The North-Carolina standard., 1843-10-04
COL. THOMAS H. BENTON,

people of Howard county, Missouri The ex-
tracts given below show that he still stands upon
the old democratic ground of opposition to Bank
domination, and that full of an ardent, and un-
quenchable love of country, he still speaks. and
acts like a man, What we here present sums
up, almost at one stroke of the pen the democratic
policy in relation to the Bank. Let what Col
BENTON says be read, and treasured up, and re-
membered BY every farmer and working-man in
North Carolina !" Championship hostility to
a National Bank "-let that be the watch-word
of our party, and federalism will soon tremble in
Its strongest holds: 49, ..-~
GA notice In detail of all the topics which your
letter contains, would require too much space for
this brief answer; but there aretwo of them, which
from their daily bearing on the daily business of
the people, and the trouble they still give u.s. de-
mand from me a word in support of what you say:
speak of national bank and paper currency.
One might suppose that, after the great bank had
been repudiated by Its greatest champion as an
g obsolete ide0n-afer its explosion had shown 1t
to be '' q achited sepuIcAre filled qoitb dead men
bones and a0ith corruption the equaliza-
tiontof exchanges shows it was not necessary to
their Iegulation-after the introduction of more
than one hundred millions of gold and silver
paper currency-after the reduction of interest to
four or five per cent, per annum in the cities
where our people paid one and a half per cent
per month while the great bank and her branches
stood among them after all this, and so many
condemnations of the institution at the elections, it
might have been expected that the question was
at rest, and the country relieved from its agitation
But not so the fact The ghost of the mons
ter still stalks upon the land The old Federaists
of tba -aS rtu
ago. still follow the leading star of their poll
cy; and many good citizens lin other respects
good Democrats) who were misled into a suppos
ed necessity for it in the times of suspended banks,
deprecated paper money, .deranged exchanges,
and no gold silver, have not yet recovered from
the delusive idea then taken up. Hence the ques-
ticn of a national bank must still be a subject of
political contest. The strongest efforts of the Fed
eralists will be made for its chief advocate their
united exertions will be directed against him, who,
in the most formidable day of bank power, (Mr.
Van Buren, had the courage and patriotism to
declare the sentiment which your letter has quot
ed: '' Uncompromising hostility to national
bank" Great is the debt of gratitude which the
country owes to General Jackson for his opposi-
have inflicted upon upon US, if her disastrous
rcer had not been stopped. To say nothing of po-
ical evils, in the shape of corruption carried into
all the sources and fountains of liberty-iuto the
pre- S. the elections and the Legislative halls to say
nothing of having power in the country strong
er than the Government, and which governed the
Government, and put up and put down the price
of all property, produce, and labor as 1t pleased,
and which itselfwas subordinate to the policy of
the Bank of England to say nothing of such
evils, from which he has saved us, he has also saved
the people and the treasury of the United States
from the loss Of the one hundred millions of dol
lars which has fallen upon its stockholders, upon
the local banks which it has swallowed up, the
States it has swinded. and the foreign capitalists
il has cheated. The hundred millions of loss
which has fallen upon all these parties, would
have fallen upon the people and the treasury of
the United States had it not been for the most
glorious and ever memorable order of the remor
al Of the deposites!
s'Mr. Van Buren, the friend and successor of
General Tat 6son, has paid the price of his q um
compromising hostility" 10 this institution; for ii
was the chief agent of his overthrow in the elec
ton of 1910. 1t was that bank which made the
suspension and created the distress, and furnished
the principal part of the means for the carousals
and frauds which disgraced that election and
now he is the selected object against which all the
old adherents of the bank direct the concentrated
energies of all their power.
''The reform of the currency has been felt to be
a sacred duty by the Democratic party, and much
has Deen done by the jackson ana an buFen au-
mnstrations to accomplish it. The gold stand
ard has been corrected, and that metal restored to
circulation the laws against the circulation of
various foreign silver coins have been repealed,
and the importation Of silver has vastly increased
the mint has been branched and now gives the
South and West the benefit of its coinage; the ma
tional bank has been put down, which collected
from the States and shipped to England, forty-two
millions of hard dollars in twenty years; the in
dependent treasury was established, which made
the divorce between bank and State, and, brought
gold and silver to the United States from all for
eign countries and distributed it through the whole
Union, by making it the sole currency of the Fed
eral Government Liability of stockholders, the
suppression of small notes. and bankrupt law a
gainst bankrupt banks, were further reforms in
the currency which the Democracy contemplated;
but there the aid of the State Governments was
wanting State Legislation became necessary 10
several of these reforms; and l have to make my
most heartfelt thanks to the present Governor of
the State, and the members Of the General AS
sembiy who co o-operated with him, for their wise
and patriotic exertions to check the importation Of
the base paper by which the farmers and the la
boring classes of the State have been plundered of
millions. question whether the loss to these
classes on the importation Of rotten bank paper,
(from the Coon-box establishment in Cairo, up to
LII.