Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1840-12-29
VOLUME /. NUMBER %.

been, and it is believed may always be
thus carried on with every desirable secu-
rlty and facility. A few changes and inn
provements in the details Of the system
without affecting any principles involved
in II, will be submitted 10 you by the Sec
rotary of the Treasury, and will, am sure
receive at your hands that attention TO
which they may, on examination be found
to be entitled
| have deemed this brief summary Of
our fiscal affairs necessary 10 a due per-
Torrance Of duty especially enjoined up.
on me by the constitution. 1t will serve
also 10 illustrate more fully the principles
by which have been guided in reference
TO two contested points in our public poll
cy, which were earliest in their develope-
ment, and have been more important in
their consequences, than any that have RI
sen under our complicated and difficult,
yet admirable system of government: al
lude TO u national debt, and a national
bank.
It was in these that the political contests
by which the country has been agitated
ever since the adoption Of the constitution
in great measure, originated; and there
is too much reason to apprehend that the
conflicting interests and opposing princi-
pies thus marshalled, will continue, as here
tofore, TO produce similar, if not aggraya-
ted, consequences.
Coming into office the declared enemy
of both, have earnestly ondeavored topre"
Vent resort to either
The consideration that a large public
debt affords an apology, and produces in
some degree, necessity also, for resort
ing 10 system and extent of taxation,
which is not only oppressive throughout,
but likewise SO apt to lead in the end, to
the commission of that most odious Of all
offences against the principles OF republi-
cal power, conferred for the general be-
neft, to the aggrandizement of particular
classes, and the qualification of individual
cupidity-s alone sufficient, Independently
of the weighty objections which have al
ready been urged, 10 render lis creation
and existence the source of bitter and un-
appeasab!e dscord.
If we add to this, its inevitable tcnden-
cy TO produce and foster extravagant ex-
pendturcs Of the public money, by which
a necessity is created for new loans and
new burdens in the people; and finally, If
we refer TO the example of every Govern
ment which has existed for proof, how sell
dom it is that the system, when once inn
planted and adopted in the policy of the
country, has failed TO expand itself, until
public credit was exhausted and the people
we're no longer able 10 bear its increasing
weight it seems impossible to resist the
conclusion, that no benefits resulting from
its career, no extent Of conquest, no ac-
cession Of wealth to particular classes, nor
all It's combined advantages, can counter
balance its ultimate but certain results--a
splendid Government and an impoverished
people.
If a national bank was, IS is undenia-
bic, repudiated by the trainers Of the con-
stitution as incompatible with the rights Of
the States and the liberties Of the people;
if, from the beginning, it has been regard
ed by large portions OF orr citizens as CO:
ming in direct collision with that great and
vital amendment of the constitution, which
declares that all powers not conferred by
that instrumenton the general government,
are reserved to the States and the people:
if it has been viewed by them as the first
great step in the march of latitudnous con-
struction, which, unchecked, would render
that sacred instrument of as little value as
an unwritten constitution, dependant as it
would alone be, on its meaning. on the in
terested Interpretation Of a dominant party
and affordng no security to the rights Of
the minority;-if such is uf.deniably the
case, what national grounds could have
beer conceived for anticipating aught but
determined opposition to such an institu-
ton 10 the present day.
Could different result have been ex-
pected, when the consequences which have
flowed from its creation, and particularly
from its struggles to perpetuato its exis-
tence, had confirmed in so striking man
ncr, the apprehensions Of its earliest oPpo-
nents; when it had been so clearly demon
siratcd that concentrated money-powcr,
welding SO vast capital, and combining
such ncalculable means Of influence, may
in those peculiar coniectures to which the
Government is unavoidably exposed, prove
an overmatch for the political power Of the
people themselves, when the true charac-
ter Of its capacity 10 regulate, according TO
its will and It's interests, and the interests
of its favorites, the value and production
of the labor and property OF every man
in this extended country, has been so fully
and fearruIy developed; when it was no.
torious that all classes Of this great COM
munity had by means of the power and in
auence it thus possesses, been infected 10
madness with spirit of needless specula-
ton; when it had been seen that, secure in
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