E390 h ^o/ »1K-^ %.^' -^^^^ "--^' » ^^ ' : %.*' • A°t %/ A: %yyM^'^ V.^*' 0^ -o»-'. -^o. i.Q^ LETTER or Tr- JXMJf^^SSi 'yKV^m .mrum TO HON. THOMAS GIBBS MORGAN, President of the Whig Coiivention, of the Second Congressional District in the State of Louisiana, convened at the Town of Baton Rouge, on the 20th of January, 1840, PRINTED BY J. OIDBON. JFR<, WASHINOTOiC. e^*^" cs^ LETTER. Washington City, March 6, 1840. Hon. Thos. Gibbs Morgan, Chairman, S^c. Dear *S'/>,— Your letter of January 22d, enclosing the proceed- ings of a Whig Convention, composed of Delegates from the Se- cond Congressional District, assembled at the town of Baton Rouge, for the purpose of selecting a candidate for Congress, to receive the support of the Whig party at the ensuing election, and informing me that I was unanimously nominated for re-election, and that you were deputed to communicate the intelligence to me, and request my acceptance of the nomination, has been before me some time. Acknowledging, with pride and pleasure, this new mark of the kindness and confidence of my friends throughout the District, and deeply sensible of the honor thus conferred upon me, I most sin- cerely regret that considerations of duty to myself and my constitu- ents, compel me to decline the nomination. Your letter found me on a bed of sickness, from which I have not yet entirely recovered. At this time, I am confined to my room, and unable to attend the sittings of the House of Representa- tives ; and I am admonished from day to day, that the climate here is of such a character, as to unfit me for the faithful and efficient discharge of my public duties, and certainly to render it unsafe, as regards my future health, to remain any longer than is required by my already incurred obligations to you. Howe\'er anxious I might otherwise be to continue in your service, I should be inexcusai.iy wanting in that frankness and candor which, I trust, have al^vays chara(5lerized my conduct, both public and private, were I not to apprise you of my deliberate conviction on this point ; and, under the circumstances, I cannot but hope that my personal and politi- cal friends will not only excuse, but approve, the course which I have felt myself imperiously compelled to adopt In thus decliiHijtr to be presented to ray feilow-citizeus again as a candidate for this station, and a^ssuniing the attitude, so far as ^fieir future suffrages are concerned, of a private citizen, I deem it a proper occasion to address them on subjects of great interest and importance to them, and to the whole country. And, in doing so, they will give, I am sure, full credit to the declaration that I have no personal ends to accomplish, and no private griefs to assuage, which could, in the remotest degree, bias my views of political questions. As one of yourselves, then, fellow-citizens, having a common interest with you in the welfare of our country, the permanence of our republican institutions, and in all the blessings of a pure, up- right, dignified, and beneficent administration of tfie General Gov- ernment, I speak to you, and 1 now declare my solemn conviction, that we have arrived at such a crisis, that it becomes the highest social and moral obligation of every patriotic citizen, to use all fair and honorable means to remove the men who are at the head of affairs, from the places they have dishonored and abused. To pass over, for the present, the alleged corruptions and abuses in every department of the public service, the men in power have, in my judgment, proved themselves destitute of the first requisites of statesmen, and entirely incompetent to the discharge of the du- ties of their exalted stations. For abundant and conclusive evi- dence of this, we need only look at the present condition of our country, weighed down by the accumulated mischiefs brought upon it by the Experimenters and Spoilsmen, and contrast it with our situation a (ew years ago. Then we had a currency not only equal to gold and silver, but for all the commercial purposes of our vastly-extended country, infinitely better. Then we had about half the number of Banks that now exist, and they were restrained in their issues, by a National Institution, which kept them within the sphere of safety and usefulness. Then labor, industry, and en- terprise received its reward, and the poor man such a compensation for his toil, that, by proper, well-directed, and persevering exertions, he could gradually open the path to comparative ease, to a compe- tency, and even to wealth. All the great interests of the country were in the highest state of prosperity. The triumphs of agricul- ture wer j displayed over the whole land ; our commerce covered every sea, and poured wealth into the public treasury,, while it showered benefits upon all our people ; our manufactures flour- ished, and were daily increasini]^ in value and importance. Peace, contentment, plenty, and happiness were everywhere diffused : and if, among all the nations the sun shines upon, there was one de- serving the title bestowed by an illustrious British statesman, of ''the envy and admiration of the world," that nation was the Uni- ted iStates. But how changed is the aspect now ! Commerce prostrated — Credit ruined — the prices of all agricultural products reduced — Manufactures languishing — Wages in every branch of occupation lowered — and multitudes of hardy, sober, industrious men asking for work, and for the means of gaining a tolerable subsistence. The wide spread distress and ruin are marked in the counte- nances of most of those we meet with, whether from the North, South, East, or West. Among the causes of this extraordinary and lamentable change, may be justly designated, as by far the most productive, the war so long and so ruthlessly carried on against the currency and the banking institutions of the country. It happened that the President and Directors of the late Bank of the United States would not become the supple partisans and tools of Gen. Jackson, and those who had sway in his councils, and according to the maxim of the (Cabinet of that day, and also of the present — that those who are not for them, heart and soul, and body, unthinking, unscroupulous, obedient servants, are against them, the Bank was proscribed as an enemy. It was consequently doomed to the full measure of vengence, which the Executive meted out on the avowed principle of '-punishing his enemies and rewarding his friends." It went down ! — and let it never be for- gotten, that it went down in opposition to the views and wishes of Congress, and of the people themselves. A bill to rechartcr this valuable institution passed both branches of Congress— but it was vetoed by the President, whose whole iniiuence, backed by the patronage and power of the Executive department, and aided by an overwhelming personal popularity, was for a long time, singly, steadily, and perseveringly directed to its destruction. The Bank had been the depository of the public money for many years, and the government never lost a dollar by it ! General Jackson upon his own responsibility and without lawful authority, withdrew the public deposites from the National Institution, and placed 'hem in charge of State Banks, and, through his Secretary of the Treasury, advised and urged those State Banks to lend freely from these public deposites. About the same period the chartering of numer- ous banks in every state in the Union was strenuously urged by the Administration and its friends on the avowed ground that they would be necessary to meet the exigencies which would certainly result from winding up the affairs of the National Bank. In obe- dience to orders from Head (Quarters, the partisans and supporters of the Administration, who had majorities in most of the State Le- gislatures, went to work, and in the course of three or four years, chartered more than three hundred State Banks. Many of these new born institutions went into operation without possessing a safe and proper specie basis. Yet they discounted liberally and prodi- gally on the public money, (according to directions from the Sec- retary of the Treasury by the command of the President himself.) Hundred and thousands of persons, and especially the brawling partisans of the Administration obtained with facility, large sums, more indeed than some of them knew what to do with, or how to employ advantageously. Then it was that speculation was push- ed to its utmost verge — then it was that every scheme and project, however wild and visionary, found men ready to embark in it, and money in abundance to be invested for its prosecution. The rage was unbounded and universal. Thousand of honest sober, indus- trious men, who had previously been examples of prudence and steady, patient exertions, and obtained as the rewards of their toil, the means of peaceful and contented enjoyment, were seized with the fever of speculation that pervaded the land — abandoned the habits of frugality and labor, to which they had been accustomed, and aimed at getting rich by speculating in lands, houses, lots, and every thing else that presented itself. All went on swimingly for ft year or two, and to a superficial observer, there -appeared no end lo our career of National and individual prosperity. But these pleasing visions quickly vanished. The Administra- tration discovered that their favorite pet banks, on which the public money was so profusely lavished, were not safe depositories, and that many of them were not even so honest as they had expected. These very institutions were accordingly denounced in every quarter, by the very men who had clamoured for the destruction of the National Ba.nk, and had promised that they would supply its place, and furnish a better currency! The famous specie cir- cular of July 1830, was issued, requiring all the Government dues, to be paid in gold or silver — and operating as a protest by the Government of the paper of the best banks. Accusations, contu- mely, and insult, were, day after day, hurled by the Government and all its mercenary hirelings and agents against their former "pets;" and the result of this continued and systematic warfare, was the suspension of specie payments by the banks, in 1837, which was followed by general pressure and distress among the people. Since that period, the party in power have shut their eyes to the wants, and closed their ears against the cries of the community. At the very session of Congress called by President Van Buren to devise some remedy for the accumulated mischiefs luider which, the Administration was suffering, he had the effrontery to reply to the people's demands for relief, that " communities are apt to look to Government for too much," and that the Government must take care of itself, and the people of themselves. No measure of relief, of hope, or consolation is held out to the country. A national bank cannot be chartered with my sanction, says the President, because it is unconstitutional. Washington, Adams, Madison, and Monroe thought otherwise, and acted otherwise. I might add to their authority that of Chief Justice Marshall, and of almost every emi- nent statesman and lawyer of whom our country can boast. You, fellow citizens, I am sure, have more confidence in the arguments of these illustrious men ; and, perhaps, it would not be too much to say, in their example and practice, without argument, than in the new fangled dogmas of the partisan political adventurers of this day, who owe all their consequence to a series of successful in- trigues and petty tricks. We are to have no national bank, then, so long as the ascendancy of the men now at the head of affairs continues. For, although Congress might charter one, the President has told us, in effect, that he would veto any bill lor that object. As a substitute for the sound and uniform paper currency which the country enjoyed while the national bank was in existence, an exclusive metallic currency was proposed by the Administration and its friends. " Hard money !" was the cry : and every thing was to come down to that standard. No intelligent man, of any party, can really believe that a currency of gold and silver would enable the people of this great and exten- sive country to carry on successfully their commercial operations with advantaofes commensurate with the fair and legitimate value <>){ the products of the soil. There is not, in the whole country, one- fourth of the specie necessary to the daily demands of business and trade. Besides, the value of property, before these hard money doctrines were promulgated, and attempted to be acted upon, was fixed by a paper currency : and that paper currency, as I have said, was, in a great measure, fastened upon us by the Administration. Men of prudence, and of the utmost caution, have incurred debts under the expectation that both property and labor would remain without much variation in regard to prices. Would it then be fair, would it be just, would it be consistent with sound policy, in the Admin- istration, to adopt such a course as must inevitably reduce both property and labor to half their present value, and leave the debtor at the mercy of his creditor ? The incompetency of the Administration, to which I have already referred, is most strikingly illustrated by the course pursued in re- gard to its leading and most distinctive measure — the Sub-Treasury scheme. Finding its series of financial experiments successively fail, the Administration brought forward, as " a measure of safety and deliverance," the Sub-Treasury. Its authors and advocates omitted no occasion to extol the wisdom and beneficence of the plan. Pass the bill, said they, and the public monies will be safe, and the country once more be restored to prosperity and peace. The character of this bill has been so frequently and thoroughly discussed, that I deem it unnecessary to dwell upon it here. You, fellow-citizens, and the people of every section, considered its pro- visions, and its inevitable tendency ; and you know that three times in succession the bill has been condenmed by the imperative deci- sion of the people's voice, as well as by their independent represen- tatives in the more popular branch of Congress. The Executive and his partizans, however, instead of conforming to the public will thus unequivocally expressed; instead of relenting in his course of warfare on the liberties and prosperity of the country, announced his determination to persevere with this tyrannical and destructive measure ; and, at last, by the unscrupulous violation of purity and independence of the elective franchise ; by the interference of his .office-holders, agents, and emissaries ; by lavishing the public mo- ney lor purposes of bribery and corruption ; by force and fraud ; by committing an unparalelled outrage on all law, precedent, and right, in the case of the New Jersey representation, he and his partizans succeeded in bringing to the House of Representatives a majority favorable to the Sub-Treasury system. Early in the session the Senate passed this bill, and sent it to the House of Representatives ; and there this great " untried expedient," which the President and the whole party proclaimed would be the fruitful source of unnumbered blessings, which was so long the grand issue before the nation ; which was urged on the ground of pressing and immediate necessity, lay on the Speaker's table for more than two months, without one of its friends proposing even to give it the ordinary reference to the proper standing committee. When it was referred, the Committee of Ways and Means kept it buried in their room for some time before they reported it back to the House : and now, in the fourth month of the session, the bill has not yet been brought up for examination and discussion. Does the Administration begin to fear that this expedient will be as un- successful and disastrous as the experiments on the currency alrea- dy tried, which resulted in the disgrace of the authors, and the ruin of the best interests of the country ? Or does the President, at last, begin to dread the consequences to himself and his party, of persist- ing in this course of riotous experimenting ? Has he thought it prudent to forbear his destructive hand until the spring elections are over 1 The history of the financial administration of those in power is a record of continual blunders and impostures. In his last annual message, the President told the nation, in effect, that the Treasury was amply provided with means to satisfy all the legitimate demands upon it. In the annual report from the Treasury Department, which accompanied the message, the Secretary went further, and even indulged in a self-complacent and congratulatory tone, when speaking of the flourishing condition of the finances which he pre- sented. The people were given to understand distinctly and pre- cisely that no deficit would occur, unless in two contingencies — the failure of the banks to pay the balances due to the Government, and the making appropriations beyond the estimates. The second con- tingency has not yet occurred. Congress has not exceeded the es- timates. The first has not happened, in full extent ; for one-third 10 of the bank balances has been paid; and the whole amount was only about $800,000. Yet, fellow citizens, in less than two months after these declara- tions were made, and before Congress had appropriated a single dollar, except for the pay of the members, the President sent ano- ther message to Congress, asking that the resources of the Govern- ment should be strengthened by five millions of dollars ; and inti- mating that it might be necessary, before the adjournment of Con- gress, to make another application for a like sum. Do not these simple facts prove that the President and Secretary were either ab- solutely ignorant of the condition of the Treasury, or that they act- ed with the base motive of gulling and deceiving the people, until their need forced them to disclose its impoverished condition? In this case, they must take one horn of the dilemma or the other. They must acknowledge either that they were grossly ignorant, or that they were guilty of a deliberate attempt at imposition. The Treasury Note bill, which, in fact and substance, was sim- ply a proposition to borrow five millions of dollars, was brought forward by the President's financial organ in the House, the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means ; was passed through both Houses, and made a law of the land, on the ground of the positive and pressing immediate necessities of the Adminis- tration. This is in all respects a new public debt, incurred to pro- vide for the payment of a pre-existing debt. For, fellow-citizens, be it known to you that the Government has been in debt from the first year of the Administration of Martin Van Buren down to the present moment. The Treasury Note bill, passed at the extra session called by President Van Buren, created a public debt which has never been repaid but by borrowing. For the last three years, the expenditures of Government have exceeded the income by between seven and eight millions of dollars ! How has it happened, you may well ask, that the Government has become thus insolvent ?— -and that there is this deficit in the Treasury, which was overflowing in years past? The answer is easy and obvious. The expenditures in every department of the public service have been carried beyond all bounds. New oflices have been created, and large salaries attached to them, for the reward of the Executives' partizans and favorties. Profu.sion and extravagance have been the order of the day. Many 11 of the agents of Government — collectors and receivers — have ap- propriated to their own uses, without stint or measure, the public money in their hands. Appointed on the atrocious principle avowed by the Administration, according^ to which all the offices of a great and enlightened country, are to be regarded as " Spoils" for distribution among the victors in a party contest, they made the most of their opportunities, and became the despoilcrs of the Peo- ple's purse. The expenditures of Mr. Van Buren's administration during the first three years, amounted to the enormous sum of onk HUNDRED AND ELEVEN MILLIONS FOUR HUNDRED AND SIX THOU- SAND NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE DOLLARS, ($111,406,955.) The average for each year of his ascendancy is. thirty-seven MILLIONS one HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND SIX HUN- DRED AND FIFTY-ONE DOLLARS, ($37,135,651.) The administration of Mr. Adams was charged with extrava- gance, and was displaced by the Party now in power, who came in on the ground of retrenchment and reform. But the expenses of the whole four years of Mr. Adams's administration were tea millions less than one-half of those of Mr. Van Buren's three first years. They were a little upwards of fifty millions of dollars in the total, and the average for each year was only .$12,575,477. Along with this extraordinary increase of expenditures, there has been an enormous and steady growth of executive patronage. New offices have been unnecessarily created, and agents and other subordinates multiplied, year after year. By the abuse of the power of appointment and removal, every officer and agent in every branch of the public service, from the highest grade to the lowest, is made immediately dependent on the will of the President alone, and holds his place by the tenure of complete and abject devotedness to the master " whose hirelings they are," according to the doctrine of the Administration. The offices which belong, in reality, to the People, and which ought to be filled by those only who are "honest," '•capable," and iaithful to the constitution," have been made the re- wards for party services. Men have been retained in situations of the highest trusts, and of the greatest emolument to the incumbents, long after they were known to the Government to be defaulters, solely because they were known to be active and industrious poli- ticians, and their exertions were required to sustain the interests of the Administration in the States to which they belonged. Since 12 the accession of Mr. Van Buren, the standard of qualification for oiBce has been reduced even lower than it was during the admin- istration of General Jackson. Brawling partizanship and un- scrupulous devotion supply the deficiency of all other requisites. The odious and abominable principle of proscription for opinion's sake, which was first openly avowed and systematically acted upon by the party now in power, has been carried tothe utmost extreme. No degree of business talents, no measure of experience, no purity of life and conduct, no zeal and industry in the performance of their duties, have been able to save from the vengeance of the Exe- cutive, those public officers who dared to entertain an opinion ad- verse to his policy, or who failed to be active in the great business of securing the success of his party in elections. Under such a sys- tem, it might be expected that the office-holders, in general, would possess the character of mercenary retainers, regardless of the great interests of the People, and the dignity and honor of the Nation, and only anxious for a continuance of the President's approbation and favor. I have thus, felfow-citizens, noticed some of the abuses and corruptions, which seem to me to call loudly on the people for a change of Administration. Thanks be to Heaven, the day of deliverance from these evils appears to be near at hand. Unless I am greatly deceived in the evidences of public sentiment, which are borne hither from every quarter, there is a movement among the American People in the cause of true reform, which will not cease until the Experimenters and Spoilsmen are driven from power. The nomination of Wil- liam Henry Harrison for the first, and of John Tyler for the second office in the gift of the People, has been received with ac- clamation by the Opponents of misrule and corruption throughout the Union. They have been taken up by the people, and by the people they will, 1 confidently beUeve, be borne onward to the high stations for which they have been nominated. It is due to candor, to say that General Harrison was not my first choice for the Presidency. I preferred Henry Clay to all the other candidates before the people. I have known him almost from my infancy, and have ever regarded him with the highest admira- tion, respect, and personal esteem. In all the qualifications for the €hief Magistracy of this nation, he is, in my judgment, superior to 13 any other raaii. The record of his public services embraces some of the brightest chapters in the history of his country, while he ha^ carried the fame of an American statesman, legislator, and patriot, to the farthest limits of the earth. Bat although it was with deep regret that T heard that Henry Clay was not presented by the Harrisburg Convention for the suf- frages of the opposition party, I never distrusted the wisdom, the patriotism, the integrity, and sound political principles of the emi- nent citizen who was selected for that high honor. I am well ac- quainted with General Harrison personally. I served under his immediate command during the last war, and know him to be a brave and skilful officer, a true patriot, an enlightened and honest statesman, and a man of uprightness and integrity. For near fifty years he has been in the public service, and during that time has filled many civil and military offices ; and in each and all has discharged his duty with honor to himself and advantage to the country. Millions of dollars have passed through his hands, and every cent has been strictly accounted for. No man has done more for his country and received less ; and to this day he labors regu- larly for his support and that of his family. Bred in a school of the purest republican principles, he has been distinguished throughout the whole of his career by a sacred re- gard for the constitution and for the rights of the States. A native of Virginia, he has a strong attachment to the South ; and we may rest assured that, under his administration, our domestic institutions will ever find in the General Government a defender against the encroachments, and interference, and seditious proceedings of the northern fanatics. Upon the subject of abolition, the opinions and sentiments of General Harrison are well known to be all that the most jealous friend of the South could desire, I have examined with scrupulous care the records of his conduct, and his sentiments on this vital question ; and I have no hesitation in declaring my belief that they entitle him to the entire confidence and the zealous support of the southern people. His views of all the great political questions of the day have been disclosed with that frankness which is one of the remarkable traits of his character. They accord with the opinions of the mass of the great political party by whom he was designated as a Candi- date for the highest office a free people can bestow. His election 1^ will be the signal for the dissolution of the Cabal who have solon^ been permitted to oppress the country, and will secure to us a wise, patriotic, and dignified Administration, pursuing the best interests of the people, and not directing its aims, as is now the case, to the aggrandizement of the rulers, and the fulfilment of their ambitious schemes. I offer no apology for thus freely and candidly addressing my fellow-citizens; and, in conclusion, will only repeat that I have ex- pressed my sentiments, and the deliberate convictions of my judg- ment, uninfluenced by any personal considerations or improper motives. Having no object to accomplish but the general good, I earnestly entreat your dispassionate consideration of the views here presented, and implore you, by the love you bear for your country, and its institutions, and by the desire which must glow in every patriotic heart, to maintain its liberties, and transmit them, unim- paired, to posterity ; to be active and zealous, and united in your exertions to bring about a change of men and measures. The signs in every quarter are most cheering. We are daily receiving great accessions of strength ; and with union, vigilance, and energy, you may rest assured that the cause of Harrison and Reform will be crowned with triumphant success. With sentiments of the highest respect and esteem, I remain your obedient servant, THOMAS W. CHINN. S9 ^ "oho' c,^ O «-.,,. .0 V ^oTo' ^CK 4p^ •ill:* ^ v" % ..-^ 11,