The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-09-14
o WE ARE GOVERNED TOO MUCH"

The legislation mania mas ihdeed' made SAD
havoc of public interest. When nation turns
away from the only source OF true and endur-
inc prosperity and greatness, and casts Itself at
The feet of legislative bodies, and Samson-like
,eooses in the lap of this Delilah, its energies
must soon be Slapped, and the locks OF Its
strength be shorn oil. 1t is a pernicious error,
10 believe that legislation is the open sesame,
rbe magic word, that throws open the golden
portals of national wealth and grandeur.
A departure from the simplicity and the Wis
dom of the Constitution, and from the great
nd-marks established by the far-seeing men
who AIMED it, has involved the American Peo-
pie in embarrassment and adversity-has i'm
paired State and National credit and has shock
ed private confidence among men, so that one
cannot refrain from contemplating such a
strange and unnatural spectacle with no less
modification than surprise. A nation possess
Ing an immense territory Astounding in every
varied and nexhaustible sources of wealth, and
a population of high and unconquerable energy
and enterprise, reduced to the beggarly necessity
OF praying for relief, presents an interesting, yet
melancholy subject for the contemplation of the
statesman and the philosopher. Such is our
condition, produced, we maintain, by depar-
ture from the safety and wisdom Of the Consti-
tuition.
1t is needless to say why the power to coin
money has been considered high Government
lal prerogalive The currency is so in ima,ely
connected with all our interests, affecting the
humblest and obscurest, as well as the most
wealthy, extending its influence over the length
and breadth of the land, embracing within It's
action all our diversified relations and conditions,
whether Of property or labor, or of domestic
comfort, or of public aud private morals that its
custody and regulation have been too sacred
treasure for any other depositary than the wis
dom, the purity, and the strength of the Govern
ment. power 50 tempting to the aspirations
of the ambitious, and to the cupidity of the
avaricious and greedy SPECTATOR, and so liable
TO prostitution and abuse, could only have been
received as one of the exclusive and incommu-
nlcable prerogatives of the Government
Spreading out over all the notifications of soci-
ETY., an impulse to any OF Its numerous branch
es, produced by want of skill or integrity, or
any other cause, good or bad, vibrates through
the whole system, and, like the electric iuid it
flies through the moral atmosphere either to pu-
rity and invigorate, or TO sca,he and destroy.
The power ito coin money" was conferred ex-
cusively upon the General Government, and we
led to the belief that the power to issue
Bank bills is denied to the States.
~ i
parted from the safe and firm ground of the
Constitution, and the States assumed the prero-
gative of granting Banking charters to private
mpanies-hence come all our woes.
Who can doubt the effects of the excessive
issues of the United States Bank and of the
myriad of State Banks that were spawned upon
the community The necessities of the com
munity constituted no standard of the supply of
money from these institutions. The high and
sacred considerations OF the public good were
not consulted. The ability of the People to use
and improve the amount of circulating medium
was not considered. But the avarice, the rapa-
cious avarice or the Unsuitable voracity, or both,
OF modern fnanciers, were administered to with
out stint or measure, as if these were the only
legitimate objects of the currency. The result
was, that the public appetite became stimulated
and pampered. The cry was for more, more.
The public capacity to receive was fed to a fear
ful safety and then came the commissions, the
spasmodic efforts to dsgorge, the lhroes, and all
the whole train of calamities. Then came stay
laws and relief laws, and bankruptcies, and one
universal wreck of con6dence-and then came
the frightful form of reputation and then a
prostraton of State credit, and shock to Ma
tional credit.
We shall close this subject in our next.