Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1842-01-25


change Board.
Mr. MANGUM commenced with promise, very
frequently made In Congress, to occupy but a short
time IN the remarks he had to offer 1t was not his
design to go into anything like regular dissection
anal yss of the tremendous proiet submit
| ted IN the Secretarys report vet, inasmuch as
| very Itrenuous efforts making TO pre-occupy
the public mind in its favor Mr. NJ. did desire to
| express his views of the scheme in presenting
which he desired 1t TO be clearly understood that he
spoke tor no interest, clique, party either in the
Senate or out OF IT. the opinions he should express
| were his own.
For long week Mr. NJ. had pondered this pro-
ject, and had endeavored divest his mind of eve
| ry feeling but desire to find the truth. He had
viewed the proposal, not like the advocate who had
written this report, but like an honest man, deter
mined TO do his duty. And he was compelled to
come to the conclusion that even IN the worst of
tunes this Government had ever yet seen, never
! had there been so bold, reckless push for abb
| soute power, was unblushingly made in
! the paper before the Senate He repeated the as
sertion. Never, never in the whole history of this
Government, had there been witnessed a push so
bold; which, if successful, must be attend
ed with consequences so vast, and so disastrous
| the liberties of this land. With "a Government pos
sesslng power of patronage which, even in the
teebest hands, of threatening aspect to liberty
| a patronage which, spreading itself like poly
pus, nsnuated Its attenuaed tbres through all the
|
operating to subdue all that manllness of principle,
that hardy virtue, which characterize our fathers
to propose to superadd to this threatening, this
portentOus amount OF patronage the entire money
power, and this to be managed and controlled at
will by those hands which pull the wires and move
| the puppets OF party-if he believed the country
was prepared Tor such measure as this, he should
feel depression of mind which nothing could
| cheer; he should look upon his children with tears,
and must despair of the welfare of his country for
| centuries to come.
What "a concentration of power did it not attempt
| to achieve In the present PROSTATE and down.
| trodden condition of State banks-he spoke of
| that spurious and mulutudinous herd which had
| sprung up under the mlsrule of a late Adminisra
| administrations rotten throughout and lettering
to their tal-if the Government should at once fur
nlsh to the people paper currency which should
be in sound and general credit, those banks would
pop, one after another, like guns discharging in
burning ship, from end of the Union the 9TH
er. This Government machine, tabrcating pa
| per like this, was to spring up amid the general
light and barrenness "a vivifying and fructy-
ing germ OF public prosperity, Che used the Ian
guage of the eloquent author of the report) Yes,
no doubt and when it should have terminated
I and sprouted when it should have ''put forth its
root downward and borne fruit upward, while the
whole land round about barren desert; when
it should have spread its branches far and wide,
and covered the whole land with its shade-then-
|
| guilty and repose" which the writer of this report
thought dcslrable-the rcpOse, the Stiffness of an
| memorable, mean mcrcenary despotIsm. To such
a measure Mr.. NJ. never could consent: he would
not, should not. Could any man trace the conse-
| sequences! What the amount OF money to be
placed under the control of this new institution p
1t to issue paper circulation to the amount of
fifteen millions. Then 1t to receive fifteen
millions upon deposite Here was, at once,
AM OF thirty millions oil dollars, enough OF
itself to overflow the whole country and he saw
no guards In this bill to prevent this amount being
extended to a hundred millions annually by its
| dealings in exchange. Should Congress establish
! high tariff, or even but liberal tariff, whose an
nual inpourings should repenish the now empty
| Treasury with income of twenty five million
dollars that alone might enable the Government to
raise its head over the dead of PROSTATE
national credit, and waive the wand of its power to
the destruction of the public prosperity. But should
there be superadded to this new capital of thirty
! millions, and the power to trade upon this to the
amount of two hundred millions more, subsidizing
every thing to its support, wherever the wide
spread machinery of this Exchequer should have
| been extended over the land, what chance could
possibly remain tor the existence OF public liberty
! Place of even moderate ability, and of thr-
tytve years of age In the Presidential chair put
III his hands this mighty concentration of power,
political and fiscal, and ii he did ride roughshod
this peore tor the rest OF his life, it must be
owing to his own virtue, and not theirs who armed
HIM with such an engine OF oppression.
This capital was IN a strange condition. Not a
mail reached 1t from any quarter OF the country
which did bring the evidence of real Distress of
the most appalling suffering. Our proudest cities,
far from being exempt from the general lot, were
| the very theatre where calamity most severely
| felt. 1t would be an Interesting inquiry to ask
how all this brought about. MIR. NJ. would
! not detan the Senate weary those who under
stood the entire well better than he did,
Inv rptra he of VIII had nduc
"a state OF things SO deporable. Congress had
stricken down that Institution which, until 1886,
had eXerted efficient power In regulating the
currency: when, at once, the bank mania had
swept over the land and they came up, from the
destruction of the old institution, like frogs from
the waters of the Nile, until the country was COW
cred with them. The policy of the State Govern
ments, meanwhile, had created immense debt
and the means OF payment did not exist and thus
the people reduced from the condition of the
brightest and palmlest prosperity to the deepest
distress and dependence The expedient which
had been resorted to of borrowing foreign capital
had produced tor a time fictitious prosperity
But while the nation revelng In all that album
dance produced by the influx OF borrowed wealth.
while all was going on glonously, and a stranger
would have supposed that the country had attained
to the highest pitch of national strength and public
prosperity, sudden reverse was eXperienced-
| The foreign debt demanded: the means of
meeting the demand not TO be found. Indi- |
vidual and public distress soon spread in every d.
rectiOn. The extremity OF the distress gave birth |
to the revolving idea of reputation. If, then, to
the refluent current, which was fast sweeping
away the means of wealth. we added this hateful |
doctrine of reputation, and the still more anti
American doctrine-and, may add, in my judg- |
men the atrocious dOctrine-of the repeal of char
tiers. and the destruction OF vested rights and vet
add to these the tergiversatlons and treachery in
public, and the falsehoods, forgeries, frauds, and
all the other forms of dishonesty in the walks of
private life, was it any wonder that men who pos
sessed capital should lock up and hoard their re-
sources, and not expose them mass of popula-
ton already deeply tainted, and more and more |
imbibinc the poison of agrarian princplesl
In a state OF things like this, rather upon the |
aoDroxmation of this state OF things the American
1. lie and thrOu-p off hv