The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1838-09-19
THE GLOBE sON ITS WINDING Way"
The Globe Of Saturday night last contains
the following article:
OPINIONS OF THE LATE PRESIDENT.

the following article:
OPINIONS OF THE LATE PRESIDENT.
The Richmond Enquirer quotes the following
from of President Jackson'S messages, TO show
that he was against the Constitutional Treasury and
in favor Of lodging the public money in banks as
capital for discounts:
1t is against the genius of our free institutions to
lock up in vaults the treasures Of the nation. To
take from the people the right of bearing arms and
put their weapons of defence the hands of a stand
ing army, would scarcely be more dangerous TO their
liberties than to permit the Government to accumu-
late an immense amount of treasure beyond the sup
plies necessary to its legitimate wants Such trea-
sure would doubtless be employed at some time, as it
has been in other countries, when opportunity tempt
ed ambition" ...
This passage has been repeatedly quoted by the
Conservatives, with view TO make the impression,
that General Jacksons aversion "to lock III uaus
the treasures of The nation" confined to keeping
the deposites in the vaults of the Treasury and not
the vaults of banks. The context OF the Message
shows that it was against making surplus capital
of public revenues and lodging it in the vaults of
banks, Gas the the time of the delivery Of
the Messagc) that President Jackson warned his
countrymen. In the vaults of banks the public
money is Just as accessible to the Executive power
having the custody of it. in the vaults ofthe Trea
sury; and an additional objection with him to max
ing this accumulation Of public treasure in the raus
ofbdnks was, that in making it capital +" for
eial purposes great inequality was introduced and
one section of the country, from which this capitdr
was Withdrawn in the shape Of taxes, sacrificed for
the advantage of that to the peculiar benefit OF which
was converted capital for commercial purposes.
This is fully explained by the context OF the Mes
sage, which the extended extracts We make below,
in connection with the scrap in the Enquirer, will
show. The editor of the Enquirer has doubtless Ie-
ceived his erroneous impressions of the scope of this
Message by the use made of this garbled passage by
Mr. Tamadge, and the resolutions of the Conserva-
tives of New York last year. We hope he will do
Gen Jackson the justice to give the context of his
Message, of which his quotation makes part, and
if he has room, the remarks in which we responded
to the Misrepresentation of the Presidents views by
the New York Conservatives.
The Globe follows this, with an article that
appeared in that paper of the 4th of October,
1887. The object of the Globe, evidently, is
to create an impression as to Gen. Jackson's
ideas, different from what the language of his
message of 1886 imports.
The passage above, quoted from the mes
sage, was preceded by the two following para
graphs:
"Under our present revenue system, there is every
probability that there will continue to be surplus
beyond the wants of the Government and it has be-
come our duty to decide whether such result be
consistent with the true objects of our Government.
"Should a surplus be permitted to accumulate
beyond the appropriations, it must be retained in the
Treasury as il now is, distributed among the
people OF the States"
Then followed paragraph that begins
thus:
"To retain il in the Treasury, unemployed in any
way, is impracticable." The above, from the Rich
mond Enquirer, makes the remainder Of the para
graph, with the exception of the omission Of one
word from the original, which reads, 1t is besidesl
against the genius &c.
II is true, as the Globe says, that it was
against making surplus capital of public re-
venues and locking it in the vaults that Pre-
sident Jackson warned his countrymen. But
was the aversion on the part of Gen. jackson
"to lock up in vaults the treasures of the ma
ton" confined merely to the surplus that might
% under our present revenue system be col
lected 7" The Globe strives to convey the
idea that it was
Says the above Globe article, "In the
vaults ofbanks the public money is just as ac-
cessible TO the Executive power having the
custody of it, as in the vaults of the Treasu-
ry; and an additional objection with him to
making this accumulation of public treasure
in the raulis Of banks was, that in making il
capital for commercial purposes, great ire
gularlty was introduced, and one section OF the
country, from which this capital was with
drawn in the shape of taxes, sacrificed for the
advantage of that, to the peculiar benefit of
winch 1t was converted as capital for CONNER
cial purposes" II adds "this is fully ex-
planned in the context of the message"
The very first position assumed in the above
Is re'u'ed by Gen. jackson in his message in
December, 1885, wherein he said, "In the
regulations which Congress may prescribe