The Madisonian., 1840-02-18


treasury Circular and although last, per
maps not least, the exercise Of the power 0
the veto on the bill for distributing, among III,
states, The nett proceeds Of the sales Of Ia,
public lands.
What, Mr President, is needed at the pre-
sent crisis, to restore the prosperity of ih,
feopie sound local currency, mixed will
currency possessing uniform value through
out the whole country; re-establishment o.
regular exchanges between different parts O.
Inc Union; and a revival of general conf
deDce. The People want, in short, gooc
government at Washington the abandon
ment Of rash and ruinous experiments the
practice here Of economy; and the pursuit o.
the sale lights of experience. Give us these
and The growth Of our population, the enter
PRISE 0i our People, and the abundance, va
rleiy, and richness Of the products Of our sol
ana OF our industry. with the blessing Of Pro
vldence,. will carry us triumphantly through
all our complicated embarrassmcnts. Deny
t..ess- perseyere in a mal-administraion o.
government--and 1t is in vain that the bonn.
Ties OF Heaven are profusely scattered around
us.
There is one man--and lament to say
from the current of events and the progress
Of Executive and party power--but one man,
at present in the country, who can bring re.
lief to it, and bind up the bleeding wounds of
the People. He, Of all men in the nation,
ought to feel as parent should feel, mos,
sensibly, the dislresses and sullerings of his
family. But, looking to his public course
and his ofliciafacts, am constrained to say
that he surveys unconcerned the widespread
ruin and bankruptcy and wretchedness before
him, without emotion and without sympathy
Whilst all the elements Of destruction are al
work, and the storm is raging, the Chief Ma.
gstrate, standing in the midst of his unpro-
tected fellow citizens, on the distinguished
position OF honor and confidence TO which
their suflrages have devoted him, deliberately
wraps around himself the folds of his India
rubber cloak, and lifting his umbrella over
his head, tells them, drenched and shivering
as they are under the beating rain and hail
and snow falling upon them, that he means
to take care of himself and the official corps
and that they are in the habit Of expehiine
too much from Government, and must look
out for their own shelter, and security, and
salvation
And now allow me to examine, and carefully
and candidly consider, the remedy which this
bill offers TO suffering People for the unpar.
alleled distresses under which they are writh-
ing. will first analyZe and investigate it, as IFS
friends and advocates represent it. What is il ?
What is this measure, which has so long and
SO deeply agitated this country, under the pari-
Gus denominations Of Sub-treasury, Indepen-
dent Treasury, and Divorce Of The State from
Banks ! WHAT'S it !? Let us define it truly
and clearly. Its whole principle consists in
an exacton from the People of specie, in the
payment of all their duties and dues to CO.
ycrnment, and the disbursement of specie by
the Government, in the payment Of all sa-
laries and of all the creditors Of the Govern
ment This is its simple and entire principle.
Divest the bill under consideration Of all its
drapery and paraphernalia, this is its naked,
unyarnlshed, and unexaggerated principle, ac-
cording to its own friends. This exclusive
use Of specie, in all receipts and payments of
the Government, il is true, is not to be nstan-
taneously enforced but that is the direct and
avowed aim and object of the measure, to be
accomplished gradually, but in the short space
of a little more than three years. I he twenty
eight sections Of the bill, with all its safes,
and vaults, and bars, and bolts, and receivers
nor less in view than the exaction Of specie
from the People, and the subsequent distrbu-
ton Of that specie among the officers Of the
Government and the creditors Of the Govern
ment. II does not touch, nor profess to touch,
the actual currency Of the country. it leaves
the local banks, where il found them, unre-
formed, uncontrolled, unchecked in al their
operations. 1t is a narrow, selfish, heartless
measure. II turns away from the People,
and abandons them TO their hard and inexora-
Bile fate leaving them exposed to all the per-
ncious consequences Of an unsound currency,
utterly irregular and disordered exchanges,
and the greatest arrangement in all business.
1t is worse it aggrayates and perpetuates the
very evils which the Government will not re-
dress for, by going into the market and ere
atng new and additional demand for specie,
it cripples and disables the State banks, and
renders them incapable Of furnishing that re-
lief to the People which parental Govern
ment is bound to exert all its energies and
powers to afford. The divorce Of the State
from Banks, of which its friends boast is not
tn only separation which it niakes-it is a
separation of the Goyernment from the con-
stituency-a disunion Of the interests Of the
servants of the People from the interests OF
the People.
This bill, then, is wholly incommensura,e
with the evils under which the country is
suffering II leaves them not only altogether
unprovded for, but aggravates them. 1t car
ries no word of cheering hope or encourage
ment TO depressed people 1t leaves their
languishing business in the same state OF
hopeless discouragement
But its supporters argue that such a sys-
TEN of convertible paper as this country has
SO long had is radically wrong ; that all our
evils arc 10 be traced to the banks and that
the sooner they are put down, and a currency
exclusively metallic, is established, the bet