The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1840-09-01

tached 10 HIM, 10 ana IN carrying Du' ~. - -,
cia policy Of his administrator nu. sh1 op,n
OF The bill is hostility 10 these ana an olnei
hanks in the United States. Accordingly, tnies
DAYS after Il passed in Congress, they VINO had
nassed il proceeded 10 extingulsh all the banks
n ,he District Of Columbia, BY a high-handed
exercise of power, which made no DISTINCTION
between specie paying and non-specie paying
banks, but took away the charters OF all, without
discrimination.
This prescription OF all banks, embodied IN the
Sub-treasury bill, is maintained by lis friends,
for several reasons and objects.
One Is, to restrict credit, OF which banks are
The instruments You remember that Gen. luck
son promoted the opposite potfcy.to extend credit
by the I" facilities 10 the commercial and othef
classes which. as Mr.. fancy and Mr.. WOOD,
bury said, banks are calculated 70 afford ahu
their means 10 do which il was his desire 70 IN
crease by the aid of the public deposltes ~.
Their than Ito lock up in vaults the treasure o.
the nation,r which Gen. Jackson himseh saiu
was against the genius OF our Tree lhstllu-
tionsn And, in our own or any other country
how are those Of the community VINO possess
industry, integrity, and enterprise, but not capi-
tai TO do business Of any sort unless ~ cieuh
they may obtain the use Of caplta Ahu othel-
wise. must not all the business be limited y
such both in amount and kind, as rich capital
ISIS and they alone choose 10 transact
Another reason assigned Is, TO punish the
banks for the errors they have committed, !
shall not trouble YOU al this time with dlsser-
taton on banks IL suiiices 10 say, that banks
have sprung up in all commercial communities,
because Of their obvious utility and conNe-
nience that if banks fail sometimes, so do midi
vduals still more frequently; that fluctuations IN
bank currency are not a | ocular fault OF banks,
but similar fluctuations belong 10 all commercial
operations, of which banking is but part, or
rather To industry and production in all IT'S
branches even TO that cultivation OF the fruits
of the earth which is the first great lesson OF
Nature 10 man and that If banks explode, 80
do steam engines, and you might as wen Tor TINS
cause attempt to abolish the latter as the former
and that TO do away with banks would not be 10
punish them, but 10 punish ourselves, the whole
community at large, whose instruments they
are, and for whose advantage and convenience
they exist
Another reason assigned has been, the alleged
advantages of an exclusive metallic currency.
believe however, that the project OF banlshn9
from commerce all paper medium OF currency
and exchange, and substituting instead OF II gold
and silver exclusively, is now admitted by rea
sonable men OF every party 10 be absurd, foolish
and impracticable. For my part ! can see
nothing better in ii, than there would be TO ex-
clude paper medium III contracts, correspond
ence, instruction, and all the other multiplied
uses OF writing or printing paper among civilized
nations for the same considerations of utility,
which induced the invention of paper medium
for one case, induced ii for the other.
One more reason assigned by the friends of
the bill has been, that, by tending to restrict Gre
dit and to reduce the amount OF currency To
specie standard, the measure will reduce the cost
OF production in this country including the wages
of labor, to the level of the hard money coun
tries of continental Europe. Judge you whether
or no this would cover our country with bless
ings and benefits Judge you Of the blessings
TO the people of the United States, of reducing
wages to 20 or 25 cents day. In extenuation
of this monstrous scheme, il is said that as other
things will be reduced equally it will be the
same to the laborer. But mark. that in reducing
the wages Of the aborer, and the value OF mer
chandise generally, you do not reduce the value
of money, but increase il in the same proportion,
and double at once the wealth OF the moneyed
capitalist with his cash and mortgages. on do
not reduce the debt of the debtor, but double it
by reducing the value of his means Of payment.
Besides which, in the effort to reduce the money
value Of our own productions TO the standard of
other countries, by the very suppostlon itself
you do not reduce the price of imported commo-
dities; which the citizen must buy at the old
price, though with not half the means of pay
ment he had before. In a word, the scheme
would but make the rich richer. and the poor
poorer and produce a contrariety of interests
between them, ruinous to the peace and llber-
ties of the Republic.
Another of the Interior objects, avowed BY
friends of the bill, is the substitution of direct
taxes, instead of duties on imports, TO support the
Federal Government This project was limited
at by the Secretary of the Treasury was elabo-
rately defended in Congress by one of the most
eminent advocates Of the sub Treasury Bill, a
member from South Carolina. as proper asso-
clate and sequence OF the measure and has been
recommended to the public by another of MIR.
Van Burens friends in Congress, member
from his own State of New York. need not
enlarge to show that this plan would be dlsas.
trous in in its effects on the manufactures, fshe-
res, mines, and other productive interests Of the
country that the collection of the twenty five
millions needed by the Federal Government at
the rate of more than a million year, for in
stance, from Massachusetts, by direct td.rdtion,
would be an intolerable grievance; that il would
involve the creation of a new army of office
holders, TO be sent in swarms 10 every village in
the land, and add vastly to the power of the Fee
deral Executive.
What other Interior objects this measure may
be intended to promote, we can but infer from
the nature OF what we already know, and from
the hints and limitations which occasionally ap-
pear. Certain it is. that the restriction Of the
currency to specie alone, the reduction of the
cost OF production, and the wages of labor To the
hard money standard the poyertv-strcken pco
pie OF Europe, and the sub,tituton OF direct
taxes by the United States for duties on imports
are schemes so rash, so wild so visionary SC
dlsorganlZlng, so rdnous, that we have no rea
son to be startled at any other political extrava-
gance in the same quarter Otherwise, the ideas
put forth recently, by one of the most leading
and prominent of the supporters of Mr.. Van Blu
ren's policy in our own State of Massachusetts,
denouncing the middle class in the community,- -
preerrlnS the slave system to that OF employment
on a tree contract for wagcs,-proscrbng school
masters ministers Of religion and churches, =