Lexington union. (Lexington, Miss.) 1838-18??, 1839-08-10
MIR. BENTON'S LETTER.
SPRINGFIELD, JUNE ], 1899

10 acknowledge the receipt Of your kind
letter of invitation 10 public dinner, and
to make my thanks for the foiiering terms
IN which it is expressed; but il has not
been my custom to accept public honors
of this kind, and in my present tour over
the state, it has been my plan to travel in
a way 10 avoid all political excitement and
party feeling, and 10 see the people gener.
ally without form or ceremony, and with.
out regard 10 political distinctions. l
travel to see The people and the country
TO learn their wants and their wishes, and
to thank them for their past support aud
favors; and wish TO promote an ensy in
tercourse with all that shall do me the
honor to make my acquaintance.
The time is coming, think, when we
shall be more harmonious than we have
been for some years past, and when expe-
rience shall prove the utility and wisdom
of the great measures of Gen. Jackson's
administration, and re-unite the friends Of
the country in the support Of common
cause. The veto of the national bank
charter, and the termination Of thatinsti-
tuition, was measure which necessarily
divided opinions in free country, where
every citizen was at liberty TO think for
himself; and the unprecedented efforts
which were made, to make people believe
that there was not gold and silver enough
in the world to supply the place Of United
States bank notes, and that all debtors
must be ruined, all prices fall TO nothing,
all property be sacrificed, and all labor
cease for want of pay-the unparalleled
efforts which were made to impress all
these gloomy apprcheusions on the public
mind, were well calculated to distractand
alarm the people; and for a time the effort
was such as 10 delude many good citizens.
But the season for mistakes aud errors
and division OF opinion, has now passed
away, and all must see that the day of the
downfall Of the national baniS, was the
day of the upraising of the national pros
perity; for, with the exception Of the brief
intervals Of artificial distress and panic,
manufactured by The bank and its friends,
the increase Of the public prosperity has
been constant and regular since that day;
and now at the end Of Sc; years from
the veto we ali see that the4rrfces OF tabor,
produce and property are, Oh an average,
about three times as great as they were
when we had national bank. and a fede-
raj administration TO rule over us. This
is a result which every body can see, and
about which there can be no dispute; so
that the opinion must become general that
the death of that bank was the birth Of
American prosperity.
This is what Gen. Jackson end his
friends loresaw when they commenced
their opposition to the bank. They knew
that the bank, in addition to being polit-
ical machine in the hands Of tho lederaIsts,
was also moneyed engine Of favor 10 a
few and oppression to the many, and sys-
tematcally working to make the rich rich
er and the poor poorer. Its great loans
were confined to a select few, and these
were the regulators, not of currency, but
Of prices; they regulate the price of labor,
produce and property; and they fix the
price of every thing 10 suit themselves,
and that was about one-ihird Of its value.
The breaking down Of the favoritsm and
monopoly Of that bank--stopping its enor-
nous loans 10 a select few---stopping its
transportation Of cur specie 10 Philadel-
phia and thence to Europe--willia revival
of the gold currency, and the increase Of
our specie from twenty millions to about
one hundred millions, these are the true
causes Of ourpresent gratifying prosperity,
and every fried TO the Liberty and pros
periy Of the country should now see the
propriety of keeping down a national bank
and keeping up circulation Of gold and
silver. Nor is II sufficient to keep down
a national bank; the local banks should
also be kept in subordination TO the laws.
They should be prevented from stopping
and suspending when they please, and
from inundatiog the country with small
notes, and post notes, and other peslilerous
trash. The richest countries in the world,
such as Holland, the Hanseatic towns,
Cuba, &c. have no paper money at all.
France has none under one hunded dollars,
and England has none under twenty-five
dollars; and all these countries, especially
France and the three former, have an
OVERLOOKING abundance Of gold and silver
mot only enough for all their own uses,
but TO lend to foreign nations, and that at
the low rate of four or five per cent. per
annum. Missouri can have as much gold
and silver as any of these countries by
following their example. ! would myself
Danish all paper money under one hun
bred dollars; but twenty is the highest
mark to which the democratic party has
yet come: and shall hope 10 see the next
legislature Of Missouri act up to that mark,
and save the state from The depreciation,
4 l. j..