Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1837-07-12

| With regard to the present situation
OF our country, my sentiments cores.
pond entirely with yours. In the
midst of the boun,ies of Providence,
snoWereo upon us with a proiusion.
scarcely ever lavisAed upon any 9th.
or nation, we are suffering severely
from causes which | fear We must at.
tribute entirely TO ourselves. In our
relations at this time with foreign nn.
tons, and most especially with the In.
dian tribes, we have more to answer
for than to complain Of. Our recent
Indian war was OF our own provoking,
and has been waged in no creditabls
manner. And, while we have wrong.
ed our neighbor at the South, by utter.
ly unjustiGable violations of her terri.
tory, unauthorized even by Congress,
we are permitting another neighbor at
the North to encroach with impunity
upon our own territory, and to curtait
the boundaries Of q State, once part OF
our own native Commonwealth.
We present, at the present moment,
a still more astonishing and portentous
spectacle to the world. Without a
dollar of national debt; we arc IN the
midst ola national bankruptcy. From
a Treasury overlooking with fifty mil.
lions of dollars, our Government pays
in paper trash the wages of tho clerks
in tho public Offices. The nation Is
! insolvent--the whole People il insol.
vent. You inquire if this is owing to
the conduct Of the late Administration.
! believe II is attributable to various
causes, among which tho grant OF tho
use of the moneys in the Treasury to
numerous State corporations, by order
of the late President Of the United
States, without authority Of law, was
the most porncious. Having said so
when the deed was done, can have no
hesitation in repeating il now that its
fatal consequences are seen floating
from the wreck of the public credit.
The use of public moneys while IN ths
Treasury, in the interval between the
receipt Of them as revenue and tho
payment of them as public expendi.
lures, to fulfil the engagements Of the
nation, had been granted by law to thc
Bank Of the United States for an equiv
alent. IL never had been Of much
profit TO that bank, because the depo.
sites there had never been considerable
at any one time. They never werc
suffered TO accumulate for the mo.
ment surplus appeared, Il was appli.
ed towards the discharge Of the nation.
al debt. II was precisely at the mo.
ment when the whole debt was paid off
and when the revenue was doubled by
the sudden and enormous increase Of
the proceeds of the public lands, that
the use of the moneys in tho Treasury
was taken from the Bank Of tho United
States. chartered by, and under the
control OF, Congress, and drbb!ed out
in parcels to suit favorite purchasers,
to multitude Of State Banks, without
responsible capitals, and wholly be.
yond the control of Congress or ofthe
Executive Government of the United
States. OF the means Of information
possessed by the Government as to their
condition and credit, you may Judge
9 frem the recent circular addressed TO
them by the Secretary Of the TEeasu.
, ry, stating that he had learnt their
, stoppage of payment from the newspa.
! pers.
But the ruin Of the pecuniary con.
Germs Of the nation, the melancholy re-
verses of fortune and loss Of character
among the wealthy, and the loss Of
daily bread to the laboring poor and
, their children, the distress we are wit.
Messing among all classes Of the PEG.
pie, are not owing alone to the errors
of the late administration. There have
: been errors of the People themselves,
for which they are now atoning, and
from which they can recover only by
their own energies. The tide OF their
prosperity has rushed upon them in a
tempest, till it overfowed their banks,
and broke down their mounds. All
history testfies, as the father Of our
race pronounces his lamentation in the.
Paradise Lost,
Nov percsiys
Peace to corrupt. no less than Wsr TO waste"
| The unrestrained pursuit Of inordinato
wealth, and the abuse of sredtt, espe.
cially by the agency of banks, are the
proximate causes Of the catastrophe
under which we are now laboring. I
believe national bank, chartered by
Congress, with capital sufficiently
large to control all other existing banks
and to regulate the currency, to be tho
only practicable expedisnt for restoring
and maintaining specie payments; but
| entertain doubts whether il should be-
a bank of discount. With regard to
this, my mind is not defnitively made
up. incline more strongly to the
opinion, that the suspension of specie
payments by such bank should not
only operate as an immediate forfeit.
ure of lis charter but be made \ ponaI