Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1837-07-05

supending executions, and sales under mort.
rarcs when the creditors do not agree to take
the bills OF the Banks in payment.
john Quincy Adams.-The delegation to
the State Legislature of Massachusetts,. from
the Congregational District Represented by
Mr.. Adams lately appointed committee to
present to him gold headed cane from the
wood of the frigate Constitution, in testimony
of their appreciation OF his course in Congress,
and particularly his defence Of what they call
s.the right of free discussion, and the privilege
OF pctitioning." We copy the following from
his reply to the address ofthe committee which
the reader Of whatever party will read with
interest.
With regard 70 The present situation Of
our country, my s'ntlmcn's correspond
entirely with yours. In the midst Of the
bounties Of Providence, showcred upon us
with profusion scarcely ever lavished up
on any oher nation, we are suffering Sc.
verely from causes which | fear we must
attribute entirely to ourselves. In our
relations at this time with foreign nations,
and most especially with the Indian tribes,
we have far more to answer for than 10
complain OF. Our recent Indian War
was Of our own provoking, and has been
wagcd in no creditabIe manner. md while
we have wronged our eighbor at the South,
by utterly uniustifablc violations of her
territory, unauthorized even by Congress.
VIC are permitting another neighbor at the
Nor.h, TO cncroach with impunity upon our
own territory; and to curtai the boundaries
Of State, once part Of our own native
Commonwealth.
We present At the present moment still
more astonishing and protentous spectacle
to the world. Without dollar of Nation,
al debt, we are in the midst Of National
bankruptcy. From Treasury overflow.
ing with fifty millions Of dollars, our Gov
ernmcnt pays in paper trash the wages Of
the Clerks in the public offices. The
Nation is insoivent-the whole people arc
insolvent. You enquire if this is owing to
the conduct Of the late administration. J
believe it is attributable TO various causes,
among which the grant Of the use of the
monies, in the Treasury, to numerous
S,a.e Corporations, by order Of the late
President of the United States. without au.
thoritv OF law, was the most pernicious.
Having said so when the deed was done, |
can have no hesitation in repeating it now,
that its fatal consequences are seen floating
from the wreck of the public credit. The
use of the public monies while in the
Treasury, in he interval between he receipt
of them as revenue, and the payment Of
them as public expenditures, to fulfil the
engagements ofthe Nation, had been grant.
ed by law, 10 the Bank of the United States
! for an equivaent. 1t never had been Of
much profit to that Bank, because the de.
posites there had never been considerable
at any one time. They never were suffer.
ed to accumulate; for the moment surplus
appeared ii was applied to the discharge of
the national debt. 1t was precisely at the
moment when the whole debt was paid off,
and when the revenue was doubled by the
sudden and enormous increase of the pro-
cecds of the Public Lands, that the use
of the monies in the Treasury was taken
from the Bank of the United STATE, charter.
ed by, and under the contro! OF Congress
and dribblcd out in parcels to suit savorite
purchasers, to a multitude Of State Banks,
without responsible capitals, and wholly
beyond the control Of Congress, or Of the
Executive Government of the United States.
Ofthc means Of information possessed by
the Government, as to their condition and
credit, you may Judge from the recent Cir;
cular addressed to them by the Secretary Of
the Treasury, stating that he had learnt
their stoppage Of payment, from the ne''s'
! papers.
But the ruin of the pecuniary concerns
of the nation, the melancholy rcverses OF
fortune, and loss of character among the
wealthy, and the loss of daily bread to the
laboring poor and their children, the dis
tress we are witnessing among all classes
of the people, are not owing alone to the
errors Of the administration. There have
been errors OF the people themselves, tor
which they arc now a,oning, and from which
:!.cv an cn'v -raovor BY their c'r'? "n?7-