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THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION OF THE STATES...... THEY. "MUST BE PRESERVED.
vol. iv:..i.ivo. i83r r
Three JPoUartJcrmSixnttm,
Editor and Proprietor.
RALEIGH, N. C. WEDNESDAY, MAY29 1838.
(
La JIMP-
I vTi n-JSVTft n i T Toil J. Mi frS".
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Letters to the Editor must come free of
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OF
Mr. Strange, of Nortli Carolina,
In reply to Mr. Biddle's Letter to John Quincy
Adams.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE GLOBE.
Sir . The president of the Bank of the United
States of Pennsylvania, has addressed a letter to
the Hon. John Q. Adams of the House of Rep
resentatives, setting forth his views upon the
question, whether or not the banks should re
sume specie payments in May next. This letter
was evidently not designed for the private infor
mation of the gentleman to whom it is addressed,
but intended for publication, and, to operate a3
far as possible upon the widely spread, Ameri
can public. Whether "the position" of the au
thor of the letter "justified, if it did not require,"
its publication, is a question which I should never
have made the subject of public discussion, had
the letter itself contained no personal allusion to
me. It is a deplorable truth, that no man in ei
ther House of Congress has been at liberty for
years past to advocate the measures of the Ad
ministration, without being charged with a slav
ish devotion to the Executive the result of cor
ruption or stupidity. While these imputations
are made through anonymous squibs, or the edi
torial columns of hireling papers, though they
cannot fail to excite a glow of honest indignation,
it would be nothing less than Quixotic madness
to manifest any consciousness that they had been
observed. But when one occupying the posi
tion ot the president of the Bank of the United
States at Philadelphia singles out a member of
Congress as the particular subject of unkind re
mark, even where ehe terms used partake of the
delicacy of the source from whence they come,
contempt can no longer be either felt or feigned,
and some mode of self-defence is imperiously de
manded. Interested, as my position requires
that I should be, in every thing connected with
the politics of the country, I naturally availed
myself of the first opportunity of glancing my eye
over "the president's" letter, which required no?
thing more to give it celebrity than that the
source should be known from whence it came.
Had a serpent sprung from the folds of the pa
per which contained the letter, and fastened it
self upon my person, I could not have been more
surprised than I was, in finding myself the sub
ject of peculiar animadversion. My first feel
ings were a sense of personal outrage, and an J
impulse of resentment. But when I reflected
that was not even personally known to the dis
tinguished author of the letter, I became con
vinced that it was against the Senator against
the member of a political party, towards which
he had long since ceased to disguise his hate
and not against the humble individual, that the
shaft was leveled. In this view of the subject,
so far as I am personally concerned, I am recon
ciled to the outrage of propriety in the act, from
the effect it has produced ; an effect entirely un
designed by the actor that of placing me more
conspicuously before my country as the advocate
of principles .with which its best interests' are
identified.
To a man of less pretension than the presi
dent of the Bank of the United States, it would
not be thought offensive to say that this is not
one of a few instances in which his purposes and
his ends have not precisely coincided,' for, what
ever may be the effect of the attack referred to,
no one will believe it was meant in kindness.
But, whatever motive may have nerved the arm
of him who threw the dart, I feel that it has fal
len harmlessly at my feet, and I trust that I am
able to burl it back again better pointed and with
more effect.
In assigning my reason for coming forward
in person before the public, I have been forced
into an egotism not at all to my taste ; but in
what I have further to say, I speak not for my
self, but in behalf of my country. In doing so,
I shall bothcarrv the war into Africa, and defend
that portion of the territory at home which the
adversary has thought proper to invade.
I submit, in the first place, to the American
public, the propriety of the particular act which
has thrown upon me the necessity, or at least ex
cited within me the disposition, to publish this
letter.
A Senator in the Congress of the U. States,
in the discharge of his constitutional functions,
utteis opinions upon a subject under discussion
in that body. How, I would ask, have the A
merican public, and especially that portion of it
which he represents, a right to expect those o
pinions to be received and treated? The ques
tion is not whether these opinions are sound or
unsound, but in what manner their unsoundness
should be exposed by those in whose judgment it
exists. Ought it to be by fair, candid, and res
pectful argument, which only men of sense are
able to offer, or by sneering and denunciations,
in the use of which the wise man and the fool
stand upon a footing? Neither am I disposed
to make it a question what rights members of
Congress possess, under the Constitution, to ir
responsibility in every form, out of the halls of
yongress, lor what may have been uttered with
in them. Nor do I put forward, either for Se
nators or members of the House of Representor
t!v.es- anY claims for respect from, those who
t u Proper 10 withhld it. But I do hold, and
I think I shall be borne out by the American
people ( in so holding, that every man owes to
himself duties, and that to the violation of any of
Uui.co pcuuu auacti, which the moral
sense of the community will rigidly exact. One
of those duties is a scrupulous observance of the
courtesies of life, and the penalty for their breach
is (however arrogant may be the man's preten
sions) to have his good sense or his principles
questioned by all who witness it. In the words
of the poet, "the want of decency is want of
sense; ana me one want is the only apology
which can be given for the other. But for the
intelligent and highly gifted, nothing remains
but to be cast upon the other horn of the dilem
ma. Experience has shown, to a proverb, that
it is only the worst of the other sex who "un
pack their hearts with oaths:" and it is among
the most depraved of our own that we seek for
those who are liberal in using the language of
abuse and vituperation. What the public may
ihink of the decency and propriety of the presi
dent of the Bank of the United States not a
corrupt and ignorant demagogue, or stump ora
tor: not a professional pander to political passion
and prejudice saying of the president of the U.
States, in a deliberate, well considered produc
tion, intended for the press, that "he seeks to
maintain his power by exciting popular passions
against the credit system, and that the whole in
fluence of the Government is employed to infuse
into the minds of the people distrust and hatred
of the banks," is for its own decision. How
consistent with the same standard to describe as
"insane ravings" sentiments uttered by one rep
resenting, in part, a sovereign State of this Union
upon the floor of Congress, I refer to the decis
ion of the same tribunal. But, whether decent
and proper, or not, it can hardly escape the im
putation of an arrogance which could neither be
found nor tolerated save in a man whose vanity
and weakness were naturally great, or in one
whom circumstances had rendered a spoiled and
petted child of fortune.
No attempt has been made to show that the
sentiments characterized as "insane ravings,"
deserve that epithet. But they were not uttered
without consideration, and argument is not want
ing to show their soundness. If my task were
to convince the president of the Bank of the U.
States of their soundness, I should abandon it in
despair. But I will not undertake to say that,
because he is not accessible to such conviction,
he is either raving or insane. The man who
pronounces every one mad who believes what
he dues not, or who does not believe what he
receives as unquestionable truth, is very far re
moved from a philosopher. I did state, in the
Senate of the United States, that "a man loses
all by any circumstance, that, but for that cir
cumstance, he would have made. Although
England is a paper country, yet, if we were ex
clusively a metallic country, we should make
more out of our intercourse with her. And why
should we, because she chooses to maim her
self by hei paper system, follow her example?"
JNow, all this may be very erroneous, and I
claim not the right to force my dogmas upon
any man ; but I believed it true when I uttered it,
and I still believe it; and ail I ask is, to be con
vinced of my error in the only mode proper for
a free and rational being and that neither I, nor
those who may have some respect for my opin
ion, should be expected to abandon it, either as
slaves or brutes, in blind submission to one who
arrogates authority. The text opens a very wide
field lor argument upon one of those subjects, on
which more contrarieties of opinion have been
uttered than upon most others, and this consid
eration alone, if there were no other, should have
restrained the distinguished man of whom I have
been speaking from a rash condemnation of what
another had said. I feel that it is impossible to
do the subject justice in the short compass of a
letter, and especially one in which other topics
must necessarily be treated. The first portion
of the quotation is not, I suppose, objected to, to
wit: that "a man loses all by any circumstance,
which, but for that circumstance, he would have
made." This seems to me so very like a self
evident proposition, that I will not undertake to
make it plainer. I he absurdity, if any, lies in
the assertion that, "although England is a piper
country, yet if we were exclusively a metallic
country we should make more out of our inter
course with'her," and this 1 am to show is obvi
ously true, or at least not deserving the imputa
tion of "insane raving." I flatter myself that the
review of the whole paragraph, of which it is a
part, will go very far to prevent the startling ef
fect which, upon many minds, the single propo
sition is calculated to produce, and I according
ly beg leave to submit it.
"But another great evil of the paper system is,
that it causes the producers of the country to sell
at specie prices, and buy at paper prices, or in
other words to buy at prices regulated by an in
flated currency, and sell at those which are re
gulated by a stable currency. Gentlemen affect
not to see the force of this argument, and ask
whether the planters do sell their produce in one
country, and buy their articles of consumption
in another? I answer yes. The price of every
article produced in this country, and which usu
ally goes to a foreign market, is here regulated
by the price in the foreign market. The paper
currency of a country does not form a portion of
that great ocean to which I had reference in a
former part of my remarks ; but is, as it were,
an isolated lake, which has no outlet by which
it may mingle itself with those vast waters.
You may pour into it until it will overflow and
inundate the country in which it is situated, and
thus involve it in ruin; but it leaves the great
ocean without, unaffected by its swell. It rais
es prices t home but affects them not in oth
er markets. However abundant, therefore, mo
ney, -so called, may be at home, the exporter
can afford to give the farmers no more than
the price in the foreign market will warrant,
leaving him his reasonable expenses and pro
fit besides. But it is not so with the articles
he imports: when he gets them here they at
once feel the influence of the swollen circula
tion, and bring correspondent prices, and at those
prices the consumer must purchase. But it will
be said that England, the principal country
with" whom we trade, is a paper country, and
therefore we lose nothing by our paper sys
tem in our intercourse with her. Sir, a man
loses all by any citcumslance, thai, but for
that circumstance, he wOuld have made. Al
though England is a paper country, yet, if
we 6 exclusively a metallic country, we
should make more by out intercourse with her.
And why should we, because she chooses to
maim h. rself by her paper system, follow her
example? The whole business of life is a
struggle between nations and individuals for
their respective portions of the goods of for
tune; and why should any wise man, who is
embarking in any strife, disable himself be
cause his adversary has had the folly to do so
I am certain, sir, that to do justice to this ar
gument it should be more elaborate, but I must
leave it with the few hints I have thrown out,
which I trust will be ; understood by any in
telligent mind." v
In addition to this, I would remark that the
expression as used, make more out of, is equiva
lent to make more wealth out of it. -Now, those
whose dealings are altogether with money, in the
abused signification of that term! are apt to sup
pose that wealth has no other meaning than-
ricnes, whereas its best sense, when applied na
tionally, is nearly synonymous with prosperity,
The plain meaning, therefore, of the condemned
sentence, and that certainly intended by its au
thor, is, that if we were an exclusively metallic
country, we should make more prosperity out of
our intercourse witn otner nations, e. g. n,ngiana.
The truth of this proposition depends upon the
fact that paper money does not pass internation
ally as it does between individuals of the same
country. As a nation, our paper money consti
tutes no part of our national riches. Riches con
sist in the possession of that which the common
sense of all mankind has made the standard of
value, or of those things which can be converted
into such standard; and the nation or person who
possesses the most of these is the richest nation
or person. JNow it is plain, as paper money
consists of mere promises to pay, it is only valu
able upon the ground that the paper money itself
1 ! . 1 1.1 1 J
can oe immediately anuinuaiea ana convertea
into something which is valuable. ' As a nation,
these promises to pay are between one citizen,
or set of citizens, and another, and do not stand
for any thing which may be drawn into the coun
try and added to its stock of wealth. If I have
820,000 in property, and my neighbor has $10,
000, I am prima facie the richest man ; but if my
neighbor holds my notes to the amount of $10,
000, the thing is precisely reversed & in place of
being doubly as rich as he, I am only half as rich.
But if my said neighbor and I are in partnership.
the $10,000 between us add nothing to the wealth
of the firm : and, although my notes, to the a
mount of 810,000 being added to the $20,000 of
Eroperty held by me, and the $10,000 held by
im, make $40,000, the firm is in fact worth but
$30,000. But if the $10,000 was due from some
other solvent man, it would properly be added to
the other property of the concern, and make the
aggregate amount of $49,000. In the me way,
1 . .1 - -
wnat is aue irom citizen 10 citizen in a nation,
adds nothing to the national wealth; it is as tho'
a man had so many of his own note3 in his own
pocket. There they are altogether worthless.
It is only in the hands of another that they have
value. Our own paper currency, therefore, adds
nothing to our comparative riches with other na
tions. Let us see, then, if it does not render us
less able to avail ourselves of our share of the
real riches of the world. No nation, i: must be
confessed, surpasses us in the production of those
things which will command whatever we choose
to have in exchinge for them from other nations.
It is very clear that, like the individual spend
thrift, we may scatter these productions as soon
as they are produced upon the thankless waves.
or we may drive with them a very unprofitable
traffic, and in the language of our own Franklin
"pay too dear for the whistle," or we may, by
judicious management, get back our own with
usury. Now, it is plain that, with a nation, as
with an individual, the more it consumes of its
products, or of those things which it receives in
exchange for its products, the less it progresses
in amassing substantial riches. What, then, is
the comparative effect upon the consumption of
the nation of a paper and a hard money medium.
Does not every one seethe effect at a glance?
It is of the character of paper money, which is
not restricted in its supply by the parsimonious
a . III Y.a w a
nana 01 nature, to swell inordinately. 1 he is
suer is tempted by his profits to extend his issues,
and the receiver, by the desire which inhabits
every human bosom, to possess that which will
fiass as money, is induced to take them upon
oan, or any other terras by which they may be
obtained, and for a long time there is no coun
teracting third party or principle. In this way
issues are made, . with but little stint, until the
swell becomes so great as to excite apprehension.
In proportion as the circulating medium is abun
dant in a nation, so will the tendency to con
sumption in that nation increase, so will the pro
pensity be excited to invest money in articles of
luxury having no intrinsic value. Of these facts
our own experience has furnished woful and un
deniable evidence. In proportion us luxurious
investment & consumption increase, so also will
the demand for the appropriate articles. If these
articles are of domestic growth or manufacture, la
bor is drawn off from the production of substantial
values to their production, and thus the produc
tion of the exchangeable values of the country is
diminished. But if, as is most likely, they are
of foreign growth & production, they are brought
home from those countries whither our produce
goes in exchange for it, instead of the precious
metals or commodities, of permanent value. To
the merchants, as a class, this is a decided ad
vantage, for they are enabled thereby to make
money at both ends of the voyage. In the first
Dlace. they have purchased the produce at home.
graduated by the price in the foreign market,
leaving them a fair prospectfor clearing expen
ses and a handsome profit, and at the other by
purchasing the articles of luxury abroad, and
profiting by the eager demand and the swollen
circulation at home. Individually they are en"
riched, for they make money out of the foreign
er at one end of the voyage, and at the other, out
of their own countrymen; but it is only at the
foreign end that they add any thing to the aggre
gate wealth of their country. And this, by the
way, seems to explain, in part, that the prosperi
ty of the country is often really greatest while a
mong the mercantile classes there' is an outcry
of distress and ruin. Another thing to be con
sidered is that in a swollen circulation, while pro
duction continues, labor rises; while at the same
time, in a productive country, the necessaries of
life being in excess oyer the home consumption,
are still regulated in price by the foreign mark-
et. . The laboring man 13 tnus enabled to moke
more in other callings than he can do by the
cultivation of his farm, which he therefore aban
dons; and as the mass of mankind are prone to
let each day provide for itself, receiving fqr a time
more wages in one day than he can consume in
two or three, he accordingly relaxes from labori
ous habits, and gradually becomes idle. In the
mean time, population continuingto increase more
rapidly than the cultivators ot tne sou, m conse
quence of this diversion, the production bears a
less, proportion to 'consumption, and provisions
rise; and thus two circumstances are brough
into action adverse to national wealth. These
constituent members of society are rendered un
aPPyt a"d the exports of the country are dimin
ished. In this way my proposition has. I think
at least, the show of reason, although perhaps to
men more highly gifted its folly may be apparent.
Having thus endeavored briefly to defend my
own ground, 1 feel myself justified in pursuing
tne enemy, and endeavoring to convince even
himself that it is not the part of a wise sreneral.
to invade a peaceful neighboring territory, while
his own position is weak and defenceless. The
Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania, is
before the public in a very peculiar position, and
to its distinguished president, is awarded, on
all hands, the praise of what is jight, and the
odium of what is wrong in that position. In
May last, this institution refused to redeem its
notes in specie, and thus induced,' compelled or
furnished a pretext to the other banks in the
Union to make a like refusal. That institution
still continues its refusal, and through its pre
sident, avows its purpose to persevete, until
certain events pointed out shall take place, This
it does not, as its president professes, with re
ference to its own peculiar interest or condition,
but to make common cause with the other banks:
and all this he not only justifies, but speaks of
h in mat-tone 01 iriumpn ana daring which
marks the hero of some great achievement. He
is not contented with giving to the other banks,
the compulsion, the inducement, or the pretext.
which uis example naiurauy anoras, out mis
L'L 1 11 rr . . .
letter is written especially to encourage them by
his voice, and to hold forth to them the battle
cry of his party, N
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends."
The tone and tenor of the president's letter is
calculated to fill the bosom of every patriot with
indignation, and cause the crimson blush of
shame for his country to mantle on- his cheek
13 ui mis is noi an. 11 nis connuence uiu noi
stand firm in the "bone and sinew" of the land.
who are always, and in all situations, its ulti
mate reliance, he must exclaim, with despairing
Apneas nec spes opis ulla dabalur. VV hen one
takes up this tissue of arrogance & recklessness
of every thing that man is wont to treat with re
spect and veneration, he is overwhelmed with
astonishment, and is utterly at a loss upon what
point to fix as the most deserving of rebuke and
disapprobation. But, as I have resolved to find
a beginning to this tangled skein, that I may wind
on at least some portion of it, and expose to the
public its true texture, I will take, in the first
place, the assertion that the resumption, by the
banks, of specie payments, if it took place at all,
would be altogether voluntary. It may be that
my notions of law and morality are as obscure
and incorrect, in the estimation of the distin
guished bank president, as those on political e
conomy; but I thank Providence that we are
not the mutual triers of each other, but are both
obliged to throw ourselves upon God and our
country, and to abide the decision of the one in
this .world, and the other in the next. I should
be glad to know what would be thought of the
morality of the man who should proclaim to the
world, "It is true, I am justly indebted to many
of my fellow-citizens in several large sums. It
is true, lam well able to pay them ; but as they
rannot, under existing circumstances, force me
to pay; and as it is a perfectly voluntary matter
with me to pay or not, as I choose: and as I
think it not exactly to my interest and that of
some of ray friends, who are also in debt, to
make payment at present, 1 am therefore resolv
ed to postpone it until it shall better comport
with my notions of expediency. It is true, the
laws of the country require me to pay:' it is
true, my solemn written promise requires me to
pay; it is true, inexorable justice requires me to
pay. uut tne man who pays without force,
notwithstanding all these claims, is a mere vo
lunteer; & whv should I regard them, while no
force or compulsion can be applied to me.'" This
seems to me to be, in substance, what is proclaim
ed by the bank president. It is among the vagaries
of my fancy, that there was a tune when the de
mands of law and justice and plighted faith were
obligatory, and when he who obeyed them could
lay no claim to voluntary action, and I have
even indulged the dream that such was still the
opinion among men of honor and honesty. But
1 am roused from this agreeable delusion by the
president of the Bank of the Uuited States, and
have learned to my surprise that the only ques
tion in the fulfilment of a contract is expediency,
and that nothing is obligatory but irresistible
force; and we are taught, ex cathedra, another
most important truth, that it may be exceeding-
y praiseworthy to violate all these obligations,
provided one be strong enough to defy punish
ment for so doing. "The great prerogative cf
strength," saith be, "is nut to be afraid of doing
right. A simple man might suppose it was
equally the prerogative of honest weakness; but
in this it seems he would be mistaken, for it is
asserted to be the prerogative of strength; and
with great truth may it be asserted where right
consists in violating and trampling under foot
both public and private faith, and setting at
nought the laws of society. Nay, so much are
some of us behind the march of modern improve
ment in ethics, that we did not discover until we
bund it intimated from high authority, that an
effort to pay one's debts may be justly called "a
rash and hazirdous enterpnze. Our surprise
at these opinions is perhaps not quite so excu?
sable as it at first might seem, for we should
have remembered that they are from the same
persons who, at the head of an institution which
held, as assignee in trust,' the effects of another
whose charter had expired, unscrupulously
re-issued its redeemed notes," . One might have
supposed that some scruples of conscience would
nave accompaniea mis net, ana uouois 01 us pro
priety have visited the mind of the actor. But
this, it seems, was very far from the case. For,
when censured for the act,, he boldly defends
himself upon the ground that his bank had done
no more than others in issuing the notes of the
defunct institution, as if there was no difference
between an executor or other trustee re-issuing
the redeemed notes' of his cestui que trust, and
their circulation inter alias by those who held
them. Did the president reajly perceive no dif
ference? If he did, and asserted that he did
not, what becomes of his veracity 1 And if he
did not perceive it, the question remains to be
settled between him and the rest of the world as
to the correctness of his moral sense. These
ew specimens of the moral views of the presi
dent of the United States Bank ought to be borne
in mind as we go along, that we may with more
safety decide upon his right to our conadence in
his opinions upon other subjects.
After some other preliminary remarks of a
like character to those before mentioned, he pro
ceeds first to assign the causes of the suspension
which he makes to be three in number, to wit:
"The Specie Circular, the mismanagement o
the deposities, and the clamor raised by the Ex
ecutive against bank notes, which alarmed the
people for their safety, and caused a run upon
the banks for specie." Now this specification is
contradicted by other declarations of the writer
himself, by those of others among the most ex
perienced financiers - in the country, and by the
observation and sound sense of all who have at
tended to the circumstances of the times. In
another part of the letter now under considera
tion, the writer says: "The disease of the coun
try was an overstrained & distempered energy.
What does he mean by that expression ? No one
would find any difficulty in comprehending it.
if that difficulty was not created by bis forbear
ing to mention it among the causes of suspen
sion in his enumeration of those causes. It
would at once strike every mind that he meant
nothing more nor less than that a spirit of exces
sive trading and speculation had existed: and
this is confirmed by the remedy he indicates for
the disease. " The remedy," says he, "was re
pose ;" or, in other words, a suspension of that
"overstrained and distempered energy," and a
forbearance to enforce rigidly a fulfilment of ex
isting contracts ; among which, and doubtless
not the least important, yere the notes issued by
the banks.
Of other financiers who have assigned causes
for the present pecuniary difficulties, I will con
tent myself with an extract from Mr. Gallatin's
report.
"The immediate causes which thus compelled
the banks of the city of New York to suspend
specie payments, on the 1 0th of May last, are
well known. The simultaneous withdrawing
of the large public deposits, and of excessive
foreign credit?, combined with the great and
unexpected fall in the price of the principal ai
tide of our exports, with an import of corn and
bread stuffs, such as had never before 'occurred,
and with the consequent inability of the country.
particularly of the southwestern States, to make
the usual and expected remittances, did, at one
and the same time, fall principally and neces
sarily, on the greatest commercial emporium of
the Union. After a long and most arduous
struggle, during which the banks, though not
altogether unsuccessfully, resisting the nnpera
live foreign demand for the precious metals, were
gradually deprived of a great portion of their
specie ; some unfortunate incidents of a local
nature, operating m Concert with other previous
exciting causes, produced distrust and panic.
and finally one of those general runs, which, 1
continued, no banks that issue paper money
payable on demand, can ever resist: and which
soon put it out of the power of those of this city
to sustain specie payments. The example was
followed by the hanks throughout the whole
country, with as much rapidity as the news of
the suspension in New .York reached them,
without waiting for an actual run, and princi
pally, if not exclusively, on the alleged grounds
of the effects to be apprehended from that sus
pension. I hus, whilst the Ne v York city banks
were almost drained of their specie, those in
other places preserved the amount which they
neia before the hnal catastrophe.
"If the share of blame, which may justly be
imputed to the banks, be analyzed, it will be
found to consist in their not having, at an early
period, duly appreciated the magnitude of the
impending danger, and taken, in time, the mea
sures necessary to guard against it: in their
want of firmness when the danger was more ap
parent and alarming ; in yielding to the demands
for increased, or continued bank facilities, in
stead of resolutely curtailing their loans, and les
seniug their liabilities." -
But I may also appeal to the experience and
observation of men m general, whether those as
signed by the writer of the letter were the effi
cient causes of the pecuniary embarrassments, &
whether over-trading wosnot much more opera
tive, and especially whether the run upon the
banks: for specie, so far as it existed, was not
mainly the result of the high rate of exchange
on England, and the demand for remittances to
that country ? - '
But, allowing these causes to have been as
efficient as the bank president insists, were they.
by his own showing, the compulsory causes 01
suspension? Did he not assure us, at the time
of suspension, that he was not driven fo it by his
own necessities, but was influenced entirely by
a regard to the general welfare, and a desire to
be the first in stoppage, that he might be the
first in resumption? "If," said he, "the bank had
consulted its own strength, it would have con
tinued its payments without reserve." If then
be might have continued to fulfil his contracts,
was it not his duty to have done so ? Does any
thing but the want of ability justify a man, .ac
cording to any sound system of ethics, in refus
ing to fulfil a lawful contract ? And yet this
gentleman refuses the fulfilment of his, while he
is yet able, and urges all others in similar cir
cumstances to do likewise, upon some conside
rations of expediency,
But these causes, erroneously assigned, as I
think I have, shown, as a justification for the
suspension, it is insisted are in full operation,
and indeed, that they . have - acquired ten-fold
orce. It, then, one-tenth of their present force
was sufficient to produce the stoppage of all the
banks in the Union, what must be the effect up
on them, now that those causes have attained
their entire vigor ? But is it true that their ef-
ect is increased at all f And first, as to the Spe
cie Circular. Is fc true that its provisions have
been extended? Is it by force of the Specie Cir
cular, or any other Executive circular, that bank
notes are not receivable in Diyment for the cus
toms? Is it not by the operation oftheactof 1789,
requiring all the debts of the Government to be
collected in cash ? The operation of that act, it
is true, was modified by the resolution of 1816,
so as to allow the reception of the notes of specie-
paying banks. And is them now any act of the
Executive, or of Congress, which prohibits ttbe
reception, of the notes of specie paying 'banks;
except at the land offices ? s it not the fact that
the non-payment by the banks of specie is the
only circumstance, at present, excluding their
notes from reception inll dues to the Govern
ment save those at the land offices ? And does
not this circumstance, so far from extending the
provisions of the Specie Circular, render it, in
fact a dead letter,. and leave nothing in existence
upon which it can operate?- Is it dealing fairly,
then,, with the people of the United States, f6r a
man whose voice is so potential with so man';
to assert that the Specie Circular has been ex
tended? " - '; ; '-
Upon the next topic the sweeping interro
gatory, "Now has anyone of. these cause ceas
ed ? On the contrary, have they not acquired
ten-fold force 1" is qualified, if not absolutely'
negatived,-a few sentences afterwards, by the
admission that "the distribution of the surplus is
over," (coupled with what looks very much like
a taunt,) "because there is no longer any surplus
to distribute." But as a substitute for this cause
'. distress to the banks, he brings forward ano
ther: "But," says he, "the great disbursements'
on the Southern and Western frontiers operate
as injuriously, by requiring the transfer of so
much revenue from the points wnere itis collect
ed." What a startling idea is here presented
to the mind! .And what a conclusive argu
ment against connecting the fiscal affairs of the
Government with the banking institutions of the
country ? ." It is gravely brought forward by
the most distinguished of our financiers, as a
reason why the banks should not attempt specie
payments, that Congress has made appropriations
to be expended in this or that portion of the U
nion. And is it come to this; that when an
appropriation is required in a particular portion
oftbe country, ana every mingejse inaicatesine
propriety of the appropriation, it must be with
held, because it will interfere with the plans ana
interests of the banking institutions? Is not
this precisely one of the arguments which we
have relied upon in favor of a disconnection, that
as long as the connection exists, the measures of
the Government must he controlled by the banks,
or the country agitated by their cries of distress ,
at every movement ? And can the American
people, 1 ask, shamefully submit to nave tneir
public will thus thwarted and controlled ? Every
noble principle in the American ' character in
dignantly forbids it, "t
"Listly and mainly," says the letter, "the
alarm about bank notes propagated by the Gov
ernment has been deeply spread throughout the
country, till what was at first a passing outcry
has settled into , an implacable hostility: JNo
man, I think, can doubt for a moment that, the
Executive of the United States seeks to maintain
his power by exciting popular passions against
the credit system, & that the whole influence of ;
the Government is employed to infuse into the
minds of the people distrust and hatred of all
banks." By the Executive is evidently meant
the President. Now, I will venture. to assert
that men quite as honest and intelligent as the
president of the Bank of the United Slates not
only doubt what is thus asserted, but believe it
to be an utterly groundless and gratuitous
charge. It is entirely without proof, and is not .
believed by any. one whose mind is not biased ,'
by interest or passion, misled by political pre
judice, or deceived by misrepresentation. - The
President, in his Message, expressly denies his
right, or that of Congress, to . interfere with the
banks, and recommends nothing in relation to -them
but their discontinuance as the fiscal agents
of the Government. How, then, is this Execu
tive power exerted? From what immediately
follows, the inference is plain that the writer of
the letter has in view, as one at least of the modes. y
the procuring of speeches to be delivered in, and ,:
perhaps out, of Congress having that tendency.
"For this purpose," he says, "the most ' insane t
ravings are addressed to the cup;dity of the
ignorant, who are taught that gold and silver are.
the only true riches." - By whom are these
insane ravings addressed i iJy the iresident ?
This surely was not meant. By whom, then,
have they been addressed? I will venture to.
say that no man in the public councils of .this
nation, whether he be, in the estimation of the
bank president, sane or insane, has ever assert- '
cd that gold and silver are the only true riches.
Who has ever doubted the value of cattle, horses,
houses, lands, the clothing which comforts and
adorns our persons, and the bread which sus
tains our existence? I am the more justified in
taking direct isaue upon the truth of this asser
tionbecause the language referred to is indi
rectly, if not directly, imputed to myself: for
the writer goes on to say, "and above all. that
hese shrewd metals would enable us to outwit
the paper dullness of England ;" and, as if in
proof that he was right in these assertions, he
then quotes the portion of a paragraph from my
peech heretofore mentioned. I bat quotation is
already before you; and if any man can find in
it the assertion that gold and silver are the only
true riches, or that they would enable us io out
wit England
"He must have optics sharp, I ween,' .. .
But how is the quotation itself introduced?
Said one of these politicians in the Seriate of 'the
United States." What politicians? This is the
first time, I believe, that the word politician oc
curs in the letter, and if any class is previously -
described, I am unable to find the description. ,
The truth is, the political party which refuses to
yield to the dictation of the bank president, is as
constantly present to, his mind as was the Jew
Mordecai to that of the princely Haman, fretting
his pride, thwarting bis ambition, and destroying
11s relish even for the dainties of his table, and
the gorgeous splender of his palace.and under n vl
very natural illusion be fancies that it is just as
present to the mind of every one else, & of course
no discourse about it can ever be' abrupt or un
expected, of require the ordinary forms of intro
duction. But, granting their truth so far as the various '
portions of the letter can be reconciled with each
other, to wit: that the Specie Circular, the mis
management of the deposites, or its equivalent
ubstituteand the Executive hostility, backed bv
he insane ravings of bis partisans in or out of .
the Senate, are in full operation, and indeed have
acquired tenfold force, and that the United States
Hank, with all these weighty powers warnnrr
against her, is yet able to iueet fier engagements, ,
the question is to.be settled whether, even in the
most latuuainarian scnooi 01 morality, me sus
pension or us continuance are justifiable or ex
cusable, , Air Will admit that, however censura-'
ble it may be for a man to have entered into ait
engagement without a reasonable prospect oi ful-
filling it, yet having done so, utter inability would
excuse the performance. But this ground of de- '
fence or excase is rejected by the Bank of the U.
States with indignation. - . y
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