The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-06-14
MR.. EWING AGAIN.

come IOrth once more 10 INC stdnu tHOu
honest counsellor, thou faithful cabinet minister,
thou sincere friend to a coniding President
Surely to each of these titles you laid claim
during the period you remained in his cabinet
and most certainly, if being in his cabinet you
sought to mislead his judgment and plunge him
into error, you will not have the impudence to
deny but that you deserve the loathing and scorn
of all the world. What is the true relation borne
by Cabinet Minister towards the head of the
Government who employs him !? He is select
ed, because of belief that he may be entrusted
with the first impressions of the President upon
all subjects of public interest-that he may COM
mune with him in all the confidence of the fami-
ly circlethat his anxieties, his fears, his appre
tensions may receive an audience-and that
nothing can be regarded so precious in the eye
such Minister as the maintaining and sustain
ing by his advice and conduct the head of the
Executive in course of lofty consistency with
out which his honor, and consequently his use
fulness, may be entirely defeated. Have you
realized this character? Let your own state
ment speak for you. No man of fair mind can
arise from its perusal without perceiving that
which you could obtain it, even at the total sa-
crifce of all consistency the part of the Presi
dent, was your object. The Bank, any sort of
Bank, was the highest and only object of your
exertions. Mr.. Bolts, IN has Coffee House let
ter told the truth. You were combined with
others 10 head the President. You advanced to
your object with great precision. Your hopes
had forced tho Tsto message; inwhich the Pre-
sident had deduced an unanswerable argument
against the constitutionatv of the Bank from the
discount power-and your first intimation is, that
your bill containing that very power might still
be passed That bill had been rejected with
contumely and scorn by your magnificent leader,
and yet you, the honorable counsellor, would
have had the President to recant all his objec-
tons urged in his Veto message against the
power of discount, and once more to fall pros
trate at the feet of Mr. Clay with entreaties that
he would adopt the very measure that he had
pronounced ricketty and contemplate affair.
You yourself had been spurned from his feet
like crouching spaniel with that very bill
in your hand, and yet you would have had
the President 60 with the same bill to
your imperial master and pray him most
humby to permit its passage. This he re-
fused to do. He babe you not to name DIS
counts. One would have supposed that you
would here have stopped your efforts to entrap
him. But you were not to be foiled. You felt
that you had dared to permit your hopes to COM
NIT the President to Veto, and to excite there
by against him the loudest clamor. You knew
that If, upon ascertaining your agency In bring
ing to pass that result. he dismissed you his Ca
binet, the whole world would approve his course,
and hence you dared to insult him and the coun-
try by undertaking to prove, in written argu-
ment, which you admit he did not receive until
his decision not to sanction the BILL reported, as
it seems, at your instance, had become final, in
order to establi h the position that the principle
of the last bill was different from that of the
first, which he had but a day or two before We
toed. And first of all, pray explain to the coun
try, thou most credible witness why the Pres-
dent wanted an argument from Mr.. Webster
and yourself, if his mind was fully made up at
the time of the conversation stated by you to
have been held with the Cabinet? An argu-
menl to satisfy the man after he is satisfied
But you took great offence, 1t would seem, that
the President should so soon have seen through
your himsy pretexts and professions. Mr. Bell
was afraid Of this. He advised the greatest |
despatch. another bill less acceptable might
be got up and reported" What a cunning little
Isaac! The President had expressed his great
desire that the whole matter should be post
poned for 80 days. You saw the situation in
which he stood. You had, from the first, no
doubt not observed his great solicitude to meet
the wishes of those who had brought hin into
power. You were doubtless aware of his utter
repugnance to the whole banking system, and
that his opinions on this subject had been de-
cared in Congress. You knew the great con-
cesslon he made when he had only asked that
his oath of office might be saved to him, and
that as to Details he would yield them for the
sake of peace; and seeking to take advantage
of this, you undertook, according TO your own
admission, to show him the difference in priaa-
ciple between your Exchange Bank and Mr..
Clay's Bank. The country has reason to hope
that you will enlighten it upon this subject
Come, tell us the difference, thou great logician
Mark you, the position is, that Congress has no
constitutional power to create Bank to operate
over the Union Explain how this power to
create is effected by the extent of the powers
granted by the charter? How no power exists to
create a Bank TO deal in discounts and er-
changes, and yet that power does exist to
create Bank to deal in discounts alone, or ex
changes alone. Such was the task you assum-
ed to accomplish, according to your own show
ing, for the enlightenment of the President.
NH-l-z x.l- L IL.