Independent Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1842-1844, 1844-08-21
LETTER FROM A. H. CHAPPELL
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vert is also exclusively pecuniary in its
ayowed aims and character mean q
National Bank, which you evidently treat,
in your letter 10 me, as being still lead
ing and cherished object with the wing
party-though confess my own observa-
lions have caused me to doubt whether
there is or not, among the more enlighten-
ed and judicious of the party, now that the
country h1s got sound and uniform cur
rency without the help Of Congress,
strong disposition TO let the subject alone !.
What was the great charge against Gen.
jackson, in connection with this matter?
why, that when, under the auspices OF
National and State Banks, everything was
sound and doing well, he commenced war.
Irng upon the bank, and experimenting
upon the currency, and kept up his war
aud experiments until everything was
thrown into arrangement and confusion.
1 Such was The "head and front" of Gen.
Jackson's offending, as | thought and said
Dn all occasions, from the first faint, fore.
warning sound of his hostile bugle, in 1929
and 1880, down 10 the time when, in 1882,
amidst the exultlng shouts Of ninety.nine
hundredths OF the then State rights (now
wh:g) party of Georgia, he crushed what
'they delighted to call the monster" with
one Herculean blow of the veto power.
And for years afterwards my political
friends with few scattering exceptions)
continued to laud the old hero for the deed,
and TO think the better OF themselves for
having backed and sustained him in it
During all this time, my views and lang
4 uage were in very different tone. |
held that General jackson, and all who
co-operated with him in that part of his
career. had taken on themselves fearful
and culpable responsibility; that stability,
above all other things, was indispensable
10 sound system Of money and currency,
that it was a subject, in reference TO
which it was impossible to calculate or
control the consequences which any great
shock or revolution might, and probably
would, ngender--consequenc carrying
disaster and dismay into all the walks Of
business, into all the "lanes and alleys of
Ilife," the humblest as well as the proudest.
From considerations of this kind, gentle
men, | have always regarded all party
|tampering and experimenting with the
currency, when it is already In sound
state, as little short of crime against the
purses and property Of the people.
Is not the currency now in sound
state2 Are not exchanges, also between
different commercial points, sound and
right? In answer TO these questions, the
actual slate of things will fully justify me
in making a remark, which | used to con-
slider applicable 10 the demand for "better
currency" in the days of the successful
operation Of the late National Bank, TO
wit: that politicians who are not willing
TO put up with as good state of the cur
rency as existed then, and now exists
again, but who insist on changing and re-
volutoniziDg the whole system, and incur
ring the great and ruinous hazards incident
10 such change, for the mere chance of an
infinitely small improvement, deserve not
themselves the blessing of good money,
and ought TO be held bound TO indemnify
the people for all the losses they sustain
by bad money.
SO strong and self-evident is this view,
that i; would be strange if the Northern
wing party, whichso unsparingly censured
Gen. jackson for refusing TO let alone a
currency that was already good enough.
should now be following in his footsteps"
as schemers and experimenters for a
better currency" when sound and good
one actually exists.
Mr., Webster, The great exponent Of
Wing principles al the North, has, you
know, in speech made a year or two ago,
Pronounced a National Bank San obsolete
'deai" and in his late speech at Trenton,