CONGRESS

VERMONT.

MEMORIAL

ΟΥ

CITIZENS OF RUTLAND COUNTY,

Praying for a restoration of the deposites to the Bank of the United States.

APRIL 14, 1834.

Read, and laid upon the table.

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives, in Congress

Assembled.

Your memorialists, inhabitants of the county of Rutland, and State of Vermont, beg leave respectfully to represent to your honorable bodies, that from a state of general prosperity in the various branches of industry, and of successful adventure in the multiplied pursuits of active life, superadded to the bountiful productions of the earth, we have been brought to witness a sudden reversion of the scene; to witness, and, in some considerable degree, already to feel the severe pressure and embarrasment growing out of an unexpected and violent derangement of the National Currency. The evidences of this sudden pressure are before us, and every where around us, exhibited in the numerous failures which are daily occurring both in city and country, in the rapid and unparalleled depreciation of all kinds of stocks, bank bills, and domestic exchange; in the ceasing or the limiting operations of large manufacturing establishments, and the throwing out of employment large numbers of workmen; in the unusual low price of labor, or rather the impossibility of obtaining occupation; and still more fearfully and loudly, in the deep toned complaints which come forth from the people in every section of our country.

The people of Vermont, situated as they are, in a distant inland State, remote from the great commercial marts of the country, though now laboring under the embarrassments of a general pressure, have not yet probably experienced the full weight of evils felt in the large commercial towns; but the day of disaster is near at hand, and unless averted by the timely and decided action of our National Councils, must inevitably come upon us with the full measure of its calamities. The prospect before us, is one of fearful apprehension. The opening season of active pursuits presents no invitations to the adventures of the capitalist, and but a scanty employment for the hand of the laborer. Our merchants as they are called upon by their city creditors, in turn, urge their customers for payment, and these again finding themselves unable to convert the labor of their hands, or the products of their soil into money, fail to meet the de

mands that are made upon them. Our banks being compelled by the extraordinary exigency of the times to place themselves in a defensive position, cannot with a prudent regard to their own safety, extend their ordinary accommodations. In the common language of the day, the times are hard," and every day the hardship increases—“ money is scarce," and daily becoming more scarce. Labor will not command it; the staple commodities will not command it. There is no active business to keep it in circulation. A general fearfulness and mutual distrust pervade the community; credit and confidence are impaired, and must soon be utterly gone. Every man feels the necessity of acting simply a defensive part, of saving the much, or little he may have in his own hands. All the business operations of the community, which ordinarily give occupation to industry and circulation to capital, are curtailed-the effect must follow the cause. A stagnant lethargy throughout all the multiplied departments of enterprise and industry must be the fatal consequence. The common laborer, if he is fortunate enough to find employment at all, must work for half pay; and the farmer and mechanic must sell the products of their labor, if they can sell them at all, at half price. The principal source of revenue to the farmers in this state, is the growing of wool; their chief dependence is upon the annual sale of this crop for the means of meeting their outstanding debts and of paying their hired labor. The cash receipts for this article in the county of Rutland alone, the last y car, amounted to something short of $300,000; and in six towns in the county, comprising twenty-six in the whole, the receipts amounted to $125,000, making an average sum of more than £20,000 to each town on the sale of wool. The majority of our farmers have converted the most of their means to the raising of sheep, and have incurred heavy expenses in enlarging and improving their flocks, looking with confidence to the annual receipts, on the sale of their wool to defray the incurred expenditures. We see not but that, under the present state of things, this source of revenue, the chief dependence of our agriculturists, must, in a great measure, if not wholly, be cut off. The pressing condition of the manufacturers will forbid their purchasing but lightly, if at all; consequently there will be no market and no purchasers. The evils to be apprehended by this large class of our citizens, cannot fail to be severe in the last extreme. prosperity of our agricultural interest is the life of every one; the destruction of this, is the ruin of all.

The

Your memorialists have sought with solicitude, and as they believe, with impartiality, to learn the cause of this sudden change in the condition of the country, from a state of prosperity which gladdened the hearts of its citizens, to a state of adversity which spreads terror throughout the land. And, from all the evidences presented to us, we are constrained to express our decided opinion, though with sentiments of deep regret, yet with solemn conviction of its truth, that the pecuniary evils which now alarm and distract the country, can be traced to no other cause, than an unwarrantable interference on the part of the Executive, with the monied affairs of the Government. We repeat, therefore, that the removal of the public money from the Bank of the United States, in connexion with the avowed purpose of the removal, the time and the manner of the removal, the authority from which the order proceeded, and the reasons assigned for it, is the primary cause of the calamities which now bear so oppressively upon the people. We regard as of little consequence the simple act of removing a

certain quantity of money from one place to another. But in that act we saw the Executive usurping the control of the Government treasure; we saw him violating the Constitution, which provides that the control of the public money shall be with the Legislature; we saw him disregarding the act of Congress, which had provided for the disposition of the public money; and finally, we saw him, in this act assuming the power to wield the sword and the purse of the nation; an assumption which completed the narch of a Cæsar and a Cromwell in their progress to consummate despotism. The country saw the deed; and felt the instant shock in every nerve. A strong sense of insecurity and jeopardy to the whole property of the country ensued. The currency, the grand regulator of trade, was deranged. Doubt and distrust, took the place of confidence and credit. Bankruptcy and ruin, as the legitimate consequences, are following in their train with pressing haste. Instead of doubting and wondering as to the cause of all this mischief, our only wonder is, that the country has sustained the shock so firmly; we wonder rather, that the march of desola · tion has not taken a swifter and a wider sweep. We will forbear to depict the dangers, the consequences of Executive usurpation. The history of other times and of other Governments offers its admonitory lesson subject. the upon

Your memorialists will not obtrude upon the consideration of your honorable body, their detailed views of the proposed "experiment" of a metalic currency, or performing the fiscal operations of the Government through the agency of the State banks; believing that the wisdom of Congress, and the in telligence of the people will reject either, as a wild and visionary scheme.

Believing it to be in the power of Congress to relieve the existing embarrassments of the country, your memorialists, therefore, in conclusion, respectfully and earnestly implore your honorable body, to take prompt and decided measures to restore to the people their accustomed peace and prosperity. If our humble voices, in unison with the prayer of ten thousands of your fellow citizens, may be heard in the halls of the National Council, we would say, at once, strike from your country's bosom the shaft that is drawing the life-blood of the nation; arrest the hand that has been thrust into the Government Treasury; let the constitution and laws be vindicated; let the legitimate powers of the Legislature be maintained; let the violated rights of the National Bank be restored; let the people see and know that the Legislature and not the President, are to control the public treasure; let the currency of the country be regulated by some proper agency; let this be done, and public credit and confidence will be restored; let this be done, and disquietude, and alarm, and oppression will disappear from our land; let this be done, and quickly done, and the lamentations of our people shall be turned to rejoicing and thanksgiving.

David H. Sabin
Harvey Button
H. Shaw
Gilbert Roberts
P. G. Clark
Anson Ramsdell
Nicholas Cook
James Connell

Horatio Wheeler
Alex. Miller
Daniel Roberts
H. Eady
Cephus Stone
H. S. Miller
Peter Lawrence
John H. Warren

David Bradford
Abraham Belknap
A. L. Miner

Jewel Button, Jr.
Austin Bruce
Edmund Patch, jr.
Elias Kelly
Washington Hawkins