may heap gold bags upon gold bags, we may create what securities, in the constitution of local Banks, we please, but we cannot give to any such Bank a character that shall insure the receipts of its notes, with equal readiness, every where throughout the valley of the Mississippi, and from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Lawrence. Nothing can accomplish this, but an institution which is National in its character.. The People desire to see, in their currency, the marks of this nationality. They like to see the spread Eagle, and where they see that they have confidence.

Who, if he will look at the present state of things, is not wise enough to see, that there is much and deep cause for fear, in regard to the future, unless the Government will take the subject of currency under its own control, as it ought to do. For one, I think I see trouble ahead, and 1 look for effectual prevention and remedy only to a just exercise of the powers of Congress. I look not without apprehension upon the creation of numerous and powerful State Institutions, full of competition and rivalry, and under no common control. I look for other and often-repeated expansions of paper circulation, inflations of trade, and general excess; and then, again, for other violent ebbings of the swollen flood, ending in other suspensions. I see no steadiness, no security, till the Government of the United States shall fulfil its constitutional duty. I shall be disappointed, certainly, if, for any length of time, the benefits of a sound and uniform convertible paper currency can be enjoyed, while the whole subject is left to six-and-twenty States, and to eight hundred local Banks, all anxious for the use of money, and the use of credit, in the highest degree.

As I have already said, these sub-Treasury schemes are but contrivances for getting away from a disagreeable duty. And, after all, there are scarcely any two of the friends of the Administration, who can agree upon the same sub-Treasury scheme. Each has a plan of his own. One man requires that all Banks shall be discarded, and nothing but gold and silver shall be received for revenue. Another will exclaim, "That won't do that's not my thunder." Another would prohibit all the small notes, and another would banish all the large ones. Another is for a special deposit schemefor making the banks sub-Treasuries and depositories- for making sub-Treasuries of the broken, rotten, treacherous Banks! - for taking bank notes, tying them up with red strings, depositing them in the vaults, and paying them out again.

It has been the proposition of the Administration, to separate the money of the Government from the money of the People; to secure a good medium of payments, for the use of the Treasury, in collecting and disbursing revenue, and to take no care of the general circulation of the Country. This is the sum of its policy. Looking upon this whole scheme but as an abandonment of

clear Constitutional obligation, I have opposed it, in every form in which it has been presented. My object, as I have already said, and that of those with whom I acted, has been to prevent the sanction of all or any of these new projects, by authority of law, until another Congress should be elected, which might express the will of the People, formed after the present state of things arose. In this object we have succeeded. If we have done little positive good, we have at least prevented the introduction and establishment of new theories, and new contrivances, and we have preserved the Constitution, in this respect, entire. No surrender or abandonment of important powers is, as yet, endorsed on the parchment of that Instrument. No new clause is appended to it, making its provisions a mere non obstante to Executive discretion. It has been snatched from the furnace—from this furnace of party contention, heated seven times hotter than it has been wont to be heated, -the Constitution has been rescued, and we may hold it up to the People, this day, and tell them that even the smell of the fire is not upon it.

But now, Gentlemen, a stronger arm must be put forth. A mightier guardianship must now interfere. Time has been gained for public discussion, and consideration, and the great result is now with the People. That they will ultimately decide right, I have the fullest confidence. Party attachment, and party patronage, it is true, may do much to delay the results of general opinion, but they cannot long resist the convictions of a whole People. It is most certain that, up to the present hour, this new policy has been most unfavorably received. State after State has fallen off from the ranks of the Administration, on account of its promulgation, and of the persevering attempt to raise upon it a system of legal, practical administration. The Message of September completed the list of causes necessary to produce a popular revolution in sentiment in Maine, Ohio, New Jersey, and New York. Since the proposition was renewed, at the late session, we have witnessed a similar revolution in Connecticut and Louisiana, and very important changes, perhaps equivalent to revolutions, in the strength of parties in other States. There is little reason to doubt, if all the Electors of the Country could be polled to-day, that a great and decisive majority would be found against all this strange policy. Yet, Gentlemen, I do not consider the question, by any means, as decided. The policy is not abandoned. It is to be persisted in. Its friends look for a reaction in public opinion. I think I understand their hopes and expectations. They rely on this reaction. Every thing is to be accomplished by reaction. A month ago, this reaction was looked for to show itself in Louisiana. Altogether disappointed in that quarter, the friends of the policy now stretch their hopes to the other extremity of the Union, and look for it in

Maine. In my opinion, Gentlemen, there can be no reaction which can reconcile the people of this Country to the policy at present pursued.

There must, in my opinion, be a change. If the Administration will not change its course, it must be changed itself. But I repeat, that the decision now lies with the People; and in that decision, when it shall be fairly pronounced, I shall cheerfully acquiesce. We ought to address ourselves, on this great and vital question, to the whole People, to the candid and intelligent of all parties. We should exhibit its magnitude; its essential consequence to the Constitution; and its infinite superiority to all ordinary strifes of party. We may well and truly say, that it is a new question; that the great mass of the People, of any party, is not committed on it; and it is our duty to invoke all true patriots, all who wish for the wellbeing of the Government and the Country, to resist these Experiments upon the Constitution, and this wild and strange departure from our hitherto approved and successful policy.

At the same time, Gentlemen, while we thus invoke aid from all quarters, we must not suffer ourselves to be deceived. We must yield to no expedients, to no schemes and projects, unknown to the Constitution, and alien to our own history and our habits. We are to be saved, if saved at all, in the Constitution, not out of it. None can aid us, none can aid the Country, by any thing in the nature of mere political project, or any devices supply the place of regular Constitutional administration. Any man who, in the present crisis of affairs, shall set up his own ingenuity, or follow his own whim and caprice, instead of looking to the Constitution itself, for relief and safety, will exhibit the foolhardiness of the person, exhibited in one of the old Mysteries which undertook to represent the flood, who had ascended to the top of the highest eminence he could reach, and when, even there, the swelling waters had reached to his chin, told Noah to get along with his old craft, for he did not think there would be much of a storm, after all.

It was to prevent, or to remedy, such a state of things as now exists, that the Constitution was formed and adopted. The time when there is a disordered currency, and a distracted commerce, is the very time when its agency is required; and I hope those who wish for a restoration of general prosperity, will look steadily to the light which the Constitution sheds on the path of duty.

As to you and me, Fellow-Citizens, our course is not doubtful. However others may decide, we hold on to the Constitution, and to all its powers, as they have been authentically expounded, and practically and successfully experienced, for a long period. Our interests, our habits, our affections, all bind us to the principles of our Union as our leading and guiding star.

Gentlemen, I cannot resume my seat without expressing, again,

my sense of gratitude for your generous appreciation of my services. I have the pleasure to know that this occasion originated with the Boston Mechanics, a body always distinguished, always honored, always patriotic, from the first dawn of the Revolution to the present time. Who is here, whose father has not told him-there are some here old enough to know it themselves that they were Boston Mechanics whose blood reddened State Street, on the memorable fifth of March. And as the tendencies of the Revolution went forward, and times grew more and more critical, it was the Boston Mechanics who composed, to a great extent, the crowds which frequented the Old Whig Head Quarters in Union Street, assembled, as occasion required Patriots to come together, in the Old South, or filled to suffocation this Immortal Cradle of American Liberty.

When Independence was achieved, their course was alike intelligent, wise, and patriotic. They saw, as quick and as fully as any men in the Country, the infirmities of the Old Confederation, and discerned the means by which they might be remedied. From the first, they were ardent and zealous friends of the present Constitution. They saw the necessity of united councils, and common regulations, for all the States, in matters of trade and commerce. They saw, what indeed is obvious enough, that their interest was completely involved with that of the Mercantile class, and other classes; and that nothing but one general, uniform system of commerce, trade, and imports, could possibly give to the business and industry of the Country vigor and prosperity. When the Convention for acting on the Constitution sat in this city, and the result of its deliberations was doubtful, the Mechanics assembled at the Green Dragon, and passed the most firm and spirited Resolutions in favor of the Constitution; and when these Resolutions were presented to the Boston Delegation, by a Committee of which Colonel Revere was Chairman, they were asked by one of the members, how many Mechanics were at the meeting; to which Colonel Revere answered, "More than there are stars in heaven." With Statesman-like sagacity, they foresaw the advantages of a United Government. They celebrated, therefore, the adoption of the Constitution, by rejoicings and festivals, such, perhaps, as have not since been witnessed. Emblematic representations, long processions of all the trades, and whatever else might contribute to the joyous demonstration of gratified patriotism, distinguished the occasion. Gentlemen, I can say with great truth, that an occasion intended to manifest respect to me, could have originated no where with more satisfaction to myself than with the Mechanics of Boston.

I am bound to make my acknowledgments to other classes of citizens who assemble here to join with the Mechanics in the

purpose of this meeting. I see with pleasure the successors and followers of the Mathers, of Clarke, and of Cooper; and I am gratified, also, by the presence of those of my own profession in whose immediate presence and society so great a portion of my life has been passed. It is natural that I should value highly this proof of their regard. We have walked the same paths, we have listened to the same oracles, we have been guided, together, by the lights of Dana, and Parsons, and Sewall, and Parker, not to mention living names, not unknown or unhonored, either at home or abroad. As I honor the Profession, so I honor and respect its worthy members, as defenders of truth, as supporters of law and liberty, as men who ever act on steady principles of honor and justice, and from whom no one, with a right cause, is turned away, though he may come clothed in rags.

Mingling in this vast assembly, I perceive, Gentlemen, many citizens, who bear an appellation which is honored, and which deserves to be honored, wherever a spirit of enlightened liberality, humanity, and charity, finds regard and approbation among men - I mean the appellation of Boston Merchants. In a succession of generations, they have contributed, uniformly, to great objects of public interest and advantage. They have founded institutions of Learning, of Piety, and of Charity. They have explored the field of human misfortune and calamity; they have sought out the causes of vice, and want, and ignorance, and have sought them only that they might be removed and extirpated. They have poured out their wealth, the acquisition of their industry and honorable enterprise, like water, that that might relieve the necessities of poverty, administer comfort to the wretched, soothe the ravings of distressed insanity, open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, and shed the light of knowledge, and the reforming influences of religion, where ignorance and crime have abounded. How am I to commend, not only single acts of benevolence, but whole lives of benevolence, such as this? May He reward them may that Almighty Being reward them, in whose irreversible judgment, in that day which is to come, the merit even of the widow's mite shall outweigh the advantages of all the pomp and grandeur of the world!

Gentlemen, Citizens of Boston, I have been in the midst of you for twenty years. It is nearly sixteen years, since, quite unexpectedly to myself, you saw fit to require public service at my hands, and to place me in the National Legislature. If, in that long period, you have found, in my public conduct, something to be approved, and more to be forgiven than to be reprehended, and if we meet here, to-day, better friends for so many years of acquaintance and mutual confidence, I may well esteem myself happy in the enjoyment of a high reward.

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