Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1841-09-16


the constitutionality ola National Bank, that
construction has already, to great extent, been
reversed. These are the circumstances Under
which President Tyler had to decide on his course
of Observation-Disclosures, in every feature, strk-
ingly contrasted with the circumstances OF Mr..
Madison's time. Therefore, say that il, in his
Inaugural, he had in view the example of Mr..
Madison, referred to by the Senator from Ken.
lucky, IL formed no rule by which he was bound
to surrender his solemn convictions as TO the I'M
constitdtionality of the bank.
But the Senator from kentucky has told us
that Mr.. Jefferson, in various ways, recognised
the constitutionaity of National Bank: and. in
illustration ofthis position, he tells us an anec-
dote, a passage Of secret history,4 know not on
what authority, which must say is but little i'm
consonance with Mr.. Jeferson's life and opin-
ions. 1t represents him, who never, shrant from
any responsibility, willing TO Sink back under
the fraudulent and ignominious shelter held out
by perversion of the ten-ddys' provision, to
screen himself from the duty of asserting those
glorious principles which had been the ornament
of a long life. Until the positive testimony of a
responsible and unimreachable witness to the fact
ifseT shall be produced, never can yield my be-
liefto his being willing to stand by as passive
accessory to the violation of the Constitution
Where was the occasion for his doing SOL He
was to go out of office in the month Of March,
1909, and the bank charter would not expire till
1911; and the record will show that, after that
piiS, HC IeHcWtu IeVcdtculys anu Ill tie most So
Tenn form, the expression of his hostility to such
an institution. do not mean 10 cast the slight
est imputation on the statement of the honorable
Senator himself, so far any knowledge of his
own is concerned; but an anecdote of such
character, coming to him at second or third hand,
and contradicted by the whole public life of Mr..
Jefferson, he will pardon me for saying, does APP
pear to my mind TO be emnently apocryphaL.-.-
But the Senator permitted himself to refer to two
public official acts Of Mr. Jefferson, after his own
refutal, many years ago, Of the argument deduced
from them; mean his signing bill to establish
branch ofthe bank at New Orleans, and bill
to punish the counterfeiters of the bills of the
bank. Can do better, in reply to this argu-
meHt tn an quote to the Senator his own LANGUAGE?
l know, indeed, his reluctance to have that
speech referred to. (Mr. Clay. Not at all; not
at all.j remember the signal vengeance with
which one ut the Senators was visited who VEN
tured oquote it; and therefore felt some deli
cacy in referring to it myself.
In the able and eloquent speech made by the
honorable Senator against the constitutonality of
National Bank, in 1911, he used the following
language:
"Genllemen contend tina. the construction
which they give to the Constitution has been ac-
quiesced in by all parties and under all Admins
tratons; and they rely particularly on an act
which passed in 1904 for extending a branch to
New Orleans, and another act Of 1907 for pun
lshlng those who should forge utter forged pa
passed no doubt upon the recommendation of the
Treasury Department., would ror"e.i. .i.~. :.
tnU CO .~.,siV', &c III Tlrrifnry,
which Congress possesses power of Legislation
almost Uncontrolled, and where without any con-
sfiiutional impedment charters Of Incorporation
may be granted
There is the answer--the triumphant, the con-
elusive answer. That branch was to be estab-
tished in Ttnitory; where the Constitution ex-
pressly gives TO Congress general discretionary
| I.-r. l.. Al
contemplates the establishment Of branches with
| in the limits of sovereign States, in regard to
which Congress has none but specific powers
| formally enumerated and defined. AS 10 the 9TH
er BILL to punish counterfeters of the bank paper,
what did the honorable Senator also tell us in
| 1911? These are his Words
GAS to the other act, it was passed no less for
| the benefit OF the community than the bank--to
protect the ignorant and unwary from counterfeit
| paper, purporting to have been emitted by the
bank. When gentlemen are claiming the advan-
tage supposed to be deducible from acquiescence,
let me inquire what they would have had those
to have done who believed the establishment OF
the bank an encroachment upon State rights 3
Were they to have resisted, and howa BY
force?'
The honorable Senator then proceeds to bea
the following testimony, actor in the scene
Of the principles upon which both of those laws
were passed:
es for rechartering this company, passed not onl,
without any discussion whatever of the constitu
tional power of Congress to establish bank, but
] venture TO say, without single member having
had his attention drawn to this question:. ! ha,
the honor of seat in the Senate when The latte
law passed, and probably voted for it; and de
clare, with the utmost sincerity, that never one
thought of that point, and appeal confidently t.
every honorable member who was then present t
say If that was not his situation"
The Senator himself thus furnishes the true eX
PLANTATION of the considerations on which thos
acts were passed-an explanation, the benefit G
which he must in justice extend to Mr.. Jefferson
while he claims it for himself, and has so dispos
ed of his own argument.
4 ] hold, therefore, that if President Tyler ha
3 respect either to the "sage VIEWS" the "eve
glorious example," of the "fathers Of the gres
n Republican school," he never could have brougi
bis mind to the conclusion that he was in dut
bound to give his official signature and approve
:. to such bill as we sent him.
: beg leave to refer the honorable Senator fro
Kentucky TO another passage in the Inaugur
q Address OF President Tyler, which he seems
!. have wholly overlooked, and which plainly I'M
l. mates as 1t appears to me, the determination
q the President to make the Constitution, in h
'r own conscientious Interpretation of it, the 80
lie rule Of his conduct. In the opening Of that d
4 dress he makes the following impressive reff
ence to the solemn obligation he had taken up'
ID himself in assuming the office of Chief Magl
u trate: "My earnest prayer" says he, "shal
IN to carry out understandingly the principles
G, that Constitution which | have sworn to 'prote
preserve and Defend" Why this emphatic
ne ference to the Constitution of his country, in &C
e; nexion with the solemn sanctions of his oath