Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1854-04-19
.ss Col Beaton's History. .la
AMMO lsso-AxDREw JACKSON, PRESIDENT.
Rank Of the limited States. s1a.


son, in his first annual message to Congress
called in question both the constitutionality anC
the expedie1cy of the national bank, in way tc
show him adverse to the institution, and disposed
to see the federal government carried on without
the aid of such an assistant. In the same mess
age he submitted the question to Congress, that
If such an institution is deemed essential to tht
fiscal operations of the government, whether
national one, founded upon the credit of the gov.
eminent and its revenues, might not be devised
which would avoid all constitutional difficulties
and, at the same time, secure all the adYantages
ed TO result from lhe present bankl / was moi
in Washington when the message was prepared
and had no conversation with the President in re-
ation to substitute for the national bank, or for
the currency which it furnished, and which having
a general circulation, was better entitled to the
character of national" than the issues of the
local or State banks. We knew each others
opinions on the question of bank itself; but it
had gone no further. L had never mentioned to
him the idea of reviviRg the old currency, then,
and for twentyyears extinctin the United States;
nor had ! mentioned to him the idea of an indie.
pendent or sub-treasury--that is to say, a gov
eminent treasury unconDected with any bank
and which was, to have the receiving and disburs-
ing of the public moneys. When these ideas
were mentioned to him, he 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 these two SUBJECTS; and on the latter,
process had to be gone through in the use OF To-
cal banks as repositories of the public moneys,
which required several years to show its issue and
inculcate its lesson. Though strong in the con-
fidence of the people, the President was not deem
ed strong enough to encounter all the banks of
all the States at once. Temporising was indis-
pensable-and even a Cancellation of part Of
them Hence the deposite system--or some
years use of local banks as fiscal agents of the
government-which gave the institutions SO se-
lected, the invidous nppelation of rpet banks:"
meaning that they were government favJrites. 5a
In the mean time the question which the Presi-
dent had submitted to Congress in relation to the
government fiscal agent was seized upon as an
admitted design to establish government bank
stigmatized at once as 'thousand times more
dangerous" than an incorporated national bank
land held up to alarm the country: Committees
in each House of Congress-, and all the public
press in the interest of the exising bank OF the
United States, took it up in that sense, and ve-
hemently inveighed against it. Under an instruc.
ton to the Finance Committee of the Senate, to
report upon plan fora uniform currency, and
under reference to the Committee of WAYS and
Means Of the House, of that part of the Presi-
dents Message which related to the bank and its
currency, most ample, elaborate and argumenta-
tive reports were multiplied without regard to cx-
pense, or numbers, in all the varieties of news
paper and phamphlet publication; and lauded to
the skies for their power and excellence, and tri
umphant refutatun of all the Presidents opinions
Thus was the ''war Of the bank" commenced at
once, in both Houses of Congress,and in the pub
lie press, and openly at the instance of the bank
ITSELF which forgetting its position as an institu-
tion ofthe government, for the convenience of the
government, set itself up for power; and strug-
gled for continued existence-in the shape of a
new charter-as question of its OWL, and al
most as right. 1t allied itself at the same time
to the political party opposed to the President,
joined in all their schemes ofprotective tariff, and
national internal improvement; and became the
head of the American system. With it's money
ed and political power, and numerous interested
affiliations and its control over other Banks, brok
ers and money dealers, it was truly power, and
great one; and, in answer to question put forth
by General Smith, of Maryland, chairman Of the
Finance Committee of the Senate, already men
toned, (and appended with other questions and
answers to that report) Mr.. Bddle, the President,
showed power in the national bank to save, re-
lieve or destroy the local banks, which exhibited
it as their absolute master; and, OF course, able
to control them at will. The question was put
in spirit of friendship to the bank, and with a
view to enable its President to exhibit the inst-
tuition as great, Just and benefcent. The ques-
ton was, elias the bank at any time opposed any
of the State banks!" and the answer, "Never."
And, as if that was not enough Mr.. Biddle went
on to say, "There are very few banks which might
not have been destroyed by any exertion Of the
power of the bank. None have been injured
Many have been saved. And more have been,
and are constantly relieved, when it was found
that they are solvent, but suffering under teme
porary difficulty, This was proving entirely
too much. A power to iniure and destroy--te re-
lieve and to save the thousand banks Of all the
States and Territories, was power over the bus
mess andefortdnes of nearly all theopeople of
those States and Territories; and might beiused
for evil as well as good; and, as a power, too
large to be TRUSTED to, any man, with hear in
his b6yom--or to any government, responsible 70
the people; much less to q corporation without a
soul,and irresponsible to heaven and earth. 4 This