OF THE 
 
 HON. HENRY CLAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SUB-TREASURY BILL, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 JANUARY 20, 1840, 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY GEORGE OSCAR BARTLETT, 
 No. 133 Washington Street. 
 
 1840. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. CLAY 
 
 ON THE 20TH OF JANUARY, 1840. 
 
 Mr. President, 
 
 It is no less the duty of the statesman than the physician 
 to ascertain the exact state of the body to which he is to minister, 
 before he ventures to prescribe any healing remedy. It is with no 
 pleasure, but with profound regret, that I survey the present condi¬ 
 tion of our country. I have rarely, I think never, known a period 
 of such universal and intense distress. The general government is 
 in debt, and its existing revenue is inadequate to meet its ordinary 
 expenditure. The states are in debt,—some of them largely in debt, 
 insomuch that they have been compelled to resort to the ruinous ex¬ 
 pedient of contracting new loans to meet the interest upon prior 
 loans; and the people are surrounded with difficulties, greatly em¬ 
 barrassed, and involved in debt. Whilst this is, unfortunately, the 
 general state of the country, the means of extinguishing this vast 
 mass of debt are in constant diminution. Property is falling in val¬ 
 ue; all the great staples of the country are declining in price, and 
 destined, I fear, to further decline. The certain tendency of this 
 very measure is to reduce prices. The banks are rapidly decreasing 
 the amount of their circulation. About one half of them, extending 
 from New Jersey to the extreme south-west, have suspended specie 
 payments, presenting an image of a paralytic, one moiety of whose 
 body is stricken with palsy. The banks are without a head; and, 
 instead of union, concert, and co-operation between them, we behold 
 jealousy, distrust, and enmity. We have no currency whatever, pos¬ 
 sessing uniform value throughout the whole country; that which we 
 have, consisting almost entirely of the issues of banks, is in a state 
 
4 
 
 of the utmost disorder, insomuch that it varies, in comparison with 
 the specie standard, from par to fifty per cent, discount. Exchanges, 
 too, are in the greatest possible confusion, not merely between dis¬ 
 tant parts of the union, but between cities and places in the same 
 neighborhood,—that between our great commercial marts of New 
 York and Philadelphia, within five or six hours of each other, vacil¬ 
 lating between seven and ten per cent. The products of our agricul¬ 
 tural industry are unable to find their way to market, from the want 
 of means in the hands of traders to purchase them, or from the want 
 of confidence in the stability of things; many of our manufactories 
 stopped or stopping, especially in the important branch of woollens; 
 and a vast accumulation of their fabrics on hand, owing to the de¬ 
 struction of confidence, and the wretched state of exchange between 
 between different sections of the union. 
 
 Such is the unexaggerated picture of our present condition. And 
 amidst the dark and dense cloud that surrounds us, I perceive not 
 one gleam of light. It gives me nothing but pain to sketch the pic¬ 
 ture. But duty and truth require that existing diseases should be 
 fearlessly examined, and probed to the bottom ; we shall otherwise 
 be utterly incapable of conceiving or applying appropriate remedies. 
 If the present unhappy state of our country had been brought upon 
 the people by their folly and extravagance, it ought to be borne with 
 fortitude, and without complaint, and without reproach. But it is my 
 deliberate judgment that it has not been—that the people are not to 
 blame, and that the principal causes of existing embarrassments are 
 not to be traced to them. Sir, it is not my purpose to waste the 
 time or excite the feelings of members of the senate by dwelling long 
 on what I suppose to be those causes. My object is a better, a 
 higher, and I hope a more acceptable one—to consider the remedies 
 proposed for the present exigency. Still, I should not fulfil my 
 whole duty, if I did not briefly say that, in my conscience, I believe 
 our pecuniary distresses have mainly sprung from the refusal to re¬ 
 charter the late Bank of the United States ; the removal of the pub¬ 
 lic deposites from that institution ; the multiplication of state banks 
 in consequence ; and the treasury stimulus given to them to extend 
 their operations; the bungling manner in which the law depositing 
 the surplus treasure with the states was executed ; the treasury cir¬ 
 cular ; and, although last, perhaps not least, the exercise of the 
 power of the veto on the bill for distributing among the states the 
 net proceeds of the sales of the public lands. 
 
 What, Mr. President, is needed, at the present crisis, to restore 
 the prosperity of the people? A sound local currency, mixed with a 
 currency possessing uniform value throughout the whole country ; a i 
 re-establishment of regular exchanges between different parts of the 
 union ; and a revival of general confidence. The people want, in i 
 short, good government at Washington ; the abandonment of rash 
 and ruinous experiments ; the practice here of economy, and the 
 
o 
 
 pursuit of the safe lights of experience. Give as these, and the 
 growth of our population, the enterprise of our people, and the abun¬ 
 dance, variety, and richness of the products of our soil and of our 
 industry, with the blessing of Providence, will carry us triumphantly 
 through all our complicated embarrassments. Deny these—persevere 
 in a mal-administration of government, and it is in vain that the 
 bounties of Heaven are profusely scattered around us. 
 
 There is one man, and I lament to say, from the current of events 
 and the progress of executive and party power, but one man, at pres¬ 
 ent, in the country, who can bring relief to it, and bind up the bleed¬ 
 ing wounds of the people. He, of all men in the nation, ought to feel 
 as a parent should feel, most sensibly, the distresses and sufferings 
 of his family. But, looking to his public course and his official acts, 
 I am constrained to say that he surveys unconcerned the wide-spread 
 ruin, and bankruptcy, and wretchedness before him, 'without emotion, 
 and without sympathy. Whilst all the elements of destruction are 
 at work, and the storm is raging, the chief magistrate, standing in the 
 midst of his unprotected fellow-citizens, on the distinguished position 
 of honor and confidence to which their suffrages have elevated him, 
 deliberately wraps around himself the folds of his India rubber cloak, 
 and, lifting his umbrella over bis head, tells them, drenched and 
 shivering as they are under the beating rain, and hail, and snow fall¬ 
 ing upon them, that he means to take care of himself and the official 
 corps, aud that they are in the habit of expecting too much from 
 government, and must look out for their own shelter, and security, 
 and salvation. 
 
 And now allow me to examine, and carefully and candidly consider 
 the remedy which this bill offers to a suffering people for the unparal¬ 
 leled distresses under which they are writhing. I will first analyze 
 and investigate it, as its friends and advocates represent it. What 
 is it 1 What is this measure, which has so long and so deeply agi¬ 
 tated this country, under the various denominations of sub-treasury, 
 independent treasury, and divorce of the state from banks ? What 
 is it ? Let us define it truly and clearly. Its whole principle con¬ 
 sists in an exaction from the people of specie , in the payment of all 
 their duties and dues to government, and the disbursement of specie 
 by the government, in the payment of all salaries and of all the cred¬ 
 itors of the government. This is its simple and entire principle. 
 Divest the bill under consideration of all its drapery and parapher¬ 
 nalia, this is its naked, unvarnished, and unexaggerated principle, 
 according to its own friends. This exclusive use of specie, in all re¬ 
 ceipts and payments of the government, it is true, is not to he instan¬ 
 taneously enforced ; but that is the direct and avowed aim and object 
 of the measure, to he accomplished gradually, but in the short space 
 of a little more than three years. The twenty-eight sections of the 
 bill, with all its safes, and vaults, and bars, and bolts, and receivers- 
 general, and examiners, have nothing more nor less in view than the 
 
6 
 
 exaction of specie from the people, and the subsequent distribution of 
 that specie among the officers of the government and the creditors of 
 the government. It does not touch, nor profess to touch, the actual 
 currency of the currency. It leaves the local banks where it found 
 them, unreformed, uncontrolled, unchecked in all their operations. 
 It is a narrow, selfish, heartless measure. It turns away from the 
 people, and abandons them to their hard and inexorable fate, leaving 
 them exposed to all the pernicious consequences of an unsound cur¬ 
 rency, utterly irregular and disordered exchanges, and the greatest 
 derangement in all business. It is worse; it aggravates and perpet¬ 
 uates the very evils which the government will not redress ; for, by 
 going into the market, and creating a new and additional demand 
 for specie, it cripples and disables the state banks, and renders them 
 incapable of furnishing that relief to the people which a parental 
 government is bound to exert all its energies and powers to afford. 
 The divorce of the state from banks, of which its friends boast, is 
 not the only separation which it makes ; it is a separation of the 
 government from the constituency—a disunion of the interests of the 
 servants of the people from the interests of the people. 
 
 This bill, then, is wholly incommensurate with the evils under 
 which the country is suffering. It leaves them, not only altogether 
 unprovided for, but aggravates them. It carries no word of cheering 
 hope or encouragement to a depressed people. It leaves their lan¬ 
 guishing business in the same state of hopeless discouragement. 
 
 But its .supporters argue, that such a system of convertible paper 
 as this country has so long had is radically wrong ; that all our evils 
 are to he traced to the banks; and that the sooner they are put down, 
 and a currency exclusively metallic is established, the belter. They 
 further argue, that such a metallic currency will reduce inflated 
 prices, lower the wages of labor, enable us to manufacture cheaper, 
 and thereby admit our manufacturers to maintain a successful compe¬ 
 tition with foreigners. And all these results, at some future time or 
 other, are to be brought about by the operation of this measure. 
 
 Mr. President, in my opinion, a currency purely metallic is neither 
 desirable, in tlie present state of the commercial world, nor, if it were, 
 is it practicable, or possible to be attained in this country. And, if it 
 were possible, it could not be brought about without the most 
 friglitfol and disastrous consequences, creating convulsion, if not 
 revolution. 
 
 Of all the conditions of society, that is most prosperous in which 
 there is a gradual and regular increase of the circulating medium, and 
 a gradual but not too rapid increase in the value of property and the 
 price of commodities. In such a state of tilings, business of all kinds 
 is active and animated ; every department of it flourishes, and labor 
 is liberally rewarded. No sacrifices are made of property ; and debt¬ 
 ors find, without difficulty, the means of discharging promptly their 
 debts. Men hold on to what they have, without the apprehension of 
 
7 
 
 loss, and we behold no glutted markets. Of all conditions of society, 
 that is most adverse, in which there is a constant and rapid diminu¬ 
 tion of the amount of the circulating medium. Debtors become una¬ 
 ble to pay their debts; property falls; the market is glutted; busi¬ 
 ness declines, and the laborer is thrown out of employment. In such a 
 state of things, the imagination goes ahead of the reality. Sellers 
 become numerous, from the apprehension that their property, now 
 falling, will fall still lower; and purchasers scarce, from an unwilling¬ 
 ness to make investments with the hazard of almost certain loss. 
 
 Have gentlemen reflected upon the consequences of their system 
 of depletion? I have already stated that the country is borne down 
 by a weight of debt. If the currency be greatly diminished, as, be¬ 
 yond all example, it has been, how is this debt to be extinguished ? 
 Property, the resource on which the debtor relied for his payment, 
 will decline in value ; and it may happen that a man who honestly 
 contracted debt, on the faith of property which had a value, at the 
 time, fully adequate to warrant the debt, will find himself stripped of 
 all his property, and his debt remain unextinguished. The gentle¬ 
 man from Pennsylvania (Mr. Buchanan) has put the case of two 
 nations, in one of which the amount of its currency shall be double 
 what it is in the other; and, as he contends, the prices of all property 
 will be double in the former nation of what they are in the latter. If 
 this be true of two nations, it must be equally true of one, whose cir¬ 
 culating medium is atone period double what it is at another. Now, 
 as the friends of the bill argue, we have been, and yet are, in this 
 inflated state; our currency lias been double, or in something like 
 that proportion, of what was necessary, and we must come down to 
 the lowest standard. Do they not perceive that inevitable ruin to 
 thousands must be the necessary consequence ? A man, for exam¬ 
 ple, owning property to the value of $5,000, contracts a debt for 
 $5,000. By the reduction of one halfof the currency of the country, 
 his property, in effect, becomes reduced to the value of $2,500 ; but 
 his debt undergoes no corresponding reduction. He gives up all his 
 property, and remains still in debt $2,500. Thus this measure will 
 operate on the debtor class of the nation, always the weaker class, 
 and that which, for that reason, most needs the protection of gov¬ 
 ernment. 
 
 But, if the effect of this hard money policy upon the debtor class 
 be injurious, it is still more disastrous, if possible, on the laboring 
 classes. Enterprise will be checked or stopped; employment will 
 become difficult; and the poorer classes will be subject to the greatest 
 privations and distresses. Heretofore, it has been one of the boasts 
 and pretensions of the dominant party, that they sought to elevate the 
 poor by depriving the rich of undue advantages. Now, their policy 
 is to reduce the wages of labor ; and this is openly avowed ; and it is 
 argued by them, that it is necessary to reduce the wages of American 
 labor to the low standard of European labor, in order to enable the 
 
8 
 
 American manufacturer to enter into a successful competition with 
 the European manufacturer, in the sale of their respective fabrics. 
 Thus is this dominant party perpetually changing—one day, cajoling 
 the poor, and fulminating against the rich ; and the next, cajoling 
 the rich, and fulminating against the poor. It was but yesterday that 
 we heard that all who w’ere trading on borrowed capital ought to 
 break. It was but yesterday we heard denounced the long estab¬ 
 lished policy of the country, by which, it was alleged, the poor w ere 
 made poorer, and the rich were made richer. 
 
 Mr. President, of all the subjects of national policy, not one ought 
 to be touched with so much delicacy as that of the wages,—in other 
 words, the bread of the poor man. In dwelling, as I have often 
 done with inexpressible satisfaction, upon the many advantages of 
 our country, there is not one that has given me more delight than the 
 high price of manual labor ; there is not one which indicates more 
 clearly the prosperity of the mass of the community. In all the fea¬ 
 tures of human society, there are none, I think, which more decisively 
 display the general welfare than a permanent high rate of wages, and 
 a permanent high rate of interest. Of course, I do not mean those 
 excessive high rates, of temporary existence, which result from sud¬ 
 den and unexpected demands for labor or capital, and which may, 
 and generally do, evince some unnatural and extraordinary stale of 
 things; but I mean a settled, steady, and durable high rate of wages 
 of labor, and in erest upon money. Such a state demonstrates activ¬ 
 ity and profits in all the departments of business. It proves that the 
 employer can afford to give high wages to the laborer, in consequence 
 of the profits of his business, and the borrower high interest to the 
 lender, in consequence of the gains which lie makes by the use of 
 capital. On the contrary, in countries where the business is dull and 
 languishing, and all the walks of society are full, the small profits 
 that are made will not justify high interest or high wages. 
 
 Wages of labor will be low where there is no business, and, of 
 course, but little or no demand for labor; or where, from the density 
 of population, the competition for employment is great, and the de¬ 
 mand for labor is not equal to the supply. Similar causes will tend 
 to the reduction of the rate of interest. Our vqst, unpeopled regions 
 in the west protect us against the evils of a too crowded population. 
 In our country, such is the variety of profitable business and pursuits, 
 that there is scarcely any in which one can engage with diligence, 
 integrity, and ordinary skill, in regular and ordinary times, that he is 
 not sure of being amply rewarded. Surveying our happy condition, 
 in this respect, it was, during the last war, remarked by the present 
 Lord Jefferies, that America was the heaven of the poor man, and the 
 hell of the rich. There was extravagance in the observation, mixed 
 with some truth. It would have been more accurate to have said 
 that, with good government, it was an earthly heaven, both of the 
 rich and poor. 
 
9 
 
 It was contended, however, that the reduction of wages would be 
 only nominal; that, an exclusive specie currency being established, 
 the prices of all commodities would fall; and that the laborer would 
 be able to command as many of the necessaries of life with his low 
 wages as he can at present. 
 
 The great error of senators on the other side is, that they do not 
 sufficiently regard the existing structure of society, the habits and 
 usages which prevail,—in short, the actual state of things. All wise 
 legislation should be founded upon the condition of society as it is ; 
 and, even where reform is necessary, it should be introduced slowly, 
 cautiously, and with a careful and vigilant attention to all conse¬ 
 quences. But gentlemen seem disposed to consider themselves at 
 liberty to legislate for a new people, just sprung into existence and 
 commencing its career—one for which they may, without reference 
 to what they see all around them, speculate and theorize at pleasure. 
 Now, if we were such a people, and were deliberating on the question 
 of what was the best medium of circulation to represent the property 
 and transact the business of the country, it is far from being certain 
 that it would be deemed wisest to adopt an exclusive specie standard. 
 But, when we glance at society as it actually exists, with all its rela¬ 
 tions and ramifications, its engagements, debts, wants, habits, customs, 
 nothing can be more unwise, it seems to me, than to attempt so radi¬ 
 cal a change as that which is contemplated. 
 
 I cannot admit that the laborer, with his own wages, would be in 
 as eligible a situation as he now is. The argument excludes all con¬ 
 sideration of his condition during the transition from the paper to the 
 specie medium. In the descending process from an abundant to a 
 scarce circulation, there would be for him nothing but distress and 
 wretchedness ; and he would be in the greatest danger of starvation 
 before the El Dorado of gentlemen was reached. The adjustment 
 of prices to the state of the currency is not so sudden a work as is 
 imagined. Long after the specie standard should be established, the 
 old prices of many articles would remain ; and all foreign produc¬ 
 tions, which enter into the consumption of the poor man, would con¬ 
 tinue unaffected by our domestic currency. If it be true that there 
 would be no alteration in the condition of the laborer; if he would 
 really get as much, in value, in the new state of things as in the old, 
 how is that of the capitalist, engaged in manufactures, to be improved ? 
 Would not his situation also remain unaltered ? 
 
 The assumption that an exclusive hard money circulation is best 
 for the laborer, best for the manufacturer, best for the country, is 
 against all the experience of the world. Beyond all doubt, England 
 is the most prosperous of all the nations of the old world, and Eng¬ 
 land is the greatest paper money country that exists. Her manu¬ 
 factures find a market in every portion of the globe ; her operatives 
 and laborers are paid better, and fed better, than any in Europe. 
 Have the manufacturers of the hard money countries of the conti- 
 
10 
 
 nent prevailed over those of England, and driven them out of the 
 market, in fair competition ? Far from it. Their policy is to ex¬ 
 clude, by prohibitions and heavy duties, the entry of British goods 
 into their ports. England has sought to make treaties with them all, 
 and especially with France, upon the basis of free trade ; and France 
 has replied that her manufactures are too much behind those of Eng¬ 
 land to admit of their being placed upon a footing of equality. Pa¬ 
 per money-inflated England manufactures about two thirds of all 
 the cotton exported from the United States, and her cotton manufac¬ 
 ture alone is probably greater than that of all the rest of Europe. 
 
 But, Mr. President, if the banishment from circulation of all bank 
 paper, and the exclusive use of specie in this country, were desirable, 
 is it practicable ? can it be possibly brought about? I have said that 
 the legislator is bound to have due regard to the wants, wishes, ne¬ 
 cessities, and condition of the country for which he acts. But a 
 practical American statesman has a further duty to perform—that of 
 attentively considering the distribution of the power of government 
 in this confederacy. Here we have local governments for the re¬ 
 spective states, and a general government for the whole. The gene¬ 
 ral government has but few, limited, and well-defined powers,—the 
 states severally possessing all power not denied to them or delegated 
 by the federal constitution. Whatever difference of opinion might 
 exist, if it were a new question, it cannot now be controverted that 
 each of the twenty-six state governments has the power to bring into 
 existence as many banks as it pleases. Banks have accordingly 
 been created, and will continue, and must exist, in spite of the gene¬ 
 ral government. The paper of banks will therefore remain, as it has 
 been, a part of the general circulation, in defiance of any policy 
 which this government may proclaim. And, if one or more of the 
 states were to adopt the hard money policy, there would be others 
 which would find, in the very forbearance of certain members of the 
 confederacy to establish or continue banks, a fresh motive to create 
 and sustain them; for the issues of their banks would run into the 
 states which had them not, and they would thus appropriate to them¬ 
 selves, at the expense of others, all the benefits of banking. I recol¬ 
 lect well how banks were originally first introduced into many of the 
 southern and western states. They found themselves exposed to all 
 the inconveniences, without enjoying the benefits of the banking sys¬ 
 tem ; and they were reduced to the necessity of establishing banks to 
 share the advantages, as well as the disadvantages, of the system. 
 
 Banks, bank notes, a convertible paper money, are therefore inev¬ 
 itable. There is no escape from them. You may deliver as many 
 homilies as you please, send forth from this capitol as many essays 
 and disquisitions as you think proper, circulate presidents messages 
 denouncing them as widely as you choose, and thunder forth from a 
 party press as loud and long as you can against hanks, and they will 
 continue to exist, in spite of you. What, then, is it the duty of a 
 
11 
 
 a wise and practical federal statesman to do? Since he finds a state 
 of things which is unalterable, to which he must submit, however 
 convinced he may be of the utility of a change, his duty is to accom¬ 
 modate his measures to this immutable state of public affairs. And, 
 if he cannot trust the eight or nine hundred local banks which are 
 dispersed through the country, create a federal bank, amenable to the 
 general government, subject to its inspection and authority, and capa¬ 
 ble of supplying a general currency worthy of its confidence ; make, 
 in short, the government of the whole partake of the genius, and con¬ 
 form to the fixed character, of the parts. , 
 
 Mr. President, I never have believed that the local banks were 
 competent to supply such a general currency, of uniform value, as 
 this people wants, or to perform those financial offices which are 
 necessary to a successful administration of this government. I pro¬ 
 nounced them incompetent, at the period of the removal of the depos- 
 ites ; and we foretold the unfortunate state of things that now exists. 
 But the party in power, which now denounces them, proclaimed 
 their entire ability, not only to supply as good, but a better currency 
 than that which was furnished by the Bank of the United States, and 
 to perform all the financial duties which that institution fulfilled. 
 After that party had succeeded in putting down the Bank of the 
 United States, and got their system of state banks into full opera¬ 
 tion, it continued, year after year, to announce to the public that all 
 its expectations had been fully realized. 
 
 A Bank of the United States established by this Government would 
 not only furnish it a currency in which it might safely confide, in all 
 receipts and payments, and execute every financial office, but it 
 would serve as a centinel, a cement, and a regulator to the State 
 banks. The Senator from Pennsylvania has urged that the present 
 Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania has a charter more ex¬ 
 tensive than that of the late Bank of the United States ; that it is 
 in fact the old bank with a new charter; and that, with all its vast 
 resources and means, it lias been not only unable to act as a regula¬ 
 tor of the local banks, but was recently the first to set the pernicious 
 example of a suspension of specie payments. 
 
 Mr. President, can the distinguished Senator be serious in his de¬ 
 scription of these attributes of the Pennsylvania bank ? Surely he 
 must have intended that part of his speech for some other theatre. 
 In the first place, Pennsylvania, besides sundry other onerous condi¬ 
 tions of loans and subscriptions to objects of internal improvements, 
 levied upon the present bank, in the form of bonus, some four or five 
 millions of dollars. Then the General Government has withdrawn 
 from it the seven millions of stock which it held in the old bank—a 
 circumstance which I have no doubt has tended to cripple its opera¬ 
 tions. And it is wholly without the deposites of the Government, 
 w'hich the former bank possessed. Instead of being an ally, the 
 General Government has been in the relation of an enemy to it. 
 
12 
 
 And it has had to encounter all the enmity of a powerful party within 
 the bosom of the Commonwealth. So far from assuming the office 
 of a regulator of the local banks, its late distinguished President, 
 upon whose authority the Senator relies for proof of the extent and 
 liberality of its new charter, expressly declared that it had ceased to 
 be a general agent, and had retired within the circle of its State du¬ 
 ties. So far from having derived any strength from its connexion 
 with the late Bank of the United States, there cannot be a doubt 
 that that connexion rendered it far less efficient than it would have 
 been, if it had gone into operation with an unencumbered capital, 
 freshly subscribed, of thirty-five millions of dollars. 
 
 To guard against all misconception or misrepresentation, I repeat, 
 what I said on a former occasion, that, although I am convinced, 
 thoroughly convinced, that this country cannot get along well with¬ 
 out a Bank of the United States. I have no thought of proposing 
 such a bank, and have no wish to see it proposed by any other, until 
 it is demanded by a clear and undisputed majority of the People of 
 the United States. 
 
 Seeing that a Bank of the United States could not be established, 
 two years ago I expressed my willingness to make an experiment 
 with the State banks, rather than resort to this perilous measure. 
 And now, such are my deep convictions of the fatal tendency of this 
 project of a sub-treasury, that 1 would greatly prefer the employment 
 of the agency of State banks. But whilst I should entertain hopes 
 of their success, I confess that I should not be without strong appre¬ 
 hensions of their failure. Mv belief is, that the State banks will be 
 
 •s 7 
 
 constantly exposed to disorder and derangement without the co-opera¬ 
 tion of a Bank of the United States; and that our banking system 
 will only be safe and complete when vve shall have both a Bank of 
 the United States and State Banks. 
 
 We are told by the President of the United States, in his Message 
 at the opening of the session, that a great moneyed power exists in 
 London that exerts a powerful influence on this country ; that it is 
 the result of the credit system ; and that every bank established in a 
 remote village in this country becomes bound to that power by a cord, 
 which it touches at its pleasure. 
 
 There is, sir, some truth in this representation, and every genuine 
 American must feel it with shame and regret. It is a melancholy fact 
 that the arrival of steam vessels in the port of New York from Eng¬ 
 land is looked for with more curiosity and interest, on account of the 
 financial intelligence which they bear from London and the Bank of 
 England, than the arrival of the mail from Congress. Our people 
 have been taught, by sad experience, to expect nothing good from the 
 Councils of their own country, and turn their attention towards the 
 operations in a foreign country. Was this eager inquiry into the 
 transactions of the Bank of England made during the existence of 
 the Bank of the United States? No, sir, no, sir. You denounced 
 
13 
 
 this bank as a monster, and destroyed it; and you have thrown us 
 linto the jaws of a foreign monster, which we can neither cage nor 
 ■control. You tore from us our best shield against the Bank of Eng¬ 
 land, and now profess to be surprised at the influence which it exer- 
 [cises upon our interests ! We do not find that the continental nations 
 of Europe, that have national banks, complain of the influence of the 
 [Bank of England upon them. On the contrary, the Bank of England 
 [has recently been compelled to apply to the Bank of France for a 
 large sum of specie to sustain its credit and character. 
 
 But, sir, we must look to a higher and much more potent cause 
 jthan the operations of any bank, foreign or domestic, for the lively 
 interest which is felt in this country in the monetary transactions of 
 England. In England the credit system, as it is called, exists in a 
 much more extensive degree than in this country; and if it were of 
 the nature of that system, as is alleged, to render one country depend¬ 
 ent upon another, why should not England be more dependent upon 
 jus than we upon England ? The real cause of our dependence arises 
 out of the unfavorable balance of our foreign trade. We import too 
 much and export too little. We buy too much abroad, and make too 
 I little at home. If we would shake off this degrading foreign depend¬ 
 ence, we must produce more, or buy less. Increase our productions, 
 in all the variety of forms in which our industry can be employed ; 
 augment the products of the soil, extend our manufactures, give new 
 stimulus to our tonnage and fishing interests, sell more than we buy, 
 get out of debt and keep out of debt to the foreigner, and he will no 
 jlonger exert an influence upon our destiny. 
 
 And this unfavorable balance of our foreign trade is wholly inde- 
 [pendent of and unconnected with the nature of the character of the 
 currency of the country, whether it be exclusively metallic, or mixed 
 of paper and the precious metals. England, in a great measure, by 
 means of that credit or paper system, now so much denounced, has 
 become the centre of the commerce, the exchanges, and the moneyed 
 loperations of the world. By the extent, variety, and perfection of 
 [her manufactures, she lays most nations that admit them freely under 
 [contribution to her. And, if we had no currency but specie, we 
 [should be just as much exposed to the moneyed power of London, or, 
 [which is the true state of the case, to the effects of an unfavorable 
 [balance of trade, as we now are. We should probably be more so ; 
 |because a larga portion of the specie of the country being in the 
 vaults of a few depositories, it would be easier then to obtain it for 
 ixporlation, in the operations of commerce, than now, when it is dis- 
 >ersed among nine hundred or a thousand banks. 
 
 What was our condition during the colonial state, when, with the 
 jxception of small amounts of Government paper money, we had 
 ^10 currency but specie, and no banks? Were we not constantly 
 tnd largely in debt to England ? Was not our specie perpetually 
 Irained to obtain supplies of British Goods? Do not you recollect 
 
14 
 
 that the subject of the British debts formed one of those matters 
 which were embraced in the negociations and treaty of peace which 
 terminated the revolutionary war 1 And that it was a topic of angry 
 and protracted discussion long after, until it was finally arranged by 
 Mr. Jay’s treaty of 1794 ? 
 
 Look into the works of Dr. Franklin, in which there is more prac¬ 
 tical good sense to be found than is to be met with in the same 
 compass any where. He was the agent of Pennsylvania from about 
 the middle of the last century until the breaking out of the Revolu¬ 
 tionary war, and a part of the time the agent, also, of the Colonies 
 of Georgia and Massachusetts His correspondence shows that the 
 specie of the Colonies was constantly flowing from them for the pur¬ 
 chase of British goods, insomuch that the Colonies were left abso¬ 
 lutely destitute of a local currency; and one of the main objects of 
 his agency was to obtain the sanction of the parent country to those 
 issues of paper money which the necessities of Pennsylvania com¬ 
 pelled her to make. The issue was strenuously opposed by the 
 merchants engaged in the American trade, on account of the difficulty 
 which it created in making collections and remittances home. So 
 great was that drain of specie, that we know' that Virginia and other 
 Colonies were constrained to adopt tobacco as a substitute for money. 
 
 The principal cause, therefore, of the influence of the moneyed 
 power of London over this country is to be found in the vast extent 
 of our dealings with her. The true remedy is to increase our manu¬ 
 factures and purchase less of hers, and to augment our exports by 
 all the means in our power, and to diminish our imports as much as 
 possible. We must increase our productions, or economise much 
 more than we have done. New Jersey, before the Revolution, 
 being much pressed for <£100,003 sterling, Dr. Franklin proposed a 
 plan by which site could, in one year, make up the sum. The plan 
 was this:—She was in the habit of importing annually from Eng¬ 
 land, merchandise to the amount of £200,000. He recommended 
 that the ladies should buv only half the amount of silks, cajicoes, 
 teas, &c. during the year, which they had been in the habit of con¬ 
 suming ; and in this wav, by saving, the Colony would make the 
 required sum of £100,000. If we would, for a few years, import 
 only half the amount from England that we have been in the habit 
 of doing, we should no longer feel the influence of the London 
 money power. 
 
 Mr. President, gentlemen, in my humble opinion, utterly deceive 
 themselves in supposing that this measure is demanded by a ma¬ 
 jority of the People of the United States, and in alleging that this is 
 proven by the result of elections of the past year. That there were a 
 vast majority of them opposed to it was demonstrated incontestably 
 by previous elections. The elections of the last year did not in many, 
 perhaps most instances, turn at all upon the merits of this measure. 
 In several States the People were deceived by assurances that the 
 
15 
 
 sub-treasury was at an end, and would be no longer agitated. In 
 others, the People bad reason to be dissatisfied with the conduct of 
 their banks; and they were artfully led to believe that this bill would 
 supply a corrective of the errors of the banking system. And where 
 they have apparently yielded their assent to the bill, it has been that 
 sort of assent which the patient yields, whose constitution has been 
 exhausted and destroyed by the experiments of empiricism, and who 
 finally consents to take the last quack medicine offered to him in the 
 hope of saving his life. I know the People of the United States well. 
 They are ever ready cheerfully to submit to any burden demanded 
 by the interest, the honor, or the glory of their country. But what 
 people ever consented to increase their own burdens unnecessarily? 
 The effect of this measure is, by exacting specie exclusively from the 
 People, and paying it out to the official corps and the public creditor, 
 to augment the burdens of the People, and to swell the emoluments 
 of office. It is an insult to the understanding and judgment of the 
 enlightened people of the United States to assert that they can ap¬ 
 prove such a measure. 
 
 No true patriot can contemplate the course of the party in power 
 without the most painful and mortified feelings. They began some 
 years ago their war on the Bank of the United States. It was dan¬ 
 gerous to liberty ; it had failed to fulfil the purposes of its institution ; 
 it did not furnish a sound currency, although the sun, in all its course, 
 never shone upon a better; it was, in short, a monster, which was 
 condemned to death, and it was executed accordingly. During the 
 progress of that war, the State banks were the constant theme of 
 praise, in speech and song, of the dominant party. They were the 
 best institutions in the world, free from all danger to public liberty, 
 capable of carrying on the exchanges of the country, and of perform¬ 
 ing the financial duties to Government, and of supplying a far better 
 currency for the people than the Bank of the United States. We 
 told you that the State banks would not do, without the co-operation 
 of a Bank of the United States. We told you that you would find 
 them a weak league—a mere fleet of open boats tied together by a 
 hickory whith, and which the first storm would disperse and upset. 
 But you scorned all our warnings, and continued year after year to 
 puff and praise the operations of these banks. You had the boldness, 
 in the face of this abused nation, to aver that the country had been 
 supplied by them with a better currency and better exchanges than 
 it had been by the Bank of the United States! Well, by your own 
 measures, by your Treasury Circular, distribution of the surplus, &c. 
 you accelerated the catastrophe of the suspension of the hanks. You 
 began with promises to the People of better currency, better times, 
 more security to civil liberty; and you end with no currency at all, 
 the worst possible times, an increase of Executive power, and a con¬ 
 sequent increase of danger to civil liberty. You began with promises 
 to fill the pockets of the People, and you end with emptying theirs 
 and filling your own. 
 
16 
 
 I now proceed, sir, to the object which constituted the main pur¬ 
 pose of my rising at this time. I have hitherto considered the bill, 
 as its friends in the Senate represent it, as a measure simply for ex¬ 
 acting specie, keeping it in the custody of officers of the Government, 
 and disbursing it in a course of administration. I mean now to show 
 that, whatever its friends here may profess or believe, the bill lays 
 the foundations deep and broad of a Government bank—a Treasury 
 bank, under the sole management of the President. Let us first de¬ 
 fine a bank. It may have three faculties, separately or combined. 
 The faculty of issues, entering into and forming a part of the circu¬ 
 lating medium of the country ; that of receiving deposites ; and that 
 of making discounts. Any one of these three faculties make it a 
 bank; and by far the most important of the three is that of the 
 power of issues. That this bill creates a bank of issues, I most sin¬ 
 cerely believe, and shall now attempt to prove ; and the proof will be 
 first extraneous, and secondly intrinsic. 
 
 As to the extraneous proof, I rely upon the repeated declarations 
 of the late President of the United States in his annual messages. 
 On more than one occasion he stated the practicability of establish¬ 
 ing a bank on the revenue of the Government, and to be under the 
 superintendence of the Secretary of the Treasury. And when he 
 vetoed the charter of the late Bank of the United States, he expressly 
 declared that, if Congress bad applied to him, he could have furnished 
 the scheme of a bank free from all constitutional objections ; doubt¬ 
 less meaning a Treasury bank. The present Chief Magistrate and 
 the present Secretary of the Treasury have, also, repeatedly, in lan¬ 
 guage, in their messages and reports, characteristically ambiguous, 
 it is true, but sufficiently intelligible, intimated the facilities which 
 the commerce and business of the country would derive from the 
 drafts issued by the Treasury in virtue of this bill. The party, its 
 press, and its leaders, have constantly put this sub-treasury scheme 
 in competition with a Bank of the United States, and contended that 
 the issue was sub-treasury or Bank of the United States. But how 
 can they be compared or come in competition with each other, if the 
 most important function of a Bank of the United States, that of sup¬ 
 plying a medium of general circulation and uniform value, is not to 
 be performed under this bill ? 
 
 1 pass to the more important, and I think, conclusive proof, sup¬ 
 plied by the provisions themselves of the bill. After providing that 
 all money paid to Government for duties, public lands, and other 
 dues, shall be deposited with the Treasurer of the United States, the 
 receivers general and the mints, the tenth section enacts:— 
 
 “ That it shall be lawful for the Secretary of the Treasury to trans¬ 
 fer the moneys in the hands of any depositary hereby constituted, to 
 the Treasury of the United States ; to the Mint at Philadelphia ; to 
 the Branch Mint at New Orleans; or to the offices of either of the 
 receivers general of public moneys, by this act directed to be appoint- 
 
17 
 
 ed ; to be there safely kept, according to the provisions of this act; 
 and also to transfer moneys in the hands of any one depositary con- 
 stituted by this act, to any other depositary constituted by the same, 
 at his discretion, and as the safety of the public moneys and the con¬ 
 venience of the public service shall seem to him to require ; which 
 authority to transfer the moneys belonging to the Post Office Depart¬ 
 ment is also hereby conferred upon the Postmaster General, so far as 
 its exercise by him may be consistent with the provisions of existing 
 laws; and every depositary constituted by this act shall keep his ac¬ 
 count of the money paid to or deposited with him, belonging to the 
 Post Office Department, separate and distinct from the account kept 
 by him of other public moneys so paid or deposited. And for the 
 purpose of payments on the public account, it shall be lawful for the 
 Treasurer of the United States to draw upon any of the said deposi¬ 
 taries, as he may think most conducive to the public interests, or to 
 the convenience of the public creditors, or both.” 
 
 Thus is the Secretary invested with unlimited authority to transfer 
 the public money from one depositary to another, and to concentrate 
 it all, it he pleases, at a single point. But, without this provision, the 
 city of New York necessarily must be the place at which the largest 
 portion of the public money will be constantly in deposite. It col¬ 
 lects alone about two thirds of the duties on imports, and is becoming, 
 if it he not already, the money centre of the United States. It is 
 not indispensable, to create a bank of issues, that the place of issue 
 and the place of payment should be identical. The issue of the pa¬ 
 per may be at one city, and the place of payment may be a different 
 and even distant city. Nor is the form of the paper material, so as 
 to carry it into the general circulation of the money of the country. 
 Whether it be in the shape of bank notes, hank checks, post notes, 
 or Treasury drafts, is of no consequence. If there be confidence in 
 it, and the paper be of convenient amount, passes by delivery, and 
 entitles the holder to demand the specie upon its face, at bis pleasure, 
 it will enter into the general circulation ; and the extent of its circu¬ 
 lation will be governed by the amount issued, and the confidence 
 which it enjoys. 
 
 I presume that no one will contest these principles. Let us apply 
 them to the provisions of this bill. The last clause of the tenth sec¬ 
 tion, already cited, declares :— 
 
 “ And for the purpose of payments on the public account, it 
 shall he lawful for the treasurer of the United States to draw upon 
 any of the said depositaries as he may think most conducive to the 
 public interests, or to the convenience of the public creditors, or 
 both.” 
 
 Here is no restriction whatever as to the amount or form of the 
 draft; there is nothing to prevent his making it for $ 100, or $50, 
 or $10. There is nothing to prevent the use of bank paper; and 
 the draft will have the number of signatures usual to bank paper.. 
 
13 
 
 It will or maybe signed by the treasurer, register, and comptroller. 
 
 Now, sir, let me suppose that a citizen has a demand upon the 
 government for $5,000, and applies to the treasurer for payment. 
 On what receiver-general will you (he will he asked) have the 
 amount? On the receiver-general at New York? In what sum? 
 One half of the sum in drafts of $100, and the other in drafts of 
 $50. The treasurer cannot lawfully decline furnishing the required 
 drafts. He is bound by the law to consult the convenience of the 
 public creditor. The drafts are given to him. What will he do 
 with them? There is not a spot, in the whole circumference of the 
 United States, in which these drafts will not command a premium or 
 be at par. Every where to the south and west of New York, they 
 will command a premium of ^ to per cent. ; every where east and 
 north, they will be at par. What, 1 again ask, will the holder do 
 with them? Will he commit the indiscretion or folly of cashing 
 these drafts, and expose himself to the hazard and inconvenience 
 of losing or carrying the specie about him. No such thing. Being 
 every where better than or equal to specie, he will retain the drafts, 
 and carry them with him to his home, and use them in his business. 
 What I have supposed likely to be done by one, will be done by ev¬ 
 ery creditor of the government. These drafts, to a considerable ex¬ 
 tent, will remain out, enter the general circulation, and compose a 
 part of the common currency of the country, commanding, at 
 particular place s,as notes of the Bank of the United States have 
 done, and now do, a premium, but any where being certainly good 
 for the amount on their face. All this is perfectly plain and inevi¬ 
 table. And the amount of this element of government drafts, in the 
 general currency of the country, will be somewhat, governed by the 
 amount of the annual disbursements of the government. In the early 
 administration of this treasury bank, its paper will command general 
 and implicit confidence. It will be as much better than the paper 
 of the Bank of the United States or the Bank of England, as the re¬ 
 sources of the United States are superior to those of any mere pri¬ 
 vate corporation. Sub-treasurers and receivers-general may fly with 
 the public money committed to their charge—may peculate or specu¬ 
 late as they please, and, unlike the condition of banks whose fraudu¬ 
 lent officers squander the means of those institutions, the nation 
 remains bound for the redemption of all paper issued under its au¬ 
 thority. But the paper of the late Bank of the United States ac¬ 
 quired a confidence every where, more or less, in and out of the 
 United States; it was received in Canada, in Europe, and at Can¬ 
 ton. The government drafts upon receivers-genernl will have a 
 much more sure and extensive circulation. Who will doubt their 
 payment ? Who will question the honor and good faith of the 
 United States in their redemption. The bankers of Europe, the 
 Rothschilds and the Barings, will receive them without hesitation, 
 and prefer them to the specie which they represent, whenever the 
 
19 
 
 rate of exchange is not decidedly against this country, because they 
 can be more safely and conveniently kept than specie itself. And, 
 with respect to our state banks, these treasury drafts will form the 
 basis of their operations. They will be preferred to specie, because 
 they will be more convenient and free from the hazards incident to 
 the possession of specie. The banks will require no more specie 
 than the wants of the community for change make necessarv. 
 
 Thus, sir, will these Government drafts, or bank notes, as they 
 may be called, remain out in circulation. The issues of the first year, 
 under appropriations of the public revenue, will be followed by the 
 issues of succeeding years. More and more will it be perceived to be 
 needless and indiscreet to cash them ; and more and more will the 
 specie of the country accumulate in the custody of the receivers-gen- 
 eral, until, after a few years, the greater part of the specie of the 
 country will be found in the vaults of the depositaries, represented by 
 an equal amount of Government paper in circulation. I can conceive 
 of no case or motive but one for withdrawing the specie from the 
 vaults of the depositaries, and that is when, from an unfavourable state 
 of our foreign trade, the course of foreign exchange is much against 
 us; and then this system will furnish great facilities to the export of 
 the precious metals. 
 
 In process of time, it will be seen, as was observed with respect to 
 the Bank of Amsterdam, that there is a much larger amount of specie 
 in deposite with the receivers-general than is likely to be called for 
 by the paper representing it in circulation, in the common transac¬ 
 tions of the business and commerce of the country. And what has 
 been done before will be done again. Government, in a time of 
 necessity, will he tempted to increase its paper issues upon the credit 
 of this dormant specie capital. It will be tempted again and again 
 to resort to this expedient since it is easier to make emissions of 
 paper than to lay the burden of taxation on the People. The history 
 of American paper money, during the Revolution, of French assign¬ 
 ats and of Government banks throughout the world, tells the whole 
 tale, and gives you the denouement. 
 
 But we shall be informed, as has been insisted, that the bill cau¬ 
 tiously guards against the degeneracy of the system into a govern¬ 
 ment bank, by the provision contained in the 23d section, enjoining 
 the secretary of the treasury “to issue and publish regulations to en¬ 
 force the speedy presentation of all government drafts for payment at 
 the places where payable ; and to prescribe the time, according to 
 the different distances of the depositaries from the seat of govern¬ 
 ment, within which all drafts upon them, respectively, shall be pre¬ 
 sented for payment ; and, in default of such presentation, to direct 
 any other mode and place of payment which lie may deem proper.” 
 
 Then it is to depend upon the Secretary of the Treasury whether 
 we have a government bank or not ! We are delivered over to the 
 tender mercies of his legislation in the form of the regulations which 
 
20 
 
 he may choose to issue and publish ! And the extraordinary power 
 is vested in him, if any dare violate his regulations, of denouncing the 
 severe penalty of receiving payment “ in any other mode and place 
 which he may deem proper.” Now, sir, between a draft on the re¬ 
 ceiver-general at St. Louis and at New York, there will be a differ¬ 
 ence at all times of at least two per cent; and at some periods a 
 much (Treater difference. Is it fitting—is it in accordance with the 
 genius of free institutions, with the spirit of a country of laws, to con¬ 
 fide such a power to a mere Secretary of the Treasury ? What a 
 power is it not to reward political friends or punish political enemies ! 
 
 But, nr, l look at the matter of this restriction in a higher point of 
 view. You cannot maintain it. Why should you ? You have pro¬ 
 vided all the means, as you profess to believe, of perfect security for 
 the custody of the public money in these public depositaries. Why 
 should you require the holder of a government draft, often ignorant 
 of the legislation of the Secretary of the Treasury, to present it for 
 payment by a given day, under a severe penalty, depending upon his 
 discretion ? Will not the inconvenience to the community of a 
 precise day and a short day for the presentation of the draft, he vast¬ 
 ly greater than that of the public in retaining the money for an in¬ 
 definite day, until it suits the holder’s convenience to demand pay¬ 
 ment ? And will you not he tempted to keep possession of the 
 specie, for the incidental advantages which it affords ? Ah! sir; 
 are we to overlook the possible uses to which, in corrupt days of the 
 Republic., this dormant specie may be applied in the crisis of a politi¬ 
 cal election, or the crisis of the existence of a party in power ? 
 
 Congress will he called upon, imperatively called upon, by the 
 People, to abolish all restriction which the Secretary of the Treasury 
 may promulgate for the speedy presentation for payment of Govern¬ 
 ment drafts. The wants of the People, and the necessity of the 
 country for a paper medium, possessing a uniform value, and capable 
 of general circulation, will demand it at your hands, and you will be 
 most ready to grant the required boon. We should regard the sys¬ 
 tem according to its true and inherent character, and not he deceiv¬ 
 ed by provisions inevitably temporary in their nature, which the poli¬ 
 cy or the prudence of its authors may throw around it. The great¬ 
 est want of this country, at the present period, in its circulating me¬ 
 dium, is some convertible paper, which, at every extremity of the 
 Union, will command the confidence of the public, and circulate 
 without depreciation. Such a paper will be supplied in the form of 
 these Government drafts. 
 
 But if the restriction which I have been considering could he en¬ 
 forced and continued, it would not alter the bank character of this 
 measure. Bank or no hank is a question not depending upon the du¬ 
 ration of time which its issues remain out, hut upon the office which 
 they perform whilst out. The notes of the Bank of the United Slates 
 of Pennsylvania are not deprived of their character of composing a 
 
21 
 
 part of the circulating medium of the country, although they might 
 be returned to the bank in some ten or twenty days after their issue. 
 
 I know that it has been argued, and will be argued again, that at 
 all times, since the commencement of the government, the practice of 
 the Treasury has been to issue its drafts upon the public depositaries; 
 that these drafts have not heretofore circulated as money; and that, 
 if they now do, it is an incident which attaches no blame to the Gov¬ 
 ernment. 
 
 But heretofore these drafts were issued upon banks and the holders 
 of them passed them to their credit with the banks, or received pay¬ 
 ment in bank notes.—The habit of the country—and habit is a great 
 thing—was to use bank notes. Moreover, there were bank notes of 
 every kind in use—those which were local and those which were 
 general in their credit and circulation. Now, having no Bank of the 
 United States in existence, there are no bank notes which maintain 
 the same value, and command the public confidence, throughout the 
 Union. You create, therefore, an inexorable necessity for the use of 
 Government drafts as a medium of general circulation, and argue 
 from a state of things when no such necessity existed. 
 
 The protestations of the friends of the bill in this chamber, the de¬ 
 nunciations of its opponents, and the just horror which the People 
 entertain of a Government bank, may prompt the Secretary of the 
 Treasury slowly and slyly to lift the veil which masks its true features. 
 A Government bank may not suddenly burst upon us, but there it is, 
 embodied in this bill. And it is not the least objection to the meas¬ 
 ure that it depends upon the discretion of a Secretary of the Treasury 
 to retard or accelerate the commencement of its operation at his 
 pleasure. Let the re-election of the present Chief Magistrate be se¬ 
 cured, and you will soon see the bank disclosing its genuine charac¬ 
 ter. But, thanks be to God, there is a day of reckoning at hand. 
 All the signs of the times clearly indicate its approach. And on the 
 4th day of March, in the year of our Lord 1S41, I trust that the long 
 account of the abuses and corruptions of this Administration, in which 
 this measure will be a conspicuous item, will be finally and forever 
 adjusted. 
 
 Mr. President, who is to have the absolute control of this govern¬ 
 ment bank ? We have seen, within a few years past, a most extra¬ 
 ordinary power asserted and exercised. We have seen, in a free, 
 representative, republican government, the power claimed by the 
 executive, and it is now daily enforced, of dismissing all officers of 
 the government, without any other cause than a mere difference of 
 opinion. No matter what may be the merits of the officer ; no mat¬ 
 ter how long and how faithfully he may have served the public ; no 
 matter what sacrifices he may have made ; no matter how incompe¬ 
 tent, from age and poverty, he may be to gain a subsistence for him¬ 
 self and his family, he is driven out to indigence and want, for no 
 other reason than that he differs in opinion with the president on the 
 
22 
 
 sub-treasury, or some other of the various experiments upon the 
 prosperity of this people. But this is not all. If you call upon the 
 president to state the reasons which induced him, in any particular 
 instance, to exercise this tremendous power of dismission, wrapping 
 himself up in all the dignity and arrogance of royal majesty, he re¬ 
 fuses to assign any reason whatever, and tells you that it is his pre¬ 
 rogative ! that you have no right to interrogate him, as to the motives 
 which have prompted him in the exercise of any of his constitutional 
 powers ! Nay, more : if you apply to a subordinate—a mere minion 
 of power—to inform you why he has dismissed any of his subordi¬ 
 nates, he replies that he will not communicate the grounds of his 
 action. I have understood that, in more cases than one, the person 
 acting as postmaster general has refused, this session, to inform 
 members of congress of the grounds on which lie has dismissed dep¬ 
 uty postmasters. We have witnessed the application of this power 
 to a treasurer of the United States, recently, without the pretence of 
 his failure to discharge his public duties, all of which he performed 
 with scrupulous exactness, honor, and probity. 
 
 And what, sir, is the consequence of a power so claimed, and so 
 exercised? The first is, that, in a country of constitution and laws, 
 the basis and the genius of which are that there is, or should be, the 
 most perfect responsibility on the part of every, even the highest 
 functionary, here is a vast power, daily exercised, with the most per¬ 
 fect impunity, and without the possibility of arraigning a guilty 
 chief magistrate; for how can he be impeached or brought to trial, 
 if he will not disclose, and you have no adequate means of ascer¬ 
 taining the grounds on which he has acted ? 
 
 The next consequence is, that all the officers of government, who 
 hold their offices by the tenure to which we allude, hold them at the 
 president’s mercy, and without the possibility of finding any redress, 
 if they are dismissed without caus-*, they become his pliant creatures, 
 and feel that they are bound implicitly to obey his will. 
 
 Now, sir, put this government bank into operation, and who are 
 to be charged with the administration of its operations? The sec¬ 
 retary of the treasury, the treasurer of the United States, the register 
 and the controller of the treasury, and the receivers-general, &c., 
 every one of them holding his office at the pleasure and mercy of the 
 president ; every one of them, perhaps, depending for his bread up¬ 
 on the will of the president; every one of them taught, by sad expe¬ 
 rience, to know that his safest course is, to mould his opinions, and 
 shape his conduct so as to please the president ; every one of them 
 knowing perfectly that, if dismissed, he is without the possibility of 
 any remedy or redress whatever. In such a deplorable state of 
 things, this government bank will be the mere bank of the president 
 of the United States. lie will be its president, cashier, and 
 teller. Yes, sir, this complete subjection of all the subordinate 
 officers of the government to the will of the president, will make him 
 

 i X 
 
 0 
 
 23 
 
 sole director, president, cashier, and teller of this government bank. 
 The so much dreaded union of the purse and the sword will at last 
 be consummated. And the usurpation, by which the public depos- 
 ites, in 1833, were removed, by the advancement of the one and the 
 removal of the other secretary of the treasury, will not only be finally 
 legalized and sanctioned, hut the enormity of the danger of that pre¬ 
 cedent will he transcended by a deliberate act of the congress of the 
 United States ! 
 
 Mr. President, for ten long years we have been warring against 
 the alarming growth of executive power ; but, although we have 
 been occasionally cheered, it has been constantly advancing, and 
 never receding. You may talk as you please about bank expan¬ 
 sions : there has been no pernicious expansion in this country like 
 that of executive power ; and, unlike the operations of banks, this 
 power never has any periods of contraction. You may denounce as 
 you please the usurpations of congress : there has been no usurpa¬ 
 tion hut that of the executive, whioh has been both of the powers of 
 other co-ordinate departments of this government, and upon the 
 states. There scarcely remains any power in this government but 
 that of the President. He suggests, originates, controls, checks 
 every thing. The insatiable spirit of the Stuarts for power and pre¬ 
 rogative, was brought upon our American throne on the 4th of 
 March, 1829. It came under all the usual false and hypocritical 
 pretences and disguises of love of the people, desire of reform, and 
 diffidence of power. The Scotch dynasty still continues. We have 
 had Charles the First, and now have Charles the Second. But I 
 again thank God that our deliverance is not distant; and that, on 
 the 4th of March, 1S41, a great and glorious revolution, without 
 blood, and without convulsion, will be achieved. 
 

 
 
 
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 Five cents a day is charged for each book 
 kept overtime. 
 
 If you cannot find what you want, ask the 
 Librarian who will be glad to help you. 
 
 The borrower is responsible for books drawn 
 on his card and for all fines accruing on the 
 same. 
 
 J DEMCO 
 
 \/