would again be prosperous. They, therefore, pray your honorable bodie that this desirable state of things may be brought about by legislative ac tion, as soon as possible.

And your memorialists will pray, &c.

Samuel Needy

Henry Graner
Jacob Master
George Baum
Thomas Walker
John D. Duffield
Jacob P. Benedict
David S. Stoner
Jacob Sims
William Heatherington
Jacob Basore

VIRGINIA.

MEMORIAL

ΟΡ

CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OF PETERSBURG, VA.,

Against restoring the Public Deposites, and also against rechartering the Bank of the United States.

MARCH 24, 1834.

Read, and laid upon the table.

To the honorable the Senators from the several States, and to the honorable the Representatives of the people of this Union, in Congress assembled:

Your memorialists, citizens and voters of the town of Petersburg, in the State of Virginia, beg leave most respectfully to represent, that, whereas a meeting has been held in this town, and resolutions adopted, disapprov ing the removal of the public deposites from the Bank of the United States, and censuring the Executive therefor; and whereas a memorial has been recently draughted, signed, and forwarded for presentation to your honorable bodies, praying the restoration of the public deposites to the vaults of said Bank, and which resolutions and memorial affected to speak the sentiments of the people of Petersburg on the great questions now agitating our Country: Now, therefore, we, your memorialists, desire to enter our solemn protest against all and sundry of the sentiments contained in the aforesaid resolutions, and to disavow and deny the slightest concurrence in the objects and opinions of the aforesaid memorial.

On the highly important and all-absorbing questions at issue, the undersigned will not presume to occupy the time and attention of Congress, with an extended statement of their views, or the utterance of elaborate arguments to sustain them. The cause of truth and justice requires but few advocates that cause we claim to be ours. Respect, however, for opinions deliberately formed, obliges us to avow, that, with the best lights before us, the laws of the land, and the example of previous republican administrations, we cannot perceive, in the dismission of Mr. Duane by the President from the secretaryship of the Treasury, the assumption of any new power, or the arbitrary exercise of any acknowledged power, vested in him by the constitution. Mr. Duane refused, in his official capacity, to act in conformity with the wishes of the President; refused to (Gales & Seaton, print.]

obey his instructions to remove the public deposites, and thus attempted to thwart the legal purposes and embarrass the measures of the administra tion. Receiving, as he did, his appointment to office at the hands of the President, and responsible as was the Executive to the country for Mr Duane's good conduct as Secretary of the Treasury, your memorialist cannot otherwise than view his dismissal from office as expedient and pro per. Neither do we view, in the order of his successor in office, (whic order was sanctioned by the President,) that the public moneys should i future be deposited in the State banks, a violation of any contract existin between the Bank of the United States and the Government; that con tract having been virtually annulled by the malconduct of the Bank itsell Neither can we perceive in that act the despotism and tyranny, the dis position to distress and ruin, enslave and degrade his countrymen, so loud! and so frequently charged on the President. On the contrary, we vien in the whole course pursued by the Executive towards the Bank of th United States, the most invincible determination, founded on the pures and most patriotic motives, to rid the land of a monster, dangerous to th liberties and destructive of the dearest rights and interests of the people Your memorialists believe that much of the existing distress in the mone market is produced by the vindictive and retaliative measures of the Ban itself; much by impolitic overtrading in the mercantile communities and some portion, no doubt, from other and distinct causes. Differing as many of us most honestly do, as to the expediency of the time and man ner of removing the public deposites, yet we heartily concur in opinion that, having been removed, it would be ill-advised and unwise to restor them. We cannot look on such a measure as disconnected with the re charter of the United States Bank. In the opinion of your memorialists the adoption of such a measure would materially aid, if not ensure its re charter. As freemen, determined not to be ruled by an immense moneye corporation; determined not to forge with our own hands chains of slaver for our children; as freemen, determined never to submit to the dictate of a scrip aristocracy, we come before your honorable bodies, and ask that the public moneys may remain, and continue to be deposited in the State banks, and that the United States Bank may not be rechartered.

The desires of your memorialists being granted, they will ever pray, a in duty bound, for the happiness and prosperity of the honorable the Sena tors from the several States, and the honorable the Representatives of the people of this Union, in Congress assembled.