The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-07-19

VI his duueHcc rest Only OH Tic VI % anu
36, and thus fix the impression that this much con-
demned expansion the necessary consequence of
that removal
This is not unusual clap trap in Mr. Clays ora
tory.
1t is not easy for to forget debate in the Sc
nate Chamber, in the spring of 34 upon the presen-
tation of distress memorial The panic was then
at its height. Ether Shepley, of Maine charged the
contraction wanton on the part of the United
States Bank and insisted that the Bank could relieve
the community if it would.
Daniel Webster then rose, and from his peculiar
relation and friendship to that Bank, marked him
well speaking from authority, and with more than
his usual earnestness He declared that the Bank
could not safely and ought not, extend its discounts,
and that it must steadily curtal under the certain
expectation that its charter must expire in March,
1886; and, should it act Otherwise, it would be
gross derection of duty.
The subsequent course of the Bank graved this
debate on memory, and nothing more deeply i'm
pressed us with its in.quy-yea villainy-in leading
off in the expansion Of 35. From that prohigate
course, the country has yet rccovered though Sc
ven years have passed yet Mr.. Clay would fix the
stigma of this ruinous expansion upon General Jack
son. when his favorite Bank the primeval cause.
Does Mr.. Clay believe that the local Banks would
have expanded had not the Grea Regulator proceed
cd them? Most assuredly not-for this would have
destroyed his argument that National Bank is
regulator" ofthe currency.
Probably we portray the crininality Of such
course on the part of that Bank well the origin of
our present disasters, more wildly than done in
the address of the New York Democratic Convention,
in the fall of 1910.
"In '35 and 80 mania seemed to pervade millions
| of our population. That mania speculaon--hat
speculation from the perncious and exraordina
y initiation of Bank issues and paper Credits and this
initiation stimulated, we may say received its first
| Impetus, from the U. S. Bank.
BY the returns of that Bank, we learn that on the
first of November, 1884, the year of such dis
ress its loans had been reduced in its efforts to
restoration Of the Government depostes fory-se
ven millions, and its circulation to only ten millions,
Yet, during the ensuing seven MONTHS by the first of
June 1885, had extended its loans to the
amount of sxty-four millions and swelled its circua-
| ton to the amount of twenty-five millions Of dol
| lars
| This reckless expansion gave the lead to the sub
sequent extension in SO, on the part of the local
Banks But not content with the train already fired,
confidential agent sent abroad in the early part
| of &c. to borrow more fuel for speculation. Seuen
| millions in specie thus obtained and transmitted
to the mother Bank at Philadelphia, the basis of
new discounts, or to establish new Banks in the
| Southwestern States This was done, too, when the
balance Of trade was fearfuly accumulaing against
| this country
| This institution, whose duty it was to restrain the
excuses of the paper SYSTEM was then using all its
vast power to stimulate the community to specializing
Madness not only by the utmost extension of its OWL
mighty resources, but by borrowing funds from Euro
pean capitalists, and thus involving the nation still
more deeply in the iron bands ola foreign debt
| This is the ground upon which we rest oppos-
ton to such an institution. We deny not the good it
| may debut cannot forget the evil. We need a
regulator, or, rather, check, the local Banks -
| This, an "od-fashioned" Bank may, or may not be,
as suits the pleasure ofceain Directors But history
has taught us that power is likely to be abused
than properly used Mindful ofthis lesson, we would
delegate as little power as possible.
A Bank can act aifirmatvey on the business of the
country, the Sub Treasury only Negatively, and
herein lies its true Repuhicanism, well its supe
riority.
Mr.. Clay seems pcrversely to conceal from his audi
ence that the charter of his avore Bank did not
pre until March, 1886 twas the Regulator" of our
currency until them yet the seeds speculation
sown, yea, the mania in its full tide of Madness
| some months before that time.
| The very statement of this fact scatters, in mo-
ment, all Mr. Clays sophistres, and shows that the
awful responsibility of subsequent calamilcs rests
upon that chartered Iibertine"
| 1t would have been amusing had Mr.. Clay inform
ed his audience that in March, 1886, his favorite
Bank had capital of thirty-fve millions, and in
| March, 1872 it all--he widows portion and the
rphans mite-proAigaely squandered in ministering
TO the schemes otpocians, spectators and swindng
| bankrupts.
So dsgraceiul has it wound up, that, in the strong
language of one ofits paItisans, (he Albany Evening
Journal dts rotten and reekng carcass sckens the
American People"
Yet an institution of precisely the same character,
Mr. Clay insists is of the first and vital prnci.
pies of the Wing party
When we perceive him cling to such measures, we
wonder not has been the bitter of his life to
be the idol of merchants, brokers and SPECTATORS,
while he is odous to the People
Did it not occur to Mr.. Clay, while he insist
ing that our present distress more intense than
ever that he may be the architect of little of our
present ruin ?
1t is admitted by all that stability is the great
deslderatum we want. These fluctuations ruin
Gus to all.
After the passage of the Independent Treasury b II,
10 July S4o business slowly and steadily improved,
until June, 1S4l.
| The extra session was then called Mr. Clay
| in the ascen lant In truth, he was the Dictator
Has he forgotten how he was coniured in the Senate