The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1845-12-16
HIGH TARIFFS AND THEIR EFFECTS

COMPARTMENTS could nave been sealed 10 inc sharp
and unwslccme cry Of the auctioneer then heard
could they have taken deliberate observation of
the past and thus have examined into the real orr
gin of the prevailing embarrassment -these must
have been traced to the agency of one great cause
II was conceded, Of course, by wings and demo-
Gratis, (or it was made the ground of reciprocal re-
proach,) that grievous responsibility, springing
from the deplorabe state of the country, at the pc
Rod referred to- had been incurred by the one party
or tho other. Who had been to blame, was the
question upon the lips Of all, in those times of uni
versal difficulty and dismay-in those times Of
painful certainty and anxious suspicion-when
common pecuniary distress, everywhere prev
alent, spread over the country the gloom of des-
pair Mr. Clay, who always sounded the wing
clarion at the proper pitch, and whose followers
ever chmed in with obedient precision, chanted,
at nterminabe length, in a speech delivered in
Lexington, the old song about the removal of
the deposits, the veto of the bank, and tho
"pocketing" Of the land bill by General Jackson.
All these acts connected he averred, brought upon
the country the manifold ills SO pathetically and
eIoquently lamented by the great chief of the panic
makers. These topics had previously been stand
ing themes of reproach, and were dilated upon by
the opponents Of General Jackson with unavailing
malignity. These charges against the admins
tration of General Jackson, have always stood
the wings in stead when pressed by their dem
ocratic opponents. No matter what exception
able measure Of their own, whether violative Of
the constitution, Objectionable for its nexpedi-
ency-no matter to what extent productive of pres
cnt mischief, or ultimate disaster their own plans
and measures, the standing answer to all reproof
has been, that calamities, monetary or otherwise
have originated in the removal of the deposites and
in the destruction Of the bank-that bank, the
efluva from whose gigantic remains SO long infect
ed the moral atmosphere; and which, in its down
fall, exhibited greater amount of depravity than
its most mplacablc foes ever anticipated con-
ceved; that bank, which laid waste, in ITS dying
struggles, greater number of the hard-earned for
tunes of the confding, the innocent, and the help
less, than can easily be found in the annals of ind
vidua ruin.
The sagacious policy--thc determined course of
Gen. Jackson, saved the public stock in that inst-
tuition That this depository of the public funds,
inflated by the enormous amounts of the surplus
revenue pouring into it perpetually, would have
gone on in course of reckless expansion, its I'M
scrupuous conduct subsequent to the removal Of the
deposits satisfactorily demonstrates contrary
supposition is certainly at with the history of
that institution if not in opposition to the spirit and
tendency of banks in the general. Under the most
prudent management of the best, the country has
had evidence enough of that graspng desire GAIN
which instinctively animates all moneyed corpora
tons, throughout the world. Give them the means
and governmental confidence after all is the greatest
source from whence these are derived--and they 60
on under law Of their nature to discount rashly,
until some great revusion dscloses the rotten
ness of their condition. Can any one nationally
suppose, that if the Bank of the United States had
been left in possession Of some twenty or thirty mil
lions Of the public money, for which it did not pay
silver Of interest, it would not have continued to
have loaned with increasing prodigality' The
motives which stimulate individuals similarly cir
cumstanced operate with greater force upon backs;
for beside the large dividends accruing upon pro-
fuse employment of their capital real and fictitious
such an institution must ever struggle for re.
newal of its charter and, to accomplish that OBJ.
ject, the means of corruption must be copiously
employed
Though indeed many persons have honestly be-
cved that the deprvng Of the bank of the gratuitous
use Of the national income, and the subsequent dis
trbution ofthe same funds, among the State institu
ions, led to the wild speculatons, the high prices,
which preceded the prostraton of credit and enter
prise yet it is certain that matters would have been
no better-probably much worse-had that bloated
=. uIIS
to continue. BY feeding the bank with the pabulum
of the treasury, the crash might have been de-
layed; but it would have come finally with even
more devastating effects.
But were it granted that the removal of the depos-
its was the immediate cause of the Indebtedness
and distress through which the country has passed,
it is very evident that that not the ultimate
cause. That act of General Jackson was rather the
necessary result Of something prior; and that some
thing was the tariff of 1925 Under that oppres-
sive measure, since restored in effect, an amount
of revenue was poured into the treasury far be-
yond the national expenditures To project par
ticuar Glass; the treasury gorged with the plum
der taken from all other classes The millions ex-
torted from the agricuturist and other classes, by
the manufacturing interest, were deposited in the
United States Bank to be traded upon. 1t is at once
discovered, therefore, that if moderate revenue
tariff, instead Of the enormous one of 1925 had ex-
sted the opportunity, the temptation to exercise the
authority for which General Jackson was so much
censured, would not have been presented. The
public necessities Of the times required no such
tariff. Besides being burdensome to the last de-
gree to all classes but one--the tariff Of 1928
stoned that superabundance, and the bank became the
great beneficiary 1t is inconestably certain, then,
that the tariff Of 1923 has been Of the fruitful
sources-onc of the fountains Of all those troubles
which have so often been ascribed to more imme-
date and more doubtful causes: and yet we find the
bitter opponents Of that tariff sustaining one as
bad, by their patronage of men who uphold the act
of 1s42.
THE CHEROKEE MURDERS.