M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1858-01-07
3lqItitaI
letter from Col. Benton.
WAsHINaToN, @. STEEET,
~ L.. 4 Q ~


GENTLEMEN: Many papers, desiroua
ofthe establishment Of a national bank,
are quoting what General Jackson
said in favor of such an institution at
the beginning of his Presidency.
have to remind all such papers that
what was so said was said before Gen.
Jackson saw a prospect of restoring
the currency of tho Constitution, and
that, after he saw that prospect, he
said nothing more in favor Of banks,
national or State, but the contrary,
and laboreG during the remainder OF
his public life to restore and preserve
the hard-money currency which the
founders of our Government had Sc
cured (as they believed) for US. The
plan OF that restoration and prcserva-
ton consisted of five parts, namely !:
/. To revive the gold currency by
correcting the erroneous standard of
1871; (; 2, To cEeate a demand for hard
money by making it the exclusive cur
rency of the Federal Treasury; 3. To
make sure of this hard money by
keeping it in its own treasures; 4.
To suppress all paper currency under
twenty dollars by stamp duty; 5.
To wind up all delaulting banks by
bankrupt law against deIinquents.
The first three Of the five parts were
accomplished, and to these we are in
deLted for twenty years. exemption
from 1887 to 1S57-trOm bank sus-
pensions and deprecated currency I;
also, for carrying the country through
a foreign war-the Mexican--without
paper money, and with the public
securities above par; also, for having
in the country at this time full fifteen
times as much hard money as we had
in the time Of the late Bank Of the
United States and we are indebted
10 the want Of the two latter parts Of
the plan for what we now see--nearly
two thousand banks in the country, a
great part of them frauds from the be-
ginning, and the bad governing the
good a general suspension in sea-
son of peace and prosperity people
forced to use deprecated paper when
there is more hard money in the coun-
try than its business could employ;
mep and women begging for work, and
unable to obtain it, when the country
needs all the work they can do, and
has the means to pay it; families cry
ing for bread when q bountiful Prov
idence has given the most exuberant
crops that ever were seen; the bust
ness of twenty-five millions of people
deranged, disordered, and thrown out
ofioint; and all this the work of the
base part of the banks, falling down
of themselves for want of foun-
dations, and dragging the solid ones
after them. For it is in this case of
bank suspension as it is with a ship
sinking at sea, where those who can
not swim drag down those who can.
A stamp duty on their notes, and a
bankrupt process against themselves,
would have saved the country from
the calamities it now endures for
many of the base order ofGanks would
have been unable to snake Curren-
cy' for want Of money to pay for
stamps on their notes, and others
would have been proper subjects for
the bankrupt process in the first few
days Of their existence. II. ..-
caThe restoration of the gold curren.
cy was effected under General Jack
sons administration !; the establish.
ment Of the harAmoney currency for
the Federal Government, and the
keeping ofits own money in its own
treasures, was accomplished under
Mr.. Van Bnren, both Of which Presi-
dents took the full responsibility Of
recommending these three measures,
and also the two others, the two for