Southern Argus. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1834-1842, 1840-06-02

u 1852 as oil the highest obligation, and is |
disposed 10 adhere to it; and, if more
evenue IS required, not TO increase the
iulies OF protected articles, but to impose
iutles on those articles which are now
iuty free--such articles as the people of
he North use and do not manufacture,
md as 10 which the exemption from duties
s more beneficial to them than to US.
What are the opinions of Mr.. Van b.
rem on this subject? No one knows. +
say no one knows what are the present
opinions of Mr.. Van Buren,. We do
know what his past opinions are; that he
voted for the bill of denominations, the tar.
if of 1928 and that he boasted at Alba.
ny, on his return from Washington, in a
public speech, of his unvarying support Of
the tariff. 1t was then said at the South
that he gave that vote against his own
opinions, and under the coercion of legis.
lalive Instructions This never believed.
and 1t has been lately charged, and Mr..
Tallmadge, Of the Senate, referred to as
authority, to prove from under the hand of
MIR. Van Buren,, that he wrote to his
friends in the New York Legislature that
those instructions were only in conformi.
ty to his wn fixed opinions and it has
not been denied. As TO internal improve
ments, General Harrison holds precisely
the opinion of General Jackson-that
Congress possesses the power to appropri-
ate money to works Of a national chaiac.
ter. dissent from that opinion. But he
IS, at the same time, opposed to the exer-
Csc of the power. Mr.. Van Buren, pro-
tesses to believe that Congress does not
possess the power, but habtually sanctions
its exercise. More money was appropri-
ated for internal improvements in the first
year of his administration, than was done
IN the whole four years of the administra.
ton Of Mr.. Adams. Now, | would ra-
Their have a President who admitted the
power, but was opposed to its exercise,
than one who denied the power, but habit
ually exerted it. As 10 internal improve.
ments, II IS no moro practical question
than would be the embargo, except as TO
the Cumberland road and harbors Mr..
Van Buren, sanctions both OF these. | re
gard this as the very worst form in which
the power can be exerted. 1t is not only
necessarily partial, as it is confined tn its
benefits to the seaboard, but that is the
very region where, from vicinity 10 mar
kets, these Improvements are not needed,
and, If they are, the people, being wealthy,
can make them for themselves. 1t is in
the remote interior where they are need
ed, and where the people are generally too
poor to make them.
A National Bank. -General Harrison
denies the power under any express grant
in the Constitution; but says, that if it
shall be demonstrated that the public reve-
nues cannot be collected without such an
institution, he thinks that Congress may,
in that event, establish a bank. | have
never seen any man, even Of the strictest
sect, who denies the power thus qua flied.
No Government can exist without reve-
nue.; it would not, in such a case, be
question Of convenience, but of necessity,
imperious, and involving the We
ry existence Of the Government. If Con.
gress may not, in such case, charter
bank, that clause Of the Constitution which
gives all powers necessary and proper to
the execution" of granted powers is
mere nulity, and its trainers were not
that BODY of sages that we have supposed
them. 1t was on this ground that the
charter Of bank in 1916 received the
support of Dallas, Crawford, Lowndes,
and Calhoun, and the Republican party
of that day; and at a later day, it was on
this ground that the constitutionality Of
bank has been advocated by Mr.McDuffie,
and every leading politician of South Car
DINA. | expressed these views in letter,
published during my last canvass. ! do
not, however, think the establishment Of a
National Bank within the powers of Con-
greSs, as no such necessity has been de-
monstrated; and ! do not anticipate such.
But am not disposed to denounce those
as either knaves or fools who think differ
emily, when ] remember that the first char
ter was signed in 1871, four years after
the adoption of the Constitution, by Gen.
Washington, President of the Convention
which formed that Instrument, with all the
debates fresh in his memory, and the Sc.
cond by the great and virtuous Madison,
who was its great architect. Nor have
any such apprehensions as some express
of The dangers ofsuch an institution, when
| remember that, Of the ffty.three years
of our national existence, we have had a
National Bank for forty years, and that
our Liberties have not only survived il, but
that no injurious influence was either ex-
erted or attempted, and that those forty
years were precisely the period Of our
greatest prosperity and happiness, and OIL
advances in civilization and power, un.
preceden!od in the history of the world
and that the thirteen years when we have
had no such institution were years Of uni
yersal stognation OF all the employments
of life, and of that suffering and distress
which results from deficient or vitiateC
currency.
do not doubt that bank, not sufi
GENTLY guarded, may become a dangerou,
engine in the hands of corrupt Govern
ment, and that it may be used injuriously
TO the South. But, properly guarded,
have just as little doubt that the chief ben.
efts Of such an institution will be- to tht
South, for the simple reason that the Soutl
is the paying, not the receiving section
and is therefore mainly interested in hav
ing a uniform currency.
But whatever may be the dangers, rea
or supposed, Of National Bank, they
sink into utter insignlfcance in compari
son with those of a Government Bank
| and that ouch is the alternative cnntenn