Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1840-01-16


a1San,1g they make, and the richer they srow=ch the
bankers that by the motion made TO the onse, might ina
ellc that some gentlemen took the of The
SAM but for his part he could no' hink SO, and, therefore
repea, it: read these brief remarks, made 30 ma
ny years ago, for double purpr5efo: The purpose Of
showing my early! cppos ION 10 public debts and 10 dis
t:ibuions o. pubic money, and 10 show the extreme
DANCE: Of permitting public debt to take root in the
policy and iosten Itself upon The resources, of coun
try Both the States and The United States have need
CT this admonitory lesson at present The former to
check them in their flying Of debt the latter to
warn 1t from cacumher.ng itself with the new debt
which IS sought under British lead, 10 be thrown
upon il.
proceed to the consideration of the resolutions
which haze submitted, and shall pass over the frs,
one wh!ca declares the unconst!tutionalitv of the
Federal assumption OF State debts which have been
contracted - Stale purposes. shall pass over this
r"eo Cton, u::G dispense with all argument upon the
proposition which sontains, booaucn naked ASSUME.
ton not the form in which shall have this danger
TO meet. II IS disguised assumption shall have
encounter. II is the national domain which is 10 be
made the cloak Tor the operation; and this what iGa
cared - my constituents, III The month of June last n
letter written three hundred miles beyond the Mssis
spp and SIX months before the letter OF the London
bankers had revealed the scheme to the American pub
| lie. This is extract from the letter
81 have many other objections TO this unconstitutional! dcmoa
ling detaqchg and oppressive scheme Of dividing the
can ony mention one Of trnnaiaely as Is disguised
Union have hundred aG seventy million, of oss In
debt principally 10 England "nie III" aautiye idea clearing
the in"rt banking and rail ,s making, and uuiu-;
view Of throwing The payment u he prn pal upon o.rsr
tb'> immense bad been received III l~! and SIS - oGld
st deem unicT:"na business fr of the States. rsp1-
cial Tar all the But has been cc.Ivd Il
has been received generally Rtish dry gcad- winch
"ot!! o' a"1 gone AID III Eastern credits ard pac wiIcn
a;' about a long a. summer NOV" IN" bonds ~ usually
those banks ana sold To merchants "o pay for ir lIt ~ cl:
par and receive ht II British dry goods IN Ean
neral history Of the sale Of S;air bonds M dcusou a, to Dor
fowing money and obtainn capital sad reality oad:G
and is eshausins Interest remain; and i' distribution
m Disguised ASSUMPTION Of sc.e 6ss,s When General Iiam.
proposed the Of the debts the indebted
79 he did openly and aayed the two parties Federal and
Republican, upon and carried the open bargain
In Congress, Yin locating the permanent Of Goytrnmei
Mr. Jefferson has described that transaction coors which should
make every Republican shuddeTi disguised attempt
which was then pleaded Bu, pause guilt this subc! until
This is what wrote six months ago, and now we
are in he presence OF the danger which then
nourccd. Disguised assumption is the enemy haye
to combat Breach of the Constitution by clusion and
circGmventon, By direct invasion, the danger
that threatens Both forms of violation equally
vicious and rrprehensbe, and the former FAR the
common and successful this we have signal and re.
cent instances in our own body, and the very sub
ect which now occupies attention. When Sc.
of y Jersey fourteen years ago brought in bill
for direct and naked distribution of public money
among the States, i received no manner Of counte-
nance, and was quickly and almost unanimously, dis,
posed Of When the object MAS afterwards propos
its way through both Houses of Congress, and was only
arrested b. the firm hand of Presden Jackson Final
y, whom the seltsame scheme made lis appearance n
the garb Ola d"oSte bill il net only passed both Houses,
hut passed I" residents hand also, and became the
law al. the iaad. Thus clusiGr and crcumvention
the ION, and far the successful, mode &c
getting rid Of constitutional nhlbtIons The DO
sides fer the As far back history goes
as long fundamental laws and constitutions have
been known JUS SO long the practice Of evading them
has been familiar and notorious. Maor.,les have t"en
found in all ages and in Al! countries 10 elude what they
could not attack, and to ccumven what they could not
surmount. Of this the history Of the Athcnlans fur
nishes the finest example that have any where seen
That ingenious people were able 10 excel in many things
and, among the rest, in the art OF tramplng under foot
their most sacred laws, while protesting towards them
deriory fidelity and mock respect The instance to
which refer is that Of the admission Of Dtmctrius, the
son of Angonus all the degrees Of the Eleusnan
mysteries in single day. when the laws required
| whole year for the contamination OF the admission,
Cemeirus demanded to be admittcdin d1y; the laws
prescribed year; that here great difficulty
To satsfy the Prince then all wcrul Greece, and
to comply with the sacred laws which they
to observe, seemed to lie impossible; but, by nge-
Nous conception, the difficulty evaded sacrilege
avoided and Demetrius gratIfed. The invention was
simply to change the of the month at each
! cessve degree OF the initiation. This done
Twelve months compressed into few hours; the
admission became legal ard the happy inyento. of the
expcdient received from the poets Of the day the sgni
fcan title of Chr0nosporthftcs, which signifies, re-
lcve time erpunger. Plutarch, IN his Lie Of Den
trius, thus describes the operation:
"WEen DereGs preparing tctun u hhens he wrote
TO ts keruSc mat on 5 a. Hva Ss r 70 o.
those called innre This was ufa"G! and ulrr'cc-
thoscron and the greater in the month Roearomon and none
admitted TO the n,u,:.e ~ year ., least after they had at
tented ire greater Wien the letters were read p mo
dos tie echbeaie the only person who vsnred 10 op
the demand and All. his Gp p n eS S c
they thn IN should he called nss,eron after which
M;nvcion changed again into ocGonion BY cse means
admitted TO the greater mysteries and iumsd.
ate inspection"
some two thousand years ago, by transpostion Of
Names embarrassed sacred college Of its cons,itr
,;onal difficulties; hut it required Athenan ingenuity
to CONTRIB ~ expcdent SO delicate and intellectual
Nothing so r,incd and spiritual can be expected in
these prosac aud money making tines, and IN .his
country where much of the genius Of the age IS d.
rected 10 the literature Of banking and t. the accurate
descriptions of the alternate "tghacss and "'eoSf-
ness of the money market. We can expect nothing
Ike Athenian wit here. The nearest approach that
ave seen 10 il was IN this enlightened chamber, and on
recent OCCASION when dlvis Of the public money
among the States being admitted TO be unconstitutional
under the word distribute, that word was gently de-
posed and the word dep0sitG enthroncu its place.;
after which the division Of he money took place III
the same manner il the change oil words had not
been made
repeat, Mr.. President, not TO expect Athc-
Man wit in attempts To get rd o constitutional an
4
vcn,ions our contrvanccs must appear coarse and
buEqng; and such, in fact, in too many Instances,
thew have actually been. We have often bung!cd most
clur!sily in our attempts 20 crcumvcnt cur ConstItG
ton and expect no better IN future and, OF al
the rude attempts Of this kind which have witnessed,
none are more awkward and clumsy than that OF
dertaknr TO substitute distribution Of tie land
nue. among the States, for distribution OF the revenue
generaii for open assumption of the State debts
II is all the thing and all ends in the result.
Sir, this whole scheme of dividing the public land re.
venue among the States is indirect assumption Of
their debts. 1t is disguised assumption; and it is only
another move on the chessboard of that distribution
policy which has haunted councils for SO many
years. in such variety Of forms, and which found IT'S
first in the passage Of the act to depoSe the
surplus revenue called, with the States OF the
Union.
The scheme which now occupies the capitalists, bank
ers and stockholders of London, Paris, amsierda'n
PHILADELPHIA and New York. to obtain from the Federal
rernrnrnt the assumption provision for the par