Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-04-14

to control the presto influence elections, or to
nrodnce the present pressure. Still less will it
be sufficient, after repeating from year TO year
to every pillar of this House, till the very echoes
are ashamed to return the sound, that the Bank
has committed all these crimes, to appoint a
strolling committee to perambulate this whole
Union, from Portland to New Orleans, and from
Philadelphia to ST. Louis to inquire and report
to this House aohether the Bank has committed
them or not! The question to be answered is,
has your Secretary of the Treasury wronged
the Bank, or has he not! Has ne taken thela
property and converted it to the use OF others!
includ NO himself If you shrink from answer
ing this question it will be an argument OF strong
nrevailment to those who shall occupy tnese
seats hereafter, that you dared not meetH. Inc
complaint of wrong and the petition OF redress
will survive you "The evil that men 40 lives
after Them" The Bank OF the onlteu .s naa.es
will debut its ghost will haunt this hall, though
Justice should be denied by Congress after con
gress-perhaps from age to age; and your eva
Sion of the question will be standing recon-
mendation of the claim till importantly, shall
extort from your successors the PREPARATION sought
in vain from you.
Nor is this the only duty incumbent upon you
upon you-upon the majority of this House.
The fate of the people and of their posterlty IS
in your hands. The experiment undertaken by
the Chief Executive Ma gistrae is in its nature an
ASSUMPTION by him of legislative power. but IL
cannot be consummated without your assent
and cooperation. Most of you have been elect
ed as members of this House under pledges 10
supnort his administration. How many OF you
were aware that, in redemption OF tins pleoge,
Won would be called to surrender to MN your
own peculiar and appropriate functions OF egls-
lation?-to pe1pert the forms and 1nre7t the SUD-
stance of that division of powers without Whlch
we have been taught from our childhood that
freedom is but the shadow OF shade our
.Sk<1 &c tcln two my
to Congress- and the executive power to the
President of the United States. But now, the
President has constituted himself the legislator,
and calls upon you to execute his ordinances
and DEGREES; and you in this House are ABOUT
to respond to his call because you are pledged 10
support his administration Representatives OF
the people of the North American Union, is II
for this that you were elected the trustees OF
their interests? the guardians of their rights? is
there no way but by laying them at the feet OF
Andrew Jackson that you can support MS ad-
miuistration? Nearly two centuries since, IN
the same unbiased year which restored the Stu
arts to the throne of England, the representa-
tives of the people of Denmark formally surTen-
dered into the hands of their king the whole
mower of the nations and since that time the 60
yernment of Denmark has been marvellouSly
simple machine. Is that in the annals OF ma
Ltions. the example which, of all others, you
would be ambitious of imitating!
! Mr. Speaker, in the gloomy hours OF antlcl-
patton which the actual condition of our country
| has for the last four months forced upon me,
| have sometimes cheered for a moment my thick
| coming fancies by imagining what in the
nresent crisis of our history, the representa-
| tives of the people of this Union might be-and
what they ought to be. have pictured TO my
self House of Representatives, in the short pc
Rod of two years existence, efectlng TO IL
self a monument of imperishable renown-es-
G. itca n after times OF
| faithful cooperation with the other departments
! of the Government in promoting the welfare
and protecting the interests OF the people, their
constituents. and at the same time of infieXlble
tenacity and unyielding adherence to the prln-
ciples of the constitution, and the theory OF h-
man liberty handed down to them from their
fathers to be transmitted to their children, L
have asked myself what that small but stead
fast band of statesmen and of heroes, whose
| forms salute us as we daily pass through yonder
rotunda to and from this hail. in the very act OF
signing the Declaration of Independence
] have asked myself what would be their charge
to us their children, and descendants, could they
speak from the canvass as we pass them by
| would then tell us that the summit OF human glo-
| rv is TO be scaled by demoshing a Bank! That
the benizons of mankind are obe bought by
the closure of brokers' shop? That hall
dozen worthy and respectable traders OF Phlia-
delphia are tyrannizng over the nation In the
guiSe OF bank directors, ana tndt Unless we tdhe
| from them the power of loaning money and
calling at the appointed time forts repayment,
they will trample our laws, our constitution
and our liberties, under their feet? Sir, could
the patriots of1776 come down from the side OF
the wall enter in soem procession within these
doors, take seats in front of your chair, and
witness our deliberations, with what amazement
would they learn the proposition submitted to us,
and listen to the resolutions prepared Tor our
adoption2 Startled, as they well might be, at
the shreks and groans of agonizing freedom
which they would hear reverberating within
and around this Capitol, would they not inquire,
what Attila-what Alaric-what Gengis Khan,
had poured his hordes of Cloths, of Vandals, or
of Tartars, over our fertile fields, our peaceful
plantations, and our late fourishing farms?-
What scourge Of God had desolated our cities?
What convulson of nature had pasied the arm
of industry? had furled the sails of commerce
to our mdew at your wharves? had silenced
the mill-clap, the shuttle and the loomz haa
banished the merchant from the exchange? had
severed the ploughman from his plough? the
mechanic from his implements of toll? and the
daily laborer from his daily bread? Would they
not inquire, what is of all this the cause? And