country is not a small province or canton, but an empire, extending over a large and diversified surface, with a population of various conditions and pursuits. It is in this variety that consists its prosperity; for the different parts become useful one to the other, not by identity, but by difference, of production, and thus each by interchange contributes to the interest of the other. Hence, our internal trade that which carries on this exchange of the products and industry of the different portions of the United States — is one of our most important, I had almost said, the most important interest. Its operations are easy and silent, not always perceptible, but diffusing health and life throughout the system by the intercourse thus promoted from neighborhood to neighborhood, and from State to State. Let me explain this a little in detail. You are here in a graingrowing State. Your interest, then, is to have consumers, not growers of grain. The hands that, in that broad belt which stretches across the country, in which grain best succeeds, grow wheat, are interested to find mouths elsewhere to consume what they raise. The manufacturers of the North and East need the grain of the Middle States, and the cotton of the South, and these in turn buy the manufactures of the East. Nor is this solely matter of interest, but is in some degree brought about by the regulations of foreign governments. Our manufactures find no sale in Europe; and much of our grain is, under ordinary circumstances, excluded from its markets. In France it is never admitted, and in England contingently and uncertainly only, and in a manner to tantalize rather than gratify the American husbandman. The internal trade, moreover, moves as it were in a circle, and not directly the great imports of the country are made in New York, whence they pass to the South and to the West; but our exports are not mainly from New York, but from the South: the main imports, then, are made at one corner of the Union, and the exports from another. The same thing is true of other branches of trade. The produce of Ohio, much of it, descends the river to New Orleans; but Ohio is supplied with foreign commodities and domestic fabrics mainly through the New York Canals, the Lakes, and the Ohio Canal. The live stock of Kentucky goes to the Carolinas; but Kentucky buys nothing there, but transmits the money to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and in those cities procures what she wants, to be sent to her across the Alleghanies. This circuit of trade, in a country of such great extent as ours, demands, more than in any country under heaven, a uniform currency for the whole people; that what is money in Carolina shall be so elsewhere; that what the Kentucky drover receives, what the planter of Alabama sells for, what the laborer in New York gets in pay for his work, and carries home to support his family, shall be of ascertained and uniform value. This is not the time nor the occasion for an essay or dissertation on money; but I mean distinctly to express the opinion, that until the General Government shall take in hand the currency of the country, until that Government shall devise some means I say not what-of raising the whole currency to the level of gold and silver, there can be no prosperity. Let us retrace briefly the history of the currency question in this country a most important branch of the commercial question. I appeal to all who have studied the history of the times, and of the Constitution, whether our fathers, in framing the Constitution which should unite us in common rights and a common glory, had not also, among their chief objects, to provide a uniform system of commerce, including a uniform system of currency, for the whole country. I especially invite the ingenuous youth of the country to go back to the history of those times, and particularly to the Virginia resolutions of 1786, and to the proceedings of the convention at Annapolis and they will there find the prevailing argument for forming a General Government, was, to secure a uniform system of commerce, of custom-house duties, and a general regulation of the trade, external and internal, of the whole country. It was no longer to be the commerce of New York, or of Massachusetts, but of the United States, to be carried on under that starspangled banner, which was to bear, and into every sea, the glorious motto E Pluribus Unum. - This being a chief and cherished object, when the first Congress under the Constitution assembled in New York, General Washington, in his speech, naturally drew its attention to the necessity of a uniform currency, looking, probably, at that time, to the mint first established in Philadelphia, to provide that currency. What I wish to say is, that the difference in the currencies of the several States, and the want of a uniform system, both of commerce and currency, being among the chief inconveniences to be remedied by the establishment of the Constitution, the subject very naturally and properly attracted the early attention of the President, at the first session of the first Congress. At the second session, the United States Bank was established. Without detaining you by quoting papers or speeches of that day, I will simply refer any one, curious to inquire, to the official documents of the time, and to the contemporaneous expressions of public opinion on the leading measures of that day, for proof that, while one object of incorporating a National Bank was, that it might occasionally make loans to Government, and take charge of the disbursement of its revenues, another object, quite as prominent and important, was to furnish a circulation -a paper circulation founded on national resources, that should be current all over the country. General Washington had the sagacity to see, what, indeed, minds less sagacious than his could not fail to perceive, that the confidence reposed in the United States under the Constitution, would impart to whatever came from Congress more authority and value, than could attach to any thing emanating from any single State. The assumption by Congress of the State debts illustrates this remark; for the moment the United States became bound for those debts, and proceeded to fund them, they rose enormously and rapidly in value. General Washington and his advisers saw that a mixed currency, if the paper had the mark of the Union, and bore on it the spread eagle, would command universal confidence throughout the country; and the result proved the wisdom of their foresight. From the incorporation of the Bank to the expiration of its charter, embracing a period of great commercial and political vicissitudes, the currency of that Bank was never objected to: it, indeed, surpassed the hopes and equalled the desires of every body. The charter expired in 1811-how, or why, or from what state of parties, it is not my purpose to discuss but the charter was not renewed. War with England was declared in June, 1812. Immediately upon the declaration of war, all the Banks south of New England stopped payment, and those of New England ceased to issue notes; and thus, in fact, the specie paying in those States, amounted to little or nothing. At the close of the war, the condition of the currency, which had become very much deranged, not improving, Mr. Madison presented the subject to Congress. In his messages, both in 1814 and 1815, he dwelt earnestly on the subject; and in 1816 the second Bank of the United States was incorporated, and went at once into operation. At its outset, owing possibly to mismanagement perhaps unavoidably — the Bank met with heavy losses; but it fulfilled its functions in providing a currency for the whole country; and, neither during the eight years of President Monroe's administration, nor the four years of President Adams's, were any complaints on that score heard. And now I desire to call attention to a particular fact. There were several candidates for the Presidency to succeed Mr. Monroe General Jackson, Mr. Adams, Mr. Crawford, and Mr. Clay. None of them received a sufficient number of votes from the electors to be chosen President. General Jackson received the largest number of any; but the House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams President. From that moment a fierce opposition was commenced against Mr. Adams's administration. I do not propose to discuss the character or conduct of this opposition. The fact of its existence is all that I have to do with - now, and to remind you that, from the inauguration, in March, 1825, to March, 1829, an opposition, distinguished for its remarkable ability, perseverance, and ultimate success, was carried on under the name and flag of General Jackson. All other candidates had disappeared. General Jackson was the sole opponent; and four years of active, angry political controversy ensued during which, every topic of complaint that could be dragged into the vortex, was dragged in; and yet I beg special attention to this fact-not once, during this four years' controversy, did General Jackson himself, or any press in his interest, or any of his friends in Congress or elsewhere, raise a single voice against the condition of the currency, or propose any change therein. Of the hundreds here, possibly, who supported Jackson, not one dreamed that he was elected to put down established institutions, and overthrow the currency of the country. Who, among all those that, in the honest convictions of their hearts, cried, Hurrah for Jackson! believed, or expected, or desired, that he would interfere with the Bank of the United States, or destroy the circulating medium of the country. [Here there arose a cry from the crowd, "None! none!"] I stand here upon the fact, and defy contradiction from any quarter, that there was no complaint, then, any where, of the Bank. There never was, before, a country of equal extent, where exchanges and circulation were carried on so cheaply, so conveniently, and so securely. General Jackson was inaugurated in March, 1829, and pronounced an address upon that occasion, which I heard, as I did the oath he took to support the Constitution. In that address were enumerated various objects, requiring, as he said, Reform; but among them was not the Bank of the United States, nor the currency. This was in March, 1829. In December, 1829, General Jackson came out with the declaration (than which, none I have ever heard surprised me more) that "the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States might be well questioned," and that it had failed to furnish a sound and uniform currency to the country. What produced this change of views? Down to March of the same year, nothing of this sort was indicated or threatened. What, then, induced the change? [A voice from the crowd said, "Martin Van Buren." If that be so, [immediately rejoined Mr. WEBSTER,] it was the production of mighty consequences by a cause not at all proportioned. I will state, in connection with, and in elucidation of, this subject, certain transactions, which constitute one of those contingences in human affairs, in which casual circumstances, acting upon the peculiar temper and character of a man of very decided temper and character, affect the fate of nations. A movement was made in the summer of 1829, in order to effect a change in certain officers of the Branch of the Bank of the United States in Portsmouth, N. H. Mr. Woodbury, then a Senator from New Hampshire, transmitted to the President of the Bank at Philadelphia, a request, purporting to proceed from merchants and men of business of all parties, asking the removal of the President of that Branch, not on political grounds, but as acceptable and advantageous to the business community. At the same time, Mr. Woodbury addressed a letter to the then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Ingham, suggesting that his Department should, on political grounds, obtain from the Mother Bank the removal of the Branch President. This letter was transmitted to the President of the Mother Bank, and reached him about the same time as the other; so that, looking upon this picture and upon that, upon one letter that urged the removal on political grounds, and on the other that denied that political considerations entered into the matter at all, he concluded to let things remain as they were. Appeals were then artfully made to the President of the United States. His feelings were enlisted, and it is well known that, when he had an object in view, his character was to go ahead. I mean to speak no evil nor disrespect of General Jackson. He has passed off the stage to his retirement at the Hermitage, which it would be as well, perhaps, that friends should not disturb, and where I sincerely wish he may, in tranquillity, pass the residue of his days. But General Jackson's character was imperious he took the back track never; and however his friends might differ, or whether they concurred or dissented, they were fain always to submit. General Jackson then put forth the pretension that appointments by the Bank should have regard to the wishes of the Treasury; the matter was formally submitted to the Directors of the Bank, and they as formally determined that the Treasury could not rightfully or properly have any thing to say in the matter. A long and somewhat angry correspondence ensued; for General Jackson found, in the President of the Bank, a man who had something of a spice of his own quality. The result was, that the Bank resisted, and refused the required acquiescence in the dictations of the Treasury. This happened in the summer and autumn of 1829, and in December we had the message, in which, for the first time, the Bank was arraigned and denounced. Then came the application of the Bank for re-incorporation, the passage of a bill for that purpose through both Houses, and the President's Veto on it. The Bank of the United States being thus put down, a multitude of new State Banks sprang up: and next came a law, adopting some of these as Deposit Banks. Now, what I have to say in regard to General Jackson in this matter, is this: he said he could establish a better currency; and, whether successful or not in this, it is at least to be said in his favor and praise, that he never did renounce the obligation of the Federal Government to take care of the |