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tlemen should have done justice to the ancient luminaries facts, necessary to be known, before consequences so of the law, and told, further, that they only intended to momentous were encountered. The evidence of the exsay that a corporation, as such, could not commit a crime, istence of such facts should not be conjectural, or equiv and in its corporate capacity could not be punished as a ocal, but such as could leave no doubt; such as would criminal. Will gentlemen contend from this that no extort conviction from the mind. What, then, was this binding contract can be made with any number of per-proof, think you, of a decision by the people that the sons who are thus incorporated? Does it follow that the bank should cease to exist? It was this: General Jackson various individuals who compose this artificial person was re-elected to the presidency in November, 1832, and without a soul, can, in its corporate character, have no he was not a friend of the bank! Here is the direct, civil rights? This course of argument would seem to af positive, overwhelming evidence of the sense of a nation, firm that a great nation, a proud republic, could pledge as the Secretary supposes, on a simple isolated question its faith to the performance of certain acts to a corpora- concerning the renewal of a charter. What a compli tion which itself had created, and in good faith, without ment to the President! He is, by this view of the elec tarnishing its honor, at any time refuse to redeem its tion, represented as being chosen to preside over the repledge, and allege, as a justification, the ready plea, you public, not for his profound knowledge of civil polity, in are a corporation, you have no soul." Excellent juris all its complex and multiform ramifications; not for his prudence! admirable ethics! most amiable philosophy! acquaintance with our diplomatic history; not for his What a figure such a chapter would have made in the large and comprehensive views of the rising and future profound and eloquent volumes of Hooker! what lustre it destinies of this flourishing republic; not for his great rewould have shed upon the morality of Paley! It certain-nown in arts or arms; no-none of these. He was, acly never occurred to the great teachers of law or ethics cording to this view of it, clothed with the highest honor that, because a corporation could not, as such, commit mortal man can confer, simply and only because he did murder, nor yet itself be subject to that crime, not like a certain corporation in the city of Philadelphia, therefore, it followed, from reason irrefragable, that it of which one Nicholas Biddle was the president. Sir, I was lawful and right to rob it; that, as it could not in its can find a hundred men at work on the canal about this corporate character commit a crime, and would, there- city, before sunset, that have the same qualification for fore, escape punishment in the next world, reason, equi- the high office of Chief Magistrate of the republic, if opty, and the eternal fitness of things, required that it position to a banking corporation is to be the sole and should be visited with confiscation in this. Of a character exclusive test of merit. The people of this country will closely allied to this, in its moral tendency, is that class no longer be fit to be trusted with the election of their of arguments which treats the contract, in the bank char-President, when they make that election turn upon a ter, as a promise liable to be performed or broken according single supposed opinion of their candidate touching one to the fluctuating opinions of those who might hold, for only of the great variety of subjects upon which that of the time being, the political power necessary to its faith-ficer is obliged to act. For the reputation of the Presi ful execution. Is this the light in which modern morality dent, for the character of my countrymen, I trust this and law have taught us to consider national obligations opinion expressed by the Secretary, and in another docuand national honor? Does a change of power from one ment asserted by the President himself, will be repudiapolitical party to those of another political faith absolve ted by this House. I know it will be rejected with inthe latter from all obligations contracted by the former? dignation by the enlightened freemen of the country as a Sir, within the last four years, the long-exiled Bourbon reflection upon their intelligence. has paid us for spoliations committed on our commerce by revolutionary France. The present King of Naples has remunerated our citizens for injuries sustained by them at the hands of Joachim Murat. Such, sir, is the universal law of good faith which descends and attaches upon all who, in the process of time, however remote, succeed to the political power of Government.

I know that

But, sir, I deny that the President ever expressed to the people an unqualified declaration against the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank. he refused his approval to the bill for that purpose passed in 1832; but do we not all know that, amongst other things, in his message to Congress on that subject, the President distinctly asserts the power of Congress to It is this faith-keeping principle in States and individu- create a bank, and plainly intimates his willingness to aid als that holds together the moral elements of the world. them in doing so. Let his own language speak for him: It is superior to, and controls, all human will. Its obliga-That a Bank of the United States, competent to all the tions are paramount to all human control. It is a law of duties which may be required by the Government, might perpetual obligation, from which neither States nor indi- be so organized as not to infringe on our own delegated viduals can absolve themselves; it is felt in the hearts of powers, or the reserved rights of the States, I do not enmen; it does not derive its origin from society; it is the tertain a doubt. Had the Executive been called upon to parent and origin of all social existence; it is the principle furnish the project of such an institution, the duty would of the honest man, the honor of the gentleman, the chiv-have been cheerfully performed. In the absence of such alry of the brave man, the piety of the good man, the glory of a nation.

a call, it is obviously proper that he should confine himself to pointing out those prominent features in the act Mr. Speaker, if this act of the Secretary is in itself presented, which, in his opinion, make it incompatible wrong, being founded in palpable injustice towards the with the constitution and sound policy." Here we have bank, it is not less condemnable as being unwise and in a distinct annunciation, by the President, that a bank expedient as a measure of public policy. Though I by might be created which would answer all public purposes; no means admit that what the Secretary calls "his rea-of this, he says he does not entertain a doubt," and sons" are, in a single instance, such as to form even an that, if called upon, he would cheerfully furnish the proapology for his conduct, yet it is only respectful towards ject of such an institution. This, sir, in that portion of him to bestow a passing notice upon some of them. He the country within the range of my immediate observasets out with the declaration that the people of the tion, was seized upon by the President's friends, at his United States had declared that the charter of the pres-last election, to show that he would yet furnish to the ent bank should not be renewed. This is put forward as the basis upon which he felt himself compelled to act. In a matter affecting in the tenderest point the interest, and business, and property of a nation, we should expect, from ordinary prudence, great certainty in ascertaining

country a bank. He, and he alone, it would seem, had made the discovery of some project concerning currency and Treasury agency, which the wisdom of the wisest, for the last fifty years, had sought for in vain. The country has patiently waited the redemption of this pledge for

Two years have elapsed, and the expecting world still waits in hope of the grand development. Whether we are to die "without the sight" is amongst those future events which the curtain of time (perhaps fortunately for us) still conceals from mortal scrutiny. I take it for granted that the rickety misshapen imp, lately born of a forbidden concubinage between executive assumption and State bank prostitution, which we now see mewling and puking in the nursing arms of the Committee of Ways and Means, is not to be palmed upon us for that "cara Deum soboles," that "magnum Jovis incrementum," which the world has so long been promised.

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two years. Still some of his friends cry, "patience, it and Means draw upon the credulity of Congress and the will yet be brought forth." Great mystery is affected, and people. They propose to destroy the United States no one ventures to say precisely what it will resemble; yet Bank, and employ as treasury agents some hundreds of still it will be, it is said, when it does come, just what all State banks throughout the Union, for the purpose--(mark desire. Deep in the recesses of executive wisdom, they the object in view!)--for the purpose of bringing back tell us, this grand secret is hidden. That which escaped the currency where the sages who formed the constituthe anxious search of Washington, Hamilton, Madison, tion found and left it." Where did the much-abused and Jefferson, and all the Secretaries of the Treasury, for forty misrepresented sages who formed the constitution find years, had been discovered by the present Chief Magis- the currency? The mists of antiquity have not yet settrate, and surely it would not be withheld from the world. tled down upon the period referred to so heavily as to obIt was suddenly to spring from the pregnant head of the cure from our vision the men and the deeds of that day. Executive, like another Minerva from the head of Jove--They found the currency made up of "continental mothe impersonation of wisdom armed from head to foot, ney" and "bills of credit," issued by the several States covered all over with the panoply of the constitution, of the then confederacy. Is this, then, the kind of curgraced with all the amiable facilities of bank credit and rency which the patriots and philanthropists of the pressound currency, and endowed in an especial manner with ent day intend to give us? Where, again ask, did the the energies and security of a proper Treasury agent. sages who formed the constitution leave the currency? This, sir, is what was decided upon by the people in the Let us look somewhat minutely into this portion of our election of the President; this was what they were promi-history. I shall be willing to go with gentlemen in any sed; they relied on that promise. Sir, it had that quality measure which will give us just such a currency as the which always commends itself to our credence; to saysages who formed the constitution left us. The conventhe least of it, it was modest! tion that formed the constitution was composed of thirtynine members, including General Washington, its presiding officer. Of the thirty-eight members who signed the constitution in 1787, sixteen were members of Congress under the constitution, in the year 1791, when the first United States Bank was chartered; twelve of these sixteen voted for that bank, and four against it. Among those who voted against it was Mr. Madison, who, afterwards, in 1816, yielded his objections, and approved the charter of the present bank. General Washington, in 1791, was President of the United States, and approved the establishment of the bank. General Hamilton was then Secretary of the Treasury, and recommended it. Mr. Speaker, let us examine some other of our recol- Here, then, we have the recorded opinions of eighteen lections of subjects agitated, and, by presumption, sup- of the thirty-nine who signed the constitution; fifteen of posed to have been decided, by the people in the elec- these were in favor of the Bank of the United States, and tion of President. Prior to the election of 1829, nothing, three against it. But, sir, this is not all. We are informtouching the opinions of the candidates, formed a more ed by those still living, who knew well the opinions of those decisive test in the Western States than the "tariff and other sages who formed the constitution, who were not in internal improvement." So anxious were the people of the Congress of 1791, that seventeen of them were in favor that section of the country to be well informed on this of the Bank of the United States, as then established. subject, that the Legislature of Indiana authorized their The opinions of those who formed the constitution, as to Governor to open a correspondience with General Jack-currency, would then stand thus: thirty-two in favor of a son, then a candidate, in order to have record proof of Bank of the United States, and seven against it. It was a his principles touching the measures to which I have re-currency, regulated, controlled, and created by the Bank ferred. What followed? In a reply to the Governor, a of the United States, which the sages who formed the conletter addressed to a gentleman in the South, and votes stitution "left us." From the year 1791 to the present given in the other branch of Congress, were referred to; hour, more than forty years, excepting four years of debut nothing explicit beyond these could be learned. This, rangement, disister, and ruin, (from 1811 to 1816, when however, was received by the good-natured people of we had no United States Bank,) we have had that curIndiana as full proof of the General's friendship to a pro-rency; and now we are told, with apparent candor, too, tective system of duties, and liberal expenditure of pub-that, by abolishing the Bank of the United States, and lic money upon roads and canals. Now, sir, if we can giving to one hundred State banks twenty millions of pubtrust at all the newspapers of that day, we know that this lie money, annually, to issue bank notes upon, we shall same letter and these Senatorial votes were referred to in bring back such a currency as the sages of 1791 gave us; the South as furnishing very satisfactory evidence of the that we shall, in this way, restore the currency to the consame gentleman's hostility to both tariff and internal im-dition in which the immortal authors of the constitution provement. left it. I have neither time nor temper to animadvert fur

With these examples of the dubious character of any ther upon this attempt to bolster up the miserable schemes evidence of public will, derived from the agitation of any and shifts of this day, dignified with the name of plans, subject in elections, we should have expected the highly by authorities drawn from the earlier portion of our concultivated legal mind of the Secretary to hesitate in re-stitutional history. It can only succeed by mistaking the ceiving that sort of proof as satisfactory, in any manner authority, or by a gross misunderstanding of historical involving deeply the public interest. Our astonishment facts. increases when we hear the President himself, with all the facts to which I have adverted fresh in his memory, make the declaration that his election, in 1832, is to be received as a decision of the people that the bank is not to be rechartered. Another reason, as it is called, much insisted on, is equally without foundation in fact. It is amusing, if not vexatious, to observe the freedom with which both the Secretary and the Committee of Ways

When we shall have broken up the present system of things, what does the Secretary, what do the committee, propose to give us in its stead? Shall we have a better circulating medium? They propose to give us, instead of United States Bank bills, the notes of State banks. More than four hundred of these now exist in the different States. Their notes are selling at the brokers' offices, in different parts of the Union, at a discount varying from

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two to ten per cent. at this moment.

The Public Deposites. Two years ago, the Treasury, with the aid of the power, popularity, and when war was declared against the present Bank of the influence of the President for the time being, will bear United States, we were told that all banks were to be put down upon your State Legislatures: one vote, or two, or down. They were all then monopolies, dangerous to three, may, perhaps, decide the fate of your bank. Will not liberty; and the destruction of paper currency and the those votes be secured? Yes, the whole patronage of the restoration of coin were then begun. This was then the Federal Government in this scheme, from time to time, confident assertion of a portion of the party now in power. will be tempted into the legislative halls of the States. Let the history of that party, in the Legislatures of the We have heard much of consolidation; much of the danIn Ohio, Ken-ger of merging the independence of the States in the States, since that time, speak for itself. tucky, and Indiana, what has it done? Why, sir, in order overwhelming power of the Federal Government. If the to banish bank paper, and restore coin, they commenced wit of man were tasked to invent a cunning, insidious a clamor for State banks; and in my own State have, since plan, by which this ruin might be wrought, he could not 1832, incorporated four millions of State bank capital! devise one more likely to effect his diabolical purpose This has been done by that very party who are to bring than that proposed in this treasury invention. back gold and silver currency by destroying banks! The Executive the power to confer favors on so many different same scene has been acted, by the same class of politi- companies of men, who also stand closely connected with It is now a well-known the State Governments, and you have so many centripetal cians, in all the Western States. fact, that, since the message of the President was pro- forces, drawing, by the resistless influence of pecuniary These twenty-four stars, that now mulgated, putting his veto on the United States Bank interest, the independence of the States into the vortex charter of 1832, more than forty millions of bank capital of federal control. have been incorporated in the different States in the shine with such mild and pure lustre, will be drawn from Union. Such is the progress already made towards re- their spheres, and their lights quenched forever in the sustoring gold and silver currency. I venture now the pre-perior blaze of one great central sun. diction, that, if the United States Bank, or some similar institution, be not established, you will, before the lapse of five years, see twice the number of State banks now in existence. Their notes will be flying every where, thick as the leaves of the forest in an autumnal hurricane, and about as valuable.

Give the

If these consequences do not come upon us, it will be because the States will not suffer themselves to be beguiled into your Treasury snare. Judging from what has already transpired, we may hope the good sense and patriotism of the States in this, as in other instances, may yet preserve this great confederacy from the fatal effects But suppose your league of Treasury banks should suc- of a mad and ruinous policy. Three States have already ceed in establishing their credit so as to give general cur- refused to enter into this unholy alliance. Virginia, ever rency to their paper: will not those banks, in that way, watchful of the approaches of federal usurpation, permitby loans and exchanges, gain the same power and control ted your Treasury to sojourn a few weeks with her citizens; over the business and trade of the country, which, you but, finding you had sent a foul leprosy into her borders, say, is now possessed by the United States Bank-that although justly renowned for her hospitality, ordered her dangerous power, for the possession of which, you say, it people to shut their doors upon you, and it was done. must be abolished? And what is gained by exchanging Kentucky, not less famed for the generous confidence she the one for the other? What will your condition be when extends to strangers that come to her-Kentucky, who your league banks shall be able to crush, if they choose, has a ready welcome for every friend, and a grave for the trade of the country? Can you strike them out of ex- every foe-she, too, tried your society for a brief space; istence? No! over them or their charters you have no and, finding her health poisoned by your pestiferous touch, control. The State Legislatures gave them life, and will, drove you back into your own territories. Pennsylvania, at their pleasure, prolong their existence. Suppose their too, meek, temperate, and forbearing as was the spirit charters expire; they are your Treasury agents; they of her illustrious founder-she who receives the comfortless will then be indispensable to your system of finance. Will and distressed of every kindred, caste, and clime under they consent to expire? Will not the stockholders in them be just as anxious for a renewal of their charters, as the owners of stock in the United States Bank now are for a renewal of theirs? Yes, sir, they will, and they will be just as little scrupulous about the means employed to This image with a hundred heads, obtain their end. which you are now erecting, will be just as difficult to destroy, as the monster you profess so much to fear. The impure priesthood of Mammon will clamor just as loudly for their hundred-headed idol god, as do those now whom you profess to regard with so much horror. You will find, when the discovery will be too late, that possessing stock in a State bank does not of itself make a Cato, nor owning the same property in the United States Bank convert a good citizen into a Catiline.

heaven, who cherishes all that take refuge in the ever-expanded arms of her comprehensive urbanity-good old Pennsylvania, who, like that divine charity spoken of by the apostle, "vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up, hopeth all things, believeth all things;" she, too, finding only bankruptcy, poverty, and want, in your society, yielded reHappy experiment! profound luctantly to stern necessity, and pronounced the doom of banishment upon you. policy! what admirable contrivance in the plan! what perfect order, harmony, and success in its execution! How proud is the condition of your Treasury under the influence of this grand experiment! With a certificate of good character in its hand, signed by the Chief Magistrate of the nation, it is driven forth from Virginia, banished from Kentucky, exiled from Pennsylvania. It is, at this moment, There is another view of the dangerous connexion be- a wandering mendicant, begging in vain for a place tween the Executive Government here and the banks of whereon to rest the soles of its weary feet: like the the States, which I cannot pass without notice. If your hapless son of Hagar, driven forth from the patriarchal scheme ever does succeed, if it works well in your fiscal roof, and if report be true, his "bread" quite gone, affairs at all, it will of course be desirable to continue it and his "bottle of water" well nigh expended. If you But there permit him to remain much longer upon the desert, like in steady operation for a long time to come. will be obstacles to this. The charters of some of your banks Ishmael, he will be compelled to sustain a wandering and ," and "every honest man's will terminate. The Secretary of the Treasury will, of precarious existence by rapine and plunder. He will turn course, desire to have these charters renewed by the Le- his hand against every man, hand will be turned against him." gislatures of the States in which they are situated. Is there an American bosom that is not pained, with effect this, the influence of the bank will be first exerted on the Treasury Department here, by offering to do your mingled shame and indignation, at the present degraded business on very advantageous terms; the Secretary of condition of our country? What ultimate or present good

To

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is to result from what has been done? None, no, none; confidence requited? No sooner was he firmly seated on but evil-only continual disaster. What else can we ex- the throne of power, than, as if to show his scorn for pect? Perfidy in the Government will result, as it ought, popular credulity, he boldly marched into the Senate, and in poverty to the people. We have not even the common took its members away to make his cabinet council. This motive of the felon: we could not be said to have acted House was literally emptied to fill places made vacant by in this instance from the love of gain. In the mere wan-removal; not one, or two, or three, but whole squadrons ton or malignant consciousness of power, we have stained of members were marched off to be made the subjects the national honor, violated national faith; we have taught of reward, from foreign ministers of the highest grade, the people to disobey the injunctions of law, by permit-down to petty clerkships in the executive departments. ting an unchecked example of its violation by that very Gratitude for friends and revenge for foes; the maxims of power whose ordained duty it is to maintain and enforce Sylla were openly avowed as the doctrines upon which it. Let us not deceive ourselves. Let us not flatter each executive patronage was to be dispensed. I shall not other with the expectation that this will be a solitary soon forget an instance of reward and punishment, which instance of Executive encroachment. No, history teaches created, at the time, not merely astonishment, but strong us other lessons. That power that can subvert ancient indignation in Ohio. General Harrison was a native son usages, break with impunity national compacts, efface at of Virginia. In his nineteenth year (I believe, being then will written laws, uproot the firm foundations of the con- a lieutenant in the army) he was selected by General stitution; that power, if not suddenly arrested, will sur- Wayne as one of his aids, in the memorable campaign of vive all that it destroys, and maintain itself in absolute 1794, which terminated the war with the Indian tribes of dominion, by those very arts and instruments through the Northwest. At a very early age he was chosen a delwhich it acquired its first momentum. egate to Congress from the Northwestern Territory, and, subsequently, made Governor of the Territory of Indiana. "'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, After the disastrous campaign of Hull, in 1812, he was First freedom, and then-glory; when that fails, selected by the Government to command those noble KenWealth, vice, corruption-barbarism at last."* tucky and Ohio volunteers who thronged in thousands to When we review the history of the last few months, the tented field, to redeem the sinking fortunes of the and see the strange mixture of confusion and systematic war. My gallant friend from Kentucky [Colonel JOHNSON] effort, all tending to bring upon the people lasting injury, won those unfading laurels to which time only adds fresh and are told that all this must be borne, because "the verdure, fighting under the immediate eye and command people themselves have willed it should be so," I cannot of Harrison, at the ever-memorable battle of the Thames. but remind the Executive Government, and gentlemen At the close of the war General Harrison resigned his here, of instances in which they have disregarded that commission; and, in the spirit of the example of Cincinwill, when it was fully and fairly understood. natus, retired to his farm in Ohio. From thence he was

Prior to the presidential election in 1828, the present soon called by the Legislature of that State to a seat in Chief Magistrate, then a Senator in Congress from Ten- the Senate. Such a citizen was thought by the adminis nessee, in his letter of resignation to the Tennessee Legis- tration then in power a fit representative of this Govern lature, held the following excellent doctrines. Speaking ment at the capital of the Colombian republic. He had of a contemplated alteration of the constitution, he says, not been friendly to the election of General Jackson. In "I would impose a provision rendering any member of one month, I believe, after the inauguration of the latter, Congress ineligible to office under the General Govern- and before General Harrison was known to have reached ment during the term for which he was elected, and for Bogota, his place of destination, he was recalled, and a two years thereafter. But if this change in the constitu- member (then) of this House, a warm, active, industrious, tion shall not be made, and important appointments con- powerful friend of the new President, appointed in his tinue to devolve on the Representatives in Congress, it place. Thus the active, useful friend was rewarded; the requires no depth of thought to be convinced that corrup- opponent punished. tion will become the order of the day, and that, under the After all this forgetfulness of pledges given and public garb of conscientious sacrifice to establish precedents for will expressed, when the President, and his friends for the public good, evils of serious importance to the free- him, allege that he has taken the custody of the public dom and prosperity of the republic may arise." Do any money from a long-tried and faithful agent, because it is of us forget the flame of enthusiasm which these senti- the people's will, I must be pardoned while I doubt. Sir, ments kindled in the ardent and confiding hearts of the if I had that faith which could remove mountains, I should freemen of this country? In the election of General Jack-still hesitate to believe the sincerity of this declaration. son they looked forward to the establishment of all these Mr. Speaker, no opinion, no principle is in this counexcellent principles, as cardinal maxims in his administra-try so universally well received by the people as that tion. The most extravagant anticipations of great benefits which teaches public servants the duty of redeeming, were confidently indulged. Could such a man, with such when in office, pledges given when candidates for office. pure principles, be placed in the executive chair, a sun It is right, it is proper that it should be so. It is the combright with millennial glory would, it was said, dawn pact between the servant and his employer, and should upon the republic, never to go down. All grievances would be fulfilled by the former, at all times, with scrupulous be redressed; all tears would be wiped from all eyes; his fidelity. The great importance of this operative princiadministration, compared with all others, would be

"An era of sweet peace, 'midst bloody annals; A green spot in the desert of past centuries." Were these fond and fanciful hopes realized? The election of 1828 ended in the success of the man who, by propagating those doctrines, had made himself the idol of the people's hearts. How, sir, was this generous

*As if to verify this prediction, in a few days after these remarks were made in the House, the President sent his celebrated protest to the Senate, claiming for himself just enough power to carry into effect "his will," be that what it may, VOL. X.--227

ple, in a representative Government, will excuse me to the House for calling their attention to another flagrant instance of its violation, by one who now professes to make it the ground and cause of his late extraordinary movement upon the bank and treasury of the United States.

When the present Executive first took his seat in the presidential chair, he announced to the people, in his inaugural address, his determination to reform a great variety of existing evils in the administration of public affairs. Amongst other things, high on the list of these reformations, was inscribed the duty of reforming those abuses which had brought the patronage of the Federal Govern

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[APRIL 12, 1834.

ment to bear on the freedom of elections."* The inter- We know that the President has, for some two or three pretation of this was simple and well understood. It im-years, felt and expressed a deep and settled hostility to plied that officers, holding their places under the General Government, had used their influence and employed their time in the business of electioneering. It avowed a determination to dismiss from service all such, and to make it a rule in all future appointments that none should receive or hold office. This was applauded, and every where received as the first bright gleam of that millennial glory that had been so confidently foretold by the friends of the President during the canvass prior to the

election in 1828.

the United States Bank. We know that he and his friends believed that certain individuals connected with the bank were not friendly to his election, and did not yield unqualified approbation to some of his public acts. A resolution, we are told by Mr. Duane, was formed to crush this supposed opponent; Congress, at its last session, had been appealed to for this purpose; but, instead of adopting a course like that taken since by the Presi dent, that body, composed of a large majority of his po litical friends, by a vote of more than two to one, resolved Passing by other examples of the operation of this re- that the public moneys were safe in the Bank of the form, I refer, with unaffected pain, to one which lately United States, and ought to remain there. What was to occurred in my own State. On the 8th of January last, be done? The bank must be crushed, and Congress had a convention, under the general denomination of "the refused to become its executioner. Two or three months friends of the present administration," assembled at Co- prior to the meeting of this Congress, the Secretary of lumbus, in the State of Ohio. Its object was to appoint the Treasury is required to remove the public moneys delegates to represent the "party" in a proposed na- to the State banks. He declined, and offered, as his reational convention, which was to be convened in May, sons, the vote of the last Congress and the near approach 1835, to nominate a successor to General Jackson. This of the meeting of this; that the subject properly belonged convention of the "friends of the present administration" to Congress, and to them it ought to be submitted. What was composed of one hundred and seventy-seven persons. was the reply of the President? I will give it upon the Of these, seventy-one were office-holders under the Fed-authority and in the words of Mr. Duane's letter: "If the eral and State Governments. A gentleman holding the last Congress had remained a week longer in session, office of district judge for the district of Ohio, under ap- two-thirds would have been secured to the bank by corpointment of the President, not yet confirmed by the rupt means; and that the like result might be apprehendSenate, in his character of "a central committee man,' ,"ed at the next Congress. That such a State bank agency called a meeting (by advertisement in a public newspaper) of the "friends of the administration" in a particular county, for the purpose of naming delegates to this convention at Columbus. All these things are matters of public notoriety. The convention, amongst other things, constituted a "central committee," with electioneering jurisdiction co-extensive with the territorial limits of the State. Of this committee, composed (according to my recollection) of seven persons, five are officers holding appointments under the Executive: one district attorney; two receivers of public moneys; one surveyor of the Virginia military lands; and one postmaster.

must be put into operation, before the meeting of Congress, as would show that the United States Bank was not necessary; and thus some members would have no excuse for voting for it." I cannot here, sir, stoop to the consideration of these suggestions of corrupt influence upon the representatives of the people. Let that people determine whether the servants of their own free choice are capable of acting from the diabolical motives attributed to them. I have mistaken the character of my countrymen, or they will treat such imputations upon the emanations of their own enlightened and free suffrage as the insane ravings of unchastened ambition, or the equally The proceedings of this convention have been pub-idle suggestions of unbridled revenge. If this history of lished in the official journal in this city, and cannot have the transactions of the last summer be true, what is the escaped the notice of the President. Can a case be ima- conclusion? The corruptibility of Congress is imagined gined more proper for the application of that reforming as a reason for transferring their powers and duties to the power which the President, at his installation into office, had promised the people to exert with such unsparing fidelity? Where slept the executive thunders whilst these iniquities were transpiring? Has one of those federal officers been removed, or even censured for "bringing the patronage and influence of the Government to bear upon elections?" No. All is tranquil and placil. The There exists in the minds of the American people a arm of executive vengeance is not lifted against the of watchful jealousy of foreign influence in our political affender. The brow of power is not even clouded by a fairs. Two years ago this jealousy was roused to a degree frown of disapprobation. After such forgetfulness, not of fanaticism that became in its height absolutely ridicu only of pledges given, but also of the expressed will of lous. It was found that nearly eight millions of stock in the people derived from elections, in which this subject the United States Bank were owned by foreigners. I of official influence upon popular elections was agitated shall not soon forget the parade made in this hall, and all over the Union, I cannot hear with patience the "peo- elsewhere, of the list of names of those foreign stockple's will" put forward as a reason for violating law; tak-holders. Many of them, it was found, were females. ing away chartered rights; deranging the currency; destroying trade; and sinking in the great "Serbonian bog" of "executive power" all the constitutional functions of Congress and the judicial courts.

hands of the Executive. Thus, purity of motive in the President would apologize for a revolution of the Govern ment. Sir, this is not the first instance in which the fears and patriotic prejudices of the people have been assailed for the purpose of effecting this favorite measure-the destruction of the bank.

Nothing could exceed the patriotic rage and horror depicted in the fierce gestures, distorted countenances, and fervid declamations of those who had all at once discovered that the liberties of America were sold to the women Finding (after a fruitless search) no reason for the act of England! Had they been only simple, plain gentleof which we complain, founded in law or expediency, or women, it seemed the danger would not have been so any dictate of public necessity; but, on the contrary, find- appalling; but there were countesses, marchionesses, and, ing, as the experiment has evinced, every consideration it was suspected, even a dutchess! This was not to be of duty and patriotism opposed to it, how shall we ac-borne. A countess, it was clear, could at once put an end count for it? We are driven to the necessity of resorting to State rights; and a dutchess-a dutchess could swallow to reasons and motives for the act which are not clearly the whole confederacy at a meal! All the foes of the bank, set forth in any official document.

*See Inaugural Address of President Jackson, appendix.

with the President himself, trembled at the peril which impended over us. In the zeal and fervid enthusiasm which the occasion inspired, these female stockholders were de