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posed, had exceeded the demands of emigration. They were made by speculators for the purpose of holding up lands for increased prices. The spirit of speculation, indeed, seemed to be very much directed to the acquisition of the public lands. He could not say what would be the further progress, or where the end, of these things; but he thought one thing quite clear, and that was, that the existing surplus ought to be distributed.

He repeated, that he intended no detailed opposition to the measure now before the Senate; and had he been in his seat, he should not have opposed the amendment to the pension bill. Let the experiments, one and all, have their course. He should do nothing except to vote against all these visionary projects, until the country should become convinced that a sound currency, and with it a general security for property, and the earnings of honest labor, were things of too much im. portance to be sacrificed to mere projects, whether political or financial.

Mr. NILES said there were two subjects which were drawn into almost every debate, whatever the particular question may be before the Senate. The distribution of the proceeds of the public lands and the surplus revenue were topics which certain Senators, on almost all occasions, brought under consideration.

On a question recently before us, no way connected with that subject, the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. CLAY] favored the Senate with a speech in support of his land bill; and the resolution offered by the gentle. man from Missouri [Mr. BENTON] has furnished an occa. sion for the speech we have just heard from the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. WEBSTER] in relation to the surplus revenue, the state of the finances, the deposite banks, the Bank of the United States, and other matters.

We have been told by the honorable Senator that the present evils, which he represents to be very alarming, have all arisen from putting down the Bank of the United States, and changing the deposite of the public revenue from that bank to certain State banks. But he has not informed us how these evils have arisen from a cause which has no necessary tendency to produce such results. We have the naked, unsustained assertion of the gentleman, in strong and emphatic language, but we have no reasons or explanations.

He says he foresaw these alarming consequences at the time, when he raised his warning voice against the experiments about to be introduced in regard to the currency and the finances. He not only claims credit for his sagacity and wisdom, but for the gift of prophecy. Whatever claims the Senator may have for judgment and sagacity, I think his pretensions to be a prophet will bardly be admitted. What (said Mr. N.) were the Senator's predictions two years ago? Did he not then repeatedly, and with all that power of expres sion and emphatic manner which belongs to him, declare that the money pressure and distress which then prevailed, must continue, and would continue, until the public deposites were restored, and the Bank of the United States was rechartered? This was then asserted to be the only remedy for the existing evils, both in regard to private credit, the general interest of the coun try, and the condition of the national finances. It was then emphatically said that the interruption of the connexion between the Treasury and the Bank of the United States, the refusal to employ that institution as the fiscal agent of the Government, would derange the currency, impair public and private credit, and impov erish the Treasury; that the revenue would rapidly fall off, and that the finances of the country could not be managed without the aid of the United States Bank, as a fiscal agent. These were the predictions of the Sen

[APRIL 23, 1836.

ator, proclaimed with great confidence, and how have they been fulfilled?

Why, we are now told that our affairs are in a very alarming situation, and that the country is threatened with the most serious calamities; not from an exhausted treasury, as was then said, but from an overflowing one; from an excess in the revenue, unprecedented and alarming. From whence has the surplus in the treasury pro ceeded? Is it not the result of the activity of business, and the unexampled prosperity of the country? There has, no doubt, been an improper expansion given to the credit system; and, as a consequence of that, the spirit of over-trading and speculation has prevailed, which have contributed, in part, to the uprecedented increase of revenue. But what measures of this Govern. ment have produced these results? We are told it is all owing to the schemes and experiments of those who have directed public affairs. What schemes and experiments does the gentleman allude to? I know of none, I be. lieve there have been none; the schemes and experi ments have been on the other side. The administration has proposed no new schemes, has tried no experiments, but has rather sought to get rid of the schemes of others, who, by the questionable exercise of the powers of this Government, had created agents to manage its fiscal concerns. The administration has sought to return to the natural and ordinary course of things, and to disconnect the treasury with a powerful and dangerous moneyed corporation. They have preferred to employ such agents, so far as any are necessary, in the manage ment of the finances, whether natural or artificial, as the country afforded, without creating them by the exercise of doubtful powers.

The present state of things is said to be unexampled, that, in the midst of apparent prosperity, when proper ty of all descriptions is in demand, and prices at the highest point, there is an unprecedented pressure for money, and much distress in the commercial community. This is not a state of things so extraordinary as the Senator seems to suppose; the history of our country affords many examples of this kind. It is only necessary to go back to 1818, when it will be found that the condition of affairs was remarkably similar. Then property was in demand, and prices were high; yet the pressure for money was great, and the embarrassment and distress of the whole trading community was severe, and almost unexampled. This pressure and distress continued for three years, and the evil could only be corrected by that severe but necessary remedy, the long and distressing reaction which followed over-trading, over-banking, and ruinous speculation. Such were the causes which produced the distress at that time; and it is similar causes which have produced similar results at this time. And among the causes which occasioned the ruinous speculations, and gave such a dangerous expansion to credit, and the undue extension of all kinds of business, was the conduct of the Bank of the United States. That institution, which, we are now told, as the country has so often been heretofore, was a regulator of the currency, exerted the most pernicious agency in inflating the whole credit system. I have, said Mr. N., some facts in relation to this subject before me, which I had collected for a different purpose, to which I will beg to call the attention of the Senate. The bank, in its infancy, when but a small portion of its capital had been paid in, engendered a spirit of speculation, which it infused into the whole trading community. From July, 1817, to February, 1818, a period of about eight months, the bank increased its loans from four millions to forty-two millions; an increase of thirty-eight millions in eight months, and at a period when the currency and banking capital of the country were not one half what they are at this time. This was equal to a sudden expansion

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of credit, at the present period, of seventy or eighty millions. This was necessarily followed by a corresponding enlargement of discounts by the State banks. The consequence was, that money became plenty, and property appreciated in value. But this state of things could not continue; a reaction speedily followed, and the bank became an efficient agent in producing the reaction, as it had been in causing the expansion. To save itself, it was obliged to commence a rapid system of curtailment, and, in July, 1818, ordered the reduction of five millions of the line of its discounts; in October, two millions more; and by December, its loans to individuals had been reduced twelve millions. But, with these rapid reductions, the bank was scarcely able to save itself from destruction, and came very near being forced to suspend payment. This sudden expansion and contraction of the currency and of credit brought on the country a state of embarrassment and distress seldom equalled, and which continued for three years; thousands were ruined, and the whole community suffer. ed severely. This was when the bank was in its infancy, before it had assumed a political character, and when a spirit of gain and speculation alone controlled its action. Such were the early and bitter fruits of this corporation, which, we are told, is necessary to regulate the currency, and give stability to public and private credit. Similar fluctuations have marked its course at subsequent periods.

He

Sir, (said Mr. N.,) the honorable Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. WEBSTER] informs us that, in every instance, the exercise of the veto has operated to swell the accumulating power of the Executive. He says the veto on the bill for rechartering the bank gave the President entire control over the public revenue; and that his veto of the land bill tended to the same result, as it prevented the distribution of the revenue, which has occasioned the present surplus, which the Executive now uses and controls. A declaration like this, (said Mr. N.,) coming from such a source-from the Senator who has assumed a sort of guardianship over the constitution-he heard with astonishment. How does the refusal of the President to approve of the act of Congress operate to augment his own power, and especially when the rerefusal is on the ground that the act is not within the constitutional competency of this Government? should like to hear the honorable Senator, who is regarded by many as the great expounder of the constitution, explain this point. The Executive is a co-ordinate branch of this Government, and, in this respect, is on an equality with Congress. No power granted, or claimed to be granted, can be exercised without the concurrence of the legislative and executive depart ments of the Government. If either refuse to act, and deny or doubt the existence of the power, it appeared to him that the necessary result was the non-user of the power, and if the power is not exercised, or is denied to this Government, it of course remains among the reserved powers, and belongs to the States or the people. The action of Congress, by two thirds of both Houses, would be an exception to the general principle here laid down. It was a strange doctrine to him, that the denial of any power to this Government, by either of the three co-ordinate departments, would operate to transfer that power to either of the other branches of the Government. He had supposed that directly the contrary was the result; that the exercise of any power required the concurrence of the three co-ordinate branches, and that the denial by one destroyed the power, or at least prevented its exercise altogether, and left it among the reserved powers in the States, or in the people. It is not the non-user, but the exercise of doubtful powers by Congress, with the concurrence of the President, by which the sphere of executive action and authority is enlarged.

VOL. XII.-80

[SENATE.

Sir, (said Mr. N.,) the Senator tells us that the veto of the land bill has occasioned the present surplus, and given the Executive the control over it. This may be true; but does it prove that the veto was wrongfully exercised? If that bill had passed, and the money had been distributed among the States, it is very clear that it would not now be in your treasury. But the great question then was, and is now pending before Congress, whether that was a constitutional, rightful, and proper disposition of the revenue of the United States--of the common fund of the people of the United States. The President thought it was not; and, as the representative of the people in one department of the Government, he exercised the power which the constitution had conferred upon him, in opposition to the will of a majority of both Houses of Congress. The President, as the Chief Executive Magistrate, and the representative of the people, exercised a power which they had conferred upon him, to check what he regarded as an unconstitutional and dangerous exercise of power on the part of this Government. He assumed a high responsibility, because he believed that the interests of the country required it; he opposed himself to the majority of both Houses of Congress; he looked beyond the representatives of the people here; he looked to the people themselves; he threw himself on public opinion, and was triumphantly sustained. He assumed, it is true, a fearful responsibility; for that law, more than any other that ever emanated from Congress, appealed directly to the interests, to all the passions calculated to warp and sway the judgment; upon its very face it was little short of a bribe to the people of all the States; but their integrity, good sense, and sound judgment, had hitherto stood firm, erect as a tower of strength, unseduced, uncorrupted; but how long they may be able to withstand the influences of such a measure remains to be known.

Sir, (said Mr. N.,) I have a great confidence in the people, and the longer I live, and the more I become acquainted with public affairs, the stronger does this con. fidence become, while my confidence in the agents they are obliged to employ to execute the public trusts is proportionally diminished. He spoke generally, without any reference to parties or individuals. The popular will, if we look to its source, will always be found honest and pure; but, like the stream flowing from a pure fountain, which becomes turbid in its course, the popular will, before it reaches the point to become consummated in action, is, in a greater or less degree, adulterated and corrupted. If the will of the people could be carried out; if they could speak for themselves from the plantations, farms, and workshops; if their voice could be heard and heeded in the halls of legisla tion, whether here or in the States, not only the Bank of the United States, which the Senator from Massachusetts seems still to regard as so essential to the public interests, but all the State banks, and all other corporations calculated to interrupt the natural diffusion of wealth, and to concentrate it in the hands of a few; all corporations, the object of which is to advance the general interests of society, through the special interests of a few, which confer power and wealth on the few as means of benefiting the whole, should be swept away as with the besom of destruction.

The distribution bill belongs to this class of measures; it proposes to divide among the States the funds which belong to the people of the Union, and which it is the duty of this Government to apply to constitutional and proper objects, beneficial to the whole country, within the sphere of our own action, and without stepping over those limits presented to us. If this surplus be dangerous and corrupting here, will it be less so in the States? If there be a scramble for it here, will there be less elsewhere? But he would not pursue this subject.

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Mr. BENTON said he did not expect, when he offered this resolution, that it would give rise to any debate, and he had no intention now to prolong the discussion; he was too well satisfied with the declaration of the Senator from Massachusetts, that he would not oppose the resolution, to reply to some other observations he had made. He well remembered a proposition made by that gentleman, which was much stronger than the measure now contemplated, and which was hailed with approbation throughout every portion of the country. He was certainly too well satisfied with the declaration of the gentleman to make any reply to his remarks. All that he would now say would be comprehended in few words. He wished to get back to the currency spoken of in the act of 1789 for the Government-this was the constitu. tional currency for the Government. With that of the States he had nothing to do. All his movements (Mr. B. said) tended to this one point-to get back to a constitutional currency.

Mr. WEBSTER said the gentleman from Missouri had referred to the resolution of 1816; and he would beg leave to make a brief explanation in reference to the part he bore in it. The events of the war had greatly deranged the currency of the country, and a great pecuniary pressure was felt from one end of the continent to the other. The war took place in 1812, and not two months of it had passed before there was a cessation of specie payments by at least two thirds of all the banks of the country. So strong was the pressure, that although the enemy blockaked the Chesapeake, so that not a barrel of pork or flour could be sent to market, yet the prices of these articles rose fifty per cent. This state of things continued; the collectors of the customs every where received the notes of their own local banks for duties payable at their own places, but would not receive the bills of the banks of the other cities. And what was the consequence? Why, at the close of the session of Congress, a member, if he had been fortunate enough to preserve any of his pay, had to give twenty-five per cent. to get the money received here exchanged for money that he could carry home. Another effect of this state of the currency was this: The constitution provided that, in the regulation of commerce or revenue, no preference should be given to the ports of one State over those of another. Yet Baltimore, for instance, which had the exchange against her, had an advantage, by the payment of her duties in the bills of her banks, and had the advantage of at least twenty-five per cent. over some northern cities. The resolution then introduced by him was to provide that the revenue should be equally paid in all parts of the United States; and what was the effect of it? The bank bill had just passed, and the resolution was, that all debts due the Government should be paid in the legal coin, in notes of the Bank of the United States, or in notes of banks that paid coin on demand. That was the operation of the law of 1816, rendered absolutely necessary by the existing state of things.

The gentleman from Connecticut inquired whether the omission to use the powers of Congress necessarily increased that of the Executive? He would put a poser to the gentleman. The President himself admitted that it was the appropriate duty of Congress to take the public treasure into its hands, and appoint agents to take care of it. The gentleman himself must admit this; for he supposed that he did not go the lengths of the Senator from Tennessee in being willing that things should remain as they were. Then, if it was their duty to take care of the national treasure, and they did not do it, it would go into the hands of the Executive. Was not the custody of the national treasure power? and if they neglected to use this power, did they not augment the power of the Executive?

[APRIL 23, 1836.

Nothing could be more appropriate for a historian than to review the doctrines which had been advanced with regard to executive power, and the means by which it was sought to increase it. The President himself first advanced the doctrine, and it had been repeated there, that the President of the United States was the sole rep| resentative of the people of the United States. Did the constitution make him so? Did the constitution acknowledge any other representative of the people than the members of the other House? But it had been found extremely convenient to those who wished to increase the President's power to give him this title. This claim of the President reminded him of a remark he heard made many years ago by a member of the House of Representatives. That gentleman had voted against the first Bank of the United States, and had changed his mind, and was about to vote for the second. If, said the gentleman, the people have given us the power to make a bank, we can do it; and if they have not, we are the representatives of the people, and can take the power. And this was the doctrine applied to the President as the peculiar representative of the people. The constitution gave him a modicum of power, and he, claiming the lion's part, took all the rest. This was the result of that overwhelming personal popularity which led men to disregard all the ancient maxims of the founders of this Government, and to yield up all power into the hands of one man. They could not now even quote the doctrines of Mr. Jefferson without being scouted, and they could not resist any power claimed by the Executive, however arbitrary, but must yield up every thing to him by one universal confidence, because he was the representative of the people.

Mr. NILES said, in reply to the Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. WEBSTER,] that in one particular, and one only, the refusal to recharter the Bank of the United States, and the withdrawal of the deposites from that institution, had increased the power of the Executive over the revenue. The Secretary of the Treasury, or the President, if the gentleman pleases so to have it, had the selecting of the banks in which the public revenues were deposited. But, in all other respects, his authority over the revenue was the same as before; and in this particular is the same as it was before the incorporation of the Bank of the United States. It was only a provision in the charter of a private corporation which controlled the action of the Secretary, and that charter had now expired. But if there had been no law to regulate and direct the Secretary in the discharge of his duty in relation to the revenue, he did not know that it was the fault of the President. To show that he had assumed power in this matter, it must be shown that he had vetoed a law regulating the deposites, or opposed the action of Congress. But (said Mr. N.) the honorable Senator seems to ridicule the idea that the President is the representative of the people. Perhaps, in a limited sense of the expression, he is not strictly correct, as, in that sense of the term, it means a member of a legislative body; but in a more general sense, and in the way he (Mr. N.) had used the expression, it was strictly correct to call the President the representative of the people. He was the Chief Executive Magistrate, chosen directly by the people; for the electoral body was, in practice, only useless machinery. The Presi dent was chosen by the people to execute the executive powers of the Government; his appointment was a popular one, and he was the representative of the people to execute those powers of the Government which the constitution confided to him. He was the representative of the people for certain purposes as much as the members of Congress were for other purposes.

The Senator says that the Executive, as President of the United States, exercises those powers conferred on

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him by the constitution; and as the representative of the people, he exercises such powers as he sees fit, on his assumed powers. This observation was entirely gratuitous, and not authorized by any thing he (Mr. N.) had said. In speaking of the President as the representative of the people, he did not use the term in reference to his powers, but solely in reference to his responsibility, to his relation to the people, as a popular officer. Whether he was regarded rightfully and properly as the representative of the people or not, would neither enlarge nor diminish his powers; for, if it was correct, as he (Mr. N.) believed it to be, to regard the President as the representative of the people, he was their representative, under the constitution, clothed with the authority which that conferred upon him; it was for that purpose that the people elected him, and in that sense he was their representative.

Mr. WEBSTER remarked that it was the best course when a gentleman replied to another, to use his very words as far as his recollection permitted him. He had noticed, on other occasions, that the Senator from Connecticut gave his own language as that of the gentleman he was replying to, put his own construction upon it, and then replied to this man of straw. He hoped that the gentleman would, when he quoted him in future, use his exact language, and not put into his mouth words that he did not use. The gentleman, in speaking of the President, used the term representative of the People, precisely in the meaning of the term as applied to a member of the House of Representatives. Now, it was impossible to believe in any idea of power pertaining to the President in this character. But he would remind the Senator that the President himself, in more than one communication, had claimed this character and power. It would be found in the protest that he is the only single representative of the people. Sir, (said Mr. W.,) this is the very essence of consolidation, and in the worst of hands. Do we not all know (said he) that the people have not one representative? Do we not know that the States are divided into congressional districts, each of which elects a representative, and that the States themselves are represented by two members on that floor? Do we not all know that it was carefully avoided by the framers of the constitution to give him any such power at all? He admitted that the President, in reference to his popularity merely, was called, with great propriety, the representative of the people; but, in other respects, he was no more so than was the President of the old Congress. There was another false doctrine that was worth noticing, and that was, that every thing which had been done by the President had been approved of by the people, because they re-elected him.

Mr. EWING, of Ohio, said: I cannot forbear to say something in reply, not merely to remarks made here this day, but to others of some days past, which have been permitted thus far to go unanswered. The Senator from Pennsylvania, near me, while speaking on another subject, said "that a foreigner, who should have heard us in 1834, and should hear us now, would think us the strangest people on earth; that then we were predicting bankruptcy to the treasury; now we were complaining that this same treasury is full to overflowing;" and similar ideas have been thrown out to-day, in this debate, charging the former majority, now the minority in this body, with this inconsistency. Now, sir, a word on that subject.

For one, I am conscious that I did not, in 1834, or at any other time, utter a prediction that our finances would be deficient, or our treasury, if we have any, empty. I am much mistaken if I ever uttered such an opinion. That great derangement in our finances would be the result of the violent and unwarranted measures of the Executive, and that heavy losses to the treasury

[SENATE.

would ensue, was what I did apprehend, and no one will now contend that that apprehension was groundless. Such, too, I believe, was the general opinion on this side of the Senate at that time; and some gentleman may have gone further, and spoken of a deficient treasury; but I recollect no such thing, and I am well aware that such was not the general opinion of the party with whom I acted. The yearly receipts into the treasury from all sources, for two or three years prior to the time of the discussion, had been more than thirty millions-the wants of the Government did not, in our estimation, exceed half that sum; we therefore did not (at least I did not,) after reflecting on the subject fully, suppose that any tampering with the finances and the business of the country, whatever private distres it might occasion, would leave the treasury without a sum large enough, and too large, for all the legitimate purposes to which it would be applied. The gentlemen who made this charge happen not to have been members of this body at that time; and I agree with the Senator from Pennsylvania, that a foreigner who should have got his opinion of us by reading the Globe, would think us the strangest and most inconsistent people on earth.

What we did predict was this: that, in consequence of the violent and illegal attack of the Executive upon the Bank of the United States, that Bank would be compelled to call in its debts, and contract its issues. That these defensive measures must be taken, and that they must be persevered in so long as the Executive continued to wage his war against the bank. We predicted that this attack and defence would cause great pecuniary pressure, and much individual distress. We predicted, also, that the extension of banking capital, or rather "the chartering of a host of new banks, with little or no increase of actual capital," would be resorted to as a remedy for the evil; that this would give rise to an expansion of the paper currency; that this currency would become unsound, and unequal in value at different points; that the price of exchange would become high, and commercial transactions difficult; and those of us who looked to the worst predicted a final crash among the banks, and a return of the scenes which we witnessed from 1818 to 1822.

These were, in fact, our predictions. Let any man who has eyes to see, and candor to acknowledge what forces itself upon his vision, say how much of this has been realized, and how much is in progress towards fulfilment. The pressure in 1834 every body felt, every body understood; the only question contested was, whether that pressure owed its origin to the blow of the assailant, or the struggles of the victim; but the cause is immaterial; it was foretold by us when the blow was struck, and it is conceded that the consequence followed. The "host of local banks," with but little actual increase of the capital of the country, has followed in its due order. Since June, 1834, the nominal banking capital in the United States has increased more than $100,000,000; the actual capital I know not how much, probably not ten millions; and the price of exchange has risen, even beyond the fears of those who feared the worst; and as to our currency, it is admitted on all sides to be in a state of extreme derangement. The Senator from Missouti the other day very justly observed that our receipts for public lands were not of money, but of rags, almost valueless; and we all know why it is so. The deposite banks loan their bills to speculators, who pay it into the land offices, from which it is paid again into the deposite banks, and thus perform the round of purchaser without the actual accumulation of one dollar of available funds. It is but trash, and any man will feel it, and know it, if he look upon the statement of those banks, as laid on our tables a few weeks since. With more than thirty-two millions

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of the public money in their possession, with private deposites to the amount of ten or twelve millions more, with a circulation of twenty-five millions, they have about twelve or fifteen millions of actual cash means ready at any time to meet it; not more than one dollar to every six of their debts.

The last catastrophe, the final crush of these banks, it is still in the power of Congress to avert. If the public funds be drawn gradually, but constantly, from its unsafe depositories, and divided among the States, though a part of the money may be for many years, perhaps for ever, unavailable, yet we may save the country from the calamity which now threatens her. On this subject, the gentlemen who brought the mischief upon us, and who are still urging it to its consummation, advise us to be silent, to speak in whispers, lest a disclosure of the true situation of things should bring about the crisis. They caution us not to arouse the sleepwalker, whom they have led to and left upon the brink of the cliff, lest, when his eyes are opened, his head reel, and he topple into the abyss below.

[APRIL 23, 1836.

the land bill would not have been greater than those now existing? He was not, however, prepared at this time to say to the Senator from South Carolina whether the adoption of the measure before them would or would not injuriously affect the new States. He did not believe it would have the effect to prevent speculation, though it might affect many of the cultivators who purchased in small quantities. This, however, was an important measure; and they ought to be in possession of the fullest information before they acted on it. His desire was that it might be inquired into by one of the committees of that body; and if, after investigation, it should be found that the measure would be productive of the benefits that had been predicted, why, it would be proper to adopt it. If, on the contrary, it should be found that it would produce embarrassment to the bonafide purchasers, it would be rejected.

Mr. K. then submitted the following amendment:

Strike out all after "Resolved," and insert, "that the Committee on Finance be instructed to inquire into the expediency of prohibiting the receipt, in payment for public lands, of any thing but gold and silver, after the day of "thus changing the character of the resolution from that of an order to bring in a bill to one of mere inquiry as to the expediency of doing so. Mr. SHEPLEY said it was with extreme reluctance that he said a word at that time. He had imposed silence upon himself upon personal considerations; but he could not permit the remarks of the Senator from Ohio [Mr. EWING] to pass without notice, lest his silence might be supposed to admit their accuracy. I do think (said Mr. S.) that he is greatly in error if he supposes that the prediction was not made that the Treasury would be unable to meet the just demands upon it. I cannot mistake the import of the expressions which I heard two years since upon this floor. They were too deeply interesting; they were too forcibly impressed upon my mind to allow me to do so. I do not profess to use the language, but only to convey the idea, then so frequent

A word as to this resolution. I see its full bearing and effect, or I think I see it, but I am not prepared to vote for or against it, for I do not yet know precisely the situation in which the western banks and the western currency are placed. I presented to the Senate, several days ago, a circular of the Clinton Bank in Columbus, one of the three deposite banks in Ohio, claiming to themselves, in fact exercising, a portion of the legislative power of Congress, requiring the other banks of the State, on pain of the discredit of their notes, to pay a price for permitting them to be received in payment for public lands; and on my motion you sent a resolution to the Secretary of the Treasury, inquiring of him whether he had vested this power in any of the deposite banks. To this we have as yet received no answer; and, until that answer come, I am not prepared to vote on this resolution. If that answer tell us that the people of the West are subject and are to continue subject to this miserable petty tyranny, and that all their financially and emphatically exhibited, that we were to have an operations are to be placed under such control, I will resort to almost any measure, however dangerous, to rescue them from such degrading and vexatious imposition. I hope the resolution will lie over until the Secre tary's answer is received.

Mr. CALHOUN observed that he should be very much governed in the vote he should give on this occasion by the opinions of gentlemen coming from the new States, where the public lands were. He saw a great many advantages that would result from the measure, and particularly in the check it would give to that spirit of speculation by which bank rags were given in exchange for the valuable public domain. If the gentlemen coming from the West were of opinion that the measure would not affect the settlement and prosperity of the new States, be would cheerfully give it his support.

empty Treasury. The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. WEBSTER] imputes the evils of the currency, and the fluctuations and speculations in business, to the refusal to renew the charter of the Bank of the United States. Sir, (said Mr. S.,) I allege that these evils have been occasioned by the action of that very bank, or at least have been greatly aggravated by it. We need only recur to the history of the last five or fourteen years to be satisfied of it.

In 1831 the loans of the bank to the people were, if he recollected rightly, about forty-two millions. The next year they were raised to seventy millions. In 1834 they had become reduced again to nearly forty millions; and in 1835 they were again very high; and this year reduced again. This was but the brief history of its operations for five years. It had been producing fluctuations in the money market, uncertainty in prices, and Mr. KING, of Alabama, said he did not intend to en- an insecurity in property, during the whole of that short ter into the discussion of this question, and would only period. The direct tendency of such a course was subremark that gentlemen seemed to have travelled out of versive of honest industry, of regular business, and their way to discuss questions long since gone by, either breaking up all calculation for future action. No deto show that distress and ruin had not taken place, or pendence could be placed upon any state of things, that it had resulted from certain causes which were ap- present or past; for a new change is hastened on to parent to them. Now, these questions were not to be break up all of regularity that might otherwise have settled there, but were to be settled by the people of been looked for. It was to these excesses of expansion the United States. Whether the vetoes of the President and depression of its loans, four times in five years, to had, as alleged by the gentleman from Massachusetts, the amount of many millions at each time, that he charg caused the derangement of the currency, was a ques-ed the evils which they had experienced. These were tion which the people could decide as well, and proba- the fruits, the blessed fruits, of a national bank. bly better than gentlemen on that floor. With regard to the superabundance of the Treasury, they all knew that it would not have occurred had the land bill passed; but the question was, whether the evils resulting from

This, the practical benefit of that mighty institution which was to regulate the currency and business operations of the country, and to pour out blessings upon the people. Sir, (said Mr. S.,) I do not believe there has existed a

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