democratic Legislature of my own State, Pennsylvania, unanimously recommended it. It was vetoed by the President. And what did Congress do? Why, sir, changed their opinion-echoed that veto! Yes, we saw the very man who draughted and advocated the bill for rechartering the bank, (Mr. Dallas,) presiding at a town meeting a few weeks afterwards, and there opposing the very measure of which he was the author and father; ay, turning at the beck of the President, like Saturn of old, to destroy his own offspring. This, perhaps, may have been all very well; but is it not a remarkable proof that members of Congress found it inconvenient to have opinions which did not exactly conform to those of the Executive? [H. OF R. sentatives of the country? But have our expectations been realized? What have we been about? What have we done? Let us see whether we have not again been subserviently echoing the will of the Executive ? But again: Congress investigated the situation of the Bank of the United States, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it still continued to be a safe depository of the pub-retary of the Treasury, on the first of January, 1837, to lic moneys. They found its situation to be sound and wholesome, and declared, by a large majority, that the deposites should be continued in it, according to law. The President, however, a short time afterwards determined otherwise, ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to lay violent hands upon the treasures of the nation, to take them from the place where Congress and the law declared they should be, and scatter them abroad over the land, by depositing them with the pet banks; there to be used for the purpose of swelling the deluge of paper money, and of feeding and pampering and bloating the demoralizing spirit of speculation. In sixty days afterwards Congress met. Well, and what did members of Congress do? Did they adhere to their former resolution? No, sir, they again surrendered up their independence; again changed their opinion, and again echoed the will of the Executive. Then it was, that the President formed his league of pet banks. He conceived and planned, and put in operation, a project which, according to his promise, was to banish bank rags from the community, give us the best of currencies, and fill up the channels of circulation with gold. This was the sole work of the Executive and his agents. Congress had nothing to do with it. He submitted his plan, however, to Congress, in the form of a law, for their approval. They hesitated for a while, and grumbled a little; but, not daring to disobey, they at length again complied with his requisitions, went through all the unmeaning forms and idle ceremonies necessary to give it a legal shape, forgot the people and the country, and again echoed the will of the Executive! The But, sir, it is in vain to give further examples of the entire dependence of this House on the Executive. President has been passing our laws! Congress, in truth and in fact, has had nothing to do with them! His will has been supreme. This House, instead of being the free representative body of the people, has been the representative of the President! But the bubble has at length burst. The gilded project of which so much was promised and so much expected by an injured and confiding people, is at an end. While the people stood anxiously awaiting the realization of its promised advantages, it suddenly exploded, and involved them and their business, the country, its exchanges, currency, and prosperity, in a scene of confusion and distress unparalleled in the annals of our civil history. The Government, from a hollow and bloated appearance of sanity, became suddenly bankrupt. The people were overwhelmed with distress, and from every quarter of the country asked relief from the evils that had come upon them. Meeting, then, under these circumstance, I ask had we not a right to expect that Congress once more would resume its independence, and attend faithfully and fearlessly to the business of their constituents, and that the administration would now abandon its projects and give over its attempts to sway and subjugate and enslave the repre Our first act was to pass a bill for the postponement of the payment of the fourth instalment to the States, to withhold from them the sum of upwards of nine millions of dollars, which, by the act of 23d June, 1836, we had contracted to put in their possession. By that law it is provided that all the money in the Treasury of the United States, on the first of January, 1837, reserving the sum of five millions of dollars, should be deposited with the States in proportion to their respective representation in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States." Under this law it became the duty of the Secreserve five millions out of it for the use of the Government, and appropriate the balance, whatever it might be, to the States as already mentioned. The Secretary of the Treasury performed this duty, and found that there were upwards of forty-two millions of dollars in the Treasury. He reserved the five millions, and then announced to the different States of the Union, that there was in the Treasury, specifically set apart for them, the sum of thirty-seven millions of dollars, to be paid to them in four instalments. The States agreed to receive the money. Three instalmen's of the money they did receive. The fourth and last instalment of between nine and ten millions of dollars was to have been paid to them on the first of this month. This is a plain unvarnished statement of the case. Thus we see that on the first day of January last, there was in the Treasury thirty-seven millions of money specifically set apart by the law for the States. There it was. The Secretary of the Treasury counted it and declared it to be there. Now, why has not this money been all paid to the States? Was it because this House passed a bill for the postponement of the last payment? No, sir, but because this administration had previously used this money for their own purposes. They, Martin Van Buren and his administration, betrayed the trust reposed in them, squandered this money-and when the representatives of the people assemble here in special session, we are informed by the President and his Secretary of the Treasury that the money that was in the Treasury for the States is gone, has evaporated, and that we will have to postpone the payment of one fourth of it. Thus we see that the money was used by the administration. The President and his policy have postponed the payment of the fourth instalment. Congress has had nothing to do with it. The money was there for the States on the first of January last. When we met here in eight months afterwards it was not there. Suppose the bill for postponing its payment had not been passed, could the States have got the money? No. Why? Because the administration had previously used the money that was specifically set apart for them. Thus you perceive that the Executive postponed the payment of it. And, after doing this, he very modestly calls upon Congress to pass a law to do what he had previously done! Well, and what did Congress do? Why again they echo the will of the President, pass a law postponing what had already been postponed, and declaring a solemn falsehood to the whole country, that we, yes, that we had withheld from the people of the States nine millions and a half of money, when it had been done months before by the executive rulers of our country! This is the first exhibition of the independence of this body! If we continue thus to comply with the behests of power and to delude and betray the people, I ask, in the name of Heaven, what is to become of our country and its free institutions? [Here the House took its usual recess. After the recess Mr. NAYLOR resumed.] Mr., Chairman, the embarrassment incident to my novel situation, and the excitement which hurried me on to vindicate Northern people, sustain Northern institutions, and to show their effect upon the community, caused me to forget this morning some of the topics that I had intended to introduce, and to enlarge on others that I expected only to have glanced at. It is too late, however, to take them up now. I will go on, therefore, where I left off. The second great measure which the administration commanded you to pass, and which you did pass, was the bill for the manufacture of ten millions of Treasury notes. Yes, ten millions of paper money-ten millions, not of bank rags, but Government rags-ten millions of old continental paper-ten millions of shin plasters! And is it possible that these are the fruits of those long years of exciting, convulsing, distracting experiments, which our rulers promised us should produce such a safe and convenient currency, and flood the whole land with gold? Ay, gold, gold, was the cry; and now we have gold with a vengeance! The banner of our rulers has had for its motto, not our country, nor liberty, nor patriotism, nor union, nor any other ennobling or inspiring sentiment; no, sir, but that miserable and mercenary promise "for gold, gold, gold." For years have our people been mocked and deluded with the empty promise of gold. And now, at the very moment when they reach forth their expecting hands to possess it, like the gold which is said to reward a bargain with the Prince of Darkness, it turns in their grasp into dust and ashes! The Government has been raking it together from all quarters of the earth. They have wrung it with an iron and unrelenting grasp from the possession of the people. They have forced it out of circulation. It is money no longer; it is now merchandise. It is bought and sold, as you would buy your bread or any other necessary or convenience of life. The people are forced to buy it in order to pay their debts to the Government. And what does the Government do with it? pay it back to the people? No, sir, no, but magnanimously gives it to the officeholders! The officeholders then sell it to the people at a profit of from seven to twelve per cent. The people again pay it to the Government from which, as before, it immediately passes to the officeholders, who again sell it to the people at a large profit. Thus it moves round and round in one continued and contracted circle, cursing the people, and taking at every turn from their hard earnings the amount of premium paid for it, and enriching the pampered officeholder, just in proportion as it robs them. In the meantime the officeholders have got the Government exclusively to themselves. They have all the gold to themselves. They tell us that the Governinent and the people must be separate and distinct, that it was never intended that the Government should sympathize with their sufferings, or extend relief to their distresses. And how, sir, does this golden Government, with its immense professions, pay its own debts? What do they give to the hard toiling mechanic-the aged, feeble and tottering war-worn soldier of the Revolution? And what has the country for a currency? Why, rags, rag; not "bank rags" alone; no, (for they grow more scarce every day,) but all kinds of ragsa complete piece of patch work, an undistinguished gathering together of rottenness and confusion. And, to crown the whole, the President and his gilded partisans, have passed the bill for the manufacture of ten millions more of rags, with which still further to curse the country-the bill creating ten millions of paper money for the people! In the name of Heaven, I ask, when will this evil end? When will members of Congress be members of Congress, break the shackles that bind them to the blind and dark and ferocious spirit of power, and stand forth the free representatives of the country? Mr. Chairman, what an awful reckoning must the peo [Oct. 13, 1837. ple have with those in power? Sir, the account must be made up sooner or later, between them and those rulers who have been promising only to deceive them, sporting with their hopes, trampling down their interests, marring their enterprises, and bruising their tenderest sympathies. The day of reckoning must come, will come! As certainly as truth must prevail over error, as certainly as rights must be vindicated and injuries redressed, so certainly will the people have justice, ay, and vengeance too, for the many wrongs with which a long course of misrule has visited them. We have already heard the rumbling at a distance. The volcano will burst forth. I warn gentlemen-I warn the administration, to "flee from the wrath to come!" But, sir, I have again been hurried beyond my subject. I intended to have alluded to the Treasury note bill only to show that this measure, like all others, had been passed in conformity with the President's will. The opposition in this House did all that reasonable men could do to prevent its passage. One submitted a plan for the collection of the debts owing by the deposite banks, and showing conclusively that, by this means, the Government could get their money from the banks and be saved the mortifying expedient of issuing ten millions of rag money. But no, it would not do. His proposition was not listened to. Another gentleman submitted a plan for the sale of the bonds which were given by the Bank of the United States, and not yet due to the Government; proving satisfactorily that this would entirely disconnect the Government from the bank, and raise money amply sufficient to dispense with the issuing of the Treasury notes. No, they would have Treasury notes. The President had recommended them, and of course his recommendation must become a law. So accustomed are the President and heads of Departments to consider their recommendations as having the force of law, and so certain was the Secretary of the Treasury that the Treasury notes would be issued, that a month before the bill was passed for that purpose, we find him writing circulars to many of the banks, and a great number of the large capitalists in the country, huckstering these very notes about for sale! What a humiliating commentary upon the independence of the people's representatives in Congress! But, sir, the Secretary of the Treasury knew that this House would not disregard the will of the Executive. You did again echo that will. The law is passed. The administration designed to establish a great Treasury bank. The design is as evident as the sun in a cloudless heaven at noonday. They knew that they could deceive the people no longer with the golden humbug. They have now established their bank. You have ordered the issue of ten millions of its notes to begin with. These are all, and the only gold which the suffering people of this country will ever get from this false and deceitful administration! These, sir, are solemn truths, and why should I fear to utter them? What next? The next great measure that we have recommended to us is the last great experiment of those in power, the "Sub-Treasury System.' This project has not yet received the sanction of this House, and I pray Heaven that it never may. It is now before us for consideration. I purpose, in conclusion, to make a few hasty reinarks upon it. I am opposed to this measure. Although not yet approved by Congress, it is now in operation. We see its workings. We have eaten of its fruits, and, for myself, they are distasteful to me. I loathe thein. I am for cutting down the tree that produced them. Sir, this scheme proposes to place in the hands of individuals who are dependent alone on the will of the President for their continuance in office, all, yes all the countless millions of the money of this Government for disbursement and safe-keeping. These men are to receive it, hold it, use it, when and as they please, with no earthly barrier between it and the temptation to appropriate it to their own uses, which the personal custody of such immense treasures must offer, than the feeble restraints of poor, weak, fallible human nature, and the fear of the consequences which might result from an ultimate detection. How many receivers and holders of the public money, or, in other words, how many "sub-treasurers" there will be scattered throughout the whole extent of this wide spread country, no man can at present determine. In France, where a similar system prevails, there are one hundred thousand! Here, I have no doubt, in a short time, the number would even exceed that. These men are to hold and absolutely possess the whole treasures of the nation. Some of them, particularly in our large cities, will have millions of dollars in their hands at a time. One uninterrupted golden current will be continually pouring in upon them. What a temptation, (even aside from party political influences) is thus offered to use a portion of this money occasionally or continually, as need or circumstances may require! Sir, the temptation will be irresistible. Surrounded by needy or pressing friends in distress, whose families and fortunes they may think will be comforted or repaired by a timely loan; in the very midst of the exciting whirl of speculation, with Fortune's dazzling visions urging them on to use the treasures confided to their keeping, and embark in schemes promising to result in the enjoyment of immense possessions, and with the full certainty that a temporary use of even large amounts, cannot be discovered; taking into consideration with these circumstances the fact that there will be one hundred thousand of these men-I say they will, in some cases, inevitably misappropriate the money. Large amounts of it must be lost. The treasures of the country will be plundered. Under such a system, there is no safety for the public funds. But, sir, this is not the only evil that I see in this measure. The loss of the public moneys will be nothing compared to the moral and political evils that must flow from it. "Lead us not into temptation," was the sublime prayer of our God. Our rulers, disregarding this divine lesson, scem determined to surround their public officers with a consuming fire of temptation, from which there is to be no hope of escape. Their consciences are to be seared, and they are to go abroad corrupted and corrupting until the whole body politic becomes one offensive mass of putridity, smelling to heaven and tainting the very atmosphere of freedom. This may be strong language. But I see the evil strongly. I feel it strongly. I have heard of the danger of uniting the purse and the sword. All the unions of this kind, heretofore deprecated as existing in this country, are as ropes of sand or bonds of gossamer compared to what will be the case if you pass this bill! You will not only unite one purse and one sword-no, sir, you will unite one hundred thousand purses and one hundred thousand swords-all ready to yield up their treasures and leap from their scabbards at the nod or stamping of the foot of one man! A "sub-Treasury bill," it is gently termed in this House. Before the country, for the purpose of deluding the people and exciting popular feelings in its favor, you name it a "bill to divorce the Government from the banks." But what is it? Trampling the mere name under our feet, and looking at it as it is, stripped and naked in all its odious deformity--I ask what is it? Why, sir, it is a bill for arresting the flow of our prosperity-for subverting the fundamental principles of our republic-a bill for laying the corner stone of despotism. How do those in power recommend it to us? What arguments do they urge in favor of its adoption? "Oh," they say, "it is no new scheme. It exists in France; it flourishes in Prussia and Austria-it has grown into full and vigorous perfection in Russia. It prevails in Turkey and in every despotism of the new and old world." [H. of R. My heart shudders, my blood curdles at their recommendations. In every country under heaven where such a system prevails, the people are trampled on and plundered of their rights; ground down to the very dust by the awful despotism of their rulers; bought and sold like cattle with the earth, persecuted by power, plundered by these very sub-treasurers, "chained to the brutes and fettered to the soil." And yet, sir, this administration and its advocates urge the example of these odious tyrannics, as almost the only argument in favor of the adoption of their hateful scheme. They tell us that their plan works very well in those countries. But they do not tell us that it is there the grand engine of despotisin, without which the people could not be kept in slavery! Yes, the plan does work well in despotisms. It does the work effectually. It works admirably well. It answers the very purpose for which it was designed that of plundering and enslaving the people, whilst it deprives them of the power of resistance! Where am I? Is it possible that here, in this mighty capital of the only free republic on earth, with the deeds of our gallant fathers still green in our memories, with here and there one of their lingering associates now gazing upon our deliberations, and the thunders of Yorktown yet ringing in our ears-is it possible, I say, under these circumstances, that we can calmly listen to a proposition to abandon the settled policy of our Government from its beginning to this day, despise and denounce the wisdom of its immortal founder, reject a course which has secured an unexampled prosperity to our country, and the utmost stretch of liberty to ourselves--and 'turn back and affectionately embrace--hug to our bosoms, as jewels above all price, the barbarous institutions of the dark and benighted despotisms of the old word? Are we to turn a deaf ear to the counsels of our revolutionary sages and receive for our guide the arbitrary decrees of autocrats and tyrants? Sir, is the republican seed, scattered far and wide by our immortal sires, to be eradicated with our own hands--and are we to transplant into our fertile soil the sickly shoots of despotism, and nurse and water and cherish them into health and vigor and fructification? Heaven forbid. Let every man who wishes well to our republican institutions put the seal of his reprobation on this scheme. I have said that this very "sub-Treasury system" is one of the great means used by the autocrats of Europe for perpetuating their tyrannies. In the hands of a monarch it is an engine of tremendous power. He appoints every officer. They are all absolutely dependent upon him, and are appointed to do his bidding. They are responsible to him alone. They are scattered all over the empire. Every petty district has its officer to receive and hold the revenues of the Government. They have immediate communication with the people. Of course, as the interest of the officer binds him to serve his sovereign, and as there is no one to interfere between them, the money he receives can be used in influencing the people (or subjects as they are there called in any way desirable. Thus thousands and tens of thousands of these little treasurers are using the money in their respective districts, so as to produce the desired influence on the people. And yet, in a moment, the whole treasure can be collected in one concentrated mass at the nod of the monarch. This is all done silently and secretly. The evil is felt and no one can tell whence it comes. Despotism is upon them, and they have no means to break it. This system of monarchy, this engine of despotism, is the very one which the bill under consideration proposes to introduce into this country. It will make the power of the President as supreme as that of any autocrat of Europe. You will have a hundred thousand officeholders appointed by the President, holding their office at his pleasure, dependent upon his will for the very bread they eat, and commissioned to do his bidding. Every neighborhood will have within its narrow confines one of these H. OF R.] Sub-Treasury Bill. "sub-treasurers,' "to harass the people and eat out their substance." The land will be filled with spies and informers. All the public money, millions on millions, will be in their hands! It will be scattered about among their partisans, become the source of countless demoralizing speculations upon the industry and property of the people, and must inevitably end in concentrating all power in the breast of the Executive. Adopt this scheme, carry out its provisions in all their ramifications, and there will be no salvation for this republic; republican forms may exist, but despotism will be its very life-blood, its pervading spirit. This scheme will not only increase the number of your officers four-fold, and thus quadruple the taxes of the people, but it will furnish Government with an irresistible means of controlling the popular will. These officers must use the money to promote the views of their masters. They are appointed for that purpose. He who would dare refuse to do their bidding would not only be instantly dismissed, but hunted beyond the pale of national consideration ; yes, be denationalized and proscribed by the hireling hacks of party power. Will any gentleman dare say that these evils are all imaginary? What takes place in one country will, under the same circumstances, take place in another. This system is the one by which despotism perpetuates itself all over the world. Why can it not, why will it not, be used for the same purpose here? Is it for the want of a disposition in our rulers? What takes place among us now? Do not those in power attempt to force the minds of the people to think with them? Do they follow the popular will, or do they make the popular will bend to their decrees? Sir, my honorable colleague [Mr. SERGEANT] told a grave truth the other day, when he said that Government carried every thing by a war. It singles out its object, selects its plan, adopts its measures, and then opens its campaign, and, with its countless officeholders, vast treasures, and immense power and patronage, enters the field, marshals all the "faithful" to its standard, shoots as deserters all who fly, and marches onward crushing those who dare oppose! There was a time in the days of Jefferson-in the good old days of real democracy-when an officer of the Government interfering with the freedom of elections, or attempting to influence the popular will, was instantly dismissed from office. It was the cardinal maxim of the administration of this illustrious man "that an officer who would attempt to use his power and influence to control public opinion should at once lose his office." This was the fundamental law of Jeffersonian democracy. Now, sir, those who claim to be the exclusive democrats of the land have reversed this law. The maxim at present is, "that the officer of the General Government who does not use all his power and influence to control the people shall be forthwith dismissed." Hence, sir, we find that it is the officeholders all over the Union who fight the political battles for the adminstration. They must do it; they are bound to do it; and they do do it. me. In the election which resulted in sending me as a representative of the people into this hall, the officeholders of the General Government of my own and the neighboring districts were the persons who bore all the heat and labor of the campaign, and did all the speech-making against Not only that, sir; but at least one person residing here, in the city of Washington, in this grand seat of Executive power, holding a lucrative situation under the Government, having his sons employed here in Government departments, left his family, travelled one hundred and fifty miles to get into my district, and there mounted the stump, became an open-mouthed brawling advocate of party power, called upon the people to reject me, and come to the support of his master in Washington. Sir, if such scenes are familiar to us now, what will take place when you make four times the number of officers, and place mil [Oct. 13, 1837. lions and tens of millions of public money in their hands? My heart shudders at the contemplation. Mr. Chairman, I have shown that this system is the engine of tyranny wherever it exists, and that the example of other nations, urged upon us by its advocates, are all derived from despotism. They urge another argument in favor of this measure, which consorts in all things with the one just mentioned. They say that the effects of this scheme will be to destroy the whole system of credit. It is true that wherever this "sub-Treasury scheme" exists there is no credit except upon the most narrow and limited scale. Nor is this singular. Recollect that this system prevails only in tyrannies. The absence of credit is one of the grand characteristics of despotism all over the world. Every body must know, or can know if he will, that a well-regulated credit system and despotism never have existed, do not, and cannot exist together. It matters not what the forms of a Government may be; if a system of general credit prevails throughout its whole extent, the heart and spirit of despotism must be crushed and broken. There is no credit system in Russia, Prussia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, nor in any other country under heaven, where the people are in chains and wretchedness, misery and degradation. Nor is this all. The converse of the proposition is true. There is no country in which a well-regulated credit system prevails where the people are in bondage. It is a fact, which no man having any respect for truth can deny, that just in proportion as a sound credit prevails in any country, in the same proportion are the people in the enjoyment of happiness and civil and political liberty. The reason for all this is very obvious. What is credit? It is trust, confidence, belief and faith in the honor and integrity of man. It was the first kind of money, upon which all other money is founded. It existed before paper or letters were dreamed of, and long before the metals, either precious or base, were extracted from the gloomy bowels of the earth. In the early stages of society, men obtained from each other the product of their labors by barter or exchange. The artizan would exchange his wares for the gain of the husbandman. If he wanted bread and had nothing at the time to give in exchange, the farmer, giving credit to his integrity, would furnish him with bread stuff on his promise to give him his wares in return when convenient. This credit was, therefore, the only money then. It was nothing but confidence of one man in another! In order to get this confidence or credit it was necessary that a man should be honest. Thus it improved the morals of mankind. The more it was used the closer did it unite men in society; because it made men, in a degree, dependent upon one another, and made each individual interested in the welfare of the whole. Thus it encouraged the kindlier sympathies and humanized the human family. When it passed from hand to hand, or in other words, when the farmer passed the promise of the artizan to his neighbor for something that he wanted of him, it became circulating credit or confidence; and as that became widely extended from man to man, it associated together into one family and in one interest the most distant inhabitants of a whole empire. It pro Thus, sir, it becomes the bond of society. It introduces man to his fellow, and gives mutual confidence. motes travel, improves the country, facilitates civilization, develops industry, quickens the mental faculties, expands moral and charitable feelings, unites men together by the gentlest, but strongest of all ties, and teaches them their power. This is the reason why credit and despotism are never found together. It makes men too strong for tyrants! Were it possible to diffuse, at once, throughout all Russia the credit that prevails in this country, the iron bonds of Russian despotism would be burst asunder as by magic, and the Russian serf, springing at once into the full dignity of freedom, would stand erect and unshackled! It is the policy of tyrants to keep their subjects apart. They are for weakening the ties that bind them together. They are for disconnecting every man from his neighborforcing him to stand isolated and alone; sowing the seeds of jealousy, distrust, and individual disunion, destroying all combinations, and making every one depend alone upon the sovereign power. This state of things cannot exist with a credit system. Credit gives men one interest, makes them depend upon one another, and combines them into one irresistible whole. Therefore it is that despots are at war with credit. They must keep men apart in savage, barbarous, desolate isolation. The moment a common interest, given by a common understanding and mutual confidence, combines them together, they become irresistible in power; and despotism flies before them. This, sir, is the reason why liberty and credit are found side by side together wherever either of them have an existence. They are never found apart. Look at all the non-credit countries of Europe. They are all despotisms, every one of them! And what are they doing for man, for civilization, for the spread of free principles? Why nothing, absolutely nothing! There they are in chains and wretchedness, without liberty, without domestic comfort, enveloped in ignorance and barbarism, without even the hope of rational freedom to cheer and brighten up the future. Now turn your eyes to old England-the credit country of the world, our "father land," the land from which most of us derived our blood and our name. Look at her manufactures, her arts, her literature, learning, science, and her civilization, that carries a portion of comfort and liberty into every cottage throughout her island domain; with her fleets on every ocean, her commerce embracing the whole world, diffusing her language, institutions, and free principles to the remotest corners of the earth; overrunning India, filling up New Holland, peopling all the South sea islands, and everywhere planting the standard of civilization, christianity, and civil and political liberty! Whilst other European nations are stationary, England, by her moral power, derived, in a great degree, from her credit system, is producing a moral and political revolution throughout the globe. Sir, let us recross the Atlantic and turn our attention to America, and see what the people are doing there. Look to Mexico and the South American Governments. That part of the country was first discovered and first peopled. The inhabitants are in possession of inexhaustible mines of the precious metals; hard money is no scarcity there. But they have no credit system, and therefore no confidence in one another. They have no liberty, not even proper notions of liberty. They have no commerce, no agriculture deserving of the name, no navy, no manufactures, no arts, no internal improvements, no literature, no science; but with an abundance of gold, they are benighted, ignorant, miserable, wretched, enslaved, and oppressed, but one degree removed from the brutes around them! Their whole history is but one unmitigated narrative of savage discord, murder, rapine, and bloodshed; mad infuriate revolution, and sanguinary insurrection! These are the people, and these are the institutions that are held up to us for our example! After this view of the degradation, wretchedness, and slavery of the southern part of America, with what feelings of pride and patriotic exultation can we return to our own proud and happy United States. I will not pretend to speak of her glory, prosperity, and advancement, nor portray the virtue, intelligence, genius, skill, and hardy and adventurous enterprise of her people. Under the influence of her present institutions, she has done, and is now VOL. XIV.-99 [H. OF R. doing, more for her own people, more for the cause of human rights, more for civilization, more for the elevation of morals and of mind, and more for the whole human family, than any other nation that has, or ever had existence. Now, sir, I appeal to every patriot in this House-I care not by what party name he may be called—I solemnly appeal to every man in the country; I ask you all, are you prepared to abandon the means which have placed yourselves and your country on such high grounds, and adopt in their stead the miserable, unnatural, and wretched policy of the foul, rank, brutal despotisms of the earth? Will you follow in the paths which your fathers have made holy, and which have led to glory, peace, liberty, prosperity, and unbounded comfort-or will you obliterate every trace that they left behind them, shut your eyes against the brightness of the past, destroy every germ of hope as to the future, and follow that rugged and that crooked way which has always terminated in tyranny, degradation, wretchedness, and wo? As for myself, my mind is made up; I am for abiding by what has been tried. I must vote against this bill. One word more as to credit, and I am done. I know, sir, the evils of credit. I know how it may be, how it is abused. I have ever been a bold and open opponent of its abuses. I have, for years, taken an active stand against the inordinate increase of banks. I have spoken against it. I have written against it. I have petitioned and remonstrated against it. I have done all that a reasonable man could do to limit their number, and check their abuses. Yes, and I have seen the very men who now so bitterly oppose all credit, within six years, double the number of those banks, and more than double the banking capital of the country! Credit has been abused. But it is no reason why it should be destroyed. The abuse of any thing, is no argument against it. The best of institutions are always those that are abused most. In the name of our holy religion the earth has been deluged with blood, and countless millions have been consumed in the flames of martyrdom. But this is no argument against either the truth, necessity, or value of our religion. Let us, therefore, labor to purge our credit system of its abuses. To destroy it, would be to break down all confidence between man and man, and restore once more the savage, desolating reign of barbarism. Mr. Chairman, let me beg gentlemen to pause-pause before they pass this bill. It is now nearly six weeks since the commencement of this session; during which time, we have been in this hall night and day. We come at early morning, the day passes away, and the darkness of midnight still finds us here. We have had no time for reading, for thought, reflection, research, or calm and dispassionate examination. Wearied and jaded and worn out with fatigue, the President and his partisans have been hurrying and lashing us into their measures. We have been forced to sit here night and day on purpose to prevent discussion, and to compel us, right or wrong, to sanction the plans of the Executive. We have been openly called upon by the leader of the administration party in the House [Mr. CAMBRELENG] not to deliberate, "discuss, and honestly make up our minds-No, sir, no; but to "toe the mark!" We have invoked gentlemen to rush to the rescue of liberty suffering, of our country bleeding, and our people overwhelmed with distress! Our appeals have been met with but one answer— "toe the mark "toe the mark!" But a few days since I picked up from the floor of this House, a petition of nearly one thousand inhabitants of Mobile, setting forth in eloquent language the accumulated evils and distresses which had borne them down to the earth, and praying as a remedy the establishinent of a national specie paying institution by Congress. There was the petition on the floor-trampled upon-spitten uponblurred and blotted and stained! And at that very moment-yes, at that very moment, an honorable gentleman |
