Southern Argus. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1834-1842, 1840-10-21
NUMBER S.

ed to this law ensure the honesty of these
guardians of the treasury? Then why
has not crime been eradicated wherever a
petal code exists? But for the sake of
argument, allowing this scheme all the
merit which its advocates claim for i, as
a means Of securely guarding the public
treasure, let us cursorily examine its 9th
er effects. liz requiring the public dues
in specie, this measure at one fell blow
sweeps from the country every other cur
reTicy but gold and sllver-and whilst the
government through its different channels
of sub-treasuries will swallow up, in one
grand vortex, two thirds of the specie in
circulation, the great commercial; agri-
cultural, manufacturing and mechanical
interests of the country will be left in
state Of stagnation and ruin. To press
this treasury scheme at time SO unpro
pitious for its adoption, when every en-
ployment of industry is in state of utter
prostration, when the people are over
whelmed with the load of their debts,con.
tracted during the highly expanded con- |
dition of the currency, (which was unde-
niably caused by the measures of the |
present administration party,) and when
the country is in state of CONFUSION by |
the abrupt contraction Of a redundant cir, |
culation, betrays either an entire indifer- |
ence to human misery, or total deStitu- /
ton of those qualities which are indispen-
sable in the Chief Magistrate Of this Re- |
public. But where, Mr.. Chairman, does
our Republican President refer for his au-
thority to sustain his hard money, anti
credit system? Not to Washington, nor
| to the other statesmen cfthis country, un.
der whose administrations in our rapid
progress to national importance, we have
left every other people that ever ex.
| isted, at an immeasurabie distance behind
us. Not to England, the most happy and
prosperous and powerful State in Europe,
and whose free institutions and CONNER
cial system have furnished us with mod
els for our own. But he has carried us
to the iron despotisms of the old world, to
Spain. TO Italy, TO France, to Austria, to
Russia, to Sweden, TO Denmark, Prussia,
and even to Turkey and Cuba countries
whose inhabitants are as degraded as their
governments are despotic. Are these,
Mr.. Chairman, proper models for the
i, President to initiate in his administration
of the affairs fthis Republic I Can the
miserable slavery and degraded condition
of the working classes of those countries
whose wages are reduced I'd a bare suffi-
cheney for the support of life Of toll and
privatIon, be made parallel for the free
and enterprizing mechanics of this coun-
try,who from the humblest, origin,may ar
rive at the highest point Of honor or OF
, wealth There, Mr.. Chairman, the un-
fortunate classes, whom fate has wrought
forth in poverty, are doomed from theil
infancy to drag out life of labor and o.
want, and like a horse in a tread mill
bound to the condition in which they are
placed, they are forced to pursue thei
dull and toilsome routine, with no change
to relieve them, no hope to cheer them
: whilst here in this fortunate land of liberty
and equality, the doors to the most eleva
e ted stations, the highes; grade of wealth
= and the most distinguished honors Or
? equally open to all, and in the pursuit tn
humblest mechanic may far outstrip th,
: proudest aristocrat. But, Mr.. Chairman
? if the plans of the President are carried
. out to the extent contemplated by his par
: ty, whilst one hundred thousand Office
= holders are revelling and fattening on thu
spoils of their country, the inevitable effec
= of this measure, will be to reduce the pro
: fits of honest industry and enterprise Il
!, the standard of those countries whose ex
| amples are cited as models for Our adop
ton. By this the poor man of this coun
u try like the poor under those governments
:; whose institutions we are strenuously urg
u ed to study and initiate, is doomed TO re
. main forever in that state of poverty, i
u which fortune had cast him, {" wher
hope never comes that comes to all,
whilst on the other hand, by the increase
le value which is given to money, the ric
l. are made richer, and the salaries Of Il
= President and other officers of the Go
G, eminent are more than doubled, but Il
unfortunate debtor is crushed and grour
a. to dust. Why, Mr.. Chairman, shou
to we abandon that course which was poin
sh ed out to us by the ablest and most patr
he o.ic statesmen. whom this country b;
a. known. and which has been more tn;
as sanctioned by our experience of upward
nj of half of century? In these da
al when the science of political econori
is and q more extended diffusion Of CONNIE
e, clal intelligence have thrown new ligh
ry on the subject of finance, ought we TO di
d. card the improvement ofages, aud closiI
he our eyes against the advantages ofknoW
es edge, now at the suggestion of Mart
ge Van Buren, and Thomas Benton, ado
ig the Anticipated, hard money anti-crec
es policy of Spain. France, Austria, Russ
e. italy, Turkey and Cuba I? Was it by Il
he policy that all the wealth, prosperity al
at happiness, with which we have been blcs
1g cd, were created!
MT Why, then, should we abandon the La
n marks by which we have been SO success
al fully directed, to follow in the footsteps
BY those illustrious predecessors, who a
o. pointed out TO us by the loco foco par
81 as excellent guides to national prospe
a. ity? Why should we quit our safe a
US beaten track to plunge into the 'Serboni
r. bog" of ignorance and degradation,
he which these nations, whose policy we a
er entreated to adopt, are SO profound
ay buried? What is there in the fall
Ike condition of degraded Spain, what
&C. there in the bloody convdlsions Of revolutic
r. airy France, what id the beggarly and debas
ID population Of the once classic Italy, what
a. the ignorance and misery Of the infabital
~ of Cuba; and what is there in the iron desI
;ts tisms of Russia, Austria and Turkey. to en-