AOVA^TAGm OF A GOLD CURRENCY. SEFORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, IN REPLY TO MR. CLAY’S RESOLUTION CALLING FOR THE STATE OF THE REVENUE, mb., assumes ON THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE CITIZENS OF ADDISOET COUNTY, VERMONT, AND MR. RUSH, 0N THE SUBJECT OF THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES, ( When you have read this pamphlet, please lend it to your neighbor,) NEW. YORK: JEORGE H. EVANS, PRINTER, 1834.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL CURRENCY-, ADVANTAGESOF A GOLD CIBBEXCT. This noble currency has been so long suppressed by the power and policy of the first and second United States Bank, that the present generation are .almost entirely ignorant of it. We, therefore, give the following brief enumeration of its advantages from Gol. Benton?s speech on the currency.” 1. It has an intrinsic value ; which gives it currency all over the world, to the full amount of that value, without regard to laws or circumstances. 2. It has a uniformity of value; which makes it the safest standard of the value of property which the wisdom of manever discovered. . 3. It is a portable currency ; which make? it easy for the traveller to carry it about with him. 4. It is indestructible; which makes it the safest money which people can keep in their houses. 5. It possesses inherent purity; which makesit the hardest money to be counterfeited, the easiest to be detected if counterfeited, and therefore the safest money for the people to use. 6. It is superior to all other currency; therefore the holder of it can most easily change it for any other, and is the master of all other money to the extent of the gold he hold?. 7, It is the true regulator and equalizer of exchanges; for being the master of all other money, and itself most easily transported, it reduces the rates of exchange to the lowest and most uniform point. ■ 8. It is the master of paper money; for no man will carry 5, 10, and 20 dollar notes about him, when he can get doubloons, eagles, half and quarter eagles, half joes, guineas, sovereigns, and louis d’orsto carry jn his pocket in their place. 9. It is the true regulator of Bank issues; for it circumscribes the circulation of bank notes, and can easily be brought to bear upon banks in masses. A boy can bring 5,000 dollars in gold out of a bank, while it would require two horses and two men to carry out that quantity of silver. 10. It is a CONSTITUTIONAL currency; anq therefore, the people have a right to have it, while the .constitution remains, whether they can give reasons for it, or not. REFORT 0F THE SECRETARY OF THB TREASURY. Treasury Department, ) June 16, 1834. £ Sir: In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 7th of May last, directing the Secretary 'of the Treasury “to report as soon as praoticable th the Senate the amount of duties received and accrued on foreign imports, during the first quarter of the year 1834, with a table showing the comparative amount of that quarter, and the corresponding quar6 ter of the year 1833, and distinguishing between the amounts accrued or received at each port.’? Also ' “whether any thing has happened since his annual report was made'at the commencement of the present session of Congress, to vary, in his opinion, the estimate contained in the said report, of the proceeds of the duties on foreign imports for the year 1834:’? I herewith transmit the statement required byz the first resolution above mentioned, by which it appear^ that the duties which accrued from customs in the first quarter of 1833, amounted to the sym of $5,798,- 114 87, and in the corresponding quarter of 1834, to the sum of $5,344,540 40, and, that the actual receipts jnto the Treasury from the same source in the former quarter, amounted to $6,966,437 09, and in the latter to $4,435,386 13. A few of the minor ports have not been heard from, but they cannot materially vary the result. In answer to the second resolution, 1 have the honor to state, that estimating the duties on foreign imports in the annual report made at the commencement of the present session, it was assumed as the basis of the estimate, that the imports pf the present year would be nearly .equal to those of 1832. This estimate was higher than the average imports of the five or six preceding years; but, as stated in that report, it was considered as a safe one ; because, although the imports of 1831 and 1832 had been unusually large, those of 1833 had gone still higher, and the general state of commerce and the situation ofthe country, justified the belief that there would be no seriou? diminution in the present year. From the cdmpkfative statement of the amount of duties which accrued in the first quarter ofthe present year, and tjje corresponding quarter of 1833, it appears that the amount of foreign imports in the first quarter of 1834, must have exceeded that of the corresponding quarter in the preceding.year. Several articles which form important items in our ordinary imports, and paid duty in the first quarter of 1833, Were free from duty in the first quarter of 1834, and the rate of duty was reduced on others; and the difference between the amount of duty which accrued-in
$668,526 66, and from the return already received for the present quarter, the receipts of the two. first quarters of this year from land, may be safely estimated at more than $2,000,000. In the annual report, the receipts, of the whole year were estimated at $3,000,000. The information above stated, shows that the anticipated income from this source, as well as from the customs, will be more than realized. ' Upon the whole, the information received since the annual report on the finances was made to Congress, affords satisfactory evidence that the extent of our foreign commerce has been fully sustained, and gives strong reasons for believing that the receipts into the Treasury during the present year will be greater than the amount at which they were estimated at the* commencement of the present session. But I beg leave to repeat what I have already said, in the annual report from thisDepartment, that as the receipts of each year, under the present system of short credit and cash duties, must mainly depend on its own importations, as the estimates for the year can never be made with as much certainty as under the former system, when the receipts chiefly depended on the duties which had accrued in preceding years, and which were ascertained and secured by bonds before the times the estimates were presented. And as all calculations on the amount of revenue hereafter to accrue, must be more less uncertain, apd are liable to be affected by unforseen contingencies, it would hardly be proper to appropriate on a scale of expenditure fully equal to the expected income. There is, however, no reason for apprehending that the resources of the present year can fall short of the estimate contained in the annual report. And it is believed, that the appropriations may be made with entire safety according to that estimate. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. TANEY, Secretary of the Treasury. Hon. Martin Van Buren, Vice President United States and. President of Senate, ' SPEECH Ol MH. KENTON. IN SENATE. Monday, June,-16,1834. The Vice President communicated the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, in answer to Mr. Clay’s resolutions calling for the state of the revenue,-and comparative statements showing the relative amounts of revenue accruing in the first quarter of 18,33 and the first quarter of 1834. ,Mr. Webster moved to dispense with the reading, and refer it to the Committee On Finance. Mr. Benton demanded the reading. The Secretary of the Senate resumed the reading, and completed it. Mr. Webster moved to refer and print it. Mr. Benton rose, and said that this report was of a nature to deserve some attention, before it left the chamber of the Senate, and went to a Committee from which it might not return in time for copside- .ration at this session. It had been called for under circumstances which attracted attention, and disclosed information which deserved to be known. It was called for early in May, in the crisis of the alarm operations, and with confident assertions that these two quarters, would have been greater if the importations in the latter had not exceeded those of the former. In some instance's, without doubt, importations "which in the ordinary course of our foreign trade would have been made in the last quarter of .1833, were delayed until the first quarter of the present year, in order to obtain the benefit of the reduced tariff which took effect on the first of January last —and this circumstance has enlarged, in some de. gree, the imports of the first quarter of 1834. But after making a due allowance for the increase which may have arisen from this cause, and which would be peculiar to the first quarter of the year, the ■amount of duties which accrued in the quarter," are sufficient to show that the imports of the present year will most probably exceed the amount at "which they were estimated in the annual report, and be fully equal to those of 3833, which were unusually large. If this expectation should be realized, the proceeds of the customs will exceed the amount at which they were estimated by more than $1,000,000. The difference in the comparative receipts of the two first quarters, as shown by the statement herewith transmitted, does not arise from any fluctuation in commerce or diminished importations, but is chiefly occasioned by the alterations in the times of payment introduced by the act of 14th of July, 1832. The receipts of the first quarter, and the bonds already taken, confirm the opinion .that the income from customs will be greater than the estimate presented at the commencement of the session. The actual receipts into the Treasury from customs, for’ the first quarter of the present year, amounted to the sum of $4,435,386 13: and the duties secured by bonds payable in the second quarter, amount to the sum of $4,003,368 77. After making a fair deduction from these amounts for return _ duties, which may yet be called for, and for debentures and expenses of collection, the nett income of these two quarters may be safely estimated at $7,500,000. And if the third and fourth quarters should be only equally productive with the two first, the receipts will equal the amount at which they were estimated in the annual report. But under our present system of duties, the receipts from customs in the ordinary course of commerce, will always be greater iq the two last quarters of the year than in. the two first. ’The woollen goods which form so large a portion of our imports, are for the most part brought into the count ry .in the third an*d fourth quarters of the year. The high duties with which they are charged, render them a very productive source of revenue ; and being now payable in cash, they enter into the receipts of the third and fourth quarters in which the goods are imported. The receipts of these two quarters of the year will, therefore, generally exceed' those of the two preceding ones by at •least one million of dollars.. Although not embraced in the resolution, it will no doubt be gratifying to the Senate to learn that the receipts from lands are equally encouraging and will more than equal the amount at which they were estimated. The receipts inf® the Treasury, from this source,- during the first quarter of the present year, amount to the sum of $1,398,206 18, while in the cor- jcesponding quarter of 1833, they amounted only to
5 the answer to the call would prove.the distress and the sufferingof the country. . It was confidently asserted that the Secretary of the Treasury had overestimated the revenues of the year ; that there . would' be a great falling off,—,a decline,—a bank- rujjtcy J that confidence was destroyed,—enterprise checked,—industry paralyzed,—commerce suspend, cd ! that the direful act of one man, in One dire order, had changed the face of the country, from'a scene of unparalleled prosperity tb a scene .of uni paralleled desolation! that the canal was a solitude, the lake a desert waste of waters, the ocean without ships, the commercial towns desert, cd, silent, and sad ; orders for goods countermanded ; foreign purchases stopped; and that the answer of the Secretary would prove all this, in showing the falsity of his own estimates, and the great decline in the revenue and importations of the country. Such were the assertions and predictions under which the call was made, and to which the public attention was attracted by every device of theatrical declama-' lion from this floor. Well, the answer comes. The Secretary sends in his report, with every statement called for. It is a report to make the patriot’s heart rejoice I full of high and gratifying facts j replete with rich information ; and pregnant with evidences of national prosperity. How is it received—how received by those who called for it ? With downcast looks, and wordless tongues ! A motion is even made to stop the reading ! to stop the reading of such a report! called for under such circumstances ! while whole days are given up to reading the monotonous, ^autologous, and endless repetitions of distress memorials, the echo of our own speeches, and the thousandth edition of the same work with, out emendation or correction! All these can be read, arid printed too, and lauded with studied eulo- gium, and their contents sent out to the people', freighted upon every Wind ; but this official report of the Secretary of the Treasury upon the state of their own revenues, and of their own commerce, called for by an order of the Senate, is to be treated like an unwelcome and.worthless intruder ; received without a word,—hot even read,—slipped out upon, a motion,—disposed of as the Abbe Sieyes voted for the death of Louis the Sixteenth, mart sans phrase ! death, without talk ! But he, Mr. B., did not mean to suffer this report to be despatched in this unceremonious and compendious style. It had been called for to be given to the people, and the people should, hear of it. It was not what was expected, but it is what is true, and what will rejoice the heart ofevery patriot in America. A pit was dug for Mr. Taney; the diggers of the pit have fallen into it; the fault is not his ; and the sooner they clamber out the bet. ter for themselves.. The people have a right to know the contents of this, report, and know them they shall; and if there is any man in this America whose heart is so constructed as to grieve over the prosperity of his country, let him prepare himself for sorrow ; for the proof is forthcoming, that never, since, our America had a place among nations, was the prosperity of the country equal to what it is at this day! Mn B. then requested the Secretary of the Senate to send him the report, and comparative statement, - which being done, Mr. B. opened the report, and went over the heads of it to show that the Secretary of the Treasury had not over-estimated therevenua of the year ; that the revenue was, in fact, superior to the estimate ; and that the importations would equal, if not exceed, the highest amount that they had ever attained. To appreciate the statements which he should make, Mr. B. said it was necessary for the Senate to recollect that the list of dutiable articles was now gre*atly reduced. Many articles were now free of duty, which formerly paid heavy duties ; many others were reduced, in duty; and the fair effect of these abolitions, and reductions, would be a diminu- tidn of revenue eVen without a diminution of ini. ports ; yet the Secretary’s estimate, made at tho commencement of the session, was more'than realized, and showed the gratifying spectacle of a full and overflowing Treasury, instead of an empty one. which had been predicted ; and left to Congress the grateful occupation of further reducing taxes, instead of the odious task of borrowing money, as had been so loudly anticipated for six months past. The revenue accruing from imports in the first quarter -of the present year, was 5,344,540 dollars; the payments actually made into the Treasury from the ' Custom houses for the same Quarter, was 4,435,386 dollars; and the payments from lands for the same time, was 1,398,206 dollars. The two first months of the second quarter were producing in full ratio to the first quarter ; and the actual amount of available funds in the Treasury on the 9th day of this month, was ELEVEN MILLIONS TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED AND TWELVE DOLLARS. The two last quarters of the year were always most productive. It was the time of the largest importations of foreign goods which pay most duty-— the woollens—and the season also for the largest sale of public lands ; it is wellbelieved that the estimate will be more largely exceeded in those two quarters than in the two first; and that the excess for the whole year, over the estimate, will be full two millions of dollars. This, Mr. B. said, was one of the evidences of public prosperity which the report contained ; and which utterly contradicted the idea of distress and commercial embarrassment which had been propagated, from this Chamber, for the last six months. Mr. B. proceeded to the next evidence of commercial prosperity; it was in the increased importations of foreign goods. These imports, judging from the first five months, would be seven millions more than they were two years ago, when the Bank of the United States had seventy millions loaned out; and they were twenty millions more than in the time of Mr« Adams’s administration. At the rate they had commenced, they would , amount to one hundred and ten - millions for the year. This will exceed whatever was known in .our country. The imports, for the time that President Jackson has served, have regularly advanced from about ■ 4 millions to 108 millions. The following is the statement of these imports, from which Mr. B. read,! 1829 - - - - r • S 74,492,527 1830 - . . 70,876,920 1831 ... - 103,191,124 1832 .... 101,029,266 1833 - - - - - 108,118,31
, Ms. B. sufd that the imports ofthe last yeas Were greater in proportion, than in any previous year; > temporary decline might reasonably have been expected ; such declines always take place after excessive importations, If it had occpjrred now, though haturally to have been expected, the fact would have been trumpeted forth as the infallible sign—the proof positive^-of commercial distress, occasioned by the fatal removal of the deposits, But; as there Was no decline, but, on the contrary, an actual increase, ■he rmist claim the evidence for the other side of the account; andset.it down as proof positive, that commerce is not destroyed; and; 'consequently, that the removal of the deposits did riot destroy com- merce. . . The next evidqpce of commercial prosperity which Mr. B. would exhibit to the Senate, was in the. increased and increasing number of ship arrivals from foreign ports. The numbers of arrivals for the month of May, in New York, was 223, exceeding by 36 those of the.-month of April, and showing not Only a great, blit an increasing activity in the commerce of that great emporium—he would not say of the United States, or even of North America—but he would call it that great emporium of the two Americas, and of the New World ; for the goods imported to that place were thence distributed to every part of the two Americas, from the Canadian lakes to Cape Horn. A third evidence of national prosperity was in the sales of the -public lands. Mr. B. had, on a former occasion, adverted to these sales, so far as the first quarter was concerned ; and had shown thafinstead of falling off, as had been predicted on this floor, the revenue from the ^saleb of these lands had actually doubled, and more than doubled, what they were in the first quarter of1833. The receipts for lands, for that quarter, were $668,526 ; for the first quarter of she present year they were $1,398,206, being two io one, and $60,000 over 1 The receipts for the two Irst months of the second quarter, were also known, and Would carry the revenue frond lands, for th? first Sve months of this year, to two millions dollars ; indicating five millions for the whole year ; afi enormous amount, from which the people of the new •States ought to be, in some degree, relieved, by a reduction in the price of lands. Mr. B. begged, in the most emphatic terms, tq remind the Senate, that at the commencement of the session, the sales of the public lands were selected as one of the criterions by which the ruip and desolation ofllie country was to b® judged. It was then predicted, and the prediction put forth with-all the boldness of infallible prophecy, ■ that the removal of the deposits would stop the sales of the:public lands ; that money wotild disappear, and the people have nothing to, buy with; that the produce of the earth would rot upon the hands of the farmer. These were the predictions; and if the ales had really declined, what a proof Would imme- iiately be foundin the fact to.prove the truth of the prophecy; and the dire effects of changing the public noneys from one Setof banking houses to another 1 jut there'is no decline ; but a doubling of the former roduct; and a fair conclusion thence deduced that he new States, in the interior, are as prosperous as ae old ones, on the sea coast. Hayingproved the general prosperity of the country "these infallible data :-flourishing revenue— flourishing commerce—In&reaied arrivals of shlp8“ and increased sales of public lands, Mr. B. said that he was far from denying that actual distress had Existed. He had admitted the fact of that Mistress heretofore, not to the extent to which.it was charged, but to a sufficient extent to excite sympathy, for the sufferers; and he had distinctly charged the whole distress that drd exist to the Bank of the United States, and the Senate ofthe United States—to the-screw and pressure operations of the Bank, and the alarm speeches in the Senate. He had made this charge ; anfl made it under a full sense of the moral responsibility Which he owed to the People, in affirming any thing from this elevated theatre. He had, there- fore, given his proofs to accompany the charge ; and he had now to .sdy to the Senate, and through the Seriate to.the People, that he found new proofs for that charge in the detailed statements of the accruing revenue, which had been called for by the Senate-; and furnished by the Secretary ofthe Treasury. Mri B. said he must be pardoned for repeating his request to the Senate, to recollect how often they had been told that trade was paralyzed; that orders for foreign goods were countermanded; that the importing cities were the pictures of desolation ; their ships idle ; their wharves deserted; their mariners wandering up and dbwhl Now, said Mr. B., in looking over the detailed statement of the accruing revenue; it was found that there was no decline of commerce; except at places where the policy and . power of the United States Bank was predominant! Where that power or policy was predominant, revenue declined ; where it was not predominant, or the -policy of the Bank not exerted, the revenue increased, and increased fast enofigh to make up the deficiency at the other places. Mr. B. proceeded to verify this statement by ri reference to. specified pla'cesi Thus, fit Philadelphia, where the Bank holds its seat of empire; the revenue fell off about one-third ; it was 797,316 dollars for the first quarter of. 1833, and only 542,498 for the first quarter of 1834. At New York, where the Bank has not been able to get the upper hand, there was an increase of more than 120,000 dollars ; the revenue there for the first quarter of 1833, was 3,122,156; for the first of 1834, it was 3,249,786 dollars; At Boston, where the Bank is again predominant, the revenue fell off about one third; at Salem, (Mass.) it fell off four-fifths'. At Baltimore, where the Bank has been defeated, there was an increase in the revenue of more than 70,000 dollars ; at Richmond the revenue was doubled, from 12,034 dollars to 25,810 dollars ; at Charleston, it was increased from 69,503 dollars, to 102,810 dollars; at Petersburgh, it was slightly iriur'efised; and throughout all the region south of the Potomac, there was either an increase, or tbd slight falling off which might result from diminishell duties without diminished importations. Mr. By said he knew that Bank power was predominant in some of the cities to the south ; but he, knew, also, that the Bank policy of distress and oppression had not been practised there. That was not the region to be governed by the scourge. The high mettle of that region required a different policy : gentleness, conciliation, and coaxing! If the South was to be gained over by the bank it.was to be done by favor; not by fear. The scourge, though so much the more congenial to the haughty spirit ofthe moneyed pow- er, was only to be applied where it would be mb-
1 fitted to; and, therefore, the whole region south of the Potomac, was exempted from the lash. Mr. B. paused to fix the attention nf the Senate upon these facts. Where the power of the Bank enabled her to depress commerce and sink the revenue, and her policy permitted her to do it, commerce was depressed, and the revenue was sunk, and the prophecies of the distress orators were fulfilled^ but where her power did not predominate, or her policy required a different course, commerce increased, and the revenue increased /and the result of the whole is, that New York arid some other anti-bank cities, have gained what Philadelphia and other bank cities have lost; and the federal Treasury is just as well off, as if it had got its accustomed supply from every place. This view of facts, Mr. B. said, must fasten upon the Bank the odium of havirig produced all the real commercial distress which has been felt. But at one point, at New Orleans, there was further evidence to convict her of wanton and wicked oppression. It was not in the Secretary’s reports, but it was in the weekly returns of theJBank: and showed that in the beginning of March, that institution had earned off from her branch in New Orleans, the sum of about 800,000 dollars in specie, which it had been (collecting all the winter by a wanton curtailment, under the pretext of supplying the amount of deposits taken from her At that place. These 800,000 dollars were.collected from the New Orleans merchants in the very crisis of the arrival of western produce. The merchants were pressed to pay debts, when they ought to hate been accommodated with loans. The price of produce was thereby depressed; the whole of dollars. He was of opinion, that two millions ought to be added for sums not entered at the Cus- west suffered from the depression ; and now itis pro- tom House, which would make twelve millions ; am’ ved that the money was not wanted to supply the added to the six millions of 1833, would give eigh- place of the deposits, but was sent to Philadelphia, where there was no use for it, the Bank having more there than. she can jise ; and that the whole operation was a wanton and wicked measure to coerce the west to cry out for a return of the deposits, and a renewal of the charter, by attacking their commerce in the market of New7Orleans. This fact, said Mr. B., would have been proved from the books of the Bank, if they had been inspected. Failing in that, the proof was intelligibly found in the weekly returns. Mr. B. had a further view to give of the prosperity of the country, and further evidence to show that all the distress really suffered was facticious and unnatural. It was in the great increase of money in the United States during the last year and a half. He spoke of money, not paper promises to pay money, but the thing itseh^real gold and silver—and affirmed that there was a clear gain of from EIGHTEEN to TWENTY MILLIONS OF SPECIE, within the time that he had mentioned. He then took up the custom-house returns to verify this important statement, and to let the People see that the country was never so well off for money as at the very time that it was proclaimed to be in the lowest state of poverty and misery. He first showed the imports and exports of specie and bullion for the year ending the 30th of September, 1833. It was as follows: Year ending September 30,1833. Gold bullion, Silver do. Gold coin, Imports. $48,267 297,840 563,585 Exports. $26,7X5 495,890 Silver do. 6,160,676 $7,070,368 1,722,196 $2,244^61 Mr. B. having road over this statement, remarked upon it, that it presented a clear balance of near five millions of specie in favor of the United States on the first day of October last, without counting at least another million which was brought by pass- , engers, and not put upon the custom-house books.1 It might be assumed, he said, that there was a clear accession of six millions of specie to the money of the United States on the morning of that very day whick has been pitched upon by all the distress orators in the country to date the ruin and desolation of the country. Mr. Benton then shpwed a statement of the imports and exports of specie and bullion, from the first of October, 1833, to the 11th of June, instant. It was as follows : From October 1st to June 11th. Gold bullion, Silver do. Gold coin, Silver do. IMPORTS. $304,491 256,617 410,907 ^10,156,909 $11,128,924 EXPORTS. $11,177 1,376 87,570 898,638 $998,761 Mr. Benton remarked, upon this statement, that it presented a clear' gain of more than ten millions teen - millions of specie of clear gain to the country in the last twenty months. This, he said, was prosperity. It was wealth itself; and besides, it showed that the country was not in debt for its large importations, and that a larger proportion of foreign imports now consisted of specie than was ever known before. Mr. Benton particularized the im-, ports and exports of gold; how the former had in* creased, and the latter diminished, during the last few months; and said that a great amount of gold, both foreign and domestic, was now waiting in the country to see if Congress would raise gold to its fair value. If so raised, this gold would remain, and enter into circulation ; if not, it would immediately go off to foreign countries, for gold was not a thing to stay where it was undervalued. He also spoke of silver, and said that it had arrived without’law, but could not remain without law. Unless Congress passed an act to make it current, and that at full value as money, and not at the mint value, as bullion, it would all go off. Mr. Benton recapitulated the evidences of national prosperity—increased imports—revenue from customs exceeding the estimates—increased revenue from public lands—increased amount of specie— above eleven millions of available funds now in the Treasury—domestic and foreign commerce active— the price of produce and property fair and good- labor every where finding employment and reward— more money in the country than ever was in it at. any one time before—the numerous. advertisements for the purchase of slaves, in the papers of this city for the southern market, which indicated the high price
8 if Southern products—and affirthed his conscientious belief, that the country was more prosperous at this time than at any period o f its existence; and inveighed in terms of strong indignation against the arts and artifices, which, for the last six months, had disturbed and agitated the country, and done serious mischief to many .individuals. He regretted the miscarriage of the attempt to examine the Bank of the United .States, which would have completed the proof against that institution for its share in getting up an unnatural and factitious scfene of distress, in the midst of real prosperity. Blit he did hotlimit his invective to the Bank, but tame directly to the Senate, and charged a full shale upon the theatrical distress speeches, delivered upoh the floor of the Senate, in imitation of Volney’s soliloquy over the ruins of Pal- myra. Ho repeated some passages from the most affecting of these lamentations over the desolation of the country, such as the Senate had been accustom- ,ed to hear about the time of the Ne w-York elections. ■“ The canal a solitude. The lake a desert waste of waters' That populous city, lately resounding with the hum of busy multitudes^now silent and sad'. A whole nation., in the midst of Unparalleled prosperity, and Arcadian felicity, suddenly struck into poverty, and plunged into unutterable woe, by the direful act of one wilful Man.” Such, said Mr. B., were the lamentations Over the ruins, not of the Tadmor in the desert, but of this America, whose true condition you have just Seen exhibited in the faithful report of the Secretary of the Treasury. Not even the “base- less fabric of a vision," was ever more destitute of foundation, than those lamentable accounts of desolation. The lamentation has ceased ; the panic has gone off; would to God he could follow out the noble line of thepoet, and say, “leaving not a wreck .behind?' But he could not say that. There were wrecks! wrecks of merchants in every city, in which the Bank tried its cruel policy, and wrecks of Banks jn this District, where the panic speeches fell tbick- .est and loudest upon jhe ears .of an astonished and .terrified community! But, continued Mr. B.,the game is up;the alarm is over; the people are tired of it; the agitators have .Jbeased to. work the engine of alarm. A. month ago .he had sad it was “ the last of pea-time," with these .distress memorials; he would now use a bolder figure, and say, that the Secretary’s report just read,-had .expelled forever the ghost of alarm from the chamber (of the Senate. All ghosts, said Mr. B., are.afraid of .the light. The crowing of the cock,—the break Of ..day,—remits them all, the whole shadowy tribb; to .their dark and dreary abode. How then can this poor ghost of alarm, which has done such hard service for six months past, how can it stand the full light, the broad, glare, the .clear sunshine of the ■'Secretary’s report ? Alas, poor ghost !” The shade of the “ noble Dane” never quit the stage under a .more inexorable law than the one which now drives thee away. This fepOrt, replete with plain facts ‘and luminous truths, puts to flight the apparition of ’distress, breaks do wn the whole machinery of alarm, and proves that the American people are, at bhisday, .the most prosperous people on which the beneficent .Sun of Heaven did ever shine! • - Mr. B. congratulated himself that the spectre of .’distress could never be,made to cross the Mississippi. Jt made but slow progress anywhere in the Great Valley ; but baulked at the King of Floods. A lettbf from St. Louis informed him that an attempt had jhst been -made to get up a -distress meeting at St. Louis, hilt without effect. The officers were obtained, and according to the approved rule of such meetings, they were converts from Jacksonism ; but there the distress proceedings stopped, and took another turn. The farce cbuld ribt be played in that town. The actors would hbt mount the stage. * * Abo.ut the same time a similar failure took place at Crawfordsville, Indiana. Mr. B. spoke of the circulation of the Bank of the United Stated; and said that its notes might be Withdrawn without being felt of known by the community. It contributed but four millions and a quarter to the circulation at this time. He verified this statement by showing that the Bank had twelve millions and a quarter of specie in its vaults, and but sixteen millions and a half of notes in circulation. The difference was four millions and a quarter; and that was the precise amount which that gigantic in. stitution now contributed to the circulation of the country! Only four millions and a quarter. If the Gold Bill passed, and raised gold 16 to 1, there would be more than that amount of gold in circulation in three months. The Foreign Coin Bill, and the Gold Bill, would give the country many dollars in specie, without interest, for each paper dollar Which the Bank issues, and for which the country pays so dearly. The dissolution of the Bunk would tuj n out twelve mflliohs and a quarter of specie, to circulate among the people; and the Sooner that is done the better it will be for the bountfy. The Bank' is now a nuisance,, said Mr. B. With upwards of twelve millions in specie, apd less than seventeen millions in circulation, and only.fifty-two millions of-loans, it pretends that it cannot lend a dollar, not even to business men, to be returned in sixty days ; when, two years ago, with only six millions of specie and twenty-two millions of circulation, it run up its loans to seventy millions. The Pre. sident.of the Bank then swore that all above six millions of specie was a surplus! How is it now, with pear double as much specie, and five millions less of notes out, and twelve millions less of debt? The Bank needs less specie than any other Banking institution, because its notes are receivable, by law, in all federal payments; and from that circumstance alone would be current, at par, although the Bank itself might be wholly unable to redeem them. Sjichsa Bank is a nuisance. It is the dog in thej inanger. It might lend money to business men, .at short dates, to the last day of existence; yef the feigns are for a new pressure ; a new game of difek tress for the fall elections in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohjo. If that game should be attempted, Mr. B- said, it would have to he done without ex. cuse, for the Bank was full of mopey ; without pre. text, for the deposite farce is over. ; without the aid of panic-speeches, for the Senate will not be in ses. sion. Mr. B. said, that among.the strange events which took place in this world, nothing could be inbre strange than td find, in our own country, and in the 19th century, any practical illustration of the an- sient doctrine of the metempsychosis. Stranger still, if ^that doctrine should be so far improved * as
a id take effect in soul-less bodies; for, according to the founder of the dotetrine, the soul alone could transmigrate + Now corporations had ho souls; that was law, laid down by all the "books ; and of all corporations; monied ones especially, and above alLthe Bank of the United States; was most soulless. Yet, the rumor was; that this bank intended to attempt the operation of effecting a transfer df her soul; and after.submitting to death in her present form, to rise up in a new one. Mr. B. said he, for one, should be ready for the old sinner, come in the body of what beast it might. No form should deceive him ; not even, if it condescended, in its new shape, to issue-from Wall street instead of Chestnut! A word more, and Mr. B. was done. It was a word to those gentlemen whose declarations, many ten thousand times issued from thte floor, had deluded an hundred thousand People to -send, memorials here, certifying what those gentlemen so ineonth nently repeated, that the REMOVAL of the DEPOSITS had made the DISTRESS ; and nothing but the RESTORATION of the DEPOSITS, or the RENEWAL of the CHARTER could REMOVE the DISTRESS ! Well! the deposits are not restored, and the charter is not renewed ; and yet the t From the Greek meta again : eu, in ; psyche., the soul; i. r; The Soul again in. distress is gone * What is the inference.? Wby, that gentlemen are convicted and condemned, upon their own argument! They leave this chamber, to go home, selfconvicted upon the very test which they themselves have established ; and after having declared, for six months, upon this floor, that the removal of the deposits made the distress, and nothing but their restoration, or the renewal of the Bank charter? could relieve it, and that they wodld feit here till the dog days, and the winter solstice, to effect this restoration, or renewal; they now go home in good time for harvest, without effecting thb restoration or the renewal ; and find every where, as they go, the evidences of the highest prosperity which ever blessed the land. Yes ! repeated and exclaimed Mr. B. with great emphasis, the deposits are not restored— the charter is hot renewed—the distress is gone— and the distress speeches have ceased. No more lamentation over the desolation ofthe land now ;.and the gentleman who should undertake to entertain the Senate again in that way, in the face ofthe present national prosperity—in the face of the present report from.the Secretary of the Treasury—would be sta. red at, as the Trojans were accustomed to stare at the frantic exhibitions of Priam’s distracted daughter, while vaticinating the downfall of Troy in the midst ofthe heroic exploits of Hector. M®* RUSH ANU .THE UNITED STATES BANK; LETTER TO MR. RUSH. Middlebury, April 25th, 1834. Hon. Richard Rush, Dear SirThe undersigned, citizens of Addi* son county, in the State of Vermont, were appointed, at a public meeting, holden at this place on the 17th instant, by those opposed to the recharler of the Bank of. the United States, to transmit to you the subjoined resolutions, adopted at said-meeting : “ Resolved, That this meeting entertain the high- est respect for the personal and public character of the Hon. Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, and that we regard the frank and fearless manner in which he seconds the efforts of the people' to resist, the usurpations and corruptions'of the United States Bank, as reflecting the highest honor on him as a patriot, and entitles him to the thanks of his countrymen. Resolved, That a Committee of eight citizens of this county, be appointed by this meeting to address a respectful latter to the Hon. Richard Rush, and solicit from him his views in relation to the policy of rechartering the present Bank of the United States, and whether a renewal of this vast monied power, af.er it has boldly entered the political arena, attempted to corrupt the Press and wage war with the -Government, would not be dangerous to the peace of the country and the safety of our free institutions ; and whether, in his opinion, the pressure which has been iso severely felt in the money market in our principal cities has resulted from the rumeval of the public deposites, or from the conduct ofthe Bank of the United States-; and whether, in his opinion, a return of the deposites to that institution, without a change in the course pursued by the Bank, would materially tend to relieve or meliorate that pressure ; and whether the late vote of the Senate of the United States, censuring the President for the removal of the -.eposites, is war-' ranted by their constitutional powers.’.’ The undersigned, in common with many of their fellow citizens, have watched the progress of the Bank of the United States with intense anxiety. They have seen its struggles for a recharter convulsing the country to its centre, and bringing in its train dismay and distress among large portions ofthe. commercial community; while the whole.land has been filled with the bitterest calumnies against the. most distinguished citizens of our common country; who entertain opinions adverse to the renewal of this powerful monopoly. They have seen the United States Senate descending from what they conceive to be its high duties and becoming accusers instead of judges, and establishing a precedent Ufa most alarms ing character. Living far removed from the principal scenes of commercial activity, we have biit limited means of ascertaining the real causes of the pecu* Diary distress which has existed for a few months past. Desirous of obtaining correct information, and acting thereon to the best of our judgment, for the best good of our common country, and for the preservation of our free institutions, relying upon your candor and political intelligence, and well knowing that your public duties have made you intimately acquainted with the operations of the Bank of the United States, and its power for good or for evil! the meeting which has charged us with the duty of addressing you, and ourselves individually, will be highly gratified if you will favor us with your opinions in relation to the subjects embraced in the accompanying resolutions.
10 • . We are, with sentiments of the highest respect, your friends and fellow citizens, E. W. JUDD, SILAS WRIGHT, JOHN MORTON, ASAHEL PARSONS, WM. B. SUMNER, CHARLES LINSLEY, BENJ. MINER, Jr. C. C. WALLER. MR. RUSH’S REPLY. Sydenham, near Philadelphia, ) May 26,1834. $ Gentlemen,—I received your letter of the 25th of last month, embodying a copy , of two resolutions adopted shortly before its date at a public meeting of citizens of Addison county in Vermont, Opposed to rechartering the Bank ; the first 61 which demands my special thanks, as being in terms than which none could be more cordial or obliging. Coming in a manner so unexpected and spontaneous; it is doubly grateful. Your second resolutloh asks my vieWs on the points following : 1. Whether the recharter of the present Bank of the United States,', “ after it has boldly entered the political arena, attempted to corrupt the press and wage wat with the government, would.nOt be dangerous to the peace of the country and the safety of our free institutions.” 2. Whether the pressure in the money market “hits resulted from the removal of the public depo- eites or from the conduct of the bank; and whether a.return ofthe deposited without a change in the course pursued by the bank, would materially tendtb Relieve or mitigate that pressure.” 3. Whether “the late vote of the Senate of the United States censuring the President for the re- ;incval of the deposites, is warranted by their con- -stitutional powers.” Upon subjects so much discussed before the country as the above have been in official and all ways, I almost dread to enter, for fear of tediousness ; but as you are pleased to ask my opinions, I will give them with the. candor every citizen should exercise when thus invited. The nature of your communication is a proof, that although the subjects may have lost their novelty, they have not, in your eyes, lost their irttefest; nor have they in mine. On the contrary, so blended are they With the highest considerations of public policy, so fruitful have they been of strife, and so big do they still seem with it, that appeals are but the stronger to the public duty of every citizen, to contribute his mite, if called upon, towards the right understanding of them. * 1. l am of opinion that the rccharter of the bank would, in the words of your resolution, be dangerous to the peace of the country and the safety of our free institutions. I think so for your reasons. The bank has entered the political arena. Not to see this, would be blindness. Its friends do not, in effect, deny it; but say that if it did go there, it was from necessity, not choice, and with no other object than to defend itself against attacks. 4 regard the plea as unsound. It puts the bank in a position not given to it by the Jaw, or existing in the nature of things. It starts , in error, and gives a bad direction to what follows. It confounds first elements. The attacks meant, are those contained in the President’s * veto and other state papers from that source. The President is not the whole government; but he forms the executive branch; He represents the nation in that branch. He is likewise a co-ordinate branch of the legislature. The concurrence of a former President, was requisite to the law creating the bank. It was an act of duty if he thought such an institution necessary. The Veto of the existing President was not less an act of duty, if he, in turn; thought that its charter should cease. And is it for the bank to consider this constitutional opposition, an attack? If so, it assumes to prescribe a course for the government; It assumes to pass.sentence upon its acts of indisputable authority. It undertakes, as your resolution remarks, to wage war with the government. Hence the very newspapers Of Europe, as our own; are, at this moment, from what is too obviously the fact, speaking of a war between our government and the bank. There is something novel in this fact. I’d have produced it, principles and feelings fundamentally wrong, must have been at work. Where, will be the purpose of my search. It ought not to have happened, that a banking company could have raised itself to a condition of such coequality with the government of a great nation’; dr any of its branches. It is disparaging to its dignity, to its authority, I add emphatically to its safety. The last is struck at, if ever to bh threatened with the hostility of an overgrown moneyed institution planted in the heart of the land; Neither the passions, nor even the just interests, of such an institution, ought to have so dangerous a sphere open to them, on the plea of self-defence, or any plea. Its sphere* may be a .very useftdone; if it keep within it; but it is a sphere totally different. It is business-like, not war-like. The plea is an aggravation. It is deceptive. It has a first blush of justice before those unable or unwilling, to exert thought; but not the leastreality of justice. The dangers that lurk under it, ought to awaken the Whole nation; and would, but that so large a portion of it feels.the power, or cowers under the influence of the bank. Thirty- five millions of dollars clad in corporate armor, ought not, under any given or possible circumstances, to be seen as a parly belligerent defending itself against the government, or any part of it. What is to be. the consequence of such doctrines ? How far is it to go? Let sober minds answer. If the Bank may fight the President, it may, on the same ground, fight either house of Congress; that is, whenever it deems itself attacked by either,' whether through the adverse report of,a committee, adverse resolutions, or otherwise. It may fight any of the public departments. It may fight the whole government conjointly, as any part separately. The plea is utterly inadmissible; the spectacle an outrage. . We have so plunged into error after error upon this subject; we are so steeped in influences as enfeebling.to intellect as reproachful to patriotism and wounding to public pride, that the mind must rouse itself from its stupor, to get back to first truths. The remarkable state of things I am to deal with under your letter, never could have happened but for.the perilous growth of Strength, and still more rank progress of vicious no-' tions and practices in the bank; which, if.not effectually checked, will bring upon this country a state of political and social debasement not to be contemplated but with dismay and disgust.' The bank has
ii Its rights; but they are those of an official servant. Now, although a servant may claim the enforcement 4>f all his rights as strictly as the master ihay his, the two things are essentially different—a distinction of Which the bank’s whole conduct has marked supreme 'disregard. ? . The'famous resolutions of its directors, one of which authorised the preparation and circulation through the press,of “ 'such documents ^and papers "as may’communicate to the people information in regard to its nature and operations," I hold to have lieen in the highest degree bold and unlawful The language is imperious. Communicate information tp the people ! as if speaking from authority ; as if, like a co-ordinate power entrenched in the state, it Was'about to execute a trust ofcielegated sovereignty ! The very word seemed appropriate to coming elections. The bank was created for no such ends. The avowal of them, is an affront. to the whole country. It was created, so far as the government ^vas concerned, to be the mere" servant of its Treasury; the mere agent of its revenue, officers'. This Was the primary, the sole motive to its creation. Sb fai- as the stockholders were, concerned, and that their interests might be collaterally promoted, it was privileged to do the ordinary business of baiik- ■ing. In both bases, it wah subject to the many and jealous restrictions contained in the law'. To enlighten the people, through the press, on the nature And operations of banking, or on the nature of its own operations, ife among none of the powers grant- !ed to it. It is derivable from none, by any rational or equitable implication. ~ It is in conflict with the entire purpose and spirit of the law, no less than written guards visible in so many other respects'.. It Is notoriously in. conflict with contemporary opinions And feelings in the nation. It was not Without travail, that that law passed. Many obstacles were to be removed, many doubts to be obviated, many ’anxieties to be tranquilized. The illustrious head of the government who finally gave it his sanction, had ancient and heavy scruples to vanquish. The claim suggested is perfectly new. It is destitute of all shadow of excuse. It is as unnecessary as dangerous.' In the calmest mood of investigation, it Is difficult to say if it be most preposterous and offensive. If the bank, indulging its own theories of its own immutability, had taken fire at state papers constitutionally emanating from one branch of the government, if these must be considered attacks, there was defence enough in the state papers issuing from other branches. Each being published under public authority, and thus necessarily circulated, might well have stood, for purposes of justice, merely one against the other. The. stockholders or directors were also at liberty, as other citizens, to. write or print what they chose in their individual capacities, using their own funds. ” But, if, the pretension to prepare (mark the word) and circulate “ do- icitments and ’papers," as corporate acts, and with /the corporate funds, had been set up when the charter was applied for, who does not'see that it would ihavemet with instant reprobation ? Who does not (See, as the committee of ways And means have just- fly remarked, that it woiild have been fatal at once to every hope of obtaining one ? Its friends would ■quickly have disavowedThe pretension. Its oppo- ments would have scouted.it. Yet, when the government directors protested against a usurpation so tm* expected, it maybe added without undue strength, so astounding, what do the managers do ? They show defiance. They fesolve that it shall be follow, ed up with renovated vigor, and for indefinite peri-. ■ odsi Here is a temper sufficient, it might have been supposed, to awaken the reflecting. Never was more signally illustrated the principle of powef adding to itself. The claim is one which the bank, at the time of its origin, or in the days of its weakness,’would never have dreamed of making. It knew too well the sensitiveness of Congress to any thing thaLmight have started the bare possibility of such an institution ever-going into the political field at all,' nd matter what the purpose or provocation. It knew too well what had been said, whether rightfully or not, of the old bank, to run the most remote hazard of exciting fears which, more than any other cause, prevented the renewal of that expired charter. To be told that local banks spend their money freely on contingent objects, is no qn. swer. It is confounding all distinctions. It is like the bank transacting business with less than seven, directors {is a board, though it is made a “fundamental” article in its charter, because local banks act on similar principles. The national bank was for national purposes. Its notes being receivable every where for demands of the nation, gives then! (nothing else would) circulation every where. Hence their restricted or abundant issue makes, for the time being, money scarce or plenty through the nation ; in other words affects its whole currency, its whole property. And hence the wisdoni of Congress in providing that so vast a discretion should not be exercised but by a competent number of the directors. Yet, the analogies of state banks in their business, are to be held up as guides for such an institution, against the words of its charter, and the national objects in granting it! The defenders of the bank treat these extraordinary resolutions as nothing. They take post upon their innocence. It is the only resurce left to .them. They would compare things the most unimportant, with things the most momentous. Let us hear in a word what their ground is. They allege that stationary, for example, must be purchased for the bank.; and would there be harm in the board passing an order to that effect, although they did not accompany it with any appropriation or limit for the sum? Stationary ! and is the common sense of the nation to be so dealt with? The purchase of paper and account books might well enough indeed be ordered, without limiting the sum. But who so wanting in perception aA not to see, that, under the resolutions in question, aw thing may be done in the way of employing and paying the press ? that no line would or could be drawn between the “information” to be written' down and disseminated through the country, and political matter that would run into it ? that the whole country might thus be flooded with partizan publications, of every drift and hue, according to the temper of the pens employed ? . All this is evident. It is scarcely hidden under the surface. Accordingly the positive proof corresponds with the inevitable anticipation. Those who have read Senator Benton’S speech, and other-speeches, may see what description Of “documents and papers” ware prepared and circulated. The resolutions were an entering wedge, wide
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