government in relation to commerce, and money, or currency. By the constitution, power is expressly granted to Congress to coin money and regulate the value thereof, and to fix a uniforin standard of weights and measures. To Congress power is expressly granted to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and between the several States, and with the Indian tribes. That money and currency is intimately associated with commerce, and has been so in all times and in all well-regulated commercial nations, I need not adduce facts or arguments to prove. Money and currency have ever been considered the life and soul of commerce; in the language of Mr. Hume, it is the oil

commercial credit was in danger, the Government stepped forward with a kind and aiding hand, and arrested the ruin and desolation which seemed to be impending.

In 1797, when the Bank of England suspended specie payment, and a panic seized the nation, the prime minister of England, instead of denouncing the bank and ordering a commission of bankruptcy against her, had a committee raised to examine her affairs, who reported, after a full examination of the affairs of the bank, that the means were ample to meet her engagements, and that she was sound and solvent; that the suspension was forced on the bank by the circumstances which surrounded the country and the dangers which menaced it.

If, Mr. Chairman, this Government had taken the same course, had an investigation made into the condition of our banks, and a report of the same character, so far as merited, made to the nation, with assurance that the Government would aid them with its credit and countenance to resume specie payments, they would have maintained with the people confidence in our institutions, so important in this hour of alarm and distrust; and if the President, in his message, instead of denouncing a nation

H. OF R.]

Sub-Treasury Bill.

[Oct. 12, 1837.

al bank, had declared, like President Madison, that the in some place of safety, and banks of good and solvent State bank experiment would not answer without a nation- character, and having general confidence, are selected by al bank, and recommended the measure to the considera- prudent men to take care of them; and these deposites are tion of Congress; if he had hurled from him the hobby of great advantage to the public, because the money of the by which he rode into power, and dismounted his follow-country, instead of being hoarded, is secured by the owners ers, and admitted his error, with that magnanimity which from fire and robbery, and placed in good banks, and put becomes the Chief Magistrate of a nation, he would have in circulation by the banks, to aid the enterprise, industry, gained a crown of public approbation worth all the Treas- and business of the people. But to secure these advantaury note bills and sub-Treasury schemes which his inge- ges, and augment in this way the active capital of the nuity can invent in the four years for which he was elect- community, it is necessary that the banks should be sound, ed. In confirmation of the opinion I have advanced, and have the firm confidence of the people. of the duty of this Government to give the people a good currency, and guard against a ruinous and unstable one, let me call your attention to the sentiments expressed by the whigs of England, such as Charles Fox, Sheridan, and others, whose lives were devoted to sustain the rights of the people against the usurpations of the Crown.

In a protest entered on the journals of the House of Lords in the year 1797, during the war between England and France, they hold and maintain the following language and opinions. The whigs insist in that protest that "the advisers of the Crown are responsible for the condition of the State; responsible for its internal peace and general good government; for the protection of its commerce, its credit, and the various sources of its prosperity and wealth." | And, Mr. Chairman, I concur with Fox, Sheridan, and other whigs of England, whose lives were devoted to the maintenance of the powers and privileges of Parliament against the encroachments and usurpations of the Crown, that those charged with the administration of this or any other Government are responsible for the condition of the State, and for the protection of its commerce and credit, and that no administration can evade that responsibility with honor or a regard to public duty. According to the express provisions of our constitution, and the fundamental law inherent in every political association, those placed in authority are under the most imperious and sacred obligations to perform the duties to which he had advert

ed.
It is true that, technically and strictly speaking,
nothing but gold and silver can be forced on a creditor;
but we know also that, in practice, whatever medium
inay by law or general consent be generally received in
exchange for property or commodities, and in payment of
debts, is, and must be, the circulating medium and cur-
rency of such country, and will regulate the performance
of contracts, if another inedium be not specially provided
for; and hence the necessity imposed on the sovereign
power to guard against the depreciation and fluctuations
of currency, whatever it may be, to secure society against
violent struggles between debtor and creditor, the necessary
consequence of a spurious, uncertain standard of value.
For forty years out of forty-eight of our national existence,
our Government, by the use of national banks, has secured
the country against these evils. It seems to be fashionable
now to denounce the banking and credit systems, and extol
the hard-money plan. The policy and expediency of banks
I do not consider, at this day, a debatable question.
They are liable, like all other good institutions, to abuses;
but the systems here, while we had a national bank, attained
as inuch perfection as in any other country where they had
been used. Banks have been introduced in the most en-
lightened countries of Europe, the offspring of commerce
and wealth in commercial nations. The experience of
ages has established their utility, and it would be strange
for us, at this day, to run counter to the long usage and
testimony of the whole commercial world. We have had
them in this country for more than half a century. Few
men are willing to keep in their private coffers a large
amount of money; the fact is difficult to conceal from those
about them. A man cannot be always at home to guard
his treasure, and is exposed to robbery and murder; hence
when are generally disposed to deposite their funds on hand

Banks, in their origin in Europe, were places of deposite and of inspection for money, to prevent clipping or debasing the coin. The checks of the depositors passed from hand to hand as money, and, being convertible at all times into specie, this species of transfer was called bank money; so the notes of the Bank of England and of the Bank of the United States, while convertible into specie, may be properly denominated bank money. To give to paper, in the forin of bank notes, the character of money, it is necessary so to organize and regulate our banking system as to secure to the holder of a note the power of converting it into gold and silver at all times; and this we have never been able to do uniformly, but by the agency of a national institution. The banking and paper credit of Great Britain has been carried to a greater extent than that of any nation in Europe; and under its operation and influence she has become the first commercial and naval Power in the world. When Bonaparte was preparing to invade England with a million of soldiers, the timid part of the nation became alarmed, and made a run upon the bank, in order to prepare for flight from the kingdom, in the event of Bonaparte's success; and this, with other causes, forced a suspension of specie payments; and yet England, with this suspension, maintained a war against nearly all Europe for more than twenty years-triumphed over the combined fleets of France and Spain in two decisive victories, at Trafalgar and the Nile, and carried her power and domination to regions where the Roman eagles never flew when mistress of the world; and there would seem to be no limit to her domination, but for the rising greatness of this republic.

It was, sir, the Anglo-Saxon spirit of this people that gave us independence; and this nation, if united, will, at no distant period, rival Great Britain in commerce, and check her supreme dominion on the ocean.

What, Mr. Chairman, has been the effect of the banking system and paper credit in this country? It commenced more than fifty years ago, has expanded with the growth of the nation, and, in less than half a century, under our present constitution, we have risen from a small beginning to be the second commercial nation in the civilized world. Our navigation has increased; our country has improved, with astonishing rapidity, in wealth aud internal improvements of every kind; our population has expanded to the far West, where the wilderness has been made to blossom like the rose, under the operation and influence of this banking system so much denounced of late.

Banks are useful, not only in aiding the general operations of commerce, but they place the poor and wealthy on more equal ground. Young men of enterprise, industry, and good habits, can generally, with the aid of friends, obtain loans, on moderate interest, to embark in trade and business; and thousands of enterprising young men without capital, with a little credit, have risen from poverty to opulence. I know, too, that the branches of the United States Bank established in Kentucky, after all other banks were wound up there, diffused their loans and accommodations to the people of my State as fairly and usefully, and, indeed, more so than any other bank ever did, and without interfering in our party contests. I believe no institutions were ever less liable to such an imputation.