The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1841-08-03
LOCoFoCo CHARGES, VS.. FACTS & WING
PROMISES

FkOMlSES.
Ma. EpIroR-It is peculiar prerogaiive claim
ed by all minority parties in our country, to find
fault with those in power * never was privilege
more strictly embraced than this, by the present
opponents OF tho administration. TO this
will objoct-but il does seem, if that party would
exercise ule more reason, in their censure their
ends would DO more likely TO be attained, than by
such trivial complaints as are rather calculated TO
provoke rldicuc, than claim attention candid re
ply. Indeed they hardly doign to discriminate;
but deal in n sort of sweeping denunciaton that
has neither beginning end There is one com
| paint however, that seems 10 stand out q little
from the rest not that it is in reality reasona
BILE, but that it is expected 10 have more powerful
effect in appealing directly to the pockets of nd
vidnals. This is the present low prices and hard
imes and the failure Of the Wings 10 make things
better. Now 20 admit, for the sake of the argument
that those who urge this CHARGE are sincere, and
meet them on that ground, the first inquiry is
what are the facts in the caseP What did the
Wings allege as the cause Of the hard times? What
did they promise, and wherein have they failed to
fulfill these promises? The Wings contended that
the arrangement ofthe currency was mainly the
Of the stagnation of business and consequent
low prices of labor and produce. They contended
been subject to extreme mutations and dcpressions,
before unknown in this any other country since
the great mississippi bubble"-and the cause OF
this they alleged to be, NAL administration of the
National Government; in falling TO bring forth
right measures to secure a uniform and sound cur
rency. '4*f 4sH t h'J F'+ "fiGr HEt'tH 's't*
And how were these charges met by the domi
nant partys Truth constrained them to admit that
the last ten years had been signalized
nual and regular series of paper expansion and
contraction; and that such state or things dis
asterous in the highest sense 10 all wholesome bu
siness transactions of the country. Yet in conced
ing this pc int which would have been the height
ofrashness TO deny, they claimed that the party in
power not responsible either directly or indi
rectly for the admitted result. There then arose
question, and the people called upon in their
sovereign capacity decide it. They did decide it,
and what was the result! An overwhelming ma
jority declared in favor of the Wings. This decis
ion, it was expected, the opposite patty (good dem
ocrals they professed 10 beD would submit to,
but no--in defiance ofthat reliance upon the intel
gence ofthe people their assumed name and pro
fossions implied they avowed the rankest federal
doctrines Of lSOl; that the people were majority
ofthem, fools, and incapable of self government MT
Blu, what had the majority in support aof their de
cision or the charge thatthe Locofoco party were
responsible for the undue expansion, of paper mon
ey and its dsaslerous efects'w II appears from
tslica facts that in 1920 there but 30Sl State
Banks IN tho land.t Fonien years alter up to 1880
the lime when Gen. Jackson first called the atten
ton of Congress to the subject of the currency
there were but $50 making an ncreaseofi only i22
in ten years, probably more than the increased
capital ofthe country demande d.. 1eIn, 1886 the
State Banks had increased to 567, and in 1910
to the bloated number of90l.oa Thus making an in
crease within the ten years after the Locofoco par
ty commenced experimenting upon, the currency
of57I BANKS and for the four years after the char
ter of the National bank expired, of 334, nearly
one hundred per year. Now by introducing these
facts il is not intended to show that those individu-
ais in power were directly responsible for the exist
ence of four hundred moro banks than was for the
good of community. Neither would they
be directly responsible for tho evils of the for
eign slave trade should they repeal the law prohib
itng that traffic. Their acts would not force indi-
viduas to buy and sell slaves; but they would give
free scope to this passion which like that Of excess
sive banking and many Others originate in tho love
Of gain and the correction of which is one of the
legitimate objects of legislation. .r 81 osIy7 ass
When Legislators therefore abrogate laws
which have effected this object, and fail to su5sti-
tute as good ones; then they as responsible for
what directly follows the absence of those laws
they would be for the injurious effects of existing