The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1839-11-16

4
extra session, authorizing the issue Of Trea-
sury Notes. The writer is desirious OF hold
ing up Mr.. Calhoun as the great advocate Of
the credit system, in contradis,inction to Mr.,
Benton. II needs no ghost to show that Mr.,
Poinsett is the author neither does il require
any great degree of prophetic inspiration to
foretell that Mr.. Calhoun will never rise high
er than his present position, SO long as his
destiny is connected with the party now in
power. The rival interests at work be-
tween Forsyth, Polk and King, and that
clique, on the one side, and Benton, the man
Of the Indomitables and Buft-enders, on the
other, leave Mr.. c. without prospect Of po-
litical preferment among the contending fac
tons. Mr.. Calhoun's true policy would have
been to have acted with the opposition in en-
deavoring to bring about that reform in the GO
vernment SO much needed, and not to have
deserted il because he thought that {" the bene-
fits ,oould not inure to him and has party"
By the change which the force of public opin-
ion was fast bringing about, the nation you'd
haze been benefited, and the object apparently
SO much desired by Mr.. c., viz. to bring back
the government TO its original principles, to
re,rench and economist, and rigidly enforce
accountability, would most certainly have been
effected; nor could the efforts Of Mr.. G. have
been long overlooked opinion appears
to be pretty well settled as to one presidential
| oil hay
failed to become the successor Of the first
nomination Of the present opposition. We
know that he can have no feelings in COM
mon with the present party, which he once
denounced as SO corrupt and corrupting in its
tendency, that revolution would be before re-
formation, and hence regret that he should be
classed with it. But, to the speech. In that
financial effort, Mr.. C. said, in SO many words,
that if the policy Of the administration was to
compel specie payments, there was one way
to do so, and that was 10 adopt the U. s. Bank
of Pennsylvania as the fiscal agent Of the 60
vernment and commended that, through it,
specie payments might by restored with far
less disaster than through newly-created
| institution TO such connection, however,
there were. to his mind, many objections-the
chief of which was the conflict which had
been going on between the executive and the
bank; and, though the former, he admitted,
was the assailant, still he would not consent
to connection, because it would degrade the
government in the eyes Of its own citizens, by
giving the bank the triumph. Now, mark
what followed. This "horrid monster, with
increased capacity to do i'll since it became a
State institution" was the object of almost
daily attack and by none more industriously
made than by Mr.. Buchanan-the pure party
in power would be corrupted by coming in
contact with such mass of putridity. While
this alarm was held forth by one portion of
the friends Of the administration, there was
an under-current at work, through the agency
of Mr.. Van Buren, As Mr. Woodbury. was
loudest in his denunciations of the monster.
it would never do to make him one Of the con-
tracing parties, and hence Mr.. Poinsett was
made the ministerial cdrs-pa,o by which the
government was to have credit on the books
Of the bank, in payment of its bonds, in def
ance Of the law, which expressly said that they
should be sold for specie or its equivalent.
Thus was the connection secretly formed,
which was SO ably exposed by Mr.. Rves at
the last session.
That the sound specie paying banks Of the
States should be made the receptaces Of the
public money, is what we have always con-
tended for; but then we have desired that
they should be so under the sanction of law,
strictions imposed, as would guard the public
treasure from private plumber or public waste.
While the party in power has been wheedling
"the democracy" with metallic currency, it
has been secretly using banks al lis own
discretion and has to our knowledge, loaned
the public funds through its agents to sustain
institutions in the city Of New York, the di-
rectors, presidents, cashiers, and other officers
Of which, considered themselves bound in turn
to sustain the administration. Where could
there be more Infamous system, or one bet
ter calculated to corrupt the purity of the
elective franchise, than the one now pursued
by the administration in using the moneyed
institutions Of the States at its option II
has at once the power to kill or make alive,
by the system which to our minds is thou
sand fold more injurious than the adoption of
the specie clause; and we are fully persuade
ed there is nothing that could effect the hopes
of Mr. Van Buren, half so much just now, as
for the South to insist upon the insertion of