The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1838-07-03

Swallowed forth 10 take the place of the Bank of
the United States, and, as l shall, by and by, at
tempt to show, designed TO hold control, not only
over the currency, but the business of the peo-
| pie.
But the people, even the friends of the Presi-
dent, looked with great dstrust and jealousy upon
such moned power allied to that of the Exec
utive. They had been urged by the President
and his friends to believe the Bank of the United
States alone, unaided by any civil authority, was
dangerous to public liberty, corrnpting in its
character, threatening mischief TO the country,
and ought, for that reason, 10 be discontinued;
and they believed if the bank alone, mere
poration, ought to excite apprehension, because
money begat dangerous power, it was an hun
dred fold more to he feared in union with the
executive authority. The scheme, therefore,
obtained little favor, though recommended by
the president in four ofhs official messages
| The president had openly avoWed himself hos
tile to all other banking institutions. But this
scheme of government bank excited popular
disgust; the people were not prepared to add
thus TO the power and strength of the executive.
The president therefore, knowing full well that
the people would never he satisfied without
business medium, was forced, by the power Of
public sentiment, either to cease his hostility a.
gainst the United States Bank, or TO offer more
acceptible substitute. Thus pressed upon an al
tentative he laid hold of the pet bank system,
as il has generally been called, and presented
that substitute. We all know with what
violence the United States Bank was pursued;
what means employed to excite popular
indignation and disgust that committee after
committee was appointed TO expose The aledged
frauds and cofrupons of the institution; that
spies, and plant enemies of all sorts, and
from all quarters, We're led to understand that
any testimony duplicating it was highly accepta-
bic, and those who did furnish it were rewarded
for it, even where it was done under the moral
| l,x. ,f fI,
ordinary stimulus, applied to selfish, malignant
or ambitious minds, what proofs were obtained!
Such, sir, was the public confidence in the solid
y of the institution, and the integrity with which
its concerns were conducted, that public conf
dence where for moment shaken in
its circulation. The presidents official opinion,
under the weight Of his popular name, sustained
by the report of his secretary of the treasury that
it was an unsafe place of deposite, did not, for
moment, dirturb the circulation OF the bills. E.
ven now that its charter has expired and it has
ceased to do business, its bills are more largely
sought after than any others, yet IL was
n monster of such hideous mein,
That TO be hated needs but TO be
In a word it was pursued with unfaltering zeal
till il expired by its own limitation. 1t refused
TO be prostituted political purposes, aud per-
ished. And l think there is little hazard in pre-
dieting that If other banks should be created, this
is the last that will resist the usurpng control of
executive power; for the money making spirit is
servie, yielding, plant, and this is marked ex-
cepton of manly resistance.
During the progress of this controversy the
president and his friends knew well that an uni |
form currency was Indispensable 10 the people
he and they knew equally well, that owed
the uniformity, which existed TO this bank, and
that the people would never be satisfied to aban-
don good currency for one certainly bad. The
administration, therefore, contended that they
lI fh tloS tnfp IyS
y uniform currency, but better than we had,
aye, one better than gold and silver. Yes. sir, it |
was compelled to delude the people before they
could be made victims.
This policy having been resolved upon by the
president, he, 10y his own authority, in 1888, re-
moved the public money from the United States
Bank to such State banks as he saw fit to select
most of them being under the direction of his
friends and partisans, or persons willing to be-
come so through the inordnate love of filthy
lucre.
This was the first admonition, which the peo-
pie had, that the experiment of employing State
banks as repositories, was again to be tried But
the administration were warned that theate OF this
policy might be read in the history of the country.
That history informed us, that in 1911 the con-
gress refused to renew the charter OF the first
bank OF the United States the very ground
that the State banks could meet the public eXg
encies; that the same confidence in State banks
then existed that is now protested; that the re-
charter, under that delusion, was denied. The
experiment of State banks was tried, and what
was the result? The transfer of the deposites
and the extinction of the old bank excited spir-
il of rivalry in banking new banks were rapid
~ created trade in the end was excited; paper
ia great quantities issued upon false capita spe-
Gle payments were soon suspended; property
rose in value; speculation ensued, and at last came
he crisis, which was followed by the irretrieva |
Die bankruptcy of great number of individuals,
4 ruinons decline of property and paralysis of $
business
The policy thus proved abortive. 1t was how t
aver, begun on the eve of a war, was maintained
through it, and did not reach period of regular t
business till the close OF hostilities. The crcum- I
stances were, therefore, widely different from a
hose fthe last five years. but the causes OF fail
)lan itself a
Many distinguished statesmen, therefore, who d
lad opposed the recharter in 1871 were SO fully