The North-Carolina standard., 1843-05-17

those widespread, universal calamities, which have
been hitherto only looked for, to the direct dispen
sation of Providence.
The greater portion, if not the entire mass O
evil resulting from the sudden contraction and sub
sequent expansion Of currency and credit is dis
tnctly chargeable to the desperate and unscrupu
lous efforts of the Bank Of the United States to
wrest renewal of its charter from the people,
first, by inficting upon them pecuniary distress,
and next, the still greater evils of redundant
means, which could not be benefcially employed
Had it proceeded to wind up its affairs, with that
steady purpose united with that salutary delay of
which the history of the first bank furnished an
instructive example, its final extinction would
have led to no greater distress, or inconvenience
than accompanied and followed the dissolution of
that body. But its managers, before and behind
the curtain, chose to act otherwise. They COM
bined political and pecuniary elements together );
they kept the whole country in state of feverish
agitation, which has not yet subsided they ad-
minstered additional fuel to the fire Of party
contention; derangcd the entire system of trade
and commerce.; corrupted political partisans by
loans and douceurs, and for services which they
did not dare to specify; defrauded widows and or
phans, and stockholders foreign as well as domes-
tic; bankrupted individuals; destroyed the credit
Of the States; and after series of injuries, under
which the whole Union is still smarting, finally
sunk beneath the weight of their own transgres-
SlOnS leaving a DlOL on the history OF the country
which can never be wiped away.
Though all but omnipotent for evil, it sufficient
ly demonstrated that it wanted either the will or
the power to do good. 1t neither regulated the
currency by restraining the issues of the State
banks, nor the exchanges by accommodating them
to the course of trade On the contrary, in the
various stages of its progress and decline, it set
the example of unbounded expansion it set the
example in suspension of specie payments; and
fHol Al
enemy of, and obstacle to-, resumption. The only
mode by which it ever sought to regulate exchange
so far as my information extends, was by an arbi
trary rule of the bank, instead of leaving it the
natural laws Of trade which is the best of all reg
ulatons because it regulates ITSELF Such is the
case at this moment. There is no United States
Bank in existence, and no legislation on the sub
ject; yet the rates of exchange between the diff
ferent portions of the United States being thus left
entirely to the operation of natural and inevitable
causes, are now far more uniform and equitable,
than they were during any period in which the
bank exercised its boasted power of regulation!
Whatever diversity exists, beyond the mere cost
and risk OF transporting specie, arises from diff
ference in the currency, and cannot therefore be
justly ascribed to the want Of regulator of ex-
changes ~..
My views on the subject of exchanges, and Of
the propriety. necessity or expediency of any in
of government in their regulation were
to Congress in 1887. To repeat
them here would lengthen this communication,
from which desire TO answer your questions full
ly, frankly, and explicitly, will, fear be extend
ed to the verge of tediousness. | must, there
fore respectfully refer you to that document Y ou
will there see clear, broad distinction between
that species of exchanges aptly denominated xxi
ting which was little better than an instrument
of fraud and bills drawn for the transfer of actual
funds from place to another. l endeavored
also to satisfy Congress ofwhat is now so apparent,
hat the exchanges would here, as they do in 9th
er countries, regulate themselves, if Congress
would but leave them as they are left elsewhere,
10 the management of private enterprise. 1t is
doubtless within your recollection what tempest
Of denunciation received from those who thought
proper to overlook those considerations The
opinions then advanced would it is quite certain,
oe received with more favor now; and have on
" to add that they have undergone no other
,hange: than that Of additional conviction arising
rom additional experience of their truth.
The tremendous power of bank for evil when
mpelled by avarice and ambition, seHpreservation
,r vengeance has been seen. 1t is maxim in
every government constituted on free principles,
o withhold all power from rulers which is not in
lispensable to the preservation and defence ofthe
lights of person and property. And this maxim
5 founded on the experience Of mankind which
las taught them, by long series of suffering, that
lot only is power much more liable to abuse than
o beneficial exercise, but that with the pures in
enons it can do far less good, than it can perpe-
rate mischief when perverted to evil The peo-
ole of the United States have repudiated despotic
,r discretionary power in all their political nsti-
utions, because of its propensity to abuse. Yet !
hey have been, and mark my words will be a.
yain and again, called upon to create despotic r
esponsible moneyed power, stronger than their {
government because it is expected to do what that
government cannot of itself perform. 1 hope and {
rust that such appeals will never again be sue
;essfut, and that the good people of the United {
States will always bear in mind that an institution
which can do what its advocates affirm this can,
must, if subservient to the government give it
yast accession of power dangerous to the rights of
he State, and which, if from any cause it should
become hostile, can either subject that government
its will, or, like the defuncrinsttution of WHICH
have spoken, involve the country in confusion
md difficulty, its government in perpetual strug:
giles, and its people in an interminable series of
3anic and dismay. Nothing but an ever-watchful
vigilance on the part of the people, will prevent
| recurrence of these evils The enemy is not
lead, nor doth he sleep. The schsm in the ranks
IF the opponents ofthe democracy, turns almost
exclusively on the question ola National Bank,
md the complete triumph of federalism will be