Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-04-01
ADDRESS OF THE MAJORITY OF The
LEGISLATURE
TO THE FREEMEN or VIRGINIA.

FrI1ow-Crr1zENs: An important session of
YOUR Legislature has this moment terminated.
1The events with which its labors have been as
sociated. will constitute an interesting epoch IN
orr history. For the first time since the foun-
dation ofthe Republic, the Executive hand OF
the Federal Government has invaded the Fede-
raj Treasury, and Withdrawn the public money
from the place where it was deposited, Wlthout
an appropriation made by law.
Your Representatives in the General Assem-
bly, felt that it was due to you, to our violated
laws. and to that confidence with which you had
clothed us, to reprove and rebuke this act OF the
Federal Executive. The resolutions when we
adopted are before you. Decorous in language,
thew speak with becoming spirit, the legislative
Indictment; which, we believe, will also be the
voice of the people. Ready, at alltlmes, to sus-
tain the President, in the rightful exertlon or all
his lawful power, it is still imperatively our duty
to guard, protect, and defend the rights OF the
people, against every encroachment.
1t has been Justly said, that the principles OF
the Revolution are the locks OF liberty and the
KEYS of construction. All that is great and glo-
rious in the annals Of freedom, has resulted IN
r~epelling the struggles of power to take to itself
the money or the property OF the people. one
of the Jewels that g%littered in the royal dladem
of England's King, in the reign of her Stuarts,
pas claimed 10 be the dispensing power. The
sturdy spirit of the people rose there as en-
ClOdClIlCIlt I'm
Tyrant were shorn Of this usurpation, and the
true principle of popular power over the trea-
sures of the people was laid in the blood OF the
monarch. The sages of our own Revolutlon,
when they came to fix the law, de-
clared, in our admirable Bill Of Rights, " that all
" power Disappointing laws, or the execution OF
{" laws, by any authority, without the consent OF
i" the representatives Of the people, is injurious
{" to their rights, and ought not to be exercised"
To a people who inherit freedom, and are the
descendants ofa race OF men that gathered glo-
ny in every field where glory could be won, the
path Of duty cannot be mistaken. The shades
of our ancestors rise up before us, and point us
the way. The passage OF any law by congress
is nothing less than an act of sovereignty on the
part of the People and States of this Confede-
racy, speaking through its constitutional organ.
Diversities Of opinion have arisen, and must
continue to exist, upon the question OF the con-
stitutionality of the Bank of the United States.
We should be false to higher and to greater
questions; to our obligations to liberty and to
law; if we permitted our minds to be withdrawn
to any such enquiry. We have declared the
power assumed by Congress over this subject
to be outside the pale of its delegated authori-
ties.
The charter ofthe Bank is a compact to which
the public faith is a party on the one side, and
the stockholders on the other; neither can right
fully violate its covenants. COmpacts with So
vereignty, cannot be enforced against it, by its
own judicature. But its obligations rest in the
moral stability Of justice-and that fidelity which
sovereignty can never deny or evade, calls Tor
its performance.
Has not this contract been violated? This
will scarcely be denied. There are differences
ofopinion on the propriety Of returning to the
Bank the deposites stipulated to be made in that
Institution and its branches; but very few have
hesitated to disapprove their removal. The
charter directs them to be made there, unless
the Secretary of the Treasury otherwise order
and direct, in which event he shalt immediately
report HIS REASONS TO CONGRESS.
Can any one offer so gross an insult to COM
mon sense and to the English language, as to
say, that the mandatory terms Of the act re
curing the instant report ofthe Secretary's rea-
sons to Congress MEAN NOTHING! Folly itself,
forgetting its Wontcd character, and rising, Tor
one passing moment, to the elevation OF reason
and Of thought, would blush, with conjunction,
at such an Interpretation of this section. The
whole money power of the Federal Government
is deposited in Congress. Ali the guards that
wisdom and experience could plant round the
taxing and appropriating powers, so as to retain
them in the hands Of the Representatives of the
People, are to be found in the Constitution
These were intended to shield the treasures,
wrung from toll and industry by taxation, from
wrongful incursion. The 10th section of the
act is in close conformity to these fundamental
provisions ofyOur organic law. The agency OF
the Secretary is created, with the manifest re-
servation of a revisory and appellate power in
Congress. That it was so regarded by the Pre-
sident himself, in 1882, is clearly inferred from
his message to Congress. An agent was APP
pointed to examine into the condition Of the pa
rent Bank, with instructions to report upon its
solvency, and, consequently, the safety of the
public deposites. That report, dispelling all "a.
tional doubt, was laid before the House, and the
judgment of that body was pronounced upon
I tho c,,hiocf D. n rof ~ IN tndS onr,ha
the decision of the appellate tribunal was put
forth in advance of any agency upon the part
of the Secretary; and the deposites (substan-
tally directed to be continued in the Bank
This appears to have weighed lightly in the Ex-
e%cutive deliberations. For the Representatives
of the People had scarcely departed from the
Capitol of the Republic, before the same subject
was eagerly canvassed by the President. Louis
McLane, for whom we cherish a strong and a
just respect, was then in the reasuryDepartment
His views are known to be hostile to this mad
and phrenetic measures; and his translation to
another department had long been intended.
The impeachment found in his opinions is scarce
ly removed, and his successor seated in the