H. OF R.] Alabama and the Executive of the United States. [JAN. 6, 1834. obedience as individuals, they will, without doubt, be It is known to every one within the hearing of my protected in the enjoyment of those possessions which voice that Owens was killed by a soldier, acting under they have improved by their industry; submitting to the the order of his officer and the deputy marshal. It is also laws of the States, and receiving, like other citizens, pro- doubtless known that a true bill has been found against tection in their persons and property, they will, ere long, him for murder, and true bills against Lieutenant Laing, become merged in the mass of our population." and Austill the deputy marshal, as accessaries to the murIn the next year, the Secretary of War, in his report der. The question is the same with Alabama as it was dated 1st December, 1830, again calling the attention of with Georgia. Orders are now issued, requiring the milthe President to our Indian relations, says: itary to drive off the settlers from Indian reservations, and "Before the States were members of this Union, they are to be executed after the 15th of this month. In were sovereign. The United States Government can what a difficult and dangerous situation are they placed! legitimately exercise those rights only with which the If they act, death—if they refuse, disgrace awaits them. States parted under their general compact. To regulate The execution of the orders of the President may subject their internal municipal authority, is a privilege which has them to prosecutions for murder in the State courts. not been surrendered. Among those rights is the indis- The President has given orders that they shall submit putable one of controlling their own citizens, and govern- themselves to the civil authority, and by no means to ing them after their own modes, with this exception: that obstruct the execution of the laws. He has also issued republican form of government is to be secured to each. orders that their cases shall be taken from the State to The States, being sovereign and independent within their the Federal courts. As in the case of Tassels, the anown limits, can admit no check upon their sovereignty, swer of Alabama to the citation from the Supreme Court whether in its exercise it affects one citizen or another- may be the execution of the sentence of death. It is a the white man or the red. By courtesy, the laws have question of sovereignty-a question of freedom and slave. been withheld from an interference with the Indians with- ry. Is not this cause for the inquiry which has been in a State; and that which heretofore was mere courtesy, asked? Let me earnestly entreat the House to listen to is now insisted upon as matter of constitutional right.” the voice of humanity, and, by timely interposition, arrest These are old fashioned doctrines, Mr. Speaker-they the arm of military force, and the unnecessary effusion of are the doctrines of '98, and they were well. It was the the blood of our people. opinion of the Secretary of War, writing by authority of the President, that the States are sovereign and independent, and that the citizens of a State are entitled to a re- Note 1. Article 5th.-" All intruders upon the country publican form of government. Shall we be told the laws hereby ceded shall be removed therefrom, in the same of a State are inadequate to give redress to an Indian for manner as intruders may be removed by law from other injuries done to him, or trespasses committed on his pos- public land, until the country is surveyed, and the selec sessions, and that military tribunals are to be substituted? tions made; excepting, however, from this provision And shall we be also told the State is sovereign and in- those whites who have made their own improvements, dependent, and that the people have secured to them a and not expelled the Creeks from theirs. Such persons republican form of government? The gentleman from may remain till their crops are gathered. After the coun Alabama has said the President is impatient of "the try is surveyed and the selections made, this article shall law's delay." Would to God he were equally impatient not operate upon that part of it not included in such selecof the "insolence of office." If he were, we should not tions. But intruders shall, in the manner before describpermit military officers to decide upon our rights, and ed, be removed from these selections for the term of five destroy the lives of our people. years from the ratification of this treaty, or until the same are conveyed to white persons." One extract more, and I have done. Transmitting the report of the Secretary of War to Congress, with his message in 1830, the President says: ment. NOTES TO MR. JONES'S REMARKS. Note 2. Article 3.-"Those tracts may be conveyed by the persons selecting the same to any other persons for a "The Indians may leave the State, or not, as they fair consideration, in such manner as the President may please. The purchase of their lands does not alter, in direct. The contract shall be certified by some person the least, their personal relations with the State Govern-appointed for that purpose by the President, but shall not No act of the General Government has ever been be valid till the President approves the same. deemed necessary to give the States jurisdiction over the shall be given by the United States on the completion of persons of the Indians. That they possess, by virtue of the payment." their sovereign powers within their own limits, in as full a manner before as after the purchase of the Indian lands; nor can this Government add to or diminish it." A title Note 3.-Original Regulations, 28th November, 1833. 2d. If the payments are all made to the satisfaction of the Indians, and the title is clearly established in the opin I have shown, Mr. Speaker, the opinions of this House, ion of the approving agent, then an absolute deed from expressed through its committee. I have shown the opin- the Indian to the white person may be certified. ions of the Secretary of War and of the President upon Supplemental Regulations, 18th December, 1833. this important, this momentous subject-State sovereign- In consequence of a representation from one of the ty and jurisdiction. The laws of 1802 and of 1807 were certifying agents that a construction would be put upon then in as full force as they are now. It will be recollect- the above regulations which would incontestably lead to ed that Tassels was tried for a murder committed in the the committing great frauds upon the Indians, in conse Indian country, over which the State of Georgia had ex-quence of the facility of imposing on them, and the ease tended her jurisdiction, and was condemned. A citation with which declarations or acknowledgments may be prowas issued from a judge of the Supreme Court to arrest cured, the President is desirous of guarding against such his execution, and remove the case to the Supreme Court, a result, as far as in his power, and of securing to every and was served upon the court and State. In answer to Indian the receipt of a just consideration for his properthat citation, Tassels was hanged: and the public sentiment ty. The following additional and explanatory regulations throughout the State approved that answer, and every are therefore adopted: heart and every arm was ready to defend it. Tassels was 1st. The payments required by the 2d article of the an obscure individual: the man whom he murdered was an above regulations must be made in the presence of the Indian or half-breed: nobody cared for either. It was a approving agent, except in the very few cases where the question of sovereignty and jurisdiction-a question of Indian may be prevented by illness or inability from apfreedom and slavery. pearing before the agent, &c. JAN. 7, 1834.] Presents from Foreign Powers-Washington Bridge. [H. of R. 2d. The contract described in the 2d article of the will not, under any circumstances, accept presents of any above regulations must be entered into subsequent to the description from any foreign state. location of the reservation. I deem it proper, on this occasion, to invite the attenNote 4. Article 2.-"The United States engage to sur- tion of Congress to the presents which have heretofore vey the said land as soon as the same can be con- been made to our public officers, and which have been veniently done, after the ratification of this treaty, and, deposited, under the orders of the Government, in the when the same is surveyed, to allow ninety principal Department of State. These articles are altogether usechiefs of the Creek tribe to select one section each; and less to the Government, and the care and the preservation every other head of a Creek family to select one-half sec- of them in the Department of State are attended with tion each: which tracts shall be reserved from sale for considerable inconvenience. their use for the term of five years, unless sooner disposed That provision of the constitution which forbids any of by them. A census of these persons shall be taken officer, without the consent of Congress, to accept any under the direction of the President, and the selections present from any foreign Power, may be considered as shall be made so as to include the improvements of having been satisfied by the surrender of the articles to each person within his selection, if the same can be so the Government, and they might now be disposed of by made," &c. Congress to those for whom they were originally intended, or to their heirs, with obvious propriety, in both cases; and, in the latter, would be received as grateful memorials of the character of the parent. Article 6.-"Twenty-nine sections, in addition to the foregoing, may be located, and patents for the same shall then issue to those persons, being Creeks, to whom the same may be assigned by the Creek tribe. But wherever the grantees of those tracts possess improvements, and as near as may be in the centre," &c. Note 5. Article 4th." At the end of five years, all the Creeks entitled to these selections, and desirous of remaining, shall receive patents therefor, in fee-simple, from the United States." tion. Mr. McKINLEY said he was not ready for the quesThere should be further inquiry into facts before such a measure was adopted. It could not but produce great excitement in the country. To him, it seemed very extraordinary that, on the 6th day of January, that House should be called upon to prepare for a state of things which was to happen in Alabama nine days after. He moved an adjournment. But the House refused to adjourn. Mr. McKINLEY then moved to lay the resolution on the table until to morrow. On this motion Mr. DAVIS, of South Carolina, asked the yeas and nays. Mr. GRENNELL called for a second reading of the resolution, and it was read at the Clerk's table. Mr. McKINLEY now withdrew his motion to lay on the table, and moved that the consideration of the resolution be postponed until to-morrow. Mr. FOSTER inquired whether, if this motion prevailed, this resolution would have precedence of the bank question. The CHAIR replied in the negative, unless the House should order otherwise. The bank question was the un As, under the positive order now given, similar presents cannot hereafter be received, even for the purpose of being placed at the disposal of the Government, I recommend to Congress to authorize by law that the articles already in the Department of State shall be delivered to the persons to whom they were originally presented, if living, and to the heirs of such as may have died. ANDREW JACKSON. The message was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations; and The House then adjourned. TUESDAY, JANUARY 7. WASHINGTON BRIDGE. of the United States, by Mr. Donelson, his private secThe following message was received from the President retary: WASHINGTON, January 7, 1834. To the House of Representatives: In compliance with the resolution requesting the President of the United States to lay before the House "a copy of any contract which may have been made for the construction of a bridge across the Potomac, opposite to the city of Washington, together with the authority under which such contract may have been made; the names of the contractors and of their securities, if any; and the plan and estimate of the cost of such a bridge," I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom the resolution was referred, containing all the Mr. MARDIS demanded the yeas and nays on post-information upon the subject which he is now able to communicate. ponement. They were ordered by the House, and, being taken, stood as follows: yeas 110, nays 107. So the resolution was postponed until to-morrow. PRESENTS FROM FOREIGN POWERS. The CHAIR presented to the House the following sage from the President of the United States, received by the hands of Major Donelson: finished business in its class. WASHINGTON, January 6, 1834. To the House of Representatives: ANDREW JACKSON. January 6, 1834. SIR: In answer to the resolution of the House of Repmes-resentatives of the 20th instant, referred by you to this department, and which requires information whether any contract has been made for the construction of a bridge across the Potomac river, opposite to the city of Washington, and, if there has been, copy of that contract, toI communicate to Congress an extract of a letter recently gether with the authority under which it may have been received from James R. Leib, consul of the United States made; the names of the contractors and of their securities, at Tangier, by which it appears that that officer has been if any; and the plan and estimate of the cost of such bridge, induced to receive from the Emperor of Morocco a pres- I have the honor to state that proposals were issued by ent of a lion and two horses, which he holds as belonging this department for building a bridge according to the to the United States. There being no funds at the dis-plan approved by you on the 11th day of April, 1833. posal of the Executive applicable to the objects stated by That Riah Gilson and Philander Stephens offered to Mr. Leib, I submit the whole subject to the consideration construct it according to that plan, for the sum of of Congress, for such direction as in their wisdom may $1,186,625; and this, being the lowest bid, was accepted seem proper. I have directed instructions to be given to in the month of May last. all our ministers and agents abroad, requiring that, in future, unless previously authorized by Congress, they Some misunderstanding having arisen as to the terms of the contract, various delays took place in endeavoring to H. of R.] Appropriation Bill-Removal of the Deposites. [JAN. 7, 1834. adjust the difference. At length, finding that there was taken an interest in our welfare, sufficient to allow us to but little prospect of coming to a satisfactory conclusion, deserve their recommendation. In consequence of which, I addressed a letter, on the 27th day of last November, we refuse executing the contract, and hereby decline it. to the contractors, notifying them that, unless the conYour obedient servants, tract, prepared under the directions of this department, To the Hon. R. B. TANEY, RIAH GILSON & Co. was executed by them within twenty days from that time, I would consider it as at an end. Secretary of the Treasury. I received on the 29th day of November their answer, On motion of Mr. MERCER, the message was referred stating that they declined proceeding with the contract. to the Committee on the District of Columbia, and ordered Copies of my letter and their answer are hereto annexed, to be printed. marked A and B. APPROPRIATION BILL. After this bid was renounced, O. H. Dibble proposed to erect the bridge on a plan varying, in some respects, Government, in part, for 1834, having been returned The bill making an appropriation for the service of from the one heretofore approved by you. The princi. pal alteration proposed was to dispense with the piles with amendments inade thereto by the Senate, was, on originally contemplated, and to go through the mud by motion of Mr. HUBBARD, committed to the Committee means of coffer-dams, to the solid earth, for the founda- of the Whole. tion of the stone pillars to support the arches. Some other changes of the plan, not material here to specify, were also suggested; and he proposed to construct the bridge according to his plan for $1,350,000. next. THE DEPOSITE QUESTION. The House resumed the consideration of the motion to refer to the Committee of Ways and Means the reasons assigned by the Secretary of the Treasury for the removal of the public deposites, with Mr. McDUFFIE's motion for instructing the Committee to report a bill for restoring them to the Bank of the United States; when Mr. BINNEY rose and addressed the Chair to the following effect: The price for which he proposed to do the work was less than any of the bids previously made, except the one before mentioned to have been relinquished; and the alterations in the plan were not such as would lessen the expense to the contractor. He moreover engaged to finish the work in two years from the 1st day of March Mr. Speaker: The amendment offered by the gentle. The plan proposed by Mr. Dibble was deemed by man from South Carolina [Mr. McDUFFIE] proposes to you preferable to the one before adopted, and the pro- instruct the Committee of Ways and Means "to report a posed changes approved; and as no doubt was entertained joint resolution, providing that the public revenue, hereof your right to sanction the modification proposed in the after collected, be deposited in the Bank of the United original plan, and to accept a bid more favorable to the States, in conformity with the public faith, pledged in United States than any before made, you informed Mr. the charter of the said bank." It, therefore, presents Dibble that his plan would be adopted, and his offer directly the question of the sufficiency of the Secretary's accepted, upon his entering into the proper covenants, reasons for removing the public deposites from the bank, and giving security for their performance to the satisfac- and for making the future deposites elsewhere; and tion of this department; and that, in the mean time, he brings up for the consideration of this House every thing might begin to make his preparations for the commence- that can bear upon the great topics of national faith and ment of the work. public safety that are involved in the issue. Many other engagements have prevented me from pre- I mean to discuss this great question, sir, as I think it senting for your approval, in the usual form, a plan of becomes me to discuss it, on my first entrance into this the work, with the precision and care which the magni- House; as it would become any one to discuss it, having tude of the proposed expenditure requires. And the the few relations to extreme party that I have, and being contract has, therefore, not yet been signed, nor the desirous, for the short time that he means to be connectsecurity given. But I have taken measures to have the plan of Mr. Dibble carefully examined, and the specifications of the work properly made, and hope to be able to submit them to you without much further delay. I have the honor to be, respectfully, Your obedient servant, ed with the station, to do or omit nothing that shall be the occasion of painful retrospect. I mean to discuss it as gravely and temperately as I can: not, sir, because it is not a fit subject for the most animated and impassioned appeals to every fear and hope that a patriot can entertain for his country-for I hold, without doubt, that it is so; but because, as the defence of the measure to be examined comes to this House under the name and in the guise of "reason," I deem it fit to receive it, and to try its pretensions by the standard to which it appeals. I mean to examine the Secretary's paper, as the friends of the measstates them, unless in the same paper, or in other papers ure say it ought to be examined--to take the facts as he proceeding from the same authority, there are contradictions; and then I must be allowed the exercise of private judgment upon the evidence--to take the motives as the Secretary alleges them--to add no facts, except such as are notorious or incontestable, and then to ask the impartial judgment of the House upon my answer. Sir, the effort scems to be almost unnecessary. The great practical answer is already given by the condition of the country. No reasoning in this House can refute it; none is necessary to sustain it. It comes to us, it is hourly coming to us, in the language of truth, and soberness, and bitterness, from almost every quarter of the country; and, if any man is so blind to the realities around him as to consider all this but as a theatrical exhibition got up by the bank, or the friends of the bank, to terrify and deceive this nation, he will continue blind to them JAN. 7, 1834.] Removal of the Deposites. [H. OF R. until the catastrophe of the great drama shall make his that can foretell the extent or the mischiefs of the defaculties as useless for the correction of the evil, as they now seem to be for its apprehension. rangement, or in what new contrivance a compensation may be found for the disturbing force. Mr. Speaker, the change produced in this country, in Sir, whence has come this derangement? It comes the short space of three months, is without example in from the act of the Secretary in removing the deposites, the history of this or any other nation. The past summer and in declaring his doctrine of an unregulated, unconfound the people delighted or contented with the apparent trolled, State bank paper currency. It is against all true adjustment of some of the most fearful controversies that philosophy to assign more causes than are sufficient to ever divided them. The Chief Magistrate of the Union had produce the ascertained effect. This cause is sufficient; entered upon his office for another term, and was receiv- this I verily believe has produced it; and I hope for the ing more than the honors of a Roman triumph from the patient attention of the House to my humble efforts herehappy people of the middle and northern States, without after to show that nothing else has produced it. distinction of party, age, or sex. Nature promised to the Sir, the Secretary of the Treasury has, in my poor husbandman an exuberant crop. Trade was replenishing judgment, committed one error which is wholly inexcusthe coffers of the nation, and rewarding the merchant's able; it is, in part, the error of the argument that has proenterprise. The spindle, and the shuttle, and every in-ceeded from the honorable member from Tennessee. strument of mechanic industry, were pushing their busy That error lies in supposing that there were but two oblabors with profit. Internal improvements were bringing jects to be considered in coming to his decision upon the down the remotest west to the shores of the Atlantic, and deposites--the administration and the bank. The counbinding and compacting the dispersed inhabitants of this try has been forgotten. The administration was to vinimmense territory as the inhabitants of a single State. dicate its opinions. The bank was to be made to give One universal smile beamed from the happy face of this way to them. The consequences were to be left to those favored country. But, sir, we have had a fearful admo- whom they might concern; and they are such as modernition that we hold all such treasures in earthen vessels; ate human wisdom might have foreseen, such as are nw and a still more fearful one, that misjudging man, either before us. While the administration is apparently strong, in error or in anger, may, in a moment, dash them to the and the bank undisturbed, the country lies stunned and earth, and break into a thousand fragments the finest stupified by the blow; and it is now for this House to say creations of industry and intelligence. whether they will continue the error, by forgetting the country here also, or will endeavor to raise her to her feet, and assist her in recovering from the shaft that was aimed at the bank, but has glanced aside and fallen on her The amount of domestic bills collected for The amount of drafts by Bank United States 42,096,062 32,796,087 12,361,337 Sir, there is one great interest in this nation, that is, and I fear will for some time continue to be, peculiarly subject to derangement; and yet every other interest is intimately and inseparably involved in it: I mean the cur-own bosom. rency. We have some twenty scores of banks from which Mr. Speaker, I cannot better show the extent of the this currency is derived. We have from eighty to a hun- derangement which this act is certain to produce, unless dred millions of bank notes, with a metallic circulation it is corrected, than by a statement of the uses which the along with it, not greater, perhaps, than as one to seven. Bank of the United States has annually afforded, in variWe have, it may be, one hundred and forty to fifty mil-ous ways, to the people of the United States. I take the lions of bank notes, and bank deposites, performing in year 1832, for which the returns are complete as to part the same office, with about the same proportion of the item of exchanges, and the years 1832 and 1833 for specie in the banks to sustain it. It is a system depend- some other items of nearly equal moment. ing essentially for its safety upon public confidence, and The amount of domestic bills of exchange, purchased in that confidence depending of course upon the regularity all parts of the Union, in 1832, was $67,516,673 of the whole machine, which again depends upon the [The half year from December, 1832, to June, control that governs the whole. When compared with 1833, was $41,312,982, showing a large inthe currencies of England and France--in the former of crease in that line during the first half of this which the metallic circulation is estimated as nearly one- year.] half, and in the latter as nine-tenths of the whole-it may be seen how much more confidence is required here, and how much greater the liability to shock and to derangement. Yet, by the regulation and control of the national bank, ever since that regulation and control have obtained, this system has worked well, and it has worked well only by means of them. Sir, this regulation and control have been thrown away-thrown away wantonly and contemptuously. In an instant, sir, almost in the midst of the smiling scene I have described, without any preparation of the country at large, with nothing by way of notice but a menace, which no one but the bank itself, and she only from the instinct of self-preservation, seems to have respected, this most delicate of all the instruments of political economy has been assaulted, deranged, and dislocated; and the whole scene of enchantment has vanished, as by the command of a wizard. The State banks are paralyzed--they can do, or they will do, nothing. The Bank of the United States stands upon her own defence. She can do, or she will do nothing, until she knows the full extent of the storm that is to follow, and measures her own ability to meet it. Prices are falling, domestic exchange is falling, bank notes are falling, stocks are falling, and, in some instances, have fallen dead. The gravitation of the system is disturbed, and its loss threatened; and it being the work of man, and directed only by his limited wisdom, there is no La Place or Bowditch VOL. X.-146 Notes of Bank United States and its branches, Notes of State banks received by the Bank Transfers of funds for the United States, Making a total of domestic exchange, Making the total amount of exchanges, by 39,449,527 21,630,557 16,100,000 9,767,667 - 211,717,910 13,456,737 $255,174,647 The amount of premiums on domestic exchange, re H. OF R.] Removal of the Deposites. [JAN. 7, 1834. ceived by the bank for the same period, was $217,249 56, nience. The effects of such a measure must depend upon which is about one-eleventh of one per cent. on the ag- the condition of trade at the moment of removal, upon gregate amount of the domestic operations of the bank, the continued or interrupted application of the money say $241,717,910; and this has been the whole cost of transferred to the same uses to which it has been before this circulation to the people of the United States, by applied, and upon the prosecution or discontinuance of the aid of which their property of every description has the general system of banking operations which prevailed been passing in a copious and uniform current, from one at the moment of transfer. What its effects must have extremity of this nation to the other. To this extensive been, and must continue to be, in the actual circumstances aid must be added that derived from the bank discounts, of the country, taken in connexion with the imputed which, with the domestic bills purchased, amounted, in design, it is not difficult to show. the year 1832, to an average sum of $66,871,349, and, in the year 1833, to an average of $61,746,708; and that also derived from the constant circulation of her notes, averaging $20,309,359 for the year 1832, and $18,495,436 for the succeeding year. Sir, the Bank of the United States held of the public deposites, of every description, on the 1st of August, 1833, according to the statement of the Secretary of the Treasury, the sum of $7,599,931; and they were in a course of increase, which the bank knew as well as the Secretary, up to the 1st of October, 1833, when they amounted to the sum of $9,868,435; say ten millions of dollars. How was this money to be paid? The Secretary of the Treasury had a right to demand its payment, when, where, and in such sum or sums, as he thought fit. He had such a power to do it in point of form, that the bank could not question its exercise in point of right. It was the duty of the bank to be prepared to pay it; and the question must be answered, how was the money to be paid? The answer given to this question, and given with a view to involve the bank in odium and prejudice, is this: that she ought to have paid it, or whatever the Secretary chose to require of it, in specie, from her vaults, without distressing the community, by calling upon others to pay their debts to her. To say nothing of the fact, sir, that the bank has always paid every one, the Treasury included, in specie, unless they preferred something else, the doctrine that she was to pay in specie to the Treasury, without putting herself in a condition to require it from some one else, is a doctrine which I cannot admit. It is one that will not bear examination. Now, sir, it appears to me that I do no injustice to the Secretary of the Treasury, or to any one who has directed, or authorized, or superintended this act, by saying that it was the design of the removal of the deposites to break up this whole machinery; that this was not to be a casual, unexpected, unpremeditated result; but that the removal was ordered for the very purpose of drawing the circulation of the Bank of the United States out of the hands of the people into the hands of the bank, to compel her, with this view, to reduce her discounts, and diminish the amount of her purchases of domestic exchange; and thus to cut all the ties which united the bank to the internal trade of the country. I do no injustice by saying this, because, in the letter of the Secretary, if I read it right, this design is there explicitly avowed and defended. But whether designed or not, this will be the effect, and the necessary effect, of the measure, if it shall prove successful. It must throw the whole machinery of the bank out of gear; compel her at once to begin the process which is to liquidate and close her transactions; separate her from the people, and the people from the bank; and deliver over these vast concerns and interests The bank, on 1st October, 1833, had specie in all her to confusion and misrule. It is by the revelation of this vaults to the extent of $10,663,441. If she had been so design, and by the necessary consequences of the meas-situated at that time as that this, or any considerable porure, as this intelligent people have apprehended them, tion of it, had left her vaults, without being brought back that great distress has already been produced, and the again, the consequences might have been of the most just anticipation of greater distress hereafter. Can any pernicious character to herself and to the whole country. one, after this view of the recent uses of the bank, and of The bank had a circulation of more than eighteen millions the effects which have followed, and are to follow, their to sustain, exclusive of her private deposites. A new era intended or necessary interruption, ask the reason of the had opened. A new system was about to be adopted in want of employment, the want of money, the stagnation the fiscal affairs of the Union. Its effects were to be seen. of trade, which prevails in most of our cities? Can he The extent to which the Treasury was about to assail her ask the cause of the syncope into which this people have could not be known. The slightest interruption, the fallen? No, sir, no one can for a moment doubt the slightest fear of interruption, to her promptness and cause of all this. It lies in the act of removing the depos- punctuality, would have raised that apprehension for her ites, taken in connexion with its design and doctrine. It stability which has been excited for others. Sir, to ask is not the mere transfer from one place to another. That this bank, under these circumstances, to empty her vaults is a circumstance which might happen, and has happened of specie, without taking any measures of precaution to already, in the history of this bank, without producing replenish them, would have been to ask the able directors any alarm whatever. It is not the removal of the depos- to throw away their whole capital of reputation, and that ites simply, but the design with which that removal was of the bank also. They would have proved themselves made, and the effects which belong to it. The alarm unworthy of the occasion on which they were called to proceeds from looking at the necessary consequences of act. What, sir, at the very outbreaking of the storm, such a design, unless Congress shall interpose to avert them. when no human intelligence could tell how long it was to Permit me, sir, before I come to the regular discussion last, or what would be the fury of its violence, to ask the of the reasons adduced by the Secretary of the Treasury pilots of this bark to keep all her sails set, and to throw for removing the deposites, to occupy a few moments in her ballast overboard! No, sir; the bank was bound to drawing the attention of the House to some matters, do as she has done. She was bound to prepare for the which, to many gentlemen here, are no doubt familiar, trial. She was bound to strengthen her position, by dibut which ought to be known and considered by all who minishing her discounts; and she has diminished them, in would form a sound judgment on the question before us. my judgment, most wisely, most discreetly, and most I have said that the removal of the public deposites, if it tenderly. And yet, sir, it is from this circumstance—the had been a mere transfer of so much money from one mere reduction of loans and purchases of bills, without bank to other banks, judiciously regulated as such trans-looking either to the necessity for that reduction, or to fers may be, would not have produced the train of conse- the extent and effect of it-that some men of honest and quences which we have already seen to flow from it. upright minds have been prejudiced against her. I can There are gentlemen in this House familiar with as large show, without difficulty, that it is a mere prejudice. operations in finance, that have produced no inconve The bank had to pay over ten millions of public depos |