Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-09-30


the wise work, the great civil monuments OF thai
Old Republican Party which they pretend to vene-
rate, whose purloined name and the simulated res.
toration of whose maxims and measures give them
all their popularity, all their power to deceive
Great and wide public works, whether useful OF
merely convenient--commercia or military, or re-
lg;ous or civil, or decorative or for recreation
have ever been Of the ustest boasts OF all great
societies; far above their victories, and second only
to their laws, which, indeed, such works seldom
fail 10 survive The canals thatpour through Egypt
the fertility Of the Nile have outasted countless
dynasties of kings from the Pharaoh to the Pasha,
and seen race after race of conquerors swept away,
during full four thousand years, while their own
merciful waters still blessed the laborous peasant
all the while. The entertainments Of Confederated
Holland yet protect her, when her Republicanism
has vanished. The Road of the Simplon will be
useful and a worlds wonder, when all the battles
of him who built it shall be forgotten. Such works
are, we repeat, among the trues glores that great
people can have: if erected by despotism, they are
at least large atonement for it; if by lofty Com
monwealth, they are still an honor to it-for what
can it do Of more certain or lasting benefcence
How should nation more fifty employ treasure or
public spirit! How better embody for distant ages
the height Of grandeur, of art, and of industry to
which it had risen! The first exploit of Locofo-
coism is, then, that ii has put end 10 our doing
perhaps the best thing, the most humaneiy great,
that powerful people can do! Most virtuous
Democracy that vaunts itself the opposite of the
Man of Ross, and is too good to take the snags out
of the Mississippi; but can spend with delight
much more than hundred millions of money in
vaingorious upon sister Republic, to the cre-
dit of our Arms, indeed, but at the expense of
own National character, our Laws, and our future
National Peace.
But the feat of which Locofocoism is most
proud, and claims credit for as great public
benefit, is the destruction of a N ational Bank
That Bank being defunct and no thought at
present entertained Of building up another, we
may now speak without fear, favor, or afec-
ton Of the public benefit of its destruction.
How much was the capital of that institution
I" Thirty-fve millions of dollars" Is it, then,
particularly virtuous for rulers remorselessly to
strip their unofiendng fellow-ctizens of proper
ty to that huge extent! But it was Ma
tional Bank" So was that Bank which helped
to bear US through the Revolution. Florence and
Holland, while Republics, introduced Banks, and
were never hurt in their Liberties by them. A Ma
tional Bank carried England through her long con-
test with Napoleon. Talk to her or France of a
Ministry's going to work TO ruin the National Bank
of either, and their people will laugh at you. Did
Gen. JACKSON himself think National Bank IN
constitutional "No; he proposed one Of a
larger capital and more national" Then he was
opposed to the private stockholders ono; for
he favored the Deposite Banks by lending the pub
lie money to them" Then he thought it good to
connect the Government with Banks after all! No
for they blew up and then he divorced the Govern
ment from all Banks" Well did he put down
all Banks! No; his measures produced twice
as many as before and then we took to hard mo-
ney.'' Well how did that answer! 1T broke
nearly every body and every thing" Have you
got hard money yet! "Why, the Government is
borrowing and issuing Treasury Notes all the
while" Oh wise, blessed, and virtuous measures |!
The whole amount of it then is, that Gen. Jackson
quarrelled with the United States Bank bent the
whole force OF Government and party to ruin it /;
succeeded, as was to be expected swamped thir-
ty-fve millions Of individual capital encouraged a
great over-issue of paper currency; produced a
frightful revusion brought about the miserable
scene Of State Reputation and that, when, at last,
a country so wonderfully growing, Industrious and
skilful weathers all the financial tempests which he
and his could raise, and gets into port without foun-
dering, you shout hosannas to the wisdom of Loco
foco rule
Even if all these things had been good, might not
the same good have been quietly brought about with
out any such enormous loss and confusion to the
country! Clearly it could. Moreover, if they vere
all that the Platform Of the Party claims them to
have been good things done otherwise than by the
law-done by the strong hand-tyrannicslly done
cease to be good nay, turn to crime. And as, in
violent men, crime engenders upon crime, so the
arbitrary seizure upon the keeping of the public
moneys, in 1888, led to many Presidential out
rage besides, down to that series of usurpatons Of
power, applauded and adopted in mass by the Bal
timore Convention and its candidate, which brought
on the Mexican war, with all its evils, the waste of
life, the new national debt, the annexation of vast
extent of foreign territory, and the further train Of
disastrous consequences, Of which the full extent
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