exigency of the times. The existing evil was one which afflicted the whole country; and the remedy proposed by him was, as it should have been, commensurate with the whole evil. And, sir, what a shock it would have produced at that time, if Mr. Madison, seeing the prostrate state of commerce and business all around him, had recommended to Congress to do nothing in the world but to take care that the taxes were collected, and those in the employment of Government well paid!

Well, sir, what was done with this Message? Why, sir, the House of Representatives resolved, "that so much of the President's Message as related to a uniform national currency, should be referred to a select committee." Such a committee was raised, and the honorable member from South Carolina was placed at its head, as he well deserved to be, from his standing in the House, and his well-known opinions on this subject. The honorable member was thus at the head of a committee, appointed, not on the subject of a revenue currency, or a currency for Government, but a UNIFORM NATIONAL CURRENCY; and, to effect the great object of this appointment, he brought in a bill for the establishment of a Bank of the United States.

As had been the case formerly, so on this occasion, the Secretary of the Treasury made a report on the subject. And now hear, sir, what he says of the duty of Congress to provide a national currency, and of the objects which he proposes by the establishment of a national bank.

"The constitutional and legal foundation of the monetary system of the United States is thus distinctly seen; and the power of the Federal Government to institute and regulate it, whether the circulating medium consist of coin, or of bills of credit, must, in its general policy, as well as in the terms of its investment, be deemed an exclusive power. It is true, that a system depending upon the agency of the precious metals, will be affected by the various circumstances which diminish their quantity, or deteriorate their quality. The coin of a State sometimes vanishes under the influence of political alarms; sometimes in consequence of the explosion of mercantile speculations; and sometimes by the drain of an unfavorable course of trade. But, whenever the emergency occurs that demands a change of system, it seems necessarily to follow, that the authority which was alone competent to establish the national coin, is alone competent to create a national substitute. It has happened, however, that the coin of the United States has ceased to be the circulating medium of exchange, and that no substitute has hitherto been provided by the national authority. During the last year, the principal banks established south and west of New England resolved, that they would no longer issue coin in payment of their notes, or of the drafts of their customers for money received upon deposit. In this act the Government of the United States had no participation; and yet the immediate effect of the act was to supersede the only legal currency of the nation. By this act, although no State can constitutionally emit bills of credit, corporations, erected by the several States, have been enabled to circulate a paper medium, subject to many of the practical inconveniences of the prohibited bills of credit."

"Of the services rendered to the Government by some of the State banks during the late war, and of the liberality by which some of them are actuated in their intercourse with the Treasury, justice requires an explicit acknowledgment. It is a fact, however, incontestably proved, that those institutions cannot, at this time, be successfully employed to furnish a uniform national currency. The failure of one attempt to associate them, with that view, has already been stated. Another attempt, by their agency in circulating Treasury notes, to overcome the inequalities of the exchanges, has only been partially successful. And a plan recently proposed, with the design to curtail the issues of bank notes, to fix the public confidence in the administration of the affairs of the banks, and to give to each bank a legitimate share in the circulation, is not likely to receive the general sanction of the banks. The truth is, that the charter restrictions of some of the banks, the mutual relation and dependence of the banks of the same State, and even of the banks of the different States, and the duty which the directors of each bank conceive they owe to their immediate constituents, upon points of security or emolument, interpose an insuperable obstacle to any voluntary arrangement, upon national considerations alone, for the establishment of a national medium through the agency of the State banks."

"The establishment of a national bank is regarded as the best, and perhaps the only adequate resource, to relieve the country and the Government from the present embarrassment. Authorized to issue notes, which will be received in all payments to the United States, the circulation of its issues will be coëxtensive with the Union; and there will exist a constant demand, bearing a just proportion to the annual amount of the duties and taxes to be collected, independent of the general circulation for commercial and social purposes. A national bank will, therefore, possess the means and the opportunity of supplying a circulating medium, of equal use and value in every State, and in every district of every State.

"The power of the Government to supply and maintain a paper medium of exchange, will not be questioned; but, for the introduction of that medium, there must be an adequate motive."

"Upon the whole, the state of the national currency, and other important considerations connected with the operations of the Treasury, render it a duty respectfully to propose

"That a national bank be established."

This language, it must be admitted, is explicit enough, both in regard to the power and the duty; and the whole report bears very little resemblance, most certainly, to the official paper from the Treasury Department now before us.

When the bill was called up, the honorable member from South Carolina explained its objects in an able speech. He showed the absolute necessity of a national currency; the power of Congress over such currency, whether metallic or paper; and the propriety and expediency of establishing a bank, as the best means of exercising these powers and fulfilling these duties. I agreed then, and I agree now, to the general sentiments expressed in that speech, heartily and entirely. I would refer to it, on this occasion, both as an able argument and a high authority; and beg to adopt it, as setting forth, in a strong light, the sentiments which I am now endeavoring to enforce.

[Mr. CALHOUN here rose to make an explanation. He said

that he never saw the reporter's notes of his speech on that occasion, and, therefore, what he did say, may not have been what he would have said. There were points of omission in that speech, which occupied a column and a half of the National Intelligencer. Mr. C. said, that he took care then, as now, to fortify himself, and leave a road open to oppose, at any coming time, a national bank. He then said that he was opposed to a bank, but that he submitted to the necessity of the case. There was then a connection between the Government and the banks; and if the Government had a right to regulate the currency, there was no means of doing it but by a national bank. He had, both then and since then, contended that Government had no right to have any connection with any banks. In his opinion, the United States Bank (which he then advocated, and assisted to establish) was not established according to the Constitution. Congress had no right to establish such a bank. He acted contrary to his own impressions of right. Many people may do things which they do not believe to be lawful, from necessity. He acted from necessity.]

Mr. WEBSTER, resuming his remarks, said, he thought the gentleman had said, formerly, that in consequence of the decision of the question, he felt thenceforward precluded from opposing the bank as being unconstitutional.

[Mr. CALHOUN again explained. He (Mr. C.) thought the connection between Government and banks was now broken, and that set him at liberty; so that now he could oppose what he had then, and since, earnestly advocated.]

It is not my desire, sir, to hold the gentleman to a report of his speech, which he may choose, even now, to disclaim. I have never heard of his disclaiming it before; and even now, sir, I do not understand him as being desirous of retracting or denying any thing contained in the printed report of his speech, respecting the importance of a uniform national currency. That topic makes up the sum and substance of his whole speech. It was the topic of the occasion; it was the express purpose for which his committee had been raised, and for the accomplishment of which the whole proceeding was gone into. It was all currency, currency, currency; and whether the gentleman now thinks the law constitutional or unconstitutional, he cannot deny that his own object, and the object of Congress, was to furnish a circulating medium for the country. And here again, so unimportant, relatively, was the mere custody, or deposit of the public moneys in the bank, that the bill, as originally introduced, contained no provision for that object. A section was afterwards introduced, in Committee of the Whole, on my motion, providing for the deposit of the public moneys with the bank, unless the Secretary of the Treasury should, at any time, otherwise order and direct; a reservation of power to the Secretary,

which, as I think, and always have thought, was greatly abused, by the removal of the deposits, in 1833.

By reference to the debates, sir, it will be found that other friends of the measure followed up the general ideas of the honorable gentleman from South Carolina, and supported the bank, as a necessary agent or instrument for establishing, anew, a national currency, for the uses of commerce and exchange.

The operation of the joint resolution of April, 1816, aided, no doubt, in a proper degree, by the institution of the bank, and the currency which it furnished, accomplished the great end of the resumption of specie payments; and, for a long period, we had no further trouble with the currency.

And I now proceed to say, sir, that the late President of the United States has acknowledged this duty, as often, and as fully and clearly, as any of his predecessors. His various admissions, or recognitions, of this obligation, are too recent and too fresh in every one's recollection, to require, or to justify, particular citation. All the evils we now feel, indeed, we have encountered in the search after a better currency. It has been in the avowed attempt to discharge the duty of Government, connected with the circulation, that the late administration has led us to where we now are. The very first charge that the late President ever brought against the bank, was, that it had not maintained a sound and uniform currency. Most persons, probably, will think the charge quite unfounded; yet this was the charge. Its dereliction of duty, or its want of ability to perform what had been expected from it—its failure, in some way, to maintain a good currency was the original professed cause of dissatisfaction. And when the bill for rechartering the bank was negatived, it was not on the ground that Government had nothing to do with the national currency, but that a better provision for it might be made, than we had in the bank. The duty was not to be disclaimed, or thrown off, or neglected; new agents, only, were to be employed, that it might be better performed. The State banks would do better than the national bank had done; the President was confident of this, and therefore he rejected the national bank as an agent, and adopted the State banks. And what he so constantly promised us would happen, he as resolutely maintained, afterwards, had happened. Down to his last Message, down to the last hour of his administration, he insisted upon it that the State banks had fulfilled all his expectations, and all their own duties; and had enabled the Government to accomplish, in the very best manner, the great and important objects of currency and exchange. We have the same head of the Treasury, sir, who has repeated and echoed all these statements, whether of prophecy or fulfilment, in successive reports, some of them not less tersely and intelligibly written than that now before us; and we have heads of

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other departments, who concurred, I presume, from time to time, in the original statements, and in the faithful echoes of them, from the Treasury. All these functionaries have been laboring with the utmost zeal, as they professed, to perform their constitutional obligation of furnishing the country with a good currency, with a better currency, with the best currency; and they have dragged Congress, dragged the country, and dragged themselves, into difficulty, perplexity, and distress, in this long and hot pursuit. And now, behold, they draw up all at once, and declare that the object of all this toil and struggle is one with which they have nothing at all to do!

But, as the last Message of the late President was loud and warm in its praises of the State banks, for the good services which they rendered to currency and exchange, so, no doubt, would the first Message of the present President have commended, with equal earnestness, the success with which Government had been able, by means of the State banks, to discharge this important part of its duties, if the events of May last had not left that subject no longer a topic of felicitation. By the suspension of specie payments, all was changed. The duty of Government was changed, and the constitution was changed also. Government was now to give up, and abandon forever, that very thing which had been the professed object of its most assiduous care, and most earnest pursuit, for eight long and arduous years!

Mr. President, when I heard of the suspension of the banks, I was by the side of the Ohio, on a journey, in the course of which I had occasion, frequently, to express my opinion on this new state of things; and those who may have heard me, or noticed my remarks, will bear witness that I constantly expressed the opinion that a new era had commenced; that a question of principle, and a question of the highest importance, had arisen, or would immediately arise; that, hereafter, the dispute would not be so much about means as ends; that the extent of the constitutional obligation of the Government would be controverted; in short, that the question, whether it was the duty of Congress to concern itself with the national currency, must, inevitably, become the leading topic of the times. So I thought, whenever I had the pleasure of addressing my fellow-citizens, and so I feel and think now. I said often on these occasions, and I say now, that it is a question which the people, by the regular exercise of their elective franchise, must decide. The subject is one of so much permanent importance, and public men have become so committed, on the one side or the other, that the decision must, as I think, be made by the country. We see an entirely new state of things. We behold new and untried principles of administration advanced and adopted. We witness an avowed and bold rejection of the policy hitherto always prevailing. The