The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1854-03-22
COL. BENTON'S HISTORY.
AMMO lS30-ANDREw JACKSON PRESIDENT.
BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.


1t has been already shown, that General
Jackson, in his first annual message to Con-
gress, called in question both the constitutional. |
lily and expectancy Of The National Bank, in a
way to show him adverse 10 the institution, and
d sposed to see the federal government carried
on without the aid OF such an assistant. In the
same message he submitted the question TO Con.
gress, that, If such an institution is deemed es
senlal to the fiscal operations of the govern
ment, whether national one, founded upon the
credit OF the government, and It's revenues
might not be devised, v hich would avoid all
constitutional difficulties, and at the same time
secure all the advantages to the government
AID Country that were expected to result from
the present bank. | no. in Washington
when the message prepared, and had no
conversation with the President, in relation to
Substitute for the National Bank, or for the cur
rency W Inch l. furnished, and which, having
general circulation, was better entitled to the
character of "nalional' than the issues OF the 10.
! csl or state banks. We knew each others opn
ions on the question of the bank itself; but it
had gone no further. | had never mentioned
TO him the idea of reviving the gold currency,
| then, and for twenty years, extinct in The Uni
| ted States; nor had | mentioned to him the
idea of an independent or sub treasury-that is
to say, government treasury unconnected
| with any bank-and which was TO have the re-
ceiving and distributing of the public moneys
| When these ideas We're mentioned t. him, lie
took them at once; but it was not until the
| Bank of the United States should be disposed
of, that anything could be done on thes. two
| subjects, and on the latter, process had TO be
gone through, in the use Of local bonds as de
posltores OF the public moneys, which required
several years to show its issue and inculcata it:
lesson. Though strong in the confidence o
thrv IL. II IL l..
enough to encounter all the banks of all Tho
states at once. Temporzing was indispe nsibl,
and even the Cancellation ola part of them
Hence the deposie system-or some years use
of local banks as fiscal agents Of the govern
mens-Which gave to the institution selected
| the ivideous appellatioE OF .'pet banks, mean
ing that they were government fnvorites.
In the mean tine the question which Chs
| President had submitted to Congress in rela
ton to government fiscal agent, was seized
upon an admitted design to establish gov.
eminent bank. s'igmatized at once '.thous
and times more dangerous ttan an incorpora
ted national bank-and held up to alarm th'
country. Commuters in each House of Con
gress, and all the public press in the interest o
the existing bank of the United States, took
up in that sense, and vehemen'ly inveighe'
against it. Under an instruction to Financ
Committee Of the Sepate to report upon plal
for uniform currency, and under a reference
to the Committee of Ways and means of tn
House, of that part of Presidents Message wbc
related to the bank and its currency, most am
pie, elaborate and argumentatve reports wer
made--wholy regulating all tie suggestion
of the President, and sustaining the actual banl
of the United States under every aspec, OF con
stituionaty and of expediency, and s'r"ngl
presenting it for renewal of its charter Thes
a -.
pensr, or numbers, in all the varieties Of new
paper and pamphlet publications, and lauded L
the skies for Their power and excellence, an
triumphant refutation Of all the Presidents opin
ions. Thus was the "war Of the bank com
menced at once in both Houses Of Congress
and in the public press and operly at the il
stance of the bank ITSELF which, forgetting it
position as an institution Of the government, fo
the convenience of the go eminent set itself u
for power, and struggled for continued es
istence, in the shape of new charter--as
question OF its own, and almost a right.
allied at the same time to the political party or
posed to the President. joined in all thei
schemes of prote Give tariff, and national 'niel
nal Improvement, and became the head OF tn
American system.
With its moneyed and political power, an
numerous interested tfiations, and lis contr,
over other banks, brokers and money dealers,
was truly power, and a great one, and, In al
swer to a question put by Gen. Smith, of Mary
land, Chairman of the Finance Committee c
the Senate, already mentioned, (and appende
with other questions and answers to that report
Mr.. Blddle, the president, showed a power i
the National Bank to save, relieve OF destro
the local banks, which exhibited il as their al
soluie master, and, Of course, able to conir'
| them at will. The question was put III a spiri
e L.. n. 81 -, 4,
enable its president to exhibit the institution Il
i great just and beneficent. The question was
elias the bank at any time oppressed any q
the State banks" and the answer, "Never.'-
And, as If that was not enough, MIR. Bddl
went on to say, "lhere are very few bank
which might not have been destroyed by ey
erton of the power of the bank. None hay
been injured. Many have been saved An,
more have been, and are constantly relieved
when it is found that they are solvent but ar,
| suffering under temporary difficulty rs
| was proving entirely too much. A power fto u
jure and destroy-to relieve and to SAVE tt
| thousand banks of all the States and TerTitorle
was power over The business and fortunes
! nearly all the people nf those States and lerr
svi,es, anu inignt be used for evil as well as gon
and was power entirely too large 10 be Ell
trusted to any man, with heart ia his b"son-
or to any government, responsible to tie peop
much less to a corporation without soul, an
irresponsible to heaven or earth. This was
view OF the case which parties to the questio
had not foreseen n, but which was noted at Il,
time, and which, in the progress of the govern
ment struggle with the bank, received exempt
fcd,on which will be remembered by the gel
Grafton of that day while memory lasts, and a
forwards known as long as history has power I
transmit to posterity the knowledge Of nation;
calamilies.-N. Y. Eve. Post.