Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1835-08-06


think that the control o:he public treasure was
a constitutional Ereestipe prerogatise ? Why,
the idea supposcs, either that the trainers Of
the Constitution meant TO establish despo-
tism, by uniting the powers of the sword and
the purse in the hands Of the Executive,
which is, per Sc, despotism or that, mean
ing TO establish free government, they have
unwittingly, and contrary to their intentions,
established a despotism, by uniting those two
powers in the Executive. For it is essential
to every free government, that those two
powers should be kept distinct, and exercis-
ed by distinct and independent bodies.
The Jackson party, presume, will not de-
ny that the trainers of the Constitution meant
to establish a free government. Now let
them contend, if they please, that the trainers
were such simple tons-so ignorant Of the
first elements Of constitutional liberty, that
they did not know it could not exist with des-
potlsm in the Executive; or that they did not
know that the union of the purse and the
sword constituted despotsm. But every one
who reads the Constitution must see, that
they, the trainers, were fully aware of the i'm
portance Of keeping those two powers apart;
for it scdulously gives the power of the purse
to Congress, and to Congress alone. The
Congress is to raise all the revenues to be
raised; the Congress is to establish the
Treasury, in which it all is to be kept the
Congress is to appropriate all monies to be
drawn from the Treasury; and none is to be
drawn but under their authority-by theirap-
preparation. There is not one word in the
Constitution that says, or implies, that the
Executive, of himself and by HIMSELF is to
have any, the least, control over this trea-
suro.
The whole revenue of the United States is
now at loose ends. The United States have
no legal security whatever for its safe keep
ing; Congress have no legal hold in these To-
Cal banks and the Executive can have none
If he has made any contracts with these
banks, these contracts are void, for he had,
and can have, no legal authority to make
them his own act in taking the money into
his own hands being illegal and therefore
void.
The United States are now at the mercy Of
all those hundred local Banks for all the re-
venues of the country. If they, or any of
them, should fail, or lose the money, the Uni
ted States must lose it. If they, or any of
them, choose to keep the money, and set the
United States at defiance, they may do it
For Congress have no legal remedy against
them, either by direct lien, or by privity Of
any contract. Whereas Congress had all the
revenue of the country, while it was in their
constitutional keeping, and until it was wrest-
ed out of their hands by the unconstitutional
act Of the Executive, under the lock of the
law, in the Bank Of the United States, secure
not only as to the safe keeping, but as to the
! disbursements beyond the possibility of loss
or of expense to the United States. AS Il
measure Of finance, the folly has been no less
monstrous, than the illegality of the act of
the Executive, monstrous as that has been.
! Jackson, then, by usurping this control of
the public treasure, besides putting at hazard
the revenues OF the country, has struck at
our Constitution in its most vital part; the ve-
ry heart of our free Government has been
pierced by him, and is bleeding and expiring
under his ruthless hand
Notwithstanding all this, the Jackson par
ty still idoize Jackson, and in manner wor-
ship him. They call him the Hero of two
wars, though by his own account of his own
age he was only eight years old when the
first of those wars commenced, and but six
teen when it ended; too young to have borne
a commission, or to have been enlisted as
private. They call him, too, second Wash
ington, and a greater than the first-greater
than the Father of his Country, and her liber-
ties And, as if this were not aduation
enough, he has been called the Rock Of .Ages,
and made the Divinity himself Never has
the spirit of slavery, in any age or country,
gone greater lengths in adulation to any des-
pot, than it has in the Jackson party to Jack
son. They seem spel-bound; and as if moth
ing on his part-no outrage upon their Con-
stitution and constitutional freedom, could
break the charm. The reason is, that the en-
chantment is the enchantment of corruptions
difuscd, as we have fear it is, far and wide
over the land. This enormous outrage upon
the Constitution, this fatal stab given to the
Liberties Of the country, which, for time,
convulsed the whole country, and seemed to
astoune his own party, has not been sufficient
to withstand the influence of this corruption
But his party, recovering from the shock, and
shutting their ewes TO the ennrniiv of the